Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 30:11
For this commandment which I command thee this day, it [is] not hidden from thee, neither [is] it far off.
11. This commandment ] Miwah, see on Deu 5:31, Deu 8:1. Here probably both the substance of the Law the enforcement of a loyal, loving obedience to Jehovah and its various statutes and judgements.
which I command thee this day ] Deu 8:1, Deu 27:1, etc.
too hard ] So in Deu 17:8; beyond one’s power to do, 2Sa 13:2, or to understand, Psa 131:1 (2); more frequently used of wonderful things, or extraordinary; Psa 119:129: Thy testimonies are wonderful, therefore doth my soul keep them an interesting contrast to this clause.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
11 14. The Conscience of the Law
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
11 20. The Close of the Concluding Addresses
The commandment is not too hard nor distant, but near, articulate, intelligible and practicable (Deu 30:11-14). Sheer life and death, good and evil, is set before Israel. Obedience means blessing, apostasy destruction (Deu 30:15-19 a). Choose life that thou mayest dwell in the land, sworn to thy fathers (Deu 30:19 b Deu 30:20). The discourse turns back to the present of the (assumed) speaker and closes the whole series of his addresses upon the keynotes which have rung through them. As Driver says, ‘it is next to impossible that Deu 30:11-20 can have been originally the sequel of Deu 30:1-10.’ Deu 30:11-14 may be a fragment from an unknown source, for their subject connects neither with Deu 30:10 (Berth. and Marti notwithstanding) nor with anything else in Deut. except Deu 29:29 (28), which however is in the Pl. address. Deu 30:15-20 supply the needed peroration to 28, which ends abruptly; but the changes of address in them point to their editorial origin.
It is the old question whether the same writer thus clenches his argument with the repetition of a number of his formulas or the hand of a later editor has collected these. The probability is with the latter. Cullen takes Deu 30:11-20 as part of his Book of the Miwah, in his scheme the original Deuteronomy. Berth. regards Deu 30:15-20 as immediately following 28, and as belonging, therefore, to D. Steuern. holds at least Deu 30:15 b, Deu 30:19 b, and part of 20 as D’s. The changes of the form of address are signs that the passage largely consists of quotations.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Ignorance of the requirements of the law cannot be pleaded Deu 30:10-14; hence, Deu 30:15-20 life and death, good and evil, are solemnly set before the people for their own choice; and an earnest exhortation to choose the better part concludes the address.
Deu 30:11-14. The righteousness which is of faith is really and truly described in these words of the Law; and, under Pauls guidance (see marginal references) we affirm was intended so to be. For the simplicity and accessibility which Moses here attributes to the Law of God neither is nor can be experimentally found in it except through the medium of faith; even though outwardly and in the letter that Law be written out for us so that he may run that readeth, and be set forth in its duties and its sanctions as plainly as it was before the Jews by Moses. The seeming ease of the commandment, and yet its real impossibility to the natural man, form part of the qualifications of the Law to be our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.
Deu 30:11
Not hidden from thee – Rather, not too hard for thee, as in Deu 17:8.
Neither is it far off – Compare Luk 17:21.
Deu 30:13
The paraphrase of this verse in the Jerusalem Targum is noteworthy, and should be compared with Pauls rendering in Rom 10:7 : Neither is the law beyond the great sea, that thou shouldest say, Oh that we had one like Jonah the prophet who could descend into the depths of the sea and bring it to us!
Deu 30:14
In thy mouth, and in, thy heart – Compare Deu 6:6; Deu 11:18-20.
Deu 30:20
That thou mayest love the Lord – Compare Deu 6:5. Love stands first as the essential and only source of obedience.
He is thy life – Or, that (i. e., to love the Lord) is thy life; i. e., the condition of thy life and of its prolongation in the promised land. Compare Deu 4:40; Deu 32:47.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Deu 30:11-14
This commandment, is not hidden.
Three characteristics of salvation
I. Clearness. With the heart man believeth unto righteousness. Ah, you say, there it comes in again. Whenever we go elsewhere the intellect is exalted. And then you feel that the Church is to be condemned. But a mans brains are not the wisest part of him; there is a great deal about a man that is wiser than his brains. Thank God for that! He has insights, intuitions, sympathies, that are as reliable as the testimony of the senses or the inferences of logic. We cannot know God intellectually. God is great, as Job says, and we know Him not. Are we then to be Agnostics? Oh, no! There is another way of interpretation. John Bunyan had a blind daughter. She lived much with him; he was very fond of her. They said he would not let the wind blow on her. She never saw Bunyan; it was impossible for her to comprehend his genius; she was pathetically incapable of reading his books. But will anybody in this place tell me that that blind girl did not know Bunyan? She did not know him visually, did not know him historically or technically, but she knew Bunyan; she knew the man, and looked into his heart. With the heart man knows God. And so Paul says it is by the heart that you are to understand the redemption that is in Christ. You are not to follow it out as a scholar, not to master it as a reasoner, but with the instinct of the soul you are to grasp the love of God in Christ Jesus. Ah, you say, it is the old thing over again. Whenever we go to a school, to an institution, it is the old intellect, it is science; but as soon as ever we come here, it is sympathy. What! you understand nature by science? You understand nature a long while before you are a scientist, and a great many people have a wonderful delight in nature who have never had a tincture of science. A little child gets at it, and the poet, the painter, without any technical knowledge or mastery whatever. I tell you, there are thousands of people in this country who enjoy the sunshine–when they get it–but they do not know anything about astronomy. Their heart leaps up when they behold a rainbow in the sky, but they do not know anything about optics. And just as it is with your apprehension of nature, so it is with your apprehension of God, of Christ, of the mercies that have been declared in Christ Jesus to perishing men. Why, there is no greater mistake than for a man to preach Christianity philosophically and theologically. When I look at the sky I can see it is the sky; there is the sun, the moon, and the stars, it is superb. But when I take an astronomical book down and look at the sky they have covered the page with strange figures. There is the Ship, and the Whale, and the Swan, and the Little Bear, and the Great Bear, and a good many other things, and I should not know it was the sky if they were not to write underneath, This is the sky.
II. Nearness. All the best things are near us, as your poet tells you,–a mans best things are nearest to him, close about his feet. The things that you cannot get are the things you do not need. I do like that idea of the country people, to the effect that if there is any disease in a neighbourhood there is sure to be a remedy if you have only the wit to find it. They say that the bane and the antidote always go together. Whether it is a marshy district, a mountain side or a flowing river, they say that the plant always grows close by that cures the diseases peculiar to the district. Some of our scholars of late years have given a good deal of attention to the sacred books of the Orientals–the Hindu, the Greek, and the Persian–and I daresay have done it with great advantage, but mind you, there is no necessity for us to go to any Oriental oracle for Gods last words on the greatest questions. I noticed that a traveller who had been in Algiers said the other day that the natives of the Sahara have a curious idea that Europe is a waterless waste, and the reason why travellers go to the Sahara is that they may find a spring of water. Of course, if they had lived here a little lately they would have known better! What with our flowing rivers, our weeping skies, and our brimming reservoirs, we do not need to go to Algerian deserts for a spring of water. And I tell you that whatever purpose may be served by our great scholars going to Oriental countries, we need not go there for the vital truth that saves; for, blessed be God, here, close by us, is a Fountain of living water, of which, if a man shall drink, he shall never thirst again. You know that when the bad weather comes all our rich people leave us. They go for the good of their health, let us hope, and if you are rich you are pretty nearly sure to have bad health, and then leave us! They go to Algiers, they go to Egypt, they go to Malta, they go to the Nile, they go to the South of France, and they leave us to the fogs of London, and we have to get on as best we may. We have not the leisure nor the resources to go away. But what a lovely thing it is when we come to need a spiritual specific, when we need a remedy for the wrong of our spirits, that we need not cross the sea, for it is here. Lo, God is here, and I knew it not. He has been talking to you for years, persuading you to a nobler life. Your great difficulty has not been to find Christ, your great difficulty has been to keep Him out. Did you not notice when I read the lesson that the apostle speaks of men who go about seeking to establish their own righteousness, go about restless, dissatisfied, wandering? You never knew a flower go a-gypsying to find the sun. A flower never goes on a voyage of circumnavigation to look after a bee or a butterfly. It never strikes its tent and wanders about looking for the dew: Everything comes to it, and all that the flower has to do is to open its heart and take in the sweet influences of the sky, and everything that you want, the light to illuminate, the grace to save, the power to perfect, the peace that passeth all understanding, the hope that is full of glory–everything is near to you, and all that you have to do at this very moment is to open your heart and take it in.
