Ver. l. And keep, and do them.] The difference between divinity and other sciences, is, that it is not enough to learn, but we must keep and do it; as lessons of music must be practised, and a copy not read only, but acted. “Man goeth forth to his work and to his labour until the evening.” (Psalms 104:23) He must arise from the bed of sin, and go forth out of himself, as out of his house to his work and to his labour; “working out his salvation with fear and trembling,” (Philippians 2:12) until the evening, till the sun of his llfe be set.
Ver. 2. God made a covenant with us.] We also have the covenant, the seals, minister, &c. But, alas, are not these blessings amongst us, as the ark was among the Philistines, rather as prisoners than as privileges, rather in testimonium et ruinam quam salutem?
Ver. 3. With our fathers,] i.e., With our fathers only. Or if it be understood of all the foregoing patriarchs, then it is to be expounded by Galatians 3:17.
Ver. 4. Face to face,] i.e., Openly, and immediately, by himself, and not by a messenger or mediator. Prosper’s conceit was, that the Israelites were called Iudaei, because they received ius Dei.
Ver. 5. I stood between the Lord,] sc., After the decalogue delivered by God himself out of the fire. For of that he might say, as once Joseph did to his brethren, “Behold, your eyes see that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you.” (Genesis 45:12) And as Paul did to Philemon, (Philemon 1:19) “I Paul,” &c., so I the Lord “have written it with mine hand, I will” require “it.”
Ver. 6. I am the Lord, &c.] [See Trapp on “Ex 20:1”] &c It is well observed by a reverend writer, that the two tables of the law are in their object answerable to the two natures of Christ. For God is the object of the one, man of the other: and as they meet together in the person of Christ, so must they be united in the affections of a Christian. Mr Ley’s Pattern of Piety.
Ver. 12. Keep the Sabbath day.] In this repetition of the law some things are transposed, and some words changed, haply to confute that superstitious opinion of the Jews, who were ready to dream of miraculous mysteries in every letter.
Ver. 15. And remember that thou.] It being a figure of our redemption by Christ, and so a fit subject for Sabbath meditations.
Ver. 18. Neither shalt thou commit.] Or, And thou shalt not commit, &c., and so in the following laws; to teach us that the law is but one copulative, as the schools speak. For the sanction indeed, it is disjunctive; but for the injunction, it is copulative. The sanction is, Either do this, or die: but the injunction is not, Either do this or that, but Do this and that too. See Matthew 23:2,3 Eze 18:10,11,13 Jas 2:10. Do everything, as well as anything: to leave one sin and not another, is, with Benhadad, to recover of one disease, and to die of another. Lex tota est una copulativa.
Ver. 22. These words the Lord spake.] If human laws are ευρημα των θεων, the invention of the gods, as Demosthenes calls them, how much rather this perfect law of God that needs no alteration or addition?
Ver. 23. Even all the heads of your tribes.] These are called “all Israel,” (Deuteronomy 5:1) as being their representatives.
Ver. 25. Why should we die?] But why should they fear to die, since thy had seen that day, that God doth talk with man, and he liveth? It is answered, that they looked upon their present safety as a wonder, but feared what would follow upon such an interview, if continued. And indeed it is still the work of the law to scare men, and to drive them to seek for a Mediator. We shall die.] If God himself should speak to us, and from heaven, his stillest rhetoric would be too loud for us.
Ver. 27. We will hear it and do it.] This is well said if as well done. Many can think of nothing but working themselves to life, spinning a thread of their own to climb up to heaven by. But that will never be.