In returning and rest shall ye be saved
The vanity of earthly help in time of trial, and the profit of patient waiting
I. THE INSUFFICIENCY OF ALL HUMAN DEPENDENCE. The records of the Jewish nation, which have come down to us, abundantly prove this truth.
1. These words were especially spoken to the Church of old time. We must gather therefore great instruction herefrom, in respect to the community of God’s people in all after time, and perhaps in our own days especially.
2. What is true in respect of the Church, considered as a community, is equally true in respect of all its members, if we consider them in their individual character. God teaches them separately, as He teaches the Church collectively, that upon Him they are to depend, and not upon human help. And in order that they may learn the lesson the more certainly, and that it may stay with them the more abidingly, God oftentimes brings them down into circumstances where human assistance can render them no avail.
II. THE NATURE AND THE PROFIT OF PATIENT WAITING. In this way it is that God gives the instruction which the hearts of His people want. He suffers them oftentimes to lean upon other helps, and to cast their dependence upon other agencies, than His appointed one. Then, when they have found that these have been but as a broken reed to trust to, they come back again to Him--their faith confirmed--a precious lesson learned in the time of their wandering, which henceforth they shall find in the establishment of their souls. Faith has indeed oftentimes its best exercise in the time of the heaviest trial It is made to bring forth its richest and rarest fruits. (S. Robins, M. A.)
National salvation
Let us ponder the four words which the prophet here uses to indicate in what direction their salvation lay, and upon what terms they might be sure of the Divine interposition and abiding protection.
1. “Returning.” Instead of going to Egypt for help, and impoverishing themselves by an alliance forbidden, senseless, and unprofitable, they might be assured of God’s forgiveness and favour by returning in brokeness of spirit to Him. The place of confession is the place of forgiveness.
2. “Rest.” The meaning is, or course, such a resting in God as would prove the genuineness of their return to Him. Vain was their reliance on the multitude of chariots and the strong body of cavalry to which they would point as a valuable addition to the fighting strength of Judah (Isaiah 31:3).
3. “Quietness.” How the very word rebukes the haste, excitement, and trepidation with which they had prepared for the siege of their city!
4. “Confidence.” (J. G. Mantle.)
In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength
The strength obtained from quietness and confidence
I. THE STATE OF MIND HERE NOTICED.
1. Consider “quietness” of mind. It means strength of purpose, combined with calm collectedness of thought as well as of word and act.
2. Consider “confidence” as another feature of true Christian character. Confidence is something more than a dead theory of belief; it is faith in exercise. And is there not something very sublime and beautiful in
“confidence,” as we see it linking the heart of man to the Creator and Redeemer of the world?
II. THE ADVANTAGES TO BE DERIVED FROM THE STATE OF MIND DESCRIBED.
1. The promise expressed in the words, “shall be your strength,” is very encouraging and full of meaning. It points to the Deity as the only source of strength.
2. The strength here spoken of is Divine, granted to us through the instrumentality of quietness and confidence
3. This strength, too, implies safety.
4. But the strength promised is conditional. (W. D. Horwood.)
The promise associated with quietness and confidence
I. THE FRAME OF MIND which God encouraged His people to have under all these circumstances--“quietness and confidence.”
1. Observe what the fault of Israel had been. God had said one thing, and Israel thought another. God had told them that He would be their refuge.
2. Their warrant for their confidence was the Word of God. Here is the distinction to be made between what is presumption, and what is faith.
3. Observe, next, the peculiar relation in which Israel stood to Jehovah, which made their unbelief so reprehensible. The Lord seems to bring this before their minds, as that which should cause the most stinging conviction in their hearts. “Thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel.”
