Alright, so again, Deuteronomy, just a great book coming to an end here in this chapter,
if you recall from last week, is the song that he had alluded to, and if you recall
the last time we were in Deuteronomy chapter 31, he said that this song he was about to
give them would be a witness and a testimony against them.
And you can kind of see how it is that when we go ahead and read it.
He's talking about the fact that one day they're going to be given over to strange
gods and God's calling it out right now.
He's saying, look, you're going to go after strange gods, I'm going to punish you, you're
going to return unto me.
So you can see how this is already a record that he gave against them, and this was something
that they were to teach to their children, they were to know this song, that they would
be able to recite this and recall this to mind and be reminded of the God of Israel
and the fact that God is a God that judges his people when they go astray.
And he starts out this song here in verse 1, it says,
Give ear, O he heavens, and I will speak, and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my
herb, and as the showers upon the grass, because I will publish the name of the Lord, ascribe
ye greatness unto our God.
So when it starts out, it starts out like a very beautiful song.
I mean, he's kind of painting this picture here, this very pleasant scene.
You got the words of his mouth, the doctrine shall drop as rain, it shall distill as the
dew, the small rain upon the tender herbs, the showers upon the grass.
It sounds like a very nourishing, very refreshing thing that he's leading into, of course we
know how the rest of it goes.
But we have to understand, it's not necessarily the words of Moses, but it's the name of our
Lord that he's giving praise to.
Why is it that this is such a, you know, starts out with such a positive note?
And he says in verse 3, because I will publish the name of the Lord, ascribe ye greatness
unto our God.
What makes this first part so great is the fact that it's to give glory to God.
What is the doctrine that's going to drop and distill as the dew?
It's the fact that we are going to publish the name of the Lord.
That's what he's about to talk about here in this song.
So the doctrine that they hear, you know, it should inspire praise to God.
And that's really, when we read the Bible, often that's, you know, that's what should
be happening.
You know, if we love the word of God and we love the Lord, we're going to read things
in the Bible that are going to cause us to give praise and glory to God.
You know, we're going to read whatever it is, you know, some people might laugh and
scoff at some things, they might have ridicule for the word of God or disdain for the word
of God, but we read things out of the word of God.
And to us we say, you know, hey, this is the doctrine of the Lord, I'm going to ascribe
greatness unto our God.
I'm going to publish his name.
He goes on in verse 4, he says, He is the rock, his work is perfect for all his ways
are judgment.
A God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.
And this is really important because at the beginning of this, Moses right out of the
gate establishes who's right and who's wrong.
And this is important that we understand this because when we read the Bible or we hear
preaching out of the word of God, you know, for instance, some of the things that I said
this morning in that sermon about drunkenness, some people would hear that and they would
think, what are you talking about stoning gluttons and drunkards?
And that's in the Bible?
And they would scoff at that and they would mock at that and they would ridicule that.
And they'd say, that's not right, that's out of line.
But let's not forget that he is the rock and his work is perfect and all his ways are judgment.
He is a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.
You know, either God is God and he knows what he's doing and he's doing right or he isn't.
And Moses, before he gets into all the negative aspects of this song, he's laying down the
law and right out of the gate, sit down, boy.
He's right out of the gate establishing who's right and who's wrong.
So he says, look, the Lord, he is the rock, his ways are perfect.
And he's establishing again, well, who's right and wrong and why?
Because the song he's about to give them is to be a witness against them.
He's about to rip some face with this song.
And he wants to let them know right away, like, you go ahead and get offended if you
want.
But remember, we're talking about the Lord here.
So he says in verse five, he goes on, he points out who's wrong in verse five, right?
They have corrupted themselves.
Their spot is not the spot of his children.
They are a perverse and crooked generation.
Do you thus requite the Lord, O you foolish people and unwise?
Is not he thy father that hath bought thee?
Hath he not made thee and established thee?
So again, the purpose of the song, you know, he's ripping face here.
He's kind of reminding them who's right, who's wrong, that they're foolish, that they're
unwise.
But at the end there, he's kind of, you know, giving us a glimpse of the purpose of the
song.
And kind of what I talked about this morning about the purpose of, you know, church discipline
is that it would cause them to repent.
And that's really the purpose behind it.
God didn't write the song as a record and a witness against them to just kind of, kind
of like, I told you so, or nanana boo boo, see, called it.
The purpose behind it is that they would be, they would, it would cause them to remember
and repent.
Cause them to remember who the Lord is, what he did for them, and they would get right
with God.
And what does that?
It's recalling the past, right?
It's recalling the past.
He said, do you thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise?
Is not he thy father that hath bought thee?
Hath he not made thee and established thee?
He's trying to bring to mind or call them to remembrance of what God has done for them.
And really verse six, I mean, that just kind of, I mean, to me, and you read that, it just
cuts to the heart.
He's saying, look, you know, is it not, is he not thy father that bought thee, hath he
not made thee and established thee?
