Deut 31:1-6
John 15:9-19
Matt 28:16-20

Our Deuteronomy text this morning starts with “When Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel…“ OK. Looks like we have tuned into this show in the middle. Well actually if “all these words” are the words written in the book of Deuteronomy (that is what it means) then we are tuning in after the last commercial.

I think it will be helpful for us to take a few minutes to talk about “context” or how did the story get to this point. So where are we in the story.

Moses has led Israel to the verge of entering the “promised land,” again. That sentence raises at least three questions. Who is Israel? What do I mean by "promised land"? And, Again? OK, here we go.

First, Who is Israel? It was helpful to me to think about a few things. At this point Israel isn’t really a nation like we think of nations. This group of people is a big family, a clan, people group, that traces its roots back to Abraham. They aren’t the only ones. There are a few clans at the time that did that. But this is the particular clan in this story. They are a people who trace their heritage back to Abraham thru Jacob, Abraham’s grandson. Jacob was also called Israel, so they are “Israelites.”

How long so they have to trace back? Great-great-great - um I don’t really know how many greats - grandpa Abraham had died almost 600 years before the Isrealites stood on on the Jordan. Six - hun-dred years? I can’t really get my head around that. I’ve tried. I’m not 50 yet. How am I supposed think about a length of time that is more than 12 times longer than my lifetime? And for you young-uns that multiplier just gets bigger.

Well here is my best attempt at thinking about 600 years.

  • 600 years ago there was no United States.
  • 600 years ago people living in Europe didn’t even know that the American continents existed.
  • For that matter they didn’t call it Europe.
  • There was a Holy Roman Emperor 600 years ago. His name was Sigismund.
  • In fact 600 years ago they didn’t even use the calendar we use now.

That was a long time. Oh - one more thing that hadn’t happened 600 years ago … the Reformation. There were no Cumberland Presbyterians, there weren’t even any regular Presbyterians to disagree with and then break away from.

In that amount of time they had a lot of time to become more numerous. As numerous as the sand of the seashore. How many people are we talking about here? Well, depends who you ask/read. Numbers 1:46 gives the number as 603,550. This number if you read the fine print is counted in a census 2 years after they left Egypt, only includes the people 20 and older who would form the army (i.e. men, and who we will see in a few minutes are the exact people not present for our text) and excluded one tribe set aside to attend to the religion and its upkeep (the Levites).

So this is not the number we are looking for. But we aren’t trying figure out how much food to make to feed them, we just want a sense of the size of the group. This number gives us a good start. Based on this starting point some people have estimated that the number of Israelites (men, women, and children) standing on the shore of the Jordan was between 1.5 and 3 million people. For our purposes let’s say it is something like the population of the peninsula including San Francisco and San Mateo counties. Or if you like the population of Montana and Idaho combined. Either way, that is a big family.

OK back to our context for this text. Moses has led Israel to the threshold of entering the “promised land,” again.

What is this “promised land” all about? That goes back to Abraham again. 680 or 690 years before this text Abraham was minding his own business in Haran when God told him to get up, pack up his household and start hiking because God was going to make of him a nation in a very specific place (the land). Only a couple problems if you will remember: (a) Abraham was 75 and didn’t have any kids yet and (b) there were a whole bunch of people already living in the place and they weren’t signed up with the program. Abraham never actually settled permanently in the land. But the promise was renewed to his son Isaac and grandson Jacob over the course of their lives. The last time that promise had been renewed before relatively recently to our text was when Jacob had a dream as he was moving to Egypt. That was 470 years before. Wow, that is a long time to be waiting! (We won’t take a lot of time getting a gage on the time involved here, but think the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth.)

We should remember here that for the 430 years that the Israelites were in Egypt the formalized religion we think of when we think of “Old Testament Israel” didn’t exist. The “old testament/jewish” religion we think of was formalized by Moses after they left Egypt, about 40 years before our text. So these Israelites were a clan group that held together in a foreign land primarily because of family ties and external segregation by a native population that eventually oppressed them to the point of slavery. That promise of being a nation with their own land was probably a little fuzzy and taken with a healthy dose of skepticism. Maybe that is just me.

All right the third question. Moses has led Israel to the threshold of entering the “promised land,” again. Again? Right, so the story we get in Exodus is that the Israelites were saved because God heard their cries for a savior. God picked Moses to be his man in the Egyptian king’s court. Moses performed miracles, and eventually whisked Israel out of Egypt. Moses told the Israelites to get all of the gold, jewels, and other riches from their neighbors on the way out. Once they were in the wilderness Moses gave them a new formal religion, with new laws, new sanctuary, new religious practices. Moses also gave them a new form of government and acted as a judge for them arbitrating arguments, etc. Then Moses led them fairly directly to the “promised land.” Can you see it. A million or two people who had never been out of Egypt on there way to a land that was going to be theirs? Who told them it was going to be theirs? Moses. Who was the primary leader through all of this massive transition? Moses.

