Sermon for Flinders Park Church 28th July 2019.
Introduction to Deuteronomy
It is time to begin a new book and this time, instead of thinking about a NT book, I have decided to work through Deuteronomy. Paul explained that Christians must take note of what happened to Israel in their history. “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come” (1 Cor. 10:11 NIV). This gives us reason to study the Old Testament. But why Deuteronomy rather than some other OT book? Deuteronomy is a very important book for the theology of both the Old Testament and the New. The Old Testament is divided into three parts – Law, Prophets and Writings – and the theology of each is influenced by Deuteronomy. Jesus quoted Deuteronomy when he was tempted by the devil in the wilderness (Matt 4:6, 7, 10 quotes Deut 8:3; 6:16 and 6:13 respectively) and also when he was asked what the most important commandment is (Deut 6:5). Jesus is the prophet like Moses, who Moses predicts in Deut 8 (Acts 3:22-23 quoting Deut 18:15, 18-19). Paul also made considerable use of Deuteronomy in his writings, particularly Deut 30 and 32. For these reasons, Deuteronomy is a good choice of representative Old Testament book. It has a lot to say to us.
The book of Deuteronomy is set at a crucial time in the history of Israel. The people were in the wilderness east of the Jordan (1:1) and just about to enter the Promised Land. Deuteronomy is basically a long sermon given by Moses to prepare the people for what was about to occur. He was preparing the people, not just to enter the Land, but to live as the people of the true God inside the land.
Chapter 1
ESV Deuteronomy 1:1 These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. 2 It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea. 3 In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the LORD had given him in commandment to them, 4 after he had defeated Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and in Edrei. 5 Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law, saying, 6 “The LORD our God said to us in Horeb, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. 7 Turn and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbours in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland and in the Negeb and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. 8 See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after them.’”
At this point in time, Israel was standing outside the Promised Land. Moses exhorted the people to leave the place they were staying and go in to take the land. The LORD said, “See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land the LORD swore he would give to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—and to their descendants after them’”(Deut. 1:8 NIV).
What is about to happen at this point is not a spur of the moment event. Moses did not simply decide to spontaneously enter the Land because he felt like it. This was the fulfilment of something which God had promised to Abraham hundreds of years earlier. Let’s go back, then, to Genesis, even before Abraham. Adam and Eve were given a Garden, but they sinned and were cast out of the Garden (Gen 3:23-24). But God had a plan to restore humanity to right relationship with him and this included a place in which humans could dwell with God present among them, just as he was in the Garden of Eden.
A significant step in the plan was the call of Abram in Gen 12:1-3. “The LORD had said to Abram, ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you’” (Gen. 12:1-3 NIV). At that point Abram was promised a land that God would show him. The promise is repeated in different forms to Abraham. In Genesis 15 God appeared to Abraham and made a covenant with him (see vv13-16). Again in chapter 17 the promise is reiterated. God said to Abraham, “The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God” (Gen. 17:8 NIV).
Because of these promises, made about 700 years earlier, we know that entering the land of Canaan was not some new idea, but a very old one. God works according to his long-term plan. This speaks to God’s faithfulness to his promises. He keeps his word. The fact that God keeps his word is what Moses reminds the people of next.
9 “At that time I said to you, ‘I am not able to bear you by myself. 10 The LORD your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven. 11 May the LORD, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, as he has promised you!’”
God’s faithfulness to his word is not something that Israel knew by reading the Bible because they did not have a Bible. What they did have was the evidence of God’s faithfulness in their own history. Moses makes this evident when he says, “The |LORD your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven.” This is the fulfilment of the promise God gave to Abraham in Gen 15:5: “And he brought him outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’” The promise is repeated to Abraham in Gen 22:17 and then to Isaac in Gen 26:4. And Moses reminded the people that God is faithful to his promises. The fact that Israel was a huge nation of people was evidence of that faithfulness. If God had fulfilled one promise he would fulfil the promise to give them the Promised Land of Canaan.
Moses then asked,“How can I bear by myself the weight and burden of you and your strife?” Verses 13-18 discuss the choosing of leaders to help Moses settle disputes in Israel. The word strive is somewhat telling since it foreshadows what a problem Israel turned out to be.
“Then we set out from Horeb and went through all that great and terrifying wilderness that you saw, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as the LORD our God commanded us. And we came to Kadesh-barnea” (v 19).
Moses was making mention of what happened to Israel thirty eight years earlier. As Moses spoke these words they were standing in the exact same spot as they had all those years ago. In the time Moses gave his farewell speech in Deuteronomy, they had just defeated the Amorites (Deut 1:4). Years earlier, they had come to the hill country of the Amorites. Moses reminds them, “And I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the LORD our God is giving us. See, the LORD your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not fear or be dismayed’” (1:20-21). If they were in the same place, waiting to enter the land forty years earlier, why did they not enter it then? Surely God is faithful to the promises he made all the years before? If God is faithful, then why did Israel not enter previously? The explanation is given by Moses in the next few verses.
22 Then all of you came near me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, that they may explore the land for us and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up and the cities into which we shall come.’ 23 The thing seemed good to me, and I took twelve men from you, one man from each tribe. 24 And they turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out. 25 And they took in their hands some of the fruit of the land and brought it down to us, and brought us word again and said, ‘It is a good land that the LORD our God is giving us.’ 26 Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. 27 And you murmured in your tents and said, ‘Because the LORD hated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. 28 Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.”’ 29 Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread or afraid of them. 30 The LORD your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31 and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’ 32 Yet in spite of this word you did not believe the LORD your God, 33 who went before you in the way to seek you out a place to pitch your tents, in fire by night and in the cloud by day, to show you by what way you should go.
