A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Deuteronomy 6 (Part 2)

Deuteronomy 6:5—“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” This is the First Commandment. It is on this commandment that all the others are predicated. For if you love God with your whole being, you will want to obey all the other commands in the Law. This is the foundation, not only of the Old Covenant, but the New Covenant as well. Love for God should be the foundation of our lives entirely. After all, He chose those who would be His when He did not have to. Should we not reciprocate that love to Him, seeing that He had mercy on us and plucked us out of the Hell we deserved? This is the principle laid out in the first four commands in the Tables of the Law that God gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Exodus 20:3-11—3 “You shall have no other gods before Me. 4 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; 5 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, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. 7 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. 8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 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 cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” Notice what it says in verse 6. “But showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” He will be merciful to those who love Him. And how do we show we love Him? By keeping His commandments. We will have no other gods. We will not make for ourselves any carved images. We will not take His name in vain (this does not only mean using His name as a cuss word, but taking to oneself the title of “Christian” when one is not).

“But what about keeping the Sabbath? Should we not hallow the seventh day and rest on that seventh day?” This is a question that is still being bandied about to this day, that the seventh day (Saturday) is still the Sabbath. The answer is this: The Sabbath was a sign of the Covenant between God and the people of Israel. Exodus 31:16-17—16 “Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. 17 It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever.” Ezekiel 20:19-20—19 “I am the LORD your God: Walk in My statutes, keep My judgments, and do them; 20 hallow My Sabbaths, and they will be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the LORD your God.” The command not only included the people, but their sons, their daughters, their servants and their cattle, and the stranger within their gates (Exodus 20:10). So as long as this Covenant was in place, the people of Israel were obliged to keep the Sabbath as the token of that Covenant. “But what about today?” Well, are we still under that Covenant? No, we are now under the New Covenant, and the blood of Christ is the sign of this New Covenant (Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20). And our eternal rest in Christ is now our Sabbath rest.

The writer of Hebrews tells us this. When they were writing the New Testament, the writers came as close as they could to saying certain things without explicitly saying them. This is one of those places, this time talking about the Sabbath and how we in the church are to understand it. He equates the seventh-day rest of God with the people of Israel falling in the Wilderness, and their leader Joshua giving them rest from their enemies. And he does so very concisely, telling us that our rest is not the seventh day, nor was it when Joshua led them in conquering the tribes in the land of Canaan, but it is found by faith in Christ. Hebrews 4:3-11—3 For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: "So I swore in My wrath, ' They shall not enter My rest,'" although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: "And God rested on the seventh day from all His works"; 5 and again in this place: "They shall not enter My rest." 6 Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, 7 again He designates a certain day, saying in David, "Today," after such a long time, as it has been said: "Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts." 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. 11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. Notice in verses 4-5 The Writer speaks of God resting after Creation on the seventh day, then comparing it with the rest given to the people by Joshua. 4 For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: "And God rested on the seventh day from all His works"; 5 and again in this place: "They shall not enter My rest." What do these verses have to do with the seventh-day Sabbath? This: that we who believe in Christ are, by virtue of our faith in Christ, now resting in our Sabbath rest, which is Christ. For we who have believed do enter that rest. Did not Christ Himself say that He would give us rest? Matthew 11:28—“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” The Writer of Hebrews picks up on this principle in Hebrews 4:9-10—9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Those of us who have come to Christ for salvation are already in the Sabbath of God, as we who have entered into the rest provided by Christ have entered into that Sabbath rest, and we have taken our Sabbath as God did on that seventh day!

Your earthly Sabbaths, Lord, we love/But there's a nobler rest above;

To that our lab'ring souls aspire/With ardent hope and strong desire.

In your blest kingdom we shall be/From ev'ry mortal trouble free:

No sighs shall mingle with the songs/Resounding from immortal tongues.

No rude alarms of raging foes/No cares to break the long repose,

No midnight shade, no waning moon/But sacred, high, eternal noon.

O long-expected day, begin/Dawn on these realms of woe and sin!

Break, morn of God, upon our eyes/And let the world's true Sun arise!

