Communicate God's Word
How to Build Your life on God's Word • Sermon • Submitted
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· 10 viewsKnowledge of God's Word should not be kept to yourself; pass it on.
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Obedience to God’s Word benefits us and others.
Obedience to God’s Word benefits us and others.
The title, Deuteronomy, means “second law” or “copy of the law”. The second book of the Pentateuch (first five books) of the Septuagint (Old Testament) is the conclusion of the saga of the Israelites. These books took them from slavery in the lands of Egypt, across the Red Sea and into the wilderness. How long were they there?
Deuteronomy represented the restating of the Law as they prepared to enter the promised land.
It is widely believed that Moses wrote this book. It is broken into three addresses Moses gave to the people of Israel:
The first was a recap of what had happened up this point (1-4).
The second took up the majority of the book. This addressed a series of exhortations, a rehearsal of the lass and statutes for the people and commandments related to social life (5-26).
The third was the covenant renewal and listing of blessing and curses (27-30)
Today’s passage focusses on the beginning of the second address that represents Israel’s confession of faith.
It was a basic statement or summary of Jewish law, which Jesus recognized as the greatest commandment (Mark 12:29).
Jews would combine it with Deut. 11:13-21 and Numbers 15:37-41. These summarized their confession of faith into what is known as the “Shema”.
“This is the command—the statutes and ordinances—the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, so that you may follow them in the land you are about to enter and possess. Do this so that you may fear the Lord your God all the days of your life by keeping all his statutes and commands I am giving you, your son, and your grandson, and so that you may have a long life. Listen, Israel, and be careful to follow them, so that you may prosper and multiply greatly, because the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you a land flowing with milk and honey.
“This is the command—the statutes and ordinances—the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, so that you may follow them in the land you are about to enter and possess.
1-3 form the bridge between the restatement of the 10 commandments and the Shema.
Who can name the 10 commandments in order? Exodus 20:1-17
Statutes came from the root word that meant to etch or carve into stone. Ordinances came from the Hebrew word judgments, which were the laws that came from the interpretations of the statutes.
The covenant included explanations of how those laws should play out in society.
God didn’t give Moses the law for him to keep to himself. He commanded Moses to teach His people.
They were about to enter a new land and God wanted Moses to remind them of God’s words to them so they don’t forget where they came from and who they belong to.
Do this so that you may fear the Lord your God all the days of your life by keeping all his statutes and commands I am giving you, your son, and your grandson, and so that you may have a long life.
The fear of the Lord is something different to different people.
To the unbeliever, they should have the fear of the Lord because He is a wrathful God to those who reject Him. God is a righteous and holy God who rejects sin and unrepentant sinners. This should be a scary fear.
To the believer, it means a different thing. It starts with this other fear that drives us to Christ who is our redeemer and substitute for the Father’s wrath but then we have the relationship of child to father. We become clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Look to the Lord’s prayer...”Our Father who is in heaven.” He is our Father. It is not a fluffy, childish relationship but a humble, reverent fear.
He’s not like us, He’s better. He is infinitely separate from us and so much more greater.
Growing in the fear of the Lord means that we read, learn and understand how great, mighty, righteous and holy He is.
When you realize that the creator of the universe, the creator of everything, the one who cannot only destroy our bodies but our souls in hell.
We should have this fear/reverence for God, not just foe a season, but for all the days of our lives.
When we live our lives according to the statutes and ordinances with the fear of the Lord, we should be displaying this in our day to day lives and be teaching others and our children what this means.
We are to pass this on from generation to generation.
Listen, Israel, and be careful to follow them, so that you may prosper and multiply greatly, because the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you a land flowing with milk and honey.
Like a teacher telling her class to listen, Moses is telling them to be careful to follow the commands of the Lord.
God promised them a land flowing with milk and honey. This was a common reference to the promised land of Israel. It was used a total of 18 times in the Old Testament. It was a way of referring to the richness of the land that God was going to provide to them.
