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Deuteronomy 27:4-28:20

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6/11/1997
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Deuteronomy 27:4-28:20
Deuteronomy 27:4-28:20
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05 Deuteronomy - 1996

The book of Deuteronomy is the giving of the Mosaic Law to a new generation of Israelites at the end of their wanderings. Skip Heitzig tells the story of God's continuing grace to His people.

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Deuteronomy, chapter 27. Well, today is a special day in the Jewish calendar for Jews all over the world, especially in Jerusalem. It is Hag Ha-Shavuot. You know it better in the New Testament term "Pentecost." Seven Sabbaths or 50 days after the Feast of Firstfruits the people gather together for this festival. It is one of the three great pilgrim feasts where Jews would in the proximity around Jerusalem make their way up to the temple courts for a time of a holy convocation or a gathering together. We know that Pentecost was special in the early church because in the book of Acts the church was born on the Day of Pentecost. It was the feast where the ingathering of saints occurred in Jerusalem. And the church was we say officially born, inaugurated on that Jewish festival.

Special attention in the synagogue is given to the book of Ruth, but always in association with a special emphasis of the law given on Mount Sinai. A lot of references are made in the synagogue service to God's covenant with Israel as given from Mount Sinai. Well, here in Deuteronomy, chapter 27 and 28, Moses is rehearsing that covenant, not on Pentecost, but simply on some day, some time period, overlooking the Jordan Valley from the eastern side up on the plains of Moab. He's talking about the Law that God gave from Mount Sinai, rehearsing the Law with him, and then he's going to tell them to take the Law up to another mountain, Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, in the very heart of the land in which they are going.

But I draw your attention to verse 10 of chapter 27, "Therefore you shall obey the voice of the Lord your God, and observe his commandments and his statutes which I command you today." As you can see, the Jews have always meticulously loved, revered, and copied the Scripture. It is a part of their daily life. The unfortunate thing, of course, is that so many of them overlook the obvious prophecies of the Messiah as they "search the Scriptures, for in them [they] think that they have eternal life." But as Jesus said, "These are the Scriptures which testify of [him]." Now, a question arises, and I just thought I'd address it before we kind of continue where we left off Sunday, especially if there's newer people in the crowd.

The question is: "Why do you Christians study the Old Testament? This is a book for the Jewish nation. This is a book of the covenant of the nation of Israel. But, why believers studying the Old Testament, especially the law? After all, we're not under the law. That's an old covenant; we're under a new covenant with Jesus Christ. Why study the law?" Well, first of all, because what we're studying formed the root system of our faith. And it's always helpful to be able to read firsthand what Jesus quoted more often than any other book, what Paul quoted, what Peter quoted, and other New Testament authors quoted from the law and made reference to the law. They drew great lessons of history from it.

They told us why the law as a covenant doesn't have the same relationship to us in the church as it did to them. But it's important to know it. I've often wondered exactly what Jesus said when he met with those disciples when he was going from Jerusalem to Emmaus after his resurrection. And, of course, they're scratching their heads and thinking about the days that have happened in the past and how their Messiah had died. And they thought it was all over. And Jesus comes up incognito and starts talking with them and notices that they're sad. And though he knows why they're sad, he draws it out from them. He walks up to them and he goes, "Hey, how come you guys are so sad? What is it you're talking about?"

And they said to Jesus the Messiah their Lord and their God, "Are you a stranger in Jerusalem?" Imagine saying that to Jesus. "Don't you know the things that have happened?" Jesus says, "What things?" And they recounted what had happened the last few days concerning Jesus and his death, his crucifixion, his burial, and they hinted at his resurrection. Jesus said, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered and enter into his glory?" And then it says, "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he expounded to them the Scripture all things concerning himself." Unfortunately, Luke doesn't tell us what he said. That's one Bible study I wish was recorded. I wish I had it on cassette.

Beginning in Moses, the first five books of Moses, the Torah, Jesus started telling them about himself, the fulfillment of these things. Perhaps Jesus began with Genesis 3, the serpent and the prophecy of the seed of the woman coming to crush the head of the serpent, and Jesus saying, "Don't you see? That was me that was predicted about in the third chapter of Genesis." Perhaps he moved then on to Genesis, chapter 22, Abraham bringing his son, his only begotten son as God told it to him to Mount Moriah to sacrifice him. "In the mountain of the Lord," the Angel said, "it shall be seen." And Jesus showing, "Look, I'm the fulfillment of that. I'm the Lamb. I'm the only begotten of the Father. And I was crucified atop Mount Moriah," just a few meters to the north.