(“Lord of the Sabbath, Hear Us Pray” by Philip Doddridge) 

Not only do we show love for God by keeping His commandments, we also show we love Him by trusting Him. What was the theme throughout the book of Numbers? The people were grumbling and complaining. And why were they grumbling and complaining? Because they did not trust God to provide for them. And yet He did. Whether it was manna or quail or water from a rock, God always provided for them. But time after time after time (in fact, ten times according to Numbers 14:22)Him.

 they did not trust God and they put Him to the test. And every time He showed them that He is the God who cares and will always provide, as He provided the ram for Abraham when he trusted God in Genesis 22:14 and called the name of the place where he was to sacrifice Isaac יְהוָה יִרְאֶה (YHVH Jireh, “God Provides”). When we are faced with a sore temptation, and we think there is no way out of it and we must give in, God has promised us that He will provide a way out. 1^st Corinthians 10:13—No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. There is no temptation that no man has seen before. “But you don’t understand…!” Someone does. Someone had been through the exact thing you’re going through. And God has prepared a way through it; we must only trust Him and enter through that way. When we and/or our family is hungry, God will provide food. Psalm 37:25—I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread. Do you have to get the store brand instead of the name brand? God has provided that. Do you have to put back an item you want but don’t necessarily need? You can do that. Do you have to go to a food pantry to get the things you need? God has provided that too. In the end, God has provided for your needs, you only have to be humble enough to accept it. That is how you show that you trust God and by so doing, you show that you love Him.

Deuteronomy 6:6-12—6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall 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. 10 So it shall be, when the LORD your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, 11 houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant—when you have eaten and are full—12 then beware, lest you forget the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.” The command was not simply to passively listen while Moses was speaking, and not only to take them into their heart, but to make them a part of their daily life. They were to talk with others about them, they were to teach them to their children, they were to write them everywhere and on everything. What better way to remember something than to read it and speak it—and write it—repetitively? They were to remember these words with every breath of their being, as Moses told them, “lest you forget the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.”

“You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.” These became known as “phylacteries”. They were (and still are) leather boxes worn on the arms and the heads of the Jewish people. Of course, by the times that Jesus walked the earth, the Pharisees had made it a practice to make these phylacteries as large as they could, so they may be seen by others and the person wearing them would be thought of as more pious than other men. Matthew 23:5—“But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments.” They did not enlarge their phylacteries and the borders of their garments out of piousness and love of God. They enlarged them out of a sense of self-righteousness. Today, the Mishna—known as a kind of “oral Torah”—lists several requirements for the phylacteries—their dimensions, the material they are to be made from, etc. 

 

From JewishEncyclopedia.com:

Phylacteries, as universally used at the present time, consist of two leathern boxes—one worn on the arm and known as "shel yad" (Men. iv. 1) or "shelzeroa'" (Miḳ. x. 3), and the other worn on the head and known as "shel rosh"—made of the skins of clean animals (Men. 42b; Sanh. 48b; "Yad," l.c. iii. 15). The boxes must be square (Men. 35a); their height may be more or less than the length or the width ("Yad," l.c. iii. 2); and it is desirable that they be black (Shulḥan 'Aruk, Oraḥ Ḥayyim, 32, 40). The boxes are fastened on the under side with square pieces of thick leather (; Men. 35a) by means of twelve stitches made with threads prepared from the veins of clean animals (Shab. 28b), and are provided with loops (; Men. 35a) at the ends, through which are passed leathern straps () made of the skins of clean animals (Shab. 28b) and blackened on the outside (Men. 35a; comp. "Sefer Ḥasidim," ed. Wistinetski, § 1669). The strap that is passed through the head-phylactery ends at the back of the head in a knot representing the letter ד; the one that is passed through the hand-phylactery is formed into a noose near the box and fastened in a knot in the shape of the letter ש (comp. Heilprin, "Seder ha-Dorot," i. 208, ed. Maskileison, Warsaw, 1897, where a wonderful story in relation to the laws governing the making of these knots is told). The box containing the head-phylactery has on the outside the letter ש, both to the right (with three strokes: ש) and to the left (with four strokes: ש; Men. 35a; comp. Tos., s.v. "Shin"; probably as a reminder to insure the correct insertion of the four Biblical passages); and this, together with the letters formed by the knots of the two straps, make up the letters of the Hebrew word "Shaddai" ( = "Almighty," one of the names of God; Men. 35b; Rashi, s.v. "Ḳesher"). The measurements of the boxes are not given; but it is recommended that they should not be smaller than the width of two fingers ('Er. 95b; Tos., s.v. "Maḳom"; Men. 35a; Tos., s.v. "Shin"). The width of the straps should be equal to the length of a grain of oats. The strap that is passed through the head-phylactery should be long enough to encircle the head and to allow for the knot; and the two ends, falling in front over either shoulder, should reach the navel, or somewhat above it. The strap that is passed through the hand-phylactery should be long enough to allow for the knot, to encircle the whole length of the arm, and then to be wound three times around the middle finger ("Yad," l.c. iii. 12; Oraḥ Ḥayyim, 27, 8, 11).

