Living by God's Law: Moses' Instructions

Got it running? OK. This is, what day it is? April 16th. And I'm going to be using Deuteronomy chapter 31, verses 9, beginning with verse 9. Beginning with chapter 31, Moses begins to sort of end out the discussion as to what has gone on before. He's talked to them about all the law that he's given between chapter 10 and chapter 30. So that he's now moving to talk about what they should do when they enter the land of promise. And he's talking about the transition that's going to be made where he's going to be stepping back and Joshua will be assuming responsibility for it. In verse 9 of this chapter, God's giving instructions to Moses as to what people are to do. All chapter 10 through 20, chapter 10 through 30, was really the discussion about the law, the Old Testament law. It's kind of a re-giving of what took place in Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy. It's Moses' sort of sermon about the law. Now you have to realize, when you read the Bible like this, you start at Genesis and you begin to read through it. And when you come to Deuteronomy, you think, well, this is already in the Bible. But we don't even know when those chapters and books were written. They may not have had the story in Exodus written down at this time. We know that they had the Ten Commandments because they were written by God. But we don't know if there was any other written material for them. So here you have a group of people who God has brought up out of Egypt, and now he's placing them in the land of promise, Canaan. And they are not very literate, and they don't have a book to read about what God is like. All that story is just the stories that people have passed on from one to another. So there's not any way they have this available to them all the time. How do you teach the people to live the way God wants them to live, when you don't have any written material for them to read, when you don't have any way by which they could read it, even if it was written to them, because they're not very literate at this stage in their history. So Moses has already said to them when they entered the land of promise, it's very critical that you do everything that God has told you to do. So you can see the dilemma that they're in. So verse 9 starts, So Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests and the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of covenant of the Lord and to all the elders of Israel. Now when it says this law, we don't have any indication exactly what that is. It could have been chapters 10 through 30 of the book of Deuteronomy, or it could have been some of the earlier instructions that God had given to Moses. We don't know exactly what he meant by that. But it's evident from what he's saying that it's the instructions God gave them about how to live. Now the law is not doctrine. It is practical instructions about how to live. The Bible is far more concerned with our behavior than it is simply our expertise and knowledge. For the words of God from the very beginning are intended to impact behavior. So you're to have no other gods before me is to mean you should not worship idols. You should not be drawn into these other ways of living. And all the Ten Commandments and all the instructions about what they were to eat, how were they to farm, all the things they were faced with, were practical everyday directions about their lifestyle. And the point of this was God is special and different. We say holy means he was given to be different than anyone else, dedicated for a specific use. You may have, Nancy, at your house, dishes that you eat out of every day. And you may also have dishes that if you had a fancy meal, Easter, Christmas, or even people come over to your house, those are the dishes you would use, those special dishes. They're set apart for special occasions. That's what the word holy means in the Bible. It means people who are set apart for specific concrete things, not everyday things, but for specific concrete things, so that they were to live according to the purpose of God. Now, the holiness of the people of Israel has to do with the things that are found in the law. What you eat, the way you dress, the way you farm, the way you manage your money, the way you treat the people around you, this is the definition of holiness as found in the Scriptures. So, Moses has just told them, when they go into the land of promise, they're to live in obedience to God and do everything that they can. They're not to compromise at all. If they did, the curses would fall on them. If they were obedient to the things God asked them to do, blessings would come to them. Now, Moses now writes down the law. So now there's a written record of what God wants, a test. There's no question about it because it's written down. We know what God wants them to do. This law is given to the priests and the sons of Levi. The priests are the people who would take care of all the sacrifices. The sons of Levi are the people who would take care of the temple itself and would be in charge of keeping things in order in that way. So, the priests who do the functions of the sacrifices and the Levis who assist them, but also do the work of the temple, both of those religious groups now receive the law. It's to be carried in the ark of the covenant of the Lord and to all the elders of Israel. So, Moses wrote down this law, gave it to the priests, the sons of the Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord and to all the elders of Israel. Now, the elders of Israel would be sort of like what we would call the government of our country. It had to do with making sure that they didn't have roads and they didn't have the things we talk about with government, but making sure that the laws were kept, making sure that there were courts for people to go to when they had some kind of conflict. All this is laid out in the law and the elders have a part in that. So, even the elders that govern in the sense the everyday activities, not the religious or spiritual dimension of it, they are given the law. So, the law is now placed in the ark of the covenant. So, it has a special home for its place. Everybody knows where it is. It is available to everybody. It's available because it's written down, so people who read can read it. It's available because it's placed in the ark of the covenant. It's available because there are people who know it and keep track of it. The sad thing about Israel's history was as time went on, they became so used to all this that they actually lost this writing of Moses. Can you imagine how valuable a scroll that Moses actually wrote would be worth today? It's astronomical that people would see that. We don't have very good copies of the New Testament that are written. We don't have very recent ones. In fact, we have older copies of the Old Testament written in Hebrew than we do the New Testament written in Greek. But still, even though they're older, they're far, far away from Moses writing those things down. But what Moses makes sure of and what God is trying to say is, I want you to have instructions as how to live. There should be no question as to what you're to do. So I've told it to Moses. He's writing it down. It will be left under the guardianship of the leaders of your country, both the spiritual leaders and those who lead in the ordinary everyday affairs of life. The principle here is, God always makes clear to us what he expects from us. There are a lot of things about doctrine and theology that are confusing and sometimes they're not very clear, but God never leaves a question about how he wants us to live. There may be circumstances in which we don't want to do the things he wants us to in those settings, but nonetheless it's clear. God has not made this difficult for us, and he's made it clear and plain and given to us so that we have it. Yes? The Ark of the Covenant. Now, you know, whenever they touched that before they died, the Ark of the Covenant, they had the presence of God there. Was God no longer present in the Ark of the Covenant? Would he be in the temple or in the Holy of Holies or something until they used the Ark of the Covenant? Well, the temple hadn't been built yet, and the tent that they had to keep it in. But there were rules. They could touch it. They could carry it. They'd take long poles and put it through the circles and carry it like that, but they were not to touch it with their hands when they were carrying it. And so how did they get into the Ark to use that? It's open. And the high priest can get into it. The high priest has to go in there regularly in the Holy of Holies to minister, and he can access it that way. Yeah. Verse 10, And Moses commanded them at the end of every seven years in the year of canceling debts during the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place he chooses, he will choose, you shall read this law before them in their hearing. Now, he's provided a means whereby the law would be a regular part of their lifestyle so they would know what was going on. The Feast of the Passover, or excuse me, the Feast of the, what do they call it here, Feast of Tabernacles, it has several names. It's called the Feast of Ingathering because it didn't come in a regular like our months do, but it came in certain times so that there would be times whenever it was always harvest time. It would come in like the latter part of September or the latter part of October. So the Feast of Tabernacles was the time when the fall harvest came and people were to come to Jerusalem. There were three festivals that the Jews were required to attend. They were to make a trip all the way to Jerusalem for those. Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of Ingathering was one of those that they were required to keep. It was sometimes called the Feast of Booths or the Feast of Tabernacles. That sounds a lot. When you think of a tabernacle, you think of something big and great. Did that strike you that way? The tabernacles, when they say the tabernacles, it just means a covering. And what they would do is build a temporary place to stay out of sticks and they would have a covering over it, but it was temporary. They only lived in it a short period of time for this week that they were there. So when you think of a tabernacle, you think of some huge gigantic thing, but it's more like a homemade tent that they were staying in. Yeah? In Jerusalem, they didn't call apartments buildings. In this country, all the balconies are outside. In Israel, one goes here and one here and one here and one here. They say during the Feast of Tabernacles, they have to be able to see the stars. They can't have nothing over there. So even in apartment buildings, they still do this. It's interesting. Yeah, it is. People were to go, leave their homes, travel to Jerusalem. It's required that they do it. And during the festival, there would be one day in