Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 10:14
Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens [is] the LORD’s thy God, the earth [also], with all that therein [is].
14. This and the next v. state motives for the fear and love just enjoined: for fear, because He is the greatest God, to whom all things belong; for love because, though He is such, He yet loved Israel’s fathers and chose their posterity, even those whom Moses is addressing.
the heaven, etc.] A characteristic deuteronomic accumulation.
heaven of heavens ] i.e. the highest heavens (the same idiom as in Deu 10:17). Whether this idiomatic superlative (first here and then echoed in later passages, 1Ki 8:27; 2Ch 2:6; Neh 9:6; Psa 68:33; Psa 148:4) or the plural positive heavens was the germ of the later idea of the plurality of heavens (in the Jewish apocalyptic books and the N.T., e.g. 2Co 12:2; Eph 4:10 R.V.) is uncertain; but the development of the idea was due to the influences of Babylonian and Persian cosmologies and eschatologies. See S. D. F. Salmond, art. ‘Heaven’ in Hastings’ D.B., and Charles, Secrets of Enoch, 30 47.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Deu 10:14-16
He chose . . . you above all people.
Election and holiness
I. In setting forth election, I must have you observe, first of all, its extraordinary singularity. God has chosen to Himself a people whom no man can number, out of the children of Adam. Now this is a wonder of wonders, when we come to consider that the heaven, even the heaven of heavens, is the Lords. If God must have a chosen race, why did He not select one from the majestic order of angels, or from the flaming cherubim and seraphim who stand around His throne? Why was not Gabriel fixed upon? What could there be in man, a creature lower than the angels, that God should select him rather than the angelic spirits? I have given you, then, some reason at starting, why we should regard Gods Election as being singular. But I have to offer others. Observe, the text not only says, Behold, the heaven, even the heaven of the heavens is the Lords, but it adds, the earth also, with all that therein is. Yet one other thought to make Gods Election marvellous indeed. God had unlimited power of creation. Now, if He willed to take a people who should be His favourites, who should be united to the person of His Son, why did He not make a new race? When Adam sinned, it would have been easy enough to strike the world out of existence. But no! Instead of making a new people, a pure people who could not sin, He takes a fallen people, and lifts these up, and that, too, by costly means; by the death of His own Son, by the work of His own Spirit; that these might be the jewels in His crown to reflect His glory forever. Oh, singular choice! My soul is lost in Thy depths, and I can only pause and cry, Oh, the goodness, oh, the mercy, oh, the sovereignty of Gods grace. Having thus spoken about its singularity, I turn to another subject.
2. Observe the unconstrained freeness of electing love. In our text this is hinted at by the word only. Why did God love their fathers? Why, only because He did so. There is no other reason. I come to the hardest part of my task. Election in its justice. Now, I shall defend this great fact, that God has chosen men to Himself, and I shall regard it from rather a different point of view from that which is usually taken. You tell me, if God has chosen some men to eternal life, that He has been unjust. I ask you to prove it. The burden of the proof lies with you. For I would have you remember that none merited this at all. God injures no man in blessing some. I defend it again on another ground. To which of you has God ever refused His mercy and love, when you have sought His face? Doth not His Word bid you come to Jesus? and doth it not solemnly say, Whosoever will, let him come? You say it is unjust that some should be lost while others are saved. Who makes those to be lost that are lost? Did God cause you to sin? Has the Spirit of God ever persuaded you to do a wrong thing? Has the Word of God ever bolstered you up in your own self-righteousness? No; God has never exercised any influence upon you to make you go the wrong way. The whole tendency of His Word, the whole tendency of the preaching of the Gospel, is to persuade you to turn from sin unto righteousness, from your wicked ways to Jehovah.