And what is he saying here?
He's saying, is this how you treat God who redeemed you?
Is this how you're going to treat the Lord God who brought you out of Egypt and established
you and divided, you know, the inheritance unto Jacob and so on and so forth?
He's like, this is how you're going to treat God?
You know, he's really shaming him here.
This is a very harsh song that he's giving to these people.
So you know, before he could kind of give them the part of the song here that's going
to bring them back, you know, because again, that's the purpose of the song is that they
would get, when they got out of sorts with the Lord and they got backslidden, they would
have this song to recall and that would cause them to repent and bring them back.
But before he can do that, you know, he has to kind of chase them.
He's got to kind of use the song to kind of, you know, pull at their heartstrings a little
bit, you know, get them to pause and think and really, you know, that's what the chasing
of God does for us.
It gives us pause, you know, causes us to stop what we're doing, to think about what
we're doing and reconsider our ways.
But it's the goodness of God that brings us back.
You know, we come back because we remember what God has done for us, if that makes sense.
You see how here he's, you know, he's calling them foolish and unwise, you know, he's rebuking
them.
He's saying, look, God's right, you're wrong, and he's rebuking them, he's bringing them
and he's causing them to pause.
That's what the chasing of God is going to do.
It's going to cause them to stop what they're doing and listen.
But it's the goodness of God that brings them back.
And that's why he goes on and says, hath he not made thee and established thee?
And he goes on in verse seven, you know, and he goes on, remember the days of old, consider
the years of many generations.
So the chasing is to get them to stop what they're doing.
But the goodness of God is what's going to bring them back to where they need to be.
Just as it says in Romans chapter two, you know, the goodness of God leadeth thee to
repentance.
You know, it's the goodness of God that brings us back, you know, but the chasing of God
is what's going to make us stop doing the wrong things.
So let's just move on here in verse seven, it says, remember the days of old, consider
the years of many generations, ask thy father and he will show thee thy elders and they
will tell thee when the most high divided to the nations their inheritance, when he
separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the
children of Israel, for the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
That's a very interesting verse in verse nine.
He says the Lord's portion is his people.
Jacob's lot is the lot of his inheritance.
What's God saying here in verse nine?
He's saying, you're mine, I own you, I bought you, I redeemed you.
That's what verse nine is saying, you know, and we could really say the same about ourselves
today.
We can relate to this chapter in a lot of ways.
We could say today just as easily that just as much God owned them and Israel in the Old
Testament, that God owns us today.
And that's what the clear teaching of scripture is.
If you want to go over to 1 Peter chapter one, keep something there, but go to 1 Peter
chapter one, it reminds me of what Paul told the elders at Ephesus when he was giving his
parting words.
We have here Moses' kind of parting words, and these are Paul's parting words, he took
time to remind them of the same thing, that God owns them.
He said in Acts 20, take heed therefore into yourselves and to all the flock over the which
the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of God which he hath purchased
with his own blood.
God owns the church, and we are that church, and we're not our own, the Bible says.
That can be a very comforting thought, you know, if we're right with God, at times we
really enjoy the thought that God owns us, that we're his, that he's not going to leave
us or forsake us, that he's bought us, that he's redeemed us, that nothing can separate
us from the love of Christ.
But when you get out of sorts with God, that idea ought to scare you, scare your wits back
into you.
It ought to bring you to your senses to understand that you can't just do whatever you want with
your life and not suffer consequences.
It says in 1 Corinthians 6, I'll remind you of what it says in verse 19, what know ye
not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God,
and ye are not your own?
He's just flat out telling them.
When it's Paul, of course we know a lot about 1 Corinthians, the Corinthian people, because
of the series that we just went through.
He's trying to, again, bring them to their wits, cause them to think about what they're
doing, and he's kind of shocked, saying, you know, do ye not know that ye are not your
own?
Don't you understand this?
Don't you get it, that God redeemed you, that you're not your own?
He says you're for your bought with a price.
Therefore glorify God in your body and your spirit, which are God's.
Your body and your spirit is not your own.
If you're saved, God owns you.
Some people don't like the thought of that, but that's the fact.
He redeemed us, just like he brought them out of Israel and led them and did all these
great works for them, it came at a price.
He said in 1 Corinthians 3, Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of
God dwelleth in you?
If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.
For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
So again, it's kind of a double-edged sword, I mean, we have the honor of being the temple
of the Holy Ghost, but if we get this attitude that says, well, we can just do whatever we
want with this temple, the Bible says God will destroy the temple of God.
1 Peter 1, look at verse 13, Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind,
and be sober, and hope unto the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the
revelation of Jesus Christ, as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the
form of lust and your ignorance.
But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy at all manner of conversation,
because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy.
Does it sound like God wants you to be holy?
He goes on and says, And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth
according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.
Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold,
from the vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood
of Christ, as of a lamb, without blemish and without spot.
We were bought, and we weren't bought with silver, we weren't bought with gold.
