As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place.
The inconvenience and danger of persons being long absent from home
Nothing that affects our religious interests can, properly speaking, be called little. Everything that can influence the present temper and future state of the soul is weighty and important This text is a caution against a rambling spirit in general. “A bird that wandereth from her nest” leaves her eggs unhatched, or starves her young ones, or exposes them to peril. The evil consequences of restless and prolonged wanderings from home are--
1. They who wander lose many relative comforts. A heathen philosopher observes that “wanderers about have many acquaintances, but few friends.”
2. The domestic affairs of wanderers greatly suffer. Their work either stands still, or goes on very indifferently.
3. Precious time is lost in wandering from home. Many whose lawful business leads them abroad stay much longer than is needful. They trifle at every place where they come, and must chat with every person who hath as little prudence as themselves.
4. Wanderers are exposed to many temptations which ought to be avoided.
5. This habit is a great hindrance to family religion. Apply these thoughts to ourselves, and inquire how far we are concerned in this admonition. It is important for young people to cultivate a habit of staying at home. It is peculiarly bad in servants to wander from their place. Relations should endeavour to make home agreeable to one another. It is especially bad to wander from the house of God. (J. Orton.)
Wandering birds
Some people are always restless; they must move about. They are like wandering birds. Such people do not know that the right place is always the best place for them. Whatever is our calling in life, let us not be in a hurry to leave it. Depend upon it, where God has placed us is the best for us after all. The right place for us all is where we can best serve Jesus, and where we can glorify Him. A bird that wanders from its nest is one that will get into danger and trouble. A bird that wanders from its nest will lose its nest. Three counsels--
1. Love your own nest, and stay in it.
2. Keep the nest clean, and make your home happy.
3. No nest is so good for you as your own, and therefore do not seek to change it. (J. J. Ellis.)
The wanderer
I. As the bird has its nest, so man has his place. And both are of Divine appointment. Behind the instinct of the bird and the social nature of man we must recognise the purpose of God. Man’s place is in--
1. The home. “God setteth the solitary in families.”
2. In society. “Let every soul be subject to the higher powers, for the powers that be are ordained of God.”
3. In the Church, its fellowship, worship, work.
II. As the bird needs the nest, so the man needs the place.
III. As the nest needs the bird, so the place needs the man.
IV. “Wandering.”
V. The consequences of wandering.
VI. Appeal to wanderers. Come back! the place waits for you. Your own heart echoes its cry. (Homiletic Review.)
Unnaturalness
Sin reverses Divine arrangements. It is consequently the most unnatural thing in God’s universe. We speak of “natural depravity”; it is, properly speaking, un-natural depravity. Sin is earth’s exotic; the soul’s nightshade; it has “turned the world upside down,” and thrust man out of his proper place.
I. Man in his wrong place. Here called “a wanderer.” “Where art thou?” God asked Adam; intimating that he was not where he ought to have been. Sin had turned him out of his place. Some things concerning man’s original state--the place from which he had wandered.
1. It was a state of conscious Divine approval. Conscience was at rest.
2. A state of Divine illumination. The creature enjoyed the high privilege of companionship with his Creator. Sin has both stained the conscience and darkened the understanding.
3. A state of Divine sympathies. His supreme affections were centred in his Maker. Towards Him his emotions moved like bright constellations round the sun. The fatal mistake sin has introduced into the hearts of men is the vain attempt to meet the wants of the spiritual in the supplies of the material.
II. Man in his right place. “Man is as his heart is.” The evils which have been enumerated arise from the moral derangement of the affections. The gospel comes to restore the forfeited “place” by restoring lost confidence. It does so by revealing God in such a way as to inspire confidence. The gospel is the revelation of Divine love putting away sin, and bringing the sinner near to Himself. The soul’s resting-place is faith and love. (G. Hunt Jackson.)
The wandering bird
Persons of the vagrant kind seldom, if ever, prosper.
1. In the common affairs of life Solomon was correct. The unrest of that man’s mind, and the instability of his conduct, who is constantly making a change of his position and purpose, augurs no success for any of his adventures. See cases of eagerness to leave the native country; changing occupation; changing situation and acquaintance. And it is certainly true in changing one’s religious service in the cause of God.
2. In spiritual things. There is a tendency in us all to be looking for evidences, signs, marks, experiences, graces, and coincidences of one kind or another. When a Christian wanders from his place--from the simplicity of his faith in Jesus--that moment he departs from his safe shelter in the solid rock. Many believers wander out of their place. A believer’s place is in the bosom of his Lord, or at the right hand of his Master, or sitting at His feet with Mary. Wandering habits imply a lack of watchfulness. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The wandering bird
The teaching of the proverb may be, that a man who leaves his own home, his own proper sphere, situation, calling, is strange, awkward, lonely, exposed--he has got away from duty and into danger, and is forlorn as a lost bird that has got away from its nest and cannot find its way back. Our subject is that men, institutions, Churches, are most useful when faithful to their own particular calling, and when true to their own distinctive characteristics. There is some danger lest Christian Churches should wander from their place. Far be it from me to depreciate the importance of social questions and social work. But we are told that we are strong in the degree in which we take in hand social questions, and play the part of social reformers. But our work is supremely spiritual; our work is to the soul of man. To us, the main cause of the misery which is in this world is to be found in the spiritual condition of men, in their alienation from God. The Church of Christ is not to be a food-supply association, nor a banking company, nor a society for the reform of manners. Our work is to bring men to God. The monition of the text may be applied to individuals. There are few things more common than for men to forsake the sphere in which their own peculiar powers have ample scope for a sphere in which those powers are scarcely required at all. An infatuation sometimes leads men to seek positions to which they are not called, and for which they are manifestly unfit. Some of us are not allowed to remain in one place. We are compelled to be wanderers on the face of the earth. The determination to abide in one’s own lot, and to be true to one’s own gifts and aptitudes, is the secret of power. If a man will prove his own work, he shall have rejoicing in himself. Cultivate a vivid sense of personality and a solemn conviction of our own individual significance. You will not best serve your generation by becoming a washed-out reproduction of some stronger character. If a man honestly does the best with his own powers in his own place, he will not live in vain. We cannot escape from our personal limitations, but we may do good work, and minister much blessing notwithstanding. We also wander from our place when we neglect the things that are about us, and strain after strange and distant things, for satisfaction. The highest and best things are possible to us where we are. In our own place the highest culture of character is possible. Our place has no limitations for spiritual growth. We can be men in Christ Jesus where we are. So let there be no repining and no wandering. He orders our lot; let us stand in it. (James Lewis.)