Part 4 (2/2)
_A man must live_? The valiant Tyrolese of old did not say that (more than seventy years ago), when they fought to the last drop of their blood to defend their country against the French invaders. They were not afraid to die for liberty; and therefore they won honour from all honourable men, praise from all whose praise is worth having for ever.
_A man must live_? The old Greeks and Romans, heathens though they were, were above so mean a speech as that. They used to say, it was the n.o.blest thing that can befall a man to die--not to live in clover, eating and drinking at his ease--to die among the foremost, fighting for wife and child and home.
_A man must live_? The martyrs of old did not say that, when they endured the prison and the scourge, the sword and the fire, and chose rather to die in torments unspeakable than deny the Lord Jesus who bought them with His blood, rather than do what they knew to be _wrong_.
(Hebrews xi.) They were not afraid of torture and death; but of doing wrong they were unspeakably afraid. They were _free_, those holy men of old, truly free--free from their own love of ease and cowardice and selfishness, and all that drags a man down and makes a slave of him. They knew that ”life is more than meat, and the body more than raiment.” What matter if a man gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Their souls were free whatever happened to their bodies--the tormentor could not touch _them_, because they believed in G.o.d, because they did not fear those who could kill the body, and after that had no more that they could do.
And do you not see that a coward can never be free, never be G.o.dly, never be like Christ? For by a coward I mean not merely a man who is afraid of pain and trouble. Every one is that more or less. Jesus Himself was afraid when He cried in agony, ”Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” (Luke xxii.
42.) But a coward is a man who is so much afraid that to escape pain and danger, he will do what he _ought not_--do what he is ashamed of doing--do what lowers him; and therefore our Lord Jesus had perfect courage when He tasted death for all men, and endured the very agony from which He shrank, and while He said, ”Father, if it be possible, let this cup pa.s.s,” said also, ”Nevertheless not my will, but Thine, be done.”
The Jews were cowards when they cried, ”Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians.” While a man is in that pitiful mood he cannot rise, he cannot serve G.o.d--for he must remain the slave of his own body, of which he is so mightily careful, the slave of his own fears, the slave of his own love of bodily comfort. Such a man does not _dare_ serve G.o.d. He dare not obey G.o.d, when obeying G.o.d is dangerous and unpleasant. He dare not claim his heavenly birthright, his share in G.o.d's Spirit, his share in Christ's kingdom, because that would bring discomfort on him, because he will have to give up the sins he loves, because he will have to endure the insults and ill-will of wicked men. Thus cowards can never be free, for it is only where the Spirit of G.o.d is that there is liberty.
But the Jews were not yet fit to be made soldiers of. G.o.d would not teach them at once not to be afraid of men. He did not command them to turn again and fight these Egyptians, neither did He lead them into the land of Canaan the strait and short road, through the country of the Philistines, lest they should be discouraged when they saw war.
Now what was G.o.d's plan for raising the Jews out of this cowardly, slavish state? First, and above all, to make them trust in _Him_. While they were fearing the Egyptians, they could never fear Him. While they were fearing the Egyptians, they were ready to do every base thing, to keep their masters in good humour with them. G.o.d determined to teach them to fear Him more than they feared the Egyptians. G.o.d taught them that He was stronger than the Egyptians, for all their civilisation and learning and armies, chariots and hors.e.m.e.n, swords and spears. He would not let the Jews fight the Egyptians. He told them by the mouth of Moses, ”Stand you still, and the Lord shall fight for you,” and he commanded Moses to stretch out his rod over the sea. (Exodus xiv.) The Egyptians were stronger than the Jews--they would have cut them to pieces if they had come to a battle. For free civilised men like the Egyptians are always stronger than slaves, like the Jews; they respect themselves more, they hold together better, they have order and discipline, and obedience to their generals, which slaves have not. G.o.d intended to teach the Jews that also in His good time. But not yet. They were not fit yet to be made soldiers. They were not even _men_ yet, but miserable slaves. A man is only a true man when he trusts in G.o.d, and none but G.o.d--when he fears G.o.d and nothing _but_ G.o.d. And that was the lesson which G.o.d had to teach them. That was the lesson which He taught them by bringing them up out of Egypt by signs and wonders, that _G.o.d was the Lord_, _G.o.d_ was their deliverer, _G.o.d_ was their King--that let _them_ be as weak as they might, _He_ was strong--that if they could not fight the Egyptians G.o.d could overwhelm them--that if they could not cross the sea, G.o.d could open the sea to let them pa.s.s through. If they dreaded the waste howling wilderness of sand, with its pillars of cloud and fire, its stifling winds which burn the life out of man and beast, G.o.d could make the sand storms and the fire pillars and the deadly east wind of the desert work for their deliverance. And so He taught them to fear Himself, to trust in Him, to look up to Him as their deliverer whose strength was shown most gloriously when they were weakest and most despairing.
