TITLE.Maschil of Asaph. This is rightly entitled an
instructive Psalm. It is not a mere recapitulation of important events in
Israelitish history, but is intended to be viewed as a parable setting forth the
conduct and experience of believers in all ages. It is a singular proof of the
obtuseness of mind of many professors that they will object to sermons and
expositions upon the historical parts of Scripture, as if they contained no
instruction in spiritual matters: were such persons truly enlightened by the
Spirit of God, they would perceive that all Scripture is profitable, and would
blush at their own folly in undervaluing any portion of the inspired volume.
DIVISION. The unity is well maintained throughout, but for
the sake of the reader's convenience, we may note that Ps 78:1-8 may be viewed
as a preface, setting forth the psalmist's object in the epic which he is
composing. From Ps 78:9-41 the theme is Israel in the wilderness; then
intervenes an account of the Lord's preceding goodness towards his people in
bringing them out of Egypt by plagues and wonders, Ps 78:42-52. The history of
the tribes is resumed at Ps 78:53, and continued to Ps 78:66, where we reach the
time of the removal of the ark to Zion and the transference of the leadership of
Israel from Ephraim to Judah, which is rehearsed in song from Ps 78:67-72.
Verse 1.Give ear, O my people, to my law. The inspired bard
calls on his countrymen to give heed to his patriotic teaching. We naturally
expect God's chosen nation to be first in hearkening to his voice. When God
gives his truth a tongue, and sends forth his messengers trained to declare his
word with power, it is the least we can do to give them our ears and the earnest
obedience of our hearts. Shall God speak, and his children refuse to hear? His
teaching has the force of law, let us yield both ear and heart to it. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. Give earnest
attention, bow your stiff necks, lean forward to catch every syllable. We are at
this day, as readers of the sacred records, bound to study them deeply,
exploring their meaning, and labouring to practice their teaching. As the
officer of an army commences his drill by calling for "Attention, "even so every
trained soldier of Christ is called upon to give ear to his words. Men lend
their ears to music, how much more then should they listen to the harmonies of
the gospel; they sit enthralled in the presence of an orator, how much rather
should they yield to the eloquence of heaven.
Verse 2.I will open my mouth in a parable. Analogies are
not only to be imagined, but are intended by God to be traced between the story
of Israel and the lives of believers. Israel was ordained to be a type; the
tribes and their marchings are living allegories traced by the hand of an all
wise providence. Unspiritual persons may sneer about fancies and mysticisms, but
Paul spake well when he said "which things are an allegory, "and Asaph in the
present case spake to the point when he called his narrative "a parable." That
such was his meaning is clear from the quotation, "All these things spake Jesus
unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them:
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open
my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the
foundation of the world." Mt 13:34-35. I will utter dark sayings of old; --enigmas of antiquity,
riddles of yore. The mind of the poet prophet was so full of ancient lore that
he poured it forth in a copious stream of song, while beneath the gushing flood
lay pearls and gems of spiritual truth, capable of enriching those who could
dive into the depths and bring them up. The letter of this song is precious, but
the inner sense is beyond all price. Whereas the first verse called for
attention, the second justifies the demand by hinting that the outer sense
conceals an inner and hidden meaning, which only the thoughtful will be able to
perceive.
Verse 3.Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have
toldus. Tradition was of the utmost service to the people of God in
the olden time, before the more sure word of prophecy had become complete and
generally accessible. The receipt of truth from the lips of others laid the
instructed believer under solemn obligation to pass on the truth to the next
generation. Truth, endeared to us by its fond associations with godly parents
and venerable friends, deserves of us our best exertions to preserve and
propagate it. Our fathers told us, we hear them, and we know personally what
they taught; it remains for us in our turn to hand it on. Blessed be God we have
now the less mutable testimony of written revelation, but this by no means
lessens our obligation to instruct our children in divine truth by word of
mouth: rather, with such a gracious help, we ought to teach them far more fully
the things of God. Dr. Doddridge owed much to the Dutch tiles and his mother's
explanations of the Bible narratives. The more of parental teaching the better;
ministers and Sabbath school teachers were never meant to be substitutes for
mother's tears and father's prayers.
Verse 4.We will not hide them from their children. Our
negligent silence shall not deprive our own and our father's offspring of the
precious truth of God, it would be shameful indeed if we did so. Shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord.
We will look forward to future generations, and endeavour to provide for their
godly education. It is the duty of the church of God to maintain, in fullest
vigour, every agency intended for the religious education of the young; to them
we must look for the church of the future, and as we sow towards them so shall
we reap. Children are to be taught to magnify the Lord; they ought to be well
informed as to his wonderful doings in ages past, and should be made to know his strength and his wonderful works that he hath done. The
best education is education in the best things. The first lesson for a child
should be concerning his mother's God. Teach him what you will, if he learn not
the fear of the Lord, he will perish for lack of knowledge. Grammar is poor food
for the soul if it be not flavoured with grace. Every satchel should have a
Bible in it. The world may teach secular knowledge alone, it is all she has a
heart to know, but the church must not deal so with her offspring; she should
look well to every Timothy, and see to it that from a child he knows the Holy
Scriptures. Around the fireside fathers should repeat not only the Bible
records, but the deeds of the martyrs and reformers, and moreover the dealings
of the Lord with themselves both in providence and grace. We dare not follow the
vain and vicious traditions of the apostate church of Rome, neither would we
compare the fallible record of the best human memories with the infallible
written word, yet would we fain see oral tradition practised by every Christian
in his family, and children taught cheerfully by word of mouth by their own
mothers and fathers, as well as by the printed pages of what they too often
regard as dull, dry task books. What happy hours and pleasant evenings have
children had at their parents knees as they have listened to some "sweet story
of old." Reader, if you have children, mind you do not fail in this duty.
Verse 5.For he established a testimony in Jacob. The
favoured nation existed for the very purpose of maintaining God's truth in the
midst of surrounding idolatry. Theirs were the oracles, they were the
conservators and guardians of the truth. And appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers,
that they should make them known to their children. The testimony for
the true God was to be transmitted from generation to generation by the careful
instruction of succeeding families. We have the command for this oral
transmission very frequently given in the Pentateuch, and it may suffice to
quote one instance from De 6:7: "And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy
children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou
walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." Reader,
if you are a parent, have you conscientiously discharged this duty?
Verse 6.That the generation to come might know them, even
thechildren which should be born. As far on as our brief life allows
us to arrange, we must industriously provide for the godly nurture of youth. The
narratives, commands, and doctrines of the word of God are not worn out; they
are calculated to exert an influence as long as our race shall exist. Who should arise and declare them to their children. The
one object aimed at is transmission; the testimony is only given that it may be
passed on to succeeding generations.
Verse 7.That they might set their hope in God. Faith cometh
by hearing. Those who know the name of the Lord will set their hope in him, and
that they may be led to do so is the main end of all spiritual teaching. And not forget the works of God. Grace cures bad memories;
those who soon forget the merciful works of the Lord have need of teaching; they
require to learn the divine art of holy memory. But keep his commandments. Those who forget God's works are
sure to fail in their own. He who does not keep God's love in memory is not
likely to remember his law. The design of teaching is practical; holiness
towards God is the end we aim at, and not the filling of the head with
speculative notions.
Verse 8.And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn andrebellious generation. There was room for improvement. Fathers stubborn
in their own way, and rebellious against God's way, are sorry examples for their
children; and it is earnestly desired that better instruction may bring forth a
better race. It is common in some regions for men to count their family custom
as the very best rule; but disobedience is not to be excused because it is
hereditary. The leprosy was none the less loathsome because it had been long in
the family. If our fathers were rebellious we must be better than they were, or
else we shall perish as they did. A generation that set not their heart aright. They had no
decision for righteousness and truth. In them there was no preparedness, or
willingness of heart, to entertain the Saviour; neither judgments, nor mercies
could bind their affections to their God; they were fickle as the winds, and
changeful as the waves. And whose spirit was not steadfast with God. The tribes in
the wilderness were constant only in their inconstancy; there was no depending
upon them. It was, indeed, needful that their descendants should be warned, so
that they might not blindly imitate them. How blessed it would be if each age
improved upon its predecessor; but, alas! it is to be feared that decline is
more general than progress, and too often the heirs of true saints are far more
rebellious than even their fathers were in their unregeneracy. May the reading
of this patriotic and divine song move many to labour after the elevation of
themselves and their posterity.
Verse 9.The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying
bows, turned back in the day of battle. Well equipped and furnished
with the best weapons of the times, the leading tribe failed in faith and
courage and retreated before the foe. There were several particular instances of
this, but probably the psalmist refers to the general failure of Ephraim to lead
the tribes to the conquest of Canaan. How often have we also, although supplied
with every gracious weapon, failed to wage successful war against our sins, we
have marched onward gallantly enough till the testing hour has come, and then
"in the day of battle "we have proved false to good resolutions and holy
obligations. How altogether vain is unregenerate man! Array him in the best that
nature and grace can supply, he still remains a helpless coward in the holy war,
so long as he lacks a loyal faith in his God.
Verse 10.They kept not the covenant of God. Vows and
promises were broken, idols were set up, and the living God was forsaken. They
were brought out of Egypt in order to be a people separated unto the Lord, but
they fell into the sins of other nations, and did not maintain a pure testimony
for the one only true God. And refused to walk in his law. They gave way to
fornication, and idolatry, and other violations of the decalogue, and were often
in a state of rebellion against the benign theocracy under which they lived.
They had pledged themselves at Sinai to keep the law, and then they wilfully
disobeyed it, and so became covenant breakers.
Verse 11.And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had
shewedthem. Had they remembered them they would have been filled
with gratitude and inspired with holy awe: but the memory of God's mercies to
them was as soon effaced as if written upon water. Scarcely could one generation
retain the sense of the divine presence in miraculous power, the succeeding race
needed a renewal of the extraordinary manifestations, and even then was not
satisfied without many displays thereof. Ere we condemn them, let us repent of
our own wicked forgetfulness, and confess the many occasions upon which we also
have been unmindful of past favours.
Verse 12. Egypt, here called the field of Zoan, was
the scene of marvellous things which were done in open day in the sight
of Israel. These were extraordinary, upon a vast scale, astounding,
indisputable, and such as ought to have rendered it impossible for an Israelite
to be disloyal to Jehovah, Israel's God.
Verse 13.He divided the sea, and caused them to pass
through. A double wonder, for when the waters were divided the bottom of the
sea would naturally be in a very unfit state for the passage of so vast a host
as that of Israel; it would in fact have been impassable, had not the Lord made
the road for his people. Who else has ever led a nation through a sea? Yet the
Lord has done this full often for his saints in providential deliverances,
making a highway for them where nothing short of an almighty arm could have done
so. And he made the waters to stand as an heap. He forbade a
drop to fall upon his chosen, they felt no spray from the crystal walls on
either hand. Fire will descend and water stand upright at the bidding of the
Lord of all. The nature of creatures is not their own intrinsically, but is
retained or altered at the will of him who first created them. The Lord can
cause those evils which threaten to overwhelm us to suspend their ordinary
actions, and become innocuous to us.
