The Concentric Circles of the Law

Luther called Deuteronomy 18:15, the first verse of our Old Testament lesson, “the chief passage in this whole book.”[1] In that verse, Moses tells the people that God would raise up for them a prophet like himself, like Moses. Now, I imagine that many of the people thought he was referring to Joshua, and it must be about him in some respects. Having been a pastor for a number of decades, I am just as certain that many of the Israelites thought the Lord could have done far better than Joshua. But I am absolutely certain that the one Moses was referring to was not really Joshua after all. This morning, I would like to talk to you about who that prophet is. But first, let us pray.

“Lord, keep us steadfast in your Word. Curb those who by deceit or sword, would wrest the kingdom from your Son, and bring to naught all he has done.”[2] Amen

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

Why did God give us prophets like Moses? Clearly, at least part of his reason was to make himself known, chiefly through showing us his character. This is, in part, why the commandments begin as they do. “I am the Lord your God.”[3] The first commandment is that we have no other gods before him—literally, in his presence, before his face, before who he is. In order to understand that First Commandment, let alone keep it, we must understand whose face is concerned here. It is God’s face, the one God, the only God, Yahweh—the one who calls himself, I AM WHO I AM.[4]

God is the focus of the concentric circles of his law. He is the crux and basis of the law. All other expressions of the law of God spring from himself. So we must first know who God is before we could ever attempt to know or obey his law. Knowing whom we are referring to makes a difference, for the character of God informs all of the commandments.

The Second Commandment legislates that we must not take his name in vain.[5] Why? Because he is holy. He is different from us and from our various idols. We are also, states the Third Commandment, to honor his day.[6] Why? Because he is holy. Therefore, his day is holy. He did not work on it. Why do we think we are above the character of God?

When it comes to the second table of the law, we find that God wants us to honor our parents.[7] Why? Because he has placed them over us in his place. They are to be, as it were, sacred to us, set apart, different. Because the Lord is holy, they are to be honored in his physical place.

God commands us to not murder.[8] Vengeance is in God’s domain, not ours.[9] Are we so almighty that life is in our hands instead of in God’s? Are humans now above the law and character of God such that we can take a life in a fit of anger? Are we so smart that we can rob a new life before she can even be born? You shall not murder, God decrees, because life is in the hands of the holy God alone. Murder is tantamount to proclaiming, God is no longer God; I am.

You shall not commit adultery.[10] God is faithful to us, so we too, not being above God, must be faithful. “You shall be holy for I am holy.”[11] When we commit adultery, we are shoving your own character in the face of God. In effect, we are saying, I am better than you, and more holy; I am my own god. What I say is right for me. We are saying to God: I don’t care what you say because I don’t care who you are. When we break the Sixth Commandment, or any other, we are breaking the First Commandment.

You must not steal.[12] Are we unwilling to trust God with providence? Have we not learned to be content in all circumstances because God is our satisfaction?[13] Is it God who strengthens us or do we need to take what does not belong to us in order to feel complete? This is nothing less than trusting in ourselves instead of God, of making idols of ourselves.

You must not bear false witness against your neighbor.[14] Why? God is full of truth,[15] and his word is truth.[16] When we honor the truth about our neighbor, we honor God; we put him first. When we lie, we call our word the truth, making ourselves into false gods.

We must not covet our neighbor’s house[17], or as I teach our confirmands, “we must not crave our neighbor’s stuff.” Why? “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights…”[18] God provides us with everything we need. When we desire what he has provided for our neighbor, we are ungrateful children.

We are also not to covet our neighbor’s people[19]—not his spouse or children or employees or anyone who is given to your neighbor. This reminds me of that scene from the 1992 movie, “A Few Good Men.” (Yes, next year, that movie will be 30 years old. And yes, that means most of us are very old.) If God wanted you to have your neighbor’s spouse, he might have so gifted you. You can’t handle your neighbor’s spouse! The Almighty gave you the kids he knew you could manage. You can’t handle your neighbor’s kids! You might wish you had employees or a boss like your neighbors. God says, in essence, you can’t handle your neighbor’s employees; you can’t handle your neighbor’s boss. If we want ourselves to have what God has not given us, then again, we are breaking the First Commandment by making ourselves out to be wiser than God.

This is The Decalogue, the Ten Words, the Ten Commandments. But this is only the first concentric circle of God’s law. These Ten Words are an expression of the character of God, and explanation of who he is, and therefore, who we must be. Yet, because Israel consistently would not apply the law to her day-to-day life, the second circle became necessary. This is the Mosaic Law, the Mitzvot, and in it are not ten, but 613 commandments. Many of these had to do with temple observances so, with the Roman destruction of the temple in 70ad, there remain less than 200 Mosaic laws that may be observed today. These are regulations like you must have children with your wife, male children are to be circumcised on the eighth day, what to eat and what not to eat, when to eat certain foods, to not break the bones of the Paschal lamb, what to do when afflicted by various maladies, and more than 600 other things—all because ten weren’t good enough. To put it more distinctly, the Mosaic Law became necessary because we want to split hairs with the law. When it suits us, we want to live in a world of “what ifs.” Well sure, God, you said not to murder, but what if…? You said not to lie, but what if…? The answers to these what ifs is the second concentric circle of the law.

