Back to the Book… | Sunday, February 6, 2022

Hear, O Israel: You are to cross over the Jordan today, and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven... Therefore understand today that the Lord your God is He who goes over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you. (Deuteronomy 9:1–3)

After two years away, Pastor Miles returns to Deuteronomy with a reminder: every blessing we enjoy flows not from our righteousness but from God's grace.

Back to the Book After Two Years

It has been a long time since we were in the book of Deuteronomy on Sunday mornings. A number of people have asked me over the last many months when we would return to this, the fifth book of the Bible. I began this series at the end of January 2020—almost exactly two years ago to the day—but after all that has transpired over the last 24 months, that seems like eons ago. It feels like a decade has passed in two years.

I called the series we began in early 2020 Bordering Blessing. The children of Israel, at the time of Deuteronomy, were on the border of the promised land. Moses was preparing them to enter all that God had promised, and he was also readying them for a new leader as he prepared for his own departure and death. When we began our study, I felt that we as a church here at Cross Connection were also bordering what I thought would be a period of blessing.

From the Border to the Wilderness

Looking back over the last 24 months, it feels like we left the border of blessing, and instead of going into the promised land, we headed back out into the wilderness. For those who know Israel's story through Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, you understand that reference—they spent some 38 years in the wilderness before coming to the border at the time of Deuteronomy. Though we as a church assumed we were about to step into a season of fruit and growth, it feels like we stepped back into a period of wilderness wandering for a little while.

The last two years have been challenging, though in some ways it's hard to complain, because the fact is we are still here and God is still on the throne. The world has not come to an end, even though some feel it's on the verge of ending. We're all still here, and I believe God has work for us to do yet.

Two years ago the church had been growing. Our leadership team was considering adding a fourth Sunday service to the three we then had. Things seemed to be moving in a very positive, fruitful direction. But fruitful seasons often follow times of pruning, and in many respects we've spent a couple of years being pruned as a ministry. That's not just our experience; many other pastors I interact with feel the same thing. Seven weeks after we began Deuteronomy at the end of January 2020, the entire world was turned upside down by COVID. Two weeks to slow the spread turned into 24 months.

God Is Working All Things Together for Good

The only thing we can be completely certain about is that God is on the throne and was not surprised by what we are going through. We can trust that He is working, even when we cannot see all the details, that He is working all things together for good. This last week our worship team sang a song referencing Romans 8:28:

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

I hope you are in a relationship with God, that you love Him and have been called according to His purposes. Then you can trust that He is working in and through your life and will complete the work He started in you until the day of Christ Jesus.

One of the hardest things in the midst of trials is that we can't see what God is doing. We walk by faith and not by sight—and not only can we not see what He is doing, but often we cannot see how or why. In those circumstances we are tempted to work things out on our own. I'm a problem solver who wants to fix things when they're out of order. But the proper thing to do when things are uncertain is to stop and wait upon the Lord—and waiting isn't always easy. I'm not the most patient person, and maybe you struggle with impatience too.

Trials Are an Opportunity to Grow

Uncertain trials are a challenge, but the Scriptures show they are also an opportunity for our personal growth and for the growth of the body of Christ. The Apostle James calls these seasons the testing of our faith, and he explains in James 1 that this testing produces good things in our lives—including patience, which leads to maturity. Patience will have its perfect work in us, that we may be complete, lacking nothing.

So an important truth to learn as a follower of Jesus is that uncertain times of trial are often an opportunity for growth in Christlikeness. God is developing character in us, growing us more into the image of His children, as we wait patiently and trustingly upon Him. The prophet Isaiah observed this:

But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)

Someone watching this morning probably needs to be reminded of that truth today. Waiting on the Lord is difficult, but it is also fruitful. King David said in Psalm 27:14, "Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord."

COVID has tested our faith and patience—and my not finishing Deuteronomy has tested the patience of some in our church who really wanted me to get back to the book. We started it just prior to COVID, then stopped and started throughout, because there were lessons God wanted to teach us outside this book. Now I believe God has things He wants to speak to us through Deuteronomy for such a time as this.

Deuteronomy: A Book of Review and a Primer

Coming back, we need a bit of a review, because we left Deuteronomy in February of last year in chapter 9. This book is in some ways a book of review: Moses is reviewing the law of God and reminding the people of His working with them up to the point where they now stand at the border of the promised land.

But Deuteronomy is also a primer for the rest of the Old Testament. Israel's history in the land and God's ministry through the prophets are centered on what God says in this book. God's dealings in the historical books—Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles—and through the prophets like Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Obadiah, are all determined by the covenant outlined here. A prophet could look at what was happening in his day, look at Deuteronomy, and speak authoritatively about what God would do. Many accurate predictions are simply the result of understanding conditional outlines: if this, then that. We'll see this when we get to Deuteronomy 28.

How Did Israel Get Here?

