Deut 10:12-22 theme verse Deut 10:12-13
The praise and honor and glory be to our heavenly Father who seeks true worshipers who worship Him with the Spirit and truth.
On this first Sunday of 2025, I pray that His grace of the application of all the benefits which Jesus earned for our salvation and also the glorious ministry of the proclamation of His kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit may be full in our life. Typically, as we start new year, we receive the Word of God and prepare new goals and action plans for us. This year of 2025, the Word God gives us is Deuteronomy 10 so that meditating on what the LORD wants us to do this year, I hope we could learn few lessons together.
1) Deuteronomy records three sermons of Moses, through which “God taught new generation of Israel, who had risen up after 40 years of wilderness, on how to live faithfully before God, after entering into the Promised Land of Canaan.” In Chapter 1 through 4 of the first sermon, after summarizing the itinerary of the Israelites so far, Moses exhorted the Israelites to obey to God’s law. And then in chapter 5 through 28, of the second sermon, it recorded that through the re-proclamation of Ten Commandments and the Shema, Moses taught them how the life to live in God’s law looks life, with some Ceremonies and Rewards and Punishments of the law keeping. And then finally in the third sermon from chapter 29 through 34, it is recorded the Covenant of God with new generation at Moab, the incident of the installation of Joshua as their new leader and the blessings of Moses of twelve tribes before he died.
2) And today’s text, Deuteronomy 10:12-22, as a part of Moses’ second sermon, has the chiasmic structure. I mean, in verses 12-13, Moses proclaims five total requirements of God to His people to fear God the LORD, to walk in His ways, to love the LORD, to serve God and to obey to His law. And in verse 14-15, Moses explains the introductory reason why they have to keep them. And then in verse 16, he exhorts them to circumcise their heart and be no longer stubborn. And again in verse 17-19, he provides additional reason why they have to keep the basic commandments. And finally in verses 20-22, he repeats total requirements again as a summary and also explains why they have to keep them.
3) Here these five total requirements in verse 12 & 13 are that those who fear the LORD and love God will walk in His ways, serve the LORD and obey to the law of God, as you can see in the screen, in other words, two core elements results in three actions. And the central elements in these five imperatives are love, a word that Moses uses six times in this section at Deut. 10:12, 15, 19; 11:1, 13, 22, and also fear of the LORD. So we can say that those who have the attitude to fear and love God will walk in His ways, serve Him and keep His law.
4) And Moses said that the reason why we have to live in these five basic commandment is because God the LORD is God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God and also because to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it, yet the LORD set His heart in love on your fathers, chose their offsprings after them, by doing these great and terrifying things, led them out from Egypt, protected them in the wilderness, and made them of 70 only prosper to the great nation.
5) Anyhow, in order words, the one who keeps these five total requirements of God is the ideal humanity of whom God requires. So, to look into more details on each commandment, first, fearing God does not mean to be afraid of Him, rather, to have a reverence to God, acknowledging His Sovereignty and Glory, based on the fellowship with Him. And that’s why the fear of God can become the beginning of wisdom. Therefore this attitude of fearing God makes us hear His voice and obey to them so that it results in the blessings personally and also nationally, such as the salvation from tribulation, prosperity of the offsprings, peace of soul and nation, answer to the prayer, etc. In summary, the fear of God makes us understand the life in the perspective of God and live even in the suffering as God’s image bearer and also walk in His ways. Here walking in His ways means to live in the way or deeds of the Lord which is the way or behavioral pattern of the LORD God to His humanity and creations, which is the life of goodness, mercy and grace and glory as the attributes of God so that walking in His ways as living in His will does not mean only keeping the regulation, rather living the holistic life to obey to His will to humanity based on the fellowship with God so that this way of life guarantees the protection and the salvation and the righteousness in Him.
