Deut 4:44- 6:25
Key Verse 6:1-2
Introduction: After a long detour, finally the second generation Israel arrived at the other side of the Jordan River, and were ready to cross it and to conquer the land of God’s blessing. At this time, Moses reminded them of the Covenant that God made with them. As they were eagerly looking forward to enter the land flowing with milk and honey, Moses reminded them of the Covenant that God made with them. The purpose was clear; since the land flowing with milk and honey was a part of God’s covenant with them, they must see this blessing within the Covenant with the Lord. God’s blessing is great. His blessing is far superior to all fortunes of this world. His blessing brings pure joy, and is grounded on truth and love, and endures to eternity. We all also eagerly hope and expect to take possession of the land flowing with God’s blessing since such blessing was given to us through the Covenant Promise in Christ, our redeemer. As we are looking forward taking possession of this blessed land, Moses’ reiteration of the Covenant will guide us
1. The land flowing with milk and honey is in full view.
I imagine that Israel was filled with great enthusiasm and hope to enter the land of God’s promise. God assured them that the land they were about to enter was as good as theirs since God showed His will to stand by with Israel in defeating their enemies in the war against King Sihon and Og, the two Amorites kings (4:46-49; Num ). When such hope was high among Israel, Moses reminded them of the Covenant that they made with God at the Mount Horeb. The reason is clear; the land flowing with milk and honey was part of that Covenant and the Covenant in its entirety must be fully appraised and upheld in order to enjoy the blessing that they were looking into with such an eager hope.
First, they must know and accept that the Covenant was made with them. When God appeared at the Mount Horeb, none of them were grown-ups. They were below the age 20. Many were even a little babies, not knowing what was happening at that time. Yet, Moses said that God made the Covenant not with their fathers but with them. It is not unreasonable to say that God made the Covenant with their fathers as well (Exo 6:8). But God promised to give them a land of His blessing. But actual ratification of the Covenant, which sealed the Promise into reality, came at the mountain Horeb (Exo 24). After sealing the Covenant, God began to impose all the covenant conditions and the first generation died in the desert, not seeing the fulfillment of the Covenant. Actually their failure to meet the Covenant was anticipated as they made a golden idol at the foot of the mountain. God made an oath that none above 20 would enter the land and they all died in the desert. So as far as the Covenant promise of the land, they fell out; God explicitly excluded them from that Covenant by saying that none of those over 20 would enter the land of God’s blessing. It was God’s undeterred will to remove those of unbelief from that Covenant Promise. In this regard, God made the Covenant with this generation. The Covenant Promise is alive for this generation; i.e., you! With or through whom is the Covenant of blessing is carried on? Who is going to see the ultimate fruit of God’s promise of blessing? It is you! You will see the Land and you will conquer the land and you will possess the Land of God’s blessing. You are the ones who hold the Covenant Promise and you are the one who shall carry it to the next generation, and then many generations after that.
It is true today as well. The Covenant in Christ is offered to many and many began a journey to possess the ultimate blessing in Him. But on the way many perish long before seeing the blessing. But you have endured that blessing by faith and that blessed land, flowing with milk and honey is in sight. This hope or promise has become a certainty for we all are ready to enter that blessing. In addition, you are the carrier of that blessing to the next generation, and the generation after that. So as was with Israel, we are standing at a critical juncture where we are dare to enter the land by keeping the Covenant but also dare to carry the Covenant Blessing to the next generation.
As was shown in the life of their parents, it is very critical for them to keep up with the Covenant Conditions. So it must be reminded again and the Covenant Conditions must be taken to their hearts. Before discussing on what the conditions are, it’s good to look at the Covenant as a whole. This covenant is between God and his chosen people Israel. Since Israel agreed to enter into this covenant (Exo 19:4-8), the Covenant conditions are binding them as well as the Lord. Full compliance to the condition will result in a wonderful relationship in great blessing and fulfillment of the promise. But any violations will incur serious consequences.
What are they?
2. Man must have a personal relationship with God to give the highest respect and trust. (1st to 4th commands)
The first three commands concerning God is expressed in ‘shall not’. So are the last five commands concerning one’s relationship with other men. There are two commands (concerning the Sabbath and parents) expressed in ’do’.
