1 f. Against certain Rites for the Dead<\/p>\n
No parallel in JE; but one in H, Lev 19:28<\/span> a<\/em>.<\/p>\n 1<\/strong>. Sons are ye to Jehovah<\/strong> your God<\/em> ] The order of the EVV. misses the emphasis. Note not merely the change to the Pl. address but its cause, the conception of individual Israelites as the sons of Jehovah: not elsewhere in D. In the discourses in D Israel, the nation, is as the son of Jehovah, Deu 1:31<\/span>, Deu 8:5<\/span> and so more definitely in J, Exo 4:22<\/span> f., Hos 11:1<\/span>, and Jer 31:20<\/span>. The transition from this conception to the statement of Jehovah’s fatherhood of Israelites as individuals was natural; the two conceptions occur together in the Song Deu 32:5-6<\/span> and in Hosea and Jeremiah. The latter is already found in the 8th century, Hos 1:10<\/span>, Isa 1:2<\/span>. But as we advance through the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, with their strong individualism, to the exilic and post-exilic writings we find a great increase of references to Israelites as the sons of Jehovah, Jer 3:14<\/span>; Jer 3:19<\/span>; Jer 3:22<\/span>; Jer 4:22<\/span>, Ezek. (Eze 2:4<\/span>?), Eze 20:21<\/span>, Isa 63:8<\/span>; Isa 63:16<\/span>; Isa 64:8<\/span> (cp. Isa 57:4<\/span>), Mal 2:10<\/span>, Deu 32:5<\/span>, Psa 73:15<\/span>; Psa 82:6<\/span>. This is contemporary with the breaking up of the Jewish state and the destruction of the national worship. While then it is clear that one cannot take sons of Jehovah<\/em> in this law as by itself proof of an exilic or post-exilic date, we can say that if it does not add to, it at least agrees with, the evidence in that direction adduced in the note below.<\/p>\n Many ancient nations believed in their descent from gods or demigods; and among them the Semitic peoples, e.g. the Moabites are called sons and daughters of Kemosh, Num 21:29<\/span>. But the relation was conceived physically. In the O.T. God’s fatherhood and Israel’s sonship are historical and ethical, based not on physical generation, but on an act of love on God’s part, on His choice or adoption (cp. Rom 9:4<\/span>) of the people, and on His deliverance of them from Egypt; and it is carried out by His providence of love and moral chastisement (see the references above and cp. Amos 3<\/span>), which is nowhere more tenderly described than in this Book. But when all the O.T. references to God as the Father whether of Israel or Israelites and to them as His children have been reckoned up, how few are they in comparison to the number of times that sons<\/em>, and children<\/em>, of God occur in the N.T. God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying Abba Father<\/em> (Gal 4:6<\/span>); joint heirs with Christ<\/em> (Rom 8:17<\/span>).<\/p>\n ye shall not cut<\/em> or gash<\/strong> yourselves<\/em> ] So of the priests of Ba‘al (1Ki 18:28<\/span>) and in Ar. one form of the vb. is used of mutilations of animals, Lev 19:28<\/span>: you shall put no incision on your flesh<\/em> (cp. Deu 21:5<\/span>) nor any tattooing upon you<\/em>.<\/p>\n nor<\/em> set a<\/strong> baldness between your eyes<\/em> ] Lev 21:5<\/span>: not make a baldness on their head neither shave off the corner of their beard<\/em>.<\/p>\n for the dead<\/em> ] That these customs were not practised merely from excess of grief, nor only as testifying to the continuance of the mourner’s blood-covenant with the dead, but also in acknowledgement of the divinity of the latter and as the mourners’ consecration to them, is implied in the reason given in Deu 14:2<\/em><\/span> for Israel’s abstention from such things. Jehovah’s people are holy<\/em> and sacred to Himself alone. Hence, too, the inclusion of this law among those against the worship of strange gods. Moreover Jer 16:7<\/span> describes a communion feast as part of the same rites. May not also the choice of the expression sons are ye to Jehovah<\/em> be due to this cause, as if such rites implied an ancestor worship? For the worship of their ancestors by Arab tribes who bring offerings and sacrifice at their graves see Musil, Ethn. Ber.<\/em> 329.<\/p>\n For the prevalence, among many ancient nations, particularly the Semitic, as well as among modern peoples, of these customs of gashing the flesh and shaving part of the hair or beard, apparently always with a religious implication, see W. R. Smith, Rel. Sem.<\/em> 302 ff. Gashing, both of face and body called ‘Tashrit’ (cp. Heb.) was explained to Burton in Mekka as a sign ‘that the scarred was the servant of Allah’s House.’ ( Pilgrimage<\/em>, etc. ii. 234.) Mohammed expressly forbad the practice. The O.T. confirms it for Moab (Isa 15:2<\/span>) and the Philistines (Jer 47:5<\/span>), and states that both customs were practised in Israel not only as usual and natural in mourning (equally so with the wearing of sackcloth), but as even sanctioned by Israel’s God (Amo 8:10<\/span>; Isa 22:12<\/span>): he calls to weeping and baldness<\/em>; Jer 16:6<\/span>: as His punishment of an evil generation, the usual rites of mourning for its dead, including gashing<\/em> and baldness<\/em>, shall not be observed; Jer 41:5<\/span>: men come from Shechem to the house of Jehovah with shaven heads and having gashed themselves; Eze 7:18<\/span>. Note, too, the absence from the earlier legislation of a law against these practices. The law first appears here and in H, Lev 19:28<\/span>, Lev 21:25 .<\/p>\n Unknown to Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and to those Shechem Jews who, in obedience to the central law of D, brought their offerings to the Temple, this law cannot have formed part of the original code of D; but is an exilic or post-exilic addition.