#1165 - What is a Weight?

What is a Weight?

  A weight is anything which, without being essentially wrong or hurtful to others, is yet a hindrance to ourselves. We may always know a weight by three signs: first, we are uneasy about it; second, we argue for it against our conscience; third, we go about asking people's advice, whether we may not keep it without harm. All these things must be laid aside in the strength which Jesus waits to give.--selected.


Illustrative Anecdotes for Preachers, Sunday School Teachers, and the Family Circle. Henry M. Tyndall. 1925. #1165 (Page 565).

#411 - "I Don't Know!"

“I Don't Know!”

  It was one of those delightful autumn days and the Westchester Presbytery was enjoying its noon recess. Several candidates had been examined for ordination, among them young Stanley Phraner, son of one of our best-known and best-loved ministers. In answer to several questions about future affairs I noticed that he answered firmly, “I do not know.” We took a little stroll along the country road that passed the church, and I asked him why he had made that answer, “I do not know.” He said:
  “That is a lesson I learned at sea. I will tell you the whole story.
  “One summer when a college student at Princeton, I thought I would vary my vacation by taking a trip as a sailor. The invitation of a sea captain, known to our family, offered the opportunity. I started from New York on a three-masted schooner bound for the island of Porto Rico. Being good at figures, the captain asked me to do his navigation for him. He gave me a chart, an almanac, a book of logarithms, and a quadrant. He showed me how to use these things, and this was the formula by which I was always to work:
  “'Secant your latitude, co-secant your polar distance, take the co-sine of one-half the sum and the sine of the remainder.'
  “So day after day, under the watchful eye of the captain, I calculated the ship's position. The captain was always careful to note that the rule had been followed exactly. So one day I asked him:
  “Captain, why do you secant your latitude?”
  “I don't know!” said the captain bluntly.
  “Well, can you tell my why you co-secant your polar distance?”
  “I don't know! Except—except—well, that's the rule. Young man, you want to know too much. Do as I tell you, follow the rule, all sailors use it. Trust your book of logarithms and you will make port all right.”
  “So day by day I put down the position on the chart. On the fourteenth day out I went to the captain and ventured my first forecast.
  “'To-night if the wind holds fair,' I said, 'we ought to make the Saul Rock passage into the Caribbean Sea.' That night I watched eagerly, and sure enough about eleven o'clock we sighted the great white rock looming up in the ocean, and the next day we entered the harbor of Mayaguez. Along the shore giant palms waved their lofty plumes in the soft breeze. Beyond, we could see the groves of orange and banana trees and all the tropical verdure of the island, while from bluff to bluff of the headlands on either shore of the harbor arose a mighty rainbow arch, which, reflected on the sea beneath, formed a circle of wondrous light into which we slowly drifted that Sabbath evening as we came to anchor in the harbor of our destination. The rule was right, and by it we made port. When I got back to Princeton I was able to study out some of the reasons why of the rule that could not be explained at sea, but had to be followed in simple trust.”
  In the school of the sea this Princeton student had learned to say “I don't know!” It is a lesson in the faith-life worth learning. How many queries rise in our Christian thinking and living when we ought just to set to our seal that God is true and that His promises are sure.
  Why did the holy angels fall from heaven?
  “I don't know!”
  How was it sin entered Eden?
  “I don't know!”
  Why is it some wicked people seem to prosper while some very good people suffer?
  “I don't know!”
  How can one reconcile man's free will and God's sovereignty?
  “I don't know!”
  For the present I can get along without knowing some of these things, for I walk by faith and not by sight. We seek a better country, we are still at sea. We have not yet reached the home port—God's haven of eternal rest. Our book is the Bible, God's own word. The Gospel rule is, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” When at last we enter the City of Light we may learn many a reason why that cannot be given now. “For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face; now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”--John S. Allen, D. D.


Illustrative Anecdotes for Preachers, Sunday School Teachers, and the Family Circle. Henry M. Tyndall. 1925. #411 (Pages 220-221).

#400 - The Mystery of God's Love.

The Mystery of God's Love.

  A gentleman, who thought Christianity was merely a heap of puzzling problems, said to an old minister, “That is a very strange verse in the ninth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, 'Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.'”
  “Very strange,” replied the minister; “but what is it, sir, that you see most strange about it?”
  “Oh, that part of course,” said the gentleman, patronizingly, and with an air of surprise, “'Esau have I hated' is certainly very strange.”
  “Well, sir,” said the old minister, “how wonderfully are we made, and how differently constituted. The strangest part of all to me is that He could have loved Jacob.”
  There is no mystery so glorious as the mystery of God's love.--Selected.

