Deuteronomy 4:1. Now recognizing my weakness, I'm crying for power outside of myself. And then he really started getting on God's case. But Jesus knew God Himself as Moses never did, and by His use of it put honour on the book that makes plain how in a state of ruin the one saving principle is obedience. And we are told that we are not to yield to the flesh or give place to the flesh to fulfill its desires, but to walk after the spirit, and that our warfare is actually a spiritual warfare. What God was displaying by them has now found its meaning, since Christ was revealed and the mighty work of redemption effected. "Take you wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you." For instance, a man knows perfectly well that he has no right to steal. And Jehovah our God delivered him before us; and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people." Yet they complained against him and refused to go with him into the land he had chosen for them (19-33). Deuteronomy 1:6-8New International Version. It is founded on the life of Christ in resurrection, when the Holy Ghost brings us into the power of enjoyment. Then again we have what is always brought out in the book of Deuteronomy. Praying through Deuteronomy 6:6. And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day." Now he dwells chiefly on their part in the matter, confessing his own inability to cope with their great increase, which ho touchingly entreats God to swell a thousand times, but withal urges on the rulers to judge righteously. When we compare, for instance, the way in which Moses, under the direction of God, was to lead on the Israelites, and the way in which Mahomet perverted the word into a fable for ambitious ends, and allowance of human lusts and passions, who cannot see the difference? May I not venture to think that other considerations entered, and that His citation of Deuteronomy only is in no way meant to disparage fitting words found elsewhere? De 1:7 'Turn and set your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland and in the Negev and .read more Scripture: Deuteronomy 1:6-8 One of the most weighty duties is not properly a moral question at all, but depends simply on the commandment of God. "I have given Mount Seir unto Esau for a possession." The hardest thing to find now in a Christian is real intelligence about Christianity. What God lays on one He does not necessarily enjoin on another. In the first section, i.-iv. Deuteronomy is an eminently practical book. John here used the word "Jews" as a designation for the Jerusalemites, who, as enemies of Christ, were to be distinguished from the multitudes who were in doubt, [Illustration: (drop cap W) Clay letter tablet of Moses' time.] Above all the prime object is to press obedience on the people of God, but the obedience of a people who had already found what it was to have utterly broken down on their own assumed responsibility. The same with Sinai, as Aben Ezra observes; while the Israelites lay encamped near this mountain, the Lord spoke unto them: saying, ye have dwelt long enough in this mount: or near it; for hither they came on the first day of the third month from their departure out of Egypt, and they did not remove from thence until the twentieth day of the second month in the second year, Exodus 19:1 so that they were here a year wanting ten days; in which space of time the law was given them, the tabernacle and all things appertaining to it were made by them, rulers both ecclesiastical and civil were appointed over them, and they were numbered and marshalled in order under four standards, and so ready to march; and all this being done, they must stay no longer, but set forward for the land of Canaan. Known to God (ver. It is exactly so here. "Now therefore hearken, O Israel." 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 Jehovah our God doth give us. Conceive the state of mind which could say that "in Deuteronomy Moses repeatedly lays the blame of his expulsion on the people (Deuteronomy 1:37; Deuteronomy 3:26; Deuteronomy 4:21); but according toNumbers 20:12; Numbers 20:12 God punished him thus for not believing Him, while inNumbers 27:14; Numbers 27:14 his punishment was occasioned by the legislator's own disobedience"! 8-10. More than that, it was the cause of Moses not being allowed. And what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein, or not. What is it that characterises Christianity? 21 et seqq.) 30.) No doubt the malicious mind of the sceptic takes occasion from it to turn what he does not seek to understand to the disparagement of inspiration. Crossed over Jordan finally and began the conquest of the land.So, an interesting little commentary. Next to having Christ Himself is the following in His steps. 8. So you appointed the seventy to be rulers over them, the chief men and he charged them to hear the causes of the people and to judge among the people. The LORD our God spake unto you in Horeb, saying, You have dwelt long enough in this mount: Turn, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, [and so forth] and take the land that I have promised. But their fathers would not obey at that time. The readers of the eastern interpreters will observe, that Kadesh is rendered by all Rekam, or in a sound very near it. If they were going to possess the land, let them remember it was God's land, not theirs. Whatever then the blows which fell on Sihon, or on Og, or on any of the others; whatever the ways of God with Moab and Ammon afterwards, or even with Egypt, there never was seen such unsparing strictness as with Israel. Hence, while he fails not to show that Jehovah was with himself, and how Joshua was to displace him, he does not hesitate to set before all the story of his own shame, so to speak. 