And I took the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands ,.... In wrath and indignation at the sin they were guilty of: and brake them before your eyes ; as an emblem of their breach of them by transgressing them. read more
Verse 17 17.And I took the two tables, and cast them out Moses here accuses himself of no transgression; he does not, therefore, give us to understand that he was urged to break the tables by the impetuosity of excessive anger; but rather he again repeats what they had deserved, and consequently that he discharged the office of a herald, (391) so as to denounce, not by word of mouth only, but by a solemn rite also, that God’s Covenant was broken and made void by their perfidiousness. For which... read more
Human memory a repository of guilt. The memory of man is a book of God; and, though the entries may be temporarily obscured, yet the light of eternity will make them all legible. The present tendency of sin is to weaken memory; its effect, to obliterate recollection. Our profoundest gratitude is due to the man that reminds us of our falls. I. REMEMBER SIN IN THE LIGHT OF ITS OBJECT , VIZ . OF GOD . Discourtesy to a king is a graver offence than discourtesy to an... read more
Moses reminds them of many instances of their rebelliousness by which they had provoked the Lord, from the time of their escape out of Egypt until their arrival in the plains of Moab. Their rebellion began even before they had wholly escaped from their oppressors, before they had passed through the Bed Sea ( Exodus 14:11 ). Even at Horeb, where, amid the most affecting manifestations alike of the Divine majesty and the Divine grace, just after the Lord had spoken to them directly out of the... read more
Humiliating memories. Following up the idea of their waywardness, Moses proceeds to recall instances of it. The remembrance of sin is salutary, if it induces humiliation; but detrimental, if it induces a repetition of the sin. When assured of its forgiveness, we should forget it, so far as the remembrance would provoke repetition. Moses here recalls sin, that it may be salutary in the remembrance. I. THEIR REBELLION HAD BEEN CONTINUAL . ( Deuteronomy 9:7 , Deuteronomy 9:24... read more
The sin at Horeb. Moses dwells on this sin, alike as memorable in itself, and as illustrating the proposition that the people had again and again forfeited their covenant standing by their acts of disobedience. I. THE ENORMITY OF THIS SIN . 1. It was a sin committed immediately after solemn covenant with God ( Deuteronomy 9:9 ). The transactions recorded in Exodus 24:3-9 were not yet forty days old. The people had literally heard God speaking to them. They had... read more
True greatness manifested in a great emergency, by self-sacrifice and intercession. As were marked in the previous Homily, these incidents can only be rightly arranged by a preacher, for the purpose of preaching thereon, so far as the entire narrative is before his view. Hence a junction of this paragraph with Exodus 32:1-35 , is imperative, and will here be taken for granted. There would seem to have been a compilation of several documents. It is not easy to gather therefrom, with... read more
Moses cast from him the two tables of stone on which God had inscribed the words of the Law, and broke them in pieces in the view of the people, when he came down from the mount and saw how they had turned aside from the right way, and were become idolaters. This was not the effect of a burst of indignation on his part; it was a solemn declaration that the covenant of God with his people had been nullified and broken by their sinful apostasy. read more
Deuteronomy 9:17. I brake them before your eyes Not by an unbridled passion, but it zeal for God’s honour, and by the direction of God’s Spirit; to signify to the people that the covenant between God and them, contained in those tables, was broken, and that they were now cast out of God’s favour, and could expect nothing from him but fiery indignation. read more
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Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Deuteronomy 9:7-29
That they might have no pretence to think that God brought them to Canaan for their righteousness, Moses here shows them what a miracle of mercy it was that they had not long ere this been destroyed in the wilderness: ?Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the Lord thy God (Deut. 9:7); so far from purchasing his favour, thou hast many a time laid thyself open to his displeasure.? Their fathers? provocations are here charged upon them; for, if God had dealt with their fathers according... read more