III. Freeness. (W. L. Watkinson.)
The basis of belief
The writer of this book–the second giving of the law–declares, then, that the law is primarily in the heart of man. It is not outside of him–brought to him; it is within him. As the printer takes the white sheet of paper, on which nothing is written, and presses it against the bosom of the type and lifts it off, and there is written what was on the type, so the heart of man is pressed against the bosom of Almighty God, and on the heart of humanity itself is written the Divine law transferred thereto. And what is true of the law of God is true of the Gospel of God and of all religious truth. Not all the truth that is educed from religion, but all religious truth, is in the heart of humanity, and brought out from the heart of humanity by the providence, the influence, or the ministry of God. We know some things by reason of our external observation. They are not proved to us, they are brought to us by our senses. But all that science can do is to examine, to classify, to investigate, to arranged to study the phenomena that are thus brought to us by our observation. Our eyes bring to us the trees and the flowers: out of them science makes botany. Our observation brings to us the stars: out of them science educes astronomy. In an analogous method, the souls eyes bring to us knowledge of great, transcendent facts which lie in the inner world. Theology (which is the science of religion) cannot create them, any more than natural science can create natural phenomena. All that theology can do is to examine, to investigate. We know the facts of the inner life by the inner testimony, as we know the facts of the outer life by the outer testimony. If we do not know, it is because we are dead. If a man does not know there are trees and flowers, he is blind. What he wants is not argument, but an oculist. All that the logical faculty can do is to deal with the facts which the observation without or the observation within brings to our cognisance. It is thus that we know that there is a difference between right and wrong. We know that there is righteousness and unrighteousness, as we know that there is the beautiful and the ugly, the true and the false. This is a fundamental fact. It is not brought to us by any external revelation; it is not in the heaven above and brought down to us; it is not across the sea and brought over to us; it is within the soul and heart of man–he knows it. Knowing this, he may analyse, he may study, the nature of the difference. This is the anchor ground of religion–we know that there is righteousness. It is the foundation on which everything else is built. In precisely the same way, the great majority of men have some inward consciousness of God. They have some inward consciousness of a help on which they can lay hold and by which they can be aided. This consciousness does not define God to them. This consciousness of God within us we analyse, we examine, and the result of our investigations, we call theology. It is our creed. It may be right. It may be wrong. As a tree is something different from a definition of a tree, and a flower is something different from a definition of a flower, and a star is something different from the description of a star, so God is different from our theological definitions of God. And we have not to go back four thousand years to get the testimony of Moses that there was a God. Our belief in Christ is something more than a historical or theological belief. We believe in righteousness, and when we read this life of Christ we see there righteousness luminous and eloquent. We believe in God, and as we read this life we see the masked God withdrawing His mask, and letting His own face shine through. The world thought power was Divine, majesty was Divine, justice was Divine, greatness was Divine; and then there came One upon the earth, without power, and without external majesty, and without the signs and symbols of greatness; but He was patient, gentle, heroic, sympathetic–nay, more, rejoiced to bear not only the sorrows but the sins of others. And when that life was held up before humanity, humanity said, That is the Divinest yet; there is more majesty in love than in power, there is more strength in patience than in force. The heart of humanity answered to the portraiture of Christ, and responded to it. If, when that life is held up before a man, he says, I do not see anything beautiful in that life; there is nothing in it that attracts me. I would have liked Him better if He had made a fortune; I would have thought more of Him if Be had organised an army; I should have some admiration for Him if He had lived the life of a statesman; I do not care for Christ; give me Napoleon Bonaparte, you cannot argue with him. In him is lacking moral life, not understanding. There are not a few in our time who are asking for the evidence of immortality. They study nature, and evolution, and the Scriptures, and buttress, by these methods, a frail faith in immortality. The witness is in ourselves. Not a witness that we are going to live forever. That is not immortality. The witness is in ourselves that we are something more than the physical organisation which we inhabit. What is the fundamental evidence of immortality? To live a life that is worth being immortal. If we are living in the sphere of the immortal, we know where we are living. We know what we are if we are living in the realm of faith, and hope, and love. We know that this spiritual life does not depend on the physical organisation. So our faith in the Bible, in its foundation, is this: There is that in us which answers to that which is in the Bible. If there is nothing in us which answers to that which is in the Bible, we shall not get a faith in the Bible by argument. We need a new life. The moral life in us responds to the record of the moral life in this Old Testament and this New Testament; and if there is nothing in us which does respond, it is life that is lacking. We are not to go up into the heavens to bring down the message, nor to cross the sea to search for it. In our own hearts we are to find the witness of God. (Lyman Abbott, D. D.)
The Bible in itself
The Bible is more acknowledged than believed; and where it is believed, in the ordinary acceptation of the word, it seldom gives that decision to our purposes, that spring to our actions, which it ought to give.
I. First, then, as to the closeness with which it addresses the soul, and the paternal familiarity of its style. Why is it that sensible persons rejoice in having a pious, well-informed and accessible neighbour? It seems almost childish to ask. But the answer is, Because his word is very nigh unto them because they have the benefit of his counsel, his stock of knowledge, which is freely and benevolently open to them, and they are sure that at all times he will be influenced by upright and conscientious motives in advising them. But there is more than this in it. They look to his example–to his thoughts and sayings carried out in his actions. They are conscious of its influence on themselves and those around them; and they value it. And the nearer it is to them–the more available it also is to them and the more influential; yes, even when through perversity they struggle against its influence. Now, the Word of God is such a neighbour, only of infinite instead of finite, of Divine instead of human wisdom, goodness, and power of exhortation. It is, as the text says, very nigh unto us. I do not take the words figuratively. I moan that it is, by its very cast and structure, by its very form and style, nigh to us, at hand to our hearts and minds, to our understandings and feelings. It is nigh as a teacher: it is nigh as a counsellor: it is nigh as a setter forth of example. Consider how largely, too, God speaks in the Bible to man by man; I do not mean merely through the pen of man, for that, of course, is true of all Scripture, but by the speech of man as man, partaking of all our natural views, feelings, hopes, fears. What a familiar tone, without lowering any of its dignity, does the Word of God thus take with us! How very nigh it comes to us!
II. The second I would take occasion to illustrate from the words in thy mouth: The Word is very nigh thee, in thy mouth. It was said that this indicates that the Word of God was to be avowedly our counsellor. We were intended to cite it as commandment and promise to us, as our law and Gospel. This is clearly laid down and exemplified. It will be remembered how emphatically it was charged Joshua: This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth (Jos 1:8; Psa 119:46). What was the conviction which sustained the martyrs of old in their freedom of speech, in bonds, and at the stake? Was it not this, that it was not their own word, but the Word of God, which they had in their mouths?
III. The next clause in our text descends to where that power centres and fixes itself. And in thy heart, Again the Psalmist is our expounder: Thy Word have I hid in my heart (Psa 119:11); Thy law is within my heart (Psa 40:8). The patriarch Job had counselled this: Lay up Gods words in thy heart (Job 22:22). And here seems to be the place in which we may aptly refer to the application of our text by the same apostle writing to the Romans (Rom 10:6-10). Yes, it is to be heart work–the Word in the heart–else it will be of no purpose that it be in the mouth. But is it so constituted as to speak to the heart, to go to the heart? That is the question to our present purpose. It is; after an inimitable manner, and with inimitable force. So then is the Word of inspiration framed to be embraced by affections though they may be debased, and to dwell in them though they be yet enslaved.
IV. Now, in the last place, the emphatical passage which is guiding our reflections asserts that the Word is very nigh unto us that we may do it. This pronounces obedience to it to be the necessary proof of a believing reception of it. Most amply is this test elsewhere recognised in it. Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven (Exo 20:22), said the Lord to the children of Israel: Ye shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments (Lev 18:5). And they said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do (Exo 19:8). Be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only (Jam 1:22), is a precept as ancient as the Word itself. But our inquiry is, whether it be invested with any impressiveness, exclusively its own, of a practical tendency. For, if so, in this most important respect, too, the Bible will be its own witness. The answer is, Come and see! Who indeed is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? (1Jn 5:5.) Now faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Rom 10:17). I have thus endeavoured to show that the Bible in itself, being an inspired composition, is thereby endued with an influential bearing, close and direct, upon the affections and conduct, as well as on the profession, of all who really study it, or listen to it with any willingness, even a passive willingness, to profit by it. The Bible, as those who are most grateful for it will most readily own, is but the instrument of Gods Holy Spirit. And it is not an instrument that will act mechanically on the soul: there must be prayer, continual prayer, as the Bible itself teaches, for its progressive operation upon us. (W. Dalby, M. A.)
Plain Gospel for plain people
What is meant by these words is this–that the way of salvation is plain and clear; it is not concealed among the mysteries of heaven. But the way of salvation is brought home to us, given to us in a handy form, and laid within grasp of our understanding. It is a household treasure, not a foreign rarity. It is not so remote from us that only they can know it who travel far to make discoveries, neither is it so sublimely difficult that only they can grasp it who have soared to heaven and ransacked the secrets of the book sealed with seven seals. It is brought to our doors like the manna, and flows at our feet like the water from the rock.
I. The way of salvation is plain and simple. As saith Moses in the last verse of the previous chapter: The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever.
1. I think we might have expected this if we consider the nature of God, who has made this wonderful revelation. When God speaks to a man with a view to his salvation, it is but natural that in His wisdom He should so speak as to be understood. God, who is infinitely wise, would not give to us a revelation upon the vital point of salvation, and then leave it so much in the dark that it was impossible for common minds to Comprehend it if they desired to do so. God adapts means to ends, and does not allow men to miss of heaven from lack of plainness on His part. We expect a plain and simple revelation, because God has made a revelation perfectly adapted for its end, upon which no improvement can be made. You might have expected this from God, because of His gracious condescension. When He deigns to speak with a trembling seeker, it is not after the manner of the incomprehensible doctor, but after the manner of a father with his child, desirous that his child should at once know his fathers mind. He breaks down His great thoughts to our narrow capacities: He has compassion on the ignorant, and He becomes the Teacher of babes.
2. We might also expect simplicity when we remember the design of the plan of salvation. God aims distinctly by the Gospel at the salvation of men. It had need be a simple Gospel if it is to be preached to every creature. Moreover, we might expect the Gospel to be very plain, because of the many feeble minds which else would be unable to receive it. What, think you, would become of the dying if the Gospel were intricate and complex? How would even the saints derive consolation in death from a labyrinth of mysteries? We should expect, therefore, from the design of the Gospel to save the many, and to save even the least intelligent of men, that it should be very simple; and so we find it.
3. Furthermore, we see that it is so, if we look at its results. Gods chosen are usually a people of honest and candid mind, who are willing rather to believe than to dispute. The Holy Spirit has opened their hearts; He has not made them subtle and quibbling.
4. But I need not argue from what we expect or see; I bid you look at the revelation itself, and see if it be not nigh unto us. Even in the days of Moses, how plain some things were! It must have been plain to every Israelite that man is a sinner, else why the sacrifice, why the purgations and the cleansings? Not a day passed without its morning and evening lambs. Equally clear it must have been to every Israelite that the faith which brings the benefit of the great sacrifice is a practical and operative faith which affects the life and character. Continually were they exhorted to serve the Lord with their whole heart. So that, dim as the dispensation may be considered to have been as compared with the Gospel day, yet actually and positively it was sufficiently clear. Even then the word was nigh to them, in their mouth and in their heart.
5. If I may say this much of the Mosaic dispensation, I may boldly assert that in the Gospel of Christ the truth is now made more abundantly manifest. Moses brought the moonlight, but in Jesus the sun has risen, and we rejoice in His meridian beams.
II. The Word has come very near to us. To us all the Gospel has come very near: to the inhabitants of these favoured isles it is emphatically so. If you perish it is not for want of plain speaking. The Word is on your tongue. Moses also added, and in thy heart. By the heart, with the Hebrews, is not meant the affections, but the inward parts, including the understanding. You can understand the Gospel. That whosoever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved, is not a dark saying.
III. The design of this simplicity and nearness of the Gospel is that we should receive it. Observe bow the text expressly words it–The Word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.
1. The Gospel is not sent to men to gratify their curiosity, by letting them see how other people get to heaven. Christ did not come to amuse us, but to redeem us. His Word is not written for our astonishment, but, These are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the, Christ, the Son of God; and that believing, ye may have life through His name. Ever has the Gospel a present, urgent, practical errand. It says to each man, I have a message from God unto thee. Observe again how the text puts its last address in the singular. You can hear it in the plural–That we may hear it, and do it; but the actual doing is always in the singular–That thou mayest do it.
