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REAL LIVING part 2

Deuteronomy

Jesus said, “Where your treasure is there will your heart be also.” (Matthew 6:21) We live in a world that invites us to fall in love with something new every day. New products, new holidays, new culinary sensations, and new entertainments cry out for our attention. Yet, in the midst of these voices, God speaks to us and invites us to love His law. He does not scream His invitation; he simply sets before us the richness of His law and invites us to hear, learn and grow to cherish the words of life and truth His people have for thousands of year.

Deuteronomy is quoted more than eighty times in the New Testament. Only Genesis, Isaiah and the Psalms are quoted more often. It is a very influential and powerful book that turns our heart to the law of God. In Deuteronomy we discover that God sees His people, He knows His people, and He is committed to transform them into a nation that honors Him and reflects His righteous heart in a world that is dark and sin-filled.

In the opening two verses of Deuteronomy we get a brief geography lesson. We are told that “it takes eleven days to go from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea by the Mount Seir road.”

We have seen these verses before. They might seem to be a little random but they are here for a specific reason. The writer wants every reader to remember that the trip from Mount Sinai up to the edge of the Promised Land, normally takes only eleven days. We are talking about a week and a half travel time. The writer is subtly setting the context: A whole generation of human beings wasted their lives in the desert and lost the opportunity to enter God’s Promised Land because of their stubborn refusal to trust God and do what He said. The writer is also saying to all future readers, including us, “Don’t’ make the same mistake. Don’t blow forty years of your life on an eleven day lesson.”

Forty years have now gone by and Moses is at the end of his life. He knows he is going to die and the people know it. This is a poignant moment in their history. What we read in Deuteronomy are the last words Moses will say to this group of people whom he has led, help to liberate, struggled with, wrestled with, yelled at, and loved for forty years.

Moses does not do what most people do at retirement events. He does not reminisce about his career or all he has accomplished in his life. Rather, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he gives one more appeal to the people of Israel. He calls them to follow God’s plan, God’s law for their lives.

These are his words as recorded in Deuteronomy 4:1-4: “Hear now, O Israel, the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you. 2 Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you.

Deuteronomy is a desperate plea for people to remember and follow God’s law. The law was their prized possession. Look at verse 5.

5 See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the LORD my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. 6 Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations” Deut. 4:5-6

The law is what will set us apart Moses is saying.

9 Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.

An then in Chapter 6 there is this real familiar passage:

4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. [a] 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 God’s intent is very clear. Get this law into your head and heart. Don’t forget it. Think about it all the time. He want us to remember His law not the way a high school student crams for a test but way down deep in our hearts so that nothing can shake it loose.

Do whatever it takes. Tie a string around you finger. Write it on the back of your hand. Put a post it note on the bathroom mirror or the refrigerator or anywhere else you might see it. Set an alarm on your hand held computer and have an alarm pop up with a Scripture for you to meditate on.

Why did this people of Israel love the law with all their hearts? They spend vast amounts of time studying it, speaking of it often, committing it to memory, and letting it shape their lives. Take a moment for reflection and think about what thinks you love that much.

        Where do I invest my time?
        What do I talk about?
        What fill my mind?
        What shapes my life and actions?

We are looking at the law through the lens of three different aspects of the law and how God intended it to shape His people. Lasting week we looked at laws of giving and generosity and this week we are looking at laws regarding feasts and celebrations as well as head scratching laws.

1. Laws Regarding Feasts and Celebrations

Deuteronomy 16: We read that God required certain feast and celebrations. Why would He do that?

There are three main feasts that He required. To help you remember them I will give you a holiday from our society that would match theirs.

Passover (Independence Day)

The first one was Passover. Deut. 16:1 “ 1 Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover of the LORD your God, because in the month of Abib he brought you out of Egypt by night.”

They are celebrating their deliverance and independence from Egypt. (Forth of July) The big difference is that God was their hero. They did not fight for it, God delivered them. They were to eat, rejoice, be thankful and celebrate what God had done for them. Only a God of joy would command his people to have a week-long festival every year!

The Feast of Weeks (Labor Day)

This came during the latter part of the growing season as they were just starting to harvest. What do we observe in a few days that would be similar?

This feast was to celebrate all the work that had been done and God’s provision through the harvest. Notice who all was called to celebrate this feast: Deut. 16:9-12, “9 Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. 10 Then celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the LORD your God has given you. 11 And rejoice before the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, the Levites in your towns, and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows living among you. 12 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and follow carefully these decrees.”

Underline the words, celebrate and rejoice. Notice the inclusiveness. No one was to be left out. The Levites who were the priests and did not farm which meant they would have nothing to bring, were also included. We also see the triad again of aliens, fatherless and widows. Everyone was to celebrate.

The Feast of Tabernacles (Thanksgiving)

The people actually would hang out in tents. This was an experience of camping together. This third feast is described in Deuteronomy 16:13-17:

13 Celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. 14 Be joyful at your Feast—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. 15 For seven days celebrate the Feast to the LORD your God at the place the LORD will choose. For the LORD your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.

