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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
D E U T E R O N O M Y
CHAP. XXXII.
In this chapter we have,
I. The song which Moses, by the appointment of God, delivered to the
children of Israel, for a standing admonition to them, to take heed of
forsaking God. This takes up most of the chapter, in which we have,
1. The preface,
2. A high character of God, and, in opposition to that, a bad character
of the people of Israel,
3. A rehearsal of the great things God had done for them, and in
opposition to that an account of their ill carriage towards him,
4. A prediction of the wasting destroying judgments which God would
bring upon them for their sins, in which God is here justified by the
many aggravations of their impieties,
5. A promise of the destruction of their enemies and oppressors at
last, and the glorious deliverance of a remnant of Israel,
II. The exhortation with which Moses delivered this song to them,
III. The orders God gives to Moses to go up to Mount Nebo and die,
&c.
| The Song of Moses. | B. C. 1451. |
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1 Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth,
the words of my mouth.
2 My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as
the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the
showers upon the grass:
3 Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye
greatness unto our God.
4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways
are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and
right is he.
5 They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the
spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked
generation.
6 Do ye thus requite the LORD, O foolish people and unwise?
is not he thy father that hath bought thee? hath he not made
thee, and established thee?
Here is,
I. A commanding preface or introduction to this song of Moses,
He begins,
1. With a solemn appeal to heaven and earth concerning the truth and
importance of what he was about to say, and the justice of the divine
proceedings against a rebellious and backsliding people, for he had
said
that he would in this song call heaven and earth to record against
them. Heaven and earth would sooner hear than this perverse and
unthinking people; for they revolt not from the obedience to their
Creator, but continue to this day, according to his ordinances, as
his servants
and therefore will rise up in judgment against rebellious Israel.
Heaven and earth will be witnesses against sinners, witnesses of the
warning given them and of their refusal to take the warning (see
the heaven shall reveal his iniquity, and the earth shall rise up
against him. Or heaven and earth are here put for the inhabitants
of both, angels and men; both shall agree to justify God in his
proceedings against Israel, and to declare his righteousness,
Ps. l. 6;
see
2. he begins with a solemn application of what he was about to say to
the people
(v. 2):
My doctrine shall drop as the rain. “It shall be a beating
sweeping rain to the rebellious;” so one of the Chaldee paraphrasts
expounds the first clause. Rain is sometimes sent for judgment, witness
that with which the world was deluged; and so the word of God, while to
some it is reviving and refreshing–a savour of life unto life,
is to others terrifying and killing–a savour of death unto
death. It shall be as a sweet and comfortable dew to those who are
rightly prepared to receive it. Observe,
(1.) The subject of this song is doctrine; he had given them a song of
praise and thanksgiving
(Exod. xv.),
but this is a song of instruction, for in psalms, and hymns, and
spiritual songs, we are not only to give glory to god, but to teach
and admonish one another,
Col. iii. 16.
Hence many of David’s psalms are entitled Maschil–to give
instruction.
(2.) This doctrine is fitly compared to rain and showers which come
from above, to make the earth fruitful, and accomplish that for
which they are sent.
and depend not upon the wisdom or will of man,
It is a mercy to have this rain come often upon us, and our duty to
drink it in,
Heb. vi. 7.
(3.) He promises that his doctrine shall drop and distil as the dew,
and the small rain, which descend silently and without noise. The word
preached is likely to profit when it comes gently, and sweetly
insinuates itself into the hearts and affections of the hearers.
(4.) He bespeaks their acceptance and entertainment of it, and that it
might be as sweet, and pleasant, and welcome to them as rain to the
thirsty earth,
Ps. lxxii. 6.
And the word of God is likely to do us good when it is thus acceptable.
(5.) The learned bishop Patrick understands it as a prayer that his
words which were sent from heaven to them might sink into their hearts
and soften them, as the rain softens the earth, and so make them
fruitful in obedience.
II. An awful declaration of the greatness and righteousness of God,
1. He begins with this, and lays it down as his first principle,
(1.) To preserve the honour of God, that no reproach might be cast upon
him for the sake of the wickedness of his people Israel; how wicked and
corrupt soever those are who are called by his name, he is just, and
right, and all that is good, and is not to be thought the worse of for
their badness.
(2.) To aggravate the wickedness of Israel, who knew and worshipped
such a holy god, and yet were themselves so unholy. And,
(3.) To justify God in his dealings with them; we must abide by it,
that God is righteous, even when his judgments are a great deep,
Jer. xii. 1; Ps. xxxvi. 6.
2. Moses here sets himself to publish the name of the Lord
(v. 3),
that Israel, knowing what a God he is whom they had avouched for
theirs, might never be such fools as to exchange him for a false god, a
dunghill god. He calls upon them therefore to ascribe greatness to him.
It will be of great use to us for the preventing of sin, and the
preserving of us in the way of our duty, always to keep up high and
honourable thoughts of God, and to take all occasions to express them:
Ascribe greatness to our God. We cannot add to his greatness,
for it is infinite; but we must acknowledge it, and give him the glory
of it. Now, when Moses would set forth the greatness of God, he does
it, not by explaining his eternity and immensity, or describing the
brightness of his glory in the upper world, but by showing the
faithfulness of his word, the perfection of his works, and the wisdom
and equity of all the administrations of his government; for in these
his glory shines most clearly to us, and these are the things revealed
concerning him, which belong to us and our children,
v. 4.
(1.) He is the rock. So he is called six times in this chapter,
and the LXX. all along translates it Theos, God. The
learned Mr. Hugh Broughton reckons that God is called the rock
eighteen times (besides in this chapter) in the Old Testament (though
in some places we translate it strength), and charges it
therefore upon the papists that they make St. Peter a god when they
make him the rock on which the church is built. God is the rock, for he
is in himself immutable immovable, and he is to all that seek him and
fly to him an impenetrable shelter, and to all that trust in him an
everlasting foundation.
(2.) His work is perfect. His work of creation was so, all
very good; his works of providence are so, or will be so in due
time, and when the mystery of God shall be finished the perfection of
his works will appear to all the world. Nothing that God does can be
mended,
God was now perfecting what he had promised and begun for his people
Israel, and from the perfection of this work they must take occasion to
give him the glory of the perfection of all his works. The best of
men’s works are imperfect, they have their flaws and defects, and are
left unfinished; but, as for God, his work is perfect; if he
begin, he will make an end.
(3.) All his ways are judgment. The ends of his ways are all
righteous, and he is wise in the choice of the means in order to those
ends. Judgment signifies both prudence and justice.
The ways of the Lord are right,
Hos. xiv. 9.
