Teach Me The Bible
Welcome to Teach Me The Bible Podcast, helping the people of God understand the Word of God. Join us weekly as Dr. David Klingler walks us through God's Word and teaches the Bible. If you want more information, visit our website, teachmethebible.com, and download our "Teach Me The Bible" app from any app store.
Teach Me The Bible
Deuteronomy (Chapter 4)
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In Deuteronomy 4, Moses calls Israel to keep God’s commands as the way of life, rooted in fearing the Lord and remembering His mighty acts. Though tempted by false gods promising prosperity, God’s people are reminded that true wisdom, obedience, and life come from the faithful Lord who keeps His covenant.
Stay engaged with new and up-to-date content, including newsletters, articles, podcasts, etc. Download the Teach Me the Bible App from any app store or Apple TV/Roku device.
If you're listening to Teach Me the Bible podcast, our mission is to help the people of God understand the Word of God. Join us each Monday and Thursday for new episode releases. Listen to our full library of content at teachmethebible.com or by downloading the Teach Me the Bible app from any app store. You're listening to Teach Me the Bible Podcast.
SPEAKER_02:Hey everybody, welcome back to Teach Me the Bible Podcast. We are working through the book of Deuteronomy. And today we're going to pick up in chapter four. Last time we did one through three. And so we're going to start in in four one. We're going to continue this story. And so I've got Dr. David Klingler here with me to lead us through. And so Doc, can you pick up in four one and see where it takes us today?
Dr. David Klingler:Yeah, for we know um most people know chapter five uh with the um with the ten commandments, chapter six with the Shema, if you've ever heard the Shema Israel. Uh but uh chapter four sets all of that up. And so we we did a pretty extensive review or introduction last time, covered the first three chapters, and and uh now we'll jump into chapter four. And we're gonna really chapter four is kind of a cliff notes version of everything that he's gonna say in the book. There there's quite a bit here uh in just this one chapter, but uh he starts out, and now O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments, which I am teaching you to do in order that you may live and go in and take possession of the land uh which the Lord your God, the God of your fathers, has given you. Uh the I always make this point, and it's something that I think about uh quite a bit. Um we we tend to think about um you know this in order that you may uh in order that you may live uh and go in and possess. And I we always take that as kind of a temporal, you know, immediate. Um uh same thing occurs to me with uh with uh gospel of John, Jesus is there and he's raised Lazarus and he says, Um, you know, I have come that you may have life. And I always think, Well, what are we doing here? We we we have life. We're living, yeah. We're living, we're doing just fine. In fact, um, aren't you calling us to lay down our lives? So, what does that have to do with that?
SPEAKER_02:Boy, that's a good point. Yeah. It becomes kind of like abundant life or what's the what's the word? Yeah, yeah. Best life.
Dr. David Klingler:Yeah, best life now. I've come to you and I have life and have it abundantly, and so yeah. Oh no, we don't want you to have just normal life, we want you to have you know overflowing, plenty, and all this stuff that you'll hear.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
Dr. David Klingler:And um and that's adding to what the Lord has said. I uh and so I I think that you always have to, if you don't take this back to the plot, if you don't take this back to creation and fall, and this whole story is heading towards not not the kingdom, not going to the land. That's not the end of the story. When they take the land in the book of Joshua, it's not the end of the story. Uh, the writer of Hebrews makes this explicit. Now, uh, it's not true because the writer of Hebrews says it. You know, Joshua took, you know, if Joshua gave you rest, then what are we doing here? You know, you know you didn't get the rest that they were still looking for a later rest. Um and we tend to think, well, the New Testament authors then assign a new meaning, deeper meaning, oh, right, truer meaning on the Old Testament. No, they're restating what was there the whole time. We've missed it. Uh, and so the goal here was never to just go into the land to be able to eat good stuff. Look, they were eating uh, you know, this is what Israel complains about the whole time. Look, we were eating just fine back in Egypt. What's the point here? No, the point is going to the land, um, Messiah appearing and fixing the problem that has been in existence since the fall and since the expulsion from the garden. Uh, and so this that you may go in, uh, that you may live and go in and take the possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving to you. You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it. And we're gonna talk about this when we get to chapter five. Uh, and what does it mean to take the Lord's name? We translate it, take the Lord's name in vain, or um, but that the word that's used there is the same. We're gonna talk about this next time, but it's the same word that's used for a false witness, right? Yeah. Adding to, taking away, changing. Uh you know, this is the the false prophet. Uh, you you don't add to it, you don't take away from it. Um your eyes have seen what the Lord has done in the case of Baal Pa'or for all the men who followed another God, followed Baal, uh, at followed a different Baal. Some, you know, this is this word Baal is translated either husband or master, and there's some debate about which one, or is it is it both? Um certainly the Lord is called a Baal over there in in Jeremiah 31. Uh although I was a Baal to you, uh, I take that to be a husband. It's a covenant relationship there.
