Deuteronômio 4
F.B. Meyer · Citado em PreceptAustin
Deuteronômio 4
Meyer - Our Daily Homily Deuteronomy 4:20 The Lord hath taken you to be unto Him a people of inheritance. The Apostle prays that we may know the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance in his saints. God is our inheritance, and we are his. We are called to possess Him; He desires to possess us. His nature will yield crops of holy helpfulness to those who diligently seek Him; and He demands crops of holy love and devotion from ours. What Sovereign Grace is here! — There was nothing in us to distinguish us from others. We were but part of the great moorland waste, when He fenced us in, and placed us under his tillage and husbandry. It is by the grace of God that we are what we are. “To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved: in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.” What responsibility! — Three times over in this chapter we are bidden to take heed to ourselves. It is no small thing to have been the subjects of God’s special workmanship; because He is a jealous God, very quick to mark the least symptom of declension, and very searching in his dealing and discipline As we learn here, our God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. (see Dt 4:24 note) What Hope! — We cannot derive much from ourselves, however we toil and strive. Self cannot discipline self to any advantage. The field is worked out. The Divine Husbandman must put into us what He would take out of us; He needs therefore to have almost infinite resources. But these are God’s, and if we yield ourselves to Him, He can make all grace abound towards us, that we, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound unto every good work. Ian Paisley - The Iron Furnace "But the Lord hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day." Deuteronomy 4:20 God likened the sufferings and temptations of Israel in Egypt to the affliction of an iron furnace. And so it was I. The Iron Furnace of the Blight of Sin Like Israel we too have been in Egypt and the iron furnace has been our awesome experience. How cruel and excruciating is the iron furnace blight of sin to our souls. So terrible was the blight of sin in the iron furnace of Egypt that Israel turned to the worship of devils, an abomination which pursued them during their wilderness journey. See Leviticus 17:7. How terrible is the blight of sin. II. The Iron Furnace of the Bondage of Slavery Joseph in his imprisonment in Egypt was a prophetic type of the imprisonment of the nation of Israel in Egypt. Of Joseph in the bondage of Egypt we read these striking words, "he was laid in iron" Psalm 105:17. Again the bondage, the bondage of slavery, is described in Psalm 107:10 "Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron." It is from this iron furnace of the bondage of slavery in Egypt from which our God delivers us. III. The Iron Furnace of the Bitterness of Slaughter Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Pharaoh heated his iron furnace, like Nebuchadnezzar, seven times more, in order to slaughter all the male babes of Israel. He planned the total genocide of the race, ordering the midwives to strangle them all at birth and when that failed, the River Nile was to be the monster devouring every male child. What an iron furnace this really was. But from it our God delivers! Hallelujah (A Text A Day Keeps the Devil Away) Deuteronomy 4:21 "Now the LORD was angry with me on your account, and swore that I would not cross the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance. Deuteronomy 4 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Related Passages: Moses' sin and consequences Deuteronomy 1:37+ “The LORD was angry with me also on your account, saying, ‘Not even you shall enter there. Deuteronomy 3:26+ “But the LORD was angry with me on your account, and would not listen to me; and the LORD said to me, ‘Enough! Speak to Me no more of this matter. Deuteronomy 31:2+ And he said to them, “I am a hundred and twenty years old today; I am no longer able to come and go, and the LORD has said to me, ‘You shall not cross this Jordan.’ Numbers 20:12+ But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.” Psalms 106:32; 33 They also provoked Him to wrath at the waters of Meribah, So that it went hard with Moses on their account; Because they were rebellious against His Spirit, He spoke rashly with his lips. SO NEAR AND YET SO FAR! Now the LORD was angry with me on your account, and swore that I would not cross the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance. - On your account is not Moses saying he did not sin, but that he sinned because Israel sinned and their sin made him angry and he sinned! He calls it not the promised land but the "good land" here and in the next verse. Moses point was that if this was the judgment on him (to keep him out of the land), then what could a stubborn and rebellious people expect but to be removed from the land, which is exactly what happened! (Cp prophetic warnings in - Dt 28:21, Dt 28:63, prediction of Israel's idolatry - Dt 31:16, 20) See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; 16 in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the LORD your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. 17 “But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it. 19 "I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, (Dt 30:15-19+)
