Published: August 17, 2025 | Speaker: D. Aaron Wells | Series: Deuteronomy - The Law Is Good, If One Uses It Lawfully 2 - Part 15 | Scripture: Deuteronomy 10:12-11:1
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This is the law is good if one uses it lawfully session 32. Um what we have looked at in the last four weeks has been uh the
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third of three here statements in what is really the large complex beginning of the second discourse of
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Deuteronomy. And we have we have heard here concerning the law that he spoke from the mountain that they should remember it in the hearing. We have heard here
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how they are to love Yahweh their God with all of their heart and with all of their soul and with all of their strength. Okay, we have we have heard that they have been and this is the last
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four weeks here that they have been a stiff necked people since ever I knew you. And how the how in the tale of the two
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fasts of Moses, he he brings out to them that Yahweh did not require the penalty of their stiff neckness from their hands. um that is
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from the his audience, the children, not from the children's hands, but rather Moses' own favor with Yahweh stood for them and procured for them God's mercy.
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And so, And so, and now and now in view of that mercy uh is is what we will read today. In view of that mercy,
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what what is required of them? Um, so if you turn with me to Deuteronomy 10,
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uh, verses, starting in verse 12, we'll be going today to 11:1. And now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God require of you? but to fear Yahweh
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your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and
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statutes of Yahweh, which I am commanding you today for your good. Behold, to Yahweh your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth,
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and all that is in it. Yet Yahweh set his love, excuse me, Yahweh set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their seed after them, you above all
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peoples as you are this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart. And be no longer stiff necked. For Yahweh your God, is God of gods and Lord
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of lords, the great, the mighty, the awesome God, who is not partial, and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves
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the sojourer, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourer, therefore, for you were sojourers in the land of Egypt. You shall fear Yahweh your God.
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You shall serve him and hold fast to him. And by his name shall you swear. He is your praise. He is your God who has done for you these great and terrifying
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things that your eyes have seen. Your fathers went down to Egypt 70 persons. And now Yahweh your God has made you as numerous as the star stars of heaven.
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You shall therefore love Yahweh your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always.
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So now, what more does Yahweh require of them but to fear him and walk in his ways and love him and serve him with all of their heart and soul, just as Moses
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taught them from the beginning at the mountain, those words that Yahweh commanded him to teach, which he begins in Deuteronomy with, "Here then, O Israel, love Yahweh your God with all of
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your heart." your heart." What more is required but that? Seeing as Moses has borne the burden of of God's displeasure to Israel and has procured them mercy, what more is left?
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And he goes on as in chapters 6 through 8 to to show that Yahweh never demanded anything of the people for their deliverance from Egypt. This is things
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we studied here in the main body of what we've focused on this this time. Okay. in in chapters 6 through8. He never demanded anything from them for their
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deliverance from Egypt. Instead, requiring the price of redemption at the hands of their captives and lavishing Israel with gifts and shephering them in the wilderness. Most notable teaching on
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that in chapter 8. No mention was made to them of their idolatry in Egypt, nor their forgetfulness of him there, of which we do read later in the prophets,
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uh, as as the answer to their continued idolatry and faithfulness in their future history. future history. But rather than having their idolatry
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and forgetfulness of God required of them from what they had done in Egypt, they were brought near to hear his voice and were given God's commands for their good always. And even the reminder of
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their being a stiff- necked people does not overshadow the mercy of God in that respect. He is not required the their their sins at their hands, but rather has shown them mercy. And so his
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commands are characterized by um what we read in first John five that they become for the people who have
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been cleared of their sins and who love their God with all of their heart. They become as John says not burdensome. And I do think that is in picture form what
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Moses is bringing out that that John is not making up this notion but rather can see this prefigured in the law where first John 5 everyone who believes that
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Jesus is the Christ has been born of God and everyone who loves the father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God
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when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For
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everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Who is it that overcomes the
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world except the one who believes that Jesus is the son of God? This is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ.
