Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Word is to be in your heart and in your soul. I hope that's why you're here today studying Deuteronomy. You long to have the Word living in your soul. That's why Protestant churches have devoted so much time and energy to the preaching of the Word and to the learning of the Word, because it really is our life, as Deuteronomy will say at its end.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. This is what the Apostle Paul teaches us in a letter to Timothy, and it's why on Renewing Your Mind we seek to study all of Scripture. Welcome to the Thursday edition of Renewing Your Mind.
I'm your host, Nathan W. Bingham. As we seek to study all of God's Word, some sections can be easier to understand than others. The regulations we read in the Old Testament, they can seem strange to our modern ears. How should we understand these passages about shellfish, blending fabrics, and boiling goats in their mother's milk?
Well, this week on Renewing Your Mind, W. Robert Godfrey is showing us that we have much to learn from Deuteronomy and from God's law.
Chapter 2: What does the Lord require of us according to Deuteronomy?
This is your final day to request digital access to the entire series, the DVD, and the study guide with your gift at renewingyourmind.org. This offer will end at midnight tonight, so don't wait. Secure your copy while there's still time. So how does the book of Deuteronomy help us to live as Christians in the 21st century? Here's Dr. Godfrey.
We return now to Deuteronomy and to a new section of Deuteronomy. We've got to the third step on our step pyramid, laws about loving God. And this is a very important section in part because it really helps us to think about the law relative to God and to show God's intention is that the law should be
personal connection with him, not just, as I said in an earlier lecture, an accounting procedure to mark off how well we're doing. And we can see that, I think, in the way this section begins. Chapter 10 at verse 12, Moses says, Now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? It's a great question, isn't it?
posed in other places in the scriptures, but what is said here in answer to this? What does the Lord require of you? What does his law insist on? But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, And to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good.
Here's the very essence of it. God has entered into covenant with his people for their good. And what does he want from them? He wants them to fear him and obey him and love him and serve him. It almost sounds like a wedding ceremony, doesn't it? Here's a pledge that God has given to his people and that he's asking of them. This is the heart of the law. This is the core of the law.
And it's so beautifully expressed here. It's so powerfully stated about the relationship that God would have with his people. And he goes on, Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day.
And it's as if Moses is saying here, the Lord already had everything. He didn't need you, but he loved you. He placed his love upon you. And how that should determine your relationship with Him, your eagerness to know His law and to serve Him.
You know, in the history of the church, a number of great catechisms have been written, and it's my obligation as a Dutch Reformed minister to say the greatest of them all was the Heidelberg Catechism. And the Heidelberg Catechism is divided into three parts. The first short part is on guilt or on sin. And the second part is on grace, how we're delivered from sin.
And then the third part of the Catechism is on gratitude, how we live a life of gratitude before the Lord for the grace and deliverance He has shown to us. And that's sort of what we find here, that we are called to serve the Lord, to live for the Lord, to love the Lord out of gratitude for the great work that He has done in saving us.
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Chapter 3: How does God's law express His relationship with His people?
Students had never heard of Cary Grant. Now I'm really feeling old, you know. But much more importantly, I was born in 1945, so I don't personally remember the Second World War, but it was such an alive reality in the experience of my parents' generation that I felt like I remembered the Second World War. And now you talk to young people, and the Second World War is like ancient history.
I mean, it's so far removed that they don't feel any kind of personal connection with it. Well, that happens. There's not much we can do about that. But what Moses is saying, when you think about the great saving works of God in history, Don't let your children forget them. Don't let them pass from the collective memory and knowledge.
And it's a great commission for the educational work of the church. And again, I think one of my concerns is to look around, and I feel Bible knowledge in American churches has really declined in the last 50 years. The only way to address that is to work harder at it, work better at it, no doubt, but also to work harder at it, devote time to it.
And Moses is encouraging that, that we would see that, to remember God's triumphs as He triumphed over Pharaoh, but also to remember God's judgments. One of the things he talks about here is Korah's rebellion. in the wilderness and how the Lord had to overcome that rebellion against Moses and against his leadership. Look at verse 5 in Deuteronomy 11.
He's been talking about the great victory over Pharaoh at the Red Sea, and he goes on to say in verse 5, "...and what God did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place."
and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben, how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them in the midst of all Israel." So, here's one of the great judgments in the wilderness, Korah's rebellion against the Lord in which he was joined by Nathan and Abiram.
