The Lord thy God bare thee as a man doth bear his son.
The paternal upholding of God
These words are part of a discourse delivered by Moses to all Israel, in the plain over against the Red Sea. Some of the most tender Divine utterances are to be found in the books of Moses. The subject of the text is the paternal upholding of God.
I. Glance first at what we may call our history. There is a history appertaining to each of us, a story of our life. It has been written, though not with a pen, and it is inscribed on the mind of God. We study the biographies of others, and neglect the story of our own lives.
II. The next thing is, God in our history. The chief agents in our history are God and ourselves. God is in a good mother, God is in a wise father, God is in a competent tutor, God is in useful companions, God is in holy social influences, and God is in the ministry of angels; while bad parents, and bad teachers, and evil companions, and devils, have acted upon us by God’s permission. God is, on these grounds, in all our history. Those passages which seem to present prominently the mother contain God, and they contain more of God than they do even of the mother. From no portion of the story of life can we exclude God. His purpose and thought and will are in each part and in the whole. Every step we take works out some part of the plan of life which He has laid down for us, so that God is in our history, in a certain sense, far more than we ourselves are in it.
III. Now, seeing that God is in our history, what does that history express with reference to God? It shows God’s upholding of us. God bare thee when thou seemedst to thyself to walk alone. There are seasons in which you appear to design and arrange, but you have only been rough-hewing, as the mason sometimes rough hews for the sculptor, and even this rough-hewing has been under Divine direction. God bare thee when thou wast carried by others, and the Lord thy God bare thee when thou wast thyself inactive, and no fellow creature seemed to be ministering to thee. Then He held thy soul in life, and kept thy feet from falling. He has also borne with thee. A most important part of bearing thee is this.
IV. The great point, however, of this passage is, the paternal character of the Divine sustenance. We each have a history, and God is in it, and the upholding of God is expressed by it. But that upholding is paternal. “The Lord thy God bare thee as a man doth bear his son.” Now let us break this up a little. We may say that a man bears his son by taking charge of him, and by being responsible for him. We may say that a man bears his son by working for him, and by being a sort of subordinate providence over him. We may say that a man hears his son by teaching him, in due time, to act and to work for himself. We may say that a man bears his son when he shows patience towards his ignorance and folly, pity towards his sorrows, forbearance towards his faults, and love for his person. And thus does God sustain those who trust and fear Him.
V. There are obligations and duties that spring from these truths.
1. In the first place, if “God bears us as a man bears his son,” we ought to be quiet from the fear of evil. Real evil, while God is bearing us as a man his son--evil in the sense of real calamity--cannot happen to us.
2. If “God bear us as a man his son,” we ought to be careful for nothing. God cares for us. What have we to do with care? What have we to do, in many circumstances, with responsibility? We are responsible for finding out God’s will, and for doing that will with all our might, but beyond where is our responsibility? Are we responsible for consequences? Is the husbandman, for example, responsible for the harvest? He is responsible for breaking the clods of the field, and for ploughing, and for tilling the ground; he is responsible for the choice of the seed, for the way in which it is sown, for the treatment of the field after seed is sown; but is lie responsible for the clouds? Is he responsible for the rain? Is he responsible for frost? Is be responsible for light or for darkness? Is he responsible for the calm or for sunshine? The man may plough to perfection and sow most carefully and treat his ground most scientifically, but there is something more than that which man can do required for the increase of the earth; and that something more is God’s care, not man’s.
3. If “God bear us as a man his son,” we ought lovingly to trust Him. Obey Him and honour Him, and when God tries your confidence in Him take care that this confidence conies forth from the trial like gold purified seven times. Eventually you shall be free from such trials, but now God often exposes you to them. The results of God’s guidance and the results of God’s upholding are now, in some respects, or at least in some of their results, very much like unripe fruit--green, sour, bitter, but as months roll on these results will become like ripened fruit, beautiful, sweet, and mellow, a picture to the eye, and as honey to the taste. (S. Martin, D. D.)
God’s fatherly care
There is nothing of which men know less than of themselves. They do not understand how their own characters are formed; they stand in great doubt as to their own moral states before God. They cannot judge or take account of themselves, much less of their fellows. It is a great comfort to know that there is One who perfectly knows all that is in us, and all that concerns us, and who will take us for just our real worth. It is a comfort to trust in God. Oh, when a little child is weary, marching through a desert towards his home, when he feels that he has no longer strength to travel, nor wisdom to direct his way, how glad is he to have his father take him in his arms to rest him! And when the child, just before falling asleep, raises his eyes for one more glance at the face above him, and sees it firm and calm and set for home, how sweetly he resigns himself to slumber, confident that all is well! And thus do we, in the weary march through life, sometimes love to recline upon the bosom of the Eternal Traveller, and take our hour of rest confiding in our God. (H. W. Beecher.)
Joshua. .. Encourage him.
Encourage your minister
Joshua was a young man in comparison with Moses. He was about to undertake the onerous task of commanding a great people. He had, moreover, the difficult enterprise of leading them into the promised laud, and chasing out the nations which possessed it. The Lord commanded Moses therefore to encourage him, that in the prospect of great labour he might not be dismayed.
I. God, even our God, is graciously considerate of His servants, and would have them well fitted for high enterprise with good courage. He does not send them as a tyrant would send a soldier upon an errand for which he is not capable, nor does He afterwards withhold His succour, forgetful of the straits to which they may be reduced; but tie is very careful of His servants, and will not let one of them perish. The Lord our God hath strong reasons for being thus considerate of His servants.
1. Are they not His children? Is He not their Father? Does tie not love them? Now, none of us would send a child of ours upon a difficult enterprise without being anxious for his welfare. We would not put him upon a trial beyond his strength, without at the same time guaranteeing to stand at his side and make his strength equal to his day.
2. Moreover, the Father Himself is concerned as to His honour in all that they do. If any servant of God shall fall, then God’s name is despised. The daughters of Philistia rejoice, and the inhabitants of Ekron triumph. His honour is too much concerned ever to permit this. Ye feeble ones, to whom God hath given to do or to suffer for His name’s sake, rest assured that He hath His eye upon you now. He cannot leave you, unless He can cease to be “God over all, blessed for ever.”
3. Observe well how far the tender consideration of God for His servants extends! He not only considers their outward state, and the absolute interests of their condition, but He remembers their spirits, and loves to see them of good courage.
II. God uses His own people to encourage one another. He did not say to the angel, “Gabriel, there is My servant Joshua, about to take the people into Canaan--fly down and encourage him.” God never works needless miracles. Gabriel would not have been half so well fitted for the work as Moses. A brother’s sympathy is more precious than an angel’s embassy. To whom, then, should this work of encouraging the people be committed?
1. Surely the elders should do it; those of riper years than their fellows. I know of nothing more inspiriting than to hear the experience of a grey-headed saint. I have found much spiritual comfort in sitting at the feet of my venerable grandfather, more than eighty years of age.
2. Not the aged only, but the wise in the family should be comforters. All believers are not equal in knowledge. Oh, ye that have searched the Scriptures through and know its promises, be sure to quote the promises of God to trembling hearts, and especially to those engaged in arduous labour for the Master. Comfort them. Repeat the doctrine of God’s faithfulness; say to them, “He will be with thee, He will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.” Oh, that the wise-hearted in the Lord’s family would be thus employed at all times.
3. Nor can I doubt that the happier sort of Christians ought always to be engaged in comforting the mournful and sorrowing. You know whom I mean; their eyes always sparkle; wherever they go they carry lamps bright with animation, sunshine gleams in their faces, they live in the light of God’s countenance.
4. Let the brother of low degree be likewise encouraged by those who are rich among you. You may frequently breathe comfort into a desponding spirit by seasonable help.
III. I advance to the object that is uppermost in my mind. I believe there is a special occasion for the exercise of this duty of encouraging one another in the case of the minister and Church in this place. It is a fresh enterprise surrounded with peculiar difficulties, and demanding special labour. It is a work so solemn that if you do not encourage your minister your minister will probably sink down in despair. Remember that the man himself needs encouragement because he is weak. Who is sufficient for these things? To serve in any part of the spiritual army is dangerous, but to be a captain is to be doubly exposed. The most of the shots are aimed at the officers. There are all sorts of discouragements to be met with. Professing Christians will backslide. Those who do remain will often be inconsistent, and he will be sighing in his closet, while you, perhaps, are thanking God that your souls have been fed under him. Encourage your minister, I pray yon, wherever you attend--encourage him for your own sake. A discouraged minister is a serious burden upon the congregation. When the fountain gets out of order you cannot expect water at any of the taps; and if the minister be not right it is something like a steam engine in a great manufactory--everybody’s loom is idle when the motive power is out of order. See that he is resting upon God and receiving His Divine power, and you will all know, each Sabbath day, the benefit of it. This is the least thing you can do. There are many other things which may cause you expense, effort, time, but to encourage the minister is so easy, so simple a matter, that I may well press upon you to do it. Perhaps you will say, “Well, if it is so simple and easy, tell us, who are expecting to settle down in this place, how we can encourage the minister here.” Well, you can do it in several ways.
1. You can encourage him by very constant attendance. Those who are going from place to place are of no use to anybody; but those are the truly useful men who, when the servants of God are in their places, keep to theirs, and let everybody see that whoever discourages the minister, they will not, for they appreciate his ministry.
