Deuteronomy

God and Justice

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: God and Justice

Lesson: 4-110

Genre: Lecture

Track: 04

Dictation Name: RR187B4

Location/Venue:

Year:

Let us worship God. The Lord is nigh unto all that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him. He also will hear their cry and will save them. Oh thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come. Let us pray. Almighty God our heavenly father we gather again in thy name, to rejoice in thy providential care, to acknowledge that indeed thy mercies are new every morning. Teach us day by day, to surrender our fears, our concerns, and to wait on thee. To know that thou art God, that it is thy will that shall be done and not the will of men. Make us joyful in thee and in thy word and grant that by thy spirit, day by day, we may be strengthened and blessed in Christ’s name amen.

Let us turn now to Deuteronomy 2 verses 1-15. Our subject, God and Justice.

Deuteronomy 2:1-15. “1Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea, as the LORD spake unto me: and we compassed mount Seir many days.

 2And the LORD spake unto me, saying,

 3Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward.

 4And command thou the people, saying, Ye are to pass through the coast of your brethren the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir; and they shall be afraid of you: take ye good heed unto yourselves therefore:

 5Meddle not with them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot breadth; because I have given mount Seir unto Esau for a possession.

 6Ye shall buy meat of them for money, that ye may eat; and ye shall also buy water of them for money, that ye may drink.

 7For the LORD thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand: he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the LORD thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing.

 8And when we passed by from our brethren the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, through the way of the plain from Elath, and from Eziongaber, we turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab.

 9And the LORD said unto me, Distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle: for I will not give thee of their land for a possession; because I have given Ar unto the children of Lot for a possession.

 10The Emims dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims;

 11Which also were accounted giants, as the Anakims; but the Moabites called them Emims.

 12The Horims also dwelt in Seir beforetime; but the children of Esau succeeded them, when they had destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their stead; as Israel did unto the land of his possession, which the LORD gave unto them.

 13Now rise up, said I, and get you over the brook Zered. And we went over the brook Zered.

 14And the space in which we came from Kadeshbarnea, until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty and eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host, as the LORD sware unto them.

 15For indeed the hand of the LORD was against them, to destroy them from among the host, until they were consumed.”

These verses are an historical summary, and they raise a very serious question which is too often bypassed. Two things are clearly set forth. First, God forbids Israel from attacking and seizing any territory belonging to either Edam later known as (Itubea?) or the descendants of Esau dwelt or and territory of Moab descended from Lot. God was by his sovereign grace allowing both peoples to continue their existence. They were related to the Hebrews, although without faith.

Then second, God reminds Israel of his judgment on Israel. 38 years in the wilderness, until all the older generation of man of war accept for Caleb and Joshua. Now the problem is this. Edam and Moab were both Godless and evil. Why were they spared when Israel went through judgment? One Psalmist cries out in Psalm 94:1-14.with these words, meditating on this problem which occurs generation after generation.

“1O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth; O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself.

 2Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth: render a reward to the proud.

 3LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph?

 4How long shall they utter and speak hard things? and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?

 5They break in pieces thy people, O LORD, and afflict thine heritage.

 6They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless.

 7Yet they say, The LORD shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.

 8Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise?

 9He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see?

 10He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know?

 11The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.

 12Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law;

 13That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked.

 14For the LORD will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.”

What the psalmist comes up with is this. He walks by faith and not by sight. He knows that God is the all-righteous judge. And he will in time or in eternity settle all accounts. Meanwhile the righteous must rest; they must rest in the infallible justice and the law of God. They may not understand it, but they are to trust and rest in that fact. We know that, moreover, although Gods forbearance of evil is great, and his chastening of his people often sore, God's purposes are all together righteous and holy. In this instance what made Gods forbearance of Edam and Moab going was the fact that both of them were hostile to Israel in spite of Israel's announced friendliness. Moab is particularly guilty and paid a heavy price for their hostility and for their efforts to destroy Israel. However as verses 14 to 16 made clear, Gods real judgment, his major judgment, was against Israel. Richard (Clifford?) was right in seeing the wilderness journey as in part, Gods war against Israel. An entire generation was wiped out. As Peter, centuries later pointed out, judgment must begin at the house of God. And our Lord in Luke 12:48 stresses this, “for unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required. And to whom men have committed much of him they will ask the more.” In other words, the basic premise of scripture is those who have been richly blessed are also going to be punished all the more.

