Nathan E. Lewis

Remembering the Covenant
Deuteronomy Sermon Series
by Nathan E. Lewis
(delivered to Evergreen Presbyterian Church in Beaverton, Oregon)

January 1 “The Covenant: From Oral to Written Tradition� (1: 1-5)

The author of Deuteronomy is Moses, one of the great leaders of the ancient world, if not of all history. Moses was the Hebrew slave baby discovered by the daughter of Pharaoh, who raised him as a prince of Egypt. Moses killed an Egyptian slave driver, who was beating a Hebrew slave, and so he fled to the desert where he lived for 40 years, marrying the daughter of the Priest of Midian, raising a family and tending sheep. God appeared to him in the burning bush, calling him to be the liberator of Israel. Moses returned to Egypt, joined his brother Aaron and led the Exodus. Moses is the one who stretched out his staff at the Red Sea while Israel safely crossed through on dry land. Moses is the mediator of Israel who met God on Mt. Sinai, receiving the Ten Commandments, delivering them to God’s people.
Moses was a fine writer as well as leader. He is the author of the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Jews and Christians refer to these as the Pentateuch, the Five Books. There is no finer, richer literature than the Pentateuch among Ancient, Near Eastern writing. Perhaps the best written of the Five Books, Deuteronomy is written in the final chapter of his life.
He wrote it 40 years after God gave the Ten Commandments at Sinai. Israel received the law and then God directed Israel to conquer and occupy the land, which he promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. At the borders of this land, the people camped and sent a team of men to spy out the land. The spies reported that the land was rich and fertile, but that the people were giants. Israel rebelled against God. Motivated by fear, they began to complain about God dragging them out of Egypt, through the wilderness, to the walled cities of giants. God responded to their grumbling rebellion by sending them on a 38-year march in the wilderness, living as Bedouins until the entire generation of rebels had died. Only Caleb and Joshua, the only two spies who voted to conquer the giants entered the land. Even Moses died in the wilderness. At the end of 38 years of wandering, Israel returned to Kadesh-barnea, the very location where they had rebelled against God. Israel is nearly ready to follow God into the land, which he had given to them. Moses knows that his time is short and so he intensifies he teaching and leading of Israel.
Deuteronomy is Moses’ final installment of his teaching of Israel. As the world was moving from oral tradition as the primary mode of communication to written communication, Moses began to write his teachings for the benefit of Israel. Some scholars argue that Moses was one of the main catalysts of this transition from oral tradition to writing. Incidentally, we may be living in the early stages of the reversal of this transition. Today, the prized literacy of western civilization is giving way to visual and audio communication. Visual and audio communication may promote oral tradition. In the history of God revealing himself to the world all sorts of modes of communication are used. The God of the Bible is the God of oral tradition: He speaks and light is created. He speaks to Abraham and thousands of generations are granted divine favor and eternal life. He speaks and the wicked nations are condemned to suffer his wrath. He speaks and the forests and mountains quake. He speaks in the still small voice to encourage his servants. God speaks as do all his prophets. A prophet is one who has the very words of God upon his lips. Prophesies were most often spoken, especially in the early epochs. Moses captures the oral tradition of his days. In this introduction to Deuteronomy Moses records, “These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel….Moses spoke to the children of Israel, according to all that the Lord had commanded him to give to them….Moses undertook to expound this law, saying…�
Quite fascinating is Moses deciding in his final years to write down his teaching, rather than relying upon oral tradition. In Deuteronomy, he instructs parents to employ oral tradition to pass along God’s law to their children and to their children’s children. Yet Moses is on the cutting edge of communication as he instructs Israel to write down the law for the instruction of her children. Other great leaders of the ancient world slipped into their graves never writing a single page to preserve their legacy. Moses decides to write.
The God of the Bible is not only the God of oral tradition, he is also the God of written language. He wrote the Ten Commandments on stone. He gave them to Moses, who broke them, throwing them to the ground in anger. God then told Moses, “You are going to write the Ten Commandments on stone,� and so Moses wrote them and delivered them to Israel. God’s prophets began to not only proclaim their prophecies, but they also wrote them down in scrolls. The Jewish scribal tradition was born to preserve these holy writings for generations to come. What did Moses consider so important that he should commit it to writing? Moses considered history to be important. He wrote the books of Genesis to preserve the history of God creating and redeeming Humanity. He is careful to trace the history of God’s unfolding covenant with his people. And so, his second book, Exodus, records the redemption of Israel, God’s chosen people, liberating them from slavery in Egypt. Moses thinks it important to remember the acts of God in the past. He thinks it important to record human history, believing that the past is connected to the present and to the future. History is important to Moses because God is doing one great and unfolding work throughout history. For us to know the entire process, to see the big picture, to understand how our little life spans fit into the timeline of God’s redemptive history, we need a record of what has gone before us.
While Moses considered the preservation of history worthy his writing, he considered the preservation of God’s law most worthy of his writing. The book of Exodus records the giving of the Ten Commandments. In Deuteronomy, Moses describes the giving of the Ten Commandments once again. This is why the book is titled, “Deuteronomy,� or “Second Law.� Incidentally, both tablets of stone contained all Ten of the Commandments. One tablet was given to Moses, the Mediator between God and his people, to instruct the people in the law. Moses placed the other tablet into the Ark of the Covenant to remind God, as if he needs reminding, of the covenant struck between him and his people. The Ark of the Covenant was the box, overlaid with gold, placed in the Holy of Holies, the center of the Tabernacle. God would descend in powerful glory to meet with his people. The high priest would sprinkle blood on the golden mercy seat, between the wings of the two golden cherubim affixed to the top of the ark. God’s glory would descend precisely upon this location, flooding the entire Tabernacle with light and shaking the foundations of the earth. Inside the Ark of the Covenant was the one tablet to remind God that he had entered into a covenant, a great contract with his people. Deuteronomy is Moses’ final instruction of the law to the people, fulfilling his duties as the Mediator of the covenant.
You may have pictures in your mind of Moses floating in a basket down the Nile. You may see him clubbing to death the Egyptian slave driver, or tending sheep in the desert. You may have a brilliant picture of him stuttering barefoot before the burning bush. You may remember Moses standing before Pharoah announcing the ten plagues or standing on the shore of the Red Sea, staff and face to God’s wind. You may have a picture in your mind of Moses descending Mt. Sinai with the stone tablets in his arms. These are all accurate images of Moses, but they are incomplete in delivering a full picture of this man. We must also have the image in our minds of Moses expounding, that is teaching, the law to Israel. Most of his time, in the final 40 years of his life, was dedicated to teaching Israel the law of God. Moses was consumed by God’s call upon his life to expound the law to God’s people.
Moses does not write a book of case law. He delivers God’s law and history together. In Leviticus, his book containing a large amount of ceremonial law instructing the worship of God, Moses includes historic narratives. God’s law comes with historical context. I consider this observation to be important to our understanding and use of the law, one to be developed as we study Deuteronomy together. But there is a more important topic we must discuss each step of the way through this rich book. Let me introduce this topic with a question: What does the gospel have to do with the law?
It is impossible for us to understand the gospel without the law of God. All of the language that presents the gospel to us is rooted in the law. Consider the words known most widely in the Church today when we consider the gospel – John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.� This gospel declaration is based on the law. The law clearly presents God’s demand of perfect righteousness. Anyone who falls short of this perfection is subject to the condemnation of the law. To perish does not mean to naturally expire in death, but to be under God’s condemnation forever. The law, especially presented by Moses in historical context, displays God’s wrath for sin. Without the law, we do not discover the depth of God’s love. The gospel is stunningly the best news we could ever hear as we receive it within the context of the law. God gave the law and we must obey it. God gave his One and Only Son and we must believe in him. The contrast is huge!
The law is God’s management of a fallen world. How will the human race subject to the dire consequences of original sin and the common curse be able to survive? How will any human being enjoy life? How would any of us find our way to communion with God? Paul presents the gospel to the Church at Galatia, in the context of the law. In Galatians 3, he writes, “All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the Law.’ Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, ‘The righteous will live by faith.’ The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, ‘The man who does these things will live by them.’ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.� To understand the gospel as Paul presents it, we must know something about the law of God. As tedious as it might be to slog through Deuteronomy, we do so to gain a better understanding of the gospel. As far removed from the world of Deuteronomy as our world is, we discover, as we read that we might live by the gospel just as Moses and all the faithful of Israel did in their day.
The great words of the gospel make no sense without the law of God. Paul writes, “Christ redeemed us from the curse.� In conversation and in too much of our teaching, we shorten this sentence to “Christ redeemed us.� From what did Christ redeem us? Only the law presents to us the frightful details convincing us that our redemption is indeed a huge work of God’s grace. Peter preaches at Pentecost, “Repent and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.� What does he mean by “repent� and by “forgiveness of your sins?� The law is the foundation for God’s gift of repentance and his merciful act of forgiveness. Without the justice of the law the act of forgiveness could not occur! Paul preaches, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved!� What does he mean by “saved?� From what are we saved? Why do we need to be saved?
What does the gospel have to do with the law? It has everything to do with the law. The two are so inseparably connected that Moses can not help but present the gospel right in the middle of the law. The language shared between the law and gospel is significant. After all, the source of the law and the gospel is God. Come to think of it, Moses presents his law and history in such a way that the gospel of God might be clearly proclaimed to Israel under his care! We will discover this good news on the lips of Moses, the prophet of God, and in the scrolls he wrote to preserve the history of God’s redemption for generations to come. A good portion of the law recorded by Moses, may shock and disturb you. It is the sheer black backdrop for the brilliance of the gospel, like a full moon rising in a dark sky. At certain points in the reading of Deuteronomy we might respond to a part of God’s law, “How could God do this!?� But then, a perfectly rational response to the gospel is, “How could God do this!?� Not too far into the reading of Deuteronomy we will discover that God commands the annihilation of several people groups. Such judgement is repulsive to us and we respond, “How could God do this!?� But then, we discover that at the center of the gospel is God pouring out his wrath upon his one and perfect Son, Jesus Christ, dying on the cross, and we respond, “How could God do this!?�
The law in Deuteronomy helps us to ask the question, “Why did God do this?� Then the law and the history of God’s redemption supplies us with the most beautiful answer we could ever hope to hear. Why did God do this? He demanded and collected the blood sacrifice so that his justice would be satisfied and so that his love for us might be expressed to its fullest extent.
God did this so that we might discover in our world, what the Pevensey children discovered in Narnia, that the deep magic is in the end, not about death, but about resurrection life.

