Okay, so we're coming to the last couple classes here on this topic of the law of God. And one of the questions that I think any of us could be curious about as we look at all of these laws in God's word is where do these laws all come from? Why are the laws the way they are? Why did God command these things and not other things? And I do have a handout for you. I'm gonna pass it out later, but this is one of those classes where I want you to help me do the work. And so what I did is I went through the whole law and I just looked for places where it tells us Here's why I'm commanding this, or here's the rationale for this. God seeking not just to explain why he's giving the command, but also to motivate us, right? It's actually, it's pretty motivating to know here's why we need to do this. We should just do it simply because God tells us, because He's God. He has the authority to simply tell us, you need to do this. And we're like, yes, Lord. But it does really help to know why. And so what I want to do is just step through some of these laws. And I'm going to read the law and the reason. And I want us to start connecting dots. I want us to start thinking about, OK, how does the thing commanded connect to the reason? So let's start with Exodus chapter 20, verse 5. Exodus 20. verse 5. And actually we'll start in verse 4 as I look at this. So this is the second commandment. You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that's in heaven above or that's in the earth beneath or that's in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. Okay, so what's the command? No graven images. And then what's the reason for the command? What's he say? Yeah, he's a jealous God and jealous. Yeah. Yeah, jealous, it's about his glory, not about, not a sort of petty jealousy of like, wow, they have a cooler car than me or something. Yeah, it's actually, I would actually say that jealousy between lovers can be a good reflection of this, right? How would jealousy between lovers be a good reflection, possibly, of God saying, I'm a jealous God, so I'm commanding you not to make these idols? Yeah, up front. Well, his jealousy is about making covenant with his people. And married people who are covenant to each other also can be jealous for the honor of that covenant and the honor they deserve from that spouse. That's right. Yeah. Like you're in an exclusive relationship with your spouse. You should feel jealousy when they're showing attention that really is kind of romantic affection. to another person. Like, if that doesn't bother you, that's a problem. Yeah. And so God's saying, look, we're in this exclusive relationship, you and me, Israel. Don't make these idols. It stirs me to jealousy. Good, so now if we were to just abstract this out and say like, okay the command is not to make idols because of God being a jealous God. Let's just think about, well actually let's get a few more under our belt first. So look at Deuteronomy chapter 4. Deuteronomy 4 verse 10. So this is Moses addressing Israel, and he says, let's start in verse 9, take care and keep your soul diligently lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children. How? On the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, remember Horeb's another name for Sinai, The Lord said to me, Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me, etc. And then verse 11, And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom. Then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form. There was only a voice. And then just a little bit further down, verse 15. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire. Beware, lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves in the form of any figure. the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that's on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that's in the water under the sea. So what's the command? Don't make idols, don't make any graven images, Same as what we just saw, right? In Exodus 20. But what's the reason now? Yeah. Because you didn't see any form, so you shouldn't make any form. But I know this isn't the point that you're making, but the Amish went so far as to say, okay, you can't make an image of anything. If you want to draw a picture of your dog, no. No, no, no. You can't make a sculpture of a swan. You can't do anything because they're taking it to that ultimate extreme. But I think it's more saying, don't make something to worship and bow down and worship it. Yeah, we know this is the case because God, in giving the instructions for the tabernacle, had them make carved images of cherubim and of pomegranates and golden bells for the tassels of the high priest garments and stuff. It's one of those situations where if you lift that one verse out of context, It sounds like it's a prohibition on all art, period. But really we see here and in the other one, don't make a graven image of anything so that you don't worship it, right? So as to worship it. The purpose is prohibiting visual things that you worship. as an image of him. Yes, and that's where I'm trying to get us here. There's a different rationale given in this command. So the previous one was don't make graven images because I'm jealous. I don't want you diverting your attention from me to these graven images. What's the rationale given here though? What's he saying? What's his reason? People still have a food coma from Thanksgiving, I guess. Well, I'm just going from the text and he says, beware lest you act corruptly. Okay. Yeah. So one thing that's a motive here is don't do this because this would be acting corruptly. This would be corrupting your way. This would not be upright. Yeah, look at this, where