Law of Love (Beth Moore)

Here are the words for the fill-in-the-blanks in our Beth Moore “The Law of Love” women’s Bible study!

meeting #1

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1. Our hope is to discover the Book of Deuteronomy in a way that is dramatically consequential.

Write these words in your Bible margin near the beginning of Deuteronomy:
Horeb = Sinai

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2. The name “Deuteronomy” developed for the book when the Old Testament was translated into Greek. The Greek word means “the second law.”

3. The Hebrew name for the 5th Book of the Pentateuch is much more indicative of its contents: (see v.1) The Hebrew “devarim” translates “words.” (Eleh ha-devarim)

Homework:
Read the article on p. 6 – 11 of our workbooks, “First Matters: Introduction to the Book of Deuteronomy” by Melissa Moore Fitzpatrick.

meeting #2

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4. Glance ahead long enough to establish a theme: He brought us out that He might bring us in.

5. Lock in on Deuteronomy 1:8. A key word in Deuteronomy is “see.” One of our major goals in this series will be to regain our vision.

6. Glance ahead to Deuteronomy 31:9 – 13. This book was to be read to all the people – “men, women and little ones, and the sojourner” – “at the set time in the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles / Booths.”

Homework:
Read the first three chapters of Deuteronomy in your favorite translation of the Bible. Here are some great online Bible tools if you’d like to explore a translation that you don’t have access to Bible Hub and Bible Gateway. Also, let’s memorize our theme verse, Deuteronomy 6:23.

meeting #3

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PART ONE: Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Known to Jewish tradition as the Shema. (Named after the first word of v. 4, the imperative of the verb sama, “to hear”)

The Jewish Study Bible translation of Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.” (p. 379)

* The order of the segment is critically important: the loving drives the living.

* Both the loving and the living are meant to be theocentrically invasive.

Homework:
Read the article on p. 16 – 20 of our workbooks, “A God So Near” by Melissa Moore Fitzpatrick.

Read Deuteronomy chapters 4, 5, & 6 in your favorite translation of the Bible. Here are some great online Bible tools if you’d like to explore a translation that you don’t have access to Bible Hub and Bible Gateway. Also, let’s memorize our theme verse, Deuteronomy 6:23.

meeting #4

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PART TWO: Deuteronomy 7:7-9

It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his (A) love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD (B) loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast (C) love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations. (ESV)

(A) v.7 “the LORD set his love” – Hebrew “hasaq” – “love, desire, bind, bound” (Holladay, W. L., Kohler, L., & Baumgartner, W. 1971. A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, p. 120); “has the sense of joining together, adhering to, cleaving.” (Key Word Study Bible OT-Lexical Aids, #3137) Sometimes referred to as “a tethered love.” (Max Lucado 3:16 The Numbers of Hope)

Dr. Walter Brueggemann – “The verb (hasaq) bespeaks a strong emotional attachment that runs beyond any reasonable, explicable act. YHWH made a leap of love in committing to Israel.” p. 96

Used in Isaiah 38:17 – Literally “thou hast loved my soul out of the pit” (Enhanced Brown Driver Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, pgs. 365-366)

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(B) v.8 “it is because the LORD loves you” – Hebrew “ahab” – love, delight. Wide range of meanings, one of which is the love of a parent toward a child.

(C) v.9 “God who keeps covenant and steadfast love” – Hebrew “hesed” – covenant faithfulness and kindness; LOYALTY

Hasaq: Love with emphasis on the emotion. Hesed: love with emphasis on the devotion.

Write two concluding phrases beside headings of Part One (p. 12) “We love . . .” and Part Two (p. 13) “. . . because He first loved us”.

Homework:

Here is a youtube link to that beautiful hymn, “O Love, That Will Not Let Me Go” penned in 5 minutes by blind preacher George Matheson. Moves me to tears every time . . . this is a particularly beautiful rendition.

Our homework this week is to read Deuteronomy chapters 7, 8, & 9 in your favorite translation of the Bible. Here are some great online Bible tools if you’d like to explore a translation that you don’t have access to Bible Hub and Bible Gateway. Also, let’s memorize our theme verse, Deuteronomy 6:23.

meeting #5

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PART ONE: How to Sing a “Song of the good land.”
(Deuteronomy 8:7-10)

For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. (ESV)

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Consider 1 Corinthians 1:4-7 out of The NET Bible.

Perhaps we could call this the “Sign of a Good Land.”

“I always thank my God for you because of the grace of God that was given to you in Christ Jesus. For you were made rich in every way in Him, in all your speech and in every kind of knowledge – just as the testimony about Christ has been confirmed among you – so that you do not lack any spiritual gift as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Contrast the phrase “fed you with manna” in v.3 with “a land of wheat” in v.8.

