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Deuteronomy Chapter
Fourteen
Deuteronomy 14
Chapter Contents
The Israelites to distinguish themselves from other
nations. (1-21) Respecting the application of tithes. (22-29)
Commentary on Deuteronomy 14:1-21
(Read Deuteronomy 14:1-21)
Moses tells the people of Israel how God had given them
three distinguishing privileges
which were their honour
and figures of those
spiritual blessings in heavenly things
with which God has in Christ blessed
us. Here is election; "The Lord hath chosen thee." He did not choose
them because they were by their own acts a peculiar people to him above other
nations
but he chose them that they might be so by his grace; and thus were
believers chosen
Ephesians 1:4. Here is adoption; "Ye are
the children of the Lord your God;" not because God needed children
but
because they were orphans
and needed a father. Every spiritual Israelite is
indeed a child of God
a partaker of his nature and favour. Here is
sanctification; "Thou art a holy people." God's people are required
to be holy
and if they are holy
they are indebted to the grace God which
makes them so. Those whom God chooses to be his children
he will form to be a
holy people
and zealous of good works. They must be careful to avoid every thing
which might disgrace their profession
in the sight of those who watch for
their halting. Our heavenly Father forbids nothing but for our welfare. Do
thyself no harm; do not ruin thy health
thy reputation
thy domestic comforts
thy peace of mind. Especially do not murder thy soul. Do not be the vile slave
of thy appetites and passions. Do not render all around thee miserable
and
thyself wretched; but aim at that which is most excellent and useful. The laws
which regarded many sorts of flesh as unclean
were to keep them from mingling
with their idolatrous neighbours. It is plain in the gospel
that these laws
are now done away. But let us ask our own hearts
Are we of the children of the
Lord our God? Are we separate from the ungodly world
in being set apart to
God's glory
the purchase of Christ's blood? Are we subjects of the work of the
Holy Ghost? Lord
teach us from these precepts how pure and holy all thy people
ought to live!
Commentary on Deuteronomy 14:22-29
(Read Deuteronomy 14:22-29)
A second portion from the produce of their land was
required. The whole appointment evidently was against the covetousness
distrust
and selfishness of the human heart. It promoted friendliness
liberality
and cheerfulness
and raised a fund for the relief of the poor.
They were taught that their worldly portion was most comfortably enjoyed
when
shared with their brethren who were in want. If we thus serve God
and do good
with what we have
it is promised that the Lord our God will bless us in all
the works of our land. The blessing of God is all to our outward prosperity;
and without that blessing
the work of our hands will bring nothing to pass.
The blessing descends upon the working hand. Expect not that God should bless
thee in thy idleness and love of ease. And it descends upon the giving hand. He
who thus scatters
certainly increases; and to be free and generous in the
support of religion
and any good work
is the surest and safest way of
thriving.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Deuteronomy》
Deuteronomy 14
Verse 1
[1] Ye
are the children of the LORD your God: ye shall not cut yourselves
nor make
any baldness between your eyes for the dead.
Of the Lord —
Whom therefore you must not disparage by unworthy or unbecoming practices.
Ye shall not cut yourselves — Which were the practices of idolaters
both in the worship of their
idols
in their funerals
and upon occasion of public calamities. Is not this
like a parent's charge to his little children
playing with knives
"Do
not cut yourselves!" This is
the intention of those commands
which
obliges us to deny ourselves. The meaning is
Do yourselves no harm! And as
this also is
the design of cross providences
to remove from us those things
by which we are in danger of doing ourselves harm.
Verse 3
[3] Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing.
Abominable —
Unclean and forbidden by me
which therefore should be abominable to you.
Verse 22
[22] Thou
shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed
that the field bringeth forth
year by year.
All the increase —
This is to be understood of the second tithes
which seem to be the same with
the tithes of the first year
mentioned Deuteronomy 14:28.
Verse 25
[25] Then
shalt thou turn it into money
and bind up the money in thine hand
and shalt
go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose:
In thine hand —
That is
in a bag to be taken into thy hand and carried with thee.
Verse 27
[27] And the Levite that is within thy gates; thou shalt not forsake him; for
he hath no part nor inheritance with thee.
Thou shalt not forsake him — Thou shalt give him a share in such tithes or in the product of them.
Verse 28
[28] At
the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase
the same year
and shalt lay it up within thy gates:
At the end of three years — That is
in the third year
as it is
expressed
Deuteronomy 26:12.
