by Rev. D. MacLean, Glasgow, on Monday, 29th May, 1967 (Taken down by a hearer)
We have been remarking again and again in connection with this psalm, that the psalmist is setting forth in the light of the various events which took place, the mercy of God revealed to His people in connection with such events. Whatever events may take place in connection with the true and spiritual Israel of God, they are taking place in the mercy of God. “All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans, ch. 8, v. 28), and whatever blessings and favours on the one hand, and whatever troubles and trials on the other hand they may be visited with, they come to them in the mercy of God. They are “the sure mercies of David”, the blessings of the “everlasting covenant”, prepared by the love of God and sealed over to them by the Word of that covenant, the blood that was shed on the cross at Calvary, the blood that sealed the covenant; and Christ being alive and “alive for evermore”, through the Holy Spirit, makes over these dispensations to them.
We were already considering how the mercy of God was revealed in connection with creation, although it is rather an unusual thing to see this in connection with the creation of God. While we see the wisdom, the power, and the Godhead of God revealed in connection with creation, we also came to the conclusion that His mercy was revealed in connection with creation in that creation was the place where mercy was to be revealed. This was the place concerning which Christ said, “I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.” (John, ch. 17, v. 4). It is in this world that we come to see and to understand the mercy of God.
Then we come to the providence of God — that is, the deliverance of Israel out of the land of Egypt through the blood of the paschal lamb and by the power of God, and then on the last occasion we were endeavouring to deal with their deliverance at the Red Sea. They were called upon the one hand to “stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord” (Exodus 14: 13), and on the other hand, once the way was opened up for them, “Wherefore criest thou unto Me? Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.” (Exodus 14: 15).
Now we come to what now took place after they had sung the song of Moses and of the Lamb on the other side of the Red Sea. The Lord had told them that the Egyptians they then saw they would see no more for ever, but now their experience was that they were led into the wilderness. “To Him Which led His people through the wilderness: for His mercy endureth for ever.” We might be ready to think that this is an unusual way or a strange way for the mercy of God to be revealed — leading a people into and through a wilderness in which their hearts were to be tried, and in which they were to learn what was in their hearts. This seems at first sight to be a strange way, and one might be ready to say, a harsh way for this people to be led to the promised land — through a wilderness. Yet we are told that He led them through the wilderness because of this: that His mercy endureth for ever.”
That brings us to notice one or two things in connection with this manifestation of the mercy of God in leading His people through the wilderness. The first thing we notice in connection with it is this: it was a leading through the wilderness.
The language of God’s providential dealings with Israel in the wilderness was this, “Arise ye and depart; for this is not your rest: because it is polluted.” (Micah 2: 10). The wilderness, the nature of the wilderness, the scorpions in the wilderness, the dangers surrounding them in the wilderness, were all destined to impress upon Israel the fact that this was not the promised land, this was not the place of rest. This was the place of journeying, and consequently this was part of the mercy of God to them, that they did not become like the tribes of the wilderness, or even like Hobab himself. One of the reasons why he did not want to go with the children of Israel was that they were travelling in a disciplined camp which could only rest when the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night rested, and they could only go forward when the pillar of cloud moved also. They were a people who were delivered from their own will, and they could not rest and they could not go forward except according to the will of God, and this was contrary to the mind of Hobab. He preferred to be free to do as he pleased. He preferred to be free to go according to his own will, to rest when he like, to strike camp when he liked, to travel through the wilderness whenever he pleased. But this people who were journeying to the place of rest, who were journeying to the heritage which God was to give to them, were a people who had their wills swallowed up in the will of God. They were dependent upon Him for their periods of rest, and dependent upon Him for the periods of going forward, and consequently they came to understand that this lesson was destined for them to learn: that the wilderness was not Canaan’s land, and that it was not their rest.
The same thing is true with regard to the spiritual Israel who have been brought out of the land of bondage, and who have experienced deliverances. You may remember how I emphasised last Monday how united the children of Israel felt to Moses. They “were all baptized unto Moses . . . in the sea.” They felt united to Moses coming out of the land of Egypt, but after their deliverance at the Red Sea, they felt more united to Moses. They felt a relationship to Moses more close, more warm, and more assured than even when they came out of the land of Egypt. So it is with regard to the spiritual Israel. With regard to their Moses, that is, their Mediator, the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, while they are united to Him by faith in being brought out of the land of bondage, yet when they obtain spiritual deliverances in this world, their union to Christ seems more assured to them. Their relationship to Christ seems clearer to them. It was only the “hand of the Lord” and of Moses that could have brought Israel through the Red Sea, and delivered them from foes so powerful and so determined upon their destruction, and just waiting for them to get into that cul-de-sac (as we mentioned) in order to destroy them. Now when they came out through the Red Sea, and this remarkable evidence of the arm of God was revealed, how united they felt to Moses! How united the soul feels to Christ when he experiences spiritual deliverances in this world! How very precious Christ seems to him, and how clear his own relationship to Christ appears on such an occasion!