“shall not” commands gives and emphasizes freedom, while ‘do’ commands bind men tightly to do for a specific thing. In other words, since eight out of ten is ‘shall not’ commands, God is giving enormous freedom to do all other things. It is like the command that God gave to Adam,
Since the importance of a command is in the verb, it is good to think about ‘shall’. In Hebrew word, ‘shall’ asks one to have personal disposition of his or her will to choose to do a particular thing that the speaker hopes to happen. So there is a deep respect to the receiver of this command. In other words, the speaker hopes the receiver of the command to make a willful decision out of his or her deep cognition and willingness. Here, the key word is ‘willingness’. God is expecting us to make a cognitive decision with willing heart not to do those things. A willing heart is the locus of one’s honor to the Lord. So the eight ‘shall-not’ commands God was hoping that Israel would make a cognitive decision with ‘willing heart’ what is right in God’s eyes. Willingness is what God is looking for from his people!
In the first three conditions of the Covenant, God commanded how we are to relate with God. In the first commands, God is asking us to make a willful and willing decision to choose him as our sole authority. It sounds easy to do so because the Lord is the only God that we know. But there are moments when it is almost impossible for us to serve him as our only Lord. It is when our lives are on the line whereby we choose one either our lives or our loyalty to him. The powers of the world demand our submission to their authority and power. Under the communist dictator, many are forced to choose one, God or communist leaders. Many chose God instead of the Communist leaders and they were martyred. As the history speaks, the believers in the first three centuries, martyrdom was common and at the same time many believers fell out because of fear for their lives. Our allegiance to the Lord means to go against all authorities of the world that fight for the position of the sole authority over our lives. So cognitive and willing decision to choose him as our Lord means to entrust our lives in His hand even in life-death situations. Behind this decision is the belief that He is the Lord of the Universe and his is just and right and he is loving and his promise for life is good.
The next and more common one is our uncontrollable desires. Desire for money, for sex, for honor and for glory and power.. often drive us to the point where we cannot see anything but our desires, ignoring or dishonoring even the Lord. As we saw, many will do anything to get the money one wants. Politicians do anything to get attentions of the people or to get elected. This is what we see on others. But when we look into our hearts, we do run our lives by the force generated by our desires. In our desires, we become the sole proprietary owners of our lives. Simply speaking, we run our lives and are not under any authority but our own authority and eventually we are the kings of our lives. In this way, we remove God as our Lord.
In all occasions and situations, God is asking us to make a decisive decision to submit ourselves or our lives to His will. One thing is clear; he wants to have a relationship with us on one-on-one base, a personal and intimate.
The second command is not to make an image in any form. Images always captures our eyes and the memory remains in our mind long time. It is easy to identify and to relate to than the Lord who is invisible and with whom we can relate only through His word and the spirit. Our being is configured to give ‘an upper hand’ to the things that we see and touch over what is invisible and untouchable. In other words, we tend to replace the invisible with something tangible and concrete, such as images. This was what Israel did by making a golden calf while Moses was with the Lord for forty days. When they did not hear from Moses for quite number of days, their mind became unsettled in anxiety and fear that they had lost the communication with the Lord. In this vacancy of relationship they created an idol. In other words, when there is no on-going tangible relationship, men are driven to fill up the void in relationship with an idol. Wasn’t there a tangible relationship? Or did God cut off His relationship with Israel who were waiting for the return of Moses? No! The void assaulted their hearts because of ‘unbelief’ in the Lord. They did not mean to serve another god, other than the God who led them out of Egypt. Nevertheless, in an effort to fill the void or to reestablish the relationship, they created the golden calf. But it could never represent the God of creation. It was an idol from their hearts. Idols never fill the void but only the faith in the Lord of eternity fill the void. Jesus, while his life was sapping away by the minutes, called out his father in faith and committed his life in the Father’s hand. His word is trustworthy. His will and care for us is reliable. The real substance of ‘relationship’ with the Lord is faith in His word and trust in His goodness. Nothing else!
Israel’s failure betrays the predicament of us in flesh that searches for tangibility in what we see and touch and feel. This must be done away by relating him in His word by faith. We shall not store the things in our flesh; we shall not relate with God through what we can see and touch. He is spirit and we are to relate with Him in spirit and truth—that are embodied in His word. We must choose His word over all desire for images. Almost all pagan religions of the world put up an image of their gods. We shall not reduce him to be something of this world that he had created.