Excerpt from the JPS Torah Commentary concerning v.3: “According to Exodus, the term means essentially ‘whatch ‘macallit.’ The Israelites called it this because when they first saw it they asked, ‘what is it?’ (see Exod. 16:15, 31). The very name thus expresses its unprecedented character.”

Homework:
Read the article on p. 24 – 29 of our workbooks, “For Our Good Always” by Melissa Moore Fitzpatrick.

Read Deuteronomy chapters 10, 11, 12, & 13 in your favorite translation of the Bible. Here are some great online Bible tools if you’d like to explore a translation that you don’t have access to – Bible Hub and Bible Gateway. Also, let’s memorize our theme verse, Deuteronomy 6:23.

meeting #6

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PART TWO: How to Have a Bad Time in a Good Land

v. 2 “And you shall remember . . .”
v. 11 “Take care lest you forget . . .”
v. 14 “then your heart be lifted up, and you forget . . .”
v. 18 – “You shall remember . . .”
v. 19 “And if you forget . . .”

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Jeremiah 22:21 “I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, ‘I will not listen.'”

How to “Take Care” (v.11) of Yourself, Deuteronomy-style:
A. (v.2) Remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you.
B. Learn to appreciate a good humbling. (v.16)
C. (v.10) Every single time you feel satisfied, bless the LORD your God.

Homework:
Read Deuteronomy chapters 14, 15, 16, & 17 in your favorite translation of the Bible. Here are some great online Bible tools if you’d like to explore a translation that you don’t have access to – Bible Hub and Bible Gateway. Also, let’s memorize our theme verse, Deuteronomy 6:23.

meeting #7

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Introduction:
Deuteronomy 12:1 includes a portion of the book that marches across every page until it comes to its powerful closure in 26:15: “These are the statutes and rules . . .” We will sample the first course and the last course of the segment as a way of tasting the contents in between.

PART ONE: Deuteronomy 12

* In God’s Deuteronomy-economy, a meal is more than eating.
* In God’s Deuteronomy-economy, to be mindful and thankful is to be joyful.

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Seven times within the “statutes and rules” we find the words “you shall rejoice.” (Deuteronomy 12:7, Deuteronomy 12:12, Deuteronomy 12:18, Deuteronomy 14:26, Deuteronomy 16:11, Deuteronomy 16:14, and Deuteronomy 26:11)

* Glance down at verses 20-27. In God’s Deuteronomy-economy, the most prominent prohibition at the table was the blood.

Homework:
Read the article on p. 34 – 39 of our workbooks, “The Way of the Lord” by Melissa Moore Fitzpatrick.

Read Deuteronomy chapters 18, 19, 20, & 21 in your favorite translation of the Bible. Here are some great online Bible tools if you’d like to explore a translation that you don’t have access to Bible Hub and Bible Gateway. Also, let’s memorize our theme verse, Deuteronomy 6:23.

meeting #8

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PART TWO: Deuteronomy 26

* The basket: vv.1-4

* The response: vv.5-11. Excerpt by Dr. Walter Brueggemann: “The rhetoric works so that the speaker who is a belated rememberer of an old event becomes a present-tense participant in that old event. In ‘liturgical time,’ the gap between past time and present time is overcome, and present-tense characters become involved in remembered events.” (Deuteronomy, p.247) The segment in verses 5-10 “lines out Israel’s most treasured memory that decisively defines Israel’s present-tense life.” (p.246)

* The poor-tithe: vv.12-15 (also called the 3rd Year Tithe)

As we start wrapping up our lesson, take a careful look at the cohesion of these 15 chapters by comparing Deuteronomy 26:16 back to Deuteronomy 12:1. In conclusion, reflect on the exchange of words in Deuteronomy 26:17-19.

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“Faith is not the clinging to a shrine but an endless pilgrimage of the heart. Audacious longings, burning songs, daring thoughts, an impulse overwhelming the heart, usurping the mind – these are all a drive towards serving Him who rings our hearts like a bell.”
[Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion, p.174]

Homework:
Read Deuteronomy chapters 22, 23, 24, & 25 in your favorite translation of the Bible. Here are some great online Bible tools if you’d like to explore a translation that you don’t have access to – Bible Hub and Bible Gateway. Also, let’s memorize our theme verse, Deuteronomy 6:23.

meeting #9

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PART ONE: An Overview of Deuteronomy 27:11-28:14

Ceremony on the mountainsides: Blessings from Mount Gerizim and curses from Mount Ebal. (Fulfillment: Joshua 8:30-35)

Consider Deuteronomy 27:15-26. The 12 tribes were divided in half and there were to be 12 curses recited and 12 “Amens” in response.

