The Pulpit Commentary — Deuteronomy — Section 443

HOMILIES DY VARIOUS AUTHORS. "Vers. 2-9.-Seeing, yet not seeing. The Israelites had seen God's mlgllty works (,:er. 9), yet God had not given them a heart to perceive, nor eyes to seo (ver. 4). I. NATURAL SIGHT WITHOUT SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT. Moses accuses the people of blindness to the facts of their own history. These facts included: 1. God's mighty works in Egypt; here, as in eh. iv. 34; vii. 19, classified as temptations, signs, and wonders (vcrs. 2, 3). 2. God's guidance of the people in the desert, which also was rife in signs and wonders (vers. 5, 6), and was a course of discipline (temptation, in sense of trial) throu,:hout. 3. The victories over Sibon and Og (vers. 7, 8). No people ever saw so many miracles or passed through so extraordinary a curriculum as Israel did. Yet Mosrs says they had failed to apprehend the lessons of their history. Seeing, they saw not (Matt. xiii. 10-16). That generation may not have beeu so dull as the one which bad preceded it, but even it had shown by recent rebellions (Numb. xx., xxi.) how far it was from having laid earnestly to heart the lessons of God's dealings with it. A like vail lies on every unspiritual mind (:.:l Cor. iii. 13-18). The Bible is a. book of riddles to it (Luke xxiv. 25-27, 44-46). Christ is known only after the flesh (~ Cor. v. 16). The lines of a Divine leading in the events of life II.TC not recognized. \\"arnings are scorned; prosperity is misused; adversity hnrdens. There is oulwnrd experience of facts, but, as in Israel's case, the Word preached does not profit, not being mixed with faith in them that hear it (Heb. iv. 2). II. SrmJTUAL DISCERNMENT IS FROM Gon. Yet not arbitrarily given or withheld. It is given to those who feel their need of it, who seek it, and who act in faithfulness to the light already possessed (Ps. xxv. 9, 12, 14 ; cxix. 18 ; Matt. xiii. 10-16; John Yii. 17). From none such will God withhold the "heart to perceive, and eyes to see." On the other hand, Divine illumination is indispensable to the knowledge of spiritual truth (cf. John vi. 45; 1 Cor. ii. 12-16; 2 Cor. iv. 6; Eph. i. 17). As the poet's eye is needed for the discernment of the poetic suggestions and analogies of nature, so is the s i,iritua.l eye needed to penetrate "the secret of the Lord." 'l'he eye in this case, as in the other, "sees only what it brings with it the power of seeing." And to gain this seeing eye, there must, as before remarked, be prayer-prayer and obedience. Without these two golden keys, no thought, no labour, no learning, no cleverness, will ennble us to force the gates or the inner sanctuary of truth. God's world, God's Word, God's pro,:idence, will be alike mysterious; if spiritual instruction is offered, the reply will be "Doth he not speak parables?" (Ezek. xx. 49).-J. 0. Yer. 3.-Temptatio11s, signs, mirades. (Cf. eh. iv. 34; vii. 10.) I. THE RELATION OF THE TERMS. "Temptations" is a wider category than "signs," and "signs " is a wider cntegory than "miracles " or "wonders." All "wonders," howe,:er, in the kingdom of God have the moral significance of "signs;."· and all " si~s and wonders" are "trials" of the disposition. II. THE APPLICATION OF THE TERMS. 1. Wonders, meaning strictly, supernatural occurrences. 2. Signs. Anything is a "sign" which iadicates God's preseuce (Luke :::.i. 20), which discovers a law of his working, which is a pledge of his grace, which fl.lI'Disbes a symbol of a spiritual reality. Miracles were" signs." Nature is a "sign" in her order, regularity, and invariableness (Gen. i. 14; viii. 22; ix. 13; Ps. ex.ix. 89-92; Jer. xx:xiii. 25; Acts xiv. 17; Rom. i. 20). Every answer to prayer, every deliverance from trouble, every indication of the Divine will in providence, e,:ery specific warning and encouragement, is a "sigu." 3. Temptations, i.e. tests or trials. "Trial" is a word of wide scope, for God tries us every moment, as well by things littls as by things great. Every event in providence contributes to the forrnatiou, testing, and discipline of character. Naturally, however, we give the name "trials" to the harder and more severe experiences of life-those which most throw us back on our true selves, and reveal or determine character.-J. 0. Veni. 10-15.-National covenanting. Thi& covenant- L WAS KA.DE WITH THE NATION A.S sucH. National covenanting finds modern CII. XXIlC, 1-20.] THE nooK OF DEUTEUONOMY,