Jottings

McCheyne, in his well known hymn, "Jehovah Tsidkenu," speaks of "Isaiah's grand measure," and in the beginning of his prophecy Isaiah strikes a high note: he says,

"Hear, 0 heavens and give ear 0 earth for the LORD hath spoken:

I have nourished and 'brought up ch'ildren, an'd they have rd)elled against Me. The oi' knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, My people doth not consider" (Isaiah ~. 8).

Heaven and earth, a dual witness, are called to bear witness of the fact that Jehovah, the covenant God of Israel, had spoken. But what was the result of His speaking? Alas, even the durnb beasts knew their owner and place of rest, but not so Israel; they neither knew nor did they consider. There is hope for the ignorant if they will but consider, but if one is not prepared to consider, there is no hope for such a one.

Moses, too, begins his second song in similar strain, a song which he wrote for the children who had grown up in their fathers' stead. His first song their fathers sang on the shore of the Red Sea (Exodus 15.). That was a day of victory and jubilation. Their enemies had perished in the waters of the Red Sea; there was not one of them left. But though these men of Israel saw that work of God and His work for years after, they perished because of their unbelief and disobedience. How many have sung salvation's song, yet have lost their hves through disobedience to the word of God!

Soon the children of the men who perished in the wilderness were to cross the river Jordan to the promised land. What will be the record of their lives, and that of their children after them?

Moses begins his song much like Isaiah's prophecy:

"Give ear, ye heavens, and I ivill speak;

And let the earth hear the words of my mouth:

My doctrine shall drop as the rain,

My speech shall distil as the dew;

As the small rain upon the tender grass,

And as showers upon the herb" (Deuteronomy 32.1, 2).

Moses calls heaven and earth to witness the fact that he has spoken, and spoken the word of God. The word doctrine mei~ "to take." The word is used in that passage in Ezekiel 8.8: "He took me by a lock of my head." When the word of God is taught what a precious experience it is when it takes hold upon you, when it acts as Arops of rain upon the grass! The rain drops lay hold upon the tender grass and the grass receives the rain. Gesenius~says of the word "doctrine," "doctrine, knowledge, which any one receives, i.e., perceives or learns." Sometimes the mmistry of the word is like "clouds of water, carried about by winds" (Jude 12). The clouds sail past, but there is no rain shower, no refreshment. The word just does not take hold upon you, and there is no refreshment. But when the word grips the mind, the heart, the conscience, what an effect it has

When Moses used the words for "drop" and "distil," he used words in which there is the thought of abundance. Young says of "drop," to drop, be abundant, and of "distil," Gesenius says, of the Hebrew word, to flow, to run, "of whatever flows down plentifully." There is a copiousness indicated in the doctrine of Moses. There is nothing shallow; it contemplates dew flowing as streams of water. Israel under such minsstry should have been as a well-watered land, a land at rest, verdant and fruitful. But, alas, though the doctrine was good and life.giving, the people were like the land of which Paul speaks in Hebrews 6.8, a land which (though it received rain and God's blessing) brought forth only thorns and thistles. Such are backsilders to-day, and such was Israel of old. Their goodness was as a morning cloud, and as the dew that goeth early away (Hosea 6.4). But it will not always be so with Israel, for God, speaking of the latter days of Israel, says, "I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall blossom as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon" (Hosea 14.5, 6). The restoration of the backsliders is a delight to the heart!

J.M.

"I planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase" (1 Corinthians

3.6). Thus Paul wrote of the work of God in Corinth. It was a noble work which was wrought in that commercial city of ancient Greece. Luke recounts the work briefly, as he tells of the determined Jewlsh opposition to the preaching

of Christ crucified: but "many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were

baptized" (Acts is. 8). Here was a gospel preached, not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. It transformed the lives of men who had sunk low in immoral practices, as we learn from 1 Corinthians 6.9, 10' where the apostle indicates certain forms of sin, and says, "Such were some of you." Paul's work was foundational. "I laid a foundation," "I planted," were his words concerning his work, but Apollos continued with the very necessary work of watering the plants. Watering simply means teaching the word of God. Solomon says,

"The liberal soul (the soul of blessing, A. V. marg.) shall be made fat:

And ~e that watereth shall be watered also himeelf" (Proverbs ii. 25).

The word in the Hebrew for "watereth" is the word yara, which in the A.V. is rendered over forty times by the word "teach." It is first used of Moses, when God sent him to Egypt and he was unwilling to go. God said, "Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt speak." Moses being yet diffident to go, God spoke of Aaron coming to meet Moses, and He said, "Thou shalt speak unto him, and put the words in his mouth: and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do" (Genesis 4.12, 15).

In Psalm 25.12 we are told the kind of man that God teaches, for God never casts His pearls before swine,

"What man is he that feareth the LORD?

Him shall He instruct (teach, A. V.) in the way that He shall choose."

Yet again David, in one of the Psalms in which he confessed his sin with Bathsheba, speaks of the godly man praying in the time of the finding out (Hebrew, "a time of finding," probably the finding of sin, though the text gives it as the time of finding God), and we find God sayihg,

"I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go:

I will cou.nsel thee with Mine eye upon thee.

Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding" (Psalm 32.8, 9).

Here David again indicates the kind of man that God will teach. Isaiah too joins with David in showing whom God will teach.

"Whom will He teach knowledge? and whom will He make to understand the message? them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts? For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little" (Isaiah

28.10).

May we have a child-like mind to be taught of God. Many of God's dear children have grown too old to be taught. The cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things have choked the word. The worid has corroded their mind. The fine gold has become dim and no longer reflects the i'age of the Saviour's face.

In the coming millennial day, all eyes shall turn to Zion, where great David's greater Son shall reign and many nations shall say, "Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem" (Isaiah 2.8). As we think of the world, now with almost endless variety of false and evil teachings, all of

which are traceable to the father of lies, we long for the day when all the foul brood will be swept away, and the true light shall shine the world over. May we at the present time be among those that water God's saints, teaching the healthf~il doctrine, the doctrine which is according to godiiness, knowing in experience that as we water we shall ourselves be watered. God will ever teach the teacher and be with his mouth. J.M.

unknown | Jul 1950
Jottings