Latest / Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies / Deuteronomy - The Romans of the Old Testament | James Browning | Week 06

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Deuteronomy - The Romans of the Old Testament | James Browning | Week 06 · Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies

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  Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 5pm or Wednesdays at 7pm if you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, you can find us online@madisonchurch.org be sure to subscribe to this podcast as well as our Sermons podcast. Madison Church of Christ Sermons. Thanks again for stopping by. I hope this study is a blessing to you.
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  Speaker B: Good evening everyone. Welcome back to our series on going through the Book of Deuteronomy. As usual, I'll start kind of reviewing our objectives for the series. Right? So by the end of the series, I would like you to leave understanding Deuteronomy as a place you can go for ethical guidance and a physical explanation of our modern spiritual realities. I want you to leave understanding the literary frameworks, the design patterns, and the central themes found in Deuteronomy. And above all, I want you to leave understanding how the New Testament authors understood, interpreted and applied Deuteronomy's teachings in their own writings. And so last week we kind of left off beginning to talk about the section called the Stipulations. So in our second class we talked about the overarching structure of Deuteronomy, of having these different sections. And in our previous class we began to introduce this third section called the Stipulations, which covers the ideal relationship between ancient Israel and God, specifically talking about the ideal relationship of a 14th century Israelite farmer and God specifically expressed in laws. And that's kind of where I want to pick up. I want to pick up In Deuteronomy, chapter 5, verses 22 through 29, which reads these words, Yahweh spoke to all your assembly at the mountain out of the midst of the fire, the cloud and the thick darkness, with a loud voice, and he added no more. And he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. And as soon as you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes, and all your elder and your elders, and you said, behold, Yahweh, our Elohim has shown us his glory and greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire this day we have seen God speak with man, and man still live. Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the Lord our Elohim anymore, we shall die. For who is there of all flesh that has heard the voice of the living Elohim speaking out of the midst of fire, as we have and has still lived? Go near and hear all that Yahweh our Elohim will say and speak to us all that Yahweh our Elohim will speak to you. And we will hear and do it. And Yahweh heard your words when you spoke to me. And Yahweh said to me, I have heard the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They are right in all that they have spoken. Oh, that they had such a heart as this always to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever. So in that passage, right, we talked about this last week, we see how Israel sees God's presence and hear his voice. And instead of wanting to come closer, they become afraid. They're afraid for their lives. They're afraid that if they keep hearing him and keep being so close to God that they will die. And instead they feel like they need a mediator, in this case Moses, to stand in between them. And God actually commends them for this. He says, if only they would fear me like this always. And it's that word fear that we noted that becomes so important throughout Deuteronomy, throughout the rest of the Old Testament, in the Old Covenant, and into the New Testament with the New Covenant. In fact, we noted in Jeremiah 32, when Jeremiah describes the New covenant, he describes it as one where his people will fear him continually, as one where God would put a fear of him into their hearts. And when you fast forward and you actually read about the first century Christians living in the New Covenant In Acts chapter 9, verses 31, this is how they're described. They're described saying, so the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit and multiplied. And so that's where we left off last week. We left off pondering this question of what does it truly mean to fear the Lord? Why is this so important? And what would it actually look like in day to day life? And to actually explain this, I think there is a very specific passage that teaches it so well and specifically a parable Jesus teaches his followers in Luke chapter 18, verses 9 through 14, and that reads, he also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee standing by himself prayed, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house, justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. So while the word fear isn't really used in this parable, you can see kind of the disposition of fear, specifically in the tax collector, right? In this parable, we get a portrait of two people contrasting each other. We get the tax collector who, acting like the Pharisees, stands far off, doesn't even feel like he can look to heaven, and rather recognizes that he has no right to stand before God. Right? They are in the temple, the very place where God's presence is supposed to be under the old covenant. And he feels like he can't even be there because he recognizes that God has every right to judge him, every right to frankly destroy him. And he cries out for mercy. And in contrast, we see the Pharisee who has no awe of God, he has no fear whatsoever. He stands alone in front of him, unbothered, because he's not comparing himself to this holy God, he's comparing himself to all these other people who we might refer to as people of the world. He doesn't believe that there's anything actually wrong with him. And I think this is what the fear of the Lord really looks like. It's the tax collector. It's someone who understands the holiness of God, which in turn makes him realize just how broken and sinful he really is. It is a state of mind that is self reflecting rather than externally condemning. And what makes this so interesting, the fear of the Lord, is how the Proverbs writers also connect this with the idea of wisdom. So I'm going to read a couple of passages in Proverbs. I'm going to read Proverbs chapter 1, verse 7, and then Proverbs chapter 3, 5 through 8. So Proverbs chapter 1, verse 7 reads, the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. And in chapter three, verses five through eight, it says, trust in Yahweh with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes. Fear