May 25, 2007

THE END OF THE JOURNEY

Deuteronomy 34

This is a time of the year for reviewing or what some of you call “revision”. I know as school terms begin to wind up and students start preparing for final exams, the focus in most classrooms turns increasingly to review of the material that has been covered during the previous year or term.

In this message this morning we are taking a quick look at the Book of Deuteronomy. If you want a one word clue to remember what Deuteronomy is all about, the word “review” would serve very well. The name of the book itself comes from a compound Greek word, from deuteros, meaning “second” and nomos meaning “law”. It is a second giving or review of the law. The people of Israel are camped on the plains of Moab, across the Jordan River from the city of Jericho. That’s where they are when the book starts, and that’s where they are when the book ends. There is no movement in the book. There is no advance in the plot, no new events recorded except the death of Moses in the final chapter. It is a time of review.

But while the Book of Deuteronomy is a book of review, it is more than that. Its purpose, in terms of Israel, was to reestablish the covenant between God and his people in the presence of the new generation. Remember in Exodus God established a covenant between himself and the nation of Israel. A covenant is like a treaty, an agreement between parties: In this case it is a suzerain/vassal treaty; a treaty between a king and his subjects. This covenant was sealed between God and Israel at Mt. Sinai. But the generation that participated in that covenant ceremony has now died off. It is the next generation that is poised to enter and take possession of the Promised Land. So it is necessary to review and solemnize the covenant with the new generation.

Once again, just like in Exodus, the Biblical text closely follows the covenant format which was used in that period of history. It starts with a review of the history of the relationship between the king and his subjects. This is the review of Israel’s history with which the book of Deuteronomy begins. This is followed by the covenant conditions and stipulations. These are the laws that are detailed in the main section of Deuteronomy, including a complete repetition of the Ten Commandments which make up the heart of the Covenant. The consequences of covenant violation are then spelled out along with the rewards for covenant obedience. This is found in Deuteronomy with the long sections on “Blessings and Cursings”. The blessings are what the Israelites will experience if they are faithful to obey the conditions of the covenant, and the cursings are the consequences they can expect if they violate the covenant. All of this is interspersed with liberal exhortations to the people to heed, listen, teach and obey all the conditions of the covenant.

The book of Deuteronomy is fundamental to the rest of the Old Testament. It serves as the basis for much of the prophets’ preaching. When prophets stood to address the nation in later years, they inevitably went back to Deuteronomy and the conditions of the covenant to explain what was happening to the nation. Their tragedies were because of their disobedience to God’s covenant. If they wanted to experience God’s blessing, they needed to repent and obey the covenant and its conditions. All of Israel’s subsequent history only makes sense when it is understood in light of the covenant God made with his people in Exodus and then reconfirmed with them before they entered the Promised Land.

So that is a quick overview and summary of Deuteronomy and its place in our Bible. You can see, then, why “review” makes a good summary of the contents of the book. But my message this morning is also about review because this is our final message in this series. So for us it is also a good time for review. We started our journey last September. My goal in this series of messages was to trace the narrative sections of the Pentateuch from Exodus to Deuteronomy, following the story of Israel from bondage in Egypt up to the borders of the Promised Land. This is the 24^th and final message in the series.

So how do we review and summarize 24 messages worth of preaching? I always find that the most challenging messages to prepare in any sermon series are the first one and the last one. In that very first message, I pointed out that there are three main characters in the narrative who would draw our attention as we moved through the text. The first one was Moses. The second was Israel as a nation: the people of God. The third, and probably the true main character of the story was God himself. So what I have decided to do in this final message is to reflect on what we have learned about or learned from the three main characters.

We will start with Moses. In the Scripture reading a few minutes ago we read Deuteronomy 34 and the account of Moses’ death on Mount Nebo. It is a bittersweet ending to his life story, isn’t it? The end of the journey. He climbs to the top of Mount Nebo, opposite the Promised Land and God allows him the privilege to look out over the land God had promised to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and which he was about to give to their descendants. But Moses would not be allowed to enter it himself because of his disobedience when he struck the rock rather than spoke to it at the Waters of Meribah. We feel for Moses and his obvious disappointment, but there is still something oddly moving about the story, as Moses is once again with God on a mountain. They are conversing. God himself is pointing out the features of the land. And when the moment of his death comes, only God is with him, and the text says that “God buried him.” I am not sure exactly what to make of that, but it strikes me as both a great honor and an act of moving intimacy between God and his servant.