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So the commands are not burdensome in being fulfilled by love. This is the in the pattern being laid down for us here. And in the parable
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that Moses has been showing us in chapters 5 through 11, the man whom God appointed has borne the whole burden of the redeemed people's sins so that now all that remains is to continue in his
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kindness. The law for the circumcised heart is as we read here for your good. Okay? Like the wisdom of the proverbs whereas for the lawless and the
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disobedient as Paul tells us the for the mind set on the flesh the law is for death. And so that there is a difference between the heart of the one for whom
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the law is a benefit and the heart for whom the one for whom the law is no benefit at all. though it itself is good and righteous and spiritual. What God requires of you is love that
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proceeds from the heart. And that's again what's being shown to us here in in in these verses. And it's the same as what John says earlier in
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his letter in 1 John 4:19. We love because he first loved us. And just to establish that th this really is the force of the New Testament
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teaching on these matters, I offer a couple of other examples. Uh one from Romans 13:10
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in context, he says, "Owe no one anything except to love each other. For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall
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not covet, and any other commandment are summed up in this word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is
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the fulfilling of the law. So that love is the fulfillment of the law, for that love which does no wrong to neighbor must be from God. And Moses
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is establishing this in his words by declaring that he lo that that Yahweh loves your neighbor.
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Uh further in Hebrews uh 10 uh uh verses that I've come back to numerous times during our study um he quotes from the Psalms. Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired but a
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body you have prepared for me. speaking of Christ, in burnt offerings and sin offerings, you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, behold, I come to do your
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will, oh God, as it is written of me in the role of the book. When he says above, you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin
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offerings. These are offered according to the law. Then he adds, "Behold, I have come to do your will." Doing away with the first in order to establish the
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second. So that love which is from God produces a people that do his will just as Jesus the beloved as he was called
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both at his baptism and his transfiguration appeared to do your will. And here we see what I would emphasize in this particular session is
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Jesus the template for all of his people. Yes.
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Right. So it is it is the it is the mark of the people of God to have love for one another. That's right. But Jesus is the template for all of his people. And I think there are numerous ways in which we see that in in these
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verses. So one of one of the realities and I'm chasing a rabbit here, but one of the realities often overlooked in so-called covenant theology is that a contract for
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anything of which we've been speaking. Okay? A contract for anything is not separate from the people who are parties to the contract.
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Okay? In other words, no contract is any good, but rather only a judgment on them if the parties to it will not abide by it. Okay? There's no such thing as a
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contract that does not name the people that are bound by it. Okay? And this is really what in so-called covenant theology kind of ends up ignoring
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functionally. But there's no no good contract if the parties to it won't abide by it. And so what a perfect covenant requires is perfect
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covenanters. Alternatively, a certain party to the contract may have no demands made on them at all. In which case, as far as it depends on such a party, the agreement
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is inviable. It's unbreakable. And I think this is what Paul means in Romans 4 where he says, "Where there is no law, there is no transgression.
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You have a question.
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I I think the what the argument that the psalmist is making is an argument from great the great to the greater. And that's what Hebrews really pulls out that he doesn't and Chuck brought this
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out in his Hebrew study years ago that that the writer of Hebrews in no ways diminishes Moses in in speaking of Jesus. He rather speaks of Moses at at
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its at his very highest and Jesus is better. And I think that's the same sense in which the psalm speaks of sacrifices and offerings. It doesn't mean that they're uh no good in any way,
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but rather doing the will of God is superior to the sacrifices and offerings because the sacrifices and offerings are brought on account of sin. They are a
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reminder of sins whenever they are brought. But the one who does the will of God has no need for the reminder of sins for him. No word of God is burdensome. Like that's the what the
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argument that that Hebrews is making. And that's why I bring up uh uh just bring up briefly covenant theology here is because we need to recognize that the
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the demands made on those to whom God has agreed to do a thing are very important and the people and their nature are are very important. We are a
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people who profess and preach that God will cleanse has cleansed our conscience and will cleanse the conscience of all who believe in Jesus Christ. all who have faith in him. Therefore, there is
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no going back and retreading the administration of the law for us, but rather we are a a different kind of humanity, a a new humanity who are able
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by the nature of the promises of God to receive all that the law demanded as a gift. The law demanded something but we are
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able to receive those things by faith as a gift. You have a comment. Another perspective is that God could never take pleasure in the blood of
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bulls and goats for they were innocent.
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They were incapable of cleansing. They might take pleasure in their Sure. Sacrificial system is not something that
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a holy God. Obedience, right? But the writer of Hebrews is saying that this whole system was insufficient. Right? That that it was imperfect means
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it cannot it cannot the one who would obey, right? And the one who shed his I think that's also what it means that I take no pleasure. He's not
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ruling over, ruling over, right? Come on, give me more. In fact, in the prophets, he says, "Give me less. Stop it." Uh, in in many places
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on their heart, right? He's not He takes no pleasure in obedience that is not from the heart. That's kind
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all his will and his purpose but always pointing forward to Christ, right? But that he takes no pleasure in obedience that is not from the heart is very germanine to to what we are here reading. Um so that again as Romans says
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where there is no law there is no transgression and we need to recognize that we have had no burden placed on us. Um and and here again the the law though
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exuding the graciousness of God demands what it was not put in place to provide which is a clean conscience. Um he he says therefore in view of these things
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circumcise the foreskin of your heart and thereby be no longer stiff necked. But the law is demanding what it itself cannot deliver. How can a people circumcise their own hearts?
