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ISSACHAR; OR, COUCHING BETWEEN

THE BORDERS.

GENESIS xlix. 14, 15.

Issachar is a bony ass, couching down between the borders:* and he saw rest, that is was good; and the land, that it was pleasant; so he bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute.

THE blessing which Jacob uttered, at his death, from which the words of the text are taken, contains wonderful things in several of its mysterious announcements. Primarily it refers, of course, to the future temporal condition of the twelve tribes. But if we apply the description

* The authorised English version has it "between two bur dens." The word, thus translated, occurs only once more in the Hebrew Scriptures, namely in the song of Deborah, Judges v. 16, "Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds," &c., where it may equally be rendered, "between the borders;" namely those of Moab and Canaan, between which the tribe of Reuben, there addressed, was situated. The word in the Lutheran version is "borders," in Gen. xlix., and "folds" or "pens" (for sheep,) in Judges v. It appears to be derived from dispose, ordain, or arrange.

, to put or set in order, to

Hence Parkhurst renders

the regular divisions (in a

stall or stable ;) that is, the bars or boards which divide it into distinct standings, Genesis xlix. 14, also sheepfolds, or pens for sheep, Judges v. 16.-TRANSLATOR.

to teach us spiritual lessons, we may obtain many important hints of instruction. For, if we consider nothing more than Issachar after the flesh, we shall have done with the text almost immediately upon noticing it as a prediction that Issachar should become a tribe of laborious husbandmen. But there is a spiritual Issachar, a borderer between good and evil; and would to God that his tents were no where to be found in our Church. With this Issachar, or in other words, the wavering and undecided, for the description of whose character we find appropriate words in the text, let us now endeavour to become better acquainted. We shall notice,

I. WHERE HE COUCHES DOWN.

II. HOW HE CAME INTO THIS SITUATION. III. THE TOILS AND DANGERS HE FINDS IN IT.

I. Issachar has here a strange and unprepossessing appellation, that of "a bony ass." Judah is more agreeably styled a young lion; Naphtali, a fleet hind let loose; Joseph, a fruitful bough by a well; or, an olive tree by a fountain, whose branches spread over the wall; Jonathan, the friend of David, is compared by him to an eagle; the Shulamite is compared, by the inspired writer of the Song of Songs, to a dove; and Israel is compared to a lily. All these names have a pleasanter sound; but that of a "bony ass" so lowers our idea of the person intended, that we

are not apt to desire a more particular acquaintance with him. But who shall say how many amongst ourselves may not be thus unflatteringly designated in various parts of the book of God? We shall see why to the spiritual Issachar this name may be given, when we have learnt the characteristics which belong to him.

To

Where do we find him? It is between the borders. He is couched down between the borders. Now, if we give a spiritual application to these words, we may take them as describing an evil and unhappy condition. How awfully does the Lord rebuke those whose hearts are halting in indecision-who are neither cold nor hot! each of such lukewarm ones he declares, "I will spue thee out of my mouth." He would that they were either one thing or the other; either cold or hot. Indecision is to Him an abomination. Observe how he speaks of those who neither declare themselves for him, nor for the world; who neither openly renounce him, nor stand forth decidedly for him; but waver between two parties that of his friends and that of the enemies of his cross. All such he positively denounces as his enemies, and at length will treat them as such. "He that is not with me, is against me; and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth." Suppose he were now visibly to come amongst our churches, to mark how many thousands of those would be regarded as his messengers, have couched or settled down between the borders of

his pure gospel, and those of a self-invented human wisdom, far estranged from God; what would he say? Can we not anticipate the very sentence from his lips, "I would that ye were cold or hot; whereas now ye are neither the one nor the other!" Far better were it that they were declared infiels at once, (for then the simple flock might be aware of them,) than such pernicious middle men, halting between two opinions.

Where, then, is it that the spiritual borderer couches down, and between what borders has he pitched his tent? Strictly speaking, he is not one of those who are neither for nor against religion, neither Christian nor heathen. He is professedly for that which is right. He appears, indeed, to many, to have pitched his tent within the kingdom of God, and yet he is in a very deplorable situation. He has settled down, as it were, between Canaan and Egypt. He cannot exactly be classed with the people of the world; but still less can he be numbered with the children of God. He cannot properly be placed in the same rank with the crooked and perverse generation; but still less can he be accounted one of the chosen generation and royal priesthood. He is couched down between the borders of the kingdom of grace and the kingdom of Belial. In this unhappy middle situation he can never sit down with the subjects of the former; but he will per

ish and be consumed with the subjects of the latter.

Let us now examine his state more particularly, that we may fully understand it, both externally and spiritually. His exterior appearance in his life and conversation speaks fairly, and very much prepossesses us in his favour. Did you expect to find him in the counsel of the ungodly, in the way of sinners, or in the seat of the scornful? Any thing but this :-to suppose such a thing of him would be to do him great injustice. He has escaped far away from such regions of Sodom, and separated himself from communion with its inhabitants. He no longer burns incense on the high places or in the groves the assemblies of those who drink iniquity like water, are to him an abomination and despicable. You will never find him in the chambers of wantonness, nor in the resorts of riot; never where the worldling, infatuated and blind, gives the rein to debauchery, and dances to any measures which the god of this world may appoint. He is no partner with those who say, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die;" neither with the swine does he wallow in the mire. Equally mistaken will you be, if you expect to find him associated with those self-called moralists, who are satisfied with regulating their outward conduct by the rules of civil order, but make no profession of religion. He is not one of those who express a disgust for what some are

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