A survey of the Old Testament Law--Deuteronomy (Introduction, Part 3)

Now, onto summarizing the various chapters in Deuteronomy. This all took place in the land of Gilead, which is described many times as “across from Jericho”, it being across the Jordan River from the city of Jericho in the land of Canaan. And like Leviticus, does not speak of any transit of the people across the river, as Moses was forbidden from entering the Promised Land by God (Numbers 20:12). The people of Israel were not yet a nation in Genesis, they came out from Egypt in Exodus, then camped at the foot of Mount Sinai (Mt. Horeb) in Leviticus, moved through the wilderness in Numbers, and will now finalize their part of the covenant in Deuteronomy. 

In chapters 1-4, Moses relates to the people their history since coming out of Egypt, and how God led them out “with a mighty hand and outstretched arm”. This is anthropomorphic language, to help the people reckon the power of God in ways they could understand. For God does not have a form or a body as we have (Deuteronomy 4:14; John 4:24). And he warns them that this being the case, they should take care not to attribute a form to Him as they did in Exodus 32, and make for themselves any graven image of either Him or the stars or the sun or the moon. Deuteronomy 4:14-19—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. This is a principle that is taken up by the Apostle Paul when he warns the church at Rome that it is fools who turn the worship of God into the worship of corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things (Romans 1:21-32). 

Moses begins his exposition on the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy 5:6-21, repeating the words spoken to him by God in Exodus 20:2-17. He reminds the people that this specific covenant was made with this specific group of people, and not with Abraham, Isaac or Jacob. “But what about the covenant God made with Abram?” That was a different covenant. In that one, God promised that Abram’s seed would live in the land of Canaan and would make his descendants as numerous as the dust of the Earth (Genesis 12:7, 13:14-16). This covenant was different. This covenant established the people as His people. This covenant could be thought of as a reworking of the Abrahamic Covenant, in not only giving the people a land, but also showing the people how to live as people of God, and the punishments that would befall any who abrogated those terms. 

In chapter 6 Moses iterates how the people should remember these statutes, telling them to 7 teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates (Deuteronomy 6:7-9). “How were they supposed to fit all the words Moses would speak on something that could fit between their eyes?” These commands are not to be taken as literal, but that they should have these in mind wherever they are, whether in their house or outside their house when a visitor comes, they should be on their mind always, and they should be taught to the children diligently and constantly—they should be, in other words, all over the hearts of the people. Deuteronomy 6:4-5 is a very important passage to the Jew, it is called the “Shema” (she-MA). This title comes from the Hebrew, from the first word of verse 4, שׁמע (shema, “hear”)—4 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” It is a verse that has been misused by the Jehovah’s Witnesses and others who deny the deity of Christ. They claim that this verse proves that there is but one God (which is true), and what we Christians refer to as the other two Person of the Trinity (The Son and the Holy Spirit) are not God, but are separate from God. We will delve into the mistakes this view presents when we get there. 

In chapter 7 Moses tells the people how they are to deal with the pagan nations they will come in contact with—The Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. Let’s talk a little about these nations and where they were located. The Hittites were a rather large nation, located in what was known as Anatolia, and what would later be known as Asia Minor—and is now called Turkey—and the northern part of the Levant (modern-day Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan). The name of their land was Hatti, and their capital was Hatussa (modern-day Bogazkale, Turkey). The Amorites we have already discussed in Numbers 21, with Og and Bashan. The Canaanites were, of course, those who dwelt in the land of Canaan, the land that God promised the people. They were descended from Canaan, son of Ham who disgraced his father Noah. The Perizzites and Hivites also lived in the land of Canaan, but were not so much a nation as they were a people-group. The Jebusites inhabited the city of Jebus, which would later be conquered by King David and renamed Jerusalem (1st Chronicles 11:4). Moses instructs the people to wipe out all the people and peoples in the land, to not allow themselves to be tempted to worship their idols, and to show no mercy in destroying them. Deuteronomy 7:5, 16, 23-26—5 “But thus you shall deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire…16 Also you shall destroy all the peoples whom the LORD your God delivers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you…23 But the LORD your God will deliver them over to you, and will inflict defeat upon them until they are destroyed. 24 And He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you will destroy their name from under heaven; no one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them. 25 You shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire; you shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it; for it is an abomination to the LORD your God. 26 Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, for it is an accursed thing.” They were not to repeat the sin they committed with the Moabites at Ba'al-Peor in Numbers 25. They were to cut off any remnant of idol worship so they could remain pure in their worship of YHVH. 