16 Three times a year all your men must appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles. No man should appear before the LORD empty-handed: 17 Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the LORD your God has blessed you.


There is a triad of people mentioned all through the Bible and God often judges His followers by how they treat the marginalized in a society. Often you see these three: aliens, orphans and widows. In this feast they actually moved into tents to remember the days when they were following God in the desert wilderness. This came at the end of harvest after everything had been gathered. We do this sort of at Thanksgiving. (Camp meeting)

God commands us to be holy and a part of that holiness is to be joyful. We have traveled this summer with this people and I ask you were they joyful by nature? Not so much. God builds in celebrations and feast times to teach them to be joyful. He wants them to learn to stop whining and practice the idea of being joyful. How are you doing? Maybe you need a feast day once a week. A day set aside to remember God and all He has done.

We all know people who are joy challenged. These are the folks who have the ability to see the cloud inside every silver lining. They have what might be called “Eeyore complex” There might be days when you need to tell them, “I can’t be with you today. It’s my feast day today. You’ll suck the joy right out of me. I’ll be with you tomorrow, but not today. Today I’ll be walking in joy.” You might need to be a little more diplomatic than that but the truth is there are days when we need to walk in joy intentionally.

There are two words that repeatedly come up time after time: Celebrate and Rejoice. God is deeply concerned that we grow as people of joy. He wants us, he commands us to celebrate his great works and amazing provision.

Inclusiveness: God still wants his follower to invite others to join in our celebrations. Yesterday was a day of inclusiveness. Operation Gear up was not for our children in this church unless you needed help with school supplies. The money spent for inflatable toys and all the games was for us to be able to include our neighbors in a celebration.

Joy: Deut. 14:22-27 (These verses were for people who couldn’t make it to where everyone else was going.) This was meant to promote a time of joy and celebration. God just wants Israel to stop whining and to focus on the good things of life that they have.

How are you doing with this? Maybe you need to do some work here in your life. We all know people who are joy-challenged. These are the folks who have the ability to see the cloud inside every silver lining. They have what might be called the “Eeyore Complex.” There might be days we need to tell them, “I can’t be with you today. It’s my feast day today. You’ll suck the joy right out of me. I’ll be fine with you tomorrow, but not today. Today I will be walking in joy.”

Of course we probably shouldn’t say it just exactly like that. We would be a little more diplomatic. But the truth is that there should be days we give ourselves space to walk in joy, and this might mean avoiding those who bring our joy quotient way down. We can encourage them and help them grow in joy another day.

2. Head — Scratching Laws

God has some great laws scattered throughout the Old Testament. We find laws like: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart soul and strength.” This became the cornerstone of Jesus teaching in the New Testament. There were laws like, “love your neighbor as yourself,” and “watch out for the aliens, fatherless and widows among you.” There is even one in Deuteronomy 21:7, that says, “Do not hate an Egyptian.” Egypt enslaved them and oppressed and killed them. Deut. 25:4, “Don’t muzzle the ox while it treads the grain.”

Those are wonderful laws and then you read laws like:

  • If you have a rebellious son you can stone him.
  • People can have slaves.
  • A husband can write a certificate of divorce to his wife and just send her away if he is displeased with her.
  • A woman’s vows to God must be cleared through her husband or father.
  • “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.” Exodus 21:24-25 (Jesus clearly set this one aside in the New Testament.)


How are we supposed to respond to these laws? Did God change His mind and send Jesus with some new laws? Anybody ever get confused about this stuff? To understand them we have to understand the context in which they were written.

God has to start where people are. We must remember that at this time in history, the Old Testament had not been written. There were no scriptures. There was no law of God, and morality was at a rock-bottom level. The world was in relational, spiritual and moral chaos.

To put it in context, there were all kinds of common practices that would be shocking today. Child sacrifice was practiced and even part of some religious rituals in pagan worship. Radical revenge and retribution was acceptable. If someone was wronged, they would often take revenge on a whole family rather than just the person who offended them. In some cases, they would take vengeance on a whole city. Cult prostitution existed all over this part of the ancient world, and the people of Israel saw this happening as a normative practice.

As God begins to call a community of people to follow Him, He started where they were. There was no morality, so He began to introduce beginning steps so they could understand. In a similar way, God still meets each of us where we are and then begins to lead us to where he wants us to be.

There was a time in education when in the early years of grade school there are often three reading groups. (Reutzel: Eagles, robins and buzzards) The teacher always pretends that these groups are all the same, but everyone knows this is not the case. You can tell which group is which by their names. For instance you might have the eagles as one group – they are the best reader. Then there might be the robins – these students can read fairly well, but they still need some work. Finally, there are the pigeons – these kids know they will not be soaring like eagles.

What was Moses working with here? Eagles or pigeons? Spiritually speaking they are not eagles or robins they are pigeons. That’s what is happening in Deuteronomy 1:2 is all about. That is why it took them forty years to take an eleven day walk. This is not the advance placement class.

Over and over Moses reminds them of their hard-heartedness. The law was not written for angels or by angels. Just as Jesus was both fully divine and fully human, the Bible is both fully inspired by God and also written by real human beings. These people had to wrestle study and think long and hard about what they wrote.

