40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Episode 161 (Deuteronomy 5:22-33)

Episode Date: April 18, 2019

Chad and Daniel continue discussing the "Ten Commandments". What does it mean to take the Lord's name in vain? What does it mean to "keep" the Sabbath? What does coveting have to do with Eve in Eden? Israel is surprised that God speaks to them and they don't die. What is the motivation behind the "10 Commandments"? All of this is discussed. Have a listen! 1517 Podcast Network CHF Minneapolis Christian History Almanac Donate

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 podcast network podcast. that means you can go over to 1517.org slash podcast check out all the podcasts that are going on over there you know there's a new podcast that you should subscribe to it actually starts may the first but the trailer for the podcast is up right now which means you can already subscribe to it so when that first real episode drops may the first you'll be able to listen to it this podcast is different than all other podcasts it's a daily podcast comes out every day it's only five minutes long it's called the christian history almanac with daniel van voris i know you're about to

think it was me but it wasn't it was van voris because i'm not a historian so why would i be doing a podcast like that but he is a historian and he's doing that kind of podcast and what it is you go check out the trailer it's super cool i have actually heard some of the episodes but what he does is he gives you a five minutes every day he tells you a little bit of what happened in history on this day he's obviously more than five minutes of history has happened in every day but he selects something uh that he thinks would be interesting and then he also gives you some poetry or a scripture reading or a prayer reading and it's really really cool check it out it's five minutes it'd be a it'd be a good addition and not a not a huge time commitment

maybe you would listen to him every day maybe you'd like save him up and you binge him either way go into itunes search it out christian history almanac and you can uh you can subscribe and check it out you know if you don't like it you can always unsubscribe but i think i think you will like it i really like it chad we just got back from des moines iowa over there at grandview university because we had a great weekend great weekend my my flight back was a little bit tricky not greatest travels back thank you american airlines it's all right we're all about we're all about that grace here i look stenchy grace i know you can't control the weather in chicago but the event itself was uh was pretty pretty great man great talks great people uh it was

good being at luther memorial church was a beautiful church i was thrilled with that that content will be out soon and if you're like man i missed it but i'm also in the midwest don't worry may the 4th we're gonna be in minneapolis may the 4th so if you're over there i know we got people in minnesota that's like 40 minute country uh go over to chrysler fast go to the city events page you can click on the minnesota event register it's free we'd love to hang out with you don't uh don't miss a good time all right where are we at in deuteronomy chad i just saw you good working were you just sitting there subscribing to the christian history all night of course of course i'm double i'm multitasking that's right i thought it was i'm talking i'm

giving the pitch for it chad's like getting his phone out right then i've been walking and chewing my gum at the same time so good i'm getting better yeah the older i get yeah the better i get at multitask i was doing a little uh little hebrew research while you were talking there we go last minute prep last minute prep yeah i was pulling up uh genesis three uh because we're going to talk about that in connection with the uh yeah where we left off which is like we were right in the middle of keeping keeping the ten commandments right that's right of course what we do daily we keep those ten commandments uh at least we we try yeah well we keep we know them this is this is really what keep means right we're we're aware of them we hopefully don't well

you know sometimes we run away from them sometimes we discard them but you know we try our best to uh to know that those are words from god and keep them close to our person that's right that's right and we'll actually be uh we'll hear a lot about that in the next chapter but right now we are yeah we're actually right in the middle of the of deuteronomy's version of the ten commandments and that's one of the things that i want to talk about uh that we didn't get around to last time there's there's really two of course the commandments are mentioned all over scripture Old and New Testament. But there's two places where they're given in their entirety. We've covered one of those, Exodus chapter 20, which is usually the go-to text for the Ten Commandments.

Most, for example, most catechisms that have a Ten Commandments section, they take those Ten Commandments from Exodus 20 into Deuteronomy 5, because there are a couple of differences. Not so much in the commandments as we think of them, but in some of the other words surrounding them. Because as you know, when we have the Ten Commandments in the scriptures, they're not listed out exactly as we usually do in catechisms and other kind of books. There's a little bit more material that's there. But anyway, we're going to jump right back into those. And the reason I pulled up Genesis 3 is I want to talk about that. I want to talk about Eve and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in connection with the commandments against coveting. But before we get