2. As the Word of the Lord is not sent to gratify curiosity, so also it is not sent coolly to inform you of a fact which you may lay by on the shelf for future use. God does not send you an anchor to hang up in your boathouse; but, as you are already at sea, He puts the anchor on board for present use. The Gospel is sent us as manna for today, to be eaten at once. It is to be our spending money as well as our treasure.
3. It is not sent to thee merely to make thee orthodox in opinion as to religious matters, although many persons seem to think that this is the one thing needful. Remember that perdition for the orthodox will be quite as horrible as eternal ruin for the heterodox. It will be a dreadful thing to go to hell with a sound head and a rotten heart. Alas! I fear that some of you will only increase your own misery as you increase your knowledge of the truth, because you do not practise what you know. That thou mayest do it! What is to be done? There are two things to be done.
(1) First, that thou believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as thy Saviour.
(2) The second thing, is that thou confess thy Lord with thy mouth.
Avow thyself to be a believer in Jesus, and a follower of Him. But let thy confession be sincere; do not lie unto the Lord. Confess that thou art His follower, because thou art indeed so; and henceforth all thy life bear thou His Cross and follow Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Very nigh unto thee.
Personal religion
Much is said of the importance of personal religion, as what alone is pleasing to God, or can secure human salvation. We should know the precise meaning intended in this expression; and my object will be to define it. And, first, an idea is given in the text and the circumstances connected with it–the idea that religion consists in nothing external and formal, nor in any sudden impressions made from without upon the mind. Great revivals may bear away thousands on a torrent of sympathy; but it is all in vain, if men do not retire from the tumult to the silent culture of every right disposition and the quiet practice of every duty; unless they hear a still voice in the soul, and retain a steady warmth there when the noise has ceased and the flames have died away, as on the ancient mount of revelation. But there is yet a stricter meaning in the phrase, personal religion. Our duties may be divided into two great classes; those belonging to social connections, and those included in the mind itself. To the latter, personal religion has primary respect. But there is a third and still closer view of religion, as a personal thing, to which I invite your thoughts. I believe it is the Creators design, that religion should be in every soul a peculiar acquisition, and have a solitary, unborrowed character; so that Christians should not be, as we commonly suppose them, mere copies of each other, but possess each one an original character. As the principle of beauty in nature shows itself in no monotonous succession of similar objects, but is displayed in a thousand colours and through unnumbered forms, so should the principle of piety ever clothe itself in some fresh trait and aspect. I say this is the Creators design. The view I offer may be made more clear by considering some of the proofs of this design.
1. The first proof that each individual should reach a peculiar excellence is, that each has received a peculiar constitution. Use faithfully the materials put into year bands. Despise not nor faint before what in them may seem rugged and unpromising. You shall find nothing in them so rough and hard, that patient toil will not transform it into shapes of wondrous beauty. The house built of light materials, though soon erected, will not stand the blast like that of marble, hewn with long, exhausting labour. Obey the maxim on the ancient oracle, Know thyself, and you will not fail of that personal religion for which you were made.
2. But again: Gods design, that every spirit should reach a peculiar excellence, is seen in the dispensations of Providence, as well as in the facts of creation. While the general fortunes of humanity are the same, every man receives his peculiar discipline from the hand of God. Whatever your state, sickness or health, prosperity or misfortune, view it with no atheistic eye, but accept and use it in the culture of that personal religion for which you were made.
3. Once more: Gods design, that every soul should reach a peculiar and unborrowed excellence, appears in the fact that all spiritual exercises, to be genuine, must have a peculiar character. No man can perform any exercise for another in religion. Who, then, in view of these considerations, has made religion a personal thing? He only who knows his own nature, and brings all its powers and dispositions to contribute to the building up of a good character. He only who makes all the dispensations of Providence, all events of joy and grief, conspire to guide him towards his perfection. He only whose spiritual exercises are genuine and sincere, consisting not in profession or appearance, but expressing real convictions springing from a strong consciousness of want, and moving the deep places of the soul. The man who has formed these habits will continually make progress in strong, unborrowed excellence; and when his time to depart shall come, while earth loses a precious possession, it is not too much to say that heaven itself shall gain a new treasure, inasmuch as it will receive a character of fresh, original strength and beauty. But what is the reliance of those multitudes that make their propagation for another world in no such strict and solemn way as I have described? Everyone must die by himself and go to the great bar alone; and there all the excellence of friends, all the fame of forefathers, will avail him nothing. The traveller in a foreign land often feels sorely the loss of that character given him by accidental relations at home. Everything adventitious being stripped off, he is thrown back upon his personal qualities, and must stand or fall, according to the judgment passed upon those. Now, how much more surely must such things forsake us, when we proceed, each one in his own time, attended by no companion, leaning on no arm of flesh, a solitary pilgrim, on our last journey to the skies! The heir of rich estates shall leave behind the splendour of wealth and the flattery of retainers. Thus for everyone the question at last will be, not of outward connections, but of personal character; not merely what religious institutions have you supported, but how far have you made religion itself a personal thing. (C. A. Bartol.)
Instruction nigh at hand
A blacksmiths wife in Tennessee recently handed to a physician of the village where she lived a diamond ring, worth 300, which her husband had found in the hoof of the doctors horse. In paring down the hoof to prepare it for a new shoe his knife touched something hard, which, on being dislodged, proved to be a ring, and the honest man sent his wife with it to the owner of the horse. It appeared that the doctors daughter had dropped the ring while out riding, and it had lodged between the horses hoof and the shoe, and had remained there. She had ridden to and fro many times over the road searching for the lost gem, yet it had been near her all the time. The search reminds us of men who go hither and thither consulting priests, and who read theological treatises to find the way to heaven, when all the time instruction is nigh at hand.
Moral teaching nigh at hand
In the original constitution of things, it is wisely ordered that happiness should be found everywhere about us. We do not need to have a rock smitten to supply the thirst of the soul; it is not a distant good; it exists in everything above, around, and beneath our feet; and all we want is an eye to discern, and a heart to feel it. Let anyone fix his attention on a moral truth, and it spreads out and enlarges its dimensions beneath his view, till what seemed at first as barren a proposition as words could express, appears like an interesting and glorious truth, momentous in its bearings on the destinies of men. And so it is with every material thing; let the mind be intently fixed upon it, and hold it in the light of science, and it gradually unfolds new wonders. The flower grows even more beautiful than when it first opened its golden urn and breathed its incense on the morning air; the tree, which was before thought of only as a thing to be cut down and cast into the fire, becomes majestic, as it holds its broad shield before the summer sun, or when it stands like a ship, with its sails furled, and all made fast about it, in preparation for the winter storm. (North American Review.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 11. This commandment – is not hidden] Not too wonderful or difficult for thee to comprehend or perform, as the word niphleth implies. Neither is it far off – the word or doctrine of salvation shall be proclaimed in your own land; for HE is to be born in Bethlehem of Judah, who is to feed and save Israel; and the PROPHET who is to teach them is to be raised up from among their brethren.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
He seems to speak of the law, or of that great command of loving and obeying God, mentioned here Deu 30:2,6,10,16, which is the sum of the law, of which yet he doth not here speak simply, or as it is in itself, but as it is mollified and accompanied with the grace of the gospel, whereby God circumciseth mens hearts to do this, as is expressed Deu 30:6. The meaning is, that although the practice of Gods law strictly and severely be now far from us, and above our strength, yet, considering the advantage of gospel grace, whereby God enables us in some measure to our duty, and accepts of our sincere endeavours instead of perfection, and imputes Christs perfect righteousness unto us that believe, now it is near and easy to us. And so this place well agrees with Rom 10:6, &c., where St. Paul expounds or applies this place to the righteousness of faith, by which alone the law is such as it is here described.
It is not hidden from thee, Heb. is not too wonderful for thee, as Deu 17:8; Pro 30:18; Jer 32:17, i.e. not too hard for thee to know and do: the will of God, which is but darkly manifested to other nations, Act 17:27, is clearly and fully revealed unto thee; thou canst not pretend ignorance or invincible difficulty.
Far off, i.e. out of thy reach.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11-14. For this commandment . . . isnot hidden . . . neither is it far offThat law of loving andobeying God, which was the subject of Moses’ discourse, was wellknown to the Israelites. They could not plead ignorance of itsexistence and requirements. It was not concealed as an impenetrablemystery in heaven, for it had been revealed; nor was it carefullywithheld from the people as a dangerous discovery; for the youngestand humblest of them were instructed in those truths, which weresubjects of earnest study and research among the wisest and greatestof other nations. They were not under a necessity of undertaking longjourneys or distant voyages, as many ancient sages did in quest ofknowledge. They enjoyed the peculiar privilege of a familiaracquaintance with it. It was with them a subject of commonconversation, engraven on their memories, and frequently explainedand inculcated on their hearts. The apostle Paul (Ro10:6-8) has applied this passage to the Gospel, for the law ofChrist is substantially the same as that of Moses, only exhibitedmore clearly in its spiritual nature and extensive application; and,accompanied with the advantages of Gospel grace, it is practicableand easy.
De30:15-20. DEATH ANDLIFE ARESET BEFORE THE ISRAELITES.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For this commandment which I command thee this day,…. Which the Jews understand of the law, but the Apostle Paul has taught us to interpret it of the word of faith, the Gospel preached by him and other ministers, Ro 10:6; which better suits with the context, and the prophecies before delivered concerning the conversion of the Jews, their reception of the Messiah, and his Gospel:
it [is] not hidden from thee; being clearly revealed, plainly and fully preached: if hidden from any, it is from them that are lost; from the wise and prudent, while it is revealed to babes, and given to them to know the mysteries of it: or too “wonderful” q; hard, difficult, and impossible; its doctrines, are not beyond the understanding of an enlightened person; they are all plain to them that understand and find the knowledge of them; and the ordinances of it are not too hard and difficult to be kept; the commandments of Christ are not grievous:
neither [is] it far off; for though it is good, news from a far country, from heaven, it is come down from thence; it is brought nigh in the ministry of the word to the ears and hearts of men.
q “mirabile”, Montanus, Cocceius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The fulfilment of this condition is not impossible, nor really very difficult. This natural though leads to the motive, which Moses impresses upon the hearts of the people in Deu 30:11-14, viz., that He might turn the blessing to them. God had done everything to render the observance of His commandments possible to Israel. “ This commandment ” (used as in Deu 6:1 to denote the whole law) is “ not too wonderful for thee,” i.e., is not too hard to grasp, or unintelligible (vid., Deu 17:8), nor is it too far off: it is neither in heaven, i.e., at an inaccessible height; nor beyond the sea, i.e., at an unattainable distance, at the end of the world, so that any one could say, Who is able to fetch it thence? but it is very near thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart to do it. It not only lay before the people in writing, but it was also preached to them by word of mouth, and thus brought to their knowledge, so that it had become a subject of conversation as well as of reflection and careful examination. But however near the law had thus been brought to man, sin had so estranged the human heart from the word of God, that doing and keeping the law had become invariably difficult, and in fact impossible; so that the declaration, “the word is in thy heart,” only attains its full realization through the preaching of the gospel of the grace of God, and the righteousness that is by faith; and to this the Apostle Paul applies the passage in Rom 10:8.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Advantages of Revelation. | B. C. 1451. |
11 For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? 13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? 14 But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.
