“Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?”
My Notes
What Does Deuteronomy 4:34 Mean?
Moses asks Israel a rhetorical question designed to produce awe: has any god ever attempted what your God did? Has any deity gone and taken a nation from the midst of another nation — through temptations, signs, wonders, war, a mighty hand, a stretched out arm, and great terrors?
The answer is implied: no. Never. What God did in Egypt is historically unprecedented. No other god even attempted it. The rescue of Israel from Egypt is unique in the history of the world.
The list of seven methods is comprehensive: temptations (tests), signs (authenticating miracles), wonders (awe-producing events), war (military defeat of Egypt), a mighty hand (divine power), a stretched out arm (divine reach), and great terrors (the plagues). Every dimension of divine power was deployed.
"Before your eyes" — the audience saw it. This is not secondhand theology. The people Moses addresses witnessed the events. The rhetorical question is backed by personal experience.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What does the unprecedented nature of the Exodus reveal about the uniqueness of Israel's God?
- 2.How does the seven-fold description of methods communicate the comprehensiveness of divine power?
- 3.What does 'before your eyes' add — the difference between hearing about God and witnessing him?
- 4.What impossible rescue in your life requires the same kind of power displayed in Egypt?
Devotional
Hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation? Has any god even tried? The question assumes the answer: no. What happened in Egypt was without precedent. No deity in any culture, in any era, had ever done what the LORD did.
By temptations, by signs, and by wonders. The methods were supernatural — tests that exposed Pharaoh, signs that authenticated God's messenger, wonders that amazed and terrified.
By war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors. The rescue was not gentle. It was military, powerful, far-reaching, and terrifying. The plagues. The parting sea. The drowning army. Every dimension of divine power was deployed to free one nation from another.
Before your eyes. You saw it. This is not a story told around a campfire. You were there. The sea parted in front of you. The plagues fell while you watched. The army drowned as you stood on dry ground.
The uniqueness of the Exodus is the uniqueness of the God who performed it. No other god did this — because no other god could. The rescue was a demonstration of incomparable power aimed at a specific people for a specific purpose.
The God who rescued Israel from Egypt is your God. The power that was unprecedented then has not diminished. The mighty hand, the stretched out arm, the great terrors — all available to the same God who acts on behalf of his people.
What impossible rescue do you need? The God who took a nation from the midst of another nation has never been matched. And he has not retired.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation,.... As he now had done, namely, the…
Unwilling, as it might seem, to close his discourse with words of terror, Moses makes a last appeal to them in these…
This most lively and excellent discourse is so entire, and the particulars of it are so often repeated, that we must…
Or hath God assayed Rather, hath a god. The verb nissahis rendered in Deu 28:56 adventured. It is also used for the…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture