Here, 1. Moses summons the assembly. He called all Israel; not only the
elders, but, it is likely, as many of the people as could come within
hearing, v. 1. The greatest of them were not above God's command, nor
the meanest of them below his cognizance; but they were all bound to
do. 2. He demands attention: "Hear, O Israel; hear and heed, hear and
remember, hear, that you may learn, and keep, and do; else your hearing
is to no purpose." When we hear the word of God we must set ourselves
to learn it, that we may have it ready to us upon all occasions, and
what we have learned we must put in practice, for that is the end of
hearing and learning; not to fill our heads with notions, or our mouths
with talk, but to rectify and direct our affections and conversations.
3. He refers them to the covenant made with them in Horeb, as that
which they must govern themselves by. See the wonderful condescension
of divine grace in turning the command into a covenant, that we might
be the more strongly bound to obedience by our own consent and the more
encouraged in it by the divine promise, both which are supposed in the
covenant. The promises and threatenings annexed to some of the
precepts, as to the second, third, and fifth, make them amount to a
covenant. Observe, (1.) The parties to this covenant. God made it, not
with our fathers, not with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; to them God gave
the covenant of circumcision (Acts vii. 8), but not that of the ten
commandments. The light of divine revelation shone gradually, and the
children were made to know more of God's mind than their fathers had
done. "The covenant was made with us, or our immediate parents that
represented us, before Mount Sinai, and transacted for us." (2.) The
publication of this covenant. God himself did, as it were, read the
articles to them (v. 4): He talked with you face to face; word to word,
so the Chaldee. Not in dark visions, as of old he spoke to the fathers
(Job iv. 12, 13), but openly and clearly, and so that all the thousands
of Israel might hear and understand. He spoke to them, and then
received the answer they returned to him: thus was it transacted face
to face. (3.) The mediator of the covenant: Moses stood between God and
them, at the foot of the mount (v. 5), and carried messages between
them both for the settling of the preliminaries (Exod. xix.) and for
the changing of the ratifications, Exod. xxiv. Herein Moses was a type
of Christ, who stands between God and man, to show us the word of the
Lord, a blessed days-man, that has laid his hand upon us both, so that
we may both hear from God and speak to him without trembling.