The Pulpit Commentary — Deuteronomy — Section 135

to heal ~ho wounds, to dry the tears,. and_ obliterate the sins of a bleeding, weeping, guilt-stnmed wo~!cl I What a rev_elat10n 1s this to our race! Well might Mose~ bid Israel" hearken I For surely this one message to man, that there is a redeemin" God0 whom ho mELy call his own, is our gospel, our life, our joy, our crown! II. FnoNT OF THE CONDENBED THEOLOGY, WE HAVE HERE CONDENSED RELIGION. (Ver. 6.) '!'he fundamental truth of theology is to be fruitful in practical godliness. God's revelation of himself to man is meant to be a redemptive power in man. Man has heart, soul, strength, understanding, emotion, will, energy. God would have no schism in our being. Our varied parts and powers are to be in tune. There is no need for us to present the sad spectacle of the heart going one way, while duty and conscience point another. Apart from the dissipation of force which that involves, what reproach and self-loathing such inward discord must ensure I Now, we have one inner faculty, even that of love, which is meant to rule, and does in fnct rule, the man. According to the love so intellect thinks, emotion feels, will decides, life moves. Our text says, let love be du concentrated on one grand. object-God! Let him have all (see chs. x. 12; xi. J 13, 22; xix. 9; xxx. 16). Not even in the New Testament have we a greater c;mmandment than this (Matt. xxii. 37-40). "The love of God which the gospel demands is more intensive.and cordial than that which the Law of Moses demands of the Israelite~, according to the gradual unfolding of the love of God himself, which was displayed in a much grander and more glorious form in the gift of bis only begotten Son for our redemption than in the redemption of Israel out of the bondage in E~Ypt" (Keil). Thus closely related are theology and religion-God as revealed to us in Christ -that is theology; our love responding to God's-that is religion. Without the first, in what could the religious faculty find a proper object? Without tbe second, infinite love is defrauded of its rights ! Still, a third question naturally follows: granted that in this interlacing of theology and religion we have both interpreted in meaning aud both realizing their aims, what means can be devised to ensure the preservation of both through generation after generation? III. HERE IS A SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT DIVINELY APPOINTED, TO CONSERVE AND PER- PETUATE BOTH. 1. 'l'he home is here supposed to be a centre in which the conserving forces of truth and godliness are to be themselves conserved. What a profound principle Moses here indicates, viz. that a nation will be good or bad according to its home life! Wonderful! that an infant nation should, at starting, have this truth deep graven in its statutes ;-our land will be as our homes are! 2. In the home, our God looks to the parent to give it its character, tone, and influence. A child's religious faith is, in a high and holy sense, to be chosen fo.r him by anticipation, by those who were "in Christ before" him. 3. The truths mentioned in sections 1 and 2 are to be in the parents' heart, that they may be poured out anew from thence as rivers of living water. Hence the word in vcr. 7, "'l'hou shalt sharpen them;" coming fresh out of the sanctuary of a living soul, they are to be pointed, quick, and breathing truths. 4. By a 'l'ariety of ways, the parent is to see his child's spirit early saturated with the truths of God. (1) By talking of them, in the house and out of it (ver. 7). (2) By exhibiting them, not only in the literal sense (see art.' Phylacteries ' 1), but in a higher spiritual one. (3) By writing them (ver. 9; see art. 'Mezuzah ' 2). Thus the child is from the first to be regarded as God's child, to be trained for him. He is to receive God's 'Nord through the avenues of eye, ear, intellect, heart. Divine truth is to be ever before him, night and day, indoors and out. '!'hose who gave him birth and who love him best, are to mould his young life for God; he is to grow up as the Lord's rightful f.osscssion, with the view of his afterwards saying, in the spirit o{ devout surrender, I am the Lord's!" (Isa. xliv. 5). Note-Whatever was essenlial in the days of Moses, in the training of children for God as tbo means of guarding a nation, is not less needful now (Eph. vi: 4). T~e wider the ran_ge of human learning becomes, the more needful it should be rightly directed; otherwise the greater the attainment, the greater the peril! Vcrs. 10-19.-" Dangers ahead! Beware I" The forecast of Moses is here directed to a period when Israel would have taken possession of the promised land (ver. 10). 1 Iu Dr. Alexllnder'i, edition of Kilto's 'Biblical Cyclopaedia.' • Ibid. 124 THE BOOK OF DlWTEllONOM:Y. (et!, VI, 1-2/l,