Deuteronomy 26 "Year of The Torah" [16 of 19] Tim Mackie (The Bible Project) 9/24/2014

hey guys welcome um somewhat quickly though i'm not quite sure how quick this will go just one business matter to let you guys know about um so if you were here at our sunday gathering um you heard josh uh kind of unpack how we're gonna be reducing the number of services sunday services here at door of hope uh which is kind of counterintuitive because we've never had more people coming to our senate gatherings uh but there's a logic behind it and it's actually that decision was a part of a number of larger conversations that we're having um and you know essentially this is also just speaking very personally too there's quite a number us on the snap team that are just completely burnt out like you couldn't even imagine um we're just exhausted and my i'm high on that list and uh and so we've been just having conversations about like man what are we what are we doing um and do we need to enter into a season of less less is more um and so one of the things we're doing was uh you know the sunday gathering reducing those but we had a long hard conversation about year of torah on wednesday mornings and even though i've been saying for a year that i want to keep on going because there's a huge part of me that really does i think it is best at least for a season that when we hit the end of deuteronomy um we need to take a break for a while and i and if we don't my wife will kill me so you know that's just kind of uh but yeah so so there you go there's um i actually you know you're of torah for me this is a total joy and i've loved the community that that has kind of come into life good morning you guys coming to life around it um but at the same time you know it takes a chunk of my tuesdays thinking about this morning and then on wednesdays i'm fried by like 1 or 2 p.m and there's just a whole bunch of stuff that i need to be working on [Music] for the elder team and other stuff around door of hope through the fall and i just i need more hours in the day so there you go we're going to let year of torah come to a close at the end of deuteronomy um now you know we love morning stuff around door of hope so probably turn of the year we'll have some hatch some new plan to get us all up but five in the morning to do something to pray for 90 days and do push-ups or something like that so anyway you know you've come to expect that around here but at least for uh the rest of the fall yours truly and a number of others of us need to shave some things off of our responsibilities so anyway there you go cheers you're probably disappointed like i am but you're also like okay i get it and it's all right but i'm sad because it's been such a joy to me so there you go i'm happy to talk about any of that afterwards um okay you guys ready we're going to cross a major fault line today from deuteronomy 26 to 27 so let's not dilly dally let's go for it deuteronomy 26. this is the last chapter of laws you guys i'm sorry when you have entered the land yahweh your god is giving you oh by the way mental mental count this is a this is the last chapter of the laws remember the whole big picture all the way back to here you have ancient israel they're sitting on the the borders uh about to cross the jordan river moses gave a whole bunch of sermons here's why yahweh is awesome so here are the terms of the covenant relationship and then he's going to do another locker room speech here and so this is the last set of laws and you know how they've kind of had that grab bag random kind of feel through through this section so just think to yourself why conclude with these laws that we're going to be reading in 26 right here okay and in this particular law count the number of times that the word give occurs you guys with me we're going to read a paragraph count the number of times that the word give occurs when you have entered the land yahweh your god is giving you as an inheritance and have taken possession of it and settled in it take some of the first fruits of all that you produce from the soil of the land that yahweh your god is giving you and put them in a basket and then go to the place yahweh your god will choose as a dwelling for his name and say to the priest who is in office at that time i declare today to yahweh your god that i have come to the land yahweh swore to our forefathers to give us and the priest shall take the basket from your hands and set it down in front of the altar of yahweh your god from your hands oh excuse me yeah from the altar of your god then you shall declare before yahweh your god okay so let's pause real quick here this is this is a great scene so um [Music] remember all of these laws are about our forward pointing they're for ancient israel and the whole thing is pointing forward to an israel um exists here in the land and so we're setting up to think about we're setting up a whole series of laws about going to the temple and presenting an offering for like these people none of this exists yet like this is all this is all theory right now or it's it's setting out an ideal and so you have this um you have this law about uh offering the first fruits now generally um on an agricultural calendar these are all going to be small farming communities when are when are you getting your first fruits what times of year are you getting your first fruits kind of comes to different crops give different first fruits so yeah so maybe like spring early summer for different kinds of fruit and then you have