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Again the context speaks of the heart turning away, and the people not hearing, and so
being led to worship other gods.
"Gather unto me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these
words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to record against them. For I know that
after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I
have commanded you, and evil will befall you in the latter days" (Deut. 31: 28, 29).
Can anyone read these words, and not think of Paul, when he too said:
"For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you,
not sparing the flock" (Acts 20: 29).
Are we not prepared to find that Paul, too, use diamarturomai in this same speech?
"Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks" (Acts. 20: 21).
The parallel is maintained also with reference to the warning concerning "the last days".
If the parallel between Moses and Paul is marked in this thirty-first chapter of
Deuteronomy, surely it is even more so when we record the last occurrence of
diamarturomai:
"And Moses came and spake all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he
and Joshua the son of Nun . . . . .Set your hearts unto all the words, which I testify among
you this day . . . . . the Lord said to me . . . . . die . . . . . and be gathered unto thy people"
(Deut. 32: 44-52).
Here, Joshua, the successor of Moses, is parallel with Timothy the successor of Paul.
Here Moses knew that he was to die, and Paul knew that the time for this departure had
come. Here Moses, who failed to sanctify the Lord under the great provocation of Israel,
reveals that he had lost the reward of entering the land, whereas Paul could blessedly
reveal that he had kept the faith, and that for him was reserved a crown. Surely, Timothy
would remember that the title given him of the "Man of God" was borne by Moses who
failed in this high matter, and of Elijah who triumphed! Would not these things crowd in
upon him as he read that solemn word diamarturomai, for from a child he had known
these sacred letters. In the first epistle to Timothy, Paul had used this solemn word:
"I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels, that thou
observe these things without referring one before another, doing nothing by partiality"
(I Tim. 5: 21).
The introduction of the elect angels here, though strange to our ears, is parallel with
the calling upon heaven and earth by Moses, or the reference to the Lord's appearing and
kingdom in II Tim. 4: 1. This association of "elect angels" with a solemn adjuration is
illustrated in Agrippa's speech, where he sought to dissuade them from war with the
Romans.