Deuteronomy 8:19

Deu 8:19 And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish.

Ver. 19. Ye shall surely perish.] Idolatry is a land desolating sin. {Jdg 5:8}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Deu_8:19-20

If thou do at all forget the Lord.

Forgetfulness of God, destruction to the Soul

I. What is that forgetfulness of god of which the present effects on our moral and religious character are so highly injurious, and of which the future consequences in regard to our eternal prospects are so dreadfully fatal.

1. If any persons can rise up and lie down, go out and come in, day after day, and week after week, with scarcely a transient thought of Him whose hand has sustained them, whose long-suffering has borne with them, and whose bountiful goodness has supplied their various wants, those persons are clearly chargeable with forgetfulness of the Lord their God.

2. The same guilt must also lie at our door, if we are habitually unmindful of the attributes of God; and, particularly, of His omnipresence.

3. The same may justly be said of him who allows himself to think of his Creator under a different character from that in which He has revealed Himself to mankind in His holy Word.

II. The fearful doom which is denounced in the words of the text against those who are guilty of the sins there forbidden. The expression, to perish, when used in the Scriptures in a judicial sense, to describe the punishment of sin, does not mean the suffering of temporal death only--it further signifies the spiritual death of mans immortal part. (C. Townsend, M. A.)

A caution against forgetfulness of God

I. Men are liable to forget god.

1. We infer our liability to forget God, from the mysteriousness of His nature.

2. We infer our liability to forget God, from the moral dislike we have to Him.

3. We infer our liability to forget God, from the facts that fall under our notice.

4. We infer our liability to forget God, from the testimonies of the Scriptures (Psa_10:4; Psa_14:1-3; Job_21:14-15; Rom_1:28).

II. Forgetfulness of god is an evil against which we should be peculiarly on our guard. This is the intimation in the text, and the reasons on which it is founded are--

1. They who forget God must necessarily remain ignorant of Him.

2. They who forget God must necessarily disobey Him.

3. They who forget God must necessarily prove ungrateful to Him.

4. They who forget God must necessarily be punished by Him (Psa_9:17; Jdg_3:7-8).

III. Means should be used for the avoidance of this heinous crime. This is the object of the charge: Beware that thou forget not, etc.

1. Serious consideration should be exercised on all the things that belong unto our peace.

2. Fervent and unremitting prayer should be offered up to God for a change of heart.

3. We should constantly avoid those things which tend to exclude God from our thoughts.

4. Let us use all the means which tend to turn our thoughts towards God. Let us associate with the pious--frequent religious ordinances--read Gods most holy Word--contemplate death, judgment, and eternity. In conclusion--

(1) Inquire, Do we forget God? This may serve as a discriminating mark of moral character. Christians love to think of God--sinners strive to forget Him.

(2) Exhort those who forget God to consider their folly, their ingratitude, and their danger. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.)

Gratitude and ingratitude toward God

Such a passage belongs to the prophetico-historical order. The warnings are repeated with added force in chap. 28. The experience of Israel brings this general lesson, that the thought of the Divine goodness should lead men to show thankful gratitude to God, and to offer Him a willing service. Notice--

I. The reasonableness of rendering a grateful service to god.

1. In the case of Israel the propriety for such a grateful service is clearly seen. All men owe obedience to God; but we should expect a highly favoured people like Israel to render it in a high degree. Israel had been brought from slavery to freedom, and were promised and received as their inheritance a land most highly favoured.

2. Above all, the system of moral law and social order, and the Divine rule of the theocracy elevated them far above surrounding nations. In view of it all, there was reason that the people should yield to God a grateful service.

3. If the Israelites had reason for this, much more we. What was Britain when Imperial Rome held sway? What is it now, when Rome and many another proud dominion are but names? Do we not owe our higher light and liberty to the truth and freedom of the Gospel? As a nation we owe our God thankful gratitude and service.

4. As individual members of a great Christian people we owe gratitude to God. Contrast our condition with the savage tribes discovered by a Livingstone or Stanley; with the higher yet still idolatrous and superstitious Hindu; with a cannibal of the race so graphically described by a John G. Paten or the semi-barbarous Chinaman with his history reaching far into the past ages before our own began, but who yet has not risen above the grossest superstition and a most materialistic idea of existence. Contrast our blessings alike bestowed on cottage and palace, with the darkness that prevails among the peoples, and reason will be found for the exercise of grateful service.

II. The sin of ingratitude.

1. The passage warns us against the danger of receiving and enjoying the gifts at the risk of forgetting the Divine Giver; all thought and energy are not to be applied to the acquisition of more and more of the gifts of this life to use them for our own use, etc.

2. Into this sin Israel fell. They became practical materialists. Even after the return from Babylon their enthusiasm for Gods work soon faded (Hag_1:1-15). So was it in our Lords day; and the ingratitude was then heightened by hypocrisy (Mat_21:33-46; Mat_23:26-39). Self and their own ease and glory were to them in reality, first; loving service toward God shown in works of love to their fellow men was far from them.

