On a former occasion we learned that there is an inside and an outside to everything. That this is so with our souls, the Lord taught by the parable, "Cleanse first the inside of the cup and platter, that the outside may be clean also." A cup that has only an inside and no outside would be impossible. A plate that had only an inside and no outside would also be impossible. There can be no inside without an outside, nor an outside without an inside. So with our behavior: the outside is what is seen by people, the inside is what is seen by the Lord. We must cleanse our thoughts and our reasons for doing things, so that the outside behavior may not only appear to be good, but really be good.

The Lord's Kingdom has an inside and an outside. The inside is heaven, the outside is the church on earth, when the people of the church try to live a heavenly life.

The church has an inside and an outside. The inside is the love of the Lord, and the belief in what He teaches in His Word and His Doctrines; the outside is acting in one's business according to the laws of charity, and also attending to one's duties in school and at home, or in one's worship at church, in Sunday-school, and at home.

Since, as we all know, the land of Canaan represented heaven and the church, was there an inside and an outside to that land also?

Yes. Generally, when we talk about the land of Canaan, or "the holy land," we think only of that part of it which lies west of the river Jordan. But as a matter of fact, the land of Canaan included also portions of the country east of the Jordan. The reason why we generally think only of the part west of the Jordan is because most of the history recorded in the Word was transacted there, for that part represented the inside of heaven. The part east of the same river represented the outside of heaven. The Jordan represented the boundary between them.

The twelve tribes inherited the whole country west and east of the Jordan. To two tribes and a half was given the land east of the Jordan, and to the other nine tribes and a half, that west of the Jordan. Those who settled on the east side, as we learn in this chapter, were Gad and Reuben and half of the tribe of Manasseh.

Now, I want to tell you a secret. It is a heavenly secret. A secret that no one has ever found out, until the Lord Himself told it to His servant Emanuel Swedenborg, for the New Church. It is this: that the tribe of Gad was given an inheritance in the country east of the Jordan, or in the outside part of the land of Canaan, because that tribe represented the outside part of heaven and of the church, namely, doing good works. He represented the good life that people lead when they are sincere, honest, faithful and diligent in their work. Remember: the doing of good works, the pious attendance on Divine worship in church and Sunday-school and at home, the kind acts to the poor, the lame, the blind, the deaf -all this is represented by Gad.

"But," you may ask, "if Gad represents good works, do you know the secret about Reuben: what he represents?"

Reuben represents the truth that you learn in order that you may do good. Unless you have the truth, you cannot know how to do good.

It may help you to remember that Reuben represents this, by turning to Genesis 39:32, where we are told why he was called Reuben. It was because his mother realized that the Lord saw her and her trouble. Reuben is a name made up from the Hebrew word which means to see. So the Reuben part of the outside church is to see how to do good. And as we cannot see unless we have light, and the truth gives light to our minds, therefore Reuben represented the truth which we learn from the Word and which gives us to see how to do good works, how to live a good life.

And what about Manasseh? Can there be anything else besides seeing the truth and living according to it?

O yes! there is something still more important than these: something without which we would not care to see the truth nor to live a good life. And what is that? It is love. Manasseh represented love. The love to learn the truth, the love to do what the truth gives us to see.

We might want to love to live a good life simply in order to have people speak well about us. Many do so. But would this be the kind of love and the kind of life that would be well-pleasing to the Lord? No! for the Lord tells us to love Him above all things, but if we lead a good life simply to be thought well of by people, then we care more for what they say, and for ourselves, than we do for the Lord. This would be like Manasseh living only in the outside Canaan, in the country of Jordan. The real inside church consists in loving the Lord above all things, and since the love of seeing the truth and leading a good life must come from this inside love, therefore Manasseh, the tribe that represents love, was both in the inside and in the outside Canaan.

Where do we find out these great heavenly secrets about Gad, Reuben and Manasseh? In that wonderfully Divine work, The Apocalypse Explained, 434, 435, 440.

The Story

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers; there is one more book of Moses, Deuteronomy. There is a very tender spirit in this book. It is filled largely with the last talks of Moses with the people before his death, as they were camped in the plain by the Jordan. He reminds them of the Lord's mercies in the hard experiences which they have come through together, and appeals to them to be obedient to the Lord in the land which they are about to enter. The name Deuteronomy comes from the 17th chapter and 18th verse of the book, where in the old Greek version the phrase "a copy of this law" is wrongly translated, "this copy or repetition of the law." The name is not, however, inappropriate, for Deuteronomy does repeat the Ten Commandments and other laws, and rehearses again the story that we have read elsewhere.

