THE PROPHET LIKE UNTO MOSES.
DELIVERED ON LORD’S-DAY MORNING, AUGUST 3RD, 1879,
BY
C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE,
“The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from
the midst
of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;
according to all that thou desiredst of
the Lord thy God in Horeb in
the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the
voice of
the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire any
more, that I
die not. And the Lord said unto me, They
have well spoken that
which they have spoken. I will raise them up a Prophet from
among
their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his
mouth;
and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
And it
shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my
words
which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.”-
Deuteronomy 18:15-19.
MAN, the creature, may well desire intercourse with his
Creator. When we
are
right-minded we cannot bear to be like fatherless children, born into the
world by a parent of whom we know nothing whatever. We long to
hear
our
father’s voice. Of old time, or ever sin had entered into the world, the
Lord God was on the most intimate terms with his creature
man. He
communed with Adam in the garden; in the cool of the day he made
the
evening to be seven-fold refreshing by the shadow of his own
presence.
There was no cloud between unfallen
man and the ever-blessed One: they
could commune together, for no sin had set up a middle wall of
partition.
Alas, man being in honor continued not, but broke the law
of his God, and
not
only forfeited his own inheritance, but entailed upon his descendants a
character with which the holy God can hold no converse. By nature we
love that which is evil, and within us there is an evil heart of unbelief in
departing from the living God, and consequently intercourse between
God
and
man has had to be upon quite another footing from that which
commenced and ended in the glades of
first, which made the Lord speak with man the creature; it is
mercy,
unutterable mercy, now if God deigns to speak with man the sinner.
Through his divine grace the Lord did not leave our fathers
altogether
without a word from himself even after the Fall, for between the
days of
Adam and Moses there were occasional voices heard as of God
speaking
with man. “Enoch walked with God,” which implies that God walked with
him
and had communion with him, and we may rest assured it was no silent
walk which Enoch had with the Most High. The Lord also spake
to Noah,
once and again, and made a covenant with him: and then he, at still greater
length and with greater frequency, spake
with Abraham, whom he
graciously called his friend. Voices also came to Isaac, and Jacob,
and
Joseph, and celestial beings flitted to and fro between
earth and heaven.
Then there was a long pause and a dreary silence. No
prophet spoke in
Jehovah’s name, no voice of God in priestly oracle was
heard, but all was
silent while
completely hushed was the spiritual voice among men that it seemed as
if
God had utterly forsaken his people and left the world without
a witness to
his
name; yet there was a prophecy of his return, and the Lord had great
designs, which only waited till the full time was come. He
purposed to try
man
in a very special manner, to see whether he could bear the presence of
the
Lord or no. HE resolved to take a family, multiply it into a nation, and
set
it apart for himself, and to that nation he would make a revelation of
himself of the most extraordinary character. So he took the people
who
had
slaved amongst the brick kilns of
nation of his choice, ordained to be a nation of priests, a
people near unto
him,
if they had but grace to bear the honor. Though they had lain among
the
pots, with a high hand and an outstretched arm he delivered them, and
with gracious love he favored them, so that they became for beauty and
excellence as the wings of a dove that are covered with silver and
her
feathers with yellow gold. He divided the
escape, and afterwards set that sea as a barrier between them and
their
former masters. He took them into the wilderness, and there fed
them with
manna which dropped from heaven, and with water out of the rock
did he
sustain them. After a while he began to speak to them, as he had
never
spoken to any nation before. He spake
with them from the top of Sinai, so
that they heard his voice out of the midst of the fire, and in astonishment
they cried, “We have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and he
liveth.” But the experiment failed. Man was not in a condition to
hear the
direct voice of God. On the very first day the people were in
such terror
and
alarm that they cried out, “This great fire will consume us: if we hear
the
voice of the Lord our God any more we shall die.” As they stood still
at
a distance to hear the words of God’s perfect law they were filled with
great fear, and so terrible was the sight that even Moses said,
“I
exceedingly fear and quake.” The people could not endure that which
was
commanded, and entreated that the word should not be spoken to them
any
more. They felt the need of some one to interpose-a daysman,
an
interpreter, one of a thousand was needed to come between them and
God.
