The confidence which is condemned.
To whatever straits and to whatever desolation Egypt was actually reduced—that is a question to be decided by our principle of interpretation and by our knowledge of history—it is clear that it was to be brought so low that it would be incompetent to play the part of deliverer to Israel or Judah, as it had done before (see Ezekiel 17:15-17). It would never again be "the confidence of the house of Israel, bringing iniquity to remembrance" (Revised Version). For that misplaced hope in Egypt was iniquity in the sight of God (see Isaiah 30:2, Isaiah 30:3; Isaiah 31:1; Isaiah 36:4, Isaiah 36:6). It was a sinful failure to trust in its one true Refuge, and it was a blind and sensuous confidence in mere numbers and military prowess. The "iniquity" to which Egypt would never again tempt the people of God, or even bring to their remembrance, was, as we thus see, an unwarrantable and God-forgetting trust. We ask—Where do our temptations to this same folly lie, and how are they to be shunned or to be defeated?
I. WHERE OUR TEMPTATIONS LIE. We are continually invited to look for our resources or for our refuge in other beings than in God, in other things than in his Word and in his service.
1. In man; in the human counsel which proves to be short-sighted and shallow folly, and not the profound wisdom which it purported to be (see Jeremiah 17:5).
2. In money; in that which commands many valuable things (Ecclesiastes 10:19), but which conspicuously fails in the hour of darkest trouble and deepest need, which cannot enlighten the mind, or cleanse the conscience, or heal the heart, or amend the life: it is ill indeed to "trust in uncertain riches" (1 Timothy 6:17).
3. In numbers; it is very common delusion that we are right and safe if we have a great majority on our side. But what are all the hosts that man can gather when God is "against" us (Ezekiel 29:3)? How often in human history have great numbers proved to be utterly vain, and to have done nothing but stamp and signalize defeat?
4. In our own intelligence. The proud of heart say within themselves, "We shall discern the danger, we shall distinguish between the faithful and the false, we shall be able to defeat the enemy and to secure ourselves; others may have failed, but our sagacity will suffice." But they go on their way of false confidence, and they are rudely awakened from their dream (see Proverbs 3:5; Jeremiah 9:23, Jeremiah 9:24). All these false trusts are temptations to us. For they
II. How WHEY ARE TO BE MET AND MASTERED.
1. Not by attempting to avoid them altogether. Those who have sought to shun all temptation to seek safety or satisfaction in lower objects by placing themselves wholly out of their range, have found that they have only put themselves within range of other evils, less apparent but more subtle and quite as serious.
2. By a studious and strenuous endeavor to moderate our trust in the human and the material according to its worth. But chiefly:
3. By careful and constant cultivation of our trust in the living God, by seeking his face, by worshipping in his house, by consulting his Word, by daily addressing ourselves to him in the still hour of private, personal communion.—C.