<\/p>\n Make any baldness between your eyes – <\/B>i. e. by shaving the forepart of the head and the eyebrows. The practices named in this verse were common among the pagan, and seem to be forbidden, not only because such wild excesses of grief (compare 1Ki 18:28<\/span>) would be inconsistent in those who as children of a heavenly Father had prospects beyond this world, but also because these usages themselves arose out of idolatrous notions.<\/P> <\/p>\n Deu 14:1-2<\/span><\/p>\n At the end of every seven years . . . a release.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Economical laws<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the things that strikes a reader of Deuteronomy, and indeed of the Old Testament in general, is the way in which all kinds of subjects are brought under the scope of religion. The modern mind is ready with distinctions, and classifies subjects as religious, moral, political, scientific, economical, and so forth; but the Israelitish lawgivers, men with the prophetic spirit in them, subordinate politics, economics, and morals alike to religion. Laws, to whatever department of life they are applicable, are to be made and administered in the Spirit of God; they are not an end in themselves; their one end is to enable people so to live as that the purposes may be fulfilled for which God has called them into being and constituted them into societies. This high point of view must always be retained. If we know better than the Israelites the life which God intends human beings to live, we shall have a higher standard for our legislation than they; we shall be more bound than they to remember that law is an instrument of religion, a means to a spiritual end, and that it rests with us who make our own laws to adapt them, over the whole area of national life, to the ends which God sets before us.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>In the first place, there is legislation regarding land. It proceeds upon the idea that the land belongs to God, and has been given by Him to the nation that on it as a foundation it may live that life of labour, of health, and of natural piety to which He has called it. Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as unrestricted private property in land. An individual does not have the power of alienating any part of it forever. One result, and no doubt one purpose of this was, to prevent a single worthless person from ruining his posterity by parting forever with what he really held in trust for them; another, was to prevent the accumulation of great masses of landed property, which was then the only kind of property, in the hands of individuals. Such accumulations, in the circumstances, and in most circumstances, could only lead to the practical enslavement of those who tilled the land to those who owned it. These aims of the land laws in Israel will very generally be acknowledged as worthy of approval. I suppose there is not a statesman in Europe who would not give a great deal to resettle on the land hundreds of thousands of those who have been driven or drawn into the towns. There is not one but sees that private property in land must, <\/em>if the moral ends for which society exists are to be attained, be limited somehow. Similarly, legislation is justifiable–that is, it is in the line of a Divine intention–which aims at making it hard to beggar the poor, and hard to heap up wealth without limit. It is not a morally healthy situation in which one man of enormous wealth has thousands practically at his mercy. It is not good for him–<\/em>I mean for his soul; it is not good for their souls either; and the law may properly aim, by just methods, at making it hard to create such a situation and impossible to perpetuate it. Unhappily, in most new countries the need of bribing settlers and capital has proved a temptation too strong to be resisted; and land has been parted with in masses, to individuals, on terms which have simply sown for future generations the seed of all the trouble under which older countries labour. The instinct for gain has proved stronger titan the devotion to ideal moral ends. The future has been sacrificed to the present, the moral interests of the community to the material interests of a few.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Besides the land, the Book of Deuteronomy contains a variety of laws regarding money, and particularly the lending of money. To begin with, the lending of money for interest was absolutely forbidden. The Israelites were not a commercial, but a farming people, and when a man borrowed, it was not to float a venture too great for his own means, but because he had got into difficulties, and wanted relief. To assist a brother in difficulty was regarded as a case of charity; he was to be relieved readily and freely; it were inhuman to take advantage of his distress to get him into ones power, as a money lender does his victim. It may be said, of course, that the effect of this law would be to discourage lending altogether; people would not be too ready to part with their money without some hope of profit. Probably this might be so, and to some extent with good effect. There are some people who borrow, and who ought not to do so. They ought not to have money lent to them. It is a mercy not <\/em>to lend him money: it is a special mercy to protect him, as this law does, against the money lenders. But I am not sure that the law which prohibits lending money for interest has not another moral idea at the heart of it. As distinguished from agriculture, commerce, which