Snapshot of the Torah

Genesis - Creation

• Genesis 1 - Creation
• 1:28 - Dominion/Cultural Mandate
• Genesis 3 - Fall
• 3:15 - Inception of the Covenant of Grace
• Genesis 6-9 - Flood
• Genesis 10-11 - Nations/Tower of Babel
• Genesis 12-50 - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph
• 15:6 - Abraham believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

Exodus - Redemption/Deliverance

• Exodus 3-4 - Moses Called
• 3:13-15 - I AM WHO I AM
• Exodus 7-11 - Ten Plagues
• Exodus 14 - Red Sea
• Exodus 19-40 - Sinai
• 19-24 - Marriage Ceremony (Israel wed to God)
• 20:1-17 - Ten Commandments (Marriage means new rules)
• 25-31 - House (God gives instructions for Tabernacle)
• Exodus 32 - Idolatry - Golden Calf
• 32-34 - Marriage Ceremony #2 (Covenant renewal after idolatry)
• 35-40 - Build House (Israel builds the Tabernacle)

Leviticus - Holiness

• Leviticus 1-10 - Sacrifices
• Leviticus 11-18 - Purity Regulations
• 17:11 - "For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul."
• Leviticus 19-27 - Holiness Laws
• 19:2 - "Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy."

Numbers - Unfaithful Israel

• Numbers 1-10 - Promise Land/Preparations
• Numbers 11-25 - Promise Land/Rebel - Thus, Wander in Wilderness
• 11 - Israel wants to eat meat - given meat and judgment
• 13 - Twelve spies scout out the land but ten spies provide evil report
• 21 - Rebellion - judgment by fiery serpents/deliverance by bronze snake lifted up
• Numbers 26-36 - Second Generation: Promise Land/Preparations

Deuteronomy - Covenant Renewal/Second Law

• Deuteronomy 1-30 - Moses Speaks to Second Generation
• 4:2 - "Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you."
• 5 - Ten Commandments reviewed
• 6:4-9 - The Shema: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord..."
• 29:29 - "The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law."
• Deuteronomy 31-34 - Epilogue
• 32 - Song of Moses
• 34 - Death of Moses

Understanding Covenant: Consists of Five Parts

Excerpts from Ray R. Sutton's That You May Prosper: Dominion by Covenant.

How do we discover the covenant? We have to be convinced that it is the central organizing principle of the Bible. The only way to come to this conclusion is to understand the covenant itself. If we do not know what a covenant consists of, we will never be able to see it in all the segments of the Bible. Then, after we know the meaning of a covenant, we can consider how it works.

So, That You May Prosper has two parts: covenant and dominion. My primary purpose in the "covenant" section is to define the covenant. The Book of Deuteronomy is a model, a place where all of its parts can clearly be seen. Deuteronomy is to the covenant what Romans is to systematic theology. But how do we know Deuteronomy is a covenant? Moses says, "He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments [Words]" (Deut. 4:13). Deuteronomy is the second giving of the Ten Commandments, a "new" covenant so to speak. Moses says of the book as a whole, "Keep the words of this covenant to do them, that you may prosper in all that you do" (Deut. 29:9). Deuteronomy is definitely a covenant document (pp. 14-15).

...

The Biblical covenant in Deuteronomy has five parts....Therefore, let us briefly overview the five points of covenantalism (p. 16).

Sutton's list, summarized:

1) True Transcendence -- God is distinct (Deut. 1:1-5).

2) Hierarchy -- God is sovereign in relation to his people and utilizes representatives, e.g., Levites, Priesthood (Deut. 1:6-4:49).

3) Ethics -- stipulations for the law at the heart of God's covenant (Deut. 5-26).

4) Sanctions -- lists of blessings and curses/rewards and punishments attached to covenant (Deut. 27-30).

5) Continuity -- answers the questions "Who is in the covenant and has the Spirit (who empowers them to obey) and takes dominion?" (Deut. 31-34).

Here we see Sutton is echoing and unpackaging Westminster Confession of Faith, "Of God's Covenant with Man" (VII.I.), which teaches that the Triune Lord relates to creation and has chosen to self-disclose knowledge of God to man by mode of covenant.

The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto Him as their Creator, yet they could never have any fruition of Him as their blessedness and reward, but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which He has been pleased to express by way of covenant.

Sermon: Deut 14:3-8

In March, I preached a sermon on Deuteronomy 14:3-8 and it is now online.

Israel: Enemies of Israel

Israel was led out Egypt/slavery and the Lord promised to fight for them against their enemies (Deut. 20:4). This is always true, even when Israel becomes its own enemy. The Lord will fight against Israel when she is an enemy of Israel/enemy of the descendents of Abraham/promise. This happens when Israel becomes wicked and does not follow the Lord’s commandments. The Lord will fight against wicked Israel because she has become a type of Egypt, and she too will receive the plagues/curses of Egypt (Deut. 28:58-61).

The Lord will diminish the numbers of wicked Israel (“And ye [Israel] shall be left few in number,” Deut. 28:62), therefore, ensuring that obedient Israel will always remain “too mighty”; obedient Israel will remain numerous, like the stars – she remains that way because she serves the Lord who led her out of Egypt, the Lord who goes with her, the Lord who fights against her enemies.

Israel: Too Mighty

Deu 23:3 "No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the LORD. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the LORD forever,
Deu 23:4 because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.
Deu 23:5 But the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam; instead the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loved you.

In Numbers 22:6 we learn that Balak sends for Balaam to come and curse Israel because “they are too mighty.” But Israel is “too mighty” in several senses:

1) Israel is “too mighty” because they are too numerous (causing fear in Moabites, Numbers 22:3)
2) Israel is “too mighty” because they are the descendants of Abraham, the descendants of promise (“shall surely become a great and mighty nation,” Genesis 18:18)
3) Israel is “too mighty” because the Lord does not listen to the wicked (the enemies of the descendants of Abraham/promise)
4) Israel is “too mighty” because they serve the Lord (whose lordship extends over blessings and curses); the Lord, who for the descendants of Abraham/promise, turns the curses of their enemies into blessings