(There are many more rules for their construction and contents. See more at https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12125-phylacteries)

WHOO! That’s a lot! God was not concerned about what they were made from (as long as it wasn’t an unclean animal), or how big they were, etc. He only cared that they were made and that the people used them to remind themselves of the words spoken to them by Moses, the words of the Covenant. These were to be used as teaching tools and reminders, not as ways for people to appear more pious by how big the phylacteries were.

Part 3 next week

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen. 

A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Deuteronomy 6 (Part 1)

Deuteronomy 6:1-3—1 “Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the LORD your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, 2 that you may fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. 3 Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the LORD God of your fathers has promised you—'a land flowing with milk and honey.'” Now that Moses has reviewed the people’s history up to this point, it is time to move forward and see what it will mean for the people. As Moses says in verse 1, this is a prologue to the First Commandment in all the Law. All the 613 commands are but evidence to show that the people are obeying this First Commandment. The Commandment is found in verse 5, which we will reach shortly.

Many people today think that following God is a recipe for a dull and boring life, that it means following a bunch of rules and regulations, and that missing even one such regulation even once means eternal exclusion from the presence of God in the fires of Hell. And this is really backwards thinking. We do not keep commandments in order to love God—we strive to keep His commandments because we love Him. Think of your own relationship with your parents. Do you obey them in order to develop a kind of love for them? No. You love them, and because you love them you try to obey them. If you mess up, and stay out past your curfew one night, do they banish you from the family forever? No. You are chastened, as any good parent would do, because they give you rules so that you will not fall into ruin.

That was the reason God gave these people the commands. He did not do it in order to make their lives more wearisome and dreadful, He gave them commands so He could show them wat it meant to be a child of God. And these commands were not boulders to be strapped onto the people’s backs—they were so the people could know what it means to please Him. 1st John 5:3—For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome (KJV—grievous). And what would be the result of following these commands? “That your days may be prolonged…that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the LORD God of your fathers has promised you.” If one were to follow these commands, they would be in good standing with God, and He would look favorably on that person, and extend their life. Also these commands would keep the person away from those things which shorten their lives.

On the authorship of this passage, The Expositor’s Bible says—

To some readers in our day this repetition, and the renewed postponement of the main subject of the book, have seemed to justify the introduction of a new author here. They are scornfully impatient of the repetition and delay, especially those of them who have themselves a rapid, dashing style; and they declare that the writer of the laws, etc., from chapter 12 onwards cannot have been the writer of these long double introductions. They would not have written so; consequently no one else, however different his circumstances, his objects, and his style may be, can have written so. It is true, they admit, that the style, the grammar, the vocabulary are all exactly those of the purely legal chapters, but that matters not. Their irritation with this delay is decisive; and so they introduce us, entirely on the strength of it, to another Deuteronomist, second or third or fourth-who knows? But all this is too purely subjective to meet with general acceptance, and we may without difficulty decide that the linguistic unity of the book, when chapters 6 to 12 are compared with what we find after 12, is sufficient to settle the question of authorship.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9—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. 6 And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall 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.” Verse 4 in Hebrew reads שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָד (Shema Yisrael: YHVH Elohenu, YHVH echad). Verses 4-9 are part of a prayer that is still being recited to this day by observant Jews. If you notice, the Tertragrammaton (יְהוָה, YHVH) is used twice here, and these days Jews do not pronounce this, but rather substitute the word אֲדֹנָי (Adonai, “Lord”) or הַשֵּׁם (HaShem, “The Name”). They feel that they have lost the true pronunciation of the word, and rather than offend the Sovereign and mispronounce His name, they use a word which describes Him as Lord of all Creation without mispronouncing His name. At any rate, the passages that make up the Shema are Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Deuteronomy 11:13-21 and Numbers 15:37-41. These passages are combined into one long prayer, and is recited in the morning and in the evening.

