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God Teaches His Law to a New Generation
291
Moses stood before the people to give his last warnings and
important counsel, his face shining with a holy light. His hair was
white with age, but he stood straight and his eye was clear and
undimmed. With deep feeling he portrayed the love and mercy of
their Almighty Protector.
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“Ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether any great
thing like this has happened, or anything like it has been heard. Did
any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of
the fire, as you have heard, and live? Or did God ever try to go and
take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials,
by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched
arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God
did for you in Egypt before your eyes?”
“Because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the
oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out
with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage,
from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Therefore know that the
Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant
and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and
keep His commandments” (
Deuteronomy 7:8, 9
).
The people of Israel had often felt impatient and rebellious be-
cause of their long wandering in the wilderness, but this delay in
possessing Canaan was not God’s fault. He was more grieved than
they because He could not bring them into the Promised Land imme-
diately and demonstrate His mighty power before all nations. With
their distrust of God, they had not been prepared to enter Canaan.
If their fathers had yielded in faith to the direction of God, walking
in His instruction, they would have been settled in Canaan a long
time earlier as a prosperous, holy, happy people. Their delay dishon-
ored God and took away from His glory in the sight of surrounding
nations.
Moses said, “Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments,
just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should act accord-
ing to them in the land which you go to possess. Therefore be careful
to observe them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding
in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say,
‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’”