Transcription of 16ID1752

Deuteronomy 31&32 “A Song To Help Remind You” July 13, 2016

Let’s open our Bibles this evening to Deuteronomy 31, as we’re closing in on the end of our favorite book in the Bible that’ll have to change now to Joshua after we go to Hebrews. So, a couple more weeks. In fact, next week will be our final study in this book as we hand off to Joshua the people that Moses has cared for so greatly. Two weeks from tonight, we will have our question-and-answer night. I hope that you’ll have some questions that will encourage us to learn to know our Bibles better. And then we are planning a sixteen-week study on faith. As we got done outlining – I started working the last couple of weeks – we’re going to do sixteen weeks in Hebrews 11. So forty verses, sixteen weeks, to look at what kind of faith God is pleased by, what kind of faith He’s not pleased by, so we might understand what faith means to Him before we come back, then, to Joshua. We’ll just kind of leave the people perched on the land, getting ready to go in, and then come back and find them.

But tonight we just want to focus on the two chapters previous to the end, chapters 31 and 32, where Moses is called by the Lord to call Joshua in front of the folks and set him apart, if you will. His ordination, actually, is in next week’s (the last week’s) study, but he does mention him here. And then we’re going to look, this evening, at a song that Moses wrote that God wanted him to write to help remind the people of all of the things that he had been saying so that, when years go by and things come around, as the Lord says, they’ll be reminded; they’ll be singing the song – their kids and grandkids – and say, “Hey, that’s all about us, what’s happening right now.” So, next week, we’ll conclude with the blessings upon the people and the grieving over Moses’ death. And then, finally, they’re going to get to go in. It’s been a long wait – 430 years. It hasn’t taken us that long to get here.

Chapter 31. Let’s begin there. Verse 1, “Then Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. And he said to them, ‘I am one hundred and twenty years old today. I can no longer go out and come in. Also the LORD has said to me, “You shall not cross over this Jordan.” ’ ” In view of his approaching death, and with the expectation that they really were ready to move forward, Moses’ final words to the people – before handing the oversight over to Joshua – are recorded here; Joshua, the man God had chosen to follow Moses. Notice that Moses says, “I’m a

1 hundred and twenty. I’m not able to go in and go out.” And then he says, “And God told me I can’t go in.” If you just flip ahead in your Bible a couple of chapters, look at the end chapter – chapter 34 – verse 7 (which we’ll look at next week). But I want to give you this verse in light of what verse 2 says. This says, “Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died. His eyes were not dim nor his natural vigor diminished.” So Moses died with a good eye and a sharp mind and a strong body, and yet, if you compare that with what we read in verse 2, at a hundred and twenty, he must have looked like ninety-five, I guess. He was doing pretty good. But Moses didn’t see himself any longer in having the ability to go forward, and I would suggest to you it’s not physical because it says he died in really good health. That should tell you when the Lord’s done with you, good health or not, you’re going. Right? You can die sick, or you can die healthy, but die is the operative word. So, Moses doesn’t see himself in a position where he could go forward anymore because God had said he couldn’t go. He was a healthy guy. He could see good. I’m half of his age, I don’t see so good, I’ve got glasses on to read. But yet his time had come, his work was done.

And I want you to notice something because, from a spiritual standpoint, Moses was the fellow to whom God gave the Law. He was the lawgiver. He’s associated with the Law. And the Law can’t bring anyone into the Land of Promise. You can’t come into a relationship with God through the Law. Joshua, whose name in Greek is Jesus, he’ll bring them in. So, there’s no way to work your way into God’s good graces and into fellowship with God. But Jesus can do that. And it’s this beautiful picture of Moses, the lawgiver, having to hand off to Joshua, the man of grace because the Law can’t bring you into a place of rest, but grace and faith in Jesus can. And so, as the Lord writes the book, the typology is beautiful. I don’t think Joshua necessarily understood it or Moses, either, I suspect. But looking back, we can certainly see it. It kind of runs along that same picture when you get to Romans 7 and 8, and Paul, there in chapter 7, is lamenting his sinfulness, his dilemma. He said, in chapter 7:18 to the Romans, “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.” “I want to do right, but I don’t have the strength, I don’t have the energy, I don’t have the capacity.” He said at the end of chapter 7 (verse 24), “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” There’s no way to get in to fellowship with God by way of the Law or by way of the flesh. By the time you jump to chapter 8:1 of Romans, Paul is able to say, “I thank the Lord that there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” “He’s the One who came to save us.” And then, towards the end of

2 chapter 8, he writes about (verses 35-39), “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet in all these things were are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” And then he said, “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” So, here’s Moses with 2½ million of God’s people, but Moses the lawgiver can’t bring them in. You can’t work your way to heaven. You can’t promise to do better. You can’t do it in your flesh. You need a Savior. Jesus came to save. And Joshua will bring the people in so that what we can’t do, God will do for us. And so glorious picture of what God planned to do.

