Ready for God s Future Deuteronomy 1-4 August 3, 2014

Transcription

1 Ready for God s Future Deuteronomy 1-4 August 3, 2014 This morning we are beginning a series of studies from the book of Deuteronomy. This Old Testament book is probably not one of the best known or most loved parts of the Bible, so I want to tell you why I have chosen to spend some time exploring what it has to teach us. There are four reasons. First, God likes the book of Deuteronomy. After all, he did choose to include it in his Word. If God thought that Deuteronomy deserved to be a part of his written revelation about himself, then maybe we should spend time getting acquainted with it. Here s the second reason for this study: Jesus liked the book of Deuteronomy. Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy more than any other Old Testament book. If Jesus thought that much of Deuteronomy, then again perhaps we should invest some time learning what it has to teach us. There s a third reason motivating this study: I like the book of Deuteronomy. (Don t get me wrong! I m not suggesting that I rank up there with God and Jesus! But I do want you to know that I like Deuteronomy.) I haven t always liked this Old Testament book, so I want to explain to you how I came to appreciate it. Even though it happened years ago, I still remember it so well. As a young Christian, I had made a goal for myself that every Christian should make. I wanted to read through the entire Bible. It took several years for me to get close to accomplishing that goal. Finally, I came down to the last book that I needed to read. You guessed it it was Deuteronomy. I had read everything else. I hadn t necessarily understood everything else like Ecclesiastes and Revelation. But I had read all of the Bible except for Deuteronomy. And I was dreading the very idea of reading Deuteronomy. Somehow I had learned that the name Deuteronomy means second law. Deutero meant second, and nomos meant law. So Deuteronomy meant second law. That didn t excite me because I had already read the book of commandments that I assumed was the first law Leviticus! Reading Leviticus was about as exciting as watching paint dry. So I assumed that Deuteronomy would be just as tedious and boring as Leviticus. But I was determined! I wanted to be able to say that I had read all of God s Word. It was a few minutes after nine o clock at night. I was sitting in our college s Science Library, and I had completed all of the homework that I had brought with me to the library. I had my Bible with me, and the library didn t close until ten. So I figured that it was about as good a time as any to make a stab at trying to read Deuteronomy. The first three chapters were OK. They repeated some stories that I had read earlier in the book of Numbers, and they were good stories! So I read on into chapter 4 and then chapter 5 and chapter 6. The teaching that I found in those chapters was good and even inspiring. I found that the things that Moses was teaching the Israelites three thousand years earlier spoke to me as well about my relationship with God. Deuteronomy was turning out to be a whole lot better than I had ever imagined! Then I came to chapter 7, and I read something that I had never expected to find in the Old Testament. And that shocking teaching was repeated in even stronger terms in chapter 9. That night I stayed in the Science Library reading this Old Testament book, which that I had so much dreaded, until the librarians turned out the lights and locked the doors. To my utter amazement I had read the first eighteen chapters of Deuteronomy!

