(22) To walk in all his ways.--"He is compassionate, and thou shalt be compassionate. He showeth mercies, and thou shalt show mercies." Again Rashi's comment is worthy of the New Testament. What follows shows the need of a mediator.
To cleave unto him.--Is it possible to speak so? Is He not "a consuming fire "? (and how can we cleave unto Him?) "But cleave unto wise men and their disciples (the students of the Law), and I tell thee it will be as though thou didst cleave unto Him." In New Testament language this would read, "Be ye followers of me, as I am of Christ;" and "He that receiveth Me, receiveth Him that sent Me."
Verses 22-25. - If they were sedulous to keep God's commandments, and faithfully adhered to him, loving him and walking in all his ways, he would drive out before them the nations of the Canaanites, and cause them to possess the territory of nations greater and mightier than themselves. Every place on which the soles of their feet should tread should be theirs, i.e. they had but to enter the land to become possessors of it. This is more exactly defined as restricted to the land the boundaries of which are given - from the Arabian desert on the south to Lebanon on the north, and from the river Euphrates on the east to the Mediterranean on the west (Deuteronomy 1:7). From the wilderness and Lebanon; read, even unto Lebanon; הַעֶ בָנון is for עַד־הַלְּ בַנון(cf. עדהַיָּם in the end of the verse). The uttermost sea; rather, the hinder sea (Numbers 34:6), the sea that lay behind one looking to the east (ver. 26; cf. Deuteronomy 7:24; Deuteronomy 2:25; Exodus 23:27).
11:18-25 Let all be directed by the three rules here given. 1. Let our hearts be filled with the word of God. There will not be good practices in the life, unless there be good thoughts, good affections, and good principles in the heart. 2. Let our eyes be fixed upon the word of God, having constant regard to it as the guide of our way, as the rule of our work, Ps 119:30. 3. Let our tongues be employed about the word of God. Nor will any thing do more to cause prosperity, and keeping up religion in a nation, than the good education of children.
For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you to do them,.... Observe and take notice of them, even all of them, and so as not merely to have a theory or notional knowledge of them, but to put them in practice:
to love the Lord your God; and show it by obeying his commands, and which is the end of the commandment, and the principle from which all obedience should flow:
to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him; see Deuteronomy 10:12.
To cleave unto him.--Is it possible to speak so? Is He not "a consuming fire "? (and how can we cleave unto Him?) "But cleave unto wise men and their disciples (the students of the Law), and I tell thee it will be as though thou didst cleave unto Him." In New Testament language this would read, "Be ye followers of me, as I am of Christ;" and "He that receiveth Me, receiveth Him that sent Me."
to love the Lord your God; and show it by obeying his commands, and which is the end of the commandment, and the principle from which all obedience should flow:
to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him; see Deuteronomy 10:12.