But I want you to notice, in verse 2, Moses isn’t saying, “I can’t go in and come out because I’m getting tired.” That wasn’t the case according to what we read in the last chapter. He was in great physical condition. Everything was functioning just fine – his mind, his eyes, his body was strong. But he’d come to the end of the place where he could be of effectiveness. He’d brought them to the edge, which is what the Law does. It brings you to the place where you look for the Joshua. Right? You look for the Savior.

One more lesson that we learn from Moses – just looking back – because Moses began his ministry in earnest at the age of eighty. For the first forty years, he lived in the palace with Pharaoh. He then decided he would rather suffer with God’s people than live in that king’s house. And so he left, and for forty years he was trained in the back side of the desert. No one knew him at all. For forty years, he was somebody. For forty years, he learned to be nobody. And God uses nobodies. So, at eighty, he came to that place. But the point is - no matter how old you feel or you feel like you are, your age really doesn’t restrict God from working in your life. He did his best work after eighty. It’s interesting. I remember reading J.C. Penney’s autobiography. He was at it at ninety years old, running a business. Thomas Edison was ninety years old when he was still inventing things. I think Wesley was eighty-eight years old and still riding 100,000 miles a year on a horse. If I walk two miles, my body goes, “That was dumb. We have cars for this kind of stuff.” (Laughing) Wesley gets on the horse, and he preaches, and then he gets off, and he preaches in the next place, and, at eighty-eight years old he’s still traveling around. I think Michelangelo was eighty-nine years old when he

3 painted his most famous part of the Sistine Chapel, “The Last Judgment,” which, if you go with us to Rome next year (if the Lord tarries), you’ll get to see. But I think he was eighty-nine, and he was up there painting away. Moses, these past forty years, had been an awesome guy, but he’s come to the end of what he can do. So there’s nothing left, then, but to go home. Right? And that was God’s plan for Moses.

So he says to the people, verse 3, “ ‘The LORD your God Himself crosses over before you.’ ” In other words, “I’m not going with you, but God’s going to lead you.” “ ‘He will destroy these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua himself crosses over before you, just as the LORD has said. And the LORD will do to them as He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites and their land, when He destroyed them. The LORD will give them over to you, that you may do to them according to every commandment which I have commanded you. Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.’ ” What a beautiful memory verse, right? Some of those you want to not memorize; this one, you do want to memorize. God will give you victory. I’m sure that the people go, “What are we going to do without Moses?!” And Moses said, “Oh, you don’t need me. God’s going to go with you, and Joshua’s going to be the guy who’s going to step up and hear what the Lord has to say.” But, look, you’ve had an experience, and you remember, from verse 4, that for the past year, in coming back to this land and to this border, they had really won every battle on the eastern side of the Jordan, in what today is all up and down the Jordan coast, if you will, along the Jordan River; all Jordan territory. So, they had beaten kings and armies far greater than they. God had given it to them because they had been faithful. So, his word to them is, “God will do that again. You don’t have to be afraid. And you don’t have to worry. You can just be of good courage. God is not leaving. God is not forsaking you. He’s going to be there with you. You have proof, and you have assurance.”

And “Then Moses,” verse 7, “called Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, ‘Be strong and of good courage, for you must go with this people to the land which the LORD has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall cause them to inherit it. And the LORD, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.’ ” And I find it very interesting that what Moses is told to tell the people, he also tells the leader. Because the answer is the same for both. The wording is a little different; the

4 exact meanings are virtually the same. This is the first time Joshua has to be responsible for the decisions that are being made. Imagine being a young man, as Joshua was, sitting with Moses as his helper, constantly, for years. Really couldn’t make a mistake because, if he was going in the wrong direction, Moses would have stopped him. There was always someone there to kind of cover his mistakes. But now he has to go from a mentee to making the decisions himself. And I suspect, like for most of us, when God begins to move you forward, it is hard to keep your eyes on Him who brought you there. Now Joshua’s looking around going, “Who am I going to talk to? Who am I going to ask? Who’s going to know?” “Well, Joshua, you’re going to know. God’s going with you. You’re leading the people. He’s leading you. He’ll take care of everything. Now it’s your time to apply what you’ve learned.” His theology, after years of sitting in the supportive role, now has to get legs; and he’d have to stand in faith and move in faith and trust God, and theory would have to become practically applied. No more training wheels. No more calling Moses up for help. From now on, he would have to act. Now here’s the deal. He’s been training for a long time. His ministry, effectively, would last seven and a half years by the time they went in. For the first seven and a half years, he was over it all. And then he kind of sent everyone to their own portion and said, “Now, clean up the land that God has given you. It’s manageable now. You go take care of it by faith.” But he’d been training for a long time. And I thought some of us have had extended learning periods. You’ve been sitting a long time, learning. And the problem with extended learning periods is it shortens your serving period. At a time when God would have you move out, you’re still learning. And I think that sometimes it’s a good thing to think about – is this the time that God would have me put what I’ve learned into practice? It’s “Joshua time” now; and to step out. Look at these two verses. “This is what you have, Joshua, to go on. God’s not leaving. God’s not forsaking you. You don’t need to be afraid. You don’t have to be discouraged. You don’t have to be afraid at all. You can be strong. You can be courageous! God’s with you, God’s going, God’s choice. Let’s go!” And he has to come out of the shadows and run ahead. And I think sometimes for us, we sit so faithfully, but we never get beyond the sitting and the learning. Joshua was a man who had served Moses faithfully and quietly for years. He was a faithful guy. He was a man of faith – never sought to make a name for himself. You don’t find him pushing himself forward. He really wanted God to be glorified. He was the suitable and best replacement for Moses. But Moses was done. It was time. Right? It must have been a hard day for Joshua. God will lead them, but He’ll also lead you.

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And so verse 9 tells us, “So Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded them, saying: ‘At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the LORD your God and carefully observe all the words of this law, and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess.’ ” I want you to notice verse 9. It says “Moses wrote this law.” There’s a big argument among contemporary Bible scholars about – did Moses write the book of Deuteronomy? So I just go, “Yeah, verse 9 says he wrote the law. It’s okay with me. It says so right here. If that’s not good enough for you, I’m sorry.”

Not only did he have to write it down and deliver it to the powers that be, to the priests who were to oversee these things, but he gave them some direction, and he said to them, “Every seventh year, on the year of release” (where you released people of their debts or of having held on to their land) “when there’s a national gathering at the Feast of Tabernacles, call everyone together, and let them listen to the law.” Now, we’ve studied the law. It’s not always so easy to hear, but it’s God’s way. So, “Every seven years, get mom together, get dad, bring the kids with you so that they might,” and here are the words he uses, “hear and learn, fear and carefully observe.” They may “hear and learn, fear and carefully observe.” It’s why you’re in church tonight, I hope, that you may “hear and learn, fear and carefully observe.” That’s what God wants from us. Right? And we can’t be exposed to it enough. We need more, not less, of it in our lives. How important that we continually teach God’s Word and remind ourselves of it. Look, in the days of Moses, and years that would follow, no one had a personal copy of the Law. You guys, maybe, have ten Bibles at home, and some you don’t even remember where you put them. You have plenty of access, and it’s personal, and it’s access. There were no IPhones, there were no Bibles on computer. The priest might have a scroll, one in a village. If you wanted to read it, you’d have to go in and read it there, where he was, and just seek to memorize the things that were important to you; and large portions of it were memorized. In fact, by the time we get to chapter 32 here tonight, the song was written as an acrostic, alphabetically, if you will, simply to help people be able to memorize what God had to say. So, how valuable that we

6 read God’s Word. And I like the fact that the Lord said, “Bring the kids. Bring mom, bring dad. Everybody just stand and listen to what God has to say.” How valuable. Do you know that if you begin reading your Bible at a pulpit speed (pulpit speed is defined by most Bible schools as the ability to hear every word, not fast; I might read fast on my own; you try to speak in a way that people can follow), it would take you about 71 hours to read the Bible all the way through. Pulpit speed. Some of you go a little slower, some of you maybe a little faster. But if you divide that 71 hours by 365 days, it means that if you’ll just read 12 minutes a day, you’ll get through it. That’s doable, isn’t it? That’s not overwhelming. Twelve minutes. Get your Bible out. Go sit on the patio, and read out loud for 12 minutes. Just hear. Don’t study. Just hear what God has to say. Make it a challenge. It’s valuable. It’s doable. And I love verse 13 that the Lord said bring all of the children. And He mentions them, as well, in verse 12. Bring the little ones. Verse 13, talk to the children. I think sometimes we somehow believe that kids don’t need Bible. They need playtime and snacks and entertainment and Pokemon Go and music and games. Well, they need more than that. They need to hear what God has to say as well. I was talking to one of the high school kids the other day. He was telling me about his Chemistry class, and I thought, look, if you can take Chemistry as a high schooler, you ought to be able to read your Bible! Much easier than Chemistry. I remember Chemistry. I got a degree in Microbiology. It wasn’t any fun at all. I’m not even using it. I might send it back – see if they give me a refund. (Laughing) I don’t know. Please. Refund. Look, they can handle the Word, and they need it. So, don’t underestimate the power of God’s Word in the lives of the people. Read it to them. Read it. And every seventh year, they would gather together, and this would be the milestone. This is the marker. This is the Law that God has given to us. So, God’s direction through Moses to the people.