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If seeing God's fire back here in chapter five, okay, if seeing God's fire and hearing his voice
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is not the guaranteed antidote to stiff neckedness, what can the solution possibly be? I It must be an act of God, pure and plain.
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Okay, we can with fresh ears hear the import of Moses' argument here that Yahweh is possessor of all creation. But Yahweh chose you for his special
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possession. He set his heart in love upon you. Therefore, set your own hearts in love upon him. We find that this is a gift to us by faith. Something that was
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demanded by the law. And and I think we should be and I'm somewhat paraphrasing uh Romans 11 in saying this, but we should be unsurprised to see Moses'
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argument in this passage fulfilled by Paul in in the way that he does in Romans 11 and 12 partially quoting here that the deliverer will come from Tion
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banishing ungodliness from Jacob and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins. Okay? For God has consigned all to disobedience that
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he may have mercy on all. I think that's what we're seeing in picture form in chapters 9 and 10. All Israel is indicted in the in the sin of the cast metal calf.
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metal calf. We He has consigned all to disobedience that he might have mercy on all. I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice.
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Okay. Are you seeing the parabolic nature of what's happening here? That this is for us a picture of our own state. Okay.
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Perfected. Not perfected here. Perfected in Jesus
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No. No. No. A thousand times. No. to characterize the people of God as anything but what they are is is to fall short of true preaching. We we have had
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our consciences cleansed, right? We have had our hearts circumcised. His holy spirit dwells in us and his holy spirit will dwell in no unclean vessel. We are clean. What we need to do
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is what we heard a lot from Mark in in preaching through uh uh first Peter, which is we need to understand clearly
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who we are and believe that and act accordingly and know that the power of God is is behind us in that. No, we are not a stiff necked people. um to to say
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that we are in real time on occasion a stiff necked person or acting in a stiff necked way. Of course that's true. But no, that is not our identity. A stiff necked people since ever I knew you. We
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are the people of God. Paul's letter,
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right? I can't think of any place. Well, and even even in saying you foolish Galatians, he has he has
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he he has evidence in front of him that suggests that they have fallen away short of reaching the grace of God. So to issue that strong rebuke makes a lot
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of sense in that I can't see your heart. I can't see that your heart is circumcised. I can only see by your works. And what he had in front of him was possibly an an apostate people. Um
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so the the strong language makes a lot of sense in in that respect. But to you who I'm confident of better things, I would not say such strong things. And I
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don't think that scripture says those things to us. Um u so far the I think that let's we'll look at verses 17 through 19 uh again
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because I don't want to lose the flow of the the text. So what we've seen first the first segment here verses 12- 16 is one uh summation to therefore um that
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there's five statements in here which I I think are rightly translated therefore uh in and really what we're doing is
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looking at the first three as as three parts of one. Okay. Um so as as you were probably taught in in another time and place whenever there's a therefore you
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need to ask what's it therefore. Okay so the what we've just said here is therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart and be no longer stubborn. And now we advance the argument to
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verses 17- 19. For Yahweh your God is God of gods and Lord of lords. The great, the mighty, the awesome God who is not partial and takes no bribe. He
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executes justice for the fatherless and the widow and loves the sojourer, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourer, therefore, for you were
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sojourers in the land of Egypt. And there's this there's this neat parallel um to to be seen
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on the one hand in in the in verses 14- 16 we have uh to Yahweh belongs all of creation. Okay, that this is his that's that's
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possessing. Um, okay. That in verse 15, Yahweh set his heart and love on uh your
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fathers and chose their seed after them.
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Okay? And that that's how the argument runs in the first segment. And now in the second segment, there's there's
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not his people sojourers. Okay. Therefore, you love the sojourer.
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So, by analogy, he's he's following the same flow of argument. Or to put it another way and a little simpler, God has loved you. Be not stiff necked toward him. God also loves your
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neighbor. Be not hard-hearted toward your neighbor. your neighbor. You see the the analogy being drawn? And and the word I I'd say this I I I show
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this to say that the word about the sojourer is not as out of left field as it may look to us on a surface reading. And I say that as a personal admission.