it says, you know, since you saw no form, verse 15, beware lest you make an image. Do you get the rationale, the connection? Yeah. He wants us to worship him in truth, as he really is. Yeah. Not invent a visual aid. Good. And so, because he wants us to worship him in truth, and because you didn't see what he looked like, How dare you go and make an image as though you knew? In other words, he's saying, look, all you saw was the mountain shrouded in gloom and darkness. You didn't actually see a form. And so any kind of making of an image is basically an illicit use of your imagination. God definitely wants, he gave us imaginations for a reason. There's lots of good uses for imagination. But one very bad use for imagination is coming up with things about who God is that aren't things he's revealed. And so you have Calvin's great quote, you know, when scripture shuts its sacred mouth, we go no further. And that applies in this situation here. Part of the rationale for the no image command is, guys, you don't know what he looks like. How can you speak truly here? All right, because the scriptures tell us that he is spirit. Yeah, that's right. He has no body like man. Good, yes, God is a spirit, doesn't have a body like men. What are we doing? Giving him a body here, yeah. I know that there have been multiple occasions in the Old Testament where God has revealed himself in a physical form, a theophany of sorts. Right, yeah, that's right. Appearing before Jacob, before the parents of Goodness, now I can't remember his name. Yeah, like the burning bush and the fire. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, and even then the prohibition still stands. Right. I find that to be a good argument against images as well, is that God gave opportunity for them to create physical forms of him and they didn't. Right, yeah. Good. Yeah, and so Again, we're seeing that there's an element of, this is how God, who God is, this is what he likes, this is what he hates. The laws are based on these things. The laws are based on who God is. And let's just flip over a couple more pages to chapter 10, verse 18. Deuteronomy 8.10 verse 18, God is the he here. God executes justice for the fatherless and the widow and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. So again, do you see the pattern? Here's who God is. Here's what he's like. He cares for the sojourner. In fact, you guys were sojourners once. So therefore, be like him. We love because he first loved us. Let's look at just a few more of things God loves, things God hates. 17.1 is another one. Deuteronomy 17.1, you shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or sheep in which is a blemish, any defect, whatever, for that is an abomination to the Lord your God. So abomination is like, I absolutely detest this thing. And there are many other things that God says he absolutely detests. Just look a little bit further down in the same chapter. He talks about not worshiping the host of heaven, in other words, the stars, which I have forbidden. And then he says, verse four, it is told you and you hear of it. Oh, he's talking about when someone does this, if you find that out, that someone's been worshiping this. And if it is true and certain that such an abomination, there's that word, has been done in Israel, and then there's the consequence, the stoning consequence. Why? Because God absolutely loathes this. Look, one page over in 18.9. When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow those abominable practices of the nations. or shall not be found among you one who burns his son or daughters in offering, anyone who practices divination, or tells fortunes, or interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a medium, or a necromancer, someone who talks with the dead, or one who inquires of the dead. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. So what's the reason for the command? God hates these things. They're an abomination to him. They're a complete terrible representation of him and his world. They're telling lots of false things about him. And one that's very apropos for our culture now, 22.5. A woman shall not wear a man's garment, nor shall a man put on a woman's cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God." This is like completely going against God's plan for the world for the genders to cross, to pretend that they are the other gender when they are not. And so there's like this sort of givenness to how God made the world and who God is. And so that's one kind of basic heading here, who God is, and what he loves, and also what he hates. This is a key foundation for the law. The law is not arbitrary because God is not arbitrary. God has a certain character of who he is. Now let's look at another set. I'm gonna have, I think, five of these, five sets of these here of different kinds of rationales. So to turn back to the 10 Commandments, look at Exodus 20. in the fourth command. Remember the Sabbath day, so this is Exodus 20 verse 8. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work. Okay, right. And neither shall any people who are in your sphere there. But then look at this, verse 11. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. So what's the reason for the command? Yeah, Ryan? God created a pattern and expects the people of God to follow said pattern. Yeah, great. And, you know, if God, who obviously doesn't need rest to be recharged, right? If he rested, how much more should we? It's to set apart, it's to make holy, it's to show that there's a difference between God people and non-God people. Yeah, good. Yeah, so there's God setting apart the day, but now he's wanting the people to be set apart too, to say, look, you guys are not going to be running the rat race, you know, just slogging through work all the time like a slave. Even your slaves, he says, even the people who are slaves who are in your household, they need to rest too. Why? Because I am a rest-giving God, and I took rest myself. And so we can, there's lots of ways of explaining this one, but we can put this under the heading of creation realities. And the first two kind of bleed together. I mean, we're talking about cross-dressing, you know, like that's obviously having to do with creation realities about gender. This is also another source of explanation for why things are the way they are. Creation realities. God made the world in such a way that rest, especially rest one day out of seven, is his own rhythm. And it's a rhythm that he wants for us. And this is part of why we still, to this day, keep this command. This may be part of the old covenant, and it may be transformed by Christ, and his rising again on the first day. So we now rest with him on the first day, instead of resting on the seventh day, thinking of God doing the old creation, now we're in the new creation. But the point is, there are creation realities here, grounding this command. Why do we rest? Because of how God made the world, that's why. Yeah. Let's look at another one that's sort of on the same mode. Deuteronomy 12, verse 23. He's talking about like if you're, you know, hungry for meat, go ahead, hunt or have meat, it's fine. As long as it's not a sacrifice, you don't have to bring it to the one place God's establishing. And he says, but verse 23, only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh. You shall not eat it, that is, you shall not eat the blood. You shall pour it out on the earth like water. And it gives more explanations too. You should not eat it that all may go well with you and your children after you when you do what's right in the sight of the Lord. So, somehow, because the blood is the life, this is grounding the command, don't eat the blood with the flesh. Let the blood drain out of the flesh before you eat it. I'm not sure I can fully explain all of that, but the point is there's a sort of givenness to this, like the blood is the life, therefore refrain from this practice here. So some of the laws are based on creation realities, just like this is just the way God made the world. This is just who it is, how it is in God's world. Let's look at another one. This one's in Deuteronomy 19.21, and it's actually one of three different instances of this. It's talking about what to do when someone has been found guilty of a crime. And this is actually the case of if there's a malicious witness, someone who has accused somebody of something, but the person didn't actually do it. And then it comes out like, wow, this person lied. And then it says, verse 19, then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. This is 1919. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. So you get what's saying, like if you're a false witness and this person would have been executed, or this person would have had this severe penalty because of your testimony, and then it comes out that you were lying, then the same will come back to you. And the rest, verse 20, shall hear in fear and shall never again commit any such evil among you. Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. So that final part there, hand for hand, foot for foot, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, what's that saying as the rationale for the command? What's the reason for the law? Like why is he saying not going higher or lower? What's the ideal here? Yeah. I think it's fairness, basically. One word. Yeah, there's a fairness. We're not going to overdo the punishment. We're also not going to underdo it. How do you know what to do? Well, it needs to in some way be commensurate with what has been done, the wrong that's been done. And so there's an ideal of justice. You know the great statue of Lady Liberty? She's blindfolded and she's holding out the scales, right? And what's on the scales? Well, there's the crime and then the punishment. And the crime needs to fit the punishment. How does she know? Well, without regard to the person, right? Her eyes are blind, doesn't know if it's a poor person, rich person, doesn't matter. It's simply the ideals of justice here. And there's lots of this in the Bible. this concern for fairness, so like back in 1429, we were talking about the special law, we spent the whole Sunday on this, talking about the tithe and how in verse 29, every three years, they're supposed to lay out the tithe in their towns for the Levite and the fatherless, the widow and the sojourner to enjoy it. Why? And it says, verse 29, because he has, the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, same thing with these other people, right? So they all don't have their own source of income from the land. And so God, out of regard for them, because they're still Israel, gives to them a way of getting portions from the land there, yeah. What I find so unique about God's law regarding justice was that even false witnesses, if it was found out that the individual that was being accused was innocent, the punishment would go on to the false witnesses. reading through the apocryphal book of Susanna, and that is exactly what happens to the two elders who falsely accused her. And the punishment was on their head. And I just, I don't see an equivalent to that in our modern society. Yeah, yeah. I think that it's something that needs to be recovered. Yeah, thank you for that. Yeah, good. Yeah, here's one more that I think is a good ideal of justice kind of one. 