Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 1:1

These [be] the words which Moses spoke unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red [sea], between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab.

1. all lsrael ] A designation of the people characteristic of D and deuteronomic writers. See on Deu 4:44.

beyond Jordan ] As is clear from Deu 1:5 and elsewhere, the E. of Jordan is intended. The title was therefore written in W. Palestine. A.V. on this side Jordan, is an impossible rendering of the Hebrew.

in the wilderness ] Heb. midbar, properly pasture ground as distinct from arable; Jer 2:1, land not sown. The word, hardly applicable to the scene of Moses’s discourse in Moab, is the usual term both for the wilderness E. of Moab and Edom (Deu 2:8; Deu 2:26), and for the region of Israel’s earlier wanderings before they crossed Edom (Deu 1:19; Deu 1:40, Deu 2:1; Deu 2:7). In the latter lay some, if not all, of the following localities.

in the Arabah ] Heb. ‘Arabah, dry or waste: ( a) a synonym for midbar, both with the def. art. (Isa 40:3), as here, and without (Isa 35:1; Jer 2:6 etc.). But with the art. it is usually the name of ( b) the great depression extending from the Gulf of ‘Aabah northwards to the Lebanons, of which the Dead Sea, the Sea of the ‘Arabah (Deu 4:49), is the deepest portion; and again is more particularly applied both to ( c) the stretch of the depression N. of that Sea, the Jordan valley (Deu 3:17; 2Ki 25:4), cp. the Plur. ‘ Arboth Moab, P’s designation of Israel’s last station before crossing Jordan, Deu 34:1 (cp. Arbatta, 1Ma 5:23 ); and ( d) the stretch of the depression S. of the Dead Sea. Each of these four meanings is possible here. Those who take the names in 1 b as of places in the scene of Moses’ discourse in the land of Moab point to ( c) the application of the name ‘Arabah to the Jordan valley. As we shall see, however, those names indicate rather the region of Israel’s earlier wanderings, before they crossed the S. of Edom, and this makes it more probable that ‘Arabah here = the S. stretch of the depression; so the Sam. Bi‘a, trench or valley. But ( a) the general signification, synonymous with midbar, is not improbable here, and even more suitable to the localities in 1 b than the other meanings are. To-day the name el ‘Arabah is confined to the stretch of the depression S. of a line of cliffs a few miles below the Dead Sea; while all to the N. is known as el-Ghr.

Suph ] LXX ‘the Red Sea,’ but this in Heb. is always sea of Suph. Suph may have been a locality from which the Sea derived its name, the usual etymology which would render it sea of sedge being, though plausible, uncertain (see Enc. Bibl. ‘Red Sea’). Suph cannot be Suphah of Num 21:14 if as is probable this lay in S. Moab; while another modern place-name that has been proposed as identical, Nab e-afa (on which see Musil Edom ii. 29), S.W. of the Dead Sea, corresponds with Suph neither phonetically nor from its situation.

between Paran and Di-zahab ] All these places are uncertain. ‘Paran cannot be the extensive desert of that name corresponding to the modern et-Th, but only the place after which this desert was named, cp. 1Ki 11:18 ’ (Dillm.). For Tophel, LXX , no modern place-name has been found: e-afleh on cultivated soil in the N. of Mt Se‘r corresponds to it in neither spelling nor situation. Though Laban ( milkwhite) and a erth ( folds) are names of such general signification that each may have been attached to more than one site, it is natural to identify them with the Libnah and a erth of Num 33:20; Num 33:17, stations on Israel’s march between oreb and adesh. On the W. el adharah and the ‘Ain el adharah, see Burckhardt, Travels, 494 f.; Wilson, Lands of the Bible, i. 255 260; Robinson B. R. i. 223 f. Di-zahab has been taken to be the modern Minet edh-Dhahab on the Gulf of ‘Aabah, but this is not on the line of Israel’s march; the meaning, (place) of gold, LXX , is general enough for the name to have been applied to several places. Thus all that is certain in these names is that some, if not all, lay on the march towards adesh, and this is confirmed by the next verse. It is not possible to bring them, or that verse, into harmony with the repeated datum that the scene of Moses’discourse was in Moab, at the N.E. end of the Dead Sea.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

These verses are prefixed as a connecting link between the contents of the preceding books and that of Deuteronomy now to follow. The sense of the passage might be given thus: The discourses of Moses to the people up to the eleventh month of the fortieth year (compare Deu 1:3) have now been recorded. The proper names which follow seem to belong to places where words of remarkable importance were spoken. They are by the Jewish commentators referred to the spots which witnessed the more special sins of the people, and the mention of them here is construed as a pregnant rebuke. The Book of Deuteronomy is known among the Jews as the book of reproofs.

On this side of Jordan – Rather, beyond Jordan (as in Deu 3:20, Deu 3:25). The phrase was a standing designation for the district east of Jordan, and at times, when Greek became commonly spoken in the country, was exactly represented by the proper name Peraea.

In the wilderness, in the plain – The former term denotes the Desert of Arabia generally; the latter was the sterile tract (Arabah, Num 21:4 note) which stretches along the lower Jordan to the Dead Sea, and is continued thence to the Gulf of Akaba.

Over against the Red Sea – Render it: over against Suph. Sea is not in the original text. Suph is either the pass Es Sufah near Ain-el-Weibeh (Num 13:26 note), or the name of the alluvial district (the Num 21:14 note).

Tophel is identified with Tufileh, the Tafyle of Burckhardt, still a considerable place – some little distance southeast of the Dead Sea. Paran is probably Mount Paran Deu 33:2; or a city of the same name near the mountain. Compare Gen 14:6.

Laban is generally identified with Libnah Num 33:20, and Hazeroth with Ain Hadherah (Num 11:34 note); but the position of Dizahab is uncertain.

Deu 1:2

For Kadesh see Num 13:26 note; and for Horeb see Exo 3:1.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Deu 1:1-8

These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness.

Moses discourse to Israel

I. The date of this sermon which moses preached to the people of Israel. A great auditory no question he had, as many as could crowd within hearing, and particularly all the elders and officers, the representatives of the people; and probably it was on the Sabbath day that he delivered this to them.

1. The place where they were now encamped was in the plain, in the land of Moab (Deu 1:1; Deu 1:5), where they were just ready to enter Canaan, and engage in a war with the Canaanites. Yet he discourseth not to them concerning military affairs, but concerning their duty to God; for if they kept themselves in His fear and favour, He would secure to them the conquest of the land; their religion would be their best policy.

2. The time was near the end of the fortieth year since they came out of Egypt. So long God had borne their manners, and they had borne their own iniquity (Num 14:34); and now a new and more pleasant scene was to be introduced, as a token for good, Moses repeats the law to them. Thus, after Gods controversy with them for the golden calf, the first and surest sign of Gods being reconciled to them was the renewing of the tables. There is no better evidence and earnest of Gods favour than His putting His law in our hearts (Psa 147:19-20).

II. The discourse itself. In general, Moses spake unto them all that the Lord had given him in commandment (Deu 1:3), which intimates, not only that what he new delivered was for substance the same with what had formerly been commanded, but it was that God now commanded him to repeat. He gave them this rehearsal and exhortation purely by Divine direction. God appointed him to leave this legacy to the Church. He begins his narrative with their removal from Mount Sinai (Deu 1:6), and relates here–

1. The orders God gave them to decamp and proceed in their march (Deu 1:6-7). Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount. That was the mount that burned with fire (Heb 12:18), and gendered to bondage (Gal 4:24). Thither God brought them to humble them, and by the terrors of the law to prepare them for the land of promise. There He kept them about a year, and then told them they had dwelt long enough there, they must go forward. Though God bring His people into trouble and affliction, into spiritual trouble and affliction of mind, He knows when they have dwelt long enough in it, and will certainly find a time, the fittest time, to advance them from the terrors of the spirit of bondage to the comforts of the spirit of adoption (Rom 8:15).

2. The prospect He gave them of a happy settlement in Canaan presently: Go to the land of the Canaanites (Deu 1:7). Enter and take possession; it is all your own. Behold, I have set the land before you (Deu 1:8). But when God commands us to go forward in our Christian course, He sets the heavenly Canaan before us for our encouragement. (Matthew Henry, D. D.)

Moses spake . . . according unto all that the Lord had given him.

A God-given sermon

Moses spoke what the Lord had commanded him; in other words, Moses gave the people what God had given him (Act 3:6). Though the words were Moses, the thing uttered was of God. Some speak according to the wisdom of the world: they can tell much about its craft, villainy, hollowness; and they preach selfishness, more or less refined, as a means of personal defence, and the true source of success. Some speak according to one thing, others according to something else. Moses spoke according to what God had given him. He therefore spoke Gods truth.

I. Because Moses spoke Gods truth he uttered what would be advantageous to the people. The path of happiness is the way of wisdom. Wisdom is happiness as well as pleasant (Pro 8:1-36.). True wisdom is the fear of God (Job 28:28). The man who declares Gods truth instructs in wisdom and leads men to happiness. Happiness is what men are seeking. Those who conduct others into happiness meet an universal want.

II. Because Moses spoke what God gave him, he could speak–

1. With courage.

2. With power.

III. Because Moses spoke what God gave him to speak, he relieved himself of responsibility.

1. Commissions are sometimes entrusted to men by God which they are afraid to execute. They thereby entail calamity upon themselves and all connected with them (Jonah).

2. Duties imposed by God, if neglected, bring desolation on the man and his family–Achan (Jdg 7:1-25).

3. Knowledge, wisdom, visions of the Divine glory are vouchsafed to men to be used for the improvement of the world, the upholding of the Church, and the honour of God.

4. Money, influence, opportunity is entrusted to many in these days. Such is not to be lavished on ourselves. God gave it; He expects it to be used in His service. (J. Saurin.)

On this side Jordan, etc.—

The worth of the present

Moses repeated the law as soon as he had opportunity, and circumstances required it. He did not wait till the promised land was entered. The work of today was not delayed till the morrow. It was done at once. He did it where he was–in the land of the Gentiles–surrounded with heathen–in the country of foes. Trapp with no little humour remarks on these, words, And he was not long about it. A ready heart makes a riddance of Gods work, for being oiled with the Spirit, it becomes lithe and nimble and quick of despatch. Three practical hints–

I. What is to be done do at once. Moses on this side of Jordan began to speak. Had Moses been a boy at school he would not have put off his prayers till he got home, where there were no schoolfellows to chaff. He would have said them then and there.

II. Do not think that there will be a more propitious time than the present.

1. Dallying with duties does not diminish difficulties.

2. Delay positively increases difficulties. Power unused decreases. If duty is deferred a day we are a days wasted strength the weaker.

3. We know what is to be done now; tomorrow it may be forgotten. Cares of life may usurp attention. The duties are pushed aside–choked down–killed. Weeds grow faster than corn. Cares and duties come quicker than time.

III. Do some good things in this life–in the desert, so called, on this side of Jordan. Do not wait till heaven is reached, that angels alone may be witness of your good deeds. Moses did not defer till the promised land was reached. He did what he was able out of the promised land. It was well he did. He never reached Canaan. Had he put off all till then, nothing would have been done. (J. Saurin.)

Gods address to His people

I. God, in His address to His people, enjoins action. Not slothful is the apostolic command. Ye have dwelt long enough. The time of inactivity is over. Turn you, take your journey. God enjoins on His people to be like Himself. He is ever active. The whole seven days round His energies are going forth in creating and blessing. Not less active than the Father is the Son. Week day and Sabbath He exerted Himself to make man happier and the world brighter. His reason for this He gives in Joh 5:17. It is not unnatural, therefore, that God seeks in His people qualities so largely developed in Himself. God does not want idlers in His vineyard. Man was put into the garden of the world to work (Gen 2:15). However, God permits some rest. Life is not all work. Storm and calm, battle and peace, make history. But still the law of life and growth is, the more we do within certain limits the more we are able to do. This is true both physically and spiritually. People of impaired health by proper exercise become strong. The morally weak are strengthened by the exercise of trial. The more kind a man tries to be, the more he is. So with faith, patience, hope.

II. God advises with regard to the nature, direction, and extent of this action.

1. Nature of the action. Let it be action with a purpose in view. Have an aim in life. Go to the mount of the Amorites.

2. Direction of the action. Two hints with regard to that–

(1) Let it go forth. It does not do for a mans action to turn in on himself. Uniform selfishness is as injurious as constant introspection; and ceaseless introspection is as ruinous as unmixed selfishness. Live for others as well as self; work for others.

(2) This is modified by another hint. Go to what is near first.

3. Extent of the action. Begin at the near, then proceed to what is more remote, till the whole world is affected by your life, e.g.—

(1) First to the plain. Read part of the Bible easily understood and applied. Interpret providence as far as Son can trace a Fathers hands. What cannot be understood leave for a future day and clearer lights.

(2) After this go to the hill. Do not mind a difficulty sometimes. A little adversity strengthens the soul. Trust is perfected in suffering.

(3) Now you may proceed to the vale. There is the valley of the shadow of death–the valley of humiliation–the valley of vision. Here the soul is quickened and brought into that region of experience that Paul designates as being hidden with Christ in God.

(4) Thus prepared with the whole armour of God, go to the south. Here were hills infested with foes. So the Christian, after mounting the Hill of Transfiguration with Christ, where for a moment the Divine glory is manifested, has to go back again to a world where man has to contend with demons (Mat 17:14-18), where he has to grapple with many a spiritual foe, wolves in sheeps clothing, the lion that seeks to devour, the subtle serpent.

(5) Then comes the reward. Having gone to the south, the people might turn aside to the sea. So does God bring the Christian after long and hard toil to gaze into those depths of love and grace which are as oceans mirroring the midnight skies.

(6) After such revelation of Gods glory and power the people of God can go forth to war with the Canaanite. The kingdom of Christ is extended to Lebanon (the far north)–to the river (the far cast). The whole world is filled with the glory of the Lord.

III. God, in His address, points out how rightly directed action will bring its own reward. Behold, I have set (Hebrews given) the land before you: go in and possess.

1. True work is sure to bring recompense of some kind. It brings external reward. A days work brings the days wages. The sewings of spring are followed by the harvests of autumn. It brings an internal reward in a mans own nature and being.

2. Show what work is. Distinguish work from pleasure. Pleasure is the expending of energy without any end or purpose save the sensations caused by the act of waste, whereby pleasure has been defined as dissipating enjoyments; work is energy expended for a purpose. In its idea it is conservative. Work is action to get a return for the energy so spent, both to recuperate and increase the power thus employed. Pleasure seeks nothing save the sensation; work demands a recompense. God promises to work its recompense. Go in and possess. (J. Saurin.)

The discourse delivered by Moses

The faithful servants of the Lord, with advancing years and experience, frequently acquire increasing reputation for wisdom, integrity, and disinterested philanthropy, as well as pious zeal for the glory of God. While they draw nearer to the heavenly world they often seem to breathe a purer air, and all their words have a heavenly savour; their motion accelerates as they approach their rest; their earnestness increases, when they can be influenced by no earthly motive; and their confidence and comfort acquire strength in defiance of the approaching king of terrors. Under such circumstances their instructions are doubly impressive, and frequently have a durable effect upon the survivors. They should then seize every occasion of reminding the people of the wisdom, power, truth, and love of God, as manifested in His dealing with them: and there are times when they may also, consistently with deep humility, speak of their own conduct, their love to souls, their faithful labours, their self-denial, and patient sufferings in the arduous work about which they are engaged; in order to obviate prejudice, and to obtain a more favourable attention to further exhortations. But it is likewise necessary to show the people their transgressions, that they may be duly humbled; to warn them against the fatal effects of unbelief and sin; to point out the advantages of confidence in God and obedience to Him; and to unite confessions of their own imperfection and sinfulness, both to avoid giving needless offence, to suggest encouragement, and to excite personal humiliation. (Thomas Scott.)

Ordered from the mountain

God knows, then, how long we have been here or there. He keeps the time; He knows when we have been long enough in one place. Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount. We may get tired even of mountains. Wherever we live we need change. We are ordered down off the mountain. Soon after we have said, It is good to be here, the Leader proposes that we should go down again, tie will not have any heaven built upon earth; He will never allow us to build permanently upon foundations that are themselves transitory. There are many mountains to come down–mountains of supposed strength, when the very robustest man must lie down and say, I am very weary, tired to exhaustion; mountains of prosperity, when Croesus himself must come down, saying, I am a poor man; let the meanest slave serve me, for I cannot longer serve myself. Then there is the coming down that is inevitable–the time when God says to every one of us, You have been long enough on the mountain of time; pass through the grave to the hills of heaven, the great mountains of eternity. Sometimes we think we have been too long on the mountain, and wonder when He will come whose right it is to bring the sheep into the fold; we say in our peevishness–not always impious, but rather an expression of weakness–Surely we have been forgotten; by this time we ought to have been with the blessed ones; the night is coming on quickly, and we shall be drenched with dews. So long are some men kept outside, on the very top of the hill, where very little grass grows–bare, rocky places. But God cannot forget; we must rest in His memory; He puts Himself even before a mother who may forget her sucking child, but He has pledged Himself never to forget His redeemed Church. But, having ordered His people away from the mountain, where can they take up their abode We find the answer in the seventh verse. God has many localities at His command, so He disperses the people, setting them in the plain, ill the hills, in the vale, by the seaside, and unto the great river, the river Euphrates. What space God has! In My Fathers house are many mansions–in My Fathers house are many localities. Why do we choose our own place? Did ever man dispute the Divine sovereignty without regretting his encounter with the Eternal Will? Why have any will? Were we serving wooden gods, mechanical deities, divinities of our own creation or invention, we might dispute with them, point out what possibly they may have overlooked, and draw holder programmes; but if God is the only-wise, if God is love, if God is light, if God died for us in the person of His Son, why not say, Not my will, but Thine be done: take me to the mountain or the plain, the hills or the vale, the seaside or the river; the taking itself shall be as a vision of heaven? (J. Parker, D. D.)

A stationary position degrading

I remember hearing a naturalist describe a species of jelly fish which, he said, lives fixed to a rock, from which it never stirs. It does not require to go in search of food, because in the decayed tissues of its own organism there grows a kind of seaweed on which it subsists. I thought I had never heard of any creature so comfortable. But the naturalist who was describing it went on to say that it is one of the very lowest forms of animal life, and the extreme comfort which it enjoys is the very badge of its degraded position.

Go in and possess the land.–

The blessedness and glory of the promised land

I. To give a spiritual description of the land which Jehovah hath proposed as the end of our pilgrimage, and of which we all profess to be in search.

1. It is a land to whose delightfulness, beauty, and fertility Jehovah Himself had borne the most ample and undoubted testimony.

2. But the land of Canaan was not merely a country known by description, however magnificent and encouraging, as well as unchangeably true, the testimony of God might be concerning it. The spies who had been sent, in whatever guilty unbelief their mission originated, had searched it out, from Dan even to Beersheba; and they had brought with them of the grapes, and pomegranates, and figs, that the people might see, and taste, and judge for themselves. And what was this except a type of Christ, the true Vine, some clusters of which the searching eye of faith may see?

3. It is, moreover, a land of promise; and here is the leading feature of its peculiar preciousness. Jehovah saith not that Canaan is a country which His people might inhabit, if they could win it in their own strength; for then, where were the weapons of their successful warfare, and where the might in which to overcome their enemies? But it is a land which, in the exercise of His free and sovereign grace, He made over to them–not giving it to them because they were a great nation, for they were the fewest of all people, but because He loved them.

II. The injunction given by Jehovah to His people–Go in, and possess the land; and, as it is added in the twenty-third verse, where the command and promise are repeated, Fear not, neither be discouraged. The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. Never imagine that the Canaan which you profess to seek will be your own without a warfare. Fight valiantly, pray fervently, trust implicitly, and you will be made more than conquerors. Neither doubt nor distrust the sure promise and inviolable covenant of an unchangeable God. Oh, how keenly should this Scripture rebuke all loiterers in the holy war! We profess to love and follow Jesus, but when He cries Go up and possess the land, we willingly linger in the desert of our own coldness and worldly love. (R. P. Buddicom.)

Enlargement-a New Years address

John Foster, in one of his admirable essays, speaks of truth as presenting to the inquirers view a beautiful and spacious landscape, divided into delightful gardens, green meadows, so that wherever he casts his eyes he beholds some beautiful plant or flower of truth. You have entered into this goodly land of truth, Go in and possess it; extend this year your knowledge of it, make its riches your own priceless possession. God has given unto us intellectual power; and, having bestowed this blessing upon us, He requires that we do our utmost in order to secure mental culture. Truth has many departments, but truth in its highest form is presented to us in Holy Scripture. What a realm of beauty and fertility is presented to us here! Let us go in and possess this land. And let us go in feeling that we are entering a large land; not mistaking for the whole a little tract we have traversed, but convinced that there are unexplored regions yet to be brought to light. Oh, to be delivered from all narrowness in reference to our conceptions of truth, and specially of truth bearing upon our spiritual weal! There are, I know, certain teachings which are to be regarded as foundation teachings, as, for instance, the Divinity and Incarnation of Christ, the Atonement of Jesus, His victory over death, His resurrection, etc. But whilst holding these great verities of eternal truth unswervingly, let us come to the study of this Book of God believing that there are hidden treasures here, and which He will reveal to us by His Spirit if we carry on our investigation in the spirit of patience, thoughtfulness, courage, and prayer. One of the most beautiful conceptions of heaven we can possibly form is that of its being the land of uprightness; perfect purity, complete rectitude prevailing. And whilst it is true that heaven remaineth to the people of God, it is also true that they who have believed enter it even here. The blessings flowing to us through our union to Christ are present, and the elements which constitute the character of the glorified in heaven are to mark, in a growing measure, Gods servants who are still on earth. Be it ours, then, to go on developing in all the excellencies of the Christian character. There is a realm which must be described as one of sin and death, of bondage and darkness. Oh, to possess that land, and to transfer it to Christ, that thus, under the influence of His Spirit, its evil may give place to purity, its slavery to liberty, whilst through its chambers of death life may spread! This is our mission as the followers of the Lord Jesus. In calling us into union with Himself He calls us, in fact, into sympathy with Him in His glorious purpose of effecting the ultimate deliverance of the world from the captivity of evil. When we speak of possessing the world for Christ, what difficulties present themselves to our view! How vast is the territory yet to be covered! How inapproachable many of its tracts, so that noble lives are sacrificed by the way, or reach their destination only to die! How unhealthy the climates, and how unyielding the superstitions! How the work is impeded, too, by the policy of governments, taking the carnal weapons where we would use the spiritual, and introducing the soldier where we would plant the missionary. Truly, there are many hindrances. But we will not despair. It is the cause of God in which we are enlisted. When He works, who shall hinder? (S. D. Hillman, B. A.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

THE FIFTH BOOK OF MOSES CALLED DEUTERONOMY

-Year before the common Year of Christ, 1451

-Julian Period, 3263.

-Cycle of the Sun, 10.

-Dominical Letter, B

-Cycle of the Moon, 10.

-Indiction, 15.

-Creation from Tisri or September, 2553.

CHAPTER I

Introduction to the book, 1, 2.

Moses addresses the people in the fortieth year after the exodus

from Egypt, 3-5;

and shows how God had spoken to them in Horeb, and the

directions he gave them, 6-8.

How, at the commandment of the Lord, he had appointed officers,

judges, c., to share the government with him, 9-18.

Of their travels in the terrible wilderness, 19-21.

The people’s request to have spies sent to search out the land,

22-25.

Of their murmuring and rebellion when they heard the report of

the spies, 26-28.

How Moses encouraged them, 29-33.

The displeasure of the Lord against them because of their

murmurings, and his purpose to exclude them from the good land,

and give it to their children only, 34-40.

How they repented, and yet, without the authority of God, went

against the Amorites, by whom they were defeated, 41-44.

Their return to Kadesh, where they abode many days, 45, 46.

NOTES ON CHAP. I

Verse 1. These be the words which Moses spake] The five first verses of this chapter contain the introduction to the rest of the book: they do not appear to be the work of Moses, but were added probably either by Joshua or Ezra.

On this side Jordan] beeber, at the passage of Jordan, i. e., near or opposite to the place where the Israelites passed over after the death of Moses. Though eber is used to signify both on this side and on the other side, and the connection in which it stands can only determine the meaning yet here it signifies neither, but simply the place or ford where the Israelites passed over Jordan.

In the plain] That is, of Moab; over against the Red Sea – not the Red Sea, for they were now farther from it than they had been: the word sea is not in the text, and the word suph, which we render red, does not signify the Red Sea, unless joined with yam, sea; here it must necessarily signify a place in or adjoining to the plains of Moab. Ptolemy mentions a people named Sophonites, that dwelt in Arabia Petraea, and it is probable that they took their name from this place; but see the note from Lightfoot, See Clarke on Nu 20:28, at the end.

Paran] This could not have been the Paran which was contiguous to the Red Sea, and not far from Mount Horeb; for the place here mentioned lay on the very borders of the promised land, at a vast distance from the former.

Dizahab.] The word should be separated, as it is in the Hebrew, Di Zahab. As Zahab signifies gold, the Septuagint have translated it , the gold mines; and the Vulgate ubi aurum est plurimum, where there is much gold. It is more likely to be the name of a place.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Unto all Israel, to wit, by the heads or elders of the several tribes, or others, who were to communicate these discourses to all the people in several assemblies.

In the plain; either.

1. In the vast desert of Arabia. But that is no where called a plain. Or rather,

2. In the plain of Moab, as may appear by comparing this with Deu 1:5; Num 22:1; Deu 34:8.

Object. That was far from the Red Sea here mentioned.

Answ. The word suph here used doth not signify the Red Sea, which is commonly called jam suph, and which was at too great a distance; but some other place now unknown to us, (as also most of the following places are,) so called from the reeds, or flags, or rushes (which that word signifies) that grew in or near it; which reason of the name being common to other places with the Red Sea, it is not strange if they got the same name. Compare Num 21:14. Paran; not that Num 10:12, which there and elsewhere is called the wilderness of Paran, and which was too remote; but some other place called by the same name, than which nothing more usual. Tophel and Laban; places not mentioned elsewhere.

Hazeroth; of which see Num 11:35; 33:17,18. And these places seem to be the several bounds and limits not of the whole country of Moab, but of the plain of Moab, where Moses now was, and spoke these words.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

1. These be the words which Mosesspake unto all IsraelThe mental condition of the peoplegenerally in that infantine age of the Church, and the greater numberof them being of young or tender years, rendered it expedient torepeat the laws and counsels which God had given. Accordingly, tofurnish a recapitulation of the leading branches of their faith andduty was among the last public services which Moses rendered toIsrael. The scene of their delivery was on the plains of Moab wherethe encampment was pitched

on this side Jordanor,as the Hebrew word may be rendered “on the bank of theJordan.”

in the wilderness, in theplainthe Arabah, a desert plain, or steppe, extended the wholeway from the Red Sea north to the Sea of Tiberias. While the hightablelands of Moab were “cultivated fields,” the Jordanvalley, at the foot of the mountains where Israel was encamped, was apart of the great desert plain, little more inviting than the desertof Arabia. The locale is indicated by the names of the most prominentplaces around it. Some of these places are unknown to us. The Hebrewword, Suph, “red” (for “sea,” which ourtranslators have inserted, is not in the original, and Moses was nowfarther from the Red Sea than ever), probably meant a place noted forits reeds (Nu 21:14).

Tophelidentified asTafyle or Tafeilah, lying between Bozrah and Kerak.

Hazerothis a differentplace from that at which the Israelites encamped after leaving “thedesert of Sinai.”

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel,…. Not what are related in the latter part of the preceding book, but what follow in this; and which were spoken by him, not to the whole body of the people gathered together to hear him, which they could not do without a miracle; but to the heads of the people, the representatives of them, who were convened to hear what he had to say, in order to communicate it to the people; unless we can suppose that Moses at different times to several parties of them delivered the same things, until they had all heard them:

on this side Jordan; before the passage of the Israelites over it to the land of Canaan; for Moses never went in thither, and therefore it must be the tract which the Greeks call Persea, and which with respect to the Israelites when in the land of Canaan is called “beyond Jordan”, for here now Moses was; and the children of Israel had been here with him a considerable time in the wilderness, the vast wilderness of Arabia, which reached hither:

in the plain; the plains of Moab, between Bethjeshimoth and. Abelshittim, where the Israelites had lain encamped for some time, and had not as yet removed; see Nu 33:49

over against the Red [sea]: the word “sea” is not in the text, nor is there anything in it which answers to “Red”; it should be rendered “opposite Suph”, which seems to be the name of a place in Moab, not far from the plains of it, and perhaps is the same with Suphah in

Nu 21:14 for from the Red sea they were at a considerable distance:

between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab; these are names of places which were the boundaries and limits of the plains of Moab, or lay very near them; for Paran cannot be understood of the Wilderness of Paran, which was too remote, but a city or town of that name. Tophel and Laban we read of nowhere else; a learned man a conjectures Tophel is the name of the station where the Israelites loathed the manna as light bread, because of the insipidness of it, which he observes this word signifies; but that station was either Zalmonah, or Punon, or this station must be omitted in the account of their journeys, and besides was too remote. Jarchi helps this conjecture a little, who puts Tophel and Laban together, and thinks they signify their murmuring because of the manna, which was white, as Laban signifies; but the above writer takes Laban to be a distinct station, the same with Libnah, Nu 33:20, and Hazeroth to be the station between Mount Sinai and Kadesh, Nu 12:16. But both seem to be too remote from the plains of Moab; and Dizahab he would have to be the same with Eziongaber, Nu 33:35, which he says the Arabs now call Dsahab, or Meenah el Dsahab, that is, “the port of gold”; and certain it is that Dizahab has the signification of gold, and, is by Hillerus b rendered “sufficiency of gold”, there being large quantities of it here; perhaps either through the riches of the port by trade, or by reason of a mine of gold at it, or near it; so the Vulgate Latin version renders it, “where there is much gold”, and the Septuagint version “golden mines”, Catachrysea; and Jerom c makes mention of a place of this name, and says they are mountains abounding with gold in the wilderness, eleven miles from Horeb, where Moses is said to write Deuteronomy; elsewhere d he calls it Dysmemoab, i.e. the west of Moab, near Jordan, opposite Jericho.

a Clayton’s Chronology of the Hebrew Bible, p. 471, &c. b Onomastic. Sacr. p. 67, 300. c De loc. Heb. fol. 92. A. d Travels, p. 319.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Deu 1:1-4 contain the heading to the whole book; and to this the introduction to the first address is appended in Deu 1:5. By the expression, “ These be the words,” etc., Deuteronomy is attached to the previous books; the word “ these,” which refers to the addresses that follow, connects what follows with what goes before, just as in Gen 2:4; Gen 6:9, etc. The geographical data in Deu 1:1 present no little difficulty; for whilst the general statement as to the place where Moses delivered the addresses in this book, viz., beyond Jordan, is particularized in the introduction to the second address (Deu 4:46), as “ in the valley over against Beth-Peor,” here it is described as “ in the wilderness, in the Arabah, ” etc. This contrast between the verse before us and Deu 4:45-46, and still more the introduction of the very general and loose expression, “in the desert,” which is so little adapted for a geographical definition of the locality, that it has to be defined itself by the additional words “ in the Arabah,” suggest the conclusion that the particular names introduced are not intended to furnish as exact a geographical account as possible of the spot where Moses explained the law to all Israel, but to call up to view the scene of the addresses which follow, and point out the situation of all Israel at that time. Israel was “ in the desert, ” not yet in Canaan the promised inheritance, and in fact “ in the Arabah.” This is the name given to the deep low-lying plain on both sides of the Jordan, which runs from the Lake of Gennesaret to the Dead Sea, and stretches southwards from the Dead Sea to Aila, at the northern extremity of the Red Sea, as we may see very clearly from Deu 2:8, where the way which the Israelites took past Edom to Aila is called the “ way of the Arabah,” and also from the fact that the Dead Sea is called “ the sea of the Arabah ” in Deu 3:17 and Deu 4:49. At present the name Arabah is simply attached to the southern half of this valley, between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea; whilst the northern part, between the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee, is called el Ghor; though Abulfeda, Ibn Haukal, and other Arabic geographers, extend the name Ghor from the Lake of Gennesaret to Aila (cf. Ges. thes. p. 1166; Hengstenberg, Balaam, p. 520; Robinson, Pal. ii. p. 596). – , “ over against Suph ” ( for , Deu 2:19; Deu 3:29, etc., for the sake of euphony, to avoid the close connection of the two 8-sounds). Suph is probably a contraction of , “the Red Sea” (see at Exo 10:19). This name is given not only to the Gulf of Suez (Exo 13:18; Exo 15:4, Exo 15:22, etc.), but to that of Akabah also (Num 14:25; Num 21:4, etc.). There is no other Suph that would be at all suitable here. The lxx have rendered it ; and Onkelos and others adopt the same rendering. This description cannot serve as a more precise definition of the Arabah, in which case (which) would have to be supplied before , since “the Arabah actually touches the Red Sea.” Nor does it point out the particular spot in the Arabah where the addresses were delivered, as Knobel supposes; or indicate the connection between the Arboth Moab and the continuation of the Arabah on the other side of the Dead Sea, and point out the Arabah in all this extent as the heart of the country over which the Israelites had moved during the whole of their forty years’ wandering (Hengstenberg). For although the Israelites passed twice through the Arabah, it formed by no means the heart of the country in which they continued for forty years. The words “opposite to Suph,” when taken in connection with the following names, cannot have any other object than to define with greater exactness the desert in which the Israelites had moved during the forty years. Moses spoke to all Israel on the other side of the Jordan, when it was still in the desert, in the Arabah, still opposite to the Red Sea, after crossing which it had entered the wilderness (Exo 15:22), “between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Di-Sahab.” Paran is at all events not the desert of this name in all its extent, but the place of encampment in the “desert of Paran ” (Num 10:12; Num 12:16), i.e., the district of Kadesh in the desert of Zin (Num 13:21, Num 13:26); and Hazeroth is most probably the place of encampment of that name mentioned in Num 11:35; Num 12:16, from which Israel entered the desert of Paran. Both places had been very eventful to the Israelites. At Hazeroth, Miriam the prophetess and Aaron the high priest had stumbled through rebellion against Moses (Num 12). In the desert of Paran by Kadesh the older generation had been rejected, and sentenced to die in the wilderness on account of its repeated rebellion against the Lord (Num 14); and when the younger generation that had grown up in the wilderness assembled once more in Kadesh to set out for Canaan, even Moses and Aaron, the two heads of the nation, sinned there at the water of strife, so that they two were not permitted to enter Canaan, whilst Miriam died there at that time (Num 20). But if Paran and Hazeroth are mentioned on account of the tragical events connected with these places, it is natural to conclude that there were similar reasons for mentioning the other three names as well.

Tophel is supposed by Hengstenberg ( Balaam, p. 517) and Robinson ( Pal. ii. p. 570) and all the more modern writers, to be the large village of Tafyleh, with six hundred inhabitants, the chief place in Jebal, on the western side of the Edomitish mountains, in a well-watered valley of the wady of the same name, with large plantations of fruit-trees ( Burckhardt, Syr. pp. 677, 678). The Israelites may have come upon this place in the neighbourhood of Oboth (Num 21:10-11); and as its inhabitants, according to Burckhardt, p. 680, supply the Syrian caravans with a considerable quantity of provisions, which they sell to them in the castle of el Ahsa, Schultz conjectures that it may have been here that the people of Israel purchased food and drink of the Edomites for money (Deu 2:29), and that Tafyleh is mentioned as a place of refreshment, where the Israelites partook for the first time of different food from the desert supply. There is a great deal to be said in favour of this conjecture: for even if the Israelites did not obtain different food for the first time at this place, the situation of Tophel does warrant the supposition that it was here that they passed for the first time from the wilderness to an inhabited land; on which account the place was so memorable for them, that it might very well be mentioned as being the extreme east of their wanderings in the desert, as the opposite point to the encampment at Paran, where they first arrived on the western side of their wandering, at the southern border of Canaan. Laban is generally identified with Libnah, the second place of encampment on the return journey from Kadesh (Num 33:22), and may perhaps have been the place referred to in Num 16, but not more precisely defined, where the rebellion of the company of Korah occurred. Lastly, Di-Sahab has been identified by modern commentators with Mersa Dahab or Mina Dahab, i.e., gold-harbour, a place upon a tongue of land in the Elanitic Gulf, about the same latitude as Sinai, where there is nothing to be seen now except a quantity of date-trees, a few sand-hills, and about a dozen heaps of stones piled up irregularly, but all showing signs of having once been joined together (cf. Burckhardt, pp. 847-8; and Ritter, Erdk. xiv. pp. 226ff.). But this is hardly correct. As Roediger has observed (on Wellsted’s Reisen, ii. p. 127), “the conjecture has been based exclusively upon the similarity of name, and there is not the slightest exegetical tradition to favour it.” But similarity of names cannot prove anything by itself, as the number of places of the same name, but in different localities, that we meet with in the Bible, is very considerable. Moreover, the further assumption which is founded upon this conjecture, namely, that the Israelites went from Sinai past Dahab, not only appears untenable for the reasons given above, but is actually rendered impossible by the locality itself. The approach to this tongue of land, which projects between two steep lines of coast, with lofty mountain ranges of from 800 to 2000 feet in height on both north and south, leads from Sinai through far too narrow and impracticable a valley for the Israelites to be able to march thither and fix an encampment there.

(Note: From the mouth of the valley through the masses of the primary mountains to the sea-coast, there is a fan-like surface of drifts of primary rock, the radius of which is thirty-five minutes long, the progressive work of the inundations of an indefinable course of thousands of years” ( Rppell, Nubien, p. 206).)

And if Israel cannot have touched Dahab on its march, every probability vanishes that Moses should have mentioned this place here, and the name Di-Sahab remains at present undeterminable. But in spite of our ignorance of this place, and notwithstanding the fact that even the conjecture expressed with regard to Laban is very uncertain, there can be no well-founded doubt that the words “ between Paran and Tophel ” are to be understood as embracing the whole period of the thirty-seven years of mourning, at the commencement of which Israel was in Paran, whilst at the end they sought to enter Canaan by Tophel (the Edomitish Tafyleh), and that the expression “ opposite to Suph ” points back to their first entrance into the desert. – Looking from the steppes of Moab over the ground that the Israelites had traversed, Suph, where they first entered the desert of Arabia, would lie between Paran, where the congregation arrived at the borders of Canaan towards the west, and Tophel, where they first ended their desert wanderings thirty-seven years later on the east.

Deu 1:2

In Deu 1:2 also the retrospective glance at the guidance through the desert is unmistakeable. “ Eleven days is the way from Horeb to the mountains of Seir as far as Kadesh-Barnea.” With these words, which were unquestionably intended to be something more than a geographical notice of the distance of Horeb from Kadesh-barnea, Moses reminded the people that they had completed the journey from Horeb, the scene of the establishment of the covenant, to Kadesh, the border of the promised land, in eleven days, that he might lead them to lay to heart the events which took place at Kadesh itself. The “way of the mountains of Seir” is not the way along the side of these mountains, i.e., the way through the Arabah, which is bounded by the mountains of Seir on the east, but the way which leads to the mountains of Seir, just as in Deu 2:1 the way of the Red Sea is the way that leads to this sea. From these words, therefore, it by no means follows that Kadesh-Barnea is to be sought for in the Arabah, and that Israel passed through the Arabah from Horeb to Kadesh. According to Deu 1:19, they departed from Horeb, went through the great and terrible wilderness by the way to the mountains of the Amorites, and came to Kadesh-barnea. Hence the way to the mountains of the Amorites, i.e., the southern part of what were afterwards the mountains of Judah (see at Num 13:17), is the same as the way to the mountains of Seir; consequently the Seir referred to here is not the range on the eastern side of the Arabah, but Seir by Hormah (Deu 1:44), i.e., the border plateau by Wady Murreh, opposite to the mountains of the Amorites (Jos 11:17; Jos 12:7: see at Num 34:3).

Deu 1:3-5

To the description of the ground to which the following addresses refer, there is appended an allusion to the not less significant time when Moses delivered them, viz., “ on the first of the eleventh month in the fortieth year,” consequently towards the end of his life, after the conclusion of the divine lawgiving; so that he was able to speak “ according to all that Jehovah had given him in commandment unto them ” (the Israelites), namely, in the legislation of the former books, which is always referred to in this way (Deu 4:5, Deu 4:23; Deu 5:29-30; Deu 6:1). The time was also significant, from the fact that Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, had then been slain. By giving a victory over these mighty kings, the Lord had begun to fulfil His promises (see Deu 2:25), and had thereby laid Israel under the obligation to love, gratitude, and obedience (see Num 21:21-35). The suffix in refers to Moses, who had smitten the Amorites at the command and by the power of Jehovah. According to Jos 12:4; Jos 13:12, Jos 13:31; Edrei was the second capital of Og, and it is as such that it is mentioned, and not as the place where Og was defeated (Deu 3:1; Num 21:33). The omission of the copula before is to be accounted for from the oratorical character of the introduction to the addresses which follow. Edrei is the present Dra (see at Num 21:33). – In Deu 1:5, the description of the locality is again resumed in the words “ beyond the Jordan,” and still further defined by the expression “ in the land of Moab; ” and the address itself is introduced by the clause, “ Moses took in hand to expound this law,” which explains more fully the (spake) of Deu 1:3. “In the land of Moab” is a rhetorical and general expression for “in the Arboth Moab.” does not mean to begin, but to undertake, to take in hand, with the subordinate idea sometimes of venturing, or daring (Gen 18:27), sometimes of a bold resolution: here it denotes an undertaking prompted by internal impulse. Instead of being construed with the infinitive, it is construed rhetorically here with the finite verb without the copula (cf. Ges. 143, 3, b). probably signified to dig in the Kal; but this is not used. In the Piel it means to explain ( , explanare , lxx, Vulg.), never to engrave, or stamp, not even here nor in Deu 27:8 and Hab 2:2. Here it signifies “to expound this law clearly,” although the exposition was connected with an earnest admonition to preserve and obey it. “This” no doubt refers to the law expounded in what follows; but substantially it is no other than the law already given in the earlier books. “Substantially there is throughout but one law” ( Schultz). That the book of Deuteronomy was not intended to furnish a new or second law, is as evident as possible from the word .

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

Israel’s History Repeated.

B. C. 1451.

      1 These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red sea, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab.   2 (There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadesh-barnea.)   3 And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that the LORD had given him in commandment unto them;   4 After he had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites, which dwelt in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, which dwelt at Astaroth in Edrei:   5 On this side Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law, saying,   6 The LORD our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount:   7 Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates.   8 Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them.

      We have here, I. The date of this sermon which Moses preached to the people of Israel. A great auditory, no question, he had, as many as could crowd within hearing, and particularly all the elders and officers, the representatives of the people; and, probably, it was on the sabbath day that he delivered this to them. 1. The place were they were now encamped was in the plain, in the land of Moab (Deu 1:1; Deu 1:5), where they were just ready to enter Canaan, and engage in a war with the Canaanites. Yet he discourses not to them concerning military affairs, the arts and stratagems of war, but concerning their duty to God; for, if they kept themselves in his fear and favour, he would secure to them the conquest of the land: their religion would be their best policy. 2. The time was near the end of the fortieth year since they came out of Egypt. So long God had borne their manners, and they had borne their own iniquity (Num. xiv. 34), and now that a new and more pleasant scene was to be introduced, as a token for good, Moses repeats the law to them. Thus, after God’s controversy with them on account of the golden calf, the first and surest sign of God’s being reconciled to them was the renewing of the tables. There is no better evidence and earnest of God’s favour than his putting his law in our hearts, Psa 147:19; Psa 147:20.

      II. The discourse itself. In general, Moses spoke unto them all that the Lord had given him in commandment (v. 3), which intimates, not only that what he now delivered was for substance the same with what had formerly been commanded, but that it was what God now commanded him to repeat. He gave them this rehearsal and exhortation purely by divine direction; God appointed him to leave this legacy to the church. He begins his narrative with their removal from Mount Sinai (v. 6), and relates here, 1. The orders which God gave them to decamp, and proceed in their march (Deu 1:6; Deu 1:7): You have dwelt long enough in this mount. This was the mount that burned with fire (Heb. xii. 18), and gendered to bondage, Gal. iv. 24. Thither God brought them to humble them, and by the terrors of the law to prepare them for the land of promise. There he kept them about a year, and then told them they had dwelt long enough there, they must go forward. Though God brings his people into trouble and affliction, into spiritual trouble and affliction of mind, he knows when they have dwelt long enough in it, and will certainly find a time, the fittest time, to advance them from the terrors of the spirit of adoption. See Rom. viii. 15. 2. The prospect which he gave them of a happy and early settlement in Canaan: Go to the land of the Canaanites (v. 7); enter and take possession, it is all your own. Behold I have set the land before you, v. 8. When God commands us to go forward in our Christian course he sets the heavenly Canaan before us for our encouragement.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

DEUTERONOMY

Note: Commentary on Pentateuch, including Deuteronomy, was written by Dr. G.F. Crumley. Following Chart 5 and the Introduction to Deuteronomy, a verse by verse commentary is given beginning with verses 1-5.

CHART 5

DEUTERONOMY

Second Giving of the Law

I. Introduction, Deu 1:1-5.

II. Israel’s Wanderings Recounted, Deu 1:6 to Deu 4:43.

III.The Law (Legal Matters) Rehearsed, Deu 4:44 to Deu 26:19.

IV.Ratification of the Law Covenant, Deu 27:1 to Deu 30:20.

V. Concluding Testimony of Moses, Deu 31:1 to Deu 34:12.

(at this point in the hardbound commentary are maps showing the possessions of the twelve tribes and a map of Canaan as it was during this period)

INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY

TITLE: The Jews in the Hebrew canon designate this Book by the first two words: eleh ha-debarim, or simply debarim, “the words.” The title “Deuteronomy” comes from the Greek translators. It is from deuteros and nomos, meaning “second law.” This title does not suggest that there is a second code of laws in addition to those given at Sinai. It is a re-statement of the Sinai code, with particular emphasis upon what Israel was to keep in mind to observe and do when they settled in the Land.

AUTHOR: Moses wrote the Book of Deuteronomy, with the possible exception of the closing verses which tell of his death. This is verified by:

1. The evidence of traditional authority. Both the Jews and the early Christian fathers accept the Mosaic authorship.

2. The antiquity of the Book favors the Mosaic authorship.

3. The testimony of Jesus and the New Testament writers:

a. Jesus’ words: (1) Mat 4:4; Mat 9:7; Mat 9:10, with Deu 8:8; Deu 6:16; Deu 6:13. (2) Mat 12:24, Deu 6:5; Deu 10:12. (3) Mat 19:7-8; Mr 10:3, 4; Joh 5:46-47; Joh 7:19.

b. Peter’s testimony: Act 3:22.

c. Stephens’s words: Ac 71-37.

d. Paul’s writings: Rom 10:19-20; Rom 12:19; Gal 3:10.

CONTENTS: The Book of Deuteronomy is divided into three main elements, following a brief introduction:

Introduction, chapter 1:1-5.

1. The First Discourse, chapters 1:6-4:49. This is a brief summary of Israel’s history of the preceding forty years. It closes with a fervent appeal for obedience when they enter the Land of Promise.

2. The Second Discourse, chapters 5-26. This is divided:

a. Historical and hortatory, chapters 5-11.

b. Legal, chapters 12-26.

3. The Third Discourse, chapters 27-34. This division contains several brief addresses, some by Moses alone and some in collaboration with priests and elders. Two poems and the account of Moses’ death close the Book. Chapter 34:5-12 was obviously written by someone other than Moses, possibly Joshua.

DEUTERONOMY-CHAPTER ONE

Verses 1-5:

This text is the introduction to the Book of Deuteronomy. It identifies: (1) The contents, (2) the author, (3) the addressees, and (4) the time and place.

(1) The Contents: restatement of the Mosaic Code delivered from Mount Sinai, with emphasis upon what Israel was to observe and do when they entered and possessed the Land of Promise.

(2) The Author: Moses.

(3) The Addressees: “all Israel.” This is a figure of speech, in which the part is used for the whole. This expression doubtless refers to the political and spiritual leaders of Israel, who in turn relayed Moses’ words to the people But the message was to the entire nation.

(4) The Time and Place: beginning on the first day of the eleventh month (Shebat) of the fortieth year of Israel’s exodus from Egypt, in the plains of Moab on the east of Jordan across from Jericho. The time corresponds to Jan-Feb of today’s calendar.

“Wilderness,” midbar, denoting any large region not inhabited or cultivated. It refers both to large prairies or pasture lands, as well as to desert places.

Red Sea, probably the sea which figures prominently in the history of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, Exodus 14, et. al.

Paran, the wilderness which borders Idumea (Edom), where Israel camped, Num 10:12; Num 12:16.

Tophel, identified as the modern El-Tafeleh, about fifteen miles southeast of the Dead Sea, on the eastern slope of the mountains of Edom. This text gives the only occurance of this name in Scripture.

Laban, thought to be the same as Libnah, where Israel camped on the return from Kadesh, Num 33:20-21.

Hazeroth, identification uncertain. It is thought to be a station about forty miles from Mount Sinai, in the direction of the Gulf of Aqubah, see Num 11:35 to Num 12:16.

Dizahab, location uncertain; possibly a designation of the place where Moses delivered his farewell address.

Horeb, the name usually given to Mount Sinai, see Exo 3:1; Exo 17:6; Exo 33:6, et. al.

Kadesh-barnea, the site of Israel’s rebellion and refusal to enter the Land, Numbers 13.

Eleven days’ journey lay between these two points, as one traveled by way of Mount Seir. This term denotes a rugged, mountainous country from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqabah. The summit of its highest mountain rises about 3,500 feet above the plain.

Sihon, king of the Amorites, Num 21:21-30. Heshbon was the capitol city of his kingdom.

Og, king of Bashan, see Num 21:33-35. Astaroth in Edrei was the capitol city of this king.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

1. These are the words. These two latter passages properly belong to the supplements, wherein God afterwards more clearly and familiarly illustrated the Law previously given by Him; they comprehend also exhortations, by which He subdued the people’s minds to obedience, and eulogies, by which He commended and confirmed the Law. The sum is, that Moses is appointed the minister and ambassador of God, who by his mouth prescribes to Israel all that is right and just. But when he says, “beside the covenant, which he made with them in Horeb,” (Deu 29:1,) necessary that the Decalogue should be more fully explained, lest its brevity should render it obscure to an ignorant and slow-hearted people. For God did not, like earthly kings, learn from experience to enrich His law by new precepts, but considered the people’s dull and weak understanding. The particle of exception, “beside,” does not, therefore, designate anything additional, but only signifies that God had again repeated His covenant, that it might be more distinctly and certainly understood. In which respect He gave an extraordinary proof of His indulgence, that previous to their entering the land, He renewed His covenant about forty years after its first promulgation, and added a clear exposition of it, because He had then to do with a new generation. For this reason the place is expressly mentioned, because from thence the lapse of time is made evident.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

THE REHEARSAL OF HISTORY

Deuteronomy 1-4.

He reviews the forty years of wilderness wandering. At first sight, one is disposed to feel that this recapitulation is nothing more nor less than the tendency of an old man to reminiscence, but a careful study of chapters 1, 2 and 3 convinces to the contrary. It is, rather, the wisdom born of experience. The story was not told for the-telling, but to illustrate patent truths, prominent among which is the fact that God had gone with them through this long, needless and tedious journey, and His presence alone had been their national preservation.

The individual who doesnt learn from experience is dull indeed. John M. S. Allison, writing for the North American Review (April, 1922), suggests with great sincerity, The past really lives in us and moves about us in thousands of ways, under thousands of different guises. Certainly with such a people, so situated, it should live in them by the clear tracings of memory. Wilderness experiences are the sort that are never forgotten. The sunny days of life pass and our diaries omit them, but the days of battle and blood, the days when the eclipse of the sun is total, the days when the serpent bites and the manna is crawling with wormsthese days cannot be forgotten. On that account they become our teachers, and you will find some such recorded in the very first chapter.

Moses reminds them of how they retreated at the word of cowards, and with the exception of Caleb and Joshua, fixed upon themselves a judgment sure to be executed by time and travel, so that not one of the generation should ever see the good land, promised to their fathers. The Lord told Moses to give them the reason, I am not among you.

It is a dark day when God hides His face. Even Christ, the Man of Nazareth, the One of infinite wisdom, infinite age and of infinite faith, felt its sting so deeply that momentary infidelity came, My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?

And yet, who doesnt know that from the dark days the largest lessons are learned, and by them the most important truths are imprinted. Moses had a purpose in this review.

He recounts the successes of their conflicts. It is interesting to run rapidly through these chapters and see Israel, a straggling crowd, including cattle and children, account for themselves in war. When Sihon, king of Heshbon, refuses them a passage through his country, and comes out to fight against them, the Lord God delivers him into their hands and they smite him and his people, take all his cities, and utterly destroy the remnant, appropriating his cattle.

When Og, king of Bashan, came out against them, he and all his people met a kindred fate, not a city escaping and Israel fattened on his forage.

Even the giants, the Anakims, went down before them, God with them (chap. 3).

When they forgot Him, however, they were in the sight of their enemies as grasshoppers. With God all things are possible. Apart from Him we can do nothing. Moses is teaching this truth by this rehearsal of history.

He seeks to impress the secret of their failures. One word would compass it, Disobedience. When they walked with the Lord and did according to His revelation, the days spelled triumph. When they refused His guidance and took their own course, they fell away and became an easy prey.

Have principles changed in the least since those days, or is not human conduct a repetition, and the Divine practice immutable?

A papist writer, Martin J. Scott, attempts in the North American Review, September, 1922, to answer the question, What ails the world? and he comes far more nearly telling us than any Protestant modernist. He says, In proportion as God and His justice are acknowledged and respected by governments, will the world have peace. What government is to a people, that, and a great deal more, God is to the governments themselves. If people do not respect government, anarchy results. And because governments do not respect God and His justice, wars result. Governments will be selfish to the end of the world, and wars will continue to the end. One power alone is capable of restraining that selfishness. But it calls for good will on mans part. That power is the World RulerGod. If His rule, which is justice, is acknowledged by the nations, they will have peace, not otherwise. But expediency, not justice, is the policy of governments. Hence God is ruled out of the councils of nations. Therefore, the world after Versailles was upside down and remains so. God was excluded from that gathering of governments. And peace was excluded too.

He is a wise man to whom experience can teach these truths. Plutarch, in his Fabius Maximus, tells how Municius, the Roman general, was envious of the success of Fabius, who held at that time the chief command in the Roman Army, operating against Hannibal. Municius finally obtained command of a part of the army and going forth to battle was overwhelmingly defeated by the Carthaginians. He straitly called his men together and said, Friends and Fellow-soldiers: Not to err at all in the region of great affairs is above the wisdom of man; but it is the part of a prudent and good man to learn from his errors and miscarriages to correct himself for the future. I confess what I could not be brought to be sensible of in so long a time. I have learned in the small compass of one day, namely, that I know not how to command, but have need to be under the direction of another, and from this moment I bid adieu to the ambition of getting the better of a man whom it is an honor to serve. In all other respects the Dictator should be your commander, but in the due expressions of gratitude to Him, I will be your leader still by being the first to show an example of obedience and submission. A noble speech indeed, and the revelation of a noble spirit.

How strange that men in dealing with God should not more shortly and certainly learn their need of His leadership, and willingly acquiesce in His every command! Truly, Obedience is better than sacrifice

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

CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.
I. Biographical. Sihon. (Slkhn). LXX. . Joseph. . King of the Amorites when the Israelites reached the borders of Canaan,a man of courage and audacity. Shortly before the appearance of Israel, he had dispossessed Moab of a splendid territory. He did not temporise, like Balak, but fought at once Og. . . The Amoritish king of Bashan, who ruled sixty cities (cf. Jos. 13:12). One of the last of the Rephaim. According to tradition, he escaped from the flood by wading beside the Ark (Sales Koran, Note, Deuteronomy 5.) He was supposed to be the largest of the sons of Anak, and descended from Ad: said to have lived 3000 years, and refused the warning of Jethro, sent to him and his people as a prophet Caleb. (Clbh). LXX. . Son of Jephunneh, a Kenezite (cf. Num. 32:12; Jos. 14:6; Jos. 14:14). He was a ruler or prince, and a head in the tribe of Judah. Apparently he was brave, conscientious, outspoken Jephunneh. phnnh. LXX. . Father of Caleb, probably of an Edomite tribe, called Kenezites, from Kenaz, their founder, who was a son of Eliphuz, the son of Esau (cf. Gen. 36:15; Gen. 36:42; 1Ch. 1:53; Jos. 14:14 Joshua. Yhoshua. LXX. = whose help is in Jehovah (Gesenius): God the Saviour (Pearson). Son of Nun, tribe of Ephraim (1Ch. 7:27). Born about the time Moses fled to Midian. The future captain was at first a slave. Mentioned first in the fight against Amalek at Rephidim, where he led Israel. When Moses ascended Sinai, Joshua accompanied him. He was one of the twelve chiefs sent to spy out the land. He evidently was one of the natural leaders of Israel, and therefore a man of character, force, and energy Nun. Nun. In Syriac and Arabic = a fish. LXX. . Nothing is known of him.

II. Historical Allusions and Contemporary History. Amorite. Emr. The dwellers on the summitsmountaineers; one of the chief nations who possessed the land of Canaan before its conquest by the Israelites. As Highlanders they contrast with the Canaanites, who were Lowlanders. As children of the hills they were a bold, hardy race. From the days of Abram to the time of Joshua this people fully maintained their character of the warrior. After the conquest of Canaan, nothing is heard of them in the Bible, except in the usual formula where the early inhabitants are occasionally referred to Anakim. Ankm. A race of giants, so called either from their stature or strength. They were descendants of Arba, and dwelt in the southern part of Canaan. The race appears to have been divided into three families. Their chief city was Hebron Of contemporary history it is impossible to speak definitely,it is one vast chaos, where the mind is lost in the wild confusion of conflicting theories. In our limited space we dare not venture on more than, Egypt was; Assyria was possibly throwing out the rootlets of the future tree of her empire; Greece was the habitation of scattered tribes; Phonecia probably was sending forth her fleets to plough the ocean; but so uncertain are the records, silence is esteemed better than what might be shown a baseless theory.

III. Natural History. Deu. 1:1. Red Sea. Heb. Suph, lit. reeds, seaweed, sedge, river-grass, rushes: specially of the thick and strong rushes on the banks of the Nile, and of the sedges of the Red Sea, from which this latter receives its name of Yam Suph. The word in this verse gives name to some place in the district of the wanderings. Deu. 1:25. Fruit of the land. The Hebrews had three generic terms, designating three great classes of the fruits of the land, closely corresponding to what may be expressed in English as

(1.) Corn-fruit or field produce;
(2.) Vintage fruit;

(3.) Orchard fruit. The principal fruits are grapes, olives, figs; those less common are pomegranate, apricot, walnut, almond, apple, quince, mulberry, date, orange, lemon, citron, banana, and prickly pear. Deu. 1:44. As bees do. Of bees in general we say nothing, for there are so many handbooks on these busy little creatures. For the force of the reference, see quotation from Parks Travels.

IV. Manners and Customs. The tone of the chapter, apart from such direct references as the dwelling in tents, and moving from place to place, indicates a primitive people. Moses is the father to them: they each bring their little troubles to himhe carries as a father his childhis words are authoritative. Deu. 1:11. A complimentary wish. In early stages of society, when life is simple, large families are a blessing. It is only in highly organised and artificial forms of life that families become an extravagance. Deu. 1:13. The people lived in families and tribes. Kinship, rather than geographical bounds, made divisions for the nation. The tribal relations were long kept up. Deu. 1:28. Walled cities, Warfare was of a personal kind, the chief weapons being those by which a man could inflict injury on a man. With the exception of the hattering ram, the ancients had few means of assaulting fortifications. A wall, though useless now, was of the utmost importance then. For the same reason, the great and tall men were a terror to their foes. A giant was a somebody in those days. Deu. 1:39. Little ones a prey. The conquerors took captive the living. The men who survived were generally put to death, sometimes the women too; but the latter, for the most part, with the children, were made into slaves. This fact exemplifies the statement in note on Deu. 1:11; children were valuable. Deu. 1:27. Murmured in your tents. As a roving and pastoral people they had no fixed habitation. Houses were unknown. Their temple was only a fabric of skins and linen cloth and ropea Tabernacle.

V. Chronology. The chronology of this Book, like that in all the post-Exodus, dates from the escape from Egypt, when the people entered on their real life of freedom (cf. Exo. 12:1-2); the date in Deu. 1:3 is, therefore, the eleventh month of the fortieth year from their leaving Egypt.

VI. Literary Criticism. On this side Jordan, render, beyond Jordan. The Hebrew word = this side, other side (cf. Gesenius). The phrase beber hay-yarden, means literally, at the side or passage of Jordan (Speakers Commentary). In the plain B–r-bh. Gesenius connects the word with one which means burnt up, waste, therefore sterile = desert. But besides this general meaning there is a special significance, according to Gesenius, which the writer in Smiths Dictionary accepts, when the word is used with the article as in the present instance: the word then is a proper name, and was applied to the country between the Dead Sea and the Elenitic Gulph (cf. Geographical Notes). Red Sea, render, over against Suph (Speakers Commentary). Flags (Benisch). It is impossible that our translators can here be correct in rendering Suph, the Red Sea: (a) because that is invariably called Yam Suph = sea of Suph; and (b) because Moses and the people were at this time on the eastern side of Jordan (Deu. 1:5), and, consequently, far enough from the Red Sea (Carpenter). Dizahab. Dl Zbb. The word should be separated as it is in Hebrew. As zahab means gold, the LXX. rendered it , and the Vulgate ubi auri est plurimum. It is probably the name of a place. Deu. 1:2. For position of the verse cf. infra. Deu. 1:5. Moses speaks in the third person of himself. This need be no difficulty. It was frequently done by ancient writers, both religious and profane: cf. Johns the disciple whom Jesus loved, and Csars Commentary, the writer always speaks of himself in the third person Began, better, undertook. Deu. 1:6. Dwelt long enough, sitten much (Ainsworth). Deu. 1:7. Nigh thereunto, Hebrew, his neighbours. Deu. 1:8. Set, Hebrew, given (Benisch). Deu. 1:13. Take, Hebrew, give, put, (Benisch). Deu. 1:15. Made, Hebrew, gave (Speakers Commentary). Deu. 1:17. Respect persons, Hebrew, acknowledge faces, recognise a face (Benisch, cf. Gesenius). Deu. 1:22. Search, Hebrew, dig. They were to uncover what was concealed. Deu. 1:23. The thing pleased me well, Hebrew, was good in my eyes. Deu. 1:25. Brought, restored (Benisch). Deu. 1:26. Commandment, Hebrew, mouth. According to a common figure of speech in Hebrew, the instrument is used for the thing accomplished by that instrument. Deu. 1:28. Discouraged, Hebrew, melt. Deu. 1:27. Murmured, Hebrew, vituperated (Benisch). Deu. 1:41. Weapons of war, or armour Ye were ready to go up. Rather, perhaps, ye made light of going up; i.e., ye were ready to attempt it as a trifling undertaking. For further comments on this much-discussed verse, vide Speakers Commentary. Deu. 1:44. In Seir, from Seir (Clapham). As bees do, the same comparison in Iliad 16:259, &c.

VII. Geographical. Jordan. Yrdn = to descend. LXX. . Vul. Jordanis, called now by the Arabs Esh-Sheriah = the watering-place. Has two sources: one rises at the western base of a hill where Dan once stood, and gushes forth a great fountain, the largest in Syria, and, mingling with the waters of another fountain which springs up under an immense oak close by, forms the Leddan (ancient Dan). Four miles east, on a terrace of Hermon, at the foot of a limestone cliff, is the second source, which bursts forth from a yawning abyss in a gloomy cavern. Uniting, these two streams form the Jordan, which flows very rapidly through a deep valley all its length till it is lost in the Dead Sea. Length about 200 miles The Arabah (cf. Critical Notes, Literary Criticism). This is a name given to the deep, low lying plain on both sides of the Jordan, which runs from the Lake of Gennesaret to the Dead Sea, and stretches southward from the Dead Sea to Aila, at the northern extremity of the Red Sea, as we may very clearly see from Deu. 2:8, where the way which the Israelites took past Edom to Aila is called the way of the Arabah, and also from the fact that the Dead Sea is called the sea of the Arabah (Deu. 3:17; Deu. 4:49). At present the name Arabah is simply attached to the southern half of this valley, between the Dead Sea and Red Sea; whilst the northern part, between the Dead Sea and Sea of Galilee, is called El Ghor, though several Arabic geographers extend the name Ghor from the Sea of Galilee to Aila (Keil and Delitzsch) Red Sea. . Suph. (cf. Critical Notes, Literary Criticism). Keil and Delitzsch make Suph to be the Red Sea. Some reedy place out of Palestine (Frst). Suph, probably a district on the frontier of Moab. Ptolemy mentions a people called Sophonites, who dwelt in Arabia Petra, and who have been thought to take their name from this place (Carpenter) Paran. P-rn = white. LXX. and Josh, ; (a.) A desert = et-Tih; (b.) A mountain near Seir (Deu. 33:2; Hab. 3:3); (c.) Probably a town (Smiths Dictionary). Paran may either be mount Paran of Deu. 33:2, or a city mentioned by Eusebius, Jerome, and several modern geographers near the mount (Speakers Commentary Tophgl. Tphl = plaster, mortar. Probably identical with Tufileh (Robinson); and a locality so called from the chalk-beds there (Frst). It is still a considerable place, some little distance south-east of the Dead Sea (Speakers Commentary). Numerous springs and rivulets (ninety-nine according to the Arabs), the waters of which unite below, render the town very agreeable. It is surrounded by a large plantation of fruit-treesapples, apricots, figs, pomegranates, &c. (Buckhardt) Laban Labia. Identical with Libnah, this latter being the feminine form of the word; but whether the place mentioned here can be identified with that mentioned Num. 33:20, remains to be seen Hazeroth. Khtzrth = enclosures, hamlets. In Num. 11:35; Num. 12:16; Num. 33:17, the LXX. renders it , but here . Though identified with a station of the Israelites (Num. 11:35), yet on insufficient evidence. Nothing is known for certain of the place Dizahab (cf. Literary Notes) Horeb. Khrb. LXX. . A top of Sinai, on which the Mosaic law was announced, now Gibl Ms. Formerly Horeb was the general name, and Sinai the more restricted (Frst). On the question of the peculiar and contradictory use of Horeb in Deuteronomy, see Note in Kittos Family Bible, and the articles Horeb, Sinai, in the various Dictionaries. The fixed use of the name Horeb, to designate the mountain group in general, instead of the special name Sinai, which is given to the particular peak whereon the law was given, is in keeping with the rhetorical style of the Book (Keil and Delitzsch, cf. &c.)

Kadesh Barnea., . Kdsh Brn . Sometimes written Kadesh. It is probable that the term Kadesh, though applied to a city, had also a wider application, and referred to a region, in which Kadesh-Meribah certainly, and Kadesh Barnea probably, indicates a precise spot The nearest approximation, then, which can be given to a site for the city of Kadesh, may be probably attained by drawing a circle from the pass Es-Sfa, at the radius of about a days journey; its south-western quadrant will intersect the wilderness of Paran or Et-Tith, which is there overhung by the superimposed plateau of the mountain of the Amorites; while its south-eastern one will cross what has been designated the wilderness of Zin. This seems to satisfy all the conditions of the passages of Genesis, Numbers, and Deuteronomy which refer to it. The nearest site in harmony with this view which has yet been suggested is undoubtedly the Ain-el-Weibeh (cf. Smiths Dictionary) Seir. = rough or rugged. . There is a land of and mount Seir (cf. Gen. 32:3; Gen. 36:30; Gen. 14:6; and Deu. 1:2). Apparently they are the same. The original name of the mountain ridge extended along the east side of the valley of the Arabah from the Dead Sea to the Elanitic Gulph. The name was derived either from Seir, the Horite (Gen. 36:20), or, more probably, from the rough aspect of the whole country. The sharp and serrated ridges, the jagged rocks and cliffs, the straggling bushes and stunted trees, give the whole scene a sternness and ruggedness almost unparalleled. Mount Seir was originally inhabited by the Horites, who were doubtless the excavators of those singular rock dwellings with which the district abounds. They were dispossessed by the posterity of Esau (Deu. 2:12). The mount was the subject of a terrible prophetic curse (Ezekiel 35) Heshbon. Khshbn = stronghold. LXX. . The capital city of Sihon, king of the Amorites (Num. 21:26). It stands on the boundary line between Reuben and Gad. The ruins of Heshbon, twenty miles east of Jordan, mark the site of the ancient city. Chiefly celebrated from its connection with Sihon. After the captivity it fell into the hands of the Moabites. In the fourth century it was a place of note, but now desolate. The ruins of Heshbon stand on a low hill rising out of the great plateau, and are more than a mile in circuit, but not a building is entire. One remarkable structure remains with the workmanship of the different ages visiblethe massive stones of the Jewish period, the sculptured cornice of the Roman, the light arch of the Saracenic. Many cisterns and a large reservoir remain Bashan. Hb-Bshn, almost invariably written with the article before it = the basalt land. A district on the east of Jordan. It extended from the borders of Gilead on the south to Mount Hermon on the north; and from the Arabah or Jordan valley on the west to Salcah on the east. At the conquest it was bestowed on the half tribe of Manasseh, and was proverbial for its oaks and bulls. Astaroth. Ashtrh. LXX. . A city on the east of Jordan in Bashan, in the kingdom of Og, doubtless so called from being a seat of the worship of the goddess of the same name. For the fortunes of A., cf. Jos. 13:31; 1Ch. 6:71. It subsequently passes from history. Jerome tells us it was about six miles from Ada, which was twenty-five from Bostra. The only trace of the name that modern research has discovered is Tell Ashterah (Ritter, Porter, &c.) Edrei . Edre. There are two towns of this name: one in the north of Palestine, the other to the east of Jordan. It is with the latter that we have to deal. In Scripture it is only mentioned in connection with the victory of Israel over the Amorites under Og. It was one of the two capitals of Bashan (Num. 21:33; Deu. 1:4; Jos. 12:4), and continued to be a large and important city till the seventh century A.D, though no further reference to it is made in Scripture. The ruins of an ancient city, still bearing the name of Edra, stand on a rocky promontory, which projects from the south-west corner of the Lejah. The site a strange onewithout water, without access, except most difficult, seems to have been chosen for its strength and security. The identity of this site with the Edrei of Scripture has been challenged, but see Smiths Dictionary for full particulars Lebanon. Lbhnn. . A mountain range in the north of Palestine. The name Lebanon means white, and was applied on account of the snow which covers it for the greater part of the year, or on account of the white colour of its limestone rocks, cliffs, and peaks. There are two ranges parallel, named Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, or Lebanon toward the sun-rising, i.e., Eastern L. It was from the western range Solomon obtained his timber. The snow remains in patches the whole year on the summits of Lebanon. There is a very good article on Lebanon in Smiths Dictionary, so too in Kitto Euphrates. Prath. . Probably a word of Arian origin; and if so, means the good and abounding river. The Euphrates is the largest, longest, and most important river in Western Asia. Its two chief sources are in the Armenian mountains. These two streams flow on, one 270, the other 400 miles, till they meet at Kebban-Maden, where a river is formed 120 yards wide, very deep and rapid. This flows nearly south in a tortuous course, forcing a way through the ranges of Taurus and Anti-Taurus, as if it would break into the Mediterranean, but, opposed by the ranges of Amanus and Lebanon, it turns south-east, and in this direction proceeds 1000 miles into the Persian Gulph. The length is 1780 miles, of which 1200 are navigable for boats and small steamers. The greatest width of the river is at a distance of 700 or 800 miles from its mouth, while much lower down it is nearly 300 yards narrower, and not so deep by six feet. The causes of this singular phenomenon are the entire absence of tributaries below the Khabour, and the employment of water in irrigation Eshcol. Eshcl. . A wady in the neighbourhood of Hebron, explored by the spies sent by Moses from Kadesh Barnea. From this fruitful valley was brought a large cluster of grapes, which, from the meaning of the word in Hebrew, explained to the spies the name of the place (Num. 13:23-24). But it may be instructive to remember that, when Abraham dwelt in this locality, the names of the three chiefs of the Amorites, his neighbours, were Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; and possibly the name of one may have attached itself to one of the fertile valleys near their home, when the name would be Amoritic, not Hebrew Hormah. Khrmh was the chief town of a Canaanitish tribe on the south of Palestine, reduced by Joshua. Its ancient name was Zephath (Jdg. 1:17). It became subsequently a city of Judah, though apparently belonging to Simeon, whose territory is reckoned part of the former.

SAURINS DISSERTATION ON DEUTERONOMY, CHAP. 1

Moses, being about to die, recapitulates the laws of God in the presence of all Israel. When Moses was about to die, he made a last effort to stamp on the mind of Israel the law he had already given. The speeches made on that occasion form the Book of Deuteronomythe second law. These discourses were not given all at once, on one day, but on several occasions.
I. He briefly relates to the people the most memorable events that befell them from the time they left Mount Horeb.

(1.) The order they received to make the windings toward the mountains of the Amorites, &c. &c.
(2.) The sending of the spies; their report; the murmurings and punishment of the people; the dreadful oath of God that none should enter the Promised Land.
(3.) The divers tours made by them.
(4.) The victories gained over Sihon and Og; the distribution of the country of the heathen.
(5.) The prayer of Moses for the revocation of Gods sentence on himself.
(6.) The plagues and miracles.

II. Moses recapitulated all the lawsmoral, ceremonial, political, and military.

III. Moses above all presses most home to the people the law which the Israelites stood in the greatest need of, i.e., that which was calculated to restrain their boundless inclination towards idolatry, and which caused them so often to relapse into it (cf. Deu. 4:15; Deu. 13:6; &c., Deu. 17:2, &c.

IV. Moses established the necessity of knowing the law of God, and of making it the object of perpetual meditation. All must read it: the young has no excuse in his weakness, nor the old in his infirmities (cf. Deu. 6:6-7, &c.)

V. Moses set before the eyes of the Israelites the great reasons which ought to induce them to make the laws of God the rule of their behaviour.

(1.) All these laws terminated in the love of God as their centre (Deu. 10:12-13).

(2.) These laws are of themselves sufficient to accumulate glory and happiness both on nations and private persons if they observe them religiously (cf. Deu. 4:5-6).

(3.) These laws were made by a Being which had dealt out His wonders and profuseness to a people for whom He had made them (Deu. 4:32).

(4.) These laws draw down numberless blessings upon those who follow them, and as many misfortunes on those that break them (Deu. 11:26).

(5.) These laws are endued with intrinsic justice (Deu. 4:8).

(6.) These laws are adapted to the faculties and understandings of those for whom they were made (Deu. 30:11).

VI. Moses sharply reproaches the children of Israel for their ingratitude. This is why the Targum calls the book the Book of Reproaches (cf. Deu. 32:5-6; Deu. 15:18; Deu. 29:29).

VII. Moses foretells the catastrophe into which the people should fall through their rebellions (cf. Deu. 28:62, &c., Deu. 31:1, &c.)

After that Moses had taken all the care his wisdom and prudence could suggest to engage the Israelites to be faithful to God, he concludes in lamenting the little success all these remonstrances were likely to produce.Epitome of Saurins lxviii. Dissertation.

Deu. 1:1. On this side, or, on the outside, i.e., beyond Jordan, as the Greek translateth. This word ( bbr) signifieth both sides, and by circumstance of place is to be understood. To those out of Canaan, it was on this side; to the Israelites in Canaan, it was beyond, or the outside of Jordan, where Moses spake these things.Ainsworth.

On this side. To those on the east, it was this; to those on the west of Jordan, the other side.

The plain: to wit, of Moabs land, as Deu. 1:5; see Num. 22:1. There Moses spake these things and died (Deu. 34:5). Chald. saith Moses rebuked them, because they had provoked God in the plain.Ainsworth

Which Moses spake to ALL. An objection raised by some to these words, and thence to the value of the book, is that all Israel could not hear. In answer to this, it is said Whitefield was heard distinctly half a mile off. In Australia the coey can be heard at a distance of two, or even three miles. Where the air is clear and elastic, as it is in some localities, sound is heard a very long way off. That such was the case in the Sinaitic peninsula seems almost certain from a passage in Dean Stanleys Sinai and Palestine: Among the characteristics of Sinai, one must not be omittedthe deep stillness, and consequent reverberations of the human voice. From the highest point of Rs Sasfeh to its lowest peak, a distance of sixty feet, the page of a book, distinctly but not loudly read, was perfectly audible; and every remark of the various groups of travellers, descending from the heights of the same point, rose clearly to those immediately above them. It was the belief of the Arabs who conducted Niebuhr, that they could make themselves heard across the Gulf of Akaba; a belief doubtless exaggerated, yet probably originated or fostered by the great distance to which, in these regions, the voice can actually be carried.

A question sometimes raised with regard to these early books of the Bible is, how were they preserved? The following may assist some in the presence of this difficulty:
Various doubts have sometimes been thrown out as to the existence of writings at this period. Waiving the evidence of the Mosaic records, we may remark that hieroglyphical inscriptions were known upon stone in Egypt at least as early as the fourth dynasty, or B. C. 2450; that inscribed bricks were common in Babylonia about two centuries later, and that writing upon papyruses, both in the hieroglyphics and the hieratic characters, was familiar to the Egyptians under the 18th and 19th dynasties, which is exactly the time to which the Mosaic records would belong. It seems certain that Moses, if educated by a daughter of one of the Ramessde kings, would be well acquainted with the Egyptian method of writing with ink upon the papyrus; while it is also probable that Abraham, who emigrated not earlier than the 19th century before our era from the great Chaldean capital Ur, would have brought with and transmitted to his descendants the alphabetic system with which the Chaldeans of his day were acquainted. There is thus every reason to suppose that writing was familiar to the Jews when they quitted Egypt; and the mention of it as a common practice in the books of Moses is in perfect accordance with what we know of the condition of the world at the time from other sources.
Some writers urge that the Jews could not have learned alphabetic writing from the Egyptians, since the mode of representing ideas to the eye, which the Egypt ans employed till a period long subsequently, was widely different from the alphabetic writing of the Hebrews. But the difference was not really very great. It is a mistake to suppose that the Egyptian writing was, except to a very small extent, symbolical. Both in the hieroglyphic and the hieratic, as a general rule, the words are spelt phonetically first, and are then followed by a symbol or symbols.Rawlinsons Bampton Lectures.

Deu. 1:2. This verse seems misplaced; it should come in between Deu. 1:19-20.Horsley; cf. also Dr. Wall, Kennicott, &c.

Transcribers are apt to transpose letters, words, or sentences Transposition of verses may be found in Lamentations 2, 3,

4.Jahn.

Eleven days journey. So many days march for a foot army; but Philo, the Jew, saith a horseman might do it in three days (triduo confici potuit).Trapp.

If it be objected that they spent more days in that journey (Numbers 11-13), we answer that Moses might mean there only the days in which they were upon the march. For according to Adrichomius, who had been upon the spot, the journey itself was too short to take eleven days. However, no wonder they were eleven days going it, considering the great number of their flocks, and the bulk and weight of their carriage.Bibliotheca Biblica.

The way was plain, and known between Horeb, whither God brought them on purpose to serve Him, and Kadesh Barnea, which was the beginning of an habitable country (cf. Num. 13:26; Num. 20:16).Maimonides.

There is another route, not along the plain of the Arabah and by Mount Seir, but over the high ground to the west.Annotated Paragraph Bible.

Kadesh is named as the southern point of the Promised Land. In this verse, as in the first, the mind of the reader seems directed to the past history. It was but eleven days journey from the Mountain of the Covenant to the Promised Land, yet in the fortieth year the chosen people were still in the wilderness.Speakers Commentary.

Eleven days journey from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea; and yet, in Gods providence, the people required forty years to accomplish it. What takes the shortest time is not alway the best path. Desert wandering was a preparation for the destined goal. However diversified the opinions of men in religion, all are agreed that the end and aim of life is not here. Life is but a preparation. Mans true destiny is immortality. Two things necessary for the man who would reach his true destiny

I. That we may reach our true destiny, Christ must take hold of us. Several forces in society are laying hold of menambition, avarice, lust, pleasure, pride, superstition. One or more, perhaps all, grasp and hold men. They extend around him like some dense poisoning fog, robbing the man of both light and strength. While environed with such, or indeed any form of sin, Christ would break His way into us with help. I came not to call the righteous but sinners (cf. similar texts; cf. also 1Ti. 1:14; 1Ti. 1:16; 1Pe. 2:3; Act. 10:36; Act. 13:38-39; Col. 2:13).

II. That we may reach our true destiny. we must take hold of Christ.

(a.) We take hold of Christ by faith in Him.

(b.) We show our faith in Him as well as our love to Him by keeping His commandments (Joh. 14:15; Joh. 15:10; Jas. 2:17-18; Gal. 5:6).

(c.) We also take hold of Christ by taking refuge in His atonement.

In the East there is a tree which is a non-conductor of electricity. The people know it, and, when a storm comes, they flee to it for safety. Beautiful picture of the Saviour! Beautiful emblem of Calvary! It is a non-conductor of wrath. Get underneath it, and you are safe for ever.Thomas Jones.

Deu. 1:3. Fortieth year of Israels coming out of Egypt. In the first month of this year, Mary (Miriam), Mosess sister, died (Num. 20:1). In the first day of the fifth month thereof, Aaron, his brother, died (Num. 33:38); and now, at the end of the year, Moses himself dieth, when he had repeated the law, and renewed the covenant between God and His people IsraelAinsworth.