Verse 14.In the daytime also he led them with a cloud. HE
did it all. He alone. He brought them into the wilderness, and he led
them through it; it is not the Lord's manner to begin a work, and then cease
from it while it is incomplete. The cloud both led and shadowed the tribes. It
was by day a vast sun screen, rendering the fierce heat of the sun and the glare
of the desert sand bearable. And all the night with a light of fire. So constant was the
care of the Great Shepherd that all night and every night the token of his
presence was with his people. That cloud which was a shade by day was as a sun
by night. Even thus the grace which cools and calms our joys, soothes and
solaces our sorrows. What a mercy to have a light of fire with us amid the
lonely horrors of the wilderness of affliction. Our God has been all this to us,
and shall we prove unfaithful to him? We have felt him to be both shade and
light, according as our changing circumstances have required.
"He hath been our joy in woe,
Cheered our heart when it was low,
And, with warnings softly sad,
Calmed our heart when it was glad."
May this frequently renewed experience knit our hearts to him
in firmest bonds.
Verse 15.He clave the rocks in the wilderness. Moses was
the instrument, but the Lord did it all. Twice he made the flint a gushing rill.
What can he not do? And gave them drink as out of the great depths, --as though
it gushed from earth's innermost reservoirs. The streams were so fresh, so
copious, so constant, that they seemed to well up from the earth's primeval
fountains, and to leap at once from "the deep which coucheth beneath." Here was
a divine supply for Israel's urgent need, and such an one as ought to have held
them for ever in unwavering fidelity to their wonder working God.
Verse 16. The supply of water was as plenteous in quantity
as it was miraculous in origin. Torrents, not driblets came from the rocks.
Streams followed the camp; the supply was not for an hour or a day. This was a
marvel of goodness. If we contemplate the abounding of divine grace we shall be
lost in admiration. Mighty rivers of love have flowed for us in the wilderness.
Alas, great God! our return has not been commensurate therewith, but far
otherwise.
Verse 17.And they sinned yet more against him. Outdoing
their former sins, going into greater deeps of evil: the more they had the more
loudly they clamoured for more, and murmured because they had not every luxury
that pampered appetites could desire. It was bad enough to mistrust their God
for necessaries, but to revolt against him in a greedy rage for superfluities
was far worse. Ever is it the nature of the disease of sin to proceed from bad
to worse; men never weary of sinning, but rather increase their speed in the
race of iniquity. In the case before us the goodness of God was abused into a
reason for greater sin. Had not the Lord been so good they would not have been
so bad. If he had wrought fewer miracles before, they would not have been so
inexcusable in their unbelief, so wanton in their idolatry. By provoking the most High in the wilderness. Although they
were in a position of obvious dependence upon God for everything, being in a
desert where the soil could yield them no support, yet they were graceless
enough to provoke their benefactor. At one time they provoked his jealousy by
their hankering after false gods, anon they excited his wrath by their
challenges of his power, their slanders against his love, their rebellions
against his will. He was all bounty of love, and they all superfluity of
naughtiness. They were favoured above all nations, and yet none were more ill
favoured. For them the heavens dropped manna, and they returned murmurs; the
rocks gave them rivers, and they replied with floods of wickedness. Herein, as
in a mirror, we see ourselves. Israel in the wilderness acted out, as in a
drama, all the story of man's conduct towards his God.
Verse 18.And they tempted God in their heart. He was not
tempted, for he cannot be tempted by any, but they acted in a manner calculated
to tempt him, and it always just to charge that upon men which is the obvious
tendency of their conduct. Christ cannot die again, and yet many crucify him
afresh, because such would be the legitimate result of their behaviour if its
effects were not prevented by other forces. The sinners in the wilderness would
have had the Lord change his wise proceedings to humour their whims, hence they
are said to tempt him. By asking meat for their lust. Would they have God become
purveyor for their greediness? Was there nothing for it but that he must give
them whatever their diseased appetites might crave? The sin began in their
hearts, but it soon reached their tongues. What they at first silently wished
for, they soon loudly demanded with menaces, insinuations, and upbraidings.
Verse 19. From this verse we learn that unbelief of God is a
slander against him. Yea, they spake against God. But how? The answer is, They said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? To
question the ability of one who is manifestly Almighty, is to speak against him.
These people were base enough to say that although their God had given them
bread and water, yet he could not properly order or furnish a table. He could
give them coarse food, but could not prepare a feast properly arranged, so they
were ungrateful enough to declare. As if the manna was a mere makeshift, and the
flowing rock stream a temporary expedient, they ask to have a regularly
furnished table, such as they had been accustomed to in Egypt. Alas, how have we
also quarrelled with our mercies, and querulously pined for some imaginary good,
counting our actual enjoyments to be nothing because they did not happen to be
exactly conformed to our foolish fancies. They who will not be content will
speak against providence even when it daily loadeth them with benefits.
Verse 20.Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out,
andthe streams overflowed. They admit what he had done, and yet,
with superabundant folly and insolence, demand further proofs of his
omnipotence. Can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his
people? As if the manna were nothing, as if animal food alone was true
nourishment for men. If they had argued, "can he not give flesh?" the
argument would have been reasonable, but they ran into insanity; when, having
seen many marvels of omnipotence, they dared to insinuate that other things were
beyond the divine power. Yet, in this also, we have imitated their senseless
conduct. Each new difficulty has excited fresh incredulity. We are still fools
and slow of heart to believe our God, and this is a fault to be bemoaned with
deepest penitence. For this cause the Lord is often wroth with us and chastens
us sorely; for unbelief has in it a degree of provocation of the highest kind.
Verse 21.Therefore the Lord heard this, and was wroth. He
was not indifferent to what they said. He dwelt among them in the holy place,
and, therefore, they insulted him to his face. He did not hear a report of it,
but the language itself came into his ears. So a fire was kindled against Jacob. The fire of his anger
which was also attended with literal burnings. And anger also came up against Israel. Whether he viewed
them in the lower or higher light, as Jacob or as Israel, he was angry with
them: even as mere men they ought to have believed him; and as chosen tribes,
their wicked unbelief was without excuse. The Lord doeth well to be angry at so
ungrateful, gratuitous and dastardly an insult as the questioning of his power.
Verse 22.Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in
hissalvation. This is the master sin, the crying sin. Like Jeroboam,
the son of Nebat, it sins and makes Israel to sin; it is in itself evil and the
parent of evils. It was this sin which shut Israel out of Canaan, and it shuts
myriads out of heaven. God is ready to save, combining power with willingness,
but rebellious man will not trust his Saviour, and therefore is condemned
already. In the text it appears as if all Israel's other sins were as nothing
compared with this; this is the peculiar spot which the Lord points at, the
special provocation which angered him. From this let every unbeliever learn to
tremble more at his unbelief than at anything else. If he be no fornicator, or
thief, or liar, let him reflect that it is quite enough to condemn him that he
trusts not in God's salvation.
Verse 23.Though he had commanded the clouds from above.
Such a marvel ought to have rendered unbelief impossible: when clouds become
granaries, seeing should be believing, and doubts should dissolve. And opened the doors of heaven. The great storehouse doors
were set wide open, and the corn of heaven poured out in heaps. Those who would
not believe in such a case were hardened indeed; and yet our own position is
very similar, for the Lord has wrought for us great deliverances, quite as
memorable and undeniable, and yet suspicions and forebodings haunt us. He might
have shut the gates of hell upon us, instead of which he has opened the doors of
heaven; shall we not both believe in him and magnify him for this?
Verse 24.And had rained down manna upon them to eat. There
was so much of it, the skies poured with food, the clouds burst with provender.
It was fit food, proper not for looking at but for eating; they could eat it as
they gathered it. Mysterious though it was, so that they called it manna, or
"what is it?" yet it was eminently adapted for human nourishment; and it was
both abundant and adapted, so also was it available! They had not far to fetch
it, it was nigh them, and they had only to gather it up. O Lord Jesus, thou
blessed manna of heaven, how all this agrees with Thee! We will even now feed on
Thee as our spiritual meat, and will pray Thee to chase away all wicked unbelief
from us. Our fathers ate manna and doubted; we feed upon Thee and are filled
with assurance. And had given them of the corn of heaven. It was all a gift
without money and without price. Food which dropped from above, and was of the
best quality, so as to be called heavenly corn, was freely granted them. The
manna was round, like a coriander seed, and hence was rightly called corn; it
did not rise from the earth, but descended from the clouds, and hence the words
of the verse are literally accurate. The point to be noted is that this wonder
of wonders left the beholders, and the feasters, as prone as ever to mistrust
their Lord.
Verse 25.Man did eat angel's food. The delicacies of kings
were outdone, for the dainties of angels were supplied. Bread of the mighty ones
fell on feeble man. Those who are lower than the angels fared as well. It was
not for the priests, or the princes, that the manna fell; but for all the
nation, for every man, woman, and child in the camp: and there was sufficient
for them all, for he sent them meat to the full. God's banquets are never
stinted; he gives the best diet, and plenty of it. Gospel provisions deserve
every praise that we can heap upon them; they are free, full, and preeminent;
they are of God's preparing, sending, and bestowing. He is well fed whom God
feeds; heaven's meat is nourishing and plentiful. If we have ever fed upon Jesus
we have tasted better than angel's food; for
"Never did angels taste above
Redeeming grace and dying love."
It will be our wisdom to eat to the full of it, for God has so
sent it that we are not straitened in him, but in our own bowels. Happy pilgrims
who in the desert have their meat sent from the Lord's own palace above; let
them eat abundantly of the celestial banquet, and magnify the all sufficient
grace which supplies all their needs, according to His riches in glory, by
Christ Jesus.
Verse 26.He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven. He
is Lord Paramount, above the prince of the power of the air: storms arise and
tempests blow at his command. Winds sleep till God arouses them, and then, like
Samuel, each one answers, "Here am I, for thou didst call me." And by his power he brought in the south wind. Either these
winds followed each other, and so blew the birds in the desired direction, or
else they combined to form a south east wind; in either case they fulfilled the
design of the Lord, and illustrated his supreme and universal power. If one wind
will not serve, another shall; and if need be, they shall both blow at once. We
speak of fickle winds, but their obedience to their Lord is such that
they deserve a better word. If we ourselves were half as obedient as the winds,
we should be far superior to what we are now.
Verse 27.He rained flesh also upon them as dust. First he
rained bread and then flesh, when he might have rained fire and brimstone. The
words indicate the speed, and the abundance of the descending quails. And feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea;
there was
no counting them. By a remarkable providence, if not by miracle, enormous
numbers of migratory birds were caused to alight around the tents of the tribes.
It was, however, a doubtful blessing, as easily acquired and super abounding
riches generally are. The Lord save us from meat which is seasoned with divine
wrath.
Verse 28.And he let it fall in the midst of their camp.
They had no journey to make; they had clamoured for flesh, and it almost flew
into their mouths, round about their habitations. This made them glad for the
moment, but they knew not that mercies can be sent in anger, else they had
trembled at sight of the good things which they had lusted after.
Verse 29.So they did eat, and were well filled. They
greedily devoured the birds, even to repletion. The Lord shewed them that he
could "provide flesh for his people, "even enough and to spare. He also shewed
them that when lust wins its desire it is disappointed, and by the way of
satiety arrive at distaste. First the food satiates, then it nauseates. For he gave them their own desire. They were filled with
their own ways. The flesh meat was unhealthy for them, but as they cried for it
they had it, and a curse with it. O my God, deny me my most urgent prayers
sooner than answer them in displeasure. Better hunger and thirst after
righteousness than to be well filled with sin's dainties.