II. We now turn to election in its practical influences. You will see that the precept is annexed to the doctrine; God has loved you above all people that are upon the face of the earth; therefore, circumcise the foreskin of your hearts and be no more stiff-necked. It is whispered that Election is a licentious doctrine. It is my business to prove to you that it is the very reverse. Well, but, cries one, I know a man that believes in Election and yet lives in sin. Yes, and I suppose that disproves it. So that if I can go through London and find any ragged, drunken fellow, who believes a doctrine and lives in sin, the fact of his believing it disproves it. Singular logic, that! But I come back to my proof. It is laid down as a matter of theory that this doctrine is licentious. The fitness of things proves that it is not so. Election teaches that God has chosen some to be kings and priests to God. When a man believes that he is chosen to be a king, would it be legitimate inference to draw from it–I am chosen to be a king; therefore I will be a beggar; I am chosen to sit upon a throne, therefore I will wear rags? Why, you would say, There would be no argument, no sense in it. But there is quite as much sense in that as in your supposition, that God has chosen His people to be holy, and yet that a knowledge of this fact will make them unholy. No! the man, knowing that a peculiar dignity has been put upon him by God, feels working in his bosom a desire to live up to his dignity. Again, not only the fitness of things, but the thing itself proves that it is not so. Election is a separation. God has set apart him that is godly for Himself, has separated a people out of the mass of mankind. Does that separation allow us to draw the inference thus:–God has separated me, therefore I will live as other men live? No! if I believe that God has distinguished me by His discriminating love, and separated me, then I hear the cry, Come out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will be a Father unto you. It were strange if the decree of separation should engender an unholy union. It cannot be. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
All things subserve the welfare of Gods elect children
I see a mother that, as the twilight falls and the baby sleeps, and because it sleeps out of her arms, goes about gathering from the floor its playthings, and carries them to the closet, and carries away the vestments that have been cast down, and stirring the fire, sweeping up the hearth, winding the clock, and gathering up dispersed books, she hums to herself low melodies as she moves about the room, until the whole place is once again neat, and clean, and in order. Why is it that the room is so precious to her? Is it because there is such beautiful paper on the walls? because there is so goodly a carpet on the floor? because the furniture in the room is so pleasing to the eye? All these are nothing in her estimation except as servants of that little creature of hers–the baby in the cradle. She says, All these things serve my heart while I rock my child. The whole round globe is but a cradle, and our God rocks it, and regards all things, even the world itself, as so many instruments for the promotion of our welfare. When He makes the tempest, the pestilence, or the storm, when He causes ages in their revolutions to change the world, it is all to serve His own heart through His children–men. When we are walking through this world, we are not walking through long files of laws that have no design; we are walking through a world that has natural laws, which we must both know and observe: yet these must have their master, and Christ is He. And all of these are made to be our servants because we are Gods children. (H. W. Beecher.)
Gods elective call
These words were intended to make it plain to the Israelites how greatly they had been honoured of God in being given such preeminence among the nations. So we must ever keep in view who calls us through the Gospel and has come near to us in it. It is God, whose are not only the earth but the heaven of heavens. From these words of Moses we may gather–
I. How great and mighty is the God who calls us to Himself–how wise and solicitous for mens good, and how He has proved this in all the regions of the creation which belongs to Him.
II. He who holds all things in His hand and cares for all, can have a special and peculiar care for each individual: and thus we may have fullest confidence in Him.
III. It should make us astonished and confused beyond measure to think that the great God should have called us weak and puny creatures to so great grace and favour; that He should even have sent His Son for our redemption, and that He would have us become temples of the Holy Ghost. Many indeed find it inconceivable that God should have destined our globe–one of the smallest of the worlds–for such high honour. This appears to them so absurd, that on this account they would throw over Christianity. They forget that the greatness of God lies in this, that He attends to and cares for the small as well as the great. To the infinite Jehovah the distinction between small and great is not as it appears to us. Moses understood this.
IV. In these words there appears the hint of a comprehensive Divine plan which God designed with regard to the creation through that which He accomplished toward this lower portion of it. So had He already proclaimed to that people chosen before all others. As truly as I live, saith the Lord, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord (Num 14:21). He thus proclaimed that through the choice of Israel He had in view the salvation of all the peoples; a truth already revealed in the blessing of Abraham, in whose seed all nations are to be blessed. Even so we may say that, in the choice of our globe for this special design, He contemplates the renewal and glorification of the universe. In Christ, in the fulness of time, He will gather together all things, both which are in heaven and which are on earth (Eph 1:10; Col 1:20). How this is to be accomplished we must leave to the care of Him whose are the heaven and the heaven of heavens.