SPEAKER_02:So Baal then what you're saying is it's not just a specific one God. I know many approach it that way. We're saying Baal is like a like one God. You're approaching it as a designation, a name.
Dr. David Klingler:Yeah, a title, a title, like uh, like Lord, Master, sir, that type of thing. And so there was a Baal Pa'or, there was a God at uh a master uh uh at Po uh Pa'or. Yeah. Um, and uh you know, and so when we get to the end of this uh this sons I have reared, but they've rebelled against me, there's this son uh father relationship, and there's this, you know, kind of husband-wife relationship that uh that is with Israel uh through uh through the the story as well. Uh and uh so anyway, um you don't add to it, you don't take away from it, um, and you certainly don't go after other gods. Yeah. Uh you know what will happen to you. Um and I always make this point, and it always ties back to the plot, and I have to constantly remind myself of this. And and I do this in movies as well. Uh we do this intuitively in movies. You never view a scene in a movie as apart from the overall movie. You know, these these scenes are set up in a movie to fix the problem, address the problem, the ongoing problem that is presented in the movie. Yet when we come to the Bible, we just we've we've been we've learned to do practical application.
SPEAKER_02:You know, they can go and everything's its own thing.
Dr. David Klingler:You know, go in and you know, and it'll go well for you. Well, it would go well for you if you went and played nice with them and made covenants with them, right?
SPEAKER_02:Good point.
Dr. David Klingler:You know, made a deal with them, right? Negotiated trade agreements and you know, mutually beneficial relationships. That's the world, right? The Lord's gonna tell them go in and wipe them out so that you don't go after their gods, so that I mean, okay, so what happens if you go after other gods? I mean, you know, aren't we uh I mean we're American, right? We hold the freedom of religion and you know, freedom of speech. Aren't you allowed to say whatever you want? And can't you view, you know, do what you want, believe what you want? Apparently not. Not here. You know, no, because there is no other God who can give you life. It is I who you know, you know, wound, I who heal, I who put to death, I who give life. There's no one who can deliver you from my hand. And this isn't just best life now. Yeah, you know, and so you have to remind yourself of this all the time that uh that with you know, like the Cain and Abel. You know, just what's the story looking? You know, just flow it through the Cain and Abel story. If this doesn't work for Cain and Abel, and it doesn't work for every believer after Cain and Abel, then that's not what we're talking about. And so the the the other side, Satan has flipped this script so that you're looking for best life now.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
Dr. David Klingler:Um, and the gods of the nations are the ones who will promise it to you and can potentially deliver it. Yeah, you know, you want rain. You know, the Lord has cut off the rain, can come over here, I'll give you rain, you know, says the uh says Baal. Um, you know, says says the other God, immediate gratification, that type of thing. It speaks a lot to our culture today of immediate gratification. But anyway, uh and so um, but your eyes have seen what the Lord has done in the case of Baalpor to all those men who followed Baal, Pa'or, the Lord has destroyed them from among you. But you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive today, every one of you. And that that kind of makes it well, isn't that mean best life now? It means no. Um we'll wipe you out now and wipe you out for the for the future, right? Yeah, see, I have taught you uh the statutes of judgments, uh, just as the Lord my God commanded me that you should do thus in the land that you're entering to possess it. So keep and do them. For it is uh for wisdom and uh for your wisdom and for your understanding. And boy, that uh you know that that wisdom word here. I mean, that there's a lot of ink spilled in the old testament over the wisdom, the wisdom of the Lord. And then there's the wisdom of the world, right? The wisdom of the world says, you know, take all you can get and give nothing back, or you know, lay and wait for the you know for lay and wait, yeah, you know, and and steal from the righteous, because there's no judgment, you know. Um, but you are to keep and to uh uh you know to keep and to do them, for this is uh wisdom and understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear these statutes and say, Surely this great nation is wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there that has a God so near to it as the Lord our God, whenever we call on him. Um or what nation is there who has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today. And there's a lot of discussion about you know uh evaluating Israel's laws in light of the nation's laws.
