DEUTERONOMY – CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Verse 1:

The text does not describe a new covenant in addition to one already in existence. It denotes a renewal and reaffirmation of the original covenant made on Mount Horeb.

Note the contrast: in the covenant on Horeb, sacrifices were offered and the people were sprinkled with blood, see Exo 24:3-8. In -Moab, no sacrifices were offered and no blood was sprinkled. This affirms that the covenant made on Horeb was still in effect.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

THE RELATION OF CONDUCT TO CONSEQUENCES

Deu 27:1 to Deu 34:12.

An earnest study of these reveals: Blessing is a fruit of obedience; and curses are a consequence of disobedience. It was said to Israel,

If thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all His commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:

And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God (Deu 28:1-2, f).

Blessings in the city, blessings in the field (Deu 28:3), blessings on the fruit of the ground (Deu 28:4), triumph over enemies (Deu 28:7), richness in store-house (Deu 28:8), a great and good name (Deu 28:10), multiplied children (Deu 28:11), treasures from Heaven (Deu 28:12), their eventual supremacy (Deu 28:12), the head and not the tail, from above and not beneath (Deu 28:13)all conditioned upon their keeping the law (Deu 28:14).

Who would change it now? Who would dare to have blessings apart from obedience? Who would dare to divorce the one from the other and face the consequences? Men have always shown a disposition to obey their fellows and an almost equal disposition to forget God. The monk or the nunhow they yield to the Abbot or the Abbess; the Sister to the Mother Superior; the Papal churchwhat obedience to the Pope! Paganismwhat abject slavery to high potentates! But for Israeltype of the Christian it is theirs to obey God, and if conflict arises, then in the language of Peter, to obey God rather than men (Act 5:29).

One is compelled to recognize the fact that Modernism has so far discredited the personality of God, the Deity of Christ, and the authority of the Scriptures, that mens convictions no longer know a keen edge, and the Scripture commands no longer bind conscience, and the thus saith the Lord no longer settles subjects of controversy.

The Modernist argues against all external authority and has not only increased the waters of infidelity, but he has pushed back the floodgates of lawlessness and deluged the world.

If there were no other reason for studying the Book of Deuteronomy, the repeated ringing call to men for obedience to the Divine Law is both a defense and justification of the same.

As one moves on in its study he encounters the Palestinian covenant (Deu 29:1, f). That it is a Covenant in addition to the one made with them in Horeb, is perfectly clear, in fact, so clear that all debate about that subject is strained and needless. The former Covenant rested in right, tempered with mercy, and enriched by grace. This covenant explains itself in the light of experience; and while enunciating stringent conditions of blessing and strict rules of conduct, its promises are rich and lift to a higher spiritual level than the Horeb covenant. Circumcision of the flesh is changed now to the circumcision of the heart, and the bending of the knee to the surrender of the Spirit, and the blessings of the body to the life of the soul. The great lesson that runs throughout Deuteronomy, namely, that of the relation between obedience to God and Divine benediction, is a lesson upon which no mortal tongue will ever lay undue emphasis. The evils that grow out of disregard to Gods lawsno man can imagine them! The annals of human anguish is their record.

We are told that when the first cable was laid in the Atlantic, where it went down miles and miles deep, it was found to be a failure and had to be taken up, at the loss of an enormous amount of time and unthinkable expense, and it was discovered that the workmen had ignored the oft-repeated command to keep it immersed in water while working on it, and on one occasion had left it where the hot sun struck it for a few minutes and melted the gutta-percha. Years followed before it could be laid again. Friends of the enterprise were greatly discouraged. Fifty voyages were made across the Atlantic, and finally capital enough was secured to lay it the second time. Possibly through the fault of another, who had forgotten to obey when the steamer had proceeded six hundred miles to sea, the cable parted and a loss of six million dollars ensued. In July 1866, the third cable was ready and a vessel sent out on her way. This time the work was completely successful and the world applauded Field. It might have been so from the first. This loss of time, of talent, of means, might have been saved had men exactly obeyed, but even this is but a feeble type of what the world has felt in consequence of disobedience to God. Moses, then, must have brought his message from above, for only God Himself ever understood, or even now comprehends the relation of obedience to blessing, of covenant keeping to character and world consequences.

But we conclude with a further lesson of the relation of conduct to consequences.

The death of Moses is a fitting climax to Moses life. The thirty-second chapter records his swan song, and what a song it is! Volumes might be devoted to it without a waste word. Truth follows truth in an almost unlimited series of statements. When the great soul comes to his conclusion God permits his lips to pour forth blessing upon the Children of Israel before he dies. The tribes are taken in turn, and for each, blessing is announced, Reuben, Levi, Jacob, Benjamin, and so on. Moses is now to the tribes what Jacob was to his sonsa rare father yearning over them and blessing them. Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! (Deu 33:29).

The concluding chapter of this Book, the thirty-fourth, records Moses death, and suggests the translation of his body. How can one speak as he ought to speak of this man when he comes to the last and hushed moment of life! Bettex writes: Forty years a prince in the palaces of Egypt; forty years a shepherd in the wild wastes of Midian; forty years in the power of God, he bears his people through the wilderness, as a mother carries her babe, and then dies on Mount Nebo, according to the Word of the Lord, literally at the mouth of the Lord which the rabbins interpret, by the kiss of the Lord (Deu 34:5). What inexpressible words this man may have heard; what heavenly mysteries and Divine visions he may have seen, when, oblivious of the world, he was with Jehovah forty days and forty nights, and ate no bread and drank no water! His countenance is radiant with it; his thundering words flash it; the song of Moses, which John hears the redeemed sing in Heaven, echoes it. And the Christian is permitted to ascend Sinai with him; to come into the presence of his God; to hear unspeakable things out of His Law, and to forget the world below, which is dancing around its golden calf.

And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. And the Children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab (Deu 34:7-8).

How simple and yet how sublime the record! It is enough! Moses tomb requires no epitaph. His name is sufficiently immortalized. Modernists will never take the coronet from Moses brow.

This was the bravest warrior

That ever buckled sword;

This the most gifted poet

That ever breathed a word:

And never earthy philosopher

Traced with his golden pen,

On the deathless page, truths half so sage

As he wrote down for men.

That was the grandest funeral

That ever passed on earth,

But no one heard the tramping,

Or saw the train go forth,

None but the bald old eagle

On gray Bethpeors height,

Which from his rocky eyrie

Looked on the wondrous sight.

And had he not high honor

The hillside for his pall

To lie in state, while angels wait

With stars for tapers tall;

And the dark rock-pines, like tossing plumes,

Over his bier to wave,

And Gods own hand, in that lonely land,

To lay him in the grave?

O lonely tomb in Moabs land!

O dark Bethpeors hill!

Speak to these curious hearts of ours

And teach them to be still!

God hath His mysteries of grace,

Ways that we cannot tell,

He hides them deep, like the secret sleep

Of him He loved so well.

Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley

CRITICAL NOTES.The discourse is continuedthe subject of that is the covenant of Israel with Godits privileges conferred and obligations imposed. Besides (Deu. 29:1), not a new covenant, but repetition, renewal of the old at a suitable time.

Deu. 29:2-9. Obligation to obey on account of what God had done for Israel. All Israel. Represented by Elders (cf. Deu. 29:10). Temptations. Testings, provings (cf. Deu. 4:34; Deu. 7:19). Not given. They felt no want and did not ask. This complaint not to excuse weakness, but to direct them in right course. I (Deu. 29:5). Jehovah introduced as speaking. Clothes and shoes preserved classified with the gift of manna, therefore better understood, not as a natural supply from flocks and herds, but as a miraculous act. Know (Deu. 29:6). Practical knowledge of God, design of this goodness, Deu. 29:7; cf. Deu. 2:32; Deu. 3:1; Deu. 29:8; cf. Deu. 3:12-13; Deuteronomy 9. Prosper. Lit, act wisely (Deu. 32:29; Jos. 1:7; 1Ki. 2:3. The connexion of wisdom in conduct and prosperity in circumstances is noteworthy (Sp. Com.).

Deu. 29:10-15. Summons to enter the covenant afresh that they may really be Gods people. Your tribes, lit. your captains, your tribes, your elders, etc. The word tribes apparently denotes all not in office. All were represented if not present. Stranger represents all foreign servants bought with money (Exo. 12:44) or taken in war. Little ones represented by parents or guardians. Menial servants not excluded. None exempt from the terms of national covenant, which embraced not only those living, but posterity (Deu. 29:14).

Deu. 29:16-29. Once more denouncing rejection in case of apostasy, or breach of covenant. Deu. 29:16-17 not parenthetic as in the A. V. Deu. 29:18 stands in close connection not with Deu. 29:15, but with what immediately precedes. The people are reminded (Deu. 29:16-17) of what they had witnessed in Egypt and on the journey, of the vileness of idolatry, and that experience is urged (Deu. 29:18) as a motive for shunning that heinous sin (Sp. Com.) Idols (Deu. 29:17), lit. clods or stocks which can be rolled about (Lev. 26:30). Deu. 29:18. Root, a picture of destructive fruit of idolatry. Gall, hemlock (Hos. 10:4; Amo. 6:12), Wormwood (Jer. 9:15; Lam. 3:19), both terms indicate distress and trouble resulting from sin; Deu. 29:19, bless, congratulate himself; imagination, lit. in firmness, hardness of my heart (from Hebrew word, to twist together, to be tough or firm). Add, a proverbial expression, rather difficult, denoting the addition of indulgence and sin to the desire, or that the drunken lead astray others who have only desire.

Deu. 29:20-21. Such cannot escape Gods anger, which, like Smoke, breaks forth in fire (Psa. 74:1); blots out (ch. Deu. 9:14; Deu. 25:19; Exo. 17:14).

Deu. 29:22-23. Effects of sin would blast the once rich and flourishing region; future generations astonished would ask the meaning of this devastation (Deu. 29:24), and would receive the reply the strokes of God had smitten the land and its inhabitants. Deu. 29:29 expresses humble submission and solemn warning. Secret, hidden things belong to God, counsels and purposes concerning nations, reasons of his dealings with them, together with time and methods, &c.; revealed injunctions, threatenings, and promises are things with which we have to do which we should teach our children.

SPIRITUAL DULNESS.Deu. 29:1-9

God had done marvellous things for Israel, yet they were unchanged and disobedient; insensible to miracle and unable to discern the purpose of God in his dealings with them.

I. God performs striking events in mans history. Israels history was eventful from beginning to end.

1. Wonderful deliverance. Egypt was plagued, they were set free; some were smitten, they were preserved. I gave people for thy life.

2. Continual guidance. They knew not, could never have discovered the way, but they were not lost. I have led you (Deu. 29:5). God guides in the residence, journeys, and enterprises of life.

3. Daily support (Deu. 29:5-6). Food and raiment. Their little stock, increased by Egyptian gifts and the spoils of Amalekites, by a distinguished act of grace was preserved for forty years.

4. Victory over enemies (Deu. 29:7). So now God delivers from fear, temptations, and persecutors.

5. Acquisition of inheritance (Deu. 29:9). Land taken from their enemies to enrich them. Land is a part of Gods estate in the globe; and when a parcel of ground is deeded to you, and you walk over it, it seems as if you had come into partnership with the original Proprietor of the earth.H. W. Beecher.

II. These striking events reveal God to men. That ye might know that I am the Lord your God (Deu. 29:6). They manifest God, and are designed to educate and train us to obedience.

1. In terrible judgments. The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth.

2. In signal mercies. God bestows favours to lead us to repentance and faith. Turn from speculations to facts. Our life is not shaped by fate, nor directed by chance. It is crowded with mercies and judgmentsevents which reveal the hand of God, illustrate the blessing of obedience and the danger of sin.

III. Men do not always understand these events. Israel had not a heart to perceive and eyes to see, notwithstanding their wonderful history and varied experience. How does this happen?

1. Because they are thoughtless. We must think, to feelseek, to know. We can never comprehend without thought, nor discern God without meditation. The works of the Lord are great, sought out by them that have pleasure therein.

2. Because they are alienated in feeling. If we take no interest in a person, we do not wish to know and serve him. If our hearts are alienated from God, we are blind to his manifestations in nature. We lose power to retain God in knowledge (Rom. 1:28), become void, spiritually stupid, whatever our boasted science and philosophy.

3. Because judicially blind. Neglect or abuse any faculty, it is taken away. Shut your eyes and you cannot see, close your hearts and you cannot feel. Vision without perception, hearing without instruction, is the result of sin and the appointment of God. Go unto this people and sayHearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand, etc. (Isa. 6:9; Act. 28:24; Act. 28:27).

IV. When men will not understand these striking events they are guilty.

No excuse whatever. There was no want of evidence and no lack of instruction. They could not say let God speak louder, fuller, or oftener. Every form of lesson, in every available method, was given.

1. The events are revealed to the senses. Israel saw the destruction of their enemies. The pillar of cloud and the pillar of firethe glory of God were visible. But nothing will touch the heart if the eyes are closed. Unto thee it was shewed that thou mightest know that the Lord he is God.

2. The events are interpreted by Gods Word. Newspapers are needful, but an intimate acquaintance with scripture will help to solve the problems and discover the meaning of life. Providence and scripture are pages of the same volume, one expounds what the other performs. Seek ye out of the Book of the Lord and read (Isa. 34:16).

3. The events may be understood by prayer. God teaches when we apply to Himgives knowledge and wisdom to those who lack and seek (Jas. 1:5-7). In this school did Joseph and David get their learning. If dull, God will teach us, and who teacheth like him? So patiently, so gratuitously and so efficiently. His lessons are grandest in their nature and most vital in their interests. Let us listen and learn; let us see and understand. If we close our eyes to the wonders of life and our hearts to the appeals of the gospel we may be given up to spiritual hardness and helplessness. Make the heart of this people fat, etc.

MENS BLINDNESS IN SPIRITUAL THINGS.Deu. 29:4

Consider this complaint

I. As uttered by Moses against the people of his charge. They had seen with their bodily eyes all the wonders that had been wrought for them. They understood not.

1. The true character of that dispensation.
2. The obligations which it entailed upon them.

II. As applicable to ourselves at this day.

1. By the great mass of nominal Christians the nature of the gospel is very indistinctly seen.
2. The effects of it are very partially experienced. Address
(1.) Those who are altogether blind.
(2.) Those who think they see.
(3.) Those whose eyes God has opened.C. Simeon, M. A.

HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS

Deu. 29:1-2. Renewed covenant.

1. This needful for us.
(1.) When its conditions are violated.
(2.) When placed in fit circumstances. Israel in Horeb and about to enter the land.
(3.) When leaders are taken by death. Moses, about to die, anxious to expound and enforce the law, urges to obedience.

2. This displays Gods goodness to us. Deep concern, continual watchfulness and activity, repetition of instruction and grief at unbelief. O that there was such a heart in them (Ch. Deu. 5:29).

Deu. 29:3. Divine methods of human training. Elements of education in human life. Temptations, trials to teach dependence and strengthen faith. Signs which discover law and reveal Gods presence. Miracles, indicative of supernatural power to control events and impress the heart. But insight is required to receive and practice the lesson. Be men who understand the times.

Deu. 29:4. A great danger. Lest the great things of this life blind men to spiritual interests and spiritual peril. Thus become a bait by which they are caught and destroyed (Rom. 11:8). Unwillingness to see is punished by incapacity of seeing. The natural punishment to spiritual perversity is spiritual blindness. This explains the indifference of many who constantly hear and constantly reject the gospelis a mark of Gods anger and a foretaste of more terrible punishment. What God has inflicted God alone can remove. None can open the eyes of the blind but He who has closed them.

Deu. 29:5. Clothes. Not the worse for wearing, but grew as their bodies did, some think. They needed not to trouble themselves with those anxious thoughts of heathens, what they should eat, drink, or put on. Never was prince served and supplied in such state as these Israelites were.Trapp.

Deu. 29:6. From this verse we learn that during their desert journeys of forty years the Israelites abstained from all kinds of yayin and shaker, unfermented and fermented, innocent and inebriating. Hence those do greatly err, not knowing the scriptures, who either deride abstinence as a novelty, or condemn it as an impracticable or dangerous habit of life.Temp. Com.

SUMMONS TO RENEWED CONSECRATION.Deu. 29:10-15

Israel urged to enter into covenant again. This implies two contracting parties. Hence God is present, and they stand before Him in representative capacity.

I. This consecration is urgent. This day. A day of solemn events and remembrances; of self-examination and pressing duties; of high hope and inspiring enterprise. Life has its bright and dark days. Its friendships, trials, and obligations. There should be no delay. This very hour is big with lifes futurities. Procrastination may ruin.

II. This consecration is representative. All were summoned to attend. Leaders, captains of tribes, elders and officers, must set an example, and think it no dishonour to renew their covenant with God. Women and children must not be forgotten, but numbered with those present. Little ones are fit to be joined in covenant to the Lord. Strangers as well as sons of Israel; servants as well as free men; those absent and those present, posterity for generations to comeall concerned. This an indication of favour to Gentiles, a type of the covenant of grace. The promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

III. This consecration will exalt and establish the nation. That he may establish thee to-day Deu. 29:13.

1. By restoring to God. A people unto Himself to fear, love and obey Him. Be unto thee a God, according to his promise and purpose. This personal relationship is most needful, specially delightful to God, and constantly set forth in Deuteronomy 2. By creating a sense of obligation to God. In covenant we pledge ourselves to remember God and cherish a sense of duty. We forget obligation, require deeper feeling and renewed devotion. Personal faith in God and national dependence upon Him are stronger than iron ships and granite walls. Without these we have no superiority, no permanency, no power to establish and preserve a church or a people. Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.

HOMILECTIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS

Deu. 29:10. Stand. As subjects to swear allegiancean assembly to worshipan army to fight. A solemn and noble position!

They also serve who stand and wait.

God examining man. This daya day of thankfulness, regrets, interesting recollections, uncertainty, anticipation. The position indicated implies:I. That we depend upon Gods bounty. II. That we are continually open to His inspection. III. That our future destiny is in His hands. ApplicationLet us this day stand before the Lord.

1. Humble penitents.
2. Sincere believers.
3. Faithful servants.Bib. Museum.

Deu. 29:12. Enter into covenant. More than repeating it, coming near to it or mere profession of it. Entire, real entrance, sharing its benefits and going into its obligations. The expression is very remarkable. It is one of those proofs of the exceeding greatness of the love and condescension of God, which are so often found in the Bible. He might command simply and tell the creature The obligation of that command is on you, whether you like it or not. But he asks man freely to accept what eternally is his duty, to enter into covenant with him; that is, openly to accept his service, that he may bless us.(Cumming.)

DANGERS TO BE SHUNNED.Deu. 29:16-21

Moses now warns against breaking the covenant into which they have entered; he describes the fearful results of apostasy.

I. Idolatry with its abominations. Their experience should have taught them how worthless, how helpless idols were in Egypt and on the march to Canaan.

1. Abominations which were prevalent. Egypt was addicted to such evils, and many were tainted through dwelling there.

2. Abominations which were fascinating. Ye have seen abominations in other nations; still hanker after them, and are almost drawn away. Idols of wood and stone, silver and gold, are more attractive than the invisible God. If the lessons of experience were treasured up and utilised, we should avoid many dangers. Experience is an excellent schoolmaster.Carlyle.

II. Apostasy with its evils. Lest there should be among you man or woman, &c. (Deu. 29:18).

1. Apostasy beginning with individuals. The lump is what its particles are, the nation as its individuals. Personal influence and character affect the community. The worth of a state, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it (J. S. Mill). One sinner destroyeth much good.

2. Apostasy bitter in results. A root that beareth gall and wormwooda root deeply planted, firmly strengthened, and mischievously productive; quick in growth and stupifying in nature. Sin, like poison, destroys the life of a nation. The bread of idolatry, sweet in the mouth, becomes bitter in the experience: what is pleasant in the taste convulses the system with pain. Its riches will sicken, turn to moral poison, and he shall vomit them up again (Job. 20:14-16).

III. Presumption with its risks. And it come to pass that he bless himself (Deu. 29:19). This supposes that one may think himself secure, even amidst danger; promise impunity though persisting in impiety; daring presumption, an affront to God and a certain ruin!

1. The method of presumption. (a) False promises. I shall have peace, when there is no peace. (b) Intense blindness. He blesses himself, when the words of the curse are thundering in his ear. (c) Abominable wickedness. Walking in the imagination of his own heart, when God urges obedience to his commands. Indulging in lust, adding drunkenness to thirst and sin to sin.

2. The consequences of presumption. The Lord will not spare him (Deu. 29:20). He will be detected, arraigned, and convicted; escape is impossible. He will be(a) Exposed to divine retribution, the anger of the Lord, &c.; (b) Shut out from covenant blessings (Deu. 29:21); (c) Unforgiven in offence; (d) Forgotten in existence. No perpetuation of name, no posterity to succeed him. According to all the curses written in the book (Deu. 29:21). The covenant has curses as well as blessings: God is just as well as gracious. If we presume upon good when indulging in sin, we shall be awfully deceived. He that presumes steps into the throne of God (Dr. South). Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me.

THE IMPIOUS BOASTER.Deu. 29:19

I. Boasting in abominable wickedness. Glorying in shame.

1. Walking in a course of self-indulgence.

2. Enticing others by his example. Asserting their security, and leading others to think as they do. They say still unto them that despise Me the Lord hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you. Jer. 23:17.

II. Boasting with resolute purpose. I walk in the firmness (hardness) of my heartsin hardens by its deceitfulness and continuance. The conscience is seared (branded as with a hot iron) by burning lusts, 1Ti. 4:2. The heart is obdurate and unmoved by warnings and curses. Hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

III. Boasting ending in utter ruin. Men rejoice in iniquity. All such rejoicing is evil, most fatal. There is no evasion, no escape. The Lord will not spare him. All the curses shall lie upon him.

HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS

Deu. 29:16-17. Ye know, &c. The discipline of experience. Precepts and instruction useful but practical wisdom only learnt in the school of experience. Israel were taught valuable lessons in Egypt and the wilderness. Have we learned courage and confidence in conflicts and victories? What have we gained indiscipline of heart and mind? Give me understanding and I shall keep thy law.

Deu. 29:18. The heart turned.

1. Apostasy in its origin the heart. An evil heart of unbelief.
2. Apostasy in its results(a). Turning away from God. (b). Joining idols. God admits of no rival. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

Wormwood. Sin a bitter root, bearing deadly fruit as in Achan, Jos. 7:25, and in those who turned to idols and seduced others. The apostle allluding to this text says, Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God (fall short), lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. Heb. 12:15.

Deu. 29:19. Danger of carnal security. I. The astonishing delusion of sinners. On every side we behold

1. Their fearlessness;
2. Their self-complacency.
3. Their confidence. II. Their awful doom.
1. Infallibly certain.
2. Inexpressibly severe. Learn
(1.) To compassionate the ungodly world.
(2.) To be on our guard against being influenced by its advice.
(3.) To be thankful if God has made us to differ from it.C. Simeon, M. A.

WARNINGS TO POSTERITY.Deu. 29:22-28

When punishment comes upon them for wickedness, all thoughtful people around them will be convinced of the righteous judgments of God in the fulfilment of His word.

I. Posterity influenced by present conduct. The nation is organicone whole community. In the covenant, those present represented those absent. So future generations share in our privileges, reap the consequences of our decisions and sins.

1. The land may be affected. Canaan was afflicted with plagues and sicknesses, consumed with fire, and overthrown like Sodom. The garden of the Lord was turned into desolation and waste. The sterility of Palestine is the strangers wonder (Volneys Ruins), and a historic witness and warning to nations. He turneth a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein (Psa. 107:33-34).

2. The people may be affected. Rooted out and cast into other lands (Deu. 29:28). Our children will be better or worse, upset or confirmed in virtue, by our moral conduct. Physical features are characteristic of races: so moral features are stamped upon descendants. Calculate upon remote results. Generations to come may be astonished, afflicted, and cursed by our actions. The evil that men do, as well as the good, lives after them. Thou recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them.

II. Posterity so concerned will enquire into the reasons. The condition of the nation the reverse of what it had beenread in the light of history and prophecy the change astonishing. Hence the question, Wherefore? (Deu. 29:24). God has reasons for retribution. These reasons may be known from His word, when known they should check our wickedness. Learn:

1. The natural connection between suffering and sin. They forsook God and served idols (Deu. 29:25), sins are reproduced in posterity, bound by an indissoluble chain of causation to the future. To-days actions are the result of yesterdays, and the cause of future conditions.

2. The visible proof of this connection in providential history. Divine retribution manifest the sins of nations and the judgment of God upon them. The sterility of Palestine explains the broken covenant. Its barren hills and mute appealits awful silence and impressive scenes, utter the curse of God and turn spectators into enquiring penitents. The curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, because we have sinned against Him (Dan. 9:11; Dan. 9:13-14; cf. 1Ki. 9:8-9; Jer. 22:8-9).

NATIONAL DEFECTION AND GRIEVOUS RETRIBUTION.Deu. 29:22-28

I. National defection. They have forsaken the covenant, etc. (Deu. 29:25)

1. Springing from individual sin (Deu. 29:18). Nations live, act, and decay through individuals. Do not overlook the parts in the whole, the one in the millions. Individuality is the root of everything, good or evil.

2. Manifest in universal apostacy. They went and served other gods (Deu. 29:26). The grand object of Israel was forgotten, and its privileges were bartered away. Gods whom they knew not, and to whom they were under no obligation, were served instead of the true Godthe God of their fathers to whom they owed everything they possessed. Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? But my people have changed their glory (Jehovah the glory of Israel, Psa. 106:20; Rom. 1:23) for that which doth not profit (idols, Deu. 29:8) Jer. 2:11.

II. Grevious retribution. Nations rise to power and influence, fall into sin and suffer decay. Rome, after the prevalence of luxury, pride and cruelty. Spain, after persecution of truth and exclusion of the Bible. Egypt, once a powerful empire, ultimately the basest of kingdoms for its idolatry.

1. Retribution extensive. In the whole land.

2. Retribution terrible. Anger of God kindled, the people uprooted, cast out and suffered great indignation.

3. Retribution complete. Land neither sown nor fruitful, stricken and accursed. The people idolatrous, homeless and rejected. The Jews forsook Jehovah, defied His providential arrangements and brought eternal blight upon a land flowing with milk and honey.

Such acts

Of contumacy will provoke the Highest
To make death in us live.Milton.

DIVINE SECRETS.Deu. 29:29 This passage suggests

I. That there are in the universe certain domains accessible to none but God. This passage holds true. FirstIn reference to material creation. There are secrets which Nature has not whispered in the ear of her most ardent lovers. SecondIn reference to the decrees of Providence. Cross-providences, etc. Clouds and darkness are round about him. Social inequalities, etc. ThirdIn reference to the mysteries of redemption. Great is the mystery, etc. The angels desire to look into these things.

II. That impenetrable secrecy is compatable with paternal benevolence. All nature proves this. Family mercies prove this. Never make Gods secrets a plea for neglecting His bounties.

III. That divine secrecy is no argument for human disobedience. Those things which are revealed belong unto us. Here we have three ideas. FirstAn acknowledgment of a Divine revelation. SecondThe confession of our relationship to God. He has given us laws, etc. ThirdAn implication of our power to obey the Divine requirements. The revealed things belong unto us, for obedience etc.

IV. That inquisitiveness into secret things is a fruitful cause of scepticism Man will pry into the forbidden. One kind of inquisitiveness (Eves) has in flicted fatal misery on millions! Let us leave God to deal with His own decrees, to manage the boundless realm of causes, and to work out His inconceivable purposes. It is right that there should he subjects above our comprehension, could we comprehend all, we should be gods and not men.

Brethren! Seek not to penetrate the secret recesses of Gods tabernacle. Who can by searching, find out God? He has permitted us to enter the antechamber. Let us learn to reverence, to labour, and to wait. In due time the King will admit us further. We shall be taken to higher altitudes, and

There we shall see His face.
And never, never sin.

Dr. J. Parker,

SECRET THINGS.Deu. 29:29

This seems to be an answer to a question which the people might naturally put after some threatenings. After all miracles, mercies, and corrections, shall we be so wicked as to provoke God to destroy us? Will our posterity become so profligate as to bring upon themselves such unexampled calamities? Moses replies, The secret, therefore. Such events are hidden in future. You know enough to avoid punishment and secure favour. Render present obedience and busy not yourselves about things beyond your knowledge.

I. That there are things revealed which we know and ought to practice. The things which are revealed belong to us.

1. Truths to be received. Truths concerning God, man, Jesus Christdoctrines to create wonder and admiration, to excite joy and stimulate study.

2. Duties to be performed. Duties to God, ourselves and our neighboursduties which make life easy and happy, which solve doubt and please God when performed. If this will not satisfy, curiosity would disquiet, if we had the powers and capacities of angels.

