Well, I'm going to go ahead and get started. Maybe we'll see people showing up either way. It's recorded So let's go ahead and get started. Let's start with a word of prayer father and heaven. We thank you for your goodness We thank you for your word. We thank you. We can take this hour to study your word How we pray that it would be transformative for us and pleasing in your side. Give us your spirit. We pray in Jesus name Amen. Amen. All right. The book of Deuteronomy. I'm excited to teach. I hope that you are as well It is the final book of the pen to took. Pen to took just literally means five books and the pen to took is the first five books of your Bible Genesis Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. So Deuteronomy stands in the fifth place Also in the Hebrew canon there are three sections of Scripture just like in the New Testament the Christian understanding We have the gospels and the book of Acts and the epistles while in Jewish way of understanding the Old Testament you have the Torah, the law sometimes, the prophets, the neveem, and the writings The Katsubin. And so Deuteronomy would be the last book of the Torah, the law. The name of the book comes from the Greek translation of the Old Testament verse In Deuteronomy 1718 which says also it shall be when he the king sits on the throne of his kingdom that he shall write for himself here it is a copy of this law in a book From the one before the priest the Levites and so that phrase copy law in Greek is Deuteronomy on Deuteronomy on which literally means second law, Deuteron second, Namos or Namion law. And so that comes into the Latin translation of the Bible which became the Bible in the west for a thousand years Deuteronomyum, Deuteronomyum and so that's where we get the English word Deuteronomy So we titled the book after the Greek which is reflected in the Latin Deuteronomy and the good thing about the title Deuteronomy second law is it assumes there was an earlier first law and that's good But it's somewhat misleading if we think second law is another law because it's not that. That's why it's translated in English the king shall write for himself not a second law But a copy of this law because the word in Hebrew mission can mean second or copy and so Some scholars have said they're going to the English title Deuteronomy is a little bit can be misleading if you're thinking oh this is a second law God you know Exodus the Ten Commandments that was the first law and this is now the second law and that would be a misunderstanding of the translation of the book Now the Hebrew name is simply taking the first two words the first words of the first verse of the book and that's the way all of the Hebrew books are named They look at the first word or the first main word of the first verse and then the book gets its name from that and so in Hebrew it's not called Deuteronomy It's called a la hada verine a la hada verine that's the name of this book and it simply means these are the words because if you start to read in Deuteronomy The first thing you'll read are these are the words of Moses and so a la these the bad the bear but in the plural had the bear had the name the words and we supply the are these are the words but literally in Hebrew these the words and that's the name of the book And that's true again for most of the Hebrew books and the Hebrew canon the first two words the first word in the text you know like in Genesis Braith sheath is in the beginning that's the name of the book so the book has never been in question as far as the canon goes By the way the Jews have had some questions concerning their canon when I say canon I mean that we know it's inspired right there have been New Testament books that have been questioned over the years whether or not they are inspired and you can read about that in the Charlie church even some people weren't sure about second Peter or about the book of James or even the book of Revelation are they really inspired And so those questions had to be settled well there was a few books in the Jewish canon that were questions throughout history Especially the book of Esther which doesn't actually appear in the Dead Sea Scrolls it's the only book not to appear at the Dead Sea Scrolls And the Song of Solomon also was questioned by Jewish rabbis and you can understand why it's such a passionate song about the love between a man and a woman that it can be somewhat scandalous And some rabbi thought that weren't sure that it ought to be in the canon but no there's no record that any Jewish rabbi scholar counsel or anything else has ever questioned the book of Deuteronomy Deuteronomy it is central to the Torah and to the scriptures as well in fact if you understand some of the Jewish movements some of the other books outside of the Torah like the Sadducees they didn't accept anything outside the Torah And the Samaritans didn't accept anything outside the Torah that's why you have the Samaritan Penta took and you don't have the Samaritan Navine because they didn't accept the prophets But no one's ever questioned no Jewish scholars ever questioned the authenticity the canonicity of the book of Deuteronomy Now I want to talk a little bit about higher criticism because that really comes into play in these first five books And maybe you've been troubled by that maybe you haven't and if you haven't awesome but if you have I just want to speak to that a little bit So higher criticism of scripture arose in principle in the Enlightenment so in the 1600s as man begins to look to the natural sciences and reason to be able to explain everything He begins to look at the Bible and says well we should be able to explain the Bible in terms of natural processes and reason and so higher criticism in principle really begins in the Enlightenment but doesn't come into actual being until really the tubogen school in the 19th century under FC Bauer and Julius Velhausen and the documentary hypothesis also in the 19th century also in Germany So Germany gets the credit for the Reformation and it also gets the blame for higher criticism and lower criticism is good that's what Bible believing scholars engage in all the time so we compare scripture with scripture What's the form what's the context and we try to determine meaning by these lower criticism which respects the text as inspired but recognizes that it has a meaning that we need to