Welcome to Delight in Grace. The Teaching Ministry of Rich Powell. pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The foundational philosophy of a nation will trickle down into its laws and customs. Israel's laws were founded on principles of love and obedience to the Lord God.
The laws are a reflection of God's clear call to love Him fully. and love others as yourself. Listen as Pastor Rich connects national laws God gives in Deuteronomy. to the underlying principles of the Sheema in this message from Deuteronomy nineteen through twenty. titled, So that it may be well with you.
Lord, I pray that We would be renewed in our minds. that we would be transformed. Buy your word. Father, that What has entered in through our ears and into our Our minds. would trickle down into our heart.
and change our affections for you. that we would not be fearful, but that we would be bold and courageous. It is in Christ's name that I pray. Amen. Good morning, church.
Yeah. We're in section four of Deuteronomy now. The title of this section is called A People Set Apart. What we're covering In this section of Deuteronomy chapters 19 through 26. Is a long list of various laws, some of them listed very briefly, others more extensively.
But there's a lot of laws.
So we're going to be going through these. Um The reason why these laws are given, as the Lord says, so that it may be well with you. God cares. about his people. And he's giving them these laws.
They were originally given to the generation that exited Egypt In the Exodus, and then they rebelled against the Lord at Kadesh Barnea. We're going to be learning about that tonight. Counting, spying, wandering, dying. Six o'clock, be on time. Bring your notebook.
For those of you who've signed up for it. There is a foundation to this law. And we've learned it. We've studied it already. The summary of the law was given in chapter 5, the Ten Commandments, right?
But then the foundation was given. In chapter 6, it's called the Shema. Hear, O Israel. The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Here.
The word here means to obey. It doesn't mean you just receive it auditorially. Like when you're disciplining a youngster or something, right, and you give them a command and they do nothing, and you say, Did you hear me? And then they take action, right? It's that sort of thing, hear, O Israel.
It is to obey God. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. To love God is to express devotion from the heart. As Chris mentioned this morning, God is in the business of transforming us at the level of desire. And God calls his people to devote themselves to him, not out of mere servile duty, but devotion from the heart.
The love of God, our love for him. for God because of his love for us. is the foundation of these laws. that we are about to study. That is something that set Israel apart.
A people set apart. Israel Yeah. Was to be a unique people among the nations. That's why when people look at these laws and we look at them compared to today, it's like, oh my goodness, how ancient, how archaic, how unusual. And we should not compare them to our laws today, but if you compare them to the laws of other nations and other peoples, at the same time as this.
These stand apart. This people is called to be a unique people. Justice, the laws were given for justice, for a healthy community among the people, a people of God who are worshiping God. And justice in Israel was at a higher level for two basic reasons. First of all, because of their relation with the living.
Holy Creator, Jehovah. These were not just man-made laws. These are laws that come from the lawgiver. And Israel had a relation with the living holy creator.
Something we must understand when we study the Bible. It might encourage you in your Bible study. Because there are many precepts in scriptures. Those are the imperatives. The imperative mood means you must do this.
Now, there are indicatives. The scripture is not just all imperatives. There are indicatives also. This is true. This is who God is.
Those are not imperatives. That is truth. This is what is. And we must know The indicatives, but when we come across imperatives, the commands of God. We must recognize, whether it's Old Testament or New Testament, that every precept of Scripture is anchored in the person of Scripture.
scripture. And that is God. He is the lawgiver. His character is the anchor, the foundation of all laws and precepts that are given.
So Israel's justice was at a higher level. Because of their relation with the living holy creator, and secondly, because of the dignity of humanity as image-bearers. They understood that. God created man in his image.
So, as we study these laws in the Old Testament, it will be our ambition. We won't be able to arrive at it every time. But it will be our ambition. to understand the underlying Principles of these laws. We are not beholden to these laws.
We are under the new covenant. But there are underlying principles behind these laws. That are appropriate for us. Let me give you an example. that Paul helps us out with this.
In 1 Corinthians 9, verse 9, Paul is talking about... the support he would receive from the churches. And he appeals to a law in the Old Testament. And the law is this, you shall not muzzle the ox when it treads out the grain.
Now Paul was not calling himself an ox. But what is the principle? What is the underlying principle? of him using that Command in the law: you shall not muzzle the ox when it treads out the grain. The underlying principle is this.
you need to take appropriate care of the worker. You need to take appropriate care of the worker. Did you know businesses today are discovering that? Sir Richard Branson said it very well. You take care of your people and your people will take care of the customer.
There's a lot of businesses that still have yet to learn that, right? But They're starting to learn that. All right.
Now, you take care of the worker, and that's because you need to understand the worker is not a disposable tool.
So when your ox is treading out the corn, don't muzzle the ox. Let it eat. And so it is for the worker. They are to be well supplied for.
So that's just an example. There's an underlying principle there that we find in these specific commands.
Now, we're going to cover chapters 19 and 20 today. And some of you are looking at me like rich how on earth. Put your seat belts on. Here we go. The first one, we're going to cover for four basic underlying principles in these two chapters.
and chapter 19 and chapter 20 is all one, okay?
So number one, chapter 19 verses 1 to 13, the underlying principle here is the sanctity of life. the sanctity of life. God's precept here. He gives them this law, and it's laws concerning sanctua. Cities of ref abusted sanctuary cities.
CDs well, that's kind of what they were. They were sanctuary cities, but cities of refuge is what they're called elsewhere in scripture.
Okay. But God is giving these laws to protect against shedding innocent blood and rash revenge. to protect against shedding innocent blood. and rash revenge.
So he sets up these cities of refuge. There needs to be three of them. There are three of them set up on the east of the Jordan. And now they're going to go across the Jordan. They're going to set up initially three more.
And they need to be spread out evenly in the land. And this has to do with somebody who kills someone else accidentally. It's not intentional murder. There's no hate involved. and they give a scenario here.
Look, for example, at verse 5. As when someone goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down a tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies, he may flee to one of these cities and live. lest the avenger of blood is hot in anger, pursue the manslayer and overtake him because his way is long and strike him fatally, though the man did not deserve to die since he had not hated his neighbor. in the past.
So that is the point of it there.
Now he uses a word here, the avenger of blood. That is the Hebrew word goel. It is most commonly Translated in the in the Old Testament. As Redeemer. Redeemer.
That is the word that is used in the book of Ruth, for example. Because Ruth is about redemption. And this Avenger or this Redeemer in this case would be the nearest relative with the obligation to right a wrong. A relative's life has been taken. And so the sanctity of life there is understood and that's why the person who accidentally killed another would be able to run to these cities of refuge.
And beat. safe. Because if he were killed for then what would happen? Then we would have two innocent people. Dying.
Right? one out by an accident and another out of revenge. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission.
Is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good. and your deepest satisfaction in Him. the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.