depends so much more upon credit, i.e. <\/em>upon money lent for interest, has a much larger element of speculation in it; and speculation is always to be discouraged, on moral grounds. Everyone knows that there are persons with little money of their own who contrive to make a livelihood by watching the ups and downs in the price of shares. This is a vocation which depends for its very existence on the lending of money for interest, and no one will say that it is morally wholesome, or that, whatever sensitiveness it may develop in certain of the intellectual faculties, it is elevating for the whole man. It would be far better for him to be doing field labour. But there is more still in this law. As it stands, I do not believe it is applicable to the vastly different conditions of modern life, especially in a trading community; here, to lend a trustworthy person money to carry on or extend his business may be what the law intended all lending to be, an act of charity. But the lender must consider his own position–I mean his moral position. His whole income may come–in many cases it does come–from investments. He lives on the interest of money he has lent. He takes no care of it, except to see at first that the investments are sound. He does no work in connection with it. He is largely ignorant of the use made of the power which it bestows. I am not going to say that no one should live on such terms: for many, life would be impossible otherwise. For many it is the proper reward of a life of labour: they are only reaping the fruit of their toils in earlier years. To such it is not likely to do any harm. But those who have inherited such a situation are undoubtedly exposed to moral perils of which they may easily become unconscious. They can live without needing to make their living; and there are very few people in a generation good enough to stand such a trial. Those who labour with the money are conscripts; let those who lend it be volunteers in all the higher services which society requires from its members. Let them be leaders in all philanthropies and charities, in all laborious duties which have it as their object to raise the moral and spiritual status of men.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>A third class of economical laws which bulks largely in the Book of Deuteronomy, and to which special attention is due, is occupied with the care of the poor. This fifteenth chapter has a number of enactments bearing on this subject. The first is rather obscure, At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release. In the Book of Exodus (Exo 23:10<\/span>) this law refers to the land, and its meaning is that every seventh year it is not to be cropped. Here, there is a year of release established for debts, though it is not clear whether it means that a debt due seven years was to be irrecoverable by legal process, or that every seventh year there should be a period of grace, during which no <\/em>debt should be recoverable by law. Then, in the laws about lending, the duty of charity is strongly enforced. The forgotten sheaf in the field, or the gleanings of the vineyard and the olive are not to be too carefully gathered in; they are to be left for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the works of thine hand. God is interested in humanity; He sees such consideration and rewards it, just as He sees inhumanity and judges it. But the most striking thing in these ancient poor laws is the way in which they realise the actual conditions of the life of the poor, and consider them. The lender is allowed to take a pledge, but if he takes the upper garment of the borrower he must not keep it all night. It is not only the poor mans cloak, but his blanket; he has nothing else to cover himself with, and God is angry with the man who inhumanly leaves his poor brother to shiver in the cold night air. So, too, no one may take the hand mill or the upper millstone as a pledge; that is to rob the poor of the means of grinding the handful of corn with which he keeps the breath in his body. We see from laws like these how excessively poor they were, yet the lawgiver who has the Spirit of God in him enters into this deep poverty, realises the conditions of life under it, and insists on due consideration for them. Business is business, of course; but humanity is also humanity, and it is an interest which no consideration of business will ever displace before God. And to refer in this connection to only one point more, what could be more beautiful than the law we find in verses 10 and 11 of Deu 24:1-22<\/span>? It is a mean and inhuman temper, which is here reproved by God. The poor man is not to be insulted because he is in distress; he is to be treated by the lender as courteously and respectfully as if he were–what he is–his equal. The sacredness of his home is to be respected; he is not to be needlessly affronted before his children by having an unfeeling or insolent stranger walk into the house and carry off what he pleases. Laws like these move us to reflection on the provision which we ourselves make for the poor. On what a large scale poverty exists in the great cities! The practical difficulties of relieving distress without doing moral injury are undeniably very great, but I do not believe they will be overcome by men whom habitual contact with dishonesty and incapacity has rendered hard and inhuman. Those who have the care of the poor should care for them with humanity. They should care for their feelings too, and respect the common nature which is in them. If they do not, they suffer for it themselves, and one can hardly find a more