John Calvin Commentary Deuteronomy 5:2

"Jehovah our God made a covenant with us in Horeb." — Deuteronomy 5:2 (ASV)

The Lord our God. In these words he commends the Law, because it must be considered a special blessing and a very high honor to be taken into covenant by God. Therefore, so that they may diligently prepare themselves to embrace the Law, he says that what was above all things to be desired, had been freely offered to them: namely, that they should be united in covenant with God.

In the next verse he still further magnifies this advantage by comparison, because God had given more to them than to their fathers. This removes all excuse from them, unless, for the sake of showing their gratitude, they give themselves up entirely to God and in return worship with sincere affection Him whom they have experienced to be so bountiful a Father.

Those who would paraphrase this sentence, “Not only with our fathers, but also with us,” pervert its proper meaning. The reason for their mistake is that God had formerly made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But this may be easily refuted, because the name of “fathers” does not refer to these; rather, he means by it those who had died in Egypt during the last 200 years. He justly prefers the case of the surviving people, with whom the ancient covenant had been renewed, to theirs.

Now, this reference to time was significantly calculated to stimulate and arouse them to obedience. For it would have been disgraceful for them not to acknowledge that they were honored more than their fathers by this special privilege, in order that they should excel them in their earnest zeal for God’s service.

Christ uses the same argument with His disciples: Blessed are the eyes which see the things that you see, and the ears which hear the things that you hear, etc.,²²³ (Matthew 13:16; Luke 10:23) “many Prophets and kings have desired,” etc. The sum is that the more bountifully God deals with us, the more heinous and intolerable is the crime of ingratitude, unless we willingly come to Him when He calls us and submit ourselves to His instruction.

²²³ The quotation here appears to have been made from memory.