typically like late summer or early fall for your cereal grains barley and wheat and stuff like that and so a couple times a year you're going to come and you get a whole bunch of you know whatever apples or grapes or wheat or something and you go take it to the temple and you set it in front of the priest and then you you say well here's what you say verse 5 you shall declare before yahweh your god my father was a wandering aramian now that almost just sounds like a if you took that out of context your father was a wandering aramian it would it's like something little kids would yell at each other you know on the playground or something like that you know so your dad's a wandering aramian um so that's not a dis it's not slander anything like that so who's who's talking here any joe moshe or esther israelite so when we say my father was a wandering aramian who we talking about who so when we say my father we're talking about the patriarchs aren't we so abraham isaac jacob kind of the patriarchs of israel which of them wandered around in the land of aram or the land of the arameans for a really long time and that's jacob that's jacob so you remember that whole thing about how he stole from his brother twice his name is deceiver after all jacob i knew jacob's in the room i'm sorry your name means deceiver and uh then his brother esau got really mad that he stole from him and he said he wanted to kill him and so where does jacob go he books it and for aram and meets his uncle laban and there's that whole story that we explored a year and a half ago something like that so my father was a wandering airmen the whole point was he was he represented a family that didn't have any land that wasn't rooted anywhere and the story actually for the family got worse because he went down into egypt remember the whole debacle with joseph and his brothers with a few people and he lived there and he became a great nation powerful and numerous but then the egyptians mistreated us they made us suffer putting us to hard labor and so we cried out to yahweh the god of our fathers and yahweh heard our voice and he saw our misery and our toil and our oppression and so yahweh brought us up out of egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm with great terror with miraculous signs and wonders he brought us to this place and he gave us this land a land flowing with milk and honey which remember what does that mean if it's flowing with milk and honey what's it full of full of goats and bees we go there's the rocks don't pour out honey right just uh although i remember when i first was reading the bible that was the image in my head or like a rock spout honey that's so weird how does the land flow with honey because there's lots of bees goats and bees now i bring the first fruits of the soil to you yahweh and excuse me and now i bring the first fruits of the soil that you o yahweh have given me place the basket before yahweh your god bow down before him you and the levites the immigrants among you shall rejoice and all the good things yahweh your god has given you and your household now just pause how many times did the word give occur were you counting we've got five only five one two three four five i've got six hmm now did you now all forms of the word give give gave given that's where you're counting all those verse five giving participles count in verse seven verse two uh so five or six so what's so what's the setting here of this law again remember we just last one of the last laws in the whole block of laws and we're talking about you're going to go to this land and how did israel receive this land six or five times over how did israel uh receive this land it was given so here we go hebrew at 6 30 in the morning or whatever um hebrew forgive it's the word natan now this is interesting too the hebrew word for gift is the word matan and it's a related related root word matan it's very common name actually in modern hebrew as well i knew in matan when i was in grad school anyway so the whole point is that this word give is connected to the root word gift in hebrew and so the whole whole idea is that israel exists purely as an act of yahweh's grace and everything they have they have be as a as a gift the land that they're living on is gift so you take the fruit of the land first fruits you take it to the temple and then you tell the story you're supposed to do this multiple times a year you go to the temple and then you tell the story of the great family that you're a part of and what is their story they're telling their salvation story aren't they so they tell like jacob didn't have a lot going for him he was a wanderer your dad's a wandering aramid and then they were at egypt and that definitely didn't go well and so on and so it all happens with verse eight he brought justice on egypt verse nine he brought us to this place and he gifted us with this land that's just exploding with potential so look at verse 10 this is we've come across this theme in deuteronomy before it says now i bring the first fruits of the soil that you yahweh have given me now just stop and think about that so i'm giving back you know a bit a little bit the first fruits the whole field is there waiting to be harvested here's the first fruits i bring you the first fruits that you have given me now so who has been out there working day and night um laboring hard uh to water and cultivate those fields who's been doing that so the the this guy and his family that have been speaking but yet what does he say about