The Law #4

We are now ready to start our final session on the Law. We've covered many aspects of it, but what we haven't done is covered the commandments. We've covered, as I said, we've covered:

• torah
• statutes
• ordinances
• precepts
• judgments

THE COMMANDMENTS:

Now we're going to look at the commandments themselves.

The first place we'll start is our favorite one, and that's going to be Gen. 26:5. This is a situation where God is talking to Isaac and he's telling Isaac, 'Don't go down to Egypt. Stay where you are. I will bless you.'

Genesis 26:5: "Because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments…"—'mitsvah'—the typical word for commandment throughout the Old Testament. Not only word but the typical word.

Deuteronomy 6:1: "Now, these are the commandments… ['mitsvah'] …the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD our God commanded to teach you…"—'mitsvah.'

Verse 2: "That you might fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments… ['mitsvah'] …which I command you, you, and your son, and your son's son…"

We could go through the entirety of the Old Testament and see it used over and over again.

But now for a different slant because 'mitsvah' is not the only word that is translated commandment.

Numbers 4:49: "According to the command of the LORD they were numbered…according to his service and according to his burden. So they were numbered by him as the Lord commanded Moses."

Here we have one command as a noun, the command, and the other one is a verb, commanded. We're dealing now with two different words.

• when it talks about the commandment, it's talking about 'peh'—meaning mouth, because all words, all commands come from the mouth of God; 'peh' indicates more like what God said.

•  'mitsvah' indicates how He said it

• we have the command of God, that's the noun—'peh'
• we have he commanded, the verb—'mitsvah'

Let's look at two more examples, and that's all we'll need.

Gen. 45—this is the scene where Joseph has revealed himself to his brothers and everybody is happy and joyful, and even Pharaoh is joyful. And it is really, really a great time.

Genesis 45:19—this is Pharaoh speaking to Joseph: "Now, you are commanded…"—'mitsvah—an order!

Remember, commandments are orders from God; no ifs, ands, or buts! Do this or don't do that.

Verse 21: "And the sons of Israel did so. And Joseph gave them wagons according to the command…"

noun—'peh'—according to the mouth of Pharaoh, because the command came from the mouth of Pharaoh as a noun, not as a verb. Now we'll see one more:

Joshua 1:18—here is Joshua saying: "Whoever rebels against your command… [the noun, 'peh'] …and will not hearken to your words in all that you command him…"—the verb, 'mitzvah.'

Sometimes we have the word 'peh' and sometimes we have the word 'mitsvah.' When God wants to distinguish between the noun and the verb forms, He will use those two words.

But now let us look forward to the big ten; at least we call them the big ten. These are God's Ten Commandments, and they're located in three places. Three times they are so stable.

Exodus 34:28: "And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water…."

There's something interesting here for me. I've gone as many as three days, and after three days, I'm dragging without food or water. Here is Moses 40 days. How he did it, I don't know; maybe he had help from God, but that's quite a feat to go 40 days and 40 nights without food or drink.

"…And He wrote upon the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments" (v 28). (1st time)

We see that the commandments, the Ten Commandments constitute a separate covenant. God made a lot of covenants with His people.

Deuteronomy 10:4: "And He wrote on the tablets, according to the first writing, the Ten Commandments, which the LORD spoke to you in the mountain…" (2nd time)

Deuteronomy 4:13: "And He declared to you His covenant which He commanded… ['mitsvah'] …you to perform, even the Ten Commandments…." (3rd time).

But when God uses the term Ten Commandments, it's a different word. We call them the Ten Commandments, and that's accurate. They are in command form. They're not:

• the 'ten suggestions'
• the 'ten good ideas'

They are commands, but God never calls them commandments!

There's another word that He uses, which is 'dabar,' or 'dabarim' in the plural, meaning words. These are actually the ten words or the ten sayings of God.

• Why did He do that?
• Why didn't He use the word command?

Because God speaks, out of His mouth come words, and so He speaks words. Notice how he introduced the Ten Commandments.

Exodus 20:1: "And God spoke all these words…"

And then come forth the Ten Commandments. So, the Ten Commandments in God's mind are the ten words because He instructs people through words. The words come from His mouth.

The same is true with the covenant made in Deut., which is going to be the way God judges the people of Israel in the land.

Deuteronomy 6:6: "And these words, which I command you…"

Interesting—that's mitsvah—but He's commanding; words just like in Exo. 20. God commanded in the form of words. He calls them His words. and that is absolutely true. We are going to see some more information about God speaking words.

