Moses
had charged parents in teaching their children to whet the word of God upon
them (ch. vi. 7) by frequent repetition of the same things over and
over again; and here he himself takes the same method of instructing the
Israelites as his children, frequently inculcating the same precepts and
cautions, with the same motives or arguments to enforce them, that what they
heard so often might abide with them. In this chapter Moses gives them, I.
General exhortations to obedience, ver. 1, 6. II. A review of the great
things God had done for them in the wilderness, as a good argument for
obedience, ver. 2-5, 15, 16. III. A prospect of the good land into which God
would now bring them, ver. 7-9. IV. A necessary caution against the
temptations of a prosperous condition, ver. 10-14, and 17, 18. V. A fair
warning of the fatal consequences of apostasy from God, ver. 19, 20.
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A
Charge to
Israel;
Israel
's Retrospect.
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B.
C. 1451.
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1 All the commandments
which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and
multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD
sware unto your fathers. 2 And thou shalt remember all the way
which the LORD
thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and
to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest
keep his commandments, or no. 3 And he humbled thee, and
suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not,
neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not
live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of the LORD
doth man live. 4 Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither
did thy foot swell, these forty years. 5 Thou shalt also
consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD
thy God chasteneth thee. 6 Therefore thou shalt keep the
commandments of the LORD
thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him. 7 For the LORD
thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of
fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; 8 A
land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a
land of oil olive, and honey; 9 A land wherein thou shalt eat
bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land
whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.
The charge here given them is the same as before, to keep and do all God's
commandments. Their obedience must be, 1. Careful: Observe to do. 2.
Universal: To do all the commandments, v. 1. And, 3. From a
good principle, with a regard to God as the Lord, and their God, and
particularly with a holy fear of him (v. 6), from a reverence of his
majesty, a submission to his authority, and a dread of his wrath. To engage
them to this obedience, besides the great advantages of it, which he sets
before them (that they should live and multiply, and all should be
well with them, v. 1), he directs them,
I. To look back upon the wilderness through which God had now brought them: Thou
shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years
in the wilderness, v. 2. Now that they had come of age, and were
entering upon their inheritance, they must be reminded of the discipline
they had been under during their minority and the method God had taken to
train them up for himself. The wilderness was the school in which they had
been for forty years boarded and taught, under tutors and governors; and
this was a time to bring it all to remembrance. The occurrences of these
last forty years were very memorable and well worthy to be remembered, very
useful and profitable to be remembered, as yielding a complication of
arguments for obedience; and they were recorded on purpose that they might
be remembered. As the feast of the passover was a memorial of their
deliverance out of Egypt, so was the feast of tabernacles of their passage
through the wilderness. Note, It is very good for us to remember all the
ways both of God's providence and grace, by which he has led us hitherto
through this wilderness, that we may be prevailed with cheerfully to serve
him and trust in him. Here let us set up our Ebenezer.
1. They must remember the straits they were sometimes brought into, (1.) For
the mortifying of their pride; it was to humble them, that they might
not be exalted above measure with the abundance of miracles that were
wrought in their favour, and that they might not be secure, and confident of
being in Canaan immediately. (2.) For the manifesting of their perverseness:
to prove them, that they and others might know (for God himself
perfectly knew it before) all that was in their heart, and might see that
God chose them not for any thing in them that might recommend them to his
favour, for their whole carriage was untoward and provoking. Many
commandments God gave them which there would have been no occasion for if
they had not been led through the wilderness, as those relating to the manna
(Exod. xvi. 28); and God thereby tried them, as our first parents were tried
by the trees of the garden, whether they would keep God's commandments or
not. Or God thereby proved them whether they would trust his promises, the
word which he commanded to a thousand generations, and, in dependence on his
promises, obey his precepts.