Even those among them that were the most spiritual, and
understood and
loved God better than the rest, yet confessed that they could
not endure the
thunder of his dreadful voice, and their elders and the heads of
their tribes
came unto Moses and said, “Go thou near, and hear all that the Lord our
God shall say: and speak thou unto us all that the Lord our
God shall speak
unto thee; and we will hear it, and do it.”
The Lord knew that man would always be unable to hear his
Maker’s
voice, and he therefore determined not only to speak by Moses,
but, ever
and
anon, to speak by his servants the prophets, raising up here one and
there another; and then he determined, as the consummation of
his
condescending mercy, that at the last he would put all the word he had
to
say
to man into one heart, and that word should be spoken by one mouth
to
men, furnishing a full, complete, and unchangeable revelation of himself
to
the human race. This he resolved to give by one of whom Moses had
learned something when the Lord said to him in the words of our
text, “I
will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and
will put my words in his month; and he shall speak unto them all that I
shall
command him.” We know assuredly that our Lord Jesus Christ is that
prophets like unto Moses by whom in these last days he has spoken
unto
us.
See Peter’s testimony in the third chapter of the Acts of the Apostles,
and
Stephen’s in the seventh chapter of the same book. “This man was
counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath
builded the house hath more honor than the house,” yet did he bear
a
gracious likeness to Moses, and therein his apostles found a sure
argument
of
his being indeed the Messiah, sent of God.
The subject of this morning’s discourse is the Lord’s
speaking to us by
Jesus Christ, the one Mediator between God and man, and our
earnest aim
is
that all of us may reverently hear the voice of God by this greatest of all
prophets. Men and brethren, this is the word of God unto you this
morning, that very word which he spake
on the holy Mount, when the
Lord was transfigured and there appeared with him Moses and
Elias
speaking to him, and out of the excellent glory there came the
word, “This
is
my beloved Son, hear ye him.” This is my message at this hour-”Hear ye
him.”
He saith to you all this day, “Incline your ear and
come unto me:
hear, and your soul shall live. Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that
which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.”
“See that ye
refuse not him that speaketh. For if
they escaped not who refused him that
spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away
from him
that speaketh from heaven.”
Our meditation will run in this line: first, we will think
for a moment upon
the necessity for a
Mediator; secondly, upon the person of the Prophet-
Mediator whom God hath chosen; and, thirdly, upon the
authority with
which this Mediator is invested, by which authority he calleth upon us this
day
to hearken to God’s voice which is heard in him.
I. We
begin by considering how urgently there existed THE NECESSITY
FOR A MEDIATOR. I need but very
short time to set this forth. There was a
necessity for a Mediator in the case of the Israelites, first, because
of the
unutterable glory of God, and
their own inability to endure that glory,
either with their eye, their ear, or their mind. We cannot
suppose that the
revelation of God upon Sinai was the display of all his greatness:
nay, we
know that it could not be such, for it would have been impossible for man
to
have lived at all in the presence of the infinite glory. Habakkuk, speaking
of
this manifestation, says, “God came from Teman, and
the Holy One
from
his
praise. And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of
his
hand”; but he adds, “there was the hiding of his power.” Despite its
exceeding glory, the manifestation upon the mount of God at Horeb was a
subdued manifestation, and yet, though it was thus toned down to
human
weakness, it could not be borne. The unveilings of Jehovah’s face
no
mortal eye could bear. The voice with which God spake at Sinai is by
Moses compared to the voice of a trumpet waxing exceeding
loud and
long, and also to the roll of thunder; and we all know the awe-inspiring
sound of thunder when it is heard near at hand, its volleys
rolling overhead.
How the crash of peal on peal makes the bravest heart, if
not to quail, yet
still to bow in reverent awe before God! Yet this is not the
full voice of
God: it is but his whisper.