January 8 “The Covenant: Rehearsing the History of Promise� (1: 6-18)

Moses contributed to the transition from oral tradition to written language in the ancient Near East. He served the God of Israel, who is the only God on record, who has regularly spoken to his people. He is also the God, who wrote the Ten Commandments on stone tablets and commanded his prophets to write his law and redemptive history on scrolls to preserve his covenant, for the good of his people.
Moses structures Deuteronomy after the Suzerainty Treaties of his day. A Hittite king, known as a suzerain, would enter into a covenant with his people. During Moses day, more and more of these suzerain treaties were committed to writing to serve as a testimony to the contract between the king and his people. The suzerain treaty would contain cycles of communication from the king to his people. Each cycle begins with the king reminding his people of his name and titles. Often the king’s scribe, or vice-regent, would be named as the one keeper and dispenser of the treaty. These brief introductions are then followed by a historical prologue, sometimes brief and other times quite long. The king summarizes everything he has done in the past for the good of his people. He makes a case for the people submitting to him to receive protection and provision in the future. The historical prologue is followed by a list of stipulations, the law of the king. “Since I have been a good king, you must therefore obey all of the following stipulations.� These laws, usually presented in two lists, the first general and brief, and the second specific and lengthy, are followed by the blessings and curses. The king says, “If you obey my laws I will bless you but if you disobey my laws I will curse you.� Often these suzerain treaties conclude with a presentation of witnesses to the covenant being sealed by the king. Often the king would seal his covenant in the presence of his people making them his witnesses as well as the second party eligible to receive the rewards of the covenant.
In Deuteronomy, the historical prologue is lengthy, delivered in two parts: the first part rehearses God’s promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is our text for this morning, (1:6-18). The second part is the history of Israel’s rebellion, (1:19-46), our text for next Sunday. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has introduced himself as “The Lord our God,� and Moses clearly presents himself as the mediator, who speaks and expounds the covenant of God to his people.
In (6-8) God tells Israel once again at Kadesh-barnea, that he has given to them the land. He reminds Israel that he swore to give this land to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God then reminds Israel of his central and greatest promise made to Abraham (10). “The Lord your God has increased your numbers so that today you are as many as the stars in the sky. May the Lord, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand times and bless you as he promised!� When God first spoke to Abraham he said, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you, I will curse; and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.� 430 years later, Moses writes down the covenant God had spoken to Abraham. Moses at this point interjects his immediate reaction to God making good on his promise. He says, “You are too heavy a burden for me to carry alone…How can I bear your problems and your burdens and your disputes all by myself?� God fulfilling his promise to multiply Abraham’s descendants into a great nation has created a problem for Moses, the leader of that great nation. He needs help governing two million people!
Moses has a plan to establish a justice system to govern Israel. In Exodus 18, we discover that the plan was suggested to Moses by his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. But in Deuteronomy, Moses, does not mention Jethro. Instead he reminds the people that God has kept his promises of the past to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The main reason why a justice system of multiple leaders is needed is that God has kept his promise to make Israel a great nation whose numbers are like the stars of heaven. Before we consider this system of justice established by Moses, part of God the King’s provision for the good governing of his people, we pause to remember that God keeps his promises. This is one of the main purposes in rehearsing redemptive history. When God promised Abraham to multiply his descendents to be like the stars of heaven and the grains of sand on the seashore, did Abraham have a utopian vision and a warm feeling in his heart? Now, 430 years later, Moses has been called by God to lead Israel, two million strong. He has no unrealistic feelings or notions that such a large group of people will take care of themselves or that he alone can lead them in peace and purity.
As we consider the establishing of a justice system for Israel, we discover that God not only promised to make the descendents of Abraham numerous, but he also had promised to make them into a great nation. Thus God provides a justice system to govern his people. God called Moses at the burning bush to be the leader of Israel. Moses did not consider himself to be a leader. He told God that he had a stuttering problem. He says to God, “Please send someone else to deliver Israel and to be leader.� But God had chosen Moses, who had enough sense to listen to his father-in-law, Jethro. Through these two men, God provides a justice system for the peace and purity of his people of promise. Moses says to the people “Choose for yourselves some wise, understanding, and respected men from each of your tribes, and I will set them over you.� (13). The people responded positively saying to Moses, “What you propose to do is good.� As Moses writes the historical prologue of Deuteronomy, he reminds the people that they agreed that this justice system was a good idea. He reminds them that it is directly connected to God making good on his promise. He reminds them that he presented the idea and that they participated in the choosing of their leaders.
We think that our American justice system is a good provision until we are hauled into court, sued by a bitter family member. While precious time and money is taken from us, we must remember that without such a justice system, we would be in a much worse situation. We think that a police force is good for the peace and purity of our community until an officer turns on his lights and pulls us over, then we curse the system. Moses reminds the people that all of the parties of the covenant agreed that this justice system was a good idea, necessary to make two million people a nation. Now, all Israel needs to be a nation is domain – land! God had provided a land but 38 years prior to Moses writing Deuteronomy, Israel at Kadesh-barnea stubbornly refused to enter the land God had given to them. Now, Moses writes Deuteronomy and presents it to Israel returned to Kadesh-barnea, the rebellious generation having died, Moses ready to climb Mt. Nebo and die outside the promised land. Before his death, Moses will expound the law and reinforce the justice system.
Moses reminds the people that these appointed leaders wield authority (15). Moses established a system of appeals. Some of the officials had authority to hear disputes from a group of neighbors as small as ten. If he could not settle disputes among the ten, then a case could be appealed to a higher official overseeing 50. In other words, this official would hear appealed cases from five groups of ten. If this official was unable to settle a case, he could appeal it to a higher official overseeing 100. If this official was unable to settle the case, then it could be appealed to an official with authority over 1,000. Moses would reserve his judicial hearings to cases referred to him by officials overseeing 1,000.
Moses trained these officials to be fair judges. He instructs them to listen to each case and to judge fairly, meaning to make impartial decisions according to the law. They are not only to hear cases involving Israelites, but also cases involving Israelites and aliens. God’s law held Israel accountable to treat all people and all creation properly. If an Israelite had wronged a non-Israelite, the law of God held him accountable to make reparations for his crimes. In (17) Moses gives his central instruction to these judges, “Do not show partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike.� The birth of justice is not 200 years old arising from the American Constitution. It is not 500 years old invented by John Knox in Scotland. The first written record of a court of appeals in all of human history is Moses! The idea came from his father-in-law, this obscure priest of Midian, living in the wilderness. Moses uses Jethro’s advice to establish the first justice system involving multiple judges and courts of appeal recorded in human history. The alternative in the ancient world was an emperor, who controlled kings, who marshaled armies. The emperor may hear a case or refuse audience. If a group under his control became unruly or unpleasing in any way, the emperor would deploy armed forces to restore order or to destroy the unfavorable. But Moses established a system by which appointed judges would apply God’s law, appealing unresolved cases to higher judges who would apply God’s law toward justice, ultimately appealing all people to live in the presence of a just and holy God for the peace and purity of the whole community.
What does the gospel have to do with the giving of a system of justice?
The law instructs us to support a system of justice that shows no partiality so that we might discover the God who shows no partiality. Moses instructs the appointed judges: “Hear the disputes between your brothers fairly, whether the case is between brother Israelites or between one of them and an alien. Do not show partiality in judging; hear both great and small alike.� The gospel proclaims that you may live in God’s favor through Jesus Christ, regardless of your ethnicity, gender, or economic status. The law of God establishes this impartiality. The law of God reflects God’s impartiality, providing justice, not only for the Jew but also for the alien. God’s law protects a woman as well as a man. Rich and poor, slave and free are all treated equally under God’s law. This impartiality of God established in the law is the gospel latent in the law.
The gospel is the announcement of the Kingdom of God advancing in this world. God’s light will shine in every dark corner. He will liberate a countless number of people from every kind of bondage. He is restoring the peace and purity of this world, one life at a time, one family at a time, one neighborhood at a time, one nation at a time.
The seed of the gospel is found again and again in the law. But the law also convinces us that the gospel must flower as the fulfillment of the law. In itself, the law cannot produce for humanity the freedom, peace, and purity our race lost in Eden. Only the gospel can restore God’s holy goodness to us. At the center of human history in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the gospel flowers as the fulfillment of the law.
In Jesus’ day, Israel’s court of appeals, patterned after Moses, provided as a “supreme court,� the Sanhedrin, the final court of appeals. The high priest presided over the Sanhedrin as the Mediator between God and man. This Sandhedrin’s deliberate injustice delivered upon Jesus of Nazareth in falsely accusing him of blasphemy and sending him to the pagan courts of the Roman governor, is shocking and disturbing proof that even the best of justice systems can go bad in the hands of mere men.
The Sanhedrin not only abused the law of God, they failed to truly understand the law and discover the purpose of the law. The great irony in all human history is that what mere human beings meant for evil, God uses for good. As the Sanhedrin abuses the law of God to condemn to death the very Son of God, the heavenly Father is fulfilling the law’s demand for justice by pouring out the curse of the law for sin upon his Son in human flesh, becoming sin for us. God himself is the final court of appeal. He is not an appointed judge, but the final Judge of heaven and earth. He had reviewed the decisions of the lower courts and found them to be unjust. They have pinned the crime on the wrong guy. So why does God the Father send Jesus to the cross to die for a crime he did not commit? Here is the reason as simply as I can put it: God is not only the author and master of the law, which demands justice to be served. He is also the author and master of the gospel, which provides a most surprising way for divine justice to be served and at the same time providing divine favor to the daughters and sons of Abraham. The law demands justice to be served. The gospel announces that the one, human covenant keeper has arrived in human history and he deserves only the blessing of God’s law. But he willingly and freely exchanges places with his fallen sisters and brothers who deserve the curse of the law. He takes their punishment of death upon himself so that they might live to receive the blessing of the law they don’t deserve.

