Deuteronomy 31

Deuteronomy 31:14-21

In this chapter Moses, 1. Encourageth the people, vers. 1-6. and Joshua, vers. 7, 8, 23. 2. The book of the time is written, and delivered into the custody of the priest, vers. 9. and 24-27. 3. Ordered to be publicly read every seventh year, vers. 10-13. 4. God calls Moses and Joshua to the door of the tabernacle, vers. 14, 15. 5. He foretells to them the apostasy of Israel, vers. 16-18. 6. He prescribes the following song to be a witness against them, vers. 19-21. 7. Moses wrote it, vers. 22. And delivered it to Israel, with an intimation of the design of it, as he had received it from the Lord, vers. 28-30.

1. AND Moses went and spoke these words unto all Israel. 2. And he said unto them, ‘I am an hundred and twenty years old this day; I can no more go out and come in: also the LORD hath said unto me, ‘Thou shalt not go over this Jordan. 3. The LORD thy God, he will go over before thee, and he will destroy these nations from before thee, and thou shalt possess them: and Joshua, he shall go over before thee, ‘as the LORD hath said. 4. And the LORD shall do unto them, ‘as he did to Simon, and to Og, kings of the Amorites, and unto the land of them, whom he destroyed. 5. And the LORD shall give them up before your face, that ye may do unto them according unto all the commandments which I have commanded you. 6. Be strong and of a good courage, fear not nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he is it that doth go with thee, ‘he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. 7. And Moses called unto Joshua, and said unto him in the light of all Israel, Be strong and of a good courage: for thou mult go with this people unto the land which the LORD hath sworn unto their fathers to give them:

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and thou shalt cause them to inherit it. 8. And the LORD, he is that doth go before thee, he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: ‘fear not neither be dismayed.

9. 1-8. One parting word more before his lips are shut in death. They were going to a war in which they needed encouragement; he, the leader in whom they had confidence, could not go before them, his age was very great, and though his natural force was not abated by it, yet God had put a bar in his way, and determined his death on this side Jordan. Note, The day of our death is fixed by divine decree; before, we are safe in the midst of danger; then, nothing can locate us. Therefore, 1. Moses animates the people with the affluence of God’s constant prelence with them, and his never-failing providence over them. God’s spiritual trust may be affixed; he will never leave nor forsake them: as he might not go himself he appoints them Joshua for their leader, or whose concern they had full experience, and whose regard for them they could not doubt, after what had passed. Thus as one faithful minister is removed another foreseth him. They need not fear heaven when God was their captain; what they had seen might be sufficient to confirm their confidence, and as it was God’s determined decree to root out the Canaanites, and to make them his instruments, they might rest assured it would be done. Note, (1.) Full experience should be remembered for our present encouragement. (2.) What God finds us to do he will enable us to accomplish, however difficult it may appear. 2. He encourages Joshua, not that he wanted courage, but that every promise from God might inspire fresh confidence of victory; he gives him the same assurances of the divine prelence and never-failing care, and charges him to act as a valiant leader. Every believer is a Joshua, strong to fight the Lord’s battles, undismayed with danger, and exercising faith in the divine promises for final and complete victory over sin, and death, and hell.

10. ¶ And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it unto Chap. 10. the priest’s the sons of Levi, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and unto all the elders of Israel. 10. And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the chap. 11. year of release, in the feast of tabernacles, 11. When all Israel is come to appear before the LORD thy God, in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing. 12. Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and the stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law: 13. And that their children which have not known any thing, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.

11. 9-13. 1. Moses, to perpetuate the memory of these laws, commits them to writing; either the whole Pentateuch, or this book of Deuteronomy, the rest being written before. The blessing of having these words thus preferred is unfeasible; the law and gospel both, through mercy, are not committed to uncertain tradition, but recorded safe in the book of God, that our faith may not stand on the word of man, but on the power of God. 2. The care and custody of it is committed to the priest’s and elders, that themselves might be careful to conform to its precepts, and that the copies taken from it might be perfectly corresponding to the original. Ministers must speak as the oracles of God, magistrates act according to the rule of God’s word, then God’s blessing and success will attend their labours. 3. A public reading of the whole, once in seven years, is appointed; every Sabbath a portion was read, and no doubt in their families daily the good men failed not to occupy themselves in God’s word; but that none may plead ignorance, and also by the solemnity to awaken deeper attention, at the least of tabernacles in the year of release, the whole was read through by the king or chief magistrate, some say, others, by the high priest; others, by a person appointed for this hitherto. The whole congregation of Israel then assembled, not only the males but the women and children, and the stranger also, as it imported them all to attend, that the rising generation might learn their duty, and be quickened in the way of obedience. Note, (1.) When we are much happy in the gospel liberty, preached by Jesus Christ, we shall delight to hear and obey him in every call of duty. (2.) The word of God being our only rule, should be read and known of all; how cruel the attempt, and how contrary to the divine will, to keep it locked up from the people in an unknown tongue, and to establish ignorance by law? (3.) Nothing should engage us more solicitously, than the early infractions of our children in the knowledge of the holy scriptures, which alone can make them wise unto salvation.