SPEAKER_02:Um but this does highlight, you know, that Israel is has this task of being a light to the nations, and if they do it well, this is how the nations will view them. They'll be that they will see the wisdom of the Lord and the laws and the character of God on display through them.
Dr. David Klingler:So long as you're not in the the land. Yeah. Right. Right. And we're gonna get in Deuteronomy chapter 20. Uh, you know, all of the ites, you know, Deuteronomy chapter seven, Deuteronomy chapter 20, uh, all of the the descendants that are um in the land of from of Canaan, they're to be utterly destroyed.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, those nations don't get to see it. Yeah, yeah.
Dr. David Klingler:They're gonna it's not so great a deal. The sin of the Amorites has has now come to pass. This goes back to Genesis chapter 15. So um so uh chapter four, verse nine, and give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and you depart from your heart all the days of your life. Uh, but uh make them known to your sons and to your grandsons. We're gonna get next time honor your father and mother. Um and this is why uh this is chapter five, honor your father and mother, chapter six, um, teach these things diligently to your sons because this is passed down from generation to generation, the teaching of the Lord that leads to eternal life. Uh, and so if you forsake the teachings of your father and mother, uh then you will forsake the Lord uh and you will turn away uh to you know to follow false gods. Um and again, we will talk about this later, but but there are passages uh I can think of one in particular uh in Luke uh where Jesus uh tells uh his disciples, this is in uh uh in uh Luke chapter 14. If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Now, wait a second. I thought Moses said, honor your father and mother. Uh fathers were to teach the children and the grandchildren. How does this all work? And again, if you lose the plot development, if you if you lose what's happened, uh then you will misinterpret. You know, Paul's saying, honor your father and mother, for this is the first command with a promise. Uh over in Ephesians, he's quoting uh Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. And so we're seeing this here as well, right? You're to teach them diligently, you're to teach the ways of life, the way to eternal life, which are revealed in the law. And this is going to set up, if you don't have this, and and I can hear you know the critic out there going, Boy, you're reading a lot into this. No, we are keeping the plot in view as we read the whole of the Bible. If you don't, uh then you'll turn it into these little you know, illustrations, teaching moments for you know, best life now, how to live today. A lot of what we do in sermons, right? Saying, no, we need to tie this back. Every scene needs to tie back to why the movie is is the movie. Right.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
Dr. David Klingler:And um uh so verse uh ten, remember the day uh you you stood before the Lord, your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me, Ascendle assemble the people to me, that they may hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days of uh that they live on the earth, uh, that they may teach their children. And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire, and the uh heart of the heavens, the darkness, the clouds, the thick gloom, and the Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire, and you heard the sound of his words, uh, but you saw no form, only a voice. So he declared to you this covenant which he commanded you to perform, uh, the ten commands, and he wrote them on the tablets of stone, and the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you the statutes and the judgments, uh, that you might perform them in the land which you are going over to possess. So uh what we're going to argue uh or explain in the coming weeks is that that in my mind all of the the the commands, all of the case law um is going to flow out of the great commands. Um you shall not murder. Um and there's going to be a discussion, there's going to be um cities set up for what they're going to translate as the manslayer, but it's really the same word. You shall not murder, set up for the murder. Well, uh, if someone has killed another, then he's viewed as a murderer until the case is heard and he's you know, he's exonerated. It wasn't with evil intent, right? That type of thing.
