(Deuteronomy 4:1) "Now therefore hearken, O Israel, to the statutes and to the judgments which I teach you, to do them that you may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers gives you."
In the past chapters of Deuteronomy, Moses had been giving a speech to the Israelites before they went in to possess their promised land. Most of his speech thus far had been a historical review of the events leading up to their present moment. Now he turned to an exhortation to Israel to keep the commands, statutes, and judgments of God that they might live, as the laws of God are always about life and life more abundant, as Jesus later described as the reason He had come, in John 10:10. Following the instruction of their God would also allow them to go in and take possession of the land promised long before to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
(2) “You shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall you take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you."
Moses charged the people to keep the commandments of the Lord just as he had given them to them. They were not to add new laws of their own, nor were they to detract from or make void any part of the law as was given them.
(3) “Your eyes have seen what the LORD did because of Baal Peor, for all the men that followed Baal Peor, the LORD your God has destroyed them from among you."
Moses reminded the children of Israel that they had seen what the Lord had done because of Baal Peor, that is, because of the idolatry the people of Israel fell into by worshiping that idol, having been drawn into it by the daughters of Moab and Midian, through the counsel of Balaam, with whom they committed fornication, which led them to idolatry. The Lord had destroyed those who had followed Baal Peor from among them; 24,000 were killed (Numbers 25:9).
(4) “But you who held fast to the LORD your God are alive today, every one of you."
Moses offered what should seem a word of encouragement that every one of them who held to the statutes and judgments of their Lord and were not idolaters, were alive at that moment, every one of them. I believe there is significance beyond the fact that they were not killed the day the 24,000 were killed. There had since that incident been a war with the Midianites and not one person had died (Numbers 31:49); neither it appeared had anyone died from any other disease or accident. Everyone who held fast to the Lord was alive that day.
(5) "Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should do so in the land which you go to possess."
Moses had faithfully delivered the statutes and judgments of the Lord just as the Lord had commanded he do, instructing the people in the way they should act when they finally possessed their promised land.
(6) "Therefore keep and do them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations which shall hear all these statutes, and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’"
Moses charged the people with keeping and doing the commandments of the Lord for in them was their wisdom and their understanding. I am reminded of the scripture that tells us, "There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the LORD" (Proverbs 21:30). There is no wisdom apart from God; no human scheme can prevail against Him. There is also, "For the LORD gives wisdom; out of His mouth comes knowledge and understanding" (Proverbs 2:6). If they kept the laws of their Lord, the nations would hear and marvel that theirs was a great and wise nation.
(7) "For what nation is there so great, that has God so near to it, as the LORD our God is in all we call upon him for?"
Moses reflected about there being no other nation that had God so near to it, having communication with Him, being able to call upon Him for all its needs to help and deliver it from all dangers. It's not that Israel in itself was so great, but it was great because of the guidance of their Lord who had chosen them to be His people.
(8) "And what nation is there so great that has statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?"
Moses continued in reflecting about how great a nation theirs was to have such wise and righteous statutes and judgments, as the law their Lord had given them.
(9) “Only take heed to yourself, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but teach them to your sons and your sons' sons."
Moses stressed that the people be mindful of the laws of God and careful to adhere to them, and to keep their souls from transgressions, lest they forget the things they had witnessed from their God and they allow worldly lusts to replace God in their hearts. Moses exhorted the people to teach God's laws to their children and their grandchildren.
(10) "The day you stood before the LORD your God in Horeb, when the LORD said to me, ‘Gather the people to Me, and I will make them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days that they shall live on the earth, and they may teach their children.'"
Moses reminded the people of the day they stood before the Lord, albeit some were not yet born at that time; nevertheless God Himself gave the people the law in fire and thunder, an awesome event that surely was cemented in the young minds of those who witnessed it, and the report of it impressed upon those who were not yet born and able to witness it. God's purpose at the time was to so impress upon the people that their God Himself gave this law that they honor and revere Him as Lord and Lawgiver, and teach their children the same.
(11) "And you came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire to the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness. (12) And the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire; you heard the voice of the words, but saw no form; you only heard a voice."
Moses more vividly described the day the people received the Ten Commandments. They stood at the foot of the mountain that burned with fire and smoke that went up into the air, and thick darkness and clouds covered the sky. The Lord had spoken to them out of the midst of the fire; the people saw no form of God, but only heard His words.
(13) "And He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone."
Moses reminded the people that it was God Himself who pronounced His Ten Commandments to them, commanding them to do them; and it was God Himself who wrote the Ten Commandments on two stone tablets. Exodus 31:18 told us of that particular event, when God had given Moses two tablets of stone "written with the finger of God".
(14) “And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might do them in the land in which you go over to possess."
Moses reflected that the Lord had commanded him at that time to teach the people statutes and judgments that they follow in their promised land. These were all the statutes and judgments besides the Ten Commandments that Moses gave mostly in the book of Leviticus.
