Deut: The Promise of Life
STATING THE SCRIPTURES (Deuteronomy 30:1-20)
When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come upon you and you take them to heart wherever the LORD your God disperses you among the nations, and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the LORD your God will gather you and bring you back. He will bring you to the land that belonged to your fathers, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live. The LORD your God will put all these curses on your enemies who hate and persecute you. You will again obey the LORD and follow all his commands I am giving you today. Then the LORD your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The LORD will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your fathers, if you obey the LORD your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
The Offer of Life or Death ,,, And if ,,, I may let me take you a little farther in the text...
Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, "Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, "Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" So, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.
See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
SETTING THE STAGE
There is that precious, opportunistic moment; when a gentle hand by a touch on the shoulder is able to magically remove the sting of failure from the midst of defeat,,, There is something about a shoulder that invites attention when we are slumped in sorrow, embarrassment or,,, exhaustion.... Shoulders drop when the heart aches... Shoulders stoop when the head falls...
In this sense they are the signpost by which others must know there is a disaster brewing within. The funny thing about it is that the same sign affects different people in different ways.
There are those people who avoid contact when others are hurting. It’s almost as if they sense that whatever it is that they have, they don’t want it to be transmitted to them... “If pain and defeat look like this, I certainly don’t want any part of it...”
Then there are those who, upon seeing someone else downtrodden, identify all too clearly with the emotion. They feel it in their hearts and reflect upon a time when they too were so stricken. “That hurts and the more and more I look at it, the more I remember my own hurt.” They are quick to move on,,,
But, thank God, there are those who are drawn to the slumped shoulder of the wounded warrior. They see it as an opportunity to intervene and stop the hurt. They see it as a way of lifting someone up, even transferring some of that pain to themselves in order to keep the warrior standing. “Give me some of your hurt. I just can’t bear to see you suffer so.”
There are many heroes in this life. Some bravely climb mountains or catch touchdown passes. But there is none more brave than the one who is willing to take on the hurt of another and pump encouragement into them, giving them hope in a hopeless situation.
Edward Steichen, who eventually became one of the world’s most renowned photographers, almost gave up on the day he shot his first pictures. At 16, young Steichen bought a camera and took 50 photos. Only one turned out -- a portrait of his sister at the piano. Edward’s father thought that was a poor showing. But his mother insisted that the photograph of his sister was so beautiful that it more than compensated for 49 failures. Her encouragement convinced the youngster to stick with his new hobby. He stayed with it for the rest of his life, but it had been a close call. What tipped the scales? The vision to spot excellence in the midst of a lot of failure.
We can express our love for others in many ways. There is, perhaps, no greater and more meaningful way of showing we care than making sure that we are always on the lookout for the person with the slumped shoulders, the hanging head and the tear-streaked cheek,,, It may seem like an invasion and at first there is a certain level of discomfort when we enter into the realm of despair,,, But, once in, just our presence can do more for a sorrowful spirit than almost anything else....
We run into people every day that need our gentle hand; people who simply long for that touch on the shoulder and that reassuring word. Paul teaches us that substituting ourselves for their hurt is the way of the righteous. When we see others who have done wrong and slipped into hurt, this is nothing less than an opportunity for a Christian to enter in and thereby open the path to healing and restoration...
You can put your hand to no finer task than grasping the shoulder of a brother or sister warrior in Christ who may be hurting today. Your touch can become the sunshine that follows the rain.
Decisions sometimes confront us that are very difficult to make. We,,,we,,, simply do not know what to do. Difficult decisions often involve health or personal difficulty; marital, family, or employment problems; or some business, national, or world issue. There,,,there are events that happen in life that are simply impossible,,, to predict.
At other times an event occurs because we have made a wrong decision; we just can not see into the future... This is not the case with God: the future is known by God, even the details of future events.
Because He knows all things—God was able to predict the terrible apostasy of the Israelites referred to in the recent message preached by Moses.
Now, one of the most interesting and captivating prophecies in all of Scripture is to be made. Speaking through Moses, God predicts the restoration of Israel, a day when the Jews will return to the promised land, modern-day Palestine.
Has this prophecy been fulfilled?
Was the return of the Jews to Palestine in 1948 a fulfillment of this prophecy? Some Bible commentators say, "Yes!" But if the return of the Jews to Palestine is a fulfillment of this prophecy, then the conditions that are covered by this passage have not yet been met. The Jewish people as a whole community or nation have not yet renewed their commitment to God; they have not yet rededicated their lives to the new covenant established by God. This is the discussion of this important passage of Scripture.
The conditions of the covenant are spelled out. Keep in mind what Moses had just preached: the terrible apostasy of the Israelites. A day was coming when the Israelites would turn away from God and turn to idolatry and false worship. As a result, the judgment of God would fall upon their heads. A foreign nation was to conquer the Israelites and enslave them. The Israelites were to become exiles in a foreign nation that they knew nothing about.
