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Summary of Deuteronomy
Finally the people of Israel were about to enter the Promised Land: They had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years and an entire generation had died according to God’s decision to prohibit their entry into Canaan because of their mistrust towards him. This situation presented a challenge to Moses who knew that he would die soon: How could he raise up a young generation to trust in God without many of them having witnessed firsthand the majestic signs and wonders their parents had? This is probably the reason why Moses chose to repeat a major part of the content which had already been touched upon in Exodus and Leviticus: He gave them the Law a second time (→ Deuteronomy = second law). He wanted to encourage this young generation to trust God and to be faithful to their covenant with him. However he did not only encourage them: He also warned them about what would happen to them if they decided not to follow God.
the Storyline of Deuteronomy (cha. 27)
God’s commandments given in Deuteronomy (Deut.) and throughout the other books of the Torah can easily be summarized in one word: Respect! Respect for …
- God no blasphemy, no idolatry
- life no murdering, no kidnapping, no suppression of the weak, poor, and foreigners
- marriage no fornication, no adultery, no rape, no incest
- parents no dishonoring, no violence against parents
- property no stealing
- truth no false witnessing
- the Sabbath.
Failing to comply with God’s commandments to respect the things which are important to him would have serious consequences: In most cases death, capital punishment. In Deut. 27:9-26 we read that the Israelites entering Canaan would have to proclaim blessings and curses over themselves depending on whether or not they would obey God’s law: Six tribes were supposed to climb on top of Mount Gerizim to proclaim the blessings, the other six tribes should climb Mount Ebal to proclaim the curses. After every curse the Israelites would have to accept the blessings and the cruses with “Amen” which means “So be it“. The curses proclaimed in Deut. 27:9-26 can be equated with capital punishment. This means that a person put to death under the Mosaic Law was cursed by God for having disrespected his law.
“Cursed is anyone who does not uphold the words of this law by carrying them out.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
Deuteronomy 27:26 [NIV]
the Foreshadowing of the Cross
In order to emphasize to the people of Israel the serious consequences of transgressing God’s law (which not only entailed the death penalty but also God’s curse → Deut. 27) the executed offenders were sometimes publicly hung on a pole or a tree. In Deut. 21 we read:
“If a man is guilty of a capital offense, is executed, and then is impaled [hanged] on a tree, his body must not remain overnight on the tree. You must bury him that same day, because cursed of God is the one who has been hanged on a tree. Don’t defile your land that the Lord is about to give you as your inheritance.”
Deuteronomy 21:22-23 [ISV]
It is interesting to notice that the Torah singles out this one particular form of execution/ public display after execution as a specific sign for a person being “cursed of God”.
The same way Jesus was cursed by God when he hung on a tree, the wooden Cross.
The apostle Paul picks up this parallel in his letter to the church in Galatia, cha. 3:13:
The Messiah redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, “A curse on everyone who is hung on a tree!”
Galatians 3:13 [ISV]
To grasp this aspect of the Cross let us take a look at the bottom part of the Deuteronomy drawing: What might at first glance look like tornados connecting to Jesus on the Cross is not supposed to resemble tornados. Imagine a bathtub filled with still water. Once unplugged the water flowing towards the outlet will naturally form itself into the shape of a vortex. While a tornado sucks material upwards into the sky this kind of a vortex transports material downwards. This is what the drawing is supposed to communicate: On the Cross God “drained” all of his wrath, condemnation, curse, judgement on Jesus and laid all of mankind’s sins on his shoulders. Jesus voluntarily drank this “cup” of God’s wrath (Psalm 75; Jeremiah 25) and atoned for our sins. We are the ones who caused him to hang there, yet – as the bottom part of the Deut. drawing also communicates – through Jesus becoming a curse for us we can stand in God’s light, in his presence, and be reconciled to him by accepting the unearned gift he himself has extended to us in the person of Jesus Christ.
Interception: Hypergrace
In Lev. 11:44-45 as well as in Lev. 19:2 God called his people, the Israelites, to holiness since he is holy. Deuteronomy picks up this theme and underlines in a profound way how God sees sin: He is disgusted by it! To show this to Israel and to the nations around them he instituted those severe punishments including the death penalty. Severe punishments also for things which many people today would count as minor transgression: Things like blasphemy, things like sexual immorality, things like dishonoring ones parents. Also in some Christian circles the severity of sin seems to have lost partially or even all together its meaning since the New Covenant through Christ’s atoning death has supposedly changed everything. The New Testament however does not change anything about God’s perception of sin: He still hates it. Jesus himself said that he would not abolish the law but fulfill it (Matthew 5:17). If changed at all the standard of God’s law was not lowered but even raised by him: We read in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) that even our thoughts are subject to God’s judgement; that murder and adultery already start in the heart. The words coming out of our mouth will be subject to God’s judgement as well (Matthew 12:36-37).
