And Moses called to all Israel, and said to them, Hear, Israel, the statutes and the ordinances that I speak in your ears this day, and learn them, and keep them to do them.
Moses gathers the whole nation and calls them to listen, and four short commands follow, one stacked on the next. Who is he speaking to, what are they to hear, and why does hearing come first?
Moses is not laying down rules for strangers. His demand rests on something that was already true of Israel.
In Deuteronomy 5 we come closer still. Obedience is the claim… They were a people brought into relationship with God, and the purpose of His words was to keep them from living in a way that clashed with that relationship.
The wording also fixes who the law speaks to. One writer uses this verse to settle a question that comes up in the New Testament:
First comes the principle that the law speaks to "those who are under the law." Romans 2:14 proves that these are not Gentiles. And Deuteronomy 5, the chapter that sums up the law, is very plain about who it addresses — "Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the rules that I speak in your hearing today" (v. 1).
Some translations read "learn them, and keep them to do them," giving four verbs in a row. One writer sets the scene, then counts how often these four words come back:
All Israel is gathered around Moses. The aged servant, so soon to leave them, now solemnly begins the main discourse that makes up this book. The first verse of chapter five contains the four words that appear so often in this book of moral responsibility and practical obedience. These words are "hear" (over thirty times); "learn" (seven times); "keep" (thirty-nine times); "do" (almost one hundred times)… They were to hear, and hearing to learn, and learning to keep, and keeping to do. And this is still the LORD's demand of us His people.
The chain has a direction. The first three exist for the sake of the last:
We are not under the law but under grace. Still, we may well accept these four verbs as what should mark us when we face the many instructions that fill the New Testament. The first three verbs are really there for the sake of the fourth. All the truth made known through the faith of Christ, and ministered to us, is meant to govern our lives in this world while we wait for the Saviour, and to come out in what we do. The Apostle Paul, who was to be a "pattern" to others, wrote, "What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me — practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you" (Philippians 4:9).
One writer weighs what that first word means:
The first of these words puts the soul in the most blessed attitude anyone can be found in — that of hearing… The hearing ear lies at the very foundation of all true, practical Christian life. It puts the soul in the only true and proper attitude for a creature. It is the real secret of all peace and blessedness.
The verse also names what they must hear, and that limit still matters:
Israel had to listen to "the statutes and the rules" of the LORD, and to nothing else. They were not to listen to the commandments, traditions and doctrines of men. They were to listen to the very words of the living God, who had redeemed them and brought them out of the land of Egypt, the place of slavery, darkness and death… When men speak to us about obedience, we must ask the question, "Obedience to what?" When they speak to us about surrendering our own will, we must ask them, "To whom are we to surrender it?" When they speak to us about submitting to authority, we must insist that they tell us the source or foundation of that authority.
Moses asks for obedience, but not to himself:
He did not seek any place of authority for himself. He never lorded it over God's people. His one great theme, from first to last, was obedience. This ran through everything he said — obedience, not to him, but to his Lord and theirs. He was right: this was the true secret of their happiness, their moral security, their dignity and their strength.
- Hear — the first word puts the soul in the only right posture for a creature. That hearing ear is the foundation of all real life with God.
- Hear what — only "the statutes and the rules" of the LORD. The commandments and traditions of men have no claim. So when anyone calls you to obey, ask: obey what, and on whose authority?
- Learn — hearing that never turns into learning stops halfway. The four verbs form a chain, and each one feeds the next.
- Keep — Moses pressed obedience as the secret of Israel's happiness, security, dignity and strength. He claimed no authority for himself.
- Do — the last verb is the point of the other three. God gives truth so we will live it, and the same chain fits us as we face the instructions of the New Testament.
Jehovah our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.
Moses gathers a new generation at the edge of Canaan. He points them back to a mountain and says the covenant God made there belongs to them. Two questions follow. Which covenant is this? And why does Moses tie it to the people in front of him, not to their ancestors?
The place named here marks more than one moment in Israel's story.
A mountain closely linked with Sinai... Horeb was called "the mountain of God" (Exodus 3:1). It was where God spoke with Moses, and where He made a covenant with Israel. Near here also the golden calf was set up.
God had also made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It was a different kind of covenant, and the difference shapes how you read this verse.