In Deuteronomy 8, Moses warns the people about keeping the Law of God, and that as they grow as a nation, and their goods multiply, they should not forget the reason their goods and their gold and their silver multiply. It is not because of their smarts or their cunning or their business acumen. Deuteronomy 8:11-17—11 “Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, 12 lest—when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; 13 and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; 14 when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; 15 who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end—17 then you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.'” This is a lesson they would forget in later centuries, when they would oppress the poor, the widow and the fatherless and God would cause the nations of Judah and Israel to be taken into exile. They forgot God, they became greedy for the wealth they had obtained, and they only wanted to obtain more. This attitude was influenced by their wicked kings, of whom we will read about. 

Deuteronomy 9 continues this thought, only now talking about the people’s attitude when they drive out the nations living in the land. It starts with telling the people that they will encounter, and drive out, the very people whom the 10 spies were scared of in Numbers 13—the Anakites. These were descendants of the giant Anak, and the cowardly spies said they felt like grasshoppers compared to them and therefore tries to convince the people to return to their slavery in Egypt. Deuteronomy 9:1-2—1 “Hear, O Israel: You are to cross over the Jordan today, and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, 2 a people great and tall, the descendants of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, 'Who can stand before the descendants of Anak?'” Yeah, they knew of the Anakites. They were afraid of them before, but now they would actually meet them in battle, and God told them through Moses that they would defeat them. And why would they defeat them? Was it because they were mightier or more righteous than the Anakites? No, for they were certainly not righteous, even if they were not as evil as the Anakites. Deuteronomy 9:6—“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.” Rather, God Himself will destroy these people because of the unrighteousness of the Anakites. Moses then uses the next chapter and a half to remind the people of their rebellion against God, reminding them of why God has decided to destroy these pagans. 

In Deuteronomy 11, Moses commands the people to not only hear the commandments of the Lord, but to remember them, to put them everywhere that they can see them and commit them not only to their memory but also to their heart, that they may do them and be blessed, lest they not do them and suffer the cursings. For they are going into an arid land, one which depends on the rain for water, and there are no rivers in it for irrigation. They will be completely dependent on God for the water they will need to survive. Deuteronomy 11:10-11—10 “For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; 11 but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven” They would be completely dependent on God for their survival, as we are even this day. Water is good and necessary, but it must come in the right amount. Not enough and the people die of thirst; too much and everything they own could be swept away. The rain that falls in the proper amount is from God, and He sends what is necessary for life to continue. Matthew 5:45—“He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” The birds of the air and the lilies of the field do not worry about how God will provide for them. They simply use what God provides for their survival as we should do, and as Moses told the people they should do. Deuteronomy 11:13-15—13 “And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14 then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. 15 And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled.” 

Problem was, this group was made up of human beings. And we humans don’t like to follow a bunch of rules; we would rather do our own thing. And sometimes we need to be reminded of the consequences of our wrong decision making. Which is what Moses does here. He reminds the people that not only will God bless their obedience, but will also punish them when they disobey. Deuteronomy 11:26-28—26 “Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: 27 the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you today; 28 and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.” Again, this prediction would prove true in 587BC, when the kings of Judah went whoring after pagan gods, and God said “Enough!” and raised up the Babylonians against them and they were taken into exile and Jerusalem as sacked (we would see it again in 70AD when Jerusalem was ravished by Rome).

Part 4 next week

 

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen. 

