Commentary on Harmony of the Law Volume 1 Complete John Calvin (continued)
HARMONY OF THE LAW · VOLUME 1
God; because the simplicity which retains us in obedience to heavenly teaching, is that spiritual chastity which God requires in His Church. The context of the passage proves this with sufficient clearness, viz., that God would restrain the Jews from all licentiousness, so that being devoted to His service, they should not look this way or that way, nor be carried away by vanity and instability, but constantly abide in the pure worship which He had prescribed to them. For this reason Paul declares that he is jealous for Christ; and because he had "espoused" the Corinthians to Christ, he feared "lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve, through his subtlety," so being ensnared by the wiles of impostors, they should fall "from the simplicity that is in Christ." (2 Corinthians 11:2.)
14. For these nations. As God had just before been setting before them the punishment He was about to inflict upon these nations, in order to alarm and warn them, so now does he admonish them that the inheritance was handed over to them on this condition, that they should be mindful of so great a benefit, and beware of all pollutions; and that they succeeded the former inhabitants of the land, with a view to their being separate from them; for whence was this change, except that God might acquire to Himself a new people, and purify the land from all its defilements? Although He only mentions two classes of superstitions, yet thus, by synecdoche, He indicates them all. The sum is, that they should not be like the nations in vices and corruptions, which had been the cause of their destruction; since God had not only exterminated the men themselves, but their abominable rites also. Some divide the latter part of the verse into two clauses, "but thou shalt not do so;" and then, "Jehovah gives you the land," which last word they supply. But I do not hesitate to think that the pronoun,אתה athah, must be thus rendered, "But as for thee;" and then I think it must be read continuously, "God hath not suffered thee to do so," for the wordנתן, nathan, is of extensive signification. The tendency of the whole is, that the prohibition of God should be of more weight with them than the example of the nations.
Deuteronomy 18:15-18
15. The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;
15. Prophetam e medio tui, ex fratribus tuis, sicut me, suscitabit tibi Jehova Deus tuns: illum audietis.