Illustrative Anecdotes for Preachers, Sunday School Teachers, and the Family Circle. Henry M. Tyndall. 1925. #400 (Page 214).

#375 - The Doxology in Empty Flour Barrel

The Doxology in Empty Flour Barrel.

  It is one thing to trust God when the flour-barrel is full, when there is money in the bank to fall back on and when the wages are coming in regularly.
  It is quite another thing to trust God when the barrel is empty, the money in the bank gone, and no wages coming in. Under these conditions one is apt to find that what was supposed to be faith in God was simply faith in a full flour-barrel.
  I heart the Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, on the China Inland Mission, say, “When I came to a place of testing where my faith was most needed, I found it gradually going; then I learned to look less to my faith, and to depend more on God's faithfulness.”
  Only as we come to God's Word and plant our feet upon the promises shall we find faith abiding in times of testing.
  The flour may be gone; the money may be gone, the salary gone; but God is there.
  I know this to be true. I had often said in public talks, “It takes real faith in God to be able to put your head into an empty flour-barrel and sing the doxology.” My wife had heard me say this and not long since she called me to the kitchen. I said, “What do you want me for?”
  She replied, “I want you to come out here and sing.” I thought this queer, so I went out to see what it all meant.
  In the center of the floor there was an empty flour-barrel she had just dusted out.
  “Now, my dear,” said she, “I have often heard you say one could put his head into an empty flour-barrel and sing, 'Praise God from whom all blessings flow,' if he believed what God said. Now here is your chance' practive what you preach.”
  There was the empty flour-barrel staring at me with open mouth; my pocket-book was empty as the barrel; I was not on a salary, and knew of no money that was coming in. I do not know that my wife enjoyed my preaching, but she was evidently bent on enjoying my practicing. I looked for my faith and could not find it; I looked for a way of escape, but could not find that, my wife blocking the door of the exit with the dust-brush covered with flour.
  I said, “I will put my head in and sing, on one conditon.”
  “What's that?” said my wife.
  “The condition that you will put your head in with me. You know how you promised to share my joys and sorrows.”
  She consented; so we put our heads in and sang the long-metre doxology. I will not say what else we did, but we had a good time; and when we got our heads out we were a good bit powdered up, which we took as a token that there was more flour to follow.
  Sure enough, though no person knew of our need or the empty barrel, the next day a grocery man called with a barrel of flour for the Gibbuds! Who sent it, or where it came from, we do not know to this day, save that we know that our heavenly Father knew that we had “need of these things.”
  I have joined with a thousand voices in singing the grand old doxology; I have sung it in many a fine church building, also in the open air under the blue canopy of heaven; but there is something very peculiar about the sound of the song when sung in an empty flour-barrel under the foregoing conditions. I have repeated the experience once or twice since with the same result though now I never spend any time in looking for my faith; I simply apply for flour at Phil. 4:19, and then sing. “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.” Bread, butter, beef, beans, and all our needs we find can be supplied from the same place.
  In days gone by we have trusted in a good salary, but that sometimes failed to materialize; we have trusted in a good committee, but they did not always know when rent was due. But the Lord knows when the first day of the month comes around, and He has never failed to send us our rent money before it was due. “Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily (in 'truth,' the margin says) thou shalt be fed,” the Douay version reading, “Though shalt be fed with riches.”
  There is board and lodging for anybody who will “trust in the Lord and do good.”--H.B. Gibbud.

Illustrative Anecdotes for Preachers, Sunday School Teachers, and the Family Circle. Henry M. Tyndall. 1925. #375 (Page 200-201).

#328 - A Dazzling Argument

A Dazzling Argument

  “You teach,” said the Emperor Tajan to Rabbi Joshua, “that your God is everywhere, and boast that He resides among your nation. I should like to see Him.” “God's presence is, indeed, everywhere,” replied Joshua; “suppose we try first to look at his ambassadors.” The Emperor consented. The Rabbi took him in the open air at noonday and bade him look at the sun in the meridian splendor. “I cannot,” said Trajan; “the light dazzles me.” “Thou art unable,” said Joshua, “to endure the light of one of His creatures, and canst thou expect to behold the resplendent glory of the Creator? Would not such a sight annihilate thee?”--Hebrew Tales.

