t .r< ' 'r— O-X^ NOTES on the book of DEUTERONOMY Volume II C. H. MACKINTOSH "Forever, Lord, Thy Word is settled in heaven." "Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee." LOIZEAUX BROTHERS ISJew York FIRST EDITION 1880 TWENTY-FIFTH PRINTING 1954 LOIZEAUX BROTHERS, Inc., PUBLISHERS A Nonprofit Organization, Devoted to the Lord's Work and to the Spread of His Truth 19 West 21st Street, New York 10, N. Y. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OP AMERICA unk PREFATORY NOTE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION A S several persous in America have, without any authority whatever from me, undertaken to publish my four* vol- umes of "Notes," I deem it my duty to inform the reader that I have given full permission to Messrs. Loizeaux Beothers to publish an edition of those books in such form as they shall consider most suitable. C. H. MACKINTOSH. 6 West Park Terrace, Scarborough, May 1st, 1879. * Now six. OOJ^TEI^TS K (( Page. Chapter VI I, 1 VIII, 33 IX, G4 X, 77 XI, - ■ 99 XII, 121 XIII, 138 XIV, 174 XV, 204 •' XVI, 219 XVII, 253 XVIII, 280 XIX, 302 XX, 316 XXI, 329 XXII.-XXV, 339 XXVI, 352 XXVII, 3ti5 XXVIII, 370 XXIX, 388 XXX, 408 XXXI, - - 419 " XXXII, 431 XXXIII, 434 XXXIV, 40ii a ITOTES ON THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER VII. <eople forever. "Great and marvelous are Tliy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy wavs. Thou Kino; ot" nations.* Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? for Thou art holy ; for all nations shall come and worshij) before Thee; for Thy judgments are made manifest." (Rev. XV. 3, 4.) This is the true spirit in which to contemplate the ways of God in government. Some persons, allow- ing themselves to be influenced by a morbid feeling^ and false sentimentality, rather than by an enlight- ened judgment, find difficulty in the directions given to Israel in reference to the Canaanites, in the open- ing of our chapter. It seems to them inconsistent with a benevolent Being to command His people to smite their fellow-creatures, and to show them nO' mercy. They cannot understand how a merciful God could commission His people to slay women and children with the edge of the sword. It is very plain that such persons could not adopt the language of Revelation xv. 3, 4. They are not prepared to say, "Just and true are Thy ways. Thou King of nations." They cannot justify- God in all His ways ; nay, they are actuall}- sitting in judgment upon Him. They presume to measure the actings of divine government by the standard of their own shallow thoughts — to scan the infinite by the finite ; in short, they measure God by themselves. This is a fatal mistake. We are not competent to ♦"Nations" is read by most editors: Christ is not called tha "King of saints." CHAPTER VII O form a judgment upon the ways of God, and hence it is the very height of i)resumption for poor, igno- rant, short-sighted mortals to attempt to do so. We read in the seventh chapter of Luke that "Wisdom is justified of a?^ her chiklren." Let us remember this, and hush all our sinful reasonings. '-Let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, 'That Thou mightest be justified in Thy sayings, and mightest overcome when Thou art judged." Is the reader at all troubled with difficulties on this subject? If so, we should much like to quote a very fine passage which may help him. "O give thanks unto the Lord ; for He is good ; for His mercy endureth forever To Him that smote Egypt in their first-horn; for His mercy endureth forever ; and brought out Israel from among them ; for His mercy endureth forever ; with a strong hand, and with a stretched-out arm ; for His mercy endur- eth forever. To Him which divided the Red Sea into parts ; for His mercy endureth forever ; and made Israel to pass through the midst of it ; for His mercy endureth forever ; but overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red 8ea ; for His mercy endureth forever. To Him which smote great kings; for His mercy endureth forever; and sleio famous kings; for His mercy endureth forever ; Sihon, king of the Amorites ; for His mercy endureth forever ; and Og, the king of Bashan ; for His mercy endureth forever ; and gave their land for a heritage ; for His mercy en- dureth forever ; even a heritage unto Israel His serv- ant ; for His mercy endureth forever." (Ps. cxxxvi.) 4 DeuTERONOsrr Here we see that the smiting of Egypt's first-born aiui liic deliverance of Israel, the passage through the Red Sea and tlie utter destructiou of Pharaoh's host, the slaughter of tlie Canaanites and giving their lands to Israel— all alike illustrated the ever- lasting mercy of Jehovah.* Thus it was, thus it is, and thus it shall be. All must redound to the glory of God. Let us remember this, and fling to the winds all our silly reasonings and ignorant argu- ments. It is our privilege to justify God in all His ways, to bow our heads in holy worship, in view of His unsearchable judgments, and rest in the calm * Very many Christians And considerable difficulty in interpreting And applying the language of a large number of the psalms which call for judgment upon the wicked. Such language would, of course, be quite unsuitable for Christians now, inasmuch as we are taught to love our enemies, to do good to them that hate us, and to pray for them that dcspitefully use us and persecute us. But we must remember that what would be wholly out of place for the Church of God, a heavenly people, under grace, was, and will yet be, perfectly consistent for Israel, an earthly people, under government. No intelligent Christian could think for a moment of calling down vengeance upon his enemies or upon the wicked. It would be grossly inconsistent. We are called to be the living exponents of the grace of God to the world— to walk in the foot- steps of the meek and lowly .lesus— to suffer for righteousness— not to resist evil. God is now dealing in long-suflering mercy with the world. " He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendelh rain on the just and on the unjust." Tliis is to be our model. "We are, in this, to be " perfect, even as our Father which is in heaven is perfect." For a Christian to deal with the world on the principle of righteous judgment, would be to misrepresent his heavenly Father and falsify his profession. But by and by, when the Church shall have left the scene, God will deal with the world in righteousness; He will judge the nations for their treatment of His people Israel. Wc do not attempt to (juole passages, but merely call the reader's attention to the princi)>le, in order to enable him to understand the 'yjtil application of the prophetic psalms. CHAPTER YII 5 assurance that all God's ways are right. We do not understand them all; this would be impossible. The finite cannot grasp the infinite. This is where so many go wrong. They reason upon the actings of God's government, not considering that those act- ings lie as far ])eyond the range of human reason as the Creator is beyond the creature. What human mind can unravel the profound mysteries of divine providence? Can we account for the fact of a city full of human beings — men, women, and children, in one hour, plunged beneath a tide of burning lava? Utterly impossible ; and yet this is but one fact of thousands that stand recorded on the page of human history, all lying far beyond the grasp of the most gigantic intellect. Go through the lanes, alleys, wynds, closes, and court-yards of our cities and towns ; see the thousands of human beings that throng these places, living in squalid misery, pov- erty, wretchedness, and moral degradation. Can we account for all this ? can we tell why God per- mits it? are w^e called upon to do so? Is it not perfectly plain to the reader that it is no part of our business to discuss such questions? and if we, in our ignorance and stupid folly, set about reasoning and speculating upon the inscrutable mysteries of the divine government, what can we expect but utter bewilderment, if not positive infidelity? The foregoing line of thought will enable the reader to understand the opening lines of our chap- ter. The Canaanites were to receive no mercy at the hands of Israel. Their iniquities had reached 6 DEUTERONOMY the culminating point, and notliing remained but the stern execution of divine judgment. "•Thou shait smite them, and utterl}' destroy tliem ; tliou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them ; neitlier shalt thou make marriages with them ; thy daughter tliou sluilt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For tliey will turn away thy son from following Me, that they may serve other gods ; so will the auger of tlie Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly. But thus shall 3'e deal with them ; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images Willi fire." Such were the instructions given by Jehovah to His people. They were clear and explicit. No mercy for the Canaanites, no covenant with them, no union, no fellowship of any kind, unsparing judgment, intense separation. We know, alas! how soon and how completely Israel failed to carry out these instructions. Hardly had they planted their foot upon the land of Canaan ere they made a covenant with the Gibeonites. Even Joshua himself fell into the snare. The tattered garments and mould}' bread of those wily people beguiled the princes of the congregation, and caused them to act in direct opposition to the plain commandment of God. Had they been governed by the authority of the Word, they would have been preserved from the grave error of making a league with i)eople who ought to have been utterly de- CHAPTER VII 7 stroyed; but they judged by the sight of their eyes, and had to reap the consequences.* ImpHcit obedience is the grand moral safeguard against tlie wiles of the enemy. No doubt tlie story of the Gibeonites was ver}' plausible, and their whole appearance gave a show of truth to their statements ; but none of these things should have had the slight- est moral weight with Joshua and the princes ; nor would the}', if thej' had but remembered the word of the Lord. But they failed in this. They rea- soned on what they saw, instead of obeying what the}' had heard. Reason is no guide for the people of God ; we must be, absolutely and completely, guided and governed by the Word of God. This is a privilege of the very highest order, and it lies within the reach of the sirai)lest and most unlettered child of God. The Father's word, the Father's voice, the Father's eye, can guide the youngest, feeblest child in His family. All we need is the lowly and obedient heart. It does not demand great intellectual power or cleverness ; if it did, what *It is at once instructive and admonitory to see that the gar- ments, the mouldy bread, and the plausible words of the Gibeonites did what the walls of Jericho could not do. Satan's wiles are more to be dreaded than his power. "Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." The more deeply we ponder the various parts of the whole armor of God, the more clearly we shall see that they are ranged under these two heads, — obedience and dei)endence. The soul that is really governed by the authority of the "Word, and wholly depend- ent upon the power of the Spirit, is fully equipped for the conflict. It was thus the Man Christ Jesus vanquished the enemy. The devil could do nothing with a man who was perfectly obedient and i)er- fectly dependent. May we study, in this, as in all beside, our great Exemplar. 8 DEUTEUONOlIt would become of the vast raajorit}' of Christians ? If it were only the educated, the deep-thinking, and the far-seeing that were capable of meeting the wiles of the adversary, then verily most of us might give up in despair. But, thanks be to God, it is not so ; indeed, on the contrary-, we find, in looking through the history of the people of God in all ages, that human wis- dom, human learning, human cleverness, if not kept in their right place, have proved a positive snare, and rendered their possessors only the more efficient tools in the enem3''s hand. By whom have most, if not all, of the heresies been introduced which have disturbed the Church of God from age to age? Not by the simple and the unlearned, but by the edu- cated and the intellectual. And in the i)assage to which we have just referred, in the book of Joshua, who was it that made a covenant with the Gibeon- ites? The common people? Nay; but the princes of the congregation. No doubt all were involved in the mischief, but it was the princes that led the way. The heads and leaders of the assembly fell into the snare of the devil through neglect of the plain word of God. "Thou shalt make no covenant with them." Could aught be plainer than this? Could tattered gar- ments, old shoes, and mouldy bread alter the mean- ing of the divine command, or do away with the urgent necessity for strict obedience on the part of the congregation? Assuredly not. Nothing can ever afford a warrant for lowering, the breadth of a CHAPTER VII 9 hair, the standard of obedience to the Word of God. If there are difficulties in the way, if perplexing cir- cumstances come before us, if things crop up for which we are not prepared, and as to which we are unable to form a judgment, what are we to do ? Rea- son? Jump to conclusions? Act on our own or on any human judgment? Most certainly not. What then? Wait on God; wait patiently, humbly, be- lievingly, and He will assuredly counsel and guide. "The meek will He guide in judgment; and the meek will He teach His way." Had Joshua and the princes acted thus, they never would have made a league with the Gibeonites ; and if the reader acts thus, he will be delivered from ever}' evil work and preserved unto the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. In verse six of our chapter, Moses sets before the people the moral ground of the line of action which they were to adopt in reference to the Canaanites — the rigid separation and the unsparing judgment, "i^b?* thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God; the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth." The principle here laid down is of the very weightiest character. Why were the people to main- tain the most marked separation from the Canaan- ites? Why were they to refuse, with firm decision, to make any covenant, or form any matrimonial al- liance with them ? Why were they to demolish their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves ? 10 DEUTERONOMT Simpl}' because they were a holy people. And who had constituted them a holy people ? Jehovah. He had chosen them and set His love upon them ; He had redeemed them, and separated them to Him- self; and lience it was His province and prerogative to prescribe what they were to be, and how they were to act. "Be ye hoi}', for I am holy." It was not by any means on the principle of "Stand by thyself, I am holier than thou." This is manifest from what follows, "The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people ; for 3'^e were the fewest of all people ; but because the Lord loved you, and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt." (Ver. 7, 8.) Seasonable words these for Israel ! — most health- ful and needful ! Tliey were to remember that they owed all their dignity, all their privileges, all their blessings, not to aught in themselves — their own goodness or their own greatness, but simply to the fact of Jeliovah's haviuij identified Himself with them, in His infinite goodness and sovereign grace, anerfect as His ways in grace. They imagine that the government of God will pass over or deal lightly with evil and evil-doers. This is a most miserable and fatal mistake, and men will find it to be so to their heavy and eternal cost. True it is, blessed be God, He can, in Hig rich sovereign grace and mercy, forgive us our sins, blot out our transgressions, cancel our guilt, justify us perfectly, and fill our hearts with the spirit of adoption ; but this is another thing altogether. This is grace reigning through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. It is God, in His wondrous love, providing righteousness for the poor, guilty, hell-deserving sinner who knows and feels and owns that he has no righteousness of his own, and never could have it. God, in the marvelous love of His heart, has provided a means whereby He can be just and the justifier of every poor broken- hearted, bankrupt sinner that simply believes in Jesus. But how, we may ask, was all this done? "Was it by passing over sin, as though it were nothing? was it by relaxing the claims of the divine fiovernment. 