Discipline and Torah
4: 25-31
Torah and discipline DIG: What were ADONAI’s expectations of the covenant He cut with Isra’el? What does it mean to cut a covenant? What is God’s main concern here? What is significant about God calling heaven and earth as witnesses? Which generation is Moses addressing here? What were the implications of breaking the covenant? How can Ha’Shem’s discipline still be seen today for the Jews? What is Ha’Shem promise to Isra’el in the far eschatological future? What is the only way to find YHVH?
REFLECT: A life of ease has ruined many people. Have you become too complacent with God? If so, what are your next steps to rekindle your relationship? Without discipline can there be any love? Can a parent really love their children if they refuse to discipline them? What is the result when a child grows up with no blessing? With no discipline? Why do you need both? How has God blessed your life? In the long run, how has God’s discipline benefited you? A life of ease has ruined many people. Have you become too complacent with God? What does it mean for your daily life to seek God with all your heart and soul?
After the strong warning against idolatry, Moses now spells out the consequences of neglecting that warning. He passionately warns the Israelites against complacency.
ADONAI made a covenant with His people and He expected them to keep it. The word covenant is used at least twenty-seven times in Deuteronomy and comes from the Hebrew word berith, which can be translated to eat bread. The action involved in covenant making uses the phrase cut a covenant (see the commentary on Genesis, to see link click Eg – I am the LORD, Who Brought You Out of Ur of the Chaldeans to Give You This Land). In the Near East, when people formed a covenant or treaty that they would help and protect each other (Genesis 26:26-35), they broke bread together. When YHVH established His covenant with the generation of the Exodus, Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Isra’el broke bread before Ha’Shem on Mount Sinai (see the commentary on Exodus En – The Covenant Meal with the God of Isra’el). The terms of the covenant were simple: If Isra’el obeyed God’s statutes (Hebrew: hachukkim, meaning to write into law permanently) and ordinances (Hebrew: hammishpatim, meaning a judgment of the court), He would bless them; however, if they disobeyed, He would discipline them. Even so, He would show His love for them in both the blessing and the discipline (see the commentary on Hebrews Cz – God Disciplines His Children).127
The discipline of Isra’el (4:25-28): Moshe would elaborate on the details of the warnings of the covenant later (see Fa – The Warnings of the Covenant), but here he warned this second generation if they did not obey the Torah, they would face godly discipline. They would be punished, scattered, and destroyed as a nation if they didn’t take their covenant responsibilities seriously. When (Hebrew: ki) you father children and children’s children and have been in the Promised Land a long time, and you become prosperous and complacent, and you act corruptly and make a graven image in the form of anything and do evil in the sight of ADONAI your God, provoking Him to anger (4:25). It is noteworthy that the text, here, opens with the word when (ki) and not if (Hebrew im). This led the rabbis to assert that, in addition to warning, this verse also contains a prediction that after 852 years (the numerical value of venovshantem, meaning and have remained long) the Israelites would be exiled. Actually, the destruction of the Temple (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Mt – The Destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple on Tisha B’Av in 70 AD), and subsequent exile, took place after 850 years. But the sages taught that ADONAI, in His mercy, brought upon them the predicted retribution two years earlier to prevent the complete fulfillment of the prophecy, for you will certainly be destroyed.
When the families were settled, Moshe was concerned that they would become complacent about their relationship with ADONAI. He realized that the battles on the other side of the Jordan would result in honor and victory. But he feared that a complacent attitude would set in when things were going well. It was then that the Israelites were prone to forget God.128
Dear Heavenly Father, You are such a wonderful and loving Father! May we never forget how much pain Your sacrifice of love for us cost you when You gave your Son as the sacrifice for our sin (John 1:29, Second Corinthians 5:21). May our hearts never become complacent but instead grow in joy and praise over how wonderful You are- all wise, all powerful, full of mercy and love! We love You! In Your holy Son’s name and power of resurrection. Amen
Then YHVH declared: I call heaven and earth to witness against you today (4:26a). Isaiah began his prophecy by calling the same two witnesses: Listen! Heavens, and hear, earth, for ADONAI has spoken (Isaiah 1:2a). And from there followed with one of the strongest indictments against the Jews and what they had done with what God had given them. But by the time of Isaiah it was already too late. How hard it must have been for Moshe to know in advance that the nation that he had led for forty years would fail.
