Thursday Night Bible Study

Deuteronomy9-Deuteronomy 10 (Click scripture reference for audio access)

“Grace Upon Grace Upon Grace!” • 11.04.12 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Thursday Night Bible Study

Intro.

- We are slowly progressing through this second sermon that Moses is giving to the people of Israel which began in earnest in chapter 5.

- Moses is repeating the tenets of their union together before the Lord. He has refreshed their memories of the commandments and the promises of God to bring them into the land.

- In the section before us, he warns them to keep their hearts in check regarding their pending success. Take a look at verse 1.

Text

• Dueteronomy 9:1-6 : "Hear, O Israel: You are to cross over the Jordan today, and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the descendants of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the descendants of Anak?’ Therefore understand today that the Lord your God is He who goes over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you; so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the Lord has said to you. Do not think in your heart, after the Lord your God has cast them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land’; but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you. It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people." : When Moses uses the term "today" he is using it in terms of the historic now and not the literal meaning. In their time this would happen.

- They are looking across the Jordan river and the land is peppered with great nations, great people and a genuinely great challenge. But it was God, the great Deliverer who was going before!

- Just as in your deliverance from Satan's kingdom, God is not going to let you walk alone. Your current victories will be on account of His grace as well! But why will He do this for Israel?

- Moses lets the people know that it was not because of their righteousness! He did not choose them because they were good. This has to get cemented into your minds as well.

- God chose Israel and dispossessed the Canaanites because of their wickedness! After 400 years, God finally removed the Canaanites from His land.

- There was not a hint of Israeli righteousness that cause God to move. In fact, they were a stubborn, stiff-necked people that resisted the Lord at every step. Moses lays out some examples.

• Deuteronomy 9:7-12 : "Remember! Do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you departed from the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. Also in Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, so that the Lord was angry enough with you to have destroyed you. When I went up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. Then the Lord delivered to me two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. And it came to pass, at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly; they have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made themselves a molded image.’" : The people of Israel provoked God's wrath and been rebellious against His every directive from day one!

- Moses reviews these events that had brought them to the brink, Horeb or Mt. Sinai being the first example, when after only a month, the people turned again to idolatry.

• Deuteronomy 9:13-21 :  "Furthermore the Lord spoke to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed they are a stiff-necked people. Let Me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’ So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire; and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. And I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God—had made for yourselves a molded calf! You had turned aside quickly from the way which the Lord had commanded you. Then I took the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes. And I fell down before the Lord, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you committed in doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the Lord was angry with you, to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me at that time also. And the Lord was very angry with Aaron and would have destroyed him; so I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. Then I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it and ground it very small, until it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the brook that descended from the mountain." : Moses came down the mountain and saw a shocking religious orgy in progress!

- The finale of Israel's sin was especially grievous, as they literally had to drink the dust of their sin! Moses broke the tablets of stone, symbolizing what they had done in their actions.

- At that time, God was ready to execute the people and Aaron, but Moses had interceded for them, reminding the Lord of His reputation among the nations.

• Deuteronomy 9:22-29 : "Also at Taberah and Massah and Kibroth Hattaavah you provoked the Lord to wrath. Likewise, when the Lord sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, ‘Go up and possess the land which I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God, and you did not believe Him nor obey His voice. You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you. Thus I prostrated myself before the Lord; forty days and forty nights I kept prostrating myself, because the Lord had said He would destroy you. Therefore I prayed to the Lord, and said: ‘O Lord God, do not destroy Your people and Your inheritance whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look on the stubbornness of this people, or on their wickedness or their sin, lest the land from which You brought us should say, 'Because the Lord was not able to bring them to the land which He promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.' Yet they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your mighty power and by Your outstretched arm.’" : Moses mentions these other epic sinful lapses that the people had.

- Taberah was where the people complained in Numbers 11 and God's fire spread toward the outer part of the camp.

- Massah or Meribah was where the people complained about a lack of water in Exodus 17.

- Kibroth Hattavah was so named for the people who had been made sick by their craving for meat at the end of Numbers 11.

- The culminating offense was at Kadesh Barnea when the people refused to enter the land of Canaan! Yet, with all of that God refrained from His wrath and brought them safely to the land.

