These are the words of the covenant which Yahweh commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant which he made with them in Horeb. Moses called to all Israel, and said to them: Your eyes have seen all that Yahweh did in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land;
the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders. But Yahweh has not given you a heart to know, eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day. I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not grown old on you, and your sandals have not grown old on your feet. You have not eaten bread, neither have you drunk wine or strong drink, that you may know that I am Yahweh your God. When you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out against us to battle, and we struck them. We took their land, and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of the Manassites. Therefore keep the words of this covenant and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do. All of you stand today in the presence of Yahweh your God: your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and the foreigners who are in the middle of your camps, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water, that you may enter into the covenant of Yahweh your God, and into his oath, which Yahweh your God makes with you today, that he may establish you today as his people, and that he may be your God, as he spoke to you and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Neither do I make this covenant and this oath with you only, but with those who stand here with us today before Yahweh our God, and also with those who are not here with us today
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 6, 10, 12, 15 That is, the articles, or conditions.
That is, the articles, or conditions.
At the first giving of the law, which was forty years before.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11 Deu 29:1 These [are] the words of the covenant,…
Deu 29:1 These [are] the words of the covenant, which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.
Ver. 1. Beside the covenant.] Which yet was also a covenant of grace, and the same with this in substance; only that at Horeb was made and delivered in a more legal manner, this in a more evangelical, as appears in the following chapter.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 15 These are the words of the covenant; these are…
These are the words of the covenant; these are the term, or conditions upon which God hath made, i.e. renewed covenant with you.
Beside the covenant, i.e. that entering into or striking of covenant. The covenant was but one in substance, but various in the time and manner of its dispensation.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 10 Now that Moses had largely repeated the commands which…
Now that Moses had largely repeated the commands which the people were to observe as their part of the covenant, and the promises and threatenings which God would make good (according as they behaved themselves) as part of the covenant, the whole is here summed up in a federal transaction. The covenant formerly made is here renewed, and Moses, who was before, is still, the mediator of it (Deu 29:1): The Lord commanded Moses to make it. Moses himself, though king in Jeshurun, could not make the covenant any otherwise than as God gave him instructions. It does not lie in the power of ministers to fix the terms of the covenant; they are only to dispense the seals of it. This is said to be besides the covenant made in Horeb; for, though the covenant was the same, yet it was a new promulgation and ratification of it. It is probable that some now living, though not of age to be mustered, were of age to consent for themselves to the covenant made at Horeb, and yet it is here renewed. Note, Those that have solemnly covenanted with God should take all opportunities to do it again, as those that like their choice too well to change. But the far greater part were a new generation, and therefore the covenant must be made afresh with them, for it is fit that the covenant should be renewed to the children of the covenant.
I. It is usual for indentures to begin with a recital; this does so, with a rehearsal of the great things God had done for them, 1. As an encouragement to them to believe that God would indeed be to them a God, for he would not have done so much for them if he had not designed more, to which all he had hitherto done was but a preface (as it were) or introduction; nay, he had shown himself a God in what he had hitherto done for them, which might raise their expectations of something great and answering the vast extent and compass of that pregnant promise, that God would be to them a God. 2. As an engagement upon them to be to him an obedient people, in consideration of what he had done for them.
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II. For the proof of what he here advances he appeals to their own eyes (Deu 29:2): You have seen all that the Lord did. Their own senses were incontestable evidence of the matter of fact, that God had done great things for them; and then their own reason was a no less competent judge of the equity of his inference from it: Keep therefore the words of this covenant, Deu 29:9.
III. These things he specifies, to show the power and goodness of God in his appearances for them. 1. Their deliverance out of Egypt, Deu 29:2, Deu 29:3. The amazing signs and miracles by which Pharaoh was plagued and compelled to dismiss them, and Israel was tried (for they are called temptations) whether they would trust God to secure them from, and save them by, those plagues. 2. Their conduct through the wilderness for forty years, Deu 29:5, Deu 29:6. There they were led, and clad, and fed, by miracles; though the paths of the wilderness were not only unknown but untrodden, yet God kept them from being lost there; and (as bishop Patrick observes) those very shoes which by the appointment of God they put on in Egypt, at the passover, when the were ready to march (Exo 12:11), never wore out, but served them to Canaan: and though they lived not upon bread which strengthens the heart, and wine which rejoices it, but upon manna and rock-water, yet they were men of strength and courage, mighty men, and able to go forth to war. By these miracles they were made to know that the Lord was God, and by these mercies that he was their God. 3. The victory they had lately obtained of Sihon and Og, and that good land which they had taken possession of, Deu 29:7, Deu 29:8. Both former mercies and fresh mercies should be improved by us as inducements to obedience.
IV. By way of inference from these memoirs,
1. Moses laments their stupidity: Yet the Lord has not given you a heart to perceive, Deu 29:4. This does not lay the blame of their senselessness, and sottishness, and unbelief, upon God, as if they had stood ready to receive his grace and had begged for it, but he had denied them; no, but it fastens the guilt upon themselves. "The Lord, who is the Father of spirits, a God in covenant with you, and who had always been so rich in mercy to you, no doubt would have crowned all his other gifts with this, he would have given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see if you had not by your own frowardness and perverseness frustrated his kind intentions, and received his grace in vain." Note, (1.) The hearing ear, the seeing eye, and the understanding heart, are the gift of God. All that have them have them from him. (2.) God gives not only food and raiment, but wealth and large possessions, to many to whom he does not give grace. Many enjoy the gifts who have not hearts to perceive the giver, nor the true intention and use of the gifts. (3.) God's readiness to do us good in other things is a plain evidence that if we have not grace, that best of gifts, it is our own fault and not his; he would have gathered us and we would not.
2. Moses charges them to be obedient: Keep therefore, and do, Deu 29:9. Note, We are bound in gratitude and interest, as well as duty and faithfulness, to keep the words of the covenant.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–15 These are the words of the covenant,.... Not what…
These are the words of the covenant,.... Not what go before, but follow after, in the next chapters, to the end of the book; in which are various promises of grace, and promises of good things, both with respect to Jews and Gentiles, intermixed with other things:
which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab; or to declare unto them, and acquaint them with, they being now in the plains of Moab, ready to enter into the land of, Canaan:
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besides the covenant which he made with them at Horeb: or Sinai; which Jarchi interprets, besides the curses in Leviticus, delivered on Sinai; he seems to have respect to Lev 26:14. This covenant was different from that at Sinai, spoken of Exo 24:8; being made not only at a different time, at near forty years' distance, and at a different place, nor Sinai; but when Israel were come nearer Mount Sion, and were actually possessed of part of their inheritance, the land of promise, that part of the land of Moab which the two kings of the Amorites had seized and dwelt in, whom Israel had dispossessed; and with different persons, that generation being dead, excepting a very few, which were at Sinai: but it was different as to the substance and matter of it, it not only including that, and being a renewal of it, as is generally thought, but containing such declarations of grace which had not been made before, not only respecting the repenting and returning Israelites, but the Gentiles also; for this covenant was made with the stranger, as well as with Israel, Deu 29:11; and relates to the times of the Messiah, the call of the Gentiles, the conversion of the Jews, and their return to their own land in the latter day.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 6, 11, 12, 13, 15 The preface of God's covenant, ver. 1. A recital…
The preface of God's covenant, ver. 1. A recital of his dealings with them, ver. 2-8. A solemn exhortation to keep covenant with God, ver. 9-17. A severe threatning to them that break it, ver. 18-28. The end of the revealed will of God, ver. 29.
These are the terms or conditions upon which God hath made, that is renewed his covenant with you. The covenant was but one in substance, but various in the time and manner of its dispensation.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15 A recapitulation of God's gracious dealings with Israel, 1-8.
CHAPTER XXIX
A recapitulation of God's gracious dealings with Israel, 1-8.
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An exhortation to obedience, and to enter into covenant with
their God, that they and their posterity may be established
in the good land, 9-15.
They are to remember the abominations of Egypt, and to avoid
them, 16, 17.
He who hardens his heart, when he hears these curses, shall be
utterly consumed, 18-21.
Their posterity shall be astonished at the desolations that
shall fall upon them, 22, 23;
shall inquire the reason, and shall be informed that the Lord
has done thus to them because of their disobedience and
idolatry, 24-28.
A caution against prying too curiously into the secrets of the
Divine providence, and to be contented with what God has
revealed, 29.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXIX
Verse 1. These are the words of the covenant] This verse seems properly to belong to the preceding chapter, as a widely different subject is taken up at De 29:2 of this; and it is distinguished as the 69th verse in some of the most correct copies of the Hebrew Bible.
Commanded Moses to make] לכרת lichroth, to cut, alluding to the covenant sacrifice which was offered on the occasion and divided, as is explained, See Clarke on Ge 15:18.
Beside the covenant which he made - in Horeb.] What is mentioned here is an additional institution to the ten words given on Horeb; and the curses denounced here are different from those denounced against the transgressors of the decalogue.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 13, 15 Deu 29:1. These are the words of the covenant…
Deu 29:1. These are the words of the covenant — Having thus repeated and enlarged upon the laws formerly delivered at Horeb, shown this new generation the covenant they were under, and the time and manner of their renewing it after they had entered Canaan; and having thus pathetically expatiated on the blessings and curses annexed to it, Moses summoned again the whole assembly, to press them to a careful obedience by considerations of the most powerful nature. Besides the covenant which he made with them in Horeb — Not a different covenant from that Exo 24:3-8, but a renewal of the same, with some additions.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 9, 11, 15 This and the following chapter contain the address of…
This and the following chapter contain the address of Moses to the people on the solemn renewal of the covenant. Consult the marginal references for proof of historical statements or explanation of obscure words.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15 Covenant renewed, and confirmed with an oath, ver. 12.…
Covenant renewed, and confirmed with an oath, ver. 12. (Menochius) --- Horeb. Thus the speech of Moses is concluded, (Calmet) and consequently this verse should be at the end of the last chapter, as it is placed in the celebrated editions of Michaelis and Houbigant. The latter observes that, beside that covenant, &c., shews, that the curses here recorded, are not by way of explication of those mentioned in the preceding 27th chapter, "but of a quite different kind. The former are denounced against those who violate the law of the decalogue, which was given at Horeb; neither do they threaten that the chastisements shall be inflicted in this life: the latter maledictions threaten present punishments, and those of a public nature." See chap. xxvii. 26. (Haydock) --- Josue put in execution in a more solemn manner, what Moses here describes, (Josue viii. 30,) to intimate that Jesus would give the last finishing to the outlines of the old covenant.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 1These are the words of the covenant which the…
Deu_29:1-29
1These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make [to close] with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he made [closed] with them in Horeb. 2And Moses called unto all Israel, and said unto them, Ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his land. 3The great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles: 4[And (yet)] Yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to [know, understand] perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day. 5And I have led [let, made you go] you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot. 6Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink: that ye might know that [(for)] I Amos 7 the Lord your God. And when [Then] ye came unto this place, [and] Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us unto battle, and we smote them: 8And we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance unto the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh. 9Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in1 [fix, fasten, make sure] all that ye do. 10Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God; your captains of [om. of] your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with [om. with] all the men of Israel, 11Your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood, unto the drawer of thy water: 12That thou shouldest enter [margin: pass] into covenant with [the covenant of] the Lord thy God, and into his oath [curse, imprecation] which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day: 13That he may establish [set up] thee to-day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said [promised] unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 14Neither with you only [you, you only] do I make this covenant and this oath [this 15curse]; But with him that standeth here with us this day before the Lord our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day: 16(For ye know [ye, ye know] how [that] we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations [heathen] which ye passed by; 17And ye have seen their abominations, and their idols2 [detestable things], wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:) 18Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations [heathen]; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall3 19[poison] and wormwood; And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, 4 that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace [salvation, prosperity], though [for] I walk in the imagination [margin: stubbornness] of mine heart, to add5 drunkenness to thirst [to the end that the drunken may carry away the thirsting]: 20The Lord will not spare [release from punishment, forgive] him, but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses [the whole curse] that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven. 21And the Lord shall separate him unto evil [destruction, ruin] out of all the tribes of Israel according to all the curses of the covenant that are [om. that are] written in this book of the law: 22So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that [this] land, and the sicknesses which the Lord hath 23laid upon it6 [with which Jehovah makes sick in it]: And that7 the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger and in his wrath: 24Even all nations [The heathen] shall say, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger? 25Then men shall say [answer], Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, which he made [closed] with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt: 26For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given [literally, divided] unto them: 27And the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book: 28And the Lord rooted them out of their land in anger and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day. 29The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us, and to our children8 for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.
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EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. Deu_29:1. [This verse is, in most editions of the Hebrew text, added to the chap. 28, and regarded as a recapitulation of what had been said. Our version follows the Sept. and Vulg.—A. G.] After the command for the setting up of the law in the land (Deu_27:1 sq.), and after the reception of this act in its whole bearing on the part of Israel (Deu_27:11 sq.) especially since chap. 28. has explained so minutely the blessing and the curse, this verse cannot be viewed as closing this full detail of the consequences of the covenant, or the whole discourse beginning with the fifth chapter. “The repetition, inculcation and completion of the divine law” (Knobel) cannot be viewed by the author as a “repetition and renewing of the covenant,” but rather as preparatory to it, since the law itself is the foundation of the covenant at Sinai. The discourse upon the law, chap. 5 sq., closes at Deu_26:16 sq., with a distinct reference to Deu_5:1. This verse, as is expressly said, effects the transition, and forms the title to what follows. Where, i.e. on one side God has once more clearly made known His will, and on the other side the people say, Yea and Amen to all, there the way for the making, closing the covenant is prepared, which now therefore occurs.—These are the words,i.e. the following words constitute the covenant; only words are now necessary; Moses has merely to speak; for what was to be done besides had been done at Horeb, Exodus 24 and Exodus 34 (comp. Deu_5:10). That כָרַת, to divide, cut, with בְּרִית, is literally: to slay the sacrifice of the covenant, does not hinder us from understanding it here according to the whole method of Deuteronomy in a figurative sense, but with a back reference to the literal. It is worthy of notice also, for what follows, that Moses forms or closes the covenant in Moab, just as God did at Horeb. Thus the instrument and the founder are connected together in the presaging and prefiguration of the only Messiah. (The comparison with Lev_26:46 points already to chap. 30.)
