D. Scott Meadows
In theology, we usually use the word “inspiration” to mean that process by which God produced the Scriptures, his very words, through men. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Tim 3.16). Now I would use it with reference to the phenomena of true worship as produced by God and as motivated in men. Both Holy Scripture and holy worship are inevitable because they are the effectual work of the Almighty Holy Spirit. “The Father seeketh true worshippers to worship him,” and so he sends his Spirit to quicken and transform the true worshippers he seeks. Without this Spirit, absolutely no true worship can possibly begin or continue. The Lord our Redeemer deserves all the credit for all true worship.
But God uses means to draw people to himself, to transform idolaters into his loyal servants, and to purify their worship while it still suffers some degree of corruption. The Spirit gave the Word written by inspiration and the Word Incarnate by virgin birth. That same Spirit uses men to proclaim Scripture and Christ. When the Spirit owns this human ministry of proclamation, then, by a miracle of grace, true worshippers are the result.
Acts 2 testifies that the Spirit came with saving power and the effect of this was that suddenly, in one day, the little band of 120 worshippers in Jerusalem, a tiny remnant found within apostate Israel, swelled to thousands of true worshippers constituting the New Israel, the Spirit-filled church. And yet this was the relatively small beginning of a massive spiritual avalanche, as tens and hundreds of thousands, and then millions, would appear throughout the world in subsequent centuries.
Further, the Spirit honored and used the preached Word through Peter to awaken the carnal sleepers, and to make alive the spiritually dead. Note also how that people’s response to the Spirit’s mighty work is described and summarized. They gladly received the Word, repented of sin, were baptized in water and formally added to the church, and as church members they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers (Acts 2.41-42). That is to say, they became deeply devoted to and faithful in true worship, pure worship, worship “in spirit and in truth,” such as the Father seeks. No images, no incense, no bells, no clerical garb, no holy water, no liturgical calendar, no concerts, no puppets, no plays, no dancing, no elaborate church programs. It was unadorned obedience to God’s revealed will—nothing added, nothing taken away. It was simple, spiritual, sublime! This is what happens when the Spirit inspires worship!
You see, God appeals to hearers of the gospel as the thinking, feeling, and choosing beings that we are. He instructs our minds, inflames our hearts, and induces our wills to give him his due: true and pure worship. In a broad way, we could say this is the purpose of the whole Bible—to quicken us from dead works and reform us into true worshippers. However, there is a particular passage I have in mind which is very conspicuously intended by God to summon his people to true and pure worship, and that passage is Deuteronomy 4. It was great the first time it was preached as it came from Moses’ lips to ancient Israel, but now it shines with an exceedingly bright luster for us when we understand it in the light of the NT.
Deuteronomy rehearses God’s will for the generation to enter Canaan and their descendants after them. Remember, the previous generation who first received the law forty years earlier had died in the wilderness, all who had been over 20 at the time except for Joshua and Caleb. Now Deuteronomy is presented as a covenant between God and his people, and it exhibits the structure of an ancient treaty, with its preamble in chapter 1, its historical prologue in chapters 1-4, its stipulations which make up the bulk of the book, chapters 5 through 26, its blessings and curses in chapters 27 and 28, its “document clause” or provision for periodic reading and relearning of the covenant through future generations in chapter 31, and the witnesses of the covenant in chapter 32. Ancient Hittite treaties exhibit a similar structure. On one level, Deuteronomy is a motivational sermon, a means God’s Spirit can still use to inspire pure worship in our hearts and lives and churches.
Now let us focus on the inspiration of worship in the sense of motivation. In other words, why must we and how can we render pure worship to God? We would draw eleven reasons from Deuteronomy four, particularly, verses one through 40. A thoughtful reading is a good start to appreciating it. Hear, therefore, the Word of the Lord.
