Deuteronomy - Lesson 17

We come now to the heart of covenant relationship, and I use that expression extremely consciously. If you forget any text that we’ve talked about, may this be the last one you forget. In fact, I think this is the anchor text of the whole book of Deuteronomy. 

Deuteronomy 10:12 to 11:1. Again, by my understanding, the chapter division is off just one verse. Chapter 11:1 I think is the summary, a colophonic conclusion, to what has come before. 

So, let’s look at the structure of Deuteronomy 10:12 to 11:1. Again, we have a very interesting structure. It opens up like the shema did: Shema Israel Yahweh Eloheinu. That’s the thesis statement here. It opens up with a question, Vᵊʿatâ, and now Israel, which means in light of the renewal of the covenant that we have just witnessed, this is still part of that second address, in light of the renewal of the covenant, what does Yahweh your God ask of you? Which is such a fundamental question. 

And if you would ask some of us what God asked of Israel, we would have our answer. If you would ask Paul and the Judaizers in Galatians or in Romans, they would have their answers. The Judaizers would have said, “Well, what God asks of His people is circumcision, keeping kosher diet, keeping the Sabbath as defined by the Pharisees, observing purity laws…” and whatever else. Those are the external markers of covenant relationship. They’re all about that. 

Well, it’s interesting that when Moses thinks about that question, those answers never come to his mind. What does He require? What he does then is he gives us three answers to the question. 

Answer number one: “But to fear Yahweh and walk in all His ways,” and this is the answer. In each case, he specifies the answer, but then he gives the basis of the answer in the form of a doxology, and then the practical application to Israel as their benefit that arises from the doxology. Doxology is the purple, all the way through three times, and then the application. 

But there are three answers to the question: what God requires. He requires you to fear the Lord, walk in all His ways. Circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stiff-necked. Only Yahweh your God, you shall fear and serve, whatever else. So those are the three answers. And we need to walk through this. This is an extremely important text. It’s the anchor text of deuteronomic, shall we say theology and ethics, both. They come together. You will see again the doxologies are the framework or foundation for the ethic. 

The question: “Now Israel, what does Yahweh your God ask of you?” What answers would the Pharisees have given and what answers would we give? I used to say, “Well, God asks them to keep the commands and all the rest of that, and especially the circumcision business.” But this answer, we’ve seen something like this question elsewhere. 

In Micah we have, “O human what is good and what does Yahweh seek from you?” There are two words for this: ask, seek – dôrēš here. It means, ‘what does He seek when He’s examining a life, or what does He request from you?’ 

And Micah’s answer is, “With what shall I come before Yahweh, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will Yahweh be pleased with thousands of rams, Ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 

And of course, you can see what he’s doing is heaping up, the same as we do in church. Raising the bar, beginning with simply burnt offerings of any kind, a year old, thousands of rams, rivers of oil, child sacrifice. To the ancient pagans, child sacrifice was not an abomination, it was the height of devotion to one’s god. And that’s the question. That’s the climax. “Will God be impressed that I’m willing to give up my child for Him?” 

“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does God require of you but to do justice, to love hesed,” there it is “…and to walk humbly with your God?” 

Notice he doesn’t even say simply “to walk with your God.” I know of some people who are very proud of their walk with God. That’s not what we’re talking about. To walk humbly. This is how he answers. This is the prophet’s answer. 

Well, let’s look at Moses’ answers to this. You will see that his answers are in three parts. They are an A-B-A pattern. There is: a literal call for covenant loyalty (12b to 13), a metaphorical call for covenant loyalty (16), and then back to a literal call for covenant loyalty (20). Let’s look at the first one. 

Five answers to the question, What does the Lord your God ask of you? And before we look at the five, we need to ask ourselves why five? He doesn’t tell us why five. I mean, we could have expected 7 or 12 or 10. But he gives us five. My theory is it’s like the Decalogue. The Decalogue is 10 because it’s easily remembered. And what he’s doing here is—look at your hand, I’ll give you… This is a catechism. It’s a lesson on truth. It’s a catechism of true faith. 

And what does he give us here? “Fearing Yahweh your God.” Interesting that’s number one. Fearing God. But of course, that’s not new to you. The wise man in Israel. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Psalms. Five or six times we have it- the fear of the Lord is the first principle of wisdom. If you don’t start here, you flunk. You start with the fear of the Lord. And when I see this, I get it. 

