In his sermon, 'The Theology of the Family in the Law of Moses,' Jason Dohm explores the significance of the Pentateuch, especially the laws given by Moses, concerning family dynamics. He emphasizes that while preparing for a conference, he was profoundly impacted by the depth of these laws, prompting him to share his insights with his congregation. Dohm describes how the Ten Commandments and various family laws in the Pentateuch reflect God's purpose for marriage, family, and the transmission of faith. He outlines four main headings in his sermon: the theology of the family in the Ten Commandments, six types of laws regulating family, contemporary attacks on these biblical principles, and closing thoughts on the beauty and significance of these laws. Dohm stresses the importance of understanding the generational impact of worship, the structure and authority within the family, and the transmission of God's commandments. He also addresses contemporary challenges to these biblical truths, such as the separation of parents and children and the attack on gender roles. Dohm concludes by asserting the importance of trusting Jesus and recognizing that He has perfectly fulfilled the law on behalf of believers, allowing them to live without fear while honoring God's truth.

So this is not our normal pattern. Our normal pattern is to take the next text in a book that we've embarked on studying. And so why are we breaking from it and not being in Ephesians? Well, one of the reasons is very practical. I was getting ready for the conference and putting an exposition of Ephesians on top of that would have been very problematic.

So one of them is surely practical. The other is this. When I work on conference messages, I work over a period of time. In this case, it was kind of little by little over a period of a couple of months. I get affected by it.

I'm impacted by the preparations and then the preaching of it. And I want to bring us all along with it. Most people aren't able to come to the conference. And so I don't want to be so impacted by the preparations and the preaching of something and then have it not, you know, hit our radar as a church as well. So I'm glad to have the opportunity to to repreach this.

I trust you get a better version than they got in in Asheville. The title of the sermon this morning is The Theology of the Family in the Law of Moses. So Moses wrote the Pentateuch, Penta, five, five books, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. There's a lot of history in that. I won't touch on the history today.

I did a second message at the conference on that, so it's sort of another thing for another day. But it obviously has a lot, the law of God is in these five books that Moses gave us. It's often called the law of Moses. Even scripture calls it the law of Moses. So you have all these laws, and there's a lot of family, marriage and family law in there.

So I'm going to be drawing out of that. Before what we just read, before Exodus chapter 20, before Mount Sinai, God coming down and giving the law to Moses, we don't know very much at all about how much the people of God knew. You only know that really from the histories leading up to Exodus 20. You don't know how much they knew or how they knew it or how it was transmitted. With Exodus 20, with Mount Sinai, with the giving of the law, that all becomes crystal clear.

Why? Because the law was a body of written revelation. We don't know how they got it before Exodus 20, but we know they got it in writing. It came into writing. It became a body of written revelation in Exodus 20, which includes instructions for transmission.

So then we knew exactly how they transmitted it because God was commanding them to do things to pass the faith among themselves and to the next generation. So this represents a giant leap forward in redemptive history. How has God worked through the years, the decades, the centuries, the millennia in order to save sinners and not leave us in a hopeless state? Well, he did this leading up to Jesus Christ's coming. And Exodus 20, Mount Sinai represents a giant leap forward in redemptive history because the pictures of Jesus, these types and shadows which point forward to the coming of a Savior are all over the law.

Jesus is the fulfillment of the law both in his perfect keeping of the law, but also in being the fulfillment of these prophetic pictures of the lamb who was slain before the foundations of the world. So the giving of the law represents this giant leap forward in progressive revelation. What do I mean by progressive revelation? I mean that God didn't give us all the truth right from the start, but He revealed truth through His people, through time, sending prophets and giving his law and Culminating that the mountain peak of progressive Progressive revelation is the coming of Jesus Christ who fulfills all these things and then gives us really the fullness of the revealed truth of God. And then that includes revelation about marriage and family.

So there's a lot that the people of God gained in terms of what does God intend with marriage? What does God intend with family? How are we to engage these things? Much was revealed in the law. So the Old Testament law from the Pentateuch teaches us a lot about God's purpose and design for the functioning of families.

From marriage to headship to parent-children relationships to rights and obligations and more. There's a lot of gold to mine out of the law in the Pentateuch. So let me give you a roadmap for our time. There will be four main headings. The first is the theology of the family in the Ten Commandments.