Moses spoke what the Lord had commanded him; in other words, Moses gave the people what God had given him (cf. Act. 3:6). Though the words were Mosess, the thing uttered was of God. Some speak according to the wisdom of the world: they can tell much about its craft, villany, rottenness, hollowness; and they preach selfishness, more or less refined, as a means of personal defence, and the true source of success. Some speak according to one thing; others according to something else: Moses spoke according to what God had given him. He therefore spoke Gods truth.

I. Because Moses spoke Gods truth he uttered what would be advantageous to the people. The path of happiness is the way of wisdom. Wisdom is happiness as well as pleasant (Proverbs 8). True wisdom is the fear of God (Job. 28:28). The man who declares Gods truth instructs in wisdom and leads men to happiness. Happiness is what men are seeking. Those who conduct others into happiness meet an universal want. Blessed is the man who supplies widespread demands! He gives bread to the hungry.

The happy have whole days, and these they use;
The unhappy have but hours, and those they lose.Dryden.

True happiness (if understood)
Consists alone in doing good.

Somerville.

No man is blest by accident or guess;

True wisdom is the price of happiness.

Young.

The only happiness a brave man ever troubles himself with asking much about is the happiness to get his work done. Not I cant eat! but I cant work!that was the burden of all wise complaining among men.T. Carlyle.

Happiness is no other than soundness and perfection of mind.Antoninus.

Happiness the inward complacence we find in acting reasonably.Atterbury.

There are two ways of being happy: we may either diminish our wants or augment our means; either will do; the result is the same. It is for each man to decide for himself, and do what happens to be the easier. If you are idle, or sick, or poor, however hard it may be to diminish your wants, it will be harder to augment your means. If you are active and prosperous, or young and in good health, it may be easier for you to augment your means than diminish your wants. But if you are wise, you will do both at the same time, and if you are very wise, you will do both in such a way as to augment the general happiness of society.B. Franklin.

Religion directs us rather to secure inward peace than outward ease.Tillotson.

The happiness of life consists, like the day, not in single flashes (of light), but in one continuous mild serenity. The most beautiful period of the hearts existence is in this calm, equable light, even though it be only moonlight or twilight. Now the mind alone can obtain for us this heavenly cheerfulness and peace.Richter.

II. Because Moses spoke what God gave him, he could speak
(a.) With courage.

(b.) With power.

(a.) With courageGod on his side.

He holds no parley with unmanly fears;
Where duty bids, he confidently steers,
Faces a thousand dangers at her call,
And, trusting in his God, aurmounts them all.Cowper.

Courage consists, not in blindly overlooking danger, but in seeing it and conquering it.Richter.

A great deal of talent is lost in the world for the want of a little courage. Every day sends to their graves a number of obscure men, who have remained in obscurity because their timidity has prevented them from making a first effort; and who, if they could have been induced to begin, would in all probability have gone great lengths in the career of fame.Sidney Smith.

The truest courage is always mixed with circumspection; this being the quality which distinguishes the courage of the wise from the hardiness of the rash and foolish.Jones of Naylands.

Courage mounteth with occasion.Shakespeare.

An example of courage.Henry III., king of France, one day said to Palissy the potter, who was a Calvinist, that he would be compelled to give him (Palissy) up to his enemies unless he changed his religion. You have often said to me, sire, was the undaunted reply of Palissy, that you pitied me; but as for me, I pity you, who have given utterance to such words as, I shall be compelled. These are unkingly words; and I say to you, in royal phrase, that neither the Guises, nor all your people, nor yourself, are able to compel a humble manufacturer of earthenware to bend his knee to statues.

(b.) With power: he would speak as one having authority, and not as the scribes (cf. Mat. 7:29). His words were not the echoes of another mans experience: the words spoken represent things real and living in his own heart.

There is no keeping back the power we have;
He hath no power who hath no power to use.Bailey.

Power shows the man.Pittachus.

He speaks with power, because as strong as heavens heat, and as its brightness clear (Hill); or as the rock of ocean, that stems a thousand wild waves on the shore.Campbell.

III. Because Moses spoke what God gave him to speak, he relieved himself of a great responsibility.

(a.) Commissions are sometimes intrusted to men by God which they are afraid to execute. They thereby entail calamity upon themselves and all connected with them (cf. Jonah).

(b.) Duties imposed by God, if neglected, bring desolation on the man and his family (cf. Achan, Judges 7).

(c.) Knowledge, wisdom, visions of the Divine glory, are vouchsafed to men to be used for the improvement of the world, the upholding of the Church, and the honour of God. If misused, the consequences will be terrible (cf. Balaam, Solomon, our own Lord Byron).

(d.) Money, influence, opportunity, is intrusted to many in these days. Such is not to be lavished on ourselves. God gave it: He expects it to be used in His service. Moses recognised this. His power, his thoughts, came from God, he used them for God, and therefore spoke what God gave him to speak. He thus relieved himself of a great responsibility. To all are intrusted talentsfive, two, one. If we hide, or misuse, or waste, God will punish, and take from us even what we have (cf. Shakespeares Julius Csar, iv:3

There is a tide in the affairs of men,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our venture.

Opportunity has hair in front, behind she is bald; if you seize her by the forelock you may hold her, but, if suffered to escape, not Jupiter himself can catch her again.

Miss not the occasion; by the forelock take
That subtle power, the never-halting Time,
Lest a mere moments putting off should make
Mischance almost as heavy as a crime.

Wordsworth,

All men, if they work not as in a Great Taskmasters eye, will work wrong, work unhappily for themselves, and for you.Carlyle.

Thousands of men breathe, move, and live, pass off the stage of life, and are heard of no more. Why? They do not partake of good in the world, and none were blessed by them; none could point to them as the means of their redemption; not a line they wrote, not a word they spoke, could be recalled, and so they perished; their light went out in darkness, and they were not remembered more than the insects of yesterday. Will you thus live and die, O man immortal? Live for something. Do good, and leave behind you a monument of virtue.Chalmers.

No man is born unto himself alone.
Who lives unto himself, he lives to none:
The worlds a body, each man a member is,
To add some measure to the public bliss.
Where much is given, there much shall be required.Quarles.

Deu. 1:4. After he had slain Sihon.

If Samson had not turned aside to see the lion that not long before he had slain, he had not found the honey in the carcass (Jdg. 14:8). So if we recognise not our dangers, deliverances, and achievements, we shall neither taste how sweet the Lord is nor return Him His due praise. So true thankfulness is required.

I. Recognition.
II. Estimation.
III. Retribution (cf. Psa. 116:3; Psa. 116:7; Psa. 116:12.Trapp.

The slaughter of Sihon and Og was an encouragement to Israel for their after wars, and an argument to move them unto thankful obedience to the law now repeated.Ainsworth.

Sihon, the king of the Amorites, which dwelt in Heshbon.
For situation of Heshbon, cf. Critical Notes. Meaning of Heshbon is stronghold. Sihon dwelt in a stronghold. Here was shelter and safety. In doing this he showed his wisdom. But the wisest is sometimes unwise. Sihon betrayed his humanity. He left his stronghold, and so was guilty of two foolish things: he left a stronghold, and he joined the heathen to fight against God and His people. These words are fraught with instruction, for they bring Sihon before us as an example and warning.

I. Sihon as an example. He did well to dwell in a stronghold.
(a.) A stronghold is a place fortified by nature or art: it is made strong by God or man. It is a place of security. The soul needs a place of security where to flee from spiritual foes. The Psalmist frequently spoke of God as his fortress (cf. Psa. 11:2; Psa. 31:3; Psa. 71:3; Psa. 91:2; Psa. 144:2).

Shakespeare has well said

God is our fortress, in whose conquering name
Let us resolve to scale their flinty bulwarks.
To which we may add from the same writer
It is a forted residence the tooth of Time,
And rasure of Oblivion.

To the Christian, God in Christ is the stronghold. Though the imagery for the most part (Christ as a Rock) is that of a foundation (Mat. 7:24; Rom. 9:33; 1Pe. 2:8), yet the metaphor is open in other places for other interpretation (cf. 1Co. 10:4). Christ as a rock is a rock to be made use of by man. Man is to use Christ as a foundation to build upon. Christ will be to men now what the rock was to Israel in the desert: that whence flows the stream of spiritual life. Men are to drink of this water or build on this foundationit matters not which metaphor is usedby faith (cf. Act. 16:31; 1Co. 3:10-16; Joh. 16:7).

(b.) Where a man has security he has peace. Because the Christian feels secure in Christ he rests. Dwell on the power of faith in producing a sense of security and rest (cf. Binneys Pract Nat. of Faith).

II. Sihon as a warning. He left the stronghold where he had enjoyed peace and protection to join the enemies of God. No better warning for the young. If we forsake God, God will forsake us. Those that honour me I will honour. Those that seek shall find. There are two sources of temptation to the inexperienced: inquisitiveness and pleasure.

(a.) Inquisitiveness has not infrequently tempted the young to leave the safe shelter of faith in Christ to dabble in the muddy currents of scientific and philosophic speculation, and to rush into the storms raised by supposed discoveries of unbelief. Such have quickly found they trod a path beset with thorns. To such Sihon is a warning.

(b.) Pleasure has induced men to forsake the garden about the Cross, where Rest, Joy, Safety, and Peace lingered, notwithstanding the transverse shadows upon the ground, to taste fruits of trees that grew beyond. They were not satisfied with what Christ gave. The angels food sickens. They lust for the things of Egypt (cf. Eve in the garden). The Bible is thrown aside for the novel. The prayer-meeting is exchanged for the play. Virtue sometimes even is lost (cf. Samson). Contrast the choice of Hercules in Xenophons Memorabilia.

To what gulphs

A single deviation from the track
Of human duties lead.Byron.

(c.) Gain and worldly reward have induced some to forsake God and His Church (cf. conduct of Balaam, Judas; Num. 23:10; Num. 31:8; Num. 31:16; Mic. 6:5; 2Pe. 2:15; Jud. 1:11).

Men in the present day desire the wages of unrighteousness and the pleasures of sin, and for them pay the price, unrighteousness, sin, the DEATH of their soul: they betray the Lord of life and glory, crucify Him afresh, and put Him to an open shame. Let such take warning of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who forsook his stronghold to join the enemies of God.

Deu. 1:5. In the end of this fortieth year, in the beginning of the month Shebat, Moses called the people together, saying, The time of my death draweth nigh; if any one therefore hath forgot anything that I have delivered, let him come and receive it; or, if anything seem dubious, let him come that I may explain it. And so they say in Siphri, If any one have forgotten any constitution, let him come and hear it the second time; if he need to have anything unfolded, let him come and hear the explanation of itMaimonides on this verse.

Began Moses to declare. Explain.Patrick.

He began, or, better perhaps, undertook, to declare the law, i.e., explain and elucidate it. Such is the force of the Hebrew verb (br), a word implying the pre-existence of the matter on which the process is employed, and so the substantial identity of the Deuteronomic legislation with that of the previous books. LXX. : Vul. explanare.Speakers Commentary.

Began. Willingly took upon him, for the word implies willingness and contentedness (cf. Gen. 18:27). So all ministers should feed their flocks willingly and of a ready mind (1Pe. 5:2). Moses began to declare as Jesus (cf. Luk. 12:1; Mat. 16:6). Disciples began to pluck, &c. (Mat. 12:1).

To declare. To make plain, clearly manifest to the understanding of the people, as in Hab. 2:2. A thing is said to be made plain in writing that he may run that readeth it.Ainsworth.

= to be willing, not began. In Gen. 18:27, this word is rendered by I have taken upon me (Exo. 2:21). Moses was content.Delgado.

The best inheritance that a rich man can leave to his children is Christian instruction in the discipline and admonition of the Lord, and thorough education in the arts and sciences.Geier.

He who really fears God will say nothing concerning Him but that which proceeds from his innermost heart, and vow nothing but what he is resolved inviolably to keep.Hengstenberg.

Declare. The Hebrew word means properly to engrave, to hew in stone: which is there used of the deeper impressing and imprinting on the heart by means of exhortation and explanation.Gerlach.

The address of Moses is in perfect harmony with his situation. He speaks like a dying father to his children. The words are earnest, inspired, impressive. He looks back over the whole of the forty years of their wandering in the desert, reminds the people of all the blessings they have received, of the ingratitude with which they have so often repaid them, and of the judgments of God, and the love that continually broke forth behind them; he explains the laws again and again, and adds what is necessary to complete them, and is never weary of urging obedience to them in the warmest and most emphatic words, because the very life of the nation was bound up with this; he surveys all the storms and the conflicts which they have passed through, and, beholding the future in the pastviz., apostasy, punishment, and pardoncontinue to repeat themselves in the future also.Hengstenberg.

On this side Jordan, &c., &c.

Moses repeated the law as soon as he had opportunity, and circumstances required it. He did not wait till the promised land was entered. The work of to-day was not delayed till the morrow. It was done at once. He did it where he wasin the land of the Gentilessurrounded with heathenin the country of foes. (Cf. here Carlyles words America is here or nowhere.) Trapp with no little humour remarks on these words, And he was not long about it. A ready heart makes a riddance of Gods work, for being oiled with the Spirit, it becomes lithe and nimble and quick of despatch. Three practical hints

I. What is to be done do at once. Moses on this side of Jordan began to speak. Had Moses been a boy at school, he would not have put off his prayers till he got home where there were no school-fellows to chaff. He would have said them then and there.

Let us take the instant by the forward lip.

Shakespeare.

Shun delays, they breed remorse;
Take thy time while time is lent thee;
Creeping snails have weakest force;
Fly their faults, lest thou repent thee.
Good is best when soonest wrought;
Lingering labours come to nought.

Southwell.

At thirty man suspects himself a fool;
Knows it at forty, and reforms his plans;
At fifty ohides his infamous delay,
Pushes his prudent purpose to resolve;
In all the magnanimity of thought
Besolves: and re-resolves: then dies the same.

Young.

We find out some excuse or other for deferring good resolutions.Addison.

There is no moment like the present.Maria Edgeworth.

Thou art a passenger, and thy ship hath put into harbour for a few hours. The tide and the wind serve, and the pilot calls thee to depart, and thou art amusing thyself and gathering shells and pebbles on the shore till they set sail without thee. So every Christian who, being on his voyage to a happy eternity, delays and loiters, and thinks and acts as if he were to dwell here for ever.Jortin.

II. Do not think that there will be a more propitious time than the present.

(1.) Dallying with duties does not diminish difficulties.
(2.) Delay positively increases difficulties. Power unused decreases. If duty is deferred a day, we are a days wasted strength the weaker.
(3.) We know what is to be done now: to-morrow it may be forgotten. Cares of life will usurp attentions. The duties are pushed asidechoked downkilled. Weeds grow faster than corn (cf. parable of the sower). Cares and duties come quicker than time.

Conviction, were it never so excellent, is worthless till it convert itself into conduct. Nay, properly, conviction is not possible till then, inasmuch as all speculation is by nature endless, formless, a vortex amid vortices: only by a felt indubitable certainty of experience does it find any centre to revolve round, and so fashion itself into a system. Most true is it, as a wise man teaches us, that doubt of any sort cannot be removed except by action. On which ground, too, let him who gropes painfully in darkness or uncertain light, and prays vehemently that the dawn may ripen into day, lay this other precept well to heart, which to me was of invaluable service: Do the duty which lies nearest thee, which thou knowest to be a duty! Thy second duty will already have become clearer.Carlyle.

III. Do some good things in this lifein the desert, so called, on this side Jordan. Do not wait till heaven is reached, that angels alone may be witness of your good deeds. Moses did not defer till the promised land was reached. He did what he was able out of the promised land. It was well he did. He never reached Canaan. Had he put off all till then, nothing would have been done. Perhaps you may never reach heaven: probably you will not if there is so little of the spirit of Christ in you as to permit an utterly indolent life. Remember Dives! Do something worth remembering, that you may have one pleasant memory to carry into hell with you: perhaps a sufficiency of such reminiscences may so brighten the gloom of those infernal regions as to make the hell a heaven.

How dangerous to defer those moments which conscience is solemnly preaching to the heart! If they are neglected, the difficulty and indisposition are increasing every month.John Foster.

Deu. 1:6. The first and introductory address of Moses to the people is here commenced. It extends to ch. Deu. 4:40, and is divided from the second discourse by Deu. 1:41-46, which are obviously of a different character from those which precede and follow them. Addressing the people on the very threshold of the promised land, Moses summarily recalls to them the manifold proofs they had experienced of the care and faithfulness of God toward them, and the manifold instances of their own perverseness and rebellion. These their sins had shut them out during a whole generation from the inheritance covenanted to be given to their fathers. The warning is thus most effectively pointedthat they should not by new transgressions debar themselves from those blessings which even now lay before their eyes; and the way is appropriately prepared for that recapitulation and reinforcement of the law of the covenant which it is the main purpose of Deuteronomy to convey.Speakers Commentary.

Dwelt long enough. From the third month of the first year (Exo. 19:1) to twentieth day of the second year after they came out of Egypt (Num. 10:11), they stayed at Mount Sinai, which is the same with Horeb, they being only two tops of the same mountain, one of them something higher than the other, as they are described by those who have taken a view of them.Patrick.

Ainsworth more correctly says: They came to that mount in the third month after their departure out of Egypt (Exo. 12:1-2), and removed from the mount the twentieth of the second month in the second year (Num. 10:11-12); so they remained there almost a year, where they received the law, or Old Testament, and had made a Tabernacle for God to dwell among them: from thence God called them by word and sign, the cloud removing (Num. 10:11; Num. 10:13; Num. 10:33); to journey toward Canaan, the land promised to Abraham, the figure of their heavenly inheritance by faith in Christ. The law is not for man to continue under, but for a time, till they be fitted and brought unto Christ (see Gal. 3:16-18; Gal. 4:1-5; Heb. 3:18-19; Heb. 4:6-11.

The great Primate of Ireland thinks that Moses spoke from here to Deu. 4:40 on February 20, and on the Sabbath day.Bibliotheca Biblica.

In Horeb. It has been remarked as a discrepancy that Sinai of the other books is alway called Horeb in Deuteronomy. But this is met by the note in Exo. 19:2, where it is shown that Horeb is the general name of the whole mountain, and Sinai is the special name of a particular part of it. This distinction is scrupulously observed everywhere in the Pentateuch. The name Sinai is, however, not wanting in the book, for we find it in Deu. 33:2 (cf. long note on Exo. 19:2, Kittos Family Bible, Sinai, in Dic.Kitto.

Humbled they must be, and hammered for a season: sense of misery goes before a sense of mercy.Trapp.

Dr. Wright says by Horeb, but I know not his reason, as they were in Horeb.Delgado.

Dwelt long enough implies that the purpose for which Israel was taken to Horeb had been answered, i.e., they had been furnished with laws and ordinances requisite for the fulfilment of the covenant, and could now remove to Canaan to take possession of the promised Laud. The word of Jehovah mentioned here is not found in this form in the previous history; but, as a matter of fact, it is contained in the Divine instructions that were preparatory to their removal (Num. 1:4; Num. 9:15; Num. 10:20), and the rising of the cloud from the Tabernacle, which followed immediately afterwards (Num. 10:1). The fixed used of the name Horeb to designate the mountain group in general, instead of the special name Sinai, which is given to the particular mountain upon which the law was given, is in keeping with the rhetorical style of the book.Keil and Delitzsch.

Dwelt. Sitten much.Ainsworth.

The Lord our God spake unto us Benisch renders the verseThe Eternal our God, &c. These words are powerfully suggestive of fellowship with the unseen universe. Contact with the verse is like wandering in the depth of some virgin forest, dark, boundless, at midnight the twinkling stars above only revealing the intense, mysterious darkness, and the hidden terror. Whether this speech was audible or silent, whether heard by the sense of the imagination, matters very little. The word God spoke was heard somehow, and to the hearer the word was real, as well as the speaker. Two thoughts suggested here

I. Man has a capacity to hold communion with God.
(a.) This is done by means of a special and peculiar faculty. As the eye sees, and the heart loves; so the spirit that is in man communes with the Spirit that is in God.

(b.) This faculty may be alive or dead. In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die (cf. Gen.).

II. Mans power of hearing God depends upon his relationship with God. When Christ heard His Father speak, the people said it thundered. When Paul heard the voice of Christ by the way, those with him heard it not (Act. 22:9). When the Spirit descended upon Jesus as a dove, John the Baptist and Jesus beheld it, but we do not know that the people saw it.

Communion with God will, even in this life, greatly increase our conformity to Him; the truth of this of this is confirmed by common observation. Assimilation is always a consequence of association with others. There is in man a natural aptness and tendency to imitate those who are his most constant companions. If two persons very dissimilar in disposition, habits, and manner of expression, were for a few days only to associate together, they would visibly approximate each other. Just so the praying soul, by conversing with God, is in some measure assimilated to His likeness. The object of worship will in some measure always be the object of imitation. God is the standard of moral excellence, and by contemplating His perfections our corruptions are counteracted, His image is enstamped upon us, and our minds are raised above their natural level. Thus the exercise of fervent prayer elevates, strengthens, purifies, comforts, and enriches the believing soul. They who would be rich in grace must be much in prayer to God: He will beautify them with the beams of His holiness, as Mosess face shone when he returned from the mount; beholding in the exercise of faith and prayer the glory of the Lord, they are changed into the same image from glory to glory. And herein the work of prayer on earth resembles that of praise in heaven; for which more exalted worship it is, no doubt, intended ultimately to prepare us.Christian Familys Assistant.

Anything lower than a life of communion with God in Christ is repudiated by the Christian idea as an imperfect and sinful life. It may possess much that the world calls virtueit may be honest, industrious, and self-sacrificingit may even show a strength and consistent manliness that some manifestations of the Christian life are found to fail in; but, nevertheless, it is of an inferior quality. It not merely comes short of it, but it does not really touch the Christian ideal; for it is impossible to separate the life of man from God without fatal injury to that life. If God is, and if we are His creatures, our being cannot grow into any healthy or perfect form while we remain divorced in spirit and in love from Him. Certain elements of character may flourish in us, but certain others, and still more important, elements must be wanting.Dr. Tulloch.

You will find it more difficult to walk closely with Jesus in a calm than in a storm, in easy circumstances than in straits, A Christian never falls asleep in the fire or in the water, but grows drowsy in the sunshine.John Berridge.

Communion with heaven

When one who holds communion with the skies
Has filled his urn where the pure waters rise,
And once more mingles with us meaner things,
Tis even as an angel shook his wings;
Immortal fragrance fills the circuit wide.

cowper.

Deu. 1:7. Turn you, take your journey, i.e., Resume the journey long intermitted.Patrick.

The Amorites, as the most warlike and powerful people, stand here for all the Canaanites.Gerlach.

Mount of the Amorites, i.e., to the mountain district occupied by the Amorites, reaching into the Negeb, and part of the territory assigned to the tribe of Judah. The Amorites, as the leading people of Canaan, here stand for the nations of that country generally (see Deu. 1:44); and the mountain of the Amorites, and the places nigh thereunto (or more literally, All its neighbours), denote the whole district, which is more particularly specified in the concluding part of the verse.Speakers Commentary.

Canaan was naturally divided, according to the character of the ground, into the Arabah, the modern Ghor; the mountain, the subsequent mountains of Judah and Ephraim; the lowlands (shphlh), i.e., the low flat country lying between the mountains of Judah and the Mediterranean Sea, and stretching from the promontory of Carmel down to Gaza, which is intersected by only small undulations and ranges of hills, and generally includes the hill country which formed the transition from the mountains to the plains, though the two are distinguished in Jos. 10:40; Jos. 12:8; the south land (ngb), lit. dryness, aridity, from , to be dry or arid. Hence the dry, parched land, in contrast to the well-watered country (Jos. 15:19; Jdg. 1:15), was the name given to the southern district of Canaan, which forms the transition from the desert to the strictly cultivated land, and bears for the most part the character of a steppe, in which tracts of sand and heath are intermixed with shrubs, grass, and vegetables, whilst here and there corn is also cultivated; a district, therefore, which was better fitted for grazing than for agriculture, though it contained a number of towns and villages (cf. Jos. 15:21-23); and the sea-shore, i.e., the generally narrow strip of coast running along by the Mediterranean Sea from Joppa to the Tyrian Ladder, or Rs el Abiad, just below Tyre. The special mention of Lebanon in connection with the land of the Canaanites, and the enumeration of the separate parts of the land, as well as the extension of the eastern frontier as far as the Euphrates, are to be attributed to the rhetorical fulness of the style.Keil and Delitzsch.

Deu. 1:5-8. Subject: Gods address to His people. The Lord our God spake. (Deu. 1:6). The words were spoken to Israel. Israel in a special and preeminent sense was Gods people (Exo. 3:7; Exo. 5:1; cf. My people in Concordance). They were the covenant people as far as the covenant then extended. Though the grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, yet the Law was given by Moses. The Jew had an earnest of the future greater gift. Of this fact we are in a measure reminded by the sketch of their history given in the chapter, as likewise by the relation of Moses to their history. He was the prophet. The prophet is the mouthpiece of God. Moses spoke and acted only for God: he was but the vicegerent: God was the true King of Israel. His glory was displayed to Israel in miracle and providential protection. But even more specially and pre-eminently than the Jew is the Christian Church the people of God. To such this passage, in is spiritual application, is full of instruction.

I. God in His address to His people enjoins action. Not slothful is the apostolic command. Ye have dwelt (Ainsworth: sitten much) long enough. The time of inactivity is over. Turn you, take your journey. God enjoins on His people to be like Himself. He is ever active. The whole seven days round His energies are going forth in creating and blessing. For six days He creates: on the seventh He is active in blessing (cf. Gen. 2:1; Gen. 2:3). Not less active than the Father is the Son. Week-day and Sabbath He exerted Himself to make man happier and the world brighter. His reason for this He gives in Joh. 5:17. It is not unnatural, therefore, that God seeks in His people qualities so largely developed in Himself. God does not want idlers in His vineyard. Man was put into the garden of the world to work (cf. Gen. 2:15). In the parable, too, the men had to go and labour who received the penny (cf. Mat. 20:8). Call the labourers.

However, God permits some rest. Life is not all work. Storm and calm, battle and peace, make history.

But still the law of life and growth is, the more we do within certain limits the more we are able to do. This is true both physically and spiritually. People of impaired health by proper exercise become strong. The morally weak are strengthened by the exercise of trial. It was on this account that Paul gloried in tribulation. It made him spiritually greater. So men find now. The more kind a man tries to be, the more he is. So with faith, patience, hope. Cf. Abrahams faith and its growth: first he leaves home; then he offers his son in obedience to the Divine injunction uttered in his heart. It is easier to leave home than sacrifice ones own child. But Abraham was led up to this latter. God speaks both in the words of Scripture and in the voice of lifes circumstances and conditions, ever eloquent, saying, Turn you, take your journey. In other words, Do something. As children of God, be like your fathers. Let what energies you possess go forth in activity, and thus by the action of to-day prepare for greater activity on the morrow.

II. God advises with regard to the nature, direction, and extent of this action.
(a.) Nature of the action. Let it be action with a purpose in view. Some people are always beating the air. Much energy is spent in noise and flurry, but no work is done. Have an aim in life. Go to the mount of the Amorites.

(b.) Direction of the action. Two hints with regard to that

(1.) Let it go forth. It does not do for a mans action to turn in on himself. Uniform selfishness is as injurious as constant introspection; and ceaseless introspection is as ruinous as unmixed selfishness. Live for others as well as self: work for others.

(2.) This is modified by another hint. Go to what is near first. In kindly thought for the universe, a man is not to forget his own. Cf. 1Ti. 5:8. Jesus when dying for the world did not forget His own mother at His feet.

(c.) Extent of the action. Though we are to begin with what is near, though what is at hand is of primary import, we are not to restrict our thoughts nor our actions to our own. Begin at the near, then proceed to what is more remote, till the whole world is affected by your life: e.g.

(1.) First to the plain. Read part of the Bible easily understood and applied. Interpret providence as far as you can trace a Fathers hands. What cannot be understood leave for a future day and clearer lights.

(2.) After this go to the hill. Do not mind a difficulty sometimes. A little adversity strengthens the soul. Trust is perfected in suffering. Many a seed has matured into a noble plant when cast down into the earth.

(3.) Now you may proceed to the vale. Reverently step where the long, deep shadows fall. There is the valley of the shadow of deaththe valley of humiliationthe valley of vision. Here the soul is quickened and brought into that region of experience that Paul designates as being hidden with Christ in God.

(4.) Thus prepared with the whole armour of God, go to the south. Here were hills infested with foes. So the Christian, after mounting the Hill of Transfiguration with Christ, where for a moment the Divine glory is manifested, has to go back again to a world where man has to contend with demons (cf. Mat. 17:14-18)where he has to grapple with many a spiritual foe, wolves in sheeps clothing, the lion that seeks to devour, the subtle serpent. But go to the south. God has not called us to bondagethe bondage of the cloister: or to linger in dim-lighted religious cell, as if life was to be consumed in feeling. Fight the good fight of faith. Go where the enemy awaits.

(5.) Then comes the reward. Having gone to the south, the people might turn aside to the sea. Here an entirely new field of experience was to break upon their vision. Hitherto they had wandered amid arid sands and rocky wastes. Now they come to the sea, where the beauty and glory of the heavens would be reflected in the silent depths of the waters, grace and mystery being added (cf. Psa. 107:23-24). So does God bring the Christian after long and hard toil to gaze into those depths of love and grace which are as oceans mirroring the midnight skies.

(6.) After such revelation of Gods glory and power, the people of God can go forth to war with the Canaanite. The kingdom of Christ is extended to Lebanon (the far north)to the river (the far east). The whole world is filled with the glory of the Lord.

Such are the various stages of Christian experience and work. From what is simple to what is complex, from the near to the distant, the soul lives and labours till all be complete.
III. God, in His address, points out how rightly-directed action will bring its own reward. Behold, I have set (Heb. given) the land before you: go in and possess.
(a.) True work is sure to bring recompense of some kind.

If little labour, little are our gains;
Mans fortunes are according to his pains.

Herrick.

It, first, brings external reward. A days work brings the days wages. The sowings of spring are followed by the harvests of autumn.

It, secondly, brings an internal reward in a mans own nature and being.

Service shall with steeled sinews toil,
And labour shall refresh itself with hope.

Shakespeare.

Moderate labour of the body conduces to the preservation of health, and cures many initial diseases.Dr. W. Harvey.

Excellence is never granted to man but as the reward of labour.Sir J. Reynolds.

(b.) Show what work is. Distinguish work from pleasure. Pleasure is the expending of energy without any end or purpose save the sensations caused by the act of waste, whereby pleasure has been defined as dissipating enjoyments; work is energy expended for a purpose. In its idea it is conservative. Work is action to get a return for the energy so spent, both to recuperate and increase the power thus employed. Pleasure seeks nothing save the sensation; work demands a recompense. God promises to work its recompense. Go in and possess.

Deu. 1:9. I am not able. Political and ecclesiastical labours are very great.Luther.

None have so hard a tug of it as magistrates and ministers.Trapp.

If we had not business and cares and fears above all private persons, we should be equal to the gods.Dio. Cassius.

Moses constrained to this not only by the consciousness of his own inability, but by the advice of Jethro and the command of God (cf. Exo. 18:14; Exo. 18:18-19; Exo. 18:21; Exo. 18:23).Ainsworth.

I am not able. We do not read before now that Moses spake thus; but Jethro spoke thus, Exodus 18, and gave advice (Exo. 18:21) to get help, which Moses took (Deu. 1:24), and then told the people what Jethro said.Patrick.

At that time. After the giving of the law.Selden.

I spake unto you, &c. It seems that in the following account two histories are comprised in one; the appointment of the judges at the advice of Jethro (Exodus 18) and the installing of the seventy elders by the communication of the Spirit to them (Num. 11:16). The first institution, which was of mans origin, received its consecration by the latter act. The division of the whole people into corporations under heads, also inspired by the Spirit of God as Moses, made the whole unformed mass into one people.Gerlach.

I am not able, &c.
I. His was work entirely beyond social help. Such labour becomes more difficult from the loneliness of the worker. Many a minister feels his work hard through his solitude.
II. Such work often entails more self-denial than mortal man can endure. Gods grace goes a long way. Still man has the weakness of the flesh to sap his energies. It is not good for man to be alone.
III. It was work involving self-denial for the very people who caused him all his troubles and anxieties.
The character of Moses.
The ancients are full of it His piety, his meekness, his patience and self-denial, his magnanimity, his impartiality, his public spirit and tender love to his nation, his wisdom and judgment, his learning, and all those adorning qualities and happy accomplishments that distinguished this great and excellent man (not even the gracefulness of his person omitted), are there mentioned with such handsome simplicity and plainness of style and narration, as is nowhere else to be found, and perhaps cannot be imitated; such as at once recommends the pattern of the man and vouches the truth of the story.Bibliotheca Biblica.

I am not able to bear you, &c. A tone of suffering and weariness is in these words. The true leaders of men are not infrequently compelled to go counter to the prejudice, vice, and sin of their age. Every age has repeated the past and foreshadowed the future in that particular. Moses was true to his vocation. Sorely he suffered.
I. The depravity of his age.
(a.) The people a horde of barbarians.

(b.) Coarse, selfish, idolatrous.

(c.) Almost blind to the spiritual.

II. The magnanimity of his character.
(a.) True antidote of an evil generation is a magnanimous leader. More is done by example than by precept.

(b.) The burdens of life make a truly great character greater.

Compare with this the effect of the pure, magnanimous life of Jesus Christ on His generationthe Centurion, &c.

Deu. 1:10. The Lord God had multiplied the people. Their increase was not owing simply to a power in themselves. God is the actor.

As the stars. A greater number than can be told.Clapham Patrick.

The Lord our God hath multiplied you.

When Moses said this, it was with the impression that he had said one of the most inspiriting and congratulatory things that he could say. Compare Psa. 127:5. Happy is the man that has his quiver full. In no way could Moses have expressed his idea of Gods beneficence more than this. The subject suggested to us here is the benignity of God. Three facts might well be considered in conjunction with this subject

I. Gods benignity is a fact ever before the eye of mans investigating intellect. Adduce Platos: God is beauty and love itselfan outburst of adoration caused by His purified intellect gazing on the outspread universe in this genial atmosphere and refined light of grace.
What was it but this led Bishop Horne to exclaim, When we rise fresh and vigorous in the morning, the world seems fresh too, and we think we shall never be tired of business or pleasure; but by the time the evening is come, we find ourselves heartily so; we quit all our enjoyments readily and gladly; we retire willingly into a little cell; we lie down in darkness, and resign ourselves to the arms of sleep with perfect satisfaction and complacency.
Or take again that beautiful passage of Emersons
The method of nature: who could ever analyse it? That rushing stream will not fail to be observed. We can never surprise nature in a corner; never find the end of a thread; never tell where to set the first stone. The bird hastes to lay her egg; the egg hastens to be a bird. The wholeness we admire in the order of the world is the result of infinite distribution. Its smoothness is the smoothness of the pitch of the cataract. Its permanence is a perpetual inchoation. Every natural fact is an emanation also, and from every emanation is a new emanation. If anything could stand still, it would be crushed and dissipated by the torrent it resisted; and if it were a mind, would be crazed as insane persons arethose who hold fast one thought, and do not flow with the course of nature;not the cause, but an ever-novel effect. Nature descends always from above. It is unbroken obedience. The beauty of these fair objects is imported into them from a metaphysical and eternal spring.
II. Gods benignity is a fact ever impressing our general consciousness. Not only has the intellect its special sphere of observation, of means to end, and adjustment of cause to effect; but the whole consciousness has that pressing upon it which makes the subject of it cry out in a wild rapture, God is indeed good!
III. Gods benignity is a fact ever appealing to our faith. What is more startling than to be told that God is good. God is good! and we think of the earthquake where thirty thousands went into the mystery of the shadows in a moment. The benign God! and the storm and the shipwreck loom up as some phantom to haunt our peace. We think of widows: we hear the sob of the orphan. The maidens love is blasted, and a weary soul goes on its solitary course for years, hoping that there may be a future, and that the spirit of the loved one hovers near.
But God shows His benignity by drawing near in sympathy. Hearts are not left to sigh alone. There is still a voice to be heard when the thorn is most painful, My grace is sufficient.
It is in this profounder and tenderer way Gods benignity constantly appeals unto our heart, and our hearts deepest faith.

Deu. 1:11. The Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you, as He hath promised you.

Subject: The prosperity of Zion desired. Not to exert ourselves for those committed to us argues a want of love for them, but there is a bound to mans power. The care of the people devolving upon Moses proved too much for him. He therefore retired from the whole duty, and dealt only with the chief cases, relegating the remainder to magistrates. He had now arrived at the borders of Jordan and the last month of his life, and was enjoined by God to make a farewell memorial; so the generation immediately coming after him, having the history of their fathers so deeply stamped upon them, might serve God with more fidelity than their fathers had. It was in this farewell he felt called upon to make a reference to the act instigated by Jethrothe appointing of magistrateslest there might be any feeling on the part of the people at his so doing; and, to show his zeal in their service, he concludes with this blessing: The Lord God of your fathers, &c.

This benevolent wish of his will lead me to consider the prosperity of Gods Israel

1. As a matter of promise. To the promises of God relating to this subject Moses refers: The Lord bless you, as He hath promised you! God has promised innumerable blessings to those who are of Israel according to the flesh. Cf. Gen. 15:5; Jer. 33:22; Deu. 30:5; Amo. 9:11-15; Zec. 8:3-8; Zec. 8:13, Zec. 8:18-23; Jer. 30:19. Innumerable blessings, too, has God promised to His spiritual Israel. That these are included in the wish of Moses there can be no doubt. Cf. Gen. 22:17-18; Gal. 3:7-9; Gal. 3:13-14

Let us, then, consider the prosperity of Israel
II. As an object of desire. Oh, that the Lord God of our fathers would multiply His people a thousandfold, and bless them as He hath promised them! If any of you need a stimulus to concur in this wish, reflect on

(1.) The benefit that will accrue to every converted soul.

[Were we to contemplate a soul actually taken out of hell, and translated to a throne of glory in heaven, we should say indeed that such an one had reason to rejoice. Yet, what is it less than this that is done for every child of God? Are we not doomed to perdition? Is there any child of man that is not by nature a child of wrath I consequently, if delivered from condemnation, is he not a brand plucked out of the fire? Is he not at the very time that he is turned from darkness to light turned also from the power of Satan unto God? Does he not actually pass from death unto life? And is he not delivered from the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of Gods dear Son? Reflect then on this, as done for only one soul, and there is reason, abundant reason, for every benevolent person in the universe to pant for it. But consider it as extended to thousands and millions, yea, millions of millions, even the whole human race, and who should not pant and pray for that? See what commotion is produced in heaven even by the conversion of one soul; for there is joy among the angels in the very presence of God over one sinner that repenteth. And what must we be who feel so indifferent about the conversion and salvation of the whole world? Verily we have need to blush and be confounded before God for the coldness with which we contemplate His promised blessings.]

(2.) The honour that will redound to God.

[Behold our fallen race! Who is there amongst them that bears any measure of resemblance to the image in which man was created? Who regards God? Who does not practically say to God, Depart from me; I desire not the knowledge of Thy ways? But let a soul be apprehended by Divine grace, and converted to the faith of Christ, and what a different aspect does he then bear! Verily, the whole work of creation does not so brightly exhibit the glory of God as does this new created being. Brilliant as are the rays of the noonday sun, they do not display even the natural perfections, and still less the moral perfections of the Deity, as he, the new-born soul, who, from the image of his father the devil, is transformed into the image of God Himself in righteousness and true holiness. Now, too, he begins to live unto his God, and by every possible means to exalt His glory in the world, acknowledging Him in all things, serving Him in all things, glorifying Him in all things. Is there a man that is in any respect sensible of his obligations to God, and not desirous that such converts should be multiplied? Did David shed rivers of tears for those who kept not Gods law, and shall not we weep and pray that such persons may be converted to God and made monuments of His saving grace? But conceive of this whole world that is in rebellion against God converted thus, and Gods will done on earth as it is done in heaven; and shall this be to us no object of desire? Verily, we should take no rest to ourselves, nor give any rest to God, till He accomplish this blessed work, and till all the kingdoms of the world become the kingdoms of His christ.]

(3.) The happiness that will arise to the whole world.

[Every soul that is converted to God becomes as a light to those around him, and salt, to keep, as it were, from utter putrefaction the neighbourhood in which he dwells. In proportion, then, as these are multiplied, the very world itself assumes a different aspect. Instead of the brier there grows up the fir-tree, and instead of the thorn there grows up the myrtle-tree, till at last the whole wilderness shall blossom as the rose, and this desert become as the garden of the Lord. I need say no more. The wish of Moses is, I think, the wish of every one amongst you; and you are all Saying with David, Blessed be Gods glorious name for ever; and let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and amen.]
You will ask, then, What shall we do to accelerate this glorious event? God works by means. Learn a lesson from Mosess act. He received assistance. Let the zeal of the Church be fanned into life. Let the Church help the clergy. Then will Gods kingdom come. [Abridged.]Simeon.

Deu. 1:11. In this book Moses repeats the chief laws to the people. This he does because the generations that first heard them had passed away: a new one was in its place. Much that had taken place he therefore repeats. This led him to refer to their trying and quarrelsome disposition, and the appointment of magistrates to deal with their several cases. The subject, to be considered thoroughly, would afford three ample heads of discourse, viz.:

I. The qualifications required in those that were to be appointed rulers over the people. They were to be wise men, and understanding, and known among their tribes.

II. The persons to whom the election or choice is referred, which were the several tribes over whom they were to rule: Take ye, or, give ye, as it is in the original, i.e., choose ye, as the word signifies.

III. The person who deputed them to their office, and invested them with their authority: and that was Moses himself, their chief leader; he who was appointed over them by God, and under God on earth supreme. Take ye wise men, &c., and I will make them rulers over you.

The first only is dealt with on this occasion, i.e., this qualification of a ruler. Choose wise men, &c. In speaking to which I shall

(1.) Explain the terms in which these qualifications are expressed.
(2.) Show how necessary those qualifications are to form a good magistrate.
(3.) Set forth the great benefits and advantages which such magistrates are(a.) to their sovereign, (b.) to the people ruled, and (c.) the honour they bring to themselves.Condensed from Wheatly on this passage.

Deu. 1:11. The Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more than ye are, and bless you, as He hath promised you. There was but one thought on this subject in the mind of both Moses and the Psalmist. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full: and, Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is His reward. Such a view of a social problem, which is now such a difficult one to some of the most thoughtful, could only be taken by men who had a strong and living faith in the providence of God, and who lived in times and countries where food was more easily procured than it is now in civilised countries, and where the habits of the people were very simple. Still, if men were content to be more simple in habit and life, the same sentiment might be expressed to-day as was sung as a joyful song by Moses and the Psalmist. The words read in such a spirit as characterised these two writers suggest these two considerations

I. That children ought to be esteemed blessings, and that he who has a numerous offspring ought to be thankful to God for them: for children are the heritage of the Lord.

II. That God is the sole Author and Disposer of these blessings: The Lord God make, &c., and bless as He hath promised.

I. Children ought to be esteemed blessings, &c. It is a blessed thing to be the parent of a numerous offspring. For

(1.) Such a man is a public blessing to the kingdom in which he lives; for the riches of a kingdom consists in the number and multitude of its inhabitants. Cf. the conduct of the Romans, famed for the wisdom of their laws and prudence of politics, which was guided by this maxim from the first foundation of their government, and who endeavoured by all means in their power to augment the numbers of their people, and rather chose to make their city the asylum of the worst of men than want inhabitants. To this end they framed so many honorary laws, and granted so many and great privileges to the parents of many children.

(2.) A numerous offspring is a valuable blessing with respect to private families, and that mutual comfort and support which those who came originally out of the same loins yield to one another. These bonds are inseparable when the same interest are bound by natural affection.

(3.) A numerous offspring is a valuable blessing to the parent himself. The Jew looked forward to the Messiah being born of his family: the Christian can see a new heir of righteousness. There is joy in their birth: there is pleasure in their after-life if the child is trained aright.

II. God is the sole Author and Disposer of these blessings. Cf. Psa. 127:3. This blessing is called an heritage. An heritage is an estate got by ancestors, and descends to us lineally without our painstaking. God is our Ancestor, from whom we enjoy all favours.

Three lessons are gathered from the subject of this verse
(a.) Let those who have no children learn from hence to wait with patience the Divine pleasure, to continue in prayer and alms-deeds, and to be fruitful in good works; and if they have not children after the flesh, they will have a multitude who will call them blessed, and who in the endless ages of eternity will be to them as children.

(b.) Let those who have a numerous family of children be thankful to God for bestowing these blessings on them, and use their utmost endeavour to make them blessings indeed, by grounding them in the principles of religion and bringing them up soberly and virtuously to some lawful calling.

(c.) Those who have had children and are deprived of them, either by natural death, or, which is worse, by any unfortunate accident, may hence learn to resign themselves to the will of God, and entirely to depend on His good providence.Abstract of Sermon by Lewis Atterbury.

I know hes coming by this sign,
That babys almost wild!
See how he laughs and crows and starts,
Heaven bless the merry child!
Hes fathers self in face and limb,
And fathers heart is strong in him.
Shout, baby, shout! and clap thy hands,
For father on the threshold stands.

Mary Howitt.

I love these little people; and it is not a slight thing when they, who are so fresh from God, love us.Dickens.

Good Christian people! here lies for you an inestimable loan: take all heed thereof; in all carefulness employ it: with high recompense, or else with heavy penalty, will it one day be required back.Carlyle.

Be ever gentle with the children God has given you; watch over them constantly; reprove them earnestly, but not in anger. In the forcible language of Scripture, Be not bitter against them. Yes, they are good boys, I once heard a kind father say. I talk to them very much, but do not like to beat my childrenthe world will beat them. It was a beautiful thought, though not elegantly expressed. Yes; there is not one child in the circle round the table, healthful and happy as they look now, on whose head, if long enough spared, the storm will not beat. Adversity may wither them, sickness may fade, a cold world may frown on them, but amidst all, let memory carry them back to a home where the law of kindness reigned, where the mothers reproving eye was moistened with a tear and the father frowned more in sorrow than in anger.E. Burritt.

Call not that man wretched who, whatever ills he suffers, has a child to love.Southey.

Of all sights which can soften and humanise the heart of man, there is none that ought so surely to reach it as that of innocent children enjoying the happiness which is their proper and natural portions.Southey.

I am fond of children. I think them the poetry of the world, the fresh flowers of our hearths and homes; little jurors, with their natural magic, evoking by their spells what delights and enriches all ranks and equalises the different classes of society. Often as they bring with them anxieties and cares, and live to occasion sorrow and grief, we should get on very badly without them. Only think if there was never anything anywhere to be seen but great grown-up men and women! How we should long for the sight of a little child! Every infant comes into the world like a delegated prophet, the harbinger and herald of good tidings, whose office it is to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and to draw the disobedient to the wisdom of the just. A child softens and purifies the heart, warming and melting it by its gentle presence; it enriches the soul by new feelings, and awakens within it what is favourable to virtue. It is a beam of light, a fountain of love, a teacher whose lessons few can resist. Infants recall us from much that engenders and encourages selfishness, that freezes the affections, roughens the manners, indurates the heart; they brighten the home, deepen love, invigorate exertion, infuse courage, and vivify and sustain the charities of life. It would be a terrible world, I do think, if it was not embellished by little children.Binney.

Unless you court the privacy of the domestic circle, you will find that you are losing that intimate acquaintance with those who compose it, which is its chief charm and the source of all its advantage. In your family alone can there be that intercourse of heart with heart which falls like refreshing dew on the soul, when it is withered and parched by the heats of business and the intense selfishness which you must hourly meet in public life. Unless your affections are sheltered in that sanctuary, they cannot long resist the blighting influence of a constant repression of their development, and a compulsory substitution of calculation in their stead. Domestic privacy is necessary, not only to your happiness, but even to your efficiency; it gives the rest necessary to your active powers of judgment and discrimination; it keeps unclosed those well-springs of the heart whose flow is necessary to float onwards the determination of the head. It is not enough that the indulgence of these affections should fill up the casual chinks of your time; they must have their allotted portion of it, with which nothing but urgent necessity should be allowed to interfere.W. C. Taylor.

Deu. 1:10-11. Moses here beautifully recalls to the nations mind memories of the past, in which mercies received at the hand of God are very prominent. To this is added a prayer that the future may be as the past, but fuller. In connection with this subject are two thoughts, more or less impressive to various hearers, according to the experience of their lives.

I. Man stands in a continued relation to the past. No moment in the present or future can ever be wholly separated from the past. The feelings indulged in and sentiments expressed yesterday will influence life through all after years. A heart is more closely attached to you or deliberately alienated. Your whole after career will be more or less influenced by that one act.
It is highly necessary, while by each present we are making our past which is so to influence our future, that we consider this. The past becomes a mans life. The present very often is nothing. It is but the dividing line between that just done and what we are about to do. The past stretches through long years. From it comes all a mans knowledge, feeling, experience. It is his life; we would almost say himself. He was made by that past.

II. The past gives form to the hopes and aspirations of the future.
It is necessary to look forward as well as backward, as some think it always necessary to regulate their conduct by things that have been done of old times; but that past which is so presumptuously brought forward as a precedent for the present, was itself founded on an alteration of some past that went before it.Madame de Stael.

As the pleasures of the future will be spiritual and pure, the object of a good and wise man in this transitory state of existence should be to fit himself for a better by controlling the unworthy propensities of his nature and improving all his better aspirations, to do his duty, first to God, then to his neighbour; to promote the happiness and welfare of those who are dependent upon him, or whom he has the means of assisting; never wantonly to injure the meanest thing that lives; to encourage, as far as he may have the power, whatever is useful and tends to refine and exalt humanity; to store his mind with such knowledge as it is fitted to receive and he is able to attain; and so to employ the talents committed to his care that, when the account is required, he may hope to have the stewardship approved.Southey.

On the knowledge of the past we reason for the future. From the past comes experience. Experience tells what is good. That a wise man desires.

Deu. 1:12. Moses found the work too much for himself alone, he therefore sought assistance. This is but a local application of the principle laid down in Genesis: It is not good that man should be alone. Man for the most part needs help, sympathy, and encouragement in his work. A few proud natures wander lion-like, alone through the world; but their life is hard, unnatural, solitary. The solitary, God has taken and set in families.

Hear your complaints, remedy your grievances, determine your controversies.Clapham.

Deu. 1:12. How can I bear you alone? The anguish cry of the fathers has provided language for the children. The sufferings of one age have provided the vehicle of expression for the sufferings of the next. Thus Moses in this moment of trial has done a service for after-ages. Two lessons

I. The most honoured men are put into situations of extreme difficulty and suffering.
II. Great faith has great trials.
Examination and trial of a good scholar hurts him not, either in his learning or in his credit; nay, it advanceth him much in both; his very examination rubs up his learning, puts much upon him, and sends him away with the approbation of others. And thus in the trial of faith there is an exercise of faith; faith examined and tried prove a faith strengthened and increased. Some things sometimes prove the worse, and suffer loss by trial; but the more faith is tried the more faith is enlarged.Things New and Old.

Deu. 1:12. How can I bear you alone! The interrogative form of statement is sometimes the most emphatic mode of statement. Moses does not distinctly state that he was severely tried. But his words imply that much. The words of Moses are echoed by a million hearts, who are crying, How shall I bear this burden, this circumstance, this strife, this loss, this sorrow?

I. Trial is the heritage of every life.

Trials must and will befall.

All would gladly flee them. It is impossible. The necessity of life, and still more of growth in spiritual life, is trial.
II. Distinguish between trial and the effect of transgression. They may both be forms of suffering; indeed, the same form. They may tend to have the same effect upon our spirit, of life unto life or death unto death; but there is this vital differencethe one can be escaped, avoided; the other cannot. A man can avoid losing his friend by his own temper: he cannot at all times restrain the whim and temper of his friend, which also rob him of hallowed friendship. Trials come from without: the effects of our transgressions from within. By care, grace, self-restraint, many of the so-called trials of life might be lessened, for the majority are only the effects of transgression of some kind, and rest entirely with ourselves.

III. Though there may be real trials from without which we cannot, avert, and though much of the suffering which we endure might be averted, and the causes lie in ourselves, still the whole may be cheerfully met, and received as a discipline at the hand of God; for suffering of all kind, no matter whence the cause, if permitted to have the right effect, tends to chasten and purify the spirit.
IV. In trials of all kinds, whether they come through the body in the guise of pain, or whether they directly attack the emotions dressed as anguish, the most efficacious way of dealing with them is a humble and prayerful committal of ourselves to the care and providence of God.
V. Prayer for help, trust in God, the hope of either removal or supporting grace according to the trial, is the true way to commit ourselves to God. To fret only wears out. Complaint embitters. Resignation to the Divine will, memories of brighter pasts, hopes of happier futures, enweave around the storms of life a halo of light and glory given by the Sun of Righteousness, Himself shining from where we cannot see Him.

Deu. 1:13. Bring ye unto me wise and understanding men, and esteemed throughout your tribesDelgado.

Known among their tribes. Their several tribes were to approve of them and to vouch for their character. These were in this respect a sort of figure of the College of Bishops, of whose ordination, St. Cyprian tells us, such care was and ought to be taken, that it was a great irregularity and omission in their ordination if the neighbouring Bishops of the province did not come together to the people of the diocese over which the Bishop to be ordained was to preside, and if he was not elected in the presence of the people, as who should be perfectly well acquainted with his whole life and conversation (Ep. 67:172). See Origen, Comm. on Lev. 8:5, quoted in Bib. Bib.

In Deu. 1:9-13, Moses is represented as having proposed the appointment of these judges to the people himself, which, it is said in the text, was suggested and proposed to him by his father-in-law, Jethroa circumstance which has been considered as involving a considerable difficulty. One would almost think that the way in which we have stated the fact was in itself enough to show that there is in reality no discrepancy between the two passages; but to avoid all misconception of the matter, we transcribe the following from Dr. Greaves:

There is a great and striking difference between those statements, but there is no contradiction. Jethro suggested to Moses the appointment; he probably, after consulting God, as Jethro intimates, If God shall thus command thee (Deu. 1:23), referred the whole matter to the people, and assigned the choice of individuals to them. The persons thus selected he admitted to share his authority as subordinate judges. Thus the two statements are perfectly consistent. But this is not all: their difference is most natural. In first recording the event, it was natural Moses should dwell on the first cause which led to it, and pass by the appeal to the people as a subordinate and less material part of the transaction; but in addressing the people, it was natural to notice the part they themselves had in the selection of those judges, in order to conciliate their regard and obedience. How naturally, also, does the pious legislator, in his public address, dwell on every circumstance which could improve his hearers in piety and virtue! The multitude of the people was the cause of the appointment of the judges; how beautifully is this increase of the nation turned to an argument of gratitude to God! How affectionate is the blessing with which the pious speaker interrupts the narrative, imploring God that the multitude of the people may increase a thousandfold! How admirably does he take occasion, from mentioning the judges, to inculcate the eternal principles of justice and piety, which should control their decisions! How remote is all this from art, forgery, and imposture! Surely here, if anywhere, we can trace the dictates of nature, truth, and piety.Carpenter, An Examination of Scrip. Diff.

Wise men. Rulers actions exemplary. If the mountains overflow with water, the valleys are the better; and if the head be full of ill humours, the whole body fares the worse. The actions of rulers are most commonly rules for the peoples actions, and their example passeth as current as their coin. If a peasant meet luxury in a scarlet robe, he dares be such, having so fair a cloak for it. The common people are like tempered wax, easily receiving impressions from the seals of great mens vices; they care not to sin by prescription, and damn themselves with authority. And it is the unhappy privilege of greatness to warrant by example as well others as its own sins; whilst the unadvised vulgar take up crimes on trust and perish by credit.Things New and Old.

Known. Public men must have public spirit. Plutarch records an excellent speech of Pelopidas when going out of his house to the wars; his wife came to take her leave of him, and with tears in her eyes prays him to look to himself. O my good wife! said he, it is for private soldiers to be careful of themselves, not for those in public place; they must have an eye to save other mens lives. Such a spirit becomes every man in public place; flesh and blood will be apt to prompt a man that it is good to sleep in a whole skin: why should a man hazard himself and bring himself into danger? But let such know that men in public places are to have public spirits, and to take notice that though there be more danger by standing in the gap than getting behind the hedge, yet it is best to be where God looks for them to be.Things New and Old.

Get you wise men, &c. Moses was not unwilling to share his honours with others. He is an old man. Much of the ambition of youth is dying out. The pressure of anxiety and care is great. With the justice characteristic of his noble nature he did not ask men to share his labours without sharing his honours. A few homiletical points are
I. No unworthy or selfish ambition to be cherished. Share your honour with those who divide with you your care and toil. How different would many a wifes life have been had all husbands been governed by this principle! Both the rich and the poor daily give us examples. Too many arise like him of whom Milton says

One shall rise

Of proud ambitious heart, who, not content
With fair equality, fraternal state,
Will arrogate dominion undeserved
Over his brethren, and quite dispossess
Concord and law of nature from the earth.

II. Contrast with this picture the action of Moses. No merely nominal superiority to be coveted. Position may be had sometimes by theft. Thrones are sometimes stolen as well as trinkets from a ladys table. Place is sometimes gained by flattery. But what is such nominal superiority? True position is power.

The true ambition there alone resides

Where justice vindicates and wisdom guides,
Where inward dignity joins outward state,
Our purpose good, as our achievement great;
Where public blessings public praise attend,
Where glory is our motive and our end:
Wouldst thou be famed? Have those high acts in view
Brave men would act though scandal would ensue.

Young.

Position of every kind is always a tacit acknowledgment of willingness for service, for the possessor of place is ever proclaiming his power to work. And as soon as a man cannot work it is his duty to retire from office. Moses shows his true manhood in his act. He spurned nominal superiority. He preferred abdication, which his act virtually is, to holding of the reins of steeds of which he no longer had control.

III. The most actively fraternal spirit to be cultivated. Sir Walter Scott ably and earnestly advocated this principle when he said, The race of mankind would perish did they cease to aid each other. From the time that the mother binds the childs head, till the moment that some kind assistant wipes the death-damp from the brow of the dying, we cannot exist without mutual help. All, therefore, that need aid have a right to ask it from their fellow-mortals; no one who holds the power of granting can refuse it without guilt.

A happy bit hame this auld world would be
If men when theyre here could mak shift to agree,
An ilk said to his neighbour, in cottage an ha,
Come, gie me your handwe be brethren a.
I ken na why ane wi anither should fight,
When to gree would make a body cosio an right;
When man meets wi man, tis the best way ava
To say, Gie me your handwe are brethren a.

Robert Nicol.

IV. This spirit easily cultivated by those who walk with God as Moses did. The secret of every truly great life lies in that fact, He walked with God. Enoch needed not to see death, for he walked with God. Those who walk with God have God dwelling in them. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy: for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are (1Co. 3:16-17). Secret things belong unto the Lord, said the author of Deuteronomy; to which the Psalmist is able to add, The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. God lights that subtle fire in the heart of the believer by the gift of the Holy Spirit, so that all the dross of evil is consumed away and the pure gold of Being alone left. Moses was one of those long in the furnace of affliction. And beautiful was he when the snows of a hundred and twenty winters whitened his head. By the same process, by the same spirit, by the same cultivation, may men to-day become as the man Moses was some five and thirty centuries ago

Ambition proves its own ruin. The poisonous aconite, so much desired of the panther, is purposely hung up by the hunters in vessels above their reach, whereof they are so greedy, that they never leave leaping and straining thereat till they burst and kill themselves, and so are taken. Thus do men aim at honour and greatness too high for their reach, and too great oftentimes for their merit; for an ambitious heart overgrown with this rank aconite neither admits of the beams of grace to mollify its hardness nor the bounds of nature to restrain the swelling; but is unnaturally carried to wrong those of his own blood that are living, and to blemish the honourable fame of his predecessors that are departed. Such tyrants may bear themselves up for a time, but in the end they shall find that, though Divine justice hath leaden feet, she hath iron hands; though slow in coming, yet she strikes home.Sir R. Dallington.

The poisonous nature of ambition, As poison is of such force that it corrupteth both blood and spirit, besieging, seizing, and infecting the heart with venomous contagion thereof, quite altering the complexion and condition of the man that hath drunk it, so the pestiferous desire of sovereignty, though it seize on a mind of mild and mansuet disposition, yet it is of such forcible operation, as it not only altereth mans nature, but maketh man unnatural.Sir R. Dallington.

Deu. 1:15. Cf. Critical Notes.

Chief of your tribes. They were the fitter for this high employment because men of quality. They were less liable to be corrupted by bribery, from which Moses took such care that all judges should be so free that he expressly required they should be men hating covetousness (Exo. 18:21).Bibliotheca Biblica,

In the oath administered to judges, Solon put in a special clause to prevent bribery, which is quoted in Demosthenes oration against Timocrates. I will receive no gift upon the account of my sentence: neither I myself, nor anybody else for me; nor another with my knowledge, by any artifice or devise whatsoever.Vide Patrick on Pass.

Officers. , Shotrim, cf. Biblical Treasury, vol. i. p. 158, a long note found in Michaelis on Shotrim.

Shotrim, one set over a thing, an overseer, arranger, administrator, mentioned with judges, Deu. 16:18, with elders, Deu. 31:28, with elders and judges, Jos. 8:33, with elders, judges, and heads, Jos. 23:2, with guide and ruler, Pro. 6:7. They were chosen from people, Num. 11:16. They had to make commands known to the people, Jos. 1:10. To conduct the levies of soldiers, Deu. 20:5. They were officers in cities, 1Ch. 23:4; 1Ch. 26:29; sometimes filled higher dignities, 2Ch. 26:11. They also regulated affairs in the camp, Jos. 8:33. The translation , scribe, LXX. sofro, Syr., does not sult.Frsts Lex.

Wise men and knownin other words, true men. Two kinds of men in the world. Men of the worldimitations of the true thing, counterfeits of immortality; and true menmen full of the spirit of wisdom, full of the Holy Ghost, Act. 2:4; Act. 4:8; Act. 6:3; Act. 7:55; Act. 11:24, &c.known menmen known of God and man; known of God because of the truth of their life; known of men because of the power of their lifemen of Christ.

I. Men of the world. These follow the course of expediency. They adopt a corrupt worldly religion. Their God is a golden calf. They worship prosperity, know only what is seen, drop the unfortunate, are entirely ignorant of the religious principles taught by James (cf. Jas. 1:27). Widows, poor, afflicted, unfortunate, too troublesome, too expensive.

II. Men of Christ. What a contrast these men present! As different as Hezekiah and Manasseh. These true men of Christ have distinctive principles in their life. Conduct governed by the law of their Master (Mat. 5:44; Joh. 15:12; Luk. 6:31).

(a.) These men will eventually succeed (1Sa. 2:30).

(b.) These men always strong (Jer. 1:19; Mat. 28:20).

(c.) Though such have their season of gloom, a light yet arises on their path.

Sometimes a light surprises

The Christian while he sings;
It is the Lord, who rises
With healing in His wings.

Cowper.

Magistrates to be men of understanding. Heraclitus being sick, examined his physician concerning the cause of his sickness; but finding that he was ignorant thereof, he would take none of his physic, saying, If he be not able to show me the cause, he is less able to take away the cause of my disease. Thus there are many sores and sicknesses in a commonwealth, a thousand ways of cheating. The generality of men is, as Ovid said of Autolycus, furtum ingeniosus ad omne, witty in all kinds of wickedness; indeed the world is set upon wickedness (1Jn. 5:19). And such is the subtilty, too, of offenders, that the trim tale of Tertullus (Acts 24) goes current till the Apostle comes after him and unstarches it. How easy is a fair glove drawn upon a foul hand,a bad cause smoothed over with goodly pretences! So cunning, so wary, and so wise are the many, that, as Csar said of the Scythians, it is harder to find them than to foil them; like the cuttlefish, they can hide themselves in their own ink-floods, they cover themselves with their own devices. The magistrate, that physician of the body politic, had need of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding that he may keep that one ear open for the innocent, whether plaintiff or defendant: he must be a man of experience, industry, and judgment to catch all the guilty with the hook of justice, who are crafty and slippery to avoid them, that he may be able to put away the very causes of corruption.

Magistrates must be examples. It is said in the praise of Moses that he was a mighty man both in word and deed (Act. 7:22); not mighty in word only, as many governors are, to command strongly, but mighty also in deed, to do it accordingly. As Tully reports of Julius Csar that he was never heard saying to his soldiers Ite illuc, Go ye thither, as if they should go into service and he stay behind in the tent; but Venite huc, Come hither; let us give the onset, and adventure our lives together; a great encouragement for the soldier to follow when he sees his captain march before! Thus it is that if the magistrate will persuade the people to anything, he must show the experience of it first in himself; or if he will command the people anything, he must do it first himself and by himself; otherwise, if he exact one thing, and do another, it will be said that he is like a waterman, who rows one way and looks another. (cf. Sermon preached 1622, before Prince Charles at St. Jamess.)

Made them heads. A good magistrate or minister is the support of the place where he lives. Men use to fence and defend, to keep watch and ward over their cornfields whilst the corn and fruit are in them unreaped, ungathered; but when the corn is inned and safe in the barn, then is open-tide, as they say; they lay all open, throw in the fence, and let in beasts of all kind; nay, sometimes they set fire on the stubble. Thus every zealous magistrate, every godly minister, every good Christian is, as it were, a fence, a hedge to that place, that parish where they live; and when they are once plucked up, when they are taken away by death, or otherwise removed, that kingdom, that place, that parish lies open to all manner of ruin and destruction.Things New and Old.

Deu. 1:9-15. This appointment of the captains (cf. Exo. 18:21 sqq.) must not be confounded with that of the elders in Num. 11:16 sqq. The former would number 78, 600; the latter were seventy only. The time and place, and indeed the transactions themselves, were quite different. The only common point between the two lies in the complaint of Moses, Deu. 1:12, which bears some verbal resemblance to Num. 11:14-17. But, as in both cases, the grievance Moses had was of the same kind, there is no reason why he should not express it in the like terms. It is, in fact, a characteristic of the speech of early times, and one exemplified in every ancient record, to employ the same or similar combinations of words for like occasions, instead of inventing new combinations for each. Such similarities afford no proof whatever of the writers having other like passages in view. Very ancient languages had not that variety and flexibility of expression which belongs to the modern languages of Western Europe.

It has been observed that in Exodus the appointment of the captains is described as made before the giving of the law at Sinai; here it seems to be placed immediately before the people departed from Horeb, i.e., a year later. But it is obvious that Moses is only touching on certain parts of the whole history, and with a special purpose. God had given them a promise, and willed them to enter on the enjoyment of it. Moses too had done his part, and had provided for the good government and organisation of their greatly increased multitude. All was ready for the full accomplishment of the promises before the camp broke up from Horeb. The order of statement is here rather suggested by the purposes of the speaker than by the facts. But it is nevertheless quite correct in the main point, which is that this important arrangement for the good government of the people took place before they quitted Horeb to march direct to the Promised Land. This fact sets more clearly before us the perverseness and ingratitude of the people, to which the orator next passes, and shows, what he was anxious to impress, that the fault of the forty years delay rested only with themselves.Speakers Comm.

Deu. 1:16. A good charge. Those that are advanced to honour must know that they are charged with business, and most give account another day of their charge.

I. He charges them to be diligent and patient. Hear the causes. Hear both sides, here them fully, hear them carefully; for nature has provided us with two ears, and he that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame to him. The ear of the learner is necessary to the tongue of the learned (Isa. 50:4).

II. To be just and impartial. Judge righteously. Judgment must be given according to the merits of the case, without regard to the qualities of the parties. The native must not be suffered to abuse the stranger, nor the great the small. No faces known in judgment.

III. To be resolute and courageous. Ye shall not be afraid of the face of man. Be not overawed to do an ill thing, either by the clamours of the crowd or by the menaces of those possessing power.

IV. He gave a good reason to enforce this charge. The judgment is Gods. You act for Godact like Him. His representatives, if you judge unrighteously you misrepresent Him.M. Henry.

Cf. Solons oath. I will hear the accuser and the defender both alike.Quoted by Patrick.

Deu. 1:16. As their person and endowments made them considerable, they were therefore designated with the honourable title Schofetim (Shophtim) and were also called Elders, a title of honour among the Jews and other nations.Patrick.

Cf. Alderman = Elderman.

Deu. 1:15-16. Subject: Organisation.

There is nothing clearer in history than that men stand in relation to one another of superior and inferior. That very fact necessitates gradations of position; all cannot be first, all cannot be last. The point to be determined is every mans faculty, and his adaptation for a particular sphere. The narrative before us provides us with the abstract principle concreted into a tangible form. Moseschiefs of tribescaptainsofficers.
Society could not exist without organisation. Organisation would break up without leaders (cf. various epochs in history when society has been shattered for want of able leaders). Natural history as well as the history of humanity enforces this truth. The bee has its queen; a flock of sheep, a herd of deer their leader.

Three things about true leaders
I. They must be chosen of God. Moses was thus appointed; so Joshua. These subordinate rulers were chosen by the same, though in a subordinate manner. Moses as Gods vicegerent selected them from those who had Gods stamp upon themability and acknowledged position. To him that has shall be given.

II. Being chosen by God, they must walk according to the Divine counsels. The book of the law of the Lord shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein; for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, &c. (Jos. 1:8). God never endows man with independence. He is raised high, but is ever subject to God. It was because Satan overlooked this, according to our great poet, that he fell from his high estate. However that may be, man quickly learns that he who lives without God soon finds that God can live without him.

III. In proportion as leaders acknowledge God, so He prospers them (cf. Jos. 1:8); for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. They that honour Me will I honour.

Four thoughts on organisation
I. Organisation facilitates the development of individual talent.
II. Organisation consolidates Christian society assembled in one place.
III. Organisation presents most formidable front to the enemy.
IV. Organisation promotes healthful spiritual development.Dr. Parker.

Judge righteously. It was a shame for Csar to confess, Meliorcausa Cassii, sed denegare Bruto nihil possum (The case of Cassius was the better, but I am unable to deny Brutus anything); and Henry the Emperor (the seventh of that name) is much taxed in story for that, being appealed unto by a couple of lawyers, who contended about the sovereignty of the empire, they first making agreement betwixt themselves that he for whom the Emperor should give sentence should win a horse of his fellow-lawyer: now the Emperor fairly pronounced truth to be on his side that spake most for his power and authority, whereupon this proverb was taken up, Alter respondet quum, sed alter habet equum (The one hath the right on his side, but the other rides the horse). Thus it is that partiality perverteth right and corrupteth judgment, whereas the law is plain. You shall have no respect of person in judgment, &c. And the Apostles charge unto Timothy is, that he do nothing , by tilting the balance on one side.

Magistrates should be men of courage. Elvidius Priscus, being commanded by Vespasian either not to come into the senate, or being there, to speak nothing but what he directed, made answer, that being a senator, it was fit he should go into the senate; and being there, it was his duty to speak in his conscience what he thought to be true; and then being threatened, if he did so, he should die, further added, That he never as yet told him that he was immortal; and therefore, said he, do what you will, I will do what I ought; and as it is in your power to put me unjustly to death, so it is in my power to die resolvedly for the truth. Here now was a brave-spirited heathen, fit for Christian imitation; for he can never be a faithful man that is afraid to speak his mind. Men of public employment for the peoples good must and ought to stand up for the truth, to be men of courage, men of resolution, not fearing the frown of any whatsoever; not echoing out the dictates of others, but freely speaking their own thoughts without any fear at all.Things New and Old.

Magistrates to be impartial in justice. Selucus, that impartial lawgiver of the Locrians, made a law against adulterers, that whosoever should be found guilty thereof should have his eyes put out. It so happened that his son proved the first offender. Sentence was pronounced, execution ready to be done; whereupon the people earnestly entreated the judge his father that he would pardon the fact, who, upon serious deliberation, put out one of his own eyes and one of his sons, and so showed himself a godly father and an upright judge together. Thus it is that magistrates, like the earth, should be immovable, though the winds should blow at once from all points of the compass; not to favour friends, nor fear the frowns of enemies, but to proceed impartially according to the merits of the cause that is before them (Pro. 18:5).

Deu. 1:17. Duty of magistrates. Part of Mosess solemn charge to the judges of Israel. Jehoshaphat in substance said the same (cf. 2Ch. 19:6). Charge was necessary thennowas long as men are subject to weakness, negligence, corruption, or passion. The words imply

I. The judgment is Gods.
II. Ye shall not fear man.
III. The subject may see the sin and danger of opposing, disobeying, and vilifying magistrates.T. Wilson.

Deu. 1:17. The authority of magistrates. For the judgment is Gods. Moses here enforces the charge given to the judges of Israel. He repeats (cf. Lev. 19:15) it to procure reverence for the judges, and to encourage the judges to be fearless. Moses had done as much as he was able to procure the faithful execution of so high a trust: he took the chief of the tribes, wise men (cf. Deu. 1:15). To the natural character of the men he adds the support of a good reason why they should do what was right: The judgment is Gods. First they derive authority from Him, the fountain of power (cf. Pro. 8:15); secondly, they judge in His cause, and assert the honour of Him that loveth righteousness (cf. Psa. 11:7). Work of righteous judgmentdividing between good and evil, subduing the violent, detecting villainy, punishing the guilty, shielding the innocent, restraining the vindictive, protesting against all flattery. Considering that the judgment is Gods, it becomes imperative that we do right. Two lines of thought

I. What regard is due to the person that judges for God.
II. What obligations are laid upon him.

Deu. 1:17. Those who act for God as His vicegerents must act like Him. He will protect them in doing right, and call them to account if they do wrong.Tract Soc. Com.

Be not afraid of any man.Delgado.

He shall not respect persons. Not look to the face, &c. Cf. Crit. Notes. Cf. also the ancient custom of painting and sculpturing Justice with her eyes veiled.Bib. Bib.

The Thebans painted their magistrates without hands, and the chief of them without eyes, to put them in mind that they were not in any degree to be swayed by favour or bribe.Bib. Bib.

Cf. Homers description of Ulysses, Od. 4

Ulysses let no partial favours fall;
The peoples parent, he protected all.

Popes Homer.

Ye shall hear small as well as great. Be equally disposed patiently to attend to the cause of a poor man as of a great, and to do him as speedy and impartial justice. (See Lev. 19:15.) And here the Hebrew doctors tell us of some singular practices in their courts to preserve the dispensation of exact justice; for if one of the contending parties came into them richly clothed and the other poorly, they would not hear him till both were clothed alike. Nor would they suffer one of them to sit and the other to stand, but both of them either sat or stood. And if they sat, one of them was not permitted to sit higher than the other, but they sat by each others side.Patrick.

Courage and undaunted resolution are altogether necessary qualities for a judge.Patrick.

Deu. 1:17. In this verse, in a most undisguised manner, we have most emphatically enforced a social virtuejustice. God never taught that religion might be divorced from morality. When Moses spake thus: when the author of the Proverbs saysA false balance is an abomination to the Lord: IsaiahThus saith the Lord, Keep judgment and do justice, for My salvation is near to come and My righteousness to be revealed: AmosLet judgment run down as waters and righteousness as a mighty stream: JeremiahHe judged the cause of the poor and needy, then it was well with him: was not this to know Me? saith the Lord (cf. the endorsement of Jesus across these passages, Mat. 5:17-20): Paul(Rom. 2:13; Php. 4:8; Col. 4:1; Rom. 6:1): and JamesPure religion and undefiled before God the Father is this, to keep ones self unspotted from the world, &c. &c., to Deu. 2:10 : we have, from Moses to James, divinely inspired men proclaiming there is no divorce between religion and morality; and to the man who pretends to a religious life while he ignores moral and social duties let there be but the one wordWhat God has joined together let no man put asunder.

In the fulness of this verse we have the various steps of injustice referred to; and placed in startling juxtaposition is a fact that should be as a barrier to obstruct all such evil courses. Let us observe
I. That the first step towards evil is a playing with it in our own mind. The inspired penman knew what he was saying when he warned against respecting. What is admired is lovedis imitated. The mind silently is brought into harmony with it. What was it the young man did whose later life was marked with some of the most terrible vices of manhood? It was so simple a thing as yielding to impure thoughtpermitting unchaste images to take a lodgment in his fancy. How was it that the young woman whose life was darkened with scenes no woman should have beheld took the first step? Was it not by respecting certain friends whom she ought not to have respected? The voice of the charmer should have been recognised. In her own thoughts she cherished him.

II. We cannot indulge in the thought without its becoming incarnate in some form, which is action. Moses knew that men could not rest content with simply respecting. If the great were respected the small would be ignored: indeed, not only would the small be ignored, there was a danger of their being silenced in their pleadings, and justice, which was their right, being taken from them. In like manner we cannot afford for a moment to think evil of God. If we give place to such a thought, the mind takes an attitude which soon becomes open rebellion.
III. We cannot play with evil without enervating our moral nature. The man who respects the great and ignores his duties to the small loses the fear of God, and in its place enthrones the fear of man. Ye shall not stand in awe of the face of man.
IV. The barrier that God would raise up around every man to restrain his feet from wandering is the fact of His presenceHis sovereignty: The judgment is Gods. The most impressive comment that can be offered here is what was spoken to Saul on the way to Damascus: It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

Deu. 1:17. This is part of a solemn charge which Moses gave to the judges of Israel. The same in effect did Jehoshaphat give to his judges (2Ch. 19:6). If such was necessary then, now, and will be as long as men shall be as they now aresubject to weakness, negligence, corruption, passion. The words of the text suppose this. The words, though few, imply much instruction.

I. The judgment is Gods. Why, then, the magistrates power and authority is from God.
II. Ye shall not be afraid of the face of man. This teaches the magistrate his duty, i.e., that he is not to pervert justice for any worldly consideration; no, not for the fear of death.

III. The subject may here see the sin and danger of opposing, of disobeying, of vilifying the magistrate in the due execution of his office. He is Gods minister; his judgment, if just, is the very judgment of God; God is with him in judgment, and will certainly avenge him if he is despised.T. Wilsons Sermons.

Deu. 1:17. The judgment is Gods.

In these words Moses enforces that solemn charge which he gave to the judges. He repeats it to procure veneration for their character, to remind them of their own dignity, to raise them above the power of fear, prejudice, and interest. Here was a forcible reason for faithfulness in executing their high trust. Their authority was from God; the work was Gods. It concerns the judge to know whose authority he has that he may be righteous: it concerns the people that they may be obedient, I shall therefore show

I. What regard is due to the persons that judge for God.
(a.) They are to be treated with tender regard.

(b.) The nature of their office requires more than ordinary veneration; for unless we preserve a just notion of the sacred authority that is vested in the ministers of judgment, they will scarcely be a terror to evil-doersthey will bear the sword in vain.

(c.) For the sake of those in public station we should endeavour to suppress all pernicious principles.

II. What obligations are laid upon them.
(a.) No sordid hopes of advantage, no fear, partiality, or pity, must be allowed to pervert.

(b.) Let no man despise you. You must retain a just value of yourselves and support your character.

(c.) Judges must check vice.

(d.) Justice and mercy should go hand in hand.T. Newlin.

Deu. 1:16-17. I charged, &c. The parts of this charge are

I. Patience to hear causes.

II. Justice in judging righteously (Joh. 7:24).

III. Courage (Lev. 19:15; Deu. 16:19; 1Sa. 16:7; Pro. 14:23).

IV. Prudence. The cause too hard you bring to me.Kidder.

Deu. 1:16-17. Subject: Not to abuse entrusted power. All power is entrusted. Though men apparently make their own position in the world, yet what they acquire is in accordance with ability given by God. We have many cases of abused power. Achan is an instance. He had the power of serving God by destroying what he found. He kept it. Power abused. Herod is another instance of one who abused power.

I. Power may be abused by not using it at all. Cf. Saul with Agag.

II. Power may be abused by using it in a wrong direction. Herod (cf. Mat. 14:1-13). Here is an example of power used in a wrong direction.

(a.) It injured his own moral nature.

(b.) It encouraged others to wrong.

(c.) It brought injury to the upright.

In warning the judges against the abuse of power, Moses thought of all this and much more.

Deu. 1:19. That great and terrible wilderness (cf. Deu. 8:15). This language is by no means applicable to the whole peninsula of Sinai, even in its present deteriorated state. It is, however, quite such as men would employ after having passed with toil and suffering through the worst parts of it, the southern half of the Arabah; and more especially when they had but recently rested from their marches in the plain of Shittim, the largest and richest oasis in the whole district.Speakers Commentary.

The Divine blessing has not bestowed the same degree of fruitfulness on every part of Caanan. This fertile country is surrounded by deserts of immense extent, exhibiting a dreary waste of loose and barren sand, on which the skill and industry of man are able to make no impression. The only vegetable production which occasionally meets the eye of the traveller in these frightful solitudes are a coarse sickly grass thinly sprinkled on the sand, a plot of senna or other saline or bitter herb, or an occasional acacia bush. Even these but rarely present themselves to his notice, and afford him but little satisfaction when they do, because they warn him that he is far distant from a place of abundance and repose. Moses, who knew these deserts well, calls them great and terrible, a desert land, the waste howling wilderness. But the completest picture of the sandy desert is drawn by the pencil of Jeremiah, in which, with surprising force and beauty, he has exhibited every circumstance of terror which the modern traveller details with so much pathos and minutenessNeither say they, Where is the Lord that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of droughts and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passeth through, and where no man dwelt.Paxton.

That great and terrible wilderness. To those familiar with the reality of which the seen and temporal are but shadows, these words are very suggestive of another desert, and the way by which Gods people travel through it. Souls are born in a spiritual Egypt. Life is a kind of desert wandering of trial, great, terrible at times. But there is a way through it; for unto the redeemed One has said in the hearts mystic silence, I am the Way: Lo!

I am with you.

