The Advantages of a Frequent Retrospect of Life
Deuteronomy 8:1-2
All the commandments which I command you this day shall you observe to do, that you may live, and multiply…


I. THE WAY WHICH WE ARE HERE CALLED ON TO REMEMBER, is, "all the way which the Lord our God has led us"; the whole course of His dispensations towards us from the day of our birth to the present hour. Even the most minute occurrences in our history have had some influence on our condition and character; they are affecting us now, and will continue to affect us through an endless eternity. But while all the events of our life ought to be preserved in our memories, those events ought especially to be treasured up there which are more immediately connected with the way that is leading us to heaven.

1. And among these the means by which we were first brought into this way should hold a chief place.

2. We are called on to remember also the afflictions with which we have been visited since we have been walking in the path of life.

3. Neither must our mercies be forgotten in the retrospect of our lives.

4. The sins we have committed in the midst of our afflictions and blessings must also be often retraced; not merely viewed in a mass, but, like our mercies, contemplated one by one with all their aggravations.

II. The remembrance of these things, however, in order to be beneficial to us, MUST BE ACCOMPANIED WITH A LIVELY CONVICTION OF THE OVERRULING PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN ALL THAT HAS HAPPENED TO US, and as lively a sense of His close connection with us. The text points out to us the ends which God had in view in afflicting the Jews, and it consequently affords us the means of ascertaining the reasons of His diversified dispensations towards ourselves.

1. They are intended to humble us. All is humility in that kingdom where God dwells. Here, in this fallen world, the meanest sinner lifts up himself against Him; but there the loftiest archangels cast down their crowns before His footstool. Before we can enter that glorious world we also must learn to abase ourselves.

2. The various changes in our condition have been designed also to prove us.

3. They have a tendency to teach us the insufficiency of all worldly things to make us happy, and the all-sufficiency of God to bless us.

III. These, then, are the immediate purposes for which the Lord has led us through so many trials and mercies in our way to heaven. There are, however, other ends which they have been designed to answer; and that these may be accomplished He commands us to look back on the course in which we have walked, and has CONNECTED WITH THE RETROSPECT MANY SPIRITUAL BENEFITS.

1. A review of the past is calculated to confirm our faith in the Bible. Our lives are practical illustrations of this blessed book. Indeed the whole world and all that is passing therein is one continued commentary on it, and confirmation of its truth.

2. A retrospect of the past has a tendency also to increase our knowledge of ourselves.

3. The remembrance enjoined in the text is calculated also to strengthen our confidence in God. It brings before our mind the help we have received in our difficulties, the supplies in our wants, the consolations in our troubles; and reasoning from the past to the future, we are naturally led to infer that He who never has forsaken us never will forsake us; that the goodness and mercy which have followed us all the days of our life will follow us still; that no vicissitudes in our condition, no tribulation, no distress, no persecution, no peril, "shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

(C. Bradley, M. A.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers.

WEB: You shall observe to do all the commandment which I command you this day, that you may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers.




The Advantages of a Devout Review of the Divine Dispensat
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