Introduction - why study this book?

How many here remember the big controversy last Spring with Andy Stanley? For those of you who don't, Andy Stanley is considered one of the top twelve most influential pastors in the English speaking world.¹ He claims to be an evangelical, but his presuppositions are anything but evangelical. Anyway, the controversy started with an April 30, 2018 sermon,² which I listened to last week to make sure he was not being misrepresented. In that sermon he told Christians that they must unhitch their faith, their moral values, and their entire worldview from the Old Testament Scriptures.³ In fact, he insisted that Christians are actually losing their faith in college because of the Old Testament - especially when science comes in conflict with Genesis, and when modern ethics come in conflict with the law. Implied was the idea that it is so unnecessary to believe Genesis since we are New Testament Christians. It is so unnecessary to encumber our lives with Deuteronomy since we are New Testament Christians. He was encouraging people to just avoid the controversies and say that those books are not for Christians.

He kept saying that the Old Testament has nothing to do with our faith. He even claimed that Christianity was not founded on the Bible. Let me quote him exactly. He said,

...the foundation of the faith for the early Christians was not a book; they didn't have one. It wasn't the Bible; there wasn't one. It wasn't the Old Covenant or what we call the Old Testament ... because that didn't tell the story of Jesus. The foundation of the faith for the early church was an event. It was the resurrection of Jesus.

That should instantly be recognized as heresy since it explicitly says that God’s revelation is not the foundation for our faith.

But let's take a couple of minutes to contrast a sampling of his statements with what we have already seen in Genesis through Numbers.

At one point in the sermon he clearly claimed there wasn't much grace in the Old Testament. But what have we seen so far? We have seen that Genesis through Numbers is saturated with God's grace. We'll see the same thing in the book of Deuteronomy.

He claimed that the Old Testament "didn't tell the story of Jesus." Well, maybe he doesn't recognize the story of Jesus in those books, but we have seen that through typology, the first three books of the Bible have an incredibly rich Christology. Well, Deuteronomy does too. The Pentateuch talks about the specific dates of His birth and death. It talks about His perfect life and ministry. It teaches His substitutionary atonement. It's a fairly complete Christology.

On the law, Andy Stanley says, "You are not accountable to the ten commandments... Thou shalt not obey the ten commandments because those are not your commandments." If that was the case, why did Paul quote the Old Testament commandments word for word in Romans 13 and apply them to the church? Why not use new wording? And why did Jesus say that the New Covenant Christian who taught people to disobey Deuteronomy 22:6 (which is the least of these commandments - the commandment relating to a mother bird and a baby bird in her nest) would be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven (Matt. 5:19)?

Let me give one more outrageous quote. Andy Stanley said, "The Old Testament was not the go-to source regarding any behavior for the church..." Or as he worded it in another place, the New Testament church was unhinged from the Old Testament and you too must be completely unhinged from it. And yet Acts 17:11 praises the Bereans for checking absolutely everything that Paul had taught them against the Old Testament Scriptures to make sure that what Paul was teaching was true. The Bereans were definitely not unhinged from the Old Testament - and that was long after the Jerusalem Council that Andy Stanley was preaching on. Paul praises them for judging apostolic teaching by the Old Testament standard. Obviously Paul does not think that Andy Stanley's interpretation of Acts 15 is correct. In Acts 26:22, Paul said that he didn't teach a single thing without backing it up from the Old Testament. That was the Bible of the early church.

So I thought I would quickly give you seven reasons why we should study the book of Deuteronomy.

First, Jesus quoted Deuteronomy far more than any other book of the Bible, showing its importance in His mind.⁴ Jesus was not unhinged from Deuteronomy.

Second, the Gospel of Matthew is so saturated in the thinking of Deuteronomy that Mark Biddle's commentary claims, "Matthew... takes the theology of Deuteronomy as the basis for its argument."⁵ Another author called Matthew Deuteronomistic because it was so saturated in Deuteronomy. The point is, if you are going to take the Gospel of Matthew seriously, you have to take Deuteronomy seriously.

Third, Deuteronomy is one of the most frequently cited Old Testament books throughout the New Testament writings (nearly two hundred times) and those quotes touch upon nearly every facet of Christian doctrine and life. Any honest scholar will admit that the New Testament makes Deuteronomy the foundation for Christian doctrine and life.

Fourth, it is critical that the church understands what our nation must do if it is to avoid the curses of Deuteronomy and instead receive God's blessings. Simply singing "God bless America" is not enough.

Fifth, we will be seeing that Deuteronomy gives blueprints for every segment of society - for rulers (Deut. 17:18-20), church leaders (Deut. 17:18; 24:8; 31:9), parents (Deut. 6:1-9), military (Deut. 20), business, children, etc.

Sixth, Deuteronomy 31:9-13 tells us that every man, woman and child (whether Israelite or stranger in the land) was to study Deuteronomy. In other words, even in the Old Testament times, it was not just a Jewish book.

And seventh, numerous New Testament Scriptures call us to study all Scripture (which would obviously include Deuteronomy). Acts 20:27 calls for studying the whole counsel of God. 2 Timothy 3:14-17 says that all Scripture is profitable and that we won't be "complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work" unless we have all the Scriptures. Seven good reasons to study Deuteronomy.

Key passage - Deut. 6:4-9 or 10:12-14

If you were to push me on what is the key passage of Deuteronomy, it would either be the Shema Israel in Deuteronomy 6:4-9, or chapter 10:12-14. A lot of study Bibles opt for the second passage, and since I will comment on Deuteronomy 6 later anyway, let's turn to chapter 10. And I'll begin reading at verse 12.

Deut. 10:12   “And now, Israel, what does Yehowah your God require of you, but to fear Yehowah your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve Yehowah your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to keep the commandments of Yehowah and His statutes which I command you today for your good?