The same year —
This is added to shew that he speaks of the third year
and not of the fourth
year
as some might conjecture from the phrase
at the end of three years.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Deuteronomy》
14 Chapter 14
Verse 1-2
At the end of every seven years . . . a release.
Economical laws
One of the things that strikes a reader of Deuteronomy
and indeed
of the Old Testament in general
is the way in which all kinds of subjects are
brought under the scope of religion. The modern mind is ready with
distinctions
and classifies subjects as religious
moral
political
scientific
economical
and so forth; but the Israelitish lawgivers
men with
the prophetic spirit in them
subordinate politics
economics
and morals alike
to religion. Laws
to whatever department of life they are applicable
are to
be made and administered in the Spirit of God; they are not an end in
themselves; their one end is to enable people so to live as that the purposes
may be fulfilled for which God has called them into being and constituted them
into societies. This high point of view must always be retained. If we know
better than the Israelites the life which God intends human beings to live
we
shall have a higher standard for our legislation than they; we shall be more
bound than they to remember that law is an instrument of religion
a means to a
spiritual end
and that it rests with us who make our own laws to adapt them
over the whole area of national life
to the ends which God sets before us.
1. In the first place
there is legislation regarding land. It
proceeds upon the idea that the land belongs to God
and has been given by Him
to the nation that on it as a foundation it may live that life of labour
of
health
and of natural piety to which He has called it. Strictly speaking
there is no such thing as unrestricted private property in land. An individual
does not have the power of alienating any part of it forever. One result
and
no doubt one purpose of this was
to prevent a single worthless person from
ruining his posterity by parting forever with what he really held in trust for
them; another
was to prevent the accumulation of great masses of landed
property
which was then the only kind of property
in the hands of
individuals. Such accumulations
in the circumstances
and in most
circumstances
could only lead to the practical enslavement of those who tilled
the land to those who owned it. These aims of the land laws in Israel will very
generally be acknowledged as worthy of approval. I suppose there is not a
statesman in Europe who would not give a great deal to resettle on the land
hundreds of thousands of those who have been driven or drawn into the towns.
There is not one but sees that private property in land must
if the
moral ends for which society exists are to be attained
be limited somehow.
Similarly
legislation is justifiable--that is
it is in the line of a Divine
intention--which aims at making it hard to beggar the poor
and hard to heap up
wealth without limit. It is not a morally healthy situation in which one man of
enormous wealth has thousands practically at his mercy. It is not good for him--I
mean for his soul; it is not good for their souls either; and the law may
properly aim
by just methods
at making it hard to create such a situation and
impossible to perpetuate it. Unhappily
in most new countries the need of
bribing settlers and capital has proved a temptation too strong to be resisted;
and land has been parted with in masses
to individuals
on terms which have
simply sown for future generations the seed of all the trouble under which
older countries labour. The instinct for gain has proved stronger titan the
devotion to ideal moral ends. The future has been sacrificed to the present
the moral interests of the community to the material interests of a few.
2. Besides the land
the Book of Deuteronomy contains a variety of
laws regarding money
and particularly the lending of money. To begin with
the
lending of money for interest was absolutely forbidden. The Israelites were not
a commercial
but a farming people
and when a man borrowed
it was not to
float a venture too great for his own means
but because he had got into
difficulties
and wanted relief. To assist a brother in difficulty was regarded
as a case of charity; he was to be relieved readily and freely; it were inhuman
to take advantage of his distress to get him into one’s power
as a money
lender does his victim. It may be said
of course
that the effect of this law
would be to discourage lending altogether; people would not be too ready to
part with their money without some hope of profit. Probably this might be so
and to some extent with good effect. There are some people who borrow
and who
ought not to do so. They ought not to have money lent to them. It is a mercy not
to lend him money: it is a special mercy to protect him
as this law does
against the money lenders. But I am not sure that the law which prohibits
lending money for interest has not another moral idea at the heart of it. As
distinguished from agriculture
commerce
which depends so much more upon
credit
i.e. upon money lent for interest
has a much larger element of
speculation in it; and speculation is always to be discouraged
on moral
grounds. Everyone knows that there are persons with little money of their own
who contrive to make a livelihood by watching the ups and downs in the price of
shares. This is a vocation which depends for its very existence on the lending
of money for interest
and no one will say that it is morally wholesome
or
that
whatever sensitiveness it may develop in certain of the intellectual
faculties
it is elevating for the whole man. It would be far better for him to
be doing field labour. But there is more still in this law. As it stands
I do
not believe it is applicable to the vastly different conditions of modern life
especially in a trading community; here
to lend a trustworthy person money to
carry on or extend his business may be what the law intended all lending to be
an act of charity. But the lender must consider his own position--I mean his
moral position. His whole income may come--in many cases it does come--from
investments. He lives on the interest of money he has lent. He takes no care of
it
except to see at first that the investments are sound. He does no work in
connection with it. He is largely ignorant of the use made of the power which
it bestows. I am not going to say that no one should live on such terms: for
many
life would be impossible otherwise. For many it is the proper reward of a
life of labour: they are only reaping the fruit of their toils in earlier years.
