Deuteronomy 4:20

_BUT THE LORD HATH TAKEN YOU, AND BROUGHT YOU FORTH OUT OF THE IRON FURNACE, EVEN OUT OF EGYPT, TO BE UNTO HIM A PEOPLE OF INHERITANCE, AS YE ARE THIS DAY._ But the Lord hath ... brought you forth out of the iron furnace - i:e., a furnace for smelting iron. A furnace of this kind is round, sometimes thirty feet deep, and requiring the highest intensity of heat. Such is the tremendous image chosen to represent the bondage and intense affliction of the Israelites (Rosenmuller). TO BE UNTO HIM A PEOPLE OF INHERITANCE - his special possession from age to age; and therefore for you to abandon his worship for that of idols, especially the gross and debasing system of idolatry that prevails among the Egyptians, would be the greatest folly, the blackest ingratitude....

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...

Verse Deuteronomy 4:20. _OUT OF THE IRON FURNACE_] From this mention of the word _iron furnace_ there can be little doubt that the Israelites were employed in Egypt in the most laborious works of _metallurgy_. Digging, smelting, and forging of _iron_ in so hot a climate must have been oppressive work indeed....

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

BUT THE LORD HATH TAKEN YOU, AND BROUGHT YOU FORTH OUT OF THE IRON FURNACE,.... The allusion is to the trying and melting of metals, and fleeing them from dross, by putting them into furnaces strongly heated, some of which are of earth, others of iron; the word, as the Jewish writers g observe, signifies such an one in which gold and silver and other things are melted; see Psalms 12:6 even "out of Egypt"; which is here compared to an iron furnace, because of the cruelty with which the Israelites were used in it, the hardships they were put under, and the misery and bondage they were kept in; but out of all the Lord brought them, as he does all his people sooner or later out of their afflictions, sometimes called the furnace of affliction, Isaiah 48:10 where their graces are tried, and they are purged, purified

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

IRON FURNACE. Compare Genesis 15:17. Ex. Deuteronomy 3:2; Deuteronomy 3:3; 1 Kings 8:51.Jeremiah 11:4. TO BE, &C. Compare Exodus 19:5.Exodus 9:29; Exodus 32:9....

Against Idolatry The truth that is beneath the whole Law: God is revealed not in images, but by words and deeds of redemption. Warned to lay their experience to heart (Deuteronomy 4:9), Israel are reminded of the revelation at Ḥoreb, solely by words and the covenant (Deuteronomy 4:10-14); let them recall they saw no form (Deuteronomy 4:15) lest they make any idol of any living thing in earth, air or sea (Deuteronomy 4:16-18) or worship the host of heaven, assigned by Jehovah to other peoples (Deuteronomy 4:19)

_VER._ 20. _IRON FURNACE_— The same phrase is used, 1 Kings 8:51 and Jeremiah 11:4 to express the most cruel servitude, wherein God suffered them to be tried, like metals in a furnace of iron. Moses, in the next verse, repeats again, though he had mentioned it twice before, that _the Lord was angry with him;_ which not only shews how near it went to his heart, but, at the same time, admonished them, that if the principal head of their nation, and a person so peculiarly favoured by God, was debarred from so desirable a blessing for a single offence; what must they expect, if revolting from the religion of a God so jealous of his honour, and so fearful in power....