• Deuteronomy 10:1-5 : "At that time the Lord said to me, ‘Hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to Me on the mountain and make yourself an ark of wood. And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke; and you shall put them in the ark.’ So I made an ark of acacia wood, hewed two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain, having the two tablets in my hand. And He wrote on the tablets according to the first writing, the Ten Commandments, which the Lord had spoken to you in the mountain from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them to me. Then I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tablets in the ark which I had made; and there they are, just as the Lord commanded me.'" : The tablets of stone that the people of Israel had, which they might have taken pride in, were replicas of the original, made necessary by their sin!

- They were put into the ark, a holy chest, which now contained several items which were related directly to their rebellion.

• Deuteronomy 10:6-11 : "(Now the children of Israel journeyed from the wells of Bene Jaakan to Moserah, where Aaron died, and where he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered as priest in his stead. From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of rivers of water. At that time the Lord separated the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister to Him and to bless in His name, to this day. Therefore Levi has no portion nor inheritance with his brethren; the Lord is his inheritance, just as the Lord your God promised him.) As at the first time, I stayed in the mountain forty days and forty nights; the Lord also heard me at that time, and the Lord chose not to destroy you. Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, begin your journey before the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.’" : Moses inserts this note that the Lord instituted Eleazar and the tribe of Levi to minister before the Lord.

- Is this a digression of thought? Not at all. Moses is letting them know that it was precisely because of their wayward hearts that a priestly ministry was needed!

- Their sinfulness and rebellion necessitated a sacrifice, the innocent for the guilty! These people needed that because of their wayward hearts!

- It was only on the basis of sacrifice that they were able to continue. It is only the basis of Christ's sacrifice that we are able to walk forward with the Lord.

• Deuteronomy 10:12,13 : "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good?" : Listen to those verbs. Fear the Lord. First and foremost, there must be a deep reverence that is cultivated in your heart for God. He is the Lord.

- We are reverent toward Him when He speaks and we act. We are reverent toward Him when we are alone, He speaks and we act! Reverence is a practice, not a position!

- We're to walk in His ways, to go where He is going, to embrace the path that He has set us on! It's easy to walk in our ways, but God requires that we seek His way and walk in that direction.

- One has to be thankful that God has called us to a steady progress in faith! We are not called to run with Him. We are called to walk, steadily, progressively in the way that He has called us.

- We're to love God, to serve Him with all that we are and do all that He has commanded us!

- What does God require of you? Everything that He deserves! He wants all of you! He wants your mind, your heart, and your will to be totally His!

• Deuteronomy 10:14-18 : "Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it. The Lord delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day. Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing." : With all that God owns, it was His delight to look down upon Israel and choose them for Himself! He could have chosen any nation, but He chose Israel!

- What a wonderful thought for you and I, members of Christ, who were chosen by God out from all of the nations. What should be their response? What should our response be?

- To circumcise the foreskin of our hearts. Cut away the working of the flesh. Trust no longer in our natural tendencies. That was what physical circumcision pointed to.

- Then, Moses says, make a decision to no longer be stiff necked. Don't resist what God wants to do in your life! He is calling them to check the motives and the intentions of their hearts.

- After a while you may find that the actions that once caused you to sin are no longer present. You might be tempted to feel good about that. But consider always your heart before the Lord.

- Are there improper motives or wrong attitudes toward people? Our hearts need circumcision!

- He is a God who is above all, mighty and awesome. The point of this last phrase is that God blesses all of these people. How much more will He bless you!?

• Deuteronomy 10:19-22 : "Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast, and take oaths in His name. He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen. Your fathers went down to Egypt with seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as the stars of heaven in multitude." : How do you know when you are right with the Lord? When you reflect His heart in your actions!

- God loves the stranger. You love the stranger! Why? Because you know what it was like to be a stranger in a strange land!

- Look at how they were to regard the Lord. They were to serve Him and cling on to Him. In this life that is more necessary as the days grow more and more wicked.

- They were to take oaths in His name. This refers to their reverence for Him, that He was their highest authority. He was their praise, the object of their worship.

- This was their God who had done wonderful things in their midst, first and foremost of those was the multiplication of this large tribe into a small nation of people!

Conclusion
- Your walk began in God's grace when He initiated a program to save you. It continues in grace as you walk with Him and surrender to His ways.

- It will conclude in grace when God translates you to His Heaven where He will rule and reign for all of eternity without end!

- Never ever think that anything you did warranted a response from God! That is to blaspheme His goodness and grace toward you.

- Rather, thank Him every day for the grace that He has shown you and let your response be whole hearted love and service to Him!