Keep His Decrees And Commands

Deuteronomy 4:1,35,37-40 – Now, Israel, hear the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you…You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other…Because he loved your ancestors and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength, to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today. Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the Lord your God gives you for all time.

Exodus 15:11 – Who among the gods is like you, Lord? Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?

Deuteronomy 11:1 – Love the Lord your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always.

Psalm 105:43-45 – He brought out his people with rejoicing, his chosen ones with shouts of joy; he gave them the lands of the nations, and they fell heir to what others had toiled for—that they might keep his precepts and observe his laws. Praise the Lord.

Application:

• ·         Moses insisted that there was only one God.
• ·         The Lord, who tolerates no rivals, defeated all the gods of Egypt and their worshipers.
• ·         God’s call to His people to hear and obey is a frequent theme in Deuteronomy and elsewhere in the Old Testament.
• ·         Love and obedience are frequently linked in Scripture.
• ·         God’s redemptive working in fulfillment of His covenant promise has as its goal the creating of a people in the earth who conform their lives to His holy will.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

He Loved

Deuteronomy 4:36-38 – From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the fire. Because he loved your ancestors and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength, to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today.

Hebrews 12:25 – See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven?

Jeremiah 31:3 – The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.

Hosea 11:1 – “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.

Malachi 2:11 – Judah has been unfaithful. A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the Lord loves by marrying women who worship a foreign god.

Deuteronomy 6:5 – Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

Exodus 25:30 – Put the bread of the Presence on this table to be before me at all times.

Application:

• ·         Since we have greater revelation, we have greater responsibility and therefore greater danger.
• ·         “He loved” is the first reference in Deuteronomy to God’s love for His people. The corollary truth is that His people should love Him.
• ·         The Hebrew underlying “drawn…with unfailing kindness” is translated “Continue…love”.
• ·         Hosea saw God’s love as the basis for the election of Israel.
• ·         Marriages to pagan women were strictly forbidden in the covenant law, not for ethnic or cultural reasons but because they would lead to apostasy.
• ·         Love for God and neighbor is built on the love that the Lord has for His people and on His identification with them. Such love is to be total, involving one’s whole being.
• ·         The bread of the Presence represented a perpetual offering to the Lord by which the Israelites declared that they consecrated to God the fruits of their labors and by which the nation at the same time acknowledged that all such fruit had been provided only by God’s blessing.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Besides Him There Is No Other

Deuteronomy 4:10,35 – Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when he said to me, “Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.”…You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other.

1 Samuel 2:2 – “There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.

Isaiah 43:10 – “You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me.

Deuteronomy 6:4 – Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Application:

• ·         Moses insists that there is only one God.
• ·         Rock was a metaphor to depict the strength and stability of the God of Israel as the unfailing source of security for His people.
• ·         God’s work in behalf of Israel is proof of His saving power.
• ·         The divine call to Israel to remember the Lord’s past redemptive acts—especially how He delivered them from slavery in Egypt—is a common theme in Deuteronomy and is summarized: “Remember the days of old”.
• ·         The truth revealed to Israel that God is one and that this one God created all things, sustains all things and governs all things stood in radical opposition to all the religions of the ancient Near Eastern world. All of Israel’s neighbors had to come to terms in their daily lives with scores of gods, each with its own sphere of influence, its own limitations, its own petty self-interests and its own morally erratic ways. But Israel could live serenely in the knowledge that all things and all times were under the rule of one divine King, whose ways are righteous and whose purpose with her and through her is salvation for humankind—from sin and judgment and every evil that has burdened human life.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Wonders And Deeds

Deuteronomy 4:7,32-34 – What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?...Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

Jeremiah 9:16 – I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known, and I will pursue them with the sword until I have made an end of them.”

Psalm 9:1 – I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.

Psalm 40:5 – Many, Lord my God, are the wonders you have done, the things you planned for us. None can compare with you; were I to speak and tell of your deeds, they would be too many to declare.

Exodus 15:11 – Who among the gods is like you, Lord? Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?

Deuteronomy 34:12 – For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.

Application:

• ·         The warning “I will scatter them” was given as one of the curses for persistent covenant unfaithfulness.
• ·         The Lord’s presence was symbolized by the tabernacle in the center of the camp, and by the pillar of cloud over the tabernacle.
• ·         Wonderful deeds are God’s saving acts, sometimes involving miracles and sometimes not, but always involving the manifestation of God’s sovereign lordship over events.
• ·         God’s actions in behalf of Israel are according to His predetermined purpose.
• ·         The Lord, who tolerates no rivals, defeated all the gods of Egypt and their worshipers.
• ·         Until Jesus came, no one was superior to Moses.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Covenant...Confirmed...By Oath

Deuteronomy 4:31 – For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath.

Deuteronomy 31:6 – Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Joshua 1:5 – No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Psalm 9:10 – Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.

Genesis 22:15-18 – The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed,because you have obeyed me.”

Exodus 19:5-6 – Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”

Application:

• ·         By trusting in the Lord and obeying Him, His followers would be victorious in spite of great obstacles.
• ·         God was with Joshua to direct, sustain and assure success.
• ·         “Those who know your name” are those who acknowledge in their hearts who the Lord is and also live out that acknowledgment.
• ·         There is no greater name in which the Lord can take an oath than His own name.
• ·         Participation in the divine blessings is conditioned on obedience added to faith.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Distress

Deuteronomy 4:30 – When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey him.

Psalm 4:1 – Answer me when I call to you, my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; have mercy on me and hear my prayer.

Hosea 3:5 – Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days.

Jeremiah 3:1 – “If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him and marries another man, should he return to her again? Would not the land be completely defiled? But you have lived as a prostitute with many lovers—would you now return to me?” declares the Lord.

Application:

• ·         David was distressed by the threat of being publicly discredited by the slander of those who blame Him for the nation’s troubles.
• ·         The Hebrew for “last days” occurs 13 times in the Old Testament, sometimes simply meaning the future, but most of the time, as no doubt here, referring to the Messianic age.
• ·         “Return to me” means repent of your sins against me.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

With All Your Heart And...Soul

Deuteronomy 4:29 – But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Hosea 3:5 – Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days.

Amos 5:4-5 – This is what the Lord says to Israel: “Seek me and live; do not seek Bethel, do not go to Gilgal, do not journey to Beersheba. For Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will be reduced to nothing.”

Deuteronomy 6:5 – Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

Application:

• ·         “With all your heart and…soul” indicates total involvement and commitment. The phrase is applied not only to how the Lord’s people should seek Him but also to how they should fear Him, live in obedience to Him, love and serve Him, and, after forsaking Him, renew their allegiance and commitment to Him.
• ·         Israel’s repentance is envisioned by the phrase “return and seek the Lord”—the reverse of her present stubborn rebellion.
• ·         If the people of Israel would seek the Lord, they could yet escape the violent death anticipated in Amos’s lament.
• ·         Love for God and neighbor is built on the love that the Lord has for His people and on His identification with them. Such love is to be total, involving one’s whole being.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV