Deuteronomy - Lesson 5

We're shifting attention in this session to Deuteronomy chapter 4. There is a lot more that could be said of 1, 2 and 3, but because of limitations of time and space, we're going to chapter 4 and we will have three sessions on this chapter, and they will be on the grace of Torah, first eight verses; then the grace of covenant, from 9 to 31; and then the grace of redemption/salvation, 32 to 40. Those will be our next three sessions. Three. graces, amazing graces that I'm sure many of us have never recognized but I have learned to celebrate these. 

The first grace we're talking about is the grace of Torah, or if you want to use the word the grace of law. You won't hear me using the word law very often because I'm reacting against its serious abuse. But in any case, in this case, the issue is - and I have a short synopsis: “in contrast to other peoples, whose gods are silent, Yahweh has graciously revealed His will. Indeed, knowledge of the will of God was Israel's supreme privilege.” They knew the will of God. 

So, let's set the stage where we are. We are still in Moses’ first address. We're at the tail end of the first address. We've had the recollections up to this point. But now in chapter 4, he signals a new beginning with the Hebrew particle və atâ, “and now.” And when you see this particle in scripture, he is signaling a transition from one type of, shall we say, address to another type of address and you can see immediately what he's talking about. “Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes.” It's a Shama. “Hear the statutes and ordinances.” 

Then look at other texts like verse nine, “Only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently.” Verse 15, “So, watch yourselves carefully.” This is what's now characterizing this whole chapter. Moses is pleading with his people now to watch out and don't forget the memories. Because if you lose the story, you lose your soul. And that's what's happening here. 

But he starts these recollections with Yahweh’s grace to the Israelites in the Torah. And again, we need to remind ourselves why it's important for us to take a closer look at these eight verses. And that is primarily because of the neo-Marcionism that plagues our world, and we know where this comes from. It comes from statements like Paul's that he makes in his polemics with the Judaizers. And he feels obligated to correct their views of these issues. And he presents an alternative to the Judaizing system. And so, in Galatians, it's about Judaizers who think that Gentile believers have to become virtual Jews in order to have full table fellowship here. And so, he will talk about the issues of law. “Before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law being shut up to the faith, which was later to be revealed. Therefore, the law has become our tutor.” 

Or “Mount Sinai bears children who are slaves in contrast to Jerusalem, our mother, who has borne free children.” Really? Mt. Sinai bears slaves? Where does that come from? It's a liberated people that were at Mount Sinai. But of course, he's talking to Judaizers who, in my interpretation, have never left Egypt. And it's as if the law was given in Egypt; but it wasn't given in Egypt, the law was given to a redeemed people. It was not given as the way of access to God's grace. It is the way of responding to God's grace. But this has led to all sorts of issues.

Before we talk about this text more particularly, we need to remind ourselves of the three functions of the law that the Reformers talked about – Luther and Calvin, though I understand they talked about them sometimes in a different order. But the three functions of the law: 

One, apart from the work of salvation, the law restrains sin and stands apart from the work. It represents God's general revelation and serves as a common grace for unbelievers, as well as believers, so that ultimately all will be held accountable for the law. So, it's general revelation. 

Second, the law serves as a pedagogue, which, through fear of punishment, forces us to confront our sin and points us to Christ. That is, the law demonstrates our need for Christ, because apparently, we can't keep it. 

And third, the law serves as a guide for believers teaching the way of righteousness but it has no power to condemn. And this one, a guide for believers. 

When I read Luther, I find especially the middle one, gets a lot of emphasis that we need the law to prove that we are sinners and can’t do it ourselves. And so, I keep asking Uncle Martin, Will you go talk to Moses about this? What would he say about that? So that's the Reformers’ view of the law. 

Contemporary views of the law. When you read the laws of Deuteronomy and Numbers and Leviticus, what do you think? And so, we have different views of the laws. To many people, the laws make no sense. I mean, you shall not you shall not eat the meat of any animal that doesn't chew the cud. What's the point of that? 

