DEUTERONOMY
Preamble to the Covenant
Deuteronomy 4:1-43
INTRODUCTION
When we come to Deuteronomy 4, we come to the concluding part of Moses' first sermon to the Israelites which began in chapter 3. The theme of these 4 chapters is Moses' call to the Israelites to accept the covenant that God wants to make with them. The covenant Moses is referring to is that between a superior and inferiors, that is, between a lord and his subjects. In the covenants of that day, the lord did not force the covenant or agreement upon the people simply because he was greater in power than they; rather he stressed that they should enter into a covenant with him because of the benefits he had bestowed upon them. Because he had given them land, security, and food, they in turn should give him their undying allegiance and loyalty. In the first 3 chapters Moses was giving the reasons the Israelites should enter into a covenant with God. He had rescued the Israelites from the bondage of Egypt, had given them a second chance even after they had rebelled at Kadesh-Barnea, and had given them victory over the 2 greatest Amorite kings (Sihon and Og0> Now in chapter 4 Moses is calling for them to respond to what God has done for them by entering into the covenant with Him.
THE CALL TO BE IN A COVENANT RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD (4:1-4)
When Moses writes, "And now" (4:1), he is referring back to the different benefits God had bestowed upon the Israelites in chapters 1-3. Now because of all He has done for them, God wants them to respond by entering into a covenant relationship with Him (keeping the statues and ordinances). Just exactly how to keep that covenant will be spelled out in chapters 5-28. It's just that right now Moses is calling the people into that initial decision to be God's people.
Once they have entered into that covenant relationship with God, they need to understand that there is to be no tampering with it once it has been ratified. They are neither to add to the covenant not take away from it. Just like any other legal document, the only way for it to be changed is for BOTH parties to agree to the changes. Well, God is not going to agree to any changes to it. Once ratified, God expects it to remain in effect permanently.
Many Christians would do well to remember this precept. Some try to get around the Bible by saying that each of us is welcome to our own interpretations. While that is true, it does not mean that each interpretation is equal in value. Rudolf Bultmann, a famous German NT theologian of the 20th century, categorically claimed that we know what the Bible says and means. He goes on to say that it's just that many people like him do not like what the Bible teaches and therefore must be reinterpreted in a way to make it satisfactory for human consumption.
When I was in Israel (2000), the tour group and I were discussing the absolute claims of Jesus, that He was God the Son and that only way to the Father was through Him. Well, one lady very condescendingly put her arm around me and informed me that she didn't really believe that. Moreover, she felt that God the Father would never really endorse such a claim. I told her that she might be right and that we will only know for sure on Judgment Day; HOWEVER, if I have any integrity, I feel that as a Christian I should correctly represent and hold to the claims of Jesus or else renounce Christianity. To claim to be a Christian, though, and not represent His teachings accurately is to be dishonest. She had no response.
As seen in the episode of the Israelite men at Baal-Peor, God takes this covenant relationship with His people very seriously. While the Israelites were moving up north through Moab on the way to their present location, some of the Moabite women had seduced many of the men and offered them sex in return for offering sacrifice to the Moabite gods. God was so angry with the Israelites because of what these men had done that He destroyed 24,000 of them in one day. Their sexual relations with the Moabite women were not what angered God, per se. It was the fact that they had broken the covenant and worshiped another god or gods. This incident was to serve as a permanent reminder that any further breach of the covenant would bring disaster upon the people.
THE RESULTS OF BEING IN COVENANT WITH GOD (4:5-8)
Moses next highlights the results of being in a covenant relationship with God. First, the covenant would bestow upon the people a wisdom which would astound the surrounding nations. As the people trusted God and followed His commandments, He would prosper them in ways the other nations had never seen before. By the time of Solomon when the Law was being honored consistently to the greatest degree, the nation had become an ancient superpower, extending from the Sinai Peninsula in the south to the Euphrates River in the northeast. The wealth of the nations flowed into Israel. Even the wise sages of that day were impressed with the wisdom Solomon exercised over his kingdom.
Second, by entering into this covenant, Moses promised that the Israelites were going to gain a tremendous reputation among the rest of the nations. The rest of the nations would be singularly impressed with the different laws and commandments contained in the covenant. This promise was actually fulfilled. As the Jews began to spread throughout the rest of the world due to the Babylonian and Greek dispersions, they took their Law with them and taught the rest of the world the different statutes in the Law. Many of the Gentiles were amazed at the wisdom contained in the Law and actually forsook idolatry and accepted Judaism as their religion. Another 1500 years later when Paul began to preach the gospel, he discovered that the most fertile field for Christian converts was the Gentiles who had been influenced by the synagogues. Although the Jews themselves tended to have an odious reputation among the Gentiles, their Law and covenant with God did not.
Finally, the covenant demonstrated that unlike the gods of other religions, the God of the Israelites was near to His people. God's nearness to the Israelites was seen in His coming to them at Mt. Sinai and in His answering their prayers. Moses asks a rhetorical question: "For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as is the Lord our God whenever we call on Him?" The expected answer is "None!" The close relationship Israel shared with her God was unmatched by other religions.