I won't make a lot of comments on that key verse, but it does show a number of things that the modern church needs to wake up to. Let me just share two. It shows that fearing God and loving God are totally compatible. It shows that loving God and keeping His commandments are not only compatible, but that you don't love God if you ignore His commandments. With David we should say, "O, how I love Your Law! It is my meditation all the day." And since this theme verse commands us to love and serve God with all our hearts and to keep His commandments with all our heart and soul, the Psalmist (recognizing the weakness of his flesh) pleads with God, "Incline my heart to Your testimonies, and not to covetousness" (Ps. 119:36); "Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law." Wondrous things! Deuteronomy is full of wondrous things, and I hope to give enough to whet your appetite for this amazing book.

Key words of Deuteronomy:

covenant (4:13,23,31; 5:2,3; 7:2,9,12; 8:18; 9:9,11,15; 10:8; 17:2; 29:1,9,12,14,21,25; 31:9,16,20,25,26; 33:9). The whole book is structured as a covenant, and this covenant builds on the covenants of promise that came before (references to the Abrahamic covenant in Deuteronomy include: 1:8,10,11; 4:1,31,37; 6:3,18,23; 7:8,12,13; 8:1,18; 9:5,27; 10:11,15,22; 11:9,21; 12:1,7; 13:17; 14:29; 15:4,6; 19:8; 26:5,7,15,18; 27:3; 28:2-6,9-11; 29:12,15,25; 30:5-9,20; 31:7,20; 33:10; 34:2-4)

I like to try to give a key word for every book, and most scholars say that "covenant" is the key word for Deuteronomy. I agree. I've given you a bunch of references to the covenant in Deuteronomy, but really, the whole book is structured like a covenant document. Even unbelieving commentators have recognized the five-fold structure that I have placed in your outlines. They may label them with different labels, but they recognize the five parts of Deuteronomy as the normal five parts of a covenant.

oath (1:35; 4:31; 6:10,13,18,23; 7:8,12; 8:1,18; 9:5; 10:11,20; 11:9,21; 13:17; 19:8; 26:3,15; 28:11; 29:12; 30:20; 31:7,20,21,23; 34:4)

The word "oath" is a related key word. That word is tied so tightly with the covenant that O. Palmer Robertson says that the terms “covenant” and “oath” are often treated as synonyms in Scripture.⁶ Biblically you can't have one without the other. And since Hebrews 6:16 says that oaths are always taken under authority, covenants are always entered into by taking an oath under some authority.⁷ So the second part of the covenant structure of Deuteronomy (on authorities or representatives) is very important. You don't have a covenant without those representatives. There are a lot of people who have rejected the authorities of family, church, and civics, which means they have rejected the covenant.

Even marriage covenants must be made under some authority. Full marriage is not simply a contract. And if the authority of parents is not available, then Scripture indicates that marriage should be done under some other authority. That authority could be church officers, or in a pinch, even civic officers. If the vows are not taken under an authority, Deuteronomy treats them as concubine marriages. They are still marriages, but they are concubine marriages. The ideal is covenant marriages. That's why I encourage people to renew their vows under an authority if they were not married properly in the first place. So one of the major sections of this book deals not only with God's authority in the covenant making process, but the authority of civil government, church government, and family government.

Anyway, oath is another key word that you find throughout this book. And because God cannot swear by a greater authority than Himself, He swears by Himself. He absolutely commits Himself to the covenant. We can bank on Him. He is the completely reliable God.

observe (4:1,6,14; 5:1,12,31; 6:1,3,24,25; 7:11; 8:1; 11:32; 12:1,28,32; 15:5; 16:1,12,13; 17:19; 24:8; 26:16; 28:1,13,15,58; 31:12; 32:46; 33:9) and keep (4:2,9,40; 5:10,12,15; 6:12,17; 7:8,9,11,12; 8:2,6,11; 10:13; 11:1,8,22; 13:4,18; 16:1,10,15; 19:9; 23:9,23; 24:12; 26:17,18; 27:1; 28:9,45; 29:9; 30:16; 33:9)

And I have listed a bunch of Scriptures that call Israel to observe His covenant or to keep His covenant laws. So "observe" and "keep" are key words that support the idea that covenant is the dominant theme.

love (4:37; 5:10; 6:5,9; 7:7,8,9,12,13; 10:12,15,18,19; 11:1,13,22; 13:3; 15:16; 19:9; 21:15,16; 23:5; 30:6,16,20; 33:3). In particular, we love God by:

And one more word that is at the heart of the idea of this covenant is the word for covenant love. That word comes up over and over in this book. God says that He gave His laws to Israel because He loved them and called them to love Him by keeping His laws. And in your outline I give a lot of Scriptures that show three ways that Deuteronomy says that we can show our love to God.

remembering the past (4:9,23,31; 5:15; 6:12; 7:18; 8:2,18,11,14,19; 9:7; 15:15; 16:3,12; 18:22; 24:9; 25:17,19; 32:7)

The first is to express our love by remembering the past and being grateful to God for the past. We don't unhinge from previous generations.

paying heed in the present (4:30; 8:20; 9:23; 13:4; 13:18; 15:5; 26:14; 26:17; 27:10; 28:1,2,15,45,62; 30:2,8,10,20)

The second is to pay special heed to God in the present, especially in the keeping of His laws, taking dominion, and developing our relationship with God.

by possessing for the future (1:8,21,39; 2:24,31; 3:18,20; 4:1,5,14,22,26; 5:31,33; 6:1,18; 7:1; 8:1; 9:1-6,23; 10:11; 11:8-11,23,29,31; 12:1,2,29; 15:4; 17:14; 18:14; 19:2,14; 21:1; 23:20; 25:19; 28:21,63; 30:5,16,18; 31:3,13; 31:47; 33:23)

And the third is by possessing or inheriting the land for God in the future. In other words, we can love God in our plans for taking dominion. We have a future of stewardship that we can do because we love God. We are like that slave that had his ear bored to the door of his master as a symbol that said, "I love you God. I want to be your slave for life. Thank you for adopting me as a slave into Your family."

But over and over again in this book God affirms His love for the people and calls the people to a love relationship with Him. And love is so tightly connected to the covenant of Deuteronomy that one commentator said, "Reaffirming the covenant is renewing love."⁸ Every time you come to the Lord's Table, it is telling the Lord once again that you love Him. So that first image on your outlines summarizes Deuteronomy as being a covenant of love.

