Deuteronomy - Lesson 11

The gospel according to Moses. I've mentioned before that the shema opens up a whole series of discourses now, between 6:4 taking us all the way through 8:20, where the key issue is the testing of the covenant commitment represented by the shema. We have a general introduction to the test of this in what follows immediately after. I had intended to devote a whole session to it, but we will cover the themes in other contexts and I thought we can dispense with that. But I must remind you again that in verses 10 to 19, Moses presents two contexts in which this sort of covenant commitment will be challenged.  

Testing. “When the Lord, your God brings you into the land and you flourish,” and everything is going hunky dory, “then watch yourselves, lest you forget Yahweh, who brought you from the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery.” When we get to chapter eight, we'll see the deprivation of the desert as a context of testing. Here it is, the flourishing in the land as the context of testing. When things go well then watch out. Not only - well, in chapter eight, you say, Look what I've produced and you forget God. Here it is, going after the gods of this land who are all fertility gods, and you flourish and you say that the fertility gods are really serving us well, and so we are worshiping them. “Then watch out lest the Lord's fury rage against you. He is an impassioned God.” There it is again.  

Then verse 16, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” This is Jesus’ quotation, and in the face of the devil's tempting of Him, testing of Him, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” Which raises the interesting question. Who does the person saying that think he is? When Jesus says that to the devil, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God,” it's this word. Is He talking about God as another person? Or is He talking about Himself? “You don't know to whom you're talking; I am Yahweh. You are tempting, testing me.” No, you don't. It is not appropriate for a vassal to test the loyalty of a suzerain. Did you hear that? “You shall not test the Lord Your God, tempt the Lord your God.”  

Tempt doesn't mean necessarily lead them astray. The word means to ‘test the commitment of.’ It's inappropriate for a vassal to test the commitment of a suzerain. It's very appropriate for the suzerain to test the commitment of the vassal. That's very appropriate. That's totally okay. But, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” Well, this is the principle.  

Of course, there is a place in Malachi where you have this issue, “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse. Test me and see if I won't fill your larders.” Of course, this is breaking the norm, but the suzerain has the right at any moment to invite the vassal to test them. The Lord does this with King Ahaz in Isaiah eight or seven, Ask for a sign. I'll give it to you. God invites the king to test His fidelity. God can always do that. And in Malachi, this is not a general invitation to people, like in our fertility religion these days (prosperity gospel) go ahead, test the Lord, God invites you to. No, he doesn't. Not normally. In that Malachi context, there is that little particle, bāzō'ṯ, in this. Test me in this. And I think that's a deliberate expression of the exceptional character of the invitation. 

At this point, He is saying, I'm inviting you to test Me. Go ahead. And so. But that is not to be generalized. Here is the general statement. Unless God specifically invites us to test Him, you don't go there. That in itself is an act of unbelief and infidelity.  

“You shall not put the Lord your God to the test as you tested him at Massah.” That's the problem. “You shall be diligent in keeping the commandments. Do what's right in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land the Lord swore to give you by driving out the enemies from before you as He has spoken.” Well, there you've got the second test.  

There are two tests here. The first involves the internal test: How do we respond to prosperity? The second is an external test: How do you respond to the enemies out there who are against you? Two tests, and those two tests will be unpacked in detail in reverse order. The second one in chapter seven, and the first one in chapter eight. The big motif of this whole section is testing. It's inappropriate for the vassal to test the former, but it is very appropriate for the Lord to test them. Watch yourselves and see how you do with the test. And so that's what we have in verses 10 to 19.  

What we want to talk now about is, oh, there's a guy listening in on this conversation and you have this interesting query. He is changing the subject in a sense. “In the future, when your son asks you, ‘What is the significance of the covenant statutes, ordinances and stipulations Yahweh your God is commanding you?” And now, of course, this is not a law. This is the preacher talking. Moses the preacher is imagining a context in the future, long after we've been in the land and our kids are watching how we live, and they're asking what is the point of all these covenants, statutes, ordinances, and stipulations that Yahweh our God, has commanded you? “Then you shall say to your son.” And he prescribes a catechetical response. What's the point?  

“We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt.”  

“I didn't ask about that. I asked: ‘What's the point of the laws?’”  

“We were slaves in Egypt.”  

“Answer my question, Dad.”  

“But Yahweh brought us out with a mighty hand.”  

“No, that's not my question. My question: What's the point of the laws?” 

And Moses says, I'll get there. “Yahweh inflicted severe and devastating miraculous signs and wonders upon Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household before our eyes. But He brought us out.”  

“Dad, I wasn't asking about this. I was asking about the laws, the statutes and the ordinances. Hear my three words. You're not answering my question.”  

“But He brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the good land He promised on oath to the ancestors. And Yahweh commanded us to put into practice all these ordinances.”  

“Oh, really?”  

Now he is finally there. 

But the point is, Moses cannot answer the question about the significance of the laws without talking about the gospel first. That's very important. “The Lord commanded us to put into practice all these ordinances by demonstrating fear for Yahweh our God, for our perpetual good and for our survival, as is the case today. And we will be recognized as righteous if we keep the covenant by putting into practice this entire charge before Yahweh our God as He commanded us” 

This is a fabulous text. This is such a gospel text and none of you knew it was in the Bible. But here we are. What a great day this is.  

Well, it starts with a boy's question. So, let's look at this. What is the significance of the statutes, hā’ēdōt; ordinances, hahuqqîm; and stipulations. We've got three words here.  

Hā’ēdōt. We talked before about ‘hā’ēdūt, which I translated as insignia, the symbols of Queen Elizabeth's reign or whatever. Symbols of royalty. The Decalogue tablets are ēdūt, the same consonants as hā’ēdōt, but it’s different vowels. And it is a different word. It's from the same root, but it has a different significance here. When the word appears together with ordinances, haḥuqqîm, and stipulations, hammišpāțîm, it means something like the terms of the covenant, what God expects of his vassals.  

Again, often translated testimonies. These aren't testimonies. No. These are God's expectations. The suzerain’s declarations of what is expected of the vassal.  

We can talk about each of these words separately. Haḥuqqîm comes from the root ḥōq, which means to inscribe. And it is used of decrees that an authority makes to govern the life of the community. It's a decreed, an authorized decree.  

Second, hammišpāțîm. These are the judgments. And if we were literalists, now we would translate, ‘these are the ordinances and the judgments.’ Except that to us, judgments means that's the end of a court case. I mean, I wonder how it's going there in Minneapolis, the Brooklyn Center. I wonder how that; what will the judge, the outcome of it. That's not what we're talking about. So, we take judgment to be a legal, casuistic law, you know, case law. That's how many people interpret. But I don't think that's what it is.  

Here judgment in the context of a covenant, is the judgment, the decision of the suzerain concerning the appropriate conduct of the vassal. In a suzerain/vassal relationship none of the terms are negotiated. The suzerain calls all the shots. And in all of God's covenants, it is this way. God picks the covenant partner. God sets the terms. God declares the goal of the covenant. God identifies the sign of the covenant and God determines the consequences of obedience. And the Israelites have zero say in this, this is what we call ‘monergism.’ It's put in force from one side. All the Israelites can do is say yes or no. Nothing is negotiated. The decrees are God's decreed expectations. The judgments are His decisions about what is right and appropriate behavior and what is wrong behavior on the part of the vassal.  

So that's what these two words together mean. And as a pair there, they refer to all the terms of the covenant revealed at Mount Sinai. When this word appears in that context, it has to be in the same semantic range.  

And here, the best clue to its meaning again, is a cousin word in Aramaic 'adē [sp?]. Instead of hā'ēdōt, which is plural, hā'ēda [sp?] would be singular. Instead of hā'ēda [sp?] Aramaic has 'adē [sp?] and Akkadian has 'ādēh [sp?] too, though spelled slightly different, but it's the same word.  

Akkadian, which is the Babylonian language, doesn't have the word for ‘covenant’ that Hebrew has, běriyth, that's the Hebrew word for covenant, běriyth. You'll find that in Akkadian; you have one or two occurrences of it, but it means something slightly different. Their word for covenant is 'ādēh [sp?] comes from this same root. And here this must mean the terms of the covenant, specified as its ordinances, hammišpāțîm.  

