Deuteronomy 10:12-11:32
From Deuteronomy 5, Moses reminded the
Israelites and the later readers and hearers over the millennia what they learned
with the Ten Commandments, what the LORD requires of His children. God requires
absolute allegiance. From chapters six through eleven, Moses taught the
Israelites about God – His characteristics, His past works on their behalf, His
presence at the current time, and His assured presence in the future. Moses
taught them God’s ordinances, statutes, laws, and His future judgments, too, which
would earn them blessings or curses.
Deuteronomy 10:12-11:32 is a
simplified and pointed restatement of the earlier four-and-one-half chapters. The
outline of this sermon is simple and alternates between a verse of God
commanding the Israelites and then a verse about God or of what He will do. It
continues this pattern mostly throughout this part of Scripture with just a few
segments being longer than one verse. The verses of this sermon divide into two
parts – verses 10:12-11:7 and verses 11:8-11:32. A positive restatement of the
First Commandment begins the first and second sections. The second section’s command
of “keep” (hear, listen, and obey) all God’s commands is the succinct restatement
of 10:12. Moses’ purpose for these two sections was to teach the Israelites
what God requires and commands of His children – absolute allegiance to Him
lived out as reverential fear and obedient love. Moses taught the Israelites in
the first section about who God is – His characteristics and His past actions
for them. In the second section, Moses taught the Israelites what God commands
of them as His children and what He promises He will do for/to them if they
obey or disobey Him – blessing or curse. The part of the second section that
states the First Commandment negatively (vs. 16) introduces the typical
covenantal clause of blessings and curses (vs. 17, 31-32). This division of Moses’
sermon demonstrates precisely what the word yada
(“know” in English; see 11:2) means. Yada
is a progressive learning that leads to knowing personally. It covers the spectrum
from introduction, perceiving, recognizing, acknowledging, and then confessing
one’s relationship with the introduced person. The Bible speaks of yada regarding a person’s relationship
with Yahweh. From verses 10:12-11:7, Moses introduced Yahweh to the Israelites
by describing His characteristics to them. In the second part of the first section,
Moses taught them that what they experienced in their exilic departure from
Egypt and in the wilderness showed the LORD’s actions for them because of His
love for them. From 11:8-11:32, Moses taught the Israelites to acknowledge the
LORD and confess Him because of His works for them in their past, in their
present, and in their future. Instead of talking to the Israelites about who
God is, in this section Moses spoke to them regarding what God will do as they
cross the Jordan River and receive their inheritance and in their future. He taught
them what God commanded them to do as His chosen people, too. The second
section of the sermon was current and future focused. Throughout this sermon,
Moses told the Israelites the LORD’s past actions teach them of who He is and
His care for them. By this, they could recognize Him in the present and could
know and trust He would be in their future. Let us look at these forty-three
verses closer.
In the first section of this sermon,
verses 10:12-11:7, Moses taught four times what God required and commanded the
Israelites as His chosen people upon whom He “set His affections” (vs. 10:15).
He taught four times about God, too. In verses twelve through thirteen, Moses
said God requires five things of His covenanted people. God gave His
expectations of His people. Just as a good father explains his expectations of
his child so they recognize when they are obedient or not, God outlined His
expectations, so the Israelites knew what He expected of them. Within each
section of the sermon, subsections occur that alternate speaking about the
Israelites or about the LORD. Moses began this section of the sermon telling
the Israelites what Yahweh God requires from them (vs. 12). In this verse (12),
the word “require” comes from the Hebrew word sha’al, which means to ask. God asked them to be in a covenant
relationship with Him. He chose Abraham and his descendents to receive His
affection (10:15). Moses taught the Israelites God requires His people to be in
a relationship with Him. [Remember, God created us to be in a relationship with
Him (Ephesians 1:4).] God taught them through Moses what relationship with Him
requires – reverential fear and obedient love. Moses gave the Israelites
practical ways reverence and love are to be shown to the LORD – walking in all
His ways and serving Him (10:12). The Hebrew word for “walk” is halak. It means living a way of life like
God’s. To live this way, “walk,” they must watch and follow God and then
imitate Him or live out what Moses taught them. The other practical way Moses
taught them to love and revere the LORD is to serve Him. The Hebrew word for
“serve” is abad, which means to voluntarily
work for or serve as a subject. In chapter eight’s lesson, we learned the
greatest expression of our love for God is obedience. Moses taught this. Verse
13 says it succinctly, “Keep the LORD’s commandments and His statutes, which I
am commanding you today for your good.” “Keep” comes from the Hebrew word shamar. Moses used this word often as he
taught the Israelites. It means to hear, listen, and obey. Human obedience to
God comes from love and reverence of Him. Shamar/keep incorporates loving and revering. Moses
spelled out for the Israelites how they were to enact shamar in their lives.