Moses here urges them to obedience from the consideration of the plainness and easiness of the command.
I. This is true of the law of Moses. They could never plead in excuse of their disobedience that God had enjoined them that which was either unintelligible or impracticable, impossible to be known or to be done (v. 11): It is not hidden from thee. That is, not send messengers to heaven (v. 12), to enquire what thou must do to please God; nor needest thou go beyond sea (v. 13), as the philosophers did, that travelled through many and distant regions in pursuit of learning; no, thou art not put to that labour and expense; nor is the commandment within the reach of those only that have a great estate or a refined genius, but it is very nigh unto thee, v. 14. It is written in thy books, made plain upon tables, so that he that runs may read it; thy priests’ lips keep this knowledge, and, when any difficulty arises, thou mayest ask the law at their mouth, Mal. ii. 7. It is not communicated in a strange language; but it is in thy mouth, that is, in the vulgar tongue that is commonly used by thee, in which thou mayest hear it read, and talk of it familiarly among thy children. It is not wrapped up in obscure phrases or figures to puzzle and amuse thee, or in hieroglyphics, but it is in thy heart; it is delivered in such a manner as that it is level to thy capacity, even to the capacity of the meanest.” 2. “It is not too hard nor heavy for thee:” so the Septuagint reads it, v. 11. Thou needest not say, “As good attempt to climb to heaven, or flee upon the wings of the morning to the uttermost part of the sea, as go about to do all the words of this law:” no, the matter is not so; it is no such intolerable yoke as some ill-minded people represent it. It was indeed a heavy yoke in comparison with that of Christ (Acts xv. 10), but not in comparison with the idolatrous services of the neighbouring nations. God appeals to themselves that he had not made them to serve with an offering, nor wearied them with incense,Isa 43:23; Mic 6:3. But he speaks especially of the moral law, and its precepts: “That is very nigh thee, consonant to the law of nature, which would have been found in every man’s heart, and every man’s mouth, if he would but have attended to it. There is that in thee which consents to the law that it is good, Rom. vii. 16. Thou hast therefore no reason to complain of any insuperable difficulty in the observance of it.”
II. This is true of the gospel of Christ, to which the apostle applies it, and makes it the language of the righteousness which is of faith, Rom. x. 6-8. And many think this is principally intended by Moses here; for he wrote of Christ, John v. 46. This is God’s commandment now under the gospel that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, 1 John iii. 23. If we ask, as the blind man did, Lord, who is he? or where is he, that we may believe on him? (John ix. 36), this scripture gives an answer, We need not go up to heaven, to fetch him thence, for he has come down thence in his incarnation; nor down to the deep, to fetch him thence, for thence he has come up in his resurrection. But the word is nigh us, and Christ in that word; so that if we believe with the heart that the promises of the incarnation and resurrection of the Messiah are fulfilled in our Lord Jesus, and receive him accordingly, and confess him with our mouth, we have then Christ with us, and we shall be saved. He is near, very near, that justifies us. The law was plain and easy, but the gospel much more so.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Verses 11-14:
“God’s commandment is His enablement,” one has said. The commandments God gave to Israel were neither difficult nor impossible to keep. This is true of His commandments today, Mat 11:28-30; 1Jn 5:1-3.
“Not hidden,” literally, “not wonderful,” or hard to be understood or to perform.
“Neither …far off …not in heaven,” though its source is heavenly, it did not remain there. God revealed it to men.
The commandment was not in some distant realm far across the sea, that men would be forced to send emissaries to bring it back to them.
Compare this text with Rom 10:5-10. Paul’s application of this text confirms that righteousness came under the Law exactly in the same way it comes today: through faith.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
11. For this commandment, which I command thee. This declaration is like the preceding, and tends to the same end; for Moses commends in it the Law, on account of its easiness; because God does not propound to us obscure enigmas to keep our minds in suspense, and to torment us with difficulties, but teaches familiarly whatever is necessary, according to the capacity, and consequently the ignorance of the people. Therefore, in Isa 45:19 He reproves the Jews for having wandered in darkness through their own depravity and folly; because He had not spoken to them in secret, nor said in vain (275) to the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me. But Moses here invites them to learn, because they had an easy and clear method of instruction set before their eyes, and would not lose their labor; for we know that it is very often made an excuse for idleness, if great labor without much profit is to be applied to deep and difficult studies. Moses, therefore, declares that the Law is not hard to be understood, so as to demand inordinate fatigue in its study; but that God there speaks distinctly and explicitly, and that nothing is required of them but diligent application. More-over, he thus takes away from them every pretext for ignorance, since, with so much light, they cannot err, except by wilfully blinding themselves, or shutting their eyes. Whence, also, we gather, how impious are the babblings of the Papists that the Scripture is beset by thick darkness, and how wicked is their driving away the people from approaching it, as if it were some labyrinth. Surely they thus must needs accuse the Holy Spirit of falsehood, who so abundantly asserts its comprehensibleness, (claritatem,) or else they malign itself by their blasphemous taunts. But if the ancient people were left without excuse, unless they kept in the right way, when they had the Law for their mistress and director, our stupidity must be worthy of double and triple condemnation, if we do not make progress in the Gospel, wherein God has opened all the treasures of His wisdom, as far as is sufficient for salvation. The Sophists (276) improperly and ignorantly wrest this passage to prove the freedom of the will. (They allege (277)) that Moses here declares the precepts of the Law not to be above our reach. What? Does he state that the keeping of them is within the compass of our strength? Surely the words convey nothing of the sort; neither can this sense be elicited from them, if his intention be duly weighed. For he merely encourages the Jews, and commands them to be diligent disciples of the Law, because they will easily understand whatever is enjoined by God therein. But the power of performance is a very different thing from understanding. Besides, Paul, with very good reason, accommodates this passage to the Gospel, (Rom 10:8😉 because it would profit nothing to comprehend the doctrine itself in the mind, unless reverence and a serious disposition to obey be superadded. But he takes it for granted, that to have a good will is so far from being in our own power, that we are not even competent to think aright. Hence it follows, that what is here stated falls to the ground as frivolous, and spoken to no purpose, if it be applied simply to the Law. Paul also considers another thing, viz., that because the Law requires a perfect righteousness, it cannot be received by any mortal fruitfully; for however any one may study to obey God, yet he will still be far from perfection; and, therefore, it is necessary to come to the Gospel, wherein that rigorous requirement is relaxed, because, through the interposition of pardon, the will to obey is pleasing to God instead of perfect obedience. For Paul insists on the latter verse, “The word is nigh in the mouth, and in the heart, that the people may do it.” Now, it is clear that men’s hearts are strongly and obstinately opposed to the Law; and that in the Law itself is contained only a dead and deadly letter; how then could the literal doctrine have a place in the heart? But if God, by the Spirit of regeneration, corrects the depravity of the heart and softens its hardness, this is not the property of the Law, but of the Gospel. Again, because in the children of God, even after they are regenerated, there always abide the remainders of carnal desires, no mortal will be found who can perform the Law. But in the Gospel God receives, with fatherly indulgence, what is not absolutely perfect. The word of God, therefore, does not begin to penetrate into the heart, and to produce its proper fruit in the lips, until Christ shines upon us with His Spirit and gratuitous pardon. Wherefore Paul most truly concludes that this is the word of faith which is preached in the Gospel; both because the Law does not efficaciously lead men to God, and because the keeping of it is impossible, on account of its extreme rigor. But this is the peculiar blessing of the new covenant, that the Law is written on men’s hearts, and engraven on their inward parts; whilst that severe requirement is relaxed, so that the vices under which believers still labor are no obstacle to their partial and imperfect obedience being pleasant to God.
(275) In A. V., it will be remembered, the words, “in vain,” are connected with “Seek ye me.” “I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain.”
(276) Les Theologiens de la Papaute. — Fr.
(277) Added from the French.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
4. OBEDIENCE NOT IMPOSSIBLE (Deu. 30:11-14)
11 For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not too hard for thee, neither is it far off. 12 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? 13 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? 14 But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.
THOUGHT QUESTIONS 30:1114
528.
It is such an encouragement to know that God has never given a command man could not obey. Read Rom. 10:6-10 for a present day application of this text.
529.
In what sense did Israel feel the word of God was far away from them?
AMPLIFIED TRANSLATION 30:1114
11 For this commandment which I command you this day, is not too difficult for you, nor is it far off.
12 It is not [a secret laid up] in Heaven, that you should say, Who shall go up for us to Heaven, and bring it to us, that we may hear and do it?
13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, that we may hear and do it?
14 But the word is very near you, in your mouth, and in your mind and in your heart, so that you can do it.
COMMENT 30:1114
IT IS NOT TOO HARD FOR THEE, NEITHER IS IT FAR OFF, etc.Literally, is not too wonderful for you, i.e., not too hard to be understood or perform. Nor was it far offthough heavenly in its source (Deu. 30:12), it did not remain there, but was revealed. Cf. Deu. 29:29. In short, God had made his plan simple enough and easy enough for the sincere and devoted to observe it. It was not mysterious, ethereal, or occult. Rather, the word is very nigh unto thee . . . etc. (Deu. 30:14). And if such words describe the Mosaic law, how much more our relationship to Christ, Mat. 11:28-30, 1Jn. 5:2-3, Rom. 10:6-10.
The idea of keeping the Mosaic law perfectly, in every iota, and without ever failing, is not before Moses eye here. On this side of the cross, we know that only our Savior did so, Rom. 3:9-12; Rom. 3:23-25, as one who was sinless, 1Pe. 2:21-22, 2Co. 5:21, Isa. 53:9.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
Deu. 30:11-14. THE LAW OF THE RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH is OF FAITH.
(11) For this commandment.Heb., Mitzvah. This duty, this form of obedience to the law.
Is not hidden from theei.e., not too hard. Literally, too wonderful for thee. (Comp. Deu. 17:8; Psa. 139:6.)
(12) It is not in heaven.St. Paul cites the words thus: The righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? that is, to bring Christ down from above (Rom. 10:6-7).
