Deuteronomy 33:29

Happy art thou, O Israel.

The peerless nation

The word “Israel” never grows old. It is a name that, though it figures on the page of history as a name of long, long ago, still lives, and lives to represent a living people at this day. When Daniel interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, he said (Daniel 2:44). That kingdom is the kingdom of Immanuel It is composed of those who love and trust and serve the once despised Jesus. These are the true “Israel.” The true Israel, like the Israel of old, have been saved out of Egypt. Egypt represents darkness, bondage, misery, idolatry, the whip of the taskmaster, the toilsome mockery of vain labour--bricks without straw. Again Israel today, like the Israel of old, is a separate and distinctive people. Those ancient people were altogether different from the various nations who dwelt around them, and through whose territories they passed. They were subjected to singular laws, such as none other people would acknowledge or obey. They had a religion, had customs unlike those of any other race or tribe. Their fashion of dress, their mode of speech, their manner of worship, their acknowledgment of a King unseen, a sceptre superhuman--all these proclaimed them to be peculiar, separate, distinct, alone. All the world besides were Gentiles; they alone were Jews. That is the unchanging characteristic of the real, spiritual Israel of God today. This distinction does not now refer to any special external sign. It is not a matter of dress, of language, or of manners. It is a difference in moral allegiance, a difference in heart, a difference in motives, a difference in aims and ends; a difference made evident by a godly and a consecrated life. “Come ye out from among them!” says the Book, prompt and peremptory. Where it is so, then, “happiest is Israel, saved of the Lord.” Our Israel, like Israel of old, is a pilgrim people. From the Egypt of bondage the former marched, without long-abiding resting place, to the land of promise that lay beyond. So the Saviour’s Israel goes forward, forward towards holiness, forward towards heaven. “This is not their rest,” and they know it; and so they will not set their affections on things of the earth; will not clog and trammel themselves with aught that will hinder their march, or risk their ultimate inheritance. Each one grips his staff, and girds his loins and goes on his pilgrim way, “Westward ho,” and often sees the distant hills of Canaan tinged with the glow of the setting sun. Happy thus, I tell you, is Israel, for he is the saved of the Lord, and the crowning glory of that salvation shines brightly on before. Again, Israel, like the Israel of old, is a tried and tempted people. They had hardships and sufferings, they had perils and pains. The more they were loyal to God and their leader, the more they were plagued by the hostilities of men. It is so with Israel still. They can buy a little transient ease, by cringing to custom, toying with expediency, shirking duty and coquetting with the world; but it is dearly bought; and as with the former Israel, such alliances bring a harvest of thorns. “In the world ye shall have tribulation, but in Me shall ye have peace,” and with that compensation, the very trials of the way become triumphs, and the crosses are transformed to crowns. “Behold, we count them happy that endure.” “Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations.” O yes, Moses speaks the simple truth, Israel, Immanuel’s Israel is happy I He is chosen of God. “I have loved thee,” He says, “with an everlasting love.” “With loving kindness have I chosen thee, my jewel, my portion, my delight!” He is redeemed! Out of what bondage, what darkness, what slavish toil his God hath brought him! Out of what deadly peril He hath snatched him! Out of what dread and doubt and fear and sad distress He hath uplifted, him! “His own right hand and holy arm hath gotten Him the victory!” Besides, Israel is led by His hand, guarded by His arm, cheered by His presence. He appoints Israel’s every place and circumstance. He marks out all their way. He keeps their foot from perilous byways, and like Greatheart with the pilgrims, goeth with drawn sword before them all the way. (J. J. Wray.)

The happiness of God’s chosen people

I. The guidance of a Divine Leader. Two elements here meet in the special knowledge which is supplied for the guidance of the Christian Israel; elements which in knowledge are of supreme value. There is the element of importance and the element of certainty, Christ has not come into the world to lead His Israel, without the need and the capacity to make the most important of all questions known. The pardon of sin and the way in which it is to be secured; the standard of duty and the means of being raised up to it; the existence of a life beyond the grave and the possibility of reaching it; these, and all that is included in these, are the points on which the God of Israel through His Son has showed His people light; and therefore the glad strain is everywhere heard, “Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound!” But the certainty of this knowledge is equal to its importance. It is often said, How can a professed revelation which deals with matters of history, and history too, now hundreds of years old, bring with it certainty, original and soul satisfying certainty? Now I am prepared to take up this challenge, and to show that Christians have an original and soul satisfying certainty in regard to Christ and His salvation, such as men have not in regard to many of the operations of their daily life. How much of your most needful knowledge in ordinary life is second hand! But in regard to salvation, the highest and saving knowledge must be repeated by everyone in direct contact with the living God, who carries the testimony of His Word home to the soul by the voice of conscience and of the Holy Spirit. Surely, then, those are blessed to whom a fountain of certainty is thus opened, which flows with ever-increasing stream.

II. The memory of a great deliverance. The Christian, awakened to the ruin of his state through sin, has stood as on the brink of a Red Sea of guilt, formed by the swelling of his own trespasses, with the avenger behind, and no possible escape before. But behold, the Cross of Christ, stretched out with a mightier power than the rod of Moses, has opened a way through the depths, and he has passed safely over into the land where the ransomed and pardoned dwell, and shall never come into condemnation. He sees his grand enemy and all his host defeated and destroyed, while the prey is taken from the mighty, and the lawful captive delivered. It is a rescue not for time only, but for eternity; and, with unutterable joy mingled with trembling, he sings, not the song of Moses, but of the Lamb: “O Lord, I will praise Thee with all my heart, and I will glorify Thy name forever, for great is Thy mercy towards me, and Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell!” The rescue is once for all; but as Israel by disobedience entailed repeated enslavement, so do Christians, alas! by renewed sin, incur once and again the painful sense of loss and danger; and as deliverance again comes, with the assurance of pardon:” “I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins; return unto Me, for I have redeemed thee!” the voice of penitent Israel renews the grateful strain: “Sing, O ye heavens,” etc. (Isaiah 44:23).

