John Calvin Commentary Deuteronomy 4:23

"Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of Jehovah your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image in the form of anything which Jehovah thy God hath forbidden thee." — Deuteronomy 4:23 (ASV)

Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget. There is no contradiction in the sense that He should first of all altogether forbid idols to be made, and secondly, speak only of worshipping and adoring them. For it is already in itself a wicked error to attribute any image to God, and another superstition always accompanies it: that God is always improperly worshipped in this visible symbol.

This strongly confirms what I have previously stated: that whatever holds down and confines our senses to the earth is contrary to the covenant of God. In this covenant, inviting us to Himself, He permits us to think of nothing but what is spiritual. Therefore, He sets His voice against all the imaginations by which heathen nations have always been deceived, because they have been deprived of the light of that doctrine which would direct them to the heavenly greatness of God Himself.

But those who have been taught by God’s Law not only that He alone is to be worshipped, but also that He may not be represented by any visible effigy, are justly considered covenant-breakers if they do not confine themselves within these bounds. For they violate that Second Commandment (caput) by which they are commanded to worship God spiritually, and consequently are forbidden to make for themselves likenesses or images by which they would deface and pollute His glory.

At the end of the verse, which some translate “the likeness, which your God has forbidden,”⁹⁹ the proper rendering is, “has commanded, or enjoined”; and hence the relative אור, asher, must be taken, as in many other places, as an adverb of comparison.

The meaning of Moses is indeed by no means obscure: namely, that we must simply obey God’s word; and that we must not dispute whether what He has forbidden is lawful or not; and that no other rule of right is to be sought for, except that we should follow what He has prescribed.

Let the Papists dispute as they please that images are not to be removed because they are useful for the people’s instruction; but let this be our wisdom: to acquiesce in what God has chosen to decree in this matter.

Although the threat which is added might have been placed among the sanctions, which we will consider later in their proper place, I have been unwilling to separate it from the Second Commandment, to which it is annexed.

A confirmation is added in Deuteronomy: namely, that God, who has not spared foreign nations, will much less pardon His people, inasmuch as it is a greater crime and fouler ingratitude to forsake God once He is known, and to cast aside the teaching of His Law, than to follow errors handed down from our forefathers.

I have already explained in what sense He is called a “jealous God.” But in Exodus 34:14, Moses did not consider it sufficient simply to honor God with this title; but, for amplification, he added that this is His name, so that we may know that He can no more bear a companion or a rival to be compared with Him than He can cast away His Godhead or deny Himself.

He compares Him to fire to increase our terror of Him. We know how audaciously the world indulges itself in superstitions, so that, as if in sport, it transforms God just as fancy leads.

Therefore, to incline men’s minds to reverence, he sets before us in this figure God’s fearful vengeance, as though He would instantly consume them, just as fire consumes stubble, if they should dare to think of God otherwise than is right.

⁹⁹ So the V. which is followed by . which is followed by A.V. and . and S.M. Our expositor seems to mean that . Our expositor seems to mean that אשר is here equivalent to is here equivalent to even as, and connects the last with the first clause of the verse; so that it should be rendered as follows, “Take heed to yourselves, etc., and connects the last with the first clause of the verse; so that it should be rendered as follows, “Take heed to yourselves, etc., even as the Lord your God commanded you.” —the Lord your God commanded you.” —W. The . The Fr. thus abbreviates the Latin text: “thus abbreviates the Latin text: “La ou j’ay translate, Ce que l’Eternel vostre Dieu vous a defendu, vaut autant que s’il estoit dit Comme ou Selon."."