Sermons of Robert Murray MCheyne 15. Happy Art Thou, O Israel

Extract

“Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency? and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places” Deuteronomy 33:29.

These are the last words of Moses, the man of God. He was now an hundred and twenty years old; his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. For forty years he had led the people through the wilderness — he had cared for them, and prayed for them, and led them as a shepherd leads his flock; and now, when God had told him that he must part from them, he determined to part from them blessing them. And in this respect, as in many others, did he foreshadow the Saviour, of whom it is written, that “he led his disciples out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them; and it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.” First of all, we may understand these words literally as the blessing of Moses upon the people of Israel. He looked back over the wilderness through which he had led them, and it was all brilliantly studded with the wondrous things which God had wrought for them. He remembered the high hand and outstretched arm with which he had brought them out of Egypt. He remembered how he clave a path for them through the Red Sea, when their enemies sunk like lead in the mighty waters. He remembered how he went before them in a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. He remembered how he had sweetened the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. He remembered how he had fed them with manna from on high — man did eat angels’ food.

He remembered how he had smitten the rock at Rephidim, and waters gushed forth — how he had held up his hands to the going down of the sun, and Israel prevailed over Amalek. How he had received the law from the very hand of God for them. He remembered how he had again brought water from the flinty rock at Meribah. How he had lifted up the brazen serpent in the wilderness; and, looking back over all this track of forty years’ …

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