40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Episode 179 (Deuteronomy 29:1-30:20)

Episode Date: August 23, 2019

The promise made to Abraham is for the whole world but neither the world nor Israel believe it. Idolatry is always the biggest issue to God. God says the word is very near. What does this mean and why does Paul quote it later in Romans? Chad and Daniel discuss all of this. Have a listen! 1517 Podcast Network HWSS Conference Donate

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 Podcast Network podcast. You can go to 1517.org slash podcast. Check out all the things that we got going on over there. also while you're over there you can click on the here we still stand tab and you can register for the here we still stand conference there's about 25 tickets left you can be one of the last 25 in and that's one of the last 25 and you can get 25 off for listening to this podcast you can enter the promo code p net 19 in the promo box at checkout get 25 off each ticket you buy now's

the time we're down to 25 you can get in we'd love to hang out with you we're also chad we are four weeks away or sorry not four weeks eight weeks away from here we still stand just two months man man that is coming up fast you scared me when you said four weeks i thought man i better i got some work to do i know right on that yeah it's gonna be here before you know it so uh yeah if people are thinking about it now's the time to get in at the very last you know the 11th hour is upon us yeah if uh if you're one of those 25 do it yeah man happy there yeah yes maybe maybe you live out in california like you can't afford not to go yeah yeah definitely i mean we got we got people coming from from germany yeah we got people coming from uh the united states of course

all over the united states people coming from germany people coming from um i know there are There's people coming from Sweden. There's people coming, man, from all over the place. Well, it's the place to be, of course. So if you haven't bought your ticket yet, do it now. Do it now. Well, Chad, I don't think we're going to get through Deuteronomy this week, but we are nearing the end.

Yeah, we passed a significant milestone last time because we covered that long chapter of blessings and curses, which was chapter 28. So we're going to launch into 29 today and see how far we can get so uh we'll uh maybe cover a couple chapters at least and see uh see what we can do next time but joshua is definitely right around the corner so uh yeah last time chapter 28 uh was uh was a pretty pretty rough chapter i don't know if uh if any of you went back and actually read all 68 verses of that uh a significant portion of which is focused upon the

curses that would befall Israel should they forsake the covenant, but it's some pretty bad stuff. Not the kind of life that you want to live, to put it mildly. So that's all done. And beginning of chapter 29, we're going to have some pretty interesting stuff coming up here, some of which may be familiar to you because there's some New Testament references here off and on we're going to encounter uh wormwood but which of course if you're a if you're a c.s lewis fan you you know all about wormwood well this is where we get uh wormwood from uh deuteronomy amongst other places in the old testament and we have a at the end of the chapter we have one of these oft quoted verses about the secret things belonging to the lord our god but the revealed

things belonging to us so it's some some stuff that uh you're familiar with probably from one in one way or another that's coming up in in 29 so this is the way it starts out says these are the words of covenant which the lord commanded moses to make with the sons of israel in the land of moab besides the covenant which he had made with them at horeb now this is uh this is this is a reference to another covenant but i don't i don't want us to kind of get the impression that god is starting over with a brand new covenant i think what is being communicated here is yeah this is this is still the covenant at sinai this is still god's covenant he made with israel except it's being reaffirmed it's uh being laid out once more only this time to a new

generation of israelites in a new location as they're about to cross over into the land which their forefathers refused out of fear to cross over into. So it's a new covenant, but it's not a new covenant. It's a reaffirmation of a covenant that God has already made with Israel. In fact, if you go back to Leviticus, I think it's chapters 26 and 27, you'll encounter the same kinds of blessings and curses laid out there that we discovered in Deuteronomy 28. So the language is the same. Of course, the people are the same. It's just a new generation in a new context. And so that's why it uses this language besides the covenant, which he made with him in Horeb. So reaffirmation of the old covenant. Verse two picks up with saying that Moses is, it's sort of

like Moses finished his sermon, this long sermon, and then he dismissed the people for a while, and then he brought them back. So he summons all Israel again in verse two. So he calls them all back. They probably had to go home and let these words of the curses kind of sink in for a little bit. But anyway, he calls them back. He says, you've seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and all his servants and all his land, the great trials which your eyes have seen, those great signs and wonders. Then we have verse 4. Verse 4 says, yet to this day, the Lord has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear. At least that's one of the ways that verse can be translated. It can also be translated.

So that translation makes it sound as if, so to this day, you still don't have a knowing heart or seeing eyes or hearing ears. It could also be translated like this. So until today, The Lord had not given you a heart to know or eyes to see or ears to hear. That translation would imply that finally, God has given these things to Israel so that they can actually know him and see him and hear him. So the Hebrew there can go one of two ways. whichever i mean i think it's we could we could interpret this within the context of what moses is saying faithfully either either one of those particular translations now what's fascinating to me about this particular language is that which is something i don't think that

we always realize is that anytime let this kind of be your standard rule anytime you hear about people not having a heart to know or eyes to see or ears to hear, anytime you hear that kind of language, I want you to think immediately of idolatry. Because if you look in the rest of the scriptures, time and time again, when Israel is said not to have eyes that see or a heart to know or ears to hear, they are being compared to idols. You have this in Isaiah, you have this in several other prophets, you have throughout the Psalms as well. And G.K. Beale wrote a book on, I think it's the theology of idolatry, and he summed up his argument this way. see if i can remember he says uh we resemble what we revere either for ruin or restoration

let me say it again i'm pretty sure i have this right we resemble what we revere either for our ruin or our restoration and what of course what he's talking about is whatever we worship we imitate so we resemble we look like that which we worship that which we revere and that can go with one or two ways it can either be for our ruin or for our restoration so that's the way he sums up the theology of really it's the theology of worship but he's talking specifically about idolatry so what the prophets time and time again say of israel that because you worship idols that have eyes but cannot see, that have ears but cannot hear, that have feet but cannot walk. You are going to resemble that which you worship, that which you revere, by becoming basically

blind and deaf and dead yourself. So it's the profound theological implications of what worship does to us. And this doesn't have to be, of course, just an application to Old Testament israel it's an application to any kind of false gods any anything that we consider to be of our of chief importance in our life is we we begin to resemble that which which we revere so this kind of language of a heart not knowing and eyes not seeing and ears not hearing which you see in deuteronomy 29 4 that's the language of idolatry that you see throughout the rest of the old Testament. All right. So he goes on, kind of recounts what God did for Israel in these next few verses. He said, for 40 years, I led you in the wilderness. Your clothes did not wear out

and your sandals did not wear out on your feet. I think this is the only place, maybe there's one other spot where this kind of language is used. It's basically, I don't know if it's actually meant to be literal or if it's kind of a metaphorical way of saying, listen, of God saying, Listen, I took care of every single need that you had, whether that was taking care of your clothing or as he's going to go on and to say in the next verse, your food or your drink. I was basically your father throughout all these years, providing everything that you needed, whether it was the clothing on your back or the shoes on your feet or the manna that you ate or the water that you drank from the rock. whatever it was that you needed i provided that for you for four for four decades so i took care of you i was the one that you look to for all of these good things that's what it goes on to talk about in verse verse six yeah it wouldn't be like the most the it's not unthinkable that he's being

literal but uh but maybe not i mean it's kind of weird to think about right like these sandals just lasted forever i guess maybe i mean typically when bushes are on fire they burn and you know red seas don't part and you know food doesn't float out of the sky and lay on the ground like snow or whatever so sure the sandals that don't wear out sure why not yeah i would that be a miracle i mean how often you go through a pair of shoes i mean i've got some pair of shoes that i'm a typical guy you know i keep shoes for several years but uh i work shoes if i'm in them all day every day uh yeah at least once a year they're worn out yeah and i'm not walking through the desert sands of sinai so i'm sure sandals were a lot we're out a lot faster there

