Justice and Obedience to the Law
Study Scripture: Deuteronomy 5:1-3, 10: 10-12 ; 27: 1 – 10
Background Scripture: Deuteronomy 10 & 27
Lesson 1 December 4, 2021
Key Verse
And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good? Deuteronomy 10:12 – 13.
INTRODUCTION
Human beings at different points in history have been playing with a shallowness of thought. It is much worse now than before for now with improved technology we have cellular phones, email, Internet, Fax machines, Smart TVs as well as the ability to fly all over the world at a moments notice and to be even served by robots who are increasingly able and well-prepared to do much of the heavy lifting for us.
Many have pointed out that in this maze of communication technologies has even shown a shallowness of content which is there because people’s minds, emotions, and spirits have driven them in the wrong direction so that they really don’t care about their fellow men and about God.
This state of affairs inevitably has led to an increase in rebellion against their Creator, the God who laid the foundation of the world and who made all living things, the only One that has life in Himself. This disregard for God is a common activity in which men indulge. Men seem to think that they are advanced so much that there are now Masters of the universe and that they are in fact “little gods”. Now we see men are talking about being able to live forever reversing the bands of death.
Whenever prosperity faces man and a much better life looms, and some of the problems that they have had seemed to disappear, men’s heart inevitably turns away from God.
Our Study Scripture looks at this problem facing Israel as they prepared to come out of their wilderness wanderings and enter into unexpected prosperity. They could very easily, given their new circumstances, forget the very awesome nature of the loving God who has provided a plan of redemption through His Messiah, the precious Son Jesus Christ.
The great leader Moses confronted the people with the nature of their God and what He did for them in establishing the unilateral and guaranteed Covenant that He made with them. This Moses did before calling on them to make the great decision, which was choosing between the “blessing” and the “curse”. This choice is solemnly laid out in Chapter 11.
For us to properly appreciate Yahweh and the law He has given, we must cast our minds back to before the angels were made and the systems governing the universe were fashioned and established. Long before the beginning referred to in Genesis and the universe was yet unborn and slept in the mind of God who lived alone in unimaginable glory, God was thinking, as one writer puts it, His mighty gigantic thoughts.
But let us remember that even from then, before the beginning, God had chosen His people. Even before anything existed outside of God, before even a single life form existed, when universal silence reigned God knew what He was about. Charles Haddon Spurgeon invites us to think about how awesome God is and he states:
“We go back to years gone by, when worlds were made and systems fashioned, but we have not even approached the beginning yet. Until we go to the time when all the universe slept in the mind of God as yet unborn, until we enter the eternity where God the Creator lived alone, everything sleeping within him, all creation resting in his mighty gigantic thought, we have not just the beginning. We may go back, if we might use such strange words, whole eternities, and yet never arrive at the beginning. Over wing might be tired, our imagination would die away; could it outstrip the flashing lightning in majesty, power and rapidity, it would soon weary itself ere it could get to the beginning. But God from the beginning chose his people; when the unnavigated ether was yet unfanned by the wing of a single angel, when space was shoreless, or else unborn, and not a voice or whisper shocked the solemnity of silence, when there was no being and no motion, no time, and naught but God himself, alone in his eternity; when without the song of an angel, without the attendance of even the cherubim, long ere the living creatures were born, or the wheels of the chariot of Jehovah were fashioned, even then
“in the beginning was the Word” and “in the beginning God’s people were one with the Word”, and “in the beginning he chose them into eternal life”.
Now that we have this picture of how awesome Elohim- Yahweh is we might begin to understand why Moses had to remind the estimated 2 million young group of Israelites going into the Promised Land how awesome God is and what He expected from them.
Moses had to remind the young people of Israel they and Joshua and Caleb had been the only survivors because the older people over 20 years age abused God in the wilderness travel.
They had to face the truth about themselves and about their parents and about this God they should serve as they looked to the west and into the Promised Land. They had to be focused on the righteous Judge whose judgment was impartial, and who was sovereign over Heaven and earth.
The people had to be instructed on how they should live to please Elohim-Yahweh for they had to be obedient. They saw how God judged Egypt and how God judged the disobedient parents and other persons of the nation of Israel in the wilderness. They would be made to understand that God would exercise His sovereignty over the Land and inhabitants of Canaan. God would similarly judge them of Israel when they went into the Land and therefore for them to be successful, they had to live according to the ways of their great God.
