Deuteronomy 4:1-23
4 1-2 Now listen, Israel, listen carefully to the rules and regulations that I am teaching you to follow so that you may live and enter and take possession of the land that God, the God-of-Your-Fathers, is giving to you. Don’t add a word to what I command you, and don’t remove a word from it. Keep the commands of God, your God, that I am commanding you.
3-4 You saw with your own eyes what God did at Baal Peor, how God destroyed from among you every man who joined in the Baal Peor orgies. But you, the ones who held tight to God, your God, are alive and well, every one of you, today.
5-6 Pay attention: I’m teaching you the rules and regulations that God commanded me, so that you may live by them in the land you are entering to take up ownership. Keep them. Practice them. You’ll become wise and understanding. When people hear and see what’s going on, they’ll say, “What a great nation! So wise, so understanding! We’ve never seen anything like it.”
7-8 Yes. What other great nation has gods that are intimate with them the way God, our God, is with us, always ready to listen to us? And what other great nation has rules and regulations as good and fair as this Revelation that I’m setting before you today?
9 Just make sure you stay alert. Keep close watch over yourselves. Don’t forget anything of what you’ve seen. Don’t let your heart wander off. Stay vigilant as long as you live. Teach what you’ve seen and heard to your children and grandchildren.
10 That day when you stood before God, your God, at Horeb, God said to me, “Assemble the people in my presence to listen to my words so that they will learn to fear me in holy fear for as long as they live on the land, and then they will teach these same words to their children.”
11-13 You gathered. You stood in the shadow of the mountain. The mountain was ablaze with fire, blazing high into the very heart of Heaven. You stood in deep darkness and thick clouds. God spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but you saw nothing—no form, only a voice. He announced his covenant, the Ten Words, by which he commanded you to live. Then he wrote them down on two slabs of stone.
14 And God commanded me at that time to teach you the rules and regulations that you are to live by in the land which you are crossing over the Jordan to possess.
15-20 You saw no form on the day God spoke to you at Horeb from out of the fire. Remember that. Carefully guard yourselves so that you don’t turn corrupt and make a form, carving a figure that looks male or female, or looks like a prowling animal or a flying bird or a slithering snake or a fish in a stream. And also carefully guard yourselves so that you don’t look up into the skies and see the sun and moon and stars, all the constellations of the skies, and be seduced into worshiping and serving them. God set them out for everybody’s benefit, everywhere. But you—God took you right out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to become the people of his inheritance—and that’s what you are this very day.
21-22 But God was angry with me because of you and the things you said. He swore that I’d never cross the Jordan, never get to enter the good land that God, your God, is giving you as an inheritance. This means that I am going to die here. I’m not crossing the Jordan. But you will cross; you’ll possess the good land.”
Poor Moses! After a forty-year sojourn in the wilderness rather than a swift victorious entry into Canaan, he knows he has lost the opportunity forever. But Moses is a man of amazing faith and spiritual maturity and he is still operating under God’s orders. Now Moses is seriously warning the Israelites to remain faithful and not to divert into idolatry. Actions have consequences, and Moses does everything possible to warn the Israelites and to delineate the horrors that will overtake them should they worship idols.
“Now listen, Israel, listen carefully to the rules and regulations that I am teaching you to follow so that you may live and enter and take possession of the land that God, the God-of-Your-Fathers, is giving to you. Don’t add a word to what I command you, and don’t remove a word from it.” The title of these studies is “BUT GOD, DO I REALLY HAVE TO OBEY YOU? WHY?” Throughout this chapter, Moses alternates between reminding the Israelites of the times they have failed to follow God faithfully and warning them of the consequences if they mess up.
Moses reminds his listeners, “You saw with your own eyes what God did at Baal Peor, how God destroyed from among you every man who joined in the Baal Peor orgies. But you, the ones who held tight to God, your God, are alive and well, every one of you, today.”
Moses has no illusions; he realizes that many of the Israelites are secretly keeping household gods and sneaking off to worship the moon and the stars. Moses also knows that God knows even more details about Israelite idolatry than he does. Desperately, Moses tries to remind the Israelites of the majesty and power of God, but all the time Moses is issuing these warnings, he is worried that the Israelites won’t take God seriously.
What can we learn from this passage? Actions do have consequences and God doesn’t play games. As a prophet, Moses senses that many of the Israelites are going to degenerate into idolatry. Moses knows that God is holy and must be respected, worshiped, and obeyed. No amount of empty promises will satisfy the One True Living God.
The entire Book of Deuteronomy is so inspiring and yet heart-breaking: inspiring because it encapsulates magnificent promises but heart-breaking because we know how tragically Israel will fail as they fall increasingly farther away from God. May we remain faithful to God, no matter what happens to us.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help us to follow hard after You all the days of our lives. Help us to remain true, no matter what influences are pressing on us. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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