If you wanted to draw up a simple outline of the Bible, it would have as its theme: "Getting closer to God" or "God getting closer to us" because the Bible is essentially about God getting closer and closer to His people. In the OT God was out there in a spatial sense speaking to his people through the prophets. When Jesus came, though, God actually lived among us; He is so among us in Jesus that Jesus is actually called “Immanuel,” which means “God with us.” With Pentecost God now actually lives in us. While at times I think it would be wonderful to have lived 2000 years ago and walked with Jesus along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus reminds us that we actually have it better now since He lives in us (John 16:7). When Christ returns, there will be nothing which separates us from God. Sin, the major barrier in our relationship with God now, will be permanently eradicated and we shall actually then see the Father face to face (Rev. 22:4).
THE COMMAND TO REJECT IDOLATRY (4:9-24)
Next, Moses highlights the major element of the covenant, the worship of God alone and a total rejection of any form of idolatry. Moses first tells them to remember what they experienced at Mt. Sinai when He had met with them. At the mountain they had seen darkness, gloom, and whirlwind; however, they had not seen any form or image of God. All they had heard was a voice. As a result, they were not to worship any other God; nor were they to make an image to represent Him.
Moses' first call for us to remember is significant. Too many times God speaks to us and deals with us in a wonderful way, and then we forget. We are like little children sometimes who play with one toy, get tired of it, and then junk it trying to find something else more exciting to play with. It is OK to have that attitude with some things but NOT with our relationship with God. These encounters with God need to be treasured because they are His way of teaching us valuable, long-lasting truths in our lives.
I got convicted about this and started to make a list of the wonderful things God has done in my life. I remember that when I was 13 and moved to England, my teachers thrust me into third-year French and third-year German classes. I sat in class in shock. I had no idea of what was going on. One Sunday, though, as we were waiting for the bus to take us to church, a light turned on in my head and I basically understood the way the 2 languages worked. I still had to learn vocabulary; however, I had basically understood the 2 languages. For the next 2+ years I studied hard and did really well in my language studies.
Then one March afternoon my dad called me at the house and asked me how I felt about moving back home to Texas. Well, I didn't want to. My life was great in England, and I didn't want it to change; however, our home was not a democracy and within a few weeks I found myself on a plane headed back for Texas. Now we did not end up in Houston as we originally thought; not did we end up in Dallas. Instead, we ended up in Lancaster, Texas. Neither at first did we end up in the town of Lancaster; instead we ended up out in the countryside, miles from everything. It was hot. We had moved from one of the greatest cities in the world, London, and within 24 hours I was living out in the middle of nowhere. Every day I would ride the country bus to school. In the afternoons one girl named Carrie, a senior who ruled the bus, would shout out: "Hey, England! Come here and speak some English to me!" To put it mildly, I was not in heaven. The school I went to offered Spanish and a remedial form of French. Three years of intense language study had been wasted.
Twelve years later I was preparing to enter the Ph.D. program at SWBTS. In order to qualify for the program, you had to pass several exams. One set of exams tested you on the knowledge you gained during your master's program. The other set of exams consisted of language exams. The 2 exams covered—are you ready for this?—French and German. I took a little refresher course for the German exam and did not study one bit for the French exam. The German exam required translating 4 pages of German into English. I sat down and started translating. I was the first one finished. I just got up and turned in the exam to the prof. Later, I got the results and to my delight found out that I had passed with flying colors.
A few months later I found out how well I really did. The professors did not expect for us to be able to translate all 4 pages. They had expected us to translate only pages 1 and 4 because pages 2 and 3 were written in Old German. I was the only one to translate all 4 pages. That's how well the Lord had prepared me in England. The 3 years of intensive language study had not been wasted; the Lord had been preparing me all along for those exams.
That's what God is doing in most of our lives right now. Many times little things happen which seem insignificant to us; however, God is simply laying down the foundation right now for a major future event. When He taps into the past to make something wonderful happen in the present, we need to remember what He has done. A day will come when it will seem like you are in the wilderness and that God may have forgotten you. Remember, though, the past because the God who was with you then has not deserted you but will do something marvelous in your life at the right time.
(We will bypass for now the injunctions regarding idol worship since we will take this up in more detail when we study the 10 Commandments in chapter 5.)
Moses concludes by informing the Israelites what would happen to them if they broke the covenant by engaging in idol worship: God would disperse them among the nations. This was no idle threat. The Israelites from the time of Moses (1400 BC) until the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem (586 BC) dabbled heavily in idol worship. In fact in 721 BC the 10 northern tribes (the northern kingdom named "Israel") were destroyed by the Assyrians because of idol worship. After the catastrophe in 586 BC when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and Solomon's Temple and exiled the Jewish people to Babylon, the Jews renounced for all time the making of images and idols.
Unfortunately as we shall study next week, the Jews then engaged in another form of idol worship. They created a view of God which was not true. The god they constructed would never suffer and die on a cross; neither would he ever become a man. As a result, when God did become a Man and did suffer on Calvary, they rejected Him. At that point God destroyed the nation of Israel in 70 AD and dispersed the Jews throughout the rest of the world. They were not able to rebuild their nation until 1948 AD, 1878 years later.
God did not discipline the people in order to harm them though. Just like a parent disciplines his children for the sake of the child, so God disciplined the nation of Israel for its own good.