23 Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you. 24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
25 “When you father children and children’s children, and have grown old in the land, and you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger, 26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27 And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. 28 And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. 29 But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after 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, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. 31 For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.
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 end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. 33 Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? 34 Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him. 36 Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire. 37 And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them1 and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, 38 driving out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day, 39 know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. 40 Therefore you shall 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 that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”
41 Then Moses set apart three cities in the east beyond the Jordan, 42 that the manslayer might flee there, anyone who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without being at enmity with him in time past; he may flee to one of these cities and save his life: 43 Bezer in the wilderness on the tableland for the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.
Section Overview: Exile and Restoration; Election and Revelation; Cities of Refuge
This chapter holds notable parallels with the last speech of Moses; both contain warnings against idolatry and a description of its dire consequences. Deuteronomy 30:17–19 may be verbally compared with 4:25–26: God summons heavens and earth as witnesses against the disobedience of Israel, that they will quickly perish from the land. When they are scattered among the nations, they will seek God with all their heart; when they turn to God, he will have compassion on them and gather them into the land their fathers inherited (4:27–31; 30:1–10). Exile, repentance, and renewal of divine grace are formulated in almost identical terms. The whole book of Deuteronomy is considered a witness against Israel because of the danger of disobedience (31:24–26). Deuteronomy 31:16–26 forms an envelope with 4:23–40. Both passages anticipate the exile but provide assurance of the faithfulness and mercy of God in restoring his people. Just as Moses anticipated the exile, he foresaw the restoration, which will be realized when the people repent.
The Hebrew text traditions separate the designation of the cities of refuge in Deuteronomy 4:41–43 from the speech of Moses. The last line of verse 40 is left open, indicating a major break (parashah petuhah) before a new topic follows. The chapter divisions indicate that all of verses 41–49 are supplementary to the sermon. Chapter divisions were a relatively late Christian addition by Stephen Langton of Canterbury while lecturing in Paris (c. AD 1204–1205). They were probably based on earlier divisions attributed to Archbishop Lanfranc. These divisions were transferred into the Hebrew from the Latin. All systems of division are subjective, and the divisions are not consistent. The introduction to the second speech logically begins with the Torah that Moses set before the people of Israel (4:44). The content of the second speech consists of the Ten Words of the covenant followed by explanatory rules, regulations, commandments, and stipulations.
Section Outline
Response
Moses concludes with a final warning concerning the obligation of the covenant. The presence of the covenant must carry with it a continual fear of being unfaithful. God is a consuming fire, as Israel has experienced on several occasions. If Israel learns to fear God, she will fear nothing else. God will never forget her; nor can he be unfaithful to his promise (Deut. 4:31–35). Never has there been a redemption like that of Israel, not from the beginning of humanity in any place from one end of heaven to the other. Never has there been this kind of revelation (vv. 36–39). God has demonstrated his love consistently. There can be no fear before God whose mercy endures forever and whose power has no limit. If love for God fails, all that can remain is fear of wrath as a consuming fire.
The new covenant is openly declared by the Lord Jesus at the Last Supper (Luke 22:20). In baptism, the believer publicly confesses allegiance to the new covenant, just as Israel does upon its entrance into the Promised Land. This covenant is affirmed each time believers partake of the Lord’s Table. Failure to observe this confession must evoke the greatest of fear. What must be the consequence for one that tramples underfoot the blood of the new covenant and causes outrage to “the Spirit of grace” (Heb. 10:29)? “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31). There can be no fear for the person secure in the grace of the one who shed his blood for the forgiveness of sins in the new covenant. There must be great fear of denying that covenant vow declared publicly in baptism.