The Pulpit Commentary — Deuteronomy — Section 509

dii!eouroe. on this text. 011, XXXII, 1-62.] TIIE DOOK OF IHrnTETION011Y. --··- ----------------------- the children of God, but the mark of eomo other tribe; 1 and so as a Fctll,er he appeal~ to them bccauRe of their ingratitude. Has ho not made them, bou;(ht them, anrl established them, and, in consequence, earned a. right to dilTerent treatment from this? l?atherhood has righLs by reasou of service which no grateful child can ovcrloolt. l V. PATERNAL FOREBIOIIT. He speaks next of lhe days of old, of the years of many generations, which the fathers and elders could testify about, during which time tho Father was but evolving his glorious plan, separating and scattering the sons of Adam according to the interests and number of the children of Israel. At Babel and the snbsequent migrations of men," God so distributed the earth among the several peoples that were therein, as to reserve, or in his sovereign counsel to appoint, such a part for the Israelites, though they were then unborn, as mi~ht prove a commodious settlement and habitation for them." 2 Noble foresight, worthy of an everlasting and infinite Father. V. PATERNAL INSTRUCTION. One element in fatherhood is a sense of possession in the children. The father rejoices that the children are his, and will not part readily with his portion. So with God, "The Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his iuheritance." Out of this sense of property comes the improvement of the children by faithful instruction. Hence Israel were led into the wildernes~, and their Father found them there, and led them a.bout, instructing them, and keeping them as "the apple of the eye." It was the Father educating them through his own com- panionship, and lea.ding them onwards in safety towards their home. VI. PARENTAL DISCIPLINE. 'l'he song introduces (ver. 11) the figure of the eagle, and the motherly discipline to which she subjects her brood. "Naturalists tell us that when her young are old enough to fly, the eagle breaks her nest in pieces, in order to compel them to use their powers of flight; fluttering over them, that by imitation they may learn how to employ their wings, but, when unwilling to fly, spreading abroad her wings, she bears them upwards in the air, and then shaking them off, compels them to use their own exertions." 3 From this Mr. Hull deduces the truth that-" the Divine discipline of life is designed to a.waken man to the developmcr,t of his own powers." We see thus the kindness of the parental discipline, and that it takes motherhood as well as fatlierhood to illustrate the Divine relation ( cf. Isa. xlix. 15). VII. PARENTAL BLESSING. Having exercise<l such parental care over the people, the result was abundant temporal success and blessing. 'l'his is beautifully brought out as a "riding upon the high places of the earth." .And then the whole panorama of agricultural prosperity is presented, "the increase of the fields" providing bread, the rocks affording shelter for the bees which extracted abundant honey from the flowers, the olives clinging to the flinty rocks and affording abundance of oil, while the kine in tho fat pastures gave bulte1·, and the sheep milk, and the lambs were choice food, and the rams of the breed of Bashan, while the finest wheat and the purest wine made the lot of Israel princely. It was a land of promise surely which supplied their wants in such a fashion. God's goodness was exceeding great. The "fatherhood of God" had thus its grand exemplification in the history of Israel. A Father who was firm as the rocky fastnesses around them and as reliable; who pro- vided for his children long before they were born; who instructed and disciplined them, and brought them eventually to a splendid inheritance,-ruigbt well look for their trust and obedience. The Lord shows a similar fatherly care still to all men, even those who do not return a filial spirit; and if, in bis grace, they yield at length to his paternal appeals, then he comes and gives them a '.fellowship such as they never dreamed of. "He that loveth me," saith Jesus," shall be loved of my Father, and l will love him, and will manifest myself to him" (John xiv. 21).-R. M. E. V erf. 15-18.-The danger of worldly success. Success, when granted, bids for men's trust. 'l'hey begin accordingly to insinuate that the reliable Rock who begat them is not 1 Of. 'The Land and the Book,' p. 67. • Bo Bochort ns quoted in Jennings' •Jewish Antiquities,' p. 562. 1 Hull's • So;mons,' Srd series, p. 188.  /124 THE BOOK CIF DEUTERONOMY. [oa. xxxn. 1-52,