Introduction:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Chapter 1:
| 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
Introduction to Deuteronomy
We now come to the book of
Deuteronomy, a book full of interest in its moral
warnings as to testimony, but presenting fewer subjects
for interpretation and exegesis than those, the summary
of which we have hitherto sought to give.
The scope of
Deuteronomy
This book takes up Israel
just on the borders of Canaan, and insists upon the
faithful maintenance of their relationship with God, and
on obedience to His commandments, as the only ground on
which Israel can enter and continue therein, adding
warnings as to the consequence of failure in obedience.
It takes, in the main, the ground of their historical
state (not of typical forms, presenting the thoughts of
God, as the books we have just been considering do). [
1] The body of it, after recalling
the history of the wilderness, deals with the ordering of
Israel in the land under God without a head on earth. The
people are under responsibility to walk in obedience,
with only God as their king and ruler. In immediate
reference, the people are in enjoyment of the promised
land under condition of obedience; but feasts, and such
like ordinances, look forward to millennial times. At the
end the distinction between possessing the land under
condition of legal obedience, and by the grace which
accomplishes its purpose in spite of failure is
definitely brought out.
The divisions of the Book
The book may be divided
into three parts. The first eleven chapters insist upon
obedience, presenting various motives to lead the people
to it. Then come, as far as the end of the twenty-ninth?
divers commandments; to which are added, by way of
sanction, the consequences of obedience and the curse
upon disobedience. From the thirtieth to the end we have
things to come, the blessing of the people, and the death
of Moses.
The contents and
teachings of the first eleven chapters
But this division requires
more development, which will much aid our understanding
of the book. The first part recounts their history, and
this as insisting on the unity of an invisible God, their
obligation to Jehovah who has called them, through
redemption, to be with Him. This closes with chapter 4,
where three cities are secured for the two tribes and a
half. Moses cannot enter into the land; Jehovah their God
is a jealous God. They are placed under the covenant of
Sinai, but He is a merciful God, and in their tribulation
they can look to the God of their fathers. In chapter 5
all Israel are called to hear as to their present place,
and put upon the basis of the covenant of Sinai—to
observe it in the land into which they were going to
possess it. The land had been promised, but they held it
under the covenant of legal obedience, but on the basis
of deliverance wrought by Jehovah out of Egypt. Him they
were exclusively to serve, and He was a jealous God. They
were to have no kind of connection with the nations found
in the land. Further, we have the terms of the government
of mercy, still of righteousness, established in
Moses’s second ascent of Sinai. Thus we have the
government of God—His ways taken into account; and
so the character of their ways and their object (chap.
8). If they did not give heed they would perish. This
leads to recalling, in order to humble them, how they had
failed all through in the desert. The second governmental
covenant is referred to, and the Lord's love that had
chosen them in pure grace, and that in spite of their
failures, had already so largely blessed them. They must
circumcise their hearts to serve Him and Him only: one
only exclusive God, and a God of government. All is
summed up hortatively in chapter 11. Over Jordan they
were going, there they were to keep all that was
commanded. Here Ebal and Gerizim are brought in. To the
end of chapter 4 it is Israel outside Jordan; chapter 5
inside the land. The first part presents the one
invisible Jehovah of Horeb, jealous but merciful, though
His ways in general with the people are there too; the
second, the covenant of the ten words with Jehovah, and
His government on the ground of their responsibility.
Of the first eleven
chapters, the first four form thus a rather distinct
part.
Motives for
obedience and consequent blessing
That which strikes one in
the first chapters is, the pains that Jehovah takes to
present all possible motives to that poor people to lead
them to obedience, in order that they may be blessed.
These things, which ought at least to have touched the
heart, served, alas! only to prove its hardness, and to
shew that, if man is to be blessed, God must give him a
new heart, as it is written in the chapter which closes
the second part of His exhortations to obedience:
"Yet Jehovah hath not given you a heart to perceive,
and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day"
(chap. 29: 4).
Deuteronomy is, then, of
all the books of Moses, that which is the most
essentially conditional—that is to say, the first
two divisions which I have pointed out.
The secret things
and their unfolding
Chapter 29, which is the
last of the second division, ends, consequently, by
saying, "The secret things belong unto Jehovah our
God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us,
and to our children for ever, that we may do all the
words of this law."
The chapters which follow
throw this into greater prominence, by unfolding the
secret things which were to happen after the people had
completely failed in the fulfilment of the law, as
chapter 30, and, still more strikingly, chapter 32, by
speaking of righteousness by faith. For the discussion as
to righteousness by the law ended with chapter 29; and
chapter 30 supposes the people in a position in which the
securing of righteousness by the law was impossible, and
where there could only be question of the spirit and end
of the law, in the counsels of God.
Now, Christ was the end of
it, and it is thus the apostle applies the passage (Rom.
10). It is interesting also to see that the Lord always
quotes Deuteronomy in answering Satan. He put Himself on
the true ground where Israel stood, in order to possess
and keep the land; being not only the faithful man, but
the Jew, the true Son called out of Egypt, put to the
test as to His faithfulness, in the conditions under
which the people were placed by Deuteronomy.
[1] After Genesis and
the earlier chapters of Exodus, there is very little of
which the object is historical in the previous books of
Moses. And even in Genesis and the beginning of Exodus
principles and types are the most important aspect of
what is related. As to the history of Israel the apostle
tells us this expressly in 1 Corinthians 10: 11. And this
appreciation of the character of these books greatly aids
us in understanding them. There is no proof that one
sacrifice was offered possibly the fixed ones were; but
Amos, quoted by Stephen, would say the contrary. Those
born in the wilderness were not circumcised, and could
not rightly keep the passover.
Introduction:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Chapter 1:
| 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 Darby's Synopsis of the Old Testament is a derivative of an electronic version, Copyright 1995 by L. Hodgett. Used by permission. The files of the Synopsis found on this site may not be reproduced without permission from L. J. L. Hodgett, Stem Publishing. A special thanks to L. J. L. Hodgett and Stem Publishing for permission to create and post this version of Darby's Synopsis of the Old Testament.
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
1 Kings
2 Kings
1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah
Esther
Job
Psalm
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Lamentations
Ezekiel
Daniel
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
Acts
Romans
1 Corinthians
2 Corinthians
Galatians
Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
1 Thessalonians
2 Thessalonians
1 Timothy
2 Timothy
Titus
Philemon
Hebrews
James
1 Peter
2 Peter
1 John
2 John
3 John
Jude
Revelation
