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 2nd 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 (1st 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