Illustrative Anecdotes for Preachers, Sunday School Teachers, and the Family Circle. Henry M. Tyndall. 1925. #328 (Page 179).

#306 - The Infidel Prayed

The Infidel Prayed

  I remember, says the bishop of Saskatchewan, many years ago listening with great delight to a story I heard from a missionary in North Canada. He said that some years before then a humble missionary was travelling through the Canadian backwoods. He lost his way, but presently was rejoiced at the sight of a glimmering light. Soon reaching it, to his surprise he found a large congregation of settlers gathered around a fire listening to an able discourse. To the horror of the missionary he found the man was trying to prove that there was no God, no heaven, no hell, no eternity. A murmur of applause went through the audience as the orator ceased.
  The missionary stood up and said: “My friends, I am not going to make a long speech to you, for I am tired and weary, but I will tell you a little story. A few weeks ago I was walking on the banks of the river not far from here. I heard a cry of distress, and to my horror I saw a canoe drifting down the stream and nearing the rapids. There was a single man in the boat.
  “In a short time he would near the waterfall and be gone. He saw his danger and I heard him scream, 'O God, if I must lose my life, have mercy on my soul!' I plunged into the water and reached the canoe. I dragged it to land and saved him. The man whom I heard when he thought no one was near, praying to God to have mercy on his soul, is the man who has just addressed you, and has told you he believes there is neither God, nor heaven, nor hell.”--Selected.

Illustrative Anecdotes for Preachers, Sunday School Teachers, and the Family Circle. Henry M. Tyndall. 1925. #306 (Page 166).

#218 - Are You Watching

Are You Watching.

  A young lady whose parents had died while she was an infant had been kindly cared for by a dear friend of the family. Before she was old enough to know him, his business took him to Europe. Regularly he wrote to her through all the years of his absence, and never failed to send her money for all her wants. Finally a word came that during a certain week he would return and visit her. He did not fix the day nor hour. She received several invitations to take pleasure trips with her friends during that week. One of those was of so pleasant a nature that she could not resist accepting it. During her trip he came, inquired as to her absence, and left. Returning, she found this note:
  “My life has been a struggle for you, might you not have waited one week for me?” More she never heard, and her life of plenty became a life of want.
  Jesus has not fixed the day or hour of His return, but He has said, “Watch!” and should He come today would He find us absorbed in thoughtless dissipation?--British Evangelist.

Illustrative Anecdotes for Preachers, Sunday School Teachers, and the Family Circle. Henry M. Tyndall. 1925. #218 (Page 112).

#194 - The First Offer

The First Offer

  A clergyman was visiting a man of business and the following conversation substantially occurred:
  “It is true,” said the merchant, “I am not satisfied with my present condition. I am not 'of a settled mind in religion,' as you express it. Still I am not utterly hopeless. I may yet enter the vineyard, even at the eleventh hour.”
  “Ah! your allusion is to the Saviour's parable of the loitering laborers who wrought one hour at the end of the day. But you have overlooked the fact that these men accepted the first offer.”
  “Is that so?”
  “Certainly; they said to the lord of the vineyard, “No man hath hired us.' They welcomed the first offer immediately.”
  “True; I had not thought of that before. But then the thief on the cross, even while dying, was saved.”
  “Yes, but it is likely that even he had never rejected the offer of salvation as preached by Christ and His apostles. Like Barabbas, he had been a robber by profession. In the resorts to which he had been accustomed the Gospel had never been preached. Is there not some reason to believe that he, too, accepted the first offer?”
  “Why, you seem desirous to quench my last spark of hope.”
  “Why should I not? Such hope is illusion. You had really no promise of acceptance at some future time. Now is the accepted time! Begin now.”
  “How shall I begin?”
  “Just as the poor leper did when he met Jesus by the way and committed his body to the great Physician in order to be healed. So commit your soul to Him as a present Saviour. Then serve Him from love. The next – even the most common – duty of life that you have to perform, do it as a service to Him. Will you accept the first offer? Your eyes are open to see your peril. Beware of delay!”
  “You are right; may God help me. I fear I have been living in a kind of dreamy delusion on this subject.” Ex.

Illustrative Anecdotes for Preachers, Sunday School Teachers, and the Family Circle. Henry M. Tyndall. 1925. #194 (Pages 101-102).