Focus on Deuteronomy 27:26 and compare Galatians 3:10-14.

“Redeem” – Greek “exagorazo” – “to buy out of slavery”
(The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 10, p.460)

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Read the blessings for obedience in Deuteronomy 28:1-14.
Consider several New Testament parallels . . .
An important unraveling of the parallel: See v.13.

Homework:
Read the article on p. 44 – 52 of our workbooks, “The Heart of the Matter” by Melissa Moore Fitzpatrick.

Read Deuteronomy chapters 26, 27, & 28 in your favorite translation of the Bible. Here are some great online Bible tools if you’d like to explore a translation that you don’t have access to Bible Hub and Bible Gateway. Also, let’s memorize our theme verse, Deuteronomy 6:23.

meeting #10

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Scan your eyes over Deuteronomy 28:15-68. We can taste the bitter consequences of their disobedience in three primary descriptions:

* Deuteronomy 28:23 – Drastically decreased fruitfulness.

* Deuteronomy 28:25 – defeat
(compare v.36-37 – “And you shall become . . . a proverb”

* Deuteronomy 28:66-67 – (spiritually induced) depression

The removal of the “curse of the law” does not equal the removal of divine discipline.

I’ve been told that when the pain of holding on becomes greater than the fear of letting go, THAT is when we become willing to give up the . . . (whatever mine is).” (Gay Tuttle)

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PART TWO: An Overview of Deuteronomy 30

“The intricate grammar of verses 1-10 suggests a glad, unrestrained, uncalculating mutuality of two parties, YHWH and Israel, who are glad to be back together after the hiatus of exile. They are eager to make the new relationship work. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, (Deuteronomy, p.269)

Deuteronomy 30:19 – Few human capacities reflect the image of God more flagrantly than the ability to choose. (2 Timothy 3:6)

Authentic godliness and abundant life does not come to what Scripture terms weak-willed women.

Homework:
Read Deuteronomy chapters 29, 30, & 31 in your favorite translation of the Bible. Here are some great online Bible tools if you’d like to explore a translation that you don’t have access to Bible Hub and Bible Gateway. Also, let’s memorize our theme verse, Deuteronomy 6:23.

meeting #11

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PART ONE: The Concluding Words of Moses

Read Deuteronomy 33:26-29.

v.26 Jeshurun is a term of affection or “pet name for Israel.” (Brueggemann, Deuteronomy, p.285) It is derived from the Hebrew verb “yashar,” meaning “be upright.” (The NET Bible First Edition Notes, 33:26) (“Righteous Israel”)

v.26 “who rides through the heavens to your help” Consider some of the ramifications of this specific word . . .

v.27 – “dwelling” – Hebrew “me’onah” – Compare Psalm 90:1-2.

vv.26,29 Because there is no other god like our God, there is no other people like His people.

Homework:
Read the article on p. 56 – 61 of our workbooks, “The Song of Moses” by Melissa Moore Fitzpatrick.

Read Deuteronomy chapters 32, 33, & 34 in your favorite translation of the Bible. Here are some great online Bible tools if you’d like to explore a translation that you don’t have access to Bible Hub and Bible Gateway. Also, let’s memorize our theme verse, Deuteronomy 6:23.

meeting #12

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PART TWO: The Concluding Words About Moses

Read Deuteronomy 34:1-4 then 5-12.

v.5a “So Moses the servant of the LORD . . .” According to Dr. J. H. Tigay, “As a title, ‘eved YHVH means ‘the LORD’s minister'”
(The JPS Torah Commentary, p.337)

The Jewish Study Bible translation of Deuteronomy 34:5 “So Moses the servant of the LORD died there, in the land of Moab, at the command of the LORD.” (p.449)

Dr. J. H. Tigay writes, “‘He died at God’s command, not from old age or illness’ (see v.7) . . . Since it means literally ‘He died at God’s mouth,’ it was interpreted midrashically to mean that Moses died at a kiss from God. Hence the Hebrew idiom mitat neshikah, ‘death by a kiss,’ meaning sudden, painless death in old age.”
(The JPS Torah Commentary p.338)

v.6 “but he buried him in the valley . . . but no one knows the place” Compare Jude 9.

Compare verses 9 and 11. Successive leaders are often purposed by God to be very different people with very different strengths .

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v.10 The Jewish Study Bible translation: “Never again did there arise in Israel a prophet like Moses – whom the LORD singled out, face to face.” (p.450)
(Contrast Deuteronomy 18:18)