yeah one of my big purchases every year that drives my wife nuts uh i don't i don't have a lot of purchases man but uh once a year i buy new basketball shoes and yeah of course once a year you have to buy them every year and they start getting slick on the bottom i tend to not buy extremely cheap basketball shoes they're they're they are they are a little on the pricey side well i mean we all have our big ticket items right that's right i remember at the end i think it was the end of last year my wife was doing her income tax and she's adding up you know all our expenses so we can claim those and whatnot and i can't remember how much i spent on books she just added it up and threw that figure out

at me i'm like what that's not that much i think it was like a thousand dollars or something like that like we were talking earlier i buy two things all right i buy coffee i buy a cup of coffee every day and i buy books so those are my uh those are my expenses yeah but maybe maybe these sandals were like the equivalent yeah maybe it's like and then you know i had that pair of jordans that That never wore out. Lasted 40 years. That'd be great. Don't let your wife read this verse.

She might say, oh, you have little faith. Why aren't your Jordans lasting longer? Yeah, if you had more faith, your Jordans would last at least two years, if not five. For real. So anyway, that's kind of a more concrete, tangible way that God protected the Israelites, cared for them. And then he goes on to say in verses 7 and following that God also fought for them, with them, against these giants that we've talked about before, Sihon, king of Bashan, Heshbon, and Og, the king of Bashan. And took their land, and we gave it to that two and a half tribes we've talked about before, the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh. so it's just kind of a a short summary i guess you could say in five through nine of the different

ways that that god has cared for protected fought for his people and then we have a pretty interesting section so this is 10 through 15 and moses says look you're all standing here now today before the lord your god and then he delineates everybody he's like your chiefs your tribes your elders your officers even your little ones and your wives and it says i find this fascinating the alien who is within your camps from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water let me just pause there for a second so you got all these people listed out everything from the the powerful you know the leadership down to the little kids and then he says you also got the alien who's in your camps so i know we've we've mentioned this before but

it's worth mentioning again, these weren't just like full-blood Israelites who are making this journey. They have other people with them. They've got the non-Israelite who's living with them, and presumably some of these non-Israelites were servants, because that's the biblical language of those who are your servants. They're drawers of water and hewers of wood. And later, when we get to the book of joshua we're going to hear about how the uh the gibeonites were made to be these kinds of servants for israel so you got get everybody in short everybody is gathered now before god israelite and non-israelite and it says you're here so that you can enter into the covenant with the lord your god and into his oath which he's making with you today in order to that

he may establish you today as his people, and then he may be your God, just as he spoke to you and swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So in other words, today God is declaring you his, and he's declaring that he is yours. This goes both ways. You're his people, and he's your God. This is this covenant relationship, and this is in fulfillment of what God promised of patriarchs. So we have the three big guys, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They're mentioned here in verse 13. Now, verse 14 and 15, notice what he says next. He says, now, I'm not just making this covenant with you alone, but both those who stand here today in the presence of the Lord our God, and with those who are not with us here today. So God is making a covenant. He's got

everybody gathered together from the highest to the lowest, including the servants, the non-Israelites, and he says, I'm making a covenant with you, but get this, it's this covenant is not just with you who have seen my works and heard my words, but this covenant is also going to be with even those who aren't here today. So this is God making a covenant with Israel, not just for this generation, but for all these generations which are to follow, which is a reminder to us as well that when God makes his promises, he's not making a promise that is in some way just like to one generation, but the promise is that which stands everlastingly. So the work that Christ did, for instance, wasn't just for those who saw it, those who were his immediate followers,

those who were there when all this stuff happened. But what God did in this establishment of a new covenant with us is not just for those who were there, but for all of us, because this covenant is that which surpasses the bounds of time, just like the old covenant did with the Israelites, so the new covenant does with us today. And when we're born, and when we're baptized, and we enter into this covenant, we enter into that which was established a long time ago, already with us in view. And that's the main point I want to make about this, not only with those who are standing there but also those who are not with them that this covenant itself superseded the historical particularity of each generation in this crazy way that when it comes to redemption

like promises of redemption and deliverance those promises are for everyone uh the only question is whether you believe it or not this is like the only distinguishing factor right is that are The in or out is not based on whether or not the promise is for you. The promise of redemption and deliverance is for you. It's for the whole of creation. The only question is whether you believe it or not. Yeah, that's exactly right. That's the reason that I think it's C.S. Lewis who talks about how hell's doors are locked on the inside.