Previously in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and now Deuteronomy Moses warned the people about excessive self-reliance, and self-importance. In a practical discourse Moses gave the young nation five basic steps that they had to take day by day as they lived in dependence on Yahweh’s power.
It is to be understood that the law of God taught the people about the nature of God. This is how God revealed Himself. They would examine the law of God and see how He applied it by His mighty acts.
So after this powerful exhortation to obedience based on the awesome nature of their God, Moses would show the people what God required of them. This was the conclusion of the whole matter, the basic and fundamental demand of God, the heart of the matter. One writer reminds us:
“When we have received mercy from God it becomes us to inquire what returns we shall make to him. Consider what he requires, and you will find it is nothing but what is highly just and reasonable in itself and of unspeakable benefit and advantage to you”.
It is rather instructive when we look at this aged Shepherd giving instructions to the young people how they were to live according to the will of their awesome God when they arrived in the land of Canaan, that we ourselves in our community and church should pay attention to this matter and how it was addressed.
The young have to be told who God is for they have not experienced all that older people have experienced as they lived their lives and made their mistakes. It is not easy for the young to appreciate the kindness and the mercy of God, but this fact has to be somehow communicated to them so that they would hopefully avoid making the mistakes that older saints have made.
Many churches and Christian communities lament over the fact that many of the young people have strayed away from what they have been taught. This kind of loss is disheartening but it is a fact of life therefore older leaders and older saints of God are to think carefully about what they have done and what they have not done and ask God for His advice about how they should handle the young. If you think the age is coming to an end soon and Jesus will return soon it is even more incumbent on you to reassess the situation.
THE TEXT
Deuteronomy 5
Verses 1-3. Moses called all the children of Israel together with their young leaders and heads of families with this group including Joshua and Caleb the only survivors from the previous generation. Moses emphasized that he had been calling them to speak to them about the statutes and judgments and the decrees and laws so that they would hear them, learn from them and ensure that they follow them.
Notice that Moses was basing his appeal on the awesome nature of their one God, the living God, the God that had accomplished great deeds on behalf of the nation. This was a God that cared for them.
They needed to hear this review from their aged Shepherd and mediator and prophet so that they would face with courage the land that God had promised Abraham Isaac and Jacob many years before. It was not an easy thing to ask these young people who were not really trained in war to prepare themselves to fight every day those that corrupted the land of Canaan.
They would face many temptations by the people in the land of Canaan for these were hostile, corrupt pagans who knew how to use the weaknesses of the flesh to turn people away from the living God. They knew what God had done for the nation of Israel. They knew what God had done to Egypt and all the nations that had attacked the people as they wandered in the wilderness but that did not matter to them for they were quite prepared to develop strategies to corrupt and destroy that young nation. So Moses had to make it quite clear to the listening Israelites that they had to keep the commandments. They would only be able to keep His commandments if they allowed God to change their hearts, give them a new circumcision of the heart so that they would not repeat the sins of their fathers.
So this law was the start of Moses’ second major address. They had to learn the laws of God and they had to be sure to follow them. Hear (shama) is a word that means hearing that leads to obedience.
It is interesting to note that Jesus use these very words in Deuteronomy when He confronted the Jews when He came to earth and Jesus had to teach His disciples as Moses did in the same way about His Father in Heaven. See John 17:3.
The emphasis therefore is that Elohim- Yahweh, their God, had made a covenant with the nation at Horeb otherwise called Mount Sinai.
The Covenant did not only apply to their fathers from the original generation, for it was made not only with their fathers but with them. The covenant made at Mount Sinai extended to all succeeding generations.
So it was their Covenant. The Covenant was a Covenant of the living, and not of the dead.
We should understand what a Covenant means for it literally means “to cut a covenant”. This idea of cutting could not be separated from covenants because covenants were always sealed with a sacrifice, and usually the sacrifice of a sacrificial victim.
Israelites knew from their history written by Moses that when God made a covenant with Abraham, Abraham was put to sleep by God and God Himself walked through the cut pieces of the animals. So therefore God had made a unilateral covenant with Israel with God being the one to guarantee fulfillment of all the terms of the Covenant. So this was not simply an agreement between two parties. It was a covenant in the fullest sense with God guaranteeing all the terms of the covenant for God very well knew that Israel would not be very faithful to their side of the bargain.
