Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / May 19, 2024 | Deuteronomy - The Song of Moses

Transcript

May 19, 2024 | Deuteronomy - The Song of Moses · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
0:02
SPEAKER_00: How are you doing?
0:03
SPEAKER_00: How many of you are going to graduation ceremony today?
0:07
SPEAKER_00: You you don't do that anymore.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: If you want to go to a graduation, we got one here at three o'clock.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: You can just wander in.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: So you know, in fact, the book of Deuteronomy, which we've been doing for years, um kidding, uh, is really like a commencement ceremony where you look back at the past and then it's called commencement because it's the beginning of the future.
0:34
SPEAKER_00: And Deuteronomy is where everybody gathered, all the children of Israel.
0:38
SPEAKER_00: Moses got up high and gave this 34 chapter, it wasn't the chapters back then, you know, gave this long, long speech.
0:48
SPEAKER_00: It was amazing, this sermon, actually, three sermons.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: And uh, hopefully the speaker at your commencement doesn't speak that long.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: So, but anyway, um today I get to talk about, I get to preach on um one of my secret favorite passages in the Bible, which I discovered one morning uh after one of my first visual trips at 4.30, and tried to then decided I'd memorize it, which is if you look at the number of verses in it, you realize it was impossible for me even back in those days when I could remember my name.
1:28
SPEAKER_00: But um that's changed, but it's a song.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: It's a song.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: And um, and it's like God said to Moses, you know, um, you know, we got this major transition going on.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna get to go in, but the people are gonna go in the land, and and remember Moses, all along the way, whenever there's been a huge transition in the history of Israel, I've given you a song.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: I've dictated a song to you at the end of it, and it's and and and I want to I'm gonna do that again.
2:01
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna dictate a song to you, and you teach it to Israel, uh, because people remember songs, right?
2:08
SPEAKER_00: I've forgotten so much in life, but I still remember.
2:12
SPEAKER_00: Um I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, and maybe that's why my favorite song, All My Siblings would tell you, was sung by the Cascades, and I can still remember the tune and the words, listen to the rhythm of the falling rain, telling me just what a fool I've been.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: You're too young.
2:31
SPEAKER_00: You're going like I've never heard that.
2:33
SPEAKER_00: So wish that it would go and let me cry in vain.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: What a sad boy I was.
2:40
SPEAKER_00: And let me be alone again, which fit with the fact that I was a loner.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: But um, you know, you remember those things.
2:48
SPEAKER_00: I can remember so, you know, you can remember, how many of you have a song?
2:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what's the earth?
2:52
SPEAKER_00: What's the first song that you can remember that you heard?
2:55
SPEAKER_00: I'll bet you can sing it.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: I'll bet you know the words.
2:57
SPEAKER_00: Am I right?
2:58
SPEAKER_00: Was it Bob Dylan?
3:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh Beach Boys?
3:02
SPEAKER_00: You go, guys, go, that's your age.
3:05
SPEAKER_00: Well, a melody, I'm about a dozen years, I'm about eight years, I'm I'm about a decade ahead of Melody.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: So, so I'm always singing and quoting, you know, if they come on, I'm always singing along with the Beach Boys, but then if Earth, Wind, and Fire come on, that's when she kicks in, you know, about ten years later.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: So, um, yell it out.
3:32
SPEAKER_00: What's the name of the song you remember?
3:33
SPEAKER_00: B I B L E.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: That's why you teach your children the B-I-B-L-E, because they remember it.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: What great parents you had.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: That's so true.
3:46
SPEAKER_00: It really is.
3:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
3:48
SPEAKER_00: I'm afraid that my kids and grandkids will always remember deep and wide, you know, and give me oil in my lamp.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: But so um so that's what we have in Deuteronomy 32.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: We have a song and it's dictated, and it's uh it's something that God wants them to remember.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: And it's called the Song of Moses, but there are in a way you could call it the Song of Yahweh.
4:14
SPEAKER_00: I don't like that title, but the truth is Yahweh wrote it and dictated it.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: I like to call it the rock song because I fell in love with this because of its use of the rock.
4:23
SPEAKER_00: I grew up there looking in the Pacific Northwest at that rock there, Haystack Rock.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: Uh and you'll see as we go through some of this chapter how commonly, how often, nine times it's mentioned.
4:38
SPEAKER_00: Or I like Song in the Key of Life, one of my favorite albums by Stevie Wonder, but this is not Songs in the Key of Life, this is one song, and that's gonna be my chosen title.
4:49
SPEAKER_00: So if you have a Bible, would you, uh, or cell phone, would you turn to that?
4:55
SPEAKER_00: I would like, if nothing else happens today, if there's no revival, but this is a song in the key of life that'll take you through the past, present, and future of your life and call you to make a decision again for God.
5:11
SPEAKER_00: And um, but if that doesn't happen, I just hope you fall in love with it.
