A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Deuteronomy 1-5 (Part 2)

Deuteronomy 4:32-35—32 “For ask now concerning the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether any great thing like this has happened, or anything like it has been heard. 33 Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live? 34 Or did God ever try to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD Himself is God; there is none other besides Him.” In the 1800s, Joseph Smith invented a “God” more to his own liking, and this “God” is worshipped by many Mormons across the globe. Temples have been built to him, universities have been built proclaiming to teach about this “God” to many unsuspecting followers. But this “God” is the invention of a man’s imagination—He doesn’t exist, He can do nothing for anyone, and the “gospel” that is offered to the followers of this “God” can save no one, as these worshippers follow a false god who does not exist, and has never existed except in the mind of a money-digging polygamist.

This “God” is one of millions of “Gods” who rule over millions of universes, and had to learn how to be a “God” himself. In what is known as the “King Follett Discourse”, Joseph Smith elaborated on what he believed and taught to be the nature and person of God, how He was once a man and progressed to godhood:

In the sermon, Joseph taught about divine nature and eternal progression. He countered the long-standing theological tradition that treated God as wholly different than humanity. He explained that “if men do not comprehend the character of God they do not comprehend themselves.” He taught that God “was once as one of us” and that “all the spirits that God ever sent into the world” were “susceptible of enlargement,” having the capacity to become like God in the eternities. Joseph also taught that a core part of each person is coeternal with God, comparing this divine core to a ring, without beginning or end. The King Follett sermon was the most direct, public explanation of these doctrines, but it was not the first time they had been introduced. The Book of Mormon and the book of Moses both contain passages that stood at odds with the theological position dominant in Joseph Smith’s day that God is “without body, parts, or passions.” Revelations received by Joseph Smith as early as 1832 taught that spirits existed “in the beginning with God” and that through the power of Jesus Christ’s Atonement, individuals could “receive their inheritance and be made equal with him,” becoming gods. Joseph Smith had elaborated on these revelations in various settings, helping others grasp the implications of his teachings.

(https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/king-follett-discourse?lang=eng)

This speech was based on the famous couplet spoken by Lorenzo Snow, “As man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be.”

The Prophet Joseph Smith himself publicly taught the doctrine the following year, 1844, during a funeral sermon of Elder King Follett: “God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! … It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the Character of God, and to know that we may converse with him as one man converses with another, and that he was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1938, pp. 345–46.)

(https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1982/02/i-have-a-question/is-president-snows-statement-as-man-now-is-god-once-was-as-god-now-is-man-may-be-accepted-as-official-doctrine?lang=eng)

This is nothing more than self-worship, and goes against the clear teaching of Scripture, that YYHVH alone is God, that nothing and no one can become God, and that “there is none other besides Him.” God did not have to “learn” how to become God, He has always been God. None can become God, for He alone is, was, and always will be God. This was a lesson the people of Israel would have to be reminded of many times throughout their history, and one which many humans today need to be reminded of.

In Deuteronomy 5:1-33, Moses repeats what we call the Ten Commandments, and reminds the people that these are the words of the covenant God made with them, to make them a people of God, set apart to Him, simply for His good pleasure. You will hear many today speak against the doctrine of Sovereign Election—that God chooses those whom He will save—and say that “it’s not fair!” Well, was it “fair” for God to only choose this people to receive His Law and be brought into a covenant with Him? What of the Ammonite, or the Moabite? Would it not have been “fair” for God to tell them His law and how to please Him and how to atone for their sins? Was it “fair” for God to only choose—not all the descendants to Abraham, not all the descendants of Isaac—but only the descendants of Jacob to be His people? For He did not enter into an everlasting covenant with the descendants of Ishmael; He did not enter into an everlasting covenant with the descendants of Esau; He only entered into such a covenant with the descendants of Jacob (Israel), and it was only these with whom He made a covenant that these should be His people.