SPEAKER_02:Right, right, right.
Dr. David Klingler:And so the the word that they translate manslayer and the word that they translate for murder is the same. Same, yeah, the same word. But but anyway, and again, we'll get into that more this uh this next time. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Well, a lot of this, um as we've kind of read down through here, goes back to verse nine where um you know he tells them not to forget the things which their eyes have seen, right? And this and you know, and then he goes and he talks about what happened at Horeb where the Lord demonstrated his fearfulness to them. Oh, yeah. And they've also witnessed what happened in the Exodus and you know, the crossing of the sea and uh all these great acts which the Lord performed in their midst, and they're to instruct and to teach their children so as to not forget the fear of the Lord and not forget that the Lord fights for them as well.
Dr. David Klingler:Yeah, and and it's the only the Lord that gives life. Yeah, uh, and it's and the life is eternal life. And again, it goes back to um, you know, if this would be a hard sell, right? Uh Moses says, Okay, here's what we're gonna do, guys. Okay, we're gonna pack all our stuff and we're gonna wander out into the wilderness, um uh, and uh it's gonna be horrible, right? And we're gonna be out there for 40 years and we're all gonna die. Um because you you're not going to listen to the word of this God, um you're going to rebel against him. You know, you're not gonna take the land he commanded you to take, you know, you're gonna fear for your life. And of course, what they're concerned with is best life now. Yes. And so if that's the deal, say, or you can stay here uh and make bricks and eat good food. They're going, uh, we'll stay. Yeah, right. Constantly. It was yeah, and we should have never come here, yeah. And we should go back, yeah. Right. Um, and then you're gonna hear this over and over. So, so this whole, you know, go in that you made, like, well, wait a second, they had a better deal back in Egypt. If that was the goal, yeah, then what's the point? Yeah, right. Um, I can hear the critics say, well, it was you know, the the tables had turned upon them and and now they were forced labor. I'm going, but they seemed happy there. Yeah, but but they're telling Mo a Moses, stop it, you're making it worse, right? So it was Moses was the one who was instigating it and making it worse, right?
SPEAKER_02:We had meat, we had bread, we had water.
Dr. David Klingler:Exactly, exactly. And so we'll always take a you know, you know, a better deal.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
Dr. David Klingler:Uh but it seems to me that this the that the the story uh as it's developed is um it's exactly what Jesus says. I mean, his words make perfect sense. The world hated me, the world will hate you. Uh Satan's running the world, uh, the world hated me, the world may, but fear not, I've overcome the world. Yeah, uh, and so your choice is immediate gratification or endure for eternal life. Yeah, that's good. Uh and so this is not a New Testament brand new concept. This has been established from the beginning, right? Um, and uh and made worse by for Israel because they rebelled against the Lord and they went after gods in whom there is no salvation, deliverance, eternal life. Uh and so uh if Israel doesn't go into the land, if they don't take the land, then Messiah doesn't come, then there's no future hope, life, eternal life for anyone. Uh and so this is pretty important stuff. And so again, just a reminder to always keep the story uh plot in your mind. Yeah, that's right. Because as soon as you do, you'll find yourself turning into oh, this is practical application for living today. No, this is this is practical application for living today so that you will live eternally. Right. Right. That that you better add that last part there. So um uh you know, he commanded them to teach the statutes and do them in the land. Uh so watch yourself, verse 15, uh carefully, since uh you did not see any form that day at Horeb in the midst of the fire, unless you act corruptly and make a graven image for yourself in the form of any figure or likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird or anything that flies, the likeness of any of anything that creeps on the earth, the likeness of any fish that is in the water. And you're saying, Well, this language sounds uh you know sounds familiar. Um well uh you know it's probably a good uh uh you know it's true uh that uh uh that they were not to make graven images uh for themselves. Um there was an image uh that was made um that was to represent the Lord. In Exodus. In act well and in Genesis, right? Yeah, the the image was man.
