Be careful that you do not forget the covenant of the LORD your God that He made with you; do not make an idol for yourselves in the form of anything He has forbidden you. Be carefulThe Hebrew root for "be careful" is "שָׁמַר" (shamar), which means to guard, keep, or watch over. This word is often used in the context of keeping commandments or observing laws. In Deuteronomy, Moses frequently uses this term to emphasize the importance of vigilance in maintaining a covenant relationship with God. The call to "be careful" is a reminder of the Israelites' responsibility to actively guard their hearts and actions against idolatry and disobedience. not to forget
The phrase "not to forget" comes from the Hebrew "שָׁכַח" (shakach), meaning to forget or ignore. In the ancient Near Eastern context, memory was not just a mental exercise but a moral and spiritual duty. Forgetting God's covenant was tantamount to neglecting one's relationship with Him. This warning underscores the human tendency to become complacent and the need for constant remembrance of God's laws and deeds. the covenant of the LORD your God
The term "covenant" is "בְּרִית" (berit) in Hebrew, signifying a solemn agreement or promise. In the biblical context, a covenant is a binding relationship initiated by God with His people. The "covenant of the LORD your God" refers specifically to the Sinai Covenant, where God gave the Law to Israel. This covenant established Israel as God's chosen people, with obligations to follow His commandments. The phrase highlights the personal nature of the relationship ("your God") and the divine authority behind the covenant. that He made with you
This phrase emphasizes the personal and communal aspect of the covenant. The covenant was not just a historical event but a present reality for the Israelites. The use of "made" (Hebrew "כָּרַת" karat) often implies cutting, as covenants were traditionally ratified by cutting an animal sacrifice. This imagery reinforces the seriousness and sacrificial nature of the covenant relationship. Do not make for yourselves an idol
The prohibition against idolatry is central to the covenant relationship. The Hebrew word for "idol" is "פֶּסֶל" (pesel), meaning a carved or graven image. In the ancient world, idols were physical representations of deities, and worshiping them was a common practice. However, the God of Israel is invisible and transcendent, and any attempt to represent Him with an idol is a violation of His uniqueness and holiness. This commandment is a call to exclusive worship and loyalty to the one true God. in the form of anything
This phrase broadens the prohibition to include any likeness or representation, whether of heavenly beings, earthly creatures, or anything else. The comprehensive nature of this command underscores the absolute prohibition against idolatry in any form. It reflects the understanding that God, as the Creator, cannot be contained or represented by any part of His creation. the LORD your God has forbidden you
The phrase "has forbidden you" indicates a direct command from God, highlighting His authority and the seriousness of the prohibition. The Hebrew word "צִוָּה" (tsavah) means to command or order, emphasizing that this is not a suggestion but a divine mandate. The use of "the LORD your God" reiterates the personal relationship and covenantal obligations of the Israelites to their God, who has set them apart for Himself. Persons / Places / Events 1. MosesThe leader of the Israelites who is delivering God's commandments and warnings to the people before they enter the Promised Land. 2. IsraelitesThe chosen people of God, who are being reminded of their covenant with the LORD and warned against idolatry. 3. CovenantThe solemn agreement between God and the Israelites, which includes the Ten Commandments and other laws given at Mount Sinai. 4. IdolatryThe act of worshiping idols or false gods, which is strictly forbidden by God as it violates the first and second commandments. 5. Promised LandThe land of Canaan, which God promised to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Teaching Points Remember the CovenantAs believers, we must continually remind ourselves of our commitment to God and His commandments. This involves regular study of Scripture and prayer. Guard Against IdolatryIdolatry can take many forms, not just physical idols. We must examine our lives for anything that takes precedence over our relationship with God, such as money, power, or even relationships. Obedience to God's CommandsObedience is a sign of our love and respect for God. We should strive to live according to His Word, understanding that His commands are for our good. The Danger of ForgetfulnessSpiritual forgetfulness can lead to disobedience. We should establish practices that help us remember God's faithfulness and commands, such as journaling or participating in community worship. The Role of CommunityBeing part of a faith community helps us stay accountable and encourages us to uphold our covenant with God. We should seek fellowship with other believers to strengthen our faith. Bible Study Questions 1. What are some modern forms of idolatry that can distract us from our relationship with God? 2. How can we actively remember and honor the covenant we have with God in our daily lives? 3. In what ways can we support each other in our faith communities to avoid spiritual forgetfulness? 