We must think of the children of Israel camping in the meadow by the Jordan, looking across at the hills of the promised land; and must think of Moses, now a hundred and twenty years old, their wise and faithful leader many years, talking to them as to his little children, charging them earnestly to obey the Lord. And if Moses longed to have them good children and obedient, much more did the Lord Who gave the laws long to have them so; and He longs to have us learn and keep them and find them the way to heaven.

Listen, Moses is speaking. (Deut. 6:1-5) Do these last words sound familiar? They are the first great commandment, almost as we recite it together.

Listen again. (Verses 6-9) Mothers and fathers must talk with the children about the Lord and His laws, that make life good and beautiful. We can talk of them at home and when we walk among beautiful things in the country. "For a sign upon thine hand," etc. How ought this rule to be kept? The Jews wrote words of the law on parchment and put them in little boxes which they bound on the forehead and arm at times of prayer. Is this what the Lord really wants us to do?

Moses is speaking again. (Verses 10-15) It was truly a beautiful land that they were soon to enter, all the more so in contrast with the wilderness in which they had been living. How easy it is, when beautiful things are plenty and we have all that we want, to forget that the Lord is giving us these things and to be grateful to Him.

Verse 16, the tempting at Massah, was when the people wanted water and doubted the Lord's good care. (Exod. 17:7) They must not do so again. (Verses 17-19)

It would be useful, also, and help them to be humble and faithful to remember the hard experiences in which the Lord had helped them in Egypt and in their desert journey. Children may learn much from what older people can tell them of the trials that they have had in which the Lord has helped them, and we can all learn from the story of trials and help which the Lord has given us in these books of Moses. (Verses 20-25)

We must get the picture of the children of Israel in the plains by the Jordan where Balaam saw them "abiding according to their tribes," and of the old leader Moses giving them his last earnest charges to be obedient to the Lord. It was the eleventh month of the fortieth year since the people came out of Egypt. (Deut. 1:1-5) In a few weeks they would cross the Jordan and keep the Passover in the promised land. Before that, Moses would die. Listen to Moses speaking, reading a few verses at a time.

In the 5th chapter we read the Ten Commandments as Moses repeated them again to the people and reminded them how they had heard them at Mount Sinai, with signs of power, and how the Lord wrote them on tables of stone. If only the people will remember and obey!

As we read of binding the law upon the hand and between the eyes, and writing it upon the posts of the house, perhaps someone can show you one of the phylacteries, or at least a picture of one, in which the Jews wrote extracts of the law, to be worn upon the arm and forehead. They were little square black boxes, a larger one for the forehead and a smaller one for the left arm. They were made most carefully according to rules, and tied on with their long straps exactly so. In compartments in these little boxes were strips of parchment carefully folded up, on which were written words from the law. (Deut. 6:4-9; 11:13-21) They were the verses which speak of binding the law upon the hands. Some of the verses you see are in this very chapter that we are reading today. The charge to write upon the door posts was kept by putting a parchment in a little cylinder which was nailed at the side of the door. What does the Lord say in the Gospels about the phylacteries worn by the Pharisees? (Matt. 23:5) How ought the law to be written on our hands and foreheads and door posts?

The chapter speaks of commandments, statutes, judgments and testimonies. You find these several words in the Psalms describing the Lord's laws; as, for example, in the 19th Psalm and in the 119th Psalm. Commandments and testimonies mean especially the Ten Commandments and other laws of life. Statutes were especially laws which taught forms of worship which it was important for the children of Israel to keep because they all represented holy things. Judgments in passages like those in our chapter are civil laws which also reflect the laws of heaven. (A. 8972)

What in general is pictured by the story that we have been studying in Exodus and Numbers and Deuteronomy? What by Egypt and its bondage? What by the wilderness journey? And now what is represented by the beautiful and fruitful land just across the river? Will the laws learned at Sinai still be needed? How may the memories of Egypt and the wilderness still be useful?

1. Where were the children of Israel at the time that the words of Deuteronomy were spoken?

2. Who is reminding the people of the Lord's commandments, and charging them to keep them?

3. Of what danger do we especially need to beware in prosperity?

SPIRITUAL STUDY

The name "Deuteronomy," "copy of the law," is from verse 18 of chapter 17, where in the old Greek translation, the words "copy of this law" were wrongly rendered "this copy of the law," "this deuteronomy." This book is the last of the five books of Moses. Can you name them in their order? What name is sometimes given to these five books together - a name which means "the five books"?

