Deuteronomy (Chapters 11-12)

Deuteronomy 11–12 calls God’s people to love the Lord through faithful obedience. Israel is urged to remember the Lord’s mighty acts in Egypt and the wilderness and to keep His commands as they enter the Promised Land. They are warned not to follow other gods or do what is right in their own eyes, but to worship the Lord in the way He has commanded. These chapters show that blessing comes through wholehearted devotion, trust in God’s provision, and obedience to His Word.

Transcript

Mission And Deuteronomy Context

SPEAKER_00 0:00

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Entering Chapter 11: Fear And Love God

SPEAKER_02 0:26

Hey everybody, welcome back to Teach Me the Bible Podcast. We are working through the book of Deuteronomy, and today we find ourselves picking up in chapter 11. And we've seen a lot of detail. And hopefully, if you've been with us up to this point, you've seen how important a lot of this detail is for understanding the rest of scripture. So hang in there with us. We're going to continue to trudge through it and and point out the uh point out the details and and why this book matters so much to our understanding of scripture. So uh again, we're picking up in chapter 11, verse 1 today. Dr. David Klingler with me, and he's gonna be our guide through the text. So, Doc.

Memory And Obedience Shape The Future

Dr. David Klingler 1:04

Yeah, we're in 11, and we'll be in 11 and 12 today, and and uh there's not a lot of memory verses in chapter Deuteronomy 11 or 12. Right. Um passages to really go back and refer to, other than uh this is Israel's instruction. We're coming out of chapter 10, uh, where Israel is uh told that they're to fear the Lord their God. He's the God of gods, the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, the awesome God, who doesn't show partiality, doesn't take a bribe, can't be bought. Therefore, right, so for this reason, this is what this is what your response is to be. You know, he was the one who brought you out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and therefore you are to love the Lord your God with uh you know with with all your heart, with all your soul, with all you know, it's back to Deuteronomy 6 language. Keep his charge, keep his statutes, his ordinances, and his commandments. Know this day, and this is really interesting, know this day that I'm not speaking with your sons, whom have not known and have not seen the discipline of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, his outstrate. You know, and of course, this summons all of the the story up to this point Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

He's recounted a lot of it already, yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 2:12

He has, but he's reminding this generation that's about to take the land that you know pay attention to what you've seen. Uh you've seen the Lord's deliverance, you've seen his signs, his works, which he did in Egypt, uh, to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to all the all of his land, what he did to Egypt's army, horses and chariots, what he you know, how he engulfed them in the Red Sea and the Lord destroyed them, what he did to uh to you in the wilderness. And you know, so you know, you got the all the wilderness wanderings and and what he did there. And um and so your eyes have seen this these things. Therefore, respond correctly. Uh fear the Lord, fear his discipline. Yeah, right. Um don't fear the nations. He's sovereign over them, he can wipe them out, uh, and he can wipe you out, which he did to the first generation. So um, you know, keep the commands which I am commanding you, be uh strong and go in and possess the land which you're about to cross to possess. You know, that's 11.8. Now, you know, this sounds a lot like Joshua chapter one, a verse that we do have a memory verse for, but Joshua's not coming up with anything new. Be strong and courageous, yeah, right? Well, this is the be strong and courageous language. Go in and take the land. Now, how do you take the land? Follow the commands. Uh, you don't do anything, the Lord will do it. That's that's exactly right. Uh, and go in and possess the land which you're about to cross over to possess, so that you may live long in the land, or your days may be numbered or or or lengthened, which he swore to your fathers to give to them and to their descendants. A land flowing with milk and honey. Don't miss this. Um, uh, which he swore to your fathers to give to them and to their descendants. That promise was to your fathers, not only to Abraham, to Isaac, and Jacob, but also to the first generation. And they didn't get in.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

They didn't get it. That's right.

Blessings, Rains, And Idolatry Warnings

Dr. David Klingler 4:08

Uh, and so you know, pay attention to this because you've seen the discipline of the Lord. Um, the land in which you're about to possess, the land of uh hills and valleys, it drinks water from heaven. For the land the Lord your God, you know, he cares for you, his eyes are always on it, uh, from the beginning even to the end of the year. Uh so this this land is not like the land of Egypt, where you just, you know, throw down a seed and kick it and cover it up with a little dirt and it grows. This is dependent upon the the rains to come. And so uh if the the Lord doesn't bring the rains, then you're in trouble.

