I am the Almighty God, walk before Me and be thou perfect.'
That suggests, as I suppose I do not need to point out, the idea not only of communion, which the former phrase brought to our minds, but that of the inspection of our conduct. As ever in the great Taskmaster's eye,' says the stern Puritan poet, and although one may object to that word Taskmaster,' yet the idea conveyed is the correct expansion of the commandment given to Abraham. Observe how walk before Me' is dovetailed, as it were, between the revelation I am the Almighty God' and the injunction Be thou perfect.' The realization of that presence of the Almighty which is implied in the expression Walk before Me,' the assurance that we are in His sight, will lead straight to the fulfillment of the injunction that bears upon the moral conduct. The same connection of thought underlies Peter's injunction, Like as He, is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation,' followed immediately as it is by, If ye call on Him as Father, who without respect of persons judgeth', as a present estimate according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear'--that reverential awe which will lead you to be holy even as I am holy.'
This thought that we are in that divine presence, and that there is silently, but most really, a divine opinion being formed of us, consolidated, as it were, moment by moment through our lives, is only tolerable if we have been walking with God. If we are sure, by the power of our communion with Him, of His loving heart as well as of His righteous judgment, then we can spread ourselves out before Him, as a woman will lay out her webs of cloth on the green grass for the sun to blaze down upon them, and bleach the ingrained filth out of them. We must first walk with God' before the consciousness that we are walking before' Him becomes one that we can entertain and not go mad. When we are sure of the with' we can bear the before.'
Did you ever see how on a review day, as each successive battalion and company nears the saluting-point where the General inspecting sits, they straighten themselves up and dress their ranks, and pull themselves together as they pass beneath his critical eye. A master's eye makes diligent servants. If we, in the strength of God, would only realize, day by day and act by act of our lives, that we are before Him, what a revolution could be effected on our characters and what a transformation on all our conduct, Walk before Me' and you will be perfect. For the Hebrew words on which I am now commenting may be read, in accordance with the usage of the language, as being not only a commandment but a promise, or, rather, not as two commandments, but a commandment with an appended promise, and so as equivalent to If you will walk before Me you will be perfect.' And if we realize that we are under the pure eyes and perfect judgment of God, we shall thereby be strongly urged and mightily helped to be perfect as He is perfect.
