Listen to the sermon here.
“Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.” –
Inigo Montoya
That’s how I feel about our reading from Deuteronomy
tonight. There is too much backstory about Moses and Israel and God’s
deliverance from slavery in Egypt!
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Exodus 1-15
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“Prince of Egypt” or “The Ten Commandments”
serve as pretty good summaries.
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Summed up – God rescued his people with mighty
deeds, plagues, and death. Pharaoh set the Israelites free but then pursued
them to take them again, and at the Red Sea, God delivered them once again by
parting the sea and allowing Israel to cross on dry ground. But when the
Egyptian army came after them, God brought the waters down upon them and
drowned them to save His people.
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Then Moses led Israel for 40 years.
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God brought them to the edge of the Promised
Land – roughly the same place as modern Israel – and set them up to enter, but
they refused to go. They feared the people who inhabited the land and didn’t
trust God to protect them.
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For their disobedience, God told them they would
wander until that whole generation died.
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Not even Moses would be permitted to enter.
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Then the time came.
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God told Moses to get his affairs in order. He
was going to die, and then Israel would go in to take the land God had promised
them.
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Part of Moses getting his affairs in order is
one last sermon – Deuteronomy.
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This is a piece of it.
Imagine Moses, old and ready to say goodbye as I read this.
“The whole commandment
that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and
multiply, and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give
to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember the whole
way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the
wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in
your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 And
he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you
did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know
that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every
word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4 Your
clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty
years. 5 Know then in your heart that, as a
man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. 6 So
you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in
his ways and by fearing him. 7 For
the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of
brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and
hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines
and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a
land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack
nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig
copper. 10 And you shall eat and be full, and you
shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.”
A couple of things jump out
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Keep these commandments – why? – That you may
live and multiply.
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That’s not how we think of God’s Law
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Law accuses and condemns – which it does because
we are sinners
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But it is good, and it is intended for life and
to show us what love looks like.
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God humbles and disciplines
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Why? – to reveal our hearts – To Him? – No, to
us.
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Uses Lack – Man does not live by bread alone … -
Is God enough?
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Uses Blessings – Their clothes did not wear out
… - Content with what we have?
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He will use Abundance – Walk in God’s ways when
they have plenty? Fear Him?
There is an interesting twist in v. 6-7
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So you shall keep the commandments of
the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7 For
the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of
brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and
hills, … etc.
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Keep the commandments because – you are blessed.
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Obedience flows from God’s blessings
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Not obedience to receive the blessing – the
blessing is theirs – recipients of Grace.
We, too, are recipients of God’s grace!
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1 Tim 2:4 – God desires all people to be saved
and come to knowledge of the truth.
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We are part of that people
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Saved
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Truth
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God’s Word
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Law
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Gospel
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CHRIST!
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Cross
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Tomb
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Baptism
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We are people headed to our own promised land.
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You shall eat and be full
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Isaiah – heavenly banquet
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Lord’s Supper – Divine Food
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Ascended Christ to us
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His whole self
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You shall bless the LORD for the good land He
has given you
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For the GOOD He has given you.
What has he given you?
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New Life
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Humility/Discipline
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Suffering to teach us to long for better than
this world can give.
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Blessings
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Comforts and abundance – can tempt, but can also
be used to share and be a blessing.
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His greatest good – Jesus – our Redeemer who
reconciles us to God.
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Gives us His righteousness by faith – not our
perfection, but our restored relationship with God.
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Grace –
That experience of grace moves our hearts to remember and
give thanks – not out of duty – but out of love for what our Heavenly Father
has done for us through Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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