[00:00:00] Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 5pm or Wednesdays at 7pm if you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, you can find us
[email protected] be sure to subscribe to this podcast as well as our Sermons podcast. Madison Church of Christ Sermons. Thanks again for stopping by. I hope this study is a blessing to you as I like to always begin and remind everyone what our objectives are for this series.
[00:00:45] By that I mean at the end of the series, I want you to be able to do three things. I want you to be able to understand Deuteronomy as a place where you can go for ethical guidance and explanations of our spiritual reality, right, through physical explanations that you can understand Deuteronomy's literary design, literary framework, the design patterns, the central themes that are found throughout the book, and above all that you understand how the New Testament authors interpreted and applied Deuteronomy's teachings in their own writings.
[00:01:20] So throughout this class, we spent a lot of time really digging into the first two and kind of touching on the last one here and there.
[00:01:28] But these last two classes, kind of the end of Deuteronomy, we're going to be looking a lot at that third objective, right? Really tying in how the New Testament authors really start to take different parts of Deuteronomy and start talking through it in their own writings and how it shapes their view of the New Covenant.
[00:01:49] And with this, we've had a couple of different tools, and one of them is this framework, right? So understanding these kind of how to read the writing of Deuteronomy.
[00:02:00] So the first is understanding how Deuteronomy fits into the whole arc of the Bible, right? So in the Old Testament, it's kind of broken up into the Torah, the Neviim, and the Ketuvim, which forms what's called the Tanakh. And Deuteronomy sits at the very end of the Torah.
[00:02:17] And the Torah itself has a very specific literary structure that scholars call a concentric literary pattern, which is just a really fancy word for a pyramid.
[00:02:27] So what you have is Deuteronomy and Genesis on the ends. And then the next level you have Exodus and Numbers and then at the top, at the pinnacle, you have Leviticus.
[00:02:36] And what that means for us reading is that Deuteronomy and Genesis kind of cross reference each other quite a bit.
[00:02:43] They talk about the same topics, have the same repeated words, talk about the same themes.
[00:02:48] One of those I kind of mentioned when we were first going over this in the second lesson is that word listen.
[00:02:55] So in Genesis, that word listen gets repeated quite a bit, specifically when someone goes against God, right? You see it with Adam where God says, because you listen to your wife rather than me, you are going to get this curse.
[00:03:11] Or with Abraham, when he kind of decides to have his first kid, will say, we're told that it's because he listened to his wife. Right, that repeated word listen.
[00:03:28] But when you go to Deuteronomy, that word kind of gets framed as God telling the Israelites that if they want to do well, if they want to follow the covenant, they have to listen.
[00:03:40] Now, that's one example, and we're going to kind of look at a couple of others here in this lesson.
[00:03:45] But the other tool we talked about that structure of Deuteronomy is how Deuteronomy's literary style is structured.
[00:03:55] And what I mean by that is you can read Deuteronomy as an ancient Near Eastern treaty, and that breaks Deuteronomy up into a couple of different sections, most of which we've covered. So there's this preamble which kind of sets up the context, what's happening. And then there's the historical section, right, where Moses kind of talks through what the relationship has looked like between God and Israel.
[00:04:21] And then there's the stipulation section, which we've been in for quite a while now, which talks about the ideal relationship.
[00:04:28] It kind of describes what an ancient Israel and God, what their relationship should look like.
[00:04:36] And then finally, in this lesson, we're going to get into the covenant section and what that section looks like in a Near Eastern treaty like this is it's a description of the blessings that whatever God is working in the treaty would give to the people that follow the treaty.
[00:04:55] And then a long list of curses, usually for the people who break the treaty.
[00:05:01] And in Deuteronomy, what that looks like is God describing the blessings he'll give to Israel if they're able to follow the old Covenant, and then a really long list of curses that he put onto Israel if they don't follow the covenant.
[00:05:16] And so this lesson, we're going to be really diving into that covenant section and what it means, and Something you'll notice as I've split up Deuteronomy is there's two chapters, or really four chapters, kind of in between the Covenant section and that Final Witness section.
[00:05:33] And that's because it doesn't really work in the framework of a nurcent treaty. Rather, those four chapters is Moses kind of breaking into here, and he's going to comment on the Old Covenant. He's going to give his thoughts on what this covenant looks like and the pros and cons and what he is, how he's feeling about Israel's chances of them actually succeeding in the Old Covenant.