5:15
SPEAKER_00: I just hope you kind of catch some of my enthusiasm and affection for this brilliant poem.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: So the introduction to this happens in the previous chapter, Deuteronomy 31, where the Lord Yahweh said to Moses, You're about to rest with your fathers, therefore write down this song for yourselves and teach it to the Israelites.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: Have them recite it so that this song may be a witness for me.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: Now that's an interesting statement, which we find out means, you know, in this song, God's going to say, Mmm, sing, sing, sing.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: I know that even though I'm giving you nice commandments, you're gonna disobey them, and I'm gonna have to cast you into exile a thousand years from now, but I'll finally bring you back.
6:00
SPEAKER_00: It's that kind of a song.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: And this song will be, in a sense, as one of the greatest Deuteronomy commentators in the world has said, this is like became like the national anthem of Israel, which constantly witnessed to Israel.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: Remember that song?
6:15
SPEAKER_00: Remember the one that you know?
6:17
SPEAKER_00: Hum verses 26 through 35, and you'll realize why you're having to go to Babylon.
6:23
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
6:23
SPEAKER_00: Witness me.
6:24
SPEAKER_00: So Moses wrote down this song on that day and taught it to the Israelites.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: Moses recited aloud every single word of this song to the entire assembly of Israel.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: So that's how, that's right before the song begins.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: And after the song ends, in chapter 32, 45 through 47, you find similar words said.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: After Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, he said to them, Take to heart, it's all about your heart, take to heart all these words I'm giving as a warning to you today, so that you may command your children.
6:57
SPEAKER_00: Teach this B-I-B-L-E song to your kids.
7:00
SPEAKER_00: Because we want, we need them and their grandchildren and their children and grandchildren to know this song.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: To carefully follow all the words of this law, for they are not meaningless words to you, but they are your life.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: And by these, the words of this song, you will live long in the land you're crossing the Jordan to possess.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: Alright?
7:20
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm gonna back up to 30,000 feet and ask the question why are God and Moses making such a big deal over just a song?
7:31
SPEAKER_00: So um, this is gonna be a little um seminary level for a minute, but but uh I'm gonna I'm gonna try to boil it down because there's a couple things I'm gonna tell you probably haven't heard before.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
7:44
SPEAKER_00: Why are they making such a big deal out of our song?
7:46
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is because it's not just a song.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: Listen carefully.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: The Pentateuch, that is the five books of Moses, is like a Hollywood musical, whose songs are never just songs randomly dropped into the story.
8:05
SPEAKER_00: The songs interrupt, advance, and carry the central theme of the story.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: You remove the songs, as in a Hollywood musical, you miss the theme, right?
8:16
SPEAKER_00: So as you think back to the Wizard of Oz musical, Follow the Yellow Brick Road was a song, but it was not just randomly dropped in, it advanced the story.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: Same with uh Who Am I, Jean Valjean and Les Miz, right?
8:29
SPEAKER_00: Or So long, farewell, Alf, Veterzane, goodbye, and Sound of Music.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: It's not just a song.
8:34
SPEAKER_00: In a Hollywood musical, a song carries the theme on and advances it.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: And that's the way it is in the Pentateuch.
8:42
SPEAKER_00: So, question, what are the Pentateuch's songs, great songs, and their theme?
8:47
SPEAKER_00: Well, the answer is there are four major collections of poems or songs in the Pentateuch.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 49, as Jacob lays dying and blesses his children.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: He says some profound words that relate to the end of time and the Messiah.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: Okay, Genesis 49, Exodus 15, the song of Miriam after they crossed through the Red Sea.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: Same.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: Numbers 23 and 24, Balaam's long poem at the end of the wilderness wandering, and now Deuteronomy 32 and 33.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: The focal point of each of these major poems or songs is the and this is quoting John Salhammer from the meaning of the Pentateuch.
9:26
SPEAKER_00: God bless his soul.
9:27
SPEAKER_00: He was a dear friend, a doctoral professor of mine, and he died young of cancer.
9:33
SPEAKER_00: Focal point is the promise of a coming messianic king in the last days.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: Their central theme is the need for God's grace and redemption, which will be brought to earth by the coming messianic king in his eternal kingdom.
9:46
SPEAKER_00: You say, in the Pentateuch?
9:47
SPEAKER_00: I say, yes, in the Pentateuch.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: It's in those songs.
9:52
SPEAKER_00: You're saying the Pentateuch is like a single book, and now this is especially for the diggers class people.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: But yes.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: The Pentateuch in Genesis, early Genesis 1 and Deuteronomy 32, here's just one example of how the Pentateuch is clearly written as one book.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: In Genesis 1, 2, you have that famous statement now the earth was without form and void.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: It was a chaotic waste.
10:17
SPEAKER_00: The Hebrew word used is tohu.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: It's a rare word.
10:19
SPEAKER_00: It's not often used in the Bible.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: And the Spirit of God was hovering, and the word there is Merahephet, which is used of an eagle, which hovers.
10:30
SPEAKER_00: It was hovering like an eagle over the surface of the waters.
10:33
SPEAKER_00: And now you come to our song at the very end of the Pentateuch.
10:36
SPEAKER_00: And we are going to read in verses 10 Yahweh found them in a desert, an empty, howling wasteland.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: Johu.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: Same word.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: You haven't seen it for five books, but here it is.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: Like an eagle that hovers, Merahet.
