Why Read Deuteronomy?

Quick Review: What is Bibliology? The study of how we got our bibles in their current form- Pastor Dave spent a few weeks at the beginning of this series looking at this topic and I want to revisit this idea this What is the book of Deuteronomy?

Part of the Pentateuch- the first 5 books of the Old Testament- written by Moses.

It is written at a specific time in Israel’s history

Why read Deuteronomy?

1. God’s covenant reveals His character.

§ There is this idea that the God of the OT is all about justice and wrath. Its like he gave His people this list of unreasonable rules that they could never follow and then He stood by waiting for them to fail so that He could punish them.

§ THIS COULDN’T BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH!

§ Context matters… this is why…Before Moses even starts recounting the law to this new generation of Israelites He reminds them of their past. Genesis, exodus, Leviticus, and numbers tell a long story of Israel’s origin and past and

§ So what do we discover about God’s character?

1. God’s grace towards Israel.

a. God’s law/covenant is specifically spelled out. He doesn’t leave Israel guessing- They know what God expects and how He will respond to their faithfulness to Him and how he will respond to them if they abandon Him for other God’s.

b. Deut. 26:16-19; 30:11-18

e. Compare this to the Sumer prayer:

2. God’s grace through Israel.

a. There are two different ways in which God wants to use Israel before the nations.

b. 1- As a means of judging the wickedness and injustice that filled the land. The Canaanite religions were among the more disgusting and dehumanizing cults of the time. -Deut. 9:4

c. 2- As an example to the nations that they might know God. -Deut. 4:5-8; 28:9-10, CSB

3. He Knows His people and chooses them anyways.

a. Deut. 9:7; 31:16, 20-21; 20:1-3

b. God graciously bears with His people. Moses, in chapter

c. In view of Israel’s past failures, God has no reason to expect them to remain faithful to Him

d. In view of God’s past provision, Israel has no reason to doubt God’s covenant faithfulness. This is why Moses is constant asking them to remember who God is. To remember their own history and how

2. It anticipates Jesus

§ Moses is constantly pointing back and Israel’s past, but he is also pointing forward. Honestly, so much of the rest of the OT makes so much more sense when after you read Deuteronomy. There are several themes that develop in Deuteronomy or that go on throughout scripture and pick up particular significance. I want to spend a little extra time and campout on this point and do a birds eye view thematic overview of two ways in which Moses directs the peoples attention to Jesus.

1. Deuteronomy anticipates a King who will embody the covenant.

a. The Template: Deut. 17:14-20

i. Moses says, listen, someday you’re going to ask for a king, and that’s okay, but here is what he needs to look like:

ii. He is chosen by the LORD

iii. He is to know, keep and do what the covenant asks. – He is to embody the covenant, and point people to it, to God.

iv. So if we trace this theme throughout the old testament that no king quite measures up to this standard.

b. Saul: Samuel 8:4-8, 19-20;

i. Moses said, one day they’d ask for a king, and here they are-

ii. Not chosen by God, but by the demand of the people

iii. Fails to embody the covenant

iv. Points people away from God.

c. David: anointed in 1 Sam. 16, but doesn’t actually take the throne of the whole kingdom until 2 Sam. 5-

i. David looks like he fits the template of God’s chosen king. In fact in 2 Sam. 8:15- we see that he administered justice and righteousness for all his people. In fact, we see in chapter 7 of 2 sam. How David wants to build a house for the LORD, but God comes to him and tells him, that He (God) is the one who will build a house for David and that it will last forever- One of His decedents will always be on the throne of Israel. He got it right and he embodied the law, but the thing is there is this key words that keeps popping up all over Deuteronomy: and it is “remain.” Deut. 17:19 says the king to write a copy of the covenant and it is to remain with him- he can never set it aside or put it down. It is like an appendage to him.

ii. David, goes from administering justice in righteousness in the first 10 chapters of 2 Samuel to committing adultery, rape, and murder in chapter 11. And the rest of the book of Samuel tells of the fall out from David’s sin and how it fractured not only his own family, but eventually the entire nation.

iii. If we are looking for the King who embodies the covenant, we wont find Him in Samuel. David, might be God’s chosen but he doesn’t fit the template God established in Deut. 17.

d. So we get to Solomon, David’s son, and the question remains, is he the king who embodies the covenant?

i. Much like his father, Solomon begins well. But instead of remaining faithful to God and he does what Deut. 17: 17, says not to- in 1 Kings 11 we see how Solomon’s heart is turned away from God and lead to worship the many gods of his many wives- and even began building temples for their gods just outside Jerusalem and sacrificed to them there. The same guy to took great care in building and dedicating the first temple in Jerusalem, by the end of his life was offering sacrifices to idols and the false god’s of other nations in the same city!

ii. Solomon does not fit the bill.