[00:06:02] So with that, we'll just kind of start with the beginning of this section.
[00:06:06] And the beginning of this is a description of a ceremony that Israel was supposed to conduct whenever they first get into the land.
[00:06:15] And that is described in chapter 271 through 8, but also in chapter 11, 26 through 32.
[00:06:23] So I'm going to read both of those real quick, and then I'm going to talk about kind of talk through the ceremony.
[00:06:29] So chapter 27, verses 1 through 8 says, Now Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, keep the whole commandment that I command you today.
[00:06:40] And on the day you cross over the Jordan to the land that Yahweh your Elohim is giving you, you shall set up large stones and plaster them with plaster, and you shall write on them all the words of this law. When you cross over to enter the land that Yahweh your Elohim is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as Yahweh the Elohim of your fathers has promised you.
[00:07:04] And when you have crossed over the Jordan, you shall set up these stones concerning which I command you today on Mount Ebal, and you shall plaster them with plaster.
[00:07:15] And there you shall build an altar to Yahweh your Elohim, an altar of stones.
[00:07:19] You shall wield no iron tool on them. You shall build an altar to Yahweh your Elohim of uncut stones, and you shall offer burnt offerings on it to Yahweh your Elohim.
[00:07:30] And you shall sacrifice peace offerings and shall eat there.
[00:07:33] And you shall rejoice before Yahweh your Elohim, and you shall write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly.
[00:07:42] And Deuteronomy, chapter 11, describes this ceremony like this, verses 26 through 32, that says, see, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse.
[00:07:55] The blessing, if you obey the commandments of Yahweh your Elohim which I command you today. And the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of Yahweh your Elohim, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today to go after other gods that you have not known. And when Yahweh your Elohim brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.
[00:08:20] Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the road toward the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah opposite Gilgal, beside the oak of Moreh?
[00:08:32] For you are to cross over the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that Yahweh your Elohim is giving you.
[00:08:38] And when you possess it and live in it, you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the rules that I am setting before you today.
[00:08:47] All right, so there are a couple of literary connections in that ceremony I want to point out because they're very important.
[00:08:55] Now, the first one is that the phrase blessing and curse, now those words get repeated over and over and over again at the very end of Deuteronomy.
[00:09:06] In fact, if you've ever listened to the Bible Project, that's the first thing they point out, is that 27 to the end, that word gets used more than any other word in there.
[00:09:17] What's also interesting is that same repeated phrasing, blessing and curse, gets repeated in Genesis more than any other book in the Bible, right? It's that connection between the two. And specifically, it begins back in the story of Adam and Eve, right? When they're in the garden, they're blessed, right? They're blessed with the work of their hands. They're blessed to multiply. Everything's great. But once they break their covenant, right? Once they sin against God, God gives them a curse, right? He curses the snake, then the woman, and then the man.
[00:09:52] And that same phrasing kind of continues in the stories of Genesis if you kind of keep walking through it, right? Noah gets blessed whenever the flood ends, but then his son gets cursed, Abraham gets called out, and God gives him a blessing. And then he tells them through you, I'm going to bless the rest of humanity.
[00:10:14] And that continues through all the stories of Genesis.
[00:10:18] That's the first connection.
[00:10:20] The second connection is geographical.
[00:10:23] What I mean by that is there are two mountains that are talked about. There's Mount Gerizim and there's Mount Ebal.
[00:10:29] And those two mountain peaks actually create this valley. And the valley is called Shechem.
[00:10:36] And if you ever kind of studied Old Testament literature, what you'll find is that setting plays a really big part in the narrative stories. And Shechem has a very specific part within that. Shechem is the place for covenants.
[00:10:50] It's the place where covenants are created. It's the place where covenants are renewed throughout the Bible. And it's also the place where covenants are often broken, right? It's the place where they're going to create the covenant here. But also when Israel breaks into two, Shechem is also the place where, where kind of Israel, right, the 10 tribes go and create the two golden calves, right? It's where they break their covenant.
[00:11:17] And Shechem specifically, when we first are introduced to it, is all the way back in Genesis chapter 12 with Abraham.