25.3, Deuteronomy 25.3. We'll start in verse one. If there is a dispute between men and they come into court and the judges decide between them, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty, then if the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of stripes in proportion to his offense. Okay, so there's that component, right? Eye for eye kind of element here. But then it says, 40 stripes may be given him, but not more. lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight." So what's this final part, verse 3, bringing out? What's also part of the ideals of justice? Yeah. I guess I would say undo humiliation. Yeah. Yeah, there needs to be a limit, not just based on, OK, there's like the, OK, what's commensurate and everything? But as they're figuring out what's commensurate, you realize, wow, we can go too far here. And as it says, your brother be degraded in your sight. And that's a striking way of saying it, right? Your brother. And this is a key phrase in Deuteronomy, key points where people are likely to forget, hey, this is my brother. Same thing with the law of the king. We spent a lot of time on that. It kept on talking about your brother. You, O king, you're so powerful. You have all this authority and all this wealth and everything. Let's not forget that your fellow Israelites are your brothers. If the punishment is going to cause them to be so degraded that you forget their humanity and you're beating them like an animal or something, that would be too far. Well, I have a question and a comment. The question is, why is 40 the cutoff, if you have any insight into that? But the other thing is just the, it's interesting how this idea of the dignity, of people made in the image of God. You even have to remember you're, like prisoners of war have to be treated in a certain way. At least that's how we've developed it in the more modern era. And prisoners deserve a certain amount of dignity. You don't go too far. They're human beings. But yeah, why the 40? I don't know the reason for the 40. Yeah, it's a special number in the Bible. It certainly is that. Yeah, I don't know. But I think the key thing here is equity in terms of like proportionality of the punishment, but then also the dignity, even of the person being punished. Yeah. It wasn't Jesus last 39 times. He didn't refuse to do 40. Yeah, yeah. In fact, it says Paul received, it says twice I received the 40 lashes minus one, which was sort of the Jewish tradition for making sure they don't break this as they don't go one over. And yeah, I'm trying to remember if that happened with Jesus too. You know, it was the Romans who beat him. So I don't know that they would have regard for this. I'd have to look that one up, but yeah. Yeah. So yeah, there's ideals of justice, creation realities, who God is, what he's like, what he loves. Let's look at another one. I find this fascinating. In the Deuteronomy's version of the Ten Commandments, there's a different rationale for the fourth command. Look at chapter five. Verse 12. So again, it's observed the Sabbath day to keep it holy as the Lord your God commanded you, and same basic content, you know, six days you shall labor, seventh day you rest, and same with everybody under you. But then look at verse 15. Instead of in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, look at verse 15. It says, you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. So what's the rationale now for why they keep? Yeah. I'm sorry, I wanted to comment back on the Roman punishment. Oh, okay, sure, yeah. Here we notice that the law of God commands a lashing. I'm assuming this is some sort of bullwhip or something. It just says beating, so. Or rod or something. It could be, yeah, rod, I don't know. On the other hand, the Romans had a very specific flaying system. It had pieces of bone and metal in, When they hit you with it, it would tear. So that's the cruelty of justice, what the law of God is trying to avoid. Yeah, good. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, and just real quick while we're talking about the Romans, it's important to note that these first three They really have nothing specific to do with Israel, right? These are things that apply to every human being who's created by the one God, who lives in his creation, and these basic principles of justice, it's not like they're somehow Israel-specific in the sense that they're somehow connected to their story in a specific way. But now this fourth one, what's the reason for keeping the Sabbath? Yeah. because they were brought out of Egypt, right? Yeah, their story, in other words. The story of being liberated out of Egypt is the reason for the command. Because God is a rest giver, because you guys have received rest, therefore give rest. Therefore, take rest and give it. So Israel's story becomes part of the grounding for the commands. Here's why I'm asking you to do this stuff. And there's a number of these. So like look at Deuteronomy 15, 15. It's talking about freeing the Israelite slaves on the seventh year. And here's the reason. Deuteronomy 15, 15. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you. Therefore, I command you this today. So the idea that, hey, we were redeemed slaves, therefore we need to act in a similar way. And God doesn't want his people being re-enslaved forever, made permanent slaves. If you go back to, let's see here, Deuteronomy 6 verse 20. And it's the son asking his father, why are we doing all these commandments and rules and statutes? Look at chapter 6 verse 21. You shall say to your son, we were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. The Lord brought us out. And he basically has this little summary of Israel's story, right? The Lord showed great signs and wonders against Egypt, against Pharaoh. He brought us out from there so he could bring us into this land. And so the Lord commanded us to do all these things. So Israel's story, the fact that they are redeemed, therefore they need to act redeemed. is a key reason for the loss. Yeah. Well, I also see in those two other passages, and then it ties into this one, there is the constant, remember, remember this. Because we have to be reminded, we are not our own, we do not save ourselves. So we always have to constantly be reminded to remember God's hand in our lives. Yeah, right. And that's embedded in these commands. You're remembering when you set that slave free on the seventh year, even if they haven't fully paid back their debt to you, you're remembering what God did when he brought you out. One more here, Deuteronomy 23 on this one. I just think this is really cool. How there's like a, look, let's not remember your past here, everybody. Deuteronomy 23, seven. "'You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother.'" Remember, Edom is another name for Esau, and Esau was the brother of Jacob, so all the 12 tribes, those sons are cousins to all the children of Esau. "'You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. "'You shall not abhor an Egyptian, "'because you were a sojourner. in his land. And actually, the one I was thinking of is, I think, the one in Exodus 23. If you just want to turn back to Exodus 23, 9. It's just talking about, it sort of makes these, the thing I just read more general. Yeah, here it is. Exodus 23, 9. You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner. In other words, you know what it's like. For you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. So explain this one to me. What's the logic of this command? Why are they not to oppress a sojourner? Do unto others, it's the golden rule, exactly. What was it like to be a sojourner? Do you remember what it was like not to have your own land, not to be, you know, this is not your country and everybody's sort of treating you worse because you don't have, you know, you're not really good with the language or you clearly are an outsider. Well, remember, remember what it was like and then remember Remember by loving. And then just one more here in Deuteronomy 14 verse 1. It's It's wonderful, I think, how Deuteronomy has got some of these statements like this. In the midst of all these, like, do this, don't do this, do this, don't do this, it'll say something like this. You are the sons of the Lord your God. That's not a command, right? That's an indicative statement. That's like a statement of reality. You are the sons of the Lord your God. You shall not cut yourselves or make any baldness on your foreheads for the dead. For you are people holy to the Lord your God. And the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. And so, look, here's who you are. And we could say Israel's story has given them an identity. And so the commands are live your identity. Be who you are. And really the beginning of the Ten Commandments is the kind of golden example of this, right? I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. You shall have no other gods before me. This is who you are, redeemed. So act redeemed. Live your identity. And so this is very specific to Israel, right? This is them remembering, hey, I wasn't always this prosperous landowner here in Israel with the huge vineyards and the amazing olive groves. all this abundance. It wasn't always like this. My forefathers were slaves in Egypt, and the only reason why I have all this goodness right now is because of God. And so because of that, It's going to change how I live. I'm going to treat the sojourner differently. I'm going to refrain from imitating the peoples of the land in their way they cut themselves for the dead. I have a resurrection hope. I'm not going to cut myself for the dead. Okay, yeah, yeah. It kind of reminds me of what we're going through right now. You know, reading through the Old Testament, you know, they're told to remember, remember, remember. And then as you read through the Old Testament, it's very obvious that they forgot. about all that they went through. And it reminds me of our own day and age where we fought a bloody war to be independent from a lot of tyranny. And now it seems that we're just self-wrapping ourselves in chains, declaring ourselves free. Mm-hmm. Yes. Yeah, if you if you don't remember the past you're condemned to repeat it and You're condemned to despise the very things that your forefathers bled and died for Right. So like anyone who despises History class, you know and thinks it's dumb maybe just you don't have a good teacher, but Like, you got to know your past or you're going to be in big trouble. And like, what is the entire Bible? It's our story, right? We got to know our story. We've got to know what Jesus did. Otherwise we're going to be like, why is Jesus so important? Why do we care about like getting married before having relations with the opposite sex? Like, why does that even matter? Well, read your Bible. Know your past, know your story. These things matter, but you have to know your story, to know your identity, for you to be willing to die for these things. I think this line, the identity, live your identity, can also be said to live the identity I have given you. Yes. You are my people. Your identity in Christ. Yes. That's really good. Not the identity you assign to yourself. That's really important. Your true identity. All right, one more set, and it's chapter four, verse 40. Deuteronomy four, verse 40. It says... Okay. Therefore