(13) Neither is it beyond the sea.St. Paul continues, Or (say not), Who shall descend into the deep? that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead. The alteration here is remarkable. The LXX. will not account for it. Beyond the sea generally suggests the idea of a land on the other side of the surface of the ocean. But a descent into the abyss, which is what St. Paul indicates, means a passage through the sea to that which is beneath it, beyond the sea in a very different sense. No one but Jonah ever went beyond the sea in this way, as he says, Out of the belly of hell cried I . . . Thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the heart of the seas . . . I went down to the bottoms of the mountains . . . The deep (abyss) closed me about. And this descent of Jonah is chosen as the sign of Christs descent into hell.
(14) But the word is very nigh unto thee.Here the difference between the Jewish and the Christian commentator is very striking. The Law is given you in Scripture and in tradition (written and orally), says Rashi on this place. But St. Paul continues thus: But what saith it (the righteousness of faith)? The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in thine heart, that is, the word of faith which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. It is worthy of notice that St. Paul in this place contrasts the righteousness of faith with the righteousness of the law, and describes both alike in the words of the Pentateuch. Concerning the righteousness of the law, he says, Moses describeth it, The man which doeth those things shall live by them. The citation is from Lev. 18:5. And there is a similar passage in Deu. 6:25. What could more clearly prove that the covenant of Deuteronomy 28, 29 was meant to present the way of salvation from a different point of view to the Sinaitic covenant, and was beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb. Not that we are to suppose there was ever a different way of salvation. The Decalogue itself begins (like the new covenant) with I am the Lord thy God. But, unlike the new covenant, it makes no provision whereby Israel may keep the laws arising out of the relationship. The new covenant not only asserts the relationship, but provides the means whereby men may walk worthy of it. I will put my laws in their mind, and write them in their heart. (See Note on Deu. 29:13.)
It is only in the power of this principle that Moses, in the exhortation which he founds on this statement of the way of righteousness through faith, could say as he did in Deu. 30:19, therefore choose life.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11. Hidden from thee Rather, is not too difficult for thee. Jehovah has not imposed upon his people conditions impossible of fulfilment; nor are his requirements difficult of comprehension. “Nowhere does the fundamental religious thought of prophecy find clearer expression than in Deuteronomy the thought that Jehovah asks nothing for himself, but asks it as a religious duty that man should render to man what is right that his will lies not in any unknown height, but in the moral sphere which is known and understood by all.” J. WELLHAUSEN, in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9th ed., vol. xiii, pp. 415, 416.
Neither is it far off Comp. Luk 17:21.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
His Commandment Is Something That Can Be Achieved ( Deu 30:11-14 ).
Moses again stressed that what he was calling on them to do was not difficult to achieve. It did not demand great expenditure of effort and great daring, a seeking to achieve God’s secrets, but it called for a loving response to what was already known. It was not something far off that was unreachable. It was there to hand if they would but seize it.
Analysis using the words of Moses:
a For this commandment which I command you this day, it is not too hard for you, neither is it far off (Deu 30:11).
b It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it?” (Deu 30:12).
b Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it?” (Deu 30:13).
a But the word is very nigh to you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that you may do it. (Deu 30:14).
Note that in ‘a’ his commandment given that day is not too hard nor is it afar off, and in the parallel it is near in their mouths and their hearts so that they may do it, In ‘b’ and parallel it is not in any unreachable place, whether it be heaven or the mysterious sea, where they could not reach it.
Deu 30:11
‘ For this commandment which I command you this day, it is not too hard for you, neither is it far off.’
He stressed that the commandment that he had given, which contained the commandments and statutes and ordinances, was neither hard to discover nor distant from them. It may be that he had in mind here myths and stories about men’s attempts to consult the gods and to obtain wisdom and understanding, where they sought to ascend into the heavens or travel beyond the seas. These were no doubt fairly common motifs and one or other is found in, for example, the Canaanite legend of King Keret and the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh among others. But this may not necessarily be the case, for he may simply have been thinking of remote, inaccessible places as an example. The sky and the sea would necessarily commend themselves as such. The sky was unreachable and the sea to be feared.
In other nations the mystery of the priesthood and priestly ministrations and knowledge might be kept from the people, but not in Israel. The whole had been laid bare, and was known to all.
“This commandment which I command you this day.” This is typical Mosaic phraseology. Compare Deu 6:1; Deu 7:11; Deu 8:1; Deu 11:22; Deu 15:5; Deu 19:9; Deu 26:13; Deu 27:1; Deu 31:5. See also Deu 4:2; Deu 4:40; Deu 6:2; Deu 6:17; Deu 8:11; Deu 10:13; Deu 11:8; Deu 11:13; Deu 11:27; Deu 13:18; Deu 27:10; Deu 28:1; Deu 28:9; Deu 28:13; Deu 28:15; Deu 28:45; Deu 30:8 where ‘commandments’ is used in the plural in a similar way, often following up the above singular usages.
Deu 30:12
‘ It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it?” ’
Yahweh had not put His commandment beyond man’s reach. It was not in heaven that men might say, ‘who will go and get it for us?’ Note his meaningful way of describing it, ‘who will go — for us?’ Even now he knew that they did not want to get too close to God. They had wanted him to go into the Mount to receive God’s commandments (Deu 5:27), and it would be the same if the commandments were in heaven. They would want someone else to go for them. And therein would lie great danger, for that was why they could be manipulated by people who made such claims (consider Balaam). But Yahweh’s ways on the contrary were made plain to all. They are to hand in His word.
“Make us to hear it.” What was more he indicates by these words that they were aware of their own weakness. While they did not want God to make them hear it with His terrible voice, for they had heard it once ‘from heaven’ (Deu 4:36) and that was enough, they did want someone to make them hear it, that they may do it.
But they need not fear. He had gone into the Mount to receive God’s commandment for them ‘from heaven’ (Deu 4:36) and it was now easily accessible to them, and he was doing his best to make them hear it so they would do it. So they had no excuse.
Deu 30:13
‘ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it?” ’
Nor would they have to go beyond the sea. No great adventurer (like Gilgamesh) was required who would sail forth to unknown lands to seek to obtain it for them, in order to make them hear it and do it. There was no far off mystery which could bring them wisdom and understanding. God had given it openly there among them.
Deu 30:14
‘ But the word is very nigh to you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that you may do it.’
For the word was as close to them as it could possibly be. It was in their mouth and in their heart that they might do it. It was there in what he had taught them, and the word from God that he had brought them. They could teach it to their children, they could speak of it with each other, and they could meditate on it in their hearts (Deu 4:9; Deu 6:7; Deu 11:18-19). But there was no one who could make them hear it and do it. That was up to their own their final choice.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Death and Life set before Israel
v. 11. For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off, v. 12. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, who shall go up for us to heaven and bring it unto us that we may hear it and do it? v. 13. Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, who shall go over the sea for us and bring it unto us that we may hear it and do it? v. 14. But the Word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it. v. 15. See, I have set before thee this day, v. 16. in that I command thee this day to love the Lord, thy God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply, v. 17. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, v. 18. I denounce unto you this day, v. 19. I call heaven and earth, v. 20. that thou mayest love the Lord, thy God, and that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him; for he is thy Life,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Ver. 11-14. This commandmentis not hidden from thee, &c. i.e. Is not abstruse and hard to be understood, but easy to be known and comprehended: neither is it far off; so that they needed not to travel into distant countries to learn their duty; as the Greek philosophers and others used to travel into Egypt, and the eastern parts of the world, to gain wisdom. It is not in heaven:neitherbeyond the sea: in which words, Moses, according to Houbigant, alludes to the law delivered from heaven on mount Sinai, and to the passage of the Red Sea; two things peculiarly infixed in the minds of the Israelites: others, however, think, that the phrases are proverbial, signifying that no hard, or rather impossible, labour was required from them to arrive at the knowledge of God’s will. So, Grotius observes, the Greeks express things very difficult, by going up to heaven: and Philo thus explains the words, neither is it beyond the sea, &c. “Neither is it so distant as to need long and tedious voyages to fetch it from remote countries.” But the word is very nigh unto thee, continues the sacred writer; that is, made so familiar, that thou mayest always have it in thy common discourse; in thy mouth: and now so often repeated, that it may well and easily be laid up in thy memory; in thy heart. See chap. Deu 6:9 Deu 11:18; Deu 11:20. In Moses’s law there were no mysteries known only to a few, and which were to be kept secret from the vulgar, as was the case in the Egyptian wisdom. Houbigant well observes, that these words clearly prove to us, that the precepts, commonly called legal, are not meant by THE WORD here; for Moses would not say, that it was in the mouth and heart of man to slay sacrifices, pay tithes, and celebrate annual festivals: therefore St. Paul, with great propriety, understood THE WORD for the word of faith, and as pointing out their faith in the word of that Redeemer, whose future coming upon the earth the whole ancient law foretold and prefigured. See Rom 10:6.
Note; The doctrine of grace in a Redeemer is clearly revealed, and easily comprehended by the enlightened mind, brought nigh to us by the ministry of the word: we need not climb the skies to inquire; Jesus incarnate is come down to teach us; nor need we go down to the deep in search for him, who has arisen from the dead, and has accomplished the work of redemption: so that, if with our mouth we confess him as our only hope, and in our heart cleave to him as our only Lord, we shall infallibly be saved.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 225
THE WAY OF SALVATION PLAIN AND EASY
Deu 30:11-14. This commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from 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, that we may hear it, and 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, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.
IT is a very prevalent idea in the world, that all people shall be saved by the law under which they live; so that Jews, Turks, and heathens of every description, have as good a prospect of salvation, as those who enjoy the light of the Gospel. But there has been only one way of salvation from the fall of Adam to the present moment. How far God may be pleased to extend mercy for Christs sake to some who have not had an opportunity of hearing the Gospel, we cannot presume to say: but to those who have the Scriptures in their hands we are sure that there is no hope of acceptance, but through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This was the way of salvation revealed to Adam, confirmed to Abraham, and more fully opened in the Mosaic law. It was of this that Moses spake in the words before us: to elucidate which, we shall inquire,
I.
What is the commandment here spoken of
What it was may be seen by consulting,
1.
The testimony of Moses himself
[It was not the moral law that was given on Mount Sinai, but 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 [Note: Deu 29:1.]. The law given on Mount Sinai, of which Horeb was a part, was strictly a covenant of works: but that which was given in the land of Moab, was a covenant of grace. That on Mount Sinai made no provision for the smallest transgression: it simply said, Do this, and live: but that in the land of Moab was accompanied with the sprinkling of the blood of sacrifices both on the altar and on the people [Note: Exo 24:3-8.]; and intimated, that through the blood of the great Sacrifice their iniquities, if truly repented of, might be forgiven. And this distinction is very carefully noticed in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where St. Paul, mentioning some particulars not related by Moses, declares, that, by the covenant thus ratified, remission of sins was provided for, and might be obtained by all who sought it in the appointed way.]
