Historical Prologue 5:
Deuteronomy 4: 25-41
The Great Covenant
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . Max
A Forsythe
Introduction:
Five weeks of introductory comments may seem a bit much for today’s
emotional, spiritual palate. If the
roots of the American enterprise have been relegated to the dust bin of history,
how much more so have the biblical roots of Moses’ Great Covenant been
dismissed as only the opinion of a minority tribal shaman in our day and age.
So far our meditational survey
has outlined the historical roots of the desert years from Egypt to the
beginning conquests of the long Promised Land for the people of God.
We have not only considered the geographic path towards that home, but
also understood that other peoples have national rights and privileges apart
from the Hebrew people. We have briefly considered the Holy War against the enemies
of God to which the people of Israel were symbolically called.
Reports of War and Peace even transcend into images of the eternal
struggle between the God of heaven and all of those who would oppose His perfect
plan and purpose. And finally we
have drawn out the implications of the Great Covenant in relation to the
national union of Israel and the obligations of that nation or any newer
organization that would willingly submit to the Sovereign Eternal God of heaven
and earth.
Today, as we complete the
historical prologue, we must consider the implications of the historical
revelations and acts of God - as the people whom He has called in all ages
attempt to understand the true nature of His spiritual theonomy in the Kingdom
of Heaven which is placed under the Lordship of God’s only Son: Jesus Christ.
That is a mouthful, whose words
may all to easily be confused as advocating ideas and concepts, which have long
fallen out of favor in our twenty-first century.
Someone once told me that I would be happier living in the sixteenth or
eighteenth century. While I deeply
respect the patriots and theologians of those tumultuous years of religious and
political development, I am more inclined to be concerned with the present and
future, since this is where the God of heaven has providentially placed you, I
and eighty-some percent of all the people who have ever lived since the
dawn of time!
Yes, like the Israelites whom
Moses would instruct through the teaching of their National Covenant, so is
there a developmental foundation for the religious, political and economic
realities of our own time. The last
four hundred years of nation building in the context of Western Civilization can
be summed up practice of the Reformers who crafted the foundations of our modern
era: “Seek
first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be
added to you.” Matthew 6:33.
Certainly, the immediate context
of that admonition of Christ is related to daily bread and clothing.
However, once a society solves those basic problems, they always raise
their sights to the more important issues.
This is why dictators everywhere make the acquisition of daily needs so
time consuming and troublesome, because that way their people don’t have
concerns for the greater issues of statecraft and economic growth.
The second and third greatest
things to come out of the Reformation in Europe, after the first goal of knowing
and understanding the God of heaven: are a capitalistic economy and
democratic-republican styles of government.
These three things are the essential building blocks of our once prized
Western Civilization! Never before
or since, except in Israel, have there been societies so richly blessed than
those who laid all their life before the Creator God and went on to organize
their institutions in light of the Scriptural revelation.
Theonomy, economy and enterprise
are three popular words from the past used to describe the spiritual government
of people under the Lordship of the Father, Son & Spirit of our Triune God.
Now, while theonomy is a specific word to describe living under the rule
of God, economy and enterprise are more popular American terms to describe a
similar reality. Economy is a word
that I have often used of God’s perfect providence in ordering our lives and
providing for our basic needs as well as those others who have not bowed before
His awesome sovereignty. Enterprise
in this context is the way we make our way through the complexities of
experiencing the blessings of that economy.
Now, we have to realize that God
was revealing these principles and practices through the recorded history of His
dealings with His people Israel. Just
as the deist Benjamin Franklin waxed prophetic at the Constitutional convention
in 1787 by saying that the people were given a republic if they could keep it,
so may we realize from the section before us today that the Lord would give
Israel a spiritual theonomy, providential economy and national enterprise if
they would obey His sovereign will!
Old
Covenant Milieu:
As we glance over the twenty-fifth through forty-third verses in chapter
four today, let us realize that the people are given a choice between
confessional unity under the rule of God or cultural failure in serving anything
or person less than He who had called them out of the land of Egypt.
Look carefully at the admonition
in verses twenty-five through thirty-one. Here
is the warning to the generation standing in the audience before Moses.
These are the people who will go in and possess the land, which the Lord
is giving them. Thirty or forty years from now, Moses asks them if they will
have been able to remain faithful? Will
they submit their homes, villages, tribes and nation to the revealed law of God?
Or will they go the way of all flesh and follow after competing gods and
goddesses who are but notions of human imagination?
As we consider the whole of
Hebrew history, we realized how prophetic Moses was being here in these few
verses. Do you see the history of
the people there? Possession of the
land, living under the law and rule of the Lord’s representatives, the period
of captivity, and the restoration are all here.
We also know from the history of Israel that it was not until the people
returned from exile that finally, at long last – they were completely weaned
from idol worship for good.
Verse twenty-six here is
spiritually explicit. “I
call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you will soon
utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess; you
will not prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed.’
The reason for receiving such an
awesome wrath from the God of heaven is clearly indicated in their lack of
confessional unity before the face of God.
Last week, during the first week of catechism, I repeatedly outlined the
structure of our Westminster Shorter Catechism.
The catechism tells us what the Scriptures teach us to believe, how to
live before God and how to pray in the Spirit and through the Son to the Father.
Those
One Hundred and Eight questions are of course derived directly from all of
Scripture. Like the ancient Hebrews
we dare not raise up any document, concept or deity to the same level as God or
His revealed will because any such thing has thus become a form of Idolatry.