And so, the guy is asking, what's the point of all the terms of this covenant? And you read Leviticus and you read Exodus and you read Deuteronomy and all. I'm so tired just listening to this stuff and I can't imagine the Israelites. “Blessed is the man who walks not in the council… but his delight is in the law of the Lord.” There's no law here without the gospel. But of course by now you know that Torah doesn't mean law. But this refers to all the laws. Three words for all. Moses does everything in threes. So now he has three words, hā’ēdōt, haḥuqqîm, and hammišpāțîm.  

This guy is asking not what the point is of every one of the 613 commands that Maimonides identified in the Pentateuch. No, it's the whole package. What's the significance of the package of covenant stipulations that the Lord revealed to Israel? It's a natural question the guy is asking of his parents. He's asking for a response. You've heard, you've had experiences like this.  

We have certainly when our kids were in high school, they were swimmers. And our son was captain of the swim team one year. But in any case, they were a good bunch of kids, the swimmers, and we loved them. We spent–look, we still smell like chlorine from all the time we spent in the pool. But in any case, one day during that time, I mean, they'd get up early to go swim practice and come home late after swim practice. He spent a lot of time with his buddies. I'll never forget one time at the supper table, we were having a rather warm conversation and suddenly our son blurted out, “Why do we have to live in such a prehistoric family?” Wow! Our eyes just lit up. What a question! Now, the tone of his voice was all wrong. It was all wrong. But I tell you, it just opened up the gates wide. And what could, what should we say?  

Well, we could say, “Well, yeah, this is the way we did it when we were kids and you're going to do the same.” Or, “This is the way the youth leader says we should do it and you're going to do the same.” We could have had all kinds of legalistic, but these kids weren't in a regenerated state at that time. And so, what are you going to do?  

You can’t just impose a godly lifestyle on people who are not internally disposed to that. Can't do that. That's hypocrisy. And so, we learned very quickly that there are certain battles not worth fighting about, like what does a haircut mean or what not, you know, those kinds of things. There's no point in looking like a Christian if you're not a Christian. So, get the other part right first and they'll hear. 

I mean, I feel so sorry for our Jewish friends, “The Lord has called us to keep the commands, and so we keep them literally, precisely, and we count the steps we take on a Sabbath morning to see that we're not transgressing.” I mean, all that sort of business. What? What's Moses going to say? What's the point of all these laws that the Lord imposed on us?  

Well, here's a family picture. My question is which of the guys asks the question your son will ask. This is my family. Well, our sister's not on there. We do have a picture with her on it, but they took a picture of all the boys and they are all in order by age. Number three here hated it when we did things by age. He was number three. He always acted as if he should have been number one. It's a patricentric world where the eldest is always favored and he always thought he knew better than everybody else. And so, he would resist this sort of thing because then he'd have to stand back next to number four. He wanted to stand in the place where my oldest.  

And sadly, my oldest brother, Albert, his daughter, Ivy, my oldest niece, (she's I think 65 now) she's dying of cancer right now, even as we're here. So, it's a very sad thing to reflect.  

But here's my youngest brother. The day he was born he was an uncle twice over. Ivy is older than Harold, but in any case, that's Harold. This is Art and this is Benjamin. And that's Dave. And that's me. That's Reuben. And Neil. And Henry. And John. And Isaac. And George. And Albert. I still remember the names. 

But the question is which one will ask the question. In our family, I definitely wasn't the one to ask the question. Reuben would have. He's the one who is always talking. We called him the turtle who wouldn't stop talking. And I was the total introvert and we have no pictures of when I was a little child because I was never around where all the action was. Who knows? Where's Dan? I have no idea where Dan is. I can't figure this out. We don't have any pictures. But Reuben's on every other picture. And so Reuben and Neil, they're on all the pictures and my brother Dave. But in any case, which of these boys ask the question? Well, anybody can ask the question. 