Jehovah hath hushed his voice in the thunder, for were that
voice heard in
its
fullness it would shake not only earth, but also heaven. If he were for
once to unveil his face the lightning’s flame would pale to darkness in
comparison. The voice of the Lord God is inconceivably majestic, and
it is
not
possible that we, poor creatures, worms of the dust, insects of a day,
should ever be able to hear it and live. We could not bear the
full revelation
of
God apart from mediatorial interposition. Perhaps
when he has made us
to
be pure spirit, or when our bodies shall have been “raised in power,”
made like unto the body of our Lord Jesus, we may then be able to behold
the
glorious Jehovah, but as yet we must accept the kindly warning of the
Lord in answer to the request of Moses, “thou canst not see
my face, for
there shall no man see me mid live.” The strings of life are too
weak for the
strain of the unveiled presence; it is not possible for such a
gossamer,
spider-like thread as our existence to survive the breath of Deity, if
he
should actually and in very deed draw nigh to us. It appeared
clearly at
Sinai, that even when the Lord did accommodate himself, as
much as was
consistent with his honor, to the infirmity of human nature, man was
so
alarmed and afraid at his presence that he could not bear it, and
it was
absolutely necessary that instead of speaking with his own Voice,
even
though he whispered what he had to say, he should speak to
another apart,
and
afterwards that other should come down from the mount and repeat
the
Lord’s words to the people.
This sufficient reason is supported by another most weighty
fact, namely,
that God cannot commune with men because of their sin. God was
pleased
to
regard his people
from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they
washed their clothes.” They had abstained for awhile from
defiling actions,
and
as they stood outside the bounds they were ceremonially clean; but it
was
only a ceremonial purity. Before long they were really unclean before
the
Lord, and in heart defiled and polluted. The Lord said of them, “O that
there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and
keep all my
commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their
children for ever!” He knew that their heart was not right even
when they
spoke obediently. Not many days after the people had trembled at
Sinai
they made a golden calf, and set it up and bowed before it, and provoked
the
Lord to jealousy so that he sent plagues among them. It is quite clear
that after such a rebellion, after a deliberate breach of his covenant, and
daring violation of his commands, it would have been quite
impossible for
God to speak to them, or for them to listen to the voice of
God, in a direct
manner. They would have fled before him because of his holiness,
which
shamed their unholiness; and because of
their sin, which provoked his
indignation, because of the wandering, and instability, and treachery
of
their hearts, the Lord could not have endured them in his
presence. The
holy angels forever adore with that threefold cry, “Holy, holy, holy Lord
God of Sabaoth”; and he could not
permit men of unclean lips to profane
his
throne with their unholy utterances. Oh no, my brethren, with such a
sense of sin as some of us have, and as all of us ought to have,
we should
have to cover our faces, and cower down in terror, if Jehovah himself were
to
appear. He cannot look upon iniquity, neither can evil
dwell with him,
for
he is a consuming fire. While we are compassed with infirmity we
cannot behold him, for our eyes are dimmed with the smoke of our
iniquities. If we would see even the skirts of hip garments we must
first be
pure in heart, and he must put us in the cleft of the rock, and cover us
with
his
hand. If we were to behold His stern justice, His awful holiness, and His
boundless power, apart from our ever-blessed Mediator, we should
dissolve at the sight, and utterly melt away, for we have sinned.
This double reason of the weakness of our nature, and the
sinfulness of our
character, is a forcible one, for I close this part of the discourse
by
observing that the argument was so forcible that the Lord Himself
allowed
it. He said, “They have
well spoken, that which they have spoken.” It was
no
morbid apprehension which made them afraid, it was no foolish dread
which made them start, for wisdom’s own self in the person of
Moses,
said, “I do exceedingly fear and quake.” The calmest and meekest of men
had
real cause for fear.
God’s face is not to be seen. An occasional glimpse may
come to spirits
raised above their own natural level, so that they can for awhile
behold the
King, the Lord of hosts; but even to them it is a terrible
strain upon all their
powers, the wine is too strong for the bottles. What said John,
when he
saw,
not so much absolute Deity, but the divine side of the Mediator?
