Deuteronomy 32:7-8 Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask your father, and he will show you; your elders… 1. God originally divided the nations their inheritance. When, after the deluge, He gave the new earth to the children of men, He did not throw it in among them, so to speak, for a kind of scramble, that each might seize what he could: but He assigned them their several portions, that the discontented might not invade the peaceful, nor the mighty prey upon the weak. God permits what He does not approve: but nothing can be more contrary to His design and pleasure than for powerful states to invade and incorporate little ones. And the crime generally punishes itself. Such unjust and forced accessions become sources of uneasiness, corruption, and revolt. 2. In the arrangement of the limits and conditions of mankind He had an especial reference to the future commonwealth of Israel. For they were by far the most important detachment of the human race. They were the depositaries of revealed religion — the heirs of the righteousness which is by faith, etc. One thing is to be observed. They were not intended to engross the Divine favour, but to be the diffusers of it. They were not only to be blessed, but to be blessings. 3. While we here see that there is nothing like chance in the government of the world, there is what may be called a peculiar providence in particular instances. And we cannot help thinking of our own country. No country on earth bears such a comparison with Judea, in privilege and design. 4. The economies of heaven on earth have always been regulated by one end — the cause of the Messiah: and could we view things as God does, we should perceive how all the revolutions of the world; the changes of empire have affected this cause — immediately or — remotely — in a way — of achievement — or preparation — of purification or — increase — of solidity or — diffusion: and that all things are going on, not only consistently with it, but conducively to it. (H. Jay.) Parallel Verses KJV: Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee. |
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