2.
An inspired exposition of the passage [Note: Rom 10:5-10.]
[St. Paul is expressly contrasting the nature of the two covenants: the Law, he tells us, required perfect obedience, and said, He that doeth these things shall live in them [Note: Lev 18:5 and Deu 27:26.]. But the Gospel, that is, the righteousness which is of faith, speaketh on this wise; and then he quotes the words before us, and explains them as referring to the Gospel. Some have thought that he quoted these words only in a way of accommodation; but it is plain that he understood them as strictly applicable to his point. Speaking of the righteousness which is of faith, he says, But what saith it [Note: Some would rather substitute the word he. But our translation is right. See Beza in loc.]? He then, quoting the very words of Moses, answers, The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart; and then he adds, This is the word of faith which we preach. If then the Apostle was inspired by the Holy Ghost, the matter is clear; and the Gospel was the commandment of which Moses spake. And it is worthy of observation, that Christ and his Apostles speak of it under very similar terms. Our Lord says, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent: by which he means, that it is the work which God requires of us [Note: Joh 6:28-29.]. St. Paul calls the Gospel, the law of faith [Note: Rom 3:27.]. St. John says, This is his commandment, that ye believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ [Note: 1Jn 3:23.]. And obeying the Gospel is the common term used for believing in Christ [Note: Rom 10:15; Rom 16:26; 2Th 1:8; 1Pe 4:17.].]
3.
The particular characters by which it is distinguished
[Moses speaks of it as plainly revealed, and as easily understood. Now this representation accords with that dispensation of the Gospel which was given to the Jews: they had no necessity for any one to ascend up to heaven, or to go over the sea, to bring them information about the way of life; for God had already revealed it to them from heaven: he had shewn them by the moral law that they were all in a state of guilt and condemnation; and he had shewn them by the ceremonial law that they were to be saved by means of a sacrifice, which should in due time be offered. And though that revelation was comparatively obscure, yet any Jew with pious dispositions might understand it sufficiently to obtain salvation by it.
But these characters in the fullest sense agree with the Gospel as it is made known to us. We are not left to inquire whether there is a Saviour or not? whether Christ has come down from above? or whether he has been raised up again from the dead? We know that he has come into the world; that he has died for our sins, and has risen again for our justification: we know that he has done every thing that is necessary for our reconciliation with God, and will do every thing that can be necessary for the carrying on and perfecting the salvation of our souls. There is no uncertainty about any point that is of importance to us to know. Nor indeed is there any difficulty in understanding what he has revealed. All that is required, is, a simple, humble, teachable spirit; and to such an one, however ignorant he be in other respects, every part of the Gospel is dear. The humble Christian has within himself the witness of all the fundamental truths of the Gospel. What doubt can he have that he is a guilty and condemned creature; or that he needs an atonement for his sins, and a better righteousness than his own for his justification before God? What doubt can he hare that he needs the influences of the Holy Spirit to renew him after the divine image, and to render him meet for heaven? If the Gospel be hid from any, it is because the god of this world has blinded their eyes: it is not the intricacy or obscurity of the Gospel that makes it unintelligible to them, but the simplicity and brightness of it: they love darkness rather than light; and complain of the Gospel, when the fault is only in themselves. As revealed to us, the Gospel is not obscure; but, as revealed in us, it is bright as the meridian sun.]
Such then is the commandment which God commands us this day. We proceed to consider,
II.
What is the obedience which it requires
It demands from us,
1.
An inward approbation of the heart
[Without this all the knowledge of men or angels would be of little use. On this our salvation altogether depends. Moses says, The word is in thy heart; and St. Pauls exposition of it is, If thou shalt believe in thine heart that God bath raised the Lord Jesus from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Thus a mere rational assent to divine truth is particularly excluded from the office of saving; and salvation is annexed to that faith only which calls forth all the affections of the soul, a faith which worketh by love. As a commandment, it is to have all the force of a law within us, casting down imaginations with every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. It is not sufficient that we acknowledge the death and resurrection of Christ as parts of our creed: we must see and feel the necessity of them in order to the deliverance of our souls from death and hell; and we must also glory in them, as the infinitely wise, gracious, and all-sufficient means of our redemption. We must have such a view of these truths, as makes us to account all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of them [Note: Php 3:8.]. This was insisted on as necessary to the admission of converts into the Christian Church. And it is the experience of all who truly belong to Christ [Note: Rom 6:17. See the Greek.].]
2.
An outward confession of them with the mouth
[It is curious to observe what minute attention the Apostle paid to the words of Moses, and what emphasis he has laid upon them. Moses had transiently observed, The word is in thy mouth and in thy heart; but the Apostle amplifies the idea, and shews repeatedly that the confessing of Christ with the mouth is quite as necessary as the believing on him with the heart: by the latter indeed we obtain righteousness; but by the former we obtain complete salvation [Note: Rom 10:9-10.]. In that age, to confess Christ before men was to subject oneself to persecutions and death in their most cruel forms: but our Lord would not acknowledge any one as his disciple, who should neglect to do it: he warned his disciples that such cowardice would infallibly exclude them from the kingdom of heaven. How necessary then and indispensable must a confession of Christ in this age be, when we have nothing to fear but the loss of some temporal interest, and the being stigmatized with some ignominious name! Truly, if we are ashamed to confess him, we may well be banished from his presence as the weakest and most contemptible of the human race [Note: Mark viii. 38.]. Let this then be considered by all who would secure the salvation of their souls; they must openly confess their attachment to Christ, and must follow him without the camp, bearing his reproach. A public acknowledging of him indeed will not supersede the necessity of internal piety; nor will the piety of the heart supersede the necessity of honouring Christ by an open profession of our faith: both are necessary in their place; and both must be combined by those who would derive any benefit from either.]
Learn then from hence,
1.
To value aright the privileges you enjoy
[The Jews were far exalted above the heathen; but we are no less exalted above them: for we have the substance, of which they had only the shadow. But even among Christians also there is a great difference; some having the Gospel more fully and clearly opened to them than others. We pray God that the light which you enjoy may be improved by you; else it will leave you in a more deplorable state than Sodom and Gomorrha.]
2.
To guard against entertaining discouraging thoughts about the salvation of your souls
[Moses tells you that you have no occasion for such thoughts; and St. Paul guards you against the admission of them into your minds: Say not in thine heart, who shall do such and such things for me? It is very common for persons to think their salvation on one account or other unattainable. But what could God have done for us that he has not done? or what provision do we need which he has not laid up in store for us? To say, This salvation is not for me, is to contradict the Scriptures, and to make God a liar. Repeatedly is it said, that whosoever believeth in Christ, and whosoever shall call on his name, shall be saved. It matters not whether he be a Jew or a Gentile, a greater sinner or a less; for God is rich unto all that call upon him, whatever guilt they may have contracted, or whatever discouragements they may labour under [Note: Rom 10:11-13.]. Put away then all unbelieving fears, and know, that, as the Gospel is revealed for the benefit of all, so it shall be effectual for all who believe and obey it.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
DISCOURSE: 226
THE GOSPEL CLEARLY CONTAINED IN THE OLD TESTAMENT [Note: The authors First Address to the Jews, at St. Catharine Cree, London. The preceding Discourse on the same text was written many years before, for Gentiles; this in 1818, for Jews.]
Deu 30:11-14. This commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from 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, that we may hear it, and 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, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.
THE Old Testament is a rich mine of spiritual knowledge, and reflects as much light upon the New Testament as itself receives from this fuller revelation of Gods will. Each is necessary to the understanding of the other: in that is the model of the edifice, which, under the Christian dispensation, has been erected: and, if it were duly attended to, it would prove sufficient to convince the whole world, that Christianity is Judaism perfected and completed; perfected in all its types, and completed in all its prophecies. To this effect spake Moses in the words before us. The commandment which he mentions, is not to be understood, as many Jews imagine, of the law given upon Mount Sinai, but of another covenant which God entered into with his people in the land of Moab; and which was, in fact, the covenant of grace. It is by Moses himself distinguished from the covenant of works [Note: Deu 29:1.]: and that distinction is confirmed by the account which he gives of it elsewhere. The law, as published on Horeb or Mount Sinai, made no provision for the pardon of any sin whatever: it simply said, Do this and thou shalt live: but the covenant made afterwards in the land of Moab, was ratified with the blood of sacrifices; which blood was sprinkled upon the altar, the book, and all the people [Note: Exo 24:3-8.]; and therefore sprinkled, that they might know how to seek the remission of their sins, as often as occasion for it should arise [Note: The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, who was so deeply conversant with the whole of the Mosaic law, refers to this very covenant in this precise point of view. Heb 9:19-20.]. In this act the gospel way of salvation was set before them; so that they needed not henceforth to be looking for any one to come down from heaven, like Moses, or from the depths of the sea, like Jonah, to proclaim it, seeing that it was very nigh unto them already, even in their mouth, which approved of the law, and in their heart, which loved it.
The things which the Gospel more particularly inculcates, are, Repentance, Faith, and Obedience; and these are almost as clearly revealed in the Old Testament as in the New.
To shew this to the Jewish people is, I conceive, the very first step towards bringing them to Christianity. The Apostles, when preaching to the Jews, always appealed to the Old Testament in confirmation of all that they delivered: and I also, after their example, will endeavour to shew you, my Jewish Brethren, that your own Scriptures declare in the plainest terms,
I.
That you are guilty and condemned by the moral law.
The law is a perfect transcript of the mind and will of God; and it requires of every human being an obedience to all its commands. For one single transgression it utterly and eternally condemns us: nay more, it requires every individual to express his assent to this as true, and his approbation of it as right and good: Cursed is he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them: and all the people shall say, Amen [Note: Deu 27:26.]. But of the impossibility of coming to God by the law, we have a most striking illustration in the conduct of your forefathers at the very time that the law was given: they were so terrified by all that they saw and heard, that they repeatedly declared, that, if the same scenes should pass again, they should die: they entreated that God would no more speak to them himself, but give them a Mediator, through whom they might receive his law in a mitigated form, and divested of those terrors which they were not able to endure. And of this request God expressed the highest approbation, saying, They have well said all that they have spoken. O that there were such an heart in them [Note: Deu 5:22-29.]! In this matter, dearly beloved, my heart responds to the wish of your Almighty Lawgiver, O that there were in you such an heart! Could we but once see you thoroughly convinced of your guilt and condemnation by the law, we should have no fear of your speedily and thankfully embracing the salvation offered you in the Gospel. The great obstacle to your reception of the Gospel is, that instead of regarding the law as a ministration of death and of condemnation, you are looking for life from obedience to it. True it is that temporal blessings were promised to obedience: and that eternal blessings also were promised to those who should lay hold on Gods covenant, and keep his commandments. But the covenant on which they were to lay hold, was that which had been made with their father Abraham; and which never was, nor could be, disannulled by the law. The law, as published on Mount Sinai, was intended to shut them up to this covenant, by making known to them the impossibility of being saved in any other way than by the promised Seed. And, when once you understand and feel this, you will not be far from the kingdom of God.
