Week 20: Deuteronomy 6-8; 15; 18; 29-30; 34

Hear O Israel the LORD is our God, the LORD alone. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Hi, folks. Welcome back to another episode of Reserve's Podcast. We're here. We're having good moments. We're here to talk about Deuteronomy. Dudes. Ooh, bad joke to start it off. But it's a good chapter. It's a good it's a good book. So the the term Deuteronomy comes from the Greek. So the word, the the name for the book in Hebrew is not Deuteronomy. It's just words. Because, which is kind of funny. She's like, this is just a bunch of words. No. It's because if you look at Deuteronomy 1.1, these are the words which Moses spake to all of Israel beyond the Jordan. So this is said to have happened beyond the Jordan, which just means on the other side of the Jordan, so on the east side of the Jordan River in what is now the country of Jordan. And it's called Deuteronomy in the Greek because that means um second time or second law, second speaking. So this is the second time. This is a renewal of the covenant that Moses gives according to the narrative. A second time he's renewing, right, um, the vow with these people as they're going through um right before he dies and before they are going to enter the land. So it's a renewal, right? It's a it's a rededication of the covenants and the laws that the Lord has given them. I would compare this to the fact that we don't, I mean, we don't do this simply two times in our lives, but we do this every week at the sacrament, right? We renew our covenants, we hear it again, we hear the covenants that we've made, or every time we go back to the temple, right? We renew our covenants, we think about them again, it's told to us again, and we maybe think about them and we come at them in an um in a new way. Maybe certain other things stand out to us. Um, and so that's what this is, right? It's a rededication, it's a retelling of the law from Moses' mouth. It's kind of, I mean, at least the book presents it as his last words to the Israelites before his death, before he leaves. And um it's super interesting because we I mean, there's no it's it's not narrative like the other ones, right? Like it's literally just law. But it is a book from which, um, and shout out to the Follow Him podcast for for pointing this out to me, which is it's the book that Christ quotes from a lot when he's being tempted in the wilderness by Satan, he uh quotes Deuteronomy back to him. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, my mind, and strength. Um, right? That sort of very strong um theme is there. It you know, um the the focus on the law and loving your neighbor and taking care of them it's here and it's used all throughout the New Testament by Jesus. And so this is obviously an important book to Jesus, these words were important. He's kind of doing a weird kind of, you know, Jesus when he's doing that is basically quoting himself from when he was Jehovah, so that's kind of fun, but like these words are important because Christ also says them and uses them, and so that is also why this book is so important, um, because it was used, it's it's very important in Jewish history and also very, very important in Christ's um life. Okay, so let's let's just talk about the book of Deuteronomy for a second, because this book, like I said, is so important to the Jewish people going forward as we read the Old Testament. Why? Well, there's mixed scholarship as to why this is. Um it was originally thought that this wasn't written until later, um, and that um then the books of scripture were kind of edited to fit in this kind of perfect view of the law, um, and that it wasn't always followed. But that's that there's pushback on that, and I would myself would also say that um I disagree with that just because it's it's throughout scriptures and it it's just a read in introduction of the covenant. But it is thought that perhaps, and later we'll get into the story, that kings, while well, kings are ruling in when they're uh the time of the kings of Israel, um, and especially the split kingdoms, that the kings will have to, especially in Judah, try to put their people back into the covenant way of living to remember God. They will have, you know, be worshiping idols and stuff like that. And there is a king Josiah who lived um during around um six, like the the early, um, would that be the early seventh century BC, so 680 or something like that. Um, I lied, it's 640. But so he lived around 640 BCE, and he's looking, and they're saying that he's doing some renovations to the temple, and as they finally find old scrolls, and it Josiah's like, oh my gosh, we aren't following what it says. And some people think that that is the book of Deuteronomy. So this is important because it also helps remind people in the future what they were supposed to be doing. It's written down, writing down the commandments of the Lord is important and remembering them. That's why Lehi, who lived right after the time of Josiah, knew that it was important. Oh, sorry, and Nephi, right? That they needed to get the scriptures so that they could always have them with them to