It is also important to remember that when the Covenant was made at Mount Sinai within the covenant were the 10 Commandments. These 10 Commandments revealed the gracious, holy, merciful, loving, pure heart of God. God well knew that the people could never live up to these commandments but it was intended to draw God’s people into conformity with His character. It was in fact a schoolmaster that should lead them to Christ their Messiah.
Moses was in fact telling these young people that there was one living God and this one living God had revealed Himself to them and their parents. God had graciously given them His laws so that they would have Life. This was a wonderful relationship obviously. The Lord Yahweh wanted this relationship and He also wanted their hearts to be grateful so that they would open their hearts to hear and obey.
When the nations around them so that God’s pure and holy character was ingrained in the children of Israel that would draw other nations around them into God’s perfect plan of salvation.
Deuteronomy 10
We must pay close attention to the fact that God is an understanding God and He well knew that not only did He have to provide Scriptures written with His own hand but He had to provide helpers whose hearts and minds He would have to inspire and guide so that they in turn would guide the minds and hearts of the people. So in the previous verses God pointed out that the Tablets of the Commandments would be placed in the Ark, a sacred box which would be called the Ark of the Covenant. In addition, God would deal with the problem of sin by God establishing an enduring priesthood. But in the meantime there would be a visible priesthood that would offer sacrifices and make intercession for the people to get them right with God.
It was therefore indicated that there would have to come a time when because of man’s rebellion there would have to be a focus on the priestly ministry of Messiah Son of David their future king for after His work of atonement on the Cross He would have to be our intercessor for them and us in Heaven in order to bring the blessing from Heaven to us.
Now therefore God was telling the nation that they could not do a life of holiness on their own, and they had to have a Mediator
Verse 10. In these next verses Moses instructed they nation that there are five basic steps that they had to take day by day. In doing the steps they had to depend on God’s power to be able to do it.
We should note very carefully that the five steps Moses listed are very relevant to believers today as they were to believers to every past generation. They are spiritually relevant to us today. We violate them at our peril. We have to take these steps over and over again so that God would be glorified and we will have joy and as well have abundant life.
If we think we can ignore these steps we will have a life yes, but it will not be the abundant spiritual life that we so crave when we come to Christ.
The first step is to fear the Lord. This was because the second-generation had to understand that God was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the only One that sits above the universe who because of His grace had chosen to bless their fathers and them as well. He is the eternal God and this God who was Elohim, the Creator and Preserver was a transcendent and mighty God. He’s not to be toyed with.
Verse 12. It is to be noted that the directions are very plain. The people of God have a duty to God, but there also is a duty to their neighbor and to themselves. There are several patterns of behavior involved in obeying God and these include proper care and concern for other people, especially those that are disadvantaged socially, economically and physically. (vv. 14-19). This understanding is crucial for those that confess that God is the Lord, for any such confession involves knowing that God is sovereign and that God is a God of Justice.
Five basic steps are given. This is the heart of the Law of God.
First, they were to fear the Lord. Note that the fear of the Lord comes from the recognition that a person is himself or herself unholy. When a person stands in the presence of God they are overwhelmed by the nature of God’s holiness and this emotion leads the person to walk in the ways of the Lord. (See Isaiah 8 and his frightful declaration at seeing God). It becomes crystal clear to the person who sees and thus fears the Lord that they must walk in His ways, which are perfect and righteous.
The nation was called on to understand that their God was the only living God and that He stood over all the universe. He had chosen to call and bless their fathers and had made great promises to them. He had kept His promises for He was a faithful God. He deserved fear for He was the transcendent and mighty Elohim, the Creator, and the Preserver.
He had revealed Himself to them as the Covenant keeping I AM, the self-existent One, and therefore they had to fear, respect, honour and appreciate Him.
The second step was a call to walk in his ways. Now you should note that you cannot walk in the way that someone else walks or follow their lifestyle if you have not developed a close personal relationship with that person. You will not walk the way they walk except you trust them for then you would know that walking in the way that they walk would not lead you to destruction.
For the young nation of Israel that meant that they would have to trust God and His promise to drive out their enemies from the land of Canaan so that they would not only possess the land but would live in peace in that land. So everything was clear. They would have joy and peace by living in a close relationship with Elohim- Yahweh. They would be like children loving to step in the footprints of their father or mother. They would have to learn to walk in the footprints of the loving heavenly Father.
We should know that the same principle applies to us for we to have to learn to walk in the footprints of our Lord Jesus Christ who is the precious Son of the Father.