Bingo! the lights would go on. Taking them to Exodus, chapter 12, in the Passover, saying, "Don't you remember the other night at the Last Supper where we shared the bread and the wine and I said these things are the fulfillment in the Passover? That's what I was speaking about." "Wow!" light went on. Taking them through Leviticus and the sacrifices, the tabernacle, and the typologies, the prophecies of Isaiah, Psalm 22---expounding all things concerning himself. How exciting that must have been. And so we want you to know the whole counsel of God. And that's why we go through the Old Testament, so you are equipped and so that you have a background and the root system. And I think it's important even to cover these portions of the law.

Let me read to you what Charles Spurgeon the great Victorian preacher from London said about the law. He said, quote, "I do not believe that any man can preach the gospel who does not preach the law. The law is the needle, and you cannot draw the silken thread of the gospel through a man's heart unless you first send a needle of the law to make its way for it. If men do not understand the law, they will not feel that they are sinners, and they will never value the sin offering. There is no healing a man until the law has wounded him, no making him alive until the law has slain him." And more reference to that slaying of the law in just a few minutes. But let's get now into chapter 27, and 27 and 28 sort of form a unit.

So verse 10, " 'You shall obey the voice of the Lord your God, and observe his commandments and his statutes which I command you today.' And Moses commanded the people on the same day, saying, 'These shall stand on mount Gerizim to bless the people, when you have crossed over the Jordan: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin; and these shall stand on Mount Ebal to curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. And the Levites shall speak with a loud voice and say to all the men of Israel' "---and a list of curses are given. Then in chapter 28 blessings and curses are to be given and to be uttered as a covenant with these people. Now we're getting into one of the most important sections of the law of the Old Testament.

It's a very, very important part of Deuteronomy. You say, "Well, is it a good part?" Uh, well, sort of. "Well, then is it a bad part?" Uh, sort of, maybe even more bad than good, because there's more curses given than blessings that are promised. But we're getting into an area known as the Palestinian covenant. And I don't like the term "Palestinian covenant"; it's the covenant of the land that God promised to Israel. Now the covenant is an agreement, and covenants were of various types. Individuals made covenants with each other. Sometimes they would take an animal and cut it and walk between the pieces and swear an oath and share the conditions of the oath, blessings and cursings.

Sometimes nations went through this process. At other times God made covenants with a nation, the nation of Israel, or with individuals, and the terms were given. Of the covenants that God makes with men there are two basic types: there's conditional covenants and there's unconditional covenants. And I want to go over those with you as we get into these: conditional covenants and unconditional covenants. We're getting into an unconditional covenant. A conditional covenant is just that---God says, "I'll make a deal with you, but there are conditions. I'm going to do something, but in order for me to fulfill my part of the covenant, you must keep certain requirements so that my actions will be predicated upon your actions or your obedience."

Then there's an unconditional covenant. It does usually include some kind of human cooperation and human responsibility. But, by and large, it's God saying, "This is what I'm going to do. I make a proclamation. It's going to be done. It's going to be done in my time. And it's going to be done for my glory, for my purposes," in God's time and in God's way. The covenant that God made in the garden of Eden was a conditional covenant. God placed them in the garden of Eden, but said, "Now listen, eat of all these fruit trees, eat of all the fruit, but don't touch that one. In the day that you eat of it, you will surely die. So, your staying here is conditioned upon your obedience to that command."

God made a covenant with Abraham. God would bless Abraham, make him a great nation, and the world would be blessed through Abraham and through his seed. That's an unconditional covenant. It's a declaration. God said, "I'm going to do it." And even when Abraham disobeyed, went down to Egypt, God still promised to make this covenant good. The covenant of the law that God made with Moses or through Moses with the children of Israel at Mount Sinai was a conditional covenant: "If you do this, then I'll do that." The covenant of the land, where God says to Israel, "This is your land. I'm giving it to you as a gift," is an unconditional covenant.

Now, this is where it gets a little tricky. You've got a group of people under the covenant of the law of Moses and under the covenant of the land, one is conditional, one is unconditional, and here we see them bisect. And we're going to see how God works this thing out beautifully. Being in the land, their status in the land, their tenure in the land is conditional, but the land itself is unconditional. So that God says to Abraham, "Abraham, this land is for you and your seed forever," unconditional. Even though the children of Israel will go out and blow it big time, and be sent away into Babylon for 70 years, God will bring them back to that land.

