The Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive. Deuteronomy 29:4 Men without heart, sight, or hearing Feeling, sight, hearing! What wonderful things these are! If we could exist without them, what a wretched condition ours would be! The outer world would be unknown to us if the gates of the senses were shut, and the soul would be famished, like Samaria when it was straitly shut up, and there was no going in nor coming out. When any one of the senses is gone it involves great deprivation, and subjects the person enduring it to the pity of his fellows, but if all were absent what wretchedness must ensue! Transfer your thoughts now from these external senses by which we become conscious of the external world to those spiritual senses by which we perceive the spiritual world, the kingdom of heaven, the Lord of that kingdom, and all the powers of the world to come. There is a heart which should be tender, by which we perceive the presence of God and feel His operations, and even behold the Lord Himself, as it is written, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." There is a spiritual eye by which the things invisible are discerned; blessed are they to whom the Lord has given to see the things of His kingdom, which to the unrenewed remain hidden in parables. There is a spiritual ear by which we hear the gentle whispers of the Spirit, which frequently come to us internally, without the medium of sounds that can affect the ear. Blessed are those who have the ear which the Lord has purged, and cleansed, and opened, so that it listens to the Divine call But there is no blessedness in the case of men devoid of spiritual feeling, sight, and hearing. Theirs is a miserable plight. I. We shall think upon a MOURNFUL FACT. Here was a whole nation, with but very few exceptions, of whom their leader, who knew and loved them best, was obliged to say, "The Lord hath not given you a heart to perceive, unto this day." 1. The mournful part of it was, that this was the nation that had been specially favoured of God above all others. 2. Note again, that not only were they a highly favoured people, but they had seen very wonderful acts performed by the Lord Himself. 3. In addition to this, these people had passed through a very remarkable experience. 4. In addition to all this sight and experience, the Israelites had received remarkable instruction. 5. One thing else is worth notice, that these people had been associated with remarkable characters. They were not all blinded, there were a few among them who were gracious, and so were made to perceive. Caleb and Joshua were there, and Aaron and Miriam; but chiefly there was Moses, grandest of men, true father of the nation II. Let us note THE MOURNFUL REASONS FOR ALL THIS. 1. The reasons for their incapacity to see and perceive lay, first, in the tact that these people never believed in their own blindness. They had no heart to perceive, and they did not perceive their absence of perception; they had no eyes wherewith to detect their own dimness of vision. They were such fools as to dote on their own wisdom, so poor as to think themselves rich, so hypocritical as to profess to be sincere. Pride is the great creator of darkness; like Nahash, the Ammonite, it puts out the right eye. Men seek not the light, because they boast that they are the children of the day and need no light from above. 2. More than this, these men never asked for a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear. No man hath ever asked for these things and been refused; no soul has cried in its blindness and darkness, "Open Thou mine eyes," but what a gracious answer has always come. It is the prerogative of the Lord Jesus to open the blind eyes; but this He is ever ready to do whenever men call upon His name. Then, moreover, what little light they did have they resisted. When they were forced to see, it was only for a moment that they would be instructed, and then they shut their eyes again. III. What was THE MOURNFUL RESULT of these people being so highly favoured, and yet not seeing their God? 1. The result was, first, that they missed a happy portion, I can hardly imagine how happy the children of Israel might have been. They left Egypt with a high hand and an outstretched arm, their ears were hung with jewels, and their purses were filled with riches, while around them manna dropped from heaven, and cool streams flowed at their side. They might have made a quick march to the promised land, and at once entered their rest, for their God who had sent the hornet before them would soon have driven out their adversaries. They would have known no invading enemy, and felt neither blast, nor blight, nor mildew; in fact, they would have been the happiest nation under heaven: "He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee." They flung all this on one side: they would not have God, and so they could not have prosperity. They walked contrary to Him, and He walked contrary to them; they would not obey Him, and therefore His anger smoked against them. 2. Think, moreover, what a glorious destiny they threw aside. Had they been equal to the occasion, by God's grace they might have been a nation of kings and priests, they might have been the Lord's missionaries to all lands, the light-bearers to all peoples. 3. Another result was that while they missed so high a position, they went on sinning. As they did not learn the lesson God was teaching them, namely, that He was God, and that to serve Him was their joy and their prosperity, they went from one evil to another, provoking the Lord to jealousy. 4. Hence they frequently suffered. A plague broke out at one time, and a burning at another; at one time they were visited with fever, and anon the earth opened beneath them; one day the Amalekites smote them, another day fiery serpents leaped up from the sand, and they died by thousands, being poisoned by their bites. They suffered much and often, and in all their trials they did but reap what they had sown. 5. At last this evil ended terribly. The Lord lifted His hand to heaven, and swore that the rebellious generation should not enter into His rest, and they began to die by wholesale till Moses cried, "We are consumed by Thine anger, and by Thy wrath are we troubled." Not one of the men that came out of Egypt, save only Joshua and Caleb, reached the promised land. ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) A perceiving heart the gift of God R. South, D. D. To complete the sense of the words, we must have recourse to the two precedent verses; which, being compared to the text, present us with a description of such a brutish temper as is not to be found in any people mentioned throughout the whole Book of God, or any history whatsoever. I. WHAT IS MEANT BY GOD'S GIVING TO THE SOUL A PERCEIVING HEART? We have grace here set out by such acts as are properly acts of knowledge; as understanding, seeing, hearing; not because, as some imagine, grace is placed only in the understanding, which, being informed with such a principle, is able to govern, and practically to determine the will, without the help of any new principle infused into that. For grace is a habit equally placed in both these faculties, but it is expressed by the acts of the understanding: — 1. Because the understanding has the precedency and first stroke in holy actions, as well as in others; it is the head and fountain from whence they derive their goodness, the leading faculty: and therefore the works of all the rest may, by way of eminence, be ascribed to this, as the conquest of an army is ascribed to the leader only, or general. 2. Because the means of grace are chiefly and most frequently expressed by the word "truth"; 1 Timothy 1:15 , "This is a faithful (or a true) saying, that Christ came into the world to save sinners." And in John 3:33 , "He that believeth hath set to his seal that God is true." And in John 17:17 , "Thy Word is truth." From hence, therefore, I collect —(1) That to understand and receive the Word, according to the letter and notion, by a bare assent to the truth of it, is not to have a heart to perceive nor an ear to hear: because it is evident, both from Scripture and ordinary observation, that such a reception of the means of grace is not always attended with these spiritual effects: as, for instance, the Jews heard Christ and admired Him, but afterwards they rejected His doctrine and crucified His person. To hear the Word of God, and to hear God speaking in His Word, are things vastly different.(2) Therefore, in the second place, to have a perceiving heart and a hearing ear is to have a spiritual light begot in the mind by an immediate overpowering work of the Spirit, whereby alone the soul is enabled to apprehend the things of God spiritually, and to practise them effectually: and without this we may see and see, and never perceive, and hear again and again and never understand. II. WHENCE IT IS THAT, WITHOUT THIS GIFT OF A PERCEIVING HEART, THE SOUL CANNOT MAKE ANY IMPROVEMENT OF THE MEANS OF GRACE. It arises from these two reasons — 1. From its exceeding impotence and inability to apprehend these things. 2. From its contrariety to them. And there are two things in the soul in which this contrariety chiefly consists. (1) Carnal corruptions. (2) Carnal wisdom. III. ALTHOUGH UPON GOD'S DENIAL OF A PERCEIVING HEART THE SOUL DOES INEVITABLY REMAIN UNPROFITABLE UNDER THE MEANS OF GRACE, SO AS NOT TO HEAR NOR PERCEIVE; YET THIS HARDNESS, OR UNPROFITABLENESS, CANNOT AT ALL BE ASCRIBED TO GOD AS THE AUTHOR OF IT. In order to the clearing of this we know that God's "not giving a heart to perceive" may admit of a double acceptation. 1. As it implies only a bare denial of grace. 