(4.) He is a God of truth, whose word we may take and rely upon,
for he cannot lie who is faithful to all his promises, nor shall his
threatenings fall to the ground.
(5.) He is without iniquity, one who never cheated any that
trusted in him, never wronged any that appealed to his justice, nor
ever was hard upon any that cast themselves upon his mercy.
(6.) Just and right is he. As he will not wrong any by punishing
them more than they deserve, so he will not fail to recompense all
those that serve him or suffer for him. He is indeed just and right;
for he will effectually take care that none shall lose by him. Now what
a bright and amiable idea does this
give us of the God whom we worship; and what reason have we then to
love him and fear him, to live a life of delight in him, dependence on
him, and devotedness to him! This is our rock, and there is no
unrighteousness in him; nor can there be,
III. A high charge exhibited against the Israel of God, whose character
was in all respects the reverse of that of the God of Israel,
v. 5.
1. They have corrupted themselves. Or, It has corrupted
itself; the body of the people has: the whole head sick, and the
whole heart faint. God did not corrupt them, for just and right
is he; but they are themselves the sole authors of their own sin
and ruin; and both are included in this word. They have debauched
themselves; for every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his
own lust. And they have destroyed themselves,
Hos. xiii. 9.
If thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear the guilt and grief,
2. Their spot is not the spot of his children. Even God’s
children have their spots, while they are in this imperfect state; for
if we say we have no sin, no spot, we deceive ourselves. But the sin of
Israel was none of those; it was not an infirmity which they strove
against, watched and prayed against, but an evil which their hearts
were fully set in them to do. For,
3. They were a perverse and crooked generation, that were
actuated by a spirit of contradiction, and therefore would do what was
forbidden because it was forbidden, would set up their own humour and
fancy in opposition to the will of God, were impatient of reproof,
hated to be reformed, and went on frowardly in the way of their
heart. The Chaldee paraphrase reads
thus: They have scattered or changed themselves, and not him,
even the children that served idols, a generation that has depraved its
own works, and alienated itself. Idolaters cannot hurt God, nor do
any damage to his works, nor make him a stranger to this world. See
No, all the hurt they do is to themselves and their own works. The
learned bishop Patrick gives another reading of it: Did he do him
any hurt? That is, “Is God the rock to be blamed for the evils that
should befal Israel? No, His children are their blot,” that is,
“All the evil that comes upon them is the fruit of their children’s
wickedness; for the whole generation of them is crooked and perverse.”
All that are ruined ruin themselves; they die because they will
die.
IV. A pathetic expostulation with this provoking people for their
ingratitude
(v. 6):
“Do you thus requite the Lord? Surely you will not hereafter be
so base and disingenuous in your carriage towards him as you have
been.”
1. He reminds them of the obligations God had laid upon them to serve
him, and to cleave to him. He had been a Father to them, had begotten
them, fed them, carried them, nursed them, and borne their manners; and
would they spurn at the bowels of a Father? He had bought them, had
been at a vast expense of miracles to bring them out of Egypt, had
given men for them, and people for their life,
Isa. xliii. 4.
“Is not he thy Father, thy owner (so some), that has an
incontestable propriety in thee?” and the ox knoweth his owner.
“he has made thee, and brought thee into being, established thee and
kept thee in being; has he not done so? Can you deny the engagements
you lie under to him, in consideration of the great things he has done
and designed for you?” And are not our obligations, as baptized
Christians, equally great and strong to our Creator that made us, our
Redeemer that bought us, and our Sanctifier that has established us.
2. Hence he infers the evil of deserting him and rebelling against
him. For,
(1.) It was base ingratitude: “Do you thus require the Lord? Are
these the returns you make him for all his favours to you? The powers
you have from him will you employ them against him?” See
This is such monstrous villany as all the world will cry shame of: call
a man ungrateful, and you can call him no worse.
(2.) It was prodigious madness: O foolish people and unwise!
Fools, and double fools! who has bewitched you?
Gal. iii. 1.
“Fools indeed, to disoblige one on whom you have such a necessary
dependence! To forsake your own mercies for lying vanities!” Note, All
wilful sinners, especially sinners in Israel, are the most unwise and
the most ungrateful people in the world.
7 Remember the days of old, consider the years of many
generations: ask thy father, and he will show thee; thy elders,
and they will tell thee.
8 When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance,
when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the
people according to the number of the children of Israel.
9 For the LORD‘s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of
his inheritance.
10 He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling
wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as
the apple of his eye.
11 As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young,
spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her
wings:
12 So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange
god with him.
13 He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he
might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck
honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;
14 Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and
rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys
of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.
Moses, having in general represented God to them as their great
benefactor, whom they were bound in gratitude to observe and obey, in
these verses gives particular instances of God’s kindness to them and
concern for them.
1. Some instances were ancient, and for proof of them he appeals to the
records
(v. 7):
Remember the days of old; that is, “Keep in remembrance the
history of those days, and of the wonderful providences of God
concerning the old world, and concerning your ancestors Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob; you will find a constant series of mercies attending them,
and how long since things were working towards that which has now come
to pass.” Note, The authentic histories of ancient times are of
singular use, and especially the history of the church in its infancy,
both the Old-Testament and the New-Testament church.
2. Others were more modern, and for proof of them he appeals to their
fathers and elders that were now alive and with them. Parents must
diligently teach their children, not only the word of God, his laws
(ch. vi. 7),
and the meaning of his ordinances
but his works also, and the methods of his providence. See
And children should desire the knowledge of those things which will be
of use to engage them to their duty and to direct them in it.
Three things are here enlarged upon as instances of God’s kindness to
his people Israel, and strong obligations upon them never to forsake
him:–
I. The early designation of the land of Canaan for their inheritance;
for herein it was a type and figure of our heavenly inheritance, that
it was of old ordained and prepared in the divine counsels,
v. 8.
Observe,
1. When the earth was divided among the sons of men, in the days of
Peleg, after the flood, and each family had its lot, in which it must
settle, and by degrees grow up into a nation, then God had Israel in
his thoughts and in his eye; for, designing this good land into which
they were now going to be in due time an inheritance for them, he
ordered that the posterity of Canaan, rather than any other of the
families then in being, should be planted there in the mean time, to
keep possession, as it were, till Israel was ready for it, because
those families were under the curse of Noah, by which they were
condemned to servitude and ruin
(Gen. ix. 25),
and therefore would be the more justly, honourably, easily, and
effectually, rooted out, when the fulness of time should come that
Israel should take possession. Thus he set the bounds of that people
with an eye to the designed number of the children of Israel, that they
might have just as much as would serve their turn. And some observe
that Canaan himself, and his eleven sons
&c.), make up just the number of the twelve tribes of
Israel. Note,
(1.) The wisdom of God has appointed the bounds of men’s habitation,
and determined both the place and time of our living in the world,
When he gave the earth to the children of men
(Ps. cxv. 16),
it was not that every man might catch as he could; no, he divides to
nations their inheritance, and will have every one to know his own, and
not to invade another’s property.