#193 - Submission

Submission

  “For me, I feel that nothing can be easier than to fulfill the duty which lies before me in life,” said P-, a young Christian, in a college prayer meeting. “I have given up my plans for entering into business. I shall devote my life to preaching the gospel. I have divided the day into periods. So many hours for prayer, so many for biblical study, so many for work and necessary recreation. I shall make it an absolute rule to speak with kind entreaties to evil-doers, never to allow my temper to be disturbed, and to occupy myself wholly in works of kindness and charity. I have begun this carefully-ordered life, and find it easy and full of sweetness.”
  The next day P- received a telegram that his father was dying. He hastened home, to find him dead and insolvent. He left the care of his helpless brothers and sisters on P-. He was forced to go to work as a bookkeeper, and to postpone his preparation for the ministry. His life for two years was a hard one; seventeen hours of labor, and an unhappy, quarrelsome family at home. At the end of that time an accident disabled him for months. He was confined to bed, suffering great pain at intervals, and surrounded by the direst poverty, which he could do nothing to relieve. He grew bitter and skeptical.
  “Can there be a just God?” he said to a friend, “My purposes were good. He has thwarted them all. I might have been a pillar in God's house. He has left me a useless lump of clay by the wayside.”
  “He gave the opportunity to preach submission and patience as you could have done in no pulpit,” was the answer. “You are a lump of clay and he the potter. It does not matter whether you are made into a rare porcelain vessel or an earthen one, provided you hold his purity and love and give it to the world.”
  The rebuke had its effect. Years afterwards P- gained his wish and became a Christian minister. He declared that at no time of his life was he brought so near to Go din humility and love as during the years when he was debarred from openly proclaiming his name.
  There are few of us who do not at some time in our lives complain that God has retrained and thrust us into the background when we would have rendered him service. The roots of the tree, could they reason, would doubtless rebel when they are buried in the dark, damp earth, but out if it they gather the life and sweetness for the flower and fruit. Obedience is true religious service, and experience is often the best scholarship of life.--Youths Companion.

Illustrative Anecdotes for Preachers, Sunday School Teachers, and the Family Circle. Henry M. Tyndall. 1925. #193 (Page 101).

#138 - Taught by His Hand

Taught By His Hand

  Rev. E. P. Dunlap, D. D., for many years a missionary in Siam, at a meeting held some years ago, related the following remarkable incident:

  In one of the Southern provinces was found an old man, the Lieut. Governor of the province, who was already a Christian. In his early life he was a maker and worshiper of idols. One day he was looking at his own hands, and said to his wife, “These hands of ours are very wonderful. There must be some power above us to make such hands. Gods that we make cannot do it. Why should we worship them?” So they decided not to worship them any more, but to worship this unknown power, under a name meaning the “Supreme of the Universe.”

  This they did for many years. One day in Bangkok the old man saw a man selling books, and said to him, “What books are those you are selling?” The man replied:

  “The best of books, which tells us about God who made all things.[”] “That is what I want,” the old man said, and bought several, one being a Bible, which he opened at the first chapter of Genesis, and read with delight. He and his wife read it and studied it carefully for months. They then said, “We will worship the Supreme under the name of Jesus,[”] which they did for years.

  Dr. Dunlap baptized them, and the old man built a house for him and the missionaries who came that way and entertained them. One day he went to a silver casket and took out some papers. He told Dr. Dunlap that his friends said to him, “What do you believe, what must we believe if we do not worship idols?” So without any help from any one, lead by the Spirit of God he had formulated a creed from the Word of God. It began:

  “I believe in God the father, I believe in God the Son; I believe is God the Holy Spirit,” and so on, containing all the essential points of our evangelical faith. The one point of difference was his refusal to eat things strangled, in obedience to the first council of the church at Jerusalem.

  What a commentary upon the power of God's word and the necessity of giving it free circulation, without note or comment. How true the promise, “My word shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”--Rev. Henry M. Tyndall.

(Page 66)

Illustrative Anecdotes for Preachers, Sunday School Teachers, and the Family Circle. Henry M. Tyndall. 1925. #138 (Page 66).

#107 - A Submissive WIfe

A Submissive Wife

  A good woman's husband was spending an evening at a tavern. The conversation turned on their wives. The husband said his wife was excellent, only she was religious. "But," said he, "such is the command she has of her temper that were I to take you home at midnight and order her to get a supper, she would be all submission and cheerfulness." The company regarded this as a boast, and dared him to try it. The bargain was made.

