The Pulpit Commentary — Deuteronomy — Section 239

Rlcnder thread of this one nation's fidelity, it is difficult to see bow it coulrl well have beeu less stern than it is. Its severity was perhaps its mercy. Note, too, that the criminal could be executed only after formal impeachment, fair trial, and conclusively established guilt (cf. ver. 14; eh. xvi i. 2-8; xix. 15-21). I. Goo ALLOWS NO CLAIM OF NATURAL AFFECTION TO ~TERFERE W1TH HIGHER DUTY TO lllMBELF. It is the same stern voice which we hear even in the Gospels (Matt. viii. 21, 22; x. 37; Luke xiv. 26 ). The demands of God on his people's supreme and undivided allegiance are not now a whit Jess rigorous than they were of old. II. Goo WO-:JLD HAVE us REGARD THOSE WHO DELIBERATELY ATTEMPT TO SEDUCE us FROM HIM AS OUR WORST FOES. 'l'hey really are so, whether they think it or not. No language is strong enough to paint the crime of seeking to seduce a soul from its allegiance to its God, The guilt of the man who deliberately sets himself to counter- work a child's affection for its parent, and to produce alienation of heart between them, is trivial in comparison with it. The crime is that of soul-murder. For in fidelity to God lies the happiness of life here, and salvation in the world to come. We are not, therefore, to allow any private affection to blind us to the enormity of this crime. Those whom we cherish as dearest are only the more guilty if they take advantage of our affection to betray us into deadly sin. III. Goo REQUIRES TIIAT WE DO NOT BP.ABE THOSE WHO ARE GUTI.TY OF TB!8 CRIME, We are no longer called upon-and we may be thankful for it-to impeach our seducers, and lead them out to death. Our religion requires that we return good for evil, that we pray for those who injure us, that we seek their conversion and salvation. But it does uot require of us that we do not abhor their conduct, and severely reprobate aud denounce it. We fail in duty if there is not placed on all attempts at spiritual seduction the immediate brand of our strongest condemna- tion.-J. 0. Vers. 12-18.-A city under ban. The case here supposed is even more appalling than the former one, for it is the iuhabitants of a whole city who, with all that they have, are to be destroyed. Yet., as it is certain that godly persons, dreading the execu- tion of this sentence, would leave this city as soon as they found out what was going on-being very possibly the bearers of the tidings to others-the curse would practi- cally take effect only on those who were in league with the idolaters. Searching in- vestigation was to precede the infliction of doom (ver. 14). I. EVIL-DISPOSED PERSONS 0AN DO MUCH HABM. A few men-" children of Belia!" -perhaps, at first, but one or two, succeed in seducing, and ultimately in destroying, a whole city. Their cancerous influence speedily inrected the mass. Like fire break- ing out in a little corner of a building, it soon inval ved the whole place in ruin. "One sinner destroyeth much good" (Eccles. ix. 18). "Evil communications corrupt good manners" (1 Cor. xv. 33). Evil is not to be thought lightly of, because at first confined to a few individuals, and circumscribed in its range of operations. It will spread faster than good. II, THE SPIRITUAL CONDITION' OF EACH CITY IS OF INTEREST TO THE WHOLE CO:ll- MUNITY, Disease in one part of the social organism will speedily communicate itself to the other parts. IlJ. IMMEDIATE ACTION SHOULD BE TAKEN TO REDUCE EVIL IN ITS CHOSEN SEATS. No longer, indeed, with carnal weapons. We have no warrant to proceed by fire and sword. A better way is open to us of reducing evil than by judicial slaughter. The wickedness of a city is doubtless a token of God's wrath resting upon it. If it repent not, his judgments will fall upon it with all the old severity. But it does not lie with us to give effect to these judgments; God keeps them in his own hand. Our work, meanwhile, is the happier one of seeking the reduction of evil by spiritual means- by reasouiug, by persuasion, by preaching of the truth, by substituting good influences for bad ones. 'fhese weapons are adequate to the work for which they are given, and ought to be plied to the utmost. Places differ in spiritual character. There are those of which it may be said-as of Pergarnos, "where Satan's seat is" (Rev. ii. 13)-that in them evil has a kind of stronghold. Against these, by preference, the assaults of God's servants should be directed. The apostles chose for their attacks the leading centres of pagan influence. One stronghold gained is worth a dozen outposts.-J. O. 234 THE DOOK OF DEU'l'ERONOMY, (oH. xm.1-18,