I. The way of the redeemed.

(1.) Long.
(2.) Difficult.
(3.) Sometimes apparently lonely.
(4.) A desert way.

II. The rectitude of that way. It is a right way, for

(1.) It is the Divine way. God led them along it by a cloud and fire.
(2.) It is the way to the promised reward.

Salt deserts. In traversing the region between Egypt and Ghuzzeh, the Gaza of the Bible, my course, during most of the forenoon, lay through a succession of basins or valleys, where the surface of the ground was moist, and covered with a thin incrustation of salt. It was so slippery here that the camels could with difficulty keep erect; one of them actually fell at full length with a groan which it was piteous to hear. We were not far at this time from the Mediterranean, of which we had glimpses now and then. It is quite possible that a strong wind from the west causes the sea occasionally to overflow the entire tract, and on its receding, the water left in the low places evaporates and encrusts the earth with salt. There are other deserts, or parts of deserts, in the East, as travellers inform us, which present a similar peculiarity, though the salt may be formed, in those cases, in a different manner. Perhaps the most remarkable among these is the region south of the Dead Sea. A soil of this nature must, of course, be unproductive. Nothing grows there, and the means of supporting life are wanting. It may be to this feature of an Eastern desert, aggravating so much its other evils, and rendering it unfit to be the abode of men, that the prophet Jeremiah refers when he says of the ungodly man, He shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.Professor Hackett.

The deserts. Few who have not visited Eastern lands can form any adequate idea of the nature of a desert. In those wide-spread plains the hand of man is powerless. Nature holds sway as on the morning of creation; in primeval wildness she displays her terrors and her magnificence, and art and science sink down helpless and appalled before the barriers which she has erected. As the traveller recedes from the habitation of man, and the tokens of civilisation begin to disappear, the scene becomes wilder and more desolate; a few stunted patches of parched and scanty herbage here and there meet the eye; vast blocks of stone are scattered over the sand; no cooling streams, no refreshing groves, break the monotony of the prospect; the sun pours down a flood of burning and dazzling light, and the distant mountains glow in the hot and dusky horizon. The strength of man seems to melt away within him, and the camel, the ship of the desert, paces onward with languid step. By night the piercing winds are scarcely less endurable than the heat by day. The mountainous portions of the desert afford some of the most awfully sublime scenery that the world can exhibit; and here the terrors of the plains are mitigated by shade and water. Such was the wilderness where the children of Israel wandered for forty years.H.Christmas.

Deu. 1:21. The journeyings of the Israelites in the wilderness afford an inexhaustible fund of instruction to us. The history of their deliverance from Egypt, their trials and supports, and their final entrance into the land of Canaan, so exactly corresponds with the experience of believers in their journey heavenward, that we are never at a loss for an illustration of that which is invisible from that which actually took place amongst Gods ancient people.

The Israelites, after one year spent in the wilderness, were now arrived on the very confines of Canaan, and the exhortation which I have now read to you was part of the address of Moses to them encouraging them to go up and take possession of the land. And assuming (what I need not now stand to prove) the justness of the parallel between their state and ours, the words before us contain

I. The command given us in reference to the Promised Land. There is for us, as there was for Israel, a rest prepared (Heb. 4:8-9), and we are bidden to take possession of it.

(1.) By right, as the gift of God.

[Canaan was given to Abraham and his seed by God Himself. God had a right to give it to whom He would. The former possessors were but tenants at will; if God saw fit to dispossess them, no wrong done them. This is said to satisfy the mind of those who feel repugnance to the transfer of the land from the Canaanites to Israel.
In relation to the land we are called to possess no such feeling can exist. Heaven is the free gift of God to Abrahams spiritual seed, as Canaan was to the natural. It is given to them in Christ Jesus (Tit. 1:2; 2Ti. 1:9).

This command do we give, in the name of Almighty God, to every one of you who believe in Christ, Go up and possess the land, which the Sovereign of the universe, of His own love and mercy, has given to you.]

(2.) By conflict, as the fruit of victory.

[Though the land was given to them, they were yet to gain it by the sword. We also have enemies to fight. The world, the flesh, and the devil obstruct. All must be vanquished before we can sit down to the promised inheritance. Nor let it be thought that heaven is less a gift on this account; for though we fight, it is not our own sword that gets us the victory. It was God Himself who drove out the inhabitants of the earthly Canaan, and it is through God alone that our weapons produce any effect in subduing our enemies before us (cf. Joh. 6:27; Psa. 115:1).]

Together with this command we are taught
II. The way in which we should address ourselves to the performance of it. The command of God to us is positive, as that to them also was; and

(1.) Our obedience to Him should be prompt.

[I am persuaded they would have done well if they had never thought of sending spies to search out the land, and to tell them against what cities they should direct their first efforts. It was a carnal expedient, as the event proved. True, Moses was well pleased with the proposal; but he would not have been well pleased if he had clearly seen from whence it issued and what would be the result of it. He saw in it only a determination to go up; he discerned not the mixture of unbelief. What need had they to search when God had searched and was about to lead them? (cf. Deu. 1:33). Had they said to Moses, Pray to God for us to direct us, and we are ready to go, they would have done well; but, by trusting to an arm of flesh they fell.

In like manner we should obey the Divine mandate without delay. We should not confer with flesh and blood; we should not be consulting how we may avoid the trials which God has taught us to expect; but should look simply to the Captain of our salvation, and follow implicitly His commands, regarding no word in comparison of His, nor ever dreaming of a more convenient season than the present. What He calls us to do we should do instantly, and with all our might.]

(2.) Our confidence in Him should be entire.

[They were bidden not to fear or be discouraged. So neither should we fear any dangers that may threaten us, or be discouraged under any trial we may be called to endure. As for Anakims or cities walled up to heaven, what are they to us? Is not He greater that is in us than any that can be in them? If Jehovah be on our side, what have we to fear? We may say of all our enemies, as Joshua did of those he was called to encounter, They are bread for us; and shall not only be devoured as easily as a morsel of bread, but they and all that they have shall be our very support, invigorating our souls by the energies they call forth, and augmenting the happiness which they labour to destroy. Whatever may occur, we should never stagger at the promise through unbelief, but be strong in faith, giving glory to God. We should go forward in the spirit of the holy Apostle, If God be for us, who can be against us?]

III. Hear then, believers, and follow my advice.

(1.) Survey the land.

[See whether it be not the glory of all lands, a land flowing with milk and honey. Come up to Pisgah, and look down upon it. I would rather say, Come up to Zion, and behold its length and breadth. See it. Taste its fruits. Take in your hand the grapes of Eshcol. Not one of its inhabitants ever says, I am sick. No sorrow there, no sighing, no pain, no death (cf. Isa. 33:24; Rev. 21:4; Rev. 21:23; Rom. 8:18). Tell me, is it not worth the conflict? Only keep that glorious object in view, and you will never sheath your sword till you have gained the victory.]

(2.) Perform your duty.

[Gird on your swords. Go forward against the enemy. Make no account of any obstacles. Think neither of the strength nor the number of your enemies. Say not, Shall the prey be taken from the mighty,&c., &c. (Isa. 49:24-25). Be not discouraged by a sense of your own weakness. Go on simply depending upon God (cf. 2Co. 12:9-10; Isa. 41:10). With confidence do I address you thus; for the Lord Jesus Himself has said, Fear not, little flock; for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Only fight the good fight of faith, and you shall be more than conquerors through Him that loved you.]Simeon (Abridged).

Deu. 1:21. In this verse we have a mind at home with God opening itself to the gaze of the world. What simple trustreverent faithholy dependence sparkle in the words! Among the many suggestions of this verse, let us notice

I. That it indicates the bent of a good mans mind. It is Godwards. God is in all his thoughts. The arrangement of life is of God: the past full of God: the present is blessed by Him: the future swayed by Him. Three characteristics of the good man

(1.) He is of an earnest spirit.
(2.) He is humble.
(3.) He is devout.

II. It delineates the power of a good mans faith.

(1.) His confidence. The Lord thy God hath set the land before thee, &c. Nothing but innocency and knowledge can give sound confidence to the heart.Bishop Hall. Confidence in ones self is the best nurse of magnanimity.Sir Philip Sidney.

(2.) His perseverance. Go up and possess. Persevere is applied only to matters of some importance which demand a steady purpose of the mind; persist is used in respect to the ordinary business of life, as well as on more important occasions. A learner perseveres in his studies: a child may persist in making a request until he has obtained the object of his desires.Crabb, Synonyms.

Great effects come of industry and perseverance.Lord Bacon.

Those who attain any excellence commonly spend life in one common pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.Dr. Johnson.

He plies her hard, and much rain wears the marble.Shakespeare.

If there be one thing on earth truly admirable, it is to see Gods wisdom blessing an inferiority of natural powers where they have been honestly, truly, and zealously cultivated.Dr. Arnold.

(3.) His hope. Fear not, neither be discouraged.

It is said of Abraham that he believed in hope against hope. What is the meaning of these words? The passage intends to express that Divine hope overcame human hope. This is the hope which redounds to the glory of God, because it is an act of homage rendered to His omnipotence. He that is destitute of such hope can have no pretence to saving faith, and not to believe in the promises which God has made to us is an evidence that our souls are altogether fixed upon the toys and vanities of earth. That which the world calls wisdom is nothing more than foolishness in the sight of God, and disbelief in His word argues a stupid indifference allied to the brute. Faith and hope repose upon the same foundationthe Word of God. The Christian believes in spite of the evidence of his senses, and he hopes for blessings which cannot yet be discerned by the senses. There is no faith where there is doubt and uncertainty; there is no hope where there is hesitation.Chrysostom.

Reflected on the lake, I love
To see the stars of evening glow,
So tranquil in the heavens above,
So restless in the wave below.
Thus heavenly hope is all serene;
But earthly hope, how bright so eer,
Still flutters oer this changing scene,
As false, as fleeting as tis fair.

Heber.

Cease every joy to glimmer on my mind,
But leaveoh! leave the light of Hope behind!

Campbell.

A man cannot drown so long as his head is above water; hope lifts up the head and looks up to the redemption and salvation that is to come in another world in its fulness and perfection.Polhill.

III. It reveals the source of a good mans power. Behold, the Lord thy God hath set, &c. Think of Moses speaking thus after a hundred and twenty years of life. Some grow tired of life and distrustful of God before they are thirty. For a hundred and twenty years Moses had lived near to Godhe had so lived that God could bless himGod was therefore in all his thoughts.

(1.) God imparts strength to the good for the performance of the most arduous duties.
(2.) The resources of infinite strength always within the reach of the good man.
(3.) The method by which to realise this power is prayer.

There is an excellent story of a young man who was at sea in a mighty raging tempest, and when all the passengers were at their wits end for fear, he only was merry; and when he was asked the reason of his mirth, answered, That the pilot of the ship was his father, and he knew that his father would have a care of him.Pulpit Illustrations.

Necessity of Perseverance. The philosopher being asked in his old age why he did not give over his practice and take his ease, answered, When a man is to run a race of forty furlongs, would you have him sit down in the nine and thirtieth and so lose the prize? We do not keep a good fire all day, and let it go out in the evening when it is coldest, but then rather lay on more fuel, that we may go warm to bed. Thus he that stakes the heat of zeal in his age will go cold to bed, and in a worse case to his grave. To continue in giving glory to Christ is no less requisite than to begin; though the beginning be more than half, yet the end is more than all. The God of all perfection looks that our ultimatum vit should be His optimum glori, that our last works should be our best works, that we should persevere in goodness to the end.Things New and Old.

Goodness. The parts and signs of goodness are many. If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from other lands, but a continent that joins to them; if he be compassionate towards the afflictions of others, it shows that his heart is like the noble tree that is wounded itself when it gives the balm; if he easily pardons and remits offences, it shows that his, mind is planted above injuries, so that he cannot be shot; if he be thankful for small benefits, it shows that he weighs mens minds, and not their trash; but, above all, if he have St. Pauls perfection, that he would wish to be an anathema from Christ for the salvation of his brethren, it shows much of a Divine nature and a kind of conformity with Christ Himself.Lord Bacon.

God the fountain source of all our blessings. It is said of Hadrian VI., that having built a stately college at Lovain, he set this inscription over the front in golden letters, Trajectum plantavit, Lovanium rigavit, sed Csar dedit incrementum (Utrecht planted me, for there he was born; Lovain watered me, for there he was bred; but Csar gave the increase, who from the ferula brought him to the crosier, of a schoolmaster made him Pope of Rome). A witty passenger, reproving his folly, under-wrote, Here was no room for God to do anything. Thus God may be said not to be in all the thoughts of self-seeking men: they do not, with those ancients, preface to their words, Theos, Theos, but intervert a great part of the price with that ill couple, turning Gods glory into shame, loving vanity, seeking after lies, such as, in the original, will deceive their expectations; of which sort, by a speciality, is that smoke of popular applause, which, the higher it mounts, the sooner it vanishes and comes to nothing.Pulpit Illustrations.

Reward of perseverance. I recollect in Queens County to have seen a Mr. Clerk, who had been a working carpenter, and when making a bench for the sessions justices at the court-house, was laughed at for taking peculiar pains in planing and smoothing the seat of it. He smilingly observed that he did so to make it easy for himself, as he was resolved he would never die till he had a right to sit thereupon; and he kept his word. He was an industrious manhonest, respectable, and kind-hearted. He succeeded in all his efforts to accumulate an independence; he did accumulate it, and rightly. His character kept pace with the increase of his property, and he lived to sit as a magistrate on that very bench which he sawed and planed.Sir Jonah Barrington.

Deu. 1:22-23, (cf. Num. 13:1-2). There is no real discrepancy between these passages. The plan of sending the spies originated with the people, and, as in itself a reasonable one, it approved itself to Moses; was submitted to God and sanctioned by Him; and carried out under special Divine direction. The orators purpose in this chapter is to bring before the people emphatically their own responsibilities and behaviour. It is, therefore, important to remind them that the sending of the spies, which led immediately to their murmuring and rebellion, was their own suggestion.

It is frivolous to object that the generation which had sinned thus was dead, and that Moses was addressing men who had had no concern in the events to which he is referring. That this fact was present to the speakers mind is clear from Deu. 1:34-35; nay, it was the very aim he had in view, to warn the present generation not to follow their fathers in their perversity, and so defraud themselves of the promised blessing, as their fathers had done. It is but natural that Moses, who had been the leader of the congregation all along, should, when addressing it collectively, treat it as the same which he had brought forth from Egypt, and had now for the second time conducted to the Promised Land.

The following verses to the end of the chapter give a condensed statement, the fuller account being in Numbers 13, 14, of the occurrences which led to the banishment of the people for forty years into the wilderness. The facts are treated with freedom, as by one familiar with them, addressing those no less so, yet in consistency with the more strictly historical record of Numbers.Speakers Commentary.

Deu. 1:22; Deu. 1:28. What a contrast these two verses present. The first brings before us the people, with commendable prudence, arranging for carrying out a great plan; the second presents the most pitiful, contemptible picture one can imaginethe same people, because difficulty presented itself in the way of the purpose being conducted to success, cowardly crying out as the veriest abjects. Well might the words of Job. 17:11 be quoted in connection with Deu. 1:28 : My purposes are broken off. The world is full of broken purposes. Every heart is filled with its tombstones raised over dead intentions and desires. The true cemetery is the human heart. Look at itfull of dreams of youthearly ambitionsgrand schemes of self-profit, or national benefit, or boundless philanthropy. All dead. Two thoughts

I. All men have, and have had, purposes. The thought makes one shudder. The conflict of feeling too intense to endure. There were purposes of wealth, the present reality is povertythe very want of a dinner. Recall Johnsons plans, purposes, and poverty.
He told Sir Joshua Reynolds that, one night in particular, when Savage and he walked round St. Jamess Square for want of a lodging, they were not at all depressed by their situation; but, in high spirits and brimful of patriotism, traversed the square for several hours, inveighed against the minister, and resolved they would stand by their country.Boswells Life of Johnson.

The longer! live the more I am certain that the great difference between menbetween the feeble and the powerful, the great and the insignificantis energy, invincible determinationa purpose once fixed, and then death or victory! That quality will do anything that can be done in this world; and no talent, no circumstances, no opportunities, will make a two-legged creature a man without it.

Buxton.

II. All men can tell us something about purposes. One can tell us of purposes carried into effect. Another looks to the earth and points to something lying there snapped as a broken spear, and with a deep-drawn moan groans outmy purpose.

Both these men can instruct. The successful man can show how his success was realised; the unsuccessful can reveal the causes of his failure. Both are governed by a law, if we only knew it.
What is the law of success? The law varies with the sphere in which the success is to be attained, and the nature of the success sought; if the success be earthly merely, then the law of success is in selfishness and ability, or, as one has expressed the idea on its optimist side, success is the child of cheerfulness and courage; if, however, the success sought is heavenly, then the law that governs it will be faith in God, and a heart inspired by Gods Spirit to do right at any cost. In the one case success is in the possession of a thing; in the other in what one is.

Failures are with heroic minds the stepping-stones to success.

It is far from true, in the progress of knowledge, that after every failure we must recommence from the beginning. Every failure is a step to success; every detection of what is false directs us to what is true; every trial exhausts some tempting form of error. Not only so, but scarcely any attempt is entirely a failure; scarcely any theory, the result of steady thought, is altogether false; no tempting form of error is without some latent charm derived from truth.Whewell.

If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counsellor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.

Addison.

So Jotham became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the Lord his God.Hebrew Chronicles.

The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do well, and doing well whatever you do, without a thought of fame.Longfellow.

I confess, says a thoughtful writer, that increasing years bring with them an increasing respect for men who do not succeed in life, as those words are commonly used. Ill success sometimes arises from a conscience too sensitive, a taste too fastidious, a self-forgetfulness too romantic, a modesty too retiring. I will not go so far as to say, with a living poet, that the world knows nothing of its greatest men; but there are forms of greatness, or at least of excellence, which die and make no sign; there are martyrs that miss the palm, but not the stake; heroes without the laurel, and conquerors without the triumph.
Whosoever will live altogether out of himself, and study other mens humours, shall never be unfortunate.Sir W. Raleigh.

Those who believe in a future state of rewards and punishments act very absurdly if they form their opinion of a mans merits from his successes. But certainly, if I thought the whole circle of our being was included between our births and deaths, I should think a mans good fortune the measure and standard of his real merit, since Providence would have no opportunity of rewarding his virtue and perfections but in the present life. A virtuous unbeliever, who lies under the pressure of misfortune, has reason to cry out, as they say Brutus did a little before his death, O virtue, I have worshipped thee as a substantial good, but I find thou art an empty name.Addison.

Had I miscarried, I had been a villain;
For men judge actions alway by events:
But when we manage by a just foresight,
Success is prudence, and possession right.

Higgons.

To judge by the event is an error all abuse, and all commit; for in every instance, courage, if crowned with success, is heroism; if clouded by defeat, temerity. When Nelson fought his battle in the Sound, it was the result alone that decided whether he was to kiss a hand at a court, or a rod at a court-martial.Colton.

Deu. 1:24. Came unto the valley of Eshcol. In Num. 13:22-24, we have a full account of this visit, likewise the meaning of the word Eshcol given. It means bunch or cluster of grapes (Num. 13:24).Frst. The grapes must have been a welcome sight to the desertworn travellers. Dr. Livingstone tells us something of this feeling: In latitude 18 we were rewarded with a sight which we had not enjoyed for a year beforelarge patches of grapebearing vines. There they stood before my eyes. The sight was so entirely unexpected that I stood for some time gazing at the clusters of grapes with which they were loaded, with no more thought of plucking than if I had been beholding them in a dream.

A cluster of grapes of Eshcol, the magnificent richness and size of which may be judged from the circumstance of its being carried on a pole, supported on the shoulders of two men. Eshcol still retains its celebrity for the produce of grapes. Sir M. Montefoire lately got a bunch a yard long.Jamieson.

Deu. 1:25. It is a good land which the Lord our God doth give us.

These words were spoken primarily with regard to the Land of Promise: but much that was spoken of that promised land, the natural Canaan, may be applied with great propriety and equal force to that promised inheritance of the saintsthe spiritual Canaan of the soul. It matters little what image be used for representing that gift (cf. Rom. 6:23) of God, for which among the millions of mens words no one word has been found adequate for its expression, whether we compare it to the promised land of Palestine, or to wisdom; for in qualifying the expression of the idea we simply follow the leadings of the metaphor, and, whether we say that it is a good land which the Lord our God doth give us, or, wisdoms ways are ways of pleasantness, we in the end say the same thing though by different terms, just as we say one half or two-quarters or five-tenths. The Christian heritage of a holy and perfected life, through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, is a good land full of richness and fatness, a land of milk and honey; it is also very pleasant. It is pleasant because good: it is good because pleasant. Though the pleasantness of religion is always difficult of recognition to the young disciple, it is only so because the Cross of Christ has to be carried by the flesh before that Cross can lose its weight, and its material be woven into a crown. Religion is believed to be good because possessed by the best of men: the assurance of its pleasantness comes by the experience of its power. That pleasure is, in the nature of it, a relative thing, and so imparts a peculiar relation and correspondence to the state and condition of the person to whom it is a pleasureSouth. Religion is good or pleasant from its own inherent nature.

I. Because it is the proper pleasure of that part of man which is the largest and most comprehensive of pleasure, i.e., his mind: a substance of a boundless comprehension.

1. In reference to speculation, as it sustains the name of understanding.
2. In reference to practice, as it sustains the name of conscience.

II. Because it is such a pleasure as never satiates or wearies; for it properly affects the spirit, and a spirit feels no weariness, as being privileged from the causes of it.
The pleasures of the table pall; the pleasures of exercise grow into weariness; but in fulfilled duty is a pleasure (cf. work and its joy). How much more in religion! As much as religion is nobler than work.

III. Because it is such as to be in no ones power to take from us, but only in his who has it; so that he who has the property is also sure of its perpetuity. This can be said of no other form of enjoyment. All pass in the using, or are taken away by time. We are at the mercy of men. But though men take away our life they cannot take away that joy of our religion.
There is nothing that can raise a man to that generous absoluteness of condition, as neither to cringe, to fawn, or to depend meanly; but that which gives him that happiness within himself, for which men depend upon others. For surely I need salute no great mans threshold, sneak to none of his friends or servants, to speak a good word for me to my conscience. It is a noble and a sure defiance of a great malice, backed with a great interest; which yet can have no advantage of a man but from his own expectations of something that is without himself. But if I can make my duty my delight; if I can feast, and please, and caress my mind with the pleasures of worthy speculations or virtuous practices; let greatness and malice vex and abridge me if they can: my pleasures are as free as my will; no more to be controlled than my choice, or the unlimited range of my thoughts and my desires.South.

Took of the fruit, &c.
Subject: Fruitfulness.
I. Notice the idea of the text as applied to the land. It was fruitful. Eshcol was noted for its fruit. As fruit was gathered from the land, the land was therefore good. It had received Gods gift of capability. Gods gift is not the effect of mans labour: though mans apprehension is necessary for the grasping of what God holds out.

II. Notice the idea of the text in its moral bearings. The caterpillar ever encases the butterfly. So physical facts inwrap a moral truth.
(a.) Fruit is the result of cultivation. True in their native state, when wild and uncultivated trees bear some fruit; but such fruit is not to be compared with that produced by care and cultivation. The best fruit is the product of art. God works by means.

(b.) Suggests inquiries with regard to our own fruitfulness. Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith, was an apostolic injunction, and one that no man can dispense with.

Deu. 1:25-26. A good land which the Lord our God doth give us: notwithstanding ye would not go up. God gives bountifully, but the devil strews impediments in the path that leads to possession. The brave, faithful, hopeful, and strong trample over them and realise success; the cowardly, faithless, hopeless, and weak are terrified by these lions in the way, and die ignoble deaths in the presence of what might have been rich possessions. Here we have plainly that though God gives a kingdoma goodly landwe fail to possess it, because we refuse, through our fears and on account of impediments, to enter upon it.

I. Our animal appetites come into collision with spiritual progress.
It is reported of the hedgehog that he goes to a pile of apples, and gathers up as many as he can upon his prickles, and when he comes to his hole, he goes in with his prickles but leaves his apples behind him. Thus how many there are who have wallowed in the apples of their pleasures, with many a prick and twinge of conscience, who when they shall descend, as shortly they must, to their holes of darkness, shall be compelled to leave all their sweets of false delight behind them, and carry with them nothing but the stings and soars of a wounded conscience.
There will be no spiritual fruit there.

In the pursuit of gross pleasure, the spirit is killed.
II. The lower in man, which belongs to the seen and temporal, urges to the sacrifice of the higher and spiritual. In every life there is a Jobs wife saying, Curse God, and die. No man is free from the voice that whispered in the ear of Judas; some there are who sell the Christ for a paltry few pieces of silver. Adam did that. He bought the present at the cost of the whole future. So Esau; a birthright, for a mess of pottage. It is foolish: more so, criminal.
III. When this is done retribution begins here. God does not wait till man comes into the sphere and region of the eternal to punish. Punishment follows quick upon the sin, in many cases, in this world. Israel was turned back into the desert. David was punished by the sword that never left his house (cf. 2Sa. 12:10). Character is lost. Health departs. Friends are alienated. The heart grows cold and is hardened. Sin slays sympathy with what is divine. Saul had his kingdom taken from him.

Beware of the lusts of the flesh.When the oyster opens himself to the sun, being tickled with the warmth thereof, then his enemy, the crab-fish, stealeth behind him, and thrusteth in his claw, and will not suffer him to shut again, and so devoureth him. The like is written of the crocodile, that being so strong a serpent as he is, and impregnable, yet, when he is gaping, to have his teeth picked by the little bird called trochil, his enemy, the ichneumon creepeth into his body, and ceaseth not to gnaw upon his entrails, till he hath destroyed them. Think upon the urchin and the snail: whilst the urchin keeps himself close in the bottom of the hedge, he is either not espied or contemned; but when he creeps forth to suck the cow, he is dogged and chopped in. So the snail, when he lies close, with his house on his head, is esteemed for a dead thing and not looked after; but when in liquorishness to feed upon the dews that lie upon the grass, or upon the sweetness of the rose-bush, he will be perking abroad, that the gardener findeth and smashes him. The lesson is: we must not yield to the sweet baits of the flesh, but we must mortify our members upon the earth, and ever beware that we seek not our death in the error of our life: otherwise if we wilfully offer ourselves to be led as an ox to the slaughter, and as a sheep to the shambles, what marvel if we have our throat cut, or be led captive of Satan at his will.

The danger of fleshly lusts.It is said of the torpedo, a kind of dangerous sea-fish, that it is of so venomous a nature, that if it chance to touch but the line of him that angles, the poison is thereby imparted to the rod, and thence to the hand of him that holds it; whereupon the party is so benumbed and stupefied on a sudden that he loses the use of his limbs. Even so, when enchanting lusts insinuate themselves into, or indeed but barely touch upon, voluptuous minds, they grow, with the companions of Ullysses not only brutish, but withal so senseless, that they have not the power to think a good thought, or to do a good action.Things New and Old.

For there is no doubt but a man, while he resigns himself up to the brutish guidance of sense and appetite, has no relish at all for the spiritual, refined delights of a soul clarified by grace and virtue. The pleasures of an angel can never be the pleasures of a hog. But this is the thing that we contend for; that a man, having once advanced himself to a state of superiority over the control of his inferior appetites, finds an infinitely more solid and sublime pleasure in the delights proper to his reason, than the same person had ever conveyed to him by the bare ministry of his senses. His taste is absolutely changed, and therefore that which pleased him formerly becomes flat and insipid to his appetite, now grown more masculine and severe.South.

The character of the profligate George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, is well known to all who are acquainted with the reign of Charles II. He was, as said the Earl of Clarendon in his history, a man of noble presence; he had great liveliness of wit, and a peculiar faculty of turning serious things into ridicule. He had no principles of religion, virtue, or friendship. Pleasure, frolic, and extravagant diversion, were all he regarded. He had no steadiness of conduct; he could never fix his thought nor govern his estate, though it was at one time the greatest in England. He was bred about the king, and for many years had a great ascendancy over him; but at length he drew a lasting disgrace upon himself, and ruined both body and mind, fortune and reputation. The madness of vice appeared in him in very eminent instances; and at last he became contemptible and poor, sickly, and sunk in all respects, so that his conversation was as much avoided as ever it had been courted. His own state of mind can be best learned from his letter to Dr. Barrow: Oh what a prodigal have I been of the most valuable of all possessionstime. I have squandered it with a profusion unparalleled; and now, when the enjoyment of a few days would be worth the world, I cannot flatter myself with the prospect of half a dozen hours. How despicable, my dear friend, is that man who never prays to God but in the hour of distress! In what manner can he supplicate that Omnipotent Being in his afflictions, whom, in the time of his prosperity, he never remembered with reverence. Do not brand me with infidelity, when I tell you that I am almost ashamed to offer up my petitions at the throne of grace, or to implore that Divine mercy in the next world which I have scandalously abused in this. Shall ingratitude to man be looked upon as the blackest of crimes, and not ingratitude to God? Shall an insult offered to the king be looked upon in the most offensive light, and yet no notice be taken when the King of kings is treated with indignity and disrespect? I am forsaken by all my acquaintances: utterly neglected by the friends of my bosom and the dependants of my bounty; but no matter; I am not fit to converse with the former, and have no abilities to serve the latter. Let me not be wholly cast off by the good. Favour me with a visit as soon as possible. Writing to you gives me some ease, especially on a subject I could talk of for ever. I am of opinion this is the last visit I shall ever solicit from you; my distemper is powerful. Come and pray for the departing spirit of the poor unhappy

BUCKINGHAM.

In Cunninghams Lives of Eminent and Illustrious Englishmen, we have the following concerning the same man. About the period of Charless death, his own health became so much affected that he was reluctantly compelled to retire into the country to recruit himself. The spot which he made choice of with this view was his own manor of Helmeasley, in Yorkshire. Here he generally passed his time betwixt the sports of the chase and the pleasures of the table. An ague and fever, which he caught by sitting on the ground after a long hunt, terminated his life. The attack was so sudden and violent that he could not be removed to his own house, but was conducted to a wretched village inn, where, after languishing three days, he expired, unregretted, and almost unattended. He had lived the life of a profligate, and he died the death of an outcast. It is impossible to say anything favourable of such a man as Villiers, whose sole aim throughout life seems to have been self-gratification, and who scrupled not to commit any crime in the pursuit of this single object.

The death of Voltaire.In the midst of his triumphs, a violent hemorrhage raised apprehensions for his life:DAlembert, Diderot, and Marmontel, hastened to support his resolution in his last moments, but were only witnesses to their mutual ignominy, as well as to his own. Here let not the historian fear exaggeration. Rage, remorse, reproach, and blasphemy, all accompany and characterise the long agony of the dying atheist. His death, the most terrible ever recorded to have stricken the impious man, will not be denied by his companions in impiety. Their silence, however much they may wish to deny it, is the least of those corroborative proofs which might be adduced. Not one of those sophisters has ever dared to mention any sign of resolution or tranquillity evinced by their great chief during the space of three months, which elapsed from the time he was crowned in the theatre until his decease. Such a silence expresses how great was their humiliation in his death!

The conspirators had strained every nerve to hinder their chief from consummating his recantation; and every avenue was shut to the priests whom Voltaire himself had sent for. The demons haunted every access; rage succeeded to fury, and fury to rage again, during the remainder of his life. Then it was that DAlembert, Diderot, and about twenty others of the conspirators, who had beset his apartment, never approached him but to witness their own ignominy; and often he would curse them, and exclaimRetire! It is you who have brought me to my present state! Begone! I could have done without you all; but you could not exist without me! And what a wretched glory you have procured me! Then would succeed the horrid remembrance of his conspiracy. They could hear him the prey of anguish and dread, alternately supplicating or blaspheming that God against whom he had conspired; and in plaintive accents he would cry out, O Christ! O Jesus Christ! and then complain that he was abandoned by God and man. The hand that had traced, in ancient writ, the sentence of an impious and reviling king, seemed to trace before his eyes the horrid blasphemies which he had so often uttered. In vain he turned his head away; the time was coming apace when he was to appear before the tribunal of Him whom he had insulted; and his physicians, particularly M. Tronchin, calling in to administer relief, thunderstruck, retired, declaring that the death of the impious man was terrible indeed. The pride of the conspirators would willingly have suppressed these declarations, but it was in vain. The Mareschal de Richelieu fled from his bedside, declaring it to be a sight too terrible to be sustained; and M. Tronchin, that the furies of Orestes could give but a faint idea of those of Voltaire.Abbe Barruel, quoted in The Christians Sketch Book.

Deu. 1:21; Deu. 1:26. Go up. Ye would not.

What is this but unbelief on the part of Israel? Though God had promised to give the land, the people had refused to take it. Why? Because a few cowardly spies said, It will be hard work. And the work became harder to the minds of this people because they had no faith in God, who helps in the accomplishment of all work. If they had believed God, difficulty would have been nothing.
I. God might have abstained from all interferences in the life and action of Israel. But He was pleased to identify Himself with His people (cf. Heb. 11:23-27).

II. God continues that interest spiritually. Those who believe He helps. Those who believe not are condemned, powerless, ruined (Joh. 3:18).

III. When salvation is provided, the anger of God will be great if it be refused (cf. Pharaoh). Israel hardened his neck. He that hardens his heart is suddenly cut off.

IV. Help is provided for the sinner, but many will not accept it. Ye would not go up.
(a.) Its necessityman is dead.

(b.) Nature of the helplife (cf. Joh. 10:10).

(c.) Its completeness (cf. work of Christ).

Deu. 1:26-30. Pictures presented here:

1. A calm righteous man, Deu. 1:26; Deu. 1:29

2. Impotent rage, Deu. 1:27-28

3. Perfect confidence in personal destiny, Deu. 1:29-30.

Deu. 1:26-36. There is something very brave and outspoken in these words. Picture a man standing up before an infuriated people with the calmness that the tone of this passage implies. (cf. a great political leader rebuking a Hyde Park or Trafalgar Square popular demonstration.) The Christian minister is at times in such position. He must preach a truth unsavoury to the natural man. Let there be the same calm, brave outspokenness, and force of dignity. Moses power in the God who was speaking through him. Four points

I. His entire self-possession.
II. A co-operator with God.
III. His power to adapt himself to great crises.

IV. He could rebuke, because he knew much and loved much. His position among the people the result of his identifying himself with them in their need (Heb. 11:23-27).

Deu. 1:26. Ye would not go up, &c. Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, said a later oracle. Calm reflection compels one almost to say that rebellion against God is insanity. No good, ultimately, is gained by it.

I. All trifling with the Divine law involves at least the degradation of him who trifles with it (cf. Deu. 1:33-34). Sometimes his accomplices (cf. Ananias and Sapphira). Sometimes his friends, even though they be innocent (cf. Achan). Sin of father visited upon children, &c.

II. All honour of the law secures exaltation in the kingdom of heaven (cf. 3638). They that honour Me will I honour.

(a.) Law of God in harmony with mans constitution.

(b.) Gods law is Gods advice for man to act by.

III. Man is to regulate his conduct by divine law, and not by human standards. Act from a maxim at all times fit for law universal.Kant. He who walks at noon lighted by a taper will be held guilty for all the consequences of such act. These men had to suffer all the effects possible on one act of folly and wrong.

IV. There is one characteristic in which the law of Christ is one with the law of Moses. Obedience to it is necessary. If ye love Me, keep My commandments (cf. Joh. 14:21). If a man love Me, he will keep My words, said Christ, and My Father will love him. The Fathers love consequent on the keeping of the words.

V. Let us take warning, and be careful how we treat the law of Christ, lest, through unbelief and consequent failure of purpose, we be shut out of a better country (cf. all the early chapters of Epistle to the Hebrews).

Ye rebelled, &c.
Human conduct is affected by the religious life of the community. We cannot live without God without losing spiritual life (cf. Joh. 16:4-17). Such alienation acts most ruinously upon the heart life, which is the centre of being and the source of our activities.

I. Gods covenant forsaken.
II. This means entering into covenant with the devil. He that is not for, is against.
III. Man becomes blinded to right.
IV. His blindness prevents his seeing the precipice of ruin on which he stands.
Ye would not, &c.

Here are people who knew the will and command of God, yet would not obey. Ye would not go up. From the words we may infer

I. The possibility of knowing the law, but obstinately and persistently transgressing it (cf. Judas, Byron, Voltaire). These all knew what was right.

II. The possibility of having the law of God enforced upon us by a divinely-inspired and appointed prophet without it affecting us. How many hearers every Sunday murmur at preachers, men of God and true! Moses spoke: the people heedless. They would be the same if one spoke from the dead (Luk. 19:29-31).

III. The law of God must be obeyed whether it meet our approbation or not. It is Gods law; that is sufficient.

(a.) Show it is Gods law.

(b.) Gods law may be known from its harmoniousness with the highest principles of right in our being; and from its meeting the necessary requirements of mans nature.

(c.) No command of God contrary to the law of the universe (cf. teaching of Christnature was the language of His thoughts).

The inconsiderate multitude.
We see by experience that dogs do alway bark at those they know not;
and that it is their nature to accompany one another in those clamours: and so it is with the inconsiderate multitude, who, wanting that virtue which we call honesty in all men, and that especial gift of God which we call charity in Christian men, condemn without hearing, and wound without offence given.Sir Walter Raleigh.

Notwithstanding. Although God had done so much, this was their only return. Nothing is more strongly marked in some dispositions than ingratitude.

On adamant our wrongs we all engrave,
But write our benefits upon the wave.

King.

Ingratitude! thou marble-hearted friend;
More hideous, when thou showest thee in a child,
Than the sea monster.Shakespeare.

We seldom find people ungrateful as long as we are in a condition to render them services.Rochefoucauld.

Of such it may be said, Gratitude is a sense of favours yet to come.
Ingratitude is abhorred of God and man.L Estrange.

He that calls a man ungrateful sums up all the evil that a man can be guilty of.Swift.

One ungrateful man does an injury to all who stand in need of aid.Publius Syrus.

Ingratitude reproved.
An empty bucket that is let down into a well doth, as it were, open its mouth to receive the water; but being drawn up full showeth his bottom only to the well that gave it. The sea receives her moisture from heaven, sweet and pleasant, but returns it salt and brackish. The clouds by the power of the sun-beams are exhaled from the earth; but, being once mounted, they darken that air and obscure that sun that raised them. The frozen snake in the fable stingeth him that refreshed it. Thus it is with all unthankful men, men ungrateful to God; He ladeth daily with benefits and blessings, and they lade Him with sins and trespasses.Things New and Old.

Athenus reporteth of Milesius that having, brought a dolphin alive, and letting him go again into the sea; afterwards, himself being cast away by shipwreck, and ready to perish in the midst of the waters, the dolphin took him and carried him safely to shore It is more than beastly ingratitude for any man to reward evil for good.Things Nat and Old.

Deu. 1:27. Ye murmured. And you took your sons and daughters into your bosoms.Targum of Jonathan.

Because the Lord hates, &c. This evil saying Moses would not have his enemies say (Deu. 9:28). It shows the height of their sin which imputed that to hatred wherein God manifested His love (Deu. 4:37; Deu. 7:8). Ainsworth.

Lord God hated us. An instance of how men rush to conclusions from insufficient premises. For homiletic purposes we might notice
I. The impossibility of correctly educing ultimate principles and formulating doctrines thereon from a limited number of facts.
II. The danger of permitting feeling to usurp where judgment should rule.
III. The temptation to exaggerate extraordinary circumstances into utterly false facts.
IV. The danger of determining the will and nature of God by human wisdom and experience alone.
IV. The necessity of knowing God (cf. passages in. New Testament where knowing God is referred to) before affirming anything of Him. Moses knew God. How differently would he have interpreted His providence. Could God but speak to every man, much of the mystery and mercy in many lives would instantly disappear. Read Scripture. They testify of God.

Ye murmured in your tents.
It must have been a stirring sight to see the thousands of Israel standing in the doors of their tents:A wild horde of semi-barbarians, fierce in their rage, and almost ungovernable. What a picture of a sinful world, where all men are uncultivated in the ways of holiness and submissiona frantic host of moral and spiritual maniacs. More than once had Moses such an experience. No penitence; no submission; no hope: rage on every face.
I. The sorrow of this people had reference to the loss of what they esteemed valuable. Things are not valuable to the multitude for what they are in themselves, but according to peoples ideas of them. (cf. Bear robbed of her whelps.) Fierce! The whelps precious to the bear. There is real wortha something valuable in itself.

Greatness and goodness are not means, but ends:
Hath he not alway treasures, alway friends,
The good great man? Three treasures,Love and Light,
And calm Thoughts, regular as infants breath;
And three firm friends, more sure than day or night,
Himself, his Maker, and the Angel Death.Coleridge.

Sorrow being the natural and direct offspring of sin, that which first brought sin into the world must, by necessary consequence, bring in sorrow tooSouth.

Man has a true cause for sorrow when he loses his soul, as he does by sin, for he loses something really valuable. For such many are satisfied, with very quiet, well-behaved sorrow indeed.
II. This sorrow was more passionate and all-absorbing, because of the unexpectedness of its cause. This grief came as a sudden pain. It was acute, not chronic. Long pains deaden.
The violence of sorrow is not at the first to be striven withal; being, like a mighty beast, sooner tamed with following than overthrown by understanding.Sir. P. Sydney.

Enmity to God.It profits us nothing to be peaceful toward all men if we be at war with God; it is no good to us if all men approve, and the Lord be offended; neither is there any danger, though all shun and hate us, if with God we find acceptance and love.Chrysostom.

No man can certainly conclude Gods love or hatred to any person from what befalls him in this worldTillotson.

From the instant of our birth we experience the benignity of Heaven, and the malignity of corrupt natureTrusler.

Deu. 1:24-28. The spies report and its effect.

The beginning of any line of conduct usually enables an attentive observer to form a just anticipation of the manner in which it will be pursued. If the beginning is right, the end is right. If the end is a failure, a something wrong is implied in the beginning. The people proposed to send spies. So artfully were their guilty motives concealed, that Moses failed to see them and was even pleased with the proposal. The result, however, reveals all. A voice of warning is meant to reach our conscience from the page of Jewish history (cf. 1Co. 10:11). The fact and its lessons may be considered under three heads:

I. The conduct of the unfaithful spies.
II. The conduct of Caleb and Joshua.
III. The conduct of the guilty nation.

1. The conduct of the unfaithful spies.
1. Men of position.

2. Their commission clearly defined (Num. 13:18-20).

3. They accomplished their work safely.
4. God showed Himself with them. Thus far, well. But they were men of sight, not faith. All that God had revealed went for nothing. They saw only difficulties. They overlooked what God had done for them. They discouraged the people.

II. As there is no society free from some corruption, so it is hard, if in a community of men there be not some faithfulness. Such fidelity was shown by Joshua and Caleb. They form a contrast with the ten. But Israel would not hear them. The world will ever hear its own prophets; and stone those who speak in the name of God.
III. The conduct of the guilty nation. If experience had been of any use to Israel they would surely have listened to Caleb and Joshua: but with such experience is thrown away.

1. The unfaithful spies and guilty multitude represent a class;the timid and desponding professors of religion who need to be warned of their SIN.

2. There are many, however, who possess a portion of that flame which glowed in the hearts of Caleb and Joshua; men gifted with courage for the warfare of life, and zealous for their God.Buddicom.

Deu. 1:28. Walled up to heaven. An hyperbole. Contrast hyperbole with reality: reality with hyperbole. Hyperbole, a figure in rhetoric by which anything is increased or diminished beyond exact truth, e.g., he runs faster than lightning.Latham. Reality is opposed to shadows, types, pictures.Whately. What is, not what merely seems.Latham.

A bird carries the voice (Ecc. 10:20); Amorites whose height was height of cedars (Amo. 3:9) are hyperboles. Length of bedstead of Og reality, no hyperbole.Maimonides.

(See also Quintilian Instit., book viii. c. 6, and Patrick on this passage).
Walled up to heaven. This description of the cities as high and walled up to heaven, though a strong hyperbole, answers the description of most Eastern cities whose walls are smooth, very lofty, and difficult to be scaled. The walls were of mud or of stone; and as the people were unacquainted with scaling ladders, whenever they had surrounded their cities with walls too high for man to climb over, they considered their security established. The same simple expedient is resorted to by the Arabs who live in the very wilderness in which Israel wandered, and who are far more inured to warlike enterprises than that people were. The great monastery of St. Catherine at Mount Sinai is built of freestone, with high smooth walls. On the east side there is a window by which those that are within draw up pilgrims into the monastery with a basket, which they let down by a rope that runs through a pulley to be seen above at the window, and the pilgrims go into it one after another. These walls are so high that they cannot be scaled, and without cannon the place cannot be taken.Thevenot.

Whither shall we go up? Agreeably to the nature of interrogative particles, whither sometimes including a negative, may be resolved into nowhere.Frst. This suggests that we may interpret the verse:What is the use of struggling and toiling? We have nowhere to go. We may as well give up at once.

Our brethren discouraged our hearts (cf. Crit. Notes). The Bible is full of human nature. Man is to-day as he was 3000 years ago. Godless men had no courage for themselves, and, dog-in-the-manger like, would not let others have it. They took away what little the people had. We have here old types of a modern class. Two facts about them

I. They see the difficulty of life, but no God to help them in it.
II. The difficulties seen, cause fear, and then fears magnify the difficulties.

Deu. 1:29. Dread not. To deliver them from fear Moses adds two powerful arguments. He gives reasons for what he bids them do

I. A promise of Divine assurance:The Lord He shall fight, Deu. 1:30

II. The experience of past mercies:God bare thee, &c., Deu. 1:31 (cf. His dealings with them in Egypt, wilderness, &c.); (cf. Isa. 49:22 with Exo. 19:4).

Compare Joh. 14:1, Luthers trans. Christ gives two reasons for disciples faith. Ye believe in God-ye believe in Christ:therefore no reason to fear.

Deu. 1:28-29. Contrast by comparison of these two verses the character of the people and the character of Moses. Moses, strong: people, weak. In life of Moses a firm, clear, strong purpose; the nation swayed by every wind that blew. The character of Moses, as opposed to that of the people, might aptly illustrate the character of the Christian who has truly laid his foundation on the Rock, in contrast with that of a worldling who is tossed as a straw upon the waters. The true Christian is essentially and pre-eminently a religious man. Has fixed principles and purpose in life. Religion means harmony with God.

I. Religion is a reality.
II. Religion is a reality in the soul.
III. Religion is a vital reality in the soul.
IV. Religion is a vital reality in the soul, ever discernible. True religion is known.
(a.) In its essence.

(b.) Manifestations.

(c.) By its fruits.

Deu. 1:28-29. Contrast Moses and the spies. Moses encouraged; the spies discouraged. Here, extremes of character; courage, cowardice. Many such antitheses of character in Scripture. Hezekiah and Manasseh; Jacob, Esau; Jesus, Judas; Judas, the residence of Satan; Jesus, the residence of all the godhead bodily. But watch the influence of the bad; it undoes all the good accomplished. The people discouraged; the Son of God sold, &c. A few lessons may be gathered from these facts:

I. Too intimate connection between the Church and world may prove injurious to the Church. Man cannot handle pitch, &c. The people discouraged though they had a Moses.

It is better, safer I am sure it is, to ride alone, than to have a thiefs company. And such is a wicked man, who will rob thee of precious time, if he do thee no more mischief. The Nazarites, who might drink no wine, were also forbidden to eat grapes, whereof wine is made (Num. 6:3). So we must not only avoid sin itself, but also the causes and occasions thereof, amongst which, bad companythe lime-twigs of the devilis the chiefest, especially to catch those natures which, like the good-fellow-planet Mercury, are most swayed by others.T. Fuller.

II. Hypocrites are more injurious to the Church than non-professors. The people had not been affected by foes quite as terrible in the wilderness as those in Canaan. Opinions of enemies do not affect: it is the thought of a friend that influences. These spies were supposed to be friends: they were in service of Israel; the hypocrite is often in the service of the Church: the acknowledged friend. The Church is identified with him.
(a.) The world depends upon him for its opposition to religion.

(b.) Hypocrites become the leader of the enemy after leaving Christ (cf. Judas. He led the band, &c.).

(c.) They know the failures of Christian brethren, because taken into confidence as friends.

(Explain what a hypocrite is, = one who plays upon the stage. An actorfeigner. Therefore a false pretender to virtue or piety).

III. Feeble moral characters injurious to the Church. But remember two facts with regard to the Church
(a.) It is an hospital for souls disease, as well as (b.) the home of the strong in Christ. Be tender to the weak, but restrain them from the positions of the tried and strong.

IV. The worlds joy and the Churchs grief. If the heathen had known what grief there was in Israel, their heart doubtless rejoiced. Often what is death to one is pleasure to another (cf. fable of boys and frogs). Death of Christ, the life of the world (cf. Joh. 11:50). One mans loss anothers gain.

Deu. 1:29. Dread not, &c. Encouragement.

I. Every good work is sure to meet with opposition. In every journey there will necessarily be rough places.
II. Christians are not required to go anywhere where their Captain has not gone before.
III. The Christian is not to wait till all difficulties are removed. His action will sometimes remove difficulties. Go forward, &c. (cf. Jos. 3:15).

Faithful discharge of duty in everyday life is doing Gods work: the promise of the following verse applies to the removal of difficulties, &c., and the fighting for us in the warfare of daily experience, business, family, &c.

Mans need, Gods opportunity.Philo, the Jew, being employed as an ambassador or messenger to Caius Caligula, the emperor of Rome, his entertainment was but slight, for he had no sooner spoken on the behalf of his country, but he was commanded to depart the court; whereupon he told his people that he was verily persuaded that God would now do something for them, because the emperor was so earnestly bent against themPulpit Illustrations.

Deu. 1:29-30. Dread not, &c.

The desponding encouraged. Much in life to depress. Opposition quickly rises. Success dependent on courage. Conquest wavers with the wavering heart. Napoleon lost a battle through a bilious fit. Strongest, coolest, bravest, have seasons when they need encouragement. Three ways in which Moses encouraged
I. By appeal to the fact of Gods presence. The Lord God which goeth before you.
II. By appeal to the success of the past (cf. Deu. 1:31). In the wilderness

where God bare thee, &c.

III. By appeal to future success, Deu. 1:30. He shall fight.

Success in undertakings is not infrequently the result of very unlikely and small beginnings. The following incident from the battle between Marcellus the Roman, and Hannibal the Carthaginian, cited from Plutarch, well illustrates the point:
Both armies then engaged, and Hannibal, seeing no advantage gained by either, ordered his elephants to be brought forward into the first line, and to be pushed against the Romans. The shock caused great confusion at first in the Roman front; but Flavius, a tribune, snatching an ensign staff from one of the companies, advanced, and with the point of it wounded the foremost elephant. The beast upon this turned back, and ran upon the second, the second upon the next that followed, and so on till they were all put in great disorder. Marcellus observing this, ordered his horse to fall furiously upon the enemy, and, taking advantage of the confusion already made, to rout them entirely. Accordingly, they charged with extraordinary vigour, and drove the Carthaginians to their entrenchments. The slaughter was dreadful; and the fall of the killed, and the plunging of the wounded elephants, contributed greatly to it. It is said that more than 8000 Carthaginians fell in this battle; of the Romans not above 3000 were slain. All this success, in a measure, was owing to a man wounding an elephant with an ensign staff.
Success may be delayed for a time. Failure may seem to attend our work. There may be no blossoms or fruit now; but it will come. Our judgment is often rash and premature. The sailor predicts storms; there is a great calm: the merchant a panic; there is a rich harvest: the minister barrenness; there is an abundant blessing. The spies said the land is full of big men: Moses said God will help us. It matters not who is against, if God is only for us.

Faith produces Confidence.In the midst of a tumultuous sea the modes of the compass remain immovable, because they govern themselves, not according to the winds, but according to the influence of the heavens. So the faith of the faithful remaineth firm amongst the rude agitations and distracted variations of the world, because it governeth itself, not according to the instability of the affairs of this world, but according to the promises of God, which are from all eternity.Pulpit Illustrations.

Power of Faith.When Toxaris saw his countryman Anacharsis in Athens, he said unto him, I will show thee all the wonders of Greece: in seeing Solon thou seest all, even Athens itself, and the whole glory of the Greeks. Tell me, Christian, hast thou faith and assured trust in the Lord? then thou hast more than all the wonders of Greece, upon the point all the wonderful gifts of grace; for faith is the mother virtue from which all others spring, and without faith all the best of our actions are no better than sin.Things New and Old.

Deu. 1:30. The Lord your God goeth before you. We need to read side by side with these words those of the apostle: Because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world (1Jn. 4:4). When a man is tenanted by God, be has not much reason to fear, for he becomes an inheritor of the visions and experience of Elisha (cf. 2Ki. 6:16-18).

I. Show wherein God is with us.
(a.) God with a man by his faith. Paradoxical though it sounds, yet true. To believe in God is to realise the emotions of the Divine presence. Such feelings strengthen. Faith in the Almighty calls forth enthusiasm and courage. For so long as there is faith, hope burns. The soldiers who had faith in Napoleon had his courage in their heart. They conquered.

(b.) God with a man by His word. One way to communicate ourselves to others is to speak to them. Sometimes the written word suffices. A word from a distant friend gives us the man even more than his bodily presence would without the word. So God sends His word to men. There is the word spoken by the prophet. There is the Living Word, Jesus Christ; the expression of the Fathers heart.

(c.) God is with a man by His Spirit. Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? Know ye not that the love of God is shed abroad in our heart by the Holy Ghost given unto us!

II. Show how the Divine Presence bears upon the soul.
(a.) The power is in us by which to gain fully the world of our hopes. To as many as received Him, to them gave He (not merely capability Lcke,still less privilege or prerogative (Chrysostom and others),but power, De Wette; involving all the actions and states needful to them so becoming and removing all the obstacles in their way, e.g., the wrath of God and the guilt of sin, Alford) to become the children of Godto those which believe in His name.

(b.) By this power man is superior to the world (cf. 1Jn. 5:4-5).

(c.) This power gives moral and spiritual advancement in life.

Cherished with hope, and fed with joy, it grows;
In cheerful buds their opening bloom disclose,
And round the happy soil diffusive odours flows.Pope.

Deu. 1:29-30. Be not afraid

God fights for you.
Here in all the light and shade of historic life is a picture of the soul that is in Christ Jesusa spirit with God fighting for it, on its side (cf. Rom. 8:1-17). The natural man is apart from God; he has to fight for himself. The man who like ancient Israel has entered into covenant with God, has passed from Deathalienation, into Lifeco-operation with God, and he has God fighting his battles for him. The past becomes an earnest of the future. The grace given a deposit of the whole amount to be given in the Spirits subsequent developments.

I. Man in Christ is freed from sin. He has escaped from the slavery of him or that which is opposed to the divine will. He lives and works with God: God with him.

II. By this man is advanced in moral and spiritual excellence. He is no longer a slave. He is Christs free man. The true idea of Divine holiness is realised. The man knows daily from joy-filled triumph, and experience, that God is on his side, overcoming evil in his nature, harmonising discord, and restoring him, the man, to the likeness of a Son of God.

III. Man in Christ is destined for future glorification. (Beniseh translate Deu. 1:30, The Eternal your God, &c.) What an Eternal Being does is worthy of Eternity. The glory of man must have a larger arena than the confined amphitheatre of Time.

IV. He is destined to enjoy the glory which belongs to Christ Himself (cf. Joh. 17:20-23).

Deu. 1:30. He shall fight for you, &c. The Helper of His people. If God were only an idea, then the utterance of such a thought would be the cruellest act that demon-spirit could prompt, for hopes of the most sensitive nature would be raised only to be dashed down again. But because God is not an idea but a living personthe Hearer and Answerer of prayerthe sympathetic Friendthe Giver of grace for bearing sorrowthe thought of a Helping God is one of the most encouraging to which man is legatee.

I. Gods people often placed in circumstances of great difficulty. There are foes in the flesh; weakness and discord in the spirit; difficulties of many kinds without. All these have to be met. A man cannot at all times fight them for himself.
II. Help is given far superior not only to that of the strongest moments of a mans own natural power, but superior to that power which impedes his course.
III. This help only recognised by Gods own people. Their eyes alone see the spiritual forms at hand to aid (cf. Elisha and his servant). Having eyes, they see.

IV. This sight requires the supernatural agency of Christ. He alone gives sight to the blind that they may see. The world is filled with Gods glory could man but look upon it. Moses could see the power of God at hand to help even though the people were entirely ignorant of it.

Deu. 1:30. The Lord your God shall fight, &c.

Though this passage in its primary and historical sense refers to Israels conflict with the enemies who kept him from the promised land, yet the Christian, with his spiritual age illumined with the light of glory, may see beyond the letter into the mysterious import of the spirit; for he deals with the truth which the word enshrines. The Christian has his battle to fight. We might notice
I. That the battle is for a dominion: Israel fought for a promised land, the Christian for a promised crown of life. Satan offered all the kingdoms of the world to Christ, but His one crown was more to Him than they all.

II. The battle in which the Christian is engaged is won by faith. Israel lost because he did not believe God. The Christian fails when his faith is weak (cf. Peter on the water. The disciples in the storm. Victory of faith, &c).

III. The Christians battle is sure to result in victory (cf. Joh. 16:33). (Cf. the whole of Christs promise of help in His last great speech, John 14-18)

Deu. 1:31. As a man doth bear his son (cf. Num. 11:12). A simile suggested by his sojourn in the desert of Midian with Jethro.Keil and Delitzsh.

Supplying you with water out of the rock, sending bread from heaven, defending you from the wild beasts and fiercer enemies, and bearing with your numerous provocations.Clapham.

I, said (God), who was a father, became nurse, and My little one I Myself carried in My arms, lest it should be hurt in the wilderness, and lest it should be frightened by the heat or darkness; in the day I was a cloud, by night a pillar of fire.Jerome.

It is the realisation in ones own heart of this presence by day and night that makes the true child of God courageous. While God is Father and nurse man has not much to fear. There is a story told of St. Basil that well illustrates this. The emperor sent to him to subscribe to the Arian heresy. The messenger at first used good language, and promised great perferment if he would turn Arian; to which Basil replied, Alas! their speeches are fit to catch little children who seek such things, but we that are nourished and taught by the Holy Scriptures are readier to suffer a thousand deaths than suffer one syllable a little of the Scriptures to be altered. The messenger told him he was mad. He replied, I wish I were for ever thus mad. It matters not whether it be Apostle, Father, or Reformer. All are alike. Paul, Basil, Luther, each had the same presenceeach had the same courage.

We have this beautifully exemplified in the life of one who perished by shipwreck only a few years ago, the Rev. J. Mackenzie:In the brief interval, which elapsed between the vessels striking and her going down, an attempt was made by some of the passengers to lower the two quarter-boats; but both were instantly swamped, and about a dozen lives were lost in them. Mr. Mackenzie, meanwhile, had got on deck, but though a good swimmer, he appears to have made no effort to save himself. When last seen by one of the few survivors, he was engaged in prayer on the quarter-deck. I heard, he says, the minister who was on board call to those around him that, as there was no hope of safety, they should engage in prayer. He then began to pray, the rest of the passengers kneeling around him. He was as cool and as collected as I am now, and the others were praying too; but his voice was raised above the rest. And thus with the great Fathers name upon his lips, and the great Fathers love warm in his dauntless heart, did this noble Christian man go down into the cold, bleak, midnight sea, to find his Fathers bosom there.Pulpit Analyst.

Deu. 1:32. Ye did not believe.

Unbelief is spiritual death, and the desolation of manhood. In order to see this more fully, it may be observed that
I. Unbelief imprisons or confines manhood. The feelings and aspirations, the longings and the hopes of mans higher nature, would go beyond the present and the visible, and faith alone can secure their fitting exercise; but unbelief holds them back, limits them, confines them to earth, and to things that are seen and temporal. It cramps the energies of being, and restrains the healthy outgoings of the soul. Such imprisonment of the spiritual powers much tend to desolation and decay.

II. Unbelief starves manhood; man needs truth to live upon as well as bread; but, as we have seen, he cannot of himself know all the truth; there must be faith as the means of the highest knowledge. God has come down to reveal Himself to us, and to supply this knowledge as the true and healthy aliment of our spiritual being. Christ is the bread of life, the true bread that came down from heaven; but unbelief refuses it,will not partake of it, so that the soul is starved; and surely this tends to spiritual destruction.

III. Unbelief outrages manhood; it does it injury and violence. We say that man was formed for truth; hence to indulge in falsehood violates his true nature. Man was formed for reason, and to act irrationally is a violation of the true law of our being; so man was formed for faith, and to refuse faith where faith is due, where faith is essential, and where God Himself comes down to woe it and to gain it, is an outrage upon manhood. Such moral violence must tend to desolation and abiding darkness.Rev. James Spence, M.A.

Deu. 1:32. Ye did not believe the Lord your God. The truth wrapped up here is as important to the Christian as to the Jewto-day, as when Moses uttered it. Here is implied, even if not definitely taught, the power of faith. By comparison with the context is discerned the fact that faith on the part of the people would have enabled God to have conquered their enemies (cf. Binneys book: Practical Nature of Faith).

Deu. 1:32. Yet in this ye did not believe. Not a small portion of the chapter is taken up with reminding the people of Gods special intervention in their behalf. Though their whole history is full of divine action for them, Gods mercies are quickly forgotten. They are ever ready to disobey His law, or to give allegiance to idols. Chastisements intended for repentance were not heeded. Such being ineffectual, God becomes angry and casts them off. There are three matters for consideration suggested by these words

I. The possibility of dishonouring the great memories of life. In this they did not believe God, even though they had had so many reasons why they should. Who could forget Egyptian bondagethe passage of the seathe mannacloudfire, &c.? Who could forget the joy of deliverancethe rapture of ecstacy when God had revealed Himself, and had worked for them? Yet this people did! Though God had done so much, they did not believe His promise. Memories of life can be dishonouredfrequently are.

II. The possibility of underestimating the interposition of God. Look at the case suggested by the chapter (cf. Jer. 2:5-6). They had come through a terrible wildernessland of desert and pitsof droughta land where no man passedno man dweltthe shadow of death. Viewed prospectively, men shrink from such difficulties; viewed retrospectively, many of the terrors are forgotten. Though God had led through all this, all is forgotten. That such could have been forgotten is a revolting illustration of the souls depravity. But human nature is such that the highest offices rendered by God and man can be lightly esteemed by it, and even the blood of the Covenant be trodden under foot.

III. The possibility of the leading minds of the Church being darkened and perverted. It seems that the whole nation, chiefs and people, were alike unmindful of the heavenly calling (cf. Jer. 2:8). History of Israel at the time of Elijah. Epochs in the life of the Church, e.g., the Reformation.

The Hebrew proverb said, As priest as people. The saying may be reversed. As people so leaders; for the leader is often but the adroit follower. When he should stand up with a protest, too frequently such an one truckles to the popular cry. He worships the crowd, and leaves Truth and Right to take care of themselves. It behoves, therefore

1. That such men should watch themselves with constant jealousy.
2. Such should never be forgotten by those who pray.

Deu. 1:32. Yet in this ye did not believe, &c.

A charge of infidelity. This is quickly followed with the chastisement of infidelity. The wise learn by the woes of others. If the unfaithful be punished, it is not unreasonable to expect that the faithful are rewarded. From other Scripture we know that it is so (cf. Rev. 2:10). Let us apply this in its Christian bearings.

I. Christs religion requires faithfulness.
(a.) The Christian should make use of all his powers on behalf of religion.

(b.) The Christian should make use of all his powers for the religious circle wherein he lives.

(c.) The Christian should make use of all his powers according to the will of God.

II. Christs religion requires personal fidelity. It mattered not that Moses was faithful in all his house. God judged the people for what they were.

(a.) Every Christian has a personal work to accomplish.

(b.) Every Christian is endowed with power to accomplish his own work.

(c.) Every Christian is under a personal obligation to be faithful.

III. Christs religion requires continual faithfulness. It must not be fitful. Watch was Christs command.

(a.) Because the work is great.

(b.) Because the time is short.

IV. Christs religion rewards faithfulness.
(a.) Religious reward is precious.

(b.) Religious reward is glorious,

(c.) Religious reward is durable.

(d.) Religious reward is personal.

Folly of Infidelity.And is it possible that you (Paine) should think so highly of your performance, as to believe that you have thereby demolished the authority of a book, which Newton himself esteemed the most authentic of all histories? Which by its celestial light illumines the darkest ages of antiquity; which is the touchstone whereby we are enabled to distinguish between true and fabulous theology; between the God of Israel, holy, just, and good, and the impious rabble of heathen Balaam; which has been thought by competent judges to have afforded matter for the laws of Solon, and a foundation for the philosophy of Plato; which has been illustrated by the labour of learning in all ages and in all countries, and been admired and venerated for its piety, its sublimity, and its veracity, by all who were able to read and understand it. Nor have you gone, indeed, through the word with the best intention in the world to cut it down; but you have busied yourself merely in exposing to vulgar contempt a few unsightly shrubs, which good men had wisely concealed from public view. You have entangled yourself in thickets of thorn and briar; you have lost your way on the mountains of Lebanon, the goodly cedar trees whereof, lamenting the madness, and pitying the blindness of your rage against them, have scorned the blunt edge and the base temper of your axe, and laughed unhurt at the feebleness of your stroke. The Bible has withstood the learning of Porphyry, and the power of Julian, to say nothing of the Manichean Faustus. It has resisted the genius of Bolingbroke, and the wit of Voltaire, to say nothing of a numerous berd of inferior assailants; and it will not fall by your force. You have barbed anew the blunted arrows of former adversaries; you have feathered them with blasphemy and ridicule; dipped them in your deadliest poison; aimed them with your utmost skill; shot them against the shield of truth with your utmost vigour; but, like the feeble javelin of the aged Priam, they will scarcely reach the markwill fall to the ground without a stroke.Watson.

Infidelity barren of virtue.

This system is a soil as barren of great and sublime virtue as it is prolific in crimes. As well might you expect exalted sentiments of justice from a professed gamester as look for noble principles in the man whose hopes and fears are all suspended on the present moment, and who stakes the whole happiness of his being on the events of this vain and fleeting life. In affirming that infidelity is unfavourable to the higher class of virtues, we are supported as well by facts as by reasoning. We should be sorry to load our adversaries with unmerited reproach; but to what history, to what record, will they appeal, for any traits of moral greatness, any sacrifice of interest or life, any instances of daring heroic virtues exhibited by their disciples? Where shall we look for the trophies of infidel magnanimity or atheistical virtue? Not that we mean to accuse them of inactivity: they have recently filled the world with the fame of their exploits; exploits of a very different kind indeed, but of imperishable memory and disastrous lustre.R. Hall.

Gods goodness, mans ingratitude.

It is storied of a certain king that, fighting a desperate battle for the recovery of his daughter stolen from him, he found but ill success, and the day utterly against him, till by the valour of a strange prince, disguised in the habit of a mean soldier (that pitied his loss and bore love to his daughter), he recovered both her and victory. Not long after, this prince received a wrong, which he brought to the king, that he might receive justice. The king handed him over to a judge. The prince replied, Know this, O king, when thou wast lost, I stood betwixt thee and danger, and did not bid another save thee, but saved thee myself; behold the scars of those wounds I bore to free thee and thy state from ruin inevitable, and now my suit is before thee dost thou shuffle me off to another? Such was our case; Satan had stolen our dear daughter the soul,in vain we laboured a recovery; principalities and powers were against us,weakness and wretchedness on our side. Christ the Son of God took pity on us. Clad as a menial He stood between us and death. Yet, how frequently we bid Him stand by when He comes!(Cf. Pulpit Illustrations.)

Unbelief unmans a man.

Take a dog, and mark what a generosity and courage he will put on when he is maintained by a man who is to him instead of a God, or at least melior natura; whereby it is manifest that the poor creature, without the confidence of a better nature than his own, could never be so courageous. Thus it is with man, when he rolleth himself upon God, and resteth on His divine perfection, then he gathers a force and ability which human nature itself could never attain; but when, with the fool, he says, there is no God [in other words, when he has lost all faith in God], then he destroys the nobility of man; for man is akin to the beasts by his body; and if he is not akin to God by his soul, he is a base and ignoble creature. Atheism will unman any man, and deject anything that is the advantagement of human nature.Gabriel Inchinus, quoted in Things New and Old.

Deu. 1:32-34. He did not believe. God was angry. Without faith it is impossible to please God.

Of all the virgins presented to Ahasuerus none was so pleasing as Esther. Let the maiden that pleaseth the king be queen instead of Vashti. When that decree was published, what strife, what emulation (may we think), was among the Persian damsels, that either were or thought themselves fair, every one hoped to be queen! But so incomparable was the beauty of that Jewess that she was not only taken into the Persian Court as one of the selected virgins, but had the most honourable place in all the seraglio allotted unto her. The other virgins pass their probation unregarded. When Esthers turn came, though she brought the same face and demeanour that nature had cast upon her, no eye saw her without admiration. The king was so delighted with her beauty, that, contemning all the other vulgar forms, his choice was fully fixed upon her. Thus faith is that Esther to which God holds out His golden sceptre. He is pleased with all graces: hot zeal and cool patience please Him; cheerful thankfulness and weeping repentance please Him; charity in the height, and humility in the dust, please Him; but none of them are welcome to Him without faith in Christ Jesus.

Power of faith in the heart.

The philosopher, when he would persuade the king to settle his court and place of residence in the heart of his dominion, laid before him a bulls hide, ready tanned, upon which when he stood upon any one side of it, and so kept that down, the other side would rise up; when he removed to this side, that rose up and kept that down, then the side he came from would rise up; but when he stood in the middle he kept down all alike. Faith is this king. When faith sits in the heart, then it keeps in check every passionswamps every emotionstrengthens willreins lustin fine, cleaneth, invigorates, and rightens the whole man.

Deu. 1:33. We are told by a writer of world-wide fame, that a truly great man does not ask of another, is he great in some particular, but is he great? True self-greatness is a goal worthy of all. Greater is he that ruleth himself than he that taketh a city. Ancient and modern concur. But a man is only great as he has divinity in his nature. Greatness of character is divinity humanised. And the man who is anything is what he is by the help of God. By the grace of God I am what I am. He is the man who has God ever before him, and round about him, and behind, to open, prepare, and close the way. He has God as a light by nighta cloud by day. Eminently does the principle in the text work itself out in the Christian life. For

I. The Christian is one pressing forward to the truest greatness man can knowthe perfect man in Christ.

1. He is possessed of the faith that energises and supplies the weakest man with the grace that eventuates in success.
2. He shows the reality of his faith in his life by the manifestations of Christian character and disposition.
3. Such a life sheds so much light upon the path he has to travel, that in his heart is a perennial spring of hope.

II. Moses, as well as the apostle, recognises God as the source of all real strength and power in life.

1. By Gods help they had overcome their foes.
2. God is with them in cloud and fire.
3. God would ultimately bring them into the promised land.
4. The result of life is not simply the product of natural causes. It is Christ that lives within; God who works through us.

III. The consciousness of this fact becomes an abiding help.

1. Natural energy is not abiding. We are liable to lose it any moment.

A fever robs the brain of knowledge. Heat impairs strength. The flesh has ever been felt to be an enemy of the spirit.

2. The grace of God is present in all changes. Paul felt it when the thorn pierced him; it was abundant in the prison, and burst forth as music in his heart; it nerved him in the presence of foes, judges, and even Csar. To individual Christians it is powerful to hold back from sin when temptedrestrains fearaids in pressing forward.

Went before us in the way. (Compare Deu. 1:30-33 with Psa. 46:1-3.) Deu. 1:1 of Psalms 46, might well be used as strophe, and Deu. 1:2 as ante-strophe, of Moses song of his faith and triumph. Deal with the spiritual bearings of the text.

I. The circumambient God is to the Christian a refugestrengthhelp.

1. God a refuge.

(a.) Refuge in the MediatorChrist.

(b.) Refuge in the gospel of His love.

(c.) Refuge for eternity.

2. God as strength.

(a.) By His Spirit.

(b.) By promise and encouragement.

(c.) By means of grace.

3. God a help.

(a.) A Father to provide, (b.) A searcher of lifes way.

II. The confidence of the believer in God as his Preparer and Provider.

1. God prepares the way.
2. God provides what is necessary.
3. Past supplies an earnest of future.

4. The sense of Providence strengthens.

Deu. 1:33. Night. Subjects in connection with night.

Night a revealer of God.

(a.) The day with its earthy light reveals the world.

(b.) The darkness of night shuts out the world.

(c.) The mind in its restlessness seeks other fields of knowledge.

(d.) In its reachings away from the world the heart has at times found its God.

The joys of night.
(a.) It brings sleep.

(b.) Sleep shuts out care.

(c.) Sorrow once removed by sleep has had a fang extracted.

Terrors of night. Songs of night. Night lost in day. (Cf. G. Gilfillans poem, Night.)

Night. Night appears to be a time peculiarly favourable to devotion. Its solemn stillness helps to free the mind from that perpetual din which the cares of the world will bring around it; and the stars, looking down from heaven upon us, shine as if they would attract us up to God. I know not how you may be affected by the solemnities of midnight, but when I have sat alone musing on the great God and the mighty universe, I have felt that indeed I could worship Him; for night seemed to be spread abroad as a very temple for adoration, while the moon walked as high priest amid the stars, the worshippers and I myself joined in that silent song which they sang unto God: Great art Thou, O God! great in Thy works. When I consider Thy heavens the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained; what is man that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man that Thou visitest him? I find that this sense of the power of midnight not only acts upon religious men, but there is a certain poet, whose character, perhaps, I could scarcely too much reprobate: a man very far from understanding true religion; one whom I may, I suppose, justly style an infidel, a libertine of the worst order, and yet he says concerning night in one of his poems:

Tis midnight on the mountains brown,
The cold round moon shines deeply down;
Blue rolls the waters, blue the sky
Spreads like an ocean hung on high,
Bespangled with those isles of light,
So wildly, spiritually bright;
Who ever gazed upon them shining,
And turned to earth without repining,
Nor wished for wings to flee away,
And mix with their eternal ray.
Even with the most irreligious person, a man farthest from spiritual thought, it seems that there is some power in the grandeur and stillness of night to draw him up to God. I trust many of us can say, like David, I have thought upon Thee continually; I have mused upon Thy name in the night watches, and with desire have I desired Thee in the night.

Spurgeon.

Deu. 1:34-39. The good among the evil.

I. True goodness can exist amid circumstances most corrupt (cf. the case of the son of Jeroboam, 1Ki. 14:13). Sardis was one of the most dissolute cities of antiquity; but here were Christians (Rev. 3:4).

They say that lilies, or roses, or such like pleasant flowers, if they be planted by garlic or onions, or such like unsavoury things, they do not lose but rather increase in their former sweetness. So it is with good and godly men when they are planted, and as it were hemmed in with wicked men, the vileness and odiousness of their wickedness makes them to loathe wickedness so much the more, and to love godliness, and to bless God that hath kept them, that they have not run to the same excess of riot.Things New and Old.

II. True goodness will ultimately be distinguished by a glorious reward. Caleb and Joshua were true to the good spirit within. They wrought righteousness. The reward came. Caleb entered the promised land; Joshua became the peoples leader.
(a.) It has its reward here in its influence over others. Justin Martyr confesses that he left philosophy and became a Christian, through the admiration that he had for the innocent and holy lives of Christians.

(b.) It has a reward in the blessedness it brings to the man himself.

Deu. 1:34. The Lord heard was wroth.

God hears. He judges. Judgment comes quick and sure at times. Some indifferent to it. Some disbelieve. God hears and is angry.
I. The anger of the Lord is moved by the wickedness of man. He is not indifferent to it.
II. That the Day of Judgment will come to all.
III. Let men prepare for this Day of Judgment, lest it be a day of wrath.

Deu. 1:34. The Lord heard was angry.

Three homiletic points
I. The principle of discernment is ever operative in the Divine economy. God heard the voice of murmur and was angry.
II. Escape from this principle impossible. God is omniscient. He sees all; hears all; knows all.
III. Those who comply with the will of God have nothing to fear from this principle. There is rather a cause of joy. God knows your toilssorrowsdifficulties. He watches with pleasure every conquest.
The Lord heard. The omniscience of God; but God is omniscient because omnipresent. We feel conscious that there is no place in heaven above, or on earth beneath, from whence God is excluded: we feel conscious that in the deepest vale, as well as on the mountain top; in subterranean caverns, as well as open plains; when surrounded by the darkness of midnight, as well as the splendour of noon-day, He is around us and knows us: we feel conscious that if we could transport ourselves with the rapidity of lightning from our present local habitation to the extreme verge of the habitable globe, that we should not be able to light on a single spot, and take our stand and say, Here, His eye shall not see us; here, His ear shall not hear us; here, His justice cannot overtake us; here, His grace cannot save us.East.

In every part and place of the universe we perceive the exertions of a power which we believe to proceed from the Deity. In what part or point of space that has ever been explored do we not discover attractions? In what region do we not find light? What kingdom is there of nature, what corner of space, in which there is anything that can be examined by us, while we do not fall upon contrivance or design? An agency so general as that we cannot discover its absence, or assign the place in some effects of its continued energy is not found, must be ascribed to a being who is omnipresent. He who upholds all things by His power, may be said to be everywhere present.Paley.

Is there no necessity of control over the powers of the atmosphere, or of the ocean? What would be the situation of the inhabitants of our world, if exposed to their resistless force, in the entire absence of the control of a presiding minda guardian Deity? Think of the innumerable processes which are incessantly going forward in the life and growth of animals and of vegetables, and can you imagine these to proceed with undeviating uniformity, without infinite knowledge to direct infinite power? Conceive, then, of the Divine omniscience as necessarily commensurate with the exertions of omnipotence, and the extent of omnipresence,Burder.

Deu. 1:34-41. Sin and its recompense.

The tale of the Goblet, which the genius of a heathen fashioned, was true, and taught a moral of which many a death-bed furnishes the melancholy illustration. Having made the model of a serpent, be fixed it in the bottom of the cup. Coiled for a spring, a pair of gleaming eyes in its head, and in its open mouth fangs raised to strike, it lay beneath ruby wine. Nor did he who raised that golden cup to quench his thirst and quaff the delicious draught suspect what lay below, till, as be reached the dregs, that dreadful head arose and glistened before his eyes. So, when lifes cup is nearly emptied, and sins last pleasure quaffed, and unwilling lips are draining the bitter dregs, shall rise ghastly terrors of remorse, and death, and judgment upon the despairing soul.Guthrie.

Deu. 1:36. Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh. Subject: The reward of righteousness.

Caleb, in conjunction with the other eleven spies, had important work entrusted to him. He and Joshua alone were brave and righteous in the conduct of their services. God was angry with the wrong-doers, and punished them: with Caleb and Joshua He was pleased, and them He rewarded. Caleb was allowed to enter the promised land, where he subsequently obtained good possessions.

I. The reward of the righteous in the case of all is inexpressibly great. Be ye strong, therefore, and let not your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded (2Ch. 15:7). Therefore hath the Lord recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in His eyesight (Psa. 18:24). Every one that hath forsaken houses or brethren, &c., shall receive an hundredfold, and inherit everlasting life (Mat. 19:29; cf. Mar. 10:29-30, and note variations).

II. The reward of righteousness is invariably obtained in connection with labour. (Cf. Why stand ye here all the day idle? Mat. 20:6, with Call the labourers, and give them their hire, Deu. 20:8). Work is Gods condition of prosperity. Labour enhances the enjoyment of life. Indolence brings ruin to individuals and states; to the body, intellect, spirit. The men who will be rewarded on the Day of Judgment will not be those whose religion consisted in hearing sermons, seeking comfort, uttering sentimental sympathies and offering prayers; but those who make all means of grace to be channels for carrying into reality and life the purposes God has inspired in the heart.

Deu. 1:37. Lord angry with me, &c. So aggravated was your guilt that it not only brought ruin on yourselves, but displeasure on your leader.Clapham.

Cf. Achans sin (Jos. 7:15; Jos. 7:24-25). His family was involved with him in his punishment. Sins of fathers visited on the children, &c.

The Lord angry with me. Some thing very pathetic and touching in these words. The old lawgiver, we could imagine, would look back over his long lifethat life so full of vicissitude; which, though so long and eventful, was yet incomplete; for the people were still in the desert. Another must lead them into the promised land. But amid the clouds of sadness three gleams of light may be discerned
I. Life is ending in the midst of labour.
II. Life is ending in the midst of prospect.
III. Life is ending in the midst of strength.
For your sakes. Here we see, as it were, the other side of the event narrated in Num. 20:10. There the unbelief of Moses and Aaron bears the blame; yet the unbelief was called forth by the invincible perverseness of the people. Moses, therefore, was punished because he had not kept himself entirely free from the infection of the sin of the people, but the people had reason to reckon their sin on the part of Moses as occasioned by their fault.Gerlach.

Deu. 1:37. The Lord was angry with me for your sakes. This, read in conjunction with Isa. 53:5, brings before our notice one of the most startling facts in the whole universe of being;the fact and principle of vicarious suffering (cf. Joh. 11:49-52). Men may think the idea of vicarious sacrifice inconsistent with Divine perfection, but there is the fact. In standing on the platform which accepts this idea, we are not compelled to satisfy all the scruples of those standing on a platform advocating a theory in opposition as to the righteousness or unrighteousness of any act of God. Sufficient for man, if God do it. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Man is a fraction of a whole, as well as an unit. Shall the head complain because when one with the hand it suffers? It is one with it in joy! True wisdom is to know that this principle works in human life, and to make the best of the knowledge.

1. The vicarious principle is a law of physical life.
1. The mineral kingdom is food for the vegetable.
2. The vegetable supports the animal.
3. The herbivorous food for the carnivorous. This not an effect of sin. (Cf. the teachings of geology.)