Well, verse 14, “Then the LORD said to Moses,” and He predicts Israel’s rebellion in the years to come, “ ‘Behold, the days approach when you must die; call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tabernacle of meeting, that I may inaugurate him.’ So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tabernacle of meeting. Now the LORD appeared at the tabernacle in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood above the door of the tabernacle. And the LORD said to Moses: ‘Behold, you will rest with your fathers; and this people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them. Then My anger shall be aroused against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured. And many evils and

7 troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, “Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?” And I will surely hide My face in that day because of all the evil which they have done, in that they have turned to other gods.' " So, God now laments to Moses and to Joshua, as they are there at the place of meeting. Like I said, the anointing of Joshua is not here; it’s in chapter 34. We’ll get to it next week. But God speaks, also in chapter 34, about how unique and faithful Moses has been. So it’s not a Moses issue that is causing what is to follow years down the road. But notice that God says to the leadership, to Moses and to Joshua, “You should know that the future behavior of these people is pretty bad. You’ve done all that you could, and yet here’s what the people will do.” I thought, reading this, it must be horrible to know what’s coming. Some people go, “Oh, I just wish I knew what tomorrow holds.” I don’t want to know anything until tomorrow. Right? You don’t need to know, hey, next month these guys are going this way, and that person is turning this way. Well, the Lord says to them very clearly, “There’s coming a time when the people are going to forsake Me, and I’m going to forsake them, and they’re going to realize that the trouble has come because I’ve left – in their idolatry and in their worship of these false gods.” How horrible would it have been, though, if I was Moses, to have labored for forty years, or for Joshua, who’s just beginning his ministry, and he hears those words? “Yeah, they’re not going to do too well, but here you go, Joshua. Run with them. But it’s not going to turn out too well.” God knew the end from the beginning. He had a purpose in telling them, and the purpose (in chapter 32) was so that when it happens, they might look back and go, “Gosh, God knew this. We need to serve a God who knows us coming and going.” That’s really the way the Lord used this; so that prophecy fulfilled became a catalyst for them to walk with God. So the Lord uses His foreknowledge in a little bit (here in chapter 32) to have Moses write a song that all have to learn, that would remind them that God knew they would fall, has promised to restore them when they repent, and that they would remember, from a song that God had written so many years earlier – before they ever got in the land, that it was going to turn out this way; so they would be encouraged to come back to the Lord who knew all along that they would leave. That’s the purpose.

Verse 19, “ ‘Now therefore,’ ” the Lord says, “ ‘write down this song for yourselves, and teach it to the children of Israel; put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for Me against the children of Israel. When I have brought them to the land flowing with milk and honey, of which I swore to their fathers, and they have eaten and filled themselves and grown fat, then they will turn to other gods and

8 serve them; and they will provoke Me and break My covenant. Then it shall be, when many evils and troubles have come upon them, that this song will testify against them as a witness; for it will not be forgotten in the mouths of their descendants, for I know the inclination of their behavior today, even before I have brought them to the land of which I swore to give them.’ ” Really important. God knows the inclination of our behavior. He knows. People come, sometimes, with sin and they go, “I don’t know. I got saved, and then I really went south.” And I always say to them, “The Lord knew, not only to forgive your sins looking back, but He also knew where you were headed looking forward, and He took you anyway.” God knows the end from the beginning, and He says so quite clearly here. “I know the inclinations,” if you will, “of their heart and their behavior.” “Therefore Moses,” verse 22, “wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the children of Israel. Then He inaugurated Joshua the son of Nun,” (he had no parents at all, did you notice that?) “and said,” (sorry, too easy), “ ‘Be strong and of good courage; for you shall bring the children of Israel into the land of which I swore to them, and I will be with you.’ So it was when Moses had completed writing the words of this law in a book, when they were finished, that Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying: “Take this Book of the Law, and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there as a witness against you; for I know your rebellion and your stiff neck. If today, while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the LORD, then how much more after my death? Gather to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their hearing and call heaven and earth to witness against them. For I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And evil will befall you in the latter days, because you will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands.” ’ ”

So Moses now is given the job of writing what is not a very happy song. You want to write a song, a folk song, a national anthem, in many ways, that will remind the people that God, before you came in, said, “One day when you come in, you’re going to go south, and you’re going to be idolaters, and you’re going to get me angry, and I’m going to put you out. And being out, having suffered, you’re going to go, ‘Oh, man, we did this to ourselves. The Lord has left.’ And then you’ll be willing to come back because you’ll be reminded it was Me.” He paved the way for fallen men to return. Moses is known, in the Bible, as the lawgiver. But he has three songs in the Bible; pretty good poet, I guess. I guess inspired by the Lord. I read somewhere

9 someone said, “Everyone, deep down, is a songwriter.” I don’t know if that’s true. We all think we can sing, I’m pretty sure.

When they came out of Egypt – remember Exodus 15 – Miriam sang a song that she and Moses had written. It was a song of victory over the Egyptians. Here, they are ready to enter the land. So their beginning of wanderings and the end; they’re bookmarked, if you will, by songs – one of victory and one of certain defeat, which is interesting. So, we have the song of God’s faithfulness in Exodus 15 and the song of the people’s failures at the end of Deuteronomy (chapter 32). Moses also wrote a song in Psalm 90, if you recall, where he prays, “Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us, the years in which we have seen evil. Let Your work appear to Your servants, and Your glory to their children” (verses 15- 16). So here’s the background (from verse 19 on) of the recorded song of Deuteronomy 32. And notice in verses 19, 20 and 21, God said in years to come, it’ll remind Israel of what caused their dilemma that they currently find themselves in and that they would turn back to the Lord, which would be their only hope.

