PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Deuteronomy
Harper, Andrew · 161,366 words · 197 reading sections
_Education--Mosaic View_
It is here implied that the Israelite people when they entered Canaan had some moral education to lose. Whether that could be so is the question asked by many critics, and their answer is an emphatic No. They were, say they, a rude, desert people, without settled habits of life, without knowledge of agriculture, and po…
667 wordsSECTION 62_Education--Mosaic View_
Allowing all that can be allowed for exceptional influences in Israel, we may well believe that the circumstances of the first invaders were such as would strain the influence of the higher religion upon the nation. And after the conquest and settlement the strain would necessarily be greater still. Whatever drawbacks …
720 wordsSECTION 63_Education--Mosaic View_
To sum up, given a great truth revealed to one man, which, though accepted by a nation, is only half understood by the bulk of them, and given also a great national deliverance and expansion brought about by the same leader, you have there the elements of a great enthusiasm with the seeds of its own decay within it. Su…
1,176 wordsSECTION 64_Education--Mosaic View_
The instrument put into the hands of Israel was, viewed ideally, quite adequate for the work it had to do. But the history of Israel shows that the effort to keep Yahweh continually present to the mind of the people failed; and the question arises, why did it fail? If, as we have every reason to believe, the main tende…
901 wordsSECTION 65_Education--Mosaic View_
But though this plan failed miserably in one way, in the way of gaining the bulk of the people, it succeeded in another. As has just been said, _the_ purpose of God was in any case accomplished. But even apart from that, the religious education that was given was of immense importance. It raised the level of life for a…
362 wordsSECTION 66_The Ban_
DEUT. vii. As in the previous chapter we have had the Mosaic and Deuteronomic statement of the internal and spiritual means of defending the Israelite character and faith from the temptations which the conquest in Canaan would bring with it, in this we have strenuous provision made against the same evil by external me…
682 wordsSECTION 67_The Ban_
[55] Driver, _Notes on Hebrew Text of the Books of Samuel_, p. 101, note. In the ancient laws repeated in Lev. xxvii. 28, 29, two classes of devoted things seem to be referred to. First of all, we have the things which an individual may devote to God, "whether of man or beast, or of the field of his possession." The …
820 wordsSECTION 68_The Ban_
By the Divine appointment the national life of Israel was bound up with the foundation and progress of true religion. It was in this people that the seeds of the highest religion were to be planted, and it was by means of it that all the nations of the earth were to be blessed. But as the chief means to this end was to…
1,052 wordsSECTION 69_The Ban_
But it may be and should be asked, Would any circumstances justify Christian men, or a Christian nation, in entering upon a war of extermination now? and if not, how can a war of extermination against the Canaanities have been sanctioned by God? In answer to the first question, it must be said that, while circumstances…
697 wordsSECTION 70_The Ban_
[57] Mozley's _Lectures on the Old Testament_, p. 102. But the grounds for the action were immeasurably raised. Instead of being left on the heathen level, "the usage was utilised so as to harmonise with the principles of their religion, and to satisfy its needs. It became a mode of secluding and rendering harmless an…
793 wordsSECTION 71_The Ban_
[59] Riehm, _Old Testament Theology_, p. 98. To press home this, to induce Israel to respond to this demand, to convince them anew of their obligation to go any length to keep their position as a people holy to Yahweh, our chapter urges a variety of reasons. The first (vv. 7-11) is that the history and grounds of thei…
750 wordsSECTION 72_The Ban In Modern Life_
Notwithstanding the Divine urgency, the command to destroy the Canaanites and their idols was not carried out. After a victory or two the enemy began to submit. Glad to be rid of the toils of war, Israel settled down among the people of the land. All central control would seem to have disappeared. The Canaanite worship…
674 wordsSECTION 73_The Ban In Modern Life_
For much of this progress, as some call it, no reasoned justification has been attempted, but it has been defended in part by the allegation that the circumstances which make the "ban" necessary to the very life of the ancient people of God have passed away, now that social and political life has been Christianised. Ev…
1,078 wordsSECTION 74_The Ban In Modern Life_
[60] _The Social Movements of the Age_, by Professor Pearson, Melbourne Church Congress, 1882. But that does not imply that we should seek to renew the various imperfect and external devices by which past times sought to attain this exceedingly desirable end. Experience has taught the folly and futility of sumptuary …
1,218 wordsSECTION 75_The Ban In Modern Life_
[62] _Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson_, by his wife. In the character of Milton we find the same essential elements, the same purity in youth, which, with his beauty, won for him the name of the Lady of his College; the same courage and public spirit in manhood; the same love of music and of culture. After his Universit…
1,017 wordsSECTION 76_The Ban In Modern Life_
