Embracing God's Relationship: Idolatry, Worship, and Hope

What God is really saying to Israel is, "As Creator, I gave creation to everybody. But I'm giving Myself to you. I'm your God. I'm the God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me." And so the Lord is saying, "Not only is this a command that I give you, but it's a command with a real reason behind it. You must not replace the Creator with some part of the creation. It doesn't make any sense. But beyond not making any sense, it undermines the fundamental relationship that I have with you, My people." [00:01:55]

God, is above all else, a personal, saving, loving God, and He wants a personal relationship with His people. And all of these laws are designed to support that personal relationship that He has with people. If you go replacing Him with an image of something He created, you've diminished Him. But you've not only diminished him, but you have harmed the relationship He wants to have with you, and you've replaced him with something else. It's the great human temptation to replace God with something else. [00:03:02]

For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God." Now we all know, don't we, that the idea that God is a consuming fire is just an Old Testament idea. This is a trick question, this is to see if you're paying attention. Is it true that it's just an Old Testament idea that God is a consuming fire? No, because this very verse, Deuteronomy 4 verse 24, is quoted in Hebrews 12 verse 29, when the author of the letter to the Hebrews is talking about the importance of worship and the seriousness of worship, and how we're to worship God with reverence and awe. [00:04:44]

Worship is a lot simpler in the new covenant than it was in the old, but it's no less serious. God is no less serious, and the relationship He wants with His people is no less serious and profound. And so, here is one of the many places in Deuteronomy where we hear an echo in the New Testament that really deepens our understanding of that New Testament teaching itself. [00:06:11]

But Moses is really saying, "I not only know the history past of God's people, but I know the history future of God's people, and I know what kind of a people you are, and I know the danger you're going to be in, and I have to warn you that when you act corruptly in future generations, there are going to be terrible consequences. And the terrible consequence is you're going to lose the land. There's going to be an exile." That's not a surprise that's going to come into the life of Israel. [00:07:23]

And there is the great prophecy of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Old Testament situation described in Deuteronomy was never going to be the end. It was never the fulfillment. The Promised Land had a great purpose, but the purpose of the Promised Land was preparatory to seeing the coming of the ultimate Messiah, the ultimate Mediator, the true Prophet, Priest and King, who would bring the new heaven and the new earth, not just a little bit of territory in the Near East. [00:08:49]

It's very tempting to invest physical objects with spiritual power. It's very tempting, it's very satisfying to think there's a place I can go, there's a thing I can touch that will connect me to the divine. That's a pretty universal human experience. Some of you will know I'm a minister in a Dutch Reformed denomination, and in the Dutch Reformed churches, unlike a lot of the Presbyterian churches, we have forms, we call them, for things. [00:10:03]

Well, it's a tendency of the human heart to invest something physical with spiritual presence and power because it makes life easier for us. We are visually centered, and so the Lord really warns us about that. Paul, in a sense, I think echoes this in 2 Corinthians 4 verse 18, "We look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." [00:12:21]

And this provision says we want to end that in Israel, particularly in the cases where someone has accidentally killed someone else, not intentionally, not an act of murder. But there needs to be a place of refuge for such a person, so he won't be killed by the relatives and establish a back-and-forth blood feud in Israel. So, even these things make sense as we think about them as God wanting to establish a people of harmony and peace and love in the land that He is giving them. [00:14:14]

And the history of the church has said in the Old Covenant, it was the last day of the week, Saturday. And in the New Covenant, to mark Christ's resurrection from the dead, it's the first day of the week. And John seems to teach that in Revelation 1 verse 10, where he said, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day." Well, what's the Lord's day? If all days were alike in the New Covenant, as some people argue, there can't be a Lord's day. But John says there is a Lord's day. [00:19:21]

So, it's not only because of creation we keep the Sabbath day, but because of redemption we keep the Sabbath day. We used to be slaves who had to work at our master's bidding all the time, and God delivered us from that slavery, and God gave us rest. And so, one day a week we rest in Him to remember Him as the rescuer of slaves. [00:22:34]

If we are to rest, and our servants are to rest, and the stranger with us is to rest, it changes the whole character of society and of relationships. Our relationships are no longer just economic, but there's a communal spirit of mutuality. We were all slaves. You know, one of the great problems America wrestles with is the legacy of slavery that some were slaves and some were not. [00:23:10]