Year of Torah - 9/24/2014 - Tim Mackie (The Bible Project)

hey you guys welcome somewhat quickly though I'm not quite sure how quick this will go just one business matter to let let you guys know about so if you were here at our Sunday gathering you heard Josh kind of unpack how we're gonna be reducing the number of services Sunday services here at door of Hope which is kind of counterintuitive because we've never had more people coming to our gatherings 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 and you know essentially this is also just speaking very personally too there's quite a number of us on the staff team that are just completely burnt out like you couldn't even imagine we're just exhausted and my I'm high on that list and and so we've been just having conversations about like man what do we what are we doing and do we need to enter into a season of less less is more and so one of the things we're doing was 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 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 but yeah so so there you go there's I actually you know your your Torah for me this is a total joy and I've loved the community that that has kind of come into life good morning yes come into life around it but at the same time you know it takes a chunk of my Tuesday's thinking about this morning and then on Wednesdays I am fried by like 1 or 2 p.m. and there's just a whole bunch of stuff that I need to be working on 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 gonna let year of Torah come to a close at the end of Deuteronomy now you know we love morning stuff around door of hope so probably turn of the year we'll have some had some new plan to get us all up but 5:00 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 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 ok I get it and it's alright 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 ok guys ready we're gonna cross a major faultline today from Deuteronomy 26 to 27 so let's not dilly-dally let's go for it Deuteronomy 26 the last chapter of laws you guys when you have entered the land Yahweh your God is giving you oh by the way a 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 there sitting on the other borders 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 gonna 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 gonna 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 gonna read 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 firstfruits 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 priests shall take the basket from your hands and set it down in front of the altar of Yahweh your God from your hands excuse me yeah from the altar of your God then you shall declare before you where your God okay so let's pause real quick here this is this is a great scene so remember all of these laws are about our forward-pointing they're for ancient Israel and the whole thing is pointing forward to and Israel 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 this is all this is all theory right now or it's it's setting out an ideal and so you have this you have this law about offering the firstfruits now generally on an agricultural calendar these are all gonna 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 through different crops give different first fruits so that yeah so maybe like spring or 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 gonna 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 aramean now that almost just sounds like a if you took that out of context your father was a wandering heir me and it would it's like something little kids would yell at each other you know on the playground just something like that you know yeah it's a wandering aramean so that's not a diss it's not a slander or 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 aramean who we talking about whoo 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 a ROM 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 and he Jacobs in the room I'm sorry your name means deceiver and then his brother Esau got really mad that he stole from him and he said he wanted to kill Evan so where does Jacob go he books it and for aram and meets his uncle Laban and then there's that whole stories that we explored a year and a half ago something like that so my father was a wandering aramean 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 in 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 forming with milk and honey what's it full of full of goats and bees right the rocks don't pour out honey right just all those when I first was reading the Bible that was the image in my head the rocks about 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 the excuse me and now I bring the first fruits of the soil that you Oh 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 recounting we've got five only five one two three four five I've got six mmm now did you now all forms of the word give give gave given that's what you're counting all those where's 5 giving participles count mm-hmm verse verse two 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 gonna go to this land and how did Israel receive this land six or five times over how did Israel receive this land it was given so here we go Hebrew it 6:30 in the morning or whatever Hebrew forgive it's the word not on now this is interesting too the Hebrew word for gift is the word mutton and it's a related related root word Matan it's very common name actually in modern Hebrew as well I knew the Matan when I was in grad school anyway so the whole point is that this word is connected to the root word gift in Hebrew and so the whole whole idea is the Israel exists purely as an act of Yahweh's grace and everything they have they have B 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 birthday so they tell like Jacob didn't have a lot going for him he was a wonder your dad's a wandering aramean and then they were at Egypt and that definitely didn't go well and so on and so it all happens with her verse 8 he brought justice on Egypt verse 9 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 diamond dude around before it says now I bring the first fruits of the soil that you Yahweh have given me nuts 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 laboring hard to water and cultivate those fields who's been doing that so 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 yeah 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 that's God's grace to them 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 gifting and grace and so on so okay so there's that Wow you tell the story verse twelve 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 remember the week this in 14 was the summary of all the tithing or the tenth