[00:11:25] It's in verse 6 and 7 which reads, Abraham passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time, the Canaan, Canaanites were in the land.
[00:11:36] Then Yahweh appeared to Abraham and said to your offspring, I will give this land.
[00:11:42] So he built there an altar to Yahweh, who had appeared to him.
[00:11:46] So what we find is that Shechem is the place where Abraham first enters the land.
[00:11:53] It's the place where God first appears to him in the land of Canaan. And it's also the very first altar that Abraham builds when he first gets there.
[00:12:02] That's the second connection.
[00:12:04] And this final connection is this kind of inter Deuteronomy connection.
[00:12:09] And it's that word at the very end of chapter 27 in verse 8, right, where it says, you shall write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly.
[00:12:21] So that word plainly we've talked about before, we talked about in the very beginning of Deuteronomy.
[00:12:27] It's the Hebrew word Baer.
[00:12:30] And what's so interesting about this word is that it only occurs in the Old Testament three times in the entire Old Testament.
[00:12:39] Two of those are in Deuteronomy at the end here and at the beginning.
[00:12:45] Right at the beginning in Deuteronomy chapter one, we're told what Moses really why Deuteronomy even exists, right? In Deuteronomy chapter 1, verse 5, we're told that in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law, saying, and that begins Deuteronomy.
[00:13:04] And then here we're told that Israel was also supposed to bear this law on a piece of stone.
[00:13:12] And so that's the third covenant, right?
[00:13:15] That Moses had to bear the law first and that Israel is going to bear the law when they get into the land again.
[00:13:24] So then the question you're probably all asking yourself, why does this all matter? Why should I care? This is very interesting things, but ultimately, what's the point?
[00:13:39] And it's this. Moses is trying to get us to remember what's important in the story of Deuteronomy, right? The past couple of weeks, we spent a lot of time talking about ethics and wisdom, right versus wrong, very practical conversations.
[00:13:57] But Moses is trying to remind us and remind Israel that there's a bigger plot happening here, something that Deuteronomy is playing in, which began back in Genesis, right? The whole reason Abraham got called out, the whole reason Israel exists, the whole reason that he's talking to them is because back in the garden, Adam was cursed.
[00:14:22] Well, Adam and Eve were cursed.
[00:14:25] And this whole storyline, the Torah, the Torah and then beyond, is trying to undo that curse. He's trying to fix it. It's God trying to fix everything.
[00:14:37] And that is what ultimately the Old Covenant is kind of trying to do, right? It's an attempt to fix that.
[00:14:45] And their attempt is by making the law, making God's will and what he thinks, what he decides is right and wrong as plainly and clearly as he possibly can. He is going to give his people rules so that they can actually follow it, so they can't make the excuse that they don't know what they're supposed to be doing.
[00:15:07] He's going to make it as plainly as he can.
[00:15:11] Which then leads the reader to a question, can it work?
[00:15:17] Could the Old Covenant actually fix the problem of the original curse?
[00:15:23] And obviously, as New Covenant Christians, we know that the answer is no. The Old Covenant could not do that.
[00:15:29] It failed miserably.
[00:15:32] And what's so interesting about that is Moses also sees that, and that's when we get into his comments about this.
[00:15:44] So we get these kind of blessings and curses. And if you go through the blessings and curses, specifically in chapter 28, verses 7 through 14, it kind of reads like this.
[00:15:58] Yahweh will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you.
[00:16:03] They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. Yahweh will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you undertake.
[00:16:12] And he will bless you in the land that Yahweh, your Elohim, is giving you.
[00:16:16] Yahweh will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of Yahweh, your Elohim, and walk in his ways.
[00:16:26] And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of Yahweh. And.
[00:16:32] And they shall be afraid of you. And Yahweh will make you abound in prosperity in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground within the land that Yahweh swore to your fathers to give you. Yahweh will open to you his good treasure the heavens, to give you the rain in your land in its season, and to bless all the works of your hands, and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.
[00:16:59] And Yahweh will make you the head and not the tail. And you shall only go up and not down if you obey the commandments of Yahweh your Elohim, which I command you today, being careful to do them. And if you do not turn, turn aside from any of the words that I command you today, the right hand or to the left to go after other gods to serve them.
