Take heed to yourselves lest ye forget the covenant of Jehovah your God, which he made with you, and make yourselves a graven image, the form of anything which Jehovah thy God hath forbidden thee.
Moses speaks to a generation standing on the edge of the promised land. His warning is not about the enemies ahead but about memory — forget the covenant God made with you, and a carved image takes its place.
Three times Moses reminds the people that God kept him out of the promised land. Commentators see that repetition as deliberate. It puts force behind the words that follow.
Now we may ask, why this threefold reference to the same fact? And why the special mention, in each case, that the Lord was angry with him on their account? One thing is certain: it was not to shift the blame onto the people, or to excuse himself. We believe the simple aim was to give his appeal more force, and more solemnity to his warning voice. The Lord was angry with someone like Moses. For his rash speaking at the waters of Meribah, God kept him out of the promised land — much as he longed for it. How necessary, then, for them to take heed! It is a serious thing to have dealings with God.
The covenant named here could be broken. It held only as long as the people obeyed. Commentators count this passage among the warnings that God would set the nation aside.
The Lord never abandons the unconditional covenant He made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and He often recalls it in grace. Read Deuteronomy 4:23-31 and chapter 30:17-18. These passages show that judgment has fallen on Israel because of their sins. That judgment has interrupted and even ended the relationships formed between God and Israel under the law. Those relationships existed only on the condition that the people obeyed (Exodus 19:5).
Note the two things held apart there. The promise given to Abraham stands. The covenant made under the law could be broken.
The order in the verse matters. The image comes second; forgetting comes first. Commentators treat forgetting as a standing danger, not a one-off failure of one nation.
Forgetting is one of the dangers on a disciple's path. How quickly Israel forgot the hardships of Egypt and their great deliverance! So they began murmuring and crying, "we shall die in the wilderness." But are we not in the same danger? We quickly forget yesterday's answered prayers. We forget the help found in personal need or shared trials. And so we dishonour our Lord through "little faith."
The image that follows is more than one sin among many.
Moses warns them in particular against making any image or representation of the invisible God. Idolatry is the badge of apostasy, and it paves the way for every abomination that comes after.
The verse forbids every form God has ruled out. Readers today may think this leaves them out. Commentators refuse that escape.
Are we better than Israel? Not at all. We have brighter light and higher privileges. But in ourselves we are made of the same material. We have the same capacities and the same tendencies as they had. Our idolatry may take a different shape from theirs. But idolatry is idolatry, whatever the shape. And the higher our privileges, the greater our sin.
The shape need not be visible, and it can survive alongside correct beliefs.
And still this image of jealousy is what threatens us all. It stands, as it were, at the very door when we would approach God Himself. And it need not be a visible or open image to do this. What a warning there is for us here! We try — and that is what it is — to have a god shaped by our own thoughts. Such a god always stands opposed to the true God. So "covetousness," the apostle tells us, "is idolatry." And we know it can be found in people who are correct on every other point.
The danger starts inside, so the safeguard must be inside too. It is not knowledge or standing.
Let us think deeply about all this and seek to profit by it. May every room of our hearts be filled with Christ, and then we shall have no room for idols. This is our only safeguard. Slip a hair's width away from our precious Saviour and Shepherd, and we can plunge into the darkest forms of error and moral evil. Light, knowledge, spiritual privileges, church position and sacramental benefits give the soul no security.
- Forget — the verse names forgetting first; the carved image is what fills the gap memory leaves.
- Fashion — the replacement is a god shaped by our own thoughts, and correct beliefs do not keep it out.
- Forbidden — idolatry is the badge of apostasy, and it opens the door to every evil that follows.
- Forfeit — the covenant under the law depended on obedience, and judgment ended it; the promise to Abraham still stands.
- Filled — privileges and position guard nothing; a heart filled with Christ leaves no room for idols.
For Jehovah thy God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
Moses is near the end of his life. He warns Israel, about to enter the promised land, never to carve an image of God. The reason he gives is not a rule but God's own character. So how does a God who is fire treat the people He loves?
The verse is the reason attached to a command.
Moses repeats his warning to Israel. They must not forget the covenant the Lord had made with them (v.23). They must not degrade themselves by making any carved image, whatever form it might take... Fire is a striking witness to the awesome holiness of God in judgment. Let Israel, and all people, beware of insulting a God of such burning power and majesty!
Fire was not a random image. God had already shown Himself to Israel in flame.
God revealed Himself in fire early on. This showed the searching character of His righteous judgment, whether He was accepting good or condemning evil. When Moses came near the burning bush at Horeb, God warned him not to come closer, but to take off his shoes, because the ground was holy... On Mount Sinai "the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a devouring fire" (Ex. 24:17). He showed His acceptance of sacrifices by fire from heaven, and He defended His own honour by fire, destroying those who approached Him in disobedience... The general idea in "fire" is that of judgment.
Fire and love sound like opposites. One writer says God's jealousy is the reverse of ours.
It seems very different to say, "Our God is a consuming fire" compared with "God is love," but really these statements go together. Our God is a consuming fire because He is love, because there must be an intense action that both preserves the good and opposes the evil. Can God ignore anything that stops people from knowing His love? Impossible. How does a mother feel towards the snake that would bite her child? Love is a fire that many waters cannot quench, and anyone who understands the jealousy of love will be thankful that God is a consuming fire... Our jealousy is the result of selfishness, but God's jealousy is the result of complete unselfishness.
So what does the fire burn? One commentator refuses any softening of the words.
Scripture does not need such twisting and turning. We must take it as it stands... "Our God is a consuming fire," "a jealous God," not to consume us, blessed be His holy Name, but to consume the evil in us and in our ways. He will not put up with anything in us that is against Himself and against His holiness. And whatever is against His holiness is against our true happiness and our real, solid blessing.
The same writer pushes back on a common way of aiming the verse at other people.
People sometimes say, "God is a consuming fire to the world." One day He will be, no doubt. But right now He deals with the world in grace, patience, and long-suffering mercy... In Hebrews 12 we also read, "For our God is a consuming fire." That is not what God will be to the world. It is what He is to us. Neither is it, as some put it, "God is a consuming fire out of Christ." We know nothing of God out of Christ. He could not be "our God" out of Christ.
The fire does not cancel the Father's love.
There is no doubt that "our" God is a consuming fire. Yet He is our Father who loves us perfectly. And as "God" He loves us just as much. He hates sin no less, as He proved at the cross of Christ. He has given us a nature that hates sin — Christ Himself, who lives in us as He died for us. Nothing is more opposed to truth than making grace a veil or excuse for sin.
Verse 24 is not the last word. The same chapter looks ahead to a day when Israel will know God differently.
Israel now knows Him as a "consuming fire," because of their sin. In the latter day, broken-hearted and repentant, they will know Him as a "merciful God." (See Deut. 4:24-31)
- Fire warns. The words back a command against images. Making an idol is no small thing — it insults a God of burning power and holiness.
- Fire reveals. God had already shown Himself in flame — the bush at Horeb, the glory on Sinai. The general idea in fire is judgment.
- Fire loves. God's jealousy is the opposite of selfishness. It is love in action, guarding what is good and opposing the evil.
- Fire purifies. The fire is not aimed at His people but at the evil in them. What is against His holiness is against their real blessing too.
- Fire yields to mercy. Israel knows God now as a consuming fire. In repentance, they will know Him as a merciful God.