HOMILETICS. Vers. 7-11.-God's scourge. In a remarkable passage (Deut. xxxii. 8) Moses tells us that when the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. In like manner the sacred history teaches us how the movements of the nations and the restless invasions and conquests of heathen kings and warriors had a special relation to the chosen race. They indeed did not mean so. They were actuated merely by ambition, by the lust of conquest, by the appetite for plunder and dominion. But in the wonderful providence of God they were made instruments for chastening and correcting, or for saving and delivering, his people, as the case might be. Here we find the unsettled state of the Mesopotamian tribes, which led them beyond the borders of their own land, bringing them to Palestine at the very time when the Israelites in the wantonness of their fickle hearts had fallen away from the service of the living and true God to that of the idols of Canaan. There they were living at ease, having partly extirpated the Canaanites, and partly entered into league and amity with them. Seduced by their vices, captivated by their sensuous religion, they had forgotten all the works of God, and no longer trembled at his word, and did not feel their need of his favour. Yet a little while and their apostasy would have been complete, and the very end of their election would have failed. But this was not to be. So Chushan-rishathaim, who had perhaps never heard of their names, and knew nothing of their religion or of their apostasy, mustered his hosts, marched his army, and at the critical moment fell like a rod upon the pecce.nt people. We are left to imagine the misery of those eight years of servitude under a heathen tyrant: the injuries and indignities, the terror and unrest, the grinding servitude, the hard bondage, the bitterness of soul, the wasting and oppression of spirit. The crops for which they toiled eaten by another; their goodly houses tenanted by their foes, and them- selves turned into the street; their wives and daughters bondwomen, and their sons made slaves; their national glory turned to shame, their cherished hopes withered into despair. And we are left to imagine how that misery bent the iron sinew of their neck, and brought them be.ck to God. No doubt their self-confidence was broken down. Their illusive dreams of pleasure had ended in an awakening to their self- inflicted po.in; sin appeared in its true colours as an enemy and betrayer; the false gods were found to be no helpers. Why not tum to God ? He had been very good to them. Why had they ever forsaken him? He and he alone could save them, as he had saved their fathers from the hands of Phe.ruoh. But would he? They wou\l try. They would turn to him in penitence and prayer; they would conE,·ss th,·ir 82 THE BOOR OF JUDGES. [err. m. 7-11.
l!lins ; they would humble themselves in his sight; they would call upon his blessed name; 1hey would _plead his co~'enant, his prom\ses, the _glory of his own great nnme. And they did so. Nor did they call m vam. Their cry of distress entered into the ears of the Lord of hosts. His wrath turned to pity•I he who chastened when they sinned, now comforted when they prayed. He had sent a scourge• he now sends R deliverer. Cbushan was invincible when his mission was to strike·' but when his mission was ended his arm fell broken at his side. Othniel the deli~erer went forth in the might of God's Spirit, and Chushan's power was gone. The waters of the Euphrates which had overflowed their banks were dried up again and the land of Israel had rest for forty years. And so has it ever been. The obscur~rmovements of Philistines, and Ammonites, and Midianites, as well as .the grand historic drama of Assyria, and Egypt, and Babylon, and Persia, and Greece, and Rome have always had one special design in the correction or deliverance of God's people.' And though we have no inspired interpreter to expound to us the later movements of the peoples, yet may we be sure that the great events of modern history have been appointed to work out the purposes of God with reference to his Church, either for correction or deliverance, and that the rise and fall of empires, the ambition of kings and states- men, the conquests of warriors, and the revolutions of peoples,,will in the end be found to have been overruled for the glory of God, and for the extension of the kingdom of Jesus our Lord. And in this confidence the Church may rest and be at ease in her integrity, while she is careful not to provoke God's anger by turning aside from his truth, or growing weary of his blessed service.