V. The responsibility of those so highly favoured will be the greater if they should turn away to unbelief and disobedience. If these things be so, Moses words give us sufficient inducement to hold fast with decision and faithfulness what is offered us in the Gospel and in the revelation of Gods will. Let us not fail in our part, as we may be assured He will not fail who has come down so far in Christ unto us. (J. C. Blumhardt.)
Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked.
Circumcision as compared with baptism
I. Spiritual circumcision–its meaning.
1. Declared in the Old and New Testaments, as, in the text, also in Jer 4:4, and elsewhere.
2. Spoken of as a seal of the righteousness of faith (Rom 4:11).
3. Spoken of as representing the renunciation of, and cutting off of, the superfluity of the flesh (Col 2:11).
4. Therefore true circumcision is of everlasting and universal obligation.
II. Literal circumcision. Temporary and preparatory.
1. For males only.
2. Superseded by baptism.
III. Circumcision and baptism.
1. Two points in which they differ.
(1) Baptism, in its literal sense, taken as an outward rite, is of universal and continual obligation–continual, that is, as long as this dispensation lasts.
(2) Taken in its literal sense, circumcision was the initiatory rite of the old covenant, as baptism is of the new.
2. Three points of resemblance.
(1) In a spiritual sense, both have the same signification. Both point to the renewal of heart which is required of all.
(2) Neither circumcision nor baptism are of value as mere rites, unaccompanied by the spiritual grace which they typify (Gal 5:6; 1Pe 3:21). (Archbp. Whateley.)
The cure of wilfulness
It is a thing much to be observed, that many of the outward and visible signs, which God has ordained His people to use in worshipping Him, have somewhat in them to remind us in some way of suffering, affliction, pain, self-denial, death. Thus the Holy Communion is the remembrance of our Saviours death, His violent and bitter death. But of all Church ceremonies, there is none which so distinctly sets before us our call to suffer, as that which has from the beginning always gone along with baptism; the signing the newly baptised with the sign of the Cross. The Cross is the very height and depth of all suffering. Now such as the baptismal Cross is in the Christian life, such was circumcision among Gods ancient people. It was His mark, made for life, in the very flesh of those who belonged to Him, setting them apart, in a manner, for suffering and self-denial. It was a foretaste of the Cross; add, as such, our Saviour Himself received it. Thus, whether we look to our Lords own example, or to the sacramental ways which He has ordained, both of old and new, to bring His people near Him, either way we are taught to count them happy which endure; to consider affliction and trouble as Gods seal, set upon those who particularly belong to Him, and to fear nothing so much as receiving our consolation in this world. But if this be so, then just in such measure as we are going on prosperously and at ease, have we need to mortify ourselves, and keep our passions in order; that by our own doing, if so please God, we may provide for ourselves something like that due chastening, which our afflicted brethren really have to endure. This, our self-denial, we must practise in little matters: it should accompany us in our everyday walk, as every Jew bore about with him the mark of circumcision, visibly impressed on his flesh. We must not keep our patience and self-command to be exercised only on great and solemn occasions; we must be continually sacrificing our own wills, as opportunity serves, to the will of others. There is no end, in short, of the many little crosses which, if quietly borne in a Christian way, will, by Gods grace, do the work of affliction, and help to tame our proud wills by little and little. I say, tame our proud wills, because Holy Scripture sets forth this as one of the particular objects for which circumcision was appointed, that Gods people might learn by it, not only to get over what are commonly called the lusts of the flesh, but the angry and envious, and proud feeling also; as the text seems specially to hint: Circumcise, therefore, the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked. As if stubbornness and obstinacy, and, in one word, wilfulness (for that is the meaning of a stiff neck), were to be cured by the same kind of discipline as sensual passions, lust, and greediness. In short, it is not hard to understand how the body, which greatly affects the mind, may be tamed and brought into subjection, by a quiet and discreet method of fasting, accompanied, of course, with alms and prayer. And a little consideration will show that the same discipline must do great good to the passions of the soul too. If we abstain from indulging our bodily appetites, for the sake of pleasing God and obtaining His grace, is there not so far a better chance of our remembering Him, when we are tempted to indulge discontented, unkind, proud thoughts, wilful tempers of any sort? I do not of course mean that this benefit follows upon the mere outward exercise of fasting, but only if a person sets about it religiously, in the fear Of God, in desire to draw near to Christ, and in humble obedience to His will, made known in His Gospel and by His Church. Otherwise mere fasting, as well as mere prayer, or mere reading, or mere going to church, may be turned into a snare of the devil. But it is not therefore to be omitted, any more than those other holy exercises; but practised, as I said, in the fear of God, the want of which fear alone it is, which can ever make any person easy in depending on one or other holy duty, so as to leave out the rest. (Plain Sermons by Contributors to Tracts for the Times.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 14. Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens] All these words in the original are in the plural number: hen hashshamayim, ushemey hashshamayim; behold the heavens and the heavens of heavens. But what do they mean? To say that the first means the atmosphere, the second the planetary system, and the third the region of the blessed, is saying but very little in the way of explanation. The words were probably intended to point out the immensity of God’s creation, in which we may readily conceive one system of heavenly bodies, and others beyond them, and others still in endless progression through the whole vortex of space, every star in the vast abyss of nature being a sun, with its peculiar and numerous attendant worlds! Thus there may be systems of systems in endless gradation up to the throne of God!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The heaven; the airy and starry heaven.
