Scene 4: The Failure, the Darkness, the Hope

Intro

scene 1 everything was good the serpent loomed

scene 2 the serpent decieves and man falls

scene 3 gods bring his nation out of captivity

gives them a way to live

Read Deuteronomy 30:11-20

Deuteronomy 30:11–20 ESV

11 “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 14 But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it. 15 “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. 16 If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 17 But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, 20 loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”

There is a command put before this nation of isreal to obey God

it is not unlike the shema Deuteronomy 6:5-8

Deuteronomy 6:5–8 ESV

5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

There is a blessing for obedience and curses for those who disobey the law

and as we look in this book we see example after example of disobedience

The Failure

in fact this disobedience is prophecied by God himself

Deuteronomy 31:16–18 ESV

16 And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them. 17 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 devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’ 18 And I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil that they have done, because they have turned to other gods.

And these consequences will be felt

When the chosen people turn their face from God

What is he to do reward them for their disobedience

Instead what we see is a God who is faithful to his word and gracious to his people

There are so many events that occur here in the remainder of this scene

Time and time again we see God’s people turn from him and he is gracious and he calls them back to himself

We see the Judges come in and time and time again in the book of judges we hear

Judges 21:25 ESV

25 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Then we see the kings come and they continue to turn from God

We have a good king followed by a king that leads the people of God away from him

God removes that king

Then new king comes

We then see the removal of the people of God from the promised land as they go into exile

Daniel

They return only to be occupied again

As Gods people continue to turn away from God

And we are left in the last book in scene 4 with statements like this

Malachi 2:10–11 ESV

10 Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers? 11 Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.

Judah has been faithless

It has married itself to other God’s

looked to its own interest instead of heading the words given to them by God through Moses

Shema and beginning of Deuteronomy 30:11

Deuteronomy 30:11 ESV

11 “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off.

The Darkness

After this Book God will do exactly as he promised he will hid his face

Deuteronomy 30:17–18 ESV

17 But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess.

Deuteronomy 31:17 ESV

17 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 devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’

for 400 years as the scene close dispare looms

the faithfulness of God will ring true

in the most depressing of ways the faithfulness of God will be felt by his people

These word will ring true

you Can hear echoes of a song we sing here

what can makes us whole

clearly the laws didnt

clearly our own nation didn’t

so what can make us whole again

Malachi 3:6 ESV

6 “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.

But as we watch the story unfold we there is a hope

The Hope

The scene ends with a star high above a manger

how does this scene even bring hope for us

what do we learn from this scene about god

how should we live differently in light of that