Bible Commentaries

Conditions of Worship

Deuteronomy 16:5-6).

This is morally consistent with God's claim for gracious recollection of definite times. May we not slay the passover where we please? The answer Deuteronomy 16:10).

Here is the beginning of another kind of liberty. A wonderful word occurs in this verse; there is no larger word in all the language of devotion and service. That word is "a freewill offering." Reading the Scriptures carefully up to this point, we would suppose that everything had been claimed, taxed, and insisted upon that could possibly be given to God's altar; yet we are reminded that such is not the case: the very opportunity of giving unto the Lord a "freewill" offering shows that still something has been left. How wonderfully God educates the human race: he will insist upon definite claims and obligations being answered, and yet he will also give opportunity for freewill action, as if he had said,—Now we shall see what you will do when left to yourselves; the law no longer presses you: the great hand is lifted, and for the time being you shall do in this matter as it may please your own mind and heart. That is an element in the divine education of the human race. God gives us opportunities of showing ourselves to ourselves. He only would count the gift: no one should know what had been done: the sweet transaction should lie between the one soul and the living Lord. The Church could not live upon that today. Here and there instances would occur of almost superhuman liberality—instances amounting to complete devotion and sacrifice: blessed be God for these; but remove public opinion, public criticism, and all the other considerations which operate upon human action, and then stand in amazement at the result which would accrue. The soul must be revealed to itself; the man must be compelled to drag up the coward that lies asleep within his own nature, and he must look that coward in the face, and call that coward by his own name. We are not to be permitted to live in rush and tumult and such tempestuous excitement as shall lead to false estimates of ourselves. At given periods of time we have to see what we are in God's sight; and whether we be saint or sinner, coward, liar, or hero and truthful Deuteronomy 16:11).

This gives us the joyous aspect of religion. An ancient Jewish annotator has made a beautiful remark upon this verse, to the effect that "thy four, O Israel, and my four shall rejoice together." Observe how the numbers are divided into fours, and how the one four may be said to be man's and the second four may be said to be God's. This is the distinction drawn by Rashi, the Jewish commentator: "Thy Deuteronomy 16:21-22).

Thus, imagery is forbidden—even religious imitation and attempted reproduction of things divine and inexpressible. We are prone to do something to show our handiwork in God's sanctuary; it pleases us to try to add something to the circle; it delights us to run one rim of gilt around the refined gold which burns with the image and superscription of God. We are told not to interfere; we must keep our hands off everything. We must learn to stand still; sometimes to do everything by doing nothing; and we must learn to rebuke our inventive faculty and become learned in the utterance of simple prayer. God will have his altar untouched.: he will have human attention undistracted by any human devices. The altar is to stand alone in its simple dignity—most adorned when unadorned. There must be no attempt to link true religion and false religion, inspired worship and idolatrous worship, groves humanly planted and altars divinely built. The Lord will have a time for himself, and place for himself, a gift for himself, an altar for himself. Why for himself? Because he is the Lord, and because he means to train the human mind and heart without distraction towards the highest sublimity of law. Who will not set up his reason against the altar, and delight because his religion is rational?—as well hold up a candle to the sun, because all fire is of the same quality; because there is but one fire in the universe, and that is GOD. The sun says,—Thou shalt not light a candle in my presence. We do it, but the candle is literally of no service in the presence of the mid-day sun. Jesus Christ is the Light of the world—the Sun of the great firmament of the soul—and he alone can light the space that is to be illumined. Who will not throw the little flower of self-approval upon the altar, saying,—I am not as other men: I fast, I pay tithes, I do not practise extortion: I am not as the publicans are? The Lord has forbidden all groves and all images and all distractions. Only one man is permitted near the altar; only one soul is heard in heaven. His name?—the broken-hearted sinner!

Prayer

Almighty God, thy word is a living word, coming into our hearts from heaven, full of promise, full of consolation, and full of stimulus. We cannot read it without answering it; our souls know it to be a divine word, so tender, so full of music, calling us upward to broader and nobler life. The word of the Lord abideth for ever: amid all changes it is the same: it changes not; its great word is a word of love, and hope, and. forgiveness, for the erring sons of men. Thy word is a gospel; if there is in it the severity of judgment, it is that sinners may be affrighted out of evil, and brought under the blessing of condescending and redeeming Heaven. The terrors of the Lord are meant to persuade men. May we—by terror or by love—all be brought to thyself, thy house, the Cross of Christ the way, and Christ himself the Truth. We bless thee that we have hope in this direction. We thank thee that when we are most overcast, brightness arises from the Cross; we rejoice that when the burden is heaviest, it is Christ's almighty hand that lifts it from our weakness. In thy house we have security; in the temple of God we have the beginning of heaven; in the light of the Sabbath we have the dawn of eternal rest. For all these mercies we bless thee with united heart, with fervent love, with undistracted attention and will. Our heart is fixed, O God, our heart is fixed. For these suggestions we bless thee. Once we were as children, tossed to and fro, driven about; but now, being men in Christ Jesus, we stand in the security of thy love, we are blessed by the tenderness of thy grace, and we are made strong by all the promises which thou hast addressed to us. We give one another to God. We ask for one another blessings suited to the need of each life. Thou knowest us altogether: thou knowest the weakest and the poorest, the man who has no words with which to utter his desire, and the soul which bends itself down in burning shame before thee because of remembered sin. We pray thee to look upon us according to our need, and out of the unsearchable riches of Christ do thou supply all our wants; how many they are we do not ourselves know: thou knowest every necessity; thou hast numbered the hairs of our head, how much more hast thou considered the necessities of our soul! We leave ourselves in thy hands; they are mighty, they are gentle, they are full to abounding with all heavenly riches and grace. Send none unblessed away: may our homes be the happier for our having been to church; may our business life be the nobler for our having bent at the altar; and may our whole course upon the earth be upright and straightforward because we have been with Jesus and learned of him, and are inspired by his spirit and illumined by his mind. The Lord hear us; the Lord come closely to us that we may whisper our prayers; and may we know that our prayers have been heard through the blood of the everlasting covenant, because of deep peace, and sacred joy, and radiant hope, which only are the gifts of God. Amen.

"Handfuls of Purpose"

For All Gleaners

"... as he is able."— Deuteronomy 16:17

This is the law of giving in the Old Testament, and it is the law of giving in the New Testament.—It is a just and equitable law.—It devolves a supreme responsibility upon the giver.—It makes him an accountant in the sight of God.—He has to add up his resources and diligently to consider their sum, and then to give as he may be able.—This law does not relate to money only, but to time, influence, and sympathy.—Nothing would be so easy for many men as to buy themselves off, by the gifts of money, from all further service. Simply because of the abundance of their wealth, money is as nothing to them, and the giving of it is not felt.—It is only when the giving is touched with the pain of sacrifice that it becomes of any value in the sanctuary.—Still, most of us have to begin with the donation of money, but no man has to end with it.—There is no niggardliness in the promises of God in relation to the true giver, of whatever nature his gifts may be.—"Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver."—"He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully."—Jesus Christ noticed what gifts were thrown into the treasury, and he regarded them all i a the light of proportion.—"God is not unrighteous to forget your work of faith and labour of love."—Not a cup of cold water, is to go unrewarded if given to a disciple in the name of Christ.—These grand moral standards of gift and service constitute a powerful defence of the heavenly origin of the Bible.