BE EXCLUSIVE

 

1-22-2012

INTRODUCTION

·         The Book of Deuteronomy was given to the new generation that was unfamiliar with the experiences at Mount Sinai. 

·         They had arrived on the east bank of the Jordan River, and it was one month before they would enter the Promised Land. 

·         The adults of the generation which had left Egypt were dead because of their unbelief and disobedience.

·         The new generation, now having grown to adulthood, needed to have the Law interpreted for them in the light of 38 years experience in the wilderness. 

·         New problems had arisen which were not covered by the Law specifically. 

·         Also God tells His people that they are to teach the Law constantly to their children.

·         Moses gives to this new generation his final instructions from the Lord before he relinquishes his leadership of the nation through death.

·         This makes me think of when a parent is sending their children off to college, marriage or other momentous change in their lives.

·         They want to instill everything that they can into their hearts all of life’s wisdom they had learned; wanting them to have all of the benefit of their own lessons learned.

·         You can almost hear the urgency in Moses as he gives these series of messages to the children of Israel before they enter the Promised Land.

·         An example of this is in the play “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare; Polonius gives advice to his son as he leaves the court to return to his studies.

1.     REFLECTIONS ON HOW WE GOT HERE (DEUTERONOMY 1:1-18)

• He reviews the desert experiences, he reemphasizes certain features of the Law, and he reveals their future course in the light of the covenant that God had made with them relative to the land of promise.
• We will see in this book that the Mosiac Law was not only given to a people, it was given to a land also.

2.     MEMORIES OF WHEN WE BLEW IT (DEUTERONOMY 1:19-46)

• The wilderness march was not nice daisy trail which they were following.  It was "great and terrible."
• This was the second mistake which Moses records -- the decision at Kadesh-Barnea. 
• It was the mistake of having a committee to make decisions rather than going to God for directions.
• You see, God had already searched out the land! 
• He had said that it was a land of milk and honey and that He would take care of them. 
• But the people wanted a committee: Moses wanted a committee -- and look what happened, they spent 38 years wandering in the wilderness as a result. 
• The basic problem was unbelief.

• Many times the Christian today fins himself confronted by "giants" in this life. 
• God has given us the same promise that He is able to handle the giants for us. 
• It is wonderful to know that.
• It is not our circumstances which are the real problem.
• It is the circumstance on the inside of us, the unbelief in our hearts, which is the cause of our problems.

3.     ACCOUNTS OF WHERE GOD HELPED US (DEUTERONOMY 2:1 – 3:29)

CHAPTER 2:

• All they had been doing was going around and around Mount Seir. 
• Many Christians are doing that very same thing. 
• We end up on a merry-go-round of activity and mark time when we fail to take God at His Word.
• Esau went to Seir, and it is now clear that God has given that to the people of Esau as their possession.  This is in the country where the rock-hewn city of Petra stands to this day.  God clearly tells Israel that they cannot touch the possession of Esau.
• There is a lesson here for the nations today.
• God has set the bounds of the nations.         

Acts 17:26-27

26 and He made from one, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times, and the boundaries of their habitation,

NASB

• Most wars are fought because the boundaries of nations are not respected.
• Another lesson to learn is that God always keeps His promises. 
• Even to a people such as the people of Esau, God remains true to His promise.
• This land that God allowed Israel to conquer and possess had formerly belonged to the Moabites.  The Amorites under King Sihon's leadership had driven out the Moabites from this section of land and had taken over this territory.
• God permitted him to dispossess the Moabites, but when he led the attack against Israel, he was killed and his forces scattered. 
• His capital was taken and the territory given to Israel.
• This episode is often referred to as a reminder to Israel of what God had done for them and became a source of encouragement to them.

CHAPTER 3:

• The fact that Israel was able to conquer this great, well-fortified kingdom was evidence that God fought for Israel.
• Moses recounts his personal experience with the Lord and the reason he will not be permitted to go into the Promised Land with them.
• Our hearts go out to this man Moses as he begs the Lord to let him enter the land which has been his goal for 40 years.
• What a lesson this is for us. 
• Though we repent of our sin, we will have to take the consequence of it in this life whether we like it or not.

4.     DIRECTIVES FOR WHAT LIES AHEAD (DEUTERONOMY 4:1-43)

Deuteronomy 4:5-10

5 See, I have taught you statutes and judgments just as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should do thus in the land where you are entering to possess it. 6 So keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.'

·         Israel was to be a witness to the rest of the world through their obedience to God and His blessings to them for their obedience. 

·         Israel was to have this witness while living in the land that God had given them.

·         While Israel was to witness to the world by living in obedience the church was to go out into the world and witness.

·         Israel was never asked to go as missionaries.  They were to invite

 7 "For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as is the LORD our God whenever we call on Him? 8 "Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today?

9 "Only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your sons and your grandsons.

·         God gave to Israel a great teaching ministry. 

·         They were to obey God and they were to teach these things to their children and to their grandchildren.

·         This was the great responsibility which God placed upon every father and mother in the nation of Israel.

·         God makes this very clear to Israel. 

·         When that nation failed, it failed in the home, and God judged them for it.

10 Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when the LORD said to me, 'Assemble the people to Me, that I may let them hear My words so they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.'

NASB

Deuteronomy 4:15-19

15 "So watch yourselves carefully, since you did not see any form on the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, 16 lest you act corruptly and make a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water below the earth. 19 And beware, lest you lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.

NASB

As the Israelites had seen no shape of God at Horeb, they were to beware for their souls' sake (for their lives) of acting corruptly, and making to themselves any kind of image of Jehovah their God, namely, as the context shows, to worship God in it.

(from Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)

Deuteronomy 4:39-40

39 Know therefore today, and take it to your heart, that the LORD, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other. 40 So you shall keep His statutes and His commandments which I am giving you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may live long on the land which the LORD your God is giving you for all time."

NASB

·         This chapter concludes Moses review of Israel's wilderness wanderings.

·         They are to obey God because God wants to preserve them and prosper them.

·         Obedience to God is the only basis on which He will bless them.

·         They are to do the Word of God -- not only to hear it, but do it.  Notice they were not to add to the Law or to take away from the Law. 

·         They were to obey it as God gave it.