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This verse represents well the happy combination of sacrament and life. It brings before us whole-heartedness for God, with special regard to two of its features.

I. JOY. "And all Judah rejoiced at the oath," etc. A wholeness of devotedness to God is consistent with every department of activity and every form of interest which is not in itself sinful. It is as a soul to the body of all secular occupation, however absorbing. The wide onward lift of the tidal wave in mid-ocean does not more interfere with the commerce of the countries, the heightening sun of the springtime does not more embarrass the progress of the land over which it smiles, than the full-hearted service of God breaks in upon the lawful interests of a man among the engagements of his every-day existence. This joy implies —

1. Enthusiasm. This may be reckoned the atmosphere which surrounds the joy of whole-heartedness for God.

2. Willingness. A wide compliance with a competent and kindly force that presses on us from without. Predominant willingness contributes largely to a Christian man's joy.

3. Rightness. The approval of conscience.

4. Undividedness of affection.

II. PROSPEROUSNESS. "And He was found of them: and Jehovah gave them rest round about." This signifies —

1. That we find what we seek. There are neighbourhoods where the mists lie so often and so long upon the grand outlines of the landscape, that a clear day is in some sense a day of discovery, of "finding," though nothing is there then which was not there always. There have been those who for years have looked through a filmy dimness of eyesight upon those they loved, whose movements were to them like the movements of featureless shades; when the films were one day purged from the eyes was it not almost more than a figure of speech they spoke when they said they had "found" those loved faces and forms again? So this energising of the heart for God restores vision, and vision restores reality. God in Christ becomes near.

2. That we miss much that we had hitherto found. Hostile movements from around are comparatively allayed, and the hush that has fallen upon these reflects itself upon the soul in restfulness.

(J. A. Kerr Bain, M.A.)

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KJV: And they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul;

WEB: They entered into the covenant to seek Yahweh, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul;