Moses: Prophet and Lawgiver

Moses has finished the big part of this, of the book of Deuteronomy, this one long sermon that he's preaching to the people about what he had already told them earlier in the earlier books of the Bible, but this is his summary and sort of a commentary on the historical things that took place. You know, when something happens and you see it, you can report the facts, and then whenever you've reported the facts, you can sometimes sit down and tell what it means. Well, Deuteronomy is a way of explaining what these things that he was talking about means. In this section, Moses is wrapping up what sort of the end of the book. Verse 1, this is the blessing that Moses, the man of God, pronounced on Israelites before his death. Now, this little introduction to what Moses is going to say gives us insight into what God thinks and what the people of Israel thought about Moses. Moses, they saw him as a man of God. When he uses the phrase man of God, he's using a term that is generally identified with prophets, and so he's identifying Moses as a prophet of the Old Testament. We don't often think of Moses as a prophet. We think of the people like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the people in the rest of the Old Testament as prophets, but this language that he uses identifies Moses or puts him in that category of people. And the Bible sees Moses as a prophet. The prophet is a man who delivers the message of God. The message of God might be about something that's going to take place. You'll notice in chapter 32, the whole thing, the song of Moses, was prophetic. He talked to them about here's what's going to happen to you when you get into the land of promise. So, he was telling them the future for themselves, and in that way he's a prophet. And the prophets were not people who necessarily told the future, but they were people who told what God would do under certain circumstances when things came up. And we don't have to be someone that knows the future, you just have to know people. You have to know how they would react to certain circumstances. Now if you're dead, when you're living at home, you came in and you had the air conditioner down to 68, what would he have said? If anyone told me to come over there and look at the thermostat and show me how to turn it up to 80. How close was that? Very accurate. See, she can tell the future. She could tell what would happen if she turned the thermostat to 68 in that house. Most of us know each other as families well enough to be able to predict what people would do under certain circumstances. And if you know God well enough, you know what he's like, you know what he says when he sees people who are in rebellion against him. And you know what God is like, you know what he would say to people who are trying to make choices about things they should do. Moses was a man who knew God intimately. He had relationships with God that built a relationship that allowed him to be able to know what God was going to do. Of course, God communicated to him the laws that he wanted the people of Israel to live by, so he knew what was expected of the people. So it was easy for him to project, here's what God will do in these circumstances. That's what all the prophets were. They were people who said to the people of Israel, if you're not going to be faithful to God, let me tell you what God is going to do about that. He's going to bring judgment on you. He's going to bring judgment on you, and he won't stop until everyone has received enough judgment to be able to stop, repent, and turn around and go back to God. So the prophets were men of God. They were people who God knew, and they knew God. So here the writer of Deuteronomy is identifying Moses as the man of God, and he was preparing for Moses' death. Verse 2, this is the blessing that Moses gave. Chapter 32 was the song of Moses where he told them what was going to happen. Now Moses starts giving the blessing to the people of Israel. We don't have a custom that's similar to this. But in the Old Testament, oftentimes when a man would die, he would bring his family around him, and they weren't in comas then when people died. They were pretty much able to talk up to the last moments. But they would bring their family in, and because of the nature of their children, they would give a blessing. And sometimes they would give a warning, because they saw characteristics in their children that caused them to want to say, now if these things don't change in your life, you're going to have these problems. Or what I see in your life, God is going to respond to you in this way. So Moses is going to be the one who kind of acts like their father. This is the same kind of experience that took place whenever the people of Israel came, and the 12 tribes were identified, and the father was dying, and he gave a prophecy or a blessing to all of his children before he died. This is the same situation that Moses has moved into. This is what he had to say to them. The Lord came from Sinai and dawned over them from Seir. He shone forth from Mount Paran. He came with myriads of holy ones from the south from his mountain slopes. The beginning, Moses is talking about the relationship that the people of Israel had with God. What we would say about this in someone is, you say, here's the beginning of this story. You came to know Christ in these circumstances. What he's talking about here is God came in a spiritual presence to give them the instructions from Mount Sinai. This is the only place in