Deuteronomy 2

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Chapter 2. Moses’ Second Address On the Plains of MoabDidactic and HortatoryDeu_4:44 to Deuteronomy 26:19This long address consists of two principal parts: First, a solemn recapitulation of the covenant in general, which God had made with Israel, and a series of appeals and exhortations to faithfulness (chapters 5 to 11); and secondly, a series of particular statutes and judgments with reference to the details of their personal, social and national life (chapters 12 to 26).

Section I: The Covenant in General

Section I—The Covenant in GeneralThe decalogue is the basis of the covenant (chapter 5). Introduction This begins at the close of the fourth chapter after a brief reference to the cities of refuge appointed on the east side of the Jordan (Deuteronomy 4:41). There is an introductory paragraph respecting the nature of the address which is to follow, which is called the law, or Torah, which Moses set before the children of Israel. And then he speaks of the testimonies, statutes and judgments which he also spoke to them: the word testimony referring to the divine attestation of the law by signs and wonders; statutes and judgments, the first referring to special commandments and the second to individual precepts. The paragraph closes with a reference to the time and place of the address in the land of Sihon, after their victory over him and Og, the king of Bashan. The Parties of the Covenant Moses summoned all Israel and said: “Hear, O Israel, the decrees and laws I declare in your hearing today. Learn them and be sure to follow them. The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. It was not with our fathers that the Lord made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today. The Lord spoke to you face to face out of the fire on the mountain. (At that time I stood between the Lord and you to declare to you the word of the Lord, because you were afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain.)” (Deuteronomy 5:1-5) Moses specially reminds them that they themselves, as individuals, are parties to this covenant. It was made not with the fathers who are buried in the wilderness, merely, but with them who were present as little children, who have been kept alive all these years and who still remember the awful scenes of Horeb and Sinai. The other party was the Lord Jehovah, whose covenant name is repeated five time in these four verses. Face to face He talked with them on the mount out of the midst of the fire, and they knew Him to be the personal and present God. Moses, too, was a party in this covenant and a witness to it, the mediator through which it was administered and who is a witness to their obligations and the divine commandments. “At that time I stood between the Lord and you to declare to you the word of the Lord, because you were afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain” (Deuteronomy 5:5). The Preface of the Covenant “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery” (Deuteronomy 5:6). The sacred law was introduced by Jehovah with a reference to their redemption, implying very tenderly both for them and for us that the supreme ground of our obligation to God and others is His redeeming love. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery” (Deuteronomy 5:6). The Words of the Covenant This is substantially a repetition of the 10 great words of the Decalogue as previously given in the book of Exodus. There are some slight variations, chiefly in the fourth, fifth and 10th commandments. In the fourth commandment the word keep is substituted for remember in the previous record. The manservant and the maidservant are included among those that are to be protected from toil, and the obligation to rest is based not on the law of creation but on their redemption out of Egypt. In the fifth commandment there are two additional phrases, “As the Lord your God has commanded you,” and “that it may go well with you” (Deuteronomy 5:16). And in the 10th commandment the word desire is used instead of covet in reference to “your neighbor’s house” (Deuteronomy 5:21), and is added to the things which are not to be coveted. The Two Tables The law contains two tables. The first, usually called “The precepts of piety,” and the second, “The precepts of probity.” The Ten Commandments have been thus admirably summed up by thoughtful minds. The object of worship. God alone revealed in His unity and supremacy. The method of worship. The avoidance of idolatry and every outward resemblance of God and the most simple and profound spirituality. The spirit of worship. Reverence toward the divine name and all by which God makes Himself known. The time of worship. Under the second table we have The religion of the home. Fifth commandment. The religion of the temper. Sixth commandment, substantially requiring love. The religion of the body. Seventh commandment, requiring purity. The religion of the hand. Eighth commandment, requiring diligence and honesty. The religion of the tongue. Ninth commandment. The religion of the heart. Tenth commandment, requiring holy desires and motives as well as acts and words. The Solemn Circumstances of the Covenant These are the commandments the Lord proclaimed in a loud voice to your whole assembly there on the mountain from out of the fire, the cloud and the deep darkness; and he added nothing more. Then he wrote them on two stone tablets and gave them to me. When you heard the voice out of the darkness, while the mountain was ablaze with fire, all the leading men of your tribes and your elders came to me. And you said, “The Lord our God has shown us his glory and his majesty, and we have heard his voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a man can live even if God speaks with him. But now, why should we die? This great fire will consume us, and we will die if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer. For what mortal man has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have, and survived? Go near and listen to all that the Lord our God says. Then tell us whatever the Lord our God tells you. We will listen and obey.” The Lord heard you when you spoke to me and the Lord said to me, “I have heard what this people said to you. Everything they said was good. Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever! “Go, tell them to return to their tents. But you stay here with me so that I may give you all the commands, decrees and laws you are to teach them to follow in the land I am giving them to possess.” (Deuteronomy 5:22-31) The consuming fire, the overshadowing cloud, the thick darkness, the living voice of God, the graven words in the tables of stone, all these so overwhelmed the trembling multitude that they entreated Moses to stand between them and God. God was pleased with their veneration, and said, “Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it may go well with them and their children forever” (Deuteronomy 5:29). All this Moses reminds them of, and then adds his own exhortation. Moses’ Exhortation “So be careful to do what the Lord your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left. Walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess” (Deuteronomy 5:33). They are not only to do, but to be careful to do it; they are not only to walk, but they are not to turn aside to the right nor to the left, but to walk in all the ways of the Lord. The Spirit of True Obedience (Deuteronomy 6:1-25) This is described in the present chapter by two apparently opposite terms, whose happy blending constitutes the very essence of true Christian motive. The one is the fear, the other is the love of God. “That you… may fear the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 6:2), and “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5). “Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name” (Deuteronomy 6:13). And the Lord commanded us to fear the Lord our God, “so that we might always prosper” (Deuteronomy 6:24). Thus, these two opposite threads mingle all through the texture of this address. And yet they are not opposite, but one, and together they constitute the true spirit of Christian obedience. True, however, to the spirit of the dispensation of law, there is more to fear than of love; and yet it is a fear whose foundation is love, and a love which is rooted in filial fear. This chapter is an anticipation of the New Testament law of love and it is the basis of our Lord’s own teaching in Mark 12:29. It is the first of all the commandments: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:29-30). This is the first commandment. Without this spirit there can be no hearty obedience. It takes the bondage out of duty and enables us to see, as is so beautifully expressed in the 24th verse of the sixth chapter, that the Lord commands us to do all these statutes “that we might always prosper” (Deuteronomy 6:24). This beautiful sentence (Deuteronomy 6:5), expresses the very essence of the ancient law. The Jews begin their daily liturgy with it, and the fifth verse is written in the manuscripts with the first letter of the first word, and the last letter of the last word in larger characters, to emphasize this golden sentence; and to mark, as they say, in an emphatic manner for a witness, the claims of Jehovah to our life and obedience. It is not for His own selfish pleasure, or to gratify a despotic will on His own part, that He has given us His sovereign law, but it is as the expression of that which is itself eternally right and beautiful, and it is as necessary to our welfare as it is to His glory. His object is that we ourselves may be right; so it is added in the 25th verse, “And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness” (Deuteronomy 6:25). We ourselves shall be right, and what higher good can any being claim than to be right with God? Of course, there is also in these words the judicial idea, so prominent in the Old Testament, of righteousness, in the sense of meeting the claims of God, and standing justified in His sight through perfect obedience. This was one design of the ancient law, to give to man the opportunity of proving whether he could and would thus meet the claim of righteousness. And Christ Himself expressed