Biblical wisdom literature is not secular. Biblical wisdom is fundamentally covenantal, and it gets the first principle of wisdom from the covenant, from Deuteronomy. Of course, some scholars will turn this around and say that Deuteronomy was produced late in the court by wisdom thinkers, and that’s why you have this here. No, I think it’s actually the other way around. 

Fearing the Lord your God. And now, again, we have to bring this back. What does he mean? Fearing the Lord your God. 

Exodus 20, “Moses said to the people,” this is after the Decalogue has been revealed, he said, “Do not be terrified.” Yārē, that’s the word, “for God has come to test you that the fear…” yirātô, same word. His fear “may be before you, that you may not sin.” So, on the one hand it means the left hand of that spectrum. But on the other hand, it’s something way over here. Same word. Exactly the same word. 

So now we have to ask, what does it mean in this context? I think here Genesis 22:12 is our key. Abraham—did we talk about Abraham offering Isaac? “The Lord tested Abraham saying, ‘Take now your son, your only son whom you love, and go offer him as a whole burnt offering.’” Isaac whom you love. Offer him. This is a test. What’s it a test of? Well, in the previous chapter, after these things, He tested Abraham. In the previous chapter, He had said, “Not Ishmael, but in Isaac, your name shall be preserved.” Isaac is the key to the ongoing covenant. And having just said that He asked him to give up Isaac. And when Abraham is about to smite his son with his knife, the Angel of the Lord grabs his hand. 

If you’ve been to St. Petersburg and to the Hermitage Museum, you’ve seen the Rembrandt painting of the Angel holding his hand and the knife falling. It’s an impressive thing there. I sat and looked at that for 20 minutes, just in awe and silence. What a picture. What passion, what emotion in that one. 

What does the Angel of the Lord say? “Now I know that you fear God seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son from Me.” What does he mean by fear? It’s not just, you’re not afraid of me. I would have been terrified. You’re not afraid. No. It means you trust Me. You trust Me. “Abraham believed God, and He counted it to him for righteousness.” Well, that was when God showed him the stars, your descendants will be like that. 

But now he doesn’t use the word āman, to believe, he uses the word ‘fear.’ And in Deuteronomy, in these contexts, this is a virtual synonym for the word for faith: trust. Walter Moberly in several writings makes the same point. 

But the interesting—well, yeah… 

Psalm 115, “O house of Aaron, trust, bāțaḥ, in Yahweh! He is their help and their shield. You who fear Yahweh,” fear, there it is, “trust in Yahweh.” 

So, the two are very close. 

So, in Deuteronomy what Paul will speak of as pistis, faith, that equivalent word ’ĕmûnâ, Hebrew for faith, happens I think, only twice in the book of Deuteronomy. It’s not his favored word. His favored word is ‘fear,’ meaning trusting awe. And that’s what we’ve got here. 

Isaiah 50, “Who among you fears Yahweh and obeys the voice of His servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of Yahweh and rely on his God.” See the combination. This is the semantic world of the word fear. 

Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of Yahweh is the first principle of wisdom; fools despise wisdom.” 

Proverbs 14:26, “In the fear of Yahweh one has strong confidence, and his children will have a refuge.” 

And so here we have Deuteronomy 10:20, “Only Yahweh your God, you shall fear; only Him you shall serve; only to Him you shall cling; only by His name you shall swear.” 

This is allegiance of the first uncompromising order, fear of God. 

And notice, it’s the thumb. That’s where you start. This is what distinguishes humanoids from other creatures. We got the opposable thumb, and we can’t live without a thumb. Scarcely. But it’s the anchor of everything. It starts right here. Moses’ answer, “What does God ask of you? Trust. Fear.”

Jonah 1:9, “He said when they asked him, ‘Who are you and what is your country?’ He said, ‘I am a Hebrew. I fear Yahweh, the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.’” 

Well, really? Now, this is his passport. “My identity is defined by Yahweh who is the God of Israel. I fear Yahweh, therefore I’m an Israelite.” But of course, you know it’s a sham in that case. I mean, he’s using it as the passport of ID. They’re Phoenician sailors… “I fear Yahweh.” It’s back to our picture. It is the declaration of allegiance. But of course, you know, with Jonah, there is a problem in his use of that. 

Second, walking in all the ways of the Lord. And it’s quite appropriate to put this as the second one because this is the finger we use to point which way to go. “Walking in all the ways of the Lord.” Now, of course, this is ambiguous. What does it mean to walk in the ways of the Lord? It can mean one of two things. It means it can mean walking in the ways God tells us to walk. Those are the ways of the Lord revealed by God within the covenant. Walking in all those ways. But it can also mean walking the way God walks. And we will see this in answer number two. “As God has loved the alien, so you must love the alien.” God walks this way; we walk this way. 