The heaven of heavens; the highest or third heaven, 1Ki 8:27; 2Co 12:2, called the heaven of heavens for its eminency, as the song of songs, king of kings, holy of holies, &c.
The earth also, with all creatures and all men, which being all his, he might have chosen what nation he pleased to be his people.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Behold, the heaven, and the heaven of heavens, are the Lord’s thy God,…. Made and possessed by him; the airy and starry heaven, the third heaven, which is the heaven of heavens, the seat of the divine Majesty, the habitation of angels and glorified saints:
the earth [also], with all that therein is; that is his property, and at his disposal, being made by him, and all that is upon it, or contained in it, even whatsoever is on or in the whole terraqueous globe; see Ps 115:15.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
This obligation the Lord had laid upon Israel by the love with which He, to whom all the heavens and the earth, with everything upon it, belong, had chosen the patriarchs and their seed out of all nations. By “the heavens of the heavens,” the idea of heaven is perfectly exhausted. This God, who might have chosen any other nation as well as Israel, or in fact all nations together, had directed His special love to Israel alone.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
14. Behold the heaven. He again enforces upon them the grace, on account of which we have seen that the people were under obligation to God; because this was the most effectual observation for moving them to submit themselves to their deliverer, to whom they were reminded that they owed altogether themselves and all that they had. First, then, he admonishes them that they differed from others, not by their personal dignity, nor the excellency of their race, but because it pleased God to prefer them, when He ruled equally over all. Literally it is, “Jehovah coveted to love your fathers,” by which expression, as may be gathered from many passages, the feeling of inclination to love them is undoubtedly marked. Jerome, therefore, has not aptly used the word “adhere.” (230) Now, this desire, whereby God was freely and liberally induced, Moses opposes to all other causes, lest Israel should arrogate anything to themselves or their fathers. We must also remark the comparison between the less and the greater; for this was inestimable condescension, that he should in a manner pass by the heaven and earth with all their beauty and abundance, and set His heart upon a few obscure men. To this the limitation refers, that of all people He chose the seed of Abraham alone; for the word רק, rak, is here used exclusively, therefore, I have translated it “tantummodo,” only; unless it should be thought better to render it “But,” or “And yet.” The meaning, however, is clear, that God, having disregarded all the nations of the earth, had gratuitously adopted Abraham and his race. For he says that not only were their fathers loved, but all their descendants in their persons; since otherwise the exhortation which follows would not be suitable.
(230) Conglutinatus est. — V.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
14. The heaven of heavens This expression, in connexion with the earth also, with all that therein is, comprehends the universe. All belong to Jehovah thy God. He is the one who has chosen Israel for his own peculiar people.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
What God Is And Why He Has Chosen Them ( Deu 10:14-15 ).
Deu 10:14
‘ Behold, to Yahweh your God belongs heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth, with all that is in it.’
