Numbers 10:29-32 And Moses said to Hobab, the son of Raguel the Midianite, Moses' father in law, We are journeying to the place of which the LORD said… I. A PICTURE OF THE CHRISTIAN'S PILGRIMAGE. That wilderness wandering, so deeply indented with marks of Divine intervention, so resplendent with proofs of a present God, who went before them, cleaving the sea and the flood for them, subduing their enemies round about, is a varied type of the Church in the world. 1. The first lesson lying on the surface is that which relates to bearing testimony for Christ. There should be no hesitation about a Christian, as if he were afraid to say he was on the way to heaven. His speech or silence; his activity or quiet submission to the Divine will; his work and his worship, should boldly declare "whose he is, and whom he serves." 2. A second lesson taught us here is one of mutual forbearance. Though all Christians are journeying to the one place, there is a wide diversity of experience, of capacity, of attainment. No two human faces are alike; and it may be safely affirmed that no two conversions are in all respects the same, and no two Christians, however close their affections and sympathies, "grow in grace" at the same rate, or in dependence on the same supplies. II. A POWERFUL PLEADING WITH OTHERS TO JOIN THE PILGRIM IN HIS PROGRESS. There is a true ring in these words. Moses knew whom he had believed, and trusted his heavenly Father implicitly. 1. His invitation is founded on the Divine precept: "The Lord hath said I will give it you." It was a poor nomadic life after all — the tribes were living in the desert — if there had been no goal to which their aspirations and their movements tended. But the word of the Lord was a sure word on which to hope. With Divine leadership, pioneering and providing, defending and protecting, and a glorious inheritance at the end of the pilgrimage, there was everything to quicken, stimulate, and strengthen. Our condition is very like theirs, for we have not yet come "to the rest and the inheritance which God is to give to us," but we are on the way. 2. It is founded on a rich promise: "The Lord said I will give it you," and "the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel." As God promised Canaan to the tribes, so has "He opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers" by Jesus Christ. What though a wearisome pilgrimage lie between us and the heavenly rest, though dangers, enemies, fears manifold, are in the way, in nothing shall we be ashamed. All good is promised and not evil, what is good for body and soul, solid, enduring good, "the good part that shall not be taken away," even when life departs. Canaan was the ultimate embodiment of that good to ancient Israel, as heaven and eternal felicity with Christ are to us. But those of them that were true saints and pilgrims would have a foretaste of Canaan beforehand, as we too have of heaven upon earth. What was good for Hobab in the wilderness cannot be bad for us here, with heaven in reversion. 3. The invitation contains an earnest persuasive — "Come with us." True religion seeks to propagate itself by communicating its goodness to others. Persuasion and compulsion are the natural opposites of each other. The one entices, allures, woes, with sweet attention and magnetic influence: the other drives with mechanical force. Persuasion is that spirit of the gospel such as came from the living lips of Jesus when He said, "Come unto Me and I will give you rest" — that love which many waters could not quench, nor many floods drown. Who has not heard the fable of the sun and wind striving which of the two would compel a traveller to put off his cloak, the sun being the victor? Men will be led when they refuse to be driven. It is the love that plies persuasions, strengthened by incentives, and beautified by promises of the summum bonum, the supreme good to be got by coming over the line and coming out from the world, that conquers. (J. Blair.) Parallel Verses KJV: And Moses said unto Hobab, the son of Raguel the Midianite, Moses' father in law, We are journeying unto the place of which the LORD said, I will give it you: come thou with us, and we will do thee good: for the LORD hath spoken good concerning Israel. |
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