2. As it does also include a positive act of induration. IV. HOW GOD CAN JUSTLY REPREHEND MEN FOR NOT HEARING NOR PERCEIVING, WHEN, UPON HIS DENIAL OF A HEART, THERE IS A NECESSITY LYING UPON THEM TO DO NEITHER. Now, there can be no just reprehension but for sin, and nothing can be sin but that which is voluntary and free, and how can that be flee for a man to do or not to do which from necessity he cannot do? Application — 1. This doctrine speaks refutation to that opinion that states a sufficiency of grace in the bare proposal of things to be believed and practised, without a new powerful work of the Spirit upon the heart, that may determine and enable it to believe and accept of these things. 2. Is of exhortation; that in the enjoyment of the means of grace we should not terminate in the means, but look up to God, who alone is able to give a heart to improve them. ( R. South, D. D. ) Men's blindness in spiritual things C. Simeon, M. A. Consider this complaint — I. AS UTTERED BY MOSES AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF HIS CHARGE. They had seen with their bodily eyes all the wonders that had been wrought for them. They understood not. 1. The true character of that dispensation. 2. The obligations which it entailed upon them. II. AS APPLICABLE TO OURSELVES AT THIS DAY. 1. By the great mass of nominal Christians the nature of the Gospel is very indistinctly seen. 2. The effects of it are very partially experienced. Address — (1) Those who are altogether blind. (2) Those who think they see. (3) Those whose eyes God has opened. ( C. Simeon, M. A. ) Ye stand...before the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 29:10-13 On covenanting with God J. Benson. I. THAT COVENANTING WITH GOD, AND THAT PUBLICLY, IS NOT AN UNPRECEDENTED THING IN THE CHURCH OF GOD, BUT HAS BEEN USUAL IN FORMER AGES. II. WHAT IS THE NATURE OF THAT COVENANT INTO WHICH THE PEOPLE OF GOD HAVE ENTERED, AND INTO WHICH WE ARE CALLED TO ENTER WITH HIM? AND HOW DO WE ENTER INTO IT? The Christian covenant is founded "upon better promises" ( Hebrews 8:6 ). Its ceremonies are only two, baptism and the Lord's Supper, both most significant. Its conditions or duties are most reasonable, necessary in the nature of things, and easy. Its worship is pure and spiritual, and confined to neither time nor place. Its privileges and blessings are spiritual and eternal Now, this covenant can only be entered into by a Mediator ( Galatians 3:19 ; Hebrews 7:22-28 ). III. THE END FOR WHICH WE SHOULD ENTER INTO OR RENEW OUR COVENANT. "That He may establish thee for a people to Himself." 1. A believing people, receiving in faith all His truths and promises. 2. A loving people ( Deuteronomy 30:6, 16, 20 ), esteeming, desiring, grateful to, and delighting in Him. 3. An obedient people ( Deuteronomy 30:20 ). ( J. Benson. ) On standing before God Dean Farrar. 1. Surely there is a warning — for the forgetful a startling, for the guilty a terrible, even for the good man a very solemn warning — in the thought that not only our life in its every incident, but even our heart in its utmost secrets, lies naked and open before Him with whom we have to do. 2. The thought that we stand before God involves not only a sense of warning, but a sense of elevation, of ennoblement. It is a sweet and a lofty doctrine, the highest source of all the dignity and grandeur of life. 3. A third consequence of life spent consciously in God's presence is a firm, unflinching, unwavering sense of duty. A life regardful of duty is crowned with an object, directed by a purpose, inspired by an enthusiasm, till the very humblest routine carried out conscientiously for the sake of God is elevated into moral grandeur, and the very obscurest office becomes an imperial stage on which all the virtues play. 4. The fourth consequence is a sense of holiness. God requires not only duty, but holiness. He searcheth the spirits; He discerneth the very reins and heart. 5. This thought encourages us with a certainty of help and strength. The God before whom we stand is not only our Judge and our Creator, but also our Father and our Friend. ( Dean Farrar. ) On the covenant of God with His people J. Saurin. This is a covenant day between God and us. This is the design of our sacraments, and the particular design of the Holy Supper we have celebrated. This being understood, we cannot observe without astonishment the slight attention most men pay to an institution, of which they seem to entertain such exalted notions. One grand cause of this defect proceeds, it is presumed, from our having, for the most part, inadequate notions of what is called contracting or renewing our covenant with God. The covenant God contracted with the Israelites by the ministry of Moses, and the covenant He has contracted with you, differ only in circumstances, being in substance the same. Properly speaking, God has contracted but one covenant with man since the Fall, the covenant of grace upon Mount Sinai. The Israelites, to whom Moses addresses the words of my text, had the same Sacraments ( 1 Corinthians 10:2, 3 ), the same appellations ( Exodus 19:5 ), the same promises ( Hebrews 11:13 ). On the other hand, amid the consolatory objects which God displays towards us at this period, in distinguished lustre, and amid the abundant mercy we have seen displayed at the Lord's table, if we should violate the covenant He has established with us, you have the same cause of fear as the Jews. We have the same Judge, equally awful now as at that period ( Hebrews 12:29 ). We have the same judgments to apprehend ( 1 Corinthians 10:5-10 ). Further still, whatever superiority our condition may have over the Jews; in whatever more attracting manner He may have now revealed Himself to us, will serve only to augment our misery if we prove unfaithful ( Hebrews 2:2, 3 ; Hebrews 12:18-25 ). Hence the principle respecting the legal and evangelical covenant is indisputable. The covenant God formerly contracted with the Israelites by the ministry of Moses and the covenant He has made with us in the sacrament of the Holy Supper are in substance the same. And what the legislator said of the first, in the words of my text, we may say of the second, in the explication we shall give. I. Moses requires the Israelites to consider THE SANCTITY OF THE PLACE IN WHICH THE COVENANT WAS CONTRACTED WITH GOD. It was consecrated by the Divine presence. "Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord." The Christians having more enlightened notions of the Divinity than the Jews, have the less need to be apprised that God is an Omnipresent Being, and unconfined by local residence. But let us be cautious lest, under a pretence of removing some superstitious notions, we refine too far. God presides in a peculiar manner in our temples, and in a peculiar manner even where two or three are met together in His name: more especially in a house consecrated to His glory; more especially in places in which a whole nation come to pay their devotion. The more solemn our worship, the more is God intimately near. And what part of the worship we render to God can be more august than that we have celebrated in the Lord's Supper? In what situation can the thought, "I am seen and heard of God," be more affecting? II. Moses required the Israelites, in renewing their covenant with God, to consider THE UNIVERSALITY OF THE CONTRACT. "Ye stand all of you before the Lord." Would to God that your preachers could say, on sacramental occasions, as Moses said to the Jews, "Ye stand all of you this day before the Lord your God; the captains of your tribes, your elders, your officers, your wives, your little ones, from the hewer of wood to the drawer of water." But alas! how defective are our assemblies on these solemn occasions! There was a time, among the Jews, when a man who should have had the assurance to neglect the rites which constituted the essence of the law, would have been cut off from the people: This law has varied in regard to circumstances, but in essence it still subsists, and in all its force. III. Moses required the Israelites, in renewing their covenant with God, TO CONSIDER WHAT CONSTITUTED ITS ESSENCE: WHICH, ACCORDING TO THE VIEWS OF THE LAWGIVER, WAS THE RECIPROCAL ENGAGEMENT. Be attentive to this term reciprocal; it is the soul of my definition. What constitutes the essence of a covenant is the reciprocal engagements of the contracting parties. This is obvious from the words of my text, "that thou shouldest (stipulate or) enter." Here we distinctly find mutual conditions; here we distinctly find that God engaged with the Israelites to be their God; and they engaged to be His people. We proved at the commencement of this discourse that the covenant of God with the Israelites was in substance the same as that contracted with Christians. This being considered, what idea ought we to form of those Christians (if we may give that name to men who can entertain such singular notions of Christianity) who venture to affirm that the ideas of conditions and reciprocal engagements are dangerous expressions, when applied to the evangelical covenant: that what distinguishes the Jews from Christians is, that God then promised and required, whereas now He promises and requires nothing? IV. Moses required the Israelites to consider, in renewing their covenant with God, THE EXTENT OF THE ENGAGEMENT: "That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and into His oath; that He may establish thee today for a people unto Himself; and that He may be unto thee a God." This engagement of God with the Jews implies that He would be their God; or, to comprehend the whole in a single word, that He would procure them a happiness correspondent to the eminence of His perfections. Cases occur in which the attributes of God are at variance with the happiness of men. It implies, for instance, an inconsistency with the Divine perfections, not only that the wicked should be happy, but also that the righteous should have perfect felicity, while their purity is incomplete. There are miseries inseparable from our imperfection in holiness; and, imperfections being coeval with life, our happiness will be incomplete till after death. On the removal of this obstruction, by virtue of the covenant, God having engaged to be our God, we