Verses 30-31. They were not estranged from their lust. Lust
grows upon that which it feeds on. If sick of too much flesh, yet men grow not
weary of lust, they change the object, and go on lusting still. When one sin is
proved to be a bitterness, men do not desist, but pursue another iniquity. If,
like Jehu, they turn from Baal, they fall to worshipping the calves of Bethel. But while their meat was yet in their mouths,
before they
could digest their coveted meat, it turned to their destruction. The wrath of God came upon them before they could swallow
their first meal of flesh. Short was the pleasure, sudden was the doom. The
festival ended in a funeral. And slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men
of Israel. Perhaps these were the ringleaders in the lusting; they
are first in the punishment. God's justice has no respect of persons, the strong
and the valiant fall as well as the weak and the mean. What they ate on earth
they digested in hell, as many have done since. How soon they died, though they
felt not the edge of the sword! How terrible was the havoc, though not amid the
din of battle! My soul, see here the danger of gratified passions; they are the
janitors of hell. When the Lord's people hunger God loves them; Lazarus is his
beloved, though he pines upon crumbs; but when he fattens the wicked he abhors
them; Dives is hated of heaven when he fares sumptuously every day. We must
never dare to judge men's happiness by their tables, the heart is the place to
look at. The poorest starveling believer is more to be envied than the most full
fleshed of the favourites of the world. Better be God's dog than the devil's
darling.
Verse 32.For all this they sinned still. Judgments moved
them no more than mercies. They defied the wrath of God. Though death was in the
cup of their iniquity, yet they would not put it away, but continued to quaff it
as if it were a healthful potion. How truly might these words be applied to
ungodly men who have been often afflicted, laid upon a sick bed, broken in
spirit, and impoverished in estate, and yet have persevered in their evil ways,
unmoved by terrors, unswayed by threatenings. And believed not for his wondrous works. Their unbelief was
chronic and incurable. Miracles both of mercy and judgment were unavailing. They
might be made to wonder, but they could not be taught to believe. Continuance in
sin and in unbelief go together. Had they believed they would not have sinned,
had they not have been blinded by sin they would have believed. There is a
reflex action between faith and character. How can the lover of sin believe?
How, on the other hand, can the unbeliever cease from sin? God's ways with us in
providence are in themselves both convincing and converting, but unrenewed
nature refuses to be either convicted or converted by them.
Verse 33.Therefore their days did he consume in vanity.
Apart from faith life is vanity. To wander up and down in the wilderness was a
vain thing indeed, when unbelief had shut them out of the promised land. It was
meet that those who would not live to answer the divine purpose by believing and
obeying their God should be made to live to no purpose, and to die before their
time, unsatisfied, unblessed. Those who wasted their days in sin had little
cause to wonder when the Lord cut short their lives, and sware that they should
never enter the rest which they had despised. And their years in trouble. Weary marches were their
trouble, and to come to no resting place was their vanity. Innumerable graves
were left all along the track of Israel, and if any ask, "Who slew all these?"
the answer must be, "They could not enter in because of unbelief." Doubtless
much of the vexation and failure of many lives results from their being sapped
by unbelief, and honeycombed by evil passions. None live so fruitlessly and so
wretchedly as those who allow sense and sight to override faith, and their
reason and appetite to domineer over their fear of God. Our days go fast enough
according to the ordinary lapse of time, but the Lord can make them rust away at
a bitterer rate, till we feel as if sorrow actually ate out the heart of our
life, and like a canker devoured our existence. Such was the punishment of
rebellious Israel, the Lord grant it may not be ours.
Verse 34.When he slew them, then they sought him. Like
whipped curs, they licked their Master's feet. They obeyed only so long as they
felt the whip about their loins. Hard are the hearts which only death can move.
While thousands died around them, the people of Israel became suddenly
religious, and repaired to the tabernacle door, like sheep who run in a mass
while the black dog drives them, but scatter and wander when the shepherd
whistles him off. And they returned and enquired early after God. They could
not be too zealous, they were in hot haste to prove their loyalty to their
divine King. "The devil was sick and the devil a monk would be." Who would not
be pious while the plague is abroad? Doors, which were never so sanctified
before, put on the white cross then. Even reprobates send for the minister when
they lie a dying. Thus sinners pay involuntary homage to the power of right and
the supremacy of God, but their hypocritical homage is of small value in the
sight of the Great Judge.
Verse 35.And they remember that God was their rock. Sharp
strokes awoke their sleepy memories. Reflection followed infliction. They were
led to see that all their dependence must be placed upon their God; for he alone
had been their shelter, their foundation, their fountain of supply, and their
unchangeable friend. What could have made them forget this? Was it that their
stomachs were so full of flesh that thy had no space for ruminating upon
spiritual things? And the high God their redeemer. They had forgotten this
also. The high hand and outstretched arm which redeemed them out of bondage had
both faded from their mental vision. Alas, poor man, how readily dost thou
forget thy God! Shame on thee, ungrateful worm, to have no sense of favours a
few days after they have been received. Will nothing make thee keep in memory
the mercy of thy God except the utter withdrawal of it?
Verse 36. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their
mouth. Bad were they at their best. False on their knees, liars in their
prayers. Mouth worship must be very detestable to God when dissociated from the
heart: other kings love flattery, but the King of kings abhors it. Since the
sharpest afflictions only extort from carnal men a feigned submission to God,
there is proof positive that the heart is desperately set on mischief, and that
sin is ingrained in our very nature. If you beat a tiger with many stripes you
cannot turn him into a sheep. The devil cannot be whipped out of human nature,
though another devil, namely, hypocrisy may be whipped into it. Piety produced
by the damps of sorrow and the heats of terror is of mushroom growth; it is
rapid in its springing up--"they enquired early after God" --but it is a mere
unsubstantial fungus of unabiding excitement. And they lied unto him with their tongues. Their godly
speech was cant, their praise mere wind, their prayer a fraud. Their skin deep
repentance was a film too thin to conceal the deadly wound of sin. This teaches
us to place small reliance upon professions of repentance made by dying men, or
upon such even when the basis is evidently slavish fear, and nothing more. Any
thief will whine out repentance if he thinks the judge will thereby be moved to
let him go scot free.
Verse 37.For their heart was not right with him. There was
no depth in their repentance, it was not heart work. They were fickle as a
weathercock, every wind turned them, their mind was not settled upon God. Neither were they stedfast in his covenant. Their promises
were no sooner made than broken, as if only made in mockery. Good resolutions
called at their hearts as men do at inns; they tarried awhile, and then took
their leave. They were hot today for holiness, but cold towards it tomorrow.
Variable as the hues of the dolphin, they changed from reverence to rebellion,
from thankfulness to murmuring. One day they gave their gold to build a
tabernacle for Jehovah, and the next they plucked off their earrings to make a
golden calf. Surely the heart is a chameleon. Proteus had not so many changes.
As in the ague we both burn and freeze, so do inconstant natures in their
religion.
Verse 38.But he, being full of compassion, forgave their
iniquity, and destroyed them not. Though they were full of flattery,
he was full of mercy, and for this cause he had pity on them. Not because of
their pitiful and hypocritical pretensions to penitence, but because of his own
real compassion for them he overlooked their provocations. Yea, many a time turned he his anger away. When he had
grown angry with them he withdrew his displeasure. Even unto seventy times seven
did he forgive their offences. He was slow, very slow, to anger. The sword was
uplifted and flashed in midair, but it was sheathed again, and the nation yet
lived. Though not mentioned in the text, we know from the history that a
mediator interposed, the man Moses stood in the gap; even so at this hour the
Lord Jesus pleads for sinners, and averts the divine wrath. Many a barren tree
is left standing because the dresser of the vineyard cries, "let it alone this
year also." And did not stir up all his wrath. Had he done so they must
have perished in a moment. When his wrath is kindled but a little men are burned
up as chaff; but were he to let loose his indignation, the solid earth itself
would melt, and hell would engulf every rebel. Who knoweth the power of thine
anger, O Lord? We see the fulness of God's compassion, but we never see all his
wrath.
Verse 39.For he remembered that they were but flesh. They
were forgetful of God, but he was mindful of them. He knew that they were made
of earthy, frail, corruptible material, and therefore he dealt leniently with
them. Though in this he saw no excuse for their sin, yet he constrained it into
a reason for mercy; the Lord is ever ready to discover some plea or other upon
which he may have compassion. A wind that passeth away, and cometh not again. Man is but
a breath, gone never to return. Spirit and wind are in this alike, so far as our
humanity is concerned; they pass and cannot be recalled. What a nothing is our
life. How gracious on the Lord's part to make man's insignificance an argument
for staying his wrath.
Verse 40.How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness.
Times enough did they rebel: they were as constant in provocation as he was in
his patience. In our own case, who can count his errors? In what book could all
our perverse rebellions be recorded? The wilderness was a place of manifest
dependence, where the tribes were helpless without divine supplies, yet they
wounded the hand which fed them while it was in the act of feeding them. Is
there no likeness between us and them? Does it bring no tears into our eyes,
while as in a glass, we see our own selves? And grieve him in the desert. Their provocations had an
effect; God was not insensible to them, he is said to have been grieved. His
holiness could not find pleasure in their sin, his justice in their unjust
treatment, or his truth in their falsehood. What must it be to grieve the Lord
of love! Yet we also have vexed the Holy Spirit, and he would long ago have
withdrawn himself from us, were it not that he is God and not man. We are in the
desert where we need our God, let us not make it a wilderness of sin by grieving
him.
Verses 41. Yea, they turned back. Their hearts sighed for Egypt and its
fleshpots. They turned to their old ways again and again, after they had been
scourged out of them. Full of twists and turns, they never kept the straight
path. And tempted God. As far as in them lay they tempted him. His ways were
good, and they in desiring to have them altered tempted God. Before they would
believe in him they demanded signs, defying the Lord to do this and that, and
acting as if he could be cajoled into being the minion of their lusts. What
blasphemy was this! Yet let us not tempt Christ lest we also be destroyed by the
destroyer. And limited the Holy One of Israel. Doubted his power and so limited him,
dictated to his wisdom and so did the same. To chalk out a path for God is
arrogant impiety. The Holy One must do right, the covenant God of Israel must be
true, it is profanity itself to say unto him thou shalt do this or that, or
otherwise I will not worship thee. Not thus is the Eternal God to be led by a
string by his impotent creature. He is the Lord and he will do as seemeth him
good.
Verse 42.They remembered not his hand. Yet it must have
been difficult to forget it. Such displays of divine power as those which smote
Egypt with astonishment, it must have needed some more than usual effort to blot
it from the tablets of memory. It is probably meant that they practically,
rather than actually, forgot. He who forgets the natural returns of gratitude,
may justly be charged with not remembering the obligation. Nor the days when he delivered them from the enemy. The day
itself was erased from their calendar, so far as any due result from it or
return for it. Strange is the faculty of memory in its oblivion as well as its
records. Sin perverts man's powers, makes them forceful only in wrong
directions, and practically dead for righteous ends.
Verse 43.How he had wrought his signs in Egypt. The plagues
were ensigns of Jehovah's presence and proofs of his hatred of idols; these
instructive acts of power were wrought in the open view of all, as signals are
set up to be observed by those far and near. And his wonders in the field of Zoan. In the whole land
were miracles wrought, not in cities alone, but in the broad territory, in the
most select and ancient regions of the proud nation. This the Israelites ought
not to have forgotten, for they were the favoured people for whom these
memorable deeds were wrought.
