How could one man pursue a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up? Sermons
I. EVERY MAN CRAVES FOR SOME GROUND OF CONFIDENCE, EXTERNAL TO HIMSELF. To the men of the East, this external foundation of trust was best described as a rock. What the solid rock is amid the loose alluvial soil of Egypt, or amid the shifting sand of the desert, that God is designed to be unto every man. Complete independence is impossible to created man. He can never be self-contained nor self-nourished. Pure atheism has never been a permanent resting-place for the human heart. When the invisible God is forsaken, the human mind swings toward idolatry. The carnal mind finds delight in a ground of confidence that is visible and tangible. Some god we must have, if it be only the shadowy deity named Fate, or Law, or Chance. II. COMPLETE CONTRAST EXISTS BETWEEN THE OBJECTS OF HUMAN TRUST. The only point of similarity is the name. The devil borrows this, so as the better to throw dust in the eyes of his followers. Our God is a Rock; the world also has its counterfeit rock. By the judgments and verdict of worldly men, our Rock differs in tote from theirs. Their rock, they acknowledge, is unstable and unreliable. They trust it simply because they know not a better. It is misnamed a rock. Their rock ofttimes deserts them in the hour of greatest need. Ah! fortune, say they, is fickle. Very tyrannical and self-willed is fate. But our God is a Rock in very deed. He never forsakes his liege disciples. In the darkest hour he is nearest - the "shadow of a great rock in a weary land." Their misnamed rock encourages them to enter the battle-field, and then forsakes them. They are "sold to the enemy." III. NOTWITHSTANDING THE CONTRAST IN THESE OBJECTS OF TRUST, THE FALSE IS A CLEVER IMITATION OF THE TRUE. All through life, we find that the false counterfeits the true. The thief puts on the pretence of honesty. The villain trains himself to use fair speech. The adulterer wears the garb of virtue. Beauty is the robe of God, but the devil fabricates meretricious tinsel. He, too, has his "Promised Land," but it is a fool's paradise. He has his vine, but his vine is the vine of Sodom, which generates drunkenness and unchastity. He also has his fields, but they are fields of Gomorrah. The fruits are pleasant to the eye, but they turn to ashes in the mouth. There is the appearance of grapes, but lo! the juice is gall - the clusters are bitterness itself. And not only is the experience disappointing, it is even disastrous and deadly. This pretended wine is only poison, it is a gilded pill. Cruel deceit has provided this counterfeit banquet. Beneath the glamour of a fair exterior, there is the "serpent's venom." Thus fares it with all who leave their God. They find out the bitter mistake at last. So sang Byron in his last days - "The worm, the canker, and the grief IV. SUCH HUMAN EXPERIENCES OF THE FALSE, GOD USES IN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD. "Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?" God knew well what the effects of an idolatrous course would be, what bitter vexation and disaster would come at last. But he foresaw that it was better for men that they should pass through this experience than that he should remove the possibility of it. He might have prevented, by exercise of power, the stratagems of the tempter. He might have curtailed Satan's freedom, and put on him chains of darkness from the first. But his infinite wisdom has decided otherwise. He foresees more glorious results from this method, so he patiently waits; he calmly watches the stages of the process. "Their foot," says he, "shall slide in due time." "The day of their calamity is at hand." Now, it is difficult to discern between a grain of living seed and a grain of dead sand; but put both into the furrowed field, and give them time, so when the day of harvest comes, the man who sowed the sand will be covered with shame, while he who sowed good seed will bear gladly his sheaves into the heavenly garner. Our business now is to discriminate between God's corn and the devil's chaff. "The day will declare it." - D. 1. His underived, independent, and eternal existence. In this His nature stands out in distinction from all created being. 2. The infinitude of His knowledge. There is no evading His glance, no travelling beyond the reach of His omniscience, no baffling His skill, no frustrating His plans, "no searching of His understanding." 3. The boundlessness of His power and dominion. "Great is the Lord, and of great power." Take the microscope, and all the orders of existence which it reveals are embraced in His providence. Take the telescope, and as worlds on worlds pass before your vision, you only survey other parts of His great and boundless empire. 