God had spoken at Horeb to the previous generation and had given them the 10 Commandments, but they heard and did not obey. Thus, these words in Deut 5 were given to a new generation on the brink of entering the Promised Land. Moses gives them these words to fortify their faith and to encourage them to obedience.
But these are not just for an ancient people. As we read this passage, let us see how these are also words for us as people journeying home and looking forward to our Home and Rest.
(A) God covenants with His people by His word (Deut 5:1-5)
Deut 5:1 begins with a series of actions. Moses summoned the people and when they gathered, he said to them to hear the statutes, learn and be careful to do them. The words that Moses speaks are meant to be planted deep in their hearts and they are also to keep coming back to them to do them. Moses speaks with a serious, instructive, authoritative tone. This was not a negotiation, dialogue, compromise or conversation. It is almost one-way and is a more of a summons. The rest of Deut 5 is not the actual statutes, but this chapter shows us the rationale for the statutes. This is Moses’ way of telling us why we are to hear.
After setting the importance of the words that he was about to say, Moses goes on to speak and teaches the people that God is covenanting with the people and He is the one who acts (Deut 5:2). The people are to hear because God has spoken. We know a bit of what means when someone speaks with authority. In 2020, the announcement of Singapore’s circuit breaker was announced by our PM. It was a serious and grave affair and the nation paid close attention to his every word. But this is something greater. When this God speaks, we listen, and we hear because God covenanted through His speech.
Covenanting results in a fundamental change in this relationship and identity too. With this covenant, Israel has been transformed. We are familiar with the change that covenanting brings. One such example is marriage. Marriage as a covenant changes identities, and as the couple get to know each other through interacting with each other and speaking with each other, they find out more about each other.
In our relationship with God, the difference is that He knows everything about us and the only deficiency is on our end. Thus, the changed identity that this covenant brings about means that we need to learn more about Him. After experiencing victory and in order to ready themselves for the Promised Land, Moses thought that the people need to hear God’s covenantal words again as part of their preparation process. We’ve learnt last week that following God is not the default posture of our hearts. Thus we will need to keep going back to His words so that we can form our identity in Him and also be Bible-built, word-centred people.
Who is the object of the action? The first recipients of the covenant were made with their fathers (Deut 5:3), but Moses here, is telling them that they are to hear because God has also covenanted with them. The generations have been compressed and now it is also clear that God is covenanting with them. When God covenants, this relationship also extends to all of His people through the generations. Their father’s failures does not negate and disqualify them from experiencing God’s grace.
Does it occur to you that God’s covenantal intention and promises extends across the generation? To the second generation Christian wondering about this, see this passage and be encouraged. Friends, when we gather with our churches, we can read God’s Word and be assured that just as He spoke to the first recipients of His word, He too, will speak to us and want us to receive His word.
(B) God’s word reveals his holiness and demands our reverence (Deut 5:6-27)
In Deut 5:6-21, Moses repeats the Ten Commandments. As we read these verses, we not only read of God’s commands to His people, but these also reveal things about God. God began by telling the people (and us) who He is (Deut 5:6). He referenced His covenantal name, and revealed what He did for His people. This God is entirely unlike any other gods. Before issuing His commandments, He rescued and redeemed His people. Other religions tell us how to obey to be made worthy. Here, God is saying that you have been made worthy to obey!
God also forbids idolatry (Deut 5:7). Israel was acquainted with a pantheon of gods from Egypt but with this god it is everything or nothing, and He had already shown that He was unlike all other gods and even better than the gods of Egypt. Egypt had different gods for different things, and it is not unlike us. We are tempted to turn to different things to cope with our struggles in life. But we are not to have any other gods beside him.
As Israel heard these words, they were also taught that God cannot be misrepresented (Deut 5:8). This God was not to be represented with images but revealed Himself through words. His wrath is real but so too is His grace and love (Deut 5:10). This God also calls His people to worship Him by resting by keeping the Sabbath (Deut 5:12). This is such a radical idea. This is a God of real power! it also reminds us that we are creatures and He is God. This is how we relate to God.
The 10 Commandments reveal God’s character. But knowing God’s character demands a response from us. This is how we get the next part of the law, where are told how to relate to each other. Bible teacher Ray Ortlund provides a good summary of how we are to think about and even teach the Ten Commandments:
“When I preach through the Ten Commandments, each sermon has four points, because
each commandment does four things at once:
1. First, each of the Ten Commandments is revelation. Each one gives us an insight into the character of God. For example, what kind of amazing Person would say to us, “You shall not steal” (Ex. 20:15)? Only a just and generous Person who can be fully trusted, who would never rob us or defraud us, who would never lie or cheat, who would never hold out on us wrongly, who is not out for himself, who feels no need and no appetite but only overflowing kindness and abundance…
2. Second, each of the Ten Commandments is confrontation. Each one gives us an insight into our own character. What kind of people need to be told, “You shall not steal”? People who will be unfair to one another without even realizing it. We need to be alerted to our own unjust and grasping impulses, which have a deep hold on us…
3. Third, each of the Ten Commandments is instruction. Each one charts for us a new path to walk, by God’s grace. So “You shall not steal” guides us into the ways of generosity, fairness, honesty, moderation, frugality, timely payments, wholehearted efforts, faithful promises, and so forth…
4. Fourth, each of the Ten Commandments is promise—because of the New Covenant. God promises that he will write his law on our hearts. He will move each commandment from the pages of the Bible down into the deepest instincts of our personalities (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8, 10). Thanks to the finished work of Christ on the cross and the endless power of the Holy Spirit, we who are in Christ will be so transformed in heaven above, at the core of our beings, that forever we will be joyously surging with the life-giving generosity of the eighth commandment. We will finally be like Jesus.”