To such it is not likely to do any harm. But those who have inherited such a
situation are undoubtedly exposed to moral perils of which they may easily
become unconscious. They can live without needing to make their living; and
there are very few people in a generation good enough to stand such a trial.
Those who labour with the money are conscripts; let those who lend it be
volunteers in all the higher services which society requires from its members.
Let them be leaders in all philanthropies and charities
in all laborious
duties which have it as their object to raise the moral and spiritual status of
men.
3. A third class of economical laws which bulks largely in the Book
of Deuteronomy
and to which special attention is due
is occupied with the
care of the poor. This fifteenth chapter has a number of enactments bearing on
this subject. The first is rather obscure
“At the end of every seven years
thou shalt make a release.” In the Book of Exodus (Exodus 23:10) this law refers to the
land
and its meaning is that every seventh year it is not to be cropped. Here
there is a year of release established for debts
though it is not clear
whether it means that a debt due seven years was to be irrecoverable by legal
process
or that every seventh year there should be a period of grace
during
which no debt should be recoverable by law. Then
in the laws about
lending
the duty of charity is strongly enforced. The forgotten sheaf in the
field
or the gleanings of the vineyard and the olive are not to be too
carefully gathered in; they are to be left for the stranger
the fatherless
and the widow
“that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the works of thine
hand.” God is interested in humanity; He sees such consideration and rewards
it
just as He sees inhumanity and judges it. But the most striking thing in
these ancient poor laws is the way in which they realise the actual conditions
of the life of the poor
and consider them. The lender is allowed to take a
pledge
but if he takes the upper garment of the borrower he must not keep it
all night. It is not only the poor man’s cloak
but his blanket; he has nothing
else to cover himself with
and God is angry with the man who inhumanly leaves
his poor brother to shiver in the cold night air. So
too
no one may take the
hand mill or the upper millstone as a pledge; that is to rob the poor of the
means of grinding the handful of corn with which he keeps the breath in his
body. We see from laws like these how excessively poor they were
yet the
lawgiver who has the Spirit of God in him enters into this deep poverty
realises the conditions of life under it
and insists on due consideration for
them. Business is business
of course; but humanity is also humanity
and it is
an interest which no consideration of business will ever displace before God.
And to refer in this connection to only one point more
what could be more
beautiful than the law we find in verses 10 and 11 of Deuteronomy 24:1-22? It is a mean and
inhuman temper
which is here reproved by God. The poor man is not to be
insulted because he is in distress; he is to be treated by the lender as
courteously and respectfully as if he were--what he is--his equal. The
sacredness of his home is to be respected; he is not to be needlessly affronted
before his children by having an unfeeling or insolent stranger walk into the
house and carry off what he pleases. Laws like these move us to reflection on
the provision which we ourselves make for the poor. On what a large scale
poverty exists in the great cities! The practical difficulties of relieving
distress without doing moral injury are undeniably very great
but I do not
believe they will be overcome by men whom habitual contact with dishonesty and
incapacity has rendered hard and inhuman. Those who have the care of the poor
should care for them with humanity. They should care for their feelings too
and respect the common nature which is in them. If they do not
they suffer for
it themselves
and one can hardly find a more odious type of human being than
the man who has been hardened and brutalised by the administration of charity.
There is one kind of criticism which has often been passed
and will no doubt
continue to be passed
on such laws as these. It is this: they have never been
kept. There is no evidence
for instance
that the law of the jubilee year
when all property returned to its original owners
was ever observed in Israel:
as a means for preventing the dissipation of family property
or its
accumulation in a few hands
it was a failure. So have all laws been which
attempted to regulate the business of lending money
either by prohibiting
interest altogether
or by fixing a maximum rate of interest. No law written in
a book can ever compete with the living intellect of man
with his cunning and
greed on the one hand
with his distress
his passions
or his stupidity on the
other. There is a certain quantity of truth in this; but taken without
qualification it is only a plea for anarchy--an invitation to give up the whole
of the economical side of social existence to the conflict of ability
selfishness
and capital with incompetence
need
and passion. Surely there is
a moral ideal for this side of existence; and surely if there is
it must find
some expression
however inadequate
some assistance
however feeble
from the
laws. We cannot by law protect people against the consequences of their vices
or their follies; but we can provide in the law a safeguard for those interests
which are higher than private gain or loss. We can make it impossible for
anyone in the pursuit of private gain to trample humanity under foot. (James
Denney
D. D.)
Proclamation of release
My text was intended as an especial law to the ancients
and
prefigured to all ages Gospel forgiveness. The fact is that the world is loaded
down with a debt
which no bankrupt law or two-third enactment can alleviate.