It’s a brilliant expression, but it presents life as a journey. We’re walking, We’re headed somewhere. We’re on a path. And this path is determined by God, either by Him as a model, or by Him through His revealed will. That’s number two, walking in all His ways. 

“Loving Yahweh.” And, of course, by now, you know I shouldn’t have said just loving Yahweh. I should have said, demonstrating love for Yahweh. Demonstrating love for Yahweh. And of course, on your hand, if you put your hand up like this, you see, that’s the anchor., that’s the middle. Love. Deuteronomy is a book on covenant love, covenant commitment. “You shall be covenantally committed to Yahweh your God, with all your inner being, with all your body, and with all your resources.” Loving Yahweh. It’s not mere emotion, it is always demonstrated emotion. 

“Serving Yahweh with your entire heart, mind, and being.” And now, when we talk about serving to God, we often think in terms of, well, worshiping Him, only Him in church. You know, liturgy. Bringing sacrifices to Him and whatever. But I think serving in these contexts should not be held that limitedly. We should view serving here as being the vassal of God, living as His vassal, bearing His name. Everywhere we go, we represent Him. We are agents of His mission. “You shall have no other gods. You shall not bow down to them, and you shall not serve them.” Over and over again we’ll see this when we get to chapter 12 and chapter 13. “You shall not bow down to them. And you shall not serve them. Only Yahweh is your suzerain.” 

And of course, in our cultural context, this works too, because it’s on this finger. If we were European, it would be on this right-hand finger. We wear this (pointing to wedding band). Why do we wear this? Because I want everybody to know that I belong to somebody. She da boss. I serve her. And so, within a marriage relationship, you know, be submissive to one another, and whatever. This is what it is. It’s always about the other person’s well-being. We serve Yahweh with the entire heart, mind, and being, nothing left over in our hearts for another allegiance. That’s idolatry. That’s betrayal. It’s spiritual harlotry in Israel. 

And finally, oh, he does actually get to it. “Keeping Yahweh’s statutes and commands,” really? Keeping the law. But notice that’s the last one and it’s the little finger. If there’s one finger without which you can live, that’s it. If somebody were demanding of me, I would have to give up one finger for whatever reason, that’s the one I’d let them have. Because it’s the weakest finger. It’s the least help. They’re all helpful, but it’s the least helpful. But you notice, it’s the end. 

You know, we tend to turn this thing upside down. “And what does God, what does Yahweh your God ask of Israel?” Keep the commands. No, no, no, no, no, no. Even if you didn’t have the little finger, you could survive because everything is represented in fearing God, walking in God’s ways, loving Yahweh, serving the Lord. All the commands are wrapped up in that middle one actually, Jesus says. “You shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself,” and it’s all covered. 

But he does add it here, keeping Yahweh’s commands. It concretizes fearing, walking, loving, serving. You fear by keeping the commands; you walk by keeping the commands; you demonstrate love by keeping; and you serve by keeping Yahweh’s commands. This is anything but legalism, anything but legalism. This is principled faith. 

We have this notion and some of our very prominent preachers and theologians talk about. In the Old Testament, their word, in the Old Testament religion was primarily external and cultic. In the New Testament, it is primarily internal and spiritual. Have you never read the Bible? This is the opposite. Micah was asking, “With what shall I come before the Lord? With all these externals?” And he said, “Forget that. No, He’s told you what is good, but to do justice, to love hesed, and walk humbly with your God.” That’s it. This is not cultic worship. This is life of worship. Life is worship. And this is what God asks of His people. This is Deuteronomy at its heart, the heart of covenant relationship. 

Five answers to the question. The common denominator: allegiance to Yahweh as the God of the covenant. That’s the first answer to the question. But then he gives the basis of the answer in a magnificent doxology, and he gives context to everything. “Look! To Yahweh, your God belong the heavens and the earth, the heavens and the earth with all that’s in it. Yet Yahweh set His affection on the ancestors by demonstrating love for them, and He chose their descendants after them. You are of all the peoples as you are to this day.” That’s whom we’re serving. This is not a small god. This is—He’s the creator of everything. He’s the owner of everything. And everything that’s on earth belongs to Him. Yet of all of these people, this God set His affection. You are the object of His particular love. 

