Father we commit this evening to You. You've been so gracious already to remind us of your promises as we have expressed our praise and worship to You and now we pray for this segment that our minds would be clear and sharp and that as part of our worship to You we would give You all of our attention; our full attention would be Yours as we have committed this next block of time to hear what the Spirit of God would say to us. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.
History proves that truth and principle can be easily forgotten. If you look at the decay of some of the great institutions, even in our own country, you can see that. Take Harvard University, for instance. It was a school that began with a promise, a goal and a vision, and that is: to train up young men for the ministry, to preach the Gospel, and to carry the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to all of the Eastern seaboard. That was the original founding idea of Harvard University. Look at Harvard today. I wonder if you can find anybody who knows the Gospel very well or can articulate it on that campus. They have completely changed directions. I propose to you that it did not happen all at once but it was incremental. I'm sure it was something like an event where they opened in prayer and proclaimed the Gospel and somebody complained, so they thought at a meeting, "Well maybe we don't have to say Jesus Christ at every meeting, or open in prayer at every event, or maybe we could be open to other expressions, and so they all voted for it. Then another incremental change and another and another and you add all of those changes together and it seems they have forgotten the purpose for which they were founded. Because that is a tendency, it's important to be reminded of who we are and what God requires. We need to be reminded and we need to remember lest we forget and that is the overwriting theme of this book. If I were to give you the theme of Deuteronomy it's this, "Beware, lest you forget." Deuteronomy is essentially a repetition of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, the second, third, and fourth books. It's a repetition of the Law. Deuteronomy comes from two words, "deuteron" which means two or second and "nomian" which means the Law. It's a Greek word that comes from the Pentateuch. Deutero nomian - Deuteronomy; law number two or the second law or the law repeated a second time. That's what Deuteronomy is. Let me tell you what it's comprised of. Deuteronomy is essentially three messages, all of them farewell messages given in a single month by a 120 year old man named Moses on the plains of Moab. That is the description of the whole book of Deuteronomy. I don't want to get into the debate - some people see four messages and some see five; I see three as do many other scholars. Each of the messages has a theme. The first message, chapters 1 through 3 or 4 (depending on how you divide it) looks backwards; it's a review of the past. The second message, around chapters 4 or 5 to chapter 26, is the regulations for the present. Number three is chapters 27 through 34, the end of the book, and its readiness for the future. So we have past, present, and future - or historical, legal and prophetical; those really sum up the three messages that comprise the entire book.
The book of Deuteronomy will be referred to, quoted or eluded to some 350 times in the rest of the Old Testament and another 95 times in the 27 books of the New Testament; so it's a pretty important book. In fact, did you know that the book of Deuteronomy is the book that Jesus Christ most often quoted from? I know what some of you are thinking. "If all of that is true, Skip, and if it's that important, why are you going to cover it in one night?" For two reasons: number one, we are at 30,000 feet; number two because remember it's a repetition of what we've already gone over; it's told to a new generation; he's reviewing the past; giving regulations for the present; and readying them for the future. Two hundred and fifty times in the book of Deuteronomy there will quotes, illusions, and references to Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. It's a repetition.
Let's get into the first of those messages, chapters 1 through 3 - the review of the past. This is what God has done in the past; this is historical. "These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel on this side of the Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain opposite Suph, between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. It is eleven days' journey from Horeb," orMount Sinai, "by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea. Now it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him as commandments to them." Did you get that in verse 2 - it's an 11 day journey. They somehow managed to turn an 11 day march into a 40 year meander. How? Through unbelief. We already read that; we already looked at it; and Moses will go over that and review it with them. There was something about travel in that day: in the ancient east, distances are not computed by miles or kilometers but rather by the time it takes you to travel there, hours or days. Typically in the ancient world, you could cover 20 miles per day by foot. If you had a camel it's 30 miles per day, they don't go all that fast. If you were in a caravan, it takes about 25 miles per day because you have a lot of people and you're moving quite slowly. You may remember in the book of Jonah chapter 3, it says of Nineveh, "It was an exceedingly great city, three days journey in extent." So if it takes you all day to go 20 miles by foot that means that the circumference of Nineveh was 60 miles around. It was an eleven day journey from Mount Sinai, Horeb, to the entrance to the Promise Land, which was Kadish-Barnea; they were moving slowly, but they would move very slowly because it would be 40 years later.
