For this commandment which I command you today is not too hard for you or too distant.
Parallel Translations
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For this commandment which I command you today is not too hard for you or too distant.
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For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off.
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For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not too hard for thee, neither is it far off.
Cross-references (4)
Passages linked to Deuteronomy 30:11 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 147:19-20 He shows his word to Jacob, his statutes and his ordinances to Israel. He has not done this for just any nation. They don’t know his ordinances. Praise Yah!
- Isaiah 45:19 I have not spoken in secret, in a place of the land of darkness. I didn’t say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I, Yahweh, speak righteousness. I declare things that are right.
- Romans 16:25-26
- Colossians 1:26-27 the mystery which has been hidden for ages and generations. But now it has been revealed to his saints, to whom God was pleased to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (20 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain The Law is so evident that none can pretend…
The Law is so evident that none can pretend ignorance.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Deu 30:11 For this commandment which I command thee…
Deu 30:11 For this commandment which I command thee this day, it [is] not hidden from thee, neither [is] it far off.
Ver. 11. For this commandment.] This word of faith, {Rom 10:8} that teacheth the righteousness of faith, {Rom 10:6} and speaketh on this wise, the doctrine of salvation by faith that works by love, this is clearly enough revealed in both Testaments, so that none can reasonably plead ignorance, and think to be excused by it.
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 He seems to speak of the law, or of…
He seems to speak of the law, or of that great command of loving and obeying God, mentioned here Deu 30:2,6,10,16, which is the sum of the law, of which yet he doth not here speak simply, or as it is in itself, but as it is mollified and accompanied with the grace of the gospel, whereby God circumciseth men’s hearts to do this, as is expressed Deu 30:6. The meaning is, that although the practice of God’s law strictly and severely be now far from us, and above our strength, yet, considering the advantage of gospel grace, whereby God enables us in some measure to our duty, and accepts of our sincere endeavours instead of perfection, and imputes Christ’s perfect righteousness unto us that believe, now it is near and easy to us. And so this place well agrees with Rom 10:6, &c., where St. Paul expounds or applies this place to the righteousness of faith, by which alone the law is such as it is here described.
It is not hidden from thee, Heb. is not too wonderful for thee, as Deu 17:8; Pro 30:18; Jer 32:17, i.e. not too hard for thee to know and do: the will of God, which is but darkly manifested to other nations, Act 17:27, is clearly and fully revealed unto thee; thou canst not pretend ignorance or invincible difficulty.
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Far off, i.e. out of thy reach.
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 Moses here urges them to obedience from the consideration…
Moses here urges them to obedience from the consideration of the plainness and easiness of the command.
I. This is true of the law of Moses. They could never plead in excuse of their disobedience that God had enjoined them that which was either unintelligible or impracticable, impossible to be known or to be done (Deu 30:11): It is not hidden from thee. That is, not send messengers to heaven (Deu 30:12), to enquire what thou must do to please God; nor needest thou go beyond sea (Deu 30:13), as the philosophers did, that travelled through many and distant regions in pursuit of learning; no, thou art not put to that labour and expense; nor is the commandment within the reach of those only that have a great estate or a refined genius, but it is very nigh unto thee, Deu 30:14. It is written in thy books, made plain upon tables, so that he that runs may read it; thy priests' lips keep this knowledge, and, when any difficulty arises, thou mayest ask the law at their mouth, Mal 2:7. It is not communicated in a strange language; but it is in thy mouth, that is, in the vulgar tongue that is commonly used by thee, in which thou mayest hear it read, and talk of it familiarly among thy children. It is not wrapped up in obscure phrases or figures to puzzle and amuse thee, or in hieroglyphics, but it is in thy heart; it is delivered in such a manner as that it is level to thy capacity, even to the capacity of the meanest." 2. "It is not too hard nor heavy for thee:" so the Septuagint reads it, Deu 30:11. Thou needest not say, "As good attempt to climb to heaven, or flee upon the wings of the morning to the uttermost part of the sea, as go about to do all the words of this law:" no, the matter is not so; it is no such intolerable yoke as some ill-minded people represent it. It was indeed a heavy yoke in comparison with that of Christ (Act 15:10), but not in comparison with the idolatrous services of the neighbouring nations. God appeals to themselves that he had not made them to serve with an offering, nor wearied them with incense, Isa 43:23; Mic 6:3. But he speaks especially of the moral law, and its precepts: "That is very nigh thee, consonant to the law of nature, which would have been found in every man's heart, and every man's mouth, if he would but have attended to it. There is that in thee which consents to the law that it is good, Rom 7:16. Thou hast therefore no reason to complain of any insuperable difficulty in the observance of it."
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II. This is true of the gospel of Christ, to which the apostle applies it, and makes it the language of the righteousness which is of faith, Rom 10:6-8. And many think this is principally intended by Moses here; for he wrote of Christ, Joh 5:46. This is God's commandment now under the gospel that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, Jo1 3:23. If we ask, as the blind man did, Lord, who is he? or where is he, that we may believe on him? (Joh 9:36), this scripture gives an answer, We need not go up to heaven, to fetch him thence, for he has come down thence in his incarnation; nor down to the deep, to fetch him thence, for thence he has come up in his resurrection. But the word is nigh us, and Christ in that word; so that if we believe with the heart that the promises of the incarnation and resurrection of the Messiah are fulfilled in our Lord Jesus, and receive him accordingly, and confess him with our mouth, we have then Christ with us, and we shall be saved. He is near, very near, that justifies us. The law was plain and easy, but the gospel much more so.
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 For this commandment which I command thee this day,....…
For this commandment which I command thee this day,.... Which the Jews understand of the law, but the Apostle Paul has taught us to interpret it of the word of faith, the Gospel preached by him and other ministers, Rom 10:6; which better suits with the context, and the prophecies before delivered concerning the conversion of the Jews, their reception of the Messiah, and his Gospel:
it is not hidden from thee; being clearly revealed, plainly and fully preached: if hidden from any, it is from them that are lost; from the wise and prudent, while it is revealed to babes, and given to them to know the mysteries of it: or too "wonderful" (q); hard, difficult, and impossible; its doctrines, are not beyond the understanding of an enlightened person; they are all plain to them that understand and find the knowledge of them; and the ordinances of it are not too hard and difficult to be kept; the commandments of Christ are not grievous:
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neither is it far off; for though it is good, news from a far country, from heaven, it is come down from thence; it is brought nigh in the ministry of the word to the ears and hearts of men.
(q) "mirabile", Montanus, Cocceius.
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 This commandment - The great command of loving and…
This commandment - The great command of loving and obeying God, which is the sum of the law, of which yet he doth not here speak, as it is in itself, but as it is molified and accompanied with the grace of the gospel. The meaning is, that tho' the practice of God's laws be now far from us, and above our strength, yet, considering the advantage of gospel grace, whereby God enables us to do our duty, it is near and easy to us, who believe. And so this well agrees with Rom. x, 6, &c. where St. Paul applies this place to the righteousness of faith. Is not hidden - Hebrew. Is not too wonderful for thee, not too hard for thee to know and do. The will of God, which is but darkly manifested to other nations, Acts xvii, 27, is clearly and fully revealed unto thee: thou canst not pretend ignorance or invincible difficulty.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 11. This commandment - is not hidden] Not…
Verse 11. This commandment - is not hidden] Not too wonderful or difficult for thee to comprehend or perform, as the word niphleth implies. Neither is it far off - the word or doctrine of salvation shall be proclaimed in your own land; for HE is to be born in Bethlehem of Judah, who is to feed and save Israel; and the PROPHET who is to teach them is to be raised up from among their brethren.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Deu 30:11. This commandment — The great command of…
Deu 30:11. This commandment — The great command of loving and obeying God, which is the sum of the law, of which yet he doth not here speak as it is in itself, but as it is mollified and accompanied with the grace of the gospel. The meaning is, that though the practice of God’s laws be now far from us, and above our strength, yet, considering the advantage of gospel grace, whereby God enables us to do our duty, it is near and easy to us, who believe. And so this well agrees with Rom 10:6, &c., where St. Paul applies this place to the righteousness of faith. Is not hidden — Hebrew, Is not too wonderful for thee; not too hard for thee to know and do. The will of God, which is but darkly manifested to other nations, (Act 17:27,) is clearly and fully revealed unto thee: thou canst not pretend ignorance or invincible difficulty.
