Revering the Word
Deuteronomy 1 Learning from our past.
Good morning, everyone. This morning we turn to the book of deuteronomy. It's a book that I Really love and it is the fifth book of the Pentateuch the law of Moses the books of Moses and it comes after numbers and Israel has now been in the desert for 40 years and they are in the last month of their season of history in the desert before they're going to cross the Jordan River and enter the Promised Land and Deuter means second and this is a copy of the law the second reading of the law It's essentially a reminder picture Moses with his people and they're about to enter the land and he does not want them to forget You know the law came in the first year that they left Egypt and they were in the desert and Moses went up on the mountain and got the law from God on Mount Sinai and He's wanting them to remember everything that God has done for them and to remember The guidance of God's law so that when they enter the Promised Land they will obey him yet Moses You'll see a part of frustration on Moses's part because he knows how wayward the people are they still have the Adamic sin problem that we have today and that by nature we have sin in our in our being God's dealing with it in a different way today and This day and age he's using the law to help Mold them shape them and the sacrificial system to be able to atone for their sin when they when they do sin but today in The New Testament Church Age We still have a sin problem But now we have the power of the Holy Spirit to help us walk in victory over that sin problem That doesn't mean we're gonna be sinless, but we are gonna sin less and we have a power available to us To live a life that is more righteous before God and because of the forgiveness of Christ We've been given right standing with God so it's a new age But in this age the Holy Spirit's not in every believer like it was Like it is now to them in the desert and even when they entered the Promised Land and so Moses has a bit of discouragement in just knowing how the people have failed and actually believing that they will fail again And and we will see that throughout Israel's history that they will turn away, but Moses is going to give them some really great instruction throughout this book and call them to Follow the law and to obey the Lord and it's meant to bless them It's meant for good that they would follow God and now the generation of people that is going into the Promised Land is The next generation because in 40 years most of the original generation has died out Joshua and Caleb are gonna lead them into the Promised Land and they're now dealing with The people that have been born in the last four years and those are gonna be the people that are gonna go in and Take over the Promised Land So how much more since the law was given 39 years earlier? Do they need a reminder about what God wants them to follow in this second reading of the law? So it's it's really a Farewell speech - you know, Moses isn't gonna lead them into the Promised Land and these are gonna be God Giving his last words through Moses to these people. So let's turn to Deuteronomy chapter 1 verse 1 now These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel across the Jordan in the wilderness in the arabah opposite Suf between Puran and Tofil and Leban and has Arath and Dizabah It is a 11 days journey from Hora by the way of Mount Seer to Kaddish Bernia in the 40th year So now we're getting the timing in the 40th year on the first day of the 11th month See they're they're right at the end of their journey in The desert Moses spoke to the children of Israel According to all that the Lord had commanded him to give to them after he had defeated Saihon the king of Amorites and they did have some military victory on the other side of the Jordan before they entered the Promised Land who lived in Heshbahn and Og the king of Bishan who lived in Castoroth and Ederai across the Jordan in the land of Moab. Moses undertook to expound this law saying So here we have Moses instruction now. We have the region They are and the timing the Lord our God spoke to us at Horb saying you have stayed long enough at this mountain Turn and set your journey and go to the hill country of The Amorites and to all their neighbors in the arabah in the hill country and in the lowland in the Negev And by the sea coast the land of the Canaanites and Lebanon as far as the great river the river Euphrates He's talking about the land that was promised to Abraham and he's talking about the land that they are now to go take See I have placed The land before you go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to give to your fathers to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob To them and their descendants after them I Spoke to you at that time saying I am not able to bear the burden of you alone And this is where I mentioned you know one of the things you'll see and it's it's good to reflect on this now And kind of prepare as we head into these verses is that Moses is going to remind them of their failures and in some ways I think it's good and right to think about that, you know in my life You know whether it be as I've mentioned, you know that before I came to Christ I had a gambling problem and and even when I first began I still didn't Omit that problem completely this was back in 96 when I came to Christ and I mean It's not that I went to casinos often but I went maybe three times a year But when I would go I wouldn't I would just kind of get lost in it and so I had to I had to give that up and What why do I bring that up I? bring that up because It's good to remember