find and there are tools that we can use in the science of her minutics Higher criticism is not that higher criticism says there is no inspiration therefore how do we explain humanly speaking these books and so it's very destructive it's really an act of unbelief higher criticism is rejected by all conservative Bible believing scholars but that's all you'll find in the major universities around the world or in any seminary major seminary mainline seminary I should say higher criticism is just accepted if you go to some secular school they'll just look at the higher critics and say well this is how the Bible came to be and they won't even consider things like inspiration So the early form of higher criticism rejected all of the Old Testament books being written before the Ezra school or the period of the exile and restoration of Israel back into the land and so they would say none of the books were written before for 500 BC and I think about that that's that's really destructive to scripture because we believe Moses wrote these books right and these books were written in the time of David and things like that Prophets were writing but they said no none of this there was some maybe some core oral you know thing passed down but it was just legend and stories and then Ezra with his concerns for reforming Israel writes all these books and that was the original form and then you had this documentary hypothesis form that I just give you the JEDP if you've ever gone to seminary or listened you'll hear JEDP when you say what in the world is that and again that's the idea that there was an original kernel of oral transmission that people said was inspired or God's word and it got written in some original form that we don't have any manuscript evidence for but then you get all these different schools of editors that come through and they take that form and they recognize that people respect it and so they want to use it for their own purposes and so they added it they redact it you'll hear a lot about redactors to reflect their own concerns and desires and so the JEDP stands for the Yahwehist school and so they believe again that this is this is all made up out of whole cloth okay but I'm this is taken for fact and and universities and seminaries around the world that there was this Yahwehist school and they took that original core that people believe was a word of God and they redacted it changed it to reflect their interests and their desires and of course they're known for the Yahweh name of God the all capitals Lord and so you know this editor or the critics say that whenever you see that emphasize that evidence of the Yahwehist school changing scripture and then you have the Elohimist school and of course Yahweh and Elohim are names of God and so when you see the name Elohim a lot the critics will say critics will say well that's evidence that a second group came through the Elohimist and they had certain interests and they changed scripture to reflect their concerns and then there's the Deuteronomy school there's an entire school of Deuteronomy so we're looking at the book of Deuteronomy that's why I thought this would be important to bring out and they had their concerns and much of the book of Deuteronomy includes that but you can find their fingerprints in the other books the critics say they're going there keen imagination for all this nonsense and then you have the priestly school and whenever you seek sacrifice and worshiping emphasize and in any of the books of the Bible that's evidence that this priestly school of redactors and editors went through and changed the text again and that's taken as just absolute fact in seminaries around I know you've never heard that right that's just a fact in universities, seminaries this is the way scripture came to be there's no evidence for any of it there's no like core manuscript that we find before this or that redactors school came through it's just complete garbage and it's the arrogance of modernism that just again puts this on and this way they can carve up scripture and say it wasn't written by one person it was all these different groups coming through and editing it and changing it you can see why so many young people when they get into schools and they get into the seminaries they become unbelievers when they leave because this is just a blatant attack and rejection of inspiration but Deuteronomy is very important in this theory so I thought I'd bring it up to you and so that's what they say at first later the later critics what's great about studying higher criticism is you you'll find each generation comes along and says how dumb the ones before were and they change the theories so you can use them to refute each other and people like CS Lewis was very or very skilled at doing that and using them to refute the ones that came after but the second like later group started to say now there's way too much evidence that there was an earlier books of revelation before that return of the captivity and so what began to be said about Deuteronomy in particular and that's what I want to focus on obviously is that well Deuteronomy was written not by Ezra and he scribes but actually it was written during the time of Josiah and they referred in the text itself and give them credit for actually looking at the text for change and they found some verses like in Second Kings 22, 8 and Second Chronicles 34, 14 where this book is found at the time of Jeremiah or I'm sorry at the time of Josiah which is also the time of Jeremiah actually but they find this book and they say oh see that refers to the fact and that's the editor's redactors writing back in that they wrote the book then but they're saying that it was found you know because they're all liars I mean this is just absurd I mean think of it they're lying they're saying they found this book of antiquity but they themselves actually wrote it but this is how they fool people into believing that it was actually given by Moses so I mean they have such a ridiculous view but it's interesting because then the generation after that of higher critics they say no no no it wasn't written out of whole cloth at Josiah's time because that's absurd there was a kernel of truth of the book of Deuteronomy there was some core you know like Q in the New Testament there was some core manuscript tradition that goes back before Josiah but what happens at