The third one is not to misuse His name. Throughout the Ten Commands, God is described as ‘the LORD’ to translate a Hebrew word, YHWH. This original meaning is “I am who I am”. In general, a name embodies or reflect a significant thing of the person. Though God told Moses that his name is YHWH, it is not exactly a name. It is a short or concise description of who He is. By calling himself “I am who I am”, he acclaims that he is eternal and exists for and by himself as the Lord of the universe. So whenever one calls him, or calls his name, he must acknowledge what or who He is, that is captured in His name. So, using his name not in worthy manner to His being is to demean his being, his authority, his power and his will. Often, such demeaning call of God’s name comes when one sees God as a third party in our relationship. The Lord cannot be a third party in all our relationships. As he is the Lord of our lives, He is always the primary center of all of our relationships with others as a slave cannot represent himself to others without a clear approval of their master. The moment we treat him as a third party in all our relationships, we are not honoring him as our Lord and ourselves become the sole proprietary of our lives.
Overall, the Lord wants us to relate with him very personally. When we open our heart to entrain Him in the personal quarter of our lives in trust, honor and love as the sole Lord over our lives, the LORD will be happy and do His blessing profusely upon our lives. We were slaves but are now elevated to be his sons through Jesus’ atoning sacrifice for us. There is no better relationship than the one between a father and his son. So we are to relate with him in all matters of our lives in a very personal way. Jesus said of the new relationship in this way:
26 In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. 27 No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. (Joh 16:25 NIV)
This Covenant is to restore that love relationship. Eventually God did this through His son Jesus by showing life-giving love for sinners. What was broken at the fall of man, God began to lay out a plan how that relationship could be restored again. As has been explained, the Lord is not forcing anyone to obey as a slave masters do to their slaves. Rather he is asking all to make a willful decision to honor him as the LORD of all and asking all to enter into a very personal relationship with Him. In this relationship is the richness of his blessing. I want all of you come and join in this personal relationship with Him and find abounding grace and love of God pouring out on your life. The choice is ours and if we do not choose him as our Lord, then we will be our own and will live out the life under the power of sin and death; their parents who died in the desert served them a living example what they were not to do to receive the blessing, the Land of God’s Promise, flowing with milk and honey.
The fourth command is about the basic necessity to keep this relationship alive. God said to them, “Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy”. It is ‘do’ command. It is very narrowly focused and asking for an action. If the “shall not” command focuses on an internal disposition of mind, ‘do’ commands calls for an action. If one wants to follow this command, then he must move his feet and must show in action. So without action, then it is breaking the covenant. There shall be no because, no excuses, and no buts. Regardless what the situations or conditions one might hamper one to do so, he must drop all and must observe the Sabbath. This command calls to rest from all works on the seventh day. The whole household, even a slave or guest or even animals, must rest from all works to honor the Lord. It is important to recognize that the rest must be in the entire corporate body of God’s people. As a social being, each of our activities is interwoven to the activities of others. It was good when the society as a whole believed the Lord. But it is difficult when God’s people are intermingled with the unbelieving. In order to keep this command, many people of faith are to retreat to their corners in order to observe this command.
The six days belong to men but the seventh day is the Lord’s. Since it is the Lord’s, it is set apart holy and men are to partake in God’s holiness. In this way, the relationship between God and His people might be solidified to be one again and again every seven days. At this time, his demand for an action is rest, rest from all kinds of works that are needed to sustain life. This rest from all works is extended to the rest of the mind and spirit in God’s love and provisions and protections. So the Sabbath rest was set up as the center piece of human activities that sustain the relationship between God and his chosen. Not only such disposition of one’s mind according to the first three commands, but also ‘doing rest’ is essential to maintain and to keep up with their relationship with the Lord. If there comes a violation of this command, then the entire relationship between the Lord and His people would be in jeopardy. Though none of these four commands are either internal disposition of one’s mind or action, combining the first three with the fourth, God expects one to give the entirety of one’s life to the Lord. But often ‘do’ command irks our feeling because we do not want to move our feet on other’s cue, even if it is the Lord’s. But God says this;
15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.
They were slaves before God rescued them. In slavery, every day they moved and worked hard on the cue of the slave masters. So they should not think that it was too much from the Lord. Instead, they must do it with thankful hearts for it was for their blessing and came out of His love.