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I have always felt like he was bringing that out of left field at me. Uh but it really isn't. He's following the same course of argument. So that the so that we need to look at the wide biblical
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significance of the sojourer, the fatherless, and the widow as a witness to the sure and right purposes of God. That their their his treatment of those
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who are not your brothers is is at the center of his character, a uh quintessence of divine love. Okay. the the main body of Moses discourse which
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follows in chapters 12- 26 will make consistent mention of the sojourer the fatherless and the widow as Moses applies the law to their future life in the land and the expression in verse 18
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is paralleled with one of the 12 pronouncements of a curse from Mount Abal cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourer the fatherless and the widow so it's pretty
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important since and then further to look further in scriptures witness since Deuteronomy is anticipating so poignantly the future time of the judges have made several arguments to that effect. It's right to
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consider Boaz's conduct toward Ruth as uh as an exemplar of this love that God has and that love worked out in his people toward those who are not his
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people. Uh furthermore, Israel was taught to sing in the Psalms that they were sojourers with God. Um, a prayer of David in 1st Chronicles 29:es
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14-15 says, "But who am I and what is my people that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given
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you, for we are strangers before you and sojourers, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and
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there is no abiding." or in Psalm 29 uh excuse me 39:12. Hear my prayer, O Yahweh, and give ear to my cry. Hold not your peace at my tears,
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for I am a sojourer with you, a guest like all my fathers. And in Psalm 119, that great discourse on the law, he says, I am a sojourer on the earth. Hide
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not your commandments from me. The prophets also prophesied that sojourers would be added to the people of God with full standing as inheritors.
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I think in this we see the a a a key part of the promise in which we stand before the holy God. Uh Isaiah 56 1-8, thus says Yahweh, keep justice
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and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come and my deliverance be revealed. Happy is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it
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fast, who keeps the Sabbath, not profaining it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil. Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to Yahweh say,
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Yahweh will surely separate me from his people. And let not the unic say, Behold, I am a dry tree. For thus says Yahweh, to the Unix who keep my
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Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me, who hold fast my covenant, I give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and
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daughters. I give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. And the foreigners who join themselves to Yahweh to minister to him, to love the name of
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Yahweh, and to be his servants. Everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it and holds fast my covenant, these I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of
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prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar. For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. The Lord Yahweh
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who gathers the outcasts of Israel declares, "I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered." And again in Ezekiel 47 verses 21- 23,
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speaking of the esqueological division of the land that that Israel is to inherit at the last, saying, "So shall you divide this land according to all
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the tribes of Israel. You shall all lot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the sojourers who reside among you and have had children among you. They
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shall be to you as nativeborn children of Israel. With you they shall be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. In whatever tribe the sojourer resides, there shall you assign
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him his inheritance, declares the Lord Yahweh. And then looking back in their past that that God loves the sojourer is shown in its prototype uh in his love for
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Abraham, a man who was a sojourer all his life. He and his sons and by extension you people of Israel, you were sojourers. Okay, that's both a statement
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of their history in Egypt, but also their heritage. They are sons of Abraham. Therefore, they are sojourers. That is their identity. But they are
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sojourers with their God as Abraham was being his descendants. So as far as our own treatment of sojourers in this world and of the
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vulnerable, we must not fail to recognize that sojourer is part of our own identity. Peter brings that out in his letter um speaking of us being
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aliens and sojourers in in this world. Okay. Sojourer is a key part of our identity in the Lord at this time. So that whatever our expression of love for
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the for the Sojourer in real time for the vulnerable the vulnerable in our communities, it will be an extension of whatever our love for one another is. Whatever the quality of our
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love for one another, our love for outsiders will be an extension of that. Um the the law I think bears this out for us uh in in where where this is most
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famously talked about in Leviticus 19. Um two parts of that verse 17. You shall not hate your brother in your
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heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the
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sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh. And I hope I'm seeing this right, but it seems to me that that is an argument from not only will you not
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hold a grudge against the sons of your people, but the statement after is not you shall love the sons of your people, but rather you shall go further than that and love your neighbor. I do you do
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you agree that a contra at least somewhat a a a a comparison a contrast is being made there that that there is an an argument that is going way further than than would be expected. Not only
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shall you not hate your brother in your heart but love your brother but you shall not hate your brother in your heart. Certainly not that. But you shall love even your neighbor and reason frankly with him. So that later in verse
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33, when a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the sojourer, excuse me, you shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among
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you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God." And and as Chuck made so clear in Romans 12, our
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love for one another and our stranger love are of a peace. um so that two things are true beside one another both equally. It will not do to love
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outsiders if we are cold or indifferent toward one another. Okay? And it will not do to have inner closeness if others are not welcomed in.