There's actually a lot about marriage and family just in the Ten Commandments. Secondly, I'll give you six different types of laws which teach about and regulate the family. Large portions of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are our laws and there are a lot of them. So I've actually just sort of taken out marriage and family laws from from all of that and then put them in buckets so I'm really talking about the the buckets sort of different categories of marriage and family laws and so I'm going to give you six different types the third major heading will be to talk briefly about some of the the contemporary attack attacks against what's revealed in the law, and then finally I'll have a few closing thoughts which I think are important to frame this. So let's come to our topic in prayer.

God, pray for your help. I want to be helped speaking and I pray for the help of my brothers and sisters who are hearing. There's a lot here to try to articulate and I pray that you would give my brethren the ability to understand. Let everything that I say that is unclear or inconsistent with the truth of your word fall to the ground and be lost forever. Let everything that is consistent with your word be held by us, loved by us, obeyed by us.

I pray in Jesus name, Amen. Okay, So hopefully you're still in Exodus chapter 20. I'm going to be speaking of the theology of the family in the Ten Commandments beginning in the second commandment which we find in Exodus 20 chapters 4 through 6. So follow along as I reread Exodus 20 4 through 6. You shall not make for yourself a carved image any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.

You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. Listen to this, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments. God has revealed to us through this commandment that our worship has tremendous downstream generational consequences. Tremendous, huge impact, downstream generational, working through the generations, consequences. I am not an island unto myself.

Whether I worship this God and how I worship this God will have a significant impact on the lives of my children, on the lives of my grandchildren, on the lives of my great grandchildren. So on the one hand I'm faced with the terrors of this warning. I might live to see the devastation of my non-worship or my false worship down into the lives of my great grandchildren, into the lives of Ben and Alex's and Melanie's and Claire's children. I might live to see devastation come into their lives because I did not worship this God or that I worshiped him falsely. But on the other hand, I have this glorious incentive that God is so predisposed to mercy and loving kindness that my worship in spirit and truth, that if I do worship this God and I do worship Him according to how He has expressed that he desires to be worshiped, then blessing from that can flow into thousands of generations.

So for those who hate God, who will not worship Him or who worship Him in false ways, that is visited. The impact of that can flow into the third and fourth generations of those who hate him, but blessing can flow to a thousand generations. So it's not iniquity visited upon three or four generations, but then blessing flowing to thousands of people. It's like and like. Three and four generations and thousands of generations.

I really wish our translations had put the word generations in there because it belongs there according to the Hebrew constructions. The other point I should make here is the point made by Deuteronomy 24 verse 16. Listen to Deuteronomy 24 verse 16. A father shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers. A person shall be put to death for his own sin." What do we learn here?

We learn that we are not guilty of the sins of our forefathers, but we are impacted by their sins. Sometimes in terrible, terrible ways. Does that mean that our children, grandchildren, great grandchildren can't feel the weight of their sins and run to Jesus Christ to be saved? No, of course it doesn't mean that. Of course they can.

God might be pleased to do that, but it doesn't mean that my sin won't impact their lives. Those are two different things. Those are two different things. We must believe both of them. You know, if you've been alive a long time and you've watched people who had grandparents who would not worship God or have worshipped Him falsely.

And you can see the impact in their lives. Some of them are Christians, some of them are wonderful Christians, but they wake up every day with baggage, with baggage because of how their forefathers lived. This is so clearly taught here. Now look at the fourth commandment, the keeping of the separated day. It's called the Sabbath here, but it's the hallowed day, the holy day, the separated day in Exodus 20 verses 8 through 11.

Follow along. Remember the Sabbath day. In Deuteronomy 5 it says observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work, you nor your son or your daughter nor your male servant nor your female servant nor your cattle nor your stranger who is within your gates.

For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it and made it holy. God has revealed to us through this commandment that husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, being one and acting as one, are commanded to secure a day of restful worship each week for those entrusted to their care." Wives aren't mentioned here. Mothers aren't mentioned here. Why not?

Because they're one. There's no need to mention them here. A husband and a wife are two who become one. And the vision of the law of God, the vision of the Word of God is that They act in union and in harmony. Think of a God who gives seven and a half weeks every year for rest and worship.