(15) “Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, (16) Lest you corrupt yourselves, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure--the likeness of male or female, (17) The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flies in the air, (18) The likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth."
Moses reminded the people that they had seen no form of God when He spoke to them to give them the Law, so he warned them to be careful not to fall into the temptation of making carved or sculpted images of a god they had formed in their own minds, with the likeness of a man or woman, or of any beast, bird, or fish, lest they corrupt themselves and fall into idolatry, and also corrupt and defile God by the images they created.
(19) "And lest you lift up your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the LORD your God has divided to all nations under the whole heaven."
In addition, Moses warned the people against the temptation of looking up toward heaven and feeling driven to worship the sun, moon, or stars. Those things had been placed there by God. The rotations and revolutions of the moon and earth divided them among the nations, sometimes one part of the earth enjoying them, and then another, but they were not present with all the people all at once, which it would seem would be necessary if any of them were a god.
(20) “But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be His people, an inheritance, as you are this day."
Moses reminded the people that their God had brought them out of the fiery furnace, a reference to their hell and bondage in Egypt, to be His own people, His own inheritance, as they continued to be at the day Moses spoke to them.
(21) “Furthermore the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I would not cross over the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance."
Once again Moses reminded the people that it was for their sakes that the Lord was angry with him. I can't help but wonder if Moses was a bit resentful of the people because it was their seemingly constant faithlessness that stoked his anger and may have driven him to his actions. However, it was Moses himself who spoke contrarily to what the Lord had told him and did not act in the way the Lord had commanded him, and therefore did not sanctify the Lord in the eyes of the children of Israel. Adam Clarke, in his Commentary on the Bible, wrote a little more generously about Moses and suggested that his point was that if the Lord was so angry with Moses so as to bar him from entering the promised land, could the people think to escape the Lord's wrath if guilty of greater provocations? That does appear to be a good explanation since that comment was inserted at this point.
(22) “But I must die in this land, I must not cross over the Jordan; but you shall cross over and possess that good land."
Moses lamented that he must die in the land east of Jordan and would not be allowed to cross over into the good promised land. However, he assured the children of Israel that they would cross over Jordan and possess that good land promised to them.
(23) “Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the LORD your God has forbidden you. (24) For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God."
Moses exhorted the people one more time to take heed, perhaps the point being because he would not be with them, or else they might forget the covenant their Lord made with them, and make a carved idol which God had forbidden in His Ten Commandments. The people had witnessed that the Lord was a consuming fire as with the men who offered incense with Korah, Dathan, and Abiram (Numbers 16). The Lord is a jealous God in the sense that He is "solicitous or vigilant in maintaining or guarding something", one of the definitions of jealous in the dictionary. We have come to think of jealousy as envy, but that is not the case with God's jealousy. He is certainly not envious of other false gods and idols, but He is solicitous and vigilant in guarding our only means of salvation which is in Him alone. He is intolerant of unfaithfulness and rivalry, once again, not because He is envious, but because it takes us away from our only salvation. Primarily though, a Holy God simply cannot tolerate sin in His presence. That is why we needed Jesus Christ to cover our transgressions with His everlasting sacrifice and atonement for our sins.
(25) “When you beget children and grandchildren and have remained long in the land, and you corrupt yourselves and make a carved image in the likeness of anything, and do evil in the sight of the LORD your God to provoke Him to anger, (26) I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess; you will not prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed."
Moses warned the people that even many years from that point, when they were old and gray and had grandchildren and had lived in their promised land for many years, even if at that point they corrupted themselves by making carved images or idols of any likeness, therefore doing evil by disobeying God and provoking Him to anger, he called heaven and earth as witnesses of the law that had been set before them which so expressly forbade it. Deuteronomy 30:19 gives a further explanation of this call: "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live." Once again we see that God's jealousy is one that guards us against death; He wishes that all should come to Him and not perish; He wants us to choose life in Him, and His laws help us to live. Moses warned that if the people in the future should forget their God and make idols that they would soon thereafter perish from their promised land.
(27) “And the LORD will scatter you among the nations, and you will be left few in number among the heathen where the LORD will drive you."
Continuing his warning started in verse 25, if the people forgot their covenant with their Lord and made idols, the Lord would scatter them among the heathen nations, and they would be left few in number.
(28) “And there you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell."
Among the heathen nations they would find what it was like to serve worthless idols which could do nothing for them.
(29) "But if from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. (30) When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, if you turn to the LORD your God and obey His voice, (31) (For the LORD your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them."
What a beautiful promise! Even if the children of Israel forgot their God and were driven from their promised land to live among the heathen nations, if they then turned back to their God, genuinely seeking Him with all their hearts, He promised to be found. Even when they found themselves in tribulation in the future, if they turned back to their Lord and were obedient to His word, because their Lord was a merciful God, and only punished in an effort to have them return to their only source of salvation, He would not forsake or destroy them, but would remember His covenant with their fathers.
(32) "For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one side of heaven to the other, whether there has ever been anything as great as this thing, or has ever been heard like it?"
