Deuteronomy 31–32

Good evening. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. Would you all stand? We want to welcome all of you who are joining us online also. Would you join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for this opportunity to gather this evening to worship in song and to study your word. Father, we lift up our service tonight. We ask that you would bless the nursery and the workers in there,

the children's church area, the youth group. Just be glorified in those areas, Lord, and may each young person learn that which you have tonight. And then in here tonight as we worship in song and study your word, give us open ears to hear, Lord, and eyes to see and hearts to perceive that which you have. We ask that you would bless our time as we worship and that you would anoint Ryan with the power of the Holy Spirit to bring forth your word tonight, and we give you thanks, Lord Jesus.

Thank you, Watts. Jesus, you can use for you, Jesus, trusting you. Perfections, Lord, we thank you, and we know that in our weakness you're made. Praise, Lord.

He is a, he is a, he concerns me today.

We can't put our trust in man. We must put our confidence in you, Lord. Praise, Lord. Sometimes hard to sing restrains. Jesus, you sent us the Holy Spirit.

Father, Son, in Jesus' name, Lord bless you.

Good evening. If you would, please open up in your Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 31. Deuteronomy 31. We're getting real dangerously close to the end of this book. We won't finish it tonight, but the next time we're together, we will. But tonight there's two things we'll look at. Moses has really finished his instructions to the people, and now he is really closing out.

His thoughts, closing out his messages to the people. And so, so there's two things that we'll look at tonight. Chapter 31 will entitle Passing the Torch. Chapter 32 will entitle The Song of Moses. So as we pick up in chapter 31, verse 1, it says, So Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. And he said to them, I am 120 years old today. I'm no longer able to come and go.

And the Lord has said to me, You shall not cross this Jordan. It is the Lord your God who will cross ahead of you. He will destroy these nations before you, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua is the one who will cross ahead of you, just as the Lord has spoken. The Lord will do to them just as he did to Sihon and Og, the king of the Amorites, and to their land when he destroyed them.

The Lord will deliver them up before you, and you shall do to them according to all the commandments, which I have commanded you. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or tremble at them. For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. So it starts off really with Moses addressing the people, reminding them about what God is going to do.

And he starts off with what I think is a little bit of a sad ending to Moses' life. He says, I'm 120 years old today. Moses had been in ministry for a really long time by this point in time. 80 years, actually. It was at the age of 40 that he ended up going into the wilderness because of what he did with the servant of Pharaoh. And in those 40 years that he spent in the wilderness,

God taught him a different kind of ministry than he thought he was going to learn. He taught him how to be a shepherd. And for those 40 years while he was in the wilderness, he was in the ministry of taking care of the sheep. And it was to prepare him for the next 40 years, which would be taking care of a different kind of sheep, that were much more unruly, and that were much more difficult to deal with than the animals.

The 40 years of him dealing with the nation of Israel in the wilderness. And now as he draws to the close of his ministry, he says, I'm 120 years old today, and I can no longer come and go. Now it's interesting because as we go on a little bit further into the book, as we finish up the book, Moses will say, I'm as strong today as I ever have been. So when Moses says, I can no longer come and go, it has nothing to do with how he feels physically.

It has everything to do with what he knows God has told him spiritually. Because God had told him, you will not take the children of Israel into the land. Now there was a very specific reason why Moses wasn't allowed to take the children of Israel into the promised land. He was told he wasn't able to do that because of his mistake that he made at the waters of Meribah.

When he struck the rock, when he was supposed to speak to the rock. And because of that mistake that he made, God said, listen, you didn't believe me. And you didn't honor me. And you misrepresented me. And you misrepresented me. And you misrepresented me. And you misrepresented me. And you misrepresented me. And you misrepresented me before the people. Therefore, you will not be allowed to lead the people into the promised land.

But what's really interesting to me is that more than that, we see that there is a great spiritual parallel to be made. You see, in the Old Testament, Moses is always representative of one thing. Moses is representative of the law. And the law could lead them to the promised land. But the law could never bring them into the promised land. But the law could never bring them into the promised land.

They would need someone different to bring them into the promised land. And who they needed to bring them into the promised land was a guy by the name of Joshua, whose name means Yahweh is salvation. You see, they needed a savior to bring them into the promised land. And the spiritual parallel is very similar to us today. The law is important because whether it's the law written on our hearts

or the law that had been written on stones of tablet or tablets of stone, either way, the law could never bring us into a place of true intimacy with God, of a true promised land experience in our relationship with the Lord. No, it could lead us to the edge of the promised land, but it could never lead us in. There was only one that could do that. And that's Jesus Christ.

Yahweh is salvation. And so Moses says, I can't cross over with you, but I want you to know something. Just because I'm not going with you doesn't mean that you're not still going to be okay. It doesn't mean that God's not going to be with you any longer. Because you see, Moses, as God had humbled him for all of this time in ministry, he had come to a very distinct understanding.

