Chapter 1: What is the significance of the book of Deuteronomy for Christians today?
The book of Deuteronomy contains the last set of laws given by Moses, but do they mean anything for us today? Some Christians don't think so.
Now that I'm forgiven freely by grace, I can live pretty much any way I like. The Lord doesn't really care. And Deuteronomy reminds us the Lord really does care and that the law is critical for Christians in the living of the Christian life.
Welcome to Renewing Your Mind. I'm Nathan W. Bingham, and I'm glad you're joining us. We're a few months into the year, but perhaps in January, you began a Bible in a Year reading plan. Many Christians, including me, begin these plans with enthusiasm, quickly reading through the exciting narratives we find in Genesis and Exodus.
But by the time we get to Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, it can be hard to persevere. Have you ever felt that way? where you're not alone. And to help you in your reading of God's Word, this week we'll be taking a closer look at the book of Deuteronomy.
W. Robert Godfrey will be helping us understand a portion of Deuteronomy this week, but you can study the entire book when you request digital access to this series and study guide, along with the DVD set, when you give a donation in support of Renewing Your Mind at renewingyourmind.org.
Well, as we begin today, Dr. Godfrey has already explained that Deuteronomy is organized like a pyramid with four steps, four up and four down.
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Chapter 2: How does Deuteronomy emphasize the importance of God's law?
The first step is history. The next is warnings, then laws about loving God, and finally, the pinnacle, the step at the peak of the pyramid, the laws about leadership. Well, let's pick up in Deuteronomy chapter 4. Here's Dr. Godfrey.
We are looking at this final chapter of the first section of our step pyramid, the history section. Chapter 4 is rehearsing some of the history of Israel as they're about to enter the Promised Land and is reiterating what the Lord taught them at Horeb about the importance of avoiding idolatry. And there at verse 15, we really come to the central teaching of this fourth chapter.
And you remember we've seen in Hebrew literature how important centers are much of the time. And it begins with that repeated word, therefore watch yourselves very carefully. You saw no form on the day when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire. Beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves in the form of… And then he goes on to be very specific.
He doesn't want to leave any room for doubt. He does not want any images made of him that resemble human beings, that resemble animals or birds or things that creep on the earth or fish that swim in the sea or sun or moon or stars. Have you got that? None of these things are appropriate representations of God.
And very interestingly, he says, those things, those created things, I gave to all people. And he doesn't really expand on that thought, but it's an intriguing thought when you think about it. What God is really saying to Israel is, as creator, I gave creation to everybody. but I'm giving myself to you. I'm your God. I'm the God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
You shall have no other gods before me. And so the Lord is saying, not only is this a command that I give you, but it's a command with a real reason behind it. You must not replace the Creator with some part of the creation. It doesn't make any sense. But beyond not making any sense, it undermines the fundamental relationship that I have with you, my people.
And part of what I want to do as we go through this study of Deuteronomy is to see that God is not, I think as we sometimes think of him in relation to the Old Testament law, God is not the great accountant in the sky with a ledger, seeing how well we're doing on every little point. God is above all else a personal, saving, loving God, and he wants a personal relationship with his people.
And all of these laws are designed to support that personal relationship that he has with people. If you go replacing him with an image, of something he created, you've diminished him. But you've not only diminished him, but you have harmed the relationship he wants to have with you. And you've replaced him with something else. It's the great human temptation to replace God with something else.
And we'll see as we go along that he warns people against the most particular things that we are inclined to replace him with. We do that individually, we do that as churches, and he's warning here, don't do it. I want to be your God, a God who has no image, who is not to be reduced to some part of his creation, but is to be appreciated for the great Creator God that he is.
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Chapter 3: What historical context does Deuteronomy provide for Israel?
There's going to be an exile. That's not a surprise that's going to come into the life of Israel. It's prophesied right here by Moses, and that prophecy will be reiterated and expanded in Deuteronomy 28. And so it's very important to see that Deuteronomy, in a variety of ways, is very much forward-looking.
It's talking not only about the past and about the present, but it's communicating to Israel to be aware that there are going to be great changes in their future, and they have to be prepared for that. They have to recognize what's going to happen.