So what do you mean? One day a week, 52 weeks, 52 days. What is that if you make them consecutive? If you just put them side by side? Seven and a half weeks.

If you had a boss that gave you seven and a half weeks of vacation time, You would be voting for boss of the year. We have a God who has given us seven and a half weeks every year to rest our bodies and our minds and to feed our spirits on His goodness. We ought to be so thankful for that. But the truth is that we're reluctant to engage it in the way that we should. There's something in our hearts that'll cheat this day, that'll cheat ourselves, rob ourselves from the goodness of this day.

And when everyone is responsible for securing it, then no one really feels responsible for securing it. As with anything. If everyone's responsible, then no one feels responsible. So what has God done? God has given the responsibility to fathers and mothers to secure it for sons, daughters, male servants, females, your whole household.

Fathers and mothers are to secure this blessing for those entrusted to their care. And this, fathers and mothers are responsible for securing all kinds of good for those entrusted to them. Why authority structures according to God? To secure blessing for the people under their authority. The people under authority don't exist for the people who are in authority.

It's the other way around in God's economy. Praise God for that too. He's so kind. The fifth commandment, the fifth commandment, Exodus 20 verse 12. Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you." This is sort of a different kind of commandment.

There are nine other commandments. None of them come with a promise of blessing. God just tells you what to do or what not to do, and he expects you to do what he says to do or not to do what he says not to do, this one comes with a sweetener. It comes with the promise of blessing. God wants us to engage in this and promises to bless us.

God has revealed to us through this commandment that authority and submission in the home are His idea and design. This is not just a human construct. It's God's idea. It's God's design. And it is a moral category.

If you honor, then you obey God. If you dishonor, then you sin against God. It is a moral category. God gives parents to children for their good and blessing, but this only holds up and functions according to plan when the structure that God has established is upheld. Children, I want you to think about this.

Think about the implications of what I just said. It means that when you dishonor your parents, you take from them power that God intended for them to bless you and to do good to you. You rob them from power to do you good when you will not honor them. God wants good and blessing and help to flow through your parents to you and that only happens when you have a disposition of honor towards them. It allows them to do the work that God gave them to do.

I'm not saying that's the only reason God gave that commandment, but it is one of the reasons. So in Old Testament, more broadly, you look outside just the Ten Commandments and you look across all the Old Testament law. This is stated positively. Obviously, it's stated here in the First Commandment and it comes with a promise of blessing, so that's positive. Or think of Leviticus 19 verse 3.

Leviticus 19 verse 3. Every one of you shall revere his father or mother. So it's the same sense, the same thought, but it's put in a different way. There is to be a deep respect, a reverence for parents, and an honor for a child towards this disposition of honor towards his father and his mother. It's also stated very negatively.

It is stated positively and repeatedly positively, but it's also stated very negatively and repeatedly negatively. Listen to Exodus 21 verses 15 through 17. Exodus 21, 15, and he who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death." So striking, hitting a father and mother is obviously the polar opposite of honor or reverence. And God hates that so much, the polar opposite of reverence or honor being brought into this close relationship that he has established that he actually gives a warrant for the death penalty in Old Testament law. I mean this just should strike you, this should strike you how God, how serious God is about honor in the home just because of what he says in Old Testament law.

Or, verse 17, Exodus 21 verse 17, and he who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death." Again, cursing being the polar opposite of honor and reverence. Or Deuteronomy 21, you can go there if you like. I'm going to read Deuteronomy 21 verses 18 through 21. Deuteronomy 21, 18 through 21. If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or of the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them.

So they've entered into trying to correct this with no success. Then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city, and they shall say to the elders of his city, this son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard." So that tells us we're not talking about little kids here. This is talking about a son who was a glutton and a drunkard.

This is a son of some age. Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall put away the evil from among you and all Israel shall hear and fear." So we see that often family matters are not just family matters. In other words, society has an interest in this. Society gets involved here Because God has made the home, fathers and mothers and their children and the disposition towards fathers and mothers that God requires in children to be the training grounds for honor that will affect workplaces and governments and, and, and.

Your parents are children. Your parents are not the last authorities in your life. So far from it. You might as well learn to honor your authorities now. That's actually why God has put you in these homes.