Commandments, statutes, judgments, testimonies. Commandments or testimonies were the Ten Commandments and other laws of life. Statutes were laws which taught the forms of worship, which were all representative of heavenly things. Judgments, in passages like those in our lesson, are civil laws, also representative of heavenly things. (A. 8972) Can you find examples of each?

"That thy days may be prolonged." Will people who keep the Commandments necessarily live long in this world? They may not live long in years, but their lives will be full in usefulness and happiness. (Compare Deut. 11:21; Ps. 55:23.)

The Lord's commands are bound upon our hands and between our eyes when they are made the guide of all our acts and thoughts. They are written on our door posts and gates when they guard the door of the mind to prevent evil things from entering in, or from going forth in words and deeds. (A. 7847, 9936)

Verses 10, 11. In what a beautiful sense it is true of the blessings of heavenly life that we have not prepared them and cannot prepare them for ourselves! Who can see what spiritual blessing is meant by any one of the good things named? (E. 617, 638)

"Thou shalt fear the Lord." What kind of fear should we have toward the Lord? The fear of love, which will not do anything to grieve Him. (A. 3718)

"And shalt swear by His name." Swearing with the Jews was the most solemn way of affirming a truth. To swear by the Lord's name meant to believe His words because He spoke them. Our Lord said, "Swear not at all," for in the Christian Church truth is not to be taken merely on authority but can be understood. (A. 2842, 9166)

The Story

The children of Israel could see the hills of the promised land across the meadows and the Jordan, rosy in the morning light and purple in the evening shadow. Moses talked to them very earnestly. He reminded them of the hardships of the journey through which the Lord had helped them. What were some of these, as you follow the line of the journey on the map and look over the pictures that you have put into your scrapbooks? The crossing of the Red Sea, the bitter water, Elim, the quails and manna, water from the rock, defeat of the Amalekites; and after leaving Mount Sinai, quails a second time, another gift of water, fiery serpents, and so to the Jordan where they were camping. Moses speaks of the forty years, of the manna, of water from the rock, of fiery serpents and scorpions (spider-like creatures with a poisonous sting). These trials and the Lord's loving care should have made the people humble and obedient to the Lord. The Lord had let the hard things come to teach them this lesson.

And now they might look forward to the beautiful land. It was a land different from the wilderness in which they had been living, and different from Egypt from which they had come. Read Deut. 11:10-12. In Egypt there was almost no rain, and water was from the river Nile; but in the land of Canaan, between November and April, there are rains. It "drinketh water of the rain of heaven." It has splendid great springs where large streams come at once from the rocks. There are several such springs near Mount Hermon in the north, some near the Sea of Galilee, and the beautiful Gideon's fountain at the foot of Mount Gilboa. And the rains and springs and streams with the good soil make the land fruitful. Have you seen wheat growing, and barley? Do you know fig trees and pomegranates and olives? And honey; bees make the honey, but for honey there must be flowers. It was a beautiful land, and it would be a happy home if - if what? If they would not forget the Lord but would remember Him and trust Him and obey Him.

How long do you think the children of Israel were camping by the Jordan before they went into the promised land? Not long, possibly about forty days. They were there when Balaam saw and blessed them. The other important events of those days were Moses' earnest appeals to the people and the death of Moses. The 6th chapter of Deuteronomy has very earnest words of Moses, urging the children of Israel to be obedient. The 8th chapter is another, and the 11th chapter another of the same kind. Chapter 8, which we read today, looks back to the experiences of the wilderness and looks forward to the promised land. Let us, as we read the chapter, note first the events of the journey and the wilderness which are mentioned; then we will note what is said about the promised land.

Have you made your list of the journey and the wilderness? Forty years twice mentioned, manna twice mentioned, water from the rock, serpents and scorpions. Did we learn of all these in the story? All but one. What is the reason for remembering the trials? Why not forget them now that they are passed?

And the list of things said about the promised land: brooks and springs, hills and valleys. Do you remember some of the streams, and can you show them on the map? And do you know some of the beautiful great springs? I have suggested a few of them to the little children. And the fruits and the honey. What metals are mentioned which could be mined from the hills? Iron and copper (here called "brass") are both found in the land, especially in the mountains at the north. Job 28:1-11 gives a vivid description of mining (better in the Revised Version). What fears has Moses for the people when they come into the land and enjoy all its good things? It is so easy when we are anxious and in trouble to remember the Lord, but when all goes well it is so easy to forget Him. Then even the good things are no longer blessings.

