Deuteronomy 30
DOYLYChap. XXXI. ver. 2. — I can no more go out and come in.] I can no longer discharge the office of your governor and leader, Numb. xxvii. 17. This was not because he wanted vigour, either of body or of mind, for his strength and faculties were not decayed, chap. xxxiv. 7, but because God had decreed and declared that he should not conduct them into Canaan. Bp. Patrick, Pyle.
— the Lord hath said unto me, Thou shalt not go over this Jordan.] Moses speaks of himself with the same impartiality which he used towards the people. Though he mentions that he was highly favoured of God, yet he more than once owns that he was near forfeiting this blessing. He confesses his diffidence and want of faith, and his neglect of some essential duties, by which he grievously offended the Deity. He tells us, that the consequence was fatal, as he was not, on account of these offences, permitted to enter the land of promise; but, like the rest, died by the way, having had only a distant view. He scruples not to disclose the failings of his brother, and of his sister Miriam, and the rebellion of others, to whom he was nearly related. He writes in the spirit of truth, without the least prejudice or partiality, suppressing nothing, that was necessary to be known, though to his own prejudice and discredit. And when he has afforded a just history of the people’s ingratitude and disobedience while he survived, he proceeds to anticipate what is to come, and gives strong intimation of their future apostasy and rebellion: “I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, &c.” ch. xxxi. 29. And he farther assures them of the vengeance that should ensue: “Cursed shalt thou be, &c.” ch. xxviii. 19, 25, 37. He denounces many other evils, which were to come upon this rebellious nation; and which did come as he foretold, but many of them ages afterwards: to the principal of which the Jews at this day remain a living testimony. And what the Prophet says upon these occasions is not attended with resentment and bitterness; on the contrary, he shews the most affecting tenderness and concern for them, and a true zeal for their welfare. We may therefore be assured, that things must have happened as he describes them; and nothing but duty and conviction could have made him transmit these truths. Bryant.
Moses encourageeth Joshua. God giveth a charge to Joshua,
unto them according unto all the commandments which I have commanded you.
Deuteronomy 30:19
- — therefore choose life.] The same term is employed by Joshua, chap. xxiv. 22, “Ye have chosen you the Lord, to serve Him:” and by the Apostle to the Hebrews, “Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, &c.” chap. xi. xxv, and by our Saviour, “One thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part,” Luke x. 42. Our ability and “sufficiency” to please God by works of piety and goodness are most undeniably “of God.” But it rests with us, whether or not we will make use of the aids and powers which He graciously affords us; whether we will, or will not, “receive His grace in vain.” The question is not, what God can do? but, what He will do? He can, if He pleases, “raise up children out of the stones” of the street. He can compel the vilest sinners to be obedient and happy. But this is not the manner, in which He deals with the sons of Adam. He invites, but does not force, us into His service. “He has shewed us what is good,” and enabled us to perform it, so far as is consistent with this state of frailty and imperfection. He has “set before us,” as He set before the Israelites, “life and death, blessing and cursing:” it remains for us to “choose,” whether we will obey and be saved, or disobey and perish. Waldo.
Though speaking of His absolute power, God can compel and necessitate the will of man, and so we do not make him stronger than God, as is very weakly concluded by some; yet He will not, because He will not violate that order, which He hath set in our creation. He made man after His own image, invested him with a reasonable soul, having the use of understanding and the freedom of will: He endowed him with a power to consider and deliberate, to consult and choose; and so by consequence He gave him dominion over himself and his own actions; that being made lord of the whole world, he might not be a slave to himself, but might first exercise his sovereignty in the free possession of his own mind. To force his will were to destroy the nature of His creature, which grace is not designed to do, but only to heal and assist it; and therefore God deals with man, as a free agent, by instructions and commands, by promises and threatenings, by allurements and reproofs, by rewards and punishments. So true is the saying of
AND Moses went and spake these words unto all Israel.