Published: May 18, 2025 | Speaker: D. Aaron Wells | Series: Deuteronomy - The Law Is Good, If One Uses It Lawfully 2 - Part 3 | Scripture: Deuteronomy 5:30-6:1
Transcript
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0:08
Oh, welcome to the law is good if one uses it lawfully, session 20. Um, is before I begin, uh, is there is there any questions or comments from the past two lessons that we should address
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If nothing specific, I I want to make sure you all understand that that I'm open, not only open, but but eager to receive those things. I desire that this be uh a two-way conversation
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uh throughout, especially as we're entering into the the denser portion of Moses teaching. Um, I said in part one
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that I desired, among other things, this study to be a laboratory for how to study scripture in general, not just Deuteronomy. That I saw in the text of
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Deuteronomy so many different forms that are represented to us elsewhere uh in scripture.
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um and and the and intricate things um that that need unpacking that would serve us serve us later. All right, Bob. Okay, Bob. Okay, I'm sorry. Goodness.
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Um, but one of the things I I I I think is a is a persistent bad habit that that we should be on guard against and that is
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certainly in most of our backgrounds uh is that of reading scripture for I'm putting this in quotes for application um sort of directly for application and
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I don't mean the the application to our hearts and minds and actions and words that grows out of the teaching. What I mean is specifically trying to drill
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down to okay, how does this apply to my life? And that usually, I guess speaking symptomatically, takes the form of of
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reading for a saying that is reasonably understandable and then kind of immediately going to, well, how does this apply to my life? Um, what that
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ends up doing for us is divorcing that saying from its context and having us in the habit of reading an entire paragraph, not with much comprehension
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of how the teaching is developing, but simply trying to find that one thing we can land on and say, "Okay, okay, how does this apply?"
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When this is when this habit is fullgrown into a more intellectually uh plausible form, we call this proof texting. Okay. So, um I I want to make
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sure that our in our study of Deuteronomy, we're doing more than just mining it for meanings, but rather learning how to approach the text of scripture, both
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Deuteronomy itself and then rightly apply Deuteronomy or whatever we're reading to the rest of scripture rightly. And I think that primarily that
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will depend entirely on not on our skill with the context because I don't believe you come to the text of scripture with a
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prerequisite uh level of intellect and and then and only then can you really understand the teaching. I think it's our attitude toward context that's going to be the
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most important that it's what we because humans tend to find what they want to find. Okay. And if we want to find the message as it develops through the
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teaching, I I do believe that we will find that find that what you just said about texting is one manifestation, but the concept of
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devotional reading. Yes. has come around really a form of
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and it's it's useful if one knows of scripture it's dangerous otherwise it is exactly that each passage for the day and seeking to apply it to my life where God
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wants to apply the whole revelation whole revelation right it's very It's really not. So I kind of expressed
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it almost as a as a um an exercise in engineering. But but if you have the more the more um spiritual uh as you say pyotistic but
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if you have the more spiritual uh application of such a habit it's it's going to be okay how does how does this deepen my personal understanding of God uh etc. Um, so it can take certainly
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take many forms. There's a sense in which we've been taught by the reformers that Jesus is on every page. That's like to say every brush stroke is
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a portrait, right? Sometimes it's painting a bigger picture that is manifested in Jesus. But
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take his there. There it is. There's Jesus right there. You get that in commentaries as well. has to somehow apply to how you're living your life in Christ. I think
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that's a lot of force. Well, and and that that's I spent an entire lesson on cities of refuge for that reason. Uh that the Jesus on every page thing actually robs you of the the beauty of
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the message in in that case directly robs you of it. I mean, you're you're you're going the complete opposite direction if you go with what I found most of the uh commentaries on the
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matter. Um rather than seeing how the rather than really seeing how the city functions for us across scripture, how Hebrews really picks it up, how the Lord
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Jesus as high priest really frees us uh from bondage to the law, etc. you're you're not you can really find the Lord Jesus teaching on every page. Um but