Jan 15 “The Covenant: Rehearsing the History of Rebellion� (1: 19-46)

Moses considers the rehearsing and preserving of Israel’s history to be an important task, one to which he devotes the final chapter of his life. Moses does not write propaganda, presenting a glowing report of Israel being the finest and greatest nation in world history. His purpose in writing this history is to preserve for the descendents of Abraham a record of God’s just and merciful deeds in keeping his covenant with them. Moses writes the history of God keeping his promise to Abraham, the promise that God would make the descendants of Abraham into a great nation. In Deuteronomy 7:6 Moses writes, “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the people, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which he swore to your forefathers.� Moses reminds Israel, that God did not choose them because they were noteworthy, great in number and power, winners of an international search for the best nation in the Fertile Crescent. God made a promise to one man, Abraham, “I will make your descendents into a great nation.� From one old man and his old and barren wife, God built a great nation as he promised. In Deuteronomy 1:10 Moses reminds Israel that God has kept his promise, “The Lord you God has multiplied you, and behold, you are this day as the stars of heaven. May the Lord, the God of your forefathers increase you a thousand-fold more than you are, and bless, just as he has promised.�
Moses considers the rehearsing and preserving of the history of the covenant to be an important task. Cicero wrote, “To remain ignorant of things that happened before you were born is to remain a child. What is a human life worth unless it is incorporated into the lives of one’s ancestors and set in an historical context?� The history Moses writes certainly connected Israel in his day to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But what is truly remarkable about his history is that the central figure connected by covenant to Israel is God. This God of the covenant speaks to his people, he delivers them from their oppressors and he provides all that they need to be a nation in communion with him.
Another remarkable characteristic of Moses’ history is that he does not gloss over Israel’s failings, including her rebellions against the loving God of the covenant. As we read Moses, we can not but help thinking of the Hegel’s well-known quip, “What experience and history teach is this – that peoples and governments never have learned from history, or acted upon principles deduced from it.� Through out Deuteronomy Moses instructs Israel to teach and to remind one another, especially the emerging generations the law and history of God’s covenant with them. Why is Israel slow to learn? Why does she make the same mistakes over and over again? Why does she rebel against a loving God?
Moses includes in his Historical Prologue, the history of Israel’s rebellion at Kadesh-barnea. After wandering in the wilderness and receiving the law at Sinai/Horeb, God guides Israel to the edge of the Promised Land, bringing them to Kadesh-barnea. Moses says to the people, “See, the Lord your God has placed the land before you; go up, take possession, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you. Do not fear or be dismayed.� (21). Israel proposed that chosen representatives of the 12 tribes spy out the land. Moses thought it a good idea and appointed 12 spies. These men representing the 12 tribes returned confirming that the land was indeed as God had said a fruitful and pleasant land. The spies said, “It is a good land which the Lord our God is about to give us.� (25). But the spies also reported, “The people are bigger and taller than we; the cities are large and fortified to heaven. And besides, we saw the sons of the Anakim there!� (28). Moses responded, “Do not be shocked, nor fear them. The Lord your God who goes before you will Himself fight on your behalf, just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you.� (29-31).
Facing the Anakim, the giant warriors of the Ancient Near East would make most of us fearful. But Israel had faced Pharaoh of Egypt. Trapped between the Red Sea and the Egyptian army, Israel waited while God’s wind rolled back the waters allowing 2 million of them to cross safely to the other side. As they turned around, they watched the Egyptian army begin to cross as the towering walls of water crashed upon them, drowning them. Miriam danced with her tambourine as Israel sang the Song of Moses, “I will sing unto the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously, the horse and rider thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song and has become my salvation. He is my God and I will praise him; My father’s God and I will extol him…Thy right hand, O Lord, is majestic in power, Thy right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy…In Thy loving kindness Thou hast led the people whom Thou hast redeemed, in Thy strength Thou hast guided them to Thy holy habitation.� Why does Israel now fear the Anakim? What are the fortified cities of Canaan compared with the great Egyptian army? If God was able to liberate Israel from Pharaoh, one of the most powerful Kings of the ancient world commanding one of the largest and sophisticated armies of the millennium, could he not give Israel victory over the Amorites? Why does Israel fail to learn from her history?
Moses reminds Israel 38 years later that she rebelled against God. What is the nature of this rebellion? Firstly we discover that rebellion is a matter of the will. Moses writes in (26), “Yet you were not willing to go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God.� The human will is no match for God’s supreme will. Israel’s rebellion at Kadesh-barnea did not force God to come up with a “Plan B,� or to forfeit his redemptive plans in the world. 38 years after the rebellion, God brought Israel back to Kadesh-barnea, to the very spot of her rebellion and gave to her the very same command. What was the result of Israel’s rebellion? God punished an entire generation, returning her to the wilderness, on the road back to the Red Sea, where she would wander 38 years until the generation had died. Rebellion is a matter of the will and the human will, even a large collection of human wills, can not trump God’s will. Read (40): “But as for you, turn around and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.� If you have not learned from your history, the history of God’s loving and powerful liberation of you, then return to the Red Sea, the location of his loving and powerful salvation, where you sang of his love, power, and grace. Return to the wilderness and teach your children the history of God’s redemption so that they might not rebel as you have rebelled and so that they might enter into God’s Promised Land. In the wilderness, God taught Israel how to pray, “Not my will but Thine be done.�
Secondly we discover that rebellion may stem from fear. God said, “Do not be afraid; do not be dismayed,� but Israel was moved by reports of the spies, who saw with their very own eyes the Anakim and the city walls reaching to heaven. Had they forgotten their fear and terror at Sinai, the mountain blazing with the fire of God? Israel begged Moses to be her Mediator. “Now then why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer, then we shall die. For who is there of all flesh, who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have and lived? Go near and hear all that the Lord our God says, Moses, then speak to us all that the Lord God will speak to you, and we will hear it and do it.� How could Israel forget such an experience? After facing the fire and voice of God at Horeb, Israel should face the Amorites saying, “We do not fear you. We fear God alone.� Instead Israel forgets her recent history to rebel against God, giving into her fears of the Amorites and Anakim.
Thirdly we discover that rebellion is expressed through grumbling. There is a silent rebellion expressed by those who hope that their lack of response will allow them to fly under the radar screen undetected. But often, rebellion is expressed in grumbling. What is grumbling? Moses writes in (27), “and you grumbled in your tents.� Grumbling is at least a verbal expression of discontent. It includes complaints along with other statements of dissatisfaction. Moses captures the usual setting of grumbling, intimate conversations in semi-private spaces. I can envision two Israelite men ducking into a tent, reclining on Persian rugs and pillows, sharing a hookah pipe. Under the influence of the tobacco or opium, the two begin to open up to each other in hushed conversation. They begin to unveil their hearts and hidden thoughts to each other. They begin to complain about Moses. They express their fears about going to war, but they do so in a way that protects their integrity while undermining any leader who would require that they should take on such a formidable foe. Then their grumbling hits its all time low – they begin to complain about the food in the wilderness and the loss of the delectable cuisine of Egypt! The next day, the men choose new hookah partners and in different tents, they each say to their new confidants, “I was talking to ________ yesterday and he thinks this plan for war stinks. Who does Moses think he is? Do you remember the leeks and onions we grew in Egypt? Now we are eating this tasteless bread and tough little desert birds that taste like dirt.�
Grumbling goes beyond venting discontent. Grumbling often presents a perverted view of God. Moses reminds the people that God is present with them, going before them to deliver them once again. God is a loving provider of a fruitful and pleasant land. God keeps his promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But Israel given over to grumbling presents a perverted view of God: “Because the Lord hates us, he has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us.� If any of us think that grumbling is a petty sin, think again. These grumblings of Israel are blasphemous! The God of the Exodus is presented as a twisted fiend, who has lured Israel into the wilderness, purposely fed her unpalatable food, only to hand her over to desert barbarians, who rape, pillage, and ravage helpless Bedouins.
This is the first rebellion of Israel at Kadesh-barnea. God responds in anger, driving his people into the wilderness toward the Red Sea to wander for another 38 years. When Israel heard God’s response, she said, “We have sinned against the Lord; we will indeed go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us.� (41). But God warned Moses to tell Israel that he would not go before them in such a battle, and that they would then be defeated by the Amorites. But Israel rebelled a second time! The first time God said “Go,� and Israel said, “No, we will not go.� The second time God said, “Do not go,� and Israel said. “No, we will go.� In the end we discover that Rebellion is juvenile. Does not Israel remind us of our childhood when we would insist on doing the opposite of any parental command?
As we read of Israel’s rebellion, we must be careful not to take her side and find God to be in the wrong. It is tempting to read this history of rebellion and to think, “Does not God honor the repentant heart? After all, Israel does finally say, ‘we have sinned against the Lord.’ Now she is ready to fight. Why does God insist on sending her into the wilderness for 38 years? Why doesn’t God go before them and give to them the victory over the Amorites?� It is very tempting to think this way. God perfectly detects true repentance in any of us and he does not find it in Israel saying, “we have sinned against the Lord.� True repentance goes far beyond admitting our sin. True repentance is a grief and hatred for our sin and a sharp turn toward obedience. Israel says, “We have sinned against the Lord,� then immediately refuses to obey the Lord’s command! God says, “Do not go,� and Israel goes to war against the Amorites, who crush Israel, tormenting them like a horde of bees. The Amorites crushed Israel in battle and so Israel returned to Kadesh-barnea to weep before the Lord. But God would not listen to her weeping. God’s plan was set: the rebellious generation would die in the wilderness having taught her children to follow the Lord’s command.
How is the history of rebellion related to the gospel? Once again, the only way to answer such a question is to discuss how the law of God is related to the gospel. Before we can discuss rebellion and the gospel, we must discuss rebellion and the law. The holy law of God declares punishment for rebellion. God was just to consign an entire generation of rebellious Israelites to death in the wilderness. The promise of the land is the blessing offered to those who keep the covenant of God. Why would God administering his law give the blessing of the Promised Land to covenant breakers? Through out the first 40 years of wilderness wanderings, God stood ready in his just anger to destroy Israel, but Moses, the Mediator, stood before God and the people, advocating mercy in place of justice. In these episodes of God changing his mind, he is in no way altering the course of his eternal decrees or scrapping his redemptive plans, allowing a mere human being to persuade him to take a different course. Rather, Moses appeals to a just God to act in mercy rather than justice, an appeal that is perfectly consistent with all of God’s plans from eternity past. God changing his mind from justice to mercy is completely within his right as God. He alone can do so.
So it is that covenant breakers, those who have rebelled against God’s holy law, must find a Mediator, who can appeal the just sentence of the law, moving God to mercy. In due time, as we progress through Deuteronomy we will discover that God’s holy law makes provision for God to act mercifully toward covenant breakers. The gospel does not call us to beg and plead for God’s mercy as much as it declares to us that God has provided “the One and Only Mediator between God and Man, the Man Christ Jesus.� We need a covenant Mediator, and God has provided Jesus Christ. Moses wrote to preserve the history of the covenant between God and Israel. Jesus did not write any document for preservation. He gave his life as a sacrifice, taking upon himself the punishment of death assigned to all those who rebel against God’s holy law. He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven to be the Mediator between God and Man. His persuasive appeal before a just God is this: “I have satisfied your demands for justice to be served for the breaking of your covenant. Therefore, receive into your favor these rebels, who by faith and repentance, have united themselves to me.� God the Father has been persuaded to offer to us mercy rather than justice. He has proclaimed through his apostles, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!�

Jan 22 “The Covenant: Rehearsing the History of Conquest� (2 – 3:22)