remind them, not just the oral tradition, right, but the physical writing down of the scriptures, because that way you can refer back to them, you can read them, you can keep them in your mind. We're so lucky to have this, and we need to read Deuteronomy with that in mind, and so we'll we'll talk about that later. But this book is super important. Why? And this week I did a lot, um, I'm going to be referring to a lot um of stuff that I learned from a podcast called Scripture Insights by Ta uh gosh, sorry, by Tyler Halverson. Look it up if you want, but I'm gonna cover some of the points that they went through there because I really, really enjoyed it. Um and I thought they made some really interesting um points and insights, so I'm gonna I'm gonna talk about those today. The first one being we already talked about, these are the words, right? And uh Brother Halverson brought up the fact that it is, these are the words, and words in Hebrew, Devarim, means um, it can mean things, um, possibly means um covenants, stories, right? These are these are important covenants and things that the that Moses is speaking on to the people. This is set up in a treaty formation, an ancient treaty. And um, one of the ways, one uh the kind of the setup of an ancient treaty is that you remind so a treaty, a covenant, right? What they would do anciently, and we can see these, this is set up in in a ton of um stelae that um, so those would be large um blocks of stone rocks, large rocks that kind of look the way that you would think the 12 commandments look, right? Kind of like um the 12 commandments, hello, the ten commandments look, like kind of curved at the top. And they all kind of had this. So this is there's it begins first with the preamble, so introduces the the king or introduces who's gonna be a part of it. There's then a historical prologue, so the king or the kings that are doing it recounts the history of the relationship with the person with whom they're gonna make a treaty. Then they make their stipulations, so their covenantal obligations that each person will follow, blessings and curses for each of the parties, and then witnesses who was there, most of the time referring to gods, like the gods as my witness, um, the gods of the council, a lot of times, are gonna be in these witnesses, and then where the treaty was written and where it was stored. Again, shout out to scriptural insights for the scripture insights, and also um Dr. Aaron Shade for pointing this out to me. But just it's super interesting because we get that. That's what the whole book of Deuteronomy is. So if you read this as a treaty, if you read this as a bl as a treaty, as a as a contract, then maybe some of the reasons why you know there are so many exhortations or why it's set up in this way makes sense. We need to know what we're reading. So that's the background for this. Is this a treaty? God is making a treaty with his people. Moses wants them to remember it, right? It also marks the event of it happening, and so that's that's what's happening here. Um, and so these words are so important, the ones that they chose as well are going to be the most important, in fact, for the Jewish people. So Deuteronomy 6, verses 4. Verse 4 begins: Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone, or and is the only God, right? Or the Lord, the Lord our God is one Lord. So what is this? And and then it continues in in verse 5. Sorry, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Keep these words that I'm commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home, when you're away, when you lie down, when you rise, bind them as a sign on your forehead, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them upon the doorposts of your house and on your gates. This is called the Shema in in uh Hebrew, in Jewish tradition, the Shema. This comes from the word Shema in um, which means here, and it is recited every day by Jews. This is what they say here, O Israel, the Lord our God is God alone. That's what they say. Um the God is one. It is a dying statement of many Jewish martyrs in history, um, as per the SBL Bible. It's a monothe, it's it, you know, it's our God is one God. You can be like, okay, it's like saying that God is the only God, but it's more saying God is our God. And this is what we need to teach our kids, right? We need to teach them that we need to love him, that that that is our job. He's one God, he's our God, and we need to love him. And these are the ways that we can do that is by following and keeping his commandments. He loves us and we love him. It's part of this Hesed relationship, right? We um, right, he has Hesed, we have Hesed, we each have emet, which is faithfulness and trust, covenantal faith and trust. Um, and so these are so these are the words, right? And you need to remember them when you're at home and when you're away. You need to remind them in every place that you were in, both in every literal position that your body can be in, whether it's lying down or standing up. And we need them continually as a reminder. So when it says bind them as a sign on your hand and as an emblem on your forehead, they