the book of Deuteronomy that Sinai is used. Usually it's called Horeb. Horeb is like we would say the Rocky Mountains. It's an area like the Rocky Mountains. If you want to say then a mountain in the Rockies, you would say like Pike's Peak. The area wasn't as big as the Rockies for us, but it was an area, Horeb, which was a mountainous area. Sometimes they will refer in the Bible to Horeb when they're talking about Mount Sinai. Sometimes they'll isolate it and call it Sinai. Here he calls it Sinai. We don't know why sometimes they use that. The rest of the book most of the time he uses Horeb. We don't know why he changed it here. Maybe just because it sounded better in the way he was writing. But anyway, that's the difference between those. The Lord came, or Yahweh came, from Sinai and dawned over them from Seir and shone forth from the mountain of Paran. What he's talking about here is God's movement among them was like we would say the Holy Spirit. So the places that they went, God was guiding them and directing their life and His presence was a spiritual presence among them. He came, this is God speaking again, with myriads of holy ones from the south and from His mountain slopes. Now he uses the phrase the myriads of holy ones and I think I talked about this a little bit Sunday morning. In the Old Testament especially, people saw a God, the Yahweh God, as a part of a group of gods that rule the world. And these were called holy ones. Here he's called them holy ones. He came with myriads of holy ones. Now some people think that that's what he's referencing, all these gods that are with him. But in the New Testament, and this helps us, whenever you're reading the Old Testament and you find a passage or words in the New Testament that are different, it helps us to see, because the Holy Spirit is giving both of them, that we can see what the meaning is from the New Testament passages. In the New Testament, whenever these passages are quoted, they're talking about angels being with God. Angels being the ones with him on Mount Sinai. He came with myriads of holy ones. Maybe he's talking about these gods. Maybe he's talking about the angels that are there with him. But he's talking about the strength that God's spiritual presence has with them. In Acts chapter 11, I think that is. I'm trying to read what I wrote. Acts chapter 11. No, I think it's 7. Acts chapter 7, verse 53. This is a story when Stephen is talking about what happened in the past in Israel's history. He gives us a clue here as to what this passage means. In verse 53, You have received the law that was put into effect through angels, but have not obeyed it. Now here he notes that the law came not because God was standing there speaking to Moses. But when Stephen is talking about that, he's saying what God did was he spoke to the angels and the angels brought the message to Moses to write down. In the Old Testament, it talks about God with his fingers writing the Ten Commandments on the stone tablets. So it might seem as if there is a conflict in describing what took place. But if you see, this passage is telling us the method by which God did it. And you see the Old Testament passage is showing the result of it. These Ten Commandments were specifically things that God himself said. As if you would take a pencil and write it yourself. So that Moses is writing. He's writing these down. God is carving them with his finger through Moses. And the angels are bringing the message from God to Moses. That seems to be what the writer of Acts is describing for us. So here if we see it that way, we're saying there were myriads of people angels who came to bring the message of God. And it was written down on these tablets. Stephen is telling us that the law as found in the Old Testament was directly the responsibility of God to give to us. These are for his people. So we have the law as a guide for us. Now Moses is pointing to the past to describe the presence of God with Israel. God drew you aside. He made you his people. And he gave you the instructions for which you're living. The history of Israel begins with God gathering them at the mountain base and writing for them the contract by which he's going to deal with them. I will be your God. I'll guide you. I'll provide for you. I'll protect you. But I expect you to do the things that I'm telling you and I'm writing on this tablet. The contract with Israel started here. This is where the nation of Israel was founded. So Moses is looking back at this experience saying your relationship with God started there when the angels brought to Moses the message that God wanted to give you. So the things that are written here are from the very mouth of God and written for you. And they're the contract that makes this nation. Now for us, we look back on the Constitution, the Bill of Rights. We look back at those early documents on which our country was founded. And we say this is what is the foundation of our country. Moses is helping us to see that the foundation stone for the kingdom of God are these instructions given in the Ten Commandments and the explanation for them in the books that follow. And especially what's done here in the book of Deuteronomy. This in the past was what happened to you that caused it to be that caused you to be the nation that you have. And then he turns in verse 3 to say surely it is you who love the people. All the holy ones are in your hand. At your feet they all bow down and from you receive instructions. The law Moses gave us, the possession of the assembly