2. Again, let me say, by often being present at the prayer meeting you can encourage the minister.
3. Again, you can all encourage the minister by the consistency of your lives. I do not know when I ever felt more gratified than on one occasion when, sitting at a church meeting, having to report the death of a young brother who was in the service of an eminent employer, a little note came from him to say, “My servant, Edward--, is dead. I send you word at once that you may send me another young man; for if your members are such as he was, I never wish to have better servants around me.” I read the letter at the church meeting, and another was soon found. It is a cheering thing for the Christian minister to know that his converts are held in repute. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Encouragement
I. The text supposes that difficulties will be encountered. In the Christian life there are many obstacles.
1. Difficulties made by ourselves.
2. Difficulties arising from the conduct of others.
3. Difficulties expressly sent by God to test His servants.
II. The text gives a command to surmount these difficulties. We should encourage our fellow Christians.
1. To meet their trials with patience.
2. Steadily to fight till they conquer them.
3. To profit by them.
III. The text contains a lesson for every Christian preacher and teacher. “Encourage”--
1. The penitent sinner.
2. The young believer.
3. The well-tried saint. (J. W. Macdonald.)
The Christian pastor encouraged by his flock
You need not be told that those clergymen who enter into the spirit of their office are oppressed with discouragements of various kinds. These it is incumbent on you to anticipate, and as far as lies in your power to prevent; a measure far more easy to effect than a removal of them after they have actually taken place.
I. He is liable to discouragement arising from fear as to the inefficacy of his public and private labours.
1. “Encourage him” by your regular attendance on the public, worship of God. Let it ever be remembered that attendance on the House of God IS not a matter of choice, but a sacred duty.
2. “Encourage him” by endeavouring to derive personal benefit from his ministry.
3. “Encourage him” by endeavouring to counteract his fears in manifesting your readiness to cooperate with him in all his efforts to do good. It is heartless work to labour alone.
4. “Encourage him” by praying for him.
5. “Encourage him” by informing him of the success of his labours, whether on yourselves or on others.
II. A second source of ministerial discouragement regards the unfavourable impressions likely to be made on some minds by the faithful discharge of his professional duties. Let it be your delight to “encourage” your minister by following him with patience and docility in all his researches into the inexhaustible treasures of inspiration.
III. Another species of ministerial discouragement sometimes arises from fear respecting the failure of the affection of our people and the diminution of our own usefulness should we continue long to labour amongst them. There are some who will show less forbearance to a minister than to others; and who, not satisfied with exciting the hostility of their families, labour by partial statements of their own case to create a general prejudice against him. Contentions in parishes and in churches have often caused clergymen to sigh for a place in the desert, that they might leave their flocks and go from them; indeed, they have made them long for that place “where the wicked cease from troubling and where the weary are at rest.” Encourage your minister, therefore, by endeavouring to be “all of one mind.” As Christians, you must walk in love. (T. Gibson, M. A.)
Salutary encouragement
A gentleman travelling in the northern part of Ireland heard the voices of children, and stopped to listen. Finding the sound came from a small building used as a school house he drew near; as the door was open he went in and listened to the words the boys were spelling. One little fellow stood apart, looking very sad. “Why does that boy stand there?” asked the gentleman. “Oh, he is good for nothing, replied the teacher. “There is nothing in him. I can make nothing of him. He is the most stupid boy in the school. The gentleman was surprised at his answer. He saw the teacher was so stern and rough that the younger and more timid were nearly crushed. After a few words to them, placing his hand on the head of the little fellow who stood apart, he said, “One of these days you may be a fine scholar. Don’t give up; try, my boy--try.” The boy’s soul was aroused. A new purpose was formed. From that hour he became anxious to excel, and he did become a fine scholar. It was Dr. Adam Clarke.
A minister’s encouragement
I remember to have preached, years ago, at a watering place in the Virginia mountains, at the dedication of a new church. The people were all strangers to each other; and as he went away my friend said (who had a right to speak so familiarly), “I wonder, my dear fellow, that you could be animated at all today; for we are all strangers, and things were pretty cold I thought.” “Ah, but,” the preacher replied, “you did not see old brother Gwathmey, of Hanover, who sat there by the post. The first sentence of the sermon caught hold of him, and it kept shining out of his eyes and his face, and he and the preacher had a good time together, and we didn’t care at all about the rest of you.”
Timely encouragement
As Luther was passing to the assembly room of the Diet a noted commander, George Von Frundesberg, touched him on the shoulder, and said, “My dear monk, thou art now about taking a step the like of which neither I nor many a commander on the hardest fought battlefield has ever taken. If thou art right and sure of thy cause, proceed in God’s name, and be of good cheer; God will not forsake thee.” (Little’s Historical Lights.)
Encouragement needed
Lord Lytton, in his essay on the efficacy of praise, tells a story of Mr. Keen, who, when performing in some city of the United States, came to the manager when the play was half over, and said, “I can’t go on again, sir, if the pit keeps its hands in its pockets. Such an audience would extinguish AEtna.” Upon this the manager told the audience that Mr. Keen, not being accustomed to the severe intelligence of American citizens, mistook their silent attention for courteous disappointment, and that if they did not applaud Mr. Keen as he was accustomed to be applauded, they could not see Mr. Keen act as he was accustomed to act. Of course, the audience took the hint, and as their fervour rose, so rose the genius of the actor, and their applause contributed to the triumphs it rewarded.