Episode 7: Remember the Lord (12-18)
We’re delving into chapters 12-18 today in our Deuteronomy Bible study as we’re encouraged to remember to worship the Lord in both heart and action.
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What particularly struck you about the theme of worship in these chapters?
How do we see God's character through these particular laws?
Knowing you're in Christ, what will it look like to be honest in areas where you're not worshipping the Lord?
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The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
Felicity: We're thankful to 10ofthose.com and Kaleidoscope for sponsoring this season. The Greatest Hero by Joanna Kimbrel is a Kaleidoscope title that brings Romans to life for our kids. Joanna understands kids, understands the gospel and understands Paul. And in this book brings us a whole lot of good news use as she helps our primary school educator to see that Jesus is the hero who comes to save us the baddies from the dreadful reality of sin. Her tone is spot on, the language is just right, and she's adept at going deep without being intense. I'm looking forward to reading this with my son. Grab a copy at ten of those.com.
Sarah: Welcome to Two Sisters and a cup of tea. My name is Sarah, I live in the UK. This is my sister Felicity, she lives in the States. And today we are getting into Deuteronomy chapters 12-18. But before that, Felicity, I tell you what I've been inspired by. Nancy and I went to peruse the twinings selection in Sainsbury's this week and I'm drinking a very good blood orange and cranberry tea today.
Felicity: Wow. Do you know the first word that came out of your mouth, though? I did not expect to be blood.
Sarah: I know. And it's very red. It's very blood like.
Felicity: Wow. Well, we'll have to tell Nancy. She's inspiring our tea drinking habits. That's brilliant. So it's worth it. Interesting. Yeah.
Sarah: I'm surprised actually, how good it is, but I think what I've learned through this well, how long we've been going? A couple of years over. It's worth buying the brands, isn't it? It's worth going for timing, even when everything in me says I'll get this one cheaper. What struck you most from our conversation with her the other day?
Felicity: It's been going through my head and my heart this last few days so much. That last thing that she was saying that from the safety of being in Christ, as we look at the law, we look at me and we see that we can't. And so we love that Jesus can and does. And from being in Him, we then come back to Deuteronomy and the law, and we're just in a safe spot to then allow God's words to really search out our hearts, to really kind of go to work and help us to live that more Jesus like life. The way she articulated that the union.
Sarah: With Christ is key there, isn't it? Actually being in Christ and completely safe in him means that we can afford to delve into our own idolatry and sin and root it out and yeah, it's really good, isn't it? That's the same as me really mulling on that. And I think it's really helpful as we come to this next chunk, which we're kind of getting into more of the law that Moses kind of talks about, aren't we, in these next few chapters? And I think it's just really it's been really great having her come on, isn't it? Because it's really helped shape that was the plan, wasn't it?
Felicity: Good one. I'm glad we got Nancy on. We've known all along that we need help. That was a good word from Nancy and I think as well, what I've realized is that as we've been in deuteronomy for eleven chapters now, that as I now having kind of dug a bit deeper into those first eleven chapters, this chunk, which is the one that has been intimidating. It still is, still is, let's be honest. But chapters twelve through 26 are this kind of law section. But having been in the first eleven chapters in a bit more depth, that then is really changing the way that I read this now. And that's just been helpful. Which makes sense, doesn't it? The more we're in it, the more it begins to make sense.
Sarah: Okay, so we're going to get stuck into it today. We're not doing twelve to 26 today. I'll be glad to hear twelve to 18. It's still a sizable chunk, but we're going to read three different parts from that chunk. But before we do that, we're just going to summarize what the chapters are saying. So should I have a go?
Felicity: Go for it, Sarah.
Sarah: Race off the top two.
Felicity: Here we go.
Sarah: Chapter twelve is talking about the right place to worship and worshiping the Lord. Rightly? And then in chapter 13 we get the dangers of being enticed away from the Lord and the kind of deliberate malice that comes with enticing someone away from worshipping the Lord. We've then got laws about food and giving and there's certainly some clothing in there somewhere. Maybe not. We've got laws about slaves, we've got animals, and then we've got this kind of a couple of chapters 1617 and 18. We've got just yeah, laws about the passover, about judges, about a king, about worshiping other gods. Again we've got prophet, we've got this kind of it's quite a broad and general catch all, isn't it, for how to worship the Lord and remembering the Lord in all that you do say. Yeah, that's my take on it. And let thank you.