Behind all of these events God has Moses describe and summarize, and behind all events, is the government of God. Moses does not attempt to justify it or to explain it, he simply declares God to be the absolute lord and determiner of all things, of men nations, events and other things. Against that government, no man can rebel successfully. It is interesting to see how specific God is. He mentions nations and peoples who were once powerful in that area. The Emims, Giants like the Anakim. And into our day one group of such people survive, the Watusi in central Africa, although before the century is over it is possible that they disappear. The Rephaim and other tall peoples, and the Horites or Hurrians are also mentioned who moved into Mesopotamia and Syria from the east in the second millennium, that is BC. Somewhat earlier than the exodus.

Now the mention of these, and later of other peoples, makes clear that Gods concerns are greater than ours. God goes out of his way to mention peoples that, only after a great deal of archeological work, have we found references to an ancient palace. And many of these were forgotten when God gives the word to Moses. But he mentions them; he makes clear that his concerns are far greater than ours. All this leads up to a very important point. One of the evils of the false chosen people mentality into which Israel and later many churches have fallen into is to limit Gods concerns and providence to themselves. God’s vast providence transcends anything that we are able to understand comprehensibly or exhaustively. The chosen people perspective is false, when it sees itself as the purpose, the be-all and end-all of Gods activities and thereby makes Gods work in history serve a humanistic end, man. Or a particular group of men.

God’s reference to people such as the Hurrians is an archeological note in the text. In order to explain and indicate the breath of Gods work. God mentions also the Emims, a people of great height. And the fact that the Moabites have conquered and displaced them, and he mentions this as a rebuke to Israel. The ungodly Moabites have been ready to fight and conquer the Emims. But Israel in spite of Gods promises had shown no comparable courage in facing the Canaanites. To remind Israel of its faithlessness and ingratitude, in verse 7 the people are reminded, you have lacked nothing. God has taken care of you. You doubted again and again that he would, but he did. Gods promise to Israel had not been equivocal he had clearly said, as Caleb and Joshua reminded them, that he would give them Canaan. Jude refers to Israel’s unbelief. He cites some false believers in the church, and the fallen angels, and Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Israelites in the wilderness as alike guilty of a common sin:

“They despise dominion and speak evil of dignities.” That is they hated and despised all Godly authority. God in verse 7 stresses the 40 years of schooling in the wilderness. Joseph Parker summed up the meaning tellingly. It had taken time to develop character in Israel. Quoting Parker: “Time has a good deal to do with testimony, Time enters very subtly into all things human and mundane. Men may make a ladder in a very short time. But who can make a tree? And how constantly we are mistaking a tree for a ladder or a ladder for a tree. Time makes the tree, time makes character. Time makes practical theology.” Unquote. Well our Lord made that point emphatically when he said that it is wrong to expect things to come quickly. (Mark 4) First the blade when you plant a seed of corn, and only after a period of time, he said, the ear of corn. You can go and make a ladder in a short time, but to grow a tree, to grow a stock of corn, takes time. And so too it takes time for God to grow character in man, to grow character in nations. We too often forget this factor of time, of history, as we work with our children. But everything has its time with God. And too commonly God shows more respect for time than men do. Because men want the end result at the beginning.