5, 11, 14, 18, 21, 26). Such moral motives as are added are therefore as appropriate in Deuteronomy as they could not, ought not to, be in Exodus. We need further insight to think the right way and make right life decisions. They knew it was not God's will that forty years of wilderness wanderings should lie between Egypt and the Promised Land (Deut. 6. I said, "Hey, you shut up and get out of here. II. It was not in His mind to offer men His law or the sword. But it was not a question here of truth or its forms, but of obedience: this is ever in view. Or, if the cognate clause used in both books, 'that God wrote them on two tables of stone,' be not literally pressed in one case, there is no necessity for doing so in the other. St. Paul gives this interpretation in Romans 4:13. Pray it during the day too. 2. *Nothing can be weaker than the harping on the phrase "the priests the Levites," as in the writings of Davidson and Colenso (following the superficial scepticism of foreign authors, who themselves followed the old Deists of our own country). He did not assume knowledge of Israels history that is independent of the biblical account nor did he recount events previously unrecorded. Ye have dwelt long enough, c. Exodus 19:1-2 and left it the twentieth of the second month of the second year, so it appears they had continued there nearly a whole year. A desire to obey God and to keep the law of God, consenting that it's good, that's the right way, that's the way I want to live; seeing the divine ideal, being attracted by the divine ideal and desiring, longing after it. *The effort of rationalists to show that "the Deuteronomist" wrote long after Israel were in the land of Palestine is mere ill-will and want of depth. The spring of obedience was wanting. The quotation is from Dennis Baly, The Geography of the Bible.]. iii. They have been camped out at Mount Horeb for about a year. At the same time it is in no way opposed to the strictest views of inspiration to hold that the law was edited by an inspired man, whether Ezra (according to the Jews, as Josephus, etc.) So it is that it does not withhold from us the over-heatedness of a Paul, as well as the weakness of a Barnabas; that it tells out the stumbling both of Thomas and of Mark: all is openly communicated for our instruction. That is, we see in them a number of institutions laid down by Jehovah, the pattern of which was shown in the mount. Because he hath wholly followed the Lord. Nothing of the sort. and all this kind of stuff.Well, it's obvious God didn't lead him. God always holds to His own principles, and He teaches us to respect them in others. The book of Deuteronomy discloses it. The same Spirit which has the power of miracle is the Spirit of truth and the Holy Spirit. We suppose that the record in Exodus is the older one. Psalm 42 It reinforces his earlier exhortations in Deuteronomy 7:12-15 and 28:2-12. *It is distressing that any man bearing the Christian name should write as does Dr. Davidson. ^A Matt. For the LORD your God which goes before you, shall fight for you, according to all that he did in Egypt before your eyes; And yet you went in this thing you did not believe the LORD your God ( Deuteronomy 1:29-32 ). Undoubtedly the gatherings in of the corn and the wine (that is, the harvest and the vintage) are the well known types of God's final dealings: the harvest when He separates the wheat from the chaff, or at any rate from that which is not wheat; and the vintage when He executes unsparing judgment upon the vine of the earth upon all religion that is vain and denies heaven. Taking the passage in this light, and reading the wider truth into it, we get the idea of a land which is: 1. And be Alexander MaclarenExpositions of Holy Scripture, Philo of Alexandria, the Rabbis, and the Gospels - the Final Development of Hellenism in Its Relation to Rabbinism and the Gospel According to St. John. When things aren't going right, I hear people sometimes make very foolish charges against God. He could have cited from any other, had any other been in all respects so suitable to the occasion. i. 12). We never can duly understand the Old Testament unless in the light of the New; and if there is anyone who is personally and emphatically "the light," need it be said that it is Jesus? He wanted to leave them his blessing nay, he wanted them to have the best blessing that God could give them. 1. They did not have a personal memory of the horrible bondage in Egypt. Not any ordinary fleshly sin on our part, as many suppose. Of it, in the eastern part, there is this mention: "From Rekam to the east, and Rekam is as the, (Road from Bethany and Jerusalem. 4. 24. The LORD our God said to us at Horeb: "You have stayed at this mountain long enough. Moses mentions how the saying pleased him: here things are stated exactly as they were. God appointed judges (Deuteronomy 1:16) to help Moses carry the burden of legal decisions that resulted from the giving of the Law. Mark the very fact here set before us: not a single man of the congregation of Jehovah that left Egypt passed into the holy land save two individuals, who identified themselves by faith from the very first with the glory of Jehovah. Look at the way in which Jehovah treated even these enemies of Israel. Heavenly Father, Help us to faithfully obey Your voice and being careful to do all that You command, today and in the future. They are no longer to go up and take possession of the land, but to turn back and take their journey into the wilderness. For although he may allow himself a dispensation to take from others, let a man steal from him, and it will soon be seen whether he does not condemn the wrong. ", Then comes (ver. "For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as Jehovah our God is in all things that we call upon him for? It was by this Scripture that the Lord, as we know, repelled the first temptation of the adversary. 