Law Repeated
413
all people: but because the Lord loved you, and because He would
keep the oath which He had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord
brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the
house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know
therefore that Jehovah thy God, He is God, the faithful God, which
keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His
commandments to a thousand generations.”
Deuteronomy 7:7-9
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The people of Israel had been ready to ascribe their troubles to
Moses; but now their suspicions that he was controlled by pride, ambi-
tion, or selfishness, were removed, and they listened with confidence to
his words. Moses faithfully set before them their errors and the trans-
gressions of their fathers. They had often felt impatient and rebellious
because of their long wandering in the wilderness; but the Lord had not
been chargeable with this delay in possessing Canaan; He was more
grieved than they because He could not bring them into immediate
possession of the Promised Land, and thus display before all nations
His mighty power in the deliverance of His people. With their distrust
of God, with their pride and unbelief, they had not been prepared to
enter Canaan. They would in no way represent that people whose God
is the Lord; for they did not bear His character of purity, goodness, and
benevolence. Had their fathers yielded in faith to the direction of God,
being governed by His judgments and walking in His ordinances, they
would long before have been settled in Canaan, a prosperous, holy,
happy people. Their delay to enter the goodly land dishonored God
and detracted from His glory in the sight of surrounding nations.
Moses, who understood the character and value of the law of God,
assured the people that no other nation had such wise, righteous, and
merciful rules as had been given to the Hebrews. “Behold,” he said,
“I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God
commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to
possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and
your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these
statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding
people.”
[465]
Moses called their attention to the “day that thou stoodest before
the Lord thy God in Horeb.” And he challenged the Hebrew host:
“What nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as
the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon Him for? And what