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Prophets and Kings
and blessing. “Take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently,” had
been the word of the Lord to them through Moses, “lest thou forget
the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy
heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’
sons.”
Verse 9
. The awe-inspiring scenes connected with the giving of
the law at Sinai were never to be forgotten. Plain and decided were
the warnings that had been given Israel against the idolatrous customs
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prevailing among the neighboring nations. “Take ye ... good heed unto
yourselves,” was the counsel given; “lest ye corrupt yourselves, and
make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure,” “and lest thou
lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the
moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to
worship them, and serve them, which the Lord thy God hath divided
unto all nations under the whole heaven.” “Take heed unto yourselves,
lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which He made with
you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of anything, which
the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee.”
Verses 15, 16, 19, 23
.
Moses traced the evils that would result from a departure from the
statutes of Jehovah. Calling heaven and earth to witness, he declared
that if, after having dwelt long in the Land of Promise, the people
should introduce corrupt forms of worship and bow down to graven
images and should refuse to return to the worship of the true God,
the anger of the Lord would be aroused, and they would be carried
away captive and scattered among the heathen. “Ye shall soon utterly
perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it,” he
warned them; “ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly
be destroyed. And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and
ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the Lord
shall lead you. And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands,
wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.”
Verses
26-28
.
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This prophecy, fulfilled in part in the time of the judges, met a more
complete and literal fulfillment in the captivity of Israel in Assyria and
of Judah in Babylon.
The apostasy of Israel had developed gradually. From generation
to generation, Satan had made repeated attempts to cause the chosen
nation to forget “the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments”
that they had promised to keep forever.
Deuteronomy 6:1
. He knew