Well they got to the Jordan and across the river was their new land. What is this land like? Who is there now? Moses said it is a good land and that God is going to defeat the people there for us. They decided they needed more than Moses’s word and decided to send some folks in to find out.

Twelve men went in checked it out and came back out to report. Well? Ten of them had nothing good to say, at all. They didn’t even report on the land, just on the people who lived in the land, giants, with cities that had high walls around them. The other two, had a different report. They looked at the land and rejoiced in what they saw and even “stole” some of the wonderful produce to bring back to show everyone.

We are aware enough about ourselves to know how this played out, right? 10 to 2. Well the Israelites were paralyzed with fear and refused to go and take the land. I’m shortening things. If you want the full scoop read about it in Deuteronomy 1 and Numbers 13 and 14. It is an easy read.

So what happened then. Well, God didn’t let them have the land yet. He told all the men of fighting age that they would never enter the land. So they wandered around in the wilderness for forty years, waiting. Waiting for what. They were literally waiting for all their elders to die off. Once all those elders were gone then they would try again. Whew! Talk about wandering aimlessly. Talk about a lack of vision. Can you imagine inviting a friend to that church? What do you do there? “Well we just go through the motions waiting for all the leaders to die off.” How long have you been at that? “35 years.”

That is probably overly dramatic, sorry. Here are some things that happened during that time. They had a leader in Moses who continued to lead them. Also while they wondered in the wilderness Deuteronomy 8:4 says that their clothes did not wear out. For forty years. That verse also says that their feet were never sore. They were able to eat every day because God gave them enough. All they had to do was go out and collect manna from the ground.

So Moses has led Israel to the threshold of entering the “promised land,” again. We are ready to continue. What does Moses say? Let’s walk through the text in Deuteronomy 31.

1 When Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel,

Now Israel is on the verge of entering the promised land, and the book of Deuteronomy is the recording of a number of sermoms that Moses gave telling them their story (3 times) and gaving them case law for the civil government, and renewing the covenant with this new generation of Israel. He taught them the law and the law was intended to teach them “who is God?” They hadn’t really known God “for themselves.” Moses had always gone between. God was distant to them. They didn’t know it quite yet, but their beloved leader, who had led them for the last 40 years was setting them up to continue without him. After all of these sermons in Deuteronomy Moses drops a bombshell.

2 he said to them: “I am now one hundred twenty years old. I am no longer able to get about, and the LORD has told me, “You shall not cross over this Jordan.”

What? We are about to enter the place that our elders ran away from in fear and, and Moses, our leader, the only leader we’ve ever known for most of our lifetimes, will not be leading us into our toughest stage? Won’t the new leader have his own plans? Shouldn’t we stop for a vision and identity sessions to see who we are without Moses? (Sorry, I think my flag is showing.)

Moses didn’t pause for these questions, he continued,

3 The LORD your God himself will cross over before you.

Who is actually the leader of Israel? Moses or God. When Moses is no longer able to continue it was time to see who had actually brought them this far. Who’s idea was this “nation in a promised land” thing anyway.

Maybe, the Israelites had trouble seeing the hand of God at work in the prior 40 years because there was a hand of man, Moses’s, that they could see. But who really had the plans for their future? Their leaders or their God? God. Without a doubt. That is true for us, too. God had made the promise to them and God was going to make it happen. Moses was clear on this, he continued

3 The LORD your God himself will cross over before you. He will destroy these nations before you, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua also will cross over before you, as the LORD promised. 4 The LORD will do to them as he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when he destroyed them. 5 The LORD will give them over to you

That is pretty thorough. And specific. Moses was intent on telling them that God, their LORD was the one who had the idea. But, Moses could probably say this until he was blue in the face and it still wouldn’t get through. So God held him back. If he went it would be more of the same. Without him Israel needed to face God.

And they need to face God because He intended for them to play a part.

5 The LORD will give them over to you and you shall deal with them in full accord with the command that I have given to you.

What did he command? Well let’s take a peak at Deut. 20: “16 But as for the towns of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not let anything that breathes remain alive. 17 You shall annihilate them—the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites—just as the Lord your God has commanded,“ Oh man! Can you imagine the outbreak of horror and recrimination, if this was to be commanded today? A lot of Christians want to distance themselves from this Old Testament God, that would command this. Here’s a thought, I think Israel probably was as horrified by this as we are. And I think their peers also were too. And I don’t just mean the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Why do I think this? Because Israel didn’t do it. Just a thought. We’ll come back to this in a minute, but suffice it to say God’s thoughts didn’t jive with man’s thoughts.

Moses went on:

6 Be strong and bold; have no fear or dread of them, because it is the LORD your God who goes with you; he will not fail you or forsake you.

I’d like to spend more time in this verse that I have. This is the verse that drew me to this text. Where Moses was complete in talking about God’s leadership and God’s idea. He is equally complete in this blessing. I would paraphrase: “Assume you are capable and act on that, do not be paralyzed by fear or have more awe of your opponents than they deserve, because they’ve got nothing on your God who leads you. He will not fail nor will he leave you behind.”