Verse 44.And had turned their rivers into blood. The waters
had been made the means of the destruction of Israel's newborn infants, and now
they do as it were betray the crime--they blush for it, they avenge it on the
murderers. The Nile was the vitality of Egypt, its true life blood, but at God's
command it became a flowing curse; every drop of it was a horror, poison to
drink, and terror to gaze on. How soon might the Almighty One do this with the
Thames or the Seine. Sometimes he has allowed men, who were his rod, to make
rivers crimson with gore, and this is a severe judgment; but the event now
before us was more mysterious, more general, more complete, and must, therefore,
have been a plague of the first magnitude. And their floods, that they could not drink. Lesser streams
partook in the curse, reservoirs and canals felt the evil; God does nothing by
halves. All Egypt boasted of the sweet waters of their river, but they were made
to loathe it more than they had ever loved it. Our mercies may soon become our
miseries if the Lord shall deal with us in wrath.
Verse 45.He sent diverse sorts of flies among them, which
devouredthem. Small creatures become great tormentors. When they
swarm they can sting a man till they threaten to eat him up. In this case,
various orders of insects fought under the same banner; lice and beetles, gnats
and hornets, wasps and gadflies dashed forward in fierce battalions, and worried
the sinners of Egypt without mercy. The tiniest plagues are the greatest. What
sword or spear could fight with these innumerable bands? Vain were the monarch's
armour and robes of majesty, the little cannibals were no more lenient towards
royal flesh than any other; it had the same blood in it, and the same sin upon
it. How great is that God who thus by the minute can crush the magnificent. And frogs, which destroyed them. These creatures swarmed
everywhere when they were alive, until the people felt ready to die at the
sight; and when the reptiles died, the heaps of their bodies made the land to
stink so foully, that a pestilence was imminent. Thus not only did earth and air
send forth armies of horrible life, but the water also added its legions of
loathsomeness. It seemed as if the Nile was first made nauseous and then caused
to leave its bed altogether, crawling and leaping in the form of frogs. Those
who contend with the Almighty, little know what arrows are in his quiver;
surprising sin shall be visited with surprising punishment.
Verse 46.He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, and
theirlabour unto the locust. Different sorts of devourers ate up
every green herb and tree. What one would not eat another did. What they
expected from the natural fertility of the soil, and what they looked for from
their own toil, they saw devoured before their eyes by an insatiable multitude
against whose depredation no defense could be found. Observe in the text that
the Lord did it all--"he sent, " "he gave, ""he destroyed, ""he gave up, "etc.;
whatever the second agent may be, the direct hand of the Lord is in every
national visitation.
Verse 47.He destroyed their vines with hail. No more shall
thy butler press the clusters into thy cup, O Pharaoh! The young fruit bearing
shoots were broken off, the vintage failed. And their sycomore trees with frost. Frost was not usual,
but Jehovah regards no laws of nature when men regard not his moral laws. The
sycomore fig was perhaps more the fruit of the many than was the vine, therefore
this judgment was meant to smite the poor, while the former fell most heavily
upon the rich. Mark how the heavens obey their Lord and yield their stores of
hail, and note how the fickle weather is equally subservient to the divine will.
Verse 48.He gave up their cattle also to the hail. What
hail it must have been to have force enough to batter down bullocks and other
great beasts. God usually protects animals from such destruction, but here he
withdraws his safeguards and gave them up: may the Lord never give us up.
Some read, "shut up, "and the idea of being abandoned to destructive influences
is then before us in another shape. And their flocks to hot thunderbolts. Fire was mingled with
the hail, the fire ran along upon the ground, it smote the smaller cattle. What
a storm must that have been: its effects were terrible enough upon plants, but
to see the poor dumb creatures stricken must have been heartbreaking. Adamantine
was that heart which quailed not under such plagues as these, harder than
adamant those hearts which in after years forgot all that the Lord had done, and
broke off from their allegiance to him.
Verse 49.He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath,
andindignation, and trouble. His last arrow was the sharpest. He
reserved the strong wine of his indignation to the last. Note how the psalmist
piles up the words, and well he might; for blow followed blow, each one more
staggering than its predecessor, and then the crushing stroke was reserved for
the end. By sending evil angels among them. Messengers of evil
entered their houses at midnight, and smote the dearest objects of their love.
The angels were evil to them, though good enough in themselves; those who to the
heirs of salvation are ministers of grace, are to the heirs of wrath
executioners of judgment. When God sends angels, they are sure to come, and if
he bids them slay they will not spare. See how sin sets all the powers of heaven
in array against man; he has no friend left in the universe when God is his
enemy.
Verse 50.He made a way to his anger, coming to the point
with them by slow degrees; assailing their outworks first by destroying their
property, and then coming in upon their persons as through an open breach in the
walls. He broke down all the comforts of their life, and then advanced against
their life itself. Nothing could stand in his way; he cleared a space in which
to do execution upon his adversaries. He spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over
to the pestilence. In their soul was the origin of the sin, and he
followed it to its source and smote it there. A fierce disease filled the land
with countless funerals; Jehovah dealt out myriads of blows, and multitudes of
spirits failed before him.
Verse 51.And smote all the firstborn in Egypt. No
exceptions were made, the monarch bewailed his heir as did the menial at the
mill. They smote the Lord's firstborn, even Israel, and he smites theirs. The chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham.
Swinging his scythe over the field, death topped off the highest flowers. The
tents of Ham knew each one its own peculiar sorrow, and were made to sympathise
with the sorrows which had been ruthlessly inflicted upon the habitations of
Israel. Thus curses come home to roost. Oppressors are repaid in their own coin,
without the discount of a penny.
Verse 52.But made his own people to go forth like sheep.
The contrast is striking, and ought never to have been forgotten by the people.
The wolves were slain in heaps, the sheep were carefully gathered, and
triumphantly delivered. The tables were turned, and the poor serfs became the
honoured people, while their oppressors were humbled before them. Israel went
out in a compact body like a flock; they were defenceless in themselves as
sheep, but they were safe under their Great Shepherd; they left Egypt as easily
as a flock leaves one pasture for another. And guided them in the wilderness like a flock. Knowing
nothing of the way by their own understanding or experience, they were,
nevertheless, rightly directed, for the All wise God knew every spot of the
wilderness. To the sea, through the sea, and from the sea, the Lord led his
chosen; while their former taskmasters were too cowed in spirit, and broken in
power, to dare to molest them.
Verse 53.And he led them on safely, so that they feared
not. After the first little alarm, natural enough when they found themselves
pursued by their old taskmasters, they plucked up courage and ventured forth
boldly into the sea, and afterwards into the desert where no man dwelt. But the sea overwhelmed their enemies. They were gone, gone
for ever, never to disturb the fugitives again. That tremendous blow effectually
defended the tribes for forty years from any further attempt to drive them back.
Egypt found the stone too heavy and was glad to let it alone. Let the Lord be
praised who thus effectually freed his elect nation. What a grand narrative have we been considering. Well might the
mightiest master of sacred song select "Israel in Egypt" as a choice theme for
his genius; and well may every believing mind linger over every item of the
amazing transaction. The marvel is that the favoured nation should live as if
unmindful of it all, and yet such is human nature. Alas, poor man! Rather, alas,
base heart! We now, after a pause, follow again the chain of events, the
narration of which had been interrupted by a retrospect, and we find Israel
entering into the promised land, there to repeat her follies and enlarge her
crimes.
Verse 54.And he brought them to the border of his
sanctuary. He conducted them to the frontier of the Holy Land, where he
intended the tabernacle to become the permanent symbol of his abode among his
people. He did not leave them halfway upon their journey to their heritage; his
power and wisdom preserved the nation till the palm trees of Jericho were within
sight on the other side of the river. Even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.
Nor did he leave them then, but still conducted them till they were in the
region round about Zion, which was to be the central seat of his worship. This
the Lord had purchased in type of old by the sacrifice of Isaac, fit symbol of
the greater sacrifice which was in due season to be presented there: that
mountain was also redeemed by power, when the Lord's right hand enabled his
valiant men to smite the Jebusites, and take the sacred hill from the insulting
Canaanite. Thus shall the elect of God enjoy the sure protection of the Lord of
hosts, even to the border land of death, and through the river, up to the hill
of the Lord in glory. The purchased people shall safely reach the purchased
inheritance.
Verse 55.He cast out the heathen also before them, or "he
drove out the nations." Not only were armies routed, but whole peoples
displaced. The iniquity of the Canaanites was full; their vices made them rot
above ground; therefore, the land ate up its inhabitants, the hornets vexed
them, the pestilence destroyed them, and the sword of the tribes completed the
execution to which the justice of long provoked heaven had at length appointed
them. The Lord was the true conqueror of Canaan; he cast out the nations as men
cast out filth from their habitations, he uprooted them as noxious weeds are
extirpated by the husbandman. And divided them an inheritance by line. He divided the
land of the nations among the tribes by lot and measure, assigning Hivite,
Perizzite, and Jebusite territory to Simeon, Judah, or Ephraim, as the case
might be. Among those condemned nations were not only giants in stature, but
also giants in crime: those monsters of iniquity had too long defiled the earth;
it was time that they should no more indulge the unnatural crimes for which they
were infamous; they were, therefore, doomed to forfeit life and lands by the
hands of the tribes of Israel. The distribution of the forfeited country was
made by divine appointment; it was no scramble, but a judicial appointment of
lands which had fallen to the crown by the attainder of the former holders. And made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. The
favoured people entered upon a furnished house: they found the larder supplied,
for they fed upon the old corn of the land, and the dwellings were already
builded in which they could dwell. Thus does another race often enter into the
lot of a former people, and it is sad indeed when the change which judgment
decrees does not turn out to be much for the better, because the incomers
inherit the evils as well as the goods of the ejected. Such a case of judicial
visitation ought to have had a salutary influence upon the tribes; but, alas,
they were incorrigible, and would not learn even from examples so near at home
and so terribly suggestive.
Verse 56.Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God.
Change of condition had not altered their manners. They left their nomadic
habits, but not their tendencies to wander from their God. Though every divine
promise had been fulfilled to the letter, and the land flowing with milk and
honey was actually their own, yet they tried the Lord again with unbelief, and
provoked him with other sins. He is not only high and glorious, but most High,
yea, the most High, the only being who deserves to be so highly had in
honour; yet, instead of honouring him, Israel grieved him with rebellion. And kept not his testimonies. They were true to nothing but
hereditary treachery; steadfast in nothing but in falsehood. They knew his truth
and forgot it, his will and disobeyed it, his grace and perverted it to an
occasion for greater transgression. Reader, dost thou need a looking glass? See
here is one which suits the present expositor well; does it not also reflect
thine image?
Verse 57.But turned back. Turned over the old leaf,
repeated the same offences, started aside like an ill made bow, were false and
faithless to their best promises. And dealt unfaithfully like their fathers, proving
themselves legitimate by manifesting the treachery of their sires. They were a
new generation, but not a new nation--another race yet not another. Evil
propensities are transmitted; the birth follows the progenitor; the wild ass
breeds wild asses; the children of the raven fly to the carrion. Human nature
does not improve, the new editions contain all the errata of the first, and
sometimes fresh errors are imported. They were turned aside like a deceitful bow,
which not only
fails to send the arrow towards the mark in a direct line, but springs back to
the archer's hurt, and perhaps sends the shaft among his friends to their
serious jeopardy. Israel boasted of the bow as the national weapon, they sang
the song of the bow, and hence a deceitful bow is made to be the type and symbol
of their own unsteadfastness; God can make men's glory the very ensign of their
shame, he draws a bar sinister across the escutcheon of traitors.