And even though in AD 70, 1,300,000 Jews are killed and the rest are exiled or used as slaves, they're booted out of their land, the land becomes Roman, Aelia Capitolina is built instead of Jerusalem, God still promised that they'd go back to the land (Isaiah 11:11) the second time, and they have come back to their land. Now, I know that we're dealing with a controversial issue, because there's more than one group of people occupying that land today. And you've got people like---or you had people like in 1967 President Nasser of Egypt who declared an all-out assault in May of '67 upon Israel, saying it would be a total war and their goal is the total destruction of the nation of Israel. And we know it happened, 1967 War happened.

Israel got the victory, and it has been---Jerusalem has been the capitol city of the Jews ever since. They're in the land, but it's very tentative. How do I know this? Because I've gone many times. I've invited many of you many times. Some of you have gone, but some of you at the end get very skittish before the tour. And you say, "You know, I'm going to wait till it gets peaceful over there." You can do that. You'll wait till the millennium, however. Because it ain't gonna happen in our lifetime. Daniel said, "Desolations are determined till the end and war is till the end." Now, a couple weeks ago I wanted to see this controversial settlement called Har Homa. You've seen it on the news.

The Palestinians say, "Stop the settlement in Har Homa." If you've been on our tour to Israel, remember going to Bethlehem, the shepherd's fields? As we go to the shepherd's fields and we open our Bible and you look over the city of Bethlehem, right as you're looking at Bethlehem from the shepherd's fields, off to the left, still in the precinct of Jerusalem, is Har Homa. It's Jewish territory. It's technically a part of Jerusalem. They've owned it. They're building on it. But it's so close to this West Bank settlement of Bethlehem that it has caused an intentional furor. Now, whose land is it? Is it Israel's? No. Technically no. Is it the Palestinians? No. It belongs to God and God said, "It's mine."

Now God does lend it or give it to the seed of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, as we see in the Scripture. And I think we need to uphold that covenant. I don't see it as symbolic, but as very literal. And yet their tenure in the land, as we see tonight, is conditioned upon their obedience to God. All right, in chapter 27 there's a list of warnings. The warnings are given by the Levites down in a valley called Samaria. And here you have a scene of two mountains and a valley in between and a city in the valley. It's the city of Shechem, and the two mountains are Ebal and Gerizim. So, you gotta see this to picture the scene. Representatives from six tribes would stand on Mount Gerizim. Representatives from six other tribes would stand on Mount Ebal.

The descendants of Jacob, through Rachel and Leah, would shout out the blessings or say "Amen!" to the blessings and they would stand on Gerizim. And the descendants of the tribes that come from Zilpah and the other handmaiden will stand on Mount Ebal and deal with the curses. The Levites will be in the middle as these curses are given, and then in chapter 28 as the blessings are given. Just a word about this section that you're seeing: Ebal, Gerizim, and Samaria. It's controversial. If you go to Israel today, they'll recommend you don't go through it by car. I almost went through it the other day. I said, "You know, it's been a while. I want to drive through there again." And then my friend said, "Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't risk it."

It's been a problem area. It's been a problem area for a long, long, long time. This is what happened---and I'm sort of setting the scene for you in the New Testament as well. Back in 722 BC, you may remember that's a hot date. That's when the Assyrians came and took the northern kingdom of Samaria, the northern kingdom of Israel captive. And they took several thousand Jewish people exiled from Samaria and took them captive, repopulated that general area with people from different parts of the world, other slaves, who brought in their gods, intermarried with the people, and had a sort of a half-breed offspring known as Samaritans. And this caused a lot of trouble, especially when the Jews came back to Judah, to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.

Some of the Samaritans wanted to help and Ezra and Nehemiah said, "No way. Your worship of God isn't pure. It's tainted with all sorts of pagan idol worship." So they refused them which caused the tension to grow even more. By the time of Jesus, the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans. In fact, if you were a Jew, and you lived up in Galilee, and you wanted to go to Jerusalem, rather than going the straightest route through Samaria, you'd take the long route through the upper plains, the hot deserts of Perea east side of the Jordan River just to go away from Samaria. So we find it interesting in John's going gospel when it says, "Jesus needed to go through Samaria."