SPEAKER_02:I see what you're saying of the Lord. Yeah.
Dr. David Klingler:Uh and so they weren't to make a image of likeness of a animal that they were created to rule over, yeah, to worship, to worship and be over them, right?
SPEAKER_02:So this was what they did in Exodus. That was the point I was making. They they created the golden calf.
Dr. David Klingler:Exactly, they did, yeah. Uh and unless you lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars and all the hosts of heaven and serve him. This is what they did in Israel, or in Egypt, right? Uh that's what they're gonna do in other nations. Uh they're gonna worship Shemesh or or you know Ra, the sun god, whatever it is, they're they're gonna uh worship uh sun and moon and stars, uh all the hosts of heaven and uh be drawn away. Interestingly, that Israel in their their future, they will be uh the sun and the moon and the stars, they will shine bright like the sun and the moon and the stars. Yeah. Now Paul's gonna tie this to resurrection.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
Dr. David Klingler:Um, I don't think that is a stretch at all. I think that's exactly the point. Um, that uh Israel is going to be multiplied like the uh dust of the ground. Well, that dust of the ground language goes back to the fall. Um, and Adam was created to rule, but he's going back to the dust of the ground, and so also will Israel. They will all return back to the dust of the ground. They'll be numerous, uh, but they'll be um they'll all die. Um, but through faith they will be raised and shine bright like the stars of heaven, Paul's going to say. And so there's also passages where it's not uh I will make your seed numerous like this the ground, uh like the sand of the ground or the the the dust of the ground, uh, but also like the stars of heaven. And then third is like the sand at the seashore.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
Dr. David Klingler:Uh and that's an interesting one where it seems that Paul is taking the sand of the seashore and bringing Israel back from the nations.
SPEAKER_02:So what you're saying is all that language is isn't just some general way of saying they're gonna be a lot of people. Right. There, it's very specific narrative language is developing. It's developing communicating something very specific.
Dr. David Klingler:Yes, yeah, yeah, and it's set in the story so that you're looking for again, tie it to the plot. And this is developed in the plot. Uh, and if you don't see any plot development, if you're just going from passage to passage and doing principles and application, which is what we're taught to do, um, you're not gonna see any of this, right? Yeah, it you might as well, you know, it's like taking a deck of cards and shuffling them up, right? Take the scenes of a movie and shuffle them up, put them in any order, the order doesn't matter, uh, and pull one out and apply it to your life. And that that's what we've done with the Bible. Say, no, no, this is a a regular plot development setting problem resolution, right?
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely.
Dr. David Klingler:Uh, and so all of this language then is looking forward to that. So you're not to worship the stars of heaven, you're to shine forth like the stars of heaven, and that's what your future is. Uh, but the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to a people to be uh his own possession as today. That language, his own possession, hold on to that. There's a lot there. You can track that language through, shows up uh not only in the Old Testament, through the Old Testament, consistently through the Old Testament, in reference to Israel alone, but also in the New Testament, uh in Egypt and or in Ephesians. Ephesians is we'll see it in Deuteronomy 32, which we've foreshadowed quite a bit in the intro. Yep, in uh big chapter in uh throughout Deuteronomy, yeah, uh throughout the Psalms, throughout Malachi, so from the very beginning of the Old Testament to the very end of the Old Testament, and then into the New Testament. That same language is used. And of course, the question is is the is the reference changed? Is it expanded? No, I don't think it is, not at all. They the Gentiles have been included in. But um But anyway, um uh now the Lord was angry with me on account of you, and he swore that I should not cross the Jordan, that I should not enter the good land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. For I shall die in this land, I shall not cross the Jordan, I shall not cross and take possession of the good land. So watch yourself lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, uh, and make for yourselves graven images in the form of anything which the Lord your God uh against which the Lord your God has commanded you. For the Lord your God is a consuming and jealous God that always ties back to you will have no other gods before me. Um we're gonna see this again repeated. We're gonna see this in chapter seven. This is why they're not to intermarry with the ites, they're to utterly destroy them, lest they are led astray to follow gods, other gods, gods of the nations, gods in whom there is no salvation, uh, and then they will be destroyed because the Lord is a jealous God. It's the land of the assuming fire, yeah. Well picture. Yeah, when you uh become uh the father of children uh and children's children, uh, and have remained long in the land and act corruptly, and make an idol in the form of anything, and do that which is evil in the eyes of the Lord so as to provoke him to anger, I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today. We're gonna see this again later in Deuteronomy, calling heavens and earth. Uh these are the witnesses of the covenant. Um all the people that are making the covenant are going to be gone, except for the Lord. Uh, and when the sons and the sons of the sons and they they're gonna do it, yeah, they're going to violate the covenant. Uh, then Isaiah is going to call heavens and earth. Uh hero heavens and give ear o earth. For the Lord speaks, right?
