Gooding, David: 6 - Understanding Deuteronomy

As you have just heard, the book that introduces our studies today is the book of Deuteronomy. The title of the book, Deuteronomy, or as some prefer to call it, Deuteronomi, is not based on the original Hebrew. It is based rather on the ancient Greek translation of that Hebrew, and they who translated it thought appropriate to give it the name Deuteronomy, which in Greek means the second And law. law. That arose because of a mistaken translation. There was no second law. What there was, was a repetition of the first law. That was required by the normal practice of covenants. So let us spend just a few moments at the beginning, thinking of the term that is used in this book and elsewhere in the Old Testament. The term covenant to describe God's relationship between Israel and himself. Much light was shed upon this topic by a discovery made at the beginning of the last century, uh, uh, of the, uh, nineteen hundreds, the last century. When a whole lot, thousands in fact, of tablets were discovered, which revealed that there had been an extensive Canaanite empire, hitherto unknown to scholars. Among the many tablets that were unearthed, many were copies of covenants that the great emperor made with his, uh, uh, puppet kings in various parts of his empire. Those covenants followed preset, uh, organization. Organization that varied down the centuries, as to the form that the covenants took. It has been a tremendous help in finding external dating for the, uh, uh, book of Deuteronomy, as elsewhere. That the law of God, called a covenant, both in Exodus and in Deuteronomy, matches the order of a certain period in this Canaanite empire. Let me show you what I mean. If you take one of the most famous emp- emperors in the Canaanite empire, a certain Suppiluliumu. His, uh, uh, uh, uh, covenants follow a standard form. First of all, Supilu Liumu tells everybody who he is. I am Supilu Liumu. You might need to repeat it, of course, and so that people could get the spelling right. And then he would add what he had done for people, generally beaten them up pretty effectively. Then there would be a section of the do's, things that people had to do, and then the don'ts. Then Supiluli Umu would call upon the gods to recognize that the people had made this covenant and deal with them if they broke it. Provision was also made that the covenant documents should be kept in a safe place. And from time to time, the sub-king of each individual place was to bring out those tablets containing the covenant terms and read them in the ears of the people. When scholars first discovered these things, they were not slow, of course, in seeing the connection of form between the covenant God made with Israel and the covenant of the aforesaid Supiluli Umu. For God begins the covenant by announcing who he is. I am the Lord God. You shall have no other God but me. And then God announces what he has done for the people who brought you out of the house of bondage, out of slavery. And then, of course, the do's and the don'ts in the Ten Commandments and in their expansion in the literature. The Old Testament covenant, of course, doesn't call upon the gods, but it calls upon the God to observe the covenant has been made, and to insist upon its terms, even if they meant punishment for those that had broken them. The covenant document was then put in a specially constructed place in the Ark of the Covenant, which was situated in the most holy place. And from time to time, the documents were to be ca- taken out and read in the ears of the people. It is precisely this that the book of Deuteronomy is. As with other covenants, it was not merely that the covenant terms were read, but they were explained. And then the laws that proceeded from those basic principles were enunciated, covering the whole of life. And that is, of course, exactly what we find in the book of Deuteronomy. It is an instrument of government, therefore. Why should we as Christians trouble to read it? We're not any under any covenant, are we? Well, there are Christians and very serious students of God's word who feel that the New Testament teaches that we as Christians are not in any covenant relationship with the Lord. They point out that in the original promise in which God says, I will make a new covenant with my people. That the new covenant is explicitly said to be made with the house tribe of Israel and Judah. And they who hold this view insist that when scripture says Israel and Judah, lo and behold, it means Israel and Judah. Nothing extraordinary about the claim, is there? That is what it means, Israel and Judah. And therefore, people of this persuasion hold that the new covenant promised of God in the prophet Jeremiah, and actually repeated in the New Testament, is a covenant that God will one day make with the nation of Israel, when they are restored and acknowledge our blessed Lord as their Messiah. But that, as such, it has nothing to do with us. We're not Israel or Judah, but the church. I say this with all seriousness. This is a viewpoint taken by many, not casually, but deliberately. This is what they understand the New Covenant to be about. I hold a different view, as do many. For instance, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, the writer writing to his fellow Israelites points out that the Old Testament sacrifices of bulls and goats and sheep and such like things could not possibly put away sin. They were only