The penitent's return and restoration.
I. THE RETURN.
1. To God. All sin is departure from God; and repentance is a return to God. As the fall is from personal relations, so the recovery is a renewal of personal relations. When the sinner comes to himself, he sees that his one hope is to "arise and go unto" his Father. Thus the very Being against whom he has sinned is sought for pardon and restoration. Now, it is not possible to mend our ways without thus coming back to God. His power and presence are the inspiration of the new life. The very thought of God as the Almighty is a help in this return. Although we are first moved by perceiving his goodness and mercy, we are conscious that we are helpless in ourselves and need heavenly aid to regenerate our souls. Thus the invincible power of God, which was our terror while we remained impenitent, becomes our hope as soon as we repent.
2. From sin, taking the last clause of the verse as a condition of God's help. We must put away iniquity from our tabernacles if we are to expect God's restoring mercies.
II. THE RESTORATION. The returning penitent is to be "built up."
1. On fulfilling the conditions. He must return to God; he must renounce sin. There is s foolish notion that God's goodness will blot out the consequences of sin without these conditions being fulfilled. To do so weald be to outrage justice as well as to fly in the face of nature, We cannot have the rewards of grace without first accepting its inward influences. Forgiveness is not merely the cancelling of penalties; that is but an incident of the transaction; in itself it is a very personal thing, and until the personal reconciliation in which it consists is accomplished, only the lowest views of God's government could lead us to look for the external advantages.
2. In personal recover. The sinner himself is to be built up. Sin breaks a man down—breaks down character, reputation, faculty, energy. The fallen life is a broken life. Now, the first act o! Divine restoration touches the nature of the sinner himself. He is lifted up from the dust and set on his feet. Like a ruined building, shaken down by the earthquake, he is built up again, that he himself—and not merely his belongings—may be strong and beautiful. Thus the restored penitent is made a temple for the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, a fortress to keep out future invasions of evil, a palace in which the fairest graces of the kingdom can be nourished, a hospital and asylum for the sick and miserable, a school of new thoughts and enterprises, a home of prayer and love.
3. In external prosperity. It is only too likely that poor Eliphaz thought exclusively, or at all events quite disproportionately, of this when he spoke of Job being built up again. The patriarch's ruined fortune could be restored. This is not the chief part of a Divine restoration. Still in some way—though not always in restored wealth—it does follow that the outer as well as the inner life is favoured by a penitent return to God.—W. F. A.
Rich in God.
The idea of these verses seems to be that if a man will give up his earthly riches, his jewels and gold of Ophir, God will be to him a Defence, and as gold ore and silver in bars.
I. RENUNCIATION THE CONDITION OF TRUE WEALTH. We do not get the best riches by grasping, but by giving. Sacrifice, not selfishness, is the source of the highest prosperity. We must renounce in order that we may attain. This principle is exemplified in various ways
1. Typified in nature. The farmer must not store his wealth in his granary if he would increase it. He must commit the seed to the earth, cast it away and bury it, in order that he may receive more in return.
2. Practised in commerce. We rarely meet with the old-fashioned miser and his bags of gold. In our day the money-worshipper lays out his wealth so that, like Shylock, he may make it "breed."
3. Taught by Christ. Our Lord showed in his parables of the talents and the pounds that the gifts of God were to be used, expended profitably, and that they should have more who had traded with what they first received. He led to deeper truths when he told the young man who desired eternal life to sell all he had and give to the poor, promising that he should then have treasure in heaven (Mark 10:21), and when he promised his disciples that there was no man who had renounced home and family for his sake and the gospel's, but he should receive a hundredfold now in this time, and in the coming age eternal life. Here we see that mere renunciation is not enough. It will not do merely to pour the money into the sea, nor to sell all one's goods and give to the poor, unless we also follow Christ.
4. Proved by experience. It is found with surprising gladness that to give up all for Christ is to be rich indeed, while to Cling greedily to earthly possessions is to be miserably disappointed in the end.
II. GOD THE SOURCE OF TRUE WEALTH. It is not that God will give us new riches in exchange for what we have given up. We shall find our wealth in God himself. He is to us all we need.
1. A defence. Riches are valued for what they will purchase. In the last resort they are chiefly prized because they can ward off evils. To keep hunger, pain, and death from their doors, men will give up any amount of wealth. Nations spend vast sums in their defensive arrangements. Europe is now an armed camp, with armies maintained at an enormous cost, simply in order that each country may be safe from invasion by its neighbours. Now, God is the true Defence of his people, better than any armaments that money can maintain.
2. A store of vast possibilities of good. Gold ore and silver bars are the precious metals in an elementary state. They thus represent value that may be employed in various ways. God is our most elemental wealth.