You go, "Why did he need to go through Samaria? Nobody needs to go through Samaria." Jesus did because there was a woman there who greatly needed the gospel, needed forgiveness. And there was a village between these mountains Gerizim and Ebal who needed to hear the gospel. At one time they heard blessings and cursings and they fell into idolatry since then. They needed the gospel, so Jesus went there to this group that nobody else catered to. And that's why the woman said to Jesus, "We Samaritans worship on this mountain," Mount Gerizim, the temple was built as a rival temple to Jerusalem, "but you Jews say Jerusalem is the place to worship." And so that's the history of this area.

Now in verse 11, "Moses commanded the people on the same day, saying, 'These shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, when you have crossed over the Jordan: Simeon, Levi, Judah' "---I already read these guys. Verse 15, now the curses are sounded: " ' "Cursed is the one who makes any carved or molded image, an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret." And all the people shall answer and say, "Amen!"---all the people shall answer and say, "Amen!" ' " There you go. It's a little interactive here tonight. You can kind of get the feel for it better. And that's how it went. A curse was given and an "Amen!" or in Hebrew "Amen!" [aw-mane'] which means "right on" in our vernacular, or "firm," "assured," "let it be done," "it is so."

" ' "Cursed is the one who treats his father or his mother with contempt." And all the people shall say, "Amen!" "Cursed is the one who moves his neighbor's landmark." and all the people shall say, "Amen!" "Cursed is the one who makes the blind to wander off the road." And all the people shall say, "Amen!" "Cursed is the one who perverts the justice due the stranger, the fatherless, and widow." And all the people shall say, "Amen!" "Cursed is the one who lies with his father's wife, because he has uncovered his father's bed." And all the people shall say, "Amen!" "Cursed is the one who lies with any kind of animal." And all the people shall say, "Amen!"

" ' "Cursed is the one who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother." And all the people shall say, "Amen!" "Cursed is the one who lies with his mother-in-law." And all the people shall say, "Amen!" "Cursed is the one who attacks his neighbor secretly." And all the people shall say, "Amen!" "Cursed is the one who takes a bribe to slay an innocent person." And all the people shall say, "Amen!" "Cursed is the one who does not confirm all the words of this law." And all the people shall say, "Amen!" ' " What is the theme of all these curses? Hard to say exactly, except it seems that the underlying theme that ties all these together are sins that would be done in secret, done where there's no accountability publicly.

You could do it without anybody seeing you. It's not that these are the only things the law speaks against, as you already know. But these are instances where a person could be around the tabernacle one day, saying, "Praise God, man, I really love the Lord!" and go through all the rituals, all the prayer, but sin in secret. And so the curses are given to show that the law does not just deal with the outward action, but the inward attitude, what we think, what we do in our private lives. It's sort of a warning against hypocrisy. Eight of these 12 curses are involving the Ten Commandments, breaking the Ten Commandments. For instance, in verse 15, it's sort of a reiteration, is it not, of the second commandment?

" ' "Cursed is the one who makes any carved or molded image, an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret." And all the people shall say, "Amen!" ' " So what this is sort of is like a public---I like to look at it like a public bar mitzvah. A bar mitzvah is done when a boy reaches the age of 13. He's brought with the elders. He's brought with his rabbi. He's brought with his parents. It's a planned event. It's very, very exciting. The law is broken out and here's a bar mitzvah at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Tuesdays and Thursdays they take place. The scrolls are opened and a celebration ensues as this boy becomes a bar mitzvah, a "son of the law."

You know what that means? It means, "Now that you're 13, you're responsible for your own actions. Up to this point mom and dad have taken responsibility for you, but now you are publicly accountable. Not only do you read the law, but you're accountable and responsible for your own actions. You are bar mitzvahed, you are a son of the commandment, you're responsible. And now you're held publicly accountable by your friends, by your rabbi, by your parents. And now the burden of responsibility is shifted and laid upon your shoulder." And really, that's what we're dealing with here. It's a public bar mitzvah. These curses are given, everybody goes, "Amen! Amen!" "Great, now that we've gotten through that, you are all accountable for what you've heard."

The law has been given, so, you know, when Moses is saying, "When you go into the land and you go deep into the heart of the land in Samaria, in Shiloh where the tabernacle the center of worship will be there on Mount Ebal, you're to shout these curses. The Levites will shout them and the people would shout out, 'Amen!' " Interesting that first on the list is this commandment against "a carved or a molded image, which is an abomination to the Lord." Why is this first on the list? Because of the impending danger, that's why. We have a group of people that worships one true God, the only God, by the way. There aren't more than one. There's one true God.

