◈Deuteronomy Part 2: Unlocking the Old Testament Source
video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rERLU14fNIQ
By David Pawson
video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rERLU14fNIQ
Looking at the three talks that Moses gave during his last week to the next generation of the children of Israel is the camp this side of the Jordan.
◑1. The first discourse chapters 1~4,
He looks back into the past, he looks back to the days after Sinai, when God had made the covenant with their parents and He said it only takes 11 days from Sinai to the promise land and yet your parents took something like 15,490. Why? Well the answer was like a faith, they did go straight to the promise land, and they got to a place called Kadesh Banea which was right on the border. And there they paused and they sent one man from each of the twelve tribes to spy out the land and come back and tell them the best way to go in less than a fourth night after Sinai.
The spies came back and said it’s a wonderful land; they came back carrying huge clusters of grapes from this land flowing with milk and honey. (This medal is now the Israeli tourist board symbol if you have ever been there you will know.) They came back and said the food was wonderful but, they said, the people are bigger than we are. They’re giants and Jews are not tall people, they’re little people. They said they are big people in there. Furthermore the walls around their cities reach the sky. “We’ll never take it.” Now there was a vote taken among the spies and ten of them said, “We’ll never get in” and two of them said “Of course we will, because God is bigger than all of them. Moses said “Look, we had been riding on God’s shoulders” and I could remember as a small boy riding on my father’s shoulders. When you are on your dad’s shoulders, you are bigger than anybody else and you can look over the high walls.
Moses said, “What are you worried about?” But, anyway they took a democratic vote and the majority went with the ten and not the two and that’s when Moses said, “None of you will get in except those two spies, Joshua and Caleb. So, it turned out.
That wasn’t the reason Moses wanted to get in, it was much later that he disobeyed God and became very impatient. And God said “Moses you’re not going to go in either, just Joshua and Caleb” Two out of two and a half million people made it.
▶Three of the writers in the New Testament use that as a warning to Christians. It’s not those who start off, it’s those who get there. Paul, Hebrews and Jude – all used this fact that only two out of two million made it. As a warning to believers. Make sure you make it. Keep on believing right to the end. They had everything in front of them. And yet, their morale failed.
In any battle, you need strategy, tactics and morale but you find in the long term it’s morale that is the key factor.
If people feel they’re going to win, they will win. And if they feel defeated, they will lose. And, many of the greatest commanders knew this. General Montgomery in World War II was a classic example. And he lifted the morale of the 8th armies that was pressed back into Egypt. And he simply talked to them and said, “We’re going to beat this German!” and they did. It’s whether you believe you’ll going to make it and are afraid they didn’t. And so though God has been faithful to them, they were faithless.
▶Chapter 4 simply says, “Children, don’t be like your parents “They lost their faith and they lost their land. Now, you keep yours and you can keep the land. It’s a very simple sermon if you like and you don’t need me to help you with understanding it. So, let’s move on to the main block of the book. Not so interesting to read well much more interested in stories.
◑2. Then we are in legislation.
It’s like reading the telephone directory through. And uh, people get a bit bored and yet it’s a fascinating section, the second address is by far the longest probably on the third day of the last week in Moses’ life. But, he gives them the way there to live after God has given them the land, if they’re going to keep it.
▶10 Commandments
He begins with the basic principles of God’s righteous way of living, His upright way of living namely the Ten Commandments. They’re at the heart of it; you learn them on your ten fingers. They’re the very basic principles. They are all about one thing--they are all about respect.
Respect God
Respect His name
Respect His day
Respect your parents
Respect life
Respect marriage
Respect property
Respect people’s reputation.
And the quickest way to destroy society is to destroy respect. That’s exactly what we’ve seen happened in our own country, largely through comedy on TV. one well known comedian his name you don’t know said; “We intend to live nothing sacred” In other words, our objective is to destroy all respect. Respect for royalty, respect for the law, respect for the government, respect for each other. You destroy respect and you’ve destroyed society. The whole Ten Commandments are built on respect.
So we have in that first part those Ten Commandments, It’s very interesting to draw a contrast between the Law of Moses here, and the worst laws in pagan society and the best laws in pagan society.