Yeah. Yeah. So anyone who goes to hell goes there quite willingly. That's where they want to be. Or to use kind of the language of the Gospels, they don't want to be part of the feast. I mean, the feast was there. I mean, it's not like God only invited some. Everybody's invited to the feast.

But some, they're like, no, no thanks. I'd rather be in this other place. Well, and what's interesting about that is that everyone gets invited and no one shows up. So he has to go, like, grab people and bring them in. And so this is the other thing about this. The distinguishing factor between the people who enter into what God has promised and those who don't is not whether or not the invitation was there or whether the promise was for them.

It was. Oddly enough, I can't believe or accept this invitation, and so God has to go and grab me and bring me in. So lest you think, oh, good, the distinguishing factor between everyone is whether you believe it or not, and I believe it. Well, you do, but even that had to be done by God. Yeah. Initially, the invitation goes out, and you can see this with the children of Israel, even, all the time.

Nobody's believing this. Right, yeah. Yeah, our believing is the equivalent of Lazarus coming forth from the tomb, right? Yeah. Yeah. The reason that we believe is because God calls us to faith, And that faith through the work, that word through the work of the spirit generates faith, just like the word coming out of the mouth of Jesus generated life into dead Lazarus. So, I mean, I guarantee you when Lazarus stepped out of the tomb, he wasn't patting himself on the back.

God made such a good decision. He comes forth as the one who's been brought to life by the work of Christ. just like any of us were brought to life through the work of the spirit who speaks that life-giving word into us and brings us to faith yeah the only thing more stubborn than our unbelief is the grace of god this is certainly true yeah uh i'll give a triple om into that one all right so uh yeah that's first 15 verses let's keep moving here uh we're at 16 and uh we're gonna shift a little bit here to uh to talk about some of the things that we discussed in 28 as far as the threats go it verse 16 says you know how we lived in the land of egypt and how we came through the midst of

the nations uh through which you passed and when we were going through these nations as well as living in egypt it says you've seen their abominations and their idols of wood stone and silver and gold which they they had with them so it's not as if israel is naive it's not as if they're not familiar with exactly what happens when you live or pass through a land that is full of all sorts of idolatry. I mean, idolatry was, for us, idolatry is a bad word. For the nations through which Israel passed, they didn't call it, they didn't call it idolatry. They called it worship, right? So for them, I mean, for us, it's idolatry. For them, it's just, well, they're worshiping their worshiping their gods and some are silk some are stones some are wood you know

there's a whole uh polytheistic framework that ruled their lives so israel knows this and they know and so the biblical language is that of abominations but for the pagan peoples this just would have been their their gods and their goddesses and their lords by the way this that word the hebrew word uh uh for abominations that's the same word that you hear in the book of daniel about the abomination of desolation that is set up uh which most time is interpreted as that that uh sacrifice that antiochus epiphanies offered on the on the altar in jerusalem when he would put a pig on the altar so this this word abominations has a long long history in the old testament so these abominations these idols so you know about these and so it goes on in verse 18

to warn against her being a man or a woman or a family or tribe whose heart turns away from the lord our god to go and serve the gods of these nations and then it uses this image of poisonous fruit and wormwood so it says lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous fruit and wormwood So this is the idea, this is the image of either an individual or a tribe or a family or a city or whatever it might be that chooses to go the way of other gods. And this becomes like a root that bears sort of a poisonous fruit or a very, very bitter kind of plant, which is what wormwood is. Wormwood isn't poisonous, at least this is my understanding of it. wormwood is a poison it's an actual plant but it's extremely bitter and wormwood then becomes i don't know if this is i think this is yeah this is this is the first occurrence in the old