this in His answer to the young ruler, “If you want to enter life, obey the commandments” (Matthew 19:17). Of course, God knew that man in his own strength could not thus achieve righteousness, but the kindest thing that He could do was to let him find it out. Thus the law became their schoolmaster and led them to Christ. The love side of the law must not be lost sight of amid all the severity of the ancient dispensation. In the bosom of the darkest cloud there was always a rainbow of covenant promise. While dealing with men on the principles of justice and righteousness, God was ever anticipating the tenderer revelation of His Fatherhood and grace, which was to be manifested through Jesus Christ in the gospel. And so this book of Deuteronomy especially presents the tenderest appeals of the divine heart for the love and obedience of His children. At the same time the element of fear must be added, and is still added in perfect harmony, even in spirit, with the gospel, to give additional strength to the solemn sanctions of God’s holy law. This is the spirit which fears, not so much His wrath, as the loss of His favor; it has its real root in love, and so values His smile that it fears to lose it by the slightest form of disobedience. Moses wisely foresaw the danger, that when they should have entered into their inheritance and become surrounded with prosperity and every earthly blessing, they might forget the Lord (Deuteronomy 6:10-12). Therefore, they are solemnly reminded that the Lord their God is a jealous God, and they must not slightly tempt Him or provoke His anger (Deuteronomy 6:15-16), but diligently keep His commandments (Deuteronomy 6:17), cherish them in their hearts (Deuteronomy 6:6), teach them to their children (Deuteronomy 6:7, Deuteronomy 6:20), talk to them when they sit in the house, when they walk by the way, when they lie down and when they rise up; bind them for a sign upon their hand, and as frontlets between their eyes, write them upon the posts of their houses and upon their gates (Deuteronomy 6:7-8). The original is very expressive in some of these verses. The seventh verse, which requires them to teach the law to their children, implies that they are to impress them as the incisive mark of a sharp instrument. They were to be bound upon the hand to impress the righteousness of their actions; between their eyes, signifying the direction of their thoughts and purposes; and upon their doorposts and gates as expressing the consecration of their business and their home life. Literally following this command the Jews at a later period established the custom of carrying about their person slips of parchment with sentences of the law written upon them. These are the phylacteries referred to by Christ in the New Testament, and they retained the outward form long after they had lost the true spirit of love and obedience. There is a beautiful sentence in the closing of this chapter which strikingly expresses the full purpose of redemption, “He brought us out from there to bring us in” (Deuteronomy 6:23). This is the story of grace both in the Old Testament and the New. God must take us out before He can bring us in; but He never takes us out without intending to give us a better incoming, and a far more blessed inheritance than anything we can lose. Separation The necessity of separation from the heathen nations was in order to maintain the faithful keeping of God’s covenant. When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you—and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire. (Deuteronomy 7:1-5) He here proceeds to show them the indispensable necessity of their being wholly separated from the world if they are to walk in faithfulness with God. This indeed is the very purpose that He has had in “bringing them out that He might bring them in.” He knew it was not possible for them to be a holy people unto Him while surrounded with all the example and influence of the idolatrous Egyptians, and so He warns them with solemnity against the danger of association with the Canaanitish nations among whom they are soon to enter. They must not think of any association with them, by covenant or intermarriage, but must utterly destroy and exterminate them, and must not fear their power but trust in the strength of the Lord, and persevere until they are utterly cast out (Deuteronomy 7:1-5, Deuteronomy 7:16-26). This is for us extremely instructive. Many Christians try to obey God without being upon the ground of obedience, which is separation from the world, and, therefore, they ignominiously fail. God’s ancient people could not stand a moment in partnership with the heathen. Their assistance was much more to be deprecated than their resistance; and so still the most formidable enemy of the Church of God is a smiling and fawning world. We must, therefore, be separated wholly from it in spirit and confession, and go outside the camp with our blessed Master, bearing His reproach. Then shall we be filled with the divine power and enabled to stand in victory and draw others to our side. The child of God can never overcome the world until he stands apart from it in protest. On its own level he will utterly fail ever to lift it to his standpoint, but from the level of the cross of Calvary he can draw all men unto his Lord, but not until he has said, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14). Motives to Obedience and Faithfulness

God’s personal love to Israel and His gracious choice of them as His people and inheritance is shown. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands. But those who hate him he will repay to their face by destruction; he will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate him. Therefore, take care to follow the commands, decrees and laws I give you today. (Deuteronomy 7:6-11) The words used in Deuteronomy 6:6 mean, literally, a people of property, that is, His own peculiar property. This is the very essence and foundation of consecration, even in the New Testament sense, as expressed in First Corinthians and First Peter: “You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9). The ground of God’s gracious choice is declared to be His sovereign love to Israel, and also the covenant which He had made with their fathers. So He loves us not for our own sakes but for His sake and for the love of the Lord Jesus Christ in whom we are chosen and made accepted in the Beloved. His love is not a mere caprice, but is faithful and eternal even to a thousand generations (Deuteronomy 7:9), to those that keep His commandments; and yet back of it there is a jealous and consuming displeasure which will meet unfaithfulness with judgment and recompense (Deuteronomy 7:10). Special Blessings
The second motive is the promise of special blessing if they obey the Lord and keep His covenant. The blessings are then specified. If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the Lord your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your forefathers. He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land—your grain, new wine and oil—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land that he swore to your forefathers to give you. You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your young men or women will be childless, nor any of your livestock without young. The Lord will keep you free from every disease. He will not inflict on you the horrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but he will inflict them on all who hate you. (Deuteronomy 7:12-15) Prosperity The first is temporal prosperity, including their children, their flocks, the fruit of the land, die corn, the wine, and the oil and every other blessing of a generous, national prosperity. The word wine here properly means the ripe grapes, and is so used in various places. Health and Healing The next special blessing is health: “The Lord will keep you free from every disease. He will not inflict on you the horrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but he will inflict them on all who hate you” (Deuteronomy 7:15). This is simply a renewal of the covenant which had been made at Marah 40 years before. Lest it should be said that the covenant was only for their experience in the wilderness, the same promise is here renewed in even stronger terms for their future national life, and so, undoubtedly, intended to be permanent, and to teach, both them and us, that God is the true Source of His people’s life for body as well as for soul and spirit. To apply these words, as some have done, to the plagues of Egypt, and intimate that they simply contain a promise that they should be spared those special judgments, seems extremely frivolous when it is considered that Israel never had suffered from these plagues and certainly needed no such exemption. This is the renewal of God’s ancient covenant of healing, and it is still continued in the provisions of the New Testament and the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. But, as in ancient Israel, it is still connected with a life of separation and obedience unto God; and it is distinctly recognized here as a special chastening upon the enemies of God and His people even as still later in this book (chapter 28) it is distinctly referred to as the curse of disobedience. Victory
The third special blessing promised as a motive to this covenant is victory over their enemies (Deuteronomy 7:16-26). You must destroy all the peoples the Lord your God gives over to you. (Deuteronomy 7:16) The Lord your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will not be allowed to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals will multiply around you. But the Lord your God will deliver them over to you, throwing them into great confusion until they are destroyed. (Deuteronomy 7:22-23) Not all at once should this deliverance be realized, for the Lord shall “drive out those before you little by little” (Deuteronomy 7:22), but none the less complete shall the deliverance be if they will be but faithful unto the Lord and not fear their adversaries but trust in His almighty presence and victorious power. Past Mercies
