Deuteronomy
Welcome!
Today we come to our final message on the Law, focusing in on the book of
Deuteronomy. In the coming weeks we will explore the wonderful book of
Galatians, hearing this Word like the Galatians would, in sight of the Law.
The
setting of the book of Deuteronomy is in the desert, with Moses and the
grown-up children of the generation that God had freed from the harsh slavery
of the Egyptians. The Israelites, despite God’s personal provision through the
manna and other food, despite God’s personal leadership through the column of
cloud and the column of fire, and despite God’s personal promises that He was
for their good and would help them, despite all this, the Israelites repeatedly
rejected God, complaining and revolting against Him. Finally, God declared that
they would not get to go to the Promised Land after all, that the promise would
pass on to their children, the next generation. For 40 years they wandered
around the desert, still led by God, and at last, it was time for the next
generation to fulfill this promise. The book of Deuteronomy is primarily Moses’
farewell address to these people, for he, too, had sinned, and he, too, would
not be able to go to the Promised Land.
Moses
begins his address in Chapter 1 by retelling these young people some of the
history that had brought them to this point. He describes how, nearly 40 years
ago, he organized them by tribes and smaller units, setting leaders over
thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, leaders who had both roles as judges,
settling disputes, and as military leaders for the upcoming taking of the
Promised Land. He then describes how he sent out 12 spies to scope out the
land. But when they came back, though they reported it was a good land, the
people rebelled, fearful of the people who were already in that land. They
rebelled completely against God, and it was this act that led to God sentencing
them to 40 years in the desert. Hearing this, the people then said they would
go up and fight after all. Moses, retelling the story, tells them that he told
them not to go, because God would not be with them in this, but they went
anyway and were badly defeated.
Chapter
2 gives a brief overview of their wanderings. During this time, they were told
not to meddle with or provoke the people where they went. And in one brief
sentence, the story jumps ahead 38 years, saying,
Thirty-eight years passed from the time
we left Kadesh Barnea until we crossed the Zered Valley
As
I reflected on these events this week, I was struck by how miraculous, really,
it was that the Israelites stayed together all this time. They weren’t
completely isolated; there were other people they interacted with. I doubt
there is another story like this in the history of the world, where a huge
people group (over a million Israelites) stay together, wandering together
without ever making a permanent home, for 40 years. I also thought about this
next generation – 40 years is a long time.
They probably remembered next to nothing of Egypt
Well,
Moses then went on to talk about their most recent history. As described in the
end of Chapter 2, they had, under God’s direction and leadership, defeated the
Amorites of Heshbon, who opposed their using the land even with fair
compensation and went to war against Israel Israel Jordan
In
an earlier message, we talked about how Moses had also disobeyed God in anger,
and as a result, he too was not allowed to go to the Promised Land. One thing I
love about Moses is his humility. Listen to what he tells the Israelites, being
honest to the point of self-embarrassment:
At that time I pleaded
with the Lord: “O Sovereign Lord, you have begun to show to your
servant your greatness and your strong hand. For what god is there in heaven or
on earth who can do the deeds and mighty works You do? Let me go over and see
the good land beyond the Jordan —that
fine hill country and Lebanon Jordan
Now,
when Moses says “but because of you,” that doesn’t mean he is shifting the
blame. In the Hebrew it comes across much more subtly than it does in English.
He is simply saying that he became very mad at the people, and in that anger, he sinned by disobeying God. But what
humility to even recount this event! I am reminded of Paul who says,
To keep me from becoming conceited
because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in
my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to
take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is
sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so
that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for
Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in
persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. – 2 Cor.
12:7-10
I
think Moses would not disagree with me if I characterized the Israelites as his thorn in the flesh. What are your
thorns? I think we tend to think of them as temptations. But if you are a
younger person, I bet sometimes your parents are your thorn. If you are a parent,
I bet your children sometimes are a thorn. If you have a roommate, I bet
sometimes your roommate is your thorn. And if you are married, dare I say it,
sometimes your spouse is your thorn.