We say, where does God, who does he think he is to say that he owns me?
Oh, I don't know, because he bought you with the blood of Christ?
What could be more precious, what could be more valuable than the very blood of Jesus
Christ?
Nothing.
It's priceless, it's immeasurable.
You can't compare anything to it.
And that's what God spent on me and you, was the blood of his own son.
So God has every right to say, I own you, you're mine, you're not your own, your spirit,
your body is mine, it's my temple.
So that's what we see there in verse 9, the Lord's portion is his people.
That's what he claims for his own.
Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
That's what he owns.
Look at verse 10 there, we'll continue on in Deuteronomy 32, he says, he found him in
a desert land and in a waste howling wilderness.
He led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
God not only bought him and purchased him, but he has such mercy, and he took such good
care of them.
If we recall the story of the children of Israel, I mean, he redeems them out of Egypt
and then just, you could just see all the miracles that he does on their behalf.
And protects them and watches over them and feeds them, I mean, he had them as the apple
of his eye.
I mean, he was just beholding, I mean, he never forgot them, he was never negligent
of them.
He says in verse 11, as an eagle stirreth up her nest, floodereth over her young, spreadeth
abroad her wings, and taketh them, beareth them on her wings, so the Lord alone did lead
him.
And there was no strange God with him, he made him ride on the high places of the earth,
that he might eat the increase of the fields.
He made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock, butter of
kind, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats,
with the fat of kidneys of wheat, thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape, but Jeshua
had been waxed fat and kicked, thou art waxed in fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered
with fatness.
Then he forsook God, which made him, and lightly esteemed the rock of our salvation.
So I mean, it's one thing, you know, the blessing of God can, you know, if we're not careful
with it, can turn into a curse really quickly.
I mean, you see here that God, you know, keeps him as the apple of his eye, you know, he
takes very good care of them, he feeds them, he nourishes them, and they, you know, they
flourish.
As it says there, they grow fat, they are waxed in fat.
But that prosperity ended up being their undoing.
You know, God opens up the blessing, you know, the windows of heaven upon them and pours
them out of blessing, and that's when, but that's when people tend to, tend to take him
for granted.
When everything starts going really well, you know, that's when they lightly esteem
the rock of their salvation.
And if that wasn't bad enough, right, that they, you know, they wax fat, they kick, they
forsake him, they lightly esteem him, they're not thankful, it goes on in verse 16, and
they take it even further.
They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him
to anger.
They sacrificed unto devils not to God, to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that
came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.
Of the rock that beget thee, thou art unmindful, thou, and hast forgotten the rock that formed
thee, the god that formed thee.
And when the Lord saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons and of
his daughters, and he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end
shall be, for they are a very forward generation, children in whom is no faith.
They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God, they have provoked me to anger
with their vanities, and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people,
and I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
So it was bad enough that they just got, you know, basically fat and sassy, as the saying
goes, right?
They were taken care of, they grew fat, and then they just became very negligent of God,
but then they went even further than that, to actually provoke him to jealousy by sacrificing
unto strange God and what the Bible calls devils.
And here's the thing, you know, the danger of getting away from the Lord, like these
people did, it's not just getting involved in sin, okay, that has its own inherent danger
in and of itself.
When we start to get away from God and start to get involved with sins that we shouldn't
be involved with, you know, there's that built-in punishment that comes with sin, you know,
the wages of sin is death, we understand that.
But there's even a greater danger than that, that we see here, that you actually end up
provoking the Lord to jealousy.
And this is, I think, one of God's characteristics that people ignore.
This isn't something that they like to address in a lot of churches.
In fact, a lot of people today have this misunderstanding that jealousy is a bad thing.
The Bible teaches jealousy is a good thing, and what they're mistaking it is with envy.
Those are two different things, or being covetous.
Jealousy is wanting that which is rightfully yours.
You know, when somebody's taking from you what actually is yours, you have a right to
be jealous.
You know, that's a good thing.
You know, we think about that in the relationship between a husband and a wife.
You know, if someone was trying to woo my wife away from me, I would be very jealous
for her, and rightfully so.
I wouldn't say, oh, I'm so spiritual, I never get jealous.
No, I mean, in fact, the Bible says here that God gets jealous, and we know that God cannot
sin, so being jealous is a good thing.
But again, that's the danger of getting away from God.
We always think it's, oh, you know, if I get involved in sin, bad things will happen.
You know, if I become a drunk, am I getting a car wreck, I might ruin my liver, whatever.
We think about the consequences of whatever sin we might get involved in, and that's there.
That's not to be neglected.
But you know, it's even more compounded when you think about the fact that when you get
away from God who has bought you, that has redeemed you, when you take your body and
your spirit and do things that he would not approve of, you know, that he owns, you're
taking his temple and doing whatever with it, you're going to provoke the Lord to jealousy.
You know, and that's far more frightening than any consequence of sin, is the fact that
God is going to get jealous over what you're doing.