And this Law that He gave—the Ten Commandments and the other 513 commands—were the rules they were to live by in order to continue to be considered His people. These commands were not burdens, they were not grievous. They were how all people should act in accordance with the holiness and righteousness of God. If someone does not want to obey these commands, they cannot be a child of God. If they want to steal; if they want to murder; if they want to defile their neighbor’s wife; if they want to commit acts of homosexuality, then they cannot be called the people of God. Because these things go against everything He is and that person will not prosper as a child of God. As it says in Deuteronomy 5:32-33—32 “Therefore you shall be careful to do as the LORD your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. 33 You shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.” I’ll finish with these words from Matthew Henry—

Seeing God had shown himself so tender of them, and so willing to consider their frame and gratify them in what they desired, and withal so ready to make the best of them, - seeing they themselves had desired to have Moses for their teacher, who was now teaching them, - and seeing they had promised so solemnly, and under the influence of so many good causes and considerations, that they would hear and do, he charges them to walk in all the ways that God had commanded them, assuring them that it would be highly for their advantage to do so. The only way to be happy is to be holy.

Deuteronomy 5:6-22—6 “' I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 7 You shall have no other gods before Me. 8 You shall not make for yourself a carved image--any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 9 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 10 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. 11 You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain. 12 Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15 And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. 16 Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may be well with you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you. 17 You shall not murder. 18 You shall not commit adultery. 19 You shall not steal. 20 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 21 You shall not covet your neighbor's wife; and you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.' 22 These words the LORD spoke to all your assembly, in the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and He added no more. And He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.”

Here we come to the crux of this entire study—the Law and its application to our lives today. Here we have Moses repeating the Ten Words (Ten Commandments) that God gave to him atop Mt. Sinai. These were the terms and conditions of this covenant that God made with the people of Israel. But what of the other 513 commands in the Law? Were the people to keep them too, and if they didn’t, what would happen to the people? And why were these ten given apart from the other 513? And most importantly for us, what do they mean for us today? Are we supposed to keep them? All good questions, so let’s address them.

“What of the other 513 commands in the Law? Were the people to keep them too, and if they didn’t, what would happen to the people? And why were these ten given apart from the other 513?” First, let’s talk about these ten in relation to the entirety of the 613 commandments contained in the Law. The Ten Commandments were given to all the people atop Sinai as the cornerstone of the entire Law. But these Ten Commandments don’t include the commands against homosexuality, bestiality, and incest. The Ten Commandments were the first ten spoken by God to the people, and written by God onto tablets of stone. Moses then brought these tablets down to the people, who said “It is enough! You alone go up and speak with God! We will wait down here! We are frightened by the voice of God.” So Moses went back up Sinai to receive the rest of the Words spoken by God. And what we have as Exodus 20:22-Leviticus 27:34 (with the exception of a few places) was the other 513 commandments, also spoken to Moses by God within that same time frame. So really, all 613 Commandments of the Law were given to Moses upon Mt. Sinai within those 40 days and 40 nights that Moses was at the summit. And the penalties for breaking these commands, which were included with the giving of the commands, were to be carried out against the violators of the commands—whether considering the person unclean until sundown, or cutting the person off from the people, or the death of the perpetrator.

“So why does Moses only mention the Ten Commandments here?” Two reasons. First, these were the only ten that the people heard spoken at the mountain before they got scared of hearing God’s voice, so Moses received the other 513 commandments after he ascended back up the mount. Exodus 21:1—“Now these are the judgments which you shall set before them.” God continued giving His law to Moses even after the people said they did not want to hear the voice of God lest they be consumed (Exodus 20:18-21). The other reason Moses only restated the Ten Commandments was for the sake of time. Do you think it would have behooved Moses to speak the entirety of the book of Leviticus at this time? To again write all the words he wrote in that book? No, it was sufficient for him to only speak and write the words which the people heard, as they could understand the rest when he later wrote Deuteronomy.

