Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
Deuteronomy Ch.27 / 34 Ch.s
DE:27
* The law to be written on stones in the promised land. (1-10)
The curses to be pronounced on mount Ebal. (11-26)
#1-10 As soon as they were come into Canaan, they must set up a
monument, on which they must write the words of this law. They
must set up an altar. The word and prayer must go together.
Though they might not, of their own heads, set up any altar
besides that at the tabernacle; yet, by the appointment of God,
they might, upon special occasion. This altar must be made of
unhewn stones, such as they found upon the field. Christ, our
Altar, is a stone cut out of the mountain without hands, refused
by the builders, as having no form or comeliness, but accepted
of God the Father, and made the Head of the corner. In the Old
Testament the words of the law are written, with the curse
annexed; which would overcome us with horror, if we had not, in
the New Testament, an altar erected close by, which gives
consolation. Blessed be God, the printed copies of the
Scriptures among us, do away the necessity of such methods as
were presented to Israel. The end of the gospel ministry is, and
the end of preachers ought to be, to make the word of God as
plain as possible. Yet, unless the Spirit of God prosper such
labours with Divine power, we shall not, even by these means, be
made wise unto salvation: for this blessing we should therefore
daily and earnestly pray.
#11-26 The six tribes appointed for blessing, were all children
of the free women, for to such the promise belongs, #Ga 4:31|.
Levi is here among the rest. Ministers should apply to
themselves the blessing and curse they preach to others, and by
faith set their own Amen to it. And they must not only allure
people to their duty with the promises of a blessing, but awe
them with the threatenings of a curse, by declaring that a curse
would be upon those who do such things. To each of the curses
the people were to say, Amen. It professed their faith, that
these, and the like curses, were real declarations of the wrath
of God against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, not
one jot of which shall fall to the ground. It was acknowledging
the equity of these curses. Those who do such things deserve to
fall, and lie under the curse. Lest those who were guilty of
other sins, not here mentioned, should think themselves safe
from the curse, the last reaches all. Not only those who do the
evil which the law forbids, but those also who omit the good
which the law requires. Without the atoning blood of Christ,
sinners can neither have communion with a holy God, nor do any
thing acceptable to him; his righteous law condemns every one
who, at any time, or in any thing, transgresses it. Under its
awful curse we remain as transgressors, until the redemption of
Christ is applied to our hearts. Wherever the grace of God
brings salvation, it teaches the believer to deny ungodliness
and wordly lusts, to live soberly, righteously, and godly in
this present world, consenting to, and delighting in the words
of God's law, after the inward man. In this holy walk, true
peace and solid joy are to be found.