which the leader would read from the Torah. And then during the middle of the week, they would read through the Book of Ecclesiastes. The festivals and celebrations would take place during that week. Everybody was supposed to go. I mean, I'm sure that everybody didn't go. Like anything else, people don't always be obedient. But this was required of all the people to attend this festival. Now, his instruction here is that every seven years, this law is to be read, like chapters 10 through 30, so that people would gather around at the tabernacle or temple or wherever it was at whatever period of time, and someone would read from the beginning to the end the law. What's important for us to understand about this is a person cannot be faithful to God if you do not know what he expects you to do. You can't do a job unless you know what the job requires. You can't live by the rules of a country unless you know what the rules and the laws are. So God not only gave this to Moses, and in this section it was read to them, and they were to affirm that they would keep it, a vow to keep the promise, to promise to keep all the commandments that God had given them. So now he's making a provision for this. Every seven years, when the seventh year came, and they were to forgive the debts, what is it you say, when there are canceled debts during the feast of the Passover, part of that feast on the seventh year was the entire law of Moses written, would be read out loud to the people. Again, the reason, of course, is because of the absence of the ability to read for so many people. But even though people can't read, they can understand the language that their country speaks. So when they would gather around, and the priest would read the law from beginning to end, you imagine how difficult that would be to hear. It's hard for us to even read it because it has so much duplication in it. But every seven years they were to read it. The importance he's saying is, I don't want you to ever forget what I've asked you to do. You know, you can learn a job. You can learn how to do things. But as you go along through it, whatever it is, you learn to take shortcuts. You say, well, I don't have to go through step one, two, three, four, five, like I did in the beginning. I can go to skip three, and I can skip six, and I can still get the job done. It's true also when you take a job at a business, and they tell you what you're supposed to do, and they tell you to check this and this and this. I had a job one time with a fast food company, and at the end of the day, they had certain procedures you had to go through to check all the registers and do all these things. Some of them, you know, you could kind of, if you got experience, you could kind of go over them. You know, you didn't have to do them. And you begin to sort of lose consistency. It's true for people following the laws of God. You get to where you say, okay, I understand all this. It's not necessary for me to do it. So what he has is a requirement that every seven years, every Jewish person, yes, would listen to the law read. Why not five years? Eight years? I mean, how significant is that seven times? I don't know that it has any. Oh, okay. Maybe that is the reason. Well, I don't know that there is any. The year of Jubilee was seven times seven, and then you had that 50th year. It's just a plan that God set apart for them. I don't know. Of course, there's seven days in a week, so there may be a lot of symbolism in it, but the Bible doesn't really spell out that. So the people of Israel gathered around and they listened to the law. And when you listen to the law, you check yourself against what you're doing and what the law says. It's the same thing that happens every year. Cliff, you have guys that you work with in track, and you shot put. I don't know what else you do with them. And during the time they learn all this, then you have some time when they're not doing it. Then the next year, it's easy for them to forget fundamentals. One of the famous football coaches used to start his Green Bay Packer teams every year. He'd get them all in the room and hold up and say, this is a football. You start at the very beginning. We don't want you to forget any of this, because when you forget it, then it doesn't work exactly right. What God was making sure is that every year they would read this. Now, this is why reading the Bible is so important to you. I remember one time we were going to do a Bible study here on the book of James. And so I was talking to a lady about this study, and she said, oh, I don't need to come to that. I read that book. The importance of it is that you read something, and what God draws out of it are the things at that moment that you really need. Later on in your life, when you read it again, He draws out new things to be able to talk to you about. Someone said it was like layers of things. Like you take an onion and you peel a layer off, and there's another one under it and another one under it. So that there are layers of understanding of the Scripture, and you never get tired of seeing the value to it. Now, maybe the first time you read it, you get a whole lot more than you do the second, third, or fourth. But the second, third, or fourth, if they're not more, they're deeper, more meaningful, more insightful as you read. That's why it's critical that every follower of Christ read the Bible. You read the Bible each day, and you read the Bible to listen to God saying