  "Where is your mistress?" said the husband to the servant who sat up for him.

  "Gone to bed, sir."

  "Call her up. I have brought some friends home and desire supper." She came down and received the company, told them she had some chickens ready, and that supper should be got. It was served with much cheerfulness.

  One of them said to this lady: "Your civility fills us all with surprise. Our visit is in consequence of a wager, which we have lost. As you cannot approve our conduct, why so much kindness to us?"

  "Sir, when I married, my husband and myself were unconverted. It pleased God to call me out of that danger. My husband continues in it. Were he to die he must be miserable forever. I think it my duty to render his present existence as comfortable as possible."

  This affected the whole company, and left a deep impression on the husband's mind.

  "Do you, my dear," he said, "really think I will be eternally miserable? I thank you for the warning. By the grace of God I will change my conduct." He became a Christian and a good husband.

Illustrative Anecdotes for Preachers, Sunday School Teachers, and the Family Circle. Henry M. Tyndall. 1925. #107 (Page 49).

#37 - Build Higher

Build Higher

A young lady was dying of consumption. As she sat at the open window, she saw a couple of little birds come and build their nest on a branch not high from the ground. Day by day she watched them, and observed first the nest, then the eggs, and then the nestlings. As she watched them day by day, she used to shake her head, and say, "Silly birds, why not build higher?" And then when the little nestlings came and began to show their heads above the nest, the burden of her exclamation was still, why not higher?

One morning when she took her accustomed seat at the window lattice, she saw the nest all torn to pieces, and the ground strewn with the feathers of the poor little nestlings, and marks of violence all around; and then she said, "Ah, did I not tell you to build higher! Had you built higher you would have been secure from harm, and this dire mishap would not have befallen you." And you, my friends, when you come to cross the river of death, if ever you fail to get to the better land, when you look back it will be with the bitterest remorse that you will cry out, Why did I not build higher? Why did I not lay up my treasure in heaven, instead of spending my time and my money on the meat which perisheth, and on pleasures which pass away in a moment!--Henry Drummond.

Illustrative Anecdotes for Preachers, Sunday School Teachers, and the Family Circle. Henry M. Tyndall. 1925. #37 (Pages 17-18).

#34 - How the Pigs Were Led

How the Pigs Were Led

Many years ago I met a drover of pigs in one of the narrow streets of a large town; and, to my surprise, they were not driven, but quietly followed their leader. The singular fact excited my curiosity; and I pursued the swine until they all quietly entered the butchery. I then asked the man how he succeeded in getting the poor, stupid, stubborn pigs so willingly to follow him; when he told me the secret. He had a basket of beans under his arm; and kept dropping them as he proceeded, and so gained his object. Ah, my dear hearers, the devil has got his basket of beans; and he knows how to suit his temptations to every sinner. He drops them by the way; the poor sinner is thus led captive by the devil at his will; and if grace prevent not, he will get him at last into his butchery, and there he will keep him forever. Oh, it is because we are not ignorant of his devices that we are anxious this evening to guard you against them.

Illustrative Anecdotes for Preachers, Sunday School Teachers, and the Family Circle. Henry M. Tyndall. 1925. #34 (Page 16).

#17 - Scottish Honesty

Scottish Honesty

At one time in the highlands of Scotland, to ask for a receipt or promissory note, was considered an insult, and such a thing as a breach of contract was rarely heard of so strictly did the people regard their honor. There is a story of a farmer who had been to the lowlands, and had there acquired worldly wisdom.

[“]After returning to his native place he needed some money, and requested a loan from a gentleman in the neighborhood. The latter, Mr. Stewart, complied and counted out the gold, when the farmer immediately wrote a receipt. “And what is this man?” cried Mr. Stewart, on receiving the slip of paper. “That is a receipt, sir, binding me to give ye back your gold at the right time,[”] replied Donald. “Binding ye, indeed! Well, an, if ye canna trust yoursel', I'm sure I'll na trust ye! Such as ye canna hae my gold;” and, gathering it up, he returned it to his desk and locked it up.

“But, sir, I might die,” replied the needy Scot unwilling to surrender his hope of the loan, [“]and perhaps my sons might refuse it to ye, but the bit of paper would compel them.[”] [“]Compel them to sustain their dead father's honor![”] cried the enraged Celt, “They'll need compelling to do right if this is the road ye're leading them. Ye can gang elsewhere for money, I tell ye; but ye'll find nane about here that'll put more faith in a bit of paper than a neighbor's word of honor and his love of the right.[”]--Selected.