But now,,,Somebody say but now,,, Moses predicted that a glorious day of restoration would come. After suffering the terrible judgment and curses of God, the people would fulfill the conditions of the covenant.
The people must sense the need for repentance.
They must come to their senses and recall the blessings and curses of God. Note the great hope laid out by Moses: eventually the people would recall the blessings of God as well as the curses for disobedience,,, By meditating upon the blessings and judgments of God, they would begin to sense their need for repentance.
A deep sense of need would grip their hearts but, tragically, only after they had been enslaved by the world and suffered a broken heart.
The people must repent, return to the Lord. They must turn away from their hypocrisy and from engaging in idolatry and false worship. They must turn away from their lives of sin and shame and return to God.
The people must obey the Lord, obey Him with their whole hearts and souls. Obedience is an absolute essential for restoration and forgiveness.
If the people were going to rededicate their lives to God, if they were going to renew their commitment and covenant with God, the people must repent and obey the Lord.
A renewal or rededication of life involves two things: repentance and obedience to the Lord. No matter how terrible a sin we have committed, God will forgive us and restore us. But we must sense the need for repentance and actually repent. True repentance is an absolute essential. So is obedience. To be forgiven and restored before God, we must repent and obey God. Repentance is necessary.
Watch this,,,Jot these Scriptures down in you margin,,
"And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 3:2).
"I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3).
"Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord" (Acts 3:19).
"Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee" (Acts 8:22).
"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land" (2 Chron. 7:14).
"Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon" (Isaiah 55:7).
"Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel" (Ezekiel 18:31).
"Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning" (Joel 2:12).
"But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die" (Ezekiel 18:21).
Obedience—obeying God’s will with all of one’s heart and soul—is necessary to be restored to God.
A few more !!!
"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21).
"If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love" (John 15:10).
"Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you" (John 15:14).
"Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city" (Rev. 22:14).
"This day the Lord thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments: thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul" (Deut. 26:16).
The promise of the covenant is clearly stated, the wonderful promise of restoration—forgiveness and acceptance by the Lord. This is the great promise of restoration given to Israel, and through Israel, given to every person who ever repents and turns to the Lord to follow Him wholeheartedly.
There are wonderful promises given by God to those who will turn to Him: The Lord will have compassion and restore His people. He will restore the Israelites from all nations, even the most distant lands. He will restore them to the promised land. Once they have repented of their sins, they will again lay claim to their inheritance and walk victoriously in the promised land of God.
The Lord will make His people more prosperous and numerous than ever before. The Lord will circumcise or cut away the sins of their hearts and forgive them. He will chisel away at their hard, stubborn hearts. He will enable them to love Him completely and to live forever before Him. The Lord will actually transfer all the curses of His judgment upon the enemies of His people. The very people who had ridiculed, mocked, enslaved, and persecuted His people will suffer the terrible curses of God’s judgment...
The Lord will stir His people to obey all His commandments. At long last—sometime in the future—the people of God will become obedient. They will keep the commandments of God, obey His Holy Word.
The Lord will pour out His blessings upon His people. He will bless their lives, work, and property. The Lord will make His people prosperous and successful, causing Him to joy and rejoice in them.
As bountiful as these promises are, the promises of the new covenant are conditional. Standing before the people and preaching his heart out, Moses declared: to be forgiven and restored before God---you must obey the Lord and His commandments; you must repent, turn to the Lord wholeheartedly; you must repent, turn to the Lord with your whole heart and soul.
This Scripture covers one of the great promises of God, the promise of forgiveness. But note: the promise is conditional. If we confess and repent of our sins, God will forgive us. He will restore us before His face.
I ain’t finish yet !!
"Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins" (Acts 5:31).
"Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins" (Acts 13:38).
"In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace" (Ephes. 1:7).
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).
"Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit" (Psalm 51:12).
"I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins" (Isaiah 43:25).
"I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee" (Isaiah 44:22).
"Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon" (Isaiah 55:7).
"Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the Lord our God" (Jeremiah 3:22).
"I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him" (Hosea 14:4).
"He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea" (Micah 7:19).
The restoration of Israel is one of the great prophecies of the Bible. Scripture after Scripture predicted that the Jews, the Israelites, would someday return to the land promised them by God, the land that is known today as Palestine.
"And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins" (Romans 11:26-27).
"That then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee. If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee: And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers" (Deut. 30:3-5).
"And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city" (Isaiah 1:26).
"And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth" (Isaiah 11:11-12).
"And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem" (Isaiah 27:13).
"Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders" (Isaiah 49:22).
"And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: for in my wrath I smote thee, but in my favour have I had mercy on thee" (Isaiah 60:10).
"And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, The Lord liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land" (Jeremiah 23:3-8).
"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people" (Jeremiah 31:31-33).
"For in mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord God, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve me: there will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the firstfruits of your oblations, with all your holy things" (Ezekiel 20:40).
"And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all: Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God. And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever. Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore" (Ezekiel 37:21-28).
"Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. And it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali" (Hosea 2:14-16).
"Cry yet, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem" (Zech. 1:17).