2. Deu_29:2-9. Since discourses constitute what follows, as throughout in Deuteronomy, so here, Deu_29:2 : And Moses called, sq. (Knobel: “to another day;” Herxheimer: “to those already gathered”); comp. Deu_5:1. The forming of the covenant now parallel to that at Horeb. But how it stands with the covenant appears here at once through the recalling that to mind which Jehovah had done for Israel. Since they are reminded of these acts, and first of that all-fundamental work of the Lord in Egypt, so truly “this covenant, notwithstanding the frequent transgressions on the part of the nation, has not been abrogated on the part of God” (Keil); indeed its strength is generally, that it is the covenant of God with Israel, into which Israel has only to enter or pass (Deu_29:12). Comp. besides Deu_4:9; Deu_11:2. Deu_29:3. Comp. Deu_4:34; Deu_7:19. Deu_29:4. Comp. upon Deu_5:26.—Hath not given—in this connection certainly much as: He could not give, therefore he hath not given. It is not said to excuse the people, but thus the ever-returning allusion to the works and wonders of God finds its ground and motives. Jehovah wrought in Egypt; but what He truly would have done to Israel—not only its external, but its inward real redemption—this gift of God was not actually bestowed; comp. Deu_8:3; Deu_8:5. They saw indeed, but they were deficient in the right eye (Isa_6:10; Jer_5:21; Mat_13:13), namely, in heart-knowledge (knowledge out of the innermost life), in the eye of faith, in obedience.—[They had it not because they had not asked for it, or felt the need of it. It was not given because they were not prepared to receive the gift.—A. G.]—Deu_4:6 (comp. further Deu_1:32; Deu_9:6; Deu_23:24). As Deu_29:1 shows, Moses and Jehovah work together (Deu_9:13 sq.). Deu_29:5. Comp. Deu_8:2 sq. The leading through the wilderness is the building upon the foundation laid in the redemption from Egypt. Deu_29:6. Comp. Deu_8:3; also Deu_14:26. Deu_29:7 sq. gives the completion of the building through the first east Jordan victories. Comp. Deu_2:24 sq.; chap. 3. (Deu_4:43). Deu_29:9. תַּשְׂכִּילוּ, to make sure, firm, i.e. so that all you do may be real, have lasting existence, and satisfy you.—[The ordinary sense of the words: to act wisely, prudently, seems better here, especially as to act wisely in keeping the covenant is the sure and only way to real prosperity.—A. G.]
3. Deu_29:10-15. After such an introduction, he draws nearer the case in hand.—This day, generally: the time of the deuteronomic discourses, specially according to Deu_29:2 : the day of the words of the covenant in question. Comp. besides Deu_1:15; Deu_19:12. Deu_29:11. Comp. Deu_1:39; Deu_1:16. Not excluding those devoted to the most menial services, thus not even the Egyptian followers, Num_11:4. Deu_29:12. עבר, to pass, enter, alluding to Gen_15:17 sq. (Jer_34:18?), as also in unison with the national name (Deu_15:12), more distinctly than בוא, with ב (2Ch_15:12; Neh_10:29; Eze_17:13) of the full, hearty, entire entrance. Schultz correctly says: that this covenant “is not so much between two parties as rather of one, into which the other has only to enter or pass.” Thus the interpretation of this chapter is clear, that it concerns “only a new declaration of the covenant at Horeb” (Keil), a renewing of the covenant in a discourse, warning and exhorting to faithfulness to this covenant, and does not treat of the repetition of the ceremonial. And this corresponds entirely with the character of Deuteronomy. Thence אָלָה, from firm, be strong, of the confirmatory oath, usual in the forming of covenants (Gen_26:28), here nearly synonymous with ברית, the oath of the covenant of God, and indeed predominantly upon the side of the curse against the transgressor, thus: the curse-oath, the oath-curse, designates the curse of the covenant (Num_5:21; Isa_24:6); and hence as עבר, so also כרת is connected with it. It is not as Knobel: “the obligation under oath of Israel to Jehovah.” Deu_29:13. Comp. Deu_28:9; Deu_27:9. Deu_29:14 (Deu_5:2 sq.). Moses in the charge or commission of God. Deu_29:15. So comprehensive is the method of God with men (Joh_17:20; Act_2:39).—[The covenant was to embrace not merely the descendants of those now living, Israel in its generations, but in its true idea and apprehension, all nations—those far off.—A. G.]
4. Deu_29:16-29. Since the covenant has connected with it the oath or curse, so in connection with Deu_28:27 there must be an intimation as to the consequences of an apostacy of the nation from him who will be its God (Deu_29:13), and all the more so, as Israel had a sufficient experience of other gods, both of their nothingness, and of their contagious nature notwithstanding. Thus Deu_29:16 confirms (כי) what has gone before, and lays the ground for what follows. What one may learn who dwells, goes through, etc.—[Literally: ye know what we dwelt, i.e., what our dwelling there showed. Deu_29:15-16 are not a parenthesis, as in the English version, but are closely connected with what precedes and follows.—A. G.]
Deu_29:17. שִׁקוּץ, the rejected, reprobate, hence abominable, used of the nature of idols, 1Ki_11:5. Similarly: גִלּוּלִים, the separated, rejected, detestable. Ges.: logs, blocks; others: dung, filth-idols; punning upon אלילים (the vain, nought)! Lev_26:30. Deu_29:18. The power of such a spirit of the world; the danger is great, and your weakness not less (Deu_29:4). So! The discourse is indeed of individual men, but also of individual families, or of a tribe, and as if this day it might be true that such a שֹׁרֶש, literally, the first shoots of a plant in the ground (deep, root-shoot), were already existing in Israel. רֹאשׁ, poison. Ges.: of the poppy-head, רֹאשׁ. The heaped up, pointed. Here bitterness appears rather to form the transition to poison. Hence the connection with wormwood, Heb_12:15.—[The rosh appears to have been a poisonous plant growing in the furrows of the field. Hos_10:4, bitter, Jer_23:15, and bearing berries, Deu_32:32. Anything more definite is uncertain. The view of Gesen. is perhaps the most probable. See Smith’s Bib. Dict., Am. Ed., Art. Gall.—A. G.]—The heart turning away from Jehovah to heathen gods is at first compared to the root yielding this bitter evil fruit, and then Deu_29:18 is introduced, still more clearly speaking to itself in a soliloquy interpreted by God. The case supposed is of one who, when he heard the curse outwardly, nevertheless blessed himself inwardly; in whom thus the stubbornness of unbelief persuading itself of the utmost certainty of the very opposite of that which Jehovah had threatened against the idolater; hence caring for nothing, as seeing nothing, steadily follows the purpose of the evil lust. למען, in the following proverbial expression (as in Deu_29:18 in the figurative), can scarcely be anything else than: so to say, saying. סָפָה, to remove, Isa_7:20; not precisely, to sweep off, Gen_18:23 sq. It is not so much the results upon others which is spoken of as the person’s own purpose with respect to himself. הָרָוָה is the richly saturated soul which has fully satisfied its lust. Hence the effort of one who has so apostatized is for a satisfaction which should remove the thirst; which should continually remove by satisfying, the constant desire. Knobel, Keil: “To sweep away (to destroy) the saturated (who has drunk the poison) with the thirsty” (who is thirsting after it). (The feminine taken as a collective neuter. A transfer from the land to persons.) Schultz: “to sweep in the saturated (filled with good things and courage) with the thirsting (in this respect), empty souls.” Baumgarten: “the watered and the thirsty, all the fruit of the land, all good and welfare, a total ruin.” Others: “to hurry away the righteous with the wicked (Pro_13:25), understood even with reference to God;” or: that the over-sated, glutted may corrupt the temperate. The interpretation which regards ספה as to add, enlarge, is not to be thought of, as e.g.Johnson: “that the drunkenness may increase the thirst.” Comp. not Rosenmuller, but Poole’sSynopsis. To such a purpose now follows Deu_29:20 sq., the judgment of Moses resting upon the impossibility of any redeeming purpose in God in this case, and carried out to the most terrible completeness.—Shall smoke is not used as a stronger term for the bated breath, but rather as the veil and proof of the fire, which since Sinai is the standing expression for the righteousness of the Holy One in Israel. Comp. upon chap. 4. Comp. for the rest Deu_25:19 (Num_15:30). Deu_29:21 refers formally to the man, but passes essentially to the family and tribe (Deu_29:18). Deu_29:22. Comp. Lev_26:31 sq. Deu_29:23. Comp. Genesis 19.—[The ruin is both physical and spiritual; is true of the land and the people. But the description is borrowed from the locality of the Dead Sea and its surroundings. See Keith’sLand of Israel.—A. G.]
Deu_29:24. An amplified continuation of Deu_29:22. The answer, Deu_29:25, is formulated by Moses, as if a reply by the questioners themselves. Deu_29:26. Comp. Deu_11:28; Deu_4:19; Deu_18:14. Jehovah would be the eternal portion of Israel. As Moses has inspired the previous answer, so Deu_29:29 is his closing word, as a drawing back, in pious submission, from so distant a look into the future. Let us rest, he will say, upon the blessing and the curse, as God has revealed them to us; and it is actual doing, and not knowledge barely, which concerns us. The puncta extraordinaria over the לנו ולבנינו ע are emphatic.—[But what the emphasis is, is uncertain. The points are not inspired. And the emphasis, whatever it is, is a human interpretation, and no part of the text.—A. G.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Kurtz: “The covenant in Moab rest’s upon the covenant at Sinai, and presupposes it. Although the generation of the wilderness was rejected, the covenant of the wilderness was not; it had remained even during the thirty-eight years of the rejection. Israel in the plains of Moab is a new generation, a renewed Israel, hence the renewing of the covenant; but they are the children and heirs of those at Sinai, and since that covenant was laid upon all the future generations of Israel, so now it has its renewal through the word, but without the covenant-sacrifices and meal.”
2. The redemption from Egypt, the leading in the wilderness, and the entrance into the promised land, as it is introduced by the victories, Deu_29:7 sq., are three stages which have their spiritual reality also in Christ. Upon the one rests the faith, in the other the life, and for the last the hope of the spiritual Israel.
3. Keep therefore. Deu_29:9 announces the obligation also of the covenant of God, whose sign and seal is holy baptism (Mat_28:20), an obligation which has its conscious renewing and acceptance in the confession of faith, in the so-called “confirmation.”—[The allusion here is to the rite of confirmation as practised in the continental churches, corresponding very nearly to our term “uniting with the church.”—A. G.]
4. In Deu_29:10 sq. the covenant appears in almost a New Testament form, yet the significant mark of the curse accompanies it, and moreover the expression reminds us of a mediatory sacrifice (Psa_50:5): thus the fulfilling of that symbolized at Horeb, “the power of an endless life” (Heb_7:16) “the blood of Christ who, through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot unto God, to purge our consciences from dead works to serve the living God (Heb_9:14) remains in expectation.” Comp. J. H. Michaelis upon the passage.
5. The people of God is so connected with the covenant of God, that it must throughout, and over all, appear dependent upon God. Hence apostacy from Jehovah is the sin in Israel. Idolatry appears with it only as the external mould or form at the time; the essential inward reality is the self-hardening consciousness, whose occasional and changing fancies are the abominations of the idol worship. The self-righteousness of man, by nature, and in his whole life unrighteous before God, is not only a great evil, but literally destructive to men.
6. The transition from the individual to the whole, reveals the earnest look of Moses into the corrupt nature of Israel, and what he was solicitous about in the future of his people; at the same time we see therein the general truth that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump (1 Corinthians 5.), and that the Christian Church also is under obligation to exclude the unbelieving and godless, through the office of the keys, for its own good. (Heid. Cate.).
7. “It is farther presupposed that in the future, even the heathen should attain to the knowledge of the Lord, and ask the reasons of that which He had done.” Schultz. Such a knowledge on the part of the heathen world, indeed, over against the judgment upon Israel, appears as the future of things, hidden in God, as His decree as to the end.
8. “We should be satisfied with what God has revealed to us of His will and nature in the law and gospel.” Piscator. [The commands, promises, curses, blessings, and our consequent duty with all necessary truth, are perfectly clear. We may well rest with these.—A. G.].
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Deu_29:1. Luther: “Moses must live until he has renewed the law with the other generation.” Starke: “Recall here the new covenant, where God has made with man, through the personal union, an indissoluble covenant of grace.” Deu_29:3. Baumgarten: “As every good gift comes from above, so also the true sense of the Spirit and the flesh. Israel had shown itself through its own guilt, unsusceptible for such gifts, so that he immediately passes to an exhortation with respect to the same in Deu_29:9. Deu_29:4 : Give me eyes that I may see Thy rich grace—The wondrous works of God; the most wonderful: a hearing ear, a seeing eye. Pro_20:12.
Deu_29:9. Randglosse: Without the Word of God all our doing is folly. Deu_29:10 sq. Piscator: God’s covenant demands obedience in all positions.—What a breadth and length, and depth and height, Eph_3:18. Berl. Bib.: “So Christ commands His gospel to be preached to every creature.” Deu_29:15 sq. Whoever has true knowledge, knows with whom he has to do (the living God) where He is (in the world) and how weak man is in himself. Deu_29:19. Randglosse: “This is the godless word and thought; ay, hell is not so deep it has no want, the devil is not so awful as he is painted; which does boldly and eagerly all hypocritical deeds, and still looks for reward in heaven.” Starke: “It is a certain sign that a man is still under sin if he make light of the threatenings and judgments of God, abandons himself to his desires and lusts, sorrows not, but rejoices in past sins and in godless society, and will not know God, nor has any desire to serve Him, opposes himself to the punishment, and sins against his conscience.” (Eph_4:19). Tub. Bib.: “As the dry earth must be watered, so the godless strives, as he would increase the sins for which he thirsts, to satisfy perfectly all his lust. Or as the drunkard seeks for means to quiet the unnatural desires and thirst, to be able above all else to keep himself drunken; so the godless seeks to make himself even worse than he is, as if even thirsting for evil, heaps up sin with sin. ( Mat_12:43 sq.; Heb_6:8; 2Pe_2:20).” “Self-deception and a false conception of the good estate of Christendom leads most men to hell.” Deu_29:20-21. Starke: “Jesus also purges His threshing-floor. Mat_3:12.” Volney breaks out, “I have wandered through this desolated land. Great God! Whence so deplorable changes? Why has fortune turned this region so entirely into its opposite? Wherefore are so many cities laid waste? Why are these lands robbed of their former blessings?—A mysterious God, exercises His incomprehensible judgment! Beyond question He burdens this land with a secret curse.” Deu_29:25. Sin has destroyed the people, but it is the sin of apostacy from the way of God.
Deu_29:27. Richter: “For eighteen hundred years till this day.” Deu_29:29. Comp. Rom_11:33. [Wordsworth: Secret things. “Especially God’s counsel concerning Israel, both as to the choice of it by God, and its rejection and restoration, both as to its manner and time. O Altitudo! exclaims St. Paul. Rom_11:33.”—A. G.].
