Transcription
Hello everyone. This is Mike Howard and I am here with Howard. We're going to do a Bible study. This is our first lesson in the book of Deuteronomy. We're going to do a total of six lessons. The first one is titled Remember. It's going to be in Deuteronomy chapter 4.
If I could paraphrase Moses, I would say that he wants to communicate three main points. One, hear God's word. Two, do God's word. and three, teach God's word to your children. So, look out for those three main themes as we go through today's lesson.
Well, Deuteronomy is the fifth book in the Pentitute. This is Moses's fifth book that he wrote and it is his farewell. It's a group of sermons that Moses preached just before the Lord took him to be with his ancestors. And the reason for these sermons is to prepare the Israelites for their next phase, which is to enter it into the promised land.
So if you take a look at chapters 1-4, Moses takes them on a historical review of all that God has done after he set them free from Egypt. And then in chapters 5- 11, Moses calls for them to be faithful to their covenant with God. Chapters 27 through30, Moses lays out the blessings of being faithful, the curses for being disobedient, and then the renewal that he predicts, and rightfully so, that will come after they are sent into exile and brought back. Chapters 31 through34 is the Mos Moses's final acts and his death. So that's how the book breaks down.
The themes are as follows. Remember and teach. Remember what I said at the very first. Remember, do and teach. So remember and teach. Parents must must teach God's law to their children. Remembering past events is key to their faithfulness. The second theme is covenant and law. emphasizing cut Israel's relationship with God as a as a covenant that requires them to obey monotheism. Now, that may sound a little weird, but they're entering into a country that is pantheistic. Every little territory, every little tribe has their own god. And Moses is going to warn them that they're going to be tempted to do to participate in idol worship. and he's going to explain to them that that God is a jealous God. Strong affirmation of the uniqueness of their God, Yahweh, justice and compassion, care for the poor, orphans, widows, foreigners, and then lastly, blessings and curses. We talked about that.
So, this is a message from their God. So, Moses is going to stand in the pull pit and uh he's going to declare, "I'm going to preach my final sermon series." And it's a message that God wants you to hear. So in verse 1:3, it more or less gives you a a start to that. It says, "In the 40th year after they left Israel, on the first day of the 11th month, Moses proclaimed to the Israelites all that the Lord had commanded him concerning them."
So now we're going to go to today's lesson. And throughout chapters 1, 2, and three, Moses walks them through all the things that have happened from the time they were at the foot of Mount Si until they wandered up to uh Kadesh and refused to go in. And they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. And now they're back just to the east of the Jordan, ready to go in. and he walks them through all the things that the Lord had done through them and to them and with them in that in those years.
So chapter four, he's going to summarize all of this. He's going to say, "Now, Israel, hear the decrees and the laws that I'm about to teach you. Follow them so that you do." Remember the first slide, it was to hear what God had God's word says and then to do what God's word says. God's word says to do. So, he's going to start out by reminding them exactly that. Hear the decrees and the laws. Follow them so that you hear the benefits of following God's law. And it goes, it applies to us as well. And as New Testament Christians, if we obey God's laws, then we will receive these things. Number one, that you may take possession of the land. uh you may live, you may go in, and you may take possession of the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors is giving you. So those are three benefits that Moses touts as he tells them to be obedient to what God commands.
And then he goes ahead and finishes it up. And this turns out to be prophetic uh because uh the Jews of Jesus's day uh had fallen into this uh this issue. Don't add or delete anything. Moses says, "Do not add to what I command you. Do not subtract from it." In other words, everything I'm telling you is exactly what you need to hear. Don't add or or subtract anything from my command from God's commands. Don't don't add and do not subtract, but keep the commandments uh commands of the Lord that I give you. I know in Revelation at the last of Revelation, the John writes uh don't add anything or or subtract anything from God's word.
So, how did the Jews fall into trouble here? Well, I think it was probably well-intentioned at first, and they had teachers that were trying to explain or give detailed explanations of some of the commands that God had. In other words, how do you keep this command? And so then the the rabbis started coming up with a list of things that you could do that would help you keep these commands. But unfortunately, over time, over generations, they turned into human traditions instead of what God intended. they drifted away from God's word which is a uh problem that obviously we have today it's always been with uh whether he you are a part of the Israel or you're part of the Christian church there's always this tendency to drift away from God's word and that's that doesn't take you to a good place so uh Jesus said in Mark chapter 7 he has a whole uh list of things he says about this human tradition idea But in verse 8, he says this specifically. Jesus said, "You," he's talking to the Pharisees here, "have let go of the commands of God and you're holding on to the human tradition." So he's saying, you know, here's God's word. You've let go of that, but now you're holding on to these human traditions that that aren't the same as what God has commanded. So there's a good warning there that Moses gives him.