to you, here's what I want to correct about your life. Here's what I want you to do that you haven't been doing. Here's what I want you to stop doing. Here's what I want you to become. Here's the task I have for you. Repeated reading of the Scripture allows us to continually measure ourselves against the measuring stick of God. And God's showing us here that learning the Scriptures, hearing it over and over again, are critical for the people of God to stay focused on what they're supposed to be doing. Now, the next part of this, he says, in verse 12, Assemble the people, men, women, and children, and the aliens living in your country, so they can listen and learn to fear the Lord your God, and follow carefully all the words of the law. Now, get this. He's reading the law from the minimum of chapter 10 in Deuteronomy to chapter 30, and all the men are there, all the women are there, and all the children are there. Can you imagine a church trying to get the children to come to church and hear the Bible read for an hour every Sunday? We say, well, they can't pick that up. We say, well, they're going to get bored. God required men, women, and children to come and listen. It's really important for children to be around adults when they're learning about God. They don't always learn the things that they are just on their level, but they learn things that are far beyond their age level when they come and hear the Bible preached and taught. We don't have children's church here, and we don't have youth church here, and this passage is one of the reasons why I don't like to do that, because the Word of God is not limited to adults, and sometimes when you get into children's church and youth church, it turns into more fun and games rather than the Scripture itself being read and presented. People say, well, the kids get bored. Well, they can learn how to not be that way. They can sit and listen. God required it of the people of Israel. We can do it for ourselves, for our own children. What's most important is they begin at the earliest age hearing the truths and demands of God. You cannot begin too early teaching children what's the difference between what's right and what's wrong. And God wanted them from their earliest days to be hearing the same message that their parents were hearing. Now, we don't realize this sometimes, but when children are in your house, and they're very young, and they're listening to their mother and dad talk to each other, they're learning how to be married. That's what they're learning. When I talk to couples about marriage, I say, you know, you grew up in a home where you were taught the role of a husband and the role of a wife. And when you get ready to get married, each of you have your own ideas about what a husband or wife should be. And you get that from being around your family when your mother does women's things and motherly things and wifely things, and when your father does husbandly things and husbandly lifestyle. You see what they do. And it begins to be impressed in your mind from the time you're four or five years old, or even younger, so that by the time you get to be a teenager, you already know what a husband or a wife should be like. What God is telling us here is the very same thing is true about the religious life of a child. They should be in places where you hear the scripture read and preached, even though they don't get all of it. What do they get? They get the fact that the adults there in their life are listening to these words as if they are special treasures. And they learn that the Bible is very important to them. And they get some of the stuff in it. A little bit of the time as they grow up, it begins to make more and more sense to them. But God's method of religious education is for men, women, and children to all hear the Word of God clearly, plainly read, and proclaimed. That's why it's important for families to read the Bible together. They don't get all of it. And I don't necessarily think it's necessary to read the King James, because it's a little difficult. But you can get a modern language Bible and read it and children can understand most of the words. A lot of times in churches, people say, well, the kids won't get this. So we put them in another place where they have things they can do that are fun. And then they take them to a movie that is R-rated. Like they could get that. They do get those things when you watch them on TV. And we don't want to dumb down the Christian faith so that it appears to be too simple to them. We want them to hear the Word of God. And this is a biblical command. You are to read the Scriptures, men, women, children, and even people in your country who do not belong to the Jewish faith. That's what the alien are. They are to hear it too. They should know what the rules of your life are. And you're following them, and they'll know why you're following them. It's a way by which their witness is given. So God is making sure not only that it's regularly heard, but men, women, and children, and aliens everywhere are listening to God's Word. Why are they doing this? They're to listen and to learn to fear the Lord your God. And follow carefully all the words of this law. The Bible is not back away from the idea that we are to fear God because of the great power God has and because He has definite things He expects us to do. The Bible thinks that the very power of God makes Him fearsome. I mean, somebody can do anything in the world