Is there any hope?
Notes
Transcript
Hope is a very powerful feeling. Hope motivates us to accomplish things in our lives. The dictionary defines hope as “a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.”
I think we sometimes use the word without having that true expectation that whatever we are hoping for will happen.
Many people hope that they win the lottery. The Power Ball last night was around $40 million dollars. Go to the pharmacy and watch people buy those tickets and then they hope they will win something.
I’ve watched people spend money on the scratch off tickets in hopes of winning some money and then if they win some money they turn right around and buy more tickets. I have never been drawn to them because you end up losing more than you win and it is simply poor stewardship of the resources that God has given.
If you want a better return on your investment give the money to God, stop giving it to the state because God can better us it. Ok, off my soapbox.
Hope. I hope God provides for me. I hope a get an A on that exam. I hope I can afford a vacation this year. I hope that the doctor has good news for me at my next visit. I hope....
The Israelites are right at the point, ready to occupy the promised land. Moses has them gathered up and in the prior chapters he has been talking to them about the blessings and curses that will come upon them depending on whether the obey God and walk with him or if they turn their backs on him and go their own way.
I am sure that running through the minds of the average Israelite is the question of if God will keep his promise. Have we placed our hope in God and will he fail us? Those are valid feelings that we might have.
When God called me to be a pastor all sorts of questions ran through my mind. The biggest one was “Are you crazy?” You want me to do what? You see, God’s plans were not my plans and I refused to budge. Well, I did budge, I turned around and walked way from God.
The Israelites are at that point. The promised land is just on the other side of the Jordan river. They are ready to march into the land and occupy what had been promised clear back to Abraham. They had to be thinking that they sure hoped that God would really come through with this promise.
Moses spoke back in chapter 29 these words:
10 Right now, all of you are in the presence of the Lord your God—the leaders of your tribes, your elders, and your officials, all the Israelite males, 11 your children, your wives, and the immigrants who live with you in your camp, the ones who chop your wood and those who draw your water—12 ready to enter into the Lord your God’s covenant and into the agreement that the Lord your God is making with you right now. 13 That means the Lord will make you his own people right now—he will be your God just as he promised you and just as he swore to our ancestors: to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 14 But I’m not making this covenant and this agreement with you alone 15 but also with those standing here with us right now before the Lord our God, and also with those who aren’t here with us right now.
What an awesome promise is found there.
12 ready to enter into the Lord your God’s covenant and into the agreement that the Lord your God is making with you right now. 13 That means the Lord will make you his own people right now—he will be your God just as he promised you and just as he swore to our ancestors: to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Moses says that this means that God is going to make them his own people right now just as he promised. That is a promise to put your hope in because it was happening right then and there.
I read a story about former President George H W Bush when he was the vice president under Ronald Reagan. He represented the U.S. at the funeral of former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. Bush was deeply moved by a silent protest carried out by Brezhnev's widow. She stood motionless by the coffin until seconds before it was closed. Then, just as the soldiers touched the lid, Brezhnev's wife performed an act of great courage and hope, a gesture that must surely rank as one of the most profound acts of civil disobedience ever committed: She reached down and made the sign of the cross on her husband's chest.
There in the citadel of secular, atheistic power, the wife of the man who had run it all hoped that her husband was wrong. She hoped that there was another life, and that that life was best represented by Jesus who died on the cross, and that the same Jesus might yet have mercy on her husband.
Gary Thomas, in Christianity Today, October 3, 1994, p. 26.
So here stand the Israelites on the cusp of entering into the promised land. Moses is just about to announce that his time on earth is nearly run its course and that he will die. He is just about to announce that Joshua will become their leader. It will be Joshua who leads them into the promised land and will lead the army to conquer all the nations that currently occupy the land.
I can just picture the scene. Moses, now and old man of 120 years. He is probably sitting in a chair because of his frailty. He commands the attention of the people and he says:
15 Look here! Today I’ve set before you life and what’s good versus death and what’s wrong.
Sounds like a teacher trying to get the attention of their classroom. Everyone get in your seat and pay attention. There is something very important about to be said.
Today Moses gives God’s word and says, I’ve set before you life and what’s good versus death and what’s wrong. One author wrote:
The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 5: Deuteronomy Enter Today While the Option is Clear
The greatest power we possess is the power to choose. Our most important choice, whether on the plains of Moab or in today’s fast-paced world, is between “life and good, death and evil”
God has given us free-will. That means we can make the choice of our destiny. We can choose God or we can walk away from him. The decision is up to us. God does not force himself onto us.
