Creation - Covenant - Law (Deut 4:5 - 8)

Short teachings from Hillcrest Church further exploring Sunday's teachings.

Transcript

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Hey Tim here. Hope you're doing well. And we are diving deep into the 10 words of life. So we started our series on the 10 words Sunday. And I want to pick up, I wanted to talk some, I just think, you know, the commands from the Hebrew scripture is what we often call law or Torah. I think it is oftentimes confusing for followers of Jesus to know what to do with. Because on, you know, I think maybe you have a couple, you know, we have different things floating around in our head. On the one hand, we know we don't follow all those laws, right? There's laws about what you can eat and what you can wear, and we don't follow all, you know, the temple and sacrifices. We don't follow all those laws anymore, right? We are now, Jesus died and fulfilled the Torah, and so now we're on the other side of that. So there's that. Um, there's also this kind of sense of um uh didn't the you know, didn't the Jews of Jesus' day, the Pharisees, didn't they take the laws too seriously? Weren't they too strict or legalistic? And uh that's kind of a whole nother rabbit trail of there's probably some um misunderstanding and mischaracterization of of exactly uh the legalism of Jesus' day. Uh there's a lot of scholars like N.T. Wright and James Dunn who've done work on that. Um but I think sometimes we've misunderstood that. But there might be this instinct of, isn't it all legalism? Like um then uh but then you know we also um we'll go to these laws and um and we'll like the aren't these important things to fight, you know, the in the Ten Commandments, the Ten Words, do not murder, like do not steal. Like, aren't those aren't those important? Shouldn't we be talking about these things? Um, so uh yeah, I think sometimes uh Fathers of Jesus are are a little like unsure how do we how do we even interact with this stuff? So uh in this episode, and then I think in the next episode too, I'm just gonna try to give some foundational groundwork um to how we approach uh the the Old Testament law, Torah. Um I'll say how do I want to say this? There are these three categories that I think we need to put in order in our head creation, uh covenant, and law. Creation, covenant, law. And I would almost picture them like a pyramid where creation is the foundation, law is like the next level up the pyramid, and uh excuse me, creation is the foundation, covenant is the next level up the pyramid, and law is at the top. Um, and so um covenant rests on creation and law rests on covenant, which rests on creation, if that makes sense. And what I mean by this, uh what I mean by that is this, that to understand what each of those levels are doing, you have to keep the level below it in mind. So creation is um God's purposes in all creation. Uh you read the biblical story, God is God makes all the world. Uh oftentimes we talk about it in the four relationships: human beings, right relationship with God, one another, creation. We've talked about this. And then, of course, um Adam and Eve choose rebellion against God, introduce sin into the world. Um, God says the consequences of that is death. And so we get this world of violence that we see in the early chapters of Genesis. And so um God wants like that's the creation story, even you know, um, even then how sin is marred creation, but God wants to do something about that. God wants to to heal that, and so in response to that, God begins forming a covenant. God is covening with people to um to heal, uh, to heal creation. Um, and so we see a covenant with Abraham. Um, and God says, I'm gonna make your people great, and I'll bless the world through you. Um, and then you know, we get to what we talked about uh on Sunday, the Exodus story and God covenanting with all his people. And so God has chosen a particular people to do his healing work through. But the covenant, now here's what I mean: the covenant rests on creation. Another way to think about it is like the danger um for the chosen people uh in the Hebrew scriptures in the Old Testament times was to think um they were special to God and that was just for their own enjoyment. Right? Uh we're chosen and you're not. Um that that would be reading covenant by itself. Um this this relationship God has brought his people into. But the point of covenant, the point of um covenant, these these the God's choosing of these people to relationship with him, was for to heal God and to to heal creation, to to to carry out God's good purposes in all in creation. A lot of times you'll hear it say Abraham was blessed to be a blessing. And what that means, you know, you when people say that, what they mean is Abraham was chosen and brought into covenant to to serve this other thing, to serve God purposes in all creation. So covenant rests on creation. Now, the next layer up then is law, um, of which the ten words are a central part. And law, and I was in in some ways I was talking about this on Sunday, law is meant to um serve the covenant. That um uh God's God has called Israel together, he's rescued them out of Egypt, and the law is to teach the people how to walk in covenant with God, because God is forming a people who will bless and heal the problem of sin in all creation. You see how that? They're all connected. The law serves God's purposes in the covenant, and the covenant serves God's purposes in all creation. And what happens then is sometimes we can get these things uh unhooked from one another, and we'll we'll read the law and we'll think of the law as just um kind of free-floating rules. Like God just wants to give rules for the sake of giving rules. That's not what's going on. God is shaping a people, a covenant people, in order to heal his purposes, uh, to carry out his purposes in creation. I think um so uh, you know, Deuteronomy 4, 5 through 8, we see this logical flow. Um and I'll just read it for you. And notice how the notice how the laws form a certain kind of people, and that has certain kinds of purposes for all the world. So this is Deuteronomy 4, starting in verse 5. God says, See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the Lord my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations. That's that's the creation level. He's wanting God's wisdom to be put on display to the nations. Um, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us, whenever we pray to him? And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as the body of laws I am setting before you today? And so what God is saying is, I am giving you these uh decrees, these laws, for you, my covenant people, to be to look a certain way, in order that the nations would be drawn to me and even glorify me. Um and so just as we're starting in this whole series, I think a lot of times we just get this stuff all out of order. Um, what you know, and they we just think of them as rules and this kind of thing. But I think as we start the series to understand, even within the Hebrew script, the logic within the Hebrew scriptures, God has purposes in all creation. Um, in order to meet those purposes in creation, he covenants with the people. And in order to shape that covenant people, he gives them laws, instruction, Torah to shape that people towards those ultimate purposes. So uh hope that's helpful to just give you some good framework as we as we move into this. I'll talk some more about the relationship with the New Testament in the next episode. But I've just my goal is to equip you uh to think well um as we talk about these commands, um, instructions in the Hebrew scriptures. All right, grace and peace.