are literal and continue today for the more traditional Hasidic Hasidic Jews who follow the law exactly, they will wrap um these little boxes that have actually the Shema in them and the commandments on them, and they put them, they wrap them on their heads, on their foreheads, and they wrap them upon their arms and on their hands. And they've added certain meanings for what the wrappings mean and what they think about, but they're thinking about this exact thing, and they do, they keep it literally as an emblem on their foreheads and on their hands. I don't know if it necessarily means it. Uh, I think you know, it could mean it literally, but also what does that mean for us? To always remember him, to keep his commandments, to be with him, right? To keep his spirit, to be with him, sorry, but to keep his commandments. That's what this is saying. This is a renewal. It's it's it's sacramental language here, right? And to love him with all of our heart, mind, mind, and strength. That is what we covenant at baptism. We are renewing this covenant every single day, or sorry, every single um week as we partake of the sacrament. I also love the word keep in verse six. Keep in hit Hebrew can also mean to guard, to watch. Watch the commandments, guard them in your hearts, have these be your guidelines, take care of them. Um, think of them as special. And um, so I I love that. And so then the Lord kind of, right? He gives you the times that they were blessed in Egypt and um in and when they did keep the commandments, when they didn't, right? The obedience for for the blessings, right? Um and he's you know, and then he's like, and now you're gonna go into the land that I promised you. And you might be worried, like, are people going to destroy us? Do not be afraid, I will take care of you. I've done it in the past, and I'm going to do I did it for you in Egypt, and I'm going to do it here. And this is what another thing, the importance of remembering and of renewal, which is interesting, and it's kind of a a this is what our covenants and our ordinances do, which is they help us remember the past, the time when the Lord has kept his promises, they help us realize that he's doing it now, and they help us realize that he will do it in the future. And the become sacred spaces for us to remember the things right that he's done in the past. We do that during the sacrament. We think about, you know, what we've done this past week, how the Lord has been there in our lives, how he's there with us right then, and how he will be with us in the coming week. And he's he's warning them again to destroy the other gods. I think the Lord knew that these were people were particularly vulnerable to worshiping other gods, and he wanted to make sure that they didn't, that they remembered that it was just him. And so he, you know, he makes them. And then in chapter eight, we get a warning against following or not or forgetting God in prosperity. And one of the prophets, I don't remember which one, I believe it maybe says it in the uh oh gosh, I don't know. I don't know which prophet said it, but basically they said the one thing that the saints, I worry they won't be able to handle is is prosperity. Might have been Brigham Young who said that. And sometimes, and we see this in the Book of Mormon again and again and again, once they get prosperity and they're doing well, they forget the Lord. Though the Lord asks us to remember him in our poverty, when we need him, and in our prosperity, and to share that with other people. Do not forget them. And if we do, like I love verse 5 of chapter 8. Know then in your heart that as a parent disciplines a child, so the Lord your God disciplines you, meaning he'll remind us if we forget him. So let's not let's just remember him so we might not need the constant reminder. And he helped them, he performed miraculous miracles for them in the past, so he will do it again. Remember to keep his commandments, his ordinance. This is verse 11 of chapter 8, to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes. So his commandments, his ordinances, and his covenants is what I would say. And do not forget the Lord. Do not forget, do not think that you got all these things by yourself. You're gonna go in, you're gonna dispossess these people, you're gonna get rid of their things. And also don't think that you're getting that, and Nephi says this to his brothers don't think you're getting this because you're better than them. It's simply because like that the Lord, like you are a better people than them. Naturally, it's because you're following me, and it's because you are keeping my commandments. And if they had been following me, I love them just as much as I love you, right? It's it's because of their wickedness that this is also happening. He's the one who gives you power, and he's the one who gives you wealth, right? Verse 20 like the nations that the Lord is destroying before you, you will also be destroyed. So shall you perish because you would not obey the Lord of the voice of the Lord. However, the Lord, that and again, this is the warning part of the treaty. This isn't not just like