Chapter 1, verse 6: "'The Lord our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying: 'You have dwelt long enough at this mountain.'" Don't you love that? God says, "You've been here a long time already, go." There's a reference to Mount Horeb and I said it was Mount Sinai. That's because Horeb is the name of the mountain range and Sinai is one of the peaks. If you climb Mount Sinai, or if you have in the past with us, we've pointed out that there's one little precipice, one peak called Horeb in particular, but the entire range and Mount Sinai is one of them. Verse 7: "'Turn and take your journey, and go to the mountains of the Amorites, to all the neighboring places in the plain, in the mountains and in the lowland, in the South and on the seacoast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the River Euphrates.'" God is saying, "This is what I gave you," and Moses is saying, "Forty years ago when we sent those spies out." They were to look at all of the land God had given them and if you total it all up, God gave them about 300,000 square miles but at their zenith, at their peak under King David and Solomon they only occupied 30,000 square miles. In other words, they only enjoyed one tenth of all that God promised that they could have. It is one thing to be given a gift; it's another thing to actually receive it and open it. It's kind of lame if somebody gives you a gift and you thank them and you never open it. God gave them a gift, but they never really opened it; they never took all of the land that God promised them; again because of unbelief.
There was a father who gave his son a Bible for graduation from college. His son had asked for a car. When the boy got the Bible, rather than even being polite, he threw it at the dad and stormed out of the room and refused to talk to his father for the rest of his life. Years passed and eventually that father died and the last time the son had seen his dad, he was confronting him in anger. The son went home to the family house for the funeral arrangements and he was in the office where the dad had given him the Bible. As he was there in the office tidying up, he noticed on the bookshelf, many years later now, that same Bible that his dad had given him. He thought, "Oh yeah, I remember that." He took it off the shelf and opened up and out fell a key. He looked and at it and he noticed that there was a note attached to it. It was a key to brand new car but the dad had wanted to wrap the car in the sweetness of God's Word to give him the right message. The boy refused it and he didn't get the Word or the car. God had promised so much for the Children of Israel and they didn't receive all that God gave them; they haven't even to this day and it will take the future before they really unwrap it.
I wonder where you're at spiritually as we have surveyed and are about to end the five books of Moses. I wonder if you are wandering in a wilderness of sorts; I wonder if you're enjoying all the promises of God; if you are really entering in; if you're really saying, "I'm going to step out a little further and believe God for a little bit more; I want my life to be adventurous as I follow Him in full faith."
Some of you have heard about a man who died in 1915 named John Wendell. He was called America's most miserly millionaire. John Wendell lived in New York City on 5th Avenue and was called the most miserly millionaire. He was very wealthy; he refused to get married, he stayed a bachelor and didn't want to spread the wealth to a woman; and he persuaded his five sisters to remain unmarried their whole lives and to live in the family home on 5th Avenue. He died in 1915 and some years later when one of his sisters died in 1931, they discovered that she was worth 100 million dollars but she didn't own a car; didn't have electricity; didn't use a phone or have a phone - wouldn't pay for the expense; and the only dress she owned was the one she was wearing and she wore it every day for 25 years! This guy was nuts and he had five wacky sisters to go along with him! Imagine having all of that wealth but not enjoying it. Imagine having all of the promises, Ephesians 1: "Blessed with all blessings in heavenly places," but living little stingy, spiritual miserly lives.