“So what does this mean for us today? Are we supposed to keep the entire Law, or just the Ten Commandments?” This is where we need to slow down and let the Scriptures speak. These were the words of the covenant that God made with the people of Israel, the covenant which they broke (Jeremiah 31:32). Once this covenant was broken, God would make a new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31). So God began preparing the way for the new and better covenant to come into being. Malachi 3:1—"Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming," says the LORD of hosts. This is speaking of John the Baptist (see Matthew 3:3). He would announce to the people of Israel that the time of the establishment of the New Covenant was at hand, that God was going to establish a new Way for the people’s sins to be forgiven. John 1:29—“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” No longer would the people have to bring bulls and goats to the temple of God for them to be slaughtered and butchered in a particular way. God was providing His own Lamb, upon whom the sins of all the believing would be laid, and He would take those sins to God for them to be expiated. And in this new covenant, there were not 613 commandments which were to be followed to the letter, but rather only two simple commands. Matthew 22:36-40—36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" 37 Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." Whereas the Torah observant Jews were trying to keep the covenant that their fathers had already broken, Jesus was going forth announcing a new covenant which they refused. While the old covenant was mediated by Moses (Galatians 3:19), this new covenant would be mediated by God Himself—the Second Person of the Godhead, Jesus Christ our Lord (Hebrews 8:6, 9:15, 12:24). And just as at the base of Mt. Sinai the people did not want to hear the voice of God lest they be consumed, now they did not want to hear the voice of God because it spoke against them and their inability to uphold the covenant that God made with their fathers.

So Jesus spilt His blood, ushering in the New Covenant. Now, what did this New Covenant say about the Old Covenant? It says that a new and better covenant may be established, that the Old Covenant is ready to be done away with (Hebrews 8:13). Included in that Old Covenant that is being done away with are the commandments contained therein—the Old Testament Law. “So you’re saying this Law was done away with?” Yes, that is what I am saying—but only for those who believe. There are many who are afraid to say that, thinking that saying this will give people carte blanche to act however they want to according to their desires. But let’s discuss this for a minute. First, what else would the apostle Paul mean when he said in Romans 6:14, when he said For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace? His words are clear, that the Law does not hold sway over us as believers in Christ. You are not under law. Plus, when we are saved, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us, leading us in the ways of righteousness, and convicting us of sin, so that if we do sin our hearts will be heavy and we will go to God and ask for forgiveness, which will be provided to us through Jesus Christ our Lord.

“Yes, but in Romans 6:14, when Paul uses the word ‘you’, he is writing to believers. We believers are not under law, but what of unbelievers?” The unbeliever is still under that Law, and it will hold him accountable to God. “Explain.” I will. He writes to Timothy in 1^st Timothy 1:9-10—9 Knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, 10 for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine. The Law will judge those who continue to commit sin and whose sins are not taken away by the blood of Christ. If your sins have been paid for by Christ, they will not again be brought up before God when you die—You are not under law—the blood of Jesus has taken away those sins, and you will stand righteous and accepted by God  (Psalm 103:12; Micah 7:19). But if Christ’s blood has not washed away one’s sins, and one dies in those sins, how is God to judge that person for those sins? What standard is He to use? He will use His Law. The law is not made for a righteous person, but…for sinners. The sinner, in the New Testament, is one who does not have faith in Christ as His payment for sins. That is who the Law is now for—the one who stands naked and open to God, their sins still clinging to them like refuse, and that person will be judged by His Law.

Paul says in another place, What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions (Galatians 3:19). God gave His Law because of sins. He did not give the Law in order to make people righteous, but rather because people are unrighteous. He gave it to the people of Israel because He chose them, out of all the people in the world. He did not give it to the Edomites. He did not give it to the Amalekites. He did not give it to the Hivites or the Perizzites or the Girgashites. He gave it to the Israelites, not because they were any better than their neighbors, but to show their neighbors how sinful those neighbors were. Moses would tell the people in Deuteronomy 9:4-6—4 “Do not think in your heart, after the LORD your God has cast them out before you, saying, 'Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land'; but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out from before you…6 Therefore understand that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.” That must have been a blow to their pride. And this is the effect the Doctrine of Election should have on us. That God chose us, not because we were good enough or righteous enough—for we are neither, at heart—but because we are unrighteous, there being nothing in us that would commend us to God. But we are all, each and every human being, a stiff-necked people that shrink away from God every chance we get.

