Deuteronomy 29:19

Deu 29:24-28. A caution against prying too curiously into the secrets of the Divine providence, and to be contented with what God has revealed, Deu 29:29. Verse 1 These are the words of the covenant - This verse seems properly to belong to the preceding chapter, as a widely different subject is taken up at Deu 29:2 of this; and it is distinguished as the 69th verse in some of the most correct copies of the Hebrew Bible. Commanded Moses to make - לכרת lichroth, to cut, alluding to the covenant sacrifice which was offered on the occasion and divided, as is explained, Gen 15:18 (note). Beside the covenant which he made - in Horeb - What is mentioned here is an additional institution to the ten words given on Horeb; and the curses denounced here are different from those denounced against the transgressors of the decalogue. Verse 4 The Lord hath not given you a heart, etc. - Some critics read this verse interrogatively: And hath not God given you a heart, etc.? because they suppose that God could not reprehend them for the non-performance of a duty, when he had neither given them a mind to perceive the obligation of it, nor strength to perform it, had that obligation been known. Though this is strictly just, yet there is no need for the interrogation, as the words only imply that they had not such a heart, etc., not because God had not given them all the means of knowledge, and helps of his grace and Spirit, which were necessary; but they had not made a faithful use of their advantages, and therefore they had not that wise, loving, and obedient heart which they otherwise might have had. If they had had such a heart, it would have been God's gift, for he is the author of all good; and that they had not such a heart was a proof that they had grieved his Spirit, and abused the grace which he had afforded them to produce that gracious change, the want of which is here deplored. Hence God himself is represented as grieved because they were unchanged and disobedient: "O that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children for ever!" See Deu 5:29 (note), and the note there. Verse 5 Your clothes are not waxen old - See on Deu 8:4 (note). Verse 6 Ye have not eaten bread, etc. - That is, ye have not been supported in an ordinary providential way; I have been continually working miracles for you, that ye might know that I am the Lord. Thus we find that God had furnished them with all the means of this knowledge, and that the means were ineffectual, not because they were not properly calculated to answer God's gracious purpose, but because the people were not workers with God; consequently they received the grace of God in vain. See 2Cor 6:1. Verse 10 Ye stand - all of you before the Lord - They were about to enter into a covenant with God; and as a covenant implies two parties contracting, God is represented as being present, and they and all their families, old and young, come before him. Verse 12 That thou shouldest enter - לעבר leaber, to pass through, that is, between the separated parts of the covenant sacrifice. See Gen 15:18 (note). And into his oath - Thus we find that in a covenant were these seven particulars: 1. The parties about to contract were considered as being hitherto separated. 2. They now agree to enter into a state of close and permanent amity. 3. They meet together in a solemn manner for this purpose. 4. A sacrifice is offered to God on the occasion, for the whole is a religious act. 5. The victim is separated exactly into two equal parts, the separation being in the direction of the spine; and those parts are laid opposite to each other, sufficient room being allowed for the contracting parties to pass between them. 6. The contracting parties meet in the victim, and the conditions of the covenant by which they are to be mutually bound are recited. 7. An oath is taken by these parties that they shall punctually and faithfully perform their respective conditions, and thus the covenant is made and ratified. See Jer 34:18, Jer 34:19, and the notes on Gen 6:18 (note); Gen 15:18 (note); Exo 29:45 (note); Leviticus 26 (note). Verse 15 Him that standeth here - The present generation. Him that is not here - all future generations of this people. Verse 18 A root that beareth gall and wormwood - That is, as the apostle expresses it, Heb 3:12, An evil heart of unbelief departing from the living God; for to this place he evidently refers. It may also signify false doctrines, or idolatrous persons among themselves. Verse 19 To add drunkenness to thirst - A proverbial expression denoting the utmost indulgence in all sensual gratifications. Verse 26 Gods - whom he had not given unto them - This is an unhappy translation. Houbigant renders the original words ולו חלק להם velo chalak lahem, et quibuscum nulla eis societas, "And with whom they had no society;" and falls unmercifully on Le Clerc because he had translated it, From whom they had received no benefits. I must differ from both these great men, because I think they differ from the text. חלק chalak signifies a portion, lot, inheritance, and God is frequently represented in Scripture as the portion or inheritance of his people. Here, therefore, I think the original should be rendered, And there was no portion to them, that is, the gods they served could neither supply their wants nor save their souls - they were no portion. Verse 29 