II. That there are things which cannot be discovered and should not engage our attention. Secret things. Mysteries of nature, events of providence, and circumstances of social and individual life which puzzle the wisest. We are finite in capacity and only know in part. The unknown is a universe of endless wonders, the revelations of which are in the wise keeping of God. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. The first lesson Pythagoras taught was silence. We must restrain curiosity and check pride. Act our part and not speculate. For he giveth not account of any of his matters. How unsearchable are his judgments (decisions), and his ways (modes of executing), past finding out (undiscoverable) Rom. 11:33.

III. That our welfare is secured only by practising things which are revealed. That ye may do. Revelation is given, not to indulge curiosity, but to provide a remedy for our blindness and misery. Light enough to make faith rational, duty plain, and unbelief without excuse. Were the curtain lifted further from holy mysteries, man would be lost in hopeless bewilderment (Hare). Things revealed should be the precious portion for us and for our children. To believe and obey here will be our preparation and safety for that world in which we shall know as also we are known.

Thy God hath said tis good for thee

To walk by faith and not by sight.

Take it on trust a little while,

Soon shalt thou read the mystery right,

In the bright sunshine of His smile.Keble.

THE ADVANTAGES OF SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE

ConsiderI. That there is a limit with respect to our knowledge of God and of Divine things. There is much mystery with regard

1. Doctrines.
2. Promises;
3. Divine Dispensations. II. That within the boundary of that limit there is much with which we can and ought to be acquainted; the things which are revealed, etc.Consider
1. Where the revelation of these things is to be formed;
2. Of which it consists;
3. For whose advantage it was given. III. That the experimental knowledge of that which is attainable will be accompanied with practical results.E. Tottenham, M. A.

HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS

Deu. 29:22 to Deu. 28:1. The cursed land.

2. The disinherited people.
3. The strangers wonder.

4. The solemn warning. Thus the law of Moses leaves sinners under the curse, and rooted out of the Lords land; but the grace of Christ towards penitent believing sinners plants them again upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up, being kept by the power of God (Amo. 9:15).Ainsworth.

Deu. 29:26. God the portion of His people. Whom he had, &c, Heb., signifies portion, lot, and may be rendered, There was no portion to them: that is, the gods they served could neither supply their wants nor save their souls; they were no portion (A. Clarke). A contrast to Jehovah.

Deu. 29:28. Cast them with a violence, with a vengeance;in the Hebrew word cast hath an extraordinary great letter:sling them out as out of a sling (1Sa. 25:29).Trapp.

Deu. 29:29, Learn

1. Gods ways are not comprehended by His short sighted creatures.
2. God is not bound to explain His ways to any of His creatures.
3. God gives means to instruct His creatures in things needful. Therefore cease to strive and cavil; learn to submit, trust solely. Secret things. God hath three sorts of secrets; first, the secret of His counsel and decrees; secondly, the secrets of His providence and outward administrations; thirdly, the secrets of his spirit and grace. From the two former God hath locked out the holiest of men as the apostles challenge, Rom. 11:34, and David intimates. Psa. 3:2 (Caryl). The writer of Reminiscences of Robert Hall says I requested him to print a sermon from Deu. 29:29. Why, Sir, I did not reserve any notes of it; I almost forgot it. Do you remember how I treated it, Sir? Yes, Sir, I think I recollect. First, you noticed the decrees of the Divine Being; secondly, the mysteries of Christian truth; thirdly, the concerns of human life. Aye, I remember it now, Sir; I believe you are right.

ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 29

Deu. 29:4. Ears to hear. As it is difficult to strike the right tone and key to make a deaf person hear, it was difficult to find such forms of thought and expression as would make their way into the ear of their mind.

Deu. 29:5. Clothes. Clothes are for necessity; warm clothes, for health; cleanly, for decency; lasting, for thrift; and rich, for magnificence.Dr. Fuller.

Deu. 29:6. Know. He shall never want mercy who does not wanton mercy.W. Seeker. To bless God for mercies is the way to increase them.Idem.

Poor soul I Gods goodness hath been great to thee;
Let never day nor night unhallowd pass,
But still remember what the Lord hath done.

2 King Henry VI.

Deu. 29:10-15. Covenant. Consecration makes not a place sacred, but only solemnly declares it so.Dr. South. Consecration is going out into the world where God Almighty is, and using every power for His glory. It is taking all advantages as trust findsas confidential debts owed to God. It is simply dedicating ones life, in its whole flow, to Gods service.H. W. Beecher.

Deu. 29:18. Wormwood. And certainly the more a man drinketh of the world the more it intoxicateth.Bacon. Our God. No religious things can satisfy a living religious soul. Life craves life for its satisfaction; the living soul cries out for the living God.Dr. Allon.

Deu. 29:19.Drunkenness to thirst. Thirst teaches all animals to drink, but drunkenness belongs only to man.Fielding.

Pleasure is good, and man for pleasure made;
But pleasure full of glory as of joy,
Pleasure which neither blushes nor expires.

Dr. E. Young,

Deu. 29:21. Curses. The noblest reward of nature is nature itself and the extremest punishment of vice is vice itself.Ld. Bacon.

Know then this truth, enough for man to know
Virtue alone is happiness below.

Pops.

Deu. 29:23-27. The land. See Thomson Ld. and Bk. Volneys Ruins of Empires, Bk. 2.

Deu. 29:29. Secret things. A cocklefish might as well attempt to bring the ocean into its little shell as a man attempt to understand the ways of God.Bp. Beveridge. In His purposes and His dispensations He is equally and perfectly independent, infinitely exalted above the supervision or direction of His creaturesHodge.

And he who waits to have his task marked out Shall die, and leave his errand unfulfilled.

Lowell

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

LESSON TWENTY-TWO Deu. 29:1 to Deu. 30:20

E. REMINDER OF GODS BLESSINGS Deu. 29:1-13

1.

THE PRESENT LAW TO BE ENFORCED (Deu. 29:1)

These are the words of the covenant which Jehovah commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.

THOUGHT QUESTIONS 29:1

510.

Why another covenant with Israel? Or is this the thought here?

511.

Consider the circumstances of this text. What particular need was there for a renewal of Gods covenant?

AMPLIFIED TRANSLATION 29:1

These are the words of the covenant, which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.

COMMENT 29:1

Note that the covenant made here on the plains of Moab is distinguished from the covenant previously made at Sinai.[55]

[55] In the Hebrew text this verse is included with ch. 28. But of course Moses made no divisions of chapters and verses in his original autograph.

The Pulpit commentary remarks, This was not a new covenant in addition to that made at Sinai, but simply a renewal and reaffirmation of that covenant. At Sinai, the covenant was, properly speaking, made; sacrifices were then offered, and the people were sprinkled with the sacrificial blood, whereby the covenant was ratified (Exodus 24; Cf. Psa. 50:5); but on the occasion here referred to no sacrifices were offered, for this was merely the covenant formerly made as still subsisting. Thus in future writings, the law of Moses includes both those given at Sinai and on these plains of Moab. Compare Deu. 5:2-3, notes.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

XXIX., XXX.
THE SECOND COVENANT.

(1) These are the words of the covenant.The Hebrew Bibles add this verse to the previous chapter, and begin Deuteronomy 29 at the second verse. But they cannot be right in so doing. For though the pronoun these in Hebrew has nothing to determine whether it belongs to what precedes or to what follows, yet the context shows that the covenant is described in Deuteronomy 29, not in Deuteronomy 28 (See Deu. 29:12-15 below). It is very significant that this covenant in the land of Moab stands outside the tremendous sanction appended to the expansion of the Sinaitic covenant in Deuteronomy. The effect of this arrangement may be illustrated by a reference to Leviticus 26, 27. The sanction of the law in Leviticus, which is a complete code of ceremonial and moral holiness, is contained in Deuteronomy 26. But that chapter is followed by a passage respecting vows, which are not compulsory, and therefore obviously lie, as a whole, outside that which is commanded. The position of Deuteronomy 29, 30 is analogous to that of Leviticus 27. Thus we see that the tremendous curse of the Sinaitic covenant is not the end of Gods dealings with the chosen people. After that, there is still another covenant, to the force of which there is no limit (see Deu. 29:15 below). The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. Nothing can destroy the relation between Jehovah and Israel. Their resurrection as a nation may well be described by the words of Moses in Psalms 90, Thou turnest man to destruction (national deathDeuteronomy 28), and sayest (Deuteronomy 29, 30), Return, ye children of men (resurrection). For a thousand years in thy sight (though spent in the grave) are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night (to be followed by the dawn of morning). A watch in the night is not the blackness of darkness for ever.

Beside the covenant which He made with them in Horeb.It should be carefully noted that the formal repetition of the law in Moses second great discourse in this book opens with these words (Deu. 5:2), the Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. There is no real break in Deuteronomy from Deu. 5:1 to the end of Deuteronomy 26 and Deuteronomy 27, 28 are the sanction of that covenant.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

Deu 29:15  But with him that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day:

Deu 29:15 “And also with him that is not here with us this day” Comments – Deu 29:15 is also referring to us (Gal 3:7).

Gal 3:7, “Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.”

Deu 29:18  Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;

Deu 29:18 “lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood” Comments – Note a similar verse in Heb 12:15, “Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled ;”

Deu 29:19  And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:

Deu 29:20  The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.

Deu 29:19-20 Comments Backsliding Brings Judgment – When we become saved, we must do what the Word says to do, and not what we want to do. Otherwise, we, too, face God’s wrath in the forms of mild chastisement to severe judgment.

1Co 6:20, “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

Note:

Heb 10:29-31, “Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

Deu 29:22  So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the LORD hath laid upon it;

Deu 29:22 Comments – The book of the prophet Isaiah opens by describing the nation of Israel as a sick people (Isa 1:5-6).

Isa 1:5-6, “Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.”

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Of the Deliverance from Egypt

v. 1. These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, while they were still encamped in the steppes east of Jordan, beside the covenant which He made with them in Horeb. This verse is inserted to form the transition from the preceding speeches and to be the title of the last admonitions of Moses, especially of his urgent invitation to be mindful of the covenant and to keep its obligations sacred.

v. 2. And Moses called unto all Israel, all the members of the Lord’s people being included in this summons, and said unto them, Ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh and unto all his servants and unto all his land, all the older ones of them having been eye-witnesses of the works of the Lord;

v. 3. the great temptations which thine eyes have seen, by which the Lord tested the attitude of Pharaoh, the signs and those great miracles, Deu 4:34; Deu 7:19;

v. 4. yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear unto this day. Cf Deu 5:26. The outer senses of their bodies had indeed taken note of what happened, but they were still lacking in inner understanding.

v. 5. And I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot, not only did they always have clothes when they needed them, but the very ones which they wore had lasting qualities beyond those of ordinary garments, Deu 8:3-4.

v. 6. Ye have not eaten bread, since the Lord nourished them with manna during the wilderness journey, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink, like men devoted to the Lord, that ye might know that I am the Lord, your God.

v. 7. And when ye came unto this place, the region east of Jordan, Sihon, the king of Heshbon, and Og, the king of Bashan, came out against us unto battle, and we smote them, Deu 2:32; Deu 3:1; Num 21:21-35;

v. 8. and we took their land and gave it for an inheritance unto the Reubenites and to the Gadites and to the half tribe of Manasseh, Deu 3:12-13.

v. 9. Keep, therefore, because of all these special miracles of the Lord they were to act wisely and observe the words of this covenant and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do; the proper attitude of the heart and mind toward Jehovah is in itself a reward, but the Lord wanted to give them, in addition, outward prosperity. Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come, 1Ti 4:8.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

RENEWAL OF THE COVENANT IN THE PLAINS OF MOAB. (Deuteronomy 29-30.)

The first verse of this chapter is placed in the Hebrew text at the end of Deu 28:1-68; but in the LXX. and Vulgate the arrangement is as in the Authorized Version, where it appears as the title of the section that follows. In that section is contained an address to the people by Moses, in which he appeals to them to enter anew into the covenant with the Lord, which had been before concluded at Horeb; denounces apostasy as what would lead certainly to their being rejected of God; assures them at the same time of God’s readiness to restore them should they sincerely repent and return to him; and once more sets before them the blessing and the curse, and adjures them to choose the blessing.

Deu 29:1

Beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb. This was not a new covenant in addition to that made at Sinai, but simply a renewal and reaffirmation of that covenant. At Sinai the covenant was, properly speaking, made; sacrifices were then offered, and the people were sprinkled with the sacrificial blood, whereby the covenant was ratified (Exo 24:1-18.; cf. Psa 50:5); but on the occasion here referred to, no sacrifices were offered, for this was merely the recognition of the covenant formerly made as still subsisting.

Deu 29:2

Moses addresses the nation as such, and reminds them of their dullness to apprehend the manifestations of God’s grace which had been so abundantly afforded in their past history, in order that he may arouse them to a better state of mind, and stimulate them to hearken to the voice of God in the future.

Deu 29:4

The Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, etc. Moses says this “not to excuse their wickedness, but partly to direct them what course to take, and to whom they must have recourse for the amending of their former errors, and for a good understanding and improvement of God’s works; and partly to aggravate their sin, and to intimate that, although the hearing ear and the seeing eye and the understanding heart are the workmanship of God (Pro 20:12), and the effects of his special grace (Deu 30:6; Jer 31:33; Jer 32:39, etc.), yet their want of this grace was their own fault and the just punishment of their former sins” (Poole). As they would not attend to God’s word, as they had shut their eyes and their ears, that they might not see, or hear, or learn what God was teaching them by his conduct towards them, they had been left to themselves; and, as a necessary consequence, they had become as persons who had no eyes to see, or ears to hear, or heart to perceive what was set before them for their learning.

Deu 29:5

Having referred to the gracious dealing of God with them in the wilderness, Moses introduces Jehovah himself as speaking to them (cf. Deu 11:14). (On Deu 29:5 and Deu 29:6, see Deu 8:3, Deu 8:4; and on Deu 8:7 and Deu 8:8, see Deu 2:26, etc.; Deu 3:1, etc.)

Deu 29:9

That ye may prosper in all that ye do. The verb here used () means primarily to look at, to consider or attend to, hence to become intelligent, to be prudent, to act wisely, and so to have success, to prosper. It is the prosperity which comes from wise and prudent action that God commends to his people (cf. Jos 1:7, Jos 1:8).

Deu 29:10-15

Summons to enter into the covenant of the Lord with fresh ardor and cordiality.

Deu 29:10

Translate: Ye stand this day all of you before Jehovah your God, your chiefs, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, every man of Israel. The two members are parallel: the heads or chiefs are the elders and officers, the tribes are all Israel The Authorized Version follows the LXX; but against the idiom of the Hebrew. Ibn Ezra says is instead of , but this can hardly be.

Deu 29:11-14

The covenant was a national engagement, and as such included not only the adults anti existing generation, but the little ones, the strangers resident in Israel, the lowest menial servants, that is, all the elements of which the nation was composed, as well as their posterity in coming, generations. That thou shouldest enter into covenant. The expression in the Hebrew is a strong one, indicating not a mere formal engagement, but a going thoroughly into the covenant; the phrase is used of the sword going through the land (Le Deu 26:6), and of one going into the pit (Job 33:28). Into his oath. Covenants were confirmed by oath (Gen 26:28; Heb 6:17); hence in Scripture the covenant of God is sometimes called his oath (Deu 29:14; 1Ch 16:16; Heb 7:28). (On Deu 29:13, cf. Deu 28:9; Deu 27:9; Exo 19:5, Exo 19:6.)

Deu 29:16-29

The summons to renew the covenant is enforced by a fresh exposition of the evil and danger of apostasy from the Lord. This is introduced by a reference to the experience which the people already had of idolatry in Egypt, and among the nations with whom they had come in contact during their march through the wilderness, from which they must have learned the utter worthlessness of all idols, that they were no gods, but only wood and stone,

Deu 29:16, Deu 29:17

These verses are not a parenthesis, as in the Authorized Version. Deu 29:18 is connected, not with Deu 29:15, but with Deu 29:17; there should be a full stop at the end of Deu 29:15. Their idols; literally, their blocks or logs (, from , to roll something too heavy to be carried), a term of contempt used frequently in Scripture of idols.

Deu 29:18

Lest there should be among you; rather, See that there be not among you, etc. The part. , lest, at the beginning of a sentence, sometimes implies a prohibition or dissuasion, as Job 32:13, “say not;” Isa 36:18,” beware of saying” (Gesenius, Noldius in voc.). Gall. The Hebrew word so rendered () is supposed by Gesenius to be the poppy plant, by Celsius to be the hemlock (it is so rendered, Hos 10:4; Amo 6:12, and by AEdman to be colocynth. It is probably a general name for what is poisonous and bitter; for it is used of poison generally (Deu 32:32) and of the venom of asps (Deu 32:33; Job 20:16), as well as of poisonous roots and bitter fruits (see Kitto, ‘Bibl. Cycl.,’ 3.701). Coupled here with wormwood, it must be a plant that is referred to; and the union of the two affords “a striking image of the destructive fruit borne by idolatry” (Keil).

Deu 29:19

That he bless himself in his heart;congratulate himselfsaying, I shall have peacei.e; all shall be well with methoughrather, forI walk in the imagination of mine heart; literally, in the firmness or hardness of my heart, (, from , to twist together, to be tough or firm); the word is always used in a bad sense in Hebrew, though not in Aramaic (cf. Psa 81:13 [12]; Jer 3:17; Jer 7:24; Jer 9:13 [14]; Jer 11:8). To add drunkenness to thirst; a proverbial expression, of which very different explanations have been given. It is now generally admitted that the verb () cannot be taken here in the sense of “add,” but has its proper sense of pouring out, pouring away, destroying. The word rendered “drunkenness” (, from , to be sated with moisture, to be drenched) means rather “sated, drenched, well-watered;” and the word rendered “thirst” (, from , to thirst) is properly thirsty, and is used of dry land (Isa 44:3); both are adjectives, and a substantive is to be supplied. Some supply , soul or person; others, , land. The former render, “The full [soul] with the thirsty” (Gesenius); or, “Them that are sated with them that are thirsty,” i.e. as well those who have imbibed the poison as those who thirst for it (Knobel); or “That the sated [soul] may destroy the thirsty,” i.e. that the impious one, restrained by no law and, as it were, drunk with crime, may corrupt others, also prone to evil, and bring on them destruction (Maurer). Those who supply “land,” render “To destroy the well-watered [land] with the dry.” This last seems the preferable rendering; but the general meaning is the same in either case, viz. that the effect of such hardness of heart would be to destroy one and all. “The Orientals are fond of such bipartite forms of expressing the whole” (Knobel; cf. Deu 32:36).

Deu 29:20, Deu 29:21

Though the sinner fancies all is well with him, and is hardened in his iniquity, and is leading others astray by his example, the Lord will not suffer him to rest in impunity, but will send on him terrible punishments. The anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke, i.e. shall break forth in destructive fire (cf. Psa 74:1 : Isa 65:5; Psa 18:8). The Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven (cf. Deu 25:19; Exo 17:14). The Lord shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel,so that, excluded from the covenant nation, and placed beyond the sphere over which rests the salvation of the Lord, they will be exposed to destructionaccording to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law; rather, as in the margin, is written; the participle agrees with “covenant.”

Deu 29:22-24

Future generations and foreign visitants, seeing the calamities with which the rebels had been visited, nay, all nations, should ask, in astonishment and horror, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger? It is evident from this that Moses contemplates, and in fact here predicts, a defection, not of individuals or families merely, but of the nation as a whole from the Lord, and the punishment which came in consequence upon the nation. The words from “when they see” (Deu 29:22) to “wrath” (Deu 29:23) are a parenthesis, in which a reason for the main thought is given in a circumstantial clause; and the “say” of Deu 29:22 is resumed by the “say” of Deu 29:24.

Deu 29:23

And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, etc.; rather, sulfur and salt, a burning the whole land thereof, it shall not be sown, etc. The words “sulfur,” etc; are in apposition to the “plagues and sicknesses” of Deu 29:22, and thus so far depend on the “see.” The description here is taken from the country around the Dead Sea, to which there is an express allusion in the close of the verse (cf. Gen 19:23, etc.). As this country, which before had been as the garden of the Lord, became, when the wrath of God was poured upon it, utterly desolate and waste; so should it be with the land of Israel when the plagues and sicknesses threatened were laid on it by the Lord.

Deu 29:24

What meaneth the heat of this great anger? The reply to this question comes in what follows (Deu 29:25-28).

Deu 29:26

Gods whom he had not given unto them (cf. Deu 4:19).

Deu 29:27

All the curses; literally, every curse, or the whole curse (cf. Dan 9:11, etc.).

Deu 29:28

And cast them. In the Hebrew the word cast them () has one of its letters, the , larger than the rest, and another letter, which should be after the , is omitted; on which “Baal Hatturim noteth. There is a great lamed and a want of yod, to teach that there is no casting away like that of the ten tribes” (Ainsworth). According to Baxtorf, the large lamed represents the first letter of l’olam, forever, and the yod, the numeral 10, represents the ten tribes, whose perpetual omission from the nation of Israel is thus indicated.

Deu 29:29

By secret things, here, some understand “hidden sins,” which are known only to God, and which he will punish (Targum Jon.); but the meaning rather is, things in God’s purpose known only to himself: these things, it is affirmed, belong to him, are his affair, and may be left with him. On the other hand, the things revealed are the things made known by God to man in his Word, viz. his injunctions, threatenings, and promises; and with these men have to do. This verse is by some regarded as part of the answer given to the question of Deu 29:24; but others regard it as a general reflection added by Moses by way of admonition to his previous discourse. This latter view is the more probable, and the scribes may have had this in their mind when they distinguished the words, unto us and to our children, by placing over them extraordinary points ( ), in order to emphasize them, though by many this is regarded as a mere critical notation, indicating a various reading.

HOMILETICS

Deu 29:1-6

Witnessing without seeing.

There is an instructive note on this passage in Dr. Jameson’s ‘Commentary.’ For nearly forty years the people had been witnesses of the extraordinary care of God in watching over them, in supplying their wants, and in conducting them through the wilderness; and yet the constant succession of mercies had had no proper effect on them. They did not read the loving-kindness of God in all as they should have done. Having eyes, they saw not; having ears, they heard not. The form, however, in which Moses here throws this is remarkable. If his words are not understood, he may seem even to cast a reflection on God, for having given them such great mercies, while at the same time he withheld the one mercy which would make blessings of all the rest. Yet we cannot for a moment think that Moses intended anything of the kind. He evidently reproaches the people for their dullness. If there had been an earnest desire to understand the deep meaning of God’s dealings with them, certainly the needful light and wisdom would not have been withheld. Our subject of thought arising hence isSpiritual stolidity; or, witnessing without seeing. The following passages of Scripture should be studied in regard to this theme:Isa 6:9, Isa 6:10; Isa 63:9, Isa 63:10, Isa 63:17; Jer 5:21; Eze 12:2; Eze 14:1-23.; Mat 11:25; Mat 12:24; Mat 13:14,Mat 13:15; Mat 15:16; Mat 16:9; Mat 21:27; Mar 3:5 (Greek); Mar 5:23; Mar 6:52; Mar 8:10-13, Mar 8:21; Luk 7:29-35; Luk 12:56, Luk 12:57; Luk 19:42; Joh 4:33; Joh 7:17; Joh 8:31, Joh 8:32, Joh 8:47; Joh 9:39-41; Joh 14:9, Joh 14:22; 1Co 2:14; 2Co 3:14, 2Co 3:15; Psa 25:14. Observe

I. THERE IS A MEANING, RICH AND FULL, IN THE INCIDENTS OF LIFE. Each one’s life is full of incident, from morning till evening, from the beginning of the year unto the end of it. There may not have been the succession of what is startling and striking, as there was in the case of Israel, but simply common mercies coming speedily and without pause, just as they were needed; the mercies one by one, fitting exactly into place, as if a gracious care had provided all. As ifdo we say? That is it. A gracious care has provided all. That is precisely our present postulate. We should as soon think that the letters in a printing office would spontaneously arrange themselves into order for a printed book, as that the constant succession of our comforts in life should come as they do without any prearrangement.

1. Life’s comforts and supplies are a constant disclosure of Divine loving-kindness. They reveal God (Psalm evil. 43).

2. They are intended to help on the culture and growth of character. Even supplies which come in the physical region, when granted to moral beings, have a moral significance in them.

3. By winning us to God, his mercies are intended to lead us to repentance, and thus to open up to us a glorious goal in character and destiny.

II. THIS DIVINE MEANING IN THE MERCIES OF LIFE IS OFTEN MISSED BY THOSE ON WHOM THOSE MERCIES ARE BESTOWED. Of how many it may still he said, “Having eyes, they see not; and having ears, they hear not!” This may arise from one or more of several causes.

1. There may be some preconceived assumption or foregone conclusion which, if indulged in, will shut out all acceptance of any thought of God’s loving-kindness in common life, or anywhere else. Some “high thought” may exalt itself against the knowledge of God.

2. There may be the lack of a spirit of loyalty, so that the individual is indisposed to read aright the messages of his Father’s goodness.

3. There may be a misuse or non-use of the organs and faculties by which spiritual knowledge may be acquired. See ‘Candid Examination of Theism,’ by Physicus, which is a striking example of total failure in this respect.

4. There may be distraction of heart and soul by the whirl and rush of life, so that the spirit has no leisure therefrom to learn of God in “secret silence of the mind.”

5. There may be entire indifference concerning the higher meaning of common things. Any one of these five causes will amply account for a man failing to learn of God through the experiences of life.

III. THERE IS NO ADEQUATE REASON WHICH CAN JUSTIFY SUCH A FAILURE TO LEARN LIFE‘S LESSONS. For:

1. We have a revelation of God given to us in the Book, whereby we may come at the true interpretation of life. Israel had their Law, by which they might read their life. We have both the Law and the gospel. And the preciousness of human life in the eye of God is taught us in Luk 15:1-32; and in the light of such a chapter should the mystery of human life and Divine care be studied.

2. We have a distinct disclosure to us of the one condition on which religions knowledge and certitude can be acquired (Joh 7:17; Psa 25:8, Psa 25:9, Psa 25:14).

3. There is a direct and clear promise of wisdom to those who lack it and seek it (Jas 1:5-7). The promises given by our Lord are also abundant.

4. There is the testimony of the experience of such as are taught of God. They can tell of his mercies, and sing aloud of his righteousness (Psa 34:6; Psa 66:16). And such experience is or should be an invaluable help to those who have yet to learn “the secret of the Lord.” Now, with this fourfold clue, it is altogether needless for any to misunderstand life’s mystery and meaning. So that it follows

IV. THAT TO BE AND TO REMAIN WITHOUT SPIRITUAL PERCEPTION IS MATTER FOR SERIOUS REPROACH AND REBUKE. It is not against God that the words of Luk 15:4 are spoken. He would have given them eyes to see, had they desired and sought that blessing. And so he will now. Hence there is a fivefold injustice done by us if we remain without the true knowledge of the rich meaning in our mercies.

1. There is injustice to the Word of God.

2. There is injustice to the God of the Word.

3. There is injustice to ourselves.

4. There is injustice to the mystery of life.

5. There is injury to our future and eternal destiny.

Well may we adopt for ourselves, on our own behalf, as well as on that of others, the prayers of the apostle for spiritual enlightenment (Php 1:9-11; Col 1:9, Col 1:10; Eph 1:15-18). For as we understand the mystery of God in Christ will all minor ones have the light of heaven poured upon them.

Deu 29:10-21

Apostasy in heart a root of bitterness.

In the midst of this paragraph there is an expression of which the writer to the Hebrews makes use as a warning. It is found in the eighteenth verse: “Lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood.” In the Epistle to the Heb 12:10, the sacred writer says, “Looking diligently lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.” The root bearing gall and wormwood which Moses deprecates is, Apostasy from God who has revealed his will through him. That which the New Testament writer dreads, and to ward off which his whole Epistle was written is, Apostasy from God who has revealed his will through his only begotten Son. The parallels between the two possibilities would furnish a most instructive theme for the preacher; so likewise would the contrasts. We propose now to suggest a line of thought which may “open up” and impress on the heart and conscience the truth that heart-apostasy is a root bearing gall and wormwood.