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Both are an expression of the love that God has made manifest to us and in us. Did you have a comment or a question? Okay. So the third segment then uh through
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through uh 11 verse one is capped with therefore you shall love Yahweh your God. Okay. Um so that he says
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after saying you shall therefore love the sojourer for you are sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall fear Yahweh your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him and by his name shall you
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swear. He is your praise. He is your God who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen. Your fathers went down to Egypt 70
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persons. And now Yahweh your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven. You shall therefore love Yahweh your God and keep his charge, his
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statutes, his rules, and his commandments always. commandments always. And I come back to what I said about Jesus being the template for his people. his people's prototype and shepherd.
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Right. And we know that Jesus was challenged by a law and this is what the said to him Yahweh love your neighbor down the rabbit hole my neighbor is wrong.
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So I've been sitting here listening and
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Yeah. I'm going to ask that
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we should use in our lives, not the sacrifice, not the individuals, but go back to what
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I'm glad you asked. Um the the the thing I had in mind to bring up was to to go back to Jesus and his use of the law here. Uh it's appropriate uh verse 20 is a redux of uh chapter 6 verse 13 which
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reads in its exactitude Yahweh your God shall you fear him shall you serve and by his name shall you swear and then goes on to say you shall not go after
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other gods. Moses only adding in this verse and hold fast to him. Um the ver uh chapter 6 verse 13, chapter 6 verse
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16 and chapter 8 verse3 are all three what the Lord chose in his not just his temptation by the Pharisees but his
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temptation by the devil in the wilderness. the he answered the accuser three times with quotes from right here.
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right here. Um not wide ranging in scripture but focused way down on on Deuteronomy. So uh it's appropriate that we look at him then as the template for how do we use
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the law lawfully? Um he he answered the accuser first that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. That's 83.
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You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. That's 6:16. And then finally, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve. Uh in uh 6:13
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or 10:20. And it's a bit of a paraphrase uh that that is being said in in that one. Um, but these teachings of Moses in the
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beginning of the second discourse then serve to remind us as we are oriented toward our inheritance of the whole earth, what our anchor has been as we
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are tried in the wilderness. So, it's it's not really within the scope of of our study to unpack all there is to learn from the Lord's temptation in the wilderness. But know for certain first
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because he made these quotations from the law that in our afflictions, that is the patient endurance called for on the part of the saints in this life. We follow him as our shepherd who goes
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before us. He's the prototype of everyone united to him, made like his brothers in every respect, a merciful and faithful high priest over the house of God. The the short short version of
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that is Jesus has gone before us in everything. that he made use of the law while playing out the fulfillment of Israel's drama in the wilderness shows us that we
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may use the law as a source of strength and wisdom in our afflictions and temptations with the standpoint that Christ would have toward the law which
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is this is who I am. The law describes for us who we are. If Jesus used the law, it was not in any
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way that would address his works for reform. We know that since he was without sin. If he is able to use the law as strength and wisdom in his
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temptations, we are as well because we are made like him. We we have a we come to it with a clear conscience and must recognize that. It was appropriate to
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use it that way in our afflictions. And furthermore, I think there's another aspect of this in which again we go to Jesus as our prototype, which is this phrase that is really loaded in verse
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21. He is your praise. Anyone else ever stumbled over that one or at least not known what to I I mean many many times through Deuteronomy I
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thought that is a loaded phrase. What what is he saying there? I thought to go to Psalm 22 because I think it teaches us poignantly about the Lord's sufferings on our
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behalf. That's the first tiein and that that ties into Moses' message um concerning the trials in the wilderness. And but then it's also quoted in uh the
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passage from Hebrews that I earlier paraphrased him being made like his brothers in every respect. um specifically verses 22 through31 in Psalm 22.
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I will tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation. I will praise you. You who fear Yahweh, praise him, all you seed of Jacob, glorify him and stand in awe of him, all you seed of
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Israel. For he has not despised or abhored the affliction of the afflicted. and he has not hidden his face from him, but he has heard when he cried to him.