of Jacob. Now he changes from the past to what is going to happen in the future. Surely it is you who have loved the people and the holy ones are in your hand. At your feet they all bow down and from you receive instructions. The people it seems as if the people are responding as if Moses is saying now here is the way you see it. You have the presence of God's law and you are to love the people. The people are saying to God you should love us. All the holy ones are in your hand. We are at your feet and we all bow down. Their response to the giving of the law was to say we will do what you tell us. We are bowed down before you in humility and service. And from receiving your instructions we take the things that you give us and accept them as the guide for our lives. So when God begins his work with us two things have to happen. We have to be aware that God wants us to do certain things. He has standards by which he wants us to live. He confronts us with the reality that we are not doing what he wants us to do. He says here is what I want you to do. In that reality we have a choice. We say OK I will do that or I refuse to. Their response to God when he comes with this message is we will do the things you tell us to do. We are at your feet. We bow down before you. We receive your instructions. The law that Moses gave us the possession of the assembly of Jacob. All of us are descendants of the law that you give us. We see this as the guide for our lives. So there is the word of God comes to them and the response of the people of Israel. Now what we see when we talk about becoming a follower of Christ is you say I am convicted of my sin. I am aware of my rebellion against God. And then when I am aware of my rebellion against God I know what he wants me to do and I am aware of my rebellion against God and I am going to do the right thing in those two. God has told me the truth. I admit that I have not lived that and I promise him to give my life to him in obedience and service. So my response is to say I bow before you to do what you have asked me to do and to do what you have asked me to do in the way that you have told me to do. The order of the people is the order of the nation. And the order of the nation is the order of the people. Remember in the story of the Bible that God's plan from the beginning was not that the people of Israel would have a human king. He intended instead that they would be a nation without a human king. That they wouldn't have a human king. Now, we understand in the New Testament that this is exactly what God has done. He's given us the Holy Spirit so it's not a human being that we follow. It's not a human being we listen to but we listen to the Spirit of God. God's intention is to be the king, the king of Israel. He has something about how God deals with us. His intention for Israel was that he would be their only king and they would always see him as the absolute final authority. The people of Israel started out that way through the story of the judges. In the Bible in this story, God gave them a king like all the other nations had. God didn't want to give them a king. But he let them have a king because they were so determined to do it. A lot of people think when they look at the Bible that everything is set out and everything happens exactly the way God wants it to happen. And the story of the king, the story of the kings, he had a plan. I don't want you to have a king. I want you to always look for me as the ultimate final authority. But over and over again they kept saying this is what we want. We insist on doing it. Until he finally said to them, okay, I'll give you a king. Now you've experienced this in your own life. You know what God wants you to do. And you know what he doesn't want you to do. And sometimes because of your determination, God lets you do the things that he doesn't want you to do to show you how wrong you've been. And then you realize as you get into it how bad the circumstances are. You stop in your place and you say, God, I've made a big mistake. What do you want me to do? He lets us have the freedom to make choices that he doesn't approve of. And in the middle of that, he's always at work helping us know that the choices we've made are wrong or they're right. Here, the whole future of Israel is outlined here. Moses at this place could not see that someday Israel would have a king. Instead, he's saying that the king that God was the king over the people of Israel. And when the leaders of the people assembled along with the tribes of Israel, he was the ruler. They were to seek his direction. He gave them the law in the Old Testament so that almost every circumstance they would know what he wanted them to do. He was the one that gave them the law and he was the king that ruled them. So he was described as the future that would take place. That God would rule them as the king of their country and of their nation. But the beginning of this story, this passage where Moses is giving the blessings to the nation of Israel, he now assumes the role of their father. I've been the one who was here at the birth of this nation. They were just slaves before he came along. He led them out of Egypt. They were disorganized. They didn't have any history for themselves. He led them step by step to where they got the law from God. They made their pledge of obedience to God and then for 40 years in the wilderness Moses helped shape them into the people of God, into the nation that they were. Moses now sees himself as being the father of this great