These Are the Words
Deuteronomy 1: 1-5
The Great Covenant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Max A Forsythe
Introduction: “It was a dark and stormy night”, are the opening words considered to be absolutely the worst introduction to any literary book in print. Better by far in literary comparison is the opening to A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Certainly the old refrain runs not to judge a book by its cover, but an inordinate amount of money is nevertheless spent on the covers of every book published. Another old saw has it that “you never get a second chance to make a first impression”. Yet, some things in life truly indicate what is coming next.
During World War II, if a Western Union deliveryman rode into any neighborhood, all the tales would wag, phones would ring and wives and family would follow the delivery boy to the house where the terrible news was about to be delivered! Of course, not every telegram brought news of an untimely battlefield death, but enough did that many people got extremely nervous just seeing the fateful messenger pedal by.
Some words are also part and parcel of legal terminology. You read a contract and for all you know it could be written in Greek, as Shakespeare so adequately put it. Years ago, the mother of a foreign student came to our school with some papers from the Federal Republic of Germany, which needed to be filled out to verify her son’s attendance at our institution. Since, I was the resident language “expert”, I was called to the office. Yes, I recognized the words as German, but that was the extent of my knowledge. When I asked the mother, who was raised in that country, why she needed me, she admitted that the papers were Hoch Deutsch, the language of diplomats and governmental agencies. Who of us could tell, what the school back home wanted to know? I deferred to a real expert, if one could be found in rural Ohio.
If all of this sounds confusing, it is not meant to imply that we cannot know the clear sense of God’s Holy Word. He has indeed revealed His word in language that can be easily understood, if we are forthright in seeking the true contained therein. Yet, scholars who would never dangle a participle on purpose seem to complicate the contents of Scripture with their purposeful obfuscation. “These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel” are the clear and concise statement at the beginning of this Great Covenant. Yet, that is not the common consensus of liberal scholarship. The language of Deuteronomy is too sophisticated for the primitive era assumed in Moses’ time. Instead, authorship and content are shifted to later centuries to justify the prejudice of the scholars in question.
Harold Bloom, who would do better to stay with the study of worldly literature, once wrote that he believed most of the Old Covenant was written in the time of the Kings in Israel. Having received adulation for such an insight, in a later book he identified the scholar who wrote everything supposedly from the hand of Moses. Bathsheeba was his choice, to the delight of the feminists. I am sorry, it does not take a Rhodes scholar to fathom the claim to authorship that Moses carefully pens in the first line of text!
Old Covenant Milieu: Now, while we understand that Deuteronomy was penned by Moses, we also understand as well that the Creator God was speaking through the human talent, experience and education of this former Egyptian Court official to reveal His will and purpose to the nations and to His own people. In the last chapter of Deuteronomy, Joshua or whoever penned the final words had this to say about the prophet Moses: “But since then there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, in all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, before Pharaoh, before all his servants, and in all his land, and by all that mighty power and all the great terror which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.” Deuteronomy 34: 10-12
So there we have it, from the beginning to the end, this commentary on the revealed Law of God was written and spoken by Moses himself through chapter thirty-three. As in several places in the Old Covenant, transitory materials connect one book with another. The Geneva Study Bible observes that between Deuteronomy & Joshua, between Joshua & Judges and between Chronicles and Ezra there are transitions “common in antiquity” to “show the proper sequence of scrolls or clay tablets”.
Yet there is more to it than this, Meredith Kline observes: “When, therefore, we identify Deuteronomy as a treaty text we are also recognizing it as the ceremonial words of Moses. The customary conception of these Mosaic addresses as a freely ordered farewell must be so far modified as to recognize that their formal structure closely followed fixed ceremonial-legal traditions, though they are certainly no stereotyped liturgical recital nor the dispassionate product of an imperial foreign office.”
