The Dew of Israel, and the Lily of God
HosEA xiv. 5. I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily.
The Lord’s voice crieth to his people, “Return, return, O Israel;” and the promises added to encourage them to return are most sweet and beautiful: “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily.” At this last promise we pause: we are invited to inquire into its import, and to consider —
I. Christ, as set forth by the dew un-TO Israel.
II. His bride, the church, with every
PARTICULAR MEMBER OF IT, AS THE BLOOMING LILY.
I. “I will be as the dew unto Israel.” Jehovah himself as the dew! How soft is this similitude, and how agreeable! How exactly suited to improve and comfort the heart! Is not one and another of us ejaculating to Him in secret, b THE DEW OF ISRAEL,
“Be it so unto me, blessed Jesus, my Lord; be it unto me according to this thy word! Be thou as the dew of the morning unto me; let thy own blessing rest upon me, as the soft and gentle, rain.”
The dew, that precious boon bestowed upon the natural world, is often referred to in the Scripture by way of similitude. Sometimes it represents great temporal benefits. Thus Isaac, prophetically blessing Esau’s posterity, said, “Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above.” At other times, spiritual blessings are compared to the dew. Thus in Deuteronomy, chap, xxxiii. 28, “Israel shall dwell in safety alone; the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine: also his heavens shall drop down dew.” Again; the sure word of prophecy, in its exuberant richness and refreshing power, is commended to us by the same similitude: “My doctrine shall drop as the rain: my speech shall distil as the dew.” The dew is also an emblem of human grace or favour: ‘’ The king’s favour,” saith Solomon, “is as dew upon the grass.” It is likewise an emblem of peace and unanimity: “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard, and went down to the skirts of his garments; as the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion; for there Jehovah commanded the blessincr, even life for evermore.” The children of God themselves, the people who are born again, are called the dew; because they are born from above; born of God: because a beam of Divine light shines through them, and the image of the eternal Sun of Righteousness is reflected in them: because they are jewels of the earth’s attire, like the drops of dew; a graceful decoration and refreshment spread over the great field of human nature: also because the day will arrive, when, like the dew-drops, they shall be found a great multitude that no man can number: and, lastly, because, imperceptibly and mysteriously, they are begotten and brought forth as in the night, unnoticed and unobserved by the world. Thus it is written of Christ and his church in Psalm ex., “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.” And again, in Micah, chap. v. 7, “The remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from Jehovah.” Very frequently also the Holy Spirit, with his manifold powers, gifts, and operations, is in Scripture compared to the dew; for He is to the soul what the dew and the rain are to nature. “Awake,” saith the prophet, “and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead,” Isa. xxvi. 19.
And now, if the Lord, as here by the prophet Hosea, style Himself the Dew, can we be either surprised at it, or mistake its meaning? He who sends the dew, is also himself the Dew: He being that Spirit, of whom the apostle speaks, “Now the Lord is that Spirit,” 2 Cor. iii. 17; and again, “We all, as with unveiled face, beholding, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit,” ver. 18. When Christ enters into the soul, he enters by the Spirit; and when the Spirit is thus imparted to us, Christ is hereby glorified in us; and shows himself a living Saviour towards us and in us.
“I will be as the dew unto Israel.” What Divine humility and condescension! For it cannot imply that he will become this for any benefit to himself: it is merely for the benefit of those dry pastures that need his refreshing. Verily, the King of kings and Lord of lords. He who hath all power in heaven and earth, having all things to be put under his feet, He it is who is now minded to be as the dew unto us; or like a reviving rain, poured out upon the parched wastes of revolted human nature. Think of this Divine condescension — this unutterable love!
He will be as the dew! This promise implies that there is a dry and withered field smnewhere upon which he will shed forth abundantly his fructifying influence; and this field are we, in so far as we are not yet partakers of his life.
AND THE LILY OF GOD.
