Notes on the Book of Deuteronomy, Volume IIMackintosh, Charles Henry
Religion
Notes on the Book of Deuteronomy, Volume II
Mackintosh, Charles Henry
Bible. Deuteronomy -- Commentaries
"We'll praise Him for all that is past,
And trust Him for all that's to come."
May we do so more and more. May we just move on, day by day, praising
and trusting, trusting and praising. These are the two things which
redound to the glory of God, and to our peace and joy in Him. When the
eye rests on the "Ebenezers" which lie all along the way, the heart
must give forth its sweet "halleluiahs" to Him who has helped us
hitherto, and will help us right on to the end. He _hath_ delivered,
and He _doth_ deliver, and He _will_ deliver. Blessed chain! Its every
link is divine deliverance.
Nor is it merely upon the signal mercies and gracious deliverances of
our Father's hand that we are to dwell, with devout thankfulness, but
also upon the "humblings" and the "provings" of His wise, faithful,
and holy love. All these things are full of richest blessing to our
souls. They are not, as people sometimes call them, "mercies in
disguise," but plain, palpable, unmistakable mercies, for which we
shall have to praise our God throughout the golden ages of that bright
eternity which lies before us.
"Thou shalt remember _all_ the way"--every stage of the journey, every
scene of wilderness-life, all the dealings of God, from first to last,
with the special object thereof, "to humble thee, and to prove thee,
_to know what was in thine heart_."
How wonderful to think of God's patient grace and painstaking love
with His people in the wilderness! What precious instruction for us!
With what intense interest and spiritual delight we can hang over the
record of the divine dealings with Israel in all their desert-wanderings!
How much we can learn from the marvelous history! We, too, have to be
humbled and proved, and made to know what is in our hearts. It is very
profitable and morally wholesome.
On our first setting out to follow the Lord, we know but little of the
depths of evil and folly in our hearts. Indeed, we are superficial in
every thing. It is as we get on in our practical career that we begin
to prove the reality of things; we find out the depths of evil in
ourselves, the utter hollowness and worthlessness of all that is in
the world, and the urgent need of the most complete dependence upon
the grace of God every moment. All this is very good; it makes us
humble and self-distrusting; it delivers us from pride and
self-sufficiency, and leads us to cling, in childlike simplicity, to
the One who alone is able to keep us from falling. Thus, as we grow
in self-knowledge, we get a deeper sense of grace, a more profound
acquaintance with the wondrous love of the heart of God, His
tenderness toward us, His marvelous patience in bearing with all our
infirmities and failings, His rich mercy in having taken us up at all,
His loving ministry to all our varied need, His numberless
interpositions on our behalf, the exercises through which He has seen
fit to lead us for our souls' deep and permanent profit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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