The voices of heaven cry
“Pay! Pay!” Men and women are frantic with moral
insolvency. What shall be done? A new law is proclaimed
from the throne of
God
of universal release for all who will take advantage of that enactment.
1. In the first place
why will you carry your burden of sin any
longer? “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from sin.” Cut loose the cables
which hold your transgressions
and let them fall off. Spiritual
infinite
glorious
everlasting release! “Blessed is the man whose transgressions are
forgiven and whose sins are covered.”
2. Some of you
also
want deliverance from your troubles. God knows
you have enough of them. Physical
domestic
spiritual
and financial troubles.
How are you going to get relief? The Divine Physician comes
and He knows how
severe the trouble is
and He gives you this promise: “Weeping may endure for a
night
but joy cometh in the morning.” Does it not take effect upon you? Here
then
He pours out more drops of Divine consolation
and I am sure this time
the trouble will be arrested: “All things work together for good to those who
love God.” All the Atlantic and Pacific oceans of surging sorrow cannot sink a
soul that has asked for God’s pilotage. The difficulty is
that when we have
misfortunes of any kind
we put them in God’s hand
and they stay there a
little while; and then we go and get them again
and bring them back. A vessel
comes in from a foreign port. As it comes near the harbour it sees a pilot
floating about. It hails the pilot. The pilot comes on board
and he says:
“Now
captain
you have had a stormy passage. Go down and sleep
and I will
take the vessel into New York harbour.” After a while the captain begins to
think: “Am I right in trusting this vessel to that pilot? I guess I’ll go up
and see.” So he comes to the pilot
and says: “Don’t you see that rock? Don’t
you see those headlands? You will wreck the ship. Let me hold the helm for a
while myself
and then I’ll trust to you.” The pilot becomes angry
and says:
“I will either take care of this ship or not. If you want to
I will get into
my yawl and go ashore
or back to my boat.” Now we say to the Lord: “O God
take my life
take my all
in Thy keeping.” We go along for a little while
and
suddenly wake up
and say: “Things are going all wrong. O Lord
we are driving
on these rocks
and Thou art going to let us be shipwrecked.” God says: “You go
and rest; I will take charge of this vessel
and take it into the harbour.” It
is God’s business to comfort
and it is our business to be comforted. “At the
end of seven years thou shalt make a release.”
3. But what is our programme for the coming years? It is about the
same line of work
only on a more intensified and consecrated scale. Ah
we
must be better men and women. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
A new chance
God is putting lines of mercy amid all the black print of the law.
It would seem as if wherever God could find a place at which He might utter
some word of pity or compassion
He filled up that place with an utterance of
His solicitude for the welfare of man. Flowers look lovely everywhere
but what
must be the loveliness of a flower to the wanderer in a desert? So these Gospel
words are full of charm wherever we find them
but they have double
charmfulness being found in connection with institutions
instructions
precepts
and commandments marked by the severest righteousness. In the midst
of time God graciously puts a year of release. We find in this year of release
what we all need--namely
the principle of new chances
new opportunities
fresh beginnings. Tomorrow
said the debtor or the slave
is the day of
release
and the next day I shall begin again: I shall have another chance in
life; the burden will be taken away. The darkness will be dispersed
and life
shall be young again. Every man ought to have more chances than one
even in
our own life. God has filled the sphere of life with opportunities. But moral
releases can only be accomplished by moral processes. The man who is in prison
must take the right steps to get out of it. What are those right
steps?--repentance
contrition
confession--open
frank
straightforward
self-renouncing confession; then the man must be allowed to begin again; God
will
in His providence
work out for such a man another opportunity;
