Lesson 2
Grace at Sinai – 1:6-18
Open your Bible to Deuteronomy 1.
This particular book of the Old Testament is a book which summarizes
from its first chapter until its last chapter the Law of the Old Testament.
Because it does this it’s therefore a very basic work to understand the
Gospels. It’s a basic work to understand
any other part of Scripture because concepts are laid down; doctrines are
clarified in this book that are clarified in this way in no other book of
Scripture. It lays the ground work for
every other area of God’s Word.
In our introduction we mentioned that the book is generally structured
in a treaty format, a legal format of the time. We gave you the outline. We
said that this book consists of approximately five different sections: 1:1-15
is the preamble of the book, or the section that corresponds in a treaty to the
preamble of a treaty. It explains the
character of the person who’s making the treaty; that’s basically the function
of this section. Then we have from
1:6-4:49 the section that deals with a historical prologue. The historical prologue is what we’re going
to start tonight and this is basically designed to show the vassal king, the
one to whom the treaty is made, how grateful he should be to the great king for
doing thus and such for him.
The third section is the stipulations which runs from 5:1-26:49 and this
is the section which is the proper legal code.
In this section you have if so and so does so and so then such and such
happens. In this area you’ll see some
fantastic principles of crime, some fantastic principles of law and order in
society which are not being followed today.
The fourth thing, from 27:1-30:20 you have the ratification procedures;
in other words, how is this treaty to be put into effect. For example, when you studied the
Constitution and there’s a section there that tells you how the Constitution
should be put into effect, how it should be ratified.
Then finally, the fifth thing, from 31:1-34:12, the last part deals with
provisions for continuity. In other
words, the treaty has been made, this time with Moses but Moses is going to die
in a few days after this treaty goes into effect and then what happens? Joshua is going to be on the scene so how do
you provide for continuity if the one that was a party to the covenant is
dead. So there has to be a section which
carries this over and that provision is in Deut. 31.
The first section, we covered last time and ended in verse 5 and that’s
a good place to pick up the story. It’s
important because of certain things that are being done in various church
groups and various Christian organizations today. Notice carefully in verse 5 what Moses did
and what he did not do. Remember this is
a man who is about to drop dead and he knows it and he’s a man who is a leader
of a nation and also knows that the nation he is leading is a group of clods,
two million clods. They have fallen by
the wayside again and again and he knows it’s going to be the same thing, he
has no illusions. He knows just as soon
as he drops dead this company is going to go down the tube. He knows the whole thing is going to fall
apart, so you might say it’s a very realistically pessimistic outlook given on
the history of Israel given in this book.
But Moses is going to do something.
This is his last chance to do something and guess what? He doesn’t come up with a program of
gimmicks. He doesn’t come up and say
divide the nation into twelve groups and we’ll all have a good athletic
program, this will develop our team spirit, etc. Then we’ll have counselors and I’ll station
psychiatrists so if someone goes off his rocker he can have immediate free
psychiatric care. We’ll have something
for the teenagers, we’ll have a party session for them so they won’t have to do
anything except party and this will keep their interest going and this will
benefit them spiritually. There is a
place for parties, we recognize that, but I’m talking about the over emphasis
in certain areas of Christianity today where people despise teaching of the
Word of God. You’ll see Christian groups
that look down their nose at anybody that’s going to teach the Word of God,
that’s somehow unspiritual, what you really have to do is to go on some
emotional jag and get everybody together and froth at the mouth and sooner or
later someone’s tongue will start flapping at both ends and when this happens
we’ll call that speaking in tongues because this is a great sign of
spirituality. We’ll work up all these
things and this is going to benefit our nation.
You notice in 1:5 Moses does nothing of the sort. Moses does what he has been doing for forty
years with these people; he is going to teach them God’s Word. Imagine that, you’d think he’d give up after
a while. You’d think this technique doesn’t work; we’ve got to find another
gimmick so let’s try another thing. But
Moses doesn’t do that. In the fortieth
year, just before this man drops dead, in verse 5 it says he “began to declare
this law,” and the word “began” is a word which means to make up your mind that
you are bound and determined to do something, it’s a strong word. The next verb is important because it means
not to declare but to… how shall I say it, to cut it into the mind of a person
so he will never forget it.
Remember the reference in Hab. 2:2 where we said that this word means…
in that sense they had these rocks, they didn’t have billboard in those
days. If you wanted an advertisement you
didn’t rent a billboard near a town or something, you had rocks and they used
to cover these rocks with plaster. Then when the plaster got dry they too a
knife and etched in letters. In Hab. 2:2
this verb is used for etching in letters so that a person with glasses a foot
thick can read it. Hab. 2:2 means that
you can go by this thing at sixty miles an hour and still read the sign. It means that the sign is clear, the letters
are large.
So this word in verse 5 means that Moses is going to make this Law and
engrain it in the minds of the people.
They may disobey it, oh yes, but they’re not going to forget it. This is actually the limit of responsibility
of a church. For example, a Sunday
school program; the limit of responsibility of a Sunday school teacher is to
present the Word of God. That’s her limit
of responsibility; once she’s presented the Word of God that’s it. If a child doesn’t respond, you can’t do
anything about it. You can put pressure
on to make that child conform to a group and that’s another thing but as the
Word of God is concerned you present the Word of God and if you get negative
response, too bad, you just can’t do anything about it. There’s a limit to responsibility. This is why a Sunday school is not a
babysitting organization. For example,
if we have hoods in our Sunday school they’ll be removed.
People with a negative response, you just can’t do anything with them
and if they’re not going to respond to the Word, they’re not going to respond
to anything. This is a trap we fall
into; if so and so doesn’t respond to the Word we think we’ve got to do
something up, we’ve got to think something special up. There’s nothing special
that you can possibly think up. Moses
did two things here and I’ll sort of anticipate the book a little bit so you
can understand what this word “declare” means in practice.
There are two things that Moses did.
The first thing, he installed a system of family education that’s
developed in Deut. 6:6, so let’s turn there and see one of the ways in which
Moses set up the Word of God so that the people wouldn’t forget it. This is not saying that the nation is going
to obey it. Moses can’t choose for them
but he can present the issue, he can present the Word.
In Deut. 6:6 we have one of the ways in which Moses ensured that the
Word of God would be well-known throughout the nation. Verses 6-9 is how he did it. “And these
words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart; [7] And thou
shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when you
sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and
when you rise up. [8] And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and
they will be as frontlets between thine eyes.”
