This chapter is why Deuteronomy is called Deuteronomy. It’s the 2nd giving of the Law.
Deuteros (second) ✌🏼
Nomos (law) ⚖️
There are a few details here that we don’t get in Exodus 20 describing the original event. We’ll get to that in a second. First…
Does anyone else find it weird/distracting/fascinating that Moses speaks to this new generation as if they were the ones at Sinai?
“The Lord spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, while I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord. For you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up into the mountain…”
Deuteronomy 5:4-5 ESV
Americans are notoriously individualistic. Middle-eastern cultures are far more tribal and communal. If an American had been standing there listening to Moses…
🇺🇸 Bob the American: Uh, excuse me, Mr. Moses. I wasn’t at the mountain that day. That was my dad, Robert Senior.
👨🏽🦳 Moses: But Bob, you are your father’s son. You are his offspring. You were in his loins on that day. You were there. And you are part of this people.
🇺🇸 Bob: Nope. I object. I wasn’t me until I was conceived. I have no memory of fire and such. I had nothing to do with it. My dad does not speak for me. I’m my own man. Pulled myself up by my own bootstraps. Charted my own course – Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness! Come and take it!
👨🏽🦳 Moses: Alright, Yankee Doodle. Keep your shirt on.
Where were we?
“The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. Not with our fathers did the Lord make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today.”
Deuteronomy 5:2-3 ESV
Now, the “fathers” mentioned in this verse are none other than Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses makes it clear that THIS covenant is different than the one God made with Father Abraham back in Genesis. That one – about being a blessing to all the nations and inheriting the land of Canaan is called the “Abrahamic Covenant.” The covenant God made with Israel via Moses at Sinai is called the “Mosaic Covenant.” (Moe-zay-ic)
Not mosaic like this:
If your subject is Moses like the image above, it’s a Mosiac mosaic.
Look at the last phrase of verse 3: “all of us here alive today.” That’s fascinating.
Where were all the people who ACTUALLY made the covenant at Sinai? Remember? They got sprinkled with blood… “And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.” Exodus 24:3 ESV
We’re any of those people still alive? Or did they die in the wilderness?
So what do we make of verse 3? 🤔
It sounds to me like the covenant was a standing invitation to anyone in Israel who would commit to agree to the terms of participation.
It’s also a reminder that each generation must come into covenant agreement with the LORD. This generation on the plains east of Jericho doesn’t get “grandfathered in” to the covenant that their parents made at Sinai. A parent can’t make a covenant on behalf of his child. Yahweh is making this covenant in the present with this new generation. It also implies that future generations were on God’s heart when He made the covenant on Sinai. He isn’t stuck in time, after all. ⏳
The New Covenant is no different. Not only will no one get to heaven on a parent’s or grandparent’s shirttails, we ourselves renew our covenant faith in Christ every time we take part in the covenant meal: Communion. The bread and the cup are your personal Deuteronomy. Only – since our covenant is not under the Law but under Grace (which is charis in the Greek), it would technically be Deuterocharis (doo-ter-o-CARE-iss), or maybe (doo-ta-ROE-ka-ris?) Hmm.. That one sounds like a newly discovered dinosaur so maybe not. 🦕🦖
I mentioned at the top that there was a detail in this version that isn’t in the Exodus 20 version of the Law. It’s not a small difference either. It’s huge.
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”
Exodus 20:8-11 ESV
“Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.”
Deuteronomy 5:12-15 ESV
On Sinai, the Creation week was the point of reference for the weekly day of rest. Moses just gave it a Divinely inspired update. The Exodus is now the reference point and the reason for observing Sabbath.
You may recall (if you were reading the blog back in Exodus) that I spoke of how the deliverance from Egypt would be THE key event in the whole Old Testament. This is one of the reasons I said that. I mean, one of THE TEN COMMANDMENTS just got edited to be reoriented to the Exodus!
Just kidding. I don’t think Moses actually redid the stone tablets. But this change is just about as dramatic as if he had.
See? Yuge.👌🏼
We’re meant to connect some mental dots here. Namely, that the Exodus is the new day of rest; the new Sabbath. And that makes sense. As slaves, Israel didn’t get vacation time. They didn’t get to rest. Freedom from Egypt is the new origin story for their weekly observance.
But it didn’t stop there. Jesus brought the New Covenant. On the cross, when He cried out “Finished!” the work of the new creation (in the Spirit) was done and power of sin’s slavery was finally broken as Jesus led His people out of spiritual bondage. So the cross becomes the 3rd reference point for the Sabbath that combines the previous two.
“For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.”
Hebrews 4:8-10 ESV
Salvation is no longer by the works of the Law. It is by grace through faith. Jesus called people to “find rest for your souls.” “Working out your salvation with reverence and awe” is not the same thing as working for your salvation. We rest from the work FOR salvation. There is nothing left to be done. We simply trust in the finished work of Christ.
“For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we may walk in them.” Ephesians 2:8-10 LEB
Just because salvation is “not by works” doesn’t mean that we become spiritual couch potatoes. Notice the creation language. Creation week is the first point of origin for sabbath. Now WE are the new creation. And we are created to walk out the good works that God has prepared for us to do. Just like “the heavens declare the glory of God and the skies display His handiwork (Ps. 19), we are called to just the same.
This is the ultimate work-life balance. May you both rest and work in Christ today.
To The Reader 