I
think we can learn from Moses and especially Paul here – the thorn does not
cause us to sin, but it exposes our
weakness. We tend to be preoccupied with hiding our weaknesses, not letting
anyone see we have them. But Moses and Paul here expose them, and Paul, blessed
with the greater revelation of Christ, goes on to see that he delights in them,
because that exposure draws Him to depend on Christ, seeking Christ to be his
strength. I encourage you to be of the same mind. But back to Deuteronomy:
In
Chapter 4, Moses begins to retell the law to this new generation. Here is how
he starts:
Hear now, O Israel
Do
not add to the Law. Wow! I wonder if the Pharisees ever noticed the little
piece of a verse! We can be guilty of this too, by adding to what Christ says
to do. We will get more into this in Galatians, but I just want to point at
that with regards to the Old Testament Law, there is equivalence between the sin of adding to the Law and subtracting
from it! Adding to the Law, adding a “hedge of protection” so that you don’t
get too close to the boundaries of the Law, if this is something you say others
should do, in effect making it a law to others, is sin; it’s wrong. If you
judge others for not keeping to your own high standards, if your standards are
not explicitly something the New Testament tells us as Christ followers to do, it
is sin; it’s wrong. Of course, subtracting from the Law is also sin, also
wrong. Those who say that Christians are still under the Law, that is the parts
of it that are “moral” versus “ceremonial,” I think are guilty of this sin of
subtraction. Again, we will get more into how Christians are to view the Law as
we study Galatians, but to throw out the sacrifices, to throw out the laws of
cleanliness, to throw out the laws of special days and feasts and observances,
from the point of any Israelite at the time of Moses, would be guilty of an
unbelievable amount of “subtraction.”
The
next verses of Chapter 4 consist of Moses exhorting them in strong language to
keep the Law. He uses phrases like “observe them carefully,” “watch yourselves
closely,” “do not forget,” “remember,” “hear,” and so on. Then Moses begins to
get into the Law. What does he start with? Idolatry. He says this many ways,
and he says it emphatically. One of the most famous passages from Deuteronomy
is here:
Be careful not to forget the covenant of
the Lord your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in
the form of anything the Lord your God has forbidden. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire,
a jealous God. – Deut. 4:23-24
We
tend to view jealousy in our culture as uniformly bad. I think it helps if
instead of saying “God is jealous of another to whom we devote ourselves,”
instead we say, “God is jealous for
us.” It’s not that God has an ego
problem and demands to be worshipped; it’s that we have an ego problem that is only remedied when we worship the
God who made us rather than something we have fashioned ourselves, whether an
idol of wood or stone, or our work, or our talents, or anything else we do or
have done.
I
wish I had more time to read more of Deuteronomy today. I don’t, but I have to
read these verses:
After you have had children and
grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time—if you then become corrupt
and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and
provoking him to anger, I call
heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish
from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live
there long but will certainly be destroyed. The Lord
will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among
the nations to which the Lord will drive you. There you
will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat
or smell. But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find Him if
you look for Him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in
distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will
return to the Lord your God and obey Him. For the Lord
your God is a merciful God; He will not abandon or destroy you or forget the
covenant with your forefathers, which He confirmed to them by oath. – Deut.
4:25-31
Right
there you have the essentials, completely accurate, of the rest of the Old
Testament, the history of the people of Israel
And
then Moses goes on to give the “why” of the history of the Israelites to that
point in time:
Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God
created man on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has
anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been
heard of? Has
any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and
lived? Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another
nation, by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand
and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the
Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? You were shown these
things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides Him there is no
other. From heaven He made you hear His voice to discipline you. On earth He
showed you His great fire, and you heard His words from out of the fire.
Because He loved your forefathers and chose their descendants
after them, He brought you out of Egypt by His Presence and His great strength,
to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you
into their land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today. – Deut.
4:32-38
This
theme of the love of God towards His people appears again and again in the
whole Bible, not just in the New Testament. And it appears repeatedly in
Deuteronomy, here in Chapter 4, but also multiple times in Chapter 7, multiple
times in Chapter 10, and in Chapter 33. I would even say it is one of the
overarching themes of Deuteronomy.
In
Deuteronomy 5, Moses recounts the Ten Commandments. Do you remember them? No
other gods. No idols. Do not misuse His name. Observe the Sabbath. Honor your
parents. Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not give false
testimony. Do not covet. And then he adds,
These are the commandments the Lord
proclaimed in a loud voice to your whole assembly there on the mountain from
out of the fire, the cloud and the deep darkness; and He added nothing more.
