Thursday Night Bible Study

Deuteronomy29-Deuteronomy 30

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“It's Like, Your Choice!” • 3.14.13 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Thursday Night Bible Study

Intro.

Text

• Deuteronomy 29:1-3 : "These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which He made with them in Horeb. Now Moses called all Israel and said to them: 'You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land—the great trials which your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great wonders." : Moses had commanded the people to write the law upon the stone altar of Mt. Ebal in chapter 28.

- This was the same covenant that God had made in Horeb, synonymous with Mt. Sinai, making it with the parents of this generation that now stood in Moab 40 years later.

- God's covenant stands, even when the people had failed. He does not lower the standard for this new generation, because God is unchangeably holy and His demands, perfectly righteous.

- Moses 4th sermon of Deuteronomy begins in verse 2, signaled by the phrase, "Moses called all Israel." He is now days before his own passing into eternity.

- He recounts to them all that their eyes had seen, that which had happened before their eyes. This generation had been in Egypt but were very young and impressionable.

- Remember that all of these were under 20 years old 40 years earlier when God decreed the death of that generation for their unbelief. At the most, the majority of the people are in their 60's.

- To have seen all that God did in Egypt as an adult would have been awe inspiring. Imagine however, growing up as a child and seeing these things all of your life!

- They had see the death of the firstborn and all the other plagues, not to mention all of the miracles that had taken place in the wilderness. How would you respond?

• Deuteronomy 29:4-9 : "Yet the Lord has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear, to this very day. And I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn out on your feet. You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or similar drink, that you may know that I am the Lord your God. And when you came to this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out against us to battle, and we conquered them. We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, to the Gadites, and to half the tribe of Manasseh. Therefore keep the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do." : They had seen these great sights, but it had not led them to an ability to understand or discern spiritually.

- Christian truth is much more than what an eye can see or a mind can receive intellectually. God must do a work in us and lead us to respond to Him.

- There are many who are waiting to see a supernatural sign, assuming that will lead to transformative belief. These verses teach us differently!

- Signs are not given for conversion. They are given for confirmation! For the people of Israel, they simply needed to look down. They wore the same sandals for 40 years!

- Next, they needed to look at their table. They were given supernatural provision. They had grown wheat for bread or grapes for wine, yet they stood in God's provision.

- Remember that we are talking about millions of people in a desert environment! They had been slaves and these are the people that defeated Og and Sihon, a standing nation!

- Following God has been your success! If you want to see that continued, you must keep God's covenant!

- You and I are not bound to the Mosaic law, but we are bound to God's Word and obedience to His Word leads to our joyful walking with Him as well!

• Deuteronomy 29:10-19 : "All of you stand today before the Lord your God: your leaders and your tribes and your elders and your officers, all the men of Israel, your little ones and your wives—also the stranger who is in your camp, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water—that you may enter into covenant with the Lord your God, and into His oath, which the Lord your God makes with you today, that He may establish you today as a people for Himself, and that He may be God to you, just as He has spoken to you, and just as He has sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I make this covenant and this oath, not with you alone, but with him who stands here with us today before the Lord our God, as well as with him who is not here with us today (for you know that we dwelt in the land of Egypt and that we came through the nations which you passed by, and you saw their abominations and their idols which were among them—wood and stone and silver and gold);  so that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations, and that there may not be among you a root bearing bitterness or wormwood; and so it may not happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall have peace, even though I follow the dictates of my heart’—as though the drunkard could be included with the sober." : The key here is that all who were within earshot were accountable to the keeping of the law.

- From the leaders of the nation to the strangers who came out of Egypt with Israel. From the oldest to the youngest, each was responsible to live under this law.

- God deals the same way with each person. He is not a respector of persons. If you live in a palatial estate and make millions a year, He calls you to faith in Christ.

- If you live in a shack and can't afford to pay even for that, God calls you to faith in Christ!

- He includes everyone so that there would not be a group that rose up and lived by their own convictions, ie. "the dictates or imaginations of my heart!"

- The sense is this: There will be an agreement outwardly and a conformity publicly, but a commitment to live any way that they wanted to privately.

- Perhaps they would sin and not be caught immediately and their minds would be peaceful. That would not continue to to be the case.

- Sin leads to ruin, as though the drunkard could be included with the sober. This is an odd phrase. It is translated very differently in virtually every translation.

- I believe that the NIV might have the best translation when it says, "they will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry."

- That's what happens when someone refuses to do the things that God's Word dictates. They are scraping away the moisture and health and pouring out on the desert floor!

- What would be expected for someone who had such a heart in the land of promise?