I. THE CHRISTIAN, LIKE ISRAEL OF OLD, IS SURROUNDED WITH INFLUENCES THAT ARE UNFAVORABLE TO FIDELITY TO ALL THAT HE BELIEVES AND HOPES. Israel was in the midst of other nations, who had a greatness and pomp with which they could not vie, who had a religious worship other than theirs, and a literature and learning which were greater than theirs; and it was not at all unnatural that now and then, at any rate, they should cast a longing look at them, and cherish a wish to rival them. And as their acquaintance with other nations increased in the course of the ages, it cannot be wondered at if they were tempted to depart from the simplicity of their monotheistic faith and worship. And now, the parallel between them and us is closer than ever it has been. Increasing research has brought to light much religious literature in the world, which pertains to varied religions, in which even fifty years ago our fathers thought there was nothing good. The great religions of the worldBrahmanism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Mohammedanismwere looked on by some as almost totally bad. And now, some are so elated by the features of excellence that may be traced in one and another, and so startled by some parallels between the Christian religion and others, that they are tempted to indulge the thought that our faith is but one among manythe best, perhaps, of all the varied religions in the world, but yet differing from others rather in its superior measure of excellence, than in any features altogether and absolutely unique and incomparable. Hence

II. THERE IS A DANGER OF APOSTASY OF HEART FROM THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, ANALOGOUS TO THE PERIL WHICH BESET ISRAEL OF OLD. The peril to which Christians are now exposed is not merely the ordinary one arising from the fickleness of the human heart, and from the subtle temptations and fiery darts of the wicked one. With the larger knowledge just referred to of whatever excellence other religions may have, a new temptation is presented to the understanding, no longer to regard our Savior as the one and only Redeemer, but as simply the Highest and Best of the Religious Teachers of the world. And so far as this temptation is yielded to, there may come a defection from the faith on any one or moreor allof the five following points:

1. Christ may cease to be regarded as the only begotten Son of the Father.

2. His Godhead, and therefore his incarnation, may come to be denied, or at least may cease to be held as a part of the “faith once [for all] delivered to the saints.”

3. His redemption, as at once furnishing us with a gospel of deliverance and a gospel of power, may be lost sight of as the distinctive feature of his work, to which no religion in the world can furnish a parallel or point of comparison. We have many religions in the world; there is but one gospel.

4. His example may come to be regarded as simply one that towers above that of other men, and as unattended with any power of lifting the world up to his own level.

5. And with all this, the dread and august majesty with which he, as the Mediator of our race, exercises all power in heaven and on earth, may be thrown into the background, and may thus cease to sway the heart and life. No one who understands the times can fail to see the reality of these dangers, and the serious proportions they are assuming. That amid the storm, the kingdom of Christ will be shaken, we have no fear whatever, but many may depart from the faith meanwhile.

III. SUCH APOSTASY WOULD BE A ROOT OF BITTERNESS. This of itself would require an entire homily to do it justice. We can but hint in outline.

1. If thus the heart loses its hold of Christ as a Redeemer, the attainment of salvation will henceforth become impossible.

2. If once the power of Christ ceases to renew, the old self will reign, and evil passions be under no adequate control. Inferior power may curb the manifestation of passion, but only Divine power can tear up its roots.

3. Such defection from the faith will “defile” many. The evil will not stop with one. It will be infectious.

4. Such dishonor done to the Son of God will bring upon those who are guilty thereof the Divine displeasure.

5. The sure effect will be the breaking up and disbanding of the Churches which are poisoned thereby. There will be no reason why Churches should hold together, if their Divine Christ is gone, and there will be no power that can keep them together, if his Spirit is grieved and departs.

IV. HENCE AGAINST SUCH A GRIEVOUS RESULT CHURCH MEMBERS SHOULD CAREFULLY GUARD. “Looking diligently lest,” etc.

1. They should watch the signs of the times, in order that, as far as in them lies, they may guard the Church to which they belong from the dangers with which the changeful currents of human thought may threaten them.

2. They should seek so to quicken the zeal and inflame the fervor of piety around them, that temptations to apostatize may have no power.

3. They should cherish a loving solicitude, and fervently pray, for each other, that mutual care and prayer may be an effectual guard against the approach of disloyalty in faith or even in thought.

4. Each one should be very jealous over his own heart. In others we can discern only fruit; in ourselves we can detect the root, of evil. Hence this watchfulness over our own spirits is doubly important, since it may be doubly effective. Even in others we may perhaps lop off the evil fruit, but in ourselves we can see that even the root is plucked up. For this, the only radical, certain, and absolute preventive of apostasy, the Spirit of God can effect, and he will, if we resign ourselves to his almighty hands. He can so renew and sanctify the heart that no “root of bitterness” can find any hold. He can make the soil so receptive of truth that any living seed of righteousness will at once germinate, and yet withal so destructive of error that any seed of evil casually dropping in will perish in its fall. Happy man, whose heart is in the effectual keeping of the Holy Ghost, and who is so sanctified that no germ of ill can find even a momentary home!

Deu 29:22-28

Historical witnesses to the wrath of God.

The chapter preceding this is shaded, yea, dark indeed. Nevertheless, it is an exact forecast of the state of Israel at this very day. In fact, the comparison between the state of the land of Palestine and the words of the Book, suggests two lines of instructive thought.

I. HOW MANIFESTLY, IN THE DESOLATION OF THE HOLY LAND, IS SEEN THE EFFECT OF THE WRATH OF GOD! To this even Volney bears witness. He asks, “From whence proceed such melancholy revolutions? For what cause is the fortune of these countries so strikingly changed? Why are so many cities destroyed? Why is not that ancient population reproduced and perpetuated? A mysterious God exercises his incomprehensible judgments. He has doubtless pronounced a secret curse against the land. He has struck with a curse the present race of men in revenge of past generations” (quoted by Jameson, in loc.).

II. HOW IS THE ACCURACY OF THIS PART OF THE OLD BOOK THEREBY CONFIRMED! It is now a favorite canon of scientific men, that whatever cannot be verified must be relegated to the past and forgotten. To this there can be no objection, if those who insist on this negative will insist equally on the reciprocal positive, and say that whatever can be verified must be accepted. For it would be simply a proof, either of discreditable ignorance or of perversity, if men were to deny or to spurn the repeated verifications of the words of Moses in the subsequent course of history.

And it is of no use for men to declaim against the possibility of miracles, when there is the standing miracle before our eye, of some superhuman knowledge having forecast, three thousand years ago, precisely the line along which Hebrew history would move, down till the present day. While there is also this difference between miracle in mighty works, and miracle in prophetic words: The proof of the works is most clear to those who see them at the time; it may possibly diminish with the lapse of years. That of a prophetic word is nil at the time: it awaits confirmation from the lapse of years. And as long as our present historical records stand, so long will there remain the confirmation of the precision with which Israel’s lawgiver, speaking in the name of Jehovah, laid down beforehand the lines along which the Jewish nation should move for thousands of years. When we put together the land and the Book, the work and the word, and see the correspondence between them, we cannot but say, “This is the finger of God!”

Deu 29:29

Secret things.

“Secret things belong unto the Lord our God.” So says the great lawgiver. On a not dissimilar topic, Bishop Butler says, “We do not know the whole of anything.” Is it not so? Who can tell all about a stone or about a blade of grass? Who can aver that the furthest star has been yet discovered, or tell us what lies beyond it? There are secrets among the minute; there are secrets among the vast.

I. LET US MAKE A DISTINCTION AS TO THE MANNER, KIND, OR DEGREE OF SECRECY.

1. Some things are secret, awaiting fuller discovery to reveal them.

2. Some things are secret, but await the unfolding of events in God’s providence.

3. Some things are secret in one sense, but not in another. We often know manifestations, but not essences; phenomena, but not nomena; facts, but not modes or reasons.

4. There are some secret things which are altogether unknowable, and must long remain so; e.g. Who can give an account of the reason why sin was permitted to enter? Who can tell whether it will always exist? Who can explain the doctrine of the Trinity? Who can descry the reason why this man had such and such suffering? etc; etc. How soon, when we come to ask questions like these, are we in “a boundless deep, where all our thoughts are drowned!”

II. LET US INQUIRE, IN WHAT RESPECT DO SECRET THINGS BELONG UNTO GOD? They belong unto him:

1. To conceive them.

2. To will them.

3. To originate them.

4. To comprehend them.

5. To overrule them.

6. To conduct them to their final issue.

III. LET US ASK, WHAT EFFECT SHOULD THE FACT THAT SECRET THINGS BELONG UNTO GOD HAVE UPON US?

1. It should humble us to find out how incompetent we are to scan the Divine works and ways.

2. It is obvious that we must leave secret things with him to whom alone they belong.

3. It is manifestly right to leave them with him.

4. It should give us no uneasiness to leave them there.

5. We should be fully content to leave them there. For we have

(1) a revealed will of love;

(2) plain and straightforward duty to discharge;

(3) a full gospel of redeeming mercy; and

(4) a good hope through grace. What more can we want?

6. We should be adoringly thankful that God keeps in his own hands what we could not understand, and entrusts us only with what we can.

7. Thankfully leaving in God’s hands what belongs to him, let us lovingly attend to that which belongs to us.

Deu 29:29

Revealed things.

This verse is so full of meaning that it is not easy to do even approximate justice to it in one discourse. Hence we have reserved the latter part thereof for a suggested outline of a distinct homily: “Those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this Law.” The statement here made concerning the Law of God in particular, is true of the entire Word of God as the regulator of faith and life. Three lines of thought here naturally follow on each other.

I. WITHIN THE WORD OF GOD WE HAVE THE REVEALED MIND AND WILL OF GOD.

He made known his ways unto Moses, etc. And now he hath spoken to us in his Son. The sum and substance of the Divine message is, “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.”

II. THE MANIFEST OBJECT OF THIS REVELATION OF AND FROM GOD IS THAT WE MAY THEREBY HAVE AN ADEQUATE GUIDE FOR FAITH AND LIFE. “That we may do all the words of this Law” is the Old Testament form of setting this. The New Testament form is, “Preaching repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ.”

III. IN THIS RESPECT THE WORD OF GOD IS, EMPHATICALLY, “OURS.” “Those things which are revealed belong unto us,” etc.

1. They belong to usour treasury of wealth.

2. They belong to usour measure of responsibility.

3. They belong to usour rule by which we shall be finally tried (Rom 2:1-16).

HOMILIES BY J. ORR

Deu 29:2-9

Seeing, yet not seeing.

The Israelites had seen God’s mighty works (Deu 29:9), yet God had not given them a heart to perceive, nor eyes to see (Deu 29:4).

I. NATURAL SIGHT WITHOUT SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT. Moses accuses the people of blindness to the facts of their own history. These facts included:

1. God’s mighty works in Egypt; here, as in Deu 4:34; Deu 7:19, classified as temptations, signs, and wonders (Deu 7:2, Deu 7:3).

2. God’s guidance of the people in the desert, which also was rife in signs and wonders (Deu 7:5, Deu 7:6), and was a course of discipline (temptation, in sense of trial) throughout.

3. The victories over Sihon and Og (Deu 7:7, Deu 7:8). No people ever saw so many miracles or passed through so extraordinary a curriculum as Israel did. Yet Moses says they had failed to apprehend the lessons of their history. Seeing, they saw not (Mat 13:10-16). That generation may not have been so dull as the one which had preceded it, but even it had shown by recent rebellions (Num 20:1-29; Num 21:1-35.) how far it was from having laid earnestly to heart the lessons of God’s dealings with it. A like veil lies on every unspiritual mind (2Co 3:13-18). The Bible is a book of riddles to it (Luk 24:25-27, Luk 24:44-46). Christ is known only after the flesh (2Co 5:16). The lines of a Divine leading in the events of life are not recognized. Warnings are scorned; prosperity is misused; adversity hardens. There is outward experience of facts, but, as in Israel’s case, the Word preached does not profit, not being mixed with faith in them that hear it (Heb 4:2).

II. SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT IS FROM GOD. Yet not arbitrarily given or withheld. It is given to those who feel their need of it, who seek it, and who act in faithfulness to the light already possessed (Psa 25:9, Psa 25:12, Psa 25:14; Psa 119:18; Mat 13:10-16; Joh 7:17). From none such will God withhold the “heart to perceive, and eyes to see.” On the other hand, Divine illumination is indispensable to the knowledge of spiritual truth (cf. Joh 6:45; 1Co 2:12-16; 2Co 4:6; Eph 1:17). As the poet’s eye is needed for the discernment of the poetic suggestions and analogies of nature, so is the spiritual eye needed to penetrate “the secret of the Lord.” The eye in this case, as in the other, “sees only what it brings with it the power of seeing.” And to gain this seeing eye, there must, as before remarked, be prayerprayer and obedience. Without these two golden keys, no thought, no labor, no learning, no cleverness, will enable us to force the gates of the inner sanctuary of truth. God’s world, God’s Word, God’s providence, will be alike mysterious; if spiritual instruction is offered, the reply will be “Doth he not speak parables?” (Eze 20:49).J.O.

Deu 29:3

Temptations, signs, miracles.

(Cf. Deu 4:34; Deu 7:19.)

I. THE RELATION OF THE TERMS. “Temptations” is a wider category than “signs,” and “signs” is a wider category than “miracles” or “wonders.” All “wonders,” however, in the kingdom of God have the moral significance of “signs;” and all “signs and wonders” are “trials” of the disposition.

II. THE APPLICATION OF THE TERMS.

1. Wonders, meaning strictly, supernatural occurrences.

2. Signs. Anything is a “sign” which indicates God’s presence (Luk 11:20), which discovers a law of his working, which is a pledge of his grace, which furnishes a symbol of a spiritual reality. Miracles were “signs.” Nature is a “sign” in her order, regularity, and invariableness (Gen 1:14; Gen 8:22; Gen 9:13; Psa 119:89-92; Jer 33:25; Act 14:17; Rom 1:20). Every answer to prayer, every deliverance front trouble, every indication of the Divine will in providence, every specific warning and encouragement, is a “sign.”

3. Temptations, i.e. tests or trials. “Trial” is a word of wide scope, for God tries us every moment, as well by things little as by things great. Every event in providence contributes to the formation, testing, and discipline of character. Naturally, however, we give the name “trials” to the harder and more severe experiences of lifethose which most throw us back on our true selves, and reveal or determine character.J.O.

Deu 29:10-15

National covenanting.

This covenant

I. WAS MADE WITH THE NATION AS SUCH. National covenanting finds modern exemplifications in the Scotch covenants, and in the “Solemn League and Covenant” of 1643-44. Irrespective, however, of the particular stipulations of these covenants, the propriety of such engagements must be pronounced doubtful. The case of Israel can scarcely be pleaded as a precedent. Certainly, were God to reveal himself to any nation now as he did to that chosen race, grant it a revival of religion, give it laws and judgments, and summon it by positive command to an engagement of the kind, it would, as of old, be its duty to obey. Even then: 1. The covenant would involve a remodeling of the constitution of the State. It would be meaningless save on a theocratic basis, Church and State merging in one body, and breaches of covenant obligation being regarded and punished as crimes.

2. The arrangement would require for its successful working conditions of strictest isolationsuch conditions as God in his wisdom devised for Israel. The difficulties in the way of such a covenant amount now practically to impossibility. In ancient times, the units of society were families, tribes, nations, the sense of individuality being comparatively weak; now the sense of individuality is strong, and every arrangement must take large account of the individual conscience. In Israel, again, Church and State were one, but they are so no longer, Christ’s kingdom refusing to identify itself with any earthly polity. The modern state, based on popular representation, and declining to take cognizance of differences of creed, is least of all favorable to the coalescence of civil with spiritual functions. Oaths are to be deprecated in any case, save where absolutely called for. They ensnare consciences, and lead to profanation by the disregard of them by the irreligious. Large sections of the community must always be left outside of such covenants, and in so solemn a transaction, the right of the majority to bind the minority, and still more to bind posterity, must be questioned. The covenants, in Scotland especially, were the source of great religious inspirations, but the good was not unmixed with evil. On the other hand, the fact of such obligations being freely undertaken by a nation must be admitted to involve it in grave responsibility, and greatly aggravates the guilt of subsequent apostasy.

II. INCLUDED ALL CLASSES, AND HAD RESPECT TO POSTERITY.

1. It included children (Deu 29:11). Whatever may be said of national covenants, it is undoubted that, in the spiritual sphere, parents and children stand in very close relation. The act of a parent, himself in covenant with God, in dedicating his child to Godprobably naming the Name of God upon it in baptismentails on that little one the weightiest responsibilities. It is a child of the covenant, stands within its bonds, and is pledged to love, serve, and worship the God of its fathers.

2. It bound posterity. Covenanting apart, the people that is faithful to God and zealous for his glory, abounding in fruits of righteousness, may expect his blessing to distant generations; whereas the nation that forgets him, and abounds in impiety, infidelity, and wickedness, with equal certainty provokes his indignation, brings down his scourge, and bequeaths to posterity the inheritance of a curse.J.O.

Deu 29:16-21

The lying hope.

We have here

I. INEXCUSABLE UNBELIEF. (Deu 29:16-18.) The man who, turning from Jehovah, went after the gods by the nations, was doubly inexcusable.

1. The true God had been revealed to him.

2. The worthlessness of heathen idols had been demonstrated. He had the light, and could compare it with the darkness of the nations around. If not himself, a witness of God’s mighty works in Egypt and in the desert, he had heard of them from his forefathers, or could read of them in his Scriptures (Deu 29:20). The existence of the nation was a proof that such things had been done.

Unbelief is not less inexcusable in us:

1. With the Bible in our hands.

2. With so large a body of evidences of Divine truth.

3. With centuries of experience of the regenerative influence of Christianity.

4. With a wide knowledge of heathen nations, discovering to us by contrast our own advantages.

Unbelief may be:

1. Speculative.

2. Practical.

It is enough that our practice be shaped on the hypothesis of the untruth of God’s Word, to constitute us unbelievers (1Ti 5:8).

II. GROSS SELF–DECEIT. (Deu 29:19.) The act of this wicked man is very remarkable. He blesses himself in his heart, and says, “I will have peace,” at the very time that God’s curses are being read out to him. Yet his case is not a solitary one. He does no more than men do every day in the teeth of the threatenings of the Bible. Satan whispers, “Ye shall not surely die” (Gen 3:4); “Be it far from thee: this shall rot be unto thee” (Mat 16:22); and Satan, not God, is believed. We may explain this self-deceit:

1. From want of consideration (cf. Isa 1:3). The wicked man does not really trouble himself about the curses. They are mere words to him. The mind makes no application, scarcely even asks the meaning, of what it hears. The oracle with which the wicked man consults is in his own heart (Psa 36:1-5), and the “oracles of God” get no attention.

2. From want of faith. God’s Word, even if attended to, could not compel belief in a heart already possessed by an opposite set of beliefs, and determined not to part with them.

3. From self-will. Will enters into the question of our beliefs; so long as it can twist evidence, resist unwelcome conclusions, find evasions and pretexts, it will not accept what is contrary to its ordinary bent. While, if the worst comes to the worst, it can cut the knot by a simple “I won’t,” and obstinately refuse to believe aught but what it likes. The account of the sinner’s unbelief and self-deceit is therefore this:

1. He has not liked to retain God in his knowledge.

2. Unwelcome subjects have been banished from his mind.

3. Through unfamiliarity to his thoughts, the supersensual world has become less and less a reality to him.

4. He acquires the power of ignoring it, and ends by disbelief in it.

III. UNUTTERABLE FOLLY. (Deu 29:20, Deu 29:21.) Unbelief, unhappily for the sinner, cannot alter the actual state of the case. God’s auger smokes against him, and will certainly destroy him. His sin, agreeable as it may appear at present, will yield at last gall and wormwood. Contending with the Almighty, he rushes on his ruin. The curses written in the Book will not fail to overtake him. It is easy for sinners to “laugh now” (Luk 6:25), but there awaits them a terrible undeceivinga day when they shall “mourn and weep.”J.O.

Deu 29:22-28

The stranger’s wonder.

The state of the Holy Land

I. AN EVIDENCE OF THE TRUTH OF REVELATION. The sterility of Palestine has been urged in disproof of Bible representations of its former fruitfulness and plenty. It should rather be remembered that, were the Holy Land in a less desolate state than it is, Bible predictions would not have been fulfilledrevelation would have been discredited.

II. A WONDER TO THE STRANGER. “Great God!” exclaims Volney, the unbeliever, “from whence proceed such melancholy revolutions? For what cause is the fortune of these countries so strikingly changed? Why are so many cities destroyed? Why is not that ancient population reproduced and perpetuated?” (‘Ruins,’ Deu 2:1-37.)

III. A JUST RETRIBUTION FOR SINpointing a warning to ourselves.J.O.

Deu 29:29

Secret things.

The “secret things” of this verse were the things which God had not revealed regarding Israel’s futureespecially the time and manner of the fulfillment of those promises and threatenings which were made contingent on their obedience or disobedience. The things which had been revealed whetted their appetite to know more (cf. Dan 12:8; Joh 21:21). Moses in this verse discourages the prying of a too eager curiosity into things purposely kept secret, while directing the people to the things revealed as containing all that was necessary for the doing of their duty. The truth to be drawn from the passage is, that the Bible is primarily a Book for practical guidance, not for solution of speculative difficulties or gratification of a vain curiosity.

I. DUTY, NOT CURIOUS SPECULATION. The difficulties and mysteries inherent in the scheme of revelation are acknowledged. They may be usefully distributed into three classes.

1. Those which are not peculiar to the Bible, but inhere in all our thinking about the facts of existence. The Bible did not create, if it does not undertake to solve, the mysteries of the origin and existence of evil, of the suffering of the innocent with the guilty, of free-will and necessity, of the reconcilability of man’s freedom with God’s foreknowledge and foreordination. These are difficulties of all religion and philosophy, as well as of the Bible.

2. Those which are peculiar to the Biblewhich emerge in connection with the scheme and process of revelation itself. Such are the doctrines of the Trinity, of the incarnation, of the atonement, of regenerationdoctrines all light and comfort to us on the practical side, and yet on the speculative side involving much that is baffling to the reason.

3. Those which arise from our imperfect apprehension of the facts revealedfrom the overlaying of them with mistaken theories and false interpretations. This last class of difficulties does not concern us here. If we ask, Why should so much be left unrevealed in Scripture? the answer is:

1. There is much that cannot be revealedwould not be intelligible to us.

2. The purpose of Scripture does not require more to be revealed than suffices for our guidance.

3. The existence of unsolved difficulties acts as a moral test, and aids the development of faithfaith, viz. as a practical principle, believing and trusting in God on the strength of what is revealed, difficulties notwithstanding (Joh 20:29). This gives the key to our duty, in presence of these difficulties.

We do not forget:

1. That things once kept secret are now revealed (Col 1:26).

2. That in the course of ages God is ever making his counsels clearer.

3. That it is the privilege and duty of the Church to be always making progress in the knowledge of God’s will, as far as he has chosen to reveal it (Eph 1:17, Eph 1:18; Eph 3:18, Eph 3:19; Col 2:2). Nevertheless, it is the condition of earthly existence that “we know” only “in part” (1Co 13:9). Our duty, therefore, plainly is, not to neglect the light we have in vain beating against the wires of the cage that confines us; but diligently to improve that light as the likeliest means of getting more. It is more important to get a fire put out than to know exactly how it originated; more important to escape from the burning building than to know exactly the course which the flames will take after we have left. We are not to forego prayer because it is mysterious to us how God can answer prayer; to forbear fleeing to Christ because we cannot frame a theory of the atonement; to renounce activity because we cannot reconcile free-will and Divine foreordination. Revelation resolves the central difficulty, how God can be just, and yet the Justifier of the ungodly; it gives light in abundance on the character of God, the way of salvation, the requirements of holiness; it makes much certain that to the natural reason must ever have remained doubtful. What folly, then, to make duty wait on the solving of speculative difficulties, many of which will probably never be solved on earth!

II. DUTY, NOT ANXIOUS PRYING INTO THE FUTURE. The “secret things” in regard to that also belong unto the Lord. His Word teaches us in a general way the issues of particular lines of conduct, but it lies with God to determine the when, how, what, and where of the actual event. His providence is a mystery unfathomable by all but himself. This, however, need not disquiet the children of God. He is their Father, and they can confidently trust their future to his wisdom and his love (Mat 6:26-34). Of little use is it to fret ourselves with fears and cares about what may possibly befall us. Do duty, and leave the issues to him who is above. Duty, not calculations of expediency. Those who steer by expediency rather than duty, in the hope to avoid evils, split on a worse rock than the one they shun.J.O.

HOMILIES BY D. DAVIES

Deu 29:1-13

The renewal of God’s covenant with Israel.

Every act of obedience is a step of the soul upward. It leads us into clearer light and into purer air. The man is braced by the exercise. On the other hand, the neglect of a great occasion of blessing is an irreparable loss.

I. NOTE GOD‘S GRACIOUS ACTIVITY ON BEHALF OF HIS COVENANT PEOPLE. Ancient Israel was sadly prone to forget what God had done for them. Ingratitude is base. It injures greatly the man who is guilty of it. We lose immensely by our obliviousness of God’s kindness. For the Hebrews, God had exerted his power and pity in methods unprecedented. Almost every act of his for their deliverance was a miracle. The crops of Egypt were blasted in order to rescue the sons of Abraham. The firstborn of Egypt, of man and of beast, were slain to emancipate Israel. The king, his courtiers, and Egypt’s military were submerged in the sea to deliver the Hebrews. For forty years they had been miraculously led and miraculously fed. For forty years their clothes had resisted all decay, and their sandals had not yielded to wear. Without ordinary breadwithout winethey had been kept alive; yea, had become robust and irresistible. Conquest over foes was already theirs, and Canaan itself was, in part, possessed. Never beforenever sincehas God so set aside his ordinary methods of providing for men, and revealed himself as the personal Friend of his people.

II. THIS GRACIOUS ACTIVITY CONTAINED PREGNANT PLEDGE OF HIGHER GOOD. Wondrous as were these acts of Divine kindness, they did not terminate in themselves. They were the earnests of something moresomething higher. Every gift in the desert and every conquest in Canaan contained a kernel of spiritual promise. These events through which the Hebrews passed, both prosperous events and adverse, were “temptations,” or tests, by which to develop their faith and fortitude. Every carnal battle was drill and discipline for spiritual conflict. Very instructively are the miraculous deliverances here called “signs” (Deu 29:3). For signs and symbols they were of realities in the spirit-realm. The redemption from Egypt was the sign of a better redemption for the soul. Sinai foreshadows Calvary. The smitten rock prefigured Christ. The desert life was a type of the earthly pilgrimage. The brazen serpent symbolized the remedy for sin. By new and singular methods was the host of God’s elect daily fed, and Moses plainly indicates the gracious intention of the plan, viz. that “Ye might know that I am the Lord your God.” The descending manna was an object-lesson. Every meal was a revelation of God. Within the food for the body was to be found richer food for the soul.

III. WE SEE MAN‘S INSENSIBILITY TO THE GRACIOUS INTENTION OF GOD. In this address of Moses we discover an apparent contradiction. “Ye have seen,” he says, “all that the Lord did” (Deu 29:2). “Yet,” he adds, “the Lord hath not given you eyes to see” (Deu 29:4). But the contradiction is only on the surface. They saw, and yet they did not see. They saw the external event; they did not perceive the interior meaning. They had no eye for spiritual penetration. They had not the pureness of heart by which they might have seen God. And the blame of non-possession does not rest on God. Some gifts he bestows unasked. “He sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” But the higher gifts for the soul he grants only to the meek and the prayerful. “Ask, and ye shall receive.” “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.” The Hebrews saw the cloud, but did not see the God within the cloud. They saw the splendid coruscations of his glory, and they entreated that the vision might not be repeated. Their mouths were filled with material food, but they had no eye to discern the love which supplied it. They remained deaf to the soft whispers of the Divine voicethe voice within the human voice. They were too carnal to perceive the illustrious vocation to which they were called, or the magnificent destiny that lay in their path. Jehovah offered to be “their God.”

IV. WE SEE A FRESH OPPORTUNITY FOR COMPLETE CONSECRATION. On the threshold of the Promised Land God summoned a halt. He reviews, by the mouth of Moses, their past history, reminds them of their mistakes, reproves their obtuseness of mind, and invites them to a renewal of the sacred covenant. Another chance was given them for spiritual reformation. Here was the commencement of a new epoch. Again, as in Horeb, God bids for man’s allegiance. He renews his pledge to be in Canaan what he had been in the deserttheir special Friend, their God. In this compact all the resources of God were secured to Israel. His power, his glory, his life, his home, were conveyed to them. All was to be theirs; but on one conditionand that condition was a necessitythat they should be loyal and true to him. What a splendid opportunity was there for a new beginningfor a fresh departure!. So ever and anon God comes near to us, and offers to make a covenant with usto be our Friend and God forever. On the morning of every dayon every returning Sabbathhe appeals to us afresh to make consecration of ourselves. If we will be indeed his people, he will be most truly our God. We too may “enter into his oath.”D.

Deu 29:14-28

The government of God all-embracing.

The detective force in God’s kingdom is perfect. Escape through the meshes of his Law is an impossibility. Every defaulter is within the custody of the Omniscient Eye. Arraignment, conviction, and execution proceed (sometimes leisurely) with the precision and certitude of irresistible law. In this paragraph

I. WE LEARN THE ORGANIC UNITY OF THE NATION. Every individual is a member of the communityan integral part of the kingdom. “No man liveth unto himself.” A citizen of an empire cannot demean himself as he please. He is bound to consider the well-being of the body politic. Hence Moses affirmed that the covenant made with the elders and officers present was a covenant also made with those not present. Whoever elected to share in the security and triumphs of the nation was bound to share in its obligations. We cannot belong to society and claim exemption from its laws. The individual is bound by the decisions of the nation.

