Sermon Tone Analysis

Last week we saw that verses 9 to 31 were separated into three parts:

Covenant Past (9-14), Covenant Present (15-24) and Covenant Future (25-31)

A quick recap is that God and Israel are in a covenant together, which is a form of agreement:

The Lord picks the covenant partner; the Lord establishes the terms; the Lord defines the consequences for the vassals depending on how loyal they have been or will be; the Lord establishes the procedure by which it’s ratified; the Lord guarantees its fulfillment.

Israel has no say in the terms of this covenant.

Israel has but one of two responses: “Yes, I accept,” or “No, I reject this offer of covenant relationship.”

Covenant Present (15-24)

Clearly when we read this part of the chapter we can sum it up in these words: “You shall have no other gods besides me.”

Theirs was to be an exclusive relationship.

God will tolerate no rivals.

And to go to other gods was absolute foolishness.

Why foolishness?

They are fake to start with!

But Moses gets a bit more specific.

In verse 16 not male or female and means human-like figures.

Don’t make the formless God have form.

Also there were not to make anything in the form of any animals whether flying creatures such as birds and bats, four-legged animals like cows and pigs, and anything that crawls on the ground like termites or snakes, and then nothing from the sea whether fish, whale or octopus and so on.

This order, by the way, is the same as creation order in Genesis 1.

Archaeologists have discovered all sorts of divine images from the ancient world illustrating these types.

So we’ve got male gods like this Canaanite icon of El or the Canaanite icon of Baal, typically with one foot forward and with one arm raised with a thunderbolt in one hand and lightning in the other.

Or here you have a female Asherah image.

The female figurines typically have exaggerated sexual features.

Or they come in the form of bulls or the Egyptian god Anubis, which has a jackal’s head, or a falcon head (the god Horus), or in Assyria we have gods that are in the form of fish.

Here’s the Assyrian fish god.

These are man-made creations

Then you have those who make gods out of things like the sun, moon and stars.

So you’ve got images of the Egyptian sun god Ra; the Babylonian sun god Shamash; the Sumerian moon god; and you’ve got then trinities involving the sun god, the moon god, and the morning star (Ishtar is the morning star).

While Islam is rigorously monotheistic, it is interesting that the symbol, the moon, actually has its roots in ancient astrological worship.

When Moses says, “You shall not worship the sun, the moon, and the stars, or any of the host of heaven,” again, we hear echoes of Gen 1, specifically Gen 1:14–18

these heavenly creations—the sun, the moon, and the stars—were put into the sky for everyone’s benefit to ensure the order of the universe and ultimately to serve humanity by promoting vegetation.

They guarantee the seasons.

They guarantee the rains—the dry periods and the wet periods.

They guarantee the well-being of life on earth.

idolatry completely inverts the order of creation.

Instead of human beings serving God by caring for the creatures, they elevate the creatures to the status of deity and become subservient to that which they are to subdue and rule.

Of course, this reminds us of Rom 1:18–25:

You’d think in this modern world we would have moved on but we have not whether with Roman Catholicism and Orthodox Church with their icons and veneration of Mary and the Saints or with Buddhism and Hinduism, with just these we find that over half the world’s population are worshipping idols and creation rather than the creator.

Idolatry is foolishness for it was God who saved them.

No one else has done anything for them.

And as a result you are also inviting the wrath of God in His jealousy.

Just as a husband would rightly be jealous of anyone who threatens his relationship with his wife then he has a right to that passion which would make Him angry.

And through idolatry this is what Israel can do to God.

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When Israel is seduced by a foreign god like Baal and commits spiritual harlotry, the Lord’s passion is ignited.

If Israel goes after another god, seeks another lover, God’s passion will be ignited.

The grace of covenant present ends on this climactic warning: “The LORD your God is an impassioned God, a consuming fire.”

You would think that this would be enough to listen and heed what God is saying.

God has forewarned His people.

Covenant Future (25-31)

in verse 25 all the way through 31, Moses’ gaze turns toward the future.

He looks toward the distant future, and this is all about the grace of covenant future.

We cannot understand verses 25–31 without appreciating the triangular nature of the Lord’s covenant with Israel.

At Horeb, the Lord had established Israel as His covenant people.

This is a bilateral relationship.

But since Abraham’s day, the land had been perceived as a vital third element in this covenant triangle, which consists of the Lord at the top apex, the Israelites, and the promised land.

According to 11:29–32 and chapter 27, the first item on Israel’s agenda once they’ve crossed the Jordan will be to head for Mounts Gerizim and Ebal and there participate in a ritual that will incorporate the promised land into this triangular relationship.

4:25–31 assumes this event has happened long ago,

And now we seem to be looking at not a too rosy future for despite all that was said about the Covenant Past and Present, the warnings are not going to be heeded.

God’s favour will be suspended.

“In the distant future, after you’ve crossed the Jordan, settled in the land; you’ve had children and your children have had children.”

Moses is painting a picture of Israel’s future.

“And you go after other gods and you do the evil

I don’t like what I’m hearing.

What is the evil?

Going after other gods and abandoning the true God.

They will violate the main command in this covenantal relationship.

And the result is catastrophic.

Yes, Israel will be destroyed, but he emphasizes in verses 26–27, the Lord will do the destructive work.

The Lord will destroy Israel and the Lord will scatter their population.

You want to serve other gods.

Fine.

Serve them anywhere except here.

Out of my land.

And Psalm 115 highlights the foolishness of the Israelites when they have been put out of the land:

29-31

in verses 29–31, we hear the brilliant gospel according to Moses.

For here Moses reminds his audience that this is an eternal covenant.

The judgment cannot be the last word.

Yes, in his mind it seems inevitable that Israel will go apostate; they will abandon the Lord and the Lord will then punish them for it.

But that is not the end of the story.

Hear the gospel according to Moses: “But from there”—from where?

From the lands in which you are serving idols to your heart’s content—“But from there you will seek the LORD your God”—and here is the gospel—“and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.

When you are in tribulation and all these things have come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the LORD your God, and you will obey his voice.”

And now you’ve got the key causal statement: “Because for the LORD your God is a merciful God.

He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.”

By the time we get to the end of the book of Deuteronomy, we will have learned that the covenant blessings (Deut 28:1–14) and the covenant curses (verses 15 to the end of the chapter) are fundamental to the covenant.

They are built-in, written into, the covenant document.

That means that in the future, if Israel should persist in idolatry and the Lord sends them off into exile, destroys this covenant triangle, it is not because the covenant is off; it’s because the covenant is on.

God would have failed the covenant if He wouldn’t have carried out the threats threatened in the covenant curses.

Restoration is also part of God’s future for Israel

It is important to hear this even today for God’s covenant with Israel is still on.

Why?

Because it is eternal.

The character of God guarantees Israel’s future.

Second, the promise of God guarantees Israel’s future: “He will not drop you or destroy you totally.”

I love this expression.

He will not relax His hand—that is, let you go.

God has bound Himself to Israel in an eternal, irrevocable covenant

This is the gospel for Israel according to Moses.