• Deuteronomy 29:20-22 : "The Lord would not spare him; for then the anger of the Lord and His jealousy would burn against that man, and every curse that is written in this book would settle on him, and the Lord would blot out his name from under heaven. And the Lord would separate him from all the tribes of Israel for adversity, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this Book of the Law, so that the coming generation of your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, would say, when they see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses which the Lord has laid on it:" : That person will be disciplined, cursed, separated and treated as an example for all to see.

- God's action against those in unrepentant sin are severe, but necessary both for the person in sin, as well as those around them.

- When God does a work of chastening, the world around that person witnesses a living illustration and will fear the Lord.

- Someone might say that they have control over their disobedience and that is true. They can control how obedient they will be. But what they cannot control is the consequence! That's for God!

• Deuteronomy 29:23-29 : "The whole land is brimstone, salt, and burning; it is not sown, nor does it bear, nor does any grass grow there, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in His anger and His wrath.’ All nations would say, ‘Why has the Lord done so to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?’ Then people would say: ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt;  for they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they did not know and that He had not given to them. Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against this land, to bring on it every curse that is written in this book. And the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.’ The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law." : Need an example? Look at Sodom and Gomorrah! The Israelites knew well what God had done to that land.

- Before it had laid in it's present state, Lot chose it because it was like the garden of the Lord! At the time of Deuteronomy, it was a waste land! If they refused to obey, they would face the same!

- Their loss would be a direct result of their lack of obedience. People would know that their lives were ruined because they refused to keep God's covenant.

- At the end of the section, Moses says that the secret things belong to the Lord. The mystery of His actions in eternity and in salvation and judgment all belong to Him.

- Why does He act now or later? When will something take place that reveals His power. That all belongs to Him. It's in His mind.

- What is revealed, His law and expectations are ours to deal with! We have enough knowledge to do without having to think about what we do not know!

• Deuteronomy 30:1-5 : "Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you, and you return to the Lord your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul,  that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you. If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you. Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers." : Moses sees down the corridor of time and sees that the people of God will be greatly blessed and greatly cursed.

- Moses no doubt sees a monarchy and great riches with great victories over the enemies of God. At the same time, he sees spiritual decline, moral degenerancy and exile.

- He knows that they will be captive in foreign lands and instructs them to remember these words for that time.

- Remember God in those days. Trust Him. He will bring you back and He will re-settle you in the land of your Fathers.

- Notice that: God has only ever promised Israel the very land that He had originally given to them! That land, from Dan to Beersheba belongs to the Jews!

- They were going to believe that they were beyond God's help, but even at the farthest reach of the heavens, God would be faithful to His promise.

• Deuteronomy 30:6-10 : And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. Also the Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. And you will again obey the voice of the Lord and do all His commandments which I command you today. The Lord your God will make you abound in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your land for good. For the Lord will again rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul." : He will do a work of circumcising them, not externally, but in their hearts. The law could not promise this.

- When would such a thing take place? After the new covenant, when God would do this through His Holy Spirit, but even then, this promise has not yet occurred.

- Today, Israel is largely secular, but Paul promises in Romans 11 that a time to come when all Israel will be saved! God still has plans for His people.

- The consequence of sin is separation, at the very least, on the part of the one sinning. It's not as though God ever moves, but we do.

- Our perception is that we are too distant from the land that God planted us in and intended for us. How could we ever get back?

- When you return in your heart to God and obey His voice in that moment, the Lord will bring you back from captivity!

- He will have allowed the curse, which is the consequence of our behavior, but He will be compassionate the moment our hearts turn back, wherever we are, even to the most distant places.

- When they did He would bring them back and bring them back into a life that would bless them. Perhaps you can hear His voice now: Turn with all your heart and soul!

• Deuteronomy 30:11-14 : "For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it." : This commandment to return to God is not strange or unheard of, hidden or difficult.

- It's not "out there" or "up there." It's not "beyond you," It's "right here!" The word is very near you, as close as your mouth, the agency of confession and your heart, the agency of belief!

- The Apostle Paul employs this verse speaking of salvation. That's how close their physical and spiritual deliverance would be!

- If they simply trusted God's faithfulness, He would respond when they called out to Him.

• Deuteronomy 30:15-20 : "See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil,  in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.'" : Israel, it's all out in front of you right now! You have all the opportunity in the world to obey, to have the greatest life, to possess the best blessing for sustained generations!

- Will you choose? Would they choose obedience? Would they choose life? Incredibly, they chose death! They chose evil. They turned their hearts from God.

- He would be their life and length of days. That hasn't changed at all! He wants to be our life, here and now and throughout eternity.

Conclusion
- God's faithfulness to His people is amazing, especially for those of us who are here today. Israel has indeed been drawn back to their land from every possible vantage point on Earth.

- One day, they'll be with us in His presence and we'll all have reason to proclaim why we should not be there, but nobody will. We'll all be talking about His faithfulness for eternity!