2. They must remember the supplies which were always granted them.
(1.) God himself took particular care of their food, raiment, and health;
and what would they have more? [1.] They had manna for food (v. 3): God
suffered them to hunger, and the fed them with manna, that the
extremity of their want might make the supply the more acceptable, and God's
goodness to them therein the more remarkable. God often brings his people
low, that he may have the honour of helping them. And thus the manna of
heavenly comforts is given to those that hunger and thirst after
righteousness, Matt. v. 6. To the hungry soul every bitter thing is
sweet. It is said of the manna that it was a sort of food which neither they
nor their fathers knew. And again, v. 16. If they knew there was
such a thing that fell sometimes with the dew in those countries, as some
think they did, yet it was never known to fall in such vast quantities, so
constantly, and at all seasons of the year, so long, and only about a
certain place. These things were altogether miraculous, and without
precedent; the Lord created a new thing for their supply. And hereby
he taught them the man liveth not by bread alone. Though God has
appointed bread for the strengthening of man's heart, and that is ordinarily
made the staff of life, yet God can, when he pleases, command support and
nourishment without it, and make something else, very unlikely, to answer
the intention as well. We might live upon air if it were sanctified for that
use by the word of God; for the means God ordinarily uses he is not
tied to, but can perform his kind purposes to his people without them. Our
Saviour quotes this scripture in answer to that temptation of Satan, Command
that these stones be made bread. "What need of that?" says
Christ; "my heavenly Father can keep me alive without bread,"
Matt. iv. 3, 4. Let none of God's children distrust their Father, nor take
any sinful indirect course for the supply of their own necessities; some way
or other, God will provide for them in the way of duty and honest diligence,
and verily they shall be fed. It may be applied spiritually; the word
of God, as it is the revelation of God's will and grace duly received
and entertained by faith, is the food of the soul, the life which is
supported by that is the life of the man, and not only that life which is
supported by bread. The manna typified Christ, the bread of life. He
is the Word of God; by him we live. The Lord evermore give us that
bread which endures to eternal life, and let us not be put off with the meat
that perisheth! [2.] The same clothes served them from Egypt to Canaan,
at least the generality of them. Though they had no change of raiment, yet
it was always new, and waxed not old upon them, v. 4. This was a
standing miracle, and the greater if, as the Jews say, they grew with them,
so as to be always fit for them. But it is plain that they brought out of
Egypt bundles of clothes on their shoulders (Exod. xii. 34), which they
might barter with each other as there was occasion; and these, with what
they wore, sufficed till they came into a country where they could furnish
themselves with new clothes.
(2.) By the method God took of providing food and raiment for them [1.] He
humbled them. It was a mortification to them to be tied for forty years
together to the same meat, without any varieties, and to the same clothes,
in the same fashion. Thus he taught them that the good things he designed
for them were figures of better things, and that the happiness of man
consists not in being clothed in purple or fine linen, and in faring
sumptuously every day, but in being taken into covenant and communion
with God, and in learning his righteous judgements. God's law, which
was given to Israel in the wilderness, must be to them instead of food and
raiment. [2.] He proved them, whether they could trust him to provide for
them when means and second causes failed. Thus he taught them to live in a
dependence upon Providence, and not to perplex themselves with care what
they should eat and drink, and wherewithal they should be clothed.
Christ would have his disciples learn the same lesson (Matt. vi. 25), and
took a like method to teach it to them, when he sent them out without
purse or scrip, and yet took care that they lacked nothing, Luke
xxii. 35. [3.] God took care of their health and ease. Though they travelled
on foot in a dry country, the way rough and untrodden, yet their feet
swelled not. God preserved them from taking hurt by the inconveniences
of their journey; and mercies of this kind we ought to acknowledge. Note,
Those that follow God's conduct are not only safe but easy. Our feet swell
not while we keep in the way of duty; it is the way of transgression
that is hard, Prov. xiii. 15. God had promised to keep the feet of
his saints, 1 Sam. ii. 9.
3. They must also remember the rebukes they had been under, v. 5.
During these years of their education they had been kept under a strict
discipline, and not without need. As a man chasteneth his son, for
his good, and because he loves him, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee.
God is a loving tender Father to all his children, yet when there is
occasion they shall feel the smart of the rod. Israel did so: they were
chastened that they might not be condemned, chastened with the rod of men.
Not as a man wounds and slays his enemies whose destruction he aims at, but
as a man chastens his son whose happiness and welfare he designs: so did
their God chasten them; he chastened and taught them, Ps. xciv. 12. This
they must consider in their heart, that is, they must own it from
their own experience that God had corrected them with a fatherly love, for
which they must return to him a filial reverence and compliance. Because God
has chastened thee as a father, therefore (v. 6) thou shalt
keep his commandments. This use we should make of all our afflictions;
by them let us be engaged and quickened to our duty. Thus they are directed
to look back upon the wilderness.
