And that this last was no empty threat is proved by the plain facts
of their sacred history. For they DID forget God, and worshipped
Baalim, the sun, moon, and stars; and ruin of every kind DID come
upon them, till they were carried away captive to Babylon. And this
we must think of when we read the book of Deuteronomy, and nothing
else. If they wished to prosper, they were to know and consider in
their hearts that Jehovah was God, and there was none else. Yes--
this was the continual thought which a true Jew was to have. The
thought of a God who was HIS God; the God of his fathers before him,
and the God of his children after him; the God of the whole nation
of the Jews, throughout all their generations.
But not their God only. No. The God of the Gentiles also, of all
the nations upon the earth. He was to believe that his God alone,
of all the gods of the nations, was the true and only God, who had
made all nations, and appointed them their times and the bounds of
their habitations.
We cannot understand now, in these happier days, all that that
meant; all the strength and comfort, all the godly fear, the feeling
of solemn responsibility which that thought ought to have given, and
did give to the Jews--that they were the people of Jehovah, the one
true God.
Pages:
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206