Stepping into the Future Deut 1:19-33
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Introduction
Are we at a boundary moment in our world? In some sense we are always at boundary moments. This present moment is a boundary between the past and future. However, there are times in history when there are bigger transitions such as what we see in the book of Deuteronomy. After almost 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, the people of Israel stand at the boundary of the promised land. This is not only a boundary moment in terms of time and place, but also from one generation to another as well as a transition of leadership from Moses to Joshua. As Moses prepares the people to step into the future God has for them, he begins by reflecting on the past 40 years from the time they left Egypt to the moment they stand at this boundary moment. The Hebrew title for Deuteronomy is “These are the words” which is a more accurate title than Deut - which means “second law.” This is because the book of Deuteronomy, while it reasserts the law from previous books of Moses, is really about Moses’ words to Israel and these words are intended to “move them to obedience and commitment to the LORD of the covenant.” (Craigie, 17). In a sense they are prophetic words as well as function like a sermon would — words which move people to love and obey God.
The “looking back” of the first chapters is not mere scientific history — Rather, as Peter Craigie suggests, it is a memory of God’s actions that include past, present and future: This “memory of God’s past course of action and anticipation of His future course of action provide the framework for the present commitment to God in the renewal of the covenant. History is thus one dimension of a continuing relationship between God and his people. “ (Craigie, 40)
This reflection on the past reminds the people of both — God’s faithfulness as well as their failures. We need such moments of reflection, especially when we stand at boundary moments so that we can courageously step in the future God is calling us to. I believe that in these words of Moses we are invited to prepare to step into the future God has for us in our generation.
While a few verses from ch 1 were read to us this morning, I am covering the whole section of ch 1-3 where as I have already mentioned Moses is reflecting back on the past. If you remember Iain Provan’s introductory sermon from last week, he reminded us that the historical prologue in Deut answers the question for the second generation of Israel — how did we get here in the first place? Why has Israel been in the wilderness? The 3 chapters narrates history by way of geography as it plots the places on the maps and their significance in understanding God’s faithfulness and Israel’s rebellion. Twice we are told in ch 1 that in spite of everything God had said and done, the people rebelled against the command of the LORD (1:26, 43). Their rebellion was reflected both in their actions as well as their beliefs.
Let us first look at their Actions:
There are three actions that display this rebellion:
1. Unwilling to go (1:26)
2. Grumbled in your tents (1:27)
3. Presumptuously went up (1:43)
26 But you were unwilling to go up. You rebelled against the command of the Lord your God; 27 you grumbled in your tents and said, “It is because the Lord hates us that he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to hand us over to the Amorites to destroy us.
1. Unwilling to go - this was an active resistance to the future God was leading them to.
2. The people grumbled — notice that the grumbling began in their tents — in the privacy of their homes is where the disatisfaction and rumours begin to spread. From parents, to children, to friends and neighbors and soon the whole community is affected by the poison.
The story is told in more detail in Numbers 13-14 where we learn that 12 spies, one for each tribe were sent out to survey the land. They all saw the same things and reported them - but two of them Caleb and Joshua believed they could take the land while the other 10 were terrified of the people who looked bigger and stronger than them.
How we speak and what we speak about God even in the smallest circles of our relationships affects the entire community. Throughout Scripture we are warned to be careful of how we use our words and the power of the tongue to bring life or death.
So not only did they resist to go when God told them to go, and they grumbled about the whole thing, later when they find out their actions would cost them the land — they decide to go without God’s direction and guidance.
43 Although I told you, you would not listen. You rebelled against the command of the Lord and presumptuously went up into the hill country.
Before we judge these people too harshly, think of the times we have rushed or thought we are doing things for God which God has never asked us to do. Many people end up dishonoring God and discrediting the Gospel because they do things which God has not ordained and not blessed.
Beliefs:
Now underlying their behaviour or actions were beliefs which were utterly perverse.
In Deut 1:27 we read of two specific things that the rebellious generation of Israel falsely believed.
27 you grumbled in your tents and said, “It is because the Lord hates us that he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to hand us over to the Amorites to destroy us.
* The LORD hates us
* He brought us out of Egypt to destroy us
These beliefs are categorically proven to be false in Deut as Moses keeps reminding the people that God had in fact chosen them because He loved them.