nation. And as the father, he brings them together. Moses, you remember, has been told already you're going to go to the mountain and die. So no longer will you be with these people. You'll not be able to go into the land with them. So he begins by addressing each of the tribes. In Exodus chapter 15, the tribes were addressed by their ancestors. Now they're addressed, instead of as individuals, as whole tribes of people. He starts with Reuben. Let Reuben live and not die, nor his men be few. That's all that he has to say about Reuben. Reuben, in the earlier prophecies by his father, indicated that Reuben was a weak tribe. And he would not stand very long. He would not be able to stand long. He would not be able to stand and be a leader in the nation of Israel. Now, when Moses gives his direction toward Reuben, he also tells him that he will be, he will live and not die, nor his men be few. He would not be a, and there's no other prophecy he's given about him, no other promise about him. And Reuben became a sort of insignificant tribe. In fact, in some list of the prophecies, he has not even mentioned. He can see in Reuben's tribe the difficulty they had in being obedient to God, and predicts their insignificance in the future of people's Israel, of Israel. And he said about Judah, Hear, O Lord, the cry of Judah, and bring him to his people. With his own hands he defends his cause. Oh, be his help against his foes. His cry to Judah, which has become one of the more prominent tribes in the nation of Israel, is a plea for God's help to listen to Judah's need and provide the response to the needs that Judah would have. All the way through these stories, from one tribe after another, Moses is looking at the tribe, its characteristics and nature, and asking for God's blessings on the tribe. Moses is passing on as a father to his children, and heritage, a nature that would allow them to see what their lifestyle would be like, what their future would be like. All of this is given against the background of the fact that God has already displayed before them what their nature is supposed to be. The law has been given to them. The fact that we know what God wants from us does not determine the outcome of our life. The fact that we know what God wants from us does not determine the outcome of our life. We can know what God wants, what changes is the nature of the people and their determination to live in obedience to Him. You'll find in all the prophecies that God gives that if the people of Israel are faithful to do what He tells them to do, that He will honor and reward them. Now, that's a difficult thing to live, because when you know that God wants you to do certain things, and you refuse to do certain things, that's a difficult thing to live, because when you refuse to do them, God takes His hand away from you, and disaster follows. But not always do people see the trouble that they're in as a consequence or result of their failure to obey God. When you talk to people, you'll find that they often say they've had bad luck. Other people don't do the right thing by them. They always have reasons and excuses. If you've given your life to Christ, in the middle of all these things that have happened to you, if you've given your life to Christ, if you've given your life to Jesus, in the middle of all these things that happen to you, it's very important that you stop to look at yourself to see if you're doing the things that God wants you to do. And if you are, even in the middle of these disastrous things, you will find that God will deliver you and bring out of your life what He really wanted all along. You see this in the story of Israel. They start out from Egypt in obedience to God. They travel the ways of the Lord, and they travel the ways of the Lord, and they travel the ways of Moses. They travel the way that God told them to go through Moses, and immediately the army of Egypt comes barreling down on them. When you're in that situation and you see disaster ahead for you, you stop and say, did God lead us out of Egypt? Yes, He did with the powerful miracles. Have we traveled exactly the way God has told Moses to bring us? Yes. Have we traveled exactly the way God has told Moses to bring us? Yes. Have we traveled exactly the way God has told Moses to bring us? Yes. See, they started south and then they turned around almost in a U-turn to get to the place where they were at the Red Sea. Here we are at the Red Sea with an army behind us and water ahead of us and no way to get out. When you're in that situation, you can say, God has really let us down. And a lot of people do that. Sometimes they're not following God to begin with, and they get in that spot because of their own bad choices. And how do you know that? Well, the choices you're making consistent with what God tells you is the right thing to do. They were there. Moses knew God had led them. What he did was to say to God, Okay, we followed you here. What do you want us to do? God gave him an unusual instruction. Just hold your hand up in the air like that. He did. And the water parted. When you get in a situation where you're following God and you know you've done as best you can, you think, This is what I think God wanted me to do. And you do what he wants you to do, what you think he wants you to do. Even if it turns out bad, you stop in the middle of that. You ask, First of all, have I done what I thought I ought to do? God doesn't ask that you always live exactly the right thing. But he asked that you always do what you think he