Deuteronomy chapter 4

vs 21

They say that the more something is repeated in an ancient manuscript, the more important it is. This is at least the third time Moses has mentioned how he is not going into the promised land. This was obviously important, at least to him! But it also stresses that a new age is dawning for Israel. This will become clearer nearer the end of the book, but Israel is going to have to survive a period of time without a great prophet. Sure, Joshua is a fine leader, but not like Moses - not in touch with God quite like Moses. There will yet be prophets to come.

vs 22

Moses wants them to know that it is partly their fault he's not going into the land, but most importantly that they are not going to have him anymore once they enter the land. Israel will have the memory of Moses, and perhaps may be taking the written testimony of Moses, but they won't have Moses.

vs 23

We have been through the idol thing, but here's a little capping comment. Moses is reminding them that they have responsibilities to God regardless of whether Moses is with them or not.

vs 24

I read somewhere that someone didn't like the term 'jealous' and wanted to replace it with 'passionate', like a husband is passionate for his wife. All I can say is that I'm jealous for mine, so I have no problem with God being jealous for his people. He is a consuming fire - there should be nothing left of them to burn with another god, as it were.

vs 25

Moses is taking what we might call the long view. He wants to impress upon them that the laws of God are not just for them, but for the generations to come. God will be just as angry in 3 generations from now.

vs 26

In fact, Moses goes so far as to say the promises of the land are conditional upon the behaviour of God's people while in it. If this is not spoken loudly enough, the blood on their hands should prove it to them - they were a walking punishment for those who currently inhabited the land. It's not that these nations were disobeying God just by living in a particular spot of land. It is that God chose to judge them by wiping them off t he land, and replacing them with Israel.

vs 27

Some people say that this was added post exile, because they can't handle Moses being a prophet, or God even promising to do something before doing it. I'd say this would be a darn scary thing to read in about Jeremiah's time.

vs 28

In other words, they will become like the nations they live amongst, lose their spiritual distinctiveness, and of course make God even more unhappy.

vs 29

God doesn't even suggest that he will totally separate himself from his people. He will wait for them to turn back to him. And when they do, he will be ready for them and will be there for them to find.

vs 30

The sort of past tense situation and the definiteness that Moses puts on this statement is not encouraging. But at least it is a message for those to come - long after this has been forgotten by the people generally. Prophets of later times probably read these verses, and others like thme in Deuteronomy, and saw a great hope here, althoughthey knew that it only came after a great deal of suffering and distance from God. In a way, the work of the pre-exilic prophets, constantly dragging this message of repentance in front of the stone-cold Jews, was probably to make sure they didn't forget it while they were in exile. God has a cool way of setting things up like that.