Deuteronomy 4-5, Lesson 3, September 19

Sing with me "O Come Let Us Adore Him:"

Each week your Core Leaders and Servant Team arrive before 5:30 for Leaders Council. Promptly, we began our meeting with praise and adoration to the Lord God of all creation. PRAY

Holy, Holy, Holy, LORD God Almighty. Immanuel God with Us, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and Omega. Omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, great and mighty is He. Father hear us as we worship you tonight and give you all our praise and our obedience.  Prepare our hearts for your WORD.

When I was a single mom raising teenagers, I took a bible study  Help for Hurting Parents. As I would despair and get frustrated with the action of my beloved children, one thing stuck with me from the course. God was the perfect Father, yet His children were disobedient. 

When our children or grandchildren behave well, show success, or make good grades, we are so proud. We could just about bust. When a photo of Brayden playing soccer was chosen to make a huge banner that hung in the entrance of the church, I was a proud Nanny. But Monday night when Gaven crossed his arms and refused to participate in flag football practice, I was irritated. He had forgotten his bag with his cleats and gloves. “I can’t catch the football with these hands.” I was mighty glad to hand him over to his Dad when he came (with the cleats and gloves.)

 I get a chuckle out reading Exodus 32. Moses is on the Mountain receiving the 10 commandments. The children of Israel are celebrating around the golden calf.  

Exodus 32:7 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.

V.11 Then Moses implored, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?”

GOD’S MIGHTY ACTS AND RIGHTEOUS LAW

 Deuteronomy 4 -5 Moses reminded the people of the character of their God and the proper response He deserves.

•  The God We Worship
•  The Ten Commandments of God

God chose each of us who profess His name and blessed us with His Word.

The God We Worship

·        God is powerful-hear Him

·        God is holy-fear Him

·        God is wise-learn from Him

God is powerful-hear Him
2 Samuel 7:22 Therefore you are great, O Lord God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

 “In the beginning” God spoke the world into existence. “God said” is used eleven times in the first 2 chapters of Genesis. “God said” and it was done! He is creator of all.

The verb "to hear" Is used nearly 100 times in the book of Deuteronomy.

  The traditional Jewish confession of faith is called the “Shema” from the Hebrew word which means "to hear, to pay attention, to understand, to obey.”

Hebrews 4:12 For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

 Hearing the Word of God is an active part of worship. It does not mean sitting in the church pew absentmindedly letting sound waves vibrate your eardrums.

Hearing the word of God is focusing with “all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”  It must penetrate our hearts and into the marrow of our bones.

Jesus said at least eight times in the gospels “who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

God is holy -fear Him

Holy is a term we cannot easily comprehend. Holy means sacred; set apart for devotion to deity; regarded with reverence. God is spiritually pure without sin. So holy we cannot look upon His face. Exodus 33 Even Moses only got to see the back of God’s glory as he past the cleft of the rock.

4:10 the Lord said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’

 God chose us to be His Children and blessed us with His Righteous Word.
 

Remember illustrations of the tabernacle in the desert showed the barrier of white linen to keep the people from accidently falling into the Holy Place. When Moses went up the mountain at Horeb, they people were warned not to come near the base of the mountain lest they die.

As I search for images to illustrate the PPT, I was shocked at the irreverent attitude of bloggers and artists and people who treat the name of God and the Word of God lightly. Before I could find a suitable image of the Ten Commandments, I had to enlarge each one to read what it said. 

I shudder at the mocking, unbelieving treatment of all things holy.

Isaiah 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

On my drive to Denver today I noticed a stone facsimile of the 10 Commandments in someone yard; a testimony of their beliefs. Do your neighbors know whom you worship? Think of ways to express your faith in the world.

 God is wise- learn from Him

Proverbs 3:19 “The Lord by wisdom founded the earth;  by understanding he established the heavens;”

Romans 16:27  "To the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be glory forever and ever."

Psalm 111:10 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endures forever.”

Moses taught the statutes and laws that God gave him on the mountain. God's Word reveals his wisdom. To the world God's wisdom is foolishness but His wisdom has to do with the character of God and describes the right use of knowledge. Israel was to remember the commandments and demonstrate wisdom and understanding in their journey into the Promised Land.  Then pagan nations would declare "surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”4: ⁷ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? ⁸ And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?

 God chose us to be sheep of His flock and blessed us with His Holy Word.

 11 Your commentary says, “Moses was only the mediator; he is not the originator, for God alone was the source.”

5: ⁴ The Lord spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, ⁵ while I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord. For you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up into the mountain.

  Moses instructed the people. 4:2 ^“You shall not add to the Word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.”

 How often have Christians teachers, even ministers, added their interpretation to a scripture by leaving out offensive words; sin, death, blood, abomination. Some have chosen “ user friendly” passages out of the Bible and ignored the entire Old Testament as irrelevant?  Members of our family may spout, “Judge not that ye be not judged” and yet refuse to believe the first chapter in Romans.

Romans 11:33 and 36

³³ Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

³⁶ For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.

 The Ten Commandments of God

Most of use as children memorized the 10 Commandments and repeat by rote. We had little postcards for our bible and I even had a bracelet with a charm for each commandment. Even now I have kept a special bookmark from childhood. In depth study brought a renewed and more complete understanding of what God was trying to teach Israel.

In the first four commandments God is discussing his relationship with the people. The verse prior to the first commandment reminds them that The Lord your God brought them out of slavery He is the one God, the only God, the true God.
We serve Him because of Who He Is.

I- Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
II- Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. They had not seen God for this very reason, so they could not make an image of Him to worship. They were to worship the Creator not something man created.
III- Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. He is Holy!
IV- When God says Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy He is reminding Israel to rest in the fact that they were no longer slaves. To rest in the fact that He brought them out of Egypt. This day is a remembrance of the great and mighty works God did

Last six govern out relationships:  parents and children, neighbors and spouses, possessions and truth.

The Fifth Commandment is the only one with the promise of a blessing.
“‘Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

Commandments 6-10 are respect by most people and accepted by any government in any country.
VI- Thou shalt not kill
VII- Thou shalt not commit adultery
VIII- Thou shalt not steal
 XI- Thou shalt not bear false witness against your neighbor.
X- Thou shalt not covet.

The only Commandments our government has a problem with are the first three. By removing the Ten Commandments from public buildings they are removing the very foundation of our country. One nation under God

Our God is the only God. Jesus is the only way. The LORD God is the only God we must Worship.

God chose you and me as His Daughters and blessed us with His Word.

One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4:6