uh, oh, he's trying to be scary to them naturally, but this is part of the process, right? This is the warning part. Like, hey, you'll get blessings if you follow me, but but curses if you don't. So please follow me. I'm asking you. And again, this is part of the covenant, this is what the Lord has promised to them. He's explaining to them how the relationship works and they're willingly entering into it. So it's not like he's like bamboozled, yeah, right? He's explaining the lay of the consequences of their actions. Again, whether this is the Lord acting or if he's just explaining the natural consequences. I think it's a little bit of both, right? But the Lord is showing his love and his mercy by laying out the consequences. I love that. So now we're gonna go on to um chapter 15. And before we do that, we're gonna talk about um in a lot of the blessings, he talks about a land flowing with milk and honey. And in the Scripture Insights podcast, they pointed out how a lot of times honey, um, especially because of Revelation and John eating the word and it tasting like honey, honey and these words flowing could actually be, which is yes, they were going to a place that was physically prosperous, but they were also going a place where they could hear the word of the Lord freely, and that they are sweet as honey to us. We'd buy them without money, without price. So are we listening to the words of the Lord in our day? Right? And some of these laws are not easy to keep, and that's what we see in chapter 15. So in this year we learn about the Jubilee year, which is every seventh year the land rests and debts are forgotten. Um, slaves are let go if they want to be let go. There is stipulation, which is if they want to stay because they're living in a good life, you know, they're more of an indentured servant, their family's taken care of, sure they can stay, but they are free to go. We're only doing it for seven years. This is not, we're not gonna be basically create a generational um wage gap, right? Like, we're gonna try to help people. We're not gonna have you and your children's children be in debt to each other. We're gonna forgive you every seven years. He says, give willingly to the poor. The poor are always among you, as Jesus Christ says, right? Do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted. Don't think that this is your money, because this is the land that the Lord has given you. The Lord has given you everything. So give to your neighbor. Don't do it grudgingly or thinking like, okay, well, next year is the Jubilee year, and they're going to need their food back. Uh, they're gonna their debts are gonna be paid away, so maybe I should give them less. Nope. Do not do that. Give freely, do not give liberally and be ungrudging when you do this. For on this account, the Lord will bless you in all your work and all that you do. Open your hand to the poor and the needy, neighbor in your land. Are we doing this? And of course, this depends on our. Circumstances, as King Benjamin points out. Interesting side note, King Benjamin also seems to be doing this sort of covenantal renewal and setting out this treaty to his people, right? But part of that is making sure that we take care of the poor and we take care of the slave. Because remember, you were once poor and you were once slaved in Egypt, so no one's better than anybody here. We're all equal. We're all, you know, um, the Lord, we're all, you know, subservient to the Lord. So he wants us to take care of each other. How can we do this physically and spiritually? How can we not be tight-fisted but freely giving? I think that first comes with the state of our hearts, right? With our hearts and our minds and our strengths, but it's the heart first. So how can we change our hearts? The heart was also the center of where they thought the thoughts came from. They thought thoughts came from the heart, not from the brain, right? Like we understand scientifically now. So we love him with our entire thoughts and feelings, right? And, you know, we're gonna keep the Passover, we're gonna do all of these things. We're gonna destroy the Asherah, which we'll get into later. But Asherah was an ancient female goddess, and it seems to be part of the practice would be planting trees or groves or sticks that were carved, doing dances around them, doing sexual promiscuous things because she was the goddess of fertility. So doing those things would bring about more fertility because you want fertility, you want your generation to expand. I mean, they understood anciently that the best way for pupils to prosper was to have a lot of kids. Number one, it was a financial great thing if you had kids because you had more helpers in the home, more people to make money for you. And also, I just think they valued relationships than maybe we do more. Maybe not more, but you understand. Um, and then um the priests and the Levites get their setup um, right, in chapter 18. You give him Levi is was chosen because of Moses to stand and minister in the name of the Lord, right? Um they have equal portions, we're taking care of them, we're taking care of the servants of the