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you're but you're but if but oddly enough if so focused on finding that that one thing whatever it is you're looking for uh you will end up missing uh what what's actually there. You
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actually miss what you're looking for. Um but we're told if we if we seek God we will find him. Um so uh I think our
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the the attitude of our heart really does have a lot to do with that. Um so on on those two fronts, the text of Deuteronomy itself and relating Deuteronomy well to the rest of
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scripture as well as then how we take other scriptures, I want to try to do um a couple of different things with uh with today's study. So sort of a half
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and half. Um, one is to go back to the text uh to Deuteronomy 5 where we uh have have left off. Um, and this is really the third
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lesson in review. Um, so that as we get into as we get into the into the meat of this uh we're we're really prepared. Um,
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Deuteronomy 5 uh beginning at verse 28. Yahweh heard your words when you spoke to me. And Yahweh said to me, I have
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heard the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They are right in all that they have spoken. Oh that they had such a mind as this always to
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fear me and to keep all my commandments that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever. Go and say to them, "Return to your tents." But you
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stand here by me. I will tell you the whole commandment and the statutes and the rules that you shall teach them that they may do them in the land that I am giving them to possess. You shall be
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careful therefore, this is Moses now speaking, you shall be careful, therefore, to do as Yahweh your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or the left. You shall
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walk in all the way that Yahweh your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess. Now this is the
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commandment, the statutes and the rules that Yahweh your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over to possess it, that you may fear Yahweh
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your God, you and your son and your son's son by keeping all his statutes and commandments which I command you all the days of your life and that your days
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may be long. So, we've seen already that as begged by the people, Moses, the man whom God appointed, would be the one to stand by
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Yahweh while the people stood off on purpose to hear the whole commandment. Uh, which in history we understand to be those words that Moses heard from the
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mouth of God while on the mountain out of the sight of the people. Whereas Yahweh had spoken the 10 words directly to the people audibly and this
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is the voice that they begged that they hear no further. Okay. So our tendency as as I've said before is perhaps to fault the people for begging that no
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further word be spoken to them because it seems to be and is the reaction of fear. Uh but as we've seen in a previous study, the fear of Yahweh there there's a there is a spectrum of meaning to that
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to that word. Uh and so we really need the we really need God to tell us what's going on here so that he says they're right and we should take note of that.
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Oh that they had such a heart as this always to fear me and to keep my commandments. So this suggests implicitly does it not that they did not have such a
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heart. Okay. Do we agree with with that? Okay. Um and later Moses makes this fact explicit uh in in the third discourse uh
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Deuteronomy 29:4. But to this day, Yahweh has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.
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uh and one might hear the pre-echo of the Lord's consistent remark, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Okay, they
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do not in fact have ears to hear. So what then is the nature and I'm I'm not we've been I say this
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well we have been very clear among ourselves that this heart always to love him and to keep his commandments is the gift of the Holy Spirit. Does anyone
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disagree with that? Okay. But the Israelites standing where they are what is the nature of this heart always? And how do we know that we're not just
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mining, ah, oh look, Jesus on every page, that's got to be the Holy Spirit, and missing something more in the text. How do we know that we're rightly saying, yes, and what he's talking about
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is the gift of the Holy Spirit? I'd like to suggest that the the way we know that is by paying attention to phrases which are
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often for us I think we'll admit and I would be glad to know if for anybody this is not true but it certainly has been for me phrases in the text that tend to be throwaways for us that it
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might go well with them and with their descendants forever. Now, who has not at least read the law on one pass and that kind of became background white noise
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for you? And as well as and whether you were raised sort of more covenantalist or more Baptisty, okay?
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Baptisty, okay? uh you you have an agenda when it comes to how you interpret that it may go well with them and with their sons forever.