(2.) Infinite wisdom has a vast reach, and designs beforehand what is
brought to pass long after. Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning to the end
(Acts xv. 18),
but they are not so to us,
(3.) The great God, in governing the world, and ordering the affairs of
states and kingdoms, has a special regard to his church and people, and
consults their good in all. See
2 Chron. xvi. 9, and Isa. xlv. 4.
The Canaanites thought they had as good and sure a title to their land
as any of their neighbours had to theirs; but God intended that they
should only be tenants, till the Israelites, their landlords, came.
Thus God serves his own purposes of kindness to his people, by those
that neither know him nor love him, who mean not so, neither doth
their heart think so,
Isa. x. 7; Mic. iv. 12.
2. The reason given for the particular care God took for this people,
so long before they were either born or thought of (as I may say), in
our world, does yet more magnify the kindness, and make it obliging
beyond expression
(v. 9):
For the Lord’s portion is his people. All the world is his. He
is owner and possessor of heaven and earth, but his church is his in a
peculiar manner. It is his demesne, his vineyard, his garden enclosed.
He has a particular delight in it: it is the beloved of his soul, in it
he walks, he dwells, it is his rest for ever. He has a particular
concern for it, keeps it as the apple of his eye. He has particular
expectations from it, as a man has from his portion, has a much greater
rent of honour, glory, and worship, from that distinguished remnant,
than from all the world besides. That God should be his people’s
portion is easy to be accounted for, for he is their joy and felicity;
but how they should be his portion, who neither needs them nor can be
benefited by them, must be resolved into the wondrous condescensions of
free grace. Even so, Father, because it seemed good in thy eyes
so to call and to account them.
II. The forming of them into a people, that they might be fit to enter
upon this inheritance, like an heir of age, at the time appointed of
the Father. And herein also Canaan was a figure of the heavenly
inheritance; for, as it was from eternity proposed and designed for all
God’s spiritual Israel, so they are, in time (and it is a work of
time), fitted and made meet for it,
The deliverance of Israel out of slavery, by the destruction of their
oppressors, was attended with so many wonders obvious to sense, and had
been so often spoken of, that it needed not to be mentioned in this
song; but the gracious works God wrought upon them would be less taken
notice of than the glorious works he had wrought for them, and
therefore he chooses rather to advert to them. A great deal was done to
model this people, to cast them into some shape, and to fit them for
the great things designed for them in the land of promise; and it is
here most elegantly described.
1. He found him in a desert land,
v. 10.
This refers, no doubt, to the wilderness through which God brought them
to Canaan, and in which he took so much pains with them; it is called
the church in the wilderness,
Acts vii. 38.
There it was born, and nursed, and educated, that all might appear to
be divine and from heaven, since they had there no communication with
any part of this earth either for food or learning. But, because he is
said to find them there, it seems designed also to represent
both the bad state and the bad character of that people when God began
first to appear for them.
(1.) Their condition was forlorn. Egypt was to them a desert land, and
a waste howling wilderness, for they were bond-slaves in it, and cried
by reason of their oppression, and were perfectly bewildered and at a
loss for relief; there God found them, and thence he fetched them. And,
(2.) Their disposition was very unpromising. So ignorant were the
generality of them in divine things, so stupid and unapt to receive the
impressions of them, so peevish and humoursome, so froward and
quarrelsome, and withal so strangely addicted to the idolatries of
Egypt, that they might well be said to be found in a desert land; for
one might as reasonably expect a crop of corn from a barren wilderness
as any good fruit of service to God from a people of such a character.
Those that are renewed and sanctified by grace should often remember
what they were by nature.
2. He led him about and instructed him. When God had them in the
wilderness he did not bring them directly to Canaan, but made them go a
great way about, and so he instructed them; that is,
(1.) by this means he took time to instruct them, and gave them
commandments as they were able to receive them. Those whose business it
is to instruct others must not expect it will be done of a sudden;
learners must have time to learn.
(2.) By this means he tried their faith, and patience, and dependence
upon God, and inured them to the hardships of the wilderness, and so
instructed them. Every stage had something in it that was instructive;
even when he chastened them, he thereby taught them out of his
law. It is said
that he led them forth by the right way;. and yet here that he
led them about; for God always leads his people the right way,
however to us it may seem circuitous: so that the furthest way about
proves, if not the nearest way, yet the best way home to Canaan. How
God instructed them is explained long after
(Neh. ix. 13),
Thou gavest them right judgments and true laws, good statutes, and
commandments; and especially
(v. 20),
Thou gavest them also thy good Spirit to instruct them; and he
instructs effectually. We may well imagine how unfit that people would
have been for Canaan had they not first gone through the discipline of
the wilderness.
3. He kept him as the apple of his eye, with all the care and
tenderness that could be, from the malignant influences of an open sky
and air, and all the perils of an inhospitable desert. The pillar of
cloud and fire was both a guide and a guard to them.
4. He did that for them which the eagle does for her nest of young
ones,
The similitude was touched,
I bore you on eagles’ wings; here it is enlarged upon. The eagle
is observed to have a strong affection for her young, and to show it,
not only as other creatures by protecting them and making provision for
them, but by educating them and teaching them to fly. For this purpose
she stirs them out of the nest where they lie dozing, flutters over
them, to show them how they must use their wings, and then accustoms
them to fly upon her wings till they have learnt to fly upon their own.
This, by the way, is an example to parents to train up their children
to business, and not to indulge them in idleness and the love of ease.
God did thus by Israel; when they were in love with their slavery, and
loth to leave it, God, by Moses, stirred them up to aspire after
liberty, and many a time kept them from returning to the house of
bondage. He carried them out of Egypt, led them into the wilderness,
and now at length had led them through it. The Lord alone did lead
him, he needed not any assistance, nor did he take any to be
partner with him in the achievement, which was a good reason why they
should serve the Lord only and no other, so much as in partnership,
much less in rivalship with him. There was no strange god with him to
contribute to Israel’s salvation, and therefore there should be none to
share in Israel’s homage and adoration,
III. The settling of them in a good land. This was done in part
already, in the happy planting of the two tribes and a half, an earnest
of what would speedily and certainly be done for the rest of the
tribes.
