Defining The Relationship: Deuteronomy 5-6:3

on March 1st 2014 I married my husband a man before we said I do we both stood face to face our hands holding each other's as we waited for someone to hand us our rings once they did my pastor began to speak he made me repeat after him a list of vows a variety of commitments that I was choosing to make to my husband in light of the Covenant that we were walking into I pledged to love him for better or for worse in sickness and in health till death parted us this covenant was not made because of the vows it was made because of the relationship that existed between us already the vows simply defined the terms it clarified how this covenant was supposed to look from the day that day forward and if kept it would surely keep us but as we all know vows are broken all the time and when they are the very relationship that brought the vows to life is at stake in Deuteronomy 5 we are listening in on Moses's 2nd sermon to Israel this Israel as we know is not the same Israel that left Egypt all of them had passed away in the wilderness because of their unbelief and now it is their children that are about to enter the promised land but before they do Moses takes the time to talk about the Covenant that God made with them most of them were not even born yet or they were just children when God established his covenant relationship with Israel but his promises to the previous generation didn't die when they did this relationship would exist for generations and beyond but this present generation would do well to have the terms of this relationship defined they needed to know how this covenant was supposed to look from that day forward and how if kept it would keep them let's open our Bibles our flipping our phones to Deuteronomy 5 I'll start at verse 1 and Moses summoned all Israel and said to them hear o Israel the statutes and the rules that I speak in your hearing today and you shall learn them and be careful to do them the Lord our God made a covenant with us at Hara not with our fathers did the Lord make this covenant but with us who are all of us here alive today the Lord spoke with you face-to-face at the mountain how did the midst of the fire while I stood between you and the Lord and you at that time to declare to you the word of the Lord for you were afraid because of the fire and you did not go up into the mountain he said I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery you shall have no other gods before me you shall not make you shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth you shall not bow down to them or serve them for I the Lord your God and may jealous God visiting the iniquity of the father's on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my Commandments you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain observe then that Sabbath day to keep it holy as the Lord your God commanded you six days you shall labor and do all your work but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God on it you shall not do any work you are your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock or the Sojourner who is within your gates that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and that the Lord your God bought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day honor your father and your mother as the Lord your God commanded you that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you you shall not murder and you shall not commit adultery and you shall not steal and you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor and you shall not covet your neighbor's wife and you shall not desire your neighbor's house his field or his male servant or his female servant his ox or his donkey or anything that is your neighbors these words the Lord spoke to all your assembly at the mountain out of the midst of the fire the cloud and the thick darkness with the loud voice and he added no more and he wrote them on to establish a tone it's a touchstone and gave them to me and as soon as you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness while the mountain was burning with fire you came near to me all the heads of your tribes and your elders and you said Behold the Lord our God has shown us his glory and greatness and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire this day we have seen God speak with man and man still live now therefore why should we die for this great fire will consume us if we hear the voice of the Lord our God anymore we shall die for who is there of all flesh that has heard the voice of the Living God speaking out of the midst of the fire as we have and I still lived go near and hear all that the Lord our God will say and speak to us all that the Lord our God will speak to you and we will hear and do it and the Lord heard your words when you spoke to me and the Lord said to me I have heard the words of this people which they have spoken to you they are right and all they have spoken oh that they had such a heart as this always to fear me and to keep all my Commandments that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever go and say to them return to your tents but you stand here by me and I will tell you the whole commandment and the statutes and the rules that you shall teach them that they may do them in the land that I'm giving them to possess you shall be careful therefore to do as the Lord your God commanded you you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left you shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you you may live and that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land that you shall possessed I'm gonna read chapter six verses one through three now this is the commandment the statutes and the