DEUTERONOMY 1
The Old Testament is a great help to us because it presents things in a form which, according to the wisdom of God, is divinely suited to convey the truth to us, while presenting it in a way that exercises our spiritual understanding. I have no doubt that Deuteronomy was written primarily for us and not for Israel When I say primarily I mean that we who are God’s people at the present time are the first to get the good of this book. No doubt Israel will get the good of it later on in great measure, but, we take precedence of them in getting the spiritual gain of it. It is the word of God to us. “For as many things as have been written before have been written for our instruction” (Romans 15: 4).
This book contains “the words which Moses spoke to all Israel on this side the Jordan, in the wilderness ... in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month”. How striking, then, that it should be prefaced by the statement, “There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea”! God would impress upon us, at the outset of this book, that there was no necessity on His part for forty years to intervene between Horeb and the land. It was but “eleven days’ journey”! Horeb, according to this chapter, was the place where Jehovah spoke to His people of what He had in His heart to give them. What answers to it for us is that God has made known the purpose of His love to give us a wondrous inheritance in Christ. Remission of sins and inheritance are linked together in the glad tidings, as we see in Acts 26: 18. Our first consciousness of the love of God is when that love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). But God’s object in shedding abroad His love in our hearts is that we may love Him, and if we love Him we shall be interested in the things which He has prepared for them that love Him, and those things are the inheritance. There is no great distance, morally speaking, between Romans 5:5 and Romans 8 which answers to “the land of Moab” of Deuteronomy 1:5. The love of God would bless His people infinitely, and in a way worthy of Himself, but man is marked naturally by unbelief, and its workings appear even in those who are the subjects of God’s mercy and grace. The way was clear on the divine side, and the journey short, but unbelief extended it to forty years. What a warning there is in this!
These opening statements give character to the whole book. It is a book in which the government of God appears from first to last. The blessings and benefits proposed are to be enjoyed conditionally on obedience and faithfulness. A turning away of heart from God will be followed by the most serious consequences. Hence this book is of great importance in a day when the general tendency is not to think enough either of the blessedness or the seriousness of the government of God in relation to His people.
The early part of Deuteronomy is largely a review of the past history of the people — of God’s ways with them, and of their behaviour in connection with those ways.
[p. 3] It suggests what is deeply interesting; namely, that a point is reached in soul-history when the people of God are prepared to review their past, and to take account of it under the instruction of Christ, of whom Moses was undoubtedly a type. We are not capable of taking a spiritual review of God’s ways with us, or of our own behaviour relative to those ways, until we reach a position which answers to “the land of Moab”. There must be spiritual capacity to receive the instruction of Christ, and that could only be found with those who have availed themselves of the brazen serpent aspect of the death of Christ, and seen in it God’s condemnation of sin in the flesh. Israel in “the land of Moab” had also known what it was to sing to the well (Numbers 21: 16 - 18). They were, typically, “according to Spirit” (Romans 8: 5), and had been able to overcome Sihon and Og — two giant-kings who represent the flesh in its desire for self-display or for self-indulgence. It is by the power of the Spirit alone that these giants can be smitten, and those who have overcome them are prepared to sit down at the feet of Christ, and to receive of His words (Deuteronomy 33: 3). As knowing His love we come under His instruction. “In the land of Moab began Moses to unfold (or expound) this law”. Moses is here typical of Christ, not as Lord, but as the Teacher or Instructor of His saints. “For one is your instructor, and all ye are brethren ... one is your instructor, the Christ” (Matthew 23: 8, 10). That indicates precisely the Deuteronomic position; the brethren are viewed as under the instruction of Christ. The saints at Ephesus are addressed by Paul as having known this blessed instruction. “But ye have not thus learnt the Christ, if ye have heard him and been instructed in him” (Ephesians 4: 20, 21).
It is a very blessed thing to have the thoughts of God brought before us by ONE who loves us, and who is able [p. 4] to give us spiritual understanding in regard to our past history, and to tell us what the mind of God has in view for us, and how His government will act in regard to us, whether as prospering us if faithful and obedient, or as visiting upon us the consequences of departure from Him. The people of God are viewed all through this book as loved by Him — “Yea, he loveth the peoples” (chapter 33: 3) — but it is love that acts governmentally according to the fidelity or the unfaithfulness of those loved. And at the end of the book we are shewn how He will ultimately bring to pass the full blessing of His people according to His determinate counsel and foreknowledge.
We shall find in this book — if helped of God to do so — much instruction as to the inheritance, and the conditions on which we can enjoy all that the love of God proposes to bring us into. For this book does not contemplate what will be enjoyed in our heavenly future, but what may be enjoyed in a heavenly present when suitable and spiritual conditions are found amongst the people of God. It is important to bear in mind that — though it is the privilege of God’s called ones to touch spiritually things which are outside responsibility — we ourselves, as long as we are down here, are never outside responsibility, with all the sobering exercise that attaches to it. Therefore the government of God goes on in relation to His people, and the way in which it acts is a prominent feature of this book. We see it plainly, too, in the epistles to Colossians and Ephesians, where the risen and heavenly position of the saints is developed.
But what is peculiarly precious in Deuteronomy is that all these things are presented as being learned under the personal instruction of Christ — the blessed One who [p. 5] loves us, and who knows perfectly all the thoughts of divine love in regard to us, and who delights to impart those thoughts to us. The consideration of this must, surely, awaken the most lively interest in this book on the part of all those who love God, and who love the Lord Jesus Christ.
God would have His people to enter upon the inheritance as imbued with the affections and intelligence of children and sons, and this would include a holy judgment of all that has been displeasing to Him in our past. Under the instruction of Christ we learn what God has proposed to us, and His ways with us consequent upon our unbelief. We learn how we have been hindered in our spiritual progress. This book is not the history of the circumstances we have passed through, and of our behaviour in them but it suggests all being reviewed under the instruction of Christ with a view to our being formed in the spiritual features which are proper to the children — the joint-heirs of Christ. We have all behaved badly, but we learn it in Deuteronomy in the presence of One who loves us, and who instructs us in order to bring every thought of our hearts into correspondence with Himself. It is most blessed.
The review begins by making mention of what Jehovah had spoken in Horeb. He would have had them take their journey, and go straight into the land which He had set before them, and this in its full extent, even “unto the great river, the river Euphrates”. Jehovah would have had them to go straight from Horeb into possession of the land. Therefore the long delay had been occasioned entirely from their side.
The secret was that the covenant did not really fill and govern their affections: and this is why Moses later on in the book enlarges so much upon it, and on the favour God had shewn them in it. The secret of long [p. 6] delay as to the possession and enjoyment of the inheritance lies in the fact that the love of God, as known in the glad tidings, does not really govern our affections. This leaves room for the workings of unbelief, which disclose the true character of what we are naturally, even in presence of the most blessed actings of God in love. This turns, in the end, to our learning self more fully, and the unmendable character of our flesh. That generation, ever marked by unbelief and rebellion, cannot inherit with Christ.
In reviewing our past history with Christ we learn how we have missed things, and been delayed in reaching what was in God’s mind for us. We have not kept in view the blessed proposals of the love of God. All manifestations of the flesh are the fruit of unbelief; they shew that God has not His place with us. So the Holy Spirit appeals to us not to harden our hearts, and speaks of a generation with whom God was wroth as always erring in heart. And we are exhorted to see that there be not in us “a wicked heart of unbelief, in turning away from the living God” (Hebrews 3: 7 - 12).
It came to light “at that time” (verse 9) how much there was in the people which was not in accord with the covenant; and which was, therefore, quite unsuited to the inheritance. Moses had to say, “I am not able to bear you myself alone ... . How can I myself alone sustain your wear, and your burden, and your strife ?” The blessing of God was there, truly, multiplying them as the stars of heaven, but what contrary and hindering elements were there also! On God’s side Horeb and the land — the covenant and the inheritance! On their side wear, and burden, and strife! What a terrible contrast!
