Recovering false steps.
The word "lamb" in this verse should be rendered "lambs." From 2 Kings 3:4 we learn that the tribute rendered to the King of Israel by Mesha, King of Moab, was a hundred thousand lambs, and a hundred thousand rams, with the wool. At the death of Ahab Mesha refused to pay this tribute, and asserted his independence. In view of the exposure of Moab to attacks from Assyria, this was a false step, and Mesha is here urged to retrace that step, and at once send the tribute as a sign of renewed allegiance. The urgency of the case is shown in the advice to send the tribute round the southern part of the Dead Sea, because the northern end was already blocked by the Assyrians. This introduces the subject of retracing our false steps in undoing the wrongs we have done; stepping back from our willful paths, and beginning once more in the right way.
I. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY WORK. Its necessity may be argued from these points of view:
1. It is due to God that we should prove our sincerity by reparation as a sign of repentance.
2. It is due to those whom we have wronged that when we are brought to a right mind we should remove and undo the wrong.
3. It is due to ourselves that we should clear away from memory and conscience the bad past, as far as its evil consequences can be cleared. It is never enough for a man to "cease to do evil;" he is hound to remove, as far as possible, the issues of his past evil; and the intensest bitterness a good man can ever know arises from the fact that he cannot heal the wounds he has made, or check the evil working of the influences he has exerted, or example he has shown. When pleaded with in respect of his intense religious earnestness, John Newton is said to have replied, "How can the old blasphemer be silent?" He felt that life was not long enough, or powers large enough, for the undoing of the wrong wrought by a godless, vicious youth. And, further, if in life we swerve from the paths of rectitude, we shall find there is no going on round into those paths again; we must do one thing—we must go back the bad road we have chosen.
II. BUT THIS IS MOST DIFFICULT WORK. In either the larger or smaller senses to which reference has been made. And that because:
1. It involves serious self-humiliations. None of us can easily say, "I was wrong."
2. Because it exposes us to the scorn of the unprincipled, who regard all retracing of steps as a sign of weakness, and cannot understand the heroism of conquering the baser self. In the sense of undoing wrong that has been done it is most difficult, because the issues of our words and deeds go on out of our reach. It is as if we dropped poison into the fountainhead of a river, and then in remorse tried to cleanse that fount. It can be done, but away down the valley the poison has been carried, and none can bring back to life the poor dead fish that are borne on the current out to sea. The Apostle Paul never could undo the wrongs of that time when he so bitterly persecuted the disciples of the Nazarene.
III. YET THIS IS ALWAYS HOPEFULLY REMUNERATIVE WORK. It has its special rewards.
1. It satisfies our sense of duty.
2. It rests a conscience which otherwise would ceaselessly reproach.
3. It makes us clean-handed to appear before God.
4. It enables us to receive the assurance of Divine acceptance.
5. It becomes our witness to righteousness. Restitution, reparation, humbly going back the willful way we may have taken, meet gracious Divine response. God surely smiles on the man who is brave enough to set wrongs right, and acknowledge the foolishness of his self-willed way.—R.T.