Josiah's time is a lot more stuff gets put in it and it gets this great editing and redacting that happens but what's interesting is they're getting closer to the literal to the actual view that we have in the church and that the Jews have in their tradition that Moses wrote this book a long time ago because they started in the 400's 500's it came into being and then in the 700's it came into being and now it's well it came into being before that but it got you know changed more so they are slowly getting there maybe before Christ returns they'll actually get back to the truth that the facts actually line up with but we'll see but the big problem with their view the big attack on scripture is that the unity of the book comes much later I mean even the latest view says there was still editing and redacting done at the time of Ezra and so they basically will go as far back as they the manuscript evidence allows them because we have copies of Deuteronomy fragments of many many fragments of Deuteronomy's from the Dead Sea Scrolls that go back to 300 BC so they can't go any earlier than that and say it came into being because the evidence is actually existing that they can't it was already in its form in 300 BC so that stops them but they go all the way up really until that point but the unity of the book is what's being attacked in the antiquity of the book but what I want to tell you right from the beginning here is that we can look at the same linguistic what they do is they look at linguistic patterns, word usage, hapex, lagamanon, that's a neat word that just means the first time we see a word appear in scripture it's a word that has no other word in scripture it's its only word so they'll see that and they'll make all sorts of conclusions that actually don't follow then they'll look at ancient stela's, they hit tight manuscripts, eugenic Egyptian, all these other fragments they can find and they'll use that to try to theorize and they'll completely ignore the uniform, rabbinical and the uniform tradition, Christian tradition going back Christian's 1500 years going, the Jewish tradition going back 2500 years that Moses wrote all of it, all right, Moses wrote all except for the very end that talks about his death but they reject that and they make, there's all this subjectivity in evaluating the so-called, you know, objective things like linguistic patterns and word uses there's all kinds of subjectivity involved in that and so you know they claim to be objective but they're not, they're subjective and they subjectively reject the uniform tradition which I find troubling because to me that's like, that's valuing machine over man, well I'm going to believe this rock that I'm going to make all these conclusions about that's completely subjective right, you know I dig up these rocks and that tells me whatever and yet I have all of this written record of human history where you know all these scholars are saying no Moses wrote it, Moses wrote it and I reject all that and I'm going to make these subjective conclusions on what I want to believe already and there's a lot of circular reasoning involved in higher criticism too so for example they'll say literary analysis determines the sources so it can't be Moses, it's got to be all these editors because we see Yahweh used a lot, well that has to be a Yahweh school and Elohim is used a lot, well that has to be an Elohim school which is absurd again and so they'll use literary analysis to determine the sources but then they'll take the sources and they'll say that determines an evolution of religion in all these different schools so you say one proves this and then that same one proves it, proves it back and so it's circular and you can't and it's illogical at that point but what I want to show you under Roman numerals three is that the textual marks of this book show forth both antiquity and unity and there's been some neat things that have been done that have refuted the higher critics on different levels and so forth one of the most significant things that have been done and Meredith Klein, great you know reform scholar and I don't believe everything Klein did but in this field of higher criticism Meredith Klein is one of the big time good guys because what he has done is studying a lot of these near eastern records and in particular this near eastern suzerain basil tree that we know is covenant and we see it all over the place you know this great king comes in and he takes over this smaller region and he declares to them what he has done and why he's done it and what they're going to do now what he's going to do and they enter into this covenant ceremony we've been looking at a little bit of that in Genesis well there's all sorts of records now that we're finding of these ancient you know hit tight in Egyptian and even later as Syrian, suzerain basil, covenantal ceremonies and records that have been entered into and we have the fragments of these things and they go back to the third and second millennium BC and here's the structure I want to learn to notice it in letter A here we see this over and over again and this is the ancient structure this would be the second millennia BC structure of the suzerain basil covenantal ceremony that would be entered into in many places in the ancient Near East there would be a preamble and so these are the words of the great you know king so and so blah blah blah and then there would be the historical prologue you know I entered into this land and I rescued you from the professor from the oppressors and this is what happened at the battle of so and so and so it goes back and it looks at all the things that this king who's now declaring this treaty upon you it's a it's a sovereignly imposed treaty but it gives you certain rights and I like the magnet card up and so that's what this these documents are over and over again and we and we can see these structure preamble historical prologue then there are the general stipulations about why you know the great laws that he's giving and he in the future is related to the past right so these laws remain and this is what you will do in the future and then it summarizes the purpose of all these specific stipulations and that's called the specific stipulation ceremonies where you'll get when you buy you know a canoe from so and so you have to go to this place and do this and so all this specific stuff