Call to Worship October20 2019
THE POOR MAN’S OLD TESTAMENT COMMENTARY Robert Hawker
“DEUTERONOMY 7:7-8 The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: (8) But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
I hardly know a passage in the Old Testament more sweetly expressive of the freeness and sovereignty of grace; and more encouraging at the same time to the mind of every poor enquiring sinner. Dear JESUS! and are all the numberless proofs of thy mercy towards thy people, the sole result of the FATHER’s everlasting love, thine own most free and unmerited grace, and the blessed SPIRIT’s fellowship? LORD! help me ever to keep these gracious testimonies in view, to comfort my soul in a dark and trying hour. 1 John 4:19.
DEUTERONOMY 7:9 Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;
Precious character indeed, the faithful GOD! on whom I rest all my certain assurances of mercy and salvation in JESUS. Sweet consideration! our GOD abideth faithful; even, saith the apostle, though we believe not, he cannot deny himself. Reader, cherish the blessed expression! Did not the apostle intend to express, that however poor and wretched our belief is, yet the FATHER must be faithful to his Son JESUS in all his covenant promises, which are all yea and amen in him. See 2 Timothy 2:13. 2 Corinthians 1:20.
DEUTERONOMY 7:10 And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face.
How awful are the expressions we sometimes meet with in scripture, in the midst of mercies. And is not that very gospel, which to some is the savor of life unto life, to others the savor of death unto death? 2 Corinthians 2:15, 16.
DEUTERONOMY 7:11-16 Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them. (12) Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the LORD thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers: (13) And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee. (14) Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle. (15) And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee. (16) And thou shalt consume all the people which the LORD thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them: neither shalt thou serve their gods; for that will be a snare unto thee.
All these are so many beautiful recapitulations of the same important precepts and promises blended. Upon so grand and infinitely momentous a concern, we need line upon line, and precept upon precept.
DEUTERONOMY 7:17-20 If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them? (18) Thou shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember what the LORD thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt; (19) The great temptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the LORD thy God brought thee out: so shall the LORD thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid. (20) Moreover the LORD thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed.
Here again, as before, Israel is reminded of GOD’S former mercies, as the surest encouragement to the expectation of future favors. Reader! I pray you mark it down in the history of your own life—the mercy I need tomorrow is best ensured in the mercy I received yesterday. Remember what was before said: “Know, therefore, that the LORD thy GOD he is GOD, the faithful GOD. He is, he will be, faithful.” And nothing so sweet, as to look back and trace proofs of it, as we have come along the path of grace. The HOLY GHOST acts in one of his dearest offices, when as the Remembrancer of CHRIST JESUS, he takes of the things of JESUS in his loving kindnesses which are past, and showeth them to the people. John 14:26.”