God allows us to make our own decisions. When humankind was created in the garden of Eden, they were created in the very image of God and that included the ability to make their own decisions.
Think of the Garden of Eden, God gave Adam and Eve everything that they needed to enjoy life and to enjoy their relationship with God. Right in the middle of that beautify place, God planted a tree. He told them that they could eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden except for this one special tree. It was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The moment that God planted that tree he gave humankind the ability to choose.
They had to choice to avoid the tree and enjoy eternity in this garden of God’s creation. They could choose to eat from the tree and die. The decision was up to them.
Who would choose death over the amazing life that they enjoyed in the very presence? You know what? People do it all the time.
They take that drink and then get behind the wheel of their car and are involved in an accident where someone innocent dies.
They take that first hit of a drug and become addicted and are swiftly on the road to death.
They take that first inhalation of a cigarette and can be on the road to addiction to the nicotine and other chemicals in them. That decision can lead to death through cancer. I lost a sister to that decision.
One thing that we teach our boys is that decisions have consequences. That philosophy is based on Moses’ words here. Make a good decision and there are blessings. Make a bad decision and there are consequences involved.
It is a heard lesson to learn sometimes. If we do not teach them as kids then what is going to happen when they grow up? They will probably end up in prison or worse.
Actions have consequences and Moses is talking about that to the Israelites. What he said to them over 3,000 years ago is true today.
19 I call heaven and earth as my witnesses against you right now: I have set life and death, blessing and curse before you. Now choose life—so that you and your descendants will live—20 by loving the Lord your God, by obeying his voice, and by clinging to him. That’s how you will survive and live long on the fertile land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors: to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Moses is imploring that the people make the right decision and choose life and what is good. This call to choose life is not only for those hearing him but also for the generations that will come after them.
This choice for life and the good is a life of blessing. The reason being is that God has already chosen us. God desires to have a relationship with every one of us. The Holy Spirit is at work in the world calling and drawing people towards God.
Peter wrote about this calling and chosenness
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people who are God’s own possession. You have become this people so that you may speak of the wonderful acts of the one who called you out of darkness into his amazing light. 10 Once you weren’t a people, but now you are God’s people. Once you hadn’t received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Once we were lost, separated, distant from God. We were alone in a crowd of others who were lost, separated, distant from God. Once we walked in darkness but now we walk in the light of Christ. We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people who are God’s own possession.
That all happens because of the choice that we make to walk with God by choosing life and all the good.
Jesus spent a lot of time talking about this choice or decision that we make to follow God. He summed it up when he said
16 You didn’t choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you could go and produce fruit and so that your fruit could last. As a result, whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.
You might be thinking, wait, what? Moses is saying that there are two choices, life and death, blessings and curses while Jesus is saying that “you didn’t choose me, but I chose you.”
Who is right?
They both are. God chose us out of all of his creation to be made in His image. Stop and think about that, we were made in God’s image. We say it and go right on. We were made in God’s image, perfect, holy, righteous. Then the decision was made by our first parents and sin broke and damage us. The relationship between us and God was damage and broken. We couldn’t get back to him by our own goodness.
Look at after Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden. God was right there looking after them just has he has done all down through history. History, His Story of redeeming his creation.
God has chosen us in spite of the brokenness that sin has caused and he still wants to have a relationship with us.
God was not calling Israel into a life of obeying the law, he was calling them into a relationship.
The law was not the end all, it was the means to the end of walking in relationship with God. Their hope was not to be placed in the law, but rather their hope rested in their relationship with God.
Moses gives them the choice, life and all that good or death and all that is wrong. God has already called them to be his people, he has already chosen them and now the choice for them is chose the chosenness.
Moses says to them
16 If you obey the Lord your God’s commandments that I’m commanding you right now by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments, his regulations, and his case laws, then you will live and thrive, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
He uses that big theological word “If”.
If they obey, don’t stop there, keep reading. If they obey by loving the Lord you God. This obedience that Moses is calling them to is obedience through love. In other words it is about relationship.
Any one here love the legislation that we live under as citizens of this great commonwealth? There are pieces of legislation that effect nearly every aspect of our lives. Don’t you just love the law? Anyone?
I don’t know anyone who loves the law for the laws sake. We might like the outcome of the law but we don’t love the law because it is the law. We do not and cannot have a relationship with the law, it is just words on paper.