concealment there must be none
prevarication none
self-defence none. Where
the case lies between the soul and God--the higher morality still--there must
be an interview at the Cross--a mysterious communion under the blood that flows
from the wounded Christ. All this being done on the part of the creditor and the
owner
what happens on the side of God? The answer to that inquiry is: “The
Lord shall greatly bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee
for an inheritance to possess it” (Deuteronomy 24:4). God never allows us to
obey the law without immediate and large compensation. We cannot obey the laws
of health without instantly being the healthier; we cannot obey the laws of
cleanliness without the flesh instantly thanking us
in stronger pulsations and
wider liberties
for what we have done to it. A blessing is attached to all
obedience
when the obedience is rendered to law Divine and gracious. The
reward is in the man’s own heart: he has a reward which no thief can take away
from the sanctuary in which it is preserved; heaven is within. None can
forestall God
or outrun God
or confer upon God an obligation which He cannot
repay; He takes the moisture from the earth only that He may return it in
copious showers. No man can serve God for nought. (J. Parker
D. D.)
The year of release
I propose to consider death as the Christian’s release
and then
you will easily perceive what pleasure it must give to the believer
who is
waiting for his discharge
to be told that the year of release is at hand.
I. For they shall
be released from all labour and sorrow.
1. From labour (Revelation 14:13). They know little of
religion who think that a Christian has nothing to do. When Christ first calls
us
He says: “Go
work today in My vineyard.” There is not only a great variety
of employments
but that which requires much application and labour. To mortify
sin is difficult work. But courage
Christians
the year of release is at hand.
In heaven there will be much service
but no kind of labour. They rest not
day
nor night
from rapturous adorations
and yet feel no fatigue
for the joy of
the Lord is their strength.
2. But I said also that you shall be released from sorrow as well as
from labour. The sources of present grief are almost innumerable. There are
personal
family
and national troubles; and these sometimes follow one another
so quickly
that many have tears for their meat
night and day. But courage
Christians
the year of release is at hand
when they that sow in tears shall
reap in joy.
II. There will be a
release from sin. Though you go out of this world lamenting your numerous
infirmities
you shall be presented before the throne of God without spot or
wrinkle or any such thing.
III. It will be a
release from temptation. Within the gates of the New Jerusalem you shall be
free from all assaults and troubles whatever
and be proclaimed more than
conquerors through Him that loved you.
IV. There will be a
release from this state of exile and confinement. Mysteries of Providence will
then be unfolded
and the most delightful discoveries made of the infinite
wisdom and goodness of God. The much greater mysteries of grace shall be also
laid open; and fill our hearts with love and admiration
and our mouths with
never-ending praises. (S. Lavington.)
Forgiveness
freedom
favour
I. The release
which the Lord desired His people to give.
1. They were
at the end of every seven years
to release every man
his debtor from the debt which he had accumulated. A man might pay if he could
and he should do so. A man might
at some future time
if his circumstances
altered
discharge the debt which had been remitted; but
as far as the
creditor was concerned
it was remitted.
2. They were never to exact that debt again. The moral claim might
remain
and the honest Israelite might take care that his brother Israelite
should not lose anything through him; but
still
according to the Divine
command
there was to be no exacting of it. None but a generous Lawgiver would
have made such a law as this. It is noble-hearted
full of loving kindness; and
we could expect that none but a people in whose midst there was the daily
sacrifice
in the midst of whom moved the high priest of God
would be obedient
to such a precept.
3. They were to do this for the Lord’s sake: “because it is called
the Lord’s release.” It is not enough to do the correct thing; it must be done
in a right spirit
and with a pure motive. A good action is not wholly good unless
it be done for the glory of God
and because of the greatness and goodness of
His holy name. The most powerful motive that a Christian can have is this
“For
Jesus’ sake.” You could not forgive the debt
perhaps
for your brother’s sake;
there may be something about him that would harden your heart; but can you not
do it for Jesus’ sake? This is true charity
that holy love which is the
choicest of the graces. And then
like the Israelites
we may look believingly
to the gracious reward that God gives. We do not serve God for wages; but still
we have respect unto the recompense of the reward
even as Moses had. We do not
run like hirelings; but yet we have our eye upon the prize of our high calling
in Christ Jesus. They were not only to perform this kindness once
but they
were to be ready to do it again. It is the part of Christians not to be weary
in well doing; and if they get no reward for what they have done from those to
whom it is done
still to do the same again. Remember how gracious God is
and
how He giveth to the unthankful and the evil
and maketh His rain to fall upon
the field of the churl as well as upon the field of the most generous.
5. While they were to forgive and remit
on this seventh year
the
loans which remained unpaid
they were also to let the bondman go. It was not
to be thought a hardship to part with a servant man or woman. However useful
they might have been in the house or field
however much they were felt to be
necessary to domestic comfort or farm service
they were to be allowed to go;
and
what was more
they were not to go empty handed
but they were to receive
a portion out of every department of the master’s wealth.