Moses continues his review and in verse 26 he talks about the 12 spies he had sent out but, verse 26: "'Nevertheless, you would not go up.'" Verse 34: "'And the Lord heard the sound of your words, and was angry, and took an oath, saying, 'Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I swore to give to your fathers, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and his children I am giving the land on which he walked, because he wholly followed the Lord.'" This is the review of the past. Moses is saying, "Everybody died; no one will go into the land from that generation and you guys will go in." There were only two that survived and that was Joshua and Caleb and they are going to go into the land. Conservatively, if you think of the number of people that died in the wilderness in that period of time, that would be one million two hundred thousand people that died in the wilderness in 37 1/2 years. That would be an average of 85 funerals per day or seven people dropping the bucket every waking hour. It got to be a way of life; death became a way of life. How dramatic an illustration that was for the Children of Israel that for 37 1/2 years every day people around them, are dying, dropping, being buried, being left. A sober reminder to them for almost 40 years that the wages of sin is death. They died in the wilderness.
In chapters 2 and 3 Moses basically reviews the places that they went and the events that they saw. All the things we have looked at in Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers.
I'm going to take you to chapter 3, verse 10 because there's an interesting guy who was a king of Bashan which is up in northern Israel still; we call them the Golan Heights today. The king's name was Og and he was the king of Bashan. Verse 10: "All the cities of the plain, all Gilead, and all Bashan, as far as Salcah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan." You remember that two and a half tribes stayed east of the Jordan River, they didn't want to go all the way. They would help settle the land but they would come back to the eastern side of the Jordan River and they were the tribes of Ruben, Gaad and half the tribe of Menaasah stayed east while the other half and the other nine went west. Verse 11: "For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the giants. Indeed his bedstead was an iron bedstead. (Is it not in Rabbah of the people of Ammon?) Nine cubits is its length and four cubits its width, according to the standard cubit." A cubit is 18 inches and is typically measured from the tip of the largest finger to the elbow; some would be a little longer; mine would probably be a little longer; and some shorter but the average was 18 inches. This guy's bed was thirteen and one half feet long and it makes mention in the Bible, so you see there's nothing new under the sun - the whole idea about king size beds? This was a big bed and he was a king! It was so famous that it became a museum piece in the town of Rabbah which is modern day Armond Jordan, the capital of Jordan. Next time you're in Rabbah, check it out. This is what I want you to see. Looking at this guy, Israel had some formidable enemies; there were some giants. You'll remember back when the 12 spies went out and 10 of them came back and said, "You know what, there're some big dudes over there; we saw giants. The land devours its inhabitants," and they said, "We were but grasshoppers in their sight." Boy did they make a mistake. Here's the mistake they made. They measured the giants by themselves instead of measuring the giants by the Lord. When you measure the giants by yourself, you go, "Poor me; I'm toast, I'm dead, I won't go in the land." When you measure the giants by the size of the Lord, you go, "Those poor giants; they don't have a chance against God." It was Martin Luther who said, "With God one is always a majority." Think of David verses Goliath. David was this little sheppard boy looking up at another giant. What did he do, look up and go, "Well, that's a big boy?" No. He said, "You come to me with a sword and a spear and shield? I come to you in the name of the Lord God of Israel Whom you have ticked off," that's a free rendering, "whom you have defied. You're dead meat Goliath." But those ten spies caused the rest of the Children of Israel to remain in the past. That's the review of the land.