odious type of human being than the man who has been hardened and brutalised by the administration of charity. There is one kind of criticism which has often been passed, and will no doubt continue to be passed, on such laws as these. It is this: they have never been kept. There is no evidence, for instance, that the law of the jubilee year, when all property returned to its original owners, was ever observed in Israel: as a means for preventing the dissipation of family property, or its accumulation in a few hands, it was a failure. So have all laws been which attempted to regulate the business of lending money, either by prohibiting interest altogether, or by fixing a maximum rate of interest. No law written in a book can ever compete with the living intellect of man, with his cunning and greed on the one hand, with his distress, his passions, or his stupidity on the other. There is a certain quantity of truth in this; but taken without qualification it is only a plea for anarchy–an invitation to give up the whole of the economical side of social existence to the conflict of ability, selfishness, and capital with incompetence, need, and passion. Surely there is a moral ideal for this side of existence; and surely if there is, it must find some expression, however inadequate, some assistance, however feeble, from the laws. We cannot by law protect people against the consequences of their vices or their follies; but we can provide in the law a safeguard for those interests which are higher than private gain or loss. We can make it impossible for anyone in the pursuit of private gain to trample humanity under foot. (James Denney, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Proclamation of release<\/strong><\/p>\n My text was intended as an especial law to the ancients, and prefigured to all ages Gospel forgiveness. The fact is that the world is loaded down with a debt, which no bankrupt law or two-third enactment can alleviate. The voices of heaven cry, Pay! Pay! Men and women are frantic with moral insolvency. What shall be done? A new law is proclaimed, from the throne of God, of universal release for all who will take advantage of that enactment.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>In the first place, why will you carry your burden of sin any longer? The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from sin. Cut loose the cables which hold your transgressions, and let them fall off. Spiritual, infinite, glorious, everlasting release! Blessed is the man whose transgressions are forgiven and whose sins are covered.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Some of you, also, want deliverance from your troubles. God knows you have enough of them. Physical, domestic, spiritual, and financial troubles. How are you going to get relief? The Divine Physician comes, and He knows how severe the trouble is, and He gives you this promise: Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Does it not take effect upon you? Here, then, He pours out more drops of Divine consolation, and I am sure this time the trouble will be arrested: All things work together for good to those who love God. All the Atlantic and Pacific oceans of surging sorrow cannot sink a soul that has asked for Gods pilotage. The difficulty is, that when we have misfortunes of any kind, we put them in Gods hand, and they stay there a little while; and then we go and get them again, and bring them back. A vessel comes in from a foreign port. As it comes near the harbour it sees a pilot floating about. It hails the pilot. The pilot comes on board, and he says: Now, captain, you have had a stormy passage. Go down and sleep, and I will take the vessel into New York harbour. After a while the captain begins to think: Am I right in trusting this vessel to that pilot? I guess Ill go up and see. So he comes to the pilot, and says: Dont you see that rock? Dont you see those headlands? You will wreck the ship. Let me hold the helm for a while myself, and then Ill trust to you. The pilot becomes angry, and says: I will either take care of this ship or not. If you want to, I will get into my yawl and go ashore, or back to my boat. Now we say to the Lord: O God, take my life, take my all, in Thy keeping. We go along for a little while, and suddenly wake up, and say: Things are going all wrong. O Lord, we are driving on these rocks, and Thou art going to let us be shipwrecked. God says: You go and rest; I will take charge of this vessel, and take it into the harbour. It is Gods business to comfort, and it is our business to be comforted. At the end of seven years thou shalt make a release.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>But what is our programme for the coming years? It is about the same line of work, only on a more intensified and consecrated scale. Ah, we must be better men and women. (T. De Witt Talmage.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n A new chance<\/strong><\/p>\n God is putting lines of mercy amid all the black print of the law. It would seem as if wherever God could find a place at which He might utter some word of pity or compassion, He filled up that place with an utterance of His solicitude for the welfare of man. Flowers look lovely everywhere, but what must be the loveliness of a flower to the wanderer in a desert? So these Gospel words are full of charm wherever we find them, but they have double charmfulness being found in connection with institutions, instructions, precepts, and commandments marked by the severest righteousness. In the midst of time God graciously puts a year of release. We find in this year of release what we all need–namely, the principle of new chances, new opportunities, fresh beginnings. Tomorrow, said the debtor or the slave, is the day of release, and the next day I shall begin again: I shall have another chance in life; the burden will be taken away. The darkness will be dispersed, and life shall be young again. Every man ought to have more chances than one, even in our own life. God has filled the sphere of life with opportunities. But moral releases can only be accomplished by moral processes. The man who is in prison must take the right steps to get out of it. What are those right steps?