When men lose spiritual touch with their own character they are apt to throw themselves back for guidance in such matters upon the general opinion of the Christian community, or the tradition of the elders. In doing so they are in danger of losing sincerity in a mass of formalism. But if a vivid apprehension of the nee…
1,164 wordsSECTION 77_The Ban In Modern Life_
Lastly, however common it may be for men to sit down in selfish isolation and devote themselves to their own interests, even though these be spiritual, in the face of remediable evils, that is not the Christian manner of acting. Of the great Puritans we mentioned, Spenser endured hardness in that terrible Irish war whi…
755 wordsSECTION 78_The Ban In Modern Life_
All this means the entrance into public life of Christian men of the highest type. Such men the Christian community must supply to the State in great numbers, if the higher characteristics of our people are not to be lost. Through a long and eventful history, by the manifold training afforded by religion and experience…
274 wordsSECTION 79_The Bread Of The Soul_
DEUT. viii. In the chapters which follow, viz. viii., ix., and x. 1-11, we have an appeal to history as a motive for fulfilling the fundamental duty of loving God and keeping His commandments. In its main points it is substantially the same appeal which is made in chapters i.-iii., is, in fact, a continuation of it. I…
850 wordsSECTION 80_The Bread Of The Soul_
These two then, that hardship was testing discipline for Israel, and that it was also intended to be the means of revealing spirit as the supreme force even in the material world, are the main lessons of the eighth chapter. Of these the last is by far the most important. Casting back his eye upon the past, the author o…
863 wordsSECTION 81_The Bread Of The Soul_
How great an attainment it is we may see, if we reflect for a moment upon the state of Christian Europe at the present day. Nowhere among the masses of the most cultured nations is this deeply simple truth accepted by the vast majority of men. Nowhere do we find that history has succeeded in bringing it home to the con…
877 wordsSECTION 82_The Bread Of The Soul_
It may be said that they flourished for more than a thousand years, and neglect of the Divine word, if it be a poison, must (as Fénélon said of coffee) be a very slow one, so far as nations are concerned. But it has always been a snare to men to mistake the Divine patience for Divine indifference and inaction. The move…
831 wordsSECTION 83_The Bread Of The Soul_
[64] _Contemporary Review_, August 1893 p. 293. In Christendom, too, the same lesson is being taught. Of all European countries France perhaps is that where the corroding power of materialistic thought has been most severely felt. Yet few countries are so rich in material wealth, and if bread was all that "life" deman…
938 wordsSECTION 84_The Bread Of The Soul_
The spirit of Christ in regard to slavery, for instance, was made manifest fully only in our day. The true relations of men to each other, as conceived by our blessed Lord, are evidently about to be forced home upon the world by the turmoils, the strikes, and the outrages, by the wild demands, and the wilder hopes whic…
896 wordsSECTION 85_Israel'S Election, And Motives For Faithfulness_
[66] Cf. Lange, _Geschichte des Materialismus_, vol. ii., pp. 510, 528. DEUT. ix-xi. The remaining chapters of this special introduction to the statement of the actual laws beginning with chapter xii., contain also an earnest insistence upon other motives why Israel should remain true to the covenant of Yahweh. They…
982 wordsSECTION 86_Israel'S Election, And Motives For Faithfulness_
The grounds of Moses' successful intercession for them (ix. 25 ff.) are notable in this connection. They have no reference at all to the needs, or hopes, or expectations of the people. These are all brushed aside, as being of no moment after such unfaithfulness as theirs had been. The great object before his mind is re…
698 wordsSECTION 87_Israel'S Election, And Motives For Faithfulness_
In the section from the twelfth verse of chapter x. to the end of chapter xi. the hortatory introduction is summed up in a final review of all the motives to and the results of obedience and love to God. The fundamental exhortation as to love to God is once more repeated; only here fear is joined with love and precedes…
804 wordsSECTION 88_Israel'S Election, And Motives For Faithfulness_
We have here, at all events, the keynote of the supremacy of moral duty over Divine commands concerning ritual which distinguishes the prophetic teaching in Micah and elsewhere, joined with the enforcement of ritual observances. But there are few purely prophetic passages which raise the higher demand so high as it is …
763 wordsSECTION 89_Israel'S Election, And Motives For Faithfulness_
Now what are we to say of this appeal? There can be no doubt that the Divine omnipotence was really, in the Deuteronomist's view as well as in ours, as irresistible in Egypt as in Canaan. Fundamentally, no doubt, life or death, prosperity or adversity, were as much in the hand of God in the one case as in the other; an…
721 wordsSECTION 90_Israel'S Election, And Motives For Faithfulness_
It may be questioned by some, of course, whether an Israel faithful even in the highest degree could at any time have kept possession of so wide a dominion in the face of the great empires of Assyria and Egypt. These were rich, and had a far larger command both of territory and men: how then could the Israelites ever h…
731 wordsSECTION 91_Israel'S Election, And Motives For Faithfulness_
