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The Advantages of Revelation. (b. c. 1451.)
THE ADVANTAGES OF REVELATION. (B. C. 1451.) Moses here urges them to obedience from the consideration of the plainness and easiness of the command. I. This is true of the law of Moses. They could never plead in excuse o…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 30:11-14
(comp. with Romans 10:6-13).— The word of faith. No Christian preacher is likely ever to deal with these words of Moses without setting by the side thereof the words of the Apostle Paul respecting them, in which, indeed…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 30:11-14
The revelation at man's door. We have a very beautiful thought inserted by Moses regarding the proximity and handiness—if we may be allowed the thought—of God's commandments. It is used by Paul in the same connection, a…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 30:11-14
Revealed truth clear and available. Dishonest minds are wont to plead that religious truth is recondite, self-contradictory, hard to be understood. Its obligations too, they aver, are impracticable, beyond the power of…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 30:11-14
The word of faith. Paul, in Romans 10:6-10, applies these words to the "righteousness of faith," and contrasts them with the voice of the Law, which is, "The man which doeth those things shall live by them" (Romans 10:5…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 30:11-14
The fulfillment of this condition was not impossible or even difficult; for God had done everything to render it easy for them. The commandment of God was not hidden from them; literally, was not wonderful to them; i.e.…
Matthew Henry on Deuteronomy 30:15-20
What could be said more moving, and more likely to make deep and lasting impressions? Every man wishes to obtain life and good, and to escape death and evil; he desires happiness, and dreads misery. So great is the comp…
Matthew Henry on Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Moses here concludes with a very bright light, and a very strong fire, that, if possible, what he had been preaching of might find entrance into the understanding and affections of this unthinking people. What could be…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 30:15-20
A last word. I. AN ALTERNATIVE. Life and death; good and evil (Deuteronomy 30:15); blessing and cursing (Deuteronomy 30:19). An alternative for the nation, but also for the individual. "Life" is more than existence—it i…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Death and life set before the people. In this earnest word which concludes a section of his address to the people, Moses is summing up his deliverance. It has been called by Havernick "the classic passage" upon the subj…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 30:15-20
An alternative choice. The prophet's power to persuade and influence a people is great—unspeakably great; yet it is not irresistible. It has its limits. After all that has been said to him, a man feels that the determin…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Moses concludes by solemnly adjuring the people, as he had set before them, in his proclamation of the Law and in his preaching, good and evil, life and death, to choose the former and eschew the latter, to love and ser…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 30:15-20
A dread alternative. While handling substantially the same momentous themes, the aged lawgiver, as if the thought were oppressing him that he should very soon speak his last word, becomes more and more intensely earnest…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 30:17
(Cf. Deuteronomy 4:19.)
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 30:19
(Cf. Deuteronomy 4:26.)
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 30:19
Nature a witness. (See for other instances, Deuteronomy 4:26; Deuteronomy 31:28; Deuteronomy 32:1; Isaiah 1:2.) The invocation of heaven and earth as witnesses turns on deep principles. They are "called to record"— I. B…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 30:20
For he is thy life; rather, for this is thy life; to love the Lord is really to live the true, the higher life (cf. Deuteronomy 4:40; Deuteronomy 32:47). HOMILETICS
Matthew Henry on Deuteronomy 31:1-8
Moses assures Israel of the constant presence of God with them. This is applied by the apostle to all God's spiritual Israel, to encourage their faith and hope; unto us is this gospel preached, as well as unto them; he…
Solemn Warnings; Joshua Encouraged. (b. c. 1451.)
SOLEMN WARNINGS; JOSHUA ENCOURAGED. (B. C. 1451.) Loth to part (we say) bids oft farewell. Moses does so to the children of Israel: not because he was loth to go to God, but because he was loth to leave them, fearing th…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 31:1-8
The leadership made over to Joshua. There is something wonderfully pathetic in the great leader, whose eye is yet undimmed, laying down his trust beside the Jordan. He is a hundred and twenty years old, but the Lord hat…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 31:1-30
PART IV.—FAREWELL ADDRESS OF MOSES, WITH HIS PARTING SONG AND BENEDICTION. CHAPTERS 31-33. EXPOSITION Moses had now finished his work as the legislator and ruler and leader of Israel. But ere he finally retired from his…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 31:1-13
Last acts of Moses.
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 31:1
And Moses went; i.e. disposed or set himself. The meaning is not that he "went away" into the tent of teaching, as one of the Targums explains it, which does not agree with what follows; nor is "went" merely equivalent…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 31:1-13
A new generation receiving the heritage of the past. The closing scene of Moses' life is drawing nigh. The time is at hand when he and Israel must part, and the leadership must be undertaken by another. As far as can be…