Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Deuteronomy · About this commentary
From There You Shall Seek Him
Deuteronomy 4:25-43
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, · WEB
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