And we'll see in the very last chapter of Deuteronomy that what is said is even though calamity is going to come upon Israel in the future for a time, yet God will raise up another prophet like Moses. And there is the great prophecy of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Old Testament situation described in Deuteronomy was never going to be the end. It was never the fulfillment.
The Promised Land had a great purpose. But the purpose of the Promised Land was preparatory to seeing the coming of the ultimate Messiah, the ultimate mediator, the true prophet, priest, and king, who would bring the new heaven and the new earth, not just a little bit of territory in the Near East. That's not what we're promised in the Scripture.
What we're promised in the Scripture is the great day is coming when the whole earth will be renewed and the whole earth will belong to the people of God because that's what God intended from the beginning. There's a real historical movement going on in Deuteronomy to cause the people to look forward with confidence, with hope, with expectation. about what's going to happen in their future.
And so this history is critical and at the center of it always is this call to avoid idolatry. It's very tempting to invest physical objects with spiritual power. It's very tempting, it's very satisfying to think there's a place I can go, there's a thing I can touch that will connect me to the divine. That's a pretty universal human experience.
Some of you will know I'm a minister in a Dutch Reformed denomination. And in the Dutch Reformed churches, unlike a lot of the Presbyterian churches, we have forms, we call them, for things. readings that the minister reads for baptism, for Lord's Supper, for profession of faith.
I think it's because the Dutch Reformed are gloomier than the Presbyterians and know that ministers are not to be trusted to get things right.
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Chapter 4: What are the central teachings of Deuteronomy chapter 4?
So you just give them something to read and they may be able to successfully do that. And interestingly, in one of the old communion forms, there's a list of gross sins. And the form says, anyone practicing these sins are not to come to the Lord's table unless they repent of these sins. And in that list of gross sins, interestingly enough, one of the sins to be avoided is praying to saints.
Well, this form was written in the 16th century. People were just coming out of Roman Catholicism, and there were many people still devoted to the saints. So I knew a minister who was reading this form and he got into it and starts reading the list of gross sins and reads the one about not praying to saints. And he said, I remember thinking to myself, this is dumb.
You know, this is so old fashioned. Why are we doing this? And he said, after the service, a person came up to him and said, thank you so much for that. I was still praying to saints. I'd never really been able to break with that. Well, it's a tendency of the human heart to invest something physical with spiritual presence and power because it makes life easier for us.
We are visually centered, and so the Lord really warns us about that. Paul, in a sense, I think, echoes this in 2 Corinthians 4 verse 18. We look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."
And that's really reflected there in chapter 4 of Deuteronomy as a great call to the spiritual character of our God. And then in one of those moves that sometimes surprises and confuses us, at the end of chapter 4, verses 41 through 43, we have a statement about the establishment of three cities of refuge on the east side of the Jordan for people who are guilty of manslaughter.
See, these are these head scratchers. Why? Why? Well, I think part of the reason is that Moses wants to make the point that we are all sinners, sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally, and God makes a provision for sinners. In the ancient world, there was in the Middle East and in many places a profound sense of blood feuds. If you kill somebody in my family, I have to kill you.
And those blood feuds would go on through generations because, of course, when I kill somebody in your family, then you have to kill somebody in my family, and back and forth it goes forever. And this provision says we want to end that in Israel, particularly in the cases where someone has accidentally killed someone else, not intentionally, not an act of murder.
But there needs to be a place of refuge for such a person so he won't be killed by the relatives and establish a back and forth blood feud in Israel. So even these things make sense as we think about them as God wanting to establish a people of harmony and peace and love. in the land that he is giving them.
So in Deuteronomy 4, we see a fair bit of law, but it's very much in the context of history. And then as we move on to chapter 5, we're moving on to a section that we find in our step pyramid here, the beginning of the section that I've called warnings. 5 1⁄2 chapters, 5 through 10, verse 11, of various ways of warning Israel about the importance of keeping the law.
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Chapter 5: How does Deuteronomy address the concept of idolatry?
There's also a convenient link in the podcast show notes. And for our global listening audience, the digital version of this offer is waiting for you at renewingyourmind.org slash global. Because of your generosity, we're able to proclaim the truth of God's word to more people in more places. Thank you. Well, because we're saved by grace alone, through faith alone, how should we view God's law?
Join us Tuesday as Dr. Godfrey continues his series in Deuteronomy. That'll be tomorrow here on Renewing Your Mind.
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