Gold for the heart - Deuteronomy 5-7

Deuteronomy 5

God wants us to hear Him for our good

1 And Moses called all Israel and said to them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments that I speak in your ears this day, so that you may learn them, guard them, and do them. 2 The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3 The LORD did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here, alive this day. 4 The LORD talked with you face to face in the mountain out of the midst of the fire, 5 (I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to show you the work of the LORD: for you were afraid because of the fire, and did not go up into the mountain;) saying,

God has made a covenant of faith with all who have believed in Jesus.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him not perish, but have everlasting life.

6 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. 7 You will have no other gods except me. 8 You will not make any carved image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: 9 You will not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, 10 And showing love to thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. 11 Do not misuse the name of the LORD you God: for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain/evil.

God teaches us how to live well.
All the events of the Old Testament have a spiritual analogy.
Egypt represents slavery to sin under the bondage of evil.
Christ has set us free.
He is jealous and visits iniquity.
He shows mercy to those who love Him and keep His commandments.
We are not to use God’s name to guarantee our honesty or our business deals.
He is holy; We are not.

12 Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD your God has commanded you. 13 Six days you will labor, and do all your work: 14 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD your God: in it you are not to do any work, you, your son or your daughter, your manservant or your maidservant, your ox, or your ass, or any of your livestock, or your foreigner that is within your gates; that your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you.

Acts 10:34 … I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:

15 And remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD your God brought you out from there through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day. 16 Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you; that your days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with you, in the land which the LORD your God gives you. 17 Do not kill. 18 Do not commit adultery. 19 Do not steal. 20 Do not bear false witness against your neighbor. 21 Do not set your desire on your neighbor’s wife; do not covet your neighbor’s house, his field, his manservant, his maidservant, his ox, his ass, or any thing that is your neighbor’s.

Dr. McGee of Through the Bible Radio broadcast says that these ten commandments prevent the works of man’s old nature and prevent following evil.

22 The LORD spoke these words to all your assembly in the mountain out of the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tablets of stone, and delivered them to me. 23 And it happened, when you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, (for the mountain burned with fire,) that you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes, and your elders;

God showed His glory and His greatness

24 And you said, Behold, the LORD our God has showed us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God does talk with man, and he lives. 25 Now therefore why should we die? For this great fire will consume us: if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any more, then we will die. 26 For who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? 27 You go near, and hear all that the LORD our God will say: and you speak to us all that the LORD our God will speak to you; and we will hear it, and do it. 28 And the LORD heard the voice of your words, when you spoke to me; and the LORD said to me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken to you: they have well said all that they have spoken.29 O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever! 30 Go say to them, Go, return to your tents. 31 But as for you, you stand here by me, and I will speak to you all the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments that you are to teach them, that they may do them in the land that I give them to possess. 32 Therefore you will observe to do as the LORD your God has commanded you: you will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. 33 You will 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 will possess.

Psalm 37:4 Delight in the LORD; and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Deuteronomy 6

1 Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you go to possess it: 2 That you might fear the LORD your God, and keep all his statutes and his commandments which I command you, you, and your son, and your son’s son, all the days of your life; and that your days may be prolonged.

Matthew 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man will not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Psalm 91:16 With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation.

God wants it to be well with us

3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with you, and that you may increase mightily, as the LORD God of your fathers has promised you, in the land that flows with milk and honey. 4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: 5 And you are to love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.

That’s how God loves us.
He is worthy of all love and adoration.
He made us and died for us. Everything in life that we enjoy cpmes from Him. Being able to enjoy comes from Him.
It is out of balance to love something or someone more than God.
It is misinformed because “Of Him and through Him and to Him are all things (Romans 11:36).”

6 And these words, which I command you this day, are to be in your heart: 7 And you are to teach/sharpen them diligently to your children, and talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You are to bind them for a sign on your hand, and they will be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 And you are to write them on the posts of your house, and on your gates.

These verbs are all piel intensive.
That means a steady, patient, constant tireless teaching, like God teaches us.
To be seen often.

10 And it will be, when the LORD your God has brought you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you great and good cities that you did not build, 11 And houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and wells dug that you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant; when you will have eaten and are full; 12 Then beware that you do not forget the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. 13 You are to fear the LORD your God, serve him, and swear by his name. 14 You are not to go after other gods, the gods of the people that are around you.

Psalm 96:5 For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.