–repentance, contrition, confession–open, frank, straightforward, self-renouncing confession; then the man must be allowed to begin again; God will, in His providence, work out for such a man another opportunity; concealment there must be none, prevarication none, self-defence none. Where the case lies between the soul and God–the higher morality still–there must be an interview at the Cross–a mysterious communion under the blood that flows from the wounded Christ. All this being done on the part of the creditor and the owner, what happens on the side of God? The answer to that inquiry is: The Lord shall greatly bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it (Deu 24:4<\/span>). God never allows us to obey the law without immediate and large compensation. We cannot obey the laws of health without instantly being the healthier; we cannot obey the laws of cleanliness without the flesh instantly thanking us, in stronger pulsations and wider liberties, for what we have done to it. A blessing is attached to all obedience, when the obedience is rendered to law Divine and gracious. The reward is in the mans own heart: he has a reward which no thief can take away from the sanctuary in which it is preserved; heaven is within. None can forestall God, or outrun God, or confer upon God an obligation which He cannot repay; He takes the moisture from the earth only that He may return it in copious showers. No man can serve God for nought. (J. Parker, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The year of release<\/strong><\/p>\n I propose to consider death as the Christians release, and then you will easily perceive what pleasure it must give to the believer, who is waiting for his discharge, to be told that the year of release is at hand.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>From labour (Rev 14:13<\/span>). They know little of religion who think that a Christian has nothing to do. When Christ first calls us, He says: Go, work today in My vineyard. There is not only a great variety of employments, but that which requires much application and labour. To mortify sin is difficult work. But courage, Christians, the year of release is at hand. In heaven there will be much service, but no kind of labour. They rest not, day nor night, from rapturous adorations, and yet feel no fatigue, for the joy of the Lord is their strength.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>But I said also that you shall be released from sorrow as well as from labour. The sources of present grief are almost innumerable. There are personal, family, and national troubles; and these sometimes follow one another so quickly, that many have tears for their meat, night and day. But courage, Christians, the year of release is at hand, when they that sow in tears shall reap in joy.<\/p>\n Forgiveness, freedom, favour<\/strong><\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> <\/strong>They were, at the end of every seven years, to release every man his debtor from the debt which he had accumulated. A man might pay if he could, and he should do so. A man might, at some future time, if his circumstances altered, discharge the debt which had been remitted; but, as far as the creditor was concerned, it was remitted.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>They were never to exact that debt again. The moral claim might remain, and the honest Israelite might take care that his brother Israelite should not lose anything through him; but, still, according to the Divine command, there was to be no exacting of it. None but a generous Lawgiver would have made such a law as this. It is noble-hearted, full of loving kindness; and we could expect that none but a people in whose midst there was the daily sacrifice, in the midst of whom moved the high priest of God, would be obedient to such a precept.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>They were to do this for the Lords sake: because it is called the Lords release. It is not enough to do the correct thing; it must be done in a right spirit, and with a pure motive. A good action is not wholly good unless it be done for the glory of God, and because of the greatness and goodness of His holy name. The most powerful motive that a Christian can have is this, For Jesus sake. You could not forgive the debt, perhaps, for your brothers sake; there may be something about him that would harden your heart; but can you not do it for Jesus sake? This is true charity, that holy love which is the choicest of the graces. And then, like the Israelites, we may look believingly to the gracious reward that God gives. We do not serve God for wages; but still we have respect unto the recompense of the reward, even as Moses had. We do not run like hirelings; but yet we have our eye upon the prize of our high calling in Christ Jesus. They were not only to perform this kindness once, but they were to be ready to do it again. It is the part of Christians not to be weary in well doing; and if they get no reward for what they have done from those to whom it is done, still to do the same again. Remember how gracious God is, and how He giveth to the unthankful and the evil, and maketh His rain to fall upon the field of the churl as well as upon the field of the most generous.