II. WE LEARN THE GREAT USES OF EXPERIENCE. “Ye have seen their abominations.” To a generation that had not seen the obscenities, impurities, and social corruptions of idolatry, it would be difficult to convey an adequate idea of the evil. It was, therefore, of the first importance that the experience of the Hebrews who had come up from Egypt should mold and inspire the convictions of the younger generation. Those who had seen the abominations of Egypt, felt its oppressions, and taken part in uprooting the corrupt races of Canaan, ought to have cherished a deep sense of the value of this covenant with God. The evil against which they solemnly leagued they knew to be a curse to men and an abhorrence to Jehovah. If only the treasures of experience were garnered and utilized, they would be worth more than mountains of silver and gold.

III. WE LEARN THE DECEPTIVE FLATTERIES OF SIN. “I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart.”

1. The transgressor is intensely selfish. He plots for himself, and thinks only of his comfort. “I shall have peace.”

2. The transgressor is essentially blind. He imagines that although all others may be detected, he shall escape. He sees no immediate danger. He vainly fancies that his evil course is sagacious, and will bring prompt returns of advantage.

3. The transgressor is a practical atheist. Because human magistrates or human witnesses may not discover his crime, he concludes that God will not. In fact, he leaves God out of the calculation. He lays his plans and carries them as if there were no God. The great sin of men is this, viz. that “God is not in all their thoughts.” Sin seldom appears in its true color in this life. It is ashamed of its own fruits. It promises its dupes the fruits of righteousness. The creed of this world is that men “may gather grapes from thorns, and figs from thistles.”

IV. WE LEARN THAT GOD‘S DETECTIVES NEVER FAIL. “The Lord will not spare him.” The secret conspiracy of the heart shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. If the culprit hide in the darkest den of a populous city, thence will Jehovah’s arm drag him forth. “He besets us behind and before.” If he be alone in his guilt, he is the more to blame, since he has no help or encouragement from others. All social influences have been deterrent from evil; but he has resisted them all with his obstinate folly. He has been singular in his sin; he shall be singular in his suffering. Against him the anger of Jehovah will burn with a white heat of justice. All the vials of righteous wrath shall be emptied on that guilty head. His name shall perish. He shall be “separated unto evil.” The nation shall loathe him. The universe shall be banded together to punish him.

V. WE LEARN THAT THE EFFECT OF PUBLIC RETRIBUTION IS TO MAKE LUMINOUS GOD‘S RIGHTEOUSNESS. God delights in earth’s fertility. He finds pleasure in fruits and flowers. But his delight in the fruits and flowers of the soul is so much greater, that he will blast all the beauty and fertility of earth in order to produce in men the fruits of holiness. His police force is enormous. Pestilence and earthquake, volcanic flame and electricity, human armies and microscopic insects, execute his judicial word. And the effect upon mankind is to excite inquiry. Wherefore this demolition and curse? Some solid reason must exist for this complete reversal of former blessing. The contrast is eloquent with meaning. The flames of Sodom shed a luster on the Divine righteousness. The barren hills, with mute yet mournful tongue, declare God’s faithfulness. A broken covenant explains it all! The hills shall flee; the stars shall fade; but not a word from Jehovah’s lips shall ever miscarry. The sleepless sword of judicial vengeance shall pursue to the death every false thing.D.

Deu 29:29

The purpose of Divine revelation.

Taught by God’s good Spirit, Moses discerned that the purpose of Divine revelation was not to gratify intellectual curiosity, but to qualify for practical obedience.

I. REVELATION IS THE ONLY SOURCE OF SAVING KNOWLEDGE FOB GUILTY MEN, Knowledge of God, his attributes, and methods of operation may be obtained from investigation of man and nature. But the special knowledge of God’s merciful dispositions and purposes respecting sinners can be acquired only from the direct revelation he is pleased to make. Whether rebellious men can be reconciled to God, and by what method; how the injured nature of man is to be renovated; whether any existence, or service, or promotion is possible beyond the grave;these and other vital questions can be answered only by the voice from heaven.

II. REVELATION IS NOT COEXTENSIVE WITH REALITY AND FACT. There is yet a realm of the unknown which God has not disclosed to men. The class of “secret things” is in God’s keeping. Such confidence have we in the benignity of the Most High, that we anticipate further revelations, yea, an unending series of disclosures; but the time and method of these gradual unveilings God has wisely reserved unto himself. One thing inspires a hope of increased knowledge: we have a Divine promise that what we know not now we shall know hereafter. Compared with the unknown, the known is a speck, an atom, an alphabet only. The universe of knowledge is still beyond us, enticing our inquiry.

III. REVELATION IS A RESPONSIBLE TRUST TO ITS POSSESSOR. The “things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever.” So long as this revelation is quite external to us it cannot be said to be ours. To possess it, it must fill the understanding, move the affections, quicken the desires, cheer the conscience, mold the character. Then only does it “belong to us.” Thus we are to conserve it, viz. by a wise appreciation and by practical use. It is to be handed down to our children intact; i.e. not the written scroll so much as the living belief. We are so to prize and practice this revelation that our children shall see it is our precious treasure, our anchor in trouble, our pole-star in darkness, our daily chart and guide. It belongs to us; therefore as wise men we should use it, yea, extract from it all the advantage we can. For the right improvement of the written Word we shall be counted responsible. We “are stewards of the mysteries of God.”

IV. REVELATION IS MEASURED OUT FOR PRACTICAL USE. It is given to us “that we may do all the words of this Law.” It possesses regal authority, for it is a “Law.” In giving us this Law, God deals with us as with intelligent beings, capable of understanding his will, capable of rendering him efficient service. There is no niggardliness in any of God’s gifts. As soon as we have improved to the utmost our knowledge of God’s will, we shall receive more. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him.” “Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord.” Honest obedience enlarges the capacity of knowledge; it whets the appetite for higher spiritual acquisition; it awakens expectation. To know God and his Son Jesus Christ, this is life; this is an ever-expanding lifelife eternal.D.

HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR

Deu 29:1-9

Time-defying habiliments.

After the extensive list of curses to be recited amid the mountains, Moses proceeds to speak of the perfect providences of the pilgrimage as a loud call to obedience out of gratitude. He points out not only the miracles connected with the Exodus, but also the arrangements of, as we should say, the commissariat. They had not to manufacture bread, for the manna fell from heaven; they had not to carry with them wine or strong drink, for the pure water out of the smitten rock followed them all the way. Nor had they to concern themselves about clothing, for their clothes defied the march of time, and their shoes stood intact all the rough journey of the wilderness. We have only to consider what such an arrangement saved them, and how at the end of the forty years’ march, instead of “ragged regiments,” they presented themselves in bright and impressive array, to conclude that this merciful care of their clothing as well as of themselves was a crowning experience of the wilderness. It has indeed been suggested that all here implied is a providential blessing upon their ordinary endeavors and barters with the surrounding tribes; but we imagine there is much more in this reference to their time-defying garments. We are led to speak again of the “philosophy of clothes” (cf. Deu 22:5).

I. THE PURPOSE OF CLOTHES IS TO COVER OUR NAKEDNESS, This was shown in Eden, and as Carlyle says about his alter ego (Teufelsdrockh), “The utility of clothes is altogether apparent to him; nay, perhaps he has an insight into their more recondite and almost mystic qualities, what we might call the omnipotent virtue of clothes, such as was never before vouchsafed to any man Society, which the more I think of it astonishes me the more, is founded upon cloth.” And into this most proper purpose of hiding our nakedness, let us observe, the Lord entered in Eden and afterwards. Man is a spirit, but it is also evident that in this present world he was meant to wear clothes and to conform to decency thereby.

II. THERE IS NO VIRTUE IN RAGGEDNESS. In fact, one of the prophets, in order to convey impressively the worthlessness in God’s sight of our self-righteousness, uses this very figure: “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away” (Isa 64:6). Suppose that Israel had reached the land of promise in desperate raggedness; it would have been no credit to themselves or to their God. It would, on the other hand, have made the invasion more perilous. But when, instead of “ragged regiments,” they came with unworn uniforms from the wilderness, the very freshness of the appearance of the host struck terror into their adversaries.

III. THE FACT HAD EVIDENTLY FAILED TO STRIKE THE ISRAELITES AS IT OUGHT TO HAVE DONE. “Yet the Lord,” says Moses, “hath net given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day” (Deu 29:4). The unchanging, well-appointed host had ceased to be a marvel to itself, although it must have been a marvel to all other observers. The bright, unfading, well-kept dresses continually before their eyes failed to make adequate impression. They took God’s goodness, as we are too prone to do, as a matter of course.

IV. GOD‘S PROVISION FOR MAN‘S BODY WAS A TYPE OF HIS PROVISION FOR MAN‘S SPIRIT. The spirit of man has its hunger and thirst and nakedness, just as well as the body. And we are accustomed to see in the manna, which satisfied the hunger of the Israelites, a type of him who, as the Living Bread, came down from heaven (Joh 6:49, Joh 6:50); in the water from the smitten rock, which satisfied their thirst, a type of the Spirit, proceeding from the Son, to refresh the souls of men (Joh 7:37-39). And why, we ask, should we not discern in the time-defying garments, which God so wonderfully preserved, a type of that righteousness with which he clothes our spiritual nakedness, which is unto all and upon all them that believe (Rom 3:22)? Round the human spirit, as Carlyle has put it, there lies a “garment of flesh contextured in the loom of heaven it is sky-woven, and worthy of a God;” but around it he is pleased to place another garment, of which the unworn uniforms of Israel were types, the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which is sufficient to cover all our nakedness, and which stands defiantly against the powers of time. It is in this array and panoply that, as pilgrims, we shall reach the land of eternal promise. Vicissitude and change will work no havoc in this garment of God. In contrast to all man’s “shoddy” and “ragged righteousness,” it stands in perennial brightness, the time-defying clothing out of the commissariat of God. May we all be arrayed in none other as we approach the Jordan!R.M.E.

Deu 29:10-28

The land of promise becoming accursed.

Moses has tried the principle of gratitude with the Israelites, urging obedience from a sense of the great goodness of the Lord. And now he turns to the other principle of fear, which cannot be dispensed with in religion, and urges obedience out of respect for the Promised Land, since if they are disobedient it will be turned to a land accursed. The land will in such a ease become a witness to the curse of God, instead of continuing a standing evidence of his love; a beacon instead of a type; a wilderness instead of a paradise. And it is instructive to notice the exact danger Moses meets in this passage. The curses have already been pronounced; but it is just possible for some one to say that the curse is leveled at collective sin. National apostasy is contemplated, but an individual will never be noticed in his course of licentiousness. The wholesale is judged; the retail may escape. This is the idea that Moses here refutes. He shows that the individual shall be judged, and the land become accursed through the apostasy of individuals. We remark, then

I. THE NATION APOSTATIZES THROUGH THE APOSTASY OF INDIVIDUALS. No nation as a public act apostatizes, but it gets rotten through individual action. When then a number of units, under the delusion that as units they shall escape, betake themselves to evil courses, blessing themselves in their hearts, saying, “I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst,” then does rottenness enter into the state of Denmark! It is well for units not to pretend to under estimate their influence as an excuse for living as they please. The nation suffers through the deterioration of its component particles. If the individual withers, the nation withers too.

II. INDIVIDUAL WAYWARDNESS MAY WORK THE RUIN OF A LAND. When we look into the admirable work of Van Lennep, we find him ascribing the barrenness of Palestine at present to the cutting down of forests, the fall of terraces, and the consequent want of rain. A land thus lies at the mercy of individuals much more than we imagine. An individual may cut down the trees on his patch of freehold, and his neighbor follow his example, to carry on his self-indulgence with the proceeds, and the result may be the change of climate which turns a paradise into a waste. We have already seen that Palestine was peculiarly dependent upon bountiful provision in the shape of the early and latter rains; and if individuals, through the necessities begotten by their self-indulgence, outrage the arrangements of providence, the land becomes of necessity accursed.

III. AS A MATTER OF FACT, THE HOLY LAND IS NOW AN EMBODIMENT OF THE CURSE OF GOD. Travelers are struck with the brown and barren aspect of the whole land. Spots here and there, of course, burst into beauty through the gift of rain, but as a whole the land is no longer “with milk and honey blessed,” but under the anathema of Heaven. How much longer this blight is to rest upon its bloom we cannot say, but the fact is patent to all observers.

IV. THE MUTE APPEAL OF A STRICKEN LAND SHOULD NOT BE LOST UPON THE OBSERVERS OF IT. When the question of slavery was being discussed, before God settled it by permitting the American civil war, attention was directed to the “waste lands” created by the slave-labor. It was shown that the iniquitous system made virgin and splendid soil in the course of years, through monotonous cropping, a wilderness, and that the spectacle of the deterioration of the earth should weigh with thinkers. And Nature is surely meant to speak to man’s spirit by her deformities as well as by her beauties; by her manifest wrongs as well as by her manifold benedictions. Such a man as Ruskin, considering the question as art critics will, pleads eloquently for the natural beauty which the advancing needs of railway and of manufacture threatens with desolation. But such a wilderness as Palestine now is, such a wilderness as the slave states of America were becoming, speaks to the conscience of observers, and calls for penitence and tears. The muteness of the appeal, the golden silence, which characterizes such impressive scenes, should make each witness of the waste a penitent worshipper!

V. OBEDIENCE TO GOD WILL YET REGENERATE NATURE. We see the reverse of the disaster in Psa 67:5, Psa 67:6, “Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase.” The wilderness shall yet blossom as the rose when the children of men shall learn their privilege and duty as children of God.R.M.E.

Deu 29:29

The purpose and limits of revelation.

This passage states fairly both the purpose and limits of revelation.

I. THE PURPOSE OF REVELATION. It is not to gratify curiosity, but to secure obedience in the successive generations. In other words, it is not speculative, but practical.

1. The objections, urged against revelation largely consist in the disappointments of speculative curiosity. Because God did not inform man scientifically about the creation of the world; because he did not deliver an articulated theological system; because he did not compose a philosophical textbook;therefore this popular, miscellaneous, and discursive Book cannot be Divine. But so far from such arguments being valid, they go to substantiate the Divine character of the Book. For

2. It is an intensely practical Book, inculcating on parents and children obedience to God. It takes up man in the family, and urges him to obey God and try to get his children to obey him. It reveals God as a Father seeking the obedience and trust of his human children, and inviting them to the heaven of obedience to his commandments. It makes man understand sufficient about God to know the duty and the blessedness of obeying him. And here let us notice two important positions taken up by the revelation.

(1) It declares that we have been made in the Divine image. Let men make us out to be physically in the image of the beast, we are spiritually in the image of God. And

(2) it declares that for man’s salvation God became incarnate. Mutual acquaintance and understanding are manifestly possible and practicable upon these terms. Man can reason upwards from his own nature, which, as Carlyle said, after Chrysostom, is “the true Shechinah;” and man can appreciate Godhead whet, revealed through a sinless human life. As a revelation, then, it is most reasonable.

II. THE LIMITS OF REVELATION. It leaves a realm of secrecy to God. That is, it does not profess to reveal God fully, for “he cannot, on account of his incomparable greatness and excellence, bring his plans and operations within the comprehension of his creatures.” The finite cannot take in the infinite. We only know in part. But we know. To doubt the possibility of knowing God would lead us straight to universal skepticism. Agnosticism has no logical halting-ground on this side of universal doubt. Hence we venture not beyond the assigned limits of the knowable. We take all that God gives and use it reverentially. At the same time, we recognize a world beyond our ken, of essence and of purpose and of perception, which is God’s alone. Our pride is broken; we are penitent before him, and we adore.R.M.E.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Ver. 1. These are the words of the covenant Houbigant connects this verse with the last chapter, and begins the present chapter with the 2nd verse: for it is plain, says he, that Moses enters upon another subject in these words, and Moses called unto all Israel, &c. Michaelis is of the same opinion. By the words, beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb, is meant, that the curses in the 28th chapter are not explicative of those in the preceding chapter, but different from them, and of another kind. The former maledictions are denounced against those who should violate the law of the Decalogue given in Horeb; nor did they threaten punishments to be inflicted only in this present life: on the contrary, the latter maledictions denounce present and public punishments; because God had so bound himself by covenant with the Israelites, as to promise the defence of their republic, so long as they should worship the true God, and manifest by that worship the existence of the true religion in their land: then only to be destroyed and blotted out, when that salt of their country should lose its savour.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Deu 29:1-29

1These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make [to close] with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he made [closed] with them in Horeb. 2And Moses called unto all Israel, and said unto them, Ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his land. 3The great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles: 4[And (yet)] Yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to [know, understand] perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day. 5And I have led [let, made you go] you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot. 6Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink: that ye might know that [(for)] I Amos 7 the Lord your God. And when [Then] ye came unto this place, [and] Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us unto battle, and we smote them: 8And we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance unto the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh. 9Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in1 [fix, fasten, make sure] all that ye do. 10Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God; your captains of [om. of] your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with [om. with] all the men of Israel, 11Your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood, unto the drawer of thy water: 12That thou shouldest enter [margin: pass] into covenant with [the covenant of] the Lord thy God, and into his oath [curse, imprecation] which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day: 13That he may establish [set up] thee to-day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said [promised] unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 14Neither with you only [you, you only] do I make this covenant and this oath [this 15curse]; But with him that standeth here with us this day before the Lord our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day: 16(For ye know [ye, ye know] how [that] we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations [heathen] which ye passed by; 17And ye have seen their abominations, and their idols2 [detestable things], wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:) 18Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations [heathen]; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall3 19[poison] and wormwood; And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, 4 that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace [salvation, prosperity], though [for] I walk in the imagination [margin: stubbornness] of mine heart, to add5 drunkenness to thirst [to the end that the drunken may carry away the thirsting]: 20The Lord will not spare [release from punishment, forgive] him, but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses [the whole curse] that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven. 21And the Lord shall separate him unto evil [destruction, ruin] out of all the tribes of Israel according to all the curses of the covenant that are [om. that are] written in this book of the law: 22So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that [this] land, and the sicknesses which the Lord hath 23laid upon it6 [with which Jehovah makes sick in it]: And that7 the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger and in his wrath: 24Even all nations [The heathen] shall say, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger? 25Then men shall say [answer], Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, which he made [closed] with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt: 26For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given [literally, divided] unto them: 27And the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book: 28And the Lord rooted them out of their land in anger and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day. 29The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us, and to our children8 for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. Deu 29:1. [This verse is, in most editions of the Hebrew text, added to the chap. 28, and regarded as a recapitulation of what had been said. Our version follows the Sept. and Vulg.A. G.] After the command for the setting up of the law in the land (Deu 27:1 sq.), and after the reception of this act in its whole bearing on the part of Israel (Deu 27:11 sq.) especially since chap. 28. has explained so minutely the blessing and the curse, this verse cannot be viewed as closing this full detail of the consequences of the covenant, or the whole discourse beginning with the fifth chapter. The repetition, inculcation and completion of the divine law (Knobel) cannot be viewed by the author as a repetition and renewing of the covenant, but rather as preparatory to it, since the law itself is the foundation of the covenant at Sinai. The discourse upon the law, chap. 5 sq., closes at Deu 26:16 sq., with a distinct reference to Deu 5:1. This verse, as is expressly said, effects the transition, and forms the title to what follows. Where, i.e. on one side God has once more clearly made known His will, and on the other side the people say, Yea and Amen to all, there the way for the making, closing the covenant is prepared, which now therefore occurs.These are the words,i.e. the following words constitute the covenant; only words are now necessary; Moses has merely to speak; for what was to be done besides had been done at Horeb, Exodus 24 and Exodus 34 (comp. Deu 5:10). That , to divide, cut, with , is literally: to slay the sacrifice of the covenant, does not hinder us from understanding it here according to the whole method of Deuteronomy in a figurative sense, but with a back reference to the literal. It is worthy of notice also, for what follows, that Moses forms or closes the covenant in Moab, just as God did at Horeb. Thus the instrument and the founder are connected together in the presaging and prefiguration of the only Messiah. (The comparison with Lev 26:46 points already to chap. 30.)

2. Deu 29:2-9. Since discourses constitute what follows, as throughout in Deuteronomy, so here, Deu 29:2 : And Moses called, sq. (Knobel: to another day; Herxheimer: to those already gathered); comp. Deu 5:1. The forming of the covenant now parallel to that at Horeb. But how it stands with the covenant appears here at once through the recalling that to mind which Jehovah had done for Israel. Since they are reminded of these acts, and first of that all-fundamental work of the Lord in Egypt, so truly this covenant, notwithstanding the frequent transgressions on the part of the nation, has not been abrogated on the part of God (Keil); indeed its strength is generally, that it is the covenant of God with Israel, into which Israel has only to enter or pass (Deu 29:12). Comp. besides Deu 4:9; Deu 11:2. Deu 29:3. Comp. Deu 4:34; Deu 7:19. Deu 29:4. Comp. upon Deu 5:26.Hath not givenin this connection certainly much as: He could not give, therefore he hath not given. It is not said to excuse the people, but thus the ever-returning allusion to the works and wonders of God finds its ground and motives. Jehovah wrought in Egypt; but what He truly would have done to Israelnot only its external, but its inward real redemptionthis gift of God was not actually bestowed; comp. Deu 8:3; Deu 8:5. They saw indeed, but they were deficient in the right eye (Isa 6:10; Jer 5:21; Mat 13:13), namely, in heart-knowledge (knowledge out of the innermost life), in the eye of faith, in obedience.[They had it not because they had not asked for it, or felt the need of it. It was not given because they were not prepared to receive the gift.A. G.]Deu 4:6 (comp. further Deu 1:32; Deu 9:6; Deu 23:24). As Deu 29:1 shows, Moses and Jehovah work together (Deu 9:13 sq.). Deu 29:5. Comp. Deu 8:2 sq. The leading through the wilderness is the building upon the foundation laid in the redemption from Egypt. Deu 29:6. Comp. Deu 8:3; also Deu 14:26. Deu 29:7 sq. gives the completion of the building through the first east Jordan victories. Comp. Deu 2:24 sq.; chap. 3. (Deu 4:43). Deu 29:9. , to make sure, firm, i.e. so that all you do may be real, have lasting existence, and satisfy you.[The ordinary sense of the words: to act wisely, prudently, seems better here, especially as to act wisely in keeping the covenant is the sure and only way to real prosperity.A. G.]

3. Deu 29:10-15. After such an introduction, he draws nearer the case in hand.This day, generally: the time of the deuteronomic discourses, specially according to Deu 29:2 : the day of the words of the covenant in question. Comp. besides Deu 1:15; Deu 19:12. Deu 29:11. Comp. Deu 1:39; Deu 1:16. Not excluding those devoted to the most menial services, thus not even the Egyptian followers, Num 11:4. Deu 29:12. , to pass, enter, alluding to Gen 15:17 sq. (Jer 34:18?), as also in unison with the national name (Deu 15:12), more distinctly than , with (2Ch 15:12; Neh 10:29; Eze 17:13) of the full, hearty, entire entrance. Schultz correctly says: that this covenant is not so much between two parties as rather of one, into which the other has only to enter or pass. Thus the interpretation of this chapter is clear, that it concerns only a new declaration of the covenant at Horeb (Keil), a renewing of the covenant in a discourse, warning and exhorting to faithfulness to this covenant, and does not treat of the repetition of the ceremonial. And this corresponds entirely with the character of Deuteronomy. Thence , from firm, be strong, of the confirmatory oath, usual in the forming of covenants (Gen 26:28), here nearly synonymous with , the oath of the covenant of God, and indeed predominantly upon the side of the curse against the transgressor, thus: the curse-oath, the oath-curse, designates the curse of the covenant (Num 5:21; Isa 24:6); and hence as , so also is connected with it. It is not as Knobel: the obligation under oath of Israel to Jehovah. Deu 29:13. Comp. Deu 28:9; Deu 27:9. Deu 29:14 (Deu 5:2 sq.). Moses in the charge or commission of God. Deu 29:15. So comprehensive is the method of God with men (Joh 17:20; Act 2:39).[The covenant was to embrace not merely the descendants of those now living, Israel in its generations, but in its true idea and apprehension, all nationsthose far off.A. G.]

4. Deu 29:16-29. Since the covenant has connected with it the oath or curse, so in connection with Deu 28:27 there must be an intimation as to the consequences of an apostacy of the nation from him who will be its God (Deu 29:13), and all the more so, as Israel had a sufficient experience of other gods, both of their nothingness, and of their contagious nature notwithstanding. Thus Deu 29:16 confirms () what has gone before, and lays the ground for what follows. What one may learn who dwells, goes through, etc.[Literally: ye know what we dwelt, i.e., what our dwelling there showed. Deu 29:15-16 are not a parenthesis, as in the English version, but are closely connected with what precedes and follows.A. G.]

Deu 29:17. , the rejected, reprobate, hence abominable, used of the nature of idols, 1Ki 11:5. Similarly: , the separated, rejected, detestable. Ges.: logs, blocks; others: dung, filth-idols; punning upon (the vain, nought)! Lev 26:30. Deu 29:18. The power of such a spirit of the world; the danger is great, and your weakness not less (Deu 29:4). So! The discourse is indeed of individual men, but also of individual families, or of a tribe, and as if this day it might be true that such a , literally, the first shoots of a plant in the ground (deep, root-shoot), were already existing in Israel. , poison. Ges.: of the poppy-head, . The heaped up, pointed. Here bitterness appears rather to form the transition to poison. Hence the connection with wormwood, Heb 12:15.[The rosh appears to have been a poisonous plant growing in the furrows of the field. Hos 10:4, bitter, Jer 23:15, and bearing berries, Deu 32:32. Anything more definite is uncertain. The view of Gesen. is perhaps the most probable. See Smiths Bib. Dict., Am. Ed., Art. Gall.A. G.]The heart turning away from Jehovah to heathen gods is at first compared to the root yielding this bitter evil fruit, and then Deu 29:18 is introduced, still more clearly speaking to itself in a soliloquy interpreted by God. The case supposed is of one who, when he heard the curse outwardly, nevertheless blessed himself inwardly; in whom thus the stubbornness of unbelief persuading itself of the utmost certainty of the very opposite of that which Jehovah had threatened against the idolater; hence caring for nothing, as seeing nothing, steadily follows the purpose of the evil lust. , in the following proverbial expression (as in Deu 29:18 in the figurative), can scarcely be anything else than: so to say, saying. , to remove, Isa 7:20; not precisely, to sweep off, Gen 18:23 sq. It is not so much the results upon others which is spoken of as the persons own purpose with respect to himself. is the richly saturated soul which has fully satisfied its lust. Hence the effort of one who has so apostatized is for a satisfaction which should remove the thirst; which should continually remove by satisfying, the constant desire. Knobel, Keil: To sweep away (to destroy) the saturated (who has drunk the poison) with the thirsty (who is thirsting after it). (The feminine taken as a collective neuter. A transfer from the land to persons.) Schultz: to sweep in the saturated (filled with good things and courage) with the thirsting (in this respect), empty souls. Baumgarten: the watered and the thirsty, all the fruit of the land, all good and welfare, a total ruin. Others: to hurry away the righteous with the wicked (Pro 13:25), understood even with reference to God; or: that the over-sated, glutted may corrupt the temperate. The interpretation which regards as to add, enlarge, is not to be thought of, as e.g.Johnson: that the drunkenness may increase the thirst. Comp. not Rosenmuller, but PoolesSynopsis. To such a purpose now follows Deu 29:20 sq., the judgment of Moses resting upon the impossibility of any redeeming purpose in God in this case, and carried out to the most terrible completeness.Shall smoke is not used as a stronger term for the bated breath, but rather as the veil and proof of the fire, which since Sinai is the standing expression for the righteousness of the Holy One in Israel. Comp. upon chap. 4. Comp. for the rest Deu 25:19 (Num 15:30). Deu 29:21 refers formally to the man, but passes essentially to the family and tribe (Deu 29:18). Deu 29:22. Comp. Lev 26:31 sq. Deu 29:23. Comp. Genesis 19.[The ruin is both physical and spiritual; is true of the land and the people. But the description is borrowed from the locality of the Dead Sea and its surroundings. See KeithsLand of Israel.A. G.]

Deu 29:24. An amplified continuation of Deu 29:22. The answer, Deu 29:25, is formulated by Moses, as if a reply by the questioners themselves. Deu 29:26. Comp. Deu 11:28; Deu 4:19; Deu 18:14. Jehovah would be the eternal portion of Israel. As Moses has inspired the previous answer, so Deu 29:29 is his closing word, as a drawing back, in pious submission, from so distant a look into the future. Let us rest, he will say, upon the blessing and the curse, as God has revealed them to us; and it is actual doing, and not knowledge barely, which concerns us. The puncta extraordinaria over the are emphatic.[But what the emphasis is, is uncertain. The points are not inspired. And the emphasis, whatever it is, is a human interpretation, and no part of the text.A. G.]