The next step was to love him.. At every step Moses was pointing out the history of God’s relationship with them starting from the time of the fathers to the present. God loved the fathers and since He loved them He did marvelous things for them.
The only reasonable response to this love that God had for them was for them to love Him in return offering their body, soul, and spirit with the love of gratitude and appreciation.
For us today we should realize that Jesus said the same thing in the Upper Room discourse and we repeat. Jesus stated clearly:
“Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my father, and I too will love him and show myself to him”. John 14:21.
And again:
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: love each other as I have loved you”. John 15:9-12.
The next step is to serve the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul. This of course has very practical implications. You have to choose to give God your heart and soul, mind, will and intellect and you have to show the world that you have chosen this because you want to be a part of Jesus’ righteousness.
The people standing in front of Moses well knew that their parents had rebelled against God in the wilderness when they came out of Egypt and when they refused to listen to the testimony of Joshua and Caleb the two spies sent into the land of Canaan. They chose to listen to the other discordant voices from the other 10 spies. The people even threatened to stone to death Moses and Aaron and the two spies with a good report. So they knew that they had to behave in ways that showed that in practice they were prepared to listen to God and live the way that God had directed.
We have no excuse for the Apostle Paul told us in Romans 12 that we because God has been merciful we must present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This act of worship is a spiritual act of worship. We know therefore that we are not to be conformed to the ways of the world but we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Then we will know what God’s will is and we will be able to please Him.
This is all very practical. Moses was not just saying words of theory and Jesus is not saying words of theory. The Apostle Paul is telling you what Jesus taught him to tell you. Your life must be a life of practical serving the Lord. You are not, and I repeat not to live a life which serves only yourself.
The next step related in verse 13 is to keep the commandments of the Lord and his statutes which I command you today for your good.
“This was intended to show that the commandments of the Lord are not a burden that you have to bear. They are a gracious provision from God for your good as it was for Israel’s good. They are for your good. So when you obey the laws of God because you have a reverent love for God who gave the law you are doing something for your own benefit.
When you break the laws of God do not be surprised at the repercussions which are always painful.
Deuteronomy 27
Notice now that there is a shift for Moses as well as the elders of Israel joined together to confront the people exhorting them to keep the commandments of the Lord which had been commanded to them.
When they considered who God was, what He had promised, and what He had done, the fear of the Lord would awaken love in them. He chose them from among all the nations of the earth when they were as nothing and given them His Covenant. It was logical that they should love Him as a great and good God and benefactor. They should delight in Him and be in constant communion with Him.
The elders knew that the manifestation of this fear, reverence, appreciation, and love of their covenant keeping God would be shown in keeping His commandments and His statutes, given that their mind, will, and intellect were committed to maintaining their path in the righteous ways of God. They would no longer rebel as their fathers had done in the wilderness.
“Commandments” are distinct authoritative orders. One writer in his dictionary states:
“Hebrew mitswah. The commandments are, first of all, prescriptions, or directions of God, concerning particular matters, which He wanted observed with reference to the circumstances as they arose, in a period when He spake immediately and with greater frequency than afterwards. They were numerous, minute, and regarded as coordinate and independent of each other. In the Ten Commandments, or, more properly, Ten Words, they are reduced to a few all-comprehensive precepts of permanent validity, upon which every duty required of man is based”.
“Statutes”, Hebrew huqqim, are things inscribed; enacted laws. (See Psalm 119:8). The word refers to something marked out as a boundary, and so indicates the permanence of the Law. The same word is translated decree. It is found 21 times in Psalm 119.
So as one writer states: “Having given up ourselves to his service, we must make his revealed will our rule in every thing, perform all he prescribes, forbear all he forbids, firmly believing that all the statutes he commands are for our good”.
Verses 2-3. If the people listening to the commandments, when they crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land that God was giving them, there was something they had to do in order to remind them that they should be doers of the Word.
The instruction was to build a special altar which was not only to be used for sacrifice but was intended to remind them of the law of Moses and his great teachings in the book of Deuteronomy.
The special altar was to be made of natural stone and the people were not to use any tools to carve the stones in any way. If they were to make beautiful carvings on these stones on the altar presumably they would be paying attention to the beautiful carvings on the stone instead of on the words that were on it.
The stones should be such that they could write on the stones all the words of the law. This was most important because they were going to go into a land symbolically flowing with milk and honey because this is the kind of land that God promised their fathers. They would therefore tend to forget what the law of God was all about when they started to live a life of prosperity and so these large stones used to build an altar which would be whitewashed with lime would remind them of the covenant relationship and the law of God.