That last phrase in verse 8 came to mean in Jesus day that the people
thought they literally had to write the words on a piece of paper and put them
there. If you read the New Testament it
was called phylacteries. That’s what the
word means, it’s just a simple part of the text of Scripture that’s actually
literally put there, but if you examine the Old Testament that’s not what Moses
meant. Moses meant put it on the inside,
and this is just an expression, “between the eyes.” That’s in the frontal lobe of your brain;
that’s where you do your thinking. This
is what Moses meant, he didn’t mean to take a piece of scotch tape and write a
few Hebrew words on it and put it there and that made you spiritual. He meant that you get it on the inside. By the way, how they did this was that the
Passover, and many of these festivities, were means of memorial. We have the
same thing, baptism and communion. This
is one way which we fulfill this.
But notice the emphasis in verse 7 on teaching children in the home and
doing it all the time. You may or not
agree with the Kennedy family but if you want to read a biography of how this
principle was put into practice, read the biography of Joseph Kennedy and how
he brought up Jack, Bobby and Edward and look at how he taught those kids. When those kids came to supper the old man
had the newspapers pinned to the wall and before they could sit down at the
table they’d have to go read the daily news, understand every major story and
be able to discuss it during dinner.
This is how he developed in his children the tremendous drive and
understanding that has been manifested down through history in the Kennedy
family. Why? Because he instituted this principle. Whether
you agree or disagree with the results, the point is that he used the
principle.
This is the same principle Moses is talking about. It doesn’t mean that you have to sit around
and read the Bible all the time; it doesn’t mean that you have to sit with the
family and today we’re going to read chapter 1, tomorrow we read chapter 2,
etc. and by next July, ho-hum, we’re in chapter 115. That’s not what he’s talking about. He’s talking about discussing things in the
light of the Word of God so that when something is discussed it’s always
discussed somewhere in the framework and context of the Word of God.
For example a problem comes up in the area of dating, a problem comes up
in the area of finances, a problem comes up in the area of a job. These problems should be discussed in the
framework of the Word of God, what does the Word of God say about it. This is what he’s talking about. So this is
one technique in which Moses ensured that this Word would be taught from
generation to generation to generation.
It would be taught in the home.
If you have some Jewish friends, study the home. It’s very interesting; you find very few
juvenile delinquents among Jewish homes.
It’s because they have preserved this principle down through the ages of
a strong home life.
The second technique that Moses used is found in Deut. 32, he made them
memorize something. Isn’t that horrible!
He actually made them memorize some Scripture, imagine that! He made them memorize a whole chapter, that’s
really terrible. In Deut. 32 he made the
nation memorize a song, a song of condemnation which scholars simply call the
Song of Moses. You see in verse 1-2 what
the general gist of the song is. This is
a Psalm, this is actually a Psalm that has been put in here and it should
really be translated in terms of poetry, it should have poetic structure to it.
“Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words
of my mouth. [2] My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as
the dew,” etc. Then verse 7, “Remember the days of old, consider the years of
many generations. Ask thy father, and he will show thee; thy elders, and they
will tell you. [8] When the Most High divided…” it’s a history; verse 8 is the
history of Gen. 10 and the dispersion after Noah and the ark. Then he develops the rise and prosperity of
Israel in verses 14-15 and he gets into the whole principle of discipline, and national
history, etc. if you go through this song.
Why did he do this? Turn to Deut.
31:14, here’s why Moses made them memorize this song. “And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thy
days approach that you must die. Call Joshua, and present yourselves in the
tabernacle of the congregation, that I may give him a charge. And Moses and Joshua went and presented
themselves…” so he gave them a charge.
And verse 16, “And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep
with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods
of the strangers of the land, to which
they go to be among them, and will forsake Me, and break My covenant which I
have made with them.”
He describes his anger in verse 17, [Then My anger shall be kindled against
them in that day, and I will forsake them….”]
Then in verse 19 is why they are to remember this song. “Now, therefore, write this song for you, and
teach it to the children of Israel; put it in their mouths, that this song may
be a witness for Me against the children of Israel. [20] For when I shall have
brought them into the land which I swore to their fathers, that flows with milk
and honey, and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxed fat, then
they will turn unto other gods, and serve them, and provoke Me, and break My
covenant. [21] And it shall come to pass, when many evils and troubles are
befallen them, that this song shall testify against them as a witness; for it
shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed. For I know their imagination which they go
about, even now, before I have brought them into the land which I swore to give
them.”
So it’s a task of memorizing Scripture. See the emphasis—Scripture,
Scripture, Scripture, Scripture, Scripture, Scripture! The Word of God, the Word of God, the Word of
God, the Word of God, the Word of God!
This does not mean that they didn’t have a leading of the Holy Spirit,
it doesn’t mean that the Holy Spirit didn’t work in their life. It didn’t mean that they a dynamic, what we
would call “spiritual life.” Yes they
did but the backbone is always the Word.
You can’t get enough of the Word of God as far as Deuteronomy is
concerned. Deut. 1:5 is the means by
which Moses is going to clarify this point.
Beginning in verse 6 we start a new section of the book. It will extend from Deut. 6 -4:49. Tonight we’re only going to take a small part
of this but let me introduce this section of the book by pointing out the
historical prologue nature; what is it, what was it designed for and what is
the counterpart in the secular treaties.
This section was designed to survey the previous relationship that the
great king had with the vassal king. These are the two parties to the covenant. You had your great king up here and you had
your vassal king down here, a few vassal kings over here and he made treaties
with these men. But before he made the
treaty he did something. He said I want
you to see how I helped you in the past. So this section has been designed to
lay the basis for the command to be loyal to the great king. In other words, these vassal kings owe it to
the great king; they owe it to the
great king.
A man who has done a lot of research on this said the following; this is
something we’ll get into again and again and I will quote it again and
again. “Covenantal love,” the word love
in Deuteronomy, is not like our word love.
For example, we think of love as very personal. That is not the way love
is meant in Deuteronomy so if you think in terms of the English word “love” you’re
not going to understand what the Law has to do with love. Love in Deuteronomy and in the Old Testament
is covenantal love which we can now understand even more fully by comparing it
with extra-Biblical texts. “Covenantal love can be commanded and is defined in
terms of loyalty, service and obedience.”
This means that the word “love” as it is going to be used in this book
is a word which is a quality of response and it can be commanded by the great
king of these vassal kings, and of course it can be commanded by the Lord, the
counterpart, and Israel.
The Lord can command this love and it is defined by the content of the
commands. In other words, objective
check: do I love the Lord? The answer is
am I keeping His commandments? Do you
see what this does? This gets rid of all
this mysticism. Some Christian comes
tripping up to you and says oh, I love Jesus, etc. and they have this great
mystical look on their face, they’ve just had this tremendous experience. This
is fine but don’t be sucked in. As far
as the Word of God is concerned any action or any relationship spiritually that
does not fit with the Word of God is apostate, no matter what label it goes
under, unless it conforms with the Word of God.