10:49
SPEAKER_00: You haven't seen that word since Genesis 1, too.
10:53
SPEAKER_00: Over her young.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: So he spread his wings to take them up and carried them safely on his opinions.
10:59
SPEAKER_00: The five books of Moses are divided into five books, but it's like five acts of a Hollywood musical, and it all is one beginning and end.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: And I quote this partly because this is one of the sweet lessons from this from Deuteronomy 32.
11:19
SPEAKER_00: From the beginning to the end of the Pentateuch, there is a message that if you are lost in a chaotic, howling wasteland, if your life seems completely out of control, and it is dark, well, look up.
11:38
SPEAKER_00: Heaven's eagle may be hovering.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: It hovered over you when God created you, when God chose you for himself.
11:45
SPEAKER_00: He's hovering over you when you go through the worst of your chaotic mess.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
11:50
SPEAKER_00: And now I leave that lesson and go back to the big stuff.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: The Pentateuch is a single book with a single purpose, revealed in its four great poems, and I listed those before.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: And here is the purpose or the message.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: There's four parts to it.
12:04
SPEAKER_00: One, God intends to create a human family for himself, who will rule with him on land he has prepared.
12:11
SPEAKER_00: Initially it was the land of Eden, and now at the end of Deuteronomy, it's the land of Israel.
12:16
SPEAKER_00: The second lesson in these poems: God is opposed by supernatural and human forces.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: Even his chosen people sin, rebel, and disobey.
12:26
SPEAKER_00: Third, above all else, God requires faith, a believing heart.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: And finally, God's solution, and this is the main message, solution to humanity's rebellion will be the coming of a Messiah king from the tribe of Judah who will reign over Israel and the nations.
12:43
SPEAKER_00: He will be the prophet like Moses, Deuteronomy 18, who has not yet come, Deuteronomy 34.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: You're going to hear that from Connor next week in the final sermon in this series.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
12:55
SPEAKER_00: Now, there's your seminary moment.
12:58
SPEAKER_00: So, songs in the key of your life, Deuteronomy 32.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: Here it is.
13:03
SPEAKER_00: We're going to start.
13:05
SPEAKER_00: I think the message of these four verses is it's so refreshing to think about our awesome God.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: Pay attention, you know, let's do this back and forth, like they probably did.
13:17
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
13:21
SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to read the first half of these first two verses.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: You read the second half.
13:25
SPEAKER_00: Pay attention, heavens, and I will speak.
13:28
SPEAKER_00: Listen, earth, to the words of my mouth.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: Let my teaching fall like rain and my words settle like dew, like gentle rain on new grass and showers on tender plants.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: I'll read verse 3, you, verse 4.
13:43
SPEAKER_00: For I will proclaim the name of Yahweh, declare the greatness of our God.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: He is the rock.
13:51
SPEAKER_00: His work is perfect.
13:53
SPEAKER_00: All his ways are entirely just.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: A faithful God without prejudice.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: He is righteous and true.
14:01
SPEAKER_00: Now I don't care who you are, even if you don't like poetry much.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine how that might have hit me as I'm reading through the Bible and come across all of a sudden verses like that?
14:17
SPEAKER_00: Where the audience is the heavens and earth, which as we know from Genesis 1:1, is the entire organized universe.
14:24
SPEAKER_00: And Yahweh, through Moses, is saying, I want everyone in the world to listen to the words of my mouth.
14:33
SPEAKER_00: And then the goal, the effect that He wants to have happen is, let my teaching fall like rain.
14:40
SPEAKER_00: Keep in mind we live in a desert country here, okay?
14:43
SPEAKER_00: They haven't had, they've been searching for water for 40 years.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: This is refreshment.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: This is amazing life.
14:49
SPEAKER_00: Let my teaching fall like rain, and my words settle like dew, like gentle rain on new grass and showers on tender plants.
14:59
SPEAKER_00: I read that.
15:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was preaching every week, and I go, that's my dream.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: I would love for my teaching to fall like rain on thirsty ears.
15:12
SPEAKER_00: But I know that more often it falls like a stone.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: You know.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, that's the effect, and that's what every parent would like.
15:20
SPEAKER_00: He would like your words to fall on your children's ears like refreshing rain, even when they're strict and even when their words are discipline.
15:29
SPEAKER_00: Verse 3, for I will proclaim the name of Yahweh, declare the greatness of our God.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: So that's what I'm doing.
15:39
SPEAKER_00: I'm calling on all of you to sing how great thou art, as we just concluded over here in Mulvain, as we just concluded our worship.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: For I will declare, I'm going to declare the greatness of God.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: In others, this is all about the glory of God.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: That's what's about to come.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: That's the purpose of this song.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: He is the rock.
15:55
SPEAKER_00: And frankly, there's no he is in the Hebrew.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: It's just the rock.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: I decided to add he is, like most of your translations did, because when you just say the rock, you think of Dwayne Johnson.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: I can't help it.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: It's just, it's horrible.
16:08
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, he is the rock.
16:13
SPEAKER_00: His work is perfect.
