Who ean read this chapter without emotion and admiration for its sublime eloquence! It is one of the most striking and moving chapters in this book!

Moses sets himself to convince the people that they must not suppose that their easy entrance to Canaan was due to conspicuous virtue, but rather to God’s covenant with their fathers, and also to the sinful practices of the Canaanites. Compare verse 5 with Gen. 15:16. The contagion of these sins might have infected and poisoned humanity; therefore they had to be extirpated. Whatever we enjoy is due, not to our merit, but to the infinite grace of God in Jesus Christ, 1 Cor. 15:10.

Ah, my soul, ponder this, for this is true of thee also! All thy past has been filled with failure and rebellion. If thou art still used for God’s service, and art credited

with a good name amongst his people, remember the reason is in the sovereign grace of Jehovah!

“A debtor to mercy alone, Of covenant mercy I sing.”