The point is our lifestyle should provoke questions in our kids. And if they don't recognize that we are living different from the rest of the world, we got a problem. “Why do we have to live in such a prehistoric family?” I took that to be such a compliment. You've noticed. But now he wants the answer. And of course, the answer became a gospel answer. Which is exactly what Moses does. He gives them the gospel. We’ve got to start there. What mean these laws? 

Well, we talked about this. What do the laws mean? Well, to some, they make no sense at all. Modern answers. They have antiquarian value. We can look at what life was like. They represent a way of salvation, or the laws kill. We talked about this the other day when we were in versus one to eight of chapter four. So those are the answers we saw there all week.  

We could give Paul's answers, the law brings wrath. This is what I would have done 30 years ago. The New Testament tells me what to think about the law. It gives the answer to the boy's question. The only problem is what Paul says doesn't fit at all. And I asked Paul, How can you do that? You sound so different from Moses. Now I'm asking that question. How can you twist Moses like this? You should be stoned. Of course, I think there is an answer actually. He intentionally sounds very different, but it's not because Moses was wrong and Moses needs fixing. God never reveals anything in one period that turns out to be a mistake or flawed. So, we can't go there. Later revelation will be clearer, it will be fuller, but it's never more true. So, we cannot pretend that Moses had something wrong and that New Testament is fixing it. It's one God who doesn't talk out of two sides of His mouth.  

But Paul says, “the law brings wrath,”  

“But now we've been released from the law having died to that by which we were bound,”  

“All who rely on the works of the law under a curse,”  

“The law is not of faith,”  

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law,” And all these others. I mean, that's the answer we have.  

Again, I remind you of the earlier answer, verses 1 to 8. What's the point of the law?  

The Torah is normative by definition. You don't add or subtract.  

The Torah is the key to life. Verses 3 to 4.  

Knowledge of the Torah should be transforming.  

Possession of the Torah is the highest and most enviable privilege imaginable.  

So, we've already heard that. But that's a lecture for the congregation, that's not a lesson for the kids. What's the lesson for the kids? Here it is, the law is the climax of revelation. Did you see that? “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but Yahweh brought us out with a mighty hand. He inflicted,” there's that hand again, He “inflicted severe and devastating, miraculous signs and wonders upon Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household before our eyes. But He brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land that He promised on oath to our ancestors.” And here we are. And He “commanded us to put into practice all these ordinances.” “Oh, thank you for telling us.”  

Remember? “Oh, my God., whom I know or do not know the sin that I had committed I do not know.” That poor guy had no idea what the gods expected of him. But here the head of the household is able to tell the son, “You know, God in His mercy, didn't leave us in the dark. He didn't get us out of Egypt and say, then, ‘Now you figure out what I think an appropriate thank you would look like.’ There's nothing like that here. No, He said, ‘Look, this is what thank you looks like. You have no other gods besides me, honor your father.’” This is all part of the grace package. “He commanded us to put into practice all these ordinances.”  

So, the law is the climax of revelation. He has just told the story. This is why I call this the domestic creed or catechism. When your son asks you at home, “What's the point of all? Moses prescribes the answer, “Then you shall say to your son, ‘We were…’ Tell them the story, and he dictates the form of the story. And then at the center, he comes finally to verse 24, “Yahweh commanded us to put into practice all these ordinances.”  

But what follows catches all of us who have lived with Paul for so long. American Christianity is so Pauline, or is it pseudo-Pauline? What we make Paul say just doesn't work.  

But in any case, “The Lord commands us to put into practice all these ordinances.” Why? And if we keep the covenant by putting into practice this charge before Yahweh our God as He commanded us. Well, the point here is the law is a guide for conduct. We're asking the question, what's the point of the law? A. It's the climax of revelation. B. It was given to us not to put in mottos on the wall, but to be lived. Put it into practice.  

But then he gives us some purpose clauses. The law as an expression of trusting awe. “And Yahweh commanded us to put into practice all these ordinances by fearing Yahweh our God.” Okay. What does fear mean? It's not fear of punishment. It's not fear of punishment. Remember that spectrum we had? Where on that spectrum is this fear? Trusting awe, trusting awe. In response to the revelation of His will, we say, “Wow, how privileged we are, that He should have revealed His will to us. Why us?”  

