Bible Commentaries

The Spirit and Purpose of Divine Providence

Matthew 1:6; Ruth 4:20-21 : and 1 Chronicles 2:11, 1 Chronicles 2:54, 1 Chronicles 2:55. Thus there was Gentile blood in the lineage of the Son of man. These points, apparently incidental and even trivial, are not to be passed by without eager and devout attention. Jesus Christ was not what is commonly known as a Jew only: he was in very deed what he called himself—the Son of man. All the ages seemed to conspire and breathe in him. The city of Jericho was the key of Palestine. It lay about seven miles west of the Jordan and commanded the entrance of the main passes into the land of promise. The city was very old and strongly walled. On the west side it was shut in by craggy and inhospitable mountains; yet even in Jericho there were springs of water, and not far off, toward the river, lay a great grove of palm trees. How to take that city was the military problem of the time. I propose to regard the narrative given in this chapter as illustrating the spirit and purpose of divine Providence. By studying it with this view we may see the continuity of history, which, indeed, is the continuity of human nature, which also in one aspect is the continuity of God, Ancient Jericho is gone,—not a vestige of it remains; why, then, should we turn our telescope in the direction of extinct planets? Why seek a river which no longer flows? Why drop our bucket into a well dried up? These inquiries show how superficial our thinking may be. There is an eternal spirit in history; we should always be in quest of that spirit: it carries with it the whole meaning of God.

From military wisdom we may learn the moral wisdom of always striking first at the right point. Everything turns upon the first stroke in many a controversy and in many an arduous battle. Why are there so many fruitless efforts in life? Simply because the beginning was wrong. Why do men come home at eventide, saying, the day has been wasted? Because their very first step in the morning was in the wrong direction, or the very first word they spoke was the word they ought not to have uttered. Why do ye spend your strength for nought? Why beat with your poor feeble hands at points which never can be taken, which are not the right points at all to begin at? With all thy getting, get understanding of how to begin life, where to strike first, what to do and when to do it, and exactly how much of it to do within given time. If you strike the wrong place you will waste your strength, and the walls of the city will remain unshaken. A blow delivered at the right place and at the right time will have tenfold effect over blows that are struck in the dark and at random: however energetic they may be, and however well-delivered, they fall upon the wrong place, and the result is nothing. That is what is meant by wasted lives. Men have been industrious, painstaking, even anxious in thoughtfulness, and the night has been encroached upon so that the time of rest might be turned into a time of labour; yet all has come to nothing: no city has been taken, no position has been established, no progress has been made. Why? Simply because they did not begin at the right point. In every place in which we may be situated there is one opportunity, and unless that be seized all other occasions will be but empty promises, fruitless and mocking chances. God hath set us thus in very critical positions. We are called upon to keenest vigilance: we are to watch night and day. When the chance may come none can tell with certainty. Watch always: it may come now:—"What I say unto you I say unto all," said Christ, "Watch." It is in vain to tell how we toiled and laboured, and begrudged our sleep, and tried again and again, if we are working at the wrong point, walking in the wrong direction, or failing to seize the divinely-created opportunity. If any man lack wisdom herein, let him ask of God. Great courage may be required in extricating yourself from wrong positions. Great nobleness of mind may be required on the part of a man to say—I have begun at the wrong point: I ought not to have begun here at all; I renounce this effort and begin anew. Blessed be God, every day is a new opportunity to the man whose eyes are in his head, and whose heart has as its determining purpose a desire to obey the will of God.

We cannot deny the marvellous coincidences which occur in life, nor the wonderful opportunities which such coincidences create. As the men went, they "came into an harlot's house, named Rahab, and lodged there." Perhaps the only house they could have got into without exciting suspicion. The woman was in the way: the opportunity was created. We cannot understand how these things should be. We see how history has many a time been in great peril,—yes, the whole substance of what is known as human history has sometimes been within one thread of breaking up altogether. Sometimes that marvellous quantity of life—event, purpose, which we call history, has gone so close to the fire as nearly to be consumed. From great depths God has rescued history; in infinite perils God has appeared to save the race alive. Into these matters none may enter with words; they are to be dealt upon by the spiritual imagination, and they admit of being sanctified by the spiritual reason and faith of man. Who can follow the way of the Almighty, or find out to perfection the counsel of Heaven? Along this same line what victories Christ himself has won; the noblest things he ever said and did were in connection with the lineage of Rahab! The story of the woman taken in adultery will stand above all our stories whilst the sun shall last. The answer made to Simon the Pharisee, when in his cruel heart he destroyed the Messiah-ship of Christ, will convert the world from its despair, when the maxims of moralists and the dreams of reason have been forgotten. "Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee—" then came the proposition about the two creditors, and then the story of forgiveness, and then the benediction upon the heart-broken, weeping woman. How the pulses of Rahab made his blood tingle! We cannot tell who it is in us that speaks now, or then, at this or that particular moment. No one man is one man only. Every man represents the whole line along which he has come. Who knows the inspiration of the tender speeches of Christ in relation to the very class which we have now particularly in view? Who has sounded all the mystery and subtlety of heredity? Now some honest, sturdy old ancestor speaks in us the firm, stern word—an answer like a bolt of iron, by which the approach of the enemy is driven away; now some poor, timid, halting soul that took part in our lineage speaks in us: our words are pithless, our tones are without soul, our life has in it no spark of fire; now arises some demon within us, opening a throat that can swallow rivers and not be cooled;—who can tell who it is that thus assumes the momentary domination of our life? We must not be superficial in our view of these things. One man is many men. Jesus was the Son of Leviticus 21:7; Jeremiah 5:7), this rendering cannot be maintained: and it is a gloss in striking contrast with the simple straightforwardness of the writer of this book of Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25). Rahab had hitherto been, probably, but a common type of heathen morality, but she was faithful to the dawning convictions of a nobler creed, and hence is commended by Christ's Apostles for that which was meritorious in her conduct.

Prayer

Almighty God, thou art always doing wonders. This is the day of thy miracles more abundantly than any other day in all the history of man. Thou hast not ceased to work thy wonders before us: we know them, and cannot mistake them, for they bear thy signature, and are radiant with thy presence. Thou doest mighty wonders in every land every day, according as the people are able to bear thy revelation. Thy wonders are spiritual: thou dost regenerate the heart that was dead; thou dost give light to them that sit in darkness, and as for those who were afar off, they have been brought nigh by the work of thy Son. We rejoice, therefore, that we live in daily expectation that tomorrow shall be greater than this day, and in the assurance that thou art able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. This is our joy, our inspiration, our daily comfort and rest. The Lord's arm is not shortened that it cannot save; thy hand is still mighty, and it is outstretched in sign of blessing. Lord Jesus, come quickly! Pardon our impatience. We know it takes away from the faith of our prayer, but thou knowest the yearning of our heart, the desire of our spirit, that the east may dawn with a new light, that the whole sky may be filled with glory, and that the western lands may dwell in the blessing of thy glorious truth. Comfort us whilst we gather around thy word: give it meanings suitable to our immediate necessities; show us what Jordan we must cross, what cities we must take, and how we must wait for the Lord, and wait patiently for him, and confidently hope for his salvation. Thus do thou give us rest, give us assurance of thy presence, care, power, and beneficence of purpose; and as we have seen all this realised in thy Son our Saviour, may we have in him the assurance that all lands shall be God's, all time shall be sanctified, and earth itself shall be, as it were, part of heaven. Amen.

"Handfuls of Purpose"

For All Gleaners

"... the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath."— Joshua 2:11

Everything depends upon a right conception of the personality and character of God.—The Hebrew conception was marked by great exaltation and comprehensiveness.—Again and again we have observed that a little conception of God means a little religion, and a little religion means a little morality.—We must in all our thinking strive after the largest conceptions, not simply for their own value as thoughts, but for their moral influence upon the whole circuit of thinking and action.—Joshua's description of God is absolutely inclusive: (I) he is "the Lord your God;" as if he were associated with the Israelites only, and with every Israelite in the whole community: thus he is made a personal, or social, or tribal God; but such a God can never be more than a mere idol; to save God from the rank of idols we must have a true conception of his greatness as well as of his moral qualities: (2) Then "he is God in heaven above;" there the thought receives wonderful and sublime enlargement: what "heaven above" is must be left to the imagination, and imagination itself reels in any attempt to comprehend the vastness and glory of the expression: though the mind is thus bewildered, it is yet exalted and ennobled by the very endeavour to comprehend the incomprehensible: (3) Then he is God "in earth beneath;" thus all the dimensions are included; a beautiful method of education is this, for it enables the mind to begin at certain clear and ascertain-able points and to move onward and upward to greater distances and to sublimer effects.—The Christian conception of God has never enlarged the thought of the Hebrew theology. Christianity has introduced tenderness into it by describing God by more familiar and endearing names, yet not at the expense of the sublimity, but rather in illustration of it, showing that true sublimity is not far from true condescension.—The Hebrew conception of God should have been followed by a grand conception of personal character.—To have a great God in the intellect, and no God in the life, is the most criminal atheism.—When a man with this conception of God does that which is unworthy of the conception, he not only drags himself downwards, but he drags also the conception of God along with him.—It is possible to have an intellectual conception without a moral realisation. This is the most painful irony that can occur in life.—When we speak of a great conception of God, it is not intended that the mind alone or the pure reason should be interested in that conception, but that it should fill the whole being, enlightening the mind, subduing the heart, chastening the disposition, and regulating the will. With such a conception immorality is simply impossible; because it is impossible that such light should be quenched by the darkness round about it.—The vital point to be ever remembered in these studies is that a great intellectual theology does not necessitate a grand moral purification. Theology must be made more than an intellectual science; it must supply the motive and the reward of sanctified impulse and action.