And it is this Law that shows us so. In our unregenerated state, we want nothing to do with God. We make for ourselves idols that we will desire against and above God. We want what we want, and we will kill and steal and covet until we have it. “But what about people that do not kill and steal?” James 2:10-11—10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. 11 For He who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. Do they believe in God? No? Then they have created for themselves a God they worship even if they don’t believe they do. They say they do not believe in any gods, but they do. If they believe that the human race is the pinnacle of everything, then they believe that the human race created itself, thus setting up the human race as their god. These are the people that the Law will condemn when they stand before God on the last day.

A Survey of the Old Testament Law-- Deuteronomy 1-5 (Part 1)

Chapters 1-5 consist mostly of Moses recounting everything that happened to the people and the events that took place from the time they were camped at Sinai until the events recorded at the end of Numbers. So we will kinda fast forward through these chapters and just kinda hit the highlights.

Deuteronomy 1:1-5—1 These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel on this side of the Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain opposite Suph, between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. 2 It is eleven days' journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea. 3 Now it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the LORD had given him as commandments to them, 4 after he had killed Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who dwelt at Ashtaroth in Edrei. 5 On this side of the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this law.

When it says this side of the Jordan, it is referring to the land east of the Jordan, across the river from Canaan. As many who deny the truth of the Bible will tell you, it is an eleven day journey by foot from Mt. Sinai (Mt. Horeb) to Kadesh Barnea. And they will use this fact to scoff the fact that it took forty years for this journey to be accomplished. But this is where their ignorance is shown, as it was not simply trekking by foot that took forty years, but the command of God because of the complaining of the people that God commanded them to wander in the wilderness for forty years (Numbers 14:29-35). Had they simply obeyed God and not grumbled over every inconvenience and hardship they felt they suffered, the generation that came from Mt. Sinai could have been in the Promised Land within days. But they wanted everything the way they wanted it, and because God did not give them every whim of their heart the way they wanted it, they complained and cried out to go back to the slavery they endured in Egypt, thinking that would be better than being free and provided for by God. So that generation was consumed in the desert, and their children entered into the land of promise rather than they.

This address takes place in the eleventh month, שְׁבָט (Shevat) on the first day of the month. It is given in a place referred to by Moses as in the plain opposite Suph, between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.. The Paran and Hazeroth here mentioned are not the Paran and Hazeroth where the people wandered and encamped (respectively) after leaving Sinai, but are different places with the same names, as was common at that time. This was in an area now called Arabah, which encompasses the Jordan valley between the Sea of Galilee all the way to the Gulf of Aqabah, the northeastern arm of the Red Sea.

(https://www.ldolphin.org/crew/fig01.jpg)

The names of the places in our text pinpoint the location where Moses spoke these words, and was likely the area known as Heshbon, which was due east of Jericho. It was at this place where Moses spoke to the people the Law he had received from God on Mt. Sinai as recorded in Exodus and Leviticus. Until this time, the people did not know this Law or what it contained. All they knew was that God spoke to Moses on the mountain and at various times thereafter, but the substance of those conversations they were not privy to. Now that Moses was speaking these words to the people, they would be without excuse, and would be expected to learn these commands and follow them as they were told.