you should keep his commandments and his statutes which I command you today, that it may go well with you, with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time. So why do they keep the commands? What's the reason? Why is God commanding them to do all this stuff? So that it will go well. And so, That line, that it may go well with you, is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 times in Deuteronomy. That it may go well with you, that it may go well with you, that it may go well with you. The commands are what lead to prosperity. So, you know, why do we not commit adultery? all of these things would apply, right? God hates infidelity, hates it when we break vows. Creation realities, God made us for lifelong companionship with one person that we're committed to. I could go into each of these if I wanted to, but this part here, God's commanding you these things so that it will go well for you, so that you will live, so that you'll be blessed. And it's like one of these things about the law that's like the hardest for us to understand. We're like, oh man, God, why can't we do this? God, I want to work on Sunday. You know, I don't feel like resting today. Oh man, we got to go to worship. All that kind of stuff. What's going on? We're getting confused. What will be my happiness? What will be for my good? And we think we know better than God. That's what happens when we sin. It's always pride when we sin, right? We think we know better than God. And so we walk away from his path of life. And we think to ourselves, ha ha, I've beat the system, I'm smarter than God, right? That's maybe not what we think is explicitly in our mind, but that is what we're thinking. And what's happening, we're going against like fundamental realities of how God made the world. And so God has given us all these things so that we can be blessed, yes. Yeah, I'm reminded of the blessed man of Psalm 1. His delight is in the law of the Lord, and he's like a tree planted by rivers of water. Yeah, he's like the abundant tree, always yielding fruit. And in my own life, my own testimony, I've had such terrible sins in my life that just ate away at me. To follow God's commands, to follow the law of God, is such a freeing thing. There's such a freedom of conscience. It's like a breath of fresh air. You're alive, essentially. You're not dying inside, and that's what sin does. It kills us. Yeah, sin always leads to death, right? That's the lesson of the garden, right? If you sin, you will die. The wages of sin is death. And so that's sort of the opposite, right? If you sin, it will go badly with you. One example of this is the third command, right? Remember, keep the, You shall not take the Lord's name in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. In other words, God's not gonna say, oh, no big deal here, we'll just overlook this. No, God's saying, you're gonna dishonor my name? It's not gonna lead to life. What leads to prosperity and what's prohibited, what leads to death? God in his love, protects us in his commands. And so like if you fear God, in other words, if you think he knows what he's talking about, then you'd be like, ooh man, I don't want to go anywhere near this sin because I know it's like radioactive stuff. It's going to destroy me. Yeah. And just to tie into what Ryan said and what you just said about protecting, and he made these laws because he knows us. Better than we know ourselves and this is his love for us Yeah, there's loving compassion because when we're on left to ourselves We are destroyers of our lives and others lives. And so he made these commands Because he knows we need to follow these things because our nature is against them Yeah, and not just our nature. What's Satan always trying to do? He's always trying to say, God is giving you these commands because he doesn't actually love you. He's trying to keep you from life. Did God really say you're not going to be... Eating this fruit is a bad idea. Yeah. You shall not surely die. Yeah, right. And that leads me to the final passage on this one I wanted to share from Deuteronomy 30. This is the climax of the entire book of Deuteronomy. This is Moses punching at home. In chapter 30, 19, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I've set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life. It's those words that's the very heart of Deuteronomy. Therefore choose life that you and your offspring may live. Loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice, holding fast to him, for he is your life, there it is again, and length of days, that you may dwell on the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them. So life, life, life, life, right? And what's he saying? For the reason? Obey these commands because they are your life. This should be so precious to you, this book of Deuteronomy. You should be memorizing this thing and internalizing this thing. Because it's like, man, if I forget these laws, if I start disobeying God, I'm going to destroy myself. And so God's saying, treasure these things. I gave you all these commands so that you'll be blessed. So this leads me to my final thought question for you for today. So if you read other ancient Eastern law codes, and even like our modern civil code, it's just a list of regulations. Don't do this. Do do this. Don't do this. Don't do this. And then consequences. If this happens, they shall pay 30 shekels. If this happens, they shall die. Whatever. There's commands and consequences. Almost never, and maybe it's actually never. I try to remember. Back in PhD days, I read through all these ancient Eastern law codes. I can't remember a single time where I ever saw a