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 Ignorance of the requirements of the law cannot be…
Ignorance of the requirements of the law cannot be pleaded Deu 30:10-14; hence, Deu 30:15-20 life and death, good and evil, are solemnly set before the people for their own choice; and an earnest exhortation to choose the better part concludes the address.
Deu 30:11-14. “The righteousness which is of faith” is really and truly described in these words of the Law; and, under Paul’s guidance (see marginal references) we affirm was intended so to be. For the simplicity and accessibility which Moses here attributes to the Law of God neither is nor can be experimentally found in it except through the medium of faith; even though outwardly and in the letter that Law be written out for us so “that he may run that readeth,” and be set forth in its duties and its sanctions as plainly as it was before the Jews by Moses. The seeming ease of the commandment, and yet its real impossibility to the natural man, form part of the qualifications of the Law to be our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.
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Deu 30:11
Not hidden from thee - Rather, not too hard for thee, as in Deu 17:8.
Neither is it far off - Compare Luk 17:21.
Deu 30:13
The paraphrase of this verse in the Jerusalem Targum is noteworthy, and should be compared with Paul’s rendering in Rom 10:7 : “Neither is the law beyond the great sea, that thou shouldest say, Oh that we had one like Jonah the prophet who could descend into the depths of the sea and bring it to us!”
Deu 30:14
In thy mouth, and in, thy heart - Compare Deu 6:6; Deu 11:18-20.
Deu 30:20
That thou mayest love the Lord - Compare Deu 6:5. Love stands first as the essential and only source of obedience.
He is thy life - Or, “that” (i. e., “to love the Lord”) “is thy life;” i. e., the condition of thy life and of its prolongation in the promised land. Compare Deu 4:40; Deu 32:47.
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 Above. Hebrew, "separated, unknown," &c. Septuagint, "too heavy." St.…
Above. Hebrew, "separated, unknown," &c. Septuagint, "too heavy." St. Paul (Romans x. 6,) adapts this to the Christian law, which is the perfection of that given by Moses. The precepts of Jesus Christ are well known, and easily accomplished (Calmet) by the sincere lover of justice, (Haydock) assisted by powerful grace. (St. Augustine, q. 54.) St. Peter (Acts xv.) insinuates, that it was very difficult under the old law, to comply with all the regulations, at a time when the sacraments did not convey such great graces. (Du Hamel)
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).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain THE COMMANDMENT IS MANIFEST. (Deu 30:11-14)
THE COMMANDMENT IS MANIFEST. (Deu 30:11-14)
For this commandment . . . is not hidden . . . neither is it far off--That law of loving and obeying God, which was the subject of Moses' discourse, was well known to the Israelites. They could not plead ignorance of its existence and requirements. It was not concealed as an impenetrable mystery in heaven, for it had been revealed; nor was it carefully withheld from the people as a dangerous discovery; for the youngest and humblest of them were instructed in those truths, which were subjects of earnest study and research among the wisest and greatest of other nations. They were not under a necessity of undertaking long journeys or distant voyages, as many ancient sages did in quest of knowledge. They enjoyed the peculiar privilege of a familiar acquaintance with it. It was with them a subject of common conversation, engraven on their memories, and frequently explained and inculcated on their hearts. The apostle Paul (Rom 10:6-8) has applied this passage to the Gospel, for the law of Christ is substantially the same as that of Moses, only exhibited more clearly in its spiritual nature and extensive application; and, accompanied with the advantages of Gospel grace, it is practicable and easy.
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 11. Hidden from thee — Rather, is not too…
11. Hidden from thee — Rather, is not too difficult for thee. Jehovah has not imposed upon his people conditions impossible of fulfilment; nor are his requirements difficult of comprehension. “Nowhere does the fundamental religious thought of prophecy find clearer expression than in Deuteronomy — the thought that Jehovah asks nothing for himself, but asks it as a religious duty that man should render to man what is right — that his will lies not in any unknown height, but in the moral sphere which is known and understood by all.” J. WELLHAUSEN, in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9th ed., vol. xiii, pp. 415, 416.
Neither is it far off — Comp. Luk_17:21.
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 11. This commandment] Miṣwah, see on Deu_5:31, Deu_8:1. Here…
11. This commandment] Miṣwah, see on Deu_5:31, Deu_8:1. Here probably both the substance of the Law—the enforcement of a loyal, loving obedience to Jehovah—and its various statutes and judgements.
which I command thee this day] Deu_8:1, Deu_27:1, etc.
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too hard] So in Deu_17:8; beyond one’s power to do, 2Sa_13:2, or to understand, Psa_131:1 (2); more frequently used of wonderful things, or extraordinary; Psa_119:129 : Thy testimonies are wonderful, therefore doth my soul keep them—an interesting contrast to this clause.
11–14. The Conscience of the Law
11–20. The Close of the Concluding Addresses
The commandment is not too hard nor distant, but near, articulate, intelligible and practicable (Deu_30:11-14). Sheer life and death, good and evil, is set before Israel. Obedience means blessing, apostasy destruction (Deu_30:15-19 a). Choose life that thou mayest dwell in the land, sworn to thy fathers (Deu_30:19 b – Deu_30:20).—The discourse turns back to the present of the (assumed) speaker and closes the whole series of his addresses upon the keynotes which have rung through them. As Driver says, ‘it is next to impossible that Deu_30:11-20 can have been originally the sequel of Deu_30:1-10.’ Deu_30:11-14 may be a fragment from an unknown source, for their subject connects neither with Deu_30:10 (Berth. and Marti notwithstanding) nor with anything else in Deut. except Deu_29:29 (28), which however is in the Pl. address. Deu_30:15-20 supply the needed peroration to 28, which ends abruptly; but the changes of address in them point to their editorial origin.
It is the old question whether the same writer thus clenches his argument with the repetition of a number of his formulas or the hand of a later editor has collected these. The probability is with the latter. Cullen takes Deu_30:11-20 as part of his Book of the Miṣwah, in his scheme the original Deuteronomy. Berth. regards Deu_30:15-20 as immediately following 28, and as belonging, therefore, to D. Steuern. holds at least Deu_30:15 b, Deu_30:19 b, and part of 20 as D’s. The changes of the form of address are signs that the passage largely consists of quotations.
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 Deu_30:11-14. THE LAW OF THE RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH is OF…
Deu_30:11-14. THE LAW OF THE RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH is OF FAITH.
(11) For this commandment.—Heb., Mitzvah. This duty, this form of obedience to the law.
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Is not hidden from thee—i.e., not too hard. Literally, too wonderful for thee. (Comp. Deu_17:8; Psa_139:6.)
(12) It is not in heaven.—St. Paul cites the words thus: “The righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? that is, to bring Christ down from above” (Rom_10:6-7).
(13) Neither is it beyond the sea.—St. Paul continues, “Or (say not), Who shall descend into the deep? that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.” The alteration here is remarkable. The LXX. will not account for it. “Beyond the sea” generally suggests the idea of a land on the other side of the surface of the ocean. But a descent into the “abyss,” which is what St. Paul indicates, means a passage through the sea to that which is beneath it, “beyond the sea “in a very different sense. No one but Jonah ever went beyond the sea in this way, as he says, “Out of the belly of hell cried I . . . Thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the heart of the seas . . . I went down to the bottoms of the mountains . . . The deep (abyss) closed me about.” And this descent of Jonah is chosen as the “sign” of Christ’s descent into hell.
