Chapter 29:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Numbers Joshua
Deuteronomy 29
The preface of God's covenant, ver. 1. A recital of his
dealings with them, ver. 2-8. A solemn exhortation to keep
covenant with God, ver. 9-17. A severe threatning to them that
break it, ver. 18-28. The end of the revealed will of God, ver. 29.
Verse 1. These are the terms or conditions upon which God hath made,
that is renewed his covenant with you. The covenant was but one
in substance, but various in the time and manner of its
dispensation.
Verse 4. Yet the Lord - That is, you have perceived and seen them with
the eyes of your body, but not with your minds and hearts; you
have not yet learned rightly to understand the word and works of
God, so as to know them for your good, and to make a right use of
them, and to comply with them: which he expresseth thus, the
Lord hath not given you, &c. not to excuse their wickedness, but
to direct them to whom they must have recourse for a good
understanding of God's works; and to intimate that although the
hearing ear, and the seeing eye, be the workmanship of God, yet
their want of his grace was their own fault, and the just
punishment of their former sins; their present case being like
theirs in Isaiah's time, who first shut their own eyes and ears that
they might not see and hear, and would not understand, and then
by the righteous judgment of God, had their eyes and ears closed
that they should not see and hear, and understand. God's readiness
to do us good in other things, is a plain evidence, that if we have
not grace, that best of gifts, 'tis our own fault and not his: he
would have gathered us, and we would not.
Verse 6. Ye have not eaten bread - Common bread purchased by your
own money, or made by your own hands, but heavenly and
angelical bread. Neither drank wine - But only water out of the
rock. The Lord - Omnipotent and all-sufficient for your provision
without the help of any creatures, and your God in covenant with
you who hath a true affection to you, and fatherly care of you.
Verse 11. Thy stranger - Such strangers as had embraced their religion:
all sorts of persons, yea, even the meanest of them.
Verse 12. Into covenant and into his oath - Into covenant, confirmed by
a solemn oath.
Verse 13. That he may establish thee - Here is the summary of that
covenant whereof Moses was the mediator, and in the covenant
relation between God and them, all the precepts and promises of
the covenant are included. That they should be established for a
people to him, to fear, love, obey, and be devoted to him, and that
he should be to them a God, to make them holy and happy; and a
due sense of the relation we stand in to God as our God, and the
obligation we are under to him as his people, is enough to bring us
to all the duties, and all the comforts of the covenant. And does
this covenant include nothing spiritual? nothing that refers to
eternity?
Verse 15. So also - With your posterity. For so the covenant was made at
first with Abraham and his seed, by which as God engaged
himself to continue the blessing of Abraham upon his posterity, so
he also engaged them to the same duties which were required of
Abraham. So it is even among men, where a king confers an
estate upon a subject and his heirs for ever, upon some certain
conditions, all his heirs who enjoy that benefit, are obliged to the
same conditions. It may likewise include those who were then
constrained to be absent, by sickness, or any necessary occasion.
Nay one of the Chaldee pharaphrasts reads it, all the generations
that have been from the first days of the world, and all that shall
arise to the end of the whole world, stand with us here this day.
And so taking this covenant as a typical dispensation of the
covenant of grace, 'tis a noble testimony to the Mediator of that
covenant, who is the same yesterday, to day, and for ever. 16.
Egypt - Where you have seen their idolatries, and learned too
much of them, as the golden calf shewed, and therefore have need
to renew your covenant with God; where also we were in dreadful
bondage whence God alone hath delivered us, to whom therefore
we are deeply obliged, and have all reason to renew our covenant
with him. Through the nations - With what hazard, if God had not
appeared for us!
Verse 18. A root - An evil heart inclining you to such cursed idolatry,
and bringing forth bitter fruits.
Verse 19. Of this curse - Of that oath where-in he swore he would keep
covenant with God, and that with a curse pronounced against
himself if he did not perform it. Bless himself - Flatter himself in
his own eyes, with vain hopes, as if God did not mind such things,
and either could not, or would not punish them. Peace - Safety
and prosperity. My own heart - Though I do not follow God's
command, but my own devices. To add drunkenness to thirst -
The words may be rendered, to add thirst to drunkenness, and so
the sense may be, that when he hath multiplied his sins, and made
himself as it were drunk with them, yet he is not satisfied
therewith, but still whets his appetite, and provokes his thirst after
more, as drunkards often use means to make themselves thirst
after more drink.
Verse 20. Shall smoke - Shall burn and break forth with flame and
smoke as it were from a furnace.
Verse 21. Unto evil - Unto some peculiar and exemplary plague; he will
make him a monument of his displeasure to the whole land.
Verse 23. Salt and burning - Is burnt up and made barren, as with
brimstone and salt.
Verse 26. Whom God had not given to them - For their worship, but
hath divided them unto all nations, for their use and service. So he
speaks here of the sun and moon and stars, which were the
principal gods worshipped by the neighbouring nations.
Verse 29. The secret things - Having mentioned the amazing judgments
of God upon the whole land and people of Israel, and foreseeing
the utter extirpation which would come upon them for their
wickedness, he breaks out into this pathetic exclamation, either to
bridle their curiosity, who would be apt to inquire into the time
and manner of so great an event; or to quiet his own mind, and
satisfy the scruples of others, who perceiving God to deal so
severely with his own people, when in the meantime he suffered
those nations which were guilty of grosser atheism and idolatry,
might thence take occasion to deny his providence or question the
equity of his proceedings. To this he answers, that the ways and
judgments of God, tho' never unjust, are often times hidden from
us, unsearchable by our shallow capacities, and matter for our
admiration, not our enquiry. But the things which are revealed by
God and his word, are the proper object of our enquiries, that
thereby we may know our duty, and be kept from such terrible
calamities as these now mentioned.
Chapter 29:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Numbers Joshua
This version of Wesley's Notes on the Bible is a derivative of an electronic version, Copyright 1997, by Sulu D. Kelley. All rights reserved. Used by permission. It may not be modified or used commercially without permission of Wesleyan Heritage Publishing and Sulu Kelley. A special thanks to Mr. Kelley and Wesleyan Heritage Publishing for permission to create and post this version of Wesley's Notes on the Bible.
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