Here, the order is actually the reverse of what we usually find. Usually, it is the other order. “And now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God, require of you, but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, serve Him with all your heart and soul, to keep the commands and statutes of Yahweh which I am commanding you.” Fear is number one. But in this case, it is obedience is first. But then you got lᵊyir'â 'eṯ [sp?] in order to fear, or by fearing, you obey.  

Here's the spectrum. I thought I had it here and I thought it was earlier here. Where on this spectrum would the fear he's talking about be? It can mean terror, fright, anxiety, awe, reverence, submission, allegiance, trust. It's somewhere here (Dr. Blocks points to allegiance/trust) because he's just giving you the gospel. Why does he keep telling people the story of their salvation? All the way through the book is, “For you were slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought you out.” It's about fearing God, and you demonstrate obedience to God by fearing Him, by starting with the right disposition. Trusting awe.  

Well, here's the Deuteronomic formula for life. Earlier we had, “Read that they may hear, that they may learn, that they may fear, that they may obey, that they may live.” This is what we had earlier. But here we have it, “Obey that they may fear, that they may live, and be declared righteous.” 

So, if you had this one all by itself, then that could be problematic. But you see here, reciting, Moses gives them the words to say, the kids will hear, then they will obey, and in so doing demonstrate fear, then they will live, and they will be declared righteous. That's what's happening in this catechetical answer. 

We need to take all of these texts together. The normal pattern is, “recite or read, that they may hear, that they may fear, that they may obey.” But here's a context in which he varies it slightly and don't make this the norm. Make this and ask the question, why is he doing it in this direction?  

But notice where it ends. And this is the really good news, “And it will be righteousness for us.” And we hear the Lord say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Well done.” They will be - those who do are declared righteous. It is a magnificent text.  

But there's more. We skipped a few issues here. We skipped living and whatever else. “And Yahweh commanded us to put into practice all these ordinances by fearing Yahweh our God for our good.”  

About eight years ago at the annual convention of scholars, I was just shocked out of my mind when my students and other scholars, they had produced a Festschrift for me, for thanks, and it was awesome. I had no idea this was going on and Ellen had told so many lies along the way to protect me from what she knew was going on from the beginning. But then the title of the book, ‘For Our Good Always,’ comes right out of this text, “By fearing Yahweh our God for our good.” Lěțôv lānû. What was Luther thinking when he says, “It's to kill you, it's to drive you to Christ to recognize your wretchedness.” Moses knows nothing about that. The law was given with our interests in mind.  

And of course, it's more than, ‘for our good always.’ It's for, to sustain life, and this is the real kicker, or should we say to ‘preserve us alive’? The verb here is ḥayyâ, which means, ‘to live.’ And this is the Piel stem, to reinforce life, to promote life, to bring to life something else. It is again the opposite of the ‘law kills.’ This is what the psalmist is celebrating in Psalm 119. In the Torah, there is life. This is what he's talking. This is the norm. To preserve us alive. We deserve death. But this is the way of life. The revealed will of God.  

Well, you see, then, the last one. I assumed when I was doing this there'd be one or two who would be interested in Hebrew. But in any case, let's go for the English. The climax of this text. “And it will be righteousness for us if we keep.” Now, it's very cryptic now the English, it will be righteousness for us if we keep. Keep what? There's no object. I think we have to fill in the blank. If we keep the covenant, if we keep the ordinances. I mean, if you go back to Exodus 19, “You've seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I carried on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.” Notice how He starts with the gospel. “Now then, if you will keep My covenant and listen to My voice, you shall be My special treasure, My royal priesthood,” and all the rest of that. 