symbols. Because they were only symbols, then when it came to God's dwelling place in the tabernacle, there hung a veil which obscured the most holy place completely and barred in entrance to it, except for the high priest one day a year. For the rest, even the priests couldn't come further than the first division within the tabernacle. Why? Because the Holy Spirit, says the Epistle to the Hebrews, was making it clear that their sacrifices weren't efficient. They didn't cleanse the conscience. How could they? They were but symbols. But to convince these Israelites. Israelites that there was a way now for them to enter not merely the second department in an ancient building, but into heaven itself. He cites the fact that God even himself found fault with the first covenant as being inadequate and instituted a new covenant through Jeremiah the prophet and the epistle to the Hebrews cites it at length. And I have to permit you to enjoy the superiority of the new covenant over the old. There comes a time, says God, when, according to this new covenant, you see. I will be merciful. I will write my laws on their hearts. Meaning, as distinct from the law written on tables of stone that told you completely what you had to do or not to do, but could not give you the power to do it with. The New Covenant said this wise, I will write my law not merely in, uh, on tables of stone, nor merely in the, on the pages of inspired scripture. I will write it on their hearts, and on their minds will I inscribe it. And they shall not teach each one, know the Lord, for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. So that as we read Deuteronomy, we shall need ourselves as Christians to remember some of these contrasts. Uh, first of all, the law written on our hearts. Two Corinthians chapter three, Paul explains to the Corinthians what has happened to them since Paul came and preached the gospel to them, and they got converted. It was nothing less than the ministry of the Holy Spirit writing God's laws on their hearts. So that it was in their nature to do them. That divine nature imparted to every believer. And they should not need to say to each other, know the Lord. Because, in a profound sense, every believer would have personal, immediate knowledge of the Lord. That is a glorious thing, isn't it? We don't need to come through some intermediary, except that intermediary is the blessed man, Christ Jesus, who is God incarnate anyway. We can know the Lord, each one individually. I will write my laws on their hearts, and on my minds will I inscribe them. And then, the measure of forgiveness. Uh, you see, I will be mercible, merciful to their transgressions. Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. We must be careful, of course, to understand that last statement. Their sins and iniquities I will remember no more. That does not mean that once we trust Christ, God forgets that we have been sinners. You know what? You'll never forget it, not for all eternity. Will you? God won't. When God looks at his dear Son. Do you suppose God will say, wonder what those marks in his hands are? And in his feet. How did he come by them? Nor shall we need to ask it. We shall remember, of course, distinctly remember that we were sinners, and that to save us, Christ bore our sins in his body on the tree. What then does it mean, their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. The term is a semi-technical term. You will read it in the Old Testament in various places, where lists are given of how the kings of Judea, for instance, organized their civil service. There would be a major domo, a man in charge of the palace. There would be a commander in chief of the forces. And among other things, there would be a remembrancer, as the quaint old English has it to say, or coming to modern times, a recorder. Uh, yes, but even that, you know what lawyers are, don't you? I mean to say, how could they make anything simple? But a, a, a recorder has a special m- meaning in legal terms. So had it already in Hebrew. The remembrance of the recorder was a man who kept the records, of course. And if the king, on a occasion, couldn't sleep or some other such thing happened to him, he would call for the recorder, who would be required to read from the book. And if the book said that so and such and such and such had done something, uh, uh, against the king, a king might inquire, have they yet been punished for it? And if the answer was no, then the king would give orders that they had to be punished forthwith. That is what the Old Testament means by bringing sins to remembrance. It is getting out the books, reading the records, noting whether the punishment has been aw- uh, uh, given or rewards given, and proceeding to put the requirements of the books into effect. Glorious, isn't it? I could think of pages and pages and pages of red ink against my name in heaven's book. The glorious thing is that God has promised their sins and iniquities I will never rake up, as in the law court, and proceed to punish. Why not? Oh, but then is the, that is the Christian gospel, isn't it? Christ has already suffered for my sins and paid the penalty, and God will not payment twice demand, first at my bleeding surety's hand, and then again at mine. But there is another parallel between the ancient custom of taking out the document of the covenant and reading it. That we do for the new covenant on the Lord's Day, don't we? For we remember how, according to the Gospels, as he