Deuteronomy 14:1-2 -

The people of God when death is in the home.

If God chose out a people for himself, with the view of planting in the world a new and nobler faith, it is no wonder if he would have the people super add to that a new and higher life. But if the life is to be higher in any sense which could be acceptable to Jehovah, it must be one based on the new faith and manifesting itself to others in a new deportment, i . e . it must be both an outer and inner life. But if the people are just emerging from a semi-barbaric condition, it is not at all improbable that they may need to be dealt with as we deal with children. We give them technical rules first, and they have to learn reasons afterwards. Possibly, as the child grows up and gets beyond the rules which bound him once, he may smile at them, or rather at the childishness which needed them in earlier years; while at the same time he would, or at any rate he should, feel thankful to those who stooped to teach him so that he could understand them .

In this chapter, we have several illustrations of God's thus dealing with Israel. We now take the one in the first two verses. It is well known that heathen nations were very violent in their shows of grief over their dead, tearing the hair, cutting the face, beating the breast, etc; while the cutting of the flesh was likewise submitted to in honor of their gods (see Exposition, in loc .). Now, it was of vast importance to give Israel to understand how entirely they were to be the Lord's, how fully he was theirs, and how the blest mutual relation changed the very aspect of that frequent and certain family sorrow—death. We have not here any full opening up of that, but there is scarcely any room to doubt that it formed a very important part of Hebrew teaching; for the fact that all these heathen rites and orgies over the dead were entirely forbidden would be sure to lead many, especially of the young, to ask for the reason of such prohibition. And when we remember how careful was the preparation for meeting the inquisitiveness of childhood in other matters, we cannot imagine that this was an exception to the general rule. The prohibition of old customs would clear the way for teaching a new doctrine. And, as applied to Israel of old, the following six positions may be asserted and maintained.

1. They were to be a separate people to the Lord their God, not only in all the varied relations of life, but also in the presence of death.

2. Old customs of surrounding nations, at the death of their friends, were to be done away, as a sign of the different meaning and aspect of death, to the people of the Lord.

3. This changed aspect of death followed from their blessed relationship to God, and from God's blessed relationship to them.

4. This relationship involved and assured Israel of the continued life of their holy dead in God. Surely it was scarcely possible for them to think of Enoch, Noah, Abraham, as extinct. True, the light on the unseen life in the grave was dim, and the gloom of the grave was deep. But still, it was very far from having about it the hopelessness which marked the heathen world.

5. For, stretching far away in the future, there was the hope of a resurrection at the last day. This was involved in God's words to Moses, "I am the God of Abraham," etc. Many, perhaps the mass, of the people might not see that. But our Lord assures us that the doctrine is wrapped up there.

6. Consequently, there was no reason to justify a hapless, hopeless wail in the presence of death. Whence our subject for meditation is suggested to us—

THERE OUGHT TO BE A GREAT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GOD 'S PEOPLE AND OTHERS IN THE PRESENCE OF DEATH . In one sense, indeed, there is none; or, at least, none which can be discerned. One event cometh alike to all, even to the righteous and the wicked, and the horse of the good man may be as frequently darkened by "the shadow of death" as that of another who fears not God. But still, when death does come, there may well be a very wide difference between those who are the children of God and those who are not, especially when the departed one is a member of" the whole family in heaven and on earth" (and such cases only do we note in this Homily). When the Christian expositor is opening up the principle contained in these verses, he can do so from much higher vantage-ground than one who confines himself to the Old Testament teaching. Some such main lines of thought as the following will be the Christian unfolding of the principles so long ago laid down.

1. There is a blessed relationship between God and his people. It is initiated in the new birth by the Holy Ghost. Those thus born anew are children of God—not merely under a national covenant, as sharing a common privilege, but as brought into a personal covenant through the impartation of a new life. The mark of this new birth is the saving reception of Christ by faith, and the effect of it is to transfer men from the region of darkness to that of light, "from the power of Satan unto God," and from being subjects of a kingdom, to their being citizens in God's city and sons in God's family—"fellow-citizens of the saints and of the household of God."

2. This blessed relationship is sealed and made sure by "the blood of the everlasting covenant." They are redeemed with the "precious blood of Christ.

3. It is ratified by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is the Firstborn out of the dead, and has "opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers."

4. This blessed relation continues undisturbed by the accident of death. "Christ died for us, that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him;" "whether we live or die, we are the Lord's;" "Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord of the dead and of the living."

5. The resurrection of Christ's own will as surely follow his as the harvest follows the firstfruits. "Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the Firstfruits of them that slept."

6. The distinctive features of the resurrection of the body are laid down for us by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:1-58 . Of these there are four.

7. Therefore the reason for avoiding the hopeless sorrow of the pagan world is even vastly deeper and stronger than it was under Moses. If Israel might not sorrow as those without hope when they had the assurance," I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," how much less should we, when earth has seen the Firstfruits of the great resurrection from the dead! How much light is thrown by Christ's grace and love into the portals of the grave, and what a hallowed and hallo-wing calm may pervade the chamber of death if our Lord is with us there! Yea, there is no real death to the believer. "Our Savior Jesus Christ hath abolished death." He hath said," If a man keep my sayings, he shall never taste of death." Then we may well bless our God that, amid the changing scenes of earth, we stand on ground which can never be shaken. There ariseth light in the darkness.

"With joy we tell the scoffing age,

He that was dead has left his tomb;

He lives above their utmost rage,

And we are waiting till he come."