Deuteronomy teaches us that God's rules are not merely restrictions, but rather guidelines that lead to a joyful and satisfying life. This episode explores how the themes of love, generosity, and identity are woven throughout the book of Deuteronomy. We discuss the importance of loving others as a reflection of God's love for us, emphasizing that our ability to love stems from being assured of His love. Additionally, we examine the concept of giving—not just as an obligation, but as a means to cultivate relationships and support those in need. Ultimately, we are reminded that our identity is rooted in our collective relationship with God and each other, encouraging us to live out these principles in our daily lives.

Takeaways:

1. The podcast presents a historical and thematic commentary on biblical texts to enrich understanding.
2. Deuteronomy emphasizes the importance of loving others as a reflection of God's love towards us.
3. The principles in Deuteronomy encourage us to live joyfully and generously in our communities.
4. Understanding our identity as part of a collective people of God is essential for spiritual growth.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. bible805.com

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Today our lesson is Deuteronomy, where rules become joyful reality in our lives as we begin.

I like this quote from John MacArthur where he says in his summary of the book, like Leviticus, Deuteronomy does not advance historically, but takes place entirely in one location. Over about one month of time, Israel was encamped in the Central Rift Valley to the east of the Jordan.

It had been almost 40 years since the Israelites had exited Egypt. Like Leviticus, Deuteronomy contains much legal detail, but with an emphasis on the people rather than the priests.

The book of Deuteronomy, along with Psalms and Isaiah, reveals much about the attributes of God. Thus it is directly quoted over 40 times in the New Testament, with many more allusions to its content.

Now it's important to remember as we go through reading the entire Bible that we don't read books in isolation. John MacArthur continues with his comments where he says the book also assumes the reader is already familiar with the four books that precede it.

In other words, he doesn't deny you anything just because he's mean or wants to be an unkind God. And then he goes on to say, do thyself no harm.

Do not ruin thy health, thy reputation, thy domestic comforts, thy peace of mind especially, do not murder thy soul. Do not be the vile slave of thy appetites and passions.

Do not render all around thee my miserable and thyself wretched, but aim at that which is most excellent and useful. God's laws, his rules for us, are all good. That was how Matthew Henry summed up Deuteronomy.

In deciding to follow these laws and rules, you will do what Moses continually encouraged people to do in the book. You will choose life.

The whole book, and actually the Bible as a whole, is about how God loves us and sets up guidelines for how to truly live joyful, satisfying lives. The 40 years of punishment that they went through wandering around in circles in the desert is about to end.

As we start Deuteronomy and let's look at three ways that they and we are to live.

Particularly helpful is this advice when you're getting ready to start a new season,.

A new time, a new whatever in your life.

And Deuteronomy tells us actually three really important things.

How we should love, how we should.

Give, and how we should define ourselves,.

And how that influences all that we do.

First of all, how we are to love. We're to love as a reflection of God's love. In Deuteronomy 7:7:9, it says, the Lord.

Did not set his affection on you.

And choose you because you are more numerous than other people' for you the fewest of all peoples.

But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath. He swore to your ancestors that he.

Would bring you out with a mighty.

Hand and redeemed you from the hand of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

John 3:16 carries on this theme of God loving first when it says in these very familiar words that God so loved the world that he gave. Throughout the Bible from first to last,.

God is the initiator, the one who loves first.

He demonstrates how we're able to love and show love to others because God loved us first. Now this is why we need to be assured of God's love to be able to truly love others.

As psychologists say, one reason that things don't go well is because hurt people hurt people.

This is so true.

People who hurt others, who lash out, who get overly defensive, usually do it from a place of internal hurt. That's why we want to be healed.

That's why being assured, truly assured of and confident of God's love, is the foundation for being able to reflect his love to others.

Sometimes that is not easy to do.

The enemy whispers that God doesn't really love us. When difficulties come, when we're pounded with thoughts that he doesn't care, this isn't what what's good for you. All those kind of things.

We have to say no to that because we must learn to be secure and assured of God's love. Because he does love us. He showed Israel consistent love in their 40 years of wandering, and he shows it to us today.

When you doubt, review verses of his love. And more than that, think back to all the good things in your life, big and little. Be thankful.

Journal them as you go along so you have a way to review and remember. And when it's hard to believe, we can pray with the Apostle Paul for God's help believing in his love. Listen to this. I found this very encouraging.