“When I saw him I fell at his feet as dead.” Daniel, the
man greatly
beloved, confesses that there remained no strength in him and his
comeliness was turned into corruption when he heard the voice of God;
and
Job said, “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine
eye
seeth thee; therefore I abhor myself in dust and
ashes.” No, God
knoweth it is not silly fright nor unbelieving fear; it is a most
seemly awe
and
a most natural dread which takes hold of finite and fallible creatures in
the presence of the
Infinite and Perfect One! These frail
tabernacles, like
the
tents of Cushan, are in affliction when the Lord
marches by in the
greatness of His power. We need a Mediator. The
Lord knows right well
that our sinfulness provokes Him, and that there is in us, in the best here
present, that which would make Him to break out against us to
destroy us if
we
were to come to Him without a covering and propitiation.
We must approach the Lord through a Mediator: it is
absolutely necessary.
God Himself witnesses it is, and therefore in His mercy He
ordains a
Mediator, that by Him we may be able to approach His throne
of grace.
May the Holy Spirit make this truth very plain to the
consciousness of all
of
us, and cause us to sing with the poet:
“Till
God in human flesh I see,
My
thoughts no comfort find;
The
holy, just, and sacred Three
Are
terrors to my mind.
“But if
Immanuel’s face appear,
My
hope, my joy begins;
His
name forbids my slavish fear,
His
grace removes my sins.”
II. This
brings us to consider THE PERSON of the appointed Mediator, and
in
my text we obtain a liberal measure of information upon this point. Read
these blessed words, “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a
Prophet
from the midst of thee, of thy brethren.” Dwell with sweetness upon this
fact that our Lord Jesus was raised up from the midst of us, from among
our
brethren. In him is fulfilled that glorious prophecy, “I have exalted one
chosen out of the people.” He is one of ourselves,
a brother born for
adversity. He was born at
horned oxen fed he in a manger lay, as any other babe might do,
wrapped
in
swaddling bands, and dependent on a woman’s loving care as any other
babe might be. He was like ourselves in his growth
from infancy to
manhood, increasing in stature as we do from our childhood to our
riper
age.
Though the holy child Jesus he was yet a child, and therefore he was
subject to his parents. And when he came forth as a man, his was
no
phantom manhood, but true flesh and blood; he was tempted and he
was
betrayed: he hungered and he thirsted; he was weary and he was sore
amazed; he took our sicknesses, and he carried our sorrows; he
was made
in
all points like unto his brethren. He did not set himself apart as though
he
were of an exclusive caste or of a superior rank, but he dwelt among us;
the
brother of the race, eating with publicans and sinners, mingling ever
with the common people. He was not one who boasted his descent, or
gloried in the so-called blue blood, or placed himself among the Porphyrogeniti,
(born into the purple) who must
not see the light except in marble halls. He was
born in a common house of entertainment where all might come to him, and
He died with His arms
extended as a pledge that He continued to receive all
who came to Him. He never
spoke of men as the common multitude, the vulgar
herd, but he made himself at home among them. He was dressed like a
peasant, in the ordinary smock of the country, a garment without
seam,
woven from the top throughout; and he mixed with the multitude,
went to
their marriage feasts, attended their funerals, and was so much
among
them, a man among men, that slander called him a gluttonous man and a
wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. In all respects our
Lord was
raised up from the midst of us, one of our own kith and kin. “For
this cause
he is not
ashamed to call us brethren.” He was
our brother in living, our
brother in death, and our brother in resurrection; for after his
resurrection
he
said, “Go, tell my brethren;” and he also said, “My Father, and your
Father; my God, and your God.” Though now exalted in the highest
heavens he pleads for us and acts as a High Priest who can be
touched with
a
feeling of our infirmities. God has graciously raised
up such a Mediator,
and
now he speaks to us through him. O sons of men, will ye not hearken
when such an one as Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of man, is ordained to
speak of the eternal God? Ye might be unable to hear if he
should speak
again in thunder, but now he speaketh
by those dear lips of love, now he
speaketh by that gracious tongue which has wrought such miracles of
grace by its words, now he speaketh
out of that great heart of his, which
never beats except with love to the sons of men-will ye not hear
him?
Surely we ought to give the most earnest heed and obey his
every word.