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Oh, go ahead. I was just gonna say it's hard to define that. So after a while you read it and you're like I'm not sure what that means. So right
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right? And and if and if one is mining for meaning and you come to that and you have children that then I think I don't know I feel like there's a switch that flips the the first time you really see that in context of your own offspring
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and it it starts to get a little white knuckle. Um
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interpret that means it should not be translated as a physical wellbe and yet what Deuteronomy seems to be teaching us is for the people of Israel
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in fact it was a physical well-being uh that will be expounded in detail in in the following chapters as well as it being as as it as Moses meaning very
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much what he said and God meaning very much what he taught Moses that it would go well with their sons if they the parents obeyed the commandments of God. Tim, did you have a
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I guess the way that heart
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that that God hardened his heart. Yeah, I guess. Yeah.
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Right. He he commands them in chapter 11 or late in chapter 10, I can't remember in your copies, but commands them to circumcise therefore in view of their stiff necked history to circumcise therefore their hearts and be no longer
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stiff necked. So he ends up demanding of them what he later says effectively, God has not yet given you this heart, which is perplexing. Um, did you have a
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further comment? Further complicating the matters. Okay. Psalm 73sper
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and this was a man who was in an old covenant context saying this which helps us I think you will live long and prosper and all
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The meaning of that is deeper than just material prosperity, right? Right. It has to be deeper than that, right?
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Right. So when talking about the things of this life, h how to distinguish the spiritual blessings from the the common kindness of God toward all he has made. But then there's there's also the danger of entirely spiritual life. Indeed,
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entire right has nothing to do with this world. It's all in the heavenlies, right? And I don't think that's correct either. I think you're you're right in pointing out that it's by no means a throw,
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right? But for us, there's the temptation to do that. But I I'd like to demonstrate that at least for the thing that we all agree on, right? That that uh that it in fact is a very helpful uh
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phrase for us. So back to the conclusion that ah okay uh he is that that the exclamation concerning a heart to fear me always is in fact an expression of
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the necessity of the Holy Spirit. then I'm s I would suggest that one the the phrases that tend to trouble us and be throwaways are actually a help for us to
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confirm that that is so um and secondly uh to go then to where the Holy Spirit is uh declared to have been delivered
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right which is which is what Peter said at Pentecost. I think his his pronouncement concerning the giving of the Holy Spirit will help shed some light not only on the reality of what
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Moses is saying concerning a heart to fear me always, but why your descendants as well. Um, and again, I'm I'm I'm not trying to solve it all at one go like
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that. Moses unfolds it in much more words than this. So, we're going to unfold it, but I'm trying to link up here some things and make sure that if if we believe that what he is saying is
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we require the Holy Spirit. I think we need to be confirmed in that. And I think the text correlating to Peter's teaching on on the day of Pentecost does help us see that. Here's how. So
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um in Acts 2 38-39 okay Peter says the promise of the Holy Spirit is for you and for your children and for all who
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are far off everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. So there's that for your children that it may go well with you
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and with your sons forever. And Peter says, "This promise of the Holy Spirit is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, whom the Lord our God will call." He shows that the Holy
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Spirit would deliver what the law could not, the peace and security for which they had longed and from which they fell short, the people of Israel. Peter is in
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effect saying, "This is now delivered." Okay? by invoking and your children. The the Presbyterians and I don't disagree with this. Presbyterians say, "See, he's using an Abrahamic
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formula there." I don't disagree. He's also using a Mosaic formula there. Okay? And it goes as much back to
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Deuteronomy as it does back to Abraham. I might suggest more uh more that it is a Mosaic formula than than an Abrahamic
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one. I think Peter had right Moses was Moses right that that now that that what he and Hebrews helps us see this like that
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the peace and security that they had longed and fallen short from Hebrews calls God's rest. Okay. So Hebrews helps confirm this that that we're talking about the same thing here. Okay. That
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this is granted in Jesus Christ as a gift. Okay. The law demanded something from them and they absolutely could fall short of it. Peter is expressing the
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gift of the Holy Spirit which sews up all of these things. A heart to fear me always that it may go well with you and your sons after you. That may you may live long and and be well in the land
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that God is giving you. Peter is expressing all of that sown up in the gift of the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit.
