Holy Bible

These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness. Deuteronomy 1:1-8 Moses' discourse to Israel I. THE DATE OF THIS SERMON WHICH MOSES PREACHED TO THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. A great auditory no question he had, as many as could crowd within hearing, and particularly all the elders and officers, the representatives of the people; and probably it was on the Sabbath day that he delivered this to them. 1. The place where they were now encamped was in the plain, in the land of Moab (vers. 1, 5), where they were just ready to enter Canaan, and engage in a war with the Canaanites. Yet he discourseth not to them concerning military affairs, but concerning their duty to God; for if they kept themselves in His fear and favour, He would secure to them the conquest of the land; their religion would be their best policy. 2. The time was near the end of the fortieth year since they came out of Egypt. So long God had borne their manners, and they had borne their own iniquity ( Numbers 14:34 ); and now a new and more pleasant scene was to be introduced, as a token for good, Moses repeats the law to them. Thus, after God's controversy with them for the golden calf, the first and surest sign of God's being reconciled to them was the renewing of the tables. There is no better evidence and earnest of God's favour than His putting His law in our hearts ( Psalm 147:19, 20 ). II. THE DISCOURSE ITSELF. In general, Moses spake unto them "all that the Lord had given him in commandment" (ver. 3), which intimates, not only that what he new delivered was for substance the same with what had formerly been commanded, but it was that God now commanded him to repeat. He gave them this rehearsal and exhortation purely by Divine direction. God appointed him to leave this legacy to the Church. He begins his narrative with their removal from Mount Sinai (ver. 6), and relates here — 1. The orders God gave them to decamp and proceed in their march (ver. 6, 7). "Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount." That was the mount that burned with fire ( Hebrews 12:18 ), and gendered to bondage ( Galatians 4:24 ). Thither God brought them to humble them, and by the terrors of the law to prepare them for the land of promise. There He kept them about a year, and then told them they had dwelt long enough there, they must go forward. Though God bring His people into trouble and affliction, into spiritual trouble and affliction of mind, He knows when they have dwelt long enough in it, and will certainly find a time, the fittest time, to advance them from the terrors of the spirit of bondage to the comforts of the spirit of adoption ( Romans 8:15 ). 2. The prospect He gave them of a happy settlement in Canaan presently: "Go to the land of the Canaanites" (ver. 7). Enter and take possession; it is all your own. "Behold, I have set the land before you" (ver. 8). But when God commands us to go forward in our Christian course, He sets the heavenly Canaan before us for our encouragement. ( Matthew Henry, D. D. . ) Moses spake...according unto all that the Lord had given him A God-given sermon J. Saurin. Moses spoke what the Lord had commanded him; in other words, Moses gave the people what God had given him ( Acts 3:6 ). Though the words were Moses', the thing uttered was of God. Some speak according to the wisdom of the world: they can tell much about its craft, villainy, hollowness; and they preach selfishness, more or less refined, as a means of personal defence, and the true source of success. Some speak according to one thing, others according to something else. Moses spoke according to what God had given him. He therefore spoke God's truth. I. BECAUSE MOSES SPOKE GOD'S TRUTH HE UTTERED WHAT WOULD BE ADVANTAGEOUS TO THE PEOPLE. The path of happiness is the way of wisdom. Wisdom is happiness as well as pleasant ( Proverbs 8 .). True wisdom is the fear of God ( Job 28:28 ). The man who declares God's truth instructs in wisdom and leads men to happiness. Happiness is what men are seeking. Those who conduct others into happiness meet an universal want. II. Because Moses spoke what God gave him, HE COULD SPEAK — 1. With courage. 2. With power. III. Because Moses spoke what God gave him to speak, HE RELIEVED HIMSELF OF RESPONSIBILITY. 1. Commissions are sometimes entrusted to men by God which they are afraid to execute. They thereby entail calamity upon themselves and all connected with them (Jonah). 2. Duties imposed by God, if neglected, bring desolation on the man and his family — Achan ( Judges 7 ). 3. Knowledge, wisdom, visions of the Divine glory are vouchsafed to men to be used for the improvement of the world, the upholding of the Church, and the honour of God. 4. Money, influence, opportunity is entrusted to many in these days. Such is not to be lavished on ourselves. God gave it; He expects it to be used in His service. ( J. Saurin. ) On this side Jordan, etc The worth of the present J. Saurin. Moses repeated the law as soon as he had opportunity, and circumstances required it. He did not wait till the promised land was entered. The work of today was not delayed till the morrow. It was done at once. He did it where he was — in the land of the Gentiles — surrounded with heathen — in the country of foes. Trapp with no little humour remarks on these, words, "And he was not long about it. A ready heart makes a riddance of God's work, for being oiled with the Spirit, it becomes lithe and nimble and quick of despatch." Three practical hints — I. WHAT IS TO BE DONE DO AT ONCE. Moses on this side of Jordan began to speak. Had Moses been a boy at school he would not have put off his prayers till he got home, where there were no schoolfellows to chaff. He would have said them then and there. II. DO NOT THINK THAT THERE WILL BE A MORE PROPITIOUS TIME THAN THE PRESENT. 1. Dallying with duties does not diminish difficulties. 2. Delay positively increases difficulties. Power unused decreases. If duty is deferred a day we are a day's wasted strength the weaker. 3. We know what is to be done now; tomorrow it may be forgotten. Cares of life may usurp attention. The duties are pushed aside — choked down — killed. Weeds grow faster than corn. Cares and duties come quicker than time. III. DO SOME GOOD THINGS IN THIS LIFE — IN THE DESERT, SO CALLED, ON THIS SIDE OF JORDAN. Do not wait till heaven is reached, that angels alone may be witness of your good deeds. Moses did not defer till the promised land was reached. He did what he was able out of the promised land. It was well he did. He never reached Canaan. Had he put off all till then, nothing would have been done. ( J. Saurin. ) God's address to His people J. Saurin. I. God, in His address to His people, ENJOINS ACTION. "Not slothful" is the apostolic command. "Ye have dwelt long enough." The time of inactivity is over. "Turn you, take your journey." God enjoins on His people to be like Himself. He is ever active. The whole seven days round His energies are going forth in creating and blessing. Not less active than the Father is the Son. Week day and Sabbath He exerted Himself to make man happier and the world brighter. His reason for this He gives in John 5:17 . It is not unnatural, therefore, that God seeks in His people qualities so largely developed in Himself. God does not want idlers in His vineyard. Man was put into the garden of the world to work ( Genesis 2:15 ). However, God permits some rest. Life is not all work. Storm and calm, battle and peace, make history. But still the law of life and growth is, the more we do within certain limits the more we are able to do. This is true both physically and spiritually. People of impaired health by proper exercise become strong. The morally weak are strengthened by the exercise of trial. The more kind a man tries to be, the more he is. So with faith, patience, hope. II. GOD ADVISES WITH REGARD TO THE NATURE, DIRECTION, AND EXTENT OF THIS ACTION. 1. Nature of the action. Let it be action with a purpose in view. Have an aim in life. "Go to the mount of the Amorites." 2. Direction of the action. Two hints with regard to that —(1) Let it go forth. It does not do for a man's action to turn in on himself. Uniform selfishness is as injurious as constant introspection; and ceaseless introspection is as ruinous as unmixed selfishness. Live for others as well as self; work for others.(2) This is modified by another hint. Go to what is near first. 3. Extent of the action. Begin at the near, then proceed to what is more remote, till the whole world is affected by your life, e.g. —(1) First to the plain. Read part of the Bible easily understood and applied. Interpret providence as far as Son can trace a Father's hands. What cannot be understood leave for a future day and clearer lights.