1. They were blessed with glorious victories over their enemies
(v. 13):
He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that is, he
brought him on with conquest, and brought him home with triumph. he
rode over the high places or strong holds that were kept against him,
sat in ease and honour upon the fruitful hills of Canaan. In Egypt they
looked mean, and were so, in poverty and disgrace; but in Canaan they
looked great, and were so, advanced and enriched; they rode in state,
as a people whom the King of kings delighted to honour.
2. With great plenty of all good things. Not only the ordinary
increase of the field, but, which was uncommon, Honey out of the
rock, and oil out of the flinty rock, which may refer either,
(1.) To their miraculous supply of fresh water out of the rock that
followed them in the wilderness, which is called honey and oil,
because the necessity they were reduced to made it as sweet and
acceptable as honey and oil at another time. Or,
(2.) To the great abundance of honey and oil they should find in
Canaan, even in those parts that were least fertile. The rocks in
Canaan should yield a better increase than the fields and meadows of
other countries. Other productions of Canaan are mentioned,
Such abundance and such variety of wholesome food (and every thing the
best in its kind) that every meal might be a feast if they pleased:
excellent bread made of the best corn, here called the kidneys of
the wheat (for a grain of wheat is not unlike a kidney), butter and
milk in abundance, the flesh of cattle well fed, and for their drink,
no worse than the pure blood of the grape; so indulgent a Father
was God to them, and so kind a benefactor. Ainsworth makes the plenty
of good things in Canaan to be a figure of the fruitfulness of Christ’s
kingdom, and the heavenly comforts of his word and Spirit: for the
children of his kingdom he has butter and milk, the sincere milk of the
word; and strong meat for strong men, with the wine that makes glad the
heart.
15 But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou
art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook
God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his
salvation.
16 They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with
abominations provoked they him to anger.
17 They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they
knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers
feared not.
18 Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast
forgotten God that formed thee.
We have here a description of the apostasy of Israel from God, which
would shortly come to pass, and to which already they had a
disposition. One would have thought that a people under so many
obligations to their God, in duty, gratitude, and interest, would never
have turned from him; but, alas! they turned aside quickly. Here
are two great instances of their wickedness, and each of them amounted
to an apostasy from God:–
I. Security and sensuality, pride and insolence, and the other common
abuses of plenty and prosperity,
These people were called Jeshurun–an upright people (so some),
a seeing people, so others: but they soon lost the reputation
both of their knowledge and of their righteousness; for, being
well-fed,
1. They waxed fat, and grew thick, that is, they indulged
themselves in all manner of luxury and gratifications of their
appetites, as if they had nothing to do but to make provision for
the flesh, to fulfil the lusts of it. They grew fat, that
is, they grew big and unwieldy, unmindful of business, and unfit for
it; dull and stupid, careless and senseless; and this was the effect of
their plenty. Thus the prosperity of fools destroys them,
Prov. i. 32.
Yet this was not the worst of it.
2. They kicked; they grew proud and insolent, and lifted up
the heel even against God himself. If God rebuked them, either by
his prophets or by his providence, they kicked against the goad,
as an untamed heifer, or a bullock unaccustomed to the
yoke, and in their rage persecuted the prophets, and flew in the
face of providence itself. And thus he forsook God that made him
(not paying due respect to his creator, nor answering the ends of his
creation), and put an intolerable contempt upon the rock of his
salvation, as if he were not indebted to him for any past favours,
nor had any dependence upon him for the future. Those that make a god
of themselves and a god of their bellies, in pride and wantonness, and
cannot bear to be told of it, certainly thereby forsake God and show
how lightly they esteem him.
II. Idolatry was the great instance of their apostasy, and which the
former led them to, as it made them sick of their religion,
self-willed, and fond of changes. Observe,
1. What sort of gods they chose and offered sacrifice to, when they
forsook the God that made them,
This aggravated their sin that those very services which they should
have done to the true God they did,
(1.) To strange gods, that could not pretend to have done them
any kindness, or laid them under any obligation to them, gods that they
had no knowledge of, nor could expect any benefit by, for they were
strangers. Or they are called strange gods, because they were
other than the one only true God, to whom they were betrothed and ought
to have been faithful.
(2.) To new gods, that came newly up; for even in religion, the
antiquity of which is one of its honours, vain minds have strangely
affected novelty, and, in contempt of the Ancient of days, have been
fond of new gods. A new god! can there be a more monstrous absurdity?
Would we find the right way to rest, we must ask for the good old
way,
Jer. vi. 16.
It was true their fathers had worshipped other gods
and perhaps it had been some little excuse if the children had returned
to them; but to serve new gods whom their fathers feared not,
and to like them the better for being new, was to open a door to
endless idolatries.
(3.) They were such as were no gods at all, but mere counterfeits and
pretenders; their names the invention of men’s fancies, and their
images the work of men’s hands. Nay,
(4.) They were devils. So far from being gods, fathers and
benefactors to mankind, they really were destroyers (so
the word signifies), such as aimed to do mischief. If there were any
spirits or invisible powers that possessed their idol-temples and
images, they were evil spirits and malignant powers, whom yet they did
not need to worship for fear they should hurt them, as they say the
Indians do; for those that faithfully worship God are out of the
devil’s reach: nay, the devil can destroy those only that sacrifice to
him. How mad are idolaters, who forsake the rock of salvation to
run themselves upon the rock of perdition!
2. What a great affront this was to Jehovah their God.
(1.) It was justly interpreted a forgetting of him
(v. 18):
Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful. Mindfulness of
God would prevent sin, but, when the world is served and the flesh
indulged, God is forgotten; and can any thing be more base and unworthy
than to forget the God that is the author of our being, by whom we
subsist, and in whom we live and move? And see what comes of it,
Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not
been mindful of the Rock of thy strength, though the strange slips
be pleasant plants at first, yet the harvest at last will be a heap
in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow. There is nothing got
by forgetting God.
(2.) It was justly resented as an inexcusable offence: They provoked
him to jealousy and to anger
(v. 16),
for their idols were abominations to him. See here God’s displeasure
against idols, whether they be set up in the heart or in the sanctuary.
[1.] He is jealous of them, as rivals with him for the throne in the
heart.
[2.] He hates them, as enemies to his crown and government.
[3.] He is, and will be, very angry with those that have any respect or
affection for them. Those consider not what they do that provoke God;
for who knows the power of his anger?
19 And when the LORD saw it, he abhorred them, because of
the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters.
20 And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what
their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation,
children in whom is no faith.
21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God;
they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will
move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will
provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
22 For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the
lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and
set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
23 I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows
upon them.