Yahweh and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. So we see that warning in Proverbs chapter 3, verse 7. Be not wise in your own eyes. Because when you're wise in your own eyes, when you believe that you understand everything and that you are always going to make the right choices, just like the Pharisee does, you reject any instruction, you reject any correction from God. When you don't recognize your own brokenness, you have no reason to believe that there's anything that needs fixing. And I think that's why it's so. Moses feels it's so important to replay this part of Israel's history, right? Actually, in Deuteronomy, he goes in way more depth than the original story in Exodus does about this particular interaction. And I think it's because he recognizes that it is this state of mind that is so necessary going into the stipulations, right? This state of mind, of understanding that our way, our wisdom, leads to destruction. And rather, we need God's way of life to actually bring us life. And that is further instilled as we keep reading in Deuteronomy, right? If we go back, if we go to Deuteronomy chapter six and we read verses one through three, it says, now this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules that Yahweh, your Elohim commanded me to teach you that you may do them in the land to which you are going over to possess it, that you may fear Yahweh your Elohim, you and your son, and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear. Therefore, O Israel, be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as Yahweh, the Elohim of your fathers has promised you in a land flowing with milk and honey. So what you see here, right, in verse two, this idea of fear becomes intertwined with obedience. And this is how it looks like for the rest of the Old Testament, that whenever you See, this concept of the fear of the Lord closely close by is this idea of obedience. Because the state of mind, this self reflection, this idea that I need God's way of life rather than my own is a prerequisite to obedience. Because when you don't have that fear, when you think that you know everything, that you're fine, that you can stand before God without any mediator or anything, that you have every right on your own merit to come before God, then you reject his instruction because you already believe you know what's best. Now, with that in mind, right, Coming to the stipulations, with that state of mind, what would you think would be the first law that Moses presents to people? You might think that it would be some crushing rules with very harsh punishments, but actually that's not what we find. What we actually find is that the very first law God gives is what Jesus will later call one of the two greatest commandments. The Hebrew people know this as the Shema. And that is Deuteronomy, chapter 6, verses 4 through 9. And that reads, hear, O Israel, Yahweh, our Elohim. Yahweh is one you shall love. Yahweh, your Elohim, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Notice the pivot that Moses has made. We just talked about this idea of a terror, this idea of being afraid, of being in God's presence. And what we find here is this idea of love, of loving God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. And this law in particular becomes the beating heart of the stipulations in Deuteronomy. It's why Jesus thinks of this as the greatest commandment, because it comes up and is referenced again and again and again, over and over and over throughout Deuteronomy and into the rest of the Old Testament. It is found just about everywhere that you read. And what that implies, right, is that God is not looking for people who are mindless, terrified rule keepers, but rather what the fear of the Lord looks like. It looks like an emptying of pride, so that you are filled with an all consuming Love, a love that shows up in your heart, in your soul, and in your mind. Now, I want to take the rest of the time. We have to really dive into this particular passage because of how important it really is. And to do that, you're going to have a fairly short Hebrew language lesson. So starting with this first word, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart. Now, that word heart is the Hebrew word labab, and it is literally translated as the thing you use to make a decision. It can be translated as the word heart, but it can also be translated as the word mind. And the reason for that is, in English, we have this concept that you can actually make decisions one of two ways. You can either make a decision through an emotional response, right? Because you love something so much, you kind of reject logic a little bit, and you kind of act this way, right? That's following your heart. You have a very specific phrase for that. Or you make a decision based on logic, a sequence of rational decisions that lead to a very specific response. Thinking with your head. But in Hebrew, it is the same word. They don't actually think of those as two different things because both can lead to the right decision. And we know that both are thought of here because Greek also separates those two, right? Greek also separates this idea of heart and mind into two different words. And when you go to Mark, and Jesus quotes this as the greatest command, Mark writing to a bunch of Greek people, includes that extra word. He says heart, soul, might, and mind, right? He wants to make it clear to the reader that those two words are actually one word here in this command. And so what that implies is that every decision you make has to be aligned with God and showing your love to him. And I think it's really important the fact that it's both, because sometimes when I hear conversations, especially in the church, about decision making, sometimes we have a tendency of at least implying this idea of raising up logic and suppressing emotion. But that's not actually what's taught in the Bible. What's taught in the Bible is that both are equally valid as long as they are aligned with God. And I want to make this very clear. What I'm not saying is that every desire and whim you have is okay and should be followed by that's not true. But what is taught here is your emotional responses aligned with God's emotions, right? When we read in the Bible, we read of a God who has emotions, who is angry, who loves, who even hates. And so it's not an idea of suppressing Emotion to only follow logic. It is an idea of aligning both with God and understanding when you act in love versus in pure logic. Okay, so now the second word. Love the Lord your God with all your soul. Now, that is the word Nephesh. And this soul is a. Is a misnomer, in my opinion. I don't like. I actually don't like that translation all that much. Mainly because when I think of soul, I think of this ethereal inner being that goes on