The next motive by which Moses encourages Israel to obedience is the recollection of God’s past mercies and especially His sustaining love and power during their wanderings in the wilderness (Deuteronomy 8:1-6). “Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years” (Deuteronomy 8:2). Especially are they to remember the great purpose of God in all His dealings with them, namely, their moral and spiritual discipline “to test [them] in order to know what was in [their hearts], whether or not [they] would keep his commands” (Deuteronomy 8:2). Moreover, He also designed to show them the all-sufficiency of His protecting care and how fully He was able to provide for all their needs in the most trying circumstance. “He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:3). The fact of God’s almighty care in the face of the perils and trials of the wilderness was fitted to encourage them to trust and obey Him in the most difficult situation, and to know that if they were faithful they had nothing to fear. Our Lord quotes this passage in His answer to the tempter. He applies it not only to Himself, but to man in general, teaching us thus that God is able to sustain our physical life by His word and Spirit as directly as our spiritual life, and that there are times and circumstances in which we must rise above the natural to the supernatural provisions of His grace, and live, not by our own strength, or even the original means of sustaining it, but directly by His own life. This was really what He was teaching Israel in the wilderness, and what all His children need to learn, even in their physical life, and when we learn it, it becomes a blessed incentive and inspiration to holiness, and the physical blessing is only a steppingstone to the far higher spiritual blessing. Not only did God’s care extend to their health, but even to their very raiment. “Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell,” (that is, through the wearing out of your sandals), “during these forty years” (Deuteronomy 8:4). So, still, the blessing of God, while we need not expect it miraculously to clothe us, will provide for the wants of His trusting children in many gracious and providential ways, and the answers to prayer in the annals of Christian life, in supplying daily bread and clothing dependent children, are as wonderful as the story of the wilderness. Further, they are to remember not only this blessing in the wilderness, but also the chastenings of the Lord, as an incentive to faithfulness. “That as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you” (Deuteronomy 8:5). It is a good thing to remember God’s chastenings. He means that we shall remember them, therefore He sometimes makes them very sharp, but He also means that we shall remember them without bitterness or sting. Therefore, He adds, “Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you” (Deuteronomy 8:5). The memory of our trials is salutary, and linked with the deepest spiritual blessings of our lives. Thus he recalls to their minds the blessings and the trials of the 40 years which they had passed together and encourages them, by the review, to faithfulness in the oft-repeated sentence: “Observe the commands of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and revering him” (Deuteronomy 8:6). Future Prospects
He next incites them to obedience by looking forward to the future, and reminds them of the good land into which the Lord is about to bring them in blessing (Deuteronomy 8:7-20). The fertility and abundance of the land is described. “A land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills” (Deuteronomy 8:7-9). All these material blessings are but types of the richer spiritual inheritance into which God brings His children now, where they still may find the fountains of grace and the depths that come both from the valleys and the hills; not only the staple blessings of our spiritual life, but also the pomegranates and the honey, and even the stern rocks yield us the iron and brass of spiritual strength. Then they are next reminded that in the fullness of their blessings they are not to forget the bounty of the Giver and imagine that they have achieved these triumphs and blessings by their own power, but are still to recognize their dependence upon Him and “remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers” (Deuteronomy 8:18). So, too, in our spiritual inheritance, even our highest blessings will become a curse if they ever encourage us to self-sufficiency or independence of God, or lead us to forget that “in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28), and must ever cling to Him as helplessly in our fullest blessing as in the time of our deepest depression. Their Own Unworthiness
The next consideration by which he urges them to a spirit of humble obedience and faithfulness is the review of their own past unworthiness and the signal mercy of God in forgiving their repeated sins, and sparing them through his own intercession for them (Deuteronomy 9:4 to Deuteronomy 10:20). The special object for this review is to anticipate any thought of self-righteousness on their part. After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, “The Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.” No it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is going to drive them out before you. It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people. (Deuteronomy 9:4-6) And then, in order to thoroughly humble all their pride, he takes them back to the humiliating story of their provocations in the wilderness. Remember this and never forget how you provoked the Lord your God to anger in the desert. From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebellious against the Lord. At Horeb you aroused the Lord’s wrath so that he was angry enough to destroy you. (Deuteronomy 9:7-8) Then, after the account of his own separation with God on the mount, Moses reminds them of the sin which he witnessed on his return. Then the Lord told me, “Go down from here at once, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt. They have turned away quickly from what I commanded them and have made a cast idol for themselves.” And the Lord said to me, “I have seen this people, and they are a stiff-necked people indeed! Let me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.” So I turned and went down from the mountain while it was ablaze with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands. When I looked, I saw that you had sinned against the Lord your God; you had made for yourselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, breaking them to pieces before your eyes. Then once again I fell prostrate before the Lord for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the Lord’s sight and so provoking him to anger. I feared the anger and wrath of the Lord, for he was angry enough with you to destroy you. But again the Lord listened to me. And the Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I prayed for Aaron too. Also I took that sinful thing of yours, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust and threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain. (Deuteronomy 9:12-21) Then comes the brief glance at the scenes of their murmurings and chastisement at Taberah, Massah, Kibroth Hattaavah and finally the culminating rebellion which shut their fathers out of the land forever. “And when the Lord sent you out from Kadesh Barnea, he said, ‘Go up and take possession of the land I have given you.’ But you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. You did not trust him or obey him. You have been rebellious against the Lord ever since I have known you” (Deuteronomy 9:23-24). Then, more fully he recalls to them his own intercession for them for 40 days and 40 nights at Sinai, and shows them that it was not their worthiness, or for their sake that they were preserved and blessed, but through the mercy and grace of God. In the opening verse of the following chapter Moses continues the account of his intercession the second time in Horeb; referring more especially to the results of this intercession (Deuteronomy 10:1-5), namely, the giving of the tables of the law a second time, written with the finger of God, and preserved in the ark of the covenant. It would seem as though Moses thus reminded them that God had forgiven them on account of that of which the ark was a type, His new covenant with us in Christ. For the same reason, probably, also he refers next (Deuteronomy 10:8-11) to the separation of the tribe of Levi for the service of the priesthood as a type of the intercession of the Lord Jesus, our Great High Priest. Thus from their own unworthiness, even, their thoughts were led up to the mercy of God in the new covenant of grace, which all His dealings with them are meant to teach us more fully. A Significant Change In connection with this there may be a typical meaning in the brief accounts of their journeyings introduced at this point. “The Israelites traveled from the wells of the Jaakanites to Moserah. There Aaron died and was buried, and Eleazar his son succeeded him as priest. From there they traveled to Gudgodah and on to Jotbathah, a land with streams of waters” (Deuteronomy 10:6-7). Some have supposed that the transition from Beeroth of the children of Jaakan, which signifies “the wells of trouble,” to Jotbathah, the land of rivers of waters, which means “pleasantness,” was intended to symbolize the gracious dealings of God with them. All this long review of the saddest story of all their past, namely, their wickedness and rebellion, was designed to humble them and to guard them against all thought of self-righteousness. And so, sometimes it is well for us to remember our faults and errors and to be deeply humbled by the forbearance and mercy of God toward our unworthiness. Even sin itself is sometimes overruled, like David’s and Simon Peter’s, to lead to a deeper self-crucifixion and a humbler and holier walk with God. The verses that follow are simply the application of this style of exhortation common to this class of writings. But, although so oft repeated, it is never a vain repetition, but full of tender pleading and holy sweetness. How full of the spirit of the gospel were such appeals as these: What does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. Yet the Lord set his affection on your forefathers and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations, as it is today. Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. (Deuteronomy 10:12-16) The Greatness of Their God
