Notes on the Book of Deuteronomy Volume I Part 22

This is a very remarkable pa.s.sage. It proves how Satan can quote Scripture when it suits his purpose. But he omits a most important clause--"To keep Thee in all Thy ways." Now, it formed no part of the ways of Christ to cast Himself from the pinnacle of the temple. It was not the path of duty. He had no command from G.o.d to do any such thing, and hence He refused to do it. He had no need to tempt G.o.d--to put Him to the test. He had, as a man, the most perfect confidence in G.o.d--the fullest a.s.surance of His protection.

Moreover, He was not going to abandon the path of duty in order to prove G.o.d's care of Him; and herein He teaches us a most valuable lesson. We can always count on G.o.d's protecting hand when we are treading the path of duty; but if we are walking in a self-chosen path--if we are seeking our own pleasure or our own interest, our own ends or objects, then to talk of counting on G.o.d would be simply wicked presumption.

No doubt, our G.o.d is very merciful, very gracious, and His tender mercy is over us, even when we wander off the path of duty; but this is another thing altogether, and it leaves wholly untouched the statement that we can only count on divine protection when our feet are in the pathway of duty, if a Christian goes out boating for his amus.e.m.e.nt, or if he goes clambering over the Alps merely for sight-seeing, has he any right to believe that G.o.d will take care of him? Let conscience give the answer. If G.o.d calls us to cross a stormy lake to preach the gospel, if He summons us to cross the Alps on some special service for Him, then, a.s.suredly, we can commit ourselves to His mighty hand to protect us from all evil. The grand point for all of us is, to be found in the holy path of duty. It may be narrow, rough, and lonely; but it is a path overshadowed by the wings of the Almighty and illumined by the light of His approving countenance.

Ere turning from the subject suggested by verse 16, we would briefly notice the very interesting and instructive fact that our Lord, in His reply to Satan, takes no notice whatever of his misquotation of psalm xci. 11. Let us carefully note this fact and seek to bear it in mind.

In place of saying to the enemy, You have left out a most important clause of the pa.s.sage which you undertake to quote, He simply quotes another pa.s.sage, as authority for His own conduct. Thus He vanquished the tempter, and thus He left us a blessed example.

It is worthy of our special notice that the Lord Jesus Christ did not overcome Satan in virtue of His divine power. Had He done so, it could not be an example for us. But when we see Him as a man using the Word as His only weapon, and thus gaining a glorious victory, our hearts are encouraged and comforted; and not only so, but we learn a most precious lesson as to how we, in our sphere and measure, are to stand in the conflict. The Man Christ Jesus overcame by simple dependence upon G.o.d and obedience to His Word.

Blessed fact! A fact full of comfort and consolation for us. Satan could do nothing with one who would only act by divine authority, and by the power of the Spirit. Jesus never did His own will, though, as we know, (blessed be His holy name!) His will was absolutely perfect.

He came down from heaven, as He Himself tells us, in John vi, not to do His own will, but the will of the Father that sent Him. He was a perfect servant, from first to last. His rule of action was the Word of G.o.d; His power of action, the Holy Ghost; His only motive for action, the will of G.o.d; hence the prince of this world had nothing in Him. Satan could not, by all his subtle wiles, draw Him out of the path of obedience, or out of the place of dependence.

Christian reader, let us consider these things; let us deeply ponder them; let us remember that our blessed Lord and Master left us an example that we should follow His steps. Oh, may we follow them diligently during the little while that yet remains. May we, by the gracious ministry of the Holy Ghost, enter more fully into the great fact that we are called to walk even as Jesus walked. He is our great Exemplar in all things. Let us study Him more profoundly, so that we may reproduce Him more faithfully.

We shall now close this lengthened section by quoting for the reader the last paragraph of the chapter on which we have been dwelling; it is a pa.s.sage of singular fullness, depth, and power, and strikingly characteristic of the entire book of Deuteronomy.

"Ye shall _diligently_ keep the commandments of the Lord your G.o.d, and His testimonies, and His statutes, which He hath commanded thee. And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers; to cast out all thine enemies from before thee, as the Lord hath spoken. And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments which the Lord our G.o.d hath commanded you? Then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt; and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; and the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes; and He brought us out from thence, that He might bring us in, to give us the land which He sware unto our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our G.o.d, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is at this day. And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our G.o.d, as He hath commanded us."

How prominently is the Word of G.o.d kept before the soul, in every page and every paragraph of this book! It is the one great subject on the heart and in all the discourses of the revered lawgiver. It is his one aim to exalt the Word of G.o.d, in all its aspects, whether in the form of testimonies, commandments, statutes, or judgments; and to set forth the moral importance, yea, the urgent necessity of whole-hearted, earnest, diligent obedience, on the part of the people. "Ye shall _diligently_ keep the commandments of the Lord your G.o.d." And again, "Thou shalt do that which is _right_ and _good_ in the sight of the Lord."

All this is morally lovely. We have here unfolded before our eyes those eternal principles which no change of dispensation, no change of scene, place, or circ.u.mstances can ever touch. "That which is right and good" must ever be of universal and abiding application. It reminds us of the words of the apostle John to his beloved friend Gaius--"Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good." The a.s.sembly might be in a very low condition; there might be very much to try the heart and depress the spirit of Gaius; Diotrephes might be carrying himself most unbecomingly and unwarrantably toward the beloved and venerable apostle and others; all this might be true, and much more--yea, the whole professing body might go wrong. What then? What remained for Gaius to do? Simply to follow that which was right and good; to open his heart and his hand and his house to every one who brought _the truth_; to seek to help on the cause of Christ in every right way.

This was the business of Gaius in his day, and this is the business of every true lover of Christ at all times, in all places, and under all circ.u.mstances. We may not have many to join us; we may perhaps find ourselves, at times, almost alone; but we are still to follow what is good, cost what it may. We are to _depart_ from iniquity--_purge_ ourselves from dishonorable vessels--_flee_ youthful l.u.s.ts--_turn away_ from powerless professors. And what then? "Follow righteousness, faith, love, peace"--How? In isolation? Nay. I may find myself alone in any given place for a time, but there can be no such thing as isolation so long as the body of Christ is on earth, and that will be till He comes for us. Hence we never expect to see the day in which we cannot find a few that call on the Lord out of a pure heart; whoever they are and wherever they are, it is our bounden duty to find them, and, having found them, to walk with them in holy fellows.h.i.+p "until the end."

_P.S._--We must reserve the remaining chapters of Deuteronomy for another volume. May the Lord be graciously pleased to grant His rich blessing upon our meditations thus far. May He clothe these pages with the power of the Holy Ghost, and make them to be a direct message from Himself to the hearts of His people throughout the whole world. May He also grant spiritual power to unfold the truth contained in the remaining sections of this most profound, comprehensive, and suggestive book.

We earnestly beseech the Christian reader to join us in prayer as to all this, remembering those most precious words, "If two of you shall _agree_ on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them by My Father which is in heaven."

_C. H. M._