24 They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning
heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of
beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.
25 The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the
young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of
gray hairs.
The method of this song follows the method of the predictions in the
foregoing chapter, and therefore, after the revolt of Israel from God,
described in the
here follow immediately the resolves of divine Justice concerning them;
we deceive ourselves if we think that God will be thus mocked by a
foolish faithless people, that play fast and loose with him.
I. He had delighted in them, but now he would reject them with
detestation and disdain,
When the Lord saw their treachery, and folly, and base ingratitude, he
abhorred them, he despised them, so some read it. Sin makes us odious
in the sight of the holy God; and no sinners are so loathsome to him as
those that he has called, and that have called themselves, his sons and
his daughters, and yet have been provoking to him. Note, The nearer any
are to God in profession the more noisome are they to him if they are
defiled in a sinful way,
II. He had given them the tokens of his presence with them and his
favour to them; but now he would withdraw and hide his face from
them,
v. 20.
His hiding his face signifies his great displeasure; they had
turned their back upon God, and now God would turn his back upon
them (compare
Jer. xviii. 17 with Jer. ii. 27);
but here it denotes also the slowness of God’s proceedings against them
in a way of judgment. They began in their apostasy with omissions of
good, and so proceeded to commissions of evil. In like manner God will
first suspend his favours, and let them see what the issue of that will
be, what a friend they lose when they provoke God to depart, and will
try whether this will bring them to repentance. Thus we find God hiding
himself, as it were, in expectation of the event,
To justify himself in leaving them he shows that they were such as
there was no dealing with; for,
1. They were froward and a people that could not be pleased, or
obstinate in sin, and that could not be convinced and reclaimed.
2. They were faithless, and a people that could not be trusted. When
he saved them, and took them into covenant, he said, Surely they are
children that will not lie
but when they proved otherwise, children in whom is no faith,
they deserved to be abandoned, and that the God of truth should have no
more to do with them.
III. He had done every thing to make them easy and to please them, but
now he would do that against them which should be most vexatious to
them. The punishment here answers the sin,
1. They had provoked God with despicable deities which were not gods at
all, but vanities, creatures of their own imagination, that could not
pretend either to merit or to repay the respects of their worshippers;
the more vain and vile the gods were after which they went a whoring
the greater was the offence to that great and good God whom they set
them up in competition with and contradiction to. This put two great
evils into their idolatry,
2. God would therefore plague them with despicable enemies, that were
worthless, weak, and inconsiderable, and not deserving the name of a
people, which was a great mortification to them, and aggravated the
oppressions they groaned under The more base the people were that
tyrannised over them the more barbarous they would be (none so insolent
as a beggar on horseback), besides that it would be infamous to Israel,
who had so often triumphed over great and mighty nations, to be
themselves trampled upon by the weak and foolish, and to come under the
curse of Canaan, who was to be a servant of servants. But God can make
the weakest instrument a scourge to the strongest sinner; and those
that by sin insult their might Creator are justly insulted by the
meanest of their fellow-creatures. This was remarkably fulfilled in the
days of the judges, when they were sometimes oppressed by the very
Canaanites themselves, whom they had subdued,
But the apostle applies it to the conversion of the Gentiles, who had
been a people not in covenant with God, and foolish in divine things,
yet were brought into the church, sorely to the grief of the Jews, who
upon all occasions showed a great indignation at it, which was both
their sin and their punishment, as envy always is,
IV. He had planted them in a good land, and replenished them with all
good things; but now he would strip them of all their comforts, and
bring them to ruin. The judgments threatened are very terrible,
1. The fire of God’s anger shall consume them,
Are they proud of their plenty? It shall burn up the increase of the
earth. Are they confident of their strength? It shall destroy the very
foundations of their mountains: there is no fence against the judgments
of God when they come with commission to lay all waste. It shall burn
to the lowest hell, that is, it shall bring them to the very depth of
misery in this world, which yet would be but a faint resemblance of the
complete and endless misery of sinners in the other world. The
damnation of hell (as our Saviour calls it) is the fire of God’s anger,
fastening upon the guilty conscience of a sinner, to its inexpressible
and everlasting torment,
2. The arrows of God’s judgments shall be spent upon them, till his
quiver is quite exhausted,
The judgments of God, like arrows, fly swiftly
(Ps. lxiv. 7),
reaching those at a distance who flatter themselves with hopes of
escaping them,
They come from an unseen hand, but wound mortally, for God never misses
his mark,
The particular judgments here threatened are,
(1.) Famine: they shall be burnt, or parched, with
hunger.
(2.) Pestilence and other diseases, here called burning heat and
bitter destruction.
(3.) The insults of the inferior creatures: the teeth of beasts and
the poison of serpents,
v. 24.
(4.) War and the fatal consequences of it,
[1.] Perpetual frights. When the sword is without, there cannot
but be terror within.
2 Cor. vii. 5,
Without were fightings, within were fears. Those who cast off
the fear of God are justly exposed to the fear of enemies.
[2.] Universal deaths. The sword of the Lord, when it is sent to lay
all waste, will destroy without distinction; neither the strength of
the young man nor the beauty of the virgin, neither the innocency of
the suckling nor the gravity or infirmity of the man of gray hairs,
will be their security from the sword when it devours one as well as
another. Such devastation does war make, especially when it is pushed
on by men as ravenous as wild beasts and as venomous as serpents,
See here what mischief sin does, and reckon those fools that make a
mock at it.
26 I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the
remembrance of them to cease from among men:
27 Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their
adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they
should say, Our hand is high, and the LORD hath not done all
this.
28 For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there
any understanding in them.
29 O that they were wise, that they understood this, that
they would consider their latter end!
30 How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to
flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut
them up?
31 For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies
themselves being judges.
32 For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields
of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters
are bitter:
33 Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom
of asps.
34 Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up
among my treasures?
35 To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot
shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at
hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.
36 For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for
his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and
there is none shut up, or left.
37 And he shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in
whom they trusted,
38 Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the
wine of their drink offerings? let them rise up and help you,
and be your protection.
After many terrible threatenings of deserved wrath and vengeance, we
have here surprising intimations of mercy, undeserved mercy, which
rejoices against judgment, and by which it appears that God has no
pleasure in the death of sinners, but would rather they should
turn and live.
I. In jealousy for his own honour, he will not make a full end
of them,
1. It cannot be denied but that they deserved to be utterly ruined, and
that their remembrance should be made to cease from among men,
so that the name of an Israelite should never be known but in history;
for they were a nation void of counsel
(v. 28),
the most sottish inconsiderate people that ever were, that would not
believe the gory of God, though they saw it, nor understand his loving
kindness, though they tasted it and lived upon it. Of those who could
cast off such a God, such a law, such a covenant, for vain and
dunghill-deities, it might truly be said, There is no understanding
in them.