Felicity: Yes, let's. So first chunk we're going to read chapter twelve, verses one to seven. These are the decrees. And lords you must be careful to follow in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, who's given you to possess as long as you live in the land. Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every spreading tree where the nations you are dispossessing, worship their gods, break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and burn their asher, upholds in the fire, cut down the idols of their gods, and wipe out their names from those places. You must not worship the Lord your God, in their way, but you are to seek the place the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his name there for his dwelling. To that place. You must go there, bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, what you have vowed to give, and your free will offerings and the first born of your herds and flocks there in the presence of the Lord your God. You and your family shall eat and shall rejoice in everything you've put your hand to because the Lord your God has blessed you. Okay, in the next chunk, 14, verses one to eight you are the children of the Lord your God. Do not cut yourselves or shave the front of your heads for the dead for you are a people wholly to the Lord your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the Lord has chosen you to be his treasure's possession. Do not eat any digestible things. These are the animals. You may eat the arcs, the sheep, the goat, the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the IBEX, the antelope and the mountain sheep. You may eat any animal that has divided hoof and that chews the cud. However, of those that chew the cud or that have a divided hoof, you may not eat the camel, the hair or the hierarchs. Although they chew the cud, they do not have a divided hoof. They are ceremonially unclean. For you, the pig is also unclean. Although it has a divided hoof, it does not chew the cud. You are not to eat their meat or touch their carcasses. And then we're going to read chapter 18, verses nine through to 20. When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire who practices divination or sorcery interprets omens, engages in witchcraft or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord. Because of these same detestable practices, the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God. The nations you will dispossess. Listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do so. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him, for this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horrible on the day of the assembly, when you said let us not hear neither Voited the Lord your God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die. The Lord said to me what they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, but a prophet who presumes to speak in my name. Anything I have not commanded or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods is to be put to death.
Sarah: Thank you for this. I think on the face of it, it can feel quite random that we've chosen those three passages and we're not wanting to just cherry pick passages, are we wanting to get the whole kind of thrust of this whole section? And I think if we had one word for it, it would be worship, wouldn't it?
Felicity: Yes, absolutely. And I think it's helpful to notice that we are doing just half of the law section today.
Sarah: But if you were to get to.
Felicity: The end of chapter 26, then you'd hear worship as well. So this whole law section is kind of bookended by worship. That's just been really fundamental to understanding anything that's going on here, hasn't it? In the sense that our view of God and how we worship God, the desire to worship him, the right way of doing that, then that then overflows into this horizontal, more horizontal lawkeeping like the way in which we are with one another is connected to the way we are with God.
Sarah: Yeah, and I think probably what this first chunk of the law. So twelve to 18 seems a bit more vertical, kind of in how to relate to God and how to worship to God, how to worship to God, how to worship God. And then when we get into the next section, it's much more horizontal. So loving God and loving neighbor, it kind of feels like you could kind of split it down that way a little bit. I think what's really struck me is that there is a right way to worship God. He's very specific in how you should worship him, what the right way is. And there is a really, really dangerous situation at play if you choose to walk away from that, if you choose to entice someone away from worshiping the Lord, and if you choose to walk in the way that the other nations, particularly the Canaanites, are doing, the word detestable comes up a lot. That's really interesting, I think in terms of where we see it crop up. And it always seems to be in relation to the other nations kind of worship practices. So yeah, that's what struck me. How about you?
Felicity: And that's a really helpful kind of way to just because the way in which the other nations are regarded and dealt with it is something of a thing throughout Gtronomy. So it's really helpful to see that in relation to worship and this idea, the word ensnaring comes up quite a.
Sarah: Lot as well, this idea that you.
Felicity: Could be ensnared by other gods and even just don't worship your god like they worship their Gods. There's a very distinct way in which to live out this life as the Exodus people, as the people who have been rescued. And it comes back to that same thing, doesn't it, again and again, like the identity who you are as rescued people then means that that determines how you view God, how you worship God and therefore how you live. And I think it's helpful just to see that the worship so in chapter 13 you get this coming back round to the Lord your God, love Him with all your heart and all his soul, which verse 1313, verse three. And he says, love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. And then verse four, he says, it is the Lord your God you must follow and Him you must revere, keep his commands and obey Him, serve Him and hold fast to Him. And that's the same thing we've been hearing all the way through this idea that is a hard level worship and love for the Lord and and out of that then comes obedience. And this holding fast, which obedience and keeping the law seems to be all a part of holding fast.
Sarah: Yeah. And it's and it's what the Lord is doing to them, isn't it? He is holding fast to them. He has kind of tethered Himself to them through no righteousness of their own, as we've seen so far through deuteronomy. And I love the beginning of chapter 14 starts again with just reminding them you're my treasure possession. I've chosen you out of all the people from the face of the earth, like this is who you are. And so live distinctively. And I think the laws about clean and unclean food are there to show them that actually you live distinctively in comparison to the surrounding nations. You live this way as a way to show that you are my treasure possession, you are people wholly to the Lord. Yes, we might not understand all the specifics here, but I think the kind of the thread of the tone of it is really helpful when it's got the bookends of this is who you are.
Felicity: Yes, and this is who you are. And that distinctiveness floods into every part of your life. I think the food stuff is we don't really get it. But what we do see, I think, is that even our diet and even our money and even the way just everything, everything is impacted by the fact that we are that treasured possession, that God is our God, and impacted by.
Sarah: His character as well. Like all the kind of the canceling debts, it's giving generously because God blesses you, he blesses you, so bless those around you. Remember your servants before you treat them well. We're seeing more and more of the Lord's character in these laws, aren't we? Which is beautiful. And then that kind of leads us on to 1617 and 18 tell us what you see in those chapters listed.
