DEUTERONOMY
Lesson 7 - Chapter 5
We are now about 80% of the way through the Torah and we have absorbed an enormous
amount of detail. As we begin our study of Deuteronomy chapter 5 today let’s pause for just a
few minutes to sort of gather our thoughts and gain some perspective. Allow me to take a few
minutes to draw a picture of some of the foundational premises of Deuteronomy that we are
expected to keep in mind at all times when studying this great book and the Bible in general.
First, the context of Deuteronomy is that the Laws being given to Israel (originally given at Mt.
Sinai and now repeated and somewhat expounded upon here in Moab) are from Yehoveh.
This notion of a set of laws coming from God sounds rather simple and easy for us to accept;
but just as there being but one God in existence was a totally new concept to the world (and to
Israel) so it was equally as revolutionary that a god (instead of that nation’s king) would
establish the laws and rules that governed any particular human society. Up to this point in
history it was always a human KING whose prerogative it was to declare what was right and
wrong, what was legal and what was criminal. For Israel, however, the common understanding
of the SOURCE of societal laws would forever change.
Second, an additional context of Deuteronomy is that those to whom Moses is about to repeat
these laws (laws beginning with the first series of 10 laws that we title the 10 Commandments),
these people standing before him, were not present (except perhaps if they were young
children at the time) when the Law was FIRST given almost 40 years earlier, because the first
generation of the Exodus who had witnessed the awe of it all were now dead and gone and
apparently had not passed the teaching of it along as they should have.
Third, we will notice as we move along in the coming chapters some slight variation in how
these laws are to be viewed and applied at this point in Israel’s journey versus how they
were to be viewed and applied 40 years ago at the beginning of their Wilderness journey. This
is because the era of living in portable tents, eating the Manna that has been rained down from
Heaven each and every day without fail, and moving from Oasis to Oasis was essentially at an
end. Therefore Moses had to explain just how Israel was to observe these same laws and
commands since Israel was about to become a settled sedentary people and stop living as a
massive population of wandering Bedouins.
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The context of their existence was changing for Israel, so Moses had to reframe some things;
but the reframing at all times stayed within the boundaries of the Law as given on Mt. Sinai.
This is a great principle that has been lost to us. It has been a common practice within
Christianity to disregard the circumstances and the timeframe and the cultural norms of the
Bible era, and rather to say that the words of the Bible have this mystical quality such that the
thousands of verses and paragraphs it comprises can be severed away from their historical
context and made to stand alone in any era.
Let me give you a brief example of what I mean: here we are meeting today in Florida, in the
United States, the bastion of Western Culture. We’re in the year 2009; our attention is focused
on the controversial Iraq war, the never-ending unrest that revolves around Israel, and a global
financial crisis that has thrown millions out of their jobs and homes. Islamic Fascism is
attempting to reassert itself on a global level. Our economy and our national security dominate
our every thought, and if one is a Christian fundamentalist your faith is under attack, you are
now considered a threat to our government’s goals, and you likely are certain that we are in
the last days of human history and that what is going on around us is but the playing out of
predetermined and inalterable prophetic events. Nearly one half of our churches now deny the
deity of Jesus Christ; about one fourth of American Churches believe in Gay marriage and in
ordaining homosexuals as Pastors and Bishops. Violence is increasing at every level of our
society to unheard of levels, and what would have been considered X-rated programs and
pornography a mere 20 years ago are now common fare on primetime Television.
Our American society is primarily English speaking, but increasingly Spanish has become a
common second language; some want Spanish to become acceptable as an officially
sanctioned ALTERNATIVE language of the US, while others vehemently insist that English
remain as our one and only common national tongue and to undermine that would be to
undermine our very social fabric. Our nation is approximately evenly divided between politically
liberal and politically conservative minded people, but the middle ground has all but
disappeared.
This is the historical context in which we live. This is the context from which all of our daily
dialogue takes place. This context is unique for our time; it has not existed before, and it will
change as time moves along, into what we do not know.
The point is that when our President gives a speech, or a new book is written about some
major event or issue of our era, or a Preacher speaks to us about how to apply Scripture to our
lives, if you are an American living in Florida in the year 2009 all that I have just stated about
what our current circumstances are is the contextual given for that speech, or book or sermon.
The speaker or author doesn’t need to reiterate all of these circumstances that define our era
because its common knowledge.