<\/p>\n 5. <\/strong>While they were to forgive and remit, on this seventh year, the loans which remained unpaid, they were also to let the bondman go. It was not to be thought a hardship to part with a servant man or woman. However useful they might have been in the house or field, however much they were felt to be necessary to domestic comfort or farm service, they were to be allowed to go; and, what was more, they were not to go empty handed, but they were to receive a portion out of every department of the masters wealth.<\/p>\n 6. <\/strong>Further, this setting free of their brother at the specified time was to be done for a certain reason: Thou shalt remember, etc. How can you hold another a bondman when God has set you free? How can you treat another with unkindness when the Lord has dealt so generously with you? Down at Olney, when Mr. Newton was the rector of the parish, he put in his study this text where he could always see it when he lifted his eyes from his text while preparing his sermon, Remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee. Would it not do many Christians good if they had that text often before their eyes? Would it not excite gratitude to their Redeemer, and tenderness towards those who happened to be in subjection to them, tenderness to every sinner that is a bondslave under the law, tenderness to the myriads that swarm these streets, slaves to sin and self, and who are perishing in their iniquity?<\/p>\n 7. <\/strong>The spirit of this release of the Lord is this, Never be hard on anybody. It is true that the man made the bargain, and he ought to keep to it; but he is losing money, and he cannot afford it; he is being ruined, and you are being fattened by his mistake. Do not hold him to it. No Christian man can be a sweater of workers; no Christian man can be a grinder of the poor; no man, who would be accepted before God, can think that his heart is right with Him when he treats others ungenerously, not to say unjustly.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Let me proclaim to every sinner here, who owns his indebtedness to God, and feels that he can never discharge it, that if you will come, and put your trust in Christ, the Lord promises oblivion to all your debt, forgiveness of the whole of your sins.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>This release shall be followed up by a nonexacting of the penalty forever.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>God will do all this for thee on the ground of thy poverty. See the fourth verse: Save when there shall be no poor among you. When you cannot pay half a farthing in the pound of all your great debt of sin, when you are absolutely bankrupt, then may you believe that Jesus Christ is your Saviour.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>I may be addressing a soul here that says, I like that thought, I wish I could catch hold of it; but I feel myself to be such a slave that I cannot grasp it. Well, the Lord may allow a soul to be in bondage for a time; indeed, it may be needful that He should. The Hebrew might be in bondage six years, and yet he went free when the seventh year came. There are reasons why the Spirit of God is to some men a Spirit of bondage for a long time. Hard hearts must be melted, proud stomachs must be brought down.<\/p>\n 5. <\/strong>The man was set free at the end of the sixth year, paying nothing for his liberation. Though not freeborn, nor yet buying his liberty with a great sum, yet he was set free. O Lord, set some soul free tonight!<\/p>\n 6. <\/strong>And when the Lord sets poor souls at liberty, He always sends them away full-handed. He gives something from the flock, and from the threshing floor, and from the wine press.<\/p>\n 7. <\/strong>This act never seems hard to the Lord. He says to the Hebrew, in the eighteenth verse, It shall not seem hard unto thee, when thou sendest him away free. It never seems hard to Christ when He sets a sinner free.<\/p>\n 8. <\/strong>One thing I feel sure of, and that is, if the Lord sets us free, we shall want to remain His servants forever. We will go straight away to the door-post, and ask Him to use the awl; for, though we are glad to be free, we do not want to be free from Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.<\/em>)<\/p>\n CHAPTER XIV <\/P> The Israelites are not to adopt superstitious customs in<\/I><\/P> mourning<\/I>, 1, 2.<\/P> The different kinds of clean and unclean animals<\/I>, 3-20.<\/P> Nothing to be eaten that dieth of itself<\/I>, 21.<\/P> Concerning offerings which, from distance cannot be carried to<\/I><\/P> the altar of God, and which may be turned into money<\/I>, 22-26.<\/P> The Levite is not to be forsaken<\/I>, 27.<\/P> The third year’s tithe for the Levite, stranger, widow, c.<\/I>,<\/P> 28, 29. <\/P> NOTES ON CHAP. XIV<\/P> <\/P> Verse 1<\/span>. Ye are the children of the Lord<\/B><\/I>] The very highest character that can be conferred on any created beings ye shall<\/I> not cut yourselves<\/I>, i. e., their hair<\/I>, for it was a custom among idolatrous nations to consecrate their hair to their deities, though they sometimes also made incisions in their flesh<\/I>.<\/P><\/p>\n Of the Lord your God; <\/B>whom therefore you must not disparage by unworthy or unbecoming practices, such as here follow, and whom you must not disobey. Ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes, <\/B>which were the practices of idolaters, both in the worship of their idols, as 1Ki 18:28<\/span>; or in their funerals, as here, and Jer 16:6<\/span>; or upon occasion of public calamities, as Jer 41:5<\/span>; 47:5<\/span>. See Poole “Lev 19:27<\/span>“, See Poole “Lev 19:28<\/span>“. See Poole “Lev 21:5<\/span>“. For the dead; <\/B>through excessive sorrow for your dead friends, as if you had no hope of their happiness after death, 1Th 4:13<\/span>. <\/P><\/p>\n 1. ye shall not cut yourselves . . .for the dead<\/B>It was a common practice of idolaters, both onceremonious occasions of their worship (1Ki18:28<\/span>), and at funerals (compare Jer 16:6<\/span>;Jer 41:5<\/span>), to make ghastlyincisions on their faces and other parts of their persons with theirfinger nails or sharp instruments. The making a large bare spacebetween the eyebrows was another heathen custom in honor of the dead(see on Le 19:27, 28<\/span>; Le21:5<\/span>). Such indecorous and degrading usages, being extravagantand unnatural expressions of hopeless sorrow (1Th4:13<\/span>), were to be carefully avoided by the Israelites, asderogatory to the character, and inconsistent with the position, ofthose who were the people of God [De14:2<\/span>]. <\/P> De14:3-21<\/span>. WHAT MAYBE EATEN,AND WHAT NOT.<\/P><\/p>\n Ye are the children of the Lord your God<\/strong>,…. Some of them were so by the special grace of adoption, and all of them by national adoption; which was the peculiar privilege of the people of Israel, and laid them under great obligation to honour and obey the Lord their God, who stood in the relation of a father to them, and they of children to him, Mal 1:6<\/span>. The Targum of Jonathan paraphrases it “beloved children”; so the apostle calls the saints; the “dear children of God”, who therefore ought to be followers of him, Eph 5:1<\/span> and for a like reason this relation is observed here, namely, to quicken a regard to the exhortations of the Lord, his cautions, commands, laws, and ordinances, particularly to what follows:<\/p>\n ye shall not cut yourselves<\/strong>; for the dead, as appears from the next clause, as the Heathens did, who not only tore their garments, but their flesh in several parts of their bodies, in their mouths, cheeks, breasts, c. r and used other extravagant signs of mourning, which the apostle cautions against, 1Th 4:13<\/span> and were condemned by the Heathens themselves s. Though some think this refers to incisions the Heathens made in their flesh to the honour of their gods, cutting the names of them therein to whom they devoted themselves; or lashing their bodies at the worship of them, as the worshippers of Baal did when they called upon him, 1Ki 18:28<\/span> and so the Jerusalem Targum,<\/p>\n “make not marks, marks,”<\/p>\n that is, here and there, in many places, or bruises black and blue by striping and beating themselves, for strange worship, or at it, in honour of their gods; but the former sense seems best to agree with what follows; see Le 19:28<\/span>,<\/p>\n nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead<\/strong>; by shaving the forepart of their head or their eyebrows, or both, which used to be done in lamentations for the dead; see Jer 16:6<\/span> if this could be thought to have any respect to rites and ceremonies used in the worship of dead and lifeless idols, the customs of the Egyptians might be referred to, who are said to shave their heads and their eyebrows in their sacred rites to Isis t.<\/p>\n r Vid. Virgil. Aeneid. 12. ver. 870, 871. and Servium in Aeneid. 1. ver. 78. and in l. 12. s Vid. Cicero de Leg. l. 2. c. 23. and Tusculan. Quaest. l. 3. c. 27. t Ambros. Epist. l. 4. c. 30. p. 259.<\/p>\n The Israelites were not only to suffer no idolatry to rise up in their midst, but in all their walk of life to show themselves as a holy nation of the Lord; and neither to disfigure their bodies by passionate expressions of sorrow for the dead (Deu 14:1<\/span> and Deu 14:2<\/span>), nor to defile themselves by unclean food (vv. 3-21). Both of these were opposed to their calling. To bring this to their mind, Moses introduces the laws which follow with the words, “ye are children to the Lord your God.” The divine sonship of Israel was founded upon its election and calling as the holy nation of Jehovah, which is regarded in the Old Testament not as generation by the Spirit of God, but simply as an adoption springing out of the free love of God, as the manifestation of paternal love on the part of Jehovah to Israel, which binds the son to obedience, reverence, and childlike trust towards a Creator and Father, who would train it up into a holy people. The laws in Deu 14:1<\/span> are simply a repetition of Lev 19:28<\/span> and Lev 21:5<\/span>. , with reference to, or on account of, a dead person, is more expressive than (for a soul) in Lev 19:28<\/span>. The reason assigned for this command in Deu 14:2<\/span> (as in Deu 7:6<\/span>) is simply an emphatic elucidation of the first clause of Deu 14:1<\/span>. (On the substance of the verse, see Exo 19:5-6<\/span>).<\/p>\n What Might Be Eaten, and What Not.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/I><\/span><\/P> <\/TD> B. C.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN> 1451.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/P> <\/TD> <\/TR> <\/TABLE> 1 Ye are<\/I> the children of the LORD<\/B> your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. 2 For thou art<\/I> a holy people unto the LORD<\/B> thy God, and the LORD<\/B> hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are<\/I> upon the earth. 