12. ¶ And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thy days approach that thou must die: call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tabernacle of the congregation, that “I may give him a charge. And Moses and Joshua went, and presented themselves in the tabernacle of the congregation. 15. And the LORD appeared in the tabernacle in a pillar of a cloud: and the pillar of the cloud stood over the door of the tabernacle 16. ¶ And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land whither they go to be amongst them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them. 17. Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them, So that they will lay in that day, “Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not amongst us? 18. And I will surely hide my face in that day, for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods. 19. Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach it the children of Israel; put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel. 20. For when I shall have brought them into the land which I sware unto their fathers that floweth with milk and honey; and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxen fat; then will they turn unto other gods, and serve them, and provoke me, and break my covenant. 21. And it shall come on past, when many evils and troubles are befalled them, that this song shall testify || against them as a witness: for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their feed: for I know their imagination ‘which they § go about, even now before I have brought them into the land which I sware.

Moses is again warned of his approaching end. The best of men need be admonished to put their house in order. Hereupon, 1. Moses is summoned to the tabernacle, with Joshua solemnly delegated to be his forceless, there to receive his charge. 2. God hereupon appears to them in the Shechinah, and foretells, [1.] The departure of Israel from him, and their adultery with idols, transgressing, as a wife, the covenant of marriage, in which they had been joined to the Lord; and this, in consequence of their abuts of prosperity, and the carnality of their wicked hearts. Note, (1.) All those of sin is spiritual adultery. (2.) They who pamper the body to inflame their lusts, will quickly seek unlawful gratifications for them. [2.] God’s anger is threatened against them; since they forsake him he will forsake them, and save unto them, when his wisdom no longer guides, nor his power protects them; innumerable evils cannot then but compels them about, such as would extort their confessions, that they had brought their mistress on themselves by sin, and God, in the day of their calamity, threatens to hide his face from them. Note, The greatest bitterness of every affliction is to have God’s face turned away from us in anger. [3.] Moses, by divine inspiration, is commanded to deliver and write a sacred song, as a warning to them and for a witness against them. God knew the imaginations of their evil hearts before they were put in possession of the land; and he gives them this song, the metre of which would make it more easily remembered, that when their evils overtook them, they might be led by it to repentance. Note, (1.) God knoweth the hearts of the heart, and can put it to the mouth of his servants, piercing as a sword. (2.) Though God’s elect people may be unfaithful, before their fall the means are provided for their recovery.

22. ¶ Moses therefore wrote this song the same day, and taught it the children of Israel. 23. And he gave Joshua the son of Nun a charge, and said, “Be strong and of a good courage: for thou shalt bring the children of Israel into the land which I sware unto them: and I will be with thee. 24. ¶ And it came to pass when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished; 25. That Moses commanded the Levites which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saving, 26. Take this book of the law, and ‘put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee. 27. ‘For I know thy rebellion, and thy first neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the LORD; and

how much more after my death? 28. Gather unto me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to record against them. 29. For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you: and evil will befall you in the latter days, because ye will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands. 30. And Moses make in the ears of all the congregation of Israel the words of this song, until they were ended.

Deuteronomy 31:22-30

We have here, 1. The charge Moses gave to Joshua, repeated to him by the Lord himself. God promises to be with him, notwithstanding the pervertness of the people, which he foresaw, and to give them the land he had promised. 2. Moses writes the song God gave him, and taught it the people, that it might be remembered by them; calling heaven and earth to witness against them, as most inexcusable, if they proved disobedient. Note, Religious instruction is often more easily and more abidingly communicated in poetry than in prose. 3. A copy of the law is laid up by the side of the ark, as a sacred deposit at all times to be referred to, and to stand for a witness before the Lord, either for or against them. Note, By the word of God every living shall must be thereby justified or condemned for eternity. 4. He gives them a sharp rebuke, from past experience of their rebellious, and declares his just apprehensions of their apostasy after his death. 5. He discharges his truth, by a faithful report of the whole revelation God had made to them, and leaves it with them, at their peril, to attend to it. Note, All that ministers can do is to give the faithful warning, and then, though Israel be not gathered, they shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord; if they are not happy in the forces of their labours, they shall not, however, be without their reward.