Having said this, how is this command applicable for us today? Paul said this to the Church in Colossae.
16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. (Col 2:14 NIV)
Does this word do away with the observing the Sabbath? Jesus said that he is the Lord of the Sabbath. In the book of Hebrews, the rest that the Sabbath purported to give never came through observing the Sabbath Command. So Jesus came and provided that rest that His people wanted to have through observing the Sabbath. In this regard, the Sabbath rest was only a shadow of the thing to come, the rest in Christ. This became obvious in the lives of the first believers for Jesus appeared to them on Sunday (Mark 16:1; John 20:1), and they began to meet on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2). Also it is good also to know that the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples on Sunday (50th day from the Passover Sabbath). So the rest that the fourth Command was purported to impart came in realty when Jesus resurrected and sent the Holy Spirit came upon the people. We worship and celebrate the Sunday (the first day of the week) and begins the week with such joy and rest in the Lord and carry it on to the rest of the week. If coming of the Holy Spirit is the seal of salvation and the proof of being one with the Lord, then we are not looking forward a certain time of the future but are enjoying our relationship with the Lord in Christ, starting from the first day of each week. It is not Christian Sabbath but it is the Lord’s Day. We are to rejoice and celebrate in joy and thankfulness.
3. Honor your father and mother (5th command)
The fifth command is one of the two ‘do’ command. The word ‘honor’ is the same word ‘glory’. Its actual meaning is ‘weight’. As we give glory to our Lord God, we must also give ‘glory to our parents as well’ i.e. we are to give our respect weighing enough to their authority that God has set from creation. They are the lords of life as far as earthling living is concerned. In them is the living knowledge and history of the past. Some of you may have never experienced hunger or life threatening circumstances. You may get indirect experience on these, from books or intuition on the things happening now. But your parents are the living witness of what it is like living hunger, and having life threatening situations. How to go about in those circumstances; you must give them the right amount of ‘kbd’ the weight or respect or honor. If not, you will be likely to make a wrong judgment. In general, no one cares for the children than the parents. So what God says;
so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the LORD your God is giving you.(16b)
God counts parents’ care for the children worthy. To those who do so, then God is also willing to give a long life and will be better off in the land of God’s blessing. In other word, if children do not honor their parents, their life would be fraught with many troubles in life. Secondly, As we noted in the word ‘honor’, the children are to learn to trust and to obey first in their relationship with their parents. This does not mean that parents are always smarter or wiser than children or more perfect than children. The purpose of God is to have an exclusive personal relationship as the Lord, as the one who created our lives. Likewise, from babyhood, children and parents relationship is set ‘exclusive, personal and ever binding relationship.’ What God purported in creating this exclusive and personal and trusting and loving relationship between parents and children is what God wants to achieve in His relationship with us, as His children. Honor your parents! It is interesting to note that this command makes the end of the first five commands that pertains to our relationship with God, the Father.
3. Have only five shall-not’s and enjoy the freedom
The next five commands are ‘shall not’ commands. Each of these forbid a particular action—murder, adultery, steal and false testimony, and covet. All these are against fellow men. This is rooted in one’s erroneous understanding of the lives of others; one thinks that
a. I have an authority over others and authorized and qualified to control over their lives including their lives.
b. I am the judge of the right or wrong.
c. I have a right to sustain my life and survive through all situations and this right is supreme one and no one can take it away.
But Paul in his letter to Romans dug up the root of such mindset. He pointed out three things:
a. Their rejection of God as the Lord and as the source of truth leads them to futile thinking and foolish hearts (1:21)
b. As they rejected God as their Lord, God handed them over in their sinful desires, the most prominent of this is sexual immorality (1:24).
c. God gave them over to a depraved mind (1:28) This depraved heart is filled with all kinds of sins as mentioned in these five ‘shall-not’ commands.
All these are resulted from rejection of the first three commands. So if one wants to understand and find a solution for them, then, the root of the problem, i.e rejection of God must be taken in to consideration. But, almost all who read these commands try to accept these simply as the code of conduct. It is true as it is. But as I mentioned, the primary focus of ‘shall not’ is the internal disposition of one’s mind. Rejection of the Lord and resulting in depraved mind creates a depot of these sins. Then one must work on one’s heart and mind if one wants to find a solution. The primary cause of uncontrollable lust and depravity derive its root in their rejection of the Lord. Non-biblical psychology makes all out efforts to put human mind in an environment where the mind of these sinfulness might be persuaded. What I mean without God. But those efforts are awfully ineffective or even counterproductive.