1. What kind of country had the people been in for forty years? Who had cared for them and given them food and drink?

2. What kind of land were they about to enter?

3. What excellences of the land are especially mentioned?

4. Would they need to remember the Lord any more?

5. Do we need the Lord's help when things go well? Shall we need it in heaven?

SPIRITUAL STUDY

The language of verse 1 reminds us of the commandment "that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." Remember also Deut. 11:21, "As the days of heaven upon earth." Why are these blessings, even the blessings of heaven, made conditional on keeping the Lord's commandments?

Why was it a wilderness journey from Egypt to Canaan? Read carefully verses 1-6 and 14-16; also Deut. 5:15 and 24:17-22. What was the reason in the Lord's providence for permitting these trials? What lessons were they intended to teach the people? Trials that come to us must be intended to teach the same lessons. (1) One lesson was humility and dependence on the Lord, which should prevent the feeling that they were strong without the Lord's help. (2) Another lesson was not to set their hearts on things of the world, but to turn them to things of heavenly and eternal value, verse 3. (3) Memory of their trials should teach them to have sympathy with others who were poor and in trouble. (A. 10155)

Read verse 5. We can understand many things about the Lord's providence with us by comparing our relation with children. We often must refuse the children what they want because we know that it would be bad for them and make them unhappy. There must sometimes be punishments to check ways of doing that are harmful to themselves and others. At such times we may seem to the children to be unkind, but our feelings may be only kindness. Our wish is to save the children from unhappiness and to lead them into good and happy ways. If we have such motives in relation to the children, how much more the Lord! (Matt. 7:11) Read Rev. 3:19. "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten," which refers to the temptations which are inevitable in getting rid of evil and finding the blessings of a heavenly life. (R. 215; E. 246)

Read verses 7-9. Can we recognize the spiritual blessings which are represented by these good things of the land of Canaan? We shall know that the streams and springs of Canaan represent the abundant truth from the Lord, more internal and more external, relating to more spiritual and more natural states. The fruits named represent the satisfactions of heavenly uses, more internal and more external. And what is represented by the honey? (E. 374) The iron and brass we recognize as types of fundamental principles relating to truth and goodness, the rightness and kindness of the heavenly life. These are the blessings for which the trials previously considered should prepare us. The Lord help us to be steadfast lest by a return to pride and selfishness we lose the blessings!

The Story

As you read verses 1-9 of our chapter, you go back in your mind and remember the story that we have been learning, about the leaving Egypt, and the desert journey. What miracles and acts are meant in verse 3? What story does verse 4 recall? What things that happened in the wilderness do you remember as you read verse 5? Do you know the story referred to in verse 6? You find it in Num. 16, near to the story of Aaron's rod. Stop a moment and think, as you read verses 2 and 7, who these people were to whom Moses was speaking. Only three were living who were grown men when the children of Israel left Egypt, and camped at Sinai, and sent the spies from Kadesh. The rest who remembered these things were children when they happened.

Verses 10-12 put two different pictures before us: one of a flat land where there is almost no rain; where water is pumped from the river and led about in little trenches to water the fields, the earth being opened and closed up with the foot as one square after another of the field is watered: the other a land of hills and valleys and abundant rains. And you do not forget as you read of the Lord's care for this good land, that it is a picture of heaven, and of the life of everyone who loves and obeys the Lord. You remember this especially as you read verses 18-21: "That your days may be multiplied . . . as the days of heaven upon the earth."

We have thought before what is meant by binding the Lord's words upon the hand, and making them as frontlets between the eyes; and what is meant by writing them upon the door posts and on the gates; and also how the Pharisees kept this charge.

Read on in the chapter, verses 22-25. Do you know the names of any of the nations whom the Lord would drive out before the children of Israel? Can you show me Lebanon, and the Euphrates? These are the farthest limits to the north and east. And what are the limits on the south and west: the wilderness, and the uttermost or "hinder" sea?