The next motive to which Moses appeals is the majesty and greatness of the God to whom they are bound in covenant obligation, as shown in all His glorious dealings and mighty works in their past history (Deuteronomy 10:17 to Deuteronomy 11:8). For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt. Fear the Lord your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. He is your praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes. Your forefathers who went down into Egypt were seventy in all, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky. Love the Lord your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always. Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the Lord your God: his majesty, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm; the signs he performed and the things he did in the heart of Egypt, both to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his whole country; what he did to the Egyptian army, to its horses and chariots, how he overwhelmed them with the waters of the Red Sea as they were pursuing you, and how the Lord brought lasting ruin on them. It was not your children who saw what he did for you in the desert until you arrived at this place, and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth opened its mouth right in the middle of all Israel and swallowed them up with their households, their tents and every living thing that belonged to them. But it was your own eyes that saw all these great things the Lord has done. Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. (Deuteronomy 10:17 to Deuteronomy 11:8) It is well for us also to realize the majesty of our King, and to transfer all this glory to the head of Jesus of Nazareth, our beloved Lord. It is well for us at times to ascend the transfiguration mount with Him, and behold His majesty, or lie prostrate, with John, at His feet, and hear Him say, “I am the First and the Last” (Revelation 1:17), or amid all the majesty and splendor of His throne to listen to the gentle whisper which assures us, “It is I. Don’t be afraid” (Matthew 14:27). The Balance of Hope and Fear
The final motive presented for their obedience is the mingled light and shadow of promise and warning, hope and fear, the blessing and curse (Deuteronomy 11:26-29). It is summed up in the closing words of this chapter. See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse—the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known. When the Lord your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings, and on Mount Ebal the curses. (Deuteronomy 11:26-29)

Section II: Particular Statutes and Judgments with Reference to Details of Religious…

Section II—Particular Statutes and Judgments with Reference to Details of Religious, Civil, and Social LifeDeuteronomy 21-26A. ReligiousIdolatry Destroyed

The shrines of heathen idolatry were to be destroyed. “Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains and on the hills and under every spreading tree where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods. Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places” (Deuteronomy 12:2-3). These would be incitements to them to follow the customs of the heathen, and every link of association must be removed. The Place of Worship
They were to worship Jehovah in the place which He Himself should choose. But you are to seek the place the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his Name there for his dwelling. To that place you must go; there bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, what you have vowed to give and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. There, in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your families shall eat and shall rejoice in everything you have put your hand to, because the Lord your God has blessed you. (Deuteronomy 12:5-7) Not in every place were they, at their own capricious will, to worship after their own pleasure, but in the one place which God would choose, thus preparing their minds for the New Testament revelation of Jesus Christ, as the only way of access to the Father, and the limitations of prayer, according to Jesus’ revealed will and way of approach. Still, we too must be led of the Lord to the place that He should choose for the consecration and service of our life. Blood Prohibited
They were at liberty to eat freely of the flesh of all clean animals, but they must sacredly remember the law prohibiting the use of blood. Nevertheless, you may slaughter your animals in any of your towns and eat as much of the meat as you want, as if it were gazelle or deer, according to the blessing the Lord your God gives you. Both the ceremonially unclean and clean may eat it. But you must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water. (Deuteronomy 12:15-16) The Tithes
There is a beautiful provision for their eating their own tithes—corn, wine, oil and the firstlings of their flocks—before the Lord in the place that He should choose; thus transforming their very sacrifices into feasts of joy and holy gladness. You must not eat in your own towns the tithe of your grain and new wine and oil, or the firstborn of your herds and flocks, or whatever you have vowed to give, or your freewill offerings or special gifts. Instead, you are to eat them in the presence of the Lord your God at the place the Lord your God will choose—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites from your towns—and you are to rejoice before the Lord your God in everything you put your hand to. (Deuteronomy 12:17-18) This sheds a lovely light on the principle of sacrifice and consecration, teaching us that it is meant to be to us a joy as well as service for God and others. At the same time they were by no means to forget the Levite in the sacrifices, and the principle of love was to be thus the handmaid of joy. Heathen Customs
They were carefully to avoid all the customs of the heathen. And after they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods…. You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates. (Deuteronomy 12:30-31) It is possible that even after we have protested against the sin of another we may ourselves imitate it. False Prophets
Still more stringently to guard against these dangers, all false prophets and enticers to idolatry were to be put to death (13). Three such cases are supposed. The first is that of a worker of signs and wonders, or a false prophet, who should entice them to idolatry and appeal, perhaps, to his signs and wonders (Deuteronomy 13:1-5). He was to be put to death. The second is the case of a near relative; a brother, a son, a daughter, a wife, a friend, who should entice them to idolatry. The command was: “Do not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity. Do not spare him or shield him. You must certainly put him to death. Your hand must be the first in putting him to death, and then the hands of all the people. Stone him to death, because he tried to turn you away from the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 13:8-10). What a solemn spiritual lesson this is, for us to resist, at any cost, the enticements of those that we love the best to lead us from God. While we may not now literally put the tempter to death, we are to slay without mercy the affections that would lead us astray, and cut off the tie that would thus ensnare us. The third case is the case of a city among them that should be led into idolatry. In this case they were to destroy the inhabitants with the sword, and burn with fire every particle of the spoil, and thus solemnly and utterly exterminate the very roots of idolatry from among them (Deuteronomy 13:12-18). Personal Defilement
They were to avoid all personal defilement. First, in regard to their bodies, by imitating the customs of mourning in heathen nations, the mutilating of their flesh, the shaving of their eyebrows. You are the children of the Lord your God. Do not cut yourselves or shave the front of your heads for the dead, for you are a holy people to the Lord your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the Lord has chosen you to be his treasured possession. (Deuteronomy 14:1-2) Compare Leviticus 19:28; Jeremiah 16:6; Ezekiel 7:18; Ezekiel 27:31. Secondly, this is to apply to their food. They are not to eat any unclean animals. The same distinctions already given in Leviticus are here repeated. This, as already shown, was intended as an object lesson to lead up to the higher conception of moral and spiritual right and wrong. There is a very striking prohibition at the close of these injunctions. “Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk” (Deuteronomy 14:21). There seems to be something here suggesting the utmost delicacy of feeling, teaching us that there are certain things that are unnatural, and which are to be avoided from a fine instinct of spiritual sensitiveness. It could not harm either the kid or the mother, but it seemed a little hard, and apparently suggests the cruel and painful separation between the little victim and its dam. Their Offerings
The system of tithes was to be faithfully observed. They were to be presented either in kind, or by commutation to be paid for in money. The principle of the tithes was that God was to be recognized as the owner of all their possessions, and the offering was given as a pledge of the whole. But, even the presenting of this to God was to be accompanied with rejoicings. It was not to be a task, but a feast, and the givers themselves partakers of the feast when their offering was presented. The first two years’ tithes were given for the support of the ordinances of the Lord. Every third year the tithe was devoted to the poor, the stranger and the Levite. The New Testament law of giving is not lower, but higher. We are to count all as the Lord’s and give abundantly, as He has prospered us, and to give systematically for the support of His cause, and the relief of His suffering children. The Year of Release (Deuteronomy 15:1-11) “At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts” (Deuteronomy 15:1).
