Deuteronomy 4:39-40

THE ONLY GOD

‘Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord He is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath; there is none else,’ etc.

Deuteronomy 4:39

Moses promised the Jews that if they trusted in God, they would be a strong, happy, and prosperous people. On the other hand, he warned them that if they forgot the Lord their God, poverty, misery, and ruin would surely fall upon them.

That this last was no empty threat is proved by the plain facts of the sacred history. For they did forget God, and worshipped Baalim, the sun, moon, and stars; and ruin of every kind did come upon them, till they were carried away captive to Babylon.

I. The thought that the God whom they worshipped was the one true God must have made His worship a very different, a much holier and deeper matter to the Jews than the miserable, selfish thing which is miscalled religion by too many people nowadays, by which a man hopes to creep out of this world into heaven all by himself, without any real care or love for his fellow-creatures or those he leaves behind him.

An old Jew’s faith in God and obedience to God was part of his family life, part of his politics, part of his patriotism. The duty he owed to God was not merely a duty which he owed his own conscience or his own soul; it was a duty which he owed to his family, to his kindred, to his country. It was not merely an opinion that there was one God, and not two; it was a belief that the one and only true God was protecting him, teaching him, inspiring him and all his nation.

II. God’s purpose has come to pass.—The little nation of the Jews, without seaport towns and commerce, without colonies or conquests, has taught the whole civilised world, has influenced all the good and all the wise unto this day so enormously, that the world has actually gone beyond them and become Christian by fully understanding their teaching and their Bible, while they have remained mere Jews by not understanding it. God’s revelation to the Jews was His boundless message, and not any narrow message of man’s invention.

—Canon Kingsley.

Illustration

(1) ‘Who has a God like my God? I will exult in Him, as Moses exulted. Verily, He is high and lifted up! I will rejoice in His power. I will comfort me in His wisdom. His love shall overshadow me in the heat. Oh, who has a God like my God?’

(2) ‘An idol is any visible thing which takes the place of the unseen and eternal realities, veiling them from view. Let us beware of God’s jealousy, but ask Him as a consuming fire to burn out our sins, so that He may have no reason to cast us finally away. And yet if these words should meet the eye of any who feel that they are among the scattered and banished ones, let such remember that if, in these latter days and in this far country, they seek Him, He will be found of them, if they seek Him with all the heart and with all the soul, for He is merciful; He cannot forget the covenant. Let us teach these things more diligently to the children, after the old fashion; young hearts are soft to take impressions, but they soon become rock in their power to retain them.’

(3) ‘ “He.” Not merely the truth about Him. Not merely a place in the ranks of His people. Not merely the commandments He bids me keep. But Him Himself. God in Jesus Christ. God dying and living for me. God to be my Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption.’