e. If Solomon was bad, by the time we get to Israel’s exile we find that the king of Judah and it’s leaders are worshipping and offering sacrifices to these idols and false god’s in the temple. I mean, the rest of 1 and 2 kings depicts king after king who lead their people further and further way from God. In fact, by the time we get to 2 Kings 22, we find an Israel that had completely forgotten about the covenant. King Josiah orders the priests to repair the temple because it had fallen into disarray and they happen to stumble upon a copy of Deuteronomy and we see that when they read it its like it is complexly new information for them. They read it to King Josiah and its like a light bulb turns on and he realizes that all the horrible stuff that has happened to their nation was clearly warned about in Deuteronomy. It’s like he and the priests and the elders of Jerusalem had never even read, let a lone heard about the covenant. To drive this point home, look at 2 Kings 23:21-23-

f. The Passover had never been observed since the beginning of the monarchy! This yearly remembrance of how God had redeemed them from slavery in Egypt was as foreign to Josiah as was Israel’s enemies! When God told Moses that Israel was about to go into the land and abandon this covenant in Deut. 31:16 He wasn’t talking about hundreds of years in the future, but that very generation.

g. And yet, God chose them still. The more you read Israel’s story throughout the OT, God’s faithfulness, His graciousness, and His mercy become so much bigger and incomprehensible in light of how long and mercifully he bears with Israel. – The word Longsuffering as a characteristic of God stands out to me—He is willing to patiently bear with His people because one day a king who embodies the covenant and point His people back to God will show up on the scene… but we wont find that king in Kings, or chronicles, or any of the prophets, though along the way the king and what He will be like comes closer and closer into view. The prophet Isaiah describes what this king will be like to the point where when Jesus comes on the scene one would wonder how Israel could have missed Him?

h. So we get to Matthew- and the first thing we read is a long list of names and the astute… or board…. Reader will ask, why did Matthew think we needed this information? But without even saying it, Matthew saying that Jesus is king, Matthew gives us His royal lineage and implies that Jesus is the fulfillment not only of coming King who would embody the covenant, but this guy is also going to fulfill God’s promises to Abraham (A great nation, and a blessing to the whole world) to David (That His descendent would sit on the throne forever) and to the exiles (That God would one day restore Israel and give them a shepherd who would remind them of the covenant). When Jesus is born the wise men coming looking for a king. His disciples expect Him to restore Israel and set up His Kingdom. The gospel according to John is full of Jesus is King themes. When He’s on trial before Pilot the issue at hand for Pilot is whether or now Jesus is claiming to be King of the Jews.

i. John 19:14-16 – 1 Samuel 8:7 again we see God’s people rejecting God as their King. But in rejecting Him and crucifying Him, Jesus is enthroned in very different way than what anyone expected. HE takes a swing at the true enemy who sits enthroned upon the hearts of all mankind and HE doesn’t just write a copy of the law for Himself to keep always before Him, but as the prophets Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Ezekiel expressed, King Jesus writes the covenant on our hearts through the coming of the Holy Spirit who enables us to keep his words and love Jesus!

j. Scriptures doesn’t stop there, but the New testament culminates in this vision of the future of all mankind and human history in which Jesus is enthroned and He reigns over a new creation that looks like the first creation but better!

2. Deuteronomy anticipates a Prophet who will embody God’s word.

a. Deut. 18:15-19; John 1:19-21; John 12:44-50

b. The Context of this promise is that Israel heard God’s voice at Mt. Saini and were terrified and asked for someone to go between them and God to give them the words of His covenant.

c. God agrees, and Moses goes up on the mountain to speak with God and relay the covenant to His people. But Moses isn’t going to live forever… in fact, Moses isn’t even going to go with them into the promised land (Because of his failure to do and relay some of God’s commands to the people)… So, God promises to raise up another prophet who will give and live the covenant to His people.

d. Now this might seem like no big deal, there are a lot of prophets who come along and try to point Israel back to the covenant, but check out these two places in the gospel according to John:

e. John 1:19-21

i. The religious leaders want to know who John is. He making waves throughout the region and gathering quite the following so they ask Him in chapter 1:

ii. Israel is expecting a prophet who will do what Moses said He would do- and to them, none of the other prophets fit the bill. John says, He is not the prophet, but he is here to make the way for Him.

f. John 12:44-50

g. The Word became flesh- The actual word of God, in human, tangible form, came and not only perfectly replayed God’s word, but perfectly kept it as well.

Landing the Plane:

Why read Deuteronomy?

1. It makes sense of the rest of the story.

a. God does exactly what He says He will do.

2. God’s grace towards His people seems ridiculously unmerited.

a. He enters into a

b. Before we go about judging Israel for their faithlessness, remember that the same God who is long suffering with Israel is long suffering with you. The God who bound Himself to His people through a covenant He knew they would not even attempt to keep is Jesus- who put on flesh