3) and dwelling in inaccessible light (1 Tim. For a people in relationship with God such is the only possible way, either of pleasing Him, or of tasting that joy of the Lord which is the strength of His people. Accordingly the very large introduction is an address to the people for the purpose of enforcing these claims. We have to consider whether we are undertaking it out of some human desire of heroism. Thither God brought them to humble them, and by the terrors of the law to prepare them for the land of promise. This was their point of imitating God. We have here, I. But we must not overlook another part of the chapter not the Lord strengthening the people against the mightiest of adversaries, but Israel reminded of their rebellious heart even under such circumstances against Jehovah. Genesis 39: 2-6. 367.). Now I affirm that on the face of the scriptures no candid person can deny that Exodus is professedly given as the history of the matter; Deuteronomy as a subsequent recital to the people, without the least aim at reiterating the words, which would have been the easiest thing in the world; for even these free thinkers do not pretend that the Deuteronomist did not possess Exodus. II. And thou shalt roast and eat it in the place which Jehovah thy God shall choose; and thou shalt turn in the morning, and go unto thy tents.". They came to Kadeshbarnea and he speaks again of the tragic failure at Kadeshbarnea.Verse twenty-one: Behold, the LORD thy God has 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. These bear chiefly the character of logical deductions, and as such were largely applied in the Halakhah. From the beginning of the second month of the first year of the exodus (Exodus 19:1) to the twentieth day of the second month of the second year (Numbers 10:11).This was the period of organisation, in which the people . ii. The sabbath law rests entirely on the word of God Himself. Satan took advantage of the scripture that said that He should not dash His foot against a stone. Philo of Alexandria, the Rabbis, and the Gospels - the Final Development of Hellenism in Its Relation to Rabbinism and the Gospel According to St. John. They said, "We have sinned against Jehovah: we will go up and fight according to all that Jehovah our God commanded us.". The inspired editor may have given later names, and added "as it is in this day," or explanatory remarks. But the same duty abides for them. Thus then the circumstances of Moses, as well as of the people, were precisely those suited to impress the lesson of obedience. * This it is well to note, as we should not have discovered it from the Book of Numbers. God's solution is death to the flesh, crucified with Christ. I know God will do it; I do not require to put Him to the proof. His death to the law is not therefore to weaken the authority of the law, but because of the principles of divine grace which are now brought out in Christ risen from the dead, founded on His death, manifested in His resurrection, and maintained by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. Where the world or the flesh governs, the trial is not felt. . And listen to the horrible things they were saying about God. Those who persist in hardening themselves must indeed be destroyed; but not by us. Nothing less. Its moral turns on this the only possible way of maintaining relationship with God, namely, obedience; what the nature of that obedience is, and how it is modified; how God graciously takes into account the weakness of those brought into this relationship, and how He provides for His own glory in it. The man who said, "Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest," had no faith at all. The chief point to observe is that there was not a spirit of obedience in the people, and this they lacked because there was no faith in God. "Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the Jehovah God of your fathers giveth you. It is strange how little we know of the personal history of the greatest of uninspired Jewish writers of old, though he occupied so prominent a position in his time. The conquest of which is commanded by God. Whither shall we go up? Then comes out another instance. There He assigned this as the portion of the high priest and his sons, that of the Levites, this again of the people. There, even were it the family gathered in such a sort as this within their gates, the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, all have their part. It is not therefore a question of how far the offerings, etc. i. But God will lift you to the highest level you will let him. The book of Deuteronomy throughout pre-eminently brings in the authority of God over a people in relationship with Himself, displayed and proved in obedience. The tragedy of unbelief, verse thirty-two.Now, I love this. The type was the land of Canaan; the antitype, so far as it lies in time, is the world, which it is the Church's calling to conquer for Christ, and for her own possession. Help me to make the right choices as I continue along the path of life. Man must not presume to choose. "Can you call Him Father?" The less that Israel felt they had failed, the more Jesus felt it for them. It was otherwise with Mahomet. This was the mount that burned with fire (Hebrews 12:18), and gendered to bondage,Galatians 4:24.