The secret things belong unto the Lord, etc. - This verse has been variously translated. Houbigant renders it thus: Quae apud Dominum nostrum abscondita sunt, nobis ea filiisque nostris palam facta sunt ad multas aetates, "The things which were hidden with the Lord our God, are made manifest to us and our children for many generations." I am not satisfied with this interpretation, and find that the passage was not so understood by any of the ancient versions. The simple general meaning seems to be this: "What God has thought proper to reveal, he has revealed; what he has revealed is essential to the well-being of man, and this revelation is intended not for the present time merely, nor for one people, but for all succeeding generations. The things which he has not revealed concern not man but God alone, and are therefore not to be inquired after." Thus, then, the things that are hidden belong unto the Lord, those that are revealed belong unto us and our children. But possibly the words here refer to the subjects of these chapters, as if he had said, "Apostasy from God and his truth is possible. When a national apostasy among us may take place, is known only to God; but he has revealed himself to us and our children that we may do all the words of this law, and so prevent the dreadful evils that shall fall on the disobedient." The Jews have always considered these verses as containing subjects of the highest importance to them, and have affixed marks to the original לנו ולבנינו lanu ulebaneynu, "to Us and to our Children," in order to fix the attention of the reader on truths which affect them individually, and not them only, but the whole of their posterity. Introduction Gracious promises are given to the penitent, Deu 30:1-6. The Lord will circumcise their heart, and put all these curses on their enemies, if they hearken to his voice and keep his testimonies, Deu 30:7-10. The word is near to them, and easy to be understood, Deu 30:11-14. Life and death, a blessing and a curse, are set before them; and they are exhorted to love the Lord, obey his voice, and cleave unto him, that they may inherit the land promised to Abraham, Deu 30:15-20. Verse 1 When all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse - So fully did God foresee the bad u

The Covenant Renewed. ( b. c. 1451.) 10 Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel, 11 Your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water: 12 That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and into his oath, which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day: 13 That he may establish thee to day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 14 Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath; 15 But with him that standeth here with us this day before the Lord our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day: 16 (For ye know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which ye passed by; 17 And ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:) 18 Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood; 19 And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst: 20 The Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven. 21 And the Lord shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law: 22 So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the Lord hath laid upon it; 23 And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath: 24 Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger? 25 Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt: 26 For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them: 27 And the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book: 28 And the Lord rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day. 29 The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law. It appears by the length of the sentences here, and by the copiousness and pungency of the expressions, that Moses, now that he was drawing near to the close of his discourse, was very warm and zealous, and very desirous to impress what he said upon the minds of this unthinking people. To bind them the faster to God and duty, he here, with great solemnity of expression (to make up the want of the external ceremony that was used ( Exod. xxiv. 4 , &c.), concludes a bargain (as it were) between them and God, an everlasting covenant, which God would not forget and they must not. He requires not their explicit consent, but lays the matter plainly before them, and then leaves it between God and their own consciences. Observe, I. The parties to this covenant. 1. It is the Lord their God they are to covenant with, v. 12 . To him they must give up themselves, to him they must join themselves. "It is his oath; he has drawn up the covenant and settled it; he requires your consent to it; he has sworn to you and to him you must be sworn." This requires us to be sincere and serious, humble and reverent, in our covenant-transactions with God, remembering how great a God he is with whom we are covenanting, who has a perfect knowledge of us and an absolute dominion over us. 2. They are all to be taken into covenant with him. They were all summoned to attend ( v. 2 ), and did accordingly, and are told ( v. 10 ) what was the design of their appearing before God now in a body—they were to enter into covenant with him. (1.) Even their great men, the captains of their tribes, their