Man's Misery and God's Mercy

Next Part Man's Misery and God's Mercy 2

"Many times did he deliver them; but they provoked him with their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity. Nevertheless he regarded their affliction, when he heard their cry– and he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies." Psalm 106:43-45

The children of Israel were, as you well know, a 'typical people', representative by their relationship to God, through a national and external covenant, of that chosen generation, that holy nation, that peculiar people, who stand in a nearer, higher, and more permanent relationship to him through that everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure, which is all their salvation, and, as made known to their heart by a divine power, is all their desire. (2 Sam. 23:5.) Now there were sundry reasons, and all of them stamped with the manifest impress of infinite wisdom, mercy, and grace on the part of God, why he chose a nation thus to be his peculiar people in external covenant.

One reason was that God's dealings with them, and their dealings with God, might be upon permanent record, so that the Church in all ages might read as in a glass its own character as typified by the children of Israel, and the character of God as represented by his dealings with them. Now this is the reason why a Psalm like this, which gives us an epitome or brief history of the character and conduct of the children of Israel, both in the wilderness and in the promised land, as ever sinning and rebelling against God, and of his tender mercies toward them in spite of, and amid all their sins and backslidings, is so instructing, edifying, and encouraging, that we see on the one hand, in their conduct, a representation of our own; and see on the other, in the dealings of God with them, a representation of the merciful dealings of God with us. But as I hope, with God's help and blessing, to show these two points more completely in opening up the words before us, I shall now, without further preface, approach our text, in which I seem to see these four leading, prominent features:

First, God's numerous deliverances of Israel– "Many times did he deliver him."

Secondly, Israel's base requitals, and their sad consequence– "But they provoked him with their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity."

Thirdly, the tender regard with which God beheld them when in their affliction they cried unto him– "Nevertheless he regarded their affliction, when he heard their cry."

And lastly, God's merciful remembrance for them of his covenant, and the repentance that moved his gracious heart– "And he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies."

If you see and feel with me, you will see and feel great beauty and sweetness in the words of our text. I invite you, therefore, who belong to the spiritual Israel, you who know both what you have been and are towards God, and what he has been and is towards you, to listen this morning to a history of yourself, in which you will find abundant matter for shame and sorrow, and to a history also of the goodness and mercy of God, in which you will find abundant matter for praise and thanksgiving.

I. I have first to show the numerous DELIVERANCES of the literal Israel as typical and figurative of the numerous deliverances of the spiritual Israel. "Many times did he deliver them."

A. When we read the history of the children of Israel, as so fully and faithfully rendered in the Old Testament, how again and again do we find these words fulfilled. But out of these numerous deliverances, I can now only name a few.

1. Look first then at that great and signal deliverance, when they were bondslaves in Egypt, in seemingly hopeless and helpless servitude. Call to mind their groans and tears, their bruised backs and still more bruised hearts, when the cruel task-masters, at Pharaoh's command, set them to make bricks without straw, and yet exacted the same number as before. See with how fast and firm a hand the cruel Egyptian tyrant held them in that miserable country; how God sent plague after plague, and judgment after judgment upon him; and yet that wicked king hardened his heart and would not let them go. At length, when all other means failed, God sent forth the destroying Angel to smite the first-born, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the first-born of the captive in the dungeon, so that through Egypt there was a universal cry, for there was not a house where there was not one dead. Then, and not until then, did he send them out of the land in haste.

But even then, no sooner had they buried their dead, than all God's judgments were forgotten. This implacable king was still determined to hold Israel. He pursued them with his chariots and his horses, and overtook them at the Red Sea. With the foaming waves before, and a ferocious foe behind, how completely did they seem cut off from all help or hope. Despair seized them, and they even quarreled with their deliverer. "Then they turned against Moses and complained, 'Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Weren't there enough graves for us in Egypt? Why did you make us leave?'" (Exodus 14:11.) But how Moses stilled their troubled hearts. "Don't be afraid. Just stand where you are and watch the Lord rescue you. The Egyptians that you see today will never be seen again. The Lord himself will fight for you. You won't have to lift a finger in your defense!" (Exodus 14:13, 14.) In this their deep extremity, God spoke the word; he bade Moses stretch forth his hand; the mighty waters parted on either side, and through the walls thus made, all the Israelites passed safely, men, women, and children, without suffering the least injury. But when their foes attempted the same, at God's command the waters returned and overwhelmed Pharaoh and all his armed host in the depth of the sea. What a deliverance was this.