But they have come from Egypt, they are going into Cana, and on the other side of their borders is Mesopotamia, and in all of these areas they are polytheistic. They worship many gods and they have graven images. And so they'd be surrounded, once again, like in Egypt, with people who worship many gods and there's a danger to fall into the trap of their worship. Baal was one of the principle deities, the god of the storm, the god of the weather, the god of fertility. The Canaanites worshiped Baal. The Assyrians worshiped Baal. And here's an image of Baal that was found at one of the diggings. People would take these and they would erect them or they would keep them in secret. And that's the danger, having, you know, your own private little idol that you would bring out and worship.

And so first on the list, since they're going into that kind of a culture: "a carved or molded image, an abomination to the Lord"---notice---"the work of the hands of the craftsman." You know, idolatry is pretty stupid when you think of it from this perspective, a statute, an idol like Baal, or like the bull that was worshiped in Egypt and also Assyria---and the Israelites modeled a worship pattern after that at Mount Sinai with their golden calf and even later on in Samaria---is carved by a human being. So if it's made by a man, it has to be less than that man, because man originates it, right? And even David says, you know, "Eyes they have, but they cannot see; ears they have, but cannot hear; hands they have, but they cannot touch; feet they have, but they cannot walk."

So here's a guy, he fashions something out of wood, puts little eyes, lips, feet. He's made it and then he puts what he had made up on a pedestal and says, "You are my God." How lame that is. [laughter] In a sense what you've done is you've projected what you think God is, your own projection of God, and you worship that. There's no difference in people doing that today. "I picture God as . . ." whatever, fill in the blank. Everybody's got some image of "God" and they project it and they worship that god, not the true God, that god. So here's man, made in the image of the true God, making God into his image and worshiping that projection. God didn't want any images. He didn't want them to create an image to worship or aid them in their worship.

Why? Whenever you make an image, a statute, it shows, number one, you've lost the consciousness of God, because you need a reminder. You walk by this little statute, "Oh, yeah, I see the statute and now I'm reminded---God, God exists. There is a God." If you need a reminder outwardly that God exists, you have lost the dynamic, the consciousness of the existence of God. And it also shows, number two, you're desperately trying to regain it. But most profound, the reason why images, I think, were commanded against is because an image obscures the glory of God. I mean, just look at that. That image obscures the glory of God, being made by man, being formed into some likeness of something to remind them of some attribute.

They have created an image, a bull, for example, which would speak of strength, power, might. It would remind them, perhaps, of Apis the bull god of Egypt, saying, "Our god is mightier than Apis the cow or the bull of Egypt." Okay, so you have an image that reminds you you have great strength, but when you look at that image once more, do you see love, compassion, tenderness, mercy? Not if you're---unless you're on some mind-altering drug would you pick that up. [laughter] So now you've limited God to an attribute by casting an image of him. You say, "Oh, but this reminds me of the might of God." But that's the point: God is self-existent and unlimited, and as soon as you cast an image, you limit the glory, you're obscuring the glory of God.

That's the problem with an image, even a crucifix. Now, I have nothing against what a crucifix depicts; what I have against it is what it fails to show. It shows the suffering Savior, but it obscures the glory of the resurrected Christ. And so any image cameos, captures some attribute, but it limits the glory of God. So right off the bat the first curse curses anyone who would set up an image even in secret. " ' "Cursed is the one who treats," ' " verse 16, " ' "his father or mother with contempt." And all the people shall say, "Amen!" ' " Second on the list dealing with the commandment, "Honor your mother and your father." Hey, let's bring that commandment back in this generation, shall we? [applause] Since there are---yeah, go ahead, I'm all for it. [applause]

There are eight million assaults a year in America upon parents by children in this country. You know, in the Old Testament the punishment given to a person who would dishonor their parents was the same punishment as blasphemy, thus God was showing that honoring parents is very, very close to honoring God himself, because that's the authority structure God put upon the earth in the family. Jesus was a good example, wasn't he? From the cross he's suffering, he's the one taking the brunt of the sins of the world, my sins and your sins upon himself. And there he is hanging between two thieves paying for the sins of the world, and yet he notices his own mother and he makes provision in his suffering for her future.