In their Introduction to the Old Testament, Raymond Dillard and Tremper Longman note that the land in Deuteronomy is repeatedly described as “the land that the God of your fathers is giving to you.� In 131 of the 167 times the verb, “to give� occurs in Deuteronomy, the subject of the action is Yahweh, the God of the covenant. One of the sustained themes of Moses is God as the gracious Lord who gives multiple and generous gifts to his people. This sounds good to most people until we read how it is that God gave the land to Israel. It is indeed difficult to read and to accept the reports of war. In (2:33f) we read, “The Lord our God delivered Sihon over to you, and we defeated him and his sons and all his people. And we captured all his cities at that time and devoted to destruction every city, men, women, and children. We left no survivors.� Then we read in (3:3) “So the Lord our God gave into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people, and we struck him down until he had no survivor left.�
Moses clearly presents God as the one who not merely gives the land to Israel, but commands them to take the land from these other nations. The taking involves war, even annihilation. The rules of war are outlined in chapter 20 of Deuteronomy and they includes God’s command, “But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded.�
Many students of Deuteronomy, who have actually read and thought about the implications of God’s commands of war, have concluded that the God of the Bible was invented by Moses. This God is the great cosmic scapegoat for Israel’s annihilation of these nations and the stealing of their land. What better excuse can there be than a supreme God who has commanded the destruction of those who possess the land flowing with milk and honey.
Many of these students simply dismiss the existence of God concluding, “If God is a Supreme Being who commands annihilation of nations and the seizing of land, then I choose to believe that God does not exist.� Other students insist that the God of Moses is a different God than the God of the New Testament. The Old Testament God is a God of wrath, war, who commands his people not to steal but them gives them commands of war to wipe a nation off the face of the earth and to steal the land. But the God of the New Testament, an altogether different God, is a God of love, forgiveness, who reduces all of the contradictory laws of a barbarous age to love God and love one another. All of this thinking is quite attractive but rife with many problems. Suffice it to say that the authors of the New Testament ground their writings in the Old Testament and find more foundation for their words in Deuteronomy than any other Old Testament book. The Old and the New Testaments together present the one and same God. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the God of Peter, James, and John. The God of wrath is the God of justice and love. The God of forgiveness is the God who has the right to punish wicked nations and freely, according to his own good pleasure, he chooses to forgive. The God of the Old and New Testaments is a God who forgives according to the gospel.
What are we to think of a God who had commanded Israel to utterly destroy six nations? In Deuteronomy 2 we first discover that God does not destroy every nation who is wicked and causes trouble for his people. God tell Israel that she is not to destroy the nation of Esau. Israel is not to fight against Esau, and she is not to steal food from Esau, but pay for it. God gives the same commands concerning the nations of Moab and Ammon. We may think, “This is a kind God. I like this God who tells his people to be polite and treat other nations respectfully.� God is kind because he is just. From these narratives we learn that God works with nations other than Israel, making them promises that he upholds. God is just and faithful. He has made promises to the nation of Esau, giving Mt. Seir as a possession. Esau was the patriarch Jacob’s firstborn son, who ignored and despised the covenant of God. Nevertheless, God is just in keeping his promises. Thus God is kind. To Moab, he gave the land of Ar as a possession. The nations of Moab and Ammon descended from Lot, the nephew of Abraham. Lot and his daughters fled Sodom and Gommorah. Hiding in a cave, the daughters got their father drunk and he sired sons by them, one named Moab and the other Ben-ammi. They are the fathers of the two nations Moab and Ammon. Regardless of their sordid past, God keeps his promise to them.
If we ignore this history which is reported in the same narratives as the disturbing reports of God’s commanding the complete destruction of certain nations, we would be left to conclude that God is a monstrous tyrant. What is the difference between Hitler annihilating the Jews and the God of Israel commanding the annihilation of six nations? The difference is that Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, and Mao were all tyrants. A tyrant is a supreme ruler unrestrained by law or constitution. He exercises absolute power brutally and oppressively. God is not a tyrant. He is just. He rules according to his law. He has sealed an everlasting covenant and he is faithful to it. God is not a tyrant. According to his law he has every right to destroy the wicked. If he makes a promise to an individual, group, or nation, regardless of wickedness or righteousness, he surely keeps his promise. God is not a tyrant; he is just.
We do not know much about justice today. One of the reasons for our ignorance is that for the past 100 years, a large portion of the American Church has insisted that the law of God is no longer useful or operative. God’s law was specifically designed to govern ancient Israel. But God’s law has nothing to say to us today, let alone wield any authority in our world. Jesus said, “Until heaven and earth pass away, not one iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.� One of the greatest purposes of the law of God remaining through out all epochs of human history is its purpose in establishing God’s justice. The is the record and rule communicating to us divine justice. Without it we are ignorant of justice at any level, divine or human.
How is it that God is just in the destruction of these six nations? First of all, God promised the land of Canaan to the descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Just as God promised land to Esau, Moab, and Ammon, he promised land to Israel. Remember, Israel was the name God gave to Jacob, the younger twin of Esau. He was no better than his brother Esau, who despised the covenant. He was a liar, and a thief. Nevertheless, he loved God and treasured the covenant, understanding that God had chosen him. God promised Israel and all his descendents, even the nation bearing his name, the land of Canaan. God is just in providing the land for Israel.
Secondly, God is just in destroying these six nations due to their wickedness. The six nations are listed in chapter 20. When we get to that point in the text, I will supply you with more information concerning these wicked nations. This morning, I will confine the information to the destruction of the Amorite
nation. In our morning’s text, we read of Israel destroying every city, men, women and children of Sihon, king of Heshbon. Sihon was one of the Amorite kings. Sihon had conquered the Moabites, taking the northern region of their land, all of it north of the Arnon river. God had promised this land to Moab and all of the ancient near eastern kings knew the ancient charters and boundaries set. Sihon was an oppressive, ruthless tyrant, who annihilated peaceful tribes of people, invaded nations, and seized their lands. When Israel arrived to the boundaries of Sihon’s stolen kingdom, Moses requested peaceful passage through his lands, promising to keep all two million Israelites on the road so as not to trample crops and to maintain the privacy of residences. Moses offered to purchase food and water, to treat the Amorites just as God had instructed the treatment of Esau, Moab, and Ammon. But God hardened Sihon’s heart, just as he had hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Why would God make Sihon obstinate? So that the occasion to rid the world of a wicked tyrant might arise. John Bright, of Union Theological Seminary, in his book, The History of Israel, acknowledges that the laws of herem, that is, of Holy Wars, were not specific to Israel. All the ancient nations listed in the narratives had laws of herem. One of the differences between Israel’s herem laws and the herem laws of other nations was that the God of Israel did not command the destruction of all nations, but only of those who resisted obstinately.
Israel also destroyed all the people of Og, King of Bashan, brother of Sihon. He claimed to be the son of the legendary fallen angel, Shamhazai. We are told in the text the size of his iron bed: 13.5 ft. long and six feet wide. He was indeed one of the giants in the land. Archaeologists have discovered that the dimensions of Og’s bed are the same for Amorite king’s tombs, providing plenty of room for royal treasure to be buried with the body of the king. It may be that Og had built his tomb early, using it as a bed, aiding him in his worship of the underworld and death. Og ruled over 60 fortified Amorite cities. Back in Abraham’s day, the Amorites were on the right side, helping Abraham to defeat the four tyrants who were oppressing the peoples of the Dead Sea plain. But Og, with his occult practices and his oppressive maneuvers caught the attention of a just God who deters evil in this world.
What does God’s giving of land have to do with the gospel? What does God’s judgement of wicked nations have to with the gospel? The gospel of Jesus Christ is founded upon divine justice. The gospel declares that divine justice has been served and satisfied. God the Father has served his justice upon Jesus Christ, his one and only Son. This serving of divine justice occurred as Jesus died upon the roman cross. The justice of God was satisfied as Jesus, who bore the sins of the world upon himself, received the full penalty for sin. All of us who are united by faith to Jesus Christ are forever free from the wrath of divine justice. Any of us who despise union to Jesus Christ, or even those of us who would choose to ignore the absolute necessity of union to Jesus Christ are subject to divine justice according to the holy law of God.
The nation of Israel was an instrument of divine justice in the ancient Near East. God chose her, moved by his mysterious pleasure to do so. He did not choose Israel because she was greater, larger, or more righteous than any other nations. God chose Israel because he loved Israel. God’s holy law gave him the right to punish Israel’s rebellion along side the wicked nations he destroyed. God’s prophets finally announced divine judgement against Israel, and so, now it is clear to everyone that Jesus Christ’s death on the cross is the only satisfaction of divine justice. No other instrument is needed. God is no longer cutting a covenant with a nation to be his agent of wrath. The United States of America or any other super power is not God’s right hand in a Holy War. In these last days God has declared his Son to be his one and only Agent, his one and only instrument, his one and only satisfaction. Through Jesus Christ, we can be reconciled to God and receive his love and favor forever.
God is a just God and he is a giving God. He gives to the peoples of this world what they need. He gives to us what we need. God gave the land to Israel even though she did not deserve the gift. This gracious gift has become a beautiful reminder that God graciously gives to us. That is, he freely gives to us the best of his gifts. He makes us citizens of his heavenly kingdom powerfully advancing in the world today. He makes us more than conquerors through Jesus Christ, who loves us. We no longer wield swords. We are armed with the gospel of peace. The blood of Jesus shed on the cross put an end to bloodshed in the kingdom of heaven. The Apostle Paul instructs all Christians in these last days to put on the full armor of God, to prepare for battle: “Take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication.� Amen.

Jan 29 “The Covenant: God’s Special Relationship with His People�
Deuteronomy 3:23 – 4:43

