Bible Commentaries

STANDING BEFORE GOD

‘Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God.’

Deuteronomy 29:10

Intense in their significance, fresh in their solemnity, as when Moses uttered them to the listening multitudes on the farther shore of Jordan, the echo of these warning words rolls to us across the centuries. They express the formative principle, the regulating conception, the inspiring influence, of every greatly Christian life. The very differentia of such a life—that is, its distinguishing feature—is this, that it is spent always and consciously in the presence of God.

From the fact that we stand before God we gather:

I. A lesson of warning.—Surely there is a warning—for the forgetful a startling, for the guilty a terrible, even for the good man a very solemn warning—in the thought that not only our life in its every incident, but even our heart in its utmost secrets, lies naked and open before Him with whom we have to do.

II. The thought that we stand before God involves not only a sense of warning, but a sense of elevation, of ennoblement.—It is a sweet and a lofty doctrine, the highest source of all the dignity and grandeur of life.

III. A third consequence of life spent consciously in God’s presence is a firm, unflinching, unwavering sense of duty.—A life regardful of duty is crowned with an object, directed by a purpose, inspired by an enthusiasm, till the very humblest routine carried out conscientiously for the sake of God is elevated into moral grandeur, and the very obscurest office becomes an imperial stage on which all the virtues play.

IV. The fourth consequence is a sense of holiness.—God requires not only duty, but holiness. He searcheth the spirits; He discerneth the very reins and heart.

V. This thought encourages us with a certainty of help and strength.—The God before whom we stand is not only our Judge and our Creator, but also our Father and our Friend. He is revealed to us in Christ, our Elder Brother in the great family of God.

Dean Farrar.

Illustration

(1) ‘Next to the hearing of the law at the foot of Sinai, this covenant on the plains of Moab is the greatest national transaction in the whole history of Israel.’

(2) ‘Strong inducements are here presented to the people to win their obedience. The great Lawgiver, however, bitterly laments that they were deficient in those spiritual sensibilities which are so necessary to the right appreciation of God’s dealings. God would no doubt have imparted these spiritual gifts, if He had seen any desire on their part for them, or any will to receive and use them. “Keep therefore, and do; that ye may prosper” (Psalms 1:1-3; Joshua 1:8).’

(3) ‘Our religious life should include in its influence the stranger and sojourner, the hewer of wood and drawer of water, and him that stands with us. What a striking unveiling is given of the boast of many ungodly men, “We shall have peace though we walk in the stubbornness of our hearts”! Alas! they soon discover that there is no peace to the wicked, and that men reap precisely what they sow. But these are among the secret things. God does not give His reasons to every questioner. Rich and wicked men fade away in their ways. No one knows the precise reason why their schemes miscarry and only their stump is left, but the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. Oh, Spirit of God! reveal to us, we beseech Thee, the secret of the Lord, what eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, but which Thou revealest.’