The Pulpit Commentary — Deuteronomy — Section 192

ngain renewed. But we must at least indicate the points of detail ere we can gather up tho eublimo teachings of the whole. I. Tm: RESULTB OF THE INTERCESSION OF MosEs. 1. Generally. "The Lord re- pented," etc. (l~xod. xxxii.14). 'l'he passage in Numb. xxiii. 19 is by no means contrary to this. It means thflt there is no fickleness nor falseness in the Divine promiseH,and tha~ the fulfilment of them is not subject to human caprice; which is gloriously true, and i.n perfect harmony with the before-named words. These do not denote a change in the mind of God, but rather e. change in the Divine acts. God's promises are, in an important sense, conditional, and his threatenings too. If we reject the promise and fail to rely upon it, it will not be fulfilled in our case; so, if we repent and turn from sin, the threatenings will cease to apply to us. The virtual withdrawal of promise or threatening is called "repenting," not because God changes his will, but because he varies his action. God may plan and effect a change without ever changing a plan. 2. In detail. (1) There were two manifest tokens of the Divine displeasure. (a) Exod. xxxiii. 7 ; the tabernacle of Moses, where he would hear the causes of the people, and maintain the mediatorship, was removed from within the camp to the outside of it. Still, mercy and judgment were blended, for the pillar of cloud did not forsake them. (b) Exod. xxxii. 34-, 35; this is very obscure; but it at least means that, though they were forgiven, yet they were chastised, In after times, the Je,vs were wont to say that never any trouble came upon them without an ounce of the dust of the golden calf in it. The intercession of Moses, though it secured inestimable blessings, yet di,l not avail to remove all reminders of their sin, or to make things as though it !:l:!.d not been. (2) Dire threatenings were removed one by one. (a) They should n0t be con- sumed, still, only an angel should go with them (Exod. xxxiii. 2, 3). (b) The Divine presence shoitld go with them (vers. 12-14-). (3) Abounding mercy is vouchsafed. The mercy is gradually brought out more and more fully, as Moses pleads more 'and more persistently. (a) Though the tabernacle is_out of the camp, yet communication with Jehovah is still maintained (Exod. xxxiii. 9). (b) The old promise is renewed (Exod. xxxiii. 12-14). "Rest I" Rest iu God. What less, what more, could they desire? (c) There was a formal renewal of the co"<"enant (eh. x. 1-5). (d) Jehovah grants a new disclosure of his glory. The recent exhibition of the frailty of man might well have crushed Moses if he had not been sustained by a new vision of God. And what a vision l What a declaration! Nowhere else on earth had a Name so glorious then been proclaimed (Exod. xxxiv. 6-9). (e) The long-continued communion with God illumed tho face of Moses (Exod. =xiv. 29-35). Was this supernatural or miraculous ? Supernr,tural? Yes, Miraculous? No. We believe intensely in the religion of the face (sec Acts vi. 15; vide a lecture by Joseph Cook, of Boston, on 'The Solar Light'). Moses was full of the Holy Ghost. The lustre without was but the index of the light within. He had gone in unto God to plead for others, and he was rewarded openly, by bringing down from the mount a radiance that told with whom he had been! If our faces were oftener directed towards God in intercessory prayer, they would certainly beam with new light, and men would take knowledge ot us that we had been with Jesus. (We have passed very rapidly over these details, as they have been dealt with separately in the Book of the Exodus, for the purpose or devoting somewhat more space to gathering up the lessons taught us thereby.) II. THE LESSONS TAUGHT BY THIS NARRATIVE. 1. "\Ve see here the abounding mercy of God-how slow be is to anger, how ready to forgive. \Ve can imagine, indee_d, an objector interposing here, and saying, "Precisely the reverse. The fact of the ueventy of God's judgments being abated, removed, and e.,.~D exchanged for mercy, just in response to the intercession of Moses, seems to make Moses appear more merciful than God." Perhaps it seems so at first, but it only seems. And even the seeming ceases when we loo!, all round. For was it not the same God whom Israel had offended, who had given them Moses, who taught him to pray, and who sustained;his pleadi~g p_ower? So that the lines of judgment and of mercy have a common meetrng-porn_t ID .t~e same hand. llcsides, we must never forget that the Great Father adapts htmsell ID the methods of his teaching to the capacities of the child in le~rning. Aud even the severity of the judicial sentence comes out of mercy. When Will men learn the _pro- found truth in Ps, !xii. 12? 'l'he greatest mercy which can be sho~vn to a pe?ple 1s to educate them in right-eousuess. How coustantly are men makmg the mistake of 182 'l'H8 DOOK OF DEU'l'ERONOMY. Ccu. x. 1-22