Every seventh year was to be sabbatic. The land was to rest from cultivation; debts were to be suspended for a whole year in the case of their own brethren, but in the case of aliens, they might exact payment. They were to be especially ready to lend unto their poor brethren, and must not allow the approach of the year of release to limit their generosity in this respect, or tempt them to say, “The year for canceling debts is near” (Deuteronomy 15:9). They were especially to remember the poor and have them in their midst, and open their hands wide unto them, nor be grieved when they had thus helped them, “because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to” (Deuteronomy 15:10). The Release of Slaves (Deuteronomy 15:12-18)
Every slave was to be set free at the end of seven years without respect to the ordinary year of release; no matter at what time his service began, the seventh year brought his freedom; and he was to be dismissed and started in his new life with liberal supplies for all his needs. “And when you release him, do not send him away empty-handed. Supply him liberally from your flock, your threshing floor and your winepress. Give to him as the Lord your God has blessed you” (Deuteronomy 15:13-14). One exception was made to this rule if the servant did not want to be released, namely, to thrust an awl through his ear into the door, and master and dedicate himself to perpetual servitude. Then the beautiful custom formerly referred to in Exodus 21:1-6, was to be performed as the ceremony that sealed this voluntary contract: “Then take an awl and push it through his ear lobe into the door, and he will become your servant for life. Do the same for your maidservant” (Deuteronomy 15:17). The Firstlings of Their Flocks (Deuteronomy 15:19-23)
All the firstborn of animals, they are reminded again, are to be the Lord’s. “Do not put the firstborn of your oxen to work, and do not shear the firstborn of your sheep” (Deuteronomy 15:19). It was to be sacredly the Lord’s, sacrificed unto Jehovah, and eaten in the sacrificial meal in token of the mutual fellowship of God and the worship in the blessed service of consecration. If there should be any blemish in it, it must not be sacrificed to the Lord, but might be eaten in their own homes. The first fruits, in this case, were intended to recognize all the rest of their flocks as the property of the Lord. The Yearly Feasts
The three great feasts which required the presence of the whole people at the sanctuary are here reenacted, namely, the Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. The Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement were not referred to here, because they did not require the assembling of all the people. There is no special difference between the requirements here given and the previous enactments for these festivals. We have already seen that these three feasts specially symbolized the three great events of the Christian Dispensation, namely, the sacrificial death of Christ, the descent of the Holy Spirit and the Second Coming of our Lord, introducing the age of glory and blessedness. It is fitting that this beautiful picture of the gospel age should close this section with respect to the religious laws and institutions of the Mosaic age. B. Civil and Social Statutes The Appointment of Judges and Officers
Judges were to be appointed from each tribe. “Appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes in every town the Lord your God is giving you, and they shall judge the people fairly” (Deuteronomy 16:18). Two classes of officers are here provided, judges and officers, or secretaries, who would be the lawyers and clerks of the courts. God is author of civil government and requires the most impartial righteousness and uprightness on the part of all who administer justice. Some of the highest examples of Christian character, even in modern times, have been found among this class, and when this great office is perverted the fountains of public righteousness are defiled, and the foundations of civil society in danger. To Guard the Claims of God
The highest exercise of public justice is to guard the claims of religion, and to punish disloyalty to the Supreme Judge, God Himself. Therefore, the very first statute in their civil code had reference to idolatry. It was never intended that human government should be detached from religion, but distinctly recognize it as its first concern; not in the sense of controlling the religious life of the people, but of requiring fidelity to the religious laws already established by the Lord Himself, and punishing treason against Jehovah in the form of idolatry. Therefore, in Deuteronomy 15:21 and Deuteronomy 15:22, in connection with the appointment of judges, it is required that no asherah, or idol, nor any pillar, such as that associated with idolatry, should be set up near the altar of the Lord. In connection also with the judicial office, it was required that they should guard against any perversion of the divine worship by the offering of a blemished sacrifice. “Do not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep that has any defect or flaw in it, for that would be detestable to him” (Deuteronomy 17:1). To Punish Idolatry (Deuteronomy 17:2-7)
The punishment of idolatry was to be faithfully executed. The trial was to be justly administered, and not less than two or three witnesses required, and the hands of these witnesses were to be the first that should be laid upon him to inflict the punishment of death. A Court of Appeal
A supreme court seems to be provided for. If cases come before your courts that are too difficult for you to judge—whether bloodshed, lawsuits or assaults—take them to the place the Lord your God will choose. Go to the priests, who are Levites, and to the judge who is in office at that time. Inquire of them and they will give you the verdict. You must act according to the decisions they give you at the place the Lord will choose. Be careful to do everything they direct you to do. (Deuteronomy 17:8-10) In cases where the local judge was not able to decide, the matter was to be referred, in this case, to the court at the sanctuary, consisting of the priests and the judge presiding there. The sentence of this court was to be final, anyone replying against it being regarded as acting in defiance of the authority of God Himself. Provision for the Kingly Office (Deuteronomy 17:14-20)
There is here an anticipation of what actually occurred in the time of Samuel. While the choice of the king is recognized even here as their will, rather than the Lord’s, yet it is provided for on condition that they shall choose one whom the Lord shall choose, and that he shall be one of their brethren, and in no case a foreigner. Then several important rules are laid down for the government of the king, which it would have been well for Israel if their rulers had always obeyed. He must not multiply horses or wives, or treasures of silver and gold, and he must keep a copy of the law of the Lord, and faithfully keep its commandments as the condition of personal blessing and national prosperity. The spirit of a true king is beautifully expressed by the closing verse, requiring, on his part, that humility which is always the accompaniment of true greatness, and that righteousness on the part of himself and his children which ever afterwards brought blessing to Israel, as in the reigns of David, Jehoshaphat and Josiah, while the absence of humility ever involved them in disaster and national judgment. Care for the Priesthood
In connection with the judicial office, the protection of the Levite, the granting of their rights and their support by the people is provided for. They had no inheritance in Israel, but they were to receive the sacrifices of the people and the tithes, and they were to be always welcome whenever they should come among the people from any quarter of the land, the object of a common hospitality, and the Lord’s own charge upon the bounty and beneficence of His people. False and True Prophets (Deuteronomy 18:9-22)
The most stringent laws were to be executed against false prophets and all forms of superstition. The worship of Moloch is first forbidden (Deuteronomy 18:10). Divination, which is more fully described in Ezekiel 21:21, was the observing of times, referring to augury or sorcery, and was common among the Romans and other nations. Enchantments referred to the arts of magic and witchcraft which were practiced through nostrums and unlawful arts. A dreamer seems to refer to the custom of opening certain knots of different colors of threads connected with certain incantations. A consulter with familiar spirits is identical with modern clairvoyance and the ancient oracles of Apollo. A wizard literally means a wise one, one that pretended to occult science and arts not commonly known. A necromancer means, literally, one dealing with the dead, those who profess to call up the dead, and is thus identical with modern spiritualism. All these things were an abomination to the Lord, as well as forms of devil worship. In contrast with all these, Moses utters the solemn prediction of the coming of the true Prophet, and the purity and authority of His divine teachings. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. For this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.” The Lord said to me: “What they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account.” (Deuteronomy 18:15-19) Any false prophet who should presume to speak that which the Lord had not spoken should be punished with death; and a sufficient test was given by which they might distinguish the false from the true. There never was an age when these solemn touchstones of truth and warning against error were more practical and timely than our own. Cities of Refuge (Deuteronomy 19:1-13) This is why I command you to set aside for yourselves three cities. If the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he promised on oath to your forefathers, and gives you the whole land he promised them, because you carefully follow all these laws I command you today—to love the Lord your God and to walk always in his ways—then you are to set aside three more cities. Do this so that innocent blood will not be shed in your land, which the Lord your God is giving you as your inheritance, and so that you will not be guilty of bloodshed. (Deuteronomy 19:7-10)
This section provides for the three cities of refuge which were to be set apart on the west side of the Jordan. The law for those on the east of the Jordan had been enunciated (Deuteronomy 4:41). These were to be in the midst of the land. Provision is here specially made for the roads leading to these cities. Provision was also made for three additional cities of refuge, when the land should be further enlarged to the utmost limits of the ancient covenant promise. The purpose of these cities was not to protect a willful murderer, but to prevent the shedding of innocent blood. In the case of the willful murderer, just retribution was to be inflicted. While this was the foreshadowing of the gospel, it was also a wise and humane judicial provision, preventing private revenge and yet guarding, by the most careful sanctions, the sacredness of human life. Protection of Landmarks and the Rights of Property “Do not move your neighbor’s boundary stone set up by your predecessors in the inheritance you receive in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess” (Deuteronomy 19:14).
