He called heaven and earth to witness.  That was no empty figure of speech.  If you will recollect the story of the Israelites, you will see plainly enough what Moses meant.

The heaven would witness against them.  The same stars which would look down on their freedom and prosperity in Canaan, had looked down on all their slavery and misery in Egypt, hundreds of years before.  Those same stars had looked down on their simple forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, wandering with their flocks and herds out of the mountains of the far north.  That heaven had seen God’s mercies and care of them, for now five hundred years.  Everything had changed round them:  but those stars, that sun, that moon, were the same still, and would be the same for ever.  They were witnesses to them of the unchangeable God, those heavens above.  They would seem to say—­Just as the heavens above you are the same, wherever you go, and whatever you are like, so is the God who dwells above the heaven; unchangeable, everlasting, faithful, and true, full of light and love; from whom comes down every good and perfect gift, in whom is neither variableness nor shadow of turning.  Do you turn to Him continually, and as often as you turn away from Him:  and you shall find Him still the same; governing you by unchangeable law, keeping His promise for ever.

And the earth would witness against them.  That fair land of Canaan whither they were going, with its streams and wells spreading freshness and health around; its rich corn valleys, its uplands covered with vines, its sweet mountain pastures, a very garden of the Lord, cut off and defended from all the countries round by sandy deserts and dreary wildernesses; that land would be a witness to them, at their daily work, of God’s love and mercy to their forefathers.  The ruins of the old Canaanite cities would be a witness to them, and say—­Because of their sins the Lord drove out these old heathens from before you.  Copy their sins, and you will share their ruin.  Do as they did, and you will surely die like them.  God has given you life, here in this fair land of Canaan; beware how you choose death, as the Canaanites chose it.  They died the death which comes by sin; and God has given you life, the life which is by righteousness.  Be righteous men, and just, and God-fearing, if you wish to keep this land, you, and your children after you.

And now, my dear friends, if Moses could call heaven and earth to witness against those old Jews, that he had set before them life and death, a blessing and a curse, may we not do the same?  Does not the heaven above our heads, and the earth beneath our feet, witness against us here?  Do they not say to us—­God has given you life and blessing.  If you throw that away, and choose instead death and a curse; it is your own fault, not God’s?