Returning to chapter 9, jumping back into the story raises the question: how did Israel get to this point? They are on the border of the promised land, about to take possession of what God promised to Abraham back in Genesis 12. After Abraham followed God's call, we read:

So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him... So they came to the land of Canaan... Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." And there he built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. (Genesis 12:4–7)

But at the end of Genesis, Abraham's descendants leave Canaan and go down to Egypt, where they stay more than 400 years. When we pick them up in Exodus, they are no longer a large family but a sizable nation—at least 200,000 people—in bondage as slaves under Pharaoh. In their bondage they cried out, and God heard them.

Moreover He said, "I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."... "I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry... So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up... to a land flowing with milk and honey... Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt." (Exodus 3:6–10)

Moses led Israel out of Egypt to the mountain of God in Sinai. There God established His covenant and Israel built the tabernacle so He could dwell among His people. After two years they set out for the promised land and came to its border the first time in Numbers 13—but they did not enter. The story of Israel in Exodus and Numbers is the story of a stubborn, rebellious, unbelieving, sinful people.

Written for Our Admonition

These stories are 3,400 years old, but they matter because we, too, are often stubborn, rebellious, and unbelieving—a sinful people.

Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. (1 Corinthians 10:11–12)

So Moses, just before Israel enters the land, reviews their history to prepare them. Look at Deuteronomy 9:3–6:

But understand today the Lord your God will cross over before you as a consuming fire... Do not say to yourself, "The Lord brought me in to take possession of this land because of my righteousness." ... the Lord your God will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness... Understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.

Not Because of Your Righteousness

I hope you see the repeated theme. Israel was not delivered from Egypt or blessed with the land because of their righteousness. You have not been saved from bondage to sin and death because of your goodness. Like Israel, we are a stiff-necked, stubborn, rebellious, unbelieving people who often fall into sin. Don't think the blessings and privileges God has given you are the result of your worthiness.

Beware of the snare of self-righteousness. The fastest path to a fall is self-righteousness. As Paul said, "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." In Galatians 6:3 he wrote, "If anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself." And to the Ephesians: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."

We have not received the riches of blessing because we are worthy, but because God is good and gracious. Israel was delivered because of God's goodness and grace. I was delivered from sin, and you were rescued from sin, not because we deserve it but because God is loving and merciful. He rescues us in spite of ourselves. Moses drove this home earlier:

The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers... (Deuteronomy 7:7–9)

The Safeguard Against Self-Righteousness

Look at the rest of the passage:

Remember! Do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you departed from the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord... You rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God, and you did not believe Him nor obey His voice. You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you. (Deuteronomy 9:7, 23–24)

I'm not sure I can say it better than I did a year ago: the safeguard against self-righteousness is to humbly remember my failures and God's grace. Our confidence is never in ourselves. Some of Christ's harshest words were reserved for the self-righteous of His day.

One of the most self-righteous figures of that time—before his conversion—was Saul of Tarsus, who became the Apostle Paul. He wrote of his foolish self-righteousness in Philippians 3:

Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation! For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit... and have no confidence in the flesh, though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee... concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

Paul once held a bloated, self-important view, believing himself perfect according to the law. It was only when he recognized that he was the chief of sinners that he could receive God's grace—and then became the apostle of grace:

And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful... although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy... This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:12–15)

Only after Paul saw his true self could he understand that the flesh profits nothing. So he wrote:

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ... that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. (Philippians 3:7–9)

A High View of God's Grace

Moses reminds Israel of their golden calf:

When I went up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone... the Lord said to me, "Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly; they have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made themselves a molded image." (Deuteronomy 9:9–12)

God rescued Israel out of Egypt with mighty miracles they could see. He brought them across the Red Sea on dry ground, fed them with manna, gave them water from rocks—and within months they were dancing around a golden idol saying, "This is the god that brought us out of Egypt."

Moses does not say these things to demoralize or belittle them, but so they would have an honest assessment of their nature—and a high view of God's greatness, love, and mercy. God's grace is all the more glorious against the backdrop of our sinful failings. He said, "You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you," and yet even in their stiff-neckedness God loved them—and He loves you as well.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)... that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4–7)

The awesome thing we find throughout the Scriptures—whether in Deuteronomy 7 and 9 or in Ephesians—is that God does not love me because I'm lovable; He loves me because He is love. He didn't save me because I'm good or worthy, but because He is great. The book of Deuteronomy and the whole story of God's dealings with Israel are a beautiful reminder that God is love and God is gracious. As we go through this book, I expect to see God's love and grace unfolding, and I pray it becomes more and more of a reality to you.

Closing Prayer

Father God, I pray that You would open our hearts to Your word, that You would speak to us by Your Spirit, and that You would continue to transform us by the renewing of our minds as we consider the way You worked in and through the children of Israel—to bring them into the promised land and ultimately to bring through them the great promise given to us in the Scriptures, the promise of salvation found only in You. God, open our hearts to Your word, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.