Deuteronomy 28

Deuteronomy 28:1-68

THE OF CONDUCT TO Deu_27:1 to Deuteronomy 34:12.An earnest study of these reveals: Blessing is a fruit of obedience; and curses are a consequence of disobedience. It was said to Israel,“If thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all His commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:“And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God” (Deuteronomy 28:1-2, f).Blessings in the city, blessings in the field (Deuteronomy 28:3), blessings on the fruit of the ground (Deuteronomy 28:4), triumph over enemies (Deuteronomy 28:7), richness in store-house (Deuteronomy 28:8), a great and good name (Deuteronomy 28:10), multiplied children (Deuteronomy 28:11), treasures from Heaven (Deuteronomy 28:12), their eventual supremacy (Deuteronomy 28:12), the head and not the tail, from above and not beneath (Deuteronomy 28:13)—all conditioned upon their keeping the law (Deuteronomy 28:14).Who would change it now? Who would dare to have blessings apart from obedience? Who would dare to divorce the one from the other and face the consequences? Men have always shown a disposition to obey their fellows and an almost equal disposition to forget God. The monk or the nun—how they yield to the Abbot or the Abbess; the Sister to the Mother Superior; the Papal church—what obedience to the Pope!

Paganism—what abject slavery to high potentates! But for Israel—type of the Christian— it is theirs to “obey God”, and if conflict arises, then in the language of Peter, “to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).One is compelled to recognize the fact that Modernism has so far discredited the personality of God, the Deity of Christ, and the authority of the Scriptures, that men’s convictions no longer know a keen edge, and the Scripture commands no longer bind conscience, and the “thus saith the Lord” no longer settles subjects of controversy.The Modernist argues against “all external authority” and has not only increased the waters of infidelity, but he has pushed back the floodgates of lawlessness and deluged the world.If there were no other reason for studying the Book of Deuteronomy, the repeated ringing call to men for obedience to the Divine Law is both a defense and justification of the same.As one moves on in its study he encounters the Palestinian covenant (Deuteronomy 29:1, f).

That it is a Covenant in addition to the one made with them in Horeb, is perfectly clear, in fact, so clear that all debate about that subject is strained and needless. The former Covenant rested in right, tempered with mercy, and enriched by grace. This covenant explains itself in the light of experience; and while enunciating stringent conditions of blessing and strict rules of conduct, its promises are rich and lift to a higher spiritual level than the Horeb covenant. Circumcision of the flesh is changed now to the circumcision of the heart, and the bending of the knee to the surrender of the Spirit, and the blessings of the body to the life of the soul. The great lesson that runs throughout Deuteronomy, namely, that of the relation between obedience to God and Divine benediction, is a lesson upon which no mortal tongue will ever lay undue emphasis. The evils that grow out of disregard to God’s laws—no man can imagine them!

The annals of human anguish is their record.We are told that when the first cable was laid in the Atlantic, where it went down miles and miles deep, it was found to be a failure and had to be taken up, at the loss of an enormous amount of time and unthinkable expense, and it was discovered that the workmen had ignored the oft-repeated command to keep it immersed in water while working on it, and on one occasion had left it where the hot sun struck it for a few minutes and melted the gutta-percha. Years followed before it could be laid again.

Friends of the enterprise were greatly discouraged. Fifty voyages were made across the Atlantic, and finally capital enough was secured to lay it the second time. Possibly through the fault of another, who had forgotten to obey when the steamer had proceeded six hundred miles to sea, the cable parted and a loss of six million dollars ensued. In July 1866, the third cable was ready and a vessel sent out on her way. This time the work was completely successful and the world applauded Field. It might have been so from the first.

This loss of time, of talent, of means, might have been saved had men exactly obeyed, but even this is but a feeble type of what the world has felt in consequence of disobedience to God. Moses, then, must have brought his message from above, for only God Himself ever understood, or even now comprehends the relation of obedience to blessing, of covenant keeping to character and world consequences.But we conclude with a further lesson of the relation of conduct to consequences.The death of Moses is a fitting climax to Moses’ life.

The thirty-second chapter records his swan song, and what a song it is! Volumes might be devoted to it without a waste word. Truth follows truth in an almost unlimited series of statements. When the great soul comes to his conclusion God permits his lips to pour forth blessing upon the Children of Israel before he dies. The tribes are taken in turn, and for each, blessing is announced, Reuben, Levi, Jacob, Benjamin, and so on. Moses is now to the tribes what Jacob was to his sons—a rare father yearning over them and blessing them. “Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency”! (Deuteronomy 33:29).The concluding chapter of this Book, the thirty-fourth, records Moses’ death, and suggests the translation of his body.

How can one speak as he ought to speak of this man when he comes to the last and hushed moment of life! Bettex writes: “Forty years a prince in the palaces of Egypt; forty years a shepherd in the wild wastes of Midian; forty years in the power of God, he bears his people through the wilderness, as a mother carries her babe, and then dies on Mount Nebo, “according to the Word of the Lord”, literally “at the mouth of the Lord” which the rabbins interpret, “by the kiss of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 34:5).

What inexpressible words this man may have heard; what heavenly mysteries and Divine visions he may have seen, when, oblivious of the world, he was with Jehovah forty days and forty nights, and ate no bread and drank no water! His countenance is radiant with it; his thundering words flash it; the song of Moses, which John hears the redeemed sing in Heaven, echoes it. And the Christian is permitted to ascend Sinai with him; to come into the presence of his God; to hear unspeakable things out of His Law, and to forget the world below, which is dancing around its golden calf.“And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. And the Children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab” (Deuteronomy 34:7-8).How simple and yet how sublime the record! It is enough! Moses’ tomb requires no epitaph.

His name is sufficiently immortalized. Modernists will never take the coronet from Moses’ brow.“This was the bravest warrior That ever buckled sword;This the most gifted poet That ever breathed a word:And never earthy philosopher Traced with his golden pen,On the deathless page, truths half so sage As he wrote down for men.“That was the grandest funeral That ever passed on earth,But no one heard the tramping,Or saw the train go forth,—None but the bald old eagleOn gray Bethpeor’s height,Which from his rocky eyrieLooked on the wondrous sight.“And had he not high honor—The hillside for his pall—To lie in state, while angels waitWith stars for tapers tall;And the dark rock-pines, like tossing plumes,Over his bier to wave,And God’s own hand, in that lonely land,To lay him in the grave?“O lonely tomb in Moab’s land!O dark Bethpeor’s hill!Speak to these curious hearts of oursAnd teach them to be still!God hath His mysteries of grace,Ways that we cannot tell,He hides them deep, like the secret sleepOf him He loved so well.”