We have to remember that, you know, God, he's the one that redeemed these people when he
brought them out of Canaan, it says in Exodus 34, I'll read to you, go over to Proverbs
chapter 6, he said, Observe that which I command thee this day, behold, I will drive out the
Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite,
take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where thou
goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee, but you shall destroy their altars,
break their images, and cut down their groves.
That's what God told them to do, is that what they did?
Not at all, they didn't do it completely, they left a lot of that, and that's why they
ended up getting snared later, that's what God's talking about here in, we're reading
in Deuteronomy, the fact that they, you know, began to sacrifice to other gods, gods newly
came up, gods that their fathers did not fear.
He says in verse 14, for thou shalt worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is
jealous, is a jealous God.
I mean, that's one of God's attributes, is that he's jealous.
In fact, God goes so far as to say, that's my name.
We know there can't be anything wrong with being jealous, it's a good thing.
It's just that we don't want to be the one that's making God jealous, because then nothing
good happens.
And it's, you know, jealousy is just another natural, it's a very natural emotion that
people feel.
I mean, God's given that emotion to every man who he created in his image.
I mean, if God is jealous, you know, it only stands to reason that we are going to be jealous
at times too, which is perfectly natural, in fact, right in many instances.
I mean, consider here in Proverbs chapter 6, and he says in verse 32, but whoso comitteth
adultery with a woman lacketh understanding, he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.
A wound in dishonor shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away.
For jealousy is the rage of a man, therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.
He will not regard any ransom, neither will he rest content, though thou giveth many gifts.
What he's saying here is that when a man finds out that somebody is committing adultery
with his wife, that he's going to become so enraged, you know, he's going to become so
jealous that he's actually going to become enraged, and that he will not spare in the
day of vengeance.
You know, it's talking about what we would call the crime of passion, where that used
to be something that was permissible.
If you killed somebody in the heat of passion, the courts would say, oh, well, that's totally
understandable.
I mean, after all, you know, he was jealous.
He was, you know, he would not spare in the day of vengeance.
And that's an attribute that God, you know, we have that as men and women.
We feel that.
We have that emotion that potentially to be there, you know, if this kind of thing happened
to us.
What we have to understand is that's something that God has given to us, that that's something
that God feels to, that when God sees his people, you know, going after strange gods
or doing those things, you know, that would provoke him to jealousy, he feels the same
way.
He's going to have that same reaction, and he's saying, look, they have moved me to jealousy
with that which is not God's.
They have provoked me to anger with their vanities, and I will move them to jealousy
with those which are not a people.
I mean, God's not, God's going to get mad.
God gets jealous over what is rightfully his.
What's rightfully his?
Me and you.
Our bodies.
Our spirits.
They're his.
So, again, you know, worse than any sin, any consequence of sin is the fact that, you know,
when we're wandering away from the Lord, we're provoking him to jealousy.
That's not anything we want to do because he will not spare in the day of vengeance.
If we're unfaithful to the Lord who bought us and redeemed us, he's not going to be passive
about how he feels.
I know I've brought this up even recently because it keeps coming up in Deuteronomy,
but God's not just going to go boo-hoo in a corner.
He's not just going to have hurt feelings.
He's going to do something about the fact that what is rightfully his is going astray.
He's not just going to let us wander out of the way with no consequences.
Any more than any red-blooded man would let his wife just go play a harlot.
He would get jealous and bring her back and maybe even crack some skulls in the process.
Look there in verse 22 in Deuteronomy chapter 32.
He says,
For a fire is kindled in my anger and shall burn to the lowest hell.
I mean, when God gets mad, God gets mad.
And what is it that's making him mad here?
His people going astray, his people going after strange gods, forsaking him, lightly
esteeming him.
This is his reaction.
A fire kindled in my anger which shall burn to the lowest hell and shall consume the earth
with their increase and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
You can kind of see how that sounds like a man in the day of vengeance over his wife.
But multiply that times a hundred, right?
I will heap mischiefs upon them.
I will spend my arrows upon them.
They shall be burnt with hunger and devoured with burning heat and with bitter destruction.
I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them and the poison of serpents of the dust.
He's going to send the animals, the wild beasts, the man eaters, the serpents, the snakes and
the vipers.
The sword without and terror within shall destroy both the young men and the virgin,
the suckling also and the man of gray hairs.
He's like, I'm not going to spare anybody.
And what he's doing here is he's giving them plenty of warning.
Remember, he's teaching them the song before they go over to Canaan and before they even
have opportunity to do a lot of these sins.
And because he knows the beginning from man, he said, look, I already know you're going
to do all this in spite of me warning you and therefore it's going to be a record against
you.
It says in verse 26, I said I would scatter them in the corners that would make the remembrance
of them to cease from among men.
So that was his intent, that he would scatter them to the point where they would cease,
the remembrance of them would cease from among men.
We wouldn't even know who Israel is today.
That's how upset God said he was going to get with them.