The Christ of Deuteronomy

And since Deuteronomy is frequently slandered as missing New Testament grace, and even missing the New Testament Christ, I want to very briefly show that Christ is the heart of this covenant as He was in all the previous historical covenants. This book is full of types that prefigure Jesus and the Gospel.

In fact, some people have called Deuteronomy the "Gospel of John in the Old Testament." Before we get into the images, I want to demonstrate that that is true.

Like the Gospel of John, it calls people to demonstrate their love to God by keeping His commandments (Deut. 5:10; 7:9; 11:1,13,22; etc with John 13:34; 14:15,2131; 15:10,12). John 14:15 says, "If you love Me, keep My commandments." Verse 21 says, "He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is He who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." Well, there are similar verses all through the book of Deuteronomy.

Like John, Deuteronomy is absolutely immersed in the Gospel. We won't have time to do justice to the Gospel images in Deuteronomy this morning, but since I have preached on them in the previous books, I can be briefer here.

Like John, Deuteronomy calls people to put their faith in God. It's a book on faith.

Like John, it is rich in theology.

Like John it calls God's people to a covenant relationship.

Like John, it emphasizes the Word of God as being the standard of truth (see Deut 17:19 with John 17:17).

So if you want the equivalent to the Gospel of John in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy is it. I love this book.

Moses fulfills three offices as a type of Christ: prophet (34:10-12 representing Jesus in 18:15-19 with Acts 7:37), priest (cf. Ex. 5:5,26-27; 32:31-35), and ruler (33:4-5)

So let me very briefly outline the chief symbols or types that foreshadowed Jesus. As we saw in Exodus-Numbers, Moses stands as a type of Christ. He was a prophet, priest, and ruler just as Jesus was and His ministry in many ways is said in the Gospels to foreshadow the ministry of Jesus.

Joshua (1:38; 3:21,28; 31:3,14,23; 32:44; 34:9; etc. see Hebrews 4)

And Joshua similarly stands as a type of Jesus. Hebrews 4 says that just as Joshua took the conquest of Canaan, Jesus will take the conquest of the world - one major difference being that Joshua's conquest was with a physical sword, whereas Christ's conquest is with the Sword of the Spirit, the Bible.

Pillar of cloud (1:33; :11; 5:22; 31:15)

We saw before that the pillar of cloud points to Jesus leading His people. Where Joshua prefigures His Manhood, the cloud prefigures His divine nature.

Sacrifices (12:6,11,13,17,26; 16:2,4,5,6,10; 17:1; 18:1,3; 20:10,11; 21:1-9; 27:6,7; 33:19)

We have dealt with all the sacrifices of the sacrificial system in the past. Each one of those sacrifices beautifully teaches another facet of what their future Messiah would need to do to atone for their sins. These images and promises would have blown them away with what the future Messiah would do - to die as their substitute just as the animal they sacrificed had to die for their sins. Awesome love; awesome grace.

Law of Firstborn (12:6,17; 14:23; 15:19-23)

The laws of the firstborn in chapters 12, 14, and 15 are also symbolic of Jesus, who is repeatedly spoken of as the firstborn who inherits, the firstborn who shepherds, and the firstborn who leads.

Central sanctuary (12)

We looked at the central sanctuary as a detailed symbol of Jesus. Hebrews 2:12 speaks of Jesus as being "in the midst of the brethren." That’s where the tabernacle was - in the midst of the brethren. We approach the Father through the Person and work of Jesus and we have fellowship with the Father through Jesus. He is our tabernacle.

Feast days

We went through the feast days adequately in previous sermons, but each one of them showcases the person and work of Jesus.

Passover (15:21; 16:2-8,16)

Unleavened bread (16:3-8)

Pentecost (16:9-12,16)

Tabernacles (16:13-16)

Priests and prophets (18)

As do the priests and prophets in the next point.

Cities of refuge (19)

We looked at the cities of refuge last week and saw how they point to Jesus as our refuge from the death penalty of hell.

How much did Old Testament saints understand about this typology? Maybe not everyone did, and maybe none of them understood as much as we do, but Scripture indicates that the leaders did have a great deal of understanding of what those types meant and they taught the people. Jesus said that even long before this time, "Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad" (John 8:56). They weren't ignorant of what these types meant. They pointed to their coming Messiah.

Stone altar with words of the law (27:1-8)

The stone altar of chapter 27 also represents the work of Jesus. I didn't talk about this when it was first mentioned in the book of Exodus, so let me comment on it a bit. I've given you a picture of the archaeological discovery of this massive altar in your outline. And I've given an artistic reconstruction, which shows that there was plenty of room to write the law of God on there. It was huge.

This stone altar was elevated from the earth to show that Christ's sacrifice draws us to heaven.

Only clean animals were offered upon it as a symbol that a perfect sacrifice was yet to come - one without sin.

Verse 5 specifies that this huge altar could not be built with rocks that were quarried with human tools. In fact, the word for a natural rock and hewn rock are totally different words in the Hebrew throughout the Old Testament. Why could no human tool fashion these rocks? The next verse explains - inserting anything of our human ingenuity or works into the atonement profanes it. The work of reconciliation is 100% a work of Jesus Christ.

The large boulders or rocks were painted white to symbolize the purity of Jesus. But it also provided a background on which the entire law could be written and easily read.

The law written on that altar showed how God's law can only be kept by grace. This is not a legalistic book. This is a Gospel book. Outside of Jesus the law is a curse. But united to Jesus' sacrifice, our law-keeping is a blessing. We are not under the law in ourselves; we are under the law in Christ, or as some translate Paul, we are in the law through Christ.

And I have barely skimmed the surface on the Gospel of Christ in this book. But I think I have given enough to show how Andy Stanley has grossly insulted and slandered this marvelous Gospel book.

Outline of the book when viewed as a covenant document

I mentioned earlier that the whole book is structured like a covenant. Almost all scholars nowadays recognize that Deuteronomy follows a very standard five point covenant model.

Ray Sutton tried to make a acrostic to remember the five points by, but many people are lost by those words. His acrostic was Theos, the Greek word for God. So he made T stand for the Transcendence of God, H for Hierarchy, E for Ethics, O for Oath, and S for succession arrangements. But those words aren't immediately understandable to most people, so Gary North put each of the five points into modern lingo:

Transcendence just deals with who is in charge of this covenant; who is making this covenant? And the first eight verses say that Yehowah is.