4. How does understanding the historical context of the Israelites' covenant with God enhance our appreciation of our own relationship with Him? 5. What practical steps can we take to ensure that we are not placing anything above God in our lives? Connections to Other Scriptures Exodus 20:3-4This passage contains the first and second commandments, which prohibit having other gods and making idols, directly relating to the warning in Deuteronomy 4:23. Leviticus 26:1Reinforces the prohibition against idolatry, emphasizing the importance of worshiping God alone. Joshua 23:16Warns of the consequences of breaking the covenant and turning to other gods, echoing the caution in Deuteronomy 4:23. 1 Corinthians 10:14Paul advises believers to flee from idolatry, showing the continuity of this command in the New Testament. Romans 1:22-23Describes how people exchanged the glory of God for images, highlighting the folly and sin of idolatry. People Amorites, Baalpeor, Bezer, Gadites, Israelites, Manasseh, Manassites, Moses, Og, Reubenites, SihonPlaces Arabah, Aroer, Bashan, Beth-baal-peor, Bezer, Egypt, Gilead, Golan, Hermon, Heshbon, Horeb, Jordan River, Mount Sion, Peor, Pisgah, Ramoth, Sea of the Arabah, Valley of the ArnonTopics Agreement, Anything, Care, Charged, Commanded, Covenant, Engraved, Forbidden, Forget, Form, Graven, Heed, Idol, Image, Images, Lest, Likeness, Mind, Orders, Similitude, Sort, Watch, YourselvesDictionary of Bible Themes Deuteronomy 4:23 1349 covenant, at Sinai
8764 forgetting God Deuteronomy 4:23-24 5211 art
6243 adultery, spiritual
9513 hell, as incentive to action Library February the Sixteenth Crowding Out God
"Lest thou forget." --DEUTERONOMY iv. 5-13. That is surely the worst affront we can put upon anybody. We may oppose a man and hinder him in his work, or we may directly injure him, or we may ignore him, and treat him as nothing. Or we may forget him! Opposition, injury, contempt, neglect, forgetfulness! Surely this is a descending scale, and the last is the worst. And yet we can forget the Lord God. We can forget all His benefits. We can easily put Him out of mind. We can live as though He were …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling YearDeuteronomy
(Third Sunday after Easter.) Deut. iv. 39, 40. Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else. Thou shall keep therefore his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, for ever. Learned men have argued much of late as to who wrote …
Charles Kingsley—The Gospel of the Pentateuch Political and Religious Life of the Jewish Dispersion in the West - their Union in the Great Hope of the Coming Deliverer.
It was not only in the capital of the Empire that the Jews enjoyed the rights of Roman citizenship. Many in Asia Minor could boast of the same privilege. [327] The Seleucidic rulers of Syria had previously bestowed kindred privileges on the Jews in many places. Thus, they possessed in some cities twofold rights: the status of Roman and the privileges of Asiatic, citizenship. Those who enjoyed the former were entitled to a civil government of their own, under archons of their choosing, quite independent …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Of the Cities of Refuge.
Hebron, the most eminent among them, excites us to remember the rest. "The Rabbins deliver this; Moses separated three cities of refuge beyond Jordan, [Deut 4:41-43;] and, against them, Joshua separated three cities in the land of Canaan, [Josh 20:7,8]. And these were placed by one another, just as two ranks of vines are in a vineyard: Hebron in Judea against Bezer in the wilderness: Shechem in mount Ephraim against Ramoth in Gilead: Kedesh in mount Napthali against Golan in Basan. And these three …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica That the Devout Soul Ought with the Whole Heart to Yearn after Union with Christ in the Sacrament
The Voice of the Disciple Who shall grant unto me, O Lord, that I may find Thee alone, and open all my heart unto Thee, and enjoy Thee as much as my soul desireth; and that no man may henceforth look upon me, nor any creature move me or have respect unto me, but Thou alone speak unto me and I unto Thee, even as beloved is wont to speak unto beloved, and friend to feast with friend? For this do I pray, this do I long for, that I may be wholly united unto Thee, and may withdraw my heart from all created …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ The First Covenant
"Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice, and keep My covenant, ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me."--EX. xix. 5. "He declared unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even ten commandments."--DEUT. iv. 13.i "If ye keep these judgments, the Lord thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant,"--DEUT. vii. 12. "I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, which My covenant they brake."--JER. xxxi. 31, 32. WE have …
Andrew Murray—The Two Covenants The Unity of God
Q-5: ARE THERE MORE GODS THAN ONE? A: There is but one only, the living and true God. That there is a God has been proved; and those that will not believe the verity of his essence, shall feel the severity of his wrath. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.' Deut 6:6. He is the only God.' Deut 4:49. Know therefore this day, and consider it in thy heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath, there is none else.' A just God and a Saviour; there is none beside …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity The Northern Coasts of Galilee. Amanah. The Mountain of Snow.