That he had it in his mind to just say, you know what, like he did when they were bringing
them out, what he told Moses, stand aside, Moses, I'm going to wipe them out and just
start over with you.
And it hadn't been for Moses pleading for them.
That's what would have happened.
But what he's saying is that, look, that was my intent to just completely wipe, I would
wipe them out.
I'm so mad, I'm so upset with these people for what they've done to me.
I'm so jealous that I'm ready to just utterly destroy them and no one will even remember
the name of Israel.
What does he say in verse seven, were it not for that I feared the wrath of the enemy.
Now when it says that I feared, and it's not because God's afraid like we think, it's that
he's concerning himself with the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries to behave
themselves strangely, and lest they should say, our hand is high, the Lord hath not done
all this.
He's saying the only reason I'm going to spare them is because I don't want the enemy that
I'm going to use to destroy them to think that they're all that and a bag of chips.
I don't want the enemy that I'm going to bring into their land to destroy them to think that
they did it and not me.
I want everyone to know it's me that did it.
For they are a nation void of counsel and neither is there any understanding in them.
One of the reasons we know or Israel knew that it was the Lord that punished them is
the fact that he spared them and that allowed them to go into captivity and then brought
them out and caused them to flourish once again.
So the Lord, his intent was to just make their remembrance to cease, but he didn't want those
nations to become haughty and to think that they're the ones that did it when in fact
they were just the instruments that God used to punish them.
So we read all that and it's important to understand too that that's not what God wants.
God does not, I think, get some kind of cheap thrill out of all this.
God doesn't enjoy punishing his people, but does God punish his people?
Oh yeah, he certainly does, but it's not because he enjoys that kind of thing.
In fact, God would prefer to bless his people.
That's his intent.
And he says in verse 29, oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, that they
would consider their latter end.
I mean, that's what God wants for them, to be wise, to understand that he's not playing
games and he's not messing around.
I mean, we read all this and I mean, is this a very cryptic text?
Is this something that leaves a lot to try and figure out?
No, it's very straightforward.
Look, they worship devils, I'm going to punish them.
I'm going to destroy them.
I'm going to send in the beasts and the vipers and the sword.
I'm not going to spare anyone.
I mean, God's being very straightforward.
And yet they don't get it.
They just disregard it.
They lightly esteem it.
He wants them to understand.
He wants them to consider their latter end.
He wants them to be wise.
And in fact, what they're forgetting is how greatly God could use them.
It says in verse 30, how one should chase a thousand and put ten thousand to flight.
He's saying, look, when I'm with you and I'm on your side, we can do great things together.
And that's really probably what makes God so jealous is the lost potential.
You know, when we go astray, when we get away from the Lord, when we start wandering and
we leave the work of God undone, like we leave, there's just so much that God could have done
with us.
It just, it's infuriating him.
And he's saying, he's saying, except their rock had sold them, the Lord had shut them
up for their rock is not as our rock, even as our enemies and themselves being judges.
For their vine is the vine of Sodom and the fields of Gomorrah, the grapes of their gall.
The grapes are great.
Their grapes are grapes of gall.
Their clusters are bitter.
Their wine is the poison of dragons and the cruel venom of asp.
Is not this laid up in store with me and sealed up among my treasures?
To me belongeth vengeance and recompense.
Their foot shall slide in due time, for the day of calamity is at hand.
In the things that shall come upon them, make haste, for the Lord shall judge his people
and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone and there
is none shut up or left.
So excuse me.
You know, we see that, you know, what's God saying here is like, you can count on it.
To me belongeth vengeance and recompense.
Mark it down.
I will judge my people.
But also he repents himself for his servants.
So we see here that, you know, as sure as God's chastening is, so is the fact that he
is merciful.
And God is merciful upon those whom he chastens.
I mean, it comes, but at what a price, right?
When he seeth their power is gone and there is none shut up or left.
I mean, when he's finally brought them to the place where they're just completely decimated
and there's just nothing can do, they're completely helpless, they're at their lowest point, then
God relents, but not before that.
So yeah, God is merciful and we can know the mercy of God, but at what price?
You know, and we got to be careful even in our own lives that we don't say, well, you
know, if I, I'm going to just do what I want and I'm going to get in sin and whatever,
and I know God will have mercy on me later, you know, and I know God will chase me, but
he'll let up eventually.
But I mean, consider what price, I mean, when God chases you, how far is he going to have
to go to bring you to a place where you're finally going to repent?
I mean, with them, there was none left.
There's none shut up or left.
Their power is gone.
So yeah, God is merciful upon those that he chastens, but you know, his purpose here is
to show them the error of their ways.
Look there in verse 37, and it says in verse 37, and he shall say, where are their gods?
Their rock and whom they trusted, which did eat the fat of their sacrifices and drank
the wine of their offerings.
Let them rise up and help you and be your protection.
See now that I, even I am he, there is no God with me.
I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal, neither is there any that can deliver out
of my hand.