Footnotes:
[1][Deu_29:9. Literally: that ye may act wisely.—A. G.].
[2][Deu_29:17. Margin: dungy gods, from the shape of the ordure. Literally, thin clods or balls, as that which can be rolled about.—A. G.].
[3][Deu_29:18. Margin and Hebrew: לאשׁ, weed, a plant of bitter taste, but not necessarily poisonous. Most probably the poppy, as we speak of poppy heads.—A. G.].
[4][Deu_29:19. The same word rendered oath, Deu_29:12; Deu_29:14, but which Schroeder renders in every case curse.—A. G.].
[5][Deu_29:19. םְפוֹת here is not to add—a sense which it rarely has unless followed by על, but to sweep away, destroy, as in Num_16:2; Gen_19:15; Gen_19:17.—A. G.].
[6][Deu_29:22. Margin: wherewith the Lord hath made it sick.—A. G.].
[7][Deu_29:23. The italics should be omitted, and we should read: brimstone and salt and burning the whole land. The nouns are in apposition with strokes, plagues, Deu_29:22.—A. G.].
[8][Deu_29:29. The pointing of the Hebrew here is peculiar, as if to draw attention to what is said.—A. G.].
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2, 10 Moses called unto all Israel, . . . Ye…
Moses called unto all Israel, . . . Ye have seen all that the Lord did, &c.--This appeal to the experience of the people, though made generally, was applicable only to that portion of them who had been very young at the period of the Exodus, and who remembered the marvellous transactions that preceded and followed that era. Yet, alas! those wonderful events made no good impression upon them (Deu 29:4). They were strangers to that grace of wisdom which is liberally given to all who ask it; and their insensibility was all the more inexcusable that so many miracles had been performed which might have led to a certain conviction of the presence and the power of God with them. The preservation of their clothes and shoes, the supply of daily food and fresh water--these continued without interruption or diminution during so many years' sojourn in the desert. They were miracles which unmistakably proclaimed the immediate hand of God and were performed for the express purpose of training them to a practical knowledge of, and habitual confidence in, Him. Their experience of this extraordinary goodness and care, together with their remembrance of the brilliant successes by which, with little exertion or loss on their part, God enabled them to acquire the valuable territory on which they stood, is mentioned again to enforce a faithful adherence to the covenant, as the direct and sure means of obtaining its promised blessings.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 14 2. Ye have seen — As a people they…
2. Ye have seen — As a people they had seen the wonderful works of God.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14 Deu_29:1 is thus an editorial addition, probably inserted to…
Deu_29:1 is thus an editorial addition, probably inserted to close what precedes, when 29 f. was added to D. On covenants, and those of Ḥoreb and Moab respectively, see on Deu_4:13.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 (1) These are the words of the covenant.—The Hebrew…
XXIX., XXX.
THE SECOND COVENANT.
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(1) These are the words of the covenant.—The Hebrew Bibles add this verse to the previous chapter, and begin Deuteronomy 29 at the second verse. But they cannot be right in so doing. For though the pronoun “these” in Hebrew has nothing to determine whether it belongs to what precedes or to what follows, yet the context shows that the covenant is described in Deuteronomy 29, not in Deuteronomy 28 (See Deu_29:12-15 below). It is very significant that this “covenant in the land of Moab” stands outside the tremendous sanction appended to the expansion of the Sinaitic covenant in Deuteronomy. The effect of this arrangement may be illustrated by a reference to Leviticus 26, 27. The “sanction” of the law in Leviticus, which is a complete code of ceremonial and moral holiness, is contained in Deuteronomy 26. But that chapter is followed by a passage respecting vows, which are not compulsory, and therefore obviously lie, as a whole, outside that which is “commanded.” The position of Deuteronomy 29, 30 is analogous to that of Leviticus 27. Thus we see that the tremendous curse of the Sinaitic covenant is not the end of God’s dealings with the chosen people. After that, there is still another covenant, to the force of which there is no limit (see Deu_29:15 below). The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. Nothing can destroy the relation between Jehovah and Israel. Their resurrection as a nation may well be described by the words of Moses in Psalms 90, “Thou turnest man to destruction (national death—Deuteronomy 28), and sayest (Deuteronomy 29, 30), Return, ye children of men (resurrection). For a thousand years in thy sight (though spent in the grave) are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night” (to be followed by the dawn of morning). “A watch in the night” is not the blackness of darkness for ever.
Beside the covenant which He made with them in Horeb.—It should be carefully noted that the formal repetition of the law in Moses’ second great discourse in this book opens with these words (Deu_5:2), “the Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.” There is no real break in Deuteronomy from Deu_5:1 to the end of Deuteronomy 26 and Deuteronomy 27, 28 are the “sanction” of that covenant.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. H. Mackintosh 1880 · Public Domain On v1 Deuteronomy 29
Deuteronomy 29
This chapter closes the second grand division of our book. In it we have a most solemn appeal to the conscience of the congregation. It is what we may term the summing up and practical application of all that has gone before in this most profound, practical and hortatory section of the five books of Moses.
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"These are the words of the covenant, which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which He made with them by Horeb." Allusion has already been made to this passage as one of the many proofs of the entire distinctness of the book of Deuteronomy from the preceding section of the Pentateuch. But it claims the reader’s attention on another ground. It speaks of a special covenant made with the children of Israel, in the land of Moab, in virtue of which they were to be brought into the land. This covenant was as distinct from the covenant made at Sinai, as it was from the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In a word, it was neither pure law, on the one hand; nor Pure grace, on the other, but government exercised in sovereign mercy.
It is perfectly clear that Israel could not enter the land on the ground of the Sinai or Horeb covenant, inasmuch as they had completely failed under it, by making a golden calf. They forfeited all right and title to the land, and were only saved from instant destruction by sovereign mercy exercised toward them through the mediation and earnest intercession of Moses. It is equally plain that they did not enter the land on the ground of the Abrahamic covenant of grace, for had they done so, they would not have been turned out of it. Neither the extent nor the duration of their tenure answered to the terms of the covenant made with their fathers. It was by the terms of the Moab covenant that they entered upon the limited and temporary possession of the land of Canaan; and inasmuch as they have as signally failed under the Moab covenant, as under that of Horeb - failed under government as completely as under law, they are expelled from the land and scattered over the face of the earth, under the governmental dealings of God.
But not for ever. Blessed be the God of all grace, the seed of Abraham His friend shall yet possess the land of Canaan, according to the magnificent terms of the original grant. "The gifts and calling of God are without repentance." Gifts and calling must not be confounded with law and government. Mount Zion can never be classed with Horeb and Moab. The new and everlasting covenant of grace, ratified by the precious blood of the Lamb of God, shall be gloriously fulfilled to the letter, spite of all the powers of earth and hell, men and devils combined. "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people; and they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away." (Heb. 8: 8-13.)
Now the reader must carefully guard against a system of interpretation that would apply this precious and beautiful passage to the church. It involves a threefold wrong: namely, a wrong to the truth of God; a wrong to the church; and a wrong to Israel. We have raised a warning note on this subject, again and again, in the course of our studies on the Pentateuch, because we feel its immense importance. It is our deep and thorough conviction that no one can understand, much less expound the word of God who confounds Israel with the Church The two things are as distinct as heaven and earth; and hence when God speaks of Israel, Jerusalem and Zion, if we presume to apply those names to the New Testament church, it can only issue in utter confusion. We believe it to be a simple impossibility to set forth the mischievous consequences of such a method of handling the word of God. It puts an end to all accuracy of interpretation and to all that holy precision and divine certainty which scripture is designed and fitted to impart. It mars the integrity of truth, damages the souls of God’s people, and hinders their progress in divine life and spiritual intelligence. In short, we cannot too strongly urge upon every one who reads these lines the absolute necessity of guarding against this fatally false system of handling holy scripture.
We must beware of meddling with the scope of prophecy, or the true application of the promises of God. We have no warrant whatever to interfere with the divinely appointed sphere of the covenants. The inspired apostle tells us distinctly, in the ninth of Romans, that they pertain to Israel; and if we attempt to alienate them from the Old Testament fathers and transfer them to the church of God, the body of Christ, we may depend upon it, we are doing what Jehovah-Elohim will never sanction. The church forms no part of the ways of God with Israel and the earth. Her place, her portion, her privileges, her prospect are all heavenly. She is called into existence in this time of Christ’s rejection, to be associated with Him where He is now hidden in the heavens, and to share His glory in the coming day. If the reader fully grasps this grand and glorious truth, it will go far towards helping him to put things into their right places and leave them there.
We must now turn our attention to the very solemn, practical application of all that has passed before us to the conscience of every member of the congregation.
"And Moses called unto all Israel, and said unto them, Ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his land; the great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles; yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.
This is peculiarly solemn. The most astounding miracles and signs may pass before us, and leave the heart untouched. These things may produce a transient effect upon the mind and upon the natural feelings; but unless the conscience is brought into the light of the divine presence, and the heart brought under the immediate action of the truth by the power of the Spirit of God, there is no permanent result reached. Nicodemus inferred from the miracles of Christ that he was a teacher come from God; but this was not enough. He had to learn the deep and wondrous meaning of that mighty sentence, "Ye must be born again." A faith founded on miracles may leave people unsaved, unblessed, unconverted - awfully responsible, no doubt, but wholly unconverted. we read, at the close of the second of John’s Gospel, of many who professed to believe on Christ when they saw His miracles; but He did not commit Himself unto them. There was no divine work, nothing to be trusted. There must be a new life, a new nature; and miracles and signs cannot impart this. We must be born again - born of the word and Spirit of God. The new life is communicated by the incorruptible seed of the Gospel of God, lodged in the heart by the power of the Holy Ghost. It is not a head belief founded on miracles, but a heart-belief in the Son of God. It is something which could never be known under law or government. "The gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." Precious gift! Glorious source! Blessed channel! Universal and everlasting praise to the Eternal Trinity!
"And I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot" - wonderful clothes! wonderful shoes! God took care of them and made them last, blessed for ever be His great and Holy Name! - "Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink; that ye might know that I am the Lord your God." They were fed and clothed by God’s own gracious hand. "Man did eat angels’ food." They had no need of wine or strong drink, no need of stimulants. "They drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ." That pure stream refreshed them in the dreary desert, and the heavenly manna sustained them day by day. All they wanted was the capacity to enjoy the divine provision.
Here alas! like ourselves, they failed. They got tired of the heavenly food, and lusted for other things. How sad that we should he so like them! How very humbling that we should so fail to appreciate that precious One whom God has given to be our life, our portion, our object, our all in all! How terrible to find our hearts craving the wretched vanities and follies of this poor passing world - its riches, its honours, its distinctions, its pleasures which all perish in the usage, and which even if they were lasting, are not, for a, moment, to be compared with "the unsearchable riches of Christ!" may God, in His infinite goodness, "grant us, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith; that we, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height: and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that we may be filled with all the fullness of God." Oh! that this most blessed prayer may be answered in the deep and abiding experience of the reader and the writer!
"And when ye came unto this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan" - formidable and much dreaded foes! - "came out against us unto battle, and we smote them." and had they been ten thousand times as great and as formidable, they would have proved to be as chaff before the presence of the God of the armies of Israel. "And we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance unto the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half tribe of Manasseh." Will any one dare to compare this with what human history records respecting the invasion of South America by the Spaniards? Woe be to those who do so! They will find themselves terribly mistaken. There is this grand and all-important difference, that Israel had the direct authority of God for what they did to Sihon and Og; the Spaniards could show no such authority for what they did to the poor ignorant savages of South America. This alters the case completely. The introduction of God and His authority is the one perfect answer to every question, the divine solution of every difficulty. May we ever keep this weighty fact in the remembrance of the thoughts of our hearts, as a divine antidote against every infidel suggestion!
"Keep therefore the words of this [the Moab] covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do." Simple obedience to the word of God ever has been, is now, and ever shall be the deep and real secret of all true prosperity. To the Christian, of course, the prosperity is not in earthly or material things, but in heavenly and spiritual; and we must never forget that it is the very height of folly to think of prospering or making progress in the divine life if we are not yielding an implicit obedience to all the commandments of our blessed and adorable Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you; continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love." Here is true Christian prosperity. May we earnestly long after it, and diligently pursue the proper method of attaining it!
"Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel, your little ones" - touching and interesting fact! - "your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp" - How exquisite, how deeply affecting the expression "thy stranger!" What a powerful appeal to Israel’s heart on behalf of the stranger! - "From the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water; that thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and into his oath, which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day; that he may establish thee today for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath; but with him that standeth here with us this day before the Lord our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day; - for ye know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which ye passed by; and ye have seen their abominations [that is, the objects of their worship, their false gods], and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them." (Vers. 10-17.)
This earnest appeal is not only general, but also intensely individual. This is very important. We are ever prone to generalise, and thus miss the application of truth to our individual conscience. This is a grave mistake, and a most serious loss to our souls. We are, every one of us, responsible to yield an implicit obedience to the precious commandments of our Lord. It is thus we enter into the real enjoyment of our relationship, as Moses says to the people, "that he may establish thee for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God."
Nothing can be more precious. And then it is so very simple. There is no vagueness, obscurity or mysticism about it. It is simply having His most precious commandments treasured up in our hearts, acting upon the conscience, and carried out in the life. This is the true secret of habitually realising our relationship with our Father, and with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
For any one to imagine that he can enjoy the blessed sense of intimate relationship, while living in the habitual neglect of our Lord’s commandments is a miserable and mischievous delusion. "If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love." This is the grand point. Let us deeply ponder it. "If ye love me keep my commandments." "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." "For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God."
These are seasonable words for this day of easy going, self-indulgent, worldly profession. May they sink down into our ears and into our hearts! May they take full possession of our whole moral being, and bring forth fruit in our individual history. We feel persuaded of the need of this practical side of things. We are in imminent danger, while seeking to keep clear of everything like legality, of running into the opposite evil of carnal laxity. The passages of holy scripture which we have just quoted - and they are but a few of many - supply the divine safeguard against both these pernicious and deadly errors. It is blessedly true that we are brought into the holy relationship of children by the sovereign grace of God, through the power of His word and Spirit. This one fact cuts up by the roots the noxious weed of legality.
But then surely the relationship has its suited affections, its duties and its responsibilities, the due recognition of which furnishes the true remedy for the terrible evil of carnal laxity so prevalent on all hands. If we are delivered from law-works - as, thank God, we are, if we are true Christians - it is not that we should be good-for-nothing, self-pleasers, but that life-works might be produced in us, to the glory of Him whose Name we bear, whose we are, and whom we are bound, by every argument, to love, obey and serve.