rules that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you that you may do them in the land to which you are going over to possess it that you may fear the Lord your God you and your son and your son son by keeping all his statutes and his commandments which I command you all the days of your life that your days may be long here therefore O Israel and be careful to do them then it may go well with you and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord the God of your father's has promised you in the land flowing with milk and honey let's pray God thank you for your scriptures I pray that we would hear them that we would learn them and that we would do them in Jesus name Amen and what we've just read you see God meeting the people God giving them his law and Moses becoming their mediator the major thrust of it all being this main idea which is that a covenant relationship with God demands obedience in this passage there are four themes that stand out to me that I like to for us to look at they are the law of the Lord the fear of the Lord the mediator of the Lord and the high standard of the Lord let's reverse one again it says and Moses summon all Israel and said to them hear o Israel the statutes and the rules that I speak in your hearing today and you shall learn them and be careful to do them if you notice that with all that Moses is about to say he doesn't just want them to hear it neither does he just wants them to learn it but he wants Israel to hear the statutes and rules learn the statutes and rules and do the statutes and rules this sermon that he is about to lay out is meant to be listened to so it can be lived in verse 3 he says the Lord our God made a covenant with us in herre not with our fathers that the Lord make this covenant but with us who are all of us here today some believe this reference to our fathers is speaking of the patriarchs to which the covenants that were made with them were distinctive from the one that God made with Israel others take Moses saying that the Lord did not make a covenant with them as a Hebrew idiom as if to say the Covenant God made with the previous generation included the present generation meaning even if they were not at the foot of the mountain but God spoke 40 years prior he has just as much their God as he was their fathers God either way you choose to look at it one thing is clear is that God wants a relationship with a nation of Israel that will continue for generations after the previous generation left Egypt three months after to be exact they camped out in the wilderness of Sinai their God called to Moses out of the mountain and told him to tell Israel how they saw what he'd done to the Egyptians and how he bored them up on eagle's wings and brought them to himself God goes on to say that if these people that are now his people will obey his voice and keep his covenant that they will then be his treasured possession among all people and a kingdom of priests and a holy nation to which the people responded all that the Lord has spoken we will do so then God tells Moses that he is going to come down on the mountain in the sight of the people but before he does they must spend a couple days consecrating themselves because on the third day God was coming I want you to imagine that you are them and today is the morning of the third day you are at the foot of the mountain waiting for God to show up and then you begin to hear thunder you see lightning but there is no rain you see a thick cloud and there is a kind of darkness that feels on earthly because after all it is the morning time and then you hear a trumpet but there is no human being playing it and with all the sights and sounds you start to tremble because you recognize that what you are experiencing is something holy in the mountain begins to shake smoke rises up from the top of it because God has descended on it and fire and that trumpet that is being played by no one in sight gets louder and louder and louder and then God begins to speak and what is the first thing he says verse 6 I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery imagine how it must have felt to experience the terrible holiness of God in that way to know that you know that God is altogether different from any of the so-called gods of Egypt and to assume that because he is so unlike us or anything we have ever seen are known and surely this God will remain at a distance from us but to then hear him say that he is not just the Lord but he is the Lord our God that he is set apart and yet extremely personal Yahweh is their God why would have they done to deserve him clearly nothing he is their God because he made them his people how he did it when he brought them out of Egypt for the sole purpose of bringing them to himself and he has done the same thing for you when you ask Church when he rescued you from slavery to sin why clearly you've done nothing to deserve such a God as he especially those of us who gathered a plethora of worthless idols and believed them to be more worthy of glory than the Living God but the Living God is also a loving God who for no other reason than his glorious grace rescued you so that he could have you as his own when God comes down on the mountain before Israel he introduces himself and reminds them of what he has done for them before he gives them the law if he had decided to go straight into the Ten Commandments Israel and probably you might have been tempted to think that this law is what will make the Lord their God or to say it another way that this law is what will create the relationship between God and Israel that maybe if all that it says is obey then God will bring them to himself then God will bear them up on eagle's wings then God will save