8 Things We Learn about God in Deuteronomy 4-10

One of the great questions to keep asking as we read through Scripture is this: What does this passage teach me about God?  What do I learn about who God is?  Or about what He does?  These sorts of questions keep our perspective God-saturated, and can help us live in a way that honors and aligns with the God who reveals Himself.

Recently I was reading through the first part of Deuteronomy, and realized there is a whole lot we learn about God in the span of just a few chapters.  I started to underline some of the truths we discover about who God is as He reveals Himself in Deuteronomy, and below I've included eight of the things I underlined - verses straight from the NIV Bible I've been reading.

Before I list these verses, a quick comment from J.I. Packer's classic book, Knowing God, will help us keep things pointed in the right direction:

Our aim in studying the Godhead must be to know God himself better.  Our concern must be to enlarge our acquaintance, not simply with the doctrine of God's attributes, but with the living God whose attributes they are.  As he is the subject of our study, and our helper in it, so he must himself be the end of it.  We must seek, in studying God, to be led by God.  It was for this purpose that revelation [i.e., the Bible] was given, and it is to this use that we must put it"  (J.I. Packer, Knowing God, p. 23).

So now let's look at Deuteronomy 4-10, and ask "What does this passage teach me about God?"  Here are at least eight things.  (There's probably more I could have listed from these chapters, by the way!)

• Deuteronomy 4:23-24: 23 Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the Lord your God has forbidden. 24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
• Deuteronomy 4:31: For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath.
• Deuteronomy 4:39: Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other.
• Deuteronomy 5:6: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery."
• Deuteronomy 6:4: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
• Deuteronomy 7:9: Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.
• Deuteronomy 8:17-18: 17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.
• Deuteronomy 10:17-18: 17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. 18 He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.
  

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As I noted above, I've simply recorded the verses as they're found in the NIV Bible I'm using right now - I've not included any additional notes or comments.  If you want to dig into this more, you may want to consider checking out some online sites I point people towards often.  Or, directly below I've linked to a few books on God.  Get one of these and start readin'! 

Knowing God, by J.I. Packer

The Knowledge of the Holy, by A.W. Tozer

Yawning at Tigers: You Can't Tame God, so Stop Trying, by Drew Dyck