We are now coming to this point: being in the wilderness. The Lord teaches the soul by the sorrows and by the trials, and by the tribulations, and by the temptations, and by the dangers of the wilderness of this world this great and solemn fact: “This is not your rest.” This is not the place where they are to attain to peace in the sense of it being peace without disturbance, nor to taste of the love of God in Christ in a way that they will not lose, or to attain to spiritual enjoyments of such a nature that they will not be spoiled by sin. “This is not your rest.” This is the wilderness. They are destined to be taught this. And it is mercy that is teaching them this. It is the mercy of God that is teaching them this. It is the mercy of God to teach us that this world is not our rest, and that this world is a place where we must follow in a large measure the “Man of sorrows” Who was “acquainted with grief”, and that it is only when “the ransomed of the Lord” do indeed “return and come to Zion” that “sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (Isaiah 35: 10). In this world they must fill up the cup of their sufferings for Christ’s sake, and therefore this is not their rest. It is the mercy of God to teach this, that we are not to make this world our rest even in the time of spiritual enjoyment such as the disciples had on the mount of transfiguration. You see Peter there and he is trying to make his rest there. He is saying, “Let us make here three tabernacles; one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.” (Matthew 17: 4). He did not want to go down among the Pharisees and the Sadducees, among the scoffers and the unbelievers, but just to be there with Moses and Elias in the tabernacles with Jesus of Nazareth, beholding His glory. Peter thought this would be a little heaven to them and that they would never go down again into the world, but you see what happened. They were taken out of that by the very thing that kept Israel on the move in the wilderness. We read that a cloud came over them and God spake out of the cloud. Just as the children of Israel travelled by the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, “they feared as they entered into the cloud” (Luke 9: 34), because the language of the cloud was this: “This is not your rest.” When they came down from the mount of transfiguration, there was the man whose son was lunatic and was being cast into the fire and into the water. There were the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the enemies of Christ, mocking His disciples because they could not perform this miracle. How different, how very different did this seem from the mount of transfiguration! It was a wilderness indeed in their scriptural experience when they were brought face to face with the tumult and the unbelief and the mocking and the sneering and the scowling of the enemies of Christ, but still this was what they were to be taught, “This is not your rest.” That is part of the wilderness journey that we would not build our nests, as I was saying yesterday (according to Samuel Rutherford) in the forests of this world. This is the wilderness. This is part of the mercy of God, because this world is not the place that the mercy of God has prepared for His people, but as Christ Himself said, “I go to prepare a place for you.” “In My Father’s house are many mansions.” (John 14: 2).
The second thing we would notice is this. The wilderness taught them that their food and their drink in the wilderness would need to be provided by the hand of God as surely as their deliverance out of Egypt, and their passing through the Red Sea. One was as certain as the other. You see because we are not as spiritually minded as we ought to be, when we are brought out of the land of Egypt we are very ready to think then that we are going to live on the store of our experience. When we have a great deliverance in our experience, such as the children of Israel enjoyed at the Red Sea, we are very ready to think that we are now able to feed ourselves and we are able to refresh ourselves. But the wilderness was to teach this lesson: that it was as necessary for them to receive the manna and water by the power of God, as it was for them to be delivered out of the land of Egypt and through the Red Sea by the power of God. Now the Apostle in writing to the Corinthians says this with regard to the fathers: they “were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And did all eat the spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink.” (1 Corinthians 10: 2, 3, 4). This manna from heaven is called “spiritual meat”. That does not mean to say that it was meat for the soul. It was food for the body. The same thing is true with regard to the rock that was smitten. Out of the rock came streams of water that followed the camp down through the wilderness. This was not spiritual water in the sense that it was water for the soul. It was water for the body. Therefore, what do the expressions “spiritual meat” and “spiritual drink” mean? Well, they mean this. The meat which was provided was spiritual because it was provided by the Spirit of God. The providing of the manna which came down in the dew of the morning and tasted like honey, was by the Spirit of God. It was “spiritual meat” because it was provided by the miraculous power of the Spirit of God. The same thing was true with regard to Moses when he smote the rock and the waters gushed forth. These waters coming out of the flinty rock were provided by the miraculous power of the Spirit of God. This was one of the lessons they had to learn in the wilderness. Not only did they come out of the land of Egypt and pass through the Red Sea by the miraculous power of God, but the food and the drink that they received was provided by the miraculous power of God also — the power of God the Holy Spirit.
This teaches us that if we are spiritually minded and have come out of the house of bondage by the power of the Spirit of God, and received spiritual deliverances in connection with temptations and trials and enemies in this world, we are still to learn that the food for the soul and the water for the soul — the Bread of Life and the Water of Life — must come from above. “A man can receive nothing except it be given him from Heaven.” (John 3:27). The same power that effectually called the soul is needed to feed the soul spiritually, is needed to give the soul a spiritual drink, is needed to give the soul that soul-satisfaction that the psalmist had when he said:
“Ev’n as with marrow and with fat
My soul shall filled be.” (Metrical Psalm 63:5).
The wilderness is destined to teach that, and the mercy of God is destined to teach that, and it is a great mercy from God if you and I are learning that. It is a great mercy from God if we cannot get a crumb from the gospel table, if we cannot get a drink out of “the cup of salvation” but by the power which brought us out of the land of bondage and which gives us spiritual deliverances from our enemies. Our food and our drink, our being fed, our being refreshed by getting a drink out of “the wells of salvation”, are all dependent on the same power which brought us out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of His dear Son. Now, you see, when a soul at the beginning comes out of the kingdom of darkness, and he begins to feed upon Christ and to drink water with joy out of “the wells of salvation”, then he is very ready to think that this is something he can do himself. He will not say that with his mouth, but secretly in his heart he has got the idea that this is something he can attain to. As he goes on in the world, and in the wilderness journey, and when he is left for days, or months, or perhaps years, without getting a drink out of “the wells of salvation”, what is this teaching him? It is teaching him this: “Without Me ye can do nothing.” (John 15:5). This is not just a doctrine to be learned out of the fifteenth chapter of the Gospel according to John. It is a doctrine to be learned in the wilderness, and in the wilderness experience, and it is a doctrine to be learned bitterly, and a doctrine that is going to bring tears to the eye of the soul, as he learns it again and again. “Without Me ye can do nothing.” The wilderness was intended for this purpose. “Which led His people through the wilderness: for His mercy endureth for ever.”
(to be continued)