Yet his view is the true one. Even if the Deuteronomist had added these lower motives to attract and gain over those who were not so open to the higher, that would not deprive him of the glory of having set forth disinterested love as the really impelling power in true religion. We are not required to lower our esteem …
821 wordsSECTION 92_Israel'S Election, And Motives For Faithfulness_
One other point is worthy of remark. In these chapters, which deal with the history of God's chosen people in their relations with Him, there come out the very elements which distinguish the personal religion of St. Paul. The beginning and end of it all is the free grace of God. God elected His people that they might b…
789 wordsSECTION 93_Israel'S Election, And Motives For Faithfulness_
[69] _Cathedral Sermons_, p. 26. Even the agnostic of to-day, as represented by Professor Huxley, cannot do without some modicum of "grace" in his conception of man's relation to the powers of nature, though to admit this is to run a rift of inconsistency through his whole system of thought. "Suppose," he says in his …
521 wordsSECTION 94_Law And Religion_
DEUT. xii.-xxvi. With this section (chapters xii.-xxvi.) we have at length reached the legislation to which all that has gone before is, in form at least, a prelude. But in its general outline this code, if it can be so called, has a very unexpected character. When we speak of a code of laws in modern days, what we me…
783 wordsSECTION 95_Law And Religion_
But granting that ordinary ancient law is not to be taken in our rigorous modern sense, yet the fact that what we are dealing with here is Divine law may seem to some to imply that in all its details it was meant to be fulfilled to the letter. If not, then in what sense is it inspired, and how can we be justified in re…
692 wordsSECTION 96_Law And Religion_
In Israel the process would appear to have been similar, though much simpler. It was similar; for though there are radical differences between the Aryan and the Semitic mind which must not be overlooked, the former being more systematic and fond of logical arrangement than the latter, a great many of the things which a…
677 wordsSECTION 97_Law And Religion_
But, as has already been remarked, this law was elastic in more important matters; often, even when it seems to legislate, it is only setting up ideals of conduct. Before we leave this subject an example should be given, and the law of war may serve, especially if we compare it with the corresponding section of Manu. T…
912 wordsSECTION 98_Law And Religion_
But, as a matter of fact, no falling off in spirituality took place after Deuteronomy. Wellhausen says that with law freedom came to an end, and this was the death of prophecy. But he can support his thesis only by denying the name of prophet to all the prophets after Jeremiah. It is difficult to see the basis of such …
775 wordsSECTION 99_Law And Religion_
Nor does St. Paul's judgment as to the meaning and use of law, in Galatians, when rightly understood, contradict this. No doubt he seems to say that the Mosaic law by its very nature as law is incompatible with grace, that it necessarily stands out of relation to faith, and that its principle is a purely external one, …
848 wordsSECTION 100_Laws Of Sacrifice_
DEUT. xii. It is a characteristic of all the earlier codes of law--the Book of the Covenant, the Deuteronomic Code, and the Law of Holiness--that at the head of the series of laws which they contain there should be a law of sacrifice. Probably, too, each of the three had, as first section of all, the Decalogue. The Bo…
689 wordsSECTION 101_Laws Of Sacrifice_
But there is another and very important reason for it. Both in the days when Moses parted from his people, and also in the time of Manasseh, the people stood confronted by very special danger just at this point. At the earlier period they were about to enter upon intimate contact with the Canaanites, their superiors i…
766 wordsSECTION 102_Laws Of Sacrifice_
[71] Cf. Riehm, _Old Testament Theology_, p. 25. Further, it must destroy the moral character of man. In the last resort all idolaters are equally acceptable to their god, if only they bring the prescribed gifts and accurately perform the prescribed ceremonies. The lewd and the chaste, the cruel and the merciful, the …
687 wordsSECTION 103_Laws Of Sacrifice_
Certainly there is no lack of earnestness in the way in which these principles are urged. With that love of repetition which is a distinguishing mark of this writer, he expresses the commandment first positively, then negatively. Then he brings in the consequential alteration in the law regarding the slaughtering of an…
883 wordsSECTION 104_Laws Of Sacrifice_
But the separation of the ten tribes would only strengthen the claim of the Temple on Zion to be for Judah the one true place of worship. The territory ruled from Jerusalem was now so small that resort to the central sanctuary was comparatively easy. The glorious memories of the Davidic and Solomonic time would centre …
879 wordsSECTION 105_Laws Of Sacrifice_
The establishment of the central altar as the only one was the main object of this law; but there is much to be learned from the very terms in which this is expressed. They breathe the same love for man and sympathy with the poor which forms one of the most attractive characteristics of our book. The gracious bonds of …
547 wordsSECTION 106_The Relation Of Old Testament Sacrifice To Christianity_