A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Deuteronomy (Introduction, Part 2)

There has been an effort over the last few centuries to say that Moses was not the author of Deuteronomy, an effort that has been called the “Documentary Hypothesis”, or “Graf-Wellhausen Hypothesis” or JEDP (Jahwist, Elohist, Deuteronomist, Priestly source). To summarize these sources,

 

    J documents are the sections, verses, or in some cases parts of verses that were written by one or more authors who preferred to use the Hebrew name Jahweh (Jehovah) to refer to God. It is proposed that this author wrote about 900–850 B.C.

    E documents are the texts that use the name Elohim for God and were supposedly written around 750–700 B.C.

    D stands for Deuteronomy, most of which was written by a different author or group of authors, perhaps around the time of King Josiah’s reforms in 621 B.C.

    P stands for Priest and identifies the texts in Leviticus and elsewhere in the Pentateuch that were written by a priest or priests during the exile in Babylon after 586 B.C.

(https://answersingenesis.org/bible-characters/moses/documentary-hypothesis-moses-genesis-jedp/?srsltid=AfmBOopWjHhA1PuLmdBJluC3b-ykzK4nFgliwvXuWd5mJrWyIHwMQCmo) 

This hypothesis claims that Moses did not pen this or even the other books of the Pentateuch (some add the book of Joshua to the Pentateuch to make what is called the Hexateuch), but that these were written and compiled by later authors, and these documents were combined or redacted to the form we have now. A book by Julius Wellhausen entitled the “Prolegomena to the History of Israel” first advanced this idea: 

 

At last I took courage and made my way through Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and even through Knobel’s Commentary to these books. But it was in vain that I looked for the light which was to be shed from this source on the historical and prophetical books.  On the contrary, my enjoyment of the latter was marred by the Law; it did not bring them any nearer me, but intruded itself uneasily, like a ghost that makes a noise indeed, but is not visible and really effects nothing.  Even where there were points of contact between it and them, differences also made themselves felt, and I found it impossible to give a candid decision in favour of the priority of the Law.  Dimly I began to perceive that throughout there was between them all the difference that separates two wholly distinct worlds.  Yet, so far from attaining clear conceptions, I only fell into deeper confusion, which was worse confounded by the explanations of Ewald in the second volume of history of Israel.  At last, in the course of a casual visit in G€ttingen in the summer of 1867, I learned through Ritschl that Karl Heinrich Graf placed the law later than the Prophets, and, almost without knowing his reasons for the hypothesis, I was prepared to accept it; I readily acknowledged to myself the possibility of understanding Hebrew antiquity without the book of the Torah.

(“Prolegomena to the History of Israel”, quoted at https://www.aomin.org/aoblog/reformed-apologetics/a-critical-assessment-of-the-graf-wellhausen-documentary-hypothesis/) 

The form of the Documentary Hypothesis we have today was first introduced by Wellhausen and K.H. Graf in 1895, although this is merely the latest in the evolution of this hypothesis. It actually began with Jewish scholar Abraham Ibn Ezra in the 1200’s, who noted that some verses seemed out of place but did not pursue a study of them. This was picked up by a pantheist named Baruch (Benedict) Spinoza: 

 

About five hundred years later, the famous Jewish philosopher Baruch (Benedict) Spinoza (1632–1677) picked up on what Ibn Ezra had stated and asserted that Ibn Ezra did not believe Moses wrote the Pentateuch. Others disagreed, pointing to other statements by Ibn Ezra that contradicted Spinoza’s conclusion. In his book Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (1670), Spinoza, who was a pantheist and was subsequently excommunicated from the Jewish community and denounced by Christians, argued that Moses did not write the Pentateuch. Besides using the verses noted by Ibn Ezra, Spinoza offered a few other brief arguments against Mosaic authorship, which were easily answered by Christian writers in the following few decades.

(ibid.) 

