How do we measure a year?

The year 2020

Well, we’ve almost made it. The year 2020 is almost over. And we survived!

It is interesting when we look back on the year. The word ‘unprecedented’ certainly got used a lot. Sometimes that word was used with good reason.

Certainly the number of bush fire emergencies throughout the country were at a level not seen before. The pandemic has also been unlike anything in our life time, although there have certainly been some pretty devastating ones if you go back in history.

But I want to ask the question: how do we measure this year?

I think for many people, they are quick to conclude: it was the worst year ever? For many people it seems that they just can’t wait for 2021 to start because we want this year to end.

But are there things that we can take from this year that will help us as we go forward?

You see, I think when we really quickly dismiss the year as the worst year ever, it’s like we treat it as a write off with nothing to gain.

It’s a bit like what happens to a car that has suffered a lot of damage. When the cost to repair the car exceeds the value of the car we call the car a write off and we don’t touch it any more.

So what if we don’t treat 2020 as a write off? What if we don’t see the events of 2020 as damage but instead see them as things that shape us?

Now to be honest, I’m not even convinced that the “worst year ever” tag actually fits. There has certainly been other years that have rocked the world in other ways, for example the two world wars in the 20th century.

Deuteronomy

But to help us this morning in our reflections of the year, I want to turn to Moses in the book of Deuteronomy.

Now Moses is someone who knows about facing tough years. He was the leader, raised by God, he saw the Hebrews come out of slavery in Egypt, followed by 40 tough years in the wilderness.

Now when we get to the book of Deuteronomy, we have seen the four books that precede it, take us right from the creation of the world, to the point where Moses is about to take this relatively young nation into the promised land. Deuteronomy then effectively becomes this almost extended farewell speech to the people where he reflects back on what has happened, and gives consideration to how this should shape the people now.

And while the events they had to put up with makes our situation almost pale in comparison, there are some lessons that he teaches which I believe are quite applicable to us today.

Now Moses starts his reflection at the point when the Israelites should have been going into the promised land, that is, when they sent the twelve spies up to the land, but they came back scared.

Recap of Genesis to Numbers

But I want to take you back even further then that.

I want to take you on a really quick journey from how the bible takes us from creation, to the point Moses finds himself at, at the beginning of Deuteronomy.

It starts with creation when everything is good and perfect and ordered. But sin enters the world. Adam and Eve were deceived. They wanted more. And so we see a break between the perfect harmony between God and humanity.

This break happens in Genesis 3, but then for the next eight chapters we see a picture of humanity spiralling downwards, culminating with the tower of Babel, which essentially became a picture of humanity attempting to say: we don’t need you God, we will do things our own way.

Well, God quickly put an end to that, but he also saw this as the right time to begin his plan to redeem humanity. A plan that started with Abraham. He told Abraham, a man with no offspring, to go to a land that he will be shown, and that God will bless him with many descendants and through him, bless all the nations.

It’s a fascinating story, which I’ll just gloss over now, but eventually, in his old age, against all odds, he finally has his promised child.

Isaac, his promised child, then has twins, Esau and Jacob, but it is Jacob who the blessing flows. After wrestling with God, Jacob’s name is changed to Israel, and hence the name of the nation that will flow from this family.

Jacob has twelve sons, who will more or less become the twelve tribes of Israel.

But we then get this interesting time when they are forced down to Egypt. I don’t have time to repeat the whole story but it is worth mentioning because it fits with the main idea I want to describe today.

Reframing a bad event

You see, essentially it is a famine that drives them down. Now, here’s the part that is relevant to our discussion today: had you been in that famine and seen the effects it had, you would have had to conclude that it was bad - you would have called the year a write off! But God had a purpose. He was putting his people exactly where they needed to be so they could be the people he wanted them to be.

Now, when these people went down to Egypt, they were hardly a nation. In fact, the bible tells us that they numbered just 70 people in all.

While in Egypt, however, following a succession in Pharaoh, they found themselves in slavery. Again you could argue that this is all bad. How could it be otherwise?

In fact 400 odd years pass, before God finally raises up Moses who will be there to lead these people out.

Out of Egypt

As you read the early chapters of Exodus, you can read all about how this occurs. They are negotiations which start rather poorly and just gets worse and worse from there.

As you read it you just think - this is bad. This is very bad.

And when I say bad. I mean, he hasn’t just got Pharaoh and his group upset, he’s also managed to get his own people offside. So now, pretty much everyone hates him. How could this be good?

But of course we all know the story. Through a series of ten plagues, God demonstrates his power and eventually Pharaoh is forced to let the Israelites go. It was amazing.

But the story doesn’t end there.

More troubles

The people - and they now number over a million (the Bible counts it as six hundred thousand besides women and children)… well, this large group of people find themselves trapped when the Egyptians have a change of mind and come after them, but they have the red sea in front of them.

The people cry - why? Why would they be released just to be slaughtered.

But I’m sure we all know this part of the story too. Moses raises his staff, and the red sea parts. The people go through, and by the time the Egyptians try to pass, the waters recedes and they are flooded. They are saved.

But the story still isn’t over. They run out of fresh water. They run out of food.

Everytime the people grumble, but God does the miraculous. Water comes gushing from a rock. Food falls from the sky in the form of manna. And when they are sick of the manna, God sends quail.

Even when they again find themselves under attack from other nations, God provides them with the means to defend themselves.

Ten Commandments

This then leads up to the point when God gives Moses the Ten Commandments.

Now there is a little detail in these commandments which often gets missed but will become relevant to what I want to say shortly.

You see, we often assume that the commands start with the first one which is: “You shall have no other gods before me.”