4. All fall before the rule of man. These each provide nourishments for his body whereon his mind and soul live.

II. The vicarious principle a law of intellectual life

1. The enjoyment and instruction of the reader is only attained at the price of the authors suffering and experience.
2. The congregations repast on the Sabbath is at the cost of the preachers brain and life and suffering.
3. The civilisation of to-day is obtained by the labour and peril of the past.
4. The position, gain, education, &c., of the child is at the price of the parents toil or self-denial.

III. This vicarious principle also a law of spiritual life

1. By sympathy we take some of the sorrow out of another heart into our own, and thereby afford relief.
2. Seeing that the principle is both in the regions of the material and the mental, the gospel makes no greater claim upon our faith when it asks us to believe that such a principle is active in the region of the spiritual also.

God can be provoked to anger.The gods of the Gentiles were senseless stocks and stones, not able to apprehend, much less to revenge an injury done unto them. Well, therefore, might the philosopher be bold with Hercules, to put him to his thirteenth labour, in seething of his dinner; and Martial with Priapus, in threatening to throw him into the tire, if he looked not well to his trees. A child may play at the hole of a dead asp, and a silly woman may strike a dead lion; but who dare play with a living serpent? Who dare take a roaring lion by the beard? Let Christians take heed how they provoke the living God, for He is a consuming fire, and with the breath of His mouth He is able to throw down the whole frame of nature, and destroy all creatures from the face of the earth.Things New and Old.

A good prince no advantage to a bad people.We see that, though the sun be above the horizon, and so apt to make a glorious day, yet many fogs and mists arising from the earth, overcast the sky, and intercept the comfortable influence of the light. Even so, though God vouchsafe never so good a prince, a prince under whom the people enjoy abundance of peace, and the free passage of the gospel, such may be their gracelessness that they may be the better for neither of them.Things New and Old

Deu. 1:38. But Joshua, &c he

shall cause Israel to inherit.
Joshua had done one thing well that God had given him; work of a higher order is therefore intrusted to him. His conduct in spying the land was good: he is to complete his first duty, spying, by leading the people into possessing the land. The five talents faithfully used prepares the way for the rule of five cities.

Here we have an illustration of service for God being rewarded. Two considerations
I. The reasonableness of service for God.
II. The reward of such service.
I. The reasonableness of service for God.

1. In every state of life the condition of true honour is faithful service. True honour is not a matter of birth or place. It is had only by becoming honourable, by submitting to service, toil, self-sacrifice. The man ambitious to be erudite must toil through the drudgery of the preliminary work: the chemist in the laboratory; the soldier in drill-room and battle-field; statesman in cabinet. Men will not suffer others to label themselves gold if only brass.
2. In proportion to the greatness of the honour is the rigidness of the condition.
3. If we seek honour of God, it is but reasonable that we should be prepared with service of some kind; and the higher the honour we crave from Christ, the more devoted must we be to Him and to His service. To sit on His right hand and on His left is only for those worthy of it (cf. Mat. 20:23).

II. The reward of such service.

1. The reward will be proportionate, not only to the worth of the servant, but to the greatness of the giver. Kings bestow royal gifts (cf. Ahasuerus and Mordecai). What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour?

2. The reward will be somewhat of the nature of the receivers worth. Joshuas service was fidelity to his nation: his reward was a national honour: he was made a chief. The Christians service is fidelity to Christ; his reward, therefore, will be the honour of the crowned Christ in the Day of Triumph.

Deu. 1:38. Thou shalt not go in thither. In other words, Thou shalt die in the desert. These words must have fallen on Moses as one of those thunder-claps of unexpectedness that are made the more powerful by their rarity; but which no one is anxious to make more familiar by repetition. The people were soon to enter the promised land; therefore Moses knew that he was soon to die. The subject pressed on our attention is the imminence of death. Death may be impending physically, morally, socially, influentially.

Physically: Breath is in the nostrils, but we know not the hair-breadth escapes from death. A needle point might destroy the life of the body.
Morally: Character may be ruined in a moment. One sin broke up human history into ruin, sorrow, &c.
Socially: When character is ruined society is closed against a man.
Influentially: A mans influence should be the measure of his moral standing. By one false step influence may be impaired or even destroyed. Since death is so near, and in so many ways imminent, the following considerations may not be ill-timed:
I. High significance and value should be given to time. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. What is life? A brief day, a solemn destiny. Eternity turns upon the present. Direction is now given for all the future.
II. The most anxious vigilance should be aroused. When death is near, it is only a step (1Sa. 20:3), and might be the next! Be sober, be vigilant.

III. The thought of death should stimulate to preparedness for the future. The most careless make some preparation for the immediate wants of the present and the future. The appetites and body are provided for. Death thunders out, The spirit must be provided for. The souls preparation is made by our sustaining each day a right relation to Him, into whose presence death ushers us.
IV. It should inspire a tender interest into life and all its relationships. We hold our blessings for but a moment, then they are gone. Home, friendship, Christian servicethey are soon enfolded in a pall. Life is too short for man to be hard on man. Those with us are soon gone. An eternity of tears will not wash out one act of cruelty.
V. The prospect of death should lead to a right use of temporal possessions. There is only one world in which we have money. We touch it only once. We can hoard it for selfish uses: we can spend it in the service of Christ.

Ah! in what perils is vain life engaged!

What slight neglects, what trivial faults destroy
The hariest frame! Of indolence, of toil
We die; of want, of superfluity.
The all-surrounding heaven, the vital air,
Is big with death.

Death.Death is, in itself, a most serious and distressing event. It is natures supreme evil, the abhorrence of Gods creationa monster, from whose touch every living thing recoils; so that to shrink from its ravages upon ourselves, or upon those whom we love, is not an argument of weakness, but an act of obedience to the first law of beinga tribute to the value of that life which is our Makers gift. The disregard which some of old affected to whatever goes by the name of evil; the insensibility of others, who yielded up their souls to the power of fatalism; and the artificial gaiety, which has occasionally played the comedian about the dying bed of philosophy, falsely so called, are outrages upon decency and nature. Death destroys both action and enjoymentmocks at wisdom, strength, and beautydisarranges our plansrobs us of our treasuredesolates our bosomsbreaks our heartstringsblasts our hopes. Death extinguishes the glow of kindnessabolishes the most tender relations of mansevers him from all that he knows and lovessubjects him to an ordeal which thousands of millions have passed, but none can explain; and what will be as new to the last, who gives up the ghost, as it was to murdered Abel,flings him, in fine, without any avail from the experience of others, into a state of untried being. No wonder that nature trembles before it; reason justifies the fear; religion never makes light of it; and he who does, instead of ranking with heroes, can hardly deserve to rank with a brute.Mason.

Deu. 1:39. Moreover your little one they shall go in thither, &c.

A beautiful example of the children bringing honour to the parent. The fathers by their sin brought disgrace upon their name. They die in the desert. The children enter the promised land.

A very striking illustration of this is found in the reward of the oaken crown among the ancient Romans. The civic crown was the foundation of many privileges. He who had once obtained it, had a right to wear it always. When he appeared at the public spectacles, the senators rose up to do him honour. He was placed near their bench; and his father, and his grandfather by the fathers side, were entitled to the same privilege.

Deu. 1:38. Joshua became heir to the title and position of Moses, in preference even to his own children, if he had any now living. (Cf. this with what Plutarch tells us. It was customary with the Romans of that age (the time of Coriolanus), when they were drawn up in order of battle, and ready to take up their shields and gird their garments about them, to make a nuncupative will, naming each his heir, in the presence of three or four witnesses.)

Deu. 1:41. We have sinned.

Thence: conscience conqueror.
(We supplement the Hints of the preceding Writer on Deu. 1:1-38.)

REVIEW OF THE PAST.Deu. 1:1-5

Live on the past, said Napoleon; but the past of his life afforded little help to him. Moses here reviews the past history of Israel in its remarkable places and conflictsrepeats, explains, and enforces the commands of God, and reminds them of Gods mercy to prompt them to duty.
I. It is helpful to review the past. The lessons of the past are gathered not into oblivion, but to be fruitful in the present and the future. The histories and events of former times confirm our faith, and encourage us to hope and trust in God.

1. In remarkable places. In the wilderness, amid dearth, distress, and poverty. In the plain, well watered and cultivated spots of encampment. Against the Red Sea, amid wonders of Gods presence and power which should never be forgotten. Lifes journey not all a barren desert;there are many beautiful scenes and fruitful seasons, many deliverances from enemies, and many displays of Divine favour.

2. In remarkable times, (a) After long delays. In the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, after deliverance from Egypt. The delay through sin, which brings trouble and unfitness for duty. (b) After conflicts and trials. Sihon slain in opposing their onward march (Num. 21:24; Deu. 2:32). Og, king of Bashan, without provocation rushed to attack, and was defeated. By the destruction of these kings God pledges to help his people, puts them under deep obligation to obey, and encourages them to further effort.

II. It is needful to review the past. From the past we must get our examples, precedents, and principles. The past alone will interpret the present, and we cannot get rid of its influences and results.

1. Our mental condition makes it needful. The generation that came out of Egypt had died. There were many children in Israel who only knew a little of Gods law and dealings with them. Hence the need of repetition. We are children mentally and-morally. God teaches by past history. Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, etc. (Isa. 28:10).

2. Our present surroundings make it needful. Israel was surrounded by idolatrous nations, and would be exposed to seductive influences in the land of Canaan. We have need to be warned against worldly customs and sins devicesto have the law of God written in our hearts (Psa. 147:19-20).

3. Our immediate future makes it needful. Israel was about to go into new circumstances of life; to become soldiers, and to cease to be pilgrims. Their strength was to rely upon God and follow him. What He had done in the past He could do in the future. He will pardon sin, deliver from danger, and give rest and rewards.

THE ENFORCEMENT OF DUTT.Deu. 1:5-8

Long enough had the Israelites remained at Horeb. The end was accomplished for which they were led thither. Their work was not yet finished; the land was not possessed, hence the command, take your journey and go. Duty should be the end and aim of the highest life. The greatest pleasure is derived from a consciousness of its fulfilment. It has sustaining power in life, and at lifes end, says George Herbert, it gives music at midnight.

I. Duty explained. Moses began to declare, i.e., to explain. We must know before we can act. God has not left us to grope or guess our way in the dark. In the Bible we have a full revelation of Gods will and the path of duty opened so plainly that wayfaring men though fools shall not err therein. Nature and Philosophy are dim lights. Here we have the light of life, the true light which shineth unto every man coming into the world.

II. Duty enforced. When we know, we are reluctant to do the right. We all know more than we practice, and have need of the enforcement of duty by every possible motive.

1. By present needs. Long enough at rest, now rouse yourselves to work. We have not to serve God in retirement, but in publicity. Peter was not permitted to dwell on the mount, but sent to confess and serve Christ among men. Israel had now received the Covenant, been trained for a new social position, and they must go to their lawful sphere to adorn their privileges.

2. By removing hindrances to its performance. The land before you, lit., before your faces. It is accessible; you can see it, and there is no difficulty in the way, but which you may easily overcome. The promise and the kindness of God should be enough to stir us up.

3. By the express command of God. The land was given to their fathers by promise. They were now trained for it, and should no longer delay in taking it. Go in and possess the land.

THE CHOICE OF OFFICERS.Deu. 1:9-18

Israel had now greatly increased, and Moses felt the affairs too heavy for him to bear alone. He appeals to them as if in a dying wish to select men to help him to judge and act as public officers. The rules for the choice, and the instructions as to method, are worthy of the most enlightened ages of Christendom.

I. The qualifications which they are to possess. This is most important, every man is not fit to be a magistrate. Jethro knew this and gave a four-fold qualification. Thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness (Exo. 18:21). These officers were to be

1. Men of intelligence. Wise men and understandingmen of skill and tact. Administration without wisdom will not be successful. Unskilful men holding the reigns of government may be like Phton, the son of Sol, who insisted on driving the fiery steeds and sent horses and chariot spinning through boundless space.

2. Men of good repute. Known among your tribes,men who had gained a reputation for honesty and straight-forwardness in daily life.

3. Men who fear God. Those who act for God should not only have the confidence of the people, but the Spirit of God in them. Look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.

II. The Spirit in which they are to act. The rules applicable at first to the law of Moses, are in spirit and letter fitted to guide all human judgments.

1. To hear patiently. Hear the causes. How many hasty, impulsive judgments are given without a patient candid hearing? Judge not according to appearance, but righteous judgment.

2. To judge impartially. No respect of persons in judgment. The great and the small, the orphan and friendless, the weak and the powerful, were to be treated in justice and equity.

3. To act fearlessly. Ye shall not be afraid of the face of man. Lack of courage leads to perversion of justice. There lies one who never feared the face of man was the eulogy on Knox, the reformer.

4. To act under a sense of responsibility to God. The judgment is Gods. Judges were holy persons, sitting in the place of God and exalted to dispense the power of God. Take heed what ye do: for ve judge not for man, but for the Lord, who is with you in the judgment (2Ch. 19:6).

III. The method in which they are installed. The people approved of the suggestion, and acted upon it. The thing which thou hast spoken is good for us to do.

1. They were chosen by the people. Take you (Deu. 1:13). Many say that it is dangerous to extend the sufferageto invest power into the hands of the people. But neither the Jewish polity nor the Christian Church teaches us to ignore them. (cf. Act. 6:1-4.)

2. They were appointed by Moses. I will make them rulers over you. All scribes, superintendents, and chiefs were instituted by him. Moses ratified the peoples choice.

3. They were confirmed by the Spirit of God. The judgment was Gods. The judges were not only respected by the people, but aided by the Spirit of God. I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee. (Num. 11:17.)

HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS

Deu. 1:3-4. Remarkable times and places.

1. Reminding of past transgressions.

2. Indicating noble achievements. Sihon and Og slain. Great cities taken (Num. 21:33). Who smote great nations, and slew mighty kings (Psa. 135:10-11).

3. Stimulating to noble efforts. Og, a giant, friend, and ally to Sihon. Edrei, the second capital of Og, strongly fortified, yet notwithstanding artificial defence, natural advantage, and military prowess, taken by Israel (Deu. 3:1). Through God we shall do valiantly.

Deu. 1:6. Long enough. Needless delay.

1. In the world away from God. The place of sin, Satans service and misery. Why remain here? God invites, urges you to come to Him.
2. In spiritual bondage and perplexity. Many distressed in mind, in terror and bondage, under the mount, like Bunyans pilgrim. Christ gives liberty.
3. In present position and attainments. Many children in knowledge, when they ought to be advanced, mature and fit to teach. Long enough in idleness and present position. Go on.

Deu. 1:10-11. Spiritual increase and prosperity.

1. Spiritual prosperity the gift of God. God hath multiplied youtherefore fulfilled His promise, displayed His power and grace.
2. Spiritual prosperity promised by God. As He hath promised you.
3. Spiritual prosperity should be sought. The Lord make you a thousand times more.

Deu. 1:9-13. Ministerial and lay agency in the Christian Church. cf. Jethros advice to Moses (Exo. 18:19-23).

1. Lay agency needful. Ministers not able to overtake the work.

2. Lay agency advantageous. It relieves from burden, cumbrance; facilitates business and promotes order. Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, etc. (Deu. 16:18).

THE HEAVENLY PROPOSAL.Deu. 1:21

We may transfer what is here said to the Jews to ourselves. Canaan was typical of a better countrya heavenly.
Observe the Exhibition. Behold the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee. Where? In the Scriptures: not in full developement, for it is a glory to be revealed, but in its general nature, and in a way adapted to our present apprehensions, and likely to take hold of our mind. Hence many figures are employed, all of which aid our conceptions, while they fall short of the subject.

But does God place it before our eyes to tantalize us by awakening notice, drawing forth admiration, and exciting desire when the boon is not within our reach?
Observe the command. Go up and possess it as the Lord God of thy fathers said unto thee. This supposes it to be attainable: yea it makes the attainment our duty. Missing it is not only misery, but crime. We shall be punished for neglecting so great salvation. It is our guiltthe guilt of the vilest disobedience to the most gracious authority; for he not only allows, but enjoins us to seek first his kingdom and righteousnessand commands us to believe on the name of his son Jesus Christ. Are we doing this? For He is the way, and we come unto God by Him.

Observe the encouragement: Fear not, neither be discouraged. To this we are liable on two accounts. First, by a sense of our unworthiness. The greatness of the blessedness, combined with a sense of our desert, astonishes the mind, and makes hope seem like presumption. But everything is free, and designed to show the exceeding riches of His grace. We are as welcome as we are unworthy, why, then, refuse to be comforted? Secondly, by a sense of our weakness. Who is sufficient for the distance, the difficulties, and the dangers? The Jews were dismayed at the report of the spies. The towns were walled up to heaven. Before the Anakims we are but as grasshoppers. The people were disheartened, but said Caleb, Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are able. How did he mean? Without God? No. But with Him as their leader and keeperand this He had promised. Has He not said to you, Fear not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee, yea, I will keep thee. We cannot be too sensible of our weakness; but let us remember that His grace is sufficient for us. It has been sufficient for all gone before us. Jordan rolled between the Jews. It was overflowing its bank at the time. But the ark divided the waters. They went through dry shod, and their enemies were still as a stone till they were clean passed over.From Jay.

THE NATURE OF UNBELIEF.Deu. 1:22-40

It was through obedience to God that Canaan was to be inherited. But many times in their journey did Israel rebel. Moses recapitulates, but specially mentions the open rebellion at Kadesh-barnea, for which they were doomed to wander and die in the wilderness. When they had come to the very borders they hesitated in unbeliefproposed that men should survey the land and report. Moses approved and God permitted a step which shows the sinful nature and the terrible consequences of unbelief. The nature of unbelief is seen.

I. In contriving what is unneedful. Why send spies when they were about to enter the land? Why rely upon their own devices when God had helped them all through their journey? Why glance too much into the future, instead of acting in present duty? If you constantly make the best use of the present hour, you are sure to be prepared for those which follow, says Fenelon.

II. In relying more upon numbers than upon evidence. All brought the fruit of the land. But the people believed the report of the ten and not the two, and cried in outrageous rebellion Let us make a captain, and return into Egypt (Neh. 9:17). Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil.

III. In misinterpreting the Providence of God. Because the Lord hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt. O, what perversion of Gods dealings! Had God forgotten His word? Did He wish to destroy and not to bless them? But when we measure God according to our narrow views, and read His ways with an unbelieving heart, we are sure to err and make invidious reflections upon his love.

IV. In blinding against the help of God. Moses exhorted them not to be afraid, for God was with them and would fight for them. All was in vain (Deu. 1:29-30). Rebellion blinds the mind, and we can neither discern God in the past nor present. Let us not blame the Jews. We are weak in faith, and full of prudent inventions in personal and social affairs. We trust God when we can trace himtake one-sided views, and reproach God with ungrateful conduct.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF UNBELIEF.Deu. 1:26-40

God had sustained and guarded His people in the greatest difficulties. He was continually with them, but unbelief was followed by open rebellion, and the Israelites were, in the righteous judgment of God, doomed to die in the wilderness. The consequences of unbelief may be seen in its different steps of development.

I. It creates positive disobedience to God. In this thing ye did not believe the Lord your God. Alienation of heart from God, leads to doubt and distrust and if we have no love, no faith in God, how can we obey Him? We have; within us a sinful, faithless heart, an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.

II. It leads to open rebellion against God. Unbelief broke forth into murmuring and open disorder. They cast reproach and dishonor upon God. Unbelief perverts the truth of God, defies the authority of God and despises the threatening of God. They were disobedient, and rebelled against Thee, and cast Thy law behind their backs.

III. It reuses the anger of God. The Lord was angry. Notwithstanding His great love, God displayed His righteous retribution. Our fellow creatures will defend their honour, human government will uphold their authority, so God must punish sin. How oft did they provoke Him in the wilderness and grieve Him in the desert?

IV. It excludes from the inheritance of God. That unbelieving generation with two exceptions, were excluded from Canaan. God sware in his wrath, and the decision could not be overturned. They shall not enter into My rest. Those who disobey and persist in their folly will be excluded from heaven. Let us therefore fear (Heb. 4:1).

ENCOURAGEMENT.Deu. 1:38

Joshua was appointed to succeed Moses, and lead Israel into Canaan (cf. Num. 27:15-23). His work was difficult, and he would need help and encouragement. The people are exhorted to strengthen and obey him.

I. The text supposes that difficulties will be encountered. In the Christian life there are many obstacles.

1. Difficulties made by ourselves. How numerous these are.

2. Difficulties arising from the conduct of others.

3. Difficulties expressly sent by God to test His servants.

II. The text gives a command to surmount these difficulties. Encourage him. We should encourage our fellow Christians.

1. To meet their trials with patience.

2. Steadily to fight till they conquer them.

3. To profit by them.

III. The text contains a lesson for every Christian preacher and teacher. Encourage

1. The penitent sinner.

2. The young believer.

3. The welltried saint.Adapted from J. W. Macdonald.

COMING NEAR YET FALLING SHORT.Deu. 1:41-46

Israel had left Egypt, endured toil and privation in the wilderness, and were now on the threshold of the inheritance, but failed in duty, and were driven back into the desert to weep in vain. Their opportunity was lost, and their daring presumption ended in sad disgrace. We have here

I. Confession without true penitence. We have sinned against the Lord. Their sorrow was not sincere. It arose not from a sense of guilt, but from the difficulties and dangers into which they were involved. The grief of Judas not of Peter. There may be confession of folly without true penitence; resolution to amend without renewal of heart. Repentance often comes too late, and avails nothing in the sight of God.

II. Presumption in the garb of zeal. Grieved at the prospect before them, yet still rebellious and self-willed, they determine to go up and fight, according to all that the Lord our God commanded us. What professed regard to God, when all the time they acted with levity. They presumed to go up (Num. 14:44). Their zeal sprang from a wrong feeling, was based on a wrong principle, and led to disastrous results. They have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.

III. Effort without Divine help. In spite of warning, and in direct opposition to Gods command they went up, but were driven before the enemy, who chased and slew them with the ferocity of furious bees disturbed in the hive. Rashness is not reliance upon God. All undertakings in defiance of Gods willall efforts without Gods help will fail. Every godless endeavour, every opposition to His authority, will bring displeasure upon those who persist. Those who run without being sent, those who fight without Divine commission will meet with awful defeat. Beware, lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.

HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS

Deu. 1:19-21. The way to rest.

1. Through the wilderness, in trial, affliction, and discipline, reminding of Gods goodness and human ingratitude. (a). Courageously travelled. (b). Under Divine guidance.

2. By Divine command. God teaches, leads, and helps. God commanded us.

Deu. 1:29-31. The confidence of faith.

1. Based on past experience. (a). Of Gods help. According to all that He did for you in Egypt. (b). Of Gods goodness. The Lord thy God bare thee.

2. Assured of safety for the future. Dread not, neither be afraid.

Deu. 1:32-33. God a Pioneer, going before us in life.

1. To appoint a locality for residence. As he searched out the land of Canaan, so now He fixes the bounds of habitation Acts (Act. 17:26).

2. To appoint a place of usefulness. I have chosen you and ordained you (lit. put you, set you in your sphere). Joh. 15:16.

3. To arrange events in life. Hath determined the times before appointed (arranged beforehand). Act. 17:26.

Deu. 1:34-38. The faithful two.

1. Distinguished in their conduct. Faithful, fearless, and Godlike. Caleb followed the Lord wholly (cf. Num. 14:24). Joshua firm and true amid general defection. We must, in a course of obedience to Gods will, and of service to His honour, says Matthew Henry, follow Him universally, without dividing; uprightly, without dissembling; cheerfully, without disputing; and constantly, without declining; and this is following the Lord fully.

2. Distinguished in their rewards. Caleb in the ranks of the people was spared to enter the land which his seed possessed (cf. Num. 14:2). Joshua, a servant of Moses, was chosen to succeed him and lead Israel into Canaan. Many are called, but few chosen.

Deu. 1:39. Little ones cared for.

1. Delivered from anticipated evils. Which ye said should be a prey.
2. Rewarded with unexpected good. They shall go in thither.

Deu. 1:40-42. The battle is the Lords

1. Then do not fight without his presence. If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.
2. Do not enlist without his call. Lo, we be here and will go up; but God had not called them there. God had said, go not up, neither fight, for I am not among you.
3. To rush into any undertaking without God will end in defeat. Presumption is not faith, resistance to God is open defiance of His providence and will. Woe unto him that striveth with his maker.

ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 1

Deu. 1:41. We have sinned. See how the works of darkness must needs come to light. God will have sinners to be their own detectors. The inward evidence of guilty conscience shall not suffice; their tongue shall tell it out, and, ex ore tuo, their own mouths shall sentence them. (Dr. Richard Clerke.) Presumption.We will go up. For a creature to oppose is for briars and thorns to do battle against fire. Pharaoh never appeared nearer his object than when he met with destruction.Robinson.

Deu. 1:43. Rebelled. Sin against God, as He is Almighty, is the excess of madness and folly; but as He is most kind and merciful, it is the basest ingratitude. The greater His goodness, the greater is our guilt if we be undutiful servants, and the greater will be our punishment.Jortin.

Deu. 1:46. Abode many days. All attempts to urge men forward, even in the right path, beyond the measure of their light, are impracticable, and unlawful if they were practicable; augment their light, conciliate their affections, and they will follow of their own accord.Robert Hall.

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

LESSON ONE Deu. 1:1-46

I. THE FIRST DISCOURSE

Review of the Journeys (Deu. 1:1 to Deu. 4:43)

INTRODUCTION Deu. 1:1-5

Deu. 1:1 These are the words which Moses spake unto all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah over against Suph, between Paran and Tophel, and Paban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab. 2 It is eleven days journey[4] from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadesh-barnea. 3 And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that Jehovah had given him in commandment unto them; 4 after he had smitten Sihon the King of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who dwelt in Ashtaroth, at Edrei. 5 Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law, saying,

[4] In the American Standard Version, used throughout this volume unless otherwise indicated, italicized words in the scripture text are meant to convey thoughts which seem necessary for a clear translation but not actually in the original.

THOUGHT QUESTIONS 1:15

1.

Why was it necessary for Moses to speak to all Israel at this particular time?

2.

Locate on a map the particular place from which this speech was given.

3.

What possible purpose could be served in indicating the distance of eleven days journey?

4.

How could Moses remember all that Jehovah had given him in commandment unto them?

5.

Read Num. 21:21-35 for an understanding of Deu. 1:4.

6.

What is the meaning of the term beyond the Jordan in Deu. 1:5 and Deu. 1:1?

AMPLIFIED TRANSLATION 1:15

These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel, [still] on the [east] side of the Jordan [River] in the wilderness, in the Arabah [that is, the deep valley running north and south from the eastern arm of the Red Sea to beyond the Dead Sea] over near Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.
2 It is [only] eleven days journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea [on Canaans border; yet Israel took forty years to get beyond it].
3 And in the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the Israelites according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment to them,
4 After he had defeated Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and Endrei.

5 Beyond [east of] the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this law, saying,

COMMENT 1:15

Israel, now virtually on the eastern banks of the Jordan after forty years in the wilderness, is to receive final exhortations and solemn injunctions before crossing the river under Joshuas leadership. Moses, their leader up to this hour, is soon to pass from the scene. Thus the exhortations he is about to give constitute his farewell addressand a touching scene it must have been!
The location of Israel is precisely given:

BEYOND THE JORDANa phrase understood only by the context. Deu. 1:5 specifies that in this case it is in the land of Moabi.e., on the east side of the Jordan. More often than not, this is the meaning of the phraseGen. 50:10-11; Jos. 9:10; Num. 22:1eastward, toward the sunrising (Num. 34:15). But at other times the phrase has reference to the west side[Mounts Gerizim and Ebal] are they not beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the sun? (Deu. 11:30). At first it might seem that the standpoint of the writer or speaker would be the chief factor in determining whether beyond refers to the east or west side. But this assumption (while normally true) also has its difficulties, for sometimes beyond the Jordan refers to the same side as the speaker: Deu. 3:8; Jos. 5:1; Jos. 9:1. The solution to this varied use of beyond apparently lies in the correct understanding of the Hebrew preposition (eber), and the flexibility of its translation. After showing that eber may refer to either the same side of the river as the speaker, or the other side, J. W. McGarvey points out: These examples demonstrate that the Hebrew preposition (eber) translated beyond does not, by its own force, locate its object on the opposite side from him who uses is. They demonstrate that the opening words of Deuteronomy, These be the words which Moses spake to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, may have been written by Moses as certainly as by any other writer . . . Again, It is impossible that a Hebrew preposition whose object is sometimes located on the same side of the river with the person who uses it, can be uniformly translated beyond. Yet this is what the revisers of our English version have attempted, For example, they make Moses say in Deu. 3:8, We took at that time out of the hands of the two kings of the Amorites the land that was beyond Jordan from the river Arnon to Mount Hermon, though the land mentioned was not beyond Jordan, but on the same side with Moses. They make Joshua say to the two and a half tribes before they crossed the river, Your wives, your little ones and your cattle shall remain in the land which Moses gave you beyond Jordan, [Jos. 1:14] when it was not beyond, but on the same side of the river with themselves; and they make the author of the Book of Joshua, who unquestionably wrote in the country west of the river, speak of all the kings which were beyond the Jordan westward [Jos. 12:7]. They were not beyond Jordan, but on the same side with himself.

King James translators recognized the ambiguity of this Hebrew preposition, and wisely attempted no uniformity in rendering. They ascertained as best they could from the context, the only source of information in case of ambiguous words, on which side of the river the speaker or writer stood, and translated accordingly. They render it on this side, on the other side, or beyond, as the context requires, and in no instance have they made their renderings contradict the facts . . .

This translation has the opening sentence of Deuteronomy rendered, These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness (Deu. 1:1), and on this side Jordan in the land of Moab (Deu. 1:5 [see also Deu. 3:29]); and thus it locates the writer of the book on the same side of the river with Moses. This is certainly correct if either Moses or one of his contemporaries wrote this preface.[5] The question of editing is taken up later in this volume. For the present, let it be seen that the word beyond (eber) does not, in and of itself, determine the location of the writer or speaker or even the object spoken of.

[5] The Authorship of Deuteronomy, p. 106111.

Here, the context absolutely demands that the writer and speaker be located on the east side of the Jordan. The above understanding of the use of beyond will help unravel several contradictory passages as we progress in our study of Deuteronomy.

IN THE WILDERNESS, IN THE ARABAHThe Arabah is the valley or hollow that includes the Jordan valley and the Dead Sea, and sometimes the depression that extends southward to the Gulf of Aqaba, an arm of the Red Sea. The Jordan valley is sometimes referred to as the Ghor, an Arab name meaning hollow. Its width varies, but at the plains of the Jordan where the river flows into the Salt Sea, it is approximately fourteen miles wide. This wide area is also called the plains of Moab (Deu. 34:1) and the Plain of the valley of Jericho (Deu. 34:3). Our words Arab and Arabian are related to Arabahall being from a root word meaning arid, sterile, dry (Gesenius).

OVER AGAINST SUPH, BETWEEN PARAN, AND TOPHEL, AND LABAN, AND HAZEROTH, AND DIZAHABDeu. 4:46 adds, in the valley over against Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites. Thus the general area of all these locations is known. And they [Israel] journeyed from the mountains of Abarim, and encamped in the Plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho. (Num. 33:48)

It is questionable as to whether Paran should be identified with the wilderness of Paran (Num. 13:26), mount Paran (Deu. 33:2), or considered a town by the same name. Some place named Paran would seem to be referred to in Deu. 1:1; but no trace of such a city has yet been found.I.S.B.E. See also 1Ki. 11:18.

The travelling time from Horeb (Sinai) to Kadesh-barnea, at the southern edge of the promised land, was only eleven days (Deu. 1:2).

OVER AGAINST SUPHthe Authorized Versions reading over against the Red Sea, is regrettable. The word sea is not in the original at all (it occurs later in the Septuagint and Vulgate versions), and they were now farther from the Red Sea than they ever had been! The Hebrew word SUPH should have been left untranslated (as in the American Standard and Revised Standard versions), as it undoubtedly is a city or town in the vicinity of Israels camp. Ptolemy mentions a people named Sophonites that dwelt in Arabia Petraea, and it is possible that they took their name from this city.

IT IS ELEVEN DAYS JOURNEY FROM HOREB BY THE WAY OF MOUNT SEIR UNTO KADESH-BARNEAKadesh is located on the southern edge of the promised land (Num. 13:25-26; Num. 34:4), but it took Israel thirty-eight years to get far beyond it! The Decalogue was given about three months after leaving Egypt (Exo. 19:1) at Sinai. At the foot of this mountain, the tabernacle was reared up in the first month of the second year (Exo. 40:17). When Israel was first numbered in the wilderness (Num. 1:1) they were thirteen months out of Egypt. On the twentieth day of that month, they set forth from the Mount (Num. 10:11-12). But it obviously took them longer than the standard journey-time from Sinai to Kadesh via the Mount Seir road (Num. 10:33; Num. 11:3; Num. 11:19-20; Num. 11:35; Num. 12:16; Num. 13:25-26). It must have taken several months, for in Deu. 2:14 we are told, And the days in which we came from Kadesh-barnea, until we were come over the brook Zered, were thirty and eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were consumed from the midst of the camp, as Jehovah sware unto them. We have, then, approximately a two year period between Egypt and Kadesh. This, added to the thirty-eight between the first visit at Kadesh and the crossing of the Zered river (which flows into the southeastern shore of the Dead Sea) gives us forty years. When we add the time it took Israel to proceed up the east side and conquer the kingdoms of Sihon and Og, we have The fortieth year in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month as the time Moses began our present discourse.

The curse given at Kadesh for Israels failure to obey Gods injunction to lay hold of his promise was, in a sense, retroactive. After the number of days in which ye spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my alienation (Num. 14:34).

But we cannot leave this passage without asking another question: Why does the sacred writer insert this matter of distances and traveling time? It seems obvious, that it is to show how simply and easily Gods chosen people could have entered into the land God had assured them if they would have marched forth with courage and confidence at Kadesh! It was only eleven days from Horeb, by way of Mount Seir,as far as Kadesh-barnea (Rotherdam)but there the discouraging report of the spies (except Joshua and Caleb) caused the congregation to cower and made the heart of the people melt (Joh. 14:8), causing them to cry, wherefore doth Jehovah bring us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be a prey: were it not better for us to return to Egypt? (Num. 14:3). Failure to capitalize upon the promises, opportunities, and privileges God grants to us cannot but have harmful and regrettable resultsboth to us and our children. The comment of C. H. Mackintosh here is excellent: It is only too like ourselves. How slowly we get over the ground! What windings and turnings! How often we have to go back and travel over the same ground again and again! We are slow travelers, because we are slow learners . . . We, like them, are kept back by our unbelief and slowness of heart; but there is far less excuse for us than for them, inasmuch as our privileges are so very much higher. Our God is a faithful and wise as well as a gracious and patient Teacher. He will not permit us to pass cursorily over our lessons. Sometimes, perhaps, we think we have mastered a lesson, and we attempt to move on to another; but our wise Teacher knows better, and He sees the need of deeper ploughing. He will not have us mere theorists or smatterers: He will keep us, if need be, year after year at our scales until we learn to sing.

AND IT CAME TO PASS IN THE FORTIETH YEAR, IN THE ELEVENTH MONTH, ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE MONTH THAT MOSES SPAKE UNTO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, ACCORDING UNTO ALL THAT JEHOVAH HAD GIVEN HIM IN COMMANDMENT UNTO THEMThus the faithful servant of God communicated exactly what God had given him to communicate! Not his own theories or whims, nor his own speculations or fancies. See 1Pe. 1:19-21, Joh. 5:19. He gives it allall that Jehovah had given him. The responsibility of the true servant of God today has not basically changed. Gods wordall of itmust be communicated to his people if they are to be guided and directed aright. . . . the things that are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever (Deu. 29:29)and we must know them and be reminded of them if we are to do all the words of this law.

AFTER HE HAD SMITTEN SIHON THE KING OF THE AMORITES, WHO DWELT IN HESHBON, AND OG THE KING OF BASHAN, WHO DWELT IN ASHTAROTH, AT EDREI (Deu. 1:4)The two main conquests of Israel on the east of the Dead Sea. Well read more about Sihons defeat in Deu. 2:26-37 and a detailed account is also found in Num. 21:21-31. His kingdoms borders were the Arnon river on the south and the Jabbok river on the north. Well read more about Og of Bashan, just north of Sihons kingdom, in Deu. 3:1-17. An account of his defeat is also found in Num. 21:33-35. These kings both dwelt in their capital cities, Heshbon and Ashtaroth, respectively. Ashtaroth is the plural form of Ashtareth, the Canaanite goddess and counterpart of Baal. Thus the place was probably early associated with her worship.

They combined to battle Israel but were defeated at Erdeione of the cities of Og (Deu. 3:10) and not far from Ashtaroth.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(5-1) INTRODUCTION.

(1) These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel.The first two verses and the three that follow form a kind of double introduction to the book, and perhaps more especially to the first portion of it, which ends with Deu. 4:40.

On this side Jordan.Literally, on the other side Jordan from the writers or readers point of view.

In the wilderness.These words define still further the expression which precedes: on the wilderness side of Jordan, or before they crossed the Jordan, while they were still in the wilderness. Strictly speaking, the words in the wilderness cannot be connected with what follows, for the plain described is on neither side of Jordan, but below the southern end of the Dead Sea.

In the plaini.e., the Arbah. Usually the plain of Jordan; here the valley that extends from the lower end of the Dead Sea to the head of the Gulf of Akabah.

Over against the Red Sea.Heb., opposite Sph. In all other places in the Old Testament, when we read of the Red Sea, it is Yam Sph. Here we have Suph only. On these grounds some take it as the name of a place. (Comp. Vaheb in Sphah, Num. 21:14, margin.) But we do not know the place; and as the Jewish paraphrasts and commentators find no difficulty in accepting Suph by itself as the sea, we may take it of the Gulf of Akabah. The plain between Paran and Tophel looks straight down to that gulf.

Between Paran, and Tophel . . .Literally, between Paran, and between Tophel and Laban, &c.: that is, between Paran on the one side, and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab on the other. This is the literal meaning, and it suits the geography so far as the places are yet identified. The small map at p. 239 of Conders Handbook to the Bible shows the desert of Paran stretching northward from Sinai on the left, and on the right, Tophel and Hazeroth (the only other places identified among these five) at the two extremities of a line drawn from the southeast end of the Dead Sea in the direction of Sinai. Tophel is taken as Tufleh, and Hazeroth is Ain Hadra. Laban must be some white place lying between, probably named from the colour of the rocks in its neighbourhood. Dizahab should be nearer Sinai than Hazeroth. The Jewish commentators, from its meaning, gold enough, connected it with the golden calf. And it is not inconceivable that the place where that object of idolatry was burned with fire, and stamped and ground very small, till it was as small as dust, and cast into the brook that descended out of the mount (Deu. 9:21), was called gold enough from the apparent waste of the precious metal that took place there; possibly also because Moses made the children of Israel drink of the water. They had enough of that golden calf before they had done with it. If this view of the geography of this verse be correct, it defines with considerable clearness the line of march from Sinai to Kadesh-barnea. It lies between the mountains on the edge of the wilderness of Paran upon the west, and the Gulf of Akabah on the east, until that gulf is left behind by the traveller going northward. It then enters the desert of Zin, called here the plain, or Arbah. This desert is bounded by ranges of mountains on both sides, and looks down to the Gulf of Akabah. Behind the western range we still have the wilderness of Paran. On the east are the mountains of Edom, which Israel first had on their right in the march to Kadesh-barnea, and then on their left in a later journey, in the last year of the exodus, when they compassed the land of Edom. Tophel lies on the east of this range, just before the route becomes level with the southern end of the Dead Sea.

But the whole of the route between Paran on the left and those other five places on the right belongs to Israels first march from Sinai to Kadesh. It takes them up the desert of Zin, and, so far as these two verses are concerned, it keeps them there.

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

PREVIOUS TEACHINGS CONFIRMED, Deu 1:1-5.

1, 2. These verses form a connexion between this and the preceding books.

These words Moses spake Referring, not to the discourses in this book, but to the laws and regulations heretofore recorded. The names of the localities that are given indicate this; and they are introduced with a special significance. The Jewish interpreters speak of them as being mentioned because they were places where the people had especially sinned against Jehovah. Moses thus reminds them of their rebellious acts, and emphasizes the thought that their long wandering was the result of their own sin.

On this side Jordan The Hebrew expression which is used here is in other places translated beyond Jordan; and it was unquestionably employed as a geographical term for the region east of the Jordan, which in the time of our Saviour was called Perea. The term does not indicate the location of the writer, whether he lived on the east or west side of the river. In this connexion it is equivalent to the expression before they crossed the Jordan.

In the wilderness That region north of the Sinaitic peninsula, extending to the Mediterranean Sea and the mountains of Judah on the north, and from the isthmus of Suez to the Arabah. It bears at the present time the name Badut et Tih, literally signifying the “Desert of the Wandering.”

In the plain The Hebrew word here translated plain is used as a proper name in the Arabah. The broad valley which extends from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Akabah, a distance of about a hundred miles, is now called el Arabah.

Over against the Red sea Rather, over against Sufah. Our version adds, improperly, we think, the word sea. Knobel supposes the pass Sufah is meant. It was probably near Ain el Weibeh, not far from the southern border of Palestine.

Between Paran, and Tophel In Num 10:12, we read: “The children of Israel took their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai, and the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran.” It is generally held that the wilderness of Paran comprised the whole of the desert of et Tih, and that Mount Paran was the southernmost portion of the mountain plateau in the northeast part of it. Paran was associated with remembrances of Jehovah’s manifestations to his people: “He shined forth from Mount Paran.” Deu 33:2. So the prophet Habakkuk, in his sublime ode, Hab 3:3: “God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran.”

Tophel This is identified with the modern Tufileh, located in the mountains of Edom, southeast of the Dead Sea. It is surrounded with groves of fruit trees, which are abundantly watered by numerous fountains. The inhabitants furnish supplies to the caravans. It is thought that this is the place where the Israelites purchased food of the Edomites. Deu 2:29.

Laban Thought to be the same as Libnah. Num 33:20. “It may, perhaps, have been the place referred to in Numbers 16, where the rebellion of the company of Korah occurred.” Keil.

Hazeroth Literally, enclosures. It may be the place mentioned in Num 11:35, where Aaron and Miriam spake against Moses, and where Miriam became leprous. Num 12:10. “We may without difficulty identify Hazeroth with Ain Hudherah, not only in the Semitic orthography of the name, but also in being situated exactly a day’s journey from Erweis el Eberrig.” Desert of the Exodus. Erweis el Eberrig has been identified with Kibroth-hattaavah, or “graves of lust.” Num 11:34.

Dizahab This name means a place of gold. Robinson thought it might be Dahab, a place on a tongue of land on the west coast of the Gulf of Akabah. The sense of the passage is, that what has been narrated in the preceding books Moses spoke to the people before they crossed the Jordan, while they were in the Desert of Wandering, and in the Arabah opposite Sufah, as they journeyed between Paran and Tophel, and when they were at Libnah and at Hazeroth and at Dizahab. The discourses that are to follow were spoken “in the plains of Moab, by Jordan, near Jericho.”

Num 33:48.

Eleven days’ journey from Horeb This parenthetical sentence seems to be introduced to call the mind of the reader to the fact that while Kadesh, on the southern border of the Promised Land, is only eleven days distant from Horeb, the scene of the establishment of the covenant, yet, in the fortieth year, the people, owing to their rebellion, have not yet entered the land. On Horeb see note on Exo 3:1.

Kadesh-barnea See on Num 13:26.

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

Deuteronomy 1 . Preamble, History and Failure.

The Preamble ( Deu 1:1-5 ).

Deuteronomy 1-5 of the chapter set the scene for the whole book. They are carefully constructed so as to form a literary unit. Note the chiastic literary pattern which opens and closes the two sections. ‘These are the words – which Moses spoke to all Israel – in Beyond Jordan — in Beyond Jordan – in the land of Moab began Moses to declare – this instruction.’ (Deu 1:1 a, Deu 1:5). In between we are given the whereabouts of the place in which they were given, the dating of the event, what the event was (the declaration to the children of Israel of all Yahweh’s commands), and the particular historical event that brought it about, the defeat of Og and Bashan and the seizing of their lands. It was this last which was to be their incentive for going forward. They had seen it happen, and partaken in it, and they were to recognise that what Yahweh had done once He could do again.

From this we may learn certain lessons. Firstly that God has everything dated. In His own time will come about His own will. Secondly that while we may sometimes find ourselves ‘in the wilderness’, often a wilderness of our own deserving, as long as we keep going forward in faith we can be sure that the victories that He gives us there will lead us on into greater victories, so that we will be able to possess all that He has for us in the spiritual realm (see Eph 6:10-18). And thirdly that in order to obtain those blessings we must walk in the way of obedience to His will as revealed in His word, in His New Testament (Covenant).

We may analyse these verse as follows:

a ‘The words — which Moses spoke — in Beyond Jordan’ (Deu 1:1 a).

b In the wilderness, in the Arabah over against Suph, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Di-zahab (Deu 1:1 b).

c It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea (Deu 1:2).

c In the eleventh month in the fortieth year, on the first day of the month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel, in accordance with all that Yahweh had given him in commandment to them (Deu 1:3).

b After he had smitten Sihon the king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who dwelt in Ashtaroth, at Edrei (Deu 1:4).

a In Beyond Jordan — began Moses to declare — this instruction (Deu 1:5).

We note that in ‘a’ we have a description which in the parallel is similar but in reverse order stressing that we have here the words of Moses given in Beyond Jordan. In ‘b’ we have a geographical description of where they were safely encamped and in the parallel how they came to be safely encamped there, with geographical descriptions. In ‘c’ the number ‘eleven’ is mentioned and the same occurs in the parallel. They look back on their ‘eleven day’ journey, and in the ‘eleventh’ month they look forward to the future.

Deu 1:1-2

‘ These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel in Beyond Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah over against Suph, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Di-zahab. It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea.’

Note the connection back to Num 36:13. This is a continuation of what he has written before. But these words are looking forward. The purpose of the book is said to be in order to present ‘the words of Moses’ spoken to ‘all Israel’ (compare Exo 18:25; Num 16:34). The phrase ‘All Israel’ is used fairly regularly in this book, and is used throughout the historical books. It simply indicates the nation as one whole including all who have been incorporated within the covenant. ‘All Israel’ are at this stage one people. Its use here may reflect among other things the requirement that Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh maintain their loyalty to the one Israel. They must all be one together.

In the first twenty eight chapters (including Deu 29:1) ‘All Israel’ occurs four times on the lips of Moses and three times in narrative, and is used where a stress is required on the fact that Israel as a whole is involved, and ‘children of Israel’ occurs twice on the lips of Moses and six times in narrative when no such stress is required and the reference is to Israel in general, although it usually also indicates all Israel. In chapters Deu 29:2 to Deu 34:12 ‘All Israel’ occurs once on the lips of Yahweh and five times in narrative, again where there is a stress on the whole of Israel, while ‘children of Israel’ occurs once on the lips of Moses, three times on the lips of Yahweh, three times in the poem in Deuteronomy 32 and five times in narrative. Again it is more general in significance. Sometimes ‘all Israel’ would have been unsuitable, but in other cases either expression could have been used. Both expressions are therefore clearly equally satisfactory to the writer, one stressing Israel (‘thou’) as one whole, the other regularly referring to the whole of Israel (‘ye’) but without quite the same stress on oneness. It was important to recognise that ‘all Israel’ were involved in the covenant. There were to be no exceptions.

The place where this first speech was given is here carefully described in language reminiscent of someone who knew exactly where it was and was at pains to pinpoint it fairly accurately, and yet wishes to stress that all that they have gone through is behind them. It is intended to bring out the excitement of the situation. Here they were after all that has passed, on the very verge of the promised land. They were in ‘Beyond Jordan’, eleven days journey from Sinai, with Paran, Kadesh-barnea and Hazeroth behind them, and the promised land before them. Now, whatever the past, they could begin again.

“Beyond Jordan”. This was a technical description of the land in the Arabah valley through which the Jordan flowed, together with its wider surrounds, (much as we might use Transjordan today, although it is not the same area as Transjordan, being on both sides of the Jordan). It merely signified being ‘in the region around the Jordan’. It could refer to land either side of the Jordan. It does not necessarily signify that the writer was west of Jordan looking east. He could have said to anyone who was with him, ‘we are in Beyond Jordan’ (compare Jos 9:1). See Num 32:19 which refers to ‘Beyond Jordan eastward’, and compare ‘Beyond Jordan westward’ in Jos 5:1; Jos 12:7. See also Jos 9:1 where ‘this side of Jordan’ is strictly ‘Beyond Jordan’ so that the writer is there speaking of them as being in ‘Beyond Jordan’).

The Arabah was the name for the Jordan rift valley in that area, coming down from the Sea of Chinnereth (Galilee), through the Dead Sea valley, and into Seir (Edom). As the area in which the speech took place was not settled, and would not have a specific name recognisable to all, he designates it in terms of places more identifiable and with significance to Israel. Indeed the difficulty in describing precisely where it was comes out in the description. This is in itself an evidence of authenticity. They had entered the Wilderness of Paran from Hazaroth, and if Hazaroth here is to be identified with the Hazaroth in Num 11:35; Num 13:1 with Numbers 26; Num 33:17 it was the last staging post before the wilderness of Paran and Kadesh. So it is saying that all that was behind them. The same may be true of Laban if it is the same as Libnah (Num 33:19). Suph was the closest place to where they were, the nearest local identifiable site. It may have been near the River Arnon but any current identification is speculative. Tophel and Di-zahab are unknown, but were probably to the north. Thus they were between the past and the future. Others have sought to identify all the names with local sites, which is very tentative, but equally possible. Many duplications of names occurred as local peoples gave similar names to places in their localities.

The sites of the different places named cannot be definitely identified by us, as we would in fact expect in view of the nature of the area, although noble attempts have been made, often based on places with similar sounding names. Such identifications are notoriously difficult and always tentative until some more definite evidence is found. There are indeed even now few sites that we can identify with absolute certainty. It is a rare thing to find the name of a city written down on something at the site as at Gibeon. They would, however, have been identifiable to those who had recently traversed the area. They were thus identifiable at the time. The mention of such unknown places confirms that Deuteronomy is very ancient.

“It is eleven days” journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea.’ Horeb is the area around Sinai which included where Israel encamped. (There is no mention of a Mount Horeb in Deuteronomy – it is only in fact found in the Pentateuch in Exo 33:6 where it could be any local mountain). The ‘way of Mount Seir’ was clearly an identifiable ‘highway’ which led through the wilderness, a rough wilderness track used by caravans and travellers. Kadesh-barnea was a large oasis (or group of oases) in the Negeb south of Canaan, which they visited twice in their wandering and stayed at for some time. ‘Eleven days’ is a specific description which indicates exactness (unlike, say, ‘seven days’ or ‘forty days’ which could simply indicate a general period of time), and it is actually accurate. Whoever wrote this knew how long it took. He had travelled that way. It is an unusual enough number to demonstrate that it was not an invention. An inventor would have used a round number.

The indication of the length of journey from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea of eleven days, contrasts strongly with the fact that it was now the fortieth year and they were still not yet in the land. What then had caused the delay? The reason for it will shortly be brought out.

Deu 1:3-4

‘ And it came about in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel, in accordance with all that Yahweh had given him in commandment to them, after he had smitten Sihon the king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who dwelt in Ashtaroth, at Edrei.’

The time of this first speech, going up to Deu 4:40, is precisely dated. Such dating was common in ancient records long before the time of Moses, and its form bears comparison with other ancient records, Egyptian and otherwise. It was seemingly thirty nine years and ten months after the original Passover (on the fourteenth day of the first month). The necessary ‘forty years’ had passed (Num 14:33-34). His final purpose was to summarise all the historical events which had revealed Yahweh’s overlordship, to call them to response, and then to outline all the commandments that Yahweh had given them, but this would necessarily involve abbreviation, and not covering all the detail. Thus is the One Who is making this covenant with them introduced. It is Yahweh Who speaks.

This took place after the defeat of Sihon and Og, kings of the Amorites (Num 21:21-35). The defeat of those kings, which would eventually lead to the possessing of their land, brought home to Israel that the dream was now becoming a reality. They had achieved their first victories in the process of possessing the land, and their hearts were lifted high. Unlike their fathers they were going forth in belief and obedience.

Heshbon was the royal city of the Amorites in the area (Num 21:25-26). It has not yet been clearly identified. It became a levitical city (Jos 21:39). It was restored by Reuben (Num 32:37), came into the possession of Gad, and then was later in the times of Isaiah and Jeremiah taken by Moab, before again being captured by Israel. Ashtaroth was a city probably connected with the worship of the goddess Asherah and dating back to the third millennium BC, and was the royal city of Og in Bashan. It was mentioned in Egyptian inscriptions, the Amarna letters and in Assyrian inscriptions. The city was again taken by Joshua (Jos 12:4) but not retained (Jos 13:12) although it later became a levitical city (Jos 21:27), for the conquest was not a straightforward process. The original inhabitants did not just give up. They fled and came back, and had to be driven out again. For Edrei (probably modern Der‘ah) see Deu 3:1; Num 21:33; Jos 12:4; Jos 13:12; Jos 13:21.

Deu 1:5

‘ In Beyond Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare (expound, make clear) this instruction (torah – law), saying,’

This verse basically recapitulates Deu 1:1 in reverse and stresses that his speeches took place in the region of Beyond Jordan, on the very verge of the promised land, ‘in the land of Moab’, a general designation of the area. The ‘land of Moab’ was not just the area occupied by Moab. Sihon had seized part of the land of Moab, and Moab still saw it as theirs centuries later (see Jdg 11:13-26).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Introduction to Moses’ Speeches Deu 1:1-2 contains introductory remarks to Moses’ speeches to the children of Israel that are collected in the book of Deuteronomy. Biblical scholars are widely divided as to whether the opening verses of Deuteronomy serve as a part of Moses first speech, or if they provide introductory remarks for this collection of speeches. Those who see these verses as an introduction are widely disagreed as to how many verses make up the introductory remarks. There is general agreement that this introduction does not extend past the fifth verse, so that Deu 1:6 is a part of Moses first speech. I choose to limit the introduction to Deuteronomy to the first two verses because Deu 1:3 begins with “and it came to pass,” ( ) a traditional phrase that begins an Old Testament narrative pericope.

Deu 1:1  These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red sea, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab.

Deu 1:1 “These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel” – Comments “These be the words” – The first verse of Deuteronomy explains the content of the book, which is a collection of speeches of Moses before his death. The opening words ( ) mean, “these words,” or “these speeches.” Many scholars view the book of Deuteronomy is a collection of three major speeches and an epilogue containing a song of Moses.

“These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel” Throughout the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, the Lord speaks to the children of Israel through Moses. Thus, the biblical text reads, “And Moses said, Thus saith the LORD” This is because the Lord was speaking to Moses in an audible voice (Num 12:6-8), and Moses was telling the people what the Lord spoke to him. However, in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses is speaking prophetically by inspiration of the Holy Spirit as he “expounded” the Law to the people (Deu 1:5). [16] These represent two different levels of anointing in the life of Moses.

[16] C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, vol. 3, trans. James Martin, in Clarke’s Foreign Theological Library, 4 th series, vol. 6 (Edinburg: T. & T. Clark, 1871), 270.

Num 12:6-8, “And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold:”

Deu 1:1 “on this side Jordan in the wilderness” Comments – The Pentateuch refers to the location of Israel’s encampment east of the Jordan River prior to entering the Promised Land (Num 36:13, Deu 1:5; Deu 3:29; Deu 4:45-46).

Num 36:13, “These are the commandments and the judgments, which the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses unto the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho .”

Deu 1:5, “On this side Jordan, in the land of Moab , began Moses to declare this law, saying,”

Deu 3:29, “So we abode in the valley over against Bethpeor.”

Deu 4:45-46, “These are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which Moses spake unto the children of Israel, after they came forth out of Egypt, On this side Jordan , in the valley over against Bethpeor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel smote, after they were come forth out of Egypt:”

Deu 1:1 Comments A number of scholars note how the opening and closing verses of the book of Deuteronomy form an inclusion. [17] The opening and closing verses are similar in that Deu 1:1 mentions the words of Moses that he spoke to all Israel, while Deu 34:10-12 describes the mighty deeds that Moses performed in the sight of all Israel. [18] Thus, the book of Deuteronomy characterizes Moses as a mighty preacher through whom God wrought signs and wonder.

[17] David MacLeon says, “An inclusio marks off a literary unit by using the same word or phrase at the end of a discussion that was used at the beginning.” See David J. MacLeod, “The Literary Structure of Hebrews,” Bibliotheca Sacra 146:582 (April 1989): 185-197, in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004), 188.

[18] Duane L. Christensen, Deuteronomy 1:1 21:9, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol. 6a, second edition, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 3.0b [CD-ROM]. Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2004, notes on Deuteronomy 1:1.

Deu 1:2  (There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadeshbarnea.)

Deu 1:2 Comments – It is very possible that Deu 1:2 is an editing note added during the time that the Pentateuch was compiled by someone like Joshua, or perhaps it was added during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah when the entire Old Testament was compiled. At that time the ancient names of these places was long forgotten, or changed, so that the readers needed a little help in understanding what they were reading. Such ancient “redaction” is considered by modern conservative scholars to be as much a part of the inspired biblical text as the original words spoken and written by Moses. [19] In other words, this is the text that we have been given today as the inspired Word of God, regardless of how it came to its final form.

[19] John Sailhamer writes, “Others might argue that the community of faith in the church, accepted the canonical version of the scriptural text and events and thus we as Christians are committed to that decision.” He believes that these early witnesses to “the canonical version of the text or events should have priority” over modern “critical methods” that attempt to reconstruct an earlier version of the Scriptures. See John H. Sailhamer, Introduction to Old Testament Theology (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, c1995), 113.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Introduction

v. 1. These be the words, the addresses, which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the semiarid steppes, in the plain over against the Red Sea, after whose passage they had entered into the wilderness, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab. The stations of the desert were just barely behind the children of Israel, and the impression of the wilderness still prevailed. The geographic reference at this point recalls the entire journey and offers a picture of the entire country traversed, as it extended from the Red Sea to the northern boundary of the Wilderness of Paran, and from there to the western boundary of Edom and MoabitIsaiah

v. 2. (There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb, or Sinai, where the Law was given, by the way of Mount Seir, along its foothills and leading to its highest elevation, unto Kadesh-barnea, and so long it had taken the people upon their first trip. )

v. 3. And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel according unto all that the Lord had given him in commandment unto them, in agreement with all the precepts and ordinances which had been given to him during all the years of the desert journey;

v. 4. after he had slain Sihon, the king of the Amorites, which dwelt in Heshbon, and Og, the king of Bashan, which dwelt at Astaroth (and) in Edrei, the two names either being those of his capital cities, or Edrei was located in the fertile region of Ashtaroth. It was at this time, when the defeat of the two mightiest kings east of the Jordan served as a guarantee to the children of Israel for the further fulfillment of God’s promises, that Moses received the command to address the children of Israel in the manner recorded in this book.

v. 5. On this side Jordan, in the land of Moab, for the plains where Israel was encamped were originally a part of Moabitis, began Moses to declare, to expound, this Law, saying,

v. 6. The Lord, our God, spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount, namely, from the third month of the first year after the exodus to the twentieth day of the second month of the second year.

v. 7. Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, the mountainous country inhabited by the Amorites, a description of the land of Canaan in the narrower sense, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, literally, “to all the near neighbors” (for the inhabitants of the entire country are meant), in the plain, especially toward the southeast and east, along the Jordan and the Dead Sea, in the hills, both of what was later Judea and Galilee, and in the vale, the plains toward the Mediterranean Sea, especially that of Sharon, and in the south, the semiarid steppes of Southern Judea, and by the sea side, the lowlands immediately bordering upon the Mediterranean, to the land of the Canaanites, for all these parts were included in the general description of the land, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates, since it was the original intention of the Lord to include all this country within the limits of the Land of Promise. In reality, it was only during the time of David and Solomon that the boundaries of Israel’s territory reached from the head of the Elanitic Gulf and the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates.

v. 8. Behold, I have set the land before you, it was Jehovah’s gift to them and its possession therefore should be certain and easy; go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them. Gen 22:16.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

TITLE AND INTRODUCTION Deu 1:1-5.

EXPOSITION

Deu 1:1-5

In these verses we have the inscription and general introduction to the book, announcing the contents of the book, the author of it, the parties whom he addressed, and the time and place of his addresses.

Deu 1:1

These be the words. Some would render here “Such are the words,” and understand the expression as referring to the preceding books. But it seems more natural to refer it to what followsto the addresses in this book. The pronoun these () may be used with a prospective reference, as well as with a retrospective (cf. e.g. Gen 2:4; Gen 6:9). The author does not by this connect this book with the preceding, but rather distinguishes it. The subscription to Numbers (Num 36:13) indicates that what precedes is occupied chiefly with what God spake to Moses; the inscription here intimates that what follows is what Moses spake to the people. This is the characteristic of Deuteronomy. Unto all Israel. It cannot be supposed that Moses spoke to the whole multitude of the people so as to be heard by them. Hence the Jewish interpreters say that he spoke to the elders of the people, who carried his words to the people at large. This is just; for what was thus mediately communicated to the people might be fairly described as spoken to them; and we find from other passages in the Pentateuch that the phrase, “the elders of Israel,” in the mind of the writer, was equivalent to “the congregation of Israel” (comp. e.g. Exo 12:3 with Exo 12:21; Le Exo 9:1 with Exo 9:5). But through whatever medium conveyed, it was to the people that these words were addressed; this is emphatically a book for the people. On this side Jordan. This should be On the other side or beyond Jordan, and so also in verse 5, as in Deu 3:20, Deu 3:25. The word here used () means properly something beyond, over, or across, and indicates that which, to the speaker, lies on the other side of some line or limit. When coupled with “the Jordan,” it usually indicates the region to the east of that river; only in one or two instances, where the speaker takes his standpoint on the east of the river, does it designate the regions to the west of Jordan (Deu 3:25; Deu 11:30) The phrase “beyond Jordan” seems to have been the established designation of the region east of the Jordan (cf. Ezr 4:10, and Canon Rawlinson’s note there). It is this, unquestionably, which is here so designated, as what follows expressly shows. The wilderness. This term is used of any extensive district not occupied by inhabitants or subjected to culture; hence of vast prairies or pasturelands, as well as of places properly desert and desolate. It here denotes the grassy plains or downs on the east and southeast of the Jordan, in the land of Moab (Deu 3:5). In the plain; in the Arabah. This is properly the whole of that remarkable depression which stretches from the source of the Jordan on to Akabah, or the Ailanitic Gulf; but here it is only that part of it which extends from the south end of the Dead Sea to Allah (Deu 2:8). This part still bears the name of the ‘Arabah, the northern part being known as the Ghor. Over against the Red sea. The name by which the Red Sea is elsewhere designated is Yam-suph (); here only the latter word occurs, and this has led some to doubt if the Red Sea be here intended. Patrick, Rosenmller, and others suggest that Suph denotes some place in that region, probably Suphah, so called because lying at its extremity, as the verb suph, from which it comes, means, to come to an end; but it is not certain that Suphah designates a place in Num 21:14. The Hebrew word means a tempest or whirlwind; and this meaning may be assumed here, as it is by Gesenius, Keil, and others: “Waheb [he conquered] in a storm.” Knobel suggests that probably the pass now called Es Sufah, on the north side of the Wady Murrehthe Maleh-acrabbim (Scorpion-ascent) of Jos 15:3is meant; others have suggested Zephath (Jdg 1:17; comp. Num 14:45), and others Zuph (1Sa 9:5). It is probable, however, that Suph is here merely a breviloquence for Yam-suph, the Red Sea; and so all the ancient versions take it. The identification of the Yam-suph of the Old Testament with the of the Greeks, the mare erythraeum, or rubrum, of the Latins, is due to the LXX; which other versions have followed. The identification is undoubtedly correct (cf. Num 33:10 and 1Ki 9:26). Yam-suph, indeed, means simply sea of weeds, and might be the name of any sea in which algae are found; but these passages clearly prove that by this the Hebrews designated the Red Sea. At what part of this sea the Israelites crossed, and the hosts of Pharaoh were submerged, is and must remain uncertain, because we know not what was the condition of the Isthmus of Suez at the time of the Exodus. It is probable it was not at any part of what is now known as the Red Sea or Gulf of Suez. Brugsch Bey places it at that

“Serbonian bog
Betwixt Damiata and mount Casius old,
Where armies whole have sunk.”

(Milton, ‘Paradise Lost,’Bk. 2:592.)

But this has not been accepted by scholars generally. It seems probable that originally only a marshy district lay between the Gulf of Suez and the Mediterranean; and somewhere in this probably the passage of the Israelites and the drowning of the Egyptians occurred. Between Paran, and Tophel, etc. This serves more fully and particularly to indicate the locality here intended; but the details present considerable difficulty. Taken in connection with the words “over against the lied sea,” the names here given can only be regarded as intended more precisely to indicate the region in which the Israelites had been during the forty years of their wandering. Paran: this is the name of the wilderness bordering on Idumea, where the Israelites encamped (Num 10:12; Num 12:16); the place of their encampment being Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin (Num 13:21, Num 13:26), which was the eastern part of the wilderness of Paran. hod. Wady Murreh. The wilderness of Paran corresponds in general outline with the desert of Et-Tih. This is a vast plateau of irregular surface stretching from the Et-Tih range northwards to the boundaries of the Holy Land, and from the Gulf of Akabah and the Wady cf. Arabah on the east to the Gulf of Suez and the Mediterranean on the west. It is described as “a chalky formation, the chalk being covered with coarse gravel, mixed with black flints and drifting sand;” not, however, wholly sterile: in many parts vegetation abounds, considerable portions are under cultivation, and there are evidences that it one time water was abundant there. It is not, however, to the wilderness of Paran that the reference is in the text, but to some definite locality or spot in the region in which the Israelites then were, or which they had recently passed through. It has been suggested that the place now called Feiran, and where there are the ruins of a town, once of some importance in the early history of Christianity, is the Paran of this passage, as it apparently is the Paran of I Kings Jos 11:18. But this locality at the base of Jebel Serbail is much too far west to be the Paran here referred to. More probable is the suggestion that it is the Faran mentioned by Eusebius and Jerome (‘Onomast.,’ s.v. ), a city to the cast (northeast) of Allah or Elath, about three days’ journey. Tophel: this name occurs only here; it is supposed to be the place now coiled Tufailah or Tafyleh, a large village of six hundred inhabitants, between Bozrah and Kerak, on the eastern slope of the mountains of Edom. As this is a place where the Syrian caravans are supplied with provisions, it has been conjectured that the Israelites, when at Oboth (Num 21:10, Num 21:11), may have resorted to it for a supply, and that it was here that they purchased meat and drink from the children of Esau (Deu 2:29). And Laban. Laban is generally identified with Libnah, the second place of encampment of the Israelites on their return from Kadesh (Num 33:20, Num 33:21). Knobel, however, thinks it is the place called by Ptolemy ‘, lying between Petra and Allah; this name, from the Arabic, see Arabic word, (he was white), having the same meaning as the Hebrew . Hazeroth is supposed to be the place mentioned in Num 11:35; Num 12:16, from which the Israelites entered the wilderness of Paran; but as the other places here mentioned are on the east side of the Arabah, it is not probable that this Hazeroth is the same as that of Numbers, which must have been not far from Sinai, in a northerly or north-westerly direction from that mountain, probably at or near to the fountain now called El Hudherah (Wilson, ‘Lands of the Bible,’ 1.235; Kitto, ‘Cyclopedia,’ 2.243). There were probably several places bearing the name of Hazeroth, i.e. villages. Dizahab. This is generally identified with Dhahab, a place on a tongue of land in the Gulf of Akabah. But it is extremely improbable that the Israelites ever were at this place, the approach to which is exceedingly difficult; and the mere resemblance of the names Dizahab and Dhahab is not sufficient to prove the identity of the places. There were probably more places than one which were named from zahab (gold) in the region traversed by the Israelites. There is a Dhahab on the east of the Jordan near the Zerka or Jabbok, a double mound, which is said to derive its name from the yellowish color of the sandstone rock of which it consists, and which is metalliferous. In the Arabic of the Polyglot, Dizahab appears as Dhi-dhahab, which signifies “auro praeditum vel ab auro dictum; nam vel , apud Arabes in compositione nominum propr. idem est ac Hebrews ” (J. H. Michaelis). There is a various reading here, Di-waheb, and this has been supposed to connect this place with the Waheb of Num 21:14. But, as above noted, it is by no means certain that Waheb is there the name of a place; it may, as Bishop Patrick suggests, be that of a man, some hero or chief, who was conquered in Sufah or in a storm. Waheb is a name among the Arabs. The maternal grandfather of Me-hammed had this name; and the sect of the Wahabees take their name from Abdul Wahab, a fanatic who appeared about the beginning of last century. The words “between Paran and Tophel” have been taken to indicate’ the termini of the wanderings; at the commencement of these the people were at Paran, and towards the close of them they were at Tophel. ‘”Looking from the steppes of Moab over the ground that the Israelites had traversed, Suph, where they first entered the desert of Arabia, would lie between Paran where the congregation arrived at the borders of Canaan toward the west, and Tophel where they first ended their desert wanderings thirty-seven years later on the east” (Keil). But this assumes that Paran here is the wilderness of Paran.

Deu 1:2

Horeb. The name generally given to Sinai in Deuteronomy (see introduction, 4). Sinai, however, occurs in Deu 33:2 of this book. By the way of mount Seir, i.e. by the way that leads to Mount Seir; just as in Deu 2:1, “the way of the Red sea” is the way that leads to that sea (see also Num 14:25). Mount is here, as often elsewhere, for mountain range. The mountain range here referred to seems to have been, not that on the east of the ‘Arabah, but what is in Deu 2:6 and Deu 2:19 called “the mountain of the Amorites,” “the Seir by Hormah” of verse 44, i e. the southern part of what was afterwards called the mountains of Judah. According to Deu 2:19, the Israelites, when they left Horeb, passed through the wilderness along the way that led to the mountains of the Amorites, and came to Kadesh-barnea. Kadesh must, therefore, be looked for, not on the eastern side of the ‘Arabah, but somewhere in the wilderness of Zin. It has been identified with the place now known as ‘Ain Kudes, near the northern extremity of Jebel Halal, and to the east of that hill; but this is far from being certain. Moses reminds the Israelites that the distance between Horeb and Kadesh is eleven daysi.e; about one hundred and sixty-five miles, the day’s journey being reckoned at fifteen milesnot to give them a piece of information, but rather to suggest to them how, in consequence of rebellion, a journey which might have been so easily accomplished, had been protracted through many wearisome years.

Deu 1:3, Deu 1:4

Here is intimated the time when the following addresses were delivered to the people. It was on the first day of the eleventh month in the fortieth year; therefore near the end of their wanderings, and towards the close of the lawgiver’s own career. He could thus speak to them according unto all that the Lord had given him in commandment unto them, i.e. in accordance with the legislative contents of the preceding books (comp. Deu 4:5 23; Deu 5:28-33; Deu 6:1). It was also after the destruction of Sihon and ‘Og (Num 21:21-35). This also is significant. By the destruction of these kings, who sought to bar the access of the Israelites to the Promised Land, God had given proof that he would indeed fulfill his promise to his people, and had at once laid them under obligations to obedience, and given them encouragement to go forward on the course to which he had called them. The “he” here is Moses, who, at the command of God, had led the Israelites against Sihon and ‘Og. Edrei, hod Draa (Num 21:33) was the second capital of ‘Og; he “reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei” (Jos 13:12). Here, however, it denotes the place where he was slain in battle, and the words “in Edrei” are to be referred to the verb “smote” and not to “dwelt” (cf. Deu 3:1 : Num 21:33).

Deu 1:5

The locality is again described as beyond Jordan (see on Deu 1:1), and in the land of Moab. This designates the region elsewhere called Arboth Moabthe Plains of Moab (Num 22:1; Deu 34:1, etc.), the region on the east of the Jordan, opposite to Jericho, now known as the region of Kerak. Began; rather set himself to. The Hebrew word signifies to undertake, to betake one’s self to, and so to begin It is variously rendered in the Authorized Version (comp. Gen 18:27, “taken it upon me;” Exo 2:21, “was content,” had made up his mind; 1Sa 12:22, “it pleased;” 1Sa 17:39,”assayed,” etc.). To declare, i.e. make clear, explain, expound (Hab 2:2, “make plain “). The Hebrew word here used () signifies primarily to cut or dig, then to cut into, to grave, and then to cut or dig out so as to make evident, to declare, to make plain. What Moses set himself to do, then, was not to publish a new law, but to make plain to the people the Law already promulgated, to set forth clearly and pointedly what they were required by the Law to be and to do. This explains more fully the “spake” () of Deu 1:3. This exposition of the Law was designed specially for the sake of those who, at the time the Law was first promulgated, either were not born or were incapable of understanding it (Grotius). The expression used by Moses plainly indicates that this book was not intended to furnish a second code of laws different from the former, but simply to explain and enforce what had before been enjoined.

PART IINTRODUCTORY ADDRESS De 1:6De 4:40.

Deu 1:6

With this verse begins Moses’ first address to the people, which extends to the end of Deu 4:1-49. It is of an introductory character, and is occupied chiefly with a retrospective survey of the events that had occurred during the forty years of their wanderings. By this Moses reminded the people how God had fulfilled his promises to them, and at the same time, how they had by their rebellion drawn down on them his displeasure, which had caused their wanderings to be so much more protracted than they would otherwise have been.

Deu 1:6-8

The Lord’s command to depart from Horeb, and his promise to the people.

Deu 1:6

The Lord our GodJehovah our God. The use of this epithet implies the covenant union of Israel with Jehovah, and presupposes the existence of that covenant which was entered into at Sinai. In Horeb. This was the starting-point, so to speak, of Israel’s being as the special people of Godhis segullah (, Exo 19:5), his special treasure. There he made himself known to them as Jehovah, the Eternal and Unchangeable, and entered into covenant with them; and there they received that Law, on the keeping of which depended their retention of the privileges to which they had been elected. At Horeb the Israelites had remained for about a year (comp. Exo 19:1 and Num 10:11, Num 10:12), and as the purpose for which they had been brought thither was answered, they were enjoined to move, not indeed by express command, but by the rising of the cloud from over the tabernacle, which was the signal of their march (Num 9:15, etc.; Num 10:11-13), preceded by the instructions they had received preparatory to their removal (Numbers 50:4-7). Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount. The Israelites remained at Sinai from the third month of the first year to the twentieth day of the second year after they came out of Egypt (cf. Exo 19:1 and Num 10:11).

Deu 1:7

Go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all that dwell thereon; literally, its dwellers or inhabitants (). The mountain range of the Amorites, afterwards called the hill country of Judah and Ephraim, was the object which would first strike the view of one advancing from the south; and so, it stands here for the whole land of Canaan, with which it is in this context identified. Those “that dwell thereon” are the inhabitants of the whole of Canaan. The Amorites (Hebrew Emori, so called from Amor, or Emor) oftener than once appear as standing for the Canaanites generally (cf. Gen 15:16; Deu 1:20, Deu 1:21, etc.). That all the inhabitants of Canaan are intended here is evident from the specification of the different districts of the land of Canaan which immediately follows. In the plain: the ‘Arabah (see Deu 1:1). In the hills: the hill country of Judah (Num 13:17). In the vale: the shephelah, or lowland, the country lying between the mountain range of Judah and the Mediterranean Sea, and stretching northwards from the parallel of Gaza to that of Carmel. In the south: the negeb, or southland (literally, dryness), the district which formed the transition from the desert to the cultivated land, extending from the south of the Dead Sea westwards to Gaza, a vast steppe or prairie, for the most part pasture land. The seashore: the narrow strip of land on the coast of the Mediterranean from Joppa to Tyre (in the New Testament, “the coast of Tyre and Sidon,” Luk 6:17). The land of the Canaanites: the whole country of which these were the separate parts. And unto Lebanon: the Whale Mountain, so called, probably, from the snow which rests on its summit. The great river, the river Euphrates. The Phrath, or Euphrates, which has its sources in the mountains of Armenia, and in its course divides Armenia from Cappadocia, formed the eastern limit of the territory promised by God to Abraham. The epithet “great” seems to have been commonly applied to it. Callimachus calls it ‘ , and Lucan has-

“Quaque caput rapido tollit cum Tigride magnus Euphrates.”

(‘Phars.,’ 3:256.)

As by much the most considerable river of western Asia, the Euphrates was known as “the river” par excellence (cf. Exo 23:31; Isa 8:7; Jer 2:18; Psa 72:8). The mention of Lebanon and the Euphrates is not, as Keil suggests, “to be attributed to the rhetorical fullness of the style;” but is due to the fact that these were included in what God promised to Abraham and his seed (Gen 15:18; Exo 23:31; Deu 11:24).

Deu 1:8

Behold, I have set the land before you: literally, have given the land before you, i.e. have made it over to you, that you may go and take possession of it. The Lord had placed this land in the power of the Israelites, had given it up to them to possess and use it, according as he had sworn to their fathers, the patriarchs, to give it to them and their seed (comp. Gen 12:7; Gen 13:15; Gen 15:18, etc.; Gen 22:16). At Horeb, therefore, they received the charter of their inheritance, and might have gone on at once to take possession of the land. The delay that had occurred had arisen solely from their own waywardness and perversity, not from anything on the part of God.

Deu 1:9-18

Moses reminds them that he had done all that was required on his part to conduct the people to the enjoyment of what God had freely given to them. The people had so increased in number that Moses found himself unable to attend to all the matters that concerned them, or to adjudicate in all the differences that arose among them. God had brought to pass that which he had promised to Abraham (Gen 15:5), that his seed should be as the stars of heaven for multitude; in this Moses rejoiced, nay, he would even that their numbers were, with the Divine blessing, increased a thousandfold beyond what they were. But he found the burden, the weight of care and trouble, especially in connection with their strifes and suits thereby brought on him, too much for him; and, therefore, whilst they were still at Horeb, he had, following the advice of Jethro, his father-in-law, counseled them to select competent men from among themselves, who should relieve him by attending to those duties which he found it too burdensome for him to have to attend to (cf. Exo 18:13, etc.). This appointment of captains was quite distinct from that of the elders whom God directed Moses to select that they might assist him in bearing the burden of the people (Num 11:10, etc.). The occasion of the appointment was the same in both cases, viz. the complaint of Moses that the task was too onerous for him, but the time, the place, and the manner of the two transactions were different.

Deu 1:9

I spake unto you at that time. The somewhat indefinite phrase, “at that time” (comp. Gen 38:1), does not refer to the time after the people departed from Horeb, but to the time generally when they were in that region (see Exo 18:5, Exo 18:13). “The imperfect (, I spake), with vaw rel. expresses the order of thought and not of time” (Keil). It is not mentioned in Exodus that Moses spake to the people, as here stated, but what Jethro said to him to this effect is recorded; and as Moses proceeded to put in execution what his father-in-law advised, it is probable that in doing so he told the people what he proposed to do, with his reasons for so doing, and obtained their assent, as here mentioned.

Deu 1:10

Notwithstanding the cruel oppression to which they were subjected in Egypt, the Israelites had so increased in numbers that they went out of the house of their bondage a mighty host. Ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude (cf. Gen 15:5; Gen 22:17). God had promised to Abraham that his seed should be as the stars of heaven for multitude; and Moses here reminds the people that this promise had been fulfilled. This is hardly to be regarded as the utterance of hyperbole. When God gave the premise to Abraham it was to the stars as seen by the patriarch, not as actually existing in the immensity of space, that reference was made; and as the number of stars which can be taken in with the naked eye does not exceed 3000, and as Israel at this time numbered more than 600,000, counting only the adult males (Num 2:32),it might be literally said of them that they had been multiplied as the stars of heaven. The comparison, however, imported nothing more than that their numbers were very great.

Deu 1:11

It was not the vast increase of the people in numbers that distressed Moses, rather was this to him a matter of rejoicing, and his desire was that their increase might become still greater, even a thousandfold. But he felt his own inability, as leader, ruler, and judge, alone to cope with so vast a multitude.

Deu 1:12

Moses appeals to the good sense of the people themselves: How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife? Cumbrance: this is a just rendering of the Hebrew word , from , which, though it occurs only in the Hiphil in Hebrew, in the sense of to cast down (Job 17:11), probably was in use also in the Kal, in the sense of to lay upon, to encumber, which is the meaning of the cognate Arabic, see Arabic word, followed by, see Arabic word. Burden (, from , to lift up, to carry, to bear), something lifted up and carried, a load or burden. Strife: () here, not mere contention, but litigation, suit-at-law. Some understand all these three, of troubles and burdens laid upon Moses, by his being called upon to compose differences, and adjust competing claims among the people. But other burdens besides these came upon him as the leader of the nation; and it seems best, therefore, to understand the first two of troubles and burdens generally.

Deu 1:13

Take you; literally, give to you or for you, i.e. yourselves. The selection was to be made by the people themselves. Jethro, in giving Moses the advice on which he thus acted, described the men who were to be selected as “such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness” (Exo 18:21). Moses here describes them rather by qualities, indicating ability and fitness for such a post as that to which they were to be called; they were to be wise; understanding men, men of discernment and sagacity, as well as intelligence; and known among their tribes, men of good repute in the community (“quorum conversatio sit probata,” Vulgate; comp. Act 6:3; 1Ti 3:7). And I will make them rulers over you; literally, will set them for your heads, i.e. will appoint them to act as superintendents, managers, and judges over you.