Later, a man named Jean Astruc in 1753 formulated a hypothesis based on the two different names for God used in the Pentateuch (Elohim and Jahveh (YHVH)). He surmised that, based on this, different authors must have penned different parts of the Pentateuch. Based off this he wrote a book entitled “Conjectures sure les memories originauz dont il paroit que Moyse s'est servi pour composer le livre de la Génèse. Avec des remarques qui appuient ou qui éclairscissent ses conjectures” (English, “Conjectures on the original memories which Moses apparently used to compose the book of Genesis. With remarks which support or clarify his conjectures”). He questioned how Moses could have known the events we have recorded in Genesis such as the creation, the flood, the call of Abram, the events pertaining to Jacob and his sons, etc. Of course, this is easily explained by the fact that Moses was on Mount Sinai for forty days and forty nights, hearing from God Himself, during which time these things could have easily been communicated to him by God. Nevertheless, Astruc’s book led a man named Johann Eichhorn who, in his work entitled “Introduction to the Study of the Old Testament”, while still credited Moses as the author, claimed that Moses copied various parts of Genesis from various fragments of previously written Semitic histories:

 

The German scholar Johann Eichhorn took the next step by applying Astruc’s idea to the whole of Genesis. Initially, in his 1780 Introduction to the Old Testament, Eichhorn said that Moses copied previous texts. But in later editions he apparently conceded the view of others that the J–E division could be applied to the whole of the Pentateuch, which was written after Moses. Following Eichhorn, other ideas were advanced in denial of the Mosaic authorship of the first five books of the Old Testament. In 1802, Johann Vater insisted that Genesis was made from at least 39 fragments. In 1805, Wilhelm De Wette contended that none of the Pentateuch was written before King David and that Deuteronomy was written at the time of King Josiah.

(ibid.) 

And from here the doors were flung open wide to many more doubts of the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, from which the Graf-Wellhausen Hypothesis was born. And these doubts continue even to this day. Even the New American Bible (A Roman Catholic translation not to be confused with the New American Standard Bible) feeds into this corruption in its introduction to the Pentateuch:

 

Despite its unity of plan and purpose, the book is a complex work, not to be attributed to a single original author. Several sources, or literary traditions, that the final redactor used in his composition are discernible. These are the Yahwist (J), Elohist (E), and Priestly (P) sources which in turn reflect older oral traditions. 

The process of transmission advanced by this hypothesis is summed up in the following diagram:

(https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~jtreat/rs/002/Judaism/jepd.html) 

Nevertheless, this hypothesis has been refuted by many biblical scholars. For example, James Orr (author of the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia) wrote:

 

If Deuteronomy is a work of the age of Josiah, then, necessarily, everything in the other Old Testament books which depends on Deuteronomy–the Deuteronomic revisions of Joshua and Judges, the Deuteronomic allusions and speeches in the Books of Kings, narratives of fact based on Deuteronomy–e.g., the blessings and cursings, and writing of the law on stones, at Ebal, all must be put later than that age.

(https://www.aomin.org/aoblog/reformed-apologetics/a-critical-assessment-of-the-graf-wellhausen-documentary-hypothesis/) 

James White:

 

It would surely be no strange thing for Hilkiah the priest to have recovered the book of Deuteronomy. As is evident from 2 Kings, both kingdoms had slipped more than once into apostasy, and it would not be surprising to learn that the Mosaic law had been lost at that time. The problem comes with then hypothesizing that this book of the law was a recent creation by the hands of the prophets to force Josiah’s hand toward reformation. This is to read more into the text than the text itself permits, and the subjective nature of such an assertion is even more obvious when the presupposition of the evolutionary nature of religion is stripped away. If the high moral nature of the Deuteronomic legislation does not necessarily place it at a late date, then there is no reason to suppose that Deuteronomy cannot be Mosaic.

(ibid.) 

We read in 2nd Kings 22:8 and 2nd Chronicles 34:15 that the High Priest Hilkiah found a copy of the Book of the Law while Josiah was king of Judah. If it was written after the exile of the Jews to Babylon, how could it have been found while Josiah was priest, years before the exile? To believe the Documentary Hypothesis is to disregard the hand of God in leading Moses to write the Pentateuch, and can lead one into discounting anything contained in the Old Testament and, in toto, the entire Bible. It clouds one’s mind to the supernatural nature of the Scriptures, and has led many to believe that the Bible is nothing more than a bunch of stories invented by some uneducated Middle Eastern goat herders and in the end has led them away from God.               

