Expository Sermon on Deuteronomy 10
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue Seventh-day Adventist Church 3/15/2025
©2025 by Maylan Schurch
(To watch this entire worship service, click the link just below:)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Fs9nOq4OLM&t=27s
Please open your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 10.
Do you think that Jesus had a favorite Bible book?
This year, as most of you know, I’m suggesting that we read the Bible through using a chronological plan, which you will find in the bulletin, and also on our church website. It gets us through the Bible in a year, but rearranges several chapters very carefully so that they fit with the chronological order of what happened.
So far we’ve gone through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers. Leviticus was especially challenging, because there was a lot of repetition, and a lot of advice which the average person doesn’t really need any more, such as how to diagnose and treat leprosy, or how to offer specific animal sacrifice.
However, when it comes to Deuteronomy, I have always had a warmer feeling for this book. For one thing, it’s kind of a summary of the law books that came before it. For another thing, Deuteronomy seems to have been a go-to Bible book which Jesus often used. Was it His favorite? Maybe He didn’t think that way. But He quoted Deuteronomy quite a bit.
For example, at the beginning of Matthew 4, Satan tracks Jesus down in a desert and tempts Him three times. Each time, Jesus backs him off with a quote from Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy 8:3: “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
Deuteronomy 6:16: “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”
Deuteronomy 6:13: “You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.”
And when somebody asked Jesus which commandment is the greatest, He quoted Deuteronomy 6:5: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”
When Jesus talked about divorce, He referred to Deuteronomy 24:1-3. And when he talked about church discipline, He alluded to Deuteronomy 19:15.
So Jesus knew Deuteronomy very well. As I was reading through the first 10 chapters this week, I thought about that often.
In the last chapter or so leading up to Deuteronomy 10, Moses has been repeating some of the sad history of God’s people. One more time, he is urging them to trust the Lord.
And then, in Deuteronomy 10, starting with verse 12, Moses summarizes what God requires, not only of the Israelites back then, but of any faithful follower of Jesus today.
In fact, I believe that Deuteronomy 10:12 spells out for us at least three important stepping-stones we need to use to move closer to God. What you and I need, and what our families and our work associates and our neighbors and anyone else over which we have any influence – what we all need is to walk these steppingstones to draw closer to Heaven.
And as we will see, these are not just Deuteronomy steppingstones. Each of them is present in the rest of the Bible as well.
God spoke these words through Moses to the nation on the verge of the promised land of Canaan – and I believe He also speaks them to us, the people on the border of the brighter and more permanent promised land.
Stepping stones are often placed in positions to take you safely over areas it might be dangerous or inconvenient get your feet into.
So let’s look them over, and then let’s step out and start to walk. They’re all just in this one verse, but they are also spread throughout the rest of Scripture. God invites us closer to Him, but He wants us to use these solid stepping stones.
Deuteronomy 10:12 [NKJV]: “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God . . . .
If you’re taking down once sermon points, here comes Sermon Point One. What is the first steppingstone to God?
The first stepping stone toward God is to fear Him.
This idea always causes me a bit of uneasiness. Fearing God? Wasn’t the fear of God a temporary thing, for a rebellious people? Wasn’t that discarded after a while?
Actually, not. All through the Bible, the fear of God is talked about as truly essential. This is the actual Hebrew word, and later the Greek word, for fear. It’s not just a mild synonym.
The Bible clearly indicates that fear is the place to start with God. In Eden, of course, it probably didn’t have to be that way. First John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear . . . .”
In Eden, before Satan arrived, there was perfect love. For awhile, Adam and Eve loved God perfectly, and of course He loved them perfectly. So there didn’t have to be any fear.
But remember what happened when Adam and Eve realized they were sinners? The Lord comes walking for an evening conversation with Adam and Eve, and they run from Him. And in Genesis 3:10, Adam told God why: “So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid . . . .” (That’s the same Hebrew word for “fear” as in Deuteronomy 10.)
Fear has evidently alerted Adam that something was wrong. He and Eve had distrusted God, and this may have been what caused their fear and their flight.
As I mentioned, all through the Bible, fear is spoken of as Stepping Stone One toward God. And it’s not terror toward God, but a healthy respect for the One who gave us life and who is responsible to the universe to provide a happy eternity.
