Deuteronomy 4:6, commentary and pictures

To keep and practice God's righteous statutes given at Sinai without adding to them or taking from them is itself the wisdom and understanding that watching nations would recognize and admire. That obedience would make God's merciful, just and truthful character visible and mark His people as distinct and holy with Him near when they call. While they obeyed in dependence on Him they would prosper as a light and channel of blessing, but by pride and disobedience they would lose that witness and bring adversity and humiliation. The promised well-being of mind, body, home and nation belongs on the same conditions to every nation and individual, since obedience alone safeguards integrity and stability. The same wisdom is required now, when wholehearted obedience, diligent teaching of children, and honoring the Creator transform character and commend truth to the world.

Words and Historical Setting

To keep and to do means truly keeping and practicing the statutes, not only professing to keep them, for actual obedience is the wisdom and understanding displayed before the nations. The nations watching would see that conduct and recognize a people standing in right relation to God.

The statutes are God's righteous judgments and commandments, identified with the covenant and the Ten Commandments, and their keeping and practicing gives wisdom in the sight of other peoples who hear and acknowledge them as righteous. They were taught through Moses not by his own authority but as the words of the mighty God of Israel commanded to be obeyed in the land to be possessed. Indeed the instruction was spoken by Jesus Christ enshrouded in the cloud through Moses to a multitude of more than a million people, declaring Israel great because God is nigh in all they call upon Him for and because the law is righteous above all nations. The commandments belong to God's covenant, were written on stone, and were never to be erased or changed, so that every person will one day face them and understand their meaning.

The command was given to be followed in the land Israel was entering to possess, and its wisdom and justice set Israel apart from other nations. Israel was to keep the commands faithfully without adding to them or diminishing them, to remember God's requirements, and to teach them to children, descendants, and future generations. The surrounding warning recalls the judgment on those who followed Baal-peor as a lesson to remember and transmit. God's word was fulfilled when the disobedient Israelites died in the wilderness, while obedience is linked to well-being and long life, and the record of this instruction and history serves as warning and guidance for God's people in every age, including those preparing to enter the heavenly Canaan. Obedience in Deuteronomy 4:1-10 is thus the condition for Israel to receive the promises given to them.

Moses spoke this charge though educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, directing Israel to do what God commanded in the land they were going to possess because obedience was their wisdom in the sight of the nations. He said it with the cruel and extreme laws of the heathen nations in view, laws made by men whose hearts were not softened by divine grace, where debasing crimes were passed over lightly while a small offense was visited with cruel punishment, to set God's righteous statutes apart as superior. No other nation was given rules of life so wise and righteous and merciful, and obedience to these sacred precepts preserves harmony between person and person and between humanity and its Maker. Israel had been lifted from a race of slaves to be God's peculiar treasure separated from the world to hold priceless truth and preserve the knowledge of God, so that heaven's light would shine into darkness and call all peoples from idolatry to serve the living God.

Obedience as Wisdom Witness

Keeping and doing the statutes God taught is wisdom and understanding in the sight of the nations, so that when other peoples hear all those statutes they recognize and say that this great nation is a wise and understanding people. Keeping means actually practicing the statutes and judgments, not merely professing them, and the display before the nations comes through obedience seen in life and law-keeping. The nations judge by what they hear and see of the laws, and the justice and righteousness of those laws lead them to acknowledge the people as wise.

Obedience makes the relation to God visible by representing Him and the laws of heaven through words and conduct. By faithful keeping, the people are shown to be specially blessed, peculiar and holy, with God nigh when they call and with statutes righteous above all others, and the line separating them from the world is constantly revealed. Faithful performance of duty honors and exalts God, sets an indelible stamp of purity and holiness upon His people, and reveals His merciful, gracious, long-suffering, good, true, and forgiving character that by no means clears the guilty. That witness gives influence over the nations of the earth and shows religion to be elevating and ennobling, so that even while idolaters ridicule worship as harmful to prosperity, convicted men would join themselves to God's people if duty were faithfully done and straight paths made. This is the standing always intended, rather than seeking the world's favor through close association with worldlings.

When the moral law is obeyed the heart reflects the attributes of His character. When His natural laws and His directions for the culture of the soil are obeyed, the land is restored from the curse brought by Adam and Eve's disobedience and sin to fertility and beauty, becoming an object-lesson of spiritual truth, so that even the heathen who hear the righteous statutes and see the result recognize the superiority of those who serve and worship the living God. The statutes were not spoken by human authority but by the mighty God of Israel as commanded to be obeyed in the land to be possessed, and no other nation was given rules of life so wise and righteous and merciful. Obedience to these sacred precepts preserves harmony between person and person and between humanity and its Maker, and the order and harmony of the Jewish economy were meant to reveal the character of the true God and what He desires His people to be.

God's Word is to be the guide for counsel, to be studied as words of truth and righteousness, not false science but the true science, and God's Word alone imparts true wisdom and knowledge. The law makes known the principles behind all true prosperity for nations and for individuals, providing a sure rule amid life's dangers and conflicting claims. Its divine character sets it above the laws of other nations, for the laws are wise, righteous, and merciful.

Keeping and doing the statutes is wisdom and understanding, not foolishness, ignorance, inability to understand, weakness, or loss of reputation. It is higher education, being in God's school to learn His heavenly requirements, the highest education that can be given to mortals, learned by coming in submission to God with His converting power every day. It gives understanding for this world and for the future world, brings God's people into harmony with the living God through cleaving to Him and not separating from Him, and gives those around them a good impression. Therefore His people are to stand unafraid in obedience in the sight of all the nations around them, and though being very particular about obedience leads some to call believers foolish, exactly that testimony is to be borne always, that they follow on to know the Lord whose going forth is prepared as the morning.

Israel's Mission to Nations

Israel was entrusted with God's law to be an example to the surrounding idolatrous peoples and to give the world a representation of Him and the principles of His kingdom by word, conduct, life and character. Brought out of Egypt and separated from the customs, habits and practices of the world and drawn near to Him to know His will, Israel was to preserve the knowledge of Him, to shine as light in darkness, to be a living channel of light revealing the Lord as the only true and living God and Creator, and to call peoples away from idolatry to serve the living God. In life and character they were to reveal His goodness, mercy, justice and love, His purity, goodness, benevolence, mighty power and glory, and His wise and holy rule, so that the nations hearing all the statutes would recognize them as a wise and understanding people, superior above every other people as those who love and fear and serve God. The same purpose holds for His people today, that when the law is thus exemplified in the life even the world will recognize that superiority.

While Israel depended on God and obeyed, they prospered and were a light to the world and a channel of blessing, and their honor and exaltation would have served His purpose among the nations. Their greatest prosperity came when they acknowledged Jehovah as King and regarded His laws and government as superior to those of other nations, which would have made them a prosperous, holy and happy people settled in Canaan, elevated in life and character to be a praise and a glory recognized and commended even by the heathen world. By pride and disobedience they lost their distinctiveness and became like the nations, forgot God and lost sight of their privilege as His representatives, failed to become the people He intended, and developed by disobedience a character exactly opposite to what obedience would have produced. Distrust, unbelief, pride, impatience, rebellion and transgression forfeited favor, kindled His wrath, delayed entrance into Canaan, brought adversity and humiliation, dishonored God and detracted from His glory in the sight of the nations, obscured the witness, and made it impossible for Him to manifest His power in protecting and delivering them. He is faithful to His promises and as a loving, compassionate Father pardons truly repentant sinners and retains them as His people, and He is not chargeable for their misfortunes, for the promised blessings are conditional upon submission as a nation governed by His judgments and as individuals walking in His ordinances in love, fear and obedience, maintaining a high standard of purity and holiness free from the sins of the heathen, whose greater privileges make guilt greater when they imitate them; they blamed His government for evils resulting from their own sin and folly, and while firm in allegiance His commandments were not grievous but a delight, yet when separated from Him to serve evil they became unable to execute the holy enactments and the law became an unendurable weight. Even their unfaithfulness and exile became a means through which knowledge of the true God was spread among the nations they passed through.

If the king walked before the Lord in uprightness and did what God commanded, as David did, God would be with him as He had been with David, sustaining him with established throne and lengthened days. His reign would then be the means of exalting Israel as a wise and understanding people and a light to the surrounding nations, for keeping and doing the statutes is their wisdom and understanding in the sight of the nations. So under Solomon faithful rule and obedience, using the wisdom he sought to serve faithfully and glorify God, could bring this honor and cause Israel to be known as a wise and understanding people.

This distinction was meant to serve God's purpose for all nations by making His name known and being a blessing to the peoples, not by seeking supremacy for its own sake. Obedient Israel was sustained by God and served as light-bearers among the nations they passed through, standing before other nations as a witness to the truth. God's people in every age are likewise to use their talents, resources and influence in His work.

Blessings and Consequences

Keeping the commandments brings well-being and long life to the people and to their children. Obedience is the path to safety, divine favor, happiness and prosperity in the land, preserving harmony between person and person and between humanity and its Maker. Through obedience alone the glorious possibilities set before Israel could be realized, bringing elevation of character and fullness of blessing on mind and soul and body, on house and field, for this life and for the life to come. Israel was also to demonstrate the benefits of following heaven's principles, receiving health, prosperity, honor and exaltation, and showing the nations the wisdom of living by God's law. God's word was fulfilled when the disobedient died in the wilderness and did not enter Canaan, while obedience remains linked to well-being and long life.

The blessings promised to Israel for this obedience are assured on the same conditions and to the same degree to every nation and to every individual. That principle is true now in every generation and in every land as when spoken to Israel. Obedience is the only safeguard for individual integrity, for the purity of the home, for the well-being of society, and for the stability of the nation. Amid all life's perplexities and dangers and conflicting claims the one safe and sure rule is to do what God says. God's law makes known the principles behind all true prosperity for nations and for individuals, and keeping the law gives wisdom and understanding.