Moses was truly one of the people, for he loved them
intensely, and all his
sympathies were with them. They provoked him terribly, but still he
loved
them. We can never admire that man of God too much when we think of
his
disinterested love to that guilty nation. See him on the mountain there
as
and
I will make of thee a great nation.” That proposal opened up before
Moses’ eye a glittering destiny. It was within his grasp that he himself
should become the founder of a race, in whom the promises made to
Abraham should be fulfilled. Would not the most of men have
greedily
snatched at it? But Moses will not have it. He loves
the
people die if he can save them. He has not an atom of selfish ambition
about him; but with cries and tears he exclaims,” Wherefore
should the
Egyptians speak and say, For
mischief did he bring them out, to slay them
in
the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn
from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people.” He
prevailed with God by his pleading, for he identified himself with
Moses did, as it were, gather up all their grief’s and
sorrows into himself,
even as did our Lord. True Israelite was he, for he refused to be called the
son
of Pharaoh’s daughter, and cast in his lot with the people of God. This
is
just what our blessed Lord has done. He will not have honor apart from
his
people, nor even life, unless they live also. He saved others, himself he
could not save. He would not be in heaven, and leave his saints
behind, He
loved the people and so proved himself to be one chosen out of
their midst,
a
brother among brethren.
Mark well that, while thus our Lord is our brother, the
great God has in his
person sent us one who is lifted up above us all in the knowledge
of his
mind. Thus saith the Lord (v. 18.), “I
will put my words in his mouth.” Our
Lord Jesus Christ comes to us inspired by God. Not alone
cometh he, nor
of
his own mind; but saith he, “The Father is with me: I
do always the
things which please him: the Father that dwelleth
in me, he doeth the
works.” Both in word and work he acted for his Father, and under
his
Father’s inspiration. Men and brethren, I beseech you not to reject the
message which Jesus
brings, seeing it is not his own, BUT THE SURE
MESSAGE OF GOD! Trifle not with a single word, which Jesus speaks, for it
is
the word of the Eternal One: despise not one single deed which he did, or
precept which he commanded, or blessing which he brought, for upon
all
these there is THE STAMP OF DEITY!
God chose one who is our brother that
he
might come near to us; but he put his own royal imprimatur upon him, that
we
might not have an ambassador of second rank, but one who counts it
not
robbery to be equal with God, who nevertheless for our sake has taken
upon himself the form of a servant that he might speak home to our hearts.
For all these reasons, I beseech you despise not him that speaketh, seeing
He speaketh from heaven.
The main point, however, upon which I want to dwell is,
that Jesus is like
to
Moses. There had been no better mediator found than Moses up to
Moses’ day; the Lord God, therefore, determined to work
upon that model
with the great prophet of his race, and he has done so in sending forth the
Lord Jesus. It would be a very interesting task for the
young people to
work out all the points in which Moses is a personal type of the Lord
Jesus. The points of resemblance are very many, for there
is hardly a single
incident in the life of the great Lawgiver, which is not symbolical
of the
promised Savior. You may begin from the beginning at the waters of
the
in
Moses as a man sees his face in a glass. I can only mention in what
respects, as a Mediator, Jesus is like to Moses, and surely one is
found in
the
fact that Moses beyond all that went before him was peculiarly the
depository of the mind of God.
Once and again we find him closeted with
God for forty days at a time. He went right away from men to the lone
mountaintop, and there he was forty days and forty nights, and did
neither
eat
nor drink, but lived in high communion with his God. In those times of
seclusion he received the pattern of the tabernacle, the laws of
the
priesthood, of the
sacrifices of the holy days, and of the civil estate of
To whom else had God ever spoken for that length of time,
as a man
speaketh with his friend? He was the peculiar favorite of God. From
the
first day of his call, when he was keeping his father’s flock at
the back of
the
desert, right to the day when God kissed away his soul on the top of
Nebo, he was a man greatly beloved, to whom God manifested
himself as
to
no other. Hear the Lord’s own words to Aaron and Miriam. “And he
said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will
make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a
dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine
house. With
him
will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark
speeches: and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold: wherefore
then
were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” In this our Lord
Jesus is like to Moses, only he far surpasses him, for the
intercourse
between Christ and the Father was very much more intimate, seeing
that
Jesus is himself essential deity, and “in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the
Godhead
bodily.” Cold mountains and the midnight air continually
witnessed to his communion with the Father. Nor these alone, for he
abode
with the Father. His language was always spoken out as God was speaking
within him; he lived in God, and with God I know, said he, that
thou
hearest me always.” Instead of having to point out when Christ was
in
communion with the Father, we have rather, with astonishment, to
point
out
the solitary moment when he was left of the Father, even that dread
hour when he cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Only
for
that once the Father had left him, and even then it was inexplicable, and
he
asked the reason for it; though he knew himself to be then
THE SUBSTITUTE FOR MAN yet did His desertion by God come upon Him
as
a novelty which utterly overwhelmed Him, so that He asked in agony why He
was
forsaken.
