Numb. 13:26; 14:9.
“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, &c...............If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it to us,” &c. Numb. 13:27; 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 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 counterpoise; 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,” &c.
That is the whole question; not whether the land is good or bad, but whether the Lord delights in them or not. Beloved reader, that is merely the legal form. “If” is conditional, and does not apply to us. The truth is that the Lord does delight in us. It is this that our souls must dwell on, for how much do our blessings and our deliverances depend on this. I may say that I do not know what he delights in me for; 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.’” In Psalm 16, which treats of resurrection, referring to Christ, who has gone up on high for us, we read of the saints, “In whom is all my delight.” Should not this drop as honey and the honeycomb into our souls—that the Lord Jesus, the Holy One of God, takes pleasure in us? And why? For three reasons:
1St. Because we are His own.
2ndly. Because of the abundance of His service towards us, and the great cost at which He has gained us.
3rdly. Because with us alone He has sympathy. Let us divide these reasons, that we may see more clearly the grounds of His delight in us.
1. We are His own. (Read Eph. 5:29-32.) Why should He not love His own? “No man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it.” “We are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.”
2. It cost Him so much to gain us. He loved the Church and gave Himself for it. His heart was set upon the Church, as the pearl of great price, for which He sold all that He had, in order to possess it. The more we expend on any object the more we love it. There is not a parent who does not love that child most who most demands his care. And so Christ, having already possessed Himself of us by His continual service for us in the heavens, exercises (if I may so say) His own love to us, and wins ours to Him. “He that is forgiven much, the same loveth much.” The more that a soul feels the Lord dealing with it, even though that dealing be in discipline, the more assured may that soul be that He delights in it. Where I expend much, the more averse am I to see the object of my expenditure go to ruin.
Cannot our souls rejoice in the consciousness of this? It is a wonderful thing, but so it is.
In 2 Sam. 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 say, I have no delight in thee.” His whole future rested on the question whether or not God delighted in him; and so afterward, 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 delighteth in thee. 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.
3. There are none else but such as we are, with whom He can have sympathy. Where else can He find it? In this world? No. With angels? No. What does an angel know about the exercises of Job, or of the Psalms, or the Canticles? what about the path of Christ? The voice of the sufferer down here, in this sin-stained world, touches a chord in the heart of Christ which none other can; because He knew what it was to travel in such. “Ye shall leave me alone,” expressed His bitterest sorrow from man. Where would all our doubts and fears be if we realized that He has no other delight here below?
Heb. 10 practically embodies the truth which Caleb taught; there we see our Great High Priest, not only announcing the fact that He delights in me, but following it up, standing in the heavens for me; bearing the difficulties of those who are laboring to take possession of the same spot.
“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 surely 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 illumined David’s gloomy path, and 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.
It is this that He gives as the true counterpoise to trouble, not the blessings which He permits us by the way, which people so often speak of as the balance for their trials. No, that will not do; we must learn not only that “He will surely bring us in,” but that He will do it because He delights in us. May the Lord teach us more practically to know His grace and His love through a deeper intimacy with His heart.