Back to chapter 4:3. Now, he's going to remember their biggest challenge they're going to have going into the promised land is to to run off all of these uh idol worshipping tribes like the Canaanites uh u from the territory so that they can dwell there or take possession of it. So he wants to explain to them the difference between the relationship that Israel has with their god and the relationship that these tribes uh these pagan polytheistic tribes have with their idol gods.
So follow these next few verses. You saw with your own eyes what the Lord did at Baal Peor. Stop there. We just covered that in a couple of lessons ago. Uh, Peor is a a place uh not far from where they were camped and where Balam was trying to curse Israel and wasn't able to pull it off because God said, "No, if I bless them, they're blessed and you can't curse what I bless." But then what Balam did was he told uh the king of Moab that the way to uh get the Israelites in trouble was to tempt them to disobey their god's commands. So they sent in uh young temple prostitutes to lure the young Israelite men away into idol worship. So when he talks about uh you saw with your own eyes what the Lord did at Bao Por, what God did when when these men were uh tempted into sexual immorality was God put a plague out on the ones who were guilty of that and 24,000 died from that plague. So when Moses says, "Remember, you saw with your own eyes what the Lord did at Bale Peori." In other words, it was just a few weeks ago that you witnessed with your own eyes these people dying from a plague because they were seduced to to an idol worship. The Lord your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor. But all of you, and this is this is the nice part, all of you who followed God's commands, all of you who held fast to the Lord your God are, you're still alive today. So, he's making an object lesson here. He says, it's only been a few weeks where you've watched 24,000 people who were involved in sexual immorality be judged by God. And yet, you who were faithful to uh not do that, you're still alive to this very day. So he's saying that's what I'm telling you is going to happen when you go into the promised land.
And then he says, uh, see, I have taught you decrees and laws as the Lord my God commanded me. So Moses is saying, God gave me the the remember the two tablets and the all the other laws. God gave me all of those laws to to give to you. So he says, "I've taught you the decrees and the laws of the Lord my God that he commanded me to so that you may put them on a bookshelf. Uh hang them in your kitchen as a nice piece of art. Uh talk about it amongst yourselves." No. The reason that I taught you the commands was so that you can live by them. So that you can obey these commands. so that you may follow them where in this next phase in the land that you are entering to take possession of. It's key if you want to be successful, if you want God to bless you, do what he tells you to do.
Now, he's going to do some things here in the next few verses that I think are just absolutely wonderful. He uh he's he he's going to encourage them even though ultimately he knows that they're they're not going to be obedient. He does want to encourage them. And look at the wonderful words that he chooses to use in this encouragement. I want you to observe the the laws and the decrees carefully for this will show how smart you are, how wise you are, and how understanding to whom? Not just to each other. I mean, you probably already think each other that you're pretty wise and you're pretty understanding, but that's not the target audience that God is looking for. In Isaiah, it says that you are to be a lamp to all the gentile nations. So observing all these commands is more than just showing each other that you are good at this. It's because you obey these commands, you're going to be a light, a city on a hill. You're going to be this bright and shining light. He says, you will understanding to the nations who will hear about all these decrees. And they, here's what the nations are going to say when they hear about these decrees. Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. Isn't that encouraging? How great is that? I love that. And he's going to get even better. Okay.
He says, "What other nation is so great?" This is remember the other nations are observing this and this is what the other nations are saying about the Israelites. And this is pretty cool. What what other nation these these surrounding nations are going to look at Israel and they're going to say, "What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way that the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?" Now, I got a couple of things out of this. One is he he is encouraging them. He's encouraging them because uh their God is a living God. Their God is the creator God. Their God is a their covenant God. Their God is in a relationship with him where they can go to him in prayer and he is not a far off and he's not against them. He's for them and they can ask God their God for their needs to be met. So he said,"None of these idols that you know they this stone idol uh the eyes that can't see, the ears that can't hear, the mouth that can't speak, the feet that can't walk, what good are they?" And but you you are a great nation because your God is near you and when you especially when you pray to him and he goes on more encouragement here. What other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees? Now he's going to tell them that these decrees from God, these commands from God are completely and absolutely righteous. They're not bogus. They're not uh prejudiced. They're just perfect. Uh so he says, "What other nation is so great as to as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of law that I'm setting before you today?" Is that not those three verses? Are they not the most encouraging verses? You're going to be you're your surrounding nations are going to say, "Wow, what a great nation Israel is." And you know, and your God is a great God because he hears your prayers. said, "Oh, by the way, the laws and decrees of your God, they are amazingly righteous." And it reminds me of Psalm 119 where every verse has something positive to say about God's laws, his decrees, his commands. It's just a beautiful psalm. So, uh, I'm setting before you today.