wants you to do. And if you do that, you're acting in faith. If you've acted in faith, he will rescue you even from the bad choices that you've made. Because some of the bad choices we make are a result of immaturity. So he looks at us and says, I realize you're not very good at listening to me or following me, and you thought all along this is what I wanted, and you did it thinking it was the right thing, not rebelling against me, so I'm going to rescue you. Sometimes he leads us in those circumstances because he wants to show us his power. I think that's what's happened to the people of Israel at the side of the Red Sea. The water parted. He showed Moses, you followed me, you got yourself in a bad spot by obeying me, and you can count on me to get you out. He will always do what you know God wants you to do. He will always get you out. It doesn't mean that you won't come to some places where the head in front of you it looks impossible and behind you it looks impossible. You will find many of those spots because in those circumstances God wants to do something miraculous for you. No miracle is ever done in the Scriptures. It doesn't occur when the circumstance is impossible. So if you don't want to have, if you want to have miracles in your life, you're going to have to have situations in which you're facing something that is humanly impossible to do or solve. What God is asking is, I've given you the instructions I want you to follow. If you follow them, I will make the promise to you that you will be victorious and successful. If you follow them, it won't be difficult. It won't be difficult. It won't look like it. And when you read the story of the people of Israel, over and over again they got in trouble. They followed God and they didn't have any water. And then he miraculously gave them water. They followed him and they didn't have any food. Then he miraculously gave them food. In every situation they were following God. And because they were living in obedience to him, he provided for them. And when you get fed and you see there's nothing but problems and you have no way to solve them, you stop and say, okay, God, what am I supposed to do? What do you want me to do? I will obey you whatever it is. No one can tell what's going to happen next. But God's promise is I will provide for you. This is the story of the Bible. When Moses begins this section before the blessings of the tribes, he says, I will provide for you. One of the ways you can provide for the tribes is by saying you have a contract with God. He's told you what he wants you to do. You said you would do it. Now, if that's done, your future is secure. Living in obedience to God doesn't mean that you won't have trouble. What it means is that you won't have trouble by yourself. You will have the difficulty with God. You will have the difficulty with God. What it means is you'll get in situations that you cannot resolve. That is a given. There's not any way that you can imagine that this circumstance is going to work out. You can look at every option you have and say they're impossible. There's not one of them that's going to work. But over and over again you will discover that something happens and there's an impossible circumstance is accomplished. This is what happens in the story of the scripture. But the key for Moses was to begin by saying God has given you instructions, his law. He has told you what you expect. You've said you would be obedient to him. He is your king. He will rule your nation. And when you do what your king tells you to do, his power will make sure that everything works correctly. And then he starts telling these different tribes what God intends to do through them and in them. For us, give me your life. Pledge to live in obedience to me. Learn what I want you to do in the Bible. Put it into practice as best you know how. When you fail, admit that you failed, go back and start over. Say, okay, now I saw that was wrong. I'll do it the right way. And you will find in your life miraculous events that happen to you because God does something that you couldn't do. That's what a miracle is. It's simply to do something you couldn't do. It could be human beings involved in it. It doesn't mean lightning comes down or something, he parts the water in front of you. It means that something will happen and you will say, I never thought this could have happened this way. God takes care of his people. That's the promise of Abraham. It's the promise that was made through Moses and the promise that was made through Christ. He cares for us. Let's pray together. I'd like to ask you if you have something in this situation that you're looking at and you're saying, I don't know what to do with this. I don't know how to handle this. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. If you have a situation like that, I'd like you to say to God, if you will tell me what to do or say in this situation, I will do it, whatever it is. Now, if the situation gets worse and worse, keep saying that over and over again to yourself and to God. I trust you. I think you're going to take care of this because I've made you a promise and you've made me a promise. This is the whole story of the Bible. It's the whole story of the Bible. It's the whole story of the Bible. It's the whole story of the faith. I'm going to leave it up to God to show the rest of you. But right now, I want you to say, Jesus, you do not trust anyone and they do not trust you. I don't trust anyone. Thank you. God love you. I love you, God, thank you. Amen.