Felicity: So we have this big kind of remembering going on, don't we? Chapter 16 we have all the festivals and we have this idea that the other thing that's mentioned again and again is rejoicing. So remember who you are, remember who God is, remember what God has done. Worship him and rejoice in that, in God's blessing that has been given to you and in that as well. Because of that then get rid of any other sort of worship. And in these three chapters, four chapters we have them not only the people but also the king is to be remembering and to be in the word and to be seeking to live the same, to revere and to be obedient and to hold fast in the same way. And then we get onto in chapter 18 there this idea of the prophet, this idea that God is going to keep speaking to his people through his word, through these messengers that are going to come again and again. But if you take a step back from it all, you do get this sort of shadow of Jesus don't you? Because we're talking about the Passover, we're talking about God speaking to his people through, we're talking about the ultimate prophet, the ultimate king. While I don't think that is the kind of the main point of these individual chapters, I think if you put the whole thing together you get this kind of nudge to look towards the Lord Jesus.
Sarah: Yeah, I don't think it's just a nudge though. I think it's a shining light.
Felicity: Fair enough, I think you're right.
Sarah: Prophet, priest, king, sacrifice. I don't think you can read these chapters without going, wow, Jesus is the ultimate of all of those. And I think we're in line with what Nancy was saying. Why wouldn't we go there? Why wouldn't we glory in how Jesus fulfills all of these things that they've been commanded to do? He is every part of all of those things and more.
Felicity: Yeah, I think you're right actually. Nudge was an understatement. I regret having said the word nudge. I should have said a giant big signpost towards Jesus. I just want us to see as well that the distinctiveness of God's character comes through before we get to Jesus. The way in which these people are living is distinctively reflecting God's character. And like what you said about the money and cancelling the debts and it's just a jewel of God's character isn't it? The compassion and the kindness there is just so evident.
Sarah: But I guess then we, you know, thinking about what Nancy was saying to us last week, then we, then we start to think about Jesus fulfilling this in his character and how he lived this out in all of his life. Being a living sacrifice like worship and Romans. Chapter twelve has really kind of kept coming back to me as I've been reading this let me just read it for us. In view of God's mercy off your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And I think I was just really struck like Paul kind of follows this pattern in Romans where the whole rest of his book after chapter twelve is use your bodies to worship in every part of life. Every part of life is worship, isn't it? And I think what we're starting to see here is that that comes from here yeah like that here's its roots in here, doesn't it? That actually you've been given everything in the Lord in view of his mercy, in view of his extraordinary grace every part of your life is a joyful living in worship to Him.
Felicity: Yeah. And I think that's where my heart has been really hit this week, actually has been actually, as I've seen the dominance of worship and therefore the big picture of who God is, that he's worthy of all this worship and therefore of the obedience. Do I have a big enough view of God that I want to be worshiping him with my whole life? And the degree to which how can we apply these laws to ourselves? That's kind of a point of debate. We don't have time to kind of really go into that but what I think is really evident is god's word does apply to all of my life and do I have a big enough picture of God to allow him to have a say over every corner of my life? And that's been really challenging to me. It's encouraging because of God's character and his rescue and who he is and Jesus and just all of the realities of who I am in Him. But then there's also just the challenge isn't there? Like okay, am I really worshipping wholeheartedly in this way?
Sarah: But I think that's where we then come back to what Nancy was saying last week and going, well, actually, if we see him at Christ as the ultimate judge, the ultimate priest, king and sacrifice, that gives us the freedom and it gives us the safety to afford us to ask that question with honesty and vulnerability. Because he's taken the penalty, because he judges us on the basis of his righteousness, not ours. Because he is the perfect priest, immediate for us. And I think it just seeing that then helps us to be able to ask, okay, what areas of my life am I holding back from worshipping here?
Felicity: Yeah, I think that's really true. I've actually just been back in Psalm 119 a bit recently and that's just been a helpful kind of like the way in which the Psalmist asks for help. To allow that to happen, I think that's been a real sort of changing the way let me pray about this. I'm going to pray that God would.
Sarah: Help me to yeah, nice. Do it. Pray for us now.
Felicity: Pray, by the way, praise you so much that you give us your word. Thank you. That you're a God who speaks into our lives. That you're a God who's worthy of all our worship, of our whole hearted love. And that in that we stand in Jesus that we as rescued people, are safe and secure. We pray from that point that you'd search our hearts and help us to live out this beautiful life that's presented here. Father, we ask that you'd give it the humility to see you rightly, to see ourselves rightly. We pray that by your grace you'd help us to walk in obedience for your glory. Amen.
Sarah: Amen. Thank you, Christie. I've enjoyed this and I am actually really looking forward to the next lot, even though it's going to be quite hard. But that's where we pray. Don't we keep praying for the Lord to give us that spirit of wisdom and revelation that we may know him better through what we're reading. For tuning in, everyone do check out our website, Two Sisters and a cup of Tea for further resources on deuteronomy and we look forward to seeing you next time.
Felicity: Absolutely see you then. We're so grateful. Ten of those. And Kaleidoscope for sponsoring this episode.
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