Deu 1:14, Deu 1:15

The people approved of the proposal, and acted upon it; and Moses accordingly appointed the persons selected to be chiefs over thousands, and over hundreds, and over fifties, and ever tens (Exo 18:21); he appointed men also to be officers, that is, persons who should preserve order in the tribes, keeping the registers, acting as scribes, to prescribe and to take account of work, and perhaps also attending to fiscal arrangements (, shoterim, a word of general application; cf. Exo 5:6, Exo 5:10, Exo 5:14; Jos 3:2; 2Ch 26:11, etc. LXX. and ). In Exodus, Moses is said to have chosen these functionaries (Exo 18:25); but what many do under the direction of one may be said to be done by him.

Deu 1:16, Deu 1:17

In installing the judges, Moses solemnly charged them to deal impartially, fairly, and equitably with those who might come before them.

Deu 1:16

Hear between your brethren, i.e. hear impartially both parties, and judge righteously between man and man, whether both parties are Israelites, or one of the parties a stranger.

Deu 1:17

Ye shall not respect persons; literally, look at or regard aces, i.e. ye shall not deal partially, favoring the one party rather than the other (comp. Exo 23:2, Exo 23:3; Le Exo 19:15); the small as well as the great were to be heard, and neither for favor nor from fear were they to pervert justice. The judgment is God’s; i.e. appointed by God and administered in his name, the judge acting for God and by his authority, and being answerable to him. Hence the phrases, “to inquire of God,” “to bring before God” (Exo 18:15, Exo 18:19; Exo 21:6; Exo 22:8, etc.) phrases still in use among the Arabs for a summoning to judicial trial. In the case of a matter coming before the judges which they found it beyond their power to decide, they were to bring it before Moses as a superior authority (see Exo 18:26) “Some think there were certain causes reserved to the cognizance of Moses; but the contrary appears by these words, that all manner of causes were brought before the judges; and they, not the people, brought such causes before Moses as they found too hard for them to determine. So that they, not the person whose cause it was, judged of the difficulty of the cause. See Selden, lib. 1. “De Synedriis, cap. 16.” (Bishop Patrick).

HOMILETICS

Deu 1:1-5

The Word of God full of hidden treasure.

We cannot get very far in these preliminary verses ere we are struck with a phrase which is a most suggestive one, and should not be lightly passed over, viz. “On this side Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law,” literally, to dig it, i.e. to go deeply into it, and to turn up again its contents, so that, to all the advantage of a generation of culture, the people might see that there was more meaning, and also more glory in the Law of God than they were able to discern in the first years of their national existence. Observe

I. THERE IS A MINE OF WEALTH IN THE LAW OF GOD. This is the case, even if we thereby intend the Mosaic Law alone. Its theology, its ethics, its directory of religious faith and worship, its civil and political code for the Hebrew commonwealth, are all so pure and elevated, that no account can be given of how any man at that age of the world could have propounded such a system, save that he was taught of God (cf. 2Pe 1:21). (See Homiletics, Deu 5:7-22.) If, moreover, we would see how the devout Hebrews estimated the Law, let us turn to Psa 19:1-14.; Psa 103:7, et seq. Our Savior honored the Law, and maintained it in all its integrity (cf. Mat 5:17, Mat 5:18). He removed the glosses by which it had in his time become disfigured, but he never depreciated it. We are by no means to confound “the Law” with the abstract idea of “law.” See how sharply the Apostle Paul distinguishes between these two in Rom 3:1-31, especially in Rom 3:21, “But now there has been manifested a righteousness of God apart from law, being witnessed by THE Law and the prophets.” The Law given by Moses is based on the gospel (cf. Gal 3:1-29; see also Homiletics, Deu 5:6). If, however, to all that Moses gave, we add all “the grace and the truth” which came in by Jesus Christ, how unsearchably vast is the wealth stored up for us in the “Word of everlasting Truth!”

II. THE EFFORT OF DIGGING INTO THIS MINE WILL BE WELL REPAID. How much difference there is between a man who knows only what men say about the Book, and one who knows the Book for himself] The one may be easily beguiled into the belief that it is so out of date that it is scarcely worth while to study it at all. The other will find it so far ahead of the actual attainments of the wisest and best of men, that he will pity those who dismiss it with but a glance from afar. The continuous, careful, thorough student of the Law of Moses, will be ever discovering a richness in it which will at once astonish and enrapture him. Its harmony with, its historical preparation for, the gospel, will be continually disclosing to him new proofs of its Divine original, that will be worth more to him than any merely “external evidence.” And when the whole Word of God is made the constant study of one whose heart is open to the truth and loyal to God, such a one will find fuller and richer meaning in single words, such as goel, “grace,” “righteousness,” etc; when these words are put to their highest use in Divine revelation, than in whole tomes of merely human lore!

III. THE WORD SHOULD BE DUG INTO, THAT WE MAY APPROPRIATE ITS CONTENTS, BY ENLIGHTENED REASON AND LOWLY FAITH. These treasures are for the use of all, not merely to gratify them with the consciousness of ever making new discoveries, but to make them richer in the accumulating stores of holy thought. And if we, in the right spirit, explore these sacred pages, we shall ourselves become richer in knowledge, in gladness, in hope. If we cultivate a willingness to do God’s will, and seek to know the truth for the purpose of doing the right, we shall find that much that is “hidden from the wine and prudent is, by means of the Book,” revealed unto babes.”

IV. THE MORE WE THUS DIG INTO THE BOOK OF THE LAW, THE MORE EXHAUSTLESS IT WILL SEEM. No one is there, who lovingly and prayerfully studies it, who will not come to say, with a feeling that becomes intenser year by year, “There remaineth very much land to be possessed.” “High as the heaven is above the earth, so are” God’s “ways higher than” our “ways, and” God’s “thoughts than” our “thoughts!”

V. THE ACCUMULATING STORES OF HOLY THOUGHT SHOULD BE TRANSMUTED BY US INTO THE WEALTH OF HOLY LIFE. It is not for naught that our God has so enriched this world with thoughts from heaven. It is not merely that the intellect may be furnished or the taste for research gratified. Oh no; it is for our life. Heaven has poured forth its wealth upon earth, that earth may send up its love and loyalty to heaven. Precious are the riches of truth. The riches of holiness are more precious still. God gives us the first that we may yield him the second. God would win Israel’s love by unveiling his own. So now, “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” How great will be our guilt, how severe our condemnation, if we let such priceless disclosures remain unnoticed and unused! It were better for us not to have known the way of righteousness than, after we have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto us. May we, through the Spirit, so use the truth of God as to find our joy and salvation in the God of the truth.

Deu 1:1-8

together with Exo 23:20-33.

The Hebrew right to Canaan.

Moses is reviewing the career of Israel, and is endeavoring to set before the people the patience and faithfulness of God, as well as their own waywardness. In the part of his review which is before us just now, he points to the time when their sojourn in Horeb was about to close. Laws and ordinances had been given. The nation was formed. Preparations for departure would have to be made. To this they are incited by a renewal of the Divine gift to them of the land of Canaan. The bare and brief recital in the verses referred to above may be advantageously compared with Exo 23:20-33. A subject is here brought before us of great importance, viz. The right of the Hebrews to Canaan, and the purpose of the Divine Being in granting it to them. We have here

I. THE HEBREW RIGHT TO CANAAN DIVINELY CONFIRMED. A double use has been made of the command to dispossess the Canaanites:

1. By skeptics, to impugn the morality of the Old Testament.

2. By professing Christian men, to justify wars of aggression now. Now we might meet both these by one short and ready reply, viz. “If God commanded the Hebrews to exterminate the Canaanites, no defense is required; if God did not command them, no defense avails.” But there is a more appropriate way of meeting the two cases. As to the first, we would say, “Before you pronounce it immoral, look at the entire bearings of the case, that you may see if the Israelites had an adequate warrant for the course they took.” As to the second, “Before you regard this as a pattern, look at the entire bearings of the case, that you may see if there is any ground for adducing the wars of the Hebrews as a justification or palliation of aggressive war now.” If men go to the Book to learn what the Israelites did, they must in all fairness go to the Book to see the grounds on which they did it. And the same teaching that will answer the one question, Were they justified? will also answer the other, Should we be justified in imitating them? Thirteen points present themselves for distinct and cumulative consideration. We can but name them.

(1) God spake to Moses.

(2) In speaking to Moses, God but confirmed the promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

(3) God defines the bounds of the land to be possessed.

(4) God makes the claim, “All the earth is mine;” consequently he has a right to give the land to whomsoever he will.

(5) In choosing Israel, God would have a people for himself who should be his witnesses.

(6) God foresaw the time for carrying out this plan (Gen 15:1-21.).

(7) The preparation of the land was of God (Exo 23:20).

(8) The ground on which the Canaanites were dispossessed was their enormous wickedness (Deu 9:4, Deu 9:5).

(9) Israel was consequently only the means in the Divine hand of carrying out an explicit Divine purpose.

(10) To spare the Canaanites would have been to infect Israel with their abominations.

(11) God would deliver the nations into Israel’s hand.

(12) On a land and among a people recognized as God’s, the Most High would reassert in the world the well-nigh forgotten truth, “The Lord our God is holy.”

(13) Even Israel‘s continuance in the land would depend on their maintenance of the principles which had been entrusted to their keeping, and on their loyalty to the God who had chosen them for his own (Deu 28:49). When we put all these principles together, the two questions suggested at the outset receive a direct and sufficient reply.

II. ACCESS TO CANAAN DIVINEY SECURED. “I will send an angel before thee” (Exo 23:14; Exo 32:34; Isa 63:9; Mal 3:1; Act 7:38, Act 7:53; Joh 1:51). It is only as we study the more advanced revelations of the New Testament as to the place of angels in the Divine administration, and the lordship of Jesus Christ over them, that all these texts of Scripture are seen to fit in together. Note the specific statements in Exodus xxiii, as to God clearing Israel’s way.

III. DUTY IN REFERENCE TO CANAAN DIVINELY REGULATED. Negatively: they were neither to bow down to false gods nor to mix with the heathen. Positively: they were to serve and fear God and to practice the right.

IV. PROMISES CONCERNING PROSPERITY IN CANAAN DIVINELY GIVEN (Exo 23:25). Blessing on food, health, long life (cf. Mat 6:33; Psa 91:16). A separate homily might well be devoted to the temporal benefits naturally resulting from obedience to God. The application of all this to us in these days is manifest.

1. What Israel was once in the world God expects his Church to be now (cf. Exo 19:5, Exo 19:6 with 1Pe 2:9).

2. In Jesus Christ we have a new covenant, a better ministry, greater promises (Heb 8:6).

3. We have a commission for the world. We have to co-operate with God in bringing about new heavens and a new earth, by working in accordance with his plan of redeeming and educating our race. We have no commission to destroy. The Lord hath given us a power for edification but none for destruction. Our commission runs, “Go, baptize and teach.” We have not to supersede the occupation of territory held by a barbarous nation, through its enforced occupation by a civilized one, but to go and teach all nations that each nation may supersede its own barbarism by a civilization that is equally its own.

4. This commission is to be fulfilled by the Word of Truth, by the power of God. By spiritual weapons only can our victories be won. In the might of a love that has conquered us, and in that might alone, we are to go forth to make the conquest of the world.

“These weapons of the holy war,
Of what almighty force they are,
To make our stubborn passions bow,
And lay the proudest rebel low!”

Deu 1:6-18

Rules to be observed in choosing rulers.

This paragraph may with advantage be compared with Exo 18:1-27; in which there is a fuller account of the circumstances under which the choice of judges and magistrates was proposed and made; this important step towards the order and consolidation of the national life was taken at the suggestion of Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses. Referring to the exposition of that chapter for the historic detail, we note here simply:

1. That the choice of rulers, etc; is put into the people’s hands; they are to select, Moses is to ratify the selection.

2. They are to choose men of righteousness, who will fear God and do justice.

3. When the judges are chosen, Moses seeks solemnly to impress on them the high and holy responsibilities of their office.

4. The supreme reason for this care in judging rightly is found in the fact that the cause is God’s, i.e. that they are rulers under God and for himrepresenting Divine laws in the earthly sphere. The state is sacredly to be governed by the laws of righteousness, and by such laws alone. Hence a subject is opened up to us which is of no small moment, viz. Principles and facts to be borne in mind in choosing rulers of the people. Observe

I. THAT THE CHOOSING OF MEN TO TAKE PART IN MAKING OR ADMINISTERING A NATION‘S LAWS IS A SOLEMN AND MOMENTOUS CONCERN. It matters comparatively little, so far as our present topic is concerned, what may be the peculiar form of government adopted, or what may be the mode of choosing men for office in the State. For

1. The position such men occupy is an exalted one. It is self-evident that when they have to take part in governing or carrying out the laws of the laud, it is of the utmost moment that they should be men who are capable of perceiving what measures will tend to the people’s good. A country may be perishing from the want of good laws, if its rulers are not competent, wise, and just.

2. The influence such men wield in private circles is largely increased from the fact of their public position.

3. Their representative character is another element of great moment. Great men and good will elevate common questions to their own level; while worthless men will fail to appreciate the importance of the greatest questions of the day.

4. The great matters which maynay, mustcome before the rulers of a nation, are such as may involve that nation’s honor or discredit among the nations of the world; yen, more, they are such as will do much, according as they are decided, to bring upon a people the blessing or the wrath of Almighty God! Hence

II. THE POSSESSION OF A POWER TO PUT MEN IN SUCH AN OFFICE OR OFFICES, IS A TRUST FOR THE USE OF WHICH THOSE WHO POSSESS THAT POWER ARE RESPONSIBLE TO THEIR COUNTRY AND THEIR GOD! The decisions of earthly judges ought to be the earthly expression of heavenly law. Hence to let whim, or caprice, or passion, or partisanship carry us away, when such concerns are at issue, and to forget the everlasting laws of righteousness, is to tamper with the public interest, and to betray a solemn trust. Therefore

III. IN THE DISCHARGE OF THIS TRUST, STRICT REGARD MUST BE PAID TO PERSONAL CHARACTER. (See Exo 18:21.) Even a pagan felt this. It was the priest of Midian who said, “Thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness”a fourfold qualification, so comprehensive that, where it is possessed, a man may be safely entrusted with any office. Such men will undertake their work as those who are responsible to God; they will ever be on the look out to perceive what the interests of their country may require at their hands; they will seek to qualify themselves to take part in the public questions which will come before them; without seeking their own honor, they will aim at judging as is wisest and best; and their supreme aim will be that the government they help to administer should be ever in harmony with righteousness and truth. If all its public men answer all these requirements, a country cannot go far wrong; but if a nation’s leaders are themselves lacking in virtue, how can there be any security for that righteousness and truth which exalt a nation, when a country is at the mercy of men who knew not the one neither regard the other?

IV. A CONSIDERATION WHICH GIVES INFINITE WEIGHT TO THE ABOVE PRINCIPLES IS THAT THE JUDGMENT OF EARTHLY RULERS IS INTENDED, IN ITS WAY, TO BE A COPY OF THE DIVINE. “The judgment is God’s,” says Moses. It is God’s judgment, expressed through his own appointed officers (see Rom 13:1-14.). Secular judgments should have sacred principles underlying them. And we cannot divorce the secular from the sacred without great mischief accruing. But, finally: the judgment is God’s in another sense. HE is the Supreme Judge; and whether men use their judgment well or ill, God will exercise his own. The principles of the Divine government of nations are developed by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Amos, and others. [No nation can escape from the sway of the Mighty One; if God’s laws are set at naught, his judgments will follow, that, while they are abroad in the earth, the inhabitants thereof may learn righteousness.

HOMILIES BY D. DAVIES

Deu 1:1-8

Divine covenant and human conduct-the two hemispheres of a complete life.

I. AN ELECT MAN, THE BEST OF THE AGE, BECOMES A MEDIUM OF REVELATION BETWEEN GOD AND MEN. As in nature, so in human life, there are numberless grades of office and of function. At Sinai, we have God, angels, Moses, priests. The transparent candor and fidelity of Moses, as a subaltern in God’s great host, is a light to all future ages. As the uncreated light left an abiding impress on the face of Moses, so the known will of God shone out lustrously in Moses’ life. All that Moses heard, he communicated by word, and temper, and influence, and deed.

II. MATERIAL PENURY A CONDITION FOR HEAVENLY ENRICHMENT. The scene for the revelation of God, is the wilderness. Stripped of earthly luxuries, the mind opens its portals to heavenly visitation. This is not a necessity arising out of the nature of things, but it is a necessity for man in his present state. The son of Zacharias, though a priest, turned his back upon the temple, and chose the wilderness as the theatre most suitable for his ponderous undertaking. This the spirit of prophecy had foreseen. It was in the desert, Jesus fed the thousands by a creative word. In the desert, Paul was equipped for shaking the foundations of paganism. In Patmos, John passed through- theportals of the spirit-world.

III. HUMAN POWER IS FORMALGOD‘S POWER REAL. To the eye of mortal sense, the Hebrews, drilled and officered, fought victoriously with Amalek and Moab; nevertheless, a clearer vision sees that it was God that slew Sihon, King of the Amorites, and ‘Og, King of Bashan. Let us be sure that what we do, God does by us! Be we the agents; God the principal! In righteous warfare, “He teacheth our fingers to fight.” In us hourly let God be immanent. “God wills it,” therefore let us will it also. “He worketh in us.”

IV. IMMEDITATION AND ACTION INTEGRAL PARTS OF HEALTHFUL LIFE. “Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount.” The body may be wrecked by surfeit, as well as by hunger. Knowledge is not entirely ours, until it is reduced to practice. Heavenly wisdom is essentially practical. All light is designed for service. The doctrines of religion are raw materials, which are to be put into the warp and woof of our daily life. Is “the Lamb the light of the heavenly place?” The saints “follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.” Meditation qualifies for action; action demands new meditation. These are the two wings, without both of which the eagle cannot rise. “Come ye into the desert;” “Go and preach;”these are the twin behests of Christ.

V. GOD‘S ABSOLUTE PURPOSES LEAVE FULL SCOPE FOR MAN‘S OBEDIENCE. How the two things are co-related, we cannot ascertain. The point of junction is among the incomprehensiblebeneath the surface of things. There is now and again seeming discord; but as we listen on there is a profounder harmony. The Lord swore unto the patriarchs to give them the land of Canaan. Yet the spies brought back an ill report; and the people debated and murmured, vacillated and countermarched, as if they had been the umpires of their destiny.

VI. GOD‘S PROVISION IS ALWAYS MORE AMPLE THAN MAN‘S DESIRE. God’s plan for Israel’s territory extended from Mount Lebanon to the Euphrates; but Israel never rose to the full height of God’s design. “Ask what I shall give thee” is still the message from heaven to every man. “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.” “We have not because we ask not.” There is abundance of sea-room in God’s plan for the largest human endeavor; and every day the voice of the Great Proprietor reminds us, “There is yet very much land to be possessed.” “All things are yours.”D.

Deu 1:9-18

The blessing of good government.

I. A WISE MAN DISAVOWS ABSOLUTE MONARCHY. Legislation, the most difficult department of government, had been furnished for Israel by the Supreme Mind of the universe; yet Moses found the task of administration too much for a single arm. The aim of every ruler ought to be, not personal power, but universal servicethe greatest good of the greatest number. No wise man will expose himself to the tremendous temptation of personal aggrandizement. Beside, it is a boon to others to exercise the faculties of discrimination and judgment.

II. POPULAR CHOICE OF RULERS TO BE DETERMINED BY A SINGLE LAW, VIZ. PERSONAL MERIT. To lift the voice for an unqualified ruler is a crime against the Statean injury, and not a benefit, to the person elect. To allow personal qualification to dominate the choice, is to make God the umpire. This is, in civic affairs, “to do his will on earth as it is done in heaven.”

III. THERE IS ROOM, BOTH IN THE CHURCH AND IN THE STATE, FOR VARIOUS OFFICES. If a man cannot rule five thousand, he may be able to rule fifty. Service in a subordinate station may qualify for higher dignity. Gradation of rank best conserves the interests of the nation. “Order is Heaven’s first law.”

IV. ALL HUMAN AUTHORITY IS IN THE STEAD OF GOD. “The judgment is God’s.” Magistrates act in God’s stead. Parents likewise. Every man is bound to act as God would act. He represents God always and everywhere. All talent is a trust. We are the stewards of God’s estate.

V. HUMANITY IS FAR SUPERIOR TO NATIONALITY, CLASS, OR SECT. Every man, however poor or ignorant, is to be accounted a brother. In the commonwealth of Israel there are no strangers. Nationality is but a pasteboard separation. “God hath made of one blood all nations.” The great divider is sin. A heaven-kindled eye penetrates through every crust of barbarism and vice, and sees a man beneath. Here is a kingly nature, though now enslaved.

VI. GROWTH OF NUMBERS IS A TOKEN OF DIVINE APPROBATION. In the ratio of material abundance and contentment, is increase of population. It was one of the presages of Messiah’s kingdom, “they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.” In heathen lands population is sparse. War and pestilence decimate the ranks. In proportion as sound Christianity prevails, the subjects of the state augment. Every additional man ought to be an increment of strength and usefullness.

VII. PRAYER HAS A RECOGNIZED PLACE IN GOD‘S GOVERNMENT. Promise always waits on prayer, as harvest waits on the husbandman’s toil. However abundant are the promises, yet for the fulfillment God will be inquired of to do it for us. When prayer has its root in God’s specific promise, it must bear fruit in proportion as faith enlarges her boughs. This is wise building, for we found our expectations upon eternal rock.

VIII. GOOD MEN GREATLY DESIRE THEIR COUNTRY‘S GOOD. Patriotism is a goodly virtue, though not the noblest. To fence ourselves round with selfish interests is despicable. We envy not that man’s narrow soul who has no sympathy nor energy for his nation’s weal. The best Christian will take some interest in everythingin municipal matters, international treaties, literature, science, commerce, art. In the broadest sense, he is a citizen of the world. He lives to bless others. This is Christ like.D.

HOMILIES BY J. ORR

Deu 1:1-4

The Deuteronomic discourses.

I. THE SPEAKER. “Moses.” Though an hundred and twenty years old, “his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated” (Deu 34:7)a statement borne out by the sustained eloquence of these addresses. He speaks with the authority of a prophet, the affection of a patriot, and the earnestness of a dying man.

II. THE HEARERS. “All Israel.” A new generation had sprung up from that which had received the Law at Sinai.

1. All are concerned in hearing God’s message. “It is your life” (Deu 32:47).

2. New-comers need new teaching.

III. THE SITUATION. “In the wilderness”still there at the end of forty years. The places named (Deu 1:1), suggestive of past wanderings and rebellions. Form a background to the discourses that follow, and point home their lessons. We learn:

1. The value of association as an aid in teaching.

2. Our past cannot be got rid of, but it may be utilized.

3. God’s Word is to be pondered in the light of bygone experiences.

4. The comparison of our actual situation with what it might have been (Deu 1:2) is often a salutary exercise (cf. Luk 15:17).

IV. THE SUBJECT. “All that the Lord had given him in commandment.” We find that this does not refer to a new commandment, but to the old commandment which they had from the beginning (cf. 1Jn 2:8).

1. Men crave for novelty, but the function of the preacher is to remind them of the truths which do not change, and to give “line upon line, precept upon precept,” until loyal and hearty obedience is rendered to the same.

2. Exhortation is most effective when it takes as its basis the sure Word of God.

3. God’s Word is to be spoken in its entirety.

V. THE TIME. “In the fortieth year, in the eleventh month”when the attack on the Canaanites was about to be renewed, and after signal tokens of Divine favor had already been granted (Deu 1:4).

1. God’s mercies call for renewed dedication (Psa 116:12-14).

2. The recollections of wasted years should prove an incentive to obedience in the future (Rom 13:11, Rom 13:12; Eph 5:15, Eph 5:16; 1Pe 4:3).

3. We need God’s commandment in our memories and hearts when entering on work in which formidable opposition is to be encountered, and which will put our fidelity to a severe test.

VI. THE MOTIVE.

1. The natural solicitude of old age. It is characteristic of old age to fall back upon and reiterate previous counsels. Compare Peter in his second Epistle (2Pe 1:16); the traditional stories of the old age of John; Paul in the pastoral Epistles, “urging and repeating and dilating upon truths which have been the food of his life” (Alford).

2. The lawgiver‘s knowledge of the rebelliousness of the people‘s disposition (Deu 9:24).

3. The Divine command (verse 3). This had respect to the altered circumstances of the new generation, and to the prospect of their entering the land promised to their fathers, continuance in which was conditional on obedience.J.O.

Deu 1:2

The might-have-beens of life.

In its present setting this brief geographical note was, doubtless, meant to suggest the lesson of the evil results of disobedience. “Eleven days’ journey,” yet the fortieth year still saw them in the wilderness. We learn:

1. Sin turns short ways into long ones.

2. Sin entails on the transgressor needless trouble and sorrow.

3. Sin fills life with fruitless regrets.

4. Sin delays fulfillment of God’s promises.

The path of obedience is in the end the shortest, easiest, safest, and happiest.J.O.

Deu 1:6-9

A summons to advance.

Moses begins by reminding the Israelites how God had formerly summoned them to march upon Canaan. The summons came to them at Horeb, after a sojourn of eleven months. The verses may be applied to illustrate

I. THE CHURCH‘S DANGERto abide at the mount, to settle down into a state of apathy or simple receptivity. This is met by the call to action”Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount: turn you, and take your journey” (Deu 1:6, Deu 1:7). Notice:

1. Israel‘s stay at the mount was good while it lasted. There the nation enjoyed a season of rest, ratified its covenant with God, received the Law, constructed a sanctuary, and was otherwise equipped and organized. There must be times of getting, of learning, of consulting for one’s own edification, else it will go hard with us in the work and battle of life. But

2. There was a danger that Israel‘s stay at the mount might last too long. So is it with the Church, when she concentrates her attention too exclusively on her own spiritual improvement, and forgets her mission to the world. We have to remember that we get and learn only that we may apply and act. There is the peril of religion becoming a species of enjoyment. We luxuriate in retired communion, in restful fellowship with God, in converse with fellow-believers, in Church ordinances; and we think how sweet it would be if this could always last. But we are wrong. It would not be good for us always to be in this state of simple receiving. Religion, divorced from active employment, must soon lose its robustness, and degenerate into a sickly religiosity. There are many, many Christians who have been long enough, and far too long, in the mount, and it would be welt for themselves if they could hear this voice summoning them to go forward.

II. THE CHURCH‘S DESTINYto possess the land. The type was the land of Canaan; the antitype, so far as it lies in time, is the world, which it is the Church’s calling to conquer for Christ, and for her own possession. St. Paul gives this interpretation in Rom 4:13. Taking the passage in this light, and reading the wider truth into it, we get the idea of a land which is:

1. Known to God (Rom 4:7). Known thoroughly, in all its parts, peoples, districts, conformation, accessibilities, and inaccessibilities. In advancing to take possession of the world for Christ, we have the encouragement of thinking that he knows precisely to what kind of work he is sending us, and yet promises success. India, China, Africa, etc.,he knows them all, yet he says, “Go in and possess.”

2. Gifted by God (Rom 4:8). It is long since the oracle declared that God had given Christ the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession (Psa 2:8). The Church, as one with Christ, shares in his kingdom, and shall yet inherit the whole earth.

3. The conquest of which is commanded by God. Not, indeed, by carnal weapons, as the Israelites were commanded to conquer Canaan, nor yet by the destruction of those against whom we war; but by the nobler weapons of the truth, and by seeking men’s salvation. This is a benigner method of conquest, and it will prove successful if we advance with faith and courage. Those who persist in hardening themselves must indeed be destroyed; but not by us. The Lord puts no weapon of a kind to injure any into our hands; but bids us leave vengeance with himself. Our means are the preaching of the gospel, prayer, holy living, organized and beneficent activity to reach the lost sheep of our great communities, and multiplied missionary agencies in foreign lands.

III. THE CHURCH‘S DUTYto obey her Lord, and go forward at once to this great work.

1. He gives no alternative.

2. The command is express.

3. The world sorely needs our work.

4. Every motive of gratitude and compassion should urge us to it.J.O.

Deu 1:10, Deu 1:11

Israel’s increase.

These verses embody the expression of a very natural state of feeling in contemplating the marvel of the Church’s growth.

I. THE CHURCH‘S INCREASE AN OBJECT OF DESIRE. “The Lord God of your fathers make you,” etc. (Deu 1:11). Such increase is:

1. A token of Divine favor (Act 11:24).

2. A manifestation of Divine power (1Co 1:18-30; Eph 1:19; 1Th 1:5).

3. A source of blessing to the world (Psa 67:1-7.).

4. A fulfillment of the Divine counsels (Eph 1:10).

5. Means the ascendancy of true religion.

II. THE CHURCH‘S INCREASE AN OBJECT OF WONDER. (Deu 1:10.) The rapid spread, the extraordinary victories, the prolonged empire, and the undecaying vitality of the Christian religion are the most wonderful things in history, and a proof of its Divine origin. As Israel increased by the Divine blessing at an unprecedented rate, and in spite of all Pharaoh’s attempts to check the increase, so has the Church flourished and spread, proving herself in her unarmed strength more than a match for the deadliest powers which can be arrayed against her. The present century has witnessed a remarkable revival of this propagative energy of Christianity (comp. Num 23:23).

III. THE CHURCH‘S INCREASE A MATTER OF PROMISE. (Deu 1:11.) The promise to Abraham of a countless seed embraced in its widest import the spiritual, not less than the natural, Israelhis seed in Christ (Rom 4:16; Gal 3:7-10, Gal 3:14, Gal 3:16, Gal 3:26, Gal 3:29). (Cf. the promises in Isa 53:10-12; Isa 54:1-3; Isa 60:1-12, with Dan 2:35, Dan 2:44; Mat 8:11; Rev 7:9).J.O.

Deu 1:9-16

Division of labor.

(Cf. Exo 18:13-27.) An instance of a good idea

(1) suggested,

(2) readily adopted,

(3) generally approved of.

Reminds us that division of labor is as important in Church work as in the arts.

I. THE NEGLECT OF DIVISION OF LABOR LEADS TO SERIOUS EVILS.

1. The work is not overtaken. “Not able” (Deu 1:9).

2. Those who have to do it are greatly overtaxed. “Cumbrance,” “burden” (Deu 1:12).

3. Energy is wasted on subordinate tasks which might be applied to better purpose.

II. THE ADOPTION OF DIVISION OF LABOR SECURES OBVIOUS ADVANTAGES.

1. Relieves the responsible heads.

2. Expedites business and promotes order.

3. Secures that the work is better done.

4. Utilizes varieties of talent.

But parties must be as willing to co-operate as they were here.

III. RIGHTLY TO SECURE THE ADVANTAGES OF DIVISION OF LABOR THERE MUST BE EFFICIENT ORGANIZATION. When Moses took in hand the appointment of assistants, he did it thoroughly (Deu 1:15). The work which each is to do must not be left to haphazard, or to “understandings,” or to the tastes and inclinations of individuals, but should be definitely marked out. There must be organization and distribution of tasks on a general plan, which, while it affords room for all grades of talent, allots work with a view to the aptitudes which each is known to possess. It is characteristic of Moses’ scheme:

1. That it took advantage of existing institutions.

2. That it rested on a broad, popular basis; elective (Deu 1:13).J.O.

Deu 1:16, Deu 1:17

Judging.

The rules here laid down, while primarily applicable in the administration of law, are, in their spirit and for the most part in their letter, equally fitted to snide our private judgments. A proneness to judge is condemned by Christ (Mat 7:1); but his rebuke of the censorious spirit is not to be read as forbidding the framing of such judgments upon the character, actions, and pretensions of others as the circumstances of our position may render necessary. We are called every day of our lives to form, and frequently to express, judgments upon men, measures, causes, theories, disputes, proposals; judgments as to true and false, right and wrong, wise and unwise, expedient and inexpedient. Matters are appealed to us as individuals, or as a part of the general community, on which judgment is expressly asked. We must judge that we may know how to act. All this involves the possibility of judging rashly; of judging with bias and prejudice; of judging so as to do wrong to individuals; of judging so as to injure truth and retard progress and improvement. The text teaches us, on the contrary

I. THAT CAUSES, BEFORE BEING JUDGED, ARE TO BE FAIRLY HEARD. How many judgments are passed daily in utter ignorance of the real facts of the case, and without any attempt to ascertain them, perhaps without the means of ascertaining them! Such judgments are ipso facto unjust. It is only by the rarest chance they can be right, and their rightness being accidental does not justify them. Let judgments be reserved for cases in which we have an opportunity of full investigation. Hear both sides, and hear them

(1) fully,

(2) candidly, and

(3) patiently.

II. THAT CAUSES, AFTER BEING HEARD, ARE TO HAVE JUDGMENT PASSED UPON THEM WITH STRICT IMPARTIALITY. “Judge not according to the appearance,” said Jesus, “but judge righteous judgment”an instance illustrating that wider view of judging which we are here taking (Joh 7:24). Equal measure is to be meted out to all. We are to judge impartially as between brother and brother, fellow-citizen and foreigner, rich and poor, applying the same principles and standards to each case, and keeping in view the essential merits as the one thing to be regarded. This is the plain rule of justice, though we all feel how difficult it is to act up to it.

III. THAT JUDGMENT UPON CAUSES IS TO BE GIVEN FEARLESSLY. “Ye shall not be afraid of the face of man.” (Cf. the Regent Morton’s eulogy on Knox”There lies he who never feared the face of man.”) Even when just judgment is being pronounced internally, the fear of man, or the desire of man’s favor, or the dread of temporal consequences, often leads to a time-serving tampering with conviction, to a saying and doing of the thing we do not at heart approve of. This is the worst kind of cowardice.

IV. THAT JUDGMENT UPON CAUSES IS TO BE GIVEN UNDER A DUE SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY TO GOD. “The judgment is God’s.” Judges are his vicegerents, deriving their authority from him, expressing the judgment of his righteousness, anticipating his own final judgment, and themselves responsible to him for the manner in which they exercise their functions. Every biased, untrue, and insincere judgment is a misrepresentation of that truth and rectitude which have their ground in God’s own being.

V. THAT IN CAUSES ON WHICH WE ARE INCOMPETENT TO PRONOUNCE, JUDGMENT IS NOT TO BE ATTEMPTED. (Verse 17.)J.O.

HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR

Deu 1:1-18

The impartiality of God to be reflected in the judges of his people.

In the following Homilies we adhere to the traditional view of the Mosaic authorship of the book, believing that no sufficient evidence has yet been adduced by the critics for departing from that view. Moses enters upon his addresses in the land of Moab by recapitulating the salient points of the Exodus. The first notable reference is to the appointment of the judges. The qualifications and directions here recorded are fitted to throw precious light upon the Divine character. Here let us notice

I. There was to be NO RESPECT OF PERSONS IN JUDGMENT. And here we may quote a definition which will materially aid us in this subject: “By the word person in Scripture signifies not a man, but those things in a man which, being conspicuous to the eyes, usually conciliate favor, honor, and dignity, or attract hatred, contempt, and disgrace. Such are riches, wealth, power, nobility, magistracy, country, elegance of form, on the one hand; and on the other, poverty, necessity, ignoble birth, slovenliness, contempt, and the like.” These Jewish judges, therefore, were directed to allow Bone of these personal accidents to influence their judgments in the cases committed to them, but to decide as matters of pure equity.

II. There was to be NO FEAR OF MAN in their judgments. The consequences to themselves were not to be regarded. They were to be fearless officers, representing the Most High.

III. We see here that WITH GOD THERE CAN BE NO RESPECT OF PERSONS AND NO FEAR OF MAN. The strict impartiality of God has been questioned, if representations of his procedure drawn from the Divine Word are accepted. Now, the whole plan of salvation by grace appears favoritism and partiality. What is the meaning of “grace?” Undoubtedly free, unmerited favor. If, then, salvation is by grace (Eph 2:8), must not God be liable to the charge of partiality? Such, at least, is the reasoning of some in the interests of certain systems. But when the matter is looked into more closely, we find that salvation by free grace is the most conclusive evidence of God’s impartiality. It is really saying to all men, “Unless you give up the notion of recommending yourselves to me; unless you surrender the idea of some special claim in your being or your life upon me; unless, in a word, you lay aside the fancy that you must be partially and exceptionally treated, which is the whole meaning of self-righteousness, I cannot save you.” This is impartiality Par excellence; and this is exactly God’s position in offering salvation to men. All who refuse salvation are really refusing to be treated impartially, and are clamoring for exceptional consideration on the ground of some fancied merit. The rejected at the last will be found to be those who wanted favoritism, but put away free grace. The line of thought opened up here may be profitably carried on.R.M.E.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Ver. 1. On this side Jordanin the plain, over against the Red sea Houbigant well observes, that the original here should properly be rendered, on the bank of Jordan, beeber: and that the word suph, when used without iam, never signifies the Red Sea; and therefore, here, is the name of a place, and should be rendered, in the plain over against suph; the same place with that mentioned Num 21:14. and with him Dr. Waterland agrees. The places mentioned in this verse must have been near the plains of Moab.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

THE TITLE FOR THE ENTIRE WORK AND INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST DISCOURSE

Deu 1:1-5

1These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side [on that side] Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red sea [suph], between Paran, 2and [between] Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab. (There are eleven days journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadesh-barnea.) 3And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that the Lord had given him in commandment unto them; 4After he had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites, which dwelt in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, which dwelt at Astaroth in Edrei: 5On this side [on that side] Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare1 this law, saying:

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. Deu 1:1. Although by itself might refer to the foregoing books, still the words, Deu 1:1, to which attention is called, are those which follow Deu 1:3-5. The subscription to the book of Num 36:13 does not indeed exclude discourses upon the law, but it forms so far a conclusion to what precedes, as that contains, not the words of Moses to the people, but the word of God to Moses ( 1). In any case, the foregoing books cannot be characterizedand the inscriptions or subscriptions refer only to what is characteristicby the words which Moses spake, etc., which is an expression peculiar to Deuteronomy. The connection with the foregoing books is therefore by way of distinction or contrast, but scarcely, however, as in the passage cited by Keil. Gen 2:4; rather as Deu 6:9. The distinguishing feature is made the more prominent, since the locality in both cases was the same plain of Moab. The connection which Knobel, Herxh., Johls., favor, is incorrect. Deu 1:1-5 are a title to Deuteronomy, a condensed statement of the contents, author, audience, place, and time of the whole book, and at the same time a significant introduction to the first discourse.

2. Deu 1:1. The hearers: All Israel.The people as such. Significant for the selection, arrangement, presentation, and aim of the subject matterthe popular character of Deuteronomy. Jewish interpreters think that the elders of the people as the nearest circle of hearers are meantbut why reject those who would be witnesses and could have heard? Hess: the congregation of the people, or some important and representative part of it, heads of families, judges, etc.Jahn (Introd.) says correctlythere is perhaps no other book in whose publication so wide a publicity was observed. [All Israel, all the congregation, are phrases used frequently in the Bible to describe any national gathering. See 1Sa 7:3; 1Sa 12:1; 1Sa 12:19; 1Ki 8:2; 1Ki 14:22 etc.Wordsworth.A. G.]

The local determinations are also very significant (Schultz), and indeed the more so from the very massing of local names, with which Knobel knows not what to do, but which even Onkelos and the Jewish tradition, although with a too limited understanding, refer to the transgressions of the people [and hence the book is called the book of reproofsA. G.]. On this side Jordan.Schroeder renders: the other side, Deu 1:1; Deu 1:5; comp. Introd. 4, I.12. [The phrase indicates nothing as to the position of the writerwhether he dwelt on the one side of Jordan or the other. Although a standing designation of the district east of the Jordan, it is used also with reference to the western district. Comp. Gen 1:10-11; Jos 9:1; Num 22:1; Num 32:32; Deu 3:8; Deu 3:20; Deu 3:25. The context usually makes the sense of the phrase clear. See Bib. Comm., p. 801.A. G.] The place was one for recollections, and therefore for warnings. Schultz says justly the true sense is not already on the other side of Jordan, but still there. So also, still in the wilderness, Deu 4:46; in the valley over against Beth-peor (Deu 3:29); here, Deu 1:5 : in the land of Moab; Num 36:13 : in the plains of Moab. The comparison of these precise statements shows certainly that the local idea rules Deu 1:1; that at the beginning of Deuteronomy the locality treated rather as a situation, becomes rhetorically introductory to the succeeding discourses. Thus the wilderness, in its moral and historical import with Egypt, on the one hand, and Canaan, on the other. The plain (arabah), which is geographically the whole valley of the Jordan from its sources to the Dead Sea, which indeed originally made no break in the valley, this extremely hot desert tract on both sides of the Jordan, stretching down to the Ailanitic gulf, naturally embraces also the plains of Moab. Comp. Deu 3:17; Deu 4:49; Deu 11:30; Jos 12:1. But in a special sense this plain begins at the southerly end of the Dead Sea, a long, sandy plain (Laborde), stretching from thence to the Red Sea; and it can only be used in Deu 1:1 in this narrower sense, since the description, in the plain, following the more general term, in the wilderness, is certainly a limiting and more closely descriptive term. While this description of the peculiar plain or wilderness well serves to recall to mind the catastrophe which doomed Israel to the way of the wilderness (Deu 2:8); presents vividly the locality which was pre-minently the cradle of the new, as it was the grave of the old generation; connects the present where (in Moab) with the immediately preceding how; its main reference is still, according to the contents and method of Deuteronomy, the retrospect to the first giving of the law. As the localizing of the present position was possible through the broader meaning of the term Arabahhere ; Num 36:13, so its narrower sense gives the needed point of union with the wider past. It is in entire accordance with this view, if the Arabah reaches to Ailah, that the next still closer description, over against Suph, follows. Over against Suph [A. V.: over against the Red Sea].Knobel thinks that the pass es sufah, or some place in its neighborhood, is meant,not, however, Zephath, Jdg 1:17; Num 14:45; Num 21:3, which Ritter connects with this pass. But then so purely a geographical and generally obscure a statement is scarcely in harmony with the specific sense of the whole description. It is much better to regard as an abbreviation of . Germ.: SchilfSchilfmeer sedgesea, Deu 1:40; Deu 2:1. LXX: . Vulg.: in solitudine campestri contra mare rubrum. Either because the Red Sea is so called from the great quantity of sea-weed (Keil, Gesen.), which Schultz claims only for its northern portion; or perhaps the whole sea takes its name from some important place of this same name, as Knobel conjectures, and in this way explains the absence of the article in . In any case, we are not to refer it specially with Hengstenberg to the Ailanitic portion, the gulf of Akabah, since the Arabah is viewed much more as over against the gulf of Suez (if not the Red Sea generally). The short, abbreviated Suph, Deu 1:1, harmonizes with the concise, pregnant style in the titles. According to Keil, not a closer designation of the Arabah (Hengstenberg), but a more definite characterizing of the wilderness generally, as Israel still found itself over against the Red Sea, after passing which it entered the wilderness, Exo 15:22. It characterizes the situation generally as over against Egypt; the exodus from it, but specially the northern part of the western fork of the Red Sea, in view of the place where the redemption from Egypt was completed (Schultz). Between Paran, Deu 1:1.As before the short form Suph, so now also the simple Paran, instead of the usual wilderness of Paran. In Num 10:12, this place is mentioned as the first station after the breaking up from Sinai; and since it was a station so well known, and occupied so long a time, since Kadesh lay in it, Num 12:16; Deu 1:46, the abbreviated form Paran is all-sufficient. The Arabic nameEt Tih, i. e., the wandering, as the Bedouins call itexplains satisfactorily the mention here of this more precise designation of the rejection of the first (Numbers 13), and the new arrangement with the second generation (Numbers 20). To this latter reference follows naturally: and Tophel.Germ.: and between Tophel, the present Tufail or El Tofila, Tafyleh, situated at the Edomitic mountains, where a hundred fountains, pomegranate and olive trees, figs, apples, apricots, oranges and nectarines of a large kind, are found; and the inhabitants supply the Syrian caravans with the necessaries of life. Comp. Deu 2:28-29. Thus a place of refreshment (Schultz), in distinction both from the desert eastward, and Paran under the same broad parallel westward. Laban, Hazeroth, Dizahab.These places, of which little is known, are here connected together, as the better known Hazeroth intimates, and the immediately following remark in Deu 1:2 clearly teaches, from the chief reference, to which the description is ever striving, the back reference to the first law-giving at Horeb. Whether Laban (Sept.: ) is the same as Libnah, Num 33:20, and Dizahab (Sept.: ), the gold mines upon the Ailanitic gulf, Minah el Dsahab, Mersa Dahab, Dsahab, parallel to Sinai, may be questionable; but the more indefinite name, Hazeroth [enclosures], which lay in the way from Sinai, Num 33:17-18, points us to the region about the mountains of Sinai as their location. Thus Moses spake to all Israelthis is the origin of Deuteronomywhile the Jordan and Canaan still lay before the people (so much, surely, the specified localities assert), and the impression of the wilderness was still prevailing. The Arabahof which the plains of Moab, the present residence of Israel, reminded thembrings up afresh the most remote recollections,of Suph, where the Egyptians were drowned (Exo 15:4), while Moses, the leader of Israel, had been once rescued from the Red Sea (Exo 2:3 sq.)and, with the Exodus from Egypt, connects the whole long wandering, between Paran, where the wanderings began, but at the same time also the new order which led them at its close into the inhabited land (Tophel); and of Sinai, where the law was given, and from whence, had they been obedient, the direct course had led them quickly to Canaan.

3. Deu 1:2. In this latter sense we are to take the statement of Deu 1:2 as to the way and time which leads on to the others in Deu 1:3. It is either historical, that Israel actually spent so long a time, or simply a note, that no longer time is necessary to reach the southern limits of the promised land. The way of mount Seir (Seghir) is still the way to Mount Seir; although it only follows the general direction of this mountain, it thus runs along it, and leads to it. The special goal is Kadesh-barnea, Num 32:8; Deu 1:19; probably the Kudes (Ain Kades) discovered by Rowland in 1842. Comp. Winer, Real. Horeb stands here, as throughout Deuteronomy, for Sinai, the general name for the particular, Deu 33:2. Comp. Hengstenb. Auth. II., p. 397 sq.

4. Deu 1:3. With Horeb the back-reference reaches the first law-giving (comp. Deu 28:62), and the local determinations of Deuteronomy now, therefore, receive their completion through the pregnant and precise time statements in Deu 1:3. Eleven days were sufficient, or might have been sufficient, and they were now in the 40th year since the exodus. At the first of the monththus the day of the new moon. Usher reckons it a Sabbath day, the 20th of February, 1451 B. C. According to Josephus, Moses died at the last new moon of this year. But the reference to the last moments of Moses (Schultz) does not come into view here. On the contrary, indeed, since he speaks from his own subjective views and impulses (Baumgarten), it is stated with the utmost emphasis that all is spoken according to the commandment of Jehovah for the people. The active moving personality makes the limits of the commands a law to itself, so that in general only repetitions and expositions find place in the discourses, and even the enlargements, the continuations, the repetitions, are put in new peculiar settings on the ground of a divine command.

5. Deu 1:4. Deuteronomy is no mere book of reproofs ( 1). Although the time and places, as they have been previously given, must remind the people of their sin, yet the truth as well as the holiness of God shines clearly therein, and the title and introduction can only reach its end when the two victories, Deu 1:4, have been first recorded and praised, the pledge and earnest of future victories (Baumgarten). Comp. with Sihon, Num 21:24, and with Og, Num 21:33 sq. After he had slain.Moses in the name of Jehovah. Amorites.A gentile noun from Emor (Amor), Gen 10:16; Gen 14:7,important here, because all the Canaanites bear this name, Gen 15:16; Deu 1:20-21. Heshbon.The capital city, of which Irby and Mangels (1818) found there still significant ruins, in two cisterns or pits, with human skulls and bones (Gen 37:20). Roman coins of Heshbon under Caracalla show a temple of Astarte or a Deus Lunus, with a Phrygian cap, the right foot resting upon a rock, the right hand holding a pine cone, and the left a spear, wreathed about with a serpent. See RittersGeog.Bashan (Batana, El Botthin).Also upon the eastern side of the Jordan, but further north, Deuteronomy 3. Ashtaroth and Edrei, the two residences of Og, Jos 12:4; Jos 13:12; Jos 13:31. Keil explains the absence of the and which is found elsewhere from the oratorical character of the discourse here. Sept. and Vulg. insert it. Since the overthrow of these kings is the characteristic thing here, and Edrei is the place at which it occurred, Deu 3:1; Num 21:33, the connection may well be After he had slainin Edrei. [So also Bib. Comm.A. G.] Ashtaroth.A region of flocks (Deu 7:13; Deu 28:4), but at the same time closely resembling the name of the well-known goddess Astarte (Ashtoreth),at the foot of the present Tell Ashtereh, in which there is excellent pasturage, and many goats and camels are found. Whether the same with Ashteroth Karnaim, Gen 14:5, is questionable. Edrei, the present Dera, Draa, a few wretched basalt huts upon a hill; or, perhaps, the other Edhra, Deu 3:10.

6. Deu 1:5. The foregoing introductory retrospect began with on that side Jordan, and now Deu 1:5 goes back again to the same point; but at the same time, since it is now directly introductory to the following discourse, he adds the present scene, over against the land of Canaan, the Holy Land, in the land of Moab, used here, Keil says, rhetorically for the usual phrase, in the plains of Moab. If every beginning is difficult, the undertaking of Moses, to speak on his own part after God had spoken, involves more than a mere beginning. But this primary signification of the word appears still, Jos 18:12; Jdg 1:27; Jdg 1:35, and also in Gen 18:27. The connection gives the more distinctive shade of meaning. In this connection there is so little of mere chance, or of his own pleasure, that Schultz and Keil point even to an inward divine pressure. If it does not intimate the humility of Moses, or point out how he still once more, before the entrance of Israel into Canaan, strove to bring the law before the minds of the people, the idea may be this: he began, although his goal stood near at hand. It was ever a new valedictory discourse, down to the song and the blessing, according to the method of Deuteronomy. It was an undertaking, less on account of the work imposed upon him, for which he was fitted if any one, than because he could only begin, but knew not whether he could finish, Deu 31:1 sq., 24 sq. It was thus a venture with reference to the hindrance through the approaching end of life, Piel, to explain, Sept. , Vulg. explanare. Thus to make clear, to expound,this law, to wit, the well-known law in the following method. [Beer: the word implies the pre-existence of the matter on which the process is employed, and thus the substantial identity of the Deuteronomic legislation with that of the previous books.Bib. Comm.A. G.]

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. From Numbers 20 comp. with Num 33:38-39, the death of Aaron occurred within the last eight months of the 40th year. It is therefore in close connection with the preceding books that the beginning of Deut. places us in the eleventh month of the same year. We see that in the last part of Num. every thing refers to the approaching entrance into the promised land. Joshua is already appointed the leader, in the place of Moses. The men are named who should complete the division of the land. It is clear that it is a point of time of extraordinary import, since the people of Jehovah, after long chastisement, stand now a second time upon the borders of its land, while the divinely chosen law-giver and regent prepares for his near departure; and we can scarcely wonder that this decisive point of time should be marked by the earnest, warning words of Moses, by the second law-giving, and the renewal of the covenant of Sinai. Ranke.To the respect in which he was held, from the mighty deeds which God had wrought through him in Egypt and in the desert is now added the reverence of great age. An old man of 120 years, who has now outlived nearly the whole nation, he enters the congregation. Hess.Moses has finished his life-work, and the hour when he must be gathered to the fathers of his people is near at hand. As he is permitted from the top of Mount Abarim to view with his bodily eye the land into which his people were soon to enter, so also in prophetic illumination, with the eye of the Spirit, he sees the future of his people in that land, the temptations, the dangers, and the errors to which they would be exposed. He knew that the safety and prosperity of Israel depended alone upon its faithfully and unchangeably cleaving to the law of God, of which he had been the mediator and revealer, and that there was still in it, in its yet unbroken or partially broken native dispositions, a strong disinclination to the law, and a stronger drawing to the heathenism from which it had been torn away by its gracious calling. This saddened him, and impelled him to bring before the new generation once more the gracious dealings of God with their fathers, the fruits of which they were about to inherit, and to impress and enforce the law upon their minds once more. With the feelings with which a dying father gathers around him his sons for the last paternal warnings and exhortations, Moses, in the foresight of his end near at hand, gathers around him his people, whom he had hitherto with a fathers faithfulness led and instructed, whom he had fostered and cherished with a mothers tenderness, and who, from now on, without him, without his constant, faithful leading and discipline, were to enter upon a great, rich, but also most dangerous future. Kurtz.

2. The emphasis which in every way is given to the wilderness calls our attention to its theological significance. It is perhaps true, as Baumgarten suggests, that the desolate plain in which Israel had spent so much time, in distinction from the starting point, the mount of Horeb, and the goal, the highlands of Canaan, represents the whole last past, including the present, as a state of imperfection and preparation. But on the one hand, it is not the last past, including even the present, but rather the whole past from Egypt, all of which bears the character of the wilderness, which is spoken of here, and, on the other hand, this residence in the valley symbolizes the object, the purpose of God in this providence (humiliation), as objectively the trial and subjectively the knowledge, which were also designed and held in view by God. Deu 8:2. The theological significance of the wilderness is generally and specially pedagogical. After the oppositions, world and redemption, bondage in Egypt, and freedom, the residence there, and the exodus thence until the Red Sea was passed, the reconciliation of these oppositions, i. e., the instruction and training of the people of God in faith, was necessary. As thus instructed only was Israel fitted for its judicial work upon the people of Canaan, and for the possession of the promised land. The wilderness, which was peculiarly fitted for this end, as far as locality and means of training were concerned, was the divine national school of Israel. Only in this significance is it perfectly clear that the temptation which results in knowledge and confirmation, and thus is to be regarded as a proving or testing, Deuteronomy 8; while in other cases it is presented as a punishment, Num 14:33.

3. This school character of the wildernessnot a school for turning nomads into agriculturists, but with which the production of a new generation goes hand in handis in some measure stereotyped for the kingdom of God by the frequently returning 40 days. Moses was 40 days and nights in Horeb, Exo 24:18; Exo 34:28; Deu 9:9; Deu 9:18; Deu 10:10. Elijah was 40 days and nights in the wilderness on the way to Horeb, 1Ki 19:8. It was a school-time for the prophets, as the appearance of John the Baptist in the wilderness was generally preparatory for Israel, and the 40 days and nights, Mat 4:2, show us the Son of God, after His completed home-life (Luk 2:51-52), in the school for His official life.

4. As the second tables of the law which Moses hewed, Exodus 34, so his second abode on Horeb foreshadowed the Deuteronomic law-giving. As if Moses, with whom God had spoken on Sinai, as with no other, was to the second generation what Jehovah was to the first. Luther: It was named, the other law, not because different from that which was given upon Mount Sinai, but because it was repeated through Moses a second time, with a new covenant, and renewed before those who had not heard it as first given. For those who had heard it from the Lord Himself had perished in the wilderness.

5. If repetition is mater studiorum, recollection as it animates the title to Deuteronomy, the introduction to the following discourses, is the practical means, the more plastic the more practical, first to excite gratitude to God here, but secondly, also, to self-knowledge, without descending into which abyss there is no ascent to the true knowledge of God. The consciousness of guilt generally grows stronger and more personal with the obligation to thankfulness, especially for those who in the existing love to God recognize the first love as one predominantly of feeling and fancy (Exodus 15), to whom in direct connection with the praises, the innermost nature of man, his self-deception and hypocrisy, discloses itself more and more, and who learn to perceive that the consciousness of redemption once experienced must prove, and confirm itself also, in the consciousness of the daily providence of God. (From Egypt and the daily bread for the day).

6. The norm of the Mosaic discourses, the commandments of God, shows the word of God in the narrower, but therefore for us also in the wider sense, both as immediate and mediate, to be the rule of doctrine and life. He gives therewith the true way of prophecy, and indeed of every reformation. Schultz. We have here also the critical principle of the historical reformation of the 16th century. The Lutheran and Reformed Churches are historical denominations, but reformation is the constant duty of the Church, and reformation is different from mere restoration.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Deu 1:1-5. The past of a people: 1. a glass of its present; 2. as instructive for its future. The past dealings of God with a people should1. excite it to gratitude; 2. humble it; 3. encourage it to confidence. The forgetfulness of a nation in reference to its past is1. a religious, 2. moral, 3. a political fault. The retrospect of a past life a teacher1. of our sins, 2. but also of the faithfulness of God. In the review of a portion of time closed upe.g., the old or past yearwe learn, 1. the goodness of God which we should praise, 2. our own guilt which we should confess, 3. the patience of God which should lead to conversion. With the look backwards, comes the look within and around, and then also the look outwards and upwards. Recollection! consideration! praise! Knowest thou not that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? The significant turning points in human life. The seriousness, painfulness, and blessedness of recollection.

Deu 1:1. All for the people, hence also for the whole people. As the reference to Canaan is the decisive one for Moses, so the look to heaven (the other side of Jordan) should be to us. The journey through the wildernessthe school-time for the inward man.

Deu 1:2. Our hindrances in the inward and outward life come from disobedience to God. Disobedience hastens quickly, but obedience comes sooner to the goal. From Horeb to Kadesh-Barnea, through the law comes the knowledge of sin, and the sentence of death.

Deu 1:3. In the love of God we do not leave school-life before the proper time. According to the commandment of God, should be the rule of our words as of our acts and lives. All according to the divine word! Faithfulness to the word: holding fast to the end, ever finding a word suited to those trusted in our care, in every word, judging ourselves by the word of God. Homiletics, what it should be.

Deu 1:5. How the children of God begin right with respect to their end.The Phnix out of the ashes.The faithful holds on preaching, testifying, teaching, and never wearies.The glorious question of Calvin in his last days: Do you wish that the Lord, when He comes, should find me idle? (comp. the preface to the last revision of the Institutes, 1559), in which he speaks of himself as one near to death: but the more oppressed with sickness, the less will I spare myself, that I may bring the work to its conclusion. Thus he speaks of his writings, that God had granted him grace earnestly and conscientiously to go to his work, so that he had not in one single instance knowingly distorted or incorrectly explained a passage of Scripture.The work of the true preacher is still to-day the exposition of the law of God; he is therein literally ever a beginner. As it is a work of humility, so also of courage.The trumpet should give no uncertain sound, 1Co 14:8-9.Moses has sought to put the law in the hearts of the anointed people, and expounded it for them. The exposition and practical carrying out of the commandments of God is a constant effort of the Church necessary to its own health and safety.

R. Gell: In these words we have the title, ground and contents of this fifth book of Moses.

Calvin: God does not, as earthly kings are wont to do, enrich His law with new commands, as taught by experience, but will help the slow and crude sense of His people.

Luther (Deu 1:3): He repeats here, so that one should preach nothing among the people of God which he is not certain is in the word of God. It is necessary indeed that every one should be constrained to announce or declare the word of God. He does not say what was suggested to him, but what the Lord commanded him.

G. D. Krummacher: God says by the prophet Hosea: I will lead them in the wilderness, and says this not as a threatening, but as a fatherly discipline, and adds therefore: and will speak friendly unto them. Thus it is in a spiritual wilderness. It consists in removing all supports on which man might place his confidence other than God, and thus shutting him up to rest his hope alone upon the living God. He will never do this so long as he has around him or with him that which draws him into idolatry, and hence it must be taken from him. This removal of all creature supports is partly outward and partly inward, and at times both outward and inward. Thus with David when he fled from Absalom, 2 Samuel 15. The latter as with Abraham, King Jehoshaphat; Paul in Asia, 2 Corinthians 1; Peter upon the sea. With Job both occur. The disciples felt it when they saw Jesus dead, even upon the cross. Sometimes it occurs at once, and then ceases; but more frequently it comes by degrees and proceeds to a greater and greater extent. This removal has distinguishable degrees. In one case, a promise or a recollection of some past experience, or the like, is left; in another, all is taken, Psalms 88. Thus the Lord leads us, but only to empty us of all self-confidence and win us to a naked confidence in Him, 2Co 1:9. An urgent demand for humility and watchfulness against any self-exaltation, Pro 18:12. But also a word of sweet consolation: God can lift thee up again. The Church is in the wilderness, where on every side errors gain the upper hand, and the pure word seldom; where temptations to frivolity and worldly thoughts increase; where heavy persecutions and defections occur; where the wise virgins sleep with the foolish, and serious earnestness in the service of God, threatens to become extinct; and thus our time may be regarded as one peculiarly fruitless, with all our bustle and noise over our mission and Bible unions. Moreover, it seems to me remarkable that wilderness, in Hebrew, comes from a word which means both to speak and to lead, so that to be in the wilderness and under leading, in Hebrew, amounts nearly to one and the same thing.

Berl. Bib.: Obedience is the principal thing in every household of God. This Moses demanded in the law, to this Christ urges in the gospel, and to this end the Holy Spirit writes a new law in the heart, which is even typified in this book.

Deu 1:2. Mark the incalculable injury of unbelief.Wurtb. Bib.: A Christian teacher should neglect no time or occasion to teach the word of God, but should use special diligence, that he may instruct youth thoroughly in the knowledge of God, 2Ti 3:14; 2Ti 4:2. A teacher also should not grieve to repeat often, for such repetition makes the hearer more certain, Php 3:1; 2Pe 1:12. Whoever speaks in the Church ought not to speak his own wisdom, or the speculations of reason, or the comments of men, but the oracles of God. Chytraeus.

Schultz: He will say: This I have done for thee; what wilt thou do for me? Comp. last words of Jacob, Genesis 49; of Joshua (Jos 23:24); of David, 2 Samuel 23. The older interpreters have already drawn the parallel between Deuteronomy and the farewell words of Christ. Even Geddes remarks: The whole discourse is one of the most beautiful which ever fell from human lips. Wisdom, appropriateness, overwhelming eloquence, and the paternal solicitude of the lawgiver, are apparent throughout the whole.

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

CONTENTS

This sacred book opens with an account of the children of Israel just as they are entering the borders of Canaan. They had nearly completed the fortieth year of their wilderness journey: and now, before they enter the promised land, Moses addresses them in a long discource. this chapter is the beginning of it, which goes on without much interruption, (excepting at the end of the fourth chapter) until the close of the thirtieth chapter.

Deu 1:1

The sacred historian seems to be the more particular in this enumeration of places, in order that we may have a clear account of the divine faithfulness to his promises. Num 15:33-35

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

Imperative and Desirable Changes

Deu 1:6

‘ The Lord our God spake unto us in Horeb.’ And He has been saying it at intervals ever since to communities and families and individuals, and often to their pain and wonder.

I. On one side of our human nature we are never satisfied, always craving for enlargement and novelty. But on another side we are satisfied far too easily; we want to settle down in comfort, to be undisturbed, to rest and be content with the amount of knowledge we have, or of goodness, or usefulness; we have found, after hard marching, a sunny and sheltered spot, and we want to stay in it. And the voice which spoke to Moses speaks to us and says, ‘Long enough: Arise ye and depart, for this is not your rest’.

Perhaps more often we have no choice in the matter; we are bidden, and though we go with heavy feet and reluctant and remonstrant hearts, we must move.

Our plans are decided for us. Our plans are broken up, we are hustled out of our pleasant abode, the door is slammed upon us, and only one other door is opened, and it is that or nothing.

1. God is saying this to people who are living in the land of dreams and pleasure. You have lived here long enough.

2. He sometimes says it to people who are in ease and prosperity and comfort. Then we are loath to listen. Therein lies much of the pain and the bewilderment of life. It is difficult, almost impossible, for a time to believe in the goodness of God. Blessed is the man who can go from one mountain to another, Horeb to the Amorites, and believe that God is leading. In the old simile ‘As the eagle stirreth up her nest, so the Lord leadeth His own’.

3. God is sometimes compelled to say it because of our wrongdoing. Jacob is driven from his home because he has lied to his father and cheated his brother. In the book of Micah (2:10) the reason given for the command to depart is, ‘For this is not your nest: because it is polluted ‘. So men foul their nest and it is overturned; men presume upon a privileged position and are driven from it.

II. Will you observe where it is that they have dwelt long enough? That perhaps is the startling aspect of the situation. It is Mount Horeb, the place of revelation, where these men were alone with God, where the law was given. They had stayed long enough there, and the unmistakable inference is that it was possible for them to stay there too long. Even Horeb the Mount of God may be abused.

I gather from this that God has something else for Israel to do besides receive revelations. They are to go from Mount Horeb to the Mount of the Amorites, i.e. from praying to fighting, to subduing, possessing, and tilling the land. God has His Horebs where He calls His children aside and reveals to them His will, but they are not to stay there. There are times, and you must keep them, for sitting at Jesus’ feet and leaning on His breast, but there are times when it is better for us to be doing something else.

III. We may believe that every disturbance of our ease every moving forth to seek fresh settlement is for the expansion and enriching of our life. It is not surprising to be told that Israel shrank from moving on from Horeb. Between them and the Mount of the Amorites lay that great and terrible wilderness, and then beyond that fierce fighting. And it is scarcely surprising, to those who know human nature, that ultimately they failed.

The great and terrible wilderness and the great and terrible warfare that comes after it are not for our destruction they are to be the theatre and the means of our triumph through the strength of God’s grace. Through the desert of trial and hardship, through the warfare of questioning and doubt, we come to a richer life and a sure faith.

C. Brown, God and Man, p. 75.

The Witness of the Saints

Deu 1:22

This is one great value of the saints of God; they are the men who have gone before us to search out the heavenly country and to bring us word again.

The kingdom of God is a kingdom that begins even in this world in the Church; the gift of the Spirit has been bestowed upon us already, and everything that we need has been bestowed upon us in that great gift, and the saints are our witness to what the Spirit can do, and the possibility of living the life of God fully.

I. This Witness of the Saints is a Witness of the Goodness of that Land to which God Calls Us. ‘And they took of the fruit of the land in their hand,’ says Moses, ‘and brought it down to us, and brought us word again and said, It is a good land which the Lord our God giveth us’. The saints are those who bring to us the fruit of the spiritual country. And we know what that fruit is; the fruit of the Spirit, St. Paul tells us, is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance. When the Spirit of God is fully in a man, love at once springs up there, because the love of God is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost. Joy springs up there because the kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost; and peace springs up there because the Spirit of God bears witness with our spirits. And all those other fruits that we need in our intercourse one with another, they all spring from the presence of the Spirit, because the Spirit of God brings to us the character of Christ, and all those fruits are included there.

II. The Saints Show Us in their Own Lives that the Spiritual Fruits of the Country are Really to be Won. They are men and women like ourselves. They belong, as Moses puts it, to the very tribes to which we belong ourselves; and yet the fruits of the Spirit are seen in all their wonder and beauty in them; and if in them, why not in ourselves also? So, then, the saints give to us the witness of the goodness of the heavenly country. And they bring to us also the witness that we can certainly gain it for ourselves. The saints never tell us for one moment that we can win the kingdom of God without a struggle, or that our enemies will give way except inch by inch. But they witness that the life-conflict, through the power of God, is also of victory; they tell us that, as St. Paul puts it, though they may be perplexed, yet it is not unto despair, though they may be pressed yet they are not forsaken, though smitten down they are never destroyed; they tell us that God’s grace is sufficient for us in whatever position we may be, and that no temptation will ever take us but such as through the power of God we are able to bear. If our enemies are stronger and mightier than we, they are not stronger than God Who goes before us and goes with us. And if the cities of the enemies’ country are great and walled up to heaven, not one has a wall that God’s power cannot throw down.

III. Are we not Called now to Receive their Witness and to Act upon it? It is fear in one form or another that prevents us from going forward. We are afraid of losing the comforts of our lives, afraid of having to sacrifice our worldly ambitions, afraid of ridicule; worst of all, we are afraid that, if we give ourselves to God altogether, God will not be with us, and our efforts will come to nought. And so we go on in the old lives of the wilderness, just simply trying to obey certain external rules, knowing nothing of love, joy, and peace, nothing of the real glory of the kingdom of God. God does mean us to go forward, God does mean us to give ourselves, all that we are, to Him, that we may be able to return all that He gives to us, receiving continually the very fullness of the gift of the Spirit, and then to look to that Spirit day by day, hour by hour, even moment by moment, to show us what God would have us to do, and to uphold us as we try to do it.

Partial Truth

Deu 1:32

These are the great battles of the world. Not the clang of swords and the roar of kingdoms, but the conflict of man with God, man calling God a liar; these are the disastrous and fatal wars.

I. We are often called upon to contemplate what may be called partial faith. We do believe some things, but generally they are things of no importance. We believe things that cost us nothing. Who believes the thing that has a Cross, wet with red blood, in the middle of it? We are all partially religious, whimsically religious, religious after a very arbitrary and mechanical fashion.

We see what is meant by partial faith when we contemplate a vision which comes before us every day of our life, and that is the vision of partial character. Where is there a man that is all reprobate? The son of perdition occurs but now and then in the rolling transient centuries. Who is there who has not some good points about him? How we magnify those points into character; how the man himself takes refuge in these scattered or detached virtues, and builds himself a reputation upon these incoherent fragments! Always the great challenge falls upon us from the angry clouds, In this thing, in that thing, ye did not believe; at this point you suspended your faith, at that point you were a practical atheist; and know ye, say the angry clouds, the chain is no stronger than its weakest link.

II. We all believe in Providence. Which providence? how much providence? in what seasons do we believe in providence? We are great believers in blossoming-time, but what faith have we when the snow upon our path is six feet deep and the wind a hail and frost? The Lord has many fine-day followers.

Do we really believe in Providence? in the shepherdly God, in the fatherly God, in the motherly God, in the God of the silent step, Who comes with the noiselessness of a sunbeam into the chamber of our solitude and desolation? Do we really believe in the God Who fills all space, yet takes up no poor man’s room, and Who is constantly applying to broken or wounded hearts the balm that grows only in old sweet Gilead? Do we believe that the very hairs of our head are all numbered? Are we perfectly sure that if God should take away this one little child of ours, the only child, that all would be well? How deep is our faith in Providence? I want Habakkuk’s great sounding faith; he said about figtrees and herbs and flocks and olive-yards that if they were all swept away yet he would trust in God and strike his harp to the praise of the Almighty Father. I am not so old in faith as mighty Habakkuk, I could see many trees blighted without losing my faith, but there is one tree, if aught should happen to any single branch or twig of that tree, my soul’s faith would wither as a blossom would wither under the breath of nightly frost; in that thing I should fail. What, then, can be my faith, if it is true, and it is true, that a chain is no stronger than its weakest link? Lord, save me, or I perish!

III. We believe in prayer. How much? At what time do we believe in prayer? Do we believe in a particular providence, and do we so deeply believe in that providence that we would ask God to intervene and save us from the final disaster? Is there not a time when prayer itself becomes dumb? Remember the possibility of our having a partial faith, a partial faith in Providence, a partial faith in prayer, and remember that the chain is no stronger than its weakest point, and if in this thing or that we do not believe the Lord our God we may strike the rest of our faith dead as with a sword-stroke.

Joseph Parker, City Temple Pulpit, vol. II p. 42.

References. I. 32. S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit (5th Series), No. 24. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ix. No. 637. W. M. Taylor, Moses the Law Giver, p. 408. II. 7. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. No. 1179. II. J. L. Williams, Sermons by Welshmen, p. 48.

Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson

Remarkable Things

Deu 1:6

This is the first remarkable thing in the opening chapter of the fifth book of Moses. God knows, then, how long we have been here or there. Our downsitting and our uprising, our going out and our coming in, are of consequence to him who made us. He keeps the time: he knows when we have been “long enough” in one place. He does not always consult us, saying, in terms of affectionate inquiry, Would you desire to tarry longer here? would it suit you to remain another year? Sometimes God seems to come down upon our life with a precision and an imperativeness which make us feel how little, after all, we have to do with what we call our own concerns. A blessed life, surely, and most sweet, and altogether tender and restful, is it when we wait patiently upon God and tarry until we receive his reply, and then go out and do his bidding with both hands and with the unbroken consent of the entire mind. From the way in which he speaks to us, God seems to take it for granted that no question will arise upon his instructions. Surely in the very method of approaching us, a tribute is paid to our noblest qualities. The Lord comes with an instruction as if we had been waiting for it; he tells us when to move and when to rest, as if our eyes were continually directed unto him in attitude of attention and expectation; his speeches are answers, not to questions but to prayers; his commands are not merely edicts, but translations of the spirit which he assumes to be in us. Infinite is the wisdom of God.

“Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount.” We may get tired even of mountains. Wherever we live, we need change. The first happy impulse often commits itself to the doctrine that we could live here or there alway. God does not take us at our word, because he knows that our word is but a speech of ignorance or of impulse: it does but give utterance to the emotion of the moment; so, he allows our little speech to plash round about our life as if it were a river of his own creating; but we soon see how it is dried up by the sun, and we are left in a thirsty and barren place. Expect the answer from Heaven when you are in wonder as to your residence and pilgrimage, or action of any kind. There need not be any communication of audible speech between your soul and God: the communication will be in the spirit in its profound and loving obedience, and in its positive readiness to give up mountain and castle, and palace and crown, without one moment’s querulousness, or suggestion that another day would be another day of good fortune. That is the attitude of the pious spirit the heart that is really healthy towards God, the soul that has in it constancy and loyalty without speck or flaw.

We are ordered down off the mountain. Soon after we have said, It is good to be here, the Leader proposes that we should go down again. He will not have any heaven built upon earth; he will never allow us to build permanently upon foundations that are themselves transitory. Who can build straightly upon a crooked foundation? Who can build for ever upon a basis that may succumb in a moment? Who would rear a supposedly eternal palace upon foundations that are doomed to be burned? So, we are told to descend the mountain, though the sky be at its bluest, and though the air be full of health, and though our vision and our general senses be so quickened that we can almost detect the presence of spirits and angels. There are many mountains to come down mountains of supposed strength, when the very robustest man must lie down and say: I am very weary, tired to exhaustion; mountains of prosperity, when Crsus himself must come down saying: I am a poor man; let the meanest slave serve me, for I cannot longer serve myself. Then there is the coming down that is inevitable the time when God says to every one of us: You have been long enough on the mountain of time: pass through the grave to the hills of heaven, the great mountains of eternity. Sometimes, we think we have been too long on the mountain, and wonder when he will come, whose right it is to bring the sheep into the fold; we say in our peevishness not always impious, but rather an expression of weakness: Surely we have been forgotten: by this time we ought to have been with the blessed ones; the night is coming on quickly, and we shall be drenched with dews. So long are some men kept outside, on the very top of the hill, where very little grass grows, bare, rocky places. But God cannot forget: we must rest in his memory; he puts himself even before a mother who may forget her sucking child, but he has pledged himself never to forget his redeemed Church.

But, having ordered his people away from the mountain, where can they take up their abode? We find the answer in the seventh verse. God has many localities at his command, so he disperses the people, setting them “in the plain,” “in the hills,” “in the vale,” “by the sea side,” and “unto the great river, the river Euphrates.” What space God has! “In my Father’s house are many mansions,” in my Father’s house are many localities. Do not say God has done with you because he has driven you from one pulpit, one church, one business, one very happy engagement in life, where you were making honest bread, and where you could sleep the night through untroubled by a single bitter memory. God has places enough for us all. We did think it hard when that last door was shut as if in our very face: when we turned away that day our faces were pictured all over with sorrow and grief and disappointment: agony was written upon the countenance; we went home saying: The end has come, the cloud has gathered: there is no more hope; and, behold, whilst we talked thus atheistically and foolishly, the cloud opened, and we caught such glimpses of morning as our weary eyes had never caught before. The old mount had become a kind of home to us: we knew the short ways up the mountain: we knew the long, grassy slopes that led to the summit; we had some little property on the very top; we had begun, before getting full orders about anything, to lay just two or three courses which we meant to raise into a tabernacle; we did stand upon the mount, and, looking upon those who dwelt in the plain, said we would not live down there: we would always live up among the blue skies, the white clouds, and at the very gate of morning. So, it was hard to leave the old homestead: that morning we drained the cup of bitterness, and, when half-way down the hill, oh what a look we gave at the summit we should never re-ascend! the old business, the old pulpit, the old happy relations in life, the mountain that had become a sweet home to us, and on whose steeps there was not one weary league. It did cost us much to leave the sweet place, haunted by ten thousand tender memories, and blessed by the recollection of many an answered prayer. But God has more places: instead of mountains, hills little mountains; not the great bulging mountains that seem to vie with heaven itself in majesty: still, little mountains undulating mounds having green valleys on their tops which are still valleys in highlands, then plains, vales, sea-side, rivers. Who would not see all God’s places? Is it not wiser to take the longer lines, and to say to the heavenly One: Show us all the inheritance of thy power, and lead us hither and thither as thou wilt: it is thy world, how green in the springtime! how rich in blossom! how richer still in fruits! If thou wilt lead us, the vale shall be as the mountain, and the mountain shall be as the plain; and the sea shall be without a storm, and the river shall flow like a gospel of refreshment and hospitality. Why do we choose our own places? Did ever man dispute the divine sovereignty without regretting his encounter with the Eternal will? Why have any will? Were we serving wooden gods, mechanical deities, divinities of our own creation or invention, we might dispute with them, point out what possibly they may have overlooked, suggest happier expressions, and draw bolder programmes; but if God is the only-wise, if God is love, if God is light, if God died for us in the person of his Son, why not say: Not my will, but thine, be done: take me to the mountain or the plain, the hills or the vale, the sea-side or the river; the taking itself shall be as a vision of heaven?

Happy days were those of Deuteronomy! God the Lawgiver, Instructor, Guide; Israel receiving the speeches of heaven, and instantly striking the tent, and marching gladly, with hymns of thankfulness, to the music of the divine movement. Was this the case? We find the exact contrary was the reality. When men brought back “the fruit of the land,” which they had been sent to search out, “and brought it down unto us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land which the Lord our God doth give us. Notwithstanding ” These are the words we read in the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth verses. What is their meaning? Evidently, that eye-witnesses were disbelieved. Caleb’s word went for nothing; Joshua’s testimony was ignored. That is precisely what we are doing today; that is literally what is being done with regard to Christian testimony in our own generation. What are Christian speakers saying? They are saying that they themselves have tasted, and handled, and felt the good word of life; and we give them the lie. Do not be hard upon ancient Israel, for, if inclined to a temper of severity, we may well inflict upon ourselves the severest chastisement. Do Christian speakers draw pictures, and appeal to the imagination, and suggest material for happy dreams? If so, then we commit no breach of decency or courtesy in subjecting their testimony to close cross-examination; but when men say, each for himself, I was blind, but now I see; I was cruel, but now I am kind; I was a devotee of all evil and wrong, of every form of corruption and mischief, but, by the grace of God, I love truth and light, and grace and beauty; if the living men themselves are there not the words, not the logic, not the argument, not the rhetoric, but the men we must first destroy their character before we can touch their testimony. This, then, puts the whole controversy in a very serious light. Christianity has not only sent messages to us, but messengers not messengers who can repeat sentences, but messengers who incarnate the doctrine they preach, or they have forced themselves into a service for which they have no qualification. Let the life speak: let the sweet temper be its own argument; let the invincible charity bear down with celestial strength the bitter opposition. “Charity suffereth long, and is kind;” it “beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth.” Were this controversy an antagonism between two hostile camps of words, then let his be the palm who wins it: let cleverness enjoy the prize, and let the wordiest speaker have the triumph due to his efforts. But it is not so: this is a matter of life and death, of reality or of unreality. The Christian speaker is not an argument only, but an incarnation; and before we can impugn his message, we must assail the character which he declares that message to have wrought in his own case. Good Christians would be good servants: splendid lives would be splendid works; yet Caleb and Joshua were disbelieved. Eye-witnesses go for nothing in the pressure of an inveterate and unreasoning prejudice. Christ himself was disbelieved: he was “despised and rejected of men.” Purity is a noble argument, but not one that inevitably secures victory and triumph: otherwise, the Son of God himself would but have required to show his life in order to win and subdue the ages.

What did Israel say? Notwithstanding the beautiful messages and the cordial welcomes, they went into their “tents, and said, Because the Lord hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt” ( Deu 1:27 ). That is human nature. Do not suppose that human nature is incapable of baseness so complete. Whatever can be imagined can be done. The fiction is often the larger truth. We say, on reading sundry books, These are inventions. So they are; but inventions are possibilities: inventions may be the larger facts. We must see in others where we are ourselves. We cannot separate ourselves from others, saying, We should not have done so. Said a lady in the hearing of Thomas Carlyle, “Do you think, sir, that we should now act towards Jesus Christ as the Jews acted in their day? We should receive him with love and enthusiasm.” “No, madam,” was the answer, “if he came a rich man, without touching any of our prejudices or habits or customs, I might receive a card from you to be at your house at a given hour, and on the back of it might be written, ‘To meet the Saviour;’ but if he came back as he first came the same poor man, the denouncer of all Pharisaism and evil, you would say, ‘Send him to Newgate, and hang him!'” Certainly. It was human nature that did it not the Jews. The Jews acted but incidentally: the Jews happened to furnish the historical point which gave vividness to the tragedy; but when the Cross was set up, it was human nature that crushed it into the rock: when Christ was jeered, it was the civillest of genteel persons that mocked him to his face: when he was in agony, it was the purest unchristian civilisation that added bitterness to his cup. We must not allow ourselves to imagine that the Jews disbelieved Jesus, and that if he came now we should welcome him. No: the human heart can never welcome Christ: ‘No man an come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.” It is a mystery: we cannot explain the profound enigma; but the human heart never had anything for Christ but a Cross; and from the Cross the miracle must be wrought which constrains human nature to crown him with many crowns. We may disbelieve Caleb and Joshua, we may turn our back upon Moses and Aaron, we may even bring ourselves under the awful denunciation of the thirty-second verse, in which we read “Yet in this thing ye did not believe the Lord your God.” Now, seeing that we must live by belief, who are we going to believe? We cannot get away from this faith-life. Who is to be leader? Say some, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord;” others, “The God that answereth by fire, let him be God.” Set up what standard you will, fix the terms of your own appeal; but Christian men will never hesitate to stand forward and say: Christ is my Lord and my God; I cannot reach the sublimity of his holiness, but I can aim in that direction; I cannot overtake my own prayers, but I can hold my face towards the rising of the sun; I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do I press I press! The attitude is Christian, the attitude is an argument, the attitude imposes a solemn and incommunicable responsibility.

