Deuteronomy 4

Deuteronomy 4:41-49

In this chapter we leave, 1. A well enough and sufficient education to abide, yet, 2—40. 2. The appointing the other of refuge on that fide Jordan, yet, 41—43. 3. The particular description of the place where Moses delivered the following repetition of the laws, yet, 44—49.

1. NOW therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the flatutes, and unto the judgments which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers giveth you. 2. Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish right from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you. 3. Your eyes have seen what the LORD did because of “Baal-pear” for all the men that followed Baal-pear, the LORD thy God hath destroyed them from among you. 4. But ye that did cleave unto the LORD your God are alive every one of you this day. 5. Behold, I have taught you flatutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. 6. Keep therefore and do them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these flatutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. 7. For what nation is there is great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for? 8. And what nation is there is great, that hath flatutes and judgments so righteous, as all this law which I set before you this day? 9. Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy God diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons, and thy sons, 10. Sparingly the day that thou shouldst before the LORD thy God in I loreb, when the LORD said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children. 11. And ye came near and stood under the mountain, and the mountain burnt with fire unto the t midds of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness. 12. And the LORD spake unto you out of the midds of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude, “I only ye heard a voice. 13. And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments, and he wrote them upon two tables of stone. 14. And the LORD commanded me at that time, to teach you flatutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it. 15. Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves (for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb, out of the midds of the fire) 16. Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17. The likeness of any head that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that ditch in the air, 18. The likeness of

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any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth: 19. And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seeft the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the hoft of heaven, shouldst be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven. 20. But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day. 21. Furthermore, the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, and Iwate that I should not go over Jordan, and that I should not go in unto that good land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance. 22. But I must die in this land, I must not go over Jordan: but ye shall go over and possess that good land. 23. Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing which the LORD thy God hath forbidden thee. 24. For the LORD thy God is a confining fire, even a jealous God. 25. When thou shalt beget children, and children’s children, and shalt have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the LORD thy God, to provoke him to anger: 26. I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto you go over Jordan to possess it: ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed. 27. And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left free in number among the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you. 28. And there ye shall serve gods, the works of mens hands, wood and flour, which neither fee, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. 29. But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart, and with all thy food. 30. When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice: 31. (For the LORD thy God is a merciful God) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he Iwate unto them. 32. For all, none of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and of from the one side of heaven unto the other, whither there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it? 33. Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midds of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live? 34. Or, hath God affixed to go and take him a nation from the midds of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched-out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35. Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightst know that the LORD he is God, “Here is none else besides him. 36. Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he might infruct thee, and upon earth he shewed thee his great fire, and that he had heard his words out of the midds of the fire. 37. And because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their feed after them, and brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt: 38. To drive out nations from before thee, greater and mightier than thou art, to bring thee in to give thee their land for an inheritance, as it is this day. 39. Know therefore this day, and consider it in thy heart, that the LORD he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath there is none else. 40. Thou shalt keep therefore his flatutes, and his commandments which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayst prolong thy days upon the earth, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for ever.

9. 1—40. The review of God’s providences towards them are here earnestly applied, as arguments for their fidelity and obedience, with the most solemn charge to enforce them upon their consciences.

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He begins with commanding deep and serious attention to so awful a subject. The word of God can never be heard with sufficient reverence and godly fear. It is the character of the man to whom God will look, that he trembleth at his word. 1. Moses charges them with careful preservation of the sacred truth committed to them. They may not add to the word of truth, by inventions or tradition, nor diminish from it, by fighting or neglecting what was required them, as superfluous. They must bear God’s word, that they may keep it, obey the precepts, observe the ordinances, and judge according to the laws prescribed them: and herein they cannot be too follicleously careful, when compelled with temptations, a deceitful heart within, and an enforcing world without, against which, all their watchfulness, diligence and prayer would be but enough. Nate, This charge is equally applicable to ourselves: we owe a like scrupulous attention to God’s word, and need the same diligence to keep our hearts, and to walk before God in his holy ways. 2. A particular caution is given (does against idolatry; this was the fin God would be most dishonoured by, and the consequences of it most barely fatal to themselves, v. 15—18. They must make no representation of God in any form, by image or picture. They law no likeness of any thing in Harch; nor can any similitude be conceived of him who is a spirit, and will have those who worship him, to worship him as spirit and in truth: and ideal representations of God must be as much avoided, as sensible figures, least we commit idolatry in our heart. The nations around them worshipped the bulls of heaven, but they must abhor the thought of giving that honour to the creature, which was due only to the Creator: the sun, moon, and stars, might tempt their eye, and examples of others be apt to enslave them, but how absurd, as well as impious, were it to worship that which was made to serve us? They are the works of God, and whatever glory they possess, the praise is due to him alone. What a mercy to be delivered from blind idolatry? Whilst we pray those who worship the visible luminaries of heaven, may every view of them lead up our hearts in adoration to him who formed them. 3. They are not only to take heed to themselves, but to teach their children. Parents have an awful truth repulsed in them, to instruct their children in the knowledge of God’s ways, and to lead them by precept and example to walk therein. 4. He repeats his warning, not to forget the covenant of the Lord, v. 23. assured, that if they bore in mind the riches of the promises therein made, and the faithfulness of God engaged for their fulfillment, then nothing would ever be able to shake their constancy and fidelity. Nate, A constant remembrance of God’s covenant, is the most quickening means to our diligent obedience.