God entered into a special relationship with Israel. Moses writes Dueteronomy with the purpose of reminding the second generation of Israel of her special relationship to God. Moses reminds Israel of three great divine acts uniquely offered to Israel. God liberates Israel from bondage in Egypt. Moses not only reminds Israel again and again of the Exodus, but instructs parents to tell their children about God’s redemption. At Horeb, that is, Mt. Sinai, God gives to Israel his holy law, committing it to writing. The repeated instruction of Moses in Deuteronomy is “Remember….Be careful to obey all of the commands and statutes of God’s holy law.� Thirdly, God gives to Israel the land he promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses tells the people that he will not enter the land, but that they would possess it as an inheritance.
Moses, as the great leader of Israel, is concerned that she would forget the history of God’s redemption, control, and provision. He not only delivers several lengthy addresses to Israel at Kadesh-barnea, but he commits these addresses to writing with the purpose of preserving them for generations to come. This new generation heard the voice of Moses rehearse these divine acts and they were given a written copy. Moses then instructs them to verbally rehearse the divine acts, instructing their children to never forget what God has done for them.
How forgetful are you? Do you find it difficult to remember from day to day that God has revealed himself to you, that he has freed you from much bondage, instructed you how to live happily, and provided for you all that you need?
Moses supplies some remarkable reasons for Israel’s obedience to the law of God. The first reason he offers is survival. In (4:1-5) he instructs Israel to obey the law so that she might live in the land. Israel must remember that the first generation, who came to Kadesh-barnea did not obey and so God returned them to the wilderness to die. Moses himself would not enter the land. Twice in this address, Moses tells Israel that God was angry with him because of Israel’s disobedience, and so, Moses would not enter the land. In his earlier book, Numbers, Moses records the full story. God had commanded Moses and Aaron to provide water for Israel. Moses was instructed to speak to the rock so that Israel might know that God provided for her. Moses was upset with Israel’s rebellion and so he took his staff and struck the rock twice having said to Israel, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we now bring water for you out of this rock?� At first glance we might be quick to blame God for being unfair. All Moses did was strike a rock with a stick twice. His punishment does not fit his crime. For this little outburst Moses shall not enter the land but die in the wilderness. But Moses also records God’s reasoning. How did God view the striking of the rock? He said to Moses, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore, you shall not bring this assembly of people into the land.� In striking the rock, and in his presenting of himself as the provider of the water, Moses exposed his unbelief before the people and before God. From personal experience Moses instructs the people to obey the word of God. He writes in (4:2) “You shall not add to the word I have commanded you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I commanded you.� Obedience to the law of God is a matter of survival.
Secondly, Moses says that obedience to the law provides a clear witness to the nations of God’s special relationship with his people. In (6-8) Moses says, “ Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?� We might think that the world around us would consider God’s law to be restrictive. Do not people say to us today, “I could never be a Christian. There are too many rules!� Perhaps our present community has not seen the Church keep God’s laws. Perhaps the Church has been so busy keeping her own, man-made laws that other people have never caught a glimpse of God’s law at work in our lives. If people see the Church submitting to the law of God, then they will see a wise and understanding community. They will be able to see the special relationship God enjoys with his people. How near is God to us?
Who is near to God? The one who obeys or the one who disobeys? No other human being was closer to God than Jesus Christ. As the Son of God, he was very God of very God. As a member of the human race, he perfectly obeyed the law of God. In doing so he was very near to God. All of the rest of us draw near to God through Jesus Christ. The law drives us near to Christ. Its perfect demands send us running to Christ. The law also presents to us a life near to God. How is it that we should live united to God? The law presents everything we need to know about living with God. When we begin to use the law in this way, people around us will recognize that God is near to us.
Moses develops extensively the third reason for obeying the law. We obey the law of God so that we might not slip into idolatry. It is easy for any of us to replace God with a false god. The idols of this world are often times the good gifts God has lavished upon us. We slip into worshipping these good gifts rather than the God who gave them to us. Instead of worshipping the Creator, we slip into worshipping the creation.
Israel came to the Mt. Sinai, at Horeb, and she heard the voice of God speak to her out of the fire. In (15) Moses tells Israel to be careful not to carve images of creation to worship them. Why would Israel do such a thing? The first reason may be Israel’s seeking for some physical form to worship. God is a spirit and spoke from the fiery mountain to Israel. She saw no form. What does God look like? In our worship of him, what shall be our focal point? The human tendency is to find some form, the sun, the moon, a creature, a mountain, a waterfall, or the human form. Our tendency is to worship the form. Moses is not prohibiting art. He is not even prohibiting the adornment of the sanctuary. The tabernacle and temple were richly adorned with art, and the first artists, who worked on the tabernacle were two men who were filled with the Holy Spirit!
Moses presents the law of God as the prevention of idolatry. The law of God obeyed assures that the true God is worshipped. Another reason for Israel slipping into idolatry might be that all of the surrounding nations and cultures are doing it. Indeed Israel’s history proves that this was a problem. All of the neighboring peoples used idols, carved and sculpted presentations of their gods. But Israel’s God is the One God who has no form. He spoke from the fire but he is not the fire. He spoke from the mountain, but he is not the mountain. He will not tolerate worship that confuses himself with the false gods of this world. Therefore, Moses says, “Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.�
Wait one moment. I thought that God spoke from the fire but that he is not the fire. Why then, does Moses say, “God is a consuming fire.�? God has chosen to reveal himself to us through language spoken and written. The language used to reveal God is colorful and full of images. Moses is quite free and powerful in his descriptions of God. Those of us responding to this language may create art, music, architecture, and technical systems that reflect the glory of God. What we must never do is make a physical form of God, to worship it as if it were God. Don’t miss the main point of Moses’ colorful language: “God is a consuming fire; God is a jealous God.� God will not share his unique existence, power, authority, and control with any other being or object. He will not share the worship due to him alone with any of his creation. He is to be alone worshipped and glorified. If you take Moses’ language literally, then you don’t get to this main point. God is not jealous in the literal meaning of the term, “jealous.� God is not sinfully upset that creatures might have something that he would like to have. God is not sinfully jealous, but he does demand that he alone receive all the worship of his creation. God is not the consuming fire, but like it, he shall destroy all graven images propped up as gods, just like fire consumes wood and cracks stone.
The law of God teaches us how to worship God alone. The law protects us from making and worshipping idols and thus attracting God’s punishment. The law reminds us that God has entered into a special relationship with his people. He alone is their God and they are to worship him as God alone.
In the fullness of time, God provided the perfect physical form to complete his special relationship with his people. That form is Jesus Christ, the God-Man. The consuming fire fell upon this perfect form as he took our place upon the cross, bearing our sin, guilt and shame. God raised his Son from the dead, granting him new life and granting new life to all, who are united by faith to him. God did all of this to fulfill his covenant, the legal presentation of his special relationship to his people. Through Jesus Christ, all of us have discovered the only way to enter into this special relationship with God. The law has been our help. But Christ is our only hope.

February 5 “The Covenant: The Necessity of a Mediator� (4:44 – 5:33)

Moses occupied a unique office as the mediator between God and Israel. The first generation witnessed the Ten Plagues of Egypt, each one unleashing discomfort to destruction as Moses announced them. The first generation saw Moses stretch out his staff at the Red Sea as the Lord drove the sea back providing a dry path for Israel to escape the Egyptians. Then the first generation saw Moses stretch out his staff over the sea as the Lord returned the waters to drown the Egyptian army. The first generation came to Horeb, to Mt. Sinai blazing with fire. God spoke to them out of the fire and the people begged Moses to be their mediator before God. While God spoke face to face with Israel, Moses stood between the God and Israel. Moses ascended the mountain as the mediator between God and Man. He walked through the fire to receive the law of God to deliver to the people. Years ago, in the wilderness, God had spoken to him from the burning bush. But now, the entire mountain was ablaze and God’s voice was shaking the earth.
The first generation rebelled against God and so they were sent into the wilderness to wander for 38 years. God told them at Kadesh-barnea that all of the fearful, unwilling warriors would die in the wilderness. Only Caleb and Joshua, whose courage presented their faith in God, would enter the Promised Land. The first generation would perish in the wilderness, but their children would enter the land. At the conclusion of 38 years, the second generation returned to Kadesh-barnea and for approximately two years, Moses prepared them for living in the land according to the law of God. He delivered three great and lengthy addresses to Israel’s second generation. These addresses are used to structure Deuteronomy, the final book of Moses, written for the purpose of preserving and thus reminding Israel of God’s redemptive history, law, and covenant.
Moses sees his final task as mediator between God and Israel to teach the second generation about the mighty acts of divine deliverance and the giving of the law. Moses presents the history of God’s faithfulness to the covenant and Israel’s fickleness, not to mention rebellion against the covenant. For the benefit of the second generation, he presents the Ten Commandments once again. In Exodus 20, Moses wrote down the Ten Commandments for the benefit of the first generation. In Deuteronomy 5 Moses writes down the Ten Commandments once again for the second generation. Have you discovered any differences between the two presentations? Have you noticed that Moses lists different reasons for the fourth commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day to keep holy as the Lord your God commanded you.� In Exodus 20, Moses supplies this reason: “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.� For the first generation, Moses supplies a reason that flows from Creation, from the beginning of time. The first generation needed to understand that the order and quality of their life was patterned after the order and quality of God’s creative work. God has designed humanity to live according to his creative pattern. God made Mankind, male and female, very good, but the human race needs a rest and lives best according to a schedule.
In Deuteronomy 5, Moses replaces the word, “remember,� with “observe.� “Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you.� Then he supplies a different reason for the cessation of work: “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.� To the second generation, Moses supplies a reason that flows from redemption. This second generation needs to remember that they are free and so they should act as if they are free. As slaves in Egypt they had to work every day. They had to work as many hours as their taskmasters demanded. But now their Lord has freed them and given to them a schedule that allows the quality of life to greatly improve. Work is an important part of life, but so is rest and worship. Those who follow the Ten Commandments should not enslave others. The second generation was to remember that they were slaves in Egypt so that they would never ever enslave others. Their children, servants, and foreign workers were to be given a day’s rest every Sabbath.
Most likely a good number of people today, mostly Christians, would view the fourth commandment as restrictive and archaic. But Moses presents it twice with refreshingly positive reasons for it. The fourth commandment is for our good! The fourth commandment stands to prevent slavery in the world. The fourth commandment reminds us that we are made in God’s image and that God redeemed us from bondage. Moses is the mediator between God and Israel. He presents God’s law as good and helpful instruction for life. He connects God’s law to God’s creative designs for us and to God’s redemptive acts for us. The fourth commandment directs us to live according to the gospel. Some people, mostly Christians, think the fourth commandment to be restrictive and archaic, tied to an agrarian society. Some think God unfair in telling us what to do one day a week. Actually, in the fourth commandment God tells us what to do every day of the week. We are to live according to the gospel. The fourth commandment not only tells us that we need to rest from our work, but it tells us how we are to treat others under our care. We are to remember that God has made, not only us, but our children, our employees, even alien employees in his own image.
In the New Testament, there is no greater presentation of the Fourth Commandment than Hebrews 3 and 4. The author tells us to “fix our thoughts upon Jesus…Jesus has been found worthy of a greater honor than Moses.� The author quotes Moses imploring us not to harden our hearts and thus miss entering God’s rest. Then in Hebrews 4:1, he says, “Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. Now we who have believed enter that rest.� Moses, the giver of God’s law, presented the gospel clearly through the law. The Fourth Commandment presents the gospel and Israel heard it in Moses’ day. But they did not believe. Israel most certainly followed the letter of the law from time to time, but she often missed the center, heart transformation of it.
How do we keep the Fourth Commandment? The author of Hebrews says that we must hear the gospel and believe it. This is at the center of the Fourth Commandment, at the center of all Ten Commandments. There may be a number of applications that would inform our lifestyle on the Sabbath, but if we followed these without hearing the gospel and believing it, we would be nothing less than a Sabbath breaker. The author of Hebrews continues, “It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience.� What was the disobedience of Israel? They heard the gospel but did not believe it. If we are to enter the rest of God’s eternal Sabbath day, we must hear the gospel and believe it.
Such a positive presentation is made for every one of the Ten Commandments. The first four teach us how to relate to God. The final six teach us how to relate to one another. Moses is a faithful mediator. He delivered God’s law to Israel in the precise order and presentation chosen by God. The Ten Commandments are prefaced by God’s repeated statement of redemption: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.� God redeems us so that we might live in his presence, pleasing to him and beneficial for us. In the giving of the law, God reminds us first of his redemptive acts, then he tells us how to live. Moses, as the mediator, was given the responsibility of delivering this redemptive history and God’s law together, to the people of God.
In (5:18) and following, Moses preserves his appointment as mediator. God heard Israel beg for a mediator. God agrees with Israel that she needs a mediator and he is pleased with them, wishing that they were right and responsive more often. God’s loving desire is expressed in (29), “Oh that they had such a mind as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendents forever!� Then God installs Moses as mediator. The people are sent back to their tents to common life, but Moses must remain in attention before God, to receive the whole law. God will impart to him everything he needs to prepare the people to enter the land. And so, Moses, in his final days, addresses the people, “You shall be careful, therefore, to do as the Lord your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right or to the left. You shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess.� These words are classic Moses! God is very, very good to give such a mediator of the law to his people. Moses gives three reasons for obeying God’s holy law and all three reasons are redundantly positive. The law is for our good! Obey it so that your quality of life will be rich and enjoyable.
For this quality of life to be enjoyed to its eternal richness and fullness, God must send a greater Mediator. Moses died, his task completed. The law was faithfully delivered, preserved, and binding. But the greater Mediator would come to die and in his death he would complete his task. The greater Mediator did not come to deliver the law but to live by it. He came to die by the penalty the law assigns to all lawbreakers. In his death, this greater Mediator pleased God who raised him to new life, awarding him with all of the blessings the law promises to law keepers. The greater Mediator between God and Man now shares all these blessings with every single person who puts his trust in him. The one and only Mediator between God and Man is the Man Christ Jesus. Moses delivered the law with all its promises for obedience. Jesus obeyed the law and delivers all the blessings to those who claim him Lord and God. The law delivered by Moses convinces us how great an obedience is required to win God’s eternal favor. The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ announces to us how great are the blessings freely given to us by God, only because our great and only Mediator stands between us and our God, making peace forever and ever. Amen.

