Sermon XI. God’s presence with a people the spring of their prosperity.
“And he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The Lord is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you.” — 2 Chron. xv. 2.
It will not, I am sure, seem strange to any, that I have taken a text to preach on, in a day of humiliation, out of a thanksgiving sermon, such as this discourse of Azaraiah seems to be; if they shall but consider the suitableness of the instruction given therein to any great and solemn occasion, whether of humiliation or rejoicing. The words, indeed, are the sum of all directions that in such cases can be given, — the standard of all rules and exhortations wherein any nation or people, in any condition, are or may be concerned; — so plainly measuring out our fate and lot, the event and issue of our affairs, with all the great undertakings of the people of God in this nation, that of themselves I hope they will make some passage to the hearts of them to whom the inferences from them shall this day be applied.
In the foregoing chapter we have an account of a great victory that Asa and the people of Judah, fighting in faith and with prayer, obtained against the huge host of the Ethiopians, with the abundant spoils which they took and carried away thereupon. In their triumphant return to Jerusalem the Spirit of God stirs up a prophet to go out and meet them, to give them an account of the rise and cause of their success, and direction for their future deportment under the enjoyment of such mercies and deliverances. The Lord knows how apt even the best of men are to forget the spring of their mercies, — how negligent in making suitable returns, by a due improvement of the advantages put into their hands, unto the Lord of all mercies; therefore are they in all seasons to be minded of their proper interest and duty.
This is done in my text to Asa and Judah by Oded; and I desire in my sermon that it may with the same spirit and the same success be done by me unto you. The words I intend principally to insist on, having the same thing for substance three times repeated in them, the opening of the first clause, with the general tendency of the whole, will suffice as to their exposition, and the grounding of that general proposition which I shall improve. Two things are, then, principally to be inquired into:—
First. What it is for God to be with any people.
Secondly. What it is for a people to be or abide with God.
And according to the analogy of these two, the following assertions, of seeking the Lord, and forsaking him, will be easily understood. For though the words differ in expression, yet they are all of the same way of assertion. They are three hypothetical propositions, or promissory assertions on supposition*:—* “If you abide with the Lord, he will be with you;” “If you seek the Lord, he will be found of you;” “If you forsake the Lord, he will forsake you.” The same matter is trebled, for the fuller and surer confirmation of the thing asserted; — only, whereas the last proposition supposeth a thing possible, — namely, that they might forsake the Lord, — the first supposes a thing present; and therefore it is so expressed, — “whilst you are with him,” — because they had abode with God in their late war and trial.
Before I enter upon the opening of the words themselves, I cannot pass by the earnest preface of the prophet, “Hear ye me, O Asa,” He saw the people, upon their success, taken up with many thoughts, thinking of many businesses, full of many contrivances, — one imagining one thing, another another; all of them, it may be, how they should use and improve their peace and success to their advantage, interest, profit, or security. Or the princes and rulers, as it is probable and usual in such cases, might be considering how to carry on their victory, how to make the best advantage of it, in their dealing with neighbouring princes and nations, in making peace or war. In the midst of these thoughts the prophet meets them, and diverts them, with all earnestness, to things quite of another nature, and of unspeakably greater importance and concernment to them. “Hear ye me,” saith he; it is not your own counsel nor your own valour that hath brought about this great work, this mighty victory; the Lord himself hath done it, by his presence with you. It is not of any concernment unto you what other nations do, or may do; but the presence of God concerns you alone to look after.