Chapters 4 through 26 are the second farewell speech. We saw the review of the past and now these are the regulations for the present. We saw what God has done and this is what God is doing including what He requires. The first was historical and the second speech is legal and what Moses does now is cover all of those laws and requirements that we studied in those three books previous to this that they were to keep in the new generation. Chapter 4 is a change from the past tense to the present. By the way, you and I should be making that same transition a lot. Let me explain. A lot of times Christians live in the past. "Oh I remember the glory days; I remember back when this happened and that happened and the church was small, or there was this revival that I attended, or that time when God used me powerfully." Wonderful, great, cool, look back and enjoy it but make a transition. How does your past experience translate into your present reality? If it doesn’t translate into your present reality then it's really not that valid. It's really only valid when the past motivates the present and that's what Moses was trying to get them to. That was the past, this is what happened; now let's see what God requires now and let's take and learn from that past. Chapter 4, verse 1: "'Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you. You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.'" Boy, it sounds like God doesn't want anyone messing with His Word, right? You see, we can't come along and say, "Well, I like that portion of the Bible but not that portion. I like this verse that I underlined; I like all the red words, because there's a lot less of them, first of all, so I like them and Jesus said some nice things and I like those words." No, no, you can't mess with His words. You can't add to them or take away from them. Even Jesus said, "Don't think that I have come to break or to take away from the law of the prophets and destroy them, I have come to fulfill them." Then there's this warning at the end of the Bible in Revelation chapter 22, this is John writing: "For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophesy of this book, if anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book. Whoever takes away from the prophesy of this book, God will take away His part from the Book of Life and from the Holy City and from the things which are written in this book." I wonder about guys like John Crossan and his colleagues of the Jesus seminar who now meet in their rooms in Phoenix Arizona and they peruse the New Testament. They vote on which verses are really to be believed and which verses are marginal or which ones didn't exist. They decide, "Jesus didn't say that; Jesus may have said; Jesus definitely said that." Adding and subtracting. Boy, I wouldn't want to do that. There's good reason to believe all that God has given to us in His Word. Verse 9, and take note of this emphasis here: "'Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren.'" There're a couple themes running parallel: beware lest you forget; remember for yourself but also, once you remember, pass them along like a baton in a race to that next generation and one of the themes of Deuteronomy, just like Moses, is teaching the next generation because the first one is dying off or has mostly died off. You pass on what God has given to you; what you've seen; what you've experienced; and what you've heard.
The rest of this section, chapters 4 through 26, is a recap of the law. Chapters 5 through 11 are a recap, and exposition and an application of the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue. Chapters 12 through 16 are a recap and explanation of the ceremonial laws that we have looked at in the three prior books. Chapters 16 through 20 are a recap of the civil laws. Chapters 21 through 26 are a recap of the social law. So again, new generation, same truths and re-enforcing them to that next generation. We are going to go to just a few; now we are flying over them but every now and then the plane goes down and we look a little closer. Chapter 6, verse 1: "'Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, that you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you-'a land flowing with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!'" Or, "The Lord your God is alone God." Now this verse is the famous Jewish confession of faith called the Shema. If you ask any Jewish, "What is the Shema," they'll rattle it off; it is this verse. "Sh'ma Yis'ra'eil AdonaiEloheinu Adonai echad." One. A word about that word, "The Lord our God, the Lord is One." The Hebrew word is echad, one, and it's the simple word for one like if you were to count, eh'ad, shnyim, shlosha, arba'a, h'amisha;one, two, three, four, five. The word echad, one, doesn't mean an absolute singularity but it means and it can mean a compound unity. You say, "How do you know that?" It's the same word used back in Genesis chapter 2, verse 24: "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother be joined unto his wife and the two shall become one flesh." Echad is the same word. It's an important word and it's important in this verse because in saying that the Lord is one does not preclude the doctrine of the triune nature of God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Just like two, husband and wife, are called echad - one flesh, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one God - same word, same idea. Verse 5: "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.'" Jesus quoted this verse when somebody asked Him, "Master, what is the greatest commandment?" He quoted this and then immediately after that He quoted Leviticus chapter 19, "'And the second is likened to it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" Verse 6: "'And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.'" Do you see the word, teach? You know what a better and more literal translation would be? Repeat; say it again, model it again, do it again, teach your children, repeat it over and over again. Every educator today will tell you that one of the secrets to good teaching is to repeat something over and over again. Teach your children; model. Did you know that thousands of years ago, Socrates of Athens marveled and said, "I marvel at the men of Athens that they're so intent on training their horses but they neglect their own children." They'll teach their animals but they won't teach their children. You know what Proverbs 22:6 says: "Train up a child in the way that he should go and when he is old he shall not depart from it." We want to believe in that if we train up our children. You know what the word train in that verse means? It's the Hebrew word, "chanak" which means to place on the tongue or to stimulate taste. It's interesting that the Arabs today even have a similar word to that ancient Hebrew word. It's a word where they would take date honey in their little finger and place it in an infant's mouth to stimulate the sucking reflect and to stimulate a taste. Here's the idea of the concept as well as to teach or train: stimulate over and over again by repetition of your words and example what it is to be a Believer in the Lord God and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Teach that to your children; repeat it; teach them. Verse 8: "'You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.'" If you go to Israel today, you'll see these guys wearing these leather boxes, phylacteries. They are literally boxes tied to their heads that stick out and also to their left hand, especially when they pray. They put three portions of the Old Testament text in there so that the Word of God is not only between their eyes but before their eyes. What's before your eyes? What will be before your eyes when you go home tonight and turn on the television? What will be before your eyes tomorrow when you are on the computer? On a daily basis, what do you put before your eyes? It makes a whole lot of difference in how you live your life.
Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 1: "'Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers. And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.'" Again, there's the theme, "beware lest you forget." I think it was Oscar Wilde that said, "Memory is a diary that we all carry along with us." So open up the diary from time to time and remember how God has done in the past and apply it in the present. In Deuteronomy 10, verse 12: "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord." Now I hope that you have seen and noticed that word before in this study. He's mentioned it a few times: fear the Lord. "'To fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today.'" There're a lot of things in these verses: you're to walk; you're to love; you're to serve; and you're to keep; but what is at the top of the list? Fear, fear the Lord. Can I just briefly explain that? Please don't think of cringing in fear or dread of God; don't think of Dorothy and the Lion in the Wizard of Oz; don't picture God as frowning from heaven and He's just waiting to swat you and that you should have a "fear of God". The word means awe, respect and reverence. It's the exact same word that is used of honoring your mother and father. Reverence is the Hebrew word Yerat; Yerat Yahwah is to fear the Lord and this is what it means: it's not a dread - it's a reverential awe that produces a humble submission to a loving God. Remember that or write that down. That is used over and over again. If there is fright involved in it whatsoever it's that we're afraid that we would do something that wouldn't please the Lord.
I'm taking you to Deuteronomy 18. Remember that I gave you an overview of what these repetitious chapters are all about. I'm taking you to chapter 18 because I want you see what we've called so far the scarlet thread of redemption. Here is Jesus Christ in the book of Deuteronomy. It's a very interesting and important prediction made by Moses. Deuteronomy 18, verse 15: "'The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me," in my Bible the word prophet is in capital letters because the translators know that this refers to and infers the Lord Jesus Christ, "'from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear'". So the prediction is that a Moses-like spokesman is on the way. Verse 18: "'I will raise up for them a Prophet like you,'" the Lord says about Moses, "'from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.'" This is why we call Moses a type of Christ. There are similarities between Moses and Jesus. Number one, both of them are called prophets; they speak God's Word; one in a greater way, one in a lesser way. Number two, both of them were in danger of death when they were babies. Pharoah almost killed Moses along with all of the boys in Egypt; Herod tried to kill Jesus and all of the boys in Bethlehem. Number three, both Moses and Jesus were deliverers. They were Messiah; deliverers delivering their people from bondage. Number four, both of them were intercessors. When God said, "Stand aside Moses, I'm going to kill all these people and start a whole new thing with you." Moses said, "Lord, write my name out of Your Book of Life; erase it, but save these people." He prayed for them just like Jesus when He hung on the cross and said, "Lord, don't lay this into their charge." Number five, both Moses and Jesus were rejected by their brothers. The first time Moses wanted to come out as deliverer they said, "Who made you to be a ruler over us?" Steven brings up this comparison beautifully in Acts chapter 6.
A Moses-like deliverer is promised. Here's the point. Moses was great! Jesus must be greater! John in chapter 1 will say, "For the law came by Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." Look at it this way, when God sent Jesus Christ it's like He put a period at the end of the sentence. "Everything I want to say is in this Messiah, My Son, the Lord Jesus Christ." Think back and remember when Peter, James, and John saw a transfiguration of Moses and Elijah and Jesus and Peter got all excited and said, "Hey, I'm going to build three condominiums right here for these three guys." He starts getting all excited and God said, "Peter, shhh, this is My beloved Son, listen to Him; not listen to Moses, not listen to Elijah. Be quiet Peter, zip it, and listen to Him." Everything God wanted to say He said in Christ.