(2) After this go to the hill. Do not mind a difficulty sometimes. A little adversity strengthens the soul. Trust is perfected in suffering.(3) Now you may proceed to the vale. There is the "valley of the shadow of death" — "the valley of humiliation" — "the valley of vision. Here the soul is quickened and brought into that region of experience that Paul designates as being "hidden with Christ in God."(4) Thus prepared with "the whole armour of God," go to the "south." Here were hills infested with foes. So the Christian, after mounting the Hill of Transfiguration with Christ, where for a moment the Divine glory is manifested, has to go back again to a world where man has to contend with demons ( Matthew 17:14-18 ), where he has to grapple with many a spiritual foe, wolves in sheep's clothing, the lion that seeks to devour, the subtle serpent.(5) Then comes the reward. Having gone to the "south," the people might turn aside to the sea. So does God bring the Christian after long and hard toil to gaze into those depths of love and grace which are as oceans mirroring the midnight skies.(6) After such revelation of God's glory and power the people of God can go forth to war with the Canaanite. The kingdom of Christ is extended to Lebanon (the far north) — to the river (the far cast). The whole world is filled with the glory of the Lord. III. GOD, IN HIS ADDRESS, POINTS OUT HOW RIGHTLY DIRECTED ACTION WILL BRING ITS OWN REWARD. "Behold, I have set (Hebrews 'given') the land before you: go in and possess." 1. True work is sure to bring recompense of some kind. It brings external reward. A day's work brings the day's wages. The sewings of spring are followed by the harvests of autumn. It brings an internal reward in a man's own nature and being. 2. Show what work is. Distinguish work from pleasure. Pleasure is the expending of energy without any end or purpose save the sensations caused by the act of waste, whereby pleasure has been defined as "dissipating enjoyments"; work is energy expended for a purpose. In its idea it is conservative. Work is action to get a return for the energy so spent, both to recuperate and increase the power thus employed. Pleasure seeks nothing save the sensation; work demands a recompense. God promises to work its recompense. "Go in and possess." ( J. Saurin. ) The discourse delivered by Moses Thomas Scott. The faithful servants of the Lord, with advancing years and experience, frequently acquire increasing reputation for wisdom, integrity, and disinterested philanthropy, as well as pious zeal for the glory of God. While they draw nearer to the heavenly world they often seem to breathe a purer air, and all their words have a heavenly savour; their motion accelerates as they approach their rest; their earnestness increases, when they can be influenced by no earthly motive; and their confidence and comfort acquire strength in defiance of the approaching king of terrors. Under such circumstances their instructions are doubly impressive, and frequently have a durable effect upon the survivors. They should then seize every occasion of reminding the people of the wisdom, power, truth, and love of God, as manifested in His dealing with them: and there are times when they may also, consistently with deep humility, speak of their own conduct, their love to souls, their faithful labours, their self-denial, and patient sufferings in the arduous work about which they are engaged; in order to obviate prejudice, and to obtain a more favourable attention to further exhortations. But it is likewise necessary to show the people their transgressions, that they may be duly humbled; to warn them against the fatal effects of unbelief and sin; to point out the advantages of confidence in God and obedience to Him; and to unite confessions of their own imperfection and sinfulness, both to avoid giving needless offence, to suggest encouragement, and to excite personal humiliation. ( Thomas Scott. ) Ordered from the mountain J. Parker, D. D. God knows, then, how long we have been here or there. He keeps the time; He knows when we have been "long enough" in one place. "Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount." We may get tired even of mountains. Wherever we live we need change. We are ordered down off the mountain. Soon after we have said, It is good to be here, the Leader proposes that we should go down again, tie will not have any heaven built upon earth; He will never allow us to build permanently upon foundations that are themselves transitory. There are many mountains to come down — mountains of supposed strength, when the very robustest man must lie down and say, "I am very weary, tired to exhaustion"; mountains of prosperity, when Croesus himself must come down, saying, "I am a poor man; let the meanest slave serve me, for I cannot longer serve myself." Then there is the coming down that is inevitable — the time when God says to every one of us, "You have been long enough on the mountain of time; pass through the grave to the hills of heaven, the great mountains of eternity." Sometimes we think we have been too long on the mountain, and wonder when He will come whose right it is to bring the sheep into the fold; we say in our peevishness — not always impious, but rather an expression of weakness — Surely we have been forgotten; by this time we ought to have been with the blessed ones; the night is coming on quickly, and we shall be drenched with dews. So long are some men kept outside, on the very top of the hill, where very little grass grows — bare, rocky places. But God cannot forget; we must rest in His memory; He puts Himself even before a mother who may forget her sucking child, but He has pledged Himself never to forget His redeemed Church. But, having ordered His people away from the mountain, where can they take up their abode We find the answer in the seventh verse. God has many localities at His command, so He disperses the people, setting them "in the plain, ill the hills, in the vale," "by the seaside," and "unto the great river, the river Euphrates." What space God has! "In My Father's house are many mansions" — in My Father's house are many localities. Why do we choose our own place? Did ever man dispute the Divine sovereignty without regretting his encounter with the Eternal Will? Why have any will? Were we serving wooden gods, mechanical deities, divinities of our own creation or invention, we might dispute with them, point out what possibly they may have overlooked, and draw holder programmes; but if God is the only-wise, if God is love, if God is light, if God died for us in the person of His Son, why not say, Not my will, but Thine be done: take me to the mountain or the plain, the hills or the vale, the seaside or the river; the taking itself shall be as a vision of heaven? ( J. Parker, D. D. ) A stationary position degrading I remember hearing a naturalist describe a species of jelly fish which, he said, lives fixed to a rock, from which it never stirs. It does not require to go in search of food, because in the decayed tissues of its own organism there grows a kind of seaweed on which it subsists. I thought I had never heard of any creature so comfortable. But the naturalist who was describing it went on to say that it is one of the very lowest forms of animal life, and the extreme comfort which it enjoys is the very badge of its degraded position. Go in and possess the land The blessedness and glory of the promised land R. P. Buddicom. I. TO GIVE A SPIRITUAL DESCRIPTION OF THE LAND WHICH JEHOVAH HATH PROPOSED AS THE END OF OUR PILGRIMAGE, AND OF WHICH WE ALL PROFESS TO BE IN SEARCH. 1. It is a land to whose delightfulness, beauty, and fertility Jehovah Himself had borne the most ample and undoubted testimony. 