Yes, there’s a sense in which God so loves the cosmos, everyone. But in terms of saving love, that’s very particular. God has chosen Israel, and this provides context for the life of joyful service. He set His affection on you to fear Him. 

Well, these five, I think this is again, it’s a creedal statement. It’s like the Decalogue helps you to memorize. 

• It serves a mnemonic function.
• Allegiance to God is the common denominator.
• The demanded response involves fundamental dispositions and active expressions. It’s not externalism.
• And the glorious privilege of covenant relationship is grounded in theological realities. 

Again, history determines theology, which determines conduct and now he gets back there. 

Yahweh’s supremacy over all realms. “To Yahweh your God belong the heavens and the earth and the heaven of heavens.” I love this expression: the heaven and the heaven of heavens. It’s like Song of Songs. Holy of holies. That’s the way of expressing the superlative degree. Whatever heaven is up there, it all belongs to Him. 

And don’t you love it when they send the Hubble cameras all over the world? And now we’re on Mars. And what the pictures they are sending. Guess what? God is up there. It’s His. And He invites us to explore His world. And that doesn’t mean that He shrinks, God becomes smaller and smaller. No, He gets bigger and bigger. God owns it all. 

But the other side of this one is Yahweh’s gracious affection, covenant commitment, and election is focused on Israel. 

Now, it could be that with Isaiah, in Isaiah 40, where he has this glorious picture of the greatness of God who has created everything, and stretched out the heavens like a gauze, and everything belongs to Him. All He needs to do is sneeze and the nations vanish. And then we can get—become tempted and think, “Well, if God owns everything, I don’t count.” And he says, “Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, mount up with wings as eagles, run and not be weary,” because the bigger God is, the more guarantee there is of what you need. He is both transcendently glorious but imminently gracious. 

Deuteronomy 10:15, “Yet Yahweh set His heart in love on your fathers.” This is that word ḥāšaq, to set His heart. It’s not 'ahăḇâ. In Deuteronomy 7, “He 'ahăḇâ-s love because He ḥāšaq-ed love.” Why does God love Israel? Because He loves Israel. It’s as close as we can get. The mystery of divine love. “He set his heart in love on your fathers, chose their offspring, and you out of all peoples, as you are this day.” He does indeed own the universe but Israel was the special object of His covenant love. An amazing story. 

In another context, Moses’ celebration of Yahweh’s ownership of the universe might have provided inspiration for worship in and of itself. But here, verse 15, we discover that this doxology is a clever rhetorical ploy to set the stage for the declaration of His election of Israel particularly. This is not a generic deity. And Israel’s relationship is not with a generic deity. Israel’s relationship is absolutely unique. They have Him as their God. 

His strategy here is like that of the Psalmist in Psalm 8, who, reflecting on the entire universe, “O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth. When I consider the heavens, the stars and all of the big things up there that You’ve made with Your fingers, what is man? What is humankind that you are interested in him?” And then he says, “Yet you have made him a little lower than God and have set him over all things.” 

Well, here, Moses declares, “How extraordinary is the fact that although Yahweh owns everything, it is not just humanity in general that He has picked, it is Israel particularly that is the object of His affection and His love. Out of all the families on Earth, He has chosen the descendants, specifically the people standing in front of Him.” You guys, you know that you are here because God picked you. This is the amazing thing. And of course, now I’m sounding very Calvinist. I do believe in the doctrine of election. You got it. Apart from the effective election of God, I wouldn’t be here. 

Well, in the light of God’s gracious election of Israel, the total devotion called for in verses 12 to 13 is utterly reasonable. He is not a tyrant. One’s joy in life, in the life of obedience, will be directly proportional to our amazement of having been chosen to be God’s covenant people. We never stop saying, “Wow, why me? How did I get here?” It is that sense of awe. Well, that’s answer number one. 

Answer number two, “Circumcise the foreskin of your heart and don’t be stiff-necked.” Well, he’s talking about circumcision, but he throws us a curveball. I mean, we talked about this earlier. If you would talk to Moses about what Paul says about circumcision and the Judaizers who insist on circumcision as the initial and essential marker of membership in the covenant community, Moses would say, “Well, I know about circumcision, but I don’t know about physical circumcision. That doesn’t interest me. He never talks about physical circumcision.” Not once, not here, not anywhere else. He doesn’t do it to his son. He doesn’t do to the Israelites as he leads them and for 40 years they’re not being circumcised. It’s obviously no big deal to him. But what is a big deal to him is circumcision of your heart. And of course, it’s a grotesque metaphor. It is grotesque and in mixed company, which we can admit that; that is grotesque. 