to regulate commerce and other things like that that's in the treaty and then there will be witnesses of the deities whatever gods of the land they'll bear witness remember that was I showed you were Moses I'm sorry where God causes the smoking oven and the burning torch to pass between the parts remember Abram had to cut those parts and the symbolism was anybody that passes between the parts says I will tear myself apart let the gods tear me apart like these animals if I don't keep my part of the treaty that's the calling together the witnesses of the deities and then the blessings and the cursings the cursings literally but there will be sometimes stipulations of cursings that go if you do this this will happen and if you do this here's the blessing and so forth so blessings and cursings sometimes there will be some other parts there will be public reading that would be mandated every year every four years you have to read this treaty again ceremonies that they would enter into to again re covenant with God and there will be renewals and procedures but this is the basic outline of ancient it type and Egyptian what we call near eastern because far eastern would be like China and Korea near eastern treaties treaties covenantal treaties Sussan Vassal ceremonies covenant now interestingly what client and some of the other scholars have shown and demonstrated and even the higher critics have to accept it is that the entire book of Deuteronomy fits this structure now that's huge okay so you can show for example chapter one verses one to five that's the preamble the book literally starts with these are the words which Moses spoke a clear preamble just like we see over and over again in these hit tight theories or hit tight ceremonies and then there is the historical prologue beginning in verse six the Lord our God spoke to us in horror saying you have dwelt long enough at this mountain that was 40 years earlier Korb is Sinai so immediately after the preamble Moses goes into what God did for Israel at Sinai the historical prologue for what's about to come all right then you get the general stipulations beginning in chapter five all the way through chapter 11 of Deuteronomy chapter five the general stipulations the ten commandments all right and then all of the laws that flow from that all kind of specific situations the specific stipulations are two chapter 12 chapters 12 through 26 chapters 27 and 28 are blessings and cursings famously you can read out you know blessed are you when you do this blessed are you when you do that cursed are you if you do this that's in our book and then God himself witnesses this whole and then all structure of the book of Deuteronomy in chapter 30 verse 19 in chapter 31 verse 19 in 21 and 22 and 26 and 32 let me just read some of those so that you can see God himself calling witnesses to what's going on so 30 verse 19 I call heaven and earth as witness today against you all right and then 31 verse 19 now therefore write down this song for yourselves and teach it to their children put it in their mouths that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel and so forth and just keeps repeating this witness idea over and over again and all of chapter 32 the song of Moses is given as a witness a witness of God against Israel in this covenantal stipulation structure now the ramifications I said of this are are huge what this says is the book of Deuteronomy has to be ancient because it matches the ancient near Eastern Hittite treaty and not the later one see that the critics have responded back saying well the Assyrians in the 700s they too had the ceremonial covenantal structures and a lot of the things are found in it yes but there's there's never historical prologues in the Assyrian version in the 700s and the divine witnesses aren't there in the Assyrian version Assyrians were arrogant they didn't need to come in and say what they did for you they're just to say you'll do it I mean the Syria was a brutal empire and they didn't need the God's coldness so they didn't have that and they and the Assyrians awesomely had cursings but no blessings in their covenants that's awesome right but see that what what I'm saying is the book of Deuteronomy has all the marks of the ancient structure do you see that so the antiquity of the book is witness to by the fact that it has this structure and you you can't deny that it has this structure and that also argues against the higher critical assumption of constant editing and redacting because you can't do that when the entire structure of the book is a covenantal ceremony I mean do you see that ramifications of this kind of scholarship I mean I just get chills when I think about it. The book has to be whole it has to be unified you can't have guys going through in the 700s and changing it and in the 400s and changing it again when the entire thing from the first chapter of the end is a structure of a covenantal ceremony exactly the kind that you see in the 1500s and 1700s in the white countries and in Egypt itself it has that and so you know again since Deuteronomy is one of the main books and the whole documentary hypothesis centers on this book I wanted to use this book to show you how conservative scholarship is refuting the higher critics and they haven't really given an answer yet to this other than trying to climb out it's more according to the Assyrian form of the Hittite treaty and it's not it's not the Assyrian treaty it's more the Hittite and the Egyptian treaty because of those qualifications so another indication of Deuteronomy's presence and weight and antiquity and authority is that at cumram the Dead Sea we know where the Dead Sea Scrolls are found Deuteronomy shows up more than any other book. The Assyrians remember the Assyrians had a lot of you know they loved laws and they had their own like law codes and books and rules and regulations but you there are so many fragments of Deuteronomy all over the place and again many of them ancient two or three hundred BC and extremely accurate before the Dead Sea Scrolls the earliest complete manuscript that we had a Deuteronomy was dated to 1,009 AD that's only a thousand years ago and that's you know I've got to think 2,500 if I'm doing it right if 1500 BC is a time of Moses roughly so that's 2,500 years right before it was written I mean after it was written so how in the world could it possibly