For it was necessary for them to recognise Him for what He is. Look! he says, Let them now consider Yahweh. They must recognise His greatness, the greatness of Yahweh, their God and their Overlord. He is the One Who not only possesses the heavens that they can see, the heavens that declare the glory of God, but also the heaven of heavens, that which is beyond all that they can see and know, the Great Unknown. Nothing is outside His scope. The whole of what others speak of as the dwellingplace of the gods actually belongs to Him. He alone is Lord in the heavens. And He owns the earth also. He owns and controls all that is in them. He is supreme and over all (compare Deu 4:35-36). And He is their praise and their God for He has done great and terrible things on their behalf (Deu 10:21).
Deu 10:15
‘ Only Yahweh had a delight in your (thy) fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you (ye) above all peoples, as at this day.’
And yet in spite of this greatness, or possibly because of it, this is the remarkable fact, that He had delighted in their fathers, so that He had loved them. Here is a remarkable thing indeed. This great and wondrous and mighty God had set His love on their fathers, as they trudged as wandering Aramaeans along the dusty ways with staff in hand, together with their households, their family tribe. This was because He had delighted in them when He had called them, and had the same delight in them as they had walked before Him in faith, and love, and obedience. In this was love, not that they loved Him, but that He loved them, with the kind of love that was possible only to such a God. That is why He had said of Abraham, ‘For I have known (yatha‘) him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of Yahweh, to do justice and judgment, to the end that Yahweh may bring on Abraham that which he has spoken of him’ (Gen 18:18-19).
So it was because of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that He had ‘chosen’ their seed after them with His elective love (compare Deu 7:6-11). They must think of that! They too stood there, having been chosen by Yahweh, for their fathers’ sakes, even them. They had been chosen above all peoples to be His, so that they stood there this very day as the chosen of Yahweh.
But the reason why they were His people above all peoples, was not because of their doing or deserving. It was because of Yahweh’s love. And because of others who had faithfully responded to that love. It was because of their fathers, and what they meant to Yahweh. Nevertheless they too would have their full part in it and could gain comfort from the fact that God was blessing them for the sake of others, and not for a righteousness of their own which might easily fail. Thus are they to fear Him, serve Him, cleave to Him and swear by His name (because He is their sole God – Deu 10:20).
We also are loved by Him (Joh 3:16; Eph 2:4; Eph 5:2; Eph 5:25; 2Th 2:16; 1Jn 4:10-11), not for our own sakes but for the sake of Him Who loved us and gave Himself for us (Gal 2:20), and we too therefore in the same way have our full part in Him, and should fear Him, serve Him, cleave to Him and swear by His name (because He is our sole God – Deu 10:20).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Ver. 14. Behold, the heaven, and the heaven of heavens As much as to say, “The whole universe is his: all people are under his government. If he has chosen you, it is the pure effect of his grace.” The first heaven comprehends the atmosphere, and the space where the sun, moon, and stars shine: the second, or the heaven of heavens, all the glorious regions beyond them; particularly what is called the throne of God, the everlasting abode of blessedness and glory. In these words, the sacred writer here opposes the true God, the sovereign of the universe, the Lord and creator of all men, (who might therefore have chosen to himself any people of the earth) to the local deities of the heathens, who were thought to preside over a certain tract or region, within whose limits their power was confined.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 202
THE ELECTING LOVE OF GOD AN INCENTIVE TO HOLINESS
Deu 10:14-16. Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lords thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is. Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them; and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked.
THE true tendency of religion is marked in the words preceding our text. Under the Christian, no less than under the Jewish dispensation, it is altogether practical; so that in every age of the Church we may adopt that appeal of Moses, And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good? But we must not in our zeal for morals overlook those principles which alone have efficacy to produce them. The principles which call forth our hopes and our fears, have necessarily a powerful effect on our conduct: but a more refined operation is derived from those principles which excite our love and gratitude. The electing love of God, for instance, when brought home with a personal application to the soul, has a constraining influence, which nothing can resist. Hence Moses so often reminds the Israelites of their peculiar obligations to God, such as no other people from the beginning of the world could ever boast of: and takes occasion from those distinguishing favours to urge them the more powerfully to devote themselves to his service. What he considered as their duty we have already noticed: his mode of urging them to perform it comes now to be more particularly considered: The Lord had a delight in thy fathers, &c.: circumcise therefore, &c.
