depend on Hosea ii. 16) the
important result, that the leading of God which is here announced, is
not limited to a definite place, and as little, to a definite time. And
what is true of the leading through the wilderness, must necessarily
apply to the leading into Canaan also. Just as Egypt might begin,
and actually did begin, even in Palestine, inasmuch as Israel was
there in a condition of heavy spiritual and bodily bondage;--just
as, spiritually, they might already be in the wilderness, though,
outwardly, they were still under Asshur; so, the stay in the wilderness
might, relatively, have still continued in Canaan, even although--which
did not happen--the whole people should have returned thither with
Zerubbabel. What is it that makes Canaan to be Canaan, the promised
land, the land of the Lord? It is just this:--that the Lord is there
present with all His gifts and blessings. But such was by no means the
case in the new colony. Because the spiritual condition of those who
had returned was in conformity with the second--in part, even with the
first--rather than with. the last station, their outward condition was
so likewise. John the Baptist symbolized this continuation of the
condition of the wilderness, by his appearing _in the wilderness_, with
the preaching of repentance, and with. the announcement, that now the
introduction to the true Canaan was near at hand. By proclaiming
himself as the voice crying in the wilderness, announced by Isaiah, he
showed with sufficient plainness how false was that carnal view which,
without being able to distinguish the thought from its drapery,
understood, and still understands, by the wilderness spoken of in
this prophecy, some piece of land, limited as to space, and then
murmured that the actual limit did not correspond with the fancied
one.--As in the case of Israel, so in ours also, these conditions are
distinguished, not absolutely, but relatively only. Even he who has, in
one respect, been already led through to Canaan, remains, in another
respect, in the wilderness still. Canaan, in the full sense, does not
belong to the present world, but to the future, as regards both the
single individual, and the whole Church.--Another parallel passage is
Jer. xxxi. 1, 2: "At this time, saith the Lord, will I be the God of
all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people. Thus saith the
Lord, The people who have escaped from the sword find mercy in the
wilderness; [Pg 261] I go