One of the things that you learn, if you ever get a chance to go to Israel, is the Jews love to sing – folk songs, folk dances. We used to take people to the “Y” when we got there, and they did this folkdance presentation. But after twenty hours in a plane and airports, people go, “Yeah, that’s great” (followed by a snoring sound). So we skip it now. But it is truly a part of the culture. It is steeped in heritage. It is their life. The Jews sing. They sing all the time. And everyone in the country knows the same songs. We teach our folks on the bus some Jewish singalong songs, and literally, wherever you go – restaurant, it doesn’t matter, shopping mall – you start singing, there’ll be twenty people sing with you because that’s what they know. Kids learn them in school as children. And then that was God’s idea for this song. “You sing it, and one day those children are going to sing it, and the words are going to hit home, and they’ll realize, ‘It’s the calamity we’ve brought on ourselves. Now we can go back to the Lord who promises to forgive us.’ ” So, it’s almost written beforehand so that, when they fall, they’ll have a way back.

All of our problems, I think, biblically, stem from forsaking God. Don’t you think? We don’t have any problems if we just stick with the Lord. But forsaking Him or forgetting His ways – and the story of Israel’s wilderness journey begins, like I said, with a song of victory but ends with one of defeat.

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Chapter 32 is written in Hebrew, obviously; not English, like you have it. But in Hebrew, it’s an acrostic; and, by that, I mean every two sentences begin with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. So the first two sentences begin with the letter “aleph” and then the next two the letter “beth” and the next two the letter “gimel” and the next two the letter “daleth”, and you go all the way to the end, “resh,” “shin,” and “tau.” And so there’re twenty-two Hebrew letters, forty-four verses, and it was done only to help you to remember. It’s an acrostic. You just remember the alphabet, gets you going on that word. Obviously you lose that ability, if you will, in English. If you’ve studied the Psalms, Psalm 119 is written in the same way; and then, every eight verses are listed under one of those letters. You go, and it says, “aleph,” and there’re eight of them; and then “beth,” and there’re eight more verses. So, there are 176 verses in Psalm 119 – eight verses for every letter. Again, it was all about remembering. Music is pretty helpful, and if it gets in your head, it’s hard to get out. We try to sing on Sunday - on our way out - one of the choruses that we sang in our worship before the service. And sometimes those songs stay with me all day. Or I’ll get up, and the next morning I’m still singing them. Advertisers understand that, right? “I wish I were an” …….. (congregation says “Oscar Mayer wiener”). Why do you know that? (Laughing) That’s foolish stuff. But you know it. I still know all of the words to “American Pie,” every one of them. (Laughing) Why? Because they get presented in a song. Maybe you don’t know who that is. That’s all right. If you don’t remember, don’t worry. But it’s a lot of useless information that’s put to music. So, when you begin to sing worship songs and choruses – when Calvary, in the late 60’s-early 70’s (when I started going to Calvary Chapel), when that whole Jesus movement was, literally every song we sang was biblical – had Bible verses. “Beloved, let us love one another, 1 John 5:7- 8” (Pastor Jack sings these words and the Scripture reference). You’d just learn verses. Couldn’t sing, it didn’t matter. You knew stuff. Sometimes you’d go to share with people, you couldn’t even talk it to them; you’d have to sing it to them because that’s the only way you knew to be able to pass it along.

So God gives them a song, and songs do that, don’t they? They stick with you. You remember. There are plenty of African tribes today that have kept their genealogical record, for centuries, through song; not written down, passed from one generation to the other. Well, here’s a song that God gave to the nation. Part of it is historical. Part of it is prophetic. It looks forward to the time of collapse and then a promise of restoration - what has happened and what will happen. It’s a sad song. It’s like a country song. All country songs are sad. You’ve heard the old, what’s the story? Play a country song backwards, and what do you get? You get

11 your wife back, you get your dog back, you get your (Laughing) job back. Well, you get the idea. So, it’s like a country song. It’s very sad. But, at the same time, God wants to remind – not Moses and not even Joshua – the kids and the grandkids and the great-grandkids down the road. This becomes a part of the fabric of the nation itself.

So let’s take a look at these. We won’t stop at every verse, but let’s get a feel for what the Lord wanted them to be singing as they gathered together often and passed it along to their families. Verse 1, “Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. Let my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, as raindrops on the tender herb, and as showers on the grass.” It begins by God calling the created universe to pay attention to the instructions of the Lord. They were going to fall upon the people, refreshingly, like rain. “For I proclaim,” we read in verse 3, “the name of the LORD: ascribe greatness to our God.” The name of the Lord - Jehovah or Yahweh; God – Elohim. You know, so often we want God to speak in thunder because it’s so easy, then, to distinguish His voice. More often than not, He talks to us like dew falling from the heavens in the morning. Right? It’s refreshing, but you’ve got to listen. “For I proclaim the name of Jehovah, Yahweh: ascribe greatness to our God – Elohim. He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He.” The first “Rock song” ever recorded. He’s the Rock! Often, by the way, used to symbolize God’s strength or His power, or the safety that He provides His people. In fact, I think there is a mention of Him being the Rock four times in this song alone, if you will. You might remember that Psalm – Psalm 61 – where it says, “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I” (verse 2). I think that’s how it goes. “Give me a place of strength and of stability that I can’t find anywhere else.” Isaiah 28:16 will speak of the Lord saying, “I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; whoever believes will not act hastily” or be forced to move quickly because he’ll have stability in his life. So, “Let the world listen to the proclamation that I’m making of the greatness of the God that I serve. His work is perfect. He is the Rock. There’s nothing to question Him.” You know, one of the important points that, usually, people will challenge when you share your faith with people is wondering if God is fair. It invariably seems to come up. “Well, if God is so good…” That’s the way the question will start. “If He’s so good, then why?” and then they’ll fill in the blank – whatever they aren’t happy with. Or, “How could God?” or “Why would God?” And the innuendo is obvious, I think. What they’re saying is, “God wouldn’t do that, so there must be no God, or He must not

