The Pulpit Commentary — Deuteronomy — Section 539

Yer. 27.-The eternal God a Refuge. I. Tim SUllLIMITY OF TBIB PROMISE, Is there one 'l'<"ho can open his mind snfficie11tly to take in anything like the grandeur of this thought? To 1hink renlir.ingly of God at all is to many a difficulty. It shows how lit.t.le we do think of him; bow habitually our minds are occupied with other objects; that when we wish to bring even his existence clearly before our minrls, we find it difficult to do so. It is not a difficulty which woulil be felt if our relations with God were close a11d intimate, if our communion with him was habitual, if we were trying to live continually as in his presence and under his eye. "I believe in God the Father Almighty!" Is not that just what most of us do not do? Is there one who would not trern hie far more in the presence of many of his fellow-mortals than he ever does at the thought of standing in the presence of his God? What sort of a belief is it which leaves us so destitute of all real apprehension of what God is, and even of a habitual realization or the feeling that be is? We think of him, but often how coldly, how distantly, how notionally, how unbelievingly! We speak of "revivals," but, sooth to say, we need a revival of living belier in the first article of the Creed. We need to have our ~yes opened, thought set to work, faith made more real. If that were given, then should we know, as we had never known before, how wonderful, how sublime, how infinitely grand a thing it was to have this God as our Refuge, and to know that underneath us were these everlasting arms. If it is difficult to attain to a steady persuasion even of God's existence, vastly more difficult is it to frame a just conception or his eternity. Before worlds were, God existed; when they shall have waxed old and disappeared, he shall exist still. Time flows, but, like the rock 'in the midst of the stream, which, from its stable base, laughs at the flood whose impetuous course it over- looks; so, amidst the flow of ages, God endures, "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." Does it not, then, seem as ~omething incredible that this eternal God should constitute himself a Home and Refuge for weak, sinning, mortals; should even stoop to press himself on such mortals as a Friend, Saviour, Protector, Support, Helper? If we sec nothing stmnge in this, it is impossible that anything should seem strange to us; if we can believe this, we need not stumble at much else in revelation. For this is just the central truth the Bible has to tell. It tells of a God, fnfinite, everlasting, almighty, inflexibly righteous, unutterably pure, inc.omprehensibly great and wise and good; from whom men have indeed wandered in numberless paths of error; but who bas revealed himself for the very purpose of bringing them back to himself, that they may be saved from death and may enjoy eternal life; who will by no means clear the guilty, but who waits to be gracious to every penitent sinner returning to his c~re; and who has JJrovided all means for that return in the atonement of his Son, our ~av10ur Jesus Christ, and in the grace of his Holy Spirit. That is the message the ~1ble h~s w bring, and it is nothing else than the almil!,hty and eternal God offering himself~ m his grace, as a Refuge for our otherwise defenceless souls; stretching out.those everlast1?-g arws of which the text speaks, to draw us to himself and save us from otherwise inevitable ruin. Say not, you do not need this refuge! The son of man is not yet born who does not need it, and who will not one day, whether he does so now or not, acknowledge that he needs it. And say not, you will delay in seeking it! for eve:n, could a day or a year be guaranteed in which to rethink the question now propose?, it is 1,lainly fully in itself, and grievous dishonour done to God, that so vast and glonoue an opportunity should stand for a single day unimproved; that God _8hould sue to you, ai,d you refuse bis gracious invitations. !lather," seek the Lord while he may be found," etc. (Isa. 1v. 6). 11. THE CO.MPllEHE1'SIVE:NES8 OF THIB PROMISE. View it in three relations. In rcla.tion: 1. 'l'o owr temporal existence. Having God as our Refuge does not indeed imply that we are to have a great abundance of this world's possessions, or be abso- lutely free from cares and sorrows. It does not secure that we are to be either ~be richest or the least tried of all around us. God knows how often it is otherwise, Some of the best of God's saints have been, like Paul, the worst off of humankind,  Oil, XXXlll, 1-20.] 'rIIE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY. 651>