The reader must see and fully understand the difference between the covenant made at Horeb and the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They differ in their very nature. The former was a covenant of works, in which the people undertook to do all that the Lord had spoken. The latter was a covenant of pure grace, in which God pledged Himself with an oath to do all which He promised... The Horeb covenant rested on what people were able to do. That one fact fully explains why the whole thing failed. The covenant with Abraham rested on what God is able to do, so it could not fail in the smallest detail.
Moses lays this covenant on the people in front of him. The place where he says it carries a double message.
In Deuteronomy 5 Moses repeats the law according to the Horeb covenant. It was made not with their fathers but with them. As was said just before, he spoke facing Beth-peor, to press home their danger, but in the land they had won, to cheer them.
Moses' last words put a question to the people still living.
That generation had passed away, no doubt. The question was this: would the present generation, about to enter the holy land, profit by the past? In these last words the aged lawgiver, led by the Holy Spirit, spoke straight to their souls.
The promises to the ancestors carried no conditions. What God gave at Sinai worked on a different principle.
Note that there is often great confusion about the covenant of grace and law. God gave the law at Sinai. He gave all the promises without condition — unqualified. When the people came out of Egypt, it was different. The fulfilment of the promise then depended on their obedience, and that was the end of the whole thing, because they could not keep it. Why did God bring in such a principle as this? With the promise, no question of righteousness came up. But the law required something of man, and raising that question brought out sin at once. Why did the law come in? Because we are very proud creatures, and we think we can do a great deal.
This is not the only covenant in the book. And before Moses repeats the commandments, he names the God who is speaking.
We shall find a fresh covenant made in the land of Moab, but first of all Moses reminds them of the covenant at Sinai... Then he sets down the memorial that Jehovah, who gave them His law, was the same One who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They were a people God had brought into relationship with Himself. The aim of His words was to keep them from living in a way that contradicted that relationship.
Does this covenant bind a Christian today? One writer answers plainly, and then points to the call that opens the chapter.
Notice the four verbs in the first verse — "Hear," "learn," "keep," "do." We are not under law but under grace. Yet we may well take these four verbs as expressing what should mark us as we face the many instructions that fill the New Testament. Verbs one to three are really in view of verb four. All the truth made known through the faith of Christ, and passed on to us, is meant to govern our lives in this world, while we wait for the Saviour.
- Place. Horeb is the mountain of God. He met Moses there and made the covenant there, and the golden calf stood nearby.
- Promise. The covenant with the ancestors rested on God's own pledge, so it could not fail in one detail.
- Performance. The Horeb covenant rested on what the people could do. That one fact explains why it failed.
- Present. Moses hands this covenant to the living generation — a warning as he speaks facing Beth-peor, cheer in the land they had won.
- Purpose. The God who gave the law is the God who brought them out of Egypt. The commands guard a relationship they already had. They do not earn one.
Not with our fathers did Jehovah make this covenant, but with us, [even] us, those [who are] here alive all of us this day.
Moses gathers Israel and goes back over the law God gave at Horeb. He then insists that the covenant belongs to the people in front of him. That raises two questions: which covenant does he mean, and why does he tie it to "us, who are all of us here alive today."
Moses is not reciting history for its own sake. He recalls Horeb to fasten a present duty on a people who already stand in a relationship with God.
Obedience is the claim. "The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb." We shall find a fresh one made in the land of Moab, but first of all they are reminded of the Sinai covenant... They were a people brought into relationship with God. The aim of His words was to keep them from living in a way that clashed with that relationship.
"Our fathers" may reach back past Egypt to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God made a covenant with them, and another with Israel at Horeb. The two rest on opposite footings.
The reader must clearly grasp the difference between the covenant made at Horeb and the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The two differ at the core. The former was a covenant of works, in which the people undertook to do all that the Lord had spoken. The latter was a covenant of pure grace, in which God pledged Himself with an oath to do all which He promised... The Horeb covenant rested on human ability to keep its terms. That one fact is enough to explain why the whole thing failed completely.
Commentators differ on how far to press "not with our fathers." One reading takes it of the generations in the camp. Some listeners had stood at Horeb themselves. Others were not yet born when God spoke there. Either way, the covenant binds everyone standing before Moses.
He reminds Israel that God made a covenant with them in Horeb, not with their fathers, but with them (v.3). This was literally true of all those who were now over forty years of age, though those younger than this had not yet been born. Still, that law applied to all who were there alive now that Moses is speaking.
Because the covenant belongs to the living people in front of him, Moses repeats the commandments with a changed motive.