And then he says, “Be stiff-necked, no more. And if you want to know what a circumcised heart is like, well…” He throws in another metaphor, “This is that stiff-neck ox.” Remember, we’re back to chapter 9. “You are that bovine; an uncircumcised heart is a heart of stone that is impervious to outside influences.” It cannot be affected. It cannot be touched or moved. “Circumcise the foreskin of your heart,” which means that your heart is right with God by submitting to His will, stop resisting. Soften that neck. Well, it’s a spiritual thing. It’s a mind thing. 

The interesting thing is he tells the people to do it themselves. And he assumes that you can. There’s no point in commanding people to do something that they cannot do. So don’t eliminate this by saying, “Oh, well, in chapter 30, he will say, ‘The Lord will in the end circumcise the hearts of all the Israelites to love Him and to walk in His ways.’” That is not the answer to this one. This one he assumes that people are responsible for their own well-being. Circumcise yourself. Elsewhere the prophets will say, get yourself right with God. Ezekiel, who’s the most Calvinist of all, will say, on the one hand, at the end, he says, “The Lord will take out your heart of stone.” He says, “Get yourself a new heart.” 

They, the prophets will not leave it simply in God’s hands without reference to human involvement. And I would argue that in the history of Israel, there have always been people with circumcised hearts. Caleb was one. Josiah was one. Abraham, not perfect, he isn't perfect. There were times when he is as hard-hearted as anybody, toward his wife and others around him. But these are people whose hearts are right with God. And ultimately, we would have to say, “Well, how did their hearts get right with God?” God did it? But the biblical text isn’t saying that. It says “Get your…” And of course, now we need to remember that the word for ‘heart’ is also ‘mind.’ And this is a way of saying, “Think rightly about yourself, feel rightly about yourself. It’s on you.” 

But then look at the doxology. He goes back, circumcised. Yeah. Let’s back up here. Two different metaphors. One explains the other. Oh, yes, I should bring this up. “Circumcise therefore the foreskins of your heart.” We have no photographs from ancient Canaan, ancient Israel. We’ve got objects though that their artists produce. And here’s one. This one comes from the days of Deborah. And it was found, this is the Megiddo Ivory found near Megiddo, a little ivory thing. It’s in the Israel Museum with this interesting image of people, obviously conquered peoples, being brought by the victorious army to the sound of music, cymbals, and harps before the general or the king or whatever. This is a celebration of victory. 

But notice how they portray the defeated people. They are naked. Well, guess what else? They are circumcised. Don’t look too close. But in any case. Which raises the question, who are these people? It comes from the time of Deborah, from the world where Deborah lives. Are they Israelites? 

The problem here is that we know that the Israelites were not the only ones who practiced circumcision. Moabites did, Egyptians did, lots of people did. In fact, it was so common that the slur, “Don’t behave like an uncircumcised Philistine.” Samson’s parents ask him, “Are there no women in Israel that you have to marry this daughter of the uncircumcised Philistines?” That is an intensely negative, caustic statement. To be uncivilized is to be uncircumcised or the reverse, civilized people circumcise. It was commonly practiced. 

Now, the Israelites have had a unique significance to it. In Egypt, it was, it happened later on in life when you make the transition from boyhood to manhood or whatever else, you know. So it’s that. But here it has. Are these Israelites? 

The point is circumcision was a common thing. But he makes a metaphor out of this. A figure of speech seems to have been prompted by the reference to Yahweh, His love for the ancestors expressed in the election of descendants of the covenant people. 

According to Genesis 17, physical circumcision of males represented the seal by which Israelites declared their acceptance of God’s covenant. Remember Genesis 17?

In Genesis 15, God confirms His commitment to Abraham and his descendants by passing through the two parts. The second half of that ceremony happens 13 years later when God gives circumcision as the sign of, and Abraham obeys it immediately. He circumcises His whole household. This is the seal of their acceptance, the signature; I’ve signed on. 

The interesting thing is that the Israelite symbol of covenant membership is a totally private thing. You don’t advertise to the world that we are the covenant people of God because you’re supposed to keep your private parts covered. Only God sees this. The mark of a circumcised heart is the life the person lives. And that’s what we’re talking about. It’s about life. Circumcise are for your heart. Never mind the physical business that can be an empty gesture, a meaningless thing. It’s perhaps the private nature of the sign that commends circumcision as appropriate mark of the covenant. You don’t advertise it this way, or even with a mezuzah on the wall. It’s how the people who live in this house live. That’s the mark. And so, soft hearts. Since outsiders generally would not see the sign, the only evidence of membership would be the life of the person. 