[00:17:21] Right. So what we see here, the blessing, it sounds a lot like Eden. Doesn't sounds like they're back in the Garden of Eden. And that's kind of what the Old Covenant is saying, is that if you follow exactly what's being said here, it's going to be like you're back in Eden. It's going to fix the curse.
[00:17:39] But then you also get the list of curses.
[00:17:42] I'm just going to read A section, chapter 2858 through 68, which reads, if you are not careful to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, Yahweh your Elohim, then Yahweh will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions, afflictions severe and lasting, and sickness grievous and lasting.
[00:18:08] And he will bring upon you again all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid. And they shall cling to you every sickness also, and every affliction that is not recorded in the book of this law, Yahweh will bring upon you until you are destroyed. Whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, you shall be left few in number, because you did not obey the voice of Yahweh your Elohim. And as Yahweh took delight in doing you good and multiplying you, so Yahweh will take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you and you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to take possession of it.
[00:18:49] And Yahweh will scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other. And there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone which neither you nor your fathers have known.
[00:19:01] And among these nations, you shall find no respite, and there shall be no resting place for the sole of your foot.
[00:19:08] But Yahweh will give you there a trembling heart and failing eyes and a languishing soul.
[00:19:14] Your life shall hang in doubt before you night and day. You shall be in dread and have no assurance of your life.
[00:19:21] In the morning you shall say, if only it were evening. And at evening you shall say, if only it were morning, because of the dread that your heart shall feel and the sight that your eyes shall see. And Yahweh will bring you back in ships to Egypt, a journey that I promised that you should never make again.
[00:19:38] And there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves.
[00:19:44] But there will be no buyer.
[00:19:45] Sounds similar to the curse of Adam, right? If you go back and read the curse, the very thing that God tells Adam is that he's going to work every day of his life, but the land is not going to give to him.
[00:19:59] And eventually he's going to die. And immediately what happens? God kicks him out of Eden.
[00:20:05] And what God is describing here is the same thing, that the land will stop working with Israel, and that he would kick them out of the land just like he did to these other nations.
[00:20:16] So we get all of that. We get this listing of blessing and cursing, and you hope, okay, well, maybe Israel can actually do it. Maybe we know they can't. But if you're just reading this linearly, you can ask yourself, well, maybe they will.
[00:20:30] But then Moses immediately says this in chapter 29, verses 1 through 4.
[00:20:35] These are the words of the covenant that Yahweh commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant that he had made with them at Horeb, Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, you have seen all that Yahweh did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, to all his servants, and to all his land, the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs and those great wonders. But to this day, Yahweh has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.
[00:21:10] Then if you skip a little bit further and you get to chapter 30, it gets a little even bleaker, because Moses speaks to them and says, and when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where Yahweh your Elohim has driven you, and you return to Yahweh your Elohim, you and your children, and obey his voice and all I command you today with all your heart, with all your soul.
[00:21:40] Then Yahweh will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you. And he will gather you again from all the peoples where Yahweh your Elohim has scattered you. If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there Yahweh your Elohim will gather you, and from there he will take you. And Yahweh your Elohim will bring you into the land that your fathers possess, that you may possess it.
[00:22:05] And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. And Yahweh your Elohim will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love Yahweh your Elohim with all your heart, with all your soul that you may live.
[00:22:20] And Yahweh your Elohim will put all these curses on your foes and enemies who persecuted you, and you shall again obey the voice of Yahweh and keep all his commandments that I command you today.
[00:22:32] Yahweh your Elohim will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your ground.
[00:22:41] For Yahweh will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers. When you obey the voice of Yahweh your Elohim to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this book of the law.
[00:22:52] When you turn to Yahweh your Elohim with all your heart, with all your soul.
[00:22:58] So that was a lot.
[00:23:00] But effectively, what we're told by Moses comments is Cain doesn't think it's going to work either.
[00:23:07] He doesn't believe the Old Covenant is going to work. And he tells us exactly why.
[00:23:12] Right. He understands that for the Old Covenant to work, you effectively have to be perfect. You have to follow everything that's going to be said.
[00:23:21] And he says to this day, Yahweh has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.
[00:23:30] He has no faith that Israel is going to do this, and he has no reason to believe they will. They've been pretty terrible so far, to the point that in chapter 30, he doesn't say if the blessing and the curse come upon you. He says, when they come upon you.