The last verses of the chapter speak of putting the blessing upon Mount Gerizim, and the curse upon Mount Ebal. Do you remember these two mountains by Shechem, in the very middle of the land? Gilgal was near by across the Jordan, as the children of Israel looked toward the sunset from their camp. The oaks (not "plains") of Moreh, you remember by Shechem, in the story of Abraham. (Gen. 12:6) We learn in Josh. 8:30-35 how this charge about the blessings and the curses was obeyed. Joshua built an altar in Mount Ebal, and read the law aloud to all the people. And the twelve tribes stood, six tribes on the slope of Mount Ebal, and six on the slope of Mount Gerizim, and answered from one mountain to the blessings and from the other to the curses as they were read. (See Deut. 28 and Deut. 30:19.) The Lord sends blessings, but what are these curses? He does not send them, but they are the unhappy things which the Lord cannot save us from if we will not keep His Commandments.

1. Who is speaking in this chapter? To whom? Where? When?

2. What mercies of the Lord in the past are recalled? Why are they recalled?

3. What difference between the land of Egypt and the promised land is pointed out?

4. Why did the Pharisees wear phylacteries? In what better way can the requirement of the law be kept?

5. What choice is set before each one of us this day?

SPIRITUAL STUDY

What states of mind are set in contrast by the two pictures, of the land where seed is watered with the foot, and the land of hills and valleys that drinketh water of the rain of heaven? What is the water of the mind? The truth which shows what is right, and so cleanses and refreshes. The land of Egypt, drawing water from the river, and leading it with the foot, represents a wholly natural state which draws its truth from memory and from the opinion of the world, and applies it in an external way. The promised land represents a spiritual life, with a variety of interior and external states, and with an interior perception of the truth from the Lord's Word. Read of the rain and its meaning in Deut. 32:1-2; Isa. 55:10-11. (E. 518, 644; A. 2702, 8278)

What is meant by the promise "that ye may prolong your days" (verse 9), and "that your days may be multiplied" (verse 21)? Compare the promise of the fourth commandment: "that thy days may be long upon the land." Such words remind us first of all, that the same trust in the Lord and obedience to the Lord which are needed to bring us into a heavenly state, are needed to keep us in it. We must not think that we are safe, and grow careless and disobedient, "lest ye perish quickly from off the good land." The long life promised is not necessarily a life of many years in this world, but its years, few or many, are full of all that makes life worth living; "as the days of heaven upon the earth." See Deut. 8, especially verses 17 and 18.

The charge to teach the Lord's commandments to the children shows us the importance of this duty at home and in Sunday-school. Remember too that the most continual and effective teaching is that of influence and example. The children are also the beginnings of new life in ourselves, which need the protection and guidance of the Lord's commandments in the house and by the way, lying down and rising up. (A. 7847, 9936)

Verse 26, like Deut. 30:19, very forcibly sets before us the freedom which the Lord gives us to choose good or evil, to obey or disobey. He tells us of the eternal blessing of obedience; He warns us of the inevitable unhappiness of evil; but He trusts us, He leaves us free. How earnestly He desires that we shall use our freedom well; how tenderly He urges us to choose life and blessing! (T. 475, 483, 484)

LEADING THOUGHT - THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT

The Lord our Savior teaches us in the New Testament that the first of all the commandments is - what? Yes, to love the Lord with all our heart and with all our soul. He had taught the Israelites this in the Old Testament, where the commandment is given repeatedly. (See, for instance, Deut. 6:5; 10:12.) We have it in this chapter, in verse 13; and the consequence of keeping it is told in the beautiful promises about life in the land of Canaan. This means to us, of course, the promise of a lovely life in heaven, if we will keep this commandment.

Following the Lord's statute in verse 18, and elsewhere, the children of Israel copied the commandment on pieces of parchment, which they put in little cases, and by means of straps bound them upon their hands and between their eyes. Such a case with the parchment and the straps was called a "phylactery." They imagined that in this way they obeyed the Lord's statute, but if they had read the Lord's words more carefully, they would have seen that He meant more than this; that He did, indeed, want them to carry the commandment in this way, but, to remind them continually that they should always try to see what is meant by the commandment, and to do it. For the eyes see, and they correspond to the understanding, which sees spiritually. And the hands correspond to the ability to do what the understanding sees.

But the Jews obeyed only the outside of the statute, so that when the Lord was in the world, He said that they "make broad their phylacteries" "to be seen of men," and that they neglected the inside of the command. They "cleansed the outside of the cup and platter" and left the inside "full of extortion and excess."

The Lord has been very kind and gracious to us of the New Church; for He has taught us the inside meaning, or the internal sense, of the verses which we have just been talking about.