The people of Israel had seen the great miracles and deliverance the LORD had done to bring them out of Egypt. However, instead of trusting the LORD and his promises, they refused to listen to Moses or Joshua or Caleb. They refused to obey the instruction to take the land. The problem was not that God was unfaithful to his promise. The problem was that the people were mired in unbelief. God was faithful and they did not believe. They did not need more miracles to produce faith since they had already seen them. The issue was the hearts of the people. They were stiff-necked (Exod 32:9).
This refusal to enter the land angered the LORD.
34 And the LORD heard your words and was angered, and he swore, 35 ‘Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers, 36 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him and to his children I will give the land on which he has trodden, because he has wholly followed the LORD!’ 37 Even with me the LORD was angry on your account and said, ‘You also shall not go in there. 38 Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. 39 And as for your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there. And to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. 40 But as for you, turn, and journey into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.’
For thirty eight years, Israel was forced to wander around in circles because of their rebellion. While they wandered around, God caused all the people over twenty years old to die until there was no one left who had rebelled against him. Only the people under twenty would be able to enter the land. Joshua and Caleb lived to ripe old ages so that they could enter, but even Moses was excluded as was Aaron. This is the consequence of unbelief. It is important to see that the consequence of unbelief was not merely wandering around in circles. The consequence of unbelief is death. Every one of the adult people who refused to trust the LORD and enter the land died. They did not get a second chance. The nation got a second chance but the individuals did not get another go at it.
Even so they imagined that after God had sworn that they would not enter that in fact they could get into the land without the blessing of God.
41 Then you answered me, ‘We have sinned against the LORD. We ourselves will go up and fight, just as the LORD our God commanded us.’ And every one of you fastened on his weapons of war and thought it easy to go up into the hill country. 42 And the LORD said to me, ‘Say to them, Do not go up or fight, for I am not in your midst, lest you be defeated before your enemies.’ 43 So I spoke to you, and you would not listen; but you rebelled against the command of the LORD and presumptuously went up into the hill country. 44 Then the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you as bees do and beat you down in Seir as far as Hormah. 45 And you returned and wept before the LORD, but the LORD did not listen to your voice or give ear to you. 46 So you remained at Kadesh many days, the days that you remained there.
The attempt to enter the Land without God’s presence fighting for them was a complete failure. This was not repentance but presumption. God had sworn that they would not enter and yet they tried to enter in their own ability. The army was trounced and kicked out of hill country of the Amorites.
Let’s now consider what this story has to do with us as Christians in 2019. We are not Israelites and we have not been promised the land of Canaan. But we have been promised something, namely, the salvation which is found in Christ alone. Since the whole Bible is about Jesus (John 5:39), we can understand that the message of Deut 1 is about Christ. This means that Israel’s lessons are lessons that we must also heed if we want to gain salvation. Let me summarise the points made by Moses to Israel:
1) The land of Canaan was promised by the LORD to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
2) God is faithful to his promises and will fulfil them.
3) The reason that the first generation of Israel did not enter the Promised Land was because they had unbelieving hearts and rebelled against the LORD.
4) The consequence was that Israel wandered around in circles for 38 years until all the unbelieving generation had died.
5) Lastly, Israel should not presume to enter without the presence and power of the LORD.
How do these apply to us as Christians?
1) God has made great promises about salvation. His promise is that the gospel “is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (Rom 1:16). The gospel is about Jesus, who is the stone the builders rejected. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
2) God is faithful to his promises. Supremely he has demonstrated that faithfulness by raising Jesus Christ from the dead. This is enough reason to trust what God has said to us. All his promises are now “Yes” and “Amen” in Christ (2 Cor 1:20). All the promises of God are fulfilled in Christ.
3) We are in danger of not gaining salvation is we live in unbelief.
4) The consequence of unbelief is ultimately death. Without salvation that is the destiny of every person.
5) We cannot presume to gain salvation for ourselves apart from the person of Christ. There is no other way.
I want to expand a little on the last three points. Chapters 3 and 4 of Hebrews exhort us to pay attention to the unbelief of Israel and not repeat it.
ESV Hebrews 3:12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.’ 16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. (Heb. 3:12-19 ESV)
The problem with the church that Hebrews is written to was that they wanted to go back to Judaism and the temple and sacrifices. This was why they were told to take care not to have an unbelieving heart, that is, a heart that did not believe that what Jesus has done completes Judaism, the sacrifices and the law. We may not want to become Jewish, but often we try to get salvation in any way but the way God has specified, that is, through Christ alone. The central issue to do with unbelief is that we don’t believe that Jesus is enough. We are always trying to add things: the “right” prayers, techniques, rituals, seven steps, etc. We need to go back to believing that Jesus is enough. Salvation cannot be gained by our own efforts or by some formula. It cannot be gained by doing things, even good things. Every time we try these means of attaining God’s blessings instead of believing what God has said in his word, we are walking in unbelief.
Unbelief has serious consequences. Remember that the ultimate consequence of unbelief is not just wandering around in circles; it is death. The question for us is never whether God is faithful to his promises. He is always faithful. The question is whether our hearts have fallen into unbelief. Have we stopped trusting that the life, death and resurrection of Jesus are enough? Have we tried to go elsewhere to attain to salvation? Have we fallen for formulas and steps to get God’s blessing? Doing these things is tantamount to unbelief. If we are living in unbelief we need to repent.