And then he switches from this encouragement to letting them uh warning them not to slip into idol worship because all of those things that he just talked about, they're not part of idol worship. He said, "Only be careful and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things that things your eyes have seen that God seen. Your eyes have seen things these things that God has done over the last 40 years. uh or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. Now that that at the very first slide, hear God's word, do God's word, teach your children God's word. Those are the three main themes that Moses is going to and and by the way, this is the first of two lessons uh on this same theme. Next week we'll get into chapter uh six five five or six six I think uh where Moses gives them something called the sheima uh which is a declaration almost a prayer uh and shea in Hebrew means here O Israel or hear uh and so that goes back to hear God's word teach them to your children so now he's going to camp out there and then uh remember when God spoke Verse 12, when the this is not part of the focal verses, but I think it for continuity sake, I wanted to kind of cover these. Uh, then the Lord spoke to you out of the fire, you heard.
So, he's going to remind them of of uh uh some things. Uh, this is when they're camped out uh in Mount Si and the Lord was on Mount Si and he was speaking to the nation of Israel and they could hear his words, but they couldn't see his form. All they could see was smoke and fire. Then the Lord spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sounds of words, but you didn't see a form. There was only a voice. He's going to make a big point here uh about not seeing a form. In other words, uh nobody has ever seen God. Uh so, as people of faith uh we don't base our faith on what we see, we ba base our faith on what we hear God say. So, let me follow that theme. He says, "God declared to you his covenant, the ten commandments which he commanded you to follow, and then he wrote them on two stone tablets. And the Lord directed me," this is Moses talking, "At that time, to be your teacher, to teach you the decrees and the laws you're to follow in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess."
Now, I'm back to the focal verses, and this pretty much summarizes what he just said in those verses. remember when you were at the foot of the mountain. Now, by the way, the only people that are in his audience that were there and still alive were teenagers or children because everybody over the age of 20 is now dead except for Moses, Jake, Jacob, Joshua, and Caleb. So, uh these are all people in their 50s, 40s, 30s, 20s, and children. So, remember, you saw no form. In other words, you couldn't see God's face. You couldn't see God as a person. You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at the at Horeb, that's Mount Si, out of the fire. Therefore, I want you to watch yourselves very carefully.
So, he's going to juxtapose their God that you can't see with idols that you can see. So, watch how he does this. So that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol. That's an image of any shape whether formed like a man or woman. So he's going to walk down through all the different classifications of things that could be uh idols. So don't don't don't worship any kind of u uh image or shape that's like a man or a woman or like any animal on the earth or any bird that flies in the air or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish that's in the waters below. In other words, none of these creatures, created creatures, are what you should be worshiping. That's worshiping the creation, not the creator. Okay? So, if you can see it, don't worship it. So, so don't make an idol out of these things because it's not going to do you any good.
And when you look up to the and he's going to he's going to cap this off by saying even when you look up and see the heavens. Uh, when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon, and the stars and all the heavenly array, do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the Lord your God has aortioned to all the nations under heaven. So all of creation belongs to everybody that's been created, but your God belongs to you. And so that that was the point that he was making here.
Last verse of chapter 4. You have been crafted for this. Isn't that beautiful? Uh you have you you are you were formed as God's people for this very task of showing God's glory to all the nations. But as for you, the Lord took you and he brought you out of the iron smelting furnace. In other words, what was going on in Egypt was actually teaching them uh important things that they would need both in the wilderness and in the promised land. Iron smelting furnace out of Egypt. How for what purpose? The purpose was to be the people of his inheritance as you are now. And we as Christians of course we are being built into this holy uh temple brick by brick. Each one of us is a brick. Each one of us is a body part of the body of Christ, right? And we've been chosen to do that. We are uh we God has taken us and brought us to this point in our lives to do just that, to show his glory to not just the nations, but to people around us that don't know him. So, I think that's pretty I thought it was a beautiful chapter. I I loved how he encouraged everybody.