He has taught us that, just as our body has heart and lungs, so our spirit has will and understanding, which are the heart and lungs of the spirit. As the life of the body depends upon the heart and lungs and upon their being sound and well, so the life of our spirit depends upon our will and understanding, and on both being sound and well.

Since our will is to our spirit what our heart is to our body, the will is called "heart" in the Word of the Lord.

And since our understanding is to our spirit what the lungs are to our body, it is called "soul" in the Word. You may think this strange because you do not see any connection between "soul" and "lungs." You are right. It is not clear in English. But the three sacred languages, Hebrew, Greek and Latin, each have a word for "soul" which means also "breath." And as the lungs breathe, you can easily see that "soul" means something relating to the lungs. And indeed when we understand the truth about anything, then we breathe freely with our lungs, just as when we love a thing very much, our heart bounds.

The "heart," then, means our will, or our love; for what we love we will, and what we will we love. And "soul" or "breath" means our understanding, or our belief or faith; for what we understand we believe, or have faith in, and what we rightly believe or have faith in, this enters that part of our spirit called the understanding.

Now we are prepared to understand why the Lord tells us to love Him with all our heart and soul: we must love Him with all our will; and we must also believe in Him, and love to believe in Him, and study all that He teaches us in His Word, and love it because He has given it to us.

And the Lord has also taught us about the internal meaning of the statute to tie the commandment on the forehead and on the hand. It was to go on the forehead, because, when the Lord looks upon angels and people, He always looks upon their foreheads.

I wonder why?

Because the forehead signifies the goodness which comes to them when they love Him, and it is from His great Love that He looks upon them.

And. how do the angels look at Him?

Through their eyes. And this means through the intelligence and wisdom which they have received from Him through the Truth He has given in His Holy Word.

It was to represent this, that He told the children of Israel to bind the commandment between the eyes.

Do you remember that the Lord said, that on this commandment "hang all the law and the Prophets"? The "Law" means all the story part of the Word, and the "Prophets" means all the prophecy part. Therefore the commandment was bound on the head, which is the chief or first thing of person’s body; and on the hands, which are the most outside, or the last of the body, for the commandment is the first and the last that a person ought to think of, and love, and do.

The Story

We shall soon learn about the death of Moses. Joshua (called also Hoshea) would be leader in his place. What have we learned about Joshua? He was Moses' servant; he led the soldiers in the battle with Amalek before they came to Sinai (Exod. 17:9); he was with Moses in the mountain when the first tables of stone were broken (Exod. 32:17); he was one of the spies who went up from Kadesh, one of the two who encouraged the people to trust the Lord and to go into the land. Do you remember to which tribe Joshua belonged, and his father's name? The Lord had said that Joshua should take Moses' place. (Num. 27:12-23) Now the time was near and Moses and Joshua presented themselves before the Lord at the tabernacle. Moses told Joshua and told the people to be strong and of a good courage, for the Lord would not fail them, nor forsake them.

The Ten Commandments had been spoken to all the people at Mount Sinai, and the Lord wrote them on tables of stone. Other things had been written by Moses at the Lord's command in a scroll of parchment or papyrus, which was the kind of book used in those days. Many laws had been written (Exod. 24:4; 34:27) and also the story of the journey. (Exod. 17:14; Num. 33:2) In our chapter (verses 9, 24) we are told that Moses wrote "this law," the law as given in Deuteronomy, and that the book was kept by the priests "in the side of the ark," probably by the ark with the pot of manna and Aaron's rod.

It was commanded that all the people should gather at the tabernacle and temple to hear the law read, every seventh year, which was called "the year of release," because on that year all but foreign debtors were released from payment, and the cultivated land was allowed to rest. (Exod. 23:10-11; Deut. 15:1-2) On the seventh year, when the people gathered for the feast of Tabernacles, the autumn thanksgiving feast (Lev. 23:33-44), they should hear the law read. Joshua read the law to the people at Shechem soon after taking possession of the land. (Josh. 8:30-35) It may have been this same copy of the law written by Moses and entrusted to the keeping of the priests which, after being neglected and forgotten for long years, was found in the temple in the days of king Josiah and read again to the people. (2 Kings 22)

The Lord told Moses that the people would by and by disobey Him and worship idols and would come into trouble; and He gave Moses a song to teach the people (and he wrote it also), which would remind them of the Lord. Nothing is so long remembered as a song. In that way many old traditions were kept and handed down in times when there were few books. This song is in the thirty-second chapter. It is a song of the Lord's loving care, with a warning not to disobey Him. Read the first fifteen verses.