SPEAKER_02:He's he's summoning the witnesses to bring referring to you know the lack of rain, the lack of crops, that kind of thing, the rain coming from the heavens, crops from coming from the ground, or what do you think that is?
Dr. David Klingler:I think it's a it's uh you know, I I think it is, you know, covenant witnesses, yeah. Right, who who's who are the witnesses of heavens and the earth, right?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, uh the the um well do you think he's saying here in in verse 25 when you do this and when you act corruptly as in you will do this? Or is this more of like a conditional situation, like if you do this? Um, because later in the book he's going to say, you're going to do this. He predicts it. Yeah. You know, and so I I wonder if he's already tipping his cards as to his lack of confidence in their ability to do it.
Dr. David Klingler:Yeah, it's uh it begins with a key clause. Yeah, so so when uh yeah, it it's yeah, this is what's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah.
Dr. David Klingler:Uh when you bring forth sons and sons of sons, uh, and you've remained in the land, and then you go and do this. I'm telling you, this is what's gonna happen. I didn't tell you. Yeah, yeah. The the witnesses uh this day will be the heavens and the earth. Yeah. Um and you will be made to quickly perish uh from the land which you're going over to possess it. Uh perish. Um uh that word uh is going to be used all the perish and scattered, right? Perish and scattered. That's going to be Israel's future. Um and so when Jesus sends out his disciples in Matthew 10, and we quote this so we we refer to this passage a lot because it's so relevant to our New Testament understanding. Jesus tells the disciples, do not go to the Gentiles, don't go to the Samaritans, go only to the perishing sheep of the house of Israel. Right? Well, why are they perishing? Well, here it is. This is what's going to happen. They're going to perish, and they're going to be scattered. The Lord will scatter you among all the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord drives you. And there you will serve God's the work of man's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear, uh, nor eat nor smell. Right? And so he's already telling them, look, this is this is your future. And we're going to see this again and again, again in the book of Deuteronomy. From there you will seek the Lord your God, but you will not find uh, but and you will find him if you search for him with all of your heart and with all of your soul. We're gonna get this repeated in Deuteronomy chapter 30. Deuteronomy 28, um, blessings and curses, and they will rebel and they will be cursed, and they will be uh caused to perish, and they will be scattered. And when they call these things to mind, the blessing and the curse, and they return to the Lord with all their heart and with all their soul, then he will restore them from captivity, and he will have compassion upon them. And uh and so Deuteronomy 30 is already being stated here in Deuteronomy chapter 4. Uh from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him if you search for him with all with all your heart and with all your soul. These words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart and you shall speak of them, right? So it's the word you're to listen to his voice. When you're in distress and all these things come upon you, in the later days, in the days uh to come, um, and and I take this to be prophetic, right? Uh in um you know, in in um, you know, in the the um uh you know in in the in the after days and the in the latter days, right? Uh at the end of the story. Like the end of days in a story. At the end of days, when when these uh and you return uh to the Lord your God and you listen to his voice. Um This is interesting um to me that uh you know that uh how were they to listen to his voice? Was his voice going to thunder from the heavens? No, this is gonna be the language all the way through the next coming chapters and the rest of this book. They were to listen to the voice of the Lord that was uh given to them through Moses. Yeah, Moses's words, and so those prophets that show up at the end of the days, uh it's no surprise that they're going to be quoting the words, yeah, the same words, the words of Moses, right?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's good.
