Deuteronomy 4:32-5:33

Deuteronomy 4:32-5:33

The next section of Deuteronomy 4 is a great summary of Moses’ main point in his speech to this newer generation of Israelites. He speaks of God’s greatness, rhetorically asking what other “god” had ever chosen a people for “himself” and taken care of them and protected them in the way that God had done. He goes on to explain that there is no other god who had done or would ever do anything like God had done for Israel, for His chosen people. The main reason was because as he had stated previously there is no other god period. But he knew that it was easy for man to create their own gods, and Moses was making a clear distinction between the God that they served and man-made gods. But it is not enough to know what God has done for us in our lives, for Moses goes on to explain that because of God’s love and protection for His children, we are to respond in obedience, keeping His commands.

From here, Moses restated the Ten Commandments. He had done this once before in Exodus 20 when he first received the Law from the Lord and spoke it before this generation’s fathers. Now he was doing it again to make sure that this newer generation of Israelites knew the law, and therefore had no excuse to break it. Plus, it is always good to be reminded of these things. As humans, we are forgetful creatures. How many times have you been told to do something before and you failed to do it? Did you have to be reminded again? Or again? It is easy to harp on the Israelites on how they forgot so many times what God had done for them, but we do the same thing. Instead of looking at reminders of how we should behave in a negative light, maybe we should learn to take it as advice, as a brother or sister lovingly reminding us of how we should act so that we can show others the truth. If people are going to see Jesus in our lives, which has to happen if we wish to fulfill the Great Commission, then we have to remain in obedience to His commands. So maybe we should lovingly remind our brothers and sisters in Christ of the law, of the way we should act, so that in the end Christ might be glorified and many will come to know Him by the way we choose to live our lives.

Moses finishes Deuteronomy 5 by explaining what Israel’s response had been to the Ten Commandments. It was a positive response, a people excited about following God. But as we have already seen, that excitement did not last long. For when Moses was on the mountain receiving the rest of the law, Israel built the Golden Calf, worshiping it rather than God. Again, let’s not be too quick in condemning Israel’s actions. Although they were most definitely wrong in what they had done, we make the same mistakes. How many times do we go to a camp or a conference or hear a good sermon and get excited about living for God? And then how many times do we lose that excitement and go back to the way we were within just a few days or weeks? See we are just like Israel in many ways, more ways than we often want to admit. Their story just shows that it is not easy to live for God, but it is expected from us.

Matt