Remember in the New Testament, what did Jesus tell His disciples before
He died. He said do you love me? Then you keep My commandments. Jesus used the same thing. In other words, the commandments and the Law
actually gives the body and the content to love; they identify what love should
be like. That’s the point. We get a
little off on this when we think of law and grace, etc. with Paul. Paul was fighting a different problem; Paul
was never denying the original intent of the Law. Paul was denying an apostate
misinterpretation of the Law in his day.
He was denying Pharisaism. But
law, therefore, has been used to define love.
The vassal, the vassal king which is Israel, looks like this. Here’s time, and some time in the past, back
here, the great king, in this case God, did something for the vassal king. He expressed Himself in some way toward this
vassal king. Here’s the point in which
the treaty goes into effect, we’ll label this point T. What this great king
says at point T is: I want you to
remember back here what I did for you and since I did what I did for you back
here, you owe your allegiance to me now and forever. That’s the two way reciprocal arrangement of
these treaties. Let’s see how that works
out in the Bible.
Let’s look at Exodus 20 and you’ll see how this works out the first time
the covenant was given in Exodus 20:2, this is a key verse, this introduces the
Ten Commandments. This is the first time
the treaty went into effect and this is the original time; this was at Sinai. Watch what happens here. What’s T? Let’s figure it out. You come to Exodus 20:2, what’s T, what’s the point here? Sinai is the point. What happened before Sinai? It’s explained, verse 2, “I am the LORD thy
God,” that’s the preamble, “who have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out
of the house of bondage.” There is your
historical prologue, it’s only half a verse long in the first section of this
treaty and it’s describing what happened before the treaty went into effect. God redeemed the nation and as a result of
His redemption therefore He has the right to command.
This shows you something which a lot of Christians who have studied the
Scofield Bible have never noticed. Law
is given to a redeemed people; it is never and has never and was never intended
to be a means of salvation. Law is given
after redemption, not before it. So Law
at the very institution was never given to save anyone. The Law has nothing to do with salvation,
nothing whatever. It has to do with the
response of a nation after… after it
has been redeemed. After God has
“brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage,” then
verse 3, He begins His commandments because at that point He begins to lay down
the treaty.
Turn back to Deuteronomy and you can see the same structure. Deut. 1:1-5, what are the first five
verses? Prologue. “These are the words,” and of course here God
is not identified because Moses is the mediator, but notice, from 1:6-4:49 which
is the historical prologue which we will study, what is discussed? Read through it and you don’t see one
commandment. What is discussed here is
what God did before he lays this law into effect. Again, let’s take the diagram. Here’s the time line, here’s point T.
What is point T this
time? This is the second time the treaty
goes into effect. The point time is
Jordan. What has God done before this
treaty goes into effect? He’s brought
them from Sinai to Jordan and He does not go back before Sinai. Why?
Because that was covered by the other prologue, the first time around.
So in this historical section from 1:6-4:49 you have history, but
history only going back to Sinai and stopping at the Jordan. And it is giving God’s unmerited favor toward
this nation because you’re going to see something; you say wait a minute, that’s
not God’s unmerited favor toward Israel, after all, didn’t God promise to bring
them into the land. Yes, but they
flunked the exam. They came screeching
at forty miles an hour and all of a sudden they hit the brakes at Kadesh-Barnea
and they couldn’t do anything, they couldn’t even get out of reverse. So what happened? At that point God legally could have just
dropped them and said fine, forget it.
He did that to Moses, He said Moses, come here, get out of the way and
I’m going to cream these people, just lay them flat. So God did not have any obligation to
continue. All He had obligation was to
continue with Abraham’s seed, He could have started all over.
So the historical prologue that we’re going to examine that goes from
Sinai to Jordan is a story of God’s grace; something which most Christians have
to realize, grace is in the Law and it’s proven by this section. God did not have to restore the nation. This is a time of grace; grace before the
Commandment. Let’s quote one particular
treaty so you can see that this isn’t just something made up. I want to read you a section of a preamble, a
real preamble of a real treaty that was made between one nation and another
nation. Listen and watch the first verse
of Deuteronomy as I read this and you’ll see the formula occur. Here’s the preamble a treaty of Mursilis who
was a Hittite king with Duppi-Tessub who was an Amorite king. “These are the words of Sun Mursilis,” this
is the great king, “the great king, the king of the Hatti land, the valiant,
the favorite of the Storm-God, the son of Suppiluliumas,” etc. You can see besides having weird names these
men were very humble and they wanted to impress everyone with their great
humility. But the preamble was to over
awe, you know, I’m the hauncho around this joint, as he looks down on the
guy. This is to impress him that he
should look up. So this is the reaction
between the great king and the vassal.
Now here’s the prologue, again watch the prologue. “Since your father had mentioned to me your
name with great praise, I sought after you.”
Now watch, here’s the unmerited favor. “To be sure, you were sick and
ailing, but although you were ailing, I, the Sun-God, put you in the place of
your father and took your brothers and sisters from the Amurru land in oath for
you.” The great king is saying look what
I have done for you, now what are you going to do for me. What’s the deal? And that’s exactly the way it works in the
Law. God says I brought you out of Egypt, I brought you to Sinai. The first time around it’s in Exodus 20, God
says look, I brought you out of Egypt to Sinai, now you are here at this
mountain what are you going to do for Me; what’s going to be your response. And they said we want to serve You. Okay, fine, the institution of the Law,
that’s how you’re supposed to serve Me.
Then they break the Law at Kadesh-barnea so the Law has to be
re-instituted and we have Deuteronomy; in Deuteronomy God is gracious, He
restores the nation and He brings them once again to Jordan. He says okay, now what are you going to do, I
picked you up, you fell down flat on your face, I picked you up, now what are
you going to do. So they say okay, we’ll
serve You. Okay, fine, the Law. So that’s the story of the two tribes of
Israel. Now let’s look at the text
beginning in verse 6. We’ll work from
verses 6-18 and finish at least a third of this historical prologue.
Verse 6, “The LORD our God spoke unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt
long enough in this mount.” From verses
6-8 you have the gracious offer of God, and from verses 9-18 you have God’s
gracious provision: offer and provision.
Verses 6-8 is the offer; here’s where God says now look, I have
graciously preserved you, I could have killed you, after you got through
messing around with the Amorites at Kadesh-barnea I could have had Amalek and I
could let some of the Arab tribes that were in that area just clean you
out. Why didn’t I do that? Because I love you, because I want to
exercise grace to you. [Blank spot]
You think Jordan is upset with Israel today, what would you think if the
Israelis ran their tank corps all the way to Syria by Damascus and say sorry
pals, we own everything to the Euphrates.