6. Further
this setting free of their brother at the specified time
was to be done for a certain reason: “Thou shalt remember
” etc. How can you
hold another a bondman when God has set you free? How can you treat another
with unkindness when the Lord has dealt so generously with you? Down at Olney
when Mr. Newton was the rector of the parish
he put in his study this text
where he could always see it when he lifted his eyes from his text while
preparing his sermon
Remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt
and the Lord thy God redeemed thee. Would it not do many Christians good if
they had that text often before their eyes? Would it not excite gratitude to
their Redeemer
and tenderness towards those who happened to be in subjection
to them
tenderness to every sinner that is a bondslave under the law
tenderness to the myriads that swarm these streets
slaves to sin and self
and
who are perishing in their iniquity?
7. The spirit of this release of the Lord is this
“Never be hard on
anybody.” It is true that the man made the bargain
and he ought to keep to it;
but he is losing money
and he cannot afford it; he is being ruined
and you
are being fattened by his mistake. Do not hold him to it. No Christian man can
be a sweater of workers; no Christian man can be a grinder of the poor; no man
who would be accepted before God
can think that his heart is right with Him
when he treats others ungenerously
not to say unjustly.
II. The release
which the Lord gives to us.
1. Let me proclaim to every sinner here
who owns his indebtedness to
God
and feels that he can never discharge it
that if you will come
and put
your trust in Christ
the Lord promises oblivion to all your debt
forgiveness
of the whole of your sins.
2. This release shall be followed up by a nonexacting of the penalty
forever.
3. God will do all this for thee on the ground of thy poverty. See
the fourth verse: “Save when there shall be no poor among you. When you cannot
pay half a farthing in the pound of all your great debt of sin
when you are
absolutely bankrupt
then may you believe that Jesus Christ is your Saviour.
4. I may be addressing a soul here that says
“I like that thought
I
wish I could catch hold of it; but I feel myself to be such a slave that I
cannot grasp it.” Well
the Lord may allow a soul to be in bondage for a time;
indeed
it may be needful that He should. The Hebrew might be in bondage six
years
and yet he went free when the seventh year came. There are reasons why
the Spirit of God is to some men a Spirit of bondage for a long time. Hard
hearts must be melted
proud stomachs must be brought down.
5. The man was set free at the end of the sixth year
paying nothing
for his liberation. Though not freeborn
nor yet buying his liberty with a
great sum
yet he was set free. O Lord
set some soul free tonight!
6. And when the Lord sets poor souls at liberty
He always sends them
away full-handed. He gives something from the flock
and from the threshing
floor
and from the wine press.
7. This act never seems hard to the Lord. He says to the Hebrew
in
the eighteenth verse
“It shall not seem hard unto thee
when thou sendest him
away free.” It never seems hard to Christ when He sets a sinner free.
8. One thing I feel sure of
and that is
if the Lord sets us free
we shall want to remain His servants forever. We will go straight away to the
door-post
and ask Him to use the awl; for
though we are glad to be free
we
do not want to be free from Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Verses 4-20
The beasts which ye shall eat.
God’s provision for man’s table
I. Provision
Divine in its source. Israel could not have procured it and would not have
known without Divine teaching what was good for them. Recognise that power
which can “furnish a table in the wilderness” (Psalms 78:19).
II. Provision good
in quality. Nothing unclean
nothing unwholesome
was specified. Not anything
was to be eaten apt to stimulate sensual passions
or to foster coarse tastes
and degrading habits.
III. Provisions
abundant in quality. There was no stint in beasts
birds
or fish. The articles
of food were nutritious and abundant. God’s legislation for our lower reminds
us of His care for our higher nature. There is no lack anywhere. Let us remember
our Benefactor
for we cannot put a morsel of food into our mouths till God
puts it into our hands--discern kindness not only in prescribing
but in
prohibiting
and be grateful to “the living God who giveth us richly all things
to enjoy” (1 Timothy 6:17). For a man may be
blessed with riches
wealth
and honour; want nothing; “yet God giveth him not
power to eat thereof” (Ecclesiastes 6:2). (Matthew Henry
D.
D.)
Food provided
In this provision of food we see--
1. A mark of Divine condescension. If kings legislated for the diet
of their people
is it beneath the King of Israel to appoint the food for His
chosen people? “All that we know of God
” says Dr. Cumming
“in creation
in
providence
in redemption
leads us to see that He takes as much care of what
the world calls
in its ignorance
little things
as He does of what the world
thinks
in equal ignorance
great and weighty things.”