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Romans 8 uh 16-17 helps us too that the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are what? Children of God. And if children then heirs heirs of God and fellows with Christ provided we
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suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. This is something we're going to get more into. I just want to link it up and say that the that the this
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pronouncement to them was for them that they obey all of these things. Okay? It was for their children that it go well with them and they and their sons after them. Um and it was for those far off.
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Okay. Um but we've kind of discussed a little bit. I've got something in my notes concerning the the disposition of the of believers children. Let me go ahead and go through
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that. I'll just read what I had written down uh because I think this is important to say. The disposition of believers children especially prior to a profession of faith has been a sore spot
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of contention in the churches and the boldest of pronouncements concerning them rests on an erroneous application of the of the law. That is holding out your faith as a
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guarantor of your ch as a guarantee rather of your children's faith. Okay? or of your obedience as a guarantee of your children's your children's faith. My hope is that as we grow deeper
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in our right understanding of the law, we'll be able to place our hope in the right things and confute fine sounding but erroneous teachings in this regard.
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Um, I also as a sidebar want to say that children who believe then emerges from the text as one of the highest blessings
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for which we could petition God, doesn't it? Okay. If that's swn up in the gift of the Holy Spirit, that is central to what we would ask for. Not children
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after the flesh, children born of the spirit. That's a sidebar. But for those who are far off, um it was Yahweh's will
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not only to teach those present but and teach them through the man whom he had appointed but teach their children and their children's children through that
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same man as well as through a succession of men. God himself was going to teach their their future descendants. And again echoing or Peter
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echoing uh that concept in his words for all those who are far off whom the Lord will call the Lord would call and teach those future descendants. Um Deuteronomy
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18:15-19 has an important expansion of this. Yahweh your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you from your brothers. It is to him that you shall listen, just as you desired of
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Yahweh your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, "Let me not hear again the voice of Yahweh my God, or see this great fire anymore, lest I
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die." And Yahweh said to me, "They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among your brothers. And I will put
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my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself
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will require it of him. Now, and I am trying to only touch on the fact that there is a a pedo baptism uh claim and debate out there and just
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say it exists and that it does cause us some trouble um because of what else it says concerning the law. But one of the ignored um teachings that they go they
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will go right to Acts two, but one of the ignored teachings is what follows in Acts three when Peter is speaking to the people of Israel in Solomon's portico. And he cites this very reality that a
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prophet like me would arise. This is in Acts three beginning at verse 13. The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God
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of Jacob, the God of our fathers, don't let that phrase be a throwaway either. Let's wrestle with that. The God of our fathers glorified his servant Jesus whom you delivered
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over and denied in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him. But you denied the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to you. And you killed the
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author of life whom God raised from the dead. And to this we are witnesses. And his name by faith in his name has made this man strong whom you see and know
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this man whom they healed. And the faith that is through Jesus has given this man perfect health in the presence of you all. And now, brothers, I know that you
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acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of the prophets that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent, therefore, and turn again, that your
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sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for
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restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of the holy prophets long ago. Moses said, "The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from
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your brothers. You shall listen to him and do whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people. And all
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the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and those who came after him also proclaimed these days. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that
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God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, "In your seed, all the families of the earth shall be blessed." God having raised up his servant sent him to you first to bless you by turning every
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one of you from your wickedness. So it is we'll have to unpack this but it is for us this gift
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of a heart to fear him always. It is for our children and it is for those who are far off whom the Lord will will call. And we know that those whom he called he
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will teach as well. Okay. Um, any questions or comments on that I am leaving that somewhat
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open-ended. So if you feel like was there a conclusion there? Not exactly. Um, okay. So then moving on to verse one of chapter 6. After a as discussed in
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part one, we see the message concerning that intention of God to teach the people by his appointed man. And we see that through a literary marker that we need to take note of because it helps
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keep us on track as to the road map of of Deuteronomy. Um the what I called it was abstract and unfolding. Uh and the example I gave last time was chapter 1
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verse 5 uh of Deuteronomy. Moses undertook to explain this law and then what followed in this speech was not
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really law. Okay. But then in the introduction to the second speech chapter 4 verse 44 it says at the very first this is the law. So this emerges
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this first speech emerges as a as an executive summary of what will follow in the main body of Deuteronomy.