Hierarchy deals with the question, "To whom do I report?" God has His representatives in family, church, and civics. We are to obey them in the Lord, and since they are His representatives, disobeying their lawful orders is indeed disobeying the Lord.

Ethics answers the question, "What are the rules of this outfit?" And that is where God gives His laws. In most covenants, this is the biggest section. And chapters 5-26 give numerous applications of the ten commandments in the order that God gave those commandments.

Oaths call down God's curses if I break the covenant, so in most books these are called Sanctions. But that basically answers the question, "What happens if I obey or disobey? I'm committing myself with an oath to obey, but what happens if I don't? Will I get in trouble? What happens if obey? Will I be blessed? Or is this a covenant that has no teeth?" So chapters 27-30 deal with the blessings and the cursings of the covenant. These are inescapable blessings and cursings. And I want you as a congregation to respond to some of these with me later in the service.

And the last section, Succession arrangements, answers the question, "Does this outfit have a future? Will there be a hope for covenant succession? And if so, how?"

We will take a whirlwind tour through those five sections of the book.

Transcendence - Who is in charge here? (1:1-8)

The first part of most covenants gives a bit of history and identifies who is making the covenant. Most scholars just call it a preamble rather than hierarchy. That would be chapter 1:1-8. It is very typical of the preambles in other covenants.

Hierarchy - To whom do I report? (1:9-4:49)

But very quickly the covenant documents transition into the representatives of the suzerain king who is making that covenant and to whom the people will be accountable. You cannot say that you are in covenant with God if you are out of covenant with His representatives. In verses 9-12 Moses makes quite clear that he couldn't lead the people by himself because they were way too numerous, so in verses 13 and following representatives are chosen, and there is a history of the leadership those representatives gave in both church and civics, with Joshua taking over the reigns of leadership for the nation as a whole.

Ethics - What are the rules of this outfit? (5:1-26:19)

But I want to spend most of my time on the ethics section since it contains a good deal of God's blueprints for life. Concerning these laws, chapter 32:46-47 says,

...“Set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command your children to be careful to observe—all the words of this law. For it is not a futile thing for you, because it is your life, and by this word you shall prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess.”

It is your life. These are the blueprints for life.

The ten commandments (5:1-22) are a summary of God's moral law (5:23-33)

He starts in chapter 5 by giving the ten commandments in summary form, and then takes quite a few chapters to unpack each of the ten commandments and what they mean in your day-to-day experience.

Case law applications of the first commandment (6:1-11:32) - Protecting true theology and the sanctity of God

And most people want to skip over the first four commandments and get into nitty gritty of our social interactions. And it is true that the chapters giving an exposition of the commandments 5-10 are fun chapters. But I want to demonstrate that the first commandment also has far reaching social implications.

It is quite common for people to claim that the first four commandments no longer apply to civics. Joel McDurmon just recently wrote a book defending that viewpoint. My retort to them is that you can't even define the application of commandments 5-10 at all without the first commandment. Sure everyone is opposed to murder, but without the God of the first commandment defining what murder is, you don't know which wars are murder and which ones are not. You won't know if self-defense is murder or not. Hey, you won't even know if abortion is murder.

Now, these people are often very aggressive prolifers, and I applaud them for that. Praise God! But they insist that we cannot impose the first four commandments on our culture. I try to convince them that that is so naive. When a pro-abortionist claims that abortion is not murder and should not be a crime, where do my friends turn to in order to prove it is murder? They rightly turn to the Bible. But the abortionist can rightly retort - "By appealing to the Bible, you are appealing to the God of the first commandment. Remember? You promised not to impose Yehowah as God in our society. All you can impose are six commandments, which I also agree are wrong. I agree that murder is wrong, but I deny that abortion is murder because I reject the Yehowah's interpretation of abortion. To impose the Bible is to impose the God of the first commandment." That could easily be their logical response. And my position is that the first commandment shows who defines each of the other laws.

And in any case, there aren't two tables of the law. All ten commandments were written on each of the two tablets of stone as a double witness of the covenant. There were two copies of all ten commandments. You can’t separate them. They all belong together.

So let's look at commandment number one. This commandment deals with protecting true theology (which includes true ethics) and protecting the sanctity of God. There can be no other gods that command our loyalty or that define our ethics. Even "life" can become an idolatrous substitute god in prolife circles - as is evident from those who say they are consistent prolifers by opposing the death penalty for murder. They are not allowing God to define the sanctity of life (the sixth commandment). They are doing it themselves, which means they are taking on the role of God.

I want you to notice how much space is given to commandment #1. Six chapters are devoted to the teaching of the sanctity of God - all of chapters 6-11. So you can see, just by the amount of space given to one commandment, that God thinks commandment number one is critically important.

Chapter 6:1 begins, "Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments . . . " Commandment is in the singular, and statutes and judgments is in the plural because he's going to be dealing with a multiplicity of case law applications to this first commandment. And by the way, some of the commandments that Joel McDurmon would love to see enforced by the civil government are listed under the first four commandments. God obviously thinks they belong there.

Anyway, this is the genius of Deuteronomy. The ten commandments are brought down to specific application where the rubber meets the road. You see, without application people can easily rationalize. Take for example the abstract commandment, "Thou shalt not steal." What is stealing and what is not? Without the case laws, everybody has a different definition. Are property taxes theft? Most Christians would say "No," whereas God would say "Yes!" Is a child stealing when he takes back his own toy that his brother has started using? Is that toy communal property, or is it his property? Many parents never think through issues like that and they train their children to have the heart of a socialist. On the other hand, is that child stealing from God when he deliberately blows up his own toys with firecrackers or abuses his own toys? The Bible would say yes, because ownership is stewardship under God. Is communism stealing? How do we know? Men might think that failing to tithe has nothing to do with this commandment, but God says differently.

The point is that the specific application by way of precepts and judgments takes away all rationalization of what those commandments mean. So you have the commandment (singular) and the statutes and judgments that flow out of it.

First commandment calls for radical loyalty to God (6:1-25) in:

In chapter 6:1-25 God shows how the first commandment calls for radical loyalty to God. There cannot be divided loyalties. That's an implication of the first commandment.

Comprehensive obedience (6:1-3)

And in your outlines I list verses 1-3 as pointing us to comprehensive obedience.

Comprehensive love (6:4-5)

Verses 4-5 are a call to comprehensive love. And those are key verses for this whole chapter, so I will read them.

Deut. 6:4   “Hear, O Israel: Yehowah our God, Yehowah is one! 5 You shall love Yehowah your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

This is the Shema Israel which was recited morning and evening by Jews. It might be worthwhile for you to memorize it. The fundamental truth expressed is that Yehowah is One, and the fundamental duty that flows from that fact is that we ought to love Yehowah with our whole being - an undivided love. The fact that there is one God necessarily implies that there is only one law order. To abandon God's laws for other laws is to change gods, or as Morecraft would put it, "to abandon the Law of God is to abandon the God of Law." America has long ago abandoned the God of the Bible. They just forgot to take it off their money and off of their pledge of allegiance.

Now, in these verses God shows Himself to be

1. "Yehowah" - the covenant God, and thus all of His dealings with men are covenantal dealings. Men are either covenant keepers or covenant breakers. He is Lord over all of life. But notice how this covenantal God is described as the Trinity. "Yehowah our God (our Elohim) is one Yehowah."
2. The word for God is "Elohim" which is in the plural. So God is a plurality of Persons, and yet He is:
3. "one LORD" - a unity.

I don't have the time to go into it, but your view of God profoundly shapes your culture. Islam (which holds to a radical unity in God with no plurality) will have a totally different view of civics, family, love, ethics, etc than Christianity. Look at any of commandments 5-10 and they are going to interpret it differently than a Christian should. It does make a difference which God is interpreting commandments 5-10. And they can tolerate no free market of ideas. On the other hand, Hinduism (which is polytheistic) will have a quite different view of love, ethics, science, family, and culture. Just as one tiny example, Vishal Mangalwadi quoted his Hindu neighbor as explaining why he had just finished casually killing his daughter. His neighbor said,

Anyway, death is unreal. I am too poor to keep her alive and get her married. Why submit her and my family to misery? Let her go now, she can come back to earth as a boy or be reborn when the pressures are not so unbearable for us and her.

And many such examples could be given of how your antagonism to the first commandment will bring about an antagonism to the rest of the decalogue and will be worked out in all of your life. I'll just give a few more case law implications of the first commandment.

Christian education that applies the word 24-7 to everything (6:6-9)

Verses 6-9 are a call to Christian education that applies God's Word twenty-four hours a day seven days a week to everything we do. One hour a day of devotions with the family cannot undo eight hours a day of pagan education. According to these verses, which are placed under the first commandment, to send your children to the government schools where pagans will disciple them into a foreign worldview is a clear breaking of the first commandment. I don't know of any way of getting around that.

And look at how radical this education needs to be. Verse 6 says that the Bible-based education must reach the heart. Do you really want the education your kids are getting to reach their hearts? Analyzing the curriculum is so important, and analyzing the teacher is too, because Luke says that when a child is fully trained, he will be like his teacher. So verse 6 says that this education cannot be simply external.

Verse 7 says that we can't be haphazard in our teaching, but must diligently apply the word to all of life - to everything in the home, in society that we are walking in, to our sleep and to our waking moments. That about covers every subject, right?

In verse 8 we are to bind the law to our hand and forehead, symbolizing God's law governing our conduct and thinking.

In verse 9 it is designed to transform our family life, symbolized by putting it on the doorposts of the house, and it is designed to transform our public life, symbolized by having it on our gates.

People wonder if this is talking about a symbolic binding to the forehead or a literal binding of a phylactery. I believe it was symbolic. If you look at the tiny size of the phylactery pictured in your outlines with the huge scroll next to it, it makes it obvious that your phylactery is not nearly big enough. God wants the whole law bound to our forehead - symbolically. That’s the only way the whole law could be bound to your forehead.

In any case, those words show that there is no area of life that the law does not give blueprints for - and I have given conference lectures on how it applies to mathematics, physics, geometry, linguistics, and other areas of life. The point is, that if our education and the education of our children is not radically grounded in God's Word, it is already loyal to a wisdom other than God's wisdom and has violated the first commandment.

Constant stewardship (6:10-15)

Verses 10-15 show how we can violate the first commandment by failing to do everything as a stewardship trust for the Lord. So our business, our grocery shopping, and other stewardship issues must be God-centered.

If you are like me, you already feel like you fall far short of God's requirements. But as Kevin Swanson says, "It is direction, not perfection." God's Gospel makes us secure even though we are not perfect. But God's Gospel also sets us heading in the right direction. The Gospel is not lawless.

Total accountability (6:16-19)

Verses 16-19 applies the first commandment to total accountability to God in everything.

In families passing on the covenant to next generations (6:20-25)

Verses 20-25 tells us to teach history to our kids in a God-centered way. History is not neutral, and to say that it is is to already be loyal to a philosophy that is hostile to God. Contrary to these two verses, my two history teachers at Covenant College said that they wouldn't teach history any differently than an unbeliever would. And I asked them, "Then why do we pretend to have a Christian College?" According this chapter 6, their history violated the first commandment. God calls for providential history.

Total conquest of all of life (7)

All of chapter 7 symbolizes the total conquest of all of life under the feet of King Jesus. We are to do so with the sword of the Bible, not with a physical sword, but the principles remain the same. Abraham Kuyper captures the essence of that passage when he said, "There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human endeavor over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, 'Mine.'"

etc., etc.

Chapter 8 contradicts the self-sufficiency, self-esteem, self-worth, self-assertion and self-love movements as being utterly incompatible with the first commandment.

Chapter 9:1-10:11 opposes works righteousness as a failure to trust God's provision and is thus a violation of the first commandment. That means that a false gospel violates the first commandment.

