God does not leave His people alone, to find their own way and stumble around in the dark. The Lord goes with them in His Word.
The Book of Deuteronomy looks back on Israel’s history. Moses recalls all of God’s gracious deeds toward His people and renews before them the promises they have with their God. In our text, Israel stands in the land of Moab, on the eastern side of the Jordan River, before crossing into the Promised Land. Moses warns the people not to add to God’s Word or take any of it away. God’s Word is life, and it guides and curbs how they live and look to Him in all things. God’s Word chiefly shows us our sinfulness and our need for a savior. To emphasize this reality, all we need to do is observe the missing section between our reading, verses 3-5, which is the incident at Shittim, where Israel worshiped the pagan god Baal-Peor and brought upon itself a terrible plague (Numbers 25:1-9). This reading is a strong reminder that the Law shows us our sin.
There is also God’s mercy here, found in verses 6-9 of our text. God is near His people and goes with them. The Law creates a separation, but the mercy of His nearer presence leads to grace through the words God speaks personally to His people. He is incarnated in His Word. He is there among His people. This leads us straight to the heart of God in Jesus who is the incarnation of the Word of God and the incarnation of God’s presence. This word of truth who draws near to us would be clear “in the sight of the nations” (verse 6). The way God was near His people through the Word would cause “all these nations” to see how the living God is among them.
Just look at the witness of Rahab to the Word of God (Joshua 2:8-11). She, who is clearly a part of “all the nations,” testified to God’s Word. But these words of Rahab are only a witness to the world of God’s Law. Israel, on the other hand, experienced Rahab’s words as mercy. You would have to follow Rahab’s story to the New Testament to meet the Word of God’s promise that is Gospel in Christ (Matthew 1:5).
Going deeper into the New Testament, we find remarkably similar words to verse 6 of our text. In Luke, we hear the angel proclaim a word that is to be proclaimed “in the sight of the nations” (Luke 2:10) concerning Christ, and this Word is pure Gospel. Hear the angel proclaim: “And the angel said unto them [the shepherds], Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” This was the gift, not of the Law, but of Gospel in the Christ-child. This Gospel is for all people, which includes you and me. The Law was given to Israel through Moses, but the Gospel is given to everyone in Jesus’ death and resurrection. Paul says the same when he declared that God “would have all people to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). God gave Jesus, the word incarnate (John 1:14), to be placarded as salvation “in the sight of the nations.”
The Law was given to Israel through Moses, but the Gospel is given to everyone in Jesus’ death and resurrection.
God does not leave His people alone, to find their own way and stumble around in the dark. The Lord goes with them in His Word. Surely, that is the same grace we experience when we read the scriptures and receive the Lord’s Supper. Through His written Word, God draws personally near to us, and speaks to us in that Word by His Holy Spirit.
This text of law leads us to the Word of the Gospel as we walk with the God who has drawn nearest to us in Christ. The Law does not make us acceptable to God. Instead, God accepts us, not because of what we do, but because of what Christ Jesus did for us!
Since this text is so easily divided between Law and Gospel, this would be the best structure to use for preaching the text:
“This sermon structure organizes the sermon on the basis of two experiences that God’s Word creates in the lives of the hearers: Repentance and trust in the work of Christ for the forgiveness of one’s sins. This structure has similarities to the Problem-Solution structure (of the thematic designs) and the Lowry-Loop structure (of the dynamic designs), and it has recently been popularized by Paul Scott Wilson in The Four Pages of the Sermon.
At its heart, the Law/Gospel sermon structure is divided into two parts, law proclamation and gospel proclamation, with greater attention preferably devoted to the gospel proclamation. In each section, the preacher references both the text and the lives of the hearers (sometimes starting with the text and then moving to the hearers; sometimes starting with the hearers and then moving to the text). The first portion focuses upon law proclamation: It depicts the sin or trouble which is present both in the life situation of the text and in the contemporary lives of the hearers. The second portion focuses on gospel proclamation: It depicts God’s gracious intervention to forgive people their sins both in the life situation of the text and in the contemporary lives of the hearers.
In using this structure, the preacher needs to be careful that he is not misusing the text. For example, a preacher could select one word from the text (for example, prayer) and using that word create an experience of law for the hearers (for the example of prayer, we do not pray as we ought) and then an experience of gospel (in this same example, Jesus prays for us on the cross, asking God to forgive our sins for the sake of His suffering and death) regardless of what that word meant in its original context.”[1]
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Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out out 1517’s resources on Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9.
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you in preaching Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9.
Text Week-A treasury of resources from various traditions to help you preach Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
Lectionary Podcast- Dr. Walter A. Maier III of Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne, IN walks us through Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9.
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[1] https://concordiatheology.org/sermon-structs/dynamic/lawgospel-structure/
