Deuteronomy 4 Footnotes

4:20 The reference to “iron” is not out of keeping with an early (fifteenth-century) date for Deuteronomy. Though the Iron Age proper did not begin in the Middle East until 1200 BC, iron smelting was known much earlier.

4:24 God is “jealous” in the sense that he tolerates no rival claims to deity and sovereignty. He alone is God, and all else is his creation. To worship the creature rather than the Creator is to rob God of his uniqueness and incomparability (vv. 35,39; Ac 17:22-28; Rm 1:25). The Hebrew word translated “jealous” (qanna’) also means “zealous.” God’s jealousy is an expression of his intense love and care for his people and his demand that they honor his unique and incomparable nature.

4:28 Mention of other gods by no means certifies that they indeed exist; the reference is to idols (“gods of wood and stone”). Yet the worship of idols can open a person to Satan’s demonic influence, and the NT takes this possibility seriously (1Co 10:20; 1Jn 5:21). Idols represented the supposed qualities of their corresponding deities. Israel would worship these idols when in exile, even though the gods behind them were only figments of a depraved pagan imagination (see Is 40:18-20; 44:9-11; Jr 10:14-16).

4:34 God’s selection of Israel as a special people to the exclusion of all others can be explained only on the basis of his grace and hidden purposes. There was nothing in Israel, or even the nation’s founding ancestor Abraham, that commended them to the Lord. Merit or deserving qualities have nothing to do with God’s sovereign choice of nations and individuals, out of all the options available to him (7:6-9; see Ex 19:5-6). The vessel has no right to ask the potter why he has shaped him thus (Rm 9:14-26).