3 Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing. 4 These are<\/I> the beasts which ye shall eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat, 5 The hart, and the roebuck, and the fallow deer, and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and the wild ox, and the chamois. 6 And every beast that parteth the hoof, and cleaveth the cleft into two claws, and<\/I> cheweth the cud among the beasts, that ye shall eat. 7 Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the cloven hoof; as<\/I> the camel, and the hare, and the coney: for they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof; therefore<\/I> they are<\/I> unclean unto you. 8 And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is<\/I> unclean unto you: ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcase. 9 These ye shall eat of all that are<\/I> in the waters: all that have fins and scales shall ye eat: 10 And whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye may not eat; it is<\/I> unclean unto you. 11 Of<\/I> all clean birds ye shall eat. 12 But these are they<\/I> of which ye shall not eat: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray, 13 And the glede, and the kite, and the vulture after his kind, 14 And every raven after his kind, 15 And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind, 16 The little owl, and the great owl, and the swan, 17 And the pelican, and the gier eagle, and the cormorant, 18 And the stork, and the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat. 19 And every creeping thing that flieth is<\/I> unclean unto you: they shall not be eaten. 20 But of<\/I> all clean fowls ye may eat. 21 Ye shall not eat of<\/I> any thing that dieth of itself: thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is<\/I> in thy gates, that he may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto an alien: for thou art<\/I> a holy people unto the LORD<\/B> thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.<\/P> Moses here tells the people of Israel,<\/P> I. How God had dignified them, as a peculiar people, with three distinguishing privileges, which were their honour, and figures of those spiritual blessings in heavenly things with which God has in Christ blessed us. 1. Here is election: The Lord hath chosen thee,<\/I> v.<\/span> 2<\/span><\/U><\/I><\/span>. Not for their own merit, nor for any good works foreseen, but because he would magnify the riches of his power and grace among them. He did not choose them because they were by their own dedication and subjection a peculiar people to him above other nations, but he chose them that they might be so by his grace; and thus were believers chosen, Eph. i. 4<\/span>. 2. Here is adoption (v.<\/I><\/span> 1<\/span>): “You are the children of the Lord your God,<\/I> formed by him into a people, owned by him as his people, nay, his family, a people near unto him,<\/I> nearer than any other.” Israel is my son, my first-born;<\/I> not because he needed children, but because they were orphans, and needed a father. Every Israelite is indeed a child of God, a partaker of his nature and favour, his love and blessing Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us!<\/I> 3. Here is sanctification (v.<\/I><\/span> 2<\/span>): “Thou art a holy people,<\/I> separated and set apart for God, devoted to his service, designed for his praise, governed by a holy law, graced by a holy tabernacle, and the holy ordinances relating to it.” God’s people are under the strongest obligations to be holy, and, if they are holy, are indebted to the grace of God that makes them so. The Lord has set them apart for himself, and qualified them for his service and the enjoyment of him, and so has made them holy to himself.<\/P> II. How they ought to distinguish themselves by a sober singularity from all the nations that were about them. And, God having thus advanced them, let not them debase themselves by admitting the superstitious customs of idolaters, and, by making themselves like them, put themselves upon the level with them. Be you the children of the Lord your God;<\/I> so the Seventy read it, as a command, that is, “Carry yourselves as becomes the children of God, and do nothing to disgrace the honour and forfeit the privileges of the relation.” In two things particularly they must distinguish themselves:–<\/P> 1. In their mourning: You shall not cut yourselves,<\/I>Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
I. <\/strong>For they shall be released from all labour and sorrow.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>There will be a release from sin. Though you go out of this world lamenting your numerous infirmities, you shall be presented before the throne of God without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>It will be a release from temptation. Within the gates of the New Jerusalem you shall be free from all assaults and troubles whatever, and be proclaimed more than conquerors through Him that loved you.<\/p>\n
IV. <\/strong>There will be a release from this state of exile and confinement. Mysteries of Providence will then be unfolded, and the most delightful discoveries made of the infinite wisdom and goodness of God. The much greater mysteries of grace shall be also laid open; and fill our hearts with love and admiration, and our mouths with never-ending praises. (S. Lavington.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I.<\/strong> <\/em><\/strong>The release which the Lord desired His people to give.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>The release which the Lord gives to us.<\/p>\nFuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n