Deuteronomy 4:1

_NOW THEREFORE HEARKEN, O ISRAEL, UNTO THE STATUTES AND UNTO THE JUDGMENTS, WHICH I TEACH YOU, FOR TO DO THEM, THAT YE MAY LIVE, AND GO IN AND POSSESS THE LAND WHICH THE LORD GOD OF YOUR FATHERS GIVETH YOU._ Hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments. By statutes were meant all ordinances respecting religion, and the rites of divine worship; and by judgments, all enactments relative to civil matters. The two embraced the whole law of God. THAT YE MAY LIVE, AND GO IN AND POSSESS THE LAND. The enjoyment of the temporal blessings which God had promised to Israel were not to be forfeited by any transgression, except national apostasy, sinning presumptuously, and such like breaches of the fundamental articles of the covenant. The sacred history often represents these as the causes of the divine vengeance against them, as in this context....

1._Now, therefore, hearken, O Israel. _He requires the people to be teachable, in order that they may learn to serve God; for the beginning of a good and upright life is to know what is pleasing to God. From hence, then, does Moses commence commanding them to be attentive in seeking direction from the Law; and then admonishing them to prove by their whole life that they have duly profited in the Law. The promise which is here inserted, only invites them to unreserved obedience through hope of the inheritance. The main point is, that they should neither add to nor diminish from the pure doctrine of the Law; and this cannot be the case, unless men first renounce their own private feelings, and then shut their ears against all the imaginations of others. For none are to be accounted (true) disciples of the Law, but those who obtain their wisdom from it alone. It is, then, as if God commande...

1-23 The power and love of God to Israel are here made the ground and reason of a number of cautions and serious warnings; and although there is much reference to their national covenant, yet all may be applied to those who live under the gospel. What are laws made for but to be observed and obeyed? Our obedience as individuals cannot merit salvation; but it is the only evidence that we are partakers of the gift of God, which is eternal life through Jesus Christ, Considering how many temptations we are compassed with, and what corrupt desires we have in our bosoms, we have great need to keep our hearts with all diligence. Those cannot walk aright, who walk carelessly. Moses charges particularly to take heed of the sin of idolatry. He shows how weak the temptation would be to those who thought aright; for these pretended gods, the sun, moon, and stars, were only blessings which the Lord...

CHAPTER IV _Exhortations to obedience_, 1. _Nothing to be added to or taken from the testimonies of God_, 2. _The people are exhorted to recollect how God had destroyed the_ _ungodly among them_, 3; _and preserved those who were faithful_, 4. _The excellence of the Divine law_, 5, 6. _No nation in the world could boast of any such statutes_, _judgments, c._, 7, 8. _They are exhorted to obedience by the wonderful manifestations_ _of God in their behalf_, 9-13. Moses exhorts them to beware

The general entreaty contained in this chapter is pointed by special mention and enforcement of the fundamental principles of the whole covenant Deuteronomy 4:9, the spiritual nature of the Deity, His exclusive right to their allegiance, His abhorrence of idolatry in every form, His choice of them for His elect people. Compare further Moses’ third and last address, Deut. 27–30....

EXPOSITION DEUTERONOMY 4:1 ADMONITIONS AND EXHORTATIONS. Moses, having presented to the people certain facts in their recent history which had in them a specially animating and encouraging tendency, proceeds to direct his discourse to the inculcation of duties and exhortations to obedience to the Divine enactments. This portion also of his address is of an introductory character as well as what precedes. DEUTERONOMY 4:1 _Exhortation to the observance of the Law generally_._ _The Law was to be kept as a complete whole; nothing was to be taken from it or added to it; it comprised the commandments of Jehovah, and therefore they were not only to do it as what Moses, thei

NOW THEREFORE HEARKEN, O ISRAEL, UNTO THE STATUTES AND UNTO THE JUDGMENTS,.... The laws of God, moral, ceremonial, and judicial, which they are exhorted to attend to and obey, in consideration of the great and good things the Lord had done for them, ever since they came from Horeb, where they were given them; such as providing for them, and feeding them in the wilderness, preserving them from every hurtful thing, and delivering their enemies into their hands, the two kings of the Amorites, which they are put in mind of in the preceding Chapter s; hence this begins with "therefore hearken"; for nothing is a greater incentive to obedience than the kindness and goodness of God: WHICH I TEACH YOU FOR TO DO THAT YE MAY LIVE; the law was taught by Moses, but the Gospel of grace and truth by Jesus Christ; and it was taught by him, as well as it was to be hearkened to by them, in order to yield...

3. HEARKEN, O ISRAEL! CHAPTER 4 _ 1. Obedience demanded (Deuteronomy 4:1)_ 2. The covenant to be observed (Deuteronomy 4:9) 3. Take heed unto yourselves lest ye forget (Deuteronomy 4:15) 4. The warning (Deuteronomy 4:25) 5. Israel, the chosen nation (Deuteronomy 4:32) “Now therefore hearken, O Israel” marks the beginning of the exhortation to keep the law of the Lord. First he had shown the goodness and faithfulness of the Lord and upon that Moses admonishes them to

SECOND PART OF MOSES-' FIRST ADDRESS. This contains exhortations to obedience from motives of self-interest and of gratitude to Yahweh, and forms an apparent logical unity with Deuteronomy 1:6 to Deuteronomy 3:29: but the two pieces had probably a separate origin. The lessons in Deuteronomy 4:1 are not drawn immediately from chs. 1- 3. The writer of 1- 3 has in mind the events which followed the departure from Horeb: that of Deuteronomy 4:1 concentrates attention upon the theophany on Horeb. Deuteronomy 4:27 see

STATUTES. ordinances: Godward. Exodus 12:24; Exodus 12:43; Exodus 30:21.Hebrews 9:1. JUDGMENTS. duties and punishments, manward. First occurrence in plural in Exodus 21:1. The two often united. See Deuteronomy 5:1; Deuteronomy 6:1; Deuteronomy 12:1.