So we read in Deut 4:37
37 And because he loved your ancestors, he chose their descendants after them. He brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power,
Again in Deut 7:7-8 Moses reminds them of this love relationship God has with them.
7 It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you—for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 It was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your ancestors, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Love is in fact the basic principal even behind the renewal of the covenant in Deut. Behind the law was God’s love.
John Goldingay writes:
Deuteronomy is not a legalistic document. It sees the gift of Moses’ teaching as an aspect of the great blessing intended by YHWH for Israel (Goldingay, 461).
This love is expressed in the tender image of a parent - child relationship.
Deut 1:29-33 Deut 1:29-33
29 I said to you, “Have no dread or fear of them. 30 The Lord your God, who goes before you, is the one who will fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your very eyes, 31 and in the wilderness, where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, just as one carries a child, all the way that you traveled until you reached this place. 32 But in spite of this, you have no trust in the Lord your God, 33 who goes before you on the way to seek out a place for you to camp, in fire by night, and in the cloud by day, to show you the route you should take.”
5 Know then in your heart that as a parent disciplines a child so the Lord your God disciplines you.
We know that throughout their history the people of Israel failed to believe God’s love - we read in Malachi 1:2 almost a 1000 years after Moses, God says to His people, “I have loved you” and then question back “When have you loved us?”
Within this overarching framework of God’s love for His people, I see 4 things that Moses reminds the people, especially the generation that is standing on this boundary moment and about to step into the future. These are four things we need as we step into the future God has for us, as invididuals, as a church community and as the wider Church —- I believe we are standing at a boundary moment — the choice before the second generation of Israel is the choice before us, whether or not we will trust that God does love us and has good intentions for His people,and in fact for all of creation. Since I like alliteration, so to make it easy for us to remember, I have labelled the four things all with the letter P — Promise, Presence, Provision and Power.
1. God’ Promise
Repeatedly Moses reminds the people that where they are going is what God has already promised. He uses both the stronger word “swore” as in a promise with an oath Heb, as well as the word promise throughout Deut.
8 See, I have set the land before you; go in and take possession of the land that I swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them.”
21 See, the Lord your God has given the land to you; go up, take possession, as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you; do not fear or be dismayed.”
Oath, Covenant, Promise — God gave a word, he sealed it with an oath. God made a covenant and He was going to keep it.
All the people had to do was to trust in God’s promises. Much of the Bible is about God making and fulfilling His promise and we find the ultimate expression of that in Jesus Christ.
For the people Moses is addressing the Promise was particularly of Land.
Later the Promise was expanded for David in terms of the Kingdom
Ultimately it was about the Messiah who would deliver not only Israel but all creation out of exile and usher in the Kingdom of God.
Do we believe in God’s promises in Christ for us as a community? Where are the areas we are hesitant to move forward into God’s future due to unbelief and false ideas about God?
Do we believe in Jesus’ promise to be with us, in the fact that He is building His church, and that He is making all things new? Do we believe in the promise of the glory of God filling the whole earth? Do we believe that one day God will set all things right? That evil will be judged and removed forever from the new heavens and new earth? Do we believe in the ressurection of the dead and life everlasting?
2. God’s presence:
33 who goes before you on the way to seek out a place for you to camp, in fire by night, and in the cloud by day, to show you the route you should take.”
The word seek out conveys a sense that it was God who done the exploring, not just the 12 spies. God was the one who knew what and where was the best place for His people.
Now at least they had a visit sign of God’s presence in the pillar of fire and cloud — and even after those symbols were no longer visible God continued to be with His people.
Likewise, God was visibly present to the disicples in His incarnate Son Jesus - Immanuel - God with us. For us, God is present with us even when He is invisible to our naked eyes.
Israel was to trust God’s presence with them.
Later we find David writing in Ps 139 “where I can flee from your presence” — This omnipresence of God was a reality for David.
However, while God’s presence is everywhere, there is a sense in Deuteronomy and in other places that sometimes God’s presence can also mean where God wants His people to be. Hence, places where God’s people should not go are often described in a way of God’s absence from His people.
42 The Lord said to me, “Say to them, ‘Do not go up and do not fight, for I am not in the midst of you; otherwise you will be defeated by your enemies.’ ” 43 Although I told you, you would not listen. You rebelled against the command of the Lord and presumptuously went up into the hill country.
