Instruction For True Living

Instruction For True Living Deuteronomy 31:30–32:47 (NIV84) 30 And Moses recited the words of this song from beginning to end in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel: 1 Listen, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. 2 Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants. 3 I will proclaim the name of the Lord. Oh, praise the greatness of our God! 4 He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he. 5 They have acted corruptly toward him; to their shame they are no longer his children, but a warped and crooked generation. 6 Is this the way you repay the Lord, O foolish and unwise people? Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you? 7 Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past. Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you. 8 When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel. 9 For the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted inheritance. 10 In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye, 11 like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions. 12 The Lord alone led him; no foreign god was with him. 13 He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him with the fruit of the fields. He nourished him with honey from the rock, and with oil from the flinty crag, 14 with curds and milk from herd and flock and with fattened lambs and goats, with choice rams of Bashan and the finest kernels of wheat. You drank the foaming blood of the grape. … 39 “See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand. 40 I lift my hand to heaven and declare: As surely as I live forever, 41 when I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand grasps it in judgment, I will take vengeance on my adversaries and repay those who hate me. 42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood, while my sword devours flesh: the blood of the slain and the captives, the heads of the enemy leaders.” 43 Rejoice, O nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants; he will take vengeance on his enemies and make atonement for his land and people. 44 Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people. 45 When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, 46 he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. 47 They are not just idle words for you—they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.” Imagine a world where we proclaimed God’s greatness in all we say and do. Moses writes a song and recites it to the people so that they can learn it by heart. He begins with words of praise: 1 Listen, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. 2 Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants. 3 I will proclaim the name of the Lord. Oh, praise the greatness of our God! 4 He is the Rock, His works are perfect, and all His ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is He. In the section that I’ve skipped, Moses goes on to describe Israel’s behaviour in the most unflattering terms. Deuteronomy 32:5 tells us why: “They have acted corruptly toward Him; to their shame they are no longer His children, but a warped and crooked generation.” And in Deuteronomy 32:28 they are described as: “a nation without sense, … (a people) with no discernment in them.” Nevertheless, God has chosen them, loved them, and treated them with both severity and compassion. Moses knew that betrayals, disasters and difficulties lie ahead for his people. So, he gave them an instruction that would enable them to live truly in God presence. Through this song Moses sows God’s truth in their hearts for generations to come. Friends, Moses’ words also teach us something about God. He described God as the “Rock” five times in this song (32:4, 15, 18, 30, 31). By doing so, Moses reminds us that God is utterly reliable. Those who put their faith in Him are safe. He will protect them when they are attacked. He is unshakeable in His trustworthiness. The nature of God as Rock is explained in the rest of verse 4: • His works are perfect, and • all His ways are just. • He is a faithful God who does no wrong, • Upright and just is he. Do you fully understand the importance of the message this explanation is driving home? Friends, all believers need to understand God’s absolute trustworthiness of God. This is especially true when our prayer requests are not answered in the way we hoped. So often it leads to despair, doubt and even rejection. Moses is telling us that if we’re looking for perfection in what we do, we should look to the one who actually manifests it. If we’re looking to be faithful, we should rely on the one who is faithful in all He does. If it’s right actions we desire in our lives and the world, we should seek the upright one. First, “His work is perfect.” The Hebrew dictionary defines the Hebrew word used here as “blameless, without defect, perfect.” Our knowledge and abilities are limited, but God’s are not. We may think that things are not going as we wish and might be tempted to compromise on our commitment to God’s ways. But that is foolishness. God’s ways are perfect. They are the best in every way for us and others. Secondly, Moses explains to us that, “… all God’s ways are just.” That means that his will for us will protect our rights. For a time, we may think that injustice rules and that those who strive to be righteous are at a severe disadvantage. Moses wants us to understand that we sometimes see it this way because we are blinded by temporary influences. In God’s good timing, we will ultimately find that despite all the injustice in the world, God honours those who follow Him by ensuring that they receive justice. How do we know that the just God will act on our behalf? Moses answers this by reminding us thirdly that God is “a God of faithfulness.” He is totally reliable and will keep his promises. The people we know, love and work with may not be faithful, but God is, and once we realise this God becomes the most important factor in our lives. This is why we can cling to God even in the darkest night, even when following God does not seem to be worthwhile, we cling to God’s faithfulness because Scripture has revealed repeatedly that He is faithful and will deliver on His promises. Therefore, we can patiently wait for His deliverance to come. Finally, verse 4 reminds us that God is upright and just. There is no doubt about it—God will act in the right way. The one thing we must ensure is that we are obedient to God. Friends, I think one of the biggest challenges believers face, is accepting that because God is who verse 4 describes Him to be, we can trust God to look after us. Sometimes when life doesn’t work out the way people thought it would or should, they find it difficult to believe the truth displayed in verse 4. The consequence of this is to remain trapped in self-pity and in blaming others for our unhappiness, failures, our lack of faith. Sometimes, it seems to me that during tough times some people are almost too afraid to come out of the prison their negative thinking has banished them to. They find it too difficult to admit that God can turn everything negative they encounter into something good, and then to trust that when the time is right for this to happen, God will make it happen. Why do people act this way? Sometimes I think that they do this because trusting God’s faithfulness would take away the reason for their anger and the habit of blaming others. Hope doesn’t allow anger and resentment to fester. Think about it: Bitterness and disobedience are ultimately expressions of a refusal to believe that God will be just and perfect in his dealings with us. I often tell people that contrary to popular belief, I do believe in a prosperity gospel. But the prosperity I believe in is not something that we experience on earth. It is eternal prosperity forever in God’s presence that I believe in. It is not a ‘name it and claim it’, prosperity gospel. It is a ‘despite of’, contemporary adversity prosperity. It is Habakkuk’s type of prosperity – against all the odds and when everything else goes wrong, like we find in Habakkuk 3:16b-19: “I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us. Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Saviour. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer, He enables me to go on the heights.” So, what then is the instruction for true living? Deuteronomy 32:44-47, give us that instruction: 44 Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people. 45 When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, 46 he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. 47 They are not just idle words for you—they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.” Especially verse 47, reminds us of what we should do: “They are not just idle words for you—they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.” Moses said: they are your life! Live by them! Moses reminds us of the truth that God’s Word is a matter of life and death. The song is over. Verse 44 says, “Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people.” The song was intended to motivate faithfulness to God and his Law. Therefore, Moses gives an exhortation to vigilance and obedience (Deuteronomy 32:44–47) The statement that the Word is “your life” implies that in it is everything necessary for a meaningful life. Though written so long ago, it still shows us the way to salvation and gives us the principles by which we should make all our decisions. It tells us how we are doing in our life—showing us when we go wrong and pointing us in the right way to go. It nourishes us so we can be strong to do the right things. And the result of obeying it is a prosperous life (Deuteronomy 32:47b). Friends, according to Matthew 4, Jesus understood this and applied this in truth in His life and teaching. Quoting from Deuteronomy 8:3, Jesus reprimanded Satan and reminded him we are to live on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Like the manna in the desert for Israel, God’s word is our daily food. This is true prosperity! To be nurtured by the living God! There are 66 books in the Bible, and I believe God wants us to know all 66. This is why Paul could say to Timothy: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17) This is what Peter meant in his final letter, when he told us that God’s divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness (2 Peter 1:3). God’s word is our plumb line by which we measure everything we hear and read. His word is truth! You say, “But I don’t have the intellect or training to understand it.” If you are a Christian, you are indwelt by the Spirit of God. He is your teacher and your helper. If He empowers you to do it, you can. And Jesus promised that this is precisely what the Holy Spirit will do once He indwells us. Friends, the Bible recognises the existence of other powers, and they have some power, as we have seen in Moses’ explanation of the first commandment (Deuteronomy 5:7). Their powers are sometimes paraded as being more accessible than God’s power. Sometimes God does not seem to be answering the prayers of Christians, and they cannot do much other than continue in prayer, waiting for God to act. Then they might get restless and go to another god whose services can be more readily accessed by making a payment or offering to that god. Because of that, even believers could be tempted to go to a shrine or a spiritual advisor, astrologer, or medicine man for a quicker result. The Israelites had done something like this when they went to these other gods. To keep people from falling into this trap again, God says, “See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand.” (Deuteronomy 32:39b) In other words, because God is sovereign over history, even the things that happen that do not seem to tally with His nature are done only because He has given them permission to do so. In closing, Moses’ song point people to God and His ways. Like the Bible, it would be ignored by disobedient people. But within it is the key to life. Some rebellious people would one day realise the madness of their ways and turn to God through it. So, let us not get tired of searching and studying the Bible so that we can witness to God’s faithfulness. People may reject what we say, but one day, when they see the foolishness of their ways, our words may be what God uses to get them back on track. May the character of God, displayed in the written word and the Incarnated Word, Jesus Christ, enable you to accept the Hope that it presents. The Word of God, both written and Incarnated, is the life of God’s people, just as God is our life. Search and obey the Word, allow Christ Jesus, the incarnated word to dwell in you and share in the eternal life of God. May you find the words God wishes to speak through you, and may you find the people who you are meant to teach. Amen.