Lord. They also um forbid child sacrifice, um, which seems to be only uh to the god of Molech, who and you would literally burn your children as like a sacrifice so that they wouldn't um harm you, um, kind of as a retribution for God. So don't do that, please, or don't do any divination or magic prohibited. And I think this is interesting because and then it goes right into how do you discern who a prophet is. And we might not have magicians or divinations anymore, but we have a lot of things that we look for as truth that are not the prophets or people influencers online. I'm guilty of this for sure, who we see in a sort of prophetic way, right? Like, I hate to be the cheesy person who's like, let God and the prophet be your highest influencer, but like, right? They're they're called influencers for a reason. We listen to them, we follow them, we think they have all the answers to life questions, and that's what this divination and magic and child sacrifice was, right? Like it was just any means to protect from anything that we couldn't control by but by not turning to God. And how many times do we do that in our lives? We're like, well, we can't control this, but I'm going to, I can't trust in God, you know, I don't believe enough on God, so I'm gonna, you know, maybe somebody else has the answers. And I'm not saying that listening to an influencer is bad or not holy or anything like that, but also are we listening to them more than we are listening to God? Or are we listening to them with the spirit of discernment and listening to them, right? And the mo and when the prophet comes, right, he's going to raise up for you a prophet like me, like like Moses from among the people. Jesus Christ says this is pointing to him, and it is, right? He is he is a prophet like unto Moses, he teaches them the law, he renews their covenants with them. He right, so he's and he's literally raised up too. He's he grows up as a boy, but he's also raised up upon the cross. So Jesus Christ is the new Moses in so many ways, as shown to us by Matthew. And then we get um chapters uh 29 through 30. And 29 is just kind of another covenant renewal, right? The story of again, another covenantal renewal. There's a process, they're looking over, they're about to go make a journey, but they need to renew their covenants first. So the sacrament is both, like I said, a remembrance of the past week, but also to help us move forward. I think that is something that I've realized too, which is the as much as the Lord cares about the past, he cares about the past only to remind us of his covenantal faithfulness and how he's helped us, and that he will do it in the future. He speaks of the past only to give us hope for the future. He doesn't do it to condemn us, but to give us hope in the future. And then in verse 30, he talks about his compass, his um he talks about the blessings and and curses which he will give unto you. Um and so and it says, by the way, if you go away, don't worry, you can come back. This is what chapter 30 is saying. If you go away, which inevitably we all will in some way, right? But if you return to the verse two, return to the Lord your God, you and your children obey him with all your heart and with all your soul, just as I'm commanding you today, then your the Lord your God will return you from your captivity and have compassion on you, gathering you again from all the peoples among you whom the the Lord your God has scattered you. Now, the reason why I'm getting a little emotional is because um I was reminded because of this podcast that I listened to that compassion is Raham in Hebrew, and Raham has the same root as will. And so a lot of times this can be read, and I like to read it as motherly love. Compassion. The Lord will have motherly love on you. Um, and this is just so fitting for Mother's Day that we have. Um, you know, I'm releasing it on Mother's Day, just the love that mothers have that my own mom has had on me as I've come to her with my problems and my worries and my mistakes. Um she's loved me. She fights for me and for my siblings. She would do anything for us. She wants to bless us, she doesn't want to harm us. Um and she gives, you know, the best hugs and and takes care of us in so many ways. She thinks about us when we're not there. Isn't that not what the Lord is doing for us? He's having compassion on us. Um, the podcast also pointed out how in the New Testament the Lord always has compassion right before a big miracle comes. And I also think there's there's an element of healing in that, in that motherly touch, right? The Lord says, How oft would I have gathered you as a mother hen gathereth her chickens and protects them under her wings, right? The Lord has compassion, raham, on all of us, even as we break this treaty, right? This is kind of where the Lord differs from all of the other like uh political treaties that there were at this time, where in the political treaties, it's like, oh, you know, if you break this, cursings. There's no like, oh, and if you come back, like it's all gonna be okay. But the Lord has that. The Lord has, you know what? Part of my blessings to you, part