Deuteronomy 1:1-8 Here We Are

Welcome to Recast Church, where we're growing in faith, community, and service. You're listening to a message by Pastor Kyle Douglas from the Book of Deuteronomy, from a series entitled, Clinging to God on the Way from Here to There.

If you'd like more information about Recast Church, check us out at recastchurch .com or you can find us on Facebook. Here's Pastor Kyle.

Deuteronomy as a Pre-Game Speech for God’s People

All right. I got some good stuff for Christmas, including some trekking poles, which I'm excited to use at some point, like hiking poles, you know. But I think maybe one of the best gifts I'm getting this year is the opportunity to preach for two weeks.

And I'm really excited to preach this week and next, and then I get another opportunity in February. And I consider it a privilege to be able to get up here and share the Word of God with you guys. So, and hopefully it'll give Don a little breather.

He'll come back refreshed and ready to go. So since I have a couple of opportunities here at the start of the year, I've decided to begin preaching through a book of the Bible. And I've landed on the book of, drum roll please, Deuteronomy.

Right. Anyone excited? Oh yeah. I can see it. Preaching the book of Deuteronomy. And this morning we'll cover some brief introductory factoids about Moses' fifth book. And then we'll work through verses one through eight of chapter one and see if God will use that to mess with our hearts a little bit this morning.

To begin, though, and to kind of set up maybe the spirit of Deuteronomy, I'd like to do a little quiz. Anyone up for a quiz? Okay. What I'll do is I'm going to read three short speeches and then you tell me where they come from and potentially who gave it, okay?

And then at the end I'll ask you what they all have in common. So the first one is a layup. This should be so easy, okay? Jesus, so close. So close. Always the right answer. Always go with that. It's a safe one.

He did make the people who made this movie, okay? It's all him. All right. Anyway, let's get to this. I fight and you may die, run and you'll live at least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our, altogether now, freedom.

Any guesses? Mel Gibson, correct? William Wallace. Jesus, I hope, someday in heaven does that, you know, just gives us a chance to see the real king. Right. Mel Gibson playing William Wallace in the movie Braveheart, all right?

And then at the end they all shout together, alba gubra, which I guess means Scotland forever. Okay, that was easy. Second one, maybe a little harder, but probably not much. Name the character who gives it and the movie.

There's a tradition in tournament play not to talk about the next step until you've climbed the one in front of you. I'm sure going to the state finals is beyond your wildest dreams, so let's just keep it right there.

Forget about the crowds, the size of the school, their fancy uniforms, and remember what got you here. Focus on the fundamentals that we've gone over time and time again. And most important, don't get caught up thinking about winning or losing the game.

If you put your effort and concentration into playing to your potential, to be the best that you can be, I don't care what the scoreboard says at the end of the game, in my book we're going to be winners.

Hold on, all together. Remember that. Okay? All right. Well, let's go. Yes, Hoosiers. Who said it? From the movie Hoosiers? Coach Dale. Coach Dale of the Hoosiers. I think they go and win, right? Did they win?

That'd be a waste of a speech if they didn't. Okay. So that was number two. Good job. You guys are movie buffs. All right. Now, the next one, a little bit longer. Tell me where it comes from. Who said it?

For ask now of the days that are past which were before you since the day that God created man on the earth. And ask from one end of heaven to the other whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of.

Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of a fire as you have heard and still live? Or has any God ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

To you it was shown that you might know the Lord is God. There is no other besides him. To you it was shown. I already said that part. Out of heaven, he let you hear his voice that he might discipline you.

And on earth, he let you see his great fire and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire. And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence by his great power, driving out before you the nations greater and mightier than you to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance as it is this day.

Know therefore today and lay it to your heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. There is no other. Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments which I command you today that it may go well with you and with your children after you and that you may prolong your days in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.

Who said that one? Moses in the book of Deuteronomy. That's not a movie, but it would make an awesome one. Didn't they make, was that part of the Bible thing or whatever? Should be. Charlton Essendon.

I'm sure he said it somewhere. So what do all these have in common, these three speeches? They're all motivational speeches given to a team or a group of people on the brink of a major battle or game or transition.