Is it not serious to reflect that the first item in [p. 7] this review of the past calls attention to the great proneness of the people of God to have difficulties and matters of strife with one another? Such things shew how little we are really governed either by the love of God or by the prospect of the inheritance.
But this condition of things is mentioned here to bring out the fact that divine provision is made for the adjustment of all differences amongst God’s people. It is not God’s way that differences should go on unsettled. We may be quite sure that the provision for dealing with such things is not less in the assembly than it was in Israel. There are “wise and understanding and known men” who can be set over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. The Lord’s administration provides everything that is needed for the adjustment of differences, and — failing everything else — there is always the Lord Himself as the final court of appeal. The assembly at Corinth was not a very spiritual one, but Paul speaks to them as having amongst them the ability to judge in matters which one might have against another. He even says, “If then ye have judgments as to things of this life, set those to judge who are little esteemed in the assembly. I speak to you to put you to shame. Thus there is not a wise person among you, not even one, who shall be able to decide between his brethren!” Paul would not allow that this was possible. If there was a “wise and understanding and known” man for every ten in Israel we may be sure that such are always within reach. The assembly is always furnished with such as have the confidence of their brethren; their uprightness and freedom from personal bias makes them “known men”. “The judgment is God’s”, but when we are wrong we are very apt to go to unspiritual persons who will take our side, and fall in with our view of [p. 8] the matter. But is it not far better to have a judgment which will be in accord with God and with heaven? For this I must go to one who is spiritually “wise and understanding”, and I must submit my case to him.
Nothing could be of greater practical importance than to see that the divine principle on which all differences between the people of God are to be settled is that of subjection. On no other principle would this divine arrangement work. Whether it were thousands, hundreds, fifties, or tens, the spirit of subjection was requisite throughout all Israel. “Submitting yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ” (Ephesians 5: 21); I understand that to mean that we recognise Christ in the brethren, and hence we respect their judgment. We have to beware of looking for vindication rather than for divine adjustment. The flesh always wants to be vindicated, but a truly upright soul looks for adjustment. It is well to recognise that ability for judgment is in the assembly, and it is my privilege — if I think I have a grievance — to assume that the brethren are likely to have a more spiritual judgment than mine, and to submit myself to their judgment, as acknowledging the goodness and wisdom of God in providing such a safeguard for me.
The spiritual review of such conditions as are here contemplated would surely lead us to see how much time has been lost through our being marked by self-consideration or self-assertion, and insisting on what is due to us. Even where real wrong has been done, the apostle says, “Why do ye not rather suffer wrong? why are ye not rather defrauded?” A heart governed by the love of God could afford to pass by many personal wrongs. Is it not sad to think of prolonged attention being given to petty differences, which attention [p. 9] might have been fixed on the inheritance? If there are “causes” between brethren which need to be heard, by all means let them be heard and settled. But how many things would silently drop if love worked in the heart!
When “causes” have to be heard what an exercise it is to “judge righteously”, not to “respect persons”, to “hear the small as well as the great”, not to be “afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is God’s”! Judgment is to be according to a divine standard; it is to be of the same character and impartiality as it will be when “the saints shall judge the world”.
It is almost incredible how much distraction and preoccupation of mind is caused amongst the people of God by personal differences, often really of the most trivial nature. How much time has been lost spiritually in this way! How foolish we have been to hold things in our hearts, and allow them to eat up — like the palmer-worm, and the locust, and the canker-worm, and the caterpillar of Joel 1: 4 — our spiritual prosperity! Do we not feel how we have been hindered by such things? Probably ninety per cent of the differences amongst the people of God are caused by things not worth five minutes’ consideration. But provision is made for “causes” that really need to be heard; it is for us to subject ourselves to the judgment of the saints, not to waste our time by going on with things unsettled. To do the latter is really an action of unbelief.