Then He wrote them on two stone tablets and gave them to me. – Deut. 5:22
I
find it telling that Moses says, “and He added nothing more.” Although James
2:10 says, “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles
at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it,” there is a sense that the
10 Commandments are foundational.
They, and only they, are on the tablets. Of course, the “no other gods” and “no
idols” really means that we should do everything
the Lord tells us to do, because if we don’t, then we are putting ourselves and our self-interests ahead of God. And so I think we can argue that
breaking one of the more detailed commands that comes later, if we do so
willfully, really means that we are violating the first two Commandments as
well.
Deuteronomy
6 includes the famous passage, called the sh’ma
in Hebrew, which means, “Hear!”–
Hear, O Israel
What
does the sh’ma really mean? In Hebrew
there is a vagueness just as there is in English translations. I think the
“one” here both refers to the unity of
God – that is, He is one being, not a plethora of beings – and the uniqueness of God – that is, He is the
only one that is truly God, truly Creator, and He is the only one to be
worshipped.
And
then we are commanded to love Him, with all our heart, all our soul, all our
strength. It is this command that the Israelites failed at so miserably in
following God out of Egypt
And
then God commands them to teach it, to make reminders of it, to make it
something they are forced to see and think about and chew on constantly, not
just for the sake of their children, although that is part of it, as it says,
but also for them. Because they, like us, are a forgetful people. And that is
why we too should daily immerse ourselves in God’s Word.
Deut.
7 contains instructions on what to do when they conquer the Promised Land.
Among the things described here is the charge to totally destroy all altars and
other religious artifacts devoted to false God. Israel
Deut.
8 again reminds them to follow every command, and then says this:
When you have eaten and are satisfied,
praise the Lord your God for the good land He has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord
your God, failing to observe His commands, His laws and His decrees that I am
giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are
satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and
flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is
multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you
will forget the Lord your God. – Deut. 8:10-14a
If
some verses ever described our culture perfectly, these would be it. We are
quick on holidays like July 4 to declare America
And
Chapter 9, the entire chapter, continues this theme of pride. Moses tells them
that when they drive out a people, it is not because of how great they are, but
because of how sinful the other people are. Moses then reminds them of their
greatest failures, with the golden calf, and at the other locations they
rebelled against God. The purpose of this, I believe, is not to make them feel
guilty again, but to reinforce in them the fact that they are not great, in and of themselves. It is
to keep them humble. And for me, an irony of this is that I remember being
taught again and again the idea as a Jewish kid that I was one of the “chosen
people,” and this made me great. The reality is that we as a people were chosen
not because of what we had done, but
in spite of it!
Chapter
10 recalls more of their history and then calls on them, yet again, to love
God, to serve Him, and to obey the Law. Chapter 11 continues this call, and
reminds them that there are blessings in store for obeying Him and curses for
rejecting Him.
The
middle part of Deuteronomy, Chapter 12 through 26, restates and expands on many
details of the Law given in the earlier books. Because our time is limited, I
am only giving a brief summary here, highlighting a few things I find most
interesting. One thing I will say, in general, that the instruction, again and
again, explains how they will do these things once they possess the Promised
Land. Because they will no longer be nomadic, and because they will spread out
over the Land, many details will change. These details are spelled out in these
chapters.
Chapter
12 instructs again to destroy idols, and tells them to perform all the
sacrifices and offerings in the way the Lord has prescribed at a specific location God directs. It
also reminds them not to eat the blood of an animal and to remember to provide
for the Levites. Because they are scattered, and won’t see the Levites every
day, this is an important reminder. Chapter 13 warns them against false
prophets and describes the punishments for those who try to lead God’s people
astray. Because they will be spread out, each tribe will need to be vigilant
against this. Chapter 14 describes which animals they may eat and which animals
they may not eat, and also describes how they are to tithe; tithing is also a
bit different now that they will be spread out. Chapter 15 talks about the
Sabbath year, in which debts are to be cancelled and servants are to go free.
It also describes how a servant may choose to stay with his master for life,
and how this is to be signified by piercing the servant’s ear. Again, these
things will be done “locally,” each tribe overseeing their own business.
Chapter
16 reiterates how they are to observe the Passover, the Feast of Weeks, and the
Feast of Tabernacles; at each of these feasts, all of Israel
Among
the various rules in Chapter 17, one explains what to do if a judge feels
inadequate for certain difficult decisions. In such cases they are to take the
case to the priests at the location of the tabernacle (eventually, the Temple
The
first part of Chapter 18 deals with treatment of priests and Levites as well as
another reminder to avoid the sinful practices of those around them,
specifically in the areas of witchcraft and other occult practices. The second
half of the chapter contains one of the most famous passages:
The Lord your God will raise up for you
a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. – Deut.