12 be a good God.” And you’re kind of left to stand there, and then you begin to wonder. Look, you should know that your God is just. There’s no injustice with Him. That’s a foundational truth you have to learn. God loves you is a foundational truth. You’ll feel like He doesn’t, sometimes. Satan will come along to convince you that He doesn’t. Your friends may tell you that God’s given up on you. Not so. Foundationally, God loves you. Foundationally, God is just. And Satan may come to question it. Remember with Eve – the first line of his argument was to question the fairness of God. “Has God really said” that that would happen? So that’s going to happen to you, too. So you have to have these foundational truths. There’re a lot of things I don’t know, a lot of things I don’t understand. I’ve got a file that the longer I’m saved, the thicker it gets with questions. We’re asking you to turn in questions (for the question-and-answer night). Wait till you see my folder. I want to ask the Lord all of these questions. But I’ll tell you what I do know. I know He’s fair. I know He’s just. And I know that no one will ever leave the judgment seat of Christ getting a raw deal. God is for us, not against us. And even if you go to Revelation 15:3, the song of Moses that they sing there in glory, they sing this verse. “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone. Marvelous are His works. Just and true are Your ways, O Lord.” Revelation. At the end of everything, they’re singing, “Lord, You’re honest and just and fair.” So, in between, we may get stuck asking those questions, but we need not wonder. He is that way, and that’s a foundational truth you need to learn.

Verse 31 of this chapter, just jumping ahead for a minute, says, “For their rock is not like our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.” We have a Rock that’s far different than the world, don’t we? So, God is fair. Know that. And don’t ever ask, “God, what are You doing?” You may not understand, but He’s good, and He’s fair. So, sing that.

The people, however, are another story. Verse 5, “They have corrupted themselves; they are not His children, because of their blemish: a perverse and crooked generation. Do you thus deal with the LORD, O foolish and unwise people? Is He not your Father, who bought you? Has He not made you and established you?” Now Moses sings as if in shock over what he hears. He calls them “foolish and unwise” and said, “Is He not your Father?” It’s one of the few places, by the way, in the Old Testament where the Lord is referred to as “your Father.” It’s a clear and easy concept in the New Testament but not so much here.

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Verse 7, “Remember,” the Lord says in the song to these corrupted folks, “the days of old, consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you: when the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations, when He separated the sons of Adam, he set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel. For the LORD’s portion is His people; Jacob is the place of His inheritance. He found him in a desert land and in the wasteland, a howling wilderness; He encircled him, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye.” Translation: “Just look around, and ask those who were here before how gracious God has been to you. How could you treat Him as you have when He has treated you so well? He holds you as the apple of His eye. He considers you to be His inheritance.” In fact, Paul was absolutely flabbergasted in Ephesians 1:18 when he said, “I’m praying that the eyes of your understanding are being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.” Translation: “You should know that God sees you as His inheritance.” That’s all He wants. He wants you. You’re looking for so many things. He just wants you. So Moses, in writing this song, speaks of where God found them and what He did to encircle and instruct and keep them and watch over them. He loved them. He encircled them. He instructed them. He kept them.

Verse 11, “As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them on its wings, so the LORD alone led him, and there was no foreign god with him.” God compared Himself to the eagle who builds her nest up on high rocks for safety and the dangerous way that young eaglets learn to fly. Mom kicks them out of the nest, and they fall a long time because they’re way up there. But if they don’t start flapping their wings, pretty soon they’re getting close to the ground, the eagle swoops down, and catches her before disaster and then takes her back up and kicks her out again. Not exactly a great way to learn. But God did it with them. He treated them like an eagle. He carried them, He spread out His wings, He hovered over them to care for them. No other god is there but Him. That was the point. He took them through it all. God has a way of kicking you out of the nest. You thought you had job security, and now you’re out of a job. You thought you were healthy, and now you’re sick. You thought things were going fine, they’re not going so fine. And we have to learn to kind of begin to flap our wings. We scream as we tumble to the earth, and God says, “Fly.” And you will. “No foreign god.” The only God you need to look to is Him. He’s the One who had been there all along – Yahweh – LORD.