Verse 58.For they provoked him to anger with their high
places. This was their first error--will worship, or the worship of God,
otherwise than according to his command. Many think lightly of this, but it was
no mean sin; and its tendencies to further offence are very powerful. The Lord
would have his holy place remain as the only spot for sacrifice; and Israel, in
wilful rebellion, (no doubt glossed over by the plea of great
devotion,)determined to have many altars upon many hills. If they might have but
one God, they insisted upon it that they would not be restricted to one sacred
place of sacrifice. How much of the worship of the present day is neither more
nor less than sheer will worship! Nobody dare plead a divine appointment for a
tithe of the offices, festivals, ceremonies, and observances of certain
churches. Doubtless God, so far from being honoured by worship which he has not
commanded, is greatly angered at it. And moved him to jealousy with their graven images. This
was but one more step; they manufactured symbols of the invisible God, for they
lusted after something tangible and visible to which they could shew reverence.
This also is the crying sin of modern times. Do we not hear and see superstition
abounding? Images, pictures, crucifixes, and a host of visible things are had in
religious honour, and worst of all men now a days worship what they eat, and
call that a God which passes into their belly, and thence into baser places
still. Surely the Lord is very patient, or he would visit the earth for this
worst and basest of idolatry. He is a jealous God, and abhors to see himself
dishonoured by any form of representation which can come from man's hands.
Verse 59.When God heard this, he was wroth. The mere report
of it filled him with indignation; he could not bear it, he was incensed to the
uttermost, and most justly so. And greatly abhorred Israel. He cast his idolatrous people
from his favour, and left them to themselves, and their own devices. How could
he have fellowship with idols? What concord hath Christ with Belial? Sin is in
itself so offensive that it makes the sinner offensive too. Idols of any sort
are highly abhorrent to God, and we must see to it that we keep ourselves from
them through divine grace, for rest assured idolatry is not consistent with true
grace in the heart. If Dagon sit aloft in any soul, the ark of God is not there.
Where the Lord dwells no image of jealousy will be tolerated. A visible church
will soon become a visible curse if idols be set up in it, and then the pruning
knife will remove it as a dead branch from the vine. Note that God did not utterly cast away his people Israel even
when he greatly abhorred them, for he returned in mercy to them, so the
subsequent verses tell us: so now the seed of Abraham, though for awhile under a
heavy cloud, will be gathered yet again, for the covenant of salt shall not be
broken. As for the spiritual seed, the Lord hath not despised nor abhorred them;
they are his peculiar treasure and lie for ever near his heart.
Verse 60.So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent
whichhe placed among men. His glory would no more reveal itself
there, he left Shiloh to become a complete ruin. At the door of that tent
shameless sin had been perpetrated, and all around it idols had been adored, and
therefore the glory departed and Ichabod was sounded as a word of dread
concerning Shiloh and the tribe of Ephraim. Thus may the candlestick be removed
though the candle is not quenched. Erring churches become apostate, but a true
church still remains; if Shiloh be profaned Zion is consecrated. Yet is it ever
a solemn caution to all the assemblies of the saints, admonishing them to walk
humbly with their God, when we read such words as those of the prophet Jeremiah
in is seventh chapter, "Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the
Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these. Go ye now unto
my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I
did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel." Let us take heed, lest as the
ark never returned to Shiloh after its capture by the Philistines, so the gospel
may be taken from us in judgment, never to be restored to the same church again.
Verse 61.And delivered his strength into captivity. The ark
was captured by the Philistines in battle, only because the Lord for the
punishment of Israel chose to deliver it into their hands, otherwise they could
have had no power at all against it. The token of the divine presence is here
poetically called "his strength; ", and, indeed, the presence of the Lord is his
strength among his people. It was a black day when the mercyseat was removed,
when the cherubim took flight, and Israel's palladium was carried away. And his glory into the enemy's hand. The ark was the place
for the revealed glory of God, and his enemies exulted greatly when they bore it
away into their own cities. Nothing could more clearly have shown the divine
displeasure. It seemed to say that Jehovah would sooner dwell among his avowed
adversaries than among so false a people as Israel; he would sooner bear the
insults of Philistia than the treacheries of Ephraim. This was a fearful
downfall for the favoured nation, and it was followed by dire judgments of most
appalling nature. When God is gone all is gone. No calamity can equal the
withdrawal of the divine presence from a people. O Israel, how art thou brought
low! Who shall help thee now that thy God has left thee!
Verse 62.He gave his people over also unto the sword. They
fell in battle because they were no longer aided by the divine strength. Sharp
was the sword, but sharper still the cause of its being unsheathed. And was wroth with his inheritance. They were his
still, and twice in this verse they are called so; yet his regard for them did
not prevent his chastening them, even with a rod of steel. Where the love is
most fervent, the jealousy is most cruel. Sin cannot be tolerated in those who
are a people near unto God.
Verse 63.The fire consumed their young men. As fire slew
Nadab and Abihu literally, so the fire of divine wrath fell on the sons of Eli,
who defiled the sanctuary of the Lord, and the like fire, in the form of war,
consumed the flower of the people. And their maidens were not given to marriage. No nuptial
hymn were sung, the bride lacked her bridegroom, the edge of the sword had cut
the bands of their espousals, and left unmarried those who else had been
extolled in hymns and congratulations. Thus Israel was brought very low, she
could not find husbands for her maids, and therefore her state was not
replenished; no young children clustered around parental knees. The nation had
failed in its solemn task of instructing the young in the fear of Jehovah, and
it was a fitting judgment that the very production of a posterity should be
endangered.
Verse 64.Their priests fell by the sword. Hophni and
Phineas were slain; they were among the chief in sin, and, therefore, they
perished with the rest. Priesthood is no shelter for transgressors; the jewelled
breastplate cannot turn aside the arrows of judgment. And their widows made no lamentation. Their private griefs
were swallowed up in the greater national agony, because the ark of God was
taken. As the maidens had no heart for the marriage song, so the widows had no
spirit, even to utter the funeral wail. The dead were buried too often and too
hurriedly to allow of the usual rites of lamentation. This was the lowest depth;
from this point things will take a gracious turn.
Verse 65.The Lord awaked as one out of sleep. Justly
inactive, he had suffered the enemy to triumph, his ark to be captured, and his
people to be slain; but now he arouses himself, his heart is full of pity for
his chosen, and anger against the insulting foe. Woe to thee, O Philistia, now
thou shalt feel the weight of his right hand! Waking and putting forth strength
like a man who has taken a refreshing draught, the Lord is said to be, like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine. Strong
and full of energy the Lord dashed upon his foes, and made them stagger beneath
his blows. His ark from city to city went as an avenger rather than as a trophy,
and in every place the false gods fell helplessly before it.
Verse 66.He smote his enemies in the hinder parts. The
emerods rendered them ridiculous, and their numerous defeats made them yet more
so. They fled but were overtaken and wounded in the back to their eternal
disgrace. He put them to a perpetual reproach. Orientals are not very
refined, and we can well believe that the haemorrhoids were the subject of many
a taunt against the Philistines, as also were their frequent defeats by Israel
until at last they were crushed under, never to exist again as a distinct
nation.
Verse 67.Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph. God
had honoured Ephraim, for to that tribe belonged Joshua the great conqueror, and
Gideon the great judge, and within its borders was Shiloh the place of the ark
and the sanctuary; but now the Lord would change all this and set up other
rulers. He would no longer leave matters to the leadership of Ephraim, since
that tribe had been tried and found wanting. And chose not the tribe of Ephraim. Sin had been found in
them, folly and instability, and therefore they were set aside as unfit to lead.
Verse 68.But chose the tribe of Judah. To give the nation
another trial this tribe was elected to supremacy. This was according to Jacob's
dying prophecy. Our Lord sprang out of Judah, and he it is whom his brethren
shall praise. The Mount Zion which he loved. The tabernacle and ark were
removed to Zion during the reign of David; no honour was left to the wayward
Ephraimites. Hard by this mountain the Father of the Faithful had offered up his
only son, and there in future days the great gatherings of his chosen seed would
be, and therefore Zion is said to be lovely unto God.
Verse 69.And he built his sanctuary like high palaces. The
tabernacle was placed on high, literally and spiritually it was a mountain of
beauty. True religion was exalted in the land. For sanctity it was a temple, for
majesty it was a palace. Like the earth which he hath established for ever.
Stability was well as stateliness were seen in the temple, and so also in the
church of God. The prophets saw both in vision.
Verse 70.He chose David also his servant. It was an
election of a sovereignly gracious kind, and it operated practically by making
the chosen man a willing servant of the Lord. He was not chosen because he was a
servant, but in order that he might be so. David always esteemed it to be a high
honour that he was both elect of God, and a servant of God. And took him from the sheepfolds. A shepherd of sheep he
had been, and this was a fit school for a shepherd of men. Lowliness of
occupation will debar no man from such honours as the Lord's election confers,
the Lord seeth not as man seeth. He delights to bless those who are of low
estate.
Verse 71.From following the ewes great with young he brought
him tofeed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. Exercising
the care and art of those who watch for the young lambs, David followed the ewes
in their wanderings; the tenderness and patience thus acquired would tend to the
development of characteristics most becoming in a king. To the man thus
prepared, the office and dignity which God had appointed for him, came in due
season, and he was enabled worthily to wear them. It is wonderful how often
divine wisdom so arranges the early and obscure portion of a choice life, so as
to make it a preparatory school for a more active and noble future.
Verse 72.So he fed them according to the integrity of his
heart. David was upright before God, and never swerved in heart from the
obedient worship of Jehovah. Whatever faults he had, he was unfeignedly sincere
in his allegiance to Israel's superior king; he shepherded for God with honest
heart. And guided them by the skilfulness of his hands. He was a
sagacious ruler, and the psalmist magnifies the Lord for having appointed him.
Under David, the Jewish kingdom rose to an honourable position among the
nations, and exercised an influence over its neighbours. In closing the Psalm
which has described the varying conditions of the chosen nation, we are glad to
end so peacefully; with all noise of tumult or of sinful rites hushed into
silence. After a long voyage over a stormy sea, the ark of the Jewish state
rested on its Ararat, beneath a wise and gentle reign, to be wafted no more
hither and thither by floods and gales. The psalmist had all along intended to
make this his last stanza, and we too may be content to finish all our songs of
love with the reign of the Lord's anointed. Only we may eagerly enquire, when
will it come? When shall we end these desert roamings, these rebellions, and
chastenings, and enter into the rest of a settled kingdom, with the Lord Jesus
reigning as "the Prince of the house of David?" Thus have we ended this lengthy parable, may we in our life
parable have less of sin, and as much of grace as are displayed in Israel's
history, and may we close it under the safe guidance of "that great Shepherd of
the sheep." AMEN.
Whole Psalm. This Psalm appears to have been occasioned by
the removal of the sanctuary from Shiloh in the tribe of Ephraim to Judah, and
the coincident transfer of preeminence in Israel from the former to the latter
tribe, as clearly evinced by David's settlement as the head of the church and
nation. Though this was the execution of God's purpose, the writer here shows
that it also proceeded from the divine judgment on Ephraim, under whose
leadership the people had manifested the same sinful and rebellious character
which had distinguished their ancestors in Egypt. B. M. Smith, in "The
Critical and Explanatory Pocket Bible." 1867.
Verse 1.Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your
ears. Inclining the ears does not denote any ordinary sort of hearing, but
such as a disciple renders to the words of his master, with submission and
reverence of mind, silent and earnest, that whatever is enunciated for the
purpose of instruction may be heard and properly understood, and nothing be
allowed to escape. He is a hearer of a different stamp, who hears carelessly,
not for the purpose of learning or imitation, but to criticise, to make merry,
to indulge animosity, or to kill time. Musculus.