One of the reasons is so that you could learn to honor authority under the loving, gracious care of your parents before you get to less loving, less gracious authorities in the future. It's a coming. Finally, the seventh commandment, Exodus 20 verse 14, you shall not commit adultery. God has revealed through this commandment that he has walled off the marriage relationship and separated it out and made it like no other human relationship that you will ever engage in. He has made it exclusive and sacred and closer and more intimate than any other human relationship ever entered into.

He has just walled off marriage and said, don't touch. This is exclusive. This is sacred. This is closer and more intimate. There are things that are reserved for marriage and only marriage that will never be a part of any other relationship, not lawfully, that you'll ever engage in.

So that was the theology of the family in the Ten Commandments. Secondly, let me give you six different types of laws which teach about and regulate the family. So six buckets of laws. Taking these laws from various points in the Pentateuch and just drop them into sort of categories which teach about and regulate the family. They're representative, meaning that there are hundreds of laws here and I'm just picking a few out and saying this is like a bunch of others that belong in the same category.

Number one, laws which make the family secondary. God doesn't know anything about the family being primary because He never intended for it to be primary. The law of God positions marriage and family as important but never ultimate. He reserves the place of ultimate honor to himself and he'll not share it with anyone, with any other institution, not with marriage, not with family, not with anything. God is above all.

God is above all. This is not to diminish marriage and family, of course not, but God is ultimate. He only deserves the place of highest honor. Nothing can get between us and God in that way. Turn to Deuteronomy 13.

Deuteronomy 13. This is an astounding passage to me. So I'm going to draw out, I've already done it, I'm going to do it again now in Deuteronomy 13, capital punishment texts, okay, where the Old Testament law called for death for dishonoring parents through striking them or cursing them. We don't do that and I'm not standing here to advocate for that, but I'm also not standing here to apologize for the Old Testament. Here's what I'd like for you to consider.

Really, I'm making other points than death penalty points from these texts, but I'd like to say this about that. We think, That's extreme. I have that impulse too. And my next impulse is that's because I'm not a very good Bible student. Here's what I mean.

When you look at the devastation and destruction that came into the history of God's people from them not dealing with the sins that are said in the way that God said. So many fewer would have been devastated, so many fewer would have died if they would have obeyed God and done what he told them to do. And because they wouldn't, an idolatry ran unchecked and dishonor ran unchecked. Nations came in and destroyed cities. Deuteronomy 13 verses 6 through 9.

If your brother, the son of your mother, your son, or your daughter, the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul secretly entices you, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth. You shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him, but you shall surely kill him. Your hand shall be first against him, to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people." You look upstream in your family to your mom and your dad. I mean, until you get married, that's the closest relationship that you have. What do you do if they secretly entice you to worship a false god.

You don't consent and you don't pity them. Why? Because family is important but it's not ultimate. God is important. You can look downstream to your son and daughter And they want to secretly entice you to serve a false god, to plunge into pagan worship.

You don't consent to them and you don't pity them. Why? Because family is important. It's so important in the law that these verses are shocking. Even your wife, you've been joined, made one to her, but is she ultimate?

No, only God is ultimate. God deserves that place. If a wife tries to draw you away from this God, you don't consent to that and you cannot pity her because God is ultimate. That said, family life in the Bible and especially in the laws to be a wonderful part of following the Lord. God intended us to engage it together.

If you look at Deuteronomy 12, Deuteronomy 12 talks about a gathering place for people to come and engage these worshiped theists. They were worshiped theists. And he says, Come with your sons and daughters and rejoice together. That's the vision for family life. Not stoning people.

If people try to drag you into idolatry, maybe you do that. But that's not the vision of God. The vision of God is that we do this together. We join our hearts together. We come together to rejoice together before the Lord.

Family life is to be a wonderful part of following the Lord, worshiping God together. God wants joy in him to be a family affair. Did you hear me? God wants joy in him to be a family affair. Number two, marriage laws.

Now, they weren't thinking Christ in the church, but progressive revelation and we got it all. Here it is. I'm holding it. So we're looking back through the lenses of Ephesians 5, where Paul says, yeah, husband and wife is really representative of Christ in the church. It's a reflection, a picture of Christ in the church.