Moses, to take another point, is the first of the prophets with
whom God
kept up continuous revelation. To other men he spake in dreams and
visions, but to Moses by plain and perpetual testimony. His Spirit
rested on
him,
and he took of it to give thereof to Joshua, and to the seventy elders,
even as Jesus gave of his Spirit to the apostles. Sometimes God spake to
Noah, or to Abraham and others; but it was upon occasions
only; and even
then, as in the case of Abraham and Jacob, they must fall asleep to see and
hear him best: but with Moses the Lord abode perpetually; whensoever he
willed he consulted the Most High, and at once God spake with him, and
directed his way. So was it with Christ Jesus. He needed not to
behold a
vision: the spirit of prophecy did not occasionally come upon
him, and bear
him
out of himself, for the Spirit was given him without measure, and he
knew the very mind
and heart of God perpetually. He was always a
prophet; not sometimes a prophet, like him of old, of whom we
read, “The
Spirit of God came upon him in the camp of Dan”; or like
others of whom
it
is written, “the word of the Lord came to them.” At all times the Spirit
rested upon him: he spake in the abiding power of the Holy Ghost, even
more so than did Moses.
Moses is described as a prophet mighty in word and deed,
and it is singular
that there never was another prophet mighty in word and deed till Jesus
came. Moses not only spoke with matchless power, but wrought miracles.
You shall find no other prophet who did both. Other
prophets who spake
well wrought no miracles, or only here and there; whilst those who
wrought miracles, such as Elijah and Elisha,
have left us but few words that
they spake: indeed, their prophecies were but
lightning flashes, and not as
the
bright shining of a sun. When you come to our Lord Jesus you find lip
and
heart working together, with equal perfectness of
witness. You cannot
tell in which he is the more marvelous, in his speech or in his act. “Never
man spake like this man,” but certainly never man wrought such marvels of
mercy as Jesus did. He far exceeds Moses and all the prophets put together
in the variety and
the multitude and the wonderful character of the miracles
which he did. If men bow before prophets who can cast down their rods,
and
they become serpents, if they yield homage to prophets who call fire
from heaven, how much more should they accept him whose words are
matchless music, and whose miracles of love were felt even beyond the
boundaries of this visible world; for the angels of God flew from
heaven to
minister to him, the devils
of the pit fled before his voice, and the caverns
of
death heard his call and yielded up their prey. Who would not accept
this prophet like unto
Moses, to
whom the Holy Ghost bare witness by
mighty signs and wonders?
Moses, again, was the founder of a great system of
religious law, and this
was
not the case with any other but the Lord Jesus. He founded the whole
system of the Aaronic priesthood and
the law that went with it. Moses was
a
law-giver: he gave the ten commandments in the name of God, and all the
other statutes of the Jewish polity were ordained through him.
Now, till
you
come to Christ you find no such law-giver; but Jesus institutes the new
covenant as Moses introduced the old, the sermon on the mount was
an
utterance from a happier Sinai, and whereas Moses gives this and that
command, Jesus gives the like in sweeter form and in diviner
fashion, and
embodies it in his own sacred person. He is the great legislator of
our
dispensation, the King in the midst of Jeshurun,
giving forth his command,
which runneth very swiftly, and they
that fear the Lord are obedient
thereunto.