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But if one is living in England, or Turkey, or Mexico, or Russia the context is quite different and
when a leader in any of those places speaks he or she does so in a context relative to their
culture and current circumstances. Our American context is not only largely irrelevant to them it
is not even comprehensible to their minds UNLESS they are somehow educated, familiarized,
and brought up to date about American values, language, history, and interests.
It is no different with the Bible. That is why I spend so much time in Torah Class reminding you
of that reality and painting a picture (as we go) of the geography, the language evolution, what
people were thinking and concerned about, what certain words and phrases meant to them,
what the major issues and challenges of the times were, what was taken for unchallenged
common knowledge and what was completely unknown to them yet.
But just as it is with us today, society in the days of the Bible (at any given moment in time)
was anything but uniform and monolithic; everybody was NOT the same nor was they all living
under the same circumstances. Therefore (for example) in the New Testament we’ll have Paul
speaking to pagan gentiles in one of the new and progressive Roman cities using terms and
illustrations they are familiar with. He’ll speak to the gentiles in Greek, the language they used.
When he ventured back to the Holy Lands he would speak to the unique culture of the Jews
and the entirely different Jewish society (incalculably separate from the Roman world) within
the context of their understanding that even varied from Galilee to Samaria to Judea; so he
would speak to the various Jewish groups about issues and in terms that were of concern to
them in Hebrew and Aramaic, the language of the Jews living within the Holy Land. Had Paul
spoken to the Romans using Jewish cultural and religious terms they would have been
clueless as to what he was talking about (and probably offended as well). Had he spoken to
the Jews in Roman cultural terms the Jews would have turned they’re backs and walked away
or, as we read happened on not just a few occasions, run him out of town.
You see the world does not now (and never has) consisted of generic people living in generic
societies under generic circumstances speaking a single generic language. Rather, we can
ONLY gain any meaningful information from the Biblical texts (Old Testament or New), whether
it be from Paul, or Jesus, or Moses, when we take it all inside of the historical and cultural
context it occurred and then (in the ordinary sense it was meant at that time) reapply it to our
new global, national, and local circumstances. Therefore since Deuteronomy 5 is primarily a
restatement of the original 10 Commandments (as given 40 years earlier) let us take careful
note that much time has passed, an entire generation has died out, and the context
substantially different from when it was first declared:
It’s around 1300 B.C. Abraham has been dead for around 500 years. Moses is but days from
his death and new leader has been readied to replace him. He is standing on a hill in Moab
and addressing the young generation of eager warriors who are about to engage in Holy War
upon Canaan. The Law is well established and has been practiced, now, for 40 years. The
Priesthood is fully functioning, the Wilderness Tabernacle is the recognized dwelling place of
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God on earth, and Joshua has been introduced as Moses’ successor.
Israel is currently a racially mixed nation of about 3 million people consisting of full-blooded
Hebrews, foreigners of several races who have officially joined Israel, half-breeds (the result of
intermarriage with these foreigners), and of non-Hebrew slaves. Thousands of aliens camp on
the outskirts of the enormous Israelite encampment because these aliens choose to be friends
with Israel, but not to join them as part of a Hebrew nation. Moses is speaking to ALL of these
people, not just to some, even though those who are actually hearing his voice are but the
people’s representatives: the tribal elders and chieftains.
With that as a backdrop let’s read Deuteronomy chapter 5.
READ DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 5 all
We find in this chapter that Moses is reestablishing the basis for claiming that he is the sole
and unique Mediator between God and Israel; that is, he is saying bluntly that “these are the
rules that I, Moses, proclaim to you” (in verse 1) but then goes on to make it clear that he is
but repeating to them what the Lord told him and what many of them heard as children from a
frightening and thundering voice from above. Moses is also reestablishing a basis (to this new
generation) for why Yehoveh is, and should be, Israel’s God and that their loyalty is to be only
to Yehoveh. And the reason that Israel should obey and worship Yehoveh is stated in the first
commandment that is verse 6: “I am YHWH your God who brought you out of the land of
Egypt…..”
I remind you that while it became the norm over the centuries to ignore the original 1
st
commandment (I am YHWH your God) and to take the 2
nd
commandment and break it apart
and make 2 commandments out it so that there was the appearance of 10 and not 9
commands, that this is a significant error that has had much to do with Christianity’s historic
bent to disinherit the Jewish people of their rightful place as God’s favored people. It has also
led to such an arrogant attitude of the Church towards Israel that the very people to whom
God’s Word was entrusted, the Hebrews, now feel totally alienated from their own Jewish
Messiah. They have been thoroughly convinced by Christians that if they should believe upon
Yeshua that it would be tantamount to accepting a gentile religion, validating the Church
position that the Jews have now been rejected by the Lord and replaced with gentiles, and
thereby they would be turning their backs on their special position given to them as His set-
apart people.