May we, beloved reader, earnestly seek to apply our hearts to this practical line of things. We are imperatively called upon to do so, and we may fully count upon the abundant grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to enable us to respond to the call, spite of the ten thousand difficulties and hindrances that lie in our way. Oh! for a deeper work of grace in our souls, a closer walk with God, a more pronounced discipleship! Let us give ourselves to the earnest pursuit of these things!
We must now proceed with the lawgiver’s solemn appeal. He warns the people to take heed, "Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood."
These searching words are referred to by the inspired apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrews, in a very emphatic manner. "Looking diligently," he says, "lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled."
What weighty words are these! How full of wholesome admonition and warning! They set forth the solemn responsibility of all Christians. We are all called upon to exercise a holy, jealous, godly care over each other, which alas! is but little understood or recognised. We are not all called to be pastors or teachers. The passage just quoted does not refer particularly to such. It refers to all Christians, and we are bound to attend to it. We hear great complaints, on all sides, of the sad lack of pastoral care. No doubt there is a great lack of true pastors in the church of God, as there is of every other gift. This is only what we might expect. How could it be otherwise? How could we expect a profusion of spiritual gifts in our present miserable condition? The Spirit is grieved and quenched by our lamentable divisions, our worldliness, our gross unfaithfulness. Need we then marvel at our deplorable poverty?
But our blessed Lord is full of deep and tender compassion toward us, in the midst of our ruin and spiritual desolation; and if we only humbled ourselves under His mighty hand, He would graciously lift us up, and enable us, in many ways, to meet the deficiency of pastoral gift amongst us. We might, through His precious grace, look, more diligently and lovingly, after one another, and seek each other’s spiritual progress and prosperity in a thousand ways.
Let not the reader imagine, for a, moment, that we mean to give the smallest countenance to prying officiousness or unwarrantable espionage on the part of Christians. Far away be the thought! We look upon such things as perfectly insufferable in the church of God. They stand at the very moral antipodes of that loving, holy, tender, diligent pastoral care of which we speak, and for which we long.
But does it not strike the reader that, while giving the widest possible berth to these most contemptible evils to which we have just referred, we might cultivate and exercise a loving prayerful interest in one another, and a holy watchfulness and care which might prevent many a root of bitterness from springing up? We cannot doubt it. It is quite true we are not all called to be pastors; and it is equally true that there is a grievous dearth of pastors in the church of God. We mean, of course, true pastors - pastors given by the Head of the church-men with a pastor’s heart, and real pastoral gift and power. All this is undeniable, and for this very reason, it ought to stir the hearts of the Lord’s beloved people everywhere to seek of Him grace to enable them to exercise a tender, loving, brotherly care over one another which might go a great way toward supplying the need of pastors amongst us. One thing is clear, that in the passage just quoted from Hebrews 12 there is nothing said about pastors. It is simply a most stirring exhortation to all Christians to exercise mutual care, and to watch against the springing up of any root of bitterness.
And oh! how needful this is! How terrible are those roots! How bitter they are! How widely spread are their pernicious tendrils, at times! What irreparable mischief they do! How many are defiled by them! How many precious links of friendship are snapped, and how many hearts broken by them! Yes, reader, and how often we have felt persuaded that a little judicious pastoral or even brotherly care, a little loving, godly counsel might have nipped the evil in the bud and thus hindered an incalculable amount of mischief and sorrow. May we all lay these things to heart, and earnestly seek grace to do what we can to prevent roots of bitterness springing up and spreading abroad their defiling influence!
But we must hearken to further weighty and searching words from the beloved and venerable lawgiver He drags a most solemn picture of the end of the one who caused the root of bitterness to spring up.
"And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst." Fatal delusion! Crying peace, peace, when there is no peace, but imminent wrath and judgement. "The Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and," - instead of the "peace" which he vainly promised himself - "all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven." Awful warning to all who act as roots of bitterness in the midst of the people of God, and to all who countenance them!
"And the Lord shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law; so that the generation to come of your children, that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the Lord hath laid upon it; and that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath." Soul-subduing examples of the governmental dealings of the living God which ought to speak with a voice of thunder in the ears of all those who are turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the Lord that bought them! - "Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land? What meaneth the heat of this great anger? Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt; for they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them; and the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book; and the Lord rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day." (Vers. 19-28.)
Reader, how peculiarly solemn is all this! What a powerful illustration of the apostle’s words, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!" And again, "Our God is a consuming fire!" How important that the professing church should give heed to such warning notes! Most assuredly, she is called to learn much from the history of God’s dealings with His people Israel; Romans 11 is perfectly clear and conclusive as to this. The apostle, in speaking of the divine judgement upon the unbelieving branches of the olive tree, thus appeals to Christendom, "If some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off; and thou standest by faith. BE NOT HIGH-MINDED, BUT FEAR; for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God; on them which fell severity; but toward thee goodness, if thou continue in his goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off."
Alas! the professing church has not continued in the goodness of God. It is utterly impossible to read her history, in the light of scripture, and not see this. She has grievously departed, and there is nothing before her save the unmingled wrath of Almighty God. The beloved members of the body of Christ who, sad to say, are mingled with the terrible mass of corrupt profession, will be gathered out of it and taken to the place prepared in the Father’s house in heaven. Then, if not before, they will see how wrong it was to have remained in connection with what was so flagrantly opposed to the mind of Christ as revealed with divine clearness and simplicity in the holy scriptures.
But as to the great thing known as Christendom, it will be "spued out" and "cut off." It will be given over to strong delusion, to believe a lie, "That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
Tremendous words! May they ring in the ears and sink down into the hearts of thousands who are going on from day to day, week to week, and year to year, content with a mere name to live, a form of godliness but denying the power, "lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God". What an awfully graphic picture of so-called Christian England! How appalling the condition and the destiny of the pleasure hunting thousands who are rushing blindly, heedlessly and madly down the inclined plane that leads to hopeless and everlasting misery! May God, in His infinite goodness, by the power of His Spirit and by the mighty action of His word, rouse the hearts of His people everywhere to a more profound and influential sense of these things!
We must now, ere closing this section, briefly direct the reader’s attention to the last verse of our chapter. It is one of those passages of scripture sadly misunderstood and misapplied. "The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us, and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law." This verse is constantly used to hinder the progress of souls in the knowledge of "the deep things of God;" but its simple meaning is this; the things "revealed" are what we have had before us in the preceding chapter of this book; the things "secret," on the other hand, refer to those resources of grace which God had in store to be unfolded when the people should have utterly failed to "do all the words of this law." The revealed things are what Israel ought to have done, but did not do; the secret things are what God would do, spite of Israel’s sad and shameful failure, and they are most blessedly presented in the following chapters - the counsels of divine grace, the provisions of sovereign mercy to be displayed when Israel shall have thoroughly learnt the lesson of their utter failure under both the Moab and the Horeb covenants.
Thus this passage, when rightly understood, so far from affording any warrant for the use so constantly made of it, encourages the heart to search into these things which, though "secret" to Israel, in the plains of Moab, are fully and clearly "revealed" to us for our profit, comfort and edification.* The Holy Spirit came down, on the day of Pentecost to lead the disciples into all truth. The canon of scripture is complete; all the purposes and counsels of God are fully revealed. The mystery of the church completes the entire circle of divine truth. The apostle John could say to all God’s children, "Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and know all things."
{*1 Cor 2: 9 is another of the misunderstood and misapplied passages. "But, as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." Here, people are sure to stop, and hence conclude that we cannot possibly know anything of the precious things which God has in store for us. But the very next verse proves the gross absurdity of any such conclusion. "But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we" - that is, all the Lord’s people - "have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." Thus this passage, like Deuteronomy 19: 29, teaches the very opposite of what is so constantly deduced from it. How important to examine and weigh the context of the passages which are quoted!}
Thus the entire New Testament abounds with evidence to prove the mistaken use that is so constantly made of Deuteronomy 29: 29. We have dwelt upon it because we are aware that the Lord’s beloved people are sadly hindered by it, in their progress in divine knowledge. The enemy would ever seek to keep them in the dark, when they ought to be walking in the sunlight of divine revelation - to keep them as babes feeding upon milk, when they ought, as those "of full age," to be feeding upon the "strong meat" so freely provided for the church of God. We have but little idea of how the Spirit of God is grieved, and Christ dishonoured by the low tone of things amongst us. How few really "know the things that are freely given to us of God!" Where are the proper privileges of the Christian understood, believed and realised? How meagre is our apprehension of divine things! How stunted our growth! How feeble our practical exposition of the truth of God! What a blotted epistle of Christ we present!
Beloved Christian reader, let us seriously ponder these things in the divine presence. Let us honestly search out the root of all this lamentable failure, and have it judged and put away, that so we may, more faithfully and unmistakably, declare whose we are and whom we serve. May it be more thoroughly manifest that Christ is our one absorbing object!
C. H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Pentateuch — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 14 RENEWAL OF THE COVENANT IN THE PLAINS OF MOAB.…
RENEWAL OF THE COVENANT IN THE PLAINS OF MOAB. (Deuteronomy 29 Deuteronomy 30.)
The first verse of this chapter is placed in the Hebrew text at the end of Deuteronomy 28., but in the LXX and Vulgate the arrangement is as in the Authorized Version, where it appears as the title of the section that follows. In that section is contained an address to the people by Moses, in which he appeals to them to enter anew into the covenant with the Lord, which had been before concluded at Horeb; denounces apostasy as what would lead certainly to their being rejected of God; assures them at the same time of God"s readiness to restore them should they sincerely repent and return to him; and once more sets before them the blessing and the curse, and adjures them to choose the blessing.
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Beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb. This was not a new covenant in addition to that made at Sinai, but simply a renewal and reaffirmation of that covenant. At Sinai the covenant was, properly speaking, made; sacrifices were then offered, and the people were sprinkled with the sacrificial blood, whereby the covenant was ratified; (Ex 24; cf. Psa_1:5) but on the occasion here referred to, no sacrifices were offered, for this was merely the recognition of the covenant formerly made as still subsisting.
Vers. 1-6. Witnessing without seeing.
There is an instructive note on this passage in Dr. Jameson"s "Commentary." For nearly forty years the people had been witnesses of the extraordinary care of God in watching over them, in supplying their wants, and in conducting them through the wilderness; and yet the constant succession of mercies had had no proper effect on them. They did not read the loving-kindness of God in all as they should have done. Having eyes, they saw not; having ears, they heard not. The form, however, in which Moses here throws this is remarkable. If his words are not understood, he may seem even to cast a reflection on God, for having given them such great mercies, while at the same time he withheld the one mercy which would make blessings of all the rest. Yet we cannot for a moment think that Moses intended anything of the kind. He evidently reproaches the people for their dullness. If there had been an earnest desire to understand the deep meaning of God"s dealings with them, certainly the needful light and wisdom would not have been withheld. Our subject of thought arising hence is Spiritual stolidity; or, witnessing without seeing. The following passages of Scripture should be studied in regard to this theme: (Isa_6:9, 10 63:9, 10, 17; Jer_5:21; Eze_12:2 Eze_12:14; Mat_11:25 Mat_12:24 Mat_13:14, 15 15:16 16:9 21:27; Mar_3:5 (Greek) Mar_5:23; 6:52; 8:10-13, 21; Luk_7:29-35 Luk_12:56, 57 19:42; Joh_4:33 Joh 7:17 Joh_8:31, Joh_8:32, 47 9:39-41 14:9, 22; 2Co_3:14, 2Co_3:15; Psa_25:14) Observe
I THERE IS A MEANING, RICH AND FULL, IN THE INCIDENTS OF LIFE. Each one"s life is full of incident, from morning till evening, from the beginning of the year unto the end of it. There may not have been the succession of what is startling and striking, as there was in the case of Israel, but simply common mercies coming speedily and without pause, just as they were needed; the mercies one by one, fitting exactly into place, as if a gracious care had provided all. As if do we say? That is it. A gracious care has provided all. That is precisely our present postulate. We should as soon think that the letters in a printing office would spontaneously arrange themselves into order for a printed book, as that the constant succession of our comforts in life should come as they do without any prearrangement.
1. Life"s comforts and supplies are a constant disclosure of Divine loving-kindness. They reveal God (Psalm evil. 43).
2. They are intended to help on the culture and growth of character. Even supplies which come in the physical region, when granted to moral beings, have a moral significance in them.
3. By winning us to God, his mercies are intended to lead us to repentance, and thus to open up to us a glorious goal in character and destiny.
II THIS DIVINE MEANING IN THE MERCIES OF LIFE IS OFTEN MISSED BY THOSE ON WHOM THOSE MERCIES ARE BESTOWED. Of how many it may still he said, "Having eyes, they see not; and having ears, they hear not!" This may arise from one or more of several causes.
1. There may be some preconceived assumption or foregone conclusion which, if indulged in, will shut out all acceptance of any thought of God"s loving-kindness in common life, or anywhere else. Some "high thought" may exalt itself against the knowledge of God.
2. There may be the lack of a spirit of loyalty, so that the individual is indisposed to read aright the messages of his Father"s goodness.
3. There may be a misuse or non-use of the organs and faculties by which spiritual knowledge may be acquired. See "Candid Examination of Theism," by Physicus, which is a striking example of total failure in this respect.
4. There may be distraction of heart and soul by the whirl and rush of life, so that the spirit has no leisure therefrom to learn of God in "secret silence of the mind.
5. There may be entire indifference concerning the higher meaning of common things. Any one of these five causes will amply account for a man failing to learn of God through the experiences of life.
III THERE IS NO ADEQUATE REASON WHICH CAN JUSTIFY SUCH A FAILURE TO LEARN LIFE"S LESSONS. For:
1. We have a revelation of God given to us in the Book, whereby we may come at the true interpretation of life. Israel had their Law, by which they might read their life. We have both the Law and the gospel. And the preciousness of human life in the eye of God is taught us in Luke 15., and in the light of such a chapter should the mystery of human life and Divine care be studied.
2. We have a distinct disclosure to us of the one condition on which religions knowledge and certitude can be acquired. (Joh_7:17; Psa_25:8, Psa_25:9, Psa_25:14)
3. There is a direct and clear promise of wisdom to those who lack it and seek it. (Jam_1:5-7) The promises given by our Lord are also abundant.
