Deuteronomy 26:19

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 26:19. _MAKE THEE HIGH ABOVE ALL NATIONS_] It is written, _Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any_ _people_, Proverbs 14:34. While Israel regarded God's word and kept his testimonies, they were the greatest and most respectable of all nations; but when they forsook God and his law, they became the most contemptible. O Britain, even more highly favoured than ancient Israel! learn wisdom by what they have suffered. It is not thy fleets nor thine armies, howsoever excellent and well appointed, that can ultimately exalt and secure thy permanence among the nations. It is righteousness _alone_. Become irreligious, neglect God's ordinances, profane his Sabbath, despise his word, persecute his followers, and thou art lost. But fear, lov...

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

TO MAKE THEE HIGH ABOVE ALL NATIONS,.... None of them having the Lord to be their God and King in such sense as Israel, nor they his people in such a peculiar sense as they were; nor having such laws and statutes as he had given to them; these things gave them a superiority over all other nations: WHICH HE HATH MADE, IN PRAISE, AND IN NAME, AND IN HONOUR; that is, which nations he made praiseworthy, famous, and honourable, for their extent, wealth, riches, and number; and yet on the above accounts Israel was advanced higher than they: AND THAT THOU MAYEST BE AN HOLY PEOPLE UNTO THE LORD THY GOD, AS HE HATH SPOKEN; the end of the Lord in being their God, and making them his people, was not only to make them high above all others, but to make them more holy than others; to set them apart for himself, as a people sacred to his worship and service, as he had both determined and declared,...

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....

AS. according as. This is the end of the fourth address. See note on Deuteronomy 1:1....

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