Deuteronomy 1:1-8 These be the words which Moses spoke to all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red sea… God knows, then, how long we have been here or there. He keeps the time; He knows when we have been "long enough" in one place. "Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount." We may get tired even of mountains. Wherever we live we need change. We are ordered down off the mountain. Soon after we have said, It is good to be here, the Leader proposes that we should go down again, tie will not have any heaven built upon earth; He will never allow us to build permanently upon foundations that are themselves transitory. There are many mountains to come down — mountains of supposed strength, when the very robustest man must lie down and say, "I am very weary, tired to exhaustion"; mountains of prosperity, when Croesus himself must come down, saying, "I am a poor man; let the meanest slave serve me, for I cannot longer serve myself." Then there is the coming down that is inevitable — the time when God says to every one of us, "You have been long enough on the mountain of time; pass through the grave to the hills of heaven, the great mountains of eternity." Sometimes we think we have been too long on the mountain, and wonder when He will come whose right it is to bring the sheep into the fold; we say in our peevishness — not always impious, but rather an expression of weakness — Surely we have been forgotten; by this time we ought to have been with the blessed ones; the night is coming on quickly, and we shall be drenched with dews. So long are some men kept outside, on the very top of the hill, where very little grass grows — bare, rocky places. But God cannot forget; we must rest in His memory; He puts Himself even before a mother who may forget her sucking child, but He has pledged Himself never to forget His redeemed Church. But, having ordered His people away from the mountain, where can they take up their abode We find the answer in the seventh verse. God has many localities at His command, so He disperses the people, setting them "in the plain, ill the hills, in the vale," "by the seaside," and "unto the great river, the river Euphrates." What space God has! "In My Father's house are many mansions" — in My Father's house are many localities. Why do we choose our own place? Did ever man dispute the Divine sovereignty without regretting his encounter with the Eternal Will? Why have any will? Were we serving wooden gods, mechanical deities, divinities of our own creation or invention, we might dispute with them, point out what possibly they may have overlooked, and draw holder programmes; but if God is the only-wise, if God is love, if God is light, if God died for us in the person of His Son, why not say, Not my will, but Thine be done: take me to the mountain or the plain, the hills or the vale, the seaside or the river; the taking itself shall be as a vision of heaven? (J. Parker, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red sea, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab. |
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