Numbers 13:23-24 And they came to the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from there a branch with one cluster of grapes… Strabo states that in Bible times and in Bible lands there were grape-vines so large that it took two men with outstretched arms to reach round them, and he says there were clusters two cubits in length, or twice the length from the elbow to the tip of the long finger. And Achaieus, dwelling in those lands, tells us that during the time he was smitten with fever one grape would slake his thirst for the whole day. No wonder, then, that in these Bible times two men thought it worth their while to put their strength together to carry down one cluster of grapes from the promised land. But I bring you a larger cluster from the heavenly Eshcol — a cluster of hopes, a cluster of prospects, a cluster of Christian consolations; and I am expecting that one taste of it will rouse up your appetite for the heavenly Canaan. 1. First, I console you with the Divinely sanctioned idea that your departed friends are as much yours now as they ever were. That child, O stricken mother! is as much yours this morning as in the solemn hour when God put it against your heart and said as of old, "Take this child and nurse it for Me, and I will give thee thy wages." It is no mere whim. It is a Divinely-planted principle in the soul, and God certainly would not plant a lie, and He would not culture a lie! 2. But I console you again with the fact of your present acquaintanceship and communication with your departed friends. 3. I console you still further with the idea of a resurrection. On that day you will get back your Christian dead. There is where the comfort comes in. And oh, the reunion; oh, the embrace after so long an absence! Comfort one another with these words. (T. de Witt Talmage.) Parallel Verses KJV: And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs. |
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