SPEAKER_02 4:45

Yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 4:45

Right? And so so that that's the blessing is going to come from your obedience to the Lord and the rains coming. It shall come about that if you listen obediently to my commandments, which I am commanding you today, and love the Lord your God, and you serve him with all your heart and with all your soul. That's that Deuteronomy 6 language, then he will give you the land, uh the rain of your land in its season, the early and the late rain. And you will gather your grain and and your new wine and your oil, and uh, and he will give grass to the uh the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied. Beware that your hearts are not deceived, and that you do not turn away and serve other gods and worship them. Boy, there's you know, there's the old serpent coming right into the story, right? As soon as they're satisfied. Yeah, as soon as they're satisfied or or led astray to follow other gods. Uh, and this has always been the you know kind of the unforgivable sin, right? There's no deliverance in any other god, so don't go after them. Um there is, you know, I'm reminded of what Moses is gonna say later in this book. It is I who wound and I who heal, I who put to death and I who give life. There's no one who can deliver you from my hand. So if you go after other gods, you're gonna suffer the consequences of it from the Lord.

SPEAKER_02 5:55

That is terrifying. It ought to be. That phrase always gets me.

Dr. David Klingler 5:59

Yeah, and you and you can't uh change the fear of the Lord. We talked about this a bit last time, but you know, but verse 17, or the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you.

SPEAKER_02 6:06

Wow.

Dr. David Klingler 6:07

And he will shut up the rain, so that the there will be no rain, the ground will not yield its fruit, and you will quickly perish from the good uh land which the Lord is giving you.

SPEAKER_02 6:15

So we're already getting a kind of a preview of these covenant curses and blessings.

Dr. David Klingler 6:19

Uh repeating. Yeah, repeating. Yeah, Leviticus.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

There's gonna be a little bit more depth later on in this book, but yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 6:25

They've already been stated to the first generation. It's gonna be reminded again in Deuteronomy chapter 28.

SPEAKER_02 6:30

Right.

Covenant Curses And Teaching The Shema

Dr. David Klingler 6:30

Uh, and uh so therefore you shall impress these words of mine on the heart uh of yours, your heart, your soul. You shall bind them as signs on your hand and frontals on your forehead. Again, Deuteronomy 6, just summoning that Shema again. You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in the house, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, when you rise up. Again, just you know, this is like a good sermon, right? You repeat it, state it, repeat it again and again and again. Write these on your doorposts of your house and on your gates, uh, so that your days and the days of your sons may be multiplied in the land which the Lord your God swore to your fathers to give to them, as long as the heavens uh uh reign, you know, are above the earth.

SPEAKER_02 7:11

Yeah, I wonder how many times he said that up to this point. This is like you're saying, it's this is repeated. He's hammering it in.

Dr. David Klingler 7:19

And and what we're gonna watch and as Israel's history unfolds is he didn't say it enough. He didn't say it enough. That's right. He gets pretty blunt here in these chapters to come, but they don't listen. He gave it his best shot.

SPEAKER_02 7:31

Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 7:32

Um that's good. For if you are careful to keep keep all these commandments, which I am commanding you to love the Lord your God and to walk in all his ways and hold fast to him. Um that's an interesting one, too. That that um careful to keep all his commandments, which I am commanding you to do, to love the Lord your God. So, what does it look like to love the Lord your God? Keep his commands. Yeah, what does it look like to not love the Lord, to not keep his commands? And what are his commands? Well, to love him and then to love your neighbor as yourself. So you know this this is gonna flow around. Yeah, first yeah, first John, right? Yeah. How can you say you love the Lord when you don't love your brother? You you're not keeping his commands. You claim to, yeah, but you don't, right? Right. And this is the problem. So walk in all his ways, hold fast to him. Then the Lord uh will drive uh out all of the nations from before you and will dispossess the nations greater and mightier than you. That's gonna take some faith. Um you you cannot fear what your eyes see.

unknown 8:29

Yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 8:29

Uh you fear what your eyes have seen in the past. Yeah, that's what the Lord has done. Um, and uh, and so it was a constant reminder. Every place on which the soul of your foot treads shall be yours, uh, the border shall be uh from the wilderness of Lebanon, from the river, the river uh Euphrates as far as the western sea. No man will be able to stand before you. The Lord your God will lay the dread of you and the fear of you on the land which you set foot, as he has spoken to you. Uh this is gonna be repeated in the conquest.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

Hearts are gonna melt. Yeah, they're in with fear, yeah.