The “great and terrible wilderness” was “on the way to the mountain of the Amorites”. No doubt it had its place in the ways of God. The more terrible the wilderness was the more desirous should they have been to reach the land. Probably many of the inscrutable ways of God with His people — peculiar trials, intense sorrow — are designed to lead their affections and hopes into the region of His love’s purpose. This is the answer to the “tribulations” of Romans 5: 3, endured in the consciousness of the love of God, and intensifying hope that does not make ashamed. If we look at the household of faith we see very many who are under great pressure, but all is designed to produce a divine result. “And not only that, but we also boast in tribulations, knowing that tribulation works endurance; and endurance, experience; and experience, hope; and hope does not make ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which has been given to us” (Romans 5: 3 - 5). Wilderness pressures lead to experience; we prove what God can be to us in pressure.
“In the desert God will teach thee,
What the God that thou hast found”. (76:6)
At Kadesh-barnea the land was set before them. “And I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which Jehovah our God giveth us. Behold, Jehovah thy God hath set the land before thee: go up, take possession, as Jehovah the God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be dismayed” (Deuteronomy 1: 20 - 21). The details of the history are not repeated here, because the object is to call attention to what was the great and solemn cause of their being forty years in the wilderness. All other things had, we might say, a secondary place. The people were not governed by what “Jehovah the God of thy fathers hath said unto thee”. They did not hearken to His word; they entered not in because of unbelief. It is this which the Holy Spirit dwells on in Hebrews 3, Hebrews 4 as a most salutary warning for us.
Unbelief took the form of sending men to examine the land. God and His word were not enough! It was to God and the word of His grace that Paul committed the Ephesian elders as being able to build them up and [p. 11] give them an inheritance among all the sanctified (Acts 20: 32). But these are not enough for the flesh. Flesh must have flesh to lean upon; it must have something of the natural. If we are faithful to our own hearts we must admit how often it has been so with ourselves. The divine and the spiritual have not been sufficient. The spirit of “We will send men before us” is often present with the people of God. It may be great human prudence, but it is setting God and His word aside. It assumes that the word of men is a safer thing to rely on than the word of God. “Go up, take possession” was what Jehovah said, but they said, “We will send men”. It was a human expedient, but it was permitted of God in order that the state of their hearts might be brought out. It secured a further testimony of the goodness of the land, but in result it brought out the state of their hearts in relation to God. God permits much to happen that is the fruit of unbelief in view of the lessons that will be learned by it. “But ye would not go up, and rebelled against the word of Jehovah your God; and ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because Jehovah hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us” (verses 26, 27).
Does not this bring out what a terrible thing the flesh is? It never appreciates God, however good He may have been. All that He had done in Egypt and in the wilderness was of no account. “Jehovah hated us”! His wondrous deliverance, His paternal care, His daily and nightly guardianship and guidance only resulted in “ye did not believe Jehovah your God”. All the difficulties which they saw were simply proof of their want of faith — the evidence that they were not characterised by a spirit of sonship. So Moses called their attention to the fact that “Jehovah thy God bore thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went until ye came to this place” (verse 31). They had proved the paternal love of God in all the way, but they believed Him not.
How often it has been like that with us! We have not been at all ready to go in heartily for the spiritual and the eternal. We have seen all kinds of difficulties in that direction, and when things have not fallen in with our thoughts we have been ready to think that God was against us. The most wonderful blessedness that God could bestow on a highly favoured creature is in Christ — every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies is there — but the flesh finds no attraction or delight in Christ, or in what God has given in Him. It takes no interest in the spiritual; it has no desires that way. Then for God and for faith it must be utterly set aside — disowned and disallowed. Hence the solemn sentence went forth, “And Jehovah heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and swore, saying, None among these men, this evil generation, shall in any wise see that good land, which I swore to give unto your fathers” (verses 34, 35). What a spiritual instruction is this! There has been in our history a generation like that; it is our own flesh. Now under the instruction of Christ we have to review it all, and learn to judge it spiritually as God has judged it. How many things in our history have happened because we had not God before us, and His word had not place in our hearts!