3. Is not this the spirit of too many in our time? There is a perpetual striving after the gains and pleasures of time, not that they may better serve God and become better men and women, but that they may have more of ease, more of the passing fleeting joys of this brief existence. This feature is seen in every class of the community. The socialistic schemes of the toiling millions are simply attempts to gain the kingdom of the material. But material possessions gained and received without due thankfulness to God and endeavours in His service, turn to dust and ashes in the using. Whereas if received with thankful hearts and used in His service, they may be transmuted and transformed into spiritual treasures, eternally enduring.

III. The effect of cultivating the spirit of gratitude or its opposite on material and individual life.

1. When a nation, in its government and institutions, publicly acknowledges its indebtedness to God, and makes public profession of loyalty to Him, God shall add to its blessings. Examples are not wanting.

2. So with individuals. God may not send material wealth, etc. But He will give them reasons for the joyful assurance that He is with them, and of the certainty of His promises. Hope for time, and assured hope for eternity. The effect will be closer communion and more consecrated service.

3. Far other is the effect of forgetting God whilst receiving His gifts. Remember how it was with Israel (Isa_1:3; Mat_23:38-39). Hardness of heart, material living, God-forgetfulness, idolatry--these were the steps of descent. Nothing so tends to harden the heart and quench the spiritual life than God-forgetfulness and ingratitude in using the Divine gifts. There are still too many who reap luxuriant fields without due gratitude to Him who sent sunshine and rain, etc., who attribute their success, wealth, etc., to their own skill and industry, who add possession to possession without one thought of using them beyond the narrow circle of their own lives.

4. The Divine rule is the only safe one: Seek ye first the kingdom of God, etc. (Mat_6:33). Let the soul be right with God through forgiveness, etc., in Christ, then we shall be guided to seek and enabled to find what is best for our mortal life, and will best avail us in thankfully doing our Heavenly Masters work. (Wm. Frank Scott.)

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

Or, take to witness the heaven and the earth, as Deut. 4:26.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

19. I testify against you] Here begins the Pl.: the phrase is found only with Pl. passages, here, Deu_4:26, Deu_30:19, Deu_32:46, cp. Deu_31:26; Deu_31:28; elsewhere only in Jer_11:7; Jer_42:19.

ye shall surely perish] Only here, Deu_4:26, Deu_30:18 all Pl.

19, 20. The change from the Sg. to the Pl. address (substantially so in Sam. and LXX) suggests that an expanding hand has been at work in these verses; and the suggestion is confirmed by the fact that the leading phrases in them are found elsewhere only with the Pl. Further, the destruction of the nation seems regarded as imminent.

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.

As the nations which the Lord destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish,.... Be cut off by the sword, or cast out as they were, the same sins, particularly idolatry, being committed by them. This is to be understood of the seven nations of the land of Canaan, which the Lord would be gradually destroying when Israel came into the possession of their land; and they might righteously expect the same treatment, should they be guilty of the same sins:

because ye would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God; expressed in his law, especially in the two first precepts of it, which require the worship of one God, and forbid the worshipping of idols; or to the Word of the Lord, as the Targum of Jonathan, Christ, the essential Word, in whom the name of the Lord was, and whose voice Israel was to obey, Exo 23:20.

Next: Deuteronomy Chapter 9

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

Thee. Hebrew, "I attest this day against you, (Septuagint add heaven and earth,) that you shall," &c. God had already forbidden the worship of strange gods, Exodus xx. 3. He now threatens to punish the transgressors most severely. All nations have deemed it criminal to abandon the religion of their ancestors, unless when there is evident proofs of its absurdity, as was the case when so many embraced the doctrine of Jesus Christ, for which they were so cruelly persecuted. The Athenians would not suffer a word to be spoken against their gods; (Josephus, contra Apion ii.) and Cicero (Leg. ii.) lays down this as a law, "Let no one have gods to himself, nor any new ones: let him not adore, even in private, strange gods; unless they have been publicly acknowledged." (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

19, 20. Surely perish — Again Moses seeks to deepen the impression which his admonitions may make by warning the people of the fate that will overtake them if they are disobedient.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 19, 20. Moses enforces his counsel by reminding them again that only destruction awaited them should they forget the Lord their God and apostatize from him. (cf. Deu_4:25, etc.; Deu_6:14)

Vers. 19, 20. See Homiletics: (De 28)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To strengthen his admonition, Moses pointed again in conclusion, as he had already done in Deu 6:14 (cf. Deu 4:25.), to the destruction which would come upon Israel through apostasy from its God.

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.)

When and if you forget. This wil happen when you credit your success to your own actions, and do not bless Hashem for it.

You will surely be destroyed. From both this world and the World to Come.

Sforno on the Tanakh — English translation: “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.