[00:23:49] He has no faith in Israel.
[00:23:53] And you can imagine that's how bad that might feel, right, as an Israelite, that you hear all these things.
[00:24:00] And then Moses gets to the end and he says, and it's all going to be terrible.
[00:24:05] You're going to fail. It's okay, though.
[00:24:09] And what he.
[00:24:11] He doesn't kind of stop there, right? He doesn't say, and you're gonna fail and this is all gonna be for nothing. He says, but then God's gonna do something better, right? Moses is. Moses recognized the thing that's actually missing from the covenant.
[00:24:28] And it's that phrase in verse six. And it becomes so important for the biblical story and for the New Testament authors.
[00:24:36] He says, and Yahweh, your Elohim will circumcise your heart, the heart of your offspring, so that you will love Yahweh, your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live.
[00:24:51] So Moses first identifies that the old covenant's not going to work.
[00:24:56] But then he identifies the thing that actually needs to change for the curse to be lifted. The thing that God doesn't seem to be doing with the old covenant, that there's something wrong with the humanity's heart.
[00:25:12] There's a problem at the very heart of the people.
[00:25:16] If you remember back from a couple lessons ago, remember that heart, that word, labob. It's the thing you use to make decisions.
[00:25:24] For some reason, Moses sits here and he goes, there is something wrong with the very thing these people use to make decisions.
[00:25:34] And for things to actually get fixed, for the curse to be lifted, God has to do something about this. He can't just give rules because we keep failing.
[00:25:46] And that becomes really important because it gives the prophets and then the New Testament authors a language to talk about the New Covenant with.
[00:25:57] And this is where I kind of want to go next. I want to kind of talk about these prophetic kind of how the prophets take this and develop this language further in talking about the new covenant. So first I'm going to read Jeremiah, and then I'm going to read two sections of Ezekiel. So Jeremiah, chapter 31, verses 31 through 34, say, behold, the days are coming, declares Yahweh, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Not like the covenant that I made with their Fathers, on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares Yahweh. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares Yahweh, I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
[00:26:58] And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, know Yahweh, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares Yahweh, for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
[00:27:17] And Ezekiel, he picks up the same language.
[00:27:21] In Ezekiel, chapter 11, verses 14 through 21, he says, and the word of Yahweh came to me, son of man, your brothers, even your brothers, even your brothers, your kinsmen, the whole house of Israel, all of them are those of whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, go far from Yahweh.
[00:27:42] To us this land is given for a possession.
[00:27:46] Therefore say thus, says Yahweh Elohim, though I removed them far off among the nations, and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a while in the countries where they have gone.
[00:28:00] Therefore say, thus, says Yahweh Elohim, I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.
[00:28:11] And when they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations. And I will give them one heart and new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
[00:28:39] But as for those whose heart goes after these detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their deeds upon their own heads. Declare Yahweh Elohim.
[00:28:49] And then again he picks up this language.
[00:28:51] In verse 2232, Ezekiel says, Therefore say to the house of Israel, thus says Yahweh Elohim, it is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.
[00:29:10] And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name which has been profaned among the nations and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am Yahweh, declares Yahweh Elohim.
[00:29:23] When through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes, I will take from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land.
[00:29:34] I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, from all your idols. I will cleanse you, and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
[00:29:59] And you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God, and I will deliver you from all your uncleanness. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations.
[00:30:20] Then you will remember your evil ways and your evil and your deeds that were not good.
[00:30:26] And you will loathe yourself for your iniquities and your abominations.
[00:30:30] It is not for your sake that I will act, declares Yahweh Elohim. Let that be known to you.
[00:30:35] Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel.
[00:30:40] All right, again, that was a lot. But I hope what you saw was how the prophets took that passage of Moses, his conversation of talking, where he says, there has to be something. There's got to be some circumcision of the heart.
[00:30:55] And what the prophets pick up is that what that looks like, is God taking our hearts, writing the law on it according to Jeremiah, and putting it back so that we can finally listen for one.
[00:31:11] And in Jeremiah, what that leads to is the forgiveness, ultimately, the forgiveness of our sins.
[00:31:17] And then when we get to Ezekiel, he takes it one step further. He says, it's not just your heart.