In words which I also quoted last week, Meredith Kline also tells us that “Deuteronomy begins precisely as the ancient treaties began: ‘These are the words of ….’ The Jewish custom of using the opening words of a book as its title turns out in the present case to be most felicitous for it serves to identify this book at once as a treaty document.” … “The position to be advocated here is that Deuteronomy is a covenant renewal document, which in its total structure exhibits the classic legal form of the suzerainty treaties of the Mosaic age. ”
Rousas J Rushdoony seconds this understanding of Biblical law in that “it is a treaty or covenant. Kline has shown that the form of the giving of the law, the language of the text, the historical prologue, the requirement of exclusive commitment to the suzerain, God, the pronouncement of imprecations and benedictions, and much more, all point to the fact that the law is a treaty established by God with His people.”
“The first verse here explains the nature of the whole book”, J A Thompson writes and then he suggests that while “ the book is thus not set forth specifically as the utterance of God but rather as an exposition of what God had already spoken.”
We should not take that statement to lessen the authority of the Great Covenant, but only an insinuation that when God repeats Himself, we should pay careful attention. There is also in this later revelation, specific ordinances that apply to a settled existence rather than the desert wanderings of the last forty years.
Verses two through five set the stage for the addresses to follow. And in a worldly sense, they tell us not only who, but where and what. Hints may also be taken as to when all these things happened in the providential revelation and ordering of history as the Sovereign God allows. Liberal commentators have no real excuse to be confused – the opening verses could easily have been penned by an honest news reporter, who took to heart his editor’s injunction to report the facts and take note of Who, What, When and Where these things happened.
These five verses we would call a preamble in the suzerain document legal outline. Peter C Craigie tells us “The great covenant, which was made at Sinai between the Lord and his people, is to be renewed prior to the transference of the leadership from Moses to Joshua and the Israelites’ entry into the Promised Land. In this renewal of the covenant, the persons involved, the place, and the time are all specified explicitly.”
The place names in verse one are all too obscure for us to pinpoint on a map by any precise method. We should note that six places are named, so the reference is careful in its procedure. As time passed – human memory lost the geographic bearings on this matter. While we would like a more precise longitudinal and latitudinal description, even those are not infallible. So many ships now use the satellites for bearings that there are few sailors any more who can use a sextant to determine their position. Once when I described the process of using a sextant for this purpose – someone wondered why you needed a tent to do it in! I’ll let your worldly imaginations consider the implications of that confusion!
Verse two gives geographic references further afield. Dr Craigie considers the immediate sense as clear, but observes, “the significance of the verse in its context is uncertain.”
Like a good book, the publication date is carefully concise. As some of you know, I have been cataloguing the church’s collection of seven hundred and some books. I was surprised to discover that about half a dozen of those books cannot be dated precisely! All of them have been published within the last fifty years or so – yet the publishers would have their readers remain clueless as to what milieu to set their production. Moses is not one of these careless types, the date is specified: “Now it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, That Moses spoke to the children of Israel …”
The Geneva Bible dates this “before [Moses’] death in 1406 BC. The other commentators are less specific. However, this 1406 BC date fits in well with any chronology that identifies the Exodus Pharaoh with Tutmosis II and Hatshepsut.
Verse four gives us further historical orientation. “The address of Moses was given after the defeat of the Amorite kings” as commentator J A Thompson, allows. Verse five, besides confirming the eastern bank of the Jordan River also tells us the purpose of Moses: “Moses began to explain this law …”
Commentator Thompson adds “The expository character of Deuteronomy, which will be pointed out many times … is foreshadowed by the verb “explain” … It is characteristic of Deuteronomy that a law is first stated and then explained with accompanying hortatory material, thus pressing home the obligation which is laid upon the hearer.”
New Covenant Continuum: And what is the obligation that must explained in so many chapters of detail? Vern Poythress in The Shadow of Christ in the Law of Moses explains: “The five books of Moses contain much teaching on law and punishment. But that teaching is properly understood and applied to our present situation only when we see the significance of God’s entire work with Israel and the way in which He purposed for the Old Testament to reveal His justice and to look forward to Christ.” To that end he would point us toward the Gospel of Matthew 5: 17-18 where Christ announces: “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.”
