[Where Does God Want You To Live?]
Slide Graphic – House with for sale sign in front
What is your favorite book of the Bible? John? Acts? Genesis? I am the only person I know who’s favorite book is Deuteronomy, and today I’m going to tell you why.
When I was growing up, my father was in the military. We moved every 2-3 years. Panama, Korea, Costa Rica, Japan. Those of you who played in the football game last week can vouch for the fact that I know very little about American sports.
Throughout my childhood, I kept imagining what it would be like to live in one place, to put down roots. I promised myself that one day I would own a house on a big lot where I could do whatever I wanted – build a workshop, keep big dogs, put in a garden, …
When I reached a point where that might be possible, I began to spend more and more time dreaming about a place of my own. Since this was so important to me, and I truly believe that through God all things are possible, I began to look through the Bible to see when God gave people land. Who did he give it to? For what purpose? What do I need to do to position myself to be in the same position as those people, so God would give me my land?
I looked up “Land” in a concordance, and found that the word is used 1708 times in the Bible. Of course, the big “land-grant” was when God gave the “Promised Land” to the Israelites. The story is retold in several places, but one such retelling, heavy on references to “land” occurs in Deuteronomy chapter 11.
So I began to dig into this chapter to see how I could get the land that I wanted so badly. I was looking for land, but instead God showed me where he wanted me to live.
[Remember!]
Slide Graphic – Rodin’s “Thinker”
Slide Text – Deuteronomy 11:1-2
1 Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always.
2 Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the LORD your God: his majesty, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm;
(Deuteronomy 11:1-2)
You will be held responsible for what you have seen God do.
Let’s start at the beginning of Chapter 11. There are 17 references to “land” in this chapter alone, where God talks about the land he is about to give the Israelites.
The first verse is a command to love God and keep his commandments. … Check, got it. What about the land?
In the second verse God is holding the Israelites personally responsible for what they have seen God do. The King James translation reads more like “I don’t speak to children”. Of course, God does speak to children, but in this case he is saying that the following verses apply only to the adults.
This is pretty interesting, because he is about to say that he will not hold the children responsible for the decision that is about to be made. Why not?
[The “Age of Accountability”]
Slide Graphic – child at play
Slide Text - And the little ones that you said would be taken captive, your children who do not yet know good from bad-they will enter the land. I will give it to them and they will take possession of it (Deuteronomy 1:39)
Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the “knowledge of Good and Evil” and were banished from God’s presence until a sacrifice could be made
This is the only other verse in the Bible with that phrase – “the knowledge of good and evil”. Just after Israel has left Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, received the commandments, etc., God leads them directly to Canaan – the “promised land”. They sent in 12 spies to scout the land. Ten came back and said it would be too difficult, that they and their children would be taken as slaves again. Only Joshua and Caleb voted to trust god and go in. Because of their lack of faith, God banished them to wander in the desert for 40 years until all the adults who had chosen not to obey God had died. Only Joshua, Caleb, and the children were allowed to enter the promised land. While literally true, this is also a great metaphor for salvation.
From these verses we imply that children who are too young to understand the difference between right and wrong and that there is a God who requires them to choose right, these children will not be punished for choosing wrongly. If a small child dies, we believe that the child will go to heaven even if they have not accepted Christ as their savior. Later, as the child grows into an understanding of good and evil, they are held accountable for choosing good.
[Remember What God Has Done]
Slide text –
3 the signs he performed and the things he did in the heart of Egypt, both to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his whole country; 4 what he did to the Egyptian army, to its horses and chariots, how he overwhelmed them with the waters of the Red Sea as they were pursuing you, and how the LORD brought lasting ruin on them. 5 It was not your children who saw what he did for you in the desert until you arrived at this place, 6 and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth opened its mouth right in the middle of all Israel and swallowed them up with their households, their tents and every living thing that belonged to them. 7 But it was your own eyes that saw all these great things the LORD has done. (Deuteronomy 11:3-7)
The next few verses in Deuteronomy stress over and over again that the Israelites have seen evidence of God’s power, protection and providence.