But it may be asked, What is the relation of this Divinely sanctioned ritual law of sacrifice to our religion in its present phase? To that question various answers are being returned, and indeed it may be said that on this point almost all the main differences of Christians turn. The Church of Rome maintains in essenc…
835 wordsSECTION 107_The Relation Of Old Testament Sacrifice To Christianity_
And the case for this view is strengthened immeasurably by observing that the modern sacerdotalism has taken up as essential what was the main vice of sacrificial worship in the old economy. That was, as we have seen, the tendency to rest on the mere performance of the external rite, without reference to the dispositio…
1,028 wordsSECTION 108_The Relation Of Old Testament Sacrifice To Christianity_
[74] _Ency. Brit._, vol. xxi., p. 138. But if such preparation for the fulness of the time was going on in heathenism, if the mind and heart of man, driven forward by Divinely ordered experience and its own needs, could produce such forecasts in the ritual of heathen religion, we surely must admit that the religious r…
828 wordsSECTION 109_The Relation Of Old Testament Sacrifice To Christianity_
But such a view is singularly narrow, and unjust to the past. It surely is more honouring to both God and man to suppose that the capital religious ideas of the race, those ideas which have been everywhere present and have been seen to deepen and refine with every advance man has made, have permanent value. Moreover, o…
403 wordsSECTION 110_Laws Against Idolatrous Acts And Customs_
DEUT. xiii., xiv. Having thus set forth the law which was to crown and complete the long resistance of faithful Israel to idolatry, our author goes on to prohibit and to decree punishment for any action likely to lead to the worship of false gods. He absolutely forbids any inquiry into the religions of the Canaanites.…
1,043 wordsSECTION 111_Laws Against Idolatrous Acts And Customs_
Similarly, when family ties and family affection are perverted to be instruments of seduction, they are to be disregarded, just as religious reputation and miraculous power were to be set aside. If a brother, or a son, or a daughter, or a wife, or a friend, shall secretly entice a man to "serve other gods," then he sha…
779 wordsSECTION 112_Laws Against Idolatrous Acts And Customs_
Even at this day, and for believers in Christ, after all the teaching and experience of eighteen Christian centuries, this is a high, almost an unattainable, standard to set up. Even to-day it is thought an advanced position that miracles as a security for truth are subordinate and inferior to the light of the truth it…
993 wordsSECTION 113_Laws Against Idolatrous Acts And Customs_
But precautions against idolatry are not exhausted by the war declared upon men who might attempt to lead the Israelite into evil. Besides insidious human enemies, there were also insidious customs originating in heathenism, and still redolent of idolatry even when they were severed from any overt connection with it. A…
755 wordsSECTION 114_Laws Against Idolatrous Acts And Customs_
"Ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead." Israel was not to express grief for the dead in these ways, first because that was the custom of other nations, and secondly still more because the origin and meaning of such rites was idolatrous, and as such altogether unworthy of Yah…
746 wordsSECTION 115_Laws Against Idolatrous Acts And Customs_
Jewish writers, however, especially since Maimonides, have regarded these prohibitions as aiming primarily at sanitary ends, and as a proof of their efficacy have adduced the unusually high average health of the Jews, and their almost complete exemption from certain classes of disease. No such point of view is suggeste…
923 wordsSECTION 116_Laws Against Idolatrous Acts And Customs_
[82] This, of course, does not show that P must have been known to D, but it proves that as regards material P and D have drawn from the same source, and that older documents, or customs at least, underlie both. Here, therefore, we have one of the cases in which the traditional hypothesis--that the Law of the Coven…
640 wordsSECTION 117_The Speakers For God--I. The King_
DEUT. xvii. 14-20 In approaching the main section of the legislation it will be necessary, in accordance with the expository character of the series to which this volume belongs, to abandon the consecutive character of the comment. It would lead us too far into archæology to discuss the meaning and origin of all the l…
789 wordsSECTION 118_The Speakers For God--I. The King_
In truth, there is no reason why we should think so. The Divine kingship made it impossible that the higher minds should be content with the low aims of the opportunists of their day, whether these were of the multitude or not. Even the entrance into Canaan, which to the mass of the people was, in the first place, a me…
706 wordsSECTION 119_The Speakers For God--I. The King_
The history and the law alike agree therefore in regarding the kingship as somewhat of an excrescence upon the national polity; and this law, where alone the king's existence is recognised, confines itself strictly to securing the theocratic character of the constitution. He must be chosen by Yahweh; he must be a born …
1,018 wordsSECTION 120_The Speakers For God--I. The King_
But whether the whole is Deuteronomic or not, there can be no question that the command that the king shall have "a copy of this law" prepared for him and shall read constantly therein is so; and perhaps of all the prescriptions this is the most important. In purely Eastern states there is no legislature at all, and th…
872 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.