The Pulpit Commentary — Deuteronomy — Section 157

out as sappers aml minors to prepare Jehonb's. we.y. Let no insignificant helper be despised I lll. '!'urn LAR0!il REWARDS OF FAITHFUL BERVIOE. 1. The rewards were basecl on Divine equity. If we keep his precepts, he will lceep his covenant. A singular thread of equity runs through all God's dealings. History supplies a thousand examples. ,ve may find fresh ones daily in our own observation. 2. The rewards are variou.~ and wnp/e. 1.'hey embrace the present and the f,tlure. To be the conscious object of God's Jove is a rich reward ; and the smile of Goel will make all our ways to prosper. Largo and rnpicl increase has been, from the Creation, a mark of Jehovah's favour. "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." 3. The rewards are distinctive. Not only do they impart a large measure of personal enjoyment, but they are kno\vn and rccocrnized by others as the rewards conferred by God. They make men conspicuous amo~g their fellows. " A thousnncl shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come.nigh thee." As our work and warfare are spiritual, so are our rewards spiritual also. Our reward, as conquerors over sin, is manifold, generous, enduring, satisfying. God will surely distinguish between the righteous and the wicked-between him that serveth him well, nnd him that serveth him not. In honour, they shall be as the antipodes asunder.-D. Vers. 1-6.-Judgment without mercy. This decree is to be viewed- I. As A JUST JUDGMENT ON PEOPLES WHOSE INIQUITIES CRIED FOR VE::<rGEA::<rCE. The doomed nations had been Jong borne with (Gen. xv. 16). Their iniquities were of a kind and degree of enormity which imperatively called for a Divine interposition (Lev. xviii. 27, 28; eh. ix. 4). This was the true ground of God's dealings with them, and furnishes a sufficient answer to all 'cavils. The ciestrnction of the comparatively innocent with the guilty may be explained in part by the existence in the offspring of the hereditary evil of their race. How often, under the Divine government, do we see illustrations of the same principle-the tempornl consequences of transgression over- flowing on those related to the transgressor! The lesson taught is God's inflexible determination to punish evil. '!'here can be no ultimate toleration of sin in Goil's universe. It must be judged, rooted out, and the sinner who identifies himself with it destroyed. II. As A CLEARING FROM IDOLATRY OF THE LAND OF Goo's ADODE. Not only could the practice of idolatry not be endured, but even its unhallowed monuments must not be permitted to rema.in, polluting with their presence the land of God's habitation-the peculinr seat of his majesty, the place of his holiness. Every trace of these impure worships mnst be swept away (ver:5). The lesson taught is God's hatred of idola.try. It is a secondary matter that the gods are of wood and stone, and the worship one of altars, groves, and pillars. 'l'here is the formal idolatry of heathenism, and there is the less-avowed, but not Jess real, idolatry of hearts which have set up rival objects to God in their secret places--which have substituted the creature, in some form of it, for the Creator. 'l'he forms are as numerous as ever were the idols of heathen temples. A man may be an idolater of reason ; ho may worship art ; he may bow at the shrine of mammon (Matt. vi. 24; Eph. v. 5); his god may be th; praise of men; he may lling himself to be crushed before the worse than Juggernaut car of fashion; he may be a votary of lewdness. 'l'he worship may be avowed, or hidden away in secret desires and imaginings. It may be rendered in the most diverse places-in the labora- tory, at the desk, in the art studio, in home circles, on the broad stage of public affairs, in the saloons of gay society. The real point of importance is that it is of the nnture of idolatry, and that God abhors it and declares it to be incompatible with his residence in the heart. " The idols he shall utterly abolish" (Isa. ii. 18). III. As A PROTECTION TO THE ISRAELITES THEMSELVES. The tolerated presence of idolatry in Canaan would have been to the Israelites an irresistible temptation (ver. 4). We are taught: 1. 'l'o seek our friendships and alliances elsewhere than nmong the ungodly. 2. That it is our duty, not only to avoid occasions of sin, and to keep as far out of harm's way as possible, but to labour for the entire removal from ow· midst of what experience shows to be a dcn<lly snare (Isa. lvii. 14). Finally, severe as those commands are, we see reflected in them the three principle3 which, under widely different forms of manifestatio11, are to this hour to regulate the DEUTERONOMY. L 146 THE DOOK OF DEUTERONOlll.Y, [en. vn. 1-20.