From these words we shall shew,
I.
That Gods people are brought into that relation to him, not by any merits of their own, but solely in consequence of his electing love
The whole universe, both the heavens and the earth, is the Lords: it owes its existence to his all-creating power; and it is altogether at his disposal. He has the same power over it as the potter has over the clay: and, if it had pleased him to mar, or to annihilate, any part of the creation, as soon as he had formed it, he had a right to do so.
But, whilst he has the same right over all his intelligent creatures, he has seen fit to bring some, and some only, into a nearer connexion with himself.
Into this state he brings them of his own sovereign will and pleasure
[Abraham was an idolater, as all his family were, when God first called him by his grace; nor had he any more claim to the blessings promised him, than any other person whatsoever. Isaac was appointed to be the channel of these blessings in preference to Ishmael, long before he was born into the world: and Jacob also the younger was chosen before Esau the elder, even whilst they were both yet in the womb, and consequently had done neither good nor evil. His posterity too was chosen to inherit the promised blessings. And why were they chosen? Was it for their superior goodness either seen or foreseen? It could not be for any thing seen; for they were yet unborn when the blessings were promised to them: and it could not be for any thing foreseen, for they proved a rebellious and stiff-necked people from the very first [Note: Deu 9:13; Deu 9:24.]. The selection of them can be traced to nothing but to Gods sovereign will and pleasure [Note: Deu 7:6-8.].
In every age he has done the same. Those who love and serve God have always been a remnant only: but they have been a remnant according to the election of grace. All true believers at this day, as well as in the apostolic age, must acknowledge, that God has called them, not according to their works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given them in Christ Jesus before the world began [Note: 2Ti 1:9.]. It is to the good pleasure of his will, and not to any thing in themselves, that they must ascribe the gift of their spiritual privileges, and spiritual attainments. No one of them can say, that he made himself to differ, or that he possesses any thing which he has not received. All that even the most eminent saints possess is a free unmerited gift from God.]
Moreover, in this exercise of his sovereign will and pleasure, he gives no just occasion of complaint to any
[This exercise of his sovereignty is condemned by many, as being an act of injustice; since to choose some and to leave others gives to the chosen a preference which they do not deserve. But it must be remembered, that none had any claim upon God: and, if we had all been left, like the fallen angels, to endure the full consequences of our transgression, God would still have been holy and just and good: and, if for his own glory he has decreed to rescue any from destruction, he does no injury to any, nor is accountable to any for this display of his grace.
I well know that this doctrine is controverted by many. But the very persons who deny the doctrine of election, as applied to individuals, are constrained to acknowledge it in reference to nations. But where is the difference? if it is unjust in the one case, it is unjust in the other: if it is unjust to elect any to salvation, it is unjust to elect them to the means of salvation; those from whom he withholds the means, have the same ground of complaint as those from whom he withholds the end. It is nothing to say, that the injury is lees in the one case than in the other: for if it be injurious at all, God would never have done it: but if it be not injurious at all, then does all opposition to the doctrine fall to the ground. The principle must be conceded or denied altogether. Denied it cannot be, because it is an unquestionable feet that God has exercised his sovereignly, and does still exercise it, in instances without number: and, if it be conceded, then is the objector silenced; and he must admit that God has a right to do what he will with his own.
Perhaps it may be said that election is, and has always been, conditional. But this is not true. As far as related to the possession of Canaan, the election of the Jews might be said to be conditional: but on what conditions was the election of Abraham, or of Isaac, or of Jacob, suspended? On what was the election of their posterity to the means of salvation suspended? On what conditions has God chosen us to enjoy the sound of the Gospel, in preference to millions of heathens, who have never been blessed with the light of revelation? The truth is, we know nothing of the doctrines of grace but as God has revealed them: and his choice of some to salvation now stands on the very same authority as his choice of others to the means of salvation in the days of old. If such an exercise of sovereignty was wrong then, it is wrong now: if it was right then, it is right now: and if it was right in respect to nations, it cannot be wrong in reference to individuals. The same principle which vindicates or condemns it in the one case, must hold good in the other also. The extent of the benefits conferred cannot change the nature of the act that confers them: it may cause the measure of good or evil that is in the act to vary: but the intrinsic quality of the act must in either case remain the same.]