there so we're in Deuteronomy 5 the commandments start or as we as we discussed last time the 10 words as scripture calls them starting in verse 6 with the introduction about I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery you shall have no other gods before me so we have the first commandment uh the second commandment uh is literally we usually think of it as you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. That's a pretty typical translation. Literally, it'd be something like, do not lift up the name of Yahweh your God to vanity. So don't treat it as an empty thing. Don't treat it as if it's what Solomon talks about in Ecclesiastes, vanity of vanities, as basically something that you can use in whatever

way you wish. Instead of lifting it up to vanity, you hold it as something which is sacred. And so when you invoke the name of God, or when you teach in God's name, then you are to do everything and say everything in conformity with what his name is. That is, it is holy. It is the audible representation of of god himself i thought this was just about uh saying bad words yeah that is often the way that it's kind of shrunk down right don't take the lord's name in vain meaning don't say anything that someone considers to be a bad word right a naughty word right yeah actually don't have that pg-13 rating going on right yeah yeah i mean it's it's funny how that's been kind of warped to mean to mean that uh when many of the words that are considered bad words don't

have anything to do with God's name. I mean, it seems like we've taken that, at least some people have taken that commandment in that direction, while at the same time completely ignoring the real essence of the commandment, and that is to say nothing about God or for God in God's name that is contrary to that which He Himself is and which He has revealed. So this is about using God's name to swear an oath or using God's name to teach or using God's name to pray or whatever it is. The way I like to think about it is this in an analogical fashion. So if I hear that somebody is using my name to say something which is completely contrary to what I think or what i believe or to what i've done basically using my name to to lie then yeah i mean i would i'd be very

upset because they are representing me as saying something or believing something or doing something which i which i wouldn't so it's a it's a it's a direct insult to to me by their use of use of my name you mean like when i get a facebook friend request from you asking me for money yeah that actually actually happened i know i know it happened yeah yeah somebody uh somebody created a fake account using my my public page my author's page and started messaging a bunch of people saying oh thank you for uh thank you for for purchasing my books i hope you'll continue to do so and by the way while you're at it could you could you send me some money i was i was livid that day because of that because i'm thinking what if somebody actually believes this

what if someone is actually uh believes this lie that i'm doing this well that ret reflects directly upon me because of course they're not only using my name but they're using using my image and so it's pretty is it actually a pretty good example what it means to take the name of lord in vain and like the feeling that you felt uh in that is probably how god feels he's wait i have not said this i've not made this request i've not said this to anybody and you're you're dragging my name through the mud it's interesting that i think that we are concerned about dragging god's name through the mud when we're sinners uh in other words we claim the name of god or the name of christ and then we're worried about well somebody sees me in the wrong place or like i you

know i say i'm a christian but then i you know i did this thing that's not the main thing that God's concerned about, what really drives him nuts, it seems, is when you use his name to say things that he hasn't said. You're not attributing your sin to God. I mean, hopefully. I mean, if you did, that would also be a problem. But mostly what he's upset is when you do these kind of things. This is true. I literally had someone, when I was a teenager, tell me that God told them to tell me to clean up my language. This is an interesting thing because cleaning of your language is usually joined to not taking the name of the Lord in vain. And maybe I did need to clean up my language. Probably. I was like 16 years old. Probably did. However, what is actually

taking the name of the Lord in vain is when someone else says, God told me to tell you this, when God didn't tell you to tell them that. That's quite the irony. Yes. That's a great example. And I think we've probably all experienced some occasion where a person attributes a lie to us. And just, so just kind of picture how that, the impression that made on you. And well, that's, I think that's a, at least in an analogy to the way that, that God reacts. And that's the reason this, this commandment goes on to say, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes his name in vain. So it's not like God just shrugs and is like, eh, whatever. No, he's wanting to uphold the integrity of his name and the truthfulness of his name. Now, the next commandment

listed, verse 12, is one of the differences we have between the wording of the two versions of the commandment. So you probably remember in Exodus 20, when we talk about the Sabbath day, it's remember the sabbath day to keep it holy the hebrew verb there is zakar and we've talked about that multiple times on the on the podcast here it's a different verb verse 12 my translation anyway which is new american standard says observe the sabbath day to keep it holy uh the Hebrew verb there is shamar, which means to guard or to watch or to keep. So I like to put these side by side because it actually helps us to understand a little bit more about the relationship between these two verbs, to remember and to keep. So as we've discussed before, to remember is of

course not just a mental activity, but a doing activity. So when God remembers, He acts. And when we remember, we act. And when you put that understanding beside this version of the commandment, you see that that's actually what's going on. So you guard, you watch, you keep, you shamar the Sabbath day to keep it holy. That's the way that you remember it by keeping it, or you remember it by guarding it. So when you put these two versions of that commandment side by side, you get a better idea as to what is being communicated regarding the Sabbath day. Is this not the same word or at least the same root word for if somebody was to keep watch over something or outside a camp or outside a castle or that sort of thing? Yeah, actually, yeah, that's precisely right.

