Deuteronómio Em Escritos Posteriores

Lição 11, 04 a 10 de Dezembro

Sábado à tarde

VERSO ÁUREO: “Tão-somente o Senhor se agradou de teus pais para os amar; e a vós, descendência deles, escolheu, depois deles, de todos os povos como neste dia se vê.” Deuteronómio 10:15

LEITURAS DA SEMANA: 2 Reis 22; Neemias 9:6; Jeremias 7:1-7; Salmos 148:4; Jeremias 29:13; Miqueias 6:1-8; Daniel 9:1-19

Uma das coisas fascinantes sobre a Bíblia, em especial o Velho Testamento, é a frequência com que se refere ou alude a si mesma; isto é, escritores posteriores do Velho Testamento referem-se aos anteriores. Os que escrevem depois usam os escritos dos que escreveram antes para apresentar o seu ponto de vista.

Salmos 81, por exemplo, volta ao livro de Êxodo e quase cita literalmente a introdução aos Dez Mandamentos: “Eu sou o Senhor teu Deus, que te tirei da terra do Egito” (Salmos 81:10).

Em todo o Velho Testamento, o Génesis é mencionado (especialmente o relato da criação), como no exemplo: “Observei a terra, e eis que era sem forma e vazia; também os céus, e não tinham a sua luz” (Jeremias 4:23; veja também Génesis 1:2).

Escritores posteriores do Velho Testamento, como os profetas, referiram-se muitas vezes ao livro de Deuteronómio, o qual desempenhou papel central no viver a aliança no inicio da história de Israel. Nesta semana, o foco do estudo será a maneira como o livro foi usado por escritores posteriores. Que partes de Deuteronómio usaram eles e que pontos defendiam que são relevantes no presente?

Deuteronomy in the Later Writings

Lesson 11, December 4-10

Sabbath Afternoon

Read for This Week’s Study: 2 Kings 22, Nehemiah 9:6, Jeremiah 7:1-7, Psalms 148:4, Jeremiah 29:13, Micah 6:1-8, Daniel 9:1-19.

Memory Text: “Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day.” Deuteronomy 10:15

One of the fascinating things about the Bible, especially the Old Testament, is how often it refers or alludes to itself; that is, later writers in the Old Testament refer to earlier ones, using them and their writings to make their point.

Psalm 81, for example, goes back to the book of Exodus and then almost quotes verbatim from the preamble of the Ten Commandments when the psalmist wrote: “I am the Lord thy God, Which brought thee out of the land of Egypt” (Psalms 81:10).

All through the Old Testament, Genesis — especially the Creation story — is referred to, such as in “I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; And the heavens, and they had no light” (Jeremiah 4:23; see also Genesis 1:2).

And yes, many times the later writers of the Old Testament, such as the prophets, referred back to the book of Deuteronomy, which played such a central role in the covenantal life of early Israel. This week we will focus on how the book was used by later writers. What parts of Deuteronomy did they use, and what points were they making that have relevance for us today?

Further Thought 03.12.21

Friday, December 3

“How great the condescension of God and His compassion for His erring creatures in thus placing the beautiful rainbow in the clouds as a token of His covenant with men! The Lord declares that when He looks upon the bow, He will remember His covenant. This does not imply that He would ever forget; but He speaks to us in our own language, that we may better understand Him. It was God's purpose that as the children of after generations should ask the meaning of the glorious arch which spans the heavens, their parents should repeat the story of the Flood, and tell them that the Most High had bended the bow and placed it in the clouds as an assurance that the waters should never again overflow the earth. Thus from generation to generation it would testify of divine love to man and would strengthen his confidence in God.” Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 106

Since the founding of Christianity, there has never been a church that has partaken of the wealth and creature comforts that the church in some countries of the world enjoys today. The question is, At what cost? Such affluence surely influences our spirituality — and not for the good either. How could it? Since when have wealth and material abundance fostered the Christian virtues of self-denial and self-sacrifice? In most cases, the opposite occurs: the more people have, the more self-sufficient they become, and the less they tend to depend upon God. Wealth and prosperity, however nice, do come with many dangerous spiritual traps. 