Or secondly, and this one is very common. Israel's law represented a heavy burden that God demanded the people to bear. I used to feel so sorry for the Israelites because God loaded on them the law, which in any case, supposedly, you can't keep anyhow, but He holds you accountable for. That's wrong. And I felt sorry for Israelites who were given the law. But we in Christ (singing) “Free from the law, o happy condition. Now I can sin without fear of perdition.” That's twisting it a little bit, I know, but I grew up with some Lutheran friends like that. You know, positionally we are free, but we can live like whatever. 

Third, there's a third view of the laws, and that is from an academic point of view, the laws offer a window into the social world of ancient Israel. And we put the laws of Deuteronomy or Exodus or Leviticus alongside Hammurabi or Hittite laws or Egyptian laws, and we do our sociological analyses of the different cultures. That's a very common view these days. 

Fourth, this is actually where I grew up as well. Israel's system of laws provided them with a way of salvation. If you ask a lot of people today, how were ancient Israelites saved? The answer will be, by keeping the law, even though we know that Paul says nobody is saved by keeping the law, but we can't imagine salvation by any other way before Christ. And so, yeah, it provided them with a way of salvation. No, it didn't. God didn't give the Israelites the law in Egypt and then tell them, “All right, here are the laws; as soon as you keep them all, I'll get you out of here.” No, He got them out first. And having redeemed them, He gave them this package of instruction. He revealed to them His mind. That's a totally different system.

But let's talk about Moses’ answer to that question. What's the significance of the law? He will actually give us the answer in two different parts, in 4, verses 1 to 8 and later tomorrow or the day after, we’ll come to 6, verses 20 to 25 where he brings up this topic again. 

But let's focus on chapter 4, verses 1 to 8 - one of my favorite texts in Scripture. “So now, O Israel” (Of course, people ask me, What's your favorite text? Whatever I'm working on. And that's the way this one is.) 

“So now, O Israel hear, the ordinances and stipulations I am teaching you, by putting them into practice that you may live and enter in and possess the land that Yahweh, your God, has given you, the God of your fathers. You may not add to the word that I command you and you may not subtract from it. You are to keep the commands of Yahweh your God that I am charging you. Your own eyes saw what Yahweh did at Baal Peor: that every person who went after Baal of Peor, Yahweh destroyed from among you, but you who held fast to the Lord your God– all of you are still alive today. Look, I have taught you ordinances and stipulations just as Yahweh my God commanded me, that you may put them into practice within the land you're entering to possess it. So, keep them, that is, put them into practice, for this is the mark of your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the nations, who will hear of these ordinances and say, ‘Wow! This great nation is indeed a wise and understanding people.’ Look, there's that ubiquitous hinnê, behold!” 

(We never use behold any more. In everyday life. I mean, you're going to the drugstore and you need a new toothbrush and you want a blue one and you can't find a blue one. And all of a sudden, you see one. Behold! I got one! People will look at you, how many heads have you got? So, in my view, any translation that continues to have behold in it, is not a modern translation; it’s archaic. You're creating a barrier between the text and your reader.)

So, Look, see! Check it out! “Which other great nation is it that has a god as near to it as Yahweh our God is to us whatever we call on Him. And which other nation is there that has righteous ordinances and stipulations like this whole Torah I am presenting you today? This is amazing. 

But let's start with the goal of Torah: life and flourishing in the land. “So, listen, Israel, hear the ordinances. Put them into practice that you may live and enter and possess the land that Yahweh, the God of your fathers, is giving you.” This is God's plan. This is His vision for Israel: life, entry, possession, and flourishing. 

And of course, now we need to think in terms of this relationship between Yahweh, the people of Israel, and the land of Canaan. And this is what I call the Covenant Triangle. Every member of this triangle is doing what that member is supposed to do within this relationship, and the goal of Torah is flourishing in the land. And in this case, you've seen some of this before, but here it is Hear, that you may learn, that you may do, that you may live, that you may enter, that you may possess. It's a slight variation of the other thing we saw where living is at the end. But here living is the beginning of the end, which means entering into the land and claiming the land. And he'll use an illustration yet of why he puts living at this point rather than at the very end. So, this is the Deuteronomic formula for flourishing as opposed to this one that we have been seeing before. 