So a guard or a watcher would be the noun form, really the participle form of this verb. So a watcher, a keeper would be one who shamars. Right. So that's, yeah, that's exactly the same, same, same verbal root. And that's, I think, I think understanding that sort of thing is, is helpful because I do think when we, it's not that this word, and this happens in Greek too, because we hear keep my commandments, but just keep, well, I think we just reduce it down to just do this stuff, which is not exactly what it's being, it's, there's much, it's, there's

a much richer thing going on there. It's not that you're not being asked to do anything, but what you're being asked to do is a little bit different than just the command yeah i mean if you think of it in terms of what a guard does a guard doesn't just do stuff i mean he's there to to watch over something to keep his eyes moving to keep his ears open to because that which he's guarding is that which must be something valuable right something important uh that probably doesn't belong to him but that is his vocation is to keep his eyes open, keep his ears open, and to guard or to watch that which has been entrusted to him. Yeah, so that is a whole new dimension to our understanding of what the Sabbath

day was all about. And another difference here between Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 in regard to this commandment is, if you remember when the commandments were first given, God says, remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. And then the reason that's provided is because God worked six days in the creation of the world, and then he rested on the seventh day. Now, in Deuteronomy's version of this commandment, the reason given is different. So it says, six days you shall labor and all your work, but the seventh is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. And then it goes on to say in verse 14 that nobody, nobody in your family, none of your servants none of your animals are to do any work on the sabbath day but interestingly it doesn't

say because god worked six days in creation and rest on the seventh day instead it says this verse 15 you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of egypt and the lord your god brought you out from there by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm therefore the lord your god commanded you to observe the sabbath day so here we have a different reason given and it's not creation it's it's the exodus so make sure that your servants don't work seven days a week make sure that your servants just like the rest of your family rest on on the sabbath day because remember there's that verb again remember that you were once uh a slave in egypt this becomes a an ongoing theme in Deuteronomy as well as in the rest of the Old Testament.

This is the reason that they were to treat servants well. It's a reason they were also to treat non-Israelites well, who were sojourning in the land of Egypt, because they themselves were once alienated. They were living in Egypt away from their home country. So just it's it's a case of it's a case of empathy uh it's a case of of seeing in the plight of someone else what you yourself also once went through it's kind of a gold or rule kind of situation uh you you treat them as you yourself would have wanted to be treated in the land of egypt so remember how bad it was when you were when you were in exile in the land of egypt and you were mistreated terribly,

well, now you're in your home country. So basically, don't be like the Egyptians. Be one who reflects the image of God in your own country and treat the alien and the sojourn, the non-Israelite among you with dignity and with love and with respect. And part of that includes not making them work seven days a week and remembering

that just as God showed you mercy by bringing you out of captivity, so also show mercy to those who are who are in your midst and it's it's also a good a good reminder this reason is a good reminder that creation and exodus are always understood in the scriptures as two sides of the same salvation coined because in both cases god works by his word out of love to create something out of nothing creates the world out of nothing and he creates redemption for israel out of nothing as it were because they have nothing to offer and so god has to do all the work of redeeming them, of recreating them in the Exodus. So we see here a

case where, as we see in many of the Psalms as well, where creation and the Exodus are not two totally different theological categories. Instead, they are both expressions of God's activity of doing what is necessary to bring about something good for his people. So that's the Sabbath command the uh the rest of the commandments are are pretty similar honor your father and your mother and then you shall not murder you shall not commit adultery you shall not steal you shall not bear false witness all those are are almost verbatim what we see in in exodus chapter 20. there's a little bit of a difference in the uh the commandments against coveting which different traditions sometimes some traditions say it's a tenth commandment some traditions will say it's

