Then the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the LORD will drive you. The LORD will scatter you among the peoplesThis phrase begins with "The LORD," which in Hebrew is "YHWH," the covenant name of God, emphasizing His sovereignty and faithfulness. The use of "scatter" (Hebrew: "puwts") conveys a forceful dispersion, often used in contexts of judgment. Historically, this scattering refers to the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles, where the Israelites were removed from their land due to disobedience. The phrase "among the peoples" indicates a dispersion among various nations, highlighting the loss of a unified identity and the challenges of maintaining faith in foreign lands. This scattering serves as both a consequence of disobedience and a call to repentance, reminding the Israelites of their dependence on God. and only a few of you will survive
The word "only" underscores the severity of the judgment, indicating that the survival will be minimal. "A few" (Hebrew: "mĕ'at") suggests a remnant, a concept frequently seen in the prophetic literature, where God preserves a small group for the sake of His promises. This remnant theology is crucial in understanding God's mercy amidst judgment. The term "survive" (Hebrew: "sha'ar") implies not just physical survival but also spiritual endurance. This survival is not merely by chance but by divine providence, ensuring that God's covenant promises remain intact through a faithful few. among the nations to which the LORD will drive you
The phrase "among the nations" reiterates the dispersion theme, emphasizing the widespread nature of the exile. The word "drive" (Hebrew: "nahag") suggests a forceful leading or compelling, indicating that this is an act of divine judgment. The historical context here is the exile periods, where the Israelites were taken to various foreign lands, such as Babylon and Assyria. This dispersion serves as a backdrop for the eventual return and restoration, a theme that runs throughout the prophetic books. The phrase underscores God's control over history, using even foreign nations to accomplish His purposes. It serves as a reminder of the consequences of disobedience but also of the hope for eventual restoration and return to the covenant relationship with God. Persons / Places / Events 1. The LORD (Yahweh)The covenant God of Israel, who is both just and merciful. He is the one who enacts judgment and promises restoration. 2. IsraelitesThe chosen people of God, who are warned of the consequences of disobedience and idolatry. 3. NationsThe foreign lands and peoples among whom the Israelites will be scattered due to their disobedience. 4. MosesThe leader and prophet who delivers God's message to the Israelites, urging them to remain faithful to the covenant. 5. Promised LandThe land of Canaan, which the Israelites are about to enter, contingent upon their obedience to God. Teaching Points The Consequences of DisobedienceGod's warnings are serious, and disobedience leads to real consequences, such as exile and scattering. This serves as a reminder to remain faithful to God's commands. God's Sovereignty and JusticeThe scattering of Israel demonstrates God's sovereignty over nations and His justice in dealing with sin. Believers are called to trust in God's righteous judgments. Hope in RestorationEven in judgment, God provides hope for restoration. This encourages believers to repent and seek God's mercy, knowing He is faithful to restore. The Importance of Covenant FaithfulnessThe covenant relationship with God requires faithfulness. Believers today are called to live in obedience to God's Word, reflecting their commitment to Him. Living as a RemnantThe concept of a remnant surviving among the nations speaks to the idea of being faithful witnesses in a world that may not know God. Christians are called to be salt and light, living distinctively for Christ. Bible Study Questions 1. How does the scattering of the Israelites among the nations serve as a warning for us today regarding the consequences of disobedience? 2. In what ways can we see God's justice and mercy working together in the context of Deuteronomy 4:27 and related scriptures? 3. How can the promise of restoration after judgment encourage us in our personal walk with God? 4. What does it mean to live as a faithful remnant in today's world, and how can we apply this concept in our daily lives? 5. How do the themes of scattering and restoration in Deuteronomy 4:27 connect with the New Testament teachings on the church's mission and the return of Christ? Connections to Other Scriptures Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28These chapters outline the blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience, including the scattering of the people. Jeremiah 29The prophet Jeremiah speaks of the exile and the promise of return, echoing the themes of scattering and restoration. Ezekiel 36God promises to gather His people from the nations and restore them, highlighting His faithfulness despite their unfaithfulness. Luke 21Jesus speaks of the scattering of the Jews and the times of the Gentiles, connecting the Old Testament prophecies to New Testament fulfillment. 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 Band, Company, Death, Drive, Drives, Heathen, Kept, Lead, Leadeth, Nations, Peoples, Scatter, Scattered, Survive, Wandering, WhitherDictionary of Bible Themes Deuteronomy 4:27 7145 remnant Deuteronomy 4:25-27 7212 exile
8840 unfaithfulness, to God Deuteronomy 4:25-31 7520 dispersion, the Deuteronomy 4:27-31 8160 seeking God 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 4:27 NIVDeuteronomy 4:27 NLTDeuteronomy 4:27 ESVDeuteronomy 4:27 NASBDeuteronomy 4:27 KJV
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