Much is said in other portions of the Scriptures about the sacred regard that should be paid to ancient landmarks (Job 34:2; Proverbs 22:28; Proverbs 23:10; Hosea 5:10). The object of this was not only to protect individual rights, but to emphasize the immutable and inalienable title by which the inheritance of every Israelite was secured to him, according to the original apportionment of the land. Even so God has guarded our spiritual inheritance, and it would be well if Christians as firmly held to all their redemption rights, and clung to the landmarks of primitive Christianity. Rules of Evidence Against Accused Persons
It was required that no person should be convicted of any crime on the testimony of a single witness, and the punishment of bearing false witness was that the false accuser should be punished with the same punishment that he had sought to have inflicted upon his neighbor. Thus all malice and slander were guarded against and the utmost candor required in all matters of litigation. Rules of War
Many humane and merciful statutes were appointed for the government of military affairs. Every war was to be regarded as the Lord’s battle, and the Lord as their Commander. Therefore, they were to march forth without doubt or fear, but to be assured of victory through His presence and power. Certain exemptions were to be made from military service: a man who had built a new house and not dedicated it, a man who had planted a vineyard, and not eaten its fruit, a man that had betrothed a wife, and had not taken her, and whosoever was afraid and fainthearted, lest he should discourage his comrades by his timidity. Rules were also laid down for dealing with their enemies. The city which submitted to them was to be spared and to become tributary; and that which resisted was to be captured, the men smitten and the women and children and spoil retained by the conquerors. An exception was to be made always in the case of the nations of Canaan, who were to be wholly exterminated (Deuteronomy 18:16-18). Provision was also made for sparing the fruit trees around the cities that they might besiege, and keeping the track of war as far as possible from the desolation which usually follows the march of human armies. Provision for Vindication
The case supposed is that of a murder committed by some unknown person. The law provided for certain ceremonies by which the elders of the city where the victim was found might publicly protest against the crime, and be exonerated, by saying, “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done. Accept this atonement for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, O Lord, and do not hold your people guilty of the blood of an innocent man” (Deuteronomy 21:7-8). Thus God provided against even all suspicion of guilt, and showed the sacredness with which He regarded human life. This was accompanied by a beautiful ceremony, in which the elders of the city were to slay a heifer in the open valley, and wash their hands over her. It must have been in allusion to this that Pilate washed his hands over the Savior’s false condemnation and vainly sought to vindicate himself of the crime, and the Israelites, unlike the elders in this picture, assumed the awful guilt. Protection of Female Honor (Deuteronomy 21:10-14)
The Mosaic law had a most beautiful provision for guarding the sanctity of woman’s honor. This is so charming that we quote the entire passage: When you go to war against your enemies and the Lord your God delivers them into your hands and you take captives, if you notice among the captives a beautiful woman and are attracted to her, you may take her as your wife. Bring her into your home and have her shave her head, trim her nails and put aside the clothes she was wearing when captured. After she has lived in your house and mourned her father and mother for a full month, then you may go to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife. If you are not pleased with her, let her go wherever she wishes. You must not sell her or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her. (Deuteronomy 21:10-14) The observance of this law by other nations would have spared the world the most cruel and revolting horrors of the history of war. In this case a beautiful captive has fallen into the hands of a soldier. His heart is smitten with her fair face, but he is not allowed to take the slightest advantage of her helplessness, but is obliged to treat her with the utmost respect and tenderness. He may bring her to his home, but for a whole month he must leave her at liberty to fulfill the days of mourning, and then, after his kindness and respect have won her confidence, he may take her for his wife, but in honorable marriage. Some spiritual expositors have seen in this picture Christ’s love in dealing with His own chosen bride, the Church. She is a conquered captive, like this foreign maiden, but He gently deals with her and wins her confidence by His tenderness and love. The shaving of her hair and the cutting of her nails is a symbol of the putting off of the natural life, and the carnal robes of self and sin, and then she is received into the deeper intimacy and fellowship of His love. Mitigations of the Evils of Polygamy
Even under the imperfect system of plural marriages the law made the best possible provision against the wrongs that might result from the partiality on the part of a husband to a favored wife. If the firstborn son is the child of the less favored woman he must, by all means, inherit the firstborn’s right, notwithstanding the prejudices or preferences of the father. Punishment of Filial Disobedience
A stern and terrible retribution was provided for a son who presumptuously dared to disobey a parent’s voice, and gave up his life to wickedness and sensuality. In this case, the rebellious child was to be stoned to death in the presence of all the men of the city as an awful example. “You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid” (Deuteronomy 21:21). Thus solemnly did the Old Testament emphasize the necessity of parental discipline and filial obedience as the very groundwork of human society. The Accursed Tree If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. (Deuteronomy 21:22-23)
This subordinate provision of the Hebrew code for the taking down of the body of a criminal after he had been publicly hanged, contains the touching and far-reaching foretokening of the cross of Calvary. It was in reference to this that Peter said of the Lord Jesus, “whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree” (Acts 5:30). It was on this that the same apostle wrote, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24). And it was of this that Paul said, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree’” (Galatians 3:13-14). So that, even in this little wayside line, we see the whole gospel reflected. Laws Concerning Lost Property
The finder of lost property was to deal honestly by his neighbor, restoring it to the owner, if known, and if not, keeping it carefully until he came to seek it, and showing a kind and neighborly spirit in relieving even the suffering brute which belonged to his neighbor, or rather, his brother. The term used throughout this passage, even regarding one whom they know not, is a tender one, which implies the beautiful principle of the brotherhood of men, especially of Christians. Rules for the Sexes “A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this” (Deuteronomy 22:5).
