In Deuteronomy, chapter four, verse six, Moses commands obedience regarding the Word of God among the Israelites. One reason that Israel had for remaining faithful to God’s law was to draw other nations to the Lord by demonstrating the wisdom and benefits of following His ways. Like Israel, New Testament believers are elect people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, the possession of the Lord: a people whom God wants to proclaim His excellencies and lordship. The laws of God in Israel, and the constant presence of Jehovah in Israel, would make an impression upon the world that it would not be easy to resist. For “what nation is there so great, that hath God so nigh unto them?”
The laws which Moses taught were commandments of the Lord. Keeping and doing them was to be the wisdom and understanding of Israel in the eyes of the nations. When they heard all these laws, others would say, “Certainly, no other than a wise and understanding people is this great nation.” History has confirmed this. Not only did the wisdom of Solomon astonish the queen of Sheba in First Kings chapter ten, verse four, but the divine truth Israel possessed in the law of Moses attracted all the more earnest minds of the heathen world through God’s elect people.
The other nations seek the satisfaction of the inmost necessities of their heart and the salvation of their souls in Israel’s knowledge of God. After a short period, the inward self-dissolution of the heathen religions had set in; and at last, in Christianity. It has brought one heathen nation after another to the true God and eternal salvation. Therefore, the divine truth was and still is regarded as folly by the proud philosophers and self-righteous Epicureans and Stoics of ancient and modern times.