This past week, Timothy and Haley O’Day and Tom Fox came back from their trip to Salt Lake City, Utah. As I think most of you know, they were going out there to survey the setting in Salt Lake City and see if the Lord might move Timothy and Haley’s hearts to go out there and begin work as church planters. So, as Timothy and Tom came into the office Wednesday morning, I began asking them questions about the trip. I wanted to hear their report. And their report was as you might anticipate. Salt Lake City is a beautiful city that would offer much in terms of living there, but going there and planting a church would be greatly challenging. Only 0.5 percent of Utah County is made up of evangelical Christians, making it the lowest concentration of evangelical believers anywhere in America. So, I told Timothy that I was praying that the Lord would guide him as to whether or not he and Haley should go plant themselves there, reminding him (as he already knew) that the Lord did no less of a miracle in bringing Timothy to salvation than would be needed to bring unbelievers in Salt Lake City to salvation. He agreed, and then I turned back to my studies.
Now, my study this week (and that day specifically) was focused on Deuteronomy 1-4. I’d been reading and re-reading those chapters that morning, so I decided to sit down and make a few more notes on the text. And as I did so, I noted that Israel had once been on the brink of entering the land at Kadesh-barnea, when they sent spies to go and report about the land. Their report was that the land was great for living, but the people were going to make it hard to go there. They were fierce and gigantic. Therefore, the people decided not to go and, that the challenge was too great. This was of course befuddling since the Lord had delivered Israel out of the clutches of the greatest national power in that day when they were delivered from Egypt.
Then after thirty-eight years of wondering in the wilderness, they were ready to enter the land with a new generation. They were preparing to go into enemy-occupied territory. That’s where we find ourselves in the book of Deuteronomy. These are Moses’ last words as he prepares the people to enter the promised land. For this reason, the book reads much like a collection of sermons.
Now, as I wrote down that summary, I thought how much that summary and my conversation with Timothy seemed to parallel each other. We sent a small group to survey the land. The report was that the city was beautiful but the challenge was going to be great. But we looked back on how the Lord had delivered us from the grip of Satan, sin, and death, giving us confidence as we contemplate sending Timothy O’Day as a church planter into an area where the enemy obviously holds many in bondage, blinding them to the glory of the gospel of Christ.
And I don’t think it’s by mistake that these two situations parallel. In fact, I think the task of the Great Commission is the substance that was prophesied in the types and shadows of Israel’s military conquests in the Old Testament. The Great Commission was nothing less than a declaration of war by Jesus Christ on Satan, sin, and death. Jesus had risen from the dead as the victorious Lord, had been given all authority in heaven and earth, and, therefore, commissioned us to go into enemy-occupied territory throughout all the world with the gospel, charging us to baptize, make disciples, and teach converts to obey all that Christ had commanded. And though the task seems impossible (opening the eyes of the spiritually blind), he promised us that he would be with us and that his gospel would prevail in bringing people to salvation.
So, yes, the church is charged to go out and engage enemies of Jesus’ Christ throughout the world. We are charged by our Lord to go out as sheep in the midst of wolves. We are charged to go out and plunder the strong man’s goods. We are charged not to go with swords or other physical weapons, for our fight is not a physical one. We are charged to go with the weapon of the gospel to men and women who may well hate us and our Lord and to bring the good news to them in hopes that they will be transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. In this way, Moses’ charge to the Israelites in Deuteronomy is very similar to the charge Christ has given his church in Matthew 28:18-20.
Therefore, when we come to Deuteronomy 1:1-4:43, we should not find it surprising that many of the lessons in Moses’ sermon to Israel as they were preparing to enter the land are directly applicable to us as well as we consider our (the church’s) task of fulfilling the Great Commission. And I want to note these lessons as we walk through the text this morning.
But before we do that, let me give you a brief breakdown of these four chapters. These four chapters, which are Moses’ first address to the people in the book of Deuteronomy, have a prologue and an epilogue. The prologue is 1:1-5, where we are given the setting of Moses’ speech. This is after they had defeated Sihon and Og but prior to crossing over the Jordan. The epilogue is then found in 4:41-43 where we are told about Moses setting aside cities of refuge. The section in the middle is Moses’ speech to the people.
This middle section can then be broken down into three sections. In 1:6-2:1 Moses recounts the Lord’s grace and the people’s response to the Lord all the way through the wilderness wandering. He notes the appointment of leaders to help him oversee the people, Israel’s unbelief and refusal to enter the land, and the Lord’s judgment against Israel, making them wander about in the wilderness for thirty-eight years, until the entire generation of Israelites died off. In fact, Moses sums up their thirty-eight year wondering in one verse. In 2:1 he writes, “Then we turned and journeyed into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea, as the LORD told me. And for many days we traveled around Mount Seir.” By “many days,” Moses means thirty-eight years.