II. He directs them to look forward to Canaan, into which God was now
bringing them. Look which way we will, both our reviews and our prospects
will furnish us with arguments for obedience. Observe,
1. The land which they were now going to take possession of is here
described to be a very good land, having every thing in it that was
desirable, v. 7-9. (1.) It was well-watered, like Eden, the garden
of the Lord. It was a land of brooks of water, of fountains and
depths, which contributed to the fruitfulness of the soil. Perhaps there
was a greater plenty of water there now than in Abraham's time, the
Canaanites having found and digged wells; so that Israel reaped the fruit of
their industry as well as of God's bounty. (2.) The ground produced great
plenty of all good things, not only for the necessary support, but for the
convenience and comfort of human life. In their fathers' land they had bread
enough; it was corn land, a land of wheat and barley, where, with the common
care and labour of the husbandman, they might eat bread without scarceness.
It was a fruitful land, that was never turned into barrenness but for the
iniquity of those that dwelt therein. They had not only water enough to
quench their thirst, but vines, the fruit whereof was ordained to make glad
the heart. And, if they were desirous of dainties, they needed not to send
to far countries for them, when their own was so well stocked with
fig-trees, and pomegranates, olives of the best kind, and honey, or date-trees,
as some think it should be read. (3.) Even the bowels of its earth were very
rich, though it should seem that silver and gold they had none; of
these the princes of Sheba should bring presents (Ps. lxxii. 10, 15); yet
they had plenty of those more serviceable metals, iron and brass. Iron-stone
and mines of brass were found in their hills. See Job xxviii. 2.
2. These things are mentioned, (1.) To show the great difference between
that wilderness through which God had led them and the good land into which
he was bringing them. Note, Those that bear the inconveniences of an
afflicted state with patience and submission, are humbled by them and prove
well under them, are best prepared for better circumstances. (2.) To show
what obligations they lay under to keep God's commandments, both in
gratitude for his favours to them and from a regard to their own interest,
that the favours might be continued. The only way to keep possession of this
good land would be to keep in the way of their duty. (3.) To show what a
figure it was of good things to come. Whatever others saw, it is probable
that Moses in it saw a type of the better country: The gospel church is the
New-Testament Canaan, watered with the Spirit in his gifts and graces,
planted with the trees of righteousness, bearing the fruits of
righteousness. Heaven is the good land, in which there is nothing wanting,
and where there is a fulness of joy.
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Cautions
Relating to Worldly Prosperity.
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B.
C. 1451.
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10 When thou hast eaten
and art full, then thou shalt bless the LORD
thy God for the good land which he hath given thee. 11 Beware
that thou forget not the LORD
thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his
statutes, which I command thee this day: 12 Lest when
thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein;
13 And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy
gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; 14
Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the LORD
thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house
of bondage; 15 Who led thee through that great and terrible
wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought,
where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the
rock of flint; 16 Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna,
which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might
prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end; 17 And thou say
in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me
this wealth. 18 But thou shalt remember the LORD
thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he
may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is
this day. 19 And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD
thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I
testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish. 20 As
the nations which the LORD
destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish; because ye would not be
obedient unto the voice of the LORD
your God.
Moses, having mentioned the great plenty they would find in the land of
Canaan, finds it necessary to caution them against the abuse of that plenty,
which was a sin they would be the more prone to new that they came into the
vineyard of the Lord, immediately out of a barren desert.
I. He directs them to the duty of a prosperous condition, v. 10. They
are allowed to eat even to fulness, not to surfeiting no excess; but let
them always remember their benefactor, the founder of their feast, and never
fail to give thanks after meat: Then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God.
1. They must take heed of eating or drinking so much as to indispose
themselves for this duty of blessing God, rather aiming to serve God therein
with so much the more cheerfulness and enlargement. 2. They must not have
any fellowship with those that, when they had eaten and were full, blessed
false gods, as the Israelites themselves had done in their worship of the
golden calf, Exod. xxxii. 6. 3. Whatever they had the comfort of God must
have the glory of. As our Saviour has taught us to bless before we eat
(Matt. xiv. 19, 20), so we are here taught to bless after meat. That is our Hosannah--God
bless; this is our Hallelujah--Blessed be God. In every thing we must
give thanks. From this law the religious Jews took up a laudable usage
of blessing God, not only at their solemn meals, but upon other occasions;
if they drank a cup of wine they lifted up their hands and said, Blessed
be he that created the fruit of the vine to make glad the heart. If they
did but smell at a flower, they said, Blessed be he that made this flower
sweet. 4. When they gave thanks for the fruits of the land they must
give thanks for the fruits of the land itself, which was given them by
promise From all our comfortable enjoyments we must take occasion to thank
God for our comfortable settlements; and I know not but we of this nation
have as much reason as they had to give thanks for a good land.