16:14
SPEAKER_00: All his ways are entirely just.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: He lists six things that the rock is great for, that God is great for.
16:21
SPEAKER_00: A faithful God, without bias, without prejudice, he's righteous and true.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: What an introduction.
16:27
SPEAKER_00: And notice that in verses three and four, notice how he starts.
16:30
SPEAKER_00: He starts, he doesn't start like how great thou art, which is soft and moves to a climax, like, oh Lord my God, when I an awesome one.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: And then you get to the chorus.
16:40
SPEAKER_00: Then sings my soul.
16:41
SPEAKER_00: No, he starts more like, carry on my wayward, son, or standing on the promise.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: You know, he starts big, you know.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: And he just throws it right out there.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: You know, God's amazing.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: Proclaim the name.
16:55
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to proclaim his name.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: And then he calls on everybody else.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: I want everybody to join me in declaring how great thou art.
17:00
SPEAKER_00: He's the rock, his work is perfect, and so forth.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: So that's verses one through four, and the theme is it is.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: That's how you should always start when you think about your life.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: This is the song of your life, and it should always start with God.
17:16
SPEAKER_00: And it should, your day should start with God, your life should start with God.
17:20
SPEAKER_00: It should be refreshing to think and to speak about God.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: And Tozer is so right that what comes into your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you.
17:35
SPEAKER_00: And what came into the mind of ancient Israelites when they thought about God was how great he was, that he was their rock, their fortress, their deliverer, he just and uh wise.
17:48
SPEAKER_00: But now he jumps right into the one of the main themes.
17:52
SPEAKER_00: And this is true of you, and it is true of me, but you don't even deserve to be called his child.
17:59
SPEAKER_00: Verse 5, his people have been unfaithful to him.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: They have not acted like his children.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: Now I picked one of the few translations that translates the meaning because if it's translated literally, as some of your Bibles will have it, they are not even they are not his children.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: It's like in Hosea, where you know Hosea called one of his children not my child.
18:23
SPEAKER_00: Well, of course he's his child, but what what what it means is what's here.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: You don't even deserve to be called a child.
18:29
SPEAKER_00: You don't act like a child, you don't look like your father, you don't look like your mother.
18:33
SPEAKER_00: You're all you're like like in a horror movie, you're an unchild, you're a non-child.
18:38
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you're born.
18:39
SPEAKER_00: You'll see this repeatedly in this chapter.
18:42
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you're my children.
18:44
SPEAKER_00: Why are you acting this way?
18:45
SPEAKER_00: But in this sentence, he says, you don't even deserve to be called a child.
18:49
SPEAKER_00: This is your sin.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: This is your warp.
18:52
SPEAKER_00: They're a perverse and deceitful generation.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: Is this how you repay the Lord, you foolish, unwise people?
18:58
SPEAKER_00: Is he not your father, your creator who made you and established you?
19:02
SPEAKER_00: So this whole section 5 through 18 is going to talk about how in the world, how in the world can you have walked away and drifted away from such an amazing God who brought you out of Egypt, who saved you, brought you across the Red Sea, who, who, who, uh, who helped you walk through 40 years in the desert, is now going to give you the promised land, and yet you just you neglect him.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: You disobey him, you worship anybody but him.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: How can you do this?
19:28
SPEAKER_00: You don't even deserve to be called his child now.
19:31
SPEAKER_00: In this section, what he does is he breaks away for the next eight verses to say, listen, let's just put this in perspective.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: God's grace to you has been amazing, right?
19:41
SPEAKER_00: And revival in your heart starts with realizing that you don't deserve to be called his child, especially in light of the way he's been gracious toward you.
19:50
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7, remember the days of old, consider the years of past generations.
19:55
SPEAKER_00: Ask your father and he'll tell you.
19:57
SPEAKER_00: Your elders and they'll teach you.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: When the Most High, when Elion gave the nations their inheritance and divided the human race, he set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: I realize it's impossible to understand.
20:10
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob, his own inheritance.
20:14
SPEAKER_00: What he's saying here is that out of all the nations on the earth, he chose you.
20:20
SPEAKER_00: He put his love on you and chose you.
20:23
SPEAKER_00: Now, let's stop for a second and just deal with verse 8.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
20:28
SPEAKER_00: Because it's significant, and hundreds of you have perhaps already heard some of this if you've attended some of my classes on the unseen realm.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: But the question is here in verse 8, first half, when did El Yon, that is the Most High, when did Elon divide mankind when the Most High gave the nations their inheritance when he divided the sons of man?
20:48
SPEAKER_00: And another question is what is this about the sons of God and nations and national boundaries?
20:54
SPEAKER_00: He said the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to spend long on this because it's back in seminary, but I'm going to go over it quickly.
21:03
SPEAKER_00: The answer, quick answer to when did God divide mankind is, of course, at the Tower of Babel, where the word divide or separate is used three times.
21:13
SPEAKER_00: Remember the people of the earth in their third rebellion against God in chapters 1 through 11 of Genesis said, Come, let's build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens.
21:24
SPEAKER_00: We're going to climb up to heaven because we're uh we're going to make ourselves gods, lest we be divided or scattered across the face of the whole earth.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 11, verse 4.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: At the end of that story, so the Lord scattered them from there all over the earth, and they stopped building the city.