I am also moved by the final testimony to Moses which is recorded in the final verses of the chapter, probably by Joshua: (Read Deuteronomy 34:5, 10-12)

What a powerful testimony to this most humble of all men, this faithful servant of the Lord. As I reflect back on the life of Moses and what we learn from him, there are several things that rise to the top for me. The first is the fundamental life choice that Moses made as a young man. This was the choice that is recorded for us in Hebrews 11:24-26: By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.

That was the choice he made which set the direction for the rest of his life. He made the most important choice of his life based on eternal values. That explains more about Moses than any other single fact. And every one of us faces that same choice. Will we live this life for temporary pleasure, or will we cast our lot with the people of God and the cause of Christ, looking ahead to an eternal reward?

The second trait of Moses that stands out to me was his faithfulness. He is the model, the prototype of the faithful servant. Hebrews 3:2 states that Moses was faithful in all God’s house. That example of faithfulness beckons me and inspires me to be faithful and obedient as well.

The third trait of Moses which I am taking away may sound like a paradox and contradiction to the first two. That is his humanness. Moses is not portrayed as some plaster of paris saint. He is a man of passion. He badly messes up his first attempts to assist the Israelites. He has a deep inferiority complex about his ability to speak. He gets discouraged. He complains to God. And in a fit of temper, he struck the rock, and lost the privilege of leading the people into the Promised Land. Somehow I find all of that deeply reassuring! It’s not that I take pleasure in his failure. But I do find hope and encouragement that if God could use Moses so mightily in spite of his humanness and his failures, then there is still hope for me.

The fourth lesson I am taking away from Moses is a little more abstract. I understand intercession and the importance of an intercessor because of Moses’ example. As I have lived these stories of Israel’s history, I have been left with the deep and lasting impression that if it had not been for Moses going face down before the Lord to intercede for the people of Israel, God would indeed have destroyed them on more than one occasion.  Now I realize that that raises some theological questions. But I am convinced that this was no mere “play acting” but a real interaction between Moses and God with real consequences in terms of Israel’s survival. That vital role Moses played takes me in two directions. It first of all points me in direction of the Second Moses, who now lives and intercedes for us. I take great security in knowing that Jesus is at the right hand of the Father making intercession for me. But the second is a challenge to examine my role as an intercessor. Am I making a difference in the lives of those God brings into my life and lays upon my heart through the work of intercession.

As I look back on the big picture of Moses life, I am left with one abiding thought. I want to be like him. He is a great role model, as a servant of God, as a leader, as a man. There was an advertising slogan about 10 years back that said, “I want to be like Mike.” Forget Mike! I want to be like Moses! A servant who was faithful in all God’s house.

That brings us to the second leading character in this history. The People of Israel. What can I say about them? There are three phrases that capture my memories of the people; each one has an internal alliteration. Complaining rather than contentment. We saw it over and over again, didn’t we? The people murmured against Moses and against God. A mother was reading the stories of Israel to her little daughter for the first time. As the little girl listened intently to another story that started off with “And the people complained against God” she gave a big sigh and said, “Not again!” We feel that way as we read the stories, don’t we?

The second phrase is fear rather than faith. It was their fear that led them to rebel on the borders of the Promised Land, and caused them to spend 40 years in the wilderness. They could not trust God to keep his promise, and they allowed their fear to overwhelm them and lead them into disobedience.

The final phrase is fickle hearts rather than faithful hearts. On numerous occasions they vowed their complete faithfulness and desire to fulfill all of God’s commands. Yet usually within hours or days their hearts wandered off after other gods and other forms of worship.

As I think back on the Israelites, two thoughts compete in my mind. The first one is, I don’t want to be like them. I don’t want to follow in their footsteps. But the second thought, which follows quickly on the heels of the first, is the realization, I am like them. In my heart of hearts, if I am honest with myself, I find these same traits. I am so quick to complain, rather than be content with my circumstances. I am so often overwhelmed by fear when I should exercise faith and trust in God. And my heart is so often fickle and runs so quickly after other things. But here is the bottom line. The tendencies of my heart are just like theirs. But I don’t have to live there. By trusting in the Spirit of Christ who lives in me, I can live on a different level. I don’t have to live like them.