And that's that the leadership that he had brought to them had nothing to do with himself. And it had everything to do with the Lord. Because what Moses had been doing with the children of Israel over those 40 years was not teaching them to submit to the authority of Moses. It was teaching them to submit to the authority of God. And it was teaching them that the most important person for them to look to

was not a physical leader, but the most important thing, for them to look to was the God who was leading him. And so he goes on to tell them, he said, it's the Lord your God who will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy these nations before you. You shall dispossess them. Joshua's the one who's going to take you in, but the Lord will do to them just as he did to Sihon and Og.

The Lord will deliver them up before you, and you shall do to them according to all the commandments which I commanded you. I'd like for you to take, note of how many times the phrase is referenced, either the Lord will or he will. You see, there's a distinct theme that Moses brings to the people here. And the distinct theme that he brings to the people is that what was about to take place was absolutely a work of the Lord.

Just because Moses wouldn't be with them did not mean that God would still be with them. Because the ministry of God is bigger than any one man. It's bigger than any one person. It's something that only God can do. And so he promises them, God will still be with you. And man, may I just say that in the times that we're living in right now, I feel like the most important thing for us to continue to remind ourselves of

is that God is still with us. Because every day it feels like there's something new, right? Every day it feels like there's a new challenge that we're going to have to face. There's a new enemy that we're going to have to face. There's a new thing that's going to be going on in the world. And we can go, oh goodness, what's that going to mean? There's riots going on in China right now.

What's that going to mean for us? South Korea scrambled warplanes this morning because of both Chinese and Russian warplanes that were coming into their airspace. What does that mean for us? Because quite frankly, I don't have a great deal of faith in our government to lead us in any kind of war right now. I don't have faith in our government to lead us out of a paper bag right now,

let alone a war. And so we go, what do we do with that? What do we do now? We do the same thing we've always done. We rest in the fact that God is with us. That God is the one who will lead us. Because he is the one who goes before us. He is the one that goes behind us. And he is the one that is all around us. He defeats our enemies. He's the one who we find our ultimate security in.

And Moses reassures the people of this. He reassures the people of this because he knows that they're going to face something unlike anything that they've seen before with the giants that they're going to face in the land. But he says, well, maybe you've never seen the giants that are in that land. I want you to remember, I want you to remember what God did to the enemy of Sihon and Og.

I want you to remember what he did to those guys, because in the same way that he defeated them before you, he's going to do that to all of the enemies. He's going to do that to all of the enemies that you're going to face. And it always reminds me of a truth. Past success is God's preparation for future victory. And as God shows us what he's done for us in the past,

it reminds us that he is the exact same God. I do love that song that is out right now. The same God. I know it gets a little bit lengthy sometimes, but it's a really good song. It's on my running playlist. And so as I'm running, I'm listening to this song and it's like, it is really the same God, the same God that did all of those things. And all of these biblical stories that we read is the same God that's working now.

That's why it's so much fun to pick up magazines like one that I just hung up on the wall out there by far reaching ministries, because you see some of the stories that those guys have, and you realize that the same God that was working, with Moses and Joshua and the children of Israel is the same God that's working in so many of these places today. And it's easy to forget that. It's easy to forget that he is the exact same miracle working God. It's just that sometimes his miracles are going to look different.

It's what I've been really impressing upon my kids at school right now, is that God performs things differently and with lots of different people, but it's still the same God who's at work. And so he says, he's going to go with you. He's going to go before you. The Lord will deliver them before you. And then I love verse six, because this is going to get repeated.

It's several times in this chapter says, be strong and courageous. Don't be afraid or tremble at them for the Lord. Your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you and he will not forsake you. I appreciate these words because sometimes I have a tendency to be what it says right there in the middle. I can have a tendency to be afraid and kind of tremble at the things that are going on,

whether they're things going on personally for me in my life, the things that I have to walk some of you through in your lives, or the things that I see happening in our world. It's very natural for me to get a little bit nervous. I'm somewhat nervous by nature. I was just talking to somebody the other day about who you would equate yourself to in the Bible.

And I would really equate myself to Timothy in the Bible. You know, he had tummy trouble because of all of the nervousness. That's why Paul's like, Hey, listen, I know you're not really into the wine thing and I get that. But for the sake of your stomach, you may have to every now and then take a swig because it bro, you got to deal with that ulcer you're having, right?

Like you got some serious worries going on. You got to deal with that thing. Like he had some, he had some tummy trouble because of all of his worries. Like he was such a timid dude that, that he had to be reminded of these things. That's why, that's why Paul had to tell him, Hey, don't despise your youth. Just go on and do that thing, right? Just be you. And so I can appreciate the words that Moses offers to the children of Israel here.

When he says be strong and courageous, because I know that you don't feel very strong and courageous right now, but here's why you can be strong and courageous. Not because of how great you are, but because the Lord, your God is the one who goes with you. It's amazing how, if you're with someone who's confident, you just kind of feel a little bit more confident in life. Am I right?

And if you're worth with someone who's timid, you're like, oh gosh, right? We all need that really confident person that's with us. And that's who God is for us. He is that confidence. When we sometimes feel a little bit afraid or tremble, God is with us. And I love this last part. He goes, he will not fail you. And he will not forsake you. The word forsake could also be translated, abandon.