This conviction would also prepare you for another lesson taught you by Moses; namely,
II.
That you must be saved altogether by an atoning sacrifice.
This was taught you throughout the whole ceremonial law: the daily and annual sacrifices proclaimed it to your whole nation. Nor was this merely taught in theory; it was required of every offender, whatever his sin might be, to bring his sacrifice, in order that it might be put to death in his stead, and deliver him from the condemnation which his sin had merited. Even for sins of ignorance this was required; and the offender, whether he were a priest, or an elder, or a ruler, or one of the common people, was required to put his hands on the head of his sacrifice, and thus, by the most significant of all actions, to transfer to it his sins [Note: Lev 4:4; Lev 4:15; Lev 4:24; Lev 4:29.]. What an instructive ordinance was this! Yet was the ordinance of the scape-goat, if possible, still more instructive. On the great day of annual expiation, the high-priest, after killing the goat on which the Lords lot had fallen, was to put his hands on the head of the scape-goat, and to confess over him all the sins of all the children of Israel; and then the goat was led into the wilderness from before them all, never more to be seen; that so the removal of their sins might be made visible, as it were, to their bodily eyes [Note: Lev 16:20-22.].
Yet, whilst this glorious truth was thus plainly declared, the insufficiency of the legal sacrifices, and the necessity of a better sacrifice, was proclaimed also. For these very sacrifices were to be repeated from year to year; which shewed, that the guilt expiated by them was not fully removed. Hence the very sacrifices were, in fact, no other than an annual remembrance of sins, not finally forgiven. In this light they were viewed by those of your forefathers whom you cannot but venerate, and whom I believe to have been inspired of God, the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ [Note: See Heb 10:1-4.].
The same thing was intimated by the very partial appointment of sacrifices. There were many sins, as adultery and murder, for which no sacrifice was appointed. Indeed, presumptuous sins, of whatever land they were, if remission was to be obtained by sacrifices, could never be forgiven; because no sacrifice was appointed for them. Nor, in truth, was any man made perfect as pertaining to the conscience by any of the sacrifices; because every man had a secret suspicion at least, if not conviction, that the blood of bulls and of goats could never take away sin [Note: See Heb 10:1-4.]. Still, however, the great end was answered of directing the eyes of all to the appointed sacrifices, and through them to the Lord Jesus Christ, the great sacrifice, whose blood alone can cleanse from sin, and who is a propitiation for the sins of the whole world.
Dear Brethren, it was to this better sacrifice that David looked, when, after the commission of adultery and murder, he prayed, Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow [Note: Psa 51:7.]. Let your eyes be directed to the same sacrifice, even to your Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the Prophet Isaiah says, He was wounded for our transgressions: and again, The Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all. This is He whom your forefathers pierced, and nailed to the cross; and through whom thousands of those who crucified him, found peace with God: and, if you also could now be persuaded to look unto him for salvation, you would immediately experience the effect produced by the brasen serpent in the wilderness, and be healed every one of you. O that you would obey the direction given you in the writings of your own prophets, Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. You would no longer continue strangers to peace and joy; (for strangers ye must be to these divine sensations, whilst ye are condemned by the law, and ignorant of the way in which your guilt is to be removed:) on the contrary, your peace should flow as a river, and, as children of Zion, you . should be joyful in your King.
But further, it is declared in your law,
III.
That all who are thus saved, must be holy in heart and life.
God, as you know, requires you to be holy as he is holy; and to be a peculiar people unto him above all the people upon earth. And I the rather bring this to your minds, because you are ready to think that we wish to proselyte you to Christianity, that we may have to glory in such an accession to our cause. But I beg leave to assure you, that I would not move a finger to proselyte your whole nation to our religion, if I did not at the same time raise them to be better men, fitter to serve their God on earth, and fitter to enjoy him for ever in heaven. And this I entreat you to bear in mind. It is to the divine image that we wish to bring you, and to the full possession of that blessing promised to you by Jehovah himself; I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. And I will take away the heart of stone out of your flesh, and will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and to keep my judgments and do them [Note: Eze 36:25-27.]. This is necessary for you, as it is also for us: nor have we ourselves any other rule of conduct than that which was prescribed to you in the Ten Commandments. The advantage we have in the New Testament is not that new things are revealed to us, but that the things originally revealed to you are made more clear and intelligible. Not that in your Scriptures there is any obscurity in relation to this matter: we may truly say, It is not far off, nor is it hidden from you; but it is very nigh unto you, even in your hands and in your mouth: I pray God we may be able to add, as Moses did in my text, that it is in your heart also!
And now permit me to address a few words to you, my Jewish Brethren
It is to your own Scriptures that I wish in the first instance to direct your attention: for you yourselves know that they testify of your Messiah, and are intended to direct you to him. It is greatly to be lamented, that they are not studied amongst you as they ought to be; and that your Rabbis for the most part pay more deference to the voluminous commentaries with which your Scriptures are obscured, than to the Scriptures themselves. But let it not be so with you. Begin to search the Scriptures for yourselves: search them as for hid treasures; and pray to God to give you his Holy Spirit, to instruct you, and to guide you into all truth. When you take the blessed book of God into your hands, lift up your heart to God, and say with David, Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law! Then compare your Scriptures with ours, the Old Testament with the New; and mark how exactly they correspond with each other, even as the vessel with the mould, or the wax with the seal. Then I fear not but that you will soon acknowledge Him of whom the Law and the Prophets do speak, even Jesus of Nazareth, to be the true Messiah, the Saviour of the world. Yes; he whom you have hitherto rejected will become precious to your souls: and you will, in a far higher sense than you have ever yet been, become the children of Abraham, and the sons of God.
To the Christian part of this auditory I will also beg leave to address a few words
You have seen that with care and labour I have endeavoured to establish the true import of my text from the writings of Moses himself. But, if I had been speaking to you only, I might have spared that trouble, having the text already explained to my hand by God himself. St. Paul tells us, that the commandment which was nigh to the Jews, was the Gospel itself, even that word of faith which declares, that whosoever with the heart believes in Christ, and with the mouth confesses him, shall assuredly be saved [Note: Rom 10:5-13.]. How thankful should we be for such a light! and having been favoured with it, shall we conceal it from our Jewish brethren, from whom, under God, we have received it? What would you think of a man, who, being stationed in a light-house for the purpose of warning ships in its vicinity to avoid some rocks, and of directing them into a safe harbour, should, when he saw a whole fleet approaching, conceal the lights, and leave the whole fleet to perish on the rocks; and, when called to an account for his conduct, should say, I did not think it right to create any alarm among the crews and their passengers? Would you think his excuse valid? Would you approve of his pretended benevolence? Would you not rather be filled with indignation against him, and say, that the blood of all who perished should be required at his hands? Do not ye then act in a way, which, under other circumstances, you would so severely condemn: but, as God has given you a light, improve it carefully for your Jewish brethren. This is what their fathers did for you, when you were bowing down to stocks and stones. Do ye it then for them, if peradventure you may be the means of enlightening some amongst them, and of saving their souls alive.
At the same time remember, that St. Paul applies the passage unto you; and tells you from it, that you must believe in Christ with your hearts, and confess him openly with your mouths. The word is, in the strictest sense, very nigh unto you: read it then, and ponder it in your hearts, and treasure it up in your minds, and live upon it, and glory in it: so shall it be a light to your paths, and make you wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
If we read those words with an eye to that blessed dispensation, to which the law ministered, for the law is our school-master unto CHRIST, we shall find that there is much gospel in them. It is indeed in the gospel, that we are brought nigh by the blood of CHRIST. Eph 2:13 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Deu 30:11 For this commandment which I command thee this day, it [is] not hidden from thee, neither [is] it far off.
Ver. 11. For this commandment. ] This word of faith, Rom 10:8 that teacheth the righteousness of faith, Rom 10:6 and speaketh on this wise, the doctrine of salvation by faith that works by love, this is clearly enough revealed in both Testaments, so that none can reasonably plead ignorance, and think to be excused by it.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Deuteronomy
THE SPIRIT OF THE LAW
Deu 30:11 – Deu 30:20
This paragraph closes the legislation of this book, the succeeding chapters being in the nature of an epilogue or appendix. It sums up the whole law, makes plain its inmost essence and its tremendous alternatives. As in the closing strains of some great symphony, the themes which have run through the preceding movements are woven together in the final burst of music. Let us try to discover the component threads of the web.
The first point to note is the lofty conception of the true essence of the whole law, which is enshrined here. ‘This commandment which I command thee this day’ is twice defined in the section vs. Deu 30:16 , Deu 30:20, and in both instances ‘to love Jehovah thy God’ is presented as the all-important precept. Love is recognised as the great commandment. Leviticus may deal with minute regulations for worship, but these are subordinate, and the sovereign commandment is love. Nor is the motive which should sway to love omitted; for what a tender drawing by the memories of what He had done for Israel is put forth in the name of ‘Jehovah, thy God!’ The Old Testament system is a spiritual system, and it too places the very heart of religion in love to God, drawn out by the contemplation of his self-revelation in his loving dealings with us. We have here clearly recognised that the obedience which pleases God is obedience born of love, and that the love which really sets towards God will, like a powerful stream, turn all the wheels of life in conformity to His will. When Paul proclaimed that ‘love is the fulfilling of the law,’ he was only repeating the teaching of this passage, when it puts ‘to walk in His ways,’ or ‘to obey His voice,’ after ‘to love Jehovah thy God.’ Obedience is the result and test of love; love is the only parent of real obedience.
The second point strongly insisted on here is the blessedness of possessing such a knowledge as the law gives. Deu 30:11 – Deu 30:14 present that thought in three ways. The revelation is not that of duties far beyond our capacity: ‘It is not too hard for thee.’ No doubt, complete conformity with it is beyond our powers, and entire, whole-hearted, and whole-souled love of God is not attained even by those who love Him most. Paul’s position that the law gives the knowledge of sin, just because it presents an impossible elevation in its ideal, is not opposed to the point of view of this context; for he is thinking of complete conformity as impossible, while it is thinking of real, though imperfect, obedience as within the reach of all men. No man can love as he ought; every man can love. It is blessed to have our obligations all gathered into such a commandment.
