Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1098
“And praise the name of the Lord your God, that has dealt wondrously with you.” Joel 2:26.
IN the case which is particularly mentioned in this chapter, the nation of Israel had very grievously gone astray and therefore they were visited by a very remarkable chastisement. An unusual plague of locusts devoured all the fruit of the field and the people were vexed with a sore famine. The day of the Lord was very terrible and none of them could abide it. The Prophet Joel was commissioned to exhort them to repentance and if, indeed, they listened to his earnest entreaties their later history was bright with mercy. By God’s good hand upon them, they were brought to repentance—they wept and cried to God and then the same God who with His left hand had been wondrous in chastisement, was, with His right hand, equally wonderful in blessing and enriching them.
He loaded their floors with wheat and made their vats to overflow with wine and oil. He restored unto them the years which the locust had eaten, so that they ate in plenty and were satisfied and praised the name of the Lord, who had dealt wondrously with them. He dealt with then by way of wonders when He smote them and by way of wonders when He returned to them in mercy. It was no unusual thing for the nation of Israel to meet with wonders—they were cradled in prodigies, they grew up amid miracles, they dwelt among marvels—the history of the favored tribes is a long list of miracles.
Do you not remember how the Lord brought them out of Egypt with a high hand and with an outstretched arm, what marvelous things He did among the sons of Ham and what wonders He worked in the fields of Zoan? By wonders they were led out of Egypt and brought through the Red Sea, upon whose shore they sang triumphantly, “Who is like unto You O Lord, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?” Their course in the great howling wilderness for 40 years was a march of wonders!
When the manna dropped from Heaven and the water leaped from the Rock, the Lord dealt wondrously with them. There was not a single day of the 40 years which did not open and close with wonders—the day was shaded by the cloudy pillar and the night glowed with the light of the fiery cloud! Nor when the desert journey was over did God’s wonders cease. The river was divided before them. What ailed you, O Jordan, that you were driven back? They entered into their land and began its conquest by a wonder, for the walls of Jericho fell flat to the ground—and they continued its conquest by the same marvelous power, for mighty kings fled before them and the sun and the moon stood still while they smote the hostile armies!
When they had driven out the Canaanites and were established in the land of promise, they sinned greatly, but what wonders of deliverance God worked for them when they cried to Him in their trouble! You have but to remember the names of Gideon and of Barak, of Jephtha and of Samson and you see before you wonder after wonder! The Lord dealt wondrously with them! In all this the Israelites were a type of true Believers, for with all His chosen ones the Lord has dealt wondrously. We frequently hear the complaint that we live in an age of dullness—we have no adventures now and events are few. Happy are we that it is so, for it has been well said—“Blessed are the times which have no history.”
If peace and prosperity are commonplace, long may the commonplace continue! But, indeed, no thoughtful man’s life is uninteresting or barren of marvels. A life real and earnest cannot be devoid of memorable occurrences. He who thinks so must either be unspiritual or he must be oblivious of his own inner history—he must be like the tribes in the wilderness, of whom it is written, “They forget the works of the Lord, and the wonders which He has showed them.” Foolish people run to fiction for wonders, but gracious men can tell far greater wonders, upon which the words, “NO FICTION,” might be written in capital letters.
The wonders which we can speak of far surpass the inventions of imagination—when we recount them we may appear unto men to dream, but in very truth no dreamer could dream after such a fashion! Speak of “Arabian Nights,” English days and nights have far exceeded them in marvel! “God does great things past finding out, and wonders without number.” I have seen a volume entitled, “The World of Wonders,” and another named, “Ten Thousand Wonderful Things.” The Believer is within himself a world of wonders and his life reveals 10,000 wonderful things. Mysteries, riddles, paradoxes and miracles make up Christian experience!
God has dealt wondrously with us! Of these wonders I shall try and speak at this time, according to that precept of David—“Talk you of all His wondrous works,” and I shall dwell upon them after the following manner—first, we shall testify that God’s dealings toward us have been full of wonder and lead us to praise Him as Jehovah, our God. Secondly, we shall remark that because of this, we ought to look for wonders in the future, and if I may speak so paradoxically, it should not be wonderful to us to see wonders. And, then, thirdly, we shall close by observing that in a future state we shall yet more clearly see that Jehovah has dealt wondrously with us.