“You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you. But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety, then to the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the LORD.
The book of Deuteronomy means 2nd Law. It is the second giving of the Law of God through the mouth of Moses to the people of Israel. But these people were not the people who came out of Egypt. Those people (20 years old and upward) all died in the wilderness, during their 40 years of wandering. That is the reason for the second giving of God’s Laws. Those younger than 20 and those born in the wilderness needed to hear it again. This is why the above passage is written. Moses is reminding this new generation about their obligation to worship God in the right way. The truths of the past needed to be taught to the people of the future. This is a principle of life we must always be aware of in our community dynamics. Whether it is a home, a church, an organization, or a nation, the imprinting of the mores’ of the past into and unto the hearts of the future generation is imperative for survival. We die as groups of people when we fail to carry over past values into present and future living. God did not want that for His people so, before Moses’ death, he was charged with telling this new generation how to worship God. The main truth Moses’ conveys: Don’t be like the world around you! A primary value found in Deuteronomy is this truth of separation from the other nations and for Israel to live unique lives in the midst of people who did whatever was right in their own eyes. Does that sound familiar? Is that not what we are to do today in the church age? We are not to be like the world but to come out of the world and live holy before the world:
2 Corinthians 6:17-18 (ESV)
Therefore go out from their midst,
and be separate from them, says the Lord,
and touch no unclean thing;
then I will welcome you,
and I will be a father to you,
and you shall be sons and daughters to me,
says the Lord Almighty.”
Romans 12:1-2 (ESV)
A Living Sacrifice
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
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