Deuteronomy
5:1-21; 6:4-9
Moses called out to all Israel, saying to them:
“Israel! Listen to the regulations and the case laws that I’m recounting in
your hearing right now. Learn them and carefully do them. 2 The
Lord our God made a covenant with us at Mount Horeb. 3 The Lord
didn’t make this covenant with our ancestors but with us—all of us who are here
and alive right now. 4 The Lord spoke with you face-to-face on
the mountain from the very fire itself. 5 At that time, I was
standing between the Lord and you, declaring to you the Lord’s word, because
you were terrified of the fire and didn’t go up on the mountain.”
The Lord said:
6 I am the Lord your God,
who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
7 You must have no other
gods before[a] me. 8 Do
not make an idol for yourself—no form whatsoever—of anything in the sky above
or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. 9 Do
not bow down to them or worship them because I, the Lord your God, am a
passionate God. I punish children for their parents’ sins—even to the third and
fourth generations of those who hate me. 10 But I am loyal and
gracious to the thousandth generation[b] of
those who love me and keep my commandments.
11 Do not use the Lord your
God’s name as if it were of no significance; the Lord won’t forgive anyone who
uses his name that way.
12 Keep the Sabbath day and
treat it as holy, exactly as the Lord your God commanded: 13 Six
days you may work and do all your tasks, 14 but the seventh day
is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. Don’t do any work on it—not you, your sons
or daughters, your male or female servants, your oxen or donkeys or any of your
animals, or the immigrant who is living among you—so that your male and female
servants can rest just like you. 15 Remember that you were a
slave in Egypt, but the Lord your God brought you out of there with a strong
hand and an outstretched arm. That’s why the Lord your God commands you to keep
the Sabbath day.
16 Honor your father and
your mother, exactly as the Lord your God requires, so that your life will be
long and so that things will go well for you on the fertile land that the Lord
your God is giving you.
18 Do not commit adultery.
19 Do not steal.
20 Do not testify falsely
against your neighbor.
21 Do not desire and try to
take your neighbor’s wife.
Do not crave your neighbor’s house, field, male
or female servant, ox, donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.
5 Love the Lord your God
with all your heart, all your being, and all your strength. 6 These
words that I am commanding you today must always be on your minds. 7 Recite
them to your children. Talk about them when you are sitting around your house
and when you are out and about, when you are lying down and when you are
getting up. 8 Tie them on your hand as a sign. They should be
on your forehead as a symbol.[b] 9 Write
them on your house’s door-frames and on your city’s gates.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Introduction:
There are many individuals who have been wrongly
imprisoned for crimes they did not commit. Thankfully, due to DNA evidence,
many of these men and women are able to be vindicated and released. Imagine being such a person, spending years
“inside” and now, suddenly, you are back into the world, a free person. But the
challenges are certainly not at an end.
Even with the help and support of family and friends, the drastic
changes that freedom brings could also create terrifying challenges. Imagine if
a released prisoner had no support system or community?
In the movie The
Shawshank Redemption, a film set inside a prison in Maine, an inmate named
“Red” and his friends talk about a fellow prisoner who committed suicide after
being on “the outside” for a short amount of time after his release. The others
can’t understand it, but Red tries to explain to them how freedom could be so
terrifying: “These walls are funny. First you hate 'em, then you get used to 'em.
After long enough, you get so you depend on 'em. That's 'institutionalized.'”
Freedom can be terrifying, uncharted territory for someone who has known only servitude.
The people of Israel had been slaves in Egypt for
many generations. Last week’s lesson from Exodus said that the Egyptians “made
their lives miserable with hard labor, making mortar and bricks, doing field
work, and by forcing them to do all kinds of other cruel work.” (Ex. 1:14) God
has liberated them from slavery through the leadership of Moses and his brother
Aaron but freedom was a huge challenge for these former slaves. They complain often about the lack of food,
the lack of water and the danger that comes from other nations.
God knew that the people of Israel not only
needed to be saved from slavery, they
needed to be saved for a
purpose. They needed direction, meaning
and support. The “regulations” that
Moses brings to the people from God are not meant to be another form of
slavery; they are meant to provide a way of life that will help the people make
the most of their freedom.
The
Technical Stuff:
The people of Israel wandered in the wilderness
for forty years after their liberation from slavery. There were many hardships,
escapades and “scrapes” along the way and on more than one occasion either
Moses or God grew exasperated with the Israelites’ lack of faith and/or
grumbling. Finally, God prepared to lead them into the “Promised Land” of
Canaan. Deuteronomy is Moses’ “farewell address.” The title of the book (as we
have it today) comes from the Greek expression deuteros nomos, which means “second law,” and hence “Deuteronomy.” Moses gave the “law” or
“Torah” to the people in the Book of Exodus, which says this took place on
Mount Sinai. Deuteronomy recalls this, but calls the location “Mount Horeb.”
