god's condescension and grace.
Amos v. 8, 9. Tlie Lord is his name ; that strengthened the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.
IN our public addresses, we feel peculiar satisfaction in entering upon subjects which admit of no dispute, and on which all considerate persons are agreed.
That we ought to seek after God, is universally ad- mitted : and as that is the one duty inculcated in the passage before us, the whole scope of our present discourse will be to recommend the performance of it. In the preceding context, Jehovah, speaking to the whole house of Israel says, " Seek ye me, and ye shall live." Immediately afterwards, the prophet him- self enforces the exhortation, and adds, " Seek ye the Lord, and ye shall live ; lest he break out like fire in
the house of Joseph, and devour it Seek him
that maketh the seven stars and Orion the Lord
of Hosts is his name ; that strengthened the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress :" that is, ' Seek Him, who, being the Creator and Governor of all things, possesseth all power to avenge himself upon you for your neglect of him, or to give success to your feeble endeavours.'
To enforce yet further the prophet's admonition, I will set before you,
I. The character of Jehovah, as here portrayed —
Let us notice,
1. His condescension —
[There is no person so low or so despised among men, but God will condescend to look upon him with tender com- passion. Human beings can scarcely be conceived in a more degraded situation than the Hebrews in Egypt were : yet of them God says, " I have seen their affliction ; I have heard their cry; I know their sorrows3." And at a subsequent period, when they were reduced to the utmost distress by the Ammonites, we are told, " His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel V The same compassion does he exercise towards his oppressed people in every age. So " afflicted is he in all their afflictions0," that "the touching of them is like touching the apple of his eyed; and he will interpose for them, however low they be : " he will raise up the poor out of the dust, and lift up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit a throne of glory e." Not- withstanding " he is the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity," and "humbleth himself when he beholds the things that are in heaven ;" yet will he " look upon him that is poor
a Exod. hi. 7. b Judg. x. 16. ° Isai. lxiii. 9.
ll Zech ii. 8. e i Sam. ii. S.
1190.] god's condescension and grace. 215
and of a contrite spirit f," yea, and " dwell with him too, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite."
But that which we are more particularly to notice, is,]
2. His power —
[As he is Almighty in himself, so is he " the strength of his people g;" even " the saving strength of his anointed11." " He is a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall1:" nor does he ever interpose for his people with greater pleasure than when he sees them reduced to the lowest pos- sible state of want and misery k.
Perhaps the particular occurrence referred to by the prophet may be that of the victories granted to Joash over the tri- umphant and oppressive Syrians. Hazael, king of Syria had so reduced the power of Israel, that " he had left to king Jehoahaz only fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thou- sand footmen." To Joash, the son and successor of Jehoahaz, God promised deliverance from Syria: and if Joash had ex- pressed that zeal in his country's cause, and that confidence in God, which became him, his victories over Syria would have been complete. As it was, we are told that " he took out of the hand of Benhadad, the son of Hazael, the cities which Hazael had taken from Jehoahaz by war ; that three times did he beat Benhadad, and recovered the cities of Israel1." To this event, I say, the prophet is supposed more particularly to allude. But, in the history of Israel, such instances were without number. The deliverance of Israel from Egypt, the destruction of Jericho by the sound of rams' horns, and of Midian by the lamps and pitchers of Gideon, clearly shew, that God can save equally by many or by few, and that those who trust in him shall never be confounded.