The interchange of dress, on the part of men and women, and anything which could confound the natural difference between the sexes, was sacredly prohibited because of its unnaturalness, and its certain tendency towards vice. The Bird’s Nest “If you come across a bird’s nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young” (Deuteronomy 22:6).
This is but a little incident, but it tells the story of the heart of God. How gentle is the love of that Creator who will not allow the little birdlings to be left without their dam in their wayside nest, to gratify the selfishness or cruelty of man. Responsibility for the Protection of Life “When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof so that you may not bring the guilt of bloodshed on your house if someone falls from the roof” (Deuteronomy 22:8).
Even in the building of a house they were to take proper care lest human life should be endangered by the absence of a battlement, on that flat roof, where they often slept at night. We see here the first trace of building laws which have since become so necessary in our crowded cities. Laws Against Unnatural Things
They were not to confound their husbandry with several kinds of seeds; to plow with an ox and an ass together; to wear a hybrid garment, or even a slovenly tunic without proper fringe and tassels. Thus, God provided for even neatness and taste in the dress of His ancient people, and also, at the same time, combined it with simplicity. The Treatment of Women
This section provides against all injustice, unworthy suspicion or violence against the honor and person of women. First, in reference to a wife unjustly or justly suspected of unfaithfulness (Deuteronomy 22:13-21). Secondly, in reference to violence against a married woman (Deuteronomy 22:22). Thirdly, against a betrothed maiden. Fourthly, against a maiden not betrothed. In the latter case, if she has been wronged, he must make her his wife and pay a heavy fine for his crime. In the case of a similar transaction against the betrothed woman, or a wife, he is to be put to death. And, if she has been willfully guilty, her punishment is to be equally severe. Finally, the most revolting crime of incest is provided against (Deuteronomy 22:30), in the form which created such scandal, and occasioned such severe rebuke in 1 Corinthians 5:1-13. Laws Regarding Separation
Six classes of person were excluded from the congregation of the Lord; namely, persons mutilated in such a way as to degrade their physical manhood, persons born under the ban of shame, Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites and Egyptians. The latter might not enter the congregation themselves, but in the third generation their children might be admitted. Laws Respecting Personal Cleanliness
They were required to respect their own bodies, and act with highest regard to their manhood and personal purity, because the Lord was witness of every private and secret act, and personal uncleanness would defile them and bring defeat upon their armies for the sake of their transgression. Laws for the Protection of Runaway Slaves “If a slave has taken refuge with you, do not hand him over to his master. Let him live among you wherever he likes and in whatever town he chooses. Do not oppress him” (Deuteronomy 23:15-16).
The poor fugitive slave was not to be given back to his master, or returned to the land, probably a heathen and foreign nation from which he had fled for refuge to the territory of Israel; but he was to be welcomed and treated with kindness, and not enslaved by the one whose protection he claimed. Laws Respecting Prostitution “No Israelite man or woman is to become a shrine prostitute. You must not bring the earnings of a female prostitute or of a male prostitute into the house of the Lord your God to pay any vow, because the Lord your God detests them both” (Deuteronomy 23:17-18).
The most stringent legislation was proclaimed against that crying sin which was the shame of heathen nations, and is, today, the canker of modern society; especially against the infamy so common in idolatrous nations of consecrating this hideous vice to the very worship of their temples, and making it a part of their unholy religion. No sum of money which had ever come from such a life was permitted to be received in the service of the Lord. The more shameful vice, even on the part of men in a more unnatural form, is also forbidden in this verse, where the guilty person is called a dog, as such persons are in Revelation 22:15. Laws Respecting Usury
Stringent prohibition was placed upon all usury, by which was meant not unlawful interest, but any interest whatever. They must freely lend not only money, but victuals, to their brethren as their need required, without further compensation than the return of the article loaned, when the borrower was done with it. This, however, was permitted in the case of foreigners, from whom the Jews were permitted to take usury, and they have certainly well profited by the permission, as they have become the money lenders of the world, and have given to the word usury the extreme meaning which the term has come to bear. Laws Respecting Vows “If you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not be slow to pay it, for the Lord your God will certainly demand it of you and you will be guilty of sin” (Deuteronomy 23:21).
The utmost fidelity was required in fulfilling their vows unto the Lord. These were perfectly voluntary, and not to be rashly made, but when made they were to be promptly and faithfully fulfilled, as the Lord would not excuse remissness and folly on their part in anything which they had dedicated unto Him. Laws Respecting Humanity “If you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat all the grapes you want, but do not put any in your basket. If you enter your neighbor’s grain-field, you may pick kernels with your hands, but you must not put a sickle to his standing grain” (Deuteronomy 23:24-25).
A hungry traveler might eat all he could in his neighbor’s vineyard or corn field, but he must not cany any away. This is still the custom among the Arabs of the East, and is founded upon a beautiful principle of simple humanity, which rendered poverty and want an impossibility, and recognized all men as having certain common rights up to the measure of their actual wants. Laws Respecting Divorce (Deuteronomy 24:1-4)
The emphasis in this passage is on the fourth verse, which forbids the first husband to live with his divorced wife if she has been wedded to another. Our Lord, however, declares that these laws with regard to divorce were not wholly pleasing to the Lord, but were simply given on the principle of tolerance, because of their hardness of heart, and were not in harmony with the original purpose and law of marriage, which was intended to be lasting. The spirit of the New Testament is opposed to divorce, except for the most flagrant cause. God’s Tender Regard for Marriage “If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married” (Deuteronomy 24:5).
This beautiful law provides for a whole year of exemption on the part of the newly married from military service, and any pressing business engagements which could separate the groom from his wife. This was intended to be in contrast with the previous paragraph respecting divorce, and to afford a picture of the sweetness and sanctity of the marriage bond as God regarded it and desired to maintain it. Forbearance and Mercy in Collecting Debts Do not take a pair of millstones—not even the upper one—as security for a debt, because that would be taking a man’s livelihood as security…. When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, do not go into his house to get what he is offering as a pledge. Stay outside and let the man to whom you are making the loan bring the pledge out to you. If the man is poor, do not go to sleep with his pledge in your possession. Return his cloak to him by sunset so that he may sleep in it. Then he will thank you, and it will be regarded as a righteous act in the sight of the Lord your God. (Deuteronomy 24:6, Deuteronomy 24:10-13)
In enforcing the payment of debts no pledge should be taken which could seriously injure the debtor in his vital interests, or expose him to hardship and poverty. The nether or upper millstone must not be taken. The pledge must not be kept overnight. No man could enter into another’s house, and with violent hands seize and carry away any article of clothing or furniture, but he was required to stand outside the door and let the debtor bring to him the pledge. Thus, even the most severe execution of the law was tempered with a mercy little known in what are called civilized times. Laws Against Man-Stealing “If a man is caught kidnapping one of his brother Israelites and treats him as a slave or sells him, the kidnapper must die. You must purge the evil from among you” (Deuteronomy 24:7).
No Hebrew could sell a brother into slavery. The penalty for such an act was death, and thus the root of human slavery was struck and the sacredness of human liberty solemnly sanctioned. The Rights of Labor (Deuteronomy 24:14-15)
The hired servant must be treated with justice, and his humblest need and sorrow is regarded by the kind and thoughtful Father in heaven, and in pathetic language his cry is recognized as going up to heaven against the oppressive or negligent master, and bringing judgment upon his head. “Pay him his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and is counting on it. Otherwise he may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin” (Deuteronomy 24:15). Impartial Justice “Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin” (Deuteronomy 24:16).