He won't abandon you. God's always going to stick with you. Well, he goes on from there to say, to commission Joshua knows we says, then Moses verse seven called to Joshua and said to him in the side of all Israel, be strong and courageous for you shall go with this people into the land, which the Lord, your God has sworn to their fathers to give them. And you shall give it to them as an inheritance.

The Lord is the one who goes ahead of you. He will be with you. He will not fail you. He will not forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed. I love that Moses basically just repeats himself to Joshua. Like God said all that, or Moses said all that same stuff to the people. Don't be afraid. Be strong, courageous. God's going to go with you. Josh, come here, bro.

Joshua, be strong and courageous. Don't be afraid. God's going to go with you. He's not going to fail. You he's not going to forsake you. You go in and lead the people. You deliver the land into their hands because God is the one who's going to fight with you. There's a couple of things I think that are kind of interesting about that. Number one. I think Joshua must have had a little bit of an issue with fear.

You know why I think Joshua had a little bit of an issue with fear because Moses will repeat this again in this chapter. And then when you get to Joshua chapter one, I think it's four times that the phrase be strong and courageous is repeated. It's repeated as God is really laying out the commission to Joshua. Now, I'm one of those people who believes that God doesn't just say things for the sake of saying things.

He says things because that's what we need to hear. And apparently what Joshua needed to hear was be strong and courageous. Because who had Joshua been this whole time? He'd been the number two. You know what's great about being the number two guy? It's never your fault, right? If something doesn't work here, like, well, that's what that guy said. I don't know.

Like, I'm just number two to ask him. He's the guy that had the plan, right? And you can be like, what's the idea? I don't know. Let's ask him what the plan is. Over the weekend when we were down in Dallas, I wasn't in charge of anything. It was amazing. Sometimes my favorite place to be is not in charge, right? They're like, so what's the plan now? I'm like, I don't know.

Ask them. They're the ones in charge. I'm just a worker this weekend. It's amazing. It's great. So what's next? Ask them. So anyway, it's easy to be the number two guy, but it's hard to become the number one guy because all of a sudden everybody goes, so what are we going to do? And you're like, I don't know. Let me ask. Shoot. Let me ask God. Cause I don't know what's next.

And I think Joshua genuinely had an issue with this. I think he was a fearful sort of a guy. And so Moses and God had to keep telling him over and over again, be strong and courageous. But there's a second thing that I think that's kind of interesting about this. And once you take note of it, he says, be strong middle of verse seven and courageous for you shall go with this people into the land, which the Lord has sworn to give to

their fathers. The Lord is the one who goes ahead of you. He will be with you. He will not fail you, but you have to go into the land. You know, I think that's kind of interesting because sometimes when we hear the phrase, God is the one who does the work. You know what we do? We clock out and we say, well, God's going to do the work. I'm just going to hang out till he's done.

No, he's going to do the work, but he's going to use you to do it. That means you've got to take the step. You have to make that really big, bold step of faith and just. Step out and do what God's calling you to do. You're like, but wait, I thought God was going to do it. He is. You're just a hammer, right? Like you still have to do what he tells you to do.

He's just going to give you everything that you need to do it. He's just going to give you everything that you need to move forward with whatever it is that you're dealing with. I don't know how many times I have faced some things in the past few years where I've thought, man, I wish God would just do this and I could just not be involved because what I'm about to have to do is. Really, really hard.

And God says, but you got to do it. I'll do all the work. You still have to be involved. You still have to be the one that stands up there and says what I tell you to say. So sometimes it's easy for us to clock out when it says God will do it. And listen, we can rest in God's ability, but he still wants us to take those steps that he calls us to take. And so we go on from there.

He's commissioned Joshua. He says, the Lord's going to go ahead of you. He will be with you. He will not fail you, forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed. So verse nine, Moses wrote this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried 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 time of the year

of the remission of debts, at the feast of booths, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord, your God, at the place, which, which he will choose, you shall read this law in front of all Israel in their hearing. Assemble. The people, the men and the women and the children and the alien who is in your town so that they may hear and learn and fear the Lord, your God, and be careful to observe the words of this law. Their children who have not known will hear and learn to fear the Lord, your God, as long as you live on the land, which you are about to cross over the Jordan to possess.

Moses tells them to do kind of an interesting thing here. He says, I'm going to write all this law down and then I'm going to give it to the elders and the Levites who are in charge of. Keeping this law. But this is what I want you to do every seven years at the feast of booths, the feast of tabernacles, when they would remember what God had done for them in the wilderness.

I want you to read this entire law. How long have we been in book in the book of Deuteronomy? And I've been covering some sections here, right? It's not like I'm just taking like five verses at a shot. It takes some time, right? I remember when, when I was in Bible college, uh, I had a John class. Uh, and when we were in John class, Bill Welsh was our teacher and he had to do something

kind of interesting. Something that has really always stuck out to me. And I have found to be a fascinating way to do things. He said, here's what we're going to do. I want you guys to form a line of anybody that's willing to get up here and read. And we are going to read through the entire gospel of John right now. Just like Moses told the people to do with the law.