The leaders use these words to keep their people focused, to rouse their hearts and minds and steal them, steal their hearts for the task ahead, to excite them into their full potential. Deuteronomy as a whole is like a pre-game speech given by Moses to the Israelites before the invasion of the promised land.

It's not just a boring old book full of rules for people who don't live anymore. It's a passionate, zealous call for the people to love God with all their heart and do what God has called them to do. So it's like this long sermon.

It was likely given over multiple days and in a few different locations, specifically Kadesh, Barnea, Mount Ebal, and Moab. And Moses used it to pour out his heart to a people that he was about to leave behind.

But in case comparing Deuteronomy to Hoosiers does not yet convince you of the importance of studying this book, let me give you a few other reasons that I think, that I've used to decide to study this book of Deuteronomy.

Why Deuteronomy Helps Clarify Faith, Works, and New Testament Theology

First I think it helps us get greater clarity on the faith works debate and New Testament theology in general. Anybody else interested in figuring that one out? Faith versus works? Kind of? If you've got it locked down, don't worry about it.

Is it all just faith or does God want us to do some stuff? Do we follow the law anymore? Of course not. No, it's all by Jesus. But are we to murder? Well, no. Anyone want to get in a debate about whether we should commit adultery or lie or steal?

Right? So in some way, the law still is important to us. We still want to know what God wants us to do, but we of course know that it's all by faith. So as straight up rules go, much of what we read in Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy just doesn't apply.

Like not being allowed to pick up sticks on Sunday or having to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, right? But we do know that some things still do. What about the Sabbath? Maybe we can pick up sticks today, but doesn't the spirit of the law still apply?

Shouldn't we still take a day to set aside God as holy? Do we still need rest? Would anyone agree with that, that you still need rest? That God is smart by telling us to take a day off? I'm still working this one out.

So figuring out exactly what this means, how we live totally, how we're saved totally by faith and yet how we live for God, how we live in His freedom and the grace that He's given to us takes some work.

And specifically the work of understanding God's patterns and His character and Deuteronomy gives us a lot of information about how God works and what He wants from His people. Which may be why it is one of the most, if not the most quoted books in the New Testament.

It's referenced over 80 times. So if Jesus thought it was a good idea to bring it up in His teachings and His debates, maybe we ought to pay attention as well. And I do think that having a good understanding of this book lays a solid foundation for our New Testament theology and understandings.

Secondly, as I just mentioned briefly, it does help us to get to know God better because He reveals a lot about His will and strategy for working with humans in this book. I think a careful study of Deuteronomy helps dispel a common stereotype that we Christians tend to lean on a lot.

And that's that the God of the Old Testament is this mean, nasty guy who just gives a bunch of rules and the only way you get to heaven or please Him is by keeping all the rules. Anyone been there? That's kind of your idea of the Old Testament God?

Big, cranky guy, just like a school marm or something. Dictator type God. Faith didn't have much to do with anything once the law came around. Of course, you had the faith of Abraham, but then you get to the rules and now it's just about not picking up sticks and what else.

And likewise, now that Jesus has come, we don't have rules anymore, amen. And God certainly doesn't cramp anybody's style with something as 2000 B .C. as judgment for sin. As we will see, I think studying a book like Deuteronomy helps keep us honest in our modern evangelicalism.

Yahweh was just as concerned with the heart condition of his people back at the giving of the law as he is today. And our gracious Messiah is still concerned with us following the law of love that puts an emphasis on committing ourselves, including our lifestyles and everyday actions fully to our Creator, Provider, Savior God, and ridding ourselves of the despicable practices of the godless nations and showing the world how magnificent life can be when we obey God with gladness and full-hearted obedience.

And man, do we need an understanding, a strong understanding of the character and nature of God today. And I wonder how many of us sign up for this Jesus thing and yet we never really take time or effort into figuring out who we actually follow.

You ever thought of that? We come to Jesus and we're glad that he saved us because, well, we don't want to go to hell, but then we don't really struggle to find out who it is we serve. So sometimes we adopt things that aren't right or we have a weak sense of God's own identity and what he'd want for us.

And so studying a book like Deuteronomy helps us with that. Thirdly, last point, I think Deuteronomy as a sermon given to God's people on the brink of a great national geopolitical transition has a few things to teach us as a church family as we ourselves are on the brink of one of our own major transitions.