the fruit of what came out of that field who how does he view it he views it as a gift do you see the logic there so we've come across this before in the book of deuteronomy it's we're installing these practices into the life of god's people that you've you force yourself to remember that all of this activity and energy that you're putting out all is just assuming and built upon this gift of your existence and in this case their gift the gift of of the land that's uh that's god's grace to them um so this we're we're already kind of getting into the the covenant sermon territory because we had multiple messages about that idea of living as if all that you have is a gift and grace and so on so okay so there's that law you tell the story verse 12 begins a new law connected to this one so when you've finished setting aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year the year of the tithe you shall give it to the levite to the immigrant to the fatherless and the widow so that they can eat in your towns and be satisfied now this is reaching back we're right here we're actually reaching back to something that we hit in chapter 14. do you remember the week this in 14 was the summary of all the tithing or the tenth that the israelites were to give do you remember that this would i mean this was like two months ago um that was the year i deconstructed the whole 10 thing because the tithe the word tithe does mean um 10 um it just means 10 in hebrew um escher just means 1 but um there were actually three different kinds of tithes that an israelite family would give one was to the temple another was to the levites and then another was something they saved up every third year and they gave to the local food bank do you remember that from chapter 14 maybe if you were if you were here so every three years you're saving up a tenth of what you make over the course of every three years and then every israelite family gives that to a local distribution center in their town or in their village or whatever and it's for who does it say that it's for it says it's for all of the most vulnerable in the small farming community the levites the immigrants the fatherless and the widow so that they may eat and be satisfied okay why are we bringing up that law let's keep reading verse 13 then say to yahweh your god i have removed from my house the sacred portion and i have given it to the levite the immigrant the fatherless and the widow according to all that you've commanded i haven't turned aside from your commands nor have i forgotten any of them now so just stop right there so we're being reminded of this law about setting aside this tenth over the course of every three years it's for the most vulnerable and then this verse here's what we're saying when we go present it what is it called in verse 13 that's that portion that you've set aside what's it called verse 13 so niv has sacred portion any other translations of that in verse 13. the holy tithe there you go the hallowed hallowed things any others ooh consecrated portion there you go so how many ways can you say holy things apparently four different ways right in english so in other words we're this is a essentially this is um either non-perishable food items or you've converted that into like some sort of cash value and you set it aside and it's sacred it's consecrated you can't touch it because it doesn't belong to you you're like what do you mean it's from my field yes but it doesn't belong to you because who gave you that field in the first place so and we're all the way back here again to the gift and the grace so it's called a sacred portion and and he goes on to say verse 14 this israelite he says i haven't eaten of any of the sacred portion while i was in mourning so if you had someone in your family die you would take seven or 14 days you would you would wear certain kinds of clothing you wouldn't work so for one two weeks you're obligated to mourn the death of a relative you're not producing any income in those two weeks it'd be really tempting to dip into the sacred portion right that's in the cabinet or whatever but no i didn't do that i haven't removed any of it when i was unclean or ritually impure i haven't offered it to any of the dead i have obeyed yahweh my god i've done everything you commanded me so look down from heaven from your holy dwelling place and bless your people israel with uh and the land you've given us that you promised on oath to our forefathers a land flowing with milk and honey um and there you go that's the last law those two laws right there and then there's a little summary paragraph and there you go the final laws we just did them you guys holy cow we should have a party actually no uh we should have a party on the last the last day of year the tour when we hit deuteronomy 34 we should get portland's best donuts but we're gonna have to have a debate about what the best donuts are because they're obviously blue star doughnuts in my humble opinion any other votes for the best donut in portland blue starf any other blue star votes oh quite a few okay what else who can who can battle pips pips are really good and we can get them at a discount because there's a lot of people at pips who come to door of hope well okay anyway we'll figure that out so uh here so here are the last two the last two laws one two first fruits make sure you offer them bring them there and then uh the tithe of all your uh and look at verse 12 what is this tenth or what is this tithe what does it consist of what what a tenth