The Pulpit Commentary — Deuteronomy — Section 427

Yers. 37-42.-God, Ruler in natu':"e, I. NATURAL OBJECTS ARE OF ms CREATION. Tlie Psalmist bids us lift up our eyes to the bills, and seek help from God," who made l,caYen and earth" (Ps. cxxi. 2). It is this which enables him to help us, and makes it reasonable in us to implore and trust in his assistance; as well as leads us to fear his displeasure. Seed, vineyards, olive trees, are his creatures, and subsen•e bis purposes, He \\'ho made can destroy. II. NATURAL AGENCIES ARE Ul,"'DER BIS CO::S'TIIOL. 'l'he greater agencies of nature- rain (vers. 23, 24), pestilence (ver. 21), diseases (\'crs. 27, 35). The lesser agencies- locusts (vers. 38, 42), worms (vcr. 3!!), "powder aad dust" (ver. 24).,.. He marshals these agencies at will, appoints them their work, superintends them iri the doing of it. He brings strength out of weakness, making the feeblest creatures the instruments of bis most terrible strokes of vengeance. III. THE FRUITFGL1'"ESS OF THE EARTH IS DEPENDENT ON HIS DLESSmo. He gives, and he can at ,,·ill withhold. It is a false science which sees only "la,vs" in the productiveness of nature, and ignores the hand and blessing of a living God.-J. 0. Vera. 49-59.-Tlie extremity of tl1e curse. A truly appalling description of the evils which would overtake apostate Israel; one, too, not more remarkable for the sustained vehemence and energy of ils thought and diction, than for the miauteness and literality with which its predictions have been fulfilled. I. Tm: PROPHECY IN TIIE LIGHT OF ITS FULFILMENT. The wonderfulness of these predictions is not removed by any date we may assign to the Book of Deuteronomy. For: 1. It is certain that the Assyrian and Cbaldean invasions-to which a reference is no doubt included (Jer. iv. 13; v. 15)-fell far short of what was necessary for their complete fulfilment. (1) The Babylonian Captivity was only of seventy years' duration. (2) Tbe Jews returned and remained long afterwar<ls in possession of their land. 2. It is equally certain that, in the subsequent C<Jnqucst of the nation hy the Romans, with the dispersion that followed, and which lasts to our own day, every feature in the prop_hecy l,as been ~xbaustively fulfilled. (1) The Romans agree better than either Assyrians or Cliald<:ans with the description of the foreign foes in vers. 49, 50. (2) The sufferings of the siege (vers. 52-57) had their literal fulfilment in the Roman wars, and espe- cially in the siege of Jerusalem under 'fitus (cf. Josephus,' Wars of the Jews,' bk, v. 10, 3; vi. 3, 3, 4; vi. 8, 2). (3) "Hundreds of thousands were sold as slaves" (cf. ver. 68); "and the whole people were cast forth as wanderers among the Gentiles; and they have ~ver since remained a nation of exiles, unsettled, harassed, and oppressed, iii many lll.lilances most cruelly, not only by pagans and MohammedanR, b:it also (to 01,11' Oil, Xlr.Vlrt, 1-68.] TUE BOOK or DEU'l'F.:ItONOMY. 430