Historical Prologue 4: Law – Nation & God

Deuteronomy 4: 1-24

The Great Covenant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Max A Forsythe

 

Introduction:  Essential lessons of government are contained in our Scripture portion today.  So with that end in mind, let me share a few observations that I have taught in high school for the last twenty-five years.  First, I would always describe the nature of the ancient Suzerain agreements as contracts between ruler and people.  I would show how those agreements are related to our own national covenant, if I may be so bold to use that term for our own founding documents.

Second, I would explain the foundations of antiquity for our three branches of government whose balance of power has served well now for a little over two hundred years.  Basically, I would trace the legislative mandate back to the “oliographi” or governing assemblies in the city-states of Greece.  One of the ancient philosophers once taught a course in government in Athens.  He sent his crowd of students out into the various valley city-states of Greece and had them copy the local Suzerain constitutions and bring them back for group study.  Now we have to remember, that these were the foundations of the democratic concept, which was truly unpopular, as we know it in ancient times.  It remained for the Helvetic Confederation, the Dutch Republic and the strengthening of Parliament in England to further develop the role of the “law giver” which is the essential definition for legislator expressed by Lord Bowlingbrook.

Then, I would trace the Roman administration from Augustus Caesar down through the “Holy Roman Empire” which was finally buried by Napoleon.  This “executive” branch as I styled it, focused upon the essential bureaucracies under the authority of a recognized leader, who may or may not have had an adequate comprehension of what he was doing and even little or no legitimate authority to rule.  It is well said that games of “king of the mountain” once had more than just a passing interest throughout history.  In case you are unfamiliar with that game, a group of children or teen age boys would gather in a hay mow, meadow or other “safe” wrestling area and proceed to find out who the toughest, strongest scrapper was in keeping the small hill, mound of hay or straw.  Governmental strife tended to be more aggressive and bloody as such conflicts were solved.  Expensive castles and retainers contributed to the gory glory of such marital competitions.

Finally, I would introduce the concept of law revealed in the Jewish “Torah” and explain how the ancient Israelites had their judges, their great covenant and the moral ascendance of rule by law.  It was neat to many of my charges how rule by law fit into the national covenant concept that I was teaching.  This “Lex Rex” was ever so much more philosophically enlightened than the “Rex Lex” popularized by tyrants, both petty and powerful.  The Prince, by Machiavelli illustrated the profound difference between the two divergent ideas:  “The Law is King” and “The King is Law”, which is how we would translate the two Latin phrases written about by Samuel Rutherford in his book Lex Rex.

Of course, I am making a long story short and simple, there are many more convolutions to the development of the balance of power between our three American Federal branches of government.  And many civilized minds were involved in learning and applying biblical truths to the worldly rule of those western governments who claim to being civilized enough not to wage a war every time the government needs a change.

In Central America, one of the “Banana Republics” has experienced well over a hundred changes in government through the use of force since the colonial era.  Two in one day in fact, when the government swept out in the morning chose to violate the sacred rest of the afternoon siesta to regain control!

Old Covenant Milieu:  With that minimal introduction, let us turn to the first twenty-four verses of Chapter Four in Deuteronomy.  There are two issues in these verses as Dr Craigie outlines them. 

                “The Law as the foundation of the nation”             (4: 1-8)

                “The Law and the nature of God”                              (4:9-24)

Please understand these are more than just talking points.  Dramatically, these two sections set in their proper place how we should understand “Lex Rex” and “Rex Lex”.  You can probably almost see where this sermon is going?  When we talk about the law and the nation we can probably guess that this involves the rule by law within any nation.  When we talk about the rule of God – we can justly comprehend the Divine prerogative, which only He may exercise.  And in sensing that, we can better understand that any earthly ruler who would exercise the same prerogative is taking from God a right that is His alone to retain!  We would teach that every human has a part in the grand scheme of Providence, just as Shakespeare noted, “all the world’s a stage”.  Our own particular calling or vocation is to use the intellectual, spiritual and material gifts that the Lord has given to each of us to live before Him day by day.

But I digress; let us look over the first division here as we are instructed to understand the legal foundation of any and every nation.  As was pointed out by other scholars, whom I had the privilege to hear earlier this week, every legal system has some religious foundation.  In our time, the “uncola” religion of secular humanism believes and practices an essential freedom from religion in our fair land.  Yes, we can well agree with their common phrase, that here in America there should be freedom of religion, but we should not allow them to use our system to establish freedom from religion which is exactly what the atheistic, secular, humanistic religion is all about.