of all of your what produce so notice the both of the last two laws are about the produce of the land both of these laws assume the land is going to be fruitful and so on and first of all you take the first fruits and you give it back to yahweh and this offering because you remember that the only reason you're on this land is the gift of god's grace but then you also remind yourself that the land doesn't belong to you by giving it away that saving up this tent and giving it to the most vulnerable to the fatherless the widow the immigrant and so on and then it ends with this prayer right of verse 15 saying look i did it i gave you this offering i gave to the poor look down from heaven and bless your people and bless this land that you have that you've given us so this is really um oh look you guys will think this is funny here we go i actually like made a special drawing this morning and did i need to nope because here's the other one right here there it is it was just right there and i didn't even know it um but i like this one better because i added some special stuff to it um okay so here uh i don't know where to draw this maybe i'll just put it put it down here for the moment so you have um remember this is the whole nature of the covenant you have if israel obeys the laws of the covenant they honor yahweh they give their allegiance to him then that's going to bring blessing and abundance to their land and if there's blessing and abundance who is for sure going to be taken care of in these israelite farming communities because because you're gonna if you're blessed you're gonna both give that tenth to yahweh as an offering but who's gonna be well taken care of in those communities so the most vulnerable right the the widow the orphan uh the levite and uh and the immigrants and so then you have this whole um issue of of the poor how do you wanna um what word should we use here hmm provision we'll just call this provision uh provision for the poor and then if they're doing that then that represents obedience to the torah which is going to bring about more abundance and blessing to the land and so on it's sort of like this cycle the more israel obeys the more the poor are provided for because yahweh honors their obedience with blessing the land and so on it's this cycle now of course if israel turns away from yahweh and gives their allegiance to other gods that both dishonors yahweh yes but who also suffers who gets crushed in the midst of all of that it's this ecosystem of obedience and material blessing and part of that obedience is actually providing providing for the poor and these are the last two laws that uh the laws in deuteronomy end with so christopher wright who i've been quoting from uh occasionally he just has a great a great way of uh of summarizing this okay so he says thus in in these two laws here giving uh to the poor is not only a sacred duty to god but here it is also the defining point for any claim to have kept the law the law is only kept when the israelites care for their poor and you can see this here in verses 13 and 15 he says listen i've given the tenth and so on verse at the end of verse 14 i have obeyed yahweh my god and done everything you commanded me so he goes on he says it's only when israel responds to the needy by enabling everyone in the community to eat and be satisfied can they say out loud i have done everything you have commanded me this shows once again the essential thrust of old testament ethics you know old testament the fire belching god who roasts people alive and is a meanie right so if that whole deal of the vengeance vengeful old testament gods really undermined by the book of deuteronomy because here we're seeing as it goes on it says love for neighbor is the practical proof of any claimed love for god it also shows how enacted love for the poor and the needy is the practical proof of genuine god-honoring love for the neighbor so the torah here agrees with the way the later prophets will pinpoint and prioritize care for the poor as definitive of israel's response to god as a whole the prophets argue passionately that the neglect of the most vulnerable in society invalidates all of israel's claims to their enthusiastic religious observance sacred rituals are no atonement for social wrongs that will keep you awake at night or bother you for the rest of the day because it's so early but like just these are the last two laws that the whole body of laws ends with and it's about worship and obedience and when israel does that this very practical issue of social justice and care for the vulnerable is taken care of it's not like something you tack on it's like inherent to the whole inherent to the whole deal isn't that powerful [Music] verse 16 yahweh your god commands you this day to follow these decrees and laws to carefully observe them with all your heart with all your soul you have declared this day that yahweh is your god that you will walk in his ways that you will keep his decrees and commands and laws that you will obey him and yahweh has declared this day that you are his people his treasured possession just as he promised and so there's yahweh's he brought you out of egypt made you his unique people and that you were to keep all his commands he has declared that he will the niv set you in praise fame and honor high above all the nations he's made and that you will be a people holy to yahweh your god just as he promised now did anyone have kind of different wording for verse 19 as i read it out loud you're kind of