2. But the land of Canaan was not merely a country known by description, however magnificent and encouraging, as well as unchangeably true, the testimony of God might be concerning it. The spies who had been sent, in whatever guilty unbelief their mission originated, had searched it out, from Dan even to Beersheba; and they had brought with them of the grapes, and pomegranates, and figs, that the people might see, and taste, and judge for themselves. And what was this except a type of Christ, the true Vine, some clusters of which the searching eye of faith may see? 3. It is, moreover, a land of promise; and here is the leading feature of its peculiar preciousness. Jehovah saith not that Canaan is a country which His people might inhabit, if they could win it in their own strength; for then, where were the weapons of their successful warfare, and where the might in which to overcome their enemies? But it is a land which, in the exercise of His free and sovereign grace, He made over to them — not giving it to them because they were a great nation, for they were the fewest of all people, but because He loved them. II. THE INJUNCTION GIVEN BY JEHOVAH TO HIS PEOPLE — "Go in, and possess the land"; and, as it is added in the twenty-third verse, where the command and promise are repeated, "Fear not, neither be discouraged." The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. Never imagine that the Canaan which you profess to seek will be your own without a warfare. Fight valiantly, pray fervently, trust implicitly, and you will be made more than conquerors. Neither doubt nor distrust the sure promise and inviolable covenant of an unchangeable God. Oh, how keenly should this Scripture rebuke all loiterers in the holy war! We profess to love and follow Jesus, but when He cries "Go up and possess the land," we willingly linger in the desert of our own coldness and worldly love. ( R. P. Buddicom. ) Enlargement -- a New Year's address S. D. Hillman, B. A. John Foster, in one of his admirable essays, speaks of truth as presenting to the inquirer's view a beautiful and spacious landscape, divided into delightful gardens, green meadows, so that wherever he casts his eyes he beholds some beautiful plant or flower of truth. You have entered into this goodly land of truth, "Go in and possess it"; extend this year your knowledge of it, make its riches your own priceless possession. God has given unto us intellectual power; and, having bestowed this blessing upon us, He requires that we do our utmost in order to secure mental culture. Truth has many departments, but truth in its highest form is presented to us in Holy Scripture. What a realm of beauty and fertility is presented to us here! Let us "go in and possess this land." And let us "go in" feeling that we are entering a large land; not mistaking for the whole a little tract we have traversed, but convinced that there are unexplored regions yet to be brought to light. Oh, to be delivered from all narrowness in reference to our conceptions of truth, and specially of truth bearing upon our spiritual weal! There are, I know, certain teachings which are to be regarded as foundation teachings, as, for instance, the Divinity and Incarnation of Christ, the Atonement of Jesus, His victory over death, His resurrection, etc. But whilst holding these great verities of eternal truth unswervingly, let us come to the study of this Book of God believing that there are hidden treasures here, and which He will reveal to us by His Spirit if we carry on our investigation in the spirit of patience, thoughtfulness, courage, and prayer. One of the most beautiful conceptions of heaven we can possibly form is that of its being "the land of uprightness"; perfect purity, complete rectitude prevailing. And whilst it is true that heaven "remaineth to the people of God," it is also true that they who have believed enter it even here. The blessings flowing to us through our union to Christ are present, and the elements which constitute the character of the glorified in heaven are to mark, in a growing measure, God's servants who are still on earth. Be it ours, then, to go on developing in all the excellencies of the Christian character. There is a realm which must be described as one of sin and death, of bondage and darkness. Oh, to possess that land, and to transfer it to Christ, that thus, under the influence of His Spirit, its evil may give place to purity, its slavery to liberty, whilst through its chambers of death life may spread! This is our mission as the followers of the Lord Jesus. In calling us into union with Himself He calls us, in fact, into sympathy with Him in His glorious purpose of effecting the ultimate deliverance of the world from the captivity of evil. When we speak of possessing the world for Christ, what difficulties present themselves to our view! How vast is the territory yet to be covered! How inapproachable many of its tracts, so that noble lives are sacrificed by the way, or reach their destination only to die! How unhealthy the climates, and how unyielding the superstitions! How the work is impeded, too, by the policy of governments, taking the carnal weapons where we would use the spiritual, and introducing the soldier where we would plant the missionary. Truly, there are many hindrances. But we will not despair. It is the cause of God in which we are enlisted. When He works, who shall hinder? ( S. D. Hillman, B. A. ) And I spake unto you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you myself alone. Deuteronomy 1:9-18 The promised increase pleaded J. Burns, D. D. I. THE GLORIOUS BEING ADDRESSED. "The Lord God of your fathers." 1. In His essential character as Lord God. (1) In creation. (2) In providence. (3) In redemption. 2. In His relative character. "Lord God of your fathers."(1) Literally in its application to Israel. The Lord God, who called Abraham, blessed Isaac, and named Jacob; who delivered His people from the proud yoke of Pharaoh; guided, guarded, and supplied them in the wilderness; gave them the rich land of promise. Surely Israel might well sing, "There is no God like unto the God of Jeshurun." Then let us apply it —(2) To many of our fathers after the flesh. Many of our fathers served and trusted in the living God. How they spake of God, "Behold I die, but serve God, and He will be with you." Is not their memory still sweet? 3. The subject has a general application to our spiritual predecessors. Those early Christian fathers who had to witness before the pagan world, and who passed through horrid persecutions, and yet were supported and made successful in spreading the Gospel through the world. II. THE COMPREHENSIVE PETITION PRESENTED. "Make you," etc. In the petition are two parts, multiplication of numbers and the Divine blessing. III. THE GROUND OF ENCOURAGEMENT ADDUCED. "As He hath promised." Now, God did promise Abraham. Observe some of the traits of these promises. They are — 1. Absolute in their nature. He has not said He will multiply the Church if —(1) Her friends are active and willing. No. But He will make His people willing in the day of His power.(2) If the governments of the world and the great of the earth are favourable; but it is written, They shall bring the gold of Sheba," etc. 2. They are numerous. Scattered over the whole extent of revelation. 3. They have been principally made to Christ. 4. Partially fulfilled.APPLICATION. 1. The divinity of our religion. 2. The benevolence of our religion. 3. The final triumphs of our religion. 4. The bearing of our subject on the religious instruction of the rising generation. ( J. Burns, D. D. ) The blessing of a numerous progeny Lewis Atterbury. I. THAT CHILDREN OUGHT TO BE ESTEEMED BLESSINGS, and that he who has a numerous offspring ought to be thankful to God for them. This is a blessed tiling, for — 1. Such a man is a public blessing to the kingdom in which he lives; for the riches of a kingdom consists in the number of its inhabitants. 2. A numerous offspring is a valuable blessing with respect to private families, and that mutual comfort and support which those who came originally out of the same loins yield to one another. These bonds are inseparable when the same interests are bound by natural affection. 3. A numerous offspring is a valuable blessing to the parent himself, The Jew looked forward to the Messiah being born of his family; the Christian can see a new heir of righteousness. There is joy in their birth; there is pleasure in their after-life if the child is trained aright. II. GOD IS THE SOLE AUTHOR AND DISPOSER OF THESE BLESSINGS ( Psalm 127:3 ). This blessing is called an heritage. An heritage is an estate got by ancestors, and descends to us lineally without our painstaking. God is our Ancestor, from whom we enjoy all favours. Three lessons are gathered from the subject of this verse. 1. Let those who have no children learn from hence to wait with patience the Divine pleasure, to continue in prayer and alms deeds, and to be fruitful in good works; and if they have not children after the flesh, they will have a multitude who will call them blessed, and who in the endless ages of eternity will be to them as children. 2. Let those who have a numerous family of children be thankful to God for bestowing these blessings on them, and use their utmost endeavour to make them blessings indeed, by grounding them in the principles of religion, and bringing them up soberly and virtuously to some lawful calling. 