You think the United Nations is a problem now what would they do if the Israelis
did that? They’re not going to do that
because they really can’t right now but out to the Euphrates River valley is
the legitimate boundary. Genesis 15:18ff
is this outline. So this is consistent
with Scripture.
Verse 8, “Behold, I have set the land before you; go in and possess the
land which the LORD swore unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give
unto them and to their seed after them.”
That verse 8 you want to look at, but don’t look at it too long because
this verse occurs 27 times in this book, over and over and over and over
again. So I suspect you will probably
memorize this verse before we’re through.
“Behold, I have set the land before you, go in and possess it,” and it
always adds the words because “the LORD swore it to your fathers.” What is the point? Why is this verse repeated? Because of God’s Word, God has promised them
something and He promised them the Abrahamic Covenant, Gen. 12:1-3. It said you will have a great people, that
was the first provision; you will have a people that will go on and perpetuate
themselves in history. The second thing,
you will have an eternal title to real estate and that real estate is defined
in Genesis 15. And the third thing, you
will be a worldwide blessing.
That’s the Abrahamic Covenant, that was given in history and God is
saying look, I am faithful to My promise, I promised you that and now it’s
going to come true. What’s one lesson
you can learn from this. One lesson you
can learn is not to be taken in by all these weirdo’s that get on some prophecy
kick and they pull something out of prophecy and they say well, we should
spiritualize this promise. Look, in the
past how did God answer promises, literally or spiritually? He answered them literally. What’s happening
here in Deuteronomy? God had laid out
this literal promise to literal land.
These people were an agricultural people; they weren’t going to survive
on an imaginary land, it was a real literal physical literal land. So God says I promised you real land, I mean
to give you real land.
What does this mean as far as you’re concerned? This means that when Jesus Christ says I am
going to come again for you physically, Jesus Christ is going to come again for
you physically. This means that we are
going to see a rapture; this means that this is not to be allegorized away and
say oh isn’t that sweet language of the New Testament. That is not scientific interpretation. Scientific interpretation always looks around
and says look, how was this answered in the past, what’s the precedent we
have. Every time prophecy was answered
in past history it was literally to the letter.
Do you realize, for example, on Palm Sunday when Christ went through
that east gate that was answer to literal prophecy… literal! He didn’t ride a jeep through the gate; he
rode an ass through the gate, just as prophecy said. He didn’t float through the gate; He went
through the gate literally and physically just as prophecy said.
And this means, as far as you’re concerned as a believer, Christ has
promised to come again for you, He has promised to rapture you and it may
tonight, tomorrow, next year, it may be after you die but Jesus Christ has
promised to come for us literally and physically and your body will literally,
physically, instantaneously be changed.
That’s the way prophecy has to be interpreted, in the context of
history. You have to go back and say how
was prophecy interpreted in the past; how did it come true in the past? It came true literally and it’s going to come
true literally in the future.
So this verse is important because it gives you one of what we call
hermeneutics, or the rules of Biblical interpretation; it gives you the rule
and this sets it up. You wonder
sometimes how do these guys from Dallas, what gives them the right to say that
we can lay out all of history? It’s
simple; all you have to do is apply the rules of interpretation. The Bible
isn’t that hard to interpret. People think
it’s so difficult, some sort of hypnotic process you have to go through to
interpret Scripture. It’s not that, it
just requires something called work. It
requires that you have to sit down and think for a little bit more than five
minutes at a time and you can interpret Scripture, but that’s work and most
people don’t like work, and most people don’t like to think. Therefore that’s
why most people don’t like to interpret Scripture.
In verses 9 and following we come to the second section. You look at that and you wonder what does
this have to do with the point? The
nation is down here at Sinai, let’s draw a map; here they are and here’s the
land up here, this is the first time they tried it, and the nation is going to
go up, straight up. So they start out
here and you start reading in verse 9 and say what does this have to do with
it? Let’s look at verse 9, “And I spoke
unto you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you myself alone. [10] The
LORD your God has multiplied you and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of
heaven for multitude.” What does that
have to do with it?
Notice again in verses 12-13, “How can I myself alone bear your
cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife? [13] Take you wise men, and
understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over
you.” What’s the point here? Of all things, why bring this up right
now? That hasn’t got anything to do with
the nation leaving Sinai. In fact,
liberals have seized upon this. You’ll
get this on the college campus today, liberals say aha, the author of Deuteronomy
didn’t know what he was doing because in verses 9ff, actually it’s a reference
to Exodus 18 and Exodus 18 occurred before they left Sinai so this poor author
was a very mixed up man and he didn’t realize what he was doing, verses 9ff
actually are out of place. So poor dumb
bell Moses who had lived through the whole thing didn’t know what he was
writing about. Well he did.
Why he put this incident in here was to demonstrate that God had already
fulfilled one of His promises. Go back
to the Abrahamic Covenant; what was one of those promises? That I will make you a great people, so
therefore to dramatize the fact that God had already kept one phase of His
covenant he said do you remember when we were back there, before we came to
Sinai, what happened? They had Jews running
all over the desert then. One was over
here, one was over here, somebody had an argument here, somebody had an
argument there and Moses was in the middle of it. And Jethro, his father-in-law came around,
and he said say Moses, how are you running the show around here? You seem to be a little busy. What Moses was doing, he was the only one
that had jurisdiction, he was the only one that had right to decide legal
disputes. Somebody had a problem over
here, some man came home and his wife hit him over the head with a rolling pin
or something, or he came home and drove through the garage and came out the
other side or something. So they have a
big dispute and everything comes to Moses, hey Moses….
Finally Jethro says look Moses, you can’t take this, these people have
gotten too big, and the issue is here, the size of the nation had grown to
where Moses as one man could no longer handle it. So beginning in verse 12 we have proof that
God fulfills His word literally and that is why this incident from Exodus 18 is
put in here, to demonstrate to you that God already has fulfilled phase one of
the Abrahamic Covenant which is “I will make you a great people.” He already has made them a great people. So in this verse we begin the proof, the
historical proof, and during this proof we get an extra blessing, because
during this proof we are going to have laid out for us principles of
organization. Verse 9, “at that time”
refers to the general time of Sinai and we have already said you want the
details on this it’s Exodus 8.
Verse 10 is a reference back to the Abrahamic Covenant. “The LORD your
God has multiplied you and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for
multitude.” Remember that word “stars of
heaven” and turn back to Gen. 15:5. We
have another principle of Bible interpretation coming up now. Notice the language, here again is the
Abrahamic Covenant of Gen. 15. “And he
brought him forth abroad, and said,” this is God saying Abraham, it’s a clear
night, ceiling visibility unlimited, you just look up there and look at those
stars and you tell the stars, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars, if
you be able to number them; and he said unto him, So shall your seed be.” In other words God is saying take a long look
at the stars and see if you can count them and therefore this is a
multitude.