shall attain supreme felicity. When God engaged with the Israelites, the Israelites engaged with God. Their covenant implies that they should be His people; that is, that they should obey His precepts so far as human frailty would admit. By virtue of this clause, they engaged not only to abstain from gross idolatry, but also to eradicate the principle. It is not enough to be exempt from crimes, we must exterminate the principle. For example, in theft there is both the root and the plant productive of wormwood and gall. There is theft gross and refined; the act of theft, and the principle of theft. To steal the goods of a neighbour is the gross act of theft; but to indulge an exorbitant wish for the acquisition of wealth, to make enormous charges, to be indelicate as to the means of gaining money, to reject the mortifying claims of restitution, is refined fraud or, if you please, the principle of fraud productive of wormwood and gall. V. Moses lastly required the Israelites to consider THE OATH AND EXECRATION WITH WHICH THEIR ACCEPTANCE OF THE COVENANT WAS ATTENDED: that thou shouldest enter into covenant, and into this oath. What is meant by their entering into the oath of execration? That they pledged themselves by oath to fulfil every clause of the covenant, and, in case of violation, to subject themselves to all the curses God had denounced against those who should be guilty of so perfidious a crime. The words which we render, "that thou shouldest enter into covenant," have a peculiar energy in the original, and signify that thou shouldest pass into covenant. The interpreters of whom I speak, think they refer to a ceremony formerly practised in contracting covenants. On immolating the victims, they divided the flesh into two parts, placing the one opposite to the other. The contracting parties passed in the open space between the two, thereby testifying their consent to be slaughtered as those victims if they did not religiously confirm the covenant contracted in so mysterious a manner. Perhaps one of my hearers may say to himself that the terrific circumstances of this ceremony regarded the Israelites alone, whom God addressed in lightnings and thunders from the top of Sinai. What! was there no victim immolated when God contracted His covenant with us? Does not St. Paul expressly say, that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins? ( Hebrews 9:22 .) What were the lightnings, what were the thunders of Sinai? What were all the execrations, and all the curses of the law? They were the just punishments every sinner shall suffer who neglects an entrance into favour with God. Now, these lightnings, these thunders, these execrations, these curses, did they not all unite against the slaughtered victim when God contracted His covenant with us — I would say, against the head of Jesus Christ? Sinner, here is the victim immolated on contracting thy covenant with God! Here are the sufferings thou didst subject thyself to endure, if ever thou shouldest perfidiously violate it! Thou hast entered, thou hast passed into covenant, and into the oath of execration which God has required. Application: No man should presume to disguise the nature of his engagements and the high characters of the Gospel. To enter into covenant with God is to accept the Gospel precisely as it was delivered by Jesus Christ, and to submit to all its stipulations. This Gospel expressly declares that fornicators, that liars, that drunkards, and the covetous shall Lot inherit the kingdom of God. Therefore, on accepting the Gospel, we submit to be excluded the kingdom of God if we are either drunkards, or liars, or covetous, or fornicators, and if after the commission of any of these crimes, we do not recover by repentance. And what is submission to this clause if it is not to enter into the oath of execration, which God requires of us on the ratification of His covenant? Let us be sincere, and He will give us power to be faithful. Let us ask His aid, and He will not withhold the grace destined to lead us to this noble end. ( J. Saurin. ) A root that beareth gall and wormwood. Deuteronomy 29:18 The root that beareth wormwood I. SIN IS THE ROOT WHICH BEARETH GALL AND WORMWOOD. 1. That this was true in the case of the Israelites is very manifest. Their history tells us the whole generation which came up out of Egypt died in the wilderness because of their sins. Their sin then was a root which bore to them the poisonous hemlock, for they left a line of graves along their line of march as a sad memorial to their iniquities, and only Joshua and Caleb ever entered into the promised land. 2. Again, not only does the history of the Jews prove that sin is a root of bitterness, but our judgment tells us that it is most fitting it should be so. If sin were in the long run pleasurable, and really produced advantage to man, it would be a very strange arrangement in the Divine economy. Sin is a root which has not always budded and blossomed in this life, but which will bud and blossom and bring forth its fruit in the life to come, and the fruit of sin will be more bitter than hemlock and wormwood. I gather this from my reason. Let an intelligent person only think a minute, and I am sure he will be convinced that there must be a terrible punishment for sin. Reflect, there are other laws in the world besides moral laws: there are what is called by the philosopher physical laws, that is to say, laws which concern matter rather than mind. Now, if men break these laws, does any ill result follow from the violation? For instance, the law of attraction, or gravitation, that certain bodies shall attract other bodies, can that be infringed without risk? If you rebel against gravitation, it will just crush you up as a man would a beetle, or a fly, and without a particle of pity will avenge its insulted authority. Again, we are not left to this argument alone, for there is one out of the Ten Commandments, to which I can only allude, which involves more especially the bodies of men. Now, when a man offends against the one command, we shall see if God does really punish sin; we shall see in the man's body whether or not sin does produce gall and wormwood. I allude, of course, to the command, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," which forbids all classes of lasciviousness and uncleanness. The men or women who violate this precept soon find that they have not only done wrong to God, but wrong to themselves. Our hospitals and asylums could tell you into what a fearful state men have brought themselves by sins of the flesh. Now, if the violation of this one command, which happens to touch the body, does beyond all doubt make men smart for it, why not with the rest? 3. But we are not, happily, left to our reason about it; we can turn to the Book of God, and call up the witnesses. Ask Noah, as he looks out of his ark, "Does sin bring bitterness?" and he points to the floating carcasses of innumerable thousands that died because of sin. Turn to Abraham: does sin bear bitterness? he points to the smoke of Sodom and Gomorrah that God destroyed because of their wickedness. Listen to James, or Jude, or Peter, and you hear them speak of chains of darkness and flaming fire. Let the Saviour Himself speak to you. He cries, "These shall go away into everlasting punishment." II. IS THERE SUCH A ROOT AS THIS GROWING IN THE HEART OF ANY ONE OF US HERE? Some have this root that will bear gall and wormwood in them who are not actually gross outward sinners: they are described as those who forget God. 1. The non-loving of the Most High, even though you never curse or swear, even though you do not break the Sabbath, is that root that will hear gall and wormwood. 2. Next we read of "men seeking after another God." Are you loving someone better than God? Are you living for money — is that your great object? Is there no one here who is living for self? If so, though you may be outwardly most respectable people, if you are living for anything but God, that root will bring forth gall and wormwood. 3. Again, this root is in every man who disbelieves the penalty. The verse following the text speaks of one who said, "I shall have peace though I walk after my own heart." Are you saying that? If so, you have the evil root in your heart. There is no more sure sign of reprobation than callousness and carelessness. III. The last point was to be, HOW ARE WE TO GET RID OF IT? Is there a possibility of being delivered from the gall and wormwood? There is. As many as trust in Christ shall be rid of the gall and wormwood. ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) To add drunkenness to thirst. Deuteronomy 29:19 The sin of drunkenness S. Charlesworth. Among the vices which stamp upon human nature its fallen condition, there is not one which causes such misery, or which leads on to such reckless crime, as drunkenness. 