them but we know from Exodus 19 and from verse 6 that God redeemed his people before they ever obeyed remember that's the word right the exodus journey happened three months before God gave his law so know that the law was not given to a lost people but a redeemed people therefore they are to obey not to gain salvation but they are to obey in light of the salvation that they have already received they have been brought out of the house of slavery and into a covenant relationship with Yahweh the Lord who is also very much their God God gives them what we know as the Ten Commandments if your mothers were anything like my granny then you grew up seeing the Ten Commandments framed in the kitchen as if Leviticus and the law was just cute or something it's like a weird kind of fixer-upper situation but anyway from the mountain God gives his law to his people in his own voice Moses had been God's mouthpiece open to that point and will be after but to show the laws extreme importance and to give credence as to why it should be obey God speaks the commandments to them himself the first four in verses 7 through 15 they are do not have any other gods do not make any graven images do not take the Lord's name in vain I've observed the Sabbath and keeping holy are all summarized as being how God is loved and the rest verses 16 through 21 on a father and mother don't murder don't commit adultery don't steal don't bear false witness don't covet are all summarized as being held to love neighbour now the word that comes to my mind when reading the Ten Commandments that God is giving to his covenant people is why why are these particular things so near to God's heart that it would cause him to list them out before Israel for them to be heard and lived the typical approach to analyzing the Ten Commandments is to dig into the vertical and horizontal nature of the commandments as they relate to us us loving God vertical us loving people horizontal but I think that in studying God's commands we are also able to see how these commands relate to God what he commands has everything to do with how he is glorified and what glorifies him most is what will be in accordance with his character so to say it simply the Ten Commandments are also able to just tell us something about God and what is that well the overarching characteristic of God that anchors it all is His Holiness which is the other perfection of all that God is the set apart nature of his person which can be seen in the first four commandments but in them we are also able to see that one God is committed to the honoring of his name just listen to the four Commandments again the first for you shall have no other gods before me you shall not make for yourself a carved image you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy God is the only true God and he is to be worshipped as such God is also the invisible God at that mountain they heard his voice but they saw no image so to put a face to what has never been seen would clearly be something God should and would despise and his name Yahweh the name he has revealed to Israel this name is special because God is he is also holy and distinct and set apart and glorious and good and great for the name his name to be used in any way that is wholly irreverent and careless is to dishonor the Lord God himself and a God is a God our God and worked and rested so if he is their God and they his people then just as he rested so much they God has not commanded the people to obey anything that he doesn't care about and the glory of God matters to God so the glory of God must matter to the people of God the second set of commands reveal something similar about God which is that God is also committed to the honoring of people listen to the begin honor your father and mother that's people I know some of us think they're aliens but they're people you shall not murder you shall not commit adultery you shall not steal you shall bear false witness you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his stuff each of these commands deals with how Israel is to deal with people God could have left the commands at for with how we should love him but God surely knew better than that his people would need guidance on how to love him and people being a relational God and enough himself since he is one God and three distinct persons the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit they have always been loving and honoring and enjoying each other and they will be forever this God this relational God created a person Adam and he put him with another person Eve and commanded them to create more people because God has never intended for us to be alive and alone why because he isn't but in that is also the fact that each and every person since Adam and Beyond is a image bearer of the Lord their God so as God deals with his image bearers he intends for them to deal with each other in the same way the Lord their God created the family structure and cares deeply that the authorities set in place within a family are honored just as we seen Jesus do with how he consistently honored the father the Lord their God being loved himself commands Israel to be to their neighbor what God has always been to them and to us the Lord their God will surely never murdered them even though they accused him of doing so or possibly doing so the Lord their God hasn't and will never cheat on them the Lord their God hasn't and will never steal from them the Lord their God hasn't and will never bear false witness because God as we all know ain't a liar and God hasn't and will never covered anything they have as if it all doesn't belong to him in the first place God God has not the command he has not commanded the people to obey something