Of course, this this whole picture recognizes two things. One, God's covenant with Israel is eternal and irrevocable. But second, access to the benefits of the covenant is conditional, and it always is. So that fidelity and faith, or should we say faith demonstrated in fidelity to Yahweh, means that the vassal has access to the benefits that come. 

On the other hand, should the vassal choose to reject his covenant lord and become unfaithful, the curses will replace. And this is not because the covenant is off; it's because the covenant is on, and the blessings and curses are part of the covenant. They're part of it. 

So that when in the end, 586, Judah is schlepped off to Babylon, it's not because the covenant is off; it’s because it's on. God said He would do this and to keep His word, He does it. But the good news is, as we'll see in chapter 30, that's not the last chapter that God anticipates. There's always a story after the judgment. 

So, the goal of Torah: life and flourishing and what is the key? Listen. We need to bring back the old word ‘hearken,’ which is not just hearing the tone and the sound. It means acting upon what you hear. Harken. (That's like, behold, isn't it? You can't do that.) Listen to the statutes, and you listen by doing them and they're given to you in order that they might govern how you live. And, you know, contrary to what is often proposed these days, God doesn't look at what I do, He sees my heart. I've got news for you. You are what you do. And the assessment of what is in the heart is based on what comes out. 

Well, let's look at the second point, the normative status of Torah. This is verse two. “Don't add anything,” we talked about this already, “to the word that I command. You may not subtract, but you are to keep the commands of Yahweh your God that I am charging you to keep.” This is norm. Moses is setting the paradigm here, which is why later on he will say, “Look, if anybody comes along and preaches another gospel different from this, he is anathema.” And of course, Paul picks up on that one. The Torah is normative by definition. We see this also in 12:32. “Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do, don't add or subtract from it.” And we already alluded to Revelation 22:18, and these other extra biblical texts, we also, adding and subtracting to the text. 

Here's a Hittite version of the same idea. “A duplicate of this tablet” - of the covenant treaty – “is deposited before the Sun-goddess of Arinna since the Sun-goddess of Arinna governs kingship and queenship. And in the land of Mittani a duplicate is deposited before the Storm-god, Lord of kurinnu, whoever before the Storm-god, Lord of the kurinnu of Kahat, alters this tablet, or sets it in a secret location – if he breaks it, if he changes the words of the text of the tablet – in regard to this treaty, we have summoned the gods of secrets and the gods are guarantors of the oath. They shall stand and listen and be witnesses.” The gods are watching what you're doing, so you better not tinker with the text. 

Moses knows what he's talking. Moses is keenly aware of his status in God's plan of God's revelation. He is the agent of truth. 

Third, there's the life-sustaining function of the Torah. Did you hear this? Life-sustaining, not killing. “Your own eyes saw what Yahweh did at Baal Peor.” This is Numbers 25. You remember what happened? The Moabites led them into all kinds of sexual immorality, sins, and idolatry and “Yahweh destroyed from among you many, but you who held fast to Yahweh your God – all of you are alive today.” Guess what? How come you're alive? Because you remained true to God in that very testing (or is it testy?) moment. You're alive today. This is proof that people standing in front of Moses are evidence of the truthfulness of the adage here. Obedience to the Torah is the key to life. Numbers 25. You know the story of the Moabite women who came and seduced them. So that's the life-sustaining function of the Torah, verses 3 to 4. 

And then we have the ethical significance of the Torah, verse 5. “Look, I have taught you ordinances and stipulations, just as Yahweh my God commanded me, that you may…” engrave these on nice wooden tablets and hang them on your wall as a model for your life? Or, that you can buy a nice Bible and put it on your coffee table? No, no, no, no, no. They're given to you to put them into practice, to do them. Now, in English, it doesn't make sense to ‘do laws’ or to ‘do commands.’ We keep commands. But there's a different Hebrew word for this. And in this case, I tend to translate it as: put into practice. That's how you keep it. You don't keep it by putting it in a museum. You keep it by doing it that the world may see. That's the ethical and spiritual significance of the Torah to guide people's actions.