how our sin and waywardness Gave us consequences it it it didn't lead to good outcomes in our lives It let the bad outcomes and what Moses is going to be doing in this letter is he's going to be calling on them and and and and Telling them to obey God It's going to go well with you if you'll just obey the Lord and if you follow him Life is going to go better and God wants to bless you and He's saying you know what look if we look back on your journey your history and we look at when you didn't obey God Look what happened it didn't work out life didn't work out well and what I want you to do is see that I'm not trying to be negative for the sake of being negative But what I'm trying to do is help you to see your history And you'll you'll just put notice when you got away from God and you did your own thing It didn't work out well And now you're about to enter this new season of history And I'm reminding you of this because I wanted to go differently this time And I really want you to obey God and walk in the blessing of God So Moses says in verse 9 I spoke to you at that time saying I'm not able to bear the burden of you alone You know Moses had a huge burden of leading this people who many times turned away from God And it was it was hard to lead this people the Lord your God has multiplied you and behold You are this day like the stars of heaven in number and remember He promised Abraham many years earlier that you will have as many families to stars in the sky And by the way the church now makes that makes up part of that family of God But in this season he says may the Lord the God of your fathers increase you a thousand fold more Then you are and bless you just as he has promised you see there's blessing in store for following God and God has good plans and in fact Israel is going to Have the blessing and you know in generations to come here They're gonna they're gonna have their high water mark under Solomon where they have peace and prosperity But unfortunately, they're gonna turn their backs on God and it's not gonna go well Verse 12. How can I bear alone? How can I alone bear the load and burden of you and your strife? Choose wise and discerning and experienced men from your tribes and I will point them as your heads And he's talking about something in the past. I believe it comes from if I recall correctly Genesis chapter 18 when Jethro his father-in-law came and said Moses you can't bear the burden of all these people alone You need to appoint other leaders and they can get involved in here the small cases and you'll hear the big ones And he's giving them a reminder of what has happened in the past. So let's keep reading You answered me and said the thing which you have said to do is good So I took the heads of your tribes wise and experienced man and appointed them heads over you leaders of thousands and of hundreds of fifties of tens and Offersors for your tribes then I charged your judges at that time saying hear the cases between your fellow countrymen and Judge righteously between a man and his fellow countrymen or the alien who is with them You shall not show partiality and judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike You shall not fear man for the judgment is God's the case The case that is too hard for you you shall bring to me and I will hear it I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do and That way they had you know other people they could turn to when they had a problem with a fellow Israelite in particular And they had people that they could go to to help them and eventually Moses would be the last person They would go to but that was a wise Council that jethro god is Moses is trying to lead this throng of people in the desert Then we set out from whore I mean we went through all the great and terrible wilderness which you saw in the way to the hill country of the Amorites Just as the Lord our God had commanded us and we came to Kadesh baniari isn't interesting How he says just has the Lord God commanded us He's trying to show how he tried to lead the people to follow what God had commanded I said to you you have come to the hill country of the Amorites which the Lord our God is about to give us See the Lord your God has placed the land before you go up take possession as the Lord the God of your father Just has spoken to you do not fear and be dismayed He's trying to show them in the past while they were in the desert You know God was with them and gave them victory and they can trust God now when they enter the promised land If they will but honor God he will help them and give them victory Then all of you approached me and said let us send men before us That they may search out the land for us and bring back To us word of the way by which we should go up and the cities which we shall enter This thing pleased me and I took 12 of your men one from each tribe now Remember they sent spies out into the land years ago They turned up the spies and went up to the hill country and came to the valley of Eschal and spied it out And they took some of the fruit of the land in their hands And brought it down to us and they brought us back a report and said it is a good land Which the Lord our God is about to give us? Yet you were not willing to go up but rebelled He's reminding them of their history against the command of the Lord your God and you grumbled in your tents and said because the Lord hates us He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of Amorites to destroy us Where can we go up? Our brethren have made our hearts melt saying that people are bigger and taller than we The cities are large and fortified to heaven and besides we saw the