Proverbs 9:10 says that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Psalm 19:9 says, “The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever;” (some translations say, “The fear of the Lord is pure.”)
Psalm 128:1 even says, “Blessed is every one who fears the LORD, Who walks in His ways.” That word “blessed” is the Hebrew word asher, which means “happy.” In fact, the New Revised Standard Version translates it, “Happy is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways.”
Even Jesus talks about the fear of God, and in a very startling way. But one thing I discovered is that this tough statement of His loses its sting the further you read. Let’s just turn to it for a moment. Matthew chapter 10.
Matthew 10:28 – 31: And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
So it’s like Jesus is saying, “If you need to fear, focus that fear on God and nothing else, until you learn to follow His advice to ‘fear not.’”
You see, in one breath, Jesus tells us to fear God. And a couple of breaths later, He tells us, “Do not fear.” In both those cases He uses the same Greek word: phobeo, which is where we get the word “phobia.”
So evidently, we need to keep fear in mind when we realize that God is the one who has ultimate control of our destiny. We need to climb up on this steppingstone and balance there until this knowledge sinks in. But that fear can vanish when we remember how much God loves us. Our Heavenly Father cares for us far more than even the little sparrows whose fate He notices.
After all, as I mentioned, 1 John 4:18 says “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear.” Fear seems to be necessary for people who need to develop a deep understanding that God has charge of our future.
And in addition, the first message of the three angels of Revelation 14, verses 6 and 7, starts like this: “Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people—saying with a loud voice, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.”
But once we understand that fear of God is only necessary for those who haven’t surrendered to Him, we can then step gratefully off that first steppingstone and onto the next one. Back to Deuteronomy 10.
Deuteronomy 10:12: “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways . . . .
Here comes Sermon Point Two:
The first stepping stone toward God is to fear Him. The second stepping stone toward God is to walk in all His ways.
Not just in some of His ways, but we need to walk in ALL His ways.
Another interesting glimpse into the Hebrew language is that when that verse uses the word “walk,” that is the literal Hebrew word for taking a walk, or traveling somewhere by foot. And the Hebrew word for “ways” is the literal word for a path or a road.
You see what has happened here? God isn’t insisting that we float loftily along on some high, intellectual level when we relate to Him. Instead, He wants us to literally put one foot in front of the other, and do this in the specific paths or roads or trails He leads us into. God wants us to take our daily spiritual walk seriously.
Because we are made to move. Ritchie Hammen knows this, and that’s why I registered for his Made 2 Move 4 Jesus program which will happen right here March 30. And we were not simply made to move – we were made to move in fellowship with God Himself. We were made to move for His Son Jesus.
Down at the end of the cul-de-sac where Shelley and I live dwells a man who takes walking seriously. By taking walking seriously, I don’t mean that he does race walking, trying to cover as much geography as possible in the least amount of time.
He’s probably in his 40s, and seems very healthy. On his walks, I have never seen him shuffling along, scrolling through his phone. I’ve never seen him with earbuds in.
No, this man takes walking seriously. I still remember the first time I saw him. He was walking slowly past our house, and every 10 steps or so, he would bow to the ground, and then arch his arms up over his head. And the more I saw him, the more I realized that he had developed a style of walking where virtually every step was some kind of conditioning exercise.
The other day, Shelley and I saw him jogging along the trail near our neighborhood. He greeted us cheerfully, and kept on going. That was evidently his jogging time. But this Thursday he was walking back into our cul-de-sac again, doing his strange -looking exercises as he walked, probably in the midst of some cool-down program.
I mean I have never seen anyone take walking that seriously. But I really believe that when Moses tells us to walk in all God’s ways, he wants us to take that walk seriously. Enoch walked with God. The Bible also says that Noah walked with God.
Jesus Himself was “made it to move.” Jesus signaled His followers, “I’m moving forward in the direction my Father wants me to go. Follow me.”
I mentioned that the “fear of God” shows up all through the Bible, and so does walking. First John two, verses three through six, says that “He who says he abides in Him (Jesus) ought himself also to walk just as He (Jesus) walk.
Romans 6:4 urges us to “walk in newness of life.” Again, the Greek word here is the literal word “walk.” Early Christians called their beliefs the “way.” And that’s the same word for “road.” Colossians 2:6 says that as we have received Jesus Christ, we should walk in Him. First John 1:7 tells us to “walk in the light.”
