Call to Worship October 6 2019
Robert Hawker, The Poor Man’s Commentary, Deuteronomy
“DEUTERONOMY 5:1
And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep, and do them. The chapter opens with the man of GOD calling the assembly of the people, and demanding audience to his words. Reader! it is sweet to mark our privileges in the gospel church. You and I have learnt, I hope, that the calling of assemblies, and the privilege of ordinances, however valuable in themselves, are nothing without the SPIRIT’S gracious presence and influence. GOD’S ministers may, indeed, like Moses, command attention, but unless the LORD himself give the hearing ear, we shall not hear what the SPIRIT saith unto the churches. Revelation 2:11. 29.
DEUTERONOMY 5:2
The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. I wish the Reader to have a clear conception of the nature and design of this covenant here spoken of. It is not the Covenant of grace: for this was made in the council of peace between the Persons of the GODHEAD, and founded wholly on the divine fulfillment by CHRIST JESUS. I have given him (saith the FATHER, speaking of the Person of the SON,) for a Covenant to the people. Isaiah 42:6. Zechariah 6:13. But this covenant is explained to us by the apostle, when he expressly tells us that it was intermediate, and preparatory to the coining of gospel times; and that it was intended only to act as a schoolmaster, to bring us unto CHRIST. It would swell the Commentary to an unnecessary length, and in some measure defeat the intention of this humble work, which is designed to lead the Reader from one Scripture to another, to quote all that the apostle, acting under the HOLY GHOST, hath said upon this subject. I refer the Reader therefore to the passage itself, and cannot but earnestly request that he will not dismiss this chapter of Moses before he hath consulted the writings of the apostle on the subject. See Galatians 3:15-25.”