The Pulpit Commentary — Deuteronomy — Section 29

HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-5.-The Word of God full of hidden treasure. We cannot get very far in these preliminary verses ere we are struck with a phrase which is a most suggestive one, and should not be lightly passed over, viz." On this side Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law," literally, to dig it, i.e. to go deeply into it, and to turn up again its contents, so that, to all the advantage of a generation of culture, the people might see that there was more meaning, and also more glory in the Law of God than. they w.ere able to ~scern in the first years of their national existence. Observe- I. THERE IS A MINE OF WEALTH IN THE LAW OF GoD. This is the case, even if we thereby intend tbe Mosaic Law alone. Its theology, its ethics, its directory of religious faith and worship, its civil and political code for the Hebrew commonwealth, are all'so pure and elevated, that no account can be given of how any man at that age or the world could have propounded such a system, save that he was taught of God (cf. 2 Pet. i. 21). (See Homiletics, eh. v. 7-22.) If, moreover, we would see how the devout, Hebrews estimated the Law, let us turn to Ps. xix.; ciii. 7, et seq. Our Saviour honoured the Law, and maintained it in all its integrity (cf. Matt. v. 17, 18). He removed the glosses by which .it had in his time become disfigured, but he never depreciated it. We are by no means to confound "the Law" with the abstract idea of "law." See how sharply the Apostle Paul distinguishes between these two in Rom. iii., especially in ver. 21, " But now there has been manifested a righteousness of God apart from law, being witnessed by THE Law and the prophets." 'l'he·Law given by Moses is based on the gospel,(cf. Gal. iii.; see also Homiletics, eh. v. 6). If, however, to all that Moses gave, w_e add all" the grace and the truth" which came in by Jesus Christ, how unsea.rchably vast is the wealth stored up for us in the "Word of everlasting Truth!" II. THE EFFORT OF DIGGING ·INTO THIS MINE WILL BE WELL REPAID. How much difference there is between a man who knows only what men say about the Book, and one who knows the Book for himself! The one may be easily beguiled into the belief that it is so out of date that it is scarcely worth while to study it at all. The other will find it so far ahead of the actu~l attainments of the wisest and best of men, that he w:11 pity those who dismiss it with but a glance from afar. The continuous, careful, thorough student of the Law of Moses, will be ever discovering a richness in it which will at once astonish and enrapture him. Its harmony with, its historical pre- paration for, the gospel, will be contitrnally disclosing to him new proofs of its Divine original, that will be worth more to him than any merely "external evidence." .And when the whole Word of God is made the constant study of one whose heart is open to the truth and loyal to. God, such. a one will find fuller and richer meaning in single ~ds, such Ill! goel, '! grnce," "righteousness," etc., when these words are .put to their highest use in Divine.revelation, than in whole tomes of merely human lore! IIJ, 'l'HE WORD SHOULD BE DUG 1.NT0, THAT WE MAY APt'ROPRIATE ITS CONTENTS, DY ENLIGHTENED REASON -AND ,LOWLY FAITH.. These treasures are for the use o.f all, not merely to gratify them with the consciousness of ever making new discoveries, but to make them l'ioher in the accumulating stores of holy thought. And if we, in the B THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY. [en. 1. 1-1B,