22 PEUTER0N05IT lowering the standard of divine holiness, or touch- ing, in ihe most remote wa\% the dignit}', stringency, and majesty of the law? No ; thanks and praise to redeeming love, it was the very reverse. Never was there or could there be a more terrible expression of God's eternal hatred of sin, or of His unflinching purpose to condemn it utterly and i)unish it eter- nally ; never was there or could there be a more glorious vindication of the divine government, a more perfect maintenance of tlie standard of divine holiness, truth, and righteousness ; never was the law more gloriously vindicated or more thoroughly established tlian by tiiat most glorious scheme of re- demption, planned, executed, and revealed by the Eternal Three in One, — planned b}'- tlie Father, ex- ecuted by the Son, and revealed by the Holy Ghost. If we would have a just sense of the awful reality of the government of God, His wrath against sin, and the true character of His holiness, we must gaze at the cross ; we must hearken to tliat bitter cry that issued from the heart of the Son of God and broke through the dark sliadows of Calvary, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? " Never had such a question been asked before, never has such a question been asked since, and never shall — never can such a question be asked again. Wliether we consider the One who asked it, the One of whom it was asked, or the answer, we must see tliat the ques- tion stands absolutely alone in the annals of eternity. The cross is the measure of God's hatred of sin, as it is the measure of His love to the sinner. It is the CHAPTER VII 23 imperishable foundation of the throne of grace, tlie divinely righteous ground on wliicii God can pardon our sins and constitute us perfectly righteous in a risen and glorified Christ. But then if men despise all this, and persist in their hatred of God, and yet talk of His being too good and too kind to punish evil-doers, how will it be with them? "He that obeyeth not [^aTrsiOwy'] the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth upon him." (John iii. 36.)* Can it be pos- sible — can we believe for a moment that a just God should exercise judgment upon His only begotten Son, His well-beloved. His eternal delight, because He was bearing our sins in His own body on the tree, and yet allow impenitent sinners to escape ? Had Jesus, the spotless, holy, perfect Man — the only perfect Man that ever trod this earth — had He to suffer for sins, the just for the unjust, and shall evil- doers, unbelievers, and haters of God be saved and blessed and taken to heaven ? and all this, forsooth, ♦John iii. 36 is a passage of immense weiglit and importance. It not only sets fortli the great trutli tliat all who believe in the Son of God are the privileged possessors of eternal life, hut it also cuts up by the roots two leading heresies of the day, namely, universalism and annihilationism. The universalist professes to believe that, ultimately, all shall be restored and blessed. Not so, says our passage; for those who oljcy not the Son "shall not sec life." The annihilationist professes to believe that all who are out of Christ shall perish like the beasts. Not so, for " the wrath of God abideth " upon the disobedient. Abiding wrath and annihilation are ■Wholly incompatible. It is utterly impossible to reconcile them. It is interesting and instruclivi' to notice the diiTcrcnce between the words o TTzorf j^&jk— " ho that believeth '"— and (> dnfiOaw— " he that obeyeth not." They give us the two sides of the subject of faith. 24 DEUTERONOMY because God is too kind and too good to punish sinners in bell forever! Did it cost God the giving up, the forsaking, and the bruising of His beloved Son in order to save His people /rom their sins, and shall ungodly sinners, despisers, and rebels be saved in their sins? Did the Lord Jesus Christ die for nothing? did Jehovah put Him to grief and hide His face from Him when there was no necessity ? "WI13' the awful horrors of Calvary' ? why the three hours' darkness? why that bitter cry, "My God, My God, wh}' hast Thou forsaken Me ?" — why all this if sinners can get to heaven without it ? Why all this inconceivable sorrow and suffering for our blessed Lord if God is too kind and too gracious and too tender to send sinners to hell ? What egregious foil}' ! What will not men believe, provided it be not the truth of God ? The poor dark human mind will affect to believe the most monstrous absurdity in order to get a plea for re- jecting the plain teaching of hol^' Scripture. The very thing which men would never think of attribu- ting to a good human government they do not hesi- tate to attribute to the government of the only wise, the only true, the only just God. What should we think of a government that could not or would not punish evil-doers ? Would we like to live under it? What should we think of the government of England if, because her majesty is so kind, so gracious, so tender-hearted, she could not allow criminals to be punished as the law directs ? Who would care to live in England ? CHAPTEK VU 26 Reader, do you not see how that one verse which is now before us demolishes completely all the theo- ries and arguments which men, in their folly and ignorance, have advanced on the subject of the divine government ? "The Lord thy God, lie is God, the faithful God, which .... repayeth them that hate Him to their face, to destroy them ; He will not be slack to him that hateth Him, He will repay him to his face." Oh that men would hearken to the Word of God ! that they would be warned by its clear, emphatic, and solemn statements as to coming wrath, judg- ment, and eternal punishment! that, instead of seeking to persuade themselves and others that there is no hell, no deathless worm and unquench- able fire, no eternal torment, they would listen to the warning voice, and, ere it be too late, floe for refuge to the hope set before them in the gospel ! Truly this would be their wisdom. God declares that He will repay those that hate Him. How awful the thought of this repayment! Who can meet it? The government of God is perfect, and because it is so, it is utterly impossible that it can allow evil to pass unjudged. Nothing can be plainer than this. All Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, sets it forth in terms so clear and forcible as to render it the very height of folly for men to argue against it. How much better and wiser and safer to flee from the wrath to come than to deny that it is coming, and that when it does come, it will be eternal in its duration. It is utterlv vain for any one to u'tiernot 26 DEUTERONOMY to reason in opposition to the truth of God. Every word of God shall stand forever. We see the act- ings of His government in reference to His people Israel, and in reference to Christians now. Did He pass over evil in His people of old? Nay; on the contrary', He visited them continuall}' ^YilhIIis chas- tening rod, and this, too, just because they were His people, as He said to them by His prophet Amos — ' ' Hear this word which the Lord hath spoken against 3'ou, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, 'You only have I known of all the families of the earth ; therefore I will punish you for all your in- iquilies.'" (Amos iii. 1, 2.) We have the same weighty principle set forth in the first epistle of Peter, in its application to Chris- tians now. — "For the time is come ihat, judgment must begin at the house of God ; and if it first l)egin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" (Chap. iv. 17, 18.) God chastens His own just because they are His own, and that they may not be condemned with the world. (1 Cor. xi.) The children of this world are allowed to go on their way ; but their day is coming — a daik and heavy da}' — a day of judgment anc\ unmitigated wrath. Men may question and argue and reason, but Scripture is distinct and emphatic. "God hath appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness, by that Man whom He CHAPTER VII 27 hath ordained." The great day of reckoning is at hand, when God will repay every man to his face. It is truly edifying to mark the way in which Moses, that beloved and honored servant of God, led assuredly by the Spirit of God, pressed the grand and solemn realities of the divine government upon the conscience of the congregation. Hear how he pleads and exhorts: "Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judg- ments, which I command thee this da}-, to do them. Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the Lord thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which He sware unto thy fathers. And He will love thee, and hless thee, and multiply thee ; He will also bless the fruit of th}' womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which He sware unto thy fathers to give thee. Thou shalt be blessed above all peo- ple ; there shall not be male nor female barren among you or among your cattle. And the Lord will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egj-pt, which thou knowest, upon thee ; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee. And thou shalt consume all the people which the Lord thy God shall deliver thee ; thine e3'e shall have no pity upon them ; neither shalt thou serve their gods; for that will be a snare unto thee." (Ver. 11-16.) What a powerful appeal ! how affecting ! Mark 3 28 DEUTERONOMY SI the two groups of words, Israel was to "hearken, ""keep," and "do." Jehovah was to "love," *' bless," and "multiply." Alas! alas! Israel failed — sadly, shamefully failed, under law and under government; and hence, instead of the love and the blessing and the multiplying, there has been judg- ment, curse, barrenness, dispersion, desolation. But, blessed be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, if Israel has failed under law and government^ He has not failed in His rich and precious sovereign grace and mercy. He will keep the covenant and the mercy which He sware unto their fatliers. Not one jot or tittle of His covenant-promise shall ever fail. He will make all good by and by. He will fulfill, to the very letter, all His gracious promises. Thougli He cannot do this on tlie ground of Israel's obedience. He can and will do it through the blood of the everlasting covenant, the precious blood of Jesus, His eternal Son — all homage to His peerless name ! Yes, reader, the God of Israel cannot suffer one of His precious promises to fall to the ground. What would become of us if He could? What se- curity, what rest, what peace could we have, if Je- hovah's covenant with Abraham were to fail in any single point? True it is that Israel has forfeited all claim. If it be a question of fleshly descent, Ish- mael and Esau have a prior claim : if it be a ques- tion of Iciial obedience, the golden calf and the broken tables tell their melancholy tale: if it be a CHAPTER vn 29 question of government on the ground of the Moab covenant, they have not a single plea to urge. lint God will be Goel, spile of Israel's lamentable unlailhfalness. "The gifls and calling of God are without repentance," and hence "all Israel shall be saved." God will most assuredly make good His oath to Abraham, spite of all the wreck and ruin of Abraham's seed. We must steadfastly hold to this, in the face of every opposing thought, feeling, or oi)inion. Israel shall be restored and blessed and multiplied in their own beloved and holy land. They shall take down their harps from the willows and, beneath the peaceful shade of their own vines and fig-trees, chant the high praises of their loving Sav- iour and God, throughout that bright millennial Sabbath which lies before them. Such is the un- varying testimony of Scripture, from beginning to end, which must be maintained in its integrity, and made good in every particular, to the glory of God, and on the ground of His everlasting covenant. But we must return to our chapter, the closing verses of which demand our special attention. It is very touching and beautiful to mark the way in which Moses seeks to encourage the heart of the peo- ple in reference to the dreaded nations of Canaan. He enters into and anticipates their very inmost thoughts and feelings. "If thou shalt say iv thine heart, These nations are more than I ; bow can I dispossess them ? Thou shalt not be afraid of them ; but shalt well remerri' her what the Lord tb^' God did unto Pharaoh, and 80 DEUTERONOMY unto all Egypt ; the great temptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched-out arm, whereb}' the Lord thy God brought thee out : so shall the Lord thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid. Moreover, the Lord thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed. Thou shalt not be affrighted at them ; for the Lord thy God is amonrj you, a mighty God and terrible. And the Lord thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little ; thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee. But the Lord thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruc- tion, until they be destroyed. And He shall de- liver their kings into thine hand, and thou sbalt destroy their name from under heaven ; there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destro^'ed them. The graven images of their gods shall ye l)urn with fire ; thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein ; for it is an abomination to the Lord thy God. Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it; but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it, for it is a cursed thing." (Ver. 17-26.) Tlie grand remedy for all unbelieving fears is, sim})ly to fix the eye upon the living God ; thus the heart is raised above the difficulties, whatever CHAPTER Vn 31 they may be. It is of no possible use to deny that there are difficulties and opposing influences of all sorts. This will not minister comfort and encourage- ment to the sinking heart. Some people affect a certain style of speaking of trials and difficulties which just goes to prove, not their practical knowl- edge of God, but their profound ignorance of the stern realities of life. They would fain persuade us that we ought not to feel the trials, sorrows, and difficulties of the way. They might as well tell us that we ought not to have a head on our shoulders or a heart in our bosom. Such persons know not how to comfort those that are cast down. They are mere visionary theorists, wholly unfit to deal with souls passing through conflict or grappling with the actual facts of our daily histor}'. How did Moses seek to encourage the hearts of his brethren? "Be not affrighted," he says; but wh}'? Was it that there were no enemies, no diffi- culties, no dangers? No; but "tlie Lord thy God is among you, a mighty God and terrible." Here is the true comfort and encouragement. Tlie enemies were there, but God is the sure resource. Thus it was that Jehoshaphat, in his time of trial and press- ure, sought to encourage himself and his brethren. "O our God, wilt Thou not judge them? For we have no might against this great company that Cometh against us, neither know we what to do ; but our eyes are upon Thee." Here lies the precious secret. The eyes are upon God. His power is brought in, and this settles every 82 DEUTEllONOHn thing. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" Moses meets, by his precious ministry, the rising fears in the heart of Israel — "Tliese nations are more than I." Yes, but they are not more than the "mighty and terrible God." What nations could stand before Him? He hud a solemn controversy with those nations because of their terrible sins ; their iniquity was full ; the reckoning-time had come, and the God of Israel was going to drive them out before His people. Hence, therefore, Israel had no need to fear the power of the enemy. Jehovah would see to that. But there was sometliing far more to be dreaded than the enemy's power, and that was, the insnaring influence of their idolatry. "The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire." What ! the hcait niiglit sa}-, are we to destroy the gold and silver that adorn these images ? Mic^ht not that be turned to some good account? Is it not a pity to destroy what is so very valuable in itself? It is all light to burn the images, but why not spare the gold and silver? Ah, it is just thus the poor heart is prone to rea- son ; thus ofttimes we deceive ourselves when called to judge and abandon what is evil. We persuade ourselves of the rightness of making some reserve ; we imagine we can pick and choose and make some distinction. We are i)repared to give up some of the evil, but not all. We are ready to burn the wood of the idol, but spare the gold and silver. Fatal delusion J "Thou shalt not desire the silver CHAPTER vm 38 or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou he snared therein; for it is an abomination to the Lord tiiy God." All must be given up, all destroyed. To retain an atom of the accursed thins: is to fall into the snare of the devil, and link ourselves ^vith that which, however highly esteemed among men, is an abomination in the sight of God. And let us mark and ponder the closing verses of our chapter. To bring an abomination into the house is to become like it! How very solemn ! Do we fully understand it? The man who brought an abomination into his house became a cursed thing like it! Reader, may the Lord keep our hearts separated from all evil, and true and loyal to Himself. CHAPTER VIII. ^^ A LL the commandments which I command thee l\- this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and mullipl}', and go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto 3-our fathers. And thou shalt remember all the xoay which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep His com- mandments or no." (Ver. 1, 2.) \It is at once refreshing, edifying, and encouraging 84 DEUTERONOMY to look back over the whole course along which the /aiLhful hand of our God has conducted us ; to trace His wise and gracious dealings with us ; to call to mind His many marvelous interpositions on our be- half; how He delivered us out of this strait and that difficult}- ; how, ofttimes, when we were at our wits' end, He appeared fv)r our help, and opened the way before us, rebuking our fears and filling our hearts with songs of praise and thanksgiving. We must not, by any means, confound this de- lightful exercise with the miserable habit of looking back at our ways, our attainments, our progress, our service, what we have been able to do, even though we are ready to admit, in a general way, that it was only by the grace of God that we were en- abled to do any little work for Him. All this only ministers to self-complacency, which is destructive of all true spirituality of mind. Self-retrospection, if we may be allowed to use such a term, is quite as injurious in its moral effect as self-introspection. In short, self-occupation, in any of its multiplied phases, is most pernicious ; it is, in so far as it is allowed to operate, the death-blow to fellowship. Any thing that tends to bring self before the mind must be judged and refused, with stern decision ; it brings in barrenness, darkness, and feebleness. For a person to sit down to look back at his attainments or his doings, is about as wretched an occupation as any one could engage in. We may be sure it was not to any such thing as this that Moses exhorted the people when he charged them to "remember alj CHAPTER VIII 35 the way by which the Lord their God had led them." We may here recur, for a moment, to the memo- rable words of the apostle in Philippians iii. — "Brethren, I count not myself to have appre- hended ; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things tvhich are behind^ and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Now, the question is, what were the "things" of which the blessed apostle speaks ? Did he forget the precious dealings of God with his soul through- out the whole of his wilderness-journey? Impossi- ble! — indeed we have the very fullest and clearest evidence to the contrary. Hear his touching words before Agrippa — "Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great." So also, in writing to his be- loved son and fellow-laborer, Timothy, he reviews the past, and speaks of the persecutions and afflic- tions which he had endured ; "l)ut," he adds, "out of them all the Lord delivered me." And again, "At my first answer no man stood with me, but all forsook me ; I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me ; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear ; and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion." To what then does the apostle refer when b« speaks of "forgetting those things which are be- 36 DEUTERONOMY hind"? "We believe he refers to all those things which had no connection with Christ — things in which the heart might rest, and nature might glory — things which might act as weights and hindrances, — • all these were to be forgotten in the ardent pnrsuit of those grand and glorious realities which lay before him. We do not believe that Paul, or any other child of God or servant of Christ, could ever desire to forget a single scene or circumstance in his whole earthly career in any way illustrative of the good- ness, the loving-kindness, the tender mercy, the faithfulness of God. On the contrar}-, we believe it will ever be one of our very sweetest exercises to dwell upon the blessed memory of all our Father's ways with us while passing across the desert, home to our everlasting rest. "There with what joy reviewing Past conflicts, dangers, fears, Thy hand our foes subduing, And drying all our tears. Our hearts with rapture burning, Tlie path we shall retrace, Where now our souls are learning The riches of Thy grace." But let us not be misunderstood. We do not, by any means, wish to give countenance to the habit of dwelling merely upon our own experience. This is often very poor work, and resolves itself into self- occupation. We have to guard against this as one of the many things which tend to lower our spiritual tone and draw our hearts away from Christ. Bu^ CHAPTER vin 37 we need never be afraid of the result of dwelling upon tlie record of the Lord's dealings and ways with us. This is a blessed habit, tending ever to lift us out of ourselves, and fill us with i)raise and thanksgiving. Whv, we may ask, were Israel charged to "re- member all the way" by which the Lord their God had k'(l them? Assuredl}', to draw out their hearts in praise for the past, and to strengthen their con- fidence in God for the future. Thus it must ever be. "We'll praise Him for all that is past, And trust Him for all that's to come." May we do so more and more. Ma}' we just move on, day by day, praising and trusting, trusting and praising. These are the two things which redound to the glory of God, and to our peace and joy in Him. When the eye rests on the "Ebenezers" which lie all along the wa}', the heart must give forth its sweet "liallcluialis" to Him who has helped us hitherto, and will help us right on to the end. He hath delivered, and He doth deliver, and He will deliver. Blessed chain ! Its every link is divine deliverance. Nor is it merely upon the signal mercies and gracious deliverances of our Father's hand that we are to dwell, with devout thankfulness, but also upon the "humblings" and the ''provings" of His wise, faithful, and holy love. All these things are full of richest blessing to our souls. They are not, as peo- ple sometimes call them, ^'mercies in disguise," but 38 DEUTERONOMT plain, palpable, unmistakable mercies, for which wf shall have to praise our God throughout the goldea ages of that bright eternity which lies before us. " Thou shalt remember all the way" — every stage of the journey, every scene of wilderness-life, all the dealings of God, from first to last, with the special object thereof, "to humble thee, and to prove thee, to knoio what toas in thine heart." How wonderful to think of God's patient grace and painstaking love with Ilis people in the wilder- ness ! What precious instruction for us ! With what intense interest and spiritual delight we can bang over the record of the divine dealings with Israel in all their desert-wanderings ! How much we can learn from the marvelous history ! We, too, have to be humbled and proved, and made to know what is in our hearts. It is very profitable and morally wholesome. 0*n our first setting out to follow the Lord, we know but little of the depths of evil and folly in our hearts. Indeed, we are superficial in every thing. It is as we get on in our practical career that we begin to prove the reality of things ; we find out the depths of evil in ourselves, the utter hollowness and worthlessness of all that is in the world, and the urgent need of the most complete dependence upon the grace of God every moment. All this is very good ; it makes us humble and self-distrusting ; it delivers us from pride and self-sufficiency, and leads us to cling, in childlike simplicity, to the One who alone is able to keep us from falling. Thus, as we CHAPTER VIII 39 ^ow in self-knowledge, we get a deeper sense of grace, a more profound acquaintance with the won- drous love of the heart of God, Ills tenderness to- ward us, His marvelous patience in bearing with all our infirmities and failings. His rich mercy in having taken us up at all, His loving ministry to all our varied need, His numberless interpositions on our behalf, the exercises through which He has seen fit to lead us for our souls' deep and permanent profit. The practical effect of all this is invaluable ; it imparts depth, solidity, and mellowness to the char- acter ; it cures us of all our crude notions and vain theories ; it delivers us from one-sidedness and wild extremes ; it makes us tender, thoughtful, patieni, and considerate toward others ; it corrects our harsh judgments and gives a gracious desire to put the best possible construction upon the actions of others, and a readiness to attribute the best motives in cases which may seem to us equivocal. These are precious fruits of wilderness-experience which we may all earnestly covet. "And He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know, that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live." (Ver 3. ) This passage derives special interest and import- ance from the fact that it is the first of our Lord's quotations from the book of Deuteronomy in His 40 DEUTERONOMY conflict with the adversaiy in the wilderness. Let us ponder this deeply ; it demands our earnest al- tention. Why did our Lord quote from Deuter- onomy ? Because that was the book which, above all others, specially applied to the condition of Israel at the moment. Israel had utterl}' failed, and this weighty fact is assumed in the book of Deuteronomy from besjiniiinof to end. But notwithstanding the failure of tlie nation, the path of obedience la}' open to every faithful Israelite. It was the privilege and duty of every one who loved God to abide by His Word under all circumstances and in all places. Now, our blessed Lord was divinely true to the position of the Israel of God. Israel after the flesh had failed and forfeited ever}' thing ; He was there, in the wilderness, as the true Israel of God, to meet the enemy by the simple authority of the Word of God. ''And Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days He did eat nothing; and when they were ended. He afterward hungered. And the devil said unto Him, 'If Thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.' And Jesus answered Him, saying, '■It is loritten^ that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.'" (Lukeiv.) Here, then, is something for us to ponder. The perfect Man, the true Israel, in the wilderness, sur- rounded by the wild beasts, fasting for forty days, in the presence of the great adversary of God, of CHAPTKR VIII 4i man, of Israel. There was not a single feature in the scene to speak for God. It was not wiih the second Man as it was with the first; He was not surrounded with all the delights of Eden, but with all the dreariness and desolation of a desert — there in loneliness and hunger, but there for God! Yes, blessed be His name, and there for man, — • there to show man how to meet the enemy in all his varied temptations, there to show man how to live. We must not suppose for a moment that our adora- ble Lord met the adversary as God over all. True, He was God, but if it were only as such that He stood in the conflict, it could not afford any example for us. Besides, it would be needless to tell us that God was able to vanquish and put to fliglit a creat- ure which His own hand had formed. Rut to see One who was, in every respect, a man, and in all the circumstances of humanity, sin excepted, — to see Him there in weakness, in hunger, standing amid the consequences of man's fall, and to find Him tri- umphing completely over the terrible foe, it is this which is so full of comfort, consolation, strength, and encouragement for us. And how did He triumph? This is the grand and all-important question for us, — a question demand- ing the most profound attention of ever}' member of the Church of God — a question the magnitude and importance of which it would be utterly impossible to overstate. How, then, did the Man Cluist Jesus vanquish Satan in the wilderness? Simply by the Word of God. He overcame, not as the almic^biy 42 DEUTERONOMT G' od, but as the bumble, dependent, self-emptied, and obedient Man. We have before us the magnifi- cent spectacle of a Man standing in the presence of the devil and utterly confounding him with no other weapon whatsoever save the Word of God. It was not b}' the display of divine power, for that could be no model for us ; it was simply with the Word of God, in His heart and in His mouth, that the Second Man confounded the terrible enemy of God and man. And let us carefully note that our blessed Lord does not reason with Satan. He does not appeal to any facts connected with Himself — facts with which the enemy was well acquainted. He does not say, I know I am the Son of God ; the opened heavens, the descending Spirit, the Father's voice, have all borne witness to the fact of My being the Son of God. No ; this would not do ; it would not and could not be an example for us. The one special point for us to seize and learn from is, that our great Exemplar, when meeting all the temptations of the enem}', used only the weapon which we have in our possession, namely, the simple, precious, written, Word of God. We say, "all the temptations," because in all the three instances our Lord's unvarying reply is, " Jf is written. ' ' He does not sa}', ' ' I know" — ' ' I think " — "I feel"— "I believe" this, that, or the other; He simply appeals to the written Word of God — the book of Deuteronomy in particular, — that very book which infidels have dared to insult, but which is pre-eminently the book for every obedient man, in CHAPTER VIII 43 the face of total, universal, hopeless, wreck and ruin. This is of unspeakable moment for us, beloved reader. It is as thougli our Lord Christ had said to the adversary. Whether I am the Son of God or not is not now the question, but how man is to live, and the answer to this question is only to be found in holy Scripture ; and it is to be found there as clear as a sunbeam, quite irrespective of all questions respecting Me. Whoever I am, the Scripture is the^ same: "man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord." Here we have the only true, the only safe, the only happy attitude for man, namely, hanging in earnest dependence upon "every word that proceed- eth out of the mouth of the Lord." Blessed atti- tude ! We may well say there is nothing like it in all this world. It brings the soul into direct, living, personal contact with the Lord Himself, by means of His Word. It makes the Word 60 absolutely essential to us, in every thing ; we cannot do without it. As the natural life is sustained by bread, so the spiritual life is sustained by the Word of God. It is not merely going to the Bible to find doctrines there, or to have our opinions or views confirmed ; it is very much more than this ; it is going to the Bible for the staple commodity of life — the life of the new man ; it is going there for food, for light, for guid- ance, for comfort, for authority, for strength — for all, in short, that the soul can possibly need, from first to last. i 44 DEU fERONOMT And let us specially note the force and value of the expression, '"every word." How fully it shows that we cannot afford to dispense with a single word that has proceeded out of the mouth of the Lord. We want it all. We cannot tell the moment in which some exigence may present itself for which Scripture has already provided. We may not per- haps have specially noticed the scripture before, but when the difficulty arises, if we are in a riglit con- dition of soul — the true posture of heart, the Spirit of God will furnish us with the needed scripture, and we shall sec a force, beaut}', depth, and moral adaptation in the passage which we had never seen before. Scripture is a divine and therefore exhaust- less treasury, in which God has made ample provi- sion for all the need of His people, and for each believer in particular, right on to the end. Hence we should study it all, ponder it, dig deepl}^ into it, and have it treasured up in our hearts, ready for use when the demand arises. There is not a sinorle crisis occurring in the entire history of the Church of God, not a single difficulty in the entire palh of any individual believer, from beginning to end, which has not been perfectly provided for in the Bible. We have all we want in that blessed volume, and hence we should be ever seekins: to make ourselves more and more ac- quainted with what that volume contains, so as to be "thoroughly furnished" for whatever may arise, whether it be a temptation of the devil, an allure- ment of the world, or a lust of the flesh ; or, on tbe CHAPTER VIII 45 other hand, for equipment for that path of good works which God has afore prepare«l that we should walk in it. And we should, further, give special attention to the expression, ''Out of the mouth of the Lord." This is unspeakably precious. It brings the Lord so very near to us, and gives us such a sense of the reality of feeding upon His every word — yea, of hanging upon it as something absolutely essential and indispensable. It sets forilt the blessed fact that our