Moses is referring back to this verse in Deut.1:10. He’s saying I want you to see something. The Abrahamic Covenant has already come true.
Part of the Abrahamic Covenant has not
come true. Notice three parts to the
Abrahamic Covenant and here’s a principle of Bible interpretation for Old
Testament. Their final ultimate phase
was present to them. The Millennial
Kingdom was not, repeat, Millennial Kingdom in the Old Testament was not a far
off event. You can say wait a minute, it
had to be. It was not as far as their
visibility was concerned. They saw it as
just the next generation. You have to
understand this as to why this is a great offer here. God has already filled in phase 1 of the
Abraham, great people, it’s already been provided. What’s the next thing on the step? The next thing God is going to have to do to
fulfill the Abrahamic Covenant is to make an eternal real estate; He’s going to
have to turn the real estate over to them.
This is what’s going to happen in Deuteronomy.
Therefore Moses makes a statement in verse 11, “(The LORD God of your
fathers make you a thousand times as many more as ye are, and bless you, as he
has promised you!)” To get this you have
to have a little fine point of Hebrew grammar.
The word “make a thousand times many more” is a Hebrew participle. This participle, when it is used this way in
the Hebrew language means God is in the process of doing this and may He
continue to keep doing it. In other
words, Moses has looked down and they’ve had a population explosion. Seventy people went into Egypt and all of a
sudden, two million people come out, in 400 years under slavery. Remember, these people were persecuted; they
multiplied like rabbits. That is very
rare historically where you bottle up a group, a cultural, racial, linguistic
group into a nation and subject them to slavery and all sorts of adversity and
yet they multiply. This is why, by the
way, Pharaoh had those bond women in Exodus 1; he had the midwives and he told
them to kill the male children. Why did
he do that? Pharaoh was afraid of these
people, they occupied a very strategic part of Egypt; they occupied the whole
fertile plain and they were knocking the Egyptian farmers off the land. This was just a simple economic problem to
Pharaoh.
These people were multiplying so in verse 11 Moses was saying look,
although I said in verse 10 I can’t stand in, you have gotten so big that I
can’t continue to hold you, I can’t continue to lead you, nevertheless, don’t
misinterpret my remarks, I’m not disappointed.
I’m not disappointed, I’m happy because God is accomplishing His
purpose. So he says “may God,” it’s
actually a volitional thing, “may God of your fathers continue to make you a
thousand times many more than you are,” and now we come to a second point of
grammar. The next word, “bless” is not a
participle, it is imperfect, and the imperfect tense is simply future. So what he’s saying is, here’s time, “may God
continue to multiply,” there’s your participle and here’s your imperfect tense,
it’s over here. In other words, the
blessing has not yet occurred, but may it occur.
So this verse has a lot of information with respect to the Abrahamic
Covenant. He’s saying part one of the
Abrahamic Covenant is being fulfilled: great people. The second part is about to be fulfilled,
this is a commandment in verses 6-8, that they will enter the land. And the third part which is the important
part is the spiritual blessing which will be a worldwide blessing and this is
what is future and this is what is mentioned in verse 11 by the verb
“bless.” So Moses is saying may God
bring in all complete parts of the Abrahamic Covenant. This is the way you have to picture what the
Old Testament saint looked like. You
have to picture sort of a hill with a lot of little hills and a big hill up
here. To his visibility he saw this
hill, which was the Millennial Kingdom, and he did not see all of this that you
see because you live in a later time in history. We can look back and say wait a minute, it’s
14-15 centuries between Moses and Christ alone.
The Old Testament didn’t realize this but he didn’t because of this
problem, in other words he saw the Millennial Kingdom and he did not see
intervening area. This is something to
understand now, the psychology of what’s going on here.
Verse 12 goes back to the dispute.
Why the dispute? To prove to you
how great the people have grown, to prove that the Abrahamic Covenant is
verified. If you want to apply these
truths as you go along here, it’s very simple.
All you have to do is take the corpus of promises to you as a believer.
What are some of the promises for us as believers? We know that at a certain time in history
Jesus Christ is going to rapture us, and if He doesn’t you know you’re going to
die. And you don’t know how you’re going
to die, it maybe through disease, it may be through an automobile accident, it
may be through anything, and what’s going to happen? What are some of the promises God has
literally given to you as a believer?
God has given to you literal promise that says to be absent from the
body is to be face to face with the Lord.
And this is a wonderful promise and it’s a promise that no unbeliever
can possibly have. It’s a promise that
no other philosophy can possibly give you.
These are literal promises to us so by way of application, just think of
the promises given to the Church.
Verse 12ff, you have a principle of organization, “How can I myself
alone bear your cumbrance,” which is responsibility, “and your burden, and your
strife?” And strife is the real
issue. Strife is the word in the Hebrew:
רִיב reev,
although it’s spelled rib. And rib
is a legal controversy, a lawsuit. The
lawsuit is between different parties of the Israelites.
In verse 13 we have three principles of leadership, three tremendous
principles that really summarize all the qualities any leader needs. “Take you wise men, and understanding, and
known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you.” The word “wise” here is wisdom, it emphasizes
application. This means that the person
has enough of the Word of God in his mind so he can walk into a situation and
apply the Word here, here, here, here, all over, no matter what situation he
encounters he can apply the Word of God.
That is the goal for the Christian life.
So here’s the first quality of leadership.
The second quality of leadership is a person who is
“understanding.” This word comes from bin, a word which means between
actually, and this emphasizes another aspect of leadership. No only is this person to apply the Word of
God but he is to analyze the situation, discernment. That’s a second quality and the third quality
is “known,” and the word “known” is a participle which is passive, passive
means the participle receives the action and therefore it means that this
person is known by the people whom he is supposed to lead.
These three qualities pertain to leadership. There’s no great spiritual truth about this,
this is just common sense and it applies to anything. If you’re in an organization and you want to
pick out a leader, just remember these three points; you’ve got it all in verse
13. You have to have someone who first
of all knows something and can apply it; you have to have an ability to analyze
a situation and you have to have a person who is known by the people he is
going to lead. Unfortunately we have
believers in certain Christian organizations today that don’t have part one and
part two; they don’t have wisdom. Do you
know why I can tell some believers don’t have wisdom? If you go to a conference or you go to a
group and you watch the attitude the people have when the Word of God is
mentioned. They are so sound asleep that
I think if an earthquake hit they probably would fall in the crack before
they’d wake up. You should have your wits about you whatever Christian group
you’re in; don’t think because a group has a national reputation that the local
chapter is all it’s made out to be. You
watch the group very carefully. “…wise
men, discerning, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over
you.” [14] “And ye answered me, and
said, The thing which thou hast spoken is goof for us to do.”
Verse 15, here’s the structure and you ask why, why has he done this
particular type of structure? Why the
tens, thousands, etc. Later on in the
book of Deuteronomy in chapter 16 he’s going to change this. The reason he develops it down into units,
here’s a thousand, here’s a hundred, here’s fifty and here’s ten, is because
these are the marching units in the desert.
There are battalions, regiments, etc. as they march through the desert
and he’s simply saying that with each unit, with unit commander, with each
group of leaders, with them I want a deputy judge, I want a man qualified to
decide the legal dispute so you’ll have a legal officer with each marching
unit. This is why it’s broken down this
way. [15, “So I took the heads of your
tribes wise men, and known, and made them heads over you, captains over
thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains
over tens, and officers among your tribes.”
Verse 16, “And I charged your judges at that time,” these are the deputy
judges, they are not the normal judge, they are the assistant judges to
Moses. Here’s what we have; we have God
as King over the nation. We have the
Law, we have the nation, and we had Moses, he was the only mediator between the
Law and the nation. Now what we have is
a super structure, and that super structure is called shoterim, and the shoterim
are the deputy judges and have the ability to decide legal controversies. You’re going to see some very interesting
things as we go through this legal controversy when you compare it with our
modern court system. “Hear the causes
between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother,
and the stranger who is with him.” It’s
important to remember that the Law of the Old Testament is the only, repeat, is
the ONLY section of legislation in the ancient world which was truly
classless. It did not recognize or favor
one class above another class.
I just got through reading the Code of Hammurabi again because I wanted
to see if it had any of the same terms that this has in it and it’s
interesting. The Code of Hammurabi which
was discovered around 1906 and it dates from 1700 BC, before Moses time. We have one of the copies of this Code of
Hammurabi, it’s a long steely, it’s about six feet tall, it’s in the Louvre in
Paris and this is probably the original copy that Hammurabi cut, and on this
great long steely is all these laws. And
this, by the way, proves that Moses could have written the Law Code when he did
in ancient history. But this particular Code of Hammurabi has three
classes. It has the nobles, it has the
normal citizens and the slaves, and each class had a different set of
legislation.
Now you come to the Bible and there are two classes, but they are not
structured on economics. The classless
society is truly existent in the Old Testament.
There is no class as far as legislation is concerned. Everyone as far as
God is concerned in the Old Testament is on the same plain and you can do with
your life as you want to do with your life but everyone starts out under the
law as perfectly equal, and that is mentioned, the word “stranger.” The word “stranger” means a resident
alien. This means a man from another
country who is living inside the land.
He is treated differently for one reason, and this involves one of the
most fantastic systems of freedom that the political world has ever seen.
Freedom in ancient Israel depended upon you owning a piece of land. Every Jew had his own plot of land and could
never sell it, never! No matter how
deeply in debt you went you could never lose your land; you had title to that
forever, your family had title to that forever.
This is why when a woman was childless it was such a great crime because
if she went childless and there was no son to carry the name they lost the
land. That was the only way you could
lose your land, and by the way, when each person had his land he had economic
security. That is how you had a national
welfare system going in the nation which was founded on land. God gave everyone equal land and they could
not sell it. It was God’s gift to each
one of them. They could buy and make money on the land, etc. and you had some
people rich, some people poor, but there was, you might say a basement on how
low a person could get. He could never
lose his land except if his wife did not have a child, a male child to carry
the name. This is why they had levirate
marriage in the Old Testament. So this
was the system.
In order to have the land, in order to have economic security, you had
to be a physical Jew; you had to have the genes of Abraham. If you were a resident alien you didn’t have
the genes of Abraham, you were a Gentile and although you may sympathize with
the nation, you could not own any of this land; as far as you’re concerned this
was a closed option. So the resident
alien could not have his economic security.
There are three classes in the prophets you hear crying about. They say respect the widow, the childless and
the stranger. You say why is this always
in prophecy, why are the prophets crying for this; you might say the cry for
social justice which was a cry, not for social justice in our terms but a cry
for legal law enforcement. They said
look, enforce the law for these people particularly because if these people
lose out they haven’t got a plot of land to go back to. If these people lose out they haven’t got a
home, they haven’t got money, they are completely down in the dumps without
anything; no security for them. So a
woman who was a widow who had no husband and a child who had no parents and a
resident alien were three classes of people in the nation who did not have
economic security and therefore they were especially protected by the Law.
So, “judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the
stranger that is with him.” In the Code
of Hammurabi I didn’t see any mention of strangers, so evidently in the Code of
Hammurabi you’ve got three classes of people and they could care less who you
were, where you were from. The
difference in Israel was that you were a Jew and that set you off; it was a
physical nation, a holy priesthood.
Verse 17, “Ye shall not respect persons in judgment, but ye shall hear
the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man,” and
here’s the important principle that distinguishes Old Testament law from our
law, “for the judgment is God’s; and the cause that is too hard for you, bring
it unto me, and I will hear it.” There
are two principles here. The first one
is an important feature of the Old Testament Law. In the Old Testament if you committed a crime
and went out here on the street and shot someone that was not considered a
crime against the person you shot. It
was a crime against God. God laid out
the Law so God was the object, and if you murdered someone you murdered across
God’s commandment. That’s the image of
the Law. In the Old Testament the crime
is not considered against the person who is affected, although obviously it
is. The main intent is against God who
made the Law. You can see this by
reading Psalm 51:4, David confesses his sin and he says I committed adultery
with Bathsheba, I killed her husband, Uriah, and yet God, against You and You
alone have I sinned. Why, someone could
say David, you committed adultery with this man’s wife, you killed the man
afterwards, do you mean that isn’t crime.
David said “Against You and You alone I have committed this.”
Therefore in the Old Testament crime is against the God who made the
Law. Crime is against the legislative branch of government. In our day what’s the difference. Here you have the criminal, here you have the
person who’s whammed over the head with something, some guy comes along with a chain
and lets him have it, so here he is. The
crime in our society is against this person.
Why? Because our laws are built
by these people. These are
citizens. The State of Texas has a
legislative branch, etc. and you people elect, so you’ve got this body up here
and they make the law, the legislative branch of the government. But not in the Old Testament, the law was
absolute in the Old Testament. This is
different in our society laws are not absolute and this is the great problem. You say, well I think we should have such and
such a law and I think we should have a law over here, etc. Why?
Because law is relative to the needs of the people. But in the Old Testament it wasn’t that, you
didn’t come up and say hey God, would you add an 11th commandment
please. God laid out the commandments
and this was absolute truth, period.
Therefore in the Old Testament the concept of judgment is God’s. This creates a tremendous thing. You don’t have to argue about whether you
should have a law passed; the Law was already passed. God passed it so no arguments. You didn’t have to have a Congress, didn’t
have to have a House of Representatives, no Senate; no legislative branch in
the government of Israel.
The second thing to notice here is a very important system of court
appeals. “If the cause is too hard for
you, bring it to me.” This was the
appeals system, they did not appeal the case.
If you had a person and he was tried in the lower court, and the courts
couldn’t come to a decision, only if the court could not come to a decision,
only then would they appeal it. Suppose
you were involved in a case, you went out and got yourself in trouble and
you’re in court, and you would not do the appealing under the Old
Testament. Do you know who would do the
appealing? The judge. Here’s the lower court, and here’s the
judge. This guy is going to be the man
who is deciding the case, but he can’t decide the case, it’s complicated. So he says okay, time out, I’m going to go
over to Jerusalem to the high court and the appeal system under the Old
Testament was the judge went up here and he didn’t do it to stall for time like
we do. They didn’t have that delaying
system in the Old Testament. If the
judge couldn’t decide immediately he went somewhere and got an opinion that he
could decide.
The key word to remember about justice in the Old Testament is a little
word we don’t know today; it was “swift.”
You didn’t have appeal, someone didn’t come along and say oh, the policeman
that arrested me didn’t read the warrant correctly, he read it in Latin instead
of English so therefore I should go and appeal, etc. So we have Boston Stranglers running around
because someone goofed when they arrested him.
We have built into the system in our nation today a delay system that is
not any part of the judicial problem of the Old Testament. Next time we’re going to get into something
about the giants and the Anakim. We’re
going to see one of the greatest failures in the history of believers and maybe
we can see some analogies of our own life and how to prevent it.
--------------------------------------------
Treaty Between Mursilis And Duppi-Tessub Of Amurru Texts:
Akkadian version: KUB, III, 14. Hittite version: KBo v, g; KUB,
111, 119; KUB, XIV ,5; KUB, XIX,
Preamble
I. These are the
words of the Sun[1]
Mursilis, the great king, the king of the Hatti land, the valiant, the favorite
of the Storm- god, the son of Suppiluliumas, the great king, the king of the
Hatti land, the valiant.
Historical Introduction
2. Aziras[2]
was the grandfather of you, Duppi- Tessub. He rebelled against my father, but
submitted again to my father. When the kings of Nuhassi land[3]
and the kings of Kinza[4]
rebelled against my father, Aziras did not rebel. As he was bound by treaty, he
remained bound by treaty. As my father fought against his enemies, in the same
manner fought Aziras. Aziras remained loyal toward my father [as his overlord]
and did not incite my father's anger. My father was loyal toward Aziras and his
country; he did not undertake any unjust action against him or incite his or
his country's anger in any way. 300 (shekels of) refined and first- class gold,
the tribute which my father had imposed upon your father, he brought year for
year; he never refused it.
3. When my
father became god [5]
and I seated myself on the throne of my father, Aziras behaved toward me just as
he had behaved toward my father. It happened that the Nuhassi kings and the
king of Kinza rebelled a second time against me. But Aziras, your grandfather,
and DU- Tessub,[6]
your father, [did not take their side]; they remained loyal to me as their
lord. [When he grew too old] and could no longer go to war and fight, DU-Tessub
fought against the enemy with the foot soldiers and the charioteers of the
Amurru land just as he had fought with foot soldiers and charioteers against
the enemy. And the Sun destroyed them.
(gap in which
the reign of DU-Tessub was dealt with)
6*.(DU-Tessub
recommends his son as his successor:) " [ . . . When I die, accept my son]
Duppi-Tessub as your vassal."
7*. When your
father died, in accordance with your father's word I did not drop you. Since
your father had mentioned to me your name with great praise, I sought after
you. To be sure, you were sick and ailing, but although you were ailing, I, the
Sun, put you in the place of your father and took your brothers (and) sisters
and the Amurru land in oath for you.
Future Relations
of the Two Countries
8*. When I, the
Sun, sought after you in accordance with your father's word and put you in your
father's place, I took you in oath for the king of the Hatti land, the Hatti
land, and for my sons and grandsons. So honor the oath (of loyalty) to the king
and the king's king And I, the king, will be loyal toward you, Duppi- Tessub. When
you take a wife, and when you beget an heir, he shall be king in the Amurru
land likewise. And just as I shall be loyal toward you, even so shall I be
loyal toward your son. But you, Duppi-Tessub, remain loyal toward the king of
the Hatti land, the Hatti land, my sons (and) my grandsons forever! The tribute
which was imposed upon your grandfather and your father— they presented 300
shekels of good, refined first-class gold weighed with standard weights—you
shall present them likewise. Do not turn your eyes to anyone else! Your fathers
presented tribute to Egypt; you [shall not do that!]
(gap)
Military Clauses
9**.[7]
[With my friend you shall be friend, and with my enemy you shall be enemy. If
the king of the Hatti land is either in the Hurri land,[8]
or in the land of Egypt, or in the country of Astata[9]
or in the country of Alset[10]—any
country contiguous to the territory of your country that is friendly with the
king of the Hatti land— (or in) any country contiguous to the territory of your
country that is friendly with the king of the Hatti land— (as) the country of
Mukis,[11]
the country of Halba [l2] (and)
the country of Kinza[l3]—but
turns around and becomes inimical toward the king of the Hatti land while the
king of the Hatti land is on a marauding campaign—if then you, Duppi-Tessub, do
not remain loyal together with your foot soldiers and your charioteers and if
you do not fight wholeheartedly; or if I should send out a prince (or) a high
officer with foot soldiers and charioteers to re-enforce you, Duppi- Tessub,
(for the purpose of) going out to maraud in an]other c[ountry—if then you,
Duppi-Tessub, do not fight wholehea]rtedly (that) enemy with [your army and
your charioteers] and speak as follows: "I am under an oath of loyalty,
but [how am I to know] whether they will beat the enemy, or the enemy will beat
them?"; or if you even send a man to that enemy and inform him as follows:
"An army and charioteers of the Hatti land are on their way; be on your
guard!"—(if you do such things) you act in disregard of your oath.
10**. As I, the
Sun, am loyal toward you, do you extend military help to the Sun and the Hatti
land. If an evil rumor originates in the Hatti land that someone is to rise in
revolt against the Sun and you hear it, leave with your foot soldiers and your
charioteers and go immediately to the aid of the king of the Hatti land! But if
you are not able to leave yourself, dispatch either your son or your brother
together with your foot soldiers (and) your charioteers to the aid of the king
of the Hatti land! If you do not dispatch your son (or) your brother with your
foot soldiers (and) your charioteers to the aid of the king of the Hatti land,
you act in disregard of the gods of the oath.