to exist after my physical body has decayed. Right? It's fairly common in philosophy of using soul in that. That context. And the Bible has an idea of that, right? They have an idea of this ethereal part of your body that continues to live on, that is separate from your physical body. But that is the word in Hebrew, ruach. It's a very different word than Nephesh. Nephesh is literally actually the word for throat, but it also describes a breathing creature. You would use the word Nephesh whenever you want to talk about anything in the world that breathes. And what it implies is an idea of the physical, that you are using your body, your energy, your very breath, to love God, that your daily actions are aligned with him, to love him. That is what is being implied when you say Nephesh, right? If Labab is this thinking process, right, coming to a conclusion. Nephesh is the physical action of following it out, following it through. It's the helping of the poor and the needy. It's the reaching out to those who seem lost. It's the reaching out to those who are going through tough times. And so this last word, might you shall love the Lord your God with all your might. This one isn't. I wouldn't say it's a misnomer, but it's kind of a funny word to use because it's actually just an adjective to describe something. It's specifically the word exceedingly. So we might say that someone has an exceeding amount of land or an exceeding amount of money, or an exceeding amount of time. That's what that word is supposed to be used for. And so here, what it conveys is this idea of abundance that you have something that you have so much of that you have more than you could ever need. You might have an abundance of money because you did really good at your job and you invested well. You might have an abundance of time. I think about when I was in college, even though I promise I studied very hard, I had a lot of time on my hand to do things and to do things for God if I so choose. Or you might literally just have an abundance of physical strength that God has blessed you with, that you can use to protect the church, that you can use to help people in need. And that is what is being implied here. This idea that you have something that God has given you an abundance of. And you're supposed to be using that not for your own life choices or your own ideas, but, but for God's will. And I want to make something very clear. This is not the same thing as spiritual gifts, right? This isn't the idea that Paul picks up in First Corinthians where everyone has some specific talent given by the Spirit to be used for the church. This is an idea that in this part of your life you have something that God has blessed you with more than what you need. And the reason you've been given it is so that you can use it for his purposes. And that is what it means to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength. You can see how they kind of play together, how they're interconnected, how you have to make deliberate choices, whether through emotional responses or logical responses that align with God and His wisdom, that you have to take action that align with what God's idea of action is, what he would want us to be doing. And it's using the things that God has blessed you with to actually live out his will as he does, as he has proclaimed. And so we can keep going, right, in verse six, which says, and these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. Now that phrase shall be on your heart, it is specifically an idea of internalization, right? It's this concept of binding. It's a very specific treaty word which means that you're going to have this at all times, right? Remember, heart is the thing you use to make decisions. It's literally the idea of you are going to take this word and that is what you use for your decision making process. When you see God acting a certain way through his teachings, coming to conclusions. When you see God being angry about things, his hatred for sin, his love for the poor and the needy, you respond accordingly. Remember, we are people who fear the Lord. We are people who already understand that our wisdom is bankrupt and leads to destruction and sin. It is this idea of finally replacing that with his wisdom, with His Word that He has given us. And so if you look at verses five and six, they're very abstract, I would say they're very much something you might put on a bumper sticker they're great ideas, but they don't exactly imply specific, concrete things. But that's where verses seven through nine come in. They go on to teach what the concrete actions might look like when you're truly loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and might. And specifically, in the very first part of verse seven, we read, and you shall teach them diligently to your children. So loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and might also means teaching that wisdom that you have replaced your own with to the next generation. And specifically that phrase to teach diligently. It's the word you would use in Hebrew to describe sharpening a blade. It's an idea of something that is consistent, it's intentional, it's thorough. It's not something that just happens. It's something that you plan, that you take the time and you really do, gracefully and intentionally. And it's described really greatly. Or at least an example is shown to us later on In Deuteronomy, chapter 6, verses 20 through 25, which reads, when your son asks you in time to come, what is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that Yahweh our Elohim has commanded you? Then you shall say to your son, we were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt, and Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And Yahweh showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household before our eyes. And he brought us out from there that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. And Yahweh commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear Yahweh our Elohim for our good always, that he might preserve us alive as we are this day. And it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to do all this commandment before Yahweh our Elohim, as he has commanded us. So I want to be a little clear, right? We are not specifically supposed to teach this to our kids, right? We have neither been saved from Egypt, nor do we get our righteousness from the law. Our righteousness comes from Jesus through grace, because he died and was resurrected. But the wisdom here, I think, is very clear. Your chances to teach your child about God come and are given when you yourselves are following God. They come when you are showing up on Sunday, taking the Lord's Supper. They come when they see you reading your Bible at home, meditating on the Scriptures. They come when they see you reaching out to the poor and the needy to help them when they come and they say, why are we doing this? None of my friends at school are doing this. No one I know does this. Why do we do this? Because it's a natural question. And you have to be ready, right? You have to be intentional. You have to be intentional that they're seeing you do this, that you're making them ask those questions and that you have a biblical response. That you tell them, we take the Lord's Supper because God died for us and that we are proclaiming his death to come. That we are reading our Bibles because we are told that this is our wisdom for our lives. That we reach out to the poor and the needy because God told us of his love for them and that we show our love for God through our love for them. It is that that shows concretely that we love God with all our heart, all our soul, all our might. Now, if we keep reading in chapter seven, we get another example. We are told, I'll just read all of verse 7. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk, by the way, when you lie down, when you rise, right? It is this idea of talking about the things you've learned when you're at home, when you're at work, when you're on a trip, when you're awake, even when you're sleeping you're supposed to be talking about is an implication that this wisdom that is taught here is completely intertwined with your daily rhythm of life, that it's guiding every decision, that it is something that you think about and you talk about constantly with your spouse, with your children, with your co workers, with anyone who is willing to listen to. Because it's the thing that is guiding you. When they ask you, why did you do this? Your answer is, well, it's told to me here in the Bible. I learned that lesson. When your kids ask, why do we do this thing? You say, well, if you read here in Deuteronomy, chapter such and such, we were taught this wisdom. It is something that is so connected to you that you can't stop. And I think there's no better example of this, or at least of a command to do this than in Joshua, chapter one. In Joshua, chapter one, verses six through nine, we read God telling Joshua, be strong and courageous for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous being careful to do according to all the law that Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened. Do not be dismayed. For Yahweh, your Elohim is with you wherever you go. Now, there's a lot here, but I want to focus on that phrase, or very specifically on verse 8. The book of the law should not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night. That word meditate. It's the word hagah, and it's specifically the word to murmur, to recite, or to speak in a soft undertone. Now, what is so interesting about that is a lot of times when we think about meditation, we usually think about that idea of a daily Bible reading, of reading your Bible daily. You're alone and you're meditating on it in the modern term. And maybe you pray, but you're alone. You're not really talking to anyone. You're not discussing it. But that's not what God tells Joshua to do. That's not to say that's not great. One of my favorite times of the day is when I wake up and I have my first cup of coffee and I'm reading the Bible or whatever theology book I've chosen for that moment. But I think something we miss sometimes in our active learning that we're supposed to be doing is the fact that it is active, that the Bible tells us that learning the wisdom is not something that's done passively. It's what verse seven says and what God tells Joshua. It's something you talk about, you recite, you're speaking about it constantly. Something constantly on your mind. You're talking to other people, you're asking questions. We are learning together as a community. I will never forget while I was at the UCSC in Mississippi State, one of my favorite times of the day was after I had done my Bible study everyone had done with classes. We would gather at the church building specifically, and there'd be people around the table, and our college minister would be there. And the topic of conversation was always, what was the thing you studied today? And it was fascinating. You learn so much just by talking with People. And that is what is implied both here and In Deuteronomy, chapter 7 or chapter 6, verse 7, is that learning is supposed to be a cooperative thing, not something you just do alone in your bed or at your desk in the morning. And with that, we get to the final. The final two verses, this final concrete example of what it looks like to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your might. Verse 8, 9 says, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Now, I'll say this kind of funny, mainly because what he's telling, telling them, if you were to take it literally is you'd have to have this entire book of deuteronomy of chapters 5 through 26 written on your hand. Or I mean, you could probably get on your gate and your doorpost, but your hand and the frontlets of your eyes is kind of the interesting ones. Now, obviously, it's not literal, it's figurative. And the idea that's conveyed is it should be something people can see. It should be visible. When you're living your life, people should see you and see, ah, yeah, this person is living differently. They're living by the wisdom of God. They should see your household and they should say, yeah, this house, they live by the word of God. I remember when I first started working at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. I remember getting there as a graduate student and meeting my supervisor, and people loved the guy. He was so nice to work with. He was such a great mentor and he was so friendly, and people always talked about how different he was than all the other physicists that they had to work with, all the professors. And I remember meeting him and just hearing him talk and how he interacted with people and thinking, this guy must be a Christian, like, there's no way he isn't because of the way he's acting. There was no way. And then I remember after a couple months having lunch with him and we get to talking and he starts telling me about how he actually has to teach a class that Wednesday at Laurel Church of Christ in Knoxville, Tennessee, for the college students. I remember it hitting me, man. That's what verses eight through nine means. That's what it actually looks like when you're living your life in such a way that other Christians immediately see you and say, ah, yeah, that person is a Christian. And when other people see you, they say, that aren't a Christian. They say, oh, this person's different. This person's living a different life, a better life. And I will leave you with that. Thank you for coming. Thank you for listening to this class. I will see you next week.