that he doesn't care about all image-bearers mattered to God so all image bearers must matter to the people of God and every single one of these commands are a good thing we are in a culture that would beg to differ to them the only thing that is good is that of the autonomy to do whatever you want whatever you please having any set of rules or limitations imposed on them is a terror worth fleeing from but before I make it seem as this the culture is the only opposers of seeing the commands of God in a positive light let us be reminded of our own hearts and how similar to Eve it can be who decided that God command to eat from the tree was not a good thing she decided that the better thing would be to sin and that's what happens when we decide that God's commands aren't good we conclude that because they aren't good in our foolish opinion that they can't be good for us and if they're not good for us then clearly God was not being good to us when he gave them the indictment will always fall back on God because the commandments are not good in and of themselves they are good because God is and because God is good all the time what he commands can be fully trusted even if the commandments don't feel good it surely doesn't mean that they aren't after speaking to the entire assembly verse 22 says that God wrote his words on two tablets of stone and gave them to Moses I love how the law was not only spoken to Israel but written down for Israel God had said a whole lot and if you're anything like me at times I might have kind of been distracted by the fact that the mountain is shaking and so I might have missed out on a couple of God's words but to have the Word of God written down would mean to me that they wouldn't have to depend totally on memory but they'd have a permanent point of reference for all that God had spoken to them but also having the Word of God written on two stone tablets which most commentators would say was made of a marble would create this mental picture for what God's Word was in reality a fixed and permanent word not one that should be heard from the bottom of the mount so they never thought of again but one that should be read learned and lived always shortly after God stopped speaking the heads of their tribes and their elders went to Moses and said starting at verse 24 and you said behold the Lord our God has shown us his glory and greatness and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire this day we have seen God speak with man and man still live now therefore why should we die for this great fire will consume us if we hear the voice of the Lord our God anymore we shall die for who is there of all flesh that has heard the voice of the Living God speaking out of the midst of the fire as we have and I still lived the people have experienced God in such a way but they are terrified as is expected throughout scripture when the Living God reveals himself to a person or a group of people the immediate response usually is fear in Exodus 3 when God spoke to Moses in the burning bush the text says that Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God and judges 6 when the angel of the Lord which is to believe the which is believed to be a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ speaks to Gideon face to face the Lord tells Gideon not to be afraid why because Gideon was afraid and Isaiah 6 when Isaiah sees the Lord sitting on his throne Isaiah says in response to this vision woe is me unless you think that this was only an Old Testament reaction to experiencing God and Mark for after Jesus rebukes the winds and the waves the text says that the disciples were filled with fear this fear is a common response of being in the presence of God because the Lord truly is more awesome than we can imagine that word awesome is used so out of context in our modern vocabulary that when I ascribe it to God some of you might think that I'm just saying that God is cool but by awesome I mean it literally the word means to inspire both dread and wonder it is not possible for the creator of the universe not to be more than your created mind can imagine especially when he is more holy than you have ever been between verse 24 and verse 26 there are five references to death one this day we have seen God speak with man and man still live too now therefore why should we die three for this great fire will consume us for if we hear the voice of our Lord God anymore we shall die five for who was there of all flesh that has heard the voice of the Living God speaking out of the midst of the fire as we have in a still live why so much talk of death because they had heard the voice of God and they had seen his glory and greatness in such a way that to them it felt the same as seeing God and they knew that the see God meant death no man shall see the Lord and live their experience with God was so tangible that death felt imminent God is just that great and they were just so human so they tell Moses in verse 27 that he should be one to go near to God you can do that you got it and listen to all that God has to say so that he can then come and tell them with us say at the Lord they in essence want God to be their mediator God being a living God who is not only able to speak but here listens in on the conversation between Israel and Moses he hears of their fear and their commitment to obey Him God says in verse 28 I have heard the words of this people which they have spoken to you they are right in all that they have spoken o that they had such a heart as this always to fear me and to keep all my Commandments that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever a personally appreciate appreciate the fact that verse 28 is here because it immediately combats the