NOTHING excels the beautiful language of Moses’ song. What had not God done for Israel whom He loved!
“He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the field; and He made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock; butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.”
God does not deal with a slack hand. How rich and abundant the blessings bestowed upon His people in the land of Canaan, far above and beyond anything they had had in Egypt. Nevertheless these are all earthly blessings. Ours are of a much better and higher sort, for He “hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.” (Eph. 1:33Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: (Ephesians 1:3)).
“But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked.” Jeshurun is a name given to Israel and means “upright ones,” or “beloved of the Lord.” God’s loved and upright one became rebellious in prosperity. “Then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.” How deceitful and treacherous is the natural heart, nor is it any better in the Christian! How often when things went well have we forgotten God’s gracious goodness and in our hearts have turned away from Him! We went to Him in our troubles but in times of prosperity we lived as if we could get along without Him. Then He sent trouble into our lives to recall our foolish hearts to Himself again, and when restored it was only to find His love unchanged toward us in spite of our unfaithfulness.
And yet to find Thee still the same,
’Tis this that humbles us with shame.
Israel “provoked Him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger. They sacrificed unto devils (demons, or he-goats), not to God, to gods whom they knew not.... Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.”
Israel would become as the Gentiles in idolatry. Even now, if a child of God gets away from the Lord there is no telling how far into the world he may go, nor how deep into its corruptions he might sink. Dear young Christian, we need to pray daily the prayer of the godly dependent man: “Preserve me, O God: for in Thee do I put my trust.” Psalm 16:11<<Michtam of David.>> Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust. (Psalm 16:1). We cannot keep ourselves. “O Lamb of God, still keep us.”
ML-04/25/1976