Now, there are some difficulties which we need to address before we move on. The first elephant in the room is Deuteronomy 34:1-12, which detail the last days and the death of Moses. How could Moses chronicle his own death and the events that followed? One possibility is this chapter was written by Joshua, and added to this final book of the Pentateuch. “But why does it say that no one knew where his grave was?” Simple. As Keil and Delitzsch write, it was God who buried Moses: “The subject in this sentence [Deuteronomy 34:5-6—5 So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD. 6 And He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth Peor; but no one knows his grave to this day.] is Jehovah. Though the third person singular would allow of the verb being taken as impersonal (ἔθαψαν αὐτόν, lxx: they buried him), such a rendering is precluded by the statement which follows, “no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.”  This theory may explain why Deuteronomy 34:6 says And He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth Peor; but no one knows his grave to this day. If God Himself indeed buried him, this could explain why no one knew where he was buried. Of course, as Jamieson-Fausset-Brown theorize, he could have been buried by angels, specifically Michael. This could explain why Jude says Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses (Jude 1:9). 

That Joshua was the author of chapter 34 could explain Deuteronomy 34:1-2—1Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is across from Jericho. And the LORD showed him all the land of Gilead as far as Dan, 2 all Naphtali and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea. As the land of Canaan had not yet been conquered, and the land not partitioned to the several tribes of Israel, how could Moses have known where the land of Dan was? Or Manasseh (the half-tribe that did not remain in Gilead) or Naphtali or Ephraim or Judah? That Joshua was (possibly) the author of this last chapter in Deuteronomy is thus evident. He may have even added the last phrase into Genesis 14:14, which says Now when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his three hundred and eighteen trained servants who were born in his own house, and went in pursuit as far as Dan.

Part 3 next week 

 

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen. 

A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Deuteronomy (Introduction)

Isaiah 66:7-8—7 “Before she was in labor, she gave birth; before her pain came, she delivered a male child. 8 Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children.” Israel is a unique nation. Never before—and never since—has an entire nation been made from a people group not yet a nation. A group of slaves, which had never been formed into a country, was mad a nation literally overnight. “But what about the United States? They were just a group of colonies that became a nation in the 1700s!” True, but we were a group of colonies. We were organized, set apart and we had borders and a land. The people of Israel had none of that. They were a group of people, slaves in a country that was not their own, they had no land; they only had what they carried with them out of their 430 years of slavery in Egypt. The roots of this nation, and its forming, are contained in the books of Genesis through Deuteronomy.

So now we are finally on to the fifth and final book in the Old Testament Law, or Torah, the Book of Deuteronomy. “Finally” is a curious word. It is usually used by preachers when they get to the last half hour of their sermon. And it’s really not too much different here, as there are 34 chapters in the book of Deuteronomy (we won’t go into much depth with some of these chapters, as we have already covered the ground therein). In Deuteronomy, we see the terms of the covenant God is making with the people of Israel. And this covenant reads much like a suzerainty treaty. I happened to stumble upon the term “suzerainty” this past year, and it certainly applies to the covenant. It is a contract between a nation or power and its vassal, that while the superior nation held power over the vassal, it would also defend the vassal as if the superior nation itself was being attacked. Here are the usual concepts involved in a suzerainty treaty: 

·         The preamble: which identifies the initiator and recipients of the covenant

·         The historical prologue which recounts the past relationship between the parties

·         The stipulations to maintain the treaty

·         The witness(es) to the treaty

·         The Document clause: provisions allowing the writing of the document for future learning and reading

·         The blessings and curses as consequences for choices

(from https://thebiblesays.com/en/tough-topics/suzerain-vassal-treaties) 

And we see each of these in each book of the Pentateuch. 

“The preamble”: God is the initiator of the covenant, as seen in Genesis 15:12-18—12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then He said to Abram: "Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. 14 And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions…17 And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. 18 On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram. Normally a covenant is made between two parties, but if you notice, Abram is asleep when God makes this covenant with him. He reestablishes this promise and solidifies His role as their superior in Exodus 20:2—“I am the LORD your God...” He doesn’t simply say that He is the God YHVH, He says “I am YHVH your God”. He is telling them that He will be the God who will go with them and protect them and provide for them. 

