Israel was now ready to enter the Promised Land (v1-8) so Moses reminded them that they must observe God’s laws so that they may live and go in to possess the land which The LORD their God was giving them. God’s instructions were clear that they must not do anything to His commands, nor take anything away from them. He reminded them of what happened at Baal Peor when He destroyed all the men there for their disobedience. Those who held fast to God’s words remained alive to that very day. Let’s remember that few of these people would remember leaving Egypt, they may have remembered what happened at Baal Peor. However, they were to be careful to obey God’s words when they got into the land which was promised. It would be their wisdom and great understanding in the sight of others, so that they will say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the LORD our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him? And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day?”
No other nation could say this, Israel was a privileged people, and their testimony would be seen by other nations. No other nation had their God so intimate with them. He was ‘near to them’.
It is sometimes necessary to remember our past faults and failures so that we do not repeat them. However, if we have confessed them to God, we need not be held in guilt for them, for they have been forgiven, and God remembers them no more. We can learn from them but not be condemned by them (see Romans 8:1).
The Israelites were promised victory as they trusted in God and obeyed Him. They soon forgot by the time of their second battle against the small place of Ai, where they suffered an ignominious defeat because of their disobedience and the sin of one man, Achan (see Joshua 7).
They were not to add anything to the Word of The LORD nor were they to take anything away from it. The same applies to us today. Paul writing to the Galatians met this problem where Judaisers had infiltrated the church and demanded that they had to be circumcised in addition to their faith. He was amazed and shocked that they had fallen down so soon after he had preached to and taught them that salvation was through faith alone in Jesus Christ. Nothing could be added to it nor taken from it. The warning is stark in Revelation 22:18,19, right at the end of our Bible, “For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”
Sadly, many churches and their leaders are changing God’s Word, and preaching and teaching that God didn’t mean what He said or that it is out of date in today’s so-called enlightened age. The Bible from beginning to end is God’s Word and that is final. We tamper with it at our peril.
Moses particularly tells them to remember and learn from what happened at Mount Sinai (Horeb) (v9-20). Not only were they to keep God’s commands, but they must teach them to their children and grandchildren. God had spoken the Ten Commandments and wrote them on tablets of stone. They would be vital for them when they entered the Promised Land. God reminded them that they heard God’s voice but did not see Him and therefore, they were not to make carved images. They had nothing to copy. They might be tempted to make images of beasts or birds, something they had seen, or to worship the sun, moon and stars and feel driven to worship them, but they had not been led by them, rather The LORD had led them and given them the promised inheritance. They had even promised to serve God, but they had failed. Some religions had made images and did worship them, similarly today. Romans 1:25 relates about those worshiping the creation rather than the Creator. We as believers must not. We worship The One True God by faith.
Moses reminded them that, because of his own disobedience, God had told him that he would not enter the land, and they should learn from that (v21-24). Even Moses was not excused, he believed that they would enter under the leadership of Joshua, and they must obey God’s word. Moses was humble and wise enough to know that God could do this without him, and they must realise that if God dealt like that with Moses, He could also deal similarly with them if they disobeyed.
There was a price to pay for serving other gods, and God made it clear in verses 25-28 – they would utterly perish and be destroyed. They would be scattered among the peoples and left few among the nations where The LORD would drive them. There they could serve other gods, but they would be futile – they can neither see, hear, eat nor smell. Creation would testify against them and even though God had given them the Promised Land, if they worshiped idols, God would remove them. This happened some 500 years later when they were taken into exile to Babylon. There they could worship idols as much as they wanted but it would not do them any good.
There was hope, however, (v29-31) “But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the LORD your God and obey His voice (for the LORD your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.” God, in His great mercy, would not abandon them, He would keep His promise, and be ready to receive them when they repented. They had to seek Him with all their heart and soul. No half-hearted measures.
Jeremiah, the prophet, echoed these words in his letter to the captives in Babylon, recorded for us in Jeremiah 29:8-14 – “For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, nor listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed. For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them, says the Lord. For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.”
Many people today love to extract v11 (‘For I know the thoughts….’) from there and seek to apply it to us all as Christians. Whilst they take it out of context because The LORD is speaking to Israel in exile, it may well be that we can apply it to us, but we must not isolate the verse, particularly, we must read on – ‘Then you will call upon Me…. And pray…. And you will seek and find Me when you search …. with all your heart.’ It is not sufficient to say that God has the best plans for us. We must pray and seek Him whole-heartedly. We, and they, could not just sit back, live as they liked and expect God to put everything right. Seeking God with all our heart and soul must inevitably show itself by complete obedience to God.
Another possible problem raises itself – The Promised Land is not a picture of heaven as some songs/hymns would indicate. There was sin in the Promised Land, and they could be removed from it. Not so with heaven. There is no sin there, no sorrow, no death, and no danger of losing our place. In Luke 16:26 Jesus said, “And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.” There is no danger of falling out of heaven into hell, and likewise, no possibility of getting into heaven from hell, and no purgatory. We must make our destination sure whilst here on earth and the only way is through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.
We used to sing a gospel song years ago – ‘If you want to be up there, then down here you must prepare, and your name must be in the book of life’.
Moses asked them to consider what God had done for them and those from the day of creation. How God had spoken to them personally and to consider that nothing like that had happened before. No other nation had heard God’s voice as they had, they were special in God’s sight and privileged like no other. God had revealed Himself to them and they were to know that God is The One True God. Accordingly, they were to keep His laws so that it would go well with them and their children, to prolong their days in the land which The LORD was giving them for all time. (v32-40)
He had done great and miraculous things for them so how could they not serve Him?
Similarly, we are asked the same question – how can we not serve Him when we consider all that He has done for us? He sent His Son to die for our sins after living a perfect, sinless life. The Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself as a sacrifice in our place. He died and rose again to give us new life. No other god has done that. How can we reject Him? We would be eternally lost without Him and bound for hell. He has brought us out of darkness into light, brought sight to our blind eyes and brought us into His family. What greater rescue could we have?
In Numbers 35 we read that Moses set up cities of refuge and here in Deuteronomy 4:41-43 we have the same account. Moses appointed three cities on the east side of the Jordan where the person who had killed another, without intent or hated, could flee to for safety. Of course, they were not yet in the Promised Land on the west side of the Jordan, so these were the only ones he could appoint at this stage. The cities were Bezer for the Reubenites, Ramon for the Gadites and Golan for the tribe of Manasseh.
Finally, in this chapter, Moses restated the law of God to the Israelites (v44-49). This was absolutely necessary as they prepared to enter the land. He reminded them, once more, of how The LORD had been with them despite their disobedience and wanderings in the wilderness. How He had defeated Sihon, at Heshbon and Og king of Bashan, two kings of the Amorites. It was vital that they knew God’s law otherwise they would not be able to defeat the nations in Canaan, nor would they know how to live there. This was their rallying call to obedience. Moses, himself, was an example to them of their need for obedience, as he was not permitted to enter the land.
