Dt 30:15 “Consider that today I have set before you life and good…”
Before man are life and death, good and, on the contrary, evil and death—set, as it were, as free prey, says Saint John Chrysostom. For God wished life and death to be like a kind of free hunt, as though suspended on high and exposed to the souls of the faithful as something to be seized. To this the Wise Man alludes in Ecclesiasticus 15:17: “He has set before you water and fire; stretch forth your hand to whichever you will; before man are life and death, good and evil; whichever pleases him shall be given to him.”
God, says Jansenius in that same place, has as it were suspended man in the air between two elements: water, as a symbol of refreshment and eternal life; fire, as an expression of the torments of hell.
Dt 30:16 “Walk in His ways,” that is, by obeying His law diligently and continually.
Note that Scripture frequently uses the verb “to walk,” because it belongs to the faithful never to stand still but always to advance on the way of the Lord. “Never,” says Saint Bernard (Epistle 253 to Garinus), “does the just man think he has attained; never does he say, ‘It is enough,’ but he always hungers and thirsts for righteousness, because he has forever devoted himself to the service of God.” Hence Proverbs 4:18 says: “The path of the just is like the shining light, which goes forward and increases unto perfect day.” And Psalm 83:8: “Blessed is the man whose help is from You; he has disposed ascents in his heart, and they shall go from strength to strength.”
Saint Bernard speaks excellently (Epistle 253): “There, Christian, fix your goal of running and progress where Christ has placed it—He who never stood still but rejoiced like a giant to run His course, becoming obedient unto death.”
Dt 30:19 “I call heaven and earth to witness today.”
How heaven and earth are witnesses both of the law, of transgression, and of divine vengeance I explained at chapter 4:26. Here is what Fr. Lapide wrote in commenting on that verse:
“I call heaven and earth to witness today… that you shall quickly perish.”
Note that Moses the prophet, by a figure of speech (prosopopoeia), attributes life, sense, and testimony to irrational creatures, and invokes them as witnesses and judges in a most solemn adjuration, so that they may pierce and move the people more deeply—especially heaven and earth, because these threats and punishments extend to all future generations. Therefore Moses, wishing to preserve the memory of this prophecy and warning, calls as witnesses not mortals (who would soon die) but heaven and earth, because they remain forever. These witnesses are thus immortal and perpetual, enduring through all future times, and with silent voices speaking to God that these things are true—and likewise crying out to men, especially to those who read these words of Moses, that these divine precepts and warnings stand firm.
For all creatures silently obey, consent to, and bear witness to their Creator, to His law and ordinance. Hence in Book of Baruch 3:34 it is said: “The stars gave light in their watches and rejoiced; they were called and said, ‘Here we are,’ and they shone with gladness for Him who made them.” Accordingly, these same creatures silently, as it were, applauded and bore witness to these words of Moses, for he was the herald of God the Creator.
As if to say: I call heaven and earth as witnesses, so that by giving us light (heaven) and sustaining us (earth), while I speak and proclaim these things, they may in fact be mute witnesses that I have foretold them to you. Again, when the plagues that I now predict come to pass, these same will be witnesses that my prophecy and threats were true, and at the same time avengers and cooperators of God, who will inflict these plagues upon you through heaven and earth. For, as it is written in the Book of Wisdom 5:21, “The whole world will fight with Him against the foolish.”
Therefore, if these witnesses had life and voice—or if by miracle God gave them speech as He sometimes has—they would all with one voice cry out and condemn the wicked. But since they do not have speech, they nevertheless cry out silently and with mute voice, condemning the impious.
Thus Isaiah in Isaiah 1:2, when he says, “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth,” uses prosopopoeia toward inanimate creatures so that his speech may be more weighty and full of indignation. And this, first, to signify that the Jews received all their goods from heaven and earth through God; second, because the Jews worshiped the sun, moon, and stones, he now invokes these as their judges; third, and most importantly, because when they themselves would not hear God, he calls upon inanimate things that always obey God, so that the complaint and reproach may be most grave—calling them, as it were, mute witnesses who will someday be avengers of their Creator. Thus, says Rupert of Deutz, heaven will become like bronze to the Jews and earth like iron; but especially on the day of judgment heaven will hurl lightning against them and earth will open beneath them.
In a similar way Moses acts here (Deut 30:19; 31:28; 32:1).
Second, when he calls heaven and earth as witnesses, by metonymy he calls all things that are in heaven and on earth—especially angels and men, who are properly called witnesses, as Theodoret of Cyrus explains. Thus a poet says: “You eternal fires and inviolable divinity I call to witness.” For the Platonists held that the heavenly fires—that is, the stars—are animated by their intelligences or presiding angels, whom they honored as lesser gods, as taught by Plato.
Likewise, when we perform exorcisms and adjure irrational creatures, the adjuration is not directed to them (since they do not understand), but to the rational nature that presides over them and can move them, as says Thomas Aquinas. Thus water, salt, and houses are exorcised: partly the divine power is invoked to be present in the use of these things and to restrain the power of the devil; partly, by divine authority, the devil is commanded to depart and not to cause harm through them. In this way locusts, mice, frogs, hail, storms, and the like are exorcised, so that God may avert their damage and the devil may not harm through them (see Domingo de Soto, On Justice, book 8, question 3, article 3).
“That I have set before you life and death.”
Thus it must be read with the Hebrew, Chaldean, and Septuagint—not “life and good,” as if to say: if you keep this law I promise you life; if you violate it I threaten and proclaim to you a swift and miserable death, both present and eternal. Choose therefore one of the two: life, long and happy here—or death if you transgress.
Dt 30:20 “For He is your life and the length of your days.”
As if to say: God is effectively your life and your longevity, because He will prolong your life if you obey His law. Hence in Acts 17 it is said: “In Him—that is, through Him—we live and move and have our being.”
Beautifully, Dionysius teaches (chapter 6 of On the Divine Names) that God is life essentially in Himself, and again that He is life as the cause of the life of animals, plants, humans, angels, and the blessed—and this in a threefold way: first as exemplar, second as efficient cause, third as final cause.
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