We go to the final section of the book, chapters 27 through 34. We've looked at a review of the past, that's the first message. Regulations for the present was the second message. This is the third and final message of Moses, the 120 year old dude on the plains of Moab. This is readiness for the future; what God is going to do; it's prophetical. Moses is going to predict their future near and far; what will happen immediately and what will happen ultimately to them. It's a fascinating section. I would recommend you read it all because we won't have time to look at it all. Basically in chapter 27, Moses says, "Okay look, as soon as you get into the land, when you do - not if you do, go to the very geographical heart of the land which is Samaria. I want you guys to divide up in a couple of different groups on two mountains; one on Mountain Ebal and one on Mount Garizim. On Mount Garizim you'll have some representatives calling out the blessings of God and on Mount Ebal you'll have another group of representatives calling out the curses of God if you disobey. You'll have the Levites in the middle of the valley and all the people around them. When the curses and the blessings are called out everybody shout, "Amen." That is what they were to do.
Chapter 28, verse 1: "'Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God'" What I'd like you to make note of is this gigantic word in verse 1: if. You say, "Oh, that's a little word." It's the biggest word here in terms of its importance. It shows us that what's going to happen to them in the future is conditional upon what they do - if they obey, or if they disobey. Chapters 28 and 29 have that big "if" all throughout them. Verse 15: "'But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.'" Verse 20: "'The Lord will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me.'"
Look at the phrase, "until you are destroyed" - the word destroyed is a Hebrew word, "shamad." It continues, "Until you perish" and the Hebrew word is abad. Shamad and abad - destroy and perish. Now, he is not predicting an end to the nation of Israel but only that generation's relationship to the land. Why am I telling you this and making such a big deal about it? Because there is a theological position out there that I want you to be aware of. The position says that all of the promises that God made to Israel are nullified because of their disobedience. They're to be destroyed; they're to be out of the land; and they are to perish. All of the promises that God made to Israel now go to the Church and there is not literal Israel in the future and no literal thousand year reign in the millennium. I'll use one word to sum all of that up - hogwash! Here's why - you have to differentiate the terms of the covenants throughout the Bible. There are covenants, deals that God makes, and sometimes the covenants that God makes are conditional covenants and sometimes the covenant is an unconditional covenant. If it's conditional we call that a bilateral covenant, both parties do something. If it's an unconditional covenant we call it a unilateral covenant; God makes a declaration and it doesn’t matter what you do or not do; it's unconditional and He's going to do it. The first covenant, the Edenic Covenant, when God made a covenant with Adam and Eve in the Garden, that was a conditional covenant and they blew it and were kicked out of the Garden of Eden. Another covenant that follows that was the Abrahamic Covenant which was about the land that God would give Abraham and His descendants, his progeny. That was an unconditional covenant. The Mosaic Covenant, which is what we have been studying, is conditional. "If - then." Another covenant that theologians call the Palestinian covenant or the promises for the land to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc, is an unconditional covenant. That means that the tenure of that generation to the land is conditional but the promise to the nation is unconditional. It means that God is saying, "If you disobey, and you will, I'm kicking you out of this land that I promised to your forefathers. However, I'll make it so miserable for you in captivity that when you come back, and you will, you'll be nice boys and girls." God knows that they'll disobey; He knows He'll bring them back; and He makes a promise for their whole generation that the land and the Jewish Nation would continue. Modern Israel is a miracle; it's a miracle that they exist. 1948 was a threshold year when Queen Victoria turned to her prime minister who was a proclaimed Believer and said to him, "You show me one thing in the Bible that proves it's true." He said, "The Jew, madam, the Jew." God made a promise with this nation and we see its fulfillment even in our day.