18:15
This
is expanded on in the rest of the chapter.
This clearly has its ultimate fulfillment in Christ, and the people at
the time of Christ, some of them, anyway, saw this. John 6:14 says, “After the
people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, ‘Surely this
is the Prophet who is to come into the world.’”
Also, Peter quotes this verse after healing the crippled beggar while
telling the crowds about Christ in Acts 3.
Deuteronomy
Chapter 19 gives additional details about the cities of refuge, warns against
moving boundary stones for the land given them as an inheritance, and explains
that at least two witnesses are required to convict a person of an offense. It
also says to deal harshly with a purposely false witness, so that no one else
would dare to do such a thing. Recall the false witnesses at Jesus’ trial? The
ultimate blame for this must be placed on the religious leaders, who violated
this part of the law, resulting in a completely broken judicial system.
Chapter
20 describes how they are to go to war, including that they are to first make
an offer of peace. Chapter 21 deals with various things, including unsolved
murders, how to treat women taken in war, the rights of a firstborn son, and
how to deal with a truly rebellious son. (That last one isn’t pretty!) It also
says this, clearly pointing ahead to Christ:
If a man guilty of a capital offense is
put to death and his body is hung on a tree, you must not leave his body on the tree
overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a
tree is under God’s curse. – Deut. 21:22-23a
As
we know, Jesus took on the sins of the world on the “tree,” experiencing the
full wrath, or curse, of God, in our place.
Deut.
22-25 gives many miscellaneous laws including a number of rules for marriage
violations and divorce. There are actually many interesting things here, but
there just isn’t time to go into them.
Deut. 26 deals again with tithes and near the end has this:
The Lord your God commands you this day
to follow these decrees and laws; carefully observe them with all your heart
and with all your soul. You have declared this day that the Lord is your God
and that you will walk in His ways, that you will keep His decrees, commands
and laws, and that you will obey Him. And the Lord has declared this day that
you are His people, His treasured possession as He promised, and that you are
to keep all His commands. – Deut. 26:16-18
If
they were God’s treasured possession, and we have been bought by Christ, what
do you think that makes us? Even more so, we are God’s precious treasure. We
are precious to God!
In
Chapter 27, they are told, upon entering the land, to write the words of the
Law on a monument on Mount Ebal , and then, they are to shout out blessings and
curses from Mount Ebal and neighboring Mount Gerizim
Now choose life, so that you and your
children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to
His voice, and hold fast to Him. For the Lord is your life… - Deut. 30:19-20a
In
Chapter 31, Moses explains that Joshua will lead them and commissions him. He
also tells them to publically read the Law every 7 years to all the people.
This ends Moses’ speech. Later, God meets with Moses and warns him that the
people will, unfortunately, reject Him soon after they take the land, and told
Moses to write down a song God gave him that would witness against them when
they did this. Moses wrote it down and taught it to the Israelites. This song
of God is given in Chapter 32, and I encourage you to read it in your own quiet
times this week.
The
final chapter of Deuteronomy gives prophetic blessings Moses gave to each tribe
before he died.
I
wanted to finish today with one last thought. Although it is true we are no
longer under the Law, in and of ourselves, in our own strength, we too will
fail to love God and to live for Him. Unless the Lord is your life, unless you
cling to Him, depend on Him, seek Him, you too will wander away from following
Him. Now, we have the Holy Spirit, who will make us miserable when we do this,
and if we have truly given ourselves over to Christ, God Himself will not let
us fall from His hand, our need to be dependent on Him day by day has not
changed. I am reminded of a quote from C.S. Lewis. By the way, when C.S. Lewis
says “religion,” he means it in a positive sense, meaning our personal
relationship with God. Here is the quote:
“God made us: invented us
as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on gasoline, and it would not
run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on
Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food
our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just
no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about
religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself because
it is not there. There is no such thing.” – C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Do
you believe this? Do you really believe this? Then, as the ancient prophet
says,
Now choose life, so that you and your
children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to
His voice, and hold fast to Him. For the Lord is your life… - Deut. 30:19-20a
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