Furthermore one thought about Jesus’ ministry is quite interesting: The only time we see Jesus getting physical is in John 2: When he saw the traders and the money exchangers defiling the temple, the house of his Father he got angry. In his anger he made a whip and drove out those who were defiling the temple. In light of the repeated statements in the New Testament that followers of Christ are the “temple of the living God” and that God is living inside this temple through the Holy Spirit (e.g. 1. Corinthians 3:16-17): What does this reveal to us about Jesus’ attitude towards sin in the lives of his followers defiling the temple of his Father?
The apostles echoed Jesus’ words in multiple occasions: Paul addressed one of the most severe warnings towards Christians in 1. Corinthians 6:9-10 when he wrote that no one living in habitual sin (incl. sexual immorality, idolatry, adultery, homosexuality, theft, greed, drunkenness, slandering, lying) would inherit the kingdom of God. Adding to that Peter picks up the words of God from the Old Testament as well: “Be holy, because I [God] am holy” (1. Peter 1:16). The list goes on.
So holiness in the Old as well as in the New Testament is not a suggestion, not a recommendation or a good advice: It is a commandment to believers! To those who profess to live under the lordship of Christ. This message seems to have been lost in people involved in the Hypergrace Movement who believe that God’s grace is boundless; that it never ends; that people can not only come the way they are but that they can stay the way they are. In an effort to reconcile this believe with the clear teaching of scripture, verses like “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10) and “be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28) need to be overlooked, set aside as part of the Old Covenant, or reinterpreted.
This is one of the reasons why the Torah, particularly the book of Deuteronomy is so rewarding to study since it brings back a healthy fear of the Lord. God is love, he is merciful and he is good, but he is also totally committed towards his holiness, his righteousness, and the wage of sin has to paid … one way or another. The vortex illustration in the drawing for Deuteronomy is only one example. Let us close this interception with another one which Paul Washer, an evangelist from the US, frequently used in his sermons. It is an even more vivid illustration to get the severity of what happened on the Cross into perspective. For the purpose of this project it has been slightly modified:
Imagine yourself living in a valley between huge mountains, the largest ones you will find on planet earth. One side of the valley is open. On the other side: A dam, filled to the brim with water. Your little village is located not very far from that dam, maybe half a mile or even less: You never bothered to measure. The dam has been there all of your life and you have learned to blot it out of your mind. Someday, a day like every other day, you walk down the streets, your mind occupied with the usual stuff. Then there is this sound. You stop. You have heard it numerous times in the last couple of months wondering where it might come from. But now you can not only hear it: You can feel it! You slowly turn your head while in the process realizing: There … was … something! Your eyes reach the dam which stands there, sky high. It has always been there but you suppressed the obvious truth of his existence: A world without it would look so much nicer. You defining your own reality, your own horizon had become an obsession. “What have I done,” you ask yourself while you see numerous cracks forming all across the dam’s width and height. Then it gives way. All at once. A wall of water starts to rush towards you. First slow, then gaining momentum with every second. You don’t have to think, you know: It does not matter how fast you can run; it does not matter how good you can swim; it would not help to continue denying the dam’s existence. It is there, it has always been there, and it has just unleashed all of its might at you. The roaring sound is getting louder and louder while the wall of foaming water is going faster and faster. You can start to feel the wind from the air being pushed towards. Five more seconds. You open your mouth and take a deep breath …
Let us stop this illustration right here: This is you if you don’t have Christ on judgement day. This is you if you think that you do have Christ but you don’t take him and his call for holiness seriously. You can certainly deny God’s existence or his nature: However it will not help you in the certain event of your death when God’s wrath is going to be released towards you: It will happen.
Let us continue now to see what happens if you do have Christ who steps in for you:
… the earth shakes again: This time way closer to yourself. Below. Suddenly the ground opens up in front of you, not even 100 feet from where you stand. The chasm gets wider and wider. It drinks down all the water that had been rushing towards you. Not one drop of water touches your shoes. You just stand there watching in awe how all of the dam’s content is consumed. Jesus has just drank down the cup of God’s wrath which had been stored up for you.
Glory and honor to God who is not only holy, not only just and perfect, but who has also given to us an example for the highest form of mercy and love by giving himself totally and unreservedly. Wouldn’t it be sad beyond expression to leave such a present motived by perfect and selfless love unopened?
the Shadow at one Glance
Deuteronomy 21 → 27
- cursed of God was the one who was hung on a tree as a capital punishment for their own sins
the Gospel
- cursed of God was Jesus who was hung on a tree as a capital punishment for the sins of the world
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