God as Our Rock and Foundation

This is a song of Moses. It's called the song of Moses, but it's one of the many places in the Bible where God deals with His people as if it were a lawsuit. I'm sure they did. But God's not interested in music, He's interested in the words. Yeah, that's why it's called a song, the song of Moses. They sang it. That was what they did. But here, the song starts with a declaration that this is a trial. And it begins, listen O heaven and I will speak, hear O earth the words of my mouth. The jury is all of the universe listening to God's complaints about His people. And then he says, he stops to talk about God. God's message and word is refreshing to the whole world. His word descends like rain on the fields, like dew on the ground, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants. And then he stops to say, I will proclaim the name of the Lord. He means by that, I proclaim who God is. That's what the word name means. It represents everything about a person. When you say a person's name, you identify that person, their ability, their skill, their background, their relationships. In other words, Sharon, and I say Sharon Osborne, you know she's different than Joyce Sassman. There's a different person, different background, different relationships, different skills. So when he talks about the name of the Lord, he's talking about everything that has to do with God. I'm going to proclaim all that there is about God. And to praise the greatness of our God. Now verse 4 is where I want to pick up for the night. It begins by saying, He is a rock, His works are perfect, and all His ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is He. The idea in the scriptures is to identify God as the rock. Now there are many ways in the Bible that God is described. In this particular one, he's using a part of the scripture which is also identifies God as a rock. Or the rock is the foundation on which things are built. There are a couple of songs that we sing about Christ being a rock. About God being a rock. He is a shadow, the rock is a shadow we can get behind when it's hot. That part of the world is very hot. You get in the shade of a rock. You have the defense of a rock. You get a rock between you and the enemy, then you have protection. There are many ways in which the term for God as a rock helps us identify something about His nature and His character. So the Bible identifies when Jesus is finishing His sermon on the mount. He's talking about the fact that the people who receive the message of Christ is like building their life on a rock. Chapter 7 of the book of Matthew. Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, the wind blew and beat against the house, yet it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, the winds blew and beat against the house and it fell with a great crash. So here the writer Moses is identifying God as a rock. A foundation stone on which a person's life can be built. He's talking about this rock as a place where you can get comfort and satisfaction because you get shade in the hot times of the day. You get protection because it stands between you and the enemy. God provides many qualities about life that are very important to us. And one of the issues about a rock, one of the characteristics of a huge rock is it's firm, solid and not easily moved. A huge rock is a very powerful force. So he starts off with talking about this quality of God that is so powerful and forceful and so beneficial to people. Now he says about God, he is the rock, his works are perfect. And when the Bible uses the word perfect, it doesn't always mean it has no flaws in it or any failures. It means it meets exactly what ought to be done. God's work is always right. It is always appropriate. Now this is important for us because when you say I'm going to give my life to follow God, you need to know that what God is going to say to you will work. It's the right thing for you to do. Whenever you're making choices about all the things in your life, marriage, your children, managing your finances, relationships with other people, there are a lot of things that you can choose and you get a lot of advice from people. People will tell you all kinds of interesting things to do. But what the Bible asserts is that what God says to do is always right. It is always perfect. God's word to us is always perfect. And all of his ways are just. Now in this passage, these are parallel lines of poetry. One line stating something and the next line stating something else. He is the rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. Like the works and the ways are sort of parallel, and just and perfect are parallels. Now when the Bible talks about something being just, it means that it fits, it is appropriate, and always right. Justice in the Bible is not necessarily a legal arrangement. We look at it that way. You go to courthouse and you go to trial. And they have the law that says this is what you should do. And they compare your behavior to the law. And if you have done what the law says you should do, and they declare you innocent, you've received justice. The Bible thinks of just being just and justice as a little bit different than this. The Bible thinks of just and justice as being what is appropriate and what is right. It doesn't mean it measures up to some kind of earthly standard. But it is exactly the right thing you should do. So if you give justice to people, you treat them as they ought to be treated. For example, giving justice to your parents means that you treat them as the Bible says you should treat them. If you have a business and you're dealing with clients, then you give them justice. You treat them as a business person should treat a client with honesty and integrity. If you're doing business with someone else, you should do the right thing. Tell them the right thing. So justice means that you do what's right for them. If you have a home and a family, and you're a husband and a wife, you give to your husband, as a wife, what you should, as a wife, give to your husband. What is proper for you to treat that person this way. If you're a man and you have a wife, you treat your wife as your wife should be treated. That's having justice. God always does what is right for us. The only place in the world where you'll find that's true. He always knows when we need discipline. He always knows when we need to grow. He always knows when we need patience. He always knows when we need sympathy. He always knows when we need forgiveness. So he's starting this lawsuit by saying the person bringing these charges is always doing the right thing and always the perfect thing. He's always just and he always is provided a perfect lifestyle. His works are always without flaw. The next thing he says is, a faithful God who does no wrong. So in the situation with God, there's not anything that comes out of God's action that is wrong. This is a very important guide for us. You'll find many people in the world who are very angry at God for what he's done. They think that he has in some way done something offensive to them. The Bible sets a guideline. If there is something done to you that is wrong, God did not do it. So in this charge that he's bringing against the people of Israel, he's starting out by saying, you can never find in God anything that would require the need for him to