Time will fail us, or we would mention to you that Moses
was faithful
before God as a servant over
all his house, and so was Jesus as a Son over
his own house. He
was never unfaithful to his charge in any respect, but in
all things ruled
and served to perfection as the anointed of the Father. He is
the faithful and
true Witness, the Prince of the kings of the earth. Moses,
too,
was zealous for God and for his honor. Remember how the zeal of
God’s house did eat him up. When he saw grievous sin among
the people,
he
said, “Who is on the Lord’s side?” and there came to him the tribe of
Levi, and he said, “Go in and out, and slay ye every one
his men that were
joined to Baal-poor.” Herein he was the stern type of Jesus, who took
the
scourge of small cords, and drove out the buyers and sellers, and
said,
“Take these things hence: it is written, My Father’s house
shall be a house
of
prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves”; for the zeal of God’s
house had eaten him up.
Moses, by divine grace, was very meek, and perhaps
this is the chief
parallel between him and Jesus. I have said, “by
divine grace,” for I
suppose by nature he was strongly passionate. There are many
indications
that Moses was not meek, but very far from it until the Spirit of God rested
upon him. He slew the Egyptian hastily, and in after years he went out
from the presence of Pharaoh “in great anger.” Once and again you find
him
very wroth: he took the tables of stone and dashed them in pieces in
his
indignation, for “Moses’ anger waxed hot”; and that unhappy action
which occasioned his being shut out of
provoked in spirit so that he spake
unadvisedly with his lips,” and said,
“Hear now, ye rebels; must I fetch you water out of this
rock?” Divine
grace had so cooled and calmed him that in general he was the
gentlest of
men,
and when his brother and sister thrust themselves into his place and
questioned his authority, it is written, “Now the man Moses was very
meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.” In his
own
quarrel he has never anything to say: it is only for the people and for
God that his anger waxeth
hot. Even about his last act of
hastiness he says,
“God was angry with me for your sake,”
not for his own sake. He was so
meek and gentle that for forty years he bore with the most rebellious and
provoking nation that ever existed. But what shall I say of my Master? Let
him speak for
himself. “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy
laden and I will give
you rest: take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for
I am meek and
lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” Our
children call him “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild.” The man Jesus is
very
meek above all men that are upon the face of the earth. He has his
indignation,
“Like
glowing often is his wrath,
As
flame by furious blast up blown,”
for
he can be angry, and the wrath of the Lamb is the most awful wrath
beneath the sun; but still to us, in this gospel day, he is all love and
tenderness; and when he bids us come to him, can we refuse to hear? So
meek is the Mediator that he is love itself, incarnate love; so loving, that
when he died his only crime was that he was “found guilty of excess of
love”; can we be so cruel as to reject him?
O brothers and sisters, do not
refuse to listen to the voice of this Tender One by whom God speaketh to
you.
Our Lord was like to Moses in meekness, and then to sum up
all-Moses
was
the Mediator for God with the people, and so is our blessed Lord.
Moses came in God’s name to set
he
did it: Jesus
came to set us free from a worse bondage still, AND HE
HAS ACHIEVED OUR FREEDOM!
Moses led the people through the
and
Jesus has led us where all the hosts of hell were overthrown, and sin was
drowned in his own most precious blood. Moses led the tribes
through the
wilderness, and Jesus leads us through the weary ways of this life to
the
rest, which remaineth for the people of God. Moses
spake to the people for
God, and Jesus hath done the same. Moses spake to
God for the people,
and
Jesus
ever liveth to make intercession for us. Moses proposed himself
as
a sacrifice when he said, “If not, blot my name out of the book of life “;
but
Jesus was an actual sacrifice, and was taken away from the land of the
living for our sakes, being made a
curse for us. Moses, in a certain
sense,
died for the people, for he could not enter into the land, but must needs
close his eyes on Nebo. Those are touching words, “The Lord was angry
with me for your sakes”: words, which in a diviner sense may be fitly
applied to Jesus, for God was angry with him for our sakes. Right
through
to
the very end our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, is a prophet like
unto Moses, raised up from the midst of his brethren. O my hearers,
HEAR YE HIM! Turn not your ear away from this Prophet of prophets,
but
hear and
live.
