Deuteronomy 4:20

20 Egypt was like a furnace that melts iron down and makes it pure. But the LORD took you and brought you out of Egypt. He wanted you to be his very own people. And that's exactly what you are.

Deuteronomy 4:20 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 4:20

But the Lord hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the
iron furnace
The allusion is to the trying and melting of metals, and fleeing them from dross, by putting them into furnaces strongly heated, some of which are of earth, others of iron; the word, as the Jewish writers ^F7 observe, signifies such an one in which gold and silver and other things are melted; see ( Psalms 12:6 ) ( Proverbs 17:3 ) even "out of Egypt"; which is here compared to an iron furnace, because of the cruelty with which the Israelites were used in it, the hardships they were put under, and the misery and bondage they were kept in; but out of all the Lord brought them, as he does all his people sooner or later out of their afflictions, sometimes called the furnace of affliction, ( Isaiah 48:10 ) where their graces are tried, and they are purged, purified, and refined from their dross and tin. This the Lord did to Israel, he brought them out of their distressed state and condition:

to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day:
to be the Lord's inheritance, as they now were, ( Deuteronomy 32:9 ) as well as they were quickly to inherit the land of Canaan, for which they were brought out of the land of Egypt; and indeed they were already, even that day, entered on their inheritance, the kingdom of the Amorites being delivered into their hands.

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FOOTNOTES:

F7 Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Celim. c. 8. sect. 9. & Jarchi in loc.

Deuteronomy 4:20 In-Context

18 Don't make a statue that looks like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish that swims in the water.

19 When you look up at the heavens, you will see the sun and moon. And you will see huge numbers of stars. Don't let anyone tempt you to bow down to the sun, moon or stars. Don't worship things the LORD your God has provided for all of the nations on earth.

20 Egypt was like a furnace that melts iron down and makes it pure. But the LORD took you and brought you out of Egypt. He wanted you to be his very own people. And that's exactly what you are.

21 The LORD was angry with me because of what you did. He took an oath that he would never let me go across the Jordan River. He promised that I would never enter that good land. It's the land the LORD your God is giving you as your own.

22 I'll die here in this land. I won't go across the Jordan. But you are about to cross over it. And you are about to take that good land as your own.