Read Deuteronomy 4:1–10
Questions from the Scripture text: How does Moses transition from the historical background to calling upon Israel to heed the sermon (Deuteronomy 4:1)? What does He call God’s commandments? What two things is Israel to do with them? What two things will YHWH be giving them through this obedience? What does verse 1 call Him? What two things must they not do to the Word (Deuteronomy 4:2)? In order that they may do what? Whose commandments are they? But who is commanding them? What had their eyes seen (Deuteronomy 4:3)? What had He done? To whom? What did Moses’s hearers do instead (Deuteronomy 4:4)? With what result? What has Moses done (Deuteronomy 4:5)? Who commanded him to do this? What are they to do? Where? What must they be, in order to observe them (Deuteronomy 4:6)? What will it be unto them? Before whose sight? What will they say? What is the implied answer to the rhetorical question in Deuteronomy 4:7? What is Israel’s greatness? For what additional purpose is YHWH their God near them? What else is Israel’s greatness (Deuteronomy 4:8)? What is Moses doing with these statutes and righteous judgments? To what else must they take heed (Deuteronomy 4:9)? What else must they do with themselves? Lest they do what two things? What else must they do with YHWH’s statutes and righteous judgments? To whom? Especially concerning which day (Deuteronomy 4:10)? What did YHWH say, on that day, to do to the people? To gather them for what? In order that they would learn to do what? For how long? And to do what else with those words?
How does Moses introduce the law of God? Deuteronomy 4:1–10 looks forward to the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these ten verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that God’s law is important, divine, for doing, rewarding, and personal.
Moses has completed the background between the Lord and His people. As he prepares to exposit the Ten Commandments, he now urges the sermon upon the people.
The statutes and judgments are from YHWH, God of their fathers, Who is giving them the land (Deuteronomy 4:1). They come from the same love. And the Lord has given these commands as the path to the life and inheritance that He has promised them. All of God’s commands are that way; they are the path of life. You should receive them as kindness and generosity from Him. Though Christ alone earns our life, obedience is the path of life (Deuteronomy 4:4), and disobedience is the path of death (Deuteronomy 4:3). Obeying His law is holding fast to Him Himself (Deuteronomy 4:4).
They are from YHWH alone. Man must not add to, or take away from, the commandments of God (Deuteronomy 4:2). God alone is Lord of the conscience.
Having urged the importance of the commandments, Moses also tells them what to do with the commandments. They must act according to those statutes and judgments (Deuteronomy 4:5). Doing the commandments requires that they be careful of them (Deuteronomy 4:6). They are to take heed to themselves (Deuteronomy 4:9), remembering the giving of the commandments at Sinai (Deuteronomy 4:10). They were to keep that day in their hearts and teach their children and grandchildren the things that they saw (Deuteronomy 4:9).
Moses tells them what they gain by keeping the commandments: being a nation whose greatness is the Lord. Man does not have wisdom and understanding from himself, but God’s people have wisdom and understanding that is from Him—and how great is this wisdom and understanding (Deuteronomy 4:6)! And their greatness is also in the nearness of God to hear them (Deuteronomy 4:7). And their greatness is also in the righteousness of their statutes and judgments (Deuteronomy 4:8). Following God’s law is the way of life for those for whom God Himself is their greatness.
Moses reminds them that the law was given as a personal interaction between God and the people (Deuteronomy 4:10) —a personal interaction to bring a personal response: fearing Him and teaching their children to do the same. Dear reader, you must respond to God’s commands as those personally interacting with Him Himself.
How does your life evidence treating God’s law as important? What are you tempted to add to His law? What are you tempted to take away from it? How have you gone about (or will you go about) teaching His law to children and grandchildren? How are you personally interacting with the God of the law?
Sample prayer: Lord, thank You for gathering us to Yourself and telling us Your law. Grant that we would be careful to do it, taking heed to ourselves, and teaching our children, we ask through Christ, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP78B “O Come, My People” or TPH174 “The Ten Commandments”
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