Shoes of Iron, and Strength Sufficient

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon

Deuteronomy 33:25

Your shoes shall be iron and brass; and as your days, so shall your strength be.

I. THY SHOES SHALL BE IRON AND BRASS. The passage has several translations, which may serve as divisions in opening up the meaning. The Lord's promises are true in every sense they will fairly bear. A generous man will allow the widest interpretation of his words, and so will the infinitely gracious God.

1. That Asher should have treasures under his feet — mines of iron and copper.

(1) The Word of God has mines in it. There are treasures upon the surface of the Word which we may pick up very readily: even the casual reader will find himself able to understand the simplicities and elements of the Gospel; but the Word of God yields most to the digger. We waste too much time upon the pretentious, poverty-stricken literature of the age; and some, even Christians, are more taken up with works of fiction than they are with this great Book of everlasting fact. Remember that God has given to us to have treasures under our feet; but do not so despise His gifts as to leave the mines of revelation unexplored.

(2) You will find these treasures not only in the Word of God, but everywhere in the providence of God, if you will consider the ways of the Lord, and ,believe that God is everywhere at work.

2. R.V. "Thy bars shall be iron and brass" — there shall be protection around him. Peace from all assaults, safety under all alarms, shutting in from all attacks — this is a priceless boon.

3. He shall have protection for his feet. It is no objection that shoes of iron and brass would be unusual, for the protection which God gives His people is unusual. Theirs are no common equipments, for they are no common people. You have peculiar difficulties, you are a peculiar people, you traverse a peculiar road, you have a peculiar God to trust in, and you may therefore find a peculiar consolation in a peculiar promise. We want to have shoes of iron and brass —

(1) To travel with. We are pilgrims, journeying along a road which has not been smoothed by a steamroller, but remains rough and rugged as the path to an Alpine summit.

(2) To fight with. These shoes are meant for trampling upon enemies.

(3) For climbing. We ought not to be satisfied till we reach the highest places of knowledge, experience, and practice.

(4) For perseverance. Since the Lord has shod you in this fashion, it is a warning to you that the way is long and weary, and the end not by-and-by.

II. AS THY DAY, SO SHALL THY STRENGTH BE. The words carry a tacit hint, that we have no strength of our own, but have need of strength from above. Come down from your self-esteem: stoop from the notion of your own natural ability: divest yourself of the foolish idea that you can do anything in and of yourself, and come now to the Strong for strength, and ask your Lord to fulfil this promise in your experience.

1. Strength to abide through days. Not for today only, but for tomorrow, and for every day as every day, shall come.

2. Strength to be given daily. A day's burden and a day's help, a day's sorrow and a day's comfort. A storage of grace would turn into self-sufficiency.

3. It will be given to us proportionately. A day of little service, little strength; a day of little suffering, little strength; but in a tremendous day — a day that needs thee to play the Samson — thou shalt have Samson's strength.

4. Our strength continuing as our days continue.

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