gathered the apostles in the upper room, and as they were eating, he took bread, and then he took a cup of wine and said of that cup, this is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins. And so saying he handed the cup to his disciples. Reminiscent, of course, of the ceremony that happened when Moses, as God's intermediary, instituted the old covenant. The animal was slain, its blood taken in a basin, and holding it up. To the multitude, Moses said, this is the new covenant, it was the old covenant. This is the covenant, he wouldn't have called it old. Now made between you and God. They are sacred moments, are they not? When we meet with our blessed risen Lord. And take that cup. This cup is the new covenant in my blood. It says, of course, that because Christ has suffered for us, we shall not have to pay the penalty of sin. Ah, but it has other things, doesn't it? It says, I will write my laws on their hearts, and on their minds will I write them. Thus it is, as we come as Christians to remember the Lord Jesus, and we take that cup. Then Paul advises us, be careful that anyone examine himself. Because to do it casually, with no self-examination, to do it just one of those things that happens, like getting on a bus or getting off it. Would lead, says Paul, to the Lord's discipline. Because the new covenant, like the old, is a means of government. Listen to it. I will write my laws on their hearts and on their minds will I write them. So as we read the ancient book of Deuteronomy, and read what God said, what Moses said about the old covenant, we shall want to apply it to ourselves, of course, it is God's holy word, but we shall do so in the light of the vast superiority of the new covenant over the old. We should also notice where the ceremony that we read of in Deuteronomy was held. It was held on the plains of Moab, east of the Jordan. In other words, Israel had not yet Invaded invaded. Canaan, they had not crossed Jordan yet. They came up east side of Jordan. They had to fight their way through some of those tribes, and God gave that territory to two and a half tribes of Israel, east of Jordan. But of course, the main promised land was west of Jordan. Now, at long last, they had arrived. I feel strongly for Moses. If he had been brokenhearted, I could have understood it. Because, even as he addressed them, God reminded him, you yourself, Moses, will not be allowed to go in. He He mentions mentions it three times over in his address to the tribes. Three times over. I think he's overcome it now, but it must have been a very bitter pill, surely. He'd given his life for them. Laid down his career for them. Brought up in a palace, educated like a pharaoh, darling of the dear lady who had rescued him. And And he he'd given it all to stand with his people, deliver them from Egypt, and bring them into their promised land. You can imagine him setting out from Egypt, can't you? Won't be long now. Uh. I mean, w- we'll have to get across the old Red Sea, of course, but um, uh, then if we put our faces sort of north, north, um, east and and walk and keep on walking, well, we should be there, can't we? Eleven days. Well, as you must, with all these people who give them three months, we shall be there. He little knew the Israelites. Hadn't got five minutes out of Egypt, but what they were cursing him. For bringing him out into the wilderness where there was no water. They got to Mount Sinai. And while he was up receiving the commandments from God, and waiting for God to tell him the details so that he could build a tabernacle fit for God to come and dwell among Israel. Israel had perverted themselves completely, made a golden calf, talked of going back to Egypt. Through Moses' intercession and the mercies of God, they got through that. They pushed on and came to within a few yards, so to speak, of the Promised Land. Kadesh Barnea was the name of the place. At the people's suggestion, and Moses agreed, they sent spies into the land to know what kind of a land it was and what the opposition was liable to be. There were twelve spies, and when they got back, ten of them said it was hopeless. Very nice land. In fact, some of them had grapes to show it, but quite hopeless, quite unrealistic. I mean, there were giants there anyway. Cool. And we were like grasshoppers in their sight. Well, how they knew that, I don't know whether they had a word with those few giants and said, now how do we appear to you, old boy? And refused to go in. And Moses pleaded with them. But it made a nonsense of the whole scheme. The whole scheme of being redeemed from Egypt, if they now didn't go into Canaan. Well, it made a nonsense of it. And raised a very serious question. Whether these people that refused to go in had ever really been believers. And our authority for thinking that is what the Holy Spirit himself says, as he records the incident in Hebrews chapter three and four. Moses disappointed once more. Oh. And God's sentence was that they were to turn and travel through the wilderness for the next forty years, until the men of responsible age that had refused to go in had had time to die and get out of the way. And the youngsters from twenty years would now grow up and they would go in. Moses. Given his life for them. Now Now elderly. elderly he already was. To tramp through the wilderness for forty more years? You say, well, Moses, uh, in our Bible study we found out that God comforts those that are cast down, so don't worry, uh, Moses. Cheap