Deuteronomy 10:14-16 Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD's your God, the earth also, with all that therein is.… These words were intended to make it plain to the Israelites how greatly they had been honoured of God in being given such preeminence among the nations. So we must ever keep in view who calls us through the Gospel and has come near to us in it. It is God, whose are not only the earth but the heaven of heavens. From these words of Moses we may gather — I. HOW GREAT AND MIGHTY IS THE GOD WHO CALLS US TO HIMSELF — how wise and solicitous for men's good, and how He has proved this in all the regions of the creation which belongs to Him. II. HE WHO HOLDS ALL THINGS IN HIS HAND AND CARES FOR ALL, CAN HAVE A SPECIAL AND PECULIAR CARE FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL: and thus we may have fullest confidence in Him. III. IT SHOULD MAKE US ASTONISHED AND CONFUSED BEYOND MEASURE TO THINK THAT THE GREAT GOD SHOULD HAVE CALLED US WEAK AND PUNY CREATURES TO SO GREAT GRACE AND FAVOUR; that He should even have sent His Son for our redemption, and that He would have us become temples of the Holy Ghost. Many indeed find it inconceivable that God should have destined our globe — one of the smallest of the worlds — for such high honour. This appears to them so absurd, that on this account they would throw over Christianity. They forget that the greatness of God lies in this, that He attends to and cares for the small as well as the great. To the infinite Jehovah the distinction between small and great is not as it appears to us. Moses understood this. IV. IN THESE WORDS THERE APPEARS THE HINT OF A COMPREHENSIVE DIVINE PLAN WHICH GOD DESIGNED WITH REGARD TO THE CREATION THROUGH THAT WHICH HE ACCOMPLISHED TOWARD THIS LOWER PORTION OF IT. So had He already proclaimed to that people chosen before all others. "As truly as I live, saith the Lord, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord" (Numbers 14:21). He thus proclaimed that through the choice of Israel He had in view the salvation of all the peoples; a truth already revealed in the blessing of Abraham, in whose seed all nations are to be blessed. Even so we may say that, in the choice of our globe for this special design, He contemplates the renewal and glorification of the universe. "In Christ, in the fulness of time, He will gather together all things, both which are in heaven and which are on earth" (Ephesians 1:10; Colossians 1:20). How this is to be accomplished we must leave to the care of Him whose are "the heaven and the heaven of heavens." V. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THOSE SO HIGHLY FAVOURED WILL BE THE GREATER IF THEY SHOULD TURN AWAY TO UNBELIEF AND DISOBEDIENCE. If these things be so, Moses' words give us sufficient inducement to hold fast with decision and faithfulness what is offered us in the Gospel and in the revelation of God's will. Let us not fail in our part, as we may be assured He will not fail who has come down so far in Christ unto us. (J. C. Blumhardt.) Parallel Verses KJV: Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD'S thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is. |
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