1. It is a most selfish as well as degrading vice: it debases man, created in the image of God, lower than the brute creation. God denounces this sin most strongly in His Holy Word. Under the law of Moses, the son who would not obey the voice of his father, but gave himself up to gluttony and drunkenness, was put to death by stoning; and, in the Gospel, drunkenness is classed with murder, as one of the works of the flesh, of which it is said they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Drunkenness is a vice which destroys soul and body. It weakens the intellect, making a man a madman in his rage, and an idiot in his sober moments. It ruins the health, producing the most painful diseases, and causing premature decay and death. It involves his family in poverty and misery. There is no peace in the drunkard's home. Who can describe all the misery which follows in the train of drunkenness, all the crime to which it leads, all the sorrow which it causes to others? How fitly the words of the text describe it, when Moses warns the Israelites to beware "lest there should be among them a root that beareth gall and wormwood"; or, as the marginal reading is, a poisonful herb. Never did Satan plant a more fearful seed in the human heart than the love of strong drink. Drunkenness is, indeed, a root which beareth gall and wormwood; nothing sweet, or pleasant, or excellent, or beautiful can spring from it, or grow in the heart beside it. Like the deadly upas tree, it poisons all which rests under its shade, or comes near to it. The drunkard cannot be a high-principled, virtuous, or amiable man. In his sober moments the testimony of every drunkard must be, that the root of that fatal passion beareth gall and wormwood — that it is a poisonful herb. 2. The next particular — which the text points out — is the deceptive nature of the vice. Of all self-deceivers, the drunkard is the most deluded, the most blinded. "And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination" (or as the marginal rendering is), "the stubbornness of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst." There is no man so difficult to convince of his folly and sinfulness as the drunkard, and no man so hard to turn away from his evil course. Satan's most powerful weapon against our holy religion is drunkenness. A drunkard cannot be a true Christian, a child of God. He is more often an infidel, a blasphemer, and he is on the high road to every kind of sin and crime. Let us not stretch forth our hand to save the far-off heathen idolater, and remain indifferent and effortless about the drunkard dwelling close to us, and even one admitted into the fellowship of the same holy faith as ourselves. ( S. Charlesworth. ) Degradation of drunkenness Drunkenness is the shame of nature, the extinguisher of reason, the shipwreck of chastity, and the murder of conscience. Drunkenness is hurtful to the body; the cup kills more than the cannon; it causes dropsies, catarrhs, apoplexies; it fills the eye with fire, and the legs with water, and turns the body into an hospital. ( T. Watson . ) The secret things belong unto the Lord. Deuteronomy 29:29 Things secret and things revealed J. Pierson, D. D. Man has always had a quarrel with God over secret things. In the Garden of Eden there was one prohibition — "Thou shalt not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" — and in the Garden of Eden began the quarrel with God. Now there are certain secrets to be left unto God, and they may be classified under five headings. 1. Secrets in the nature of God Himself. One of the first things that a man has to learn is that his mind has not the capacity of that of God. Just as well might you expect a tiny cup to

Benson Commentary Deuteronomy 29:1 These are the words of the covenant, which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb. Deuteronomy 29:1 . These are the words of the covenant — Having thus repeated and enlarged upon the laws formerly delivered at Horeb, shown this new generation the covenant they were under, and the time and manner of their renewing it after they had entered Canaan; and having thus pathetically expatiated on the blessings and curses annexed to it, Moses summoned again the whole assembly, to press them to a careful obedience by considerations of the most powerful nature. Besides the covenant which he made with them in Horeb — Not a different covenant from that Exodus 24:3-8 , but a renewal of the same, with some additions. Deuteronomy 29:2 And Moses called unto all Israel, and said unto them, Ye have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his land; Deuteronomy 29:2 . Ye have seen all that the Lord did — Some of them had seen, when they were young, the plagues which God had brought upon Pharaoh and his people, in order to accomplish their deliverance; and others from them had understood these things, which is often termed seeing, both in the Scriptures and elsewhere. Deuteronomy 29:3 The great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles: Deuteronomy 29:4 Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day. Deuteronomy 29:4 . The Lord hath not given you a heart to perceive — Which he would have done had you sincerely and earnestly desired and asked it of him; and you are inexcusable that you have not, considering his signal mercies on the one hand, and awful judgments on the other, of which you have had such great experience, and which called loudly upon you to humble yourselves before him in true repentance, and seek his grace to enable you to understand and improve by such extraordinary dispensations and wonderful works. For he does not speak thus to excuse their wickedness, but to direct them to whom they must have recourse for a good understanding of God’s works; and to intimate that although the hearing ear, and the seeing eye, be the workmanship of God, yet their want of these was their own fault, and the just punishment of their former sins; their present case being like theirs in Isaiah’s time, who first shut their own eyes and ears that they might not see and hear, and would not understand, and then, by the righteous judgment of God, had their eyes and ears closed that they should not see, and hear, and understand. God’s readiness to do us good in other things, is a plain evidence, that if we have not grace, that best of gifts, it is our own fault and not his: he would have gathered us, and we would not. Deuteronomy 29:5 And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot. Deuteronomy 29:5-6 . Your clothes waxed not old — See on Deuteronomy 8:4 . Ye have not eaten bread — Common bread purchased by your own money, procured by your own labour, or made by your own hands, but heavenly and angelical bread. Neither have ye drunk wine — But only water out of the rock, and the water was made both pleasant and refreshing. The meaning is, that they were not nourished by the ordinary means of sustenance, but were constantly supported by a miraculous supply from God, who graciously fed them for a course of years without any labour of their own. That I am the Lord — That I am Jehovah, that is, the Being who can bring to pass whatever I will, (see on Exodus 6:3 ,) omnipotent and all-sufficient to provide for you without the help of any creatures, and your God, in covenant with you, who have a true affection to you, and a fatherly care of you. Deuteronomy 29:6 Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink: that ye might know that I am the LORD your God. Deuteronomy 29:7 And when ye came unto this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us unto battle, and we smote them: Deuteronomy 29:8 And we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance unto the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half tribe of Manasseh. Deuteronomy 29:9 Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do. Deuteronomy 29:10 Ye stand this day all of you before the LORD your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel, Deuteronomy 29:10-12 . Ye stand — before the Lord your God — They were assembled at the tabernacle, from whence he delivered these words to them by the priests and Levites, Deuteronomy 27:9 ; Deuteronomy 27:14 . Thy stranger — Such strangers as had embraced their religion: all sorts of persons, yea, even the meanest of them. Into covenant, and into his oath — A covenant confirmed by a solemn oath. Hebrew, ????? , bealatho, his adjuration, execration, or curse; for they entered into this covenant with imprecations upon themselves if they did not perform faithfully their engagements. Deuteronomy 29:11 Your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water: Deuteronomy 29:12 That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the LORD thy God, and into his oath, which the LORD thy God maketh with thee this day: Deuteronomy 29:13 That he may establish thee to day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Deuteronomy 29:13 . That he may establish thee — Here is the summary of that covenant whereof Moses was the mediator; and in the covenant relation between God and them, all the precepts and promises of the covenant are included. That they should be established for a people to him, to fear, love, obey, and be devoted to him, and that he should be to them a God, to make them holy and happy; and a due sense of the relation we stand in to God as our God, and the obligation we are under to him as his people, is enough to bring us to all the duties and all the comforts of the covenant. And does this covenant include nothing spiritual? nothing that refers to eternity? Deuteronomy 29:14 Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath; Deuteronomy 29:15 But with him that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day: Deuteronomy 29:15 . So also with him that is not here — With your posterity. For so the covenant was made at first with Abraham and his seed, by which, as God engaged himself to continue the blessing of Abraham upon his posterity, so he also engaged them to the same duties which were required of Abraham. Thus it is even among men: where a king confers an estate upon a subject and his heirs for ever, upon some certain conditions, all his heirs who enjoy that benefit are obliged to the same conditions. It may likewise include those who were then constrained to be absent by sickness, or any necessary occasion. Nay, one of the Chaldee paraphrasts reads it, “All the generations that have been from the first days of the world, and all that shall arise to the end of the whole world, stand with us here this day.” And thus, taking this covenant as a typical dispensation of the covenant of grace, it is a noble testimony to the Mediator of that covenant, who is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. Deuteronomy 29:16 (For ye know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which ye passed by; Deuteronomy 29:16 . Egypt — Where you have seen their idolatries, and learned too much of them, as the golden calf showed, and therefore have need to renew your covenant with God; where also we were in dreadful bondage, whence God alone hath delivered us; to whom therefore we are