testament of the hebrew word for for wormwood but it occurs in proverbs and lamentations in amos and in jeremiah and then it pops up again in the book of revelation uh chapter eight and every time wormwood is a metaphor for bitterness for punishment for whatever whatever bad stuff is going to happen as a result of idolatry or some other kind of wickedness so it could be this guy verse 19 so he hears the words of the curse but he says to himself look i'm okay i have peace though i walk in the stubbornness of my heart in order to destroy the watered land with the dry I'm assuming that's some sort of Hebrew idiom. I checked some commentaries and no one really knows exactly what this watered land with

the dry is, but probably it's something like he's going to destroy everything. So it doesn't matter if it's a wet place or a dry place, everything is going to be destroyed by him. So this is the image of a guy. He's engaging in idolatry, but he's basically in the stubbornness of his heart saying, I'm getting away with it. I'm going to be fine. I won't be, nothing bad will happen to me, even though I'm engaging this kind of breaking of the covenant behavior.

So he's warned, he says, the Lord shall never be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord and his jealousy will burn against that man. And every curse written in this book will crouch upon him and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven. So that's the strong language that we're familiar with from Deuteronomy 28 of the threat of idolatry. So the reason I translated that one word is crouch. If you're looking in your Bibles, verse 20 sometimes will translate this as every curse written in this book will rest upon him. The Hebrew verb that's used there is almost always in reference to an animal lying down. So it's this idea of, you know, it's a word used in Psalm 23, he maketh me to lie down in green pastures. It's the word used in Genesis chapter 4 to talk about how sin was crouching at the door of Cain trying to win him over.

So this is an animal image, and it's used here to talk about how all the curses which are written in this book will crouch, will lie down upon him. And then the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven. So more very graphic images for what's going to befall an idolater. And that's not it. I mean, this kind of continues on. It rolls on with more. It's talking about how if Israel does forsake the covenant, if they do engage in idolatry, then things are going to go from bad to worse. In fact, it says that the land of Israel will become like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah.

That's verse 23. So those archetypical places of rebellion and divine retribution, of complete annihilation by God, that's the image that is then the threat, rather, that's applied to Israel should they forsake his ways. So this is in conformity with what we read about the curses in chapter 28. And then we have this pretty interesting section that talks about how people will even talk about Israel. So verse 25, excuse me, verse 24 says, so all this is going to happen. And even the nations will like, they'll see what happened to Israel. and they'll be asking questions like, why has the Lord done this to his land?

I mean, why this great outburst of anger? Verse 25, then men shall say, well, here's why. Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. And they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they had not known and whom had not been allotted to them. And therefore the anger of the Lord burned against that land to bring upon it every curse which is written in this book.

So this is kind of a theoretical conversation that other nations might have. So if Israel forsakes the covenant and God brings all this upon them, then even the nations which are around them are going to gossip about them and be like, man, what did those guys do? Wow. Why is their land looking like Sodom and Gomorrah? Well, here's the answer. Well, they forsook the Lord their God, and so they broke his covenant and all of this

came upon them. And then the chapter wraps up with the verse I mentioned earlier, that the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever that we may observe all the words of this law. I think what in context, what that's talking about is basically that the things that are revealed to us are everything that we've heard. So all of the words of the covenant have been given to us. So God's not hiding anything from us that we need to know.

Sure, there's a lot of things we don't know. There are these secret things, that is, mysteries or knowledge that God has reserved for himself. And that is, of course, limitless, limitless knowledge that he has. But as far as what we need to know, he has revealed all this to us in the words of his of this broadly of his scriptures and and specifically in Deuteronomy. So all has been given to us. So we we have no excuse. In other words, it's not like we have to wonder what God's will is for us. He's given it all to us. He's open, revealed these things to us. And even though some secret things belong to him, what we have is sufficient for our knowledge.