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Kurtz: The covenant in Moab rests upon the covenant at Sinai, and presupposes it. Although the generation of the wilderness was rejected, the covenant of the wilderness was not; it had remained even during the thirty-eight years of the rejection. Israel in the plains of Moab is a new generation, a renewed Israel, hence the renewing of the covenant; but they are the children and heirs of those at Sinai, and since that covenant was laid upon all the future generations of Israel, so now it has its renewal through the word, but without the covenant-sacrifices and meal.

2. The redemption from Egypt, the leading in the wilderness, and the entrance into the promised land, as it is introduced by the victories, Deu 29:7 sq., are three stages which have their spiritual reality also in Christ. Upon the one rests the faith, in the other the life, and for the last the hope of the spiritual Israel.

3. Keep therefore. Deu 29:9 announces the obligation also of the covenant of God, whose sign and seal is holy baptism (Mat 28:20), an obligation which has its conscious renewing and acceptance in the confession of faith, in the so-called confirmation.[The allusion here is to the rite of confirmation as practised in the continental churches, corresponding very nearly to our term uniting with the church.A. G.]

4. In Deu 29:10 sq. the covenant appears in almost a New Testament form, yet the significant mark of the curse accompanies it, and moreover the expression reminds us of a mediatory sacrifice (Psa 50:5): thus the fulfilling of that symbolized at Horeb, the power of an endless life (Heb 7:16) the blood of Christ who, through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot unto God, to purge our consciences from dead works to serve the living God (Heb 9:14) remains in expectation. Comp. J. H. Michaelis upon the passage.

5. The people of God is so connected with the covenant of God, that it must throughout, and over all, appear dependent upon God. Hence apostacy from Jehovah is the sin in Israel. Idolatry appears with it only as the external mould or form at the time; the essential inward reality is the self-hardening consciousness, whose occasional and changing fancies are the abominations of the idol worship. The self-righteousness of man, by nature, and in his whole life unrighteous before God, is not only a great evil, but literally destructive to men.

6. The transition from the individual to the whole, reveals the earnest look of Moses into the corrupt nature of Israel, and what he was solicitous about in the future of his people; at the same time we see therein the general truth that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump (1 Corinthians 5.), and that the Christian Church also is under obligation to exclude the unbelieving and godless, through the office of the keys, for its own good. (Heid. Cate.).

7. It is farther presupposed that in the future, even the heathen should attain to the knowledge of the Lord, and ask the reasons of that which He had done. Schultz. Such a knowledge on the part of the heathen world, indeed, over against the judgment upon Israel, appears as the future of things, hidden in God, as His decree as to the end.

8. We should be satisfied with what God has revealed to us of His will and nature in the law and gospel. Piscator. [The commands, promises, curses, blessings, and our consequent duty with all necessary truth, are perfectly clear. We may well rest with these.A. G.].

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Deu 29:1. Luther: Moses must live until he has renewed the law with the other generation. Starke: Recall here the new covenant, where God has made with man, through the personal union, an indissoluble covenant of grace. Deu 29:3. Baumgarten: As every good gift comes from above, so also the true sense of the Spirit and the flesh. Israel had shown itself through its own guilt, unsusceptible for such gifts, so that he immediately passes to an exhortation with respect to the same in Deu 29:9. Deu 29:4 : Give me eyes that I may see Thy rich graceThe wondrous works of God; the most wonderful: a hearing ear, a seeing eye. Pro 20:12.

Deu 29:9. Randglosse: Without the Word of God all our doing is folly. Deu 29:10 sq. Piscator: Gods covenant demands obedience in all positions.What a breadth and length, and depth and height, Eph 3:18. Berl. Bib.: So Christ commands His gospel to be preached to every creature. Deu 29:15 sq. Whoever has true knowledge, knows with whom he has to do (the living God) where He is (in the world) and how weak man is in himself. Deu 29:19. Randglosse: This is the godless word and thought; ay, hell is not so deep it has no want, the devil is not so awful as he is painted; which does boldly and eagerly all hypocritical deeds, and still looks for reward in heaven. Starke: It is a certain sign that a man is still under sin if he make light of the threatenings and judgments of God, abandons himself to his desires and lusts, sorrows not, but rejoices in past sins and in godless society, and will not know God, nor has any desire to serve Him, opposes himself to the punishment, and sins against his conscience. (Eph 4:19). Tub. Bib.: As the dry earth must be watered, so the godless strives, as he would increase the sins for which he thirsts, to satisfy perfectly all his lust. Or as the drunkard seeks for means to quiet the unnatural desires and thirst, to be able above all else to keep himself drunken; so the godless seeks to make himself even worse than he is, as if even thirsting for evil, heaps up sin with sin. ( Mat 12:43 sq.; Heb 6:8; 2Pe 2:20). Self-deception and a false conception of the good estate of Christendom leads most men to hell. Deu 29:20-21. Starke: Jesus also purges His threshing-floor. Mat 3:12. Volney breaks out, I have wandered through this desolated land. Great God! Whence so deplorable changes? Why has fortune turned this region so entirely into its opposite? Wherefore are so many cities laid waste? Why are these lands robbed of their former blessings?A mysterious God, exercises His incomprehensible judgment! Beyond question He burdens this land with a secret curse. Deu 29:25. Sin has destroyed the people, but it is the sin of apostacy from the way of God.

Deu 29:27. Richter: For eighteen hundred years till this day. Deu 29:29. Comp. Rom 11:33. [Wordsworth: Secret things. Especially Gods counsel concerning Israel, both as to the choice of it by God, and its rejection and restoration, both as to its manner and time. O Altitudo! exclaims St. Paul. Rom 11:33.A. G.].

Footnotes:

[1][Deu 29:9. Literally: that ye may act wisely.A. G.].

[2][Deu 29:17. Margin: dungy gods, from the shape of the ordure. Literally, thin clods or balls, as that which can be rolled about.A. G.].

[3][Deu 29:18. Margin and Hebrew: , weed, a plant of bitter taste, but not necessarily poisonous. Most probably the poppy, as we speak of poppy heads.A. G.].

[4][Deu 29:19. The same word rendered oath, Deu 29:12; Deu 29:14, but which Schroeder renders in every case curse.A. G.].

[5][Deu 29:19. here is not to adda sense which it rarely has unless followed by , but to sweep away, destroy, as in Num 16:2; Gen 19:15; Gen 19:17.A. G.].

[6][Deu 29:22. Margin: wherewith the Lord hath made it sick.A. G.].

[7][Deu 29:23. The italics should be omitted, and we should read: brimstone and salt and burning the whole land. The nouns are in apposition with strokes, plagues, Deu 29:22.A. G.].

[8][Deu 29:29. The pointing of the Hebrew here is peculiar, as if to draw attention to what is said.A. G.].

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

CONTENTS

There is a great solemnity in this chapter. Israel is presented as a body, by way of proof, that the LORD’S covenant meets their most hearty and cordial consent. Here is a general recital of some of the leading objects of the covenant; and the chapter concludes with pointing out the striking distinction between the things which are secret, which belong unto the LORD, and those which are revealed, which belong unto his people.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

It must have been a very interesting moment this, when Moses, acting as the minister of JEHOVAH, made this appeal to the people. There is nothing we need more, than to be reminded of past mercies. And hence, one of the most precious offices of the HOLY GHOST is, when he mercifully acts as our Remembrancer, to bring to our recollection the tender manifestations of JESUS’S love. Joh 14:26 . Reader! hath the HOLY SPIRIT indeed brought to your remembrance, all that the LORD your GOD hath done for you in Egypt? Do you call to mind the great temptations, and signs, and miracles of grace Oh! how delightful the subject, thus to look back, and behold the way the LORD our GOD hath been bringing his people out of this wilderness. Deu 8:2-5 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

The Secret and the Unrevealed Things

Deu 29:29

There are some things respecting which we ought to be agnostics. They are the secret things which belong to God. There are other things concerning which we ought not to be agnostics. They are the revealed things which belong to us and to our children.

I. The things which concern us, which touch our life, lie within the realm of our knowledge; the things which do not touch us, which do not concern our life, concerning which we may hold one theory or another theory, and our life still remain right, do not belong to us. We may discuss them, but they are not part of the vital truths of religion.

II. In a similar manner there is the known and the unknown in religion. And the difficulty about religious discussion has been that most of it has been fighting about the unknown. ‘Nothing is more certain,’ says Herbert Spencer, ‘than that we are ever in the presence of an infinite and eternal Energy from which all things proceed.’ Now what can we know about that infinite and eternal Energy? We say that He is omnipresent. But we do not know. All we know is that everywhere in the universe He is operative.

III. But whenever God comes in touch with us, we do know. We know that there is a natural order in the universe; we know that there is somewhere a rule; and we know that these rules are absolute, unchangeable, immutable. We do not know in what way God operates on the mind. But we do know Christ’s relation to us; and that is enough for us to know. What God is in His essence we cannot know. What is His method of manifesting Himself to others we cannot know; but we can open our hearts to His sunshine and receive His life. What the Christ is in His relation to the eternal Father we cannot know; but to us He can be the model which we follow and the revelation of God whom we adore.

Lyman Abbott, Homiletic Review, 1904, vol. XLVIII. p. 291.

Knowledge: Revealed and Secret

Deu 29:29

I will first of all take the two terms of my text and then the declaration of the purpose lying behind the truth of the terms revealed things; secret things.

I. First, the revealed things. The Hebrew word very literally means things denuded, laid bare. I have said to you that a thing revealed cannot be perfect and complete; but it is a revealed thought. This hymn-book, for example, is a thing revealed to us by this imperfect manner of words. It is the same thing in the moral world. There are things revealed and things I know a flower, a storm, light and heat, and the mystery of pain, the great affirmations of Christian truth.

II. Take the next term of the text: secret things. As the first word means things denuded, the second means things clothed, things hidden by a covering. The covering demonstrates the presence of the thing beneath. The covering is revealed, the thing is hidden. It is the intangible, impenetrable, illusive mystery that lurks at the back of everything revealed. I take up this book again. There is as much mystery in that hymn-book as there is in God. When you can fathom the mystery of this book, you can fathom the mystery of the universe.

III. It is the great declaration of revealed religion that everything that baffles the human intellect and bewilders the human heart because of its mystery is not a mystery with God. He knows it thoroughly. Carry this idea into the second half of the declaration. Everything revealed is revealed for us and is united to the secret and hidden forces and expresses so much of them as is for us to know. The truth is that everything of which I am certain is but the apparition of a heavenly thing and teaches a spiritual truth. Take away the secret things and you will lose God. It is the secret of Divine government that demonstrates the fact of Divine government.

G. Campbell Morgan, Homiletic Review, 1904, vol. xlviii. p. 451.

References. XXIX. 29. J. O. Davies, Sermons by Welshmen, p. 59. J. Bunting, Sermons, vol. i. p. 346. G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 193.

Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson

Secret Things

Deu 29:29

We have here two words of permanent significance, the confusion of which would lead to all kinds of spiritual disaster. These words are “secret” and “revealed.” It is something to know that this distinction was so early made in human thinking. The distinction, in fact, can be found in the communications which passed between God and man in the garden of Eden itself. The simple law is that some “things” belong unto the Lord our God; we have nothing to do with them; we are not concerned in their investigation or adjustment; other things belong to us and to our children, and our definite duty and relation to these is to see that they are realised in all their meaning and purpose.

Things that are secret and revealed occupy, from one point of view, distinctly different spheres, yet from another point of view it is obvious that the secret and the revealed are at some points vitally related. One would say that nature is a full revelation; that the heavens and the earth are books wide open; and that there can be no law of trespass in the outer creation. But this is not the case. We find that even nature has her mysterious or secret things, and that many a door is marked “private,” and that phenomena only, and not essences, are open to the investigation of human science: there is a law of secrecy even in the apparently open and unwatched fields of nature. In other words, there is a point of unknowableness in the construction of a grass-blade as certainly as in the creation of a human mind. Inquiry is circumscribed. There is a limit to the “ask, seek, knock” of all investigation. Emphatic importance attaches to this fact. We imagine that prayer and spiritual benefits, exclusively so designated, are alone comprehended under the statement “ask, and it shall be given you;” whereas experience shows that that simple law is at the very root and core of every kind of progress. “Ask, and it shall be given you” is as truly a canon in science as it is a law in religion. It is written alike in the Bible of nature and the Bible of the Gospel. It is inscribed as distinctly on the heaven and the earth as on the solemn temple and the Mosaic altar. And so indeed with many other of the laws of the Holy Book. When the ages shall give birth to the seer who shall have in all its fulness and vigour the faculty of interpretation, he will teach men that science and gospel stand on the same basis, and that the one serveth the other as the younger the firstborn.

Here is a man who is learned in the writing of the stars. The heavens are the broad pages, and the worlds are the words, and systems are the sentences which he attempts to make out. Many a brilliant paragraph he succeeds in interpreting, at least to some extent But how did he attain his wisdom? Simply by the old Gospel plan “ask, seek, knock;” by patience often severely tried; by labour that brought sore weariness; by perseverance often toilsome, this is the way by which men acquire wisdom of all kinds. What is called cant in religion is called philosophy in science. Every time the astronomer turns an inquiring eye to the stars he actually stands in the attitude of mute prayer. Every turn of the telescope really represents the action of asking, seeking, knocking. Every conclusion arrived at as the result of investigation seriously conducted may in some sort be described as an answered prayer. The difficulty which the Christian teacher has to contend with is that men willingly acknowledge that they are studying, botanising, anatomising, and the like; but they will not carry up their action to the term which comprehensively expresses the whole method and purpose of the inquiry: that term is Prayer, the highest asking, the most reverent solicitude, the most persistent, and the most rational application of human powers. We could not read a line upon the face of nature if an unseen hand did not hold the light for us. We could not read the book of the stars if that unseen hand did not turn over the pages.

The practical point to be kept in view is that although God encourages man to ask, seek, and knock; though he has made man an inquisitive and a progressive being; though he has endowed man with faculties, instincts, capacities that yearn to transcend the limits which humiliate him, yet human ambition is to be regulated by divine law, and man is to keep within prescribed boundaries and avoid the iniquity of trespass. This is so in nature, and it is so in what we have come to understand by the term Providence. No man can find out the work that God doeth from the beginning to the end. We cannot see how God interposes in every combination and adjusts the place of every detail in life. We see something of God in the vastness of the heavens, but are baffled by the minuteness which makes the dewdrop as perfect a sphere as the greatest planet that burns in unknown heights. The Bible teaches that in the every-day affairs of life God is constantly interposing. He hath compassed us behind and before, and laid his hand upon us. There is not a word on our tongue, there is not a thought in our heart, that is not known altogether to God. This is the Bible theory of human life; our inquiry is into the reality of that theory, a question which cannot be determined by words, but which can only be concluded by a careful study of individual and general human experience. Wonderful are the hidings of the divine purpose! We lay our plan, we boldly predict a bright future, we see everything exactly as we would wish it to be, and our imagination is that all we have to do is to advance and enjoy the gracious result; yet we know that in the midst of our dreams an invisible hand has overturned our glittering temple and ploughed up its deep foundation. In walking down the highway we have unwittingly changed sides; we knocked at the wrong door when in quest of a friend; in sorting our correspondence for the post we have mismatched some of the letters and envelopes; or we had set our heart on a certain journey and had made much preparation for it, but on the appointed morning we were arrested by severe affliction, personal or relative. We could not understand these things at the time. Some of them appeared to be of no consequence. But time disclosed a wonderful purpose, even in things which were so small as to be made no account of. We were amazed that events so trivial could have concealed purposes so great, and that afflictions so unexpected and so cruel should have lain at the very threshold of the kingdom of God. But the divine Worker disdains nothing. He holds everything in high value. He will have the fragments gathered up that nothing may be lost. An atom may be necessary to the completion of a temple. As out of so common a thing as the dust of the earth God fashioned man, so out of the ordinary trifles of life he builds the greatest realities of the future. That we cannot understand these things is no argument against the certainty of their existence and action. We have to understand God as much as God intended us to understand, and leave the rest. What do you do when in reading the great books of ancient religious authors you meet with passages written in an unknown tongue? Paragraph after paragraph you read with all possible fluency, instantly apprehending the author’s purpose; but suddenly the writer throws before you a paragraph written in Greek or in Latin, or in some language you have not learned; what then? If you are absorbed by the book you will eagerly look out for the next paragraph in English, and continue your pursuit of the leading thought. Do likewise with God’s book of providence. Much of it is written, as it were, in our own tongue; read that, master its deep meaning, and leave the passages written in an unknown language until you are farther advanced in the literature of life until you are older and better scholars in God’s first school. The day of interpretation will assuredly come. A beam of light will pierce the mystery. Meanwhile, there should be sweet rest in the reflection that “secret things belong unto the Lord our God.”

The Christian admitting all this, and even contending for it as a necessity of Christian philosophy and life, turns with still higher wonder and reverence towards a scene which compels him to exclaim, “Great is the mystery of godliness!” All the mysteries of nature and providence are but as the riddles of childhood compared with the problem of the Atonement The Cross is the meeting-place of the highest intelligences. “Which things the angels desire to look into.” Pilate’s superscription in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin we can decipher; but the writing of that other hand the hand that wrote on Belshazzar’s proud walls that hand, so awfully distinct, yet so rapid, so delicate, as to be “something between a thought and a thing” the writing of that other hand we cannot read in all the depth and scope of its meaning. The oldest wisdom looks on and wonders, wrinkled sages can but sigh in amazement; and angels make no progress in that infinite study. Yet we are not to turn away from the Cross as from a mystery that has no aspect of a practical kind. There are revealed things even in the Cross of Christ. We have not so much to do with the top of the ladder which is lost in the brightness of heaven as with the foot of it which resteth on the earth; nor have we so much to do with the bright angels who throng that ladder as with the messages of mercy and hymns of hope which they bring to our attention. Fool is he who in running from a town in flames will not cross the river until he speculates concerning the architect of the bridge and makes inquiry into the origin and date of its building. The illustration may be applied to the sinner who wishes to escape from his sin. His first business is to reduce to practice what little he does understand, to manifest a disposition to accept all the arrangements of divine wisdom, and in childlike trust to give himself up to God. The Cross has a side that is “secret,” and a side that is “revealed” a side that shines towards God and a side that shines towards a sinning world. The Cross may be so treated as to be ah overwhelming and discouraging mystery; or it may be so treated as to show the infinite love, and mercy, and righteousness of God in the great endeavour to rescue men from wickedness and restore them to the image and favour of God.

We have come to associate secrecy with selfishness, yet all nature proves that in divine administration secrecy and benevolence may co-exist. As rapidly as we are pointed to the mystery we should direct our eyes to the fatherhood. Do men say that God keeps to himself the mystery of the sun? Our answer should be that he turns upon us the full revelation of the light. Does God keep to himself the secret of germination? On the other hand, he gives us the revelation of golden harvests; the spring kept the secret in her heart, but autumn has filled our barns with plenty. Thus, enough is kept back to prove the power, and enough is given to establish the mercy. It is not only right, it is necessary that the father should know more than the child. Is the father less a father because of his superior knowledge? Is not his very superiority of knowledge one of his highest qualifications for discharging his duty as a father? Mystery is the seal of the infinite, yet benevolence is perpetually present in the providence which guides human life. You have seen a blind man led along the highway by a little child, to whose young bright eyes he commits himself in faith and hope. Man is that poor blind wanderer through the way of God’s mysteries, and that little guide represents the benevolence, the mercy, the tenderness, with which God leads us from day to day and will lead us until the time of the larger revelation. The commonest mercy of the daytime flames up into a fire column that lights men through the gloom and trouble of the night. We must not look at the mystery and forget the benevolence. The very wealth of God makes us covetous. Does poverty provoke envy? We look not so much at what God has given as at what he might have given. We read the love through the mystery, rather than the mystery through the love. Men like to penetrate into the hidden. They flatter it, they exalt it, they say it is given for good, and pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise; and having wrought themselves up into this delusive appreciation of its value, they put forth the thievish hand, and the fancied blessing turns to a scorpion’s sting. We are not to anticipate our course of study: the volumes will be handed to us one by one. Let us understand what we now can, and in doing so let us increase in knowledge; understand that in all the wastes of folly there could be no greater fool than he who will not believe his father’s telegram because he cannot understand the mystery of the telegraph.

The sense in which things revealed belong unto us is distinctly specified in the text “that we may do all the words of this law.” We know revelation by a power which is within ourselves. There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth us understanding. Whether that power has been correctly designated by the expression “verifying faculty” or not, there it is, constantly operating within us, and constantly confirming or disputing our conclusions. That power does not affect to deal with the incident, the colour, and the local or transient detail to be found in a book: it deals with great moral disclosures, and supreme moral appeals, and profound moral obligations. Looking in this direction, the inward light is an unfailing guide, the verifying faculty never fails to cry out, This is the very truth of God: this is the very beginning of heaven. Observe the expression “all the words of this law.” We are not called upon to consider the words of a speculation, or a theory, or a new suggestion regarding the constitution and destiny of things. God puts himself before us distinctly as Lawgiver. All the moral institutes issue from God’s wisdom. All that man lays down as law is, so far as it is right, but a modification or interpretation of God’s own word of government. The heavens and the earth are full of proofs as to the omnipotence of the Creator, but in such a word as “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” we may find a profounder testimony to Christ’s Godhead than in all the wonders of creation. Here is a moral mystery only to be interpreted by moral obedience. This doctrine is only attainable through doing the will; blessed be God, through doing the will we do come into the full appreciation of this religious mystery, and are enabled from that point of progress to advance to immeasurably greater distances in the upward way. To have lost our identity in the interests of others, and for their real good, is to have begun to realise the mystery of divine love.

The law is to be translated into action: “That we may do all the words.” A very beautiful picture thus appeals to the attention. A word is to become a deed: a thought is to be embodied in expressive action; and between the word and the deed, the thought and the action, there is to be obvious and undeniable consistency. Religion has, indeed, its contemplative side, but it has also its practical side of action. The architect draws his plans not that they may be exhibited as pictures but that they may be built up into visible and useful edifices. If the builder has taken the architect’s plans, framed them in gold, and hung them up in the best room of his house, he has not honoured the plans but dishonoured them: the architect will presently come and ask for the mansion, and he will not be satisfied to be told that instead of the mansion having been built the plans have been carefully framed and exhibited only to admiring eyes. But have we not framed the law of God and made a picture of it and worshipped the letter with a species of idolatry? What have we done with the Bible? We have published it in letters of gold; we have bound it in richest morocco; genius, art, taste, have conspired to beautify and adorn and decorate the sacred book; but where is the mansion of a noble, holy, and useful life? We received the law that we might “do” it; if we have failed in the doing our admiration is hypocrisy and our loudest applause is but our loudest lie.

We are not only called to obedience, we are called to hope. We shall make some conquest yet even in spheres which at present are absolutely mysterious. At present we know in part, and prophesy in part, because we see through a glass darkly. What thou knowest not now thou shalt know hereafter. We have a hope which is as an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast, a hope which entereth into that within the veil, and we are confident that one day we shall know even as also we are known. They will know most of the mystery who have done most of the law. If we are waiting for the solution of the mystery before we begin obedience to the law, the mystery will never be revealed to us other than in clouds and storms of judgment. We walk by faith, not by sight. Jesus said unto one of his disciples, “Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” This is the Christian’s law of action. He acknowledges the mystery; he has no reply whatever to many an enigma; but he is sure that in doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God, he is preparing himself for those great revelations which are promised to faith, obedience, and love.

Selected Note

One of the most sad and saddening aspects of modern life is the lack of a humble acknowledgment of the limitation of human powers. There has been engendered a pride and even arrogance of thought which knows not how to veil its face in the presence of the infinite God, and of Truth which is as infinite as he. There is an audacity of speculation which will acknowledge no mystery, and which rejects all that transcends the limits of reason.

And especially is this the case in those departments of truth which relate to the moral and spiritual government of God. Concerning the material world there is no such presumptuous daring. Men feel that as yet of this they know but in part and in small part. No man of science will step forth and profess a universal acquaintance with the universe. He would be regarded as a laughing-stock. He might as soon pretend that he can hold the waters in the hollow of his hand, or that he can mete out heaven with a span, or comprehend the dust of the earth in a measure, or weigh the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance. Slowly and patiently do men of science work, winning now the knowledge of one fact, and then another, but feeling as Newton felt when he had achieved even his noblest discoveries, that they have but picked up a shell or a pebble on the great shore of truth, while the vast ocean lies yet undiscovered before them. The map of science is filled in here and there, but over the greatest portion of it is written the words “unknown land.” Year by year a little more is filled in, and yet a little more, but when shall the whole be defined, and when shall the map itself be large enough to include the whole material creation which stretches illimitably around us on every hand? There is no discovery that has yet been made, which has not immediately suggested new mysteries, and the wisest men are those who feel that the disproportion seems ever growing between the limits of the human mind, and the boundlessness of the creation which it seeks to explore.

Enoch Mellor, D.D.

Prayer

Almighty God, thou abidest for ever though thy servants are cut off in the midst of their days. We are as a shadow, and there is none continuing; but thou remainest the same, and thy years fail not. One generation goeth, and another generation cometh; but the Lord abideth evermore. Thou art the living Sovereign, thou art the living Redeemer, and thy mercy, like thyself, endureth for ever. We have heard of thy mercy all the ages through, since thou didst put skins of beasts upon the shoulders of those who fell in the garden. Thy promise has always been singing in mid-air, cheering the heart and touching the imagination of the world; and, behold, we have seen thy promise fulfilled: it is no longer a promise, it is a reality, for Jesus Christ hath come into the world to save sinners. May we believe in him that we may rejoice in him, and rejoicing in him may serve him with both hands earnestly, knowing no joy but in his approbation, and expecting no heaven that is not involved in his blessing. Few and evil are our days upon the earth: our days are as a post or as a weaver’s shuttle flying to and fro; we are driven before the wind; we are consumed by the moth; all things press against us destructively. Yet have we hope that cannot be extinguished confidence in immortality: if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens; now we see beyond the night-line: now the cloud is but a door which will presently open, and through the opening gloom we shall see the ineffable glory of heaven. We have learned all this in Jesus Christ thy Son; he is our Teacher and our proof; we witness to him: we have sat beside him and heard the gracious words which proceed out of his mouth, and our souls are glad; we have entered into a great inheritance: we are rich in faith: we can be poor no more; we shall see our Redeemer face to face, and bless him even for the trials of the road. Keep us steadfast in the love of the truth: may we abide in the Vine and bring forth much fruit; may our love be in Christ and for Christ and towards Christ a bloom for ever seeking the sun. For all thy care we bless thee; for the guiding of thine eye we magnify thee. We owe all we are and have to thee: by the grace of God we are what we are. Hear our hallelujah; receive the hosanna of our grateful hearts; and help us to live all our prayers. Amen.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

(See the Deuteronomy Book Comments for Introductory content and Homiletic suggestions).

XIV

THIRD, FOURTH, AND FIFTH ORATIONS

Deu 27:1-31:13

It is customary to classify the words of Moses in Deuteronomy into three orations, a song and a benediction, but this classification is not exact. His third address is contained in Deuteronomy 27-28. A fourth distinct address with its introduction is contained in Deuteronomy 29-30. A fifth address distinct in introduction and matter is to be found in Deu 31 , covering only thirteen verses. So that there are at least five distinct addresses, besides the song and benediction, each with an appropriate historical introduction. We consider in this discussion the third, fourth, and fifth addresses.

THE THIRD ORATION

This oration first provided for a most elaborate and impressive renewal and ratification of the covenant when Israel shall have entered the Promised Land, and closes with a most earnest exhortation to obedience, including a notable and far reaching prophecy of the curses that will certainly follow disobedience. The parts of this third oration are very distinct:

(1) Associating with him the elders of Israel, he directs that on entrance into the Land of Promise, plastered monumental stones shall be erected on Mount Ebal and thereon plainly inscribed all the laws of the covenant, as a perpetual memorial and witness of their possession of the land by Jehovah’s power and grace, conditioned upon their observance of the terms of the covenant. What a lasting library of stone! What a witness to the grounds of their tenure of the land!

(2) The erection of an altar after the model given in the original covenant at Sinai (Exo 20:24-26 ) and the sacrifice thereon of burnt offerings as originally provided, thus renewing the ratification of the covenant.

(3) The sacrifice of peace offerings followed by a Joyful communion feast showing forth peace with Jehovah (arising from the blood of the covenant) and their enjoyment of him.

(4) Then associating himself with the priests and Levites, he provides for the solemn announcement that they are Jehovah’s people and must obey him.

(5) He then charges the whole people that on this great day they must take their places in two great divisions, six tribes on Gerizirn and six on Ebal, prepared to repeat after the Levites the responsive blessings and curses of the law.