Deuteronômio 4
Meyer - Hebrews 12:29: GOD A CONSUMING FIRE Play the spiritual song - Refiner's Fire - Sing it as your prayer, if you dare prayer! BEWARE OF SPIRITUAL ADULTERY: JEHOVAH IS A JEALOUS GOD Jealousy is a demand for someone else's exclusive affection or loyalty. Our society normally considers jealousy a bad thing, but Jehovah's jealously is good and right, for Israel is His wife by covenant (Isa 54:5) and thus she is His possession (Dt 4:20). Jack Deere - As a jealous God (cf. Dt 5:9; 32:16, 21; Dt 6:15) He will not allow another to have the honor that is due Him alone (Isa. 42:8; 48:11). Therefore Israel needed to be extremely careful to remember the covenant (cf. Dt. 4:9). (Bible Knowledge Commentary) Thompson explains that in this context jealous "does not connote the same as the English word, but rather an active zealousness for righteousness which arose from Yahweh’s holiness. Because of this Yahweh would not countenance Israel’s allegiance to any other God. Thus idolatry in any form was forbidden." (TOTC) God will not permit His children to sin successfully!
Deuteronômio 4
Meyer - "OUR GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE" WHAT comfort there is in these words! Once they only filled us with alarm: now they are the tidings of great joy. It made a great difference, on the shores of the Red Sea, on which side of the cloud the hosts were placed. To be on the one side meant terror and dismay: "The Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians." But to be on the other side meant comfort and hope: "It was a cloud and darkness to them; but it gave light by night to these." Similarly a great difference is made by our position towards God, as to whether the words at the head of this chapter will be a comfort or a cause of anxiety. If we are against God--enemies in our mind by wicked works, sinning against His gentle, Holy Spirit--we can look for little relief in considering the majestic symbolism of the passage. But if we are on His side, sheltered under His hand, hidden in the cleft of the Rock, conscious that we are in Him that is true--then we may rejoice with exceeding great joy that "our God is a Consuming Fire." In Scripture FIRE is the invariable symbol of God's nature and character. It was as a lamp of FIRE that the Almighty passed between the pieces of Abraham's sacrifice. It was as FIRE, which need not the wood of the acacia-bush for its maintenance, that He appeared to Moses in the wilderness, to commission him for his life-work. It was as FIRE that HIS presence shone on Mount Sinai, in the giving of the law. The Divine acceptance of the sacrifices throughout the ancient ritual was betokened by the Free that fell from heaven, and fed upon the flesh of slain beasts. Malachi said that Christ would come as a refiner's FIRE; and when the fore-runner announced His advent, he compared it to the work of the ruddy flame, which destroys and purifies: "He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with FIRE." "He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable FIRE." It was, therefore, also in perfect harmony with the entire range of scriptural symbolism, that the Pentecostal descent of the Holy Ghost was accompanied by cloven tongues, like as of FIRE, Of course, we must not and would not, deny that there is a punitive and terrible side to all this. It is no light matter to persist in sin. "In flaming fire" He will take" vengeance on them that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." "He is terrible in His doing toward the children of men." Fire--which is our most useful ally; which labours for us day and night in our furnaces and fireplaces, is harmless and helpful, so long as we obey its laws and observe its conditions: but when once we disobey those laws, and contravene those conditions, that which blessed begins to curse, and leaps forth upon us, carrying devastation to all our works, so that the smiling fields become a blackened waste, and our palaces a heap of ruins. So it is with the nature of God. He is gentle, loving, and forebearing: but if a sinner persists in sin, shutting his eyes to the light, and closing his heart to the love of God, then he must needs discover that "with the froward He will show Himself froward." "Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way when His wrath is kindled but a little." But let us turn now to some of those gracious thoughts, which are enshrined in this passage. Fire searches. Surely this is one of-our greatest needs. There is so much of selfishness and sin in the very best of us. Sometimes we get a glimpse of what we are, and turn our thoughts swiftly away from the horrid spectacle. And what we ourselves dare not contemplate, we