deuteronomy 5 and 6

Read Deuteronomy 5 and 6 at Bible Gateway.

The Hebrew paragraph divisions for today’s chapters are:

Deu 5:1-5 {s} These statutes and judgments are Israel’s covenant with YHVH
Deu 5:6-10 {s} YHVH alone is God + do not make idols to worship
Deu 5:11 {s} Do not take the name of YHVH in vain
Deu 5:12-15 {s} Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy
Deu 5:16 {s} Honor your father and mother
Deu 5:17 {s} Do not murder
Deu 5:18 {s} Do not commit adultery
Deu 5:19 {s} Do not steal
Deu 5:20 {s} Do not bear false witness
Deu 5:21a {s} Do not covet your neighbor’s wife
Deu 5:21b {s} Do not covet anything that is your neighbor’s
Deu 5:22-6:3 {p} YHVH’s voice spoke these commandments + hear + pay heed + observe
Deu 6:4-9 {s} Listen to YHVH’s commandments
Deu 6:10-15 {s} Pay careful heed to YHVH’s commandments
Deu 6:16-19 {s} Observe YHVH’s commandments
Deu 6:20-25 {s} Teach YHVH’s commandments to your children

The single strong theme is Deu 5:1-6:3: The statutes and judgments which Israel heard, which Moses is to teach, and which Israel is to pay heed to and observe. It forms a chiastic structure:

1a) Deu 5:1, Hear, pay careful heed, learn, and observe statutes and judgments;

1b) Deu 5:2-3, YHVH’s covenant with Israel;

1c) Deu 5:4-5 {s} YHVH’s voice from the midst of the fire + Moses between YHVH and Israel;

central axis) Deu 5:6-21 {sx10} The Ten Comandments;

2c) Deu 5:22-27, YHVH’s voice from the midst of the fire + Moses between YHVH and Israel;

2b) Deu 5:28-29, Israel’s heart toward YHVH, to fear Him and keep His commandments;

2a) Deu 5:30-6:3 {p} Hear, pay heed, learn, and observe the commandment, statutes, and judgments.

Look at the B pair. Just as YHVH is to keep something, Israel is to keep something. YHVH keeps the covenant, that He will be God to Israel. He will love them, guide them, direct them, provide for them, preserve them, give them victory over their enemies, and do all the promises He has promised them. Israel is also to keep something–the commandments. It is how they reciprocate. It is how they will be known as the people of God, and how they will love Him back.

The Ten Commandments are at the heart of the structure. They are the Law — they summarize the Law of God. (And the Two Great Commandments, Love God, and Love Your Neighbor, summarize the Ten. And the single verb LOVE, summarizes the Two, and therefore is the summary of the entire Law of God. This is why the Golden Rule is all the Law and the Prophets.)

The Ten Commandments are the Covenant ratified in blood, and renewed in the blood of Messiah Yeshua. We have been taught that commandments have nothing to do with the New Covenant. But Scripture teaches us that a characteristic of the New Covenant is that the Law of God will be written on our hearts (Jer 31:33). We will obey it from an internal injunction now, and not merely from an external coercion as when it was only written on two tablets of stone. It is not that the Law of God has been abolished. Jesus taught us it would remain in force as long as the heavens and earth remained (Mat 5:17-19). So if a man tells you the commandments have passed away today, do not listen. But also, if a man tells you that commandments are the purview of the angry God of the Old Testament, while grace is the purview of the loving God of the New Testament, do not listen, for Scripture is teaching us that His Law IS Love. The One God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and His Word (including His Law which teaches men what love means) is not obsolete from Genesis to Revelation.

Did you know that one of the first heresies recorded in the history of the Church, following the age of the apostles, was the heresy of Marcion? He was the first to say that the God of the Old Testament is vengeful and angry, and is different from the God of the New Testament, who is loving and gracious. He threw out the Old Testament as uninspired and unworthy of study. Unfortunately, he had to throw out a great swath of the New also, because the New is built on the solid foundation of the Old, and the two are in complete harmony. So don’t listen to modern men repeat the same old heresies which were condemned by the body of believers long ago, but know the Scripture, both the Old and the New, for they do not contradict each other in any particular.