In addition, this whitewashing would make the words of the law very legible.
Verses 4-8. The instructions were repeated that they set up these stones as commanded and whiewsashed them with lime. The altar would be an altar of stones. They were to offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord their God. Burnt offerings will be offered for their sins.
But peace offerings were to be made on occasions of great joy for they were celebrating the fact that they were belonging to God and that His presence was with them. God was being gracious to them and so the altar was to be an altar for peace offerings so that they could rejoice before Yahweh of the Covenant.
Verse 9. Now Moses joined with the priests and Levites, the people appointed to the service of God. Before all of the people Moses again told them to take heed and listen for on that day when they were poised to enter into the land of Canaan they had officially become the people of the Lord your God.
Note that the priests and Levites were closely associated with Moses and they were the guardians and interpreters of the law. This was a solemn moment for the priests and Levites all joined together with the mediator of the covenant to affirm the commands that he had given them were actually God’s commandments.
Verse 10. The priests and Levites are also spoke to the people with Moses. The people were therefore encouraged to obey the voice of the Lord their God and observe His commandments and His statues which Moses had commanded them on that day. This was clearly an exercise of great authority.
Note that God’s words and laws were made very accessible to all people. Everyone could make a trip to the entry point to Canaan and walk by that memorial altar.
It was stressed that these laws were good thing for the people and that the word of God was to be preserved.
Obviously then Moses as well as the priests and Levites and elders were telling the people that now that they were officially in every respect people of God the Word of God which was plainly stated was to be everything to them. This fact was fairly obvious to everyone.
What Moses was saying to the people to benefit them should be obvious to us for we will benefit when we pay attention to and follow the laws of God.
CONCLUSION
Genuine devotion to God could only come when they cut away everything that obstructed the free flow of the things of God to their heart. One writers describe this as follows:
“Above all, therefore, they were to circumcise the foreskin of their hearts, i.e., to lay aside all insensibility of heart to impressions from the love of God, and not stiffen their necks any more, i.e., not persist in their obstinacy, ot obstinate resistance to God… Without circumcision of heart, true fear of God and true love of God are both impossible”.
Note that Israel was being addressed as a nation but each Israelite was addressed individually. It is stated emphatically that though the nation Israel was elected by God, the election of the individual or personal salvation was not based on the national election but on faith on the part of each individual.
The warning is given to each and every believer starting with the Israelite of that day. There must be a living and vital relationship with God for there to be salvation. When this exists there is fear, love, and reverence for God and beside this there will be a genuine love relationship with every other Israelite.
We must not take the commandments of God lightly. Many try to twist the commands of God and say they belong only to the days of old. These people really have no love for God and do not honour Him with all their heart and with all their soul. They only wish to give Him partial obedience since they think they know better than God and are wise enough to make up their own rules for successful living.
The prophet Isaiah gave a warning to all those who did not want to fear the Lord and heed His words. (See Isaiah 8:11-22). Those who prefer to listen to false prophets, mediums and wizards, for all those are sent by Satan to deceive, are given a stern warning. Those he said who do not seek their God are condemned by the Law and the Testimony as people who have no light in them, if they do not speak according to the established commandments and statutes.
It is to be regretted that we have a very inadequate conception of our great God and Lord. So we do not fear Him, serve Him, walk in His ways, and fall down before Him in worship, praise and adoration.
We do not seem to understand His glory, His limitlessness, His power, His majesty. We forget that He has often demonstrated His ability to provide and to supply. Yahweh is unparalleled.
His way is the way to deliverance, wisdom, righteousness, holiness, and glory. His ways are reflected in His laws, commandments and statutes, and He has provided the power of the Holy Spirit to do as He has requested.
We must understand that the Commandments, statutes, and Testimonies are for us too and that the Son of God has come, taught us, died for our sins, and given us the other Comforter, the Holy Spirit. He has shown us the complete meaning of the heart of the law.
By way of definitions we provide as follows:
Testimonies are the ordinances, God’s standard of conduct according to the Ten Commandments.
Statutes are things that are inscribed; enacted laws.
Precepts are injunctions, requirements: commandments.
Judgments are judicial decisions; binding laws.
Ways are the pattern of life required for God’s laws.
So we say Amen to this Merciful, Good and almighty God.