used to it maybe because we have a host of different translations in the room so this is the new international version he's declared that he'll set you in praise fame honor high above all of the nations um let's read new american standard i think will give us yes yeah so the new american standard renders the hebrew a little more literally he will set you high above all nations that he's made for praise fame and honor and that you shall be a consecrated people to yahweh yahweh or god now there is a difference of interpretation here that's reflected in our translations so what look at verses 18 to 19. here's the statement yahweh has made you a treasure possession his people if you obey he's going to set you high above the nations that he's made and here's the result fame praise and honor now you might just assume whose praise fame and honor niv has he really hasn't given you any choice whose praise fame and honor uh is the focus here and how the new international version translates it so it's the it's it's the israelites right he uh he will set you in praise fame and honor um now that's a legitimate translation but at least the way the hebrew sentence is set up there is another option for who is the object of fame praise and honor it could be that he's done it for israel or it could be that it's whose praise fame and honor yahweh's yahwehs so why has israel why has yahweh taken this people group redeemed them from egypt given them this land given them a very unique set of terms to live by why why and set them above the nations so to speak we'll talk about that for for what purpose for praise for fame and for honor this it's strangely ambiguous well whose praise favor and honor um does this mean god is perpetually pro-israel that's what some people think it means um if you read the books of joshua judges samuel and kings you'll see that yahweh is not always pro-israel in fact he's willing to let israel get the same treatment as the canaanites got and getting for disobedience and getting exiled from the land um and so i i personally i i think that we're talking about israel exists to bring yahweh praise fame and honor so i think the new american standard is a little a little more helpful for us now why why is this important so this is you guys this is the last paragraph this is the last sentence of the laws in deuteronomy and so we're giving one once more this is a rationale for why these laws exist here and we're actually yahweh has taken you out to become a treasured possession does that ring any bells at all one of the key passages in the whole storyline of the old testament this is this is all the way back at exodus 19. this is one of those messy chalkboard drawing days exodus 19. this is israel's been redeemed from egypt and slavery they're brought to the foot of mount sinai this is before they get any laws whatsoever and this is yahweh's whole rationale he says you guys saw what i did to the egyptians i bore you on eagle's wings to myself brought you to myself now then if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant then you will be my own possession there's that key word treasured possession among all the peoples for all the earth is mine so yahweh has taken this people group from among all the nations he's brought them to himself for what purpose what's the purpose why is israel called to obey these laws and so on and this is here we go this is the logic of the whole thing a kingdom of priests and a holy nation if you've come regularly to year of torah you've we've talked about this concept how many times holy cow like two dozen times so israel exists not for itself but it's a nation that will be shaped according to yahweh's generosity and justice so that they become a reflection of yahweh out to the nations that's what priests do they mediate between god and the people and so israel is called obedience so that they become this nation that's at least becoming more the kinds of humans that yahweh made us all to be that but that we all fail to be and so that's the purpose uh it's not that yahweh likes israel more than anybody else it's because yahweh loves the whole world that he's doing what he's doing with with israel but it all hinges on their obedience and that's the key here in deuteronomy 26 and how's that going to go deuteronomy 27 okay deuteronomy 27 um uh begins the last section of the covenant sermons and this is so interesting 27. moses and the elders of israel they commanded the people this is the first time we've had story this is the first narrative in the book we've had since uh all the way like back here at chapter three months ago keep all the commands i give you today when you cross the jordan into the land yahweh your god is giving you set up huge stones and coat them with plaster so you have these huge rocks then you paint them with plaster write on them all the words of this law this torah when you have crossed over to enter the land yahweh your god is giving you a land full of goats and bees just as yahweh your god promised you now when you've crossed the jordan and you set up these stones oh you are to set up these stones on mount abal just as i have commanded you today coat them with plaster and build there an altar to yahweh your god an altar of stones so you have you get the stones you paint them with plaster so that it's a nice white surface and you write out the whole torah on these huge rocks and then you take them to the top of this hill and then you build an altar i don't know why that's funny to me but it's just it's a lot