This coast is described by Moses, Numbers 34:7: "From the Great Sea to mount Hor: from mount Hor to the entrance of Hamath," &c. Mount Hor, in the Jewish writers, is Amanah; mention of which occurs, Canticles 4:8, where R. Solomon thus: "Amanah is a mount in the northern coast of the land of Israel, which in the Talmudical language is called, The mountainous plain of Amanon; the same with mount Hor." In the Jerusalem Targum, for mount 'Hor' is the mount Manus: but the Targum of Jonathan renders it …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica Ninth Sunday after Trinity Carnal Security and Its vices.
Text: 1 Corinthians 10, 6-13. 6 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. 7 Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. 8 Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. 9 Neither let us make trial of the Lord, as some of them made trial, and perished by the serpents. 10 Neither murmur ye, as …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. III Epistle cxxvii. From S. Columbanus to Pope Gregory .
From S. Columbanus to Pope Gregory [89] . To the holy lord, and father in Christ, the Roman [pope], most fair ornament of the Church, a certain most august flower, as it were, of the whole of withering Europe, distinguished speculator, as enjoying a divine contemplation of purity (?) [90] . I, Bargoma [91] , poor dove in Christ, send greeting. Grace to thee and peace from God the Father [and] our [Lord] Jesus Christ. I am pleased to think, O holy pope, that it will seem to thee nothing extravagant …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great The Second Commandment
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am o jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of then that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.' Exod 20: 4-6. I. Thou shalt not …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments "They have Corrupted Themselves; their Spot is not the Spot of his Children; they are a Perverse and Crooked Generation. "
Deut. xxxii. 5.--"They have corrupted themselves; their spot is not the spot of his children; they are a perverse and crooked generation." We doubt this people would take well with such a description of themselves as Moses gives. It might seem strange to us, that God should have chosen such a people out of all the nations of the earth, and they to be so rebellious and perverse, if our own experience did not teach us how free his choice is, and how long-suffering he is, and constant in his choice. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning A Reformer's Schooling
'The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace, 2. That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. 3. And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Second visit to Nazareth - the Mission of the Twelve.
It almost seems, as if the departure of Jesus from Capernaum marked a crisis in the history of that town. From henceforth it ceases to be the center of His activity, and is only occasionally, and in passing, visited. Indeed, the concentration and growing power of Pharisaic opposition, and the proximity of Herod's residence at Tiberias [3013] would have rendered a permanent stay there impossible at this stage in our Lord's history. Henceforth, His Life is, indeed, not purely missionary, but He has …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Covenant Duties.
It is here proposed to show, that every incumbent duty ought, in suitable circumstances, to be engaged to in the exercise of Covenanting. The law and covenant of God are co-extensive; and what is enjoined in the one is confirmed in the other. The proposals of that Covenant include its promises and its duties. The former are made and fulfilled by its glorious Originator; the latter are enjoined and obligatory on man. The duties of that Covenant are God's law; and the demands of the law are all made …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting Subjects of Study. Home Education in Israel; Female Education. Elementary Schools, Schoolmasters, and School Arrangements.
If a faithful picture of society in ancient Greece or Rome were to be presented to view, it is not easy to believe that even they who now most oppose the Bible could wish their aims success. For this, at any rate, may be asserted, without fear of gainsaying, that no other religion than that of the Bible has proved competent to control an advanced, or even an advancing, state of civilisation. Every other bound has been successively passed and submerged by the rising tide; how deep only the student …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life Wisdom and Revelation.
"Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness …
W. H. Griffith Thomas—The Prayers of St. Paul Links Deuteronomy 4:23 NIVDeuteronomy 4:23 NLTDeuteronomy 4:23 ESVDeuteronomy 4:23 NASBDeuteronomy 4:23 KJV
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