Israelites were to give do you remember that this would I mean this was like two months ago that was the year I deconstructed the whole 10% thing because the tie is the word tithe doesn't mean 10% it just means 10 in Hebrew sure it just means one tenth but there were actually three different kinds of tides that an Israelite family would give one was to the temple another it 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 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 a small farming community the Levites the immigrants the fatherless in 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 tent over the course of every three years it's for the most vulnerable and then this verse here's what we're saying wouldn't we go present it what is it called in verse 13 that 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 mmm any others who 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 where this is a essentially this is 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 is 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 just Israelite this is haven't eaten of any of the sacred portion while I was in mourning so if you had someone in your family died you would take 7 or 14 days you would you would wear certain kinds of clothing you wouldn't work so from 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 a 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 a bade 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 and the land you've given us that you promised on oath to our forefathers a land flowing with milk and honey 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 no what we just did of you guys holy cow we should have a party actually you know we should have a party on the last the last day of year of the Torah when we hit Deuteronomy 34 we should get Portland's best doughnuts but we're gonna have to have a debate about what the best doughnuts are because they're obviously Blue Star donuts in my humble opinion any other votes for the best doughnut in Portland Blue Star any other Blue Star votes Oh quite a few okay what else who can who can battle pips hips 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 here so here are the last two the last two laws 1/2 firstfruits make sure you offer them bring them there and then the tithe of all your and look at verse 12 what is this tenth or what is this tie is what is it sister what a tenth of all of your web 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 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 know because here's the other one right here there it is it was just right there and I didn't even know it but I like this one better because I added some special stuff to it okay so here I don't know where to draw this maybe I'll just put it put it down here for the moment so you have 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 is reliant farming communities because because you're gonna if you're blessed you're gonna both give that tense to Yahweh as a offering but who's gonna be well taken care of in those communities so the most vulnerable right the the widow the orphan the Levite and and the immigrants and so then you have this whole issue of of the poor how do you want to you what word should we use here hmm provision we'll just call this provision 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 is real obeys the more the poor are provided for because Yahweh honors their obedience with blessing the land and so on is this cycle now of course if Israel turns away from Yahweh and gives their allegiance to other gods that both dishonours 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 that the laws in deuteronomy end with so Christopher Wright who I've been quoting from occasionally he just has a great a great way of summarizing this okay so he says of us in in these two laws here giving 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 tent 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 community to eat and be satisfied can they say out loud I've 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 emini 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 he 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 and then 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 mm-hmm-hmm 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] 416 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 way is 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 so there's the always 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 is 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 no did anyone have kind of different wording for verse 19 as I read it out loud you 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 nation's let's read new American Standard I think will give us yes yeah so 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 should be a consecrated people to Yahweh Yahweh our God now there is a difference of interpretation here that's reflected in our translations so what look at verses 18 and 19 here's the statement Yahweh's 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 honour now you might just assume whose praise Fame and honor NIV has really hasn't given you any choice whose praise Fame and honor is the focus here and how the New International Version translates it so it's the it's it's the Israelites right he he will set you and praise fame and honor now that's a legitimate translation but at least the 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 pray fame and honor Yahweh's Yahweh's so why his Israel why has y'all way 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 Fame and honor does this mean God has perpetually pro-israel that's what some people think it means 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 giving for disobedience and getting exiled from the land and so I personally 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 these are the blast 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 were actually yahweh has taken you out to become a treasured possession that ring any bells at all mmm 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 drying days Exodus 19 this is Israel's been redeemed from Egypt and slavery there 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 you always taken this people group from mounting all the nations he's brought them to himself for what purpose what's the purpose why is Israel called 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 two year of Torah you 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 nation's that's what priests do they mediate between God and the people and so Israel is called obedience so they become this nation that's at least becoming more the kinds of humans that Yahweh made a thought to be that but that we all fail to be