Numbers 23:10 Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous… I. THAT NO MAN OUGHT TO EXPECT, OR HOPE, TO DIE THE DEATH OF THE RIGHTEOUS, WHO WILL NOT LEAD THE LIFE OF THE RIGHTEOUS. If a thorn-bush could bring forth grapes, or a thistle figs, we should not know what was coming next: certainty, as to causes and effects, would be at an end, and our ideas would be but chaos. So likewise if a bad life could lead to a good death, or if he who would none of the holy beginnings of the righteous could come at last to an end like his, all our moral ideas would be upset, and confusion worse confounded would ensue as to our duties, the consequences of human acts, and the relation of cause to effect in the spiritual sphere. The sight of the unity and harmony of God's laws in nature leads to faith in the truth and equity of His dealings with men as moral and responsible beings; and no clear mind can help seeing the force of the analogy. Nor can this argument be shaken by any theory about the efficacy of what are commonly known as death-bed repentances. Who knows anything about the worth of such changes? Are they really changes? II. WISHES, HOWEVER EARNEST, DO NOT OF NECESSITY BRING WITH THEM THE THING WISHED FOR. Why should the wish for eternal good have a power which no wish for temporal good possesses? If the mere wishing for what you want in this life does not give the thing wished for, how can you have, for a mere wish, the glories and rewards of the life to come? (Morgan Dix, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his! |
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