4. There is the testimony of the experience of such as are taught of God. They can tell of his mercies, and sing aloud of his righteousness. (Psa_34:6 Psa_66:16) And such experience is or should be an invaluable help to those who have yet to learn "the secret of the Lord." Now, with this fourfold clue, it is altogether needless for any to misunderstand life"s mystery and meaning. So that it follows
IV THAT TO BE AND TO REMAIN WITHOUT SPIRITUAL PERCEPTION IS MATTER FOR SERIOUS REPROACH AND REBUKE. It is not against God that the words of ver. 4 are spoken. He would have given them eyes to see, had they desired and sought that blessing. And so he will now. Hence there is a fivefold injustice done by us if we remain without the true knowledge of the rich meaning in our mercies.
1. There is injustice to the Word of God.
2. There is injustice to the God of the Word.
3. There is injustice to ourselves.
4. There is injustice to the mystery of life.
5. There is injury to our future and eternal destiny.
Well may we adopt for ourselves, on our own behalf, as well as on that of others, the prayers of the apostle for spiritual enlightenment. (Php_1:9-11; Col_1:9, Col_1:10; Eph_1:15-18) For as we understand the mystery of God in Christ will all minor ones have the light of heaven poured upon them.
HOMILIES BY D. DAVIES Vers. 1-13. The renewal of God"s covenant with Israel.
Every act of obedience is a step of the soul upward. It leads us into clearer light and into purer air. The man is braced by the exercise. On the other hand, the neglect of a great occasion of blessing is an irreparable loss.
I NOTE GOD"S GRACIOUS ACTIVITY ON BEHALF OF HIS COVENANT PEOPLE. Ancient Israel was sadly prone to forget what God had done for them. Ingratitude is base. It injures greatly the man who is guilty of it. We lose immensely by our obliviousness of God"s kindness. For the Hebrews, God had exerted his power and pity in methods unprecedented. Almost every act of his for their deliverance was a miracle. The crops of Egypt were blasted in order to rescue the sons of Abraham. The firstborn of Egypt, of man and of beast, were slain to emancipate Israel. The king, his courtiers, and Egypt"s military were submerged in the sea to deliver the Hebrews. For forty years they had been miraculously led and miraculously fed. For forty years their clothes had resisted all decay, and their sandals had not yielded to wear. Without ordinary bread without wine they had been kept alive; yea, had become robust and irresistible. Conquest over foes was already theirs, and Canaan itself was, in part, possessed. Never before never since has God so set aside his ordinary methods of providing for men, and revealed himself as the personal Friend of his people.
II THIS GRACIOUS ACTIVITY CONTAINED PREGNANT PLEDGE OF HIGHER GOOD. Wondrous as were these acts of Divine kindness, they did not terminate in themselves. They were the earnests of something more something higher. Every gift in the desert and every conquest in Canaan contained a kernel of spiritual promise. These events through which the Hebrews passed, both prosperous events and adverse, were "temptations," or tests, by which to develop their faith and fortitude. Every carnal battle was drill and discipline for spiritual conflict. Very instructively are the miraculous deliverances here called "signs" (ver. 3). For signs and symbols they were of realities in the spirit-realm. The redemption from Egypt was the sign of a better redemption for the soul. Sinai foreshadows Calvary. The smitten rock prefigured Christ. The desert life was a type of the earthly pilgrimage. The brazen serpent symbolized the remedy for sin. By new and singular methods was the host of God"s elect daily fed, and Moses plainly indicates the gracious intention of the plan, viz. that Ye might know that I am the Lord your God." The descending manna was an object-lesson. Every meal was a revelation of God. Within the food for the body was to be found richer food for the soul.
III WE SEE MAN"S INSENSIBILITY TO THE GRACIOUS INTENTION OF GOD. In this address of Moses we discover an apparent contradiction. "Ye have seen," he says, "all that the Lord did" (ver. 2). "Yet," he adds, "the Lord hath not given you eyes to see" (ver. 4). But the contradiction is only on the surface. They saw, and yet they did not see. They saw the external event; they did not perceive the interior meaning. They had no eye for spiritual penetration. They had not the pureness of heart by which they might have seen God. And the blame of non-possession does not rest on God. Some gifts he bestows unasked. "He sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." But the higher gifts for the soul he grants only to the meek and the prayerful. "Ask, and ye shall receive." "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." The Hebrews saw the cloud, but did not see the God within the cloud. They saw the splendid coruscations of his glory, and they entreated that the vision might not be repeated. Their mouths were filled with material food, but they had no eye to discern the love which supplied it. They remained deaf to the soft whispers of the Divine voice the voice within the human voice. They were too carnal to perceive the illustrious vocation to which they were called, or the magnificent destiny that lay in their path. Jehovah offered to be their God.
IV WE SEE A FRESH OPPORTUNITY FOR COMPLETE CONSECRATION. On the threshold of the Promised Land God summoned a halt. He reviews, by the mouth of Moses, their past history, reminds them of their mistakes, reproves their obtuseness of mind, and invites them to a renewal of the sacred covenant. Another chance was given them for spiritual reformation. Here was the commencement of a new epoch. Again, as in Horeb, God bids for man"s allegiance. He renews his pledge to be in Canaan what he had been in the desert their special Friend, their God. In this compact all the resources of God were secured to Israel. His power, his glory, his life, his home, were conveyed to them. All was to be theirs; but on one condition and that condition was a necessity that they should be loyal and true to him. What a splendid opportunity was there for a new beginning for a fresh departure! So ever and anon God comes near to us, and offers to make a covenant with us to be our Friend and God forever. On the morning of every day on every returning Sabbath he appeals to us afresh to make consecration of ourselves. If we will be indeed his people, he will be most truly our God. We too may "enter into his oath. D.
HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR Vers. 1-9. Time-defying habiliments.
After the extensive list of curses to be recited amid the mountains, Moses proceeds to speak of the perfect providences of the pilgrimage as a loud call to obedience out of gratitude. He points out not only the miracles connected with the Exodus, but also the arrangements of, as we should say, the commissariat. They had not to manufacture bread, for the manna fell from heaven; they had not to carry with them wine or strong drink, for the pure water out of the smitten rock followed them all the way. Nor had they to concern themselves about clothing, for their clothes defied the march of time, and their shoes stood intact all the rough journey of the wilderness. We have only to consider what such an arrangement saved them, and how at the end of the forty years" march, instead of "ragged regiments," they presented themselves in bright and impressive array, to conclude that this merciful care of their clothing as well as of themselves was a crowning experience of the wilderness. It has indeed been suggested that all here implied is a providential blessing upon their ordinary endeavors and barters with the surrounding tribes; but we imagine there is much more in this reference to their time-defying garments. We are led to speak again of the "philosophy of clothes". (cf. Deu_22:5)
I THE PURPOSE OF CLOTHES IS TO COVER OUR NAKEDNESS, This was shown in Eden, and as Carlyle says about his alter ego (Teufelsdrockh), "The utility of clothes is altogether apparent to him; nay, perhaps he has an insight into their more recondite and almost mystic qualities, what we might call the omnipotent virtue of clothes, such as was never before vouchsafed to any man Society, which the more I think of it astonishes me the more, is founded upon cloth." And into this most proper purpose of hiding our nakedness, let us observe, the Lord entered in Eden and afterwards. Man is a spirit, but it is also evident that in this present world he was meant to wear clothes and to conform to decency thereby.
II THERE IS NO VIRTUE IN RAGGEDNESS. In fact, one of the prophets, in order to convey impressively the worthlessness in God"s sight of our self-righteousness, uses this very figure: "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away". (Isa_64:6) Suppose that Israel had reached the land of promise in desperate raggedness; it would have been no credit to themselves or to their God. It would, on the other hand, have made the invasion more perilous. But when, instead of "ragged regiments," they came with unworn uniforms from the wilderness, the very freshness of the appearance of the host struck terror into their adversaries.
III THE FACT HAD EVIDENTLY FAILED TO STRIKE THE ISRAELITES AS IT OUGHT TO HAVE DONE. "Yet the Lord," says Moses, "hath net given you a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day" (ver. 4). The unchanging, well-appointed host had ceased to be a marvel to itself, although it must have been a marvel to all other observers. The bright, unfading, well-kept dresses continually before their eyes failed to make adequate impression. They took God"s goodness, as we are too prone to do, as a matter of course.
IV GOD"S PROVISION FOR MAN"S BODY WAS A TYPE OF HIS PROVISION FOR MAN"S SPIRIT. The spirit of man has its hunger and thirst and nakedness, just as well as the body. And we are accustomed to see in the manna, which satisfied the hunger of the Israelites, a type of him who, as the Living Bread, came down from heaven; (Joh_6:49, Joh_6:50) in the water from the smitten rock, which satisfied their thirst, a type of the Spirit, proceeding from the Son, to refresh the souls of men. (Joh_7:37-39) And why, we ask, should we not discern in the time-defying garments, which God so wonderfully preserved, a type of that righteousness with which he clothes our spiritual nakedness, which is unto all and upon all them that believe? (Rom_3:22) Round the human spirit, as Carlyle has put it, there lies a "garment of flesh contextured in the loom of heaven... it is sky-woven, and worthy of a God;" but around it he is pleased to place another garment, of which the unworn uniforms of Israel were types, the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which is sufficient to cover all our nakedness, and which stands defiantly against the powers of time. It is in this array and panoply that, as pilgrims, we shall reach the land of eternal promise. Vicissitude and change will work no havoc in this garment of God. In contrast to all man"s "shoddy" and "ragged righteousness," it stands in perennial brightness, the time-defying clothing out of the commissariat of God. May we all be arrayed in none other as we approach the Jordan! R.M.E.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv4, 10 The Lord hath not given you an heart to…
Deu_29:4
The Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive.
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Men without heart, sight, or hearing
Feeling, sight, hearing! What wonderful things these are! If we could exist without them, what a wretched condition ours would be! The outer world would be unknown to us if the gates of the senses were shut, and the soul would be famished, like Samaria when it was straitly shut up, and there was no going in nor coming out. When any one of the senses is gone it involves great deprivation, and subjects the person enduring it to the pity of his fellows, but if all were absent what wretchedness must ensue! Transfer your thoughts now from these external senses by which we become conscious of the external world to those spiritual senses by which we perceive the spiritual world, the kingdom of heaven, the Lord of that kingdom, and all the powers of the world to come. There is a heart which should be tender, by which we perceive the presence of God and feel His operations, and even behold the Lord Himself, as it is written, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. There is a spiritual eye by which the things invisible are discerned; blessed are they to whom the Lord has given to see the things of His kingdom, which to the unrenewed remain hidden in parables. There is a spiritual ear by which we hear the gentle whispers of the Spirit, which frequently come to us internally, without the medium of sounds that can affect the ear. Blessed are those who have the ear which the Lord has purged, and cleansed, and opened, so that it listens to the Divine call But there is no blessedness in the case of men devoid of spiritual feeling, sight, and hearing. Theirs is a miserable plight.
I. We shall think upon a mournful fact. Here was a whole nation, with but very few exceptions, of whom their leader, who knew and loved them best, was obliged to say, The Lord hath not given you a heart to perceive, unto this day.
1. The mournful part of it was, that this was the nation that had been specially favoured of God above all others.
2. Note again, that not only were they a highly favoured people, but they had seen very wonderful acts performed by the Lord Himself.
3. In addition to this, these people had passed through a very remarkable experience.
4. In addition to all this sight and experience, the Israelites had received remarkable instruction.
5. One thing else is worth notice, that these people had been associated with remarkable characters. They were not all blinded, there were a few among them who were gracious, and so were made to perceive. Caleb and Joshua were there, and Aaron and Miriam; but chiefly there was Moses, grandest of men, true father of the nation
II. Let us note the mournful reasons for all this.
1. The reasons for their incapacity to see and perceive lay, first, in the tact that these people never believed in their own blindness. They had no heart to perceive, and they did not perceive their absence of perception; they had no eyes wherewith to detect their own dimness of vision. They were such fools as to dote on their own wisdom, so poor as to think themselves rich, so hypocritical as to profess to be sincere. Pride is the great creator of darkness; like Nahash, the Ammonite, it puts out the right eye. Men seek not the light, because they boast that they are the children of the day and need no light from above.
2. More than this, these men never asked for a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear. No man hath ever asked for these things and been refused; no soul has cried in its blindness and darkness, Open Thou mine eyes, but what a gracious answer has always come. It is the prerogative of the Lord Jesus to open the blind eyes; but this He is ever ready to do whenever men call upon His name. Then, moreover, what little light they did have they resisted. When they were forced to see, it was only for a moment that they would be instructed, and then they shut their eyes again.
III. What was the mournful result of these people being so highly favoured, and yet not seeing their God?
1. The result was, first, that they missed a happy portion, I can hardly imagine how happy the children of Israel might have been. They left Egypt with a high hand and an outstretched arm, their ears were hung with jewels, and their purses were filled with riches, while around them manna dropped from heaven, and cool streams flowed at their side. They might have made a quick march to the promised land, and at once entered their rest, for their God who had sent the hornet before them would soon have driven out their adversaries. They would have known no invading enemy, and felt neither blast, nor blight, nor mildew; in fact, they would have been the happiest nation under heaven: He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee. They flung all this on one side: they would not have God, and so they could not have prosperity. They walked contrary to Him, and He walked contrary to them; they would not obey Him, and therefore His anger smoked against them.
2. Think, moreover, what a glorious destiny they threw aside. Had they been equal to the occasion, by Gods grace they might have been a nation of kings and priests, they might have been the Lords missionaries to all lands, the light-bearers to all peoples.
3. Another result was that while they missed so high a position, they went on sinning. As they did not learn the lesson God was teaching them, namely, that He was God, and that to serve Him was their joy and their prosperity, they went from one evil to another, provoking the Lord to jealousy.
4. Hence they frequently suffered. A plague broke out at one time, and a burning at another; at one time they were visited with fever, and anon the earth opened beneath them; one day the Amalekites smote them, another day fiery serpents leaped up from the sand, and they died by thousands, being poisoned by their bites. They suffered much and often, and in all their trials they did but reap what they had sown.
5. At last this evil ended terribly. The Lord lifted His hand to heaven, and swore that the rebellious generation should not enter into His rest, and they began to die by wholesale till Moses cried, We are consumed by Thine anger, and by Thy wrath are we troubled. Not one of the men that came out of Egypt, save only Joshua and Caleb, reached the promised land. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
A perceiving heart the gift of God
To complete the sense of the words, we must have recourse to the two precedent verses; which, being compared to the text, present us with a description of such a brutish temper as is not to be found in any people mentioned throughout the whole Book of God, or any history whatsoever.