He says, I pray out of his glorious riches that he, God, may strengthen you with power through his spirit, in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the Lord's holy people to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Pray that God's love would grip you,.

Would sink into you.

In that way, it's okay to say to God, I know you love me, but I don't feel it now. Help me to feel it, to know it. Deuteronomy goes on to show us that we can't just stop at accepting love from God. We need to give it out.

And Jesus gave us an example of how to do this. He often quoted from Deuteronomy. In fact, he quoted from it more than from any other book.

And he clearly tied together the idea.

Of loving God and people in what we know as the story of the Good Samaritan. The context of the parable is as instructive.

As it is an interesting story.

Now think about this. The expert in the law was the.

One who comes to him.

He initiated the conversation, and as such, he should have been very knowledgeable about the commands and their application in Deuteronomy. In fact, he probably had the entire book memorized. But let's look at this story to see what happened.

It says in Luke 10 on one.

Occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. Teacher, he asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life? What is written in the law? Jesus replied, how do you read it?

He answered, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind. Love your neighbor as yourself. You've answered correctly. Jesus replied, do this and you will live. But the Teacher of the Law didn't quit there.

Like many of us, he wanted to justify himself. So he asked, and who is my neighbor?

The passage goes on to tell the story of the Good Samaritan, where a Jewish man was beaten, robbed, and left for dead. Religious people walked by him.

But a Samaritan, a man who was racially despised by the Jews, stopped, took care of him, took him to an inn and paid for. Was a shocking answer. And I think aside from the shock of making the Samaritan the hero of the story.

Jesus told it to challenge the man who asked, because that teacher should have known the answer. That kind of care for the poor and the stranger is talked about continuously throughout Deuteronomy.

That is what defines the neighbor, the poor, the stranger. And it should have been obvious to a so called expert in the law. Now here is just one example of a passage in Deuteronomy.

Now this is the message translation, but this entire section I'm going to read.

You is from the Bible. You might find it a bit shocking, but let me go into it and.

Here's what it says.

Deuteronomy 7:15, 7:11 when you happen on someone who's in trouble or needs help among your people with whom you live in this land that God, your God, is giving you, don't look the other way, pretending you don't see him. Don't keep a tight grip on your purse, no look at him, open your purse, lend whatever and as much as he needs, don't count the cost.

Don't listen to that selfish voice inside you and turn aside and leave your needy neighbor in the lurch, refusing to help him. He'll call God's attention to you in your blatant sin.

Give freely and spontaneously. Don't have a stingy heart.

The way you handle matters like this triggers God, your God's blessing. In everything you do, all your work and ventures. There's always going to be poor and needy people among you.

So I command you, always be generous, open person hands. Give to your neighbors in trouble, your poor and hurting neighbors. According to Deuteronomy, all God's people should help those in need.

One would assume especially those who were religious leaders would see that they should be the first to help. But they didn't.

When you are harvesting in your field and overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a Second time. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again.

Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. Remember you were slaves in Egypt. That's why I command you to do this.

We humbly help others, not only because it is commanded, but because we realize we are the same as those in need. We too are aliens and strangers.

The same idea of our true status in the world is in the New Testament, where in 1st Peter 2:11 it says, Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles, to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul.

Other translations describe us as aliens, strangers and exiles, foreigners and pilgrims, immigrants and strangers, as it has always been with God's people. In Hebrews 11, 13, 16 reminds us, all these people were still living by faith when they died.

This has just been a big description of the heroes of the faith, from Enoch and Abraham and Moses and all of these different people. It says they did not receive the things promised.

They only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show they're looking for a country of their own.

If they'd been thinking of the country they'd left, they would have opportunity to return. Instead, they are longing for a better country, a heavenly one.

Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. And 1st Peter 1:17 commands us to live out your time as foreigners, temporary residents, strangers here with reverent fear.

The temptation to think more of ourselves than we should is also addressed in the final letter to the churches in revelation. In Revelation 3:14, it says, to the angel of the church in Laodicea, right?

These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. I know your deeds, that you neither hot nor cold. I wish you were either one or the other.

So because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I'm about to spit you.

Out of my mouth now.

A lot of times people stop there, say, oh, we just shouldn't be lukewarm. We should be really zealous for the work of the Lord. But don't stop there, because it goes on.

And it says, you say, I am rich, I've acquired wealth and do not need a thing. But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. Those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline.

So be earnest and Repent. Here I am.

I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person and they with me.