I think it might be a mild exaggeration to say that that 12 acres over on East McGillin is the promised land, right? Parallel probably isn't that tight, but we are a community called by God in a covenant or relationship with him by the blood of Christ to be a holy people as he is holy.

We are to be a light to our community, a light to the nations. We are growing and expanding and needing to move to a new place and we have plenty of challenges to face on the way from here to there. And the journey may include a brief stint in the wilderness that is Madawan Lader Elementary, in which case half of you will rebel and die.

It won't be that bad, trust me. So maybe there aren't that many differences really. But I do believe that the passionate cry of Moses to love God completely and without compromise and to trust him unreservedly as we face the challenges before us are just as applicable today as they were to the Israelites back then.

So that's my hope for these four messages from Deuteronomy, this week and then next and then the two more in February. I hope that we all come away with a deeper, truer understanding of God's history and character and that we would be inspired to comply wholeheartedly with God's plan to make us into a loving, obedient church community founded on the person and work of Jesus Christ, saved on nothing but grace and called to nothing less than wholehearted obedience, especially as we continue on to another phase in the life of our church in 2014.

Deuteronomy 1:1-8 and the Historical Setting of Moses’ Sermon

So turn with me. We're going to read chapter 1, verses 1 through 8 of Deuteronomy. Could someone throw out the page number of the seat back Bible? 125, Deuteronomy, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua. We'll read verses 1 through 8.

These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness in the Ereba opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hezroth, and Dizahab. It is 11 days journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea.

In the 40th year on the first day of the 11th month, Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment to them. After he had defeated Sihon the king of the Amorites who lived in Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan who lived in Ashteroth and in Edri.

Beyond the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law saying, the Lord our God said to us in Horeb, you have stayed long enough at this mountain, turn and take your journey and go into the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbors in the Ereba, in the hill country and in the lowland and in the Najeb and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites and Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.

See I have set the land before you, go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob to give to them and to their offspring after them. Let's pray.

Oh Father in heaven, I thank you for your word as always. It is a blessing beyond anything we can fathom that we have your word so readily available to us and even these ancient texts that we have a window into what you were doing thousands of years ago with your people.

And I thank you Lord for preserving it and for bringing it down through history Lord and making it so accessible to us and I pray that as we embark on this journey through Deuteronomy, at least a part of it, God that you would open our hearts, that you'd open our minds and that you'd soften us to what you have to say to us.

I pray that we would avoid the sin of thinking that somehow a part of your word is irrelevant to us, that it doesn't matter and instead God I pray that we would engage it with all of our strength and all of our heart and all of our minds so that we would know Lord who you are and what your will is Lord.

I pray that we'd learn from this even if all of it doesn't apply to us God, I pray that you'd help us glean out the principles that we need to know you and to live for you fully. And just be with us now as we worship God, we give these songs to you, we thank you for this time to come to you Lord, this is your time, we're here for you and to make you great and I pray Lord that your spirit would be here among us.

And it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Before I forget, I forgot to mention this in the beginning, but this is a Bible reading plan and we always kind of emphasize this at the beginning of a new year, resolution time, right?

Kind of maybe get to something like that at the end of the sermon, but if you're looking for help in reading through the Bible, if you've never read through the Bible or it's been a while since you've done that, what an awesome thing this is, it's like comes complete with checkboxes.

Anyone like checkboxes? Oh yeah, knocking it down. So, and it also helps you read books that you would never normally read like Deuteronomy, some of you. So, we encourage you to do this. And these are available back there on that desk there and we can make more copies if we need to.

Deuteronomy as a Copy, Treaty, and Mosaic Recap of the Law

All right, go ahead and keep your Bibles open if you'd like to Deuteronomy, it might just kind of help you track with me and the text will essentially be the outline and might just be good to glance down from time to time.

So let's just jump in. And these are the words, the very first few words there of Deuteronomy. In Hebrew, the book was titled literally these words, sometimes shortened to just words. And that shows a common Hebrew tradition of naming a book after the first few words or lines of that text.

The name that we know it by though, Deuteronomy means second law and it actually came from a mistranslation. Don't you love that? Like when mistakes just get codified. So it's a mistranslation of chapter 17 verse 18 in the Septuagint which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible.