Again, the possession of the law is a blessing, because its authoritative voice ends the weary quest after some reliable guide to conduct, and we need neither try to climb to heaven, nor to traverse the wide world and cross the ocean, to find certitude and enlightenment enough for our need. They err who think of God’s commandments as grievous burdens; they are merciful guide-posts. They do not so much lay weights on our backs as give light to our eyes.
Still further, the law has its echo ‘in thy heart.’ It is ‘graven on the fleshly tables of the heart,’ and we all respond to it when it gathers up all duty into ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God,’ and our consciences say to it, ‘Thou speakest well.’ The worst man knows it better than the best man keeps it. Blurred and illegible often, like the half-defaced inscriptions disinterred from the rubbish mounds that once were Nineveh or Babylon, that law remains written on the hearts of all men.
A further point to be well laid to heart is the merciful plainness and emphasis with which the issues that are suspended on obedience or disobedience are declared. The solemn alternatives are before every man that hears. Life or death, blessing or cursing, are held out to him, and it is for him to elect which shall be realised in his case. Of course, it may be said that the words ‘life’ and ‘death’ are here used in their merely physical sense, and that the context shows Deu 30:17 – Deu 30:18 that life here means only ‘length of days, that thou mayest dwell in the land.’ No doubt that is so, though we can scarcely refuse to see some glimmer of a deeper conception gleaming through the words, ‘He is thy life,’ though it is but a glimmer. We have no space here to enter upon the question of how far it is now true that obedience brings material blessings. It was true for Israel, as many a sad experience that it was a bitter as well as an evil thing to forsake Jehovah was to show in the future. But though the connection between well-doing and material gain is not so clear now, it is by no means abrogated, either for nations or for individuals. Moral and religious law has social and economic consequences, and though the perplexed distribution of earthly good and ill often bewilders faith and emboldens scepticism, there still is visible in human affairs a drift towards recompensing in the world the righteous and the wicked.
But to us, with our Christian consciousness, ‘life’ means more than living, and ‘He is our life’ in a deeper and more blessed sense than that our physical existence is sustained by His continual energy. The love of God and consequent union with Him give us the only true life. Jesus is ‘our life,’ and He enters the spirit which opens to Him by faith, and communicates to it a spark of His own immortal life. He that is joined to Jesus lives; he that is separated from Him ‘is dead while he liveth.’
The last point here is the solemn responsibility for choosing one’s part, which the revelation of the law brings with it. ‘I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse, therefore choose life.’ We each determine for ourselves whether the knowledge of what we ought to be will lead to life or to death, and by choosing obedience we choose life. Every ray of light from God is capable of producing a double effect. It either gladdens or pains, it either gives vision or blindness. The gospel, which is the perfect revelation of God in Christ, brings every one of us face to face with the great alternative, and urgently demands from each his personal act of choice whether he will accept it or neglect or reject it. Not to choose to accept is to choose to reject. To do nothing is to choose death. The knowledge of the law was not enough, and neither is an intellectual reception of the gospel. The one bred Pharisees, who were ‘whited sepulchres’; the other breeds orthodox professors, who have ‘a name to live and are dead.’ The clearer our light, the heavier our responsibility. If we are to live, we have to ‘choose life’; and if we do not, by the vigorous exercise of our will, turn away from earth and self, and take Jesus for our Saviour and Lord, loving and obeying whom we love and obey God, we have effectually chosen a worse death than that of the body, and flung away a better life than that of earth.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Deu 30:11-14
11For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. 12It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’ 13Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’ 14But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it.
Deu 30:11-14 YHWH’s will for Israel was not impossible (cf. Deu 28:29). This verse seems to depreciate the reformers doctrine of total depravity. There are several places in the OT where human resistence to sin is possible (e.g., Gen 4:7).
The church picks up on Genesis 3 as the origin of sin in mankind, while many rabbis pick up on Genesis 6 as the source of the conflict. As Christianity asserts the fallenness of all creation, including humanity, Judaism asserts the basic goodness of humanity. For them the evil is in the choice, not the basic nature.
However, it seems to me that moral accountability is based on the real possibility of comprehending God’s will and the ability to act on it. Without the possibility of appropriate action, divine accountability is inappropriate! Can I be held responsible for that which I cannot do?
Deu 30:12 ‘Who will go up to heaven’ Paul uses this in Rom 10:6-9. It possibly reflects the Sumerian legend of Etana, but probably relates to the Hebrew view of God’s sovereignty.
There are several VERBS used in an imperatival sense in this verse (according to OT Parsing Guide):
1. to get it – BDB 542, KB 534, Qal IMPERFECT, but JUSSIVE in meaning
2. make us hear – BDB 1033, KB 1570, Hiphil IMPERFECT, but JUSSIVE in meaning
3. we may observe it – BDB 793, KB 889, Qal IMPERFECT, but COHORTATIVE in meaning
Deu 30:13 beyond the sea Some see this as related to the Babylonian flood account called the Gilgamesh Epic, but it probably relates to the Jewish fears of sailing or a metaphor of the ends of the earth.
Deu 30:14 But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart This refers to YHWH’s revealed covenant. The ancients read Scripture aloud! They had to appropriately respond inwardly to what they had heard (i.e., read themselves or read aloud).
that you may observe it Man must make the decision. It is in his ability to do so. God initiates but mankind must respond and continue to respond in repentance, faith, and obedience!
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
not hidden = not too wonderful. Compare Rom 10:6, &c.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the Supreme Choice
Deu 30:11-20
The immediate purpose of this passage is to encourage the people by reminding them that all things needful for a holy life are within their reach. Paul refers to it for the same purpose, Rom 10:6.
The love and grace of God are not concealed as hidden mysteries might be. There is no need to undertake a long and dangerous journey, like that which brought the eastern Magi to the manger-bed of Bethlehem. The Word of God, which is another name for our Lord, is very nigh to us all. We have only to lift the heart to Him in simple faith, and confess Him as our Savior and Lord, and we are assured of salvation from the penalty and power of sin.
Love to God and compliance with His will is the only way of life and peace. Let us choose this narrow path. The gate is strait, but the way becomes always easier. It is narrow, but pleasant.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
it is not hidden: Or as the word niphlaith implies, not too wonderful for thee to comprehend or perform; but easily to be acquainted with, and understood, because clearly revealed: neither is it afar off; it was proclaimed in you ears from mount Sinai, and is now proclaimed in the sanctuary: it is not in heaven; for it has been already revealed: neither is it beyond the sea; that you need travel for instruction, as the ancient philosophers did, or seek instruction from men, at immense labour and expense; but the word is very nigh to thee; brought to thy very doors; in thy mouth, and in thy heart; made so familiar as to afford a topic of common discourse, that it might be laid up in the memory and reduced to practice. Psa 147:19, Psa 147:20, Isa 45:19, Rom 16:25, Rom 16:26, Col 1:26, Col 1:27
Reciprocal: Ecc 7:24 – General Luk 10:11 – notwithstanding Rom 10:6 – Say not
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Deu 30:11. This commandment The great command of loving and obeying God, which is the sum of the law, of which yet he doth not here speak as it is in itself, but as it is mollified and accompanied with the grace of the gospel. The meaning is, that though the practice of Gods laws be now far from us, and above our strength, yet, considering the advantage of gospel grace, whereby God enables us to do our duty, it is near and easy to us, who believe. And so this well agrees with Rom 10:6, &c., where St. Paul applies this place to the righteousness of faith. Is not hidden Hebrew, Is not too wonderful for thee; not too hard for thee to know and do. The will of God, which is but darkly manifested to other nations, (Act 17:27,) is clearly and fully revealed unto thee: thou canst not pretend ignorance or invincible difficulty.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Deu 30:11-20 was probably intended to close Dt.
Deu 30:11-14 is applied and adapted by Paul in Romans 6-8.Prefix to Deu 30:16 the following words found in the LXX and necessary for the sense: If thou wilt listen to the commandments of Yahweh thy God (which, etc.).
Deu 30:19 = Deu 4:26.
Deu 30:20. to love: Deu 6:5.thy life: i.e. the one that gives thee life.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
30:11 For this commandment which I command thee this day, it [is] {h} not hidden from thee, neither [is] it far off.
(h) The law is so evident that no one can pretend ignorance.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
2. The importance of obedience 30:11-20
Obeying did not lie beyond the average Israelite’s ability if he or she turned to Yahweh wholeheartedly (Deu 30:10). God was not asking something impossible of His people (Deu 30:11-15; cf. Rom 10:6-8). He had given them the Mosaic Law so they could obey Him.
"The point at issue here was not the ease or even possibility of keeping the word of the Lord . . . but of even knowing what it was. Contrary to the inscrutable and enigmatic ways of the pagan gods, the Lord’s purposes and will for his people are crystal clear. They are not ’too difficult’ (lo’ niple’t, lit. ’not too wonderful,’ i.e., beyond comprehension) or beyond reach (Deu 30:11). That is, they can be understood by the human mind despite its limitations." [Note: Merrill, Deuteronomy, p. 391.]
The choice before the Israelites was ultimately one of life or death (Deu 30:15-18; cf. Gen 1:28; Gen 2:9; Gen 2:17; Gen 3:8; Gen 3:22-24; Gen 5:22-24; Gen 6:9; Gen 17:1). [Note: See Sailhamer, The Pentateuch . . ., p. 474.] Moses called the permanent, unchanging heaven and earth to witness the making of this covenant (Deu 30:19). Those who made ancient Near Eastern treaties commonly called witnesses to attest them, as God did here. God also urged the people to look at the consequences of their choice and to choose life and obedience deliberately (Deu 30:19-20). The highest motive, love for God, would enable the Israelites to obey the Lord steadfastly. They would consequently "live in the land" God had promised the patriarchs (Deu 30:20).
"The notion of choice, with its implication of freedom to determine one’s own actions or mode of life, is one which is characteristic of Deuteronomy. God chooses, but human beings also have that freedom." [Note: Whybray, p. 96.]
"Participants in Israel’s liturgies of covenant renewal, listeners to the word of the Lord and the words of Moses, readers of Deuteronomy then and now are all confronted with one of the most explicit calls for a decision that the Bible presents." [Note: Miller, p. 214.]
This final exhortation lifted Moses’ third major address to the people to an emotional climax (cf. Deu 4:32-40).
"This decision to love or not to love God is one of life’s major decisions." [Note: Schultz, p. 102.]
"The opening words of Moses’ first address were ’See, I have set before you the land; go in and take possession’ (Deu 1:8). Now, as his speaking comes to an end, those words are echoed: ’See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil . . . therefore choose life’ (Deu 30:15). Between those two addresses is all the teaching of the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances. And therein lies the theological structure of Deuteronomy in a nutshell." [Note: Miller, p. 214.]