Deuteronomy 10

What makes Israel's covenant different? Take a breath.

Are you ready? Deuteronomy 10, verses 14 and 15.

Heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to the Lord your God, the earth with all that is in it.

Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers.

Only he can do that.

But in, in Deuteronomy 10 and verse 16, fascinatingly, it says that we're to circumcise our hearts.

We're to come to the one who can renew our hearts and give us a, a new heart and a new spirit, so that he, he, he writes the law, the gospel, on our hearts and transforms the innermost section and part of our being so that, so that when we talk to our children, our hearts are wholly in- involved as parents who believe, uh, on the Lord Jesus Christ.

So if truth is not held in the heart, there's no faith, really.

First, with respect to the individual male Israelite, the sign of circumcision was supposed to be indicative of a regenerate heart.

Deuteronomy 10:16, Moses commands them, "Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart and be no longer stubborn." Circumcision is not merely a sign of Jewishness, although it certainly distinguishes Jew from Gentile.

Rather, it's supposed to be a sign of the Spirit's work in the heart of the Israelite.

Romans 2:28 and following, Paul says, "For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical, but a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart by the Spirit, not by the letter." So it's supposed to point to a regenerate heart.

The purpose of this is to encourage Israel to love the Lord and obey his law and take possession of the inheritance, which was promised to their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The key verses are, um, Deuteronomy 10:12, "And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your hearts and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord's commands and decrees that," Moses, "I am giving to you today for your own good." The second verse is Deuteronomy 30:19, which says, "This day I call heaven and earth as witness against you," which is a legal term.

If you go look up ancient, um, covenants or treaties, this was a very common statement.

There is a lot in there that can-- that requires extensive study, and I- I really urge you to take the time to go back in time and understand how this language affects and what effects it does have.

you're exactly right trinity 18 presents this pivotal transition in the church here moving from that general instruction in christian life what we would call orthopraxy toward the central question of jesus's messianic identity and his confrontation with these earthly opponents and the readings themselves they form a tight dialogue between the total demand of God's law and the saving revelation of the gospel, and particularly the identity of Jesus as the Christ of God, indeed the very Son of God.

Deuteronomy 10, our Old Testament text, issues divine demands upon the proper vocations of humanity, total love, fear, and heart circumcision.

In the gospel from St. Matthew, there were two related questions, which is the great commandment, which will summate the law as love, agreeable to Deuteronomy 6, 5 and Leviticus 19, 18.

And then secondly, whose son is the Christ? And the answer to this question reveals love.

the Messiah as David's Lord, and that will be in keeping with Psalm 110 verse 1.

Within the Old Testament lesson from Deuteronomy 10, Moses summarizes the righteous demand of God.

Israel must fear, walk, and love, and serve the Lord with all of their heart and soul.

However, Moses points beyond outward legalism by calling for the circumcision of the heart and grounding obedience in God's prior election and love.

We're walking through the Bible in a year, walking the story of God.

We're in Deuteronomy 10 today.

Thank you, Ms. Colleen.

She says the sound is good.

Deuteronomy 10, one chapter, and it's the chapter where God starts over with people who wrecked the first beginning.

Oh, yeah.

By the way, I forgot to bring these in at Virginia Creek Ministries yesterday.

The covenant is void.

But I think to this side too, Eckhart Otto is maybe the first to say at a German scholar that The fear of the Lord in the Hebrew Bible encapsulates the mysterium tremendum, mysterium fascinans, you know, there's a fearful awesome mystery, but also a fascination.

Deuteronomy 10 talks about the fear of the Lord as to love God, and you have these two together, and John Levinson, who's at Harvard, talks about fear and love almost being synonymous.

They kind of capture this broad, both loving attraction to the Jewish God and to the repulsion of his power and might.

And I think that then works as you begin the book of Proverbs.

Amen.

When you are tempted to show favoritism, what can you do? Is there a person you need to reach out to today to apologize to and to make things right with? If so, when will you reach out to them this week? Further reading, Genesis 37.4 Deuteronomy 10.17 Acts 10.34

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And the fact that their victims are widows is the ultimate betrayal.

If you read the Old Testament, Exodus 22, Deuteronomy 10, Deuteronomy 24, God explicitly repeatedly commands Israel to protect the widow, the orphan.

And the sojourner

God actually calls himself the defender of widows.