“The prologue”: God reminds the people that He is the one who brought them out of slavery. It was not their might or their cunning that ended their 430 years of bondage to Egypt, but it was the mighty hand of God that brought them out. Exodus 20:2—“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” So many times we see this principle laid out (Exodus 29:36; Leviticus 19:36, 22:33, 23:43, 25:38, 25:42, 25:55, 26:13, 26:45; Numbers 15:41, 20:16; Deuteronomy 4:20, 4:37, 5:6, 5:15, 6:12, 6:21, 7:8, 8:14, 13:5, 13:10, 16:1, 20:1, 26:8; Joshua 24:5-7, 17; Judges 2:1, 2:12, 6:8; et. al.). So many times He reminds them that He is the One who has been with them and delivered them, starting with His calling of Abram from Ur of the Chaldees all the way through their grumbling and complaining in the wilderness. 

“The stipulations to maintain the treaty”: He lays out the fact that they would be obliged to keep His commandments if they wanted to remain what God said they would be—a people unique to Him and which belonged to Him. Exodus 19:4-6—4 “'You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. 6 And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.'” Those stipulations were laid out in Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy. And we will see the people agree to those terms in Deuteronomy 27:15-26. 

“The witness to the treaty”: The treaty was between God and the people of Israel. But there needed to be a witness, or the treaty would be no good. So who does God call as witnesses of this treaty? His Son? No, He’s the Mediator of the New Covenant (Hebrews 8:6, 9:15, 12:24). Did He call His angels? No. Deuteronomy 30:19—“I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing.” God made Heaven and Earth to be witnesses of the covenant He was establishing with the people of Israel. “That’s silly! How can clouds and dirt act as witnesses?” Remember, God gives breath to whatever He will, and if He says that Heaven and Earth will be witnesses, then they will be witnesses. We have seen anthropomorphic language used when talking about God, and that same language can be used of inanimate objects. Psalm 96:11-12—11 Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; Let the sea roar, and all its fullness; 12 let the field be joyful, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the woods will rejoice. Psalm 114:1-4—1 When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language, 2 Judah became His sanctuary, and Israel His dominion. 3 The sea saw it and fled; Jordan turned back. 4 The mountains skipped like rams, the little hills like lambs. Habakkuk 2:11—For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the timbers will answer it. John the Baptist told the Pharisees that God could turn stones into sons of Abraham (Matthew 3:9), and Jesus even said that if His followers were quiet, that even the stones would cry out (Luke 19:40). And don’t forget, God even spoke through a donkey (Numbers 22:28-30). 

“The Document clause: provisions allowing the writing of the document for future learning and reading”: It wasn’t enough for this treaty to be written. The people had to be reminded by its reading every so often of its contents and their responsibility to maintain themselves in it. And this dictum was written in Deuteronomy 31:10-13—10 And Moses commanded them, saying: "At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles, 11 when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. 12 Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the LORD your God and carefully observe all the words of this law, 13 and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess." Why was it so important for the people to be reminded of the terms of the treaty? Because if they forgot the terms, they were likely to backslide away from the promises they made to God, forget His commandments, and suffer the consequences. Even when Moses was still alive, the people were a stiff-necked and rebellious people. (Apparently, this was neglected by the several kings of Israel and Judah for many years, perhaps decades or even centuries, judging by the high Priest’s and King Josiah’s reaction when a copy of the Law was found in the temple in 2^nd Chronicles 34:14-21). 

Would they be any better after Moses was dead and buried? No. Even Moses realized this. Deuteronomy 31:24-29—24 So it was, when Moses had completed writing the words of this law in a book, when they were finished, 25 that Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying: 26 "Take this Book of the Law, and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there as a witness against you; 27 for I know your rebellion and your stiff neck. If today, while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the LORD, then how much more after my death? 28 Gather to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their hearing and call heaven and earth to witness against them. 29 For I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And evil will befall you in the latter days, because you will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands." And it wasn’t long after Moses died, and Joshua led them in taking the land of the promise, that the people forgot the Lord and set their hearts upon worshipping the gods of the Canaanites (compare Joshua 24:17 and Judges 2:11). Centuries later, the kings of Israel and Judah would slowly drift away from worshipping God and would turn again to the pagan idols. 