Verses 4-5 are recited by Jesus when He is asked which is the greatest commandment in the Law (Matthew 22:37-38; Mark 12:29-32). When asked by one who wanted to know what he had to do to inherit eternal life, and He asked what it said in the Law, the person quoted verse 5 and Jesus said "You have answered rightly; do this and you will live." (Luke 10:28). This passage has always been important to the Jew, for this is the cornerstone of their faith, that God is One. So let’s look at these verses one by one

Deuteronomy 6:4—4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!” The first word, “Hear” is the Hebrew שְׁמַע (Shema, lit., “hear”). Moses was commanding the people to listen to what he was saying, as this would be the foundation of their faith. They were not to just sit idly by while he spoke. They were to actively listen to his words. He was not speaking just to hear himself talk, he was imparting to the people what they needed to know in order to rightly believe in the God who brought them out of Egypt and to trust in Him and Him alone. “Hear”. A word we should remember today when the truth of God is being spoken. We should be hearing what our preacher is saying, and even more than that we should be listening. We can hear all kinds of things, that is the nature of that physical sense. But do we really listen? Do we actively take in what he is saying, and apply it in our lives? Or do we simply show up so we can say we have “done our duty and went to church”? Strong’s defines the word שְׁמַע (Shema) thus:

To hear intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience, etc.; causatively to tell, etc.):  attentively, call (gather) together, carefully, certainly, consent, consider, be content, declare, diligently, discern, give ear, (cause to, let, make to) hear (harken, tell),  indeed, listen, make (a) noise, (be) obedient, obey, perceive, [proclaim or make a proclamation], publish, regard, report, shew (forth), (make a) sound, surely, tell, understand, whosoever [heareth], witness.

Does this sound like a passive hearing of what is spoken, or do you get the sense that more is involved? As we will see in Verses 7-9 it involves not only hearing, but also listening, considering, pondering and telling, repeating and publishing publicly. As we are to do with our faith in Christ. We should not let our salt lose its savor, but use it to season the world with our faith (Matthew 5:13; Mark 9:50; Luke 14:34). We are not to hide our light under a basket, but let it shine forth into the world, that they may see the true light, which is Christ (Matthew 5:14). “Hear”–listen, consider, meditate on the Lord and His word, and publish it forth, let the light you have been given shine forth into this world of darkness!

“The LORD our God…” YHVH was their God. Not one of many gods they were to worship, but THE God, the only one to whom they were to devote their lives and their devotion and their worship to. The only One who had done for them and the only One who could do anything for them. What could idols and images do for them? As he said just a few verses prior, Deuteronomy 4:27-28—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.” The gods of the pagans—the Canaanites and the Amorites and the Moabites and the Ammonites—these could do nothing, as they were simply images made by the hands of men, and had no sense of sight, smell, hearing, touch or taste. They were simply statues and poles, which could not be animated and which could not animate. But YHVH, He was—and is and always will be—the God who is, the God who has been since eternity past and will always be until eternity future. He formed the Earth, He created the stars and the moons and all the planets—not only in our Solar System, but throughout the Universe—He gave us not only the brains to think, but also the ability to think. He gave us emotions to feel. He alone is God, has always alone been God, and always will be the only God who does. Ba'al cannot see, Chemosh cannot feel, Ashteroth cannot guide into the right ways. Buddha cannot save, Allah cannot deliver, none of the Hindu gods are alive and can do anything. YHVH is our God, the only One to whom we may look for salvation and deliverance.

“…the LORD is one!” Many are the ones who take this verse to mean that only the Father is God, and to deny the deity of Christ (like Jehovah’s Witnesses). Still others use it as the basis of Modalism, and to say that God only appears as the Father in the Old Testament, the Son in the Gospels, and the Holy Spirit today. This was the theory posited by Sabellius (and before him the Monarchians) and promulgated today by the Modalists like TD Jakes. But this is to deny the truth of the Tri-unity of God—that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all at the same time.