He honors her, saying to John, he says, "Woman, behold your son. Son behold your mother!" Scripture says, "From that day forward John took her to his home," and he cared for her. Why? Because Jesus made provision for his mother at that moment. So, that's the positive to this curse, which is the negative. " ' "Cursed is the one who moves his neighbor's landmark." And the people shall say, "Amen!" ' " Now this deals with the commandment of "Thou shall not steal." You know, thievery has always been a problem. It has always been a problem since the beginning of man upon the earth. That's why even in ancient times they would erect watchtowers in the fields, so that you could post a dude up there with his eyes open looking at the fields to make sure nobody would come in and rip you off or stage an attack through the fields.

Or, here was the problem: at night when everybody's asleep, when the owner of the vineyard, or the owner of the field, the owner of the estate is sleeping with his family, another guy might go out there and move the marker. The marker was a stone or two or three piled on top of each other at the corners of the property and sometimes in line. And maybe a person would rationalize---sort of like what people do with income tax at the end of the year, "I don't need to declare that. After all, government has enough of my money." That's stealing too.--and say, "Well, you know, this guy here, he can afford a lot more than I can. And I think he owes it to me anyway. I don't think he pays me enough."

So he goes out two, three in the morning and moves the marker, oh, six inches. Get up the next day, nobody notices. A month later, moves it another six inches, and another. As time goes on, since his property is adjacent to this guy, he has now assumed more property by moving the landmark, by stealing in secret. I think that's the thread here, "in secret." Nobody sees, but God sees and God pronounces a curse. Now, I would just want to apply this by saying be careful how you allow yourself to rationalize. Being humans---I think humans know this by now---we have an indefinite capability of rationalizing. We can rationalize in any position anything we want to.

People steal rationalizing, "Well, you know, my office, these guys, this company, they have enough supplies. And, after all, I need this chair at my house. [laughter] They've got enough chairs and they could afford getting another one." So back to the car it goes. Or just a pencil at first and then, you know, you got 30 pencils. Millions of dollars are lost each year by what company's call "petty theft," the rationalization of people. Or, "Hey, I'll take an extra half hour on my lunch," or "I'll make this long distance phone call." But it's not your time and it's not your property. Now, the fact that this law exists---and I just want to touch on this before we move ahead. The fact that this law exists shows that God upholds the right of private ownership, private property. It belongs to a person, respect the right of ownership.

I bring that up because in some parts of the world, and they're still grappling with the whole idea in the Soviet Union and other places, the idea of socialism. The socialist will say, "It all belongs to the government, all belongs to the state. Everything you own belongs to the state. It's corporate." The capitalist in the Western world will say, "It all belongs to the individual." Both are wrong. Biblically it all belongs to God and God lends it to you, and you're responsible for it. You're a caretaker of it. You're a manager of it. And you're responsible on this earth with how you manage what God has put into your control for a period of time. But we need to respect the rights of these people.

Now, some people will come along and say, "Well, the early church believed in communism. They pulled all their resources together and gave to everyone "as they had need." And if you're really spiritual, you ought to get back to the early church." Good in theory, not in practice. First of all, it was never mandatory. It was all volunteer. If you wanted to do it, you could. If you didn't want to, you didn't have to in the early church. Secondly, there were problems. There came a time where in this collective socialism the Greeks complained against the Hebrew widows because they that they were getting neglected, the other ones were getting more in this communal living, and it created a problem.

Then others will say, "Well, you know, the whole problem with Ananias and Sapphira, God killed them," some people will say, "because they held some money back when they took the land and sold it. They held some back and so God struck them dead because they were selfish." Not true. The reason they died isn't because they kept stuff back, it's because they told the church, "We're giving everything that we sold the land for. We're giving all the money for the work of the church." They told them that, but they kept a part back, lying about how righteous they were, leading people to believe, "Wow, they've sacrificed, they've given everything." Well, they hadn't given everything, they just wanted the people to think, "Wow, they're holy, they gave everything."

It was the hypocrisy that was the problem, not the fact that they held it back. In fact, Peter said, "When you had it, was it not your own, in your own control?" So we need to respect the right of what others have. God gave it to them or God lent it to them. If they have more than you, it's because God, perhaps, knows that they're better stewards of it. Whatever your lot in life is---I'm not saying, don't try to get ahead, but I'm saying be content with what God has given you. And don't rationalize, whether with government or your boss, taking more for yourself. " ' "Cursed is the one who moves his neighbor's landmark." And the people shall say, "Amen!" "Cursed is the one who makes the blind to wander off the road." ' " Now that's dirty, right?