1. What books of the Bible were written by Moses? Which of them describe events which Moses himself witnessed?

2. From what source did Moses take the first chapters of Genesis?

3. The Lord's Word must always be about heaven and the way to heaven; is that true of the story of Israel's journey? Is it true of the laws that were given them on their way?

4. For what purpose was the song given which we find in Deut. 32?

SPIRITUAL STUDY

A literary study of the Bible shows it to be a book made up of many smaller books which were written by different persons in different languages and at widely different times. And yet these books make one Word of the Lord, for the Lord used all these writers as His instruments, and guided them in their writing, and breathed into their words heavenly and Divine meaning, far more than they themselves knew. "The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it." (Ps. 68:11) The first five books of the Bible are the books of Moses. Can you name them? Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are the story of events which Moses himself witnessed, with the laws which the Lord gave him to teach the people. The story of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would have been fresh in the memory of the people. The first seven chapters of Genesis, the story of creation and Eden and the flood, Moses copied from the Ancient Word which the Lord had given long before and which was preserved in Egypt. (S. 103; T. 279) He took from the same source the substance of chapters 8-11 to the beginning of the story of Abram. (A. 66)

What in general is the deeper meaning within the history of the going out of Egypt and the journey to Canaan? The many chapters of laws written by Moses (aside from the Ten Commandments) are not as yet of much practical use to Christians, but they will sometime be, for they contain in their deeper meaning all the principles of Christian life. (Matt. 5:17-18)

The law was to be read in the seventh year, the year of release. The seventh year when debtors were released, and the cultivated land was allowed to rest, was a sort of Sabbath year, and like the Sabbath day, it represents a peaceful, heavenly state when temptation and effort in doing right are ended and it is easy and delightful. (A. 8974-8976₎ 9272-9274) The connection between the Lord's commandments and this heavenly state must never be forgotten.

The song of Moses is full of the beauty of a Psalm, and in many places the heavenly meaning shines through the letter. Why are doctrine and speech likened to rain and dew? (Verse 2) What does water represent, water falling gently from above? (A. 3579; E. 644) Why is the Lord called the Rock? (Verses 4, 18, 31) What are spiritual stones, useful for foundations and for building? Verse 4 explains itself. (E. 411) The Lord's care is compared to the eagle's. (Verse 11) Wings represent the power of spiritual thought, and so the Lord's Divine thought and providence. Compare Ps. 91:4; Matt. 23:37. (E. 281, 283)

The Story

Moses was now an old man, a hundred and twenty years old. He had been the faithful leader of the children of Israel from the day that the Lord spoke to him at the burning bush and sent him to bring the people out of Egypt. He had prepared them to hear the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai and had taught them many other laws from the Lord, and he had done many signs and wonderful works at the Lord's command with his rod, both in Egypt and in the wilderness. Do you remember some of them? Once when Moses used his rod to do one of the wonderful works, he did not speak humbly and give the Lord the praise; it was when water was given the second time from the rock; and the Lord told Moses that he should not lead the people into the promised land. He should see it with his eyes, but he should not go over thither; he should die in Mount Nebo, a mountain in the land of Moab.

So Moses went up from the plain where the people were camping by the Jordan, to the top of Mount Nebo. Pisgah seems to be another name for Nebo, perhaps for the top of Nebo. It was opposite Jericho, across the meadows and the Jordan. From there the Lord showed Moses the land, to the north and west and south, where the tribes would soon find their homes. It was a wonderful view -the land which the Lord had promised to the people, to which he had been leading them; the good land of hills and valleys watered by the rain of heaven, the land of springs and streams, of wheat and vines and olives. "A land which the Lord thy God careth for. The eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the^, end of the year." (Dent. 11:12) The land was so blessed because it was a picture of heaven.

So Moses died in the mountain, in the Lord's care, and his grave was not known to anyone. He was old, but clear of sight and strong. The people mourned for Moses thirty days. Who would now be their leader? Joshua, who had been Moses' helper. At the Lord's command also, Joshua had been appointed and was ready to take the lead, and the people were ready to follow and obey him. Moses was remembered as one who knew the Lord and gave the people the Lord's message.

