Thursday Night Bible Study

Deuteronomy11-Deuteronomy 12:28 (Click scripture reference for audio access)

“Love=Obey=Blessing!” • 11.15.12 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Thursday Night Bible Study

Text

• Deuteronomy 11:1-7 : "Therefore you shall love the Lord your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always. Know today that I do not speak with your children, who have not known and who have not seen the chastening of the Lord your God, His greatness and His mighty hand and His outstretched arm—His signs and His acts which He did in the midst of Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to all his land; what He did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and their chariots: how He made the waters of the Red Sea overflow them as they pursued you, and how the Lord has destroyed them to this day; what He did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place; and what He did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, their households, their tents, and all the substance that was in their possession, in the midst of all Israel—but your eyes have seen every great act of the Lord which He did." : We closed chapter 10 with a Mosaic flurry covering the history of God's work with the children of Israel.

- Based on God's working, His expanding them from a large tribe of 70 people to a great nation, they were to respond in love to the Lord. That theme is written throughout this second sermon.

- In fact, according to BLB, the word "love" used for God, is only used once in the rest of the Penteteuch. Since chapter 5, the word has been used 8 times, this being the 9th time!

- The people were to love God and reveal it by doing what He says. Everything that comes from God, whether they be judgments, laws, commandments, etc., were to be kept as an act of love.

- Jesus echoes this same statement when He tells His disciples that if they loved Him, they would obey His commandments. This is not secret. Love for God is tied to our obedience!

- Listen to Moses' heart: I'm not talking to your children! This is not a good word for them. This is a good word for you! They had known God's chastening.

- God's chastening hand refers to His instructive guiding hand, that also included discipline. They had experienced God in as complete a way as humanly possible.

- They had seen first hand His greatness. I imagine the scene at Mount Sinai, as God's voice thundered from the smoky mountain.

- They had seen His mighty hand in His victory over Egypt, His outstretched arm, as He protected them in the wilderness.

- They saw His signs and His acts, from the days in Egypt to the very moment they were living in, God including the judgment that He inflicted on those who had been rebellious in their midst.

- You will recall what happened when Dathan, Abiram and Eliab, who were a part of Korah's rebellion when the earth swallowed them whole in Numbers 16.

- God's greatness was on display in a full on assault against a large and intimidating enemy, as well as the subtle attacks that bubble up from within in the case of Korah's rebellion.

- Only His greatness would help in those matters. They were eyewitnesses to all of this.

• Deuteronomy 11:8-17 : "Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord swore to give your fathers, to them and their descendants, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’ For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year. And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled. Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, lest the Lord’s anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you." Keeping God's commandments, living in light of His will for you will result in your strength spiritually!

- Biblically, our strength comes directly from setting ourselves to do God's Word!

- For them, it was the difference between possessing the land and prolonging their days or not.

- This land was special, in that it was first a place of milk and honey, speaking metaphorically to rich abundance of practical and pleasurable material.

- Egypt had been a dry land, irrigated by the great Nile River and by the hands and feet of Egypt's slaves. Canaan was not like that, as the rains steadily would fall in from the hills to the valley.

- Moses let's them know that unlike Egypt, God looked upon the land of Canaan. He had concern over the land and that from year to year, there would be yearly water provision.   

- That was the natural state of the land of Canaan. But Moses tells them that they are coming into a covenant relationship where their actions would account for their blesing.

- When they obeyed God promised the rains and the blessing of satisfaction. But their position did not indemnify them from what could happen if they turned from the Lord.

- To disobey would result in a punitive lack of rain and production from the land. The end of their sin would result in losing the privilege of living in the land.

- The land naturally would be a fruitful place, but their disobedience would cause there to be a supernatural punitive consequence that would result in lack.

• Deuteronomy 11:18-25 : "Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth. For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do—to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him—then the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, even to the Western Sea, shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand against you; the Lord your God will put the dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread, just as He has said to you." : The NLT translates verse 18 this way: "So commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine." Whole hearted commitment.

