Deuteronomy 4:38
To drive out nations from before thee greater and mightier than thou art, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance, as it is this day. To drive out nations from before thee greater and mightier than thou art, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance, as it is this day.
To drive out nations greater and mightier than Israel, to bring Israel in, and to give their land to Israel for an inheritance is what the verse declares as God's own work. He did this because of His love for the fathers, choosing their seed after them, and He brought Israel out of Egypt in His sight with mighty power. The going out from Egypt was accompanied everywhere by the cloud, which encircled Christ Jesus.
The verse belongs to what God spoke at Sinai when He met Israel, gave His law, and told the people from the pillar of cloud what to do and what not to do. The act fulfilled His purpose for the people He had brought out of Egypt, showing what He required for them to be a holy people to Himself and giving reason to recognize that the Lord alone is God and to keep His statutes and commandments. The wonderful promises, including prolonged days and well-being on the earth God gives, were dependent on keeping His commandments, so the promised expulsion of nations and gift of the inheritance stood joined to obedience.
That condition was verified in Israel's history, for the people disobeyed, judgment came, and of the adults who left Egypt only two entered Canaan while the rest died in the wilderness, linking obedience to blessing and continued life. God will vindicate His word in the same way today if leaders depart from His commandments. The directions never lose their force because they are principles of the law of God and expressions of the mind of the infinite God, to be acted out in principle in all religious service toward God and toward one another, the same principles expressed in James 3, with every word to be cherished and preached.
For the obedient the promise means whole dependence upon God with no self-exaltation, standing humbly with God to do good for those who need help while angels come in to make the impression. It means being Christian gentlemen who love as brethren, do no injustice, and always show liberality, tenderness, compassion, and true courtesy, so that God is rightly represented, since all who depart from His word in action misrepresent His character. The chapter, with Deuteronomy 4-11 and 4-8, is a solemn lesson and sacred history to be studied, read carefully and prayerfully, and obeyed without neglecting what His Word requires, from the greatest direction to the least, which children should learn from Scripture.
It is instruction all need in order to understand God's dealings with His people, to be studied with profit now in the last days in the time of investigation before God's great final review when all must stand before the Judge of all the earth to answer for deeds and every character will have been investigated and every case decided for eternity. It means much to every soul carrying responsibilities in sanitarium work. It shows that God gives His Spirit and favor to those who unite faith with works in medical missionary service, walk in the strong steady light shining across their pathway, educate others for service, and undertake the work that careless and unwilling believers neglect.