So, says Moses, the REASON Israel should look to Yehoveh and Yehoveh alone is because it
is Yehoveh (and not some other god) that rescued Israel from Egypt through never-before-
seen signs and wonders. Further, it has now been established that it is folly to bow down to
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other gods because they don’t really even exist. They are false gods NOT in the sense that
Yehoveh is a better god, but rather in the sense that they are but figments of men’s foolish
and evil inclinations that so easily accept elemental spirits and a myriad of created objects as
gods or things to be worshipped.
We studied the so-called 10 Commandments in great detail when we examined Exodus 20
quite some time ago, so we’ll NOT go into detail as those same commandments are but
reiterated here in Deuteronomy 5. Instead, I’ll only highlight the main points or indicate places
where the wording of Deuteronomy 5 differs every so slightly from Exodus 20.
From a panoramic viewpoint we see that the 10 Commandments (the 10 guiding principles of
the 603 Laws that will follow) are divided into 2 obvious groupings: the first 4 commandments
speak of man’s obligations to God, and the remaining 6 concern relationships among and
between our fellow men. Please note something that I hope has become, or is becoming,
apparent: NOWHERE in the 10 Commandments (or anywhere in the Law for that matter) does
the issue of Salvation (as we think of it today) come up. The Law simply doesn’t deal with it
BECAUSE that was never its primary purpose or function. And, despite what you might have
been told, the Hebrews did NOT look to the Law for Salvation because it wasn’t there and they
didn’t think it was there. So when we see Paul explaining that the Law was not able to save,
he was simply telling his uninitiated gentile listeners NOT to go seeking out the Law as an
alternative to do what ONLY the Messiah could do. Since Christ was a Jew, and it was ONLY
within the religion and covenants of the Jews that the advent of a Messiah had any meaning at
all, then it was the natural assumption of converted gentiles to mimic what the Jews did: obey
the outward rituals of the Law. The problem is that Paul knew that (if they were not taught
otherwise) the gentiles would mistakenly think that it was those acts and behaviors that
brought them their Salvation. And when Paul was saying similar things to the Jews, he was
simply telling these Hebrews that while obedience to the Law was good and important, the
Messiah was doing something that obedience to the Law could never do.
It’s NOT that in the NT we have Paul, or Jesus, or any other writer saying that Christians
should be antinomian (a 50 cent word meaning anti-Law). Rather it was that they should take
advantage of Christ’s ministry for Salvation rather than mistakenly assume they had an option
B, which was to obey a series of rules and laws in order to accomplish the same thing.
Look: when we come to Christ we don’t stop eating food. We don’t stop learning Scripture.
Eating food doesn’t bring us Salvation, but that doesn’t make eating a bad thing. Learning
Scripture doesn’t earn us Salvation, but studying the Word isn’t outdated and unnecessary
once we have accepted Salvation. Rather each of these acts has an ongoing purpose; we eat
because our physical bodies requirement physical nourishment. We read Scripture so that
once we have been redeemed by faith in Yeshua we give our minds and souls spiritual
nourishment, and so that we know what our expected response to God’s grace and favor
towards us is. Christ says He is the Bread of Life: but no one would seriously take that to mean
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that as Saved People we no longer need to eat food. He also says that the Torah will be
written on our hearts; but that in no way meant that we are to stop learning God’s ways from
His written Word. In the same way when we, in faith, accept Yeshua as our Savior we don’t
now turn against the very rules and ordinances that the Lord set up to demonstrate His
character and to instruct us on how to live the redeemed life.
The 2
nd
commandment is re-stated in verses 8-10; and it makes it clear that Israel is NOT to
attempt to establish a relationship with any other god. That’s pretty straightforward and I’ll not
comment further on that. What I DO want to point out is the relationship nature of the Covenant
of Moses between God and Man. I talked last week about this unscriptural false dichotomy that
has been set up in modern Christianity that demands that we see the OT as about the
establishment of a legal code, and the NT as introducing Grace into the world. Part and parcel
to this is the typical outlook that the Old Testament was set up as a dictator/King giving out
impersonal orders that had to be obeyed or else; and alternately that the NT is all about a
relationship between God and man that sets no obligations upon us, the saved.