III. The prospect of certain victory. Our warfare is on God’s side with rebellion against God, with the temples of idolatry, superstition, and false religion, with the dark embattled hosts of pride and lust, of avarice and cruelty from one end of the world to the other. “Wherever the Canaanite is still in the land; wherever there is that within us or without us, that exalts itself against God, there must our deadly strife” be to bring it down; and every high thought must be brought “into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” The range of our spiritual geography is very limited. There remains much land to be possessed. But this is our great, our arduous, our worldwide mission, impossible to ourselves, but possible with God, and made by Him at once our duty and our happiness.

IV. A glorious inheritance. The conquests of Israel became their own possessions. The warrior was turned into the colonist. The army of invasion was turned into a peaceful army of occupation, dispersed amidst the scenes of their exploits over hill and valley, sitting each under his vine and fig tree with none to make him afraid. In the centre was the tabernacle of Jehovah; and the pillar which had led them to battle, and sent out its guiding light on their path, now diffused its mild and gracious beams over the abodes of rest and worship to the extremities of the land. Here was an emblem of the Christian Church translated to heaven. But how feeble and defective a figure after all are these “sweet fields beyond the swelling flood,” of the heavenly Canaan! With the outward victory of Israel, redemption was still incomplete and waited for a higher stage; God was still distant, dwelling in one selected spot, and leaving the rest in comparative shadow; Canaan itself, the joy of all lands, might be deteriorated, as it has been, to sterility and barrenness; and the people, them divinely settled, might for their sins be rooted up and scattered among the nations! What a contrast have we here to that inheritance, yet future, on which the hope of the Christian rests, and by which all the toils and conflicts of earth are to be crowned! Redemption has now reached its limit. The great Captain has come, temple. In conclusion, let me urge, that the blessedness of Israel, though guarded and defined, is not exclusive. The question “Who is like unto thee?” does not indicate anything restricted and unattainable. Even in ancient days, the sons of the stranger might come bending to take hold on Israel’s God, and claim the blessings of His covenant; and how much more in Gospel times, when every wall of partition is broken down, and all, who see Christ with Abraham’s faith, “are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Yes l however far off you may have been, you may now be made nigh by the blood of Christ! (John Cairns, D. D.)

Happiness: the privilege and duty of Christians

When you praise a man’s position, it is the next thing to flattering the man himself, for most men do not divide between themselves and their condition, but read a commendation of their condition as a commendation of themselves, though it be not so. Hence one has sometimes to be very chary of calling men happy; and all the more so because we cannot generally be sure that they are happy; external circumstances being but a poor means of judgment. Yet Moses speaks thus openly to Israel without a word of qualification. We are sure he did not speak ignorantly or rashly. Israel was happy. The people were favoured, and it was right for them to be told so. I think that Moses eulogised the nation to console them for his departure. “I climb the mount to go away to God, but happy art thou, O Israel: whether Moses be with thee or not, God is with thee. I think also that he had in his mind’s eye the fact that they were now about to face new difficulties. “Happy art thou, O Israel: thou art about to throw thyself into the midst of ferocious tribes who will all conspire to cut thee off; but thou art a people saved of the Lord; thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee, and thou shalt tread upon their high places.” So, then, it is right to commend a man’s condition, if you have a wise motive for it, and can either console him under trouble or inspire him for future service.

I. The happy condition of God’s people. If you have been born again and saved, you are the pick and choice of all God’s creatures, and He has indulged you with a measure of love and kindness such as He has shown to none else. Would you barter grace for gain? Gold cannot lighten the heavy heart or cool the burning brow; far oftener it cankers the soul, and lies like a weight upon the spirit. Turn you, if you will, to those famous for knowledge, men of skill, and wit, and research; yet among these there are none to be found comparable in happiness to Christians. Wealth, rank, learning fame pleasure, and all else that man holds dear, we would gladly renounce for the joy of our Lord. Israel knew what it was to be saved in many ways, and so do we. We have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus, fed with the bread of heaven, and made to drink of water from the Rock of Ages; and as for our adversaries, they have not been able to harm us, for the Lord has saved us unto this day.

II. The result of realising our blessed estate. Upon this subject there ought to be no need to dilate, for each heir of heaven should live in the hourly enjoyment of his divine inheritance; but, alas, few are doing so. Surely spiritual blessings are the only ones men decline to enjoy. You should enjoy your privileges and be happy, because--

1. It tends to keep our allegiance to God unshaken. It is because you lose the sweet flavour of the waters of the flowing fountain that you dabble in those muddy, stagnant gatherings which linger in the broken cisterns.

2. It will create enthusiasm and a grateful love within your bosom.

3. It will give you confidence to expect other blessings. Gratitude for the past inspires with courage for the future.

4. It will give you strength for bearing all your burdens and courage for facing all your enemies.

5. For Christians to be happy is one of the surest ways to set them seeking the salvation of others. (C. H. Spurgeon.).