Well, so I think it’s, if we keep the covenant, it will be righteousness for us. But if we keep–now, we've got a curious Hebrew construction to do–it really means, by doing. That's how you keep the covenant by putting into practice the will of God revealed for His vassals. “By putting into practice this whole charge,” singular command, “this whole command before Yahweh our God.” Everything is in His presence. There's no place in life where we're not before God. This is not just about going to the temple. In the presence of God in the temple. It's all of life lived before God. And if we put them into practice “before our God as He commanded us.” The suzerain is the determiner of the conduct of the vassal. And here the glorious gospel is unlike, “Oh, my God, whom I know, or do not know, the sin that I have done, I don't know, how this can be fixed. I don't know.” This guy says, “Look, guess what? You do this you live by the revealed will of God, guaranteed you have security in Him.”  

Psalm 24 has, I think, an allusion to this, Psalm 24. And here he's asking whose worship is acceptable to God? “The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains. He founded upon the rivers” and whatever. “Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place?” That is a metaphor for whose worship is acceptable to God in the temple, liturgical worship. And of course, the answer is, “If your life isn't in order, nothing you do in the temple is going to help you. Nothing will be judged.” But look who will find, whose worship will God find acceptable? Who may ascend and stand? “The one who has clean hands.” 

What's that a metaphor for? It's your actions. “Has a pure heart.” Notice how all the body parts are in this one? “You should love the Lord, your God with all your heart,” with all your nephesh, and with all your meud. Your pure heart. “Who has not lifted up his nephesh to falsehood.” This is strange, but presumably falsehood means a faulty idol, some other god. “And has not sworn deceitfully,” your tongue has not said. “That person shall receive a blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of His salvation.” Now what is that? Righteousness.  

Now. I see, I know some who will very quickly jump and say that's the imputed righteousness that you receive. But no. Read this from the First Testament perspective, that may be theologically true in the light of what we learn in the New. But that's not what he's talking about here. Notice, “He shall receive a blessing from the Lord.” That's a verbal thing. God says, I bless you in the name. He will receive from the priest the Aaronic blessing perhaps, “The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.” It could be that.  

But then, “and righteousness,” I think this is shorthand. We've got a verbal statement in the first, that's a verbal, you’ll receive a blessing. And now I think it is a pronouncement of righteous from the officiating priest here, “And will hear the words, ‘You are righteous.’” And he speaks on behalf of the God of his salvation. That's what's happening here. This is the generation of those who seek Him, who seek Your face. They hear God saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord.” 

But now we have to talk about what does ‘righteous’ mean? This is very important in the book of Deuteronomy. One of the key verses is 16:20, “Seḏeq, ṣeḏeq, tirdōp̄.” “Righteousness, righteousness only you shall pursue.” And of course, here most of our translations get this one wrong. They translated it, “Justice, justice, you shall pursue.” There's a difference between the two.  

Justice tends to be social justice. Tends to be, but it's a subcategory of the bigger concept of righteousness. Righteousness and justice are often paired and often used interchangeably. But in this context, in the context of chapter 16:20, we'll get there, immediately after his “ṣeḏeq, ṣeḏeq, tirdōp̄, you shall pursue righteousness,” the first thing he talks about is idolatry. Well, that's not social justice. It's the relationship you have with God. It's a different dimension of righteousness. Misphat is typically social justice, but in Deuteronomy, how Deuteronomy uses this word covers the whole package, it's all of life. And the goal is to hear God's well done, you are righteous. In Ezekiel, you have explicit statements.  

So, we can talk about vertical dimensions of righteousness: that means no other gods, ritual fidelity, bearing the name properly, representing Him. That's righteousness. You can talk about personal righteousness: not coveting, remaining pure, the one with a pure heart. Psalm 24. Or we can talk about horizontal righteousness: creation care, social justice, family care.  

It's all righteousness. It all has to do with righteousness. By definition, righteousness means right action based on an established standard, or I should say, action in accord with an established standard. Did you hear the first word? It's action. There is no righteousness apart from demonstrated righteousness.  

Abraham demonstrated he was righteous long before the narrator says, and God counted it to him for righteousness when he believed God in Genesis 15, He demonstrated righteousness long before that, when God said, Get up and leave the land of your birth and go to a land I will show you; and what did Abraham do? He got up and left. Now, he wasn't blameless completely, but I mean, the righteousness is there.  