(14) But the word is very nigh unto thee.—Here the difference between the Jewish and the Christian commentator is very striking. “The Law is given you in Scripture and in tradition” (written and orally), says Rashi on this place. But St. Paul continues thus: “But what saith it (the righteousness of faith)? The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in thine heart, that is, the word of faith which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” It is worthy of notice that St. Paul in this place contrasts the righteousness of faith with the righteousness of the law, and describes both alike in the words of the Pentateuch. Concerning the righteousness of the law, he says, Moses describeth it, “The man which doeth those things shall live by them.” The citation is from Lev_18:5. And there is a similar passage in Deu_6:25. What could more clearly prove that the covenant of Deuteronomy 28, 29 was meant to present the way of salvation from a different point of view to the Sinaitic covenant, and was “beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.” Not that we are to suppose there was ever a different way of salvation. The Decalogue itself begins (like the new covenant) with “I am the Lord thy God.” But, unlike the new covenant, it makes no provision whereby Israel may keep the laws arising out of the relationship. The new covenant not only asserts the relationship, but provides the means whereby men may walk worthy of it. “I will put my laws in their mind, and write them in their heart.” (See Note on Deu_29:13.)
It is only in the power of this principle that Moses, in the exhortation which he founds on this statement of the way of righteousness through faith, could say as he did in Deu_30:19, “therefore choose life.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 11-14. The fulfillment of this condition was not…
Vers. 11-14. The fulfillment of this condition was not impossible or even difficult; for God had done everything to render it easy for them. The commandment of God was not hidden from them; literally, was not wonderful to them; i.e. hard to be understood or to perform (see the use of the Hebrew word in Psa_131:1; Pro_30:18) nor was it far off; it was not in heaveni.e. though heavenly in its source, it had not remained there, but had been revealed so that there was no need for any one to say, Who will ascend to heaven, and bring it down to us, that we may hear it, and do it? The idea is not, as Keil suggests, that of "an inaccessible height" which none could scale; nor is it, as suggested by Knobel, that of something "incomprehensible, impracticable, and superhuman;" it is simply a statement of fact that the Law had not been retained in heaven, but had been revealed to men. Nor was this revelation made in some far distant place across the sea, so that any need say, Who will go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? On the contrary, it was very near to them, had been disclosed in words so that they could utter it with their own mouth, converse over it, and ponder it in their hearts. (cf. Isa_45:19; Jer_23:28; Rom_10:6) In the allusion to the sea, the representation is not that of depth (Targum Jon.), but that of distance.
Vers. 11-14 (comp. with Rom_10:6-13)
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The word of faith.
No Christian preacher is likely ever to deal with these words of Moses without setting by the side thereof the words of the Apostle Paul respecting them, in which, indeed, we have the best possible exposition of and commentary upon them. We propose to give an outline Homily thereupon.
I THERE IS A "WORD OF FAITH" WHICH, THOUGH ANTICIPATED IN THE OLDEN TIME, IS NOW MADE THE BURDEN OF CHRISTIAN PREACHING.
1. There is a grand thesis to be maintained throughout all time, viz. that Jesus is Lord. (Rom_10:9; 1Co_12:3; Php_2:11)
2. There is a twofold duty required with reference thereto.
(1) Believing.
(2) Confessing, i.e.
(a) letting the faith cherished in the heart become a practical power in the life;
(b) letting the tongue speak for him;
(c) letting the noblest energy be spent for him.
We see why these two and just these are named. Believing is the attitude of the soul Godward. Confession is the attitude of the life manward. Both are required. A faith which can content itself without a confession, and a confession which has not its root in faith, are alike valueless.
3. There is a double effect of this double act.
(1) Faith the Godward act is followed by "righteousness," i.e. in Pauline usage, justification.
(2) Confession the manward life issues in "salvation," i.e. the sound use of all our spiritual powers. (cf. Act_4:9-12 (Greek) and 1Jn_1:7) The effects are as the duties. Justification is a right-setting before God. Salvation, a transformed life before man.
4. For all this we have the sure guarantee of God"s own Word. (Rom_10:11-13)
II THERE ARE SOME NOTEWORTHY FEATURES ABOUT THIS "WORD OF FAITH." Moses had said, "It is not too hard, nor too high, nor too far off (cf. Hebrew), but it is very near," etc. Paul quotes this with some variation, saying:
1. "It is near." It speaks to man"s inner self to his conscience.
2. "It is in thy mouth." In words which can be uttered to the people and by them.
3. "It is in thine heart." The word "heart," being quoted from Moses, we take rather in its Hebrew sense, as meaning "understanding," and thus the phrase would signify, "It is intelligible to you." Being thus near, we have not to go to heaven to fetch a Savior, nor to the grave to fetch him from the dead. He came. The work is done done for all, without distinction of persons. Done once and forever,
Hence
1. How large the encouragement to call on the Lord Jesus and be saved!
2. Men need not remain unsaved.
3. Men ought not to remain unsaved.
Vers. 11-14. The word of faith.
Paul, in Rom_10:6-10, applies these words to the "righteousness of faith," and contrasts them with the voice of the Law, which is, "The man which doeth those things shall live by them". (Rom_10:5) That this application is not a mere accommodation of the words of Moses to a new subject, will be evident from a brief consideration.
I ISRAEL AND THE "RIGHTEOUSNESS OF FAITH." The constitution under which Israel was placed, while formally a legal, was practically an evangelical one. On the legal footing, on any other footing than that of the "righteousness of faith," the statement that the commandment was neither far to seek nor difficult to obey would not have been true. The Law, as requiring perfect holiness, obedience unvarying and uninterrupted, prescribed as the condition of life (Rom_10:5) that which no one on earth, saint or sinner the sinner"s Savior only excepted has ever rendered. It was certainly "nigh," but, as a "ministration ofdeath condemnation", (2Co_3:7, 2Co_3:9) its nighness was no boon. How, then, was the curse averted or acceptance made possible? Not by the ability of the Israelite to yield an obedience adequate to the Law"s requirements, but by the introduction of the principle of grace. Sin was forgiven, and, shortcoming notwithstanding, the sincere worshipper accepted in "his full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience;" or rather, in view of his faith, of that spiritual trust in Jehovah in which these strivings after obedience had their origin. (Gen_15:6; Psa_32:1, Psa_32:2) The hidden ground of this acceptance was Christ, now manifested in the preaching of the gospel. (Ro 10) From this point of view, the commandment no longer towered above the Israelite, stern and forbidding, launching out curses against him, and filling him with dread and dismay; but its precepts were sweet and consolatory to him, and only filled him with the greater delight and love the longer he meditated on them or practiced himself in obeying them. (Psa_19:7-14 Ps 119) It is in this evangelical spirit we are undoubtedly to read these exhortations of Moses, whose standpoint, therefore, essentially harmonizes with that of Paul.
II ISRAEL AND THE NIGHNESS OF THE COMMANDMENT. "He hath showed thee, O man, what is good". (Mic_6:8) God had written to Israel the great things of his Law. (Hos_8:12) He had made known his Name, his precepts, the conditions of acceptable service, the way of life; had given that people a revelation, full, clear, adequate, adapted to their mental stature, and to their condition as sinners. This takes for granted the underlying evangelical element above referred to. Without that, the "commandment" would but have mocked their weakness. And it is this evangelical element in Moses" "commandment" which comes clearly to light in Christ, and which is embodied in Paul"s doctrine of the "righteousness of faith." The words of this passage apply with increased force to the historical revelation of the Savior. They strikingly suggest:
1. That man needs a revelation.
2. That he instinctively craves for one: "Who shall go up?" etc.
3. That he would sometimes make great sacrifices in order to get one: "Go up to heaven;" "go over the sea.
But the revelation which man needs most of all is the revelation of a Savior. He wants to know how he can escape from sin, from guilt, from wrath, from bondage; how he can be restored to holiness, to peace, to blessedness. The "commandment," in its wider sense, gave him this knowledge in part; the full discovery is in the gospel. The Word, in the preaching of this gospel, as well as in the circulation of copies of the Scriptures, and the innumerable opportunities enjoyed in Christian lands of getting acquainted with the way of life, has now come very nigh to us. It is in our mouths and in our hearts, while the salvation which the Word makes known is as readily available as the Word itself is simple and intelligible. "If thou shalt confess," etc.. (Rom_10:9)
III ISRAEL AND THE PRACTICABLENESS OF OBEDIENCE. The word which Moses gave was one which could be obeyed nay, obedience to which was easy. Only, however, provided there was circumcision of heart (ver. 6) a sincere willingness to know and to do God"s will. (Joh_7:17) To the natural heart the commandment is hard, and must always remain so. This, again, shows that the obedience Moses has in view is the spiritual, though not faultless, obedience of the believing and renewed heart the result of possession of and standing in the righteousness of faith. Only through faith relying on a word of grace, and apprehending mercy in the character of God, is such obedience possible. Ability to render it is included in that "being saved," which Paul posits as a result of believing with the heart in the crucified and risen Christ. (Rom_10:9) Observe, further, how the Law, with all its apparent complexity and cumbrousness, resolves itself in Moses" hands into one "commandment" (ver. 11). It is this which makes the Law simple, just as it is the simplicity of the gospel that it reduces all "works of God" to the one work of "believing on him whom he hath sent". (Joh_6:29) Amidst the multiplicity of commands, there was but one real command that of loving the Lord their God. (Deu_6:4 Deu_10:12; vers. 6, 10, 16, 20) In love is implied faith the knowing and believing the love which God has to us. Love is faith"s response to the revelation God makes of himself to man. Faith is thus the condition:
1. Of justification.
2. Of acceptableness in obedience.
3. Of power to render obedience. J.O.
Vers. 11-14. Revealed truth clear and available.
