Page 120 - Pentateuch - Student Textbook

Study Section 15: Pentateuch VI:
Treaty Stipulations: Deuteronomy 6-26

15.1 Connect

It is impossible for us to work through this entire section of Deuteronomy. The material is
lengthy and specific. The foundation is the call to “Love the LORD your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and with all your strength (6:5).” This is the core of the
commandment. YHWH is one (6:4). “The word used for ‘one’ in this passage does not mean
‘singleness’ but ‘unity.’ The same word is used in Genesis 2:24, where husband wife in
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marriage are said to be ‘one flesh.’” He has no inner conflicts. He is not many gods vying for power
and worship. He does not change with the seasons or the situation. Because he is such a God, they are
to be earnest about teaching their children about him and all he has done. The next generation will not
have witnessed the miracles performed in Egypt and on the road to the Promised Land. Parents must
teach them. If parents love God, they must love his word. If they love God, they must not neglect to pass
on his word to children whom they love also (6:6-9, 20). Having one God leaves few options. He must
come first. His “firstness” must be obvious even to children.

15.2 Objectives

1. You will learn how these specific treaty stipulations fill-out the general treaty stipulations
that we know as the Ten Commandments.

2. You will be introduced to some modern applications.

3. You will see how other parts of the Old Testament also make use of Deuteronomy.

15.3 Treaty Stipulations

The first commandment (6:1-11:32) centers on love of God and leads the Israelites to
protect themselves, especially the next generation, from the nations possessing the land.
Without a clear distinction, including dispossessing those nations, Israel would gradually lose
its distinctness through intermarriage. They would accept other gods and the laws of other
gods. Such an acceptance would go against the love YHWH had for them and the promises
he had made to their ancestors. (7:7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13). Israel should reject the nations, and
Israel should not be afraid of the nations, even though they are all stronger and are entrenched in the
land. God would help them. He would drive those nations out little by little. Israel was instructed to
destroy them, including their silver and gold. Even these items could be a temptation to them. “Do not
bring a detestable thing into your house or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction (7:26).”

Their experience of entering and possessing the land would be an ongoing test similar to their forty
years in the wilderness. God’s purpose all along was, and is, to humble his people and to teach them to
rely on him, even “on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD (8:3, cf. Matt. 4:4).” His
method is always to treat them “as a man disciplines his son (8:5).” This would never change. The
lessons would continue day after day, year after year, generation after generation. The unique, one

131 Sailhammer, Pentateuch, 439.

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