CHAPTER 10:12-22

1. Jehovah’s delight and love (Deuteronomy 10:12-15)

2. Admonition to fear and serve Jehovah (Deuteronomy 10:16-22)

This section is especially precious. Jehovah speaks through Moses and reminds His people of Himself and His Love and what He requires of them. “Behold the heaven and the heaven of heavens is Jehovah’s thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is.” What a marvellous call to fear and serve such a Lord! What He required of them was a loving obedience, to fear Him, to walk in all His ways, to love Him and to serve Him. They were to be followers of Jehovah their God. He is God of gods, Lord of lords, great, mighty, terrible. His goodness again is revealed by Moses as an incentive to love and to obey Him. He cares for the fatherless and loveth the stranger; for this reason they were to love the stranger. Yet far greater is our knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, who loveth us and hath washed us from our sins in His own blood and made us priests and kings unto God His Father. And this carries with it a higher obligation to serve Him, to love Him and to walk in obedience, than Israel’s obligation.

“Well then, let us ever bear in mind--yea, let us have it deep, deep down in our hearts, that according to our privileges are our obligations. Let us not refuse the wholesome word ‘obligation,’ as though it had a legal ring about it. Far from it! It would be utterly impossible to conceive any thing further removed from all thought of legality than the obligations which flow out of the Christian’s position. It is a very serious mistake to be continually raising the cry of ‘Legal! legal!’ whenever the holy responsibilities of our position are pressed upon us” (C.H. Mackintosh).