Verse 1.Incline your ears. Lay them close to my lips, that
no parcel of this sacred language fall to the ground by your default. John
Trapp.
Verse 1.To the words of my mouth. Was it not sufficient for
the parallelism to say, To my words? Obviously. Why then is there any
notice taken of the mouth? Because those who can prescribe laws to their
subjects are also those who scorn to address them with their mouth. Such is the
custom of kings, princes, pontiffs, both Roman and others. For the higher every
one rises in dignity, the less he considers it becoming to him to speak to the
people, to teach and instruct them by word of mouth. They think they owe nothing
to the people, but are altogether taken up with this, that they may be looked up
to as princes, and so retain a certain secular majesty of command. But, with
one's own mouth to teach the ignorant, is a singular proof of love and paternal
affection, such as becomes the preceptor, pastor and teacher. This Christ most
constantly employed, because he was touched with paternal affection towards the
lost sheep, and came as a shepherd to seek them. The manner of earthly princes
he therefore rejected, and clothed himself with that paternal custom which
becomes the shepherd and teacher, going about and opening his mouth in order to
give instruction. See Matthew 5. Rightly, therefore, was the prophet not content
with saying, Give ear, O my people, to mylaw: he adds, Incline
your ears to the words of my mouth. Thus he indicates that he was about to
address and instruct them with paternal affection. Musculus.
Verse 2.Parable. Dark sayings.lvm, an authoritativeweighty speech or saying. The
Hebrew term very nearly answers to the Greek, kuriai doxai, i.e., authoritative sentences ormaxims,
or weighty sayings, expressing or implying acomparison,
as such sayings frequently do. hdyxan enigma, aparable, which penetrates the mind, and when
understood makes a deep impression of what is intended or represented by it.
Here twdyx seems to refer to the
historical facts mentioned in the subsequent part of the Psalm, considered as
enigmas of spiritual concern. John Parkhurst.
Verse 2.Parable. Parables are the speeches of wise men,
yea, they are the extracts and spirits of wisdom. The Hebrew word signifies to
rule, or have authority, because such speeches come upon us with authority, and
subdue our reason by the weight of theirs. Joseph Caryl.
Verse 2.I will utter. The metaphor in this word is taken
from a fountain which pours forth water abundantly. For ebg properly means to gush forth, or bubble up. The heart of
teachers in the Church ought to be full, and ready to pour forth those streams
by which the Church is watered. Their spring ought not to become exhausted, and
fail in the summer. Mollerus.
Verse 3.Which we have heard and known. We have heard
the law and known the facts.Adam Clarke.
Verse 3.Fathers. Those are worthy of the name of
fathers in the church, in relation to posterity, who transmit to
posterity the truth of God contained in Scripture, such as here is set down in
this Psalm: and this is the only infallible sort of tradition, which delivereth
to posterity what God delivered to the prophets or their predecessors by
Scripture, such as is the doctrine delivered in this Psalm. David
Dickson.
Verse 4.We will not hide from their children, etc. Thou
must not only praise God thyself, but endeavour to transmit the memorial of his
goodness to posterity. Children are their parent's heirs; it were unnatural for
a father, before he dies, to bury up his treasure in the earth where his
children should not find or enjoy it; now the mercies of God are not the least
part of a good man's treasure, nor the least of his children's inheritance,
being both helps to their faith, matter for their praise, and spurs to their
obedience. "Our fathers have told us what works thou didst in their days, how
thou didst drive out the heathen" etc., Ps 44:1-2; from this they ground their
confidence, Ps 44:4, "Thou art my King, O God; command deliverances for Jacob, "
and excite their thankfulness, Ps 44:8, "In God we boast all the day long, and
praise thy name for ever." Indeed, as children are their parents heirs, so they
become in justice liable to pay their parents' debts: now the great debt which
the saint at death stands charged with, is that which he owes to God for his
mercies, and, therefore, it is but reason he should tie his posterity to the
payment thereof. Thus mayest thou be praising God in heaven and earth at the
same time. William Gurnall.
Verses 4-6. The cloth that is dyed in the wool will keep
colour best. Disciples in youth will prove angels in age. Use and experience
strengthen and confirm in any art or science. The longer thy child hath been
brought up in Christ's school, the more able he will be to find out Satan's
wiles and fallacies, and to avoid them. The longer he hath been at the trade the
more skill and delight will he have in worshipping and enjoying the blessed God.
The tree when it is old stands strongly against the wind, just as it was set
when it was young. The children of Merindal so answered one another in the matters
of religion, before the persecuting Bishop of Cavailon, that a bystander said
unto the bishop, I must needs confess I have often been at the disputations of
the doctors in the Sorbonne, but I never learned so much as by these children.
Seven children at one time suffered martyrdom with Symphrosia, a godly matron,
their mother. Such a blessing doth often accompany religious breeding; therefore
Julian the apostate, to hinder the growth and increase of Christianity, would
not suffer children to be taught either human or divine learning.
Philip was glad that Alexander was born whilst Aristotle lived,
that he might be instructed by Aristotle in philosophy. It is no mean mercy that
thy children are born in the days of the gospel, and in a valley of vision, a
land of light, where they may be instructed in Christianity. Oh, do not fail,
therefore, to acquaint thy children with the nature of God, the natures and
offices of Christ, their own natural sinfulness and misery, the way and means of
their recovery, the end and errand for which they were sent into the world, the
necessity of regeneration and a holy life, if ever they would escape eternal
death! Alas! how is it possible they should ever arrive at heaven if they know
not the way thither? The inhabitants of Mitylene, sometime the lords of the seas, if
any of their neighbours revolted, did inflict this punishment, -- they forbade
them to instruct their children, esteeming this a sufficient revenge.
--(Aelian.) Reader, if thou art careless of this duty, I would ask thee
what wrong thy children have done thee that thou shouldest revenge thyself by
denying them that which is their due. I mean pious instruction. The Jewish rabbis speak of a very strict custom and method for
the instruction of their children, according to their age and capacity. At five
years old they were filii legis, sons of the law, to read it. At thirteen
they were filli praecepti, sons of the precept, to understand the law. At
fifteen they were Talmudistae, and went to deeper points of the law, even
to Talmudic doubts. As thy children grow up, so do thou go on to instruct them
in God's will. They are "born like the wild ass's colt, "Job 11:12 --that is,
unruly, foolish, and ignorant. We often call a fool an ass, but here it is a
"wild ass's colt, "which is most rude, unruly, and foolish. How, then, shall thy
ignorant children come to know God or themselves without instruction?
Thy duty is to acquaint thy children with the works of God.
Teach them his doings as well as his sayings. "Take heed to thyself, lest thou
forget the things which thine eyes have seen: but teach them thy sons, and thy
sons' sons, "De 4:9. God's wonders should be had in everlasting remembrance. "He
hath made his wonderful works to be remembered, "Ps 109:4. Now, one special way
to do this is by writing them in our children's memories, hereby they are
transmitted to posterity. This was the godly practice of the patriarchs, to
instruct their children concerning the creation of the world, transgression of
man, destruction of the old world, God's providence, the Messiah to be revealed,
and the like. The parents' mouths were large books, in which their children did
read the noble acts of the Lord. The precept is here urged (Ps 78:2-7) upon a
double ground, partly for God's praise, in the perpetuity of his worthy
deeds: his words are of great weight, and therefore, as curious pictures or
precious jewels, must in memory of him be bequeathed from father to son whilst
the world continueth. If they are written on paper or parchment they may perish
(and is it not a thousand pities that such excellent records should be lost?);
but if they be written by fathers successfully on their children's hearts, no
time shall blot or wear them out, Ex 12:26-27. Therefore, as the rabbis observe,
the night before the passover the Jews (to keep God's mercies in memory to his
honour) were wont to confer with their children on this wise. The child said,
Why is it called the passover? The father said, Because the angel passed over us
when it slew the Egyptians, and destroyed us not. The child said, Why do we eat
unleavened bread? The father answered, Because we were forced to hasten out of
Egypt. The child said, Why do we eat bitter herbs? The father answered, To mind
us of our afflictions in Egypt.
But the duty is also urged, partly for their own profit,
Ps 78:7, That they might set their hope in God, etc. Acquaintance
with God's favour will encourage their faith; knowledge of his power will help
them to believe his promise. Reader, obedience to this precept may tend much to
thy own and thy children's profit. By teaching thy children God's actions, thou
wilt fix them the faster, and they will make the greater impression, upon thy
own spirit. A frequent mention of things is the best art of memory: what the
mouth preacheth often the mind will ponder much. Besides, it may work for thy
children's weal; the more they be acquainted with the goodness, wisdom, power,
and faithfulness of God which appear in his works, the more they will fear,
love, and trust him. George Swinnock.
Verses 5-6. Five generations appear to be mentioned:
1. Fathers; 2. Their children; 3. The generation to come; 4. And their children; 5. And their children. --Adam Clarke.
Verse 6. Children should earnestly hearken to the
instruction of their parents that they themselves may afterwards be able to tell
the same to their sons, and so a golden chain be formed, wherewith being bound
together, the whole family may seek the skies. Whilst the father draws the son,
the son the grandson, the grandson his children to Christ, as the magnet of them
all, that they all may be made one. Thomas Le Blanc.
Verse 7.Set their hope in God. Their hope was to be set not
in the law which punishes, but in grace freely given which redeems; therefore is
it added and not forget the works of God.Johannes De
Turrecremata. 1476.
Verse 8.And might not be as their fathers. The warning is
taken from an example at home. He does not say, That they might not be as the
nations, which know not God: but, That they might not be as theirfathers. Domestic examples of vice are much more pernicious than foreign
ones. Hence one says: Sic natura jubet, velocius et citiusnos
corrumpunt vitiorum exempla domestica. Let us learn from this place, that it
is not safe in all things to cleave to the footsteps of our fathers. He speaks
of those fathers who perished in the wilderness: of whom, see Numbers 14;
Deuteronomy 1, and Ps 68:6. Musculus.
Verse 8.As their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious
generation. Forasmuch as this bad emulation of their ancestors is with
difficulty plucked from the minds of men, because of our innate reverence for
our fathers, the prophet heaps up words in the description of the crimes of
their fathers. He says they were hrm rwd,
that is, a generation detracting from the authority of God, and continually
breaking the bonds of the law, and in their petulance shaking off the yoke, as a
violent and refractory horse, or an untamed bullock, enduring not the rein, or
refusing to yield its neck to the yoke, but constantly drawing back and
rejecting the bridle. Mollerus.
Verses 8-9. Look carefully to the ground of thy active
obedience, that it be sound and sincere. The same right principles whereby the
sincere soul acts for Christ, will carry him to suffer for Christ, when a call
from God comes with such an errand. "The children of Ephraim, being armed, and
carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle." Why? what is the matter? so
well armed, and yet so cowardly? This seems strange: read the preceding verse
and you will cease wondering; they are called there, A generation that set
nottheir heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.
Let the armour be what it will, yea, if soldiers were in a castle, whose
foundations were rock, and walls brass; yet if their hearts be not right to
their prince, an easy storm will drive them from the walls, and a little scare
open their gate, which hath not this bolt of sincerity on it to hold it fast. In
our late wars we have seen that the honest hearts within thin and weak works
have held the town, when no walls could defend treachery from betraying trust.
William Gurnall.