In Deuteronomy 5 Moses repeats the law according to the Horeb covenant, made not with their fathers but with them... In the same way, the fourth commandment is tied not to creation, as in Exodus 20, but to the memory of their deliverance from Egypt. The One who rescued them is the One who now commands them to keep the day.
A covenant belongs to the people it names. So where does that leave Christians?
Sinai was the original standing of Israel, their proudest boast. What nation could truly say that the living God appeared to them beyond all doubt and gave them His fiery law? He spoke it aloud, and afterwards wrote it on tablets of stone with His own hand. But you, Christians, have come to the mountain of grace, not law.
The pattern of this verse outlasts the covenant itself. God speaks to people He has already brought near, and He asks obedience on that basis.
Is the principle of the book of Deuteronomy — obedience to the LORD and His Word in the spirit of love and godly fear — abandoned in the New Testament? We answer, it is as prominent there as it is in this fifth book of Moses... God's grace has brought believers into this relationship. Everywhere in the Gospels and the Epistles, that relationship is the ground for urging them to love the Lord, to obey His Word, and to live for Him.
- Covenant. The covenant here is Horeb's. It is a covenant of works, resting on human ability. It is not the covenant of pure grace God swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
- Claim. Moses recalls Horeb to press obedience. God had already brought this people near; His words guard them from a life that contradicts it.
- Reach. Commentators differ on the exact contrast. Still, the covenant holds for everyone standing there, including those not yet born when God first spoke at Horeb.
- Motive. The covenant is theirs, and alive. So the fourth commandment now points to their rescue from Egypt, not to creation.
- Result. Christians have not come to that mountain, but to the mountain of grace. The pattern still stands: relationship first, then obedience.
Face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire Jehovah spoke with you
Moses speaks to a nation camped on the edge of the promised land. He takes them back forty years to Horeb, where God spoke to the whole assembly out of a burning mountain. What does it mean that God spoke "face to face" with a whole crowd?
At Horeb the people heard something they had never heard before.
There they heard what was new to them: God speaking to them directly out of the fire. God Himself declared the covenant which He commanded them to perform, the ten commandments... So He talked with them face to face.
"Face to face" does not mean they saw anything.
The point urged here is that when they came and stood, as far as anyone then could stand, in the presence of God, they had seen no likeness of the LORD. What a guard this was against the misuse of outward forms! The LORD their God did not make Himself visible to them by any created shape. So this strikes a heavy blow at the tendency towards idolatry.
Moses presses that the covenant belongs to the people standing in front of him.
He reminds Israel that God made a covenant with them at Horeb, not with their fathers, but with them. This was literally true of everyone then over forty years old. Those younger than that had not yet been born. Still, that law applied to everyone alive there now that Moses is speaking. Those who were there would remember that God had spoken to them from the midst of a fire.
Those words had a practical aim:
They were a people brought into relationship with God. The object of His words was to guard them from practical inconsistency with that relationship.
The covenant from the fire is not the same as the promise made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The difference decides how each one ends.
The reader must clearly understand the difference between the covenant made at Horeb and the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They are completely different. The former was a covenant of works, in which the people undertook to do all that the LORD had spoken. The latter was a covenant of pure grace, in which God pledged Himself with an oath to do all that He promised... The Horeb covenant rested on human ability to fulfil its terms. That one fact explains the total failure of the whole thing. The Abrahamic covenant rested on God's ability to fulfil its terms. So it cannot fail in the smallest detail.
The fire was not there to push Israel away. The first words out of it told them who was speaking.
They needed no argument about His being or His power. He had used that power on their behalf. The first words of the One who spoke declared Him their Deliverer out of slavery in Egypt. He did not claim their love without having first done what would secure it for Him. But this love must have reverence in it too... Yet God would have us near Him — truly near. The nearer we are, the more His majesty will impress us, and the more deeply we will feel the infinite distance between ourselves and Him.
Moses himself stood between the LORD and the people, and that role had a limit.
A mediator like Moses could not answer the purpose of this marvellous love of our God. His best service was to keep the LORD and the people apart. But in the Son God accepts the elect. His work and merit are their only title to anything, and yet they have everything by their oneness with the Mediator Himself.
God spoke from the fire, and God has spoken in the Son. The two land on people in opposite ways.