Discussion Questions:

1. Discuss the question of how wealth (which can be very relative; that is, someone not deemed wealthy in his country might be seen as super-rich by those in another one) and how it impacts our spirituality. What are ways that those “with money” can protect themselves from some of the spiritual dangers that wealth can create?

2. In class talk about the closing scenes in Christ’s life and what they tell us about God’s love for us and why we must never forget the reality of that love. What other things can you think of that reveal the goodness of God, and why we should always keep this reality in mind?

3. Though some scientists say there was no world-wide flood, despite the Bible’s saying that there was (and the rainbow), some say there was no six-day creation, either, despite the Bible’s saying that there was (and the seventh-day Sabbath to memorialize it). What should this tell us about how powerful, and negative, the impact of culture can be on faith?

Remember That You Were a Slave

Thursday, December 2

Read Deuteronomy 5:15; Deuteronomy 6:12; Deuteronomy 15:15; Deuteronomy 16:3, 12; and Deuteronomy 24:18, 22. What specifically did the Lord want them never to forget, and why?

As we have seen, all through the Old Testament, the Lord constantly brought the minds of the people back to the Exodus, their miraculous deliverance, by God, from Egypt. To this day, thousands of years later, practicing Jews keep the Passover celebration, a memorial to what the Lord has done for them. “And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the Lord will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service. And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses” (Exodus 12:25-27).

For the church today, the Passover is a symbol of the deliverance we have been offered in Christ: “For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7).

Read Ephesians 2:8-13. What are these Gentile believers told to remember? How does it parallel what the Hebrews in Deuteronomy were told to remember, as well?

Paul wanted these people to remember what God had done for them in Christ, what He had saved them from, and what they now had because of God’s grace to them. As with the children of Israel, it wasn’t anything in and of themselves that commended them to God. Instead, it was only God’s grace, given to them, even though they were “strangers from the covenants of promise,” that made them who they were in Christ Jesus.

Whether Jews in the wilderness, Christians in Ephesus, or Seventh-day Adventists anywhere in the world, how crucial it is for us always to remember, and not forget, what God has done for us in Christ. No wonder, then, that we have these words: “It would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour each day in contemplation of the life of Christ. We should take it point by point, and let the imagination grasp each scene, especially the closing ones. As we thus dwell upon His great sacrifice for us, our confidence in Him will be more constant, our love will be quickened, and we shall be more deeply imbued with His spirit.” — Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 83.

Eaten and Full

Wednesday, December 1

One former church leader, who had worked at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for 34 years, told a story about how, many years earlier, he and his wife, having landed at an airport, had lost a piece of luggage. “Right there,” he said, “by the luggage conveyer belt and in public, we got on our knees and prayed, asking the Lord for the return of our lost luggage.” He then said that, many years later, the same thing happened: they arrived at the airport, but a piece of luggage didn’t. He told what happened next. “Don’t worry,” he had said to his wife, “insurance will cover it.”

With this story in mind, read Deuteronomy 8:7-18. What warning is the Lord giving to His people here, and what should it mean for us today, as well?

Look at what their being faithful to the Lord would bring them. Not only would they possess a wonderful and rich land, “A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it” (Deuteronomy 8:9), but they will be exceedingly blessed in that land: flocks and herds and gold and silver and beautiful houses. That is, they will be given all the material comforts that this life affords.

But then, what? They would face the danger that always attends wealth and physical prosperity, that of forgetting that it was only the Lord “he that giveth thee power to get wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:18).

Maybe not at first, but as the years go by and they have all the material comforts that they need, they will forget their past, forget how the Lord had led them through “that great and terrible wilderness” (Deuteronomy 1:19), and, indeed, think that it was their own smartness and talents that enabled them to be so successful.