The passage is often quoted in evangelism, but really it's addressed to lukewarm Christians who don't realize that before God they're wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. We are all the stranger, we are all the pilgrim. We are all the foreigner in need of mercy.

That is precisely the description of people many people look down on. And Jesus says, that's actually all of us. Finally, as a country western song reminds us, you don't love God if you don't love your neighbor.

There are many, and here's how the words go. There are many people who say they're Christians and they live like Christians on the Sabbath day.

But come Monday morning till the coming Sunday, they'll fight their neighbor all along the way. Oh, you don't love God if you don't love your neighbor. If you gossip about him, you never have mercy.

If he gets into trouble and you don't try to help him, then you don't love your neighbor and you don't love God. There's a God Almighty, and you've got to love him if you want salvation and a home on high.

If you say you love him while you hate your neighbor, then you don't. Then you don't have religion. You just told a lie.

Second, Deuteronomy identifies us with how we give the very obvious and practical way to put God's love into practice. A continuous priority of life. That's how Deuteronomy describes it.

He says, in teaching the people to give, make an offering of 10% a tithe of all the produce which grows in your fields year after year.

Bring this into the presence of God, your God, at the place he designates for worship, and there eat the tithe from your grain, wine and oil, and the firstborn from your herds and flocks. In this way you will learn to live in deep reverence before God, your God, as long as you live.

But if the place God your God designates for worship is too far away and you can't carry the tithe that far, God your God, will still bless you. Exchange your tithe for money and take the money to the place God, your God, has chosen to be worshiped. Use that money to buy anything you want.

Cattle, sheep, wine or beer. Anything looks good to you. You and your family can then feast in the presence of God, your God, and have a good time.

Meanwhile, don't forget to take good care of the Levites who live in your towns. They won't get any property or inheritance of their own, as you will.

And at the end of every third year, gather the tide from all your produce of that year and put it aside in storage. Keep it in reserve for the Levite who won't get any property or inheritance, as you will.

And for the foreigner, the orphan and the widow who live in your neighborhood. That way they'll have plenty to eat and God, your God, will bless you in all your work. Wait a minute. That sounds like more than one tithe.

And it sounds like they did an awful lot of partying with it. Yes, as many commentators confirm, there was more than one. There were actually three tithes.

The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus mentions a custom of paying three different tithes in addition to the two tithes which have already directed you to pay each year, the one for the Levites and the other one for banquets, you should devote a third every year to the distribution of such things as are lacking to widowed women and orphaned children. Here's Matthew Henry's comment. A second portion from the produce of their land was required.

The whole appointment was evidently against the covetousness, distrust, selfishness of the human heart. It promoted friendliness, liberality, cheerfulness, and raised a fund for the relief of the poor.

They were taught that their worldly portion was the most comfortably enjoyed when shared with their brethren who were in want. Now, what we see here and in many other passages, that there were actually three purposes of the tithe.

Now, I'm not responsible for a church budget, and you probably won't hear this in a talk on that, but this is what the Bible says. First of all, it was used to support the Levi's, which were the spiritual leaders of that day. Yes, we do support our churches, things like that.

That's really important. But there were two more reasons. Second was to rejoice to have a party. Notice what it says.

Use the money to buy an ox, a sheep, some wine or beer, to feast there before your lor, your God, and to rejoice with your household. My church just recently had a Sedar supper for the entire church. The church sponsored it. They didn't ask for an offering.

The church just gave it to the people and we rejoiced together. And I thought about that.

That happened just before I was putting together this lesson, and I thought, wow, that was just a wonderful expression of what the Scriptures really tell us do. And then third, to give to those less fortunate foreigners or those widows and orphans within your city so they can eat and be satisfied.

And then Jehovah, your God will bless you and your work. The challenging, fun and compassionate implications of this passage are so wonderful.

Giving is about so much more than 10%, grudgingly or legalistically given. Just as we're not under many of the specific laws of the Old Testament, so too we're not under the specific of the laws here.

However, we're still to reflect on the principles in them. And in this case it's one of joyful liberality in our lives.

To the church for godly celebration and for the compassionate care of others and our potluck celebrations. That's why I always do them in whatever ministry I'm in. I have potlucks with lots of foods.

They're a very conscious celebration of these passages, of this is what God wants us to do. And this leads to the third lesson from Deuteronomy, and that is, how do we define ourselves?

We tend to see ourselves and our obedience to God as an individual thing.