In Moses’ admonition here, I am particularly impressed with the focus of verse eight: “And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day?”

You have probably heard of the Code of Hammarabi, which to many scholars represents the oldest legal code known to man.  There is indeed a difference in substance and form between the natural laws of Hammarabi and the revealed laws of Moses.  While there are similarities of course, the moral tone, the forceful sword swinging vengeance of Hammarabi is indeed culturally and religiously from those “statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live, and go in and posses the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you.”

We have to remember that in all the nations of antiquity, the foundation for law was more natural than revealed.  By that phrase I mean, when other nations adopted concepts and precepts similar to the revealed law – it all flows from the hand of God, which is writ large upon the natural landscape and human psyche. However, fallen humans do not always comprehend what God is saying.  Even the revealed Law of Scripture is misunderstood, misquoted and miserably applied in practice.  Solomon collected and adopted proverbs and precepts from neighboring collections, and in doing so the Lord allow him to separate the wheat from the tares, the revealed word from mere human experience and wisdom.  The worldly and even the saintly generally do not show the same Wisdom of Solomon!

Now, Dr Craigie describes this section’s purpose in these words:  “In the first three chapters of Deuteronomy, the address of Moses contains an account of the experience of God in history, set within a general chronological framework.  In this fourth chapter the recollection of God in history continues, but it now assumes a subsidiary role.  Deuteronomy 4 is in essence a miniature sermon on the covenant and the law, in which historical recollection is employed ... to prepare the way for the presentation of the Decalogue and the other laws which begins in Chapter 5.”

Verse two is solid advice from Moses straight from the heart of God who well understands sinful men and all their devious ways.  This same limitation is appended at the end of the Book of Revelation and applies equally to the whole of Scripture.  I am reminded of a public official who proposed a manual of behavior for all the employees under his authority.  The manual was duly printed and bound in a three ring binder.  Whenever anyone had a question – they were sent to read the manual and there learn what their responsibilities were.  One bright fellow tested the system by reading the manual, learning the approved answer, and then asking how to apply the instructions.  Of course, he didn’t mention that he had already read the manual.  Once, the answer came down the hill from on high, he would go and look at the manual and more often or not discover that a page had been removed and another substituted.

The popular parody of political deviousness, Animal Farm, not only describes despicable human behavior, but has also given such humans the idea of how to practice Rex Lex!  This procedure is not allowed according to the teachings of the Great Covenant.  What is figuratively carved in stone should remain solid from generation to generation.  What great comfort we can take from the fact that for as far back as we have copies of Scripture, the text is not tainted with purposeful distortion.

Verses three and four remind Israel of an incident in their past, which is recounted in Numbers 25: 1-5.  Hebrew males had indulged in unlawful relationships with Moabite women.  As a result of their fornication or adultery, they were executed.  This seems harsh indeed in our moral climate today.  But in the context of the Covenant, God intended to keep a people for Himself, a people who were untainted with foreign wives, religious perversions and even disease.  Once, a young man in a class of mine exclaimed that since he had caught herpes, he expected everyone to eventually catch the disease, because he was going to get even by spreading it around.  Behind his back, well over half the girls shook their heads in revulsion, finally getting and understanding a public lesson in the benefits of chastity and purity.

The strictness of the application of the law here, should remind us that even if our own culture does not punish in any way shape of form for the same offense, the Almighty God of heaven does intend to enforce His just decrees for all eternity at the end of the age!

Verses five and six fix the attention of the Israelites upon what truly passes for greatness as a nation.  “Their greatness”, as Dr Craige tells us, “would lie in the wisdom and discernment that was the fruit of obedience to the law, so that their neighbors would [see that their] distinctiveness would lie in the intimate relationship the covenant created between God and his people.”

In this context we can move on to the second theme before us today.  What better report do we have here of the revelation experience given to the people of Israel?  How intimately the Lord understands our fallen nature, look at verses nine, fifteen and twenty three.  “Guard yourself carefully and guard very carefully your desire” is how Dr Cragie translates the admonition in verse nine.  Those phrases are repeated in the two later verses as well.  “Take heed ... and keep yourself,” reads The New King James.  In other words, we are to listen to this God who revealed Himself in word, deed and law.

“Rex Lex” is in the best sense of God’s perfect revelation for all of mankind.  This is the Divine prerogative which sets our Creator above and apart, but over His created order.  Long before the anti-smoking crusade took off, visitors to our home, would look around for an ashtray.  And when none was found – most would ask permission before lighting up.  Politely they understood they were the guests and realized the meaning of that position.

Let’s make certain we understand the context of God’s position here.  This is His universe, His creation; we are the guests within that created order.  As the ultimate householder – He is allowed to exercise His Divine prerogative and set the laws not only of nature and natural revelation, but even to speak directly and reveal His ultimate will and order for His people.

New Covenant Continuum:  Vern Poythress in his discussion of the purpose of the law, begins with Luke 24: 44 “Then [Jesus] said to them, ‘These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.’”  We see here the continuity of the whole of God’s revelation.  All the books and their types are focused on a central theme: the very Son of God, God with us, the Divine reality.  The law is His, for not only did He create and order the universe, but He also provided a manual for living in this wide world under His authority.  The first couple violated His appointed Rex Lex, and in so doing tried to take for themselves the divine appointment.  Do you see how pregnant with meaning is Eve’s original temptation:  Genesis 3: 5 “God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Eve and Adam as well were not willing to live under the law; Lex Rex was not their style anymore than it is the style of every human ever to live.  Vern Poythress tells us what we do not want to know:  “The law points upward to the character of God the Holy One.  It points outward to the people of Israel and provides for them a standard to which they are to conform. ... Next, the law points backward to God’s original creation ... the law also points backward to God’s act of redemption from Egypt.  Sometimes it explicitly invokes God’s past mercies and promises ... At every point its contrasts between good and evil recapitulate the fundamental contrast between serving idolatrous masters in Egypt and serving God with freedom in a new redeemed situation.”

Well did Jesus observe that we “cannot serve two masters”!  And in this observation we can take certain comfort that the challenge of living day by day before the Lord involves a necessary understanding of His rules for living before Him.

Contemporary Application:  Now, what does all of this mean to us at the dawning of the 21st century? 

First, it means that we are not a law unto ourselves!  We are creatures under the rule and law of the Creator God.  Unlike the worldly, we are to understand that mankind has not arrived supreme in these latter days to be as gods and goddesses without equal in the universe!  The essential catechism is not that of the worldly philosopher “I think, therefore I am!”  Did you here the echo of the Divine Name in the ending of that phrase?  That is the same sin of Adam that continues to trouble us these many millennia later.  “God is”, if I may so paraphrase the Divine “I AM” which is a far better catechism to believe, practice and live.

Second, since He is the only creature in the universe vested with the final authority in all things, it is His, and His alone only – the Divine prerogative to exercise final legal authority.  “Rex Lex” is His alone to accomplish according to His perfect providence.

Third, since the Great Covenant clearly marks out the course for those people whom God has chosen for Himself, we who belong to Christ are to live under the law – “Lex Rex”.  Certainly the great jurists of the common law in England and her original American colonies understood that principle.  And in the shaping of our National Covenant, they sought to manfully apply the rule of law constitutionally in a secular setting.  But the context of the American Revolution is not only in the ordering of the national laws, but also in the reordering of The Westminster Confession for the American Presbyterians.  There are certain words, phrases and paragraphs that have been deleted to establish our independent heritage.  Those sections relate to the national churches in Europe which so confused whose law was superior – that of the King in the worldly city, or that of the Church in the spiritual city.

In antiquity, God chose a people for Himself out of all the peoples of the world.  No doubt, He could have done better if He had so wished.  The same is true today; He still calls a people to Himself and asks them to be governed by His revelation – the law of God, which is contained in the whole of Scripture.  So as we study the Great Covenant – let us appreciate all the more that these are sincerely and wholly the will of God for those who have been called according to His purpose.

Oh yes, King Jesus does indeed remember us, protect us and guide us.  And at the end of the age, when all heaven breaks loose, the whole world will be measured and held accountable to the Law of God.  Come quickly Lord Jesus, come quickly.  Amen.

Resources Used:             

Copyright (C) 2001                       Christ Covenant Reformed (Presbyterian Church in America)                                     

                  22 July  2001                 Box 13926 - Columbus, Ohio 43213-8049

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

http://www.tulip.org/trf/tgc/tgc06.htm    To Subscribe or Unsubscribe go to:  http://www.tulip.org/trf-list/

Permission granted to redistribute unedited versions with this notice.