and so that's the purpose 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 is that gonna go mmm Deuteronomy 27 okay Deuteronomy 27 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 she's all the way like back here at chapter three months ago keep all the commands I give you today when you've crossed the Jordan into the land Yahweh your God is giving you set up huge stones and coat them with plaster so you're the huge rocks then you paint them with plaster right 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 Ebal 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 to get the stones you paint them with plaster so that's a nice white surface and you write out the whole Torah these viewed 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 a lot of words to write on these are huge clearly these were really big rocks I guess you put them on a wagon or something like that I don't decide we're in versified 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 field stones offer burnt offerings on it sacrifice fellowship offerings eating them rejoicing in the presence of Yahweh our God and you shall write very clearly all the words of this Torah on these stones that you've set up holy cow like what a job what a job now just so you know because I like to show you this kind of stuff well two things one if you guys ever heard of the the maysha stone a system oh this was one of the most like exciting archaeological finds of like the mid late 1800s when the British really began doing archaeological discovery in Israel Palestine so it's a it's a large basalt obelisk or something like that pretty big and it's an inscription made by the king of Moab maisha King Mesha and he's actually mentioned in the Bible this is just another page you can see here's 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 maisha king of Moab was a sheep breeder he had to deliver annually to the king of Israel a hundred thousand lambs now why is he doing that what's that hundred thousand lambs it's tribute its tribute so maysha was subject to the kings of Israel but when Ahab died the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel and what the Mesa stone tells the story of is how Misha 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 named Kem oh Sh and so he talks about how chem motion powered him to conquer all these Israelites and so on these despicable Israelites anyway it's quite fascinating to read but this is the kind of this is the kind of thing we're talking about so big stone teeny tiny little riding and you guys 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 like I learned a lot in the experience but it was horrifying anyway 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 it 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 a ball and and Gerizim it's right at the center of Israel Palestine and in in the center right between the two mount mountains they're like Mount Tabor they're Hills is the modern Palestinian town of Nablus and so you have the two mountains 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's name is over here a balls over here and that it is a natural amphitheater it's actually a large what do you not a convex a concave ball 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 9 then Moses and the priests who are Levites all Israel be quiet everybody be quiet it's real 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 amphitheatre to pronounce curses Reuben GAD Asher zevulun dan NAFTA life 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 gonna 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 gonna 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 like recreate the experience here kind of not really and and think about which of the Ten Commandments these linked 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 craftsmen 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 dishonouring 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 and we've probably done this before amen is the really the word trustworthy mm-hmm or true in Hebrew huh so we have we have this in English really well sir I don't know maybe you don't say it do you guys say true that anymore that's it that's Amen but they meant true that all the people say yep we all 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 gonna lead to calamity and curse verse 16 cursed is the is the man who dis honors his father and mother and all the people shall say cursed is the man who moves his neighbor's boundary stone remember ancestral land the whole point is ancestral land if everybody has their plot of land and they obey Torah then they'll be 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 dishonours 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 for curses that are outlining their their exploring in different ways the 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 as a part of this whole this whole deal verse 24 curse the man is the man who kills his neighbourhood secretly all the people say cursed is the man who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person and 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 close yeah there you go and there you go 27 and we've just crossed we've just crossed into the Covenant sermons so man there's a million there's a million different things for us to take away here the rest of the covenant sermons are going to be Moses again I call it the locker room speech before the game for the going onto the field of the promised land he's gonna be like dude it's in your best interest of the poor if you obey why would you choose blessing choose blessing you've you've both gone up in these mountains and shouted the kinds of ways that this is all gonna go horribly wrong through these curses don't do it don't do it did you notice how many of these things talked about doing something in secret or that would be it's not 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 takeaway is 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 is 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 it's only going to bring calamity and and curse upon us there you go Deuteronomy 26 and 27 let's conclude by of course remembering how did this story go or 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 gonna become really clear Moses's view of how Israel's going to fare in the story here how in fact is this real going to behave as the story goes on so then they're gonna they're going to disobey they're going to call down curse on themselves and so he 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 gonna 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: Tim Mackie Archives

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Length: 50min 15sec (3015 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 28 2019