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He says in verse 13, “He made him” (speaking of Israel) “ride in the heights of the earth, that he might eat the produce of the fields; He made him draw honey from the rock, and oil from the flinty rock; curds from the cattle, and milk of the flock, with fat of lambs; and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the choicest wheat; and you drank wine, the blood of the grapes. But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; you grew fat, you grew thick, you are obese!” (speaking of Israel’s blessings) “Then he forsook God who made him, and scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation. They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods; with abominations they provoked Him to anger. They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they did not know, to new gods, new arrivals that your fathers did not fear. Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful, and have forgotten the God who fathered you.” So, God speaks about how much He gave them. Now remember, they’re going to sing this after the fact. “You’ve gotten fruit and oil and honey.” And then the Lord said, “But Jeshurun” – Jeshurun’s an interesting Hebrew word because it literally means one who is upright, and it was used (and is used) of Israel at times when they were walking with God or responding ideally to what God has done. But here, it’s kind of used tongue-in-cheek. What should have been a response from a grateful people who God had blessed and brought forth, instead they did just the opposite – they grew fat, they grew thick, they grew obese; they kicked and forsook God and lightly esteemed the Rock of their salvation, and they followed gods that their parents didn’t know; they followed gods that were newly- arriving, if you will, while forgetting, being unmindful of the God that had fathered them and the Rock upon which they had been planted. So, the righteous one had grown fat and had not decided to esteem the Lord. It can happen, can’t it? Moving from God. Here’s the interesting thing – whenever you move from God, you still have to worship because that’s what you were made for. If you won’t worship God, you’re going to worship somebody else. And they did. In fact, verse 17, notice they were actually worshipping demons. That’s pretty horrifying, right? False gods, demons behind them. The foolishness of false religion. And notice, they’re a bunch of Johnny-come-lately gods because Satan has a god for every generation. He’s probably got one or two for us. Verse 18, so tragic. No longer were they able to keep in mind the Rock who had fathered them. God help us. So, they get to sing this, and I’m sure, for at least the first generation, the people were singing and going, “Yeah, I don’t know who this applies to. Not us.” And they’d sing it loud. But give it a couple hundred years, and everyone would realize what they were hearing was exactly what God was saying to their hearts.

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Verse 19 it says, “And when the LORD saw it,” (how they were unmindful and all and had gotten fat) “He spurned them, because of the provocation of His sons and His daughters. And He said, ‘I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end will be, for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faith. They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God; they have moved Me to anger by their foolish idols. But I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation; I will move them to anger by a foolish nation.’ ” In other words, “Since they forsook Me, I’ll leave them be. And let’s see what becomes of them, and let’s see how they respond.” By the way, verse 21, Paul quotes in the New Testament saying that seeing God’s grace given to the Gentiles should provoke the Jews (Israel) to jealousy (Romans 10:19 and 11:11). But both of the captivities in the Old Testament – the Assyrians, who took over the northern kingdom in 722 B.C. (and) the Babylonians, which took over the southern kingdom in 606 B.C. – were designed to bring the people back. God was provoked to jealousy and to anger. He would now do the same thing to the people. “So, you want to worship idols? Go live in Babylon. That’s all they worship, and you’ll see how that turns out.” And the people there were lamenting, “I don’t want to be here.” You know, the one thing you will find amongst the Jews, as really working, is that, by the time they came back from the Babylonian captivity, idolatry was never an issue again. You won’t find any more idolatry after 606 B.C. amongst the Jews. There isn’t that cry for it. God drove that, if you will, from their hearts. But God’s not leaving them. He’s just going, “I’ll let them feel the way I feel, and maybe that’ll help them.” And again, in a song for the nation, as the kids sang this in two-part harmonies. Right?

Verse 22, “ ‘For a fire is kindled in My anger, and shall burn to the lowest hell; it shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. I will heap disasters on them; I will spend My arrows on them. They shall be wasted with hunger, devoured by pestilence and bitter destruction; I will also send against them the teeth of beasts, with the poison of serpents of the dust. The sword shall destroy outside; there shall be terror within for the young man and virgin, the nursing child with the man of gray hairs. I would have said, “I will dash them in pieces, I will make the memory of them to cease from among men,” had I not feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should misunderstand, lest they should say, “Our hand is high; and it is not the LORD who has done all this.” For they are a nation void of counsel, nor is there any understanding in them. Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!’ ” So God wants them to think about it. The fury of God, He said, is restrained by the fact that the enemy would take credit

16 for their downfall. The Lord said, “I might have wiped them all out, but I don’t want them getting the wrong impression, that it wasn’t the judgment of God.” And so God uses nations to judge His people. Still does. Babylon dealt severely with God’s people for many years. But God’s plan was to bring them back.

So, if you notice verse 29, “Oh, that they were wise.” God help us to look down the road and find out where the lifestyle we’ve chosen is leading us. What reward awaits us? Or, if you will, just write the words – consider your end over everything that you decide to do. Because you’ll get away with it today and tomorrow and the next week and the next month. Hey, consequence doesn’t follow quickly. God is very patient. But there’s a direction you’re taking, and you should know whether it’s leading to the Lord or away from Him. The Lord said over time, this nation – void of counsel and understanding – “Oh, they should consider their latter end!” Where are you going, and where will you end up? Don’t have a short-term view of life.

