Deuteronomy 7:25

25._The graven images of their gods. _He again impresses upon them the object of the destruction of the nations, but he goes further than before. He had before forbidden them to worship their gods. He now commands them to consume their graven images with fire, for since the people were prone to superstition, such snares might easily have alienated them from God’s pure worship. Nor does he command them merely to melt the gold and silver so as to alter its shape, but he altogether interdicts its use, since it would be a contagious plague; for he shews how greatly God abominates idols, inasmuch as whosoever should touch the materials of which they were molten, would contract pollution and become accursed. This great severity might indeed seem to condemn the metals which were created for man’s use, as if they were impure, and as if the perfectness of natural things was liable to be corrupted...

12-26 We are in danger of having fellowship with the works of darkness if we take pleasure in fellowship with those who do such works. Whatever brings us into a snare, brings us under a curse. Let us be constant to our duty, and we cannot question the constancy of God's mercy. Diseases are God's servants; they go where he sends them, and do what he bids them. It is therefore good for the health of our bodies, thoroughly to mortify the sin of our souls; which is our rule of duty. Yet sin is never totally destroyed in this world; and it actually prevails in us much more than it would do, if we were watchful and diligent. In all this the Lord acts according to the counsel of his own will; but that counsel being hid from us, forms no excuse for our sloth and negligence, of which it is in no degree the cause. We must not think, that because the deliverance of the church, and the destruction...

Verse Deuteronomy 7:25. _THOU SHALT NOT DESIRE THE SILVER OR GOLD_ THAT IS _ON_ _THEM_] Some of the ancient idols were plated over with gold, and God saw that the value of the metal and the excellence of the workmanship might be an inducement for the Israelites to _preserve_ them; and this might lead, remotely at least, to idolatry. As the idols were accursed, all those who had them, or any thing appertaining to them, were accursed also, Deuteronomy 7:26....

THE SILVER OR GOLD THAT IS ON THEM - The silver and gold with which the statues of the gods were overlaid. Paul is probably alluding to this command in Romans 2:22; and his accusation of the Jew thus shows that the prohibition of the text was very necessary. LEST THOU BE SNARED - As by the rich ephod made by Gideon: compare the marginal reference....

EXPOSITION ENTIRE SEPARATION FROM IDOLATROUS NATIONS ENJOINED. DEUTERONOMY 7:1 The Israelites were about to enter on a country occupied by idolaters, and they are commanded not to spare them or to allow them to continue in their proximity, or to have any friendly relations with them (cf. Leviticus 27:28). The Lord would cast out these nations, and deliver them, though greater and mightier than they, into their hands; and they were to smite them and place them under the ban; they were to make no covenant with them nor form any alliances with them (cf. Exodus 23:32;...

THE GRAVEN IMAGES OF THEIR GODS SHALL YE BURN WITH FIRE,.... Which is repeated from Deuteronomy 7:5, that it might be the more observed and strictly performed, and which unless done, they could not expect the utter destruction of their enemies, who were left in the land to try and prove them with respect to this very thing: THOU SHALL NOT DESIRE THE SILVER OR GOLD THAT IS ON THEM: the raiment of gold or silver with which they were bedecked, or the plates of gold and silver with which they were covered, or any ornament about them, as chains and the like, that were of either of these metals; see Ezekiel 16:16, NOR TAKE IT UNTO THEE, LEST THOU BE SNARED THEREIN; nor take it into their possession, or bring it into their houses, as in the next verse, lest

3. THE POSSESSION OF THE LAND AND THEIR SEPARATION CHAPTER 7 _ 1. The command to destroy the Canaanites (Deuteronomy 7:1)_ 2. The command to destroy their idolatry (Deuteronomy 7:5) 3. The promise of blessing and help (Deuteronomy 7:12) Seven nations are mentioned as occupying the land, which God gave to Israel. These nations were steeped in the most awful licentiousness and practised the vilest abominations. There are different reasons to believe that Satan possessed them in a peculiar manner. God had tolerated these nations for many centuries. He waited in His mercy before the sword of justice was unsheathed. The measure of their wickedness was now full, the time f

BURN. burn up. See App-43....

_The graven images … burn with fire_ Deuteronomy 7:5. Curiously in the Pl., as there is an otherwise Sg. context (the text is confirmed by Sam. and LXX). Steuern marks the verse as secondary, but unnecessarily; the isolated Pl. may be due to a scribe whose eye or ear was impressed with Deuteronomy 7:5 (so, too, Bertholet). _Burn_, the body of the image therefore was of wood, but plated or ornamented with metal (yet cp. Exodus 32:20). Hence further _thou shalt not covet the silver or the gold that is on them_ Cp. Joshua 7:1; Joshua 7:21, Achan's

_VER._ 25. _THOU SHALT NOT DESIRE THE SILVER OR GOLD THAT IS ON THEM_— The statues and images of their gods were sometimes overlaid with gold and silver. Moses therefore thinks fit to caution them against being tempted, by the richness of the materials, to convert any of their instruments of idolatry to their own private use; but to destroy them utterly, as Moses destroyed the _golden calf,_ Exodus 32:20. Every thing which had been employed to an idolatrous use was _an accursed thing,_ חרים _charim, i.e._ devoted to destruction, which no man might meddle with; or, if he did, he was devoted to destruction, as the thing itself was. See this exemplified in the case of Achan, Joshua 7 and Leviticus 27:28....