We may search and look long enough for any verdure in the soul that is a stranger to Jesus, who alofle is the Source from which it springs. Alas! every thing therein is not only withered, but burnt up by the heat of temptation and sin. Oh! how is that beautiful Eden, which God planted within us, become a wild, a desolation! A fire has been kindled beneath it — a spirit of rebellion against God. and has consumed or withered every green thing. The soul of man is a wilderness — a barren heath — the place of dragons and vipers — the seat of unholy imaginations and fleshly lusts. Search and seek in it for the noble plant of love to God; lo, it has all withered and died away. Look in it for any bud of child-like confidence, heartfelt devotion, or secret delight in prayer. Trace in it, if you can, the grace of true humility, that sweet lily of the valley. Inquire in it for the herb patience, if there be a flower of it left. Look for the twining evergreen of communion with God, whether a blossom of it appears: in a word, whether the soul of man retains any strength, or disposition, or desire to do the will of our Father which is in heaven: whether there be any heavenly mindedness, or any affection for things above. Ah! how is there nothing of all this to be found in it! What a dry desert! In the most awful sense does that saying of the prophet apply to us, “Thou daughter that dost inhabit Dibon, come down from thy glory, and sit in thirst,” Jer.
xlviii. 18. Our strength is dried up; it is become as the drought of summer. There is neither verdure nor life in us; nor does our fallen nature of itself possess any power to restore us. Our best efforts to this purpose are no better than water spilt upon the burning sands, unless accompanied with the marvellous dew of Divine grace. Though we make ever so many good resolutions, or hear ever so many sermons and instructions; though we read ever so deeply in the Scriptures, or outwardly join in the prayers and praises of the church; though we retire into monastic seclusion, or frequent the company of the pious; still nothing to the purpose is effected, nor is any spiritual life brought forth, till the Lord himself be really resorted to. For the life of the soul is revived only by his Spirit. Without this Divine vouchsafement, which we must seek, if we would receive it, our human devices, with even the means of grace themselves, prove as inefficient as the dew or rain upon the stones of the street, whose nature still remains unchanged. But the Lord can, out of these stones, form a people for himself, and raise up children unto Abraham. He can make the desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose.
“I,” saith the Lord, even I, will he as the dew unto Israeli How precious are the tidings, that He himself will be this dew! But as the dew falls in the sultry nights of summer, when the fields thirst and languish, so does the dew of
God descend only upon thirsting and fainting souls. In the scenery of nature, on an early summer morning, where do you find the dew most abundant? You behold it glistening in the lowly valleys, and spreading like a sea of pearls over the surface of the level meads; but if you ascend the lofty peaks and eminences, there you find no dew: so he who would experience Christ as the Dew of heaven to his soul, let him be as the lowly valley, or the level mead; let his prayers arise to God, with those of David, “out of the depths P^ The Lord is high, but he hath respect unto the lowly. Psalm cxxxviii. 6. ‘’ With this man will I dwell, saith the Lord, even with him that is poor and of a contrite spirit,” Isaiah lvii. ] 5; lxvi. 2. The hearts of those to whom he is pleased to communicate himself as a reviving dew, are first rendered meet for its reception. Every mountain and hill must be brought low. The stable and the manger, where the Divine Saviour once humbly reposed, may serve to remind us of the lowliness of heart in which we are to await the Lord’s visitation. How excellently did our Divine Restorer show his skill in bringing down every rising imagination that was indulged by the woman of Samaria! “Thou hast had five husbands,” said he, “and he whom thou now hast is not thine husband.” Then did her sin come home to her, and her self-confidence departed. She became little in her own eyes, and could no longer see any thing good in herself. She was glad to look for a deliverer in the Messiah; and now was the time for him to declare to her, “1 that speak unto thee am He.” With this word did Jesus communicate himself to the soul of that poor sinner; he thus came upon that soul as the dew of heaven, so that it began to revive and flourish. Life and vigour were now exeperienced in her heart and mind, and animated her words and actions, her conduct and conversation. Thus was she made a plant of renown, to the praise of the glory of His grace-A process of this same kind is still observed in the conversion of sinners. The dew of God is poured out from on high; he rends the heavens, and comes down; and wherever he finds the lowly valleys of humiliation — empty, poor, and needy souls — there is the place of his rest; there he diffuses the dew of his blessing; there he communicates himself as the inheritance and portion of his people; replenishing the hungry soul with good, but leaving the rich to their own spiritual emptiness.
As the dew falls from heaven in the stillness of the night, when no rushing tempest is heard, no flash of lightning is seen; nevertheless in the morning it hangs upon the leaves, and we wonder whence it came, and “who hath begotten” it; so is the way of Christ. The manner and way of his coming to the soul is a mystery hidden in night; and who can unveil it? His coming is also generally in stillness, and without noise; not with the alarm of the trumpet, or the pomp of power; not with visions, or marvellous natural phenomena; nor with voices from heaven, and visible angelic array. Before the sorrowing, sighing, and waiting sinner is aware, lo! He is nigh unto the ship that is tossed with the waves, and saith, “It is I; be not afraid!” No “man in bright clothing” stands before the suppliant in his chamber, nor has any audible voice entered in at the windows; he has seen no heavenly messenger, nor any external radiance, such as the shepherds saw in the fields of Bethlehem; nevertheless in his inward man it is declared, “I bring thee good tidings of great joy; for unto thee is born this day a Saviour:” to the spirit of the sinner has a testimony been borne; and this is the testimony, that God hath “given unto him eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” He is assured, in his own heart, that he has free admission to that fountain which is opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; he is become convinced that Christ is his Saviour. The dew has fallen in the stillness of night; but how, and in what way, no man knoweth. Yet the sinner feels that it is with him; and we may observe it accompanying all his words and looks, his whole conduct and disposition.
The dew of the field has moreover a bright lustre within it, for it has communion with the light of heaven. The same may be said of Christ communicated to uis in the dew of his grace.
When once he has thus come in unto us, all is bright and pellucid in the depths of our disordered nature; and the more we thus receive out of his fulness, the more are the depths of our misery presented to our view, and the more thoroughly do we see our own nothingness, and our own helplessness. Hence it is that believers so often exclaim, “Lord! what am I? My spiritual state is becoming worse and worse.” But, blessed be God, that, like as the natural dew covers entirely that whereon it falls, so does Christ cover all our misery with his own self; yes, with his own righteousness; the lustre of which contains far more various and lovely hues than the tapestry and curtains of Solomon. He covers us entirely therewith; he so enfolds and veils us in it, that Divine justice itself no more discerns in us “spot, or, wrinkle, or any such thing.” “There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.”
Again; how fructifying is this dew! What a life does Christ thus impart to the soul! He makes that which was dead to live. He is the Builder of the waste places, and makes the parched ground verdant and blooming. What a change does even the natural dew eifect on the face of nature, when, after many sultry summer hours, its pearly blessings are dropped upon the fields from the bosom of the blushing morn! “Vegetation no longer appears withered and dry; the grasses and the flowers again erect their heads: all nature is re-adorned with a new and vernal robe; and the scent of life is again wafted upon the gale. Bat greater still and more glorious is the change, which the Spirit of Christ, poured out upon a single soul, or, as in the case of Cornelius, upon a whole household, is known to produce. And until this is done, how lamentable, desolate, and void, does all appear in individuals and families! What a poor, insipid life do they lead! The world absorbs all that they have — their minds, their affections, their understanding. Their thoughts flit only, as it were, around the flesh-pots and furnaces of Egypt; their desires and their hopes grovel on the ground, and feed upon the earth. Their lips are opened merely about bodily gratifications, worldly business, and the things of time. Their whole life and being, with its incitements, exertions, and entire conduct, its joys and its sorrows, its hopes and its fears, all proceed in the same worldly track, and the whole man is laden more and more with its thick clay: every care is low, and more or less selfish and ignoble, without God, without light, without heavenly-mindedness, and full of sin. The angels of God cannot endure such a sight. But lo! salvation comes to this house; the reviving dew descends upon this dreary wild. Now come and behold what a change is produced! The glory of the Lord filieth the house. How holy is the place become! The self-seeking spirit of the world is expelled, and replaced by the “quiet spirit” of humility and love. The conversation is in heaven; the worry of earthly excitement is cast off; the thoughts, wishes, and desires, find wings for higher aims. The treasure is discovered to be elsewhere, and therefore the heart is there also. Other bread and other water are now known of, and therefore another kind of thirst and hunger is experienced. Other objects have engaged the interest, and therefore the language and conversation have assumed another tone. They have become savoury and spiritual; and after a spiritual and godly manner is all their business transacted. The very chambers of the house are perfumed with the sweet incense of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving, ascending day and night before the Lord. Heretofore, all was without form and void, and darkness upon the face of the deep; but now is the light sprung up within it, and the wilderness blooms in beauty. This is the Lord’s doing, who hath said, “I will be as the dew unto Israel.”
Oh that we had every one experienced Him as the dew to our souls! But, brethren — observe and mark it well — the very dew, precious as it is, can even occasion rottenness to the fields. This is the case when it meets with too cold an atmosphere; then it stiffens into rime, and destroys vegetation. Even so, Christ, the precious Dew of God, has proved to many a soul. Witness that awful and striking instance of it, in
Judas Iscariot. Covetousness and stubbornness were in him. What then could his spirit breathe to Christ, but wintry air? Hence that dew descending upon him, became to his soul as the cold rime, or stiffening ice. Every thing which Jesus did by word and example, or with allurements and warnings, to effect an entrance into the spirit of that false disciple, produced effects the very opposite to those of the genial dew; served only to embitter his spirit, and to harden his heart more and more; to mature his corruption, to ripen him for perdition, and to hasten his condemnation. Yet who was to blame, but Judas? May God preserve every one of us from a similar judgment, and forbid, that the precious dew of heaven, which alone can revive us to eternal life, should become as a chillinsr hoar-frost, and fetters of iceto our souls, through the infidel coldness and adverse breath of some besetting sin!
And how should we praise and bless God, whoever of us has experienced and still experiences the enlivening, refreshing, fructifying power of this divine dew! But what if you experience it not at every moment; or are not able fully to realize its sweet refreshment for days, or even for weeks together? This must not set you wrong, or confound you. He who is the Dew of God, oftentimes withdraws himself for a while from his field, the soul. Then will droop the plants of faith and love, of confidence and joy; then is there no life for prayer, praise, and thanksgiving; but all is dryness and wretchedness. Still, wait upon the Lord; for he intends you should only the more experience how much depends on that Divine dew; and how necessary it is for working and effecting every thing. When the hour for its return is arrived, then will it surely come, and cause you again feelingly to rejoice in its beneficial efficacy. And oh, what a rejoicing is it, when after a tedious sultry season of drought, the precious dew and gracious rain again descend! It is then we learn duly to value such an inestimable blessing, and more fully to enter into the meaning of that promise of the Lord, “1 will be as the dew unto L’sael.”
II. As Christ represents himself in the text, under the figure of the dew, so he compares his bride the church, and herein every believing soul, to the beautiful lily: “I will be as the dew unto Israel,” so that “he shall grow as the lily.”*
This similitude, also, is of great significance and importance. The inhabitants of Palestine. probably knew of no flower more truly sweet and lovely, than the noble lily. As the nightin-
* In the Lutheran version, the word “lily” is ‘’rose:” the translator has, however, preferred the English rendering as most correct, and has accordingly followed it throughout this sermon.
gale amon the songsters of the grove, so was to them the lily among flowers, eloquent in showing forth the praises of its Creator. Without either living voice or sound, without the rustle of the palm trees in the valley of Rephaim, or the roar of the cedars on Mount Lebanon, it seems as if created simply to bespeak the glory of Him who formed it. So Israel, “the seed” of him that “shall prolong his days,” Is. liii. 10, is formed and planted in the great wilderness of mankind, to show forth the virtues of his Maker, 1 Pet. ii. 9, who hath redeemed Jacob, Is. xliv. 23, and is beautifully glorious in Israel. Likewise, St. Paul speaks of real Christians as “fore-ordained to the praise of the glory of his grace,” Eph. i. 5, 6, and as “God’s workmanship;” as being from the root to the crown, conformed to the lovely image of his Son. His light is declared to shine in them; and his Spirit to be breathed by them. Whatever is bright and beautiful in them, is spoken of as God’s; and only what is dark, as their own. The Urim and Thummim, the light and integrity which they bear in their bosom, shining like a breastplate, the Lord hath “put” them there. Consequently their song is, “Not unto us. Lord, not unto us, but to thy name give glory, for thy loving mercy and thy truth’s sake,” Ps. cxv. 1. The power of his loving mercy and grace is, to his praise, made visible in those who are born again. “We have,” says Paul, “this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us,” 2 Cor. iv. 7.
Well may we adore God’s condescending choice, when we consider who those are whom he thus tenderly rears. They are a poor and afflicted people; a number of broken-hearted penitents, who can discover nothing good in themselves. They are a distressed and embarrassed multitude, like that which David gathered about him at the cave of Adullam, 1 Sam. xxii. 2; they have nothing originally their own, except the defilement of sin. Weak and faint-hearted by nature, they, of themselves, would not have dared to attempt any thing worthy of God. He found them lame, blind, maimed, and reduced to beggary; ready to lay down at the threshold of his house, and glad to live upon the crumbs that fall from his table. Such is their character. “Ye see your calling, brethren,” saith the apostle, “how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called; but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world, to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world, to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen; yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are; that no flesh should glory in his presence,” 1 Cor. i. 26. Thus those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their
AND THE LTLY OF GOD. 2l
own sight, or who pride themselves upon being influential, mighty, or renowned in this world, are passed by, or are trodden under foot as rank and noxious weeds. Far rather will He accept a truly contrite David, though he had been an adulterer and murderer; a Lazarus full of sores; a conscience-smitten publican, standing afar off, ashamed to lift up his eyes unto heaven, and crying, “God be merciful unto me a sinner;” or a repenting malefactor in ignominy. Such will he form into his lilies. Amazing grace! Of grace, and grace alone, doth the zeal of the Lord of hosts perform this. Not an atom of merit is there in the penitence, humiliation, or sincere contrition, which such persons exhibit. They are constituted lilies because they are found in Christ alone, clothed with his righteousness, and made the righteousness of God in him. “He hath made us accepted in the Beloved,” Eph. i. 6.
The lily is often found growing among thorns. Accordingly we find the bridegroom exclaiming in the Song of Songs, (ii. 2,) “As the lily among thorns, so is my beloved among the daughters.” And what do such thorns represent, but the many temporal and spiritual troubles, with which the chosen of God are incessantly encompassed here on earth? But thus it must be; for such thorns are as a fence and a check round about us; as a check, to keep us humble and dependent on the Lord alone; and as a fence, to ward off many a temptation to pride and levity. Lazarus, without his sores, would not have bloomed so beautifully as he did in spirit before the Lord; and Paul, without his thorn in the flesh, would have been exalted above measure. The church of old shone brightest, when in the midst of her tribulations; then was her whole beauty developed.
Observe, and lastly, by what means the lily thrives and flourishes. It toils not, neither does it spin; but passively waves in the sunshine, and opens its cup to the morning dew. Thus it breathes its fragrance; thus it blooms so sweetly, and is arrayed more beautifully than Solomon was in all his glory. Consider then the lily Aoi; it grows; for we cannot grow better than by the process which it observes. As it passively waves in the sunshine of God, and opens its cup to the day-spring dew, so let us learn to glory only in that “life” which is “the light of men,” namely, in Christ who is our Life; and to expand our thoughts and affections every morning, to the influence of his Spirit. Let us ever remember, that nothing is effected by the self-confidence or self-dependence of him that willeth, or of him that runneth. Oh,it is a fearful presage,when we begin to lean to our own wisdom, or our own worth, or our own strength; and think, by devices of our own, to keep up our spiritual health; to form a spiritual dew for ourselves; to make to ourselves a holiness and a glory. This is no other than the way to spiritual death. Our life consists in abiding in the Light of Israeljin communion withHim who is the Root of David, and the Bright and Morning Star. Happy indeed are those, who know of no consolation but in Christ their Surety; no nourishing spring but the Fountain of salvation opened to the house of David, from which they daily and hourly receive and draw. Happy those who have no other care than to live beneath the wings of the Sun of Righteousness, that they may be constantly advancing to perfect, spiritual health. Happy those; whose eyes are ever looking to the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls, to receive immediately from his hand, and to be satisfied with his good pleasure. Nothing really good for them will He withhold. “Bread shall be given Ihem; their waters shall be sure.” Wilt thou then thrive, O Israel, and bloom as the lily? Let a sense of thy need keep thy heart ever thus open to Christ, with thy mind always humble, and prayerfully teachable to his Spirit. Thus shalt thou be as the summer lily, lovely, fresh, and fragrant; and in the midst of thy leaves — thy words and actions, thy prayers and praises — will be seen sparkling and glistening, the pure blessings of that eternal dew which has nurtured thee.
May then the Spirit of the Lord Jesus come upon each of us as the dew! On all who have been hitherto but as dry and withered grass, good for nothing but to be cast into the fire and burned; may He do marvels, even as upon the rod of Aaron, which was sapless and dead, but, in a single night, by the mighty power of the Lord, became verdant, bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds! May He transform this our whole church into a very field of lilies! That whenever he shall visit us, to call a soul into eternity, it may be said of him in heaven, as in the Song of Songs, (vi. 2.) “My Beloved is gone down into his garden — to gather lilies.” Meanwhile, may-His church upon earth, with all its members, expand andbloom to the utmost! Amen.
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