We're going to read through the entire gospel of John. Each of you is going to take one chapter and you'll take turns. And our class period is just going to be reading through the entire gospel of John. And I got to tell you, there was something very powerful about that. I think it took us two hours to, to completely read through the entire thing, but there was

something very powerful about that. There was a great continuity in that. And there was a great putting of the whole picture together in that. It's a wonderful thing to, to break down small pieces of scripture and, and really chew them up and get a lot out of it. But there's also something to be said about taking large chunks of scripture and reading everything to get as much context out of it as you can.

Because it's kind of a fascinating thing. Now, whether he intended for it just to be the book of Deuteronomy, whether it was Leviticus and Deuteronomy, I'm not totally sure exactly what he indicated, what he intended as far as the reading of the law. But you know what you find every time in scripture, the old Testament, you know what would happen every time they'd get up and read the law, the people's hearts would be broken. When the children of Israel first came into the land, they read the law loud.

And, and it was a beautiful thing. There was a great revival that took place amongst the people. Sometime later, you find that the law had been neglected and a guy by the name of Josiah had found the law. Not him, but the guys repairing the temple had found the law. The law was read to him and his heart was broken. So he got the law out and he read it to all of the people and the people wept because

they realized how far they'd gotten from the law. We'll skip down through scripture a little ways. And you come back to the. Place where the children of Israel come back into the land after the Babylonian captivity, a guy by the name of Ezra gathers all of the people and he reads to them the law. And you know what happened when Ezra read to the people, all of the law, their hearts

were broken. They wept because every time the law is read, there is an understanding in the hearts of people that we are so far from where God wants for us to be that sometimes all we can do is weep before the Lord, because we understand that if that law is true, if that's the wrong, righteous standard of God, then I have failed. And you know what? Once we realize that once the law has done that to us, it's done exactly what it's supposed to do, because the law is there as a schoolmaster to point us to Christ.

The job of the law is to silence the mouths of men so that we will stop saying, but I'm a pretty good person. And we'll start saying, oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? He said, every seven years, you need to do this. Why? So that future generations will not find themselves falling away from the Lord. Now, unfortunately, the fact of the matter is that handful of times that I gave to you,

there might've been one other that I missed in there. The only times we read in scripture that that law was actually read out loud, one would have to wonder if this was followed, maybe just a little bit more closely, they would have never gone through that whole Babylonian captivity thing. He says, the law should be read out loud. I came across a great quote in the Believer's Bible Commentary today.

I want to read it to you. I know sometimes quotes are hard to take in, and this is a long one, but follow me, if you will, as I read this. It says, the following extended but very valuable words from C.H. McIntosh are unfortunately much more true today than a century ago when they were written. This is what it says, quote, the word of God is not loved and studied, either privately

or publicly. Trashy literature is devoured in private, and music, ritualistic services, and imposing ceremonies are eagerly sought after in public. Thousands will flock to hear music and pay for admission, but how few care for a meeting to read the holy scriptures. These are facts, and the facts are powerful arguments. We cannot get over them. There is a growing thirst for religious experience and a growing distaste for the calm study

of holy scripture. In the spiritual exercises of the Christian assembly, it is perfectly useless to deny it. We can't shut our eyes to it. The evidence of it meets us on every hand. Thank God there are a few here and there who really love the word of God and delight to meet in holy fellowship for the study of its precious truths. May the Lord increase the number of such and bless them till traveling days are done.

Brother. Brothers and sisters, I don't think that truer words could be spoken of our culture today, except we would maybe have to speak harsher words of our culture today, of church culture today. And I am so blessed at the body of Christ, this little church, Calvary Chapel of Ark City, that truly loves the study of God's word. Because if you didn't, you wouldn't show up.

Because most people don't like to sit for an hour and hear the word of God taught. And it's a blessing that we are those people, but we must never, in our thinking, well, I really enjoy studying God's word. We must never become lifted up in pride and think we can never become the people who will choose the things of the world over the things of the word. May God create in us an ever deeper hunger for the study of the truth of God's word, because it is our life.

He goes on from there to begin to talk to them about the future falling away of the nation of Israel. It's a prophecy, if you will. Of the future falling away of the nation of Israel, it says in verse 14, Then the Lord said to Moses, Behold, the time for you to die is near. Call Joshua and present yourselves at the tent of meeting, that I may commission him.

So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves at the tent of meeting. And the Lord appeared in the tent in a pillar of cloud, and a pillar of cloud stood at the doorway of the tent. And the Lord said to Moses, Behold, you're about to lie down with your fathers, and this people will arise and play the harlot with the strange gods of the land. Into the midst of which they are going, and will forsake me, break my covenant which I have made with you, and with them.

Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them. And they will be consumed, and many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, Is it not because our God is not among us that these evils are upon us? But I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil which they will do for they will turn to other gods. Now therefore write this song for yourselves, and teach it to the sons of Israel.