With verses fourteen and fifteen,
Moses taught the Israelites about God – His primacy and characteristics. He began
this lesson about God with an imperative verb, “behold.” Moses wanted their
attention and wanted them to see and understand something very important. He
said the LORD your God owns the heavens, the earth, and everything that is in
them. God is greater than anything they know of or can imagine, Moses said
because He owns everything. Moses told them, too, that the LORD “chose to set His
affections” on their forefathers and chose their descendents over every other
people. These two verses told the Israelites that God is omniscient, all-loving,
and great.
Verse 16 begins with a conditional
adverb, “therefore.” Moses said to the Israelites, since God is all-loving,
great, and omniscient, they must accede their thoughts of primacy to Him by
circumcising their hearts and not stiffening their necks. “Circumcise” means to
cut and comes from the Hebrew word mool.
“Heart” comes from the Hebrew word lebab
and means the inner man – will, mind, heart, and soul. Moses and Jeremiah spoke
of this in Leviticus 26:41 and Jeremiah 4:4. Remember earlier in Genesis, God
required Abraham and all his men be circumcised, which signified their setting
themselves apart as God’s own people. Their circumcision signified their covenant
with Yahweh God, instead of to the other gods of the land. When a person circumcises
their heart, he or she makes a covenant with God. Every person has a heart,
male and female, so this circumcision is not just for men. When a person cuts
away the foreskin of his or her heart, he or she cuts away the barriers and
hardness he or she erected between him or herself and God. He or she is allowing
God to enter his or her most-inner self so He can be his or her LORD and
Master. The other part of this command Moses spoke tells the Israelites not to
stiffen their necks. This goes back to Deuteronomy 9:6 when God said they were
a stubborn people. When a person circumcises their heart, God has a home in his
or her heart because he or she no longer stubbornly rebels against Him.
In verses seventeen and eighteen,
Moses told the Israelites more about God. He told them God is great (large in
importance), mighty (strong), awesome (respected and revered), and is not
biased, corrupt, unjust, or unmerciful. These are God’s characteristics. Moses
did not end with that though. He set up a practical way the Israelites could
“walk” (halak) in God’s ways – by
being just, merciful, true, righteous, and faithful. Verses 12 and 13 told the
Israelites to walk in the way of God. Verses 17 and 18 described God further
and gave practical ways to do that.
Moses then, in verses nineteen
through twenty, told them to do what God does – love the aliens/foreigners in
their land. In verse eighteen, he explained what that meant – give them food
and clothing. Moses reminded the Israelites they were once aliens in Egypt,
too, and know what it felt like to be mis-treated and not helped. Besides this
practical action, Moses reminded them of what he told them in verses twelve and
thirteen, “You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve Him and cling to
Him and you shall swear by His name.” “Shall” conveys a strong command for the
future. Moses strongly commanded them to revere God. He reminded them to love
God by serving Him, too. The new term “cling to Him” comes from the Hebrew word
dabaq, which means joined together or
follow closely. The Israelites love and reverence for God should be so close they
are considered bodily joined to Him so no distinction exists between God and them.
As a final addition, Moses told them to swear by God’s name (Deuteronomy 5:11,
6:13, and Psalm 63:11), not as in misusing God’s name, but as making an adamant
statement. Their promise was so trustworthy that they would attach holy God’s
name to it to make sure the person knew of their seriousness.