and 9th and 10th commandments, but however you number them, the coveting commandments are a little bit different here in Deuteronomy 5. So Exodus 20 would say, you shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his manservant or his maidservant, etc. Here in verse 21, it starts out not with you shall not covet your neighbor's house, but instead you shall not covet your neighbor's wife. And then it goes on, you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his servants, or his donkeys, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. So there's a little bit of a switch up here in the ordering of that which should not be coveted. Of course, the meaning is the same, but the wording is a little bit different. And this is where I

wanted to bring out just a little bit of what's called intertextuality, how we see how different parts of different texts relate to one another. This is the reason I was pulling up Genesis 3 at the beginning of the program, because as it turns out, there's two Hebrew words here in verse 21 that also occur in a single verse in Genesis chapter 3. So the word for covet and the word for desire. Covet is chamad, and desire is avah. And as it turns out, both of these occur in Genesis chapter 3, verse 6. So Genesis 3, verse 6 reads, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes. Now that word for delight is the same word that's translated here for desire your neighbor's house. So delight or desire. So we could translate

Deuteronomy 5.21, also, you shall not delight in a sinful way over your neighbor's house. But also, back to Genesis 3.6, it says that the tree was desirable to make one wise. That word for desirable is chamad, and it's the same verb that's used here for covet. So Eve was basically breaking the commands against coveting when she was checking out the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So those two Hebrew words for covet and for desire, Hamad and Abba, occur in a single verse in two different places, Genesis 3, 6 and Deuteronomy 5, 21. And I think it gives us a kind of a bigger, clearer idea of exactly what was going on back at the beginning in Genesis chapter three, as Eve was checking out the fruit and what she was, what evil was beginning to percolate within her as she looked upon that which God had had prohibited. So I want to throw that out there as a good case of where, you know, like we often say, the Bible interprets itself. That is to say, you use the Scriptures to interpret the Scriptures by comparing one verse to another or one story to another.

Yeah, what's interesting about this is that the devil, or the serpent, you know, first he says, hey, this is going to make you like God. Then she looks, and she's like, that does look pretty good. What I think is interesting about that is that the original sin is rooted in God-likeness. In other words, the first sin is trying to be more like God than you have been told to be. And that's crazy to me because in our endless pursuit of godliness that we always have, we fail to realize that the pursuit of godliness, that's what godliness is. god likeness that's what it is we got into this whole mess by pursuing godliness in the first place by believing the lie that we could be more like god and then we coveted that now you take

that for what it's worth but godliness in the pursuit of it i'm not saying that don't try to be godly what i am saying is be very careful about your pursuit of godliness that's how we got here yeah yeah is it uh i think you we were talking about this recently not on the podcast but just uh face to face is it is it is it paulson who says that we should not call genesis 3 the fall but the reach yeah is that right yeah yeah i actually meant to bring that out in my presentation in uh in des moines but i but i slipped my mind but i i think it's a it's it's really a a more appropriate image and it goes with what you were just saying he was reaching for something more than what god had given to her and it wasn't so much that she fell she reached she was stretching

out her arms and her heart for that which god had had not given to her and the reason he didn't give it to her wasn't because he's stingy of course it was for her own good as we as we see all too painfully from the from the effects of that of that reach so when we talk about the fall we should really be talking about the reach and that reach is what yeah it's exactly what you were discussing that's continues to be what bedevils us as we're rather than resting in the work of creation redemption that we have in christ we're always reaching for that always reaching up for that which god has not given which god is withheld because it's actually it's not good for us i mean we're we're just like children you know kids are always always wanting something which most of the

time which is not going to be good for them and so we as parents say no no you can't have that that sharp knife that you just really want to grab and run around with you're gonna hurt yourself so don't be reaching for it and that's kind of the way that we act in regard to our father yeah exactly all right so that's 10 commandments moving on uh we're at verse 22 now so the the rest of the chapter is uh kind of picking up some of the same themes that we saw leading up to this but uh there's a couple of couple of verses here that i think are are worth talking about for a second verse 22 after the after the 10 commandments he says these words the lord spoke to all your assembly at the mountain from the midst of the fire of the cloud and of the thick gloom and with

a great voice and he added no more and he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me and it came about when you heard the voice in the midst of the darkness while the mountain was burning with fire that you came near to me all the heads of your tribes and elders and said look the lord our god has shown us his glory and his greatness and we've heard his voice in the midst of the fire, for we have seen today that God speaks with man, yet he lives. Now then, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of our God any longer, then we shall die. This is taken by the author of Hebrews in chapter 12 and used as a foil, used as a as a contrast to what we have in the New Covenant.