These witnesses were permanent and unchanging, in contrast to the fickleness of mankind. When that happened Moses warned that you will certainly be carried off quickly from the Land you are crossing over the Jordan to possess. You will not prolong your days on it, for you will certainly be destroyed (4:26b). Moshe wanted Isra’el to understand that if covenantal faithfulness was missing, Isra’el had no claim to the Land. There was no divinely granted right to the Land they were entering without faithfulness to the covenant. If they violated their relationship with YHVH, their relationship with, or enjoyment of, the Land would be interrupted as well.129
The implications of breaking the covenant are now given: ADONAI will scatter you among the peoples, and three-thousand-five-hundred years later the Jews are still living his prophecy. In 4:16-19, Moshe shows how idolatry reverses the divine order of creation. In a similar fashion, the godly discipline promised for rebellion represents a reversal of the Abrahamic covenant. YHVH promised to provide a great Land and a great people. However, the LORD also promised that He would drive His people out from the Land and drastically reduce their population if they practiced idolatry in rebellion against Him. And you will be left few in number among the nations where ADONAI will drive you (4:27). The Holy Land occupies a special position in the relationship between YHVH and His people. Since this relationship cannot exist anywhere else in the world, the mere presence of Israelites in the diaspora is equal to serving strange gods. The rabbis declared, “Whoever dwells outside the Holy Land is regarded as if he worships idols” (Ketub. 11ob).
And once in the diaspora, there you will serve man-made gods of wood and stone, which do not see or hear or eat or smell (4:28). There, the Israelites would once again choose to serve pagan gods. But they would discover the impotence of those gods (see the commentary on Jeremiah Ao – I Planted You Like a Choice Vine, from the Very Best Seed). If those gods could not perform the equivalent of even basic human functions, what hope was there of any saving power from them? The mightiest gods of Babylon, far from being any assistance to their worshipers in their hour of need, couldn’t even rescue their own fallen idols (see the commentary on Isaiah Ig – Bel Bows Down, Nebo Stoops Low and They Go Off Together to Captivity). Consequently, if Isra’el, knowing a God who had carried them on eagle’s wings (Exodus 19:4), wanted to go after gods they would have to carry themselves, then they had a hard lesson ahead.130
However, there were two positive side-effects to the warning. First, if the people were disciplined through disobedience, the consequences of their actions would drive them back to God. Secondly, even in the midst of the warning, there is an element of hope. Though the people might be unfaithful, ADONAI would remain faithful.131
The election of Isra’el (4:29-31): This came right after Moses spoke of their failures and dispersion as if he knew of those who would come and falsely claim ownership of the covenants of God. Here, Moshe’s pleading for his people is timeless. No place would be too far and no time too distant for Isra’el to come back to YHVH. But from there you will seek ADONAI your God and you will find Him, when you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul (4:29). Even in the midst of disciplining His chosen people, ADONAI will not forget them.
In the far eschatological future, during the last three days of the Great Tribulation (Hosea 6:1-3), Isra’el come back to ADONAI . . . and ADONAI will come back to Isra’el (see the commentary on Revelation Ev – The Basis of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ) and set up His thousand-year Messianic Kingdom (see the commentary on Revelation Fh – The Dispensation of the Messianic Kingdom). YHVH declared: When you are in distress and all these things have come on you, in the latter days you will return (Hebrew: shub, meaning to repent, return, or to turn back to something or someone good) to ADONAI your God and listen to His voice (4:30). This verse is a serious blow to the heretical Hebrew Roots Movement (see the commentary on Galatians Ak – The Hebrew Roots Movement: A Different Gospel) and Replacement Theology which believes that all the promises to Isra’el have been transferred to the Church.
For ADONAI your God is a merciful (Hebrew: rahum, refers to the tender compassion of a mother toward her helpless infant) God. So even if Isra’el forgets her God, He will not abandon her or destroy her, or forget the covenant with her fathers that He swore to them (4:31). One feature of God’s covenant with Isra’el that differed from the usual political treaties of that day was the provision that a rebel could repent, return, and be forgiven. The prospect of beginning a new obedience and blessing was promised to these chosen people (see Bf – God’s Chosen People). In ancient political treaties, rebellion was seldom treated with mercy, even if the offending party repented. But God’s nature is vastly different from that of human rulers. His mercy is equal to His might.132
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