be accurate well with the Dead Sea Scrolls we go from 1,009 AD to 300 BC and those fragments are exactly what we have 1,1300 years later the the differences that you find are minor or orthography differences spelling punctuation but not words not documents and so nobody can deny since we found these so many fragments of Deuteronomy in the Dead Sea Scrolls that the Dead Sea Scrolls show that this book really is accurate even though the latest masoretic text we have is 1,009 AD so also in the New Testament at least the 3rd most book quoted of the Old Testament is Deuteronomy it might be more because there are some oblique references but Isaiah would be first the Psalms second and then Deuteronomy the 3rd most quoted book and not only that but Deuteronomy is quoted and referred to in all three parts of the New Testament canon the gospels the book of Acts and the epistles and the book of Revelation all have quotes of Deuteronomy also important in this understanding of Deuteronomy and seeing its ancientness and uniform nature is early war philosophy especially that you see in Deuteronomy 20 that we see again in other nations about 1,500 BC that for example Deuteronomy 20 the whole instruction on war and this has been called the war philosophy of the Old Testament or at least of the Exodus period notice verse chapter 20 begins with when you go out to war against your enemies so the whole chapter is concerned with war theory and the war in Deuteronomy is entirely offensive that's significant when you come to a city and besiege it and you offer terms of surrender because in 500 BC or in 700 BC Israel's not going out conquering anything they're defending against the Syria and Babylon against their hostile neighbors after they get back in after the exile is over in the 500s and 400s there's no offensive war so if the book again is written recently then it makes no sense that the entire structure of war is all about offensiveness which is what Israel's doing when they're coming into the land they've got to take over the land and so this book again within the book gives itself evidence that clearly this is given at the time of the Exodus and not hundreds of years later when Israel's on the defense and not on the offense plus some of the things like if it's a non-professional army they don't have soldiers full-time soldiers they have citizens who are going to war that is early because as soon as Israel gets a king they have a professional army you're a professional soldier Deuteronomy only knows war with non-professional volunteer citizens like America started out with in the revolutionary war plus the command to execute all the males and take the women that's similar to other second century millennium war theory and practice of the eastern Near Eastern nations one more argument for and just evidence for Israel's or the antiquity and unity of the book is the poetic passages poetry is accepted by the critics as being largely free from redaction and updating because the form of poetry is determinative if you change the form it doesn't work so you can't camper with poetry so many of the songs that you see and if you compare the song of Miriam for example in Exodus 15 with some of the songs of Deuteronomy it's clearly the same era it's clearly the same events that they're talking about it's the mosaic period and so also God appearing as king in both Exodus and Deuteronomy God is king over Israel in later concerns they wanted to establish and show forth the Davidic kingdom God is warrior again in both of these books Exodus and Deuteronomy and so the common analogy and the critical view that their centuries apart when clearly they're the same error is assaulted by the book itself so let's get a room in a more for occasion and structure now think of this this is where it gets personal right now a lot of that stuff was technical background and maybe some of you are like I want to bring you back now okay come back from your thoughts you were blocking all of that out but that really is important and I know some of you do get challenged by that so I was trying to give you that background for a reason but now we're going to get into stuff that we're all interested in think of it Israel is on the plains of Moab that's east of the Jordan they're about to enter the promised land that's the occasion of this book it's after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness and the previous generation their fathers were at this same point 40 years earlier and they failed all right so that's the urgency and the structure and the occasion here is they're about to enter the land and you can divide the book in structure into three great speeches of Moses the historical review from chapters one to four the law from five to 29 if we include both general and specific when I looked at more the Hittite Treaty structure and then covenants are renewal including blessings and cursings and witnesses in 29 through 33 and that's the three major sections of the book the book's been called a law book because of all the commands it's been called a series of sermons because there are three big speeches of Moses it's been called the national constitution of Israel it's been called a system of catechesis because throughout the book it talks about teach this to your children and speak these things to your children and so a preservation of the faith the teaching of the faith and it's all spent so also been noticed as I pointed out already as it this great covenantal renewal ceremony so what is it? what is Deuteronomy? it's a really unique book because it's got all these different features and as I said they're on the plains they're in the plains of Moab they're east of the Jordan and then Moses gives this long flashback to four decades earlier when they were at Hora when their fathers were there they were at Sinai and Hora of Sinai really is determinative for Israel the immediate failure notwithstanding because it becomes the hard lesson that they learn Moses can now point back to that failure and say don't do like your fathers did it becomes the failure of their fathers becomes another incentive another motivation for them not to fail they have that example that bad example now they're even more prepared than their fathers were because of it so Moses uses that as in a sense as a great incentive for them going forward also the entire book is given in their sermonic