2. It would have been an easy thing with God to ruin them and blot out
the remembrance of them; when the greatest part of them were cut off by
the sword, it was but scattering the remnant into some remote obscure
corners of the earth, where they should never have been heard of any
more, and the thing had been done. See
God can destroy those that are most strongly fortified, disperse those
that are most closely united, and bury those names in perpetual
oblivion that have been most celebrated.
3. Justice demanded it: I said I would scatter them. It is fit
those should be cut off from the earth that have cut themselves off
from their God; why should they not be dealt with according to their
deserts?
4. Wisdom considered the pride and insolence of the enemy, which would
take occasion from the ruin of a people that had been so dear to God,
and for whom he had done such great things, to reflect upon God and to
imagine that because they had got the better of Israel they had carried
the day against the God of Israel: The adversaries will say, Our
hand is high, high indeed, when it has been too high for those whom
God himself fought for; nor will they consider that the Lord has
done all this, but will dream that they have done it in despite of
him, as if the God of Israel were as weak and impotent, and as easily
run down, as the pretended deities of other nations.
5. In consideration of this, Mercy prevails for the sparing of a
remnant and the saving of that unworthy people from utter ruin: I
feared the wrath of the enemy. It is an expression after the manner
of men; it is certain that God fears no man’s wrath, but he acted in
this matter as if he had feared it. Those few good people in Israel
that had a concern for the honour of God’s name feared the wrath of
the enemy in this instance more than in any other, as Joshua
(Josh. vii. 9),
and David often; and, because they feared it, God himself is said to
fear it. He needed not Moses to plead it with him, but reminded himself
of it: What will the Egyptians say? Let all those whose hearts
tremble for the ark of God and his Israel comfort themselves with this,
that God will work for his own name, and will not suffer it to
be profaned and polluted: how much soever we deserve to be disgraced,
God will never disgrace the throne of his glory.
II. In concern for their welfare, he earnestly desires their
conversion; and, in order to that, their serious consideration of their
latter end,
Observe,
1. Though God had pronounced them a foolish people and of no
understanding, yet he wishes they were wise, as
O that there were such a heart in them! and
You fools, when will you be wise? God delights not to see
sinners ruin themselves, but desires they will help themselves; and, if
they will, he is ready to help them.
2. It is a great piece of wisdom, and will contribute much to the
return of sinners to God, seriously to consider the latter end, or the
future state. It is here meant particularly of that which God by Moses
had foretold concerning this people in the latter days: but it may be
applied more generally. We ought to understand and consider,
(1.) The latter end of life, and the future state of the soul. To think
of death as our removal from a world of sense to a world of spirits,
the final period of our state of trial and probation, and our entrance
upon an unchangeable state of recompence and retribution.
(2.) The latter end of sin, and the future state of those that live and
die in it. O that men would consider the happiness they will lose, and
the misery they will certainly plunge themselves into, if they go on
still in their trespasses, what will be in the end thereof,
Jer. v. 31.
Jerusalem forgot this, and therefore came down wonderfully,
Lam. i. 9.
III. He calls to mind the great things he had done for them formerly,
as a reason why he should not quite cast them off. This seems to be the
meaning of that
(v. 30, 31),
“How should one Israelite have been too hard for a thousand Canaanites,
as they have been many a time, but that God, who is greater than all
gods, fought for them!” And so it corresponds with that,
When he was turned to be their enemy, as here, and fought
against them for their sins, then he remembered the days of
old, saying, Where is he that brought them out of the sea?
So here, his arm begins to awake as in the days of old against the
wrath of the enemy,
Ps. cxxxviii. 7.
There was a time when the enemies of Israel were sold by their own
rock, that is, their own idol-gods, who could not help them, but
betrayed them, because Jehovah, the God of Israel, had shut them up as
sheep for the slaughter. For the enemies themselves must own that their
gods were a very unequal match for the God of Israel. For their vine
is of the vine of Sodom,
v. 32, 33.
This must be meant of the enemies of Israel, who fell so easily before
the sword of Israel because they were ripe for ruin, and the measure of
their iniquity was full. Yet these verses may be understood of the
strange prevalency of the enemies of Israel against them, when God made
use of them as the rod of his anger,
Isa. x. 5, 6.
“How should one Canaanite chase a thousand Israelites” (as it is
threatened against those that trust to Egypt for help,
One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one) “unless Israel’s
rock had deserted them and given them up.” For otherwise, however they
may impute their power to their gods
(Hab. i. 11),
as the Philistines imputed their victory to Dagon, it is certain the
enemies’ rock could not have prevailed against the rock of Israel; God
would soon have subdued their enemies
but that the wickedness of Israel delivered them into their hands. For
their vine, that is, Israel’s, is of the vine of Sodom,
v. 32, 33.
They were planted a choice vine, wholly a right seed, but by sin had
become the degenerate plant of a strange vine
(Jer. ii. 21),
and not only transcribed the iniquity of Sodom, but outdid it,
God called them his vineyard, his pleasant plant,
Isa. v. 7.
But their fruits were,
1. Very offensive, and displeasing to God, bitter as gall. 2 Very
malignant, and pernicious one to another, like the cruel venom of
asps. Some understand this of their punishment; their sin would be
bitterness in the latter end
it would bite like a serpent and sting like an adder,
Job xx. 14; Prov. xxiii. 32.
IV. He resolves upon the destruction of those at last that had been
their persecutors and oppressors. When the cup of trembling goes round,
the king of Babel shall pledge it at last,
and see
The day is coming when the judgment that began at the house of God
shall end with the sinner and ungodly,
God will in due time bring down the church’s enemies.
1. In displeasure against their wickedness, which he takes notice of,
and keeps an account of,
“Is not this implacable fury of theirs against Israel laid up in
store with me, to be reckoned for hereafter, when it shall be made
to appear that to me belongs vengeance?” Some understand it of
the sin of Israel, especially their persecuting the prophets, which was
laid up in store against them from the blood of righteous Abel,
Matt. xxiii. 35.
However it teaches us that the wickedness of the wicked is all laid up
in store with God.
(1.) He observes it,
He knows both what the vine is and what the grapes are, what is the
temper of the mind and what are the actions of life.
(2.) He keeps a record of it both in his own omniscience and in the
sinner’s conscience; and this is sealed up among his treasures,
which denotes both safety and secresy: these books cannot be lost, nor
will they be opened till the great day. See
(3.) He often delays the punishment of sin for a great while; it is
laid up in store, till the measure be full, and the day of divine
patience has expired. See
(4.) There is a day of reckoning coming, when all the treasures of
guilt and wrath will be broken up, and the sin of sinners shall surely
find them out.