elders and officers, must not think it any disparagement to their honour, or any diminution of their power, to put their necks under the yoke of this covenant, and to draw in it. They must rather enter into the covenant first, to set a good example to their inferiors. (2.) Not the men only, but their wives and children, must come into this covenant; though they were not numbered and mustered, yet they must be joined to the Lord, v. 11 . Observe, Even little ones are capable of being taken into covenant with God, and are to be admitted with their parents. Little children, so little as to be carried in arms, must be brought to Christ, and shall be blessed by him, for of such was and is the kingdom of God. (3.) Not the men of Israel only, but the stranger that was in their camp, provided he was so far proselyted to their religion as to renounce all false gods, was taken into this covenant with the God of Israel, forasmuch as he also, though a stranger, was to be looked upon in this matter as a son of Abraham, Luke xix. 9 . This was an early indication of favour to the Gentiles, and of the kindness God had in store for them. (4.) Not the freemen only, but the hewers of wood and drawers of water, the meanest drudge they had among them. Note, As none are too great to come under the bonds of the covenant, so none are too mean to inherit the blessings of the covenant. In Christ no difference is made between bond and free, Col. iii. 11 . Art thou called being a servant? Care not for it, 1 Cor. vii. 21 . (5.) Not only those that were now present before God in this solemn assembly, but those also that were not here with them were taken into covenant ( v. 15 ): As with him that standeth here with us (so bishop Patrick thinks it should be rendered) so also with him, that is not here with us this day; that is, [1.] Those that tarried at home were included; though detained either by sickness or necessary business, they must not therefore think themselves disengaged; no, every Israelite shares in the common blessings. Those that tarry at home divide the spoil, and therefore every Israelite must own himself bound by the consent of the representative body. Those who cannot go up to the house of the Lord must keep up a spiritual communion with those that do, and be present in spirit when they are absent in body. [2.] The generations to come are included. Nay, one of the Chaldee paraphrasts reads it, All the generations that have been from the first days of the world, and all that shall arise to the end of the whole world, stand with us here this day. And so, taking this covenant as a typical dispensation of the covenant of grace, it is a noble testimony to the Mediator of that covenant, who is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. II. The summary of this covenant. All the precepts and all the promises of the covenant are included in the covenant-relation between God and them, v. 13 . That they should be appointed, raised up, established, for a people to him, to observe and obey him, to be devoted to him and dependent on him, and that he should be to them a God, according to the tenour of the covenant made with their fathers, to make them holy, high, and happy. Their fathers are here named, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as examples of piety, which those were to set themselves to imitate who expected any benefit from the covenant made with them. Note, A due consideration of the relation we stand in to God as our God, and of the obligation we lie under as a people to him, is enough to bring us to all the duties and all the comforts of the covenant. III. The principal design of the renewing of this covenant at this time was to fortify them against temptations to idolatry. Though other sins will be the sinner's ruin, yet this was the sin that was likely to be their ruin. Now concerning this he shows, 1. The danger they were in of being tempted to it ( v. 16, 17 ): " You know we have dwelt in the land of Egypt, a country addicted to idolatry; and it were well if there were not among you some remains of the infection of that idolatry; we have passed by other nations, the Edomites, Moabites, &c. and have seen their abominations and their idols, and some among you, it may be, have liked them too well, and still hanker after them, and would rather worship a wooden god that they can see than an infinite Spirit whom they never saw." It is to be hoped that there were those among them who, the more they saw of these abominations and idols, the more they hated them; but there were those that were smitten with the sight of them, saw the accursed things and coveted them. 2. The danger they were in if they yielded to the temptation. He gives them fair warning: it was at their peril if they forsook God to serve idols. If they would not be bound and held by the precepts of the covenant, they would find that the curses of the covenant would be strong enough to bind and hold them. (1.) Idolatry would be the ruin of particular persons and their families, v. 18-21 , where observe, [1.] The sinner described, v. 18 . First, He is one whose heart turns away from his God; there the mischief begins, in the evil heart of unbelief, which inclines men to depart from the living God to dead idols. Even to this sin men are tempted when they are drawn aside by their own lusts and fancies. Those that begin to turn from