advice, I should think. You'll get in one of these days, Moses. So they got all a- along the wilderness. And then the people complained once again, but they complained thousands of times. But now they complain once again. Moses lost his temper. Can you blame him? And when he should have spoken to the rock in the name of God, and God would have given them water, he took the rod of God's judgment and smote the rock. But the water came out, for God had mercy on the people. But Moses and Aaron were told then and several times thereafter, as a result, you will not go in. How do you suppose Moses felt? As he stood on the plains of Moab. Triumphant, you say, because Israel were going in at last. He confesses he pleaded with the Lord. Lord, let me go in. And the Lord said no. Though God attended his funeral, and very few others, according to the record. It was with that weight upon his shoulders that Moses, in the book of Deuteronomy, addresses Israel. For now, life would be more difficult for them. I say that advisedly. But sometimes we get the notion that having tramped through the wilderness, that was bad enough, but of course now they crossed Jordan, they got into the promised land, and there were blessings on every side, and they they enjoyed themselves immensely and never grumbled again. That isn't so, is it? Professor K. A. Kitchen, late of Liverpool, has reminded us that when Israel crossed over Jordan under Joshua, Joshua did not at once distribute to them their inheritance. For a long time, says the book of Joshua, he insisted that the army keep together. You've noticed, surely, how when they attacked Jericho, they didn't come and live there. And when they attacked Ai and other such places, like Hazor and Megiddo up north, they didn't settle down there. Throughout that sustained military campaign, raging through the whole of Canaan, they continually came back to their military base at Gilgal. This we are explicitly told. We must disabuse our minds of the notion that once over Jordan, they all entered into their glorious estates and, and enjoyed it immensely, do you see? No, they didn't. Because that, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, Joshua could not have allowed them once they, uh, uh, triumphed and took a certain place. Do you see? He couldn't allow some of them to hive off and dwell there. Had he done so, by the time he got up north, he wouldn't have had an army we're talking of. So the first half of the book of Joshua is about Joshua's long years of campaigning to put down all the kings, rulers, and authorities in the cities of that land, keeping the army together. It was only in the second half of that book that he began to allow them to settle down in their particular inheritances. So now Moses, knowing it, of course, is preaching to the people how they must behave. And Moses have enough, I nearly said common sense, to know it's going to be more difficult now for Israel than it had been as they walked through the wilderness. How was that, you say? Well, through the wilderness, they didn't have to bother really very much about Amalekites and things of that order. Unless the aforesaid Amalekites, uh, came and attacked them. So they had to do some fighting from time to time, the various tribes, but otherwise they lived by themselves in the wilderness. That was difficult enough for Moses to keep them on straight lines so that they, uh, still worshipped the one true God and didn't go off into paganism. What would happen now when they actually entered Canyon and lived cheek by jowl with pagans? Difficulty Difficulty number number one. And then there was another difficulty. When they walked through the desert, of course they had their flocks. Very often they ran out of water, grumbled, were hard put. Must get a bit tiresome, mustn't it, if you're the woman of the house and they had to look after the tent and the tent pigs and bashing tent pigs into the ground to make a tent, and then Moses telling you, uh, take it up and we're going to move tomorrow, and la. And cooking without mains gas and all that. Now they were going into the land, and they were going to enjoy farms. Do you see? And there were olive presses that they hadn't built, And houses, in fact, in some places that they hadn't built. And I don't know whether they had any chariots left, you know. But now they were going to be quite wealthy. Such Such wealth. wealth as their grandparents never did have. That would be lovely, you say. Well, it would indeed. It would carry dangers. When I was... a boy, long years ago, there were many men and women that had been out of work for ten years. When I went to live in Durham and lodged with Christian people, their husbands were minors. The women would sometimes tell me, David, in the bad old days, we had to get down on our knees and pray God for the next meal. Oh, but then came the war, and the miners were well off, and standards have improved beyond all recognition, haven't they? Thank the Lord for that. And yet... It can happen. That when we're poor, we can be spiritual. And then when we get wealthy, we just don't have the time for spiritual things. It is a greater test of our spirituality to be affluent than to be poor. And you will remember what our Lord's final words to Laodicea were, won't you? Because you say I am increased with goods and have need of nothing. Knowest not that you're blind and naked. Why won't you come to me? And so... Moses preaches to them the whole of Deuteronomy. Just before we finish, we could look at one of the structures of this book, or at least one of the ways in which it has come down to us. The first section, chapter one of course, onwards, comes Comes to to its climax in chapter eleven. From verses twenty six to thirty two. Let's read it together. Deuteronomy 11, 26 to 32. Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse. The blessing, if you shall hearken unto the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day, and the curse, if you shall not hearken unto the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day to go after other gods which you have not known. And it shall come to pass, when the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt set the blessing upon Mount Gerizim and the curse upon Mount Ebal. Are they not beyond Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the sun in the land of the Canaanites which dwell in the Araba over against Gilgal beside the oaks of More? For you are to pass over Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God giveth you, and you shall possess it and dwell therein, and you shall observe to do all the statues and the judgments which I set before you this day. Rem- let's remember our geography if we can. They were east of Jordan. They had to cross Jordan. They crossed Jordan very near to Jericho. They couldn't at once fulfill what Moses said, because there were big, uh, uh, cities, big by their standards, like Jericho in the way. What they had to do was, when they crossed Jordan and they established the military camp at Gilgal, then they had to get up the mountains and over the top and out into the plain and go up north to the twin mountains, Ebal and Goritim. And there they were to hold an elaborate ceremony. And they were to get up on the mountains and read the old covenant, the law. And as they came to each individual bit, this is what you have to do, and this is the blessing attached to it. All the people had to say, Amen! And when they came to the prohibitions... and the penalties that would be attached to it, they were to say with equal gusto, Amen. In other words, before they get into the land, they are being told one of the major objectives would be to establish the law in Canaan. So then in chapter twelve onwards, we get individual commandments of various kinds, filling out in practical details the implications of the general laws in the covenant. And they go on, this list of the general, uh, laws, until you come to chapter twenty seven. And in chapter twenty seven, look at verse four. And it shall be when you are passed over Jordan, that you shall set up these stones which I command you this day in Mount Ebal, and thou shalt plaster them with plaster, and there thou shalt build an altar unto the Lord thy God, an altar of stones. Thou shalt lift up no iron tool upon them. Thou shalt build the altar of the Lord thy God of unhewn stone, and thou shalt offer burnt offerings thereon unto the Lord thy God, and thou shalt sacrifice peace offerings and shall eat there. Thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, and thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law. So then they were to assemble, and they read the law, and the Levites had to answer, uh, amen to its pronouncement of the curses. Then they were to set others upon Mount Guritsim, and there from Mount Gerizim, they read all those verses about the blessings. Do you see? And the Levites similarly had to say amen. There was a sense in which the conquests, therefore, were, uh, clearing the way so that as soon as possible they might establish the law, both its blessings and its cursings, in Canaan. Well, we belong to a new covenant, as afore said, as distinct from the old covenant. We too are responsible, are we not? To establish the law. Let me finish by reading you two passages from the New Testament that tell us explicitly of our responsibility. In chapter three of the Epistle to the Romans, Paul develops his doctrine of justification by faith and not by the works of the law. But of course, many people misrepresented what he said and suggested that he was, uh, making the law of none effect. If you don't have to keep the law to get to heaven, for instance, why bother about the law? And you might have saved by faith and justified by faith. What does it really matter if I don't keep the law? Yeah? And Paul says at the end of that chapter, verse thirty one, talking of his doctrine of justification by faith, do we then make the law of none effect through faith? God forbid. May we establish the law. The reason why many people have no assurance of salvation is because they haven't really learned to repent. Repenting means I face myself and say, I am so sinful that for all eternity I could never earn my salvation. I am sinner, condemned by God's law. I couldn't improve myself. It is then that God has a salvation for us. And that establishes the law, doesn't say the law doesn't matter, it establishes the law because it tells of a savior who paid the penalty of the law for me. And then as a believer, chapter eight. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. I couldn't earn salvation by my Christian conduct, but my Christian conduct ought to show, at least to some extent, the reality of my new birth, that the Holy Spirit lives within, and by his grace and power I shall be able to keep God's holy law. So may God use these simple remarks to set us eagerly reading Deuteronomy and enjoying its relevance to us today.