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Deuteronomy 11

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1 `And thou hast loved Jehovah thy God, and kept His charge, and His statutes, and His judgments, and His commands, all the days;

2 and ye have known to-day -- for it is not your sons who have not known, and who have not seen the chastisement of Jehovah your God, His greatness, His strong hand, and His stretched-out arm,

3 and His signs, and His doings, which He hath done in the midst of Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to all his land;

4 and that which He hath done to the force of Egypt, to its horses, and to its chariot, when He hath caused the waters of the Red Sea to flow against their faces in their pursuing after them, and Jehovah destroyeth them, unto this day;

5 and that which He hath done to you in the wilderness, till your coming in unto this place;

6 and that which He hath done to Dathan, and to Abiram, sons of Eliab, sons of Reuben, when the earth hath opened her mouth and swalloweth them, and their houses, and their tents, and all that liveth, which is at their feet, in the midst of all Israel:

7 `-- But [it is] your eyes which are seeing all the great work of Jehovah, which He hath done;

8 and ye have kept all the command which I am commanding thee to-day, so that ye are strong, and have gone in, and possessed the land whither ye are passing over to possess it,

9 and so that ye prolong days on the ground which Jehovah hath sworn to your fathers to give to them and to their seed -- a land flowing with milk and honey.

10 `For the land whither thou art going in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt whence ye have come out, where thou sowest thy seed, and hast watered with thy foot, as a garden of the green herb;

11 but the land whither ye are passing over to possess it, [is] a land of hills and valleys; of the rain of the heavens it drinketh water;

12 a land which Jehovah thy God is searching; continually [are] the eyes of Jehovah thy God upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the latter end of the year.

13 `And it hath been -- if thou hearken diligently unto My commands which I am commanding you to-day, to love Jehovah your God, and to serve Him with all your heart, and with all your soul --

14 that I have given the rain of your land in its season -- sprinkling and gathered -- and thou hast gathered thy corn, and thy new wine, and thine oil,

15 and I have given herbs in thy field for thy cattle, and thou hast eaten, and been satisfied.

16 `Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be enticed, and ye have turned aside, and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them,

17 and the anger of Jehovah hath burned against you, and He hath restrained the heavens, and there is no rain, and the ground doth not give her increase, and ye have perished hastily from off the good land which Jehovah is giving to you.

18 `And ye have placed these my words on your heart, and on your soul, and have bound them for a sign on your hand, and they have been for frontlets between your eyes;

19 and ye have taught them to your sons, by speaking of them in thy sitting in thy house, and in thy going in the way, and in thy lying down, and in thy rising up,

20 and hast written them on the side-posts of thy house, and on thy gates,

21 so that your days are multiplied, and the days of your sons, on the ground which Jehovah hath sworn to your fathers to give to them, as the days of the heavens on the earth.

22 `For, if ye diligently keep all this command which I am commanding you -- to do it, to love Jehovah your God, to walk in all His ways, and to cleave to Him,

23 then hath Jehovah dispossessed all these nations from before you, and ye have possessed nations, greater and mightier than you;

24 every place on which the sole of your foot treadeth is yours; from the wilderness, and Lebanon, from the river, the river Phrat, even unto the farther sea is your border;

25 no man doth station himself in your presence; your dread and your fear doth Jehovah your God put on the face of all the land on which ye tread, as He hath spoken to you.

26 `See, I am setting before you to-day a blessing and a reviling:

27 the blessing, when ye hearken unto the commands of Jehovah your God, which I am commanding you to-day;

28 and the reviling, if ye do not hearken unto the commands of Jehovah your God, and have turned aside out of the way which I am commanding you to-day, to go after other gods which ye have not known.

29 `And it hath been, when Jehovah thy God doth bring thee in unto the land whither thou art going in to possess it, that thou hast given the blessing on mount Gerizim, and the reviling on mount Ebal;

30 are they not beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the going in of the sun, in the land of the Canaanite, who is dwelling in the plain over-against Gilgal, near the oaks of Moreh?

31 for ye are passing over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which Jehovah your God is giving to you; and ye have possessed it, and dwelt in it,

32 and observed to do all the statutes and the judgments which I am setting before you to day.

   

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The Length of a Person's Life

Napsal(a) Bill Woofenden

This explanation was first giving as a sermon following the new year.

“The days of our years are threescore years and ten: and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” Psalm 90:10

We are at the threshold of a new year. What it holds for us we cannot know. But we can look back upon the year that is passed, and see the Lord’s goodness to us.

World cooperation is a slogan of the day. More and more we are coming to realize that the day of isolation is passed and that what happens in the world at large affects us as individuals, and affects the future. We do not live to ourselves alone. In this larger field also we can look back and see the loving providence of the Lord, leading nations out of sorrows and conflicts, and causing them to hope for better thing to come.

If we can see that “underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27), leading men by the way that the Lord alone knows to be best, and if we have been brought to a deeper trust in Him, the year that is closing could have brought no greater blessing.

The Psalm from which our text is taken sets before us in a most striking way the weakness of man, the shortness of his life, in relation to the infinite power and eternity of the Lord. Man is like “the grass which groweth up. In the morning in flourisheth and groweth up: in the evening it is cut down and withereth.” “The days of our years are threescore years and ten,” but God “is from everlasting to everlasting.” In His sight, a thousand years are but as a watch in the night. He is the one source of life to the entire universe. Whatever life we have is His gift to us, and not our own.