Dishonest minds are wont to plead that religious truth is recondite, self-contradictory, hard to be understood. Its obligations too, they aver, are impracticable, beyond the power of man to fulfill. Self-indulgence and impiety have never yet failed to frame excuses for their rejection of the Divine Word. But excuses avail them nothing. The indolent man has for long ages past learnt to say, "There is a lion in the path." Honest investigation soon finds the truth of God "worthy of all acceptation.
I OBSERVE THE AUTHORITY OF GOD"S WORD. It is a "commandment." It comes to men with all the character of a law. It is not possible that we should treat it as we please. We are not permitted to mutilate or dismember it not permitted to accept a part and reject a part. As in a tree the living sap runs into every branch and twig and leaf, so that we cannot pluck the tiniest part without breaking the vital current; so every part of God"s Scripture is instinct with high authority, nor can we neglect the least commandment without defying the majesty of heaven. We are bound to bow our wills to it; it will, in no degree, bend its requirements to suit our tastes.
II THE PERSPICUITY OF GOD"S WORD. Its essential truths are within the compass of every mind. Every man knows what it is to love; that love is due from each man to his Maker. Every child knows what obedience means; that obedience is due to the Father of our spirits. Truly, some facts concerning the eternal world are so profound that, like ocean-depths, human reason cannot fathom them. But these are not the facts which lie at the foundation of man"s safety and hope. The practical duties which appertain to virtue and well-being are so plain that even a child may understand. Whatever difficulty lies in the way of human obedience, it does not lie in the haze or uncertain meaning of the revelation. The difficulty is within a man, not without him. The objects of faith are clearly revealed; we want only an eye to discern them.
III THE ACCOMMODATENESS OF GOD"S WORD. On the part of scriptural truth, there is an exquisite fitness to meet the capacity of men"s minds and the needs of their souls. "The word is nigh thee; yea, in thy very heart." There is perfect accord between the constitution of the man and the contents of revelation. The Bible is the counterpart and complement of conscience. It is obvious that the Lord of conscience is Lord of Scripture also. The Bible says, "Thou hast sinned;" and conscience admits the fact. The Bible says, "Thou art helpless to save thyself;" and conscience knows it true. The Bible declares that happiness is inseparable from obedience; and conscience feels that it is so. There is a living witness in every man (until gagged by sin) which testifies to the authority and necessity and reasonableness of God"s Law.
IV THE PRACTICALNESS OF GOD"S WORD. "That thou mayest do it." Religious truth is not revealed to gratify a prurient curiosity, not to afford matter for speculation, but solely to promote obedience. To know God"s requirements will bring us no advantage unless we heartily and loyally do them. Accurate and orthodox beliefs convey, in themselves, no life nor joy. Right belief is barren and abortive until it brings forth active obedience. We are not to be judged at God"s tribunal for our opinions or theories, nor for our religious creeds; we are to be judged of "the deeds done in the body." "I was hungry, and ye gave me meat," will be the grounds of the judicial verdict. Practical service is the end and purpose of Divine revelation. D.
Vers. 11-14. The revelation at man"s door.
We have a very beautiful thought inserted by Moses regarding the proximity and handiness if we may be allowed the thought of God"s commandments. It is used by Paul in the same connection, and so adapted to the gospel as to show its practical tenor. (Rom_10:6-9) And here we would observe
I EXTRAVAGANT NOTIONS ARE ENTERTAINED OF WHAT A DIVINE REVELATION OUGHT TO BE. It is thought that it should be some far-away affair, to which none but seraphic spirits could soar; as high as heaven, and requiring vast powers and efforts to reach. Or it is thought to be as recondite as matters lying in the deep-sea bed, demanding such diving apparatus as practically to put it out of reach of ordinary mortals. This is the favorite notion of the self-confident critics, that a Divine revelation must be something attainable only by scholars, appreciable only by the geniuses of mankind.
II BUT AS A MATTER OF FACT, GOD"S REVELATION COMES DOWN TO EVERY MAN"S DOOR. God came down to Mount Sinai, and spoke to the people directly. The trouble then was that he was too near too homely; they wished him further away. Then prophets came, and forfifteen hundred years the word was brought very nigh to men. At last God"s Son became incarnate, and was each man"s Brother, and brought the message so close to men that only the proud escaped it. The whole genius of revelation is contained in the remarkable words, "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight". (Mat_11:25, Mat_11:26) The revelation is for babes; for men of a childlike not a childish spirit; for men who have laid aside their pride and presumption, and can take truth trustfully from the Infinite Father.
The idea is surely monstrous that God cannot break his Divine bread small enough for his human children; that none but men of a certain mental caliber can get hold of the food or digest it. It is surely a diviner plan to bring the truth so plainly home that none have any excuse for rejecting it.
III LET EACH OF US GIVE UP OUR GRAND EXCURSIONS BOTH SKYWARD AND SEAWARD, AND RECEIVE GOD"S MESSAGE BROUGHT NEAR US BY HIS SON. Pride is forever leading men upon some aerial or aquatic adventure, searching the heights of heaven on the wing of fancy or of speculation, or exploring the deepest depths, professedly to find truth and God. Philosophy is invoked, and everything brought to the test of it. Now, all this must be sacrificed before we receive the truth. We must humble ourselves, and recognize the truth brought in Jesus Christ to our very door. If we required terrific effort to reach the truth, we would boast that we had succeeded through that effort. If it depended on great mental powers and struggle, we would take credit for both. But the fact is, it is brought so near to each of us, and so plainly home, that not one of us can boast of our discovery, but only chide ourselves that it was so long near us and so long overlooked!
IV IT IS HERE THAT WE MUST BEGIN WITH THE JEWS. As a rule, they are so puffed up with pride and serf-importance, that the gospel is overlooked in its glorious proximity and adaptation. They think they are such linguists and such thinkers that none can instruct them, and the result is that the simplicity of the gospel escapes their notice altogether. The grandeur of what is simple and comprehensible by all who are not too proud to consider it must be urged with earnestness. The apologetic now needed is, not what follows speculation to its utmost height or utmost depth, and boasts itself of learning as great as the objector has; but what takes its firm stand upon the simplicity of revelation as the supreme proof that it is Divine. It seems to us that some of the apologetic to which we are now treated is as pedantic as those it desires to convince, and, in a contest of mere pedantry, it is sure to be defeated. Rather should we assure men that it is pedantry and pride which keeps them from discovering the wondrous revelation that lies so near us. Let Gentile and Jew give up the weary wandering, the "will-o"-the-wisp" work of pride, and recognize the God who is knocking at each man"s door. 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 This commandment, is not hidden.
Deu_30:11-14
This commandment, is not hidden.