Memorable Experiences

Deu 1:19

There are some things that are never to be forgotten in life. There are troubles whose shadow is as long as life’s whole day. The troubles are past, but the shadow is still there; the victory is won, but the battle seems still to be booming in the ear. We are miles and miles away from the desert yea, half a continent and more but who can ever forget “all that great and terrible wilderness”? Yet life would be poor without it. The memory of that wilderness chastens our joy, touches our prayer into a more solemn and tender music, and makes us more valiant, because more hopeful, in reference to all the future. There cannot be two such wildernesses in the whole universe. If there were another like it, it would not be equal to it, because our experience in the first would enable us to go through the second with a firmer step and a more cheerful courage. We are the better for the wildernesses of life, and we cannot escape them. No evasion is possible here. Apparent evasions have been accomplished, but they have been apparent only. You cannot get your children through life without passing through the wilderness at some time and in some way; and you are foolish when you think you can pay for their passage by some other and happier road. There is only one road rough, cavernous, uphill, where the wind has full scope for its roar and cold assault; and we are the better for passing through it patiently, steadily, and religiously. I know it may seem hard to you that that dear little boy should have to go through the wilderness; but he must go. I know how you take him into your arms and say that you have had to suffer and he shall not but you cannot help it; and if you postpone his suffering too long, he will suffer the more for the postponement. There is a chronology of discipline; there is a time-bill written in heaven, and hung down from the skies, by which all chastisement is administered, all discipline is undergone, all burdens are imposed, and all strength is given. It is folly, it is cruelty, to suppose that you can find out some road in which there is no wilderness some method of education in which there is no chastisement. Oh, that great and terrible wilderness! It comes after us now like a ghost; it darkens upon our vision in the dream-time; we repeat the journey in the night season, and feel all the sleet and cold, all the dreariness and helplessness of the old experience. How many a joy we have forgotten, how many a glad laugh has left no memory behind it, how many a salutation has been but a beating of the air and an instant descent into oblivion; but we cannot play with “that great and terrible wilderness.” The very pronouncement of the words makes us cold. It was “great,” it was “terrible,” it was a “wilderness.” But, rightly trodden, its barren sand made us men; taken in the right spirit, we thought we saw in it the beginning of the garden of God.

Every man does not pass through exactly the same wilderness; it is not needful that he should do so in order to confirm this doctrine viz., that in all lives there are great dreary spaces that we would gladly jump great and terrible wildernesses that we approach with fear and traverse almost with despair.

There was that great business wilderness that you passed through when all was loss and no profit; when your friends forgot you, or when their smile was not followed by any substantial blessing; when you dare not tell the tale to your wife at night, because you had no wish to make her cry and bear a heavier burden. You were not dishonest, nor deceptive; you were not guilty of a culpable secretiveness in keeping the state of affairs from her; you wanted to tread the winepress alone. You said it would be better to-morrow, and then you would tell her all about it. You listened to her laugh and said, “Poor thing! did she but know how near the bankruptcy court is that laugh would be choked in her young throat.” But you would not tell you were passing through a great and terrible wilderness. I am not prepared to blame men who wish to keep the length and the terribleness of the desert as secrets in their own hearts; that secretiveness may be born of love and tender sympathy and real manliness. You remember the time when you had no night, if night be time for sleep; when you had no day, if day be time for joy and triumph. You remember the time when you dare hardly look into your own books, they were such blanks. You have not forgotten your old companions Poverty that walked on the right hand, and Friendlessness that walked on the left. It was a great and terrible wilderness. If you could have talked of it as a wilderness, you might have found some garden patches in it, but you dare not tell exactly where you were everything was so dark, so hard, so sterile; no hint of green thing, no sound of bird-music, no glint of subtle and unexpected light. The wilderness was great and terrible; but it is past. You are in fairer lands now; your property is accumulating, your speculations are paying, your adventures are crowned with success. Do not forget the wilderness: other men are in it. The man sitting next to you now, with an apparently jocund face and bright eye, is in the very middle of the wilderness which you have escaped. “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ;” bear them prayerfully, sympathetically. It is not needful that you should know them in name and detail, in date and actual locality; you must fall back on the solemn and perpetual facts of human history, and always consider that your comrades, friends, companions, neighbours, are undergoing chastisements and bearing burdens the very memory of which is no small part of your own individual training and spiritual education. Let prayer be made for all men. Never offer a prayer without thinking of the heavy-laden, the broken-hearted, the wounded spirit, the tired wayfarer.

Yours, on the other hand, was no business trouble, it was a long and painful affliction the more painful because of a conscious strength that could not assert itself. Oh, that is pain! to know that you have great strength and yet to be pinned down, as it were, at one point. It is humiliating, it makes one impatient. We could sometimes almost tear the pinned filament away and claim opportunity for the exercise of our conscious power. To stop there and to say: “It is right that I should so suffer, be so mocked; Father in heaven, not my will, but thine be done” that is the last accomplishment of our spiritual culture. When we can say so, we are on the very last page of Heaven’s first lesson-book, and will soon be ready to begin the second volume in the ampler and clearer light. You remember the affliction when everybody in the house was quiet; when no one could commence anything new, when to-morrow was to be a revelation of some sorer trouble, some deeper darkness, some heavier burden; when you thought about yourself as about a life that was run out; when you said by that curious euphemy by which we deceive ourselves “If anything should happen to me.” It is so that men speak about their own mortality; you remember the time when there were no joyful words in the speech of the house, when the morning was as night, and the night was sevenfold in darkness that was “a great and terrible wilderness.” The poor reason was reeling, the light was going out, the burden was increasing, because the spirit was chastened. It was a “great and terrible wilderness.”

But yours was neither business nor affliction, it was a wilderness of temptation. You fought with beasts at Ephesus, you fought with yourself seven days a week, it was the hour and power of darkness, the hours were crowded and huddled into one rough midnight. You were without strength; it was the day of helplessness. You were mocked and haunted by invisible and impalpable powers. If they had been flesh and blood you could have struck them, and that would have been some relief; but we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world. Oh! could we but see our enemies, we might take measure of them; we could fasten our eye upon their eye, and anticipate their purpose by a steady glance studious of their intentions. But we do not see the enemy he is on the right hand and on the left, behind, in front, and everywhere a ubiquitous foe. Like the wind we cannot seize him, like the darkness we cannot measure him, like our own life, feeling it everywhere, but unable to place it in any one exclusive locality. We cannot corner those spiritual foes, they never sleep, they give no notice of their approach, they have no Sabbath day in their long week, when they say “We must give the hunted foe or prey a rest.” Just now it is a “great and terrible wilderness.” Recognise it as such, lay your account with it, and study the divine intention in its presence, and in its awful shadow.

What are the thoughts that such a review should excite? Can we look back upon that way, through all the great and terrible wilderness, without remembering the divine help which we received? God was God in the wilderness; God came walking upon the wings of the wind, and flying upon the pinions of the storm; God looked at us through the darkness, and there was no blaze of anger in his eye. Who can forget the touch that came upon our burning brow in the night-time? Who can forget the ever-branching tree, just by the side of the bitter pool? Who can forget the clump of palm trees where no palm trees were expected? Who can cease to remember the voice of leadership the strong, authoritative man who came amongst us like a revelation from God, and spoke broad words in broad tones, and was a tower of strength to us in the time of our weakness, and wonder, and fear the sympathetic pastor, the mighty preacher, the kind friend, the one who understood us wholly through and through? I know of no wilderness in which there were not mitigations of its dreariness and solitude; yet we could not map these out and say they will never occur today, and to-morrow, and a week hence, and in a year’s time. Our blessings also come suddenly, unexpectedly, and, it may be, according to our reckoning, irregularly. But the “great and terrible wilderness” was the place where our great prayers were prayed. The darkness inspires an eloquence of its own; sense of loneliness makes a dumb man eloquent in intercession. You do not know what you said in that long night of wilderness and solitude; the words were taken down; if you could read them now, you would be surprised at their depth, richness, and unction. You owe your very life to the darkness which made you afraid.

Then, is there no divine purpose, the recollection of which may sustain us in traversing wildernesses and lonely deserts? Who made the world? Is the world a fatherless thing, an unmade world, a self-rounded thing that may split up at any moment, or is there method in it? Is there a God above it? Is there a throne anywhere? And the King, is he but a name or an echo? I see purpose in my life; I see it now “Thou hast done all things well.” I did not think so at the time; I should have made the wilderness a mile shorter, but it was on the last mile that I saw the brightest angel. I would have come to honour and renown sooner; but I see now that the very movements were ticked off, and that a moment earlier would have been a mistake. “I would have come,” says another Christian man, “to a sense of competency, and comfort, and household security ten years ago; but in my soul I see that ten years ago I could not have borne what I now carry gracefully.” Thou hast done all things well. I would not have had seven graves in the cemetery, nor two, nor one; but I see now that I am the richer for the seven; I would not now have it otherwise. They are my best estate; I have property in them; I grow my choicest flowers there; there I meet with the angels that understand me. There is a method in all this: I will accept it; I will bow down before it; I will kiss the rod that lacerated me to the bone: it was in my Father’s hand.

Then, is there to be no human gratitude springing out of all this? Is ours to be a false life an unsympathetic existence? Ought there not to be a new power in the hand-grip? Ought not my hand to get round yours with a more cunning and expressive masonry, because of the wilderness through which I have passed and the sorrows which I have undergone, and which are now just beginning to fall upon you? You can never be wrong in regarding human life as having in it great gaps, great deserts, great and terrible wounds. The preacher should never forget this. When an assembly comes together, it does not convene as an assembly of philosophers and high thinkers and men who are thirsting for some special intellectual gratification. I care not where the assembly is, it is an assembly of broken hearts, burdened lives, blinded eyes, sorrow-laden souls. I will undertake, that he who speaks of God’s infinity, eternity, spiritual majesty, deific magnificence and grandeur shall not touch one heart as compared with the man who speaks of fatherhood, pity, condescension, need of help, need of grace. He who so speaks to Heaven will take up a thousand hearts with him, and in his one voice there will throb the necessity of a multitude of souls. As we have received help of God, let us give help to others. If our help sometimes be imposed upon, no matter. I do not want the sagacity which never makes a mistake; I want the sympathy, the great motherly love that tells a prodigal that he is almost an angel. That will do more good in the world than your sharp criticism, your discriminating and penetrating judgment, that knows exactly who is good and who is bad. That is not my business; I have but one hand in this matter, and that is the right hand the giving hand, the writing hand, the helping hand, the working hand, the sheltering and protecting hand. He only must have two hands who can discriminate with infinite penetration and justness between the good and the bad. We do not all come through the wilderness with equal strength. Some are far behind, they were very weak; they got sore tired; they said, “Comrade, how far is it now?” And all we could say was, “It is not so far today as it was yesterday.” Do not count the miles, take the steps; do not say you have to travel fifty miles, but say you have to take the next step, and grace shall be equal to thy day. “My grace is sufficient for thee.” And at the last he will say, “Thy shoes were iron and brass; and as thy day, so thy strength was.” And we shall reply, “Even so, my garments were not worn, my shoes bore no travel stains, the mystery of endurance was equal to the mystery of trial; so, God be thanked for the great and terrible wilderness!”

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

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

XI

THE ANALYSIS: SOME OBJECTIONS ANSWERED

Deu 1:1-5

ANALYSIS I. Introduction, Deu 1:1-5 .

1. Retrospective connection with Num 1:1-2 .

2. Time, place and circumstances of first address, Deu 1:3-5 .

3. Text fixing character of the book and meaning of the Law, Deu 1:5 .

II. Appointment of three cities of refuge in territory east of Jordan, Deu 4:41-43 .

III. First great oration, Deu 1:6-4:40 . 1. A review of national history from Sinai to Jordan, Deu 1:6-3:29 .

2. Exhortation thereon, Deu 4:1-40 .

IV. Second great oration, Deu 4:44-24:19 . Part 1.Deu 4:44-11:32 .

(1) Introduction, Deu 4:44-49 .

(2) Rehearsal of the Decalogue, 5:1-21.

(3) Comment on the history, exposition and exhortation, Deu 5:22-11:32 .

Part 2. Deuteronomy 12-26, various statutes and judgments with comment, exposition, and exhortation.

V. Third great oration, Deuteronomy 27-28. Part 1.Deu 27 , provision for renewal of covenant after entering Canaan.

(1) Record of the law on monumental stones, Deu 27:1-4

(2) Building of an altar after original model in Exo 20 and ratification by burnt offerings, Deu 27:5-6 .

(3) Peace offerings and joyous communion festivals, Deu 27:7 .

(4) Provision for announcement of result at the covenant renewal, Deu 27:9-10 .

(5) Solemn and sublime arrangements for committing the whole people to both blessings and curses of the law, Deu 27:11-26 .

Part 2.Deu 28 , exhortations based upon the directions and prophecies of Part 1.

(1) Blessings of obedience. Deu 28:1-14 .

(2) Curses of disobedience. Deu 28:15-68 .

VI. Fourth great oration, Deuteronomy 29-30. Part 1. Provision for present renewal of covenant oath, Deu 29:1-15 .

(1) Introduction, historic recital. Deu 29:1-9 .

(2) Parties who take the oath. Deu 29:10-15 .

Part 2. Comment and exhortation, Deu 29:16-30:20 .

VII. Fifth great oration, Deu 31:1-13 . 1. His words to the people, Deu 31:1-6 .

2. His words to Joshua, Deu 31:7-9 .

3. Provision for instruction of the people at central place of worship when established, in all the written law, every seventh year, Deu 31:9-13 .

VIII. Moses and Joshua before the Lord, Deu 31:14-29 . 1. Moses presents his successor before Jehovah, Deu 31:14-15 .

2. Jehovah instructs Moses to write and sing a song, and why, Deu 31:16-22 .

3. Jehovah’s charge to Joshua, Deu 31:23 .

4. The Pentateuch completed and filed for preservation and why, Deu 31:24-29 .

IX. The song, or Moses’ sixth address, Deu 32:1-47 . 1. The invocation, Deu 32:1 .

2. Its character, Deu 32:2 .

3. Its theme, Deu 32:3-6 .

4. Its argument, Deu 32:7-33 .

5. Its prophecy, Deu 32:34-43 .

6. Its exhortation, Deu 32:44-47 .

X. Jehovah’s final direction to Moses, Deu 32:48-52 . 1. View of the Promised Land, Deu 32:48-49 .

2. Prepare to die, Deu 32:50 .

3. Why not permitted to enter the Promised Land, Deu 32:51-52 .

XI. Prophetic blessings on the tribes, or seventh address of Moses, Deu 33Deu 33Deu 33 . 1. Introduction, Deu 33:1-5 .

2. Each tribe separately, Simeon omitted, why, Deu 33:6-25 .

3. The people as a unit, Deu 33:26-29 .

XII. Deuteronomy linked to the book of Joshua, Deu 34Deu 34Deu 34 .

1. Unique death and burial of Moses, Deu 34:1-7 .

2. Israel mourning for her departed hero, Deu 34:8 .

3. His successor, Deu 34:9 .

4. His place in history, Deu 34:10-12 .

Open your Bible and follow me carefully in noting some things upon which the higher critics base some objections to the integrity of the book. They allege first that there is a contradiction between the first two verses of Deuteronomy and the next three verses as to the place, or scene. Now, let us read it: “These are the words which Moses spake unto all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah over against Suph, between Paran and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Di-zahab.” Now these words refer to four or five different localities. The third commences: “And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, . . . ” Now, they say that the first two verses locate the scene in a number of places reaching clear back to the Red Sea. That the following verses locate it opposite Jericho in the plains of Moab, and, therefore, there is a contradiction.

Now note my answer. The first two verses in the book of Deuteronomy are retrospective, merely establishing connection with the book of Numbers, just the closing of the book of Numbers restated and the true commencement of Deuteronomy is the third verse. So if you turn to Genesis, you will find that the last verses are about Jacob and all of his children going into the land of Egypt. Then, when you look at the beginning of Exodus, he commences by a restatement of the closing of Genesis. “Now these are the names of the sons of Israel, . . .” Now turn to 2Ch 36:22 : “Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia.” Now turn to Ezra I, the book that follows it, and you will see it restates the closing of Chronicles. In other words, it is a habit where these books are related to each other to show that relation by restating in the beginning of the new book the ending of the preceding. Therefore there is no contradiction between the first two verses, which are merely retrospective and form a connecting link with Numbers. The statement in the three following verses that the scene of the book of Deuteronomy is the plains of Moab is the first point, and the man that has a studious mind ought to see that they ought not to make that a ground of invidious criticism of the Word of God.

The second objection is based on the phrase, “beyond Jordan.” Deuteronomy says, “These are the words that Moses spake unto all Israel beyond Jordan.” They say that expression, “beyond Jordan,” means that a man wrote the book on the west side of the Jordan. Now, in the New Testament where it speaks of John baptizing beyond the Jordan, that means in Perea, therefore they say that some man besides Moses wrote this because Moses didn’t get on that side of the Jordan. You see the point clearly.

The reply on this point is that this phrase was a geographical expression without any reference to position of the writer or speaker fixed before the time of Moses and describes a section of country like “The South Country.” no matter where the speaker is with reference to the south country. And “the land toward the great sea” means west of the Jordan, no matter whether the speaker himself is west of the Jordan or east of it. It is a geographical expression, precisely so “Beyond Jordan” was a phrase fixed in history and in geography before Moses wrote. He meant that section of the country east of the Jordan River. Now, I hate to call your attention to the little things. I dislike to speak of little things but must if I speak of anything the higher critics claim.

The next is based on a number of parenthetical clauses in the King James Version (Deu 1:2 ; Deu 2:10-12 ; Deu 2:20-23 ; Deu 3:9 ; Deu 3:11 ) which are claimed to be irrelevant to the matter in hand. Now you see these parenthetical clauses. On these parentheses they base an objection. They say they break the connection and therefore must have been interpolations by a later writer. This is their allegation.

Now, my reply is that every one of those parenthetical references is intensely relevant to the matter in hand, and that they very greatly accentuate the emphasis of the speaker. Suppose we take them up in order. It was only eleven days’ march from Mount Sinai to Kadesh-barnea. Now, the fact that it took them thirty-seven days for an eleven days’ march shows that they committed some sin. He sharply rebuked that sin, which delayed them. The next time the delay was thirty-eight years on account of their sin. Now, it is very important for Moses in making a speech, and a speech which is to close with an exhortation, to call attention, parenthetically, to these facts, and in the second verse he states all the places that he wants to emphasize. “You stopped there so long, here, yonder.” You see now if that parenthetical statement is not relevant to the matter he had in hand, there is no such thing as relevancy.

Now, let us look at the next parenthetical clause (Deu 2:10-12 ; Deu 2:20-23 ). Let us see what that is. The parenthesis reads this way, “The Emim dwelt therein aforetime, . . .” “the Horites also dwelt in Seir aforetime, but the children of Esau succeeded them, . . .” Now, they say that this is evidently an interpolation by a later writer. I reply that the ethnic reference to those joint nations is of the utmost importance and bearing on the matter in hand. If those joint races had been expelled from their former holdings by the Edomites, Amorites, and Moabites, how little should Israel, led by the Almighty, fear such adversaries. Their history demands just exactly that reference. And let us notice the next parenthesis (Deu 2:9 ), which reads, ‘”which Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion and the Amorites called it Senir.” They say that these names are given to Mount Sinai at a much later date, therefore the man that wrote that must have lived at a much later date than Moses lived. Now, the names given Mount Hermon are all pertinent, and express historical facts well in the knowledge of Moses, and helped to identify the mount. Moses called it Mount Hermon) not Sinai. The Phoenicians gave it the name of Sirion. Other people called it a different name. All of these names were given before the time of Moses. They are just mistaken in the fact that these names were given it at a later period.

Now let us look at the next objection (Deu 3:11 ). It is the description of the bedstead of Og. This objection is but an expression of unbelief in the veracity of the historian and results from their own ignorance. Well, little fellows like higher critics would never need a big bed. You would have to stretch them and expand them to make them fit. But it is a historical fact that the bones of a person fitting that bed have been recently dug up near that place. I am regarded as a pretty tall man and when a friend of mine saw me get off the train with some giants, he commenced laughing and said, “B. H., I always thought you were a big man, but you are a dwarf; just look at those people.” Now we know, in history, of people big enough to fill that bed. The pentateuchal references to giants are supported rather than discredited by modern discoveries on the scene of the story.

Now let us take up the other, (Deu 3:14 ). It says, “Even unto this day.” Now, they say that whoever wrote that expression must have been a man very remote from that time, hundreds and hundreds of years must have passed away. When that writer says, “Even unto this day,” therefore, some other man than Moses must have written the book. Their criticism is the merest assumption. The phrase, “even unto this day,” does not necessarily imply a long time, and we will find it used in the book of Joshua to mean a very short period of time. Moses could say, “Even unto this day,” since his reason for using that expression is that he sometimes refers to a place that had changed names, he says that it used to be called a certain name; that it used to be called Rephaim a long time ago, or at such a time it was called a certain name. It is still that name “unto this day.” The phrase simply means this, whether it be a long interval or a short interval of time.

I will give you one more (Deu 4:41-43 ) : “Then Moses set apart three cities on the side of Jordan toward the sunrising; that the man-slayer might flee thither.” In other words, he there sets apart three cities of refuge before he crosses the Jordan. Now, the objection to this speech is that Moses breaks the connection. My reply is that it does not break the connection of the speech. His speech was ended, and a piece of history comes in before he makes another speech. Now, you will think these are very small matters, and yet men covered with medals from the universities of Europe gravely sit down and attack the Pentateuch on these things.

Every public speaker, whether preacher or politician, may profitably study Carlyle’s “Essay on Stump Speaking,” in which he submits substantially the following conditions of a great oration:

First, there must be a great occasion to call it forth. Now, you know the difference in getting up in a debating society with nothing involved and having a case to come up in real life. One is an occasion and the other a make-believe. There must be a great occasion.

Second, the speaker must be equal to the occasion.

Third, he must daringly seize the opportunity flying by swiftly. If he has not the capacity to seize that opportunity, he never can be an orator.

Fourth, he must have something to say. Neither froth, nor fancies, nor oratorical declamation fits a great occasion. There must be matter and body to his thought.

Fifth (and here is the point upon which I do all my studying on great occasions when I make speeches), he must so say things that they will stick, lodge, burn in the mind of the hearer. Now, those are the points by Carlyle on stump speaking; and I want to apply them to the book of Deuteronomy. In the first place it has been shown that Moses had a great occasion; second, it has been shown how he was the one man in all the world equal to the demands of that occasion; third, it has been shown how, in the last days of his life, he seized the flying opportunity to utilize the occasion. And now, from the addresses themselves and subsequent history, we have to determine whether he had something to say and so said it that it stuck.

Now fix your attention carefully on a phrase, the most important in the whole book, as determining the character of the book (Deu 1:5 ). Just six words, “began Moses to declare this law.” You must not construe this to mean that Moses began to enact new laws. “To declare” here means to unfold, to expound, to dig under, to dig up past law. The book does not tell of the legislator making the laws, but of an orator expounding law, giving the sense of it and applying its meaning. This text is a matchless theme for a sermon when you desire to show how Moses began to take up this law, to expound, to declare this law, and what the significance. It means that the Bible is not so much a book for reading, but a book to be studied.

That you must open up its heart. Now, a student can do this. An idiot can read the Bible, but he cannot dig it out. Now an example: When our Lord met those two people going to Emmaus he said, “You fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have said concerning me,” and then he dug up and expounded all the meanings of this scripture. “Now, you didn’t believe these things; you simply read them; now I will expound them; I will dig them up and let you see the real meaning of them.” Therefore I say that this gives us the character of the book. It is an exposition and not legislation. I repeat, this teaching is a matchless theme when you desire to show the necessity of Bible study; that the Scriptures are not so much to be read as to be studied.

Another point is that Moses uses the words, “the law,” and he does not limit them to mere previous legislation, but includes all the historical setting. The whole of the first address which is called an expounding of the law is but an exposition of the connecting history. With the Jews later and with Christ and his Apostles, the Torah, the Law, means all the Pentateuch, both history and legislation. It has that meaning in the remarkable history found in 2Ki 12 and 2Ch 34 . The book found is the Pentateuch. The unity of the Pentateuch cannot ever be overemphasized. Moses in his address of exposition goes back to the Genesis record of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and even to the first creation of man. He goes back to Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers in both history and legislation. And as we shall see at the close of this book, he finishes the continuous record and deposits it as a witness forever in the ark in the custody of the priests. You should study Dr. Green of Princeton in Biblical Introduction on the unity of Genesis, the unity of the Pentateuch and the unity of the Old Testament.

QUESTIONS

1. Give an analysis of Deuteronomy.

2. What do the higher critics allege as to the first two verses and how do you answer it?

3. What the higher critics’ second objection, and the answer?

4. What their third objection and what the answer?

5. Show the relevancy of each of these parenthetical clauses.

6. What their fourth objection and the reply thereto?

7. What the objection based on the phrase “unto this day,” and your reply?

8. What the objection based on Deu 4:41-43 , and your reply thereto?

9. What essay on “Stump Speaking” is cited? What are the conditions of a great oration as submitted by this author?

10. Show how the first three of these conditions apply to Moses.

11. What is the meaning of Deu 1:5 and what the bearing on the character of the book?

12. What line of thought suggested for a sermon on this text and its application?

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

Deu 1:1 These [be] the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red [sea], between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab.

Ver. 1. These be the words which Moses spake. ] And surely he spake much, if he spake, as some cast it up, this whole Book in less than ten days’ space. Certain it is that he spake here, as ever, most divinely, and like himself, or rather beyond himself – the end of a thing being better, if better may be, than the beginning thereof, Ecc 7:8 as good wine is best at last; and as the sun shines most amiably when it is going down. This book of the law it was that the king was to write out with his own hand, Deu 17:18-19 that it might serve as his manual, and attend him in his running library. This was that happy book that good Josiah lighting upon, after it had long laid hid in the temple, melted at the menaces thereof, and obtained of God to die in peace, though he were slain in battle. This only book was that silver brook, that preciously purling current, out of which the Lord Christ, our Champion, chose all those three smooth stones, wherewith he prostrated the Goliath of hell in that sharp encounter. Mat 4:4 ; Mat 4:7 ; Mat 4:10 And surely, if Cicero could call Aristotle’s “Politics,” for the elegancy of the style, and for the excellency of the matter, aureum flumen orationis; and if the same author durst say that the law of the twelve tables did exceed all the libraries of philosophers, both in weight and worth; how much rather is all this true of this second edition of God’s law, with an addition.

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

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Deu 1:1-5

1These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel across the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab. 2It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea. 3In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel, according to all that the LORD had commanded him to give to them, 4after he had defeated Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and Edrei. 5Across the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to expound this law, saying,

Deu 1:1 These are the words This is the Hebrew title for the book. The Hebrew VERB spoke (BDB 180, KB 210, Piel PERFECT) is a COGNATE to the NOUN words (BDB 182). Because the book itself says that these are the words of Moses, I believe that this excludes the possibility that this is entirely the work of a later redactor, editor, or compiler. We actually have the words of Moses, which in reality are the words of YHWH (e.g., Deu 7:4; Deu 11:13-14; Deu 17:3; Deu 29:6). This is not to say that there are not some editorial additions or that Moses recorded his own death. But the bulk of the material and the theology are Mosaic.

Similar phrases seem to divide Deuteronomy into sections:

1. These are the words, Deu 1:1 (Deu 1:1-5, introduction to first sermon)

2. This is the law, Deu 4:44 (Deu 4:44-49, introduction to second sermon)

3. This is the commandment, Deu 6:1

4. These are the words of the covenant, Deu 29:1 (start of third sermon)

5. This is the blessing, Deu 33:1

While I am commenting on this controversial issue of authorship/date, let me state clearly that I believe all Scripture is inspired (cf. 2Ti 3:15-17). The issue of authorship and date are hermeneutical issues, not inspiration issues! The Holy Spirit is the divine author of all canonical texts. Is this pre-suppositional? Absolutely! But it is a crucial presupposition, which must be reviewed and studied before any exegesis of Scripture has validity. The doctrines of Inspiration and Canonization are the twin pillars on which an authoritative Bible rests!

which Moses spoke There were a large number of people who left Egypt with Moses and it would have been physically impossible for him to speak to all of them at one time. Possibly he spoke to the elders and then they repeated it to smaller groups or this is a literary way of denoting a written document.

to all Israel See Special Topic below.

SPECIAL TOPIC: ISRAEL (THE NAME)

across the Jordan This possibly means in the region of (BDB 719). The next two sentences are very specific as to the geographical location of the camp of Israel when Moses gave them this revelation. It became an idiom for (1) the area east of the Jordan (cf. Num 35:14; Deu 1:1; Deu 1:5; Deu 4:41; Deu 4:46-47; Deu 4:49) and (2) the western area (cf. Deu 3:20; Deu 3:25; Deu 11:30; Deu 9:1). It requires additional phrases to clarify which bank of the river is meant (cf. R. K Harrison, Introduction to the Old Testament, pp. 636-638).

the wilderness This is not desert but uninhabited pasture land (BDB 184), which is dry and dead most of the year except in winter and early spring.

the Arabah This is literally arid plains (BDB 787). This refers to the Jordan Valley (i.e., the Great Rift Valley) which goes from the Sea of Galilee to the Gulf of Aqaba (really from Turkey to Mozambique). So, it refers to the area both to the south (modern usage) and to the north of the Dead Sea and we are not certain exactly which part is meant. It can refer to the east bank of the Jordan (cf. Deu 3:17; Deu 4:49) or the west bank (cf. Deu 11:30). Deu 1:1 is a summary of the Israelites’ trek from Egypt to Sinai.

Suph This (Egyptian loan word) is literally reeds (BDB 693). This can refer either to salt water plants (cf. Jon 2:5) or more commonly fresh water plants (cf. Exo 2:5). Here it can be translated area of reeds or the city of Suph and may relate to Deu 1:40 (i.e., Red Sea is literally, sea of reeds). See Special Topic: The Red Sea .

Paran The term paran (BDB 803) can refer to a wilderness area which was north of the wilderness of Sinai, but south of the wilderness of Judea (cf. Num 13:3; Num 13:26). The oasis of Kadesh-Barnea was located in this wilderness area. See Special Topic: The Wildernesses of the Exodus .

However, in this verse Paran seems to be an unknown location (possibly a city) on the eastern bank of the Jordan.

Topel The term means whitewash (BDB 1074). This is an unknown site, but is apparently on the eastern side of the Jordan in the territory of Moab.

Laban The term means white (BDB 526 III). This is an unknown site. Some scholars place it on the route from Sinai to Moab (cf. Libnah of Num 33:20-21), while others make it a city or village on the eastern bank of the Jordan in Moab.

Hazeroth It is this place name (BDB 348) that has caused scholars to assert that the locations mentioned after Arabah are Israel’s camp locations between Mt. Sinai and the plains of Moab (cf. Deu 1:2). If so, Laban would be Libnah (cf. Num 33:20-21) and Hazeroth would refer to Num 33:17-18. This was the site where Aaron and Miriam murmured against Moses’ leadership or his new marriage to a Cushite woman (cf. Numbers 12).

Dizahab This name (a combination of Aramaic place of and Hebrew gold) means place of gold (BDB 191). The rabbis related this to the Egyptians giving the Jews gold when they left Egypt (cf. Exo 3:22; Exo 11:2; Exo 12:35), but in context, this was a place name. The site is unknown. It was either (1) on the east bank of the Jordan in Moab and thereby close to the other places mentioned or (2) on the route from Mt. Sinai to Moab.

Deu 1:2 eleven days journey from Horeb. . .Kadesh-barnea This verse may be a summary of the movement of Israel from Mt. Horeb/Sinai to the oasis at Kadesh, but if so, it does not fit well between Deu 1:1; Deu 1:3. This may have been included to show that the journey should have taken eleven days, but because of unbelief it took a whole generation (38 years plus). This eleven-day trip seems to confirm the site of Mt. Horeb/Sinai as in the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula.

Notice that the place of the giving of the law is called Horeb. Horeb is a Hebrew word for waste or desolate (BDB 352, KB 349). Sinai (BDB 696) is a non-Hebrew word, and they seem to both refer to the place where Moses brought Israel to meet YHWH (e.g., Horeb, Exo 3:1; Deu 1:6; Deu 1:19; Deu 4:10; Deu 4:15; Deu 5:12 and Sinai Exodus 19; Lev 7:38; Lev 25:1; Lev 26:46; Lev 27:34; Num 1:1; Num 1:9; Num 3:1; Num 3:4; Num 3:14; Num 9:1; Num 9:5).

Why the name Horeb is used most often in Deuteronomy and Sinai most often in Exodus is unknown. There is literary variety in the writings of Moses. This could refer to:

1. oral traditions recorded by different scribes

2. Moses using different scribes

3. changes by later scribes for unknown reasons

4. literary variety

SPECIAL TOPIC: THE LOCATION OF MT. SINAI

Mount Seir BDB 973 says the term Seir can mean (1) goat; (2) hairy; (3) hairy as in well-wooded with trees; while KB 1989 asserts that it means hairy.

In the OT this term is associated with Edom (cf. Gen 14:6; Gen 36:20-21; Gen 36:30; Deu 1:2; Deu 1:44; Deu 2:1; Deu 2:4-5; Deu 33:2). It is often characterized as a mountain (cf. Gen 14:6; Gen 36:8-9; Deu 2:1). Therefore, originally it was a Horite mountainous area annexed by Edom.

Kadesh-barnea This is a large oasis on the border of Edom (cf. Num 20:16), about 50 miles south of Beersheba, with four natural springs. Its name has two elements. The first is from the Hebrew for holy (BDB 873). The second is unknown. It became the hub of their wilderness wanderings (cf. Numbers 13-14).

Deu 1:3 the fortieth year This is the only date in Deuteronomy. Forty (BDB 917) is used so often in the Bible that it seems to refer to a long, indefinite period of time. The actual chronology seems to be 38 years (from Sinai to the plains of Moab). See Special Topic: Symbolic Numbers in Scripture .

on the first day of the eleventh month The author is making every effort to locate the place and time on these words to Israel. See Special Topic below.

SPECIAL TOPIC: ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN CALENDARS

Moses spoke to the children of Israel, according to all that the LORD had commanded him to give to them God is the author; Moses is the channel, but all these commands come from the covenant-making Yahweh.

There is great variety in the names for deity in Moses’ writings. The following is an example from Deuteronomy 1-4.

1. The LORD (YHWH), Deu 1:3; Deu 1:8; Deu 1:27; Deu 1:34; Deu 1:37; Deu 1:41-43; Deu 1:45; Deu 2:12; Deu 2:14-15; Deu 2:17; Deu 2:21; Deu 2:31; Deu 3:2; Deu 3:20-21; Deu 3:26(twice); Deu 4:12; Deu 4:14-15; Deu 4:21; Deu 4:27

2. The LORD (YHWH) our God (Elohim), Deu 1:1; Deu 1:19-20; Deu 1:25; Deu 1:41; Deu 2:29; Deu 2:36-37; Deu 3:3; Deu 4:7

3. The LORD (YHWH) your God (Elohim), Deu 1:10; Deu 1:21; Deu 1:26; Deu 1:30-32; Deu 2:7(twice),30; Deu 3:18; Deu 3:20-22; Deu 4:2-4; Deu 4:10; Deu 4:19; Deu 4:21; Deu 4:23(twice),24,25,29,30,31,34,40

4. The LORD (YHWH), the God (Elohim) of your fathers, Deu 1:11; Deu 1:21; Deu 4:1

5. God (Elohim), Deu 1:17; Deu 2:33; Deu 4:24 (jealous God), 31(compassionate God), 32,33

6. LORD (Adon) God (YHWH), Deu 3:24

7. LORD (YHWH), my God (Elohim), Deu 4:5

8. LORD (YHWH), He is God (Elohim), Deu 4:35; Deu 4:39

There has been much speculation about this variety:

1. multiple authors

2. multiple scribes

3. theological distinctives

4. literary variety

OT scholars must admit that the authorship, compilation, editing, and scribal activity connected to the Canonical books of the OT is a mystery. We must be careful to not let our modern western literary theories or our a-priori theological assumptions demand one and only one interpretation. Mystery means mystery.

SPECIAL TOPIC: NAMES FOR DEITY

Deu 1:4

NASB, NRSV after he defeated

NKJV after he had killed

TEV after the LORD had defeated

NJB He had defeated

The VERB (BDB 645, KB 697, Hiphil INFINITIVE) means to smite and the theological implication is that it was YHWH. He is the first cause and only cause!

Sihon Sihon (BDB 695) was the Amorite king of a region next to Og, king of Bashan, on the eastern side of Jordan. Moses was commanded by God (cf. Deu 2:4-9) not to attack the Jews’ relatives of Moab and Edom (Lot’s descendants by his own daughters, cf. Gen 19:30-38). The only other route to the Jordan was through Sihon’s kingdom. The capital city of Heshbon was the first major city that the Israeli army conquered (cf. Deu 2:26-37; Num 21:21-32).

Og Og (BDB 728) was king of the region called Bashan, which had two large cities (cf. Jos 12:4) and many villages (cf. Deu 3:1-10). He was apparently one of the Rephaim (giants, cf. Deu 3:11) who inhabited Canaan (cf. Deu 2:20; Jos 12:4). It was the descendants of these giants (cf. Deu 2:11) at Hebron who had caused Israel to reject the two faithful spies’ report (cf. Num 13:22).

SPECIAL TOPIC: THE DATE OF THE EXODUS

SPECIAL TOPIC: PRE-ISRAELITE INHABITANTS OF PALESTINE

Astaroth This city (BDB 800) was named after the female consort of the Canaanite fertility god Baal-Asherah/Astarte. Because of the mentioning of Rephaim, it is possible that this city is referenced in Gen 14:5. See Special Topic: Fertility Worship of the Ancient Near East .

Edrei This was one of the capital cities of Og (cf. Jos 12:4; Jos 13:12).

Deu 1:5 in the land of Moab This is where the Israelites camped before entering the Promised Land. It is the location just north of the Dead Sea on the eastern bank of the Jordan, where Deuteronomy was written.

Moses undertook This VERB (BDB 383, KB 381, Hiphil PERFECT) implies volitional commitment (cf. Gen 18:27; Exo 2:21; Jdg 19:6).

to expound this law This VERB (BDB 91, KB 106, Piel PERFECT) means to make clear or understandable. This word only appears here and two other times where it is translated write (cf. Deu 27:8; Hab 2:2). Instruction which is not clear or understandable is useless and, in this covenantal context, dangerous.

The term law (i.e., Torah BDB 260) is the Hebrew term for teaching or instruction (cf. Deu 4:8; Deu 4:44; Deu 27:3; Deu 27:8; Deu 27:26; Deu 28:58; Deu 28:61; Deu 29:20; Deu 29:28; Deu 30:10; Deu 31:9; Deu 31:11-12; Deu 32:46). In this context it refers to Moses’ sermons delivered to Israel on the eastern side of Jordan across from Jericho, on the plains of Moab, just before the Israelites crossed the Jordan without him.

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

These. Note the ten (see App-10) addresses by Moses:

1) Deu 1:6-4:40

2)Deu 5:1-10:5

3) Deu 10:10-12:32

4) Deu 13:1-26:19

5) Deu 27:1-26; Deu 28:1-63

6) Deu 29:2-29; Deu 30:1-20

7) Deu 31:2-6

8)Deu 32:1-43

9) Deu 32:44-47

10) Deu 33:2-29

the words = Haddebarim. See note above.

all Israel. Compare Deu 5:1. Mode given by God, Exo 3:16; Exo 4:29. Lev 24:14. “All” used by Figure of speech Synecdoche (App-6) to signify a national gathering of any size (1Sa 7:3; 1Sa 12:1, 1Sa 12:19; 1Ki 8:2, 1Ki 8:14, 1Ki 8:22, 1Ki 8:55, 1Ki 8:62; 1Ki 12:12, 1Ki 12:16, 1Ki 12:18, &c).

this side Jordan = across Jordan, a neutral term, expression to be determined by context. Num 22:1.

the plain. Hebrew. ‘Arabah = name of vale from Jordan to gulf of Akabah. Red sea = Suph, name of a place. Omit “sea”. See Num 33:48, Num 33:49, Num 33:50; Num 35:1; Num 36:13.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Let’s turn to Deuteronomy. The word Deuteronomy means the second law. It is really sort of Moses’ final address to the people. It probably covers the last month and a half of Moses’ life. So he’s getting up there now, about a hundred and twenty years old. His eyesight is still keen, he can still hear very well and he is addressing these people, rehearsing for them the work of God in their past because many of them were born while in the wilderness. Many of them did not see the miracle of the Red Sea being parted. They did not have a personal memory of the horrible bondage in Egypt. In growing up as children, they weren’t as aware of the hazards of the wilderness.

And so Moses is sort of recounting for them. And though he recounts the forty years from Egypt to coming into the land, yet we are told that these things came in the eleventh month in the first day of the fortieth year. In the tenth day of the first month of the forty-first year, they crossed Jordan into the Promised Land after mourning the death of Moses for thirty days. So, all of these things transpired in Deuteronomy, as far as Moses was concerned, in the last forty days of his life; his final exhortations to the people prior to their crossing and entering into the land. So, they are words of encouragement as he is recounting that which God has done. He is encouraging them to go in and to take the land that God had promised to them.

So these are the words which Moses spake unto all of Israel on the side of Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red sea ( Deu 1:1 ),

And in verse Deu 1:2 is a little commentary, it says,

(There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb by way of mount Seir to Kadeshbarnea.) And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according to all that the LORD had given him in commandment unto them ( Deu 1:2-3 );

So, there’s an eleven-day journey from Horeb to Kadeshbarnea to the beginning of entering into the Promised Land, but they have been journeying for forty years and eleven months on an eleven-day journey. About a hundred and twenty-six miles from Mount Horeb to Kadeshbarnea. We recognize that a part of the wilderness experience was legitimate. To get from the Red Sea into the Promised Land, it was necessary to go through the wilderness, an eleven-day journey, but most of the wilderness experience was illegitimate.

Now I feel that the history is a typical history, that there are spiritual analogies to be made to the children of Israel coming out of Egypt passing through the wilderness into the Promised Land. And I feel that the analogies that are to be made are that of the Christian walk and life and experience. For Egypt, the area of bondage, slavery, hardship, is the type of the life of the world, in the world, slaves to our flesh to Satan; and so it is typical of our old life. The Promised Land into which God was bringing them is typical to the glorious life and victory in the spirit. The life that God wants you to live, a life of victory, a life of overcoming.

Now, there is the coming out of the old life, being delivered from the old life, and this new relationship that we experience with God, learning to walk by faith, as we are setting aside the things of the flesh life and are beginning this new walk in the spirit. There is a time in our Christian experience of growth and development and there is sort of the legitimate wilderness experience, but God surely does not want you to spend your whole life in the wilderness. God wants to bring you on into the walk of the spirit and the life of the spirit and a life that is dominated by the spirit. Now the life of the spirit begins with the death of the old nature, the old man, which is the position that we must take by faith. “Reckon ye your old man to be dead with Christ. Know ye not that the old man was crucified with Christ?”( Rom 6:6 ) Paul the apostle said, “I am crucified with Christ” ( Gal 2:20 ).

There is a warfare that goes on in our lives; the flesh warring against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these two are contrary. They are each of them seeking supremacy. They’re each of them seeking to rule our lives. And if we yield to the flesh, the flesh will govern and rule our lives and we will have the resulted mind of the flesh. Our mind will be upon the fleshly things continually; What shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear?

These kinds of things, and in that we differ nothing from the heathen, from the animals. For their lives are spent in seeking to satisfy their physical appetites and needs. But God wants us to not be governed by the flesh but to be governed by the spirit; and thus, there is this spiritual warfare seeking the dominancy in your life. And we are told that we are not to yield to the flesh or give place to the flesh to fulfill its desires, but to walk after the spirit, and that our warfare is actually a spiritual warfare. And in it, I must recognize that this old body of flesh, with its desires, has been crucified that it should no longer rule over me but that I now can be ruled by the spirit of God.

Now Paul describes his wilderness experience in the seventh chapter of Romans as he talks about seeing the law of God, consenting that the law of God was good and determining to fulfill the law of God. But he found that there was another law, a perverse kind of a law, that whenever he would do good, evil was present with him. And so often the good that he wanted to do, he couldn’t do and the evil he didn’t want to do was the thing that he was doing until he found himself in just a miserable, wretched state. A desire to obey God and to keep the law of God, consenting that it’s good, that’s the right way, that’s the way I want to live; seeing the divine ideal, being attracted by the divine ideal and desiring, longing after it. And yet the inability to bring the flesh into conformity with the spirit of God.

So Paul speaks of this frustration, “Oh wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from this bondage to my flesh?” ( Rom 7:24 ). But then as he moves into the eighth chapter of Romans, he found the answer to his cry. Now, the cry almost indicated the answer itself; “Who shall deliver me?” It was no longer “How shall I free myself?” He’s looking now outside of himself for the help. Now, the wilderness experiences where I am trying to bring my flesh into conformity to the will of God, and I’m promising God that I’m gonna do better, that I’m not gonna fail next time. And I’m making all of these vows and I’m doing my best to bring my flesh into conformity to God and to God’s will, but I find this perverse law that Paul found working. “The good that I would I do not. The evil that I would not, that I do”( Rom 7:19 ). And I cannot bring my flesh into conformity unto God.

God’s solution is death to the flesh, crucified with Christ. Therefore, I must take a position of faith and recognize that the old nature, the life of the flesh, was crucified with Christ in order that I might now live after the new nature, the nature of Christ, and living now after the spirit. But the cry must come, “Who shall deliver me?” I must have to come to the place where I despair of freeing myself or despair of my own righteousness or despair of ever being righteous in the eyes of God by my own works and my own efforts. I must despair of all of these self-improvement programs and I must cry out for help outside of myself, for therein is the power of the spirit manifested. And he comes to help me and do for me what I can’t do for myself. “O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me?” ( Rom 7:24 ). Oh, I’m getting close because I realize now I can’t deliver myself. For so long I tried to deliver myself, ended in failure.

Now recognizing my weakness, I’m crying for power outside of myself. “Who shall deliver me” and God’s answer then comes, “I am delivered by the power the dynamic of the spirit for ye shall receive power when the Holy Ghost comes upon you”( Act 1:8 ). And that which I could not do because of the weakness of my flesh I find that God has done for me and has made provision for me through the power of the Holy Spirit. And so it is glorious to come in to the walk and the life of the spirit, to enter into that life that God wants you to live as a child of God, as His child.

Now it was God’s desire all along to bring them into the land. It was not God’s desire that they perish in the wilderness. That was a tragedy of failure on their part and it was a failure of faith. They failed to enter in by faith to that which God had promised to them. God had laid it out and said, “Here it is. It’s yours.” But they saw the giants in the land and the high-walled cities instead of God. They got their eyes upon the obstacles rather of than the power of God to remove the obstacles.

And this is the mistake that we so often make as we look at our own lives and we look at the dominion that our flesh has had over us. We’re prone to look at the obstacles. We say, “Oh, but I’m so weak and I’ve tried so hard and you don’t know how long I’ve been struggling with this thing”. And we’re looking at the obstacles rather than the power of God to deliver us from those obstacles. And so it is important that we not fail where they failed but that we, by faith, take this position of victory, of power, of strength, of walking in the spirit reckoning the old man, the old nature, to be dead with Christ.

So, that which should have taken eleven days took them forty years, actually forty-one years to be exact, because it wasn’t until the forty-first year on the tenth day that they entered in to the land that God had promised. Crossed over Jordan finally and began the conquest of the land.

So, an interesting little commentary,

(There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb to Kadeshbarnea.) And in the fortieth year, the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel, according to all that the LORD had given him commandment unto them; After they had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites, which dwelled in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, on the eastside of Jordan, Moses began to declare this law ( Deu 1:2-5 ),

So this is where the word Deuteronomy comes from “Moses began to declare this law”. It is a reiteration really of the law of God.

The LORD our God spake unto you in Horeb, saying, You have dwelt long enough in this mount: Turn, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, [and so forth] and take the land that I have promised. Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to give your father ( Deu 1:6-8 ),

So the commandment of God; “you’ve been here long enough, you’ve circled this mountain long enough”. God is saying to you, “Hey, you’ve been there long enough, walking in circles. Hey, it’s time to go in and begin to possess that which God has promised unto you.” Begin to move forward in your spiritual development, in your spiritual life. “You’ve encompassed this mount” God said, “long enough. Now get moving. Go in” and the key is of course “to possess the land which the Lord has sworn to your fathers.”

And so Moses sort of rehearses for them some of the problems that he had as God was dealing with him. He said, “How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance or your burdens or your strife? So you appointed the seventy to be rulers over them, the chief men and he charged them to hear the causes of the people and to judge among the people. And when they had situations that were too difficult for them to handle, that Moses would handle those cases. And so they departed from Horeb. They came to Kadeshbarnea and he speaks again of the tragic failure at Kadeshbarnea.

Verse twenty-one:

Behold, the LORD thy God has set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged. And you came near to me Moses said, and you said, Let’s send spies into the land, in order that they might find out which cities we’ll be facing and the directions by which we should go into the land ( Deu 1:21-22 ).

Now in Numbers it doesn’t tell us that they came to Moses to request these spies, but in Deuteronomy is adding a little bit more detail than he gave in the book of Numbers. Here we find out that the request for the spies actually came from the people and that it seemed good unto Moses. And so they chose one from each tribe to go in and to spy out the land. Coming to the Valley of Eshcol, searching it out and taking the fruit and bringing it back.

Not withstanding [Moses said] you rebelled against the Lord: And you murmured in your tents ( Deu 1:26-27 ),

And listen to the horrible things they were saying about God.

[They said] Because the LORD hated us, he has brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites, and to destroy us ( Deu 1:27 ).

What a horrible thing, what a horrible thing to say about God and against God; God hates us. That borders on blasphemy. “Because God hates us he brought us out here to kill us in the wilderness”, when in reality God loved them and wanted to give them a land that they might dwell in, that it might be their land. God wanted to free them from the horrible bondage of Egypt, yet now they are accusing God of hating them.

You remember the case of Job, it said in all of these things, that is the loss of his family and his wealth and all, he did not curse God neither did he charge God foolishly. Now this is a foolish charge that they brought against God and it is something that we oftentimes are prone to do. When things aren’t going right, I hear people sometimes make very foolish charges against God. Nothing irritates me more than to have people make foolish charges against God.

I was-had a young man come in when we were back over in the little chapel and he was you know, “God led me do this and God led me to do that and God led me here” and then he’s, you know, “God led me out there and I almost starved to death. And you know God told me to go here and it was just really horrible and all,” and all this stuff. And he’s saying God led him to do this and God led him to do that. And then he really started getting on God’s case. “Why would God leave there and then you know, dump me?” and all this kind of stuff.

Well, it’s obvious God didn’t lead him. He was just being led by his own mind. And he started complaining so much about God I grabbed hold of him. I said, “Hey, you shut up and get out of here. I’m tempted to smack you in the mouth talking about God that way. I can’t stand that. Now, shut up”. To hear someone, you know, making all these accusations against God, horrible things, it’s tragic. And here the people were making this blasphemous accusation; “because God hates us, he brought us out here”. Boy, what a horrible thing to say.

So, the people were discouraged and they said

The people are greater and taller than we are; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and we have seen the sons of the Anakims ( Deu 1:28 )

Now the Anakims were giants.

and we have seen the sons of the Anakims there ( Deu 1:28 ).

So, their fear was inspired because of these cities that were high and walled and because the people, the inhabitants were large, gigantic kinds of people.

And I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them. For the LORD your God which goes before you, shall fight for you, according to all that he did in Egypt before your eyes; And yet you went in this thing you did not believe the LORD your God ( Deu 1:29-32 ).

The tragedy of unbelief, verse thirty-two.

Now, I love this. He points out that God had been with them through the wilderness experience. And the beautiful thing is that God is with you, even in the wilderness experiences. You may not enter into the best that God has. You may not possess all of your possessions and yet, if you spend your life roaming in the wilderness it’s not God’s will, it’s not his desire, but he will be with you there and help you there. God will lift to the highest level that you will allow Him to lift you and do the best for you on that level, but the work of God in our lives is always limited by us. We’re always the one that put the restrictions upon what God can do for us. We’re the ones that place the limits on God’s work.

In Psalms it says, “And they limited the holy one of Israel by their unbelief” ( Psa 78:41 ). And it is always our unbelief that places the limitations upon the work that God is seeking to do in our lives. Listen, God’ll take you all the way if you’ll just believe Him and trust Him for it. But you are the one that puts the limitations on what God wants to do. But God will lift you to the highest level you will let him.

And there in the wilderness he speaks of the Lord your God,

Who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents, in the fire by night, to show you by what way you should go, and the cloud by day ( Deu 1:33 ).

In other words, he is saying that God went before you through the wilderness to search for the best place for you to pitch your tent and then led you by the fire and by the cloud.

Oh, if we only realized how all encompassing the work of God is that surrounds our lives. God went before you to find the place for you to pitch your tents. They came to a place, they said, “Awe my, this looks like a good place to pitch our tents”. Of course it is, God went before you and prepared you that place and then led you to it so that they could say, “All the way my savior leads me. What have I to ask beside?”

But the Lord heard the words of your complaining, he was angry and said, “You’re not to go in”. But then Moses reminds them how that they got together and said, “Oh, we’ve sinned against God. We’ll go in, we’ll take the land”. And Moses said, “No, don’t. God said that He’s not gonna deliver them into your hand” and how that they armed themselves anyhow and went up against the hill of the Amorites and were pursued by them. And some of them were slain because they presumed to go without the presence of God. So they began the forty years of wandering in the wilderness, which Moses begins to rehearse for them in chapter two.

“

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

The Book of Deuteronomy is didactic rather than historic. It consists of a collection of the final utterances of Moses and is a Book of review.

It commences with a discourse in which Moses reviewed the forty years. This occupies chapters 1 to 4, verse 43. The whole journey from Horeb to Kadeshbarnea should have occupied eleven days (verse Deu 1:2). The distance was not more than 125 miles. Because of unbelief they had spent forty years in the wilderness.

We have in this chapter a review of the first movement from Horeb to Kadeshbarnea. The call which had come to them at Horeb emphasized the fact that they were under the divine government, and indicated the purpose of God that they should go in and possess the land. Looking back, Moses reminded the people of their rebellion in the matter of the spies and of the consequent discipline to which they had been subjected. In doing this he was careful to set all the facts in the light of the government of God. He reminded them that their disturbance at Horeb was due to the direct commandment of God, that even though the way of the wilderness had been a terrible one, they had not been left to grope their way through it alone. God had constantly moved before them, choosing them the place of encampment at every pause, indicating where they should pitch their tents.

It is noticeable that when he now referred to the mission of the spies, he quoted the report of the minority rather than that of the majority.

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

Moses Recalls the Start from Horeb

Deu 1:1-18

To this new generation Moses spake the holy law of God, since they had not heard it at Sinai. In view of the great Lawgivers approaching decease, it was necessary to re-edit it. The name of this book means the second giving of the Law.

The Red Sea in Deu 1:1, a.v., must be replaced by Suph, r.v. Evidently it was somewhere in the neighborhood of Pisgah. It is meet for us on a birthday, or some such anniversary, to review the way that the Lord our God has conducted us. He is the God of our fathers, and of the Covenant. Before us is set the land of our inheritance. God calls us to go in and possess it. He hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ, but we must appropriate and possess by faith. And the faith that claims depends on the obedience that conforms to the divine Law, Eph 1:3; 2Pe 1:3.

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

Deu 1:31

These words are part of a discourse delivered by Moses to all Israel, in the plain over against the Red Sea. Some of the most tender Divine utterances are to be found in the books of Moses. As we find flowers skirting the ice and frost of the Alpine glaciers, so in these books we find encouragements surrounding commandments and great promises sanctioning strong precepts.

The subject of the text is the paternal upholding of God.

I. Glance first at what we may call our history. There is a history appertaining to each of us, a story of our life. It has been written, though not with a pen, and it is inscribed on the mind of God. There is no story that we should read so often as our own. We study the biographies of others, and neglect the story of our own lives.

II. The next thing is, God in our history. The chief agents in our history are God and ourselves. From no portion of the story of life can we exclude God. His purpose, and thought, and will are in each part and in the whole. Every step that we take works out some part of the plan of life which He has laid down for us; so that God is in our history, in a certain sense, far more than we ourselves are in it.

III. Our history shows God’s upholding of us. God bears thee when thou seemest to thyself to walk alone. “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him.”

IV. The Divine upholding is paternal. “The Lord thy God doth bear thee as a man doth bear his son,” but much more wisely, more lovingly, more patiently, more paternally.

V. There are obligations and duties which spring from these truths. (1) If God thus bears us, we should “be quiet from fear of evil;” (2) we should be careful for nothing; (3) we should lovingly trust Him.

S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit, 5th series, No. xxiv.

References: Deu 1:32.-Parker, vol. v.,p. 1. Deu 1:38.-J. S. Howson, Good Words, 1868, p. 490; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ix., No. 537; Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 263. Deu 1:39.-Parker, vol. v., p. 1. Deut 1-30.-W. M. Taylor, Moses the Lawgiver, p. 408; J. Monro Gibson, The Mosaic Era, p. 321. Deu 2:7.-J. Kennedy, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ix., p. 17; A. Raleigh, Thoughts for the Weary, p. 46 (see also Good Words, 1877, p. 430); G. Matheson, Moments on the Mount, p. 173; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xx., No. 1179. Deu 2:36.-Parker, vol. v., p. 2. Deut 2-Parker, vol. iv., p. 83. Deu 3:23-27.-S. Cox, Expositions, 3rd series, p. 181. Deu 3:24.-Parker, vol. v., p. 2.

Fuente: The Sermon Bible

Analysis and Annotations

I. THE FIRST DISCOURSE OF MOSES AND RETROSPECT

1. The Introduction

CHAPTER 1:1-5

The people were still on this side of Jordan in the wilderness. The second verse, containing a parenthetical statement, gives the story of their unbelief, as recorded in the Book of Numbers. There are eleven days journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir unto Kadesh-barnea. They might have reached the place they occupied now, facing Jordan and the land, in eleven days. It took them almost forty years. Unbelief had kept them back. It was towards the end of the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, that Moses began his wonderful addresses. In the first month of that memorable year Miriam had died (Num 20:1). His brother Aaron had died in the fifth month (Num 33:38). Moses was soon to follow him at the close of the fortieth year, at the ripe age of one hundred and twenty. Forty years were spent by Moses in the palaces of Egypt; forty years he was a shepherd in the land of Midian and forty years he was the leader of Gods people through the wilderness. Before he went to the top of Pisgah to behold the land and to die, he pours out his heart in the presence of all Israel. His words were according unto all that the Lord had given him. All he had received from the Lord, he passed on faithfully to the Lords people. Moses verily was faithful in all Gods house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things, which were to be spoken afterward (Heb 3:5). Once more, therefore, he placed the words of the Lord before their hearts. This is the blessed object of ministry, to make known what God has revealed. True ministry is to deliver the message received. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received (1Co 15:3). Moses declared the Law unto them (verse 5). The Hebrew word declare means to make plain. it is used in Hab 2:2.

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

on this: Num 32:5, Num 32:19, Num 32:32, Num 34:15, Num 35:14, Jos 9:1, Jos 9:10, Jos 22:4, Jos 22:7

Red Sea: or, Zuph, Or rather, Suph, This could not have been the Red Sea, not only because the word yam, “sea,” is not joined with it as usual, but because they were now east of Jordan, and farther from the Red Sea than ever. It seems to be the same which is called Suphah in Num 21:14, which must necessarily signify some place in or adjoining to the plains of Moab, and not far from the Jordan and Arnon. Ptolemy mentions a people called Sophonites that dwelt in Arabia Petrea, who may have taken their name from this place.

Paran: Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab, seem to have been either places or cities not far from the plains of Moab; for it is evident that Paran and Hazeroth could not have been those near the Red sea, and not far from Horeb. Deu 33:2, Gen 21:21, Num 10:12, Num 12:16, Num 13:3, Num 13:26, 1Sa 25:1, Hab 3:3

Hazeroth: Num 11:35, Num 33:17, Num 33:18

Reciprocal: Gen 48:21 – God Gen 50:10 – beyond Num 33:21 – Libnah Deu 5:1 – all Israel Deu 11:29 – General 1Ki 11:18 – Paran

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

The words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Iordan.

Deu 1:1

Deuteronomy being a recapitulation of the law, and in a certain sense a summary of the preceding books, we might expect to find emphasised in it the lessons of these books. And this we do find.

I. The Divine election of Israel, so prominent in Genesis, is here emphasised. Israel is bidden to remember it again and again, that by the remembrance he may be saved from the fatal sin of self-righteousness. He is taught here that not for his greatness, nor for his goodness, has the Lord chosen him, but simply of His own good pleasure.

II. The Divine deliverance of Israel, which is the principal theme of Exodus, is here celebrated. He is bidden to remember what Jehovah did to Pharaoh, and to all Egypt when He delivered him from the house of bondage, that in gratitude for this deliverance he may find a motive for obedience.

III. The divine holiness, with its correlative, the national holiness, which is the theme of Leviticus, is kept constantly in view in the book before us, and this holiness is constantly held up before the people as standard to determine their conduct, even in matters indifferent.

IV. The Divine jealousy and the Divine determination to be obeyed, which are so terribly illustrated by the narrative of Numbers, are emphasised with no less power by the awful threatenings of Deuteronomy.

V. But the message which Deuteronomy has made peculiarly its own is the message of the Divine love and bounty.Its appeal to Israel is: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. Its reason for this appeal is because the Lord is so worthy to be loved. It is this insistence on the Divine love which makes the book bright and hopeful, notwithstanding the fearful threatenings which it contains. The book was spoken to the people as they were ready to enter the land, to fill them with enthusiasm to obey the Lord. And it was fitted to do this. For it spoke of the land which was to be possessed, and of the law as a law to be obeyed in the land. There is much retrospect in the book, but the main outlook of it is forward. Its key-word is possess; its favourite phrase the land which the Lord giveth thee, to possess it. By this book Israel was taught that the love of his God for him was so great that He would not rest until He had seen him in possession of all the blessings promised to Abraham. It brought the same message as the psalmist brought long afterwards: The Lord God is a sun and shield, the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.

Illustration

(1) Every expert student is aware that Deuteronomy is the most spiritual book of the Old Testament. It breathes the spirit of the greatest prophets. In this book we come nearer than anywhere else in the Old Testament to the teaching of the New. And this is why our Lord loved the book and used it so wonderfully. It is no mere second edition of the law. Rather, it is one of the freshest, most original, and even singular of all the Old Testament books. Its very history is a romance. And by its date and character it steps at once into prominence as a central book of Holy Scripture. Every book of the Old Testament takes its place as viewed in relation to Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy becomes a sort of touchstone of Old Testament Scripture: we can trace the development of Jewish literature by the way in which it led up to Deuteronomy, or afterwards was influenced by Deuteronomy, whether in its characteristic phrases or (still more) in its significant conceptions of Israels relation to God. It is not too much to say that the right appreciation of the place of Deuteronomy in Jewish literature has given us a priceless key to the understanding of the origin and growth and meaning of the Old Testament books.

(2) At long length, Abrahams descendants enter the good land and large. Why at long length? Why does God keep me waiting for the incorruptible inheritance? Why does he not lavish its wealth on me at once?

The delay ripens and confirms my character. Through postponement, through hopes deferred, through conflicts and storms, through the trials of the pilgrim road, I learn to trust the higher strength, to submit to the Divine will, to be strong, and of a good courage. It is good for my soul to tarry the Lords leisure.

And the delay conforms me to the image of Gods dear and perfect Son. He reached His glory only by the way of the Hill Difficulty and the Valley of Humiliation and the Valley of the Shadow of Death. It is well for me to tread in His steps. It is an education, an honour, a blessedness.

And the delay brings me a larger acquaintance with Gods exceeding grace. I learn more of Him.

Thus it is best for me to gain the Holy Land only in the season appointed by the King.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

Deuteronomy 1-7

The title of this book, which translated into English, is “Second-Law,” indicates its character; for in it Moses recapitulates and enforces the whole law system to which Israel was committed. Deu 1:2-3 remind us that the wilderness journey from Horeb, where the law was given, to the border of the land would normally occupy eleven days; they had taken forty years because of their unbelief. The old generation that had been at Horeb had died out and so the law had to be freshly emphasized to the new generation. Once given, the binding force of the law remained, as we saw in our last issue, when considering the closing words of Malachi, written probably about a thousand years later.

As much that is contained here has already been recorded in the earlier books we will consider these chapters in rather cursory fashion, though pausing here and there to consider details that seem to have a special voice to us. In chapter 1 Moses has to remind the people of their own deplorable condition. He had been unable to bear by himself their “cumbrance,” or as we might say, their “wear and tear,” their “burden,” and their “strife.” And further, that when God had told them plainly that He had given them the land and they were to go up and possess it, they had insisted on sending the spies to see and report. The Divine word was, Go up in faith and possess in faith. Their response was, We want to act, or not act, on the basis of sight. In result of course they refused to act. The spies saw giants and fortified cities, whereas faith would see God, and obey His word.

Not sight but faith is what we have today. When the Lord said to Paul, “Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles” (Act 22:21), he had before him a mission that to sight was an impossible one, yet to faith one that has been abundantly verified. God chooses, “the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty,” as was seen when Paul reached Corinth, and by Paul’s writings in the Scriptures he has edified millions of Gentiles, during nineteen centuries. In the days of Moses, Caleb and Joshua were the men of faith.

In Deu 2:1-37 Moses reminds the people of how God had been with them in their earlier conquests. Verses Deu 24:1-22; Deu 31:1-30 we should particularly notice. First comes the Divine act: “I have given,” or, “I have begun to give.” Then comes the exhortation to the people, “Begin to possess.” God’s gracious dealings with us today are on similar lines, as we see in the New Testament epistles. First, the unfolding of that which He has given us in Christ. Then, the exhortations that we should begin to possess experimentally all that is given, in the power of the Holy Spirit, who indwells us.

Deu 3:1-29 continues the recital of how the power of God had overthrown the kingdoms on the eastern side of Jordan, and how the territory had been given to the two and a half tribes, on the understanding that their armed men should go with their brethren to conquer the western side, though Moses personally would not be with them. He had to acknowledge God’s disciplinary action against him. He would die, and Joshua be their leader. He was only to view the land, but not to enter it.

It is a comfort however to recognize that there is not only wisdom but also an element of grace in the discipline that God imposes on His saints. Moses was spared many a heartbreak that Joshua must have suffered, owing to the failures of the people; and many centuries later he was in the land for a brief moment and Elijah with him. From the top of Pisgah he saw the land filled with the degraded Amorites. On the Mount of Transfiguration he saw not the land but the glory of the One who will at last fill it with millennial blessedness.

In Deu 4:1-49 we have further touching appeals that Moses made before the people, urging upon them obedience to the law that had been given, and that they should preserve it in its integrity. They were neither to add anything to it nor take anything from it. This command is repeated at the end of Deu 12:1-32, and enforced also as to revelations God has given, in the closing words of the New Testament. The law given to Israel included “statutes and judgments,” as verse Deu 5:1-33 states, as well as the ten commandments. All these were binding upon them, and Moses tells them in verse Deu 6:1-25, that the keeping and the doing of them would be, “your wisdom and your understanding.” That “wisdom,” they never had, nor have we ever had it. The believer today however is “in Christ Jesus,” and He is “made unto us wisdom,” as 1Co 1:30 tells us. Here is perfect wisdom indeed!

This chapter also bears witness to the plain and emphatic warning that Moses gave as to the results that would follow their disobedience, verses 25-27 being specially definite. and forecasting their sorrowful history under judges and kings in subsequent centuries. Yet, if in their scattered condition they turned and sought the Lord, in obedience they would find mercy. They had been privileged above all other people, and hence were responsible above all others, yet mercy would be shown. We may remember that at the close of Rom 11:1-36, both Jew and Gentile are considered, and the blessing that ultimately will reach both will be on the ground of mercy – “God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all. We are “looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (Jud 1:21). So in the coming age the mercy of God will be displayed in the church on high, as well as in Israel, at last established in blessing on the earth.

The call for obedience that Moses gave is specially clear and pronounced in the opening verses of Deu 5:1-33. Let us notice the four verbs that appear in the first verse – “Hear,” “learn;” “keep,” “do.” We are not under the law but under grace, yet we may well accept these four verbs as expressing what should mark us as we face the many instructions that fill the New Testament. Verbs one to three are really in view of verb four, since all the truth made known through the faith of Christ, and ministered to us, is intended to govern our lives in this world, while we wait for the Saviour, and to come into expression in our actions. The Apostle Paul, who was to be a “pattern” to others, wrote, “Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me do, and the God of peace shall be with you” (Php 4:9).

And further, in these opening verses Moses made it plain that the law was just as really and truly made with those to whom he spoke as to their fathers, some forty years previously. In all dispensations what God has said at the outset stands. We have to remember this. What God laid down through the Apostle in 1Co 12:1-31; 1Co 13:1-13; 1Co 14:1-40, for instance, as to the Christian assembly and its order, stands throughout our dispensation and is as valid today as in the hour when first it was written.

So the law covenant was made with the generation to whom Moses was speaking, and he proceeded to rehearse the commandments, that first appear in Exo 2:1-25, and then he reminded them that their fathers had been filled with fear when they saw the glory of the Lord at Sinai and heard His voice out of the midst of the darkness and the fire. In result, they begged Moses to receive the words of God on their behalf, for they said, “If we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, then we shall die.” Now, why this fear of death?

With them it was instinctive, but for us the answer is clear in the light of the Gospel. “The law worketh wrath” (Rom 4:15), and again it is, “The ministration of death written and engraver in stones… the ministry of condemnation” (2Co 3:7-9). The Apostle Paul has told us that, “the law is good, if a man use it lawfully” (1Ti 1:8), and if the law be used to bring the sentence of condemnation and death into a sinner’s heart, it is used in a most lawful way.

In verse Deu 29:1-29 of our chapter Moses gives us words spoken to him by the Lord Himself at that time. He knew what was lacking on the part of the people. They had not, “such an heart in them,” as would incline them to godly fear and obedience. Later in this book we shall find Moses deploring the same thing and speaking of the people as having no “faith.” They had, as no other people had, a religion of both sight and hearing, yet without faith it availed nothing. The Epistle to the Hebrews stands in sharp contrast to this. The Christian Hebrew had come, not to the mount that might be touched and to visible and audible things, but to unseen realities, and hence we have the great chapter on faith, and the statement that without faith it is impossible to please God.

Notice also in verse Deu 29:1-29 the words “all” and “always,” or, “all the days.” Obedience must be complete and continuous. Under law man is like a boat under strain but held in safety by a chain of many links. If every link is intact all the time, well and good. But, if at any time, just one link breaks, the boat drifts on to the rocks as surely as if every link had snapped. It is a case of all and all the time. This is again emphasized in the last verse of our chapter.

As the opening verses of Deu 6:1-25 reveal, Moses continued to enforce this fact on the minds and consciences of the people. And what would move them to keep all the laws and statutes that were set before them? Nothing indeed but faith which works by love. Hence in verse Deu 5:1-33 we get the words which were referred to by our Lord, as recorded in Mat 22:36 , Mat 22:37 , and which He called “the first and great commandment.” Jehovah is One, in contrast with the many false gods of the heathen world, and If He be the supreme Object of love, obedience will surely follow. Now He had shown His love for Israel by all that He had done on their behalf and this should have drawn out their love toward Him. Yet of course they had not known the great display of God’s love in the gift of His Son, as we have known it. We can indeed say, “We love Him, because He first loved us” (1Jn 4:19), and we know the love displayed in surpassing degree. Still God had shown His love towards them as a people, as they are reminded in the next chapter. They should have loved Him in return.

Their danger would be forgetfulness, as the succeeding verses show, and the same danger is ours today. Hence the instructions given in verses 7- They were to teach God’s laws to their children, to talk of them in their houses, and to write them on their posts and gates. Here, we venture to think, is a word we need to take home to ourselves. We may remark of course that the invention of printing has given us an enormous advantage, as compared with some 3,500 years ago. It has indeed; but if we do not diligently study our Bibles, and then teach and talk of its contents, we are culpable indeed.

This leads us to ask all our readers, Do you not only read the Scriptures for yourself, but do you avail yourself of the many opportunities of attending meetings where the Word of God is read and discussed, or where servants of the Lord minister the Word? When you meet with other believers in your homes, does your talk at all centre around the things of God? We are not self-sufficient in these things; had we been, the Lord would not raise up those who can teach and pastor His saints. If we do forsake, “the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is” (Heb 10:25), and so get but little in the way of teaching and exhortation from others, our spiritual life and testimony is not likely to be vigorous. We shall have but a poor enjoyment of the blessings that are ours, or of the responsibilities that flow therefrom. May we all be stirred up as to these things.

This exhortation as to teaching God’s Word, talking about it and writing it, is followed by a very necessary warning as to the danger that would face them, when they had entered into the land and were enjoying prosperity there. There, in the midst of pleasant things, they might easily forget the Lord and His commandments and follow the ways of surrounding peoples, going after their gods. Here too is a word for us, and observing it we may be made wise unto salvation from a similar danger.

We may state the matter thus: times of worldly prosperity are times of spiritual danger, and usually of spiritual decline. The history of Israel exemplified this. Swift decline followed the magnificence of Solomon’s reign. The earlier history of the church exemplified it, for when the era of persecutions ceased, and under the patronage of Constantine the church emerged into favour and outward prosperity, rapid decline took place. It is not otherwise in some parts of the earth today particularly, we may say, in the English-speaking regions, where many are saying, they never had it so good, and are completely indifferent to spiritual things. And what about ourselves? Are we not too often exemplifying the truth of the Lord’s words, “Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold” (Mat 24:12). One might have imagined that much iniquity would stir saints to increased warmth, but it is not so. Increased prosperity leads to increased iniquity in the world, and it affects saints adversely, diverting them from the spiritual realities in which their true life consists.

So the people are plainly warned in the latter part of this chapter how easily they might forget how the Lord had delivered them when they were but bondmen in Egypt, and had brought them forth that they might serve Him and obey His word. They were told that, if they feared the Lord, and obeyed His statutes, it would be, “for our good always,” and that such obedience would be “our righteousness.” It would have been legal righteousness, but they never had it. The Gospel does not present this to us, but rather righteousness which is of God.

In the opening verses of Deu 7:1-26 the people are plainly told that they are completely to exterminate the nations then in possession of the land. They were to make no covenant with them and to show them no mercy. This command has, we believe, been denounced by sceptics as being savage and utterly unworthy of God, if He is supposed to be a God of goodness and kindness. So let us consider it for a moment. Israel did not fully carry it out, tent had they done so, it would have been the third time that God had acted in summary and wholesale judgment.

The first case was of course the flood. Mankind was then wiped off the face of the earth with the exception of eight souls. The second occasion was the destruction of the cities of the plain, including Sodom and Gomorrah, when only righteous Lot and two daughters were saved. On these two occasions the destruction was an act of God – by water and by fire and brimstone. In both cases human corruption had risen to such a height that it could not be further tolerated. This was now the case with the Amorite nations. Some four hundred years previously Abraham had been told, “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” (Gen 15:16), but now evidently it was “full,” and God purposed to wipe them out as He had previously done with the antediluvian world, and then with Sodom, only this time using Israel to do it, and hence, as we shall see, using men to do His strange work of judgment, failure came in, and the work was not thoroughly done, as when God acted by the forces of nature.

Israel then were to have been the executioners of God’s judgment on these utterly corrupt peoples, and their extermination was designed to have a salutary effect as regards themselves. It would have prevented their making these marriages with daughters of the various peoples, which was the surest way by which they would catch the infection of their awful idolatrous systems. Their subsequent history shows how their failure in this matter largely accounted for their own constant dabbling in idolatrous things, which ultimately brought about their own judgment and dispersal under the Assyrians and Babylonians. Failing in a complete way to judge and destroy the evil, they caught its infection and fell under its power. The separation enjoined was a natural rather than a spiritual one, but a complete necessity, as God well knew.

Now we as Christians are committed to separation of a spiritual sort, as is made very plain in 2Co 6:14-18. Israel as a nation were the objects of God’s love, which was set upon them, not because of anything great in themselves, for they were few and insignificant, but because God was faithful to His oath to their fathers; and since they were thus loved they were to be a holy, or separated, people in all their ways. We Christians are loved in a more personal and intimate way, and therefore our separation and deliverance from this present evil age is even more distinct. We are in the world but are to be kept from its evil, even as the Lord Jesus said, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (Joh 17:16).

Then as separated from the nations then in the land, Israel was not to fear them, though they were more mighty and numerous than themselves, since God, who had shown His power in dealing with Pharaoh, was still on their side, and would dispossess them “by little and little” – not all at once, but step by step. This is still God’s way in dealing with His saints. We do not apprehend everything at once. Step by step we may advance in the things of God. We all begin as spiritual babes, and happy it is if we do indeed move on to become the “young men,” and then the “fathers,” of 1Jn 2:1-29.

Once more, at the end of the chapter, they are warned against loving the silver and gold connected with idolatrous images. So they were not to fear their power, nor to be fascinated with their luxuries. Their subsequent history showed that of the two the ensnaring tendencies of the latter had the more disastrous effect upon them.

And let us remember that the same tendency is operative with us today. Hence the first epistle of John ends with the words, “keep yourselves from idols.” Now for us an idol is anything that ensnares, and usurps in our hearts the place that belongs to God alone.

Fuente: F. B. Hole’s Old and New Testaments Commentary

Kadesh-Barnea

Deu 1:1-43

INTRODUCTORY WORDS

There are three things which need to be brought out in a definite way.

1. The suggestion of the verbal inspiration of the Bible. The chapter opens with this tremendous statement: “These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel.” That Moses spake under the inspiration of God, we know. The Lord Jesus in referring to the Books of the Pentateuch said, concerning the words of Moses, “Have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God?”

The Lord again, on another occasion, said to the rich man who was in hell, and regarding his brothers who were yet upon the earth, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.” The Apostle Paul did not hesitate to say that he believed all things which were written in the Law (the five Books of Moses), and in the Prophets.

There are some Bibles which place the Words of the Lord Jesus in red. However, the Lord, Himself placed the words of Moses on an equality with His own words when He said, “If ye believe not his writings (Moses’) how shall ye believe My Words?”

It is a wonderful thing to open the Bible and to know that we have before us the very words which God spake to Moses and to other Prophets.

2. God’s knowledge of His people’s location and whereabouts. It is almost beyond comprehension that the Lord should be so interested in the details of where His children are located-the very conditions under which they dwell, and the surrounding’s which mark their environment.

When these words were spoken to Israel, God’s people were in the wilderness in a plain “over against the Red Sea, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab.” Thus it is, God still knows all about us. He knows the way that we take; He knows whether we are dwelling in the wilderness, or in the land of Canaan. He knows all of our needs, because He knows our condition. How comforting it is!

3. God’s purpose in recording for us the history of His people. We may be surprised that God gave to us such a complete and detailed account of the journeyings of the Children of Israel, and of the marvelous events which marked those journeyings. In the New Testament, however, the reason for this detailed information is thus recorded.

The Apostles, in the Holy Ghost said, “I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual-meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink.” Then Paul adds, “But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples.”

Farther down in the chapter Paul says, “All these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” With these things before us, we will surely give careful heed to every Divinely recorded statement concerning the travels, and the events recorded concerning the Children of Israel in the wilderness.

I. THE ELEVEN DAYS’ JOURNEY (Deu 1:2)

“(There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir unto Kadesh-barnea).”

It took two and one-half years to make this journey. This was due partly to the fact that there were more than a million persons en route-a great army of men, women, and children, beside their goods, and cattle, so that they could not cover the ground rapidly. However, it does seem that God’s people might have gone a little faster. Eleven days, ordinarily should have sufficed to have reached Kadesh-barnea. The slowness of Israel’s movements portrays the slowness with which most children of God, even in our own times, are passing out of Egypt (the type of the world) into Kadesh-barnea (the type of the new life and the “rest that remaineth”).

The Book of Hebrews tells us, “When for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God.” Then the writer adds that they are babes. A baby is the sweetest thing in the world, yet it brings joy to the parents’ hearts to see the rapidity with which the child grows into the youth, and then into the full growth of manhood or womanhood.

In writing to the Corinthians Paul emphasizes this same conception. He said, “I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it.” He calls them “carnal,” even “babes in Christ.” How long shall we remain in our babyhood?

Let us press on to manhood and womanhood!

II. GO IN AND POSSESS THE LAND (Deu 1:8)

1. The things set before us. Our key verse opens with the words: “Behold, I have set the land before you.” How wonderful are the things which He has set before us! The 1st chapter of Ephesians reveals to the believer many of the possibilities which belong to saints. The whole Bible is given to the portrayal of the marvelous present and future possessions which belong to the children of God.

Paul even says, “All things are yours.” The things present and the things to come are ours. However, the things which belong to the earth, should be reckoned but loss, that we might gain Christ May we not truthfully sing, “Lord, lift me up and let me stand, By faith, on Heaven’s table-land; A higher plane than I have found, Lord, plant my feet on higher ground”?

2. Possessing our possessions. The land was theirs by Divine decree. It was “set before them.” God said, “Go in and possess” the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them.”