I mean, that's some powerful scripture right there.
That's the Lord God.
I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal.
You know, God isn't just this, he's a multifaceted individual.
He has, he's a complex character, and we can't just have this one-sided view of God.
Because you're ignoring a very important side of the Lord, the fact that he does chasten
and the fact that he does work in our lives, because again, we're not our own.
And he, you know, he's saying here, I mean, this, this, this language, you know, when
you read this, it just gives you pause when you read this, at least it should.
And he says in verse 40, for I lift up my hand and I say, live forever.
I lift up my hand to heaven and I say, live forever.
Look, God doesn't want to have to do all this.
He lives up and says, live forever.
You know, I want you to thrive and succeed and oh, that you were wise and understood
this, and how you would chase a thousand, one of you would chase a thousand.
You know, that's what he wants, but make no mistake about it, I kill, I wound, and there's
none that can deliver.
You know, you're not going to hide from me.
You're not going to get away from it.
You know, it kind of reminds me of, of, you know, the dad in the car.
Don't make me pull this collar over, right?
Don't make me get up and come in there.
That's what God's saying here.
He's saying, look, you know, I raise my hand to heaven, live forever.
I want you to do well, but don't make me come in there.
Don't make me have to, you know, cloud up and rain on you.
I'll pull this car over.
I'll turn this thing around.
Don't make me take the belt off.
That's what he's saying here.
He's giving them a very stern warning in this song.
He says in verse 41, if I wet my glittering sword and mine hand take hold on judgment,
I will render vengeance to my enemies and reward them that hate me.
I will make mine arrow drunk with the blood, with blood and my sword shall devour flesh
and that which the blood of the slain and of the captives from the beginning of revenges
upon the enemy.
Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants and
will render vengeance to his adversaries and will be merciful unto his land and to his
people.
So really here at the end, the message is, you know, of this song kind of as a whole
is that we should get on God's good side and just stay there.
That's a good place to be is on God's good side because, I mean, God's bad side, there's
no escaping it.
There's no pleading.
You're not going to, you're not going to run and hide from it.
God's not going to wonder, you know, you can't be like the little kid is just going to run
under the bed.
You know, God's going to move the bed and get you, right?
And it's God that decides when you've had enough, you know, and I know I keep bringing
up this relationship of a father to his children, but I mean, that's really what it is.
I mean, he's our father and that's what he said at the beginning.
Now he bought them and he was, you know, said, have you forgotten your father?
And you know, he's the one that decides when you've had enough, you know, kids do something
wrong.
It's like, all right, you're going to get three.
And if you scream out, you're going to get another one.
They don't barter.
Well, how about two and a half, dad?
You know, how hard are we talking here?
You know, like I'll take three at a medium and, you know, I'll take one hard one and
then, and then that's it.
You know, there's no bartering with God.
God's the one who decides how much you get and when you've had enough.
So the message of the song is stay on his good side.
We don't want to get on the bad side and he kind of, you know, even says that verse
43, rejoice, O ye nations.
I mean, he's telling the whole world, look, rejoice with his people for he will avenge
his servants.
He says, you know, it's everybody should just get on God's good side.
Everyone should rejoice with his people because remember that was God's intent with Israel,
that they would be a light unto the Gentiles.
So that's kind of the message of the song.
That's really the whole point of it.
It's just this very plain, albeit poetic, which is plain warning and reminder that they
are not their own, that God is their father and if they got off sorts with him, they're
going to get a whooping, right?
That's basically what the song is about and they were to teach it to their children.
They were to remember this throughout all their generations so that they would never
go astray and unfortunately they did and it says in verse 44 and Moses came and spake
all these words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Hoshia, which is Joshua
the son of Nun, and Moses made an end of speaking all the words of Israel.
I mean, talk about a sobering speech.
Oh, Moses' last speech, what's he going to say?
Everyone stops what they're doing and he just kind of lays this out there about how God
will kill and make alive and heal and wound and he just, I mean, when I'm reading this,
writing a sermon and reading this as well, it's just, sometimes you just stop and you're
like, wow, God's nobody to mess with.
And Moses, you have to remember, I can't do it justice, just put yourself in that moment
of hearing Moses speak these words and knowing that you're about to go over into this land
and Moses passing off the scene, he's already told them, look, I'm going to go die and you
guys are going to go on without me and this is Moses' last words.
This wasn't, this wasn't, you know, a fond farewell.
This was a very stern, sobering speech that Moses gave them.
I mean, I'm sure when they got, when he got done, I mean, you could drop a pin and hear
it.
I mean, it was probably a very somber moment and, you know, that's a really good lesson
to preachers, I think.
Anyone that's going to preach or is preaching is don't pull punches about who God is.
Don't ever hold back with people about who God is.
Moses didn't.
Moses didn't edit this song.
Man, God, that whole part about you killing and wounding and, I mean, I mean, you're fire
burning to the lowest hell, I mean, isn't hell enough?