We cannot have a relationship with the law of God because it is words on paper. We can have a relationship with the lawgiver. God is calling the people into a relationship with that is based on on the law but on relationship that is grounded in loving God with our entire being.
Moses said to love the Lord your God, how? He did not just saw to love God but he goes on by saying that we love god by “walking in His ways” by “keeping His commandments”, “His regulations and His case laws.”
In other words we demonstrate our love for God by how we live in relationship by loving and obeying him. Friday was Valentine’s Day, a day to show our love to the important people in our lives. How do we demonstrate that we really love them? Is it just one day a year with some flowers and a card or is it living that love day in and day out, through the good times and not so good times? Our love is demonstrated by what we do all 365 days of the year, not just that one day.
Moses also uses that second big theological word “but” in verse 17
17 But if your heart turns away and you refuse to listen, and so are misled, worshipping other gods and serving them, 18 I’m telling you right now that you will definitely die. You will not prolong your life on the fertile land that you are crossing the Jordan River to enter and possess.
He is saying that there is consequences for their decision. I read a story about a man who had been ticketed speeding through a school zone. He was fined $100. The clerk offered him a receipt when he paid his fine. “Why would I want a receipt for a traffic violation?” the man growled.
“Oh,” the clerk replied, “with four of these you get a bicycle to ride.”
That’s a sad truth about life. You do the crime, you do the time.
Actions have consequences.
Look again at verse 19
19 I call heaven and earth as my witnesses against you right now: I have set life and death, blessing and curse before you. Now choose life—so that you and your descendants will live—
There is an urgency in Moses’ words. Moses is at the end of his earthly life. He’s not going to enter into that promised land. I call heaven and earth as my witnesses against you right now. This decision is not just a private decision.
Rabbi Elliot Kukla wrote: “When the Torah states that God puts life and death before us, our tradition is not telling us to decide whether to live or die, but that every choice we make from birth to death matters. These choices range from how we treat our loved ones to how we spend money; from whom we bring into our world view, to how we choose our food. In each of these choices, we should choose life. (https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-commandment-to-choose-life/)
I like that, every choice we make from birth to death matters. Moses said “I have set life and death, blessing and curse before you. Now choose life - so that you and your descendants will live- by loving the Lord your God, by obeying his voice, and by clinging to him.”
That is all about relationship.
The biggest decision that we will ever make is to choose Christ.
To choose Jesus is to choose life. There was a story in the Knoxville News-Sentinel about John Bramlett. He played for the NFL in the 1960s. He was once known as the “Meanest Man in the National Football League.” A free agent who became a starting linebacker for the Denver Broncos in 1965, Bramlett was runner-up to Joe Namath for rookie of the year honors. He played in two Pro Bowls and in 1970 was voted Most Valuable Player for the New England Patriots.
Off the field, however, his life was a mess. His family never knew when he left home whether he would come home drunk, or call from a jail, or not even come home at all, because he was often involved in fights in bars.
One day some visitors came by the Bramlett home. They wanted to talk to John Bramlett about Christ. The impact of that visit changed John Bramlett’s life forever. Suddenly he turned from pursuing death to pursuing life. That is what repentance is. It is the exercise of our freedom to decide, by God’s grace, for those things that are of eternal value. John Bramlett made that choice. He even became a Christian minister. Today his life is a living testimony to the change Christ can make in a person’s life.
Perhaps Bramlett’s greatest testimony, however, is his son Don. Don played in the NFL, as well. Don still has a Christmas letter that he penned in an elementary school classroom many years ago. The subject was “All I Want for Christmas Is . . .” Here is what young Don Bramlett wrote:
“All I want for Christmas is for my family and me to have a very Merry Christmas like the other two Christmases we’ve had. My dad was out drinking and fighting three years ago and we were all worrying about him and wondering when he would come back.
“While opening our presents, we were so miserable through those years. Now we have a happy and merry Christmas after my daddy accepted Jesus in his heart and we have a lot to be thankful for. This is all I want for Christmas and I’ve got it.”
Moses said: “I have set life and death, blessing and curse before you. Now choose life”
God has given us free will, the ability to make choices. There is the choice that we all have to make and that choice is concerning Jesus.
There is hope, that hope is found in Jesus the Christ. Choose Christ, really choose Him because he has chosen you. He wants to have a relationship with you.