Strength To Possess The Land By Faith

Blessing And Curse At Gerizim And Ebal

Chapter 12: Destroy High Places

Dr. David Klingler 9:08

Unless, of course, they're disobedient. Then there's and then they lose. Then there's nothing they can do, right? That's right. So see, I am setting before you today the blessing and the curse. The blessing if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today, and the curse if you don't listen. Um if you turn aside from the way which I am commanding you, and follow other gods. That's the that's the killer. Going after other gods, um gods which your fathers have not known. And we're and this is gonna flow. We're gonna be in 11 and 12 this time. Uh next uh next time we'll be in chapter 13. But but chapter 13 flows right out of this. Yes, right. Uh and so you follow uh the Lord your God, you do not follow other gods, and you certainly don't misrepresent the Lord your God. You've seen him, you know what he's done, you know what he's like. It shall come about when the Lord your God brings you into the land which you're entering to possess it. You shall place the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebel. Uh you are not to uh uh uh and they are not across the uh are they not sorry, are they not across the Jordan, west uh uh towards the sunset in the land of the Canaanites, uh which live in the Arabah, uh opposite Gilgal, beside the Oaks of Moray. So, you know, you're going, this is the land you're going in to possess, uh for you're about to cross the Jordan and go in and possess the land the Lord your God is giving to you, and you shall possess it and live in it, and you shall be be careful to do all the statutes and the judgments which I am setting for you today. And here it here, here's the statutes. Yeah. This is an important one. You utterly destroy uh the places where the uh you know the nations you're dispossessing serve their gods. The high places, you know, the the the high mountains, the hills, under every green tree. You shall tear down their altars, smash down their pillars, burn down their ashream with fire, cut down uh or hew down their engraved images of their gods, obliterate their name from that place. You shall not act like this towards the Lord your God. You're not to take their forms of worship and adopt them to serve the Lord, but you shall seek the Lord at the place which the Lord shall choose from all your tribes and establish uh his name there for his dwelling, and there you shall come. Now, it's not been you know marked out yet. We don't know what this place is yet. We're going to find out. We know it's going to be uh Jerusalem. You've had a at least a hint uh back in Genesis chapter 14 uh with uh with Melchizedek, the the king of uh Salem, uh, and they are going to have to go and contend for this city, Jeru, 10, Yaru Shalom. Uh it's Jerusalem is going to be the place, but it hasn't been designated yet. Right. Uh but you shall seek the Lord at the place which the Lord your God shall choose from all your tribes to establish his name for a dwelling. There you shall come. You shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the contribution of your land, the votive offerings, the free will offerings, the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. Um, and also you and your household shall eat before the Lord your God. Rejoice and rejoice in all your undertakings, uh, which the Lord your God has blessed you. You shall not do what we are doing here today, every man doing what's right in his own eyes. That's so important. Uh you don't get to determine what's good and right in the eyes of the Lord. It's revealed to you, and you have to follow it. He's going to hold you accountable for it. Um, for you have not yet come to the resting place and the inheritance which the Lord has given you. When you cross over the Jordan and you live in the land the Lord is giving you to inherit, and he gives you the rest of a rest before all of your enemies, and you live securely in the land, then it shall come about uh that the place the Lord your God shall choose for his name to dwell. This is gonna be important, and we're gonna see this in the temple uh construction. The same language is gonna show up. Um in the banishment from the temple. So I'm thinking here of uh Second Chronicles chapter seven. Um you know, if you listen obediently, but if you don't, right, um, you know, my name will dwell in this place forever. But if you don't, then I will cast you from this place, right? And I won't hear your prayers. And so, so you know, this, you know, while while we don't have verses that we quote out of chapter 10 and chapter 11, they're gonna play a central role. This passage is gonna play a central role uh to the eternal place where the Lord will dwell in Jerusalem. Yeah, very good. Uh, and so pretty important passage. Uh, and uh you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your male servants, your female servants, the Levite within your gate, uh, since he has no portion and no inheritance. Uh be careful uh that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every cultic place that you see, but in the place the Lord chooses. And so until he's chosen that place, the question is, well, how are you supposed to do this? Well, he doesn't uh tell you that. He just says, look, you get in, you take the land, you utterly destroy the Amorites, Hittites, Canaanites, Jebusites. Don't copy their cultic brass. They're gonna not uh destroy the the city of Jebes, which is the city of Jerusalem. Uh, and we're gonna catch this pretty quickly in the book of Judges, and it's gonna be a problem. So uh you may um you shall offer your burnt offering uh offerings there, uh, and there you shall do as I have commanded. However, you may slaughter and eat meat uh within the gates of uh your city, any of the any of your gates, whatever you desire, according to the blessing of the Lord your God, which is given to you. The the clean and the unclean may eat of it, the the gazelle and the deer. It has to be a clean animal, can't be an unclean animal. Those are listed in other passages. Uh but you shall pour out the blood, you sh are to pour it out on the ground like water. You're not allowed to eat it. Uh within uh the gates, uh the tithe of your grain, the new wine, the oil, the firstborn of your herd, the flocks, your votive offering, which you vow, or your free offering, or the contribution of your hand, but you shall eat them before the Lord your God in the place that the Lord your God has chosen, you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants, female servants, Levite who is within your gates, uh, and shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all your undertaking. Be careful that you do not forsake the Levite, as long as you live in your land. And when the Lord your God extends your borders as he has promised you, and you say, I uh will eat meat, because you desire to eat meat, then you shall eat meat, whatever you desire, if uh the place which the Lord your God chooses to put his name is too far from you. Right? It's too far of a travel. Then you may slaughter uh of your herd and your flocks, the Lord your God has given you as I have commanded you, uh, and you may eat whatever in your gates, whatever you desire. Just as the gazelle or the deer is eaten, so you shall eat. The clean and the unclean may partake you may eat of it. Only be sure to pour out the blood. He keeps repeating the same thing over and over and over. Um you shall eat it, you shall pour out the blood like water, um you shall not eat it, so that uh uh that it may go well with you and your sons after you, for you're doing what's right in the eyes of the Lord. Only your holy things which you have taken, your votive offerings, um, you know, you go to the place the Lord choo chooses. And so where he's emphasizing you eat uh, you know, the the the place Jerusalem is uh is where you're to bring all of this offering once it's established and and built. Um be careful to listen, verse 28, be careful to listen to all the words which I command you, so that it may go well with you and with your sons forever, for you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of the Lord, your God. Uh we have emphasized this over and over. Uh, you are to do what is good. That is what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

SPEAKER_02 16:56

Not what is right in your own eyes.

Dr. David Klingler 16:58

Not what's right in your own eyes. This goes back to the fall. This is gonna be, you know, you can think of passages, there's tons of them. Um, you know, Paul's gonna say, we walk by faith, not by not by sight.

SPEAKER_02 17:09

Yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 17:10

Um Samson, I'm reminded of the Samson story where he wants to go marry a foreign wife, and his parents say, you know, is there not someone from our your own family to marry? He says, get her, for she is right in my eyes. They translate it for she is you know beautiful in my eyes. You know, so I don't know how they translate it, but but literally it's she is right in my eyes. Wow. Of course, that's the problem. And you're seeing these judges doing what's right in their own eyes, not what's right in the eyes of the Lord.

SPEAKER_02 17:38

He even showed up with Isaac and Jacob with the stories of them being blind and not being able to see in the dark and these kinds of things. A lot of that's being emphasized.

Dr. David Klingler 17:46

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, do to her what's right in your eyes, you know, this type of language you see all the time.

SPEAKER_02 17:52

Right.

The One Place God Chooses For Worship

Dr. David Klingler 17:52

Uh in contrary, and as you hear that, you're supposed to know what's right in the eyes of the Lord, and and these things don't match. And so, you know, so uh doing do what do to her what's right in your own eyes. You know, I'm thinking of Abraham command to Sarah with Hagar, or um Abram listened to the voice of his wife. Well, you know, the voice of his wife is in contradiction to the voice of the Lord, the word of the Lord, the what's right in her eyes isn't right in the eyes of the Lord. And so all the way through here, um, as you read the law, as you read Deuteronomy and Leviticus, you're to know what's right in the eyes of the Lord and then to do it, right? To you know, to do it. So um, verse 29, when the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations which you're going in to possess, and you dispossess them and dwell in the land, beware that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed before you, that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, How do these nations serve their gods? That we may also do likewise. I I wish that some of our Old Testament scholar friends would look at this. Right. Now, uh you you can look and say, Well, uh, how did the nations around serve their gods? And then you see it in Israel. Well, that's bad. That's not good.

SPEAKER_02 19:10

Yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 19:10

Right. Absolutely. If they're doing the same thing, they're claiming to be totally detached.

SPEAKER_02 19:15

That's a problem.

Dr. David Klingler 19:16

Yeah, that's a problem. So you shall not behave thus towards the Lord your God. For every abominable act which the Lord your God hates, they have done for their gods. For they even burn their sons and daughters with fire to their gods. Whatever I command you, you shall therefore be careful uh to not add to or take away from the law. He said it again. He says it in chapter four. He's gonna say it again. You don't add to the words of Moses, you don't take away from the words of Moses.

SPEAKER_02 19:44

What's wild is they're gonna end up doing exactly verse 31. Of course. They're gonna take their sons and daughters down to the valley and they're gonna burn them to other gods. I mean, it's it's wild how accurate.

Dr. David Klingler 19:56

Oh, yeah. Absolutely. They do it exactly. Which is which is which is why um so many you know, Old Testament hierarchical scholars say this wasn't written before. Right.