If you contrast this standards of Moses law with the worst as we’ve already done with the Amorite’s already living there, what a pure holy Lord it is, how much healthier and happier people we’ll be if they live that way.
▶But, as an interesting comparison between Law of Moses and another law, which has been discovered from the ancient world called the Code of Hammurabi. An Ancient Amorite King of a city called Babylon or Babel. If you’ll go to the Louver in Paris, do go and look at the steel or stone column, that was found at a place called Susa in Persia and is now on the louver. And on the stone column a carve 282 Laws of Hammurabi. Those laws were written 300 years before Moses'. Many scholars like to draw comparisons and it’s amazing when you do: No killing, no adultery, no stealing, no false witness and these are all in the laws of Hammurabi 300 years before. And the famous law called 'lex talionis' or the 'law of revenge' –an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, is also on that stone.
So many people say, “Well, these laws were pretty common, at least the king Hammurabi knew them” But you know Paul in Romans 2 is a very interesting thing, he says, “God has written his laws on the hearts of pagans”. He didn’t just write it on stone; He’s written it into the hearts of people. In other words, people know these things are wrong. God has written these laws in their heart. They know it!
Do you know that every society in the world has always thought incest was wrong? God has written these things on the heart as well. But it also made them even clearer to in the laws of Moses, having said that there are some big differences between Hammurabi’s law and the laws of Moses, for one thing Hammurabi there was only pretty one punishment for anything and that was death. Where the death penalty is in the Law of Moses is quite rare only 15 things in the Law of Moses that deserve the death penalty. So by comparison the Law of Moses is not nearly as barbaric as people would say. Not so harsh not so cruel.
Another huge difference is that in Law of Moses. Slaves and women are people, where is in the law of Hammurabi, they are property. And therefore women have no rights and no respect in the law of Hammurabi but they do in the Law of Moses. It’s a very interesting comparison.
Another is, in the law of Hammurabi there are classes. There are nobles; there are common people and the different law for the different classes. In the Law of Moses, the Law of God, there is no such thing as class. And the same law applies to everybody. I am just saying these because some scholars say “Oh well the Law of Moses is just one among many others”, No it’s quite different. Though God has written his law on pagan hearts and though they know these things are wrong.
▶There is another interesting technical difference. I give you the technical name and explain it:
The laws of Hammurabi are what we call Casuistic laws --They are presented in a form of a condition; if you do this, then you must die; if you do this. That is a condition.
Whereas, the laws of Moses are presented are what we call apodictic manner. They are presented not as a condition but as a command; you must not do this.
Now can you see the difference?
All the laws of Hammurabi are; if you do this you’ll be punished. The laws of Moses are; you shall not do this. Now only God has the right to talk like that you see. Human laws are usually casuistic, If you do this then that’s what will happen. But God has the right to say, “You must not do this. I command you not to do it” –because he is the King of kings. So there are differences.
▶Now the rest of the section 12 to 26 covers a huge amount to ground and the details are just incredible. I can only run through the headings for you and show what an amazing amount of ground covered.
First of all, there are many religious laws.
They cover (1) pagan Idolatry and that deserves the death penalty.
They cover (2) spiritualism that has the death penalty— consulting the dead and witch craft. Blasphemy (3), dedication of the first and best fruits, (4) tithing, special tithe every 3 years for aliens, orphans and widows being in the land.
Laws of the Sabbath, now that was totally new. Up to Moses, nobody had the Sabbath. Adam didn’t, Abraham didn’t, Isaac didn’t, and Jacob didn’t. It was a new provision for slaves who would work 7 days a week were now given one day free from work. Some people think the Sabbath goes back to the beginning, it doesn’t, it came in with Moses and incidentally it came out with Christ but that is not the story.
There is a law here about feasts, Passover Pentecost and Tabernacle. There are laws about sacrifices. There are laws vows. If you make a vow to God you must keep it and the cost of it is eternal salvation.
There are laws of separation. Now am wearing my Oxfam suit. 15 pounds but it’s a suit of mix of wool and polyester. No hair actually 15% only but I am breaking the Law of Moses and it was a Jewish family that make me break it because it was marks as Spencer’s(suit's brand name).