III. I
close with that point, and if my words are very few let them be
weighty. Let us think of THE AUTHORITY of
our great Mediator, and let
this be the practical lesson – HEAR YE HIM! Men and
brethren, if our hearts
were right, the moment it was announced that God would speak to us
through Jesus Christ there would be a rush to hear him. (In a much more
holier fashion and with much more zeal, than the people who line up for
every year! CY – 2020) If sin had not maddened
men they would listen eagerly
to
every word of God through such a Mediator as Jesus is; they would write each
golden sentence on their tablets, they would hoard His word in
their memories,
they would wear it between their eyes, they would yield their hearts to it.
Alas, it
is
not so; and the saddest thing of all is that some talk of Jesus for gain, and
others
hear of him as if his story were a mere tale or an old Jewish ballad of two
thousand years ago. Yet, remember, God speaks by Jesus still, and every
word of his that is left on record is as solemnly alive today as when it
first
leaped from his blessed lips. I beseech you remember Christ
cometh not as
an
amateur, but HE HATH AUTHORITY WITH HIM, this ambassador to men
wears the authority of the King of kings. If ye despise him ye
despise him that
sent him: if ye turn away from him that speaketh
from heaven YE TURN AWAY
FROM THE ETERNAL GOD and ye do despite to
his love. OH, DO NOT SO!
Note how my text puts it. It saith
here, “Whosoever shall not hearken unto
my words
which he shall speak in my name, I
will require it of him.” My
heart trembles while I repeat to you the words, “I will require
it of him.”
Today God graciously requires it of some of you, and asks WHY HAVE YOU
NOT LISTENED TO CHRIST’S
VOICE? Why is this? You
have not accepted
HIS SALVATION! Why is this? You
know all about Jesus, and you say it is true,
but
you have never believed in him: why is this? God requires it of you. Many
years has he waited patiently, and He has
sent His servant again and again to
invite you. The men of
have not repented. God requires it of you. Why is this? Give your Maker a
reason for your rejection of His mercy if you can: fashion some
sort of
excuse, O ye rebellious one. Do you despise your God? Do you dare
his
wrath? Do you defy his anger? Are you so
mad as this?
The day will come when he will require it of you in a much
more violent
sense than he does to-day; WHEN YOU HAVE PASSED BEYOND THE
REGION OF MERCY, he will say, “I called you and you refused, why is this?
I did not speak to you in thunder. I spoke to you with the
gentle voice of the Only
Begotten who bled and died for men: why did you not hear
him? Every
Sabbath day my servant tried to repeat the language of his
Master to you:
why
did you refuse it? You are cast into hell, but why did not you accept
the
pardon which would have delivered you from it?” You were too busy.
Too busy to remember your God? What could you have
been busy about
that was worth a
thought as compared with Him? You were too
fond of
pleasure. And do you dare insult your God by saying that trifling
amusements which were not worth the mentioning could stand in
comparison with his love and his good pleasure? Oh, how you deserve
his
wrath. I pray you consider what this meaneth,
“I will, require it of him.”
You who still
harden your hearts, and refuse my Master, go away with this
ringing in your ears, “I WILL
REQUIRE IT OF HIM! I WILL REQUIRE
IT
OF HIM.” “When he lieth dying alone in that sick chamber I will require it
of
him: when he hath taken the last plunge, and left this world, AND FINDS
HIMSELF IN
ETERNITY, I WILL REQUIRE IT OF HIM! And when
the
thunder wakes the dead, and the great Prophet like unto Moses
shall sit on the
great white throne to judge the quick and the dead, I
will require it of him,
I will require it of him.”
My Master will require of me how I have preached to you,
and I
sincerely
wish it were in my
power to put these things in better form, and plead with
you more earnestly;
but, after all, what can I do? If you
have no care for
your own
souls, how can I help it? If you will
rush upon eternal woe, if you
will despise the altogether lovely One through whom God speaks to you, if
you
will live day after day carelessly and wantonly, throwing away your
souls, oh, then mine eyes shall weep in secret places for you;
but what
more can I do but leave you to God? At the last I shall be compelled to say
“Amen’ to the
verdict which condemns you for ever. God
grant that such a
reluctant task may not fall to my lot in reference to any one of
you, but
MAY YOU NOW HEAR AND OBEY THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
AND FIND ETERNAL SALVATION AT ONCE, FOR HIS DEAR NAME’S
SAKE! Amen.
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