Verse 9.The children of Ephraim, being armed, etc. "When ye
had girded on every man is weapons of war, ye were ready to go up into the hill.
And the Lord said unto me, Say unto them, Go not up, neither fight; for I am not
among you; lest ye be smitten before your enemies. So I spake unto you; and ye
would not hear, but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord, and went
presumptuously up into the hill. And the Amorites, which dwelt in that mountain,
came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir,
even unto Hormah." De 1:41-44.
Verse 9. Many person suppose the passage to refer to the
event recorded in 1Ch 7:21-22, where are mentioned the sons of Ephraim, "whom
the men of Gath that were born in the land slew, because they came down to take
away their cattle. And Ephraim their father mourned many days, and his brethren
came to comfort him." The manner of the relation shows that the slaughter must
have been great; and this flight and defeat, and their not acknowledging their
dependence upon God, it is supposed the psalmist has in view in this place. But
the objection to this interpretation is, that the event referred to in the book
of Chronicles, evidently occurred at a time anterior to that of the Israelitish
exodus from Egypt; whilst Ps 78:11 speaks of these same Ephraimites being
forgetful of God's doings and wonderful works which he did at the time of their
exit from Egypt. It is, therefore, more probable that Myrka ygk may designate the Israelitish people generally, which
Mendelssohn thinks to be the case. He observes that "the meaning of the noun
Ephraim was that of a general term for Israel before the reigning of the house
of David, because that Joshua the son of Nun, the first judge, was of this
tribe; also because the territory assigned to this tribe was in the region of
Shiloh: and it is possible that because of the reputation of this tribe in those
days, all those who were in high esteem were also called Ephraimites." He might
have added another and stronger reason than any of the preceding for this
application of the term to Israel, and it is, that Jeroboam, who may be regarded
as the founder of the Israelitish monarchy, is said, in 1Ki 11:26, to have been
a descendant of Ephraim. The war alluded to may have been one of those which
were waged between the ten tribes and the people of Judah. George
Phillips.
Verse 10.Walk in his law. Note, we must walk in the law of
God, this is that narrow and sacred way which Christ traces before us. At Athens
there was iera odov, the sacred way, by
which, as Harpocratio relates, the priests of the mysteries travelled to Elusin.
At Rome also there was a way which was called Via Sacra. To us also there
is a way to the skies, consecrated by the footsteps of the saints. It behooves
us therefore not to loiter, but to be ever on the march. Thomas Le Blanc.
Verse 12.Zoan. The name of a city in Egypt (Nu 13:22),
though it be not set down in the story in Exodus, is twice specified by the
writer of this psalm, here, and Ps 78:43, as the scene wherein the wondrous
works were wrought on Pharaoh by Moses; either because really the first and
principal of the miracles were shewed Pharaoh there, this city being the seat of
the king, and a most ancient city, as appears by the expression used of Hebron,
in Nu 13:22, where to set out the antiquity of that city, where Abraham, the
tenth from Noah dwelt, it is said, that "it was built seven years before Zoan in
Egypt; "or perhaps only in poetical style, as "the field" or country of Zoan, is
all one with the "land of Egypt" foregoing. Thus, in other prophetic writings,
when judgments are threatened, instead of "Egypt" sometimes we find "Zoan"
alone, Isa 19:11, where the "princes of Zoan" are all one with the counsellors
of Pharaoh; sometimes "the princes of Zoan, "with the addition of some other
city, as Isa 19:13, "the princes of Zoan, the princes of Noph, "i.e.,
again, the counsellors of that kingdom, which as it follows, "have seduced
Egypt, "--brought the whole nation to ruin. So Isa 30:4, where they sent to
Egypt for relief, it is said, their "princes were at Zoan, their ambassadors at
Hanes." Henry Hammond.
Verse 12.In the field of Zoan. We see in this passage that
it was not without reason that God most powerfully displayed his wondrous works,
his virtue and his glory in the more famous cities: not that he despised the
humbler and obscure, but that he might more conveniently in this way scatter
abroad the knowledge and renown of his name. For this cause he desired Moses to
perform his miracles in the royal city, and in its field; for the same
reason he afterwards fixed his dwelling place in the most famous city of Canaan,
in which he decreed also that Christ his Son should be crucified and the
foundation of his heavenly kingdom laid. Musculus.
Verse 13.He made the waters to stand as an heap. The
original word imports, those great heaps which are made use of as dykes or banks
to restrain the waters. But the Jews have not only understood these expressions
literally, but have likewise taken upon them to add particular circumstances, as
if the history had been so concise, that it wanted to be supplied therewith.
They say, that the sea had formed, as it were, twelve roads or causeways,
according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites. James Saurin.
Verse 13.He made the waters to stand as an heap. God did
not wish altogether to take the sea from the gaze of the Hebrews, but to
interrupt and divide it, that like a wall it might stand firm on either side of
the way. This was done, first, that the miracle might be evident, for in that
sea there is no tidal rise or fall of the waters. Secondly, that the people
might have greater joy at the sight of so great a miracle. Thirdly, that in
their whole passage they might depend more upon the providence of God, who, in a
single moment, could allow the sea to return to its bed and drown all of them.
It is God's will than we should flee to him the more ardently as the aspect of
present danger. Fourthly and lastly, that the people might pass over the more
rapidly, since they knew not how long God wished the miracle to last. Thomas
Le Blanc.
Verse 14. That there was a mystery in this pillar of
cloud andfire is clear from Isa 4:5-6, for there never was a
literal cloud and fire upon Mount Zion. This fiery pillar did cease when
they were entered into Canaan; Isaiah therefore intends a spiritual thing
under those expressions. So it is represented by the Apostle as representing a
gospel mystery: 1Co 10:2. It signified and shadowed forth, 1. Something of
Christ himself; 2. The benefits of Christ; 3. The
ordinances of Christ.
1. Christ himself. Some have noted a shadow both of his
Deity and humanity. There was a fierybrightness in
the clouds, which yet was but a dark shadow of the glory of his Deity, which was
often in vision so represented; but his divine nature was veiled and over
clouded by his human, as in this shadow there was a pillar of cloud as
well as fire. In Re 10:1 Christ is represented as clothed with acloud, and his feet as pillars of fire; expressions notably answering
this ancient type and shadow.
2. It holds forth something of the benefits of Christ.
What benefits had they from this pillar of fire and cloud? They had three: (1)
Light and direction. (2) Defence and protection. (3) Ornament and glory. All
which we have in a higher manner in Christ by the gospel.
3. It figured also the ordinances, and his presence in
and with them; for the ordinances are the outward and visible tokens of God's
presence with his people, as this fiery pillar was of old. And, therefore, when
the Tabernacle was made and set up, it rested upon theTabernacle,
Ex 40:38. There be some duties are secret, which the world sees not, nor may
see; as alms deeds and personal and secret prayer. But the ordinances of
institution are things that ought to be practised with all the publickness that
may be: they are outward and visible tokens of God's presence, particularly that
great ordinance of baptism, as in 1Co 10:2. The cloud, it seems, had a
refreshing moisture in it, to shade, refresh, and cool them from the burning
heat; and they were bedewed (Rather "baptised" in it, as Paul puts it in
1Co 10:2) with it, as we are with the water of baptism; whereby this legal cloud
became a type of gospel baptism. And so you see how it represented something of
Christ himself, and something of his benefits, and something of
all his ordinances under the New Testament. --Samuel Mather.
Verse 14.All the night. We need not dwell long upon the
thought of what this all was to the Israelites. In night marchings,
and night restings, it was very precious; whether they were in motion or at
rest, it was alike needed, alike good. This light of fire, unless continuous,
would have been of comparatively little worth. Were it suddenly extinguished as
they marched, all Israel would have been plunged into confusion and dismay; the
quenching of the light would have changed into a disordered rabble, the
marshalled host. Philip Bennett Power, in "Breviates: or Short Texts and
TheirTeachings."
Verse 15.The rocks. They were typical of Christ, 1Co 10:4;
who is frequently compared to one for height, strength, and duration, shade,
shelter, and protection; and is called the "Rock of Israel, " the "Rock of
offence to both houses of Israel, "the "Rock of salvation, "the "Rock of refuge,
"the "Rock of strength, "the "Rock that is higher than, "the saints, and on
which the church is built, and who is "the shadow of a great rock in a weary
land." John Gill.
Verse 15.Gave them drink as out of the great depths. As if
he had formed a lake or an ocean, furnishing an inexhaustible supply. Albert
Barnes.
Verse 16.He brought streams also out of the rock, etc.
"Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." The second murmuring for water
at Kadesh seems to have been a more aggravated act of rebellion than the former,
and yet the water is given in greater abundance. Oh, the freeness of the
sovereign grace of God! W. Wilson.
Verse 17.And they sinned yet more against him. He does not
say that they sinned only, but that they sinned against God. And they sinned yet more against him,
namely, God.
Against what God? Against him who had delivered them by great and unheard of
wonders out of Egypt, who had led them as free men across the Red Sea with a dry
foot, who had continued to lead and to protect them will pillars of cloud and
fire by day and night, and had given them to drink abundantly of water drawn
from the arid rock. Against this God they had added sin to sin. Simply to sin is
human, and happens to the saints even after they have received grace: but to sin
against God argues a singular degree of impiety. To sin against God is to injure
and dishonour him in things immediately pertaining to himself. So they sinned
against God, because after so many distinguished proofs and testimonies of his
care made manifest to them, they continued to think and speak evil against him.
All sins indeed, of whatever class they may be, are done against God, because
they are opposed to his will; but those which are committed peculiarly against
God, are certainly greater than others. Such are those wrought against his name,
goodness, providence, power, truth, and worship, and against those things which
specially concern him, whatever they may be. So we read of the sins of the sons
of Eli, 1Sa 2:24-25: "It is no good report that I hear: ye make the Lord's
people to transgress. If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him;
but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall intreat for him?" Musculus.
Verse 17.They sinned yet more. Their sin was not murmuring
only, sinful as that is, but uncontrolled desire. And for what was that
desire? It was for meat. They had grown so weary of the bread of heaven which
God so mercifully provided; and they wanted something in addition--something,
too, which was not absolutely necessary to their existence. When they murmured
for water at Massah, they murmured for something needful. Their sin
then was in murmuring, instead of praying. But here they
lusted for something unnecessary, and this was an aggravation of their
sin. And thus the psalmist, evidently comparing this sin with the murmuring at
Massah, says, "They sinned yet more against him." George Wagner, in
"The Wanderings of the Children of Israel."