There are laws you must not mix different kinds of cloth, you must not mix different kinds of seed in the garden. You mustn’t mix this and that. You mustn’t plow with an ox and the ass. Now, what is this all about? There is simply all this was part of the old fertility cult in the land. They believe that by mixing things they were producing fertility. Are you following me? By mixing cloth you are making your clothes fertile. And it’s all due to that. God gives fertility you don’t get it by mixing things. And that is why the laws in mixture are in the religious section of Deuteronomy.
Then there are laws on government and it’s interesting that there are laws here for a king. And yet, God was their king and they weren’t having a king for centuries. And it wasn’t God’s will that they should have a king. And yet God knew that one day they would want one. So he made some laws for the king and one of the most interesting is that when a king came to the throne, he had to write out the laws of Moses in his own hand writing and read them regularly. Can you imagine our Queen being told in Westminster Abbey must write the Bible in her own handwriting? Or even write the Sermon of the Mount out in your own handwriting then read it regularly? Make sure that the king would know the law. The king mustn’t have many wives or many whores or much money.
And then there are laws here for judges there is a court of appeal. Here, death for contempt of court. There are rules of justice, no bribes, no favouritism, an alien an orphan or widow must get exact the same treatment as the richest business man. Aren’t these wonderful laws?
Then, there were laws about witnesses. There must be at least 2 or 3 witnesses who agree totally on what they’ve seen or heard. And if they bear false witness, they must suffer exactly what the person would have suffered if they would have found guilty. In other words, that’s when it says an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. And if my false testimony in court gets him fine a thousand pounds, then when I am discovered to be a false witness, I am fined 1000 pounds. Absolutely fair isn’t it? An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, good justice.
Then the punishment, 40 lashes maximum. There was flogging but it was forty maximum so they usually made it 39 to make quite sure they didn’t break the law. But it’s beyond that you are dehumanizing someone. You are just reducing them to a lump of meat. And a body must not be left hanging on a tree after sunset and made an object of ridicule. Actually, Paul applies that to Jesus on the cross in Galatians 3 It’s interesting.
Then the laws against special crimes; murder, which always carry the death penalty unless it was men slaughter and unintended. And there were 6 cities of refuge set up where a man who’d killed accidentally could run to and escape the death penalty.
There are laws against kidnapping and that carried the death penalty.
Interestingly enough; laws against rape. Law’s against assault, laws against stealing property and particularly removing boundary marks. The way that each person marks his little farm was with stones. And people would go out at night and move the stones in a yard or two each night. And that is based on the crime.
There are laws of health. What to do if you get an incurable skin disease? The word Leprosy in the Bible covers a lot of different skin diseases it’s not just what we call leprosy today.
Laws against eating animals that have died and laws about clean and unclean food; you mustn’t eat camels of rabbits or pigs or birds. Then this is very strange thing which was very misunderstood by almost every Jew. You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk. And on that one verse, the Jews have erected a gigantic cautious system of diet whereby in the kitchen they have to completely separate pots and pans and sinks to wash them and keep their dairy products over here and meat products over there. They have totally misunderstood that. That was again a pagan fertility cult rite. To create fertility, you made the kid have incest with its mother by cooking it in its mother’s milk. It was a fertility rite, that’s all it was. And they were told never to do that but they have now erected an entire cautious system of food on just one verse and got it out on all proportion.
Then, there were laws on welfare that you must leave the sheaves in the corner of the fields for the poor to pick up.
There are laws of assisting your neighbour with straying animals.
There is a law about when an ox is treading out the corn to separate the wheat from the chaff. You mustn’t put a mussel on it. It should be free to eat. What is treading out from other people you shall not mussel the ox when it is threshing corn. And, Paul applies that to people like me, preachers.
You see a preacher is treading out food for you, send the half for it, that’s what Paul, says, interesting application of the law. They are allowed to take birds eggs from the nest but not the mother. Better leave the mother so she can lay some more.
There are rules about warfare, they mustn’t cut down trees in war because they are not fighting trees they are fighting people. I thought of that law when America was poisoning the jungles of Vietnam and destroying all the trees. God says: you don’t fight trees, you fight people. There is a way to fight. This is the Geneva Convention long before Geneva was heard off. Very interesting rules for soldiers’ toilets and an interesting one for a soldier who’d get married, he can stay home for year before he goes to war again. That is a wonderful law isn’t it? Give him time to get to know his wife and make the marriage solid. You don’t go to war at the expense of marriage at home. Well what do we make out of all this laws? I just skipped through them there are hundreds of them.
▶Well, first the scope of these laws is interesting, it covers whole life; from your toilet arrangements to the way you wash it, from your clothes to your cooking. God is interested in the whole of your life. Living right is not just what you do in church on Sunday, Living right is the whole of life. And this Law of Moses tells us God is saying the right way to do everything. He wants people to be right in the whole of life.
▶The second thing I deduced from this is the amazing integration of these laws. I’ve classified them for you as I have gone through but actually they are all mixed up. You go straight from a law about not eating camels to a law about the feast. And this doesn’t please the modern western mind and we must classify them. We like them more gathered on the headings you know? But they’re all mixed up. Why? Because God is saying there is no division in life. We tend to say this is sacred and that is secular but God never said that. It’s all of a piece, it’s an integrated. It’s not only covering the whole of life but it is a wholeness of life. We use the modern term, holistic. It’s all together!
God is there whether you’re sitting down from meal or going to church to worship. It’s the same. I’ve told some of you before, I think, that in the Jewish book of prayers; there is a lovely prayer to pray when you go to the loo. And to us it’s a joke. We snigger when that said “Not to the Jew”. And it says: Lord, I thank you my body is working properly and I thank you I feel much better now, Hallelujah!
Now I go into many Christian toilets because I stay in many different homes. There are usually pile of devotional books at the side and a text on the wall and neither the books nor the text have anything to do with what I am there for. And when you get old and you can’t control your bowel and blood and you’d wish you would praise the Lord when it was working properly. See, to God, its’ all of a piece. It’s a whole life.
A holy life is doing it right in every part. But first thing I noticed here is the purpose of all these laws. It wasn’t to spoil their fun or to hedge them about restrictions. There is phrase keeps coming that it may be well with you. And that you may live a long life in the lands. God wants us healthy and happy that’s why he made the laws. And then we think God is just sitting up there thinking watch us telling us what to do or what not to do next you know? Like the little boy who went to school and the teachers said, “What’s your name?” And he said “Johnny don’t”. And the teacher said I’m sure you’re not called that well that’s what mommy always calls me. And you know there’s this picture God is just sitting up there saying 'don’t! Thou shall not!' Why is he doing it? He is saying that it may be well with you.
That’s one of the first thing we ask each other. Are you keeping well? It is same as the word ‘welfare’. It was their welfare that he was concerned about. And that is why it’s good to read all these laws. We must move on.
◑3. Third and last discourse on the last day Moses spoke to them is in two parts again.
In the first part he says. Now you are to ratify the law for yourself. When you get into that land after God has parted the waters for you and brought you in as he parted the waters for your parents and brought them out, when he gets in you to go to the mountain and you to go through all these blessings and curses and you to apply them to yourselves.
Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, I’ve been at Mount Gerizim and the few Samaritans left in the world were still there. And they have the Law of Moses they don’t have other books in the Bible but got the five laws of Moses. And they make little copies of their scroll of old tin cans and write out part of the law in Samaritan Language, that’s part of the Law of Moses. And they’ll show you a very old scroll which they had there for centuries which of that is a copy. They got a big, it’s about 4 feet high, the real one and they display it for certain consideration because they are very poor.
It was a Samaritan woman who said, where should we worship God on this mountain, Mount Gerizim or that one? And Jesus said No, it’s not a question of which mountain it is a question of in spirit and in truth. But there it is, and those two mountains are acoustically amazing, they’ve got a hollow face facing each other. It’s like a gigantic arena, with two peaks and the blessings were shouted from one side from the curse to another and the people had to shout ‘Amen!’ after each blessing and curse.
Now, I did this on Sunday night and I was preaching in an Anglican Church on Sunday night and I said let’s curse people and I want you to say Amen after each curse.
