The Lord Delights in Us
“They went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel. . . . And they told him, and said, We came into the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled and very great. . . . If the Lord delight in us, then He will bring us into this land, and give it us” (Num. 13:26-28; 14:826And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 27And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. 28Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. (Numbers 13:26‑28)
8If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. (Numbers 14:8)).
The Lord does not conceal from us the difficulties which are in the way, but rather bids us count the cost. Our eyes, on the one hand, are prone to light on the difficulties and forget the blessings, or, on the other, to see only the blessings and be blind to the difficulties, but God would have us see both. The spies were to tell of both. Had they not done so, they would not have declared the truth. They were to tell of the giants and of the walled cities, as well as of the fruits, the milk and the honey. They carried a cluster of grapes, so great that two bore it between them (a magnificent exhibition of blessing and of plenty), but it was not received as a counterweight; it did not relieve the spirit of the people from the arduousness of taking possession of the country. They are in distress and dismay. There is no doubt of all they would have to pass through in taking possession, and in one sense, it is right that they should be alive to it. Right, so far as to be aware of the danger, but there their unbelief came in, and there was their sin.
Two men stilled the people; some discouraged them, but two were enough to establish the truth. They were well able to go up. But why? What communication should have strengthened their hearts? What will strengthen our hearts and give us confidence that we may feel we are able to get practical possession of our land? All blessings are laid up for us in heavenly places, but how are we to overcome the strong and walled cities? Caleb says, “If the Lord delight in us.”
That is the whole question; not whether the land is good or bad, but whether the Lord delights in them or not. Beloved, the truth is that the Lord does delight in us. It is this that our souls must dwell on, for our blessings and our deliverances depend on this. I may say that I do not know why He delights in me, but so might Caleb have said. There was power in his word, “If the Lord delight in us,” but how much greater in what we have to say: “The Lord has proved to us that He does delight in us.”
“If He Thus Say, I Have No Delight in Thee”
In 2 Samuel 15:25-26, there occurs a remarkable instance of how the soul grasps this idea when under severe discipline, because that is the time, above all others, when nature would say, “Now He does not delight in me.” The sword is falling on David in the most painful way; he is stripped of everything that belonged to his mighty state; he is going forth to bear the judgment and retribution for an open evil. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” His restoration entirely depends on the Lord’s favor. His words are, “If He thus say, I have no delight in thee.” His whole future rested on the question whether or not God delighted in him, and so afterwards, when recounting the mercies of the Lord (2 Sam. 22:20), David could say, “He delivered me, because He delighted in me.” And if this could sustain David’s heart, how much more should it ours, to whom the truth is delivered in such a different way, for with us the Lord’s favor is on no conditional ground, but one of firm assurance—His dealings with us being all the result of His delight in us. The Queen of Sheba says to Solomon, “The Lord . . . delighted in thee” (2 Chron. 9:8). That was giving Him glory.
If your soul is traveling in a dark and lonely path of discipline, what is to bear you up? “The Lord delighteth in thee.” If it be to inherit the glory, yea, all that the heart can wish for, it is because the Lord delights in you. It was the Lord’s own joy in the matter. He is “rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us.” His mercy is the result of His love, not the cause of it.
“Hold fast [your] profession,” not because of what is there, but because the Son of God is there. He cannot come down to labor again here, but He can and does lift up the saint and deliver him from the difficulties with which he is beset. Caleb said, “He will bring us in,” and far more assuredly may we say so, in spite of all the discouragements. There is nothing that can really establish the heart like this. “The Lord delights in me.” What confidence! What calmness it gives! It was the steady lamp that illuminated David’s gloomy path, and it was the ground of his song of praise when he was delivered from his enemies. So then, while traveling on to the realization of our possessions, we can say, “Go on, for He will surely bring us in.” He will teach us the folly of our corrupt hearts, but, at the same time, will sustain them through the trouble with the assurance that He delights in us.
From Things New and Old, Vol. 1, pp. 65-69