11**. If anyone
should press you hard, Duppi-Tessub, or (if) anyone should revolt against you,
(if) you then write to the king of the Hatti land, and the king of the Hatti
land dispatches foot soldiers and charioteers to your aid—(if you treat them in
an unfair manner [14],
you act in disregard of the gods of the oath.
12**. If they
take Hittites—foot soldiers and charioteers—through Duppi-Tessub's territory
and Duppi-Tessub provides them while passing through (his) towns with food and
drink—(if that army) engages in any misconduct—pilfering in his country or his
towns or in an attempt at deposing Duppi-Tessub from his kingship—it acts in
disregard of the oath.
Dealings with
Foreigners etc.
13**. If anyone
of the deportees from the Nuhassi land or of the deportees from the country of
Kinza whom my father removed and myself removed escapes and comes to you, (if)
you do not seize him and turn him back to the king of the Hatti land, and even
tell him as follows: "Go! Where you are going to, I do not want to
know," you act in disregard of your oath.
14**. If anyone
utters words unfriendly toward the king of the Hatti land before you,
Duppi-Tessub, you shall not withhold his name from the king. Or if the Sun
(iii) gives you an order in secrecy (saying): "Do this or that!" (if)
that order cannot be executed, petition about it on the spot (stating):
"This order I cannot execute and will not execute" and the king will reconsider
it then and there. But if you do not execute an order which can (well) be
executed and deceive the king, or (if) you do not keep to yourself the word
which the king told you in secrecy, you act in disregard of the oath.
15**. If a
country or a fugitive takes to the road and while betaking themselves to the
Hatti land pass through your territory, put them on the right way, show them
the way to the Hatti land and speak friendly words to them! Do not send them to
anyone else If you do not put them on the right way, (if) you do not guide them
on the right way to the Hatti land, but direct them into the mountains or speak
unfriendly words before them, you act in disregard of the oath.
16**. Or if the
king of the Hatti land is getting the better of a country and puts them to
flight, and they come to your country, if then you desire to take anything from
them, ask the king of the Hatti land for it You shall not take it on your own
If you lay hand on it by yourself or conceal it, (you act in disregard of the
oath).
I7**..
Furthermore, if a fugitive comes to your country, seize him ! . . .
(gap)
Invocation of
the Gods [15]
18**. [The
Sun-god of Heaven, the Sun-goddess of Arinna, the Storm-god of Heaven, the
Hattian Storm-god, Seris (and) Hurris[16]
Mount Nanni (and) Mount Hazzi,[17]
the Storm-god of [ . . . ], the Storm-god of Halab, the Storm-god of
Zippalanda, the Storm-god of Nerik, the Storm-god of Lihzina, the Storm-god of
Hissashapa, the Storm-god of Sabina, the Storm-god of Tahaya, the Storm-god of
Bettiyarik, the Storm-god of Samuha, the Storm-god of Hurma, the Storm-god of
Saressa, the Storm-god of . . ., the Storm-god of Uda, the Storm- god of
Kizzuwatna, the Storm-god of Ishupitta, the Storm-god of Nuhassi;
the Patron-god,
the Hattian Patron-god, Zithariyas, Hapantalliyas, the Patron-god of Karahna,
the Patron-god of the shield, Ea, Allatum, Telepinus of Durmitta, Telepinus of
Tawiniya, Telepinus of Hanhana, Ishtar the Mighty, Askasepas;
Sin, lord of the
oath, Ishara, queen of the oath, Hebat, queen of heaven, Ishtar, Ishtar of the
battlefield, Ishtar of Nineveh, Ishtar of Hattarina, Ninatta (and) ] Kulitta,
the Hattian Warrior-god, the Warrior-god of Ellaya, the Warrior- god of Arziya,
Yarris, Zampanas;
Hantidassus of
Hurma, Abaras of Samuhas, Katahhas of Ankuwa, the Queen of Katapa, Ammammas of
Tahurpa, Hallaras of Dunna, Huwassanas of Hupisna, Tapisuwa of Ishupitta, the
"Lady" of Landa, Kunniyawannis of Landa, NIN.PISAN.PISAN of Kinza,
Mount Lablana,[18]
Mount Sariyana,[19]
Mount Pisaisa, the Lulahhi gods (and) the Hapiri[20]
gods, Ereskigal, the gods and goddesses of the Hatti land, the gods and
goddesses of Amurru land, all the olden gods, Naras, Napsaras, Minki, Tuhusi,
Ammunki, Ammizadu, Allalu, Anu, Antu, Apantu, Ellil, Ninlil, the mountains, the
rivers, the springs, the great Sea, heaven and earth, the winds (and) the
clouds—let these be witnesses to this treaty and to the oath.
Curses and
Blessings
20**. The words
of the treaty and the oath that are inscribed on this tablet—should Duppi-Tessub
not honor these words of the treaty and the oath, may these gods of the oath
destroy Duppi-Tessub together with his person, his wife, his son, his grandson,
his house, his land and together with everything that he owns.
21**. But if
Duppi-Tessub honors these words of the treaty and the oath that are inscribed
on this tablet, may these gods of the oath protect him together with his
person, his wife, his son, his grandson, his house (and) his country.
[1] Sun
is the tide with which the Hittite king is addressed.
[2] The king of Amurru who is well known from the Amarna
letters.
[3] The region between Halba (
[4] Qadesh on the
[5] i.e. died.
[6] The first part of the name is an ideogram, the Hurrian
pronunciation of which is not known; in this case even the meaning of the
ideogram is obscure.
[7] The bracketed first part of the section is here restored
from the treaty between Mursilis and Tette of Nuhassi (KBo, 1, 4 etc. in
Akkadian, translated by Weidner, loc. cit., 58 ff.). It is possible that not
all the geographical names were the same here.
[8] Upper
[9] The region at the bend of the
[10] The region on the upper
[11] Its capital is Alalha, the ancient name of Atchana (Tell
Acana) east of
[12]
[13] Qadesh on the
[14] Inadvertently omitted by the scribe.
[15] The bracketed part is again taken from the treaty with
Tette of Nuhassi, see n.7.
[16] The two bulls of the Storm-god.
[17] Mons Casius near
[18] The
[19] The Hermon.
[20] Much discussed in connection with the question as to
whether the Hapiru (widely quoted as Habiru), who are ubiquitous in cuneiform
texts of the tunes, are to be equated with the Hebrews.