In Deuteronomy 1:6-46, Moses recounts their journeying and their grumbling about the land the 12 spies had seen, and even about his own denial into Canaan because of his own disobedience. He continues this narrative in Deuteronomy 2:1-7, recalling how they passed by the land of their brethren Edom, the descendants of Esau. Deuteronomy 2:1-7—1 “Then we turned and journeyed into the wilderness of the Way of the Red Sea, as the LORD spoke to me, and we skirted Mount Seir for many days. 2 And the LORD spoke to me, saying: 3 'You have skirted this mountain long enough; turn northward. 4 And command the people, saying, "You are about to pass through the territory of your brethren, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. Therefore watch yourselves carefully. 5 Do not meddle with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as one footstep, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. 6 You shall buy food from them with money, that you may eat; and you shall also buy water from them with money, that you may drink. 7 For the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand. He knows your trudging through this great wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing."'” This is another place where the skeptic would point to and say “Contradiction!” For if you remember, Numbers 20:14-21 recounts when the people asked for passage through the land of their brethren and were denied. But here in Deuteronomy it says they would buy food and water from them. So how do we reconcile these two things? Easily. While the king of Edom did not permit them to pass through the land, the Edomites nevertheless sold them food and water for their journey. “That still doesn't answer the contradiction!” There is no contradiction. It’s simple. While it is true the camp of Israel did not pass through the land of Edom, there were most likely small groups of people who ventured into Edom to buy food and water.

Deuteronomy 3 continues the narrative, recounting the battles the people had with Sihon king of the Amorites and Og of Bashan, and how God went before them and defeated these kings, and how God denied Moses entry into Canaan, despite his pleadings, for his disobedience at the rock of Meribah.

Deuteronomy 4:1-4—1 “Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers is giving you. 2 You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you. 3 Your eyes have seen what the LORD did at Baal Peor; for the LORD your God has destroyed from among you all the men who followed Baal of Peor. 4 But you who held fast to the LORD your God are alive today, every one of you.” We humans need to be reminded so many times of so many things. Which is why Moses reminded them of what happened at Ba’al-Peor (Numbers 25:1-18). The women of Moab enticed the men to lay with them in sexual idolatry of the pagan gods. And in one day 24,000 died of the plague that God sent upon them for their idolatry. “Well, that’s pretty memorable; I don’t think anybody could forget that!” Remember that in Numbers 11:1 the people complained, God burned up the outskirts of their camp, then just three verses later they complained about the manna that came down from Heaven! These were people with a very short attention span, and needed constant reminders about the power of God. So Moses reminds them of this episode where so many died because of their idolatry, and constrains them to listen to and obey the commands from God “which I teach you to observe, that you may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers is giving you.” He was not simply talking just to hear his own voice, but showed his genuine concern for the people and for the name of God by entreating the people to listen to and obey the words which he was giving them. These were God’s chosen people, and how would the neighboring nations think of the name and reputation of God if these people carried on with worshipping the idols of these neighboring nations? They would not think very highly of Him if He chose people who would abandon Him.

Deuteronomy 4:5-20—5 “Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess. 6 Therefore be careful to observe them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.' 7 For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the LORD our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him? 8 And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day? 9 Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren, 10 especially concerning the day you stood before the LORD your God in Horeb, when the LORD said to me, 'Gather the people to Me, and I will let them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.' 11 Then you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the midst of heaven, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness. 12 And the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words, but saw no form; you only heard a voice. 13 So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone. 14 And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might observe them in the land which you cross over to possess. 15 Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, 16 lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure: the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth. 19 And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the LORD your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage. 20 But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be His people, an inheritance, as you are this day.” No other nation in the history of planet Earth was ever called by name by the God of all creation. No other nation was given His Laws, His sacrifices, or a way to be reconciled to Him other than the people of Israel. God made no covenant with any other particular nation on Earth other than Israel. He did not covenant with the Hittites, or the Amorites, or the Canaanites or the Egyptians or the Babylonians. Only with the Israelites. This is a great thing to consider. That the God of all Creation would make a covenant with a people who were not even a nation! And if the people walked in His statutes and obeyed His commandments, the neighboring nations would consider them wise and understanding. For who has wisdom but God? Wisdom was the first of His creation (see Proverbs 8:22-31). It is God alone who gives wisdom to men; it is God alone whose wisdom created the universe, so that all the planets and galaxies do not rush here and there and crash into each other. And who has understanding but God? Who can plumb the depths of all things and know exactly how they work? Who can know how the mind of man works except he who has understanding from God?

