What are biblical descriptions of divisions of the law? Were the Ten Commandments a covenant? Were they to personally teach their children and grandchildren or just send them to children’s church? Let’s look at Deuteronomy 4.
Did the law (torah) contain commandments, statutes and judgments? Was keeping the Sabbath a command (mitzvah)? Was letting animals also rest a statute (choq)? Was punishment when people broke the Sabbath a judgment (mishpat)?
So now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I am teaching you to do, so that you may live and go in and take possession of the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, is giving you. You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh your God which I am commanding you. Your eyes have seen what Yahweh has done in the case of Baal-peor, for all the men who walked after Baal-peor, Yahweh your God has destroyed them from among you. But you who clung to Yahweh your God are alive today, every one of you. (Deuteronomy 4:1-4 LSB)
Were they oppressive laws or filled with wisdom and understanding?
See, I have taught you statutes and judgments just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you are to do these things in the land where you are entering to take possession of it. So keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as is the Lord our God whenever we call on Him? Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole Law which I am setting before you today? (Deuteronomy 4:5-8 NASB)
Are parents responsible to teach their children and grandchildren all week long or just shuffle them off to children’s church once a week?
Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when he said to me, “Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.” (Deuteronomy 4:9-10 NIV)
What was the old covenant? Was it the Ten Commandments or Words?
Then you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the midst of heaven, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness. And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words, but saw no form; you only heard a voice. So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, the Ten Commandments [Words]; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone. And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might observe them in the land which you cross over to possess. (Deuteronomy 4:11-14 NKJV)
If Israel made statues of two covering cherubs over the mercy seat, is it wrong to make icons, or is the point not to bow down to and worship those sculptures?
But be very careful! You did not see the Lord’s form on the day he spoke to you from the heart of the fire at Mount Sinai. So do not corrupt yourselves by making an idol in any form—whether of a man or a woman, an animal on the ground, a bird in the sky, a small animal that scurries along the ground, or a fish in the deepest sea. And when you look up into the sky and see the sun, moon, and stars—all the forces of heaven—don’t be seduced into worshiping them. The Lord your God gave them to all the peoples of the earth. Remember that the Lord rescued you from the iron-smelting furnace of Egypt in order to make you his very own people and his special possession, which is what you are today. (Deuteronomy 4:15-20 NLT)
Was Moses humble enough to admit his faults before the whole congregation? Are we?
Furthermore Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I should not go over the Jordan, and that I should not go in to that good land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance; but I must die in this land. I must not go over the Jordan, but you shall go over and possess that good land. Be careful, lest you forget the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he made with you, and make yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which Yahweh your God has forbidden you. For Yahweh your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God. (Deuteronomy 4:21-24 WEB)
Did Moses warn them against idolatry and the consequences that would result?
Once you have had children and grandchildren and have grown old on the land, if you ruin things by making an idol, in any form whatsoever, and do what is evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and anger him, I call heaven and earth as my witnesses against you today: You will definitely disappear—and quickly—from the land that you are crossing over the Jordan River to possess. You won’t extend your time there but will instead be totally destroyed. The Lord will scatter you among the nations. Only a very few of you will survive in the countries where the Lord will drag you. There you will worship other gods, made of wood and stone by human hands—gods that cannot see, listen, eat, or smell. (Deuteronomy 4:25-28 CEB)
Would God show mercy to future generations if after punishment they repented?
In all of your troubles, you may finally decide that you want to worship only the Lord. And if you turn back to him and obey him completely, he will again be your God. The Lord your God will have mercy—he won't destroy you or desert you. The Lord will remember his promise, and he will keep the agreement he made with your ancestors. (Deuteronomy 4:29-31 CEV)
What nation in history has been rescued from slavery with such great miracles as Israel?
For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? (Deuteronomy 4:32-34 ESV)
Why was Israel shown such mighty wonders by God?
You were shown these things so that you would know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides Him. He let you hear His voice from heaven to instruct you. He showed you His great fire on earth, and you heard His words from the fire. Because He loved your fathers, He chose their descendants after them and brought you out of Egypt by His presence and great power, to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you in and give you their land as an inheritance, as is now taking place. (Deuteronomy 4:35-38 HCSB)
What were they expected to do after witnessing such things?
May you acknowledge and take to heart this day that the Lord is God in the heavens above and over the earth below—there is no other God. May you observe his statutes and keep his commands that I’m giving you today, so that life may go well for you and for your descendants after you. That way, you’ll live a long life in the land that the Lord your God is about to give you permanently. (Deuteronomy 4:39-40 ISV)
What were the three cities of refuge on the east side of Jordan?
Then Moses severed three cities on this side Jordan toward the sunrising; That the slayer might flee thither, which should kill his neighbour unawares, and hated him not in times past; and that fleeing unto one of these cities he might live: Namely, Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, of the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead, of the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, of the Manassites. (Deuteronomy 4:41-43 KJV)
What law was about to be repeated as Israel entered the land?
Now this is the law which Moses set before the sons of Israel; these are the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments which Moses spoke to the sons of Israel when they came out from Egypt, across the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the sons of Israel struck down when they came out from Egypt. And they took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who were across the Jordan to the east toward the sunrise, from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of Arnon, even as far as Mount Sion (that is, Hermon), with all the Arabah across the Jordan to the east, even as far as the sea of the Arabah, at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah. (Deuteronomy 4:44-49 LSB)
Is such judgment now gone under the new covenant?
Therefore, no one is to act as your judge in regard to food and drink, or in respect to a festival or a new moon, or a Sabbath day — things which are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. (Colossians 2:16-17 NASB)
What are biblical descriptions of divisions of the law? Were the Ten Commandments a covenant? Were they to personally teach their children and grandchildren or just send them to children’s church? You decide!