souls can no more exist without the Word than our bodies could without food. In a word, we are taught by this passage that man's true position, his proper attitude, his only place of strength, safety, rest, and blessing, is to be found in habitual dependence upon the Word of God. This is the life of faith which we are called to live — the life of dependence — the life of obedience — the life tliat Jesus lived perfectly. That blessed One would not move a step, utter a word, or do a single tiling save by the authority of the Word of God. No doubt He could have turned stone into bread, but He had no command from God to do that ; and ifiasmuch as He had no command. He had no motive for action. Hence Satan's temptations were per- fectly powerless. He could do nothing with a man who would only act on the authority of the Word of God. And we may also note, with ver}' much interest and profit, that our blessed Lord does not quote Scripture for the purpose of silencing the adversarj^^ • j6 DEUTERONOMY but simply as authority for His position and con- duct. Here is where we are 6oa[)ttofaiI; we do not sufficiently use the precious Word of God in this wa3' ; we quote it, at times, more for victory over the enem}' than for power and authority for our own souls. Thus it loses its power in our hearts. "We want to use the Word as a hungry man uses bread, or as a mariner uses his chart and his com- pass ; it is that on which we live, and by which we move and act and think and speak. Such it really is, and the more fully we prove it to be all this to us, the more we shall know of its infinite preciousness. Who is it that knows most of the real value of bread ? Is it a chemist? No ; but a hungry man. A chemist may analyze it, and discuss its component parts, but a hungry man proves its worth. Who knows most of the real value of a chart? is it the teacher of navigation? No; but the mariner as he sails along an unknown and dangerous coast. These are but feeble figures to illustrate what the Word of God is to the true Christian. He cannot do without it. It is absolutely indispensable, in every relationship of life and in every sphere of action. His hidden life is fed and sustained by it; his practical life is guided by it. In all the scenes and circumstances of his personal and domestic his- tory, in the privacy of his closet, in the bosom of bis family, in the management of his affairs, he is cast upon the Word of God for guidance and ijounsel. And it never fails those who simply cleave to it CHAPTER VIII 47 and confide in it. We may trust Scripture without a single shade of misgiving. Go to it when we will, we shall always find what we want. Are we in sor- row? is the poor heart bereaved, crushed, and des- olate? What can soothe and comfort us like the balmy words which the Holy Spirit has penned for us ? One sentence of holy Scripture can do more, in the way of comfort and consolation, than all the letters of condolence that ever were penned by human hand. Are we discouraged, faint-hearted, and cast down ? The Word of God meets us with its bright and soul-stirring assurances. Are we pressed by pinching poverty ? The Holy Ghost brings home to our hearts some golden promise from Jhe page of inspiration, recalling us to Him who is "the Possessor of heaven and earth," and who, in His infinite grace, has pledged Himself to "supply all our need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." Are we perplexed and harassed by the conflicting opinions of men, by the dogmas of conflicting schools of divinity, by religious and the- ological difliculties? A few sentences of holy Scrip- ture will pour in a flood of divine light upon the heart and conscience, and set us at perfect rest, answering every question, solving every difficulty, removing every doubt, chasing away every cloud, giving us to know the mind of God, putting an end to conflicting opinions by the one divinely competent authority. What a boon, therefore, is holy Scripture! What a precious treasure we possess in the Word of God I 48 DEUTEROXOMT How we should bless His holy name for having given it to us ! Yes ; and bless Him, too, for every thing that tends to make us more fully acquainted with the depth, fullness, and power of those words of our cliapter, "Man shall not live by bread only, but bv every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live." Truly precious are these words to tlie heart of the believer ! And hardly less so are those that follow, in which the beloved and revered lawgiver refers, with touching sweetness, to Jehovah's tender care throughout the whole of Israel's desert-wanderings. "Thy raiment," he sa^-s, "waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years." What marvelous grace shines out in these words ! Oiil}- think, reader, of Jehovah looking after His people in such a manner, to see that tiieir garments should not wax old or their foot swell ! He not only fed them, but clothed them and cared for them in every way. He even stooped to look after their feet, that the sand of the desert might not injure them. Thus, for forty years, did He watch over them, with all the exquisite tenderness of a father's heart. What will not love undertake to do for its o])ject? Jehovah had set His love upon His people, and this one blessed fact secured every thing for them, had they only understood it. There was not a single thing within the range of Israel's necessities, from Egypt to Canaan, which was not secured to them and included in the fact that Jehovah had under- taken to do for them. With infinite love and al- CHAPTER vin 49 mighty power on tbeir side, what could be lacking? But then, as we know, love clothes itself in various forms. It has something more to do than to provide food and raiment for its objects. It has not only to take account of their physical but also of their moral and spiritual wants. Of this the law- giver does not fail to remind the people. ''Thou shalt also consider," he says, " tu thbie heart" — the only true and effective way to consider — ''that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneih thee." Now, we do not like chastening; it is not jo3'ous, but grievous. It is all very well for a son to receive food and raiment from a father's hand, and to have all his comforts provided by a father's thoucrlitful love, but he does not like to see him taking down the rod. And yet that dreaded rod may be the very best thing for the son ; it may do for him what no material benefits or earthh'' blessings could effect, — it may correct some bad habit, or deliver him from some wrong tendency, or save him from some evil influence, and thus prove a great moral and spiritual blessing for which he shall have to be forever thank- ful. The grand point for tiie son is, to see a father's love and care in the discipline and chastening just as distinctly as in the various material benefits which strew his path from day to day. Here is precisely where we so signally fail in reference to the disciplinary dealings of our Father. We rejoice in His benefits and blessings ; we are filled with praise and thankfulness as we receive. 50 DEUTERONOMY daj- by day, from His liberal hand, the rich supply of all our need ; we delight to dwell upon His mar- velous interposition on our behalf in times of press- ure and difficulty ; it is a most precious exercise to look back over the path by which His good hand has led us, and mark those "Ebenezers" which tell of gracious help supplied all along the road. All this is very good and very right and very pre- cious, but then there is a great danger of our resting in the mercies, the blessings, and the benefits which flow, in such rich profusion, from our Father's loving heart and liberal hand. We are apt to rest in these things, and say with the Psalmist, "In my prosperity I said, ' I shalJ never be moved. Lord, by Thy favor Thou hast made my mountain to stand strong.'" True, it is "by Thy favor," but yet we are prone to be occupied with our mountain and our prosperity ; we allow these things to come in between our hearts and the Lord, and thus they become a snare to us. Hence the need of chastening. Our Father, in His faithful love and care, is watching over us ; He sees the danger and He sends trial, in one shape or another. Perhaps a telegram comes announcing the death of a beloved child, or the crash of a bank involving the loss of our earthly all ; or, it may be, we are laid on a bed of pain and sickness, or called to watch by the sick bed of a beloved relative. In a word, we are called to wade through deep waters which seem, to our poor, feeble, coward hearts, absolutely overwhelming. The enemy sug- gests the question. Is this love? Faith replies, CHAPTER VIII 51 without hesitation and withont reserve, Yes ; it is ail love — perfect love ; the deaili of the child, the. loss of the property, the long, heavy, painful illness, all the sorrow, all the pressure, all the exercise, tha deep waters and dark shadows — all, all is love — perfect love and unerring wisdom. I feel assured of it, even now ; I do not wait to know it by and by, when I shall look back on the path from amid tlie full light of the glory; I know it now, and delight to own it to the praise of that infinite grace which has taken me up from the depth of my ruin, and charged itself with all that concerns me, and which deigns to occupy itself with my very failures, follies, and sins, in order to deliver me from them, and to make me a partaker of divine holiness, and conform me to the image of that blessed One who '"loved Me and gave Himself for me." Christian reader, this is the way to answer Satan, and to hush the dark reasonings which may spring up in our hearts. We must always justify God. We must look at all His disciplinaiy dealings in the light of His love. ' ' Thou shalt also consider in thine heart that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee." Most surely we should not like to be without the blessed pledge and proof of sonship. ^'My son, despise not tliou the chasten- ing of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him; for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealelh with you as with sons ; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth 52 DEUTERONOMY - not? But if \'e be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few da3's chastened us after their own pleasure ; but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness. Now, no chastening for the present seem- eth to be joyous, but grievous ; nevertheless, after- ward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and tlie feeble knees ; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way ; but let it rather be healed." (Heb. xii. 6-13.) It is at once interesting and profitable to mark the way in which Moses presses upon the congrega- tion the varied motives of obedience arising from the past, the present, and the future. PZvery thing is brought to bear upon them to quicken and deepen their sense of Jehovah's claims upon them. They were to "remember" the past, they were to "con- sider" the present, and they were to anticipate the future ; and all this was to act on their hearts, and lead them forth in holy obedience to that blessed and gracious One who had done, who was doing, and who would do such great things for them. The thoughtful reader can hardly fail to observe in this constant presentation of moral motives a marked feature of this lovely book of Deuteronomy, CHAPTER vm 58 and a striking proof that it is no mere attempt at a repetition of wliat we have in Exodus ; but, on tlie contrary, tliat our book has a province, a range, a scope, and design entirely its own. To speak of mere repetition is absurd ; to speak of contradiction is impious. "Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, to walk in His ways, and to fear Him." The word "therefore" had a retrospective and prospective force. It was designed to lead the heart back over the past dealings of Jehovah, and forward into the future. They were to think of the marvelous history of those forty years in the desert, — the teaching, the humbling, the proving, the watch- ful care, the gracious ministry, the full supply of all their need, the manna from heaven, the stream from the smitten rock, the care of tlieir garments, and of their very feet, the wholesome discipline for their moral good. What powerful moral motives were here for Israel's obedience ! But this was not all : they were to look forward into the future ; they were to anticipate the briglit prospect which lay before them ; they were to find in the future, as well as in the past and the present, the solid basis of Jehovah's claims upon their rev- erent and whole-hearted obedience. "For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills ; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates, a land of oil olive, and honey ; a land 54 DEUTER0N05rr wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not hick any thing in it ; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest d\cr brass." How fair was the prospect ! how bright the vision ! How marked the contrast to the Egypt behind them and the wilderness through wliicli they had passed ! Tlie Lord's land lay before them in all its beauty and verdure, its vine-clad hills and honeyed plains, its gushing fountains and flowing streams. How refreshing the thought of the vine, the fig-tree, the pomegranate, and the olive ! How different from the leeks, onions, and garlic of Egypt ! Yes, all so different ! It was the Lord's own land : this was enough. It produced and contained all they could possibly want. Above its surface, rich profusion; below, untold wealth — exhaustless treasure. What a prospect ! How the faithful Israelite would long to enter upon it! — long to exchange the sand of the desert for that bright inheritance ! True, the desert had its deep and blessed experiences, its holy lessons, its precious memories ; there they had known Jehovah in a way they could not know Him even in Canaan ; — all this was quite true, and we can fully understand it ; l)ut still the wilderness was not Canaan, and every true Israelite would long to set his foot on the land of promise, and truly we may say that Moses presents the land, in the passage just quoted, in a way eminently calculated to attract the heart. "A land," he saj-s, "wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any CHAPTER vni 55 thing in it." What more could be said? Here was the grand fact in reference to that good land into which the hand of covenant-love was about to intro- duce them. All their wants would be divinely met. Ilunsrer and thirst should never be known there. Ileallh and plenty, joy and gladness, peace and blessing, were to be the assured portion of the Israel of God in tliat fair inheritance upon which they were about to enter. Every enemy was to be sub- dued ; every obstacle swept away; "the pleasant land" was to pour forth its treasures for their use ; watered continually by heaven's rain, and warmed by its sunlight, it was to bring forth, in rich abund- ance, all that the heart could desire. What a land ! what an inheritance ! what a home ! Of course, we are looking at it now from a divine stand-point — looking at it according to what it was in the mind of God, and what it shall most assur^ edly be to Israel during that bright millennial age which lies before them. We should have but a very poor idea indeed of the Lord's land were we to think of it merely as possessed by Israel in the past, even in the very brightest days of its history, as it ap- peared amid the splendors of Solomon's reign. We must look onward to "the times of the restitution of all things," in order to have any thing like a true idea of wliat the land of Canaan will yet be to the Israel of God. Now, Moses speaks of the land according to the divine idea of it. He presents it as given by God, and not as Dossessed by Israel. This makes all the 56 DEUTERONOMY difference. According to his charming description, there was neither enemj' nor evil occurrent: notliing but fruitfulness and blessing from end to end. That is uhat it would have been, that is what it should have been, and that is what it shall be, by and by, to the seed of Abraham, in pursuance of the cove- nant made with their fathers — the new, the everlast- ing covenant, founded on the sovereign grace of God, and ratified by the blood of the cross. No power of earth or hell can hinder the purpose or the promise of God. ''Hath lie said, and shall He not do it?" God will make good, to the letter, every word, spite of all the enemy's opposition and the lamentable failure of His people. Though Abraham's seed have utterly failed under law and under government, yet Abraham's God will give grace and glory, for His gifts and calling are without repentance. Moses fully understood all this. He knew how it would turn out with those who stood before him, and with their children after them, for many generations ; and he looked forward into that bright future in which a covenant-God would display, in the view of all created