2 Reading those chapters of Deuteronomy that night challenged what I thought that I knew about the Old Testament. It also challenged me to rethink my understanding of who God is. That is not an overstatement. I found myself confronted with some things about God that I had never read before. I also started to understand some things about how God works in this world that were brand new to my thinking too. That night when I walked back from the Science Library to my dorm, my head was swirling with all kinds of new ideas about God. I ll never forget it! That s why I like the book of Deuteronomy! That is reason enough to preach from Deuteronomy, but there is another reason we re going to spend a few Sundays in this book. Deuteronomy is a book of transition. God is leading his people through a time of change. They are big changes! First, there is going to be a change in location. They had previously lived in Egypt, and for the last forty years they had been living out in the desert. But now God is taking them into the land that he had promised their ancestors (Deut. 11:10-12). Second, there is going to be a change in worship. Once they get into the land, there will only be one place for them to bring their offerings and make their sacrifices (Deut. 12:1-32; 16:5-6, 11, 15, 16: 18:6; 26:2). There is going to be a change in location and worship and leadership. Moses this man who led them out of Egypt and enabled them to survive for forty years out in the wilderness will not be going into the Promised Land with the Israelites (Deut. 1:37; 3:26-29). Instead Joshua will lead God s people into the land of Canaan. Deuteronomy is a book of transition. All of us are going through transitions and changes too. We can think of the transition that our church will soon be passing through. On Friday evening our elders interviewed a couple of people who may be serving as our interim pastor in just a couple of months. That is going to be a change. But there are other changes as well that are of a more personal nature. Some of them are exciting. Some of us got married this summer. Some of us will be leaving in a few weeks for our first year in college. Some of us are starting new jobs. Those are all good changes, but there are no doubt some of us here who are facing changes that we are dreading. We are facing new trials. Maybe your finances or your health have taken a turn for the worse, and you find yourself worrying how you are going to get along. Maybe it s your children who are leaving for college. They are excited, but you find yourself wondering how they grew up so quickly. Of maybe the transition that you are facing is a slow and gradual one. You are realizing like you never realized before that you are getting older, and your golden years don t seem quite as bright as you once thought they would be. All of us here today are to some extent in transition. Something in our lives is always changing. Isn t that true? Sometimes that is exciting, and we are filled with anticipation. Sometimes the transition is scary and fills us with dread. Either way how should we prepare ourselves? Be Courageous! In the first three chapters of Deuteronomy, Moses provides the Israelites with a history lesson, and the purpose behind that history lesson is not just to review the past but to remind them that they can face the future with confidence. Woven into these stories in Deuteronomy 1-3 are six messages of encouragement (Deut. 1:21, 29, 38; 3:2, 22, 28). We will look at just a couple of them, but there are six distinct messages of encouragement in these chapters. On each occasion God, in effect, says to his people, Be courageous! That is the message that God has for his people when they first come to the border of the Promised Land. See, the LORD your God has given you the land. Go up and take possession of it as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, told you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged (Deut. 1:21 emphasis added). On this particular occasion, the people don t listen. They get scared at the trial they are facing, and they start to grumble. God, why did you ever take us out of Egypt? Life was so much better back there! Our enemies here are so much stronger than we are! You don t really love us,

3 do you? Why did you bring us here, God? (Deut. 1:27-28). (Have you ever said anything like that to God? Have you ever grumbled at what it seems that God is doing in your life?) So Moses repeats his message to the Israelites. Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them. Then God states the reason why they should be courageous. The LORD your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the wilderness. There you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place (Deut. 1:29-31 emphasis added). Can you picture a new father carrying his infant son in his arms? He s so happy and proud. Every time the baby moves or coos, he gets a big smile on his face. That s the way that God watched over his people in Egypt and for those forty years out in the desert. The implication, of course, is that God is going to continue to act that way towards his people in the future. Why? Because God doesn t change. His character and his faithfulness do not fluctuate. One of the things that I like most about Deuteronomy is the way that God is described. Some of the descriptions are so powerful and so memorable. 1 Description Reference a jealous God 4:24; 5:9; 6:15 a consuming fire 4:24 a merciful God 4:31 the faithful God 7:9 a great and awesome God 7:21 God of gods and Lord of lords 10:17 the great God 10:17 mighty and awesome 10:17 this glorious and awesome name the LORD your God 28:58 the Rock 32:4, 15, 18, 30, 31 the Most High 32:8 the eternal God 33:27 Here is a God that you can count on no matter how scary the future appears! The LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything (Deut. 2:7). Forty years! Forty years of faithfulness! One of my favorite stories about our church took place as it turns out forty years ago. Carr Lake Bible Chapel as our church was known in those days was going through a very rough period. Attendance and giving had been dropping for a couple of years. In April of 1974 the members of the church took a vote on whether the church should even remain open. Seventeen people voted. Six said it was time to call it quits, but eleven voted for the church to continue. That must have been a tough congregational meeting. In September of that year God provided a man named Dave Hathaway, and God used Dave to bring new life to our church. During the next two and a half years our church made two big decisions. We affiliated with the Evangelical Free Church of America and built a new 1 Deuteronomy also uses the LORD your God almost 300 times in addition to the times that LORD is used by itself. LORD is the traditional English translation of Yahweh, which is derived from the Hebrew expression for I am.

