Deuteronomy 9:22

And at Taberah. .. ye provoked the Lord to wrath.

Warning examples

In the histories here referred to we have examples of some of the methods of the Divine government of the world which reappear in all ages.

I. God does not always lead peoples and individuals to repentance by visitations of his goodness. He sometimes uses the rod.

1. The more a people has been blessed, etc., so much the more certainly will God visit their sins with judgment.

2. But He does not overthrow at once and without warning. Signal fires which tell of coming danger are lighted afar, showing what is coming.

3. When the people repent, then His wrath against sin passes them by. This is seen in all the incidents mentioned here.

II. Such warning examples are seen in all the history of the Church and the world.

1. The Reformation was a time of blessing. The light of knowledge and of Divine truth shone throughout Christendom. The Gospel was set on its candlestick. A reformation in social, political, and domestic life occurred in conjunction with the religious movement.

2. But God’s ways are ways of earnest effort and quiet waiting through endurance and self-sacrifice. Many would not wait. Progress was too slow for them. They would reform the world at one stroke. Discontent and murmuring broke out among some sections of the people. Then came the peasant war. Like a terrible conflagration, the flames of sedition burst out and threatened to destroy the stays of political and religious existence. Yet God had mercy, as on Israel in the wilderness. He permitted only the outermost defences to be destroyed; and there was left behind a fire-swept ruin to remind Christendom whither impatience, murmuring, discontent, and self-will lead.

3. See a hundred years later. Had the people realised with thankfulness the great blessings of freedom and the Gospel divinely given them? The prophets of the Reformation had warned men what the result of such ingratitude would be. What had been the result of a hundred years preaching of the Gospel among the peoples and their rulers? The judgment came. The Thirty Years’ War, with its blind passions, sent a warning column of flame heavenward. But God again had mercy, although for years Germany was like a burnt-up house. Still, the holiest was preserved, and a new time began.

4. Look a hundred years later. Through the whole of Europe a spirit of apostasy had spread. It swept through England as Deism; as scoffing in France, with accompanying libertinage. In Germany, and indeed in all Europe, the bonds of Christian life and morality were unloosed. Like a shallow but broad stream, the spiritual revolution overflowed all lands. With it came the outer overturning. Uneasiness and discontent were over all. The flame of revolt broke out in France, and Europe was enveloped. But God again, in His mercy, gave space for repentance.

III. The lessons to our time of these incidents.

1. We should have eyes to see what the signs of our time mean. If the spirit of discontent, rebellion, etc., be not repressed, whither shall it lead? Already the flames begin to appear--political incendiarism, audacity in speech, universal agitation. Men who look for no hereafter storm fully grasp at material good. How shall it be when the Divine patience ends?

2. At the beginning of Israel’s history those warning fire columns were seen. Fifteen hundred years later the impenitent descendants of Israel saw the temple in flames, Jerusalem destroyed, the nation a ruin.

3. Will the New Testament Zion not understand those warnings? A people remained to God even after Jerusalem fell. So will it be although the present form of Christendom passes; and the New Testament foretells such perilous times.

4. Let the individual learn the need of watchfulness. Was not that dangerous sickness a warning signal? But in mercy He spared, and life and health are yours. Let those signs be like beacon lights on your life’s voyage. Murmur not, cultivate contentment, learn to say: “I shall go as God leads me, without seeking to choose for myself.” (W. Grashoff.)