Anybody would say "Amen!" to that. [laughter] Again, this is done in secret. The blind person can't identify the assailant leading him off into the ditch. Why would anybody do this? I don't know, but God says, "You mess with people who are the underdogs, and I'm going to mess with you." Don't you love it? God always takes the side of those who are oppressed: the widow, fatherless, the underdog. God has a special heart for those people. " ' "Cursed is the one who perverts justice due the stranger, the fatherless, the widow." And the people shall say, "Amen!" "Cursed is the one who lies with his father's wife." ' " And the rest of these sins are sexual in nature and perverse in nature. And in case anybody would do it, nobody would find out, God pronounces a curse against forms of incest, adultery, bestiality, and so on and so forth.

Until we get to verse 26. " ' "Cursed is the one who does not confirm all the words of this law." And the people shall say, "Amen!" ' " Does that verse ring a bell? In Galatians, chapter 3, this is the verse Paul pulls out to make his strong point when he talks about the fact that the law cannot justify a person, cannot clean a person up. It can point the finger and say, "You're a sinner." It can identify that you need Christ. It's the schoolmaster that leads you the Christ. But Paul says, " 'Cursed is the one who doesn't continue in all that is, written in the law.' " So, the law shows you that you fail. The law cannot justify you or make you clean. That's why they had to have all of the animal sacrifices. And so Paul says there's a new covenant now in Jesus Christ.

He'll wash you. He'll cleanse you. The law can't do that, your own righteousness can't do it, only the righteousness of Jesus Christ. In the Chinese language I read there is an interesting character for the word "righteousness." The word "righteousness" is represented by a Chinese character that's the combination of two characters: one character is the character for "me," and the other is the character for a lamb. And the character for "lamb" is placed above the character for "me." And in placing the lamb above "me," it forms a new character which stands for "righteousness." Very telling, isn't it? When the Lamb of God is placed over me and I stand in his work, his finished work, it forms a whole new creature, a whole new character, a whole new creation, and that's righteousness.

And so Paul pulls this verse out to say, "No matter what you do, you can't keep all the law, and ' "Cursed is everyone who doesn't keep all the law." And the people shall say, "Amen!" ' " Now, obviously we cannot get through all of the verses of chapter 28, but we can get through a good chunk of them because its sort this monologue of blessing and cursing. " 'It shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe him carefully' "---and that's a big "if" by the way, as you'll see---" 'which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you will high above all the nation of the earth. '

"And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God:

"Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.

"Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of the ground, the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.

"Blessed shall be your basket and kneading bowl.

"Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.

"The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.

"The Lord will command blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you sent your hand, he will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

"The Lord will establish you as a holy people to himself, just as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. Then all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. And the Lord will grant plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. The Lord will open to you his good treasure, the heavens, and give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. The Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and be careful the observe them. So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

"But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, and observe carefully all his commandments and his statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

"Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.

"Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

"Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.

"Cursed you shall be when you come in, and cursed you shall be when you go out.

"The Lord will send on you cursing, confusion, rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken me."

In this chapter, and we'll save the rest for next time, blessings are given, cursings are given. The cursings last in description four times longer than the blessings. Why is that? There's a number of reasons that could be supposed. Some have said, "Well, in the ancient contracts, covenants, it was typical, when you made a covenant with a nation or another person to give more cursings, more warnings if you don't keep this covenant than promises or blessings. But I think the real reason is in chapter 28, and we'll get to it next week, it's not just a covenant where blessings or warnings are given, it's predictive prophecy. It's a foreshadow of what Israel will do.

In fact, in chapter 28 it's almost---it is a detailed description of what happens to a nation that turns from God and has other nations come against it and suffers siege conditions of starvation, dying of thirst, loss of spirit, confidence, and going into captivity, which they do for 70 years in Babylon, in which they do at the hands of the Romans. And God will predict their disobedience. And so they'll get booted out of the land. You say, "Now, wait a minute. I thought you said in the beginning about this covenant stuff that it's an unconditional covenant." It is, but the law is conditional: "If . . . , then . . . ; If . . . , then . . . ; If . . . , then . . . ." You say, "I don't get it." Simply this: here's a people under the law of Moses in the land.