This is precisely what the Lord was warning them against doing (and unfortunately, especially as one reads the later prophets, this is exactly what happened to them).

Thus, amid this prosperity, Moses tells them that to remember that it was the Lord alone who had done this for them and not to be deceived by the material blessings that He had given them. Centuries later, Jesus Himself warned, in the parable of the sower, about “the deceitfulness of riches” (Mark 4:19).

No matter how much money and material possessions we have here, we are all flesh and blood awaiting a hole in the ground. What should this tell us about the dangers that come from wealth, in that wealth can make us forget our need of the only One who can deliver us from that hole in the ground?

Take Heed … Lest You Forget

Tuesday, November 30

Read Deuteronomy 4:9, 23. What is the Lord telling them to do here, and why is this admonition so important for the nation?

Two verbs dominate the opening of both these verses: “take heed” and “forget.” What the Lord is saying to them is: take heed so that you don’t forget. That is, don’t you forget what the Lord has done for you nor the covenant that He had made with you.

The verb “take heed,” smr (which is also used in a different form in Deuteronomy 4:9, translated “keep yourself”), occurs all through the Old Testament, and it means to “keep,” “to watch,” “to preserve,” or “to guard.” Interestingly enough, the first time it appears in Scripture is even before sin, when the Lord told Adam to “keep” the garden that He had given to him (Genesis 2:15).

Now, though, the Lord tells the people, each one individually (the verb is in the singular), to guard themselves, lest they forget. This is not “forget” so much in the sense of memory loss (though over time and in new generations that could come) but more in the sense of being lax about their covenant obligations. That is, they were to be mindful about who they were and what that meant in terms of how they were to live before God, before other Hebrews, before the strangers among them, and before the nations around them.

Read again Deuteronomy 4:9 (see also Deuteronomy 6:7 and 11:19), but focus on the last part, about teaching them to their children and grandchildren. What would that have to do with helping them not to forget?

It’s not a coincidence that right after Moses tells them not to forget, not to let these things “depart from your heart,” he tells them to teach these things to the next generation and to the generation after. Not only did their children need to hear about these things, but perhaps even more important, by telling and retelling the stories of what God had done for them, the people would not forget what those things were. Hence, what better way to preserve knowledge of what the Lord had done for His chosen people?

How has telling others of your experience with the Lord benefited not just others, but yourself, as well? How has the recounting of God’s leading helped you not to forget His leadings?

Concerning the Days That Are Past

Monday, November 29

In Deuteronomy 4, we have read the wonderful admonitions that the Lord gave to His people through Moses regarding their great privileges as God’s chosen people. He had redeemed them out of Egypt “by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes” (Deuteronomy 4:34). In other words, not only did God do something great for you, He did it in ways that should help you remember, and never forget, what great things He had done for you.

Read Deuteronomy 4:32-39. What was the Lord telling them to remember, and why was it so important that they remember these things?

Moses points the people back through all history, even to the creation itself, and asks them, rhetorically, if anything in all history had ever been done as was done for them. In fact, he tells them to ask; that is, to study for themselves and see if anything such as what they experienced had ever happened before. By asking them a few questions, Moses was trying to get them to realize for themselves what the Lord had done for them, and thus, ultimately, how grateful and thankful to Him they should be for His mighty acts in their lives.

Central to these acts was the deliverance from Egypt and then, perhaps in some ways even more astonishing, His speaking to them at Sinai, which allowed them to hear “His words out of the midst of the fire.”

Read Deuteronomy 4:40. What conclusion, then, did Moses want the people to draw from these words about what God had done for them? 

The Lord didn’t do all those things for no purpose. He had redeemed His people, keeping His end of the covenant that He had established with them. They were freed from Egypt, about to enter the Promised Land. God did His part; they were now called on to do theirs, which was, simply, to obey.

How does this model represent the plan of salvation as expressed in the New Testament? What did Jesus do for us, and how are we to respond to what He had done for us? (See Revelation. 14:12)