This was the great lesson which G.o.d meant to teach the children of Israel, that the root and ground of all other lessons, is that this earth belongs to the Lord alone. That had been what G.o.d had been teaching them already, by the plagues of Egypt. The Egyptians wors.h.i.+pped their great river Nile, and thought it was a G.o.d, and the Lord turned the Nile water into blood, and showed that He could do what He liked with it. The Egyptians wors.h.i.+pped dumb beasts and insects, and fancied in their folly that they were G.o.ds. The Lord sent plagues of frogs and flies and locusts, and took them away again when He liked, to show them that the beasts and creeping things were His also.
The Egyptians wors.h.i.+pped false G.o.ds who as they fancied managed the seasons and the weather. G.o.d sent them thunder and hail when it pleased Him, and showed the Jews that _He_, not these false G.o.ds of Egypt, ruled the heavens. The Egyptians and many other heathen nations of the earth used to offer their children to false G.o.ds. I do not mean by killing them in sacrifice, but by naming them after some idol, and then expecting that the idol would ever afterwards prosper and strengthen them. Thus the kings were called after the sun. Pharaoh means the Sun-king; for they fancied that the sun was a G.o.d, and protected their kings one after the other. And G.o.d slew all the first-born of Egypt, even the first-born of King Pharaoh on his throne. The Sun-G.o.d could not help him. The idols of Egypt could not take care of their wors.h.i.+ppers--only the children of the Jews escaped. (Exodus xii.) What a lesson for the Jews!
And they needed it; for during the four hundred years that they had been in Egypt they had almost forgotten the one true G.o.d, the G.o.d of their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; at least they thought Him no better than the false G.o.ds of Egypt. After all these wondrous proofs of G.o.d's almighty power, and His jealousy for His own name, they fell away to idols again and again. They wors.h.i.+pped a golden calf in h.o.r.eb (Exodus x.x.xii.); they turned aside to wors.h.i.+p the idols of the nations whom they pa.s.sed through on their way to Canaan. Idolatry had been rooted in their hearts, and it took many years of severe training and teaching on G.o.d's part to drive it out of them--to make them feel that the one G.o.d, who made heaven and earth, had delivered them--that they belonged to Him, that they had a share in Him--to make them join with one heart and voice in the glorious song of Moses:
”I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song and he is become my salvation: he is my G.o.d and I will prepare him an habitation; my father's G.o.d, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is his name. Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea.
The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a stone. Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy. And in the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee: thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble. And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my l.u.s.t shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall deliver them. Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters. Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the G.o.ds? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? Thou stretchedst out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them. Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed: thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. The people shall hear, and be afraid: sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina. Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed; the mighty men of Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till thy people pa.s.s over, O Lord, till the people pa.s.s over, which thou hast purchased. Thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established.
The Lord shall reign for ever and ever. For the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his hors.e.m.e.n into the sea, and the Lord brought again the waters of the sea upon them; but the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea.” (Exodus xv. 1-19.)
This was G.o.d's first lesson to the Jews; the first step towards making them a free nation. For believe me, my friends, the only thought which can make men feel free and strong, the only thought which can keep them from being afraid of each other, afraid of the seasons, and the elements, and the chances and changes of this mortal life, the only thought which can teach them that they are brothers, bound together to help and love each other, in short the only thought which can make men citizens--is the thought that the one G.o.d is their Father, and that they are all His children--that they have one G.o.d, one religion, one baptism, one Lord and Saviour, who has delivered them, and will deliver them again and again from all their sins and miseries; one G.o.d and Father of all, who is in all, and for all, and over all, to whom they all owe equal duty, in whom they all have an equal share.
That lesson G.o.d began to teach the Jews by the Red Sea. That lesson G.o.d has taught our English forefathers again and again; and that lesson He will teach us, their children, as often as we forget it, by signs and wonders, by chastis.e.m.e.nts and by mercies, till we all learn to trust in Him and Him only, and know that there is none other name under heaven by which we can be saved from evil in this life or in the life to come, but the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of G.o.d, the Angel of the Covenant, who led the Jews up out of the land of Egypt.
XI. DANGERS--AND THE LITANY.
”Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men.”--PSALM cvii. 6-8.
This 107th Psalm is a n.o.ble psalm--a psalm which has given comfort to thousands in suffering and in danger, even in the sorrows which they have brought on themselves by their own folly. For it tells them of a Lord who hears them when they cry to Him in their trouble, and who delivers them from their distress.
It was written on a special occasion, as all the most important words of the Bible are written--written seemingly, after some band of Jews struggling across the desert, on their return from the captivity in Babylon, had been in great danger of death. They went astray in the wilderness out of their way, and found no city to rest in; hungry and thirsty their soul fainted in them, so they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. He led them forth by the right way, that they might go to the city where they dwelt. That was the plain fact, on which the psalmist built up this n.o.ble psalm.
In the blazing sandy desert, without water, food, or shade, they had lost their path, and were at their wit's end. And they cried unto the Lord their G.o.d for guidance, for they could not guide themselves. And the Lord answered their prayer and guided them. We do not read that G.o.d worked a miracle for them, or sent an angel to lead them. Simply, somehow or other, they found their way after all, and got safe out of the desert; and they believed that it was G.o.d who enabled them to find their way, and praised the Lord for His goodness; and for His goodness not only to them, but to the children of men--to all men who had the sense to call on Him in trouble, and to put themselves in their right place as men--G.o.d's children, calling for help to their Father in heaven.
Therefore the psalmist goes on to speak of the cases of G.o.d's goodness, which he seems to have seen, or at least heard of. Of wretched prisoners, bound fast in misery and iron, and that through their own fault and folly, who had cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and been delivered by Him from the darkness of the dungeon. Of foolish men who had ruined their health, or at least their prospects in life, by their own sin and folly, till their soul abhorred all manner of meat, and they were hard at death's door. But of them, too, he says, when they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, He delivered them from their distress. He sent His word--what we now foolishly call the laws of Nature, but which the Psalmist knew to be the ever-working power and providence of G.o.d--and healed them, and they were saved from their destruction.
Then he goes on to speak of the dangers of the sea which were especially strange and terrible to him--a Jew. For the Jews were no sailors; and if they went to sea, would go as merchants, or supercargoes in s.h.i.+ps manned by heathens; and the danger was really great. The s.h.i.+ps were clumsy; navigation was ill-understood; the storms of the Mediterranean sea were then as now, sudden and furious; and when one came on, the heathen sailors would, I doubt not, be at their wit's end, their courage melting away because of the trouble, and call on all their G.o.ds and idols to help them; but the men of whom the Psalmist speaks, though they were no seamen, knew on whom to call. It was by the word of the Lord that the stormy wind arose which lifted up the billows. He could quell the storm if He would, and when He would; and to Him they cried and not in vain.
”And He made the storm to cease so that the waves thereof were still.
<script>