Can you see why Deuteronomy is not too popular among compromised Christians? Chapter by chapter the implications of the first commandment are drawn out in a very convicting way to give us an idea of how pervasively God must define all we are, have, think, say, and do. I actually have a much longer outline of 19 pages on just the first commandment, so in your outlines I have summarized by saying, etc, etc,. There is much more that could be said.

Case law applications of the second commandment (12:1-13:18) - Protecting true worship and the sanctity of devotion to God

The second commandment deals with protecting true worship and the sanctity of devotion to God. That covers all of chapters 12 and 13. In these chapters God calls us to hate what He hates and to love what He loves. Using types and symbols it shows that we must be Christ centered in our worship since we can only approach the Father through Jesus. To be Christ-centered is also be Father-centered and Spirit-centered since the three are one.

The tithe is said to be a sign of our stewardship - a symbol that all that we have belongs to God. By putting it under the second commandment, He shows that money can be an idol, and tithing is a sign that God is our one God.

The first 11 verses of chapter 13 show how easy it is to make an idol of our family, and for our family to pull us away from total loyalty to God.

Case law applications of the third commandment (14:1-29) - Protecting God's name and the sanctity of speech and of our testimony.

The third commandment not only protects God's name, but also protects the sanctity of speech and of our testimony. The Hebrew of "take the name of the Lord in vain" is literally "to wear the name of the Lord in vain." You wear the name of Jesus as a Christian, and how you talk and live reflects upon that name.

So when you mourn like pagans mourn at a funeral, chapter 14 indicates that you are not representing God's name well. Chapter 14 indicates that funerals can be a testimony of joy and confidence in the midst of sadness. That is a much better way of wearing His name.

And wow! Once again He brings up tithing. Tithing and going to Jerusalem for the festivals while leaving the farm unprotected was a sign of faith in God's faithfulness. You reflect God's name in business and in other ventures. In fact, tithing keeps coming up as a test on our commitment to several of these commandments.

Case law applications of the fourth commandment (15:1-16:7) - Protecting the Sabbath and the sanctity of time and dominion

The fourth commandment deals with protecting the sabbath and the sanctity of time and dominion. In other words, the fourth commandment is not just about how you act on one day a week. It is a devotion of all your time and dominion to God.

So why in the world does He deal with debt under the fourth commandment? Though debt was allowed in some circumstances, God considered most debt to be a violation of our sabbath liberty and to be a form of bondage. Well, conversely it informs our view about the proper observance of the Sabbath - it is about liberty, not bondage. God's wants us to celebrate as free men, women, and children on the Sabbath.

Chapter 15 also applied the Sabbath laws to ecology, and giving a rest to the land.

The Sabbath reminded masters that they should train their slaves to prepare for liberty. Masters were supposed to constantly prepare their irresponsible slaves to become mature, future oriented, and freedom loving. He wanted slaves to gain their liberty. His whole system was designed to move them away from slavery and toward liberty. That is the inescapable trajectory of any society that keeps God’s law. In contrast, every society that rejects God’s inescapably ends up under bondage and tyranny.

Case law applications of the fifth commandment (16:18-18:22) - Protecting the family and the sanctity of authority

The fifth commandment was designed to protect the family and the sanctity of all God-appointed authority. In chapter 16:18-17:20, all civil authorities were told that they had limited, delegated, specified, and enumerated powers and were accountable to God for how they used those powers. They could not make up law on their own. Laws had to be based upon the Bible. Courts were to give God's righteous judgment (16:18 with 1:17), not their own judgments.

When civil courts could not figure out how to properly exercise their authority in a given case, they were to ask the priests who had been trained as experts in the law to give their advice. So it even addresses how different authority jurisdictions relate to each others.

It is a fantastic section that gives checks and balances to protect against tyranny, such as necessitating that court cases be public and the executions be public. No Star Chamber or secret court trials were allowed because it could lead to tyranny.

The jurisdictional separation of the governments of family, church, and civics are also hinted at in those chapters. So the fifth commandment is not just about literal parents. As the Larger Catechism's exposition shows, it is about all human authority.

Case law applications of the sixth commandment (19:1-22:12) - Protecting life and the sanctity of the image of God in man

The case law applications of the sixth commandment are given in chapter 19:1-22:12. And wow, there are a lot of applications. We can't possibly list all of them. Chapter 19 rules out any plea of not guilty due to insanity. No pity was to be shown to a murderer, period. Even an animal that killed a human had to be dealt with. When you read through the Westminster Larger Catechism's exposition of the ten commandments, you will see a lot of these applications.

These chapters deal with the cities of refuge, with applications to citizens protecting other citizens against tyrannical punishments.

Chapter 9:14 applies the protection of property rights to the sixth commandment. Why would that be? Well, the Larger Catechism, in giving its exposition of the sixth commandment, includes verses referring to the deprivation of food, water, medicine, or anything that tends to sustain life under the category of murder. To take away private property is to lessen the opportunities for future survival. God takes eminent domain very seriously; He takes taxation of property very seriously.

Witnesses can destroy people's lives as well, so 19:15-21 deals with the importance of witnesses in court.

War can either be good or can be murder, depending upon whether the wars are engaged in what we call just war. And it called for peace through strength. You've heard me quote Oliver Cromwell's maxim, to "trust God and keep your powder dry." Well, this chapter calls for a balance of trust in God and an ability to hammer the enemy hard if they invade you.

Interestingly, in terms of war, failure to give exemptions to military service was considered a form of murder. That's why it is listed under the sixth commandment. You cannot conscript people who don't want to be conscripted and who disagree with that war. And so there were generous policies to opt out. Chapter 20 granted exemptions for conscription to:

1. Those with new houses who have not yet enjoyed living in them (v. 5)
2. Those with new vineyards who have not yet enjoyed harvesting them (v. 6)
3. An engaged man (v. 7)
4. The fearful (v. 8)
5. Those married less than a year (Deut. 24:5).
6. Those under 20 years of age (Numb. 1:2,3,18,20,45; 26:2,3)
7. And any Levites who didn't want to serve (Numb. 1:48,49).