Isaiah 55:11: "So shall My Word be… ['dabar'] …which goes out of my mouth ['peh']… [God speaks words out of His mouth] …it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall certainly do what I sent it to do."

So when God speaks the word, that word is going to accomplish whatever God intends it to accomplish. He talks about speaking words, and that's exactly what Jesus did.

Matthew 5:1—the Sermon on the Mount: "But seeing the multitudes, He [Jesus] went up into the mountain; and when He sat down, His disciples came to Him."

This is how the teachers, the rabbis and the leading speakers at that time did. They would sit on the bench or a chair of some kind, and the disciples would be sitting on the ground near Him.

Verse 2: "And He opened His mouth and taught them…"

This is, of course, is Greek; but in Hebrew it would say He opened His 'peh'; He spoke the words, so He taught them.

Now we are going to look at an unusual confluence here of words.

Matthew 4:4: "But He answered and said, 'It is written, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God."'"

Here we and here again, words proceeding out of God's mouth. This was a quote and this quote Jesus used was from Deuteronomy. So, let's look at something fascinating in the book of Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 8:3: "And He humbled you and allowed you to hunger… [and at the end of the verse]: …so that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone; but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD does man live."

Look at that word word that's an italics, meaning it's not there. God didn't say specifically every word ['kol'] is there, meaning each, every, all.

If God had put word in there, it would have been a limitation, but God is expanding it to almost infinity. What this verse is really saying is you shall live by everything that proceeds forth from God:

• His mind
• His thoughts
• His being

the totality of everything God is!

Now, it's nothing wrong to use word, because indeed we are to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God! But here, God is not limiting it. We are to live by everything we glean from Him, however we can do it, however God chooses to reveal it. We are to live, in essence:

• by Him
• by His example
• by His instruction
• by everything that proceeds forth from God

The next thing is an enlarged heart! Do you have an enlarged heart? I hope so! I hope we all do!

Psa. 119—I have read over Psa. 119 I don't know how many times, but I never recognized this. I never saw it:

Psalm 119:31: "I cleave to Your testimonies; O LORD, do not put me to shame. I will run the way of Your commandments for You shall enlarge my heart" (vs 31-32).

Notice it says run after the commandments. So, this verse we should read in connection with Psa. 42.

Psalm 42:1: "As the hart pants after the water brooks, so my soul pants after You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?" (vs 1-2). David says he:

• thirsts after God
• pants after God
• follows God with his might

That's what we're reading here in:

Psalm 119:32: "I will run the way of Your commandments for You shall enlarge my heart"—make wide, broader!

But remember, in Hebrew, the heart is the sum total of what makes up the person:

• his thought process
• his emotion
• his desire
• everything about him

God is going to enlarge the heart, which gives a greater capacity:

• to love God
• to follow God

The more we run after God, the more He gives us His Spirit so we can run even faster and harder and with more determination.

Verse 32: "I will run the way of Your commandments for You shall enlarge my heart."

May we all have enlarged hearts. Again, as I said, I don't know how many times I read over that verse and never grasped its significance. So indeed, let us all seek after God, run the way of:

• His commandments
• His orders
• His instructions

He said that IF we do that, He will indeed enlarge our heart!

LOVE:

We are to love the commandments of God! We will see, again, something very interesting in  Deut. There's so much to be said here; this is so deep. I've just begun to scratch the surface in my own study.

Deuteronomy 6:4: "Hear, O Israel. Our one God is the LORD, the LORD."

That is one way of translating it, and it can be a valid one; we chose to use this one. But there is one that I grew up with in the Jewish tradition: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one—exclusively one, not two, not three, not four, not none, but one, which is no God Family! One indivisible God; that is absolute monotheism, and that would be a valid way of translating it, the Hebrew would support that.

But I want to use it in a different way here. This word one, as opposed to two or three, but it could also be used exclusively"

Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. He, and He alone, is our God.

That shows you what God said elsewhere; 'no other gods before Me,' not even mentioning their names. How do we do that?

Verse 5: "And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might."

Now this word love is not simply a word full of emotion. Now the emotion is there, sure it is. 'Love you,' 'love you son,' 'love you Hun.' You can love a place, kids can love dogs and cats. Even your five-year-old can love a hamster. I don't know what's so wonderful about a hamster, but there are kids who love their hamsters. You can love a place.

For me, one of the most beautiful places I've ever been is Yosemite National Park. Here in California, there are two I like: Yosemite and Sequoia. I also enjoy Glacier National Park, Northern Montana at the Canadian border and Yellowstone. But there's something about Yosemite. I can go there and look up and say, 'I love this place, I love this place.' That means you have an attachment to it; there's an emotional attachment to it, but that is not really Godly love!  God says it's different.