Moses supposes this charge with the most forcible arguments; for to be godly in Christ Jesus, is the most reasonable service imaginable. 1. He urges the benefit of their obedience, v. 1. and the danger of rebellion, v. 3. They would be unfeasibly gainers by the one, and as great losers by the other. Nate, Inherent, as well as duty, is on the side of religion. 2. He mentions their relation to God, as their own and their father’s God, with the obligations thence resulting to serve and obey him. Nate, If God be our God, it is highly reasonable we should approve ourselves his faithful people. 3. He pleads the wisdom of such fidelity: it is most agreeable to reason, as well as most conducive to their own happiness; and could not but procure them the respect and admiration of the nations around them, v. 6. Religion is the truth wisdom, and even those who reject it themselves, stand in awe of it, and reverence it in others. 4. He enforces their duty, by the privileges they enjoyed. [1.] As being near to God, and having his eyes open to hear and grant every request. Nate, (1.) God’s Israel are a praying people; a prayerless God is truly heathenish. [2.] None was upon him in faith, who go without an answer of peace. [2.] As being possessed of a code of laws to excellent and equitable in themselves, so conducive to promote personal and national security and felicity. All that is human, is defective: the book of God alone contains the decisions of perfect equity, and the laws of perfect wisdom. [3.] As having heard God himself speaking to them from the midst of the fire; a singular favour, which no other nation could hold of beside themselves. We hear no more this audible voice now, but we have his gentler and sweeter call in the written word; and this voice, whosoever is of the truth, receives with delight, and obeys in simplicity. [4.] As having experienced such singular mercies in their deliverance from Egypt, and of the wonders they had seen in the wilderness, v. 34—27. and having still greater mercies in prospect, v. 36. Nothing is so powerful to engage the heart, as a deep and grateful sense of God’s goodness to us. 5. Moses urges the glorious character of God. [1.] He is a jealous God, and a consuming fire; his eye keen to discern, and his arm strong to punish every disobedience. We need be jealous over ourselves therefore, itself we provide that wrath, which if it be kindled against us, will burn to the unthrewned hell. [2.] He is a merciful God, v. 31. and since he will not forsake us, we ought surely never to have or forsake him. [3.] He is the only true God; beside him there is no

other. In heaven he makes the bright displays of his radiant glory, and earth is the foothold of his throne, and not beneath his care and government. To him therefore are we bound to submit, and him only to serve. 6. The fatal consequences of apostasy from God, are strongly profited upon them, v. 25—31. They should be utterly destroyed, scattered among the nations, and given up to the vileth service of idols. Nate, The sin by which we have provoked God, he may in just judgment give us up to, as our punishment. 7. Yet there is a reserve of mercy promised, whenever they fought God, humbled under his chastisements. Wherever they are, in whatever corner of the earth dispersed, if they cried unto God in their misery, he would hear them, for the sake of the covenant he had made with their fathers, and recover them. When our state is ever so bad, it is a mercy it is not utterly desperate. Nate, (1.) The end of afflictions on the people of God, is to bring them to repentance. [2.] Wherever we seek God in simplicity, however we have before provoked him, he will not utterly forsake us. [3.] His covenant with our glorious head, and second Adam, Jesus, affords us ground to hope, that he will never cast out those, who come to him in this Sun of his eternal Love.

41. ¶ Then Moses ‘severed three cities on this side v. 1. Jordan, toward the Sun-rising: 42. ‘That the days might fire thither, which should kill his neighbour in-4. awares, and hated him not in times paft; and that fleeing unto one of these cities, he might live: 43. Namely, ‘Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, of the 5. Reubenites; and Ramunh in Gilead, of the Gadiites; and Golan in Bafsan, of the Manasites. 44. ¶ And this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel: 45. There are the testimonies, and the Statutes, and the judgments, which Moses spake unto the children of Israel, after they came forth out of Egypt: 46. On this side Jordan ‘in the valley over against Beth-pear, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Hefshon, whom Moses and the children of Israel ‘smore, after they were come forth out of Egypt: 47. And they possessed his land, and the land ‘of Og king of Bafsan, two kings of the Amorites, which were on this side Jordan, toward the Sun-rising; 48. From Amor, which is by the bank of the river Arnon, even unto a mount Sion, which is ‘Hermon, 49. And all the plain on this side Jordan eastward, even unto the sea of the plain, under ’the Springs of Pisgah.

Whilst Moses lived, he laboured to improve the moment in settling the affairs of his people. For which purpose, 1. He fears on the cities of refuge, which were on that side Jordan, in the land of Gilead and Bafsan. 2. He proceeds to open and enforce the testimonies, statutes, and judgments, which had been delivered to them, that at least he might be free from their blood, when he had not shunned to declare unto them the whole counsel of God.