If you remember that section from Hebrews 12, he's talking about how when the Israelites were at Mount Sinai, how the mountain was burning with fire. Get in the verses here. This is Hebrews 12, verse 18. For you have not come to a mountain that may be touched into a blazing fire, into darkness and gloom and whirlwind and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which sound was such that those who begged who heard begged that no further word be spoken to

them for they could not bear the command if even a beast touches the mountain it will be stoned and it says the sight was so terrible that Moses said I am full of fear and trembling so this is the way that that the author of hebrews reflecting back on this section of deuteronomy as well as exodus is capturing the trepidation that filled the hearts not just of israel but of moses as they saw this mountain that was aglow with with fire and they they heard the sound and everything else was happening there so sinai what happened at sinai that theophany and god speaking of the words filled the hearts of the israelites with fear and with trembling and that's a good thing to keep in mind because that is really what the that the that's the the lasting effect of the law right

so this was i'm sure that on a certain level this was impressive to see all this happening but it was more than just impressive it was actually uh the creation of fear in the hearts of the Israelites because of what they were hearing from God. And that's the effect of law. The law in that voice of demand and accusation is going to cause that in the hearts of us just like it did in the hearts of the Israelites. And that's why the book of Hebrews goes on to say

that that's not the mountain that we are at now. he says you have come to zion and to the city of the living god the heavenly jerusalem to myriads of angels to the general assembly in the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven and to god the judge of all and to the spirit of righteous men made perfect and to jesus the mediator of a new covenant and to the sprinkled blood which speaks better than the blood of abel so this is a this particular section in hebrews as it plays off these words in deuteronomy is holding up the stark contrast between what happens at Mount Sinai and what happens at Mount Zion. That's why you can understand why the people come to Moses and basically say,

okay, first of all, we're shocked that we heard God speak and we're not dead. But enough. I mean, if he keeps doing this, if he keeps speaking, there's no way that we're going to be able to live. So what we need is a mediator. We need somebody to stand between us and God so that that mediator can hear the words of God and then pass them on to us. And that mediator is you, Moses. So rather than us continuing to get these words directly, we're asking that you receive them from God and then pass them on to us. So even at Mount Sinai, the people realized the need for for a mediator for a go between between them and and god yeah one thing that's interesting is that we take this for granted as christians but just talking to god is a very

christian thing but it wasn't as though the children of israel just went around talking to god like they would not presume to do this you know regular old average joe israelite didn't wake up every morning and say you know what i think i'm gonna have a little conversation with god before i start my day you know just see what he's up to that's not that's a that's a christian thing and that is rooted in the idea that we have an ever-present mediator that's the reason that we we presume that that's not only that we can do that but that we should do it yeah when you look at the structure of of israel everything from what's happening here at mount sinai to the to the tabernacle and the way the way it's set up there were there were mediators that were between

god and the people it's moses and mount sinai later it will be uh not later even now it's it's the the high priest and it's the priest or it's a levite so there were even though of course people could speak to god we have that all over the psalms there was in the very structure of israel's life a set of mediators that stood between them and certainly that direct presence of god either at sinai or in the holy of holies and keep in mind that the holy of holies what was happening at what was happening at sinai got moved into the holy of holies so the top of sinai is like is like the holy of holies that's where it all starts and then because that's the like that's like the immediate direct glowing presence of god that's what's happening on the the peak of sinai that peak

of Sinai gets moved into the Holy of Holies. So I think that's helpful in kind of keeping in mind why there are barriers set up, why you have a Holy of Holies and a holy place and a temple forecourt, and then finally where the people are going to be. Just like they couldn't come up to the peak of Sinai, so they also can't come into the Holy of Holies. And then, yeah, there's a radical shift because in the coming of christ you have you have not just the coming of a messenger or a prophet but you have god himself emmanuel god with us and he we don't come to him he comes to us and so because of him we have that face-to-face encounter with god that doesn't destroy us but instead is a is an invitation to receive from him salvation and peace and

forgiveness and the kind of the kind of intimacy that's that's only available by means of of the incarnation yeah i mean one of the benefits of the priesthood of all believers is that you don't have to go find a priest to go talk to god there or specifically to go make petitions of god to ask him for something you can just go do this if the people wanted to ask god for something you know and back in the day you well you go to a prophet or a priest and you don't have to do this now now now if you want to pray for your friend you just go pray for him well you think about uh hannah excuse me hannah for instance uh she's praying before the tabernacle when eli was the priest and and eli eli hears her prayers and basically acts as a mediator there he hears

her prayers and they just says okay god's gonna after he figures out she's not drunk if you remember that story he first thinks she's just a drunken woman babbling at the at the tent of god But she says, no, I'm in distress. My heart is broken because I don't have a son. And so he says, the Lord has heard your prayer. The Lord will grant your request. So even in that case, even though she's praying, God comes to her by means of this priest to give her an answer.

