Deuteronomy 5:23

Compare all

21 ^a‘You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife; and you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.’

22 “These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly, in the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and He added no more. And ^aHe wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

The People Afraid of God’s Presence

23 ^a“So it was, when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, that you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders.

24 And you said: ‘Surely the Lord our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and ^awe have heard His voice from the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God speaks with man; yet he ^bstill lives.

25 Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; ^aif we hear the voice of the Lord our God anymore, then we shall die.

26 ^aFor who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived?

27 You go near and hear all that the Lord our God may say, and ^atell us all that the Lord our God says to you, and we will hear and do it.’

28 “Then the Lord heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me: ‘I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken to you. ^aThey are right in all that they have spoken.

29 ^aOh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and ^balways keep all My commandments, ^cthat it might be well with them and with their children forever!

30 Go and say to them, “Return to your tents.”

31 But as for you, stand here by Me, ^aand I will speak to you all the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments which you shall teach them, that they may observe them in the land which I am giving them to possess.’

Commentaries:

No entry exists in Forerunner Commentary for Deuteronomy 5:23.

Deuteronomy 5:22-31

Now what happened here? In a sense something very tragic happened, but God knew it was going to happen. It is clarified in Deuteronomy 5, and here we will end for today. Deuteronomy 5 is a repetition, only Moses clarifies.

What happened here was that God gave the people a test to see whether they would draw near to Him. The test proved that Israel's fear of God was nothing more than a terror for their own lives. It was not a deep respect mingled with a trust, that despite this awesome display of power they were safer there than anywhere else they could have been. They did not believe that they had just been set apart, as Moses had been set apart, for safety.

God did not take Moses' life, did He? He would not have taken their lives either if they would have just followed through with what He told them to do: "This far and no farther." He would have considered this that they had drawn near to Him, as close as they could get. They did not keep His commandment. They were filled with self-concern and faithlessness, and they disqualified themselves. They rejected, they turned down the priesthood aspect of the Old Covenant. They never performed it. Even before the covenant was made, they turned it down. And God agreed with them. They were not fit to carry it out. That is why He gave the lament: "O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me."

"Do they think that I would have killed them if they had done what I asked them to do?" They were filled with self-concern, and they rejected what God revealed to them. What they made was a discovery of their unworthiness. They were not fit to draw near to Him, and so thus the yearning lament.

The other portions of the covenant remained in place. Even though Israel officially rejected the priesthood, they nonetheless still carried with them a consciousness that they were supposed to represent God before the world. To assist the people in this responsibility God officially, and shortly after that, appointed Moses as their mediator. He appointed the family of Levi to serve as functionaries about the Tabernacle, and specifically the family of Aaron to draw near to Him as priests, and to serve under Moses, assisting him in teaching the Israelites how they were to perform the witnessing.

Excerpted from Sanctification and Holiness (Part 1) by John W. Ritenbaugh

<< Deuteronomy 5:22

Deuteronomy 5:24 >>