They were trying to talk about how the king was supposed to make a copy of the law for himself to read and to have as a reference so that he would rule well by the word of God. And instead of talking, instead of using the word for copy, they used the word second law.

And so that's Deuteronomia I believe in Greek. And it stuck though even though it was a mistranslation because in a sense that is what's happening here. Moses is giving a recap or giving a second time the law that he received at Mount Sinai.

And so they kept the word around and that's why we call it Deuteronomy. It's not a second law in terms of new things although there are some differences between what was given on Mount Sinai and Deuteronomy.

But it was just meant to be a copy or a reminder. In terms of structure, just kind of looking at the 20 ,000 view, 20 ,000 foot view of the whole book, commentators have identified a pretty strong parallel between these words and the vassal treaties of the day.

So we're talking probably around 1 ,000 to 1 ,500 BC before Christ when this was written. Conservative estimate there. When a king or lord would take over a people and he would feel the need to regain allegiance, he would make an agreement speech like we find in Deuteronomy.

He would give a recap of the awesome things that he did and so we'll see a historical prologue in Deuteronomy. These are all the things that make me great and make me worthy to be your leader. And then he would go on to explain the terms of the treaty, how they would live under his ruler reign and then give consequences for both allegiance and disobedience.

And we will see Moses including all of these, exhortations about fidelity and allegiance to God, their ultimate boss. The laws and our expectations of citizenship. And then he gives blessings and curses at the end of the book which are the consequences for both proper service and misconduct.

So in this way it's very sermonic, you know, a sermon like that or a speech like that given by a vassal lord is meant to do what? To convince you to obey him, to create in you a heart of fidelity towards him as your leader.

So this isn't just about what to do but why Israel should do it. It's persuasive and meant to result in change behavior. In a lot of ways I think of it like an orientation program, you know, they're getting ready to move into the next step, they're going to the promised land and Moses is saying, guys, this is what it needs to be about.

This is where your heart needs to be and this is how you conduct yourselves in this next phase of God's plan. So these are the words that Moses spoke. Many of us are familiar with Moses at least superficially.

He was a Hebrew born into slavery in Egypt and then remember there was a decree that all of the babies were to be killed because the Hebrew women were pumping out too many babies and they were getting too big.

The population was growing and so there was a decree to kill all the babies under two. Well Moses' mother didn't want that to happen and so she put him in a basket, floated him down the river and remember who found him?

The daughter of Pharaoh, right, and she sees this baby and decides to raise him, actually gives him back to his mother to be raised and then when he's weaned around seven or eight she brings him back to Pharaoh's daughter and then he gets raised in the household of Pharaoh.

So he was very well educated, raised almost both as a Hebrew and an Egyptian and yet despite that he was kind of a mumbler. He wasn't strong in speech, the scripture tells us. He was a murderer. So at one point as he's walking around watching how the Egyptians' taskmasters were treating the Hebrew slaves, he sees someone being mistreated and he goes and he kills the Egyptian for mistreating the Hebrew slave and then he thinks that will be well received but the Hebrews actually are like well, the next day he sees a couple of Hebrews arguing and he's like how can you do this brothers, don't argue and they're like well what are you going to do, are you going to kill us both too just like you killed the Egyptian?

He realizes that he's been found out and so he runs away into the wilderness for 40 years. Becomes a shepherd and that's when we get to the burning bush and that's probably what most people recognize, right, Moses in the burning bush.

So he's out there, he's trying to run away, trying to just leave all that behind him. He's acting as a shepherd. God speaks to him and says hey, I want to use you to rescue my people. So he becomes an administrator and a shepherd of God's people and then after the exodus, after they leave Egypt, he's working both as a mediator and a hero for Israel.

As a representative of God, he's giving the law. So God speaks the law to Moses, then he gives it back to the people, oftentimes through Aaron who was his mouthpiece, but he was also a hero in the sense that he was an intercessor for the people and it's crazy to read, but there are times when God is like I am sick of these people.

I'm going to smoke them right now, pulling out the guns, they're done, right, and Moses is like God don't do that, like please, you know, for your name's sake, these are the people that you promised to rescue and to bring out into a good land and if you do that people are going to think you can't keep your promises so God please don't do this.