There are many things which are ours through God’s gift, which are not ours by possession. God in grace makes them possible, but we, by conquest, must make them actual. Many Christians live in the lowlands of this earth, far beneath their possessions. They are impoverished in spiritual attainments, when they should be dwelling in the uplands of accomplishment enriched by those higher and nobler attainments of spiritual gifts.

III. WHAT GOD HAD DONE FOR HIS PEOPLE (Deu 1:10)

“The Lord your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of Heaven for multitude.”

1. The Children of Israel had been greatly blessed. They had been saved and delivered from the tyranny of their bondage to Pharaoh. They had gone out with a great shout of praise; they had been led steadily on their way. God had met them at every turn of the road: from the day when they had first gone into Egypt and had dwelt in the land of Goshen. Under the patronage of Joseph and Pharaoh, they had steadily increased during four hundred years of bondage. God had continued to multiply them. Now, they stood on the verge of the land of promise. Behind them lay a desert infested with beasts and pitfalls. They certainly had much for which they could thank God.

Behold, how we, also, have been blessed. We can remember the pit out of which we were dug. We can remember what we were in the days when we walked in the lusts of the flesh, dead in trespasses and in sin; and how God quickened us, raised us up; how He brought us out, and led us in. Our blessings have been countless.

2. The Children of Israel had greater blessings ahead. In Deu 1:11, Moses uttered the prayer, “(The Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you, as He hath promised you!)”

Each one of us, no matter how great the blessings of the past may have been, have abundance of glory lying still ahead. We have not gone so far in the Christian life, bat that there are other heights to climb. We have not received the tithe of all that God has for us, both now, and in the future.

IV. SEARCH OUT THE LAND (Deu 1:22-24)

When they had heard God’s command to go in and possess the land, they were fearful, and said to Moses, “We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come.” This saying was acceptable to Joshua, and he took twelve men, one of a tribe, and they went into the land and searched it out.

From the human viewpoint this seemed wisdom, and yet, withal, we cannot but feel that it was unbelief and a trembling heart that caused them to delay the march until they had searched the land.

Was God’s Word not enough? He had told them to go up and possess it. He had urged them saying, “Fear not, neither be discouraged,” yet, they hesitated.

It is always true when believers seek any reason to delay their faithfulness to God, and their prompt obedience to His will, they will get into the lowlands of doubt and despair, and will be in danger of failing the Lord.

God says it? does it? asks it?

Then, I will say, Amen!

He speaks the truth, He does the best,

He asks what’s right; and then

I follow where He points the way

O’er mountain, moor, or fen.

V. “YE WOULD NOT GO UP” (Deu 1:26)

The sins that marked their refusal are thus stated.

1.They rebelled against the Commandment of the Lord.

2.They murmured in their tents and said the Lord hated them.

3.They said “Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart.”

“The Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all way that ye went, until ye came into this place”-Kadesh-barnea. He had proved in every way His love for them, and His ability to care for them, yet they complained, and rebelled against Him.

We fear that this is the story which confronts many a believer at this hour. We, too, have rebelled; we have murmured; we have been filled with unbelief. Some have even gone so far as to complain that the Lord despises them, that He merely seeks to destroy them.

How strange it is that we quickly forget His great deliverances towards us, even such as He had shown to the Children of Israel when He brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Every little thing that happens disturbs the heart of the one who is not perfect toward Him, They had sent up the men to search out the land. The evil report of ten of the spies had filled them with fear and dread. Let us remember that the Lord, our God, is abundantly able to deliver us from every foe. He will go in the way before us. He will guard and will lead us on in the train of His triumph, giving us victory in all things.

He leads me in His triumph, and makes me conqueror,

He is my strength in weakness, my Guide and Counselor;

Apart from Him I’d falter, and soon fall by the way,

But with Him, I am victor in ev’ry fierce affray.

VI. THE DIVINE JUDGMENT (Deu 1:34-35)

When God “heard the voice” of their words He was angry, and He said, “Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers.”

In the Book of Hebrews the story is set forth as a warning to saints, and it reads thus: “To day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus had given them rest, then would He not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.”

After the warning had been given, the Holy Spirit added: “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the Living God.” God even says in Hebrews, “Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.”

How many there are today who are living in the same unbelief. God holds before saints a millennial rest. This rest is promised unto us even as the Canaan rest was promised unto the Children of Israel. They did not enter in because of their unbelief, their fear, and their rebellion. If they failed, may we not also fail? We are not talking of salvation, or of entrance into Heaven; we are talking of His Kingdom of rest. We are now standing at our Kadesh-barnea with the Lord’s Coming at the door. When His Kingdom is established we may reign with Him. However, if we deny Him, He will also deny us.

VII. REPENTING TOO LATE (Deu 1:43)

1. God’s command. This was given in Deu 1:40, and it reads, “Turn you, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.” No sooner was the command given for retreat and retrenchment, than the men of Israel began to repent their mad folly. They said, “We have sinned against the Lord, we will go up and fight, according to all that the Lord our God commanded us.” Then they girded on their weapons of war and were ready to go into the hills.

The Lord said, “Go not up, neither fight; for I am not among you.” Again the Children of Israel rebelled against the Lord’s commandment, and “went presumptuously up into the hill.” They had first rebelled against the command of the Lord to go, and they did not go; then they rebelled against the command of the Lord not to go and they went presumptuously.

The result was that they returned and wept before God, but the “Lord would not hearken” to their voice nor give ear to them.

In all of this we have a perfect picture of God’s dealings with the saints of our day. Heb 6:4-6 must be read in connection with these startling statements. So likewise must we read Heb 12:15-17 in the light of this experience. There are Christians today who have refused to go through with God.

The Calebs and the Joshuas, the women and the children, who have not been rebellious, may go up; but those who have been signally blessed of God, and then fallen away, will come sooner or later to the place where God will say, “Too late; ye cannot enter in.”

They, like Esau who sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, may seek for it with tears, and yet may find no place of repentance with the Father.

AN ILLUSTRATION

In George Adam Smith’s “Life of Henry Drummond,” a story is told of an American student in attendance upon Edinburgh University. This student was a graduate of an American medical college, and was spending a year in post-graduate work in Edinburgh. At the close of his year, he called on Henry Drummond, then the recognized leader of the University, to bid him good-by. Drummond’s parting words to him were, in essence, as follow:

“You have lost your opportunity at Edinburgh. You are a professing Christian. You have had as a side partner in the laboratory this year the most pronounced skeptic in the entire student body, yet you have done nothing by word or example to win him to the Christian faith. I am sorry for your sake.”

The American student staggered under this unexpected blow. Nevertheless, he came to himself. He decided to forego the opening of his practice for a year, and to spend the next twelve months in Edinburgh, for the purpose of redeeming the lost opportunity referred to by Professor Drummond.

In the following autumn he met Mr. Drummond again. “Why,” said Drummond, “I thought you were in America.”

“No,” replied the American, “I have decided to remain in Edinburgh and redeem the year I lost.”

And he did. Near the close of the year, in one of the Sunday night meetings conducted by Henry Drummond at that time, the skeptic friend of the American student made open confession of his faith in Christ. He did more. At the same time he offered himself as a medical missionary in some needy field. The American student had won his man; had redeemed his lost opportunity, and had gained a wonderful new strength of character.

Not many persons have the chance to redeem lost opportunities. It behooves us, therefore, to improve our opportunities as they pass. The new year is a new opportunity; but it does not bring back past opportunities. Let this fact make us more faithful in making use of our chances to do good as we go along.-H.

Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water

Notes.

Division 1. (Deu 1:1-46; Deu 2:1-37; Deu 3:1-29; Deu 4:1-43.)

The righteousness and grace of the Almighty as the motive to obedience.

The introduction to the “expounding” of the law is most naturally a persuasive to obedience; and this is found where it would be the strongest, in their recent history, fresh and vivid as it was in the memories of the people. They had shown themselves out fully in it; in this way it was a history full of sorrow. But God too had manifested Himself in surpassing majesty, -in holiness and in grace; and the double record might serve, if any thing would, to arouse the conscience and stir the heart, and produce fidelity to One whose favor to them had been so conspicuous, and whose discipline withal so uncompromising. Day by day He ministered to them; day and night His presence had been amongst them: He who slept not nor slumbered was the keeper of Israel; and if He smote, it was because He would not give them up, and could not give up His own character.

The wilderness was the place of education for the land. The word for ‘wilderness,’ “comes,” says, Krummacher, from a word which means both to ‘speak’ and to ‘lead,’ so that to be in the wilderness and under leading, in Hebrew, amounts nearly to one and the same thing.”* All this long, and in so much of it sad history was not to be without its final profit: the wilderness in this sense was yet to have its harvest, and “blossom as the rose.” All its painful experience was to be wisdom for the land. And so with all the lessons which day by day we are all learning. Time is not cut off from eternity in such a way as to make it our joy and profit to forget there what we have passed through here; nor will its scroll be then rolled up and cast aside. No, but it is rather then that its history shall be fully unsealed and stand out as prophecy. And as the assurance of this, between us and eternity, or just as we step into it, we have the judgment-seat of Christ, and “manifestation” at the judgment-seat: “every one of us shall give account of himself to God,” says the apostle. (Rom 14:12.) And again, “For we must all appear” -literally, “be manifested” -before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” (2Co 5:10.)

{*Quoted in Schaff’s Lange.}

Many have the strange thought that this does not apply to the Christian, and that so applied it would be contradictory to the gospel, as doing away with the assurance given by God, “their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” (Jer 31:34; Heb 8:12; Heb 10:17.) But this is not a remembrance of sins in the divine sense: nothing is reckoned against the believer all that can be rewarded comes up for reward, all that cannot be rewarded is “loss” as to reward (1Co 3:15,) -no more. The very triumph of God’s grace will be seen in this, that, told out in the presence of God, there is no imputation of sins at all. Thus the work of Christ will appear in its full glory; and we shall be manifested, not as unsmiling angels, but as redeemed men. Thus we have our song and our worship. Thus the robes granted us in that day -the “fine linen” which “is the righteousnesses” (in the Revised Version, “righteous deeds”) of the saints, -are washed in the blood of the Lamb. (Rev 19:8, comp. Rev 7:14; Rev 22:14, R.V.) Who would exchange these blood-washed robes for the most unspotted record that could be furnished by a creature?

And who would lose the apprehension of this grace in God for his own soul? or who would not desire to have it displayed before the universe? Who would take away the glory of Christ in this? Who would not rather say, “Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what He hath done for my soul”? (Psa 66:16.) There, in the ears of the most magnificent assembly ever gathered, God in Christ shall have His fullest praise; and “God will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.” (Ecc 12:14.)

How wondrous that day of revelation! All the darkness of God’s dealings with us gone forever! All our record His fullest praise! Not His grace alone seen, but His wisdom, righteousness, truth -every attribute glorified forever! What would we miss, if we missed this? And that eternity may be to us the perfect, unchanging happiness which is grounded in holiness -inasmuch as God deals with His reasonable creatures according to the nature He has given them, by argument and proof -how much may depend upon this day of manifestation! His purpose is that “in the ages to come He may show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness to us through Christ Jesus.” (Eph 2:7.)

Deuteronomy, then, as closing at once the history of the wilderness and the first Pentateuch of Scripture, has its fitting place. It is in some true sense the book of the judgment-seat, beginning with this recital of wilderness-history, and at the end expanding into that glorious song,” in which (as if already amid the concourse of the coming day) the heavens, along with the earth, are exhorted to hear the words of his mouth! “My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass: because I will proclaim the name of Jehovah: ascribe ye greatness unto our God. The Rock -His work is perfect; for all His ways are judgment: a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right, is He.”

(1) Israel are now, though still characteristically in the wilderness,” at their journey’s end. They have taken, to accomplish a few days’ journey, the life of a generation. They have come a long distance, with toil and hardship, where faith in God would have easily and long since brought them. Still, over all this God triumphs, using it as a homily for them, and an encouragement to confidence. The forty years of trial are at length concluded, and their inheritance lies before them, the other side of the headlong river which alone intervenes. And now the lawgiver’s voice, soon to be heard no more among them, as he and they alike well know, utters itself in a solemn last address, in which the fullness of his heart overflows to the people so long his care. Characteristic of the book are the opening sentences in which Moses’ words are emphasized as the subject of it: not now any more Jehovah’s words through him, not the law itself properly, but Moses’ exposition and enforcement of it. And this is set in the frame-work of the circumstances which set it off and impress one with its significance. The names in the first verse cannot be those of stations on the way hither therefore from Sinai on, although two of them are identical with and two more resemble some of these; but they were not “beyond Jordan, in the Arabah,” or in any relation to these such as could warrant the terms used. “Similarity of names,” says Keil, “cannot prove any thing by itself, as the number of places of the same name, but in different localities, that we meet with in the Bible, is very considerable.” Yet this similarity, where the name is often all we have about the place, may still be quite significant. Certainly the site of this memorable discourse is beyond Jordan and in the Arabah, the deep cleft in which both the river and the sea of salt are found. Suph is not necessarily the sea of Suph or weeds, the common title of the Red Sea; nor Laban Libnah. With Pam). and Hazeroth we are indeed familiar; but Hazeroth (“enclosures”) is only the plural of Hazar, of which there are many; while Paran was the name of a wide district. However, we can say little to purpose about these names.

“From Horeb to Kadesh-barnea” (the “sanctuary of the wanderer”) is the first stage of the journey, as Moses recites it, a history of unbelief and rebellion, which avails only to illustrate the “vanity of opposition to the power of God. But in the first place we have the land set before them, not in poetical rhapsody, exaggerating the much smaller territory which in fact they possessed, but according to the promise to their fathers, which we have in Gen 15:1-21, and still more fully in Exo 23:31. But this promise was as the last passage shows, to be fulfilled to them by installments, and as they had faith to lay hold of it and make it their own, -and they had not faith. Yet grace will not be finally defeated of its intent, nor the promise be left unfulfilled; no more than will to us the better promise of a heavenly land, which now we are bidden to make ours, and so little do. This parallel, full of reproof, and full of encouragement to us, we shall have abundantly before us as we go on. Meanwhile, the command is for us, as it was for them, a promise, which individual faith may make much of if it cannot accomplish what that of a host may.

(2) Moses next reminds them of the institution of officers for the host to bear with him the burden of so great a multitude. God had fulfilled to them, and under the most adverse circumstances, the promise to their fathers, and already they were as the stars of heaven for number. This necessitated the appointment of those who should be recognized as chiefs and magistrates among them; rule in Israel being thus manifestly service; and they are invited to put their own hands to this work, in choosing from among themselves men that enjoyed their confidence, and deserved the confidence they enjoyed. And they do this, recognizing their need of the yoke, as all men ever have recognized it, spite of all abuses of authority. As Paul says of the magistrate, “He is the minister of God to thee for good” (Rom 13:4), although, in the time in which he wrote, the abuse was everywhere evident.

We are mutually dependent and need each other’s help, not simply against others but against ourselves. In our own cause we are not fit to be judges, and no laws, the world over, would allow this to be; yet there is no office we more naturally assume. Self-interest prompts and urges us to do that for which it is itself the disqualification. How good for us, then, to stand aside and allow those more competent for impartial judgment to give judgment. How good to see ourselves through the keener eyes of others, even sometimes of those not friendly. But in this way to what a height does Paul raise the Christian in that rebuke to the Corinthians, which it makes so keen, -“If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set those to judge who are least esteemed in the Church.” (1Co 6:4.) This seems the exact opposite of Moses, nor does he of course mean that it should be literally carried out: “I speak to your shame. Is it so that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?” He would not have those judge who lacked in wisdom; but he considers on the one hand that “the least esteemed in the Church” ought to have an elevation and impartiality of spirit fit for such an office; and on the other, that those whose worldly matters are to be judged should be so above care, as to things of this kind, as to be ready to submit their cause to any of their brethren!

This is no doubt an unattained -we ought not to say, unattainable -ideal. Good it is yet to have the ideal before us. In truth, how blessed to be so before God, so in the joyful consciousness of that supreme will, to which, little as men may mean it, every other bows, as to be able to see in all a Father’s hand, and to be subject without reserve to every expression of His will, though it were an enemy’s voice that gave it utterance: -“The cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?”

Good it is thus to serve, -to be in subjection; and it need be no wonder to find, therefore, in this place the mention of an institution by which human will is curbed, and that spirit induced which is true preparation for a divine inherit-. ante: “the meek shall inherit the earth.” Israel with their inheritance before them are to cultivate the spirit of heirs.

(3) The incidents of the journey to Kadesh are passed over: “the great and terrible wilderness” is only mentioned to make them realize the power of the hand that led them. Trained to encounter difficulties, as accustomed to see them overcome by the power of God, how ready they might be expected now to face the only foe that was to be feared, when now at Kadesh their next step would be upon the land of so many memories, pledged to them by the full value of Jehovah’s name. Unbelief alone could prevail against them; yet how could they disbelieve? So one might indeed argue; but the facts of history and of experience are alike against the argument.

(4) We pass on quickly to the result and now we find, what had not appeared in the history itself, that the mission of the spies was primarily the people’s own suggestion. True, Moses had entered into it, and God Himself had sanctioned it; for in Numbers they are sent out at His bidding. It is plain, therefore, that there was nothing wrong in the suggestion, while it does not follow that there was nothing wrong in the motive. Unbelief desires, as we know, to see the way before it, likes to know what there is to meet, and to have its plans beforehand. God might sanction it, as a new witness to them of the goodness of the land, the fruit of which was evidence that could not be denied. But nothing is more senseless than unbelief: if men believe not Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded though one rose from the dead. If the Word of God fails, sense and sight cannot avail. There are walled cities and tall men: granted; and the power of God, at how much will one reckon that? Alas, with amazing hardihood, they dare to say that all His goodness and care hitherto have been but hatred, and that He has been at the pains to bring them across sea and wilderness to destroy them at last by the hands of the Amorites!

(5) Plainly, argument is at an end. God can do no mightier wonders, nor convince those to whom love and hatred are indistinguishable from one another. Their unbelief excludes them from the land and ordains a long discipline for their children, whom yet at last He brings in according to His purpose. Their folly and evil cannot change the Immutable: it is only of avail against themselves. The sure Word which had been for them is now their doom; while their fatal unbelief finally stirs even the meek spirit of Moses, and shuts him also out from the land. Once more they rebel when the word is pronounced against them, and will go in without God, who just now could not go in by His help: a mere presumption, presently bitterly rebuked, when the Amorites come down from the hill, and chase them as a swarm of bees might, even to Hormah, the place of the ban. Then they break down in tears as vain before the Lord: His judgment is as faithful as His loving-mercy.

2. In the next section we find Israel upon the road in their strange roundabout journey, in which we have already traced them, round Mount Seir. But the path itself is little touched upon: what we have rather is their different relation to the different nations by which they pass, -Edom, Moab, and Ammon on the one hand, and the Amorites on the other. The one, they are strictly forbidden to meddle with the other, they are bidden to make war upon, and their land becomes Israel’s first possession. So, we may be sure, is it important for us to know, as we travel on, what to contend with, what simply to pass by. All this in Israel’s history is still to be our lesson; we may be confident as ever, and shall find our confidence justified, that “the things that happened unto them happened unto them for types.”

(1) First of these nations we have the “children of Esau, who dwelt in Seir,” and we have already got more than a hint of the typical meaning. Esau and Seir have a natural connection. “Esau” means “hairy,” “rough,” and so does Seir; which for this reason is one of the words for “goat,” -a “shaggy one.” This last significance is striking enough, the goat standing in its fundamental meaning for the sinner, as in the Lord’s use of it. The wild nature of Esau thus is shown in its affinity to the “far-off country” to which he belongs. Edom has thus another sign that it is Adam, if disguised, as in the child of God the flesh is often well disguised. And Edom lies here in Seir, as we have elsewhere seen, right across (as we might imagine) the whole path of progress. This is emphasized by Israel’s attempt to pass through Seir, a passage which is refused and has to be given up. God’s way is “round,” not across it, and “by the way of the sea,” under the shelter of the serpent of brass. This is the way of death, the way of the cross: “in the Arabah,” God’s furrow of death, cut through the land from sea to sea, we find our track, and no Mount Seir to stop us.* But the truth is further emphasized for us here. Esau is not to be dispossessed, -the flesh cannot be, -nor even warred against. Mount Seir is given them for a possession. It is the lesson of the sea, which is given its place on the third day of the six in which the earth was built up; or, again, the lesson of Cain, marked by God for life, not death. The flesh abides still in the believer, and has its place from God -therefore its use, as we may boldly say. What use has Esau in his stronghold at Seir? Just as a needful barrier, to force Israel into the path by the sea; so has the flesh its use to destroy self-confidence, to make the cross a daily necessity to us, to teach us to abide in Christ, and find our sanctification in occupation with Himself. If self-occupation could in Satan change an angel to a devil, worthy is it of God to make the ineradicable evil in us a means of turning our eyes from ourselves to Him, by whom, as we behold His glory, we are changed into the same image, from glory to glory!

{*Those who may yet find this unintelligible are referred to notes on Num 20:14-21 and Num 21:4-9 for explanation.}

With the men of the flesh, the children of this world, we may have traffic, as we pass on heavenward: contend with them we may not; their land is not ours; our possessions are elsewhere, -a good land, which forbids coveting any other.

(2) Passing Edom, the children of Israel find themselves in the neighborhood of the brother-tribes descended from Lot, as to whom they are equally forbidden to make war upon them or to possess their land. “I have given Ar,” says Jehovah, “unto the children of Lot for a possession.” What is represented to us, then, by these children of Lot? Their descent is naturally the first thing which should help us. They are the posterity, in a way of shame and sin, of one who stands as the typical opposite to Abraham, the man true to the divine call. He is the man, who, though himself “righteous,” is yet a settler in the world, sunk into it, ignoring what it is for God, saved through the fire at last, but never restored to the place from which he had departed. The child of Lot is the child of the “cover” under which Lot walked, and according to the inevitable tendency from bad to worse, inheriting the evil only, -alien and hostile to Israel and to Israel’s God. His territory is outside Israel’s, though a border-land, and which is named from its chief city Ar, which means but “city,” carrying us back to that which one of old had gone out of the presence of the Lord to build. (Gen 4:1-26.)

All seems to speak of that which is the natural result of the true church sinking into the world, -a profession which is but the world, alien and hostile to the true people of God, characterized largely by the principles of confederacy, mutual interest, etc., which the city, as it now exists, implies. In Moab, the “city” covers, as it were, the country. Thus we need not wonder that their God is not Jehovah. For Moab God is Chemosh, the “vanquisher,” as the mere professor goes with what in fact is prevalent, what has gained the day. In Ammon he is Moloch, -i.e., “king,” -in fact, whether or not in right. Nay, rather, fact is right: not God is King, -reigns because He is divine; but the king is God -is divine because he reigns. And this is no strange thing among men: the sect of Herodians has always been a large one. Hence again, (for this is a system connected in all its parts,) to both Chemosh* and Moloch they sacrificed men: humanity is immolated at such shrines constantly.

{*The Moabite stone has shown us this as to Chemosh.}

Between Moab and Ammon it is harder to distinguish. “The near relation between the two peoples indicated in their origin,” says Grove, “continued throughout their existence: from their earliest mention (Deu 2:1-37) to their disappearance from biblical history, the brother-tribes are named together. (Comp. Jdg 10:6; 2Ch 20:1; Zep 2:8, etc.) Indeed, so close was their union, and so near their identity, that each would appear to be occasionally spoken of under the name of the other . . . . They are both said to have hired Balaam to curse Israel (Deu 23:4) . . . In the answer of Jephthah to the king of Ammon the allusions are continually to Moab (Jdg 11:15; Jdg 11:18; Jdg 11:25), while Chemosh, the peculiar deity of Moab (Num 21:29), is called ‘thy god’ (24.) The land from Arnon to Jabbok, which the king of Ammon calls ‘my land’ (13), is elsewhere distinctly stated to have once belonged to a ‘king of Moab.’ (Num 21:26.)”

On the other hand he notices that but one city of Ammon (Rabbah) is spoken of, and that the allusions to the habits and circumstances of civilization, so common in connection with Moab, are absolutely wanting in regard to Ammon. The Ammonites have the fierce habits of marauders, cruelty to their enemies. (1Sa 11:2; Amo 1:13; Jer 41:6-7; Jdg 11:7; Jdg 11:12), “as well as a suspicious discourtesy to their allies, which on one occasion (2Sa 10:1-5) brought all but extermination on the tribe. (12: 31.)” “Taking the above into account,” he says, “it is hard to avoid the conclusion that, while Moab was the settled and civilized half of the nation of Lot, the Bene-Ammon formed its predatory and Bedouin section. A remarkable confirmation of this opinion occurs in the fact that the special deity of the tribe was worshiped, not in a house, nor on a high place, but in a booth or tent designated by the very word which most keenly expressed to the Israelites the contrast between a nomadic and a settled life (Amo 5:26).”

In Moab, we may perhaps see, then, the mere quiet worldling, satisfied with the gains of his profession; in Ammon, the heretic raider upon Israel’s possession. We have had a type of this nature in the Philistines of the sea-coast, Israel’s enemies on the other side; but these are nevertheless different in what they represent. Every form of spiritual existence, good or evil, we may expect to find embodied in these types, which so vividly picture the life and warfare of the people of God.

It may at first sight seem strange, however, if this be true, that God should have distinctly provided a place for Moab and Ammon, and not suffer Israel to dispossess them. We have seen, however, the same to be the case as to Edom, and how the fact answers to the type. As to the tares in the field too, which would correspond essentially to Ammon, the word is, “Let them grow with the wheat unto the harvest,” which is very similar to what we have here. If we find, too, that Lot’s children have their use, and that they have been the means of destroying certain giants, the Emim and the Zamzummim, out of the lands which they have occupied, this is true also of Edom and the Horites, and the Avvim before the Caphtorim, who seem to have become united with the Philistines. It is no new thing for God to overrule the growth of one evil for the destruction of another, that the world may be at least more tolerable for those that inhabit it. Those that mean nothing less than to serve God are thus compelled to do it; just as “He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him, and the remainder of wrath He will restrain.” (Psa 76:10.)

As to these giants, of whom little except the names remains, even the names are at present too uncertain in their interpretation to be able to say anything reliable about them. Vocabularies of this sort need to have more of the intelligence of faith in them, before questions such as these can receive any proper treatment. In the meantime we must perforce be content with marking them as questions remaining for the patient explorer of the Word in a time to come, -if indeed there shall be for it time to come! For the end is surely near at hand.

(3) The war for possession is now about to begin, God’s threatening as to the former generation being now accomplished, and the hindrance to occupation of the land removed. They are therefore encouraged to go forward, doubting nothing.

3. Possession, as we see plainly here, begins this side Jordan. Israel are directly bidden to possess themselves of the land of the Amorites, which is in fact a good land, and worthy of God to give. So with us: “godliness hath the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” (1Ti 4:8.) Yea, says the apostle, “all things are yours, whether . . . the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.” (1Co 3:21-23.) Here it is plain that we have possessions both sides of death, both banks of Jordan, yea, and Jordan itself.

Yet we may make very serious mistake none the less, as the two and a half tribes certainly did. What more natural for them than the language we have heard them use, when God had said to them, “Begin, take possession”? But Israel’s land must be apportioned by lot; and they do not wait for the lot. The country suits them: it is fit for cattle, and they have cattle; thus, like Lot of old, they cannot trust God to choose for them, -they must choose for themselves. And they do choose peremptorily: they will not go over Jordan, -which they modify presently by undertaking to go and fight to give their brethren possession of the land which for themselves they refuse: to that refusal they hold fast.

The spiritual explains the natural here as so often elsewhere. As heavenly men the world belongs to us; but only to use as heavenly men. Gilead and Bashan may be ours as a dependency, but Canaan is the land of our inheritance and of our hearts. The world is ours, only as we are Christ’s. It belongs to us, and therefore we do not belong to it.

(1) The victory over Sihon, and the meaning of the whole history, so far as we could learn it, have been considered already. What is emphasized here, as suited to Moses’ purpose, is, that God gave him into their hand, even the stubbornness which refused passage to the advancing host being of Him, the iniquity of the Amorites being now full, and so the ban upon them being dwelt on also, by which Israel became simply the executioners of the divine judgment. It was with them neither lust of possession nor passion for destroying which brought on Sihon and his people this merciless extirpation. The mercy was for the world, in rooting out of it a virulent evil. The indictment against them is given elsewhere; and the execution of God’s sentence put into Israel’s hand was well calculated to impress them with a sense of divine holiness which should not leave them.

(2) The significance of Og and the conquest of Bashan has also been considered; nor does it seem possible here to add to it.

(3) The whole subject of the land will come before us, if the Lord permit, in the consideration of the book of Joshua, and we shall defer till then any attempt to read the significance of what we find here. That there is significance everywhere, we must not doubt: what Canaan was to Israel ought for us to find its parallel in spiritual import, surely. What must not this land, “the glory of all lands,” “where the eyes of the Lord are continually,” furnish to a believing study of it? Nothing has been done in this way as yet: has it been attempted? Shall we not find here certainly that “in all labor there is profit,” and that “the soul of the diligent shall be made fat”?

(4) After the apportionment of the land already acquired, Moses reminds the people of the obligation of those entering into possession of it to take part with their brethren in the future conquest; to which Joshua also is encouraged with the assurance that the present success is but an earnest of the future. Jehovah is with them in unchanging strength and faithfulness.

(5) And then, once more, he who had been Jehovah’s instrument in bringing them out of Egypt seeks, with all the longing of his soul, to be permitted to go over Jordan, and see the good land beyond it. But there is no repentance with One who never speaks in haste, nor can mend what He speaks: Moses is refused, for the sake of the people, who must learn in him God’s ways; but he is granted Pisgah, for there is no breach between holiness and love; and he shall see the land, with God.

4. The admonition follows, given by this experience. The history has a moral, as all man’s history, indeed, when read aright; as all will be proved when it is first fully told out and accented right. Israel is a sample, not an exception: it is thus alone that it can have any voice for us, or be other than words spoken into the air.

(1) The voice preaches obedience; but obedience is only that when it is uncompromising loyalty, never tampering with the statute-book. There must be no addition, which would exalt man’s word to God’s; no subtraction, reducing God’s word to man’s. For this there must be a single eye, so that the vision, shall not be blurred: the commandment itself is light as it is life. This, experience had shown to Israel: where were the men that went after Baal-peor? But those who clave unto Jehovah lived. And what nation beside had ever such perfect statutes? What wisdom and understanding would be theirs who kept them!

(2) The people had met God, and they had His word: -two things that must go together for us also if we are to be adequately furnished for the path. The example of Job shows us the necessity of the first, for one beyond all others of his day in blamelessness of character. It was when his eye saw God that he came to abhor himself in dust and ashes. It is here man’s will is broken, with his pride, and God’s will becomes all in all to him. Then God, who is a consuming ire, speaks out of the midst of the fire, and the written Word becomes the record of a living Voice, which has spoken, and which speaks to us. Nothing can possibly take the place of this real meeting with God, -this being face to face with His Majesty. Neither for Israel nor yet for Job was this a falling into a Father’s arms, -the gospel had not been spoken, save in parables. But now there is a danger of God being lost in the Father, rather than (as He should be,) manifested in the Father. How much lack there is, among those too who have well learnt the gospel, of that broken spirit, -so priceless a thing with God, -and which is the unfailing consequence of having met God! For one who has done this, it is henceforth “God and the word of His grace:” the sweet and wholesome, childlike, not slave-like, “fear of God” will accompany the “comfort of the Holy Ghost,” and the issue will be a persuasive witness for God, by which, as in the beginning, the Church will be “multiplied.” (Act 9:31.) It is the glory of God in the face of him that has been with Him.

(3) After such a manner, then, as the day permitted, these two things appear in Israel’s history. They were a people separated to God as His possession. He was toward them a jealous God, because of His love to them. They were to be His alone; and He was to be for them separate from all else, not confounded with any imagination of man’s, or likeness of any thing in heaven or earth, who can be represented by nothing but Himself. For us, Christ as the “image of the invisible God” has only emphasized, not lessened, this unapproachable glory. God is indeed brought near; but if He draw near, the more we realize our nothingness in His presence.

We are His: if Israel were brought out of Egypt, the iron furnace, we are the subjects of a more wondrous and spiritual redemption. For Israel, this was the first argument of the law; for us, it is that which above all speaks of His title to us.

(4) But even as he speaks of that separation to Jehovah, which the love He had to them claimed at their hands, and in which lay all their glory and felicity, the shadow of the future sweeps over the soul of the prophet-lawgiver; and he sees their departure from Jehovah, their idolatry, to which God must give them up, only to enjoy it, not in the land which was devoted to Him, but scattered in that of strangers. There they would realize the miserable bondage they had chosen, until with their whole heart they should seek again the God of their fathers: seek, then to find; for such is the mercy of Him against whom they have rebelled, and His faithfulness to the unforgotten covenant.

Thus, before their actual possession of the land of promise, they are warned of how, though not forever, they will lose it. And so the Church, from the very beginning, was warned of like departure, the seeds of which already were found in the apostle’s days, and would develop into a darker apostasy than that of Israel. Only the end here is the removal of her candlestick upon earth, while the true saints are caught up to heaven, that “Israel” may “bud and blossom, and fill the face of the earth with fruit.”

(5) God with them, that was their glory. Had any other nation heard His voice out of the fire kindled by His presence, enabled to hear it and to live? Had any other people been taken to be His own, plucked out of the grasp of another nation with such a hand of power, with signs and wonders and mighty deeds? The question implies that there could be but one answer then. Now, we can speak of God more marvelously displayed, -of a salvation greater and more wondrous. How pregnant, then, should be for us Moses’ conclusion here: “Know therefore, and consider it in thy heart, that Jehovah He is God, in the heavens above and in the earth beneath: He, and none else”! Do we always act as though we believed it? Are His commandments kept in simplicity, as if we did? Absolute obedience, is it so common among us yet? And this is the measure of faith, and of the love by which faith works.

5. This part of Deuteronomy is closed with a significant act on the part of Moses. He sets apart three cities of refuge for the land already in possession on the east of Jordan. The spiritual meaning of these cities of refuge has been already considered in general here we shall find it extended and developed in a way full of the deepest interest to every spiritual mind. How full of interest that which, penetrating beneath a comparatively unattractive surface, discovers to us the thoughts of God, then hidden, (and of necessity hidden,) when the events passed into history, but preserved for us, nevertheless, in the record of them by the hands of those who, led of the Spirit, thus immeasurably transcended their own knowledge! Here, it is evident that it is the inner meaning that must illumine the history, and that those who stop short of this lose all the power of the history. We shall be easily content, for the sake of showing, as God may grant, this inner meaning, to be counted romancers and fabulists by the many (alas!) with whom divine history is nothing more than history, and with whom their “immanent deity” is too impartial to favor an Israelite chronicler beyond a Greek or Roman historian. Science may, for the purpose of anatomy, rejoice in the carcass rather than the living form; but for us, the breath of the Spirit of life is in these pages, and we will not give them up to that which, having used its knife upon them, will restore them to us in a state fit only for the charnel-house.

These cities of refuge, set at intervals through the land of Israel, are a garrison for it from God, which even still, in ruin, as the land is, watch over it, as ministers of unchanging grace, and prophets of now near-coming glory. This people of God, separated to Him in the wonderful way attested by their annals, -what, after all, has been their condition for many and long centuries of subjection to hostile races? They have been strangers and wanderers, Cain-like, and indestructible as Cain, -a nation surviving even in death, but as if to perpetuate only the memory of the doom under which they lie, -the doom of an awful fratricide. Such is, in fact, their condition, -a condition hopeless to most yet, though it may be now with a streak of gray dawn widening upon it. But these cities of refuge have all the time been watch-towers set to face eastward, ramparts round prostrate Zion, upon which the watchmen hold not their peace, and give Him no rest, till He establish it again, -yea, till He make it a praise upon earth. (Isa 62:6-7.)

They are His pledge, in view of what has in fact come to pass, that what He has foreseen cannot thwart His purposes, nor their sin His long-foreshown grace. Preach they may in sackcloth, but it is good tidings that they preach, of a place of security even for homicides, -for those for whom His plea shall yet avail, “They know not what they do.”

Thus alone can their blessing come -can the favor which of old distinguished them be again shown them; thus only can God be with man at any time. The Crucified is our shelter from the avenger, and the pledge of full possession of our destined inheritance; and the more we contemplate the type here, the more we shall see the features of Christ and of our blessing in Him.

Six cities gird the whole land, -the land as far as Israel in the past enjoyed it: in their number thus speaking of the victory of divine grace over and in them. Three only are here: Jordan dividing equally the six into two threes, the number of testimony and that of the divine fullness. This victory is indeed such a witness: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as they are for the first time fully made known in the New Testament, so it is in personal activity in our behalf that they are manifested.

At present, we have only three to consider: first, for the Reubenites, Bezer, in the wilderness, in the table-land. “Bezer” means “fortification,” a place enclosed, sometimes a “store” or treasure so enclosed. The application to our Lord scarcely needs enlarging on. God’s enclosure can never be a mere defense; it must be planted, like the first garden, with “every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.” Or, better than all, when we are thus shut up, He makes us a garden enclosed,” out of which for Him north wind and south alike make the spices to flow out. In Him, we are not merely with evil and enemy shut out; we are shut in with blessing.

And this for the Reubenite, self-willed, impetuous against restraint as we have seen him, -a restraint which shall overcome and hold him fast, remould, deliver him from himself, make him fruitful. Blessed be God!

Bezer is “in the wilderness;” and it is even in this world that this great gift is made our own. The life-boat is needed for the seas, the armor for the battle; and “as He is, so are we in this world.”

Bezer is also “in the level country,” -the mishor, -a word which in Isa 11:4 and Mal 2:6 is used for “equity.” It is indeed thus that Christ has become a refuge for us, -no mere escape, but righteousness.

Next, we have Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites. Ramoth” means heights,” as “Gilead” a “rocky” region. As security would be attained in a level country by a simple enclosure, such as we find in Bezer, so in a rocky district the natural place of security would be a height. The plural form may be, in Hebrew, only intensification. And here it seems scarcely possible to miss the application. Christ our refuge is indeed exalted to a height which renders it impossible for any earthly thing to assail or threaten our security in Him. In Him, risen out of death and ascended to heaven,

we are “risen together,” and “seated together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” No difficulties of the rough path we tread can affect for a moment our perfect peace in Him whose path is ended in the joy of victory and His work accomplished. Heaven can be no surer to us when we are in it than in Christ having gone in for us, our Representative Head. And this, how comforting for the Gadite assailed by a troop, and yet thus able and certain to conquer in the end! Jacob’s wondrous prophecy, we can see, accompanies us all through, and, as a foundation, governs all the superstructure.

We have yet one of these cities remaining, -“Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.” To Golan is assigned very diverse meanings: we take, as always in these eases, that which is in most harmony with its context, and has thus the sanction of fullest significance. The idea suggested by Bashan, the kingdom of Og, we have already considered (Num 21:33-35). It speaks of pleasure, in a had sense -luxury, sensuous pleasure, with which even the common acceptation of “Bashan” as rich soil” is not discordant. It contained then, probably, -does now certainly, -some of the richest land in Syria. “Golan,” in keeping with all this, means joy,” -even that which expresses itself in bodily movement, “exultation.” We rejoice in Christ Jesus,” says the apostle: “boast,” or “exult,” is the better term. What more needful for a Manassite, especially, as here, one who has failed in steadfast purpose, than Christ in that character as a “refuge” from himself? Let us not make light of joy, if it be right joy, -that is, joy in the right Object; but let us remember that joy even in salvation is not enough, and may fail us in the time of need. Only that joy in Him “whom, having not seen, ye love, in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice” is “joy unspeakable and full of glory.” (1Pe 1:8.)

Thus if our life-history, like that of Israel, afford us little material for boasting in ourselves, these cities of refuge fittingly remind us of what is our security and our full resource. Like the Nazarite with his vow fulfilled, the end of our course shall only make our divorce from self complete, and Christ in absolute attainment our occupation forever. Amen.

Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary

REVIEW OF ISRAELS HISTORY

A book written by Canon Bernard entitled The Progress of Doctrine in the New Testament, shows not only that the contents of its books are inspired, but their arrangement and order as well.

The same might be said of the Old Testament, especially of the Pentateuch. To illustrate, the purpose of the Bible is to give the history of redemption through a special seed. In Genesis we have the election of that seed (Abraham), in Exodus their redemption, in Leviticus their worship, in Numbers their walk and warfare, and in Deuteronomy their final preparation for the experience towards which all has been directed.

THE BOOK OF REVIEW

A secondary name for Deuteronomy might be The Book of Review. The word comes from two Greek words, deuter, second, and nomos, law, the second law, or the repetition of the law. And yet when it comes to reviewing the law it adds certain things not mentioned previously (see 29:1).

The one great lesson it contains is that of obedience grounded on a known and recognized relationship to God through redemption.

THE DIVISIONS OF DEUTERONOMY

1. Review of the History, chaps. 1-3

2. Review of the Law, 4-11 3. Instructions and Warnings, 12-27

4. Prophecy of Israels Future, 28-30

5. Moses Final Counsels, 31 6. Moses Song and Blessing, 32-33

7. Moses Death, 34.

REVIEW OF THE HISTORY

This side Jordan (Deu 1:1) is in the Revised Version beyond Jordan, and means the east side, where Moses and the people now were. How long is the direct journey from Horeb (or Sinai) to Kadesh-barnea (Deu 1:2)? The allusion is doubtless to remind the people of their sin, which prolonged this journey from eleven days to forty years.

What is the first great fact of the review (Deu 1:5-8)? The second (Deu 1:11-18)? What do you recall about this second fact from our previous studies? What is the third fact (Deu 1:19-46)? What do you recall about this? What is the fourth (Deu 2:1-8)? The fifth (Deu 2:9-12)? Is there anything in Deu 2:10-12 to suggest an addition by a later hand than Moses?

Note to the Student

It is hardly necessary to analyze the chapter further. Every student who has pursued the course thus far will be able to do it for himself, after receiving the suggestions above. If there are any beginning to study this commentary now for the first time, let them examine the marginal references in their Bible for the places where the facts are first mentioned in Numbers, and it will be easy to compare the instruction given upon it in the previous lessons.

This may be a good place to again state that the object of this Commentary is to assist the reader to study the Bible. It has little value for those who eat only predigested food. There are better helps of that kind at hand, and more are scarcely called for.

The author also has in mind leaders of adult Bible classes who are looking for suggestions more than anything else, and to whom it is hoped this commentary may be a blessing.

An Explanation or Two

While further questions on the text of this lesson are hardly necessary, there are some things calling for explanation.

For example, Deu 2:4 says, The children of Esau shall be afraid of you, which seems contradictory to Num 20:14. But the solution is that in the former instance the Israelites were on their western frontier where the Edomites were strong, while now they were on the eastern, where they were weak.

It may be asked why they should be necessitated to buy food of the Edomites, when the manna, still continued to be given them. The reply is, that there was no prohibition against eating other food, if they did not have an inordinate desire for it.

A reasonable explanation of other seeming contradictions may be found, but the student must be referred to larger commentaries, and a good many of them, if he wishes to learn everything that can be learned. Many things must be taken for granted in these lessons, but if we only get well acquainted with those that are explained we shall be in a fair way to master the rest.

Og and His Bedstead

But what about the giant Og and his bedstead? He was the only remnant in the transjordanic country (Jos 15:14) of a gigantic race, supposed to be the most ancient inhabitants of Palestine.

Although beds in the east are with the common people a simple mattress, yet bedsteads were not unknown among the great. Taking a cubit at half a yard, the bedstead of Og would measure thirteen and one-half feet, and as beds are usually a little larger than the persons who occupy them, the stature of the Amorite king may be estimated at about eleven or twelve feet.

But how did the bedstead come to be in Rabbath, of the children of Ammon? Perhaps on the eve of the engagement they conveyed it to Rabbath for safety. This is so unlikely, however, that some take the Hebrew word bedstead to mean coffin, and think that the king having been wounded in battle, fled to Rabbath, where he died and was buried, and that here we have the size of his coffin.

QUESTIONS

1. How far may the inspiration of the Scriptures have extended, and how is it illustrated in the Pentateuch?

2. What is the meaning of the word Deuteronomy?

3. Name the seven divisions of the book.

4. On which side of the Jordan was this book written?

5. How would you explain the allusion to the bedstead of Og?

Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary

Deu 1:1. These be the words which Moses spake In the last encampment of the Israelites, which was in the plains of Moab, there being now but two months before the death of Moses, and their passage into the land of Canaan. Moses spent this last part of his time in laying before them an account of their travels, and of the many singular providences, mercies, and judgments which had attended them; in repeating and enlarging upon the several laws which God had prescribed for their civil and religious conduct in that promised country; and in the most pressing applications, and earnest persuasions, to a grateful and dutiful obedience. These things, here termed words, with his last prophetic blessing upon their tribes, constitute the subject of this book. Unto all Israel Namely, by their heads or elders, who were to communicate these discourses to all the people. In the wilderness over against the Red sea This is undoubtedly a wrong translation, for they were now at a vast distance from the Red sea, and in no sense over against it. , Suph, here rendered Red sea, is, no doubt, the name of a town or district in the country of Moab, of which see Num 21:14. The Red sea is never expressed by Suph alone, but always by , Jam Suph. This place seems to have been near the Dead sea, and to have had its name Suph, a rush, from the many flags or rushes which grew there. Between Paran This cannot well be meant of the wilderness of Paran, mentioned Num 10:12, for that was far remote from hence; but of some place in the country of Moab, as Suph was, and the rest of the places which here follow. And Dizahab Hebrew, , Di zahab, which the Vulgate renders, Where there is much gold, as the words signify. Perhaps it had its name from some mines of gold that were there; which circumstance seems to have determined the Seventy to render it , golden places, or gold mines.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Deu 1:1. In the plain over against the Red sea. Suph, red, not being joined in the text with Yam, sea, should not be rendered the Red sea. Zuph being the name of a town, and also of a district in Moab, many think that the latter is here to be understood.

Deu 1:3. In the eleventh month. The Deuteronomy comprises only the space of a single month.

Deu 1:6. Ye have dwelt long enough; that is, about a year, in Horeb.

Deu 1:13. Take you wise men. The people elected the rulers, and God, who alone has all power, invested them with authority. From the seventy elders, down to the people, there was a vast gradation of magistrates and officers. The appointment of good and religious magistrates is among the first and best cares of a prince.

Deu 1:17. Ye shall not respect persons. A judge must come into court with clean hands, and know the case only, and not the persons.

Deu 1:28. The Anakims, giants, thought to be so called because of the large golden torques which they wore about their necks. The word literally is, born of the earth.

REFLECTIONS.

Moses having now but thirty seven days to live, though he knew not the exact number, was desirous happily to finish his work. Every evening or morning, he enlivened the devotion of the nation, by a rehearsal of the law and of the works of God. And oh how happy was Israel to have in this venerable man, the best of kings, the greatest of prophets, and the most enlightened of instructors. He opened the new series of his ministry by a review of providence for two eventful years, from the emancipation from Egypt, to the sentence passed on the revolted fathers at Kadesh-Barnea, to die in the desert.

In this rehearsal he marks the divine appointment of rulers, among the leading blessings which God had accorded to the nation; and surely an order of men who spend their life in determining causes, reconciling differences, and punishing delinquents, is inconceivably valuable for the peace and quiet of society.

In the probation of Israel at Kadesh-Barnea, an event so often referred to in the sacred writings, the people were taught to attribute all their calamities to the greatness of their sin. Some visitations, it is true, come in course of providence, when neither child nor parent has so sinned as to occasion the calamity. Joh 9:3. Yet it is always sanctifying, under the hand of God, to trace our unworthiness and defects. I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him.

Moses, and all the subsequent prophets, in reviewing this calamity, lay the emphasis on unbelief. It fermented in their hearts, it paralyzed exertion, and occasioned all their other sins; and its consequences still are equally dreadful. In the gospel age it has driven the Jews from Jerusalem, and made them a reproach among all nations. While this principle predominates in the heart of man, the gospel is nothing worth, and judgments have no effect. What is still worse, after awhile, the Lord gives some men up to the hardness of their hearts.

But how calamitous to see Israel within a few stages of the promised land, and impatient to enter, and yet hurled back into the desert, under the high displeasure and inexorable oath of an offended God. Just so, some men for awhile sit under the gospel, and promise fair for conversion; but alas, some awful habit, or some predominating passion, blasts our hopes, and provokes the Lord to sentence them to the corruptions of their own hearts. How careful should we be to cherish the first overtures of grace, and to cultivate the early impressions of religion.

The importance of this will farther appear, if we consider that when the angry God is once induced to pass sentence on a provoking sinner, he perhaps will not reverse it. The sins in the desert were committed against so much light, and in the face of so many miracles, that he would neither retract nor reverse the sentence: their carcases fell in the wilderness. Moses himself was not exempt, because he twice struck the rock in a wrong spirit. The Israelites trembled, and repented. They went up to the mountains to fight; but the Amorites chased them with slaughter and vengeance. Let us learn to fear this awful God; let us learn wisdom by Israels folly, and obedience by their revolt. Let us above all know, that we cannot conquer our enemies while in our sins.

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

Deuteronomy 1

“These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan, in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red Sea, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahah. There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb, by the way of mount Seir, unto Kadesh-barnea.”

The inspired writer is careful to give us, in the most precise manner, all the bearings of the place in which the words of this book were spoken in the ears of the people. Israel had not yet crossed the Jordan. They were just beside it; and over against the Red Sea where the mighty power of God had been so gloriously displayed, nearly forty years before. The whole position is described with a minuteness which shows how thoroughly God entered into everything that concerned His People. He was interested in all their movements and in all their way’s. He kept a faithful record of all their encampments. There was not a single circumstance connected with them, however trifling, beneath His gracious notice. He attended to everything. His eye rested continually on that assembly as a whole, and on each member in particular. By day and by night, He watched over them. Every stage of their journey was under His immediate and most gracious superintendence. There was nothing, however small, beneath His notice; nothing, however great, beyond His power.

Thus it was with Israel, in the wilderness, of old; and thus it is with the church, now – the church, as a whole, and each member, in particular. A Father’s eye rests upon us continually, His everlasting arms are around and underneath us, day and night. “He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous.” He counts the hairs of our heads, and enters, with infinite goodness, into everything that concerns us. He has charged Himself with all our wants and all our cares. He would have us to cast our every care on Him, in the sweet assurance that He careth for us. He, most graciously, invites us to roll our every burden over on Him, be it great or small.

All this is truly wonderful. It is full of deepest consolation. It is eminently calculated to tranquilize the heart, come what may. The question is, do we believe it? Are our hearts governed by the faith of it? Do we really believe that the Almighty Creator and Upholder of all things, who bears up the pillars of the universe, has graciously undertaken to do for us, all the journey through? Do we thoroughly believe that “The possessor of heaven and earth” is our Father, and that He has charged Himself with all our wants, from first to last? Is our whole moral being under the commanding power of those words of the inspired apostle: ” He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely, give us all things?” Alas! it is to be feared that we know but little of the power of these grand yet simple truths. We talk about them; we discuss them; we profess them; we give a nominal assent to them; but, with all this, we prove, in our daily life, in the actual details of our personal history, how feebly we enter into them. If we truly believed that our God has charged Himself with all our necessities – if we were finding all our springs in Him – if He were a perfect covering for our eyes, and a resting place for our hearts, could we possibly be looking to poor creature streams which so speedily dry up and disappoint our hearts? We do not, and cannot believe it. It is one thing to hold the theory of the life of faith, and another thing altogether to live that life. We constantly deceive ourselves with the notion that we are living by faith, when in reality we are leaning on some human prop which, sooner or later, is sure to give way.

Reader, is it not so? Are we not constantly prone to forsake the Fountain of living waters, and hew out for ourselves broken cisterns which can hold no water? And yet we speak of living by faith! We profess to be looking only to the living God for the supply of our need, whatever that need may be, when, in point of fact, we are sitting beside some creature stream, and looking for something there. Need we wonder if we are disappointed? How could it possibly be otherwise? Our God will not have us dependent upon ought or anyone but Himself. He has, in manifold places in His word, given us His judgement as to the true character and sure result of all creature confidence. Take the following most solemn assurance from the prophet Jeremiah, “Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall he like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.”

And then, mark the contrast. “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is: for he shall he as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river and shall not see when drought cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.” (Jer. 17: 5-8.)

Here we have, in language divinely forcible, clear and beautiful, both sides of this most weighty subject put before us. Creature confidence brings a certain curse; it can only issue in barrenness and desolation. God, in very fruitfulness, will cause every human stream to dry up, every human prop to give way, in order that we may learn the utter folly of turning away from Him. What figure could he more striking or impressive than those used in the above passage? “A heath in the desert” – “Parched places in the wilderness” – “A salt land not inhabited.” Such are the figures used by The Holy Ghost to illustrate all mere human dependence, all confidence in man.

But, on the other hand, what can be more lovely or more refreshing than the figures used to set forth the deep blessedness of simple trust in the Lord? “A tree planted by the waters” – “Spreading out her roots by the rivers” – the leaf ever green – The fruit never ceasing. Perfectly beautiful! Thus it is with the man who trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. He is nourished by those eternal springs that flow from the heart of God. He drinks at the Fountain, life-giving and free. He finds all His resources in the living God. There may be “heat,” but he does not see it. “The year of drought” may come, but he is not careful. Ten thousand creature streams may dry up, but he does not perceive it, because he is not dependent upon them. He abides hard by the ever gushing Fountain. He can never want any good thing. He lives by faith.

And here, while speaking of the life of faith – that most blessed life, let us deeply understand what it is, and carefully see that we are living it. We some times hear this life spoken of in a way by no means intelligent. It is, not infrequently, applied to the mere matter of trusting God for food and raiment. Certain persons who happen to have no visible source of temporal supplies, no settled income, no property of any kind, are singled out and spoken of as “living by faith,” as if that marvellous and glorious life had no higher sphere or wider range than temporal things; the mere supply of our bodily wants.

Now, we cannot too strongly protest against this most unworthy view of the life of faith. It limits its sphere, and lowers its range, in a manner perfectly intolerable to any one who understands ought of its most holy and precious mysteries. Can we, for a moment, admit that a Christian who happens to have a settled income of any kind is to be deprived of the privilege of living by faith? Or, further, can we permit that life to be limited and lowered to the mere matter of trusting God for the supply of our bodily wants? Does it soar no higher than food and raiment? Does it give no more elevated thought of God than that He will not let us starve or go naked?

Far away, and away for ever be the unworthy thought! The life of faith must not be so treated. We cannot allow such a gross dishonour to be offered to it, or such a grievous wrong done to those who are called to live it. What, we would ask, is the meaning of those few but weighty words,” The just shall live by faith? They occur, first of all, in Habakkuk 2. They are quoted by the apostle, in Romans 1, where he is, with a master hand, laying the solid foundation of Christianity. He quotes them again, in Galatians 3. where he is, with intense anxiety, recalling those bewitched assemblies to those solid foundations which they, in their folly, were abandoning. Finally, he quotes them again in Hebrews 10, where he is warning his brethren against the danger of casting away their confidence and giving up the race.

From all this, we may assuredly gather the immense importance and practical value of the brief but far-reaching sentence, “The just shall live by faith.” And to whom does it apply? Is it only for a few of the Lord’s servants, here and there, who happen to have no settled income? We utterly reject the thought. It applies to every one of the Lord’s people. It is the high and happy privilege of all who come under the title – that blessed title, “the just.” We consider it a very grave error to limit it in any way. The moral effect of such limitation is most injurious. It gives undue prominence to one department of the life of faith which – if any distinction be allowable – we should judge to be the very lowest. But, in reality, there should be no distinction. The life of faith is one. Faith is the grand principle of the divine life from first to last. By faith we are justified, and by faith we live; by faith we stand, and by faith we walk From the starting-post to the goal of the Christian course, it is all by faith.

Hence, therefore, it is a serious mistake to single out certain persons who trust the Lord for temporal supplies, and speak of them as living by faith, as if they alone did so. and not only so, but such persons are held up to the gaze of the church of God as some thing wonderful; and the great mass of Christians are led to think that the privilege of living by faith lies entirely beyond their range. In short, they are led into a complete mistake as to the real character and sphere of the life of faith, and thus they suffer materially in the inner life.

Let the Christian reader, then, distinctly understand that it is his happy privilege, whoever he be, or whatever be his position, to live a life of faith, in all the depth and fullness of that word. He may, according to his measure, take up the language of the blessed apostle and say, “The life that I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Let nothing rob him of this high and holy privilege which belongs to every member of the household of faith. Alas! we fail. Our faith is weak, when it ought to be strong, bold and vigorous. our God delights in a bold faith. If we study the gospels, we shall see that nothing so refreshed and delighted the heart of Christ as a fine bold faith – a faith that understood Him and drew largely upon Him. Look, for example, at the Syrophenician, in Mark 7; and the centurion, in Luke 7.

True, He could meet a weak faith – the very weakest. He could meet an “If thou wilt” with a gracious “I will” – an “If thou canst,” with “If thou canst believe, all things are possible.” The very faintest look, the feeblest touch was sure to meet with a gracious response; but the Saviour’s heart was gratified and His spirit refreshed when He could say, “O woman, great is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt;” and again, “I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.”

Let us remember this. We may rest assured it is the very same today, as when our blessed Lord was here amongst men. He loves to he trusted, to be used, to be drawn upon. We can never go too far in counting on the love of His heart or the strength of His hand. There is nothing too small, nothing too great for Him. He has all power in heaven and on earth. He is Head over all things to His church. He holds the universe together. He upholds all things by the word of His power. Philosophers talk of the forces and laws of nature. The Christian thinks with delight of Christ, His hand, His word, His mighty power. By Him all things were created, and by Him all things consist.

And then His love! What rest, what comfort, what joy to know and remember that the Almighty Creator and Upholder of the universe is the everlasting Lover of our souls; that He loves us perfectly; that His eye is ever upon us, His heart ever toward us; that He has charged Himself with all our wants, whatever these wants may be, whether physical, mental, or spiritual. There is not a single thing within the entire range of our necessities that is not treasured up for us in Christ. He is heaven’s treasury, God’s storehouse; and all this for us.

Why then should we ever turn to another? Why should we ever, directly or indirectly, make known our wants to a poor fellow mortal Why not go straight to Jesus? Do we want sympathy? Who can sympathise with us like our most merciful High Priest who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities Do we want help of any kind? Who can help us like our Almighty Friend, the Possessor of unsearchable riches! Do we want counsel or guidance? who can give it like the blessed One who is the very wisdom of God, and who is made of God unto us wisdom? Oh! let us not wound His loving heart, and dishonour His glorious Name by turning away from Him. Let us jealously watch against the tendency so natural to us to cherish human hopes, creature confidences, and earthly expectations. Let us abide hard by the fountain, and we shall never have to complain of the streams. In a word, let us seek to live by faith, and thus glorify God in our day and generation.

We shall now proceed with our chapter and, in so doing we would call the reader’s attention to verse 2. It is certainly a very remarkable parenthesis. “There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb, by the way of mount Seir, unto Kadesh-barnea.” Eleven days! And yet it took them forty years! How was this? Alas! we need not travel far for the answer. It is only too like ourselves. How slowly we get over the ground! What windings and turnings! How often we have to go back and travel over the same ground again and again. We are slow travellers, because we are slow learners. It may be we feel disposed to marvel how Israel could have taken forty years to accomplish a journey of eleven days; but we may, with much greater reason, marvel at ourselves. We, like them, are kept back by our unbelief and slowness of heart; but there is far less excuse for us than for them, inasmuch as our privileges are so very much higher.

Some of us have much reason to be ashamed of the time we spend over our lessons. The words of the blessed apostle do but too forcibly apply to us, “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.” Our God is a faithful and wise, as well as a gracious and patient Teacher. He will not permit us to pass cursorily over our lessons. Sometimes, perhaps, we think we have mastered a lesson, and we attempt to move on to another; but our wise Teacher knows better and He sees the need of deeper ploughing. He will not have us mere theorists or smatterers. He will keep us, if need be, year after year at our scales until we learn to sing.

Now while it is very humbling to us to be so slow in learning, it is very gracious of Him to take such pains with us, in order to make us sure. We have to bless Him for His mode of teaching, as for all beside; for the wonderful patience with which He sits down with us, over the same lesson, again and again, in order that we may learn it thoroughly.*

{*The journey of Israel, from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea. illustrates but too forcibly the history of many souls in the matter of finding peace. Many of the Lord’s beloved people go on for years, doubting and fearing, never knowing the blessedness of the liberty wherewith Christ makes His people free. It is most distressing to any one who really cares for souls to see the sad condition in which some are kept all their days, through legality, bad teaching false manuals of devotion, and such like. It is a rare thing now-a-days, to find in Christendom a soul fully established in the peace of the gospel. It is considered a good thing, a sign of humility, to be always doubting. Confidence is looked upon as presumption. In short, things are turned completely upside down. The gospel is not known; souls are under law, instead of under grace; they are kept at a distance, instead of being taught to draw nigh. Much of the religion of the day is a deplorable mixture of Christ and self, law and grace, faith and works. Souls are kept in a perfect muddle, all their days.

Surely these things demand the grave consideration of all who occupy the responsible place of teachers and preachers in the professing church. There is a solemn day approaching when all such will be called to render an account of their ministry.}

“And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that the Lord had given him in commandment unto them.” (Ver. 3.) These few words contain a volume of weighty instruction for every servant of God, for all who are called to minister in the word and doctrine. Moses gave the people just what he himself had received from God, nothing more, nothing less. He brought them into direct contact with the living word of Jehovah. This is the grand principle of ministry at all times. Nothing else is of any real value. The word of God is the only thing that will stand. There is divine power and authority in it. All mere human teaching however interesting, however attractive, at the time, will pass away and leave the soul without any foundation to rest upon.

Hence it should be the earnest, jealous care of all who minister in the assembly of God, to preach the word in all its purity, in all its simplicity; to give it to the people as they get it from God; to bring them face to face with the veritable language of holy scripture. Thus will their ministry tell, with living power, on the hearts and consciences of their hearers. It will link the soul with God Himself, by means of the word, and impart a depth and solidity which no human teaching can ever produce.

Look at the blessed apostle Paul. Hear him express himself on this weighty subject. “And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among yon, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” What was the object of all this fear and trembling “That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” (1 Cor 2: 1-5)

This true-hearted faithful servant of Christ sought only to bring the souls of his hearers into direct personal contact with God Himself. He sought not to link them with Paul. “Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed” All false ministry has for its object the attaching of souls to itself. Thus the minister is exalted; God is shut out; and the soul is left without any divine foundation to rest upon. True ministry, on the contrary, as seen in Paul and Moses, has for its blessed object the attaching of the soul to God. Thus the minister gets his true place – simply an instrument; God is exalted; and the soul established on a sure foundation which can never be moved.

But let us hear a little more from our apostle on this most weighty subject. “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all, that which I also received-nothing more, nothing less, nothing different” how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.”

This is uncommonly fine. It demands the serious consideration of all who would be true and effective ministers of Christ. The apostle was careful to allow the pure stream to flow down from its living source, the heart of God, into the souls of the Corinthians. He felt that nothing else was of any value. If he had sought to link them on to himself, he would have sadly dishonoured his Master; done them a grievous wrong; and he himself would, most assuredly, suffer loss in the day of Christ.

But no; Paul knew better. He would not, for worlds, lead any to build upon himself. Hear what he says to his much loved Thessalonians. “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.” (1 Thess. 2: 13.)

We feel solemnly responsible to commend this grave and important point to the serious consideration of the church of God. If all the professed ministers of Christ were to follow the example of Moses and Paul, in reference to the matter now before us, we should witness a very different condition of things in the Professing church; but the plain and serious fact is that the church of God, like Israel of old, has wholly departed from the authority of His word. Go where you will, and you find things done and taught which have no foundation in scripture. Things are not only tolerated but sanctioned and stoutly defended which are in direct opposition to the mind of Christ. If you ask for the divine authority for this, that and the other institution or practice, you will be told that Christ has not given us directions as to matters of church government; that in all questions of ecclesiastical polity, clerical orders, and liturgical services, He has left us free to act according to our consciences, judgement, or religious feelings; that it is simply absurd to demand a “Thus saith the Lord” for all the details connected with our religious institutions; there is a broad margin left to be filled up according to our national customs, and our peculiar habits of thought. It is considered that professing Christians are left perfectly free to form themselves into so-called churches, to choose their own form of government, to make their own arrangements, and to appoint their own office-bearers.

Now the question which the Christian reader has to consider is, “Are these things so?” Can it be that our Lord Christ has left His church without guidance as to matters so interesting and momentous? Can it be possible that the church of God is worse off, in the matter of instruction and authority, than Israel? In our studies on the books of Exodus, Leviticus; and Numbers, we have seen – for who could help seeing? – the marvellous pains which Jehovah took to instruct His people as to the most minute particulars connected with their public worship and private life. As to the tabernacle, the temple; the priesthood, the ritual, the various feasts and sacrifices, the periodical solemnities, the months, the days, the very hours, all was ordered and settled with divine precision. Nothing was left to mere human arrangement. Man’s wisdom, his judgement, his reason, his conscience had nothing whatever to do in the matter. Had it been left to man, how should we ever have had that admirable, profound and far-reaching typical system which the inspired pen of Moses has set before us? If Israel had been allowed to do what – as some would fain persuade us – the church is allowed, what confusion, what strife, what division, what endless sects and parties would have been the inevitable result.

But it was not so. The word of God settled everything “As the Lord commanded Moses.” This grand and influential sentence was appended to everything that Israel had to do, and to everything they were not to do. Their national institutions and their domestic habits, their public and their private life – all came under the commanding authority of “Thus saith the Lord.” There was no occasion for any member of the congregation to say, “I Cannot see this,” or “I cannot go with that,” or “I cannot agree with the other.” Such language could only be regarded as the fruit of self-will. He might just as well say, “I cannot agree with Jehovah.” And why? simply because the word of God had spoken as to everything, and that too with a clearness and simplicity which left no room whatever for human discussion. Throughout the whole of the Mosaic economy there was not the breadth of a hair of margin left in which to insert the opinion or the judgement of man. It pertained not to man to add the weight of a feather to that vast system of types and shadows which had been planned by the divine mind, and set forth in language so plain and pointed, that all Israel had to do was to obey – not to argue, not to reason, not to discuss, but to obey.

Alas! alas! they failed, as we know. They did their own will; they took their own way; they did “every man that which was right in his own eyes.” They departed from the word of God, and followed the imaginations and devices of their own evil heart, and brought upon themselves the wrath and indignation of offended Deity, under which they suffer till this day, and shall yet suffer unexampled tribulation.

But all this leaves untouched the point on which we are just now dwelling. Israel had the oracles of God; and these oracles were divinely sufficient for their guidance in everything. There was no room left for the commandments and doctrines of men. The word of the Lord provided for every possible exigency, and that word was so plain as to render human comment needless.

Is the church of God worse off, as regards guidance and authority, than Israel of old. Are Christians left to think and arrange for themselves in the worship and service of God? Are there any questions left open for human discussion? Is the word of God sufficient, or is it not? Has it left anything unprovided for? Let us hearken diligently to the following powerful testimony: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect (artios) throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim. 3.)

This is perfectly conclusive. Holy scripture contains all that the man of God can possibly require to make him perfect, to equip him thoroughly for everything that can be called a “good work.” And if this be true as to the man of God individually, it is equally true as to the church of God collectively. Scripture is all-sufficient, for each, for all. Thank God that it is so. What a signal mercy to have a divine Guidebook! Were it not so, what should we do? whither should we turn? what would become of us? If we were left to human tradition and human arrangement, in the things of God, what hopeless confusion! What clashing of opinions! What conflicting judgements! And all this of necessity, inasmuch as one man would have quite as good a right as another to put forth his opinion and to suggest his plan.

We shall perhaps be told that, notwithstanding our possession of the holy scripture, we have, nevertheless, sects, parties, creeds, and schools of thought almost innumerable. But Why is this” Simply because we refuse to submit our whole moral being to the authority of holy scripture. This is the real secret of the matter – the true source of all those sects and parties which are the shame and sorrow of the church of God.

It is vain for men to tell us that these things are good in themselves; that they are the legitimate fruit of that free exercise of thought and private judgement which form the very boast and glory of Protestant Christianity. We do not and cannot believe, for a moment, that such a plea will stand, before the judgement-seat of Christ. We believe, on the contrary that this very boasted freedom of thought and independence of judgement are in direct opposition to that spirit of profound and reverent obedience which is due to our adorable Lord and Master. What right has a servant to exercise his private judgement in the face of his master’s plainly expressed will? None whatever. The duty of a servant is simply to obey, not to reason or to question; but to do what he is told. He fails as a servant, just in so far as he exercises his own private judgement. The most lovely moral trait in a servant’s character is implicit, unquestioning, and unqualified obedience. The one grand business of a servant is to do his master’s will.

All this will be fully admitted in human affairs; but, in the things of God, men think themselves entitled to exercise their private judgement. It is a fatal mistake. God has given us His word; and that word is so plain that wayfaring men, though fools, need not err therein. Hence, therefore, if we were all guided by that word; if we were all to bow down, in a spirit of unquestioning obedience, to its divine authority, there could not be conflicting opinions and opposing sects. It is quite impossible that the voice of holy scripture can teach opposing doctrines. It cannot possibly teach one man Episcopacy; another, Presbyterianism; and another, Independency. It cannot possibly furnish a foundation for opposing schools of thought. It would be a positive insult offered to the divine volume to attempt to attribute to it all the sad confusion of the professing church. Every pious mind must recoil, with just horror, from such an impious thought. Scripture cannot contradict itself, and therefore if two men or ten thousand men are exclusively taught by scripture, they will think alike.

Hear what the blessed apostle says to the church at Corinth – says to us. “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” – mark the mighty moral force of this appeal – “that ye all speak the same thing, and that there he no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgement.

Now, the question is, how was this most blessed result to be reached? Was it by each one exercising the right of private judgement? Alas! it was this very thing that gave birth to all the division and contention in the assembly at Corinth, and drew forth the sharp rebuke of the Holy Ghost. Those poor Corinthians thought they had a right to think, and judge and choose for themselves, and what was the result? “It hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided?”

Here we have private judgement and its sad fruit, its necessary fruit. One man has quite as good a right to think for himself as another and no man has any right whatsoever to force his opinion upon his fellow. Where then lies the remedy? In flinging to the winds our private judgments, and reverently submitting ourselves to the supreme and absolute authority of holy scripture. If it be not thus, how could the apostle beseech the Corinthians to “speak the same thing, and to he perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgement”? Who was to prescribe the “thing” that all were to “speak”? In Whose “mind” or whose “judgment” were all to be “perfectly joined together” Had any one member of the assembly, however gifted or intelligent, the slightest shadow of a right to set forth what his brethren were to speak, to think or to judge? Most certainly not. There was one absolute, because divine authority to which all were bound, or rather privileged to submit themselves. Human opinions, man’s private judgement, his conscience, his reason, all these things must just go for what they are worth; and, most assuredly, they are perfectly worthless as authority. The word of God is the only authority; and if we are all governed by that we shall “all speak the same thing,” and “there will be no divisions among us;” but we shall ” be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgement.”

Lovely condition! But alas! it is not the present condition of the church of God; and therefore it is perfectly evident that we are not all governed by the one supreme, absolute and all-sufficient authority – the voice of holy scripture – that most blessed voice that can never utter one discordant note – a voice ever divinely harmonious to the circumcised ear.

Here lies the root of the whole matter. The church has departed from the authority of Christ, as set forth in His word. Until this is seen, it is only lost time to discuss the claims of conflicting systems ecclesiastical or theological. If a man does not see that it is his sacred duty to test every ecclesiastical system, every liturgical service, and every theological creed, by the word of God, discussion is perfectly useless. If it be allowable to settle things according to expediency, according to man’s judgement, his conscience, or his reason, then verily we may as well, at once, give up, the case as hopeless. If we have no divinely settled authority, no perfect standard, no infallible guide, we cannot see how it is possible for any one to possess the certainty that he is treading in the true path. If indeed it be true that we are left to choose for ourselves, amid the almost countless paths which lie around us, then farewell to all certainty; farewell to peace of mind and rest of heart; farewell to all holy stability of purpose and fixedness of aim. If we cannot say of the ground we occupy, of the path we pursue, and of the work in which we are engaged, “This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded” we may rest assured we are in a wrong position, and the sooner we abandon it the better.

Thank God, there is no necessity whatever for His child or His servant to continue, for one hour, in connection with what is wrong. “Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But how are we to know what is iniquity? By the word of God, Whatever is contrary to scripture, whether in morals or in doctrines, is iniquity, and I must depart from it, cost what it may. It is an individual matter. “Let every one.” “He that hath ears.” “He that overcometh.” “If any man hear my voice.”

Here is the point. Let us mark it well. It is Christ’s voice. It is not the voice of this good man or that good man; it is not the voice of the church, the voice of the fathers, the voice of general councils, but the voice of our own beloved Lord and Master. It is the individual conscience in direct, living contact with the voice of Christ, the living, eternal word of God, the holy scriptures. Were it merely a question of human conscience, or judgement, or authority, we are, at once, plunged in hopeless uncertainty, inasmuch as what one man might judge to be iniquity, another might consider to be perfectly right. There must be some fixed standard to go by, some supreme authority from which there can be no appeal; and, blessed be God, there is. God has spoken; He has given us His word; and it is at once our bounden duty, our high privilege, our moral security, our true enjoyment, to obey that word.

Not man’s interpretation of the word, but the word itself. This is all-important. We must have nothing – absolutely nothing between the human conscience and divine revelation. Men talk to us about the authority of the church. Where are we to find it? Suppose a really anxious, earnest, honest soul, longing to know the true way. He is told to listen to the voice of the church. He asks, which church? Is it the Greek, Latin, Anglican or Scotch church? Not two of them agree. Nay more, there are conflicting parties, contending sects, opposing schools of thought in one and the self-same body. Councils have differed; fathers have disagreed; popes have anathematised one another. In the Anglican Establishment, we have high church, low church, and broad church, each differing from the rest. In the Scotch or Presbyterian church, we have the Established church, the United Presbyterian, and the Free church. And then if the anxious inquirer turns away, in hopeless perplexity, from those great bodies, in order to seek guidance amid the ranks of Protestant dissenters, is he likely to fare any better?

Ah! reader, it is perfectly hopeless. The whole professing church has revolted from the authority of Christ, and cannot possibly be a guide or an authority for any one. In the second and third chapters of the book of Revelation, the church is seen under judgement, and the appeal, seven times repeated, is, “He that hath an ear, let him hear” – what, The voice of the church? Impossible! the Lord could never direct us to hear the voice of that which is itself under judgement. Hear what, then “Let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”

And where is this voice to be heard? Only in the holy scriptures, given of God, in His infinite goodness, to guide our souls in the way of peace and truth, notwithstanding the hopeless ruin of the church, and the thick darkness and wild confusion of baptised Christendom. It lies not within the compass of human language to set forth the value and importance of having a divine and therefore an infallible and all sufficient guide and authority for our individual path.

But, be it remembered, we are solemnly responsible to bow to that authority, and follow that guide. It is utterly vain, indeed morally dangerous, to profess to have a divine guide and authority unless we are thoroughly subject thereto. This it was that characterised the Jews, in the days of our Lord. They had the scriptures, but they did not obey them. And one of the saddest features in the present condition of Christendom is its boasted possession of the Bible, while the authority of that Bible is boldly set aside.

We deeply feel the solemnity of this, and would earnestly press it upon the conscience of the Christian reader. The word of God is virtually ignored amongst us. Things are practised and sanctioned, on all hands, which not only have no foundation in scripture, but are diametrically opposed to it. We are not exclusively taught and absolutely governed by scripture.

All this is most serious, and demands the attention of all the Lord’s people, in every place. We feel compelled to raise a warning note, in the ears of all Christians, in reference to this most weighty subject. Indeed, it is the sense of its gravity and vast moral importance that has led us to enter upon the service of writing these “Notes on the Book of Deuteronomy. It is our earnest prayer that the Holy Ghost may use these pages to recall the hearts of the Lord’s dear people to their true and proper place, even the place of reverent allegiance to His blessed word. We feel persuaded that what will characterise all those who will walk devotedly, in the closing hours of the church’s earthly history, will be profound reverence for the word of God, and genuine attachment to the Person of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The two things are inseparably bound together by a sacred and imperishable link.

“The Lord our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount; turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea-side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto, Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates.” (Vers. 6, 7.)

We shall find, throughout the whole of the book of Deuteronomy, the Lord dealing much more directly and simply with the people, than in any of the three preceding books; so far is it from being true that Deuteronomy is a mere repetition of what has passed before us, in previous sections. For instance, in the Passage just quoted, there is no mention of the movement of the cloud; no reference to the sound of the trumpet. “The Lord our God spake unto us.” We know, from the Book of Numbers, that the movements of the camp were governed by the movements of the cloud, as communicated by the sound of the trumpet. but neither the trumpet nor the cloud is alluded to in this book. It is much more simple and familiar. “The Lord our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount.”

This is very beautiful. it reminds us somewhat of the lovely simplicity of patriarchal times, when the Lord spake unto the fathers as a man speaketh to his friend. It was not by the sound of a trumpet, or by the movement of a cloud that the Lord communicated His mind to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He was so very near to them that there was no need, no room for an agency characterised by ceremony and distance. He visited them, sat with them, partook of their hospitality, in all the intimacy of personal friendship.

Such is the lovely simplicity of the order of things in patriarchal times; and this it is which imparts a peculiar charm to the narratives of the Book of Genesis.

But, in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, we have something quite different. There we have set before us a vast system of types and shadows, rites, ordinances, and ceremonies, imposed on the people for the time being, the import of which is unfolded to us in the Epistle to the Hebrews. “The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing; which was a, figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.” (Heb. 9: 8-10.)

Under this system, the people were at a distance from God. It was not with them as it had been with their fathers, in the Book of Genesis. God was shut in from them; and they were shut out from Him. The leading features of the Levitical ceremonial, so far as the people were concerned, were, bondage, darkness, distance. But, on the other hand, its types and shadows pointed forward to that one great sacrifice which is the foundation of all God’s marvellous counsels and purposes, and by which He can, in perfect righteousness, and according to all the love of His heart, have a people near unto Himself, to the praise of the glory of His grace, throughout the golden ages of eternity.

Now, it has been already remarked, we shall find, in Deuteronomy, comparatively little of rites and ceremonies. The Lord is seen more in direct communication with the people; and even the priests, in their official capacity, come rarely before us; and, if they are referred to, it is very much more in a moral than in a ceremonial way. Of this we shall have ample proof as we pass along; it is a marked feature of this beautiful book.

“The Lord our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount: turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites.” What a rare privilege, for any people, to have the Lord so near to them, and so interested in all their movements, and in all their concerns great and small: He knew how long they ought to remain in any one place, and whither they should next bend their steps. They had no need to harass themselves about their journeyings, or about anything else. They were under the eye, and in the hands of One whose wisdom was unerring, whose power was omnipotent, whose resources were inexhaustible, whose love was infinite, who had charged Himself with the care of them, who knew all their need, and was prepared to meet it, according to all the love of His heart, and the strength of His holy arm.

What, then, we may ask, remained for them to do? What was their plain and simple duty? Just to obey. It was their high and holy privilege to rest in the love and obey the commandments of Jehovah their covenant God. Here lay the blessed secret of their peace, their happiness, and their moral security. They had no need whatever to trouble themselves about their movements, no need of planning or arranging. Their journeyings were all ordered for them by One who knew every step of the way from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea; and they had just to live by the day, in happy dependence upon Him.

Happy position! Privileged path! Blessed portion! But it demanded a broken will – an obedient mind – a subject heart. If, when Jehovah had said, “Ye have compassed this mountain long enough,” they, on the contrary, were to form the plan of compassing it a little longer, they would have had to compass it without Him. His companionship, His counsel and His aid, could only be counted upon in the path of obedience.

Thus it was with Israel, in their desert wanderings, and thus it is with us. It is our most precious privilege to leave all our matters in the hands, not merely of a covenant God, but of a loving Father. He arranges our movements for us; He fixes the bounds of our habitation; He tells us how long to stay in a place, and where to go next. He has charged Himself with all our concerns, all our movements, all our wants. His gracious word to us is, “Be careful far nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.” And what then? “The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

But it may be the reader feels disposed to ask, “How does God guide His people now? We cannot expect to hear His voice telling us when to move or where to go.” To this we reply, at once, it cannot surely be that the members of the church of God, the body of Christ, are worse off, in the matter of divine guidance, than Israel in the wilderness. Cannot God guide His children – cannot Christ guide His servants, in all their movements, and in all their service? Who could think, for a moment, of calling in question a truth so plain and so precious? True, we do not expect to hear a voice, or see the movement of a cloud; but we have what is very much better, very much higher, very much more intimate. We may rest assured our God has made ample provision for us in this, as in all beside, according to all the love of His heart.

Now, there are three ways in which we are guided; we are guided by the word; we are guided by the Holy Ghost; and we are guided by the instincts of the divine nature. And we have to bear in mind that the instincts of the divine nature, the leadings of the Holy Ghost, and the teaching of holy scripture will always harmonise. This is of the utmost importance to keep before us. A person might fancy himself to be led by the instincts of the divine nature, or by the Holy Spirit, to pursue a certain line of action involving consequences at issue with the word of God. Thus his mistake would be made apparent. It is a very serious thing for any one to act on mere impulse or impression. By so doing, he may fall into a snare of the devil, and do very serious damage to the cause of Christ. We must calmly weigh our impressions in the balances of the sanctuary, and faithfully test them by the standard of the divine word. In this way, we shall be preserved from error and delusion. It is a most dangerous thing to trust impressions or act on impulse. We have seen the most disastrous consequences produced by so doing. Facts may be reliable. Divine authority is absolutely infallible. Our own impressions may prove as delusive as a will-o’-the-wisp, or a mirage of the desert. Human feelings are most untrustworthy. We must ever submit them to the most severe scrutiny, lest they betray us into some fatally false line of action. We can trust scripture, without a shadow of misgiving; and we shall find, without exception, that the man who is led by the Holy Ghost, or guided by the instincts of the divine nature, will never act in opposition to the word of God. This is what we may call an axiom in the divine life – an established rule in practical Christianity. Would that it had been more attended to in all ages of the church’s history! Would that it were more pondered in our own day!