reason. Why is it significant that God gives reasons for many of his commands? Why is there such a rich, I mean, we're really just getting going on these, you know. Why is there such a rich set of reasons for why God gives us the commands? My simple answer to that is that he has made us in his image with intellect. He knows we think, he knows we ask questions. And I mean, that's all over the Psalms that David is constantly asking him, why are you doing this? Why are you? And he knows we are going to do that. I think it's his grace and mercy to us to give us reasons. Good. Excellent. Yeah, and I think what you brought out about how, like we're thinking creatures. Part of what it means to be made in the image of God is we understand him. Like, try to reason with your dog. Like, not going to happen, right? It really is just pure cause and effect, right? Like, when I do this, Master gives me a treat. When I do this, Master is angry. You know, like, that's all there is, right? But with us, there's understanding. He's showing that he cares about that understanding. Yeah. It defines his character, Pastor. God is love. And this really is a clear declaration of his love for us. Yeah. And we can't really say that. It's not like the president of the United States loves us as much as we're thankful for our form of government. Or those ancient kings loved their people. They may have said that, but they didn't necessarily exemplify it like our great God does. Yeah, I mean, it's hard to say. But yeah, like with God, like what is this showing? Like I'm giving you this law because I really care for you. And I think just another thing to kind of combines both of what you said is that he wants our love too. Right? Like, He wants us not just to obey, but to obey with the right heart. Where, like, we're loving these people. Hey, I know what it was like to be a sojourner. Or my people once were sojourners. Therefore, we're going to treat you with dignity. And so, God wants our hearts. Therefore, He gives the reasons. Right? Like, He wants intelligent obedience. Yeah. I mean, as a good father, you know, I try to teach my sons a little bit of wisdom, you know, in my circumstance, as a human, a sinful human, you know, I can pass on wisdom to my sons. Don't do these things, they lead to really bad consequences. With little kids, you know, don't touch the stove, it's hot, it'll hurt you, it'll burn you. So as a father, I don't want to see them hurt themselves beyond you. And God being the ultimate Father, He gives us wisdom and passes down these laws because of His great steadfast love for us. He doesn't want to see His creation destroy itself. And part of what you're doing when you're doing that is you're trying to create understanding in the kid so that not only do they understand the command, they understand why the command is there. which then will help when they're in a situation that you haven't commanded them about. And that's another piece of this, as we talked about this before. Like if you put together all the laws from Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, it's an unbelievably short document. like ridiculously short compared to, you know, just the IRS tax code, right? That's just the tax code, right? Then there's all the other laws in our land. What's going on? This is not an exhaustive list of what God wants in the sense that, like, there's all these other situations, all these scenarios that he hasn't spelled out exactly what he wants us to do. He has given us the great commands, love me, love your neighbor, and so in that sense it is exhaustive, it covers everything, those cover everything. But he doesn't spell everything out. What does he do? He gives us the laws, and then he gives us the reasons for the laws, so that we would grow not just in like legal knowledge, but in wisdom. And so to really be a law keeper, you have to not just know the commands, but why is God giving us these? So then when you're in another situation, well, he didn't tell us exactly about this, but how do I love God with my smartphone or whatever? Well, you can figure it out if you love God and love your neighbor and you've understood the wisdom of it. And that brings me to the final kind of surprise result of all of this is that, guess what? Deuteronomy isn't actually a law code. It's actually sermon, right? And that's why he closes with, so choose life, right? He's preaching it. He's bringing it home. And so God gives us in his wisdom, not just sort of some spare code. We were just sort of like, oh man, this is so tedious. Instead, he's giving a sermon. It's like, oh, that's what this is about. So that we would really love him from the heart. So it goes back to loving God. Because we love Him, we want to be conformed to Him. Because we love Him, we want to act in accordance with how He made the world. Because we love Him, we care about justice and about protecting others. Because we love Him, we want to act redeemed and live out our identity as holy people. Because we love Him, we want to find our true blessedness in Him. So let's pray and ask that those heart things would be true of us. Father, thank you for giving us not just the commands, but the reasons for the commands. And we pray that we would grow in wisdom and genuine love for you, that we'd have not just right understanding, but the right heart. And we pray that, Lord, you give us wisdom for all the things that we will face where we're not exactly sure what to do, what's the right thing. That, Lord, we would have so internalized your law that in those hard times, we would have good guidance for how we can best love and honor you with all that we are. And we pray in Jesus' name, amen.