Deuteronomy 10:1-22 - Fear, Follow, and Serve God

Deuteronomy 10:1-22

The Second Pair of Tablets (Exodus 34:1–9)

1 “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. 2 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.’

3 “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. 4 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. 5 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.”

6 (Now the children of Israel journeyed from the wells of Bene Jaakan to Moserah, where Aaron died, and where he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered as priest in his stead. 7 From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of rivers of water. 8 At that time the LORD separated the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister to Him and to bless in His name, to this day. 9 Therefore Levi has no portion nor inheritance with his brethren; the LORD is his inheritance, just as the LORD your God promised him.)

10 “As at the first time, I stayed in the mountain forty days and forty nights; the LORD also heard me at that time, and the LORD chose not to destroy you. 11 Then the LORD said to me, ‘Arise, begin your journey before the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.’

The Essence of the Law

12 “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, 13 and to keep the commandments of the LORD and His statutes which I command you today for your good? 14 Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the LORD your God, also the earth with all that is in it. 15 The LORD delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day. 16 Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer. 17 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. 18 He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. 19 Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. 20 You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast, and take oaths in His name. 21 He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen. 22 Your fathers went down to Egypt with seventy persons, and now the LORD your God has made you as the stars of heaven in multitude.

The moral commandments of God, the Ten Commandments, which were broken as Israel had broken their promise of fidelity to the LORD, were replaced by God’s hand and delivered by the hand of Moses to the people and placed carefully in a wooden ark to preserve them and guide them from future judgment by providing a mercy seat over them eventually.  They then picked up the ark and took God’s word with them on their sojourn towards the promised land.  We see the summation of the Laws in that eternal hope chest in the second half of this chapter; they were told to listen to what God required of them and of all His people.  We are told to fear and revere God as holy (Leviticus 10:3), to walk through life by doing what His word tells us, to love God (Luke 10:27) in that unwavering obedience to His word, to wholeheartedly serve Him (Micah 6:8) in heart and soul, and to keep His word willingly and faithfully.  These commandments have not changed as the direction of our lives lived to honor and plea our Lord God.  The difference is that the old covenant demanded these to be kept for salvation from judgment while the new covenant relies on the lifeblood of Jesus Christ and His perfect obedience (Matthew 5:17, Galatians 3:14) to keep every point of the Law for us which we cannot do (James 2:10, 23) in and of ourselves to save us forever from the judgment of not keeping the entirety of the commandments.  We obey therefore for our good and God’s glory to honor Him with thankful lives as His beloved children who belong to the Creator of Heaven and earth along with everything that He made for Himself to be enjoyed by Him and He by us.  We are chosen by His choice as written here, and are to cut away the sin from our lives as a circumcision of the heart (Deuteronomy 10:16, Romans 2:28-29, Philippians 3:3, Colossians 2:11-12), made holy by Him to live accordingly.  We are told with them to love others, even strangers, as ourselves as the second greatest summary commandment (Mark 12:31), as we fear and serve the lord our God and hold fast to Him.  May we hold fast to our Lord Jesus Christ and our Father in heaven by the power and wisdom of His Spirit living in us who instructs us from these scriptures and helps us to so live.  Let us fear, follow, and serve the Lord our Maker.