From There You Shall Seek Him
25 When you father children and children’s children, and you have been long in the land, and then corrupt yourselves, and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do that which is evil in Yahweh your God’s sight to provoke him to anger, 26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from off the land which you go over the Jordan to possess it. You will not prolong your days on it, but will utterly be destroyed. 27 Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where Yahweh will lead you away. 28 There you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. 29 But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God, and you will find him when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in oppression, and all these things have come on you, in the latter days you shall return to Yahweh your God and listen to his voice. 31 For Yahweh your God is a merciful God. He will not fail you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which he swore to them. 32 For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and from the one end of the sky to the other, whether there has been anything as great as this thing is, or has been heard like it? 33 Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as you have heard, and live? 34 Or has God tried to go and take a nation for himself from among another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 It was shown to you so that you might know that Yahweh is God. There is no one else besides him. 36 Out of heaven he made you to hear his voice, that he might instruct you. On earth he made you to see his great fire; and you heard his words out of the middle of the fire. 37 Because he loved your fathers, therefore he chose their offspring after them, and brought you out with his presence, with his great power, out of Egypt; 38 to drive out nations from before you greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is today. 39 Know therefore today, and take it to heart, that Yahweh himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. There is no one else. 40 You shall keep his statutes and his commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which Yahweh your God gives you for all time. 41 Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise, 42 that the man slayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unintentionally and didn’t hate him in time past, and that fleeing to one of these cities he might live: 43 Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, for the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.
Exile is predicted centuries in advance and so is the return, and the way back is described as searching with the whole heart.
The scenario is set out in the future tense and it is exact. Children and grandchildren, a long settlement, and then corruption and an image Deuteronomy 4:25. Prosperity is the setting, not persecution.
Then the formula that frames the whole covenant address: I call heaven and earth to witness against you today Deuteronomy 4:26. It will appear once more, at the far end of the law, with an offer instead of a warning Deuteronomy 30:19.
The consequence is scattering — you will be left few in number among the nations Deuteronomy 4:27 — and the description of what they will do there has an edge that is easy to miss. There you will serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell Deuteronomy 4:28.
They wanted images. They will get them, in quantity, and the four verbs list precisely what such gods cannot do. The punishment for choosing manufactured deities is being given them, which is the shape judgment often takes in Scripture.
And then, without any transition and with nothing asked in return, the turn: but from there you shall seek Yahweh your God, and you will find him when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul Deuteronomy 4:29.
From there. Not after coming home, not once the exile is over. The search may begin in the place of the punishment, and the finding is promised on one condition, which is not a sacrifice or a pilgrimage but wholeheartedness. The same promise is made to Solomon at the dedication of the temple 2 Chronicles 7:14 and to a later king in almost these words 2 Chronicles 15:2.
The ground of it is stated in one clause: for Yahweh your God is a merciful God Deuteronomy 4:31. And the security offered is not the people's constancy but God's memory — he will not forget the covenant of your fathers which he swore to them.
The closing argument is a challenge to search history. Ask now of the days that are past... since the day that God created man on the earth, and from the one end of the sky to the other, whether there has been anything as great as this thing Deuteronomy 4:32.
Two questions follow, and both are about unprecedented events. Did a people ever hear God's voice out of fire and live? Deuteronomy 4:33. Has any god ever taken a nation for himself from among another nation, by trials, signs, wonders and war? Deuteronomy 4:34.
The purpose of the whole display is then given, and it is not the land: it was shown to you so that you might know that Yahweh is God. There is no one else besides him Deuteronomy 4:35.
The chapter ends with three cities set apart east of the river for a man who kills unintentionally and didn't hate him in time past Deuteronomy 4:42. Immediately after the highest statement about God in the book, Moses does one practical thing: he makes provision for accidents.
settled What this mark means