MESSAGE FOR PEOPLE TODAY FROM THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY |
5 of 39 lessons Theme: Faith |
Background Information: We asked in the book of Genesis, “How can the creation, humanity, know how to repair the broken relationship with the Creator, God?" In Exodus, the Hebrews were awakened by the miracles of God to know that being saved by faith includes a sacrifice (choice), and we are awakened to know that being saved by grace through faith includes our behaviors which are a living sacrifice (behavior). In Leviticus, we learned from God how to remember to be a witness who has a heart that is set apart from the world by choosing God and not the worldview. In Numbers, we learned that God put leaders in place to build The Rock of Faith, and how the Chief Cornerstone, Jesus, is aligning with The Rock of Faith that God established to teach us to include love with the law. |
Statement of Faith to Say Amen to for the Book of Deuteronomy: I can remember that God will give me a new heart of flesh and a new spirit with the new covenant. |
Essential Question Can I remember to remain faithful to the new covenant relationship? |
Book of Deuteronomy Have students read pages 47-49 in The Rock of Faith. After students read the information ask them, "What do you want to talk about?"
The Issue: A covenant is not a contract, it is personal. Moses told the people in the book of Deuteronomy that they should love God with all their heart. Now with the new covenant, salvation comes through having a relationship with Jesus. Jesus came and added love to the law. Now, we are to love God, love our neighbors, and pray for our enemy with love. A husband is to love his wife as Jesus loved the church. We are to love the family of God and love the word of God even during times of abundance.
The Truth is Important: In the Old Testament, people who loved God were told to remember God during times of abundance and during times when they were in need. However, some people would say they loved God, and then during times of abundance, they would forget God. Moses warned the Israelites not to forget about God during times of prosperity. This is also a message for people today. Jesus said in Revelation 3: 15-17, “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” Jesus has a message for people today, not to have lukewarm faith. Lukewarm faith will be used in the next 34 lessons to describe how someone can be distracted by the world to forget about how to (1) Love God, (2) Love our neighbors as we love ourselves, (3) Pray for our enemy with love, (4) Be a husband who loves his wife as Jesus loved the church, (5) Love the family of God, and (6) Love the word of God. Moses said being outside of a covenant is a dangerous place to be. Remember, a covenant is made with love, and they were to choose to love God. Now with a living sacrifice, we can measure with love our devotion to God. In Luke 17:5, the apostles questioned Jesus, “How can we increase our faith?” The next thirty-one lessons will teach us that we can increase or decrease our faith in God with our living sacrifice. Because faith works by love, we can increase our faith in God by loving God and not the world. In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses’ final sermon was a call for the Hebrews to renew their covenant with God. The covenant relationship that was made with Abraham was not conditional. Abraham entered into a covenant with God, and Abraham understood that God would do what He promised even if Abraham did not do what he promised. One promise God made to Abraham was in Genesis 12:3, “I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.” Another covenant in the Old Testament was between God and Moses. The Israelites said they would not sacrifice to false gods, understanding God would protect them and punish the people who were sacrificing to false gods. This covenant was a conditional covenant where the Israelites had to obey God’s commandments and not sacrifice to false gods. This is how the Israelites were saved by faith in the Old Testament. People had faith that God’s miracles could save them. When the Israelites would remember the miracles that God had performed in the past to save them, they would obey God’s commandments and sacrifice to God. Now we are to remember the sacrifice that Jesus made and connect it to how to be saved by grace through faith which is also a conditional covenant.
The Promise of God: Moses explained in Deuteronomy 8:2 how God will search a person’s heart to know if someone will keep God’s commandments or not. The next 34 lessons of A Book of Remembrance will explain how God did awaken people’s hearts to remember what God had done for them in love. In the Old Testament, God awoke their hearts with miracles. A Book of Remembrance aligns the Old Testament with the seven churches in the book of Revelation where Jesus teaches us how God will still awaken our heart and how He gives us a new heart made of flesh. Not only does God give us a new heart with the new covenant, but He also offers spiritual gifts that will give us a new spirit. We are to remember how the Old Testament aligns with the seven churches in the book of Revelation with The Pattern of Sound Teaching to understand how to accept our spiritual gifts and be saved by grace through faith.
In Matthew 16 Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say the son of man is?” Peter said, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.” Then Jesus said that he would build his church on this rock and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Jesus said he would build his church on the rock of the living God. We can understand this as The Rock of Faith that God established with His miracles. As it is written in Deuteronomy 32:4, “He is the rock, his work is perfect: for all His ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.” The first five books of the Old Testament will help you understand as a Christian that The Rock of Faith is still important today. Jesus will build His church upon The Rock of Faith that God established in the Old Testament. What comes next is laying the foundation of faith that includes the sacrifice that Christ made on The Rock of Faith and then building an internal temple with God’s grace on the foundation that includes the sacrifice Jesus made. Now with the church age, we can repair the broken covenant relationship with a living sacrifice. |
Activity: The activity directions are located in Appendix 5 – Section 1. Students will build two different structures that will represent how what they have faith in will determine if their internal temple will align with the Chief Cornerstone, Jesus, or the world. |
Conclusion: The Rock of Faith in the Old Testament was built with the miracles of God. |
Next Lesson: There is a message for people today to remember to build their inner temple on The Rock of Faith and not sinking sand. |
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Question One:
What is the difference between a covenant and a contract?
Question Two:
Does the world teach us to be in a covenant relationship or a contractual relationship?
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