Moses says in verse seven about God: “He has known your walking” that is your daily life. Now the Greek emphasis was on the heart of man, as divorced from his body or daily life. But God knows us by our walking, the totality of our daily life and of our being. As our Lord says: “By their fruits shall ye know them.” We cannot separate the heart of man from his fruits. That is Greek pagan thinking. God’s judgments are very practical and time oriented. These verses in Deuteronomy are faithful to the ancient treaty or covenant pattern of law. The superior power in a covenant declares what land grants have been made to the covenant vessel. The land and its boundaries are then described. This review is a matter of law, of covenantal status, a contract. The references therefore to Edam and Moab are also legal statements, whatever his purpose. God makes very clear that these two ungodly powers are granted certain things by him. Their ancestry from Abraham and Lot are referred to, but in time this heritage protected neither country. So we must say that it was sovereign will, sovereign power, God’s Sovereign power at work. And God could say: “I will spare them, whether you like it or not” for centuries, or “I will destroy them”. Near the conclusion of Deuteronomy, Moses returns to the subject of Gods sovereign power and the mystery of evil to declare in Deuteronomy 29 verse 29: “The secret things belong unto God, unto the Lord our God. But those things which are revealed belong unto us and our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

Now what this text tells us, is, that we’re not going to understand all of Gods ways. But we can trust them, and we must. And we must have faith in God. We walk by faith, not by sight. We do not understand everything in the work-a-day world around us. How many people could drive an automobile if they had to understand what it was like? And what made it work, before they got in and drove it? We use things the making of which we have no knowledge. So we go by faith. God’s purpose for us is not in our abstract knowledge of things, but the knowledge of his revelation; and for a specific purpose, that we may do all the words of this law. As the Psalmist (Ethan?) says with God in Psalm 89 verse 14: “Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne. Mercy and truth shall go before thy face.” This is what we are to believe and this is what we are to act in terms of. Let us pray.

Our Father, give us grace day by day to leave the secret things of thy kingdom unto thee. To trust in thee, to know that thou art good and all gracious and merciful. Give us grace also to do those things which though has commanded. Make us faithful and more than conquerors in Christ who loved us and gave his life that we might be a new creation, a people of faith and a power in him. Bless us each in our way, our calling and strengthen us in our faith. In Christ name, amen. Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Man from audience] Well it flies in the face of the modern pretention that everything has an answer.

[Rushdoony] A good point, we are Hegelians, and the only reality is that which we can understand, and all things are held to be comprehensible and therefore we simply refuse to believe that God in his world can be real because we don’t grasp it. The essence of the enlightenment was the radical comprehensibility of all things. And reason was the light where by man was going to see and comprehend everything in all creation and I think we’re going to have within a generation some books that will deal with that aspect in its combination in Sir Isaac Newton. Because with Newton and his theory it was held that all things have now been made comprehensible. So that reason now was Lord of all creation.

Reason took the place of God. And the Newtonian world in this century has had serious challenges and I think it will take another generation or two perhaps before the full crack up of Newtonian science becomes apparent and the implications of it are brought home to people. Any other questions or comments? Yes?

[Man from audience] This is off the subject, but, when David Solomon combined their efforts to build the lords house, and it was built so precisely because they didn’t (?) from the stone with in the house, until it was first perfectly fitted so they did not make any noise in the house. Something that great, is there any remnants of, I know they destroyed a lot of it but?

[Rushdoony] No, it was all destroyed in the Jewish, Roman war. It had been destroyed under Nebuchadnezzar but not in its entirety. And it was rebuilt under king Harod of all people. It was rebuilt on a grander scale. Harod was an Edomite, and the Romans had made him king over both Edom and Judea. So as king of both realms he knew he was hated because he was not a Jew, and he set out to please the people. That was Rome’s policy so it was not entirely on his own, in fact Rome made Jerusalem one of the most magnificent cities in all of history. The amount of marble that went into the building, rebuilding of Jerusalem when the Romans took over was incredible. Now considering the fact that it was not one of the main cities of the empire, this seems strange. But it was in a key area of commerce, the trade routes. That tied Africa, Asia, and Europe together went through their, the land routes. And as a result Rome was concerned to prevent the eastern powers from having any alliances with their satellite state Judea. Of course it did not work, no more then, than our policy today of throwing money at minority groups such as the blacks. It makes them happy and contented and ready to get along with people, it only made the Judeans all the more venomous against the Romans and it lead the Jewish Roman war. So that lead to the total destruction of everything, except some of the furnishings that were made of gold from the holy place in the holy of holies. These were taken and the triumphal arch of Titus you see depicted in sculpture. Those gold furnishings of the holy place and most holy place. What happened then in time no one knows and of course in recent years we saw a fictional film about one item raiders of the lost Arc. But everything did disappear, probably melted down.