God, by neglecting their duty to him, are easily drawn to other gods: and those that serve other gods do certainly turn away from the true God; for he will admit of no rivals: he will be all or nothing. Secondly, He is a root that bears gall and wormwood; that is, he is a dangerous man, who, being himself poisoned with bad principles and inclinations, with a secret contempt of the God of Israel and his institutions and a veneration for the gods of the nations, endeavours, by all arts possible, to corrupt and poison others and draw them to idolatry: this is a man whose fruit is hemlock (so the word is translated, Hos. x. 4 ) and wormwood; it is very displeasing to God, and will be, to all that are seduced by him, bitterness in the latter end. This is referred to by the apostle, Heb. xii. 15 , where he is in like manner cautioning us to take heed of those that would seduce us from the Christian faith; they are the weeds or tares in a field, which, if let alone, will overspread the whole field. A little of this leaven will be in danger of infecting the whole lump. [2.] His security in the sun. He promises himself impunity, though he persists in his impiety, v. 19 . Though he hears the words of the curse, so that he cannot plead ignorance of the danger, as other idolaters, yet even then he blesses himself in his own heart, thinks himself safe from the wrath of the God of Israel, under the protection of his idol-gods, and therefore says, "I shall have peace, though I be governed in my religion, not by God's institution, but by my own imagination, to add drunkenness to thirst, one act of wickedness to another." Idolaters were like drunkards, violently set upon their idols themselves and industrious to draw others in with them. Revellings commonly accompanied their idolatries ( 1 Pet. iv. 3 ), so that this speaks a woe to drunkards (especially the drunkards of Ephraim), who, when they are awake, being thirsty, seek it yet again, Prov. xxiii. 35 . And those that made themselves drunk in honour of their idols were the worst of drunkards. Note, First, There are many who are under the curse of God and yet bless themselves; but it will soon be found that in blessing themselves they do but deceive themselves. Secondly, Those are ripe for ruin, and there is little hope of their repentance, who have made themselves believe that they shall have peace though they go on in a sinful way. Thirdly, Drunkenness is a sin that hardens the heart, and debauches the conscience, as much as any other, a sin to which men are strangely tempted themselves even when they have lately felt the mischiefs of it, and to which they are strangely fond of drawing others, Hab. ii. 15 . And such an ensnaring sin is idolatry. [3.] God's just severity against him for the sin, and for the impious affront he put upon God in saying he should have peace though he went on, so giving the lie to eternal truth, Gen. iii. 4 . There is scarcely a threatening in all the book of God that sounds more dreadful than this. O that presumptuous sinners would read it and tremble! For it is not a bug-bear to frighten children and fools, but a real declaration of the wrath of God against the ungodliness and the unrighteousness of men, v. 20, 21 . First, The Lord shall not spare him. The days of his reprieve, which he abuses, will be shortened, and no mercy remembered in the midst of judgment. Secondly, The anger of the Lord, and his jealousy, which is the fiercest anger, shall smoke against him, like the smoke of a furnace. Thirdly, The curses written shall lie upon him, not only light upon him to terrify him, but abide upon him, to sink him to the lowest hell, John iii. 36 . Fourthly, His name shall be blotted out, that is, he himself shall be cut off, and his memory shall rot and perish with him. Fifthly, He shall be separated unto evil, which is the most proper notion of a curse; he shall be cut off from all happiness and all hope of it, and marked out for misery without remedy. And ( lastly ) All this according to the curses of the covenant, which are the most fearful curses, being the just revenges of abused grace. (2.) Idolatry would be the ruin of their nation; it would bring plagues upon the land that connived at this root of bitterness and received the infection; as far as the sin spread, the judgment should spread likewise. [1.] The ruin is described. It begins with plagues and sicknesses ( v. 22 ), to try if they will be reclaimed by less judgments; but, if not, it ends in a total overthrow, like that of Sodom, v. 23 . As that valley, which had been like the garden of the Lord for fruitfulness, was turned into a lake of salt and sulphur, so should the land of Canaan be made desolate and barren, as it has been ever since the last destruction of it by the Romans. The lake of Sodom bordered closely upon the land of Israel, that by it they might be warned against the iniquity of Sodom; but, not taking the warning, they were made as like to Sodom in ruin as they had been in sin. [2.] The reason of it is enquired into, and assigned. First, It would be enquired into by the generations to come ( v. 22 ), who would find the state of their nation in all respects the reverse of what it had been, and, when they read both the history and the promise, would be astonished at the change. The stranger likewise, and the nations about them, as well as particular persons, would