The Pulpit Commentary — Deuteronomy — Section 500

Y crs. 44-4 7.-Life at stuke 1 This paragraph-concerning which Keil is probably ric:ht in his surmise, that it proceeds from: an editor's hand-sets before us ill a quiet and incidental way, one of the most important transitions Israel had yet experienced. \\" e ha Ye Feen in eh. xxxi. 7, 8, that Moses gave Joshua a charge, and told him that he must lead the people into the promised land. After that came the utterance of t' is son'.':. 11hen it was uttered, Joshua stood side by side with Moses. Thus, just for nnee, the t,rn lca,lcrships o,·erlap. The joint presence of both the old and new leaders this signifying, that, though the earthly administration changed hanrls, the same 111e,sa~e woulJ be passed, and not a word of Jebovah's would be lost. There are six l<-atm,·s about this closing public scene of the life of Moses, which open up an invaluable line of thought. L Here is an assembly, met to hear Mo:,es' last song. 2. Though it is the last, there is in it nothing new. It is the one message-God's goorlness, faith• folness, and loYe, calling for their reciprocation and obedience. 3. Th!s old message is rcimpresscd on their hearts. 4. The people were to command their children to observe it. The children were, in their home life, to receive an education for God. 5. '!'his is urged upon them by the consideration that all that is precious to them in life depends on their obedieuce to God's message. 6. Moses and Joshua appear together before the people, as if to declare to them that the same teachings which the aged leader had laid do\\'n, the younger one woulcl accept, enforce, and transmit. 1'here was a change in human leaders, but not in Divine laws or the Divine message. And to all the solemn sanctions with which Moses guarded the Law, Joshua here pledges himself before the people and before his God. Hence we get this theme-Amid all changes we have an uncl,anging message from above, on the observance of w'hich our life depends. I. Let us clearly declare and show that there is at this moment a message of law nnd a revelation of grace, which have come to us, not of man, but by the inspiration of tl,c Spirit of God, by the manifestation of God in Christ, and by the power of the Holy Gl,oft on and since the <lay of Pentecost. This message is, in sum and substance, '..'.ivcn in John iii. 16; 1 Tim. i. 15; Rev. xxii. 17; Titus ii. 11-13. This message is tl,e deYelopment of that which through Moses was given but in germ (John v. 46, 47; l\!att. Y. 17). II. Here past and present :;:cncralions meet, giving out the same words. We have now "the faith once [for all] delivered unto the ~aints." Aged patriarchs in their c.eclinincr years do reiterate the same message they gave when in the vigour of youth. And yo~ng men, filled with the same spirit, and having their ~carts kindled with tl~o same fire, take it up wilh the earnest hope and prayer that 1t may suffer no loss in their hands! Often have a Moses and a Joshua thus stood side by side. III. The me~sacre now is far fuller and clearer than it was when given to Israel of old. How much,° Christian preachers and teachers can tell, Yet in three respects tl,ev are ~imi!ar. L Both reveal the love of God, and recount a great deliverance, 2. Buth BOlicit, in Beaven'~ na.me, the response of the ,iieollles' hearts (se13 Rom, xii, 1; ,a, XXXII, 1-62,] THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY. 513