Caleb, on the other hand, comes in as representing a new generation — a generation marked by faith and the spirit of sonship. “Except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, he shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed Jehovah” (verse 36). Caleb had typically the earnest of the Spirit in his heart. He would see and possess the land. He represents the exercise of faith in contrast to the unbelief [p. 13] of the flesh. The instruction of this chapter is largely to teach us to distinguish between what is of flesh and what is of faith. To be on the faith line we must unsparingly judge the flesh line. Caleb had another spirit; he did not say, “Jehovah hated us”, but “If Jehovah delight in us, he will bring us into the land, and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey” (Numbers 14: 8). The mind of the flesh is death and enmity against God. But the spirit of sonship would always preserve in our hearts the sense that God delights in us; and the activity of that spirit sets us free practically from the workings of the flesh. “The earnest of the Spirit” means that the inheritance is in a man’s heart before he gets there. Caleb said to Joshua long afterwards, “Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of Jehovah sent me from Kadesh-barnea to search out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in my heart” (Joshua 14: 7). He carried the earnest in his heart all through the wilderness. How much better that is than the murmurs of the wilderness! Caleb is a typical overcomer; he was as strong for war at eighty-five as he was at forty; and he dispossessed some of the biggest of the Anakim. Faith, the power, of the Spirit, and the power of the Lord all go together. It is the Caleb generation — the faith generation — that is sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. It would be impossible for the Holy Spirit to be connected in any way with the flesh. “In whom also (that is, in Christ), having believed, ye have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the earnest of our inheritance to the redemption of the acquired possession to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1: 13, 14).
Then it is very touching that at this point Moses says, “Also Jehovah was angry with me on your account,
[p. 14] saying Thou also shalt not go in thither”. It was not historically at that time that Jehovah was angry with Moses, but much later, but it is brought in at this point, I believe, with a spiritual reference to Christ as the One who has come under the anger of God vicariously on account of what has been found in the flesh of God’s people. It is Christ reminding us that the flesh and its movements cost Him the suffering of the anger of God. That should have more effect in detaching us from the flesh than anything else. So we read in Romans 8: 3 “God, having sent his own Son, in likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin, has condemned sin in the flesh”. It was in God’s own Son that it was condemned. Israel has seen Jehovah angry with their Messiah; they did esteem Him “stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted”, but they will have to learn that it was on their account. And it was on our account that Christ came under the darkness and the forsaking of the cross. He bore the judgment due to sinful flesh, and God would bring us to recognise that it was the judgment of our sinful flesh that He bore. What a subdued and chastened feeling this would produce in our spirits! What a holy fear of all that is the outcome of the flesh! Then if I see some manifestation of the flesh in a brother or sister do I always remember that in precious and holy love Christ bore the full weight of what is due to it? Am I in sympathy with Christ about it? Or are there feelings of resentment and anger, or a thought that such things are not in me? The flesh has to be condemned; it is impossible that it should be tolerated; but let us judge it in the light of the way in which divine love has dealt with it in the sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. How deeply should this affect our hearts! Could anything move us more in the direction of self judgment than to consider that Christ on our account has come under condemnation,
[p. 15] Christ after the flesh has gone in death on our account, bearing the judgment of sinful flesh, and bringing the man after the flesh to an end sacrificially before God. Joshua represents Christ as the risen, living One — the spiritual Leader of His people into the land — and the “little ones” are mentioned as shewing that God would not give up His purpose. If one generation is wholly excluded, He will have another generation to go in and possess the land under the leadership of the risen Christ. The generation of flesh does not go in, but the faith generation does.
