LESSON LXXIV.

THE CHOICE OF ISRAEL.

B.C. 1451.-DEUT. xxix. 29; xxx. 1—5, 9—20.

The secret things belong unto the LORD 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.

And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee, And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul;

That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.

If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee: And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.

And the LORD thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good: for the LORD will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers:

If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.

For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off.

It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?

Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?

But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.

See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;
In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in

* Made known.
N

his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.

But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;

I denounce* unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.

I call heaven and earth to record+ this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:

That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave‡ unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

LESSON LXXV.

THE LAW DELIVERED TO THE LEVITES.

B.C. 1451.-DEUTERONOMY Xxxi. 1—3, 7—13, 25-27.

And Moses went and spake these words unto all Israel.

And he said unto them, I am an hundred and twenty years old this day; I can no more go out and come in: also the LORD hath said unto me, Thou shalt not go over this Jordan.

The LORD thy God, he will go over before thee, and he will destroy these nations from before thee, and thou shalt possess them: and Joshua, he shall go over before thee, as the LORD hath said.

Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

And Moses called unto Joshua, and said unto him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of a good courage: for thou must go with this people unto the land which the LORD hath sworn unto their fathers to give them; and thou shalt cause them to inherit it.

And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed. And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it unto the priests the sons of Levi, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and unto all the elders of Israel.

And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles,

When all Israel is come to appear before the LORD thy God in the place

* Declare.

+ Witness.

Hold closely to.

which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing.

Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law:

And that their children, which have not known anything, may hear, and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.

Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying,

Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee.

For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck:* behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the LORD; and how much more after my death?

LESSON LXXVI.+

THE LAST SONG OF MOSES.

DEUT. xxxii. 7—12, 29—36.

B.C. 1451,-A very grand and beautiful song of prophecy was then committed by Moses to the care of the Levites, dwelling upon the exceeding mercy of God to Israel, but mourning over their exceeding ingratitude and folly, and the destruction that they would bring on themselves.

Remember the days of old,

Consider the years of many generations:

Ask thy father, and he will shew thee;

Thy elders, and they will tell thee.

When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance,
When he separated the sons of Adam,

He set the bounds of the people

According to the number of the children of Israel.

For the LORD's portion is his people;
Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
He found him in a desert land,
And in the waste howling wilderness;
He led him about, he instructed him,
He kept him as the apple of his eye.
As an eagle stirreth up her nest,

* Obstinacy.

+ Not for the younger ones.

O that they were wise, that they understood this,
That they would consider their latter end!
How should one chase a thousand,
And two put ten thousand to flight,
Except their Rock had sold them,
And the LORD had shut them up?
For their rock is not as our Rock,

Even our enemies themselves being judges.
For their vine is of the vine of Sodom,
And of the fields of Gomorrah:

Their grapes are grapes of gall,
Their clusters are bitter :

Their wine is the poison of dragons,

And the cruel venom of asps.

*

Is not this laid up in store with me,
And sealed up among my treasures?

To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence;

Their foot shall slide in due time:

For the day of their calamity is at hand,

And the things that shall come upon them make haste.

For the LORD shall judge his people,

And repent himself for his servants,

When he seeth that their power is gone,

And there is none shut up, or left.

LESSON LXXVII.+

MOSES' BLESSING TO THE TRIBES.

B.C. 1451.-DEUT. xxxii. 48–52; xxxiii. 1—11.

And the LORD spake unto Moses that selfsame day, saying,

Get thee up into this mountain Abarim, unto mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession:

And die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people; as Aaron thy brother died in mount Hor, and was gathered unto his people:

Because ye trespassed

against me among the children of Israel at the † Not for the younger ones.

✰ Sinned.

waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because ye sanctified me not in the midst of the children of Israel.

Yet thou shalt see the land before thee; but thou shalt not go thither unto the land which I give the children of Israel.

And this is the blessing wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death.

And he said,

The LORD came from Sinai,

And rose up from Seir unto them;

He shined forth from mount Paran,

And he came with ten thousands of saints:

From his right hand went a fiery law for them.
Yea, he loved the people:

All his saints are in thy hand:

And they sat down at thy feet;

Every one shall receive of thy words.

Moses commanded us a law,

Even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob.

And he was king in Jeshurun,

When the heads of the people

*

And the tribes of Israel were gathered together.
Let Reuben live, and not die ;

And let not his men be few.

And this is the blessing of Judah: and he said,
Hear, LORD, the voice of Judah,

And bring him unto his people:

Let his hands be sufficient for him;

And be thou an help to him from his enemies.

And of Levi he said,

Let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy holy one,
Whom thou didst prove at Massah,

And with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah;

Who said unto his father and to his mother,

I have not seen him ;

Neither did he acknowledge his brethren,

Nor knew his own children:

For they have observed thy word,

And kept thy covenant.

They shall teach Jacob thy judgments,

And Israel thy law;

They shall put incense before thee,

And whole burnt sacrifice upon thine altar.

Bless, LORD, his substance, t

And accept the work of his hands;

Smite through the loins of them that rise against him,

And of them that hate him, that they rise not again

*The Beloved, a name for the Israelites.

+ What belongs to him.