Ycrs. 1-4.-The Deuteronomic discoursea. I. TrrE SPEAKER. "Moses." Though an hundred and twenty years old, "bis eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated" (eh. xxxiv. 7)-a statement borne out by the sustained eloquence of these addresses. He speaks with the authority of a prophet, the affection of a patriot, and the earnest- ness of a dying man. II. THE REARERS. "All Israel." A new generation had sprung up from that which had recci'l'ed the Law at Sinai. 1. All are concerned in hearing God's message. "It is your life" (eh. xxxii. 47). 2. New-comers need new teaching. - ill. THE SITUATION. "In the wilderness "-still there at the end of forty years. The places named (ver. 1), suggestive of past wanderings and rebellions. Form a background to the discourses that follow, and point home their lessons. We learn: 1. The value of association as an aid in teaching. 2. Our past cannot be got ri_d of, but it may be utilized. 3. God's Word is to be pondered in the light of bygone ex- periences. 4. '!'he comparison of our actual situation with what it might have been (ver. 2) is often a salutary exercise (cf. Luke xv. 17). IV. THE SUDJECT. "All that the Lord had given him in commandment." We find that this does not refer to a new commandment, but to the old commandment which they had from the beginning (cf. 1 John ii. 8). 1. Men crave for novelty, but the function of the preacher is to remind them of the truths which do not change, and to give "line upon line, precept upon precept," until loyal and hearty obedience is rendered to the same. 2. Exhortation is most effective when it takes as its basii1 the sure Word of God. 3. God's Word is to be spoken in its entirety. V. THE TIME. "In the fortieth year, in the eleventh month"-when the attack on the Canaanites was about to be renewed, and after signal tokens of Divine favour had already been granted (ver. 4). 1. God's mercies call for renewed dedication (Ps. cxvi. 12-14). 2. The recollections of wasted years should prove an incentive to obedience in the future (Rom. xiii. 11, 12; Eph. v. 15, 16; 1 Pet. iv. 3). 3. We need God's commandment in our memories and hearts when entering on work in which formidable opposition is to be encountered, and which ~ill put our fidelity~ a severe te~t.. VI. THE MOTIVE. 1. Tire natural solicitude of old age. It lS character1st1c of old age to fall back ur,on and reiterate prcvioua counsels. Compare Peter in his s~cond OIL J. 1-11!,] THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY. 13
Epistlo (i. 16); the tro.ditional stories of the old age of John; Paul in the pastoral Epistles, "urging 1md repeating and dilating upon truths which have been the food of his lifo" (Alford), 2. The law.giver's knowled9eofthe rebelliousness of the people's dis- position (eh. ix. 24), 3. The Divine command (ver. 3). This had respect to the altered circumsta11ces of the now generation, and to the prospect of their entering the land promised to their fathers, continuance in which was conditional on obed.ience.-J. O. Ver. 2.-The might-have-beens of life. In its present setting this brief geographical note was, doubtless, meant to suggest the lesson of the evil results of disobedience. "Eleven days' journey," yet the fortieth year still saw them in the wilderness. We ]earn: 1. Sin turns short ways into long ones, 2. Sin entails on the transgressor need- less trouble and sorrow. 3. Bin fills life with fruitless regrets. 4. Sin delays fulfilment of God's promises. 'fhe path of obedience is in the end the shortest, easiest, safest, and bappiest.-J. O.