Then the review calls to mind another feature of rebellious flesh. When the solemn sentence had gone forth, immediately the flesh took another character. They would, by a superficial repentance, have set it all right. They refused the solemn government of God under the action of which they had come. They said, “We have sinned against Jehovah, we will go up and fight, according to all that Jehovah our God hath commanded us”. But Jehovah had then sworn in His wrath; His governmental action was irreversible. The only divine path now was to accept it, and humbly bow under His mighty hand.
The levity and presumption of the flesh is equal to its unbelieving fears, and the same generation that despised the pleasant land when Jehovah presented it to them as His gift, now despised His solemn act of government. Such levity and presumption may be expected to appear when flesh is active. There is a saying lightly, “We have sinned”, and an assuming to go on as if nothing serious had happened, but the result is disastrous. The Amorite became the rod of God for the destruction of the flesh. It was much like what is spoken of in the New Testament as being delivered to Satan (1 Corinthians 5: 5; 1 Timothy 1: 20). We may well pray with David, “Keep back thy servant also from [p. 16] presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me” (Psalm 19: 13).
The people have now the opportunity, nearly forty years after the circumstances occurred, of reviewing all this, and getting a spiritual judgment of it all under the instruction of Moses. One loves to think of the great gain of taking up such exercises from the Deuteronomic standpoint. God would have His people in perfect accord with Himself as to every wilderness exercise before they go over Jordan. Christ will expound it all to us in the plains of Moab; He will review it all to a people spiritually able to listen to Him. I suppose we rarely see how God is set on giving us the land, or how the flesh hinders us, at the time of the wilderness experiences. The truly spiritual estimate of things comes later when we review things under the instruction of Christ. Under His instruction we learn to judge every feature of flesh that may have come out in us — perhaps forty years before. He does not leave us unadjusted in respect of things which may have happened long ago. He would not be satisfied that we should be of a different mind from Him about something that may be long past. He says, as it were, I want you to come into the inheritance as my brethren, joint-heirs with me, having the same mind and judgment of things as I have. It is not that the flesh is adjusted, but we are adjusted in regard to its nature and movements, and brought into accord with Christ. We have to learn to disentangle what is of the flesh from what is of faith and of the Spirit, and to disallow all that has been of the flesh, so that nothing has value or weight with us but what is of faith and of the Spirit. Under the instruction of Christ we become truly brethren — we acquire family character as children of God. That is what is largely in view in Deuteronomy; the official side is not prominent; the tabernacle system hardly The people have now the opportunity, nearly forty years after the circumstances occurred, of reviewing all this, and getting a spiritual judgment of it all under the instruction of Moses. One loves to think of the great gain of taking up such exercises from the Deuteronomic standpoint. God would have His people in perfect accord with Himself as to every wilderness exercise before they go over Jordan. Christ will expound it all to us in the plains of Moab; He will review it all to a people spiritually able to listen to Him. I suppose we rarely see how God is set on giving us the land, or how the flesh hinders us, at the time of the wilderness experiences. The truly spiritual estimate of things comes later when we review things under the instruction of Christ. Under His instruction we learn to judge every feature of flesh that may have come out in us — perhaps forty years before. He does not leave us unadjusted in respect of things which may have happened long ago. He would not be satisfied that we should be of a different mind from Him about something that may be long past. He says, as it were, I want you to come into the inheritance as my brethren, joint-heirs with me, having the same mind and judgment of things as I have. It is not that the flesh is adjusted, but we are adjusted in regard to its nature and movements, and brought into accord with Christ. We have to learn to disentangle what is of the flesh from what is of faith and of the Spirit, and to disallow all that has been of the flesh, so that nothing has value or weight with us but what is of faith and of the Spirit. Under the instruction of Christ we become truly brethren — we acquire family character as children of God. That is what is largely in view in Deuteronomy; the official side is not prominent; the tabernacle system hardly [p. 17] appears; the subject is chiefly those family features in the people of God which are suited to the inheritance, and which qualify them to enjoy it.