Then, in 2:2-3:29, Moses continues his reflection on the Lord’s grace as they moved from their wilderness wondering toward the promised land. He recounts how they did not contend with certain peoples the Lord had forbidden them to take up arms against while conquering Sihon and Og, kings of Heshbon and Bashan. Finally, he talks about how the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh received this land, agreeing to help their brothers fight once they crossed the Jordan and how Moses himself had been refused entrance to the promised land.
Finally, in 4:1-40, Moses reminds the people to obey the Lord’s commands as they enter the land, not to forget the covenant they have with the Lord, and to teach these things to their children so that they might live long and things go well with them in the land.
With that summary, then, let’s look at some lessons Moses’ gives to the people as they prepared to go into the promised land that are applicable to us as we are charged to fulfill the Great Commission. Again, my overall thesis as we look at this text from the perspective of the New Covenant is that just as Israel should have trusted in the Lord and obeyed his commission to take the land, trusting that God’s presence with them was greater than the strength of their enemies, so we should trust in the Lord and obey his commission to make disciples of all the nations, trusting that his effectual call to his people will prevail in the midst of the seeming impossibility of the task. Therefore, each of these points I’ll make directly toward us. First, I want us to see that:
This theme permeates Moses’ speech throughout. Notice how Moses stresses the Lord’s past faithfulness to his word and promises. As he speaks in 1:9-18 of the need to appoint leaders so that he might better oversee and lead the people of Israel, notice how he describes them. He says in 1:9-10, “At that time I said to you, ‘I am not able to bear you myself. The LORD your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven.’”
Now, Moses is familiar enough with God’s covenant with Abraham well enough that this is not coincidental language. He knew that God had promised to make Abraham’s descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven. Therefore, he’s voicing God’s faithfulness to multiply the people even as he has promised. And seeing this past faithfulness, Moses trusts God to continue to show himself faithful, declaring in 1:11, “May the LORD, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, as he has promised you.” Past faithfulness should lead to present trust in God’s future faithfulness.
Then in 1:29-33, Moses recounts how the people did not trust the Lord and would not enter the land. But listen how he reasons with them to elicit faithful obedience. He says, “Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread or afraid of them. The LORD your God who goes before you will himself fight for you [but how does he know? Moses continues], just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place’” (1:29-31).
Finally, in order to elicit in the people faithful obedience, Moses declares in 4:32-35, “For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him. Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire. And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, driving out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day, know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.”
So, let me bring this to us. We have been charged to take the gospel to those who are currently enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, how do we strengthen ourselves to know that he’ll be faithful? The answer is that we consider his faithfulness in the past – even in our own conversions. After all, consider that the Lord loved you enough to send his Son to die for you when you were his enemies. How much more, now that you are reconciled to him, do you think he loves you, will devote himself to you, and will provide what you need? Think of all the times he’s provided for you when you thought there was no hope. What makes you think he won’t provide now? Let us look back at God’s past consistent faithfulness and walk forward in faith.
So, we can trust that God will be faithful, but that doesn’t mean that the tasks the Lord lays out for us will be easy. In fact, I think we can affirm as we see in this text that:
I mention this because when we read of the narrative of Israel’s history, we can rush through it, can’t we? We can think to ourselves, “Why would they doubt? God said he’d be with them. God said he’d overcome their enemies.” But the reality is that this was not an easy task, and it was downright impossible without the Lord’s mighty provision.
We can first note the difficulty of Israel’s task in the fact that they rebelled and didn’t enter the land. It wasn’t that the report that came back from those spying out the land was, “It’s easy, but we shouldn’t go.” Rather, they came, saying that it seemed an impossible task. Moses recounts their response in 1:28, ‘Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, ‘The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.”
You see, Israel wasn’t made up of physically blind people. They saw that the task seemed impossible. The men were bigger and taller. They had resources. And they were right. In fact, later, once they hear that the Lord is going to punish them for their disobedience, they try an about face. They decide to strap on their gear and go fight against those in the hill country, the Amorites. But they were soundly defeated. And listen to how Moses describes this incident. He writes in verses 41-44, “Then you answered me, ‘We have sinned against the LORD. We ourselves will go up and fight, just as the LORD our God commanded us.’ And every one of you fastened on his weapons of war and thought it easy to go up into the hill country. And the LORD said to me, ‘Say to them, Do not go up or fight, for I am not in your midst, lest you be defeated before your enemies.’ So I spoke to you, and you would not listen; but you rebelled against the command of the LORD and presumptuously went up into the hill country. Then the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you as bees do and beat you down in Seir as far as Hormah.”
We could also note that in chapter 2 the Lord repeatedly tells them not to contend with certain peoples, for he is not with them and will not deliver them into Israel’s hands. But the point I want us to see is that taking the land was a challenging task. It wasn’t easy. They were wrong to “think it easy” to go up into the hill country. They were acting presumptuously to think they could defeat these people apart from God’s presence and power.