This is all nice. But it is in the Old Testament. Is it unique to the Old Testament. As a matter of fact I find a parallel in the New Testament. In our Mathew text in fact. Let’s turn to that one.

We are at the end of Matthew. The last few verses in fact. Jesus has finished his work here on Earth. He took our worst. He took Satan’s worst. He was killed on the cross and then he defeated death. He was resurrected from the grave. And he called his disciples to himself on a mountain in Galilee. And again the people listening were in for a deflating surprise. It isn’t in the Matthew text but we know from the other gospels that Jesus stopped being physically present with his disciples. Mark is succinct in his narrative. In Mark 16:19 we read “So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.” There it is. Jesus was finished. He was done. Time to sit.

But Matthew includes what “Jesus had spoken to them.” Matthew writes,

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

You can imagine the disciples here. “Yes!, We hitched up to the right Messiah after all.”

Then Jesus continues,

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.

What? Obey? Commanded? What about the cry of the Reformation? “Justified by faith alone!” What about Paul in Romans 3, “28 For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.”

But here is Jesus talking about obeying commands. What do we do with this? Here at Grace we talk a lot about “It is all about relationship.” Yes! I agree! As a matter of fact our last text in John 15 reads, (Jesus speaking to the disciples again)

15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.

Jesus calls me friend. Yeah, relationship!

Well, what else does Jesus say about friends in John 15. In the previous verse he says,

14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.

This way. That way. This is a question that has been troubling and dividing Christians since Paul and Peter were alive. And I’m about to try to speak to it. I hope this is God’s inspiration and not my hubris.

I hope this example helps. When Jenelle and I had kids in the house we ate dinner at the table together. We believed that in order to be a family we needed to have times when we were all in one place. Being in one place would foster relationship.

Now I wouldn’t have said it this way then, but when dinner time came I commanded everyone to come to the table to eat. I did. It was expected. If they didn’t come to the table I would go find them. Most of the time there was nothing particularly noteworthy. We all sat down and ate and talked. Sometimes dinner would last longer than others because we were enjoying each others company. Other times we had something to go to afterwards. But generally we ate dinner together, and in the process we got to know each other better, a little at a time.

I did say most of the time. Sometimes one or the other of my kids (and dare I say sometimes it was me) would come to the table because they had to, but they would gripe and bicker and argue and be belligerent and basically keep everyone from enjoying their meal. Did they obey my command to come to the table for dinner? Well, yes, in a legalistic way. Oo. Is it possible to obey and not be legalistic. Sure, most of the time everyone came to the table because it was expected and because they were part of the family. Other times they did it because they had to.

The point of the dinner law in the Denson house was to enable relationship. We could obey in a way that furthered the relationship or in a way that didn’t. But without obedience there would not have been with each other at all.

So what am I getting at? I am proposing that obedience is needed so that we are near Jesus. In Deuteronomy, God was “on the move” and if one of the Israelites stayed behind then he would not be with God because he would have chosen to be somewhere that God was not.

Jesus is Lord of heaven. He sits at the right hand of God. He has plans. He is about doing the will of God. He has told his friends what to do too. Go out bear fruit, good fruit, make disciples who also do what I told you to do. And the end of the Mathew text he says, “I will be with you always to the end of the age.” If you live as Jesus friend you will do what he tells you to do and he will be with you.

In John 15 Jesus says,

10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

I think it will take me more time, but having my joy be complete means following Jesus’s commandments, well sign me up.

But we wouldn’t have to keep resetting ourselves with repentance if this was going to mean the world would love us. Sometimes (most of the time maybe) doing what he tells you to do is going to make the world hate us. Remember what God told Israel to do to the people in the land. It was horrifying to the world’s sensibilities. Well, frankly so is what Jesus tells us to do. He is insistent on doing what God has planned. John 15 again says,

19 If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world—therefore the world hates you.

Yes we can be jerks on our own, but if we do what Jesus tells us we will need to have Jesus with us because the world won’t like it. And he promises to be with us.

Remember last week when Joel talked about being vessels of Jesus’s light. We are the vessels of Jesus’s light when we are doing what he tells us to do. Otherwise we are just vessels of our own darkness.

Grace Fellowship be a friend of Jesus, by doing what he commands, and bear good fruit by calling others to this good life with him. And when we do - our life individually and together will have the best purpose imaginable, and our joy will be complete. We will be following God and making disciples of others by being vessels of his light. And Jesus will be with us, or if you like, we will be with Jesus, to the end of the age.

Assume you are capable of this and act on that, do not be paralyzed by fear or have more awe of the world than they deserve, because they’ve got nothing on our Lord who leads us. He did not fail nor will he leave us behind if we are going his way.

Preached at Grace Fellowship Community Church on January 13, 2019.
Preached at Redeemer Community Church on March 24, 2019.