And then the privilege of being a Torah people, verses 6 to 8. This is the amazing climax. “So, keep them and put them into practice.” If I had composed the book of Deuteronomy according to my theological understanding 30 years ago, I would have written this text something like this and is actually quite familiar, you’ll pick it up, “So keep them and do them and put them into practice for that is your duty, your obligation. God has chosen you and saddled you with the law to be a picture to the world of what the law cannot accomplish. And it leads inevitably to your condemnation.” That's how I used to think about these things. 

But this is the opposite of this. So, “this is a mark of your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the nations who will hear these ordinances and say, ‘Wow, this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’” 

But what's wisdom? We don't hear the word hokmah, wisdom, much in this book of Deuteronomy. But Moses is here posing as a wisdom teacher, a wisdom figure. He's not just a prophet; he's also a sage. This is your wisdom. But this word in Hebrew has a wide range of meanings. 

At the bottom, it means skill in a craft, technical expertise. That's a wise person. Remember, Moses commissioned Bezalel to make the tabernacle, and the Lord endowed him with a spirit of wisdom to craft all kinds of beautiful things. That's wisdom. So, we would say somebody who is good at running a video camera is a wise person, or whatever skill you have. At base, it means ability to do something well. At base. But it's more than that. 

It means intelligence, shrewdness, brains. This is how we talk. Solomon was a wise man. He wrote 3,000 proverbs about the birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees. Amazingly smart man. And he was able to catalog all the observations that people were drawing into a handbook of wisdom. He's a brilliant man. This is an academic exercise. These people are really smart in that sense, we say. 

But then it comes in the Book of Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, and Job. It means having good sense, moral understanding. And this has to do with making the translation [recet transition] from knowing what's right to applying what's right in the right circumstance so that the goals you set out for yourself are achieved. Good sense, moral understanding. 

And ultimately, of course, it means understanding of the profound issues of life. This is a book like Job, which wrestles with what is the nature of faith and what is the nature of unbelief and why do righteous people suffer? Or Ecclesiastes, where does one find meaning in life? I mean, that's far removed from skill in a craft. This is a person who has a theological view of life and everything is brought into captivity to this theological view. And that's a wise person. 

So, now when the nations say, “Wow, what a wise and understanding people!” It's the whole package. It's the whole package. They recognize you guys have got something that nobody else in the world has. Well, that is the wisdom. They are wise because of this. 

But notice what the second favor is: the nearness of God. Look, they're not only a wise and understanding people, “Which other great nation has a God as near to it as Yahweh, our God is to us whenever we call upon Him?” And of course, this is a problem with all pagan religions. They want God near so how do they ensure that God is near? They create images of himself, of the gods, and then they go through a special ritual by which this image, which yesterday was just a log out there, now becomes a living god. And they got special rituals by which that piece of wood is transformed into a seeing, hearing, speaking divinity, indwelt by the spirit of its god. 

But the nations look at Israel and say, “Wow, we don't have any. None of us has a god like you have who is near to you – and under what circumstances? – whenever we call upon Him. He is a responsive god. He hears when they call. He hears when they pray. He hears when they praise. Only Israel has a god like this.” And the interesting thing He’s – we'll talk about this in a moment – He's introduced himself by name. And, of course, that's a mark of nearness. We'll talk about that in a moment. 

The possession, though, of the Torah. This is the other thing, the climactic thing. “Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole Torah that I am setting before you today.” Now we have real trouble with this one. Having the laws, to us, doesn't seem like much of a privilege, but we need to interpret this in the light of the ancient world out of which and to which Moses is speaking.

And so now I'm going to introduce you to a text which I have found so helpful in understanding what's going on here. It's a prayer to every god. Different translations have a prayer to any god. A prayer to every god. It’s an amazing text from the second millennium B.C. or is it even third millennium B.C.? But they discovered it in Ashurbanipal’s Library in Assyria. And I mean, this is not the 800’s, but it was treasured. It's written in an old Sumerian dialect, but it's treasured deep into the first millennium as a special canonical text. 

But listen to this. And it's quite repetitive. You think the scriptures are repetitive? Try this one. 

May the fury of my lord’s heart be quieted toward me. 
May the god who is not known be quieted toward me;
May the goddess who is not known, be quieted toward me. 
May the god whom I know or do not know, be quieted toward me; 
May the goddess whom I know or do not know, be quieted to me. 
May the heart of my god be quieted toward me; 
May the heart of my goddess be quieted toward me. 
May my god and goddess be quieted toward me. 
May the god who has become angry with me be quieted toward me; 
May the goddess who has become angry with me, be quieted toward me.
In ignorance I've eaten that forbidden by my god;
In ignorance I've set foot on that prohibited by my goddess. 
O lord, my transgressions are many; 
great are my sins. 
O my god, my transgressions are many; 
great are my sins. 
O my goddess, my transgressions are many; 
great are my sins. 
O god whom I know or do not know,
my transgressions are many; 
O goddess whom I know or do not know, 
my transgressions are many; great are my sins; 
The transgressions I have committed, indeed, I don't know; 
The sin which I have done, I do not know. 
The forbidden thing I've eaten. I do not know; 
The prohibited place on which I have set foot, I don't know. 
But the lord, in the anger of his heart, looked at me;
The god in the rage of his heart confronted me; 
When the goddess was angry with me, she made me become ill. 
The god whom I know or do not know has oppressed me; 
The goddess whom I know or do not know has placed suffering on me. 
Although I am constantly looking for help, no one takes me by the hand; 
When I weep, they don't come to my side. 
I utter laments but no one hears me;
I am troubled; I am overwhelmed; I cannot see. 
O my god, merciful one, I address to you the prayer 
“Ever incline to me”; 
I kiss the feet of my goddess; I crawl before you. 
How long will my goddess, whom I know or do not know, ere your hostile heart will be quieted? 
Man is dumb; he knows nothing; 
Mankind, everyone that exists, – what does he know? 
Whether he is committing sin or doing good, he doesn't even know. 
O, my lord, do not cast your servant down; 
He is plunged into the waters of a swamp; 
take him by the hand. 
The sin that I have done, turn into goodness; 
O goddess whom I know or do not know, 
my transgressions are seven times seven; 
remove my transgressions. 
Remove my transgressions and I will sing your praise. 
May your heart like the heart of a real mother, be quieted toward me; 
Like a real mother and a real father may it be quieted toward me. 

That's pathetic. It makes you weep. Wow. What's the problem? Oh, my god whom I know or do not know. And the problem here? They haven't revealed themselves. I mean, this person knows he is responsible to the gods for his behavior. That's more enlightened than many in our world are. He knows he's a sinner. He doesn't know what the sin is. He knows the gods are angry. But which god? It's a problem. 

Three big issues here. The person doesn't know who the god is that he has offended because he hasn’t introduced himself or herself. O, my god Whom I know or do not know. O, my goddess. 

The person doesn't know what the offense is. Did I eat something that was verboten or did I step on a sacred bug, or step on a piece of soil that you had reserved for yourself? How would you know? The problem is everything in pagan religion is experimental. And you never know if you got it right. You witness an event that's either good or bad and you connect it to something that just happened the day before and you think there's a correlation between the two. And so, you draw up a principle you hope is right and next time you try and live by it and it turns out to be wrong. And anyhow, the problem is the gods don't reveal themselves. They don't reveal where the boundaries of right and wrong are. And so, you're left entirely to guesswork. You go figure it out. What will please your gods? You go figure it out. Which goddess is angry with you? 

And third, the person doesn't know what it will take to solve the problem. I crawl before you. I kiss the feet of my goddess, I pray. Nothing works. What are we to do? It's a pathetic situation. This is the world into which God speaks his Torah. Israel's privileged answer. The offended God has introduced Himself by name and committed Himself to being their God. “I am Yahweh, your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery to be your God and to take you for My people.” I mean, this is so radical. He introduces himself by name, Yahweh. 