1 Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you. 2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. 3 Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baalpeor: for all the men that followed Baalpeor, the Lord thy God hath destroyed them from among you. 4 But ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day. 5 Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. 6 Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. 7 For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? 8 And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day? 9 Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons; 10 Specially the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children. 11 And ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness. 12 And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice. 13 And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone. 14 And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it. 15 Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire: 16 Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17 The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air, 18 The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth: 19 And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven. 20 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. 21 Furthermore the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, and sware that I should not go over Jordan, and that I should not go in unto that good land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance: 22 But I must die in this land, I must not go over Jordan: but ye shall go over, and possess that good land. 23 Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee. 24 For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God. 25 When thou shalt beget children, and children’s children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the Lord thy God, to provoke him to anger: 26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed. 27 And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the Lord shall lead you. 28 And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. 29 But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. 30 When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice; 31 (For the Lord thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them. 32 For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it? 33 Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live? 34 Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the Lord he is God; there is none else beside him. 36 Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he might instruct thee: and upon earth he shewed thee his great fire; and thou heardest his words out of the midst of the fire. 37 And because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt; 38 To drive out nations from before thee greater and mightier than thou art, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance, as it is this day. 39 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. 40 Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, for ever.
Matthew Henry says of this passage that it is “a most earnest and pathetic exhortation to obedience, both in general, and in some particular instances, backed with a great variety of very pressing arguments, repeated again and again, and set before them in the most moving and affectionate manner imaginable,” and indeed it is.
My exposition is thematic rather than verse-by-verse. I will bring out some truths relevant to our theme, the inspiration of worship. Why must we, and how can we, worship purely? Consider these eleven reasons.
#1: GOD’S REDEEMING WORK
We can and should offer pure worship to God because of what he has already done to redeem his people. This is the great and weighty consideration prior to the exhortation per se of Deuteronomy 4. Notice how verse one connects what came before it with what follows: “Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them.” “Therefore . . . hearken . . . to do.” “Therefore” is a conjunctive in this context that evokes the historical prologue just rehearsed by Moses in their ears up to this point in the sermon, that is, from Deuteronomy 1.6 to 4.1. The historical prologue is not just a journal or a travelogue, but a choice selection of events interpreted and presented to show God’s power, grace, and faithfulness toward this people. Moses presents God’s deeds of salvation throughout Israel’s history. He rehearses these to them solemnly before calling for their response of worship.
What had God already done for his people? Well, many of those things are not explicitly mentioned here because they were already generally known. They knew that God had created them, elected and called their forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, multiplied descendants in the land of Egypt, and then delivered them out of Egypt to be his holy people, giving them his covenant at Mount Sinai.
Basically, this is where the historical prologue of Deuteronomy starts. Moses rehearses how God called them to journey on (1.6-8), gave them more leaders (1.9-18), and encouraged them to go and possess Canaan, but they rebelled at Kadesh-barnea, so God judged them without totally casting them off (1.19-46). Then they traveled through the wilderness (2.1-15), overcoming powerful enemies, Sihon, King of Heshbon (2.16-37), and Og, King of Bashan (3.1-11), and taking land on the west side of Jordan (3.12-22). Finally, Moses learned he could not enter the Promised Land, but his successor Joshua would lead the people in (3.23-29).
This glorious redemptive history is foundational to exhortation, and it prompts and empowers exhortation. Faith and obedience in pure worship is the only valid response.
Brethren, we are God’s people today, one with his ancient people, and so, this is our history, and God’s redeeming acts on our behalf. Paul makes this point in 1 Corinthians 10.1-3. And God has done so much more to save his people since then. God preserved Old Covenant Israel as a people until our Lord came from heaven and was born the last in a long line of Hebrew kings, fulfilling ancient messianic promises. Jesus Christ, all that he is and all that he has done and continues to do—this is the highest inspiration for pure worship, the foundation of our highest moral obligation, and the assurance of our God-given ability to respond in obedience to him.