The Bible was written in a context for real people who had habits, customs and patterns that were unbelievably destructive. God did not give them everything all at once; they would not have been ready for it. In a sense, God was slowly weaning them away from what was destructive and teaching them the new way of life.

A great example of this would be found in Mark 10. Jesus is teaching here about Old Testament law. This is how Jesus understands the Old Testament.

2Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" 3"What did Moses command you?" he replied. 4They said, "Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away."

5"It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law," Jesus replied. 6"But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.'[a] 7'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,[b] 8and the two will become one flesh.'[c] So they are no longer two, but one. 9Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."
Mark 10:2-9

He tells them it was because of their hard heartedness. That is why Moses permitted divorce. Jesus goes on to teach that God’s plan was always for the permanence of marriage. When the Pharisees ask why Moses allowed men to write a certificate of divorce. Jesus basically says, “Because Moses was working with pigeons. It was a concession to hard heartedness.

You’ve got to start somewhere, and Moses was taking the first step in getting people to begin taking marriage seriously and to create some accountability. But God’s intent was clear in the Old Testament to anybody who looks with an honest open heart. If we look in Genesis 2 (one man one woman) we see that God’s plan was for one husband and one wife for an entire lifetime. Jesus was not setting the law aside, he was correctly interpreting it.

Another example of this concerns Jesus’ statement in the Sermon on the Mount, “You have heard it said, ‘Eye for an eye and tooth for tooth.’” (Matthew 5:38) Jesus is quoting from Deuteronomy 19:21 here. Jesus then begins talking about loving enemies and offering grace. We might wonder; Is Jesus saying that the Old Testament was wrong? The answer is no! Instead, He is taking the limiting power of the law to the next level. He is saying hat the time of pigeon responses to enemies is gone, and it is time to soar like an eagle.

In the ancient world, the world in which Moses lived people with power took whatever vengeance they wanted on somebody who hurt them. If someone hurt a little bit, they could hurt back a lot. They would even inflict punishment on the next of kin. If they couldn’t get at the perpetrator, they would attack and punish a son, daughter, a spouse, or even extended family and friends.

When Moses wrote an eye for an eye it was not encouraging vengeance; it was limiting it. This law was intended to restrain vengeance. In light of where the people were at this time in history, they would have realized that this law was given to discourage violence, not encourage it. Of course there were legalistic people who took this as God saying they could get back at somebody. Jesus wasn’t doing away with the Law of Moses; He was simply correctly interpreting it.

Often, because God was working with the pigeons back in Moses day, the laws were given to wean people away from unhealthy and ungodly practices. Because the people’s hearts were hard, the strategy was to put limits and restraints around these practices and to help them begin to take steps of change.

Slavery already existed when the Old Testament was written. Moses did not eradicate slavery completely, but a limit of six years was established. Moses also taught that a slave was to be regarded as a brother. Slaves were allowed to worship with the people of God. Moses said that when a slave was released he should be given gifts to help establish him in freedom. In light of where things were at this time, these were huge steps forward. From where we stand today, they might seem like a step backwards, but in that day, this showed forward progression in human rights and the dignity of people.

Finally in light of Genesis 1 – 2, people would get that human beings were made in the image of God. All of us on this earth were made in His image. Slavery is not compatible with that message. God kept moving people forward until they would realize and honor His word.

Here’s the bottom line today. One of the reason’s I am a Christ follower is because of how Jesus describes God the father. I don’t know of anything that can move me more deeply than listening to the way God is described.

He is the God who watched out for sparrows. (I know this because this is about all I get at my bird feeder!) This is the God who clothes the lilies of the field. He counts the hairs on our heads. He searches for one single lost sheep.

That’s the God Jesus loves, and human beings were so captivated by that picture of God that they sacrificed their lives to follow Jesus. Many people think there is a gap between the Old and New Testaments and the God Jesus describes. There is at least one person who didn’t see any gap between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament and that was Jesus.

Jesus was really smart and the greatest interpreter of the law. He found no gap between the God of the law and the God of the New Testament. My prayer for us in this series has been that we would come to know and love the Father God that Jesus knew and loved. The Father God that Moses loved and who loved Moses.

Moses so wanted that for his people. He has done everything he can for them and now he makes one last plea. He walks them all the way through the covenant and the law. You remember every covenant had witnesses. Moses at the end calls on heaven and earth to witness. Deuteronomy 32 is a song recited by Moses in front of all the people.

“I set before you this day, life and prosperity if you follow God, death and destruction if you don’t. Now choose life.” He finishes his last speech and he climbs up the mountain and see the Promised Land that he won’t enter but God lets him see it. He dies and God buries him. His words to the human race about this covenant making covenant keeping God are just as true today as they were way back then. “Life and prosperity, death and destruction, choose life.”

We are called today to embrace the “laws” of God that were designed to guide and enable us to live the way we were intended to live. Making choices that go against God’s laws are devastating and destructive to us emotionally, physically and relationally. This sermon and series is based on material provided by J. Ortberg and the OTC series.



2006/08/20