In verses 19-20 God absolutely forbade a scorched earth policy that salted fields and cut down productive trees. Why? Those verses say that it was because it would remove the enemy's food for months and years to come and would thus constitute a violation of the sixth commandment. In other words, even how we treat enemy combatants is not up for grabs according to God's law. There are limits of what we can do. Morecraft says,

The Bible knows nothing of ‘total warfare’, such as Sherman’s march to the sea, which included the burning and salting of the land, in the war between the states. The earth is not to be warred against... The principle here: Production and the continuance of life is more important than and must precede political goals, even in times of war. (Ecc. 5:9)" (Morecraft, p. 63)

Rushdoony says,

Production is prior to politics. Without production, without the fruit trees and the farmer, the worker and the manufacturer, there is no country to defend. The priority of politics is a modern heresy which is steadily destroying the world; only the great vitality of free enterprise is maintaining the productive level in the face of great political handicaps and interferences. In any godly order, therefore, production, freedom of enterprise must always be prior to politics in wartime as well as in peace." (Rushdoony, Institutes, pp. 277-281)

Even unsolved murders are dealt with in a way that informs us on what would be required to cleanse our land of unsolved murders and abortions.

The discussion of a marriage to a captive is included under the sixth commandment to show the heightened way in which God protected the lives of vulnerable women. If even captive wives have such protections, how much more so Hebrew wives. There are some marriages that are like a living death; God law protects against that.

These chapters go on to give helpful advice related to inheritance, rebellious children, what would be considered excess in executions, violence by animals, and even transvestitism. We can understand all of the other applications, but why would transvestitism be discussed under the sixth commandment? Because these attempts to wipe out God's male/female distinctions destroy a nation and a culture. And we are seeing the accelerated destruction of our nation before our eyes.

Do you remember that I said that Jesus upheld even the least of these commandments in Matthew 5:19? Let me read that command. There is general agreement that Jesus was referring to Deuteronomy 22:6-7. This was the law that the Jews considered to be the least of the commandments.

If a bird’s nest happens to be before you along the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, with the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young; you shall surely let the mother go, and take the young for yourself, that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days.

It says, "that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days," so it is definitely related to life; to the sixth commandment. How would such a law prolong their days and make life better for them, and why would it be discussed under the sixth commandment? The reason is that true Biblical conservationism (as opposed to modern statist conservationism) definitely has long term survival in mind.

And let me illustrate with Mao Zedong's disastrous attempt to exterminate sparrows in China. He was deliberately violating this law on a massive scale. He declared (and I quote) "birds are public animals of capitalism."⁹ He believed that they were depleting the rice supplies. So every soldier and every citizen had a duty to destroy every sparrow that they saw. They received rewards for the amount of sparrows that they brought in. Wikipedia states,

As a result of this campaign, many sparrows died from exhaustion; citizens would bang pots and pans so that sparrows would not have the chance to rest on tree branches and would fall dead from the sky. Sparrow nests were also destroyed, eggs were broken, and chicks were killed. In addition to these tactics, citizens also resorted to simply shooting the birds down from the sky. These mass attacks depleted the sparrow population, pushing it to near extinction. Furthermore, contests were held among enterprises, government agencies, and schools in cleanliness. Non-material rewards were given to those who handed in the largest number of rat tails, dead flies and mosquitoes, or dead sparrows...

Some sparrows found refuge in the extraterritorial premises of various diplomatic missions in China. The personnel of the Polish embassy in Beijing denied the Chinese request of entering the premises of the embassy to scare away the sparrows who were hiding there and as a result the embassy was surrounded by people with drums. After two days of constant drumming, the Poles had to use shovels to clear the embassy of dead sparrows...

...bugs destroyed crops as a result of the absence of natural predators. By this time, however, it was too late. With no sparrows to eat them, locust populations ballooned, swarming the country and compounding the ecological problems already caused by the Great Leap Forward, including widespread deforestation and misuse of poisons and pesticides.[10] Ecological imbalance is credited with exacerbating the Great Chinese Famine, in which 20–45 million people died of starvation

Is there a logic to including the least of these commandments under the sixth commandment? Absolutely yes there is. In Matthew 5:17-19 Jesus said,

17 Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. 18 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. 19 Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

This chapter also expects citizens to guard against people being hurt by hazardous sites.

Case law applications of the seventh commandment (22:13-23:14) - Protecting marriage and the sanctity of sex

The case laws on the seventh commandment were designed to protect marriage and the sanctity of sex. They protected a spouse against marital slander as well as against actual fornication, and how to tell the difference. There are laws against rape, adultery, and castration. There is even a section on the proper disposal of excrement. Why on earth would God place proper disposal of excrement under the seventh commandment? Because sex and excrement do not mix. There are other reasons for more hygienic approaches to sexuality, including health, but God clearly lists that under the seventh commandment - the sanctity of sex. Playing with feces is not biblical.

Case law applications of the eighth commandment (23:15-24:22) - Protecting private property and the sanctity of ownership

The eighth commandment ("you shall not steal") protects private property and the sanctity of ownership. And these case laws deal with slavery (which is a form of stealing - unless of course the slave is paying back money that he stole).

They deal with illegitimate interest on loans, broken vows, charity to the poor via gleaning laws, illegitimate divorce, the importance of newlyweds not being forced into the army, collateral for loans, kidnapping, owning kidnapped slaves, spreading infectious diseases, overly aggressive collection agencies, employers, individual equality before the law, charity, and various other laws. I'll just make brief comments on the three laws that appear to be out of place, but really are not.

Chapter 23:17-18 says,

Deut. 23:17   “There shall be no ritual harlot of the daughters of Israel, or a perverted one of the sons of Israel. 18 You shall not bring the wages of a harlot or the price of a dog to the house of the LORD your God for any vowed offering, for both of these are an abomination to the LORD your God.

Why would this law be placed under the eighth commandment rather than the seventh? It is obviously also a breaking of the seventh commandment, but illegitimate business is also a form of stealing since it is an exchange of money that God forbids. For the church to profit from the tithe of unlawful labor is to share in that iniquity and in some ways to endorse it. And you can think of all kinds of broad applications you can make from this.