But there is another point, in this question of divine guidance, which demands our serious attention. We, not infrequently, hear people speak of “The finger of divine Providence” as something to be relied upon for guidance. This may be only another mode of expressing the idea of being guided by circumstances, which, we do not hesitate to say, is very far indeed from being the proper kind of guidance for a Christian.

No doubt, our Lord may and does, at times, intimate His mind, and indicate our path by His providence; but we must be sufficiently near to Him to be able to interpret the providence aright, else we may find that what is called “an opening of providence” may actually prove an opening by which we slip off the holy path of obedience. Surrounding circumstances, just like our inward impressions, must be weighed in the presence of God, and judged by the light of His word, else they may lead us into the most terrible mistakes. Jonah might have considered it a remarkable providence to find a ship going to Tarshish; but had he been in communion with God, he would not have needed a ship. In short, the word of God is the one grand test and perfect touchstone for everything – for outward circumstances and inward impressions – for feelings, imaginations and tendencies – all must be placed under the searching light of holy scripture and there calmly and seriously judged. This is the true path of safety, peace and blessedness for every child of God.

It may, however, be said, in reply to all this, that we cannot expect to find a text of scripture to guide us in the matter of our movements, or in the thousand little details of daily life. Perhaps not; but there are certain great principles laid down in scripture which, if properly applied, will afford divine guidance even where we might not be able to find a particular text. And not only so, but we have the fullest assurance that our God can and does guide His children, in all things.” “The steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord.” “The meek will he guide in judgement; and the meek will he teach his way.” “I will guide thee with mine eye.” He can signify His mind to us as to this or that particular act or movement. If not, where are we? How are we to get on? How are we to regulate our movements? Are we to be drifted hither and thither by the tide of circumstances? Are we left to blind chance, or to the mere impulse of our own will?

Thank God, it is not so. He can, in His own perfect way, give us the certainty of His mind, in any given case; and, without that certainty, we should never move. Our Lord Christ – all homage to His peerless Name! – can intimate His mind to His servant as to where He would have him to go and what He would have him to do; and no true servant will ever think of moving or acting without such intimation. We should never move or act in uncertainty. If we are not sure, let us be quiet and wait. Very often it happens that we harass and fret ourselves about movements that God would not have us to make at all. A person once said to a friend, “I am quite at a loss to know which way to turn.” Then, ” Don’t turn at all” was the friend’s wise reply.

But here an all-important moral point comes in, and that is, our whole condition of soul. This, we may rest assured, has very much to do with the matter of guidance. It is “the meek he will guide in judgement and teach his way.” We must never forget this. If only we are humble and self-distrusting, if we wait on our God, in simplicity of heart, uprightness of mind, and honesty of purpose, He will, most assuredly, guide us. But it will never do to go and ask counsel of God in a matter about which our mind is made up, or our will is at work.

This is a fatal delusion. Look at the case of Jehoshaphat, in I Kings 22. “It came to pass, in the third year, that Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel” – a sad mistake, to begin with – “And the king of Israel said unto his servants, Know ye that Ramoth in Gilead is ours, and we be still, and take it not out of the hand of the king of Syria? And he said unto Jehoshaphat, Wilt thou go with me to battle to Ramoth Gilead? And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses, and,” as we have it in 2 Chronicles 18: 3, “we will be with thee in the war.”

Here we see that his mind was made up before ever he thought of asking counsel of God in the matter. He was in a false position and a wrong atmosphere altogether. He had fallen into the snare of the enemy, through lack of singleness of eye, and hence he was not in a fit state to receive or profit by divine guidance. He was bent on his own will, and the Lord left him to reap, the fruits of it; and, but for infinite and sovereign mercy, he would have fallen by the sword of the Syrians, and been borne a corpse from the battle field.

True, he did say to the king of Israel, “Inquire, I pray thee, at the word of the Lord today.” But where was the use of this, when he had already pledged himself to a certain line of action? What folly for any one to make up his mind, and then go and ask for counsel! Had he been in a right state of soul, he never would have sought counsel, in such a case at all. But his state of soul was bad, his position false, and his purpose in direct opposition to the mind and will of God. Hence, although he heard, from the lips of Jehovah’s messenger, His solemn judgement on the entire expedition, yet he took his own way, and well-nigh lost his life in consequence.

We see the same thing in the forty-second chapter of Jeremiah. The people applied to the prophet to ask counsel as to their going down into Egypt. But they had already made up their minds, as to their course. They were bent on their own will. Miserable condition! Had they been meek and humble, they would not have needed to ask counsel, in the matter. But they said unto Jeremiah the prophet, “Let, we beseech thee, our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us unto the Lord thy God” – Why not say, The Lord our God? – “even for all this remnant: (for we are left but a few of many, as thine eyes do behold us;) that the Lord thy God may show as the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do. Then Jeremiah the prophet said unto them, I have heard you; behold, I will pray unto the Lord your God, according to your words; and it shall come to pass, that whatsoever thing the Lord shall answer you, I will declare it unto you: I will keep nothing hack from you. Then they said to Jeremiah, The Lord be a true and faithful witness between us; if we do not even according to all things for the which the Lord thy God shall send thee to us. Whether it be good, or whether it be evil,” – How could the will of God be anything but good? – “we will obey the voice of the Lord our God, to whom we send thee; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the Lord our God.”

Now, all this seemed very pious and very promising. But mark the sequel. When they found that the judgement and counsel of God did not tally with their will, “Then spake…. all the proud men, saying unto Jeremiah, Thou speakest falsely; the Lord our God hath not sent thee to say, go not into Egypt to sojourn there.”

Here, the real state of the case comes clearly out. Pride and self-will were at work. Their vows and promises were false. “Ye dissembled in your hearts,” says Jeremiah, “when ye sent me unto the Lord your God, saying, Pray for us unto the Lord our God; and according unto all that the Lord our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it.” It would have been all very well, had the divine response fallen in with their will in the matter; but, inasmuch as it ran counter, they rejected it altogether.

How often is this the case! The word of God does not suit man’s thoughts; it judges them; it stands in direct opposition to his will; it interferes with his plans, and hence he rejects it. The human will and human reason are ever in direct antagonism to the word of God; and the Christian must refuse both the one and the other, if he really desires to be divinely guided. An unbroken will and blind reason, if we listen to them, can only lead us into darkness, misery and desolation. Jonah would go to Tarshish, when he ought to have gone to Nineveh; and the consequence was that he found himself “in the belly of hell,” with “the weeds wrapped about his head.” Jehoshaphat would go to Ramoth Gilead, when he ought to have been at Jerusalem; and the consequence was that he found himself surrounded by the swords of the Syrians. The remnant, in the days of Jeremiah, would go into Egypt, when they ought to have remained at Jerusalem; and the consequence was that they died by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence in the land of Egypt “whither they desired to go and to sojourn.”

Thus it must ever be. The path of self-will is sure to be a path of darkness and misery. It cannot be otherwise. The path of obedience, on the contrary, is a path of peace, a path of light, a path of blessing, a path on which the beams of divine favour are ever poured in living lustre. It may, to the human eye, seem narrow, rough and lonely; but the obedient soul finds it to be the path of life, peace, and moral security. “The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” Blessed path! May the writer and the reader ever be found treading it, with a steady step and earnest purpose!

Before turning from this great practical subject of divine guidance and human obedience, we must ask the reader to refer, for a few moments, to a very beautiful passage in the eleventh chapter of Luke. He will find it full of the most valuable instruction.

“The light of the body is the eye; therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. Take heed, therefore, that the light which is in thee be not darkness. If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light.” (Vers. 34-36.)

Nothing can exceed the moral force and beauty of this passage. First of all, we have the “single eye.” This is essential to the enjoyment of divine guidance. It indicates a broken will – a heart honestly fixed upon doing the will of God. There is no under current, no mixed motive, no personal end in view. There is the one simple desire and earnest purpose to do the will of God, whatever that will may be.

Now, when the soul is in this attitude, divine light comes streaming in and fills the whole body. Hence it follows that if the body is not full of light, the eye is not single; there is some mixed motive; self-will or self-interest is at work; we are not right before God. In this case, any light which we profess to have is darkness; and there is no darkness so gross or so terrible as that judicial darkness which settles down upon the heart governed by self-will while professing to have light from God. This will be seen in all its horrors, by-and-by, in Christendom, when “that Wicked shall be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming; even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love Of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness,” (2 Thess. 2: 8-12.)

How awful is this! How solemnly it speaks to the whole professing church! How solemnly it addresses the conscience of both the writer and the reader of these lines! Light not acted upon becomes darkness. “If the light which is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” But on the other hand, a little light honestly acted upon, is sure to increase; for “to him that hath shall more be given and ” the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

This moral progress is beautifully and forcibly set forth in Luke 11: 36. “If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark” – no chamber kept closed against the heavenly rays – no dishonest reserve – the whole moral being laid open, in genuine simplicity, to the action of divine light; then – “the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light.” In a word, the obedient soul has not only light for his own path, but the light shines out, so that others see it, like the bright shining of a candle. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven”

We have a very vivid contrast to all this in the thirteenth chapter of Jeremiah. “Give glory to the Lord your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.” The way to give glory to the Lord our God is to obey His word. The path of duty is a bright and blessed path; and the one who through grace, treads that path will never stumble on the dark mountains. The truly humble, the lowly, the self-distrusting will keep far away from those dark mountains, and walk in that blessed path which is ever illuminated by the bright and cheering beams of God’s approving countenance.

This is the path of the just, the path of heavenly wisdom, the path of perfect peace. May we ever be found treading it, beloved reader; and let us never, for one moment, forget that it is our high privilege to be divinely guided in the most minute! details of our daily life. Alas! for the one who is not so guided. He will have many a stumble, many a fall, many a sorrowful experience. If we are not guided by our Father’s eye, we shall be like the horse or the mule which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle – like the horse, impetuously rushing where he ought not, or the mule obstinately refusing to go where he ought. How sad for a Christian to be like these! How blessed to move, from day to day, in the path marked out for us by our Father’s eye; a path which the vulture’s eye hath not seen, or the lion’s whelp trodden; the path of holy obedience, the path in which the meek and lowly will ever be found, to their deep joy, and the praise and glory of Him who has opened it for them and given them grace to tread it.

In the remainder of our chapter, Moses rehearses in the ears of the people, in language of touching simplicity, the facts connected with the appointment of the judges, and the mission of the spies. The appointment of the judges, Moses, here, attributes to his own suggestion. The mission of the spies was the suggestion of the people. That dear and most honoured servant of God felt the burden of the congregation too heavy for him; and assuredly, it was very heavy; though we know well that the grace of God was amply sufficient for the demand; and, moreover, that that grace could act as well by one man as by seventy.

Still, we can well understand the difficulty felt by “the meekest man in all the earth” in reference to the responsibility of so grave and important a charge; and truly the language in which he states his difficulty is affecting in the highest degree. We feel as though we must quote it for the reader.

“And I spake unto you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you myself alone” – surely not; what mere mortal could? But God was there to be counted upon for exigency of every hour – “The Lord your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude. (The Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you as he hath promised you!”) Lovely parenthesis! Exquisite breathing of a large and lowly heart! – “How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife?”

Alas! here lay the secret of much of the “cumbrance” and the “burden.” They could not agree among themselves; there were controversies, contentions and questions; and who was sufficient for these things What human shoulder could sustain such a burden. How different it might have been with them! Had they walked lovingly together, there would have been no cases to decide, and therefore no need of judges to decide them. If each member of the congregation had sought the prosperity, the interest and the happiness of his brethren, there would have been no “strife,” no “cumbrance,” no ” burden.” If each had done all that in him lay to promote the common good, how lovely would have been the result!

But, ah! it was not so with Israel, in the desert; and, what is still more humbling, it is not so in the church of God, although our privileges are so much higher. Hardly had the assembly been formed by the presence of the Holy Ghost, ere the accents of murmuring and discontent were heard. And about what? About “neglect,” whether fancied or real. Whatever way it was, self was at work. If the neglect was merely imaginary, the Grecians were to blame; and if it was real, the Hebrews were to blame. It generally happens, in such cases, that there are faults on both sides; but the true way to avoid all strife, contention and murmuring is to put self in the dust and earnestly seek the good of others. Had this excellent way been understood and adopted, from the outset, what a different task the ecclesiastical historian would have had to perform! But alas! it has not been adopted, and hence the history of the professing church, from the very beginning, has been a deplorable and humiliating record of controversy, division and strife. In the very presence of the Lord Himself, whose whole life was one of complete self-surrender, the apostles disputed about who should be greatest. Such a dispute could never have arisen, had each known the exquisite secret of putting self in the dust, and seeking the good of others. No one who knows ought of the true moral elevation of self-emptiness could possibly seek a good or a great place for himself. Nearness to Christ so satisfies the lowly heart, that honour, distinctions and rewards are little accounted of. But where self is at work, there you will have envy and jealousy, strife and contention, confusion and every evil work.

Witness the scene between the two sons of Zebedee and their ten brethren, in the tenth chapter of Mark What was at the bottom of it? Self. The two were thinking of a good place for themselves in the kingdom; and the ten were angry with the two for thinking of any such thing. Had each set self aside, and sought the good of others, such a scene would never have been enacted. The two would not have been thinking about themselves, and hence there would have been no ground for the “indignation” of the ten.

But it is needless to multiply examples. Every age of the church’s history illustrates and proves the truth of our statement that self and its odious workings are the producing cause of strife, contention and division, always. Turn where you will, from the days of the apostles down to the days in which our lot is cast, and you will find unmortified self to be the fruitful source of strife and schism. And, on the other hand, you will find that to sink self and its interests is the true secret of peace, harmony and brotherly love. If only we learn to set self aside, and seek earnestly the glory of Christ, and the prosperity of His beloved people, we shall not have many “cases” to settle.

We must now return to our chapter.

“How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden and your strife Take you wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you. And ye answered me, and said, The thing which thou hast spoken is good for us to do. So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men, and known” – men fitted of God, and possessing, because entitled to, the confidence of the congregation – “and made them heads over you, captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens, and officers among your tribes.”

Admirable arrangement! If indeed it had to he made, nothing could be better adapted to the maintenance of order, than the graduated scale of authority, varying from the captain of ten to the captain of a thousand; the lawgiver himself at the head of all, and he in immediate communication with the Lord God of Israel.

We have no allusion, here, to the fact recorded in Exodus 18, namely, that the appointment of those rulers was at the suggestion of Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law Neither have we any reference to the scene in Numbers 11. We call the reader’s attention to this as one of the many proofs which lie scattered along the pages of Deuteronomy, that it is very far indeed from being a mere repetition of the preceding sections of the Pentateuch. In short, this delightful book has a marked character of its own, and the mode in which facts are presented is in perfect keeping with that character. It is very evident that the object of the venerable lawgiver, or rather of the Holy Ghost in him, was to bring everything to bear, in a moral way, upon the hearts of the people, in order to produce that one grand result which is the special object of the book, from beginning to end, namely, a loving obedience to all the statutes and judgments of the Lord their God.

We must bear this in mind, if we would study aright the book which lies open before us. Infidels, sceptics and rationalists may impiously suggest to us the thought of discrepancies in the various records given in the different books; but the pious reader will reject, with a holy indignation, every such suggestion, knowing that it emanates directly from the father of lies, the determined and persistent enemy of the precious Revelation of God. This, we feel persuaded, is the true way in which to deal with all infidel assaults upon the Bible. Argument is useless, inasmuch as infidels are not in a position to understand or appreciate its force. They are profoundly ignorant of the matter; nor is it merely a question of profound ignorance, but of determined hostility, so that, in every way, the judgement of all infidel writers on the subject of divine inspiration, is utterly worthless, and perfectly contemptible. We would pity and pray for the men, while we thoroughly despise and indignantly reject their opinions. The word of God is entirely above and beyond them. It is as perfect as its Author, and as imperishable as His throne; but its moral glories, its living depths, and its infinite perfections are only unfolded to faith and need. “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.”

If we are only content to be as simple as a babe, we shall enjoy the precious revelation of a Father’s love as given by His Spirit, in the holy scriptures. But on the other hand, those who fancy themselves wise and prudent, who build upon their learning, their philosophy and their reason, who think themselves competent to sit in judgement on the word of God, and hence, on God Himself, are given over to judicial darkness, blindness and hardness of heart. Thus it comes to pass that the most egregious folly, and the most contemptible ignorance, that man can display, will be found in the pages of those learned writers who have dared to write against the Bible. “Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” (1 Cor. 1: 20, 21.)

“If any man will be wise, let him become a fool.” Here lies the grand moral secret of the matter. Man must get to the end of his own wisdom, as well as of his own righteousness. He must be brought to confess himself a fool, ere he can taste the sweetness of divine wisdom. It is not within the range of the most gigantic human intellect, aided by all the appliances of human learning and philosophy, to grasp the very simplest elements of divine revelation. And, therefore, when unconverted men, whatever may be the force of their genius or the extent of their learning, undertake to handle spiritual subjects, and more especially the subject of the divine inspiration of holy scripture, they are sure to exhibit their profound ignorance, and utter incompetence to deal with the question before them. Indeed, whenever we look into an infidel book, we are struck with the feebleness of their most forcible arguments; and not only so, but, in every instance in which they attempt to find a discrepancy in the Bible, we see only divine wisdom, beauty and perfectness.

We have been led into the foregoing line of thought in connection with the subject of the appointment of the elders which is given to us in each book, according to the wisdom of the Holy Ghost, and in perfect keeping with the scope and object of the book. We shall now proceed with our quotation.

“And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him. Ye shall not respect persons in judgement; but ye Shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgement is God’s; and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it.”

What heavenly wisdom is here! What even handed justice! What holy impartiality! In every case of difference, all the facts, on both sides, were to be fully heard and patiently weighed. The mind was not to be warped by prejudice, predilection or personal feeling of any kind. The judgement was to be formed not by impressions, but by facts – clearly established, undeniable facts. Personal influence was to have no weight whatever. The position and circumstances of either party in the cause were not to be considered. The case must be decided entirely on its own merits. “Ye shall hear the small as well as the great.” The poor man was to have the same evenhanded justice meted out to him as the rich; the stranger as one born in the land. No difference was to be allowed.

How important is all this! How worthy of our attentive consideration! How full of deep and valuable instruction for us all! True, we are not all called to be judges, or elders or leaders; but the great moral principles laid down in the above quotation are of the very utmost value to every one of us, inasmuch as cases are continually occurring which call for their direct application. Wherever our lot may be cast, whatever our line of life or sphere of action, we are liable alas! to meet with cases of difficulty and misunderstanding between our brethren; cases of wrong whether real or imaginary; and hence it is most needful to be divinely instructed as to how we ought to carry ourselves in respect to such.

Now, in all such cases, we cannot be too strongly impressed with the necessity of having our judgement based on facts – all the facts, on both sides. We must not allow ourselves to be guided by our own impressions, for we all know that mere impressions are most untrustworthy. They may be correct; and they may be utterly false. Nothing is more easily received and conveyed than a false impression, and therefore any judgement based on mere impressions is worthless. We must have solid, clearly established facts – facts established by two or three witnesses, as scripture so distinctly enforces. (Deut. 17: 6; Matt. 18: 16; 2 Cor. 13: 1; 1 Tim. 5: 19.)

But further, we must never be guided in judgement by an ex parte statement. Every one is liable, even with the best intentions, to give a colour to his statement of a case. It is not that he would intentionally make a false statement, or tell a deliberate lie; but, through inaccuracy of memory, or one cause or another, he may not present the case as it really is. Some fact may be omitted, and that one fact may so affect all the other facts as to alter their bearing completely. “Audi alteram partem” (hear the other side), is a wholesome motto. And not only hear the other side, but hear all the facts on both sides, and thus you will be able to form a sound and righteous judgment. We may set it down as a standing rule that any judgment formed without an accurate knowledge of all the facts, is perfectly worthless. “Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him” Seasonable, needed words, most surely, at all times, in all places, and under all circumstances. May we apply our hearts to them!

And how important the admonition in verse 17? “Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not afraid of the face of man.” How these words discover the poor human heart! How prone we are to respect persons; to be swayed by personal influence; to attach importance to position and wealth; to be afraid of the face of man!

What is the divine antidote against all these evils? Just this – the fear of God. If we set the Lord before us, at all times, it will effectually deliver us from the pernicious influence of partiality, prejudice and the fear of men. It will lead us to wait, humbly on the Lord, for guidance and counsel in all that may come before us; and thus we shall be preserved from forming hasty and one-sided judgments of men and things – that fruitful source of mischief amongst the Lord’s people, in all ages.

We shall now dwell, for a few moments, on the very affecting manner in which Moses brings before the congregation all the circumstances connected with the mission of the spies which, like the appointment of the judges, is in perfect keeping with the scope and object of the book. This is only what we might expect. There is not, there could not be, a single sentence of useless repetition in the divine volume. Still less could there be a single flaw, a single discrepancy, a single contradictory statement. The word of God is absolutely perfect-perfect as a whole, perfect in all its parts. We must firmly hold and faithfully confess this in the face of this infidel age.

We speak not of human translations of the word of God, in which there must be more or less of imperfection; though even here, we cannot but be “filled with wonder, love and praise,” when we mark the way in which our God so manifestly presided over our excellent English Translation, so that the poor man at the back of a mountain may be assured of possessing, in his common English Bible, the Revelation of God to his soul. And most surely we are warranted in saying that this is just what we might look for at the hands of our God. It is but reasonable to infer that the One who inspired the writers of the Bible would also watch over the translation of it; for, inasmuch as He gave it originally, in His grace, to those who could read Hebrew and Greek, so would He not, in the same grace, give it in every language under heaven? Blessed for ever be His holy Name, it is His gracious desire to speak to every man in the very tongue in which he was born; to tell us the sweet tale of His grace, the glad tidings of salvation, in the very accents in which our mothers whispered into our infant ears those words of love that went right home to our very hearts. (See Acts 2: 5-8.)

Oh, that men were more impressed and affected with the truth and power of all this; and then we should not be troubled with so many foolish and unlearned questions about the Bible.

Let us now hearken to the account given by Moses of the mission of the spies – its origin and its result. We shall find it full of most weighty instruction, if only the ear be open to hear and the heart duly prepared to ponder.

“And I commanded you at that time all the things which ye should do.” The path of simple obedience was plainly set before them. They had but to tread it with an obedient heart and firm step. They had not to reason about consequences, or weigh the results. All these they had just to leave in the hands of God, and move on, with steady purpose, in the blessed path of obedience.

“And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which ye saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea. And I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which the Lord our God doth give unto us. Behold, the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged.”

Here was their warrant for entering upon immediate possession. The Lord their God had given them the land, and set it before them. It was theirs by His free gift, the gift of His sovereign grace, in pursuance of the covenant made with their fathers. It was His eternal purpose to possess the land of Canaan through the seed of Abraham His friend. This ought to have been enough to set their hearts perfectly at rest, not only as to the character of the land, but also as to their entrance upon it. There was no need of spies. Faith never wants to spy what God has given. It argues that what He has given must be worth having; and that He is able to put us in full possession of all that His grace has bestowed. Israel might have concluded that the same hand that had conducted them “through all that great and terrible wilderness” could bring them in and plant them in their destined inheritance.

So faith would have reasoned; for it always reasons from God down to circumstances; never from circumstances up to God. “If God be for us, who can be against us?” This is faith’s argument, grand in its simplicity, and simple in its moral grandeur. When God fills the whole range of the soul’s vision, difficulties are little accounted of. They are either not seen, or, if seen, they are viewed as occasions for the display of divine power. Faith exults in seeing God triumphing over difficulties.

But alas! the people were not governed by faith on the occasion now before us; and, therefore they had recourse to spies. Of this Moses reminds them, and that, too, in language at once most tender and faithful. “And ye came near unto me, every one of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come.”

Surely, they might well have trusted. God for all this. The One who had brought them up out of Egypt; made a way for them through the sea; guided them through the trackless desert, was fully able to bring them into the land. But no; they would send spies, simply because their hearts had not simple confidence in the true, the living, the Almighty God.

Here lay the moral root of the matter; and it is well that the reader should thoroughly seize this point. True it is that, in the history given in Numbers, the Lord told Moses to send the spies. But why? Because of the moral condition of the people. And here we see the characteristic difference and yet the lovely harmony of the two books. Numbers gives us the public history, Deuteronomy the secret source of the mission of the spies; and as it is in perfect keeping with Numbers to give us the former, so it is in perfect keeping with Deuteronomy to give us the latter. The one is the complement of the other. We could not fully understand the subject, had we only the history given in Numbers. It is the touching commentary; given in Deuteronomy, which completes the picture. How Perfect is scripture! All we need is the eye anointed to see, and the heart prepared to appreciate its moral glories.

It may be, however, that the reader still feels some difficulty in reference to the question of the spies. He may feel disposed to ask, how it could be wrong to send them, when the Lord told them to do so? The answer is, the wrong was not in the act of sending them when they were told, but in the wish to send them at all. The wish was the fruit of unbelief; and the command to send them was because of that unbelief.

We may see something of the same in the matter of divorce, in Matthew 19. “The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning, made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. They say unto him, why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives; but from the beginning it was not so.”

It was not in keeping with God’s original institution, or according to His heart, that a man should put away his wife; but, in consequence of the hardness of the human heart, divorce was Permitted by the lawgiver. Is there any difficulty in this? Surely not, unless the heart is bent on making one. Neither is there any difficulty in the matter of the spies. Israel ought not to have needed them. Simple faith would never have thought of them. But the Lord saw the real condition of things, and issued a command accordingly; just as, in after ages, He saw the heart of the people bent on having a king, and he commanded Samuel to give them one. “And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee; for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee. Now, therefore, hearken unto their voice; howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and show them the manner of the king that shall reign over them.” (1 Sam. 8: 7-9.)

Thus we see that the mere granting of a desire is no proof whatever that such desire is according to the mind of God. Israel ought not to have asked for a king was not Jehovah sufficient? Was not He their King? Could not He, as He had ever done, lead them forth to battle, and fight for them? Why seek an arm of flesh a Why turn away from the living, the true, the Almighty God, to lean on a poor fellow worm? What power was there in a king but that which God might see fit to bestow upon him? None whatever. All the power, all the wisdom, all real good was in the Lord their God; and it was there for them – there at all times, to meet their every need. They had but to lean upon His almighty arm, to draw upon His exhaustless resources, to find all their springs in Him.

When they did get a king, according to their hearts” desire, what did he do for them? “All the people followed him trembling.” The more closely we study the melancholy history of Saul’s reign, the more we see that he was, almost from the very outset, a positive hindrance rather than a help. We have but to read his history, from first to last, in order to see the truth of this. His whole reign was a lamentable failure, aptly and forcibly set forth in two glowing sentences of the prophet Hosea, “I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath.” In a word, he was the answer to the unbelief and self-will of the people, and therefore, all their brilliant hopes and expectations respecting him were, most lamentably, disappointed. He failed to answer the mind of God; and, as a necessary consequence, he failed to meet the people’s need. He proved himself wholly unworthy of the crown and sceptre; and his ignominious fall on mount Gilboa was in melancholy keeping with his whole career.

Now, when we come to consider the mission of the spies, we find it too, like the appointment of a king, ending in complete failure and disappointment. It could not be otherwise, inasmuch as it was the fruit of unbelief. True, God gave them spies; and Moses, with touching grace, says, “The saying pleased me well; and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe.” It was grace coming down to the condition of the people, and consenting to a plan which was suited to that condition. But this, by no means, proves that either the plan or the condition was according to the mind of God. Blessed be His Name, He can meet us in our unbelief, though He is grieved and dishonoured by it. He delights in bold, artless faith. It is the only thing, in all this world, that gives Him His proper place. Hence, when Moses said to the people, “Behold, the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee; go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged;” what would have been the proper response from them? “Here we are; lead on, Almighty Lord; lead on to victory. Thou art enough. With Thee as our leader, we move on with joyful confidence. Difficulties are nothing to Thee, and therefore they are nothing to us. Thy word and thy presence are all we want. In these we find, at once, our authority and power. It matters not in the least to us who or what may be before us: mighty giants, towering walls, frowning bulwarks; what are they all in the presence of the Lord God of Israel, but as withered leaves before the whirlwind? Lead on, O Lord.”

This would have been the language of faith; but alas! it was not the language of Israel, on the occasion before us. God was not sufficient for them. They were not prepared to go up, leaning on His arm alone. They were not satisfied with His report of the land. They would send spies, anything for the poor human heart but simple dependence upon the one living and true God. The natural man cannot trust God, simply because he does not know Him. “They that know thy name will put their trust in thee.”

God must be known, in order to be trusted; and the more fully He is trusted, the better He becomes known. There is nothing, in all this world, so truly blessed as a life of simple faith But it must be a reality and not a mere profession. It is utterly vain to talk of living by faith, while the heart is secretly resting on some creature prop. The true believer has to do, exclusively, with God. He finds in Him all his resources. It is not that he undervalues the instruments or the channels which God is pleased to use; quite the reverse. He values them exceedingly; and cannot but value them as the means which God uses for his help and blessing. But he does not allow them to displace God. The language of his heart is, “My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock.”

There is peculiar force in the word “only.” It searches the heart thoroughly. To look to the creature, directly or indirectly, for the supply of any need, is in principle to depart from the life of faith And oh! it is miserable work, this looking, in any way, to creature streams. It is just as morally degrading as the life of faith is morally elevating. And not only is it degrading, but disappointing. Creature props give way, and creature streams run dry; but they that trust in the Lord shall never be confounded, and never want any good thing. Had Israel trusted the Lord instead of sending spies, they would have had a very different tale to tell. But spies they would send, and the whole affair proved a most humiliating failure.

“And they turned, and went up into the mountain, and came unto the valley of Eshcol, and searched it out. And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down unto us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land which the Lord our God doth give us.” How could it possibly be otherwise, when God was giving it? Did they want spies to tell them that the gift of God was good Assuredly, they ought not. An artless faith would have argued thus, “whatever God gives, must be worthy of Himself; we want no spies to assure us of this.” But ah! this artless faith is an uncommonly rare gem in this world; and even those who possess it know but little of its value or how to use it. It is one thing to talk of the life of faith, and another thing altogether to live it. The theory is one thing; the living reality, quite another. But let us never forget that it is the privilege of every child of God to live by faith; and, further, that the life of faith takes in everything that the believer can possibly need, from the starting-post to the goal of his earthly career. We have already touched upon this important point; it cannot be too earnestly or constantly insisted upon.

With regard to the mission of the spies, the reader will note, with interest, the way in which Moses refers to it. He confines himself to that portion of their testimony which was according to truth. He says nothing about the ten infidel spies. This is in perfect keeping with the scope and object of the book. Everything is brought to bear, in a moral way, on the conscience of the congregation. He reminds them that they themselves had proposed to send the spies; and yet, although the spies had placed before them the fruit of the land, and borne testimony to its goodness, they would not go up. “Notwithstanding ye would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God.” There was no excuse whatever. It was evident that their hearts were in a state of positive unbelief and rebellion, and the mission of the spies, from first to last, only made this fully manifest.

“And ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the Lord hated us” – a terrible lie, on the very face of it! – “he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us.” What a strange proof of hatred! How utterly absurd are the arguments of unbelief! Surely, had He hated them, nothing was easier than to leave them to die amid the brick kilns of Egypt, beneath the cruel lash of Pharaoh’s taskmasters. Why take so much trouble about them? why those ten plagues sent upon the land of their oppressors? Why, if He hated them, did He not allow the waters of the Red Sea to overwhelm them as they had overwhelmed their enemies? Why had He delivered them from the sword of Amalek? In a word, why all these marvellous triumphs of grace on their behalf, if He hated them? Ah! if they had not been governed by a spirit of dark and senseless unbelief, such a brilliant array of evidence would have led them to a conclusion the direct opposite of that to which they gave utterance. There is nothing beneath the canopy of heaven so stupidly irrational as unbelief. And, on the other hand, there is nothing so sound, clear and logical as the simple argument of a child-like faith. May the reader ever be enabled to prove the truth of this!

“And ye murmured in your tents.” Unbelief is not only a blind and senseless reasoner, but a dark and gloomy murmurer. It neither gets to the right side of things, nor the bright side of things. It is always in the dark, always in the wrong, simply because it shuts out God, and looks only at circumstances. They said, “Whither shall we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we.” But they were not greater than Jehovah. “And the cities are great and walled up to heaven” – the gross exaggeration of unbelief! – “and moreover, we have seen the sons of the Anakims there.”

Now, faith would say, Well, what though the cities be walled up to heaven, our God is above them, for He is in heaven. What are great cities or lofty walls to Him who formed the universe, and sustains it by the word of His power? What are Anakims in the presence of the Almighty God? If the land were covered with walled cities from Dan to Beersheba, and if the giants were as numerous as the leaves of the forest, they would be as the chaff of the threshing-floor before the One who has promised to give the land of Canaan to the seed of Abraham, His friend, for an everlasting possession”

But Israel had not faith, as the inspired apostle tells us in the third chapter of Hebrews, “They could not enter in because of unbelief.” Here lay the great difficulty. The walled cities and the terrible Anakims would soon have been disposed of had Israel only trusted God. He would have made very short work of all these. But ah! that deplorable unbelief! it ever stands in the way of our blessing It hinders the outshining of the glory of God; it casts a dark shadow over our souls, and robs us of the privilege of proving the all-sufficiency of our God to meet our every need and remove our every difficulty.

Blessed be His Name, He never fails a trusting heart. It is His delight to honour the very largest drafts that faith hands in at His exhaustless treasury. His assuring word to us ever is, “Be not afraid; only believe.” And again, “According to your faith be it unto you.” Precious soul-stirring words! May we all realise, more fully, their living power and sweetness! we may rest assured of this, we can never go too far in counting on God; it would be a simple impossibility. Our grand mistake is that we do not draw more largely upon His infinite resources. “Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?”

Thus we can see why it was that Israel failed to see the glory of God, on the occasion before us. They did not believe. The mission of the spies proved a complete failure. As it began so it ended, in the most deplorable unbelief. God was shut out. Difficulties filled their vision.

“They could not enter in.” They could not see the glory of God. Hearken to the deeply affecting words of Moses. It does the heart good to read them. They touch the very deepest springs of our renewed being. “Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them. The Lord your God, which goeth before you, he shall fight for you” – only think of God fighting for people! Think of Jehovah as a Man of war? – “He shall fight for you according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes; and in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place. Yet in this thing ye did not believe the Lord your God, who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to show you by what way ye should go, and by a cloud by day.

What moral force, what touching sweetness in this appeal! How clearly we can see here, as indeed on every page of the book, that Deuteronomy is not a barren repetition of facts, but a most powerful commentary on those facts. It is well that the reader should be thoroughly clear as to this. If, in the book of Exodus or Numbers, the inspired lawgiver records the actual facts of Israel’s wilderness life, in the book of Deuteronomy he comments on those facts with a pathos that quite melts the heart. And here it is that the exquisite style of Jehovah’s acts is pointed out and dwelt upon, with such inimitable skill and delicacy. Who could consent to give up the lovely figure set forth in the words, “As a man doth bear his son” Here we have the style of the action. Could we do without this? Assuredly not. It is the style of an action that touches the heart, because it is the style that so peculiarly expresses the heart. If the power of the hand, or the wisdom of the mind is seen in the substance of an action, the love of the heart comes out in the style. Even a little child can understand this, though he might not be able to explain it.

But alas! Israel could not trust God to bring them into the land. Notwithstanding the marvellous display of His power, His faithfulness, His goodness and loving kindness, from the brick kilns of Egypt to the very borders of the land of Canaan, yet they did not believe. With an array of evidence which ought to have satisfied any heart, they still doubted. “And the Lord heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and sware, saying, Surely, there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it; and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed the Lord”

“Said I not unto thee that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?” Such is the divine order. Men will tell you that seeing is believing; but, in the kingdom of God, believing is seeing. Why was it that not a man of that evil generation was allowed to see the good land? Simply because they did not believe on the Lord their God. On the other hand, why was Caleb allowed to see and take possession? Simply because he believed. Unbelief is ever the great hindrance in the way of our seeing the glory of God. “He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” If Israel had only believed, only trusted the Lord their God, only confided in the love of His heart and in the power of His arm, He would have brought them in and planted them in the mountain of His inheritance.

And just so is it with the Lord’s people, now. There is no limit to the blessing which we might enjoy, could we only count more fully upon God. “All things are possible to him that believeth.” Our God will never say, ” You have drawn too largely; you expect too much.” Impossible. It is the joy of His loving heart to answer the very largest expectations of faith.

Let us then draw largely. “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.” The exhaustless treasury of heaven is thrown open to faith. “All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.” Faith is the divine secret of the whole matter, the main spring of Christian life, from first to last. Faith wavers not, staggers not. Unbelief is ever a waverer and a staggerer, and hence it never sees the glory of God, never sees His power. It is deaf to His voice and blind to His actings; it depresses the heart and weakens the hands; it darkens the path and hinders all progress. It kept Israel out of the land of Canaan, for forty years; and we have no conception of the amount of blessing, privilege, power and usefulness which we are constantly missing through its terrible influence. If faith were in more lively exercise in our hearts, what a different condition of things we should witness in our midst. What is the secret of the deplorable deadness and barrenness throughout the wide field of Christian profession? How are we to account for our impoverished condition, our low tone, our stunted growth? why is it that we see such poor results in every department of Christian work? why are there so few genuine conversions? why are our evangelists so frequently cast down by reason of the paucity of their sheaves? How are we to answer all these questions? What is the cause? Will any one attempt to say it is not our unbelief?

No doubt, our divisions have much to do with it; our worldliness, our carnality, our self-indulgence, our love of ease. But what is the remedy for all these evils How can our hearts to be drawn out in genuine love to all our brethren by faith – that precious principle “that worketh by love.” Thus the blessed apostle says to the dear young converts at Thessalonica, “Your faith groweth exceedingly. And what then? “The love of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth.” Thus it must ever be. Faith puts us into direct contact with the eternal spring of love in God Himself; and the necessary consequence is the our hearts are drawn out in love to all who belong to Him – all in whom we can, in the very feeblest way, trace His blessed image. We cannot possibly be near the Lord and not love all who, in every place, call upon His Name out of a pure heart. The nearer we are to Christ, the more intensely we must be knit, in true brotherly love, to every member of His body.

Then, as to worldliness, in all its varied forms; how is it to be overcome? Hear the reply of another inspired apostle. “For, whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God” The new man, walking in the power of faith, lives above the world, above its motives, above its objects, its principles, its habits, its fashions. He has nothing in common with it. Though in it, he is not of it. He moves right athwart its current. He draws all his springs from heaven. His life, his hope, his all is there; and he ardently longs to be there himself, when his work on earth is done.

Thus we see what a mighty principle faith is. It purifies the heart, it works by love, and it overcomes the world. In short it links the heart, in living power, with God Himself; and this is the secret of true elevation, holy benevolence, and divine purity. No marvel, therefore, that Peter calls it “precious faith,” for truly it is precious beyond all human thought.

See how this mighty principle acted in Caleb, and the blessed fruit it produced. He was permitted to realise the truth of those words, uttered hundreds of years afterwards, according to your faith be it unto you” He believed that God was able to bring them into the land; and that all the difficulties and hindrances were simply bread for faith. And God, as He ever does, answered his faith. “Then the children of Judah came unto Joshua in Gilgal; and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite said unto him, Thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in Kadesh-barnea. Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh-barnea to espy out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in my heart” – the simple testimony of a bright and lovely faith! – “nevertheless my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt; but I wholly followed the Lord my God. And Moses sware on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy children’s for ever, because thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God. And now, behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness; and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old. As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me; as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in. Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the Lord spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there, and that the cities were great and fenced; if so be the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said.”

How refreshing are the utterances of an artless faith! How edifying! How truly encouraging! How vividly they contrast with the gloomy, depressing, withering accents of dark, God-dishonouring unbelief! “And Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, Hebron for an inheritance. Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb, the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite, unto this day, because that he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel.” (Joshua 14.) Caleb, like his father Abraham, was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and we may say, with all possible confidence, that, inasmuch as faith ever honours God, He ever delights to honour faith; and we feel persuaded that if only the Lord’s people could more fully confide in God, if they would but draw more largely upon His infinite resources, we should witness a totally different condition of things from what we see around us. “Said I not unto thee that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?” Oh! for a more lively faith in God – a bolder grasp, of His faithfulness, His goodness and His power! Then we might look for more glorious results in the gospel field; more zeal, more energy, more intense devotedness in the church of God; and more of the fragrant fruits of righteousness in the life of believers individually.

We shall now, for a moment, look at the closing verses of our chapter, in which we shall find some very weighty instruction. And, first of all, we see the actings of divine government displayed in a most solemn and impressive manner. Moses refers, in a very touching way, to the fact of his exclusion from the promised land. “Also the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, saying, Thou also shalt not go in thither.

Mark the words, “for your sakes.” It was very needful to remind the congregation that it was on their account that Moses, that beloved and honoured servant of the Lord, was prevented from crossing the Jordan, and setting his foot upon the land of Canaan. True, “he spake unadvisedly with his lips;” but “they provoked his spirit” to do so. This ought to have touched them to the quick. They not only failed, through unbelief, to enter in themselves, but they were the cause of his exclusion, much as he longed to see “that goodly mountain and Lebanon.” (see Ps. 106: 32.)

But the government of God is a grand and awful reality. Let us never, for one moment, forget this. The human mind may marvel why a few ill-advised words, a few hasty sentences should be the cause of keeping such a beloved and honoured servant of God from that which he so ardently desired. But it is our place to bow the head, in humble adoration and holy reverence, not to reason or judge. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Most surely. He can make no mistake. “Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou king of nations.” “God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints; and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.” “Our God is a consuming fire;” and “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

Does it, in any wise, interfere with the action and range of the divine government, that we, as Christians, are under the reign of grace? By no means. It is as true, today, as ever it was that “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Hence, therefore, it would be a serious mistake for any one to draw a plea from the freedom of divine grace to trifle with the enactments of divine government. The two things are perfectly distinct, and should never be confounded. Grace can pardon – freely, fully, eternally – but the wheels of Jehovah’s governmental chariot roll on, in crushing power, and appalling solemnity. Grace pardoned Adam’s sin; but government drove him out of Eden, to earn a living, by the sweat of his brow, amid the thorns and thistles of a cursed earth. Grace pardoned David’s sin; but the sword of government hung over his house to the end. Bathsheba was the mother of Solomon; but Absalom rose in rebellion.

So with Moses, grace brought him to the top of Pisgah and showed him the land; but government sternly and absolutely forbad his entrance thither. Nor does it, in the least, touch this mighty principle to be told that Moses, in his official capacity, as the representative of the legal system, could not bring the people into the land. This is quite true; but it leaves wholly untouched the solemn truth now before us. Neither in Numbers 20, nor in Deuteronomy 1, have we anything about Moses in his official capacity. It is himself personally, we have before us; and he is forbidden to enter the land because of having spoken unadvisedly with his lips.

It will be well for us all to ponder deeply, as in the immediate presence of God, this great practical truth. We may rest assured that the more truly we enter into the knowledge of grace, the more we shall feel the solemnity of government, and entirely justify its enactments. Of this we are most fully persuaded. But there is imminent danger of taking up, in a light and careless manner, the doctrines of grace while the heart and the life are not brought under the sanctifying influence of those doctrines. This has to be watched against with holy jealousy. There is nothing in all this world more awful than mere fleshly familiarity with the theory of salvation by grace. It opens the door for every form of licentiousness. Hence it is that we feel the necessity of pressing upon the conscience of the reader the practical truth of the government of God. It is most salutary at all times, but particularly so in this our day when there is such a, fearful tendency to turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness. we shall invariably find that those who most fully enter into the deep blessedness of being under the reign of grace do also, most thoroughly, justify the actings of divine government.

But we learn, from the closing lines of our chapter, that the people were by no means prepared to submit themselves under the governmental hand of God. In short, they would neither have grace nor government. When invited to go up, at once, and take possession of the land, with the fullest assurances of the divine presence and power with them, they hesitated and refused to go. They gave themselves up, completely, to a spirit of dark unbelief. In vain did Joshua and Caleb sound in their ears the most encouraging words; in vain did they see before their eyes the rich fruit of the goodly land; in vain did Moses seek to move them by the most soul-stirring words; they would not go up, when they were told to go. And What then? They were taken at their word. According to their unbelief, so was it unto them. “Moreover, your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it. But as for you, turn you, and take your journey into the wilderness, by the may of the Red Sea”

How sad! And yet, how else could it be? If they would not, in simple faith, go up into the land, there remained nothing for them but turning back into the wilderness. But to this they would not submit. They would neither avail themselves of the provisions of grace nor bow to the sentence of judgement. “Then ye answered and said unto me, We have sinned against the Lord; we will go up and fight, according to all that the Lord our God commanded us. And when ye had girded on every man his weapon of war, ye were ready to go up into the hill.”

This looked like contrition and self judgement; but it is a very easy thing to say, “We have sinned. Saul said it in his day; but it was hollow and false. “he said it without heart, without any genuine sense of what he was saying. We may easily gather the force and value of the words “I have sinned” from the fact that they were immediately followed by – “Honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people.” What a strange contradiction! “I have sinned,” yet “Honour me.” If he had really felt his sin, how different his language would have been! How different his spirit, style and deportment! But it was all a solemn mockery. Only conceive a man full of himself, making use of a form of words, without one atom of true heart feeling; and then, in order to get honour for himself, going through the empty formality of worshipping God. What a picture! Can anything be more sorrowful? How terribly offensive to Him who desires truth in the inward parts, and who seeks those to worship Him who worship Him in spirit and in truth! The feeblest breathings of a broken and contrite heart are precious to God; but oh, how offensive to Him are the hollow formalities of a mere religiousness, the object of which is to exalt man in his own eyes and in the eyes of his fellow! How perfectly worthless is the mere lip confession of sin where the heart does not feel it! As a recent writer has well remarked, “It is an easy thing to say, We have sinned; but how often we have to learn what it is not the quick abrupt confession of sin which affords evidence that sin is felt! It is rather a proof of hardness of heart. The conscience feels that a certain act of confessing the sin is necessary, but perhaps there is hardly anything which more hardens the heart than the habit of confessing sin without feeling it. This I believe, is one of the great snares of Christendom from of old and now – that is the stereotyped acknowledgment of sin, the mere habit of hurrying through a formula of confession to God. I dare say we have almost all done so, without referring to any particular mode; for alas! there is formality enough; and without having written forms, the heart may frame forms of its own, as we may have observed, if not known it, in our own experience, without finding fault with other people.”*

{*Lectures Introductory to the Pentateuch,” by W. Kelly. Broom, Paternoster Square.}

Thus it was with Israel, at Kadesh. Their confession of sin was utterly worthless. There was no truth in it. Had they felt what they were saying, they would have bowed to the judgement of God, and meekly accepted the consequence of their sin. There is no finer proof of true contrition than quiet submission to the governmental dealings of God. Look at the case of Moses. See how he bowed his head to the divine discipline. “The Lord,” he says, “was angry with me for your sakes, saying, Thou also shalt not go in thither. But Joshua the son of Nun, which standeth before thee, he shall go in thither: encourage him; for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.”

Here, Moses shows them that they were the cause of his exclusion from the land; and yet he utters not a single murmuring word, but meekly bows to the divine judgement, not only content to be superseded by another, but ready to appoint and encourage his successor. There is no trace of jealousy or envy here. It was enough for that beloved and honoured servant if God was glorified and the need of the congregation met. He was not occupied with himself or his own interests, but with the glory of God and the blessing of His people.

But the people manifested a very different spirit. “We will go up and fight.” How vain! How foolish! When commanded by God and encouraged by His true-hearted servants to go up and possess the land, they replied, “Whither shall we go up?” And when commanded to turn back into the wilderness, they replied, “we will go up and fight.”

“And the Lord said unto me, Say unto them, Go not up, neither fight; for I am not among you; lest ye be smitten before your enemies. So I spake unto you; and ye would not hear, but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord, and went presumptuously up into the hill. And the Amorites which dwelt in that mountain, came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, even unto Hormah.”

It was quite impossible for Jehovah to accompany them along the path of self-will and rebellion; and, most assuredly, Israel, without the divine presence, could be no match for the Amorites. If God be for us and with us, all must be victory. But we cannot count on God if we are not treading the path of obedience. It is simply the height of folly to imagine that we can have God with us if our ways are not right. “The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous runneth into it and is safe.” But if we are not walking in practical righteousness, it is wicked presumption to talk of having the Lord as our strong tower.

Blessed be His Name, He can meet us in the very depths of our weakness and failure, provided there be the genuine and hearty confession of our true condition. But to assume that we have the Lord with us, while we are doing our own will, and walking in palpable unrighteousness, is nothing but wickedness and hardness of heart. “Trust in the Lord, and do good.” This is the divine order; but to talk of trusting in the Lord, while doing evil, is to turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and place ourselves completely in the hands of the devil who only seeks our moral ruin. “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.” When we have a good conscience, we can lift up the head and move on through all sorts of difficulties; but to attempt to tread the path of faith with a bad conscience, is the most dangerous thing in this world. We can only hold up the shield of faith when our loins are girt with truth, and the breast covered with the breastplate of righteousness.

It is of the utmost importance that Christians should seek to maintain practical righteousness, in all its branches. There is immense moral weight and value in these words of the blessed apostle Paul, “Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and men.” He ever sought to wear the breastplate, and to be clothed in that white linen which is the righteousness of saints. And so should we. It is our holy privilege to tread, day by day, with firm step, the path of duty, the path of obedience, the path on which the light of God’s approving countenance ever shines. Then, assuredly, we can count on God, lean upon Him, draw from Him, find all our springs in Him, wrap ourselves up in His faithfulness, and thus move on, in peaceful communion and holy worship, toward our heavenly home.

It is not, we repeat, that we cannot look to God, in our weakness, our failure, and even when we have erred and sinned. Blessed be His Name, we can; and His ear is ever open to our cry. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness,” (1 John 1.) “Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice; let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.” (Ps. 130) There is absolutely no limit to divine forgiveness, inasmuch as there is no limit to the extent of the atonement, no limit to the virtue and efficacy of the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, which cleanseth from all sin; no limit to the prevalence of the intercession of our adorable Advocate, our great High Priest, who is able to save to the uttermost – right through and through to the end, them that come unto God by Him.

All this is most blessedly true; it is largely taught and variously illustrated throughout the volume of inspiration. But the confession of sin, and the pardon thereof must not be confounded with practical righteousness. There are two distinct conditions in which we may call upon God; we may call upon Him in deep contrition, and be heard; or we may call upon Him with a good conscience and an uncondemning heart, and be heard. But the two things are very distinct; and not only are they distinct in themselves, but they both stand in marked contrast with that indifference and hardness of heart which would presume to count on God in the face of positive disobedience and practical unrighteousness. It is this which is so dreadful in the sight of the Lord, and which must bring down His heavy judgement. Practical righteousness He owns and approves; confessed sin He can freely and fully Pardon; but to imagine that we can put our trust in God, while our feet are treading the path of iniquity, is nothing short of the most shocking impiety. “Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these. For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgement between a man and his neighbour; if ye oppress not the stranger the fatherless and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt; then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever. Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. Will ye steal, murder and commit adultery and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? (Jeremiah 7.)

God deals in moral realities. He desires truth in the inward parts; and if men will presume to hold the truth in unrighteousness, they must look out for His righteous judgement. It is the thought of all this that makes us feel the awful condition of the professing church. The solemn passage which we have just culled from the prophet Jeremiah, though bearing, primarily, upon the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, has a very pointed application to Christendom. We find in 2 Timothy 3, that all the abominations of heathenism, as detailed in the close of Romans 1, are reproduced in the last days, under the garb of the Christian profession, and in immediate connection with “a form of godliness.” What must be the end of such a condition of things? Unmitigated wrath. The very heaviest judgments of God are reserved for that vast mass of baptised profession which we call Christendom. The moment is rapidly approaching when all the beloved and blood-bought people of God shall be called away out of this dark and sinful, though so-called Christian world,” to be for ever with the Lord, in that sweet home of love prepared in the Father’s house. Then the “strong delusion” shall be sent upon Christendom – upon those very countries where the light of a full-orbed Christianity has shone; where a full and free gospel has been preached; where the Bible has been circulated by millions, and where all, in some way or another, profess the name of Christ, and call themselves Christians.

And what then? What is to follow this “strong delusion” Any fresh testimony? Any further overtures of mercy? Any further effort of long suffering grace? Not for Christendom! Not for the rejecters of the gospel of God! Not for Christless, Godless professors of the hollow and worthless forms of Christianity! The heathen shall hear “The everlasting gospel,” “The gospel of the kingdom;” but as for that terrible thing, that most frightful anomaly called Christendom, the vine of the earth,” nothing remains but the wine press of the wrath of Almighty God, the blackness of darkness for ever, the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone.

Reader, these are the true sayings of God. Nothing would be easier than to place before your eyes an array of scripture proof perfectly unanswerable; this would be foreign to our present object. The New Testament, from cover to cover, sets forth the solemn truth above enunciated; and every system theology under the sun that teaches differently will be found, on this point at least, to be totally false.

Fuente: Mackintosh’s Notes on the Pentateuch

Deu 1:1-5. Historical introduction to Deu 1:6 ff.: a compilation, perhaps intended to introduce the whole book.

Deu 1:1. beyond Jordan: therefore the writer dwelt W. of the Jordan; so Deu 1:5 and often, Deu 3:8; Deu 3:20; Deu 3:25.Araban (lit. waste region): the low-lying valley of the Jordan, the Sea of Galilee and Dead Sea, extending from the Sea of Galilee to the Red Sea (Gulf of Akabah

Deu 1:2. Horeb in D and E = Sinai in J and P (see Deu 33:2).

Deu 1:3. From P: its P origin is revealed by the date note and the word translated eleventh.

Deu 1:4. Sinon: Num 21:21*.Og: p.64, Num 21:33*.Amorites in E and D = Canaanites in J; i.e. the pre-Israelite population of W. Palestine. Read (with LXX) and at Edrei: Og had two royal residences.

Deu 1:5. began: the Heb. means to undertake or set about a task.this law: i.e. the D law which, however, begins at Deuteronomy 12. The word translated law (torah) means instruction, though following the LXX (nomos) and Vulg. (lex) it is rendered by a word = law in most modern VSS. The Heb. word came to denote the authoritative teaching of prophets (1Sa 10:25, Isa 1:10*, etc.) and of priests (see Lev 10:11, etc.). In D and in writings of the D school it becomes a technical term for the D code (see Ezra (Cent. B), pp. 8ff.). The Jews use the word for the Pentateuch, but it never has that sense in the OT. See p. 121, Pro 3:1*.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

THE COMMAND TO LEAVE HOREB

(vs.1-8)

In Num 32:1-42 Israel is seen to remain in the area east of Jordan long enough for the two and a half tribes to build cities. Thus God required no haste as to their entering the land. These addresses of Moses in Deuteronomy were delivered at that time, spoken to “all Israel” (v.1). Moses must have maintained a powerful voice (at age 120 years) to be able to make possible 3,000.000 people hear him!

Verse 2 tells that from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea is eleven days’ journey. It was when Israel was in Kadesh Barnea that God told them to enter the land of Canaan and Israel refused (Num 13:26). Thus this Scripture emphasizes that if Israel had been obedient to the Lord they might have entered the land only 11 days after leaving Mount Horeb, but because of disobedience the time was lengthened to about 40 years. Moses spoke to them here just one month before the forty years was complete (v.3). This tells believers today that our wilderness history does not necessarily have to be long, but because of our natural selfish propensities it is necessary for God to put us through the trial of hard circumstances in order to learn that obedience is the only way of blessing.

Only after two special enemies had been killed (Sihon and Og) Moses gave these addresses, for the victory over these two enemies held the prediction of further victory in the land (v.4). Israel had been afraid of entering the land before because of such enemies (Og was a giant — Deu 3:1 l), now God had given them an object lesson in experience that should encourage them.

Thus Moses began to explain the law (v.5), telling Israel first that God has spoken to them in Horeb, where they received the law, saying they had dwelt long enough there (v.6). The law cannot be any permanent resting place, for it points onward to something far better, as the Book of Hebrews shows (Heb 6:1-2; Heb 10:1-10). Israel were to take their journey therefore to the mountains of the Amorites, to the plains as the great River Euphrates (v.7). All this territory is eventually to be theirs, though they did enter Canaan they did not by any means take possession of all the land to the Euphrates River. This will be possessed only in the Millennium. Still God beforehand clearly declared what was their proper inheritance. God had sworn this to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (v.8), to be made good to their descendants (Gen 15:18-21).

SHARING ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITY

(vs.9-18)

In these verses we find details added that were not mentioned in Exo 18:13-27 when Moses, at the advice of Jethro, appointed “rulers of thousands, rules of hundreds, rulers of fifties and rulers of tens.”

While Exo 18:25 speaks of Moses choosing theses men, yet here in Deu 1:13 Moses says he asked the tribes to choose “wise, understanding and knowledgeable men.” Thus he graciously took them into his confidence and when they presented the men confirmed them as his choice. Verse 15 makes this clear.

Moses gave firm orders to these rulers to judge righteously any cases that arose between the people. They must carefully avoid partiality in judgment, showing the same respect to small as to great (v.17). Cases too hard to decide were to be brought to Moses. In the Church too elder brethren can decide many things, but if anything is too hard, these must be brought to the Lord in humble, dependent prayer.

ISRAEL’S REFUSAL TO ENTER CANAAN

(vs.19-33)

Moses only briefly mentions the journey of Israel from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea, though he speaks of the wilderness as “great and terrible” (v.19). The experience in such a desert ought to have given them a strong incentive to enter the promised land as soon as they could.

At Kadesh Barnea Moses addressed them again, telling them they had come to the mountains of the Amorites and it was time to carry out what the Lord had spoken, to take possession of the land of promise (vs.20-21).

Here in Deuteronomy (v.22) we learn that the people had appealed to Moses to send spies into the land first. They did not say they wanted this in order to find out whether it was safe for them to go in or not, but said rather that in this way they could find out what way they should take said rather that in this way they could find out what way they should take and into what cities they should first come. This suggestion pleased Moses well, he says. In fact, in Num 13:1-2 it was God who gave orders to Moses to send the spies into the land, which orders were no doubt given after Israel had required this.

The spies had gone into the land, spying it out bringing back some of the fruit of the land, with the report that the Lord’s word concerning it was true: it was a good land (vs.24-25).

“Nevertheless,” Moses says, “you would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord” (v.26). Instead of being inspired with courage to go forward, they complained against the Lord because the spies told them that the inhabitants of the land were greater and taller than the Israelites (vs.27-28). Why then did they refuse to believe His word in regard to His promise to put down their enemies? Their fear and apprehension defeated them before they took one step forward. Do we not also defeat ourselves by our fears of what might happen, even when we have the Lord’s word for acting?

Moses was not intimidated by the apparent power of the enemies, but rather encouraged Israel to be unafraid because the Lord had promised to go before them and fight for them. Since He had sustained and kept them trough the wilderness, would He be any less able to Strengthen them to face their enemies? (vs.29-31).

“Yet for all that, you did not believe the Lord your God.” Thus Moses reproved their unbelief in the face of God’s constant care for them in regard to finding places on the way to pitch their tents and to direct them by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

CONSEQUENCES OF REBELLION

(vs.34-46)

Israel needed to be reminded of the Lord’s anger against fathers on this occasion, and His pronouncement that none of that generation should enter Canaan except Caleb because “he wholly followed the Lord” (vs.34-36). In verse 36 Joshua is not mentioned because he was identified with Moses in leadership of Israel, and Caleb was one of the people otherwise — one clear example for all of the common people.

But also, Moses said, the Lord was angry with him for Israel’s sake and told him he would not enter the land (v.37). The reason is seen in Num 20:7-13. But Joshua would not only enter the land: he would become the leader to bring Israel in (v.38). So the Lord told Moses to encourage Joshua.

However, their children, then under 20 years of age (Num 14:29), whom they feared would suffer, God would bring into the land (v.39). It was this generation whom Moses was now addressing.

This sentence against Israel jolted them sufficiently that they decided to change their minds and go to fight against the Canaanites (v.4). But it was too late. They did not really feel the guilt of their sin but did feel the pain of God’s sentence against their sin. To excape this they were willing now to go to battle. But this was only another form of rebellion. God had told them to rerturn to the wilderness. Moses therefore warned them not to try to fight, for they would be defeated (v.42). Again they refused to listen, but went to battle, with the result that they suffered a humiliating defeat (v.44). Their weeping then before the Lord (v.45) did not change God’s mind, for their weeping was not because of their sin but because of having to suffer the cobsequences of their sin. So they remained many days in Kadesh (v.46). They did not immediately turn back into the wilderness. Because we are slow leareners, the Lord sometimes has to keep us in such a place as Kadesh to remind us of our failure and give us ample time to meditate upon the reasons for His hand of disciple restraining us as it does. We cannot but feel this as painful chastening, but it is the wisdom of a faithful and gracious Father that thus seeks to produce in us the lowly submission to His will that we never seem to learn apart from painful measures. We may feel God is being extremely stren, but it is His pure love that is working in us for good.

Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible

1:1 These [be] the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on {a} this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain {b} over against the Red [sea], between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab.

(a) In the country of Moab.

(b) So that the wilderness was between the sea and the plain of Moab.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

I. INTRODUCTION: THE COVENANT SETTING 1:1-5

This brief section places the events that follow in their geographical and chronological setting. It introduces the occasion for the covenant, the parties involved, and other information necessary to identify the document and the peculiarities of its composition.

"The time was the last month of the fortieth year after the Exodus (Deu 1:3 a), when the men of war of that generation had all perished (Deu 2:16), the conquest of Trans-Jordan was accomplished (Deu 1:4; Deu 2:24 ff.), and the time of Moses’ death was at hand. It was especially this last circumstance that occasioned the renewal of the covenant. God secured the continuity of the mediatorial dynasty by requiring of Israel a pledge of obedience to his new appointee, Joshua (cf. Deu 31:3; Deu 34:9), and a new vow of consecration to himself." [Note: Ibid., pp. 156-57.]

"The preamble thus forms a bridge between the original covenant and its renewal to the new generation." [Note: Merrill, "A Theology of the Pentateuch," in A Biblical Theology of the Old Testament, p. 74.]

The Arabah (Deu 1:1) is the depression that runs from north of the Sea of Chinnereth (Galilee) all the way to the Red Sea (Gulf of Aqabah). Israel’s location in this plain was just northeast of the point at which the Jordan River empties into the Dead Sea, directly east of Jericho.

The reference to the duration of a normal journey from Horeb (the range of mountains in which Mt. Sinai stood) to Kadesh-Barnea as being 11 days (Deu 1:2), about 150 miles, is not just historical. This was the part of Israel’s journey that took her from the place God gave His covenant to the border of the Promised Land. From there the Israelites could have and should have entered Canaan. This reference points out a contrast between the short distance and the long time it took Israel to make the trip due to her unbelief. It took Israel 40 years to travel from Egypt to the plains of Moab (Deu 1:3). This is the only exact date that Moses specified in Deuteronomy. The spiritual failure at the root of this lengthened sojourn provided the reason for much of what Moses said and did that follows in Deuteronomy.

The name Yahweh appears for the first time in Deu 1:3 in Deuteronomy, and it occurs more than 220 times. This name is most expressive of God’s covenant role with Israel. Its frequent appearance helps the reader remember that Deuteronomy presents God in His role as sovereign suzerain and covenant keeper. In contrast, the name Elohim occurs only 38 times in this book.

Moses probably referred to God’s defeat of Sihon and Og here (Deu 1:4) to give the Israelites hope as well as to date his words more specifically.

The nature of Deuteronomy as a whole is an exposition (explanation) of all that God had commanded (Deu 1:5; cf. Deu 1:3). The Hebrew word translated "expound" (be’er) means to make something absolutely clear or plain (cf. Deu 27:8). We might say that Deuteronomy is a commentary on earlier passages in the Pentateuch. Moses’ second address (chs. 5-26) particularly concentrated on this exposition.

The English term "law" has negative connotations, but the Hebrew torah, (lit. instruction) used here (Deu 1:5), is positive. The Torah is more instruction than prohibition. Here the whole of Deuteronomy is in view.

"What the man and woman lost in the Garden is now restored to them in the Torah, namely, God’s plan for their good." [Note: John H. Sailhamer, The Pentateuch as Narrative, p. 424.]

Four superscriptions signal the beginnings of Moses’ speeches in Deuteronomy (Deu 1:1-5; Deu 4:44-49; Deu 29:1; Deu 33:1).

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

THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT

Deu 1:1-46; Deu 2:1-37; Deu 3:1-29

AFTER these preliminary discussions we now enter upon the exposition. With the exception of the first two verses of chapter 1, concerning which there is a doubt whether they do not belong to Numbers, these three chapters stand out as the first section of our book. Examination shows that they form a separate and distinct whole, not continued in chapter 4; but there has been a great diversity of opinion as to their authorship and the intention with which they have been placed here. The vocabulary and the style so resemble those of the main parts of the book that they cannot be entirely separated from them; yet, at the same time, it seems unlikely that the original author of the main trunk of Deuteronomy can have begun his book with this introductory speech from Moses, followed it up with another Mosaic speech, still introductory, in chapter 4, and in chapter 5 begun yet another introductory speech running through seven chapters, before he comes to the statutes and judgments which are announced at the very beginning. The current supposition about these chapters, therefore, is that they are the work of a Deuteronomist, a man formed under the influence of Deuteronomy and filled with its spirit, but not the author of the book. This seems to account for the resemblances, and would also explain to some extent the existence of such a superfluous prologue. But the hypothesis is, nevertheless, not entirely satisfactory. The resemblances are closer than we should expect in the work of different authors; and one feels that the supposed Deuteronomist must have been less sensitive in a literary sense than we have any right to suppose him if he did not feel the incongruity of such a speech in this place. Professor Dillmann has made a very acute suggestion, which meets the whole difficulty in a more natural way. Feeling that the style and language were in all essentials one with those of the central Deuteronomy, he seeks for some explanation which would permit him to assign this section to the author of the book himself. He suggests that as originally written this was a historical introduction leading up to the central code of laws; a historical preface, in fact, which the author of Deuteronomy naturally prefixed to his book. Ex hypothesi he had not the previous books, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, before him as we have them. These now form a historical introduction to Deuteronomy of a very minute and elaborate kind; but he had to embody in his own book all of the past history of his people that he wished to emphasize, But when the editor who arranged the Pentateuch as we now have it inserted Deuteronomy in its present place, he found that he had a double historical preface, that in the previous books and this in Deuteronomy itself. As reverence forbade the rejection of these chapters, he took refuge in the expedient of turning the originally impersonal narrative into a speech of Moses; which he could all the more blamelessly do as the probability is that the whole book was regarded in his time as the work of Moses. This hypothesis, if it can be accepted, certainly accounts for all the phenomena presented by these chapters-the similarity of language, the archaeological notes in the speech, and the historic color in the statements regarding Edom, for example, which corresponds to early feeling, not to post-exilic thought at all. It has besides the merit of reducing the number of anonymous writers to be taken account of in the Pentateuch, a most desirable thing in itself. Lastly, it gives us in Deuteronomy a compact whole more complete in all its parts than almost any other portion of the Old Testament, certainly more so than any of the books containing legislation.

Moreover, that the Deuteronomic reinforcement and expansion of the Mosaic legislation, as contained in the Book of the Covenant, should begin with such a history of Yahwehs dealings with His people, is entirely characteristic of Old Testament Revelation. In the main and primarily, what the Old Testament writers give us is a history of how God wrought, how He dealt with the people He had chosen. In the view of the Hebrew writers, Gods first and main revelation of Himself is always in conduct. He showed Himself good and merciful and gentle to His people, and then, having so shown Himself, He has an acknowledged right to claim their obedience. As St. Paul has so powerfully pointed out, the law was secondary, not primary. Grace, the free love and choice of God, was always the beginning of true relations with Him, and only after that had been known and accepted does He look for the true life which His law is to regulate. Naturally, therefore, when the author of Deuteronomy is about to press upon Israel the law in its expanded form, to call them back from many aberrations, to summon them to a reformation and new establishment of the whole framework of their lives, he turns back to remind them of what their past had been. Law, therefore, is only a secondary deposit of Revelation. If we are true to the Biblical point of view we shall not look for the Divine voice only, or even chiefly, in the legal portions of the Scripture. Gods full revelation of Himself will be seen in the process and the completion of that age-long movement, which was begun when Israel first became a nation by receiving Yahweh as their God, and which ended with the life and death of Him who summed up in Himself all that Israel was called, but failed, to be.

That is the ruling thought in Scripture about Revelation. God reveals Himself in history; and by the persistent thoroughness with which the Scriptural writers grasp this thought, the unique and effective character of the Biblical Revelation is largely accounted for. Other nations, no doubt, looked back at times upon what their gods had done for them, and those who spoke for these gods may often have claimed obedience and service from their people on the ground of past favor and under threats of its withdrawal. But earlier than any other people which has affected the higher races of mankind, Israel conceived of God as a moral power with a will and purpose which embraced mankind. Further, in the belief which appears in their earliest records, that through them the nations were to be blessed, and that in the future One was coming who would in Himself bring about the realization of Israels destiny, they were provided with a philosophy of history, with a conception which was fitted to draw into organic connection with itself all the various fortunes of Israel and of the nations.

Of course, at first much that was involved in their view was not present to any mind. It was the very merit of the germinal revelation made through Moses that it had in it powers of growth and expansion. In no other way could it be a true revelation of God, a revelation which should have in it the fullness, the flexibility, the aloofness from mere local and temporary peculiarities, which would secure its fitness for universal mankind. Any revelation that consists only of words, of ideas even, must, to be received, have some kind of relation to the minds that are to receive it. If the words and ideas are revealed, as they must be, at a given place and a given time, they must be in such a relation to that place and time that at some period of the worlds history they will be found inadequate, needing expansion, which does not come naturally, and then they have to be laid aside as insufficient. But a revelation which consists in acts, which reveals God in intimate, age-long, constant dealings with mankind, is so many-sided, so varied, so closely molded to the actual and universal needs of man, that it embraces all the fundamental exigencies of human life, and must always continue to cover human experience. From it men may draw off systems of doctrines, which may concentrate the revelation for a particular generation, or for a series of generations, and make it more potently active in these circumstances. But unless the system be kept constantly in touch with the revelation as given in the history, it must become inadequate, false in part, and must one day vanish away.

The revelation then in life is the only possible form for a real revelation of God; and that the writers of the Old Testament in their circumstances and in their time felt and asserted this, is in itself so very great a merit that it is almost of itself sufficient to justify any claims they may make to special inspiration. The greatest of them saw God at work in the world, and had experience of His influence in themselves, so that they had their eyes opened to His actions as other men had not. The least of them, again, had been placed at the true point of view for estimating aright the significance of the ordinary action of the Divine Providence, and for tracing the lines of Divine action where they were to other men invisible, or at least obscure. And in the records they have left us they have been entirely true to that supremely important point of view. All they deal with in the history is the moral and spiritual effects of Gods dealing; and the great interests, as the world reckons them, of war and conquest, of commerce and art, are referred to only briefly and often only in the way of allusion. To many moderns this is an offence, which they avenge by speaking contemptuously of the mental endowment of the Biblical writers as historians. On the contrary, that these should have kept their eyes fixed only upon that which concerned the religious life of their people, that they should have kept firm hold of the truth that it was there the central importance of the people lay, and that they have given us the material for the formation of that great conception of supernatural revelation by history in which God Himself moves as a factor, is a merit so great that even if it were only a brilliant fancy they might surely be pardoned for ignoring other things. But if, as is the truth, they were tracing the central stream of Gods redemptive action in the world, were laying open to our view the steps by which the unapproachably lofty conception of God was built up, which their nation alone has won for the human race, then it can hardly seem a fault that nothing else appealed to them. They have given God to those who were blindly groping for Him, and they have established the standard by which all historic estimates of even modern life are ultimately to be measured.

For though there were in the history of that particular nation, and in the line of preparation for Christ, special miraculous manifestations of Gods power and love, which do not now occur, yet no judgment of the course of history is worth anything, even today, which does not occupy essentially the Biblical position. Ultimately the thing to be considered is, what hath God wrought? If that be ignored, then the stable and instructive element in history has been kept out of sight, and the mind loses itself hopelessly amid the weltering chaos of second causes. Froude, in his “History of England,” has noted this, and declares that in the period he deals with it was the religious men who alone had any true insight into the tendency of things. They measured all things, almost too crudely, by the Biblical standard; but so essentially true and fundamental does that show itself to be, that their judgment so formed has proved to be the only sound one. This is what we should expect if Gods power and righteousness are the great factors in the drama which the history of man and of the world unfolds to us. That being so, the suicidal folly of the policy of any Church or party which shuts the Bible away from popular use is manifest. It is nothing short of a blinding of the peoples eyes, and a shutting of their ears to warning voices which the providential government of the world, when viewed on a large scale, never fails to utter. It renders sound political judgment the prerogative only of the few, and sets them among a people who will turn to any charlatans rather than believe their voice.

It was natural and it was inevitable, therefore, that the author of Deuteronomy, standing, as he did, on the threshold of a great crisis in the history of Israel, should turn the thoughts of his people back to the history of the past. To him the great figure in the history of Israel in those trying and eventful years during which they wandered between Horeb, Kadesh-Barnea, and the country of the Arnon, is Yahweh their God. He is behind all their movements, impelling and inciting them to go on and enjoy the good land He had promised to their fathers. He went before them and fought for them. He bare them in the wilderness, as a man doth bear his son. He watched over them and guided their footsteps in cloud and fire by day and night. Moreover all the nations by whom they passed had been led by Him and assigned their places, and only those nations whom Yahweh chose had been given into Israels hand. In the internal affairs of the community, too, He had asserted Himself. They were Yahwehs people, and all their national action was to be according to His righteous character. Especially was the administration of justice to be pure and impartial, yielding to neither fear nor favor because the “judgment is Gods.” And how had they responded to all this loving favor on the part of God? At the first hint of serious conflict they shrank back in fear. Notwithstanding that the land which God had given them was a good and fruitful country, and notwithstanding the promises of Divine help, they refused to incur the necessary toils and risks of the conquest. Every difficulty they might encounter was exaggerated by them; their very deliverance from Egypt, which they had been wont to consider “their crowning mercy,” became to their faithless cowardice an evidence of hatred for them on the part of God.

To men in such a state of mind conquest was impossible; and though, in a spasmodic revulsion from their abject cowardice, they made an attack upon the people they were to dispossess, it ended, as it could not but end, in their defeat and rout. They were condemned to forty years of wandering, and it was only after all that generation was dead that Israel was again permitted to approach the land of promise. But Yahweh had been faithful to them, and when the time was come He opened the way for their advance and gave them the victory and the land. For His love was patient, and always made a way to bless them, even through their sins.

That was the picture the Deuteronomist spread out before the eyes of his countrymen, to the intent that they might know the love of God, and might see that safety lay for them in a willing yielding of themselves to that love. The disastrous results of their wayward and faint-hearted shrinking from this Divine calling is the only direct threat he uses, but in the passage there is another warning, all the more impressive that it is vague and shadowy, God is to the Deuteronomist the universal ruler of the world. The nations are raised up and cast down according to His will, and until He wills it they cannot be dispossessed. But He had willed that fate for many, and at every step of Israels progress they come upon traces of vanished peoples whom for their sins He had suffered others to destroy. The Emim in Moab, the Zamzummim in Ammon, the Horites in Self, and the Avvims in Philistia, had all been destroyed before the people who now occupied these lands, and the whole background of the narrative is one of judgment, where mercy had been of no avail. The sword of the Lord is dimly seen in the archaeological notes which are so frequent in this section of our book and thus the final touch is given to the picture of the past which is here drawn to be an impulse for the future. While all the foreground represents only Gods love and patience overcoming mans rebellion, the background is, like the path of the great pilgrim caravans which year by year make their slow and toilsome way to Mohammedan holy places, strewn with the remains of predecessors in the same path. With stern, menacing finger this great teacher of Israel points to these evidences that the Divine love and patience may be, and have been, outworn, and seems to re-echo in an even more impressive way the language of Isaiah: “The anger of Yahweh was kindled (against these peoples), and He stretched forth His hand (against them) and smote (them); and the hills did tremble, and (their) carcasses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still.” Without a word of direct rebuke he opens his peoples eyes to see that shadowy outstretched hand. Behind all the turmoil of the world there is a presence and a power which supports all who seek good, but which is sternly set against all evil, ready, when the moment comes, “to strike once and strike no more.”

Yet another glimpse is given us in these chapters of Gods manner of dealing with men. We have seen how He guides and rules His chosen ones. We have seen how He punishes those who have set themselves against the Divine law. And in Deu 2:30 we are told how men become hardened in their sin, so as to render destruction inevitable. Of Sihon, king of Hesh-bon, who would not let the Israelites pass by him, the writer says: “Yahweh thy God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that He might deliver him into thy hand, as appeareth this day.” But he does not mean by these expressions to lay upon God the causation of Sihons obstinacy, so as to make the man a mere helpless victim. His thought rather is, that as God rules all, so to Him must be ultimately traced all that happens in the world. In some sense all acts, whether good or bad, all agencies, whether beneficent or destructive, have their source in and their power from Him. But nevertheless men have moral responsibility for their acts, and are fully and justly conscious of ill desert. Consequently that hardening of spirit or of heart, which at one moment may be attributed solely to God, may at another be ascribed solely to the evil determination of man. The most instructive instance of this is to be found in the history of Pharaoh, when he was commanded to let Israel go. In that narrative, from Exo 4:1-31; Exo 5:1-23; Exo 6:1-30; Exo 7:1-25; Exo 8:1-32; Exo 9:1-35; Exo 10:1-29; Exo 11:1-10, there is repeated interchange of expression. Now it is Yahweh hardened Pharaohs heart; now, as in Exo 8:15 and Exo 8:32, Pharaoh hardened his own heart; and, again, Pharaohs heart was hardened. In each case the same thing is meant, and the varying expressions correspond only to a difference of standpoint. When Yahweh foretells that the signs He authorizes Moses to show will fail of their effect, it is always “Yahweh will harden Pharaohs heart,” since the main point in contemplation is His government of the world. If, on the other hand, it is the sinful obstinacy of Pharaoh which is prominent in the passage, we have the self-determination of Pharaoh alone set before us. But it is to be noted, and this is indeed the cardinal fact, that Yahweh never is said to harden the heart of a good man, or a man set mainly upon righteousness. It is always those who are guilty of palpable wrongs and acts of evildoing upon whom God thus works.

Now we know that the author of Deuteronomy had two at least of the ancient historical narratives before him which are combined in Exo 4:1-31; Exo 5:1-23; Exo 6:1-30; Exo 7:1-25; Exo 8:1-32; Exo 9:1-35; Exo 10:1-29; Exo 11:1-10, and he takes up their thinking. Expressed in modern language, the thought is this. When men are found following their own will in defiance of all law and all the restraints of righteousness, that is manifestly not the first stage in their moral declension. This obstinacy in evil is the result and the wages of former evil deeds, beginning perhaps only with careless laxity, but gathering strength and virulence with every willful sin. Until near the end of a completed growth in wickedness no man deliberately says, “Evil, be thou my good.” Nevertheless each act of sin involves a step towards that, and the sinner in this manner hardens himself against all warning. Like the sins which work this obduracy, this hardening is the sinners own act. The ruin which falls upon his moral nature is his own work. That is the inexorable result of the moral order of the universe, and from it no exception is possible. But if so, God too has been active in all such catastrophes. He has so framed and ordered the world that indulgence in evil must harden in evil. This it was which the Israelite religious mind saw and dwelt upon, as well as upon mans share in the dread process of moral decay. We also do well to take heed to this aspect of the truth. When we do, we have solved the Scriptural difficulty regarding the Divine hardening of mans heart. It is simply the ancient formula for what every mind that is ethically trained recognizes in the world today. Those who recognize themselves as children of God, and acknowledge the obligations of His law, are dealt with in the way of discipline with infinite love and patience. Those who definitely set themselves against the moral order of the world which God has established are broken in pieces and destroyed. Between these two classes there are the morally undetermined, who ultimately turn either to the right hand or to the left. The process by which these pass on to be numbered among the rebellious is pictured in Scripture with extraordinary moral insight. The only difference from a present-day description of it is, that here God is kept constantly present to the mind as the chief factor in the development of the soul. Today, even those who believe in God are apt to forget Him in tracing His laws of action. But that is an error of the first magnitude. It darkens the hope of man; for without a sure promise of Divine help there is no certainty of moral victory either for the race or the individual. It narrows our view of the awful sweep of sin; for unless we see that sin affects even the Ruler of the universe, and defies His unchanging law, its results are limited to the evil that we do our fellowmen, which, as we see it, is of little importance. Further, it degrades moral law to a mere arbitrary dictum of power, or to an opinion founded upon mans purblind experience. The acknowledgment of God, on the contrary, makes morality the very essence of the Divine nature, and the unchangeable rule for the life of man.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary