8. Gilead is mine. Thankful hearts dwell upon
the gifts which the Lord has given them, and think it no task to mention them
one by one. Manasseh is mine. I have it already, and it is to me the
token and assurance that the rest of the promised heritage will also come into
my possession in due time. If we gratefully acknowledge what we have we shall
be in better heart for obtaining that which as yet we have not received. He who
gives us Gilead and Manasseh will not fail to put the rest of the promised
territory into our hands. Ephraim also is the strength of mine hand.
This tribe furnished David with more than twenty thousand “mighty men of valor, famous throughout the house of their fathers”: the faithful loyalty of this band was, no doubt, a proof that the
rest of the tribe were with him, and so he regarded them as the helmet of the
state, the guard of his royal crown. Judah is my lawgiver. There had he
seated the government and chief courts of justice. No other tribe could
lawfully govern but Judah: till Shiloh came the divine decree fixed the legal
power in that state. To us also there is no lawgiver but our Lord who sprang
out of Judah; and whenever Rome, or Canterbury, or any other power attempts to
set up laws and ordinances for the church, we have but one reply—“Judah is my lawgiver.” Thus
the royal psalmist rejoiced because his own land had been cleansed of
intruders, and a regular government had been set up, and guarded by an ample
force, and in all this he found encouragement to plead for victory over his
foreign foes. Even thus do we plead with the Lord that as in one land and
another Christ’s holy Gospel has been set up and maintained, so also in other
lands the power of his scepter of grace may be owned till the whole earth bows
before him, and the Edom of Antichrist will be crushed beneath his feet.
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