February 12 “The Covenant: For Generations to Come� (6-7)

Moses often instructs Israel to pass the law of God to the emerging generations. Those of us who are raising children have discovered how much of our life is devoted to our children. Moses reminds us that God’s redemptive work includes the teaching of emerging generations to fear God. Moses is not merely instructing parents to teach their own children. He is instructing the entire nation of Israel to raise the new generations. Chapters 6-7 inform all three institutions: family, church, and state. Each of these institutions have a role in raising the emerging generations to fear God.
Moses first instructs us adults to observe the law of God with the purpose of modeling obedience before the emerging generations (6:1-2). We must not say to our children, “Do as I say, not as I do.� Moses reminds the second generation at Kadesh-barnea that its parents died in the wilderness as consequence for their rebellion against God. The first generation was brought to Kadesh-barnea to enter the land, but instead of fearing God, the first generation feared Man, refusing to follow God according to his promise. Moses instructs this second generation to observe the laws of God so that the third and fourth generation may fear God, keep his law, and enjoy long life.
Our children and grandchildren must see us fear God. They should see our lifestyle informed by the Ten Commandments. They should see faith and repentance at work in our lives. They should see the ministry of reconciliation: The first four commandments showing us the way toward reconciliation with God and the final six commandments showing us the way to reconcile with one another.
Moses secondly instructs us adults to teach the Ten Commandments to our children. Model obedience first, then teach the children to obey. For many of us, we are learning alongside our children for the first time. No worries: God is merciful to those of us who begin the generational pursuit of his holiness. This past Sunday at Evergreen, Huron Claus once again visited us. What a gracious and humble man! He told us that he is fifth generation Mohawk and Kiowa Christian. God has been faithful to the Claus family generation after generation. Five generations ago, God started a good work in the Claus family. Perhaps in 2006 God is starting a good work in you and your fear of God will influence many generations to come.
How are we to teach the Ten Commandments to our children? Moses actually supplies teaching methodology for us. Firstly, we are to teach from the heart. The content will engage the mind. It would be impossible for any of us to take in new information without the use of our minds. Moses is concerned that what our minds receive is pressed down into our hearts so that it might affect us. We are to teach that which has affected us. Our children can detect a lesson of propositions parroted by an adult disconnected from the transformational power of God’s law. Our children can also recognize a lesson that has profoundly changed an adult from the inside out.
Secondly, we are trained to “impress� the law upon our children. Peter Craigie correctly explains that this verb means our repeating of the law to our children. Repetition is an important teaching device. Children, you should never scorn your parents, teachers, pastors, or any adult for repeating lessons to you. Humbly receive the repetition and learn from it. Nothing less than pride moves us to say, “I’ve heard that already. Why don’t you tell me something new.� Moses does not simply instruct us to repeat the law to our children. He tells us to repeat the lessons in different settings and through varied exercises. Throughout the day we are to verbally repeat the law to our children. “Talk about them when you sit at home, and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.� This type of repetition throughout our daily activities will illustrate the relevance of God’s law to our lives. God’s law applies to all of life in every situation. Every situation is an appropriate opportunity for the repeating of God’s law. We are to add to our verbal repeating the use of visual aids: “Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.� We know that some children are visual learners. A visual presentation can effectively reinforce the verbal repetition. We are presenting the law of God through the ears and through the eyes, to the mind, pressing it down into the heart of the child. Moses adds the writing of the law. Remember, in Moses’ day writing was being added to oral tradition. Tribes and nations were writing their languages for the first time. This new mode of communication was to be used to teach the law of God: “Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.�
In (6: 10-19) Moses summarizes major points of obeying God’s law in the Promised Land. In (20) he returns to his theme of instructing the emerging generations. Moses has told us to model obedience to the law of God and then to instruct our children through repetition. His third lesson is that we must explain the meaning of God’s law. “In the future, when your son asks you, ‘What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the Lord our God has commanded you?’ tell him: We were slaves of Pharoah in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.� We have repeated the law and so our children have it memorized and hid in their hearts. Now we must explain to them the meaning of the law. What is the meaning of the law? Freedom. God has redeemed us from bondage so that we might freely live with him. In other words, the meaning of the law is the gospel. The law does not have one meaning and the gospel another separate meaning. The very purpose of the law is to present the gospel and our need of the gospel. Any other use of the law that ignores the gospel does violence to the very meaning of the law.
Therefore, we must teach our children the gospel by presenting to them the meaning of the law. For example, if our children ask, “What is the meaning of the commandment, ‘Thou shalt not steal’?� The answer is not, “Well, Joey, you should never take your friend’s toy as your own. It belongs to Freddy and so, you should respect his property.� The answer Moses instructs us to give when our children ask about the meaning of the commandments is the gospel. “Well, Joey, we do not take other people’s property because God has freely given to us. God has even given to us eternal life and freedom from sin and death. He did so by freely giving up his Son, our Lord Jesus. One of the ways we express our gratitude to God is by respecting other persons’ property. We look to God to provide everything we need instead of taking what does not belong to us.� In other words, the law communicates the gospel to our children. Such a gospel answer must be given for each of the Ten Commandments.
“Daddy, what is the meaning of the commandment, ‘Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain’?� “Well, daughter, first let me say that I am pleased to hear you speaking Elizabethan English. The third commandment prohibits the use of God’s name in cursing. In fact, I don’t want to hear you using any profane words or vulgar language.� This is not the answer Moses instructs us to give to our children. We must say something like this: “Well, daughter, the name of God is powerful and holy just as God himself is powerful and holy. God has used his power and holiness to save us from sin and death. Therefore, we should never use his name destructively or disrespectfully. God’s name is beautiful and majestic. Therefore, we should never use his name in a vulgar manner. His name reminds us continually that he loves us and cares for all his creation. His name reminds us that he has redeemed us and shall redeem the earth on the last day. God has many names and each one explains to us another part of his holy character and every part of his gospel.�
Once we have explained the meaning of the law to our children, Moses tells us to teach the purpose of the law, namely prosperity, survival, and righteousness. The law is good for us. It teaches us how to live in freedom. Its demands are high and perfect, and so the law forces us to union with Jesus Christ, the only one who has met those high and perfect demands.
In chapter 7 we return to some of the disturbing commands of annihilation which I thoroughly discussed several weeks ago. At this point in his address, Moses once again mentions the importance of law abiding for the sake of our children. Moses writes, “Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.�
First of all, notice that God is not prohibiting interracial marriage. God is not against the mixing of the races. Such an idea is born out of human bigotry and hatred. God has a very good reason for commanding Israel to refrain from marrying her children to the children of the seven nations occupying the land of Canaan. These nations were sacrificing their own children on their altars erected to the god, Molech. They were hosting orgies around Asherah poles. The rain god, Baal, and his sister Asherah would thus mimic these orgies in the heavens producing rain. The rain was needed to make the crops grow, the primary economy of these nations. No responsible adult in our community today, regardless of political and religious persuasion, would encourage children to engage in such activity, let alone be exposed to it. The gospel frees us from such bondage. The gospel frees us from people who promote such bondage. God’s holiness and our holiness as his people is for our good. Holiness is not our restriction from a fun and exciting world. Holiness is our freedom from the bondage of this world. The holy people of God do not kill their young. The holy people of God do not engage in sex for economic gain. The gospel has freed us to raise our children to be productive and happy adults. The gospel has freed us to make a profit without violating the bodies of other people, making them victims of sexual abuse. The law of God is not restrictive. It is freedom.
Listen to (9), “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. But to those who hate him he will repay to their face by destruction; he will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate him. Therefore, take care to follow the commands, decrees and laws I give you today.� As we obey God’s law we will discover the gospel to be true and to be our only hope. We will discover that God is faithful. God is faithful to us generation after generation. Love him; keep his commandments, and you will discover God’s faithfulness to you in your success and in your failure. It is easy to read Moses then to hate God. The God of Moses does what he wills regardless of how we might assess his actions to be fair. His justice boggles our minds. His mercy seems to be arbitrary. He is unlike any other person we have met and so, we often find him to be repugnant. And so Moses warns us against hating God. Do not hate him for God shall repay hatred with punishment. Instead, love God and keep his commandments. This path will lead you to the discovery that God is indeed faithful. The more you know and keep the law, the more of the gospel you will understand. Then you will understand God sufficiently to confess that he is good, keeping his love to a thousand generations.

