The Pulpit Commentary — Deuteronomy — Section 153

of tho Lord, it maketh rich," is another. We may ignore neither, but should reverently admit and act on both. V. ON WHAT A FRAIL CONDITION, HOWEVER, WAS ISRAEL'S NATIONAL WEAL SUR- l'ENDED I "lf yo hearken to these judgments," etc. 'l'he laws were ri(7ht kinrl benevolent. 'l'he land was beautiful, fertile, healthful. All tha.t was w;nt~d wa~ obedient people. Israel needed as much to be delivered from themselves as to be rescued frJm tho Egyptians. And, in fact, there was among them a redeeming anil sanctifying work, carried on through God's Spirit, though it is not named in this para(7raph; nor was it as fully revealed as now, how, in his infinite grace, our God crca~d in his people the obedience which, in his Law, he commands. "The righteous- ness of the Law is fulfilled in those who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." 'l'he Law given to Israel was a child-guide with a view to Christ, '!'he first covenant proved brittle in their hands, and so they learned the need of another, which should be for ever safe in God's hands. '!'he first says, "Do this, and live." The second, "Live, and you will do this." And even now, putting the matter generally, we may say God governs nations, as nations, by the first covenant. He governs his own believin; people by the second. Hence, in dealing with men and nations, the Christian preacher has ever to expound and enforce the everlasting laws of righteousness, and by revealing men's failure therein to convict of sin; while in building up the Church he has to show the glory of the Holy Ghost as the Creatot and Sustainer of spiritual power. Vers. 17-25.-.An anxious question, or dreading difficulties. In this paragraph there are some verses which are in the main a repetition of the enforcement of the policy of separation and extrusion which Israel was to adopt towards the Canaanites. But there is one distinctive feature in it which presents several points altogether new, the historical side of which we may first look at, that we may there see how peculiarly full this passage is of bright and gladsome teaching for us. Here is a question (ver. 18) which Israel would not be unlikely to ask, at least occasionally. Doubtless, just at the time when they were in the flush of joy at the destruction of Pharaoh and his hosts, or when they had experienced some great deliver- ance from pressing want, their hearts would be brave and strong. But, like some others since have been, they were largely the creatures of circumstance. Now up, now down. Now so elated that they think they can get through anything, now so de- pressed that they dread everything. 'l'he time would come when in view of the possible struggles which the possession of Canaan might involve, many an Israelite would say, "'l'hese nations are mightier than I; how can I dispossess them?" and they must have been more than human if the heart did not now and then give way. l+'or there were seven nations to supplant; and over and above the numerical force against which Israel would have to contend, there would be the fact that they were strangers to the land ; they had been kept in serfdom ; they were unskilled in the art and practice of war; so that, on the human side, the advantage was very greatly with the Canaanites, while Israel incurred a very serious risk. Now, though Jehovah was very wroth with the people when in their guilty unbelief they proposed to turn back at tho evil report of the spies, he sees a great difference between a deeply root~d distrust, and an occasional cloud that may shade the spirit; and while in his holy wrath he condemns the first, in his tender compassion he anticipates and guards against the second. HencP, from vers. 18 to 24, we havo the cheering voice of the great lawgiver, grandly uttering, in his hundred and twentieth year, words to empower the heart, and showing Israel, in the Name of the Lord of hosts, how much more there is to animate them than there can possibly bo to discourage and depress. He (1) reminds them no fewer than eight t.imes of the Name of the Lord their God; (2) bids them look back to past miracles and wonders, and to see in them pledges of future help; (3) shows them how the providential action of God, which was for thcru, would be against their foes; (4) assures them that God would be among them as an ever-present Helper and li'riend; and (5) points out that, though the process of driving out the Canaanites might be slow, yet if it were done more rapidly, it would be attended with great peril from other and unexpected qu11,rters; that both tribes of men and herds of beasts would be kept in abeyauce for their sakes; so that though they were led by a tedious route, it would be tha safest way I Now, surely we ought not to p&ss over a passage so full of 142 THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY. [oH. vn.1-26.