#2: GOD’S REVEALED WILL
We must and can worship purely also because this is what God commands. Deuteronomy 4 anticipates John 4.23, “The Father seeketh such to worship him,” and so he gave his Word. The law was given not just for doctrine and for reproof or conviction, but also for correction and for instruction or disciplined training in righteousness (2 Tim 3.16-17)—that is, for living unto God. God intends his Word to inspire true worship.
Note the heavy stress upon his command, stating the divine will in words, and upon the human obedience, carrying out his verbally-stated will.
Hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them. . . . the word which I command you . . . keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. . . . I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go. . . . Keep therefore and do them . . . And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments. . . . Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments, which I command you this day (verses 1, 2, 5, 6, 13, 40).
The will of God, known clearly, is a sufficient incentive to do it. It also powerfully motivates those who fear God. This revealed will is the ultimate vindication of our obedient actions, and also a great encouragement that we can, by grace, do whatever he commands.
So when we wonder why we should worship in the biblical way, we can remember that God wills it. And when we don’t feel like worshipping, we can overcome our sluggishness by preaching to ourselves, “God wills it.” When the ignorant ask us, “Why do you worship like that?,” we can say, “Because God wills it.” And when opponents criticize our simple, biblical manner of worship, we can respond, “God wills it.” Or if we are feel lonely in our commitment to sola Scriptura for worship, even over the course of many years we can persevere in our holy resolve, because God wills it!
#3: GOD’S GRACIOUS PROMISE
Another rationale and motivation for pure worship is the promise of eternal life. The Old Covenant often presented the promise of blessedness in the types and shadows of temporal blessings. You see it in verse one, “that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you.” To “live” means to survive in God’s favor and not be killed in God’s wrath, as verses three and four state: “Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baalpeor: for all the men that followed Baalpeor, the Lord thy God hath destroyed them from among you. But ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day.” Verse one not only promises life, but also “going in,” which meant, in its historical context, entering Canaan in God’s favor. To “possess the land” was to enjoy the spoils of victory over their enemies. All this, Moses says, is that which the Lord “giveth” you—that is, freely, without your merit, and graciously, as you have many times before provoked his wrath, and faithfully, as he promised from ancient times in his covenant to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.
See God’s gracious promise as incentive also in verses 29-31.
29 But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. 30 When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice; 31 (For the Lord thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.
This emphasizes grace, as God anticipates their apostasy and promises beforehand to be gracious to them when they finally return to him. “From thence” in verse 29 means from banishment in pagan lands, from the practice of idolatry, and from the sanction of divine judgment, the subject of verses 27-28: “And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the Lord shall lead you. And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.”
Now what must they do to inherit these stupendous blessings? The condition is stated simply: “if thou shalt seek the Lord thy God,” and the possessive pronoun accentuates his covenant faithfulness despite their failure. “Seeking” is not meritorious; it just indicates desperation which craves deliverance. Yet this seeking must be earnest and sincere. You must “seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul,” Moses preaches.
These divinely-established terms, when fulfilled, lead to the great promise of God’s pure grace. “Thou shalt find him.” There is more bound up in that little phrase than we could ever comprehend. To find the Lord in this sense is to find deliverance from all ill, and to find the fullness of eternal blessedness. All this is promised despite their sin!
In this passage, verse 40 is the climax of the promise of future grace, for it says, “that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, for ever.” In other words, worship God truly and purely because God promises to give you blessedness despite your demerits and without any merit at all on your part. Only a fool would pass up this offer!
You can hear this same promise in New Covenant terms throughout the New Testament, and for example, in John 3.16. The hope of eternal life to true worshippers, based on God gracious gospel promise, is a great incentive and encouragement to worship in the way he commands us.