The promised blessings are conditional upon submission as a nation governed by His judgments and as individuals walking in His ordinances, loving, fearing and obeying the great Ruler of the universe. They require maintaining a high standard of purity and holiness free from the sins and iniquities of the heathen, whose greater privileges make guilt greater when they imitate them. Distrust, unbelief, pride, impatience, rebellion and transgression forfeited favor, kindled wrath, delayed entrance into Canaan, dishonored God, detracted from His glory in the sight of the nations, and made it impossible to manifest His power in protecting and delivering Israel. God is faithful to His promises and as a loving compassionate Father pardons truly repentant sinners and retains them as His people, and He is not chargeable for Israel's misfortunes. As the close of earth's history approaches, transgression brings its sure result, with the curse come upon the earth itself, upon the cattle and upon all flesh, the whole world becoming a house of disease and human beings and beasts suffering from departing from the commandments.

Teaching people to transgress the holy law despises the commandment and will be met with terror and despair when every work is brought into judgment. Perfection of Christian character is attainable through obedience to the statutes and requirements, meaning the commandments to be kept and not forgotten. History shows the result: the Reformation brought the Bible's precepts and God's law before the world, and France's rejection of this gift of heaven was followed by anarchy and ruin, with the Revolution and Reign of Terror as the consequences of that rejection. Israel's greatest prosperity came when acknowledging Jehovah as king and regarding His laws and government as superior to those of other nations, while departing from His law the Hebrews failed to become the people intended and blamed His government for evils resulting from their own sin and folly.

Application for Today

Deuteronomy 4 remains fully binding now as it was for Israel, and its lessons on obedience stretch through all history to the last days. Those who would belong to the covenant-keeping people are to study the chapter carefully and diligently, return to the true platform of truth, and uphold its instruction because truth will triumph. This means living by its requirements without neglecting anything important in the Word, including the law proclaimed at Sinai and especially the Sabbath. Keeping the statutes brings well-being and long life to the people and their children, while those who disobeyed in the wilderness did not enter Canaan.

The same acknowledgment once made by the nations, that obedient Israel is wise and understanding, is the standing God has always wanted His people to have today. Wherever they are they are to show a right relation to Him by actually keeping the statutes rather than merely professing them, so that obedience makes the relationship visible. Those bearing sacred responsibilities are to observe all His directions, attend to speech and conduct, and serve Him wholeheartedly so their lives honor the sacred truths entrusted to them. They are not to seek the world's favor by close association with worldlings, for commandment keepers are under the Lord's power to shield and guard them, and such obedience would bring a very different condition in the world. Their character becomes visible through actions, like a tree known by its fruit, and through Jesus fallen people can bear that precious fruit by obedience.

Fathers and mothers are bound to work humbly in their homes to bring children up in nurture and admonition from babyhood, childhood, and youth. From the earliest years they are to teach God's words diligently as given through Moses, ever keeping before the young that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Faithful instruction guards children from careless associations and wrong habits, while neglect brings reproof, and the people were to keep what they had seen, remember it, and teach it to descendants without adding to or altering it. Home life itself, including eating and drinking, becomes part of the witness, and honoring the Sabbath rather than treating it as an ordinary day or ordinary school day marks allegiance to the Creator and bears testimony to the world about its truth even when obedience brings personal sacrifice.

Obedience is the highest education human beings can obtain, learned by coming in submission to God with His converting power each day and by cleaving to Him. Keeping and practicing the statutes placed Israel at the head of learning as a wise and understanding people recognized by surrounding nations. That same presence of God with His people fits them to stand on the highest eminence in scientific knowledge instead of being regarded as inferior, and the light given in medical missionary lines fulfills this by enabling them to overcome defects and ignorance. Their learning must be joined to dependence on God as the source of all wisdom and grace, giving wisdom to those willing to be taught and to cooperate with Him, shaping life and character toward perfection.

In these last days when iniquity abounds on every hand, wisdom and understanding before all people still consists in obedience to the standard of righteousness. Doing the commandments elevates character and life in a way even the heathen recognize and commend, and in every age all who have obeyed have been transformed. The obedient are not foolish, ignorant, uncourteous, and coarse, but by conforming to the holy laws of Heaven become like Jesus Christ, the living example of perfect obedience, and become refined, ennobled, and elevated, manifesting self-forgetful courtesy that blesses others. They place the will on the Master's side, live conscious of God's nearness, see doubts vanish, identify their interest with Christ, wear His yoke and bear His reproach with thanksgiving, never alone because Christ walks with them and bears the heaviest weight, finding rest of soul with an easy yoke and light burden by keeping the Father's commandments as He kept them. Strength, wisdom, and understanding are found not in great talents, great possessions, grand appearance, or position alone, for position does not give holiness of character; they are found in humble service to the Maker, with God's favor promised only to those who obey and with elevation of mind, soul, body, house, and field for this life and the life to come possible only through obedience.

God's directions are sacred truth expressing His mind and must be obeyed in principle in religious service and in relations with others. Their binding principles include justice, love, liberality, tenderness, compassion, and courtesy, by which His people represent His character and by departing from which they misrepresent Him. The commandments are to be brought plainly before people so they can teach the requirements of heaven, taught by both example and instruction as Christ taught Israel forty years in the wilderness. Life and prosperity depend on that obedience and on acting righteously toward one another, for God could not sustain them in transgression.