Well, it’s odd that Moses introduces this metaphor with this generation of Israelites. “Circumcise therefore…” I’m sure some of them were wondering as he was saying this, “What? We haven’t even been physically circumcised. What are we talking about?” But the assumption is you can be spiritually circumcised without being physically circumcised. Paul could have used this as an argument in Romans chapter 4. He could have used this, but he doesn’t actually go quite that way. 

But here we’ve had a generation of people who were physically circumcised, but they died. The present clan is spiritually circumcised and they’re living. The picture is patently ironic. The fathers who came out of Egypt had the physical surgery, but by their faithlessness and rebellion they had proved this was merely an external act. 

Well, there were others who had misbehaved this way. Moses’ present audience stands before him as the people about to take the land, “Get your heart right with God. Circumcise your heart.” This is a challenge. 

And of course, the other side of it, this is declared to the individual Israelites. It’s all singular here. The whole nation can be uncircumcised but within the groups, “Get your heart right with God.” Nobody is a captive to the environment in which he or she lives. And though the rest of the nation go to hell in a handbasket, the people with a circumcised heart are true to God. 

Well, surely it would have been more logical and more reasonable for Moses to demand that if they would claim the promises made to the fathers, they should submit to physical operation. Right now. “Let’s all get circumcised, guys, it’s time. Before we cross over the Jordan.” No, they cross over the Jordan, and then they do it, before they launch the campaigns. So they launched the crusade (we can’t use that word anymore: crusade). They launched the campaigns against the Canaanites after they’re circumcised. It is as the people of Yahweh. But the appeal for heart first, the physical second. “What does God require?” 

Well, Moses doesn’t explain at this point what he means by the circumcised heart except to contrast it with a stiff neck to which we’ve already talked. We’ve got a mixing of metaphors involving body parts, private parts, and then the neck. But it’s all part of the same picture. 

A circumcised heart represents a disposition that has ceased resisting the will of God and stopped rebelling against His commands, but is soft and sensitive toward Him. We used to sing, “Have Thine own way, Lord, have Thine own way, You are the potter, I am the clay,” and this is what is involved here. Just give in, let it be, let it go. 

Moses will confirm this understanding himself in chapter 36 to 38 where he explicitly declares Yahweh will circumcise the Israelite’s hearts and when He does, they will love Him with all their hearts and with all their being, that they may live. But there he’s talking about the whole nation. There have always been two Israels. There’s the physical Israel. (We’ll have a diagram for this later.) There’s the physical Israel that is all the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And then there’s the spiritual Israel. These are two different categories. In chapter 30, he looks forward to the day when the boundaries are coterminous. All Israel will have a circumcised heart. 

Well, the doxology. What’s the grounding of this? The basis of Moses’ answer for Yahweh, your God, is God of gods and Lord of lords, the Great, the mighty, the awesome God who shows no partiality. There’s that expression: ‘who doesn’t cover the face.’ Or ‘He doesn’t look at the face.’ This is a judicial expression. When people come before God as a judge, He doesn’t look at the face. It’s covered with a bag. There’s a bag over it. He doesn’t show, no; whether you’re rich or poor, weak or strong, and you will not, His favor cannot be bought with a bribe. Absolutely. 

But then notice not only the doxology, but look at the application. “He executes what is just for the fatherless and the widow and demonstrates love for the aliens by giving them food and clothing. So you must demonstrate love for the alien as well, because you were aliens in the land of Egypt.” 

Notice that theology, true theology, always leads to true life and true ethics. And here you have it again. “Yahweh your God.” Note His supremacy over all powers. In the previous one, it was “His supremacy over all things, all creation.” Now it's “God of gods, Lord of lords, the Great, the mighty, the awesome El.” But He’s not only up there, “He’s down here taking care of the needy. And guess what? On that count, we are exhibit A. We were aliens in Egypt and the Lord cared for us.” 

It’s a magnificent statement of God who is sovereign over all but gracious in His focus, or shall we say, focused in His grace on those whom He has called. 

This reminds me of Psalm 146, 

“Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in Yahweh his God, the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them. Yahweh, who remains faithful forever. He upholds the cause of the oppressed, gives food to the hungry. Yahweh sets prisoners free, gives sight to the blind. He lifts up those who are bowed down. He loves the righteous. He watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow.” 

These are all deuteronomic categories. This guy has been having his devotions in Deuteronomy again. 