You got to go to the lowest hell?
You're going to burn them with hunger?
God, man, that's kind of harsh, God.
God, no, he said it all.
He laid it all out there.
This is who God is.
This is the way he is.
This is what he expects.
This is what he'll do, either for you or against you.
He didn't pull any punches about who God is.
No preacher should.
I mean, that would be a great disservice to the people.
Maybe it would have spared their feelings then.
Maybe Moses could have, you know, finished his speech and they would have just been like,
oh, that was very nice.
Very moving, Moses.
Very eloquent.
It's too bad.
We know we're going to miss you, instead of like, oop, which is probably what the reaction
was.
Great speech, you know?
He could have done that.
He could have taken the softer route, but would that have served the people well?
It wouldn't have.
You know, and that's, you know, when a preacher gets up and does not preach the whole counsel
of God, when he holds back, he's doing a great disservice to the body of Christ.
You know, if I decided, well, 1 Corinthians 5, that's, you know, people can read that
on their own.
You know, maybe one day we'll talk about that.
No, we've got to get into that, because that's important stuff, because that's what's going
to keep people living right.
He says in verse 46, and he said to them, set your hearts unto all the words which I
testify unto you this day, among you this day.
He's saying, look, everything, all of it, give him all the word of God, so that people
can get at all the words.
This day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do all the words of this law,
for it is not a vain thing for you.
He's saying, look, this isn't meaningless.
I'm not just up here, you know, because he likes the sound of his voice.
He's got something important to say, and he's laying it out there for him.
This isn't a vain thing.
This is because it is your life.
He said, look, this is what's going to keep you alive.
This is what's going to keep you on the right side of the Lord.
This is what's going to cause you to prosper and do well in life, is this, these words.
And so it is today.
And through this thing ye shall prolong your days to land, whither ye go over Jordan to
possess it.
So yeah, it was a very strong warning, but if they would, you know, observe to do all
the words of this law, you know, it was their life.
It would cause them to prosper.
So the song is both a warning and a promise.
And it says in verse 48, And the Lord spake unto Moses the selfsame day, saying, Get thee
up into this mountain, Abram, unto Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over
against Jericho, and behold the land of Canaan, which I shall give unto the children of Israel
for possession, and die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people,
as Aaron thy brother died in Mount Hor, and was gathered unto his people.
This I'm sorry, this gets me every time I read it.
This is like one of the saddest stories I read in the scripture.
Moses came so close.
I mean, we know it's better to depart and to go and be with the Lord.
But Moses, if you remember, wanted to go over into the land.
He even prayed to God to say, speak no more me of this thing.
And Moses never did.
Moses took what was coming to him.
But every time I read this, man, I just, I get a little choked up, because you just think
about how close everything Moses did for these people, everything that he endured, all the
great things that he saw, and he just, he's right there.
And God says, you got to go die now.
And you're just seeing this great man of God just pass off the scene.
It's just, you know, a real milestone, a huge moment in the scripture.
He says, go and die as thy brother died in Mount Hor and was gathered unto his people,
because he trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah
Kadesh in the wilderness of Zen, because he sanctified me not in the midst of the children
of Israel.
So again, we talked about last week, why Moses had to die, you know, we talked about the
fact how, you know, what it seems like Moses did wasn't that big of a deal.
And really, when you talk about the actual consequences of what he did, it really, I
mean, it wasn't really that big of a deal compared to, humanly speaking, some of the
things these people did.
The people that he were leading, I mean, they were getting involved in all kinds of stuff.
But Moses, you know, he did this one little, this one thing, and we might humanly speaking
look at it and go, man, it doesn't seem like that's a big of a deal.
But it was to God, and because of the fact that Moses knew better, he was held more accountable.
I'm not going to re-preach all that.
He says in verse 52, yet thou shalt see the land before thee, and thou shalt not go thither
unto the land which I give the children of Israel.
You know, and the lesson that we can take from this is that, you know, disobedience
can rob us of some of the greatest blessings in our life.
I mean, regret is such a hard thing to deal with.
I mean, can you imagine being Moses up on that mountain and seeing that land and just
being like, man, if I just did it the way God said, I'm right there.
And he just has this regret.
I mean, sin, it can rob us of some great moments in our life.
And you know, Moses' death, it really serves as a great reminder that God isn't playing games.
And that, you know, his death, the song that he wrote, it's a reminder that God is serious,
that he's a very serious person about, and he's serious about his people.
And if he would, we'll close in Hebrews 12.
You know, the song should do the same for us.
It should remind us that, you know, we're not our own, that God's our Father.
Let's not be negligent of him.
And that if we serve him and are faithful to him and obey him, that God will do great
things with us.
No, we're not going to go invade some foreign land and run the inhabitants out and take possession.
But we'll do mighty exploits in the Lord spiritually.
You know, we could see souls saved, we could preach sermons, we could raise godly families,
we could do great things for God, spiritually speaking.
