Obedience Tied to the Land:
“And now, O Israel, give heed to the statutes and the ordinances which I teach you, and do them; that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, gives you.” (Deut. 4:1) Taking and possessing the land is tied to obedience to the Lord. God further tells Moses: “Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Ba′al-pe′or; for the Lord your God destroyed from among you all the men who followed the Ba′al of Pe′or; but you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive this day.” (Deut. 4:3-4) Moses reminds the Israelites how they received the Commandments at Mt. Sinai: “And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom. Then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice.” (Deut. 4:11-12) God warns them against worshiping false idols of stone or worshiping the stars and planets. Yahweh is not any created thing. He is outside of the physical universe, not limited by the things on earth or in the universe, but is the source of all created things. The pagan religions all around the Israelites worship these things, stone idols, stars, and planets. But, not so with the Israelites, although the wilderness years shows how they struggled with this. Moses laments this and partially blames them, the Israelites, for his not being allowed into the Promised Land: “Furthermore the Lord was angry with me on your account..” (Deut. 4:21)
The Might of God and an Impassioned Plea for Fidelity:
“Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him.” (Deut. 4:34-35) And, “by his great power, driving out before you nations greater and mightier than yourselves, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as at this day; know therefore this day, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.” (Deut. 4:37-39) Moses reiterates then keep His statutes and commandments. What follows is one of the most passionate defenses of singular fidelity to God alone in the whole Old Testament. In fact, in Jesus’ temptations (Mt. 4:4, 7, 10) in the desert wilderness, He will rebuke Satan by quoting three times from this section of Deuteronomy (Deut. 6:13, 16, 8:3).
The Ten Commandments, and Walking Right with God:
Here, in chapter five of Deuteronomy, Moses reiterates the Ten Commandments. Moses then lists the Ten Commandments again. Afterwards, he said, “These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly at the mountain out of the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and he added no more. And he wrote them upon two tables of stone, and gave them to me.” (Deut. 5:22) The Lord then addressed Moses alone because the people were afraid to hear the voice of God, lest they die. So, the Lord instructed the Israelites: “You shall be careful to do therefore as the Lord your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. You shall walk in all the way which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land which you shall possess.” (Deut. 5:32-33) The same is true for us today. We must not turn to the left or to the right, but follow the Lord in all His precepts, His Ten Commandments, and likewise approaching Confession, the Eucharist and the sacraments to abide continually with the Lord. We, like the Israelites, must maintain that relationship with the Lord through our actions.