deeply obliged, and have all reason to renew our covenant with him. We came through the nations — With what hazard, if God had not appeared for us! Deuteronomy 29:17 And ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:) Deuteronomy 29:18 Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood; Deuteronomy 29:18 . Lest there be among you man or woman — These words are to be considered as connected with Deuteronomy 29:14-15 , and as signifying the end for which he engaged them to renew their covenant with God, that none of them might revolt from him to serve other gods. Lest there should be a root — An evil heart inclining you to such cursed idolatry, and bringing forth bitter fruits: or rather, some secret or subtle apostate from the true God and his religion, secretly lurking and working as a root under ground, and spreading his poison to the infection of others; for both the foregoing and following words speak of some particular person. Gall and wormwood — Which though for the present it may please his fancy, yet in the end will produce bitter fruits; not only distasteful to God, but also destructive to yourselves. The word which we translate gall, is thought to signify some noxious and poisonous herb, but what herb, is difficult to say. It is rendered hemlock, ( Hosea 10:4 ,) and is commonly joined with wormwood, as here, Jeremiah 9:15 ; Lamentations 3:19 ; Amos 6:12 . To this passage the apostle alludes Hebrews 12:15 , Lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you. Deuteronomy 29:19 And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst: Deuteronomy 29:19 . The words of this curse — This oath and execration, wherein he swore he would keep covenant with God, and that with a curse pronounced against himself if he did not perform it. Bless himself — Flatter himself in his own eyes with vain hopes, as if God did not mind such things, and either could not, or would not punish them. Peace — Safety and prosperity. My own heart — Though I do not follow God’s command, but my own devices. To add drunkenness to thirst — The words may be rendered, to add thirst to drunkenness, and so the sense may be, that when he hath multiplied his sins, and made himself as it were drunk with them, yet he is not satisfied therewith, but still whets his appetite, and provokes his thirst after more, as drunkards often use means to make themselves thirst after more drink. This is well deserving of our most serious consideration. Moses here assures the Israelites that, how much soever they might flatter themselves with hopes of peace and safety on account of their privileges, none of these would avail them at all if they forsook the law of God, and apostatized from his worship and service. This people, however, notwithstanding this solemn warning, did, in after ages, confide in those outward privileges, and that at a time when they lived in the open violation of the divine commands. The temple, the temple of the Lord! was their cry and their confidence, as if the having that among them had been sufficient to save and render them prosperous and happy, even although they defiled it with their abominations. But they found, by sad experience, that the threatenings denounced by Moses against the violators of God’s law were fulfilled. Let us all take warning by this, and neither as a nation nor as individuals dare to promise ourselves security and peace while we walk in the imagination of our own hearts, and live in sin and forgetfulness of God. Deuteronomy 29:20 The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven. Deuteronomy 29:20-21 . His jealousy shall smoke against that man — Shall burn and break forth like flame and smoke from a furnace. None shall be punished more exemplarily than those who abuse the goodness of God, and turn his grace into wantonness. Shall blot out his name — Shall destroy his person and the remembrance of him from among men, suffering no posterity to survive him, to perpetuate his name or memory. Shall separate him unto evil — Unto some exemplary plague; he will make him a monument of his displeasure to the whole land. According to all the curses of the covenant — For the covenant made with them, though a covenant of grace, had curses as well as blessings belonging to it, however averse the person here referred to might be to believe it. Deuteronomy 29:21 And the LORD shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law: Deuteronomy 29:22 So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the LORD hath laid upon it; Deuteronomy 29:22-23 . So that the generation — Hebrew And the generation: for it appears to be a new paragraph, the sense whereof is, Whenever your wickedness shall arrive at such a height as to bring upon your nation the terrible desolations before spoken of, all considerate people around you will be convinced that it is the effect of the just judgment of God upon your disobedience to his laws, and a perfect fulfilment of the very threats now left on record. The whole land is brimstone and salt — Is burned up and made barren for the sins of its inhabitants. Deuteronomy 29:23 And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath: Deuteronomy 29:24 Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger? Deuteronomy 29:25 Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt: Deuteronomy 29:26 For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them: Deuteronomy 29:26 . Whom he had not given — For their worship, but had divided unto all nations, for their use and service. So he speaks here of the sun, and moon, and stars, which were the principal gods worshipped by the neighbouring nations. Deuteronomy 29:27 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book: Deuteronomy 29:28 And the LORD rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day. Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law. Deuteronomy 29:29 . Secret things belong unto the Lord our God — That is, the counsels and purposes of God concerning persons or nations, and the reasons of his dispensations toward them, together with the time and manner of inflicting judgments or showing mercy, are hidden in his own bosom, and not to be pried into, much less fathomed, by us. But those which are revealed — Namely, that if we rebel against him he will pour out all these judgments upon us, except by true repentance and turning to him we prevent it. Belong to us and to our children — Are the proper objects of our inquiries, that thereby we may know our duty, and, by complying with it, may be kept from such terrible calamities as these now mentioned. To explain this a little further: Having mentioned the amazing judgments of God upon the whole land and people of Israel, and foreseeing the utter extirpation which would come upon them for their wickedness, he makes this declaration, either to check the curiosity of such as would be ready to inquire into the time and manner of so great an event, or to satisfy the scruples of those who, perceiving God to deal so severely with his own people, when in the mean time he suffered those nations which were guilty of grosser idolatry and impiety than the generality of the Jews were, to live and prosper in the world, might thence take occasion to deny his providence, or question the equity of his proceedings. The ways and judgments of God, he says, though never unjust, are often hidden from us, unsearchable by our shallow capacity, and matter for our admiration, not our inquiry: but the things which are revealed by God in his word must be attended to and considered, that we may be duly influenced by them. Thus Moses concludes his prophecy of the rejection of the Jews, just as St. Paul concludes his discourse on the same subject, when it began to be fulfilled, exclaiming, in a manner equally pathetical, How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! Romans 11:33 . Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Deuteronomy 29:1 These are the words of the covenant, which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb. MOSES’ FAREWELL SPEECHES Deuteronomy 4:1-40 , Deuteronomy 27:1-26 ; Deuteronomy 28:1-68 ; Deuteronomy 29:1-29 ; Deuteronomy 30:1-20 . WITH the twenty-sixth chapter the entirely homogeneous central portion of the Book of Deuteronomy ends, and it concludes it most worthily. It prescribes two ceremonies which are meant to give solemn expression to the feeling of thankfulness which the love of God, manifested in so many laws and precepts, covering the commonest details of life, should have made the predominant feeling. The first is the utterance of what we have called the "liturgy of gratitude" at the time of the feast of first fruits; and the second is the solemn dedication of the third year’s tithe to the poor and the fatherless, and the disclaimer of any misuse of it. Further notice of either after what has already been said in reference to them would be superfluous. The closing verses ( Deuteronomy 26:16-19 ) of the chapter are a solemn reminder that all these transactions with God had bound the people to Yahweh in a covenant. "Thou hast avouched Yahweh this day to be thy God" and, "Yahweh hath avouched thee this day to be a peculiar people ( ‘am segullah ) unto Himself." By this they were bound to keep Yahweh’s statutes and judgments, and do them with all their heart and with all their soul, while He, on His part, undertakes on these terms to set them "high above all nations which He hath made in praise, and in name, and in honor," and to make them a holy people unto Himself. But the original Deuteronomy as read to King Josiah cannot have ended with chapter 26, for the thing that awed him most was the threat of evil and desolation which were to follow the non-observance of this covenant. Now though there are indications of such dangers in the first twenty-six chapters of Deuteronomy, yet threats are not, so far, a prominent part of this book. The book as read must consequently have contained some additional chapters, which, in part at least, must have contained threats. Now