Moses needed to teach them about these things because wanted them to prosper and multiply.
Prosper doesn’t necessarily mean financially. It could mean spiritual blessings, moral goodness or live at peace.
Moses passed on what God had given him because he wanted the people of God to benefit others with God’s blessings.
Love for God compels us to trust and obey Him.
Love for God compels us to trust and obey Him.
“Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
“Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
In the Hebrew, this confession of faith is only 4 words. They don’t translate exactly, this is why there are so many variations of this statement.
Ask for other translations.
More important than the words is the meaning of these words.
First, it affirms the monotheistic faith. Yaweh, who spoke to Moses from the burning bush is the same Elohim mentioned elsewhere in the Pentateuch.
Second, God is a personal God. He is our God. He chose Israel to be his treasured people. Not because they did anything.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
The confessional portion of the Shema is followed by a commandment.
“Love the Lord your God”. Again this emphasizes the personal and relational aspect of God.
We love all kinds of things: food, sleep, games, our families. But, here we are to love God deeper than any of those things. With all our heart, mind, soul and strength.
Jesus interacted with the Shema 3 times in the New Testament. In Matthew, Mark and Luke an expert asked Him what the greatest commandment was. Who remembers this?
After this, Jesus made an incredible pronouncement.
Matthew 22:40 (CSB)
“All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”
He chose the Shema because it fulfilled the reason behind all of the commandments of God. His commandments are designed to teach us to love God and to love people.
For a culture that wants peace so badly but can’t find it, it needs to only look to God’s Word. It is the doorway in which we can learn to fear the Lord, grow deeper in our faith and relationship with Him and how to love one another.
Pride, amongst other things get in the way of people pursuing this. But there is no other way but to trust and obey.
Love for others compels us to share God’s Word at every opportunity.
Love for others compels us to share God’s Word at every opportunity.
These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates.
These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart.
Moses wanted the Israelites to have this impressed on their hearts. For them, the heart was not the center of emotional life but was the seat of intellect.
We have a similar expression when we say that we recite something by heart or know something by heart.
Before we can share our faith, we need to know, have it imbedded, in our consciousness.
Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
Once the words are planted in our hearts, we need to repeat them.
The idea is like a sculptor continuously hammering something until an image is formed by the artist.
And like the sculptor lovingly works the stone, parents must lovingly and continually impress God’s Word upon their children.
God’s truths should be passed down the generations. This doesn’t necessarily mean a formal Bible study but it can be practical application throughout life’s instances.
Children are constantly learning about God, either positively or negatively from their parents. Although this does happen in formal situations, it mostly happens when we are away from outsiders.
How many of you have heirlooms that have been passed down the generations of your family? With Christmas coming up and living with my mother, she puts items on the tree that were passed down to her and will eventually make it to me. I also have items that I will pass along.
How much more important is it that we pass on eternal heirlooms that won’t get lost or break if handled carefully and handed off to the next generation?
Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead.
We should repeat the commandments and talk about them, but we should bind them as a sign. This means that we should be identified as a child of God.
Moses said to put them on your head and hand probably as a figurative illustration. However, Jews in the first century took this literally and developed phylacteries. These were small boxes that attached to the forehead and contained Scripture inside them.
Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates.
Moses encouraged them to mark their homes and communities. People would know when they visited, these were God’s people.
Again, this was taken literally by the first century Jews and they developed the mezuzah. These were containers that contained scripture that was placed on the door frames of homes and city gates.
Today in Israel, visitors see these on the right of the door frame of every motel room, probably like a Gideon’s Bible is in ours.
The covenant that once centered around Moses and the giving of the law found its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
Jesus revealed that this new covenant was one that was made possible by His blood shed on the cross.
God wants His truth on our lips, minds, and interactions with others all the time. Our love for others should compel everyone who knows the Lord to share His Word at every opportunity.