Deuteronomy

Holman Old Testament Commentary #3

by Max E. Anders, Doug McIntosh

One in a series of twenty Old Testament verse-by-verse commentary books edited by Max Anders. Includes discussion starters, teaching plan, and more. Great for lay teachers and pastors alike.

Genres: Old Testament

400 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2002

About the author

Max Anders (Th.M. Dallas Theological Seminary, D.Min Western Seminary) is the author of over 20 books and the creator and general editor of the 32 volume Holman Bible Commentary. Dr. Anders has taught on the college and seminary level, is one of the original team members with Walk Thru the Bible Ministries, and has pastored for over 20 years. He is the founder and president of 7 Marks, Inc., a ministry specializing in support for local churches.

Reviews

[Tim Chavel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very practical commentary on the book of Deuteronomy. I used it as our Sunday School classes studied the book. I trust you will be blessed and challenged by the quotes below;

Fear of the right type can be beneficial to the people of God (see Prov. 1:7), but the fear of man’s hostile intentions seldom fits that category. ~Max Anders

Believers should be more concerned for God’s opinion of them than for what human opponents might do to their bodies. ~Max Anders

The thoughtful believer recalls God’s faithfulness in the past when confronted by any new threat. Part of spiritual maturity is strong sense of one’s own history. ~Max Anders

Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers, but for powers equal to your tasks. Today’s pains not only affect today. They are God’s training ground for our tomorrows. ~Phillips Brooks & Max Anders

The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else. ~Oswald Chambers

God’s Word calls His people to adore Him exclusively and completely and to love people as themselves. ~Max Anders

The concept of freedom in Scripture differs from modern notions. Freedom is not a life lived free of restraints but a life that recognizes healthy limits, those that are concern to produce prosperity and order for the person who observes them. ~Max Anders

The labor of self-love is a heavy one indeed. Think whether much of your sorrow has not arisen from someone speaking slightingly of you. As long as you set yourself up as a little god to which you must be loyal, how can you hope to find inward peace? ~A.W. Tozer

Nothing should be considered outside the scope of God’s authority. ~Max Anders

Moses warned them [Israelites] that the leading spiritual danger they would face on entering the [promise] land would be forgetting the Lord. What adversity would not do, prosperity and satisfaction could. They were to be on their guard against spiritual lethargy. ~Max Anders

Conversion is essential, but it is a beginning, not an end. The believer in Jesus Christ is not simply rescued from the penalty of his sin; he is redeemed to love God and his neighbor so that others might come to know him. ~Max Anders

Moses simplifies the whole duty of Israel (and of humanity) by crystalizing the moral law into a single command to love God supremely. ~Max Anders

Even the wisest people learn little from their successes; God warns His people against allowing their victories (which He will grant) to lead them into pride and spiritual indifference. Instead, they should pay close attention to God’s Word. ~Max Anders

Although their parents died in the wilderness for their stubbornness, Israel could profit from the older generation’s failure by remembering that God had used adversity to train them. ~Max Anders

It is a good thing to let prayer be the first business in the morning and the last in the evening. Guard yourself against such false and deceitful thoughts that keep whispering, “Wait a while. In an hour or so I will pray. I must first finish this or that.” Thinking such thoughts we get away from prayer into other things that will hold us and involve us till the prayer of the day comes to naught. ~Martin Luther

Although God’s people find many successes in the world, they must not fall prey to a spirit of pride. We succeed not because of our moral superiority but because of the faithfulness of our divine intercessor and because of the great mercy of God. ~Max Anders

If and when a horror turns up you will then be given Grace to help you. I don’t think one is usually given it in advance. “Give us our daily bread” (not an annuity for life) applies to spiritual gifts too; the little daily support for the daily trial. Life has to be taken day by day and hour by hour. ~C.S. Lewis

In Deuteronomy 11, God offers Israel a choice; either a life of productivity and enjoyment made possible by obedience to Him, or a life of difficulty and opposition made necessary by disobedience. The happiness Israel desires can only be theirs by being properly related to Him. ~Max Anders

Israel’s [as well as our] enjoyment of the land is contingent on their behavior. Blessings or cruses lie before them; the choice is theirs. ~Max Anders

Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose – and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin. ~William Temple

False teaching – anything that would weaken the believer’s ties to his Lord – must be confronted wherever it appears, even if that confrontation requires painful correction. ~Max Anders

Father, we ask that you give us a passion for the truth and not merely a hatred of falsehood. Keep us concerned for the spiritual health of people but open to your own rebukes from your mighty Word. ~Max Anders

God loves as we are, but He loves us too much to leave us that way. ~Anonymous

The worship practices of the people of God are to be marked by devotion to Him and compassion to the needy. ~Max Anders

If Israel is to please the Lord fully, they will live lives that are as distinctive among the nations as their Lord is different from pagan deities. ~Max Anders

In glory God is incomprehensible, in greatness unfathomable, in height inconceivable, in power incomparable, in wisdom unrivaled, in goodness inimitable, in kindness unutterable. ~Theophilus of Antioch

