This is consistent with God.

• When God made the covenant with Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob, He met with them directly. He spoke to Abram (Gen. 12:1-4). He spoke to Isaac (Gen. 26:2-5). He came to Jacob in a dream (Gen. 28:10-16).

• Then when He made the new covenant He came in person to His people. (Jn. 1:11-14, 16-18)

• Then He sends His Spirit to be with His people and live in His people. (Jn. 14:16-18)

 

God does not hide Himself from His people, nor does He withhold Himself from His people. He is personally involved with His people. And that's good news for His people.

 

[RELATIONSHIP] 2. How can this chapter help us in our relationship with Jesus?

–Redemption is enough motivation for our obedience. (v6)

          Every person that calls the covenant God of the Bible their God was rescued from an Egypt. For the Israelites it was literally Egypt—an actual place where they were actually enslaved. For believers in Christ it’s a spiritual Egypt and a personal Egypt—spiritual, regarding enslavement to sin; personal, regarding our slave life before Jesus, because we were all captive to something.

          So what's your Egypt? What & where did Jesus rescue you from? Think about it. Because before God gives His commands, He reminds His people that He redeemed them from Egypt. He wanted their obedience to Him to flow naturally from a grateful heart.

          We shouldn't have to be convinced to obey Jesus. All it should take is being reminded of our redemption and our obedience to Jesus should flow like a faucet from a heart filled with gratitude for Him rescuing us.

 

[APPLICATION] 3. What did I see in this chapter that we can apply to our life? 

–The 10 commandments are what we can apply:

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(First 3 commandments are between man & God—Vertical)

1st.  v7 — Spiritual adultery = don't be unfaithful in our relationship with God.

2nd.  vv8-10 — Idolatry = don't give God's worship to anything else.

3rd.  v11 — Blasphemy = don't misuse God's name, it is holy and meant to be revered.

• This does mean not using His name as a curse word or an exclamation or for any other reason other than in worship, prayer, or declaration to others.

 

(The 4th commandment is for man themselves—Personal)

4th.  vv12-15 — Rest =

• If God took an off day after creating Creation and commands us to take a rest day from our work, resting then is not optional. Remember who modeled it first (God did), and recognize that we are not greater than God to not only disobey Him but then to act as if we don’t need to take a day off like He did.

 

(The last 6 commandments are between man & man—Horizontal)

5th.  v16 — Respect our parents  (biological & relational) =

• God used our biological parents to bring us into this world, we honor God when we pay our respects to the ones He used to create us. Also, God used our parents (biological or relational) who raised us to bring us to where we are today, we honor God when we pay our respects to the ones He used to raise us.

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6th.  v17 — Don't intentionally set out to kill anyone.

7th.  v18 — Don't be unfaithful in anyway in your marital relationship.

8th.  v19 — Don't take what does not belong to you.

9th.  v20 — Don't lie on other people = Don't choose loyalty over truthfulness.

10th.  v21 — Don't selfishly desire anything that belongs to someone else.

 

But God says in vv28-29 the heart of mankind, by itself, is not initially nor persistently inclined to worship Him. So the people of God then failed in following these commands and many times so do we today.

          This is why we need the Holy Spirit and must walk in the Spirit, because He wars with our flesh so we don't always do what it wants. (Gal. 5:16-26)

 

[MISSIONAL] 4. What did I see in this chapter that can help us lead people to Jesus and/or help us lift up other believers in Jesus?

–What I saw on how we can be missional, regarding lifting up other believers in Jesus, came from v29.

• This verse is something we should be encouraging one another to pray for, that our hearts would be more inclined to revere God and obey Him.

• This verse is something we should be reminding one another, that our hearts are not always inclined to revere God & obey Him, which should cause us to pause and examine where & how we might not be.

• If this is an expressed desire of the heart of God, then it should definitely be something we pursue and encourage other believers to pursue. Only good things come when we pursue what God desires.

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For those who tuned in (and those who read the notes), we hope you learned or saw something from Deuteronomy ch5 that has drawn you to deeper worship of our great God!