I think what's interesting is that, I mean, over and over and over again, it seems very clear that the primary danger for Israel, and really for anyone else, is idolatry. And this is where everything goes sideways. I mean, there's a lot of sins that get committed that don't result in the children of Israel being carted off into captivity or overrun by some occupying force. It's idolatry that gets you, right? This is the thing that ends up being the thing that completely destroys you over and over again. And, you know, who knows this? We've talked about this guy. Balaam knows this.

He knows how to end Israel. He says, just get them worshiping gods. Do whatever. It's over then. What's interesting about that then is as he says the secret things belong to our Lord, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our sons or our children forever that we may do all the words of this law. One of the things that's revealed, because we would read this and you see that word law,

and you're like, okay, what's revealed is what we're to do and not to do, or the Ten Commandments, whatever. You have to read that as in the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may hear all the words of these words, which is including all these words, which, of course, over and over and over again has established all that God has done for these people and that he is their God. Yes, there's a whole lot of other things that you're not to do and other things you are to do. But the most common thing that is said in this, the thing that gets said over and over and over again is things like,

I'm the Lord your God who led you out of Israel. I'm the God who provided for all your needs. I'm the God who did this. I'm the God who did this. Just constantly establishing who he is and therefore who you are, his child. And that's what's primarily being revealed. And everything, every do and don't is rooted in sort of the identity that he's given himself and then the identity that he gives you in relation to that. So when you hear do all the words of this law, what you're hearing is we need to listen to all the words of this greater word.

Yeah, that's exactly it. I was just glancing at the Hebrew when you were talking. And just to make sure, I figured that the Hebrew behind law is Torah, and it is. So God wants you to keep, to observe, to do all the words of this Torah. And as we have mentioned multiple times, when you have Torah, you have a reference to the totality of the teaching of God. And that might be, yeah, it might be the Ten Commandments. It might be a description of who God is and everything that he's done for his people. So it's a broad term for basically divine teaching or divine instruction,

which, of course, includes both that which is required of us as well as that which God has accomplished for us. All right, so I think that's it for chapter 29. Jumping to chapter 30. The key theme of the first 10 verses is this idea that's wrapped up with the Hebrew word shuv, which can be translated turn or return or repent or do again, because it occurs, I think, in 1, 2, 3, 6 of the verses, in verses 1 through 10, have this some form of the Hebrew verb to shuv, to turn, return, repent, do again. So that's kind of what binds all

this together. And the basic message is this. So if you do rebel against God, and as a result, god exiles you to whatever nation you might be in then what he wants what he's going to be doing as you're in those nations is reminding you calling to mind once more the words that he's given to to call you back to himself so that you return to him so that for instance in verse one when it says, you call them to mind in all the nations where the Lord your God has banished you. The Hebrew behind that is like you return them to your mind. So you're pulling them back into your mind.

You remember them once again. When you do that, and then verse 2, you return to the Lord your God. Well, that's the same Hebrew word for to turn or return or repent. So you're recalling his words. You're calling the Lord your God. and when you do this verse 3 it says the Lord your God will restore you from captivity it's the same Hebrew word again so as you're returning the words to your mind and returning to God he's going to be also returning you from captivity and bring you once more back to the land and he says it doesn't

matter I mean if you were at the very ends of the earth God is going to gather you he's going to bring you back home he's going to circumcise your heart and that of your that of your descendants and then he goes on to talk about how he's going to prosper the work of your hands and bless you once more now this has application in a couple different ways god did do this in part for israel when they were for instance exiled to babylon much much much later after deuteronomy uh hundreds years later. So yeah, they rebelled against God, and God finally said, all right, I'm going to exile you to Babylon. And then 70 years later, he brings them back. But it wasn't like this was the fulfillment of Deuteronomy 30, because they continued, of course, to rebel against him.