Dr. David Klingler:Uh, for the Lord your God is a compassionate God, he will not fail your nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant with your fathers which he has sworn to them. Um this is the type of passage which um causes me pause uh when we get to different uh um views of the Bible where they have a replacement theology, right? Where the church has replaced Israel. And there's a lot into that discussion with the church and what constitutes the church, but but uh have have the promises made to Israel are they being fulfilled by Gentiles? That's the question, right? And I don't see how you can get around that. You're gonna hear this all the way through the prophets. The prophets do not uh deal kindly with that type of theology, yeah. Um, that there's no future for Israel. And I get why the church went that way, and and I also understand why the church has come back, and uh and um uh the church has come back, uh at least some uh to what has uh was taught in the first couple centuries of the church.
SPEAKER_02:Because what they're essentially saying, right, is that Israel got so bad at some point in their history that God forgot his covenant or set aside the covenant and went and found a covenant with somebody else. That's the that's the heart of the discussion, right?
Dr. David Klingler:Yeah, made a new covenant with a different people. Exactly. I'm going, okay, well then what tell me about this loyal love then. Right. Tell me about Ezekiel 36, Jeremiah 31, all of these new covenant passages, which specifically state that there will be a future for Israel, and the Lord's not doing it because of their obedience. No, but in spite of their disobedience, he's going to do it, uh, and then the nations will know that I am the Lord when I make you Israel holy in their the nation's sight. That's Ezekiel 36. That's hard to get past.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's huge.
Dr. David Klingler:Jeremiah 31. You know, if you see the sun and the moon and um, you know, and waves on the seashore, know this. I have not forsaken my people, Israel, from being a nation before me forever, says the Lord. Those are the passages when I was uh going through seminary that uh I just couldn't make work.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
Dr. David Klingler:Um theologically, a lot sounded good with with some other camps, but I couldn't make it work with the text on the page. Yeah. And it's repeated, and it starts here and it's repeated throughout all of the prophets, right? Uh and so it's important that we uh that we point that out uh even uh even now.
SPEAKER_02:And what a display of compassion and loyal love it is that the Lord doesn't forget this covenant, yeah, regardless of their uh their sin.
Dr. David Klingler:Yeah, and so that that's the you know, that's the the chesed word, the loyal love, the the the loving kindness, however you want to say it. It's not a it's not a bribery scheme. It's not a give to get. And we're gonna get into this in chapter 10. So so we're going long here in chapter four, but but there's so much here that we're going to repeat, um, but it's it's repeated throughout the whole Bible. This is why we say uh that if you want to understand the Bible, you have to understand Deuteronomy. Yes, right. And so um, so verse 32, indeed, uh ask now concerning the former days which uh which were before you since the day that the uh God created man on earth. See, he's going back to Genesis 1, right? Uh and uh from one end of the heavens to the other, has anything been done like this? Has anything been heard like this? Has uh any people heard the voice of God speaking in the midst of the fire as you've heard it and survived? Or is there uh has a God uh tried to take for himself a nation from within another nation by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by the mighty hand, by the outstretched stretched arm, and by great terrors, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes. To you it has been shown that you might know the Lord. He is God. There is no God besides him. Uh when we get to Deuteronomy chapter six, that's going to be the point. Uh the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. No other gods. You shall know have no other God before me. That's gonna be the point of chapter four, chapter five, chapter six. The concern was not um they wouldn't view the Lord as the Trinity. The concern was that they will go after foreign gods, right? And so we'll we'll talk about um you know the the discussion in 6-4.
SPEAKER_02:Israel's gonna go on a long journey to discover that the Lord alone is God. Absolutely, and that's what the topic of Deuteronomy 32 is gonna be about. It's gonna be a long time before they figure this one out. And the nations are gonna see it too. They're gonna watch.