I. What is meant by Gods giving to the soul a perceiving heart? We have grace here set out by such acts as are properly acts of knowledge; as understanding, seeing, hearing; not because, as some imagine, grace is placed only in the understanding, which, being informed with such a principle, is able to govern, and practically to determine the will, without the help of any new principle infused into that. For grace is a habit equally placed in both these faculties, but it is expressed by the acts of the understanding:--
1. Because the understanding has the precedency and first stroke in holy actions, as well as in others; it is the head and fountain from whence they derive their goodness, the leading faculty: and therefore the works of all the rest may, by way of eminence, be ascribed to this, as the conquest of an army is ascribed to the leader only, or general.
2. Because the means of grace are chiefly and most frequently expressed by the word truth; 1Ti_1:15, This is a faithful (or a true) saying, that Christ came into the world to save sinners. And in Joh_3:33, He that believeth hath set to his seal that God is true. And in Joh_17:17, Thy Word is truth. From hence, therefore, I collect--
(1) That to understand and receive the Word, according to the letter and notion, by a bare assent to the truth of it, is not to have a heart to perceive nor an ear to hear: because it is evident, both from Scripture and ordinary observation, that such a reception of the means of grace is not always attended with these spiritual effects: as, for instance, the Jews heard Christ and admired Him, but afterwards they rejected His doctrine and crucified His person. To hear the Word of God, and to hear God speaking in His Word, are things vastly different.
(2) Therefore, in the second place, to have a perceiving heart and a hearing ear is to have a spiritual light begot in the mind by an immediate overpowering work of the Spirit, whereby alone the soul is enabled to apprehend the things of God spiritually, and to practise them effectually: and without this we may see and see, and never perceive, and hear again and again and never understand.
II. Whence it is that, without this gift of a perceiving heart, the soul cannot make any improvement of the means of grace. It arises from these two reasons--
1. From its exceeding impotence and inability to apprehend these things.
2. From its contrariety to them. And there are two things in the soul in which this contrariety chiefly consists.
(1) Carnal corruptions.
(2) Carnal wisdom.
III. Although upon Gods denial of a perceiving heart the soul does inevitably remain unprofitable under the means of grace, so as not to hear nor perceive; yet this hardness, or unprofitableness, cannot at all be ascribed to God as the author of it. In order to the clearing of this we know that Gods not giving a heart to perceive may admit of a double acceptation.
1. As it implies only a bare denial of grace.
2. As it does also include a positive act of induration.
IV. How God can justly reprehend men for not hearing nor perceiving, when, upon His denial of a heart, there is a necessity lying upon them to do neither. Now, there can be no just reprehension but for sin, and nothing can be sin but that which is voluntary and free, and how can that be flee for a man to do or not to do which from necessity he cannot do? Application--
1. This doctrine speaks refutation to that opinion that states a sufficiency of grace in the bare proposal of things to be believed and practised, without a new powerful work of the Spirit upon the heart, that may determine and enable it to believe and accept of these things.
2. Is of exhortation; that in the enjoyment of the means of grace we should not terminate in the means, but look up to God, who alone is able to give a heart to improve them. (R. South, D. D.)
Mens blindness in spiritual things
Consider this complaint--
I. As uttered by Moses against the people of his charge. They had seen with their bodily eyes all the wonders that had been wrought for them. They understood not.
1. The true character of that dispensation.
2. The obligations which it entailed upon them.
II. As applicable to ourselves at this day.
1. By the great mass of nominal Christians the nature of the Gospel is very indistinctly seen.
2. The effects of it are very partially experienced. Address--
(1) Those who are altogether blind.
(2) Those who think they see.
(3) Those whose eyes God has opened. (C. Simeon, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 CRITICAL NOTES.—The discourse is continued—the subject of that is…
CRITICAL NOTES.—The discourse is continued—the subject of that is the covenant of Israel with God—its privileges conferred and obligations imposed. Besides (Deu_29:1), not a new covenant, but repetition, renewal of the old at a suitable time.
Deu_29:2-9. Obligation to obey on account of what God had done for Israel. All Israel. Represented by Elders (cf. Deu_29:10). Temptations. Testings, provings (cf. Deu_4:34; Deu_7:19). Not given. They felt no want and did not ask. This complaint not to excuse weakness, but to direct them in right course. I (Deu_29:5). Jehovah introduced as speaking. Clothes and shoes preserved classified with the gift of manna, therefore better understood, not as a natural supply from flocks and herds, but as a miraculous act. Know (Deu_29:6). Practical knowledge of God, design of this goodness, Deu_29:7; cf. Deu_2:32; Deu_3:1; Deu_29:8; cf. Deu_3:12-13; Deuteronomy 9. Prosper. Lit, act wisely (Deu_32:29; Jos_1:7; 1Ki_2:3. “The connexion of wisdom in conduct and prosperity in circumstances is noteworthy” (Sp. Com.).
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Deu_29:10-15. Summons to enter the covenant afresh that they may really be God’s people. Your tribes, lit. your captains, your tribes, your elders, etc. The word “tribes” apparently denotes all not in office. All were represented if not present. Stranger represents all foreign servants bought with money (Exo_12:44) or taken in war. Little ones represented by parents or guardians. Menial servants not excluded. None exempt from the terms of national covenant, which embraced not only those living, but posterity (Deu_29:14).
Deu_29:16-29. Once more denouncing rejection in case of apostasy, or breach of covenant. Deu_29:16-17 not parenthetic as in the A. V. Deu_29:18 stands in close connection not with Deu_29:15, but with what immediately precedes. The people are reminded (Deu_29:16-17) of what they had witnessed in Egypt and on the journey, of the vileness of idolatry, and that experience is urged (Deu_29:18) as a motive for shunning that heinous sin (Sp. Com.) Idols (Deu_29:17), lit. clods or stocks which can be rolled about (Lev_26:30). Deu_29:18. Root, a picture of destructive fruit of idolatry. Gall, hemlock (Hos_10:4; Amo_6:12), Wormwood (Jer_9:15; Lam_3:19), both terms indicate distress and trouble resulting from sin; Deu_29:19, bless, congratulate himself; imagination, lit. in firmness, hardness of my heart (from Hebrew word, to twist together, to be tough or firm). Add, a proverbial expression, rather difficult, denoting the addition of indulgence and sin to the desire, or that the drunken lead astray others who have only desire.”
Deu_29:20-21. Such cannot escape God’s anger, which, like Smoke, breaks forth in fire (Psa_74:1); blots out (ch. Deu_9:14; Deu_25:19; Exo_17:14).
Deu_29:22-23. Effects of sin would blast the once rich and flourishing region; future generations astonished would ask the meaning of this devastation (Deu_29:24), and would receive the reply the strokes of God had smitten the land and its inhabitants. Deu_29:29 expresses humble submission and solemn warning. Secret, hidden things belong to God, counsels and purposes concerning nations, reasons of his dealings with them, together with time and methods, &c.; revealed injunctions, threatenings, and promises are things with which we have to do which we should teach our children.
SPIRITUAL DULNESS.—Deu_29:1-9
God had done marvellous things for Israel, yet they were unchanged and disobedient; insensible to miracle and unable to discern the purpose of God in his dealings with them.
I. God performs striking events in man’s history. Israel’s history was eventful from beginning to end.
1. Wonderful deliverance. Egypt was plagued, they were set free; some were smitten, they were preserved. “I gave people for thy life.”
2. Continual guidance. They knew not, could never have discovered the way, but they were not lost. “I have led you” (Deu_29:5). God guides in the residence, journeys, and enterprises of life.
3. Daily support (Deu_29:5-6). Food and raiment. Their little stock, increased by Egyptian gifts and the spoils of Amalekites, by a distinguished act of grace was preserved for forty years.
4. Victory over enemies (Deu_29:7). So now God delivers from fear, temptations, and persecutors.
5. Acquisition of inheritance (Deu_29:9). Land taken from their enemies to enrich them. “Land is a part of God’s estate in the globe; and when a parcel of ground is deeded to you, and you walk over it, it seems as if you had come into partnership with the original Proprietor of the earth.”—H. W. Beecher.
II. These striking events reveal God to men. “That ye might know that I am the Lord your God” (Deu_29:6). They manifest God, and are designed to educate and train us to obedience.
1. In terrible judgments. “The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth.”
2. In signal mercies. God bestows favours to lead us to repentance and faith. Turn from speculations to facts. Our life is not shaped by fate, nor directed by chance. It is crowded with mercies and judgments—events which reveal the hand of God, illustrate the blessing of obedience and the danger of sin.
III. Men do not always understand these events. Israel had not “a heart to perceive and eyes to see,” notwithstanding their wonderful history and varied experience. How does this happen?
1. Because they are thoughtless. We must think, to feel—seek, to know. We can never comprehend without thought, nor discern God without meditation. “The works of the Lord are great, sought out by them that have pleasure therein.”
2. Because they are alienated in feeling. If we take no interest in a person, we do not wish to know and serve him. If our hearts are alienated from God, we are blind to his manifestations in nature. We lose power “to retain God in knowledge” (Rom_1:28), become void, spiritually stupid, whatever our boasted science and philosophy.
3. Because judicially blind. Neglect or abuse any faculty, it is taken away. Shut your eyes and you cannot see, close your hearts and you cannot feel. Vision without perception, hearing without instruction, is the result of sin and the appointment of God. “Go unto this people and say—Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand,” etc. (Isa_6:9; Act_28:24; Act_28:27).
IV. When men will not understand these striking events they are guilty.
No excuse whatever. There was no want of evidence and no lack of instruction. They could not say let God speak louder, fuller, or oftener. Every form of lesson, in every available method, was given.
1. The events are revealed to the senses. Israel saw the destruction of their enemies. The pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire—the glory of God were visible. But nothing will touch the heart if the eyes are closed. “Unto thee it was shewed that thou mightest know that the Lord he is God.”
2. The events are interpreted by God’s Word. Newspapers are needful, but an intimate acquaintance with scripture will help to solve the problems and discover the meaning of life. Providence and scripture are pages of the same volume, one expounds what the other performs. “Seek ye out of the Book of the Lord and read” (Isa_34:16).
3. The events may be understood by prayer. God teaches when we apply to Him—gives knowledge and wisdom to those who lack and seek (Jas_1:5-7). In this school did Joseph and David get their learning. If dull, God will teach us, and “who teacheth like him?” So patiently, so gratuitously and so efficiently. His lessons are grandest in their nature and most vital in their interests. Let us listen and learn; let us see and understand. If we close our eyes to the wonders of life and our hearts to the appeals of the gospel we may be given up to spiritual hardness and helplessness. “Make the heart of this people fat, etc.”
MEN’S BLINDNESS IN SPIRITUAL THINGS.—Deu_29:4
Consider this complaint—
I. As uttered by Moses against the people of his charge. They had “seen” with their bodily eyes all the wonders that had been wrought for them. They understood not.
1. The true character of that dispensation.
2. The obligations which it entailed upon them.
II. As applicable to ourselves at this day.
1. By the great mass of nominal Christians the nature of the gospel is very indistinctly seen.
2. The effects of it are very partially experienced. Address—
(1.) Those who are altogether blind.
(2.) Those who think they see.
(3.) Those whose eyes God has opened.—C. Simeon, M. A.
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Deu_29:1-2. Renewed covenant.
1. This needful for us.
(1.) When its conditions are violated.
(2.) When placed in fit circumstances. Israel in Horeb and about to enter the land.
(3.) When leaders are taken by death. Moses, about to die, anxious to expound and enforce the law, urges to obedience.
2. This displays God’s goodness to us. Deep concern, continual watchfulness and activity, repetition of instruction and grief at unbelief. “O that there was such a heart in them” (Ch. Deu_5:29).
Deu_29:3. Divine methods of human training. Elements of education in human life. Temptations, trials to teach dependence and strengthen faith. Signs which discover law and reveal God’s presence. Miracles, indicative of supernatural power to control events and impress the heart. But insight is required to receive and practice the lesson. Be “men who understand the times.”
Deu_29:4. A great danger. Lest the great things of this life blind men to spiritual interests and spiritual peril. Thus become a bait by which they are caught and destroyed (Rom_11:8). “Unwillingness to see is punished by incapacity of seeing. The natural punishment to spiritual perversity is spiritual blindness.” This explains the indifference of many who constantly hear and constantly reject the gospel—is a mark of God’s anger and a foretaste of more terrible punishment. What God has inflicted God alone can remove. None can open the eyes of the blind but He who has closed them.
Deu_29:5. Clothes. Not the worse for wearing, but grew as their bodies did, some think. They needed not to trouble themselves with those anxious thoughts of heathens, what they should eat, drink, or put on. Never was prince served and supplied in such state as these Israelites were.—Trapp.
Deu_29:6. From this verse we learn that during their desert journeys of forty years the Israelites abstained from all kinds of yayin and shaker, unfermented and fermented, innocent and inebriating. Hence those “do greatly err, not knowing the scriptures,” who either deride abstinence as a novelty, or condemn it as an impracticable or dangerous habit of life.—Temp. Com.
SUMMONS TO RENEWED CONSECRATION.—Deu_29:10-15
Israel urged to enter into covenant again. This implies two contracting parties. Hence God is present, and they stand before Him in representative capacity.
I. This consecration is urgent. “This day.” A day of solemn events and remembrances; of self-examination and pressing duties; of high hope and inspiring enterprise. Life has its bright and dark days. Its friendships, trials, and obligations. There should be no delay. This very hour is “big with life’s futurities.” Procrastination may ruin.
II. This consecration is representative. All were summoned to attend. Leaders, “captains of tribes,” elders and officers, must set an example, and think it no dishonour to renew their covenant with God. Women and children must not be forgotten, but numbered with those present. Little ones are fit to be joined in covenant to the Lord. Strangers as well as sons of Israel; servants as well as free men; those absent and those present, posterity for generations to come—all concerned. This an indication of favour to Gentiles, a type of the covenant of grace. “The promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.”
III. This consecration will exalt and establish the nation. “That he may establish thee to-day” Deu_29:13.
1. By restoring to God. “A people unto Himself” to fear, love and obey Him. “Be unto thee a God,” according to his promise and purpose. This personal relationship is most needful, specially delightful to God, and constantly set forth in Deuteronomy 2. By creating a sense of obligation to God. In covenant we pledge ourselves to remember God and cherish a sense of duty. We forget obligation, require deeper feeling and renewed devotion. Personal faith in God and national dependence upon Him are stronger than iron ships and granite walls. Without these we have no superiority, no permanency, no power to establish and preserve a church or a people. “Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.”
HOMILECTIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Deu_29:10. Stand. As subjects to swear allegiance—an assembly to worship—an army to fight. A solemn and noble position!
“They also serve who stand and wait.”
God examining man. “This day”—a day of thankfulness, regrets, interesting recollections, uncertainty, anticipation. The position indicated implies:—I. That we depend upon God’s bounty. II. That we are continually open to His inspection. III. That our future destiny is in His hands. Application—Let us this day stand before the Lord.
