A Journey through the Bible with Tiglath

28. Deuteronomy Chapter 4 to Chapter 8.

The first 40 verses of Chapter 4 are taken up with a speech by Moses. In this

Moses traces what has happened to the Israelites over the last 40 years. We are

familiar with this from our journey through Exodus. Moses also warns the people

of the dire consequences of disobeying God. If they obey God, he says, everything

will be all right. As Moses states in verse 39, ‘the Lord, he is God in heaven above,

and upon the earth beneath: there is none else’.

What we are seeing is the transformation of a wandering desert people into a

people capable of settling down into a civilized nation. Reviewing the exilic story

takes us through Chapter 5 and in Chapter 6 Moses exhorts the people to listen to

God and to obey His commandments. Verse 5 of Chapter 6 is a very important

milestone on our journey because it sums up all their laws. It states, ‘And thou shalt

love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy

might’. Many years hence, on our journey we shall hear Jesus quoting these words

and adding, ‘and love thy neighbour as thyself’. These two laws form the spiritual

legal base of the Christian faith.

Moses does not forget how important the growing children will be to the life of the

nation to be established and instructs parents in verse 7 to teach the laws diligently

to their children. The laws were to be written up in places where people could see

them. From this time orthodox Jews began wearing little boxes fixed to their

foreheads. In these were passages from the laws. These boxes are known as

phylacteries. They were also sometimes worn on the left arm. Phylactery comes

from the Greek word phylax, a guard.

In verses 10 to 25 Moses tells the people that they will capture cities, houses full

of good things, wells, vineyards and olive trees and warns them that having all

these things must not make them forget the Lord their God. Chapter 7 illustrates

the fear Moses had of his people worshipping the pagan gods of tribes with whom

they came in contact. They were ordered, in verse 2, to utterly destroy them,

without mercy. As Moses points out in verse 6, the Israelites are a holy people

specially chosen to be His people by the true God. Moses says in verse 14 ‘Thou

shalt be blessed above all people. There shall not be male or female barren among

you, or among your cattle’.

The remainder of Chapter 7 continues with the information to the people that God

will destroy their enemies. Chapter 8 continues Moses’ exhortation to the people

in which he tells them of the goodness of God and again warns them against

worshipping false gods.