The book of Deuteronomy reviews many events of the story of Israel while Moses was their leader, and gives us a beautiful chance to review the parts of the story that we have learned. Let us take the last chapter of Deuteronomy in this way. "From the plains of Moab," the plains where the people were camping by the Jordan before entering the land. Have your map before you as you read how from Mount Nebo, or Pisgah, as the height is also called, the Lord showed Moses the land which he was not to enter. Why was Moses not to go into the land, but only to see it? You will connect this with the second smiting of the rock for water. Read Num. 20:2, 7-13; Deut. 32:48-52; Ps. 106:32, 33.

We look with Moses from the mountain. To the north, on the east of Jordan, was the land of Gilead. Dan was far away at the springs of Jordan under Mount Hermon. Notice that the parts of the land are called by the names of the tribes of Israel, to whom they soon were given. Naphtali was on the west of Jordan, reaching toward Mount Hermon. Manasseh (the half tribe which was given a home west of Jordan) lay in the middle of the land, including Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, which were plainly seen from Nebo. Ephraim lay south of Manasseh, and across the Dead Sea Judah stretched away to the west toward the Mediterranean. Still to the left lay the open pastures of the south country. Nearby was the deep plain of Jordan, with Jericho at the foot of the bluffs across the river among its groves of palms. Close under the foot of the mountain was Zoar, one of the cities of the plain, which we learned of in the days of Abraham and Lot. (Gen. 13:10; 14:2)

So Moses died in Mount Nebo, having seen the promised land. Some of you have a picture of the old man looking out over the land, where Abraham had lived and Isaac and Jacob, where the children of Israel would now find a home, and where by and by the Lord would live and walk in the paths over the hills. Moses died, in the Lord's care, and the people mourned thirty days. Do you remember the mourning for Jacob (Gen. 50:3); and for Aaron (Num. 20:29)?

Now Joshua became leader. When did we first hear of Joshua? (Exod. 17:9) We remember him, too, with Moses when he came down from Mount Sinai with the tables of the Commandments in his hands. (Exod. 32:17) Joshua was one of the spies who went through the land of Canaan. (Num. 13:8, 16) He was appointed at the Lord's command and consecrated by Moses to be the leader. (Num. 27:18-23) The people were ready to obey Joshua and to follow him, for they knew that the Lord was with him as He had been with Moses.

1. Why were Moses and Aaron not allowed to enter the promised land?

2. Where did Aaron die? Who took his place as priest?

3. Where did Moses die? Who took his place as leader?

4. Show me on the map where Moses stood, and the land he looked out upon.

5. Who can tell me the story of Moses' life?

SPIRITUAL STUDY

Moses and Aaron had spoken the Lord's word and shown the Lord's power to the people. Aaron the priest represented the Lord's love, and Moses the lawgiver the Lord's truth. What is meant by their death? Not that the power of the Lord fails, but the apprehension of the Lord that we have today must give place to a wiser and stronger one tomorrow, as we advance in regeneration. So Aaron gives place to Eleazar, and Moses to Joshua. There seemed to be a note of self-confidence in Moses' bringing water from the rock, which must be left behind before the heavenly life is reached. Moses and Joshua both stand for the Lord's truth with us, Moses for the Divine truth leading, and Joshua for the Divine truth combating. In that thought it is interesting that Joshua is first introduced to us as leading the soldiers against Amalek, and he led the people in the conquest of Canaan. In general Moses represents a more intellectual grasp of the principles of the heavenly life, and Joshua a more living experience of them. To Moses it was said, "I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither." (Deut. 34:4) And to Joshua, "Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you." (Josh. 1:3; A. 8595)

"Whom the Lord knew face to face." Compare Deut. 34:10 with Exod. 33:20. No person can see the full divineness of the Lord, but the Lord has appeared to people in ways accommodated to their state. Before His incarnation He came by filling an angel with His presence. (A. 1925, 6831) On His appearance to Moses, see A. 4299.

Moses' view of the promised land from the mountain reminds us of the view of the holy city given to John from "a great and high mountain." (Rev. 21:10) There are high interior states into which our minds may be lifted, to be given visions of what life with the Lord may be in earth and heaven. To see it from a mountain is to see it as angels see it. Was it not another vision from a mountain when the Lord led the disciples and others into the mountain in Galilee and taught them of the Christian life in the Sermon on the Mount? After a vision from the mountain we must come down to live with the Lord's help the life which we have seen, to conquer the enemies which oppose, and to dwell in the promised land and the holy city. (R. 896)

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