1. Humble penitents.
2. Sincere believers.
3. Faithful servants.—Bib. Museum.
Deu_29:12. Enter into covenant. More than repeating it, coming near to it or mere profession of it. Entire, real entrance, sharing its benefits and going into its obligations. “The expression is very remarkable. It is one of those proofs of the exceeding greatness of the love and condescension of God, which are so often found in the Bible. He might command simply and tell the creature The obligation of that command is on you, whether you like it or not. But he asks man freely to accept what eternally is his duty, to enter into covenant with him; that is, openly to accept his service, that he may bless us.”—(Cumming.)
DANGERS TO BE SHUNNED.—Deu_29:16-21
Moses now warns against breaking the covenant into which they have entered; he describes the fearful results of apostasy.
I. Idolatry with its abominations. Their experience should have taught them how worthless, how helpless idols were in Egypt and on the march to Canaan.
1. Abominations which were prevalent. Egypt was addicted to such evils, and many were tainted through dwelling there.
2. Abominations which were fascinating. “Ye have seen abominations” in other nations; still hanker after them, and are almost drawn away. “Idols of wood and stone, silver and gold,” are more attractive than the invisible God. If the lessons of experience were treasured up and utilised, we should avoid many dangers. “Experience is an excellent schoolmaster.”—Carlyle.
II. Apostasy with its evils. “Lest there should be among you man or woman,” &c. (Deu_29:18).
1. Apostasy beginning with individuals. The lump is what its particles are, the nation as its individuals. Personal influence and character affect the community. “The worth of a state, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it” (J. S. Mill). “One sinner destroyeth much good.”
2. Apostasy bitter in results. “A root that beareth gall and wormwood”—a root deeply planted, firmly strengthened, and mischievously productive; quick in growth and stupifying in nature. Sin, like poison, destroys the life of a nation. The bread of idolatry, sweet in the mouth, becomes bitter in the experience: what is pleasant in the taste convulses the system with pain. Its riches will sicken, turn to moral poison, “and he shall vomit them up again” (Job_20:14-16).
III. Presumption with its risks. “And it come to pass that he bless himself” (Deu_29:19). This supposes that one may think himself secure, even amidst danger; promise impunity though persisting in impiety; daring presumption, an affront to God and a certain ruin!
1. The method of presumption. (a) False promises. “I shall have peace,” when there is no peace. (b) Intense blindness. He blesses himself, when the words of the curse are thundering in his ear. (c) Abominable wickedness. Walking in the imagination of his own heart, when God urges obedience to his commands. Indulging in lust, “adding drunkenness to thirst” and sin to sin.
2. The consequences of presumption. “The Lord will not spare him” (Deu_29:20). He will be detected, arraigned, and convicted; escape is impossible. He will be—(a) Exposed to divine retribution, “the anger of the Lord,” &c.; (b) Shut out from covenant blessings (Deu_29:21); (c) Unforgiven in offence; (d) Forgotten in existence. No perpetuation of name, no posterity to succeed him. “According to all the curses written in the book” (Deu_29:21). The covenant has curses as well as blessings: God is just as well as gracious. If we presume upon good when indulging in sin, we shall be awfully deceived. “He that presumes steps into the throne of God” (Dr. South). “Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me.”
THE IMPIOUS BOASTER.—Deu_29:19
I. Boasting in abominable wickedness. Glorying in shame.
1. Walking in a course of self-indulgence.
2. Enticing others by his example. Asserting their security, and leading others to think as they do. “They say still unto them that despise Me the Lord hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.” Jer_23:17.
II. Boasting with resolute purpose. “I walk in the firmness (hardness) of my heart”—sin hardens by its deceitfulness and continuance. The “conscience is seared” (branded as with a hot iron) by burning lusts, 1Ti_4:2. The heart is obdurate and unmoved by warnings and curses. “Hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”
III. Boasting ending in utter ruin. Men rejoice in iniquity. “All such rejoicing is evil,” most fatal. There is no evasion, no escape. “The Lord will not spare him.” “All the curses shall lie upon him.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Deu_29:16-17. Ye know, &c. The discipline of experience. Precepts and instruction useful but practical wisdom only learnt in the school of experience. Israel were taught valuable lessons in Egypt and the wilderness. Have we learned courage and confidence in conflicts and victories? What have we gained indiscipline of heart and mind? “Give me understanding and I shall keep thy law.”
Deu_29:18. The heart turned.
1. Apostasy in its origin “the heart.” “An evil heart of unbelief.”
2. Apostasy in its results—(a). Turning away from God. (b). Joining idols. God admits of no rival. “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.”
Wormwood. Sin a bitter root, bearing deadly fruit as in Achan, Jos_7:25, and in those who turned to idols and seduced others. The apostle allluding to this text says, “Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God (fall short), lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.” Heb_12:15.
Deu_29:19. Danger of carnal security. I. The astonishing delusion of sinners. On every side we behold—
1. Their fearlessness;
2. Their self-complacency.
3. Their confidence. II. Their awful doom.
1. Infallibly certain.
2. Inexpressibly severe. Learn
(1.) To compassionate the ungodly world.
(2.) To be on our guard against being influenced by its advice.
(3.) To be thankful if God has made us to differ from it.—C. Simeon, M. A.
WARNINGS TO POSTERITY.—Deu_29:22-28
When punishment comes upon them for wickedness, all thoughtful people around them will be convinced of the righteous judgments of God in the fulfilment of His word.
I. Posterity influenced by present conduct. The nation is organic—one whole community. In the covenant, those present represented those absent. So future generations share in our privileges, reap the consequences of our decisions and sins.
1. The land may be affected. Canaan was afflicted with “plagues and sicknesses,” consumed with fire, and overthrown like Sodom. The garden of the Lord was turned into desolation and waste. The sterility of Palestine is the stranger’s wonder (Volney’s “Ruins”), and a historic witness and warning to nations. “He turneth … a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein” (Psa_107:33-34).
2. The people may be affected. “Rooted out and cast into other lands” (Deu_29:28). Our children will be better or worse, upset or confirmed in virtue, by our moral conduct. Physical features are characteristic of races: so moral features are stamped upon descendants. Calculate upon remote results. “Generations to come” may be astonished, afflicted, and cursed by our actions. “The evil that men do,” as well as the good, “lives after them.” “Thou recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them.”
II. Posterity so concerned will enquire into the reasons. The condition of the nation the reverse of what it had been—read in the light of history and prophecy the change astonishing. Hence the question, “Wherefore?” (Deu_29:24). God has reasons for retribution. These reasons may be known from His word, when known they should check our wickedness. Learn:
1. The natural connection between suffering and sin. They forsook God and served idols (Deu_29:25), sins are reproduced in posterity, bound by an indissoluble chain of causation to the future. To-day’s actions are the result of yesterday’s, and the cause of future conditions.
2. The visible proof of this connection in providential history. Divine retribution manifest the sins of nations and the judgment of God upon them. The sterility of Palestine explains the broken covenant. Its barren hills and mute appeal—its awful silence and impressive scenes, utter the curse of God and turn spectators into enquiring penitents. “The curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, because we have sinned against Him” (Dan_9:11; Dan_9:13-14; cf. 1Ki_9:8-9; Jer_22:8-9).
NATIONAL DEFECTION AND GRIEVOUS RETRIBUTION.—Deu_29:22-28
I. National defection. “They have forsaken the covenant,” etc. (Deu_29:25)
1. Springing from individual sin (Deu_29:18). Nations live, act, and decay through individuals. Do not overlook the parts in the whole, the one in the millions. “Individuality is the root of everything, good or evil.”
2. Manifest in universal apostacy. “They went and served other gods” (Deu_29:26). The grand object of Israel was forgotten, and its privileges were bartered away. “Gods whom they knew not,” and to whom they were under no obligation, were served instead of the true God—the God of their fathers to whom they owed everything they possessed. “Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? But my people have changed their glory (Jehovah the glory of Israel, Psa_106:20; Rom_1:23) for that which doth not profit (idols, Deu_29:8) Jer_2:11.
II. Grevious retribution. Nations rise to power and influence, fall into sin and suffer decay. Rome, after the prevalence of luxury, pride and cruelty. Spain, after persecution of truth and exclusion of the Bible. Egypt, once a powerful empire, ultimately “the basest of kingdoms” for its idolatry.
1. Retribution extensive. In the whole land.
2. Retribution terrible. Anger of God kindled, the people uprooted, cast out and suffered great indignation.
3. Retribution complete. Land neither sown nor fruitful, stricken and accursed. The people idolatrous, homeless and rejected. The Jews forsook Jehovah, defied His providential arrangements and brought eternal blight upon a land “flowing with milk and honey.”
“Such acts
Of contumacy will provoke the Highest
To make death in us live.”—Milton.
DIVINE SECRETS.—Deu_29:29 This passage suggests
I. That there are in the universe certain domains accessible to none but God. This passage holds true. First—In reference to material creation. There are secrets which Nature has not whispered in the ear of her most ardent lovers. Second—In reference to the decrees of Providence. Cross-providences, etc. “Clouds and darkness are round about him.” Social inequalities, etc. Third—In reference to the mysteries of redemption. “Great is the mystery, etc.” “The angels desire to look into these things.”
II. That impenetrable secrecy is compatable with paternal benevolence. All nature proves this. Family mercies prove this. Never make God’s secrets a plea for neglecting His bounties.
III. That divine secrecy is no argument for human disobedience. “Those things which are revealed belong unto us.” Here we have three ideas. First—An acknowledgment of a Divine revelation. Second—The confession of our relationship to God. He has given us laws, etc. Third—An implication of our power to obey the Divine requirements. The “revealed” things “belong unto us, for obedience” etc.
IV. That inquisitiveness into secret things is a fruitful cause of scepticism Man will pry into the forbidden. One kind of inquisitiveness (Eve’s) has in flicted fatal misery on millions! Let us leave God to deal with His own decrees, to manage the boundless realm of causes, and to work out His inconceivable purposes. It is right that there should he subjects above our comprehension, could we comprehend all, we should be gods and not men.
Brethren! Seek not to penetrate the secret recesses of God’s tabernacle. “Who can by searching, find out God?” He has permitted us to enter the antechamber. Let us learn to reverence, to labour, and to wait. In due time the King will admit us further. We shall be taken to higher altitudes, and
“There we shall see His face.
And never, never sin.”
Dr. J. Parker,
SECRET THINGS.—Deu_29:29
This seems to be an answer to a question which the people might naturally put after some threatenings. After all miracles, mercies, and corrections, shall we be so wicked as to provoke God to destroy us? Will our posterity become so profligate as to bring upon themselves such unexampled calamities? Moses replies, “The secret, therefore.” Such events are hidden in future. You know enough to avoid punishment and secure favour. Render present obedience and busy not yourselves about things beyond your knowledge.
I. That there are things revealed which we know and ought to practice. “The things which are revealed belong to us.”
1. Truths to be received. Truths concerning God, man, Jesus Christ—doctrines to create wonder and admiration, to excite joy and stimulate study.
2. Duties to be performed. Duties to God, ourselves and our neighbours—duties which make life easy and happy, which solve doubt and please God when performed. If this will not satisfy, curiosity would disquiet, if we had the powers and capacities of angels.
II. That there are things which cannot be discovered and should not engage our attention. “Secret things.” Mysteries of nature, events of providence, and circumstances of social and individual life which puzzle the wisest. We are finite in capacity and only know in part. The unknown is a universe of endless wonders, the revelations of which are in the wise keeping of God. “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.” The first lesson Pythagoras taught was silence. We must restrain curiosity and check pride. Act our part and not speculate. For “he giveth not account of any of his matters.” “How unsearchable are his judgments (decisions), and his ways (modes of executing), past finding out (undiscoverable) Rom_11:33.
III. That our welfare is secured only by practising things which are revealed. “That ye may do.” Revelation is given, not to indulge curiosity, but to provide a remedy for our blindness and misery. Light enough to make faith rational, duty plain, and unbelief without excuse. “Were the curtain lifted further from holy mysteries, man would be lost in hopeless bewilderment” (Hare). “Things revealed” should be the precious portion “for us and for our children.” To believe and obey here will be our preparation and safety for that world in which we shall know as also we are known.”
Thy God hath said ‘tis good for thee
To walk by faith and not by sight.
Take it on trust a little while,
Soon shalt thou read the mystery right,
In the bright sunshine of His smile.—Keble.
THE ADVANTAGES OF SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE
Consider—I. That there is a limit with respect to our knowledge of God and of Divine things. There is much mystery with regard—
1. Doctrines’.
2. Promises;
3. Divine Dispensations. II. That within the boundary of that limit there is much with which we can and ought to be acquainted; “the things which are revealed, etc.”—Consider—
1. Where the revelation of these things is to be formed;
2. Of which it consists;
3. For whose advantage it was given. III. That the experimental knowledge of that which is attainable will be accompanied with practical results.—E. Tottenham, M. A.
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Deu_29:22 to Deu_28:1. The cursed land.
2. The disinherited people.
3. The stranger’s wonder.
4. The solemn warning. “Thus the law of Moses leaves sinners under the curse, and rooted out of the Lord’s land; but the grace of Christ towards penitent believing sinners plants them again upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up, being kept by the power of God (Amo_9:15).—Ainsworth.
Deu_29:26. God the portion of His people. “Whom he had, &c,” Heb., signifies portion, lot, and may be rendered, “There was no portion to them: that is, the gods they served could neither supply their wants nor save their souls; they were no portion” (A. Clarke). A contrast to Jehovah.
Deu_29:28. Cast them with a violence, with a vengeance;—in the Hebrew word cast hath an extraordinary great letter:—sling them out as out of a sling (1Sa_25:29).—Trapp.
Deu_29:29, Learn
1. God’s ways are not comprehended by His short sighted creatures.
2. God is not bound to explain His ways to any of His creatures.
3. God gives means to instruct His creatures in things needful. Therefore cease to strive and cavil; learn to submit, trust solely. Secret things. God hath three sorts of secrets; first, the secret of His counsel and decrees; secondly, the secrets of His providence and outward administrations; thirdly, the secrets of his spirit and grace. From the two former God hath locked out the holiest of men as the apostles challenge, Rom_11:34, and David intimates. Psa_3:2 (Caryl). The writer of Reminiscences of Robert Hall says I requested him to print a sermon from Deu_29:29. “Why, Sir, I did not reserve any notes of it; I almost forgot it. Do you remember how I treated it, Sir?” “Yes, Sir, I think I recollect. First, you noticed the decrees of the Divine Being; secondly, the mysteries of Christian truth; thirdly, the concerns of human life.” “Aye, I remember it now, Sir; I believe you are right.”
