DEUTERONOMY 4
We are seeking, by the Lord’s help, to read this book as inspired of God, and as therefore having a profitable spiritual application to ourselves. The covenant declared to Israel, and written on two tables of stone, inaugurated a dispensation, and the Lord Jesus, as the true Moses, would recall to us that there has been in our case, as in theirs, divine speaking and divine writing. The covenant of which Christ would remind us is not the literal and legal covenant “gendering to bondage”, but that which corresponds with it as inaugurating our dispensation. We have part in the new covenant which is in the value of the blood of Christ ([p. 29] Luke 22: 20), and the spirit of the new covenant has been ministered to us by the apostle Paul (2 Corinthians 3: 6). But in addition to this the whole wealth of God’s glad tidings concerning His Son has been made available for us. Jehovah’s covenant declared in Horeb covered all that He proposed to do for Israel, and the conditions that would be requisite on their side if they were to be suitable for what He proposed. So that it may be regarded as suggesting typically the whole scope of what has resulted from the declaration of God by “the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father” (John 1:18). Redemption has now been accomplished, and Christ has been glorified in heaven, and the Spirit given to those who believe. We must now take all the Divine speaking and acting into account if we wish to answer to the Divine pleasure.
The “statutes and ordinances” (verse 5) all stand in immediate connection with the covenant; they comprise the things which are suitable to the dispensation, and they are laid down in precise terms, to which nothing is to be added, and from which nothing is to be taken away (verse 2). It is only those who love God who can truly take up His “statutes and ordinances”; all must move on the principle of “If ye love me keep my commandments” (John 14: 15).
This chapter calls our attention to the inauguration of the dispensation by the declaration of God’s covenant, and it is our privilege to learn under the instruction of Christ what answers to this in our case, “The ends of the ages are come” upon us (1 Corinthians 10: 11). However God moved in ages past He always had ends in view, and those ends have come upon His saints in the present day. What was outwardly a dispensation of law had Christ and new covenant conditions as its blessed end (2 Corinthians 3: 13).
But before passing on to this Moses calls attention to “What Jehovah did because of Baal-Peor”. (See [p. 30] Numbers 25) This snare came in after the destruction of Sihon and Og. It is the snare of worldly associations leading to what is idolatrous. The influence of natural relationships and friendships is often more deadly than the self-exaltation or self indulgence of the flesh. The wiles and beguilings of the Midianites are often more fatal than the opposition of Sihon or Og. “The doctrine of Balaam” (Revelation 2: 14) is the teaching that it is quite permissible to cultivate worldly associations. “The error of Balaam” was that he was governed by thoughts of worldly advantage. There is no life on that line — “All the men that followed Baal-Peor, Jehovah thy God hath destroyed them from among you; but ye that did cleave to Jehovah your God are alive every one of you this day” (verses 3 and 4). How many have missed the land that way! The “statutes and ordinances” never put us on that line; they help us on the line of cleaving to Jehovah; they preserve us from giving the creature a place which rightly belongs to God.
Wisdom and understanding lie in keeping and doing the divine “statutes and ordinances”. They make God’s people “a wise and understanding people”; they would fill us “with the full knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding” (Colossians 1: 9); they would direct us so that we should “walk carefully, not as unwise but as wise” (Ephesians 5: 15). The “statutes and ordinances” shew us what is suitable to the dispensation in which we live, and it is great favour from God to know this. If we love Him it will be a matter of deep interest to us to know it. The Old Testament is an immense help to us in detail; Christians suffer great loss if they regard it only as the history of a past dispensation, they really forget that “Every scripture is divinely inspired, and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in [p. 31] righteousness; that the man of God may be complete, fully fitted to every good work” (2 Timothy 3: 16, 17). Then, what could be more precious and encouraging than to know that God is near to us, and available “in everything we call upon him for”? Christ would bring this before us as a divine certainty. I often have to remind myself that I have God, and I see that others need to be reminded of it also!
