Deuteronomy 32:10 He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him… I. Now, although one of the chief objects of this discourse will be to adapt this portion of Scripture to our own times, it will be well to offer some few remarks in regard to THEIR PRIMARY APPLICATION; and they may be considered as containing a summary of all that had been suffered by the Israelites, of all that had been wrought by God on their behalf, of their departure from the bondage of Egypt, the perils of their journey, and the might of their deliverance. II. I would now speak on THREE STATES AND CONDITIONS OF BELIEVERS WHICH THE TEXT APPEARS TO DEPICT. 1. We behold the believer or spiritual Israelite in his natural state — "A desert land, a waste howling wilderness." We must be humble; for the idea of a "good heart," which is so much prated about, is just like a cankerworm in the soul. Whatever the consolations of faith are, it is not possible that Christ should be all, unless man actually feels himself to be nothing. 2. Our text depicts the believer in a regenerate state. Found of God, led and instructed by God. Here are the several stages of Christian experience. Man is found of God, rather than God is sought of man. The work of redemption is Divine in its commencement, as well as its consummation; and the Holy Spirit, through whose operations alone the soul is prepared for final glory, gives the first impulse, and excites the glorious aspiration. "I was found of them that sought Me not"; and, however these words may especially allude to the calling of the Gentile Church, you observe that they are descriptive of every believer's individual experience. "Found of God." This, then, is the commencement of spiritual life; and although when the arrow of conviction first enters into the conscience the sinner exclaims, as Ahab did to Elijah, "Hast thou found me, O my enemy!" Yet presently the soul rejoices in its deliverance. A sense of the burthen of sin gives way before the manifestation of Christ: and the man that is thus found of God finds his guilty burthen removed, and a full salvation amply provided and ensured. But whilst religion's "ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace," yet the course of God's dealings with His people is never one of undeviating serenity; it is, on the contrary, "through much tribulation" that the kingdom of heaven is entered; and the path which a Christian travels is generally so circuitous that it can only be described by saying, God led him about — from gardens smiling with the flowers of hope, to deserts stript of leaves, of foliage, of beauty. 3. He who is in a regenerate state is also in a secured and guarded state, which is the last condition our text depicts; God keeps true believers "as the apple of His eye." (H. Melvill, B. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. |
    |