But in a case like this, or in Deuteronomy, righteousness is action demonstrated in accord with the established standard, which is the covenant.  

Now there is one place in which that word is applied to Yahweh, and this is in the song in chapter 32, where it begins with, “I proclaim the name of Yahweh, ascribe greatness to our God. The Rock, His way is perfect, all His ways are just. A God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright is He.” God is righteous, which means that God always acts in accord with the established standard, never deviates, never deviates. And so, for the vassal it means acting as God would have us act.  

Well, this is a fascinating text, and I don't hear our theologians refer to it very often. But let me just caution us against reworking texts like this to say something they do not say. Here he says, “Obedience to the will of God is the key to His approval.” Did you hear that? “And apart from evident obedience, there is no security in God's approval.” Jesus says, “If you love me, of course, that’s if you are a covenantally committed to me, tell me - no. Keep my commands.” It's nothing new or old here. Obedience to the will of God.  

In chapter 24:13, “You shall restore to the poor person the pledge as the sun sets, that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you. And it will be righteousness for you before Yahweh your God.” Same expression. That is an act of righteousness. If you've taken a cloak as a pledge for a debt and you give it back to the guy, it’s his blanket as well, I mean, he's homeless. He has nothing, but he has a blanket. And you've taken it as security. Be sure you give it back to him at night. He needs to sleep. That's righteousness.  

Well, what shall we do with Paul? What is the relationship between the keeping of the law and salvation? Well, when we answer this one, we need to hear the witness of all scripture. The Psalms. We've talked about this already. “The Torah of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul, the statutes are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands are...”  

When you hear Paul talk about the law so negatively, ask yourself, what about? Paul, what do you think of the Psalms, Psalm 19 or Psalm 119? How can you do this? I would love to have this conversation with Paul because I have a feeling, I know what his answer would be. “By them is your servant warned.” There's life here. “Who can discern, forgive my…” and it's all over the place. Psalm 119.  

But this is also the New Testament. It's all over the New Testament, “As the Father has demonstrated love for Me so I have demonstrated love for you.” “Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you'll remain in my love, just as I've kept my Father's commands.” Well, what's the assumption? “If you keep My commands, you'll remain in My love.” The assumption is, the alternative if you don't keep My commands, you won't remain in My love. This is the plain sense of it. 

“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you, that your joy may be complete. My command is: Demonstrate love for each other as I have for you. There's no greater demonstration of love than this: to lay one's life.”  

“You are my friends if you do what I command.” That's the word for being covenant relations. “I no longer call you servants,” mere slaves, “because a servant doesn't know his master's business. Instead, I've called you friends,” your covenant partners, “everything that I learned from My Father. I've made known to you.”  

“You didn't choose me. But I chose you and appointed you that you might go and bear fruit.” What's the fruit? I used to think it was winning souls. I mean, in evangelism classes, that way, the fruit of this is bringing people to the Lord. No, it's not. That's God's business. The fruit here is living as God's covenant people. Righteousness, whatever you ask of me.  

Well, Paul. He has some good words to say about the law. “It's not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it's those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.” Did you hear that? There is no declaration of righteousness apart from demonstrated righteousness. So, then the law's holy. The commands were righteous and good.  

Or James, “Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Don't merely listen to the word and deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but doesn't do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in the mirror, and after looking at it, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” 

I'm so happy that you all looked in the mirror this morning and you're happy I did too, I hope. But this was a mess. But that's what we do with the scriptures. “Whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom.” I love James. Luther says it’s a straw epistle. He so didn't get Moses.  

The law gives freedom. When you know where the boundaries are. Wow, I get to do it in the name of my Father, Heavenly Father, and I know that when I do it, He is celebrating.  

“Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues, deceive themselves, their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distresses.” Totally Deuteronomy, will see this in chapter 10. “To keep oneself from being polluted” “In the same way faith by itself if is not accompanied by action is dead as the body without spirit is dead, so faith without works.”  