But the theme that he brought home to me was that our faith in a God that you can't see has to be an ear faith, not an eye faith. An eye faith is say, "Oh, there's this idol here or there's this person here or there these stars here that I'm sure I can place my faith in and worship." And what Moses is saying is no, our faith doesn't come like that because our God is not a visible God. So he is going to come to you not through your eyes but through your ears. Ours is an ear faith, not an eye faith. Nshima we'll get into next week. Hear, O Israel. That means to hear the primary activator. This is this is if there's an aha to this lesson for me, this is the aha. The primary activator of both Jewish and Christian faith is hearing, not seeing. Romans chapter 10:1 17 faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word about Christ. I I find this for some reason I think this is going to mean I think it's going to be a big deal to me to realize that because we can't see God, we our faith then has to be built on something that's written and that we've been taught. That's his word.
So, let me keep going with this theme a second. Hear God's words. Obey his instructions. Teach others. Remember the theme I said it at the first one through four. Observe what God's done to 5- 26. Expect God to be near you. And that's cool. I like that. 27-34. Look forward to God's promises being fulfilled. And then Moses finally saying goodbye. Clearly, Moses has at the top of his list a concern that the Israelites will be dragged into idol worship. And not for the wrong reason. I mean, they've already stumbled a couple. Remember, right after they got out of Egypt, they built a little golden calf. And then now, just before they go into the promised land, they've been tempted by sexual immorality by Baal. Uh so, and he knows that they're going to meet a lot more idol worshiing countries or tribes as they go in. So, his main concern or one of his main concerns is about idols. People have been trained by the lust of the flesh, their emotional passages, passions, and the lust of the eyes. It looks good, but Moses said that's very dangerous. God has changed the approach to living. We don't live by what we see. We live by what God says. We live by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. Yeah, you remember when Jesus said that you don't live by bread alone but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. I think it was Matthew 4.
Remember God's acts. That's something we can see because we can remember when God did things in our lives. We also can read about those things in God's word. He parted the Red Sea and he brought Egypt or brought the Israelites out. Focus your seeing not on what the world has to offer, Moses said, but on what God's word has accomplished. So when you're out looking around for things, don't look for the things that the world has to offer that are temporary or part of creation. Look for the things where God has actually been involved. That's pretty cool. Remember what God's people have seen him do in the past and remember what the Lord has done in your own personal life. And that's a big deal. Uh in the uh the teachers guide, it starts out by saying uh whoever wrote the teachers guide that that they wrote a journal of all the things the Lord had done in their life, they've always kept this journal. I I haven't done that, but when I thought about it, that's something I need to do is to write all the things that the Lord has done in my life because it's getting to be a lot of things and I don't want to forget any of those and I'd like to tell my kids and my grandkids about them.
Hearing from God his word. John 1:1 says this, "In the beginning was the word and the word was God and the word was with God. In him and God's word there was life." Remember what Moses said about the commands. If you keep the commands, you will have you will live. Matthew 4:4, Jesus says, "It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but every word that comes out of the mouth of God." Moses is trying to get them to focus everything in their lives on what God's word says. And that's still applies to us to this very day. I think James says, "Don't merely listen to the word, but do the word."
Teach God's word to your children. I'm sorry this is so small. Ephesians 6:4, "Fathers, do not exasperate your children. Instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord." In Deuteronomy 11, which we will not get to in these lessons, fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds. Tie them as symbols in your on your hands and bind them to your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk down the road, when you lie down and when you get up. I think that is just beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. always be talking about God's commands. Why? Because they bring life. They bring life. God's word is life.
Faith is trusting God's word. Hebrews 11:1 says this. I've never really when I read this for this lesson, I saw it in a bit of a different light. Faith is a confidence that we is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. See, okay. what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith, we understand that the universe was formed at God's command so that what is seen was not made from what was visible. Our faith comes from God's word. Our faith comes from his commands, his decrees, his promises. Our faith comes from the word made human in Jesus Christ. That's where we place our trust, our belief, our total faith, our absolute life. It's not what we want to see in this world that's going to change our lives eternally. It's what we see in God's word that changes our life forever.
Pray with me. Father, I thank you that this uh lesson uh has encouraged all of us whether we are Israelites or Christians. We're all encouraged because you are truly a great God and you've called us to become a a great nation to be witnesses for your great word. Father, help us to understand that all of this greatness comes at a price. And that is we must obey your commands. We can't put one foot in the world and one foot in your word. It just won't it won't work. It won't be a light. Matter of fact, it could just be embarrassing to to you as our God. So, Father, I pray that you will encourage us as Moses encouraged the Israelites to understand the greatness of our calling, the greatness of our savior, the greatness of our destiny in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
Well, we'll see you next week. We're going to talk about the Shima hero, O Israel. It's a great lesson. See you then. Bye-bye. Bye.