Well, the fact that he thinks that she's drunk lets you know that this isn't a common occurrence. Right, yeah. Yeah, so it radically changes in the New Testament because not only are we—not only do we encounter God face-to-face, but as the book of Revelation makes clear by talking about our names written on— God's name written on our foreheads, we actually all have the status of high priests. That's why we can—that's why we go into the Holy of Holies in Christ. We are invited into that place where no Israelite would have gone except the high priest,

and that only once a year. so yeah i think i think sometimes we forget just the change that takes place from old to new testament and it's all because of god coming to us and disclosing himself to us and ripping the veil between the holy of holies and stepping out so that he can be with us in in a way in which we can as john says can can can see and feel and and touch because of because of the incarnation yeah all right so after that god basically says uh that's that's a good idea uh he says i i hear what the people are saying to you i'm in verse 28 and they have done well in all that they have spoken so god god understands what they're saying agrees with what they're with what they're saying

then we have there's it's got an interesting verse verse 29 of Deuteronomy 5 is it's like this this momentary glimpse into the the pathos of God the this desire this longing that he has for for his people verse 29 says oh that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always that it may be well with them and their sons forever so this is this is just a uh a great expression of what god desires for israel but a desire that goes unfulfilled perpetually over and over because what we see is that they they don't have such a heart in them to fear him and keep all his commandments that it may be well with them and their sons yeah There are brief moments of light in the midst of a dark history, but they're typically pretty brief because what happens is all the words that God speaks to Moses and that Moses relays on to them are words which are like written on their heart in pencil, if you were.

They're easily erased, and so they go into rebellion repeatedly. It is this wish of God is a wish that goes unfulfilled. I really like this verse, too, because of the motivation behind the commandments. So you see clearly that God's like, man, this would be really great if they reacted like this all the time. If they just kept my commandments, that would be great. And then he gives the motivation for wanting that to be the case, which is not, it would be really nice if they kept my commandments because I said to keep them. That's not what he says.

He says, man, it would be wonderful if this was always the state of Israel and they kept my commandments because it would really go well with them. I think the motivation matters. It's not God just saying, like, keep—like, it's not—God's not the kind of guy that's just, like, keep this stuff because I said so, because I want my—I said it, therefore I need to be obeyed. But he's like, instead he says, I wish that you would keep these and have this heart among you all the time so that it would go well for you. yeah i think that sometimes the opposite impression we get of the law right uh we have this idea that the law is going to if the life lived according to the law would be like somehow bad right when you think about it it would be it'd be perfect i mean if if you want the if you wanted an ideal life if you wanted to really be fully as a human whom god created you to be well then yeah i would

just be doing this stuff yeah absolutely that's because that's that's what god has that's what god has desired for for each of us so the commandments in that way are not just kind of a a decree of god which he wants us to follow just because he said follow them but the law is always given in such a way that it's to be for for our good yeah to actually lead us in a way that's going to be best for us yeah and he he reiterates this point um down further when he says you shall walk in the way that your lord god has commanded that you may live and that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess this is how this chapter ends and this isn't just like oh and i'll make your life longer but in a society where you're not

stealing lying and murdering life is extended this is how it works that's how it works yeah that is the that is the flourishing life because it's a life that is lived in accordance with how the creator says he has created you to be so the law is not somehow contrary to nature it actually is in perfect conformity with nature and it is the it's the best life that the god desires for us yeah yeah instead of because i said so it's that it may go well with you this is there's a big difference between these things and i think uh i think it shows something about the heart of god that he does in fact want what's best for his people amen and that is it man i think we got basically through chapter five chad we did we're going on to the shema

next time the hero israel the lord our god the lord is one so come back next week all right well we'll see you then We'll see you next time.