Deuteronomy 4 · a question people ask
Does 4:19 mean the LORD gave the sun, moon and stars to the nations to worship?
The verse warns Israel not to see "the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the army of the sky" and be "drawn away and worship them, and serve them, which the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole sky" (4:19). The next verse sets Israel apart: "But the LORD has taken you, and brought you out of the iron furnace… to be to him a people of inheritance" (4:20). Christians read "allotted" in two main ways. Both agree on what the verse commands: Israel is not to worship them, and "the LORD himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. There is no one else" (4:39).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Given to all peoples as lights
Those who hold this view read "allotted to all the peoples under the whole sky" as what the lights are for. Genesis says God set them "in the expanse of the sky to give light to the earth" (Genesis 1:17), and "for signs to mark seasons, days, and years" (Genesis 1:14). On this reading the sun, moon and stars are the LORD's gift to every people, and to worship a gift given to everyone is to be "drawn away" (4:19).
Genesis 1:14-17 · Deuteronomy 4:19
The nations left to their own ways, for a time
Those who hold this view read "allotted" beside the next verse, "But the LORD has taken you" (4:20), and beside Moses' later words: "When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance… the LORD’s portion is his people" (Deuteronomy 32:8-9), and Israel "served other gods… that he had not given to them" (Deuteronomy 29:26), where "given" is the same Hebrew verb as "allotted" in 4:19 (chalaq). They also note what Barnabas and Paul told the crowd at Lystra (Acts 14:8, 14:14): the living God "in the generations gone by allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways" (Acts 14:15-16). On this reading the LORD let the nations go their own way in worship for a time, while he took Israel for himself.
Deuteronomy 4:20 · Deuteronomy 32:8-9 · Deuteronomy 29:26 · Acts 14:14-16
The verses
“and lest you lift up your eyes to the sky, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the army of the sky, you are drawn away and worship them, and serve them, which the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole sky. But the LORD has taken you, and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be to him a people of inheritance, as it is today.”
“Know therefore today, and take it to heart, that the LORD himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. There is no one else.”