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Okay. This isn't the only example either. Now we're within this main body uh in chapter 5 having heard the law and we have another abstract and uh and
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unfolding phrase uh chapter 5 verse 31 um you stand by me and I will teach you the commandment
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that you shall teach them that they may do them in the land. And then only a little further little further on, chapter 6, verse one, now this is
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the commandment, the statutes, and the rules that Yahweh your God commanded me to teach you that you may do them in the land. So, in order to keep up in Deuteronomy, we're going to have to pay attention to those kinds of markers
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because they show us an a kind of um almost uh onionlike uh unfolding. So I've marked down a couple uh and and
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want to briefly sort of diagram that I could. Um so the first kernel and this is all is all speaking in in this in this discourse.
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So we know that this is the summary and kernel of what will follow. But even within the second discourse which is long there are these markers to help us keep it straight. Okay. So um
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from chapter 4 verse 44 all the way to the point that we are
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now okay we we have what I'm saying is the kernel of what follows now this is
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then secondly I should written these numbers differently. numbers differently. Um this will be 61. So basically 6 through 11 in in your copy. Okay. Uh
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there's another one uh at the at the end of chapter 11 and there is a discernable shift in the way that he speaks. He gets into law code intensive uh starting in
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what's chapter 12 for us. Um, chapter 11 finishes uh that they are to set the blessing and the curse uh on Mounts
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Garazim and Abal. And it says, "Finally, you are to cross over the Jordan to go in and take possession of the land that Yahweh your God is giving you. And when
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you possess it and live in it, you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the rules that I set before you today." And then immediately what follows is these are the statutes and the rules you
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shall be careful to do in the land that Yahweh the God of your fathers is giving you. Okay.
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then now emerges another layer which accounts for the for the remainder of the of the uh of the main body. So 12 one through I'm gonna say
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2619. Um that's because this same structure is really inside this as well. So it has it has bookends as well. All I'm pointing out is that there's an unfolding. Okay.
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This uh there's certainly enough to chew on uh in chapter 5 and then we're unfolding and then we're unfolding. Yes.
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and I don't think it was original but we studied from chapter 6 through I think 30 case law case law
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case law okay so each section and it was consecutive notion it was even though it mentioned the others in there but he added
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lab so that we could see the depth of each commandment each commandment as Moses unfolded it as case law. So
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that you got the commandment but then you drilled down into the depth of that commandment. Yeah. Again I don't see it as an onion
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but see it as 10 separate section long. For example, the first commandment was 6
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through 11, right? Basically what this here 12 through 13 or 14 was the second commandment was explained further and it was helpful
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to see it where you got to flip back to the list in the first
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I I have that jumped out at me um in numerous readings of Deuteronomy that effectively as as you go through here, you're going to find explications of each of the 10
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words. Um my only problem with that um is that it seems to break down um as as you get about halfway through. It seems
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that the and and you might just say that the last five are just kind of all through, but I really don't think and again he may have a really excellent
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explanation of that. In my own study, I have not found that it works out so neatly um that way. Um yeah, of course. Well, and I'm
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acknowledging that. I I want to say that I I know that others have done that. Um, I'm tentative on it because I've I've not yet been able to see that it is so
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consistent that it's worth saying that's the road map. Um, what I have been seeing is these unfolding phrases and how one how the larger section tends to
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fit inside the smaller one. Um, and that has had a good bit of ability
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to help help map it in my mind, help stay with help stay with the teaching. Um, I'll give that some more thought though.
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First commandment is unfolded. Yes. The fifth commandment is essentially reiteration first commandment, right? commandment, right? So they're not linear either, right? They appear to be to us.
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Well, and that's how I taught it in part one as as first and second rubric.
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that it it Yeah. And and really that in particular, this is partly why I actually resist and am tentative with it's an unfolding of the commands in in that way. It's because the command to
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honor father and mother ends up prominent immediately. I mean, chapter six, you can't miss that. He keeps using the same phrase just turning it different ways as he works it through
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the future life of Israel in the land. So the Paul says so that it might go well with you, right? That it's the first command with a promise and that that ought to give a lot and I gave my
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opinion last time it's recorded. You can you can go back but but that because it said because he says that it it takes it has to take on so much more importance u
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for us. I think that means that analysis case it's true that you can indiv the rubric of an individual command that
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doesn't negate. Right. It really all does boil down to
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Right. Right.
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think you've done a very good job trying to give to give us laying out
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And and my approach here and in the unfolding road map analogy um is that I think that will help us best notice things that perhaps a more tabular way
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of addressing it will will not assist us in seeing. I I think that unfolding it more organically will will help us see more of the message. Um it's not to say
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that Dr. Carbond's analysis is not valuable, but but rather I think that it's just simply more helpful uh to to do it this way. And in case you don't understand the road map thing or you
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never knew why folding a road map was was necessary, here's my opinion on the matter as somebody who has used maps long after the online maps were available. Um, you have to learn how to
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unfold and fold your road map. If you don't, places in it will start to become obscured. Um, you won't be able to use it if you don't take care of it. So,
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taking care in my mind of how we unfold the road map is really important because otherwise we will start to miss things. The message will become obscured if we're not careful in how we unfold it.
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Um, so and and up to this point I've been trying to unfold the road map as we go uh rather than take the risk of overgeneralizing. And that's for myself as well as you. I can't assimilate all
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of Deuteronomy at one go either. Um, especially in trying to distill it for teaching. So, it's been of necessity that this hasn't unfolded for us until
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we got to this point. Like, okay, now now I'm starting to see where this is going, right? Um, and there are really many this the I should acknowledge also there are many different phrases that
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can serve as markers and different ways that themes are woven together. Um, not to mention literary structures within this like keym which we'll have to talk about again and the parts to whole
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structure that I mentioned before where where you've got uh part A and a part B and then they they combine into an AB or
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um where they split. Um that happens too sometimes both. Um, so those kinds of things that so to say that there are lots and lots of different threads
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running through is not even a talk about stuff like that yet. Um, uh, and and chapters 5 through 11, which we're slowly getting into, are are a tapestry the complexity of which is just
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baffling. Um uh it's really easy to get lost uh becoming confused or worse in my mind to lose the meaning becoming innervated by that repetition I was
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talking about where repeated phrases become kind of a background white noise for us instead of us realizing that the fact that they're repeated is not that it become white noise is that the phrase
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itself contains too many layers to get out in one go that it needs to be put in different contexts and and reinterpreted for us that we might see it. So the
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reason why phrases like that it may go well with you and with your descendants after you and iterations of those words are repeated, it's that it's being repeated in a changing context so that
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we can see the layers of meaning that are all sewn up in that first command with a promise. Oh my goodness, what does that mean? Well, you know, give me a few days uh to explain what that means. Uh and I probably wouldn't get it
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all. Um so I want to admit that I have sat frustrated with uh within this is basically the same uh
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the same structure. Okay. Um, as I've sat frustrated with this one, because it's crazy complex, um, it it occurred
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to me, um, that what it says in Deuteronomy 34:7, and this was an encouragement to me, Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was unddemed
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and his vigor unabated. Okay. I I said in part one that I expect our understanding to trail behind scripture. I just wasn't necessarily
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prepared for how far behind. Um the lawgiver of Israel was 120 years old when he died and and when he spoke these words and he was sharp as ever. And
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that's over and above the extraordinary qualification of having spoken with God face to face as a man discusses with his friend. um and having done that for 40 of those years in a block and they being
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the last 40. Okay, so he is fresh on what he's heard from God and it's been 40 years of extraordinary exposure not to mention the fact that he's 120 years old man. Okay, so um if if my
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understanding is falling behind uh or if our understanding is falling behind or we think this is really this is really sophisticated. I don't know how to get around this. I mean, we're in good
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company with each other. I'm not sure that it should be expected of us to assume the sophistication of a 120-year-old lawgiver of Israel all at once. Um, we're allowed to spend some time with it. Uh, I think
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That's right. Well, that's what I mean by attitude toward context that I said earlier is that if if we are willing and you know sanguin with the fact that it's going to challenge us and that we're
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going to be seeing new things on each reading that that's that's wellprepared ground for growth uh right there. being hard toward it and resistant will not
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serve us. Uh but we'll be well served by being open to it and in a sense doing what the law says which is standing up before a gray head and honoring the face of an old man. Right? Honor Moses way of
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presenting it to us. Um we don't have a lot of time maybe a couple of minutes. Um I have a um I have a handout um here. I won't be able to actually expound this
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in detail. Sweetheart, will you will you take one of those and then pass it back to uh Mr. Van, please? Can you pass the the stat? Thank you. um what I've given you and this is this
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is um sort of an example of a way at coming at Proverbs that occurred to me years ago
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and and really has helped settle me down a bit on Deuteronomy that how do I put this? Um let me put this succinctly.