Put it on their lips, so that this song may be a witness for me against the sons of Israel. For when I bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey which I swore to their fathers, and they have eaten and are satisfied to become prosperous, they will turn to other gods, and serve them, and spurn me, and break my covenant. And it shall come about when many evils and troubles have come upon them that this song will testify before them. As a witness, for it shall not be forgotten from the lips of their descendants, for I know their intent which they are developing today before I have brought them into the land which I swore them.

So Moses wrote this song the same day and taught it to the sons of Israel. I have found myself at times questioning, Why does God say all this? Why at this point in time does he say this is what's going to happen? They're going to come into the land. They're going to become as. Damien Kyle said, fat and sassy. And they will decide that they're going to forget God.

They will decide that they will pursue the other gods of the land, and my anger will be kindled against them. And they're going to find themselves going, What happened? What did we do wrong? And he says, You teach them this song so that they'll know exactly where they went wrong. Why does God do this? Because he needs them to know. He needs them to know their tendency.

He wants to give them every warning that he possibly can to say, Listen, here's your choice. The choice is keep the word. Keep God always in front of you and know what it says and obey what it says or give in to the things of the world. There's just no happy medium. There is no happy medium where we can kind of be obedient to God and kind of follow the things of the world.

We'll either be one or the other. So he says, Teach them this song so that when that happens, they'll be reminded. And we'll get into the song in chapter 32. And then it says, Verse 23, Then he commissioned Joshua, the son of Nun, and said, Be strong, strong, and courageous, for you shall bring the sons of Israel into the land which I swore to them, and I will be with you.

It came about when Moses finished writing the words of this law in a book, until they were complete, that Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying, Take this book of the law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord, that it may remain there as a witness against you. For I know your rebellion and your stubbornness. Behold, while I am still alive with you, today you have been rebellious against the Lord. How much more than after my death?

Assemble 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 act corruptly and turn away from the way which I have commanded you, and evil will befall you in the latter days. For you will do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger with the work of your hands. And Moses spoke in the hearing of all the assembly of Israel.

And he said, I have written the words of this song until they were complete. So Moses says, Hey Joshua, you're the man now. You've got to lead the people. Here's the law. I've written it out. Keep it with the ark of the covenant. Inside the ark of the covenant, according to the other places in scripture, were the two tablets of stone that had the ten commandments written on them.

But next to the ark was something that was accessible to all, and that was the writings of the law, so that they would always be a witness, because he knew where they would be going. So now he gives us this song. It's a really long song. I usually like to memorize songs. I think it would be really helpful. I think it would be really helpful. I think it would be really helpful.

I think it would be really helpful. It's really hard to memorize this song. After all, it's about 43 verses long. But this song of Moses is kind of laid out in a very interesting way. And so we look at this song, and it starts off with an introduction in the first handful of verses. It says, Give ear, O heavens, and let me speak. And let the earth hear the words of my mouth.

Let my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, as the droplets on the fresh grass, and as the showers on the herb. I feel like if we were writing this song today, Moses said, I'm about to drop some wisdom on you. I feel like that's what he's saying here. I don't know if that's true. He says, For I proclaim, verse 3, the name of the Lord, ascribe greatness to our God,

the rock. His work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness, and without injustice, righteous and upright is he. And so as he begins this introduction, he basically calls them to listen. He says, You need to listen to what I'm going to say. Because it's important for you to hear all of the words. And then he begins to praise God for everything that he is.

And as he praises God for everything that he is, the rock, the one who has established everything, the faithful God without injustice, righteous, he continues on with the introduction by telling them their future. They have acted, verse 5, corruptly toward him. They are not his children because of their defect, but are a perverse and crooked generation. Do you thus repay the Lord, O foolish and unwise people?

Is he not your father who has bought you? He has made you and established you. So in this introduction, he sort of lays out everything that he's going to talk about. He's going to talk about the greatness of God, and he's going to talk about the corruption of the people. Now that he's done with the introduction, he's going to remind them of God's past faithfulness

to the nation of Israel. So starting in verse 7, he says, Remember the days of old. Consider the years of all the generations. Ask your father, and he will inform you. Your elders, and they will tell you. Remember, this is a song that would be shared with the generations to come. And so if anybody didn't know what he was talking about as far as God's faithfulness,

he says, Talk to those who have gone before. They'll tell you how faithful God's been. When the Most High, verse 8, gave the nations their inheritance. When he separated the sons of man, he set the boundaries of the people according to the sons of Israel. For the Lord's portion is his people. Jacob is the allotment of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land and in the howling waste of a wilderness.

He encircled him, and he cared for him. He guarded him as the pupil of his eye, and like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that hovers over its young, he spread his wings and caught them. He carried them on his pinions. The Lord alone guided him, and there was no foreign God with him. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, and he ate the produce of the field,

and he made him suck honey from the rock and oil from the flinty rock. Curds of cows and milk of the flock, with fat of lambs and rams, the breed of Bashan, and goats with the finest of the wheat, the blood of grapes, you drank wine. He reminds them of exactly what God had done for the nation. He says, He found you wandering out in the wilderness, and when he found you wandering out in the wilderness, he encircled you, and he cared for you.