Well, we don't know how to pronounce that. And you've heard me say sometimes ‘the Lord’, very seldom, though, Yahweh or whatever. It's a tetragrammaton. In my writing, I have stopped putting in vowels, but I cannot say ‘the Lord’ anymore because ‘the Lord’ is not a name. ‘The Lord’ is a title, and there's something different between a name and a title. 

We have friends, we're very close friends, we were together for many, several decades, working together. But when he talked about his wife (I won't say her name because this is being recorded) when he talked about his wife, even when we were by ourselves, we're closest of friends. he always talked about “my wife.” I'll have to ask what my wife says, and I told him, saying, Doesn't she have a name? I mean, we're acquaintances, we're close friends. Surely, we have first names. There's a difference between calling someone the Lord and when Joel says, “Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved,.” There's an oxymoron in that because the Lord is not a name, it’s a title. It can be applied to any god, (well, lordess would be feminine, I guess.) Any god can be called lord. This doesn't identify, it classifies somebody as one’s suzerain, one’s sovereign. 

But Yahweh came to Moses and said, “Here I am.” And then he says, “Well, the people won't know who you are.” He says, “I'm the God of your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” “Yeah, but what's Your name?” And he says, “‘êyê ‘ǎšer ‘êyê” which translated literally means, I will be who I will be. I leave it to you to figure out what that name means. 

Now, of course we can do all kinds of etymological stuff with this. What does it mean? The name of YHWH consists of four very soft consonants. But what the meaning is we cannot be. That is dictionary definition. The Greek interpretation of this is that this is the eternally self-existent one, or I am who I am. But it's not actually a present tense verb. It's not how you say ‘I am’ in Hebrew; êyêmeans I will be. I will be. It's a future tense. I will be who I will be. And it's an invitation to Moses, Keep your eyes open to what's about to happen, and then you'll know what the name means. 

And God invites the people to address Him by name and He reveals the significance of His name, not only in the great acts of redemption. Then they knew that He was Yahweh. 

Moses changes Hoshea’s name to Yehoshua (Joshua) after the exodus. Not because Joshua is a type of Christ, but Yehoshua means, He will save, and when you give your son a name like that, it is an invitation to fill in the blank with the name of your god.

 Now, after the exodus, Moses says that blank's been closed. The point of the exodus was that they, Israel, might know that I am Yahweh, that the Egyptians might know that I am Yahweh, that the world may know that I am Yahweh. That's the point. And in the exodus, you discover what that name signifies. It's not a dictionary definition, but it's the savior covenant name of God. 

But it's more than that. When you get to the golden calf. Remember? After Moses’ prayer, he has won the Lord's change of mind, in Exodus’s version. But after the Golden Calf in Exodus 33, Moses can never get enough of the Lord's glory, so he says, “Lord, you know everything about us. But we know so little about you. Show me Your glory.” And the Lord says, “I will let My compassion and My goodness pass before you.” That's not how we would define glory, is it? It's a strange thing. But what happens? Moses goes up the mountain and then up on the mountain he hears Yahweh, Yahweh. And then you've got this creedal statement. Seven expressions: gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in hesed and truth, who forgives every kind of sin and will leave no guilty unpunished. 

That's scarcely the view of God of the Old Testament many of us have in mind. It sounds like, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of hesed and emet. I'm convinced that at that moment John is thinking of Exodus 34:6-7. Jesus is the embodiment of what Moses saw up there on Sinai. I am absolutely convinced, 

And when Jonah preaches to Ninevah, he's totally upset when the Ninevites repent and God pulls back his threat. He’s totally angry. And the Lord says, “What's wrong, Jonah?” He said, “I knew this would happen. I knew that You were gracious, compassionate and slow to anger and You change Your mind about threats.” That's what's wrong with God. He's gracious. 

And so, the Lord has revealed, I am Yahweh, your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. And in my mind, it was a sorry day, well, it took it took a long time, that our Jewish friends, Israelite friends stopped using the name of Yahweh; pronouncing it, they stopped. We don't know how it was pronounced. We don't know what the vowels were. I think Yahweh may be the best. We’ve traditionally done, Jehovah. (singing) Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah. Well, that could be right. It's a combination of the consonants of YHWH and the vowels of Adonai. Could be it. 

