Deuteronomy 4:32-40,44
our ethic must be based on our theology, and our theology must be based on a historical event. There is a logic here: event, theology, life.
History Lesson
“has anything like this ever happened?” Then he gives us the geographic boundaries: from one end of the heavens to other, ask. What this means is you are to explore all possible sources. Go check every library in the world, [everything] that’s ever been written; see if you can find anything like this. Ask if there is any great thing or [if] anything as great as this has ever happened before.
Has any great event like this ever happened?
has anybody ever heard about anything like this?
has any people ever heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire and survived? And fourth, has any god dared to do what Israel’s God has done?
It is one of the most remarkable phenomena of history that the people of Israel have remained as an identifiable group, even though they have been scattered among the nations for well over two thousand years.
between the Lord Yahweh and all the gods of Egypt. In these events God proved Himself victor in battle over these gods.
the iconography of the Egyptians and their kings, you will see that the raised hand—the strong hand and the outstretched arm of pharaoh—are always dominant motifs
against pharaohs and against the gods of Egypt. We could say He beats the Egyptians at their own game, and He beats the gods of Egypt at their own game.
These are awesome deeds that set the God of Israel absolutely apart from all the other gods. This is the God of Israel’s salvation. This is the history lesson. The history of grace goes back (a lot further back) than to Mount Horeb and to the victory over Sihon and Og. It goes all the way back to the exodus—that was the great moment of God’s revelation.
that in Deuteronomy and in the whole Bible the Hebrew word 'ahav is always an action word.
“demonstrate love.” It’s always love in action or an attitude in action.
For God demonstrated His love for the world in this: that He gave His only Son. It is an action word.
by choosing their offspring after them and bringing them out of Egypt. The history of Israel goes back a lot further than forty years. It goes back four hundred years to God’s identifying Abraham as the object of His electing love
He is fulfilling His love to the ancestors
Theological Lesson
there is no other” (verse 36). Verse 39
Moses is reminding the Israelites, was not primarily to get you out of Egypt, to deliver you from slavery, to give you a better life. As it turns out, it wasn’t about Israel. It was about the Lord and the revelation of Himself to the world.
“Praise be to Yahweh.” He is a Midianite giving praise to the God of Israel: “Praise be to Yahweh, who rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and Pharaoh, who rescued the people from the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that Yahweh is greater than all other gods, for he did it to those who had treated Israel arrogantly.”
Moses’ Confession
Note also Moses’ own confession (Num 13:16). It’s in the form of changing Joshua’s name: “These were the names of the men who Moses sent to scout out the land.” In the previous verses, he has listed them. And then he adds, oh, by the way, “Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua.” He changed his name. Why? The reason is the name Hoshea is a generic name meaning “he has saved,” and you could fill in that blank for “he” (who is it?) with the name of any god. But what does Moses do when he changes Joshua’s name? He says you cannot put just any other god’s name in there. There is only one God, Yahweh. And so he calls him Yehoshua'. Yehowah, He is the God of Israel. Moses got the point.
Rahab’s Confession
But hear also the confession of Rahab in Josh 2:9–11. She says, “I know that the LORD has given you this land, and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because they are terrified. We have heard how the LORD Yahweh”—notice a Canaanite using Yahweh’s name—“dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear, and everyone’s courage failed because of you.” And now you have it: “For Yahweh your God is God in heaven above and on earth below.” Rahab got the point. That’s the theology lesson.
Practical Lessons
This is the opposite of legalism. In a legalistic world people behave a certain way because they are commanded to without internal motivation. But Moses hereby says, “You’ve got all the motivation in the world. Don’t live a certain way simply because the Lord demands it of you. Live this way as a way of saying thank you for the grace of His salvation.” This is Moses’ gospel.
“Go home for the night. Reflect on these things, but especially as you go to sleep, give thanks to God for His wonderful salvation.”
This is at the heart of the whole book of Deuteronomy. If the book of Deuteronomy contains a lot of what we often call legislation—and it does contain a lot of it—this is not a legalistic word. Moses cannot begin talking about the law without talking about the gospel first
The miraculous mercies of the past and the prospect of future blessings could be urged as a ground for serious reckoning with the claims of Yahweh’s ultimate sovereignty over the whole earth.
For the gospel, both Old and New, is about salvation. Israel is nothing if they are not a redeemed, rescued people, and this is the paradigm of the gospel throughout.
“You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins,” that’s all exodus language.
Jesus is Yahweh. Jesus is the embodiment of the God of the exodus. Jesus is the final manifestation of the God who revealed Himself here.
“This is the torah that Moses set before the people of Israel.” It’s probably better to interpret this as the conclusion to the preceding speech on several counts.
this creates a really helpful inclusio with 1:5, the narrator’s introduction. There the narrator had said, “Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to put into effect this torah, saying …” Now he says, “This is the torah that Moses set before the people of Israel.”