intelligences, the triumphs of His grace in His dealings with the seed of Abraham His friend. Meanwhile, however, the faithful servant of Jeho- vah, true to the object before his mind, in all those mai-velous discourses in the opening of our book, proceeds to unfold to the congregation the truth as to their mode of acting in the good land on which they were about to plant their foot. As he had spoken of the past and of the present, so would he CHAPTER VIII 67 make use of the future ; he would turn all to account iu liis lioly effort to urge upon the people their ob- vious, l)()niulen duty to that blessed One who had so giaciously and tenderly cared for them all their journey through, and who was about to bring them in and plant them in the mountain of His inherit- ance. Let us hearken to his touching and powerful exhortations. '•When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which He has given thee." How simple! how lovel}'! how morally suitable ! Filled wiih tlie fruit of Jehovah's goodness, they were to bless and praise His holy name. He delights to surround Himself with hearts filled to overflowing with the sweet sense of His goodness, and pouring forth songs of praise and thanksgiving. He inhabits the praises of His people. He says, '' Wlioso ofTcreth praise glori- fieth Me." The feeblest note of praise from a grateful heart ascends as fragrant incense to the throne and to the heart of God. Let us remember this, beloved reader. It is as true for us, most surely, as it was for Israel, that praise is comel}'. Our grand primary business is to praise the Lord. Our every breath should be a halleluiah. It is to this blessed and most sacred exercise the Holy Ghost exhorts us, in manifold places. '* By Una therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name." "We should ever remember that nothing so gratifies the heart and 68 DEUTERONOJry glorifies the name of our God as a thankful, wor- shii)ing spirit on tlie part of His people. It is well to do good and communicate, — God is well pleased with such sacrifices ; it is our high privilege, while we have opportunit}', to do good unto all men, and especially unto them who are of the household of faith ; we are called to be channels of blessing be- tween the loving heart of our Father and every form of human need that comes before us in our daily i)ath ; — all this is most blessedly true, but we must never forget that the very highest place is as- signed to praise. It is this which shall employ our ransomed powers throughout the golden ages of eternity, when the sacrifices of active benevolence shall no longer be needed. But the faithful lawgiver knew but too well the sad proneness of the human heart to forget all this — to lose sight of the gracious Giver, and rest in His gifts ; hence he addresses the following admonitory words to the congregation — wholesome M'ords, truly, for them and for us. May we bend our ears and our hearts to them, in holy reverence and teachable- ness of spirit. "Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping His commandments, and His judg- ments, and His statutes, which I command thee tliis day. Lest when thou luist eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein ; and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thoH. hast is multiplied ; then thine heart be lifted up, and CHAPTER VIII 59 thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forlh out of the huid of Egypt, from the house of bondiige ; who led thee through that great and ter- rible wiklerness, whereiu were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water ; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint ; who fed thee in tlie wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that lie might humble thee, and that He might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end; and tliou say in thine heart. My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God ; for it is He that giveth thee power to get wealth, tliat Pie may establish His covenant which He sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day. And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and wor- ship tliem, I testify against you tliis day that 3'e shall surely perish. As the nations which the Lord destroyeth before j'our face, so shall 3'e perish, he- cause ye looidd not he obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God.'' (Yer. 11-20.) Here is something for us to ponder deeply. It has most assuredly a voice for us, as it had for Israel. We may jjcrhaps feel disposed to marvel at the frequent reiteration of the note of warning and admonition, the constant appeals to the heart and cons(;ience of the people as to their bounden duty to obe}' in all things the word of God, the recurrence again and asfain to those grand soul- stirring facts connected with their deliverance out GO DEUTERONOJry of Eg3*pt and their journej^ through the wilderness. But wherefore should we marvel ? In the first place, do we uot deeply feel and full^' admit our own urgent need of warning, admonition, and exhorta- tion ? Do we not need line upon line, precept upon precept, and that continually? Are we not prone to forget the Lord our God — to rest in His gifts instead of Himself ? Alas ! alas ! we cannot deny it. We rest in the stream, instead of getting up to the Fountain ; we turn the very mercies, blessings, and benefits which sti*ew our path in rich profusion into an occasion of self-complacency and gratulation, instead of finding in them the blessed ground of continual praise and thanksgiving. And then, as to those great facts of which Moses so continually reminds the people, could they ever lose their moral weight, power, or preciousness t Surely not. Israel might forget and fail to appre^ ciate those facts, but the facts remained the same. The terrible plagues of Egypt, the niglit of the passover, their deliverance from the land of dark' ness, bondage, and degradation, their marvelous passage through the Red Sea, tlie descent of that mysterious food fiora heaven morning by morning, the refreshing stream gushing forth from the flinty rock, — how could such facts as these ever lose their power over a heart possessing a spark of genuine love to God ? and why should we wonder to find Moses again and again appealing to them and using them as a most i)owerful lever wherewith to move tlie hearts of the people ? Moses felt the mighty CHAPTEK VIII 61 moral influence of these things himself, and he would fain lead others to feel it also. To him, they were precious beyond expression, and he longed to make his brethren feel their preciousness as well as himself. It was his one object to set before them, in every possible wa}', the powerful claims of Jeho- vah upon their hearty and unreserved obedience. This, reader, will account for what might, to an unspiritual, unintelligent, cursory reader, seem the too frequent recurrence to the scenes of the past in those wonderful discourses of Moses. "We are re- minded, as we read them, of the lovely words of Peter, in his second epistle, — "Wherefore I will not 1)0 negligent to put you ahvcajs in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be estab- lished in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up, by putting yon in remembrance ; knowing that shortly I must put olF this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Clu-ist halli showed me. Moreover, I will endeavor that ye may be able, after my decease, to have these things always in remembrance.^^ (Chap. i. 12-15.) How striking the unity of spirit and purpose in these two beloved and venerable servants of God ! Both the one and the other felt the tendency of the poor human heart to forget the things of God, of heaven, and of eternity, and the}' felt the sui)ieme importance and infinite value of the things of which they spoke ; hence their earnest desire to keep them continually before the hearts and abidingly in the 62 DEITTEKOXOMT remembrance of the Lord's beloved people. Un- believing, restless nature might say to Moses, or to Peter, Have 30a nothing new to tell us ? Why are you perpetually dwelling on the same old themes ? We know all you have go't to saj- ; we have lieard it again and again. Why not strike out into some new field of thought ? Would it not be well to trv and keep abreast of the science of the day? If we keep perpetually moping over those antiquated themes, we shall be left stranded on the bank, while the stream of civilization rushes on. Pray give us something new. Thus might the poor unbelieving mind — the worldl}' heart reason, but faiih knows the answer to all such miserable suggestions. We can well believe that both Moses and Peter would have made short work with all such reasonings. And so should we. We know whence the}' emanate, whither they tend, and what they are worth ; and we should have, if not on our lips, at least deep down in our hearts, a ready answer — an answer perfectly satisfactory to us, however contemptible it may seem to the men of this world. Could a true Israelite ever tire of hear- ing of what the Lord had done for him, in Egypt, in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness ? Never ! Such themes would be ever fresh, ever welcome to his heart. And just so with the Christian. Can he ever tire of tlie cross and all the grand and glorious realities that cluster around it ? can he ever tire of Christ, His ])eerless glories and unsearchable riches, His Person, His work, His offices ? Never ! No, ciiAPifcit VIII 63 never, throughout the bright ages of eternit}'. Does he crave any thing new ? Can science improve upon Christ ? can human learning add auglit to the great mystery of godUness, which has for its foundation God manifest in the flesli, and for its top-stone a Man glorified in heaven ? can we ever get beyond this ? No, reader, we could not if we would, and we would not if we could. And even were we, for a moment, to take a lower range, and look at the works of God in creation ; do we ever tire of the sun ? He is not new ; he has been pouring his beams upon this world for well-nigh six thousand years, and 3et those beams are as fresh and as welcome to-day as they were Mhen first created. Do we ever tire of the sea ? It is not new ; its tide has been ebbing and flowing for nearly six thousand years, but its waves are as fresh and as welcome on our shores as ever. True, the sun is often too dazzling to man's feeble vision, and the sea often swallows up, in a moment, man's boasted works ; but yet the sun and the sea never lose their power, their fieshness, their charm. Do we ever tire of the dew-drops that fall in refreshing virtue upon our gardens and fields ? do we ever tire of the perfume that emanates from our hedge-rows ? do we ever tire of the notes of the nightingale and the thrush ? And what are all these when comjjared with the glories which cluster around the Person and the cross of Clirist ? what are they when put in contrast with the grand realities of that eternity which is before us ? 64 DEUTEUONOMT Reader, let us beware how we listen to such sug- gestions, whether they come from without or spring from the depths of our own evil hearts, lest we be found, like Israel after the flesh, loathing the heav- enly' Manna and despising the pleasant land ; or like Demas, who forsook tlie blessed apostle, having loved this present age ; or like those of whom we read in the sixth of John, who, offended by our Lord's close and })ointed teaching, "went back, and walked no more with Him." May the Lord keep our hearts true to Himself, and fresh and fervent in His blessed cause, till He come. CHAPTER IX. i^TTEAR, O Israel: Thou art to pass over Jordan ■i-X this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven, a people great and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, 'Who can stand before the children of Anak!'" (Vcr. 1, 2.) Tills chapter opens with the same grand Deuter- onomic sentence, '■'Ilear, O Israel." This, we may say, is the key-note of this most blessed book, and especially of those opening discourses which have beeu engaging our attention. But the chapter which now lies open before us presents subjects of im- mense weight and importance. In the first place, CHAPTER EC 65 tlie lawgiver sets before the congregation, in terms of deep scjlemnity, that which lay before them in their entrance upon the land. He does not hide from them the fjict that there were serious diflSculties and formidable enemies to be encountered. This he does, we need hardly say, not to discourage their hearts, but that they might be forewarned, fore- armed, and prepared. What that preparation was we shall see presently ; but the faithful servant of God felt the Tightness, yea, the urgent need of put- ting the true state of the case before his brethren. There are two ways of looking at difficulties ; we may look at them from a human stand-point, or from a divine one; we may look at them in a spirit of unbelief, or we may look at them iu the calmness and quietness of confidence in the living God. We have Jiu instance of the former in the report of the unbelieving spies in Numbers xiii ; we have an in- stance of the latter in the opening of our present chapter. It is not the pro\nnce, nor the path, of faith to deny that there are difficulties to be encountered by the people of God ; it would be the height of folly to do so, inasmuch as there aie difficulties, and it would be but fool-hardiness, fanaticism, or fleshly enthusiasm to deny it. It is always well for people to know what they are about, and not to rush blindly into a path for which they are not prepared. An unbe- lieving sluggard may say. There is a lion in the way; a blind enthusiast may say, There is no such thing ; the true man of faith will say. Though there 66 DEUTERONOMY were a thousand lions in the waj', God can soon dispose of them. But, us a great practical principle of general ap- plication, it is very important for all the Lord's people to consider, deeply and calml}', what they are about, ere they enter upon any particular path of service or line of action. If this were more attended to, we should not witness so many moral and spirit- ual wrecks around us. What mean those most solemn, searching, and testing words addressed by our blessed Lord to the multitudes that thronged around Ilim in Luke xiv? — "He turned and said to them, 'If any man come to Me, and hate not his father and mother, his wife and children, and breth- ren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be INIy disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after JNIr, cannot be My disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? lest haply, after he hatli laid the fecundation, and is not able to finish it, al that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.'" (Ver. 2G-30.) These are solemn and seasonable words for the heart. IIow many unfinished buildings meet our view as we look forth over the wide field of Chris- tian profession, giving sad occasion to the beholders for mockery ! How many set out upon a path of discipleship under some sudden impulse, or under the pressure of mere humau influeucc, without a CHAPTER IX G7 proper understanding, or a due consideration of all that is involved ; and then when diflicuities arise, when trials come, when the path is found to be nar- row, rough, lonely, unpopular, they give it up, thus proving that they had never really counted the cost, never taken the palh in communion with God, never understood what they were doing. Now, such cases are very sorrowful ; they bring great reproach on the cause of Christ, give occasion to the adversary to blaspheme, and greatly dis- hearten those who care for the glory of Goa and the good of souls. Better far not to take the ground at all than, having taken it, to abandon it in dark un- belief and worldly-mindedness. Hence, therefore, we can perceive the wisdom and faithfulness of the opening words of our chapter. Moses tells the people plainly what was before them ; not, surely, co discourage them, but to preserve them from self-confidence, which is sure to give way in the moment of trial, and to cast them upon the living God, who never fails a trusting heart. "Understand therefore this day, that the Lord thy God is He which goeth over before thee ; as a con- suming fire He shall destroy them, and He shall bring them down before thy face : so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the Lord hath said unto thee." Here, then, is the divine answer to all difficulties, be they ever so formidable. What were mighij nations, great cities, fenced walls, in the presence of Jehovah? Simply as chaff before the whirlwind. €8 DEUTERONOMY *'If God be for us, who can be against us?" The ver}' things which scare and stumble the coward heart aftbrd an occasion for tlie display of God's power, and the magnificent triumphs of faith. Faith says, Grant me but tliis, that God is before me and with me, and I can go any where. Thus the only thing in all this world that realh' glorifies God is the faiih that can trust Him and use Him and