WORDS TO REST ON – Charles Spurgeon
WORDS TO REST ON
Scripture Reference: “And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.” 2 Chronicles 32:8.
Introduction It is very beautiful reading the story of Hezekiah to see how the people always went with him. God had prepared the nation for a change, and when the hour came, the man came with it. Under his father Ahaz, the people had been idolaters and had forsaken God. But when Hezekiah became king, he had a zeal for the worship of Jehovah, and on the very threshold of his reign, he began what proved to be a glorious reformation in the land. He seems to have been a man who was attractive to the people, and they took up his line of things at once with enthusiasm. Whether he proposed to break down the idols, to cleanse the temple, or to bring tithes into the house of God, they made no objections. On the contrary, they followed his word with much vigor and earnestness. It is a grand thing when God sends a man who can guide others aright—especially when, in times of apostasy and spiritual declension, a leader is given who becomes a guide back to the old paths.
We should feel exceedingly grateful whenever, in any place, God raises up a judge to deliver Israel, and when the people serve God all the days of that judge. When our text comes in, the people of Judah were in great straits. The Assyrians, who were both cruel and barbarous in their treatment of others, had invaded the land and had captured all the country, with the exception of Jerusalem. The city of the Great King was yet untrodden by the armies of the alien, but it looked as if it could not hold out very long. Hezekiah encouraged his men of war by exciting their faith in their God. “Be strong and courageous,” he said to them. “Be not afraid nor dismayed for the King of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him.” With a ring of triumph in his tone, he told them that with Sennacherib was only an arm of flesh, and though it was a powerful one, yet with them was the omnipotence of God. Therefore, there was more with them than with the Assyrians.
The past glory of his reign and the evident depth of his own faith added weight to his words—and the people believed his testimony. In such a time of great difficulty, when people are apt to mutiny, find fault with their leaders, and break up into cliques and parties, they still held to their king and comforted themselves with the assurance he had given them of help in God. They were not distressed because of invasion, nor did they despair of their cause. They were, of course, conscious of their great danger, but they had found peace, even in their extremity, by quoting to themselves and to one another, the emboldened language of their king. “The people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.”
I. The Kind of Man Whose Words Are Likely to Be Rested On
There are some in whose words you never have much confidence because they are flippant in their utterance. They do not appear to be sincere, and those who hear them make nothing of what they say, for they are evidently making nothing of it themselves. You cannot rest in the words of a man who contradicts himself, nor rely much upon one who is of one opinion today, who will be of another opinion tomorrow, and who, before the third day is over, will be seized with some new notion. There are men whom we all know in whose word nobody is tempted to put any kind of trust whatsoever.
But thanks be to God, there are in the Christian church still some in whose words men do trust—men who are as transparent as the clearest crystal and as reliable as the best steel. These are the kind of men I want to describe, and this man who won the confidence of the people of Jerusalem shall serve us as a type thereof and enable us to discover the kind of man whose words are likely to be rested on.
To begin with, he must be a great man. So it was in the case of “Hezekiah king of Judah.” If the people cannot trust their king in matters of war, in whom can they trust? But if they see him to be a good sovereign, walking in the fear of God and doing his utmost for them, how shall they do otherwise than trust their king? Yet in this matter, we must take care, for they who trust in the great may find themselves greatly deceived. “Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord.” That man is not truly great who leads us away from the greatest of all, even the Lord who rules over all. “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.”
There is a kind of greatness that is only a cover for littleness. Sometimes a great title has great selfishness, even great sensuality lying just underneath it. But Hezekiah was not a little great man—he was truly a king. He was born a monarch, a kingly man. He was a man of royal mind and noble deed—hence the people did well when, having respect to his greatness, they “rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.”
Moreover, the man who will be trusted will be found to be a good man. If he is not really so, he will at least be thought to be so. Men will put great trust in the words of one whose life agrees with his teaching. If they can detect something inconsistent in his character, the man’s power is ended. But if a man is evidently carried away with the one idea of being and doing good—and consumed with the purpose of glorifying God—then his utterances have power. I know a man who is not an orator. He speaks very plainly, and yet, if I had my choice, I would sooner hear him than almost any man I have ever heard, because, when he speaks, I remember the wondrous life of faith in God which accompanies his words.
I will not say who he is, but almost everybody will guess. It is not what he says, but the man who says it, that makes the impression. It is the life behind the words, the holy confidence exhibited in God every day, the calm, restful walk with God which everybody can see in his very face, which, to a thoughtful man, makes his feeblest accent more powerful than the most furious declamation of a mere rhetorician.
As Dr. Bonar says— “You must be true, yourself, If you the truth would teach. Your soul must overflow, if you Another’s soul would reach— It needs the overflow of heart To give the lips full speech.”
The man in whose words we are likely to find rest must be a good man. Hezekiah, from all we read of him, was evidently such a man. When greatness and goodness are blended, as in his case, there is sure to be a wide influence exerted. When there is eminence of ability as well as eminence of character found in a man, it often follows that what is described in this verse is true—the people rest themselves upon his words, even as they did upon Hezekiah’s.
Again, a man whose words are to be rested upon must be a courageous man. Hezekiah had this qualification. He had waited upon God in prayer and knew God would deliver him, so that he bade farewell to fear. He was calm and therefore bold. When he spoke to the captains of the soldiers, there was no trepidation in his voice or in his manner. He spoke like one who was—
“Calm amid the bewildering cry, Confident of victory.”
Courage in one man breeds courage in another, and one coward has the contagion of cowardice about him—many will turn tail when one runs. But if a man stands like a rock, unmoved, he will soon have a body of others behind him who will have borrowed courage from his example. Paul in the storm is an example of this. I suppose he was a little insignificant-looking Jew, yet when the sailors and the soldiers were alarmed at the tempest, he calmly and quietly told them not to be afraid, and they borrowed courage from his faith. He told them that no harm would come to them—that though the ship would be lost, their lives had been given to him in answer to his prayer—and since they had fasted long, he bade them to eat, and they did eat. All his orders were carried out as fully as if he had been the centurion in command of the soldiers or the captain in charge of the ship. Because he was bold, he made them brave. He commanded them because he could command himself.
Oh, my brothers and sisters, may you have the courage of your convictions! May you be brave enough to do right and to speak right, and to stand up for the gospel, whoever rails at it! If you do, you have only to bide your time, and you will be master over meaner men who cannot be trusted. He that will but “hold the fort” when others are giving up their castles, shall, by and by, God helping him, behold a race of valiant men, who, like himself, shall believe in their Master’s coming and will not quit the field until He appears. God grant to many here to be bold in the way of holiness, in their own circle, in their own families! They must be assured that there will be found some who will rest upon their words, because they see their courage.
II. The Kind of People Who Rest on Such a Man’s Words
I am not going to praise all these people, nor am I going to blame them. I wish to use discrimination and judge each case upon its merits. Sometimes it is the best possible thing for a man to rest himself on the words of another—but often such a course is a very foolish one. Children do so with their parents, and if they have gracious and godly parents, they do well to rest themselves on their father’s or on their mother’s word. When I was a boy, I never doubted what my father believed. And when I was under the influence of my grandfather, who taught me the Word of God, I was such a little simpleton that I never set up my judgment against his. I find that very small boys are not now so foolish. I wish they were wise enough to be as foolish as I was!
When I grew up, I never suspected a doctrine because my father believed it. No, my leaning went the other way—and if my godly father found peace and comfort in a word, I thought that what was good for him was good for his son. I was foolish enough to lean upon the words of my elders in this way, and somehow, though others often think that such a course is folly, I am glad that it was so. I thank God, too, that my sons were as foolish as their father and that what their father believed had an attraction for them. I hope that they judged for themselves, as I also tried to do, when I came to riper years, but at the first, it was the words of my parents that led me to Christ. What I knew of the elements of the gospel, I received largely, without a question, from them, and I do not think it was an ill bequest.
Now, dear parents, mind that your children are able to believe in you. I like children to have fathers and mothers whom they can trust. A young friend has written me a letter, asking me to preach a sermon on, “Fathers, provoke not your children to anger.” Well, will you kindly consider that I have preached it? I fear I could not make a long sermon of it, but it is necessary to tell some of you parents that I suspect you are not quite so considerate as you ought to be. I do not know the man for whom the word is intended, but I wish he would take the sermon as if I had preached it to him.
Conclusion I set before you a very high standard and one which no man will reach except under divine instruction, but since the necessary teaching is freely given to all who seek it, I would urge you to be quick scholars in the school of grace.