3. Those who have had children and are deprived of them, either by natural death or, which is worse, by any unfortunate accident, may hence learn to resign themselves to the will of God, and entirely to depend on His good providence. ( Lewis Atterbury. ) Numerical increase In this part of his narrative he insinuates to them — 1. That he greatly rejoiced in the increase of their numbers. He owns the accomplishment of God's promise to Abraham (ver. 10). You are as the stars of heaven for multitude; and prays for the further accomplishment of it (ver. 11). God make you a thousand times more. This prayer comes in a parenthesis; and a good prayer prudently put in cannot be impertinent in any discourse of Divine things; nor will a pious ejaculation break the coherence, but rather strengthen and adorn it. But how greatly are his desires enlarged when he prays that they might be made a thousand times more than they were! We are not straightened in the power and goodness of God; why should we be straightened in our own faith and hope, which ought to be as large as the promise? It is from the promise that Moses here takes the measure of his prayer, the Lord bless you as He hath promised you. And why might he not hope that they might become a thousand times more than they were now, when they were now ten thousand times more than they were when they came down into Egypt, above two hundred and fifty years ago? Observe, when they were under the government of Pharaoh the increase of their numbers was envied, and complained of as a grievance ( Exodus 1:9 ); but now, raider the government of Moses, it was rejoiced in, and prayed for as a blessing, the comparing of which might give them occasion to reflect with shame upon their own folly when they had talked of making a captain and returning to Egypt. 2. That he was not ambitious of monopolising the honour of the government and ruling them himself alone as an absolute monarch (ver. 9). Magistracy is a burden. Moses himself, though so eminently gifted for it, found it lay heavy on his. shoulders; nay, the best magistrates complain most of the burden, and are most desirous of help, and most afraid of undertaking more than they can perform. 3. That he was not desirous to prefer his own creatures, or such as should underhand have a dependence upon him; for he leaves it to the people to choose their judges, to whom he would grant commissions; not to be turned out when he pleased, but to continue as long as they approved themselves faithful (ver. 13). We must not grudge that God's work be done by. other hands than ours, provided it be done by good hands. 4. That he was m this matter very willing to please the people, and though he did not in anything aim at their applause, yet in a thing of this nature he would not act without their approbation. And they agreed to the proposal (ver. 14). The thing which thou hast spoken is good. This he mentions to aggravate the sin of their mutinies and discontents after this, that the government they quarrelled with was what they themselves had consented to; Moses would have pleased them if they would have been pleased. 5. That he aimed to edify them as well as to gratify them; for —(1) He appointed men of good characters (ver. 15), wise men, and men known men that would be faithful to their trust and to the public interest.(2) He gave them a good charge (vers. 16, 17). Those that are advanced to honour must know that they are charged with business, and must give account another day of their charge.(3) He chargeth them to be diligent and patient; hear the causes. Hear both sides, hear them fully, hear them carefully, for nature hath provided us with two ears; and he that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame to him. The car of the learned is necessary to the tongue of the learned ( Isaiah 50:4 ).(4) To be just and impartial: judge righteously. Judgment must be given according to the merits of the cause, without regard to the quality of the parties. The natives must not be suffered to abuse the strangers; no more than the strangers to insult the natives, or to encroach upon them. The great must not be suffered to oppress the small, nor to crush them; no more than the small to rob the great, or to affront them. No faces must be known in judgment, but unbribed, unbiassed equity must always pass sentence.(5) To be resolute and courageous. You shall not be afraid of the face of man. But not overawed to do an ill thing, either by the clamours of the crowd, or by the menaces of those that have power in their hands. And he gives them a good reason to enforce this charge; for the judgment is God's. You are God's vicegerents; you act for Him, and therefore must act like Him; you are His representatives, but if you judge unrighteously you misrepresent Him. The judgment is His, and therefore He will protect you in doing right, and will certainly call you to account if you do wrong. And lastly, he allows them to bring all difficult cases to him, which he would always be ready to hear and determine, and to make both the judges and the people easy. ( Matthew Henry, D. D. . ) The execution of a nation's laws J. Spencer. The constitution of a man's body is best known by his pulse; if it stirs not at all, then we know he is dead; if it stirs violently, then we know him to be in a fever; if it keeps an equal stroke, then we know he is sound and whole: in like manner we may judge of the estate of a kingdom, or commonwealth, by the manner of execution of its laws. ( J. Spencer. ) That great and terrible wilderness. Deuteronomy 1:19 Memorable experiences J. Parker, D. D. There are some things that are never to be forgotten in life. There are troubles whose shadow is as long as life's whole day. The troubles are past, but the shadow is still there; the victory is won, but the battle seems still to be booming in our ear. We are miles and miles away from the desert — yea, half a continent and more — but who can ever forget "all that great and terrible wilderness"? Yet life would be poor without it. The memory of that wilderness chastens our joy, touches our prayer into a more solemn and tender music, and makes us more valiant, because more hopeful, in reference to all the future. There cannot be two such wildernesses in the whole universe. We are the better for the wildernesses of life, and we cannot escape them. Oh, that great and terrible wilderness! It comes after us now like a ghost; it darkens upon our vision in the dream-time; we repeat the journey in the night season, and feel all the sleet and cold, all the dreariness and helplessness of the ol

Benson Commentary Deuteronomy 1:1 These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red sea , between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab. Deuteronomy 1:1 . These be the words which Moses spake — In the last encampment of the Israelites, which was in the plains of Moab, there being now but two months before the death of Moses, and their passage into the land of Canaan. Moses spent this last part of his time in laying before them an account of their travels, and of the many singular providences, mercies, and judgments which had attended them; in repeating and enlarging upon the several laws which God had prescribed for their civil and religious conduct in that promised country; and in the most pressing applications, and earnest persuasions, to a grateful and dutiful obedience. These things, here termed words, with his last prophetic blessing upon their tribes, constitute the subject of this book. Unto all Israel — Namely, by their heads or elders, who were to communicate these discourses to all the people. In the wilderness — over against the Red sea — This is undoubtedly a wrong translation, for they were now at a vast distance from the Red sea, and in no sense over against it. ?? Š, Suph, here rendered Red sea, is, no doubt, the name of a town or district in the country of Moab, of which see Numbers 21:14 . The Red sea is never expressed by Suph alone, but always by ?? ?? Š, Jam Suph. This place seems to have been near the Dead sea, and to have had its name Suph, a rush, from the many flags or rushes which grew there. Between Paran — This cannot well be meant of the wilderness of Paran, mentioned Numbers 10:12 , for that was far remote from hence; but of some place in the country of Moab, as Suph was, and the rest of the places which here follow. And Dizahab — Hebrew, ?? ??? , Di zahab, which the Vulgate renders, Where there is much gold, as the words signify. Perhaps it had its name from some mines of gold that were there; which circumstance seems to have determined the Seventy to render it ?????????? , golden places, or gold mines. Deuteronomy 1:2 ( There are eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadeshbarnea.) Deuteronomy 1:2 . There are eleven days’ journey — This is added, to show that the reason why the Israelites in so many years were advanced no farther from Horeb than to these plains, was not the distance of the places, but because of their rebellions. Kadesh-barnea — Which was not far from the borders of Canaan. Deuteronomy 1:3 And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that the LORD had given him in commandment unto them; Deuteronomy 1:3-4 . The eleventh month — Which was but a little before his death. All that the Lord had given him in command — Which shows not only that what he now delivered was in substance the same with what had formerly been commanded, but that God now commanded him to repeat it. He gave this rehearsal and exhortation by divine direction: God appointed him to leave this legacy to the church. Og — His palace or mansion-house was at Astaroth, and he was slain at Edrei. Deuteronomy 1:4 After he had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites, which dwelt in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, which dwelt at Astaroth in Edrei: Deuteronomy 1:5 On this side Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law, saying, Deuteronomy 1:6 The LORD our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount: Deuteronomy 1:6 . Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount They had stayed at mount Sinai, or Horeb, almost a year, receiving the law, erecting the tabernacle, numbering the people, ranking them under their standards, &c. And so, being fitted for an orderly march, they were commanded to depart thence, and proceed to the nearest borders of Canaan. Deuteronomy 1:7 Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates. Deuteronomy 1:7-8 . To the mount of the Amorites — That is, to the mountainous country on the south part of Canaan, inhabited chiefly by the Amorites, Deuteronomy 1:19-20 ; Deuteronomy 1:44 . The country to which Moses directed the spies to go up, Numbers 13:17 . This order is not mentioned in the book of Numbers, nor a great many other things, for a knowledge of which we are indebted to this supplemental book of Deuteronomy. Behold, I have set the land before you — Hebrew, before your faces; it is open to your view, and to your possession; there is no impediment in your way. And thus is the heavenly Canaan, and the kingdom of grace which leads to it, laid open to the view and enjoyment of all believers. Which the Lord sware unto your fathers, Genesis 15:18 ; Genesis 17:7 ; Genesis 28:13 . It is not indeed said in any of these places that God confirmed his promise with an oath; but he did what was equivalent thereto; he engaged his veracity by the solemn transaction of a covenant, which is called the oath of God, Genesis 26:3 . Deuteronomy 1:8 Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them. Deuteronomy 1:9 And I spake unto you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you myself alone: Deuteronomy 1:9 . I spake unto you — Unto your fathers, who were alive at the time here referred to, but now dead, Numbers 26:64 . At that time — That is, about that time, a little before their coming to Horeb. See Exodus 18. This was by the advice of Jethro, his father-in-law. Deuteronomy 1:10 The LORD your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude. Deuteronomy 1:11 (The LORD God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are , and bless you, as he hath promised you!) Deuteronomy 1:12 How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife? Deuteronomy 1:12-13 . How can I alone bear your burden? — The trouble of ruling and managing so perverse a people. Your strife — Your contentions among yourselves, for the determination whereof the elders were appointed. Take ye wise men and understanding — Persons of knowledge, wisdom, and experience. Known among your tribes — Hebrew, to your tribes; men had in reputation for ability and integrity; for to such they would more readily submit. Deuteronomy 1:13 Take you wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you. Deuteronomy 1:14 And ye answered me, and said, The thing which thou hast spoken is good for us to do. Deuteronomy 1:15 So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men, and known, and made them heads over you, captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens, and officers among your tribes. Deuteronomy 1:15 . So I took the chief — Not in authority, but in endowments for governing. And officers — Inferior officers, that were to attend upon the superior magistrates, and to execute their decrees. Deuteronomy 1:16 And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him. Deuteronomy 1:16 . The stranger — That converseth or dealeth with him. To such God would have justice equally administered as to his own people, partly for the honour of religion, and partly for the interest which every man hath in matters of common right. Deuteronomy 1:17 Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God's: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it. Deuteronomy 1:17 . Respect persons — Hebrew, not know, or acknowledge faces; that is, not give sentence according to the outward qualities of the person, as he is poor or rich, your friend or enemy, but purely according to the merit of the cause. For which reason some of the Grecian lawgivers ordered that the judges should give sentence in the dark, where they could not see men’s faces. The judgment is God’s — It is passed in the name of God, and by commission from him, by you, as representing his person, and doing his work; who therefore will defend you therein against all your enemies, and to whom you must give an exact account. Deuteronomy 1:18 And I commanded you at that time all the things which ye should do. Deuteronomy 1:18 . I commanded you, &c. — I instructed you in your duty, by delivering to you, and especially to your judges, the laws, statutes, and judgments revealed unto me by the Lord in Horeb. Deuteronomy 1:19 And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which ye saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the LORD our God commanded us; and we came to Kadeshbarnea. Deuteronomy 1:19 . Great and terrible wilderness — Great, because it extended a great way; and terrible, because mostly desolate, or only inhabited by wild beasts. By the way of the mountain of the Amorites — All the way you went toward that mountain. Deuteronomy 1:20 And I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which the LORD our God doth give unto us. Deuteronomy 1:21 Behold, the LORD thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it , as the LORD God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged. Deuteronomy 1:22 And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come. Deuteronomy 1:23 And the saying pleased me well: and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe: Deuteronomy 1:24 And they turned and went up into the mountain, and came unto the valley of Eshcol, and searched it out. Deuteronomy 1:24-25 . Eshcol — That is, grapes, so called from the goodly cluster of grapes which they brought from thence. It is a good land — So they said unanimously, Numbers 13:27 . Only they added, that they were not a match for the inhabitants of it, as is intimated Deuteronomy 1:28 . Deuteronomy 1:25 And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down unto us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land which the LORD our God doth give us. Deuteronomy 1:26 Notwithstanding ye would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God: Deuteronomy 1:27 And ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the LORD hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. Deuteronomy 1:27 . Because the Lord hated us — This shows what dishonourable and unworthy thoughts they had entertained of God, to imagine him capable of being actuated by hatred to his own creatures. Their sins, indeed, he could not but view with hatred; just as every good and wise parent must dislike all evil dispositions and practices in his children: but God, infinitely good, can no more hate any thing that he has made, than a tender mother can be hardened against her sucking child. Deuteronomy 1:28 Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there. Deuteronomy 1:28 . The people is greater — In number, and strength, and valour. The cities are great, and walled up to heaven — An hyperbole, signifying that their cities were fenced with very high walls, which Moses himself allows to be true, Deuteronomy 9:1 . But, however strong they were, the Israelites had no reason to fear, since they were assured of the divine protection and aid in the execution of his command. Deuteronomy 1:29 Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them. Deuteronomy 1:30 The LORD your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes; Deuteronomy 1:30 . Shall fight for you according to all that he did in Egypt — This was one of the strongest arguments possible to beget in them a firm reliance on the protection and help of God; since they could not but own that the same power which had redeemed them out of Egypt, was no less able to bring them into Canaan; yet even this proved to be of no avail. Deuteronomy 1:31 And in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the LORD thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place. Deuteronomy 1:31-34 . Bare thee — Or carried thee, as a father carries his weak and tender child in his arms, through difficulties and dangers, gently leading you according as you were able to go, and sustaining you by his power and goodness. Ye did not believe the Lord — So they could not enter in, because of unbelief. It was not any other sin that shut them out of Canaan, but their disbelief of that promise which was typical of gospel grace; to signify that no sin will ruin us but unbelief, which is a sin against the remedy, and therefore without remedy. Your words — That is to say, your murmurings, your unthankful, impatient, distrustful, and rebellious speeches. Deuteronomy 1:32 Yet in this thing ye did not believe the LORD your God, Deuteronomy 1:33 Who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in , in fire by night, to shew you by what way ye should go, and in a cloud by day. Deuteronomy 1:34 And the LORD heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and sware, saying, Deuteronomy 1:35 Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers, Deuteronomy 1:36 Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed the LORD. Deuteronomy 1:36-37 . Save Caleb — Under whom Joshua is comprehended, though not here expressed, because he was not now to be one of the people, but to be set over them as a chief governor: we are also to except Eleazar and some other Levites. For your sakes — Upon occasion of your wickedness and perverseness, by which you provoked me to speak unadvisedly. Deuteronomy 1:37 Also the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, saying, Thou also shalt not go in thither. Deuteronomy 1:38 But Joshua the son of Nun, which standeth before thee, he shall go in thither: encourage him: for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. Deuteronomy 1:39 Moreover your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it. Deuteronomy 1:40 But as for you, turn you, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea. Deuteronomy 1:41 Then ye answered and said unto me, We have sinned against the LORD, we will go up and fight, according to all that the LORD our God commanded us. And when ye had girded on every man his weapons of war, ye were ready to go up into the hill. Deuteronomy 1:42 And the LORD said unto me, Say unto them, Go not up, neither fight; for I am not among you; lest ye be smitten before your enemies. Deuteronomy 1:43 So I spake unto you; and ye would not hear, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD, and went presumptuously up into the hill. Deuteronomy 1:44 And the Amorites, which dwelt in that mountain, came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, even unto Hormah. Deuteronomy 1:44 . As bees — As bees, which, being provoked, come out of their hives in great numbers, and with great fury pursue their adversary and disturber. Deuteronomy 1:45 And ye returned and wept before the LORD; but the LORD would not hearken to your voice, nor give ear unto you. Deuteronomy 1:45-46 . The Lord would not hearken to you — Your sorrow not proceeding from a penitent mind, or from a concern that God was displeased with you, but from this, that you yourselves could not do as you desired, God would not listen to your cry, as he always doth to the cry of those who pray to him in sincerity, and weep from genuine, godly sorrow. Ye abode in Kadesh many days — Near a whole year, not being now permitted to make any further progress toward Canaan. Deuteronomy 1:46 So ye abode in Kadesh many days, according unto the days that ye abode there . Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Deuteronomy 1:1 These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red sea , between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab. THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT Deuteronomy 1:1-46 ; Deuteronomy 2:1-37 ; Deuteronomy 3:1-29 AFTER these preliminary discussions we now enter upon the exposition. With the exception of the first two verses of chapter 1, concerning which there is a doubt whether they do not belong to Numbers, these three chapters stand out as the first section of our book. Examination shows that they form a separate and distinct whole, not continued in chapter 4; but there has been a great diversity of opinion as to their authorship and the intention with which they have been placed here. The vocabulary and the style so resemble those of the main parts of the book that they cannot be entirely separated from them; yet, at the same time, it seems unlikely that the original author of the main trunk of Deuteronomy can have begun his book with this introductory speech from Moses, followed it up with another Mosaic speech, still introductory, in chapter 4, and in chapter 5 begun yet another introductory speech running through seven chapters, before he comes to the statutes and judgments which are announced at the very beginning. The current supposition about these chapters, therefore, is that they are the work of a Deuteronomist, a man formed under the influence of Deuteronomy and filled with its spirit, but not the author of the book. This seems to account for the resemblances, and would also explain to some extent the existence of such a superfluous prologue. But the hypothesis is, nevertheless, not entirely satisfactory. The resemblances are closer than we should expect in the work of different authors; and one feels that the supposed Deuteronomist must have been less sensitive in a literary sense than we have any right to suppose him if he did not feel the incongruity of such a speech in this place. Professor Dillmann has made a very acute suggestion, which meets the whole difficulty in a more natural way. Feeling that the style and language were in all essentials one with those of the central Deuteronomy, he seeks for some explanation which would permit him to assign this section to the author of the book himself. He suggests that as originally written this was a historical introduction leading up to the central code of laws; a historical preface, in fact, which the author of Deuteronomy naturally prefixed to his book. Ex hypothesi he had not the previous books, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, before him as we have them. These now form a historical introduction to Deuteronomy of a very minute and elaborate kind; but he had to embody in his own book all of the past history of his people that he wished to emphasize, But when the editor who arranged the Pentateuch as we now have it inserted Deuteronomy in its present place, he found that he had a double historical preface, that in the previous books and this in Deuteronomy itself. As reverence forbade the rejection of these chapters, he took refuge in the expedient of turning the originally impersonal narrative into a speech of Moses; which he could all the more blamelessly do as the probability is that the whole book was regarded in his time as the work of Moses. This hypothesis, if it can be accepted, certainly accounts for all the phenomena presented by these chapters-the similarity of language, the archaeological notes in the speech, and the historic color in the statements regarding Edom, for example, which corresponds to early feeling, not to post-exilic thought at all. It has besides the merit of reducing the number of anonymous writers to be taken account of in the Pentateuch, a most desirable thing in itself. Lastly, it gives us in Deuteronomy a compact whole more complete in all its parts than almost any other portion of the Old Testament, certainly more so than any of the books containing legislation. Moreover, that the Deuteronomic reinforcement and expansion of the Mosaic legislation, as contained in the Book of the Covenant, should begin with such a history of Yahweh’s dealings with His people, is entirely characteristic of Old Testament Revelation. In the main and primarily, what the Old Testament writers give us is a history of how God wrought, how He dealt with the people He had chosen. In the view of the Hebrew writers, God’s first and main revelation of Himself is always in conduct. He showed Himself good and merciful and gentle to His people, and then, having so shown Himself, He has an acknowledged right to claim their obedience. As St. Paul has so powerfully pointed out, the law was secondary, not primary. Grace, the free love and choice of God, was always the beginning of true relations with Him, and only after that had been known and accepted does He look for the true life which His law is to regulate. Naturally, therefore, when the author of Deuteronomy is about to press upon Israel the law in its expanded form, to call them back from many aberrations, to summon them to a reformation and new establishment of the whole framework of their lives, he turns back