imperative and not the legislative descriptive and this is huge there is an ongoing present no matter where you read in the book of Deuteronomy even when he's doing a flashback it's the present now right but now and 12 times as it is to this day even to this day it's always this day in Deuteronomy it's always right now you're about to do something God's calling you to do something and you need to go into it and do it so think about it here's the great context Israel has been delivered from tyranny but they failed to inherit the blessed promised land now here you are again 40 years later you're poised on entering you're surrounded by hostile idolatrous sexually immoral people in nations who have other gods God has just formed you into his people his nation his kingdom you that happened at Sinai and he gave you laws and he gave you a priesthood and he gave you judges and heads of the tribes and the elders and all of that the 72 so there's a governmental structure now and yet God is your king clearly you're not you don't have a king God is your king and you're commanded to go forth as you keep his word that's your thing keep his word go forth in his name because it won't be by your power it won't be by your might but only as you look to God can you hope to not only stand against but even be victorious against hostile enemy forces that are way stronger than you and so that's there that's their situation typically a little bit different from us a temporal national homeland to conquer but i'm saying all that to say that's where we are right surrounded by hostile forces with no power against them called to go forth with his word proclaim his truth that he is king that's where his rule was alright ours is the whole world and he's already completed the conquest they have to complete a typical conquest but God already is king of those lands too that's why God can say strike them down and God tells them you know now for us it's ungodly ideas that we strike down they did have a war of flesh and blood we wore against power principality spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly but do you see the similarities we really are in the same place we have a land promise to us the whole world and we're to go forth into whole world they have the land promise to them and to go forth and so i really see a great application to us spiritually of what the Israelites were actually on the verge of being called to do in the book of Deuteronomy and so that's the great application that seems to me that we should get from this book also in the book for the first time in scripture there becomes this great emphasis on the written word up until this point up until Moses there really is no written scripture that we know but there may have been found but really no command to write but if you look at the book and i give you some of the words here chapter places 27 31 over and over again that these words are to be written down and that's important that's huge there to be written there to be read there to be memorized there to be taught and so this is a new thing in the life of Israel that there's going to be this scripture they've already been told that the law that Moses wrote which may have also included the whole book of Exodus and Leviticus and so that was to be put in the ark well this too is to be written but it's to be taught and read every day all through the year individual Israelites are to read and to know and to teach their children and so there would have been the Deuteronomy being taught over and over again it was to be read annually it was to be read by the king read every seven years in a great assembly and so interestingly Moses who's about to die and part of Deuteronomy is the last will and testament of Moses with the death of Moses i want you to think of it Deuteronomy becomes the replacement Deuteronomy becomes the replacement for a living prophet to now instruct God's people by a book and that's really significant because that's where we are we're instructed by a book well that begins for Israel with Deuteronomy up until that time think of the patriarch you at Abram, Isaac and Jacob and God appeared to them at various times and they led the people as prophets and even in the time of Egypt when Moses comes to them Moses is the one who's inspired but Moses is about to die and so Moses is preparing for them something to take his place and it's the books of Moses they're going to be the authority and the word of God that Moses gave them now on so there's this great new thing in the people of God which now has continued ever since there's a few other things there's a there's a regular and even startling switch from the second person singular to the second person floral and vice versa you don't see that in English I'm going to call your attention to that when it comes in the Hebrew text interestingly the plural when you see that the Jewish plural you know the English nuns that we in Pittsburgh have developed it's actually the plural that gives the individual emphasis you'll see that in the text whenever Moses is talking in the plural he's talking about each person doing something when he's talking in the singular he's talking to the people as a whole you know like a collective singular it's the opposite of what you would think but if the context shows that to be the case so we'll look at that by the way in the Jewish canon just to point out again the centrality and the importance of the book of Deuteronomy so you have I've already mentioned to you the pencil took first five books literally five books Torah first five books well there is also the end to talk in the Hebrew canon remember there's the Torah the Naviim the Katsubim well the Torah is the first five books so it's Genesis Exodus Leviticus numbers Deuteronomy number five and then in the Hebrew canon you get the first section of the prophets sometimes sometimes called the former prophets Joshua judges no Ruth that's way later in the canon Joshua judges Samuel one book in Jewish canon Kings one book what do you see this right in the middle with four books on either side Deuteronomy Torah Deuteronomy first section of the former prophets Deuteronomy becomes what's been called the central book of the Enetok the first nine books of the Bible Deuteronomy is at the center it equally looks backwards and it equally looks forwards and there again is this ongoing present that is