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Moses way of speaking. You can you can regard each one of his teachings in its context and then you can move on to the next teaching and what you've already reviewed becomes context for the
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continuing teaching. I sort of call it a sliding lens a little bit where you're focusing on one part and the parts before and afterward become context for
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that. Okay. Th and it this is essentially what epic is um when when performed. The repetition in epic is meant to be the unfolding of the of the
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story and all that there is to it. And and it isn't really much different in this teaching. I think too that Proverbs is like that as well. And I've profered
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the law as wisdom for the people of God as being a a primary way we ought to come to it as being a people not under law but under grace. Um so what I've put in front of you uh
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is trying to demonstrate that in a segment of five proverbs these are not disjointed statements. Um Ecclesiastes
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uh says that the besides being wise the preacher also taught the people knowledge weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care.
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Um, and you know, it's obviously debatable who the preacher was, but the fact that proverbs can be arranged with great care is important. And secondly, in Proverbs 25:1, these are the proverbs
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also of Solomon, which the men of King Hezekiah of Judah copied. So, there was an intention of why they put these in the text. the text. Um, so I'm trying to decide in situ here
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because um I'm trying to go at everybody's pace and actually have discussion uh whether this would be good to get out um next
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time. Have a look at what I've at what I've written there. Uh and uh if you have a strong opinion on whether we should pick this up special uh next time, let me know, please. Um, and uh, I'll I'll try to consider
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this carefully because I had I had too much to to summarize real well and I I I think it would be either good to just drop it for now and come back to it later or or really uh give it its proper
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weight. Um, weight. Um, I vote yes. I vote yes. Okay. Um, well, looking at that ahead of time might might help.
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Um, let me give that some thought. I'll back up here in closing. Um, the text of Deuteronomy, like the Proverbs, is going
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to be full and dense. Um, it's going to require effort. It's required effort of me, and that's okay. Um, the the words
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of the wise are meant to do that for us. They're meant to spur us on. Um, so I I offer that as encouragement. I hope it's able to be received that way. Um, I
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offer this at the closing of Ecclesiastes. Um, besides being wise, the preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care.
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The preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth. The words of the wise are like goats and
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like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings. They are given by one shepherd. My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of the making of many
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books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. The end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments. For this is the
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whole duty of men. For God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
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pray. Father, we acknowledge that you are allseeing and that not only our actions, but our words and even the thoughts and intentions of our hearts are laid bare and open before you. And we know that
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what the preacher says is true. that that we will indeed give account for our deeds in the
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flesh. What we ask of you is that you would fit us for that day. you would help us to see to see the glories of your majesty and grace in
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scripture to not lose it but rather to ruminate on it willingly. We ask your blessing as we study these things. We ask for the
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patience that is born of your spirit to wait on you and not run ahead. We ask for the goodness and faithfulness which are the fruits of your spirit to
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bear with one another in love and to work out all of these things among one another to spur one another to love and to good works to exercise wisdom and
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discretion if wounding to wound as the wounds of a friend and to give a sincere