Don't change the message. Moses doesn't view obedience to the law as the basis of covenant relationship. What's the basis of covenant relationship? It's what? It's God's grace. The grace of God. The invitation to covenant relationship. It's all grace. It's all grace. Moses has no other picture. This is not earning salvation. This is not salvation, I mean, this is not works that yields salvation. It is salvation that yields works. And in the absence from the works, you assume the salvation ain’t there; “Faith without works is dead.”  

Moses also assumes that compliance is doable. We'll get back to this one in chapter 30. In the law, God did not ask the impossible of the Israelites. No one in the ancient world would have looked at the Israelites and said, “Wow, your God really demands a lot of you.” You can't do that. Nobody would have said that. Nobody. God did not ask the Israelites to swim across the Atlantic. He didn't ask to jump over 12-story buildings. “Honor your father and your mother.” That's doable. There isn't a single law that is beyond human capability. But we have this so ingrained in us since Luther or wherever. I don't know that the only thing the law does, it proves that we can't keep it. There's something fundamentally twisted in that thinking. It's not biblical way of thinking about these things. It's doable. If we don't do the law, it's not because the law is impossible. It's because our wills are a problem.  

The other thing is Moses doesn't expect perfection. Within the covenant laws are all these statutes, provisions for forgiveness, redemption, atonement. It's all there. God knows going in, they're going to blow it. But He says, “I got that one covered, too. Never mind.”  

Well, we need to recognize that first, the New Testament paradigms of relationship between faith and works are exactly the same. There is no razor difference between. Yahweh’s gracious saving actions yield the fruit of redeemed people. A redeemed people yield the fruit of righteous deeds. Righteous deeds yield the fruit of divine approval and blessing. That's where it is. It's all the same. It's one and the same picture.  

And so, I conclude with a paraphrase of this domestic creed.  

When our children ask us in time to come, what is the meaning of the ordinances and customs that we observe, then we will say:  

“We were slaves to sin, but the Lord rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and ushered us into His glorious kingdom of light, with a strong hand, and with great signs and wonders.  

He has brought us out in fulfillment of His promises and in accordance with His glorious plan of salvation conceived before the foundation of the world.  

So, the Lord commanded us to demonstrate our fear and love for Him by keeping His commands for our good always and as expressions of our covenant relationship with Him, as it is this day.  

And it will be righteousness for us before Him, if we are careful to show that we love God with all our hearts by doing all that He has commanded us.  

For, then we will hear Him say, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant enter into the celebration of your Lord.’”  

This is the word of the Lord, an invitation to celebrate.  

I mean, it's a magnificent text, but it's buried there. Who knows it? And when we read it, we impose on it all kinds of other polemical issues that Paul is dealing with that are totally extraneous to what's going on here. Let the text talk to you first before you go to larger uses of texts, because they're doing things in their context that have, that are very significant and they will appeal to concepts, but they'll often use them in new and fresh.  

Paul is a preacher. He's not a dogmatic theologian. He's not a systematic. He is not writing exegesis papers. It's rhetoric we're talking about; trying to get people to think in a certain direction, which is exactly what Moses was doing and the issues Paul was dealing with in his debates with the Judaizers and whatever, are very different from what Moses is talking about here.  

This is the norm. But when you make the law your god in place of God, that's what you get. That's what you get. 

They've lost Moses. They've got the law but without the heart. They've got the oral Torah, which is driving them crazy. In that context, we say, “Free from the law, oh happy condition, free from the oral Torah, free from the legalism, free from whatever.” It is not the law that drives us.  

When I read the book of Ruth, I encounter Boaz. He never quotes scripture, never quotes scripture. But here is a man who is guided by Torah so obviously, but driven by the Spirit. There are allusions to all sorts of Deuteronomic laws in the book of Deuteronomy; in the Book of Ruth there are lots of allusions, but none of them fit precisely this circumstance. Boaz is not obligated to marry Ruth. He is not obligated to redeem this whole business. He's not obligated. None of the laws as written fit. But Boaz is the kind of character who says, “I don't need a law to do what's right. Because I've got the worldview of the Torah. That means I can apply it to any circumstance and ‘Hey, you’re living in the interests of others.’” And that's Boaz. So beautifully. Beautifully. This is Deuteronomy. Magnificent.