Once I land on this second steppingstone, how do I put this into practice? How do I “walk in all God’s ways”?
For one thing, I need to keep God’s commandments. All of them, all 10, all the time, not just part of them. Not just when they are convenient. I need to carry them along with me as I walk or move through my day.
Wherever I go, God’s will needs to be within my mind. I think it was in Leviticus, or maybe Numbers, after one of their apostasies, God told the Israelites to make shawls with tassels, so that they could always glance down as they walked, and be reminded of God’s law, and not fall into the same dangerous fallacies which had tripped them up before.
Let’s just look at one more steppingstone toward God, back in Deuteronomy chapter 10.
Deuteronomy 10:12: “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him . . . .
Here is Sermon Point Three.
The first stepping stone toward God is to fear Him. The second stepping stone is to walk in all His ways. The third stepping stone is to love Him.
If you don’t think about it very deeply, this might seem kind of a strange path toward love. Steppingstone One is to fear God, then comes walking in God’s ways, and then comes loving Him. Shouldn’t love come earlier?
Today is the very day, back in 1977, that I wrote my first letter to Shelley. I was teaching at Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska. She was a teacher in a one-room Adventist school in a logging camp on an Alaskan island.
We did not know each other. We had never seen each other’s pictures, or heard each other’s voice. I was writing at the suggestion of the assistant editor of Insight magazine, which I had written articles for. But I had written under a pen name, so Shelley had read my articles but didn’t know who I really was.
So how did we go from that status to falling in love with each other? I actually skipped the “fear” step. But starting with that first letter, we ended up writing thousands of words back-and-forth. She would tell me about her day in the logging camp, and I would tell her about things that were happening with me there at the school. We both loved to write, we both loved to tell stories. You might say that – virtually – we were “walking” together.
And the more we walked together in this way, the more we liked each other, and then loved each other. We confessed our love for each other in the mail, after awhile, before we had even met. Our experience was that real. And when we finally met that July, we were already friends, deeply in love.
We both firmly believed that God brought us together in a miraculous way, but we did the “walking.” We did the writing. We did the communicating. And God blessed our love, and it grew.
As I say, when Shelley and I got acquainted, it wasn’t a one-way street. I didn’t write and try to charm her, while she just picked up my letters and opened them and then set them down, and ssay, “Oh, that’s nice.” No, she wrote back. And when we walk together with God, we need to take Him into our confidence, and trust Him, and let Him speak to us His Word. “And so we walk together, my Lord and I.”
I always believe that if you’re puzzled about something that you read in the Bible, just keep reading. And that’s what I’d like to do as we close this morning.
We’ve seen the three stepping-stones to God. And there may be more in this chapter. But let’s listen as Moses keeps talking to us, keeps reminding who our Heavenly Father is. It’s just like Moses is relaying God’s love letter to us as this chapter goes along. He’s writing to Israelites in 1500 BC. But He’s writing to us as well, in what may have become Jesus’ favorite book.
Let’s start again with verse 12. Notice how warm-heartedly Moses portrays God?
Deuteronomy 10:12 – 22: “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the LORD and His statutes which I command you today for your good? Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the LORD your God, also the earth with all that is in it. The LORD delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day. Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer. For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast, and take oaths in His name. He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen. Your fathers went down to Egypt with seventy persons, and now the LORD your God has made you as the stars of heaven in multitude.
Our closing song is a wonderful piece of poetry which tells us these same heartwarming truths about the God Moses knew and walked with. This can be our consecration song to our Creator and Savior.
Let’s stand and sing it together.
“Lord of Creation” – #320
Lord of creation, to you be all praise!
Most mighty your working, most wondrous your ways!
Your glory and might are beyond us to tell,
And yet in the heart of the humble you dwell.
Lord of all power, I give you my will,
In joyful obedience your tasks to fulfill.
Your bondage is freedom; your service is song;
And held in your keeping, my weakness is strong.
Lord of all wisdom, I give you my mind,
Rich truth that surpasses man’s knowledge to find;
What eye has not seen and what ear has not heard
Is taught by your spirit and shines from your word.
Lord of all being, I give you my all,
If I ever disown you, I stumble and fall;
But led in your service your word to obey,
I’ll walk in your freedom to the end of the way.