We have all heard Pastors correctly say that Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship.
Well that exact same thing was true from the beginning. It is a fundamental Biblical axiom that
the covenants between God and man are relationship based. Therefore we get the relationship
formula in OT phrases like “I will take you to be My people, and I will be your God” (Ex 6:7). Or
in Lev. 26:12, “I will be your God and you shall be My people”. Notice the equation: God says
this is what I will be to you, and consequently this is what YOU will be to me. And that while
God offers this prospect of a harmonious relationship it is up to you to accept it or reject it.
THAT is the very definition of a relationship and it has the same basis to it as our human
marriage vows (that were always meant to be a physical and visible illustration of our
spiritual and invisible relationship with the Lord). Notice that in a marriage ceremony the
question is asked to the Bride, “will you take this man to be your husband”, and to the
Bridegroom, “will you take this woman to be your wife?” Both sides must agree to freely enter
into this relationship. In the case of God establishing that Israel will be His people and in return
He will be their God, and in the case of human marriage, both parties MUST agree, both
parties HAVE obligations, and both parties have legal standing. If the Lord only said, “I’ll be
your God” and Israel was given no choice in the matter, then the quid-pro-quo is missing and
hence there is no relationship there is but servitude. If at a marriage ceremony the man
declared, “you will be my wife”, but the woman was not asked if she wanted to be married to
this man, then there is no relationship there is but subjugation.
The 3
rd
Commandment is that the Lord’s Name is not to be misused. This may be the most
mischaracterized commandment of the 10. This command is primarily about one thing: not
invoking the name of God as surety in an oath that is either false on it’s face or one that you
have NO intention of keeping. This modern idea of accidental mispronunciation of His formal
name (YHWH) as the point of this command; or that we are to refrain altogether from saying
His holy name is Scripturally groundless. The Talmud makes it clear that the prohibition that
the Jews eventually adopted (starting around 300 B.C.) of NOT uttering the holy name YHWH
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had NOTHING to do with this 3
rd
Commandment. Rather it came to be considered a matter of
proper reverence. There are various reasons stated in the Talmud, and also in writings by
Philo and Josephus, as to WHY it came to be considered irreverent to say God’s formal name
and while there is no single definitive reason stated, in general it had to do with a Middle
Eastern custom that it was not respectful for a son or daughter to pronounce their parents’
names. By extension it was carried over to the Lord’s name because the Lord was recognized
as Abba, the Hebrews’ heavenly father. Let me state emphatically: what I am telling you is
NOT my opinion, it is simply history recorded in Jewish documents for anyone who has the
time or interest to find and read for themselves.
In ancient times the invoking of vows and oaths were common events; by definition a vow or
oath involved the use of the name of one god or another. If a god’s name was not invoked,
there WAS no legally binding oath or vow. The primary intent of this 3
rd
commandment is that
the Lord’s name is not to be invoked carelessly or frivolously when making vows and oaths.
And in later books of the OT and the even later NT writings, advice is given that all-in-all it is
better not to make vows and oaths at all (wherever possible) because if a person DOES invoke
the Yehoveh’s name in a vow or an oath the Lord fully expects the terms to be completed
regardless of the content or intent. Once of the most infamous stories in the bible is about a
fellow named Jephthah who made his own daughter a burnt sacrifice due to a rash vow he had
made to Yehoveh, not expecting this horror as a result. BTW: it was a vow for which Jephthah
approached the Lord AND set the terms; the Lord certainly didn’t ask for, nor does He
condone, a human life as a sacrifice.
The 4
th
Commandment is to observe the Sabbath Day. I’ve flogged you all sufficiently on this
matter so I won’t go into depth. Please note that Sabbath is the proper name of a specific day.
In fact in any good translation the wording is “observe the Sabbath day”. While that is
acceptable, it still misses the mark a tad because literally it reads, “observe the Shabbat”. The
point is Shabbat is not just any day it is a specific day that the Lord has ordained as holy. Two
things: it is defined Biblically as the 7
th
day of the week, not the final day of any rolling 7 day
period of OUR choosing. Nowhere in Scripture does it make it any other day. Further it is the
HOLINESS of the day that is key. The Lord has set this particular day apart from all others and
made it holy. Question: who makes something holy? Can YOU declare something to be holy?
Can YOU take something ordinary and by the “power vested in you” make it holy? How about
your Pastor; can he make something common into something holy? Of course not. Making
something…..anything…..holy lies solely within the province of God.
We cannot choose any day we wish and then by our own authority declare it to be holy. The
Sabbath is FAR MORE than a day of rest. If it were merely a day of physical rest then certainly
it would not have the holy character YHWH has given it. Conversely any time we take a day off
of work….for whatever reason……doesn’t make that day The Sabbath day. The pagan world had
days off, and the government usually controlled which day that might be. They had days off to
celebrate the winter and Summer solstices; they had days off to celebrate the inauguration of a
new King; they had days off to celebrate and worship their numerous gods; they had days off
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to celebrate the end of the harvest season. They were rest days but they were not THE
Sabbath. The Sabbath is a weekly observance of the miracle of Creation.
Look, it is rightly quoted that Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the
Sabbath. But the point is NOT that the sole PURPOSE of the Sabbath was so man would be
able to take off a day of work, it was so man could enjoy and refresh his relationship with God.
The time off was indeed helpful for man and animal to physically rejuvenate, but mostly it was
so man could REMEMBER what the Lord has done for him by redeeming Him and by creating
everything around man that sustains us. It does NOT do something for God that we rest; it
honors God that we reflect upon Him and obey Him by observing the day that He has removed
from the common days of the week and set it apart and blessed it as special.
We’ve now reviewed the Commandments (1
st
through 4
th
) that have to do with God’s
expectation that we (as His worshippers) acknowledge His name, His nature, His identity, and
His holy day. With Commandment number 5 there is a shift to what the Lord demands of
human-to-human oriented relationships; and these will specifically cover the obligation of
children to their parents, and how one is to honor and protect the life, person, property and
reputation of our neighbors and society at large. One could reasonably say that these are the
humanitarian rules set down by the Lord.
The 5
th
commandment then is to describe our proper relationship to the most important
humans in our life, our parents. Just as in Leviticus 19 where the priests are admonished to
revere their parents, so do the 10 Commandments make it a duty not just for the priestly class
but for ALL who wish to be part of Israel to recognize that among human relationships
obligations to ones parents reigns supreme. Interestingly this command is usually used to gain
the attention of school-aged children when it comes to being obedient to their mothers and
fathers but that isn’t how it was looked at during the various Biblical eras. Rather this more
about how grown children were to care for their parents when they needed it and about how
grown children were to continue to show deference to their elders. It is interesting that this
issue is so high on God’s list that in Leviticus 19:3 He essentially puts showing proper respect
to one’s parents as a human societal obligation on the same level as observing Shabbat is our
obligation to God. For that verse says, “You shall each revere his mother and father, and keep
My Sabbaths; I am YHWH your God”. Earthly parent and heavenly parent are to be honored
and obeyed.
Another interesting subtly to note is that quite often in Scripture the phrase used to denote
one’s parents is “your mother and father”, putting the word “mother” first. It’s not that the
intent is ever to put mother above father; rather it is to put mother and father on an equal
footing in what was a male dominated society. Since God does not value one sex above the
other, neither should a child put the needs of one parent above the other. They are equal in the
Lord’s eyes and should therefore be equal in the child’s eyes. The Rabbis fully subscribed to
this view and much is written in the Talmud to this effect.
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It is also interesting to note that of all the 10 Commandments, this one concerning the
instruction to honor one’s parents is the ONLY one that promises a reward for all who obey it;
it says that by doing so one’s life will be prolonged on earth and that one will “do well” or
better, “have well-being”.
The 6
th
, 7
th
, 8
th
, and 9
th
commandments are very brief and all contained in one verse. The 6
th
commandment is that one should not ratsach. Ratsach is Hebrew for murder. It does NOT
mean to kill. One would not go hunting, for instance, and ratsach (murder) a deer. The
purpose for this commandment is very limited in scope and it specifically means that a man is
not to UNJUSTLY kill another human being. Legal executions are NOT a concern of this
command. Death in battle is NOT a concern of this command. Even manslaughter (in the
sense of there not being an intention to kill someone, nor is the death the result of gross
negligence) is NOT a concern of this commandment. The keyword is “unjust”. And by the way,
legal retribution by executing a person who has committed an unjust killing is EXPECTED and
DEMANDED by the Lord.
The 7
th
commandment is that one should not engage in adultery. Biblical adultery means
consenting sexual relations between a married person and another person outside of that
marriage. It could also mean a wife taking the side of a man against her husband in a serious
disagreement. The Middle Eastern societies of this era ALL generally held extra-marital
relations to be a very bad thing and most of these same societies punished the perpetrator
severely, usually with death. In reality a law similar to the 7
th
commandment was quite usual
and customary among most societies in this era.