There is only one cure for these. The love of God! Human efforts are in effective and fail more often than not. If God is looking at our inner being, as God’s commands focus on internal disposition of one’s heart, we all are culpable to each of these sins (Matt 5: 21-22, 28). No one can escape that culpability! Simply we are all found guilty of violating the Commandment, the covenant condition.
We all are found culpable to these sins. What are we to do?
4. In His grace and patience, God allowed a time to comply (22-33)
In this concluding part of the message, Moses highlight the decision that they made when they received the Ten Commandments. Their decision came with full committed heart to the Covenant with willingness. What prompted them to do so? When God spoke this to them, God himself personally came down on the top of the Mountain Horeb in fires and spoke directly to Israel. At the foot of the mountain, Israel stood and listened to what God spoke in his own voice. His voice was loud and overwhelming upon their hearts. Also, full glory of the Lord was on the top of the mountain. At the end, they became so fearful of the Lord and said this to Moses;
24 And you said, “The LORD our God has shown us his glory and his majesty, and we have heard his voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a person can live even if God speaks with them. 25 But now, why should we die? This great fire will consume us, and we will die if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any longer. 26 For what mortal has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have, and survived? 27 Go near and listen to all that the LORD our God says. Then tell us whatever the LORD our God tells you. We will listen and obey.”
Behind the Ten Commandments was the full force of God’s glory. So when they heard the voice of God, they felt that they were dying. This meant that if the glory of God comes upon them in full force, then there would be no one surviving. It was a very fearful moment and though they experienced an amazing glory, they could not stand with the glory any longer. If they should do so, then, it would mean death for them. In fear, they requested that God speaks to Moses and then Moses convey what he receives to them. God accepted their request and let Moses stand as the intermediary between God and Israel. What were the purpose in this?
First, God allowed them to live with God’s glory even for a short period of time so that they may fear God. This was for them to feel full force of God’s glory or holiness behind the Covenant Condition, i.e. the Ten Commandments. So the Ten Commandments shall not be taken lightly. The full force behind this Covenant is God’s glory and power that consumes all unholy things.
Second, instead of God speaking directly to them in full length of this Covenant, God allowed them to have Moses as the intermediary between God and them. So Moses was the buffer between God’s holiness that demands all to be holy now or immediately and Israel who were so much sin laden and unholy. This was God’s willingness to endure temporary weaknesses and to sustain their lives even if they are not in par with God’s glory and His holiness. So says he that
30 “Go, tell them to return to their tents. 31 But you stay here with me so that I may give you all the commands, decrees and laws you are to teach them to follow in the land I am giving them to possess.”
God allowed them a time to learn from Moses and a time to implement that learning to their lives. This is God’s patience.
Romans 9:22 What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath-- prepared for destruction?
1 Peter 3:20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water,
God was patient with Israel and endured their unholy life that smeared the word of God, i.e. the Ten Commandments for over five hundred years. When they became incorrigible, God sent them an exile to Babylon according to the Covenant (Deut 28:15-68). What if God comes and do his justice upon human races now? Who or how many would survive? In his patience God sent the final intermediary, Jesus, his own son. Jesus in his patience, as the father God was, endured all abuses of sinful men so that they might know God of holiness and that he might save even the unholy and ungodly. Peter came to see the ultimate purpose of God and said this:
2 Peter 3:15 Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.
The Covenant stands then and now. As Israel failed to meet the Covenant Conditions, so all human races. As God allowed an intermediary in His grace and patience, so he did again for all human races by allowing the intermediary for the whole human races, Jesus. In Jesus, God showed the full power of His holiness, the Ten Commandments coming upon sinfulness of men. In Christ, He also showed His grace by enabling us to meet the whole Covenant conditions in the crucified body of Jesus. God is patient and graceful. While He uphold the Ten Commandment high, He is still waiting patiently and gracefully for all to come to meet Jesus, the intermediary so that they might not die but see the fruit of the Covenant Promises, the land of God’s eternal blessing. So, don’t take the Ten Commandments lightly. Do not take God’s patience as His weakness. Instead we must force our way to know and to learn what God teaches in Christ, the Son of the Living God.
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