It wasn't like their hearts were circumcised, and they were exactly where God wanted them to be again. So the ultimate fulfillment of these first 10 verses of Deuteronomy 30 actually only occurs in the work of the Messiah. This is one of these sections where you have to look at what Moses says here in its broader biblical perspective, because it's only in the Messiah that we finally have that last exodus, that last return from exile, where God brings people from the ends of the earth north south east and west and doesn't matter if they're jews or if they're gentiles doesn't matter where they are he's going to bring them back to himself he's going to restore them into the kingdom of god he's going to circumcise their hearts and to bless them to give them

the covenant give him his give them his words and make them his children so this finally comes to its fulfillment in the exodus work of the Messiah, which later prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Hosea all talk about this coming exodus that the Messiah himself will accomplish, in which he gathers people from all the lands where they've been dispersed to return to the kingdom of God. So Deuteronomy 30 is ultimately looking forward to that day of complete restoration, which we have in the anointed one. Okay, let's see if we can wrap things up. We got just a few more verses left. Verses 11 through, I guess, 11 through 14 are echoed by Paul in Romans 10, right? You guys probably talked about this in 30 minutes. He says, this commandment which I'm

commanding you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. It's not in heaven that you should say who will go up to heaven for us to uh and make us hear it that we observe it and it's not beyond the sea that you should say who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it that we may observe it but the word is very near you it's in your mouth and in your heart that you may observe it um this is uh this is picked up some of this language in a way It's picked up by Paul in Romans chapter 10, and I have to get your opinion here with your discussion of Romans 10, but it seems to me like what Paul is doing there is he's adapting this language of Deuteronomy to a new context. He talks about how that word that is near you is the word of faith, is the word of the gospel that he is proclaiming to you.

So it's almost like Paul is taking these words of Deuteronomy, which in the original context, we're talking about how everything he's giving you is right there in your midst in these words that God has given to you. And I wouldn't say he's reinterpreting, but he's adapting it to the fulfilled context of the work of the Messiah and the word of grace, the word of faith that is now being preached. Is that how you take his use of that in Romans 10? yeah i i think that paul uses takes that the word word and uses it interchangeably with the gospel and with and with christ himself that the word is not in heaven any longer he even changes it and he says like it's not down in the earth and this sort of stuff too and so uh it's like he borrows this language talks about the word as the gospel but even more literally as christ and says that Christ is, it's not as though God left him this word, which is ultimately Christ, we know,

the word made flesh, right? He didn't leave it in heaven, and now that it's come down, he also didn't leave it in the grave. He didn't leave it in the earth, but it's like, but actually that we are united with Christ, and we are indwelled by Christ, and like it's in our heart, and it's on our lips, and this sort of thing. So yeah, it is an interesting passage that he decides to pull from. I mean, sometimes the apostles do things that are crazy. You're like, that doesn't seem like what he's saying at all. But I'm not going to argue with Paul. And ultimately, again, what you see here, he says,

I have set before you today life and good and death and evil. And you have all this stuff to be careful about obeying the commands of your Lord, obeying the commands of God, all this stuff. And again, the main concern that you see is idolatry, where he says, like, don't go running off with other things or else you're going to surely perish and you're going to be overthrown. You shall not live long in the land, all of this stuff,

which, of course, is everything that happens. And so sort of Paul borrowing this language when Christ comes to redeem all this stuff makes sense. Yeah. That he is the ultimate word that Moses is speaking or that God is speaking through Moses. Yeah. yeah well that i that well that fits perfectly and i think it it fits with the the broad use of

the new testament or rather the old testament in the new testament i mean they're they're viewing all of this not just as applicable in its original historical context but they are they are reading all of this is in one way or another leading to its fulfillment in christ so what paul does there is yeah pretty much in keeping with what you see christ himself doing many times in the gospels and we are out of time that is it man we are out of time uh we got through uh looks like about two chapters and uh we we got one or two more weeks probably in deuteronomy we'll see how it goes chad we'll see you next week for chapter 31. all right we'll be here Thanks for watching!