this is what we have in our Biblical Deuteronomy. But in chapters 27 and 28 there are reduplications which can hardly have formed part of the original author’s work. An examination of these has led every one who admits composite authorship in the Pentateuch to see that from chapter 27 onwards the original work has been broken up and dovetailed again with the works of JE and P; so that component parts of the first four books of the Hexateuch appear along with elements which the author of Deuteronomy has supplied. We have, in fact, before us, from this point, the work of the editor who fitted Deuteronomy into the framework of the Pentateuch; and it is of importance, from an expository point of view even, to endeavor to restore Deuteronomy to its original form, and to follow out the traces of it that are left. As we have said, we must look for the threats and promises which undoubtedly formed part of it. These are contained in chapters 27 and 28. But a careful reader will feel at once that chapter 27 disturbs the connection, and that 28 should follow 26. In Deuteronomy 27:9-10 alone seem necessary to give a transition to chapter 28; and if all the rest were omitted we should have exactly what the narrative in Kings would lead us to expect, a coherent, natural sequence of blessings and curses, which should follow faithfulness to the covenant, or unfaithfulness. The rest of chapter 27 is not consistent either with itself or with Joshua 8:30 , where the accomplishment of that which is commanded here is recorded. In Deuteronomy 27:1-3 Moses and the elders command the people to set up great stones and plaster them with plaster and write upon them all the words of this law, on the day when they shall pass over Jordan, that they may go in unto the land. In Deuteronomy 27:4 it is said that these stones are to be set up in Mount Ebal, and there an altar of unhewn stones is to be built, and sacrifices offered, "and thou shalt write upon the stones very plainly." From the position of this last clause and the mention of Mount Ebal, the course of events would be quite different from that which Deuteronomy 27:1-3 suggest. The stones were, according to Deuteronomy 27:4 ff., to be set up in Mount Ebal; out of these an altar of unhewn stones was to be built; and on them the law was to be inscribed, and this is what Joshua says was done. But if we take all the verses, Deuteronomy 27:1-8 , together, we can reconcile them only by the hypothesis that the stones were set up as soon as Jordan was crossed, plastered, and inscribed with the law; that afterwards they were removed to Mount Ebal and built into an altar "of unhewn stone," upon which sacrifices were offered. But that surely is in the highest degree improbable; and since we know that in other cases two narratives have been combined in the sacred text, that would seem the most probable solution here. Deuteronomy 27:4-8 will in that case be a later insertion, probably from J. In the same connection Deuteronomy 27:15-26 contain a list of crimes which are visited with a curse and no blessings; this cannot be the proclamation of blessing and cursing which is here required. Further, this list must be by a different author, for it affixes curses to some crimes which are not mentioned in Deuteronomy, and omits such sins as idolatry, which are continually mentioned there. This section must consequently have been inserted here by some later hand. It must probably have been later even than the time of the writer of Joshua 8:33 ff., since the arrangement as reported there differs from what is prescribed here. Moreover, as there is nothing new in these sections, and all they say is repeated substantially in chapter 28, we may give our attention wholly to Deuteronomy 28:1-68 , as being the original proclamation of blessing and curse. But other entanglements follow. Chapters 29 and 30 manifestly contained an adieu on the part of Moses, who turns finally to the people with an affecting and solemn speech of farewell. That appears m chapters 29 and 30. But for many reasons it is impossible to believe that these chapters as they stand are the original speech of Deuteronomy. The language is in large part different, and there are references to the Book of the Law as being already written out. {Deu 29:19 f. 26, and Deu 30:10} It is probably therefore an editor’s rewriting of the original speech, and from the fact that "it contains many points of contact with Jeremiah in thoughts and words," it is probably to be dated in the Exile. But there is another noticeable thing in connection with it. It has a remarkable resemblance in these and other respects to Deuteronomy 4:1-40 . That passage can hardly have originally followed chapters 1-3, if as is most probable these were at first a historic introduction to Deuteronomy. The hortative character of Deuteronomy 4:1-40 shows that it must have been placed where it is by a reviser. But the language, though not altogether that of Deuteronomy, is like it, and the thought is also Deuteronomic. Probably the passage must have been transferred from some other part of Deuteronomy and adapted by the editor. A clue to its true place may perhaps be found in Deuteronomy 4:8 , where "all this law" is spoken of as if it were already given, and in Deuteronomy 4:5 , where we read, "Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments." These passages imply that the law of Deuteronomy had been given, and in that case chapter 4 must belong to a closing speech. We probably shall not be in error, therefore, in thinking Deuteronomy 4:1-40 ; Deuteronomy 29:29 are all founded on an original farewell speech which stood in Deuteronomy after the blessing and the curse. But it may be asked, if that be so, why did an editor make these changes? The answer is to be found in two passages in chapters 31 and 32 which cannot be harmonized as they stand. In Deuteronomy 31:19 we are told that Yahweh commanded Moses to write "this song" and teach it to the children of Israel, "that this song may be a witness for Me against the children of Israel," and Deuteronomy 31:22 , "So Moses wrote this song." But in Deuteronomy 31:28 f. we read that "Moses said, Assemble unto me all the elders of the tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to witness against them." Obviously "these words" are different from "this song," and are meant for a different purpose. The same ambiguity occurs at the end of the song in Deuteronomy 32:44 ff., where we first read of Moses ending "this song," and in the next verse we read, "And Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel." Now what has become of "these words"? In all probability they were the substance of chapters 4 and 29 and 30, and were separated and amplified, because the editor who fitted Deuteronomy into the Pentateuch took over the song in chapter 32, as well as those passages of 31 and 32, that speak of this song, from JE. He accepted them as a fitting conclusion for the career of Moses, and transferred the original speech, which we suppose to have been the last great utterance of the original Deuteronomy, putting the main part of it immediately before the song, but taking parts out of it to form a hortatory ending (such as the other Moses’ speeches have) to that first one which he had formed out of the historic introduction. This may seem a very complicated process and an unlikely one; but after the foundation had been built by Dillmann, Westphal has elaborated the whole matter with such luminous force that it seems hardly possible to doubt that the facts can be accounted for only in this way. By piecing together 4, 30, and 31 he produces a speech so thoroughly coherent and consistent that the mere reading of it becomes the most cogent proof of the substantial truth of his argument. An analysis of it will show this. (1) There is the introduction; up till now the people have understood neither the commands nor the love of Yahweh. {Deu 29:1-9} (2) There is the explanation of the Covenant; {Deu 29:10-15} (3) A command to observe the Covenant; {Deu 4:1-2} (4) Warning against individual transgression, which will be punished by the destruction of the rebel; {Deu 29:16-21; Deu 4:3-4} (5) Warning against collective transgression, which will be punished by the ruin of the people. {Deu 4:5-26} The author, from this point regarding the transgression as an accomplished fact, announces: (6) The dispersion and exile of the people; {Deu 4:27-28} (7) The impression produced on future generations by the horror of this dispersion Deuteronomy ( Deuteronomy 29:22-28 ); (8) The conversion of the exiles to God; {Deu 4:30-31} (9) Their return to the land of their fathers. {Deu 30:1-10} (10) In conclusion, it is stated that the power of Yahweh to sustain the faith of His people and to save them is guaranteed by the past; {Deu 4:32-40} and there is no reason therefore that the people should shrink from obeying the commandment prescribed.to them. It is a matter of will. Life and death are before them; let them choose. {Deu 30:11-20} The analysis of the remaining chapters is not difficult. Deuteronomy 31:14-23 ; Deuteronomy 31:30 , form the introduction to the song, Deuteronomy 32:1-43 , just as Deuteronomy 32:44 is the conclusion of it. Both introduction and song are extracted probably from J and E. Deuteronomy 32:48-52 are after P. Then follows the blessing of Moses, chapter 33. Finally, chapter 34 contains an account of Moses’ death and a final eulogy of him, in which all the sources JE, P, and D have been called into requisition. The threefold cord which runs through the other books of the Pentateuch was untwisted to receive Deuteronomy, and has been re-twisted so as to bind the Pentateuch into one coherent whole. That is the result of the microscopic examination which the text as it stands has undergone, and we may pretty certainly accept it as correct. But we should not lose sight of the fact that, as the book is now arranged, it has a notable coherence of its own, and the impression of unity which it conveys