The final character of the story is the true main character. He is God himself. He is the God who revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush as Yahweh, the great I AM. It struck me as I was thinking back this week, how much of my theology and my understanding of God has been shaped by the events and stories we have been studying. There are propositional statements of theology and of God’s attributes in the Scriptures that reduce themselves to neat sentences in books. I am thankful for them. But the truths of God’s holiness and glory and his love and faithfulness take on texture and fiber and substance when we see those attributes lived out on the stage of Israel’s history. For example, I have a feeling for holiness that is colored by Mt Sinai and God’s command to set limits around the mountain so that no one could come near or touch even the foot of it. I realize that my understanding of God has been colored by these stories from the time I first heard them as a child. And that understanding has been strengthened by the opportunity I have had to live and relive these stories again through these messages.

In the events of the Exodus, God was writing his character into the pages of human history by doing something that had never been done before. And he was doing it to demonstrate that he is the one and only true God. (Read Deuteronomy 4:32-39)

As I look for a way to capture what we have learned about God’s character in these accounts, I find myself unable to improve on the three phrases that I have used before, as we were working our way through Exodus. Yahweh is awesome in glory. Deuteronomy 4:35 says it so clearly: You were shown these things so that you might know that Yahweh is God; besides him there is no other. The theme of the book of Exodus is the glory of God. On several occasions in that book, God says that he is doing all of the signs and wonders in Egypt, so that first Israel, then the Egyptians and finally the whole world will know that he is God. Exodus 14:4 says it well: I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am Yahweh. Then when he had brought the Israelites out of Egypt, he met them at Sinai, and there he visibly displayed his glory to them on the mountain, with the clouds of smoke and the thunder and the lightning and the trumpet blasts and God’s fire coming down upon the mountain. There is no God like Yahweh, awesome in glory.

Yahweh is majestic in holiness. I have already talked about the clear visual aid of his holiness with the limits set around the holy mountain. This holiness is clearly displayed in the book of Leviticus as God announces in Leviticus 11:44: I am Yahweh your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. God’s passion for his own holiness is displayed when his holy fire blazes out against the sons of Aaron in the incident of strange fire, and God says clearly: Among those who approach me I will show myself holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored.

But there is another theme of God’s character that is also clearly displayed in these stories. Yahweh is tender in love. This is restated in Deuteronomy in explaining the reason behind the covenant that God was forming with the Israelites. There is one driving force behind it. (Read Deuteronomy 7:6-9) This is a restatement of his desire for a covenant relationship which was described in Exodus 19:4: You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Note the tenderness in that final phrase: “I brought you to myself.” They are the words of a bridegroom to his bride. “Out of all the nations of the world I have chosen you to be my treasured possession.”

What an awesome God we serve! Awesome in glory, majestic in holiness, tender in love.

 As I reflect on these attributes of his character which are so clearly displayed in the great events of the Exodus, I am struck by this realization: He is the same God today as he was then. He has not changed, not even so much as the shifting of a shadow. This God is our God. As Moses challenged the Israelites in Deuteronomy 6:4-5: Hear, O Israel: Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one. Love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

Before we close, our review would be incomplete without highlighting one more character that we have met in the pages of this text. We have met him in some surprising places and in some unexpected ways. He is the Christ, the promised Redeemer of Israel. We have seen him in the types which foreshadowed and foretold his coming. We have seen him in the Passover Lamb that has been slain for us. We have met him as the Great High Priest. We have beheld him in the manna, the bread which came done from heaven. He has been there in the Rock which followed Israel and from whom the living waters flowed. We have seen him on the cross when Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. He is the star who comes out of Jacob and the ruler who comes out of Israel. And we have seen him in Moses: Moses the intercessor and Moses the faithful servant. It is in the book of Deuteronomy in chapter 18:15 that Moses himself said, Yahweh your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. And now that Prophet has come who is greater than Moses. His name is Jesus. He is the God of Sinai, awesome in glory, majestic in holiness, and tender in love, come to earth, come in human flesh, come to give his life as the ransom for our sins. It all comes together, Old Testament and New Testament, in the person of Jesus.

As we meditate on our great God, revealed in history through the events of the Exodus, and revealed even more clearly when he put on human flesh in the person of Christ and pitched his tent among us, what else can we do but worship him? He is Lord of lords, King of kings, Almighty God. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen

Let us worship him together.