So, let this be a reminder to us. The Lord calls us to difficult (and, apart from him, impossible) tasks. The idea that if the Lord calls us to something that it will go smooth or be easy simply is not biblical. This was a hard task Israel was called to, and the tasks the Lord has brought to each of us is challenging as well. To all of us falls the task of the Great Commission, and it is downright impossible apart from the Lord’s power. Do we really think that Timothy and Haley O’Day planting an evangelical church in Salt Lake City, Utah is an easy task? Do we really think that committed Mormons can be easily swayed to repent of their beliefs and practices? And in your life, you can testify as well that the Lord calls us collectively and each of us individually to obedience that is impossible apart from his strength and presence.
But this leads us to the other side of this truth:
We see this consistently in the text as well, don’t we? Moses calls Israel again and again to obey. And each time, he reminds them that the Lord’s purposes will be fulfilled in and through their obedient acts, just as he has promised.
A sampling of texts confirm this theme:
1:21 – See, the LORD your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the LORD, the God of your fathers has told you. Do not fear or be dismayed.
1:29-30 – Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread or afraid of them. The LORD your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes.’
2:7 – For the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.
2:24-25 – ‘Rise up, set out on your journey and go over the Valley of the Arnon. Behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king ofHeshbon, and his land. Begin to take possession, and contend with him in battle. This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.’
3:2-3 – But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not fear him, for I have given him and all his people and his land into your hand. And you shall do to him as you did to Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.’ So theLord our God gave into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people, and we struck him down until he had no survivor left.
3:21-22 – And I commanded Joshua at that time, ‘Your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings. So will the Lord do to all the kingdoms into which you are crossing. You shall not fear them, for it is the Lord your God who fights for you.’
Were we today doing a commissioning service for Timothy and Haley as they head out to Salt Lake City, I would say to them, “Today we send you out to do the impossible. Opening the eyes of the blind and softening stone hard hearts is simply something we cannot do. You are going out into one of the hardest settings imaginable in the sense of most lostness in our country. But the one who said, “I will be with you, even to the end of the age,” will indeed be with you. The one who has dealt a fatal blow to our enemy is pleased to bind him and plunder his goods as we preach the gospel and our Lord calls people to faith. You go out with a secret weapon. It is a weapon that cannot be seen to the eye, but it is more powerful than anything we can see. You go out with the promise that the Lord who is with you will call his sheep to himself, and they will hear his voice even through our proclamation of his gospel. Therefore, go.”
That’s what Moses was saying to the people. It’s what I would say to Timothy and Haley, and it’s what I’m saying to all of us this morning. Let us stop with the report of how hard the situation into which we’re going or presently stand is, and let us rather determine that we will obey in faith, trusting the Lord to show himself mighty and fulfill his promises every step of the way.
In the fourth chapter Moses is not as much recounting Israel’s history as giving them commands before they go into the land. They must be characterized by obedience, by remembering the Lord’s grace, and by passing on these things to others.
Let’s take each of these elements and see how Moses specifically notes them. Moses notes the need for the people to respond with obedience to the Lord continually. For example in 4:1-2 we read, “And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you. You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you.”
And Moses ends his speech on the same note. We read in 4:40, “Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for all time.”
Moses wants them to know that they have all they need with the commandments of the Lord. It doesn’t mean that every question they would like answered will be answered. The secret things belong to the Lord, as we’ll read later in this book. But they have what they need to obey, and it is crucial they obey.
Then, Moses exhorts them to remember (and not forget) the Lord’s rich grace that he has showered on them. He says in 4:6-9, “Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today? Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children.” Then, again, in 4:23, he warns them against forgetting the Lord’s covenant with them.
But do you see the idea here? Moses is saying that there have never been a people on the face of the earth who have received as much grace as them, and they must remember that and not forget it. They must ensure that they pass this idea along to their children so that they grow up with the same understanding of who God is, what he has done, and what he requires.
And I want to suggest that these two exhortations from Moses in Deuteronomy 4 are crucial for us as we walk forward in a way that honors the Lord in this life. During your difficult days, when you have more questions than answers, just say, “I will do what God has revealed for me to do. I will obey his commandments.” This requires a commitment to know the Scriptures, but it will be what you can rest in and lean on in difficult days.
Moreover, in those same days, remember his grace to you. As believers, our God has not merely physically delivered us from Egyptians slavery as he did the Israelites. He sent his Son who gave his life for our sin and was raised on the third day. And the more we forget that, the less we meditate on that truth, the more prone we will be to sin. Therefore, speak of the Lord’s grace much with your children, declare the gospel to others, and create an atmosphere of delighting in the Lord’s grace in your life.
We’ve been given a great task. We are to make disciples all over this globe, baptizing them and teaching them to obey all that Christ commands. As we then labor in this task: 1) look at the Lord’s faithfulness in your past and truth him in the present and future, 2) know that obedience will be difficult and painful, but 3) since the Lord is with us and works through us, he will accomplish his intended purposes as we obey. Therefore, 4) let us walk in obedience to him, continually remembering how privileged we are to be objects of his grace and love. Let us remember that even now as we come to the table. Amen.