Illustrative Anecdotes for Preachers, Sunday School Teachers, and the Family Circle. Henry M. Tyndall. 1925. #17 (Page 8).

Deuteronomy 8:1-10,11-20

Deuteronomy 8:1-10

[1] You shall observe to do all the commandments which I command you this day, that you may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers. [2] You shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, to prove you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments, or not. [3] He humbled you, and allowed you to be hungry, and fed you with manna, which you didn’t know, neither did your fathers know; that he might teach you that man does not live by bread only, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of Yahweh’s mouth. [4] Your clothing didn’t grow old on you, neither did your foot swell, these forty years. [5] You shall consider in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so Yahweh your God disciplines you. [6] You shall keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him. [7] For Yahweh your God brings you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of springs, and underground water flowing into valleys and hills; [8] a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig trees and pomegranates; a land of olive trees and honey; [9] a land in which you shall eat bread without scarceness, you shall not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you may dig copper. [10] You shall eat and be full, and you shall bless Yahweh your God for the good land which he has given you.

Testing / Proving / He humbled you

1 Peter 1:6-7 [6] Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been put to grief in various trials, [7] that the proof of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes even though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ—

James 1:2-4 [2] Count it all joy, my brothers, [] when you fall into various temptations, [3] knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. [4] Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

He humbled you

Three times in this chapter (8:2,3,16), Moses reminds God's people that he humbled them. God humbled them to prove them or test them (v2), to teach them something (v3), and to do them good at their latter end (v16). For the children of Israel, this humbling meant following God through the wilderness, being hungry, feeding on unknown foods, and being trained / disciplined by God. Who would bring this humbling upon themselves. And yet, for God's people who have been humbled, many have found that such times are a great treasure. Much is learned in character, and God is near. James, having experienced such from God's hand, encouraged us in his epistle: "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing" (James 1:2-4).

The Good land & keeping the commandments of the Lord

John 15:9-11 [9] Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love. [10] If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and remain in his love. [11] I have spoken these things to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be made full.

Gaining and Retaining the Good Land

Observing and doing all the commandments of God is both the means or path of entering the good land (Deuteronomy 8:1), and the means or path of remaining in the good land (Deuteronomy 8:19-20). This is true for both God's people in the Old Testament, and for God's people in the New Testament.

God's commandments to us and the good land in its spiritual reality are not two separate things. God does not ask us to keep certain commands or laws, and then if we do, he rewards us with some totally unrelated good land. Whatever a man sows, that he will reap. Do we flee youthful lusts and pursue righteousness? Do we clothe ourselves with humility? Do we pursue peace with all men? Do we love God and love our neighbor as God defines love? When we live such lives (working our our salvation in both the fear and power of God), this seed is blessed with an abundant crop both in this life and eternal life in the next.

God uses means. He does not create peace in the church out of thin air. As a church, we are called to pursue peace with all men (Hebrews 12:14), to clothe ourselves with humility toward one another (1 Peter 5:5), to count the other better than ourselves (Philippians 2:3). Is not this the means God created to gain the great blessing of heavenly blessed peace and joy in the church?

Psalm 128 speaks of the blessedness of the man who fears the Lord and walks in his ways. He will find happiness and well-being in his home, with his wife and with his children. Behold, thus is the man blessed who fears the Lord. Again, this blessedness does not just happen on its own. The means God has given as the path to such blessing is the fear of the Lord and walking in his ways. His ways include living a holy and godly life that is pleasing to the Lord and an example to your family. His ways also include the purposeful teaching of your own children the fear of God and the ways of God. His ways include loving your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Would not the seeds of such a life grow into the blessings spoken of by the Psalmist in Psalm 128?

While the fear of God and a life that walks in his ways is the path to gaining promised blessings, it is also the means of retaining these blessings (Deuteronomy 8:19-20). King Saul was little in his own sight (1 Samuel 15:17) when he was made king. As time went by, Saul laid aside him humility for the garment of pride (1 Samuel 15:12). Through his latter disobedience, he was rejected from being king (1 Samuel 15:23). He lost the blessing he had gained. Rather, it might be said, even the kingdom that he thought he had was taken away from him (Luke 8:18).