is in itself a result of great literary skill. Not only has the editor combined Deuteronomy into the other narratives most successfully, but he has done so not only without falsifying, but so as to confirm and enhance the impression which the original book was meant to convey. We turn now to the substance of the two speeches-the proclamation of the blessing and the curse, and the great farewell address. As we have seen, the first is contained in chapter 28. If any evidence were now needed that this chapter was written later than the Mosaic time, it might be found in the space given to the curses, and the much heavier emphasis laid upon them than upon the blessings. Not that Moses might not have prophetically foretold Israel’s disregard of warnings. But if the heights to which Israel was actually to rise had been before the author’s mind as still future, instead of being wrapped in the mists of the past, he could not but have dwelt more equally upon both sides of the picture. Whatever supernatural gifts a prophet might have, he was still and in all things a man. He was subject to moods like others, and the determination of these depended upon his surroundings. He was not kept by the power of God beyond the shadows which the clouds in his sky might cast; and we may safely say that if the curses which are to follow disobedience are elaborated and dwelt upon much more than the blessings which are to reward obedience, it is because the author lived at a time of unfaithfulness and revolt. Obviously his contemporaries were going far in the evil way, and he warns them with intense and eager earnestness against the dangers they are so recklessly incurring. But after all we have seen of the spirituality of the Deuteronomic teaching, and its insistence upon love as the true bond between men and God and the true motive to all right action, it is perhaps disappointing to some to find how entirely these promises and threats have their center in the material world. Probably nowhere else will the truth of Bacon’s famous saying that "Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament" be more conspicuously seen than here. If Israel be faithful she is promised productivity, riches, success in war. Even when it is promised that she shall be established by Yahweh as a holy people unto Himself, the meaning seems to be that the people shall be separated from others by these earthly favors, rather than that they shall have the moral and spiritual qualities which the word "holy" now connotes. Other nations shall fear Israel because of the Divine favor. Israel shall be raised above them all. If it become unfaithful, on the other hand, it is to be visited with pestilence, consumption, fever, inflammation, sword, blasting, mildew. The earth is to be iron beneath them, and the heaven above them brass. Instead of rain they are to have dust; they are to be visited with more than Egyptian plagues. Their minds are to refuse to serve them; they are to be defeated in war; their country is to be overrun by marauders; their wives and children, their cattle and their crops, are to fall into the enemy’s hands. Locusts and all known pests are to fall upon their fields; and they themselves are to be carried away captive, after having endured the worst horrors of siege, and been compelled by hunger to devour their own children. And in exile they shall be an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word, and shall be ruled by oppressive aliens. Worst of all, they shall there lose hope in God and "shall serve other gods, even wood and stone." Their lives shall hang in doubt before them. In the morning they shall say, "Would God it were evening," and at even they shall say, "Would God it were morning." All the deliverance Yahweh had wrought for them by bringing them out of Egypt would be undone, and once more they should go back into Egyptian bondage. All that is materialistic enough; but there is no need to make apology for Deuteronomy, nevertheless. The prophet has taught the higher law; he has rooted all human duty, both to God and man, in love to God, and now he tries to enlist man’s natural fear and hope as allies of his highest principle. How justifiable that is we have already seen in chapter 12. But a more serious question is raised when it is asked, does Nature, in definite sober truth, lend itself, in the manner implied throughout this chapter, to the support of religious and moral fidelity? At a time when imaginative literature is largely devoting itself to an angry or querulous denial Of any righteous force working for the unfortunate and the faithful, there can be no question what the popular answer to such a question would be. But from the ranks of literature itself we may summon testimony on the other side. Mr. Hall Caine, in his address at the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution, maintains in a wider and more general way the essence of the Deuteronomic thesis when he says, "I count him the greatest genius who touches the magnetic and Divine chord in humanity which is always waiting to vibrate to the sublime hope of recompense; I count him the greatest man who teaches men that the world is ruled in righteousness." And his justification of that position is too admirable not to be quoted: "Life is made up of a multitude of fragments, a sea of many currents, often coming into collision and throwing up breakers: We look around and see wrong-doing victorious, and right-doing in the dust; the evil man growing rich and dying in his bed, the good man becoming poor and dying in the street; and our hearts sink and we say, What is God doing after all in this world of His children? But our days are few, our view is limited, we cannot watch the event long enough to see the end which Providence sees." "It is the very province of imaginative genius," he goes on to say, "to see that which the common mind cannot see, to offer to it at least suggestions of how these triumphs of unrighteousness may be accounted for in accordance with the law that righteousness rules in the world." We would go further. It is one of the main purposes of inspiration to go beyond even imaginative genius, to point out in history not only how right may perhaps ultimately triumph, but how it has been in reality and must be victorious. For it will not do to shut off the world of material things from the working of this great and universal law. Owing to the narrow fanaticism of science, modern men have become skeptical, not only of miracle, but even of the fundamental truth that righteousness is profitable for the life that now is, that in following righteousness men are co-operating with the deepest law of the universe. But it remains a truth for all that. It is written deep in the heart of man; and in more wavering lines perhaps, but still most legibly, it is written on the face of things. With the limitations of his time and place, this is what the Deuteronomist preaches. Doubtless he has not faced, as Job does, the whole of the problem; still less has he attained to the final insight exhibited in the New Testament, that temporal gifts may be curses in disguise, that the highest region of recompense Is in the eternal life, in the domain of things which are invisible but eternal. He does not yet know, though he has perhaps a presentiment of it, that being completely stripped of all earthly good may be the path to the highest victory-the victory which makes men more than conquerors through Christ. Nevertheless he is, making these allowances, right, and the moderns are wrong. In many ways obedience to spiritual inspirations does bring worldly prosperity. The absence of moral and spiritual faithfulness does affect even the fruitfulness of the soil, the fecundity of animals, the prevalence of disease, the stability of ordered life, and success in war. This was visible to the ancient world generally in a dim way; but by the inspired men of the Old Covenant it was clearly seen, for they were enlightened for the very purpose of seeing the hand of God where others saw it not. But they never thought of tracing out the chain of intermediate causes by which such results were connected with men’s spiritual state. They saw the facts, they recognized the truth, and they threw themselves back at once upon the will of God as the sufficient explanation. We, on the other hand, have been so diligent in tracing out the immediately preceding links of natural causation that, for the most part, we have been fatigued before we reached God. We consequently have lost view of Him; and it is wholesome for us to be brought sharply into contact with the ancient Oriental mind as we are here, in order that we may be forced to go the whole way back to Him. For the fact is that much of that very process of decay and destruction from moral causes is going on before us in countries like Turkey and Morocco, where social righteousness is all but unknown, and private morality is low. A truly modern mind scorns the idea that the fertility of the soil can be affected by immorality. Yet there is the whole of Mesopotamia to show that misgovernment can make a garden into a desert. Where teeming populations once covered the country with fruitful gardens and luxurious cities, there are now in the lands of the Tigris and Euphrates a few handfuls of people, and all the fertility of the country has disappeared. Irrigation channels which made all things live have been choked up and have been gradually filled with drifting sand, and one of the most populous and fertile countries of the world has become a desert. In Palestine the same thing may be seen. Under Turkish domination the character of the soil has been entirely changed. In many places where in ancient days the hills were terraced to the top the sweeping rains have had their way, and the very soil has been carried off, leaving only rocks to blister in the pitiless sun. Even in the less likely sphere of animal fecundity modern science shows that peace and good government and righteous order are