praise Him ; and inasmuch as faith is the onl}' thing that glorifies God, so is it the onh' thing that gives man his proper place, even the place of complete dependence upon God, and this insures victory and inspires praise — unceasing praise. But we must never forget that there is moral danger in the very moment of victory — danger arisina: out of what we are in ourselves. There is the danger of self-gratulation — a terrible snare to us poor mortals. In the hour of conflict we feel our weakness, our nothingness, our need. This is good and morally safe. It is well to be brought down to the very bottom of self and all that pertains to it, for there we find God, in all the fullness and blessedness of what He is, and this is sure and cer- tain victory and consequent praise. But our treacherous and deceitful hearts are prone to forget whence the st'-«nglh and victory come ; hence the moral force, value, and seasonableness of the following admonitory words addressed by the faithful minister of God to the hearts and con- sciences of his brethren : "Speak not thou in thine heart" — here is where the mischief always begins — CHAPTEB IX 69 "after that the Lord hath cast them out from before thee, saying, Fur my righteousness tlie Lord hath brought me in to possess this land ; but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord doth drive them out from before thee." Alas ! what materials there are in us ! what igno- rance of our own hearts ! what a shallow sense of the real character of our ways ! How terrible to think that we are capable of saj-ing in our hearts such words as, "For my righteousness"! Yes, reader, we are verily capable of such egregious folly ; for as Israel was capable of it, so are we, inasmuch as we are made of the very same material ; and that they were capable of it is evident from the fact of their being warned against it; for, most assuredly, the Spirit of God does not warn against phantom dangers or imaginary temptations. We are verily capable of turning the actings of God on our behalf into an occasion of self-complacency ; in- stead of seeing in those gracious actings a ground for heartfelt praise to God, we use them as a ground for self-exaltation. Hence, therefore, we would do well to ponder the words of faithful admonition addressed by Moses to the hearts and consciences of the people ; they furnish a very wholesome antidote for the self- righteousness so natural to us as well as to Israel. "Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land ; but for the wickedness of those nations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that 70 OBUTERONOMY He may perform the word which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Under- stand, therefore, that the Lord giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness ; for thou art a stiff-necked people. Remember, an(\ forget not, how thou i)rovokedst the Lord thy God to wrath in the wilderness ; fiom the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the Lord." (Ver. 5-7.) This paragraph sets forth two great principles, which, if full}' laid hold of, must put the heart into a right moral attitude. In the first i)lace, the people were reminded that their possession of the land of Canaan was simply in pursuance of God's promise to their fathers. This was placing the matter on the most solid basis — a basis which nothing could ever disturb. As to the seven nations which were to be dispos- sessed, it was on the ground of their wickedness that God, in the exercise of His righteous govern- ment, was about to drive them out. Every landlord has a perfect right to eject bad tenants ; and the nations of Canaan had not only failed to pay their rent, as we sa}', but they had injured and defiled the property to such an extent that God could no longer endure them, and therefore He was going to drive them out, irrespective altogether of the incoming tenants. Wlioever was going to get possession of the i)ropert3', these dreadful tenants must be evicted. The iniquity of the Amorites had reached its liighest CHAPTER IX 7X point, and nothing remained but that judgment should take its course. Men might argue and reason as to the moral fitness and consistency of a benevolent Being unroofing the houses of thousands of families and putting the occupants to the sword, but we may depend upon it the government of God \\ill make very short work with all such arguments. God, blessed forever be His holy name, knows how to manage His own affairs, and that, too, without asking man's opinion. He had borne with the wickedness of the seven nations to such a degree that it had become absolutely insntferable ; the very land itself could not bear it. Any further exercise of forbearance would have been a sanction of the most terrible abominations ; and this, of course, was a moral impossibility. The glory of God absolutely demanded the expulsion of the Canaanites. Yes ; and we may add, the glory of God de- manded the introduction of the seed of Abraham into possession of the property, to bold as tenants forever under the Lord God Almighty — the Most High God, Possessor of heaven and earth. Thus the matter stood for Israel, had they but seen it. Their possession of the land of promise and the maintenance of the divine glory were so bound up together that one could not be touched without touching the other. God had promised to give the land of Canaan to the seed of Abraham as an ever- lasting possession. Had He not a right to do so? Will infidels question God's right to do as He will with His own? Will they refuse to the Creator aud 72 DEUTERONOMY Governor of the universe a right which they claim for themselves ? The land was Jehovah's, and He gave it to Abraliam His friend forever ; and although this was true, yet wcM-e not the Canaanites disturbed in thoir tenure of tlie property until their wicked- ness had become positively unbearable. Thus we see that in the matter both of the out- going and incoming tenants the glory of God was involved. That glory demanded that the Canaanites should be expelled, because of their ways ; and that glory demanded that Israel should be put in posses- sion, because of the promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But, in the second place, Israel had no ground for self-complacency, as Moses most plainly and faith- fully instructs them. He rehearses in their ears, in the most touching and impressive manner, all the leading scenes of their history from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea ; he refers to the golden calf, to the broken tables of the covenant, to Taberah and Massah, and Kibroth-hattaavah ; and sums all up, at verse 24, with these pungent, humbling words, "Ye tiave been rebellious against the Lord from tlie day that I knew you." This was plain dealing with heart and conscience. The solemn review of their whole career was emi- nently calculated to correct all false notions about themselves ; ever}' scene and circumstance in their entire history, if viewed fiom a })roper stand-point, only brought to light tlie humbling fact of what they were, and how near they had been, again and again. CHAPTER IX 73 to utter destruction. Willi what stunning force must the following wonls have fallen upon their ears ! — "And the Lord said unto me, 'Arise, get thee down quickly from hence, for tlaj people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted them- selves ; they are quickh' turned aside out of the way which I commanded them ; they have made them a molten image.' Furthermore, the Lord spake unto me, saying, 'I have seen this people, and be- hold, it is a stiff-necked people ; let Me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven ; and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they.'" (Ver. 12-14.) How wilhering Avas all this to their natural vanitv, pride, and self-righteousness! How should their hearts have been moved to their very deepest depths by those tremendous words, "Let Me alone, that I may destroy tliem"! How solemn to reflect upon the fact which these words revealed — their appalling nearness to national ruin and destruction ! How ignorant they had been of all that passed betwe&r> Jehovah and Moses on the top of ]\[ount Hore': '. They had been on the very brink of an awful preci- pice. Another moment might have dashed them over. The intercession of Moses had saved them, the very man whom they had accused of taking too much upon him. Alas ! how they had mistaken and misjudged him! How utterly astray they had been in all their thoughts! Why, the very man whom they had accused of self-seeking and desirinetty pre- ciseness of a mere copyist? Infidels may affect to do so, but true Christians know better. A mere scribe could copy events in their chronological order; a true prophet will bring those events to bear, in a moral way, upon the heart and conscience. Thus, while the poor deluded infidel is groping amid the sliadows of his own creation, the pious student delights himself in the moral glories of that peerless Volume which stands like a rock, against which the waves of infidel thought dash themselves with cqi> temptible impotency. 86 DEUTERONOMY We do not attempt to dwell upon the circum- stances referred to in the above parenthesis ; they have beeu gone into elsewhere, and therefore we only feel it needful, in this place, to })oint out to the reader what we may venture to call the Deuter- onomic bearing Oi' the facts — the use which the law- sjiver makes of thcni to strenffthcn the foundation of his final appeal to the heart and conscience of the people, to give pungency and power to his exhorta- tion, as he urged upon them the absolute necessity of unqualified obedience to the statutes and judg- ments of their covenant-God. Such was his reason for referring to the solemn fact of the death of Aaron. The}' wcie to remember that notwithstand- ing Aaron's high position as the higli-priest of Israel, yet he was stripped of his robes and deprived of his life for disobedience to the word of Jehovah. How important, then, that they should take heed to themselves ! The government of God was not to be trifled with, and the very fact of Aaron's elevation only rendered it all the more needfid that his sin should be dealt with, in order that olliers might fear. And then they were to remember the Lord's dealings with Levi, in which grace shines with such marvelous lustre. Tlie fierce, cruel, self-willed Levi A.as taken up from the depths of his moral ruin and broiinht nigh to God, "to bear the ark of the cove- nant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord, to minister unto Ilira, and to bless in Ills name." But why should this account of Levi be coupled with the death of Aaron? Simply to set forth the CHAPTER X 87 blessed consequences of obedience. If the death of Aaron displayed tlie awful lesiilt of disobedience, the elevation of Levi illustrates the precious fruit of obedience. Hear what the prophet Malachi says on this point. — "And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that My covenant might be with Levi, saith the Lord of hosts. ]My covenant was with him of life and peace ; and I (jave them to him for the fear tuhereicith he feared 3fe, and toas afraid before My name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips ; he walked with Me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity." (Chap. ii. 4-6.) This is a very remarkable passage, and throws much light ui)on the subject now l)efore w . It tells us distinctly that Jehovali <>ave Ilis covenant of life and peace to Levi "for the fear wherewith he feared" Ilini on the terrible occasion of the golden calf which Aaron (himself a Levite of the very high- est order) made. Why was Aaron judged ? Because of his rebellion at the waters of Meribah. (Num. XX. 24.) Why was Levi blessed? Because of his reverent obedience at the foot of Mount Horeb. (Ex. xxxii.) Wh}' are both grouped together in Deuteronomy x? In order to impress upon the heart and conscience of the congregation the urgent necessity of implicit obedience to the command- ments of their covenant-God. How perfect is Scrip- ture ill iv'.l its jiarts! how beautifully it hangs to- gether! and how jlain it is to the devout render that the lovely book of Dv-uteronomy has its own 88 DEUTERONOJrr divine niche to fill, its own distinctive work to do, its own ii[)pointcd sphere, scope, and object! How manifest it is that the fifth division of the Pentateuch is neither a contradiction nor a repetition, but a divine a[)i)lication of its divinel}' inspired predeces- sors ! And, finally, we cannot help adding, how con- vincing the evidence that infidel writers know neither what they say nor whereof they affirm, when they dare to insult the oracles of God — yea, that they greatly eir, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God ! * At verse 10 of our chapter, Moses returns to the subject of his discourse. ''And I stayed in the mount, according to the first time, forty days and forty nights; and the Lord hearkened unto nie at that time also, and the Lord would not destroy thee. And the Lord said unto me, 'Arise, take thy journey before the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I sware unto their fathers to give unto them.* " *^Ve have, in human writings, ninnerous cxami)lcs of tlie same tiling that inlidcl.s oljjcct to in Deuteronomy x. C-'J. Supijose a man is anxious to call the attention of the English nation to some great principle of political economy, or Bonie matter of national imiiortance; he does not hesitate to select facta however widely separated on the page of hi.-tory, and group them together in order to illustrate hi.s Kubject. Do inlldcls object to this? No ; not when found in the writings of men. It is only when it occurs in Scripture, because they hate the Woi-d of God, and cannot bear the idea that lie should give to His creatures a book-revelation of His mind. Blessed Ijc His name, lie has given it notwithstanding, and we have it in all its infinite ))rc<;iousncsa and divine authority, for the comfort of our hearts and the guidance of our jjath amid all the darkness and confusion of this scene through which we are pass- ing home to glory. CmaFTER X t}9 Jehovah would accomplish His promise to the fathers spite of every hindrance. He would put Is- rael ia full possession of the land concerning which He had sworn to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give it to tlieir seed for an everlastincr inlieritance. "And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in (dl His toays, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul. To keep the commandments of the Lord, and His statutes, which I command thee this day, for thy good." It was all for their real good — their deep, full blessing to walk in the way of the divine com- mandments. The path of whole-hearted obedience is the only path of true happiness ; and, blessed be God, this i)ath can always be trodden by those who love the Lord. This is an unspeakable comfort, at all times. God has given us His precious Word, the perfect revela- tion of His mind ; and lie has given us what Israel had not, even His Holy Spirit to dwell in us, whereby we can understand and ai)preciate His Word. Hence our obligations are vastly higher tlian were Israel's. We are bound to a life of obedience by every argu- ment that C(Hild be brought to bear on the heart and understanding. And surely it is for our good to be obedient. There is indeed "great reward " in keeping the com- mandments of our loving Father. Eveiy thought of Him and of His gracious ways, every reference to His marvelous dealings with us — His loving 90 DEUTERONOMY ministn-. His tender care, His thoughtful love — all shouUl bind our hearts in allectioiuite devotion to Him, and quicken our steps in treading the path of loving obedience to Him. Wherever we turn our e3-es we are met hy tlie most powerful evidences of His chiini uinm our heart's affections and upon all the energies of our ransomed being; and, blessed be His name, the more fully we are enabled, by His grace, to respond to His most precious claims, the brighter and happier our path must be. There is nothing in all this world more deeply blessed than the path and portion of an obedient soul. "Great peace have they that love Thy law, and nothing shall offend them." The lowly disciple who finds his meat and his drink in doing the will of his beloved Lord and Master, possesses a peace which the world can neither give nor take avvay. True, he may be misunderstood and misinterpreted ; he may be dubbed narrow and bigoted, and such like ; but none of these things move him. One approving smile from his Lord is more than ample recompense for all the reproach that men can heap upon him. He knows how to estimate at their proper worth the thoughts of men ; they are to him as the chaff which the wind driveth away. The deep utterance of his heart, as he moves steadily along the sacred path of obedience, is, — •'Let me my feebleness recline On that eternal love of Thine, And human thoughts forget; Cbilfilike attend what Thou wilt say, CHAPTER X 91 Go forth and serve Thee while ' tis day, Nor leave Thy sweet retreat." In the closing verses of onr cliapter, the lawgiver seems to rise higher and higher in his presentation of moral motives for obedience, and to come closer and closer to the hearts of the people, "Behold," he says, 'Hhe heaven and the heaA'en of heavens is the Lord's thy God, the earth also, witli all that therein is. Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and He chose their seed after them, even yon above all people, as it is this day," What a marvelons privilege to be chosen and loved by the Possessor of heaven and earth! what an honor to be called to serve and obey Him ! Surely nothing in all this world could be higher or better. To be identified and associated with the Most Hio-h God, to have His name called upon them, to be His peculiar people. His special possession, the people of His choice, to be set apart from all the nations of the earth to be the servants of Jehovah and His witnesses. What, we may ask, could exceed this, except it be that to which the Church of God and the individual believer are called? Assuredly, our privileges are higher, inasmuch as we know God in a higher, deeper, nearer, more intimate maimer than the nation of Israel ever did. We know Him as the God and P'ather of the Lord Jesus Christ, and as our God and Father, We have the Holy Ghost dwelling in us, shedding abroad the love of God in our hearts, and leading us to cry, Abba, Father. All this is far beyond any thing that 7 92 DECTERONOMT God's earthlj^ people ever knew or could know ; and, inasmuch as our i)rivileges are higher, His claims upon our hearty and unreserved obedience are also higher. Ever}- appeal to the heart of Israel should come home with augmented force to our hearts, beloved Christian reader ; every exhortation ad- dressed to theta should speak far more powerfully to us. AVe occupy the very highest ground on which an}- creature could stand. Neither the seed of Abraham on earth nor the angels of God in heaven could say what we can say or know what we know. We are linked and eternally associated witli the risen and glorified Son of God. We can adopt as our own the wondrous language of 1 John iv. 17, and sa}', ''As He is, so are we in tliis world." What can exceed this, as to privilege and dignity ? Surolv nothing, save to be, in body, soul, and spirit, con- formed to His adorable image, as we shall be ere long, through the abounding gra(;e of God. Well then, let us ever bear in mind — yea, let us have it deep, deep down in our hearts, that according to our privileges are our obligations. Let us not refuse the wholesome word "obligation," as though it had a Iciial ring about it. Fur from it! it would be utterl}' impossible to conceive any thing further removed from all thought of legality than the ob- ligations whicli flow out of the Christian's position. It is a very berious mistake to be continually raising the cry of "Legal! legal!" whenever the holy responsibilities of our position are pressed upon us. We believe that every truly pious Christian will CHAPTER X 98 delight in all the appeals and exhortations which the Holy Ghost addresses to us as to our obligations, seeing they are all grounded upon privileges con- ferred upon us by the sovereign grace of God, through the precious blood of Christ, and made good to us by the mighty ministry of tlie Holy Ghost. But let us hearken still further to the stirring appeals of Moses. They are truly profitable for us, with all our higher light, knowledge, and privilege. "Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your hearty and be no more stiff-necked. For the Lord youi God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor takeih reward. He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and lovetU the stranger, in giving him food and raiment." Here, Moses speaks not merely of God's doings and dealings and ways, but of Himself, of what He is. He is high over all, the great, the mighty, and the terrible. But He lias a heart for the widow and the fatherless — those helpless objects deprived of all earthly and natural props, the poor bereaved and broken-hearted widow, and the desolate orphan. God thinks of and cares for such in a very special way ; they have a claim upon His loving heart and mighty hand. '-A father of tlie fatherless, and a Judge of \\\v. widow is God in His holy habitation." "Sliethnt is a widow indeed and desolate trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers uight and da3\" "Leave thy fatherless children, I 94 DEUTERONOilY will preserve them alive ; and let thy widows trust in Me." What a rich provision is here for widows and orphans! How wondrous God's care of sui-h! How many widows are mucli better otf than wlien they had their husbands ! how many orphans are better cared and provided for than when they had their parents! God looks after them ! This is enough. Thousands of husbands and thousands of parents are worse, by far, than none ; but God never fails those who are cast upon Him. He is ever true to His own name, whatever relationship He takes. Let all widows and orphans remember this for their com- fort and encouragement. And then the poor stranger ! He is not forgotten. *'He loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment." How precious is this! Our God cares for all those who are bereft of earthly props, human hopes, and creature-confidences. All such have a special claim upon Him, to which He will most surely respond according to all the love of His heart. The widow, the fatherless, and the stranger are the special objects of His tender care, and all such have but to look to Him, and draw upon His exhaustless resources in all their varied need. But then He must be known in order to be trusted. "They that know Tiiy name will [)ut their trust in Tliee ; for Thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek Thee." Those who do not know God would vastly prefer an insurance policy or a government annuity to His promise ; but the true believer finds ^iiAPTER X 95 in that promise the uiif:iiling stay of his heart, be- cause lie knows ami trusts and loves the Promiser. He delights in the tliought of being absolutely shut up to God — wholly dependent upon Him. He would not, for worlds, be in any other position. The very thins which would almost drive an unbelievc-r out of his senses is to the Christian — the man of faith, the very deepest joy of his heart. The language of such an one will ever be, '"My soul, wait thou only upon God ; for my exi)ectation is from Him. He o?i/?/ is my rock." Blessed position ! precious por- tion ! May the reader know it as a divine reality, a living power, in his heart, by the mighty ministry of the Holy Ghost. Then will he be able to sit loose to earthly things. He will be able to tell the world that he is independent of it, having found all he wants, for time and eternitj', in the living God and His Christ. "Thou, O Christ, art all I want; More than all in Thee I tiud." But let us specially note the provision which God makes for the stranger. It is ver^' simple — '■'food and lairaent." This is enough for a true stranger, as the blessed apostle says to his son Timothy, ''We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And luiving food and rai- ment, let us be therewith content." Christian reader, let us ponder this. What a cure for restless ;unbiiion is here! what an antidote against covetousness ! what a blessed deliverance 96 DEUTERONOMY from the feverish excitement of commercial life, the grasping spirit of the age in which our lot is cast! If we were only content Avitli the divinely appointed provision for the stranger, what a different tale we should have to tell ! how calm and even would be the current of our daily life! how simple our habits and tastes! how unworldly our spirit and style! what moral elevation above the self-indulgence and luxury so prevalent amongst professing Christians! We should simply oat and drink to the glory of God, and to keep the body in proper working order. To go beyond this, cither in eating or drinking, is to indulge in "-fleshly lusts, which war against the soul." Alas! alas! how much of this there is, specially in reference to drink! It is perfectly appalling to think of the consumption of intoxicating drink amongst professing Christians. It is our thorough conviction that the devil has succeeded in ruining the testimony of hundreds, and in causing them to make shipwreck of faith and a good conscience, by the use of stimulants. Thousands ruin their for- tunes, ruin their families, ruin their health, ruin their souls, through the senseless, vile, and cursed desire for stimulants. We are not going to preach a crusade against stimulants or narcotics. The wrong is not in the things themselves, but in our inordinate and sinful use of them. It not unfrequently hapi)ens that persons who fall under the horrible dominion of drink seek to lay the blame on their medical adviser, CHAPTEU X 97 but surely no proper medical man would ever advise his patient to indulgp in the use of stimulants. He may prescribe the use of "a little wine, for the stomach's sake and frequent infirmities," and be has the very highest authority for so doing ; but why should this lead any one to become a drunkard? Each one is responsible to walk in the fear of God in reference to both eating and drinking. If a doctor prescribes a little nourishing food for bis patient, is he to be blamed if that patient becomes a glutton ? Surely not. The evil is not in the doctor's prescrip- tion, or in the stimulant or in the nourishment, but in the wretched lust of the heart. Here, we are persuaded, lies the root of the evil; and the remedy is found in that precious grace of God which, while it briugeth salvation unto all men, teacheth those who are saved "to live soberly, right- eously, and godly in this pi-esent world." And be it remembered that "to live soberly" means a great deal more than temperance in eating and drinking ; it means this, most surely, but it takes in also the whole range of inward self-government — the govern- ment of the thouglits, the government of the temper, the government of the tongue. The grace that saves us not onl}' tails us how to live, but teaches how to do it, and if we follow its teachings, we shall be well content with God's provision for the stranger. It is at once interesting and edifying to notice the way in which Moses sets the divine example before the people as their model. Jehovah "loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment. Love 98 DEUTERONOMY ye therefore the stranger ; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." This is very touching. They were not only lo keep before their eyes the divine model, but also to remember their own past history and experience, in order that their hearts might be drawn out in sympathy and compassion toward the poor homeless stranger. It was the bounden duty and high privilege of the Israel of God to place themselves in the circumstances and enter into the feelings of others. They were to be the moral rep- resentatives of that blessed One whose people they were, and whose name was called upon them. They were to imitate Him in meeting the wants and gladdening the hearts of the fatherless, the widow, and the stranger. And if God's earthly people were called to this lovely course of action, how much raoi'e are we who are "blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus." May we abide more in His presence, and drink more into His spirit, that so we may more faithfull}'^ reflect His moral glories upon ail with whom we come ia contact. Tlie closing lines of our chapter give us a very fine summing uj) of the practical teaching which has been enjjaiiinjx our attention. "Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God ; Him shalt thou serve, and to Him shalt thou cleave, and swear by His name. He is thy praise, and He is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terriljle things, which thine eyes have seen. Thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons, and now the Lord CHAPTER XI 99 hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude." (Ver. 20-22.) How thoroughly bracing is all this to the moral being! This binding of tlic heart to the Lord Himself by means of all that He is, and all His wondrous actings and gracious ways, is unspeakably precious. It is, \vc may truly say, the secret spring of all true devotedness. God grant that the writer and the reader may abidingly realize its motive power. CHAPTER XI. <u risest up ; and thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thine house, and upon thy gates, that your days may be multi- plied, and the days of j'our children, in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth." Blessed days ! And oh, how ardently the large, loving heart of Moses longed that the people might enjo}' many such days! And how simple the con- dition ! Truly nothing could be simpler, nothing more precious. It was not a heavy yoke laid upon them, but the sweet privilege of treasuring up the precious commandments of the Lord their God in their hearts, and breathing the very atmosphere of His holy "Word. All was to hinge upon this. All the blessings of the land of Canaan — that goodl}', higlily favored land, a land flowing with milk and honey, a land on which Jehovah's eyes ever rested in loving interest and tender care — all its precious fruits, all its rare privileges, were to be theirs in CHAPTER XI 115 perpetuity, on the one simple condition of loving obedience to the word of their covenant-God. ••'For if ye shall diligently keep all these com- mandments which I command you, to do them, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His tcays, and to cleave unto Ilim ; then will the Lord drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than j'ourselves." In a word, sure and certain victory was before them, a most complete overthrow of all enemies and ob- stacles, a triumphal march into the promised inherit- ance — all secured to them on the blessed ground of affectionate and reverential obedience to the most precious statutes and judgments that had ever been addressed to tiie human heart — statutes and judg- ments every one of which was but the very voice of their most gracious Deliverer. ''Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours ; from the wilderness and Leba- non, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea, shall your coast be. There sliall no man be able to stand before you ; for the Ll3' only to cases in which our natural relationships and affec- tions interfere with the claims of God and of Christ. When they operate in this way, they must be denied and mortified. If they dare to intrude upon a domain which is wholly divine, the sentence of death must be written upon them. In contemplating the life of the onl}'^ perfect man that ever trod this earth of ours, we can see how beautifully lie adjusted the various claims which, as a man and a servant. He had to meet. He could say to His mother, "Woman, w^hat have I to do with thee ?" and yet, at the fitting moment. He could, with exquisite tenderness, commend that mother to the care of the disciple whom He loved. He could say to His parents, "Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?" and, at the same time, go home with them and be sweetly subject to parental authorit}'. Tims the written teachings of holy Scripture, and the perfect ways of the living Christ, do both combine to teach us how to discharge aright the claims of nature and the claims of God. But it may be that the reader feels considerable dilRculty in reference to the line of action enjoined in iJcuteronom}' xiii. 9, 10. He may find it hard to reconcile it with a God of love, and with the grace, gentleness, and tenderness inculcated in the New- Testament scriptures. Here again we must keep a chapte:r xin 149 viorilant eye upon reason. It always affects to find ample scope for its powers in the stern enactments of the divine government ; but, in reality, it only displays its blindness and folly. Still, though we would make very short work with infidel reason, we earnestly desire to help any honest soul who may not be able to see his way through this question. We have had occasion, in our studies on the earlier chapters of this book, to refer to the very weighty subject of God's governmental dealings both with Israel and the nations ; but, in additioa to what has already come under our notice, we have to bear in mind the very important difference be- tween the two economies of law and grace. If this be not clearly apprehended, we shall find very con- siderable difficulty in such passages as Deuteronomy xiii. 9, 10. The great characteristic principle of the Jcwisli economy was righteousness; the character- istic piinciple of Christianity is grace — pure, un- qualifii'd grace. If this fact be fully grasped, all difficulty vanishes. It was perfectly right, perfectly consistent, and io perfect harmony wilh the mind of God for Israel to