But not if we're going to, you know, play games with God, you know, because God's not
playing games.
That's very serious.
And look at Hebrews chapter 12, look at verse 14, it says, follow peace with all men and
holiness without which no man shall see the Lord, looking diligently, lest any man fail
in the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many
be defiled.
Jump down to verse 18.
And he said, you know, why is it you should do all this?
For you're not come under the mount that might be touched.
Look, Paul here is giving this admonition for us today to follow peace and holiness,
and that we should look diligently, lest any should fail the grace of God, lest any root
of bitterness springing up trouble us, and many thereby be defiled.
He's admonishing us to do right, right?
And then he goes all the way back to the Old Testament, the stories that we've just been
reading about.
And he says, you need to do that because, verse 18, for you're not coming to the mount
which might be touched, and that burned with fire nor into blackness and darkness and tempest.
He's talking about when God came down on Sinai.
Verse 19.
And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which they that heard and treated
that the word should not be spoken to them anymore.
I mean, they heard the voice of God.
They saw that sight, and they just said, that's enough.
We don't want to hear anymore.
This is too much.
It's too intense.
And if we remember that story, God said that, God said they have well spoken.
They went to Moses and said, you go talk to him and tell us what he said.
We can't handle this.
And Moses, and God told Moses, they've well spoken that.
He said, you know what?
They're right.
This is too much for him.
And he's saying here, look, we're not come on to that mount, but that we're actually
all the more accountable.
He goes on and says, he says in verse 20, for they could not endure that which was commanded,
and if so much as a beast touched the mount, it shall be stone when thrust through with
a dart.
And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake, but ye are come
on to a mount Sion.
Look, we're not come on to that mount, as fearful and frightening as that was, but we
are come on to the mount Sion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly of the church of the
firstborn, which are writ in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of
just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of the
sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
See that ye refuse not him that speaketh.
The one who spake from Sion is the same one that's speaking from mount Sion.
For if they escaped, not whom we refused him that spake on earth, how much more shall not
we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven.
You know, I misspoke a few weeks ago when I said that, you know, they had more to go
on in Moses' day than we do.
You know, I read Hebrews 12, that's not the case.
We are actually more accountable than they are.
Even though they saw those things, you know, we still see those things by faith.
We look back and we understand all that.
We have the Holy Spirit.
We can pick up this book and understand it and know the deep things of God.
And we are come unto the mount Sion.
We are come to him that speaketh from heaven, not from some black cloud on the earth, which
we know of course was God who is still, you know, from heaven, but he's saying, look,
verse 25, refuse not him that speaketh for if they escaped, not him that spake on earth,
how much more shall we not escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven.
See, how is God speaking from heaven today?
Right here.
This is how God is speaking from heaven today.
And if we refuse this, we're not going to escape any more than they did.
We're more accountable than Old Testament Israel.
I believe that.
That's what he's teaching here.
You say, oh, that's a nice song.
What's that got to do with me?
Well, it's got a lot to do with us.
You know, just as we're bought, we're redeemed, just like they were.
We're not our own, just like they weren't their own.
And if we provoke, if we go astray and start to do things that God disapproves of, we're
going to provoke him to jealousy just like they did.
You know, I mean, if God is willing to just punish an entire nation that way, how much
more so an individual?
How much just me and you?
So that's really the sobering message.
That message is sobering.
It is for all of us.
It's not just for them back then.
That's something that we need to take heed to as well today.
And it reminds me again that that moment with Moses, you know, when he's seeing the land
before him and being told you can't go.
You can see it.
You can see what could have been, but you're going to miss out on it.
And it just reminds me that, you know, the saddest thing about being chastened, the saddest
thing about the disobedient and being punished is not the punishment itself, but it's the
knowledge that it didn't have to be that way.
To me, that's far worse than any punishment, the fact that it didn't have to be this way.
I had fair warning, you know, man, you know, if we go as Christians and we disregard this
book, we, you know, blow off the preacher, blow off, you know, our elders and just say,
nah, it's not important.
And we blow it off and God chastens us and he will.
And finally, one day we come to our senses, you know, the worst thing about it is we're
going to realize it didn't have to be this way.
I didn't have to make a mess out of my life.
I had everything going for me.
I had all the warnings.
I was set up to succeed, but I messed it all up.
And that's worse than any other punishment that we could have.
So the admonition is, you know, stand on God's good side, you know, don't, he doesn't have
to be that way.
You know, God's giving them the stern warning and he's also giving them a blessing.
He's saying, look, this could go really well for you over there.
You know, I kept them as the apple of my eye, I led you about the wilderness, I've cared
for you and I will continue to do so, so long as you're faithful to me.
The only reason that this song became a record against them is because they fell into idolatry,
because they went into disobedience.
You know, so the choice is ours to make.
Are we going to obey God and let him bless us?
Or are we going to disobey God and suffer the chaste that Mark it Down is sure to come
if we do?
Let's go ahead and pray.