21:41
SPEAKER_00: And this is why it's called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: So that's when God divided all of the world's mankind, thousands of years ago, into separate peoples, separate nations.
21:58
SPEAKER_00: Well, another question, too.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: About that, he gave the nations to the sons of God.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: Who are they?
22:04
SPEAKER_00: Well, that phrase is Bine Elohim, actually uses the word God Elohim.
22:09
SPEAKER_00: Sons of God, and it's can it's in the Bible a number of times.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: You're familiar with it from Job.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: There was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, right?
22:20
SPEAKER_00: And Satan came also among them.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: So at that point, Satan himself was whatever this is, a son of God.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: We find that the sons of God were present at Genesis 1, creation, when we read in Job that at creation, God speaking to Job here, where were you at the creation?
22:40
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what were you doing when the morning, last three lines, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
22:50
SPEAKER_00: So these angelic, heavenly, spirit, supernatural beings, were present already before creation.
23:01
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 89 tells us that they are, they were sort of a higher level of angels, what we might call maybe lower archangels.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: They were in a council with God.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: They would help him decide how to rule the earth, as didn't need help, but he used them as he uses us.
23:20
SPEAKER_00: Who in the heavens can be compared to Yahweh?
23:22
SPEAKER_00: Who's like Yahweh among the sons of God?
23:25
SPEAKER_00: Nobody.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: God's greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones and revered above all who are around him, right?
23:32
SPEAKER_00: So what we have is in heaven we have a little more complicated heaven than perhaps you and I have thought of, where it's not just angels and then God way up here, maybe seven archangels or three or whatever, Michael, Raphael, you know, uh, Gabriel.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: But you have the angels, these are messengers, that's what the word means.
23:51
SPEAKER_00: They come down and announce things, but then you have the sons of God who are like princes, and they are in a divine council.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: They're in a council with Yahweh, and then the Trinity is at the top, okay?
24:05
SPEAKER_00: Here's what's interesting, and I'll just mention this and pass by.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: This applies to you and me because God wants to add for himself a human co-rulers and sons and daughters of his, right?
24:20
SPEAKER_00: To his angelic ones.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: He wants to merge these two families at the end of time, and he says, Paul says, you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: God has a, to summarize, God has a household, a heavenly family, sons.
24:35
SPEAKER_00: And he decided to add to it an earthly family, Adam and Eve, you and me.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: So, what's this about the sons of God and nations?
24:47
SPEAKER_00: Well, the answer is that when God divided mankind into nations, he picked one nation for himself and divvied the rest up among his sons.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: Right?
24:57
SPEAKER_00: When he gave the nations their inheritance, we read in verse 8, he divided mankind.
25:02
SPEAKER_00: He fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God, but the Lord's portion is his people.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: Jacob his allotted heritage.
25:13
SPEAKER_00: In other words, Elion the Most High said to his powerful, supernatural sons, I'm giving you the rule over the other nations, but Israel is mine.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: Now, all of that is in uh is in the passage that we're looking at, Deuteronomy 32.
25:35
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm going over it quickly, and that's not why I want to stop.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: But some of you will recognize why then we read in Daniel chapter 10 that every nation seems to have its own angelic ruler or prince.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: The angel comes to Daniel and says, Daniel, you're greatly loved.
25:53
SPEAKER_00: Your request was heard in heaven, and I came in answer to your prayer.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: But for twenty-one days the prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way.
26:02
SPEAKER_00: But behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, and I left him there with the prince of Persia.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: Now I must return to fight against the prince of Persia, and after that the prince of Greece will come.
26:15
SPEAKER_00: No one helps me against them except for Michael, your prince.
26:19
SPEAKER_00: Michael serves God as the prince over Israel.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: In chapter 12, at the end of the book, we read about the last days, and at that time Michael the great prince, who stands guard over your people, will arise.
26:33
SPEAKER_00: Now I realize that's making some of your head swim, and you may want to grab the book, The Unseen Realm, by Michael Heiser.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: What he says, uh, he calls this the Deuteronomy 32 mindset.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: He calls it cosmic geography.
26:45
SPEAKER_00: He says, just to summarize, Genesis in Genesis 11, God disinherited the rest of the nations because they had rebelled against him.
26:53
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 12, God then called Abram to create a new nation for himself, which would be his portion, Deuteronomy 32.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: This new nation would be God's means of eventually winning back and blessing all of the other nations, as he says to Abram in Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 through 3, and as Paul says in Acts 17.
27:16
SPEAKER_00: So just to summarize, the real point underneath is that Israel understood what I have just told you that most people don't know today, most Christians, and that is that God made a special choice of you.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: And God did that for you if you believed on him.
27:34
SPEAKER_00: God looked down, and we read Paul saying in Ephesians chapter 1 that God chose you out.
27:41
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you had to trust in him.
27:43
SPEAKER_00: You had to fall upon him, you know, with a reckless abandon and say, I'm gonna stop trying to save myself.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: But the fact of the matter is that behind all of that, God set his love on you before the foundation of the world.