causes of extraordinary power. And the movements which are going on around us at this day in the elevation and depression of nations and races have a visible connection with fidelity or lack of fidelity to known principles of order and justice. This can be said without concealing how scanty and partial in most cases such attainments are. Prevailing principles can be discerned in the providence which rules the world. And these are of such a kind that the connection which obedience to the highest known rules of life has with fertility, success, and prosperity, is constant and intimate. It is, too, far wider reaching than at first sight would seem possible. To this extent, even modern knowledge justifies these blessings and curses of Deuteronomy. But it may be asked, is this all the Old Testament means by such threats and promises? Does it recognize any even self-imposed limitations to the direct action of Divine power? Most probably it does not. Though always keeping clear of Pantheism, the Old Testament is so filled and possessed by the Divine Presence that all second causes are ignored, and the action of God upon nature was conceived, as it could not fail to be, on the analogy of a workman using tools. Now that the methods of Divine action in nature have been studied in the light of science, they have been found to be more fixed and regular than was supposed. The extent of their operation, too, has been found to be immeasurably wider, and the purposes which have to be cared for at every moment are now seen to be infinitely various. As a result, human thought has fallen back discouraged, and takes refuge more and more in a conception of nature which practically deifies it, or at least entirely separates it from any intimate relation to the will of God. It is even denied that there is any purpose in the world at all, or any goal, and to chance or fate all the vicissitudes of life and the mechanical changes of nature are attributed. But though we must recognize, as the Old Testament does not, that ordinary Divine action flows out in perfectly well-defined channels, and is so stable in its movement that results in the sphere of physical nature may be predicted with certainty; and though we see, as was not seen in ancient days, that even God does not always approach His ends by direct and short-cut paths, -these considerations only make the Old Testament view more inspiring and more healthful for us. We may gather from it the inference that if the fertility of a land, the frequency of disease, and success in war are so powerfully affected by the moral and spiritual quality of a people, it is very likely that in subtler and less palpable ways the same influences produce similar effects, even in regions where they cannot be traced. If so, whatever allowance may be required for the inevitable simplicity of Old Testament conceptions on this subject, however much we miss the limitations we have learned to regard as necessary, the Deuteronomic view as to the effects of moral and spiritual declension upon the material fortunes of a people is much nearer the truth than our timorous and hesitating half-belief. To find these effects emphasized and affirmed as they are here, therefore, acts as a much needed tonic in our spiritual life. Coming too from a man who possessed, if ever man did, Divinely inspired insight into the process of the world and the ideal of human life, these promises and warnings bring God near. They dissipate the mists which obscure the workings of God’s Providence, and keep before us aspects of truth which it is the present tendency of thought to ignore too much. They declare in accents which carry conviction that, even in material things, the Lord reigneth; and for that the world has reason to be supremely glad. Certainly Christians now know that prosperity in material things is by no means God’s best gift. That great principle must be held to firmly, as well as the legitimacy of the vivid hopes and fears of Old Testament times regarding the material rewards of right-doing. In many ways the new principle must overrule and modify for us those hopes and fears. But with this limitation we are justified in occupying the Deuteronomic standpoint and in repeating the Deuteronomic warnings. For to its very core the world is God’s; and those who find His working everywhere are those whose eyes have been opened to the inmost truth of things. With regard to the farewell speech contained in chapters 29 and 30 and the related parts of chapter 4 and chapter 31 there is not much to be said. Taken as a whole, it develops the promises and threats of the previous chapters, and repeats again with affectionate hortatory purpose much of the history. But there is not a great deal that is new; most of the underlying principles of the address have been already dealt with. Taken according to the reconstruction of the speech and its reinsertion in its original framework, the course of things would seem to have been this. After the threats and promises had been concluded, Moses, carrying on the injunction of Deuteronomy 3:28 , addressed {Deu 32:8} all the people and appointed Joshua to be his successor; then he wrote out "this law," and produced it before the priests and elders of the people, with the instruction that at the end of every seven years, at the feast of release, in the feast of tabernacles, it should be read before all Israel, men, women, and children. {Deu 31:9-13} Then he gave the book to the Levites, that they might "lay it up" by the side of the Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh their God, that it might be there for a witness against them when they became unfaithful, as he foresaw they would. He next summons all Israel to him, and delivers the farewell address contained in chapters 4, 29, and 30, an outline of which has already been given, according to Westphal’s recombination. This would seem to indicate that Moses himself inaugurated the custom of reading the law and giving instruction to all the people, which he prescribed for the feast of tabernacles in the year of release. After the law had been given he addressed the whole people in this farewell speech. But though on the whole there is no need for detailed exposition here, there are one or two things which ought to be noticed, things which express the spirit of Deuteronomy so directly and so sincerely that they can be identified as forming part of the original Deuteronomic speech. One of these is unquestionably Deuteronomy 30:11-20 . At the end of the farewell address a return is made to the core of the whole Deuteronomic teaching: "Thou shalt love Yahweh thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." This was announced with unique emphasis at the beginning; it has lain behind all the special commands which have been insisted upon since; and now it emerges again into view as the conclusion of the whole matter. For beyond doubt this, and not the whole series of legal precepts, is what is meant by "this commandment" in Deuteronomy 30:2 . Both before it, in the sixth and tenth verses {Deu 30:6, Deu 30:10}, and after it, in the sixteenth and twentieth verses {Deu 30:16, Deu 30:20}, this precept is repeated and insisted on as the Divine command. Had the individual commands or the whole mass of them together been meant, the phrase used would have been different. It would have been that in Deuteronomy 30:10 , where they are called "His commandments and His statutes which are written in this book of the law," or something analogous. No, it is the central command of love to God, without which all external obedience is vain, which is the theme of this last great paragraph; and a clear perception of this will carry us through both the obscurities of it, and the difficulties of St. Paul’s application of it in the Romans. Of this then the author of Deuteronomy says: "It is not too hard for thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it." That is to say, there is no mystery or difficulty about this commandment of love. Neither have you to go to the uttermost parts of the sea to hear it, nor need you search into the mysteries of heaven. It has been brought near to you by all the mercy and forgiveness and kindness of Yahweh; it has been made known to you now by my mouth, even in its pettiest applications. But that is not all; it is graven on your own heart, which leaps up in glad response to this demand, and in answer to the manifestation of God’s love for you. It is really the fundamental principle of your own nature that is appealed to. You should clearly feel that life in the love of God and man is the only fit life for you who are made in the image of God. If you do, then the fulfillment of all the Divine precepts will be easy, and your lives will lighten more and more unto the perfect day. Now, for an Oriental of the pre-Christian era such teaching is most marvelous. How marvelous it is Christians perhaps find it difficult to see. In point of fact, many have denied that Old Testament teaching ever had this character. Misled by the doctrines of Islam, the great Semitic religion of today, many assert that the religion of ancient Israel called upon men to submit to mere power in submitting to God. But the appeal of our text to the heart of man shows that this is an error. No such appeal has ever been made to Mohammedans. Their state of mind in regard to God is represented by the remark of a recent traveler in Persia. Speaking of the Persian Babis, who may be described roughly as a heretical sect whose minds have been formed by Mohammedanism, he says: "They seemed to have no conception of absolute good, or absolute truth; to them good was merely what God chose to ordain, and truth what He chose to reveal, so that they could not understand how any one could attempt to test the truth of a religion by an ethical and moral standard." Now that is precisely the opposite of the Deuteronomic attitude. Israel is encouraged and incited to right action by having it pointed out that not only experienc