Dr Poythress continues; “To understand this passage more fully, let us look first at its broader context in the Gospel according to Matthew. All four Gospels have an interest in showing that Jesus fulfills the Old Testament promises regarding the coming of the Messiah. But Matthew does so in unusual detail …”
To illustrate his point, Dr Poythress details the first four chapters of Matthew in the context of fulfillment. Time will only allow me to briefly outline four pages of specific details.
1 The genealogy establishes that Jesus in indeed an Israelite.
2 Jesus’ supernatural birth is reminiscent of the birth of Isaac.
3 After His birth Herod attempted to destroy Him, just as Pharaoh attempted to destroy Moses.
4 Jesus then goes down to Egypt and returns – recapitulating the journey of ancient Israel.
5 The deliverance of Israel through the Passover and the Red Sea symbolized a greater future escape.
6 John’s ministry is the fulfillment of the prophecy concerning a voice preparing the way of the Lord in the desert.
7 John appears in the wilderness and calls on people to repent, which reminds us of the unrepentance and hardness of heart of the Israelites.
8 “The Kingdom of heaven is near” God in Christ comes near to reign.
9 John’s baptism is reminiscent of the cleansing rites that Moses introduced to Israel.
10 John senses the inappropriateness of baptizing Christ – but Jesus insists on “fulfilling all righteousness.”
11 Following the baptism – the Lord announces from heaven His approval of the baptism.
12 After these events, Jesus is led into the wilderness where He does not succumb to the desert temptations that the people of Israel fell into. Jesus quotes Deuteronomy three times to the devil!
13 Jesus then begins His public ministry calling people to himself and healing the sick even as the Lord delivered Israel from the diseases of Egypt.
14 “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is near.” God’s reign to save is not only shown but also manifested.
15 “The coming of the kingdom of God sweeps into its orbit virtually the whole of the Old Testament, since the Old Testament pervasively speaks of God, His rule, His kingly wisdom, and His salvation.”
“All in all, Matthew 1-4 shows a host of parallels with the events of the Exodus and Israel’s experiences in the wilderness and sums up the significance of these parallels in the announcement of the coming kingdom. Matthew 1-4 thereby shows that Jesus fulfills the purposes and meanings contained in the earlier history of Israel.”
Contemporary Application: So what are we to make of this preamble portion of the Great Covenant? Edith Schaeffer once entitled a book: Christianity is Jewish. With that assessment we can certainly concur in principle. But unlike the Judaisers of Apostolic times, the new administration of the Covenant is one of Grace and mercy and not in any human fulfillment of the ancient law.
In the American constitutional preamble, there are six secular purposes to be established for a more perfect union. However, the law of God revealed in this Great Covenant is more succinct in the one purpose for which it serves. “These are the words which Moses spoke … according to all that the Lord had given him as commandments to them, …Moses began to explain this law.”
Those three phrases come from verses one, three and five. First and foremost, there are the words. Well should we weigh the words that come from the Creator God through His prophets, priests and kings, because those utterances contain the very words of life as we see them all confirmed in the New Covenant of Grace. Second, we understand that these words of the covenant law were not of his own devising. Even though the words are couched in the sense of the suzerain legalities, by the spiritual nature of their source, they are a world apart from the common political use. Third, in this book of Deuteronomy, Moses would explain the law to “all Israel”. Dr Thompson would encourage us to consider that this phrase “all Israel”, “included the forefathers, the present Israel and even those who were yet to be.”
So let us be encouraged to consider this Great Covenant with the majority of its implications now completed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Shall we hear the words of our Lord through the witness of Moses? Of course, if we have ears to hear and are not so distracted as the generation of Jewish leaders were when the Lord suddenly appeared in His Temple to fulfill all their hopes and dreams, if they would allow Him! May we be the wiser in knowing the new covenantal administration of Jesus Christ. And may we sincerely trust in Him who was so wonderfully and wisely anticipated in the legal witness of the Great Covenant given to and through Moses. Amen.
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