Verse 30, “How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock” (fourth time it’s mentioned) “had sold them, and the LORD had surrendered them? For their rock is not like our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. For their vine is of the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of cobras. ‘Is this not laid up in store with Me, sealed up among My treasures? Vengeance is Mine, and recompense; their foot shall slip in due time; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things to come hasten upon them.’ ” “Look, the enemy should know that the only way they could put a thousand of My people to flight with just one man is if I step away. That’s what the enemy should know. These enemy nations shall see My judgment, and their feet shall slip in due time.” That’s what He says about their oppressors. It is, by the way, that verse that Johnathan Edwards used, if you’ve ever read his famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God.” And if you haven’t read it, you should get ahold of it. It’s an amazing sermon preached years and years ago. But it was based upon this verse here. So, “Their foot shall slip in due time,” verse 35, “the day of their calamity is at hand.”

Verse 36, “For the LORD will judge His people and have compassion on His servants, when He sees that their power is gone, and there is no one remaining, bond or free. He will say: ‘Where are their gods, the rock in which they sought refuge? Who ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink

17 offering? Let them rise and help you, and be your refuge. Now see that I, even I, am He, and there is no God besides Me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; nor is there any who can deliver from My hand.’ ” Make sure that you have a philosophy of life that not only you can live with but you can die with. Know who you serve. Have a good standing because one day, you’re going to stand before the only One who holds eternity in His hands. And it won’t really matter if you argue, “This is just what I thought.” You’d better know Him for who He is. For example, if you read this verse, verse 39, it might bother you. God never explains Himself. He doesn’t justify Himself. He doesn’t seek to make a case for Himself. He just says, “Hey, listen. I’m the One who kills and makes alive. I’m the One who wounds and heals. No one can be delivered from My hand.” Then you’ll just have to deal with that. You’ll just have to respond. “Who has made man’s mouth?” the Lord said in Exodus 4:11. “Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the LORD?” The point being God takes ultimate and complete responsibility for everything you understand – the good, the bad, the malady, the disease, the suffering. “Put it on Me. I’m the Lord. I’m the One.” And it can challenge your view of God. But I’ll tell you what. If you can get by this and learn God is good, nothing will stand in your way from now on. You’ll just know He’s good, and then everything else you can rest in that. When you look for Him, when you trust in Him, nothing can move you anymore.

Verse 40, when you call upon Him, make sure He’s the right guy. Verse 40 says this, “ ‘For I raise My hand to heaven, and say, “As I live forever, if I whet My glittering sword, and My hand takes hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to My enemies, and repay those who hate Me. I will make My arrows drunk with blood, and My sword shall devour flesh, with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the heads of the leaders of the enemy.” ’ ” God is the judge. He’s coming. You can put right in the margin – Revelation 19; the gathered armies will not be a battle for Jesus. He’ll just say a couple of words, and the battle will be over, and He’ll have won, and we’ll be applauding as we stand with Him.

Verse 43, great verse, “ ‘Rejoice, O Gentiles,’ ” (that’s you and me, all of us non- Jews) “ ‘with His people; for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and render vengeance to His adversaries; He will provide atonement for His land and His people.’ ” Praise the Lord that you, as Gentiles, and I are included with God’s chosen people to receive atonement by God for our sins; Savior of the world, King of kings, Lord of lords.

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So here’s Moses’ conclusion. Verse 44, “So Moses came with Joshua the son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people.” So he taught them the song. Maybe they had a printing press. I have no idea. “Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel, and he said to them: ‘Set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command your children to be careful to observe – all the words of this law. For it is not a futile thing for you, because it is your life, and by this word you shall prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess.” Look, these are not vain words. These are the words of life.

Well, verse 48, “Then the LORD spoke to Moses that very same day,” (that he taught the children of Israel this song) “saying: ‘Go up this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, across from Jericho; view the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel as a possession; and die on the mountain which you ascend, and be gathered to your people, just as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people; because you trespassed against Me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah Kadesh, in the Wilderness of Zin, because you did not hallow Me’ ” (or set Me apart) “ ‘in the midst of the children of Israel. Yet you shall see the land before you, though you shall not go there, into the land which I am giving to the children of Israel.’ ” So, “Go up, look around. You’re going to die. You’re not going in. You misrepresented Me.” Man! Talk about harsh! Right? Most faithful, most humble man, and yet God wanted to be sure no one misread God’s heart. Now we will see Moses later on, with Jesus and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration. So he did get a visa, eventually, to come in, and he made it into the land by the grace of God.

Well next week, like I said, we’re going to finish. So if you’ll read chapters 33 and 34 for next time, Moses’ final blessing on all of the tribes – wonderful to hear what he has to say, and then his handoff and God’s blessing upon Joshua to go forward.

Submitted by Maureen Dickson July 20, 2016

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