2. A proof of Divine benevolence. It is kind to provide at all. But
what thought indicated
in the choice of animals which multiplied slowly
which
were not difficult to obtain
found without leaving the camp
and without danger
and contact with heathens around them! All this intended to reclaim and bless.
(Matthew Henry
D. D.)
Every creeping thing that
flieth is unclean.
Gilded sin
1. There is a natural disgust in everyone to the idea of eating
or
even handling
a creeping worm or caterpillar. However difficult this feeling
may be to analyse
God has given it to the race for some purpose. All things
that are abhorrent to our human instincts--things which we call repulsive--are
so many indications of the great truth that we are to make distinctions between
clean and unclean
good and evil
right and wrong.
2. Now God saw fit to incorporate this natural instinct of man
which
He had implanted
in the law for His people. He forbade their eating these
repulsive
crawling things. We know how the natural instinct is often overcome
by wilful habits
and we find degraded men taking pleasure in those articles of
food which the human palate originally and instinctively rejects. Hence the
necessity of a law behind the instinct
when God would teach by it His great
spiritual lesson.
3. He would teach us that we may in conscience shrink from gross
sins
and yet gradually blunt conscience and indulge in sins we formerly
abhorred; and that
therefore
a Divine law must be made the norm of our lives
and not simply the protests of natural conscience.
4. We desire to call your attention to a different class of dalliers
with sin--not the gross and vulgar
but the refined and elegant. Their
refinement is such that gross forms of sin repel them--not because they are
sin
but because they are gross. The nauseous caterpillar has dressed itself up
as a beautiful butterfly
and in this form they sport with the creature. But
what does God’s law say? “Every creeping thing that flieth is unclean unto you.”
The wings and pretty colours have not altered the nature of the vermin. The
same uncleanness is there as before. How many there are who would shrink with
dismay from overt sensuality
and yet will
in the privacy of the chamber
gloat over a licentious novel! It is the very same crawling thing--only now it
has pretty wings.
5. One of the most successful cloaks for sin at the present day is
so-called art. Art is something very lovely and refined. It is a grand thing
for the young to know all about art. It shows high breeding to admire and
criticise art. Now
there is a grain of wheat and a bushel of chaff in all this
talk. To one genuine artist who only looks to the art
there are a thousand
hypocrites
who know nothing about art
and only adopt the language of art to
hide their sinful tendencies. In the name of art they go to see the public
performances of a loose woman and watch the movements of a play that makes
light of the marriage relation. In the name of art they fill their parlours
with nudities
in voluptuous form and colour
by which the youth of the
families are stimulated to sensuality and debauchery; and
in the name of art
the young artist sits before his nude model for her destruction and his.
6. In every way luxury can devise
passions are inflamed
and then
modesty is called prudery. Indecent dressing
lascivious dances
immoral
innuendo in conversation
form part of this refined system of destroying the
soul
in which Christians engage because they must he in the fashion. The
creeping thing down in a dance house in Water Street they would exclaim
against; but the winged creeping thing that flies in the uptown parlour they
delight in; yet it is the same venomous beast.
7. Is it right for those who are washed in the blood of Christ
and
who seek the sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit
to enter wilfully into
a social life where books and pictures and statuary and entertainments are most
unblushingly promotive of sensuality and vicious thought? Is it right to become
accustomed to such gilded filth
so that we lose our Christian delicacy and
reserve
and at last make impurity a fashionable virtue? Satan is cunning in
his temptations. He does not come to us in a vulgar form and so disgust us. He
puts the many-coloured wings on the slimy crawler
and so fascinates us into
his service. “Beware!” (H. Crosby
D. D.)
Verse 21
Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother’s milk.
Cultivation of the feelings a Christian duty
I. That which
commentators upon Scripture have found intricate and uncertain
writers of a
more secular character have seized upon and read rightly. Some of you may
remember the use made of it in one of those classical works of fiction of which
Englishmen are so justly proud; where the intended victim of a deep-laid plot
is lured to her destruction by an imitation of her husbands signal
and one of
the conspirators says to his more guilty accomplice
“Thou hast destroyed her
by means of her best affections. It is a seething of the kid in the mother’s
milk!” A just and thrilling application of the inspired charge; of which the
simplest meaning is the true one. Thou shalt not blunt thy natural feelings
or
those of others
by disregarding the inward dictate of a Divine humanity: human
nature shrinks from the idea of using that which ought to be the food of a
newborn animal
to prepare that animal to be man’s food; of applying the
mother’s milk to a purpose so opposite to that for which God destined it:
harden not thy heart against this instinct of tenderness on the plea that it
matters not to the slain animal in what particular way it is dressed
or that
the living parent
void of reason
has no consciousness of the inhumanity: for
thine own sake refrain from that which is hardhearted; from that which
though
it inflicts not pain
springs out of selfishness
indicates a spirit unworthy
of man and forgetful of God
and tends still further to blunt those moral
sensibilities which once lost are commonly lost forever
and with them all that
is most beautiful and most attractive in the human character.