Moses not only repeated the commands, but also wanted Israel to remember the experience in vivid detail (Deut 5:22-23). The giving of the Law at Sinai was a multi-sensory experience. They experienced the fire and saw the thick darkness. When God spoke, the entire mountain shook. God revealed Himself in a way that shook the earth. It is an incredibly dramatic backdrop and here in Deuteronomy, Moses goes into great detail as he recounted the experience. In repeating this, Moses is making clear what the focus has been. The focal point of their reaction wasn’t just the great fire or the cloud or the thick darkness, but it was the fact that God has spoken and man still lives (Deut 5:24). God’s words are his principle means of self-revelation. And when God speaks. man can’t stand before this God!
Israel heard and actually wanted to hear more of it (Deut 5:27). When God reveals Himself to an unholy people, they see their sin, but also see their need for Him. Remember the context. This is an Israel that has seen an entire generation judged for their disobedience. Yet, to get to where God wanted them to be, the Promised Land, they had to know Him rightly and hear His words. It wasn’t just about getting to a place, but also about being the kind of people that can dwell with God in that place.
Where do you think you are headed to? How are you preparing for heaven? Are you readying your heart for the God who will be there in heaven? The most precious thing in the New Heaven and New Earth isn’t the gold paved streets, but it is the fact that God will be there and we can dwell with Him. Do we seek to listen to this God even here today?
(C) God’s word creates God-pleasing worship and obedience (Deut 5:28-33)
God affirmed what they had said (Deut 5:28-29). He has judged Israel’s heart as right, as they responded to His revelation and words. God sees and knows what our hearts are like and He cares about what goes on in our inmost thoughts, just like what the Psalmist wrote in Ps 139:1. We see God’s heart for His people and His desire for them to keep obeying and following Him (“oh that they had such a mind…”, Deut 5:29a).
The outcome is also told to us. Obeying and fearing God will result in a good outcome for Israel (Deut 5:29b). God desires our good in our obedience. Unfortunately, we also read in Israel’s history how they do not obey Him (c.f. Deut 4:29-31). Time and time again, God speaks to His people and calls them to obey Him. Yet the OT is full of instances where they don’t obey Him. In Deut 30:6, Jer 31:33, these verses speak of Israel sinning and turning from God. We read of how God acts to save His people and He also acts to change their hearts and enable them to obey Him. The God that has covenanted with His people continue to work for and keep His people despite their unfaithfulness.
What about us? Does our heart rightly desire to please our God? What do we think about obedience — is it a chore? These verses remind us that God sees our hearts and is delighted when we fear and obey Him.
What do we do when we find ourselves struggling with sin and finding ourselves hot one day and cold the next? Hear these words. We have a God who has covenanted with us. Don’t harden your heart but come and listen and repent. He acts and if we seek Him with all our heart, we will find Him!
Moses is closing the narrative here and these concluding instructions tell us about what God’s people need. God doesn’t speak directly to the Israelites for He told them to return to their tents (Deut 5:30). Moses was to be their mediator, and receive the instructions on their behalf before going back to teach them (Deut 5:31). They are to receive the commandments and also hold fast to it, not turning aside and to walk in all the way. It is active, unswerving and careful obedience (Deut 5:32-33).
Yet, recall how these are Moses’ dying words. Moses is but a man and was also a sinner. He couldn’t enter the promised land because of his sin. Moses himself is a man who comes before a holy God. What was Israel to do after Moses dies? Later in Deut 18:15-19, Moses told the people that God will raise a prophet like him for them. But each human prophet and mediator that comes up also dies. Is it supposed to be an unending cycle of human mediators and prophets?
In Heb 1:1-3, we read of how we have a new covenant through Jesus. In the past, God spoke through the prophets but in Jesus, we have the prophet like Moses whom God has raised. He is a much better mediator than Moses. He is the heir of all things, and is the radiance of the glory of God. Unlike Moses, a man made in the image of God, Jesus is the exact imprint of God’s nature.
What does this mean for our obedience? Maybe we wish to also experience something majestic like God speaking to us through the fire and thundering mountains. But this passage reminds us that God spoke to us through something better than Sinai. God has revealed Himself to us ultimately though His Son, the Word became flesh. He is a better mediator than a man like Moses. We have a God who covenants with us, speaks to us, shows us what obedience looks like and also provides the means for us to obey Him. How does Jesus’ mediatory work call you to grateful action today?