God Alone

Introduction

THINK BIG!

You ever think so hard about something it sort of hurts your brain?

Watched a documentary on blackholes, and it felt like my brain gears just got stuck…

Then I watched Interstellar. Loved that movie, but it also hurt my brain. What hurt my brain even more is that Matt Damon played the bad guy, like, since when is he the bad guy?!

Our passage begins by inviting us to think beyond what we are able to comprehend, to reflect on things our brain is simply just not able to comprehend entirely.

Moses inviting Israel to think: “For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other.”

Before Moses asks some questions, which we will get into, he starts off by saying: Consider all of time and space for moment:

Consider all time, from the beginning of time, to this moment…

Consider all the space from one end of the universe to the other

Incredible passage:

Alexander Rufé: “a most important theological passage in the book of Deuteronomy itself, and in the Bible as a whole.”

“From a literary point of view, these verses are among the most beautiful in Deuteronomy. They are prosaic in form, but poetic in their evocation of the marvelous acts of God.” Craigie

So, let’s take this deep dive, shall we, know that no matter how deeply we go, we’ll never touch the bottom…

Part I: God is God

Closed questions: No debate or discussion

Begins with 4 Questions:

Closed and Open Questions.

4 Questions, but not easily identifiable, and some of which

Quick Breakdown of each Question:

v. 32: “Has anything like it ever been heard of?” NIV Nope!

ESV: ends with a period, but can equally be a question, which I think the NIV gets right

Has any great a think as this happened before?

What is this? We learn more about the ‘this’ in the following questions… But the answer is an emphatic NO!

v. 33: Did People ever hear from another God? Or “the sound of a god,” or “voice of a god.”

Recalling the Mount Sinai event:

Big Emphasis earlier 4:12: “Then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice.”

Has a god ever spoke from fire without SEEING any thing? NOPE!

v. 34: Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation—[by flexing his muscles]—by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

God came and took… Outside force

ANE gods: Bill Arnold: gods were “based geographically in particular territories, where they resided in temples and were worshipped by the people of that area.”

God did the opposite. He wasn’t a localized god, He came from the outside, from his transcendant position, and broke into their reality and showed His power not by showing his face, but displaying POWER.

Israel are witnesses of the greatest divine event in human history.

Has this ever happened through all time and space?? Nope!

All these questions point to what Moses shares in verse 35:

Has a god ever done these things?

Speaking with just a voice

Coming and taking a nation within a foreign nation?

And doing so as a foreign divine power overtaking local powers.

NOPE

v. 35=The purpose: To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him.

That you may know 2 things:

Specific Claim: That the Lord is God: YHWH, in particular is the only one worthy to be called God.

Translation challenge:

“As for YHWH, he really is God.” Arnold

“YWHW is God.” “YHWH as the only supernatural being in the category ‘god.’” Arnold

2. General: There is no other besides him: No other god out there is actually a god. Gods aren’t locally defined within local temples, which differ depending on where you travel.

NO! Throughout all time and space, there’s only ONE name worthy to take on the mantel of ‘God,’ and that no other country that says they have god, really have any deity worthy enough to take up that mantel.

Throughout all time and space, no other god acts this way.

Try to wrap your mind around the Gospel for a second:

When we look at this picture, we can get lost…

19 And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them…

Our issue can be, the further the telescope goes, the further God is?

But God welcomes us to consider the grand expanse of time and space

Ever since the dawn of time, is anything as great as the Gospel? Has anyone heard anything better?

Stretch your mind across the universe, past the Sun, past distant galaxies, take the expanse of the universe, and ask yourself: Has anything as profound, powerful, and transformational as the Gospel?

Has anyone ever heard the voice of God speak like Jesus spoke to us? Who was God with Us? Who created the Cosmos, who created YOU, who spoke with wisdom unparalleled?

Does any other religion say that the man they follow was fully God, fully man, with Two Natures, who overcame the Power of Darkness, Power of Death, Power of your Sin, Shame, and brokenness, and saved you from the pits of Hell because he OUTSTRETCHED HIS HANDS, with a great deed of sacrifice?

Does any other religion preach grace like this?

Does any other God work through the nations, where the Holy Spirit saves indiscriminately, apart from race, ethnicity, or nationality? Are not all religions bound by culture? Is not the Gospel a message that transforms individuals and cultures?

Questions: Intended to rally the troops, to remind them of the exclusivity of their God.

It’s a rally we need today: Jesus, HE is Lord; there is no other worthy to be called Son of God.

Part II: God is Love

36 Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire. 37 And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, 38 driving out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day, 39 know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.

Similar structure:

Lessons regard Mount Sinai

Voice from Heaven=Disciples

Lessons from Egypt

Conditional Statement

Conditional sentence:

v. 36-38: “God’s intentions for humanity are indeed noble.” God was motivated out of LOVE.

v. 36: Motivation of Horeb:

“…That he might discipline you.” “…in order to educate you.”

v. 37: Motivation from Egypt: Love

“Because he loved you… He chose you… and brought you.”

“in order to dispossess…and in order to bring you in… and give to you the land… Therefore know and so you must keep.” Arnold.

Regardless of order, “YHWH’s saving actions flow from love…The he loved is a remarkable statement of divine affection, which is not found elsewhere in the Pentateuch but which is central to Deuteronomy’s understanding of God’s disposition toward Israel.” Arnold

Chose=election. If God made Israel His chosen, why can’t God make the Church his chosen people?

v. 38: Incapability of Israel. You couldn’t do it!

v. 39: Purpose of God’s grace=to know therefore today, and lay it to you r heart, that the Lord is God is heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.

to KNOW: Deeply personal conviction.

v.40: To DO

Application: Know, lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.

Personal knowledge!

Christian God=Monotheistic

Story of Peter Heisel: “There is a God, and I am not him.

No longer a pastor…

Is this an obvious claim?

Monotheism:

took the church 400 years who God is:

Took 400 years to figure out who Jesus was?

Jesus is fully God, fully man, two natures: indivisible, unchangeable, inseparably united: without mixture of confusion, eternally distinct.

We have all this information about Jesus, but how does this information about Jesus lead you to KNOW, at a visceral level, that HE is God!

By His voice giving us the Word of Life

By Him coming at Christmas, and taking you out of death at the Cross…

By saving us with outstretched arms!

Ask questions like Moses was asking them?

Don’t you know that God did this for you?

Which God? Can