That this doctrine may not appear injurious to morality, I proceed to observe,
II.
That the circumstance of Gods exercising this sovereignty is so far from weakening our obligation to good works, that it binds us the more strongly to the performance of them. Moses says, God has chosen you; circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart. Here observe,
1.
The duty enjoined
[We are all by nature a rebellious and stiff-necked people. We wonder at the conduct of the Israelites in the wilderness: but in that we may see a perfect image of our own: we have not been obedient to Gods revealed will. We have been alike rebellious, whether loaded with mercies, or visited with judgments. Light and easy as the yoke of Christ is, we have not taken it upon us, but have lived to the flesh and not to the Spirit, to ourselves, and not unto our God. But we must no longer proceed in this impious career: it is high time that we cast away the weapons of our rebellion, and humble ourselves before God. We must be no more stiff-necked, but humble, penitent, obedient. Nor is it an outward obedience only that we must render to our God; we must circumcise the foreskin of our hearts, mortifying every corrupt propensity, and crucifying the flesh with the affections and lusts. It must not be grievous to us to part with sin, however painful may be the act of cutting it off: we must cut off a right hand, and pluck out a right eye, and retain nothing that is displeasing to our God. There is no measure of holiness with which we should be satisfied: we should seek to be pure even as Christ himself is pure, and to stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.]
2.
The motive to the performance of it
[To this duty the Jews are urged by the consideration of Gods electing love, and of the distinguishing favours which he of his own sovereign grace and mercy had vouchsafed unto them.
And what more powerful motive could Moses urge than this? It was not to make them happy in a way of sin that God had chosen them, but to make them a holy nation, a peculiar people, zealous of good works: and, if they did not follow after universal holiness, they would counteract the designs of his providence and grace. They would deprive themselves also of the blessings provided for them. For it was only in the way of obedience that God could ever finally accept them. And thus it is with us also: we are chosen unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them: and it is only by a patient continuance in well-doing that we can ever attain eternal life. We are chosen to salvation, it is true; but it is through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: and it is in that way only that we can ever attain the end.
But there is another view in which the consideration of Gods electing love should operate powerfully on our hearts to the production of universal holiness; namely, by filling our souls with lively gratitude to him, and an ardent desire to requite him in the way that he himself directs. There is nothing under heaven that can constrain a pious soul like a sense of redeeming love. Let any one that has been brought out of darkness into the marvellous light of the Gospel, and been turned from the power of Satan unto God, look around him, and see how many, not of heathens only, but of professed Christians also, are yet in the darkness of nature and the bonds of sin; and then let him recollect who it is that has made him to differ both from them and from his former self; and will not that make him cry out, What shall I render to the Lord for all the benefits he has done unto me? Yes, that view of his obligations to God will so inflame and penetrate his soul, that its utmost energies will from thenceforth be employed in honouring his adorable Benefactor.
This we say is the true and proper tendency of the doctrine in our text. The Jews, if they had justly appreciated the favours vouchsafed to them, would have been the holiest of all people upon earth: and so will Christians be, if once they be sensible of the obligations conferred upon them by Gods electing and redeeming love.]
Improvement
1.
Let those who are zealous about duties, not be forgetful of their obligations
[It is frequently found that persons altogether hostile to all the doctrines of grace, profess a great regard for the interests of morality. I stop not at present to inquire how far their professions are realized in practice: all I intend, is, simply to suggest, that high and holy affections are necessary to all acceptable obedience; and that those affections can only be excited in us by a sense of our obligations to God. If we attempt to lessen those obligations, we weaken and paralyse our own exertions. If we have been forgiven much, we shall love much: if we have received much, we shall return the more. If then it be only for the sake of that morality about which you profess so much concern, we would say to the moralist, Search into the mysteries of sovereign grace, and of redeeming love. If without the knowledge of them you may walk to a certain degree uprightly, you can never soar into the regions of love and peace and joy: your obedience will be rather that of a servant, than a son; and you will never acquire that delight in God, which is the duty and privilege of the believing soul.]
2.
