Category: Deuteronomy

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

Trust and obey is the way to be happy in Jesus! Hebrews 12:18-24 gives you a New Testament perspective on verses 9-14. We have come to Jerusalem Above and to Jesus the mediator of the New Covenant. This greater joy is yours!

SJA Notes

* God the LORD, the Mighty One, out of Zion You shine forth. The heavens declare Your righteousness, for You are judge!

“To you is was shown, that you might know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides him.”

In this sermon Moses unpacks the important outworkings of the first commandment.

“You shall have no other gods before me.”

Moses exhorts the people to hold fast to the Lord – because He is like no other god!

God spoke to them out of the midst of His great fire (be in awe, what god is like the Lord).

God is a consuming fire (be warned, be encouraged).

God gave them righteous statutes and rules (acknowledge them, live by them).

God is a jealous God (have no other gods but Him!).

God is a faithful God (He will not leave or destroy or forget His covenant with His people).

There is no other god such as Him (therefore keep His statutes).

Moses is calling on the people to remember!

All of these things are true for us today.

God has sent Jesus, who is the vine we are grafted into, bringing a new covenant – His law in our minds and written on our hearts.

“For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him?”

We see Jesus clear here – That God would draw so near to us as to come as a babe and walk through this vale of suffering to the cross!

Hallelujah, what a Saviour!

* Gracious Lord God,

We remember You today. There is none like You.

Please help us to remember!

Amen.

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

Under Joshua, Israel defeats all the enemies that come against her. Do you ever fear for the future of the Church, of Christianity? Don’t! Find in these readings the hope that John saw in Revelation 19 – that Christ is the victorious Joshua conquering His enemies. Great encouragement is ours that our labour is not in vain in the Lord!

SJA Notes

* Holy God, You are our shield, God Most High the righteous judge. We praise Your Name!

“Please let me go over to see the good land beyond the Jordan …”

There is a hard lesson here.

Moses wanted to enter the promised land. This was the land of many hopes and dreams, the place that His God was going to give to Israel – The people Moses had been leading for half his life.

Moses knew he was barred from the land, God had made that clear at Meribah when Moses struck the rock instead of speaking to it – bringing dishonor to God.

But Moses persevered and continued to plead with the Lord to let him enter.

Jesus is very clear about perseverance in prayer.

In Luke 11 we read the story of the persistent (impudent) friend.

Ask and it shall be given. Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door shall be opened to you.

How do these truths bear up against what we read here in Deuteronomy?

God speaks. A diamond-hard razor-sharp crystal-clear word.

“Enough from you; do not speak to me of this matter again.”

God answered Moses’ prayer. God said “enough”.

God’s word to Moses here should grow a deeper understanding in us of His will and of prayer, of conversation with Him.

Sometimes God’s will is such that we do see immediate “what we ask” action from Him. Sometimes we don’t see that at all.

But this is part of daily active trust. The God _is_ at work.

God did bring Moses into the promised land. And more, we today will get to meet Moses in glory.

We can be encouraged as Moses was, that our God is a faithful God who works out His purposes for us.

* Sovereign God,

Thank You for Your word here today, for Your response to Moses.

Please help us wrestle with what this means for each of us.

You are our King. You save us. What else have we to do but to do what You tell us to!

Amen.

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

Notice that Israel never deserved God’s salvation. It is only by His grace that Israel enters the Promised Land. Salvation by grace not works is the Old Testament doctrine too.

SJA Notes

* Saviour God, You ransom our souls from the power of Sheol, hallelujah!

“Do not contend with them, for I will not give you any of their land,”

As Israel reaches the end of their desert wandering, Moses reminds them of the Lord’s fences and boundaries that He laid out.

The Edomites and Ammonites were off-limits at this time.

This wasn’t because God thought those peoples were “okay”. There would be war between them and Israel in time.

But there would also be hope.

Ruth, the great-grandma of David, was from Moab. A gentile woman, grafted into the vine that is Jesus.

Sometimes God’s plans for us don’t seem logical or beneficial. Sometimes He seems to be protecting the unjust workings of those around us.

We can’t know the depth of God’s plans, His infinite mind, His determination of will from before the foundation of the world.

But we can trust Him. We can place our trust in Him. A daily active hard-won hard-fought trust.

And we can know what He has told us.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6

* Dearest God Above,

Thank You for saving us and sanctifying us, for bringing us from darkness into light, dead in sins to alive in You.

Your word tells us that Your plans for us are for our good.

Please help us to trust in You, in Your word, in Your plans.

Amen.