John Calvin Commentary Deuteronomy 29:4

"but Jehovah hath not given you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day." — Deuteronomy 29:4 (ASV)

Yet the Lord hath not given. By reproaching them with their past stupidity, Moses stirs up their desire for a better understanding. It is as if he had said that they had been too long indifferent to so many miracles, and therefore they should no longer delay to rouse themselves and pay greater attention to God. This was not because they had been so senseless that His acts had altogether escaped their notice, but because all acknowledgment of them had immediately come to an end.

For, just as a drunken man, or one suffering from lethargy, when he hears a cry, raises his head for a moment and opens his eyes, and then relapses into a state of torpor, so the people had never seriously applied their minds to consider God’s works. When they had been aroused by some miracle, they had immediately sunk back into forgetfulness. Therefore, there is good cause why Moses should seek to awaken them from their dullness and stupidity by various methods.

But Moses does not merely condemn their senselessness, blindness, and deafness. He declares that they were senseless, blind, and deaf because they were not inspired with grace from above to benefit appropriately from so many lessons. From this we learn that a clear and powerful understanding is a special gift of the Spirit, since people are always blind even in the brightest light, until they have been enlightened by God.

What Moses relates concerning the Israelites is unquestionably common to us all. He declares, then, that they were not induced by the conspicuous glory of God to fear and worship Him, because He had not given them either mind, or eyes, or ears. It is true that at humanity’s creation God naturally bestowed upon us a mind, ears, and eyes. However, Moses means that whatever innate light we have is either hidden or lost, so that, regarding the highest point of wisdom, all our senses lie useless.

It is true that in nature’s corruption, the light still shineth in darkness, but it is a light that is soon obscured. Therefore, the entire understanding and faculty of reason, in which people glory and pride themselves, is nothing but smoke and darkness. David may well then ask that his eyes may be opened to behold the secrets of the Law²⁵⁹ (Psalms 119:18).

Still, this defect by no means frees us from blame, because (as we are told) none have wisdom but those to whom it is given by the Father of lights; for we are ignorant²⁶⁰ through our own fault. Besides, everyone is sufficiently, and more than sufficiently, convicted by his own conscience that his ignorance is closely connected with pride and indolence, and is therefore voluntary.

The word heart is not here used for the seat of the affections, but for the mind itself, which is the intellectual faculty of the soul.

²⁵⁹ The references here are to Psalm 19:13, and , and 18:24, (in the , (in the Fr. 14.) There may be 14.) There may be allusion to to 19:12, and , and 18:28. See . See Calvin’s comments on these passages.comments on these passages.

²⁶⁰ “Desipimus.” —— Lat. “Ainsi hebetez, et desprouvez de sens.” — “Ainsi hebetez, et desprouvez de sens.” — Fr.