THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2012
Deuteronomy 4:44–8:20 (Excerpts)
Today’s reading encompasses Moses’s second address to the Israelites in the month leading up to their entering the Promised Land. As we have discussed recently, God declared that Moses would not join his people in taking the Promised Land as a result of his prideful response to the people’s challenge to his leadership. Yet, God continued to use Moses to guide and serve the Israelites, culminating in the great admonishments in Deuteronomy; the book’s title, from the Greek Septuagint version, means “second law,” referring to its recounting of some content from Leviticus.
As I reviewed the passages, three key takeaways emerged from Moses’s words:
1) Even for the Old Testament’s chief lawgiver, Moses, the three “core commitments” for the Christian life held supremacy. You may recall that Pastor Scott has shared several times about our three core commitments as individuals and as Christ’s body at Grace Church: a) to love God; b) to love others; and c) to make disciples. He has argued that, if we were to fulfill these three objectives, we would enjoy the complete richness that God has intended for us in Christ.
Two of these three appear directly in Exodus 6:4–9, the first part of which received the name the “Shema,” referring to the command to “Hear”: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and will all your strength…. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 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. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”
Moses urges his people to esteem the Lord God above all created things. As A. W. Tozer explained in The Knowledge of the Holy, “what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us…. The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God.” Without a proper conception of God’s character, we will most likely fall into idolatry, as our sinful nature prompts us to prioritize the here-and-now over the eternal.
While the second commitment doesn’t appear directly, other passages in the Law do speak about individuals’ responsibility to care for and love others, including the poor and the alien. The Law clearly emerges from the idea that all people have equal value, having received that worth through the very act of God’s creation. In a parallel New Testament passage, Jesus links the words from Leviticus 19:18 – “Love your neighbor as yourself” – explaining that “all the Law and the Prophets hand on these two commandments” to love God and others (Matthew 22:37–40).
The third commitment – to disciple others, sharing with them the Good News of God’s sovereignty and Christ’s saving power and encouraging their growth into the likeness of Christ – lies in Moses’s words, too. Discipleship involves both an inward and outward focus. Each follower of God must write these commandments “upon their hearts,” but their reflection on the Law must not stop at an academic or purely personal exercise. Instead, each community member should take responsibility to “impress them on your children,” imparting consistent lessons throughout each day with both words and visual symbols. Character development would therefore serve as the focal point of education and nurturing. Implicit in Leviticus 19:33,34, the Israelites were called to reach out with God’s love to the alien: “When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in
In living out these three commitments, we seek to hold an attitude of worship -- that is, giving to God the Father His proper standing and bringing glory to His Name through our words, thoughts, and deeds. At the outset, however, any efforts on our part must originate from the love of God. 1 John 4:7–10 express how we receive the capacity to love only from God’s initial lovingkindness: “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” Indeed, we receive power through the Holy Spirit through His fruit of “love, joy, peace…” (Galatians 5:22,23) so that we may serve as His “witnesses.” (Acts 1:8)
2) God applies discipline for our benefit. Moses later exhorts: “Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.”
We often look to Romans 8:28,29 for encouragement during our struggles: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” We may trust that God has arranged even our trials so that we might more completely “be conformed to the likeness of his Son.” Moses notes that the people’s challenges in the desert had “humbled” them. Through these circumstances, God had sought to identify the content of His children’s hearts. May we cling to our loving Father in all circumstances, giving thanks that He has chosen everything in His sovereignty.
3) Pride and idolatry will lead us astray. Moses argues that the people must not allow their pride to cloud their minds: “When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.”
In essence, pride declares that we know better than God. This pride allowed Adam and Eve to follow Satan’s temptation in the Garden, when he asked: “Did God really say… ?” I reflected on that question a few times when considering today’s passages. So often, we desire to “explain away” what God has clearly stated, preferring our own vantage point. We desire that God would “get behind” our plans when we ought to pursue the reverse.
Moses and the Lord God clearly understood that any pride would lead the Israelites away from wholehearted devotion to their King. These shortcomings will mark the entire remainder of the Old Testament. As British orator John Bright once chided, “he is a self-made man and worships his creator.” In the long run, pride will lead us to some form of creation-worship, either of ourselves or man-made gods, celebrities, money, fame, sex, or power. We must remain watchful. The proper antidote to pride lies in praising God: “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
QUESTIONS
- How may you grow in living out the three core commitments?
- How may you guard your heart from pride through praise?
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