We know further the impotence of
any and all creeds. “Hear O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is One!”
Deuteronomy 6: 4. was the confession of the Old Covenant Church,
and in holding to those words through the time of Christ, they misunderstood
what God, the three in One would choose to do on Zion’s holy hill in the day
of His revelation in Christ. Here
were the children of the second generation, many of who had heard the Lord God
speak directly from the mountain at Horeb.
Would, could - they be any better than any generation that has lived
since Adam’s fall?
Dr Craigie observes, “although
these words have a prophetic ring, when viewed against the subsequent history of
Israel, their immediate reference is still to a point in the near future and in
the promised land. ... The principal danger facing the Israelites, once they had
crossed the Jordan, would be that of failing to maintain their unity as they
began to settle in their new land. The
point of view was their covenant with the Lord. Thus a breach of the covenant had as an automatic result the
effect of undermining the unity of the tribes.
When that unity was gone, the people, losing their distinctiveness, would
quickly be scattered and lost among the Canaanites.”
The next section of our text is
found in verses thirty-two to thirty-six. The
implication of these verses is that “There is None other God” if I may
paraphrase the context? What other
god, Moses is asking, has done anything at all like providing a Covenant
document to teach them and order their lives before His Holy presence?
The Hindu Veda is a rambling collection (approximately 15,000
pages long) of ancient thoughts having no cohesion other than being assembled by
a heterogeneous band of editors. By
contrast, the scriptures of the Old and New Covenants are homogeneous in their
clarity if studied carefully weighing one covenant with the other as we seek the
mind of Christ fully revealed in the proper ordering of time by His creative
Father.
New
Covenant Continuum: As we
consider the fuller revelation revealed in and through Jesus Christ, we can
begin to appreciate the divine theonomy of the Old Covenant in the new economy
of the Covenant of Grace through Christ by which our own spiritual enterprise
may find direction and guidance.
Vern Poythress describes the
structured nation under God in these terms:
“The law expresses God’s rule in at least
three complementary ways.
It publishes and imposes an order, a system of regularity,
righteousness, and fitness.
It specifies the way life is to be lived within God’s dominion, and
the distinctions and orders that are to be preserved.
It expresses the character of God and opens to Israel a personal
communion with God the speaker.
God’s communication to Israel embodies an intimacy with Israel
unlike His relation to other nations.
It expresses the awesomeness of punishments and judgments that
fall on people who are disobedient and unholy, and the rewards for the
obedient.”
A few pages later, he describes
how “Christ brought to fulfillment the three sides
of God’s rule”, that we have just considered.
“He brought to expression the order of God’s
life by His example.
He also opened the way to a new depth of communion
and personal fellowship with God as He revealed to us the very character of
God.
And He made the definitive atoning sacrifice for
sins when He died on the cross, thus satisfying the law’s penalties for
disobedience.”
Of course, I am only summarizing
several pages of valuable argument for the consistency of God’s economy.
Contemporary Application:
Let me begin with the concept of
theonomy. God is not only creator
and sustainer of the universe; He is also the Divine ruler who will at long last
impose His divine prerogative on all things in heaven and on earth.
The way that He has done this throughout the ages is awesome indeed.
History after al is nothing more than His story written large across the
created landscape.
When I was growing up, the elders
of my home Presbyterian Church shared political power with the deacons in the
Methodist Church. Of course, other
more political office holders were tolerated, but the local community was
ordered and managed in light of the Gospel.
Common consent and community pressures within the rule of law closed down
a house of prostitution and an abortuary as late as the twenties and thirties.
Unfortunately, not only local
economies, but also local options in many matters have been consumed in the long
march of centralization in statecraft in this country and the western nations in
general. Just as the theonomy of
Israel was changed through the kingship of Saul and all, so too have the local
“republics” envisioned by Jefferson and others been ruled and regulated by
centrist designed policies and expedients.
The second point that I would
make is in my use of the word economy. By
this term I assume that the Old Covenant revelations have a continuing purpose
not only in society where we are fortunate in continuing them, but especially
within the Kingdom of the Spirit, the Church of Jesus Christ.
For this reason, the hallmarks of Western Civilization may and should
live on within the body of believers who claim the over lordship of King Jesus.
What God has designed and revealed in the Old Covenant continues to have
application and use unless it has been set aside or reinterpreted in the
recording of the New Covenant of Grace.
Finally, there is the issue of
enterprise. In my mind, this is the
ongoing work of the kingdom, where Christian men, living before the face of God
propose to do their work and witness in His Name. Just as sovereign states may embark upon activities to
regulate and encourage the prosperity and wellness of their citizens, so too may
Christ’s Church be encouraged to manage the resources given by God to the very
best effect possible!
If we are able to manage the
resources of the Kingdom of the Spirit well and honestly, we may pray for the
ongoing blessings of the Father God, whose rule we desire. But let us, like the House of Israel seek to imitate the
surrounding kingdoms and worship the false gods of mammon, we can be certain
that the heavy hand of God’s righteous wrath and judgment will certainly and
eventually fall upon us.
What other lesson should we comprehend in light of the present sorry
state of the Bride of Christ in our once fair land – where not only reason and
logic were once held in high esteem, but also the God of heaven, whose theonomy
was once more widely recognized and practiced?
May we here present fully resolve
that Christ will indeed be our King and that we will submit our lives to the
inspection of God’s word as we learn the means of applying the economy of the
Great Covenant in this twenty-first century.
And May the Lord our God bless this little enterprise of faith – Christ
Covenant Reformed. Amen.