Moses taught the Israelites again in
verses twenty-one and twenty-two about who God is. He said, “He is your praise
and He is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you, which
your eyes have seen.” We must understand what Moses meant by saying “He is your
praise.” In this instance, the Hebrew word for praise is tahillah and means praise song, adoration, and thanksgiving. Moses
then gave them the reason they praised God – His greatness and awesomeness
appeared when He multiplied their population in Egypt. The Israelites grew from
seventy people to a multitude, almost too many to count. The Israelites praised
God and He became the source of their praise. Praise was on their lips because
of Him. The Psalmist and Jeremiah spoke of this too, in Psalm 109:1, 148:14,
and Jeremiah 17:14.
In the final command of the first
section of this sermon, Moses taught God’s First Commandment in a positive way again.
He commanded, because God is the one true God, they “shall love the LORD and
always keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments.”
Remember the word “keep” comes from the Hebrew word shamar, meaning to hear, listen, and obey. “Keeping” is loving and
revering with all the internal and external actions involved, such as
worshipping and serving. When Moses spoke of “His charge,” he used the Hebrew
word mishmereth, which means
obligations, service, and injunctions. Moses told the Israelites to hear,
listen, and obey everything God commanded and taught them through him.
The fourth time Moses taught the
Israelites about who God is, he said,
“Know
(yada) this day that I am not
speaking with your sons who have not known (yada)
and who have not seen (ra’ah –
progressive seeing from being taught to look at to discerning and knowing) the
discipline of the LORD your God – His greatness, His mighty hand, and His
outstretched arm, and His signs and His works which He did in the midst of
Egypt…” [NASB]
The
Israelites who survived the wilderness and whom Moses taught to recognize the
LORD were the ones whom God held accountable to this covenant, not their
children. Those who experienced firsthand God’s greatness, mighty hand, and
outstretched arm were the adults. Moses taught them about God and pointed out
God’s works on their behalf. The Israelites had no excuse for not following
God’s commands because they experienced His presence and knew Him to be real,
true, and faithful. Moses gave the Israelites an account of several things they
saw God do from Egypt to their present time in verses two through seven. (For
more information about Dathan and Abiram in verse six, go to Numbers 16:1-35.
God showed His justice, omniscience, and power in that instance.)
The second section of this sermon alternates
between what the Israelites were to do and what God would do. There are five of
each, just as there were four in the first section of this sermon. This second
part of the sermon concerns the Israelites’ present and future. It begins with
a command that covers the First Commandment and the others from God. Moses
commanded the Israelites to keep every commandment he spoke that day. Remember,
Moses spoke at Beth-peor in one day every word from chapter four through
chapter thirty-four. From chapter six through verse seven of chapter eleven,
Moses taught and commanded the Israelites to keep the First Commandment. From
11:8, Moses spoke specifically regarding the First Commandment but included the
other commandments, too. In the first half of verse eight of chapter eleven,
Moses told the Israelites what they were to do. From the second half of verse
eight through verse nine, he told them what God would do (the reason they
should obey God’s commands). Moses said God would make them strong to prevail
against the Canaanites so they could go in, possess the land, and prolong their
days (personal lifetime and national longevity) in the land the LORD swore to
their forefathers. At this point, Moses explained to the Israelites that their covenant
with God was conditional on their obedience. As before, their inheritance of
the land came from the Abrahamic covenant. The Israelites’ possession of and
longevity on the land depended on their obedience to their own covenant, the
Mosaic Covenant, with the LORD God. God swore upon Himself - holy God swearing
an adamant oath - that He will abide by this covenant. Remember the Ten Commandments
ends with the conditional statement, “that you may live long in the land” (5:29).
From verse ten through verse twelve, Moses told the Israelites what the land
that the LORD was giving them was like – fruitful. He told them God managed the
land and cared for it, too – watered it and His eyes were always on it (vs.