Chapter 31 is the end of Moses' life. The entire Bible up to this point has been written by Moses and now he's about to die. He's taken up to Mount Nebo, a beautiful vantage point in modern day Jordan east of the Dead Sea. Verse 1: "Then Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. And he said to them: "'I am one hundred and twenty years old today.'" Some people will read this verse and others like it and say, "People don't get that old." Did you hear about the Ecuadorian lady who died just one year ago, and it's recorded, at almost the age of 117? She died just shy of her 117th birthday. Her name was Maria Capavia, an Ecuadorian, and she said, "I thank God everyday that I'm alive." She lived a long life; she was born back in 1889; her husband died in 1949; and she died just last year. She spanned three centuries; 1800, 1900, and 2000. Somebody asked her, "What surprises you the most since you've lived this long as you look at our modern generation." She said something interesting. She said, "That woman chase men, rather than the old fashion men pursuing woman." I thought I'd throw that out for you young dating people. So Moses is 120 and he is still kicking and he's not going to enter the land. Chapter 31, verse 3: "'The Lord your God Himself crosses over before you;'" "I won't make it but He'll take you there." "'He will destroy these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua himself crosses over before you, just as the Lord has said.'" Verse 6: "'Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.'" So Joshua will be their next leader as God will say in verse 7. Why Joshua? He was faithful; he didn't try to promote himself under Moses leadership; he didn't try to make himself out to be some big wig; he was a faithful servant of Moses during the time in the wilderness; and a man of great faith and one of the two witnesses.
Chapter 32 is a long song. You'll notice it's probably put out in poetic fashion with Hebrew parallelisms and that's because it's a song. It's a weird song about Israel's failures and fumbles and he predicts more to come. I don't know how the tune went but it would be interesting to hear a 120 year old dude sing it. Let me just say that I look at chapter 32 like a country song. Remember backward masking in the sixties where you play records backwards and the needle would give you weird sounds and messages? There's an old joke in the music industry, "What do you get if you play a country song backwards?" You get your wife back, your dog back, and your house back! The theme of it is: everybody's dying, nobody loves me, my dog got beat up, and that's sort of chapter 32. It's the country song of the Old Testament.
Chapter 33 is a happy chapter. Moses blesses all of the tribes of Israel and it's a great way to go out. These are his last recorded words and his last words are gracious words and words of blessing.
Chapter 34, "Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is across from Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead as far as Dan." I believe it was a winter day because that's the clearest time to see the entire land; on a clear day there's no wind, no dust, and no inversion layer. If you are on Mount Nebo you can look all the way up and see the angulating hills of Mount Gilead by Galilee. You can go over a little bit and see snow capped Mount Herman and beneath it Mount Tabor and Mount Gilboah. You can go down and see the mountains of Samaria. You can turn up to the other side and see Mount Zion, the Temple Mount, the Mount of Olives and the mountains of Hebron further on South. "Hey check it out Moses, this is the place you are not going; but they're going. I'm fulfilling my promise." Verse 4: "Then the Lord said to him, "'This is the land of which I swore to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying,'" there's the unconditional promise, "'I will give it to your descendants. I have caused you to see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.' So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord." So, it ends on a sad note.
Allow me to give something out of history. Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian writes an account of what it was like at the death of Moses. Maybe it was an account that was passed down. Here it is: "Amidst the tears of the people, the women beating their breasts, the children given way to uncontrolled wailing, Moses withdrew. At a certain point in his assent, he made a sign to the weeping multitude to advance no further taking with him only the elders, the high priest, Eliazar and the general Joshua. At the top of the mountain, he dismissed the elders and then he was embracing
Eliazar and Joshua and still speaking to them. A cloud suddenly stood over them and he vanished in a deep valley." That's an account that maybe was passed down orally. So, he didn't make it, but as I said before, he will make. Jesus, Moses and Elijah will be transfigured in the land and on a mountain that he saw. So the law couldn't get him in the land but Jesus Christ will take him to that land. We'll close with verse 10: "But since then there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, in all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, before Pharaoh, before all his servants, and in all his land, and by all that mighty power and all the great terror which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel."
Every time in the synagogue, when one of the five books of Moses is read and completed, especially if all of them are like we have just finished, the people stand and they say in unison together, "Be strong, be strong, and let us encourage one another."