27:56
SPEAKER_00: You are super privileged.
27:58
SPEAKER_00: And in light of that grace, why would you ever walk away from him?
28:04
SPEAKER_00: And that's verses seven, eight, and nine.
28:07
SPEAKER_00: And so just to go back to Israel for a moment, that God chose Israel, I decided very quickly because of October 7th and because of the uh you know, because of the horrific um demonstrations by college, some of the college kids who don't know anything, um, or who don't know the most important things.
28:36
SPEAKER_00: I just thought I would say, I think George Gilder was right 10, 15 years ago when he wrote, now he's an economist, but he wrote that Israel is an Israel test, and I would put it this way: Israel is a test for the world.
28:51
SPEAKER_00: In view of God's declaration that he has chosen Israel, that he set his love on Israel, that he has given her the land, and that he will eventually fulfill all of his ancient promises to her.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: In view of that, to despise Israel is to despise God, to wish Israel destroyed is to hate God and his word, and to have failed the Israel test.
29:18
SPEAKER_00: Anyone say amen?
29:20
unknown: Amen.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: So back to you and me.
29:24
SPEAKER_00: All right.
29:24
SPEAKER_00: Sorry about these diversions, but this is such a rich passage, okay?
29:29
SPEAKER_00: But let's, for the rest of the time, let's let's get back to talking about Israel, but especially about you and me.
29:35
SPEAKER_00: We don't deserve to be called his child.
29:38
SPEAKER_00: His grace to us has been amazing.
29:40
SPEAKER_00: And then he says about Israel, God found Israel in a desolate land.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: It's as though after bringing him across the Red Sea and Israel rebel, it's like God turned his eyes away for a while and then looks down during those 40 years of wandering, and boy, Israel is suffering.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: He found him in a barren, howling wilderness, Tohu.
29:59
SPEAKER_00: And he surrounded him.
30:01
SPEAKER_00: He cared for him, he protected him as the apple of his eye.
30:05
SPEAKER_00: He watches over his nest like an eagle and hovers over his young.
30:09
SPEAKER_00: He spreads his wings, catches him, and carries him on his feathers or on his pinions.
30:14
SPEAKER_00: And we've already quoted this passage.
30:17
SPEAKER_00: But I quote it just to mention all of the gracious gifts God gave Israel.
30:22
SPEAKER_00: Rescued, guarded, watches, hovers, catches, carries.
30:26
SPEAKER_00: And I ask you, is it not true that you could describe God's grace to you in precisely the same way?
30:37
SPEAKER_00: Is it not true that you could say, God rescued me?
30:42
SPEAKER_00: God has guarded and protected me all along the way.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: God watches over me.
30:46
SPEAKER_00: He hovers over me even when I'm in a desert in chaos.
30:50
SPEAKER_00: He catches me when I fall.
30:53
SPEAKER_00: He carries me when I'm exhausted.
30:57
SPEAKER_00: God's grace to you has been amazing.
31:00
SPEAKER_00: Is that right?
31:04
SPEAKER_00: But you've trampled that grace underfoot, Moses says.
32:28
SPEAKER_00: Several people, a number of articles written about it.
32:31
SPEAKER_00: This epidemic, it's really a pandemic.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't kill people, but it crushes families, it ruins lives, it absolutely breaks the hearts of parents, both fathers and mothers.
32:44
SPEAKER_00: And that is this pandemic of somehow more than ever before today.
32:48
SPEAKER_00: And you've heard about it.
32:49
SPEAKER_00: I certainly have met a lot of people.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: It's the pandemic of adult children deciding they will never again talk with their parents.
32:59
SPEAKER_00: Maybe just they won't talk with their dad.
33:01
SPEAKER_00: Maybe just they won't talk with their mother.
33:03
SPEAKER_00: We're not talking about kids who were abused, you know, verbally or physically when they were kids.
33:08
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about kids who know they were loved, who admit to you that they were loved.
33:13
SPEAKER_00: But for, and you can find in the articles in the New York Times and so forth, the reasons that are given for this.
33:18
SPEAKER_00: The new reason, which is become, which is really the most common, is my parents haven't, you know, my parents voted for Trump, or my parents have stayed politically conservative while I've gotten wise, you know, or something like that.
33:31
SPEAKER_00: It's crazy, it's just political.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: And so you have even Christian adult children who've decided never to talk to their parents again, though they're Christians and though they know the command, which was given to adults, honor your father and mother.
33:44
SPEAKER_00: That was not given to six-year-olds, it was given to adult children.
33:49
SPEAKER_00: And yet they refuse to talk to their parents, and their parents wake up in the morning and go to bed at night in utter agony.
33:55
SPEAKER_00: And God says, you know what?
33:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it may be a pandemic for you, but I've been feeling that for thousands of years, and you've made me feel that.
34:03
SPEAKER_00: When you've walked away from me, and when you've stopped speaking to me, and you haven't prayed to me for who knows, weeks at a time.
34:11
SPEAKER_00: And look at these, look at these verses.
34:13
SPEAKER_00: You were my baby.