carefully hide from the gaze of our tenderest friends. Ah, what pride, what vanity, what self-conceit, are ours! fretful, if not sufficiently admired; jealous, if outshone; mean enough to take advantage of another, if only we can do it without being found out; capable of the same vile sins which flame out as beacon-lights in those who are not restrained by the same outward bonds as we are. No malicious critic with biting words has ever touched the inveterate evil of our hearts, or said a tithe of the truth of us. We have never ourselves realized how bad we are. We need not be surprised at any further discoveries that may rise up to confront us with shame and agony. But it is well to be searched. The ancient motto bade men know themselves. The discovery of what we are will drive us most quickly to God for His cleansing and grace. We need not wish to dwell upon our sins, as though health could come by considering disease; but we may gladly accept the searching of the fire of God. Let us know the evil things that are within us. Let us be taught how much wood, hay, and stubble, have been built on that foundation, which has undoubtedly been laid in our hearts. Let us submit to the discoveries of disease, which the stethoscope, the searching finger, the probing knife, will disclose. O God, who art as fire, search me and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts! Fire cleanses. Yonder metal is mingled with many inferior ingredients: the earth, in which it has lain for centuries, clings to it; dross depreciates its value. But plunge it into the glowing furnace; raise the heat until the gleaming light is almost intolerable to the gaze; keep it in that baptism of flame: ere long the metal will be cleansed of its impurities; freed from alloy; and fitted for any mould into which you may desire to pour it. Is it not thus that God will deal with us? He is a consuming fire. In the olden vision, when Isaiah lamented his uncleanness, there flew unto him one of the seraphim, who had taken a live coal from off the altar, which he laid upon his lips, saying, "Lo! this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged." And will not God do as much for us again? We have been cleansed from the stains of our many transgressions: but do we not need this deep, this thorough, this fiery purification? There are three agents in purification--the Word of God; the Blood of the Son of God; and the Fire of God, which is the Holy Ghost. We know something of the two former: do we know the meaning of the latter? We have been purified by the Water and the Blood: have we passed also through the Fire? "He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire." We cannot define, in so many words, the manner of this sacred operation--it is a matter for holy consciousness: but the heart knows when it has experienced it. It is not that temptation ceases to assail; or that there is no possibility of again yielding to sin; or that the evil tendencies of the old nature are eradicated: but that there is a burning up and consumption of evil things which had been too long permitted to hold sway, and to mar the glory of the work of God in the heart. There is deliverance, where there was bondage; there is purity, where there was corruption; there is love, where there was malice, envy, ill-will. This blessed operation of the Holy Ghost may be experienced by those who will take no denial, and who by faith claim all that He waits to do for them. Let us then appropriate that expressive prayer of Wesley's hymn: "Refining Fire, go through my heart!" (Play the spiritual song - Refiner's Fire -- sing it if you dare! It is a prayer!) Fire transforms. That poker lying in your fender is hard, and cold, and black; but if you place it for a few moments in the heart of the fire, it becomes soft, intensely hot, and glowing with the whiteness of incandescence. Take it out again, and all its old qualities will re-assert themselves; but whilst in the fire, they cannot be manifested: the iron is transformed into the likeness of the flame in which it is bathed. Thus is it with ourselves. By nature we too are hard and cold and black; and the tendency of our nature will always be in these directions; waiting to re-assert itself, when left to its own devices. But if only we can for ever dwell with the devouring fire, and dwell with the everlasting burnings of the Love and Light and Life of God--a wonderful change will pass over us; and we shall be changed into the same image, from glory to glory. No longer hard, we shall be moulded into any shape He selects. No longer cold, we shall glow with love to God and man. No longer black, we shall be arrayed in the whiteness of a purity, which is that of intensest heat. Too long have we shrunk from the burning fiery furnace, which is not sorrow, or trial, or pain, but God. Let us get into God. Let us open our nature, that God, the Holy Ghost, may fill us: then shall we become like Himself; our grosser natures shall seem to ascend to heaven in horses and chariots of flame. In God's Fire we shall become Fire. Selwyn