God demonstrates generosity, then asks it from His people. ~Max Anders

Giving works best when the Lord's portion is removed first and believers learn to live within the remainder. ~Max Anders

The generous giver, demonstrating the nature of God by his behavior, can never outgive God. ~Max Anders

God expects believers to improve their attitude in giving as well as their giving itself. ~Max Anders

Since all wealth ultimately comes from God, His people ought to acknowledge His primacy by offering Him the best of their wealth, time, and abilities. ~Max Anders

All human beings pass away. Do not let your happiness depend on something you may lose. If love is to be a blessing, not a misery, it must be for the only beloved who will never pass away. ~C.S. Lewis

Discussing Deut. 7:22-23, “However, God would not, as He did against the Egyptians, destroy all the armies of the nations in one brief encounter, all at once. Instead, He would drive out those nations … little by little. Israel would fight a war that it could win, but not a war that would be swift or uncomplicated. It was to Israel’s benefit that they not enter a deserted land. Had they done so, the wild animals would multiply around them and place them in jeopardy. The war that Christians must fight bears many similarities to the divine design for occupying the Holy Land. Christians must go to war every day, putting to death the deeds of the body so they can live victorious lives. Although the greatest victory is already won, a life still waits to be carved out for each soldier, and progress generally comes little by little. Come it will, however, to the one who fights, just as it would for Israel. The Lord promised to deliver their enemies over if His people would fight faithfully. ~Max Anders

God wanted Israel, as He wants Christians, to learn to utterly abhor and detest anything that had the potential of coming between them and their God. The believer’s enemies are typically internal rather than external, and they pose a powerful threat to spiritual health and progress. ~Max Anders

Wisdom lies in recognizing the dangers that lie within us and doing battle with them daily. ~Max Anders

The choice of a mate is crucial because no one has a greater influence on our spiritual lives. ~Max Anders

Kindness that allows barriers to one’s relationship with God to spring up is self-destructive. ~Max Anders

God chooses people not for what He can do for them, but for the good they can do for others. ~Max Anders

Christianity, righty understood, is utterly unlike religion that man invents. It is so completely contrary to the way man does things that it must have come from God. Take Christmas, for example; only God could have thought of that. When man invents a super being, he comes up with a Superman, or a Captain Marvel. God gives the world a baby. ~Richard Halverson.

My mother’s influence in molding my character was conspicuous. She forced me to learn daily long chapters of the Bible by heart. To that discipline and patient, accurate resolve I owe not only much of my general power of taking pains, but of the best part of my taste for literature. ~John Ruskin

People sometimes punish to exact judgment for past actions. God disciplines in order to teach and always in the interest of those whom he disciplines. ~Max Anders

God leads His people whether they are obedient or rebellious, but His leading is far more pleasant when they obey. ~Max Anders

God’s loving discipline brings us face-to-face with our pride. ~Max Anders

Chastening is a mark of affection, not a sign of rejection. ~Max Anders

God delights in providing His people with material gain and comfort, although prosperity can pose a threat to spiritual well-being. ~Max Anders

If someone considers the prophetic writings with all the diligence and reverence they are worth, while he reads and examines with great care, it is certain that in that very act he will be struck in his mind and senses by some more divine breath and will recognize that the books he reads have not been produced in a human way, but are words of God. ~Origen of Alexandria

There is no merit where there is no trial; and till experience stamps the mark of strength, cowards may pass for heroes, and falsehood for faith. ~Aaron Hill

The meaning of earthly existence lies, not as we have grown used to thinking, in prospering, but in the development of the soul. ~Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Never yet did there exist a full faith in the divine Word, which did not expand the intellect while it purified the heart; which did not multiply the aims and objects of the understanding, while it fixed and simplified those of the desires and passions. ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Intercessors constitute the greatest unseen group of spiritual heroes in world history. Their labors are not seen, but the results are. Those who pray for the spiritual needs of others do immeasurable good in the world, often preventing (at least for a time) divine judgment. ~Max Anders

Although God’s people find many successes in the world, they must not fall prey to a spirit of pride. We succeed not because of our moral superiority but because of the faithfulness of our Divine Intercessor and because of the great mercy of God. ~Max Anders

Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God. ~William Carey

There is no limit to what God’s people can expect their God to do if they are rightly related to Him. ~Max Anders

In any spiritual undertaking, God’s first order of business is to see to the spiritual health of His people. ~Max Anders

Believers are inclined to attribute their spiritual successes to their godliness when it would be more accurate to connect them with God’s faithfulness. ~Max Anders

The believer who feels the agony caused by rebellion will grow to become the best intercessor. ~Max Anders

Persistence in prayer brings results that casual prayer does not. ~Max Anders

To know God and to find one’s full satisfaction in that knowledge is the ultimate goal of Christian experience. The Lord’s greatest delight comes when His people discover the ultimate value lies in the knowledge of God. Nothing in the material world can complete with the delights that are present in His Person. ~Max Anders

Grace is always given freely by God, but grace received should always issue in a joyous delight in Him. ~Max Anders

