Sermon Tone Analysis

Today we conclude the first of Moses’ sermons to his congregation.

In this chapter we have looked at the grace of the Torah, and the grace of the Covenant, and today we look at the Grace of Salvation.

This also is split into three parts:

Moses’ history lesson.

Moses’ theology lesson.

Moses’ practical lesson.

our ethic must be based on our theology, and our theology must be based on a historical event.

There is a logic here: event, theology, life.

History Lesson

“has anything like this ever happened?”

Then he gives us the geographic boundaries: from one end of the heavens to other, ask.

What this means is you are to explore all possible sources.

Go check every library in the world, [everything] that’s ever been written; see if you can find anything like this.

Ask if there is any great thing or [if] anything as great as this has ever happened before.

Four questions are being asked:

Has any great event like this ever happened?

has anybody ever heard about anything like this?

has any people ever heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire and survived?

And fourth, has any god dared to do what Israel’s God has done?

It is one of the most remarkable phenomena of history that the people of Israel have remained as an identifiable group, even though they have been scattered among the nations for well over two thousand years.

In verse 34 he goes on:

Here we find 7 expressions Moses uses to describe God’s acts.

7 in Hebrew is an important number, it is not used by mistake, this is the climax and important statement:

Translated as ‘testings’ it does not portray the point clearly: it is that God challenges the gods of Egypt to stop Him, they are daring acts.

Miraculous signs.

These are proof Yahweh is who He says He is

Wonders or portents.

In a real sense they are omens.

War.

It was a battle between the Lord Yahweh and Pharaoh:

between the Lord Yahweh and all the gods of Egypt.

In these events God proved Himself victor in battle over these gods.

5+6.

A strong arm and an outstretched arm

the iconography of the Egyptians and their kings, you will see that the raised hand—the strong hand and the outstretched arm of pharaoh—are always dominant motifs

against pharaohs and against the gods of Egypt.

We could say He beats the Egyptians at their own game, and He beats the gods of Egypt at their own game.

7 His awesome deeds

And the point is we are to say: Wow, what a God!

These are awesome deeds that set the God of Israel absolutely apart from all the other gods.

This is the God of Israel’s salvation.

This is the history lesson.

The history of grace goes back (a lot further back) than to Mount Horeb and to the victory over Sihon and Og.

It goes all the way back to the exodus—that was the great moment of God’s revelation.

In verses 37-8 It says He loved your fathers and elected them

that in Deuteronomy and in the whole Bible the Hebrew word 'ahav is always an action word.

“demonstrate love.”

It’s always love in action or an attitude in action.

For God demonstrated His love for the world in this: that He gave His only Son.

It is an action word.

by choosing their offspring after them and bringing them out of Egypt.

The history of Israel goes back a lot further than forty years.

It goes back four hundred years to God’s identifying Abraham as the object of His electing love

He is fulfilling His love to the ancestors

Theological Lesson

there is no other” (verse 36).

Verse 39

Moses is reminding the Israelites, was not primarily to get you out of Egypt, to deliver you from slavery, to give you a better life.

As it turns out, it wasn’t about Israel.

It was about the Lord and the revelation of Himself to the world.

How clear was His revelation?

We have 3 confessions:

We have Jethro’s, Moses’ father-in-law

“Praise be to Yahweh.”

He is a Midianite giving praise to the God of Israel: “Praise be to Yahweh, who rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and Pharaoh, who rescued the people from the hand of the Egyptians.

Now I know that Yahweh is greater than all other gods, for he did it to those who had treated Israel arrogantly.”

Moses’ Confession

Note also Moses’ own confession (Num 13:16).

It’s in the form of changing Joshua’s name: “These were the names of the men who Moses sent to scout out the land.”

In the previous verses, he has listed them.

And then he adds, oh, by the way, “Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua.”

He changed his name.

Why?

The reason is the name Hoshea is a generic name meaning “he has saved,” and you could fill in that blank for “he” (who is it?)

with the name of any god.

But what does Moses do when he changes Joshua’s name?

He says you cannot put just any other god’s name in there.

There is only one God, Yahweh.

And so he calls him Yehoshua'.

Yehowah, He is the God of Israel.

Moses got the point.

Rahab’s Confession

But hear also the confession of Rahab in Josh 2:9–11.

She says, “I know that the LORD has given you this land, and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because they are terrified.

We have heard how the LORD Yahweh”—notice a Canaanite using Yahweh’s name—“dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed.

When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear, and everyone’s courage failed because of you.”

And now you have it: “For Yahweh your God is God in heaven above and on earth below.”

Rahab got the point.

That’s the theology lesson.

Practical Lessons

These were so you could know that Yahweh is God and that there is no other.

Therefore...

This is the opposite of legalism.

In a legalistic world people behave a certain way because they are commanded to without internal motivation.

But Moses hereby says, “You’ve got all the motivation in the world.

Don’t live a certain way simply because the Lord demands it of you.

Live this way as a way of saying thank you for the grace of His salvation.”

This is Moses’ gospel.

You can imagine Moses saying:

“Go home for the night.

Reflect on these things, but especially as you go to sleep, give thanks to God for His wonderful salvation.”