He wants to do. You want to be on His good side. The Bible doesn't seem to be nervous or worried about the fact that God brings punishment and power in the lives of people that disobey Him. That there are consequences and judgment to face. It is a very dangerous thing to not be afraid of something powerful. I was talking to Chris Traylor this week, and he is a lineman. And I was asking him about this. And he said, Well, you learn what you're supposed to do and you just follow those principles very carefully. And if somebody doesn't do exactly the right things, you stop and immediately talk to them. And if they're doing something, he said, the biggest problem is shortcuts. There are certain procedures you're to go through to do things. And if somebody has been doing it a long time, they have a tendency to miss one of those steps and take a shortcut. And if you're up there working with them and they do that, you are supposed to say, I am not comfortable with this. And that stops everything. You go back and you start over. Because there is great danger that you would be killed. Only a fool is not afraid of the kind of power that can kill you. And God's power can do that. A lot of things I see in people's lives that are so disastrous are simply the result of their failure to be obedient to God. They may know what the Bible says, but they do what they want to do. They have no fear of God. They think of God as a very old grandfather who does nothing but just loves his kids no matter what they do. Loves his grandkids no matter what they do. This is so far from the picture of God in the Bible. Listen to the law that's read. For in the law, it tells you not only what you are supposed to do, but it tells you the consequences if you don't do it. And the more you learn what you should do and the consequences, it allows you to avoid the dangers that can destroy you, destroy your family, destroy your marriage. When you look and read the story of the Scriptures, and you see that one man who stole something he shouldn't steal caused the death of his entire family, you learn that that man should have been afraid of God. How can I simply ignore what God says as if he didn't exist? For death is one of the consequences of ignoring God. It's one reason people have so much difficulty with the idea of hell and judgment in the last days. All their life they think of God as just a very benevolent old guy who's nice and kind and smiles and is good to you all the time no matter what. I want you to read the law, God says, so that you will be afraid of God. You will fear Him. So listen and learn to fear the Lord your God and then that will result and follow carefully all the words of this law. And verse 13 is a strong one. Their children, who do not know this law, must hear it and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess. The critical thing for the next generation is to learn the law and learn to be afraid to violate those basic principles that God sets out for us. For they are the difference between Israel succeeding or failing. It's the difference between the judgment of God falling on the people of Israel or the blessings of God falling on the people of Israel. It's still true today. Living in obedience to what God tells us assures us that He's going to be with us and our future is guaranteed to be successful and good in His terms. Failing to do that means that God's judgment will come. And in this world His protection will not be there. We want you from the days your children are growing up to hear about God and what He demands and the consequences of ignoring Him so that from their earliest days they will say it is very important for me to live in obedience to God. This is God's plan for the perpetuation of His faith. We're having great difficulty I think in Christian churches everywhere seeing our young people grow up in church and when they get to be adults drifting away from God. I think it's a failure right here for what's causing this. We always have kids when they get to be youth age they don't want to come to church they want to take care of the children back in the back. And when we don't let them do that they get mad and their parents get mad. But there's an important reason for it. They need to be learning these things so that they're afraid not to obey God. They understand that there are consequences for ignoring God. And if we don't pass that on to them then they will ignore Him and the consequences will be disastrous for them. Would you bow your heads for just a moment? I want to challenge you if you're not a regular reader of the scriptures that you make a promise to God that you're going to read. It's a way by which you keep reminding yourself of what God expects. What about this issue of fear? Do you find yourself afraid to disobey God? To disobey the scriptures? Realizing that there are consequences doesn't mean God loves us. In fact, it means He does love us. Father, we've heard that your law is to be a permanent part of our life. It's to be regularly read regularly proclaimed. To be regularly read and proclaimed in front of men, women, children so that all of us would learn to fear you and to be concerned to obey you and that we might know what you require of us. We ask that you would make that the forefront of every Sunday school class we have every service that we have that your message might be clearly announced and consequences made clear. In the name of Christ we ask this. Amen. I have a question.