34:15
SPEAKER_00: You were my Jesuit, but you became fat because I blessed you so much that you just ate and ate and ate, and then you just gorged yourself on all of the blessings I gave you.
34:25
SPEAKER_00: And you got bloated and you got gorged, and then somehow because you got wealthy, you didn't need to, you didn't need to honor me anymore, or because you became successful, or because your name was in the paper.
34:35
SPEAKER_00: You know, all of a sudden you didn't need me anymore, and so you deserted me, you abandoned me, you walked away from me.
34:42
SPEAKER_00: And and you know where it ends?
34:43
SPEAKER_00: It ends with, as the psychologists will say, the very bottom is contempt.
34:48
SPEAKER_00: Now you treat me contemptuously.
34:53
SPEAKER_00: When children no longer talk with their parents and you ask them about it, they speak of their parents with contempt.
34:59
SPEAKER_00: You ignored the rock who fathered you and forgot the God who gave you birth.
35:04
SPEAKER_00: Hosea picks that up in the prophets, where God says, When I fed them, they were satisfied.
35:09
SPEAKER_00: When they were satisfied, they became proud.
35:11
SPEAKER_00: Then they forgot me.
35:14
SPEAKER_00: You've done it.
35:16
SPEAKER_00: I've done it.
35:17
SPEAKER_00: Suddenly you come to yourself.
35:19
SPEAKER_00: Am I right?
35:19
SPEAKER_00: Like the prodigal son, suddenly you come to yourself in the pig pen and you actually realize you're one of those pigs, and you've forgotten your father and ignored him and haven't communicated with him.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: And so you you remember, am I right?
35:31
SPEAKER_00: And then you walk back, you go back, and you're stunned at the compassion your heavenly father has to accept you back.
35:40
SPEAKER_00: Has happened to you, maybe?
35:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm the only one.
35:43
SPEAKER_00: I really.
35:45
SPEAKER_00: So listen, this is uh let me summarize.
35:47
SPEAKER_00: We're going through the song and the key of your life one through four.
35:51
SPEAKER_00: It's so refreshing to think about our awesome God, but you don't even deserve to be called his child.
35:55
SPEAKER_00: God's grace to you has been amazing, but you trampled that grace underfoot.
35:59
SPEAKER_00: And now, verses 19 through 35, it's time to confess that God is right to be upset and to turn from you like you've turned from him.
36:09
SPEAKER_00: So I just put in here some of the verses.
36:11
SPEAKER_00: When the Lord saw this, he despised them, provoked to anger by his sons and daughters.
36:16
SPEAKER_00: He said, I'll hide my face from them.
36:19
SPEAKER_00: I'll see what will become of them, for they're a perverse generation, unfaithful children.
36:23
SPEAKER_00: A fire has been kindled by my wrath, one that burns to the realm of death below.
36:30
SPEAKER_00: I found through the years I could never talk about God getting angry at us without having at least one person come up and say, That doesn't happen.
36:38
SPEAKER_00: No, God never gets angry anymore.
36:40
SPEAKER_00: So it's really nice that Adele came out with a hit song a few years ago, just to remind us that, yeah, we all get angry, right?
36:48
SPEAKER_00: If you say God no longer gets angry and you never get angry, I don't believe you.
36:52
SPEAKER_00: Her famous song was she was singing about, it was her first great, you know, hit, where she's singing about a loved one who became unfaithful.
37:02
SPEAKER_00: And she says, you know, we could have had it all.
37:05
SPEAKER_00: And she says, There's a fire starting in my heart, reaching a fever pitch, and it's bringing me out the dark.
37:11
SPEAKER_00: I'm not supposed to know about secular songs, but it accidentally, you know, I know about, but it's it's actually an amazing song.
37:18
SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
37:19
SPEAKER_00: She's it looks as though she's read this in verse 22 in Deuteronomy 32, right?
37:26
SPEAKER_00: And this is what happens to God when his beloved has walked away and there's a fire that starts in his heart, and it's kindled and it burns to the realms of death below.
37:36
SPEAKER_00: It's right for us, and it's time that we, and the point here is God is just.
37:41
SPEAKER_00: He's a rock, his ways are just.
37:42
SPEAKER_00: It's time to confess that God is just, to be upset at us, and to turn from us like we've turned from him.
37:49
SPEAKER_00: Right?
37:50
SPEAKER_00: But the passage ends in 36 through 42.
37:53
SPEAKER_00: But when you've hit complete bottom, when God's walked away from you, when your life has turned into utter chaos and it's dark and it's a mess, God will reach out to you in compassion, he'll forgive, he'll restore you, receive that forgiveness and rejoice.
38:09
SPEAKER_00: Isn't this an amazing psalm?
38:11
SPEAKER_00: It goes from the past to the present in Israel's sin to the distant future.
38:15
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna walk away from God, you're gonna be in exile, you're gonna cry, you're gonna be done, and then God will look down upon you, and in compassion, he'll reach out to you and forgive you.
38:25
SPEAKER_00: Notice this verse, verse 36.
38:27
SPEAKER_00: The Lord will eventually vindicate.