God is jealous because He loves us

15 (For the LORD your God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD your God burn against you, and destroy you from off the face of the earth. 16 You are not to tempt the LORD your God, as you tempted him in Massah. 17 You are to diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, his testimonies, and his statutes, which he has commanded you. 18 And do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD: that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land that the LORD swore to your fathers, 19 To cast out all your enemies from before you, as the LORD has spoken. 20 And in time to come when your son asks you saying, What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments that the LORD our God has commanded you? 21 Then you are to say to your son, We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt; and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand: 22 And the LORD showed signs and wonders, great and evil, on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his household, before our eyes: 23 And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in, to give us the land that he swore to our fathers. 24 And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day. 25 And it will be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

John 10:28 And I give to them eternal life; and they will never perish, neither will any man pluck them out of my hand.

Deuteronomy 7

1 When the LORD your God brings you into the land where you go to possess it, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you. 2 And when the LORD your God will deliver them before you; you are to strike them down, and utterly destroy them; make no covenant with them, nor show favor to them: 3 You are to make no marriages with them; do not give your daughter to his son, or take his daughter to your son. 4 For they will turn away your son from following me to serve other gods: then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and destroy you suddenly.

God always tells why He does what He does. God is life. He wants us to live. If we turn aside to other gods we turn to death.

Psalm 96:5 For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.

5 But this is how you are to deal with them; destroy their altars, break down their images, cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire. 6 For you are a holy people to the LORD your God: the LORD your God has chosen you to be a special people to himself above all people that are on the face of the earth. 7 The LORD did not set his love on you, or choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all people: 8 But because the LORD loved you, and because he desired to keep the oath that he had sworn to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of slaves, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

We are special to God and He loves us.
He keeps His oath.
He brought us out of sin with a mighty hand and bought us back to Himself at the highest price ever paid for anything.

Jeremiah 31:3 The LORD has appeared of old unto me, saying, Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you.

1Peter 1:18 For you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your empty way of life received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

God is faithful

9 Know therefore that the LORD your God, he is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations; 10 And repays them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not delay to him that hates him, he will repay him to his face. 11 Therefore you are to keep the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments that I command you this day, to do them. 12 And it will be that because you listen to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which he swore to your fathers: 13 And he will love you, and bless you, and multiply you: he will bless the fruit of your womb, and the fruit of your land, your grain, your wine, and your oil, the increase of your livestock, and the flocks of your sheep, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you. 14 You will be blessed above all people: there will be no barren male or female among you, or among your animals.

“God’s immutability renders it certain that His love will adapt itself to every varying mood and condition of His children so as to guide their steps, sympathize with their sorrows, answer their prayers; God responds to us more quickly than a mother’s face to the changing moods of her babe.” Strong, Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology, vol. 1, p. 219

15 And the LORD will take away from you all sickness, and will put on you none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you know; but will lay them on all those that hate you. 16 You are to consume all the people that the LORD your God delivers to you; your eye is to have no pity on them: you are not to serve their gods; for that will be a snare to you. 17 If you say in your heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them? 18 You are not to be afraid of them: but remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh, and to all Egypt; 19 The great terrors which your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, by which the LORD your God brought you out: this is what the LORD your God will do to all the people of whom you are afraid.

God has given mankind the cure for all disease—it starts in the heart with seeking our Maker and following His ways.
These that God was destroying were eternal murderers.

Matthew 25:46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

20 Moreover the LORD your God will send the hornet among them, until those that are left and hide themselves from you, are destroyed. 21 You are not to be afraid of them: for the LORD your God is among you, a mighty God and awesome. 22 And the LORD your God will put out those nations before you little by little: you will not consume them at once, so that the beasts of the field not increase upon you. 23 But the LORD your God will deliver them to you, and will destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they are destroyed. 24 And he will deliver their kings into your hand, and you will destroy their name from under heaven: no man will be able to stand before you, until you have destroyed them. 25 You are to burn the carved images of their gods with fire: you will not desire the silver or gold that is on them, or take it to yourself, lest you be trapped in it: for it is an abomination to the LORD your God. 26 Bring no abomination into your house, lest you become a cursed thing like it: but you will utterly detest it, and you will utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.

God works gradually so that we won’t be overwhelmed.
Verse 20 shows that He destroys enemies that are hidden from us, enemies that we can’t see.

***********************************

SUMMARY: Deuteronomy 5-7

God wants us to hear Him for our good
He showed us His glory and His greatness
He wants it to be well with us
The LORD is jealous because He loves us
He is faithful
He repays them that hate Him to their face
He loves, blesses, and multiplies us