#4: GOD’S HATRED OF IDOLATRY
Idolatry is one way of characterizing our basic sin problem, and the misery from which we most need to be delivered. To say that God hates idolatry is a truism, but this passage presses that truth upon us. Verse three says, “Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baalpeor.” The Baalpeor incident is recorded in Numbers 25, how that Israel worshipped the idol of Moab, perhaps the one named Chemosh. God’s violent response to this was to order the immediate hanging of all the chiefs of the people and to send Israel’s judges on a death mission in their respective jurisdictions for the execution of all those men who had committed gross idolatry. Furthermore, the Lord highly praised Phinehas for thrusting a spear right through a couple while they were engaged in the very act of immorality associated with this syncretism. This heroic zeal for the Lord’s glory appeased his wrath and stopped a deadly plague already underway which had killed 24,000 Israelites. This is how God reacted to the people’s gross idolatry on this occasion.
You can also see God’s hatred of idolatry very clearly in verses 23 and 24. “Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee. For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.” The original Hebrew word translated “jealous” includes the idea of “a desire for exclusivity in relationship” (Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains, #7862). Thus, this jealousy is related to the covenantal nature of God’s relationship with Israel.
In the beginning, God instituted human marriage between a man and a woman to illustrate the kind of relationship he desired and would bring about with his covenant people. That is why God considered idolatry to be spiritual adultery, because he was the husband of his people. The Lord is Israel’s husband in the Old Testament (Isa 54.5) as Christ is the church’s husband in the New (Eph 5.31-32). Think about it, men. You resist the temptation to adultery because you are in a covenantal relationship of exclusive devotion to your wife. Anticipating your wife’s potential reaction if you were to commit adultery can be a means of grace to preserve your fidelity to her. Likewise, you should remember your covenantal relationship with God and anticipate his negative reaction to corrupt worship, because this will help bind your heart to him.
#5: GOD’S PUBLIC GLORY
Verses six through eight contain this fifth reason and motive for the pure worship of God.
6 Keep therefore and do them [“statutes and judgments” “commanded” by the Lord God, verse five]; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. 7 For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? 8 And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?
This reason for pure worship is clearly indicated here by the word “for” (v. 6) or “because.” A superficial reading may give the impression that the text supports national glory as the great priority. The truth is that this public honor is not to terminate on the people themselves, but on the God of the people, as verse 7 makes plain. Moses reasons with his hearers that it is their near association with God and their faithful stewardship of his righteous statutes and judgments that will become the occasion of adoring wonder among the nations.
We conclude that the true greatness of God’s people only appears when God is near to them and they are proclaiming and practicing the righteousness of his law. Therefore, the nearer God is and the more conformed our worship is to his law, the greater our apparent greatness. Recognition of greatness promotes admiration of greatness, and admiration comes before embracing God and his Word.
Compromises of biblical principle, though not acknowledged as such by their proponents, are often advocated on the grounds that they are necessary to “reach” others for the Lord, but this is to stand the biblical argument on its head. The most biblically-faithful worship can be expected to be the means of greatest blessing to outsiders. The holiness or “other-ness” of the church, where it is conspicuous, is most likely to arrest the attention of unbelievers and make them realize something of the church’s glory, not inherent but reflected, because of our close association with the God of glory.
Two New Testament passages come to mind. Matthew 5.16 says, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” To let your light shine is to be truly righteous and to live righteously, that is, when your heart and conduct are in accordance with God’s revealed will in Scripture. The Christian is to do this so that others may see his good works, which works are nothing more or less than obedience to God’s commandments. This actual carrying out of God’s will is the manifestation of true worship, and with God’s blessing it may become a means of conversion to unbelievers who behold it. For the witnesses of godly and obedient Christians to “glorify your Father” is tantamount to their joining with the church in its devotion to the true worship of God.
Another similar New Testament passage is 1 Corinthians 14.24-25, which reads,
24 But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: 25 And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.
Here Paul advocates order in the church’s worship, and he favorably contrasts “prophecy,” proclaiming God’s Word, or preaching, with unintelligible utterances which would be undesirable (verse 23). Proclaiming God’s Word may become a means of conviction to the sinner. This is the idea behind the phrase, “the secrets of his heart are made manifest,” that is, brought out into the open before his own conscience. Following conviction of sin, Paul envisions a response of humble and sincere worship, and an open admission that the church congregation is a temple of the true and living God.