“But he frustrates the ways of the wicked. Yahweh reigns forever, your God, O Zion for all generations. Hallelujah!” 

Praise the Lord. Well, it’s a magnificent text. That’s the second answer. 

The third answer. No, none of this is new now, except we need to capture the Hebrew emphasis. We tend to translate this the way we talk in English. “You must fear only God. You must hold firmly only to Him; and you must swear only in His name.” But here the Hebrew is emphatic. “Yahweh alone,” the ‘alone’ isn’t here. “But Yahweh your God you must fear; Yahweh you must serve; to Him you must hold firmly. And in His name only you must swear.” This is an exposition. 

In fact, by now you will have caught that this whole thing is an unpacking of the shema. The whole thing is. And here, Shema Israel, Yahweh Eloheinu, Yahweh Echad. He is the only God, to Him we are. This is Yahweh alone. 

And then in the doxology, he picks up on that. “He alone is your praise. He alone is your God who has performed for you these great and awesome wonders and that your eyes saw. There is no other God.” You owe your existence completely and totally and entirely to Him. You take God out of this picture, you have nobody. And that’s the doxology. 

We have then the practical application. “Your ancestors went down to Egypt as a clan of 70 persons.” And now guess what? “Yahweh your God has made you as numerous as the stars of the sky.” This is how special you are in the eyes of God. Notice that bottom blue level all the way. This is your special standing with God. And it’s not because of who you are. He could have picked an infinite number of other candidates for this, but He picked us. And that’s why, “Walking humbly with our God” (Micah). This is the response, “Why me?” 

And so here, “Your ancestors went down as a clan.” And guess what? “The God has made you here, you are the fulfillment of God’s promises to the ancestors. His eyes have been on you from the beginning.” It is an amazing story. 

Well, the third answer to the question, “Only Yahweh Your God, you shall fear only him. Serve only; to Him hold fast.” It’s all about him. He is your praise. 

This reminds me, we’ll get to this at the end of the benediction of the tribes. And here he is, having blessed all of the tribes, one after the other, he reflects not on who Israel is, but who Israel is in the light of who her God is. 

“There is no one like the God of Jeshurun.” 

And of course, the word ‘Jeshurun,’ this is His pet name for Israel. You know, darling. Whatever. 

The word means, ‘straightened one.’ It comes from the word yāšar, to be straight. An upright man is a yāšar, the straight one. Here this is a passive participle, the one who has been straightened. And what does it mean? We often interpret that, commentators often interpret it to mean, morally straight. Yāšar, upright usually does mean that, 

But in this case, I don’t think it means that. I think it means you were once bogged down with the yoke of slavery on your neck, and you could never walk this way. You were always walking like this. And guess what, the Lord has taken that yoke off your neck and He has straightened you up, you are the redeemed. That’s who they are. 

“There’s no one like the God of the straightened ones, who rides on the heavens to help you and on the clouds in His majesty. The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He will drive out your enemy before you saying, ‘Destroy him!’ So Israel will live in safety alone; Jacob’s spring is secure in the land of grain and new wine, where the heavens drop dew. How privileged you are.” 

'Ešer, that’s that word. The beatitudes in Matthew begins with, “Blessed are…” Hebrew has two words, two words for blessed, bāraḵ - to bless somebody. But “Blessed are you…Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel…” That’s not bāraḵ, that’s 'ešer… 

'šēr, the name of the tribe. I’ve forgotten Leah’s handmaid’s mother gives birth to 'šēr. I think that’s the way it is. And Leah named him 'šēr, because it’s a happy day for her. It’s a happy day, she has another son, 'šēr - how happy. And I prefer, ‘how privileged.’ 

“How privileged you are, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by Yahweh?” And that’s what makes Israel really special. It’s a wonderful…

“He is your shield and helper and your glorious sword. Your enemies will cower before you, and you will trample down their high places.” 

Conclusion. Chapter 11:1. And now again, I think we are summarizing the answer to the question at the front: what does the Lord your God require of you? He’s given you three answers, but then he concludes, “Therefore, you shall…”

“So you must demonstrate love for Yahweh your God and keep His mandate,” that’s the word, charge – mišmereṯ, “His ordinances, His stipulations, and His commands always.” 

It’s interesting that he ends with a reference to the revealed will of God. Remember those five things? It was the little finger and at the end. But notice, it’s ‘demonstrate love.’ This is it, covenant commitment demonstrated in action. 

The other thing that’s interesting about this verse is the way it echoes Genesis 26 verses 4 and 5. And when I read that, you should be puzzled if you’re half awake. I’ll pick it up at 3 where God is talking to Isaac: 

“Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and I will bless you, for to you and your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath I swore to your father Abraham. I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because.” 

Talk about unconditional versus conditional. It’s because…because what? 

“Because Abraham listened to My voice and kept My mandate.” Mišmereṯ, that’s the word here, “My commands, My ordinances, and My torahs,” instructions. 

Really? Abraham? What’s wrong with this picture? What commands did Abraham have from God? Well, there’s the command of circumcision, that one he had, and walk before me and be blameless. But that is so general. I mean, what is he talking about? These are the words come straight out of Deuteronomy and are applied to Abraham. My brothers and my sister, this is theologically profound. In the author of Genesis view, Abraham does not represent an alternative, spirituality or ethic, to that of Moses. The author of Genesis, who has been having his devotions in Deuteronomy.

I have an essay out. It’s in one of the books there on The Triumph of Grace. Abraham, the patriarchal narratives and their relationship to the Book of Deuteronomy. I am absolutely convinced that the author, the final author of Genesis, is the final author of the Book of Deuteronomy. And he writes the whole patriarchal story in the light of deuteronomic theology. And I’ve got 71 evidences for it. I list them all. And at the end I talk about this one, Abraham. 

How in the world can Abraham be the embodiment of what has not been revealed? To the author of the Pentateuch as a whole, Abraham is the model Israelite as defined in Deuteronomy. I know we’ve got people who say Abraham represents faith, ante legum, before the Law. Moses represents faith (or is it unbelief) under the law. And they contrast the two. Stop it. Stop it right now. In fact, in my view, I’ve said before, the Abrahamic Covenant and the Israelite covenant are one and the same thing. And the demands of God are exactly the same. 

And to the author writing hundreds of years later, he looks at the life of Abraham, he says, “This is exactly what we’re asking for in Deuteronomy: righteousness. Righteousness you shall pursue.” And you can unpack that and say, “He had the Torah of God written on his heart, his heart was circumcised. He was responsive to the will of God, and he almost naturally did the right thing.” While there are exceptions, this is very interesting, he doesn’t gloss over the exceptions, but this is the “demonstrate love for God by keeping His mandate, His ordinances, His stipulations and His torahs actually, His commands all the days.” This is an amazing text. 

Conclusion. This passage should correct the common misperception of Old Testament religion as primarily external and cultic. It’s not. So that when Jesus tells the woman at the well, “The day is coming, when people will worship Me in spirit and in truth.” Some people will say, “When worship will be spiritual rather than external and true rather than false.” Really? Have there never been people who worshiped God in spirit and in truth? Of course there have. This can’t be something new in that regard, Abraham was one of these. And so, we’ve got to rethink what we do with that one. There have always been people who worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. Abel’s offerings were accepted. Cain’s weren’t. You got the contrast there. Moses has a picture of this. Jesus is talking to the Samaritan woman at the well and the debate is, “Where do we worship here on Mt. Gerizim or in Zion?” And whatever else, forget that noise that is coming when we’re not going to be having that conversation. So, let’s stop that. 

“Samuel said, ‘Has Yahweh as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in listening to the voice,’ I should have had listening here rather than obey. ‘Look. To listen is better than to sacrifice than the fat of rams for rebellion is a sin of divination.’” 

Or Amos 5. Here’s your text from Amos, “I hate, I despise your festivals, I take no delight in solemn assemblies. Even though you offer Me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I won’t accept them; the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness.” 

This is deuteronomic. “Seḏeq, ṣeḏeq tirdōp̄ – righteousness, righteousness you shall pursue.” 

Or Hosea. “I desire steadfast love,” hesed, “not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” 

Well, there are many other texts. 

This is a fabulous text. It’s a fabulous text. It’s the summary of true religion, First and New Testaments. And this is what the Pharisees had lost. Remember Jesus’ conversation? You guys, tithe mint, and cumin, and dill pickles, and everything else, they’re tithing everything to a tee. But you’ve forgotten the weightier matters of Torah. And what are the weightier matters of Torah? Here you have it. He uses the word eleos, which is the word for hesed and fidelity, I think it is I’ve forgotten exactly what it is. 

But in any case, this is what. What does God require of you? Not tithing of every little stupid thing. Their emphasis is all in the wrong place. But “to fear the Lord, to walk in His ways, to love Him, to serve Him by keeping His commands.” This is the word of the Lord for us.