Feb 19 “The Covenant: Connection between Remembrance & Obedience� (8)

In the seventh century the Celts identified the “Thin Places� in Ireland, locations where this earthly realm and the spiritual realm intersect. Today on the American continent, New Mexico is the land of the “Thin Places.� Sacred sites of the Hopi, Taos, and Navajo connect planet earth to the stars and gather humanity to the Great Spirit. New Age retreat centers are located near rock formations which generate spiritual energy. Space 22 outside of Roswell is the epicenter of space alien citings. In human history, there are few “Thin Places� as thin as Mt. Sinai. In the middle of a desert wilderness, Israel encountered the presence of “Yahweh,� whose other-worldly presence set the whole mountain ablaze. The earth-shaking voice of God spoke from the fiery mountain causing great fear among Israel. We have already heard Moses in his address of Israel say, “What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?� Moses reminds the people, “On earth Yahweh has showed you his great fire and you heard his words from the fire.� Mt. Sinai is one of the “Thin Places� in history.
At Sinai, Yahweh delivered the law to Moses to give to the people. We have been discovering how the law teaches us how to live according to the gospel. God liberated his people so that they might live in freedom. God is doing this for us as well. Every one of the Ten Commandments teaches us how to live according to the gospel. At Sinai the law was given so that wherever Israel was scattered, and wherever we may live on the globe, we might discover our location to be a “Thin Place.�
In Deuteronomy 8, Moses continues to prepare the second generation of Israel to enter the land God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses repeatedly tells Israel to “remember� her experience at Sinai. She is to remember that God came near to lead her and to care for her in the wilderness. He begs Israel, “Do not forget the Lord God but obey his commandments.� Can you imagine forgetting the voice of God speaking out of a fiery mountain? Can you imagine forgetting God’s deliverance of you from the Egyptian army at the Red Sea? Could you ever forget walking through the sea on dry ground with a wall of water on either side held back by the wind of God? Could you ever forget the water walls falling, drowning the entire Egyptian army? Moses tells Israel that she must remember the redemptive acts of God. Remembrance is connected to our obedience of God. More profoundly, remembrance puts our obedience into its proper context. Moses continues with his main theme of the law being good for Israel. (1) “Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land that the Lord promised on oath to your forefathers.� Obedience to the law of God produces prosperity of life. Any presentation of the law as restrictive departs from Moses’ presentation of the law as good for us. The law teaches us how to live according to the gospel. Any other view or practice of the law does violence to the nature and the purpose of the law.
Moses says, “Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these 40 years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart.� Thin places are usually places of challenge and trial. God leads us through wilderness experiences to humble us. Did you watch Johnny Weir skate in the 2006 Winter Olympics? He is remarkably fluid on ice and was our best hope of defeating the dominating Russian team. He is also one of the more arrogant young men on the planet. Our family viewed his personal video aired on prime time prior to his skating. He is wholly stuck on himself, giving credit to no one but himself. He says, “I chart my own destiny and I am in complete control of all I do.� In (17) Moses describes someone like Johnny, who says, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.� Many of us have suffered from such arrogance and God has broken it down in our lives, humbling us through wilderness experiences. He has taken us through financial deserts. He has led us through the wilderness of relational debacles. He has walked with us through the valley of the shadow of death. He may humble us by allowing us to speak arrogantly about our brilliance on ice, only to fall flat on our face. This is what happened this past week to Johnny Weir. He had the potential of winning the gold and was expected to win at least the silver. He appeared on the ice, his dress flamboyant, but his skating lack luster. He finally placed fifth. Stomping out of the scoring booth he met the press who asked him about the cause of his poor skating. He blamed the Torino Mass Transit system saying, “Every day the buses run every ten minutes, but today they ran every 30 minutes and so my concentration was ruined. My aura was altered. I was left in darkness. It’s not my fault. By the time I arrived at the arena, I was in no position to skate. It’s Torino’s fault.� I’ve been in Johnny’s predicament and God has used such experiences to humble me and to conform my life to the remembrance/obedience axis. He has taught me more and more every season of my life how to live according to the gospel.
Moses says, “Yahweh humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna.� God will use the lack of food and the provision of it to teach us to rely upon him alone. Here we read one of the most beautiful lines of Moses: “man does not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.� Jesus quoted these words as the devil tempted him in the wilderness. Jesus had not eaten for 40 days and the devil came to him saying, “Make these stones turn to bread.� Jesus responded, “Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.� Jesus, the perfect Son of God, who had the power to turn stones to bread, was humble at heart. He knew that all creation, even humanity is wholly dependent upon God. All good gifts come from God. Moses reminds us that our clothes and our health are gifts from God. The apostle James writes, “Every good and perfect gift comes from God, the Father of lights.�
Our wandering in the wilderness is often God disciplining us, preparing us to enter into life according to his promises. Moses says, “As a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.� The author of the New Testament book, Hebrews, expounds on this teaching of Moses, which was preserved by Solomon in his Proverbs: “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined and everyone undergoes discipline, then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.�
God’s redemptive work, even his discipline of us, prepares us to live obediently and prosperously. In (8-9) Moses returns to his theme of God’s law being good for us. As we obey God’s law, we enter into a prosperous life. The Promised Land is here described as the Garden of Eden. Moses says in (10) “When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given to you.� The praise of God is our first response to his redemptive work. Every good gift from God is a small part of Eden restored to us. None of us deserve to enter into such a bountiful land, but God graciously gives to us little bits of Eden.
The gospel is not that God whets our appetites and invites our praise by giving to us little bits of Eden. Rather, the gospel is God giving to us his Son, Jesus Christ, and through him he has given to us all things. Eden shall be restored fully to the human race only because Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, has wholly obeyed God and won entrance back into the Promised Land. The prophet Isaiah supplies us with a powerful picture of Jesus Christ as the wide highway in the wilderness leading back to Eden. If you place your feet on that highway, then you will be walking in the direction of Eden. The core delight of Eden was God conversing with Adam and Eve. The core delight of the Promised Land was God dwelling in the midst of his people.
In (18) Moses says, “But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.� Our abilities, though God-given, do not confirm the ancient covenant. Our obedience does not confirm the ancient covenant. God himself confirms the ancient covenant. The ancient covenant has been formed between two parties: God and Humanity. God has succinctly presented the covenant through Moses at Sinai: “Obey my commands and I will bless you; Disobey my commands and I will curse you.� How shall the human party confirm such a covenant? Read (19-20). If you think God is joking about cursing disobedience, think again. How then shall any of us, or all of us collectively confirm the covenant? The Man Christ Jesus is our only hope. His perfect obedience to the law has confirmed the covenant. Only the God-Man could fulfill the ancient covenant. That is why Moses says that God himself will confirm the covenant. How unilateral it is! God alone is going to make it happen. He will make it happen for us and through us. The gospel is that God has done it for us. God is leading us back to Eden. He is leading us into the Promised Land. He is preparing us to live in the new heavens and the new earth! He is making every space a Thin Space.
Such a view promotes our building a world today that is beautiful, that actually works, that is creative, that is free of poverty and disease. Everything Lennon imagined apart from God, we can deliver by obeying God. In the world of Rock stardom, Bono is actually pursuing what Lennon only dreamed could be accomplished. Bono is serving Christ by living according to the gospel. Some stars tour the world, gyrating on stages singing, “I can’t get no….� Such a life is founded upon forgetfulness. Other stars sing, “Grace travels outside of karma,� and give their profits to feed the poor and to relieve the suffering of those dying of AIDS. Such lives use the remembrance/obedience axis. The life of remembrance is not merely for the stars, but can be lived by every one of us. As we remember that God has redeemed us, we do not condemn the person dying of AIDS, but we provide a clean bed and sit there to share the gospel as PCA missionaries, Andrew and Bev Warren do six days a week in Addis Ababa. As we remember that God has freed us we begin to live freely, no longer living as slaves to self and to passion. We praise God and we are careful to obey his commands. His commands convince us that Grace travels outside of karma and we enter into the Promised Land of the Gospel.
In his book, The Post-Evangelical, David Tomlinson writes, “Evangelicalism is good at introducing people to faith in Christ, but unhelpful when it comes to the matter of progressing into a more grown-up experience of faith.� When Bono sings, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,� an evangelical may think that he is searching aimlessly for the truth and gospel. But Bono has embraced Christ and he is living according to the gospel. He does not see his spiritual conversion to be an isolated event in which he prayed to received Christ at some meeting in his past. He views his gospel-driven life to be dynamic, one in which he is pursuing God daily. In other words, he is living on a remembrance/obedience axis. He remembers the past to promote a present living according to the gospel. Like his father Abraham, he is ever searching for the heavenly city. Steve Stockman, Chaplain at University of Belfast writes in his book, Walk On, “There seems to be a belief that once someone makes the initial connection with Jesus Christ, he has arrived. Immediately, a watertight box of solutions is handed to him. No more questions need to be asked – Jesus is the answer! Everything is now explained; there is nothing left to search for. This view is built on a need for precision and perfection, which have always been enemies of art, which is all about coloring outside the lines. It is also an enemy of the reality that following Jesus is a journey, not an arrival.�
Moses calls us to a journey on the remembrance/obedience axis. If we refuse to embark upon this journey, we shall surely be destroyed, left in the dust, so to speak. The journey on the remembrance/obedience axis has led to the Thinnest of Thin Places in history – the cross, where God and Man have united in Jesus Christ. The work of Jesus on the cross has brought God near to us and we have been brought near to God. The journey on the remembrance/obedience axis calls us to make every inch of this world a Thin Place, a place where humanity glorifies God, a place where culture is redeemed, a place where we live according to the gospel.

February 26 “The Covenant: A Gospel Centered Document and Relationship� (9: 1-12)