II. He arms them against the temptations of a prosperous condition, and
charges them to stand upon their guard against them: "When thou art
settled in goodly houses of thy own building," v. 12 (for though
God gave them houses which they builded not, ch. vi. 10, these would
not serve them, they must have larger and finer),--"and when thou hast
grown rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold (v. 13), as
Abraham (Gen. xiii. 2),--when all thou hast is multiplied," 1.
"Then take heed of pride. Beware lest then thy heart be lifted up,"
v. 14. When the estate rises, the mind is apt to rise with it, in
self-conceit, self-complacency, and self-confidence. Let us therefore strive
to keep the spirit low in a high condition; humility is both the ease and
the ornament of prosperity. Take heed of saying, so much as in thy heart,
that proud word, My power, even the might of my hand, hath gotten me this
wealth, v. 17. Note, We must never take the praise of our
prosperity to ourselves, nor attribute it to our ingenuity or industry; for
bread is not always to the wise, nor riches to men of
understanding, Eccl. ix. 11. It is spiritual idolatry thus to sacrifice
to our own net, Hab. i. 16. 2. "Then take heed of forgetting
God." This follows upon the lifting up on the heart; for it is through
the pride of the countenance that the wicked seek not after God,
Ps. x. 4. Those that admire themselves despise God. (1.) "Forget not
thy duty to God." v. 11. We forget God if we keep not his
commandments; we forget his authority over us, and our obligations to him
and expectations from him, if we are not obedient to his laws. When men grow
rich they are tempted to think religion a needless thing. They are happy
without it, think it a thing below them and too hard upon them. Their
dignity forbids them to stoop, and their liberty forbids them to serve. But
we are basely ungrateful if the better God is to us the worse we are to him.
(2.) "Forget not God's former dealings with thee. Thy deliverance out
of Egypt, v. 14. The provision he made for thee in the wilderness,
that great and terrible wilderness." They must never forget the
impressions which the horror of that wilderness made upon them; see Jer. ii.
6, where it is called the very shadow of death. There God preserved
them from being destroyed by the fiery serpents and scorpions, though
sometimes he made use of them for their correction: there he kept them from
perishing for want of water, following them with water out of a rock of
flint (v. 15), out of which (says bishop Patrick) one would rather
have expected fire than water. There he fed them with manna, of which before
(v. 3), taking care to keep them alive, that he might do them good
at their latter end, v. 16. Note, God reserves the best till the
last for his Israel. However he may seem to deal hardly with them by the
way, he will not fail to do them good at their latter end. (3.) "Forget
not God's hand in thy present prosperity, v. 18. Remember it is he
that giveth thee wealth; for he giveth thee power to get wealth."
See here how God's giving and our getting are reconciled, and apply it to
spiritual wealth. It is our duty to get wisdom, and above all our gettings
to get understanding; and yet it is God's grace that gives wisdom, and when
we have got it we must not say, It was the might of our hand that got it,
but must own it was God that gave us power to get it, and therefore to him
we must give the praise and consecrate the use of it. The blessing of the
Lord on the hand of the diligent makes rich both for this world
and for the other. He giveth thee power to get wealth, not so much to
gratify thee, and make thee easy, as that he may establish his covenant. All
God's gifts are in pursuance of his promises.
III. He repeats the fair warning he had often given them of the fatal
consequences of their apostasy from God, v. 19, 20. Observe, 1. How
he describes the sin; it is forgetting God, and then worshipping other gods.
What wickedness will not those fall into that keep thoughts of God out of
their minds? And, when once the affections are displaced from God, they will
soon be misplaced upon lying vanities. 2. How he denounces wrath and ruin
against them for it: "If you do so, you shall surely perish, and
the power and might of your hands, which you are so proud of, cannot help
you. Nay, you shall perish as the nations that are driven out before you.
God will make no more account of you, notwithstanding his covenant with you
and your relation to him, than he does of them, if you will not be obedient
and faithful to him." Those that follow others in sin will certainly
follow them to destruction. If we do as sinners do, we must expect to fare
as sinners fare.