1. Cursed is he that cursed his father or another. Congregation say "Amen"
2. Cursed is he that removes his neighbour’s landmark. "Amen"
3. Cursed is he who leads the blind out of his way. "Amen"
4. Cursed is he that perverted his judgement of the strangers of the fathers and the widow. "Amen"
5. Cursed is he that lies with his neighbour’s wife "Amen"
6. Cursed is he that takes the reward to slay the innocent. "Amen"
7. Cursed is the unmerciful fornicators and the adulterous covetous persons, idolatrous, slanderous drunkenness and extortionist. "Amen"
As we read this on Sunday night the congregation got quieter and quieter and the amen is died away and somebody came up to me afterwards and said, “Do you know why we were quiet?” he said “It is because we found ourselves cursing ourselves”. And what I’ve just read to you is from Deuteronomy 28 but, it is in the Anglican book of Common prayer to be recited every Lent. That congregation had no idea I was simply taking them through the Anglican prayer book. But I tell you the church is as scared to use that service now cause as scared as upsetting people. Can you imagine the effect that would have if every Lent, every Church of England in this country curse those people in the name of the Lord?
Incidentally, in Galatians, Paul says if a preacher comes to you with a different gospel from the one poor preached, curse him. People say, what can you do about the preachers from the one perverting the gospel? Curse him. We have it within our power. Words are powerful. Blessings are powerful and curses are. And he curse word is ‘woe’.
And Moses said when you get in the land go to those mountains; shout the blessings from one curse to another and the people say ‘amen’. Ratify the covenant and you will be blessed and enjoy the land if you keep those laws and you will be cursed if you don’t. The rest of the history is in the Old Testament is just that.
▶When you read Deuteronomy 28, it is like reading the whole history of Israel for the last 4 thousand years. Because God goes on to say “if you just go on, and even after I take the rain away and you don’t listen, even after I’ve sent enemies to occupy you land you don’t want to listen” he said “ I am going to scatter you all over the whole earth and you will become the subject of ridicule and jokes.
Have you won about the Irish man, the Scott Man and the Jew? Deuteronomy 28 predicts that that will happen. And when you read Deuteronomy 28, you will understand the whole history of Israel right until today.
God has been so faithful and kept his promise to bless them and to curse them. They have been more blessed that any other nation and they have been more cursed than any other nation. It’s a proof that there is a God and that is the God of Israel.
▶Chapter 32, Moses sings. At the age of 120 says 'his eye is not dim and he must have a good voice.' Moses like many prophets was a musician. Prophecy and music go together all the way through Scripture. David was a prophet and he wrote more songs than anybody else through out the Bible. But Moses sang. He and his sister Miriam sang when they got through the Red sea. Moses wrote a lovely song which is sung once a year in Britain:
♬ “Oh, God, our help in ages past our hope for years to come
Sufficient is thy arm alone and our defence is sure” ♪ (옛부터 도움 되시고~)
And we have to chat to sing that on Sunday. Sufficient is thy arm alone and our defence is sure. That is a Moses song. It is based on Psalm 90. Here, he sings a song and he says; God is absolutely, solidly dependable, unchangeable, and reliable. He is our rock. And he is a God of faithfulness and in him there is no injustice.
♬ ASCRIBE GREATNESS to our God, the Rock,
나의 반석이신 하나님, 행하신 모든 일 완전하도다...
His work is perfect and all His ways are just. (x2)
A God of faithfulness and without injustice,
Good and upright is He;
A God of faithfulness and without injustice,
Good and upright is He.♬
You just sang the song of Moses and it says when we get to glory and the book of Revelation, you will hear the song of Moses again. It’s a lovely song. He never had problems about God telling them to slaughter the Amorites. He said God is without injustice, He is faithful and good.
▶Chapter 33, He blesses the 12 tribes one by one. He really was a prophet because he could see into the future for each tribe and he blessed each one. There is only one he didn’t bless and that tribe disappeared. As you know, through the Bible the 12 tribes change. They didn’t all survived. Justice out of 12 apostles one didn’t survive, out of the 12 tribes one didn’t - an interesting parallel between the Old and the New Testament.
▶Chapter 34 is the death and burial of Moses. I can be quite sure and tell you that he didn’t write this bit, the only bit of Deuteronomy that he didn’t write. Presumably Joshua added it but he died alone with his back against the rock at the top of Mount Nebo and he was looking across the Jordan to the land that had been promised which he would never see it.
