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"The rude architecture and simple structure of the houses, the immense blocks of
roughly hewn basaltic stone of which they are built, seemingly hard and as durable as
iron, the prodigious thickness of the walls, the colossal stone doors, which do not turn on
hinges, but on pivots, and some of which are eighteen inches in thickness, the ponderous
stone flags of the roofs that are laid on massive walls, all indicate their being reared by
the hands and for the habitation of a race of greater strength than ours--a mighty nation
of giants.
The very names by which these cities and towns were known in the days of Og, are
still applied to them by the Arabs; and every circumstances serves to confirm the proof
that in the ancient cities of stone that are found still existing in the Haouran there are
beheld the identical cities of the giant Rephaim--the cities of Og."
Deuteronomy.
#3.
Deut. 32: The song of Jehovah's Name.
pp. 81 - 86
As we have already remarked, much that occupies this fifth book of Moses is a
recapitulation of the past, a revision of the law, and an appeal to the people as they are
about to enter into their inheritance. In the two preceding articles we have sketched the
book as a whole, and considered the opening section with its typical teaching. We now
come to the close of the book and consider the great prophetic Song of Moses.
It would have been an attractive line of thought to regard Moses, in this Song, as
traversing the history of Israel step by step, and the Song itself as capable of being
divided up into sections, each referring to some specific period or dispensation. On
examination, however, this view seemed to lack adequate foundation; so that we must
approach the Song of Moses afresh, seeking from the Author that guidance, without
which all our efforts must fail.
We observe in the opening verses, that the Song is closely related to the publishing of
the name of the Lord:--
"Because I will publish the name of the LORD.
Ascribe ye greatness unto our God.
He is the Rock, His work is perfect:
For all His ways are judgment:
A God of truth and without iniquity,
Just and right is He" (Deut. 32: 3, 4).
The name "Jehovah" was God's name and memorial "for the age". It is given a N.T.
expansion in the Revelation: "He Who was, and is, and is to come." This covenant name
spans the age, and carries with it the pledge that the early promise, though temporarily
suspended, shall yet be realized. This we can trace in the Song before us, which we have
called the Song of Jehovah's Name.