There are two more circles. Israel consistently made herself out to be God by putting her obstinate will over the will of God. So, God sent prophets to proclaim the law into specific situations in the life of Israel. Throughout the Old Testament, we see the prophets dealing with particular countries, rulers, and actions that flew in the face of God. The prophets called the people back toward God, often referring to the law by saying, “It is written” or “thus saith the Lord.” For example, in a way that uniquely foreshadows the teaching of Jesus, the whole book of Hosea deals uniquely with Israel having comprehensively broken the Sixth Commandment. The upshot of the prophet’s teaching is echoed in the Paul’s second letter to Timothy: “Even when we are faithless, God remains faithful.[20]

This reiteration of the Ten Commandments is the third concentric circle of the law. In review, we have one, the Ten Commandments, two, the Mosaic Law, and three, the Prophets. But there await fourth and fifth circles.

Susan and I hope you will join us for the service of Evening Prayer on Wednesdays at 6pm, beginning this week. Be assured this prayer service will include Bible study. In our evening prayers, after having read a few Lessons, we will quote the first two verses of Hebrews at the top of page 147 in The Lutheran Book of Worship. “In many and various ways God spoke to his people of old by the prophets.” And the congregation responds, “But now in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.”[21] The fourth concentric circle of the law comes from the teachings of Jesus.

Jesus had much to say about the Ten Commandments but it is when he amplifies a particular Word in The Ten Words that he really gets our attention. For example, there is the Fifth Commandment where we might think we’re doing okay in this commandment keeping business. After all, no one present this morning has ever murdered someone. Or have we, one and all? Jesus declared, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”[22]

Then there is the Sixth Commandment. We may think ourselves a bit holier than some because we have not had relations with someone other than our spouses. But Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”[23] These are examples of the fourth concentric circle of the law, by which Jesus brings a Word home to us more deeply, cutting us and calling us to repentance.

The fifth and final concentric circle of the law is a reduction to simplicity for those who can hear it. Many cannot, for there are still many Pharisees with us today. One such legal expert approached Jesus and said, “’Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ And [Jesus] said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.’”[24]

The one who taught us in this precise way is that greatest prophet of whom Moses prophesied in the first verse of our Old Testament Lesson. Through him, God has sent redemption to his people, again being faithful though we are not. There is no other redemption, no other path to the Father, whether it be piling on more law,[25] or other religious practices, or other gods altogether. For “there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.”[26]

In the end, we may say that there is really only one Word from God, the Logos, the Living Word, Jesus Christ “the Holy One of God.”[27] Even the demons know him.

May you know him, and follow him, and by the indwelling work of his Spirit, keep his Word, if only by confessing over and over again, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.”[28] For there is forgiveness, freedom from the guilt of the law for those who believe on him who fulfilled the law.[29] Our righteousness, even good works like keeping the commandments, is founded upon the underlying work of Christ alone having fulfilled all the law and the prophets, nailing our failures to fulfill the law to his cross. What is left to us is to follow Christ Jesus back through the concentric circles of the law to its source, “the Giver of life. The universe proclaims [his] glory.”[30]

[1] Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 9: Lectures on Deuteronomy, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. 9 (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999), 176.

[2] Martin Luther (1542); Translator: Catherine Winkworth (1863)

[3] Exodus 20:3

[4] Exodus 3:14

[5] Exodus 20:7

[6] Exodus 20:8

[7] Exodus 20:12

[8] Exodus 20:13

[9] Deuteronomy 32:35; Romans 12:19

[10] Exodus 20:14

[11] Leviticus 19:2; 1 Peter 1:16

[12] Exodus 20:15

[13] Philippians 4:11–13

[14] Exodus 20:16

[15] John 1:14

[16] Psalm 119:160; John 17:17

[17] Exodus 20:17

[18] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jas 1:17.

[19] Exodus 20:17

[20] 2 Timothy 2:13

[21] The Lutheran Book of Worship (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1978), 147

[22] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mt 5:21–22.

[23] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mt 5:27–28.

[24] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mt 22:36–40.

[25] Acts 15:11

[26] The Revised Standard Version (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1971), 1 Co 8:6.

[27] Mark 1:24

[28] The Revised Standard Version (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1971), Lk 15:18.

[29] Matthew 5:17

[30] The Lutheran Book of Worship (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1978), 143