God's Provision and Our Responsibility

Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 25. Deuteronomy chapter 25. I want to read the fourth verse of that passage. Then I want to read chapter 24, verse 19 through 22. I want to read both of those sections. The Bible. It's the same one I've been reading out of all the time. 25, verse 4, 24, 19 through 22. Why do you think it's a different one? It's the only one I've got. I wouldn't want to touch that with a 10 foot pole. I won't go there at all. The verse 4 sounds like it might be an odd verse in the middle of what he's talking about. Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain. It sounds like kind of an odd law to give. But remember, the laws that are given here are intended to describe how God sees things and what he does. If you live by these laws, you're going to act like God. Now if you look up above at chapter 24, well let me start with this verse 4. What do you think is the basic principle of this verse? What is the principle that you would say is true about that? That's a verse in the New Testament. Let's go back with the other side of it. But if you do work, you do eat. Now in chapter 24, verse 19, when you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless, and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless, and the widow. When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the alien, the father, and the widow. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and that's why I command you to do this. Now what is the principle found in that long passage, that long paragraph? We should be generous. When you're harvesting, leave a sheaf that's there. Leave olives on the tree. So that, what is the purpose for that? If they do what? If they go out and work, gather the grain, gather the olives, then they're fed. So here God has a great concern for people who don't have land, the orphans, the aliens, the widows, for people that are not able to provide for themselves. He's made a provision for them. And when he talks about this, he says the sheaf that is in the field is no longer yours if you've left it. It belongs to these who cannot help themselves. If they go work, they will have food that they need. He says to them, this responsibility is yours. Make sure you don't get every single piece of grain out of the field, for that belongs to the alien, the widows, the orphans, the people that don't have anything. His rule is, if you will do what I tell you to do, then there will be plenty for the people to receive it. They have to work to get it. Now what does this tell us about God? Yeah. Yeah. And here especially, what group of people? The helpless. The people are not fortunate to have the things that they might need. God makes a promise to them. Now the covenant that God made with Israel was this. If you will do everything I tell you to do, I will guide all your decisions so you make the right decisions. If you will do what I tell you to do, I promise to provide all of your needs. If you do what I tell you to do, I promise to protect you. If you do what I tell you to do, I promise that in the end your life will be victorious and successful. That's the promise that He makes. These promises that God makes are covenant promises. He does make them for the landowner. So I give you land, you raise the crop, you have the food. But He doesn't forget the person who can't help themselves, who is weak, who is vulnerable, who is not able to be able to provide for themselves. He makes sure that they still receive the covenant promise in a different way. Now we move to the section here where He is talking about an ox. The ox has no opportunity because he is captured by the owner, not able to break out and go out and find his own grain wherever he is. But God makes a law to protect the ox so that the ox will be able to do the same thing that people have. I will provide the grain for you and I do not allow you, the owner, to restrict the ox from eating some of what he has made or earned. The covenant promise God makes to His people, that is the people of God who have said, I will give myself in obedience to you. Now all the animals of the world obey God. You don't have to worry about an animal getting up one day and saying, I'm no longer going to be an ox, I'm going to be a bird. They are determined to live within the structure God gives them. God says as an example to us, look at what I do to the people in nature. Look at what I do for the ox. I provide for them. It gives us a picture of God's care for the people who can't help themselves, for animals, for all of His creation. In the New Testament when Jesus is talking about this concern that people have for the things of life, He uses the natural order to help us move away from anxiety and worry. He's helping us understand that the promise He's made to His covenant people is dependable. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. You see in the Old Testament law, now He's given this so that the people who don't have anything don't have to worry, some grain is going to be left. The ox doesn't have to worry because there's grain going to be available to him. Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store in barns and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? He draws a parallel and He might do this with the ox in the Old Testament. If I make sure that there is grain for you to eat when you do your job, you work, will I not do so for you? There's a powerful assurance of us that God is going to take care of us whatever our need are. Who are you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow? They do not labor or spin, yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all of his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that's how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? What He's addressing is for people who are absolutely unable to help themselves. For an ox that is absolutely unable to provide for its own food, He has said, I will take care of you. Now for those of us who are a notch above the ox, a notch above the person who can't provide anything for themselves, there is even more opportunity for us to have hope, but we are the ones that worry. So do not worry saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear? For the pagans run after all these things. This is a common need of everybody. People who have not surrendered their lives to Christ are looking for the same things, but we're different. We have the promise that He's the rock on which we can build our life. We have the promise that He's going to provide for our needs. What shall we... But seek first the kingdom, first His kingdom, and His righteousness, and by that He means seek first the rule of God over your life. What do you want me to do? I'm going to do that, and I'm going to trust you for all the things that the pagans are worried about. Why are the pagans worried about clothes and food and the house? Because they do not have the promise of God. I will take care of you. The great witness you have around you, John, is to the people who see your circumstance to look at you and say, if I was in John's place, how would I feel? What would I be thinking? And if we think like they do, we reflect the character that says, I don't have anything to depend on. Any difficulties that we're facing in our lives, when we act anxious and worried and desperate, we say to all the world around us, it's up to me. I have to solve my own problems. I've got to be sure that I make the right choices. I've got to be sure that I provide for myself. I've got to be sure that I protect myself because there's nobody out there that's going to do it for me. And I have to worry, is my life going to be worth nothing when I'm over? That's what the pagans are all out there worried about. But for us, you see, we don't have that concern. We have only one concern. Seek ye God's rule over our lives. Today, I'm going to try to live doing everything I know you want me to do. And that's my priority today. Seek first his control over our lives. And when you do that, then the promise of God comes true. Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. I'm going to try to live the way you tell me I should live. And all these things will be given to you as well. That's his promise. And what is he promising to us? He's promising the right choices, providing for our needs. He's promising that he'll protect us from being crushed or destroyed. The world is not an easy place to live. All you know that. You're going to go to Africa. You're going to be in a place where you don't know the rules, how to protect yourself, what's going on. Knowing that God has said, this is where I want you to be is a powerful thing. There's a man and his daughter came here one time and she was going to be a missionary in Iran. And she was going over there with the government not knowing it. And she was going to enroll in classes to learn the language, but she was going to secretly be a missionary. And someone asked her when the presentation was over, aren't you worried about being over there? And she said, the most dangerous place in the world for me to be is wherever it is that God doesn't want me to be. What she was saying was, saying I'm not going to go where God wants me, puts her in a position where she's outside of this promise of God. When I go to the place you've told me to go, I have this assurance. The dangerous thing is if I look at that and say, whoa, that's dangerous, I'm not going to do that, even though I know God's asked it of me, then I've put myself in a position of tremendous danger. Why? Because God is not there to intervene, He's not there to protect, He's not there to guide, He's not there to provide. When you take away this provision of God for all these things, you expose yourself to tremendous danger. So what he's talking about here in this passage is important to us because it indicates to us, as Jesus said, if I am this concerned about a stupid old ox, how much more will I be concerned about you, my child? To as many as believed him, to them he gave the ability to be the children of God. That's what John told us. Now, what the Bible shows us here about God, as you said, He takes care of His people. He takes care of people. He shows that the ox, His creation, He takes care of. We know from us that God takes care of us because of the fact that we have this relationship focused on Him as our Lord, and we are dedicated to live in the Kingdom as He's asked us to live. Now, what burden does this place on us? If this is true, how should it affect our lives? Do not muzzle an ox while it's treading out the grain. What is our responsibility as a result of this passage in the Scripture? Why does God give it to us? I kind of think it's, you know, don't muzzle the ox would be kind of like me knowing that God's going to take care of me, so I should be willing to speak for Him, tell His Word to people, study with people, not be afraid to tell somebody about God because God's going to take care of me. If He's going to take care of this stupid ox, He's going to take care of me if I do His work. And you're right. That's a very important thing for us to believe. Anybody have any other thoughts? I was thinking about the landowner. He's going to leave some figs on the trees, he's going to leave some grain on the ground, and then he's going to go tithe 10 percent, and then he's got other awfully disgusting animals. So, he's leaving a lot on the table. You know, I'm not doing so good. And if it's less than that, it goes against the natural placating that I should, you know, not do harm. Why would a landowner muzzle his ox? So he wouldn't need it. He'd eat it raw. Yeah. Why would he want to do that? To make a little money. What appears to us to be a very profitable thing, it's just a point of what you're making. God says, forgo that. I promise you I'll take care of you. You let the ox eat. What kind of burden does that put on us? Well, he said to do everything I tell