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From you comes my praise in the great congregation. My vows I will perform before those who fear him. The afflicted shall eat and be
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satisfied. Those who seek him shall praise Yahweh. May your hearts live forever. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to Yahweh. And all the
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families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to Yahweh, and he rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth eat and
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worship. Before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive. Posterity shall serve him. It shall be told of the Lord
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to the coming generation. They shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn that he has done it.
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So as brought out in the psalm, Yahweh has provided for the material needs, the water, food, and clothing of his people their lifelong. That's Deuteronomy 8. Okay. The afflicted shall eat and be
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satisfied. And then farther down, that same great congregation who are the afflicted become the prosperous of the earth shall eat and worship. Don't miss that transition in the poetry. Secondly,
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uh sort of summarizing Deuteronomy 7, Yahweh will glorify his people and reward them, declaring them righteous and upholding them before the world. Okay? As it says in the psalm, from you
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comes my praise in the great congregation. Okay? He is your praise. And and finally, Yahweh is the desire of all who belong to him. Summarizing what
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is in Deuteronomy 6. All who seek him shall praise Yahweh. He is your God who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have
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seen. And not only those events in the wilderness, but also what he did to Cion and Og in the first discourse uh expounded for us. and at Ba Alor again
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mentioned in the first discourse the elimination of Israel's enemies both without and within and the keeping of his people alive as at this day.
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So this reminder uh sums up all the foregoing then in verse 22 in a key historical reality uh the the meaning of them having gone down
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to Egypt 70 70 persons and I'd summarize it uh like this um the mighty God whose love he set on
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your fathers who loves the sojourer and the lowly he made you by a mighty hand numerous as the stars s choosing you a
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lowly people and sojourers as his own. I'll say that again because I'm I'm kind of trying to poetically summarize what we've studied thus far. The mighty God
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whose love he set on your fathers, who loves the sojourer and the lowly, he made you by a mighty hand, numerous as the stars, choosing you a low people and
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sojourers as his own. Okay? Therefore you shall love Yahweh and if you love him you will keep his commands. Okay,
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which is the sense of the verse brought out in John 14 by the Lord. And these things are not picked at random or and I think John says in another place u it is
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not a it is not a new command uh but an old one and yet it is a new command. Okay. Um it's not coming out of whole cloth and yet it is new.
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John 14:15, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the
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Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you." Right? So
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see that I will ask the father and he will give you another helper even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive. You know him promising then the
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very holy spirit who is the accomplisher of all that the law prescribes but can't deliver. Okay, the circumcision of your
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Um, I'll um I'll close with a a favored psalm uh which we sing often in our hymns uh the song Allelujah praise Jehovah. Okay. Which says this
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and again what I'm Ariel what I'm saying in answer to your question is I'm putting up next to the law our
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superior identity that that change in aspect and I'm saying we start there and our posture toward the law is one of a
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redeemed people who will not be cast off, right? So, whatever we do with the law, it must fit with us having that
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love of God set upon us and having within ourselves the love of God by faith. Whatever we do with it, it must fit with that. And if it fits with that,
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it will be a a source of strength and and wisdom and not a stumbling block. If we use it to torture ourselves over our works or to satisfy ourselves that we
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have done all that the law requires like the rich young ruler, then it's it's poison to us and in real time it will cause us great shipwreck. But not so if
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we remember and be who we are. Um so that what the Psalms lay out for us is just true, true, true. Praise Yahweh.
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Praise Yahweh, oh my soul. I will praise Yahweh as long as I live. I will sing praises to my God while I have being. Put not your trust in princes and a son
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of man in whom there is there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth. On that very day, his plans perish. Happy is he whose help
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is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in Yahweh his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them. Similar to the argument in Deuteronomy, okay? Who keeps faith forever, who
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executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. Yahweh sets the prisoners free. Yahweh opens the eyes of the blind. Yahweh lifts up those
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who are bowed down. Yahweh loves the righteous. Yahweh watches over the sojourers. He upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he
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brings to ruin. Yahweh will reign forever. Your God, Ozion, to all generations. Praise Yahweh. Let us pray. Our father, we give you
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thanks and praise for setting among us a kingdom that cannot be shaken and for giving us your covenant into which we are written in your book
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as beneficiaries as beneficiaries and nothing else. A covenant that cannot be broken by your people because one, it depends not upon them until you have cleansed our
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consciences. Anyway, consciences. Anyway, we thank you for these things and ask that you let them penetrate deep in our hearts that the word of Christ would dwell in us richly. We ask this in his