What was spoken from Sinai could not be borne. It declared God's righteous claims on the people, and it put a curse on all who did not meet those claims. It did not unfold what God was on behalf of man. It said what man must be if he was to enter into blessing with God... but when God spoke in the Person of the Son, those who had the privilege of hearing Him wondered at the words of grace that came out of His mouth. Not only the godly, but all the tax collectors and sinners drew near to hear Him. What a contrast!
- Voice — God spoke out of the fire with no visible form. They heard words and saw no likeness. That guarded them against idolatry.
- Covenant — that voice bound the living generation, not just their ancestors. It rested on what people could do. The promise to Abraham rested on what God would do.
- Deliverer — the voice first told them He had brought them out of Egypt. He never asked for their love before doing what would win it.
- Mediator — the best Moses could do was keep God and the people apart. In the Son, believers become one with the Mediator Himself.
- Contrast — no one could bear the voice at Sinai. The same God now speaks in the Son, and sinners draw near to listen.
(I stood between Jehovah and you at that time, to declare to you the word of Jehovah; for ye were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up to the mountain), saying,
Moses looks back at the day God gave Israel His law at Sinai. He stops mid-sentence to explain his own place in it. He stood between God and the people, and they were too afraid of the fire to climb the mountain. Why did a man have to stand in the middle?
Commentators see in Moses' place between God and Israel a picture of someone greater.
Moses stood between the Lord and Israel at that time (v.5). So he was the mediator, a picture of Christ who today is the "one Mediator between God and men" (1 Tim. 2:5). For the presence of God was forbidding then, and it would be just as forbidding now if we did not have this Mediator who is the only Way of approach to God.
The verse gives fear as the reason Moses stood there. What the law does to a person explains that fear.
The people turned and said to Moses, We would rather you spoke to God than have to do with Him ourselves. They look for a mediator... Law must drive you from God. It does not draw you to God. It is the full revelation of God's claims on me as His creature — claims which, if I know myself, I am sure I cannot fulfil... They could not face God. On that ground — the fulfilment of the creature's responsibility — no one can face God.
The distance was not only physical. Even the man who went up trembled:
It was completely different at Sinai. There they stood far off at the foot of the mountain, all aglow with fire, with the mediator himself, Moses, shaking with terror.
The fact that someone had to stand between tells you what kind of arrangement this was.
This mediator was Moses. It is plain that a mediator is not a mediator of one; there must be two parties if there is a mediator... Moses received the law from God's hand and gave it into the hands of the people. He stood between God and man. To enjoy the blessing the law offered, each of these parties had to keep their part of the covenant. God is faithful, and He will surely keep His part. But sadly, even before Moses came down from Mount Sinai, the people had broken their part of the covenant and made a golden calf.
Moses stood there to declare God's word. It did not come to strangers.
Then comes the reminder that Jehovah, who gave them His law, was the same One who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They were a people brought into relationship with God. The purpose of His words was to keep them from living in a way that clashed with that relationship.
Moses could carry words down the mountain. He could not remove what made the mountain terrifying in the first place.
After going back over the law, Moses dwells on their need of a mediator — a need met, of course, only in picture form in himself... They admit that Jehovah had actually spoken to them and they lived. Yet they say this could not last, and God grants that this is true from where they stand... There can be only one reason why God and His creature should not meet together in safety. The gap between the finite creature and the Infinite One could never by itself make His presence destructive to what His hands had made. No — it is sin that absolutely demands judgment, unless Another can step in for him in righteousness. Here Moses can make no real atonement, as we know. He is a shadow, not the substance. Man's refuge is not from God, but in God Himself.
What the shadow lacked, the substance supplies:
Moses was also appointed as mediator, the type of Him who is mediator between God and man, our Lord Jesus Christ. And He has done more than Moses did: He made atonement. The people had recognized their sinful distance from God, and the condemnation they deserved — which is what the law is for — and so they asked for the mediator.
- Fire. God's law drives the creature away instead of drawing him near. That is why the people stayed back. No one can face God on the ground of his own obedience.
- Gap. Fear opened a gap, and Moses filled it. God's presence was forbidding then, and it would be just as forbidding now without a Mediator.
- Two. A mediator means two sides, each with a part to keep. Israel broke their part before Moses even came down the mountain.
- Shadow. The real barrier was never the gap between creature and Creator. It was sin. Moses could carry God's word down, but he could make no atonement for it.
- Substance. Christ is the one Mediator between God and men. He did more than Moses: He made atonement, so the way to God is open.