continually urgent that now is the time to live for God now is the time to put off ideas now is the time to believe and to obey you can't escape it throughout Deuteronomy it's always now and I think about the book of Hebrews you know today is the day and I couldn't help but think about it with just finishing up the book of Revelation because that was something that so struck me with all of these urgency in the book of Revelation and you see it five times in chapter 22 this must shortly take place behold I'm coming quickly do not seal the words the time is at hand behold I'm coming quickly he testifies these things you know surely I'm coming quickly and then earlier the book the time is near behold I'm coming quickly and you know my take on those urgency passages in Deuteronomy or in Revelation especially where most of them come in the very last chapter and they don't distinguish they don't say well the three letters is coming quickly you know the first three chapters the seven letters that's coming quickly but the rest of it's all future they don't say that they don't even say like well it's all coming quickly you know the destruction of Jerusalem but then the second coming in the end and the new heavens and the new earth and seeing God that's that's wait it just says it's all coming right and so that's this prophetic urgency all of those things at 22 in chapter 22 everything before it is about to happen and the way I understand that again is all of the the final processes leading to the second coming are in motion and that's what John was urging the people to know it's all happening now that's why he doesn't seal the book it was beginning to happen now and Deuteronomy is about to happen right Israel's about to go in they're about to take over these nations and they have to live for God now in the light of all those things now the whole book and I see examples of this prophetic urgency right God is urging his people to the now because now is the time to live for God it's the urgency of living now it's not the urgency of some thing that's about to happen it's you need to live now because God is right now in the process of doing something so think of it in terms of Romans 13-11 verses 11-14 and do this so this is near the end of the book of Romans after all that doctrine knowing that the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep for our salvation is nearer than we first believed the night is far spent the day is at hand it's just right there right it's it's right about to happen when you're about to go into the land you're living for God now therefore let us cast off works of darkness so here's the prophetic urgency to live for God let us put on the armor of light let us walk properly as in the day et cetera et cetera put on Jesus Christ and again from other books first Peter the end of all things isn't in but it's what it's an urgency to live for God now therefore be serious and watchful right it's not the end of all things that are at hand go out and buy you know food stuffs and go live in caves and you know it's not that go on the mountain and wait no live for God James 5 be patient establish your heart the coming of the Lord is at hand see it's a it's a moral commandment urgency Philippians 4-5 let your gentleness be known to all white because the Lord is at hand prophetic urgency James you not crumble against one another bless you be condemned be hold the judges at the door this is always the reason to obey God's right there that's the urgency that I see in Deuteronomy that's the urgency I saw in Revelation and throughout the New Testament little children it's the last hour you know so Antichrist is coming et cetera and then you know be hold I'm coming quickly Revelation blessed it is he who keeps the words see it's the urgency in order to keep the words and again in verse 12 be hold I'm coming quickly my reward is with me to gift everyone according to his work so Deuteronomy's today here's a quote from the scholarly commentary that I look at the old testament international commentary probably the most scholarly commentary you can get today the recommended number one by Ligonier Ministries here's a quote Deuteronomy's today which is what I'm noticing here and I'm noticing it in other places it's ever present rhetoric of the continual now as a moment of decisive commitment that's the urgency today's the day of salvation don't put it off live for God today he's at the door you see how that works it calls for continuous interpretation and I would say application and living out of the divine will I mean to me when you read scripture this way really comes alive God is there today he's right there he's at the door live from now don't put it off I think so oftentimes we Christians do that right we we put off whatever it is whatever we're going to do for God always going to be sometime in the future and I think Scripture to sort of overcome that that natural sluggardliness that we have that natural procrastination that natural oh yes someday I'm going to live for God nonsense really urges us today what are you waiting for now that doesn't mean because here's the other extreme oh that means they've got to run off and go to the seminary and become a minister no it means live for God where you are right now there is no some big thing to do you're already called of God you're already going into your land of whatever it is what your duty is you know maybe it's a homemaker mom live for God in everything that you do make it deliberate think about him right now he's at he's at the door and you can glorify him in everything that you do or whatever you know you're a carpenter in everything that you do understand your duty is to the Lord this prophetic urgency you can live for God you can dedicate it all to him now and that's what I understand here in the book of Deuteronomy with this constant now about to go in and I can't help but you know mirror it with where we are in the faith you know God has conquered we go into the land the great commission so forth proclaim the word live it out and this urgency to do it that we get in the book of Hebrews today is the day don't wait for another day and so that's the great I think one-to-one application I want to bring in some content and themes very quickly the heart of Israel's covenant and religion find it in the book of Deuteronomy in chapter 10 and of course Jesus calls our