We have been discovering the gospel in Deuteronomy, the book of the law for the second generation. Moses has made it clear that the meaning of the law is the gospel. In Chapter 6:20 Moses writes, “When your son asks you, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharoah’s slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.� In other words, the meaning of the law is the gospel, the proclamation of God’s liberating us from bondage. Every one of the Ten Commandments instructs us in living according to the gospel. Every command is designed to free us from the bondage and entanglements of life. This changes our view of the law. We no longer view God’s law to be restrictive.
When the first generation of Israel arrived at Kadesh Barnea, to enter the land, they sent 12 spies ahead. These men discovered that the land was as fruitful and pleasant as God had described. But they also discovered that there were giants who had built cities with walls reaching to heaven. Israel chose to fear Man instead of fearing God. Her fear caused her to rebel against God, who returned Israel to the wilderness to wander for 38 years. Deuteronomy is the collection of Moses’ addresses to the second generation. After 38 years of wilderness wandering, the second generation returned to Kadesh Barnea. Moses spent the final two years of his life preparing the second generation to enter the land. His address recorded in Chapter 9 begins with confronting the fear of Man. Moses gets to the point: there are giants in the land and their cities are fortified with walls reaching to heaven.
Every part of Deuteronomy teaches us how to live according to the gospel. In Chapter 9, Moses begins by addressing Israel’s fear of the giants in the land. Moses tells Israel that the giants are greater and stronger than she is, but the contest is not between the giants and Israel. The giants are going up against God, the consuming fire. God has promised the land to Israel and so, he shall go before Israel into the land to destroy these nations that are greater and stronger than she. Along with many other people I have struggled with the annihilation of these nations. In past sermons in Deuteronomy I have at least twice addressed this troubling matter. Most of the reasons supplied for their annihilation to date is that their wickedness had escalated to wide-spread sexual perversion connected to idolatrous worship, not to mention the sacrifice of infants and children to the God Molech. In Chapter 9, Moses supplies an interesting perspective on the annihilation of these wicked nations. He presents their annihilation as part of God’s ongoing work of redemption. Just as God liberated Israel from slavery in Egypt, so he now goes before them to liberate them from the perversities of the seven nations in Canaan.
God redeemed Israel from the evil institution of slavery in Egypt. Slavery as an economic institution is evil – to own a person as a piece of property, forcing him to work for no pay as if he were a beast of burden, is indeed evil. Just as evil if not more so, is to own a person, forcing her to engage in cultic sexual activity for economic gain. This is precisely what comprised Baal worship in Canaan. The worst evil may be the burning of infants and children to appease the god of the Ammonites. God’s law recorded by Moses in Leviticus 18 and 20 condemns to death anyone who would sacrifice children. In other words, God’s law frees us from bondage, frees us to live according to the gospel. God not only liberated Israel from the evil institution of slavery in Egypt, but he also liberated them from worse forms of slavery practiced by the seven wicked nations. This is the perspective Moses presents in Chapter 9, concerning the annihilation of these nations.
Fear of the Ammonites moved Israel to join in the worship of Molech. Fear of draught and economic ruin moved Israel to join in the worship of Baal, the Canaanite rain god. The fear of giants moved the first generation to rebel against God, refusing to enter the land. Moses presents the gospel to Israel as the end of her fear of Man and the beginning of her fear of God.
The gospel tells us how God has freed us from sin and death and situated us to live in his love and freedom for our good and his glory. Graeme Goldsworthy of Moore Theological College in Brisbane, Australia, has written a helpful book, The Goldsworthy Trilogy. He writes, “The key to the Old Testament is not the part Israel plays – as important as that is – but the part God plays in redeeming a people from slavery and making them his own…The redeemed people of God are the people of God’s kingdom. I would even suggest that this goal, the Kingdom of God, is a more central issue in the Old Testament than is the redemptive process of bringing people into that Kingdom.� As we read Deuteronomy, we hear Moses again and again rehearse God’s redeeming of his people from slavery. But we also hear Moses amply preparing God’s people to enter into the Kingdom of God. Both are gospel presentations. The gospel commends to us the experience of liberation followed by the experience of living in God’s Kingdom.
In his second paragraph, Moses presents the gospel from a different angle. God is not receiving us into his kingdom because of our personal righteousness. This may be one of the most difficult aspects of the gospel for good people to accept. Moses says, “Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land….� God is engaged in a great, redemptive work, much bigger than you and me. He is making good on his promise to Abraham that “all nations will be blessed through him.� The apostle Paul tells the Church at Galatia that the promise of God to Abraham is as fixed as God’s law. Not one bit of the promise may be changed. Paul also tells us in this same letter that Abraham received the promise by faith. All of us who have the faith of Abraham are his true children. We receive the promise. Paul goes on to say that the law of God given through Moses does not make this promise obsolete, but rather supports the promise, directing all of us to the promise. The law does this painfully and brilliantly. The law teaches us soon enough that none of us can meet its demand for perfect righteousness through perfect obedience. We learn through the law what Moses tells the second generation: God has not chosen you and welcomed you into his kingdom because of your own personal righteousness. In his mercy God welcomes us into his kingdom. He has every reason and justification to destroy us. But he has chosen to welcome us.
C.S. Lewis wrote a poem describing himself as a scholar’s parrot prattling Greek but self-imprisoned. If God has truly freed us from the bondage of this world, freeing us from ourselves, we would not merely mimic the words of God, but rather, we would live by them. This is the redemptive stream presented by Moses in Deuteronomy. The gospel is God freeing us to live freely. He does not free us from one slavery so that we might choose another. Don Miller, a resident of Portland and author of the best selling Blue Like Jazz, read Lewis’ poem and personalized it. He writes, “I sat there above the city wondering if I was like the parrot in Lewis’ poem, swinging in my cage, reciting Homer, all the while having no idea what I was saying. I talk about love, forgiveness, social justice; I rage against American materialism in the name of altruism, but have I even controlled my own heart? The overwhelming majority of time I spend thinking about myself, pleasing myself, reassuring myself, and when I am done there nothing to spare for the needy. Six billion people live in this world, and I can only muster thoughts for one. Me.� The gospel of Moses brings you to the end of yourself. The gospel is not about you, but about what God has done for you. He has freed you from slavery and he brings you into his kingdom where you live according to the gospel.
In his third paragraph Moses moves from our unworthiness to that part of the gospel, which tells us of God supplying the law so that we might live free from all the entanglements of this world. Moses reminds the people of their stubborn rebellion in the wilderness. He reminds them that God was so angry that he was ready to destroy them. Instead, God provides the Ten Commandments so that the people might live free of idolatry.
The law is designed to free us from the slavery of idolatry. God tells Moses to hurry down the mountain to deliver the law to the people. They are already in dire need of it! In the valley, Aaron has fashioned the golden calf and the people are worshipping it. God’s purpose in giving the law is to free us from the slavery of idolatry. “Hurry! Deliver the law so that the people might be free.� The first four commandments instruct us in worshipping God alone, freeing us from devoting ourselves to other gods. The final six commandments instruct us in loving our neighbor, applying God’s love to our human relationships. As we love our neighbor, we are worshipping God alone, free of the worship of self, or any other authority that would force us to malign other people. Paul writes to the Church at Galatia, “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: Love our neighbor as yourself. If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.�
The law is designed to free us from the slavery of idolatry and we desperately need it! The law has been delivered to us and the sooner we begin to obey it, the sooner we will come to depend utterly upon Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, the only one who has perfectly obeyed God’s law. The apostle Paul in his letter to the Church at Galatia says that the law is like a tutor or schoolmaster who brings us to Christ so that we might be justified by faith. Then he writes, “But after faith is come, we are no longer under the schoolmaster.� This does not mean that the law is abolished. It means that the work of Christ Jesus in the fullness of time has produced true freedom for all of God’s children. It means that the purpose of the law is to bring us to faith in Christ and once the law has delivered us to this end, it has done its work. It means that Jesus Christ has in the fullness of time met the demand for perfect righteousness by perfectly obeying the law. Thus, for us who are united to Christ, the law no longer holds the demand over our heads. “There is now no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus!� What about that part of the gospel, which welcomes us into the Kingdom of God to live in freedom? The law, though it wields no authority over our standing before God as righteous sons and daughters, is yet useful to us, showing us how to live according to the gospel. How shall Israel live in the Promised Land? God has already redeemed her from slavery. In fact, he did so before he gave to her the law! God gives the law so that Israel might live freely in the land.
Now that we have been freed by the gospel, how should we live? Should we live according to the gospel? The law shows us how to do so. Every time we break one of the Ten Commandments we return to slavery. We lose a bit of our freedom. The more we live by the Ten, the more freedom we enjoy.

March 12 “The Covenant: The Misery and Victory of the Mediator� (9:13 – 10)

Moses was an extraordinary man. Upon seeing the idolatry of Israel, he hurls to the ground the two tablets of God’s law, shattering them. He drags the golden calf into the fire, crushes and grinds it into powder, then pours it into the river. His next action is to fast 40 days and 40 nights, prostrate before the Lord, begging God’s mercy to flow to Israel, a stiff-necked people. In his first reaction he seems to lack control. In his second action he appears to be over-controlling. In his final action he appears to be not only a holy man, but a nearly superhuman holy man. How can he in one instance seem to act rashly and then in the next instance exhibit incredibly spiritual discipline?
I don’t know if Moses sinned in shattering the two tablets of God’s law on the ground. At least it seems a shame that the very record of God’s law, designed to bring life, would be destroyed. Would it not have been better for Moses to have read the words God had inscribed upon both sides of the stone tablets to indict and to correct the idolatry of Israel? Moses throwing the tablets to the ground, shattering them to pieces was a powerful image of what Israel had done in her worship of the golden calf – she had broken the law of God. Did Moses intend to make this connection or was he overcome by his anger? He appears to be a bit theatrical. Why
does he burn the calf, grind it into powder and pour it into the river? Is he making sure that no one in Israel will be able to retrieve any of the gold and thus profit? Is he dramatically presenting the gospel of a God, who destroys the idols of his people, completely removing from them those idols and any remembrance of them?
Moses, afraid of God’s anger and wrath, fasts for 40 days and 40 nights, pleading with God to show mercy to Israel. Is he weakened by fear of divine anger? Is he superstitious to believe in a wrathful God, that is, a God who acts out his anger? Fredrick Nietzche and all who have espoused his “Superman� would find Moses to be a weak and flawed man. He lacks control; he is sensational and theatrical; he is moved by emotions and fear; he is superstitious. Refusing to eat for 40 days and 40 nights, writhing in torment, babbling the same prayers repeatedly is a display of weakness, if not some critical psychosis. Nietzche created a prophet, Zarathustra who said at the beginning of his mission, “ Ye have made your way from the worm to man, and much within you is still worm. Once were ye apes, and even yet man is more an ape than any of the apes. Even the wisest among you is only a disharmony and hybrid of plant and phantom. But do I bid you become phantoms or plants? Lo, I teach you the Superman!� Nietzche speaks through his prophet to explain that Man is a polluted stream. Superman is the sea, able to receive the polluted stream without becoming impure. Man is a rope stretched over an abyss, a rope between animal and the Superman. Thus spake Zarathustra, “What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal.� God is the invention of Man, weak and flawed, desperately looking for help. But when Man finally evolves into Superman, then he will no longer need his invention of the divine and thus God is dead. Nietzche devoted his philosophy to the Superman. He would have thought Moses to be a polluted stream, weak and unfinished.
Moses was extraordinary. He lived according to the paradigm expressed in these words: “divine strength is perfected in human weakness.� Was Moses’ strength his ability to fast for 40 days and 40 nights? Some people have rejected such statements in the Bible claiming that it is humanly impossible to go without bread and water for 40 days. Indeed some of you would have to agree that no ordinary human being in an ordinary situation could go without water for 40 days. Yet Moses repeatedly writes that he did so. Moses is not the only one in biblical narrative who fasted for 40 days. Matthew and Mark both record that Jesus fasted in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights. Those who know that an ordinary person, in an ordinary situation, can not survive without water for 40 days, may have difficulty at this point. Some have suggested that the Gospel accounts of Jesus only mention his fasting from bread, but not from water. It may be that Jesus drank water during his fast, but Moses claimed to go without water 40 days and 40 nights, not only once, but at least on two different occasions! Does this show him to be a superhuman? God writes the law on the stone tablets and converses with Moses, who fasts for 40 days and 40 nights, the entire time he is on the mountain. Then he descends the mountain, discovers Israel’s idolatry, breaks the tablets, pulverizes the golden calf and begins yet another 40 days and 40 nights of fasting. Is it possible for a mere man to do this? Moses was a mere man. Moses was extraordinary.
Personally, I do not believe that the norm negates the extraordinary and so I believe that Moses fasted 40 days and 40 nights and then did it again several days later. Do I believe that this is ordinary? No. I believe that it is extraordinary. This is not Science vs. Faith. This is personal observation of a world that runs according to natural laws that produce and allow not only for the ordinary but also the extraordinary. Science presents a world that operates according to the rules with exceptions. The laws of nature, discovered by Science do not give to us a world bereft of the extraordinary. The question, “Is it possible for this to happen?� is a fine question. There are other valid questions we might ask: “What did Moses do with 40 days and 40 nights of fasting?� or “Why did Moses fast 40 days and 40 nights?�
Moses was the mediator between God and Israel. This is why he fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. What did he do with those days and nights? He lay prostrate before the Lord and prayed. He mediated between God and Israel. Consider his prayer recorded in (9: 26-29). He begs God to