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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Deuteronomy 4:25 - 4:40
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The Appeal Supported by a Reference to God's Kindness
v. 25. When thou shalt beget children and children's children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, literally, become old in the land, which would include the forgetting of the former acts of God's mercy, and shall corrupt yourselves, the first zealous love for Jehovah having grown cold, and make a graven image, or the likeness of anything, and shall do evil in the sight of the Lord, thy God, to provoke Him to anger,
v. 26. I call heaven and earth, as living, sensible creatures, to witness against you this day that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed. The witness summoned by Moses would be able to testify to the fact that the Lord had given His people the choice of life and death, Deu_30:19, and therefore was fully justified in punishing unfaithfulness.
v. 27. And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the Lord shall lead you, Lev_26:33. All the judgments of the Lord upon His disobedient people are here included, down to the time of the Romans and the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A. D.
v. 28. And there, in the captivity and in the final dispersal among the nations, ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell, Psa_115:4-5; Psa_135:15-16; Isa_44:9; Isa_46:7. Having rejected Jehovah, they would find themselves condemned by Him in being given up to the foolishness of their idolatrous hearts.
v. 29. But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord, thy God, turning back to Him in true repentance, thou shalt find Him, if thou seek Him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. Cf Luk_15:17. The promise that the children of Israel should find Jehovah is a wonderful and comforting Gospel-message: for it assures them that His kindness, grace, and mercy will be poured out upon the truly repentant sinners once more.
v. 30. When thou art in tribulation, misery, oppression, and all these things are come upon thee, find thee, strike thee, even in the latter days, in the far-distant future, if thou turn to the Lord, thy God, and shalt be obedient unto His voice,
v. 31. (for the Lord, thy God, is a merciful God,) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them. The covenant of God's faithfulness and mercy would not be broken on His side.
v. 32. For ask now of the days that are past, search the records of the world's history from the beginning, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, as far as the world extends, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it.
v. 33. Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live? All of which goes to show that the Lord had singled out Israel for unusual manifestations of His kindness.
v. 34. Or hath God assayed (essayed) to go and take Him a nation from the midst of another nation, as He did in leading Israel out of the midst of the Egyptians, by temptations, by which the position of Pharaoh over against the Lord was tried out, by signs and by wonders, the great plagues of Egypt, and by war, when the Egyptians were about to attack the children of Israel at the Red Sea, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched-out arm, Exo_13:3; Exo_6:6, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord, your God, did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
v. 35. Unto thee, before every other nation on the earth, it was showed that thou mightest know that the Lord, He is God; there is none else beside Him. He is the one exclusive, the one true God.
v. 36. Out of heaven he made thee to hear His voice, Exo_19:9-19, that He might instruct thee; and upon earth He showed thee His great fire, in the burning of Mount Sinai; and thou heardest His words out of the midst of the fire. The purpose of this instruction was to impart a wholesome fear of the sanctity of Jehovah to the hearts of the people.
v. 37. And because He loved thy fathers, from Abraham down, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in His sight with His mighty power out of Egypt, Exo_13:3-14;
v. 38. to drive out nations from before thee greater and mightier than thou art, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an in heritance, as it is this day, for the conquest of the country east of the Jordan was a guarantee of the conquest of the entire country.
v. 39. Know, therefore, this day, and consider it in thine heart, contemplate the lessons of all these happenings most carefully, that the Lord, he is God in heaven above and upon the earth beneath; there is none else, there is only one true God; He is unity.
v. 40. Thou shalt keep, therefore, His statutes and His commandments which I command thee this day, both those pertaining to them, concerning them, as men, and those having reference to them as the covenant people, that it may go well with thee, since they would have Jehovah on their side, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth which the Lord, thy God, giveth thee, forever; for a long and happy life, accompanied by the goodness of the Lord, is a blessing. We Christians also know the precepts of the Lord's holy will and should live in accordance with them. If we are always mindful of the fact that God has redeemed us from the kingdom of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son, we shall also be ready to serve Him in true obedience, to do according to His commandments.