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Three characteristics of salvation
I. Clearness. With the heart man believeth unto righteousness. Ah, you say, there it comes in again. Whenever we go elsewhere the intellect is exalted. And then you feel that the Church is to be condemned. But a mans brains are not the wisest part of him; there is a great deal about a man that is wiser than his brains. Thank God for that! He has insights, intuitions, sympathies, that are as reliable as the testimony of the senses or the inferences of logic. We cannot know God intellectually. God is great, as Job says, and we know Him not. Are we then to be Agnostics? Oh, no! There is another way of interpretation. John Bunyan had a blind daughter. She lived much with him; he was very fond of her. They said he would not let the wind blow on her. She never saw Bunyan; it was impossible for her to comprehend his genius; she was pathetically incapable of reading his books. But will anybody in this place tell me that that blind girl did not know Bunyan? She did not know him visually, did not know him historically or technically, but she knew Bunyan; she knew the man, and looked into his heart. With the heart man knows God. And so Paul says it is by the heart that you are to understand the redemption that is in Christ. You are not to follow it out as a scholar, not to master it as a reasoner, but with the instinct of the soul you are to grasp the love of God in Christ Jesus. Ah, you say, it is the old thing over again. Whenever we go to a school, to an institution, it is the old intellect, it is science; but as soon as ever we come here, it is sympathy. What! you understand nature by science? You understand nature a long while before you are a scientist, and a great many people have a wonderful delight in nature who have never had a tincture of science. A little child gets at it, and the poet, the painter, without any technical knowledge or mastery whatever. I tell you, there are thousands of people in this country who enjoy the sunshine--when they get it--but they do not know anything about astronomy. Their heart leaps up when they behold a rainbow in the sky, but they do not know anything about optics. And just as it is with your apprehension of nature, so it is with your apprehension of God, of Christ, of the mercies that have been declared in Christ Jesus to perishing men. Why, there is no greater mistake than for a man to preach Christianity philosophically and theologically. When I look at the sky I can see it is the sky; there is the sun, the moon, and the stars, it is superb. But when I take an astronomical book down and look at the sky they have covered the page with strange figures. There is the Ship, and the Whale, and the Swan, and the Little Bear, and the Great Bear, and a good many other things, and I should not know it was the sky if they were not to write underneath, This is the sky.
II. Nearness. All the best things are near us, as your poet tells you,--a mans best things are nearest to him, close about his feet. The things that you cannot get are the things you do not need. I do like that idea of the country people, to the effect that if there is any disease in a neighbourhood there is sure to be a remedy if you have only the wit to find it. They say that the bane and the antidote always go together. Whether it is a marshy district, a mountain side or a flowing river, they say that the plant always grows close by that cures the diseases peculiar to the district. Some of our scholars of late years have given a good deal of attention to the sacred books of the Orientals--the Hindu, the Greek, and the Persian--and I daresay have done it with great advantage, but mind you, there is no necessity for us to go to any Oriental oracle for Gods last words on the greatest questions. I noticed that a traveller who had been in Algiers said the other day that the natives of the Sahara have a curious idea that Europe is a waterless waste, and the reason why travellers go to the Sahara is that they may find a spring of water. Of course, if they had lived here a little lately they would have known better! What with our flowing rivers, our weeping skies, and our brimming reservoirs, we do not need to go to Algerian deserts for a spring of water. And I tell you that whatever purpose may be served by our great scholars going to Oriental countries, we need not go there for the vital truth that saves; for, blessed be God, here, close by us, is a Fountain of living water, of which, if a man shall drink, he shall never thirst again. You know that when the bad weather comes all our rich people leave us. They go for the good of their health, let us hope, and if you are rich you are pretty nearly sure to have bad health, and then leave us! They go to Algiers, they go to Egypt, they go to Malta, they go to the Nile, they go to the South of France, and they leave us to the fogs of London, and we have to get on as best we may. We have not the leisure nor the resources to go away. But what a lovely thing it is when we come to need a spiritual specific, when we need a remedy for the wrong of our spirits, that we need not cross the sea, for it is here. Lo, God is here, and I knew it not. He has been talking to you for years, persuading you to a nobler life. Your great difficulty has not been to find Christ, your great difficulty has been to keep Him out. Did you not notice when I read the lesson that the apostle speaks of men who go about seeking to establish their own righteousness, go about restless, dissatisfied, wandering? You never knew a flower go a-gypsying to find the sun. A flower never goes on a voyage of circumnavigation to look after a bee or a butterfly. It never strikes its tent and wanders about looking for the dew: Everything comes to it, and all that the flower has to do is to open its heart and take in the sweet influences of the sky, and everything that you want, the light to illuminate, the grace to save, the power to perfect, the peace that passeth all understanding, the hope that is full of glory--everything is near to you, and all that you have to do at this very moment is to open your heart and take it in.
III. Freeness. (W. L. Watkinson.)
The basis of belief
The writer of this book--the second giving of the law--declares, then, that the law is primarily in the heart of man. It is not outside of him--brought to him; it is within him. As the printer takes the white sheet of paper, on which nothing is written, and presses it against the bosom of the type and lifts it off, and there is written what was on the type, so the heart of man is pressed against the bosom of Almighty God, and on the heart of humanity itself is written the Divine law transferred thereto. And what is true of the law of God is true of the Gospel of God and of all religious truth. Not all the truth that is educed from religion, but all religious truth, is in the heart of humanity, and brought out from the heart of humanity by the providence, the influence, or the ministry of God. We know some things by reason of our external observation. They are not proved to us, they are brought to us by our senses. But all that science can do is to examine, to classify, to investigate, to arranged to study the phenomena that are thus brought to us by our observation. Our eyes bring to us the trees and the flowers: out of them science makes botany. Our observation brings to us the stars: out of them science educes astronomy. In an analogous method, the souls eyes bring to us knowledge of great, transcendent facts which lie in the inner world. Theology (which is the science of religion) cannot create them, any more than natural science can create natural phenomena. All that theology can do is to examine, to investigate. We know the facts of the inner life by the inner testimony, as we know the facts of the outer life by the outer testimony. If we do not know, it is because we are dead. If a man does not know there are trees and flowers, he is blind. What he wants is not argument, but an oculist. All that the logical faculty can do is to deal with the facts which the observation without or the observation within brings to our cognisance. It is thus that we know that there is a difference between right and wrong. We know that there is righteousness and unrighteousness, as we know that there is the beautiful and the ugly, the true and the false. This is a fundamental fact. It is not brought to us by any external revelation; it is not in the heaven above and brought down to us; it is not across the sea and brought over to us; it is within the soul and heart of man--he knows it. Knowing this, he may analyse, he may study, the nature of the difference. This is the anchor ground of religion--we know that there is righteousness. It is the foundation on which everything else is built. In precisely the same way, the great majority of men have some inward consciousness of God. They have some inward consciousness of a help on which they can lay hold and by which they can be aided. This consciousness does not define God to them. This consciousness of God within us we analyse, we examine, and the result of our investigations, we call theology. It is our creed. It may be right. It may be wrong. As a tree is something different from a definition of a tree, and a flower is something different from a definition of a flower, and a star is something different from the description of a star, so God is different from our theological definitions of God. And we have not to go back four thousand years to get the testimony of Moses that there was a God. Our belief in Christ is something more than a historical or theological belief. We believe in righteousness, and when we read this life of Christ we see there righteousness luminous and eloquent. We believe in God, and as we read this life we see the masked God withdrawing His mask, and letting His own face shine through. The world thought power was Divine, majesty was Divine, justice was Divine, greatness was Divine; and then there came One upon the earth, without power, and without external majesty, and without the signs and symbols of greatness; but He was patient, gentle, heroic, sympathetic--nay, more, rejoiced to bear not only the sorrows but the sins of others. And when that life was held up before humanity, humanity said, That is the Divinest yet; there is more majesty in love than in power, there is more strength in patience than in force. The heart of humanity answered to the portraiture of Christ, and responded to it. If, when that life is held up before a man, he says, I do not see anything beautiful in that life; there is nothing in it that attracts me. I would have liked Him better if He had made a fortune; I would have thought more of Him if Be had organised an army; I should have some admiration for Him if He had lived the life of a statesman; I do not care for Christ; give me Napoleon Bonaparte, you cannot argue with him. In him is lacking moral life, not understanding. There are not a few in our time who are asking for the evidence of immortality. They study nature, and evolution, and the Scriptures, and buttress, by these methods, a frail faith in immortality. The witness is in ourselves. Not a witness that we are going to live forever. That is not immortality. The witness is in ourselves that we are something more than the physical organisation which we inhabit. What is the fundamental evidence of immortality? To live a life that is worth being immortal. If we are living in the sphere of the immortal, we know where we are living. We know what we are if we are living in the realm of faith, and hope, and love. We know that this spiritual life does not depend on the physical organisation. So our faith in the Bible, in its foundation, is this: There is that in us which answers to that which is in the Bible. If there is nothing in us which answers to that which is in the Bible, we shall not get a faith in the Bible by argument. We need a new life. The moral life in us responds to the record of the moral life in this Old Testament and this New Testament; and if there is nothing in us which does respond, it is life that is lacking. We are not to go up into the heavens to bring down the message, nor to cross the sea to search for it. In our own hearts we are to find the witness of God. (Lyman Abbott, D. D.)
