The Fifth Book of Moses, called Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy 29
Chapter XXIX · Vol. I, pp. 527–528
2 Moses exhorteth the people to obedience, by the memory of the works they had seen. 10 All are presented before the Lord to enter into his covenant. 18 The great wrath on him that flattereth himself in his wickedness. 29 Secret things belong unto God.
1 THESE aare the words of the covenant which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.1
a ch. 1.5; 5.2,3. Ex. 19.4-6; xx.-xxiv. Le. 26.46.
1 The same as Sinai. Horeb seems to have been the general name for the whole sacred mountain range, Sinai a particular summit. This covenant in Moab is the same in substance as that of Horeb, but seems from ver. 11 to have an important addition—the inclusion of Gentile strangers not mentioned at Sinai.—C.
2 And Moses called unto all Israel, and said unto them, bYe have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his land;
b Ex. 19.4; vii.-xiv. ch. 4.20; 10.3,4; 26.7,8. Jos. 24.5,7. 2 Sa. 7.23. Ne. 9.10,11. Is. 63.9-13. Je. 32.21,22.
3 The cgreat temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles;
c ch. 4.34. Ne. 9.9-23. Ps. lxxviii. cv. cvi. cxxxvi.
4 Yet the LORD hath not dgiven you an heart to perceive,2 and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.
d Is. 6.9,10. Mat. 13.11-14. 2 Co. 4.3,4; 3.15. Is. 63.17. Jn. 8.43. Ep. 4.18. 2 Th. 2.11,12.
A.M. 2553. B.C. 1451.
2 That is, the Lord hath given you indestructible raiment, bread from heaven, water from the rocks, and all to lead you 'to know that he is the Lord your God'—yet all has neither opened the eyes you have closed, the ears you have stopped, nor softened the hearts that, like Pharaoh, you have hardened.—C.
5 And I have led eyou forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot.3
e ch. 8.4; 1.3. Ne. 9.21. Mat. 6.31,32. Nu. 14.33,34; 33.8; 20.1. Jos. 5.6; 14.10.
3 Some think these words simply mean that they had been providentially enabled to supply new raiment by their own industry. Had this been the case, why should the matter be mentioned as anything remarkable? The reference of Moses seems to be raiment miraculously preserved; for it is conjoined (ver. 6) to food miraculously given. How strange, some may say, that forty years of such miraculous evidence had not led the people to know, to love, and obey the Lord! Alas! why do men wonder at this stupidity! Do not threescore years and ten still pass away amidst greater evidence, and with less regard or improvement?—C.
6 Ye have not featen bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink; that ye might know that I am the LORD your God.
f ch. 8.3. Ex. xvi. xvii. Nu. xx. Ne. 9.15,20. Ps. 78.15-25; 105.40,41.
7 And when ye came unto this place, gSihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us unto battle, and we smote them:
g Nu. 21.24-33; xxxii. ch. 2.24-37; 3.1-17.
8 And we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance unto the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh.
9 Keeph therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do.
h ch. 4.1,9; 6.1,3; 11.13,22; 27.1. Jos. 1.7,8. 1 Ki. 2.3.
10 Yei stand this day all of you before the LORD your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel,
i ch. 4.10. Ac. 10.33.
11 Your little ones, your wives, and thy strangerk that is in thy camp, from lthe hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water;
12 That thou shouldest menter4 into covenant with the LORD thy God, and into his oath, which the LORD thy God maketh with thee this day;
m Ex. 19.5,6; xxiv. ch. 5.2,3. Ne. 10.29. Jos. 24.25. 2 Ki. 11.17. 2 Ch. 15.12-15; 29.10; 34.31,32. Je. 50.5.
4 Heb. pass.
13 That he may nestablish thee to-day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.5
n ch. 7.6; 28.9; 8.18. Ge. 17.7; 26.3,4; 28.13-15. Ex. 3.6-8; 6.7; 19.5,6. 2 Sa. 7.24. 2 Ki. 13.23.
5 We have here again the implied doctrine of spirituality and immortality, see note on ch. 28.9. By implied, we mean a doctrine so evidently and fully admitted, that its formal assertion and repetition becomes unnecessary.—C.
14 Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath;
15 But with him that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is onot here with us this day:6
o Unborn posterity. ch. 5.3. Ac. 2.39. 1 Co. 7.14. Je. 50.5.
6 That is: with all the people of Israel who were present on that day; with all of them who from sickness or other cause were absent; with all, too, of their posterity who were yet unborn. It was a covenant which embraced the whole Jewish race in every age.—P.
16 (For ye know phow we have dwelt in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the nations which ye passed by;
17 And ye have seen their abominations, and their idols,7 wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:)
7 Heb. dungy gods.
18 Lestq there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose 8?heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth 9gall and wormwood;
19 And it come to pass, when he rheareth the words of this curse, that he sbless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk tin the imagination1 of mine heart, to uadd drunkenness2 to thirst:3
20 The LORD will xnot spare him; but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the ycurses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD zshall blot out his name from under heaven.
21 And the LORD shall aseparate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are4 written in this book of the law:
a ch. 10.8; 8.19. Ps. 69.28. Eze. 13.9. Mat. 24.51. Is. 3.11.