Any other questions? Yes?

[Audience member] Can you comment on at one point early in the history one patriarch was commanded to collect 12 round stones and build an altar; he was not to hue the stones or to do anything, compared to the comment of the precision with which the temple was then built centuries later. There must be a different message intended for each incident?

[Rushdoony] No, basically always it had to be something that man contributed nothing to. So the alter in itself was a stone, period. A man could not contribute anything to what constituted the act of atonement. So everything else was precisely required, but the alter itself, was a stone that man had not worked on. Yes?

[Man in audience] Just on that I was wondering, is that, the alter would be nothing and the temple he was talking about was precisely, the cut stones, would that be obeying the law? And the other one, we can’t do anything for our salvation, but if we are saved, ‘he that loves me will keep my commandments’?

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Man in audience] The thing I was going to ask about of you when you said that all the gold things were probably melted, wouldn’t that be providential to, because they would worship that if you didn’t eliminate it?

[Rushdoony] Very true and over the centuries all kinds of things have been done to attempt to keep these things. And it even has gone into a great deal of mythology and legends. For example the Holy Grail with regard to the Last Supper and all kinds of similar tales once existed with regard to the temple furnishings. So we have no survivals, God didn’t want the survivals, because they would have really been worshiped or adored in some way and been the center of ungodliness. Yes?

[Man audience The Coptic Ethiopians claim to have a replica of the Ark.

[Rushdoony] Yes. A replica and they well may have, because the church very early reached into Egypt and Ethiopia and they knew a great deal about these things, there was a great deal of knowledge about all the details of the temple including the Biblical account. And they claimed to represent an unbroken tradition from Solomon day, so naturally they made extravagant claims. So you had among the Ethiopian Copts who were under the Egyptian Coptic church. And the Copts of Egypt are the true ancient Egyptians. The Muslims are Arabs, invaders. The cops of Ethiopia were converts and or Egyptian believers who went over there as priests and started a church there. The Coptic Church very early because of the chosen people mentality began its waywardness. If you look at some of the magnificent churches they have in Ethiopia you realize that once those people had a culture and a capability that they haven’t had in centuries.

I think I still have a record of some Coptic monks singing and the translation of it reads: “Worthy, worthy, worthy are Thy Saints Oh Lord.” The chosen people mentality. They could approach God in song, boasting of their worthiness as the chosen people. And similar songs are sung to this day by the degenerate descendants of the original or early Copts. And while many of the churches of our time are by no means that extreme in their self-righteousness they’re not lacking in it all the same. So it’s a very historic fact that these various groups claim to represent something unbroken from the earliest days. I encountered once on one of my trips a young man who was a Landmark Baptist. These are Baptists who claim they go right back to the New Testament times and through to the Old Testament, Abraham and so on. They are very arrogant and proud group who feels that no one has the true faith accept themselves. Not an unusual syndrome. Yes?

[Man in Audience] Another thought came to me, remember in Revelation its says that in heaven, the ark or something is in heaven, anyway the temple and so forth the only survivor was Christ himself, who all these things that they had were the types of Christ. Then he fulfilled it all and eliminated it all, these things that used to stand alone in heaven.

[Rushdoony] And He shortly before the crucifixion said that not one stone would be left standing on another of the temple, and he said, “destroy this temple” meaning himself, “and in three days I will rebuild it again.” the only true temple. Well our time is up; let us conclude now with prayer. Our father we thank thee that thy word corrects us in our sin, in our pride, and in our pretensions. Teach us to know that thy purpose far exceeds us and thy holy purposes are far beyond anything in all of creation. Give us grace there for to walk n humility, in faith and in joy. And now go in peace, God the father, God the son and God the holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, Guide and protect you. This day and always. Amen.