Do we want to reflect God’s glory in the world? These important passages teach us that we must worship God aright for the sake of his public glory. Corruptions of worship tend to obscure that glory, and even to lead unbelievers to dishonor the name of God on account of the sins of those who are supposed to be his people. This is the charge Paul lays at the feet of apostate Israel in his generation. “For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written. For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision” (Rom 2.24-25). We see this being fulfilled in the cases of those who identify with Jesus Christ and either fall into scandalous sin or truly ridiculous and unscriptural behavior in connection with worship.
#6: GOD’S COMPASSIONATE CONCERN FOR YOUR CHILDREN
The sixth reason for pure worship, drawn from Deuteronomy 4, is God’s compassionate concern for your children, and by implication, your descendants, even those yet unborn. The potential benefit of true worship extends beyond “the nations” of people who are alive to witness that worship.
In verse nine, one of the reasons given for the exhortation to “take heed to yourself” and “to keep your soul diligently,” and for the warning against forgetting these great spiritual verities, is that you might “teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons.” You must have a knowledge of God’s truth and possess true faith yourself, that is, you must be a true worshipper of God, before you could reasonably expect to become a means of inducing your children and grandchildren to worship God. In verse ten, God explains why he gathered Israel together and made them to hear his words, that is, brought them into his true worship. It was “that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.” God intended the salvation and sanctification of people alive at the time, and also to impart the same spiritual blessings to their children after them. So this is also an incentive for us to trust and obey God in the way of pure worship. We should do that for the sake of compassionate concern about our posterity. Verse 40 states it explicitly. “Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee this day, [in order] that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee.” Since the blessing of God is promoted in our posterity by our own careful keeping of God’s statutes, this is another compelling reason to worship God his way.
#7: GOD’S HOLY AND SPIRITUAL NATURE
The proper manner of worship is necessarily and intimately related to the nature of God himself, and he reveals himself to be a most pure Spirit who exhibits an ineffable holiness. Thus his worship must be with reverence and awe, and such worship is scrupulously obedient to his revealed will. Consider what verses 11 and 12 say about this.
11 And ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness. 12 And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice.
These terrifying signs of fire, darkness, clouds, and thick darkness were a visible manifestation of God’s holiness. The voice heard from the invisible presence revealed his spirituality. Moses emphasizes that they “saw no similitude” or likeness of God, and the implication is that God is an invisible spirit, his essence possessing no shape or visible form. This passage stretches language to the breaking point for asserting this, because it says, further, that they “saw no manner of similitude” (verse 15) on that day when the Lord spoke to them. They did not see God, nor did they see a similitude of God, nor did they even see any manner of a similitude of God. The reason this absence of any likeness of God in his self-disclosure to them is stressed here is to strengthen them against the temptation of trying to represent God in any visible way, whether by images of human beings, or beasts or birds or creeping things or fish—all instances of icons made by the heathen. The implication of this approach to exhortation is that if they were to fall into image worship, it would be due to a failure of appreciating God’s invisible and holy nature.
In historic debate, the Roman Catholic Church argued for the use of images in worship on the grounds that so many people were illiterate that they could not gain spiritual knowledge in any other way. “Images are the books of the ignorant.” This was their slogan. Calvin did not dispute that the ignorant got ideas about God from the images, but he argued that those ideas were false, appealing to Jeremiah 10.8, “the stock is a doctrine of vanities,” and to Habakkuk 2.18, “the graven image, . . . the molten image” is “a teacher of lies.”
Because God is holy and spiritual, his worship must be holy and spiritual (John 4.24), not that commonly practiced by those who do not know God, nor that carnal service associated with idolatry (Acts 17.24-25). And the only sure guidance to holy and spiritual worship is God’s revealed will.