He directs that on this great day the Levites shall stand in the valley between the two mountains and solemnly pronounce alternatively twelve blessings and twelve curses, the first eleven of each special statutes as specimens of the whole, and the twelfth of each touching the whole law as a unit. That as each course on disobedience is pronounced by the Levites, the six tribes on Ebal shall repeat it, and as the alternate blessing on obedience is pronounced, the other six tribes on Gerizirn shall repeat it, and when the twelfth blessing and curse touching the whole covenant are repeated, then all the tribes on both mountains in one loud, blended chorus shall say, “Amen.” We shall find in Joshua all these directions becoming history. The history of the world furnishes no parallel in solemnity and sublimity to this great transaction in conception here, and in fulfilment later.

Deu 28 is devoted to exhortation based upon these directions and prophecies. It is difficult to summarize this awful exhortation, but we may profitably emphasize the following points of the exhortation:

(1) If you keep this covenant you shall be blessed in national position and with God. Jehovah shall be your God and ye shall be the head and not the tail; shall be above and not below. Jehovah shall smite all your enemies. Coming against you in one way, they shall flee in seven ways. All other nations shall see that you are called by Jehovah’s name and shall be afraid. Jehovah will establish you as a holy people unto himself.

If ye keep this covenant ye shall be blessed in all places: in the city, in the field, in the home, in the barn, and in the kitchen.

Ye shall be cursed in all things: in children, in crops, in herds, in vineyards, in the seasons, and in business (lending to others but not borrowing), in health, in your outgoings and incomings, and especially in peace of mind and joy of heart.

(2) But if you disobey this covenant and break it, all these groups of blessings shall be reversed into their opposites: Ye shall lose your exalted position among the nations, and with God. Ye shall be outcasts from God; ye shall be the tail of all nations and not the head. Ye shall be beaten in wars; ye shall flee in all battles; ye shall be dispersed seven ways where you went out one. Now you see this curse is national, just like the corresponding blessing was national. Ye shall be cursed in all places: in the city, in the home, in the field, in the barn, in the kitchen, and in all lands of dispersion.

Ye shall be cursed in all things: in children, in crops, in herds, vineyards, wars, outgoings, incomings, and especially shall ye be cursed in your mind and heart. Ye shall have neither peace of mind nor joy of heart. Here is the curse of mind and heart; it is as awful a thing as I ever read in my life:

“And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, and there shall be no rest for the sole of thy foot: but Jehovah will give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and pining of soul; and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear night and day, and shalt have no assurance of thy life. In the morning thou shalt say, Would it were even I And at even thou shalt say, Would it were morning! for the fear of thy heart which thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see” (Deu 28:65-67 ). Note particularly the awful picture of their disaster when besieged by enemies, as set forth in Deu 28:49-57 , so literally fulfilled when Jerusalem was taken by Titus in A.D. 70, and so fearfully depicted by Josephus. The prophecy closes with a reversal of their deliverance from Egypt since as captives they again shall be transported back in ships to become once more a nation of slaves in Egypt. This going into Egyptian bondage we shall find verified in the closing days of Jeremiah. His book of Lamentations furnishes the commentary on a part of this fearful prophecy. Poor man! he himself was carried there, and died there at the downfall of the Jewish monarchy.

FOURTH ORATION

The fourth address is contained in Deuteronomy 29-30, according to our chapter divisions. The occasion of this address as set forth in the introductory verse is a special present renewing of the Sinaitic covenant by oath, but it is not followed by ratification by sacrifices. The address recites again their miraculous deliverance from Egypt by Jehovah with signs and wonders, his merciful providence in miraculously supplying all their needs throughout their wanderings even though they had not eyes to see nor heart to appreciate. These blessings were light by night and shade by day, guidance in travel, water from the rock, bread from heaven, clothing and shoes that did not wax old or wear out, oracles for perplexities, forgiveness of sin through faith in the antitype of sacrifices, healing when poisoned, health so miraculous that there was not a feeble one in all the host, deliverance in battle. And now after reciting the Egyptian deliverance and the providential miracles while wandering, he tells them that they all stand before Jehovah to renew the oath of the covenant. Particularly note how comprehensive the statement of the human parties to the covenant:

“Ye stand this day all of you before Jehovah your God; your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and thy sojourner that is in the midst of thy camps, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water; that thou mayest enter into the covenant of Jehovah thy God, and into his oath, which Jehovah thy God maketh with thee this day; that he may establish thee this day unto himself for a people, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he spake unto thee, and as he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath, etc.”

Elders, tribes, officers, men, women, children, sojourners, and slaves and their children to the latest posterity, and as a national unit, and all touching every individual are bound by this covenant. Now later after that statement of the case he commences his exhortation:

(1) He warns against the arising of any root or germ of bitterness (Deu 29:18 ). How radical the law! It does not wait to condemn the stem, or branches, or flowers, or fruit, but strikes at the root hidden from sight. So our Saviour interprets the law condemning the heart fountain from which flow all the streams of blasphemy, murder, adultery, and other overt actions. And so the wise man: “Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.” And so the letter to the Hebrews quotes this very passage (Heb 12:15 ) warning them “lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby the many be defiled.”

(2) The second point in his exhortation is that he warns them against the vain confidence of security, even though the law be broken. He describes a man or a woman in confidence saying to the heart: “I am all right if I did break the law,” that vain confidence of feeling secure with the law broken, and then he goes on to show that nothing under the heavens is so certain as that Jehovah saw that breach of the covenant and will punish it.

(3) He foretells that other nations in future days, seeing the awful desolation of their once beautiful land, shall count it a land accursed of God on account of the sins of Israel. That is just exactly what you would say if you were to go there and look at the country. You would be astonished that such a land was ever described as flowing with milk and honey; you would not be able to understand how such a land ever was so beautiful and fruitful as described. You would see it under a curse.

(4) He warns them that while some things are hidden, inscrutable, the property of God, the revealed things touching both blessing and curse belong to them and to their children. Whatever God reveals, that is worthy of study; whatever he hides, let it alone.

(5) Then he graciously unfolds this special mercy of God, that if when smitten and scattered and oppressed by all other nations they will in far-off lands of exile and dispersion repent and turn to God, he will forgive and restore them. It was this promise of restoration that prompted the notable paragraph in Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the temple (1Ki 8:33-40 ), and encouraged the later prophets, like Zechariah, Ezekiel and Daniel in days of exile, and still later the Apostles, like Paul in his discussion, Rom 11 , concerning the restoration of the Jews.

(6) He then assures them that obedience to this law is neither too hard nor too far off, but very nigh to them. Alas, it was both too far off and too hard to be obeyed by unrenewed and unbelieving hearts without faith in Christ. It remained for Paul, a later Jew, and the only other man in all show how by faith alone this salvation was both nigh and easy. (See Rom 10 .)

He closes with a most touching invocation to both heaven and earth to bear witness that he that very day set before them these awful, inexorable alternatives: Life and good go together; death and evil are indissoluble.

FIFTH ORATION

This, the last and shortest address, is contained in Deu 31:1-13 . The first part, verses Deu 31:1-8 , touchingly refers to his age, “I am now one hundred and twenty years old,” and to the vacation of his office. The great leader can no more go out and come in before them. But they need neither despair nor fear on that account. God’s cause does not die with its great advocates. Moses indeed will be gone, but Jehovah himself will remain their guide and protector. And even a human successor, Joshua, has already been trained to be their captain.

The second part of this last oration directs that every seventh year, the year of release, the great Land Sabbath, a sabbath a year long, the whole people must be assembled, men, women and children, and that very year in which they have to do no work because the land lies idle, is to be devoted to studying and understanding the entire Pentateuch. I am sometimes blamed for devoting so much time to the Pentateuch. Here is my warrant. The year of the Land Sabbath was to be so devoted. It calls for a year. Happy the man who can master it in one year. What a Sunday school is here, men, women and children devoting a year to the study of the Law! Let us here find the original Sunday school idea; that it is not a school for only little children. The Sunday school idea is that men, women, and children shall come together and hear and be made to understand that Word of God. For example of fulfilment, see the remarkable history in Neh 8:1-8 . Illustrations may be given of the tremendous power of even a month’s concentration of mind on one study, viz.: the case of a thirty days’ school in geography, arithmetic, writing or mathematics. I would suggest the trial of one summer month devoted to the Pentateuch, the Gospels, Paul’s Letters, Eschatology, the Prophets) the Poetical Books, or the Monarchy.

QUESTIONS

1. What chapters contain the third oration and of what does it consist?

2. Itemize the provisions for a renewal of the covenant after entrance into the Promised Land.

3. Of what does the twenty-eighth chapter consist?

4. Give a summary of the exhortation based on the required renewal of the covenant.

5. What the blessings promised for obedience?

6. What the curses threatened for disobedience?

7. What chapters contain the fourth oration?

8. What its occasion?

9. In what does it consist?

10. Wherein does this retaking of the oath of the covenant in Oration Four, before they cross the Jordan, differ from the full renewal of the covenant required after they cross the Jordan, aa set forth in Oration Three?

11. What blessings recited here?

12. Who were the human parties to the covenant?

13. Give a summary of the exhortation of the Fourth Oration.

14. How does he close this oration?

15. Where do we find the Fifth Oration?

16. In what does it consist?

17. Did they ever, apart from the one case cited in Nehemiah, attempt even to keep any part of this Land Sabbath, or its culmination, the Year of Jubilee?

18. What exact and awful judgment in their later history became the penalty for disregarding the seventh year, or Land Sabbath, and its accompanying year-study of the Law?

19. Cite the scriptures that prove the enforcement of the penalty for not keeping it.

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

Deu 29:1 These [are] the words of the covenant, which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.

Ver. 1. Beside the covenant. ] Which yet was also a covenant of grace, and the same with this in substance; only that at Horeb was made and delivered in a more legal manner, this in a more evangelical, as appears in the following chapter.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Deu 29:1

1These are the words of the covenant which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the sons of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which He had made with them at Horeb.

Deu 29:1 the words of the covenant which the LORD commanded Moses This is Moses’ third address in Deuteronomy (chapters 29-30). He reminds us that these laws are from YHWH, not himself.

besides the covenant This refers to the covenant at Mt. Sinai/Horeb (see Special Topic at Deu 1:2, cf. Deu 5:2 ff; Exodus 19-24) and on the plains of Moab (cf. Deu 1:5; Deu 5:1; Deu 5:3; Deu 5:5-26). It was spelled out clearly in Exodus 20-31. It was renewed in Exodus 34; Deuteronomy 29-30; and Joshua 24. See Special Topic: Covenant .

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

covenant. See 2Ki 23:2.

children = sons.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Chapter 29

Chapter twenty-nine, God continues with this covenant.

These are the words of the covenant, which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel. And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Ye have seen what the Lord has done before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and his servants. The great temptations which your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles: Yet the LORD hath not given you a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day. For I have led you for forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not old, and your shoe is not old upon your foot. You have not eaten bread, neither have you drunk wine or strong drink: that you might know that I am the LORD your God ( Deu 29:1-6 ).

In other words, Moses said you have seen these things of God but they had become commonplace, you don’t even see them anymore. Don’t you realize that after forty years, look at your shoes they haven’t even worn out. Your clothes are still good. You have not really been able to plant, to harvest; yet God has taken care of your food. And you came to these kings, Sihon and Og. God gave them into your hand and you took their land and God gave it to you for an inheritance.

Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all you do ( Deu 29:9 ).

Their prosperity was tied directly to their keeping and doing the commandments of God. That is the covenant that God established.

Now you stand this day all of you before the LORD your God;… Your little ones, your wives,…that you should enter into the covenant with the LORD your God, and into his oath, which the LORD thy God makes with you this day: That he may establish thee today for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and Jacob. Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath; But with him that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, (For ye know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which ye passed by; And ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, some of them are wood, some stone, some silver and gold, which were among them:) Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart is turned away this day from Jehovah our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood; And it come to pass, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst: The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him ( Deu 29:10-20 ),

Now this is a horrible thing when God’s word is given and a person in his own heart contradicts the word of God. When God’s Word says, “that thou shall not escape the wrath of God”, and you think in your heart “Ha, ha, that’s not true”, or “I’ll escape” or “It doesn’t apply to me”, or whatever. And it’s tragic that people will oftentimes do this. When God pronounces a curse, they smile within themselves and they say it won’t happen to me. In Hebrews we read, “How shall we escape when we neglect so great a salvation” ( Heb 2:3 ). There is no escape. God’s Word shall be fulfilled, don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, yet there are people who are mocking God. “Keep therefore the Words of this covenant and do them so that you may prosper in all that you do.”

Now, in verse twenty-four,

Even all the nations shall say, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto the land? what means the heat of this great anger? And they will say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made ( Deu 29:24-25 ).

So verse twenty-nine,

The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong to us, to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of the law ( Deu 29:29 ).

Again the doing of it. “

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

Deu 29:1. These are the words of the covenant, which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.

That is the preamble, just as in legal documents there is usually some statement of the purport and intent of the indenture before the matter is proceeded with. These covenants with God are solemn things, and therefore are they given in a formal manner to strike attention, and command our serious thoughts.

Deu 29:2-4. And Moses called unto all Israel, and said unto them, Ye have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his land; the great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles: yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.

You saw all that, and yet did not see it; you saw the external work, but the internal lesson you did not perceive. A very mournful statement to make; but Gods servants are not sent to flatter man but to speak the truth, however painful the speaking of it may be.

Deu 29:5-6. And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot. Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink: that ye might know that I am the LORD your God.

Either there had been means of frequent renewal of their garments, or else by a miracle these garments had never worn out; and the very shoes that they put upon their feet on the Passover night were on their feet still; if not the same yet still they were shod, though they trod the weary wilderness which well might have worn them till they were bare. Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink: a nation of total abstainers for forty years. There was no bread in the wilderness for them, and there was no wine. It may have been obtained as a great luxury, as it probably was, for we have reason to believe that Nadab and Abihu were slain by fire before the Lord because they were drunken when they offered strange fire; but taking the whole people around, anything like wine had not crossed their lips for forty years, yet there they were, strong and healthy. That ye may know that I am Jehovah your God.

Deu 29:7. And when ye came unto this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us unto battle, and we smote them:

People not used to war either, and feeble folk, yet they smote the great kings and slew mighty kings, for the Lord was with them.

Deu 29:8-9. And we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance unto the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half tribe of Manasseh. Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do.

This, then, was the covenant made with the nation, that God should be their God and he would prosper them: as he had done, so would he do: he would be their protector, defender, strength, and crown and joy.

Deu 29:10-11. Ye stand this day all of you before the LORD your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water:

This national covenant embraced all the great men, the captains, the wise men, all that were in authority, your elders, and your officers. It took in all their children, for it was a covenant according to the flesh, and their children according to the flesh are included. Your wives, too, for in this matter their was no sex. The stranger also. Here we poor Gentiles get a glimpse of comfort, even though from that old covenant we seem to be shut out. Thy stranger that is in thy camp is included. And the poorest, and those that performed the most menial service, were all to be made partakers of this covenant, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water.

Deu 29:12-15. That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the LORD thy God, and into his oath, which the LORD thy God maketh with thee this day: that he may establish thee today for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath; but with him that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day:

With the sick that were at home, with the generations that were not yet born, for this was intended to be a national covenant in perpetuity to their children and their childrens children to the end of time. Had they kept it so would it have stood.

Deu 29:16-17. (For ye know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which ye passed by; and ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:)

Now you have seen how they worshipped idols; you have seen that you may avoid; you have beheld their folly that you may escape from it.

Deu 29:18. Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;

For the worship of false gods is the cause of untold mischief and evil: wherever it is found it is a root that beareth gall and wormwood, and God would not have it in a single individual, man nor woman, nay, not in a single family or tribe.

Deu 29:19. And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:

For there were some who so hardened themselves against God that they said, We shall have peace: let us do what we like: let us worship these idol gods more and more and more: let us add drunkenness and idolatry to our thirst.

Deu 29:20. The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him,

Not light upon him, but lie upon him, rest there and stop there.

Deu 29:20-21. And the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven. And the LORD shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel,

As a huntsman separates a stag from the herd that he may hunt it all the day, so shall God with any idolater that should come amongst his people with whom he made a covenant that day. Oh, how God hates that anything should be worshipped by us but himself: how indignant is he if anywhere anything takes the supreme place in the human heart which ought to be occupied by God alone.

Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible

The fourth discourse of Moses urged the people to be true to the Covenant, the terms of which had been given and are recorded in the previous chapter. It is to be carefully remembered that the first verse of chapter twentynine in our arrangement is the last of chapter twentyeight in the Hebrew Bible. The statement, “These are the words of the covenant,” refers to what had already been uttered.

In thus especially appealing to them, Moses first referred to the Lord’s deliverances for them, wrought in the past (verses 29)from Egypt, during the wilderness experiences, and in the day of battle on the eve of their coming into possession.

His appeal was to all classes of the communityto the rulers, the people, men, women, children, and also to the servants There was to be no escape and no excuse.

Then in graphic and burning words he described what must be the result of breaking the Covenant. Recognizing the imperfection of the people and their Inability at all times to appreciate the methods of the divine government, he enunciated a principle of farreaching importance and perpetual application as he declared that the secret or mysterious or hidden things belong to God, while the things revealed were for them and their children.

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

the Covenant that Brings Prosperity

Deu 29:1-13

In one great final convocation Moses rehearsed the Covenant, and endeavored to bind the people to its provisions. It becomes us all from time to time to look into the vows that we have made, reviewing them to see if we have carefully observed and kept our pledges. We need also to enlarge their scope as one new department after another is added to the experience of our souls. A review also of Gods great love and care through past years should constrain us, as by the mercies of God, to present ourselves anew to Him, as a living sacrifice, Rom 12:1-2.

Notice the double aspect of Deu 29:12-13. It is not enough for us to be willing to enter into a covenant with God and to take His oath; we need that God should establish us unto Himself that we may become His peculiar people. The established heart and character are the very special gifts of the Holy Spirit, 1Th 3:13, 1Pe 5:10.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

Deu 29:10

Intense in their significance, fresh in their solemnity, as when Moses uttered them to the listening multitudes on the farther shores of Jordan, the echo of these warning words rolls to us across the centuries. They express the formative principle, the regulating conception, the inspiring influence, of every greatly Christian life. The very differentia of such a life-that is, its distinguishing feature-is this, that it is spent always and consciously in the presence of God.

From the fact that we stand before God we gather: (1) A lesson of warning. Surely there is a warning-for the forgetful a startling, for the guilty a terrible, even for the good man a very solemn warning-in the thought that not only our life in its every incident, but even our heart in its utmost secrets, lies naked and open before Him with whom we have to do. (2) The thought that we stand before God involves not only a sense of warning, but a sense of elevation, of ennoblement. It is a sweet and a lofty doctrine, the highest source of all the dignity and grandeur of life. (3) A third consequence of life spent consciously in God’s presence is a firm, unflinching, unwavering sense of duty. A life regardful of duty is crowned with an object, directed by a purpose, inspired by an enthusiasm, till the very humblest routine carried out conscientiously for the sake of God is elevated into moral grandeur, and the very obscurest office becomes an imperial stage on which all the virtues play. (4) The fourth consequence is a sense of holiness. God requires not only duty, but holiness. He searcheth the spirits; He discerneth the very reins and heart. (5) This thought encourages us with a certainty of help and strength. The God before whom we stand is not only our Judge and our Creator, but also our Father and our Friend. He is revealed to us in Christ, our elder Brother in the great family of God.

F. W. Farrar, In the Days of thy Youth, p. 1.

Reference: Deu 29:18.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii., No. 723.

Deu 29:19

Certain temptations assail us as powerfully through the imagination as if they assumed the most distinctly palpable and tangible form. Eve was assailed through her imagination when the devil said to her, “Ye shall be as gods;” and Jesus Christ was assailed through His imagination when the “kingdoms of the world and the glory of them” were offered to Him.

I. If temptation were to come to us in all its grossness, and force upon the calm, steady eyes of our reason its vilest aspect and purpose, it would have small chance with us. But it comes through an imagination which throws its hideousness into perspective and creates a halo around its immediate advantages. So we dupe our own hearts, and light our way with the lamp of fancy into the darkness where no lamp can burn.

II. It is imagination, too, that supplies a ready answer to the reproaches of conscience. Good is to come out of the evil. Imagination pleads that its purpose has in some way miscarried, or the evil would certainly have been less.

III. The sinful exercise of the imagination is not the less, but probably the more, aggravated because of its supposed secrecy.

The subject thus opened reminds us: (1) of the intense and awful spirituality of God and His judgment; (2) of the wonderful provision He has made for the cleansing and inspiration of our innermost thoughts.

Parker, The Ark of God, p. 296.

Deu 29:29

I. There are certain domains of thought and government accessible to none but God.

II. Impenetrable secrecy is compatible with paternal benevolence.

III. Divine secrecy is no plea for human disobedience. In the words of our text we have: (1) an acknowledgment of a Divine revelation-“the things which are revealed.” (2) A definition of the relationship in which God stands to humankind-“all the words of this law.” Then God is our Lawgiver. (3) A distinct recognition of man’s power to obey the law-“that we may do all the words.”

IV. Inquisitiveness into secret things will necessarily produce great unrest.

Parker, Hidden Springs, p. 172 (see also The City Temple, vol. iii., p. 325).

The fact that there are some mysteries which are insoluble is attested: (1) by the long and painful experience of mankind; (2) by the teaching of the materialistic thinkers of the day. The text recognises alike the spirit of uninquiring reverence and of rational freedom.

I. Some men say, “We cannot accept revelation. We accept the excellent moral teachings of the Bible, because they commend themselves to our reason and to the reason of the race; but what we cannot accept are these mysteries which are revealed in the New Testament.” In answer to this we reply, A mystery is not a revelation. It is the very opposite of a revelation. We freely admit that there are mysteries confronting us in the Old and New Testaments. Truths are intimated, suggested, pointed at, dimly outlined, like a mountain castle scarce seen through the mists of evening which fill the valley; but, inasmuch as they are not clear, to that extent they cannot be said to be revealed. These things are beyond us. They are Divine mysteries which it is reverent for us to place with the secret things which belong unto the Lord God.

II. There are those who say they cannot receive a revelation on the ground that it is supernatural, that they only know that which comes through the mind of man and is capable of justifying itself to the human reason. Now we affirm that the Bible revelations have come through the mind of man. They were convictions, certainties, in some man’s mind, which he declared to his fellows. A truth of inspiration is no truer than a truth of induction or demonstration. Truth is simply truth wherever it may come from or however it may be demonstrated. Revelation is natural and at the same time supernatural. It comes from the mind of man; it comes according to the mind and demonstration of God.

III. The one ever-speaking revelation of the mind of God is the history of man. “If we miss the truth,” says Jeremy Taylor, “it is because we will not find it, for certain it is that all the truth which God hath made necessary He hath also made legible and plain; and if we will open our eyes, we shall see the sun, and if we will walk in the light, we shall rejoice in the light.”

W. Page Roberts, Liberalism in Religion, pp. 28, 38.

References: Deu 29:29.-G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 193; R. Macellar, Memorials of a Ministry on the Clyde, p. 81; Parker, vol. iv., p. 324. Deu 30:6.-Sermons for the Christian Seasons, 1st series, vol. iv., p. 73. Deu 30:11-14.-S. Cox, Expositions, 2nd series, p. 350. Deu 30:14.-J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 1st series, p. 10.

Fuente: The Sermon Bible

25. The Repetition of the Covenant and the Repetition of the Curse

CHAPTER 29

1. The repetition of the covenant (Deu 29:1-15)

2. The repetition of the curse (Deu 29:16-29)

The words of the covenant are once more brought to their remembrance. Once more all the goodness of the Lord towards them is unfolded by Moses, how the Lord had dealt with Egypt and how their eyes had seen the signs and great miracles. (Verses 5 and 6 are the direct words of Jehovah, ending with the declaration, I am the LORD, your God.) Again the forty years are mentioned, during which their clothes and their shoes did not get old. God took care of them and provided for their needs in the wilderness. Bread from heaven was their portion and therefore they had no need of stimulants, such as wine and strong drink (verse 6). But in the midst of these words, calling to remembrance the goodness and faithfulness of the Lord, we find a solemn statement: Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day (verse 4). In all the manifestations they had remained without understanding and their heart was not touched and broken down. Therefore these gracious dealings are here repeated, that they might receive understanding and love and obey the Lord with all their heart. But they were a stiffnecked people, their heart of stone. How fully Israels history illustrates the words of our Lord, that which is born of the flesh is flesh! Later, when Israel went deeper and deeper into apostasy, Isaiah received the message, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed and perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart, and convert and be healed (Isa 6:9-10). Judicial blindness came upon them when they rejected the Lord of Glory (Mat 13:14-15; Joh 7:40; Act 28:26-27). See also Stephens testimony given in the power of the Holy Spirit (Act 7:51-52). But a day is coming when there will be for that nation a New Testament (Jer 31:31-34; Heb 8:7-11). Then Eze 36:24-31 will be fulfilled. A careful reading of these passages will be helpful.

Here the Lord reminded them of what He had done for them to show them the claim He has on their obedience. Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all ye do.

After an earnest appeal to enter into the covenant, including the little ones, the stranger, the hewer of the wood and the water-carrier (Jos 9:21; Jos 9:27), we find the curse mentioned once more as the result of departure from the Lord. Especially interesting are verses 22-24. Such evil is to come upon them and upon the land, that the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sickness which the LORD has laid upon it … even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this land? What meaneth the heat of this great anger? Strangers from far lands, tourists and pilgrims, have visited Palestine in fulfilment of this prediction and in view of the deplorable condition of that land have often asked these questions and known their answer. Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which He made with them, when He brought them forth out of the land of Egypt.

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

the words: Deu 29:12, Deu 29:21, Deu 29:25, Lev 26:44, Lev 26:45, 2Ki 23:3, Jer 11:2, Jer 11:6, Jer 34:18, Act 3:25

beside the: Deu 4:10, Deu 4:13, Deu 4:23, Deu 5:2, Deu 5:3, Exo 19:3-5, Exo 24:2-8, Jer 31:32, Heb 8:9

Reciprocal: Deu 29:9 – General Jos 24:25 – made 2Ki 11:17 – made a covenant 2Ch 5:10 – the Lord 2Ch 15:12 – they entered 2Ch 23:16 – made a covenant 2Ch 34:31 – made a covenant Jer 34:13 – I made Rom 9:4 – covenants

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

THE PALESTINIAN COVENANT

The subject of these chapters is new and exceedingly important, containing what is called the Palestinian covenant.

Note that while the land was unconditionally given to Abraham and his seed in what we call the Abrahamic covenant (Gen 13:15; Gen 15:7), yet it was under another and conditional one that Israel ultimately entered the land under Joshua. It is this covenant that is recorded in the present chapters.

This was utterly violated by the nation, for which reason the latter was first disrupted (1 Kings 12), and then altogether cast out of the land (2Ki 17:1-8; 2Ki 24:1; 2Ki 25:11). But this covenant unconditionally promises a national restoration of Israel yet to be accomplished, in accordance with the original promise to Abraham (Gen 15:18). It will be then, and not till then, that Israel will possess the whole land. This she has never done hitherto.

THE NEED OF EYE SALVE

The first of these chapters is simply an introduction to the covenant fully declared in the following one. We would not pause in its consideration were it not for the spiritual truth of verse 4, which we would emphasize.

Great as the events were which the Israelites had seen in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet, they had made no lasting impression on them. The reason was that they lacked the divine wisdom to apprehend them.

Do not pass this verse without comparing the passages in the Old and New Testaments, which throw light upon it. These are indicated in the margin of your Bible (Isa 6:9-10; Isa 63:17; Mat 16:17; Joh 8:43; Act 28:26-27; 1Co 2:9-14; Eph 1:15-23; Eph 4:18; 2Th 2:11-12; 1Pe 1:10-12; Rev 2:29; Rev 3:18).

THE TERMS OF THE COVENANT (Deuteronomy 30)

The Scofield Bible analyzes the Palestinian covenant into seven parts:

1. Deu 30:1. Dispersion for disobedience (compare Deu 28:63-68 and Gen 15:18) 2. Deu 30:2. Future repentance while in dispersion 3. Deu 30:3. Return of the Lord (compare Amo 9:9-14; Act 15:14-17) 4. Deu 30:5. Restoration to the land (compare Isa 11:11-12; Jer 23:3-8; Eze 37:21-25) 5. Deu 30:6. National conversion (compare Hos 2:14-16; Rom 11:26-27) 6. Deu 30:7. Judgment on Israels oppressors (compare Isa 14:1-2; Joe 3:1-8; Mat 25:31-46) Deu 30:9. National prosperity (compare Amo 9:11-14) We are not to suppose that the promises were fulfilled by Israels restoration from the Babylonian captivity. It will be recalled that she was not then scattered among all the nations or unto the utmost parts of heaven. Moreover, when God recalled them from Babylon, they were not all brought back nor multiplied above their fathers (Deu 30:5), nor were their hearts circumcised to love the Lord (Deu 30:6).