Divorce also breaks the eighth commandment according to chapter 24. It is included under the eighth because all illegitimate divorces rob the innocent partner and the whole family of an enormous number of things. There are nasty financial losses, loss of time, emotional energy, broken vows, friendship, intimacy, family dynamics, and other things. Anyone who has been wrongly divorced feels hugely robbed. People who just interpret chapter 24 as "this is just the way things are" has failed to account for why God placed divorce under the eighth commandment. The structure of a book helps to interpret a book.

I'll explain one more law that people have sometimes wondered about. Chapter 24:5 says,

When a man has taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war or be charged with any business; he shall be free at home one year, and bring happiness to his wife whom he has taken.

We would think that this would be discussed under either the fifth or the seventh commandment along with all the other family issues that were discussed there. But God sometimes discusses the same topic (such as tithing) under three or four commandments because doing so shows how God's laws are interconnected. It’s different perspectives on the same problem.

So let me comment on this. The phrase, "charged with business" is better translated by the NASB as "nor shall any public duty be imposed on him. He shall be exempt for one year..." He still had his work on the farm, but no public duty could be imposed on him. Why would that be listed under theft? For three reasons.

First, It takes awhile for a couple to adjust to each other, develop friendship and lay the foundations for a marriage that will last. Conscription steals that. God’s concern for the preservation of the family is greater than His concern for the preservation of a country or government. To draft or impress a man into service as soon as he is married implies the opposite - it implies the priority of civics over family.

Second, society’s security is stolen if the family is destroyed.

Third, the command to be fruitful and multiply takes precedence over war, and if a man is killed in war before he can have children, the family is robbed of those children. The command to be fruitful and multiply given in Genesis 1:28 is repeated in every age - the age of Noah (Gen. 9:1,7), the age of the patriarchs (Gen. 35:11; cf. 17:6,20; 28:3; 41:52; 48:4), the age of Moses (Lev. 26:9; cf. Ex. 1:7), the post-exilic age (Mal. 2:15), and the New Covenant age (1 Tim. 4:3 with 5:9,14). Conscription in the first year of marriage violates those laws.

Case law applications of the ninth commandment (25:1-19) - Protecting truth and the sanctity of our affirmations

The ninth commandment protects truth and the sanctity of our affirmations. Our word should be as good as gold. Well, when you look at the case law applications, you can see that our society is in trouble. Moses says that when punishments are arbitrary and change, there is no truthfulness in your system of justice.

It lists employers who give false expectations and then do not fulfill them with their employees (25:4 and Paul's inspired interpretation in 1 Tim. 5:18).

Failing to follow through on a marriage promise (25:5-10), unfair fights (25:11-12), inflation and dishonest weights and measures (25:13-16). Obviously that last one is also a form of theft, but it is also a lack of truthfulness. Failing to remember your history and to learn from history is also listed (25:17-19).

Case law applications of the tenth commandment (26:1-19) - Protecting the heart and the sanctity of contentment

And finally, the tenth commandment was designed to protect the heart and the sanctity of contentment. According to Moses this command intersects with people's lack of tithing (26:12-15) and lack of generosity beyond the first tithe (26:1-11). Obviously those are things that only God can see, but our financial dealings often reveal a heart that lacks contentment.

Oath/Sanctions - What happens if I obey or disobey? (27-30)

So having given the laws of the covenant, the next part of the covenant is the oaths or sanctions section. What happens if I obey or disobey? Well, God tells us in words that are both stirring and encouraging on the blessings side and scary on the curses side. That's chapters 27-30. Yes there are a lot of blessings promised, but there are curses that cover everything from hemorrhoids and skin diseases, to depression and fear, to baked goods that don't come out right, mildew, sickness, war, tyranny, and natural disasters. Rather than covering those, I thought I would have you say Amen to each of the short curses in chapter 27:15-26. I'll read each curse, and each curse ends with, "And all the people shall answer and say, Amen." When we get to the Amen, say Amen out loud. Starting to read at verse 15:

Deut. 27:15 “Cursed is the one who makes a 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!’>

Deut. 27:16   “Cursed is the one who treats his father or his mother with contempt.’>

“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’>

Deut. 27:17   “Cursed is the one who moves his neighbor’s landmark.’>

“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’>

Deut. 27:18   “Cursed is the one who makes the blind to wander off the road.’>

“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’>

Deut. 27:19   “Cursed is the one who perverts the justice due the stranger, the fatherless, and widow.’>

“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’>

Deut. 27:20   “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!’>

Deut. 27:21   “Cursed is the one who lies with any kind of animal.’>

“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’>

Deut. 27:22   “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!’>

Deut. 27:23   “Cursed is the one who lies with his mother-in-law.’>

“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’>

Deut. 27:24   “Cursed is the one who attacks his neighbor secretly.’>

“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’>

Deut. 27:25   “Cursed is the one who takes a bribe to slay an innocent person.’>

“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’>

Deut. 27:26   “Cursed is the one who does not confirm all the words of this law.’>

“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’ ”

In place of those curses, I pronounce upon this congregation God's blessings. Deuteronomy 28 begins by saying,

Deut. 28:3   “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.>

Deut. 28:4   “Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.>

Deut. 28:5   “Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.>

Deut. 28:6   “Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.

And may all the other blessings of this chapter come upon you. And all God's people said, "Amen!"

Covenant Succession - Does this outfit have a future? (31:1-34:12)

The book then ends with covenant succession. In chapter 31:1-8 God declares Himself to be the God of succeeding generations. Praise God.

In chapter 31:9-13 he again reiterates the importance of Christian education and of passing on the law to succeeding generations. With government education being the norm for most Christians today, it is no wonder that the vast majority of Christian youth are leaving the faith. Don't allow your children to be taught and discipled by unbelievers. Scripture says that a pupil who is fully taught will be like his teacher.

In chapters 31:24-32:47 Moses composes a song put to music to make sure that the themes of Deuteronomy are impressed upon God's people. Good solid music is an outstanding way of promoting covenant succession. If you want to break covenant succession, disciple them with pagan music.

Then Moses blesses the people's future in 32:48-33:29. And we will end there.

Though I have not done justice to this marvelous book, I hope you at least are catching a vision of why this is such a needed book for our generation. May the Lord impress this covenant of love upon the church of the 21st century. Amen.