[1.] The thing itself will certainly be done, for the Lord is a God
to whom vengeance belongs, and therefore he will repay,
This is quoted by the apostle to show the severity of God’s wrath
against those that revolt from the faith of Christ,
[2.] It will be done in due time, in the best time; nay, it will be
done in a short time. The day of their calamity is at hand;
and, though it may seem to tarry, it lingers not, it slumbers not, but
makes haste. In one hour, shall the judgment of Babylon
come.
2. He will do it in compassion to his own people, who, though they had
greatly provoked him, yet stood in relation to him, and their misery
appealed to his mercy
(v. 36):
The Lord shall judge his people,. that is, judge for them
against their enemies, plead their cause, and break the yoke of
oppression under which they had long groaned, repenting himself for
his servants; not changing his mind, but changing his way, and
fighting for them, as he had fought against them, when he sees that
their power is gone. This plainly points at the deliverances God
wrought for Israel by the judges out of the hands of those to whom he
had sold them for their sins (see
and how his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel
(Judg. x. 16),
and this when they were reduced to the last extremity. God helped them
when they could not help themselves; for there was none shut up or
left; that is, none that dwelt either in cities or walled towns, in
which they were shut up, nor any that dwelt in scattered houses in the
country, in which they were left at a distance from neighbours. Note,
God’s time to appear for the deliverance of his people is when things
are at the worst with them. God tries his people’s faith, and stirs up
prayer, by letting things go to the worst, and then magnifies his own
power, and fills the faces of his enemies with shame and the hearts of
his people with so much the greater joy, by rescuing them out of
extremity as brands out of the burning.
3. He will do it in contempt and to the reproach of idol-gods,
Where are their gods? Two ways it may be understood:
(1.) That God would do that for his people which the idols they had
served could not do for them. They had forsaken God, and been very
liberal in their sacrifices to idols, had brought to their altars the
fat of their sacrifices and the wine of their
drink-offerings, which they supposed their deities to feed upon and
on which they feasted with them. “Now,” says God, “will these gods you
have made your court to, at so great an expense, help you in your
distress, and so repay you for all your charges in their service? Go
get you to the gods you have served, and let them deliver you,
Judg. x. 14.
This is intended to convince them of their folly in forsaking a God
that could help them for gods that could not, and so to bring them to
repentance and qualify them for deliverance. When the adulteress shall
follow after her lovers and not overtake them, pray to
her idols and receive no kindness from them, then she shall say, I
will go and return to my first husband,
Hos. ii. 7.
See
Isa. xvi. 12; Jer. ii. 27, 28.
Or,
(2.) That God would do that against his enemies which the idols they
had served could not save them from, Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar
boldly challenged the God of Israel to deliver his worshippers
(Isa. xxxvii. 10; Dan. iii. 15),
and he did deliver them, to the confusion of their enemies. But the God
of Israel challenged Bel and Nebo to deliver their worshippers, to rise
up and help them, and to be their protection
but they were so far from helping them that they themselves, that is,
their images, which was all that was of them, went into
captivity,
Isa. xlvi. 1, 2.
Note, Those who trust to any rock but God will find it sand in the day
of their distress; it will fail them when they most need it.
39 See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god
with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither
is there any that can deliver out of my hand.
40 For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever.
41 If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on
judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will
reward them that hate me.
42 I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall
devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the
captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy.
43 Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge
the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his
adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his
people.
This conclusion of the song speaks three things:
I. Glory to God,
“See now upon the whole matter, that I, even I, am he. Learn
this from the destruction of idolaters, and the inability of their
idols to help them.” The great God here demands the glory,
1. Of a self-existence: I, even I, am he. Thus Moses concludes
with that name of God by which he was first made to know him
“I am that I am. I am he that I have been, that I will be, that
I have promised to be, that I have threatened to be; all shall find me
true to my word.” The Targum of Uzzielides paraphrases it thus: When
the Word of the Lord shall reveal himself to redeem his people, he
shall say to all people, See that I now am what I am, and have been,
and I am what I will be, which we know very well how to apply to
him who said to John, I am he who is, and was, and is to come,
Rev. i. 8.
These words, I even I, am he, we meet with often in those
chapters of Isaiah where God is encouraging his people to hope for
their deliverance out of Babylon,
xliii. 11, 13, 25; xlvi. 4.
2. Of a sole supremacy. “There is no god with me. None to help
with me, none to cope with me.” See
3. Of an absolute sovereignty, a universal agency: I kill, and I
make alive; that is, all evil and all good come from his hand to
providence; he forms both the light of life and the darkness of death,
Isa. xlv. 7; Lam. iii. 37, 38.
Or, He kills and wounds his enemies, but heals and makes alive his own
people, kills and wounds with his judgments those that revolt from him
and rebel against him; but, when they return and repent, he heals them,
and makes them alive with his mercy and grace. Or it denotes his
incontestable authority to dispose of all his creatures, and the beings
he has given them, so as to serve his own purposes by them: Whom he
will he slays, and whom he will he keeps alive, when his judgments
are abroad. Or thus, Though he kill, yet he makes alive again:
though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion,
Lam. iii. 32.
Though he have torn, he will heal us,
Hos. vi. 1, 2.
The Jerusalem Targum reads it, I kill those that are alive in this
world, and make those alive in the other world that are dead. And
some of the Jewish doctors themselves have observed that death, and a
life after it, that is, eternal life, is intimated in these words.
4. Of an irresistible power, which cannot be controlled: Neither is
there any that can deliver out of my hand those that I have marked
for destruction. As no exception can be made against the sentence of
God’s justice, so no escape can be made from the executions of his
power.
II. Terror to his enemies,
Terror indeed to those that hate him, as all those do that serve other
gods, that persist in wilful disobedience to the divine law, and that
malign and persecute his faithful servants. These are those to whom God
will render vengeance, those his enemies that will not have him to
reign over them. In order to alarm such in time to repent and return to
their allegiance, the wrath of God is here revealed from heaven against
them.
1. The divine sentence is ratified with an oath
(v. 40):
He lifts up his hand to heaven, the habitation of his holiness;
this was an ancient and very significant sign used in swearing,
And, since he could swear by no greater, he swears by himself and his
own life. Those are miserable without remedy that have the word and
oath of God against them. The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent,
that the sin of sinners shall be their ruin if they go on in it.