This is ahabah,' which means loyalty! How do you love God? By having only one God, by worshiping Him alone!

"…you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart..." (v 5).

• the innermost being
• all your fiber
• all your thoughts
• the thought processing center
• everything that makes you what you are

You are to love God that way!

Then with all your soul—'nephesh'—you, the physical being. Remember when it says in Gen. 2:7 that 'the Lord God came down and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and he became a living 'nephesh': a living soul, a living being.

So, from the top of your head to the bottom of your foot, you are to love God! That's the casing. All your thoughts, your thought processing, surrounded by your whole body from the front of your head to the bottom of your foot!

Then with all your might, this is totality. It's a tall order, but God says you are to love Him:

• with all your thinking from top to bottom
• with all your might
• with all your strength

We are to love God that way!

Psa. 119 is a long, long Psalm, the longest one in the Bible.

Psalm 119:97: "O how love I Your Law! It is my meditation all the day."

Love the Law! Remember, with all your might, your strength, your whole fiber, your being! IF you love the Law of God, you love God, because He issued the Law. And in addition to that, you love life, because God spoke the words of life! The Word Who became flesh spoke the words of life.

John 6:60: "Therefore, after hearing these words, many of His disciples said, 'This is a hard saying. Who is able to hear it?'"

Verse 66: "From that time, many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him. Therefore, Jesus said to the twelve, 'Are you also desiring to go away?'" (vs 66-67).

• Are you also gonna leave?
• What are you gonna do?

Verse 68: "Then Simon Peter answered Him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of Eternal Life.'"

• God's Commandments
• His Law
• His Torah

are the words of Life; they lead to Life! That is extremely, extremely important.

God said, there is no separation between loving God with all one's heart and mind and keeping His Law!

1-John 5:3: "For this is the love of God: that we keep His commandments…"

So God's love and God's commandments are inseparable. It's like the old song sung by Frank Sinatra, 'love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage; you can't have one without the other.'

Same thing that James said, 'faith and works'; you really can't have one without the other, because if you have true faith, you're gonna have works. Works constitutes an extension of faith! So here, the commandment-keeping is an extension of love. IF you love God, you're going to be keeping His commandments!

IF we don't keep God's commandments, His instructions, THEN in reality, we don't love God! That's what he's saying.

You see, we have two sides of the same coin. God's commandments were given. His whole Torah System was given to us for our good, because by following them we eventually arrive at the Kingdom of God.

As I said, there are two sides of the same coin, and IF we follow God's Law it leads us to the road.

Matt. 7 is part of the Sermon on the Mount. We've been there many times:

Matthew 7:14: "For narrow is the gate and difficult is the way that leads to Life, and few are those who find it."

Yes, this is a road. This is what I like to call Torah Road, because you're on the road, keeping His Law, keeping His commandments.

What did David say? 'Your Law is like a lamp to my feet'; it leads to Eternal Life.

• there is the broad road

or

• there is Torah Road

Which by keeping the whole system of God's Laws
 and Commandments, we are led to Eternal Life and the Kingdom of God.

• God's system of Law was given for us
• it was given for us to keep us out of trouble
• it was given for us to learn how God thinks

Because one day, the Christ is going to resurrect us, at the sound of the trumpet.

• IF we do not understand God's Law
• IF we don't understand how He thinks

I mentioned before, what Dr. Herman Hoeh said years ago:

IF you want to understand the mind of God, read the Law, read the statutes, read the judgments, and you will see why God says what He says. You will see how God thinks, why He makes certain decisions.

• let's keep on Torah Road
• let's keep moving
• let's love, which means loyalty
• let us be loyal at all times to the Lord our God
• let us do so with all our heart, all our mind, all our being, with everything that is us

THEN Torah Road will indeed lead us to Eternal Life!

Scriptural References:

• Genesis 26:5
• Deuteronomy 6:1-2
• Numbers 4:49
• Genesis 45:19, 21
• Joshua 1:18
• Exodus 34:28
• Deuteronomy 10:4
• Deuteronomy 4:13
• Exodus 20:1
• Deuteronomy 6:6
• Isaiah 55:11
• Matthew 5:1-2
• Matthew 4:4
• Deuteronomy 8:3
• Psalm 119:31-32
• Psalm 42:1
• Psalm 119:32
• Deuteronomy 6:4-5
• Genesis 2:7
• Psalm 119:97
• John 6:60, 66-68
• 1 John 5:3
• Matthew 7:14

MH:bo/po
Transcribed: 10/10/24

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