It may be said that there was a foreshadowing of the ultimate fulfillment of the prophecy at that time, but nothing more. The complete accomplishment is yet to come. Israel is yet to be converted to Jesus Christ as her Messiah, and returned to her land in accordance with what all the prophets teach.

QUESTIONS

1. Name and distinguish between the two covenants mentioned.

2. How many of the Scripture references have you examined under the paragraph The Need of Eye Salve?

3. Name the seven features of the Palestinian covenant.

4. Why was not the restoration from Babylon the fulfillment of these promises?

5. When will they be fulfilled?

Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary

Deu 29:1. These are the words of the covenant Having thus repeated and enlarged upon the laws formerly delivered at Horeb, shown this new generation the covenant they were under, and the time and manner of their renewing it after they had entered Canaan; and having thus pathetically expatiated on the blessings and curses annexed to it, Moses summoned again the whole assembly, to press them to a careful obedience by considerations of the most powerful nature. Besides the covenant which he made with them in Horeb Not a different covenant from that Exo 24:3-8, but a renewal of the same, with some additions.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Deu 29:1. The words of the covenant; from co, con, or com; a social prefix; and venio, to come; the coming of two parties into one compact. The vendor gets the best terms he can, and the buyer aims at a bargain. Just the reverse of this is the divine covenant: frail sinful man is not exalted into co- partnership with the Almighty. The covenant is all grace to man, and dictated by the donor; man has but to consent to it with all his heart, and all his soul. The blessings and curses of this covenant are confirmed with sacrifice and with blood: they are ratified with an oath. The parties, Deu 29:10, were princes, captains, wives, children and little ones, absentees and strangers; in short, the whole nation, without a single exception. The Lord avouched them for his people, and they avouched him for their God. In Jeremiah 34. we read, that they walked between the parts of the victims, consenting to be cut in pieces like their sacrifices, if ever they violated that covenant. All these blessings were confirmed in happy ages, and all these curses inflicted in apostate times. The covenant is evidently frail with man, but sure with the Lord.

Deu 29:29. Secret things belong unto the Lord our God. Some think Moses here meant that God took upon him the punishment of all secret sins and acts of idolatry against his covenant, but that he required the people to punish all the crimes against his covenant which came to light. LUTHER renders the words, These things were secrets known to God alone; but now they are revealed to us and to our children. Others understand this text in a sense similar to Rom 11:33, that the secrets of providence are inscrutable; and consequently, that we should not waste our time on prophetic calculations and mysteries; but profiting by the truths plainly revealed, give up ourselves to piety, and the practice of righteousness.

REFLECTIONS.

Moses having charged Israel what to do on passing the Jordan, and recited the blessings and curses of the covenant contracted with their fathers at Horeb, could not die till he had renewed the covenant with their children. So all worthy men are wont to charge their families to keep the way of the Lord before they leave the world. With these most sanctifying views, and views becoming his high character and mission, he reserved this highest duty till nearly the last day of his public ministry. What pencil is able to trace the worth, what eloquence can describe the excellence of this venerable prophet, adorned with every virtue, and loaded with every honour heaven can give to man. Before he closed his eyes in death, he wished once more to see all Israel gathered before his face, to hear his voice, and receive his dying commands. See him ascend the throne and smile on the people, with heaven in every look and grace in all his words. See him surrounded with elders, but none so old as he. See ten thousand fathers attending with their families, as far as the eye can reach; but scarcely a grey hair, except his own, the old men having fallen for their sins. See the whole nation eager to look, and eager to hear. See them hold up their little infants, that their eyes might be blessed by a sight of Moses before he died. And oh if the sight of a prophet and a great man be so sanctifying, what must heaven be when we shall see all the patriarchs, prophets and apostles, in the kingdom of God.

Moses commenced by reciting to the young generation the words which their fathers had heard at Horeb. They occur in Exodus 19. 20. 21. &c. And while Moses recited the substance of the covenant, it is highly probable that Eleazar prepared a full oblation of victims unto God, sprinkling the blood upon the people, and causing the elders to pass between the parts. Jer 34:18. The oath of the covenant was next confirmed; for as the Lord sware to Abraham to bless and multiply him, so the people sware fidelity to God, saying, all that the Lord hath spoken, that will we do. How awful the nature, how solemn the ratification of the Hebrew covenant. This was in fact the christian covenant, being rounded on the promised Messiah, who was to bless all nations, to possess the gates of his enemies, and to vanquish sin and death. It is called indeed a New covenant, because the gospel realized the shadows of the law; for our High-priest, our sacrifice, our altar, our holy place, and our sprinkling of blood, far eclipse the glory of Aaron, with the blood of bulls and goats. Besides, the christian covenant is guarded with sanctions and terrors far superior to those of Sinai; for the Lord shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire, with his mighty angels, taking vengeance on them that know not God. Moses denounced a curse against every transgressor of the law; but the gospel, richer in proclamations of pardon, anathematizes every one who loves not the Lord Jesus Christ.

Christian families, christian communities and nations, should most solemnly and frequently renew their covenant with God. This may be done in the closet, as well as on sacramental occasions. To review the promises and threatenings, deeply impressed with our defects, has a most sanctifying effect on the soul.

We should also devote our little ones in covenant to God by baptism, as succeeding circumcision. Col 2:11-12. By prayer likewise, and by a course of instruction and discipline, Eph 6:4; for the Lord has promised to circumcise the heart of our seed.

This glorious and everlasting covenant, as we are everywhere told, has its conditions. If a man went after other gods; if he suffered the root bearing wormwood and gall to grow, and poison all his good impressions; if he presumptuously added drunkenness to thirst, and blessed his soul with the hopes of impunity, it is said, the Lord would blot out his name from under heaven, and bring upon him all the curses of this book. And it should be well remembered, that St. Paul has given christians the same caution against this bitter root of apostasy and sin. Heb 12:15. Let us therefore beware lest any man fail of the grace of God, and come short of the promised rest.

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Deuteronomy 29

This chapter closes the second grand division of our book. In it we have a most solemn appeal to the conscience of the congregation. It is what we may term the summing up and practical application of all that has gone before in this most profound, practical and hortatory section of the five books of Moses.

“These are the words of the covenant, which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which He made with them by Horeb.” Allusion has already been made to this passage as one of the many proofs of the entire distinctness of the book of Deuteronomy from the preceding section of the Pentateuch. But it claims the reader’s attention on another ground. It speaks of a special covenant made with the children of Israel, in the land of Moab, in virtue of which they were to be brought into the land. This covenant was as distinct from the covenant made at Sinai, as it was from the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In a word, it was neither pure law, on the one hand; nor Pure grace, on the other, but government exercised in sovereign mercy.

It is perfectly clear that Israel could not enter the land on the ground of the Sinai or Horeb covenant, inasmuch as they had completely failed under it, by making a golden calf. They forfeited all right and title to the land, and were only saved from instant destruction by sovereign mercy exercised toward them through the mediation and earnest intercession of Moses. It is equally plain that they did not enter the land on the ground of the Abrahamic covenant of grace, for had they done so, they would not have been turned out of it. Neither the extent nor the duration of their tenure answered to the terms of the covenant made with their fathers. It was by the terms of the Moab covenant that they entered upon the limited and temporary possession of the land of Canaan; and inasmuch as they have as signally failed under the Moab covenant, as under that of Horeb – failed under government as completely as under law, they are expelled from the land and scattered over the face of the earth, under the governmental dealings of God.

But not for ever. Blessed be the God of all grace, the seed of Abraham His friend shall yet possess the land of Canaan, according to the magnificent terms of the original grant. “The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” Gifts and calling must not be confounded with law and government. Mount Zion can never be classed with Horeb and Moab. The new and everlasting covenant of grace, ratified by the precious blood of the Lamb of God, shall be gloriously fulfilled to the letter, spite of all the powers of earth and hell, men and devils combined. “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people; and they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.” (Heb. 8: 8-13.)

Now the reader must carefully guard against a system of interpretation that would apply this precious and beautiful passage to the church. It involves a threefold wrong: namely, a wrong to the truth of God; a wrong to the church; and a wrong to Israel. We have raised a warning note on this subject, again and again, in the course of our studies on the Pentateuch, because we feel its immense importance. It is our deep and thorough conviction that no one can understand, much less expound the word of God who confounds Israel with the Church The two things are as distinct as heaven and earth; and hence when God speaks of Israel, Jerusalem and Zion, if we presume to apply those names to the New Testament church, it can only issue in utter confusion. We believe it to be a simple impossibility to set forth the mischievous consequences of such a method of handling the word of God. It puts an end to all accuracy of interpretation and to all that holy precision and divine certainty which scripture is designed and fitted to impart. It mars the integrity of truth, damages the souls of God’s people, and hinders their progress in divine life and spiritual intelligence. In short, we cannot too strongly urge upon every one who reads these lines the absolute necessity of guarding against this fatally false system of handling holy scripture.

We must beware of meddling with the scope of prophecy, or the true application of the promises of God. We have no warrant whatever to interfere with the divinely appointed sphere of the covenants. The inspired apostle tells us distinctly, in the ninth of Romans, that they pertain to Israel; and if we attempt to alienate them from the Old Testament fathers and transfer them to the church of God, the body of Christ, we may depend upon it, we are doing what Jehovah-Elohim will never sanction. The church forms no part of the ways of God with Israel and the earth. Her place, her portion, her privileges, her prospect are all heavenly. She is called into existence in this time of Christ’s rejection, to be associated with Him where He is now hidden in the heavens, and to share His glory in the coming day. If the reader fully grasps this grand and glorious truth, it will go far towards helping him to put things into their right places and leave them there.

We must now turn our attention to the very solemn, practical application of all that has passed before us to the conscience of every member of the congregation.

“And Moses called unto all Israel, and said unto them, Ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his land; the great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles; yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.

This is peculiarly solemn. The most astounding miracles and signs may pass before us, and leave the heart untouched. These things may produce a transient effect upon the mind and upon the natural feelings; but unless the conscience is brought into the light of the divine presence, and the heart brought under the immediate action of the truth by the power of the Spirit of God, there is no permanent result reached. Nicodemus inferred from the miracles of Christ that he was a teacher come from God; but this was not enough. He had to learn the deep and wondrous meaning of that mighty sentence, “Ye must be born again.” A faith founded on miracles may leave people unsaved, unblessed, unconverted – awfully responsible, no doubt, but wholly unconverted. we read, at the close of the second of John’s Gospel, of many who professed to believe on Christ when they saw His miracles; but He did not commit Himself unto them. There was no divine work, nothing to be trusted. There must be a new life, a new nature; and miracles and signs cannot impart this. We must be born again – born of the word and Spirit of God. The new life is communicated by the incorruptible seed of the Gospel of God, lodged in the heart by the power of the Holy Ghost. It is not a head belief founded on miracles, but a heart-belief in the Son of God. It is something which could never be known under law or government. “The gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Precious gift! Glorious source! Blessed channel! Universal and everlasting praise to the Eternal Trinity!

“And I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot” – wonderful clothes! wonderful shoes! God took care of them and made them last, blessed for ever be His great and Holy Name! – “Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink; that ye might know that I am the Lord your God.” They were fed and clothed by God’s own gracious hand. “Man did eat angels’ food.” They had no need of wine or strong drink, no need of stimulants. “They drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.” That pure stream refreshed them in the dreary desert, and the heavenly manna sustained them day by day. All they wanted was the capacity to enjoy the divine provision.

Here alas! like ourselves, they failed. They got tired of the heavenly food, and lusted for other things. How sad that we should he so like them! How very humbling that we should so fail to appreciate that precious One whom God has given to be our life, our portion, our object, our all in all! How terrible to find our hearts craving the wretched vanities and follies of this poor passing world – its riches, its honours, its distinctions, its pleasures which all perish in the usage, and which even if they were lasting, are not, for a, moment, to be compared with “the unsearchable riches of Christ!” may God, in His infinite goodness, “grant us, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith; that we, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height: and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that we may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Oh! that this most blessed prayer may be answered in the deep and abiding experience of the reader and the writer!

“And when ye came unto this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan” – formidable and much dreaded foes! – “came out against us unto battle, and we smote them.” and had they been ten thousand times as great and as formidable, they would have proved to be as chaff before the presence of the God of the armies of Israel. “And we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance unto the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half tribe of Manasseh.” Will any one dare to compare this with what human history records respecting the invasion of South America by the Spaniards? Woe be to those who do so! They will find themselves terribly mistaken. There is this grand and all-important difference, that Israel had the direct authority of God for what they did to Sihon and Og; the Spaniards could show no such authority for what they did to the poor ignorant savages of South America. This alters the case completely. The introduction of God and His authority is the one perfect answer to every question, the divine solution of every difficulty. May we ever keep this weighty fact in the remembrance of the thoughts of our hearts, as a divine antidote against every infidel suggestion!

“Keep therefore the words of this [the Moab] covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do.” Simple obedience to the word of God ever has been, is now, and ever shall be the deep and real secret of all true prosperity. To the Christian, of course, the prosperity is not in earthly or material things, but in heavenly and spiritual; and we must never forget that it is the very height of folly to think of prospering or making progress in the divine life if we are not yielding an implicit obedience to all the commandments of our blessed and adorable Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you; continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.” Here is true Christian prosperity. May we earnestly long after it, and diligently pursue the proper method of attaining it!

“Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel, your little ones” – touching and interesting fact! – “your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp” – How exquisite, how deeply affecting the expression “thy stranger!” What a powerful appeal to Israel’s heart on behalf of the stranger! – “From the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water; that thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and into his oath, which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day; that he may establish thee today for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath; but with him that standeth here with us this day before the Lord our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day; – for ye know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which ye passed by; and ye have seen their abominations [that is, the objects of their worship, their false gods], and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them.” (Vers. 10-17.)

This earnest appeal is not only general, but also intensely individual. This is very important. We are ever prone to generalise, and thus miss the application of truth to our individual conscience. This is a grave mistake, and a most serious loss to our souls. We are, every one of us, responsible to yield an implicit obedience to the precious commandments of our Lord. It is thus we enter into the real enjoyment of our relationship, as Moses says to the people, “that he may establish thee for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God.”

Nothing can be more precious. And then it is so very simple. There is no vagueness, obscurity or mysticism about it. It is simply having His most precious commandments treasured up in our hearts, acting upon the conscience, and carried out in the life. This is the true secret of habitually realising our relationship with our Father, and with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

For any one to imagine that he can enjoy the blessed sense of intimate relationship, while living in the habitual neglect of our Lord’s commandments is a miserable and mischievous delusion. “If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love.” This is the grand point. Let us deeply ponder it. “If ye love me keep my commandments.” “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” “For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.” “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.”

These are seasonable words for this day of easy going, self-indulgent, worldly profession. May they sink down into our ears and into our hearts! May they take full possession of our whole moral being, and bring forth fruit in our individual history. We feel persuaded of the need of this practical side of things. We are in imminent danger, while seeking to keep clear of everything like legality, of running into the opposite evil of carnal laxity. The passages of holy scripture which we have just quoted – and they are but a few of many – supply the divine safeguard against both these pernicious and deadly errors. It is blessedly true that we are brought into the holy relationship of children by the sovereign grace of God, through the power of His word and Spirit. This one fact cuts up by the roots the noxious weed of legality.

But then surely the relationship has its suited affections, its duties and its responsibilities, the due recognition of which furnishes the true remedy for the terrible evil of carnal laxity so prevalent on all hands. If we are delivered from law-works – as, thank God, we are, if we are true Christians – it is not that we should be good-for-nothing, self-pleasers, but that life-works might be produced in us, to the glory of Him whose Name we bear, whose we are, and whom we are bound, by every argument, to love, obey and serve.

May we, beloved reader, earnestly seek to apply our hearts to this practical line of things. We are imperatively called upon to do so, and we may fully count upon the abundant grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to enable us to respond to the call, spite of the ten thousand difficulties and hindrances that lie in our way. Oh! for a deeper work of grace in our souls, a closer walk with God, a more pronounced discipleship! Let us give ourselves to the earnest pursuit of these things!

We must now proceed with the lawgiver’s solemn appeal. He warns the people to take heed, “Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood.”

These searching words are referred to by the inspired apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrews, in a very emphatic manner. “Looking diligently,” he says, “lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.”

What weighty words are these! How full of wholesome admonition and warning! They set forth the solemn responsibility of all Christians. We are all called upon to exercise a holy, jealous, godly care over each other, which alas! is but little understood or recognised. We are not all called to be pastors or teachers. The passage just quoted does not refer particularly to such. It refers to all Christians, and we are bound to attend to it. We hear great complaints, on all sides, of the sad lack of pastoral care. No doubt there is a great lack of true pastors in the church of God, as there is of every other gift. This is only what we might expect. How could it be otherwise? How could we expect a profusion of spiritual gifts in our present miserable condition? The Spirit is grieved and quenched by our lamentable divisions, our worldliness, our gross unfaithfulness. Need we then marvel at our deplorable poverty?

But our blessed Lord is full of deep and tender compassion toward us, in the midst of our ruin and spiritual desolation; and if we only humbled ourselves under His mighty hand, He would graciously lift us up, and enable us, in many ways, to meet the deficiency of pastoral gift amongst us. We might, through His precious grace, look, more diligently and lovingly, after one another, and seek each other’s spiritual progress and prosperity in a thousand ways.

Let not the reader imagine, for a, moment, that we mean to give the smallest countenance to prying officiousness or unwarrantable espionage on the part of Christians. Far away be the thought! We look upon such things as perfectly insufferable in the church of God. They stand at the very moral antipodes of that loving, holy, tender, diligent pastoral care of which we speak, and for which we long.

But does it not strike the reader that, while giving the widest possible berth to these most contemptible evils to which we have just referred, we might cultivate and exercise a loving prayerful interest in one another, and a holy watchfulness and care which might prevent many a root of bitterness from springing up? We cannot doubt it. It is quite true we are not all called to be pastors; and it is equally true that there is a grievous dearth of pastors in the church of God. We mean, of course, true pastors – pastors given by the Head of the church-men with a pastor’s heart, and real pastoral gift and power. All this is undeniable, and for this very reason, it ought to stir the hearts of the Lord’s beloved people everywhere to seek of Him grace to enable them to exercise a tender, loving, brotherly care over one another which might go a great way toward supplying the need of pastors amongst us. One thing is clear, that in the passage just quoted from Hebrews 12 there is nothing said about pastors. It is simply a most stirring exhortation to all Christians to exercise mutual care, and to watch against the springing up of any root of bitterness.

And oh! how needful this is! How terrible are those roots! How bitter they are! How widely spread are their pernicious tendrils, at times! What irreparable mischief they do! How many are defiled by them! How many precious links of friendship are snapped, and how many hearts broken by them! Yes, reader, and how often we have felt persuaded that a little judicious pastoral or even brotherly care, a little loving, godly counsel might have nipped the evil in the bud and thus hindered an incalculable amount of mischief and sorrow. May we all lay these things to heart, and earnestly seek grace to do what we can to prevent roots of bitterness springing up and spreading abroad their defiling influence!

But we must hearken to further weighty and searching words from the beloved and venerable lawgiver He drags a most solemn picture of the end of the one who caused the root of bitterness to spring up.

“And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst.” Fatal delusion! Crying peace, peace, when there is no peace, but imminent wrath and judgement. “The Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and,” – instead of the “peace” which he vainly promised himself – “all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven.” Awful warning to all who act as roots of bitterness in the midst of the people of God, and to all who countenance them!

“And the Lord shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law; so that the generation to come of your children, that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the Lord hath laid upon it; and that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath.” Soul-subduing examples of the governmental dealings of the living God which ought to speak with a voice of thunder in the ears of all those who are turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the Lord that bought them! – “Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land? What meaneth the heat of this great anger? Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt; for they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them; and the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book; and the Lord rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.” (Vers. 19-28.)

Reader, how peculiarly solemn is all this! What a powerful illustration of the apostle’s words, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!” And again, “Our God is a consuming fire!” How important that the professing church should give heed to such warning notes! Most assuredly, she is called to learn much from the history of God’s dealings with His people Israel; Romans 11 is perfectly clear and conclusive as to this. The apostle, in speaking of the divine judgement upon the unbelieving branches of the olive tree, thus appeals to Christendom, “If some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off; and thou standest by faith. BE NOT HIGH-MINDED, BUT FEAR; for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God; on them which fell severity; but toward thee goodness, if thou continue in his goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.”

Alas! the professing church has not continued in the goodness of God. It is utterly impossible to read her history, in the light of scripture, and not see this. She has grievously departed, and there is nothing before her save the unmingled wrath of Almighty God. The beloved members of the body of Christ who, sad to say, are mingled with the terrible mass of corrupt profession, will be gathered out of it and taken to the place prepared in the Father’s house in heaven. Then, if not before, they will see how wrong it was to have remained in connection with what was so flagrantly opposed to the mind of Christ as revealed with divine clearness and simplicity in the holy scriptures.

But as to the great thing known as Christendom, it will be “spued out” and “cut off.” It will be given over to strong delusion, to believe a lie, “That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

Tremendous words! May they ring in the ears and sink down into the hearts of thousands who are going on from day to day, week to week, and year to year, content with a mere name to live, a form of godliness but denying the power, “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God”. What an awfully graphic picture of so-called Christian England! How appalling the condition and the destiny of the pleasure hunting thousands who are rushing blindly, heedlessly and madly down the inclined plane that leads to hopeless and everlasting misery! May God, in His infinite goodness, by the power of His Spirit and by the mighty action of His word, rouse the hearts of His people everywhere to a more profound and influential sense of these things!

We must now, ere closing this section, briefly direct the reader’s attention to the last verse of our chapter. It is one of those passages of scripture sadly misunderstood and misapplied. “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us, and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.” This verse is constantly used to hinder the progress of souls in the knowledge of “the deep things of God;” but its simple meaning is this; the things “revealed” are what we have had before us in the preceding chapter of this book; the things “secret,” on the other hand, refer to those resources of grace which God had in store to be unfolded when the people should have utterly failed to “do all the words of this law.” The revealed things are what Israel ought to have done, but did not do; the secret things are what God would do, spite of Israel’s sad and shameful failure, and they are most blessedly presented in the following chapters – the counsels of divine grace, the provisions of sovereign mercy to be displayed when Israel shall have thoroughly learnt the lesson of their utter failure under both the Moab and the Horeb covenants.

Thus this passage, when rightly understood, so far from affording any warrant for the use so constantly made of it, encourages the heart to search into these things which, though “secret” to Israel, in the plains of Moab, are fully and clearly “revealed” to us for our profit, comfort and edification.* The Holy Spirit came down, on the day of Pentecost to lead the disciples into all truth. The canon of scripture is complete; all the purposes and counsels of God are fully revealed. The mystery of the church completes the entire circle of divine truth. The apostle John could say to all God’s children, “Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and know all things.”

{*1 Cor 2: 9 is another of the misunderstood and misapplied passages. “But, as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” Here, people are sure to stop, and hence conclude that we cannot possibly know anything of the precious things which God has in store for us. But the very next verse proves the gross absurdity of any such conclusion. “But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we” – that is, all the Lord’s people – “have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.” Thus this passage, like Deuteronomy 19: 29, teaches the very opposite of what is so constantly deduced from it. How important to examine and weigh the context of the passages which are quoted!}

Thus the entire New Testament abounds with evidence to prove the mistaken use that is so constantly made of Deuteronomy 29: 29. We have dwelt upon it because we are aware that the Lord’s beloved people are sadly hindered by it, in their progress in divine knowledge. The enemy would ever seek to keep them in the dark, when they ought to be walking in the sunlight of divine revelation – to keep them as babes feeding upon milk, when they ought, as those “of full age,” to be feeding upon the “strong meat” so freely provided for the church of God. We have but little idea of how the Spirit of God is grieved, and Christ dishonoured by the low tone of things amongst us. How few really “know the things that are freely given to us of God!” Where are the proper privileges of the Christian understood, believed and realised? How meagre is our apprehension of divine things! How stunted our growth! How feeble our practical exposition of the truth of God! What a blotted epistle of Christ we present!

Beloved Christian reader, let us seriously ponder these things in the divine presence. Let us honestly search out the root of all this lamentable failure, and have it judged and put away, that so we may, more faithfully and unmistakably, declare whose we are and whom we serve. May it be more thoroughly manifest that Christ is our one absorbing object!

Fuente: Mackintosh’s Notes on the Pentateuch

Deu 29:1 belongs, as in the Heb. Bible, to the preceding chapter. It is the formal ending of the great discourse (Deu 4:44, Deuteronomy 12-26, Deuteronomy 28). Deuteronomy 29 (except Deu 29:1) and Deuteronomy 30 form ostensibly Moses third address, in the course of which Israel is urged to obey Yahweh and to enter into covenant relations with Him (Deu 29:2-15), words of warning (Deu 29:16-29) being followed by words of promise (Deu 30:1-10) and of exhortation (Deu 31:11-20). These chapters are probably later than D proper: (a) The Exile in Babylon is implied (see Deu 29:28) and also the Return (Deu 30:1-10). (b) There are several words and phrases that are absent from Deuteronomy 12 ff. (see Addis, Hexateuch, i. p. 139). (c) They have much in common with Deu 4:1-40, which also implies the Exile. Perhaps all these belong to one writer who desired to point out the lessons of the Exile.

Deu 29:3. See Deu 4:34*.

Deu 29:5. See Deu 8:2, Amo 2:10.

Deu 29:7. See Deu 2:32 f., Deu 3:1 f., Deu 3:12 f.

Deu 29:9. covenant: Deu 4:13*.

Deu 29:10-29. Deu 29:10. tribes: read (as implied in LXX, judges (Heb. letters much alike). See Jos 8:33; Jos 23:2; Jos 24:1.

Deu 29:11. The inclusion of the sojourner (EV stranger, Deu 1:16*) and the hewer of wood, etc. (Jos 9:21-27* P) in the Israelitish community that covenants with Yahweh belongs to postexilic times (see HSDB, Stranger).

Deu 29:17. abominations: the Heb. word, frequent in Jer. and Ezek., is not that usually so translated; cf. Deu 7:25, etc.: render, detestable things. The word (gillul, lit. what is rolled, blocks of wood or stone) rendered idols is common in Ezek.

Deu 29:18. lest, etc.: render, Beware lest, etc. The Heb. word translated lest implies the word supplied; so Isa 36:18, Job 32:13; Job 36:18, Jer 51:46; or render, let there not be, etc.a root, etc.: referring to the fruits of idolatry (see Heb 12:15).gall: Heb. poison (Jer 8:14*).wormwood: represents bitterness (see Deu 32:32). Both words occur in Lam 3:19; cf. Amo 6:12, Hos 10:4. The Heb. word rendered curse (Deu 29:19-21) is translated oath in Deu 29:12; Deu 29:14. In Deu 28:15 the Heb. word rendered curses means what bring into contempt, the Heb. for cursed in Deu 29:16 having a third (different) root. The spoken word of blessing or curse was believed as such to realise itself (Gen 9:25-27*); see Magic, Divination, and Demonology among the Hebrews, by the present writer, pp. 32ff.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

THE CONDITIONAL COVENANT RENEWED

(vs.1-29)

Verse I speaks of a covenant the Lord commanded Moses to make with Israel in the land of Moab, “Beside the covenant which He made with them in Horeb.” This covenant is not different in its terms, but is really a renewing of the covenant in Horeb. For it is conditional, in contrast to the “New Covenant” of Jer 31:31-34, which is unconditional, for it speaks only of what God will do for Israel in greatly blessing them, with nothing added as to what Israel should do.

This covenant in Moab begins with Israel having seen all the great trials and the great signs and wonders connected with God’s deliverance. God had not given them a heart to perceive, eyes to see and ears to hear “to this very day” (v.4). In contrast to this, the New Covenant promises that God will put His law in their minds and write it on their hearts (Jer 3:33).

Israel is reminded of God’s leading them forty years in the wilderness, not allowing their clothing to wear out, nor their sandals (v.5). They had not eaten bread, but manna from heaven, nor had they drunk wine, but water.

Arriving near the borders of Canaan, where they were now camping, they conquered Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan, when these came to attack Israel. They took their land and gave it to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manessah (v.28). All of this proved the faithfulness of God toward Israel, which was consistent and unfailing.

“Therefore,” Moses says, “keep the words of this covenant and do them” (v.9). The covenant was based on what God had already done since He had made with them the covenant at Horeb. Thus, they were given added incentive to keep the covenant, which is evidently the reason that it is spoken of as a second covenant now made at Moab.

