The bitter experience of all who trust in man.
The sin of Judah, in its latter days, was its reliance on Egypt for help rather than on God. In alarm at the advance of Assyria, the natural alliance was with Egypt; but alliance with any world-power was unworthy of a nation whose history had been so full of Divine deliverings and defendings as that of the Jews. And Egypt could not help. It was a broken reed. A type of all merely human helpers; for "cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord." Hoses represents Israel as finding out how vain is the help of man, and turning to God with this penitential promise, "Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods." The following three points open up lines of thought and illustration, and should be sufficiently suggestive without detailed treatment.
I. WE CANNOT TRUST MAN, FOR WE CANNOT BE SURE OF HIS GOOD WILL. These two dangers are ever before us:
1. The man who seems willing to serve us may be deceiving us, and really serving his own ends, setting his interests before ours.
2. And if a man begins sincerely to serve us, we have no security that his good will is maintained, and presently he may take advantage of us. We cannot read hearts. And hearts do not always keep steadfast. So "put not your trust in princes, nor in the sons of men, in whom there is no help."
II. WE CANNOT TRUST MAN, FOR WE CANNOT BE SURE THAT HIS ABILITY MATCHES HIS WILL. So often we find in life that men who could, will not help us, and men who would, cannot. With this sort of feeling in his mind the sufferer came to the "Man Christ Jesus," saying, "If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean."
III. WE CAN NEVER RECKON ON MAN IF HE IS AGAINST GOD. Such a man can never be any help to us. The Jews forsook God to seek help from a godless nation, and it was bound to prove a bitter and humiliating experience. Man may be, and often is, God's agent for helping us; but then our trusting is in God who sends, and not in the man who may be sent to do his bidding.—R.T.