whole nation in the wilderness. He had borne them in his arms as a father does his child —
[In the wilderness, when the people were required to march, it must of necessity happen that many females were not in a condition to carry their new-born infants, and more especially as the journeys were often of long continuance. Hence the fathers are represented as carrying their children15: and under this character God represents himself as having carried themc. Now the whole nation at that time were pre- cisely in the state of little infants ; as ignorant of the way which they were to go ; as incapable of providing sustenance for themselves ; as unable to protect themselves from enemies, or from a variety of dangers to which they were exposed. They needed in every respect Jehovah's care, as much as a new-born infant the attention of its parents. And all this care did God bestow upon them. From the first moment of their departure from Egypt, he went before them in the pillar and the cloud: he sought out for them the places where they should encamp ; he regulated all their motions ; he supplied them with bread from heaven, and with water from the rock ; he delivered them from every enemy ; and carried them in perfect safety for the space of forty years. They were cast upon him, as it were, from the womb ; and from the womb he thus administered to them with parental care and tenderness.]
And in this way he still carries in his arms the true
Israel —
[The nation of Israel typically represented those, who, as Believers in Christ, are in a spiritual sense the children of Abraham. And these, who are Israelites indeed, are precisely in the state of the Jews in the wilderness, or of infants in their parents' arms. Their incapacity to guide or support themselves is quite as great, and their need of succour from on high as urgent. But God has taken the charge of them, and admi- nistered to them whatsoever their necessities required. Look ye back, ye " remnant of the house of Israel," and say, whe- ther God has not incessantly watched over you for good ; whe- ther he has not borne with your weaknesses, supplied your wants, directed your ways, upheld you in your goings, a-nd kept you from ten thousand snares, into which you must have inevitably fallen, and by which you must long since have perished, if he had for one hour intermitted his tender care ? You cannot but acknowledge, that to you, as well as to the Jewish nation, is that description applicable: " He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness : he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his
b Numb. xi. 12. c Deut. i. 31.
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eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings ; so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with himd."]
But God further intimates, II. What he has engaged to do for them —
To the Jews he promised a continuance of his care —
[The individuals whom he brought forth out of Egypt he suffered to die in the wilderness, on account of their multiplied iniquities : but the nation, as a nation, he preserved ; and those children, whom their unbelieving parents supposed to be doomed to inevitable destruction, he brought in safety to the Promised Land. And though, by their innumerable trans- gressions, the nation has brought down his displeasure upon them, insomuch that they are scattered over the face of the whole earth, yet are they preserved in a way that no other nation under heaven ever has been, in order that they may ultimately enjoy all the blessings prepared for them. They are at this day living witnesses for him, that " he changeth not," but is still the same gracious and compassionate God as evere.]