Moab a national type.
Of late years attention has been directed to Moab, through the discovery of what is known as the Moabite Stone, which contains the earliest inscription we have wholly in alphabetical characters. This stone was found at Diban, about three miles north of the central part of the Arnon. Its inscription remarkably confirms the Scripture record. The original territory of Moab seems to have been divided into three portions:
1. What was known as the "land of Moab"-the open rolling country north of the Arnon, opposite Jericho, reaching to Gilead on the north.
2. The "field of Moab"—upland undulating plains, extending from the precipitous mountains overlooking the Arabah and the Dead Sea on the west, to the Arabian desert on the east; from the deep chasm of the Arnon on the north, to Edom on the south.
3. The "Arboth-Moab," or dry tropical regions in the Arabah on the east of the Jordan. The peculiarity of Moab, so far as indicated, seems to have been that for many years it had been undisturbed and prosperous, not affected by invasions or famines; and so, lacking experiences of calamity and suffering, social and moral evils had so grown that at last terrible and almost overwhelming Divine chastisements seemed necessary; and these would cause unusual grief and distress. The Prophet Jeremiah indicates the special characteristic of Moab in a very striking passage (Jeremiah 48:11): "Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed." A contrast is suggested between the national experiences of Israel and of Moab. Israel had known no easy restful periods in her history; she had been "shaken loose or unsettled every few years by some great change or adversity—by a state of slavery in Egypt, by a forty years' roving and fighting in the wilderness, by a time of dreadful anarchy under the judges, by a revolt and separation of the kingdom, and then by a captivity. Moab had been at ease from the first, shaken by no great overturnings or defeats, humbled and broken by no captivities, ventilated by no surprising changes or adversities. He has lived on, from age to age, in comparative security, settled on his lees; and therefore he has made no improvement" (Bushnell). Moab is thus a type of those nations that have long periods of peace and prosperity, and of those families and individuals who have for years few experiences of trouble. From Moab, as a type, we may learn such lessons as these.
I. GOD IS IN OUR TIMES OF RESTFULNESS AND EASE. It is a fact of common human experience that our relations with God are recognized in our times of trouble, but lost sight of in our times of prosperity. It is woe to us when all men speak well of us, and it is woe to us when all things go well with us. Nothing so easily hides God from our view as success attending our own self-endeavors. And yet God is in our times of prosperity, as truly sending them, presiding over them, and working his purpose through them, as he is sending and using times of suffering. No truth needs more constant and varied reassertion than this—God is in prosperity and success.
II. SUCH TIMES OF RESTFULNESS AND EASE ARE SEARCHING TESTS OF CHARACTER. The common sentiment is that troubles alone test us. The truth is, that removal of trouble tests; that holding off of trouble tests; and that bestowments and benedictions test. These, indeed, become most searching tests, under which many of us utterly fail after coming well through our times of tribulation. What is thought of as the inequality of life—the disproportionate allotment of joy and sorrow, success and failure—finds a partial explanation, if we apprehend that a man's success and case are his moral testings, and that, before God, thousands more fail under life's prosperities than fail under life's adversities. Man, looking at Israel and at Moab, would at once say that Moab, in his quietness, was the best off. The issue plainly shows that the lot of Israel was the more desirable.
III. SUCH TIMES OF RESTFULNESS AND EASE DEVELOP PARTICULAR FORMS OF EVIL. Not the same forms that are developed by adversities, but more subtle and more vital evils. All those which come out of centering thought on self—involving heart-separation from God; self-conceit; contempt of others; over-estimate of the material and temporal; luxury of self-indulgence; and those aggravated and degrading forms of immorality which attend unchecked civilization and over-swift development of wealth. We know the moral evils of war-times; we fail to estimate the more pervading moral evils of peace-times.
IV. SUCH EVILS, SOONER OR LATER, BRING ON SPECIAL DIVINE JUDGMENTS. As with Moab. When the judgment comes, it needs to be so severe as to seem a gathering up of all the testing sufferings of years. And though it is still only chastisement, it takes a form that looks like overwhelming judgment. In this chapter the prophet seems to be amazed at the terrible character of the Divine judgment on Moab when it did fall.—R.T.