Deuteronomy Part 1

1. 1. “Second Law” 
      1. The first generation disqualified themselves to enter the land in number. Now a new generation is on the border of the land promised to Abraham. They are about to be led in by Joshua, but before they do, Moses gives his final words to them.
      2. Deuteronomy is a reestablishment of the covenant with the new generation. 
      3. Once they enter the land, things will be different. Among other things, they are now going to be interacting with other nations. 
      4. Deuteronomy also became the prototype for the rest of the prophets. 
         1. They look backward at the past and give oracles about the future to instruct those in the present. 
      5. Deuteronomy is the foundation for the study of last things, or eschatology. 
      6. So keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and 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 is the Lord our God whenever we call on Him? “Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today? Deuteronomy 4:6–8 (NAS)
         1. As Israel enters the land and abides the Torah, they are to show the wisdom of Yahweh’s laws, and his unique closeness. 

1. 1. Opening Prophetic Sermon

1. 1. 10 commandments recounted
   2. The covenant exchange and agreement recounted

1. 1. Israel’s central affirmation of faith. Recited 2x daily by the devout

1. 1. Make no covenant with them
   2. Do not intermarry, they will turn the hearts of Your sons away
   3. Israel is the Lords possession 
   4. 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 peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers Deuteronomy 7:6–8 (NAS)
   5. Promises for abundance and victory if they maintain covenant faithfulness in the land

1. 1. Yahweh was testing Israel 
   2. Jesus was led in the wilderness for 40 days for the same purpose 
   3. Warnings against pride after entering the land and given abundance

1. 1. This chapter tells Israel that they are not being given the land because of their own righteousness that the Lord is giving them the land. 
   2. It is because of the wickedness of the other nations that Yahweh is driving them out
   3. Then Moses reflects back on the golden calf incident and shows that they are a stiff necked people. 
   4. Yahweh is giving them the land because of his faithfulness to the covenant with them and their fathers because he has covenant love for them.

1. 1. The tablets were rewritten and placed in the ark
   2. Circumcise your hearts
   3. on your fathers did the Lord set His affection to love them, and He chose their descendants after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day. “So circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer. Deuteronomy 10:15–16 (NAS)

1. 1. Reminds of the blessings for obedience 
   2. Don’t follow other gods 
   3. If you are faithful to the covenant you will live long in the land
   4. Speaking of God’s instructions: You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your sons may be multiplied on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens remain above the earth. Deuteronomy 11:20–21 (NAS)

THE LAW CODE

1. 1. Before, Israel had the tabernacle and the priestly but there weren’t stipulations about offering sacrifices to Yahweh in other locations. When they enter the land, offerings will be centralized at the place that Yahweh chooses to place His name 
   2. But you shall seek the Lord at the place which the Lord your God will choose from all your tribes, to establish His name there for His dwelling, and there you shall come. Deuteronomy 12:5 (NAS)
   3. The other nations have ways they worship their gods, but Israel is not to worship Yahweh in the ways that the other nations worship their gods
   4. they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. Deuteronomy 12:31 (NAS)

1. 1. If a prophet rises up and leads the nation to follow after other gods

1. 1. Clean and unclean animals

1. 1. The sabbath cycle and remission of debts
   2. The sabbath cycle and freeing of slaves
   3. Care for poor and marginalized

1. 1. Feast times again, but now at the central place where Yahweh chooses to place his name.

1. 1. Proper administration of justice
   2. The proper role and restrictions for Israelite’s future kings
      1. Can’t have a large army with lots of horses
      2. Can’t have lots of wives
      3. Must write his own copy of Torah and meditate on Torah all the days of his life 
      4. Kings heart is not to be lifted up above his countrymen

1. 1. Prophet like Moses 
   2. ‘I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. Deuteronomy 18:18 (NAS)

This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. “You have today declared the Lord to be your God, and that you would walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments and His ordinances, and listen to His voice. “The Lord has today declared you to be His people, a treasured possession, as He promised you, and that you should keep all His commandments; and that He will set you high above all nations which He has made, for praise, fame, and honor; and that you shall be a consecrated people to the Lord your God, as He has spoken.” Deuteronomy 26:16–19 (NAS)

1. 1. When Israel enters the land they are to stand on two adjacent mountains. On one mountain a group is to stand and pronounce the curses of the covenant, and on the other mountain, a group stand and pronounce the blessings of the covenant.
   2. Chapter 28 includes the blessings and disciplines of the covenant 
   3. you will be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it. “Moreover, the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known. “Among those nations you shall find no rest Deuteronomy 28:63–65 (NAS)

1. 1. furthers the emphasis on the reestablishment of the covenant now at Moab with the new generation. 
   2. The end of chapter 29 shows us the cycle that begins. Israel enters the land, turns from Yahweh and is disciplined ultimately until they are removed from the land.

1. 1. Israel is to be the ones through whom Yahweh is going to restore blessings to all the nations. But they will enter the land and turn away in disobedience. Their hard heart and unwillingness to follow the Law of God and be faithful to the covenant means that salvation for the earth is being thwarted. The nation is driven from their land instead.

1. 1. Yahweh instructs Moses to write a song that will be a prophetic witness to the nation throughout its history. 
   2. Yahweh tell again that this cycle will occur then chapter 31 says this:
   3. Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their hearing and call the heavens and the earth to witness against them. “For I know that after my death you will act corruptly and turn from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days Deuteronomy 31:28–29 (NAS)

The cycle continues till the end. But salvation will not be thwarted! So God will intervene: He will make a new covenant in which Torah is written on their hearts. This ends the cycle of covenant disobedience and covenant discipline. It will usher in ever lasting life!

1. 1. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord,” declares the Lord God, “when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight. “For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. “You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God. Ezekiel 36:23–28 (NAS)
   2. Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. “They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” Jeremiah 31:31–34 (NAS)
   3. On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places will be rebuilt. “The desolate land will be cultivated instead of being a desolation in the sight of everyone who passes by. Ezekiel 36:33–34 (NAS)
   4. Deuteronomy 30 is the chapter that the rapture passages are based on:
      1. He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other. Matthew 24:31 (NAS)
      2. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 (NAS)

1. 1. Moses gives final council 
   2. To Joshua 
   3. To people regarding assembling every seven years to hear Torah read to them
   4. God descends and tells Moses that the people will play the harlot

1. 1. Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their hearing and call the heavens and the earth to witness against them. “For I know that after my death you will act corruptly and turn from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days, Deuteronomy 31:28–29 (NAS)
   2. This opens to chapter 32, the song of Moses which is a prophetic song that recounts past, present, and future of Israel’s history until the restoration of the nation.  It is a witness to them throughout their history.

1. 1. Moses blesses each of the tribes

1. 1. Moses goes up the mountain to die; is buried by Yahweh

1. 1. Jesus’ death 
   2. Gentiles grafted in
   3. Covenant God
   4. Faithful to his covenant