attention to these verses chapter 10 verses 12 and 13 and now Israel what does the Lord your God require of you but to fear the Lord your God to walk in all his ways and to love him and to serve the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and to keep the commandments of the Lord and his statutes which I command you today for your good that's what Israel was called that's the heart of the old testament administration of the covenant of grace they weren't called to keep those commandments to earn God's favor they had God's favor therefore they were to keep the commandments the exact same way that we are out of gratitude out of love for God out of a desire to see him glorified knowing that they would fall short you can't possibly read the book of Deuteronomy and think that God is telling Israel earn something from me because all through it it's the sacrifices and the sacrificial system and the blood that you've got to spill why because you're such sinners I mean that just comes out so much what is the entire book of Leviticus about you're so sinful you've got to kill all these animals constantly so that I don't destroy you I mean how can anybody read the old testament and say that the mosaic covenant was somehow a recapitulation of the covenant of works it was not it was a administration of the covenant of grace they were not commanded to keep the commandments to earn something from God God was giving it to them freely in spite of themselves keep the commandments because you love me I mean that's what Jesus says in the New Testament right if you love me keep my commandments God is saying the same thing to Israel if you love me keep my commandments and so the determinants of moment is the Exodus the appearance on Sinai when God saves them and he gives them you know his covenant and it gives them the stipulations of righteousness which is what we're called to too and then the absolute monotheism again the critics can't explain that one of the interesting things all of the ancient pantheons that you can read about you know we know the Greek and the Roman you know the pantheons of the gods Athena the Zeus etc well there's many records of ancient peoples including near eastern peoples in the second millennium having these lists of gods and goddesses right your way is never in those lists that's really significant because these people had interaction with Israel he's never in a list of gods and goddesses critics can't explain it and the monotheism of Deuteronomy the constant warnings of turning to idols because again in the higher critical view that you know monotheism develops over time Israel began like a polytheistic country like anybody else and you see these different redactors bringing monotheism in slowly when it served their purposes in a bunch of other nonsense but without Deuteronomy monotheism God alone is God there is no other God don't go to idols don't forget God don't go to the world and so we see that the Torah as divine instruction in Deuteronomy I just want to notice this too again it's presented as preached law it's not a legal code it's not the code of Hammarabi do this do this do this Moses is preaching the law it's exhortation right it's calling God's people to respond to Him it's a personal proclamation to the people of God that's what you get in Deuteronomy the life and vitality of responding to the preached word and trusting in God covenant is very important as I mentioned already and witness is very important constant call to put away the idols don't become the world like the world the law is a means of grace not as a means of performance and ultimately we see concern for justice great concern for the foreigner for the alien the widow the orphan not not as a condescending there's so much less than you give them some of your crumbs but they're equal to you they're just like you you were just like them in Egypt remember you were a foreigner in Egypt nowhere in ancient literature do we see these people groups considered so much less slaves foreigners you know widows orphans being equal with you and that's why you're to help them they're just like you that's the emphasis of Deuteronomy of Deuteronomy that's completely absent in other ancient documents that again always looked at different people as being more God like more superior et cetera and they inherently had this more rights than you you don't see that in Deuteronomy everybody has the same rights no one is to take a bribe you know it's a treat anybody different and of course Christ in Deuteronomy it's the third most quoted book when Jesus rejects Satan's temptations all three times he goes to Deuteronomy nowhere else Jesus probably like every other good Jewish boy and girl memorized large portions of Deuteronomy that's the book that they would have memorized I've already pointed out to you in Josiah's great reform it was the book of Deuteronomy almost certainly that was rediscovered in the temple so a powerful book awesome book I love the book and I think if there was one Hebrew scroll that I could get from myself to study it would be the book of Deuteronomy because I think it's just so filled with who God is and what we are to do to serve him so any questions or comments I wanted to get all that in so we're gonna get into the text next week but I wanted to give you the background the importance maybe what your whistle hopefully you're more excited about it now than before and you're not saying well I ain't coming back after that so good yeah yeah that's what you see in the in the other treaties as well when at least according to the scholarly literature because the witness the incentive of the witnesses don't fail to do your part you know so the witnesses like if you fail you're gonna be caught you know there's a sense in what you don't need a witness when you succeed right when you succeed in fact you you want to humble yourself and give God the glory so that's the way I see it Jim yeah that it's more in the sense of and again that's what you see it's you know they're bearing witness so that you don't fail so all right well let's close with prayer Father in heaven we thank you for your goodness we thank you for your word and this word and I pray Father as we study it you would guide us you would bless us and let us continue to want to serve you now Father even as you exhorted your people so many years ago we pray this in Jesus name Amen