Deuteronomy 5:4

_THE LORD TALKED WITH YOU FACE TO FACE IN THE MOUNT OUT OF THE MIDST OF THE FIRE,_ The Lord talked with you face to face - not in a visible and corporeal form, of which there was no trace (Deuteronomy 4:12; Deuteronomy 4:15), but freely, familiarly, and in such a manner that no doubt could be entertained of His presence....

4._Face to face. _Again he commends the Law by mentioning their certainty about it; for, when God openly manifested Himself, there could be no doubt of the author from whom it proceeded. To speak “face to face,” is equivalent to discoursing openly and familiarly; and in point of fact God had spoken with them, as mortals and friends communicate with each other in their mutual dealings. Moreover, lest any doubt should still remain, God set before their eyes a visible manifestation of His glory, by appearing in the fire; for no other voice but that of God Himself could proceed out of fire. In the next verse a kind of explanation is added, when he says that he was the interpreter, who laid before them the commands he received from God. And thus he reconciles two things which seem at first sight to be contradictory, viz., that God spoke in person, and yet by a mediator; since they themselves...

1-5 Moses demands attention. When we hear the word of God we must learn it; and what we have learned we must put in practice, for that is the end of hearing and learning; not to fill our heads with notions, or our mouths with talk, but to direct our affections and conduct....

EXPOSITION THE DECALOGUE THE BASIS OF THE COVENANT, THE ESSENCE OF THE WHOLE LAW, AND THE CONDITION OF LIFE AND FELICITY. DEUTERONOMY 5:1 Moses reminds them of the making of the covenant at Horeb, and of the revelation of the fundamental law of the covenant there. As he was about to recapitulate the laws which God their King had enacted, it was fitting that he should refer at the outset to that covenant relation between Jehovah and Israel on which all the injunctions of the Law rested....

THE LORD TALKED WITH YOU FACE TO FACE IN THE MOUNT,.... Meaning, not in that free, friendly, and familiar manner, in which he sometimes talked with Moses, of whom this phrase is used, Exodus 33:11, but publicly, audibly, clearly, and distinctly, or without the interposition of another; he did not speak to them by Moses, but to them themselves; he talked to them without a middle person between them, as Aben Ezra expresses it: without making use of one to relate to them what he said; but he talked to them directly, personally: OUT OF THE MIDST OF THE FIRE; in which he descended, and with which the mountain was burning all the time he was speaking; which made it very awful and terrible, and pointed at the terrors of the legal dispensation....

II. THE EXPOSITION OF THE LAW, EXHORTATIONS AND WARNINGS, BLESSING AND CURSE 1. The Proclamation of the Decalogue Chapter S 4:44-5:33 _ 1. The introductory words (Deuteronomy 4:44)_ 2. The law proclaimed (Deuteronomy 5:1) 3. Moses, the mediator (Deuteronomy 5:22) First a general announcement is given of the discourse on the law. The fact is emphasized, that it was set before them after they came forth out of Egypt. Then the victories over Sihon and Og are mentioned once more and that they now possessed their land. Why this repetition? It was to remind them of the goodness and faithfulness of Jehovah, whose law they were about to hear expounded. It was to be

Yahweh's covenant (Deuteronomy 4:13 *) with Israel at Horeb (Deuteronomy 1:2 *) and its obligations (Deuteronomy 5:6). With D's version of the Decalogue (Deuteronomy 5:6) compare the earlier form in Exodus 20:1 * (E). Wellhausen is wrong in holding that there is a third (an older) version in Exodus 34:10. The following are the principal characteristics of Dt.'s rendering: (_a)_ There are hortatory additions, (_b)_ The statements are more definit

TALKED. Compare Exodus 19:19; Exodus 19:20....

_face to face_ i.e. person with person, without the intervention of another. The metaphor is hardly an instance of the tendency of D's style to hyperbole 2 [120]. For although all that the people perceived was a _voice_, or _sound, of words_(Deuteronomy 4:12), this came at first _directly_to the whole people, and it was because they feared the effect of its _directness_that they begged Moses to mediate (Deuteronomy 5:22). But if not a hyperbole the phrase _face to face_needs qualification it was only with Moses that God talked (morally speaking) face to face (Deuteronomy 34:10; Exodus 33:11); and

_VER._ 4. _THE LORD TALKED WITH YOU FACE TO FACE_— See Exodus 33:11. REFLECTIONS.—Moses summons the people, as many as could come within hearing, to attend the charge that he was farther to deliver; and needful it was, that they should thoroughly know what they were so solemnly bound to obey. He calls upon them to hear the statutes, moral, ceremonial, and judicial, which God delivered in Horeb, when he talked to them face to face with an astonishing familiarity; and where, they consenting to God's commands, a covenant was established between them, wherein God engaged to be their God to bless them, and they to be his servants to obey him, whilst Moses, as mediator, stood between them. _Note;_ (1.) There can be no covenant between God and the soul, but through the one mediator Jesus Christ, whom Moses prefigured. (2.) The promises of the covenant engage our hearts t