11b-12). The rain came from heaven, God’s abode. God watered Canaan not the
people. The land God was giving them to possess He cared for and made plentiful.
The Israelites must remember, since God watches the land so well, He would see
them and the way they lived, too. God is omnipresent.
The next segment of the second
section occurs in verse thirteen with Moses commanding the Israelites a second
time in this section. This verse has a conditional if-then statement. Moses
said, “It shall come about if you listen obediently to my commandments which I
am commanding you today, to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all
your heart and all your soul…” The Hebrew word for our English word “listen” is
shama, which derives from the same root
word as shamar. Shama means to hear, listen, and obey. Moses defined shama in his correct wording, “listen obediently.”
If the Israelites listened to and obeyed God’s word with all their hearts and
souls, then something would occur. One final note on this verse, though, must
be made. Notice the command is to love the LORD with all the heart and soul as
Moses stated in Deuteronomy 4:29. God promised He would be found if a person sought
Him with all their heart and soul, their whole being. Jesus taught this in
Matthew 7:7-8, too.
The other side of the “if-then”
statement gives us the LORD’s actions. Notice the second section of this sermon
has a similar format as the first section – a command to the Israelites and
then a statement regarding God. In verses fourteen and fifteen, Moses told the
Israelites if they listened and kept God’s commands, God would continue to
watch over the Promised Land so it would be fruitful and the Israelites would
have everything they needed to live. This statement is open-ended though.
Humans are not always faithful.
Another side to God’s promise exists.
It occurs if the Israelites are faithless. This verse speaks of a negative
action of the Israelites. Moses warned them by saying, “Beware that your hearts
are not deceived and that you do not turn away and serve other gods and worship
them.” This negative restatement was ominous. The Israelites’ hearts, minds,
and souls must have pricked with fear at its possibility. Yet we know that they
failed to keep their covenant with God. Humans are stubborn and rebel against
God.
What did Moses say God would do?
Verse 17 speaks of the curse, the judgment for the Israelites’ unfaithfulness.
Their disobedience and stubbornness would ignite/kindle God’s anger against
them. God’s anger comes from His righteousness. His righteousness requires
justice. God’s justice against anyone who broke covenant with Him would be separation
from Him. Separation from God brings neediness, drought, famine, illness, and death.
Moses shared this judgment in the second half of verse seventeen. God would
stop watering the land, which would then lead to famine, drought, and death of all
things and people. The Israelites would no longer possess the Promised Land. By
breaking their covenant with God, they would bring God’s curse upon themselves and
be dispossessed like the earlier Canaanites.
Moses implored the Israelites what
they must do in verses eighteen through twenty. He taught these in Deuteronomy
chapters four and six. The Israelites were to absorb and embody in their lives
God’s commands so they would be a permanent part of their lives and beings.
They were to take them into their hearts and minds (ephods and frontlets) so
they spoke of them at all times (walking, sitting, waking, and sleeping) to
their children. The Israelites were to make sure they remembered and obeyed God’s
commands. They must write them on their doors and gates. Moses taught that God
and His commands were to be an essential part of their lives and that without
Him they would be bereft. God considered His covenant with the Israelites very important.
To turn this to a positive view,
Moses told them why God’s commands must be followed and why the actions of
verses eighteen through twenty must occur. The Israelite’s faithfulness to the Ten
Commandments ensured they would possess the land forever, “as long as the
heavens remain above the earth.” God would make their days long in the land.
The Israelites love and reverence (worship) of God was to be the impetus for
remaining faithful to the covenant. In case that was not enough, God gave
another possibility for faithlessness, a negative inducement. Parents experience
the necessity of offering an ultimatum if a child refuses to obey. Judgment and
punishment occur at those times. God, as the original and loving Father, provides
the negative incentive, too, for the Israelites in case they consider breaking their
covenant with God.