There is nothing in the world to compare with the “righteous statutes and ordinances” which God has given to His people (verse 8). The pleasure of divine love concerning us is truly wonderful; but in order to take it up rightly we must never forget how God has spoken to us. The motive and power of all obedience lies there. So that the Christ, as our Instructor, calls upon us to “take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things that thine eyes have seen ... the day that thou stoodest before Jehovah thy God in Horeb” (verses 9, 10). There is nothing more important than that we should keep in mind and heart the true character of God’s speaking to us, and of His covenant. The Christ calls our attention to it afresh every first day of the week as we bless the cup of which He says, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood” (1 Corinthians 11: 25). He reminds us, speaking typically, of how we have stood before God in Horeb. There has been something in the spiritual history of our souls which answers to that experience.
“And the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven ... And Jehovah spoke to you from the midst of the fire ... and he declared to you his covenant” (verses 11 - 13). Moses dwells on this as a mark of peculiar divine favour such as had never been shewn to man before. “For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that [p. 32] God created man on the earth, and from one end of the heavens to the other end of the heavens, whether there hath been anything as this great thing is, or if anything hath been heard like it? Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking from the midst, of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live?” (verses 32, 33). “From the heavens he made thee hear his voice, that he might instruct thee; and on the earth he shewed thee his great fire; and thou heardest his words from the midst of the fire. And because he loved thy fathers, and chose their seed after them, he brought thee out with his countenance, with his great power, out of Egypt” etc. (verses 36 - 40). It was, even literally, as presented here, a speaking of favour and love to a people chosen of God and redeemed by Him.
The remarkable expression, “burned with fire to the heart of heaven” — an expression not found in Exodus — has, I do not doubt, a typical reference to the love of God. It speaks of the unquenchable flame of that holy love. What else could reach to “the heart of heaven”? The fire intimates, indeed, the consuming of all that is unsuitable to God; it is a sin consuming flame; but from the midst of it God speaks in love to His chosen people.
The “darkness, clouds, and obscurity” suggest what was necessitated by the state of the natural and fallen man. Man in the flesh could never apprehend the blessedness of the love of God. Hence the new birth is a divine necessity (John 3: 3). Apart from it, all will be cloudy, dark, and obscure in the heart of man, however blessedly God may speak in love. The natural man can neither see nor hear in any spiritual sense (John 3: 3, 32); the sentence of death is upon him; he must go out in judgment. So that when the true speaking from “the heart of heaven” is heard in John 3 it tells us of the lifting up of the Son of Man. The “darkness, clouds and obscurity” were there in all their unmitigated dreadfulness when He cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” But it was by the action of the love of God that He was there. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal”. That is a fire that burns “to the heart of heaven” — the unquenchable flame of divine love. And it is from the midst of that fire that God has declared Himself. How wondrous that God should reveal Himself from heaven, by sending His own Son to bear the judgment of sin, consuming all that was abhorrent to Him, but in that very time and place making Himself known in love! We have to do now with a love which reaches the very “heart of heaven”. God will burn up all that is unsuitable to Himself, but He will declare His love in the way of covenant, and secure thereby a people for Himself — “a people of inheritance, as it is this day” (verse 20).
Luke 15 makes known a love which meets the lost and the sinful, but which burns — I think we may say — to the heart of heaven. It tells us of “joy in heaven for one repenting sinner”, of “joy before the angels of God”; it tells us of merrymaking and rejoicing which has its spring in the heart of the blessed God Himself. That is the character of the speaking now; the oracles are being uttered from heaven. Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant is now in “the heart of heaven”, and all the love of God disclosed in His dying for sinful men is being uttered from the heaven of His glory. Sin has been unsparingly judged, but in the way of love to man, for God’s “own Son” has borne the judgment, and is the eternal Witness of the love of God.
If we understood how God has spoken to us “from the midst of the fire” we should understand better the [p. 34] chastening of His love. We should understand that “our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12: 29) — a quotation from Deuteronomy 4: 24. He will not tolerate in His people whom He loves that which He has judged in His own Son. Hence His discipline comes in to consume what is of the flesh that we may be partakers of His holiness.
“Take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget”. The Christ would have us never to forget how God has spoken to us — we are never to forget our Horeb! God spoke to us in love through the death of His Son, and gave us His Spirit to pour out that love into our hearts. There is a blessed new covenant ministry of righteousness and the Spirit from Christ in heaven. Have we heard the speaking from heaven? Has it impressed our hearts with the character of the dispensation that has been inaugurated? The Lord would ever direct our hearts into the love of God; He would have us to drink into it afresh each time that we drink the cup of the Lord’s supper.
