“Then Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I am speaking today in your hearing, that you may learn them and observe them carefully.” (Deuteronomy 5:1 NASB)
On Mt. Sinai, on the day of Shavuot, God wrote His law on stone tablets and spoke them to the people. Two thousand years later, on Shavout, God put His law on His disciples hearts and they spoke to the people and 3000 were saved.
There’s a direct correlation between the increase in knowledge and a decrease in our love and fear of God. Proverbs says that the knowledge and fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. The more God blessed the children of Israel while they were in the land, the more they desired to go after idols and false gods.
They served gods who didn’t love them, or even appreciate them. The “principalities of the air” aren’t trying to draw men and women to worship them because they love them. They want power, submission and control over people, they have no interest in mankind’s well being at all.
The “principalities of the air” won’t give their only begotten son to die for us and to give us eternal life. There is only one God who has that kind of love.
Moses reminds the children of Israel in Deu. 4:15 that they are to “…Watch yourselves carefully, since you did not see any form on the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire.” This is repeated several times to emphasize God’s admonition against idolatry but Moses also prophesies they will ignore this warning and God will have to rebuke them harshly for their idolatry.
Scripture tells us that man’s heart is “deceitful above all things.” This chapter gives us some guidelines on how a believer is to train his/her heart so it is inclined towards God rather than towards the cares of this world. Deut. 4 teaches us to follow God’s statutes, judgements and commands. We are also called to understand that giving our heart to God is not a one time decision but as it says in Deut. 4:9, “Only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, so that you do not forget the things which your eyes have seen and they do not depart from your heart all the days of your life…”
As the second generation of Israel post-Mitsraim (Egypt) prepared to enter the Promised Land after 40 years of banishment, the people must face foes that wouldn’t quit and had long histories with Israel. Trust in Israel’s Savior gave the people courage to conquer those enemies. Likewise, our trust in God can bring us through even the most seemingly unwinnable struggle.
There are times we just want a do-over on our lives, to hit the reset button. Ancient Israel needed such a new beginning after repeated rebellions against the LORD, the Savior from bondage in Mitsraim (Egypt), led to the nation’s judgment to remain outside the Promised Land for 40 years, until the first generation died out.
Thus begins the “second telling,” or deuteronomy, of who Israel was, where the nation was going and why. It’s also lesson for the “new creation” we become in the eyes of Heaven because of Yeshua haMashiakh (Jesus the Christ).