And while that's important, we also need to consider that the rules and guidelines in Deuteronomy are based on statements like for you are a people holy to.

The Lord your God.

The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of this earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

We've talked in other lessons about the importance of holiness, and though that is important, also note that our holiness isn't just a personal attribute, but should describe us as a people. I want to focus here on the word people.

It's the Hebrew root word am, and its definition is a people, such as a congregated unit, specifically a tribe, as those of Israel, hence collectively troops or attendants, figuratively a flock, folk, men, nation, people, original meaning probably those united, connected, related. What's important here is that it's the corporate nature of God's calling, God's commands, how he wants us to live.

It isn't just about us as individuals in isolation. Now, why this is so important, the core, the foundation of how Israel and we are supposed to live presupposes relationship.

Love, by its very definition, is relational. The commands we just discussed on how to relate to others, how we are to give, are all relational.

The ones on giving are especially interesting when we just look at them in terms of relationship. You don't just give to get an obligation out of the way.

You give to support spiritual leadership, to rejoice with those closest to you, to take care of the less Fortunate relationships are of primary importance because they reflect the character of our triune God.

The importance of relationships goes back to the nature of God himself, the ground of all reality, who is a trinity of persons, an eternal relational entity.

That is why a proper understanding of the Trinity is foundational to all other theology and why this is where all the cults and non Christian religions go wrong. Particularly they go wrong and they don't understand the three persons of the Trinity and their relationships to one another.

Please check out my lessons on the.

Trinity from Bible 805. I've included in the video here a chart that has helped people tremendously.

Where the biblical view of the Trinity is one God, three persons distinctly eternally coexisting, but they are one in that they share the same attributes. They are all holy, just, merciful, love, truth, etc. So one God consisting of three persons who all share the same attributes.

It's really not very hard to understand when you kind of think it through and I go through in my lessons all the verses of the Bible that will help you see this really clearly. Again, it isn't complex to understand. So in some ways some of the complex attempted explanations of it that are just wrong, like the water and ice.

And all that, that's just wrong.

That's goofy. It doesn't make any sense and it's not true. They're hard to understand because they're just not true. Reality is much simpler.

In the Old Testament, the term used of God's chosen was the people. In the New Testament it talks about the kingdom of God because the kingdom is now made up of many people groups under one king, our God.

There is much that can be said about the kingdom of God and these three descriptions are all true. It is within us. If we allow Jesus to be the ruler of our lives, it is present where his people corporately follow and reflect him.

And it is also not yet as it will be when Jesus returns and will be reality for all eternity. Old Testament and New Testament we're always part of something beyond ourselves. Peer pressure is very powerful for good or evil.

That is why in these lessons I.

Also have questions so that you can.

Discuss them with a group.

That's why I encourage in all the groups snacks so people can come a bit early, chat after the lesson, get to know others in the group. That's why also in all my groups I have potlucks.

My goals with the groups I teach at church and for every instance where you take in or share these lessons is to not only pour in information, biblical instruction is the foundation for our interactions. But we don't want to put all we learn.

But we want excuse me, we want to put all we learn into practice in our relationship so we don't become like the expert of the law and the Good Samaritan who knew all the answers but failed miserably in living how God truly wanted him to.

A very practical idea. Our celebrations and inviting people to come to them are a wonderful way to share our faith.

They reflect our God, who gave his people the Sabbath and yearly festivals, and our Savior, who started his earthly ministry at a wedding party and who will.

Welcome us into eternity at wedding Supper.

Of the Lamb Deuteronomy emphasizes we're to.

Love others as God loves us, give.

Generously and invite others into the kingdom.

To be part of our Bible studies, potlucks, baptisms, church celebrations and service projects. Invite people outside the church to celebrate our salvation with us in all we do.

May we remember and help others to.

See that, as C.S. Lewis said, joy is a serious business of heaven.

What I want you to remember about.

Our study of the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, is that.

They're not just about rules, but they are truly guidelines for joy and an ultimately satisfying life and an eternity from God who loves you more than you can imagine.

That's all for now.

For notes from this lesson, related resources and links to teaching materials, go to www.bible805.com in closing, I'm Yvonne Prinn, your fellow pilgrim, writer and teacher for Jesus, and I'd like to close with this benediction.

May you know the invitation of God to move from confusion to clarity, from wandering to rest, from loneliness to knowing you are loved, from turmoil to peace, from wherever you are on your spiritual journey to a growing knowledge of God's Word and in your personal relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.