This is one of the confusing aspects of Scripture: it’s the same mountain with
two different names.
“Torah,” or “Law” can also be translated as
“instruction” or “teaching” and it is an extremely important, but complicated
concept. There is not time to go into detail here, but “Torah” became a way of
life for the Israelites, whose descendants will be named “the Jews.” There is also the very important concept of a
“covenant” between God and the people. A
covenant is “a solemn commitment guaranteeing promises or obligations
undertaken by one or both covenanting parties.” (Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch, 139) In our own lives,
one of the best example of a “covenant” is marriage, where two people make a
commitment based on promises and obligations. Again and again the LORD has made
‘covenants’ with the ancestors of the Israelites: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Now
the LORD is making a covenant with the people before they enter the “Promised
Land.”
The “law” or “instruction” is prefaced with this
statement from the LORD: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt,
out of the house of slavery.” All of God’s “requirements” come out of the fact
that the LORD is the one who has given them freedom and a new life. In other
words, the LORD answers the question, “Why should we listen to you?” before it
can be asked. Many will ask if there is “grace” in the Old Testament, usually
after they have read about the LORD’s wrath against “sinners.” It is important to remember, however, that
“Israel understood its own life as a community to be in response to God’s
saving activity” according to Professor Bruce Birch (Let Justice Roll Down, 174). The relationship that the people had
with God all started with God’s saving act, with God’s grace.
Then come the two sets of “laws” in our lesson
for today. The first will look very familiar: it is the second recitation of
the “Ten Commandments” (also called the “Decalogue”). It was first given to the
people by Moses in Exodus after the people had reached Mount Sinai, and now
Moses is giving it again, before they enter the Promised Land. “Its
stipulations provide the foundational definition of an appropriate relationship
between the Israelites and God and among individual Israelites under the terms
of the covenant.” (Dictionary of the Old
Testament: Pentateuch, 171) In other words, now that the people are free,
they need to know how to live out their freedom. The Ten Commandments gives
them the foundation they need.
The second section of our lesson is centered
around one of the most important verses of the Old Testament: “Israel, listen!
Our God is the Lord! Only the Lord!” (Deut. 6:4) This verse is called “the
Shema” (after the Hebrew “Sh’ma Yisrael”
or “Hear, O Israel!”) and it is a prime example Israel’s relationship with the
LORD). To this day, observant Jews consider this to be the most important part
of the prayer service and say it twice daily. As an observant Jew, Jesus prayed
this along with his disciples. It is almost impossible to overstate the
importance of this verse.
Jesus was also asked to give the greatest
commandment, and he replied with Deuteronomy 6:5, “You shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with your mind.’ This is
the greatest and first commandment.” (Matthew 22:37-38) He goes on to say, “And
a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two
commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:39-40) When you
look at the commandments found either in Exodus or Deuteronomy, you’ll find that
the ten are divided into ways to treat God, and ways to treat the people around
you. In other words, Jesus was absolutely right.
What
Does This Say to Us?
Just like the Israelites and so many other people
before us, we need to have freedom for
something, not just freedom from something. As Christians we are reminded that “For by
grace you have been saved by faith, and this is not your own doing: it is the
gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Galatians
2:8) Just as the Israelites were saved from slavery by God (and not from
anything they did), we are saved by God through Jesus Christ while we were
still sinners. But the question comes up, “Now what? Now that I am saved, how
should I live my life?” In other words, “How do I look at the commands of God,
now that I’m saved?”
Christians have many different ways of describing
this, but I prefer to use something called “The Three Uses of the Law” that
comes from the Lutheran Book of Concord
(although, to be clear, not all LUTHERANS agree on this…and it’s found in other
theologies too, but I’m a Lutheran so that’s where I’m starting). The Law of
God has three different uses: the first is the usual, everyday use. The Law
keeps people in line and orders society so that there isn’t chaos.
Non-Christians and non-religious people follow the Law to some extent. With the
second use, the Law is like a mirror which shows us our sin. The Law shows us
that we cannot satisfy God’s requirements on our own. In other words, the Law
shows us that we need grace, that we need Jesus Christ. The third use involves
how we live, now that we are saved. Like the people of Israel, we need a guide,
a way of life, that will help us to live as God intended for us to live. We’ll
follow it imperfectly, we’ll continually need God’s grace, but we can use the
Law as a way of life. So, in shorthand, the three uses are: a curb
that keeps our bad behavior under-check, a mirror that shows us how messed up
we are and our need of grace, and a guide that shows us how to live in a
way that pleases God.
Freedom can be terrifying, uncharted territory
for someone who has known only servitude. That servitude can be physical or
spiritual, or BOTH, but thanks be to God that we have been given freedom for a purpose, not just freedom from evil.
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