Deuteronomy 5:24

Deu_5:24

God doth talk with man, and he liveth.

Talking with God

There is no doubt that Adam was originally made for converse with his Maker.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 Gods 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 (Mat_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.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Deu 5:24-27 contain a rhetorical, and at the same time really a more exact, account of the events described in Exo 20:18-20 (15-17). ואתּ (Deu 5:24), a contraction of ואתּה, as in Num 11:15 (cf. Ewald, 184, a.). Jehovah's reply to the words of the people (Deu 5:28-31) is passed over in Ex 20. God approved of what the people said, because it sprang from a consciousness of the unworthiness of any sinner to come into the presence of the holy God; and He added, "Would that there were always this heart in them to fear Me," i.e., would that they were always of the same mind to fear Me and keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and their children for ever. He then directed the people to return to their tents, and appointed Moses as the mediator, to whom He would address all the law, that he might teach it to the people (cf. Deu 4:5). Having been thus entreated by the people to take the office of mediator, and appointed to that office by the Lord, Moses could very well bring his account of these events to a close (Deu 5:32, Deu 5:33), by exhorting them to observe carefully all the commandments of the Lord, and not to turn aside to the right hand or to the left, i.e., not to depart in any way from the mode of life pointed out in the commandments (cf. Deu 17:11, Deu 17:20; Deu 28:14; Jos 1:7, etc.), that it might be well with them, etc. (cf. Deu 4:40). וטוב, perfect with ו rel. instead of the imperfect.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

24. his greatness] See Deu_3:24.

24–26. See on Deu_4:33. It was contrary to expectation that the people survived the voice of God: they would not repeat the risk.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Go thou near,.... To the mount, and to God on it:

and hear all that the Lord our God shall say; for they supposed, by the continuance of the Lord on the mount, and the fire burning on it, that he had more to say, which they were not averse to hear; but desired it might be not immediately delivered to them, but by the means of Moses; the sound of the words, and the sight of the fire, being so terrible to them:

and speak thou unto us all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee: they did not doubt, knowing the faithfulness of Moses, his declaring all unto them that should be told him by the Lord; and they were desirous that he should, they did not want to have anything withheld from them, only they could not bear to see and hear things immediately from the Lord:

and we will hear it and do it; hearken to it, and receive it, as the word of God, and not man, and yield a ready and cheerful obedience, even to everything that should be required; see Exo 20:19.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

ואת תדבר אלינו AND SPEAK THOU (את the feminine form of the pronoun) TO US — you weakened my strength as that of a woman, (cf. Rashi on Numbers 11:15), for I was distressed because of you (because of your words) and you weakened my hands, since I saw that you were not anxious to approach Him out of love. Indeed, was it not better for you to learn from the mouth of the Almighty God, and not to learn from me?!

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

V’AT’ (AND THOU) [Moses] SPEAK UNTO US. “[The feminine form of the word v’at indicates] that you caused my strength to be sapped like that of a woman, for I was distressed because of you and you weakened my hands when I realized that you were not anxious to approach Him out of love. For was it not better to learn directly from the Almighty rather than from me?!” Thus far is Rashi’s language from words of the Agadah. If so, Moses is saying that he was concerned [over their failure to approach G-d] and G-d informed him [in the following verses] that they did so because they feared Him and it was beneficial to them! But the subject is, as I have explained there, that they thought that G-d wanted to communicate the entire Torah to them; however, the [Divine] Will before Him was to proclaim to them only the Ten Commandments as they desired.Know that now they requested of Moses that they should not hear the voice of the Glorious Name — neither on that day nor during any of the succeeding generations — for it is not at all times that miracles occur [and, as they said in Verse 21, their very survival after hearing the voice of G-d was a miracle in itself, a miracle that could not be expected to recur during future revelations], and that they do not want another such Revelation; rather, they will believe in the prophets and do G-d’s will [as revealed] through them. In compliance Moses told them, A prophet will the Eternal thy G-d raise up unto thee, from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken; according to all that thou didst desire of the Eternal thy G-d in Horeb. etc., 18:15-16. If so, the meaning of this request [of the people in the verse before us — and thou shalt speak unto us — that they wished to hear from prophets rather than from G-d] was meant for future generations.

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.