Deuteronomy 5:25
But now, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us, and we will die, if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any longer.
Sermons
Reminiscences of HorebJ. Orr Deuteronomy 5:1-33
Character Determines EnvironmentD. Davies Deuteronomy 5:21-33
How Moses Became MediatorR.M. Edgar Deuteronomy 5:22-33
The Element of Terror in ReligionJ. Orr Deuteronomy 5:23-28














I. THE FACT OF TERROR. It is not unnatural that man should tremble in presence of any near manifestation of the Divine. The chief cause of this terror is the consciousness of sin. Guilty man fears his Judge. The text is an instance of this terror, but the same thing has often been witnessed.

1. In presence of unusual appearances of nature. Comets, eclipses, unusual darkness, thunderstorms, earthquakes, etc.

2. Under the powerful preaching of judgment. Felix under the preaching of Paul (Acts 24:25). Massillon bringing the French court to their feet in terror, as he described the Lord's coming. Whitfield's oratory and its effects.

3. In prospect of death. There are few in whom the approach of death does not awaken serious alarms. The effect is most conspicuous in times of sudden danger, as in shipwrecks, etc.

II. THE INFLUENCE OF TERROR. Usually, as here:

1. It extorts confession of the truth. The Israelites spoke of God in juster terms than ever they had done before, or perhaps ever did again. Terror draws from the soul strange acknowledgments. The white face of the scoffer shows how little, in his heart, he disbelieves in the God he would fain have disavowed. The self-righteous man is made suddenly aware of his sins. The blasphemer stops his oaths, and begins to pray. The liar for once finds himself speaking the truth.

2. It awakens the cry for a mediator. Thus we see it leading men to send for ministers or lay Christians to pray for them, or crying for mercy to the Savior or to saints.

3. It prompts to vows and promises. In their terrified moods, men are willing to promise anything - whatever they think will please or propitiate God (ver. 27). They will repent, will pray, will go to church, will make restitution for wrongs, will abandon vices, etc.

III. THE INEFFICACY OF TERROR AS AN INSTRUMENT OF CONVERSION. Terror, when excited by just views of sin, has its uses. It breaks up the hardened crust of indifference, ploughs into the nature, and prepares it for the reception of better teaching. But terror of itself cannot change the heart. It is the message of love which alone can exalt, renovate, and truly convert. Not the Law, but the cross. The Law is only useful when employed as a schoolmaster to bring to Christ. These Israelites soon forgot their terrors, and in less than forty days had made for themselves a golden calf. The jailor's terrors (Acts 16:27) would have wrought death, but the words, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ," etc. (ver. 31), made him live anew. - J.O.

God doth talk with man, and he liveth.
There is no doubt that Adam was originally made for converse with his Maker. The voice of the Lord had no terrors for him until he had sinned. From that time forth the voice of the Lord was in itself calculated to strike terror into man. And as man shrank from God's talking to him, so we may feel assured he shrank from talking to God; and so, except in a very few cases, such as Enoch and Abraham and Job, and such holy men, a spirit of estrangement was set up. The great remedy is provided for us by our Lord Jesus Christ. He has taught us to call the Most High our Father. "Our Father which art in heaven." He has by this one name given us many reasons why we may go to God at all times, and talk with Him. Some reader of these pages is, perhaps, timid, and shrinks from the idea altogether. He says, I reverence God too much to embrace this idea of talking with Him; I can pray, and praise, but not talk. Well, to begin with, what is your prayer but one half of talking, your telling Him what you want? And what is the answer to prayer but the other half of talking — His telling you that He has heard and granted your petitions? But let us not insist on this, but rather turn to the word Father, which Jesus has taught us to use. We cannot imagine a father living in the same house as his child, and never speaking to him; never wishing to be spoken to by him. Our common notion of a father, our experience of the relationship forbids the thought. Now there are not two kinds of fatherhoods; that of God is essentially the same as ours, only it is perfect (Matthew 7:11). To come now to this talking itself. There are various kinds of talking. Prayer is no doubt a talking with God, but we shall not dwell upon it here. We mean by "talking" something — if we might so express ourselves with reverence — more free, less set, than our regular prayer. This talking is very independent of place; of church, or bedside, or our ordinary spot for prayer — and of times — of the morning, or noontide, or evening prayer; it has nothing whatever to do with them. Much of this talking is carried on when we are walking about, or perhaps in the train, or in the streets, or in snatches of time in business hours. And sometimes this talking is carried on without any particular aim. We are not of set purpose offering adoration, or putting up prayer. We talk just because our hearts like to be in communion with Him; and we wish to say we love and honour Him. But what good will come of all this?

1. To begin with, our talking to God involves His talking to us. He never allows His people to keep on speaking to Him, without taking any notice of them, or making any answer. That would not be fatherly on His part. By His Spirit and by His providence He answers us in turn.

2. In such talking we might acquaint ourselves much with God, and be at peace. How much slavish fear — how much death fear would take its departure, if we were accustomed to talk as with a friend with that One, in whose hands are all things, in that land whither we are going!

3. How near would this habit keep us to God in all our daily life! We never could stray far from Him if we kept it up. Matters which may be of the utmost moment, though we know it not, and which would never, perhaps, have been the subject of prayer and so of blessing, will thus be brought before Him, and be remembered by Him for good.