idea that we shouldn't fear God there seems to be a fear of saying that God should be feared that by doing so we somehow undermine how loving he is and makes people more less likely to believe the gospel but here God says that all that they have said is right and that he wishes that they had a heart like this always what kind of heart you say well God said it I'll read it again one that fears him this is a good thing to God and while we're at it let me ask you this question do you fear God if you don't know how to answer it I'll ask sit in another way do you oh babe God see the fear of God fuels obedience to God why else would Philippians 2:12 tell us to work out our salvation with fear and tremble don't assume that fear can't possibly have anything to do with love and psalms 147 verse 11 that says that the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him and those who hope in his steadfast love the fear of the Lord comes from faith in the Lord and this faith is in the love of the Lord as seen in the gospel of His Son Jesus Christ so when I ask you if you fear God I am also asking if you obey God and when I say or do you obey God I am also asking do you love God that as first loved you if not it is most likely because you have not seen his glory and greatness with the eyes of faith if you have heard the gospel of Christ preached I've heard that the scriptures about Christ being read and you have only thought that God is just cool and not that God is awesome I encourage you to look at him again the fear of the people moves them to Commission Moses as their mediator and their teacher in verse 27 we know this to be the case by them telling Moses that they want him to go near to the Lord and hear all that the Lord will say and that they want him to speak to them all that the Lord speaks and in verse 31 the Lord Himself sets Moses up as a mediator between himself and Israel God says this to Moses in verse 30 go and say to them return to your tents but you stand here by me and I will tell you the whole commandment and the statutes and the rules that you shall teach them that they may do them in the land that I'm giving them to possess to mediate is to be a bridge or a connecting agent between two parties so you have Israel over here you have God over here and you have Moses not malcolm in the middle' I thought that was funny apparently you didn't Moses Moses goes to God hears from God then comes back to the people and tells them what the Lord says the people are to listen and then obey all that they have heard Moses his mediation is definitely pointing to another and much better mediator that would not only be near to God but he would be got this mediator would stand between God and those who have sinned against God because without this mediator the space between God and man would remain they are not holy enough to approach him and they are not God enough to cleanse themselves they could not obey their way out of being his enemy because they were born as one and would have stayed that way of God didn't Commission the mediator to do what they couldn't do on their own this mediator will teach them all that God commands and unlike Moses he was and is able to show them exactly what God is like because he has made the invisible God visible he who once condescended on a mountain and fire came down to the earth in flesh and I think we all know who this mediator is because we have all been brought near to God because of him what's his name Amen but before he would come Moses would hear to paint a dim picture of what Jesus would do when he did as Israel's mediator Moses was to teach them some things let's read chapter 6 verses one through three now this is the commandment the statutes and the rules that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you that you may do them in the land to which you are going over to possess it then you may fear the Lord your God you and your son and your son son by keeping all his statutes and his commandments which I command you all the days of your life and that your days may be long so let's backtrack for a second Israel has been rescued from slavery and they have been brought into a covenant relationship with God God initiated their Redemption not by any merit of their own but on the basis of grace out of this relationship comes the law which includes the Ten Commandments spoken by God himself and the rest of the law is given to Moses who then gives them to the people this law is given to the people before they entered land that God has promised to give them a land that they have been waiting less than 40 years to enter Moses sums up how the people are to respond to this law in verses 2 & 3 with two words here and do it's as if he's saying yes you have been rescued from slavery by grace yes you have been brought into covenant relationship with God yes he has redeemed you yes he has saved you yes he loves you but he still commands your obedience the Word of God is not something you just listen to and walk away as if God himself has not spoken obedience of course didn't initiate the relationship but obedience is to be the byproduct of the relationship it is in his act of redemption that proves that he is worth obedience because he is worth being trusted God carries him on angle angel's wings and brought them to himself and because of this his words and his people is to be heard and believed and then obeyed back in chapter 5 verse 27 the people told Moses that that is exactly what they plan to do they were very zealous they said that they would obey God and here in chapter 6 verse 2 moses explains what this obedience look like looks like and how long it should last let me read it to you he says in verse 1 now this is the commandments the statutes and