ISRAEL was now a camp, rather than a nation. Though Canaan was given them, they were to take and defend it by force of arms. Hitherto they had seen little of war, having had only a fewer brushes in their journey with inferior adversaries. But things would soon become more serious, and they would see, horses, and chariots, and a people more than themselves." Hence they would be liable to alarm. and it was necessary for them to know what they had to embolden them. Moses therefore admonishes and encourages them, and both the admonition and the encouragement will apply to ourselves.
Religion is a state of conflict. All Christians are soldiers. They wage indeed a good warfare. It will bear examination. Every thing commends it, and everything requires it. It is not only a just, but a necessary war ; all that is valuable is at stake, and we must conquer or die. But it is a trying warfare. It continues through every season, and in every condition. It is here admitted that the forces of their enemies may be very superior to their own, in number, wisdom, vigilance, and might. Hence the danger of apprehension and alarm. And fortitude is the virtue of a warrior, and none needs it more than the man who wrestles with all the powers of darkness. And none has more grounds for courageousness than he. If he considers his foes and himself only, his confidence must fail him; but he has something else to consider :
First, the divine presence : "For the Lord thy God is with thee." And, "How many," said Antigonas to his troops, dismayed at the numbers of the foe, "how many do you reckon me for?" But God is all-wise and almighty. Nothing is too hard for the Lord ; and if He be with us. " they that be with us are more than they that be with them.'' "Greater is he that is in us, than he that is in the world."
Secondly, his former agency : "Who brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." This, to the Jew, was not only a proof, but a pledge; it not only showed what he could do, but was a voucher for what he would do. For he is always the same, and will not suffer what he has done to be undone. It would have been strange, after opening them a passage through the sea, to have drowned them in Jordan. What would he have done for his great name, after placing himself at their head to lead them to the land of promise, if he had suffered them to be overcome by the way? He who begins the good work, is not only able to finish, but begins it for the very purpose. "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things'?" "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son ; much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life."
"Grace will complete what grace begins,
To save from sorrows or from sins;
The work that Wisdom undertakes,
Eternal Mercy ne'er forsakes."
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