This is what he's done for the nation of Israel. He found them as a nation and took them under his wing and absolutely cared for them, but I do find some interesting New Testament parallels here because I'm reminded of exactly what God did for all of us when he brought us to salvation, right? He found us wandering around in the wilderness, and what did he do when he found us wandering around in the wilderness? He called to us.

He brought us near, and he encircled us, and he cared for us. He gave us his salvation. He gave us a brand new heart. He gave us a brand new mind, and he gave us brand new life. Then he goes on from there to say, He, like the eagle, stirs up its nest, it hovers over its young, and he spreads his wings, and he caught them, and he carried them on his pinions.

Now, Chuck Smith was talking about this today, and I learned something new today. I should have learned this the first go-round, but quite frankly, that was over 20 years ago, and I've slept since then. Chuck Smith. Chuck Smith was talking about what eagles do with their young when it's time for them to spread their wings and fly. He says they do something very interesting.

They literally kick their young out of the nest, and they watch them fall. It's sort of a sink or swim kind of a thing, but as they're falling, the eagle does something very interesting. The eagle spreads its wings, flies down below, and catches the young and teaches them to fly. They know what it's like to fall, and now they know what it's like to fly. It's exactly what he said there.

Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that hovers over its young, he spreads his wings, caught them, and he carried them on his pinions. Isn't that sort of what God does with us? That's what God did with the nation of Israel. He pushed them out of the nest. We'll call that Egypt. When he pushed them out of the nest, he watched them fall right there at the Red Sea.

What did he do when he watched them fall right there at the Red Sea? He caught them, spread the sea, and brought them through. We see that over and over again in the wilderness. Isn't that kind of what God does with us? Remember the first time? God called you to do something that took some faith, and you were like, that's both scary, but you did it anyway, and all you knew was, oh, I'm going to fall, and God caught

you, right? As you took those little steps of faith, God was always there to catch you, and he took care of you, and he gave you everything that you needed, just like he did with the nation of Israel. He brought them all the way through the wilderness and gave them everything that they needed, and as he gives us everything that we need, the real danger begins to set in. Because notice what he begins to talk about when he talks about the people's apostasy.

Verse 15. But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked. You are grown fat, thick, and sleek. I feel seen. Then he forsook God who made him. He scorned the rock of his salvation. They made him jealous with strange gods. With abominations they provoked. They provoked him to anger. They sacrificed to demons who were not God. To gods whom they have not known. New gods who came lately, whom your fathers did not dread.

You neglected the rock who begot you, and forgot the God who gave you birth. It starts off very interesting, wasn't it? Doesn't it? It says in verse 15, but Jeshurun grew fat. Jeshurun means the righteous one. In other words, you who should have been righteous, you grew fat. It speaks of the nation of Israel. You grew fat, again, to quote Damian Kyle. You grew fat and sassy, and you thought you didn't need God anymore.

Isn't that sort of what's happened to the church in America today? We've gotten kind of fat. Like, we've gotten kind of, well, we've got every translation of the Bible we could possibly want. We have every commentary we could possibly want. We have every Bible teacher we could possibly want. We have everything. Everything. Sometimes it seems like we have everything.

Sometimes it seems like the church in America is missing the only one thing that we really needed, and that was a true relationship with Jesus Christ, a true relationship with him, a true walk with him that's completely and totally built on faith, not the newest Bible app that I just got. He said, but you grew fat, and as you grew fat, you forsook God. Matter of fact, you went after other gods, and what did you do when you went after other gods? You began sacrificing.

You began sacrificing to demons. This is another really good place that I think that we should pay attention to, that there is no such thing as a happy medium when it comes to sin. There's either following God, or there's following the demonic. There's not that happy middle ground. There's not that sitcom middle ground where everybody's just a pretty good person, and

everybody's trying to do the right thing, and, well, they're not really following God, but they're not really a bad person either. No. If they're not following Jesus, if you're doing things that aren't pursuing Jesus, then you have to beware, because potentially there's demonic things that are going to happen going on there. That's what Paul told them in the book of Corinthians.

He says, you have to understand, when you join yourself to an idol, you're joining yourself to a demon. But we know so much better in the world today, don't we? We don't need all that. That's just a bunch of hocus pocus stuff. There's not really all the demonic that's going on. No, there really is. There really is those things going on, and we have to be aware of that as believers in

Jesus Christ, that there's either following Jesus, or there's following the demonic. There's just no happy medium somewhere. As they forsook God and sacrificed to demons, I underline the end of verse 18, because that really stuck out to me, because it says, and you forgot the God, and that last line really gets me, the God who gave you birth. How often does it happen to us as believers in Jesus Christ that while we have found our new life in Christ, sometimes we forget God?

It's always a great reminder that God doesn't forget us, but that's what the nation did. That's what the nation will do, is they will forget God, and we as human beings, as individual human beings, can still have that tendency in and of ourselves to forget the things of God. Well, the people's apostasy brought up the next part of the song, which is God's judgment. It says in verse 19 that the Lord saw this, and he spurned them because of the provocation of his sons and daughters.

He said, I will hide my face from them, and I will see what they're doing. I will see what they're doing. I will see what they're doing. I will see what they're doing. I will see what their end will be, for they are a perverse generation, sons in whom is no faithfulness. They've made me jealous with what is not a God. They have provoked me to anger with their idols, so I will make them jealous with those

who are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation, for a fire is kindled in my anger and burns to the lowest part of Sheol and consumes the earth with its yield. And sets on fire the foundations of the mountain. I will heap misfortunes on them, and I will use my arrows on them. They will be wasted by famine and consumed by plague and bitter destruction.

The teeth of beasts I will send upon them with the venom of crawling things of the dust. Outside the sword will bereave, and inside terror both young men and virgin, the nursling and the man of gray hair. I would have said I will cut them to pieces. I will remove the memory of them from men. Had I not feared the provocation by the enemy, that their adversaries would misjudge, that

they would say, our hand is triumphant, and the Lord has not done this. For they're a nation lacking in counsel. There's no understanding in them. Would that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would discern their future. How could one chase a thousand and two put 10,000 to flight, unless their rock had sold them, the Lord their God had given them up.

Indeed, their rock is not like our rock. Even our enemies themselves judge this. For their vine is the vine from Sodom, and from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of poison. Their cluster's bitter. Their wine is the venom of serpents, the deadly poison of cobras. So as he talks about this judgment that he's going to bring out, I want to point out to

you the very first portion of verse 19. It says, And the Lord said, The word this is in italics, meaning that it's not in the original. It was added for emphasis. It was added for greater understanding. But I find there to be something interesting about those three words. The Lord saw. Isn't it interesting how many people think that they can hide their sin from God?

Isn't it interesting how many great leaders think that they can hide themselves from God? God will never know. Nobody will ever know what's going on. We can hide it from everybody. No, you can't. Everything about us is so laid bare before God. All of the thoughts and the intents of my heart, all of the secret sins that I think I can hide from everybody in the world, they're all laid bare before God.

And praise God, he so graciously makes them known. Because as he graciously makes them known, then there can be restoration. Because you see, even in this judgment, we'll find in the next little set of verses that we look at, there's still God's compassion. But he says, The Lord saw and was proud. Provoked to anger. We need to remember that sin makes God angry.

Angry because he hates what it does to us. And angry because he's jealous, knowing that any attention we give to anything else in the world ultimately brings destruction. Therefore, he says, I will heap misfortunes upon you. That's a really scary phrase to me. I don't know why that's so scary, but there's just something about the fact that it's such an understated phrase and yet overstated when you really think about it, that he will heap

misfortunes upon us. And did you notice the lines when he says, I will make you jealous with those who are not a nation. I will make you jealous with a foolish nation. I believe that that is the part that is quoted in the book of Acts when it speaks of the Gentiles. Because you see, when the Jewish people rejected the gospel of Jesus Christ and the gospel began to go out to the Gentiles, God began to make the Jewish people jealous with those

who are not a nation, with the Gentile people. I think that this has a dual fulfillment. I think it first of all speaks of what God would do with the nation as far as bringing other nations upon them, but I think it also speaks of the coming of the church as the gospel goes out to the Gentiles. He says, all these things are going to come upon you, outside sword, inside terror.

He says, quite frankly, I would have completely destroyed you except for one thing. All of the nations of the earth would think that it was something that they did, and I'm not going to give them that kind of credit. I'm not going to allow that to happen. I'm not going to allow that to happen. I'm not going to allow the nations of the earth to think that it's something that they

did. It's an amazing thing to read in the book of Kings, as it was Hezekiah, who was king, and Sennacherib, if I remember correctly, was coming against him. He said, hey, listen, I know Hezekiah is going to tell you that you should put trust in your God, but it's your God that sent me, so you can't trust your God because he can't deliver you from me. I love the message that comes to Hezekiah.

God says, listen, Hezekiah. This message is going to go out to Sennacherib. You need to tell him the only reason he was able to take over all of those nations that he was able to take over is because I made them weak before him. It has nothing to do with him. It has everything to do with me because God's glory will be shared with none. So God will bring his judgment on the people, and he says, quite frankly, you're going to

find yourself going, I don't understand. Where did all this come from? And he goes, I just wish you had the understanding. I wish you could realize what's going on, but I'm the one doing this all because of your sin. Well, the next part of the song, it's a pretty long song, isn't it?

Even Freebird's like, dude, we stopped somewhere. Anyway, so we come to verse 34, and really this next section is God's compassion and vengeance. Two words that don't often go together, but here they do. Verse 34, it says, Is it not laid up in store with me, sealed up? And my treasures, vengeance is mine, and retribution. In due time, their foot will slip, for the day of their calamity is near, and the impending

things are hastening upon them. For the Lord will vindicate his people, and have compassion on his servants when he sees that their strength is gone, and there is none remaining, bond or free. And 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 offering. Let them rise up and help you.

Let them be your hiding place. See now that I, I am he, and there's no God besides me. It's I who put to death and give life. I have wounded, and it is I who heal, and there is no one who can deliver from my hand. Indeed, I lift up my hand to heaven and say, as I live forever. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. If I sharpen my flashing sword, and my hand takes hold on justice, I will render vengeance

on my adversaries. I will repay those who hate me, and I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword will devour flesh with the blood of the slain and the captives. From the long-haired leaders of the enemy, rejoice, O nations, with this people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and he will render vengeance on his adversaries, and he will atone for his land and his people. I love this because God is just totally calling out right before this, the misfortunes that he's gonna heap upon his people.

He goes, but you need to understand something. I still will have compassion on you. And all of those nations that I'm gonna bring against you to show you, to judge you in the midst of your rebellion, don't worry, I'll take care of them too. I love this line in verse 36. For the Lord will vindicate his people and he will have compassion on his servants. When?

When he sees that their strength is gone and there is none remaining, bond are free. God says, I'm gonna bring the enemy against you and I'm gonna bring the enemy against you hard and I'm gonna bring it so hard that at some point in time, you're gonna realize that you have no strength. And when you realize you have no strength, when all of your strength is gone, when all of you is finally depleted, I'm gonna vindicate you and I'm gonna have compassion on you. Now, brothers and sisters, I don't know what all anybody's been through here in their life, but I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt exactly what it's like when God finally brings you to the end of your strength and you finally go, I give up because there's nothing left in me.

And God says, ah, now. Now I can have compassion on you. Now I will take vengeance on those that have caused you so much harm because now you're at the end of yourself. When you find yourself at the end of yourself, you're at the beginning of me.

And why does he do all of this? Why is God gonna now take vengeance on the other nations because of verse 39? See now that I, I am he and there's no other God besides me. It's I who put to death, and it's I who give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal and there is none who can deliver from my hand. Gosh, that's a whole verse that could just preach as a sermon right there

because that's what God does. He has to bring us and everyone else to a point where we finally say, but it's you. You're the only one who can wound. You're the only one who can heal. You're the only one who can heal. You're the only one who can heal. You're the only one who can heal. one who can take away life and you're the only one who can give life because you are the only God.

Brothers and sisters, when God does that in your life, there's just no changing it at that point in time. So he tells them about the vengeance that he's going to take on their enemies and the compassion that he's going to show to them. And let's wrap up this song because he tells them to take these words to heart. Then Moses came and he spoke all the words of this song, verse 44, in the hearing of the people, he with Joshua, the son of Nun. When Moses had finished speaking all

these words to all Israel, he said to them, take to your heart all the words, which I am warning you today, which you shall command your sons and daughters to observe carefully. Even all the words of this law, for it is not an idle word for you. Indeed, it is your life. By this word, you will prolong your days in the land, which you have chosen to live in. And you will live in the land of Israel.

You are about to cross over the Jordan to possess. He says, Hey, listen, everything that I've just spoken to you. And I think he means not only the words of this song, but everything that he's spoken to them in the book of Deuteronomy. He says, you need to take these words to heart. In other words, apply them to your heart, make them a part of who you are, make them a part of

how you live your life, make them a part of how you think about life, making them a part of everything that you do. Take them to heart. Why? Because these are not idle words that are spoken. I think the hardest thing ever that you do when you teach the Bible to a group, a group of people, especially a group of young kids. I'm dealing with this with my Bible class

right now. And I know that they take in more than I ever give them credit for just like my own kids. I know they take in more than I give them credit for, but every now and then I want to be like, this stuff I'm talking to you about is not idle words. These aren't just filler words that I'm giving you because I had to have something to say to stand up in front of you for the next 45 minutes.

I'm not just coming up with garbage to say for the sake of saying garbage. These words are your life. These words are how you prolong your days. These words are how you increase the quality of the life that you have on top side of planet earth, because they will prepare you for the life that you have on the other side of planet earth. Take these words to heart because these words are your life.

If there's a message that I will continue to give to myself, if there's a message that I will continue to give to you and anybody else that I can come in contact with, it's this. Take God's word and apply it to your heart because these words are our life. They're not just words on a page. They're the very breath that we breathe because they come straight from the heart of our savior. Amen.

Father, I thank you for who you are. And I thank you for how faithful you are. And Lord, that though you are, I thank you for who you are. I thank you for who you are. you deal with sin, you do so oftentimes very gently in our lives. It doesn't always feel very gentle, but Lord, it is much more gentle than we even know in our lives. And so, Lord, continue to do your work in us. Lord, may these words, may the words of your law, may the words

that you have written in this book, may we take them to our hearts because they are our life. Father, so many things in life just continue to be so heavy right now. There's so much going on in the lives of people, and there is such a desperate need for all of us to apply these words to our hearts so that they can give us life. So, Lord, do your work. May your Holy Spirit

take your word and do what only you can do in and through us. And we just thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed. Amen.