of words to ride on these are huge clearly these are really big rocks i guess you put them on a wagon or something like that um don't sorry we're in verse five don't use any iron tools don't like carve the rocks or anything use field stones whatever build the altar of yahweh god with feelstones offer burnt offerings on it sacrifice fellowship offerings eating them rejoicing in the presence of yahweh your god and you shall write very clearly all the words of this torah on these stones that you have set up holy cow like what a job what a job now just so you know um because i like to show you this kind of stuff well two things one um have you guys ever heard of the uh the mesha stone mesha stone oh this was one of the most like exciting uh archeological finds of like the mid late 1800s when the british really began um doing archaeological uh discovery in israel-palestine so it's a it's a large basalt obelisk or something like that it's pretty big and it's an inscription made by the king of moab um mesha king mesha and he's actually mentioned in the bible uh this is just another page you can see here's um the actual stone that was discovered and then here is a handwritten description here and then oh you can see up here they've given you it's in second kings three masha king of moab was a sheep breeder he had to deliver annually to the king of israel a hundred thousand lambs sheesh now why is he doing that what's that hundred thousand lambs it's tribute it's tribute so mesha was subject to the kings of israel but when ahab died the king of moab rebelled against the king of israel and what the mesha stone tells the story of is how mesha rebelled against the king of israel and it's all of his great battle exploits and and the god of moab the patron god of moab was the god name kemosh and so he talks about how kemosh empowered him to conquer all these israelites and so on these despicable israelites anyway it's quite fascinating to read but this is kind of this is the kind of thing we're talking about so big stone teeny tiny little writing and you guys you guys i had to i had to read and translate this for a class that i had at university of madison wisconsin just your worst nightmare your worst nightmare and i will never have to do it again for the rest of my life but it was i learned a lot in the experience but it was horrifying anyway um so it's possible like you can actually fit quite a lot of text on a rock that's my basic point right here you can fit a lot of text on a rock and so the idea of writing out all the words of this torah on multiple large stones like you could actually do it and then you put on wagons and take it to the top of this mountain and then this is the other the other thing we've talked about these mountains before mount ebal and and gerizim it's right at the center of israel-palestine and um in the in the center right between the two mount mountains like mount tabor their hills is the modern palestinian town of nablus and so you have the two mountains do you remember i showed you this picture once before but actually here we go this is the best is this kind of silly bible maps website but it really gets you so here's again the town right here and then gary zim is over here a ball is over here and it is a natural amphitheater it's actually a large um what do you not a convex a concave bowl between the two mountains and so a bunch of israelites come up here a bunch of israelites come up over there the book of joshua tells us about them doing this they got the stones and the altar and they built the altar over here now let's keep reading verse nine then moses and the priests who are levites said to all israel be quiet everybody be quiet israel listen you have now become the people of yahweh your god obey yahweh your god follow his commands and decrees that i give you today on the same day moses commanded the people when you've crossed the jordan these tribes will go stand on mount gerizim to pronounce blessings on the people simeon levi judah issachar joseph benjamin and then these tribes will go stand on the other side of the amphitheater to pronounce curses reuben gad asher zevlon dan naphtali and then the levites will recite to all of the people in a loud voice and then what follows is a list of the israelites shouting over the amphitheater here curses and it's going to it's going to cite a number of laws from the torah that are all drawn from the body of laws right here and the whole point is that remember if you obey it'll be blessing and it'll be great if you don't obey you're going to call down the consequences of obedience on yourself namely curse and calamity and misfortune and so on and so here let's just do it we'll like recreate the experience here kind of not really and and think about which of the ten commandments these link to these are all linked to expressions of the ten commandments cursed is the man who carves an image or cast an idol a thing detestable to yahweh the work of the craftsman's hands and sets it up in secret so remember the first of the ten commands is no images to represent yahweh he's the creator not a created thing it's dishonoring yahweh and then all the people shall say amen this is the first time the word amen occurs in the bible you're looking at it right here it's the first amen um and uh we've probably done this before uh amen uh is the literally the word trustworthy or true in hebrew so uh we have we have this in english really well certain i don't know maybe you don't say it do you guys say true that anymore