In the book of Jonah, when God told Jonah to go to Nineveh but Jonah flees in the opposite direction to Tarshish — we read
3 But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid his fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
Whether it is Israel, or king David, the prophet Jonah, or Paul — God’s people must trust God’s presence and follow God’s presence.
3. God’s Provision
In His faithfulness God met all of Israel’s needs even when they were being disciplined in the wilderness.
7 Surely the Lord your God has blessed you in all your undertakings; he knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.”
Later in Deut 8:3-4
3 He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4 The clothes on your back did not wear out and your feet did not swell these forty years.
The wilderness was a place of testing and also preservation, of discipline as well as deliverance. It was in the wilderness that to Israel were revealed God's ways, promises and miraculous provision.
When we were serving in the mission field we found out that the old adage (ăd′ĭj) was true - where God leads, He provides. I don’t mean this in the way proponents of the prosperity gospel mean - we are not talking about having your own ways and getting what you want. That is a misunderstanding of faith.
However, God does provide us what He knows we need — Peter writes in 1 Peter 1:3
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
While some people are fearful to move forward into God’s future, often we are hesitant because what God calls us to and where He calls us requires more than our own limited resources. We can look at our financial graphs, or our attendance list, or our fixer-upper building and wonder if we can do this or that? In what way is God calling us to trust Him to provide what we need for the vision He has for us?
4. God’s Power
God was the mighty warrior who had brought Israel out by defeating the powers of Egypt. Again in this section two times the people are reminded:
30 The Lord your God, who goes before you, is the one who will fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your very eyes,
22 Do not fear them, for it is the Lord your God who fights for you.”
31 The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.
15 He said, “Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the Lord to you: ‘Do not fear or be dismayed at this great multitude; for the battle is not yours but God’s.
We find this picture again in the book of Revelation that when it comes to the final judgement on sin, satan and all evil - there is actually not even much of a battle. God just declares His verdict.
So what we have in Deut is a picture of God as both the tender parent as well as a mighty warrior.
Israel needed this reminded of God’s tenderness and power again and again — Give thanks to the LORD for He is good - We can never separate God’s power from His goodness and love — or else we start to think of Him as a tyrant. Similarly we cannot separate His goodness and love from His power and holiness. Of course the place where all this comes together is the Cross of Christ - where God’s love and power are demonstrated and where God defeats the powers that threaten to undo His good creation.
We who are in the New Covenant ushered by Christ are offered God’s power in our lives. Paul writes in Eph 3:20-21
20 Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
The second generation of Israel had to be reminded both of their failures and false beliefs as well as who God is for them. They were to step into the future with the knowledge that God loves them and that God’s Promises, God’s Presence, God’s Provision and God’s Power will be with them in this next season of their lives. Like them, we too need this reminder as we step into God’s future for us.
In Conclusion I want to ask some questions by way of applying this to our lives:
Do we sense a resistance in our God’s to move into God’s future for us?
Do we know what is God’s future?
Is there grumbling in our tents? Do we speak about God in a way that inspires faith and courage or in a way that fosters fear and suspician of God’s ways and God’s people?
Fear paralyses and unbelief demoralizes the community
What lies behind our resistance? What lies behind our presumptions?
Do we believe that God loves us? Or is there is subtle buried doubt about this truth?
What happens to a community where people believe that God hates us and wants to destroy us?
The Apostle Paul was able to withstand incredible pressures in life because he believed that “If God is for us, who can be against us?” — What happens if we believe the opposite?
Where are you in need of a reminder of God’s promises, the comfort of God’s presence, the assurance of God’s provision and the experience of His power?
— The historical prologue in Deut 1-3 has a bit of a sad ending when Moses pleads with God to allow him to go into the Promised land and God says no - but God allows Moses to see the promised land from far. However, while Moses lost the privilege of stepping into the physical land, He did not lose the promise that really mattered — His friendship with God. Even in that moment of sadness, Moses is allowed to speak with God as a friend speaks to a friend. Moses, though a broken vessel, inspires the next generation to step into God’s future. Dear people of God, let us press on towards the future God is opening before us - let us not not be paralyzed by fear, suscipious of God’s love and goodness, but trust in His promises, presence, provision and His power. Above all, know that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