Moses spells this out in verses 15-19. If their neighboring nations saw them worshipping created beings as they worshipped, the people of Israel would be seen as no different from them, as these neighbors worshipped all kinds of things found in nature—stars, sun, moon, cattle, creeping things. All the things Paul warned us about in Romans 1:22-23. Seeking to be thought of as the wise of the world, they showed just how foolish they really were, thinking that birds and animals and insects were to be worshipped, rather than the God who created all things, visible and invisible, and who could destroy all of creation with a snap of His fingers. Are cats longsuffering? If they cry to be fed, and you do not feed them right then and there, will they understand? Can dogs create? Can moths or beetles fulfill your needs? No. Only a fool would think so. But all of these things the pagan nations believed, and gave obeisance to these things, thinking that by doing so their lives would be more at ease. But what did these things do for these people? Nothing. What did God do for the people of Israel? He did to them and for them according to their obedience or according to their defiance.

Deuteronomy 4:25-31—25 “When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do evil in the sight of the LORD your God to provoke Him to anger, 26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess; you will not prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27 And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you. 28 And there you will serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. 29 But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the LORD your God and obey His voice 31 (for the LORD your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.” It is not long after the death of Joshua that the people do this very thing. The book of Judges is nothing but a repeating cycle of disobedience by the people, captivity of the people, the people crying out to God, Him delivering them, their repeated disobedience and captivity, them crying out and being delivered, and so on and so forth. The histories of the kings of Israel and Judah are marked by this same pattern in the books of Kings and Chronicles. In 622BC He allows the northern kingdom of Israel to be taken captive by the Assyrians. The people of Judah learned their lesson the hard way in 587BC, when after King Josiah died—the last of the godly kings of Judah—they made his son Jehoahaz king. He was quickly deposed by the conquering Egyptians who placed his brother Eliakim (whose name they changed to Jehoiakim) on the throne, and he was carried away to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. His son Jehoiachin became king, and he too was carried off to Babylon, and Zedekiah (Jehoiakim’s brother) was installed by Nebuchadnezzar to be king of Judah. And Zedekiah did all the evils that were done by Jehoahaz, Eliakim, and Jehoiachin. These evil kings carried the people away in their sins with them, and the people were ultimately carried away to Babylon and the temple in Jerusalem was burned. And in 587BC God allows Judah to be taken into exile to Babylon because of their idolatry. And much like their time in Egypt, when they were obliged to raise monuments to the Egyptian Gods, they would serve false gods in whichever dispersion they were taken in. Keil and Delitzsch—

There among the heathen they would be obliged to serve gods that were the work of men's hands, gods of wood and stone, that could neither hear, nor eat, nor smell, i.e., possessed no senses, showed no sign of life. What Moses threatens here, follows from the eternal laws of the divine government. The more refined idolatry of image-worship leads to coarser and coarser forms, in which the whole nature of idol-worship is manifested in all its pitiableness. “When once the God of revelation is forsaken, the God of reason and imagination must also soon be given up and make way for still lower powers, that perfectly accord with the I exalted upon the throne, and in the time of pretended 'illumination' to atheism and materialism also” (Schultz).

Which is why Moses said at the beginning of verse 25, “When”, not “if”. These words were spoken to him by God, who knew the people would act corruptly, and make for themselves idols, and be carried away to a land they did not know and would serve the idols of this unknown (to them) land. And none of the idols they set up for themselves could stop what God was doing. BUT… Did God forget the covenants He made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the people? No, He did not. For as He promised, He raised up a king, Cyrus (he was king of Persia, and defeated the Babylonians in the year 539BC), who made a proclamation and gave the Jews permission to return to the land of Judah and rebuild the temple.

The warnings are no less dire to us today. If we do not worship God, if we do not give Him His due reverence, if we do not exalt Him as the High and Omniscient Potentate, we will be reduced to worshipping those things which are no gods, the fictions of men’s minds which are good for nothing but to entertain the intellect and whims of men for a moment, but in the end can do nothing for them. The new atheists—Richard Dawkins, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Christopher Hitchens—will join the older atheists, like Voltaire, and bow their knee before God and recognize Him as King of all Creation!

Part 2 next week

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen.