MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Exodus 23:27-33
THE POWER OF MORAL FORCES
In our estimation of the powers of the world we do not always give sufficient prominence to the power of moral forces. Much has been accomplished by material force, but this must be under the direction of intellectual force. And this is shorn of its greatest strength if it be not allied with moral force. The greatest movements of the world have been moral movements. The battles that have done most to shape the destinies of mankind have been those where moral forces have been largely at work. The power which must be exalted above all others is moral and spiritual power. Consider then the grandeur of moral forces.
I. The strength of moral forces. God’s fear is a moral power, is a religious power; and this is to exercise an intimidating influence upon the enemies of Israel. God’s people are to win their onward way to the promised land, not by force of arms, not by skill and heroism and strategy on the battle field; but by the all-subduing force of a Divine fear scattering the opposing hosts. We have heard what an unreasonable panic can do in paralysing an army and causing it to flee. But here is a true cause for panic—even God’s fear. The people of God must seek to be strong by the possession and exercise of moral force.
II. The power of littles backed by moral force. We need not inquire whether the word hornets is used in a literal or a metaphorical sense; for the lesson is equally true that moral force can accomplish great results by means of small instrumentalities. It only requires to send forth the hornets, and they will drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite. If the moral force be there, the feeblest instrumentalities will be sufficiently adequate to the achievement of stupendous and glorious results. Look not to the size and strength of the material forces, but to the vigour and power of the moral force. The world’s true victors are the moral victors. If only locusts constitute their army, yet the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite will flee before their conquering march.
III. Moral forces move to the production of distant results. In all our contests we are impatient of results. But those that work in the moral sphere have need of much patience The enemies are not to be driven out in one year. Regard must be had to the future. Unseen Divine preparations are going on while we are fretting with impatience. If the victory were gained too soon, the land might become desolate, and the beasts of the field might multiply to the destruction of the victors. He who rules in the moral sphere knows best how to guide moral forces.
IV. The movements of moral forces are not hurried. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land. The best disciplined armies move with precision. There is no hot haste in Divine movements. By little and little is a very general law of Divine procedure both in the kingdoms of nature and of grace. That which is to be lasting, must be by little and little; and therefore moral movements must be according to this law, for they are to produce permanent results.
V. Moral forces will continue to move until the purpose is finally accomplished. The fear will operate, and the hornets must sting, and all forces must be brought into play, until the time has come to set the bounds from the Red Sea on the south even unto the sea of the Philistines, or Mediterranean Sea, on the west; and from the Arabian desert on the east to the river Euphrates on the north. Divine purpose cannot fail. There may be seeming delay, but never defeat. Through the centuries the purpose is ever ripening. Nothing is so certain in the universe as that these moral forces must ultimately prevail.
VI. Moral forces are ever on the side of right doers. There must be no compromises with evil if the moral forces of the universe are to be enlisted on our side and in our cause. Thou shalt make no covenant with false gods. Moral strength departs so soon as we enter into unholy alliance with the wicked. Evil companionship leads to evil conduct. To serve false gods is to set for ourselves a destructive snare. The wicked are weak, and impart weakness. The righteous are bold as a lion. They themselves are irresistible moral forces.
—W. Burrows, B.A.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
WORLDLINESS.—Exodus 23:24-25; Exodus 32:33
Nothing is more emphatic in the Old and New Testaments than God’s condemnation of worldliness. Theologians have frequently mystified and misrepresented it, but in these clauses, as elsewhere, it is exhibited in an intensely real and personal form. The Israelites were to be placed in the midst of a people who knew not God, and who followed customs that God abhorred. But they were to have no communion with the one, Exodus 23:32, and to keep themselves unspotted from the other. Notice—
I. That worldliness is described. It is—
1. Not asceticism. That was utterly foreign to the whole genius of the Jewish system. No race ever had more facilities for intercourse with other nations, or more extensively used them. The Jews have been, all through their history, a commercial nation (1 Corinthians 5:10).
2. But intimacy and friendship with irreligious men—
(1.) not, however, that which is necessary to the performance of kindly offices (see Exodus 23:4-5), but
(2.) partaking of their spirit; “making a covenant with them,” implying affinity, sympathy of soul, and fellowship.
3. And conformity to irreligious customs, “doing after their works,” “making a covenant with their gods.” Irreligious customs may be broadly characterised as—
(1.) Those which God cannot sanction.
(2.) Those which can do no real and lasting good.
II. That worldliness is dangerous.
1. It brings a snare.
(1.) Fellowship with ungodly men may through fear of ridicule or singularity draw us into ungodly practices.
(2.) Conformity with worldly customs may beget a liking for them which may draw us utterly into the vortex.
2. It leads to sin. “Lest they make thee sin against Me” (1 John 5:19).
(1.) It extinguishes the love of God (1 John 2:15).
(2.) It leads to enmity towards God. “No man can serve two masters,” &c. (James 4:4).
3. It ensures God’s condemnation (Deuteronomy 7:4; 1 Corinthians 11:12).
III. That the duty of unworldliness is enjoined.
1. Nonconformity. “Thou shalt not,” Exodus 23:24-32, abstinence from worldly fellowship and customs, &c., but not abstinence merely, but—
2. Active antagonism. He who is not for God in this matter is against Him. “Thou shalt utterly overthrow them and break down their images.”
3. Positive unworldliness. “Ye shall serve the Lord your God” (John 5:19).
IV. That those who observe the duty of unworldliness are blessed. “And He shall bless,” &c.
1. Often literally. Worldliness brings excess, exhaustion, and disease. Godliness promotes temperance and health.
2. Always spiritually. Even eating and drinking, if to the glory of God, are ministers of blessing, and in addition to that there is moral satisfaction, approbation of conscience, and a sense of the benediction of heaven. In conclusion—i. Christ has overcome the world and destroyed the fear of it (John 16:33). ii. God will keep us from its evil in our necessary contact with it (John 17:15). iii. Faith will be equal to any emergency (1 John 5:4; Romans 12:1-2). iv. Nonconformity to the world is one of the tests of the new birth (1 John 5:4).
—J. W. Burn.
PROSPECTS AND PROGRESS.—Exodus 23:26-31
Learn—
I. That there is a bright and extensive prospect before God’s people, Exodus 23:26-31.
1. If the Christian’s prospect is at any time dark, it is because a gloom has settled upon his hope. The promised land in all its fertility and beauty is a fact both in this life and in that which is to come.
2. If the Christian’s prospect is at all contracted, it is because of the narrowness of his faith. The promise is as broad as God can make it, and if the believer is at any time disappointed, it is not because God is straitened, but because he is straitened in himself.
3. Let the Christian be fully alive to his privileges, and feel that this broad and beautiful land is for him. Let nothing blanch his courage or divert his step. But let him “strive to enter in.”
II. That this prospect is to become his inheritance by Divine power and human exertion. These are always linked together (Philippians 2:12. See some excellent remarks in Hooker’s Sermons, i. vol. iii.).
1. God’s energy was exerted—
(1.) in giving them the land,
(2.) in driving out its inhabitants. So God in Christ has effectually weakened the power of our adversaries, bruised the serpent’s head, destroyed his works, and overcome the world,
(3.) in being present with them in all their undertakings, Exodus 23:20-23. So God says to us, “Certainly I will be with thee.” “If God be for us, who can be against us.”
2. But that energy was conditional—upon their exertions.
(1.) Upon their use of means. So we must make use of means. The whole armour of God, steady resistance, courage, activity, zeal.
(2.) Upon the cultivation of their own strength, “Until thou be increased:” so we, by the use of means, must grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. “Add to your faith,” &c.
III. That this prospect was not to be inherited all at once, but by degrees, Exodus 23:29-30.
1. Because this is God’s usual method of working in the formation of the world, in the course of providence, in the construction of nations, in physical growth. The law of progress is written everywhere.
(1.) Let not the sceptic sneer at the individual Christian because he is not perfect, nor at the Church because it is not universal, because God never wantonly interferes with the course of nature or of grace.
(2.) Let not the Christian be discouraged at his imperfections if he is “going on to perfection,” and “pressing toward the mark.” Let not the Church be discouraged at the limited range of her operations if she is, as far as she can, “preaching the gospel to every creature.”
2. Because a sudden occupation of the land might be dangerous to themselves. They could not cover the whole space, and the uncultivated tracts would be a covert for wild beasts. Let the inhabitants remain, “till thou be increased and inherit the land.”
(1.) A word to the Church—perhaps it is wise that in her past and present condition she has not “covered the whole earth.” God wants the work done properly and perfectly. Is it not fitting then that her own growth in grace, power, and purity, in all moral perfections should be promoted first? It were hardly desirable, since the work will be accomplished properly and perfectly, that the Church, as it has presented itself in any century of its past development (witness its superstitious fears, corruption, &c.) should be universal. Better to let other systems keep their place a little longer, than that the Church, weak by internal discord and lack of faith, should be unequal to fill their place, and perhaps be beaten by worse foes—her own arrogance and pride.
3. A word to the believer. It is wise that some enemies should remain a little longer perhaps. They test your faith and patience, while other departments of spiritual life and grace are preparing for a contest which shall eventuate in their perfect overthrow.
In conclusion, see 1 Corinthians 15:57-58.
—J. W. Burn.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WILLIAM ADAMSON
Hornet-Harms! Exodus 23:28. The hornet is abundant in the Holy Land. The species are larger than ours. Instances are on record in profane history where these have multiplied to such a degree as to become a pest to the inhabitants. Probably the insect meant is the Abyssinian fly. Its bite produces fatal boils; and at the very buzzing of a swarm the cattle run almost mad with terror. The Septuagint translates the word “wasps.” But Dr. Tristram thinks that the word “hornets” here is metaphorical, and is used of a panic, i.e., of sharp stings of fear, by which flying rumours stung them so that they fled. It is wisely counselled to avoid the pugnacious, poisonous, quarrelsome character of the hornet: such are proverbially called “waspish;” a number of them are rightly designated a hornet’s nest. However, it seems best to regard these hornets as material agencies—types of the moral agencies to which they have given place in subsequent ages of the world.
“Owls, ravens, crickets, seem the watch of death;
Nature’s worst vermin scare her godlike sons.”
—Lee.
Grace-Growth! Exodus 23:30. “The path of the just is as a shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” Many a struggle the spiritual Israel have in overcoming inherent leanings to sin; but, by little and little, they shall drive them out. And as a man, looking at a dial, cannot see the shadow move, yet after a while perceives that it has moved; so it is with Christian progress. The surrounding nations could see the result of Israel’s gradual conquest of the Canaanite nationalities, until the land became entirely their own possession. The work of grace, says Salter, if begun, is gradually and continually going on; and it will not be completed till the image of God can be seen perfectly reflected in us. The conquest of self is steadily and expansively progressing; and by and by the triumph will be wholly achieved. Yet, as Bishop Reynolds says, we must not expect a fulness until the time of the restitution of all things—wherein the light, which is here but sown for the righteous, shall grow up into a full harvest of Canaan conquest. There may be slowness in the struggle onwards to absolute possession, but there is also sureness: “Thou shalt inherit the land.”
“No mortal eye the manner sees,
The imperceptible degrees,
By which our Lord conducts His plan,
And brings us to a perfect man.”
—Wesley.
Prospect! Exodus 23:20-30. God allures Israel from the present, where all was dark and uncomely, into the future, where all was bright and fair. He, as it were, takes the Hebrew host by the hand, and leads them, as a father his child, out from the gloomy wilderness region, which they were pacing somewhat sadly, into the fertile fields and fruitful glades of Canaan; so that joy, or at least the faint reflection of it, stole into their hearts, and lifted up their heavy eyes. And how cheering the Christian’s prospect of the heavenly Canaan—that rest which remaineth for the people of God. It transfuses the life of heaven through our frame; either, on the one hand, making our languid pulse to beat more swiftly; or, on the other, our feverish pulse to throb more calmly and evenly. It acts as a regulator of the soul in its wild and inconstant movements—neither allowing the spiritual Hebrew to sink too low, nor to soar too high. It fills with energy to face the toils, and with ready courage to brave the dangers, of the night.
“From strength to strength advancing, only he,
His soul well knit and all his battles won,
Mounts, and that hardly, to eternal life.”
—Arnold.
World-Snares! Exodus 23:32-33.
(1.) As you love your souls, beware of the world. It has slain its thousands and tens of thousands. What ruined Lots wife, but the world? What ruined Achan, but the world? What ruined Haman, but the world? What ruined Demas, but the world? What ruined Judas, but the world? The gods of this world are indeed a snare.
(2.) The pleasures of the world are not like the waters of the Nile, which leave, when they are gone, the germs of beauty and fertility to bud and blossom, and cheer the heart of man. On the contrary, they are like those streams polluted by the washings of poisonous minerals, depositing the seeds of disease and death to all who drink them.
(3.) The Reubenites, having taken a liking to the country which was first conquered because it was prolific in pasture, renounced the promise of interest in the Holy Land; which “love of the world” proved a snare to them, and subsequently their destruction. So the gods of this world, the pleasures of sin, lure men to delight in the present, and forego all hope of heaven.
(4.) A man residing on the coast of England, and seeing his neighbours grow rich with foreign trade, converted his goods into gold, went to Spain, and bought a cargo of figs. On his way home a great storm compelled him to throw the cargo overboard. When again tempted by the sea, he said: “No; your fair looks shall never deceive me again; they once proved a snare to me: get thee hence, for I’ll have none of them.”
“Is this a friend indeed, that I should sell
My soul to her, give her my life and youth,
Till my feet, cloven too, take hold on hell?”
—Rossetti.