The Pulpit Commentary — Deuteronomy — Section 503

Vere, 1-3.-Beneflcial teaching. Moses was directed to inBtruct the people by composing for their use a song (eh, xxxi. 19, 21). A song is: I. Memorable. 2. Easily handed down from mouth to mouth. 3. Of singular power to awaken Rympathetic fcoling (cf. influence of ballarls, of Jacobite songs, of the 'Marseillaise,' of popular hymns). The action of song is not violent, but gentle and persuasive. lt steals about the heart like rippling water or like sunlight, trickles into its pores, works a.s if by spirit-influence on its seats of laughter and tears, explores its innermost labyrinths of feeling. Here compared (ver. 2) to the gently distilling dew and rain. J, 'l'HE DEW AND RAIN AS EMDLEMS 01<' THE TEACHING MOST LIKELY TO PROVE EFFECTIVE. Their action is: (I) gentle, (2) silent, (3) pervasive, (4) kindly; yet: I. Invigorative, 'l'hey revive, refresh, stimulate, 2. Power/ul. Rocks shattered by drops of water in their pores and crevices. 3. Dee]H'eachin_g. 'l'hey act on plants by watering their roots. Take a lesson from them. It is not the best kind of teaching which is loud and violent, which tries to force men's convictions. Convictions must have time to grow. Teaching must be loving. The earthquake, the whirlwind, the fire, have their own place, but "the still small voice" is needed to succce<l them. The Lord is peculiarly in that. Angry scolding, petulant rebuke, biting censure, clever satire, seldom do much good. Love alone wins the day. • II. 'J'HE DEW AND RAill AS EMDLEMS OF THE TEACHING MOST SUITABLE Ill TIIE INSTRUCTIONS OF RELICJION. Moses employed it here. Christ employed it. "He shall not strive nor cry," etc. (Matt. xii. 19). Paul commends "truthing it in love" ( Eph. iv. 15). "The servant of the Lord must not strive; but be i!entle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppoRe themselves" (2 Tim. ii. 24, 25). 'l'his kind of teaching harmonizes best: 1. With the subfect of religion-" the Name of the Lord" (ver. 3). God had revealed his Name to Moses (E.xod. xniv. 6, 7), and the attributes of mercy preponderate. 2. With the end of rdigion-the ascription of greatness to God (ver. ::J). Religious teaching fails if it does not inspire men with • such convictions of God's greatness as will lead them to fear, honour, worship, praise, and serve him. 3. With the special theme of the gospel-peace, love, good will to men. '!'his song of Moses has to deal with stern truths, but even in its sternest passages it breathes the pathos of tender and sorrowful affection. It dwells largely on Go<l's kindnesses and the people's ingratitude, and ends with loving promises, The song has numerous echoes in Isaiah.-J. 0. Ver. 4.-God the Rock. (Cf. vers. 15, 18, 31, 37.) This name for God occurs chiefly in this song of Moses, and in the compositions of David and of later psalmists. It was a name full of significance to those familiar with the desert. Rock-rock-rock- Israel had seen little else during the thirty-eiglit years of wandering. The older men could remember the seclusion and granitic sublimity of the rock sanctuary of Sinai. 'l'he congregation bad mourned for Aaron under the shadow of Mount Hor, "rising high aloft into the blue sky, like a huge, grand, but shattered rock-city, with vast cliffs, perpendicular walls of stone, pinnacles, and naked peaks of every shape." They had witnessed the security of Edom in the hills in which now stand the wondrous rock- hewn ruin of Petra. They had traversed the defiles of the terrible and precipitous Arabab. ,vhen David was bunted in tho wilderness, he, too, was often led to think of God, his Rock (Ps. xviii. 2; lxi. 2; !xii. 2, 7, etc.). It is wilderness experience which still makes the name so precious. I. RooK A NATURAL IMAGE OF DIVlliE ATTRIBUTES. The image is not an arbitrary one. Nature abounds in shadows of the spiritual. It is what the mind puts into the objects of its survey which makes them what thoy are. "The Alps and Andes arc but millions of atoms till thought combines them, and stamps on them the conception of the everlastincr hills, Nia(Tara is a gush of wator-drops till the soul puts into it that sweep of rcsistle;s power whiih the b:hold~r feels: The ~cean, w~ve behind wave, is only great when the spirit has b1eathed into 1t the idea of 1mmens1ty. If we analyze our feelings, we shall find that thought meets us wherever we turn. The real grandeur 516 THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY. [oa, :u.:m, 1-52,