Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
I wonder if you have children or grandchildren who love to ask you the ‘WHY question’… about almost anything? As a child we loved that question, for it helped us understand. Perhaps we also loved watching adults squirm uncomfortably when we asked them “WHY”? As parents that question gets old quickly doesn’t it? And yet the adventure of learning happens when that question is taken seriously, isn’t that true?
I imagine most of us remember our world before something called “Google” or “Siri” or “Alexa”, to whom we can ask almost anything, right? So where did you go with your “WHY” questions? Was it your parents or friends or something called an encyclopedia? Perhaps some of your ‘why’s’ were met with ‘because I said so’, or ‘because that’s just how it is’, or ‘you’ll understand when you are older’. In our “Walking with Jesus” journey, I hope you have learned GOD welcomes our ‘why’ questions! In fact God welcomes any and all questions and God encourages us to ask the questions that help us learn God’s truth. The big question is… will we accept God’s answer or will we argue, or ask the question a different way because we don’t like His answer, or will we simply set aside God’s answers and go on about our life simply disregarding God?
Today, for a third day, I invite us to join Moses and more than 1 million Hebrews camped on the east side of the Jordan river. Moses is giving his farewell messages to this people that he has led for 40 years. In these messages God is doing one more thing… God is proactively answering the “WHY” questions the people haven’t asked yet, but God knew they should ask! In Deuteronomy 9 God is answering the anticipated question “WHY should we be the ones who get the land of Canaan, why not the people who already live there?”
Thursday I helped you see the answer in God’s design for our human race to live in multi-faceted relationship with Him and what a mess has occurred when we have refused that God design. Yesterday, I helped you see God’s answer in the Biblical, God initiated, multi-generational, Covenant God had made with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and his descendants. This weekend let’s look at God’s answer found in Deuteronomy 9:4-6. Moses spoke, as the Israelites stood looking across the Jordan river, and perhaps Moses pointed to that land over there as he said to the people: “After the LORD your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, ‘The LORD has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.’ No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is going to drive them out. It is not because of your righteousness or integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD will drive them out…for you are a stiff-necked people.” Oh my, does that sound like us… you and me? Do we have a tendency to look at other people, especially those living in the darkness of our broken world, with an attitude of self righteousness? Have you learned, my friends, that the Old Testament is both a historical record and God’s lessons of the past, but also a preview picture of our present and the future?
May I give you three fundamental life principles that apply to this scene in Deuteronomy 9 and to all of us:
* Choices have consequences.
* With freewill comes responsibility and accountability to God
* God’s Truth doesn’t change even if ignored or rejected.
God says in Romans 3 and other places in His Word: “There is no one righteous… for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Rom. 3:10, 23) It’s true isn’t it? It’s true for every living person, every place on planet earth, and in every generation… no exceptions!
And God says “The wages of sin is death…” (Rom. 6:23) That’s true also, isn’t it? Neither you nor I have ever met a person who will not eventually die, including the person you see in the mirror! Human death is part of the consequences the human race bears for rejecting God all the way back in the Garden of Eden, and every day since. But I’ve shared with you before that there is another ‘death’ that is even more significant, and that’s what God refers to as “PERISH”. You’ll find it in John 3:16 and John 10:28 and 2 Peter 3:9 which says: “The LORD is patient with you, not wanting anyone to PERISH but everyone to come to repentance.” “Perish” is the eternal state of separation from God. We earn ‘Perish‘ in our unrepentant sin because our sin separates us from holy God, and unless something is done to deal with our sin, ‘perish‘ is the eternal destiny for every human being who lives in sin! Do you understand that my friends?
And God also says: “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:13) God doesn’t miss anything, in any of our lives… not an action, not a word, not even a thought! Perfection is God’s standard and oh my do we all fall short of perfection, everyday! These three strong statements from God confirm those three fundamental life principles I gave you, just a moment ago. As Moses pointed across the river he declared the people living there were wicked and doomed to die in their wickedness. But Moses also reminded the Israelites they too were wicked. Moses called them ‘stiffed necked‘. It means rebellious, prideful, selfish, self reliant, arrogant, unteachable. So Moses was saying… in truth, no one deserved to live in that land of Canaan, if God’s qualification was perfection!
The other day I urged you to read Romans 1 in which God makes this powerful statement: “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of mankind who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.“ (Romans 1:18-20)
Can you see that Moses is telling the Hebrews they will go in to take the land BECAUSE it’s the land of God’s Covenant made with their ancestors and God is always faithful to His promises. God will drive out those wicked people BECAUSE they are wicked and their wickedness had filled and defiled that land of God’s promise. God was NOT bringing the Israelites in because they deserved or had earned that land, nor because they were sinless people! No, as God brings His Covenant people, the Israelites, into His Covenant land, it would be for the purpose of providing the world the opportunity to see what it could be like for a people to live in a God provided covenant relationship with God, and in a covenant land God provided them.
This was going to be a picture my friends, for all the world, at that time and in our time. A picture answering the deep questions of life. A picture of God’s justice judgment as He deals justly with unrepentant wickedness, the rejection of God…death. A picture of God’s faithfulness to His promises by bringing the Israelites into this land of promise 500 years later. A picture of God’s grace and mercy available to anyone through Jesus Christ. We all deserve death and perish because of our sin. None of us deserves to live in the blessing of God in our broken world.
But Jesus Christ provides each of us the opportunity to be forgiven for our sin, restored into a holy and right relationship with God, and live under God’s blessing now and for all eternity with Him… because Jesus paid our full sin price with His death! And finally, there will be a day of accounting for all of us, and each of us. On that day we will stand before God giving account for the lifetime He has graciously entrusted to each of us, and answering for what we have done with the relationship He offered us through Jesus. Do you see my friends how Deuteronomy 9 is a picture pointing forward to the saving grace work of Jesus available to us in our world today? Do we recognize the full price Jesus Christ paid with HIS life, His blood, so you and I could be rescued from our sin and restored into living in a covenant relationship with God?
Here’s a great worship song, my friends, which calls us to recognize the remarkable, almost indescribable reality of what Jesus did to rescue us from our sin condemnation and live in that glorious relationship with God for which He created and designed us! May we never minimize the grandeur of it all…
Today’s Scripture is Deuteronomy 9:4-6.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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