2. Preparation is made for the execution: The glittering sword is
whet. See
It is a sword bathed in heaven,
Isa. xxxiv. 5.
While the sword is in whetting, space is given to the sinner to repent
and make his peace, which, if he neglects, will render the wound the
deeper. And, as the sword is whet, so the hand that is to wield it
takes hold on judgment with a resolution to go through with it.
3. The execution itself will be very terrible: The sword shall
devour flesh in abundance, and the arrows be made drunk
with blood, such vast quantities of it shall be shed, the blood of
the slain in battle, and of the captives, to whom no quarter shall be
given, but who shall be put under military execution. When he begins
revenge he will make an end; for in this also his work is perfect. The
critics are much perplexed with the last clause, From the beginning
of revenges upon the enemy. The learned bishop Patrick (that great
master) thinks it may admit this reading, From the king to the slave
of the enemies,
Jer. l. 35-37.
When the sword of God’s wrath is drawn it will make bloody work, blood
to the horse-bridles,
III. Comfort to his own people
(v. 43):
Rejoice, O you nations, with his people. He concludes the song
with words of joy; for in God’s Israel there is a remnant whose end
will be peace. God’s people will rejoice at last, will rejoice
everlastingly. Three things are here mentioned as the matter of joy:–
1. The enlarging of the church’s bounds. The apostle applies the first
words of this verse to the conversion of the Gentiles.
Rejoice you Gentiles with his people. See what the grace of God
does in the conversion of souls, it brings them to rejoice with the
people of God; for true religion brings us acquainted with true joy, so
great a mistake are those under that think it tends to make men
melancholy.
2. The avenging of the church’s controversies upon her adversaries. He
will make inquisition for the blood of his servants, and it
shall appear how precious it is to him; for those that spilt it shall
have blood given them to drink.
3. The mercy God has in store for his church, and for all that belong
to it: He will be merciful to his land, and to his people, that
is, to all every where that fear and serve him. Whatever judgments are
brought upon sinners, it shall go well with the people of God; in this
let Jews and Gentiles rejoice together.
44 And Moses came and spake all the words of this song in the
ears of the people, he, and Hoshea the son of Nun.
45 And Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all
Israel:
46 And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words
which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your
children to observe to do, all the words of this law.
47 For it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your
life: and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the
land, whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.
48 And the LORD spake unto Moses that selfsame day, saying,
49 Get thee up into this mountain Abarim, unto mount Nebo,
which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho;
and behold the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of
Israel for a possession:
50 And die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered
unto thy people; as Aaron thy brother died in mount Hor, and was
gathered unto his people:
51 Because ye trespassed against me among the children of
Israel at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin;
because ye sanctified me not in the midst of the children of
Israel.
52 Yet thou shalt see the land before thee; but thou shalt
not go thither unto the land which I give the children of Israel.
Here is,
I. The solemn delivery of this song to the children of Israel,
Moses spoke it to as many as could hear him, while Joshua, in another
assembly, at the same time, delivered it to as many as his voice would
reach. Thus coming to them from the mouth of both their governors,
Moses who was laying down the government, and Joshua who was taking it
up, they would see they were both in the same mind, and that, though
they changed their commander, there was no change in the divine
command; Joshua, as well as Moses, would be a witness against them if
ever they forsook God.
II. An earnest charge to them to mind these and all the rest of the
good words that Moses had said to them. How earnestly does he long
after them all, how very desirous that the word of God might make deep
and lasting impressions upon them, how jealous over them with a godly
jealousy, lest they should at any time let slip these great things!
1. The duties he charges upon them are,
(1.) Carefully to attend to these themselves: “Set your hearts both to
the laws, and to the promises and threatenings, the blessings and
curses, and now at last to this song. Let the mind be closely applied
to the consideration of these things; be affected with them; be intent
upon your duty, and cleave to it with full purpose of heart.”
(2.) Faithfully to transmit these things to those that should come
after them: “What interest you have in your children, or influence upon
them, use it for this purpose; and command them (as your father
Abraham did,
to observe to do all the words of this law.” Those that are good
themselves cannot but desire that their children may be so likewise,
and that posterity may keep up religion in their day and the entail of
it may not be cut off.
2. The arguments he uses to persuade them to make religion their
business and to persevere in it are,
(1.) The vast importance of the things themselves which he had charged
upon them
(v. 47):
“It is not a vain thing, because it is your life. It is not an
indifferent thing, but of absolute necessity; it is not a trifle, but a
matter of consequence, a matter of life and death; mind it, and you are
made for ever; neglect it, and you are for ever undone.” O that men
were but fully persuaded of this, that religion is their life, even the
life of their souls!
(2.) The vast advantage it would be of to them: Through this thing
you shall prolong your days in Canaan, which is a typical promise
of that eternal life which Christ has assured us those shall enter into
that keep the commandments of God,
III. Orders given to Moses concerning his death. Now that this renowned
witness for God had finished his testimony, he must go up to Mount Nebo
and die; in the prophecy of Christ’s two witnesses there is a plain
allusion to Moses and Elias
(Rev. xi. 6),
and perhaps their removal, being by martyrdom, is no less glorious than
the removal either of Moses or Elias. Orders were given to Moses that
self-same day,
Now that he had done his work, why should he desire to live a day
longer? He had indeed formerly prayed that he might go over Jordan, but
now he is entirely satisfied, and, as God had bidden him, saith no
more of that matter.
1. God here reminds him of the sin he had been guilty of, for which he
was excluded Canaan
(v. 51),
that he might the more patiently bear the rebuke because he had sinned,
and that now he might renew his sorrow for that unadvised word, for it
is good for the best of men to die repenting of the infirmities they
are conscious to themselves of. It was an omission that was thus
displeasing to God; he did not sanctify God, as he ought to have
done, before the children of Israel, he did not carry himself
with a due decorum in executing the orders he had then received.
2. He reminds him of the death of his brother Aaron
(v. 50),
to make his own the more familiar and the less formidable. Note, It is
a great encouragement to us, when we die, to think of our friends that
have gone before us through that darksome valley, especially of Christ,
our elder brother and great high priest.
3. He sends him up to a high hill, thence to take a view of the land of
Canaan and then die,
The remembrance of his sin might make death terrible, but the sight God
gave him of Canaan took off the terror of it, as it was a token of
God’s being reconciled to him, and a plain indication to him that
though his sin shut him out of the earthly Canaan, yet it should not
deprive him of that better country which in this world can only be
seen, and that with an eye of faith. Note, Those may die with comfort
and ease whenever God calls for them (notwithstanding the sins they
remember against themselves) who have a believing prospect and a
well-grounded hope of eternal life beyond death.
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