The Bible in itself
The Bible is more acknowledged than believed; and where it is believed, in the ordinary acceptation of the word, it seldom gives that decision to our purposes, that spring to our actions, which it ought to give.
I. First, then, as to the closeness with which it addresses the soul, and the paternal familiarity of its style. Why is it that sensible persons rejoice in having a pious, well-informed and accessible neighbour? It seems almost childish to ask. But the answer is, Because his word is very nigh unto them because they have the benefit of his counsel, his stock of knowledge, which is freely and benevolently open to them, and they are sure that at all times he will be influenced by upright and conscientious motives in advising them. But there is more than this in it. They look to his example--to his thoughts and sayings carried out in his actions. They are conscious of its influence on themselves and those around them; and they value it. And the nearer it is to them--the more available it also is to them and the more influential; yes, even when through perversity they struggle against its influence. Now, the Word of God is such a neighbour, only of infinite instead of finite, of Divine instead of human wisdom, goodness, and power of exhortation. It is, as the text says, very nigh unto us. I do not take the words figuratively. I moan that it is, by its very cast and structure, by its very form and style, nigh to us, at hand to our hearts and minds, to our understandings and feelings. It is nigh as a teacher: it is nigh as a counsellor: it is nigh as a setter forth of example. Consider how largely, too, God speaks in the Bible to man by man; I do not mean merely through the pen of man, for that, of course, is true of all Scripture, but by the speech of man as man, partaking of all our natural views, feelings, hopes, fears. What a familiar tone, without lowering any of its dignity, does the Word of God thus take with us! How very nigh it comes to us!
II. The second I would take occasion to illustrate from the words in thy mouth: The Word is very nigh thee, in thy mouth. It was said that this indicates that the Word of God was to be avowedly our counsellor. We were intended to cite it as commandment and promise to us, as our law and Gospel. This is clearly laid down and exemplified. It will be remembered how emphatically it was charged Joshua: This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth (Jos_1:8; Psa_119:46). What was the conviction which sustained the martyrs of old in their freedom of speech, in bonds, and at the stake? Was it not this, that it was not their own word, but the Word of God, which they had in their mouths?
III. The next clause in our text descends to where that power centres and fixes itself. And in thy heart, Again the Psalmist is our expounder: Thy Word have I hid in my heart (Psa_119:11); Thy law is within my heart (Psa_40:8). The patriarch Job had counselled this: Lay up Gods words in thy heart (Job_22:22). And here seems to be the place in which we may aptly refer to the application of our text by the same apostle writing to the Romans (Rom_10:6-10). Yes, it is to be heart work--the Word in the heart--else it will be of no purpose that it be in the mouth. But is it so constituted as to speak to the heart, to go to the heart? That is the question to our present purpose. It is; after an inimitable manner, and with inimitable force. So then is the Word of inspiration framed to be embraced by affections though they may be debased, and to dwell in them though they be yet enslaved.
IV. Now, in the last place, the emphatical passage which is guiding our reflections asserts that the Word is very nigh unto us that we may do it. This pronounces obedience to it to be the necessary proof of a believing reception of it. Most amply is this test elsewhere recognised in it. Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven (Exo_20:22), said the Lord to the children of Israel: Ye shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments (Lev_18:5). And they said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do (Exo_19:8). Be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only (Jam_1:22), is a precept as ancient as the Word itself. But our inquiry is, whether it be invested with any impressiveness, exclusively its own, of a practical tendency. For, if so, in this most important respect, too, the Bible will be its own witness. The answer is, Come and see! Who indeed is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? (1Jn_5:5.) Now faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Rom_10:17). I have thus endeavoured to show that the Bible in itself, being an inspired composition, is thereby endued with an influential bearing, close and direct, upon the affections and conduct, as well as on the profession, of all who really study it, or listen to it with any willingness, even a passive willingness, to profit by it. The Bible, as those who are most grateful for it will most readily own, is but the instrument of Gods Holy Spirit. And it is not an instrument that will act mechanically on the soul: there must be prayer, continual prayer, as the Bible itself teaches, for its progressive operation upon us. (W. Dalby, M. A.)
Plain Gospel for plain people
What is meant by these words is this--that the way of salvation is plain and clear; it is not concealed among the mysteries of heaven. But the way of salvation is brought home to us, given to us in a handy form, and laid within grasp of our understanding. It is a household treasure, not a foreign rarity. It is not so remote from us that only they can know it who travel far to make discoveries, neither is it so sublimely difficult that only they can grasp it who have soared to heaven and ransacked the secrets of the book sealed with seven seals. It is brought to our doors like the manna, and flows at our feet like the water from the rock.
I. The way of salvation is plain and simple. As saith Moses in the last verse of the previous chapter: The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever.
1. I think we might have expected this if we consider the nature of God, who has made this wonderful revelation. When God speaks to a man with a view to his salvation, it is but natural that in His wisdom He should so speak as to be understood. God, who is infinitely wise, would not give to us a revelation upon the vital point of salvation, and then leave it so much in the dark that it was impossible for common minds to Comprehend it if they desired to do so. God adapts means to ends, and does not allow men to miss of heaven from lack of plainness on His part. We expect a plain and simple revelation, because God has made a revelation perfectly adapted for its end, upon which no improvement can be made. You might have expected this from God, because of His gracious condescension. When He deigns to speak with a trembling seeker, it is not after the manner of the incomprehensible doctor, but after the manner of a father with his child, desirous that his child should at once know his fathers mind. He breaks down His great thoughts to our narrow capacities: He has compassion on the ignorant, and He becomes the Teacher of babes.
2. We might also expect simplicity when we remember the design of the plan of salvation. God aims distinctly by the Gospel at the salvation of men. It had need be a simple Gospel if it is to be preached to every creature. Moreover, we might expect the Gospel to be very plain, because of the many feeble minds which else would be unable to receive it. What, think you, would become of the dying if the Gospel were intricate and complex? How would even the saints derive consolation in death from a labyrinth of mysteries? We should expect, therefore, from the design of the Gospel to save the many, and to save even the least intelligent of men, that it should be very simple; and so we find it.
3. Furthermore, we see that it is so, if we look at its results. Gods chosen are usually a people of honest and candid mind, who are willing rather to believe than to dispute. The Holy Spirit has opened their hearts; He has not made them subtle and quibbling.
4. But I need not argue from what we expect or see; I bid you look at the revelation itself, and see if it be not nigh unto us. Even in the days of Moses, how plain some things were! It must have been plain to every Israelite that man is a sinner, else why the sacrifice, why the purgations and the cleansings? Not a day passed without its morning and evening lambs. Equally clear it must have been to every Israelite that the faith which brings the benefit of the great sacrifice is a practical and operative faith which affects the life and character. Continually were they exhorted to serve the Lord with their whole heart. So that, dim as the dispensation may be considered to have been as compared with the Gospel day, yet actually and positively it was sufficiently clear. Even then the word was nigh to them, in their mouth and in their heart.
5. If I may say this much of the Mosaic dispensation, I may boldly assert that in the Gospel of Christ the truth is now made more abundantly manifest. Moses brought the moonlight, but in Jesus the sun has risen, and we rejoice in His meridian beams.
II. The Word has come very near to us. To us all the Gospel has come very near: to the inhabitants of these favoured isles it is emphatically so. If you perish it is not for want of plain speaking. The Word is on your tongue. Moses also added, and in thy heart. By the heart, with the Hebrews, is not meant the affections, but the inward parts, including the understanding. You can understand the Gospel. That whosoever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved, is not a dark saying.