38:29
SPEAKER_00: He will, the word is champion his people and have compassion on his servants when they see that their strength, when he sees that their strength is gone.
38:40
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that incredible?
38:43
SPEAKER_00: God, you're amazing.
38:45
SPEAKER_00: We and we sang that this morning.
38:47
SPEAKER_00: God, you're just amazing, but I'm not worthy to be called your child, for even though your grace has been unbelievable, you chose me and you've watched over me and taken me through the desert, and you've hovered over me like an eagle and saved me.
39:00
SPEAKER_00: Despite that, I've trampled that grace underfoot.
39:03
SPEAKER_00: I've wandered away from you, walked away from you, run away from you, treated you with absolute contempt.
39:09
SPEAKER_00: As a result, you in your turn got angry and you turned away from me, and my life got worse and worse and worse.
39:15
SPEAKER_00: But for some reason, because I was your child, you didn't let me go.
39:20
SPEAKER_00: You reached down and in compassion, you brought me back from my Babylon, you brought me back from my despair.
39:27
SPEAKER_00: You're just an amazing God.
39:30
SPEAKER_00: Where are you?
39:32
SPEAKER_00: Where are you along that journey, along that pathway?
39:36
SPEAKER_00: That's a song in the key of life, in the key of your life, and in the key of my life.
39:44
SPEAKER_00: Why is this song such a big deal?
39:47
SPEAKER_00: Daniel Bloch, as I said, believed it served for a thousand years as Israel's national anthem.
39:54
SPEAKER_00: It was the story of Israel's life, her rescue, her rebellion, her repentance, her restoration.
40:01
SPEAKER_00: It's also the story of your life and my life, our rescue, our rebellion, our repentance, our restoration.
40:11
SPEAKER_00: And as we read in the first ten verses, this is the story, this is the song that can lead us to life.
40:21
SPEAKER_00: Accidentally, I came across the poems, lost for hundreds of years until 1960, of a preacher, a colonial preacher in Massachusetts named Edward Taylor.
40:34
SPEAKER_00: Never known, nobody knew of him, even though he'd gone to Harvard, and you know, but he was nobody famous, but he had kept a book in which he had written poems.
40:43
SPEAKER_00: And he struggled with the depth of his own sin.
40:47
SPEAKER_00: And he uh he would wonder, can God really forgive me?
40:52
SPEAKER_00: And he wrote a poem that just is just incredible, called Christ's reply.
41:00
SPEAKER_00: And what he really meant by that is Christ's reply to me and to you when we cry, God, can you really forgive me?
41:08
SPEAKER_00: And I've just excerpted three of the stanzas, and I know they're not written quite the way we're used to.
41:16
SPEAKER_00: I've changed the thou's and thys to yours, but let me read this.
41:21
SPEAKER_00: Here's what Christ says to you when you're in the chaos of your sin.
41:25
SPEAKER_00: He says, although your sins increase their race, and I don't know what he means by that, whether he means they're running faster and faster, or there are more of them.
41:35
SPEAKER_00: Although your sins increase their race, and though when you have sought for grace, you fail more than before.
41:41
SPEAKER_00: You're calling up for grace.
41:43
SPEAKER_00: And even in that, you know what that's like?
41:45
SPEAKER_00: And then you complete, you continue to fail.
41:48
SPEAKER_00: If you by true repentance rise, and faith makes me your sacrifice, if you come to me, I'll pardon all, though more than we could say ever before.
42:01
SPEAKER_00: The second of the three stanzas I chose is God saying this, Christ saying this.
42:07
SPEAKER_00: I dare the world, therefore, to show a God like me to anger slow, whose wrath is full of grace, who hates all sins, both great and small, yet when repented, pardons all.
42:23
SPEAKER_00: And I love this line, frowns with a smiling face.
42:30
SPEAKER_00: I've never been able to do that.
42:32
SPEAKER_00: The kids only saw the frown.
42:34
SPEAKER_00: And the final stanza is where he calls us to go fight against sin, to be soldiers for him against sin.
42:41
SPEAKER_00: Oh, fight my field.
42:42
SPEAKER_00: No colors, fear, and other colors of opposition.
42:47
SPEAKER_00: I'll be your front, I'll be your rear.
42:50
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that a great line from God?
42:52
SPEAKER_00: Fail not, my battles fight.
42:54
SPEAKER_00: Defy the tempter and his mock.
42:58
SPEAKER_00: Anchor your heart on me, your rock.
43:04
SPEAKER_00: And then the last line of a poem by a Puritan, I do in you delight.
43:15
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
43:18
SPEAKER_00: Father, we're uh amazed by the fact that you delight in us, though we don't even deserve to be called your children.
43:28
SPEAKER_00: And our journey, the song of our life goes through an occasional mountain, but there are far more valleys.
43:38
SPEAKER_00: And we have been children who have ignored and abandoned and at times even been contemptuous of you and ashamed of you, and we repent for that, and we clutch onto you, onto your compassion, onto your stunning compassion and forgiveness.
44:01
SPEAKER_00: And then weep with joy because you delight, you actually delight in us through Jesus, in whose name we pray.
44:12
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
44:14
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.