And notice how Moses tells this story. Do you notice what he doesn't mention in this story? He doesn't use the name of Korah. Korah's name is too vile to be repeated is the implication here. But of course the implication is also that people will be so well acquainted with this story that they'll know immediately what he's talking about.
And this is another of the reasons why it's so important for us to really know our Bible history. I was thinking about that relative to the golden calf, which I said was so prominent in parts of the Old Testament. But Paul almost does the same thing in 1 Corinthians about the golden calf that Moses here in Deuteronomy 11 is doing with Korah.
Because in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 7, Paul says, "...do not be idolaters as some of them were. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play." That was said of the people as they danced around the golden calf.
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Chapter 4: What is the significance of loving God in the context of the law?
It only comes when I send it. And I send it frequently enough that you can be presumptuous about it. But don't be presumptuous. I will send it to bless you, and I'll withhold it if you are not faithful. So here is that Deuteronomic notion of blessing that is being articulated here.
But it's interesting how God uses what we think of as natural things to illustrate spiritual points for his people and how important that is, how valuable that is, and how important a lesson it really is. And then verse 14 says,
of chapter 11, Moses says, God will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. And then we have one of those kind of summary statements again, calling us back to the word, that verse 18 of chapter 11. You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul,
and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise, you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them as long as the heavens are above the earth."
Now, you might say to yourself, Moses needs an editor. He already said that in chapter 6. Several verses there are just a quotation of chapter 6. But a good preacher knows that not everyone is paying attention all the time. and that therefore there's a value to repetition. There's a value to reiterating what you're saying, and Moses is certainly doing that here.
But again, notice the word is to be in your heart and in your soul. It's to live in you. I hope that's why you're here today studying Deuteronomy, because you long to have the Word living in your soul. That's why Protestant churches have devoted so much time and energy historically to the preaching of the Word and to the teaching of the Word and to the learning of the Word, because
It really is our life, as Deuteronomy will say at its end, and is so important for us. So verse 32 of chapter 11 summarizes this sort of general introduction to loving God with this very familiar word, "...you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the rules that I am setting before you today." that theme of carefulness returning to again and again.
And it's preceded immediately by a statement about how the day is coming when you'll stand on Mount Ebal and on Mount Gerizim, and you'll hear curses and blessings, and that will remind you of the obligation to serve the Lord faithfully, carefully. And that's a hint of what then will be described in more detail in Deuteronomy 27. So this book is very carefully put together.
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Chapter 5: How does Moses illustrate God's love and expectations?
It's carefully put together to encourage us to be careful.
The laws of God, like we find in Deuteronomy, are so much more than a list of prohibitions and regulations. God's law is full of depth and purpose, and they showcase God's love. And we see all of this in the book of Deuteronomy. You're listening to Renewing Your Mind on this Thursday, and that was W. Robert Godfrey, Ligonier Teaching Fellow and the Chairman of Ligonier Ministries.
All week, Dr. Godfrey has been pointing out the intricate structure and careful detail we find in Deuteronomy, along with the important theological themes. We'd like to send you the entire series on DVD, as well as unlock the series and study guide for you in the free Ligonier app. When you give a gift in support of Renewing Your Mind at renewingyourmind.org or when you call us at 800-435-4343.
Well, back when Dr. Godfrey recorded this series, we asked him what he hoped every believer would understand about Deuteronomy. Here's his answer.
I wish every Christian knew about Deuteronomy, that it's a single sermon. and that Moses has a very specific point that he's aiming at with the book of Deuteronomy to help us understand how the Lord leads us as his people. It's a book about the transition of leadership from Moses to Joshua. Moses is about to die. Joshua is about to take over. That's how the book begins and ends.
And then in the center of the book, the heart of the book, we could say, Moses talks about the king who will come. So, Deuteronomy is pointing to the critical nature of leadership because the people are so often at failure. And as we think about that leadership, it will lead us to Christ because he's the king, he's the second Moses, he's the greater Joshua.
So, Deuteronomy is not only full of all sorts of spiritual help for us, but it's full of Jesus, and I hope we'll see that as we study it as well.
We're so thankful for Dr. Godfrey and his labors in recording this series. Request lifetime digital access to all the messages and the study guide, plus a copy of the DVD when you give a gift in support of this daily podcast at renewingyourmind.org or by using the link in the podcast show notes.
And for our global listening audience, request your digital-only edition of this offer with your gift at renewingyourmind.org slash podcast. global. Today is the final day, so be quick as this offer will end at midnight. Our God is a communicating God. We've been considering His words this week in Deuteronomy. Well, since God is a communicating God, how should that influence our communication?
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