Verse 18.They tempted God. We know that, although "God
cannot be tempted with evil, "he may justly be said to be tempted, whensoever
men, by being dissatisfied with his dealings, virtually ask that he will alter
those dealings, and proceed in a way more congenial with their feelings. If you
reflect a little, you can hardly fail to perceive, that in a very strict sense,
this and the like may be said to be a tempting of God. Suppose a man to be
discontented with the appointments of Providence; suppose him to murmur and
repine at what the Almighty allots him to do or to bear: is he not to be charged
with provoking God to change his purpose? and what is this if it be not
"tempting" God--a striving to induce him to swerve from his plans, though every
one of those plans has been settled by infinite wisdom? Or, again, if any one of
us, notwithstanding multiplied proofs of the Divine lovingkindness, doubt or
question whether God do indeed love him; of what is he guilty, if not of
tempting the Lord, seeing that he solicits God to give additional evidence, as
though there were deficiency, and challenges him to fresh demonstrations of what
he has already abundantly displayed? This would be called tempting
amongst men. If a child were to show by his actions that he doubted or
disbelieved the affection of his parents, he would be considered as thereby
striving to extort from them fresh proofs of that affection, though they had
already done as much as either in justice or in wisdom they ought to have done;
this would be a clear tempting of them, and that too in the ordinary sense of
the term. In short, unbelief of every kind and degree may be said to be a
tempting of God; for not to believe on the evidence which he has seen fit to
give, is to tempt him to give more than he has already given--offering our
possible assent, if proof were increased, as an inducement to him to go beyond
what his wisdom has prescribed... You cannot distrust God, and not accuse him of
a want either of power or of goodness; you cannot repine --no, not even in
thought--without virtually telling him that his plans are not the best, nor his
dispensations the wisest, which might have been appointed in respect of
yourselves. So that your fear, or your despondency, or your anxiety in
circumstances of perplexity, or of peril, is nothing less than a call upon God
to depart from his fixed course, --a suspicion, or rather an assertion, that he
might proceed in a manner more worthy of himself, and therefore a challenge to
him to alter his dealings, if he would prove that he possesses the attributes
which he claims. You may not intend thus to accuse, or provoke God, whenever you
murmur; but your murmuring does all this, and cannot fail to do it. You cannot
be dissatisfied, without virtually saying that God might order things better;
you cannot say that he might order things better, without virtually demanding
that he change his course of acting, and give other proofs of his infinite
perfections. And thus you tempt him, tempt him even as did the Israelites
in the wilderness. Henry Melvill.
Verse 18.Asking meat for their lusts. God had given them
meat for their hunger in the manna, wholesome, pleasant food, and in abundance;
he had given them meat for their faith, out of the heads of Leviathan which he
brake in pieces, Ps 74:14. But all this would not serve, they must have meat
for their lust; dainties and varieties to gratify a luxurious appetite.
Nothing is more provoking to God, than our quarrelling with our allotment, and
indulging the desires of the flesh. Matthew Henry.
Verse 19. It is particularly to be observed, that the sin of
which the children of Israel were on this occasion guilty, was not in wishing
for bread and water, but in thinking for one moment, that after the Lord had
brought them out of Egypt, he would suffer them, for the lack of any needful
thing, to come short of Canaan. It was no sin to be hungry and thirsty; it was a
necessity of their nature. There is nothing living that does not desire and
require food: when we do not we are dead, and that they did so was no sin. Their
sin was to doubt either that God could or would support them in thewilderness, or allow those who followed his leading to lack any goodthing. This was their sin. It is just the same with the Christian now.
These Israelites did not more literally require a supply of daily food for their
bodies, than does the Christian for his soul. Not to do so is a sign of death,
and the living soul would soon die without it. And so far from its being a sin,
our Lord has pronounced that man blessed who hungers and thirsts after
righteousness, adding the most precious promise, that all such shall be
satisfied. But it is a sin, and a very great sin, should this food not be
perceptibly, and to the evidence of our senses, immediately supplied, to murmur
and be fearful. It was for the trial of their faith that these things
happened to the Israelites, as do the trials of all Christians in all ages: and
it is "after we have suffered a while" that we may expect to be established,
strengthened, settled. Brownlow North, in "Ourselves. A Picture sketched from
the Historyof the Children of Israel." (1865.)
Verses 19-20. After all their experience, they doubted the
divine omnipotence, as if it were to be regarded as nothing, when it refused to
gratify their lusts. Unbelief is so deeply rooted in the human heart, that when
God performs miracles on earth, unbelief doubts whether he can perform
them in heaven, and when he does them in heaven, whether he can do
them on earth?Augustus F. Tholuck.
Verse 20.Can he give bread also? They should have said,
"Will he serve our lusts?" but that they were ashamed to say. John Trapp.
Verse 20. Who will say that a man is thankful to his friend
for a past kindness, if he nourishes an ill opinion of him for the future? This
was all that ungrateful Israel returned to God, for his miraculous broaching of
the rock to quench their thirst: Behold, hesmote the rock, --Can he
give bread also? This, indeed, was their trade all the time they were in the
wilderness. Wherefore, God gives them their character, not by what they seemed
to be while his mercies were before them; then they could say, "God was their
rock, and the High God their Redeemer; "but by their temper and carriage in
straits; when the cloth was drawn, and the feast taken out of their sight, what
opinion then had they of God? Could they satisfy his name so far as to trust him
for their dinner tomorrow who had feasted them yesterday? Truly no, as soon as
they feel their hunger return, like froward children, they are crying, as if God
meant to starve them. Wherefore God rejects their praises, and owns not their
hypocritical acknowledgments, but sets their ingratitude upon record; they
forgot his works, and waited not for his counsel. O how sad is this, that after
God had entertained a soul at his table with choice mercies and deliverances,
these should be so ill husbanded, that not a bit of them should be left to give
faith a meal, to keep the heart from fainting, when God comes not so fast to
deliver as desired. He is the most thankful man that treasures up the mercies of
God in his memory, and can feed his faith with what God hath done for him, so as
to walk in the strength thereof in present straits. William Gurnall.
Verse 23.Opened the doors of heaven. There is an allusion
here to the flood, as in Ps 78:15. A. R. Fausset.
Verse 23.Opened the doors of heaven. God, who has the key
of the clouds, opened the doors of heaven, that is more than
openingthe windows, which yet is spoken of as a great blessing,
Mal 3:19. Matthew Henry.
Verse 23.Opened the doors of heaven. This is a metaphor
taken from a granary, from which corn is brought; and by opening thedoors is signified, that the manna fell very plentifully. Compare Ge
7:11. Thomas Fenton.
Verse 24-25. Manna. The prophet celebrates this miracle,
first, because of the unusual place whence the manna was sent. For he did
not produce fruits from the earth wherewith to feed them, but rained down this
food from the clouds, and from the depths of the skies. Secondly, because
of the facility of the distribution. By the command of God alone, without any
labour of men, yea, while they slept, this food was prepared. Therefore is it
said, He gave, etc. Thirdly, he celebrates its great abundance
which sufficed to supply so great a multitude. Fourthly, the excellence
of the food. He calls it the food of the excellent or the strong, such as was
not pleasant merely to the common multitude, but to the princes also, and to the
heroes, for it was the food of the mighty ones.Mollerus.
Verse 25.Man. Rather, as Ex 16:6, every man. Not one
of them was left without it. A. R. Fausset.
Verse 25.Man did eat angel's food. It is called angel's
food, not because the angels do daily feed upon it, but because it was both
made and ministered by the ministry of angels, and that phrase sets forth the
excellency of it. Christopher Ness (1621-1705), in "The Sacred History and
Mystery ofthe Old Testament."
Verse 25.Angels food. Mann is called the bread of
angels because it was brought down by their ministry; and it was so pleasant
in taste, that if the angels had eaten bread, it might have served them. John
Weemse.
Verse 25.Angel's food. So their manna was called, either,
1. Because it was provided and sent by the ministry of angels;
or,
2. Because it seemed to come down from heaven, the dwelling
place of the angels; or,
3. To set forth the excellency of this bread, that it was meat,
as one would say, fit for angels, if angels needed meat.
And so, indeed, the exceeding glory of Stephen's countenance is
set forth by this, that they "saw his face as it had been the face of an angel,
"Ac 6:15; and Paul calls an excellent tongue, "the tongue of angels, "1Co 13:1.
Arthur Jackson.
Verse 25. The more excellent the benefit is which God
giveth, the greater is the ingratitude of him who doth not esteem of it and make
use of it as becometh; as we see in Israel's sin, who did not esteem of manna as
they should have done. Had the Lord fed them with dust of earth, or roots of
grass, or any other mean thing, they should have had no reason to complain: but
when he giveth them a new food, created every morning for their sakes, sent down
from heaven as fresh furniture every day, of such excellent colour, taste, smell
and wholesomeness; what a provocation of God was it, not to be content now; in
special, when he gave them abundantly of it? He sent themmeat to the
full.David Dickson.
Verse 26.He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by
hispower he brought in the south wind. Here, on examining the
geographical position of the Israelites, we see exactly how the south east wind
would bring the quails. The Israelites had just passed by the Red Sea,
and had began to experience a foretaste of the privations which they were to
expect in the desert, through which they had to pass. Passing northwards in
their usual migrations, the birds would come to the coast of the Red Sea, and
there would wait until a favourable wind enabled them to cross the water. The
south east wind afforded them just the very assistance which they needed, and
they would naturally take advantage of it. J. G. Wood, in "Bible
Animals." 1869.
Verse 27.As dust. The amazing clouds of fine dust or sand,
which a violent wind raises in the deserts of the East, constitute the point of
comparison. William Keatinge Clay.
Verse 27.Feathered fowls. Hebrew, "fowl of wing; "i.e.,
flying fowls, in distinction from domestic poultry. Williams, in Notes to
Calvin in loc.
Verse 27, 31. If the cemetery on Sarbut el Khadem be, what
all the antecedent evidences combine to indicate, the workmanship of the
Israelites, (a chief burial ground of their fatal encampment at Kibroth
Hattaayah), it may most reasonably be expected that its monuments shall contain
symbolic representations of the miracle of the "feathered fowls, "and of the
awful plague which followed it. Now Niebuhr happily enables us to meet this just
expectation, by his copies of the hieroglyphics on three of those tombstones,
published in the 45th and 46th plates of his first volume, and prefaced plate
44, by a plan of the cemetery itself, which is of more value than any or
all subsequent descriptions. It was discovered by the present writer (as stated
in a former work), ("The Voice of Israel") on the evidence of no less than four
Sinaitic inscriptions, that the birds of the miracle, named by Moses,
generically, wlv, salu, and by the
psalmist, still more generally, Pgk Pwe,
winged fowls, or more correctly, "long winged fowls, "were not (as
rendered by all our versions, ancient and modern) quails, but a crane
like red bird resembling a goose, named in the Arabic nuham. The
discovery received subsequently a singular and signal corroboration from the
further discovery, by Dean Stanley, and previously by Schubert, of immense
flocks of these very nuhams on the reputed scene of the miracle at Kibroth
Hattaavah. With these antecedents in his mind, the reader will now turn to the
three monuments copied by Niebuhr in the cemetery of Sarbut el Khadem. He will
at once see that a crane like bird resembling a goose, with slender body and
long legs, is the leading hieroglyphic symbol in all three tablets. No fewer
than twenty-five of these symbolic birds occur in the first, ten in the second,
and fifteen in the third tablet. The goose appears occasionally, but the
principal specimens have the air of the goose, but the form of the crane. In a
word, they are the very species of birds seen by Dean Stanley, both at this
point of Sinai, and at the first cataract of the Nile; and which constantly
occur also in Egyptian monuments: as though the very food of Egypt, after which
the Israelites lusted, was sent to be at once their prey and their plague. "And
the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of
the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by theflesh pots." Ex
16:3. The reader has here before him the irrefragable fact that the very birds
which by every kind of evidence stand identified with the salus, or long
legged and long winged fowls of the miracle, are the very birds depicted on the
tombstones of Sarbut el Khadem, both standing, flying, and apparently even
trussed and cooked... The inevitable inference is... that these tombstones
record the miracle of the "feathered fowls, "and stand over the graves of the
gluttons who consumed them. Charles Forster, in "Israel in the
Wilderness." 1865. Mr. Forster thus deciphers by his alphabet some of the
mixed legends and devices: --
"From the sea the cranes congregate to one spot;
The archers shoot at the cranes passing over the plain.
Evil stomached they rush after the p