SPEAKER_02 20:06

They're saying it's later.

Dr. David Klingler 20:07

It has to be written after all of these things have happened.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

Or Moses was a prophet.

Dr. David Klingler 20:13

Well, yeah, or or yeah, or Moses was a prophet. When they say they were written afterwards, they're saying Moses didn't write, it was written, you know, hundreds of years after Moses.

SPEAKER_02 20:22

Um you know, even uh so it's intentionally brought together with the narrative to to try to mesh the two.

Dr. David Klingler 20:32

To justify yeah, justify it. And so what they would say is the history happened, and then someone wrote under the name quote Moses uh to explain why um you know why these things happened kind of after the fact. Um or it could be um that it was written before the fact and Moses was a prophet.

SPEAKER_02 20:56

Right.

Blood, Meals, And Care For Levites

Dr. David Klingler 20:57

And if and this is gonna go right into our discussion next time in Deuteronomy chapter 13, and passages that have already uh you know lay in Israel's past, the uh, you know, with uh Aaron and Miriam or uh the sons of Korah, you know, the these uh the saying, you know, look, we're we're holy too. The Lord spoke unto us too. You know, we we you know we have a say in this too. And and the Lord says, No, you don't. I've revealed myself to Moses. You listen to him. And then of course this is what happened in Exodus 18, 19, 20. Right um and so, you know, so so the the sage stage is being uh set and repeated. If we read Torah together, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, there is no question uh that Moses is the great prophet, and after Moses is coming one who will be greater than Moses, and you're to look uh to him and you're to listen to his words. Yeah. Uh and of course, you know, you're going to Have these prophets that come after Moses that aren't like Moses, they have not spoken face to face to the Lord. Um, Joshua, the servant of Moses, is not like Moses, the servant of the Lord. The prophets that come afterwards, and you know, and and of course, this is uh this goes back to Numbers chapter 12 with Miriam and Aaron, uh, where the Lord explains to them. You know, it's not just so that Mary and and Aaron would know, uh, but that Israel would know what the prophets that come after Moses are gonna look like, uh, how they're going to receive the revelation. And they better align with Moses, and this is what we're gonna talk about next time when we get to chapter 13. So it's gonna be an important chapter. So so all of this is building. You know, we we say this every time, we're taking breaks, we've got a limited amount of time. Uh, but um, but all of this is to be understood together for Israel. And then when you go read the historical books, Joshua, uh, Samuel King's Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, uh, or the prophets, or the poetry, you're to keep these words in mind because they are the the template, the the standard by which everything else written is to be evaluated. In fact, it was the standard by which everything else written was uh judged to be included or not included uh in the in in the scriptures, right? Uh was a prophet a false prophet? Well, it's easy to see. Does he align with the words of Moses? Yeah, period. We would say, well, does what he says come true? No. Does what he says align with Moses? Because most of what they say doesn't come true in their lifetime. It's going to come to pass much later. And so should we listen to Moses? Yes, absolutely should, right? And that's the point.

SPEAKER_02 23:45

That's very good. Uh, one of the things that stands out to me in these last two chapters as we've been going through is just how repetitive they are and how how simple of these commands. I mean, there's no question in my mind, at least reading these two chapters, what they're to do and what they're not to do, yeah, you know, as they go into their land. And and you know, you'd hope that they would understand this, but I think uh maybe you can speak to this. I think it emphasizes it's not so much that they are that they don't know the word of the Lord, it seems as they're rejecting the authority of the Lord and these commands as they go into the land. And Moses. They know exactly what they're supposed to be doing and what they're not supposed to be doing.

Dr. David Klingler 24:30

Yep. Little little little kids, you know, they they roll their eyes at you. Yeah, exactly. You know, all right. I'm telling you again, yeah, you know, um, I know, dad. I know, you know, you don't have to say it, you don't have to preach yourself a hundred, and then they go do the exact thing. That's right. Um, Deuteronomy 29, the Lord has not given you eyes to see or ears to hear or heart to know. And this is gonna be the problem. They're just hard-hearted, rebellious, and very good uh to the core. And of course, the problem is that's the same heart that we have as well. Yeah, yeah.

Do What’s Right In God’s Eyes

SPEAKER_02 24:59

We like to get hard on them.

Dr. David Klingler 25:00

Yes, so you know, it's not like we don't know either, right? Just do it anyway. And therein lies the problem.

SPEAKER_02 25:06

Yeah, very good. Okay, well, thanks for walking us through these chapters. Like we said, we're gonna pick up in chapter 13 next time. So we'll see you then.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

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