[00:31:23] God's gonna take that art and he's gonna replace it with a whole new one.
[00:31:27] But he's gonna go one step further. He's gonna put a spirit inside of you, a new spirit.
[00:31:32] In fact, he's gonna put his own spirit inside of you to help you listen.
[00:31:40] And that's exactly what Jesus picks up.
[00:31:44] So when Jesus comes on the scene, he starts talking about this helper.
[00:31:50] So if you we're gonna skip the Matthew one for now because I'm running out of time.
[00:31:55] We're gonna skip over to John.
[00:31:57] I'm gonna read 15 through 26. I know this is a lot, but I think it's so. It's so important, so interesting.
[00:32:05] John, chapter 14, verses 15 through 26. Jesus says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.
[00:32:13] And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you forever.
[00:32:18] Even the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
[00:32:30] I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you yet a little while, the world will see me no more. But you will see me because I live. You also will live in that day. You will know that I am in my Father and you in me. And I in you.
[00:32:47] Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father. And I will love him and manifest myself to him.
[00:32:59] Judas, not Iscariot, said, lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world?
[00:33:05] Jesus answered him, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine, but the Father's who sent me these things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all these things, bring to you remembrance, all that I have said to you.
[00:33:34] Okay, this is the big payoff. I'm kind of getting to.
[00:33:37] When Moses speaks about the thing that's missing, right? He identifies that there's something missing. There's something about the heart that God has to fix.
[00:33:47] And then you get to the prophets, and they start talking about what's going to be the difference between the old and the new covenant. And they identify that God's going to. He's going to take his heart, he's going to put a new heart, going to give you a new spirit.
[00:34:01] And then finally, Jesus comes onto the scene and he starts talking about what's going to happen.
[00:34:06] And he identifies that spirit as the helper.
[00:34:11] The Holy Spirit thing that we always talk about, that the difference between the old and the new covenant, the thing that fixes the curse itself, is the giving of the new Spirit.
[00:34:23] That the Holy Spirit is the main difference.
[00:34:27] Now to do that right, Jesus has to die and be resurrected and our sins forgiven.
[00:34:33] But when we get the new Spirit, he helps us and guides us and helps us to finally listen.
[00:34:41] And it's that difference that helps Paul in his writings, and he starts to kind of talk about this and really understand what's that difference between the old and the new covenant.
[00:34:57] I'm just going to read a couple of examples.
[00:35:00] So In Romans, chapter 2, verse 25 through 29, it says, for circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision.
[00:35:13] So if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?
[00:35:23] Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision, but break the law. For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly or circumcision outward and physical, but a Jew is one inwardly. And circumcision is a matter of the heart by the Spirit, not by the letter.
[00:35:44] His praise is not from man, but from God.
[00:35:48] And then in Philippians 1:3, he speaks like this. He says, finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord.
[00:35:55] To write the same things to you is no trouble to me, and is safe for you.
[00:36:00] Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh.
[00:36:14] And the last one I want to read is Colossians, chapter 2, verses 6 through 15, which says, Therefore as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
[00:36:34] See to it that no one talks you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
[00:36:45] For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith and the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set, also nailing it to the cross.
[00:37:32] He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them.
[00:37:38] I know that was a lot kind of walking through that.
[00:37:42] And really what I wanted to kind of get through to this lesson is showing one how beautiful the Bible can be, right? That language, starting with Moses, can make its way through all the way to Paul. And you can start to see how it shapes Paul's thinking, but also how beautiful it really is that we have the New Covenant now that we get the Holy Spirit. We talked about this in an earlier lesson, like, what makes us different from everyone?
[00:38:15] It's that we have a helper, that when you were baptized, you literally were circumcised in the flesh and given God inside of you to help you.
[00:38:28] Something that Moses predicted should have happened all the way back 2,000 years ago that Paul talks about in his letters as being so important. And the main distinction of the New Covenant.
[00:38:44] All right, now, if that was confusing, I'm happy to take questions and I will answer them in our last class. So not next class, but the last one.
[00:38:54] Any questions at all, either of this lesson or any part of Deuteronomy you thought I missed or should cover.
[00:39:01] You can scan that QR code and then ask questions other than that. Thank you for coming, and I'll see you next week.