But did you know there was something that comes before that?

It actually starts with a fact of what God has already done: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery”.

Now this is not a simple introduction in case they’d forgotten who he was. It was a deliberate reminder.

Now, here’s the thing… God is saying: right through all of these troubles that you have gone through, I’ve already saved you, and now this is how I want you to live.

It’s important you see it that way, because often we read the Ten Commandments as: you need to live this way or God will not be happy with you. But God has already saved them.

Well, I’m going to come back to this idea, so let me continue.

The twelve spies

Well, this more or less takes us up to the point at which Moses starts his reflection. You see, it wasn’t long after the giving of the Ten Commandments that they start talking about taking possession of the Promised Land that God had promised.

Before they took possession, they sent spies up to look at it. It wasn’t meant to be able whether they could or couldn’t take the land - that’s because God had already promised that they could. It was rather about getting their heads around what it is like.

But you probably know what happens… They get freaked out big time. Two of them have trust, but the other ten freak out and say it’s impossible.

Now if you look at Deuteronomy 1, you can see Moses reflect on this and you can almost hear his frustration. In verses 32 and 33, Moses is almost disgusted by the fact that despite God always going before them (in fact, he had led them in fire by night and in cloud by day) and the fact that God had always come through with the goods, they didn’t want to go.

40 years wandering

Well, it was at this point that they were to spend the next 40 years wandering.

Moses then goes on to describe the various places they went, which you can read Deuteronomy 2 if you want the details.

He also describes some of the battles that they found themselves in, and the fact that God always protected them during these times. In fact, despite their rejections of him, God looked after them in many difficult situations.

In Deuteronomy 3, Moses also recounts the fact that he himself was not able to cross over - and this must have been a crushing blow for him. For all the struggles that he had been through himself, but yet God determined that it was not right for Moses to be the one.

Deuteronomy 4

Well, let’s go to Deuteronomy 4, because this is where I want to spend most of my time this morning.

You see, by chapter 4, Moses has finished recounting the events. He’s now about to shift in to the mode of telling them what they should do as a result.

I mentioned before when I briefly touched on the Ten Commandments that the commands followed the reminder that God has already saved them.

Well, Moses is essentially doing the same thing. God has already saved you, and you should now adjust your lives accordingly. And so Moses spends a bit of time thinking about the commands.

But then jump down to verse 32 which is the passage that was read to us earlier.

And it is here that Moses asks the Hebrews to reflect on what has happened. He tells them to recall the events that I’ve briefly highlighted just now. And then ask: has this ever happened before?

You see, God had done something special. The fact that they had gone through such a difficult time only accentuated this fact.

In verse 35 Moses reminds them: “You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other.”

He reminds them that God had chosen them and had loved them.

So here’s the thing. There are two ways that the Hebrews could have looked back on their time.

They could have looked back and remembered how hard it was. And it would have been hard. There was sickness and enemy attacks. There was punishment from God. There was constant moving with never any time to settle in any one place. It would have been very easy to conclude - that was bad - the worst 40 years ever!

Or, they could see it the way that Moses is telling them to look at it. To see that for every trouble, God was there. In fact God wasn’t merely saving them, he was using each and every trouble for their good.

What seemed like a trap with the Red Sea, became a means to deal once and for all with the threat from Egypt. Or going back further, what seemed like a useless famine, provided the means for a nation to form inside another nation.

You see, when we reflect back on time, there are often different ways to approach it. We can focus on the troubles. Or we can focus on the way God has taken us through them.

Actually, it’s worth pointing out that what I’m not saying is you can either focus on the good or the bad.

Let’s take 2020. The pessimist might just consider the bad parts. The fires, pandemic, race riots etc. The optimist might consider the good parts. Less pollution, less busy life styles, great cooperation with one another.

But both are really just ignoring the other side of the equation.

Moses on the other hand is saying, don’t ignore the bad - but when you look at it, see how God’s power is shown.

Keep his decrees

And this is what we need to be doing. We need to see that no matter what happens, God is going to be magnified.

But Moses doesn’t want us to just end at that point. For Moses (and for that matter pretty much every other biblical writer), we don’t just hear of God’s goodness in some sort of apathetic way.

God’s actions are meant to change us.

When we see how good God is no matter what the situation, we should be drawn closer to him. We should be concluding: I want to be more like him. I want the things that characterise him to characterise me.

And at the end of the day, this is actually what the Ten Commandments are. They are effectively describing God’s character.

They are not just an arbitrary set of rules that some heavenly counsel came up with. It is directly in line with who God is.

Keeping these decrees should be the natural consequence of seeing how God acts.

Conclusion

Whether you want to say that 2020 was the worst year ever or not, in some ways doesn’t matter. Certainly is was a year quite different to any of the years that most of us have been alive for.

There were certainly many challenges for a lot of people.

And I do recognise that I am speaking as someone who for the most part has avoided the worst of the challenges. We here avoided the worst effects of the bush fires. In Australia we have avoided the massive death tolls from the pandemic.

For those in the thick of it, obviously there would be a lot of emotion to work through.

But here is the lesson that we can learn from Moses. When we look back on difficult times, we need to focus on the way that God acts. To see that he is powerful to change. To see that he is unlike any other so-called god or any other things that might save us, because he is over all things. And to know that because God acts in this way, we should be drawn to him and to want to live like him.

2020 is about to end. I have absolutely no idea what 2021 will bring. Maybe it will be more of the same. Maybe there will be a completely new twist.

But whatever happens, there is one thing that we can know for sure. God will be with us and he will act in powerful ways.

We can choose to focus on the troubles, or we can focus on how God acts through those troubles. The choice is your.

Let me pray...