When one generation blows it and continues to blow it, God warns them. If they don't heed it, God will eventually take them captive. But God won't leave them captive, God always promises that they will be humbled by the experience. God will use it to cause them to say, "God, I'm sorry. I repent. I turn back to you." And when they're in that humble condition, and they pray to God, God will bring them back into the land. And, eventually, they will dwell in the land the prophet said, in peace and in security. The land is unconditional; the tenure of the land based on the covenant of Moses is conditional. Now let's end with this: God wants to bless your life.

God wants to make a covenant with you, not based upon your righteousness---by the way, you don't want to enter into that kind of a covenant, because you'll have good days and lots of bad days. And on the good days you might feel real smug, like you've kept the law, like a lot of Pharisees did. But all those bad days, it's good to know that you're under the covering of the Lamb over you, and that new character is righteousness. That's the covenant God wants to make with you. That's the covenant of blessing. Any other kind of a deal God is unwilling to strike up with man in this generation. God doesn't want you to fall under the cursings, but to experience abundant life, a life of fullness in your family, in your business, in your relationships.

How? Keep Christ at the center. Maybe you're having an experience like the children of Israel, in following other gods they ended up captive in a land that worshiped those other gods until they cried out and said, "God, we've sinned. We've blown it. Please forgive us." God brought them back. Maybe you're feeling captive tonight, captive by a habit, captive by the consequences of disobedience. Maybe you feel far from God tonight. I want you to know that God is not up in heaven with his arms folded going, "Told you so!" [laughter] God's arms aren't folded, his hands are outstretched, just like on the cross. These two hands that were outstretched reaching out to the Father, reaching out to you, and bringing you together.

That's the covenant Jesus wants to make with you tonight. You say, "Yeah, but, Skip, I've taken 20, 30, 40 steps away from God. I remember a time when I walked with him. It's been so long since I walked close. Maybe I should start taking those 20, 30, 40 steps back." It's only one step back. It's only one step back. What is the step? Repentance, turning around, changing your mind in direction, and giving your life to Jesus Christ. Each week we have the joy of introducing so many people at the services, after the services in counseling, to Jesus Christ, up to a hundred or more, and we get to see how God changes their lives and pronounces blessings upon them. Maybe that would be you tonight.

For more resources from Calvary Albuquerque and Skip Heitzig visit calvaryabq.org.

Additional Messages in this Series

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12/22/1996
completed
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Deuteronomy 1:1-33
Deuteronomy 1:1-33
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12/29/1996
completed
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Deuteronomy 1:34-3:29
Deuteronomy 1:34-3:29
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1/5/1997
completed
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Deuteronomy 4:1-49
Deuteronomy 4:1-49
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1/12/1997
completed
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Deuteronomy 5:1-15
Deuteronomy 5:1-15
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2/2/1997
completed
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Deuteronomy 5:16-6:9
Deuteronomy 5:16-6:9
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2/9/1997
completed
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Deuteronomy 6:8-8:11
Deuteronomy 6:8-8:11
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2/16/1997
completed
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Deuteronomy 9-10
Deuteronomy 9-10
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3/2/1997
completed
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Deuteronomy 11-12:13
Deuteronomy 11-12:13
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3/9/1997
completed
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Deuteronomy 13-14
Deuteronomy 13-14
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3/16/1997
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Deuteronomy 14:22-16:8
Deuteronomy 14:22-16:8
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4/6/1997
completed
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Deuteronomy 16:9-17:20
Deuteronomy 16:9-17:20
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4/14/1997
completed
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Deuteronomy 18-20
Deuteronomy 18-20
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4/20/1997
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Deuteronomy 20-21
Deuteronomy 20-21
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5/4/1997
completed
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Deuteronomy 22-23
Deuteronomy 22-23
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5/25/1997
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Deuteronomy 24-25
Deuteronomy 24-25
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6/8/1997
completed
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Deuteronomy 26-27:3
Deuteronomy 26-27:3
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6/18/1997
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Deuteronomy 28:15-68
Deuteronomy 28:15-68
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6/26/1997
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Deuteronomy 29-30:8
Deuteronomy 29-30:8
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7/2/1997
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Deuteronomy 30:10-31:8
Deuteronomy 30:10-31:8
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7/9/1997
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Deuteronomy 31:9-32:22
Deuteronomy 31:9-32:22
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7/16/1997
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Deuteronomy 32:23-34:12
Deuteronomy 32:23-34:12
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There are 21 additional messages in this series.
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