of my hesed, my love, my deep love that I have for you, my compassion, my motherly love that I have for you, which is if you go away, you can always come back. And we can always come back, right? The Lord will again take delight in prospering you, just as he did for your ancestors, whom he made covenants with too. This is part of him fulfilling those covenants for us and for the people who have made him in the past. And make sure to choose life, right? Choose it. And the Lord says something so interesting here, which is the command which I'm giving to you is not far away, but it is not in heaven, it's not beyond the sea. In verse 14, no, the word is very near to you, it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe. We don't have to go far away to receive the word of the Lord. He is with us always through the Spirit, through revelation. I love this too, because the word um later in John will be referred to as Christ, or sorry, Christ will be referred to as the word. He is very near us. And if we look for him, we can find him. Verse 19 choose life so that you and your descendants might live loving the Lord your God, obeying him, holding fast to him, right? Holding fast to him, like a rod, the iron rod, the word. We're holding fast to him. We don't let him go, and he doesn't let us go. For that means life to you and length of days, so that you might live in the land which the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. It's just such beautiful language here that I think sometimes we get overwhelmed by the amount of words that there are that we just forget. Joshua then becomes Moses' successor as Moses lives, as goes to die, even though you know we don't know exactly where he died. It's not recorded here. Um, according to the Book of Mormon, he was buried by the hand of God or taken up. Obviously, we know that he then had to come down multiple times. Um as a to um he came down to the Kirtland temple. And so, you know, was he exalted? I don't know. I don't know what the full story is, right? But um he gives a final blessing unto all of the tribes of of Israel, um, and each of them is kind of a little bit of a snippet of what's going to happen to the tribe as they enter into the land. Um, God will fight, right? He'll be like a lion. Um, Nathalie will be sending in favor. Asher is pretty prosperous as far as like farming goes, so he's most blessed, right? Joseph and Ephraim and Manasseh seem to be the biggest, so that's why they have the most blessings, that sort of thing, right? Levi is given your thummum and your urim, right? Your your your um lights and wonders. I can't remember what thummum mean, but yeah. So it's just it's just a little snippet about what is each gonna happen to the tribe. Moses leaves his final blessing as the prophet, but he is not able to enter into the promised land. And how true is that sometimes in our lives, where we do all this preparing to get to the final goal, and then maybe we don't reach it in this life. But also, maybe the final goal is different than we all expected. I mean, really, the promised land, yes, was important because they were able to become their own nation and live under God freedom, like with freedom, but also they were already doing that. Moses had already seen God face to face, he already became like God as he entered, he became like Jesus Christ, as he intervened on behalf of these people, as he had compassion on them, as he cried for them, as he taught them, as he led them. Moses had already entered into his promised land, if you will. He had gone, you know, a strawberry shirt cake once said, getting there is all the fun, right? Like it's about the journey. And Moses is living that even as he looks on the other side. Um, I do think it's funny, I feel a personal connection to Moses slightly because um, even as I've studied all this and I've uh been able to go to Jordan and to Egypt, but I myself have only ever looked over the river to see uh the promised land of um I've looked where uh scholars think Mount Nebo might have been, where Moses is looking and seeing all the land. I've seen it, but I myself have never also been able to enter in. So I get it. Um, but I also think again, maybe it's more metaphorical as well. I mean, I think it's literal that Moses didn't enter in, but in our own lives, how often are we expecting blessings that we don't get? But maybe we can see who the Lord was trying to make of us, because that's ultimately what we're trying to become like him. Um, and blessings can help us, um, and he wants to bless us. Um, but ultimately the blessing is becoming like him and living with him in the promised land that is the celestial kingdom forever. And I'm so grateful that Jesus Christ, through his Ramah, sorry, Raham, through his um motherly love and compassion in Hesed, has made it so that we all will live with him again if we turn into him, if we keep these words in our hearts and try to love him as best as we can, and when we mess up, we return to him again and again. And this is my uh testimony of the book of Deuteronomy. And uh yeah, I say these things in Jesus' name. Amen. We'll talk to you guys next week. Bye.