to remind them of what their past had been. Law, therefore, is only a secondary deposit of Revelation. If we are true to the Biblical point of view we shall not look for the Divine voice only, or even chiefly, in the legal portions of the Scripture. God’s full revelation of Himself will be seen in the process and the completion of that age-long movement, which was begun when Israel first became a nation by receiving Yahweh as their God, and which ended with the life and death of Him who summed up in Himself all that Israel was called, but failed, to be. That is the ruling thought in Scripture about Revelation. God reveals Himself in history; and by the persistent thoroughness with which the Scriptural writers grasp this thought, the unique and effective character of the Biblical Revelation is largely accounted for. Other nations, no doubt, looked back at times upon what their gods had done for them, and those who spoke for these gods may often have claimed obedience and service from their people on the ground of past favor and under threats of its withdrawal. But earlier than any other people which has affected the higher races of mankind, Israel conceived of God as a moral power with a will and purpose which embraced mankind. Further, in the belief which appears in their earliest records, that through them the nations were to be blessed, and that in the future One was coming who would in Himself bring about the realization of Israel’s destiny, they were provided with a philosophy of history, with a conception which was fitted to draw into organic connection with itself all the various fortunes of Israel and of the nations. Of course, at first much that was involved in their view was not present to any mind. It was the very merit of the germinal revelation made through Moses that it had in it powers of growth and expansion. In no other way could it be a true revelation of God, a revelation which should have in it the fullness, the flexibility, the aloofness from mere local and temporary peculiarities, which would secure its fitness for universal mankind. Any revelation that consists only of words, of ideas even, must, to be received, have some kind of relation to the minds that are to receive it. If the words and ideas are revealed, as they must be, at a given place and a given time, they must be in such a relation to that place and time that at some period of the world’s history they will be found inadequate, needing expansion, which does not come naturally, and then they have to be laid aside as insufficient. But a revelation which consists in acts, which reveals God in intimate, age-long, constant dealings with mankind, is so many-sided, so varied, so closely molded to the actual and universal needs of man, that it embraces all the fundamental exigencies of human life, and must always continue to cover human experience. From it men may draw off systems of doctrines, which may concentrate the revelation for a particular generation, or for a series of generations, and make it more potently active in these circumstances. But unless the system be kept constantly in touch with the revelation as given in the history, it must become inadequate, false in part, and must one day vanish away. The revelation then in life is the only possible form for a real revelation of God; and that the writers of the Old Testament in their circumstances and in their time felt and asserted this, is in itself so very great a merit that it is almost of itself sufficient to justify any claims they may make to special inspiration. The greatest of them saw God at work in the world, and had experience of His influence in themselves, so that they had their eyes opened to His actions as other men had not. The least of them, again, had been placed at the true point of view for estimating aright the significance of the ordinary action of the Divine Providence, and for tracing the lines of Divine action where they were to other men invisible, or at least obscure. And in the records they have left us they have been entirely true to that supremely important point of view. All they deal with in the history is the moral and spiritual effects of God’s dealing; and the great interests, as the world reckons them, of war and conquest, of commerce and art, are referred to only briefly and often only in the way of allusion. To many moderns this is an offence, which they avenge by speaking contemptuously of the mental endowment of the Biblical writers as historians. On the contrary, that these should have kept their eyes fixed only upon that which concerned the religious life of their people, that they should have kept firm hold of the truth that it was there the central importance of the people lay, and that they have given us the material for the formation of that great conception of supernatural revelation by history in which God Himself moves as a factor, is a merit so great that even if it were only a brilliant fancy they might surely be pardoned for ignoring other things. But if, as is the truth, they were tracing the central stream of God’s redemptive action in the world, were laying open to our view the steps by which the unapproachably lofty conception of God was built up, which their nation alone has won for the human race, then it can hardly seem a fault that nothing else appealed to them. They have given God to those who were blindly groping for Him, and they have established the standard by which all historic estimates of even modern life are ultimately to be measured. For though there were in the history of that particular nation, and in the line of preparation for Christ, special miraculous manifestations of God’s power and love, which do not now occur, yet no judgment of the course of history is worth anything, even today, which does not occupy essentially the Biblical position. Ultimately the thing to be considered is, what hath God wrought? If that be ignored, then the stable and instructive element in history has been kept out of sight, and the mind loses itself hopelessly amid the weltering chaos of second causes. Froude, in his "History of England," has noted this, and declares that in the period he deals with it was the religious men who alone had any true insight into the tendency of things. They measured all things, almost too crudely, by the Biblical standard; but so essentially true and fundamental does that show itself to be, that their judgment so formed has proved to be the only sound one. This is what we should expect if God’s power and righteousness are the great factors in the drama which the history of man and of the world unfolds to us. That being so, the suicidal folly of the policy of any Church or party which shuts the Bible away from popular use is manifest. It is nothing short of a blinding of the people’s eyes, and a shutting of their ears to warning voices which the providential government of the world, when viewed on a large scale, never fails to utter. It renders sound political judgment the prerogative only of the few, and sets them among a people who will turn to any charlatans rather than believe their voice. It was natural and it was inevitable, therefore, that the author of Deuteronomy, standing, as he did, on the threshold of a great crisis in the history of Israel, should turn the thoughts of his people back to the history of the past. To him the great figure in the history of Israel in those trying and eventful years during which they wandered between Horeb, Kadesh-Barnea, and the country of the Arnon, is Yahweh their God. He is behind all their movements, impelling and inciting them to go on and enjoy the good land He had promised to their fathers. He went before them and fought for them. He bare them in the wilderness, as a man doth bear his son. He watched over them and guided their footsteps in cloud and fire by day and night. Moreover all the nations by whom they passed had been led by Him and assigned their places, and only those nations whom Yahweh chose had been given into Israel’s hand. In the internal affairs of the community, too, He had asserted Himself. They were Yahweh’s people, and all their national action was to be according to His righteous character. Especially was the administration of justice to be pure and impartial, yielding to neither fear nor favor because the "judgment is God’s." And how had they responded to all this loving favor on the part of God? At the first hint of serious conflict they shrank back in fear. Notwithstanding that the land which God had given them was a good and fruitful country, and notwithstanding the promises of Divine help, they refused to incur the necessary toils and risks of the conquest. Every difficulty they might encounter was exaggerated by them; their very deliverance from Egypt, which they had been wont to consider "their crowning