6) And then loving God means, after tasting the beauty of God, to know His love being rooted and grounded in the love of His Son and to love God and to love our neighbors. Here, tasting the beauty of God means, as Douglas Sweeney says in his book “Jonathan Edwards on Beauty”, to taste seven attributes of God, I mean, Eternity and Self-Existence, Greatness, Loveliness, Power, Wisdom, Holiness and Goodness. This beauty of God is expressed in the Revelation 4:3 that ”And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald” since the Apostle John could not express it in human language and also David said in Psalm 27:4 that “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.” So those who taste the beauty of God cannot help but love God. And also since God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us and also God poured His love through the Holy Spirit, He arose love for God in our heart so that He makes us love God and love our neighbors. And according to the ten commandments, loving God is expressed out into worshiping God and loving neighbors is expressed out into respecting their human dignity and even maximizing the right for their material and relationship and honor. And then this love for God makes us not only desire for the fellowship with God, but also worship Him and follow His will and participate in God’s mission to restore His corrupted creation by the sin, as the Hebrew word עבד (abad), means not only to serve but also to worship, to do, to act or to work. Yet since we truly can serve God only after being freed from the sin, death and the law, so it is possible by the grace of the LORD only. That’s why our Lord said in Jn 4:24 that “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
7) And then this kind of person who fear and love God cannot help but live in God’s pleasing will, which is revealed in God’s law. As such, people has to keep the law not only outwardly, but also holistically, in order words, based on the fundamental spirit of the law, which is love for God and neighbors so that this law of love is the original purpose and identity of human beings. In this perspective, restoring of this love is precisely what it means to restore the image of God and live the life that conforms to His Son so that law-keeping is not simply following the rules, but living a life that reflects God’s attributes. Furthermore, living according to God’s law makes us enjoy God’s blessings, I mean, spiritual and material blessings based on the loving and righteous relationship with God.
8) By the way, the problem is we cannot live perfectly in God’s will, as Rom 3:10-12 says “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one”, and also Rom 3:20 says “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” In other words, even though “God works in us to will and act in God’s pleasing will” as Phil 2:13 says, yet since we “have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out” as Rom 7:18 says, our weakness makes us slip from God’s will, even though we want to live in the life of gratitude due to His salvation by great grace. Therefore, even though God said He would put His Spirit in their heart and makes them live in His law as Ezek. 36:26 says, but it does not mean that we can live in His pleasing will, when we were given the power to keep His commandment as we pray to God to give us. Rather as Jn 14:26 says “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you,” when the Holy Spirit helps us to remember God’s word and teaches us its meaning, and also the Holy Spirit surely leads us through God’s words, as Gal 5:18 says, if we walk according to the Spirit, not according to the flesh, then the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us as Rom 8:4 says. In this way, God leads us and helps us live in His pleasing will, yet still we have to pray to God to do that. This principle can be easily understood by looking at a child following his father. I mean, although a child alone cannot do much with his own strength, even go through a scary place, yet if he holds onto his father’s hand and follows his father as he leads and obeys to his words, then he can go on any scary path with no fear and do things which he cannot do on his own. In the same way, after asking for His help and leading in humble heart, as the Holy Spirit reminds and teaches us the Word of God and also arose in us the will to live in His pleasing will so that when we follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit makes us to live in His pleasing will. But the one thing we have to know is that God’s will is not making us a superman who can do everything perfect, rather, God makes the image of God which He created in us when we were in the blossom of our mom, and then makes us love and live peacefully with other human beings who have different image of God, while we who is finite also love and rely on God who is infinite. This is the life lived by the Holy Spirit or the life walked by the Holy Spirit as Gal 5:25 says.
9) That’s why Deut. 10:16 says that “Circumcise the foreskin of your heart and be no longer stubborn,” in order words, “obey to God’s law, after being born again,” as to circumcise the heart means becoming new self through the regeneration by the Holy Spirit and not to be stubborn means to obey to God. Therefore, I hope we who were born of the Holy Spirit may obey to the leading of the Holy Spirit to bear abundant fruits of character, righteousness, and Gospel this year of 2025.
Key Questions as Small Group Activity
Q1 If one among five total requirements of God touches your heart or mind, then after you think about why and how, I hope you could share your thought and experience with your team members together to learn from each other.
Q2 And also the method to live in God’s will is to obey to the Holy Spirit, after you think how you are led by the Holy Spirit and obey to the leading of the Holy Spirit, I hope you could share your thoughts and experience with your team members to learn from each other.
Love you. Thank you. God bless you.
Prayer Note
Dear ( God’s attribute which you found Today ) God!
Thanks for ( something you received through the sermon or even during the week )
Praise, gratitude and glory be to You, Lord!
Today, I realized my sin (pains) that ( the sin God reminded through the sermon ),
please forgive (or heal) me and help me not to repeat ( the sins you recognized ).
I learned that ( something you learned through the sermon )
Please help me to live in that ( learned way of life )
I pray in ( Jesus’ attribute you find ) Jesus’ name. Amen.
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