the promised rewards'1, he resumed his prophetic strains, and declared, not only that this people should triumph over Moab, but that from them should One arise, who should establish an universal empire, and have dominion over the whole world e.
All this, Joshua brought to the remembrance of Israel, long- after they had been established in the land of Canaan ; saying, " Balak the son of Zippor arose and warred against Israel, and sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you: but I would not hearken unto Balaam ; therefore he blessed you still : so I delivered you out of his handV]
Now all this was the fruit of God's unchanging love —
[God had chosen them to himself in Abraham, and had ordained that they should be to him a peculiar people above all others upon the face of the whole earth. In this choice of them he had. been influenced, not by any foreseen worthiness in them ; for he knew, from the beginning, what a stiff-necked people they would prove ; but solely by his own sovereign will and pleasure : " He loved them because he would love themg." To them, also, had he promised the land of Canaan: and therefore, when the time was come for their possession of it, no enemy could stand before them, nor could any conspi- racies which could be formed prevail against them. Hence, in despite of all the efforts which Balaam made to curse them, he was constrained to " bless them still."]
From the whole of God's kindness to them, we may be led to contemplate,
II. His love to his Israel at this day —
His people are now redeemed, even as they were of old, only from infinitely sorer bondage, a bondage to sin and Satan, to death and hell. They are brought also through a dreary wilderness, towards the heavenly Canaan. They have enemies also to contend with. True it is, they have not to dispossess any of their land; nor do they, by invading the property of others, provoke hostility : but they have enemies notwith- standing, yea, and enemies who are bent upon their destruction : but from all of them God will surely deliver his redeemed people.
d Numb. xxiv. 10 — 14. e Numb. xxiv. 15 — 19.
f Josh. xxiv. 9, 10. s Deut. vii. 6 — 9.