He intercedes and actually the scripture tells us that he changes God's heart on a few occasions and withholds his discipline from them. So in Deuteronomy, especially in Deuteronomy, he is highlighted as not just a law giver but also an interpreter of the law.

He undertakes to explain this law to them and a prophet. He warns them about the future. So within Deuteronomy we find a few things about what will happen including their guaranteed disobedience. He says you guys are going to fall away and don't worry if you call out to God when you're getting messed up in a foreign land because you didn't follow God's commandments, God will hear you and bring you back and all that.

So he's a pretty important guy. I would challenge us as we read through Deuteronomy to listen for Moses' heart, to listen to his heart. I picture him as someone who has this great love for his kids, the people that he's put in charge of, which drives him at times to be very passionate and sometimes harsh.

Can anyone relate to that? Sometimes you love someone so much, especially your kids, that you're just like, please listen to me. I want what's best for you. Wake up. He wants things to go well with them.

He wants them to be fully obedient to God and his passion comes through and his zeal comes through. And it's important to know that what he's saying, I believe, is said in love. So even the laws, even the commandments, even the parameters that he puts on the people are meant to produce good in them, to protect them from what might hurt him.

I think a simple, oh, lost my place there, yeah, so again, Moses is a big deal and I think we should pay attention to him. And that just goes for any time someone important speaks, right? Even when the application doesn't apply directly to us.

And maybe that's some of your trouble with the Old Testament is that, you know, you're reading this and you're like, well, we're not, we are God's people, but we're not Israel. How do these laws apply, et cetera?

And I think one way to think about it is to think of them almost like siblings. And have you ever been in this situation where your sibling gets in trouble and you take the hint? You know what I'm talking about?

So for example, I'll be at home and we'll be trying to sit down and have a semi-peaceful dinner. I have three daughters, Adelaide, Evie, and Charlotte. Adelaide's the oldest, Evie the middle child, Charlotte the young rapscalian.

Let's say I get on Evie, who's generally the one who's like, you know, minds her manners or whatever. But let's just say she's wiggling around and she's like up and down for the 30th time. And I kind of get on her and I say, Evie, sit your seat down and don't move.

We're eating dinner. I say that to Evie, but I look over and I see Adelaide, and Adelaide's like got her head down, right? All of a sudden she stops wiggling, all right? She has taken the admonition that I've given to Evie and knows that she could be under the same charge, right?

The metaphor breaks down when I talk about Charlotte because she's like asking me if she can have another roll instead of eating her vegetables as I'm chewing Evie out, you know, that kind of thing. But you know what I'm saying?

Like sometimes when someone else gets an admonition or a teaching, we can learn from that. And I think that's what's happening here. Even though not everything applies to us that God is going to say to Israel, we can still glean wisdom from it.

We can take to heart what he tells them. Final point though. Despite Moses' high standing among the greats of the leaders of God, in fact, he would be with Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration when Jesus is transfigured.

He was punished for disobedience. And we may not get to that story, but essentially he pridefully changes a little bit the method that God gave him to produce water for the people and God says, because you disobeyed my exact words, you're not going to see the promised land.

So he was a godly man, but he was only a man. And that's a good thing to keep in mind. So he's speaking to all Israel. These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel. Who's all Israel? Well, they're, number one, a chosen people.

Right now, Don is preaching through the book of Genesis, right? So we go back and we hear the story of Abraham and how he was called from the wilderness and how he had Isaac and Jacob. Jacob was the one who wrestled with God and was renamed Israel.

And then he has 12 sons. They become the 12 tribes. Joseph is one of those sons. And on we go up into the Exodus. But at this point, post-Exodus, in the wilderness, they become a sizable people, making the assembly all Israel quite an event, all right?

This wasn't, hey, meet at my place for games Friday night, kind of a thing. This was like, hey, we're all meeting at the national monument, all right? This is like the Million Man March. There's tons of people here.

And if I'm really boring you, you can flip back to numbers and count up how many males of fighting age were in each of the tribes and then extrapolate women and children from that and come up with a number if you'd like.

But I'll just, I can also cheat and just tell you that. I mean, we are literally talking about probably a million people here. So this is a major camp. This is like a major city in the U .S., the size of this people.

