The Pulpit Commentary — Deuteronomy — Section 311

1 ers. 15-22.-God speak£ng to man thrnugh man. The Exposition, as well as the Commentaries of Jameson and Keil, may, with great advantage, be consulted on this passage, and also Hengstenberg's 'Christology,' vol. i. pp. 96-107. Our brief homi- letic sketches assume that the student has already mastered the exegesis, and compre- hended the intent of the passage. Its connection with the preceding paragraph is ob,ious. The people had been warned against having recourse to familiar spirits, etc., on the ground that such practices were an abomination uuto the Lord their God. Ilut :Moses would not only warn the people off the wrong ground, he would direct them to the right, by showing them the completeness of the Divine arrangements for supply- ing them from time to time with all the religious teaching they would require, in a ,vay far more adapted to their condition and circumstances than by any unveiling of the secrets of the invisible world. They are reminded that when God came in g-randeur to speak to them at Mount Sinai, they could not bear the sight nor the sound. They begged that Moses would speak to them, and not Jehovah;" lest we die," were their o\\·u words. So that it was clear they 'would be entirely unable to bear anything anproximating to a full disclosure of the Divine. It must be toned and tempered within the limits of their capacities of reception and of their powers of endurance. Otherwise, it would fail of its end, by crushing those whom it was meant to train. Hence he who " knoweth our frame" graciously promises to speak hereafter to the people in their own dialect, as it 'l'l'ere, and on their own level, by" raising them up a Prophet, from the midst of them, of their brethren, like unto Moses;" and thus would the needful messages from God be kept up, making it quite unnecessary for them to make use of nnau- 11,orized mean~ of getting supernatural light. There would be, from time to time, one prophet raised up after another, culminating in him to whom they all gave witness. Thus our theme is," God speaking to man through man." l. UNLESS A DIVINE REVELATION WEHE ATTEMPERED TO OUR WEAKNESB, WE COULD NOT llE.!dt IT. The cry of Israel at Sinai, "Let not God speak with us, lest we die," is a" touch of nature." No man could bear the full blaze of God's glory. Unless there were a " biding of God's power," we should be crushed by the revelation of it. We could no more endure the full disclosure of the Divine than our eyes could bear to gaz6 Oll the Bplendours of a noonclay sun. Hence God, "who knows our frame," and who, tl,erdore, knows what we can bear, meets our weakness by his tender mercy. II. I:s ORDER 'l'HAT THE REVELATION MAY BE SUCH AB WE CAN RECEIVE, Goo HAS sr•oKEN 'l'O MEN THROUGH MAN. As Sinai's teITor, with the voice of Jehovah, was too ruuch fur Israel, Moses says, "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from  en. xvm. 1-22.) THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY.