Deuteronomy 4:8

_AND WHAT NATION IS THERE SO GREAT, THAT HATH STATUTES AND JUDGMENTS SO RIGHTEOUS AS ALL THIS LAW, WHICH I SET BEFORE YOU THIS DAY?_ No JFB commentary on these verses....

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

AND WHAT NATION IS THERE SO GREAT, THAT HATH STATUTES AND JUDGMENTS SO RIGHTEOUS,.... Founded in justice and equity, and so agreeable to right reason, and so well calculated and adapted to lead persons in the ways of righteousness and truth, and keep them from doing any injury to each other's persons and properties, and to maintain good order, peace, and concord among them: AS ALL THIS LAW WHICH I SET BEFORE YOU THIS DAY? which he then repeated, afresh declared, explained and instructed them in; for otherwise it had been delivered to them near forty years ago. Now there was not any nation then in being, nor any since, to be compared with the nation of the Jews, for the wise and wholesome laws given unto them; no, not the more cultivated and civilized nations, as the Grecians and Romans, who had the advantage of such wise lawgivers as they were accounted, as Solon, Lycurgus, Numa, and ot...

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

SO RIGHTEOUS. See App-15. Compare 2 Samuel 7:23....

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

DISCOURSE: 190 MOSES’ SOLEMN CHARGE TO ISRAEL Deuteronomy 4:7. _What nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous, as all this law, which I set before you this day? Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life; but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons._ PRACTICAL religion, however approved in theory, is not always admired when exhibited to our view. Not but that it has a beauty in it which commends itself to those who have a spiritual discernment; but it forms too strong a contrast with the ways of the world to gain its favour: the men of this world “love darkness rather than light;

_VER._ 8. _WHAT NATION IS THERE SO GREAT,_ &C.— That which constitutes the principal glory of a nation, is a pure worship, sincerely offered to the true God, and a right administration of justice. Upon this principle, _what nation was there so great as that of the Jews?_ For, though their country was but small, and they were often oppressed by enemies who desired their extirpation; yet they recovered themselves, and kept their laws in their worst condition, when, commonly, they best observed them: insomuch that, as a very learned person of the Church of England long ago observed, after so many changes and alterations as there were in their state, from better to worse, and back again; after so many victories gained by them over others, and so many captivities of their persons, and desolations of their country, as others had wrought;—they continued still one and the same people, governed b...