4. The grandeur of His moral perfections. His holiness is unspotted, the standard and pattern of righteousness to all creatures and to all worlds. His goodness is vast and unutterable. It gave us "His unspeakable gift." His faithfulness endureth to all generations, giving stability to the world which He created. II. THE PRACTICAL LESSONS ENFORCED IN THE CALL TO "ASCRIBE GREATNESS TO OUR GOD." 1. Our adoration is a fitting tribute to His greatness and majesty. "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth Me." It is the acknowledgment on our part of His natural and moral perfections. 2. It is not only, however, by the direct exercise of adoration that we are to fulfil the exhortation of the text, but by cultivating a humbling impression of the Divine Majesty ever on our hearts. What humility should we, as creatures, cherish in the presence of the greatness of God! What lowliness of spirit should there be in our supplications and pleadings with God! How unseemly is all that is irreverential before Him! 3. Whilst the Divine greatness should humble us, however, it may also inspire us with confidence, if living and walking before Him. What a friend and helper is He to those who loyally serve Him! It is related of one of the greatest of the French preachers that, when called to preach a funeral discourse for Louis XIV before a crowded audience and in the presence of the French Court, he broke the hushed silence of the vast assembly when he entered the pulpit and began to speak, by the exclamation, There is nothing great but God, and then, having nerved himself for his work, addressed himself to his subject. In sorest bereavements He can sustain, and in the solemn void which they have created can make His own presence all the more realisingly felt. Specially let us cherish such confidence in reference to the interests of religion in the world, and look forward to a great future for the Church of God, though earth and hell oppose. (E. T. Prust.) 1. If I worship a created being, if I seek the intercession of any save the one Person who is ordained to be the Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus, I do in that degree derogate from the greatness of God. 2. Though we do not bow down and worship images, yet, I am sorry to say, there is scarce a congregation that is free from that error of ascribing greatness to their minister. If souls are converted, how very prone we are to think there is something marvellous in the man. We are but your servants for Christ's sake. 3. Pay deference unto authorities as ye should do; but if in aught they swerve, remember your knee must bow to God, and to God alone. If in aught there be anything wrong, though it should have a sovereign's name attached to it, remember one is your Master and King. 4. In the case of those who are in the employ of masters, it is but right that they should render unto their masters that which is their due; but when the master commands that which is wrong, allow me solemnly to caution you against giving to him anything which you are not bound to do. Your master tells you you must break the Sabbath. You do it because he is your master; ye have violated this command, for it is said, "Ascribe ye greatness unto God." 5. This text has a bearing upon certain philosophic creeds which I will just hint at. Some men, instead of ascribing greatness to God, ascribe greatness to the laws of nature, and to certain powers and forces which they believe govern the universe. They look up on high; their eyes see the marvellous orbs walking in their mystery along the sky. They say, "What stupendous laws are those which govern the universe!" And ye will see in their writings that they ascribe everything to law and nothing to God. Now, all this is wrong. Law without God is nothing. God puts force into law, and if God acts by laws in the government of the material universe, yet it is the force of God which moves the worlds along and keeps them in their places. Law without God is nullity. Reject every philosophy that does not ascribe greatness to God, for there is a worm at the root of it, and it yet shall be destroyed. II. A COMMAND. 1. This command comes to the sinner when he first begins seriously to consider his position before God. When you look at your sins ascribe greatness to God's justice. 2. Let the sinner who is already convinced of thin ascribe greatness to God's mercy. Further, let me appeal to the Christian, "Ascribe ye greatness unto our God." Thou art in trouble; thou art wearied with the hardness of thy journey; thy poverty has got hold of thee. It is a dark night with thee just now; thou seest not thy signs; thou hast no sweet promise to light upon. "Ascribe ye greatness unto our God." Great as your troubles are, remember He is greater. And when the devil tempts you to believe that God cannot help you, tell him that you think better of Him than that; you ascribe greatness to the Almighty, and you believe He is great enough to deliver you from all your sorrows. ( C. H. Spurgeon.) 