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 29
Deu_29:4. Ears to hear. As it is difficult to strike the right tone and key to make a deaf person hear, it was difficult to find such forms of thought and expression as would make their way into the ear of their mind.
Deu_29:5. Clothes. Clothes are for necessity; warm clothes, for health; cleanly, for decency; lasting, for thrift; and rich, for magnificence.—Dr. Fuller.
Deu_29:6. Know. He shall never want mercy who does not wanton mercy.—W. Seeker. To bless God for mercies is the way to increase them.—Idem.
Poor soul I God’s goodness hath been great to thee;
Let never day nor night unhallow’d pass,
But still remember what the Lord hath done.
—2 King Henry VI.
Deu_29:10-15. Covenant. Consecration makes not a place sacred, but only solemnly declares it so.—Dr. South. Consecration is going out into the world where God Almighty is, and using every power for His glory. It is taking all advantages as trust finds—as confidential debts owed to God. It is simply dedicating one’s life, in its whole flow, to God’s service.—H. W. Beecher.
Deu_29:18. Wormwood. And certainly the more a man drinketh of the world the more it intoxicateth.—Bacon. Our God. No religious things can satisfy a living religious soul. Life craves life for its satisfaction; the living soul cries out for the living God.—Dr. Allon.
Deu_29:19.—Drunkenness to thirst. Thirst teaches all animals to drink, but drunkenness belongs only to man.—Fielding.
Pleasure is good, and man for pleasure made;
But pleasure full of glory as of joy,
Pleasure which neither blushes nor expires.
—Dr. E. Young,
Deu_29:21. Curses. The noblest reward of nature is nature itself and the extremest punishment of vice is vice itself.—Ld. Bacon.
Know then this truth, enough for man to know
Virtue alone is happiness below.
—Pops.
Deu_29:23-27. The land. See Thomson Ld. and Bk. Volney’s “Ruins of Empires,” Bk. 2.
Deu_29:29. Secret things. A cocklefish might as well attempt to bring the ocean into its little shell as a man attempt to understand the ways of God.—Bp. Beveridge. In His purposes and His dispensations He is equally and perfectly independent, infinitely exalted above the supervision or direction of His creatures—Hodge.
And he who waits to have his task marked out Shall die, and leave his errand unfulfilled.
—Lowell
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Intense in their significance, fresh in their solemnity, as…
Deu 29:10
Intense in their significance, fresh in their solemnity, as when Moses uttered them to the listening multitudes on the farther shores of Jordan, the echo of these warning words rolls to us across the centuries. They express the formative principle, the regulating conception, the inspiring influence, of every greatly Christian life. The very differentia of such a life—that is, its distinguishing feature—is this, that it is spent always and consciously in the presence of God.
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From the fact that we stand before God we gather: (1) A lesson of warning. Surely there is a warning—for the forgetful a startling, for the guilty a terrible, even for the good man a very solemn warning—in the thought that not only our life in its every incident, but even our heart in its utmost secrets, lies naked and open before Him with whom we have to do. (2) The thought that we stand before God involves not only a sense of warning, but a sense of elevation, of ennoblement. It is a sweet and a lofty doctrine, the highest source of all the dignity and grandeur of life. (3) A third consequence of life spent consciously in God’s presence is a firm, unflinching, unwavering sense of duty. A life regardful of duty is crowned with an object, directed by a purpose, inspired by an enthusiasm, till the very humblest routine carried out conscientiously for the sake of God is elevated into moral grandeur, and the very obscurest office becomes an imperial stage on which all the virtues play. (4) The fourth consequence is a sense of holiness. God requires not only duty, but holiness. He searcheth the spirits; He discerneth the very reins and heart. (5) This thought encourages us with a certainty of help and strength. The God before whom we stand is not only our Judge and our Creator, but also our Father and our Friend. He is revealed to us in Christ, our elder Brother in the great family of God.
F. W. Farrar, In the Days of thy Youth, p. 1.
Reference: Deu 29:18.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii., No. 723.
Deu 29:19
Certain temptations assail us as powerfully through the imagination as if they assumed the most distinctly palpable and tangible form. Eve was assailed through her imagination when the devil said to her, "Ye shall be as gods;" and Jesus Christ was assailed through His imagination when the "kingdoms of the world and the glory of them" were offered to Him.
I. If temptation were to come to us in all its grossness, and force upon the calm, steady eyes of our reason its vilest aspect and purpose, it would have small chance with us. But it comes through an imagination which throws its hideousness into perspective and creates a halo around its immediate advantages. So we dupe our own hearts, and light our way with the lamp of fancy into the darkness where no lamp can burn.
II. It is imagination, too, that supplies a ready answer to the reproaches of conscience. Good is to come out of the evil. Imagination pleads that its purpose has in some way miscarried, or the evil would certainly have been less.
III. The sinful exercise of the imagination is not the less, but probably the more, aggravated because of its supposed secrecy.
The subject thus opened reminds us: (1) of the intense and awful spirituality of God and His judgment; (2) of the wonderful provision He has made for the cleansing and inspiration of our innermost thoughts.
Parker, The Ark of God, p. 296.
Deu 29:29
I. There are certain domains of thought and government accessible to none but God.
II. Impenetrable secrecy is compatible with paternal benevolence.
III. Divine secrecy is no plea for human disobedience. In the words of our text we have: (1) an acknowledgment of a Divine revelation—"the things which are revealed." (2) A definition of the relationship in which God stands to humankind—"all the words of this law." Then God is our Lawgiver. (3) A distinct recognition of man’s power to obey the law—"that we may do all the words."
IV. Inquisitiveness into secret things will necessarily produce great unrest.
Parker, Hidden Springs, p. 172 (see also The City Temple, vol. iii., p. 325).
The fact that there are some mysteries which are insoluble is attested: (1) by the long and painful experience of mankind; (2) by the teaching of the materialistic thinkers of the day. The text recognises alike the spirit of uninquiring reverence and of rational freedom.
I. Some men say, "We cannot accept revelation. We accept the excellent moral teachings of the Bible, because they commend themselves to our reason and to the reason of the race; but what we cannot accept are these mysteries which are revealed in the New Testament." In answer to this we reply, A mystery is not a revelation. It is the very opposite of a revelation. We freely admit that there are mysteries confronting us in the Old and New Testaments. Truths are intimated, suggested, pointed at, dimly outlined, like a mountain castle scarce seen through the mists of evening which fill the valley; but, inasmuch as they are not clear, to that extent they cannot be said to be revealed. These things are beyond us. They are Divine mysteries which it is reverent for us to place with the secret things which belong unto the Lord God.
II. There are those who say they cannot receive a revelation on the ground that it is supernatural, that they only know that which comes through the mind of man and is capable of justifying itself to the human reason. Now we affirm that the Bible revelations have come through the mind of man. They were convictions, certainties, in some man’s mind, which he declared to his fellows. A truth of inspiration is no truer than a truth of induction or demonstration. Truth is simply truth wherever it may come from or however it may be demonstrated. Revelation is natural and at the same time supernatural. It comes from the mind of man; it comes according to the mind and demonstration of God.
III. The one ever-speaking revelation of the mind of God is the history of man. "If we miss the truth," says Jeremy Taylor, "it is because we will not find it, for certain it is that all the truth which God hath made necessary He hath also made legible and plain; and if we will open our eyes, we shall see the sun, and if we will walk in the light, we shall rejoice in the light."
W. Page Roberts, Liberalism in Religion, pp. 28, 38.
References: Deu 29:29.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 193; R. Macellar, Memorials of a Ministry on the Clyde, p. 81; Parker, vol. iv., p. 324. Deu 30:6.—Sermons for the Christian Seasons, 1st series, vol. iv., p. 73. Deu 30:11-14.—S. Cox, Expositions, 2nd series, p. 350. Deu 30:14.—J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 1st series, p. 10.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Exhortations and Warnings
Exhortations and Warnings
In this chapter the covenant is renewed and enforced with a reminder of God's goodness and the consequences of disobedience.
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3. Temptations] i.e. provings or trials: see n Deu_7:19.
4. The people have not laid these things to heart. For the form of expression see on the 'hardening of Pharaoh's heart' (Exo_4:21).
6. Not eaten bread] but manna. They have been entirely dependent on God, and His care in providing for them should teach them humility and obedience. The goodness of God should lead to repentance.
11. Your little ones] Children share the privileges and responsibilities of the covenant into which they enter by circumcision.
15. With him that is not here] i.e. with succeeding generations: see on Deu_5:3.
18. A root that beareth gall and wormwood] The reference is to any one who secretly entices his neighbours to idolatry: see Deu_13:6, Deu_13:13, and for an instance Jos_7:13, Jos_7:25. The words are used in Heb_12:15.
19. Imagination] RV 'stubbornness.' To add drunkenness to thirst] i.e. the commission of the sin to the desire to commit it. RV, however, renders the words 'to destroy the moist with the dry,' which seems to be a proverbial expression, like 'root and branch,' indicating the destruction of the whole nation. The sinner perishes not alone in his iniquity, but involves others along with him. The LXX seems to understand the phrase in this sense, for it has 'lest the sinner destroy the innocent along with him.' Achan again furnishes an illustration. See Jos_22:20.
23. Contrast the description of the good land that Jehovah intends His people to enjoy, Deu_8:7, Deu_8:9.
24. Cp. Jer_5:19; Jer_22:8, Jer_22:9.
29. The meaning of this v. seems to be, 'we know not the entire nature and extent of the divine judgments; it is enough for us and for our children to have heard the commandments of God and to do them.'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 25. The Repetition of the Covenant and the Repetition…
25. The Repetition of the Covenant and the Repetition of the Curse
CHAPTER 29
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1. The repetition of the covenant (Deu 29:1-15)
2. The repetition of the curse (Deu 29:16-29)
The words of the covenant are once more brought to their remembrance. Once more all the goodness of the Lord towards them is unfolded by Moses, how the Lord had dealt with Egypt and how their eyes had seen the signs and great miracles. (Verses 5 and 6 are the direct words of Jehovah, ending with the declaration, “I am the LORD, your God.”) Again the forty years are mentioned, during which their clothes and their shoes did not get old. God took care of them and provided for their needs in the wilderness. Bread from heaven was their portion and therefore they had no need of stimulants, such as wine and strong drink (verse 6). But in the midst of these words, calling to remembrance the goodness and faithfulness of the Lord, we find a solemn statement: “Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day” (verse 4). In all the manifestations they had remained without understanding and their heart was not touched and broken down. Therefore these gracious dealings are here repeated, that they might receive understanding and love and obey the Lord with all their heart. But they were a stiffnecked people, their heart of stone. How fully Israel’s history illustrates the words of our Lord, “that which is born of the flesh is flesh!” Later, when Israel went deeper and deeper into apostasy, Isaiah received the message, “Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed and perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart, and convert and be healed” (Isa 6:9-10). Judicial blindness came upon them when they rejected the Lord of Glory (Mat 13:14-15; Joh 7:40; Act 28:26-27). See also Stephen’s testimony given in the power of the Holy Spirit (Act 7:51-52). But a day is coming when there will be for that nation a New Testament (Jer 31:31-34; Heb 8:7-11). Then Eze 36:24-31 will be fulfilled. A careful reading of these passages will be helpful.
Here the Lord reminded them of what He had done for them to show them the claim He has on their obedience. “Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all ye do.”
After an earnest appeal to enter into the covenant, including the little ones, the stranger, the hewer of the wood and the water-carrier (Jos 9:21; Jos 9:27), we find the curse mentioned once more as the result of departure from the Lord. Especially interesting are verses 22-24. Such evil is to come upon them and upon the land, that “the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sickness which the LORD has laid upon it ... even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this land? What meaneth the heat of this great anger?” Strangers from far lands, tourists and pilgrims, have visited Palestine in fulfilment of this prediction and in view of the deplorable condition of that land have often asked these questions and known their answer. “Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which He made with them, when He brought them forth out of the land of Egypt.”
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 10 Of the Deliverance from Egypt—
Of the Deliverance from Egypt—
v. 1. These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, while they were still encamped in the steppes east of Jordan, beside the covenant which He made with them in Horeb. This verse is inserted to form the transition from the preceding speeches and to be the title of the last admonitions of Moses, especially of his urgent invitation to be mindful of the covenant and to keep its obligations sacred.
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v. 2. And Moses called unto all Israel, all the members of the Lord’s people being included in this summons, and said unto them, Ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh and unto all his servants and unto all his land, all the older ones of them having been eye-witnesses of the works of the Lord;
v. 3. the great temptations which thine eyes have seen, by which the Lord tested the attitude of Pharaoh, the signs and those great miracles, Deu 4:34; Deu 7:19;
v. 4. yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear unto this day. Cf Deu 5:26. The outer senses of their bodies had indeed taken note of what happened, but they were still lacking in inner understanding.
v. 5. And I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot, not only did they always have clothes when they needed them, but the very ones which they wore had lasting qualities beyond those of ordinary garments, Deu 8:3-4.
v. 6. Ye have not eaten bread, since the Lord nourished them with manna during the wilderness journey, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink, like men devoted to the Lord, that ye might know that I am the Lord, your God.
v. 7. And when ye came unto this place, the region east of Jordan, Sihon, the king of Heshbon, and Og, the king of Bashan, came out against us unto battle, and we smote them, Deu 2:32; Deu 3:1; Num 21:21-35;
v. 8. and we took their land and gave it for an inheritance unto the Reubenites and to the Gadites and to the half tribe of Manasseh, Deu 3:12-13.
v. 9. Keep, therefore, because of all these special miracles of the Lord they were to act wisely and observe the words of this covenant and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do; the proper attitude of the heart and mind toward Jehovah is in itself a reward, but the Lord wanted to give them, in addition, outward prosperity. Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come, 1Ti 4:8.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 5, 7, 10, 12, 14 These are the words that Yahweh commanded Moses to…
These are the words that Yahweh commanded Moses to tell
This refers to words that Moses is about to speak.
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in the land of Moab
This is on the east side of the Jordan where the Israelites were staying before they entered the land of Canaan. "while they were in the land of Moab"
words that were added to the covenant ... at Horeb
These additional commands were given to make Yahweh's covenant apply better to the people once they were settled in their new land. These new commands did not belong to a different covenant, but rather were additions to the original covenant.
translationWords
word
Yahweh
command
Moses
people group
Israel
Moab
covenant
Horeb
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 15 29:1 The land of Moab was the region east…
29:1 The land of Moab was the region east of the Jordan where Deuteronomy was composed and delivered to Israel.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.