Luke 8:17-18 [17] For nothing is hidden, that will not be revealed; nor anything secret, that will not be known and come to light. [18] Be careful therefore how you hear. For whoever has, to him will be given; and whoever doesn’t have, from him will be taken away even that which he thinks he has.”

Deuteronomy 8:11-20

[11] Beware lest you forget Yahweh your God, in not keeping his commandments, and his ordinances, and his statutes, which I command you this day; [12] lest, when you have eaten and are full, and have built fine houses, and lived in them; [13] and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; [14] then your heart might be lifted up, and you forget Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; [15] who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with fiery serpents and scorpions, and thirsty ground where there was no water; who poured water for you out of the rock of flint; [16] who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers didn’t know; that he might humble you, and that he might prove you, to do you good at your latter end: [17] and lest you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth.” [18] But you shall remember Yahweh your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth; that he may establish his covenant which he swore to your fathers, as at this day. [19] It shall be, if you shall forget Yahweh your God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. [20] As the nations that Yahweh makes to perish before you, so you shall perish; because you wouldn’t listen to Yahweh your God’s voice.

Deuteronomy 7

Deuteronomy 7

[1] When Yahweh your God brings you into the land where you go to possess it, and casts out many nations before you, the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, seven nations greater and mightier than you; [2] and when Yahweh your God delivers them up before you, and you strike them; then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them; [3] neither shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to his son, nor shall you take his daughter for your son. [4] For he will turn away your son from following me, that they may serve other gods. So Yahweh’s anger would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. [5] But you shall deal with them like this. You shall break down their altars, dash their pillars in pieces, and cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their engraved images with fire. [6] For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God. Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth.

"For you are a holy people..." (v6). Being a holy people (a chosen people, etc.) has two sides: "Because" and "So that." Verses 5 and 6 show us these two sides. In verse 5 God commands his people to do certain things that would separate them from the nations - SO THAT they can be holy. In verse 6 we read that they should carry out the commands of verse 5 BECAUSE they are a holy people. On the one hand, we are a holy people. We should live accordingly. On the other hand, we are called to be holy as God is holy. It is something we must pursue.

[7] Yahweh didn’t set his love on you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all peoples: [8] but because Yahweh loves you, and because he desires to keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, Yahweh has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. [9] Know therefore that Yahweh your God himself is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with them who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations, [10] and repays those who hate him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack to him who hates him. He will repay him to his face. [11] You shall therefore keep the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances, which I command you this day, to do them.

Why did God choose (v7) the children of Israel? God mentions this briefly here (Chapter 9 considers this further). He leaves them nothing to boast of in themselves. God says that he chose them because he loves them, and desired to keep his oath to their fathers. He loves them. They must remain in his love (John 15:9-10). Humility is of great service in this remaining or abiding.

Today, we ought to heed the admonition of the apostle Peter, who exhorts us to clothe ourselves with humility. God gives grace to the humble. We need his grace if we are to remain or abide in his love.

[12] It shall happen, because you listen to these ordinances, and keep and do them, that Yahweh your God will keep with you the covenant and the loving kindness which he swore to your fathers. [13] He will love you, bless you, multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your livestock and the young of your flock, in the land which he swore to your fathers to give you. [14] You shall be blessed above all peoples. There shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your livestock. [15] Yahweh will take away from you all sickness; and none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you know, will he put on you, but will lay them on all those who hate you. 

[16] You shall consume all the peoples whom Yahweh your God shall deliver to you. Your eye shall not pity them: neither shall you serve their gods; for that would be a snare to you. [17] If you shall say in your heart, “These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?” [18] you shall not be afraid of them. You shall remember well what Yahweh your God did to Pharaoh, and to all Egypt; [19] the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which Yahweh your God brought you out. So shall Yahweh your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. [20] Moreover Yahweh your God will send the hornet among them, until those who are left, and hide themselves, perish from before you. [21] You shall not be scared of them; for Yahweh your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God. [22] Yahweh your God will cast out those nations before you little by little. You may not consume them at once, lest the animals of the field increase on you. [23] But Yahweh your God will deliver them up before you, and will confuse them with a great confusion, until they are destroyed. [24] He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name perish from under the sky. No one will be able to stand before you, until you have destroyed them. [25] You shall burn the engraved images of their gods with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourself, lest you be snared in it; for it is an abomination to Yahweh your God. [26] You shall not bring an abomination into your house, and become a devoted thing like it. You shall utterly detest it, and you shall utterly abhor it; for it is a devoted thing.