4 Heb. is written.
22 So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the LORD hath laid upon it;5
5 Heb. wherewith the Lord hath made it sick.
23 And that the whole land thereof is bbrimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath;
24 Even all nations shall say, cWherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger?6
c 1 Ki. 9.8. 2 Ch. 7.22. Je. 22.8,9.
6 The present desolation of Palestine is a source of astonishment as well to its modern inhabitants as to those strangers who pass through it. Its rich plains are uncultivated, the terraces on its hill-sides are broken down, its sanctuaries are desecrated, its cities and villages are either heaps of ruins or totally deserted.—P.
25 Then men shall say, dBecause they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt:
d Je. 50.7; 22.9. Le. xxvi. ch. xxviii. Is. 24.1,5,6.
26 Fore they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given7 unto them.8
e ch. 32.17,21. 2 Ki. 17.7-18. Je. 19.3-13; 44.2-6.
7 Heb. divided.
8 Or, who had not given to them any portion.
27 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the fcurses that are written in this book:
f Le. 26.14-39. ch. 27.15-26; 28.15-68. Da. 9.11. ver. 20,21.
28 And the LORD grooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.
g ch. 28.25,32,36,64. 2 Ki. 17.18,23. Lu. 21.23,24.
29 The hsecret things belong unto the LORD our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.9
h Ac. 1.7; 17.11. Mat. 14.36. Ro. 11.33. Jn. 5.39, 20.31. Is. 8.20. Ps. 147.19,20.
9 This appears to me to be a philosophical reflection of Moses springing from the remarkable prophetic judgments to which he had just given utterance. Looking back at God's mysterious dealings with the Israelites—his miracles of mercy, of judgment, of deliverance—his promises, and his awful threatenings—what more natural than for the thoughtful lawgiver to exclaim: 'Secret things—the great mysteries of Providence—are known only to God, but the things which are revealed by him are revealed for our sakes and for the sake of our children, that we may obey him.'—P.
Notes
[Ver. 23. Nor any grass groweth therein. Canaan has continued since the Christian era to be a land of much attraction to travellers, and all, as with one common consent, have expressed their astonishment at the general aspect of barrenness and desolation in a country once so fertile and populous. So evident is this judgment, and so palpable the fulfilment of this prophecy, that infidels have affected to question the scriptural account of its population and fertility. But, independent of the Scripture testimony, which is always sufficient to establish the truth of its own narratives, it is well known that at least large portions of the Chinese empire are as populous, and by extreme industry rendered as productive, as Palestine, even in its best days. And if God permit his blessings to a land of heathenism, why should he not bestow his blessings upon a land of his true worshippers? C.]
Ver. 29. [The secret things. There are two classes of secret things: (1) The times and seasons of determined prophetical blessings, such as Is. 19. 18-25; 52. 1; 60. 1. And though there be a few examples of precise chronological prophecy of this kind, such as the seventy weeks, Da. 9. 25-27, yet, even as this revealed time depended upon another unknown, the time foretold was secret. (2) The times and seasons when God will inflict determined prophetical judgments, and these depending on the filling up of national iniquity, must ever abide secret until the 'signs of the times' begin to reveal their approach. Things revealed are likewise of two kinds: (1) The nature of the blessings and judgments foretold; so that men may desire the one, and flee from the other. (2) The duties of God's people while in possession of his blessings, or when lying under his wrath.—Note, The secret and the revealed departments of the divine government are not to be practically dissevered; for they are not separate things, but merely distinct parts of the same government. It were vain to apply ourselves to discover the secret things, but it were impious to neglect the revealed duties connected with them. C.]
Reflections.—Unbelief and unconcern are so deep-rooted within us, that, till God himself enlighten and renew our heart, we can never know, love, or serve him. Many of the most affecting providences pass unheeded by ignorant and unbelieving men: and yet a right observation of providence would powerfully induce us to a solemn surrendering of ourselves to God, and a careful fulfilment of our vows. Holy obedience is so contrary to the heart of man, that, notwithstanding we are already bound by the infinite authority of God's law, we need to be also bound by solemn vows and covenants, and these again and again repeated. But everything in public covenanting with God ought to be made with great plainness and solemnity; that every one concerned, whether present or absent, may understand, and be duly affected with it: and especially must all our covenanting with him be founded on his grant of himself to us as our God, and his claim of us for his people. How ready are men to copy after bad examples, and to defile themselves with idols! And who knows what indwelling lusts may lead us to in our practice: for followers of iniquity often become presumptuous at last, and bless themselves, while the curse of God hangs over their heads, and his wrath abideth on them! and to what terrible and shameful judgments are such presumptuous sinners exposed! The greater the mercies we sin against, the greater judgments we may expect. The obstinate abuse of God's mercies will at length deprive men of them. And heathen beholders are sometimes sooner awakened by God's judgments than the hardened professors who endure them. Men's inquiries into religious concerns are frequently rather curious than practical; and many sinfully pry into futurities, and things which he hath concealed, rather than search and practise what he hath revealed in his word, and manifested in his providence. But may I and my children always search and practise the Scriptures, as the only effectual means of averting the plagues appointed for the ungodly.