Deuteronomy 26:18

16-19 Moses here enforces the precepts. They are God's laws, therefore thou shalt do them, to that end were they given thee; do them, and dispute them not; do them, and draw not back; do them, not carelessly and hypocritically, but with thy heart and soul, thy whole heart and thy whole soul. We forswear ourselves, and break the most sacred engagement, if, when we have taken the Lord to be our God, we do not make conscience of obeying his commands. We are elected to obedience, 1 Peter 1:2; chosen that we should be holy, Ephesians 1:4; purified a peculiar people, that we might not only do good works, but be zealous in them, Titus 2:14. Holiness is true honour, and the only way to everlasting honour....

Verse Deuteronomy 26:18. _AND THE LORD HATH AVOUCHED_] Publicly declared, by the blessings he pours down upon them, that he has taken them to be his peculiar people. Thus the covenant is made and ratified between God and his followers....

A brief and earnest exhortation by way of conclusion to the second and longest discourse of the book. Deuteronomy 26:17 THOU HAST AVOUCHED - literally, “made to say:” so also in the next verse. The sense is: “Thou hast given occasion to the Lord to say that He is thy God,” i. e. by promising that He shall be so. Compare Exodus 24:7; Joshua 24:14,...

EXPOSITION THANKSGIVING AND PRAYER AT THE PRESENTATION OF FIRSTFRUITS AND TITHES. As Moses began his exposition of the laws and rights instituted for Israel by a reference to the sanctuary as the place which the Lord should choose, and the place where religious service was to be rendered (Deuteronomy 12:1.), so here he follows up his address by a reference to the same. Of the gifts which had to be presented at the sanctuary there were two specially connected with the social and domestic life of the people, viz. the firstfruits and the second tithe. To these, by a natural transition from the preceding discourse—occupied as that is with injunctions regarding their social and domestic relations—Mos

AND THE LORD HATH AVOUCHED THEE THIS DAY TO BE HIS PECULIAR PEOPLE,.... Affirmed and declared them to be his special people, above all people on the face of the earth, and that they were looked upon and considered by him as his jewels, his peculiar treasure: AS HE HATH PROMISED THEE; on condition of their obedience to him, as he did in Exodus 19:5; AND THAT [THOU] SHOULDEST KEEP ALL HIS COMMANDMENTS; at the same time declared this as his will, that they should observe all his precepts, to which they were laid under obligation by the special favour and peculiar privileges he bestowed upon them, Deuteronomy 7:6. The Targums interpret both these verses of the people of Israel choosing and making the Lord their King, and of his being made King over them; and so it respects

22. FIRSTFRUITS AND PRAYER CHAPTER 26 _ 1. The basket of first-fruits, confession and rejoicing (Deuteronomy 26:1)_ 2. Obedience yielded and prayer (Deuteronomy 26:12) 3. Jehovah acknowledges His people (Deuteronomy 26:16) The possession of the land is anticipated and a most beautiful ceremony is appointed for confession and worship in the place the Lord chose to place His Name there. The first of all the fruit of the land was to be gathered and put in a basket. This basket was presented unto the priest with the following words: “I profess this day unto the LORD thy God, that I am come unto the country which the LORD sware unto our fathers for to give us

Concluding exhortations to obedience based upon the covenant (Deuteronomy 4:13 *) between Yahweh and Israel, with its mutual obligations. Deuteronomy 26:17_ f_. AVOUCHED: Heb. caused to say, each of the contracting parties causing the other to acknowledge the obligations entered into; a strong anthropomorphism when applied to Yahweh....

PECULIAR. as. treasure. Compare Deuteronomy 7:6, and see note on Exodus 19:5....

Concluding Exhortation The proclamation of these laws and the consequent duty of Israel to keep them (Deuteronomy 26:16) constitute a contract between Jehovah and Israel, by which He declares Himself their God, who shall exalt them above other nations, and they declare themselves His people, proper and holy to Him and obliged to obey His laws (Deuteronomy 26:17-19). In D's style and the Sg. address (LXX curiously diverges into the Pl. in the last clause of Deuteronomy 26:16). But the argument has been deranged (so all recent commentators; see esp. Cullen, p. 93) either by later additions inappropriately distributed through a misunderstanding of the legal form used, or through the fusion

DISCOURSE: 218 COVENANTING WITH GOD EXPLAINED Deuteronomy 26:17. _Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and to hearken unto his voice: and the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments; and to make thee high above all nations which he hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour; and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the Lord thy God, as he hath spoken._ The covenant which was made with the Jews at Mount Horeb, though materially different from that which exists under the Christian dispensation, was yet intended to shadow forth that which all of us are called upon to enter into with our God. The Jewish covenant had respect in a great measure to temporal b