#8: GOD’S WARNING AGAINST YOUR BACKSLIDING
The warning in verses 25-28 anticipates that Israel will eventually backslide or apostatize from the good and the right way of biblical worship. Moses preaches that it is not “if” but “when” you “shall corrupt yourselves.” This corruption is manifested by their making an image, and precipitating severe judgments from God on account of it. Their liability to such a disaster in the spiritual realm is presented as an incentive to remain faithful to the divine directions for worship.
Our propensity to apostasy is a powerful incentive to strive for purity of worship now. If you were confined to the deck of a ship in a violent storm, it would be safest to hold onto the mast in the middle rather than to the edge nearest the water. As apostasy begins by degrees, we must strive against compromising in the little things, and in this way, nip it in the bud. Jesus praised the people in God’s kingdom who did and taught even the least of his commandments (Matt 5.19). Scrupulous conformity to God’s revealed will guards us against backsliding and leads to us to salvation.
We glean three more reasons or incentives for pure worship from this chapter.
#9: GOD’S GRANT OF INESTIMABLE PRIVILEGES
Moses conveys to the people a sense of their great spiritual privileges in several ways in verses 32-38. First, no other people, from the beginning of the world to that present time, nor any to be found anywhere else in the world, had been chosen to be God’s special people as the descendants of Israel were (verse 32). Also, the nation of Israel had survived the experience of hearing God’s audible voice (verse 33), and this was another indication of his favor. No other nation had been delivered by stupendous miracles out of a situation where they were held against their will in abject misery like Israel was delivered from Egypt (verse 34).
The next four verses explain why God blessed Israel so much. In an exercise of his sovereign grace, God had chosen Israel for these spiritual privileges so that they might know that he is uniquely God, and there is no other (verse 35), and to teach them (verse 36), and for the sake of his love to the patriarchs (verse 37), and to replace the wicked Canaanites in the Promised Land with his chosen people (verse 38).
All this is a type of the spiritual things to be realized in Christ and his New Testament church. For example, Paul wrote that Christians are “predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ” (Eph 1.11-12). And if we are predestinated to praise, this is a reason and an incentive to praise. How can we restrain our heart’s devotion and the songs which must break forth from our mouths to the glory of the one who has loved us so well and blessed us so greatly?
#10: GOD’S ELECTION OF YOU TO BE HIS HOLY PEOPLE
We must speak only very briefly about the last two reasons for pure worship which arise out of this rich chapter. Number ten is that God’s purpose toward his elect is that they should be his portion or inheritance, that is, his treasure.
But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day (Deut 4.20 ESV).
Peter interprets the significance of this sovereign election in these words:
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people [“a people for God’s own possession,” ASV]; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light (1 Pet 2.9).
The Lord has separated us out of the world and unto himself so that we would be distinctively devoted to his pure worship, not only in this life but throughout eternity. And God’s purpose is a great incentive and motivator.
#11: GOD’S SOLITARINESS AS OBJECT OF ULTIMATE DEVOTION
Finally, we must and may worship God purely, his righteous way, simply because he is the only God there really is to receive our worship. Note the connection between these ideas in the last two verses.
39 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. 40 Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, for ever (Deut 4.39-40).
At one point in Jesus’ earthly ministry, some false disciples were offended by some of the hard things he was saying, and subsequently left him. Our Lord then expressed concern about his inner circle of disciples, and Peter responded as spokesman for the rest.
67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? 68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life (John 6.67-68).
D. A. Carson comments, “The question is asked more for their sake than his. They need to articulate a response more than he needs to hear it” (in loc.). And so do we, brethren! Will you leave the Lord Jesus Christ and fall into the corrupt worship that is inevitable when we depart from Scripture alone as its standard? Let each one of us affirm in his own heart and to the Lord: “I could never, ever, do that, my precious Savior! You are my all, and without you I cannot live. By your powerful grace, I will be your loyal servant, pleasing you in absolutely everything, for the praise of your glory. Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.” Amen.
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