I have to admit that I have always had a lot of sympathy for the Israelites here. When they were in the desert, they were fed by God each day with Manna from heaven. They were instructed to gather just enough for the day, and not to store up more than they needed. I have to say that I would be very tempted to gather up a week or so worth of food, to last me until I could get out of the dessert, just in case God didn’t come through tomorrow. This attitude is nothing less than a lack of faith, and was the same failure for which the Israelites were judged so harshly.
Notice that the emphasis is not on what man has done – but on what God has done. You’ll learn more by looking at the history of what God has done than the history of what men have done
Fine, fine, fine … but what about the land?
[The Promised Land]
Slide graphic – pictures of streams and flowered fields in Israel
Slide Text – 8 Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 9 and so that you may live long in the land that the LORD swore to your forefathers to give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. (Deuteronomy 11:8-9)
Here it is finally – the LAND.
What is it with “milk and honey”? Is that supposed to be literal? Streams of milk and honey flowing through the dirt?
Milk and honey symbolize all the good things – a fertile place. This is long before people started keeping domesticated bees in hives. These are wild bees. What do bees need to make honey? Lots of water and lots of flowers. To make one pound of honey, a bee must visit 2 million flowers. A land flowing with honey would be covered in flowers as well.
Honey is an interesting subject in the Jewish religion, because it really should not be Kosher to eat. Insects are unclean (you aren’t supposed to eat them). Honey should be unclean because it comes from unclean insects. For thousands of years, Jewish rabbis have declared honey to be kosher, because honey is pollen that the bees just transported from the flower to the comb. However, in the 20th century, scientists discovered that bees actually process the nectar in their mouths, where enzymes break down the polysaccharides into the monosaccharides fructose and glucose. Basically, honey is bee backwash. This caused a great controversy in the orthodox Jewish community, but it was finally decided that an exception to kosher law must be granted due to verses like this, where God obviously approves of honey as a good thing.
Honey is considered medicinal, because it absorbs water and prevents bacterial growth. It was used to embalm Alexander the great. Jars of honey buried in Egyptian tombs 5000 years ago are perfectly edible today.
[A Different Kind of Place]
Slide graphic – A foot powered Shaduf on the Nile, picture of green-hilly Israel from above, making it clear that it would be difficult to carry water up hill to crops.
Slide Text – 10 The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden.
11 But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. 12 It is a land the LORD your God cares for; the eyes of the LORD your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end. (Deuteronomy 11:10-12)
This place God has picked out is a far superior land to Egypt
Egypt – It was up to you to bring the water to your crops (see picture of a shaduf)
Canaan – it’s up to God to care for your crops – the land is so rich that it does not have to be artificially irrigated
It is up to God will provide – this is a place where you will not be able to provide for yourself. In fact, the terrain is such (mountainous) that you cannot get water to the land yourself – you have no choice but to depend on God.
“Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you” Mathew 6:33
[Your Job – God’s Job]
Slide graphic – Billboards “I promise”, “Love, God”
Slide Text – 13 So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today-to love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul-
14 then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and oil. 15 I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied. (Deuteronomy 11:13-15)
Autumn rains – soften ground – make farming easy
Spring rains – cause crops to grow
So what does Deuteronomy tell me I need to do to get this land?
Should I really even be worried about getting land, or about obeying God? What is God saying about my priorities?
“you worry about obeying me, and I’ll worry about providing a nice place for you to live”. Remember, God started off this chapter with a lengthy reminder of how he has ALWAYS been faithful to protect and to provide. He points out that the Israelites have seen this many times and have no excuse for not having faith.
[Idol Worship]
Slide Graphic – Elija under tree in Kerith Ravine (Rembrandt etching)
Slide Text – 16 Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. 17 Then the LORD’s anger will burn against you, and he will shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the LORD is giving you. (Deuteronomy 11:16-17)
This actually happened:
Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, "As the LORD , the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.“ 1 Kings 17:1
Does this apply to us? Are you tempted to bow down before statues? What is an idol? Anything that is a higher priority for you than your relationship with God, growing more spiritually mature, serving God’s will.