For the final time, Moses commanded
the Israelites to keep their covenant with God. Verse 22 states what God
requires from the Israelites in their covenant with Him and what would occur
when they do – His blessing. They were to keep every commandment of God, love
Him, walk in His ways, and hold fast to Him. These are what Moses said in 10:12-13
with one addition. The addition is something he commanded in 10:20. “Hold fast”
comes from the Hebrew word dabaq and
means to cling to. Moses commanded the Israelites to cling to God as their
source of life and reason d’etre because He is the almighty, all-knowing
Creator, one true God – the one who existed before time, who redeemed them from
slavery, and who promised to be with them forever, thus ensuring they have
everything needed for life.
Notice verse twenty-two is the first
part of a conditional statement. If the Israelites keep God’s commandments and
hold fast to Him, then the LORD will do something. He will ensure their possession
of the land. Every nation that stands between them and the Promise Land will
fear the Israelites and their God (vs. 25). God is faithful to His promises.
Verses 26 through 30 speak specifically
about God’s blessing and curse. The blessing is a gift and the curse is death
(Deuteronomy 30:1, 19). Moses said God’s blessing would occur if they listened
(shama – hear, listen, and obey) to
the commandments of the LORD. The blessing is long life and possession of the land
if they fulfill their covenant with God (Deuteronomy 28:1-14). God’s curse
occurs if the Israelites rebel and turn away from their covenant with God to
follow other gods. The curse is death – God’s not watering the Promised Land leads
to physical death (Deuteronomy 28:15-68). Moses next instructed the Israelites
where to place the blessing and curse when they cross the Jordan River.
Moses summed up God’s blessings and
His covenant with Israel. They would cross the Jordan River to possess the land
and live in it because God was giving it to them. The Israelites were to be
careful (shamar) to do all God’s
commands.
Many people know the history of the
Israelites. They failed to keep their covenant and God dispossessed them.
Multiple times in history other nations destroyed their cities and displaced them
– 712 BC, 586BC, 70AD. People look upon
the Israelites as negligent or fickle. God’s commands appeared so simple. Yet
the Israelites failed many times.
God had a plan to bring humankind back into
relationship with Him from the beginning of time. His plan was the death and
resurrection of His one and only Son, Jesus Christ. People may wonder what God’s
purpose was in giving the Ten Commandments if it was not enough to save people
from themselves, their sins. Obeying God’s Laws cannot ever make a person
righteous. God gave the Ten Commandments to lead people back to Him, to
fellowship with and worship Him. This worship of Him would lead a person to
God’s prophesied Messiah, the Savior God planned for humankind’s redemption
from the curse they deserve – death. Humankind is enslaved to sin. The word
“redeem” comes from the Bible-times context of buying the freedom of a slave.
When sinless Jesus died on the cross, He chose to take the rightful place of
sinful humankind. Jesus redeemed humankind from the slavery and penalty of sin
– death – if they believed in Him. Why, then, did God give the Ten Commandments
and command the Israelites to listen and obey them? He did it to bring them
back into a relationship with Him. He did it to bring their focus back to
worshipping Him, the Creator of everything, and away from their sinful selves
and lusts. When Moses told the Israelites to fear and love the LORD God with
their hearts and souls, he taught them how to have a relationship with God that
occurred when they walked with and worshipped Him. The Ten Commandments lead
humankind to refocus on God. They lead us to the Messiah and Savior of
humankind, which brings an eternal relationship with God.
God chose to “set His affection to
love” the Israelites. He sets His affection to love each of us. He chooses you
and me, but He does not force Himself on us. We each must choose Him over our own
selves. By doing this, we place Him first and follow Him daily. What must we do
to have eternal life with God? Each of us individually must admit that he or she
is a sinner and needs a Redeemer/Savior to bring him or her back into
relationship with God. Each person must believe Jesus Christ is God’s holy Son
who died and whom God resurrected. By his or her belief, he or she can have
renewed and eternal life with God. Each person must confess with his or her
mouth that Jesus is Lord (Kurios/Yahweh – the person who has power over
people and things; Master) (Romans 10:9).
What will you decide today? Will you return
to God and worship Him? Will you admit, believe, and confess? It is your
decision, but if you say, “Not now,” you are saying, “No.” Is that really what
you want? It is your choice.
