Deuteronomy 33:1-5 And this is the blessing, with which Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death.… Moses, having received the direction about his death, proceeds next to formally bless the tribes. We have in these verses the introduction to the blessing. It brings under our notice the Great King himself, and the minor king, Moses, the viceroy. As the parting blessing of him whom God had made "king in Jeshurun," it has more weight and significance than anything which ever came out of the lips of kings. Even David's dying words are not so sublime as these of Moses (cf. 2 Samuel 23:1-7). Let us look first at the Great King, and then at his viceroy who reigned in Jeshurun. I. THE ADVENT OF GOD. He is represented as rising at Sinai, as scattering rays from Seir, and as riding forth in sunlike majesty from Mount Paran. The idea is borrowed from the dawn. Just as, before the sun appears in splendor, the mountaintops are tipped with gold, and then the dawn gathers into glory, and the sun at last steps forth in might, so the Lord made his proximity felt on the top of Sinai; there was a still greater impression made at Self, with the mercy of the brazen serpent; and last of all in Paran, in whose wilderness was Kadesh, the scene of chequered experience and yet abundant blessing, the sunlight having then fully come. God had come as the Light-giver. "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5). Next let us notice his court - "myriads [רִבְבות, which may mean a million] of saints." This cannot refer to Israel, as some suggest, but to the holy ones accompanying the Lord from heaven. What a magnificent array! Only the holy can stand in his sight or constitute his train. Next let us notice his gift to men - "from his-right hand went a fiery. Law for them." This fiery Law can only mean that moral law which penetrates unto the heart with its fiery heat. And all was in love (ver. 3), for the God who is light and fire is also love. The saints are safe in his hand, and they gather round his feet. II. THE VICEROY. He is called here "the man of God," and justly so. He was the man who recognized himself as God's property, as God's servant, as God's minister. And this is why he was "king in Jeshurun." It is consecration to God's glory which secures the real kingship. No kingship is worth the name which consists not in holy influences; and every man is a "king of men" who reigns over them by the sovereignty of intelligent consecration. In these respects Moses was a type of Jesus. Pilate could not understand his kingship through truth; but the world recognizes it. He was so devoted to the Father's glory, and so bent on the good of men, that increasing multitudes every year are owning his sway and accepting of the Law at his mouth. Fiery it is doubtless, fitted to kindle the coldest heart to rapture. As it dwells within us, it molds to highest good the life. - R.M.E. Parallel Verses KJV: And this is the blessing, wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death. |
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