Is this too hard a thing to believe? That Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is also God who appeared in the flesh and dwelt among men? John says as much, in John 1:1, 14—1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. “Well, John 1:1 says the Word was with God. That means the Logos was a separate being from God.” To that I would say See my post concerning John 1:1 here. The idea of the Trinity was not one that (as is supposed by some) was invented by Constantine and the Council of Nicea (for all the great things this Council did and spoke, it is treated by many as the moment when Christianity, and all things pertaining to it, were invented). The Trinity, and the deity of Christ, was something believed by the Early Church (Ante-Nicene) Fathers, even in the 100s and 200s AD. Ignatius, in his “Epistle to the Ephesians” (chapter XIX) wrote the following:

Hence every kind of magic was destroyed, and every bond of wickedness disappeared; ignorance was removed, and the old kingdom abolished, God Himself being manifested in human form for the renewal of eternal life. And now that took a beginning which had been prepared by God. Henceforth all things were in a state of tumult, because He meditated the abolition of death.

In his “Dialog With Trypho” (chapter CXXVIII), Justin Martyr wrote:

And that Christ being Lord, and God the Son of God, and appearing formerly in power as Man, and Angel, and in the glory of fire as at the bush, so also was manifested at the judgment executed on Sodom, has been demonstrated fully by what has been said.

Hippolytus, in “Refutation of All Heresies” (Chapter X):

The Logos alone of this God is from God himself; wherefore also the Logos is God, being the substance of God.

“Well, that’s all well and good. But these are simply men, who were not writing under the inspiration and direction of the Holy Spirit. Besides, they were writing long after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Is there any Scriptural proof?” As a matter of fact, yes, there is. Titus 2:10, 13—10 not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things…13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. 1st Timothy 2:3—For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior. “But the people of Israel did not believe in a Savior besides the Father.” But that does not mean that the Son was not their Savior. 2nd Samuel 22:3—The God of my strength, in whom I will trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge; my Savior. Isaiah 45:15—Truly You are God, who hide Yourself, O God of Israel, the Savior! “Okay, so what does that mean? It is God who saves through Jesus Christ.” Read Titus 2:13 again. Jesus is referred to as our Savior and as our God! To say that Jesus is a separate Savior from God is to deny the words spoken by God in Hosea 13:4—“Yet I am the LORD your God Ever since the land of Egypt, and you shall know no God but Me; for there is no savior besides Me.” 2nd Peter 1:11—For so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. God is the only Savior, and yes, He does save through Jesus Christ our Lord. That is because Jesus is the Word of God, the Son of God, the Lamb of God—in short, Jesus is God!

This also speaks to something Jesus said, in John 17:11 (ESV)—“Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me (“which” refers to those whom the Father gave Him), that they may be one, even as we are one.” The Mormon, the Jehovah's Witness, the Modalist, the denier of the Trinity will try to say “This just means they were unified in purpose. This is no ‘proof text’ for the Trinity! Are you trying to say that Peter and Thaddeus were one being?” Yes, that is what I am saying. “HUH?” 1st Corinthians 10:16-17—16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? 17 For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread. 1st Corinthians 12:12-14—12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many. If we are in Christ, then we are one body, members of one another. Romans 12:4-5—4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Ephesians 4:25—Therefore, putting away lying, "Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor," for we are members of one another. So yes, we are one with the other members of Christ—same flesh, same blood, same essence, same everything. We all share in the one body, which we are in Christ. And just as God is One—the Father being the First Person, the Son the Second Person, the Holy Spirit the Third Person, but all these are one—so should we, though being different members of the Body of Christ, be One in Love, in Fellowship, and in Purpose. Charles Spurgeon—

Hence the diversity. If the hand were made exactly like the foot, it would not be a tenth part as useful; and if the eye only had the same faculty as the ear, it would not be able to see, and the whole body would be a loser thereby. Do we begin to compare eyes, and ears, and feet, and hands, and say, “This is the better faculty”? No. They are each one needful. So do not compare yourselves among yourselves, for if you are in the body of Christ, you are each one needful, and the peculiarity which you possess, and the peculiarity which your brother possesses, have their place in the body corporate, and must be precious before God.

Part 2 next week

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen. 

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.