4 building. And the church started to grow. When I think about what Dave Hathaway and the church accomplished in that short span of time, I marvel at it. And I also thank God that I was the fortunate person who got to come and build on the foundation that those servants of God had laid. Just as the Israelites remembered God s goodness to them, so should we. It s good to remember the past because it reminds us that God hasn t changed. His faithfulness in the past provides us with hope for the future. God will present us with trials, but he will also be with us through every change. So let s be courageous as we face the future that God has for us! Be Careful There is a second theme that runs through these open chapters of Deuteronomy. This one is not told through a series of stories but by direct instruction. 5 See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the LORD my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. 6 Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. 7 What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him? 8 And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today? (Deut. 4:5-8 emphasis added) Moses is teaching the people that the living God will be glorified before a watching world when God s people are careful to live the way that he has taught them. 9 Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. (Deut. 4:9 emphasis added) This idea is repeated when Moses reminds the Israelites of what took place at Mt. Sinai when they received the Ten Commandments. 15 You saw no form of any kind the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, 16 so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, 17 or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, 18 or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below. (Deut. 4:15-18 emphasis added) 23 Be careful not to forget the covenant of the LORD your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the LORD your God has forbidden. 24 For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. (Deut. 4:23-24 emphasis added) Be careful! Times of transition can be inspiring times when we experience God s goodness and provision in new ways, but change in our circumstances can also produce changes in our hearts and our perspective toward life. We need to be careful about that. God wants us to go his way. That s what Moses means when he says that God is a jealous God. He will not tolerate any human beings pretending that they know better than he does on the right way to live. When we go through a time of transition we need to monitor our hearts. What is happening to us when things around us change? How do those changes affect our relationship with God?

5 Some people have a tendency to embrace change quickly. That s what Moses is concerned about when he is talking to the Israelites. You are going into a new land. Some of the things that you will see there will entice you and pull you away from God. So be careful! Don t embrace change too quickly! Don t try something new before you have considered whether God endorses that change. I think that is a particularly relevant warning in our day and age. In our modern culture, novelty is almost always considered good. The new is always better than the old. You move to a new city, and you discover that your new location offers a lot of possibilities not available in Bemidji. You go off to college, and you find that living in the dorm can be a lot more fun than living with mom and dad. Be careful! What opportunities does God want you to explore, and what opportunities does he want you to resist? Don t immediately buy into everything that is supposedly new and improved. Some people embrace change too quickly. On the other hand, some people resist any kind of change. Every new thing is considered a threat. Some of the people that Moses had to deal with were like that. We should never have left Egypt! Life was so much better back then! Please don t ask me to make any changes, Moses! Somebody came up with a law that summarizes this approach to life. It s called Cornford s Law. Have you ever heard of it? I have no idea who Cornford was or whether he actually thought this law up. (Quite frankly, I don t care.) Cornford s Law is not a prescription for how things should work; it is a description of how things so often actually turn out. Here is what Cornford s Law says. See if you think this is an accurate description of how decisions are sometimes made. Nothing is ever done until everyone is convinced that it ought to be done and has been convinced for so long that it is now time to do something else. That s Cornford s Law. Have you ever seen that law in action? I suspect that most of us have experienced that law. Sometimes people will do almost anything except admit that a change is necessary. If you haven t experienced Cornford s Law yet, just hang on. Sooner or later you will. We need to be careful. Don t embrace every novelty that comes along. Don t insist that nothing should ever change. Be careful! Conclusion If you have trusted in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, God has a good future for you. He does not promise you that you will never go through any trials. In fact, if you are truly a child of God through faith in Christ, God will put you through trials in order to teach you to depend more on him. But you can rest assured that his overall goal for your life is good. So be courageous! Whatever transition you are facing, grab hold of it. Don t be afraid. Don t be discouraged. God will be with you. He will not abandon you. Be courageous! And be careful too! With every change that enters your life, make sure that you are still walking with God. Spend time in his Word, and pray to him for guidance. Make a point of meeting with his people for worship and encouragement. Don t let exciting changes distract you from God. Don t let disturbing changes make you dig in your heels and grumble against God. Be courageous! Be careful! This sermon was preached at the Evangelical Free Church of Bemidji on August 3, 2014 by Dr. Frederic M. Martin.