But Yehoshua, there's Yeho in there. The interesting thing is they, in the intertestamental period, they stopped using the name Yahweh and they replaced it with kyrios, in Hebrew, Adonai, which is Lord. And that's what the Greeks translated it as when they're doing the Septuagint. 

In the book of Ezekiel, you have hundreds of times Adonai, Yahweh, Adonai, Yahweh. And in the Greek translation in all cases I think except two, they have dropped one of these words and kept only kyrios because Adonai is kyrios, literally, that is the translation, it means Lord. Same semantic range. But Yahweh they’re rendering is kyrios, too. And now you've got Lord, Lord. Which raises all kinds of interesting questions. In the New Testament, you call me Lord, Lord and do not the things I say. What's He thinking? I think He’s saying you call me Adonai, Yahweh. Lord, Lord, it's common. 

But throughout the First Testament, they were using the name. They were spelling, but there were no vowels put into the text as the texts were being written. Those weren’t put in until 1000 A.D. I mean, it's much, much later they put in the vowels. So, we lost the pronunciation. 

But I think sadder than that is we lost that sense of personal relationship. God introduced Himself by name and He invited His people to address Him. And so, Moses prays, O Adonai Yahweh. David prays, O Adonai, Yahweh and it's the name there. He's not saying, “Oh, Lord, Lord, you know, kyrios, kyrios.” No, we've lost it. God has revealed. He has introduced Himself by name. 

Second, God has revealed in detail what the standards of right and wrong are. An interesting experiment. I've done this several times. It works every time I was asked to do a session at a men's retreat and there were about 350 men at the retreat. They asked me to do something about how people in the First Testament times were saved. How did it work for them? So, what did I do? I went to Leviticus 4; the only disease worse than Deuteronomy is Leviticus. I went to Leviticus 4; Leviticus 4, 5, and into 6 is the most boring chapter in all of Scripture to some people. And it's all about - I think there are nine, eight or nine- different sacrifices that the Lord reveals to Moses here and in detail. And so, I read two or three of these sacrifices, and I read the text as boringly as we always read First Testament texts.

And then I asked when I was done, “Did any of you hear any gospel in here?” And there were about 600 hands in the room, not a single hand went up. Where's the gospel in this? And I say, “Really? Well, open your Bibles. I mean, what in the world is going on here?” 

Let's pick it up at chapter 4, verse 18 [recte verse 19]: He shall remove all its fat and offer it up in smoke on the altar. He shall also do the same with a bull, just as he did the bull of the sin offering; thus he shall do with it. So, the priest shall make atonement for them, and they will be forgiven. 

Verse 26. All the fat shall offer up in smoke and the offerings, as in the case of the fat of the sacrifice of peace offerings. Thus, the priest shall make atonement for him, and he will be forgiven.

Verse 31. Thus, the priest shall make atonement for him, and he will be forgiven. 

The last verse of the chapter. Thus, the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be forgiven. 

Verse 10 of chapter 5 Thus, the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be forgiven. 

How many times do we have to say it? That is brilliant gospel. Don't feel sorry for the Israelites. How shall we remember all these picky details? No. Get the gospel. God offers a way of salvation that works. Guaranteed. He revealed it to them, which is why David can say, I think it's David, in Psalm 31, “Congratulations! O, the privilege of the man whose sin is forgiven, whose transgression is covered.” There is no higher privilege than knowing my sins are blotted out. The Israelites knew that. 

This poor guy didn't know what it takes to solve the problems. Of course, this guy didn't even know what sin was, where are the boundaries? And at this point I say the pickier the laws, the greater the grace. I said that deliberately. The less is left to chance. Experiment. So that when the scriptures are dealing with picky little issues, bless the Lord, oh my soul, God lets them know exactly where the boundaries are. Not that these laws are exhaustive. We'll talk about this some more as we get through, and the food laws and whatever else. They're not exhaustive, but they are creating a worldview for the Israelites through which you look at all of life and learn to live and adapt accordingly. It is an amazing grace, the grace of Torah. Don't feel sorry for the Israelites ever again. 