I know nothing more important than that we should ever remember the manner of God’s speaking to us, because it determines the full blessedness of our responsibility as His people. “And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to do, the ten words”. The knowledge of God made known in love introduces an entirely new character and measure of creature responsibility. Our walk, our words, our spirits must now be worthy of Him whose love we know. “The ten words” indicate that the covenant is now the measure of responsibility. It is not merely an authoritative voice requiring obedience in an arbitrary way. But the blessed God has come out in the revelation of Himself to bind us to Him as known in love, and He says, Now what you know [p. 35] Me to be is to govern you in everything; as My people you are to be worthy of Me. Nothing less than that is the true measure of the responsibility of God’s people. “The ten words” and the covenant are identical. See Matthew 5: 44 - 48; Matthew 18: 32, 33; Ephesians 4: 32 - 5: 1; 1 Thessalonians 2: 12; 1 Peter 2: 9; 1 John 4: 11; 3 John 6; etc.
The words of the covenant were not only spoken but they were written. Divine speaking and divine writing are characteristic of the dispensation. God has spoken in the Person of the Son; His covenant has been declared. That is objective; it is altogether outside of ourselves. But writing brings in what is subjective; it speaks of a divine working in men. If men have “a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36: 26) it must be given of God. Otherwise there will be no “fleshy tables of the heart” (2 Corinthians 3: 3) for Him to write upon. But having made the heart impressionable, He writes upon it the knowledge of Himself as made known in new covenant grace, and the writing is in the indelible power of the Spirit of the living God. See 2 Corinthians 3. Christ is not only the great Speaker, but He is also the great Writer. Our dispensation takes character from the speaking and writing of Christ. The saints are “manifested to be Christ’s epistle ... written not with ink, but the Spirit of the living God; not on stone tables, but on fleshy tables of the heart”.
There is no demand now upon man in the flesh. There is a speaking in love on God’s part, and a divine working in men so that they appreciate what has been spoken. “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit”, and nothing else is really responsive to God.
It is of the utmost importance to keep in mind the character of the period in which we are living. There has never been anything like it before; it is, as Galatians 4: 4 says, “the fulness of the time”. All our ways [p. 36] and behaviour are to be regulated in the light of that knowledge of God which is acquired in the mount of the covenant. The “statutes and ordinances” are all in keeping with the covenant. There is a great tendency to slip away from the things we have heard (Hebrews 2: 1). In the last book of the Old Testament God called upon His people to “Remember the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, the statutes and ordinances” (Malachi 4: 4). And at the end of our dispensation God recalls to us the character of what He inaugurated at the beginning. We have our Horeb, and we are never to forget it. Christ would ever remind us that we are to walk together as brethren, and to go in to possess the “good land”, in the light of how God has spoken to us from heaven — a speaking of infinite grace and love.
The next section of the chapter reminds us that we are connected with a spiritual order of things. “Ye saw no form”. “God is a Spirit”, and our appreciation of Him, and our approaches to Him, must be spiritual in character. Natural thoughts of God may be degraded — as set forth in an image of a beast or even a creeping thing (verses 17, 18) — or they may be elevated — as set forth in the sun, moon, and stars (verse 19) — but they inevitably tend to obscure what has been revealed. God’s people must beware of what is elevated as well as what is degraded. Some men can say most sublime and wonderful things of God; their thoughts seem so elevated as to have some correspondence with “the whole host of heaven”! But be not deceived! Bring everything to the test of the divine speaking in the Son — to the test of the death, the sin-bearing, the judgment-enduring of Christ on the cross!
It is with a view to this, perhaps, that Moses says again at this point what he had said twice before in other connections, “And Jehovah was angry with me on your account”. It is a touching suggestion that everything that is spiritual and acceptable to God in relation to His worship and service, must have regard to the vicarious sufferings of Christ — must have those holy sufferings as its basis.
