The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 90

J arues deals vigorously with this kind of failure, using the illustration or "water II or the" ~e_a-wave" (~as. i. 6-8).. Instability_may take a milde_r form, as" uncertainty," "malnhty to decide," "wavermg;" or au mtenser form, as 1s illustrated in Reuben : then it is "unchecked impulse,"" tendency to passion," "failure to restrain one's self by righteous principle." But each form of the evil suffices to lose a. man his place. Compare the Evangelist Mark. "Not one great action, not one judcre, prophet or leader, from the tribe of Reuben is ever mentioned in history." " ' IV. EXACTLY WHAT CJIRISTIAN PRINCIPLE DOES FOR MEN IS TO GIVE THEM STRENGTH AND CONTTh'1J.ANCE. I~s work is to give the soul rootage, as it were, in God, so that the growth may be steadily upward and outward. It finds a foundation on which the whole building of character, fitly framed together, may grow into a holy temple. Its message is, "Be ye steadfast, unmovable," etc. (1 Cor. xv. 58); and its models a.re the heroic martyrs who, strong in God, stand fast, and, having done all, stand.-R. T. Ver. 2.-Birthrights and supremacies. A significant fact of the early history of the patriarchs is here brought to remembrance. It is one so curious as to carry suggestions and lessons for all the ages, and so is recorded for our instruction. By providential arrangement the tribal birthright was Reuben's; he, however, lost it through his wrong- doing, and his father shifted it from the eldest son of his first wife to the eldest son of his second but really his own chosen wife-from Reuben to Joseph. Man's adjust- ments of the Divine order are not always sealed by God. Jacob's were not in this case. As the years passed on, Judah came to the front, ultimately gained the sovereignty, and from this tribe came the permanent Davidic dynasty. Joseph, represented by the tribe of Ephraim, struggled, age after age, to keep the birthright place, but in vain; and in the conflict of the two tribes we may find illustration of the hopelessness of pressing mere human adjustments against the providential order. Neither the individual nor the community may ever hope to "resist God and prosper." It is ever ill work " run- ning upon the bosses of Jehovah's buckler." I. MAN Cil.'NOT READJUST THE D1vmE ORDER. Yet that is exactly what we, in our self-will, are ever striving to do. Even when we know what is God's will, we try to get it twisted about so that it may at least seem to conform to our will. This is a very common but very subtle form of Christian error and sin. We know what we wish or want, so we deceive ourselves into the idea that this is what God wishes or wants for us, and fail in that simple openness to Divine lead which is the right spirit to cherish. Scripture illustrations may be found in Rebekah, whose will was to gain the birthright and blessing for her favourite son, so she took the Divine order into her own adjustment, and won those things for him by deceptions which, very properly, brought heavy penal- ties on her and on him. Or in Balaam, who professed to do exactly what God wished him to do, and yet evidently did what he himself planned to do, forcing from God that fatal " Go." Or in Saul, who could not simply wait God's time and the arrival of his prophet, but, arranging the Divine order according to his own self-will, must himself offer the sacrifice. The forms in which nowadays men take the ordering of their lives into their own hands may be illustrated, and, as a contrast, mention may be made of David, who, though tempted to slay King Saul, would not interfere with the Divine order, though he might easily have seemed to himself to have been only fulfilling the Divine promise. We must wait for God as well as on him. II. MAN FTh-nB HIB TBUE GOOD IN FOLLOWING THE DIVINE ORDER. Not in the helplessly passive way of poor aged Eli, but in an active and loyal way, we may say, "It is the Lc-rd; let him do what seemeth him good." Keble expresses the right state of mind for the child of God, in his picture of the man sanctified by affliction, " wishing, no longer struggling, to be free." The Divine order for our life may differ wholly from the order of our own plannings. It may even seem to flesh and blood painful and humiliating. Still let life unfold, and it proves the way of best blessing for us and for others through us. Let eternity unfold, and we sing through all the ages of the" good way wherein the Lord our C:"~d led us.". David _sho-:vs ~s the attitude to which the Divine order is revealed. " Ihe meek will he guide Ill Judgment, and the meek will he teach his way." !II. FOLLOWING TJIE DIVINE ORDER MAY LEAD A MAN TO HIGHER THINGS THAN srs smTH PROMISED. Illustrate from Judah, and from cases of men born in tho dis-  on. v. 1-26.] THE FIRST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 81