The father was not to be punished for the sin of the child, or the child for the parent’s wrong. The cruel custom among heathen nations of sacrificing a whole family, if one member offended a capricious king, was to be repudiated, and every soul dealt with according to its own deserts. The Rights of the Stranger “Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this” (Deuteronomy 24:17-18).
Not only were the children of Israel to be thus guarded by sanctions of righteous and civil law, but the stranger was to be fully protected; and especially the fatherless and the widow. No pledge could be taken from the latter for the payment of a debt, but the spirit of humanity and mercy must ever be shown. The Rights of the Poor When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow. When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this. (Deuteronomy 24:19-22)
This beautiful provision is a model of beneficence. The gleanings of the harvest field, the olives that remained upon the tree after it was shaken, the forgotten sheaf in the field, and the clusters that were overlooked upon the vines were to be for the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, in remembrance of their bondage in Egypt, and as an example to later ages of the magnanimity which always brings its recompense even in kind. The Rights of the Criminal (Deuteronomy 25:1-3)
Even the condemned criminal must be protected from undue severity in his punishment. Forty stripes, and no more, must be given as the extreme punishment, and less, if the offence required it. The feelings even of the criminal must be respected, and they must be careful lest “your brother will be degraded in your eyes” (Deuteronomy 25:3). They were never to forget that the most unworthy of Israel’s race was still a man and a brother, and must not be lashed like a slave. The Rights of the Cattle “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain” (Deuteronomy 25:4).
This little verse covers the whole animal creation with the light of the divine beneficence and care, and in the New Testament has been applied, most strikingly, by Paul, to the rights of the Christian ministry to be cared and provided for by the people of their charge. For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it about oxen that God is concerned? Surely he says this for us, doesn’t he? Yes, this was written for us, because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they ought to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest. If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you? If others have this right of support from you, shouldn’t we have it all the more? But we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ. Don’t you know those who work in the temple get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is offered at the altar? In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel. (1 Corinthians 9:9-14) Levirate Marriages (Deuteronomy 25:5-10)
The object of this peculiar law, respecting marriage, was to preserve the inheritance of any of the families of Israel in the family. It was provided by this law that a widow, who was without a child or heir, should be taken by her husband’s brother, and that the firstborn of such a union should succeed in the name of the brother that had died, to preserve his name in Israel. This, however, was not compulsory, but voluntary, and where the brother was not willing to fulfill this obligation of affection to his brother’s memory, he could escape it by a ceremony that left upon him a lasting reproach; the widow coming to him in the presence of the elders, loosing his shoe from his foot, as a symbol of degradation, perhaps a hint that he had the spirit in him not of a Hebrew, but of a slave, and then spitting in his face, in further insult, and thus committing him to lasting dishonor as the price by which he had saved his own inheritance and name. It would seem that when a brother failed, then the nearest of kin was to perform this duty, as Boaz did in the case of Ruth. This beautiful type has suggested a type of our Redeemer’s love, in becoming for us the nearest of kin, and by the sacrifice of His own name, the identifying of His life with ours, buying back for us our lost inheritance. In all this, as we shall see when we come to the book of Ruth, the story of Boaz is the exquisite picture of Christ Himself. Female Indelicacy (Deuteronomy 25:11-12)
This law was intended to provide for the punishment of any woman who should act with indecency; the punishment being the loss of her offending hand. And the design was to guard the respect which woman should ever show to man, as well as man to woman. Commercial Integrity (Deuteronomy 25:13-16)
This law provided against all false weights and measures, and dishonesty in most all trade. It would not hurt our boasted modern business legislation to admit the old and simple code, and enforce it. “Do not have two differing weights in your bag—one heavy, one light…. You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you” (Deuteronomy 25:13-16). Laws Against Their Enemies
This had special reference to Amalek, a neighboring tribe who had met them in a most unneighborly spirit in their helplessness as they came forth out of Egypt. It was not in retaliation, but as the divine expression of eternal hatred to that of which Amalek was but the type. The Lord had sworn at that time to have war with Amalek from generation to generation. It was because Amalek was the type of the flesh in our spiritual life, the nature of Esau and earthliness, that there could be no compromise, and it was because Saul afterwards failed to fulfill this to the letter that he lost his kingdom and his life. Provisions for the Public Offerings of the People (Deuteronomy 26:1-15)
It is assumed in this passage that the Israelites have kept the commandments now given, and have been rewarded by Jehovah by receiving the land of their inheritance (Deuteronomy 26:1). Having thus come into their possession they are to take of the firstfruits of the land and present them to the Lord as a special thank offering, with a form of liturgy exceedingly beautiful and expressive of gratitude for the divine bounty and beneficence which indeed is a model for the public services and freewill offerings of God’s people. Then you shall declare before the Lord your God: “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, putting us to hard labor. Then we cried out to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with miraculous signs and wonders. He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, O Lord, have given me.” Place the basket before the Lord your God and bow down before him. (Deuteronomy 26:5-10) Having presented their offering with this solemn appeal on the part of the worshiper, they are to enter into the enjoyment of the Lord’s blessings with the assurance of His acceptance and favor, and rejoice before Him in every good thing which the Lord has given them. In addition to this special offering of firstfruits the law respecting the special tithe of the third year was also repeated, and a similar form of public acknowledgment was added, referring especially to the obedience of the offerer to all the commandments which Moses had just given. Then say to the Lord your God: “I have removed from my house the sacred portion and have given it to the Levite, the alien, the fatherless and the widow, according to all you commanded. I have not turned aside from your commands nor have I forgotten any of them. I have not eaten any of the sacred portion while I was in mourning, nor have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor have I offered any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the Lord my God; I have done everything you commanded me. Look down from heaven, your holy dwelling place, and bless your people Israel and the land you have given us as you promised on oath to our forefathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.” (Deuteronomy 26:13-15) It was, probably, in reference to this beautiful requirement that the prophet Malachi charged the people so solemnly in the closing days of the old dispensation, “Yet you rob me [God]” (Malachi 3:8), and said to them, as the condition of blessing still, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,” says the Lord Almighty. “Then all nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty. (Deuteronomy 3:10-12) Conclusion of the Address
Moses now sums up his long and comprehensive address by solemnly appealing to the covenant which has just been consummated and declaring its sacred meaning and obligations. The Lord your God commands you this day to follow these decrees and laws; carefully observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. You have declared this day that the Lord is your God and that you will walk in his ways, that you will keep his decrees, commands and laws, and that you will obey him. And the Lord has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands. He has declared that he will set you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations he has made and that you will be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised. (Deuteronomy 26:16-19) This word declared means the public acknowledgment and profession which both God and the people have made, which has constituted a covenant bond of eternal separation and consecration.

Christ in the Bible Commentary

Albert Benjamin Simpson (1843–1919) was a Canadian-born Presbyterian pastor, theologian, and founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. His Christ in the Bible commentary series spans the entire Bible and is distinguished by its Christ-centered approach, finding the person and work of Jesus …

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Old Testament

GEN EXO LEV NUM DEU JOS JDG 1SA 1KI PSA ISA

New Testament

MAT MRK LUK JHN ACT ROM 1CO 2CO GAL EPH PHP COL 1TH 1TI TIT HEB JAS 1PE 3JN JUD REV

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