you to do. He would take care of us. So you just have to know what you... Just get in your libel and know what you want to do. But isn't that risky? Well, it is if you live in the world and you want people to look at her and, you know, boy, she was really great. She was just doing good. Wonder what's going on with her. The guy who leaves the stuff in the field and lets his ox eat it has no promise of getting richer. He sees something lost. A lot of people manage their life that way. They see the danger of obedience to God. You want to say something? I thought you held your hand up. No. You were just trying to hit her in the head? I was trying to, but you didn't let me get away from it. He's also asking us to look out for others and take care of others. Which is risky. Every minute you give to somebody else is a minute you take away from yourself. Every dollar that you give to the kingdom of God or to mission causes or to help someone else is a dollar you lose. God makes us a promise, but he also puts in front of us the situation where we have to trust what you are getting to. If I do these things, I will not lose. The anxiety is you walk around and see the ox eating all your grain. You say, this is really costing me a lot of money. If I can muzzle this guy, I can make a couple of more bushels out of this whole day's work. But the Lord says to the man, I command you not to do that. Now, what is God trying to teach the owner to do? Have faith. It's not a loss, it's a gain. How can that be? If you have faith and trust that he's going to take care of you, you do what he asks and he will take care of you. So you may give ten bushels, but he may grant you a hundred. And in the moment of doing it, you cannot see that end result. That's the great difficulty. That's why it is an act of faith. You have to believe. It's not like God says, okay, you let the ox eat two bushels. See those bushel baskets over there? Every time he eats them, I'm going to put some more in it. Every time he eats them, I'm going to put some more in it. That's not the way it works. Sometimes you see it gone, and you really feel the loss of it. It can be your time. It can be your money. It can be the risk of witnessing to somebody. And you never are guaranteed the hands-on result immediately. But what we're learning about God is he takes care of his people. He could make the grain pour down in front of the ox when he's standing in the stall. But what does he require? One being to trust him enough to sacrifice. He does not pour out on us the blessings apart from our obedience and sacrifice, which is simply the backside of faith. I trust you so much that I sacrifice. And the result of my sacrifice comes because I really believe that what you say is true. You see, we're learning a lot about God, and we learn something about what God wants from us. He works in this world to ask us to do things and puts us in positions where when we have to do something, we don't always see the end payoff. Sometimes what we see is a huge loss. Sometimes what we see is a huge deficit. If I take an hour of my day to do something God wants me to do, I'm going to lose an hour of my time. If I lose an hour of my time, I'm going to be in trouble because I have so many things to do. What kind of things does God do this with? Time, money, energy, effort. Can you think of another one where He asks us to act in faith? All of these areas are areas of our lives where God is saying, I want you to trust me, and I will provide for you. Now, whenever you start thinking about something God wants you to do, I want you to think, God takes care of a dumb ox. He's sure going to take care of me. All I have to do is obey Him. The anxiety should not be, should I do this or not? The anxiety should be, do I know what God wants me to do? That's the only anxiety we should have. Now, let me help you out again. If you do something and you think it's what God wants you to do, and you discover later that it wasn't what God wanted you to do, you have acted in the first instance in faith because you thought it's what God wants you to do. Because you thought it was what God wanted you to do, you did it. Think about your children, people you work with, if you're a boss, you employ people. If they really do what they think you want them to do, sincerely and honestly, even if it's wrong, you might be upset, but you're going to forgive them, and you're going to be glad they tried to do what they thought you wanted them to do. God is at least as kind as any of us. So all you have to do when you start out is say, God, I think this is what you want me to do. If it's not, help me to see that it isn't, and go ahead and act on it. And God will honor your act of faith, even though you may discover later on that you didn't understand Him very well, because He responds to faith, not perfection. History shows us that every animal in the world, including us, can count on the fact that He does what He says He would do. He keeps His covenant promise. Would you bow your heads for just a moment, please? I want to ask you if there is something in your life that you know God's been asking of you, you know He wants you to do, that you've been afraid. You've been afraid if you did this that it would turn out badly. So for your fear, you've not done something that you think God wants you to do. Do you have the courage to tell Him, Okay, I've been thinking this is what you want me to do, I'm not sure about it. But unless you help me to see that I'm wrong, I'm going to do this, no matter how difficult it is. Lord, we thank you for the great promise that you're the rock on which we can build our whole lives. We give thanks to you because you do the things that are necessary to make sure that what we've done in obedience to you turns out well. Give us confidence in the things you're asking of us right now to do what you tell us. With confidence that in spite of what it looks like in the short term, we will win. In the name of Christ, I ask this. Amen.