It's all about the consequences: "because"
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
The Lord has been revealing Himself to Jacob through the Words of Moses in Deuteronomy.
Moses has tried to constantly intercede for Israel before the Lord.
Israel has chosen to continue to be rebellious before the Lord
Even though Moses has prayed to the Lord, there has been consequences.
In our study today, I hope to bring to you insight on how the Lord keeps His covenant (plan and will) to His children regardless the consequences of their choices.
We will attempt to address the questions:
which is the way our God works with us?
what does He expect us to do?
how do we know His faithfulness?
Bible Study Scripture
Bible Study Scripture
Our Bible study is based on Deuteronomy 7:11 to 11:28
Presentation
Presentation
If, and, & because are commonly known as conjunctions
There are other conjunctions such as: or, both/and, neither/nor, except, but, etc.
For our study today, we will only focus on three: because, if, & and
We will develop the conceptualization of these conjunctions before we read the rest of our scriptures for today.
What is a conjunction:
Conjunctions are words that join together other words or groups of words (Merriam Webster Dictionary)
the state of being conjoined
occurence together in time and space
Conjunctions are connectors
They connect
They bridge a gap
They show relationship
They follow a cause and effect law
Let us read our main verse today and study these conjunctions.
“Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers.
The word “because” in the original Hebrew is the word:
עֵ֫קֶב
Ekev (aqeb)
S6118 TWOT1676e GK6813 n.[m.] consequence, usually as adv.acc. as a consequence of, because (that), also reward, end (v. sub עָקַב; and cf. عَقِبٌ (ʿaqibun) heel, fig. consequence, result)
Brown, F., Driver, S. R., & Briggs, C. A. (1977). Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (p. 784). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Because takes also the form of FOR
Back to:
“Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers.
The Lord will keep His covenant and mercy as He keeps His vow
He will keep His vow because you will listen - “it shall come to pass.”
There’s a direct correlation (connection) between listening and Him keeping His covenant
Not that His covenant depends on your listening, but His covenant will “come to pass” that you will listen- as a result
In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
Another conjunction in verse 12 is “Then” at the beginning of the verse.
“THEN” is also AND, and it is the letter VAV
וְ
2256
—1. LN 89.92–89.104 and, or, i.e., a marker of a coordinate relation ;
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2. LN 89.92–89.104 also, and, and also, i.e., a marker of an additive relation which is not coordinate
Then Rebekah lifted her eyes, and when she saw Isaac she dismounted from her camel;
3. LN 89.87–89.89 then, and then, i.e., a marker of a sequence of closely related events (Ge 1:26);
4. LN 89.124–89.138 but, yet, on the other hand, i.e., a marker of contrast (Ge 2:17);
5. LN 91.6–91.12 indeed, i.e., a discourse marker of emphasis (Ps 87:5);
6. LN 89.39–89.54 so that, therefore, i.e., a marker of a result (Am 9:1);
7. LN 89.120–89.122 from, i.e., a marker of dissociation (Dt 1:39);
8. LN 91.15 that is, namely, i.e., a marker of an identification or explanation (Lev 25:33);
9. LN 89.15–89.38 that is why, because, i.e., a marker of cause or reason for a prior statement (Jos 22:26);
10. LN 89.123 with, together with, i.e., a marker of a combinative relation (Dt 2:33);
11. LN 67.17–67.64 when, now, while, i.e., a point of time roughly simultaneous with another point in time (Ge 17:1a);
12. LN 89.92–89.104 unit: וְ־ (w) … וְ־ (w) both … and, i.e., markers of a totality of two closely related elements (Ge 47:13); note: further study may yield more domains
Swanson, J. (1997). Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (electronic ed.). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
Let’s take a closer look at number 9:
9. LN 89.15–89.38 that is why, because, i.e., a marker of cause or reason for a prior statement (Jos 22:26);
“Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him.
Let us read- keeping these concepts in mind:
“Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers.
And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you.
You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your livestock.
And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you.
Also you shall destroy all the peoples whom the Lord your God delivers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.
Blessing as a result of obedience
Blessing as a result of His vow
The Lord is the one doing it!!!!
Moreover the Lord your God will send the hornet among them until those who are left, who hide themselves from you, are destroyed.
You shall not be terrified of them; for the Lord your God, the great and awesome God, is among you.
And the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you little by little; you will be unable to destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you.
But the Lord your God will deliver them over to you, and will inflict defeat upon them until they are destroyed.
And He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you will destroy their name from under heaven; no one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them.
You shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire; you shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it; for it is an abomination to the Lord your God.
Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, for it is an accursed thing.
Notice the use of conjunctions in all the passages.
This is the way the Lord works with us!
This was our first question
He brings His promise to happen
But…how do we respond? is our second question
“Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers.
And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.
So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.
He calls us to be careful to observe the commandments
“that you may live”
We must remember what He has done for us (brought us out of Egypt)
And that He Humbles and Tests
The humbling experience is for us to realize we need Him and cannot live without Him
We must live by every word that proceeds from His mouth
If He says to be careful is because there are consequences. Ekev (aqeb)
Continue to read
Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.
You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you.
“Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him.
He loves you, He will correct you
And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;
For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.”
If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?
But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.
“Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him.
You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.
What are we expected to do?
“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good?
He expects us to:
To fear Him
To walk in all His ways
To love Him
To serve Him
To do it with all your heart and soul
To keep His commandments
To do it today
Also consider
but your eyes have seen every great act of the Lord which He did.
“Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess,
and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord swore to give your fathers, to them and their descendants, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’
How?
Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer.
“Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,
that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth.
“For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do—to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him—
Meditate in the Word
Put the words in your heart and soul
Teach others
Speak these words to others
Use these words when you sit, walk, lie down, when you rise up - always
Why do I need to do this?
Because:
when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage;
who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock;
who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end—
then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’
Pride and rebellion will also have consequences.
We either obey or He will humble us
He will correct and chasten us
This is how we know His faithfulness as He swored He would sanctify us
Let us talk a bit more about Ekev (aqeb) in all this. Consider the tablets
When I went up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water.
Then the Lord delivered to me two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.
And it came to pass, at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.
“Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly; they have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made themselves a molded image.’
“Furthermore the Lord spoke to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed they are a stiff-necked people.
Let Me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’
“So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire; and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands.
And I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God—had made for yourselves a molded calf! You had turned aside quickly from the way which the Lord had commanded you.
Then I took the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes.
And I fell down before the Lord, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you committed in doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger.
For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the Lord was angry with you, to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me at that time also.
A first set of tablets broken because of the rebellion of Israel
“At that time the Lord said to me, ‘Hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to Me on the mountain and make yourself an ark of wood.
And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke; and you shall put them in the ark.’
“So I made an ark of acacia wood, hewed two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain, having the two tablets in my hand.
And He wrote on the tablets according to the first writing, the Ten Commandments, which the Lord had spoken to you in the mountain from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them to me.
Then I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tablets in the ark which I had made; and there they are, just as the Lord commanded me.”
A second set of Tablets the Lord put in the Ark
Both tablets bring consequences:
Consider these:
the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today;
and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.
Is it possible...
that the first set of tablets represents the breaking of the Law that brings consequences to man?
that the first set of tables represent a choice - the choice man made to rebel againgst God?
that the first set of tablets represents disobedience and the second obedience?
that the second set of tablets is the Faithfulness of God in keeping His covenant?
that the first set of tables is the old covenant and the second the new covenant?
that the second set of tablets God has decided to bring to reality?
that the tablets tell us only God can do this for us?
Consider this:
the letter VAV
ו
means: If, And
But it also means: Hook/man, Nail, Bridge, Secure and Add
the word Ekev (aqeb)
עֵ֫קֶב
means: S6118 TWOT1676e GK6813 n.[m.] consequence, usually as adv.acc. as a consequence of, because (that), also reward, end
But it also means: heel
And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”
The first word is Vav & the last word is Ekeb
This seems to suggest that at the same time God has been dealing with us, He has also been making a way to nail our sin to the cross, to bridge the gap, to secure us in His beloved Son, and to add His Salvation unto us.
Summary
Summary
Conjunctions are words that join together other words or groups of words (Merriam Webster Dictionary)
the state of being conjoined
occurence together in time and space
Conjuctions are connectors
They connect
They bridge a gap
They show relationship
They follow a cause and effect law
The conjunctions we studied (If, And, & because) point to the work of our Lord Jesus Christ
Vav and Ekeb
That there are consequences for the choices we make
Blessing
Cursing
He expects us to do our part:
To fear Him
To walk in all His ways
To love Him
To serve Him
To do it with all your heart and soul
To keep His commandments
To do it today
That the Lord is doing His part even when we do not see it
God has been dealing with us, He has also been making a way to nail our sin to the cross, to bridge the gap, to secure us in His beloved Son, and to add His Salvation unto us.
For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;
giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.
He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell,
and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled
in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—
if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.