“The blessings and curses as consequences for choices”: These are all laid out in Deuteronomy, specifically Deuteronomy 27:1-28:68. There are 613 commands in the Law of Moses, with their associated blessings and cursings. And the people were charged with adhering to every jot and tittle of this Law. If they broke one of these commands (apart from the commandments related to murder or sexual sins) they could bring a sacrifice, the priests and Levites could prepare it the proper way, and their sin would be covered. Well, that was good news for the people, since it is rather difficult to remember 613 commandments. On the other hand, it led the people into a lot of trouble. “What’s the point in remembering all the commands if we can just kill a bull or a goat and have our sins forgiven?” This thought process was denounced by God on more than one occasion. Isaiah 1:11-17—11 “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?" says the LORD. "I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs or goats. 12 When you come to appear before Me, who has required this from your hand, to trample My courts? 13 Bring no more futile sacrifices; incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies—I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. 14 Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; they are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them. 15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. 16 Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, 17 learn to do good; seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.” And God had enough of it, so He rebuked the people. Yes, the sacrifices were there to atone for the sins of the people, but they were not to replace obedience. And here in Isaiah we see that that is exactly what had happened. The people had allowed the sacrifices to take the place of obedience. They killed calves and kids and observed the New Moons and did all the outward, ritualistic things instead of remembering what it mean to obey God. It was the people’s obedience that God wanted, not rivers of blood and mountains of dead animals. This sentiment was echoed by Isaiah’s contemporary Micah, in Micah 6:6-8—6 With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8 He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? In the covenant God made with Israel, He did not bestow blessings on their sacrifices—He bestowed blessings on those who sought to honor Him with their obedience. 

But now, we do not need to remember 613 commands and their blessings and cursings. We only need to remember one thing—to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, to remember the forgiveness He purchased on the tree of Calvary. For the former covenant could not make one righteous in the eyes of God (Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:4), it only covered over sins until the time came when those sins were completely done away with (Galatians 3:13). We are now under a new and better covenant, one which will never be changed, and which will bring us into God’s presence if we are faithful to the One who was faithful and just (1^st John 1:9). The first covenant was about the mere outward appearance and washings, but the second is about cleansing the inward man. Hebrews 9:9-12—9 It [the Tabernacle] was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience—10 concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation. 11 But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. 12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. Jesus has entered into the Tabernacle in the Heavens with His own blood, which does not only cover over sins, it takes them away. For how long? FOREVER! 

Now, the names that we have for the first five books of the Bible are different than what they would be in the Hebrew Bible. The titles we have come from the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. However, before then, they carried different titles for the Jews, and many Jews today still use these titles today. They are: 

·         Genesis—בְּרֵאשִׁית (Bereshit, “beginning”)

·         Exodus— שְׁמוֹת(Shemot, "names”)

·         Leviticus— וַיִּקְרָא (Vayyiqra, "and He called")

·         Numbers— בְּמִדְבַּר(Bemidbar, “in the wilderness”)

·         Deuteronomy—דְּבָרִים‎ (Devarim, “the words”) 

The title “Deuteronomy”, from the Greek Δευτερονόμιον (Deuteronomion), is the title given to this book in the Greek Septuagint. It means “second Law”. It is the second time we see the Law, thus the title. And because this is the second time Moses is declaring God’s Law to the people, there is much material that has been covered in the previous books, and we will not tread that ground again. 

Chapters 1-30 are three speeches given by Moses. In the first speech (chapters 1-4), Moses recounts the people’s journeys from Mt. Horeb (Mt. Sinai) to where they were now; in his second speech (chapters 5-26) he expounds on the commands given by God that they should live by; in his third speech (chapters 27-30) he calls the people to remember the covenant YHVH made with them. Chapters 31-33 are referred to as “The Song of Moses”, and chapter 34 tells us of the death of Moses (we will save talk of it until then).

Part 2 next week

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen.