CHARIOTS OF IRON – Charles Spurgeon
CHARIOTS OF IRON
Introduction
“And the Lord was with Judah; and he drove out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron. And they gave Hebron unto Caleb, as Moses said: and he expelled from there the three sons of Anak.” Judges 1:19, 20.
We frequently use Canaan as a type of heaven, and the Jordan, through which Israel passed, as a symbol of death. Dr. Watts has taught us to sing:
“Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood
Stand dressed in living green;
So to the Jews old Canaan stood,
While Jordan rolled between.
Could we but climb where Moses stood,
And view the landscape o’er,
Not Jordan’s stream, nor death’s cold flood,
Should fright us from the shore!”
This is thoroughly poetic, and may be made exceedingly instructive, but it is not quite accurate, if we undertake a careful consideration of the whole matter. If the New Testament is to expound the Old, then there is another lesson to be learned from the land which flowed with milk and honey.
“We that have believed do enter into rest,” that is to say, all believers in Christ have crossed the Jordan, and have come into the promised rest. The covenant is already fulfilled to them in a great measure, they are living under Messiah’s sway within the bounds of His kingdom, and every precious thing which God promised them is theirs. They dwell in the “land which the Lord thinks upon,” “Your land, O Immanuel!” The type, therefore, may best set forth the case of the instructed and advanced believer who has passed through the first, or wilderness stage, of his life, and has now come into a higher condition, actually enjoying spiritual privileges and sitting together with Christ in the heavenly places.
To him, however, this condition of exalted privilege is not a state of undisturbed repose, on the contrary, he wars a constant warfare, wrestling with spiritual wickedness. The Canaanite is in possession, and the Canaanite is to be driven out. Our natural tendencies and corruptions, our sinful habits and lusts, and the warping and bending of our spirit towards evil—all this has to be overcome, and we shall not possess the land, so as to enjoy undivided tranquility until sin is utterly exterminated. What Joshua could not do our Lord Jesus shall fully accomplish, the enemy within shall be rooted out, and then shall dawn the day of our joy and peace, when we shall sit every man under his own vine and fig tree, and none shall make us afraid. That perfect victory shall be ours, but not yet.
I. THE LORD’S POWER WAS TRUSTED AND MAGNIFIED
Let us think upon our first head, which is that by the tribe of Judah, THE LORD’S POWER WAS TRUSTED AND MAGNIFIED. “The Lord was with Judah.” Oh, that the Holy Spirit may be with us! The people had wisely consulted their God, and it fell to Judah’s lot, by divine appointment, to lead the van. In that work the tribe prospered. Read the chapter when you are at home, and you will observe a series of great victories.
“Judah went up; and the Lord delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand: and they slew of them in Bezek ten thousand men. And they found Adonibezek in Bezek: and they fought against him, and they slew the Canaanites and the Perizzites. But Adonibezek fled; and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes. And Adonibezek said, threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: as I have done, so God has requited me.”
Thus they overcame the monarch who had domineered over the land and had been a terror to all the little kings. Next, the tribe attacked Jerusalem, and Hebron, and Debir, and Hormah. Soon afterwards they fell upon the Philistines, who were men of war, and they took Gaza, Askelon, and Ekron with their coasts.
The Lord God in this way had proved to Judah and to all Israel, what He could do, and it would have been wise on their part to have put unlimited trust in Him.
Has not the Lord done the same with those of us who have believed in Him? What has your experience been, my brothers and sisters? I speak not to men of the world, nor to those who have just begun the divine life, but I speak to those of you who have experience of the things of God, and who have lived the life of faith for years. Has not God revealed His power in you? Do you not possess infallible proofs of it which you would scarcely like to tell, for they are as secret as they are sacred?
When God has come to our soul, and drawn near to us in the hour of our distress, we have needed no further argument. When He has said, “Peace,” to our troubled spirit, and stilled its raging, then we have received conclusive evidence of His power. When He has lifted us up into ecstasy, and filled us with unspeakable joy and full of glory, we have laid up these evidences in our house of records, and our assurance has grown doubly sure.
II. THE LORD’S POWER RESTRAINED BECAUSE DISTRUSTED
Now I come to the painful but important subject of THE LORD’S POWER RESTRAINED BECAUSE DISTRUSTED. The men of Judah could drive out the inhabitants of the mountain, but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.
Some of our more flippant infidels have asserted that this verse says that the Lord could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, yet the antecedent is not God at all, but Judah. It is Judah that could not drive them out. “Well,” they say, “but God was with Judah, and they did drive out the people of the mountain. Why could they not drive out the people of the plain by the same power?”
This is the hinge of the matter. They did not conquer the men of the iron chariots, because God in that business was not with them. As far as their faith went, so far God kept touch with them, and they could do anything and everything, but when they despondently thought that they could not drive out the inhabitants of the wide valleys then they utterly failed.
They said, “It is of no use; we cannot meet these terrible machines,” and therefore they did not pray or make an attempt to meet the foe. They could not drive out the people. Of course, they could not. If they had exhibited the same faith about the chariots of iron as about the men of the hills, the chariots of iron would have been no better than chariots of straw, for the Lord “breaks the bow, and cuts the spear in sunder, and burns the chariot in the fire.”
Their faith was imperfect. They retained too much confidence in themselves, mark that, for if their confidence had been in God alone, these chariots of iron would have been zeros in the calculation. If God has to give the victory, then chariots of iron or chariots of fire are no item at all against an omnipotent God.
III. THE LORD’S POWER VINDICATED
To close, let us see THE LORD’S POWER VINDICATED. Just at that time, brave old Caleb, leaning on his staff, went up to Hebron. When he was a younger man, Moses sent him as a spy, and when he was on that business he happened to come near Hebron, and there he saw three tremendous fellows of the race of the giants.
He saw them, and those that were with him were afraid. They said, “We were as grasshoppers in their sight.” But Caleb was not a bit afraid. He said, “God is not with them, and they will be easily overthrown.” When they came into the land forty years later, Caleb did not ask for his city, but as an unselfish man, he fought to win cities for others. When that was done, he said, “Hebron was given to me. I must go and conquer it, and the giants that I saw years ago, I dare say, have not grown much shorter, so I must cut them down.”
Away he went, and it proved as he had said. In his robust old age, he was able to slay those three sons of Anak and to take possession of their city.
May we be helped to trust the Lord as He ought to be trusted, and march on till we drive out all His enemies despite their chariots of iron, that unto God may be glory forever and ever. Amen.