Moses proceeds to set forth more particularly and to enforce the
cardinal and essential doctrines of the Decalogue, the nature and
attributes of God, and the fitting mode of honoring and worshipping
Him. Two objects are indicated Deuteronomy 6:2, the glory of God and
the welfare of man, as the grand... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE LAND - Better: According as the Lord the God of thy fathers
promised thee a land flowing with milk and honey.... [ Continue Reading ]
These words form the beginning of what is termed the “Shema”
(“Hear”) in the Jewish Services, and belong to the daily morning
and evening office. They may be called “the creed of the Jews.”
This weighty text contains far more than a mere declaration of the
unity of God as against polytheism; or of... [ Continue Reading ]
Since there is but One God, and that God is Israel’s God, so Israel
must love God unreservedly and entirely. The “heart” is mentioned
as the seat of the understanding; the “soul” as the center of will
and personality; the “might” as representing the outgoings and
energies of all the vital powers.
T... [ Continue Reading ]
By adopting and regulating customary usages (e. g. Egyptian) Moses
provides at once a check on superstition and a means of keeping the
Divine Law in memory. On the “frontlets,” the “phylacteries”
of the New Test. Matthew 23:5, see Exodus 13:16. On Deuteronomy 6:9;
Deuteronomy 11:20 is based the Jewi... [ Continue Reading ]
The Israelites were at the point of quitting a normal, life for a
fixed and settled abode in the midst of other nations; they were
exchanging a condition of comparative poverty for great and goodly
cities, houses and vineyards. There was therefore before them a double
danger;
(1) a God-forgetting w... [ Continue Reading ]