II. The text seems
to teach us most of all the wickedness of using for selfish or wrong purposes
the sacred feelings of another; of availing ourselves of the knowledge of
another’s affections to make him miserable or to make him sinful; of trifling
in this sense
with the most delicate workings of the human mechanism
and
turning to evil account that insight into character with which God has endowed
us all
in different degrees
for purposes wholly beneficent
pure
and good.
III. In proportion
as you learn and practise early that regard for others’ feelings which is
almost synonymous with Christian charity
in that same degree will you become
not effeminate
but in the best of all senses manly; having put away childish
things
and anticipated the noblest qualities of a Christian maturity. We pray
in the Litany
“From hardness of heart
good Lord
deliver us.” Hardness of
heart has two aspects; towards man
and towards God. Towards God it is brought
about by acts of neglect
leading to habits of neglect; by a disregard of His
word and commandments
issuing in what is called in the same petition
a
“contempt” of both. Towards man
it is produced in us in a similar way; by
repeated acts of disregard
leading to a habit of disregard; by blinding
ourselves to others’ feelings
and saying and doing every day things which
wound them
till at last we become unconscious of their very existence
and
think nothing real which is not
in some manner
our own. That is hardness of
heart in its full growth; selfishness unrestrained and unlimited. Many people
are walking about in that state; with a heart hardened utterly both towards man
and towards God. And they pass for respectable men too: in them religion and
charity
worship and almsgiving
have become alike workings of selfishness
regulated by calculations of self-interest
and never looking beyond earth for
their reward. That you may not become thus seared
you must watch and pray
while you can
against hardness of heart. You must practise its opposite. Try
to think more than you do of others
and less than you do of yourselves. Enter
into the feelings one of another. Think not only what is your right
or what
you can get
or what you are used to
in such and such a matter; but also what
others would like
what would give pleasure
what would make their life happy
in small things or great; and sometimes do that; form the habit of doing that.
(Dean Vaughan.)
Verses 22-29
Tithe all the increase of thy seed.
Systematic provision for beneficent work
I. The duty of
God’s people. In Jewish law God claimed tithes and gifts for the worship of the
sanctuary and the necessities of the poor. Conspicuous features of these
demands are--the priority of God’s claim--that provision for it be made before
man’s self-enjoyment
that it bear some suitable proportion to the Divine glory
and grace
and that for fullness and power
system is essential; i.e. that
the work of God be provided for before man’s indulgence (Leviticus 19:1-37; Numbers 18:1-32; Deuteronomy 14:1-29). The New Testament
has also its plan of meeting God’s claim
containing the same elements of
priority
certainty
proportion and system. See 1 Corinthians 16:2
sustained and
illustrated by the weighty arguments and motives of 2 Corinthians 8:1-24; 2 Corinthians 9:1-15.
II. The financial
law of Christ. Christ is sole King in His Church. The constitution of this
Church is Christian
not Jewish. “As I have given order to the Churches of
Galatia
even so do ye.” The method taught by the apostle to provide the
revenues of the Church is an expansion of Jewish and pentecostal church
systems
an example for us
an implied and inferential obligation sustained by
cumulative and presumptive argument. New Testament institutions are not given
with Sinaitic form and severity. They meet us as sacred provisions for urgent
occasions. They appeal to a willing heart more than to a legal mind. Christ
rules in love
but His will should not have less authority or constraining
power on that account (John 7:17).
III. The necessity
of the age. The present age needs loftiness of aim
seriousness of feeling
and
ardour of devotion. Faithful consecration of substance to God
elevated by
Christian love to a financial rule of life
would nourish every moral and
spiritual principle in the soul. Storing the Lord’s portion is the necessity of
the age
from its tendency.
1. To cheek the idolatry of money and to strengthen the love of God
in the heart.
2. To meet adequately the demands of religion and humanity.
3. To exhibit the power and beauty of godliness. By fostering
simplicity of life and personal fidelity to God. By liberally sustaining the
honour of Christ in the sight of men. (John Ross.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》