“So,” the Psalmist writes, “teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”

There is always an impressiveness in the passing of the years. They slip by with such swiftness, each one seeming shorter than the last. It is not for the purpose of casting a shadow over life that this Psalm was give. It is not to make us look forward with dread that we are told that the gates to the eternal world are near. The message is for the happiness of childhood, for the enthusiasm of youth, and for the enjoyment of our labors in the world. It is to help us to regard and to love natural things in their relation to higher things. To see them so is not to rob them of their charm, but to fill them with deeper purpose and greater happiness.

The Psalm is a prayer, a prayer that the Lord will teach us to number our days, that we may see their relation to spiritual life, that we may not be misled by our own shortsighted view, and that we may learn the true relation between this life and heaven from Him Who created us for heaven, to Whom there is no yesterday and tomorrow. From the Divine point of view the few days of earthly life are nothing if they do not prepare for the eternal life in the heavens.

The prayer “teach us to number our days” does not mean that we should realize how short our life here is compared with the infinite Divine life, but is a petition to the Lord asking Him to enlighten us to see the nature and quality of the states through which we are passing, so that we may use them wisely and live as He would have us live, that we may attain the true measure of adulthood. It is this that is spiritually meant when we pray, “So teach us to number our days.”

Our text reads, “The days of our years are threescore years and ten.” From this Scripture seventy years has come to be regarded as the natural span of life, and when one has passed the seventieth year, we say that he is living on borrowed time. But this is not the spiritual meaning of the text. It really tells of a week of labor in which heavenly states are laid up culminating is a Sabbath of rest. It calls to mind the seven days of creation by which a heavenly spirit is built up within us till life’s work is ended in victory over evil, and the soul enters into rest from temptations.

This is the meaning of the seventy years as the measure of person’s life. Our life here, whether long or short, is still seventy years if we are faithful in learning and keeping the Commandments. The promise, “Your days shall be long,” is not necessarily a promise of many earthly years, but of years few or many filled with the life of heaven. “Your days shall be multiplied, and the days of your children, as the days of heaven upon the earth” (Deuteronomy 11:21).

For some the hours of labor are long, and the burden of the day heavy; for others life seems easier; but however long or short, hard or easy our years, they are the way which the Lord sees best for us to the eternal peace of heaven.

There is only one thing that blasts life and makes it really too short: that is sin, absorption in self. That alone destroys its happiness and usefulness, and makes it of short measure.

Whether the years are seven or seventy, life may be full. The Lord’s life on earth was thirty-four years. It was not cut off in its prime. He left no work undone; He said of His work, “It is finished” (John 19bb30 ). His earthly life was full and complete. He had overcome the world, and could say, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you” (John 14:27).

Earthly life is short only if its opportunities are neglected. The days of every faithful life are seventy years. The preparation for one may be short in calendar years; another’s preparation may include the labor and burden of many years. Still to each there is nothing lacking necessary to the attainment of heaven, for the Lord knows what is best for each. Everyone is given the means to the attainment of heavenly life.

This thought is expressed in the Psalm, for it adds, “and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow.” Each extension of life, while it brings its blessings, brings also its temptations, its labor and sorrow, and in seventy or eighty years we are no nearer heaven than in seven or eight, unless the tasks which long life brings are faithfully borne. However great our strength of mind and body, we are not so near to heaven as the little child unless we meet faithfully the responsibilities which such strength brings.

There are temptations which come with every year of life, with every gift of ability, with every gain of worldly wealth or position. These are the burden and heat of the day that are meant by the eighty years to which the life of some extends, bringing apparent strength, but accompanying temptation and trial.

This psalm teaches us how each life can be full, how we can number our days. It enables us to see that if opportunities are used, every life is long and leads to the peace of heaven. It teaches us that though some lives seem specially favored in years, in strength, in worldly possessions, yet the Lord’s ways are just and equal. The adult’s way to heaven is through labor, the child’s through innocence.

Whatever length of days is given us, it is that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Life is too short to be wasted in anxiety and worry. It is too short for envy and revengeful thoughts. It is too short to be wasted in unkindness, or in striving for that bread which satisfieth not. When we see and seek to realize the Lord’s purposes for us, we are applying our hearts unto wisdom. We cannot know the future, nor should we desire to know it. But we are told how we can make our way prosperous during the year that we are about to enter, and during every year. It is by reading the Word, and taking heed to do according to what is written therein.

The Lord says, “I am the vine, ye are the branches” (John 15:5). So close is He to us, vitally connected to us as the vine to its branches. The purpose of the vine is that the branches shall bear fruit. And if we realize that we can do nothing without Him, we shall realize also that He needs us. This will give a new dignity and meaning to life.

In the new year that is about to dawn let us look to the Lord, in full confidence that He rules all things, that our individual souls and the whole world are in His hands. And as we put our trust in Him and seek to do His will, He will give us that true peace and quietness of soul which the world cannot give, and which the world cannot take away.

Additional readings: Joshua 1, John 14:1-17