Actually, he did. He did get into it once centuries later. And he had a chat with Jesus on top of one of the mountains. But he died on Mount Nebo and he was buried there. Nobody has been able to find his grave because nobody was there when he was buried. So, did he bury himself? Well, you will find the answer in Jude in the New Testament. An angel came and buried him. When the angel got to Moses there was the devil standing in the other side of Moses. And the devil says “This man is mine. He murdered an Egyptian, he is mine.” And it was an archangel, Michael, and Michael said to the devil “The Lord rebuked you” and he got him unburied.
What a story? Amazing but he only buried his body of course his spirit was with the Lord. They mourned for him in one month. They try to find his body but they couldn’t. And that is the end of the story.
◑Conclusion
▶Deuteronomy is the most fundamental book to the whole of the Old Testament. It is the key to the whole history of Israel because when they went in; the only occupied the mountains and left the valleys to the Amorites. on a Saturday night, young men from the mountains went down into the valleys to find girls. That’s when the whole saddened story began. Soon they were living just like the others live.
Prophet after prophet told them go on like this and God will keep his promise to curse you. Every prophet appeals back to Deuteronomy. Over thousand years they managed to get everything that God has promised and he took him a thousand years form Abraham to David and they got it all. In the next 500, they lost it all. That we will see as we summarize the book of Kings.
You can summarize the whole history of Israel in just 2 sentences:
Obedience and righteousness brought them blessing.
Disobedience and wickedness brought them curses.
▶The book of Deuteronomy plays a huge part in the New Testament too. It was quoted 80 times in just 27 books. Jesus knew Deuteronomy very well so much so that when he was tempted in the wilderness. In that same wilderness of Judea which Moses looked on with his dying eyes. When Jesus was in that wilderness he was being tempted. He used the scripture to defend himself and he always quoted Deuteronomy, Isn’t that interesting? He said: Man shall not leave by bread alone. See how important it is?
The Sermon on the Mount is full of Deuteronomy. The Samaritan woman I’ve already mentioned. She said should we worship God in Mount Gerizim which is our sacred mountain or your Jewish sacred mountain in Jerusalem. Neither, he said. The days are coming when we will worship in spirit and in truth.
When he was asked to summarize the Law of Moses, he summarized it from words in Deuteronomy; Love the Lord you God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
▶One of the most surprising things, by the way I forgot to mention
but it is so important is this; Even through that solid section on Law, the most common word is Love. 31 times back there in a Morale Legislation, it is Love. Jesus said if you love me, you will keep my commandments. There is no contradiction between law and love. If you love the Lord, you keep his laws. Paul says, Love is the fulfilling of the law. It is not a matter of legalism it is a matter of love.
31 times where love comes in that section 31 times is the word Obey comes because to Love is to Obey. In God’s sight, love is loyalty. It is staying true to someone. It is to love them so much you want to do what they want you to do. That is a very important point because we sometimes hear law and love set against each other but they are not. To keep the law is an expression of your love for the one who gave it.
So, when Jesus was asked, what is the law? He said it is to love. The two greatest commandments are to love God and to love your neighbour.
▶And, we remember of course that Moses and Elijah talked with Jesus. You know what they talked about? They talked about the exodus which Jesus was about to accomplish in Jerusalem. An exodus is to bring people out of slavery, when Jesus died on the cross that was our exodus.
▶Paul picks up Deuteronomy again and again when he puts the emphasis on heart religion. That what God is really interested in is not circumcised bodies but circumcised hearts. Hearts that have had evil that cut out of them and hearts that are free to love the Lord and to live right.
▶I hope this has given you an appetite to read it. Also, read those three discourses one by one and just think about them. Get the feel of them and realize that this is all our history because we are now sons of Abraham and we’ve been grafted into the olive tree of Israel and therefore, we are not reading a strange history about another people, we are reading our history. God hasn’t changed one bit and he will deal with us with exactly the same way he dealt with them.
That is both blessing and cursing, both obedience and disobedience, both righteousness and wickedness. If we think we can get away with behaving like the entire pagan surround us, we need to think again. God said to the Israelites, do you go in and take the lands form them but do not live the way they’re living because if you do I’ll have to send someone else to take the land from you. And that is still true.
As Paul says, these things were written down for us as an example for us and for our good. That, we might learn from the mistakes that they made and not to commit the same mistakes for it is still true that, God desires a holy people who will also be a healthy people
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