So they've really expanded out here in the wilderness. So at this point, they're 40 years out of Egypt, but it's still debatable whether Egypt is all out of them. They're out of Egypt, but it's still debatable whether Egypt is all out of them.

And when we get to the historical prologue where Moses goes back in time and kind of recites for them the things that God has done and how they've treated God in the midst of that, we realize that these were people in desperate need of a righteous rehab program.

They really needed to figure out who God was and what it means to live under him. And they would fight that continually. So here we have these words spoken by Moses, to all Israel, where? The location is important here.

Where are they? Well, they're in the wilderness beyond the Jordan. And I didn't do a map, but essentially you have a bunch of water here, then you have land here, and the Jordan River creates kind of a border there on the side.

And then after you get off of the Jordan River, you have a huge wilderness called the Arabah or the desert. And they're likely somewhere in there, east of the Jordan. None of these other places that are mentioned, apart from Kadesh Barnea, we have a good grasp on where they were.

It's all speculation at this point. So we'd have a hard time putting a pin down on a modern map. But a few observations about the importance of this geographical information and why I think it's included.

First, these are real space and time places. These are real places. This is not a fairy tale. The narrator here, which was either Moses himself or one of his editors listening to the speech and recording it, wants to make sure that we are rooted in the reality of where this went down.

It really happened. And it's meant to be understood as history. This place that they're at is the gateway into the promised land. It's the doorstep to a better place, a land of real milk and real honey.

It's the evidence of God's desire to bless his people. It's not just a metaphor. Although we often take the Old Testament as that. Well, it's just kind of this legend. It's this fairy tale that, you know, just kind of teach us some principles about God.

But no, these were real people going to a real place. They really walked through the desert. They were really tired. And they really hoped for what God had before them. I emphasize this because I think it adds teeth to the principles that we will take from their story.

If this is just myth and legend, well, then great. Let's have fun. And yeah, I guess we have faith with God and stuff and love him and what's next, right? We can either do that or we can lean hard on the fact that there was a real people just as dumb and just as unworthy and just as weak and just as hopeful as we are.

But Yahweh, who parted seas and slayed enemies and provided manna, established every sandaled footprint they laid down in obedience to him. And we can know that he'll do the same for us. Not metaphorically, but really.

Secondly, and another important note about this geography, they've already been here in this place before. They're just east of the Jordan at a place called Kadesh Barnea, the same place they were camped the first time God wanted to bring them into the land.

It tells us that it's 11 days journey from Mount Horeb, which is another name for Mount Sinai, which is where they received the what? Ten Commandments. Eleven days journey. But verse three says that they're here and now the context of Deuteronomy being given is 40 years past the time when they left the mountain.

Eleven days journey, but 40 years later. More on that in a minute. I think it's also important to note that the narrator firmly believes that God told Moses what he was to say. Verse three states that Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment to them.

We have to be careful as we work through this book and the rest of the Old Testament for that matter, to remember that God inspired this to be written, right? Yes it was from Moses, yes his personality is used and his wisdom, but ultimately it is from God.

And I make this point because we can be tempted when things get funky, right? To say, oh well that was just Moses. That was just those crazy Old Testament folks, those were just those crazy Israelites.

But even Jesus when questioned about divorce said that Moses allowed you to write a certificate of divorce because of the hardness of your hearts, but it's not what God intended. That's sometimes used to show that well, it was really just Moses' idea, you know, in giving the law.

But even then, did God say it was okay for Moses to write that? Did God approve Moses to give that teaching in that time? Yeah, he did. So if these are, as verse 3 says, the commands that God had Moses speak, then we must approach them with proper reverence and respect.

Even when we find out that maybe they don't apply like they did back then, we still understand that they came from the mouth of God through Moses. In verse 4 we get some further context and we're told that Moses speaks these words after Israel had defeated two Amorite kings, King Sihon and King Og, which I'll just briefly say I think shows that they are coming together as a people.

And God is putting some W's on the board, right? The conquest of the promised land is not going to be an easy task. There are well-rooted and established people already there and they don't like the idea that someone's going to come in and kick them off their land.

So God gave them a few battles and a few tests, I think, of their military might to build their confidence, I think. And if you're interested in those, those are recorded in numbers. They actually give us a little bit more detail about these two kings, I think around Numbers 15.