They didn't have the ability to do this, but we do. We look at marriage laws and we're informed by knowing about Christ in His church. Marriage laws, there are laws of structure. Look at Numbers 30. I find Numbers 30 to be a really interesting, unusual text.

Because of how seriously God positions the taking and fulfilling of vows. God is so serious. When we take a vow in His name, you're supposed to do it and you're not supposed to delay in doing it. You are supposed to, as speedily as you can, fulfill that vow. But He gives an exception here and it just tells us how important structure in a family is to God.

Now, the whole chapter would be profitable, but I'm going to read Numbers 30, verses 6 through 8. If indeed she, a woman, takes a husband while bound by her vows, so she took a husband, but she's taken vows in time past. So how is that supposed to work out? Numbers 30 tells us. If indeed she takes a husband while bound by her vows or by a rash utterance from her lips which she bound herself.

And her husband hears it and makes no response to her on the day that he hears it, then her vows shall stand and her agreements by which she bound herself shall stand. But if her husband overrules her on the day that he hears it, he shall make void her vow which she took and what she uttered with her lips by which she bound herself, and the Lord will release her. So everywhere else in the law, if you make a vow, fulfill the vow and do it fast. Here, and I can't think of another exception, if one exists, it's not coming to mind. Here, God will release you from the vow.

Why? Because of structure in the home. Because of male headship. He has established it. So in Old Testament law, it is assumed that married women will make solemn commitments.

This is not against married women making solemn commitments or women making solemn commitments. It's actually the assumption of the commandment. But their husbands have the authority to overrule those in this short window of time, the day that you hear of it. You can't go on and on. If you hear of it, if you think you should overrule it, you have to do it right then.

We have marriage laws of responsibility and accountability. Consider Deuteronomy 22 verses 20 through 21. Deuteronomy 22 verses 20 through 21. In this scenario a woman has been found as she's been married And she's now accused of not being a virgin when she gets married. So that is the instance that we have an accusation.

But if the thing is true and the evidence of evidence of virginity are not found for the young woman, then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father's house and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones because she has done a disgraceful thing in Israel to play the harlot in her father's house so you shall put away the evil from among you." I'll just start by saying this we would parent very differently if we thought this was the consequences. We would parent differently, we would think differently about these things. It's Not just that the sin is dealt with, it is where the sin is dealt with. Where is it dealt with? On the doorstep of dad and mom's house.

Why? Because it is a declaration by God, You're responsible for this. This happened on your watch. So we're dealing with the sin, but we're dealing with it on your threshold. Now you tell me, fathers and mothers, how are you going to cross that threshold ever again?

How are you going to live in that home ever again when your daughter was stoned there because you didn't do your job? We have laws of rights, rights, marriage rights. Deuteronomy 24 verse 5. Deuteronomy 24 verse 5. When a man has taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war or be charged with any business.

He shall be free at home one year and bring happiness to his wife whom he has taken." So it's in, at least in Israel, at least under Old Testament law, A right of a man was not to be sent to war or not to be given additional responsibilities and it was a right of a wife to be made happy the first year of her marriage. She has the right to it. That's what this says. How do you like that ladies? You have a marriage right, that the first year your husband's not off doing all sorts of other things but his focus is on your happiness for the first year of your marriage.

This is beautiful. Or Exodus 21 verses 10 and 11. Are you listening, Riley? Just making sure you caught that. Chelsea, if you're listening on audio, you have a right to that.

Brittany, if you're listening on audio. All right, Exodus 21 verses 10 and 11. If he takes another wife, so I'm not touching that, there is polygamy in the Old Testament, I'm not here to take that on. If he takes another wife, he shall not diminish her, the first wife's food, her clothing, and her marriage rights. Marriage rights, there it is.

And if he does not do these three for her then she shall go out without paying money. So under Old Testament law this would be considered abandonment and under Old Testament law she's free. He has to maintain her marriage rights, which include food and clothing. Provision. In summary, Old Testament law codified, it etched in stone, it put in writing the special nature of the closest human relationship in the world, marriage, giving it structure and responsibility and accountability and rights and sexual regulations.

Oh, I didn't even talk about sexual regulations. I'm gonna skip that. We covered it under adultery and I'm gonna go over time anyway. All right moving on. Number three, laws of transmission.