that's it let's say men but they men true that all the people say yep we all in other words israel is all we're saying out loud here as a community we're a community of this covenant these are our core values these are the kinds of choices and behaviors we think that dehumanize people that don't make us into the kind of humans yahweh is calling us to become here and so we're publicly saying these kinds of behavior are going to lead to calamity and curse 16 cursed is the is the man who dishonors his father and mother and all the people shall say cursed is the man who moves his neighbor's boundary stone so remember ancestral land the whole point is ancestral land if everybody has their plot of land and they obey torah then there'll be a blessing and then the poor are provided for and but then you start messing and stealing people's land and the whole thing just falls apart so don't move boundary stones and all the people say cursed is the man who leads the blind astray on the road taking advantage of the vulnerable all the people shall say cursed is the man who withholds justice from the immigrant in the fatherless in the widow all the people say cursed is the man who sleeps with his father's wife or stepmother for he dishonors his father's bed all the people say cursed is the man who has sex with an animal all the people say cursed is the man who sleeps with his sister the daughter of his father or of his mother all the people say cursed is the man who sleeps with his mother-in-law all the people say so you have four curses that are outlining they're exploring in different ways the in negative ways the positive view of human sexuality enshrined in the torah which is that covenant of marriage is awesome it leaves all kinds of awesome blessings and sex is one part of that and the moment you take that outside of the covenant then it just wreaks havoc in people's lives so that's a whole part of sexual integrity is the part of this whole this whole deal verse 24 curse the man is the man who kills his neighbor secretly all the people say cursed is the man who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person all the people say cursed is the man who doesn't uphold the words of this torah by carrying them out all the people say how many curses was that there's 12 12 how many tribes are up on the hill shouting all these curses it's 12. yeah there you go uh and there you go 27. uh and we've just crossed we've just crossed into the covenant sermons um so man there's a million there's a million different things for us to to take away here um the rest of the covenant sermons are going to be moses again i call it the locker room speech before the game before they go in onto the field of the promised land he's going to be like dude it's in your best interest in the interest of the poor if you obey why would you uh choose blessing choose blessing you've you've both gone up in these mountains and shouted the kinds of ways that this is all going to go horribly wrong through these curses don't do it don't do it did you notice how many of these things talk about doing something in secret or that would be isn't that interesting so you say in public you talk in public about things that you might do in secret and it's a way of jolting yourself into awareness it's very powerful so so there you get the idea you're kind of getting you're kind of getting the effect so i think our takeaways here's our takeaways is this very powerful statement that all of my life is gift and grace and that we retell the story of salvation to remind ourselves that our existence is a gift and if you are operating and living from that mindset it will bring about generosity and so you have this whole thing about provision for the vulnerable because you don't view your stuff as only belonging to you it belongs to help give others and help them get on their feet and then you have this kind of corporate reminder that it's in all of our benches best interests to live in this way as people of the covenant and to not do so is only going to bring calamity and curse upon us there you go deuteronomy 26. and uh and 27. um let's conclude by of course remembering how did this story go oh notice what's missing they're supposed to shout curses and what what's missing from deuteronomy 27 what's that about and here it's going to become really clear uh moses's view of how israel is going to fare in this story here um how in fact is israel going to behave as the story goes on so they're they're going to they're going to disobey they're going to call down curse on themselves and so he was really he really like was full of passion like this could go really good but in this section of covenant sermons he's just like yeah it's not going to go good at all and he knows that because he lived in the wilderness with them for 40 years and so really all of this is moving forward in the storyline to that that line where paul says messiah of israel comes to take the curse of the law into himself on behalf of israel and on behalf of all humanity so that broken screwed up humans like us can have grace and forgiveness in life so let me close with prayer and let's remember the gospel and i'll just ask the spirit to point out what we need to take with us from all this you

Channel: Bible Nerds & Tim Mackie Fans

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Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Tim Mackie, Bible Project

Id: UU-F5WhiWOk

Length: 50min 15sec (3015 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 04 2021