Deuteronomy 4

De 4:1-13.

AN

EXHORTATION TO

OBEDIENCE.

1. hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which

I teach you--By statutes were meant all ordinances respecting religion

and the rites of divine worship; and by judgments, all enactments

relative to civil matters. The two embraced the whole law of God.

2. Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you--by the

introduction of any heathen superstition or forms of worship different

from those which I have appointed

(De 12:32;

Nu 15:39;

Mt 15:9).

neither shall ye diminish aught from it--by the neglect or omission of

any of the observances, however trivial or irksome, which I have

prescribed. The character and provisions of the ancient dispensation

were adapted with divine wisdom to the instruction of that infant state

of the church. But it was only a temporary economy; and although God

here authorizes Moses to command that all its institutions should be

honored with unfailing observance, this did not prevent Him from

commissioning other prophets to alter or abrogate them when the end of

that dispensation was attained.

3, 4. Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baal-peor . . .

the Lord thy God hath destroyed them from among you--It appears that

the pestilence and the sword of justice overtook only the guilty in

that affair

(Nu 25:1-9)

while the rest of the people were spared. The allusion to that recent

and appalling judgment was seasonably made as a powerful dissuasive

against idolatry, and the fact mentioned was calculated to make a deep

impression on people who knew and felt the truth of it.

5, 6. this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the

nations, which shall hear all these statutes--Moses predicted that the

faithful observance of the laws given them would raise their national

character for intelligence and wisdom. In point of fact it did do so;

for although the heathen world generally ridiculed the Hebrews for what

they considered a foolish and absurd exclusiveness, some of the most

eminent philosophers expressed the highest admiration of the

fundamental principle in the Jewish religion--the unity of God; and

their legislators borrowed some laws from the constitution of the

Hebrews.

7-9. what nation is there so great--Here he represents their privileges

and their duty in such significant and comprehensive terms, as were

peculiarly calculated to arrest their attention and engage their

interest. The former, their national advantages, are described

(De 4:7, 8),

and they were twofold: 1. God's readiness to hear and aid them at all

times; and 2. the excellence of that religion in which they were

instructed, set forth in the "statutes and judgments so righteous"

which the law of Moses contained. Their duty corresponding to these

pre-eminent advantages as a people, was also twofold: 1. their own

faithful obedience to that law; and 2. their obligation to imbue the

minds of the young and rising generation with similar sentiments of

reverence and respect for it.

10. the day that thou stoodest before the Lord . . . in Horeb--The

delivery of the law from Sinai was an era never to be forgotten in the

history of Israel. Some of those whom Moses was addressing had been

present, though very young; while the rest were federally represented

the national covenant.

12. ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude--Although

articulate sounds were heard emanating from the mount, no form or

representation of the Divine Being who spoke was seen to indicate His

nature or properties according to the notions of the heathen.

De 4:14-40.

A

PARTICULAR

DISSUASIVE AGAINST

IDOLATRY.

15. Take . . . good heed . . . for ye saw no manner of similitude--The

extreme proneness of the Israelites to idolatry, from their position in

the midst of surrounding nations already abandoned to its seductions,

accounts for their attention being repeatedly drawn to the fact that

God did not appear on Sinai in any visible form; and an earnest

caution, founded on that remarkable circumstance, is given to beware,

not only of making representations of false gods, but also any fancied

representation of the true God.

16-19. Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image--The

things are here specified of which God prohibited any image or

representation to be made for the purposes of worship; and, from the

variety of details entered into, an idea may be formed of the extensive

prevalence of idolatry in that age. In whatever way idolatry originated,

whether from an intention to worship the true God through those things

which seemed to afford the strongest evidences of His power, or whether

a divine principle was supposed to reside in the things themselves,

there was scarcely an element or object of nature but was deified. This

was particularly the case with the Canaanites and Egyptians, against

whose superstitious practices the caution, no doubt, was chiefly

directed. The former worshipped Baal and Astarte, the latter Osiris and

Isis, under the figure of a male and a female. It was in Egypt that

animal-worship most prevailed, for the natives of that country deified

among beasts the ox, the heifer, the sheep, and the goat, the dog, the

cat, and the ape; among birds, the ibis, the hawk, and the crane; among

reptiles, the crocodile, the frog, and the beetle; among fishes, all

the fish of the Nile; some of these, as Osiris and Isis, were

worshipped over all Egypt, the others only in particular provinces. In

addition they embraced the Zabian superstition, the adoration of the

Egyptians, in common with that of many other people, extending to the

whole starry host. The very circumstantial details here given of the

Canaanitish and Egyptian idolatry were owing to the past and

prospective familiarity of the Israelites with it in all these forms.

20. But the Lord hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron

furnace--that is, furnace for smelting iron. A furnace of this kind is

round, sometimes thirty feet deep, and requiring the highest intensity

of heat. Such is the tremendous image chosen to represent the bondage

and affliction of the Israelites [ROSENMULLER].

to be unto him a people of inheritance--His peculiar possession from

age to age; and therefore for you to abandon His worship for that of

idols, especially the gross and debasing system of idolatry that

prevails among the Egyptians, would be the greatest folly--the blackest

ingratitude.

26. I call heaven and earth to witness against you--This solemn

form of adjuration has been common in special circumstances among all

people. It is used here figuratively, or as in other parts of Scripture

where inanimate objects are called up as witnesses

(De 32:1;

Isa 1:2).

28. there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands--The compulsory

measures of their tyrannical conquerors would force them into idolatry,

so that their choice would become their punishment.

30. in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God--either

towards the destined close of their captivities, when they evinced a

returning spirit of repentance and faith, or in the age of Messiah,

which is commonly called "the latter days," and when the scattered

tribes of Israel shall be converted to the Gospel of Christ. The

occurrence of this auspicious event will be the most illustrious proof

of the truth of the promise made in

De 4:31.

41-43. Then Moses severed three cities on this side

Jordan--(See on

Jos 20:7).

44-49. this is the law which Moses set before the children of

Israel--This is a preface to the rehearsal of the law, which, with

the addition of various explanatory circumstances, the following

chapters contain.

46. Beth-peor--that is, "house" or "temple of Peor." It is probable

that a temple of this Moabite idol stood in full view of the Hebrew

camp, while Moses was urging the exclusive claims of God to their

worship, and this allusion would be very significant if it were the

temple where so many of the Israelites had grievously offended.

49. The springs of Pisgah--more frequently, Ashdoth-pisgah

(De 3:17;

Jos 12:3; 13:20),

the roots or foot of the mountains east of the Jordan.