In verses 10-11 Moses made every individual responsible as they stood before God, their leaders, their tribes, their elders, their officers, their little ones and their wives, including also the stranger who had entered their camp, and those who acted only as menial servants, cutters of wood or drawers of water. Any such identification with Israel made them responsible to obey Israel’s laws. It is likely that the covenant relationship that God had established with them at Horeb had become a more or less nebulous matter, so that it meant almost nothing to many Israelites. Now that they were to enter their land, the covenant with them is strongly reaffirmed, that Israel might realize they were a people “for Himself,” in accordance with God’s promise to Abraham (vs.12-13).

The covenant was to extend also to all Israel, those not sanding there at the time which would include all who were later born into the nation (vs.14-15). Israel had seen and known the idolatry of the nations, from Egypt and all the way to their present location, and they are warned of the danger of any of their number desiring such idols and turning from the living God to these vanities (v.18).

Verse 19 refers to the danger of one acting so perversely as to hear the words of these curses pronounced against evil, yet to bless himself in his own heart, feeling that the curses cannot apply to him in spite of following “the dictates of his own heart.” Thus a drunkard thinks he is no different than a sober person! but the Lord would not spare him (v.20), but would vent His righteous anger and jealousy against him in bringing these curses to bear with terrible force on him, to blot out his name from under heaven, separating him from all the tribes of Israel (v.21).

With such curses coming on Israel, their children and foreigners also would be shocked to witness the whole land given over to brimstone, salt and burning, with no sowing of seed and no grass growing, a reminder of the terrible overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah (vs.22-23). The nations would ask why the Lord had caused such devastation in the land of Israel, and would be given the reply, “Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt” (vs.24-25).

Because of this and their consequent worship of idols, it would be declared that God’s anger was aroused against Israel to do just as He promised to do if they disobeyed Him, devastating their land and scattering them in other lands (vs.26-28).

Verse 29 at this point declares a significant fact for Israel. There were secret things that belong to the Lord alone, but things God had revealed belonged to Israel and their children. God was not revealing to them, for instance, what He would do when they were in a state of rebellion. But now it is revealed that God is taking out of the Gentile nations a special people called “the Church of God.” This was a mystery “hid in God” (Eph 3:9) and only revealed through Paul after the death and resurrection of Christ. But Israel was responsible only for the revelation God had then given them, therefore to obey the law.

Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible

29:1 These [are] the {a} words of the covenant, which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with them in {b} Horeb.

(a) That is, the articles, or conditions.

(b) At the first giving of the law, which was forty years earlier.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

E. Narrative interlude 29:1

Chapter 29 Deu 29:1 is the last verse of chapter 28 in the Hebrew Bible. Moses probably intended it to be a summary statement of what precedes rather than an introduction to what follows. The renewed Mosaic Covenant to which Moses now called on his hearers to commit themselves contrasts somewhat with the original Mosaic Covenant to which the Israelites committed themselves at Mt. Sinai.

". . . the verse forms an inclusio with the preamble section of Deu 1:1-5. Both passages begin with the phrase ’these are the words . . . which Moses,’ both locate the setting in Moab, and both make reference to Horeb and the earlier covenant. Thus the covenant text proper may be said to have been brought to a conclusion in Deu 29:1. . . .

"It seems quite clear, then, that a major break occurs between Deu 29:1 and Deu 29:2, with the former bringing all the previous material to a close and the latter introducing at least the epilogic historical review." [Note: Merrill, Deuteronomy, p. 373. Cf. Craigie, The Book . . ., p. 353; and Driver, p. 319.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

MOSES FAREWELL SPEECHES

Deu 4:1-40, Deu 27:1-26; Deu 28:1-68; Deu 29:1-29; Deu 30:1-20.

WITH the twenty-sixth chapter the entirely homogeneous central portion of the Book of Deuteronomy ends, and it concludes it most worthily. It prescribes two ceremonies which are meant to give solemn expression to the feeling of thankfulness which the love of God, manifested in so many laws and precepts, covering the commonest details of life, should have made the predominant feeling. The first is the utterance of what we have called the “liturgy of gratitude” at the time of the feast of first fruits; and the second is the solemn dedication of the third years tithe to the poor and the fatherless, and the disclaimer of any misuse of it. Further notice of either after what has already been said in reference to them would be superfluous. The closing verses (Deu 26:16-19) of the chapter are a solemn reminder that all these transactions with God had bound the people to Yahweh in a covenant. “Thou hast avouched Yahweh this day to be thy God” and, “Yahweh hath avouched thee this day to be a peculiar people (am segullah) unto Himself.” By this they were bound to keep Yahwehs statutes and judgments, and do them with all their heart and with all their soul, while He, on His part, undertakes on these terms to set them “high above all nations which He hath made in praise, and in name, and in honor,” and to make them a holy people unto Himself.

But the original Deuteronomy as read to King Josiah cannot have ended with chapter 26, for the thing that awed him most was the threat of evil and desolation which were to follow the non-observance of this covenant. Now though there are indications of such dangers in the first twenty-six chapters of Deuteronomy, yet threats are not, so far, a prominent part of this book. The book as read must consequently have contained some additional chapters, which, in part at least, must have contained threats. Now this is what we have in our Biblical Deuteronomy. But in chapters 27 and 28 there are reduplications which can hardly have formed part of the original authors work. An examination of these has led every one who admits composite authorship in the Pentateuch to see that from chapter 27 onwards the original work has been broken up and dovetailed again with the works of JE and P; so that component parts of the first four books of the Hexateuch appear along with elements which the author of Deuteronomy has supplied. We have, in fact, before us, from this point, the work of the editor who fitted Deuteronomy into the framework of the Pentateuch; and it is of importance, from an expository point of view even, to endeavor to restore Deuteronomy to its original form, and to follow out the traces of it that are left.

As we have said, we must look for the threats and promises which undoubtedly formed part of it. These are contained in chapters 27 and 28. But a careful reader will feel at once that chapter 27 disturbs the connection, and that 28 should follow 26. In Deu 27:9-10 alone seem necessary to give a transition to chapter 28; and if all the rest were omitted we should have exactly what the narrative in Kings would lead us to expect, a coherent, natural sequence of blessings and curses, which should follow faithfulness to the covenant, or unfaithfulness. The rest of chapter 27 is not consistent either with itself or with Jos 8:30, where the accomplishment of that which is commanded here is recorded. In Deu 27:1-3 Moses and the elders command the people to set up great stones and plaster them with plaster and write upon them all the words of this law, on the day when they shall pass over Jordan, that they may go in unto the land. In Deu 27:4 it is said that these stones are to be set up in Mount Ebal, and there an altar of unhewn stones is to be built, and sacrifices offered, “and thou shalt write upon the stones very plainly.” From the position of this last clause and the mention of Mount Ebal, the course of events would be quite different from that which Deu 27:1-3 suggest. The stones were, according to Deu 27:4 ff., to be set up in Mount Ebal; out of these an altar of unhewn stones was to be built; and on them the law was to be inscribed, and this is what Joshua says was done. But if we take all the verses, Deu 27:1-8, together, we can reconcile them only by the hypothesis that the stones were set up as soon as Jordan was crossed, plastered, and inscribed with the law; that afterwards they were removed to Mount Ebal and built into an altar “of unhewn stone,” upon which sacrifices were offered. But that surely is in the highest degree improbable; and since we know that in other cases two narratives have been combined in the sacred text, that would seem the most probable solution here. Deu 27:4-8 will in that case be a later insertion, probably from J. In the same connection Deu 27:15-26 contain a list of crimes which are visited with a curse and no blessings; this cannot be the proclamation of blessing and cursing which is here required. Further, this list must be by a different author, for it affixes curses to some crimes which are not mentioned in Deuteronomy, and omits such sins as idolatry, which are continually mentioned there. This section must consequently have been inserted here by some later hand. It must probably have been later even than the time of the writer of Jos 8:33 ff., since the arrangement as reported there differs from what is prescribed here. Moreover, as there is nothing new in these sections, and all they say is repeated substantially in chapter 28, we may give our attention wholly to Deu 28:1-68, as being the original proclamation of blessing and curse.

But other entanglements follow. Chapters 29 and 30 manifestly contained an adieu on the part of Moses, who turns finally to the people with an affecting and solemn speech of farewell. That appears m chapters 29 and 30. But for many reasons it is impossible to believe that these chapters as they stand are the original speech of Deuteronomy. The language is in large part different, and there are references to the Book of the Law as being already written out. {Deu 29:19 f. 26, and Deu 30:10} It is probably therefore an editors rewriting of the original speech, and from the fact that “it contains many points of contact with Jeremiah in thoughts and words,” it is probably to be dated in the Exile. But there is another noticeable thing in connection with it. It has a remarkable resemblance in these and other respects to Deu 4:1-40. That passage can hardly have originally followed chapters 1-3, if as is most probable these were at first a historic introduction to Deuteronomy. The hortative character of Deu 4:1-40 shows that it must have been placed where it is by a reviser. But the language, though not altogether that of Deuteronomy, is like it, and the thought is also Deuteronomic. Probably the passage must have been transferred from some other part of Deuteronomy and adapted by the editor. A clue to its true place may perhaps be found in Deu 4:8, where “all this law” is spoken of as if it were already given, and in Deu 4:5, where we read, “Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments.” These passages imply that the law of Deuteronomy had been given, and in that case chapter 4 must belong to a closing speech. We probably shall not be in error, therefore, in thinking Deu 4:1-40 ; Deu 29:29 are all founded on an original farewell speech which stood in Deuteronomy after the blessing and the curse.

But it may be asked, if that be so, why did an editor make these changes? The answer is to be found in two passages in chapters 31 and 32 which cannot be harmonized as they stand. In Deu 31:19 we are told that Yahweh commanded Moses to write “this song” and teach it to the children of Israel, “that this song may be a witness for Me against the children of Israel,” and Deu 31:22, “So Moses wrote this song.” But in Deu 31:28 f. we read that “Moses said, Assemble unto me all the elders of the tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to witness against them.” Obviously “these words” are different from “this song,” and are meant for a different purpose. The same ambiguity occurs at the end of the song in Deu 32:44 ff., where we first read of Moses ending “this song,” and in the next verse we read, “And Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel.” Now what has become of “these words”? In all probability they were the substance of chapters 4 and 29 and 30, and were separated and amplified, because the editor who fitted Deuteronomy into the Pentateuch took over the song in chapter 32, as well as those passages of 31 and 32, that speak of this song, from JE. He accepted them as a fitting conclusion for the career of Moses, and transferred the original speech, which we suppose to have been the last great utterance of the original Deuteronomy, putting the main part of it immediately before the song, but taking parts out of it to form a hortatory ending (such as the other Moses speeches have) to that first one which he had formed out of the historic introduction. This may seem a very complicated process and an unlikely one; but after the foundation had been built by Dillmann, Westphal has elaborated the whole matter with such luminous force that it seems hardly possible to doubt that the facts can be accounted for only in this way. By piecing together 4, 30, and 31 he produces a speech so thoroughly coherent and consistent that the mere reading of it becomes the most cogent proof of the substantial truth of his argument.

An analysis of it will show this.

(1) There is the introduction; up till now the people have understood neither the commands nor the love of Yahweh. {Deu 29:1-9}

(2) There is the explanation of the Covenant; {Deu 29:10-15}

(3) A command to observe the Covenant; {Deu 4:1-2}

(4) Warning against individual transgression, which will be punished by the destruction of the rebel; {Deu 29:16-21; Deu 4:3-4}

(5) Warning against collective transgression, which will be punished by the ruin of the people. {Deu 4:5-26} The author, from this point regarding the transgression as an accomplished fact, announces:

(6) The dispersion and exile of the people; {Deu 4:27-28}

(7) The impression produced on future generations by the horror of this dispersion Deuteronomy (Deu 29:22-28);

(8) The conversion of the exiles to God; {Deu 4:30-31}

(9) Their return to the land of their fathers. {Deu 30:1-10}

(10) In conclusion, it is stated that the power of Yahweh to sustain the faith of His people and to save them is guaranteed by the past; {Deu 4:32-40} and there is no reason therefore that the people should shrink from obeying the commandment prescribed.to them. It is a matter of will. Life and death are before them; let them choose. {Deu 30:11-20}

The analysis of the remaining chapters is not difficult. Deu 31:14-23; Deu 31:30, form the introduction to the song, Deu 32:1-43, just as Deu 32:44 is the conclusion of it. Both introduction and song are extracted probably from J and E. Deu 32:48-52 are after P. Then follows the blessing of Moses, chapter 33. Finally, chapter 34 contains an account of Moses death and a final eulogy of him, in which all the sources JE, P, and D have been called into requisition. The threefold cord which runs through the other books of the Pentateuch was untwisted to receive Deuteronomy, and has been re-twisted so as to bind the Pentateuch into one coherent whole. That is the result of the microscopic examination which the text as it stands has undergone, and we may pretty certainly accept it as correct. But we should not lose sight of the fact that, as the book is now arranged, it has a notable coherence of its own, and the impression of unity which it conveys is in itself a result of great literary skill. Not only has the editor combined Deuteronomy into the other narratives most successfully, but he has done so not only without falsifying, but so as to confirm and enhance the impression which the original book was meant to convey.

We turn now to the substance of the two speeches-the proclamation of the blessing and the curse, and the great farewell address. As we have seen, the first is contained in chapter 28. If any evidence were now needed that this chapter was written later than the Mosaic time, it might be found in the space given to the curses, and the much heavier emphasis laid upon them than upon the blessings. Not that Moses might not have prophetically foretold Israels disregard of warnings. But if the heights to which Israel was actually to rise had been before the authors mind as still future, instead of being wrapped in the mists of the past, he could not but have dwelt more equally upon both sides of the picture. Whatever supernatural gifts a prophet might have, he was still and in all things a man. He was subject to moods like others, and the determination of these depended upon his surroundings. He was not kept by the power of God beyond the shadows which the clouds in his sky might cast; and we may safely say that if the curses which are to follow disobedience are elaborated and dwelt upon much more than the blessings which are to reward obedience, it is because the author lived at a time of unfaithfulness and revolt. Obviously his contemporaries were going far in the evil way, and he warns them with intense and eager earnestness against the dangers they are so recklessly incurring.

But after all we have seen of the spirituality of the Deuteronomic teaching, and its insistence upon love as the true bond between men and God and the true motive to all right action, it is perhaps disappointing to some to find how entirely these promises and threats have their center in the material world. Probably nowhere else will the truth of Bacons famous saying that “Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament” be more conspicuously seen than here. If Israel be faithful she is promised productivity, riches, success in war. Even when it is promised that she shall be established by Yahweh as a holy people unto Himself, the meaning seems to be that the people shall be separated from others by these earthly favors, rather than that they shall have the moral and spiritual qualities which the word “holy” now connotes. Other nations shall fear Israel because of the Divine favor. Israel shall be raised above them all. If it become unfaithful, on the other hand, it is to be visited with pestilence, consumption, fever, inflammation, sword, blasting, mildew. The earth is to be iron beneath them, and the heaven above them brass. Instead of rain they are to have dust; they are to be visited with more than Egyptian plagues. Their minds are to refuse to serve them; they are to be defeated in war; their country is to be overrun by marauders; their wives and children, their cattle and their crops, are to fall into the enemys hands. Locusts and all known pests are to fall upon their fields; and they themselves are to be carried away captive, after having endured the worst horrors of siege, and been compelled by hunger to devour their own children. And in exile they shall be an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word, and shall be ruled by oppressive aliens. Worst of all, they shall there lose hope in God and “shall serve other gods, even wood and stone.” Their lives shall hang in doubt before them. In the morning they shall say, “Would God it were evening,” and at even they shall say, “Would God it were morning.” All the deliverance Yahweh had wrought for them by bringing them out of Egypt would be undone, and once more they should go back into Egyptian bondage.

All that is materialistic enough; but there is no need to make apology for Deuteronomy, nevertheless. The prophet has taught the higher law; he has rooted all human duty, both to God and man, in love to God, and now he tries to enlist mans natural fear and hope as allies of his highest principle. How justifiable that is we have already seen in chapter 12.

But a more serious question is raised when it is asked, does Nature, in definite sober truth, lend itself, in the manner implied throughout this chapter, to the support of religious and moral fidelity? At a time when imaginative literature is largely devoting itself to an angry or querulous denial Of any righteous force working for the unfortunate and the faithful, there can be no question what the popular answer to such a question would be. But from the ranks of literature itself we may summon testimony on the other side. Mr. Hall Caine, in his address at the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution, maintains in a wider and more general way the essence of the Deuteronomic thesis when he says, “I count him the greatest genius who touches the magnetic and Divine chord in humanity which is always waiting to vibrate to the sublime hope of recompense; I count him the greatest man who teaches men that the world is ruled in righteousness.” And his justification of that position is too admirable not to be quoted: “Life is made up of a multitude of fragments, a sea of many currents, often coming into collision and throwing up breakers: We look around and see wrong-doing victorious, and right-doing in the dust; the evil man growing rich and dying in his bed, the good man becoming poor and dying in the street; and our hearts sink and we say, What is God doing after all in this world of His children? But our days are few, our view is limited, we cannot watch the event long enough to see the end which Providence sees.” “It is the very province of imaginative genius,” he goes on to say, “to see that which the common mind cannot see, to offer to it at least suggestions of how these triumphs of unrighteousness may be accounted for in accordance with the law that righteousness rules in the world.” We would go further. It is one of the main purposes of inspiration to go beyond even imaginative genius, to point out in history not only how right may perhaps ultimately triumph, but how it has been in reality and must be victorious. For it will not do to shut off the world of material things from the working of this great and universal law. Owing to the narrow fanaticism of science, modern men have become skeptical, not only of miracle, but even of the fundamental truth that righteousness is profitable for the life that now is, that in following righteousness men are co-operating with the deepest law of the universe. But it remains a truth for all that. It is written deep in the heart of man; and in more wavering lines perhaps, but still most legibly, it is written on the face of things. With the limitations of his time and place, this is what the Deuteronomist preaches. Doubtless he has not faced, as Job does, the whole of the problem; still less has he attained to the final insight exhibited in the New Testament, that temporal gifts may be curses in disguise, that the highest region of recompense Is in the eternal life, in the domain of things which are invisible but eternal. He does not yet know, though he has perhaps a presentiment of it, that being completely stripped of all earthly good may be the path to the highest victory-the victory which makes men more than conquerors through Christ. Nevertheless he is, making these allowances, right, and the moderns are wrong. In many ways obedience to spiritual inspirations does bring worldly prosperity. The absence of moral and spiritual faithfulness does affect even the fruitfulness of the soil, the fecundity of animals, the prevalence of disease, the stability of ordered life, and success in war. This was visible to the ancient world generally in a dim way; but by the inspired men of the Old Covenant it was clearly seen, for they were enlightened for the very purpose of seeing the hand of God where others saw it not. But they never thought of tracing out the chain of intermediate causes by which such results were connected with mens spiritual state. They saw the facts, they recognized the truth, and they threw themselves back at once upon the will of God as the sufficient explanation.

We, on the other hand, have been so diligent in tracing out the immediately preceding links of natural causation that, for the most part, we have been fatigued before we reached God. We consequently have lost view of Him; and it is wholesome for us to be brought sharply into contact with the ancient Oriental mind as we are here, in order that we may be forced to go the whole way back to Him. For the fact is that much of that very process of decay and destruction from moral causes is going on before us in countries like Turkey and Morocco, where social righteousness is all but unknown, and private morality is low. A truly modern mind scorns the idea that the fertility of the soil can be affected by immorality. Yet there is the whole of Mesopotamia to show that misgovernment can make a garden into a desert. Where teeming populations once covered the country with fruitful gardens and luxurious cities, there are now in the lands of the Tigris and Euphrates a few handfuls of people, and all the fertility of the country has disappeared. Irrigation channels which made all things live have been choked up and have been gradually filled with drifting sand, and one of the most populous and fertile countries of the world has become a desert. In Palestine the same thing may be seen. Under Turkish domination the character of the soil has been entirely changed. In many places where in ancient days the hills were terraced to the top the sweeping rains have had their way, and the very soil has been carried off, leaving only rocks to blister in the pitiless sun. Even in the less likely sphere of animal fecundity modern science shows that peace and good government and righteous order are causes of extraordinary power. And the movements which are going on around us at this day in the elevation and depression of nations and races have a visible connection with fidelity or lack of fidelity to known principles of order and justice. This can be said without concealing how scanty and partial in most cases such attainments are. Prevailing principles can be discerned in the providence which rules the world. And these are of such a kind that the connection which obedience to the highest known rules of life has with fertility, success, and prosperity, is constant and intimate. It is, too, far wider reaching than at first sight would seem possible. To this extent, even modern knowledge justifies these blessings and curses of Deuteronomy.

But it may be asked, is this all the Old Testament means by such threats and promises? Does it recognize any even self-imposed limitations to the direct action of Divine power? Most probably it does not. Though always keeping clear of Pantheism, the Old Testament is so filled and possessed by the Divine Presence that all second causes are ignored, and the action of God upon nature was conceived, as it could not fail to be, on the analogy of a workman using tools. Now that the methods of Divine action in nature have been studied in the light of science, they have been found to be more fixed and regular than was supposed. The extent of their operation, too, has been found to be immeasurably wider, and the purposes which have to be cared for at every moment are now seen to be infinitely various. As a result, human thought has fallen back discouraged, and takes refuge more and more in a conception of nature which practically deifies it, or at least entirely separates it from any intimate relation to the will of God. It is even denied that there is any purpose in the world at all, or any goal, and to chance or fate all the vicissitudes of life and the mechanical changes of nature are attributed. But though we must recognize, as the Old Testament does not, that ordinary Divine action flows out in perfectly well-defined channels, and is so stable in its movement that results in the sphere of physical nature may be predicted with certainty; and though we see, as was not seen in ancient days, that even God does not always approach His ends by direct and short-cut paths, -these considerations only make the Old Testament view more inspiring and more healthful for us. We may gather from it the inference that if the fertility of a land, the frequency of disease, and success in war are so powerfully affected by the moral and spiritual quality of a people, it is very likely that in subtler and less palpable ways the same influences produce similar effects, even in regions where they cannot be traced. If so, whatever allowance may be required for the inevitable simplicity of Old Testament conceptions on this subject, however much we miss the limitations we have learned to regard as necessary, the Deuteronomic view as to the effects of moral and spiritual declension upon the material fortunes of a people is much nearer the truth than our timorous and hesitating half-belief. To find these effects emphasized and affirmed as they are here, therefore, acts as a much needed tonic in our spiritual life. Coming too from a man who possessed, if ever man did, Divinely inspired insight into the process of the world and the ideal of human life, these promises and warnings bring God near. They dissipate the mists which obscure the workings of Gods Providence, and keep before us aspects of truth which it is the present tendency of thought to ignore too much. They declare in accents which carry conviction that, even in material things, the Lord reigneth; and for that the world has reason to be supremely glad.

Certainly Christians now know that prosperity in material things is by no means Gods best gift. That great principle must be held to firmly, as well as the legitimacy of the vivid hopes and fears of Old Testament times regarding the material rewards of right-doing. In many ways the new principle must overrule and modify for us those hopes and fears. But with this limitation we are justified in occupying the Deuteronomic standpoint and in repeating the Deuteronomic warnings. For to its very core the world is Gods; and those who find His working everywhere are those whose eyes have been opened to the inmost truth of things.

With regard to the farewell speech contained in chapters 29 and 30 and the related parts of chapter 4 and chapter 31 there is not much to be said. Taken as a whole, it develops the promises and threats of the previous chapters, and repeats again with affectionate hortatory purpose much of the history. But there is not a great deal that is new; most of the underlying principles of the address have been already dealt with. Taken according to the reconstruction of the speech and its reinsertion in its original framework, the course of things would seem to have been this. After the threats and promises had been concluded, Moses, carrying on the injunction of Deu 3:28, addressed {Deu 32:8} all the people and appointed Joshua to be his successor; then he wrote out “this law,” and produced it before the priests and elders of the people, with the instruction that at the end of every seven years, at the feast of release, in the feast of tabernacles, it should be read before all Israel, men, women, and children. {Deu 31:9-13} Then he gave the book to the Levites, that they might “lay it up” by the side of the Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh their God, that it might be there for a witness against them when they became unfaithful, as he foresaw they would. He next summons all Israel to him, and delivers the farewell address contained in chapters 4, 29, and 30, an outline of which has already been given, according to Westphals recombination. This would seem to indicate that Moses himself inaugurated the custom of reading the law and giving instruction to all the people, which he prescribed for the feast of tabernacles in the year of release. After the law had been given he addressed the whole people in this farewell speech.

But though on the whole there is no need for detailed exposition here, there are one or two things which ought to be noticed, things which express the spirit of Deuteronomy so directly and so sincerely that they can be identified as forming part of the original Deuteronomic speech. One of these is unquestionably Deu 30:11-20. At the end of the farewell address a return is made to the core of the whole Deuteronomic teaching: “Thou shalt love Yahweh thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” This was announced with unique emphasis at the beginning; it has lain behind all the special commands which have been insisted upon since; and now it emerges again into view as the conclusion of the whole matter. For beyond doubt this, and not the whole series of legal precepts, is what is meant by “this commandment” in Deu 30:2. Both before it, in the sixth and tenth verses {Deu 30:6, Deu 30:10}, and after it, in the sixteenth and twentieth verses {Deu 30:16, Deu 30:20}, this precept is repeated and insisted on as the Divine command. Had the individual commands or the whole mass of them together been meant, the phrase used would have been different. It would have been that in Deu 30:10, where they are called “His commandments and His statutes which are written in this book of the law,” or something analogous. No, it is the central command of love to God, without which all external obedience is vain, which is the theme of this last great paragraph; and a clear perception of this will carry us through both the obscurities of it, and the difficulties of St. Pauls application of it in the Romans.

Of this then the author of Deuteronomy says: “It is not too hard for thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.” That is to say, there is no mystery or difficulty about this commandment of love. Neither have you to go to the uttermost parts of the sea to hear it, nor need you search into the mysteries of heaven. It has been brought near to you by all the mercy and forgiveness and kindness of Yahweh; it has been made known to you now by my mouth, even in its pettiest applications. But that is not all; it is graven on your own heart, which leaps up in glad response to this demand, and in answer to the manifestation of Gods love for you. It is really the fundamental principle of your own nature that is appealed to. You should clearly feel that life in the love of God and man is the only fit life for you who are made in the image of God. If you do, then the fulfillment of all the Divine precepts will be easy, and your lives will lighten more and more unto the perfect day.

Now, for an Oriental of the pre-Christian era such teaching is most marvelous. How marvelous it is Christians perhaps find it difficult to see. In point of fact, many have denied that Old Testament teaching ever had this character. Misled by the doctrines of Islam, the great Semitic religion of today, many assert that the religion of ancient Israel called upon men to submit to mere power in submitting to God. But the appeal of our text to the heart of man shows that this is an error. No such appeal has ever been made to Mohammedans. Their state of mind in regard to God is represented by the remark of a recent traveler in Persia. Speaking of the Persian Babis, who may be described roughly as a heretical sect whose minds have been formed by Mohammedanism, he says: “They seemed to have no conception of absolute good, or absolute truth; to them good was merely what God chose to ordain, and truth what He chose to reveal, so that they could not understand how any one could attempt to test the truth of a religion by an ethical and moral standard.” Now that is precisely the opposite of the Deuteronomic attitude. Israel is encouraged and incited to right action by having it pointed out that not only experience, not only Divinely given statutes and judgments, but the very nature of man itself guarantees the truth of this supreme law of love. The law laid upon men is nothing strange to, or incongruous with, their own better selves. It is the very thing which their hearts have cried out for; when it is proclaimed the higher nature in man recognizes it and bows before it. It is not received because of fear, nor is it bowed before because it is backed by power which can smite men to the dust. No; even in its ruins human nature is nobler than that; and Deuteronomy everywhere teaches with burning conviction that God is too ethical and spiritual in nature to accept the submission of a slave.

This reading of our passage is plainly that which St. Paul takes in Rom 10:5-6. He perceives, what so many fail to do, that the spirit and scope of the Deuteronomic teaching are different from that of the purely legal sections of the Pentateuch. Paul therefore quotes the Pentateuch as having already made the distinction between works and faith which he wishes to emphasize, and as having distinctly given preference to the latter. Leviticus keeps men at the level of the worker for wages, while Deuteronomy in this passage, by making love to God the essence of all true observance of the law, raises them almost to the level of sons. And just as in those ancient days the highest manifestations of God had not to be labored for and sought by impotent strivings, but had plainly been made known to them and had found an echo in their hearts, so now the highest revelation had been brought near to men in Christ, and had found a similar response. They did not need to seek it in heaven, for it had been brought to earth in the Incarnation. They did not need to descend into the abyss, for all that was needed had been brought thence by Christ at His resurrection. And in the New Testament as in the Old, the simplicity of the entrance into true relations with God is emphasized. Love and faith are the fundamental conditions. From them obedience will naturally issue, since “to faith all things are possible, and to love all things are easy.”

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary