04 | Song of Moses | Deuteronomy 32:15–18 | Jeshurun Grew Fat

Main Idea

Main Idea:

God’s blessings are meant to be enjoyed in relationship with him through thanksgiving. When we separate his gifts from his presence—forgetting the Giver and gorging ourselves on the gifts—we become bloated but never satisfied, provoke his jealousy, and forsake the very foundation of our life and identity.

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INTRODUCTION

Test

Second Cycle = v15-29 - Israel Provokes the Lord

Israel presumes upon the Lord’s provision.

Last week

v7-14 — We consider Moses’ call to remember the Lord, who finds, forms, and fills his people.

This week

v15-18 — We discover what happens when a people fail to remember.

PRAY

5:00

JESHURUN GREW FAT

Jeshurun

This is likely not a common, or familiar word to us.

It is used a number of times in scripture to refer to Israel.

It is something like a nickname that the Lord gave to Israel.

“the upright one”

I hold in my mind the image of a people called out of a bent and broken world …

… and made to stand up straight before God their Maker and Redeemer.

They are not a people upright by nature, but by calling.

But, “the upright one” grew fat.

You see, Something changed

The very ones who were called out of a twisted and broken world …

A people, found, formed and filled by God …

… have become misshapen again.

They, who were chosen to live before the eyes of God, have become worldly.

Let us remember the role of Israel in the world.

The were to become a people shining with the glory of God, like a city on a hill.

They were nourished by the Lord, so that when others they would see a people filled by his glory.

The purpose of God for is Israel was that when the world would look upon the people, they would see God.

But instead they became …

8:00

fat, bloated,and gorged

ESV - “stout and sleek” are odd translations.

You’ll see, as you look at different translations, that a variety of words are used here.

It is difficult to capture the poetry here.

Stout and sleek might be good technical translations of the words, but they don’t capture the meaning of the imagery.

Perhaps the image here is of skin being stretch over a bloated body.

The blessings given by God for their flourishing became a curse to them.

They were to be nourished and filled by the Lord their Provider …

… but instead they gorged upon the blessing without thanksgiving.

When a person partakes of a blessing there are two ways it can be received.

It can be received as a gift.

The thing itself remains connected to the giver even as it is received by the one who partakes in it.

So, when it is taken hold of, the eyes of the recipient remain on the giver.

So, there is a double satisfaction.

Joy in the value gift, and joy in the grace of the giver.

Or, the blessing can be received as a mere thing.

The thing itself is the whole and complete of what the recipient partakes in.

The eyes move from the giver to the thing given alone.

So, the only satisfaction that can be had must come from the thing.

All joy that can be taken in relationship to the giver of the gift is forfeited.

I would suggest that the relational aspect of blessing is even greater than the material aspect.

If blessing is just material, then all the value of the blessing has to be found in the stuff.

So, one must gorge himself on the stuff in order to suck any meaning, value or satisfaction.

But, since blessing is a gift from God, the stuff of the blessing itself is only a portion of the value …

… you can eat and eat and eat, partaking of the gift as mere stuff, and never be satisfied.

You are always missing out on the nature of blessing, of gift …

… that it is relationally partaken of.

In college I coined a little phrase that has stuck with me ever since.

“The things I have are nothing compared to the things I share.”

There is a way that we are intended to share the blessings we have received from God with God himself.

No, it isn’t that God gave Israel bread, so Israel is supposed to give bread back to God.

God has no need for bread.

But God has not only given bread, or the material stuff of blessing.

The Lord has given relationship. He has given gift.

The way the recipient shares the blessing with the giver of the gift …

… is by partaking of it with thanksgiving.

So, again, the recipient receives a double portion from the blessing.

He receives the blessing itself …

… and he receives the loving relationship of the giver.

So, he is freed from necessarily gorging himself of the gift …

… because he is satisfied by both gift and giver.

Why did Jeshurun grow fat?

Because he gorged himself on blessing and was never satisfied …

… because he rejected the part of the gift that was given to truly fill him, body and soul.

That is, he rejected his relationship with God, his Provider.

13:00

Forsook God. Scoffed at the Rock

The Lord made Israel.

It is the Lord that called Israel and made him to stand upright before him.

The Lord filled Jeshurun with blessing, but the people forsook their gracious provider …

… and gorged themselves on his gifts.

The Lord consistently warned the people of the danger of forsaking him.

Deuteronomy 6:10–12 ESV

And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

The Lord is the one blessing the people.

The people are not responsible for their own blessing.

All three elements of warning are here in this passage.

When you are full

The Lord will bless the people. They will become full.

But in that moment …

Don’t forget the Lord

If you do, you’re going to have to gorge yourselves on the stuff blessing …

… because the stuff of the blessing is all you have.

Because you will have abandoned the satisfaction that comes from God.

The Lord who created you/redeemed you.

Because you have forgotten that the Lord made you, you will begin to think that you have to satisfy yourselves.

Because you have forsaken the God who gave you life …

… you will cry that ancient rebellion: “On my own I can live.”

17:00

APPLY

Recently I have been reading on the nature of addition, especially in technology and social media.

Addiction behaviors releases the natural chemical dopamine into the brain.

But the interesting thing about dopamine is that it doesn’t satisfy.

It only gives the sense of, “Yes! That! Now, more!”

Never, “Ah, that’s nice. Thank you.”

Dopamine is not the satisfaction chemical, but the craving chemical.

Now, there is a corresponding natural chemical called serotonin.

It is the, “Ah, that’s nice. Thank you,” chemical.

It has been described the body’s response to a sense of gratitude, satisfaction and belonging.

I think those words are important.

We all know the desire for more.

But do we make the connection that’s all the stuff of this world can ever give us.

There is a corresponding sense of desire for gratitude, satisfaction and belonging.

But this will never come from the stuff of the world.

Gratitude, satisfaction and belonging only come from relationship.

We live in what may be the most prosperous eras in human history.

Is it possible that we may become drunk on our own prosperity?

Are we gorged and bloated?

Even more, have we forsaken the one who has granted all of this prosperity?

And in forsaking the Lord, we have abandoned any hope of satisfaction.

20:00

A strong argument may be made that the prosperity of the West is directly related to a conception of world based on the reality revealed in scriptures.

Even this modern neuro-scientific description the relationship of dopamine to serotonin …

… is captured in God’s command, you shall not covet.

The 10 commandments that begin with a warning not to forsake the Lord to wander off after other gods…

… naturally end with a warning against unhinged craving.

The West has been shaped by this biblical imagination of the world.

The base assumptions of the whole of the civilization are founded upon the realism of biblical revelation.

This western civilization, with its foundational biblical imagination, has prospered in this reality like no other civilization in history.

And, as the West has prospered, the world has also become smaller.

So that the whole world has benefited from the basic biblical assumptions of the West.

The concepts of moderation and mercy, human dignity and justice, thanksgiving and temperance may not be exclusively Western …

… because they are the reality of created order.

But they are uniquely captured as a whole in the biblical order upon which the prosperity and blessing of the West stands.

But, in the last 100 years two things have happened.

First, we have almost completely forgotten the biblical reality that has birth so much of this prosperity.

We have taken the results, the blessings of a world built on a biblical imagination …

… and forgotten the reality itself upon which the whole civilization stands.

Second, we have gorged ourselves on our prosperity.

What else can we do if we have, on the whole, forsaken God.

It is dopamine hit after dopamine hit, with no one to thank, no God to whom we belong.

24:00

We’ve already gone pretty deep into applying this passage to our own moment in history.

But let’s go back, quickly, to again see how it plays out in Israel.

JESHURUN STIRRED GOD TO JEALOUSY

Provoked Him

We read Deuteronomy 6 a moment ago, with its warnings not to forget God.

Deuteronomy 6:14–15 ESV

You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you— for the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.

In a world filled with blessing …

… for a people who forget the source of their blessing

… who have forgotten and forsaken the Lord their God

… they also forgot that the Lord is a jealous God.

Many times in history, it isn’t so much that we forget that there is a god.

It is that we forget who God is.

He is not a passive God. He is not a push over. He is not to be taken lightly.

In the garden, he did not sit idly by and passively watch the perverse rebellion of Adam and Eve in the world he had made.

He saw, and he entered in perfect justice.

He is a jealous God.

What is he jealous for? He is jealous for what belongs to him!

He made this people. He redeemed them to himself …

… that they would enjoy his provision in the fullness of thanksgiving.

His jealousy for his glory …

… is perfectly compatible with the fullness of our God.

He is jealous that this people not merely gorge themselves on the stuff of the blessing in an endless dopamine hit of “More! More!”

He is jealous that they take pleasure, satisfaction and belonging by partaking not only in the gift, but in thanksgiving.

The image comes to mind of treating God like a divine door dash.

The people make their orders, but get it for take out.

No! The people were to feast, but they were to feast at the table with their God.

with strange (foreign) gods

More than that, they began to take the blessings provided by the Lord and partake of them in the name and to the glory of foreign gods.

with abominations

That is, evil worship.

We think of evil worship as perverse satanic rituals.

And we ought to think this way.

But it is also an abomination to feast on the blessed provision of the Lord without thanksgiving … outside of relationship with God our Provider.

28:00

they sacrificed to demons

These demons are those who made demands and promise results.

IVP Bible Background a protective guardian mostly concerned with the individual’s health and welfare

They are a cosmic vending machine.

This is the opposite of the way of the Lord.

He has no needs that are met by his people.

He makes no demands, that when fulfilled put him under obligation to us.

The Lord chooses and redeems because of mercy, not obligation.

His demands are that those he redeems do not wander off from his redemption … and the joy that comes only in fellowship with him.

30:00

they were no gods

gods they had never known

They have encountered new temptations and new ways.

new gods, come recently

How easy we are to become enamored by novelty.

Colossians 2:8 ESV

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

fathers never dreaded

Again, a great guard against forgetting …

… and wandering off after every novel temptation is to

… ask your fathers who feared the Lord alone.

Consider those who lived their lives in fellowship with the Lord …

… and ask them to teach you the satisfaction found in him

… over and against the gorged profanity of friendship with the world.

32:00

APPLY

The Lord is a merciful provider of abundant blessings.

Deuteronomy 32:14 ESV

Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock, with fat of lambs, rams of Bashan and goats, with the very finest of the wheat— and you drank foaming wine made from the blood of the grape.

But his blessing is given for a reason.

They are given for the fulness of our joy that can only be found in fellowship with the Lord.

The greatest perversion and abominable use of God’s blessing is to partake of it without him.

We will discover as the first verse of our passage teaches us …

… that we will never be satisfied.

And we will discover as v16 says, that we will stir the Lord to jealousy.

Idols promise everything while only asking for small things.

But in the end, they demand everything and give nothing.

Idolatry is so compatible with consumerism.

We pick and choose from a buffet of demons that offer just what fits our current fancy.

We don’t have to mess with that comprehensive, one true God.

The all or nothing God.

We can a la carte from a buffet of consumeristic delights.

34:00

Our final verse (v18)

YOU FORGOT GOD

Unmindful of the Rock

There is a sure ground and foundation for the life of a people together.

The Lord is their Rock.

To become unmindful of him is to abandon the footing for their very existence.

Bore you, Gave you birth

bore = fathered

birth = mothered

The Lord is the complete source of their being.

APPLY

v18-19 = Israel failed to see the Lord, but the Lord saw Israel.

He was every mindful of them.

Deuteronomy 32 is a song of warning.

We will come to the heart of that warning next week.

37:00

APPLY

Forsaking First Love

Western civilization is the not the first people in history to enjoy the great blessing of a life built on the foundational realities of biblical truth.

The very truth upon which Christianity stands was first revealed to this people, to Israel—Jeshurun, “the upright one.”

Out from among Israel has come the Messiah, Jesus Christ …

… with his commission to spread the news of his gospel

… the good news of his death in the place of sinners, for the forgiveness the sin of all who believe

… and the victory of his resurrection that secures a life of redeemed fellowship with the holy God.

The light has shone out from among Israel in the person and work of Jesus Christ—“the upright one”.

And that light has come, down through the history of Christ’s church, his called out people, to us.

40:00

What we see so often in culture …

… with its materialistic gorging

… and abominable sacrifices

… is a tragic abandonment of the blessings of an ancient heritage.

It is the divorcing of the good gifts from the fellowship and thanksgiving that are to accompany them.

You can see this in the proliferation of sex free from children.

We are increasingly free to gorge and indulge ourselves in food and drugs …

… with ozempic and overdose medications set to rescue us to engage in more indulgence.

We have even separated food from fellowship:

From fast food to Door Dash.

42:00

But, this song was not written to the world.

It was written as a warning to the people of God.

No matter what happens in the world, we must not forsake our reason for being.

Our purpose in the world is not to stand in judgment, constantly comparing our own self-righteous to the abominations around us.

Our purpose in the world is to enjoy the abundant blessing of our God in an eternal relationship of thanksgiving.

We feast as a people who dine at the king’s table as children.

We see the same crooked and perverse was of the world creep into our ways of thinking about our life together as the church.

Isn’t live streaming and, I can sleep in this morning and just listen to the podcast later this week …

… just religious forms of Door Dash?

It separates the blessing provided by our God from the context of fellowship and thanksgiving in which they are to take place.

CG — We already have food, but by gathering we take hold of family.

Gospel

Ephesians 2:11–13 ESV

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh … remember that you were at that time separated from Christ … having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Moving on from the gospel

Getting saved one way, living by another.

45:00