Dr. David Klingler:Yeah, the nations are gonna see it too. Right. And so out of the heavens, he lets you hear his voice uh to uh the they translate it here to discipline you. This is our child, child rearing word, right? Yeah, sure. Uh we're you know, we're gonna um you know, the the the yasar is the word here, it's translated like chastise, punish. Yeah, it always has this negative um connotation to it, but that's not the the the word. It's uh translated into Greek is the word where we get the our child doctor from. It's uh um uh you know the pediatrician. Pediatrician. It's uh it's this word to train a child in the way he should go. Sons I have reared, but they've rebelled against me, Deuteronomy 32. So this this father-son disciplining the Lord disciplines those he loves. Uh we'll get that over in uh Hebrews chapter 12. So there's so much, so much uh here. Uh out of the heavens, uh, he let you hear his voice to instruct you as a child. And they translate it to discipline you to instruct you as a child uh on the earth and to let you see his great fire and to hear his words in the midst of the fire, because he loved your fathers, therefore he chose their seed, their descendant after them, and he has brought you from Egypt with his great power, driving out before you nations greater than you, uh, to bring you into to the land which uh he gave as an inheritance, as it is to this day. Know therefore today and take it to heart that the Lord He is the God of heaven above and on earth below, and there is no other. Again, it's don't the the fears that they would go follow other gods, gods in whom there is no salvation, uh gods in whom there is no rock, no, no deliverer. Absolutely. So you shall keep his statutes, his commandments, which I am giving you today, that it may go well uh with you and with your children after you, that you may live long in the land which the Lord your God is giving you uh for all time. Right? This is how they're they're they're translating that. That's uh for all the days, literally. Uh he's giving to you for all the days. Um all the days, yeah. Uh all the days. Um uh so then Moses uh set apart uh the the three cities across the Jordan. We're gonna we're gonna pick this up. These are uh what we call the the the you know the cities of refuge. You might hear it referred to in that way. That the murderer, someone who has killed someone unintentionally, uh he can flee there. Uh and uh we'll uh point those out. Uh there's uh you know, there's just uh uh uh you know three of them. Um and um oh let's see here, uh Bezer in the wilderness, um Ramoth and uh Golan and Bashan. And so this was uh the the uh places where they were to flee for the cities of refuge. That's gonna come in later in the story. Three on uh one side of the of the Jordan, three on the other. Yeah, and we'll get into that into numbers. Um uh and um now this is the law which Moses set before the sons of Israel, the testimonies, the statutes, the ordinances which Moses spoke to the sons of Israel when they came out of Egypt across the Jordan, the valley opposite Beth Pa'or, in the land of Sion, the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, whom Moses and the sons of Israel defeated when they came out of Egypt. And they took possession of the land, the land of Ag and Abasha, and the two kings of the Amorites who were across the Jordan to the east. Um and so um, you know, they had all the Arabah across the Jordan to the east, as far as the sea of Arabah and the foot of the slopes of uh Pishka. And so so we're we've set up, uh so that's chapter four. Uh, and so Moses is uh now going to remind them of the Ten Commands, and we'll we'll pick that up next time, the Ten Commands as we get in chapter five.
SPEAKER_02:So to summarize, basically saying, remember what you've seen, uh, remember how he delivered you from Egypt, remember how you heard his voice from the fire, and know that he alone is God and worship him alone. And remember to do that as you go forward, teach your sons. You know, that's going to be the snowball. Effect that's gonna pick up in these next years.
Dr. David Klingler:That you may have life and live all the days. There it is.
SPEAKER_02:That's the that's the bit. Yep. Good stuff. Uh thank you for walking us through that, Doc, and uh we will jump into chapter five next time. And so we'll see you then.
SPEAKER_00:For more resources, visit teachmethebible.com or download our app from any app store. You can partner with Teach Me the Bible in helping the people of God understand the Word of God by subscribing and sharing with others. Thank you for listening to Teach Me the Bible podcast.