II. THE PROMISE THAT IS HERE ANNEXED. God says, “In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.” Take, for instance, Hezekiah’s history (2 Kings 18:1-37). Again, remember the story of Israel’s deliverance, as recorded Exodus 14:1-31. I might refer you to other passages, such as that beautiful narrative in Daniel 3:1-30, where we are told of three believing men being cast into a burning fiery furnace. Look at their quietness and confidence, which was their strength. There is a direct promise upon this subject in Deuteronomy 32:1-52. “The Lord shall judge” (avenge, or come to the help of) “His people, and repent Himself for His servants, when He seeth that their power is gone” If you want a New Testament promise to the same effect, you have it in that word which was spoken by our Lord--“Come unto Me all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Do you say then, are we not to use means? There may be as much unbelief when men despise means, as there may be in their over-anxiety to use means. (W. H. Krause, M. A.)
The duty of conservatives in a time of theological conflict
1. It is our duty to recognise the inevitable margin of difference among those who substantially agree. It is only in the exact sciences that a formula has absolutely the same value for all men and for the same man at all times. But theology is not an exact science
2. It is the second duty of conservatives in a time of theological conflict to recognise the margin of error in all human views of truth. If the writers of the Bible were infallible, the readers of it are not. But have we not, it may be asked, the promise of the Paraclete to lead us into all the truth? Yes, and wonderfully has the promise been fulfilled. But here again two things should be observed.
(1) That promise was not given to any particular branch of the Church.
(2) It guarantees infallibility, to no one.
3. It is especially the duty of conservatives at the present moment in the history of the Church to discriminate between those who are seeking defend and those who are seeking to overthrow the fundamental principles of Christianity. Criticism must be met by criticism, scholarship by scholarship.
4. We should beware of testing the views in regard to the Bible, which are now more and more freely expressed, by what seem to be their tendencies.
(1) One of these is the tendency to unsettle the minds of simple and devout believers. They certainly have such a tendency, and it is much to be regretted. But the questions are here. We are not responsible for their presence. They are forced upon us.
(2) Another thing concerning which no little apprehension is entertained is that these discussions may tend to diminish the reverence which is felt for the Bible, and to weaken the faith of men in Christianity itself. The apprehension is natural. So Erasmus felt concerning what he called “the noisy quarrel of religion” that had broken out in his day, when (as he says) “I wrote frequently and industriously to my friends, begging that they would admonish this man (Luther) to observe Christian meekness in his writings, and to do nothing to disturb the peace of the Church.” The true conservative is always prone to apprehend the worst results from anything that disturbs the ancient order of ideas and practices. But how many times over has experience shown these fears to be groundless? In quietness and in confidence is our strength. Let us be honest. Let us not be afraid. “If this counsel or this work be of men, it will be overthrown; but if it is of God, ye will not be able to overthrow it, lest haply ye be found even to be fighting against God.” (E. B. Coe, D. D.)
Quietness and confidence
“Quietness” is just collectedness, repose, equanimity, freedom from excitement and boisterousness. “Confidence” is trust, reliance, upon God, producing, if not implying, a calm and steadfast courage.
I. “Quietness and confidence” are STRENGTH OF CHARACTER. They bespeak the existence of thought, reflection, judgment; they evidence self-control; they mark a nature that is not superficial; they show a superiority to influences which rouse the stormy passions of other men, and leave them the victims of blind impulse; and all this implies true strength of character.
II. “Quietness and confidence” are STRENGTH FOR WORK AND ACHIEVEMENT. The quiet, steady, hopeful man--other things being equal, and sometimes when they are very unequal--will prove, far away, the best workman. For one thing, such a man will lose no time in vain speculation, in daydreams about his work, in clearing away self-imposed hindrances, the result of his own hurry or forgetfulness or preoccupation. Calm and thoughtful, he will always settle to his employment at once, while another man will have to give himself time to acquire the proper mood for it. “Confidence” will also yield him resolution, and that will “make him proof against interruption,” which often defers the results of men’s endeavours and chafes their temper as well. Nearly all the men who have won renown in the sphere of successful toil, whether secular or sacred, have been men of quiet energy, rather than men of powerful impulses; of steadfast reliance upon a Power above them, rather than of mere human enthusiasm. And in fact, such are the discouragements and trials that wait upon all kinds of labour, whether for ourselves or others--such the sameness, the dryness, the weariness, that only quiet confidence will enable a man to persevere. It was this that kept Moses at the head of the chosen tribes till they reached the borders of Canaan. It was this that carried St. Paul through his almost superhuman toils and exertions. It was this that sustained such men as Columbus and Newton, Washington and Wellington, and a host of others, in carrying out enterprises, differing, indeed, in their objects, but all encompassed with difficulties that would have driven weaker men to despair at their outset. And, if we would do any real work for God and our fellow men, we must seek more to possess the quietness and confidence of me text, than those more shining qualities which gain popular applause, but often leave no real impress upon a man’s age and sphere.