The 8
th
commandment is that one should not steal. This means it exactly the way we think of it
today; we should not take something from someone that doesn’t rightfully belong to us. Some
Rabbis said that this commandment included kidnapping (the unlawful taking of a human
being) although that is a bit of stretch. Rather this is about personal property and the
prohibition against someone having their property unjustly taken from them.
The 9
th
commandment is that one should not bear false witness against another. In our modern
vocabulary this is referring to perjury. It does NOT generally mean to avoid telling a “lie” in a
conversation. Rather this is more about making a false accusation of wrong doing against
someone that could lead to a criminal penalty, and it’s about not telling the truth in a court of
law that could either acquit the guilty or convict the innocent.
Now the 10
th
commandment is somewhat unique because while all the others speak of
concrete actions and outward behaviors, this one that says that a person should not “covet”
something that belongs to someone else; so this is all about A STATE OF MIND. Covet means
to have secret designs to make something yours that you have no right to. So certainly such a
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state of mind could eventually be manifest into an action to wrongly acquire what is being
coveted but that’s NOT the point of this commandment.
The first thing one is not to covet is your neighbor’s wife; that is one is not to look in lust upon
a married women and want her for your own. The next thing that is not to be craved or plans
made to wrongly acquire it is your neighbor’s house. This does NOT mean your dwelling
place: the tent or hut or building one lives in. House, as used here, is in the sense of
“household’, the people that form your extended family. I’ve shared with you that it was the
common mode of operation in most of the Biblical eras for a clan or a tribe to increase their
power and wealth by forcibly taking people, often entire households. We had a direct example
of this when Jacob’s sons did this exact thing when they stayed for a time at Shechem, and
they took people in retribution for the rape of Jacob’s daughter Dinah. This dramatically
increased the size of Jacob’s tribe overnight because the Israelites’ acquired entire
households of people.
The reiteration of the 10 Commandments is now complete and Moses reminds the people that
it was THESE 10 Laws that the people heard directly from God, with their own ears. The 603
laws that came afterword were given to Moses and then he passed them along to the people.
Moses also reminds the people that God was willing (and Moses would have been perfectly
happy) to continue giving His Torah directly to them from His own divine voice for all to hear,
but their fear of the Lord’s awesome presence drove them to beg Moses to ask God to STOP
speaking to them and instead for Moses to behave as their Mediator.
The next couple of verses, 25 and 26, add some interesting information; they say that Yehoveh
actually commends Israel for their attitude of preferring Moses to receive the Law, to their
standing in God’s presence and hearing the laws from the Lord. This is important because the
Lord didn’t see Israel as weak or superstitious or unworthy to hear His voice; rather He saw
their request to get the laws through Moses as the PROPER response to His awesomeness
and an agreement with God that Moses was His authorized Mediator. Israel had gained a
healthy fear and reverence for Yehoveh and as long as they retained it and obeyed the Torah
commands then “it would go well with you and your children, forever!”
There are a couple of fundamental God-principles contained in that rather innocuous
statement: first, the Lord will bless greatly those who determine to show Him proper respect
and follow Him in obedience. Second, is that man DOES have a choice; the Lord is NOT going
to force anyone to obey or to be forced into service to Him. Generally speaking the Lord does
NOT control a man like a puppet, not a man’s mind or a man’s actions.
Since in verse 27 the people wanted Moses to receive the remainder of the Torah in their
stead, Yehoveh told Moses to dismiss the people to go home to their tents. Understand they
were NOT sent away except that they had ASKED to be released. Also they were not put
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under some kind of house arrest; they were NOT ordered to go and STAY in their tents while
Moses received the Law. Rather the people were simply permitted to go back to their desert
abodes and not required to stay and hear God’s words.
And of course along with the instruction for the people to be dismissed, Moses was told to
remain where he was so that the Lord could finish what He started.
This portion of Moses’ address to the people ends with the main point of this entire sermon: it
is that what must be learned (and hopefully not repeated) from what happened at Mt. Sinai,
and then all the misadventures that occurred afterwards that caused the deaths of scores of
thousand of Hebrews, is that the Torah that Moses is in process of teaching to this new
generation of Israelites MUST be followed and obeyed OR this new generation can expect
similar consequences as their parents received.
Next week we’ll start chapter 6.
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