Wherein Have We Robbed God

I

Introductory

In order that we may approach the study of this book intelligently, it is necessary that certain principles of interpretation should be recognized and accepted. To the statement and consideration of these principles this introductory chapter is devoted.

I

Read first in Paul’s letters to the Romans, 15:4: For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. If we consider that verse in its setting we shall find that Paul, having made a quotation from the Old Testament Scriptures, interpolates upon the general scheme of his argument, a declaration that the inspired writing of Scripture does not exhaust itself in that particular age to which it is addressed. That is one of the peculiar notes of inspiration. Inspired writings differ from all others, in that they are not produced for one age exclusively, but have perpetually a varying application to varying ages.

The finest literature the world has produced, apart from the literature of the Bible, while it will remain interesting for long years—even though the conditions of the age to which it appealed may have changed—will not have a living and practical application to any age save that in which it was penned. The writings of Chaucer are of absorbing interest to Englishmen to-day, because they reveal to us the age in which they were produced, but they have no vital message to the men of to-day.

In that particular, this whole Book of God is in entire contrast to all other writings. All Scripture written aforetime had a local application, and a distinctive message to the times in which it was written, but it was written also for our learning.

The apostle, in this verse, makes use of the word Scriptures—that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. This word occurs in the New Testament no less than fifty-one times; and, with only one exception, is used in reference to the recognized Scriptures of the people of Israel, known to us as the Old Testament. It may be well for us to turn to that one exception, because it will enable us to keep that fact in mind. 2 Peter 3:16: As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction.

It is probable that when Peter makes use of the phrase other Scriptures, he may be referring principally to New Testament writings which are beginning to be scattered. It is not an established fact. He may have referred in this case, as in every other, to the Old Testament, but there is a probability that he is making reference to New Testament writings—to those letters that are being distributed to the Church of Jesus Christ. That is the only case in the New Testament where it is at all possible to read into the expression Scriptures that interpretation. In every other case the term refers to the recognized Scriptures of the Jewish people; and in that fact we discover that the New Testament has put its decided seal upon the Old. You cannot say, I take the New and not the Old. If you accept the New, the Old is interwoven into every book that the New contains.

In this connection I would suggest a profoundly interesting experiment to Bible students, which, while it is an experiment, is nevertheless profitable. Take your New Testament, and for once read it through from a literary standpoint, with the object of finding out how many chapters there are in which there is no quotation from, and no allusion to, the Old, and see how much you have left.

Here then is a principle that we must keep in memory—what was written aforetime was written not only with a direct bearing upon the time, but for our learning. In other words, when the Holy Spirit of God moved men of old to write, He not only moved them to write with a view to the interests of the times in which they lived, but with a view to all who should come after them.

II

Let us now turn to one of the most important of the Old Testament Scriptures, Deuteronomy 6:1–4, Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it: That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord. Among the things written aforetime is to be found this statement of a great principle underlying all life. The whole economy of Divine Government gathers round that verse: Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord. That was the special truth that was committed to the nation of Israel to preserve as a sacred thing, amid the nations of the earth. It is the central truth of all Divine Government and of all human life: God is one.

Mathematics is spoken of as being an exact science. Is it exact? I think not. Nothing is absolutely proved. That two and two make four, no one can prove. It never has been proved, and it is quite impossible to prove it—that is, you cannot demonstrate the truth of it.

Euclid is exact surely; it is built up step by step; you cannot do Book II., until you have done Book I. Come back to the early days of school life, and every boy knows he cannot do his Pons Asinorum without knowing the first proposition. It must then be exact. Let us examine it. How is it built up? Unless you learn your definitions, and believe in them, you cannot do Euclid. What are your definitions? A point is position without magnitude. Absolutely absurd! You cannot have position without magnitude. The instant you admit position you admit magnitude. A line is length without breadth. Equally absurd! You cannot have one without the other.

So our exact things are built up on impossibilities and absurd positions. All mathematical science may be reduced to a common fact. What is that common fact? One! When you have said one you have said two, and when you have said a million you have said one. You cannot get beyond one. One is essential, two is accidental.

The Lord your God is one Lord. God is behind everything the final certain One. You cannot analyze, or divide, or explain Him, yet He is the one and only absolute certainty. He is One, all-comprehending, indivisible. When you have said that, you have said all. When you have omitted that, you have left everything out, and babbled only in chaotic confusion.

From that truth I make a deduction. If God is one, then the principles and the purposes of His government never vary. Dispensations and methods change; the will of God never changes, never varies, never progresses, in that sense. What does progress mean? Failure! What does advancement mean? Past limitations! You cannot progress unless there has been failure somewhere. If I can be better in five minutes than I am now, I am wrong now. Progress is a confession of failure. When this age boasts of its vaunted progress, it is telling the story of the failure of the past. God never makes progress, never advances. Consequently He is not always doing as we are, legislating for man—framing new laws because the old ones have failed. The will of right, love, and tenderness, His will is eternal.

Dispensations come and go, dawn and vanish; but God remains the same, underneath, with, and in each. Some people speak as though God had not only altered His methods, but His mind. I agree that He has changed