2. See again how, when they came into the wilderness, God again and again stretched forth his hand to deliver them. He delivered them from famine by sending down manna daily for food. He delivered them from perishing by thirst by bidding Moses smite the rock, and the waters gushed out. Though he chastised them severely for their sins, and though the carcasses of the rebels fell in the wilderness, yet he never failed to supply their needs. In that beautiful epitome of their history, which we find in the prayer of the Levites, how truly and touchingly do they speak. "But in your great mercy you did not abandon them to die in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud still led them forward by day, and the pillar of fire showed them the way through the night. You sent your good Spirit to instruct them, and you did not stop giving them bread from heaven or water for their thirst." (Nehemiah 9:19, 20.)

3. If from the wilderness we follow them into the land of Canaan, we still see God's delivering mercies, as the same prayer acknowledges. "They went in and took possession of the land. You subdued whole nations before them. Even the kings and the Canaanites, who inhabited the land, were powerless! Your people could deal with them as they pleased. Our ancestors captured fortified cities and fertile land. They took over houses full of good things, with cisterns already dug and vineyards and olive groves and orchards in abundance. So they ate until they were full and grew fat and enjoyed themselves in all your blessings." (Nehemiah 9:24, 25.)

And how did they requite the Lord for all those mercies? "But despite all this, they were disobedient and rebelled against you. They threw away your law, they killed the prophets who encouraged them to return to you, and they committed terrible blasphemies." (Nehemiah 9:26.) What then followed? Heavy judgments, repeated captivities, grievous oppression from their enemies. But did the Lord forsake them? No. When they cried unto him he heard their cry. "Nevertheless he regarded their affliction, when he heard their cry– And he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies." (Psalm 106:44, 45 )

B. Now can we not see in these dealings of God with Israel of old, thus recorded in the word, some similarity to God's dealings with his spiritual Israel now?

1. Was there not a time when, like Israel in Egypt, they were held in bondage by sin, Satan, and the world? Was not that then a great and wondrous deliverance, when by the power of his quickening grace he brought them out of their hard bondage with a strong hand and outstretched arm? Was Pharaoh a worse enemy to the children of Israel than Satan was to them? Were Pharaoh's hard tasks harder tasks than sin set them to perform? Were the stripes inflicted upon the back of those who did not render the quota of bricks heavier than the stripes laid upon them by the scourge of a guilty conscience? And yet how the Lord was pleased to stretch forth his hand, and bring them out of the world and the bondage of sin, by a power which, if not as openly and evidently miraculous, was yet as real and as effectual.

2. Similarly when they came in soul experience to the Red Sea and feared there was no deliverance from the curse of the law, and the condemnation of a guilty conscience, Satan pressing upon them, like Pharaoh, from behind, and the anger of God against their sins meeting them like the waves of the sea in front, and there seemed to be no hope of escape, how the Lord opened a way even through those deep waters, and brought them safely through, so that they saw their enemies upon the sea shore. The cross of Christ is to these waters what the rod of Moses was to those of the Red Sea. They part asunder as it is stretched over them, and the redeemed pass safely through them; but the same waters, when they return to their strength, overwhelm their enemies.

3. But do we find no similar parallel also in the other deliverances which I have named as given of old to Israel? Has the manna from heaven, the smitten rock, the pillar of the cloud by day and of fire by night, and other wilderness mercies– have these continual deliverances from famine, from thirst, from being lost in a barren and trackless desert, no spiritual fulfillment? Taken even literally and providentially, has there been no daily food given, no daily water, no daily clothing, no deliverance from time to time out of pressing trials in providence? As the children of Israel had to learn to live by providence, so have we. And where did they learn this lesson? Not in Egypt, where they sat by the flesh pots and ate bread to the full, but in the waste, howling wilderness.

So it is with the family of God. The daily providence of God over them, his watchful eye, his loving heart, his bounteous hand, his tender care, are learned– not in the world, but in the wilderness; not in wealthy Egypt, but in the barren desert.

But view it spiritually and experimentally, and see in wilderness sins and wilderness mercies, a reflex image of our behavior to God, and of his dealing towards us. Out of how many trials, temptations, exercises, afflictions, how many seasons of bondage and captivity, brought upon ourselves by our own misdeeds, and wandering after our own idolatries, has he delivered us. Taking a review of all that we have been to him, and of what he has been to us, can we not set to our seal, "Many times has he delivered us?"

Now it is these delivering mercies that endear God to the soul. Tracing his hand in this and that deliverance; seeing how, when none but he could help or deliver, the Lord appeared in this or that conspicuous instance, we learn or at least should learn to watch his hand and ascribe all the power and the glory to him. So Israel at the Red Sea saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore, and under the impression of that signal deliverance feared and believed. "And Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians– and the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord, and his servant Moses." (Exod. 14:31.) As the Psalmist declares in the Psalm before us, faith was in their heart and praise in their mouth. "Then believed they his words; they sang his praise." (Ps. 106:12.)

Now what would we expect would be the fruit and consequence of those numerous deliverances? That for the future we should mistrust ourselves, and having seen, clearly seen, felt, deeply and painfully felt, the miserable consequences of taking counsel of the flesh, should take counsel of God. We have his word as our written guide; we have his Holy Spirit as our inward guide. Should we not then reverently and submissively take counsel of God's word; take counsel of his Holy Spirit how we should best glorify him, how walk most tenderly in his fear, how most render gratitude to him for his conspicuous deliverances in providence and in grace? Have we done so? Have we taken counsel with God's Spirit how to act? Have we made the book of God our daily companion? Have we sought direction from the sacred page, and have we requited God as we should have done for his various deliverances? Oh, how few can say that they have! How for the most part they must confess, to come to our second point,

II. Their base requitals and the sad fruits and consequences of them. "They provoked him with their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity."

A. Alas! Alas! Instead of taking counsel with the Spirit of God, how often we have taken counsel with our own spirit, and thus gone aside by being brought under a wrong influence. How often instead of taking counsel at the word of God and seeking direction from the sacred page, we have taken counsel with friends who have misled us with false advice, or taken counsel with our own lusts to gratify them, or taken counsel with our own pride to indulge it, with our own ambition to feed it, with our own profit to promote it, or with our own comfort to enjoy it. Instead of taking counsel to please God, we have taken counsel to please self; instead of taking counsel from the word of God, we have rather sought to blunt its edge if too pointed, to neglect its warnings, disregard its precepts, overlook its cautions and admonitions, and pay no heed to its holy and wise instructions, and have rather listened to the pleadings of our own self-indulgent mind and the cravings of our restless, dissatisfied flesh.

Such was Israel of old. "They waited not for his counsel;" or in the words of the text, "They provoked him with their counsel." Thus they committed two evils. They neglected God's counsel and they follow their own. They rejected the good and chose the bad. His kind and tender, suitable and salutary precepts and directions they despised; but all the promptings and inclinations, lusts, and devices of their own mind they eagerly and greedily followed.

Now this must ever be the case when we slight the word of God. In religion there is no neutral position; no neutral-place between good and evil, between obedience and disobedience; no subtle balancing of motives and actions; no careful, cautious steering between the landmarks of right and wrong, as if we could just graze the edge of the shoal without touching it; no trimming between such a compliance with the will of God as shall please and satisfy him, and such a compliance with the will of the flesh as shall please and satisfy it. Saul tried this way; so did Ahithophel; so did Demas; with what success you know. To hold the gospel in the one hand and the world in the other; to please God and not displease man; to be religious enough to get a name to live, and be carnal enough to secure a good share in the profits and pleasures, esteem and favors of the world– this is the grand feat of the day; and though men unhappily need no instruction either to devise or carry out a plan so fallacious and yet so suitable, Satan equips thousands of ministers to teach them more effectually to juggle with their own consciences and smooth the road down to the chambers of death.

It is now as it was of old. The people love to be deceived, and the prophets love to deceive them. "They say to the seers, see not; and to the prophets, prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits." (Isa. 30:10.) "An amazing and horrible thing is committed in the land; the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so! But what will you do in the end?" (Jer. 5:30, 31.)

But are we, who profess to be a people separated from all such doctrines and all such ways, clear in the matter? Have not we too much provoked God by our counsel? And is not this displeasing to God? A requiting his deliverance with base ingratitude? This is not what he expects at our hands; this is not that which is worthy of his great name, and of the obligations which he has laid upon us. And yet I believe there is not one among us who, were the matter pressed home to his conscience, would not be obliged to hang down his head and blush for shame with a confession before God that the charge is true. For the Lord regards the heart; his searching eye glances into our inmost bosom, and there he reads all our counsel. The plots, the schemes, the contrivances, the speculations that take place in the chambers of imagery, all lie naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. He sees how again and again we have consulted our own interest, comfort, and benefit, instead of the glory and honor of God; have sought to please ourselves instead of pleasing him, and to obtain something for our gratification, instead of aiming to know his will and do it.

If we have sometimes had right thoughts, desires, and feelings, how they have faded away before they bore solid fruit; with what murmurings and fretfulness have we seen our idols taken away; and how grudgingly and unwillingly have we walked in a path of self-denial, and halted, looked back, or sat down at every little hill of difficulty or rough piece of road. Is not all this highly provoking to the Lord?

If a father has heaped all possible benefits upon his son, given him the best of educations, liberally supplied all his needs, never denied him any one thing that was for his real good, nursed him in sickness, helped him in difficulty, discharged all his debts, and been to him the kindest and best of parents, would he not reasonably expect some return of gratitude and affection? But if instead of repaying his parents by affection and obedience, this son, so carefully educated and tenderly indulged, were to turn out a vile character, and what is worse, were he to practice every maneuver to deceive his father, hide as far as he could all his misdeeds from him, put on an appearance of what is moral and good, and yet secretly was indulging in all manner of profligacy and vice, should not we cry shame upon such a son and such a course of conduct?

Or if we had a friend whom we had loaded with benefits, to whom we had done all the good we could, and sought in every way to serve and oblige, and then found that he had been taking counsel how he might injure us, and was secretly plotting some design how he might more deeply wound us, how we should lift up our hands and say, "O the ingratitude of man."

Or if we had from time to time walked to the house of God in the company of one of whom we had hoped well, if we had confided to him some secret of our inmost bosom, and found, too late, that he was a traitor to God, truth, and friendship, we would be amazed at man's iniquity and be surprised there could be any so vile. And yet all this is but a faint transcript, but a feeble copy of what we are internally, for I will not say that we have practiced all this externally, before the eyes of a holy God. It is thus that we "provoke him with our counsel."

The Lord has not allowed us, it may be, to put into active execution the various snares and contrivances of our wicked heart; has not tolerated us to walk as we would have walked unchecked; has not permitted us to erect our airy castles, or build and plant our visionary paradises. But the counsel was in our heart to do it, and this provoked him, though he would not allow the plot to ripen into execution. Have you never plotted any secret lusts, and devised plans to carry them out? Have you never rolled and reveled in imagination in scenes of wickedness, and carried out a whole drama of sin, from the conception of a lust to its full execution? Have you never fed your lusts instead of starving them, and given way to a temptation instead of withstanding it? Have you not again and again speculated, contrived, and planned something that your conscience knew was evil and hateful to God?

And now with all that your conscience has registered, and all that your conscience has forgotten, can you look up to God, and say, "I have never provoked you by my counsel; I have never had a thought in my heart, word in my lips, an action in my hands contrary to your holy will? I have always contrived that which was most for your honor and glory, and never indulged in any plan or scheme to promote my own interest, gratify my own mind, or please my own flesh." O you hypocrite! O you poor deceived creature, thus too mock God and man. What a veil must be over your heart thus to hide from your sight both sin and self; for had you one right view of what sin was in the sight of holy God, you would have said, "It is of the Lord's mercy I was not consumed when plotting and taking counsel with my wicked heart, and sinning in speculation and imagination if not in positive action."

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