1. Greatness is not a distinct attribute of the Divine nature, but an excellency which belongs to all His attributes. Whatever is in God is great. He is great in His wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and truth. There is such a mixture of greatness and goodness in God, that those who know Him best will fear and love Him most; and even devils are constrained to believe and tremble. 2. There is an essential and also a relative greatness in God, a greatness interwoven in the whole of His character, and appearing in all His works. Is He our Father? He is our Father who is in heaven, dwelling in the most exalted state of majesty; demanding our reverence and exciting our highest hopes (Ecclesiastes 5:2). Is He a King? He is a great King, the King of kings. 3. The greatness of God is unsearchable and incomprehensible. With increasing knowledge we shall have an increasing sense of our own deficiency. II. INQUIRE IN WHAT MANNER WE ARE TO ASCRIBE "GREATNESS TO GOD." 1. We are to ascribe greatness to our God by acknowledging and declaring His greatness and His glory. 2. In ascribing greatness to the Lord, we are to do it practically; not only with our lips, but in our lives. 3. In approaching to God with reverence and holy fear we ascribe to Him the glory due unto His name, striving against wandering thoughts and vain imaginations, and cherishing a deep sense of our own unworthiness. The higher we rise in our apprehensions of God, the lower we shall fall in our own esteem. 4. By entertaining the most enlarged expectations from God we in effect ascribe greatness to Him. Great faith ought to be exercised towards a great God; nor should we say, "Can He pardon? can He help? or can He save?" for what can He not do? What wants are so great that He cannot supply? what works so great that He cannot enable us to perform? what burdens so great that He cannot support us under? what dangers so great that He cannot deliver us out of them? 5. If we ascribe greatness to the Lord, that greatness will be to us a matter of joy and gladness, and we shall glory in His holy name. 6. Fearing to offend against God, and dreading His displeasure, are included in the duty prescribed. (B. Beddome, M. A.) People Aaron, Adam, Hoshea, Israelites, Jacob, Joshua, Moses, NunPlaces Abarim, Bashan, Canaan, Gomorrah, Jericho, Jordan River, Meribah-kadesh, Moab, Mount Hor, Mount Nebo, Sodom, ZinTopics Cause, Chase, Delivered, Except, Flee, Flight, Myriad, Overcome, Possible, Pursue, Rock, Shut, Sold, Ten, Thousand, UnlessOutline 1. Moses' song, which sets forth God's mercy and vengeance46. He exhorts them to set their hearts upon it 48. God sends him up to mount Nebo to see the land, and to die Dictionary of Bible Themes Deuteronomy 32:30 1655 hundreds and thousands Library The Eagle and Its Brood'As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings.'--DEUT. xxxii. 11. This is an incomplete sentence in the Authorised Version, but really it should be rendered as a complete one; the description of the eagle's action including only the two first clauses, and (the figure being still retained) the person spoken of in the last clauses being God Himself. That is to say, it should read thus, 'As an eagle stirreth up his nest, … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Their Rock and Our Rock Memento Mori Religion --A Reality At a Public Fast in July, First Sabbath, 1650. (257) Jeremy Taylor -- Christ's Advent to Judgment a survey of the third and closing discourse of the prophet Appendix xvi. On the Jewish views About Demons' and the Demonised,' Together with Some Notes on the Intercourse Between Jews and Jewish Christians in the First Centuries. The Justice of God The Truth of God The Finding viii The Call of Moses Perhaps There is no Book Within the Whole Canon of Scripture So Perplexing and Anomalous... Epistle cxxvii. From S. Columbanus to Pope Gregory . God's True Treasure in Man The Gospel Feast The Necessity of Regeneration, Argued from the Immutable Constitution of God. Lix. The Preacher and his Hearers. The Prophet Micah. The Jewish Dispersion in the West - the Hellenists - Origin of Hellenist Literature in the Greek Translation of the Bible - Character of the Septuagint. The Early Life of Malachy. Having Been Admitted to Holy Orders He Associates with Malchus The Christian's God How those are to be Admonished who Decline the Office of Preaching Out of Too Great Humility, and those who Seize on it with Precipitate Haste. Links Deuteronomy 32:30 NIVDeuteronomy 32:30 NLT Deuteronomy 32:30 ESV Deuteronomy 32:30 NASB Deuteronomy 32:30 KJV Deuteronomy 32:30 Bible Apps Deuteronomy 32:30 Parallel Deuteronomy 32:30 Biblia Paralela Deuteronomy 32:30 Chinese Bible Deuteronomy 32:30 French Bible Deuteronomy 32:30 German Bible Deuteronomy 32:30 Commentaries Bible Hub |
    |