Let those who boast of their obligations to God not be inattentive to their duties
[They who cry, Lord, Lord, and neglect to do the things which he commands, miserably deceive their own souls. And it must be confessed that such self-deceivers do exist, and ever have existed in the Church of God. But let those who glory in the deeper doctrines of religion bear in mind, that nothing can supersede an observance of its duties: for He is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God [Note: Rom 2:28-29.]. That is a solemn admonition which God has given to us all: Circumcise yourselves unto the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it [Note: Jer 4:4.]. It is not by our professions, but by our practice, that we shall be judged in the last day. We May say to our Lord in the last day, that we have not only gloried in him, but in his name done many wonderful works; yet will he say to us, Depart from me, I never knew you, if we shall then be found to have been workers of iniquity. To all then who account themselves the elect of God, I say, Let the truth of your principles be seen in the excellence of your works: and, as you profess to be more indebted to God than others, let the heavenliness of your minds and the holiness of your lives be proportionably sublime and manifest: for it is in this way only that you can approve yourselves to God, or justify your professions in the sight of man.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
It is very precious to trace all mercies to their source. The infinite greatness of GOD, and the infinite littleness of man, are in these verses most suitably brought together, by way of demonstrating, to the full, the wonderful properties of distinguishing grace. Nothing but distinguishing grace can be the cause assigned for GOD’S mercy. The love of GOD is the source, the first, the predisposing, the original, and only cause. The blood of JESUS, the price given for the purchase; and the HOLY SPIRIT, the whole cause of application. Reader! dwell upon that very sweet expression only; the LORD’S delight, his pleasure, his will, is the cause of my happiness. This will be to give GOD the glory, and bring heartfelt comfort to the soul.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Deu 10:14 Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens [is] the LORD’S thy God, the earth [also], with all that therein [is].
Ver. 14. Behold the heaven and the heaven of heavens. ] Not the air and sky only, the visible heaven, but the third heaven, whereof no natural knowledge can be had, nor any help by human arts, geometry, optics, &c. For it is neither aspectable nor movable.
The earth also.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Behold. Figure of speech Asterismos. App-6.
heaven of heavens. Figure of speech Polyptoton. App-6. = the highest heavens.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the heaven: 1Ki 8:27, 2Ch 6:18, Neh 9:6, Psa 115:16, Psa 148:4, Isa 66:1
the earth: Gen 14:19, Exo 9:29, Exo 19:5, Psa 24:1, Psa 50:12, Jer 27:5, Jer 27:6, 1Co 10:26, 1Co 10:28
Reciprocal: Job 41:11 – whatsoever Mat 11:25 – Lord
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Deu 10:14. The heaven The aerial and starry heaven. The heaven of heavens The highest, or third heaven, thus named for its eminence. All that therein is All creatures and all men, which being all his, he might have chosen what nation he pleased to be his people.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The rationale behind this response was that as God had demonstrated love for her so Israel was to demonstrate love for God (Deu 10:14-15). The phrase "highest heavens" (Deu 10:14) is a Hebrew idiom indicating the totality of heaven; it does not mean that there are multiple levels of heaven. [Note: Craigie, The Book . . ., p. 204; Merrill, Deuteronomy, p. 203.]
"Above all, therefore, they were to circumcise the foreskin of their hearts, i.e., to lay aside all insensibility of heart to impressions from the love of God (cf. Lev. xxvi. 41; and on the spiritual signification of circumcision, see vol. i. p. 227), and not stiffen their necks any more, i.e., not persist in their obstinacy, or obstinate resistance to God (cf. chap. ix. 6, 13). Without circumcision of heart, true fear of God and true love of God are both impossible. As a reason for this admonition, Moses adduces in Deu 10:17 sqq. the nature and acts of God." [Note: Keil and Delitzsch, 3:344.]
"God chose Israel to be an elect nation, not true of any other nation in this world. However, national election does not guarantee the salvation of every individual member of that nation. Individual salvation is based on individual election on God’s part and faith on man’s part. In Deu 10:16, individual members of the elect nation are encouraged to ’circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart.’ Whereas circumcision of the flesh is a sign of one’s membership in the elect nation, circumcision of the heart is a sign of individual election." [Note: Fruchtenbaum, p. 115.]