rules that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you that you may do them in the land to which you are going over to possess it that you may fear the Lord your God you and your sons and your son sons by keeping all his statutes and his commandments which I command you all the days of your life now remember the people at this point wants to obey the Lord their God and then Moses comes along and deepens their understanding of what this commitment means God wants them to obey everything always every minute hour day week month year for the rest of their life they must keep every single law to the Lord but let me remind you of what Israel end up doing instead while Moses was on the mountain of God before he was even able to come down the people with the two tablets God had given them the people got impatient the media that they had commissioned was taking too long to mediate in their opinion 40 days was too long for them to wait to hear from the Lord so they decided to listen to their hearts and do what it commanded so the people made a golden calf breaking the law of God to not make any graven images the people brought burnt offerings and peace offerings to this calf breaking God's command to not serve or bow down to any carved images as well as God come in not some have any other gods before him and if things couldn't get any worse once the cast was made they didn't say oh look at this gold cow we just made with our own hands at least that would have been the truth but instead they said these are your God's o Israel who brought you up out of the land of Egypt when God came to meet them at Mount side mount sinai with all the flour fire and all the clouds and trumpets and lightning the first thing he said to them was I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt but now the people have forgotten to fear the Lord and the presence of God so quickly that they have now taken God's words and applied it to a God of their own making did the people keep all of God's statutes and Commandments no did the people keep all of God's statutes and commandments all the days of their life No so the question should be why wasn't the Covenant God made with his people completely done away with why didn't the wrath of God break out against them why didn't he completely destroy Israel and gather from himself another people because they had a mediator they had a man who was near to God who could stand in the gap for them a man that interceded for them a man that was able to make atonement for the sins of the people so that God's anger would relent a man that asks for forgiveness for his people I'm talking about Moses but he surely sounds like Jesus doesn't he because I don't know about you but there has never been a day that I am NOT broken God's law even with his word being so easily accessible I often listen and learn more than I listen in obey the same standards God has for Israel are the same standards God has for his church it is still true that without holiness no man shall see the Lord it is still true that to love Jesus is to obey Him it is still true that is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God but it is also true that God has provided for us a mediator who is greater than Moses even Moses was not able to enter the promised land due to his humanity and his imperfection but this mediator kept all of God's statutes and all of God's commands every minute every hour every day every week every month for every part of his life and now by his death and resurrection we are able to live in light of his life and as we do and perfectly at best he is at the right hand of God doing what interceding for us as any good and perfect mediator would do today and forever we will be called his people because we have made he has made us his god no that's all bad we his people the annoying thing left for a second Israel was set apart by God for himself he gave them his law after he proved his love but as all humans have done they broke his law every single time we have all done the same even with God's law not being written on tablets of stone but on our hearts but God being so good all the time has given us Jesus and through Jesus we have entered into a new kind of relationship a new covenant and within it you have not come to what may be touched a blazing fire and darkness and grool gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice whose words may they hear is beg that no further messages be spoken to them but you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the Living God see that you do not refuse him who was speaking for if they did not escape when they refused him who warmed them of death much less what we escaped if we reject him who warns from heaven at that time his voice shook the earth but now he has promised yes what yet one more yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom then cannot and will not or will ever be shaken and thus let us hear offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire today and for the rest of your life listen to God believe God and please obey Him let's pray God thank you for speaking thank you for speaking to us through your word and through your son thank you for promising us that you would never leave us nor forsake us thank you that you have sent us the Holy Spirit to dwell in us so that we can do all that you have commanded of us I pray that we would continue to trust your word I pray that we would continue to trust what your son has done for us on the cross and that you will get us to where we gotta go which is in you in Jesus Christ's name Amen [Applause] you

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Length: 41min 37sec (2497 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 20 2018