I shall go no farther than the text to prove it ; for the opening the text and the proof of the doctrine will be one and the same.
In the words we have, — I. What is prayed for, what the prophet pleads for; and that is, " Feed thy people with thy rod." II. There are the arguments of faith the prophet pleads in this condition, when God had inevitably decreed desolation to the whole land ; and these
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are four: — 1. That they were God's people: " Feed thy people." 2. That they were the flock of his heritage: " Feed thy people, the flock of thine heritage." 3. That they " dwelt solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel." 4. That God had, in former clays, " fed them in Bashan and Gilead."
I shall briefly handle these things, and both show you what is prayed for, and what in these arguments faith hath to plead in such a condition. For though God may say concerning a nation, " Plead no more for it," yet he never saith so concerning his own people.
I. We shall consider what the prophet here prays for; which is, that God would feed his people with his rod : " Feed thy people with thy rod." God is here compared to a shepherd; and it is a relation that he doth very frequently in Scripture take to himself; and you know what a large field I have to walk in, if I would insist upon the allusion. God is a shepherd, and Christ is a shepherd ; therefore he saith, " Feed thy people with thy rod." The word B3B>, here used, sometimes is put for a sceptre, wherewith kings rule; sometimes for a staff; and sometimes for a rod. It was the instrument, whatever it was, that shepherds used in those days. It is mentioned, Ps. xxiii., which is a great description of God as a shepherd, " Thy rod and thy staff;" the same word as here. God, as a shepherd, rules his people with a rod ; which they used both for direction and correction. He will not strike his sheep with great and violent instruments, to break their bones, to destroy them; but he makes them know he hath a rod in his hand. But I take it, that this rod was principally for the direction of the flock ; and he jurays that God would " feed them with his rod." Truly, we have reason to consider what is in this word; because I think here is a rule of faith given us what we are to pray for the people of God in such a day as we have described. The great thing we are to pray for now is, that God would " feed them;" not ' that God would make them kings, and rulers, and great men, and give them the necks of their enemies to tread upon, and such kind of things. " But when things are thus," saith he, " your prayer should be, that God would ' feed them/ " There are three things in this feeding of God's people: —
1. That God would supply their spiritual and temporal wants, that they may be preserved from great distresses. This is in the word, Rev. xii. 6, " The woman fled into the wilderness; and God fed her there." While the woman was in the wilderness, she was preserved with such spiritual and temporal supplies as kept her from destroying distresses. This we may pray for, this we have a rule for, when we fear inevitable desolation is approaching upon a nation. God allows us to pray, and gives us a ground of faith to pray, that for his own
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people he would provide spiritual and temporal supplies; so as they may be kept from great distress.
2. There is, in this feeding of them as a shepherd, that God, in that state which is coming upon them, would give them pledges, singular pledges, of his own tenderness and love. It is so said of Christ, under the like comparison, Isa. xl. 11, " He shall feed his flock like a shep- herd." How is that? " He shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young." We have this in the rule of faith for prayer at this day, — that God would deal with all believers, of all sorts, according to their weakness, and according to their wants; that when the day of visitation and the day of perplexity comes upon the world, Christ, in a way of feeding, would suit himself to every one's condition. Some may be more able to be driven before; others must be carried in his arms and in his bosom. We must pray, therefore, that he will deal with every one of them according to their state and condition.
3. By feeding is intended, rule, protection, deliverance ; — present rule, and protection and deliverance in God's appointed time. It is not for a shepherd merely to cany his flock into good pasture ; but he is to take care to preserve them from all evil, whereunto they are exposed. David, that great shepherd, who was a type of Christ, gives this account of himself: " Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock : and I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he rose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him," 1 Sam. xvii. 34, 35. This was part of David's care as a shepherd over his sheep. Feeding is ruling, in the word here used ; and chap. v. 4, it manifest^ intends rule and protection: " He shall stand and feed," or rule, " in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God; and they shall abide." It is such a feeding of Christ, in the majesty and in the power of God, as his people shall be preserved by. We have, there- fore, in our rule, particularly this comprised, thus far we may go : — necessary supplies of spiritual and temporal, inward and outward mer- cies; grace and mercy towards all, according as their state and condi- tion doth require ; to the weak, diseased, and those that are great with young, protection and powerful deliverance, in God's good time.