III. Quietness and confidence are STRENGTH FOR ENDURANCE. Restlessness, impatience, distrust, do but aggravate trials, and intensify suffering. Like the struggles of a prisoner in his fetters--like the beating itself against the wires of the poor caged bird, they only serve to augment pain, and to bring on the dejection and weariness that follow fruitlessly expended energy. But to have a mind stayed on God is to take the most certain method to lighten every burden, to diminish the bitterness of every sorrow, to modify and transmute every curse into a blessing, and to make even the path of tribulation pleasant and attractive.
IV. “Quietness and confidence” are specially the STRENGTH OF SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT. All religious progress depends, primarily and efficiently, upon the grace of God. But the order of God’s working is such that this process may be very much helped or hindered by ourselves. The growth of plants and flowers depends materially upon the nature of the soil in which they are set, and upon their capacity for receiving the influences of air and sunshine, dew and shower. And it is much the same as to the growth of holy character; it is checked or advanced by our prevailing moral dispositions. Now, “quietness and confidence” imply a state of mind the most favourable to Divine operations. The subject may he viewed in another light. In the endeavour to live a holy life, we are all conscious of our exposure to hindrances, arising from our lapses and failures. We go on, it may be, somewhat well for a time; but a temptation overtakes us, unwatchfulness supervenes, and we fall, not into any great sin, but from the vantage ground that we thought ourselves to have reached. Now, what will be the effect of this upon a Christian person of excitable, impulsive, unsteady mind! Why, ceremony he will be discouraged and dismayed. But it will not be thus with the Christian who is marked by “quietness and confidence.” He will say, “Rejoice not over me, O mine enemy; for though I fall, I shall rise again.” (C. M. Merry.)
Rev. John Keble’s motto
In Poet’s Corner, at Westminster Abbey, there is a medallion erected to the memory of John Keble, upon which is inscribed the prophetic utterance which was the motto of his simple, beautiful, well-ordered life: “in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” (R. Hebbron.)
Faith and introspection
In quietness and confidence is our strength, but not in thinking of quietness and confidence, or grieving that we have so little of either, but in simply assuring ourselves of the ground that we have to believe that God is our Friend now and ever, and that He can be nothing else, and that the forgetfulness of this and nothing else has been our sin and our shame. (F. D. Maurice to his mother.)
The triumph of simple trust
I am to be like General Gordon in Khartoum during the last weeks of the long siege. He built himself a tower of observation, from the top of which he could command the whole country round. At dawn he slept; by day he looked to his defences, and administered justice, and cheered the spirit of his people; every night he mounted to his tower, and there, as one of his biographers says, “alone with his God, a universal sentinel, he kept watch over the ramparts, and prayed for the help that never came.” He could not work out the deliverance himself, but he had childlike confidence in God. And the Divine help did come--the martyr’s crown, the everlasting rest, the good soldier’s welcome from his Commander-in-chief. (A. Smellie, M. A.)
Settling down upon God
What can explain the confidence of Judson and many another noble missionary, working steadily on for years without any sign of visible success, but the settling down of the spirit upon God--an attitude which had, with them, become a habit of life? (J. G. Mantle.)
Working with Divine resources
“I used to think I had to do it,” says one of the most successful evangelists of the nineteenth century, “and the result was great physical strain and exhaustion; but now I feel He has to do it through me: the responsibility His; the message His; the strength His.” (J. G. Mantle.)