"And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited" (Zech. 14:11).
"Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years" (Malachi 3:4).
The appeal of the covenant is a strong call, a call to love and obey the Lord. Moses now turned away from prediction and prophecy and focused upon the audience before him. As he faced them, he knew that they desperately needed to rededicate their lives to the Lord. They had a dire need to renew their covenant, their commitment to the Lord. With a strong sense of urgency burning within his heart, he challenged the people to love and obey the Lord.
The call to obey God is not unreasonable nor impossible. The commandments of God are not in some distant, inaccessible place. They are not up in heaven, still unrevealed and hidden in the heart of God. The commandments are not beyond the sea in a foreign land. No! The Word of God is near us. It has been revealed by God so that we can obey it.
God has demonstrated His love to us in a most wonderful way. He has not left us in the dark, groping, grasping, and stumbling about, seeking the answers to life on our own. No! God has revealed His Holy Word to us, telling us how to live life, how to find God, and how to have the assurance of living forever. The Word of God is near, very near, right at our fingertips.
All of a sudden, with passion burning in his soul, Moses called upon the people to make a decision between good and evil, and between life and death.
Moses spelled out exactly what he meant by the call of the covenant. The call was to love the Lord, to walk in His ways and to obey His commandments and laws.
The decision to love and obey the Lord will result in the most wonderful life. A person will live a full and fruitful life and be wonderfully blessed in the promised land.
CONCLUSION
The call to us is direct and forceful: we must love and obey the Lord. We who live today are without defense, totally without excuse. For God has not only given us the Written Word but also the Living Word. The Written Word is the Holy Bible, the Scriptures that have been written down for us to obey. The Living Word is the Lord Jesus Christ, the greatest witness to the truth that could ever be conceived by the mind of man. Yes, God did a marvelous thing in giving us the Written Word of God. But God did a far more marvelous thing by giving us the Living Word of God. Jesus Christ actually lived out the Written Word of God. He obeyed every commandment in the Holy Scripture, and by obeying, showed us how to obey God. By living upon this earth, Jesus Christ showed us how to live life. But not only this: being the Perfect Man—obeying all of the commandments of God and being sinless—He became the Ideal Man. As the Ideal Man, He was able to bear all our sins and pay the penalty of our condemnation. He was able to take the judgment that was due us—take it and bear it for us.
As the Living Word of God, Jesus Christ is a far greater gift from God than even the Written Word of God. Because of living in this day and time, we are of all people without excuse. If a people were ever confronted with a decision that desperately needed to be made, it is we who live today. We must make the decision to love and obey the Lord.
I have written a number of letters to our prison pen pals this past weekend, and it appears that the Lord led me to write on: "why we keep returning to the prison yard over and over again?" Actually, I was sharing more about myself and my 15 year merry-go-round experience with the California Department of Corrections. Four different terms...all separated by a little time on the street...then back to prison again.
In disclosing this experience (which I believe is shared by many), I had to confess my unwillingness to both consider and pay the cost of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. What I have come to find out is this: since we ( I ) am a purchased possession of God in Christ (having been redeemed by the ransom price paid by God’s only Son)---then God wants everything I am and everything that I have. In other words, it is being revealed to me in His Word that my life is no longer my own--it is His Life in me, as I live my life in Him. I think that is what the Apostle Paul was saying in Galatians 2:20..." I am crucified with Christ..." (Please look it up).
In times past I found myself only surrendering those things to God that I found convenient; that way I could continue "doing my thing." On one hand I professed faith in Jesus; other other hand I was very much in denial--deluded in deception that I was "walking worthy of the vocation for which I was called."
Something is amiss. Are your shoulders burdened down with the weight of past failures? Have you tried and tried and tried to "stay clean and stay out"; and has all your trying only resulted in continued defeat. Something is wrong here. What was wrong with me...WAS ME! Yes, I was the PROBLEM! Try as I may, I eventually found out the PROBLEM did not have the POWER to fix the PROBLEM. I never had the power to stop taking drugs, robbing drug stores and keep myself from returning to prison over and over again.
All my well laid plans upon parole fell by the wayside again and again and again. Hopeless and helpless I found myself once again defeated, with only another term and another yard to look forward too.
The message of this Sword n Spirit is unavoidable. God wants it all. His Son paid it all, for all of us---will you give your all to Him now?
He calls each of us to repentance continually. His forgiveness and restoration is a wonderous labor of His grace, for He sent His Son "that we might have life and have it more abundantly." There is not much abundance sitting in a 19th century prison cell in Old Folsom Prison, but the Light of God’s Son (even in that situation) can bring the presence, the power and the peace of God into a soul that is crying out wholeheartedly unto the Lord.
Will you cry out, and call out to Him now? As with the Nation of Israel, whose shoulders were weighted down, restoration and forgiveness was promised...if they would just turn to the Lord in repentance and obedience. "Whosoever shall call upon the Lord, shall be saved." And, "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."
Min. Johnathan Hester