Laws of transmission, what do you do with these laws? You transmit them. Turn to Deuteronomy 6, of course. Deuteronomy 6, the classic passage for the transmission of the laws. What is Deuteronomy 6 after?

It's after Deuteronomy 5. What's in Deuteronomy 5, the second giving of the Ten Commandments? So Deuteronomy 5, the Ten Commandments, Deuteronomy 6, what do you do with them? You obey them. What else?

You teach them. You transmit them. Deuteronomy 6, I'll read verses 1 through 9. Now this is the commandment and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, that you may fear the Lord your God to keep all His statutes and His commandments, which I command you, you, and your son, and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. Therefore, hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you a land flowing with milk and honey.

Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. We find here that a transmission mechanism was built in. So I am to worship God but it doesn't end there. I'm given the responsibility to pass the knowledge of the faith, the commandments of God to my children and my grandchildren. It is a commandment for families to transmit the commandments.

I command you to teach the commandments. It is to be you and your son and your grandson. As a husband and a father, I'm to love the Lord my God with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my strength. I'm to hide His word, His commandments in my heart, and then I'm to teach them diligently when, oh, only when I sit in the house and when I walk by the way and when I lie down and when I rise up. I'm not sure when the other times are.

I don't think there are any. To teach them diligently, transmit the faith. Look just later in the chapter verses 20 through 25, Deuteronomy 6 verses 20 through 25. When your son asks you in time to come saying, what is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord our God has commanded you? Then you shall say to your son, we were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt.

And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the Lord showed us signs and wonders before our eyes great and severe against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household. Then he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in to give us the land of which he swore to our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God for our good always, that He might preserve us alive as it is this day. Then it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the Lord our God as he has commanded us.

God gave this religious system for worship and part of the design of it was that as you engage it, your kids ask you, why are we doing this? What does this mean? And it's an opening to say, we were slaves, but we're not slaves now. God came out and kept his promises to our forefathers so that we live in a land flowing with milk and honey. Look at the goodness of this God.

We should be careful to live, to observe his commandments and live to his honor. In Psalm 66 16, the psalmist says something very precious. Listen to Psalm 66 16. Come and hear all you who fear God, and I will declare what He has done for my soul. Come and listen.

I'll tell you what He has done for my soul. Fathers and mothers are supposed to do that. Amen. Number four, laws of deliberate separation. Family and religion are not separate categories.

I do my family stuff over here and then but then there's religion so I come over here and do my religion stuff family and religion are like this in the Old Testament law listen to Deuteronomy 7 so we were just in Deuteronomy 6 you're probably still there Deuteronomy 7 verses 1 through 4 When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Parasites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you. And when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them, nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. For they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly.

Here, deliberate separation is required by God. Mixing in marriage between believers and unbelievers, having family as one category, religion as another category, is marked as deadly. As deadly. It's deadly. Number five, Laws of family usefulness.

Laws of family usefulness. The law envisions a life where the family business is kingdom business. The priests were by law an extended family tracing back to Aaron with immediate families, kind of sub-families. Aaron, and then he had some families and they had some families along the family tree. And these immediate families would have specific roles within the priesthood.

This immediate family would take care of this. This immediate family would take care of that. The Levites who served the priest in the Old Testament system of worship were by law an extended family tracing back to Levi with immediate families having specific roles. When it was a tabernacle and they were traveling in the wilderness, certain families, certain immediate Levite families, were tasked with transporting different parts of the structure and items necessary for worship. Certain families were gatekeepers, certain families were singers and musicians, and, and, and the family business was kingdom business.

In Numbers chapter 10, in the wilderness, the tribes and their families that made up the tribes were to camp around the tabernacle in a certain pattern. This tribe camps here, this tribe camps here, some to the north, some to the south, some to the west, some to the east. God told them in what order they should break camp and go before the tabernacle. Listen to Numbers 10 verse 14. The standard, the flag, the family flag, okay, the flag of the tribe, the standard of the camp of the children of Judah set out first according to their armies.

Over their army was Naishon the son of Amenadab. So what's happening here? They're doing what was explicitly commanded in Numbers 2 with the giving of this pattern of camping around the tabernacle. So this is just an example of a tribe breaking camp. So you raise the standard for the tribe.

And it says, then the armies go out. Wait a minute, armies? I thought it was families. Yeah, families are armies in the wilderness. Families are armies in the Old Testament law.

The family business is kingdom business even to fighting. The point in each of these instances is that the closeness and structure of the family was an asset for kingdom advancement. You weren't starting from zero, Zero structure, zero relationship, zero closeness, zero discipline. You were starting with the existing structure and closeness of a family and that was an asset for kingdom advancement. Is there something to learn for us there?

You better believe it. You better believe it. The family in Old Testament law was a natural platform for serving the Lord together in a particular way. You guys are singers. That's yours.

That's you. You guys are gatekeepers. Well why not just have it be people who are good at gatekeeping? Because there's pre-existing structure and closeness and relationship and that's an asset for kingdom advancement. Number six, laws for the widow and the fatherless.

Laws for the widow, a woman who lost her husband and the fatherless, children who've lost their father. These are interesting and instructive because they teach us what a husband and father has been designed to provide for a family. In other words, if a marriage loses the husband, the law steps in to secure what the husband was designed to provide. If a family loses a father, the law steps in to provide for the children what the father was designed to provide. It has to mean that.

Turn to Exodus 22. This is our last stop in terms of flipping. Exodus 22, I'll read verses 22 through 24. You shall not afflict any widow, any woman who's lost her husband, or fatherless children, any children who have lost their father. If you afflict them in any way and they cry at all to me, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath will become hot, and I will kill you with the sword.

Your wives shall be widows and your children fatherless." Wow. Wow. That is God taking up the cause of the widow and the fatherless on steroids. Husbands and fathers are designed to provide protection for a family. So if a husband's not there to protect and a father's not there to protect, the law steps in to provide this protection.

In this case, God says himself, I will step in. Or listen to Deuteronomy 10 verse 18. Deuteronomy 10 verse 18. He, the Lord your God, administers justice for the fatherless and the widow and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. So husbands and fathers are designed by God to secure justice for their wife and their family and to provide for his wife and his family.

Deuteronomy 24, 19. Deuteronomy 24, 19. When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow that the Lord your God may bless you in all the works of your hands. In Deuteronomy 26 verse 12 there's a command for a tithe for the provision of the fatherless and the widow.

Every three years you take a tenth of your increase and you set it aside for the widow to draw on for her provision because she doesn't have a husband that God designed to provide and for the fatherless. Okay third major heading some of the contemporary attacks. I want to give you quickly five. Number one, by the way, why is the family under attack? Because it's part of God's plan.

Because God wants to use it for good, Satan wants to destroy it. It will always be under attack until the trumpet blows and Jesus breaks the eastern skies. Every day between now and then marriage will be under attack and family will be under attack because God is using it to help people, bless people, save people. And the devil hates it. And the sons of the devil wage war against it.

Number one, in a large swath of the church today, this is barely interesting and entirely academic. Why is that? Because they don't believe the Old Testament has anything to do with the New Testament Christian. That was then, this is now. That was the God of laws, this is the God of grace.

Brothers and sisters, don't give a single inch to that thinking in your mind or in your home. The New Testament makes no sense whatsoever without the Old Testament. Yes, we are in New Covenant times and it is a better covenant based on better promises and we should be able to say a whole hearty Amen to that. It doesn't mean that truth in the Old Testament isn't truth now. It doesn't mean that.

I'm glad it doesn't mean that. This is just a deposit of gold. You cannot walk away from all that gold and not be harmed. We need it. I need it.

These things are still true. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The things he delighted in on Mount Sinai, he delights in now. The things he hated then, he hates now. He is the same God.

And thank God everything's better in Christ. Amen to that. I don't know what percentage of churches I would preach this sermon that said, why are you even doing this? Why? Number two.

The separation of parents and children in everything. The separation of parents and children in education. The separation of parents and children in church life. The separation of parents and children even and especially in recreation. As if we do, as if what we do or don't do doesn't have the greatest impact in the lives of our children and our grandchildren and our great grandchildren.

The Second Commandment just makes it really clear. Hey, how many things can you delegate? What are you left with? Okay, I'm delegating education, I'm delegating church life, I'm delegating recreation, which are a lot of the other hours. What does that leave you with?