mercy," became to their faithless cowardice an evidence of hatred for them on the part of God. To men in such a state of mind conquest was impossible; and though, in a spasmodic revulsion from their abject cowardice, they made an attack upon the people they were to dispossess, it ended, as it could not but end, in their defeat and rout. They were condemned to forty years of wandering, and it was only after all that generation was dead that Israel was again permitted to approach the land of promise. But Yahweh had been faithful to them, and when the time was come He opened the way for their advance and gave them the victory and the land. For His love was patient, and always made a way to bless them, even through their sins. That was the picture the Deuteronomist spread out before the eyes of his countrymen, to the intent that they might know the love of God, and might see that safety lay for them in a willing yielding of themselves to that love. The disastrous results of their wayward and faint-hearted shrinking from this Divine calling is the only direct threat he uses, but in the passage there is another warning, all the more impressive that it is vague and shadowy, God is to the Deuteronomist the universal ruler of the world. The nations are raised up and cast down according to His will, and until He wills it they cannot be dispossessed. But He had willed that fate for many, and at every step of Israel’s progress they come upon traces of vanished peoples whom for their sins He had suffered others to destroy. The Emim in Moab, the Zamzummim in Ammon, the Horites in Self, and the Avvims in Philistia, had all been destroyed before the people who now occupied these lands, and the whole background of the narrative is one of judgment, where mercy had been of no avail. The sword of the Lord is dimly seen in the archaeological notes which are so frequent in this section of our book and thus the final touch is given to the picture of the past which is here drawn to be an impulse for the future. While all the foreground represents only God’s love and patience overcoming man’s rebellion, the background is, like the path of the great pilgrim caravans which year by year make their slow and toilsome way to Mohammedan holy places, strewn with the remains of predecessors in the same path. With stern, menacing finger this great teacher of Israel points to these evidences that the Divine love and patience may be, and have been, outworn, and seems to re-echo in an even more impressive way the language of Isaiah: "The anger of Yahweh was kindled (against these peoples), and He stretched forth His hand (against them) and smote (them); and the hills did tremble, and (their) carcasses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still." Without a word of direct rebuke he opens his people’s eyes to see that shadowy outstretched hand. Behind all the turmoil of the world there is a presence and a power which supports all who seek good, but which is sternly set against all evil, ready, when the moment comes, "to strike once and strike no more." Yet another glimpse is given us in these chapters of God’s manner of dealing with men. We have seen how He guides and rules His chosen ones. We have seen how He punishes those who have set themselves against the Divine law. And in Deuteronomy 2:30 we are told how men become hardened in their sin, so as to render destruction inevitable. Of Sihon, king of Hesh-bon, who would not let the Israelites pass by him, the writer says: "Yahweh thy God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that He might deliver him into thy hand, as appeareth this day." But he does not mean by these expressions to lay upon God the causation of Sihon’s obstinacy, so as to make the man a mere helpless victim. His thought rather is, that as God rules all, so to Him must be ultimately traced all that happens in the world. In some sense all acts, whether good or bad, all agencies, whether beneficent or destructive, have their source in and their power from Him. But nevertheless men have moral responsibility for their acts, and are fully and justly conscious of ill desert. Consequently that hardening of spirit or of heart, which at one moment may be attributed solely to God, may at another be ascribed solely to the evil determination of man. The most instructive instance of this is to be found in the history of Pharaoh, when he was commanded to let Israel go. In that narrative, from Exodus 4:1-31 ; Exodus 5:1-23 ; Exodus 6:1-30 ; Exodus 7:1-25 ; Exodus 8:1-32 ; Exodus 9:1-35 ; Exodus 10:1-29 ; Exodus 11:1-10 , there is repeated interchange of expression. Now it is Yahweh hardened Pharaoh’s heart; now, as in Exodus 8:15 and Exodus 8:32 , Pharaoh hardened his own heart; and, again, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. In each case the same thing is meant, and the varying expressions correspond only to a difference of standpoint. When Yahweh foretells that the signs He authorizes Moses to show will fail of their effect, it is always "Yahweh will harden Pharaoh’s heart," since the main point in contemplation is His government of the world. If, on the other hand, it is the sinful obstinacy of Pharaoh which is prominent in the passage, we have the self-determination of Pharaoh alone set before us. But it is to be noted, and this is indeed the cardinal fact, that Yahweh never is said to harden the heart of a good man, or a man set mainly upon righteousness. It is always those who are guilty of palpable wrongs and acts of evildoing upon whom God thus works. Now we know that the author of Deuteronomy had two at least of the ancient historical narratives before him which are combined in Exodus 4:1-31 ; Exodus 5:1-23 ; Exodus 6:1-30 ; Exodus 7:1-25 ; Exodus 8:1-32 ; Exodus 9:1-35 ; Exodus 10:1-29 ; Exodus 11:1-10 , and he takes up their thinking. Expressed in modern language, the thought is this. When men are found following their own will in defiance of all law and all the restraints of righteousness, that is manifestly not the first stage in their moral declension. This obstinacy in evil is the result and the wages of former evil deeds, beginning perhaps only with careless laxity, but gathering strength and virulence with every willful sin. Until near the end of a completed growth in wickedness no man deliberately says, "Evil, be thou my good." Nevertheless each act of sin involves a step towards that, and the sinner in this manner hardens himself against all warning. Like the sins which work this obduracy, this hardening is the sinner’s own act. The ruin which falls upon his moral nature is his own work. That is the inexorable result of the moral order of the universe, and from it no exception is possible. But if so, God too has been active in all such catastrophes. He has so framed and ordered the world that indulgence in evil must harden in evil. This it was which the Israelite religious mind saw and dwelt upon, as well as upon man’s share in the dread process of moral decay. We also do well to take heed to this aspect of the truth. When we do, we have solved the Scriptural difficulty regarding the Divine hardening of man’s heart. It is simply the ancient formula for what every mind that is ethically trained recognizes in the world today. Those who recognize themselves as children of God, and acknowledge the obligations of His law, are dealt with in the way of discipline with infinite love and patience. Those who definitely set themselves against the moral order of the world which God has established are broken in pieces and destroyed. Between these two classes there are the morally undetermined, who ultimately turn either to the right hand or to the left. The process by which these pass on to be numbered among the rebellious is pictured in Scripture with extraordinary moral insight. The only difference from a present-day description of it is, that here God is kept constantly present to the mind as the chief factor in the development of the soul. Today, even those who believe in God are apt to forget Him in tracing His laws of action. But that is an error of the first magnitude. It darkens the hope of man; for without a sure promise of Divine help there is no certainty of moral victory either for the race or the individual. It narrows our view of the awful sweep of sin; for unless we see that sin affects even the Ruler of the universe, and defies His unchanging law, its results are limited to the evil that we do our fellowmen, which, as we see it, is of little importance. Further, it degrades moral law to a mere arbitrary dictum of power, or to an opinion founded upon man’s purblind experience. The acknowledgment of God, on the contrary, makes morality the very essence of the Divine nature, and the unchangeable rule for the life of man. The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.