III. The design of this simplicity and nearness of the Gospel is that we should receive it. Observe bow the text expressly words it--The Word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.
1. The Gospel is not sent to men to gratify their curiosity, by letting them see how other people get to heaven. Christ did not come to amuse us, but to redeem us. His Word is not written for our astonishment, but, These are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the, Christ, the Son of God; and that believing, ye may have life through His name. Ever has the Gospel a present, urgent, practical errand. It says to each man, I have a message from God unto thee. Observe again how the text puts its last address in the singular. You can hear it in the plural--That we may hear it, and do it; but the actual doing is always in the singular--That thou mayest do it.
2. As the Word of the Lord is not sent to gratify curiosity, so also it is not sent coolly to inform you of a fact which you may lay by on the shelf for future use. God does not send you an anchor to hang up in your boathouse; but, as you are already at sea, He puts the anchor on board for present use. The Gospel is sent us as manna for today, to be eaten at once. It is to be our spending money as well as our treasure.
3. It is not sent to thee merely to make thee orthodox in opinion as to religious matters, although many persons seem to think that this is the one thing needful. Remember that perdition for the orthodox will be quite as horrible as eternal ruin for the heterodox. It will be a dreadful thing to go to hell with a sound head and a rotten heart. Alas! I fear that some of you will only increase your own misery as you increase your knowledge of the truth, because you do not practise what you know. That thou mayest do it! What is to be done? There are two things to be done.
(1) First, that thou believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as thy Saviour.
(2) The second thing, is that thou confess thy Lord with thy mouth.
Avow thyself to be a believer in Jesus, and a follower of Him. But let thy confession be sincere; do not lie unto the Lord. Confess that thou art His follower, because thou art indeed so; and henceforth all thy life bear thou His Cross and follow Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Very nigh unto thee.
Personal religion
Much is said of the importance of personal religion, as what alone is pleasing to God, or can secure human salvation. We should know the precise meaning intended in this expression; and my object will be to define it. And, first, an idea is given in the text and the circumstances connected with it--the idea that religion consists in nothing external and formal, nor in any sudden impressions made from without upon the mind. Great revivals may bear away thousands on a torrent of sympathy; but it is all in vain, if men do not retire from the tumult to the silent culture of every right disposition and the quiet practice of every duty; unless they hear a still voice in the soul, and retain a steady warmth there when the noise has ceased and the flames have died away, as on the ancient mount of revelation. But there is yet a stricter meaning in the phrase, personal religion. Our duties may be divided into two great classes; those belonging to social connections, and those included in the mind itself. To the latter, personal religion has primary respect. But there is a third and still closer view of religion, as a personal thing, to which I invite your thoughts. I believe it is the Creators design, that religion should be in every soul a peculiar acquisition, and have a solitary, unborrowed character; so that Christians should not be, as we commonly suppose them, mere copies of each other, but possess each one an original character. As the principle of beauty in nature shows itself in no monotonous succession of similar objects, but is displayed in a thousand colours and through unnumbered forms, so should the principle of piety ever clothe itself in some fresh trait and aspect. I say this is the Creators design. The view I offer may be made more clear by considering some of the proofs of this design.
1. The first proof that each individual should reach a peculiar excellence is, that each has received a peculiar constitution. Use faithfully the materials put into year bands. Despise not nor faint before what in them may seem rugged and unpromising. You shall find nothing in them so rough and hard, that patient toil will not transform it into shapes of wondrous beauty. The house built of light materials, though soon erected, will not stand the blast like that of marble, hewn with long, exhausting labour. Obey the maxim on the ancient oracle, Know thyself, and you will not fail of that personal religion for which you were made.
2. But again: Gods design, that every spirit should reach a peculiar excellence, is seen in the dispensations of Providence, as well as in the facts of creation. While the general fortunes of humanity are the same, every man receives his peculiar discipline from the hand of God. Whatever your state, sickness or health, prosperity or misfortune, view it with no atheistic eye, but accept and use it in the culture of that personal religion for which you were made.
3. Once more: Gods design, that every soul should reach a peculiar and unborrowed excellence, appears in the fact that all spiritual exercises, to be genuine, must have a peculiar character. No man can perform any exercise for another in religion. Who, then, in view of these considerations, has made religion a personal thing? He only who knows his own nature, and brings all its powers and dispositions to contribute to the building up of a good character. He only who makes all the dispensations of Providence, all events of joy and grief, conspire to guide him towards his perfection. He only whose spiritual exercises are genuine and sincere, consisting not in profession or appearance, but expressing real convictions springing from a strong consciousness of want, and moving the deep places of the soul. The man who has formed these habits will continually make progress in strong, unborrowed excellence; and when his time to depart shall come, while earth loses a precious possession, it is not too much to say that heaven itself shall gain a new treasure, inasmuch as it will receive a character of fresh, original strength and beauty. But what is the reliance of those multitudes that make their propagation for another world in no such strict and solemn way as I have described? Everyone must die by himself and go to the great bar alone; and there all the excellence of friends, all the fame of forefathers, will avail him nothing. The traveller in a foreign land often feels sorely the loss of that character given him by accidental relations at home. Everything adventitious being stripped off, he is thrown back upon his personal qualities, and must stand or fall, according to the judgment passed upon those. Now, how much more surely must such things forsake us, when we proceed, each one in his own time, attended by no companion, leaning on no arm of flesh, a solitary pilgrim, on our last journey to the skies! The heir of rich estates shall leave behind the splendour of wealth and the flattery of retainers. Thus for everyone the question at last will be, not of outward connections, but of personal character; not merely what religious institutions have you supported, but how far have you made religion itself a personal thing. (C. A. Bartol.)
Instruction nigh at hand
A blacksmiths wife in Tennessee recently handed to a physician of the village where she lived a diamond ring, worth £300, which her husband had found in the hoof of the doctors horse. In paring down the hoof to prepare it for a new shoe his knife touched something hard, which, on being dislodged, proved to be a ring, and the honest man sent his wife with it to the owner of the horse. It appeared that the doctors daughter had dropped the ring while out riding, and it had lodged between the horses hoof and the shoe, and had remained there. She had ridden to and fro many times over the road searching for the lost gem, yet it had been near her all the time. The search reminds us of men who go hither and thither consulting priests, and who read theological treatises to find the way to heaven, when all the time instruction is nigh at hand.
Moral teaching nigh at hand
In the original constitution of things, it is wisely ordered that happiness should be found everywhere about us. We do not need to have a rock smitten to supply the thirst of the soul; it is not a distant good; it exists in everything above, around, and beneath our feet; and all we want is an eye to discern, and a heart to feel it. Let anyone fix his attention on a moral truth, and it spreads out and enlarges its dimensions beneath his view, till what seemed at first as barren a proposition as words could express, appears like an interesting and glorious truth, momentous in its bearings on the destinies of men. And so it is with every material thing; let the mind be intently fixed upon it, and hold it in the light of science, and it gradually unfolds new wonders. The flower grows even more beautiful than when it first opened its golden urn and breathed its incense on the morning air; the tree, which was before thought of only as a thing to be cut down and cast into the fire, becomes majestic, as it holds its broad shield before the summer sun, or when it stands like a ship, with its sails furled, and all made fast about it, in preparation for the winter storm. (North American Review.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain Deu 30:11 - Deu 30:20.
Deuteronomy
THE SPIRIT OF THE LAW
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Deu 30:11 - Deu 30:20.
This paragraph closes the legislation of this book, the succeeding chapters being in the nature of an epilogue or appendix. It sums up the whole law, makes plain its inmost essence and its tremendous alternatives. As in the closing strains of some great symphony, the themes which have run through the preceding movements are woven together in the final burst of music. Let us try to discover the component threads of the web.