What is your impact then? We are responsible and accountable. I mean, if you thought your daughter could potentially be stoned on your doorstep, you would feel responsible and accountable to bring up our children in the training and the admonition of the Lord. By the way, if you took a group of really smart people, let's just, the 20 smartest people in North Carolina, and you put them in a room and you gave them Deuteronomy 6 that we read about the transmission of the faith to the next generation. You say we need a summary at the end of the week and it needs to be one sentence.

It can only be one sentence and you gave them all week. They wouldn't come up with something better than, fathers bring up your children in the training and admonition of the Lord. It's the perfect summary statement of that. Paul is teaching right out of Deuteronomy in Ephesians chapter 6. Number 3, the lack of deliberate separation from a world that is drifting farther and farther from the Bible's ethic.

Ethic, the lack of deliberate separation from a world that is drifting further and farther from the Bible's ethic. Is the world standing still or is the world on the move? The world is on the move at a faster rate than any time in our lifetime. Okay, the trajectory is accelerating So that the strategy of just being more conservative than the world is not a winning strategy. I'm 20% different from the world.

I'm 50% different from the world. I'm 75% different than the world. Okay, but you know the world is acceleratingly departing from God. So if your strategy is just to be better than the world, then you're going to be drifting to, and you're going to be drifting to faster and faster. The world, the target isn't better than the world.

Never be satisfied with better than the world. The target is conformity to the beautiful image of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're trying to be like Jesus. That's the target, to be like Jesus. And we do that by learning and obeying His Word.

Number four, the attack on gender roles has become an attack on gender. The battle lines have moved. Have you seen that happen? The battle lines are different now. We were defending male headship, now we're defending male.

And the temptation is to just shift, okay? I'm still defending male headship, okay? I'm not going to shift, only I'll fight on as many battle fronts as we have to, to say this is true. Okay? I'm not moving to the new battlefront as if the old ground is lost.

I'll fight on the old front until we're dead because this is true. Number five. This is the big attack Because it's not the out there attack. It's not Beyonce and gyrations. That's bad.

That's not going to be the undoing of our children. The undoing of our children will be the lack of lively transforming love for God in my heart. The lack of lively transforming love for God. Where do you get that love from God? In my heart.

That is what is compelling to Children. It doesn't overthrow election or any of that, but when Children watch parents who are lit up by love for a savior. That is compelling. We didn't worry about any of the other attacks and we're worried about that. We probably well served a few closing thoughts.

First, the theology of the family in the Law of Moses is beautiful in places, wonderful in places, compelling in places, terrifying in places. They are laws of love. This is what is made so explicit and plain. It was true in the Old Testament and it is said in the Old Testament, but it's said with just breathtakingly clear in the New Testament. The law is about love.

It's about loving God and it's about loving your neighbor. It might not feel like that when you're reading the laws, but what God is getting at is how do we love? So these are laws of love and they're very worth learning and obeying and defending. But while we should love those laws, we should trust Jesus. It starts with Jesus.

It starts with regeneration. It starts with being born again. If you have a chasing after obedience to these laws, And I don't say that in a demeaning way as if that's a bad thing. Trying to obey is a good thing. But if you have that, but you have no pursuit of Jesus in your heart, this is all going to be a lost cause.

Our desire and attempts to obey truth from the law is meaningful when you have life in the heart. Otherwise, it becomes this crushing thing and we use it to become self-righteous and smug and it's terrible. So we have to start with trusting Jesus. How are you doing? Got a lot of laws here.

Got a lot of laws here. How are you doing keeping those laws? Not very good really. Parents in the room. Not doing that great.

Wanting to do better? Maybe doing better. Maybe on a good trajectory. I hope so. Jesus has obeyed them all perfectly for me.

I thank God for that. Thank God for that. Everyone perfectly obeyed on my behalf. I'm clean, I'm free. And now I can live to his honor without fear.

Praise God for that. God, thank you for the goodness of truth, of progressive revelation. It's not that the fullness of the revelation of Jesus Christ makes all the prior revelation irrelevant. I thank you for those truths and I pray that you would help us to gain good from them. In Jesus' name, Amen.