Deuteronomy 5

Deuteronomy 5:1-5

In this chapter we have a repetition of the ten commandments. 1. 1. The general intent of them; they were in the nature of a covenant between God and Israel, vers. 1—5. 2. The particular precepts are repeated, vers. 6. 3. The people I request that they might not hear God’s voice, but not the mediation of Moses, vers. 23—27. 4. God grants that it should be so, vers. 28—31. 5. The obligation they were under to obedience, vers. 32, 33.

1. AND Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and ye keep and do them. 2. ‘The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3. ‘The LORD made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day. 4. ‘The LORD talked with you face to face in the mount, out of the midst of the fire, 5. (I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to draw you the word of the LORD: for ye were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up into the mount) saying,

Moses summons the people, as many as could come within hearing, to attend the charge he was farther to deliver; and needful it was that they should thoroughly know, what they were so solemnly bound to obey. He calls upon them to hear the statutes, moral, ceremonial and judicial, which God delivered in Horeb, when he talked with them face to face, with an admitting familiarity; and where they conforming to God’s commands, a covenant was established between them,

where-

wherein God engaged to be their God to bless them, and they to be his servants to obey him, whilst Moses, as mediator, stood between them. Now, (1.) There can be no covenant between God and the soul, but through the one mediator Jesus Christ, whom Moses prefigured. (2.) The promises of the covenant engage our hearts to all holy obedience. (3.) There is not only a common obligation lying upon believers to be obedient, because it is their duty, but, as interwired in the covenant, a peculiar one, because they profess it to be their choice.

6. ¶ I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of a bondage. 7. Thou shalt have none other gods before me. 8. Thou shalt not make thee any graves in usage, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth. 9. Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, ‘visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, 10. And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. 11. ‘Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain: for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 12. Keep the Sabbath day to landlife it, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee. 13. ‘Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: 14. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy Son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thine ox, nor thine all, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy grave; that thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou. 15. And remember that thou walt a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence, through a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath-day. 16. ¶ ‘Honour thy father and thy mother, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged: and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. 17. ‘Thou shalt not kill. 18. ‘Neither shalt thou commit adultery. 19. ‘Neither shalt thou steal. 20. Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbour. 21. ‘Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour’s wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour’s house, his field, or his man servant, or his maid-servant, his ox, or his all, or any thing that is thy neighbours. 22. ¶ The words the LORD spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice, and he added no more; and he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.

7. 6-22. We have here the ten commandments which God delivered on Hoveth or Sinai, two summits of the same mountain. Some little variations are observable from Exod. xx. the ten general limits of them is exactly the same. After the fourth commandments, the reason for observing a sacred rest which before was taken from the creation, is here urged from their deliverance from Egypt. They had been servants themselves, therefore knew how welcome a day’s rest would be to their own servants. Their redemption also was typical of our own, and we, in memory of Christ setting from his glorious work on his reformation day, observe it as our day of sacred rest, to celebrate his triumphs over sin, death, and hell, and to prepare to triumph with him, when we shall finally rest from our labours in eternal bliss. The commands are here all connected, as before separate, for they are links of one chain, and he who offended in one point is guilty of all. The fifth commandment hath some addition, which the Apostle Aph. vi. 3. quotes, That it may be well with thee, for it goes ill with disobedient children, which God’s blinding is upon the dutiful. The whole was delivered with the most awful appearances, for not to excite awful apprehensions of that God with whom they had to do, and that law which was delivered to them. Of itself, the law is a misinformation of condemnation to fallen man, and could only serve to begin terror in the guilty conscience; but it was given to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. To preserve these commands from being forgotten, they are written on durable tables, and laid up in the ark for a memorial to succeeding generations. Note, The writing the scriptures is what we can never enough be thankful for; thus we are not left to uncertain traditions, but may continually apply to the unadulterated fountain of truth.

8. And ‘it came to pass when ye heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness (for the mountain did burn with fire) that ye came near unto me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders. 24. And ye said, Behold, the LORD our God hath shewed us his glory, and his greatness, and ‘we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and ‘he liveth. 25. Now therefore why should we die? for this great fire will continue us. If we ’t hear the voice at the LORD our God any more, then we shall die. 26. For who is there of all flesh that hath heard the voice of the living God, speaking out of the midst of the fire (as we have) and lived? 27. Go thou near, and hear all that the LORD our God shall say; and ‘speak thou unto us all that the LORD our God shall speak unto them, and we will hear it, and do it. 28. And the LORD heard the voice of your words, when ye spake unto me; and the LORD said unto me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken unto thee: ’they have well said all that they have spoken. 29. ‘O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever! 30. Go by to them, Get you into your tents again. 31. But as for thee, stand thou here by me, and I will speak unto thee all the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments which thou shalt teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess it. 32. Ye shall observe to do therefore as the LORD your God hath commanded you: ‘you shall not turn alike to the right hand or to the left. 33. You shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess.

Behold, I will I see I read, see 19. ¶ Did see. ¶ That, He is Hea. see, 19. ¶ Chap. xviii. ¶ Chap. xxii. 19. ¶ Did, he said 19. 20. ¶ And, 21. ¶ And, 22. 37. ¶ Job. i. 7.

6. 23-33. Overcome with the displays of the terrible Majesty they behold, and trembling at the voice of God, they can no longer endure this method of immediate communion with him, lest they die. Note, (1.) Fallen man is naturally in terrors at God’s voice. But, (2.) In Christ Jesus, we are not afraid to approach him, because we know it is the voice of love. They propose.

7. That God would speak to them, not immediately himself, but through Moses, their mediator. They had defoiled him before, but they value him now when he can stand their friend. Awakened conferences for with different eyes.

8. They promise to be obedient. Nothing commoner than under convictions to make great promises, which are usually as soon forgotten, as the labor’s prayers when the flown is over.

9. God condolences to approve their motion, and speaks his desire that these were such a heart in them as now appeared, humble, reverential, and dutiful. Moses is appointed as the mediator between them, and him they must hear. Note, (1.) God is well gilded with every gracious purpose his spirit excites in the heart, and delights in the salvation of his people. (2.) It were well for us, that there were such a constant sense of God, and the things of God upon our minds, as sometimes we feel. (3.) The word God speaks by his prophets and apostles, is as fast as what he speaks by his own voice from heaven, and to be equally regarded: and if the scriptures are neglected, all the appearances of Sinai, if repeated, would never have any effect upon us.

10. Moses infers from all this their obligation to be obedient, and affirms them it in the only way to be happy. No true happiness in time or in eternity is to be enjoyed, but in the way of true holiness.