slay their enemies. God commanded them to do so. And, in like manner, it was right and consist- ent for them to execute righteous judgment, evea unto death, upon any member of the congregation who should seek to draw them aside after false gods, as in the passage before us. To do so was in fuU moi-al harmony with the grand ruling principles of government and law, under which they were placed* 150 - DEUTERONOMY in accordance with the dispensational wisdom of God. All this is perfectly plain. It runs through the entire canon of Old-Testament scripture. God's government in Israel, and His government of the world in connection with Israel, was on the strict principle of righteousness. And as it was in the past, so shall it be in the future, — "A king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment." But in Christianity, we see something quite differ- ent. The moment we open the pages of the New Testament, and hearken to the teachings and mark the actings of the Son of God, we find ourselves on entirely new ground, and in a new atmosphere ; in a word, we are in the atmosphere and on the ground of pure, unqualified grace. Thus, as a sample of the teaching, take a passage or two from what is called The Sermon on the Mount — that marvelous and precious compendium of the principles of the kingdom of heaven. — '"Ye have heard that it bath been said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth' ; hut I say unto you^ that ye resist not evil ; but whosoever sliall smite thee on the one cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain." Again, "Ye have heard that it hath been said, 'Tliou slialt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy' ; hut I say unto you, Love 3'our ene- mies, bless them that curse you, do good to them CHAPTER Xm 151 that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use 30U, and persecute you ; that ye may be the sons [_vioi] of your Father which is in heaven ; for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. .... Be ye therefore perfect [rfAetoz], even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." (Matt. V. 38-48.) "We cannot now dwell upon those blessed sen- tences ; we merely quote them for the reader in order to let him see the immense difference between the Jewish and Christian economy. What was per- fectly right and consistent for a Jew, might be quite wrong and inconsistent for a Christian. This is so plain that a child may see it ; and yet, strange to say, many of the Lord's beloved people seem to be clouded on the subject. The}' judge it to be j)orfectly right for Christians to deal in right- eousness, and go to war, and to exercise worldly power. Well, then, if it be right for Christians to act thus, we would simply ask, Where is it taught in the New Testament ? where have we a single sen- tence fi-om the lips of oiu' Lord Jesus Chiist, or from the pen of the Holy Ghost, to warrant or sanc- tion such a thing ? As we have said, in reference to other questions that have come before us in our studies on this book, it is of no possible use for us to saj', " We think so and so," Our thoughts are simply worth nothing. The one grand question, in all matters of Christian faith and morals, is, "What saith tlie New Testament?" What did our Lord 152 DEUTERONOSIT and Master teach, and what did He do ? He taught that His people now are not to act as His people of old acted. Righteousness was the principle of the old economy ; grace is the principle of the new. This was what Christ taught, as may be seen in numberless passages of Scripture. And how did He act ? Did He deal in righteousness with people? did He assert His rights ? did He exercise worldly- power? did He go to law? did He vindicate Him- self, or retaliate ? When His poor disciples, in utter ignorance of the heavenly principles which He taught, and in total forgetfulness of His whole course of action, said to Him, on one occasion in the which a certain village of the Samaritans refused to receive Him, "I/ord, wilt Thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, even as Elias did?" what was His answer? "He turned and rebuked them, and said, 'Ye know not what manner of spirit y& are of ; for the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save.' And they went to another village." It was per- fectly consistent with the spirit, principle, and genius of the dispensation of which Elias was the exponent and representative, to call down fire from heaven to consume the men sent by a godless king to arrest him ; but the blessed Lord was the perfect Exponent and divine Representative of another dispensation altogether. His was a life of perfect self-surrender, from first to last. He never asserted His rights. He came to serve and to give ; He came to repre- sent God — to be the perfect expression of the Father CHAPTEK xin. 153 in every way. The Father's character shone out in His every look, His every word, His every act, Hia every movement. Siicli was the Loz-d Christ when He was down here among men, and such Avas His teaching. He did what He taught, and He taught wliat He did. His words expressed what He was, and His ways illustrated His words. He came to serve and to give, and His whole life was marked by those two things, from the manger to the cross. We may trul}' saj^, time would fail us to quote the passages in proof and Illustration of this ; nor is there any need, inasmuch as the trulh of it will hardly be called in question. Well, then, is not He our great Exemplar in all things? is it not by His teaching and ways that our course and character as Christians are to be formed? How are we to know how we ought to walk, save by hearkening to His blessed words and gazing on His perfect ways? If we as Christians are to be guided and governed by the principles and precepts of the Mosaic economy, then, assuredly, it would be right for us to go to law, to contend for oiu- rights, to engage in war, to destroy our enemies ; but then what becomes of the teaching and example of our adorable Lord and Saviour? what of the teachino-s of the Holy Gliost? what of the New Testament? Is it not as plain as a sunbeam to the reader that for a Christian to do these things is to act in flao-rant opposition to the teaching and example of his Lord? Here, however, we may be met by the old and oft-repeated inquiry, "What would become of the 1")4 DEUTEROXOMY world, what would become of its institutions, what would become of society, if such principles were to be universally dominant ? " The infidel historian, in speaking of the early Christians, and their refusal to join the Roman arm}^, sneeringly inquires, "What would have become of the empire, surrounded as it was on all sides by barbarians, if every one had indulged in such pusillanimous ideas as these ?" We reply at once, If those spiritual and heavenly principles were universally dominant, there would be no wars — no fighting, and hence there would be no need of soldiers, no need of standing armies or navies, no need of constabulaiy or pf)lice ; there would be no wrong-doings, no strife about property, and hence no need of courts of law, judges, or magistrates ; in short, the world as it now is would have an end ; the kingdoms of this world would have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. But the plain fact is, those heavenly principles of which we speak are not intended for the world at all, inasmuch as the world could not adopt them, or act upon them for a single hour ; to do so would involve the immediate and complete break-up of the present system of things, the dissolution of the entire frame- work of society as at present constituted. Hence, the objection of the infidel crumbles into dust beneath our feet, like all other infidel objections, and the questions and the difflcudties which are based upon them. They are deprived of every atom of moral force. Heavenly principles are not designed CHAPTER XIII 155 for "this present evil world" at all; they are de- signed for the Church, which is not of the world, even as Jesus is not of the world. "If," said our Lord to Pilate, "My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews ; but now is My kingdom not from hence." M:iik the word "now." By and by, tlie kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord ; but now, lie is rejected, and all who belong to Him — His Church — His people — are called to share His rejection, to follow Him into the outside })lace, and walk as pilgrims and strangers here below, waiting for the moment when He shall come to receive them to Himself, that where He is, there they may be also. Now, it is the attempt to mix the world and the Church together that produces such terrible confu- sion. It is one of Satan's special wiles, and it has done more to mar the testimony of the Church of God and binder its progress than most of us are aware. It involves a complete turning of things upside down, a confounding of things that differ essentially, an uUer denial of the Cluirch's true character, her position, her walk, and her hope. We sometimes hear the expression, "Christian world:" what does it mean ? It is simply an at- tempt to combine two things which in their source, nature, and character are as diverse as light and darkness. It is an effort to tack a new piece upon an old garment, which, as our Lord tells us, only makes the rent worse. 11 156 DEUTERONOMY It is not God's object to Christianize the world, but to call His people out of tlie world, to be a heavenly people, governed by heavenly principles, formed by a heavenly object, and cheered by a heavenl}' hope. If this be not clearly seen ; if the truth as to the Church's true calling and course be not realized as a living power in the soul, we shall be sure to make the most grievous mistakes in our work, walk, and service. We shall make an entirely wrong use of the Old-Testament scriptures, not only on prophetic subjects, but in reference to the whole range of practical life ; indeed, it would be utterly impossible to calculate the loss which must result from not seeing the distinctive calling, position, and hope of the Church of God, luT association and identification — her living union with a rejected, risen, and glorified Christ. We cannot attempt to enlarge upon this most precious and interesting theme ; but we should just like to point out to the reader an instance or two illustrative of the Spirit's method of quoting and applying Old-Testament scripture. Take, for ex- ample, the following passage from that lovely thirty- fourth psalm, — "The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off tlie remembrance of them from the earth." Now, maik the way in which the Holy Spirit quotes this passage in the first epistle of Peter. — "Tlie face of the Lord is against them that do evil." (Chap. iii. 12.) Not a word about cutting off. Why is this ? Because the Lord is not now acting upon the principle of cutting off. CHAPTER xm 157 He acted upon it under the law, and He will act upon it in the kingdom by and by; but just now, He is acting in grace and long-suffering mercy. His face is quite as much and quite as decidedly against all evil-doers as ever it was or ever it will be, but not now to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. The most striking illustra- tion of this marvelous grace and forbearance, and of the diiference between the two principles on which we have been dwelUng, is seen in the fact that the very men who wiih wicked hands crucified His only begotten and well-beloved Son — evil-doers, surelj^ of the most pronounced type, — instead of being cut off from the earth, were the very fust to hear the message of full and free pardon through the blood of the cross. Now, it may appear to some that we are making too much of the mere omission of a single clause of Old-Testament scripture. Let not the reader think so. Even had we but this one instance, it would be a serious mistake to treat it with any thing like in- difference. But the fact is, there are scores of passages of the same character as the one just quoted, all illustrative of the contrast between the Jewish and Cln-istian economies, and also between Christianity and the coming kingdom. God is now deaUng in grace willi the world, and so should His people, if they want to be like Him, and such they are called to be. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." And again, "Be ye therefore imitators 158 DEUTERONOMY ~ of God, as dear children ; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor." (Eph. v. 1.) This is our model. We are called to copy our Father's example — to imitate Hira. He is not going to law with the world ; He is not enforcing His rights with the strong hand of power. By and by He will ; but just now, in this day of grace. He showers His blessings and benefits in rich profusion upon those whose life is one of enmity and rebellion against Him. All this is perfectly marvelous, but thus it is ; and we, as Christians, are called to act on this morally glorious principle. It may be said by some, How could we ever get on in the world — how could we conduct our business on such a principle as this ? "We should be robbed and ruined ; designing people would take advantage of us if they knew that we would not go to law with them ; they would take our goods, or borrow our money, or occupy our houses, and refuse to pay us. In short, we could never get on in a world like this if we did not assert our rights and establish our claims by the strong hand of power. What is the law for but to make people behave themselves ? Are not the powers that be ordained of God for the very purpose of maintaining peace and good order in our midst? What would become of society if we had not soldiers, policemen, magis- trates, and judges ? And if God has ordained that such things should be, why should not His people CHAPTER xra 159 avail themselves of them ? and not only so, but who so fit to occupy places of authority and power, or to wield the sword of justice, as tlie people of God? Tliere is, no doubt, very great apparent force in all this line of argument. Tlie powers that be are ordained of God. Tlie king, the governor, the judge, the magistrate, are, each in his place, the expression of the power of God. It is God who invests each with the power which he wields ; it is He who has put the sword into liis hand, for the punishment of evil-doers, and the praise of them that do well. We bless God with all our hearts for the constituted authorities of the country. Day and night, in private and in public, we pray for them. It is our bounden duty to obey and submit ourselves to them in all things, provided always that they do not call upon us to disobey God, or do violence to conscience. If they do this, we must — what? Resist? Nay, but suffer. All this is perfectly plain. The world as it now is could not go on for a single day if men were not kept iu order by the strong hand of ()ower. "We could not live, or at least life would be perfectly intolerable, were it not that evil-doers are kept in terror of the glittering sword of justice. Even as it is, through lack of moral power on the part of those who Ix'ar the sword, lawless demagogues are allowed to stir up the evil passions of men to resist the law of the land and disturb the peace and threaten the lives and property of well-disposed and harmless subjects of the government. 160 DEUTERONOMY But admitting all this, in the fullest possible manner, as eveiy intelligent Christian, every one taught by Scripture, most assuredly will, it leaves wholl}'^ untouched the question of the Christian's path in this world. Christianity fully recognizes all the governmental institutions of the countr}'. It forms no part of the Christian's business to inter- fere, in any one way, with such institutions. Wherever he is, whatever be the principle or char- acter of the government of the country in which his. lot is cast, it is his duty to recognize its municipal and political arrangements, to pay taxes, pray for the government, honor governors in their official capacity, wish well to the legislature and the execu- tive, pray for the peace of the country, live in peace with all, so far as in him lies. We see all this in the blessed Master Himself in perfection, blessed be His holy name for evermore! In His memorable reply to the crafty Herodians, He recognizes the principle of subjection to the powers that be — "Render to Cffisar the thino^s tliat be Cffisar's, and to God the things that be God's." And not only so, but we find Him also paying trib- ute, athough pci'sonally free. Tliey had no right to. demand it of Him, as He plainly shows to Peter; and it might be said, Why did He not appeal ? Appeal! Nay; He shows us something quite- different. Hear His exquisite reply to His mistaken apostle — "Notwitlistanding, lest we should offevd them, go thou to tlie sea, and cast a hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up ; and when thou hast CHAPTER XIII 161 opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of mone}' ; that take and give unto tliem for Me and thee.'"*