The first point to note is the lofty conception of the true essence of the whole law, which is enshrined here. ‘This commandment which I command thee this day’ is twice defined in the section {vs. Deu 30:16, Deu 30:20}, and in both instances ‘to love Jehovah thy God’ is presented as the all-important precept. Love is recognised as the great commandment. Leviticus may deal with minute regulations for worship, but these are subordinate, and the sovereign commandment is love. Nor is the motive which should sway to love omitted; for what a tender drawing by the memories of what He had done for Israel is put forth in the name of ‘Jehovah, thy God!’ The Old Testament system is a spiritual system, and it too places the very heart of religion in love to God, drawn out by the contemplation of his self-revelation in his loving dealings with us. We have here clearly recognised that the obedience which pleases God is obedience born of love, and that the love which really sets towards God will, like a powerful stream, turn all the wheels of life in conformity to His will. When Paul proclaimed that ‘love is the fulfilling of the law,’ he was only repeating the teaching of this passage, when it puts ‘to walk in His ways,’ or ‘to obey His voice,’ after ‘to love Jehovah thy God.’ Obedience is the result and test of love; love is the only parent of real obedience.
The second point strongly insisted on here is the blessedness of possessing such a knowledge as the law gives. Deu 30:11 - Deu 30:14 present that thought in three ways. The revelation is not that of duties far beyond our capacity: ‘It is not too hard for thee.’ No doubt, complete conformity with it is beyond our powers, and entire, whole-hearted, and whole-souled love of God is not attained even by those who love Him most. Paul’s position that the law gives the knowledge of sin, just because it presents an impossible elevation in its ideal, is not opposed to the point of view of this context; for he is thinking of complete conformity as impossible, while it is thinking of real, though imperfect, obedience as within the reach of all men. No man can love as he ought; every man can love. It is blessed to have our obligations all gathered into such a commandment.
Again, the possession of the law is a blessing, because its authoritative voice ends the weary quest after some reliable guide to conduct, and we need neither try to climb to heaven, nor to traverse the wide world and cross the ocean, to find certitude and enlightenment enough for our need. They err who think of God’s commandments as grievous burdens; they are merciful guide-posts. They do not so much lay weights on our backs as give light to our eyes.
Still further, the law has its echo ‘in thy heart.’ It is ‘graven on the fleshly tables of the heart,’ and we all respond to it when it gathers up all duty into ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God,’ and our consciences say to it, ‘Thou speakest well.’ The worst man knows it better than the best man keeps it. Blurred and illegible often, like the half-defaced inscriptions disinterred from the rubbish mounds that once were Nineveh or Babylon, that law remains written on the hearts of all men.
A further point to be well laid to heart is the merciful plainness and emphasis with which the issues that are suspended on obedience or disobedience are declared. The solemn alternatives are before every man that hears. Life or death, blessing or cursing, are held out to him, and it is for him to elect which shall be realised in his case. Of course, it may be said that the words ‘life’ and ‘death’ are here used in their merely physical sense, and that the context shows {Deu 30:17 - Deu 30:18} that life here means only ‘length of days, that thou mayest dwell in the land.’ No doubt that is so, though we can scarcely refuse to see some glimmer of a deeper conception gleaming through the words, ‘He is thy life,’ though it is but a glimmer. We have no space here to enter upon the question of how far it is now true that obedience brings material blessings. It was true for Israel, as many a sad experience that it was a bitter as well as an evil thing to forsake Jehovah was to show in the future. But though the connection between well-doing and material gain is not so clear now, it is by no means abrogated, either for nations or for individuals. Moral and religious law has social and economic consequences, and though the perplexed distribution of earthly good and ill often bewilders faith and emboldens scepticism, there still is visible in human affairs a drift towards recompensing in the world the righteous and the wicked.
But to us, with our Christian consciousness, ‘life’ means more than living, and ‘He is our life’ in a deeper and more blessed sense than that our physical existence is sustained by His continual energy. The love of God and consequent union with Him give us the only true life. Jesus is ‘our life,’ and He enters the spirit which opens to Him by faith, and communicates to it a spark of His own immortal life. He that is joined to Jesus lives; he that is separated from Him ‘is dead while he liveth.’
The last point here is the solemn responsibility for choosing one’s part, which the revelation of the law brings with it. ‘I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse, therefore choose life.’ We each determine for ourselves whether the knowledge of what we ought to be will lead to life or to death, and by choosing obedience we choose life. Every ray of light from God is capable of producing a double effect. It either gladdens or pains, it either gives vision or blindness. The gospel, which is the perfect revelation of God in Christ, brings every one of us face to face with the great alternative, and urgently demands from each his personal act of choice whether he will accept it or neglect or reject it. Not to choose to accept is to choose to reject. To do nothing is to choose death. The knowledge of the law was not enough, and neither is an intellectual reception of the gospel. The one bred Pharisees, who were ‘whited sepulchres’; the other breeds orthodox professors, who have ‘a name to live and are dead.’ The clearer our light, the heavier our responsibility. If we are to live, we have to ‘choose life’; and if we do not, by the vigorous exercise of our will, turn away from earth and self, and take Jesus for our Saviour and Lord, loving and obeying whom we love and obey God, we have effectually chosen a worse death than that of the body, and flung away a better life than that of earth.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Death and Life set before Israel
Death and Life set before Israel
v. 11. For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off, it could not be said to be unusually difficult, either with regard to its knowledge or its fulfillment.
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v. 12. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, who shall go up for us to heaven and bring it unto us that we may hear it and do it?
v. 13. Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, who shall go over the sea for us and bring it unto us that we may hear it and do it? There was no need for such hypocritical sanctimoniousness, as though it were merely a question of having the Law in an accessible place: If we could but lay our hands on it and hear it and study it, then we should be glad to keep its precepts!
v. 14. But the Word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it. The Word of the Law had not been written down in secret and hidden from the eyes of the people, but it had been brought to the attention of the entire congregation in the spoken word, in public proclamation; it had become the subject of discussions in their midst; they had had time to meditate upon it. All the greater, therefore, was their obligation to keep it. These words are by St. Paul, Rom 10:6-8, applied to the Word of the Gospel. That also is not inaccessible to any man, for its sound has gone forth into all the lands, it is being preached throughout the world. It is but necessary to hear, to read, to accept, to confess.
v. 15. See, I have set before thee this day, in this series of addresses, life and good, and death and evil, the way which leads to everlasting happiness, and that which leads to eternal destruction,
v. 16. in that I command thee this day to love the Lord, thy God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply, for the observing of the Lord’s precepts opened the way to life; and the Lord, thy God, shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.
v. 17. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, said of those that are more than willing to be seduced to idolatrous practices, and worship other gods and serve them,
v. 18. I denounce unto you this day, in a solemn proclamation, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. Cf Deu 4:26.
v. 19. I call heaven and earth, with the inhabitants of both these spheres, to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live, enjoy prosperity here and everlasting happiness in the world beyond;
v. 20. that thou mayest love the Lord, thy God, and that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him; for he is thy Life, the Source and Giver of a happy life, both here and yonder, and the length of thy days, in Him alone the enjoyment of any gift has permanence; that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them. We Christians also have life and death, everlasting salvation and eternal damnation, laid before us in the Word of God. He that believes the Gospel and trusts in the mercy of God in simple faith will have eternal life. He will also give evidence of his faith in his obedience to the Word and command of God. But lie who does riot believe the Gospel, preferring to live a life of sin and shame, will be lost forever.
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 General Information:
General Information:
Moses speaks to the Israelites as if they were one man, so the words "you" and "your" here are singular. (See: Forms of You)
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neither is it too far for you to reach
Moses speaks of being able to understand what a commandment requires a person to do as if it were that person being able to reach a physical object. AT: "neither is it too difficult for you to understand what Yahweh requires you to do" (See: Metaphor)
Who will go up for us to heaven and bring it down to us and make us able to hear it, so that we may do it?
Here Moses uses a rhetorical question to emphasize that the people of Israel think that Yahweh's commands are too difficult for them to know. This question can be translated as a statement. AT: "Someone must travel to heaven to learn God's commands and then return to tell us what they are so we can obey them." (See: Rhetorical Question)
translationWords
command
heaven
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 30:11-20 Adherence to the covenant terms that Moses had…
30:11-20 Adherence to the covenant terms that Moses had outlined would give life; disobedience would surely bring death. Life and death refer to physical, mortal life in the land—of individuals and of the community of Israel.
30:11 This command refers to the whole covenant text, all of Deuteronomy (see 4:2; 5:29; 7:9).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.