John Calvin Commentary Deuteronomy 29:10

"Ye stand this day all of you before Jehovah your God; your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Israel," — Deuteronomy 29:10 (ASV)

Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God. Again Moses, as God’s appointed²⁶¹ representative, sanctions the doctrine he proclaimed with a solemn charge. For this purpose, he says that the Israelites stood there not only to hear God's voice but also to enter into a covenant with Him, so that they would apply themselves seriously, and with appropriate reverence, to fulfill the promise they had made.

He not only addresses their leaders, but after beginning with the officers, the elders, and men,²⁶² he includes the little children and the wives, so that they might understand that their entire people, from the least to the greatest, were bound to keep the Law. Indeed, he adds all the foreigners who had devoted themselves to the service of the God of Israel, and states particularly that even the gatekeepers and servants²⁶³ were included in the covenant, so that the minds of those who derive their origin from the holy Patriarchs would be more solemnly impressed.

Moreover, so that they might accept the covenant with greater reverence, he says that it was established with an oath. Now, if perjury between people is detestable, it is much less pardonable to be false to what you have promised God by His sacred name.

Finally, he requires that the covenant should be reverenced, both for its advantages and its antiquity. Nothing was more advantageous for the Israelites than to be adopted by God as His people; this incomparable advantage, therefore, should rightly make the covenant pleasing. And, besides the immense greatness of this blessing, God had anticipated them with His grace many ages²⁶⁴ before they were born.

It would have been, therefore, very disgraceful not to embrace eagerly and ardently such a significant pledge of His love.

Nevertheless, the question arises here: how could the little children have entered into the covenant when they were not yet of a suitable age to learn (its contents; ²⁶⁵)? The answer is simple: although they did not receive the promised salvation by faith, nor, on the other hand, renounce the flesh so as to dedicate themselves to God, they were still bound to God by the same obligations their parents took upon themselves. For, since the grace was common to all, it was fitting that their consent to testify their gratitude should also be universal, so that when the children came of age, they would more cheerfully strive for holiness, remembering they had already been dedicated to God.

For circumcision was a sign of their adoption from their mother’s womb. Therefore, although they did not yet possess faith or understanding, God had paternal power over them because He had conferred such a great honor upon them.

Thus, nowadays, infants are initiated into the service of God,²⁶⁶ whom they do not yet know, by baptism; because He marks them as His own special people and claims them as His children when He grafts them into the body of Christ.

Moses goes further, stating that their descendants were bound by the same covenant, as if already enslaved to God. And surely, since slavery passes on by inheritance, it should not seem absurd that the same right should be assigned to God that mortal men claim for themselves. What he says, then, is equivalent to reminding the Israelites that they covenanted with God in the name of their offspring, so as to devote both themselves and those belonging to them to His service.

²⁶¹ “Stipulator.” — Lat. “Un notaire stipulant.” — . “Un notaire stipulant.” — Fr..

²⁶² “Peres de famille.” — Fr..

²⁶³ “Calones, et lixas.” — Lat. “Les buscherons, porteurs de bagages, et gouiats;” the wood-carriers, baggage-porters, and soldiers’-boys. — . “Les buscherons, porteurs de bagages, et gouiats;” the wood-carriers, baggage-porters, and soldiers’-boys. — Fr..

²⁶⁴ “Quatre cens ans;” four hundred years. — Fr..

²⁶⁵ Added from Fr..

²⁶⁶ “Luy sont consacrez par le baptesme, pour estre siens;” are consecrated to Him by baptism, to be His own. — Fr..