ask, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land? v. 24 . Great desolations are thus represented elsewhere as striking the spectators with amazement, 1 Kings ix. 8, 9 ; Jer. xxii. 8, 9 . It was time for the neighbours to tremble when judgment thus began at the house of God, 1 Pet. iv. 17 . The emphasis of the question is to be laid upon this land, the land of Canaan, this good land, the glory of all lands, this land flowing with milk and honey. A thousand pities that such a good land as this should be made desolate, but this is not all; it is this holy land, the land of Israel, a people in covenant with God; it is Immanuel's land, a land where God was known and worshipped, and yet thus wasted. Note, 1. It is no new thing for God to bring desolating judgments upon a people that in profession are near to him, Amos iii. 2 . 2. He never does this without a good reason. 3. It concerns us to enquire into the reason, that we may give glory to God and take warning to ourselves. Secondly, The reason is here assigned, in answer to that enquiry. The matter would be so plain that all men would say, It was because they forsook the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, v. 25 . Note, God never forsakes any till they first forsake him. But those that desert the God of their fathers are justly cast out of the inheritance of their fathers. They went and served other gods ( v. 26 ), gods that they had no acquaintance with, nor lay under any obligation to either in duty of gratitude; for God has not given the creatures to be served by us, but to serve us; nor have they done any good to us (as some read it), more than what God has enabled them to do; to the Creator therefore we are debtors, and not to the creatures. It was for this that God was angry with them ( v. 27 ), and rooted them out in anger, v. 28 . So that, how dreadful soever the desolation was, the Lord was righteous in it, which is acknowledged, Dan. ix. 11-14 . "Thus" (says Mr. Ainsworth) "the law of Moses leaves sinners under the curse, and rooted out of the Lord's land; but the grace of Christ towards penitent believing sinners plants them again upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up, being kept by the power of God," Amos ix. 15 . [3.] He concludes his prophecy of the Jews' rejection just as St. Paul concludes his discourse on the same subject, when it began to be fulfilled ( Rom. xi. 33 ), How unsearchable are God's judgments, and his ways past finding out! So here ( v. 29 ), Secret things belong to the Lord our God. Some make it to be one sentence, The secret things of the Lord our God are revealed to us and to our children, as far as we are concerned to know them, and he hath not dealt so with other nations: but we make it two sentences, by which, First, We are forbidden curiously to enquire into the secret counsels of God and to determine concerning them. A full answer is given to that question, Wherefore has the Lord done thus to this land? sufficient to justify God and admonish us. But if any ask further why God would be at such a vast expense of miracles to form such a people, whose apostasy and ruin he plainly foresaw, why he did not by his almighty grace prevent it, or what he intends yet to do with them, let such know that these are questions which cannot be answered, and therefore are not fit to be asked. It is presumption in us to pry into the Arcana imperii—the mysteries of government, and to enquire into the reasons of state which it is not for us to know. See Acts i. 7 ; John xxi. 22 ; Col. ii. 18 . Secondly, We are directed and encouraged diligently to enquire into that which God has made known: things revealed belong to us and to our children. Note, 1. Though God has kept much of his counsel secret, yet there is enough revealed to satisfy and save us. He has kept back nothing that is profitable for us, but that only which it is good for us to be ignorant of. 2. We ought to acquaint ourselves, and our children, too, with the things of God that are revealed. We are not only allowed to search into them, but are concerned to do so. They are things which we and ours are nearly interested in. They are the rules we are to live by, the grants we are to live upon; and therefore we are to learn them diligently ourselves, and to teach them diligently to our children. 3. All our knowledge must be in order to practice, for this is the end of all divine revelation, not to furnish us with curious subjects of speculation and discourse, with which to entertain ourselves and our friends, but that we may do all the words of this law, and be blessed in our deed.

Of this curse - Of that oath where - in he swore he would keep covenant with God, and that with a curse pronounced against himself if he did not perform it. Bless himself - Flatter himself in his own eyes, with vain hopes, as if God did not mind such things, and either could not, or would not punish them. Peace - Safety and prosperity. My own heart - Though I do not follow God's command, but my own devices. To add drunkenness to thirst - The words may be rendered, to add thirst to drunkenness, and so the sense may be, that when he hath multiplied his sins, and made himself as it were drunk with them, yet he is not satisfied therewith, but still whets his appetite, and provokes his thirst after more, as drunkards often use means to make themselves thirst after more drink.