And of course, if you don't feel excited about it, then go back to Psalm 119, Ode to Torah. “I delight in Your statutes. I won’t forget Your word.” This poor guy from Mesopotamia, if only he had had this kind of thing. You know, it is all brilliant gospel. In the Torah. I find delight because I know who God is. He reveals Himself in His word. I know where the boundaries of right and wrong are. And that's a good thing. And I know what it takes to fix it. 

Graciously, God does not expect perfection. I've mentioned this before. Built into the system as a way of dealing with sin and it's not pretending there is no sin. It takes it very seriously. But God says, “I've got that covered. I know you won't be perfect.” God never expected perfection. I'm sure He would have liked to see it. But you know, a person like Abraham, God says, “Walk before Me and be tāmîm, be blameless.” Abraham? Yeah. And then he abuses his wife, passes her off as his sister to save his own skin. Come on, Abraham. Twice he does that, and then his son does the same thing again. I mean the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. These people aren't perfect. God knows that; He never expected perfection. Built into the system was the way of atonement. And that is an incredible grace. 

Don't feel sorry ever again for the Israelites, for all their loss, because it's the nations around who are saying, “Wow, I wish we had that.” They're not feeling sorry for them. They are celebrating how privileged you are. How do we get access to that? That's to be the missional function. I set you high above the nation for praise and honor and glory. When the nations see what I am doing with you, they will know that you are recognized or called by My name, branded by the name of Yahweh. And it's all praise ultimately to God. The grace of Torah. 

And of course, this comes in the New Testament as well. I mean, you've got commands and laws in the New Testament. You've got blessings and curses. I am the vine; you are the branches. Every branch in me that doesn't bear fruit. What does he do? He cuts it off and lets it dry and then he burns it. What would you call that? I call that the curse. This is exactly the equivalent of the curse. But the one that bears fruit. He prunes that it may bear more fruit. That is the blessing. That is exactly the same vision that Moses has in mind, flourishing for the glory of God. 

And so, the grace of Torah, this is a magnificent grace. And if I were an Israelite of that day. Well, Psalm 119 is the norm. Psalms 119 and 19 represent what the eyes of a genuinely pious Israelite thinks about the Torah. This is not the Judaism of the New Testament times. That's a different world. And the problem, in my view, is that in the Judaism of the New Testament, we've lost Moses. We've got the law, but we've lost Moses. The heart of it is gone. In fact, it is reflected in their rituals.

Jeffrey Tigay, he's a Jewish Deuteronomy scholar, the best Jewish Deuteronomy scholar out there. You can go to the website and you can see what he says about the treatment of the Torah scroll in Jewish synagogue worship. And he says, “We dress the Torah scroll up as if it were a king, and we dress it in purple and we put a crown on it. And then when we are in procession, it goes before us all in procession.” And then he adds, you know, something like other religions do for the images of their gods. And I don't think he realized he knew what he was saying. What's happened is the Torah has become the idol. The Torah has become the idol. 

There is a rabbinic statement, it’s in a commentary on a text in Jeremiah where the rabbi says, “If only My people would abandon Me and keep My laws.” And that's exactly opposite. When God got them out of Egypt, He didn't call them to be a law-abiding people. That wasn't the point. Exodus 19, “You've seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I carried you on eagle’s wings and brought you to Myself.” That's the point. Brought you to Myself. We've had no laws yet. Nothing. No, it's about relationship with God. 

“Now then, if you will keep my covenant and listen to My voice.” Listen to My voice. It's always translated, Obey My voice. But the assumption with that translation is that the only thing that ever comes out of God's mouth is command. But as we go through Deuteronomy, you will notice that command is always preceded by gospel. That's the norm. We’ll see this in chapter 6. We see it in the Decalogue. “I am Yahweh, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods”. Where's the command? You shall have no other gods. But before that you have gospel. And so, the command is always a divinely revealed way of saying thank you to God for gospel. And so that's the pattern of Moses and Deuteronomy. The grace of Torah. What a magnificent grace.