If we forget the covenant (verse 23) there is imminent danger of idolatry — something that is of the creature displacing God in the thoughts and affections of His people. We are to let that abide in us which we heard from the beginning, and then we shall abide in the Son and in the Father (1 John 2: 24). We shall then have no expectations from the flesh at all, either in ourselves or in others; our expectations will be from God and from what He works in His saints. If we make ourselves “a graven image” we shall find that it can do nothing for us. How many give time and attention to unnecessary things, only to find them burdensome like the idols of Isaiah 46! We may not make images of wood or stone, but it is not a needless word that John writes at the end of the epistle — “Children, keep yourselves from idols”.
In verses 25 - 31 there is a prophetic announcement: the people would corrupt themselves and do evil, and would perish from off the land, and be taken up with things which have no vitality — “which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell”. How this has been realised in the Christian profession! The true character of the dispensation has been forgotten, the divine speaking has been slipped away from, the spiritual nature of Christianity departed from. All kinds of things have been introduced that are human and natural, and the result has been that possession of the divinely given “land” has been lost.
But there is also here a prophetic intimation of repentance and recovery being granted in mercy. “And from thence ye shall seek Jehovah thy God, and thou [p. 38] shalt find him, if thou shalt seek him with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul. In thy tribulation, and when all these things shall come upon thee at the end of days, thou shalt return to Jehovah thy God, and shalt hearken to his voice, — for Jehovah thy God is a merciful God, — he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he swore unto them” (verses 29 - 31). Restoration will be granted to Israel because God will not give up His thoughts in regard to them. See Jeremiah 31: 35 - 37; Jeremiah 32: 39, 40; etc. He will in sovereign mercy “at the end of days” cause them to seek Him, and to find Him, and to hearken to His voice. And what He will do for Israel He is doing now for His saints of the assembly.
1 Timothy gives us the character of the dispensation of God as inaugurated by Him at the beginning, but 2 Timothy gives us the character of things as rekindled in view of testimony in the “last days”. This is when “all who are in Asia” — and the designation reminds us that it was the “assemblies which are in Asia” which were addressed by the Lord in Revelation 2 and 3 as representing all the assemblies — have turned away from Paul. God is now working on the line of His “promise of life, the life which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 1: l), and on the line of His “own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages of time” (2 Timothy 1: 9), and from that point of view He contemplates a rekindling of things “at the end of days” This recovery — which is undoubtedly going on at the present moment — is the fruit of God’s sovereign mercy. He does not forget the covenant, and He is bringing His people back to the “land” which had been forfeited through the allowance of things which had no place in the dispensation as inaugurated by Him.
[p. 39] 2 Timothy points out clearly the line on which divine recovery takes place. God’s calling and election are recognised as distinct from the mass of profession. It is a question now of the elect obtaining “the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory” (2 Timothy 2: 10). “The firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, The Lord knows those that are his; and, Let everyone who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity” (2 Timothy 2: 19). The whole epistle should be most carefully and prayerfully considered by all who would participate in the divine and spiritual recovery which is going on. It is by pursuing the line laid down in 2 Timothy that the Philadelphian state can alone be reached, which really involves recovery to all that was in the mind of God from the outset. It involves restoration to the “land” of His love and purpose in Christ Jesus.
The covenant in all its blessedness is preserved and made plain in Christ Jesus; He is the Ark of the covenant. If we turn away from the man after the flesh and from all those things which he has introduced into the Christian profession, and come to Christ Jesus, the Man of divine purpose and pleasure, we shall come back to all that the dispensation started with. John’s writings preserve the original and undecaying character of what is from the beginning. On the divine side there is unbroken continuity; there is no change in that which is in the Son of God, and there is no change morally in the saints viewed as begotten of God. What is of God does not change. If we have departed from it, there is a call to repent and return.
“Thou shalt find him, if thou shalt seek him with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul”. But the whole movement of recovery is brought about from the divine side, as we may see in Jeremiah 32: 37 - 41. There we see how God acts with His whole heart and with His whole [p. 40] soul! There is a blessed harmony and correspondence between God’s ways in restoring Israel in a coming day and His ways in recovering His people at the present time. It is wholly on the principle of sovereign mercy, and in the exercise of His own love. From the beginning to the end of His ways all is that we might know Him (Deuteronomy 4: 35) as acting in love. There has never been anything like His present speaking and acting. Think of how He has delivered us from the world, and of the greatness of His salvation in Christ! We do well to know and consider in our hearts “that Jehovah, he is God in the heavens above, and on the earth beneath, there is none else”.
There is a deeply interesting parenthesis at this point. The course of instruction is arrested to let in the three verses 41 - 43 with regard to the three cities of refuge. There is no other incident introduced in a similar way throughout the book, so that it has evidently unique importance. It refers to the intensely solemn fact that, as foreknown of God, Israel would be the slayer of Christ. What complete forfeiture of title to live in the divine inheritance is implied in this! But what mercy that would take account of it as done “unawares”! It is, indeed, the full disclosure of how far man may go — nay, of how far he has gone. It intimates to Israel, and to us in principle, that we have incurred the guilt of slaying God’s Anointed. How then can we live on divine territory? It can only be on the footing of mercy.
God has taken account of all that man is capable of doing. To be restored from forgetfulness and idolatry is great mercy, but what can be said of the deservings of those who slay the One who has been so truly a Neighbour, and who is the supreme object of God’s love and delight? Such have forfeited all title to live, but in the prerogative of mercy God accounts the dark deed as done “unawares”, and He provides cities that the manslayer might flee and live. The manslayer is purely a vessel of mercy, and it is on this ground alone that he can “live” in the inheritance. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23: 34). “And now, brethren, I know that ye did it in ignorance, as also your rulers” (Acts 3: 17). But even if mercy takes this account of it, it is a most dreadful thing that God’s Anointed should be killed by those whom He came to bless. All the idolatry which stained the pages of Israel’s history was less guilty than that. One can imagine with what horror the hearts of the convicted remnant were filled when they heard from Peter that “by the hand of lawless men” they had crucified and slain their Messiah. What grief and anguish, what true repentance, for what they had done “unawares”! But there was a city to flee to, and Peter opened the gate of that city when he said, “Repent, and be baptised, each one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for remission of sins, and ye will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For to you is the promise and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God may call” (Acts 2: 38, 39).
It is as true for ourselves as it will be true for Israel in a coming day that the inheritance can only be possessed on the ground of pure mercy. Our title to live is forfeited. Hence the epistle to the Romans, which answers to “this side of the Jordan”, describes both the called ones from amongst the Jews, and those from amongst the nations, as “vessels of mercy”. And the epistle to the Ephesians, which answers to the land over Jordan, speaks touchingly of God as “being rich in mercy”. To “live” on that ground alone is humbling to the pride of man. It means the surrender of all claim. What did it avail to be the most distinguished descendant of Abraham if a man killed his neighbour [p. 42] unawares? He must henceforth live in the city of refuge, or fall under the hand of the avenger of blood.
The “three cities” would suggest full testimony to the ground on which alone the inheritance can be occupied. And this has a voice for us also in a day when all title to live in the inheritance has been forfeited by the departure and utter failure of the people of God. Any movement of recovery, and restoration to forfeited privileges and blessings, is purely a matter of God’s sovereign mercy. We have already referred to 2 Timothy as indicating the conditions on which spiritual vitality can be maintained in the last days of departure and corruption. The principles there laid down are a city of refuge, made available for us in sovereign mercy, and as we flee to them we “live”, though conscious that we are part of a profession that has forfeited everything by its unfaithfulness. But infinite mercy has restored to us the possibility of living in the divine inheritance. We can occupy it now, not merely as conferred originally on the saints, but as being recovered to it in pure mercy through divine faithfulness after all being forfeited on our side.
This chapter is a very comprehensive one, as setting forth, typically, the glory of the dispensation as inaugurated by divine speaking and writing; and then the terrible departure which has come in through man’s unfaithfulness; and, finally, restoration brought about in divine faithfulness, so that there are those who “live” in the inheritance on the ground of mercy alone. All this is as definitely spiritual instruction and light for us, under the teaching of Christ, as it will be for Israel when their heart turns to the Lord, and they learn that He is the Spirit, not only of the new covenant, but also of the old.