Moses exhorted the people to inquire into and consult the annals of history, ever since God created man, from as far and wide as they could examine, if there had ever been anything as great as they had experienced, as he would go on to further detail in the next few verses.
(33) “Did people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live?"
First he asked had any people ever heard the voice of God out of the midst of fire, as they had, and lived? They had distinctly heard God's voice in the midst of the fire that represented His presence, and they were not consumed by His awesome presence.
(34) "Or has God tried to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst 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?"
Moses then asked had there ever been another time when God chose a people for Himself and took them out of another nation by all the means and miracles, and by His own mighty hand, as He had done for them when He delivered them from Egypt and brought them to this point on the eve of their entering their promised land.
(35) “To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD Himself is God; there is none else besides Him."
Moses pointed out that all those signs and miracles had been shown to them alone that they would see that their Lord was the only true God of the universe and that there were no other besides Him.
(36) “Out of heaven He let you hear His voice, that He might instruct you; on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire."
Out of heaven God had allowed the children of Israel to hear His voice, and He had allowed them to see a symbol of Him in the fire, and they had heard His voice out of the midst of the fire to instruct them on how they should live.
(37) “And because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them; and He brought you out of Egypt in His sight with His mighty power, (38) To drive out nations from before you greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day."
Because God had loved Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He had chosen their descendants to be His own special people, and He had brought them out of Egypt to be in His presence; and with His mighty power, He had driven and would continue to drive out nations greater and mightier than theirs, to bring them in to their promised inheritance.
(39) "Know therefore this day, and consider it in your heart, that the LORD Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is none else."
Moses exhorted the people to realize and know in their hearts that their Lord was God of all the heavens above them, and of all the earth, and that there was no other God but Him.
(40) “You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the LORD your God gives you forever."
Knowing that He was the one and only God who chose them to be His people, they should keep all the statutes and commandments that Moses had given them, so that they should be blessed, and their children after them, that they might live long in the land the Lord had given them.
(41) Then Moses set apart three cities on this side of the Jordan, toward the rising of the sun, (42) That the manslayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without having hated him in time past, and that by fleeing to one of these cities he might live.
Then Moses set apart three cities of refuge on the east side of the Jordan. To those cities a manslayer could flee to safety if he had accidentally and without malice killed his neighbor. In Numbers 35:14 God had commanded that there be three cities of refuge on the east side of the Jordan River. The law stated that anyone who murdered was to be put to death. However, God provided cities of refuge where someone who had accidentally killed another could flee to safety, safe from the avenger, the family member of the slain person trying to avenge the victim's death. A person in the city of refuge could stay there in safety until his case was judged.
(43) Bezer in the wilderness in the plain country of the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead of the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan of the Manassites.
The three cities of refuge that Moses appointed were Bezer in the plain of the land allotted to the Reubenites; Ramoth, that part of Mount Gilead that had been appointed to the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, that kingdom of Og, of the land allotted to that half tribe of Manasseh. Adam Clarke wrote that the cities of refuge were a symbol of the salvation by Christ to sinners, and that the names of the cities were thought to "express some attribute of the Redeemer of mankind". I don't totally see that in these cities' names. Bezer literally meant "an inaccessible spot"; Ramoth meant "heights"; and Golan meant "captive". They just sound like names of safety and refuge, but that certainly does define salvation in Christ. Brown-Driver-Briggs' Hebrew Definitions defined Golan more fully as "their captivity: their rejoicing".
(44) And this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel: (45) These are the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which Moses spoke to the children of Israel after they came out of Egypt, (46) On this side of the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel defeated after they came out of Egypt.
These and the last few verses of this chapter comprise a big build-up to what was to follow in the next chapter, a review of the laws, statutes, and judgments that Moses had previously delivered to the children of Israel after they had come out of Egypt, on their current side of the Jordan River in the land that had formerly belonged to Sihon king of the Amorites, but had been overtaken by Israel.
(47) And they possessed his land, and the land of Og king of Bashan, two kings of the Amorites, which were on this side Jordan toward the rising of the sun; (48) From Aroer, which is by the bank of the river Arnon, even to Mount Sion, which is Hermon, (49) And all the plain on this side Jordan eastward, even to the sea of the plain, under the slopes of Pisgah.
The introduction to the review of the laws continued. The description of their current place east of the Jordan River that they now possessed also included the land of Og, another king of the Amorites. They possessed the land from Aroer on the Arnon River in the south to Mt. Hermon (also called Sion) in the north, and all that plain east of the Jordan, as seen in this map:
Their possession included all that plain east of the Jordan, but also the slopes of Mt. Pisgah on the eastern side of the Dead Sea in the south. Although Pisgah is not marked on the map, it is near Mt. Nebo. They possessed the land north of the Arnon River, east of the Dead Sea in the slopes of Pisgah.
This chapter was mainly Moses's exhortation to the children of Israel to keep the commands, statutes, and judgments of God, and his warning against disobedience. This was his introduction to a review of the laws in the next several chapters.
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