4. And when the time of need comes for strong prayer, this habit will be at work — it will give us encouragement. The God we have so often talked to will be no stranger.

(P. B. Power, M. A.)

People
Moses
Places
Beth-baal-peor, Egypt, Horeb
Topics
Add, Burned, Consume, Death, Die, Died, Fate, Fire, Longer, Overtake, Voice
Outline
1. The covenant in Horeb
6. The ten commandments
23. At the people's request Moses receives the law from God

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Deuteronomy 5:22-26

     1454   theophany

Deuteronomy 5:22-27

     6636   drawing near to God

Deuteronomy 5:23-27

     4269   Sinai, Mount

Library
Prayer and Obedience
"An obedience discovered itself in Fletcher of Madeley, which I wish I could describe or imitate. It produced in him a ready mind to embrace every cross with alacrity and pleasure. He had a singular love for the lambs of the flock, and applied himself with the greatest diligence to their instruction, for which he had a peculiar gift. . . . All his intercourse with me was so mingled with prayer and praise, that every employment, and every meal was, as it were, perfumed therewith." -- JOHN WESLEY.
Edward M. Bounds—The Necessity of Prayer

The Old Testament Canon from Its Beginning to Its Close.
The first important part of the Old Testament put together as a whole was the Pentateuch, or rather, the five books of Moses and Joshua. This was preceded by smaller documents, which one or more redactors embodied in it. The earliest things committed to writing were probably the ten words proceeding from Moses himself, afterwards enlarged into the ten commandments which exist at present in two recensions (Exod. xx., Deut. v.) It is true that we have the oldest form of the decalogue from the Jehovist
Samuel Davidson—The Canon of the Bible

Questions About the Nature and Perpetuity of the Seventh-Day Sabbath.
AND PROOF, THAT THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK IS THE TRUE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. BY JOHN BUNYAN. 'The Son of man is lord also of the Sabbath day.' London: Printed for Nath, Ponder, at the Peacock in the Poultry, 1685. EDITOR'S ADVERTISEMENT. All our inquiries into divine commands are required to be made personally, solemnly, prayerful. To 'prove all things,' and 'hold fast' and obey 'that which is good,' is a precept, equally binding upon the clown, as it is upon the philosopher. Satisfied from our observations
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

"They have Corrupted Themselves; their Spot is not the Spot of his Children; they are a Perverse and Crooked Generation. "
Deut. xxxii. 5.--"They have corrupted themselves; their spot is not the spot of his children; they are a perverse and crooked generation." We doubt this people would take well with such a description of themselves as Moses gives. It might seem strange to us, that God should have chosen such a people out of all the nations of the earth, and they to be so rebellious and perverse, if our own experience did not teach us how free his choice is, and how long-suffering he is, and constant in his choice.
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The True Manner of Keeping Holy the Lord's Day.
Now the sanctifying of the Sabbath consists in two things--First, In resting from all servile and common business pertaining to our natural life; Secondly, In consecrating that rest wholly to the service of God, and the use of those holy means which belong to our spiritual life. For the First. 1. The servile and common works from which we are to cease are, generally, all civil works, from the least to the greatest (Exod. xxxi. 12, 13, 15, &c.) More particularly-- First, From all the works of our
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

The Everlasting Covenant of the Spirit
"They shall be My people, and l will be their God. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me."--JER. xxxii. 38, 40. "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye
Andrew Murray—The Two Covenants

Jesus Fails to Attend the Third Passover.
Scribes Reproach Him for Disregarding Tradition. (Galilee, Probably Capernaum, Spring a.d. 29.) ^A Matt. XV. 1-20; ^B Mark VII. 1-23; ^D John VII. 1. ^d 1 And after these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Judæa, because the Jews sought to kill him. [John told us in his last chapter that the passover was near at hand. He here makes a general statement which shows that Jesus did not attend this passover. The reason for his absence is given at John v. 18.] ^a 1 Then there
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Angel of the Lord in the Pentateuch, and the Book of Joshua.
The New Testament distinguishes between the hidden God and the revealed God--the Son or Logos--who is connected with the former by oneness of nature, and who from everlasting, and even at the creation itself, filled up the immeasurable distance between the Creator and the creation;--who has been the Mediator in all God's relations to the world;--who at all times, and even before He became man in Christ, has been the light of [Pg 116] the world,--and to whom, specially, was committed the direction
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Mount Zion.
"For ye are not come unto a mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard entreated that no word more should be spoken unto them: for they could not endure that which was enjoined, If even a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned; and so fearful was the appearance, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake: but ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto
Thomas Charles Edwards—The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Hebrews

The Foundations of Good Citizenship.
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.--Ex. 20:1-17. Parallel Readings. Hist. Bible I, 194-198. Prin. of Politics, Chap. II. Lowell, Essay on "Democracy." Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image. Thou shalt not take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Honor thy father and thy mother. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Thou
Charles Foster Kent—The Making of a Nation

Deuteronomy
Owing to the comparatively loose nature of the connection between consecutive passages in the legislative section, it is difficult to present an adequate summary of the book of Deuteronomy. In the first section, i.-iv. 40, Moses, after reviewing the recent history of the people, and showing how it reveals Jehovah's love for Israel, earnestly urges upon them the duty of keeping His laws, reminding them of His spirituality and absoluteness. Then follows the appointment, iv. 41-43--here irrelevant (cf.
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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