Commentary on Harmony of the Law Volume 1 Complete John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
23. And he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers.
23. Atque nos eduxit inde, ut introduceret nos, ac darer nobis terram de qua juravit patribus nostris.
24. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day.
24. Itaque praecepit Jehova ut faciamus omnia statuta ista, ut timeamus Jehovam Deum nostrum in bonum nostrum omnibus diebus, ut conservaret nos in vita, ut in hac die.
25. And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us.
25. Et justitia erit nobis quum custodierimus ut faciamus omne praeceptum istud coram Jehova Deo nostro, quemadmodum praecepit nobis.
20. And when thy son asketh thee. The sole point which Moses urges in these verses is, that the people should testify their gratitude by obeying the Law, and that the same religion,232 which he commands the fathers to teach, should descend to their posterity. The sum is, that there was good reason why all the precepts of the Law should be observed, since by them it was that God desired His people, after their deliverance, to shew forth their sense of His loving-kindness. Again, therefore, in this passage, he commends the Law by reminding them of their redemption, that the people might more willingly and more earnestly reverence it; for its authority has stronger claims upon them, because it was not imposed before God had laid them under obligation to Himself; and it would have been too base and absurd in them to refuse God as their Lawgiver, when they knew that by Him they had been purchased to Himself. In the next place He reminds them that for the same object they had been constituted the heirs of the land of Canaan, that they should honor God as the author of this special favor; thus he concludes that they are bound by a two-fold tie, for God had devoted them to Himself not once only, but had confirmed His dominion over them by their continued possession of the land. But there is nothing inconsistent in his saying that the land was promised by oath to their fathers before the Law was given; for, although God bestowed this gift gratuitously, Addition in Fr., "qu'il a apprinse de Dieu;" which they have learnt of God.