Deuteronomy 4:3

_YOUR EYES HAVE SEEN WHAT THE LORD DID BECAUSE OF BAALPEOR: FOR ALL THE MEN THAT FOLLOWED BAALPEOR, THE_ _ LORD THY GOD HATH DESTROYED THEM FROM AMONG YOU._ Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baal-peor. It appears, from this appeal to the spectators of the event, though it is not recorded in the history, that the pestilence and the sword of justice overtook only the guilty in that affair (Numbers 25:1), while the rest of the people were spared. The allusion to that recent and appalling judgment was seasonably made as a powerful dissuasive against idolatry; and the fact mentioned was calculated to make a deep impression on people who knew and felt the truth of it....

3._Your eyes have seen what the Lord did. _This enlargement more clearly shews that so conspicuous was the example given in the punishment, that it could not be hidden from even the most ignorant; for Moses does not here address those of refined judgment, but the common people generally, who had only been spectators. Assuredly, if God’s vengeance had been less manifest, he would not have so confidently appealed to them as witnesses; hence was their stolidity the less excusable, if they were blind to so plain and notorious a fact. His praise of their constancy I refer to the present case alone; for it is abundantly clear that they did not persevere in cleaving to God. The meaning is, that there was a manifest discrimination in this Divine chastisement, so that the death of the ungodly multitude should preserve the pure worship of God among the survivors....

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...

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

YOUR EYES HAVE SEEN WHAT THE LORD DID BECAUSE OF BAALPEOR,.... Because of the idolatry the people of Israel fell into by worshipping that idol, being drawn into it by the daughters of Moab and Midian, through the counsel of Balaam, with whom they committed fornication; which led them to the other sin, and both highly provoking to God. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan are, "what the Word of the Lord has done to the worshippers of the idol Peor;'' FOR ALL THE MEN THAT FOLLOWED BAALPEOR, THE LORD THY GOD HATH DESTROYED THEM FROM AMONG YOU; 24,000 persons died on that account; which being a recent thing, fresh in memory, and what they were eyewitnesses of, was a caution to them to avoid the same sins, as it is to us on whom the ends of the world are come, Numbers 23:9....

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

MEN. Hebrew. _ish_. See App-14. Baal-peor. See note on Deuteronomy 3:29 and Numbers 25:1; Numbers 25:9; Psalms 106:28; Hosea 9:10; 1 Corinthians 10:8. DESTROYED. exterminated. Hebrew. _shmadh._...

Enforcement of the Impending Legislation The main purpose of the discourse, the enforcement of the Laws about to be given, for on the practice of these depends Israel's survival in the Land (Deuteronomy 4:1 f.) let them remember Ba-al-Pe-or! (Deuteronomy 4:3 f.) as well as their wisdom and fame as a people (Deuteronomy 4:5 f.); what other has such a God or such laws? (Deuteronomy 4:7 f.). Deuteronomy 4:1 closely joins with the preceding Deuteronomy 1:6

LESSON FOUR DEUTERONOMY 4:1-43 B. SIGNIFICANCE OF PAST EVENTS (Deuteronomy 4:1-40) 1. BLESSINGS PROMISED FOR THOSE WHO HEED GOD'S ALL-SUFFICIENT LAW (Deuteronomy 4:1-8) a. PROSPERITY (Deuteronomy 4:1-4) And now, O Israel, hearken unto the statutes and unto the ordinances, which I teach you, to do them; that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which Jehovah, the God of your fathers, giveth you. 2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish from it, that ye may keep the commandments of Jehovah your God which I command you. 3 Your eyes