- We have seen Moses write this before to them, that they were to have the Word expressed through every part of their lives. It was to be the center of all of their thinking and acting.

- Their children were to have the Word actively as part of their days. Every person that came into their lives should know that their first allegiance was to be the Word of God.

- The Word of God was central to their living and in their battling. Following God's Word would be the key to their success. No enemy would be able to stand against them.

- They would completely dominate their enemies. Because of their prowess? Because of their commitment to God's Word!

- An irrational fear would be in the heart of the enemies of Israel that would be put there by God. We'll see that immediately when we come to the book of Joshua.

- All this would be part of God's promise to the people of Israel as they came into the promise.

• Deuteronomy 11:26-32 : "Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today; and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known. Now it shall be, when the Lord your God has brought you into the land which you go to possess, that you shall put the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. Are they not on the other side of the Jordan, toward the setting sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the plain opposite Gilgal, beside the terebinth trees of Moreh? For you will cross over the Jordan and go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and you will possess it and dwell in it. And you shall be careful to observe all the statutes and judgments which I set before you today." : For every believer, the knowledge of God's command is a blessing and a curse.

- Blessings for the believer comes from obedience. At the same time, there is a curse for those who turn aside after other gods!

- He tells them that in advance just as He does us. We'll be blessed in following God's Word!

• Deuteronomy 12:1-7 : "These are the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to observe in the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place. You shall not worship the Lord your God with such things. But you shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go. There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the Lord your God has blessed you." : Here was what they were to be careful to obey. God was sending them into Canaan to destroy all remnants of a worship system that had defiled the land.

- Every altar, every sacred pillar, every image, everything that held significance to the names of their gods was to be utterly destroyed.

- These implements were everywhere! "Worship" was taking place in every corner of Canaan. The individual chose their favorites spots. This was not be the case with God's people.

- They were to come to a place that God would choose for them and they were to make their way there for their celebrations of worship.

• Deuteronomy 12:8-19 : "You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes—for as yet you have not come to the rest and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you. But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety, then there will be the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the Lord. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion nor inheritance with you. Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; but in the place which the Lord chooses, in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you. However, you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates, whatever your heart desires, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, of the gazelle and the deer alike. Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it on the earth like water. You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or your new wine or your oil, of the firstborn of your herd or your flock, of any of your offerings which you vow, of your freewill offerings, or of the heave offering of your hand. But you must eat them before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord your God chooses, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all to which you put your hands. Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.'" : Moses commands the people to worship together.

- They were not to have these little outposts where they worshipped alone as the heathen did. They were to bring their offerings and celebrate their worship meals together.

- Why? They were to rejoice together before the Lord! There is nothing more beautiful to God than when we stand together in unity, worshipping Him with our voices and hearts united.

- Interestingly, another part of their worship was to be sure that they cared for the Levite as long as they were in the land.

- That is another part of our worship, to care for those who care for the church! Remember that the Levites were to receive their living from the practice of worship.

• Deuteronomy 12:20-28 : "When the Lord your God enlarges your border as He has promised you, and you say, ‘Let me eat meat,’ because you long to eat meat, you may eat as much meat as your heart desires.  If the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, then you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock which the Lord has given you, just as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates as much as your heart desires. Just as the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you may eat them; the unclean and the clean alike may eat them. Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life; you may not eat the life with the meat. You shall not eat it; you shall pour it on the earth like water. You shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and your children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord. Only the holy things which you have, and your vowed offerings, you shall take and go to the place which the Lord chooses. And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, and you shall eat the meat. Observe and obey all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God." : To you and I this seems very unnecessary.

- Understand though that convenience was not to trump obedience! They were not to flippantly decide that they were going to worship in a way that suited them.

- The quicker we understand that worship is about God, the more healthy, the more centered and the more focused we will be as a community. Worship is not about you!

Conclusion
- Do we believe this? We will live it when we believe it and when that happens, there will be all the blessing that we can handle and then some!