Can TV be an idol? If you decide to put off doing what God want’s you to do, going where God wants you to go just so you can watch your favorite TV show, then yes, you have placed TV before God, and it is an idol to you. You prefer it to God. That doesn’t mean all TV is evil – it just means that you should never leave yourself in a situation where you prefer TV to God. Sports can be the same way. Your boyfriend/girlfriend can be an idol if they prevent you from doing what God wants you to do, or being who God wants you to be.
God says “put me first”
[Focusing on God’s Word]
Slide Graphic – pictures of Jewish man in traditional dress, including “phylacteries” (boxes strapped to forehead and arm with leather bands) and mesusah on doorways.
Slide Text – 18 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 20 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, 21 so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the LORD swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth. (Deuteronomy 11:18-21)
Was this intended to be interpreted literally? Orthodox Jews believed so.
In the New Testament (Matthew 23:5), Christ accused the pharisees and sadducees af being pompous and arrogant in the discharge of their religious and social duties: "For they make their phylacteries broad and enlarge their fringes." The Jews called these “phylacteries”, or “tephillin” ("prayers“). They consist of two small square cases of leather, one of which is worn on the forehead, the other on the upper left arm. The case for the forehead holds four distinct compartments, that for the arm only one. They contain narrow strips of parchment on which are copied passages from the Pentateuch. We believe today that the true meaning of this verse is to keep God’s word in your mind and actions.
“when you lie down and when you get up” – they also believe you have to say these exact words just before you go to bed and immediately after you get up.
They also believe they needed to identify their homes as Jewish households by placing this same scripture verse in a “mesusah” on the doorway of their house. Not just anywhere, but on the “post” side where the hinges attach and the door swings.
2 Timothy 1:8: “Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of the Lord, nor of me his prisoner.”
[God Will Protect You in This Place]
Slide Graphic – Map of Israel
Slide Text - 22 If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow-to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways and to hold fast to him- 23 then the LORD will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you. 24 Every place where you set your foot will be yours: Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the western sea. 25 No man will be able to stand against you. The LORD your God, as he promised you, will put the terror and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go. (Deuteronomy 11:22-25)
Now this is the kind of land I was looking for! Holy ground. But the Bible isn’t actually saying that the ground itself is holy – it’s saying that our lives must be holy. If our lives are characterized by a love of God and obedience to his commands, then God will defend us, wherever we happen to live. If we are where God wants us to be (attitude-wise, no geographic-wise), then we are living on holy ground.
[A Blessing and a Curse]
Slide Graphic – “Success” and “Regret” posters from www.despair.com
Slide Text - 26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse-
27 the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today;
28 the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God and turn from the way that I command you today (Deuteronomy 11:26-28)
In Genesis, God set Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden with two trees. We (mankind) were told that one was life and the other was death. The choice of which to eat from was ours.
The Tree of Life represented God’s plan for us – eternal life in his presence. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil represented us deciding for ourselves what is best for our lives – what is good for us and was is bad for us. The two trees represent the choice to follow God’s plan for our lives or decide our own path. We chose our own path, and separated ourselves from God.
This passage in Deuteronomy is talking about that choice, which is still before us today. Am I – Are you going to live a life in obedience to God, trusting that His plan for us will lead us to the best places, or do we mistrust God, and will we decide to make our choices based on our own plans?
Jesus died on the cross to take our punishment for mankind’s choice to walk away from God. His death removed the guilt of that choice, but we stand today back in front of those same two trees. Jesus restored the choice to you. What choice will you make? Which path will you walk?
[So What did I Learn About Land]
Slide Text –
• The Bible does have all the answers. It is a great place to look for the answers to any questions I have. As relevant today as when it was written.
• I shouldn’t be worried about the land. God will provide me what I need. My job is to get to know God – to love and obey Him.
• I will be held accountable for my level of trust – the faith which drives my decisions because God has shown himself to be faithful to me in the past.
• God doesn’t necessarily want me to be self-sufficient. He wants me to live in a place where I am dependant on and focused on him.
• The place God wants me to live is far more beautiful than any place I could build by my own hands.