sons of the anachim their giants Is what that means then I said to you do not be shocked nor fear them the Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight on your behalf just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes and In the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carry you just as a man carries his son And all the way what you have walked until you came to this place He's trying to say this is what he said to them then when they were telling saying they were giants in the land And they can't take it Haven't you seen what God did to Egypt? Haven't you seen how he provided water from the rock and manna and quail and and even victory in the desert? Haven't you seen how God has provided for you? Don't turn away from him now But for all this you did not trust the Lord your God Who goes before you on your way to seek out a place for you to encamp in fire by night and cloud by that? You don't remember when that fire was over the tabernacle to tell you when to go and when you shouldn't go To show you the way in which you should go Then the Lord heard the son of your words and he was angry and took an all-sane not one of these men this evil generation So see the good land which I swore to give to your fathers except Caleb the son of Japunah He shall see it and to him and to his sons I will give the land on which he has set foot because he has followed the Lord fully See he's saying look when someone followed God rightly they were blessed when you didn't follow the Lord You were cursed that's going to be a theme throughout the book of Deuteronomy And he's trying to instill in them to follow the Lord the Lord was angry with me also on your account saying Not even you shall enter there, you know, Moses isn't going to get to enter the Promised Land either Joshua the son of none who stands before you he shall enter there Encourage him for he will cause Israel to inherit it Moreover your little ones who you said would become prey You know, they said all of our children are going to die You know if we enter the Promised Land, it's going to go bad. They're giants there and your sons who this day have No knowledge of good or evil shall enter there. See your children are going to get to go But not you guys because you were unfaithful And I will give it to them and they shall possess it But as for you turn around and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea So that first generation who's now dead, he's reminding the next generation what happened to them and This isn't what they did. So when they were told there were going to be consequences for their Believing the spies that there were giants and that they shouldn't go then they said, oh, well, we'll go and fight right now This is the generation before but God didn't tell him to do that. He was going to have the consequence of them dying out in the desert Verse 41 then you said to me, we have sinned against the Lord We will indeed go up and fight just as the Lord our God commanded us and every man of you girded on his weapons of war This was immediately after they were punished for the report of the spies And you girded on his weapons of war and you regarded it as easy to go up into the hill country And the Lord said to me say to them do not go up nor fight for I am not among you Otherwise you'll be defeated before your enemies So they they took matters into their own hands after God wanted to punish them They said no, we'll just go and fight right now, but God didn't tell him to do that So I spoke to you, but you would not listen and he's showing them the consequences again of not listening They didn't listen when he said they could trust him and now when he said you're gonna don't go now They're doing their own thing again. They're just always going their own way instead of following God Instead you rebelled against the command of the Lord and acted presumptuously and went up to the hill country The Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you as bees do and crushed you from Sarah to Horma Then you returned and wept before the Lord, but the Lord did not listen to your voice nor give ear to you So you remained in Kaddish Many days the days that you spent there and that's how chapter one ends You know this next generation is getting reminded of the stories of what God said and what that first generation did in not honoring God and as a result the consequences they faced and You know sometimes we have a hard time learning from other people's consequences But we should we should try to look at hey, what what happened in the people before us? Even in your parents or even in people around When they didn't follow God what happened or even to look at your own life in prior years and say When I did follow God what happened when I didn't follow God what happened and we should learn from that so in the future we do honor and obey it God and walk in his blessing because he does as we'll see in this book of Deuteronomy have the theme that so that it may go well with you God wants it to go well with you. He really does and when you honor him It doesn't mean everything's gonna go perfect. No, it does not But I'll tell you what it goes a lot better for you when you fall and obey your Lord than when you don't And God is giving them that reminder and you know, that's a loving thing to do Really to really kind of be wake up and see that sin leads to destruction and following God leads to blessing So that in the future we will but follow God and walk in his blessing That is a great reminder of the book of Deuteronomy and I look forward to continuing this journey through this book with you God bless you all [BLANK_AUDIO]