June1

Deuteronomy 5 The law was given 50 days (Pentecost) after the Passover which delivered the people from Egypt. Forty years after leaving Egypt, The Children of Israel crossed the Jordan into the promised land. Deuteronomy is Moses once again reciting the law to the new generation of Israelites. This is around 39 years after their departure from Egypt. Moses is speaking to an entirely new generation. Everyone except Joshua and Caleb and their families who were 20 years old and older at the rebellion at Kasdesh-Barnea is now dead. Yet Moses says to these people many of them adults, who were not yet born 38 years earlier, “The LORD did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those who are here today, all of us who are alive.” Interesting! So Moses in Deuteronomy (which means second law) is giving that covenant for a second time, because many of those with whom it was made were not even alive when it was made. This chapter includes the basic stipulations of the covenant, better known as The Ten Commandments. The promise and warning from the Lord was this (v.33): “You shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.” This generation obeyed the law and took possession of the land. Future generations vacillated between obedience and disobedience. Eventually the disobedience became so severe that God kicked them out of the land. As He was kicking them out, He sent the prophet Jeremiah to the nation to tell them that 70 years later He would let them return. Jeremiah also prophesied that God would make a new covenant with them. While in this chapter of Deuteronomy, Moses says that the law was written on tablets of stone. In Jeremiah 31:33-34 Jeremiah says: But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” At the last supper when Jesus say, “This cup is the New Covenant in my blood,” It is of Jeremiah’s prophecy that He is speaking. While the New Covenant is obviously not in full force yet, it is obviously initiated in the death of our Lord. The first generation at Mt. Sinai could not keep the covenant. The second generation was obedient enough to possess the land, but future generations lost it. Jesus makes a New Covenant not with just the people of Israel but with all the ethnic groups of the earth. If we will repent and believe, He will walk with us so that our sins will be remembered no more and we can fulfill the Law! Jesus did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it in us! I am completely incapable of fulfilling the law, the Ten Commandments. Through Jesus, I can love the Lord with all my heart, mind, soul and strength. Through Jesus every day is a Sabbath, setting me free for rest and work. Through Jesus I can truly honor my mother and father. Through Jesus I can not only keep from committing murder, but I can love my enemies like He loved them. Through Jesus I can not only keep from lusting after women, but I can love my wife faithfully to the degree that He loved me—He died for me. Through Jesus not only can I cease stealing, but now I can give. Through Jesus not only can I quit bearing false witness, but now I can speak the truth in love. Through Jesus not only can have what I need, but I can be content with having only food, clothing and shelter, or I can be content when He makes me abound. I cannot do any of that without Him. That is what makes Him so glorious. Not only is He like that Himself, but when I yield to Him He invades my life and make me what He wants me to be. Now that is glory for Him! I can relax and enjoy Him! Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today! --Pastor john