We're in the middle of the second movement of Deuteronomy, and we're reading a lot of ancient law.

And it's natural, as we do this, to wonder how in the world could this apply to me or anyone today?

Well, today on the show we're going to explore how the laws of Deuteronomy applied to Jesus in the first century Christians.

And remember in Deuteronomy 12, the land of Canaan is being reclaimed as a Garden of Eden.

And what is the Garden of Eden? It's a place where heaven and earth are one, where God and His people are one together.

And so in the New Testament, Jesus comes on to the scene and even will say in the temple that He is the temple.

Or he'll say the temple is my body, or that one greater than the temple is here, and that when my followers get together just maybe two or three of them, guess what?

I'm in the middle, like the tree of life.

The apostles of Jesus relied on the Torah to instruct early Christians how to live in their world.

In fact, the Apostle Paul may have had Deuteronomy on the mind when he instructed the Corinthians to donate financially to their impoverished brothers and sisters in Jerusalem.

The law as stated in Deuteronomy 15 is stating an ideal, like a true North, but of course there's all of these other mitigating circumstances or things that will require wisdom and discernment.

And the law as worded doesn't address those. It kind of gives you the core. And I think essentially because that is such a contrast to the nations around them.

The laws in Deuteronomy were important for ancient Israel to know how to make the transition from being a nomadic people wandering the desert to a people settled in the land of Canaan.

But these laws are also important to us too, as we try to live as people of God and in ever changing cultural landscape.

A story that begins with the words in the beginning and tells a story about all humanity and how all humans organize their life in the world is a story that naturally is going to have an expansive vision for all of human life in the world.

And so it just turns out life is complicated. You need to be wise. You need wisdom.

Today Tim Mackey and I talk about the wisdom of the law. I'm John Collins and you're listening to Bauer Project Podcast. Thanks for joining us. Here we go.

Hey Tim. Hey John. We are in the Duteronomy and the last conversation. We talked about how the laws in the Holtora, including the laws here in Deuteronomy, are wisdom.

Yeah, we are sessioning the middle of the center section of Deuteronomy.

Tapters 12 through 25, a restatement of a couple hundred laws, some of which are new, but many of which are restatements of laws that occurred earlier in the Torah. And that's what we're doing.

And the purpose of the law, as we discussed, is to create a people who are wise and understanding and can live in right relationships with others. In other words, being righteous.

And with God. And with God. Yeah. Because God is the one who they relate to by means of these covenant or of Jesus as Jesus said, love God and your neighbor. Love your neighbor. That's right.

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