For my part, I have never ceased to rejoice that God has appointed me to such an office. People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa …. Is that a sacrifice, which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of glorious destiny hereafter? Away with the word in such a view, and with such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of the life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory, which shall be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice. ~David Livingstone

The heart that delights in God and longs only to see His glory advance will seldom be conscious of sacrifice. God in His wisdom asks that we first love Him and then live in keeping with that core value. He does not want His people to think of what they do as sacrificial, even though from the world’s point of view it may be just that. Gratitude for grace of God will always be found near the center of the Biblical Christian’s most powerful motivations. ~Max Anders

Just as the ark rested in the center of Israel’s camp, God wants His Word to form the center of the believer’s life. ~Max Anders

The most blessed gift that God can give any person is a knowledge of Himself. ~Max Anders

Fear of God and love for God coexist happily in the heart of people who are rightly related to Him. ~Max Anders

God’s commandments not only reflect His holiness, they promote our happiness. ~Max Anders

All believers can increase their commitment to God by reflecting on His faithfulness and by considering the forms such commitment should assume in their experience. ~Max Anders

Spiritual strength is connected to faithful obedience to God’s commands. ~Max Anders

God supplies the needs of His people according to their needs but does not ordinarily allow stockpiling. ~Max Anders

The worship of false gods is always an outgrowth of spiritual deception. ~Max Anders

Since the success of believers is tied to our knowledge of and obedience to God’s Word, the memorizing of portions of the Bible is advisable. ~Max Anders

David memorized Scripture and recognized it as a key to walking with God: “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” (Ps. 119:11). He knew that memorization was the doorway to constant meditation and all the benefits associated with it: “But [the godly person’s] delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night” (Ps. 1:2). Fixing God’s Word on the heart and mind is both preventative and corrective to engage in foolish and sinful practices. At the same time, God will use Scripture to help us realize it when our actions are not pleasing to Him. ~Max Anders

Curiosity is an enormous challenge to godly living. ~Max Anders

Believers have just as much to fear from legalism as from waywardness. The first detracts from the beauty of the message, while the second mars it content. ~Max Anders

Worship is accomplished with the life as well as with the words and attitudes of people. Changed and transformed lives testify to the character and supernatural power of the God of heaven. Closeness to Him produces changes in character and holiness. ~Max Anders

Attachments to older forms of worship may be comfortable, but they may contain elements of falsehood that make them unacceptable to God. ~Max Anders

Common sense religion emphasizes the human contributions that are supposed to move the deity. Valid worship always begins with recognition of what God has already done. ~Max Anders

Religious truth is not false for being narrow any more than mathematical or scientific truth is false for the same reason. ~Max Anders

Rejoicing is the essence of genuine worship. A sad face (apart from remorse for sin or regret concerning the pain of others) is an affront to a gracious and generous God. ~Max Anders

God ought to be given the choice portion of our wealth and not its dregs. ~Max Anders

God warned Israel, “And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it” (Ex. 20:25). To pollute something is to make it ordinary. God insists that any approach crafted by human ingenuity will produce a worship system just like all the pagan systems in the world. In other words, it will be common or profane – just like everyone else’s paganism. ~Max Anders

By definition, if man contributes anything toward acceptance by God, he loses everything. God expects man to be the recipient, not the originator. Jesus paid it all, not 99% of it. Paul wrote, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). ~Max Anders

We dare not trim stones to make God an altar, for if we do we ruin everything. We would spend time bringing people to the altar and saying, “Look at those beautiful stones we trimmed!” We merely need to accept the work that God has done for us in Christ. The object of His restrictions is to help us see how wonderful He is and to spend the rest of our lives rendering true worship to Him. ~Max Anders

Simplicity reaches out after God; purity discovers and enjoys Him. ~Thomas a Kempis

How little people know who think that holiness is dull. When one meets the real thing ... it is irresistible. If even ten percent of the world's population had it, would not the whole world be converted and happy before year's end? ~C.S. Lewis

Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means but always also as an end. ~Immanuel Kant

Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God. And only he who sees takes off his shoes, the rest sit around and pick blackberries. ~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Unless we know the difference between flowers and weeds, we are not fit to take care of a garden. It is not enough to have truth planted in our minds. We must learn and labor to keep the ground clear of thorns and briars, follies and perversities, which have a wicked propensity to choke the word of life. ~Clyde Francis Lytle

True repentance hates the sin, and not merely the penalty; and it hates the sin most of all because it has discovered and felt God’s love. ~William Mackergo Taylor

When people stop believing in God, they do not believe in nothing. They believe in anything. ~ G.K. Chesterton

Conversion is not a repairing of the old building; but it takes all down and erects a new structure. The sincere Christian is quite a new fabric – from the foundation to the top stone all new. ~Joseph Alleine

Love thy God and love Him only and thy breast will ne’er be lonely. ~Aubrey Thomas DeVere

Grace binds with far stronger cords than the cords of duty or obligation can bind you. Grace is free, but when once you take it you are bound forever to the Giver, and bound to catch the spirit of the Giver. Like produces like. Grace makes you gracious, the Giver makes you give. ~ E. Stanley Jones

To see the rest of the quotes from this book visit my blog!