say, I was wrong about this. The parallel to that is, the faithful God, always reliable, faithful, never does anything wrong, who's upright and just. The word upright describes someone who stands tall. We might say that's upright. Stands tall and is the kind of person who has integrity. We use that kind of language. We talk about someone who's upright. It means they stand for what they believe and they do what they stand for. So that they stand straight, erect and proper. So God is that way. He is always standing for what's right and just. The word just is used again, just as it was earlier. God always does what is right. That's the one now bringing the charge against the people of Israel. When he comes to verse 5, now he begins his accusations about them. They have acted corruptly toward him. Or this could be translated to say they've acted falsely to him. So the charge he brings against the people of Israel is they have acted one way when they should have acted another. And a person who said, the people of Israel who said to God in the contract he made with them, we will do everything that you tell us to do, but they didn't do it. That's what it means to act corruptly or falsely to God. The promise you make. Jesus said to his followers, it would be better for you not to make a promise to God than to make one and not keep it. Because it means that you have acted falsely. You said you were going to do something when indeed you're not going to really do it. The charge that he brings against the people of Israel, a chapter or two before this, he brought all of them together before they entered the land of promise, and he asked them to make a promise. And so they read the law, and then he asked them to say, we will do everything God tells us. Now he's saying, I know what's going to happen when you get into the land that you're going to possess. The promise you made to me will be a false promise. That's the result of this charge in court. You've acted corruptly toward him. To their shame, they are no longer his children. It's not simply a matter of accidental change. There are two ways in which we disobey God. One is the result of immaturity. If you take a six-year-old child and they say, I'm going to go in the kitchen and I'm going to fix you something to eat. You have every right to expect that a six-year-old is going to make some mistakes trying to fix your supper. They're probably going to fix you something they would like, which you may have as your main course ice cream and as your dessert bubble gum. They don't have any idea about how to plan a good meal. You might have also, as they get in the kitchen, find that the things that they take down to use, they don't have any idea of the tools that they need. And if they do try to cook something, you might find that they burn it. Now, if an adult has said to the child, you can go in the kitchen and fix something and they're six years old, you should expect that they're not going to get all this right. Immaturity. When you come to Christ and you say, I give my life to you. He has every reason to expect that you're going to do things wrong. You're going to understand him because you haven't read the Bible that much. You haven't learned everything he wants you to know. And so you're going to do things that are wrong. That kind of error and even failure to be obedient to God, he overlooks because of our immaturity. Sometimes our immaturity is also evident because we don't know the things we're supposed to do. A lot of people who make a promise to God to live in obedience to him don't know exactly how they should do that. How do I obey you? I don't know all the scriptures. I haven't talked to you enough to understand what you want me to do. And so we can be honest and sincere and try our very best to obey God and still miss it because we don't know what to do. Maybe that's a part of immaturity. But even when you learn something that you're supposed to do and you've never done it before, the immaturity kicks in because you try to do it your very best, but it doesn't work right. Oh, one of the stories they always have in the newspaper on Mother's Day is a comic somewhere that talks about the kids who decide to fix mother breakfast. And it always turns into a disaster. How funny, the mom has all day to fix this stuff up. You know what you're supposed to do, cook eggs, bacon, toast, but you're not mature enough to understand exactly how to do it. That happens to believers too. So maturity is a key ingredient and knowledge is a key ingredient. God overlooks both if in our hearts we are sincerely trying to learn and trying to do our best. What he finds to be offensive is whenever you say to God, I know what you want me to do, but I am not going to do it. You notice in this line he talks about what they've done. They have acted corruptly toward him. They've not acted like children as they should act, and to their shame they're no longer his children. They have said to him, I'm not going to do what you want. I heard someone tell me about a kid that went to court here in town, and they were in the courthouse at the trial, and his mother was there, and she had to testify in this case, and she told the truth, and it was negative toward him, and he was convicted and was going to spend some time in jail. And whenever he did, the verdict was handed down, he cussed at his mother and tried his best to get to her to hit her. Not the things you would do to your mother, and you would say if that were your child, they're not acting like they're my child. And whenever a person says to God, I give my life to you in the New Testament times, or in the biblical times I will do everything you tell me to do, and consciously turns away toward the gods of Baal in the Old Testament, or in the New Testament time simply to live like we want to with disregard for God's rules or His instructions, it's a choice that you make knowing that it is contrary to what God wants. It's the same thing as a child who says to their parents, I don't care what you want me to do, I'm going to do what I want regardless of what you think or say. In that moment the child has ceased to see you as a parent, an authority figure. No longer do you have the role of a parent. They are doing exactly what they want to do in disregard for what you have told them to do. So he says about the people of Israel who have done this, they are no longer my children. They have treated me as if I am not their father, and they have treated me as if they were not my children. Until that time then the relationship I have with them is broken. Now the contrast he gives between the person that always does the right thing, is always fair, is always just, and always does the things they should, to this rebellious people who know what they should do, but consciously say, I will not do it. That's the basis of his court case against the people of Israel. He has been faithful to what he's done and the contract he made with them, and they have failed to comply with the contract on their part. Now if you sold your car to someone, and you said to them, I'll take a thousand dollars for it, and they said, I've got to go home and get some more money, can I drive the car home and get the money? And then seven weeks later you've never seen them or heard from them, you would say, I think they broke the deal here. They're not really buying this car, they're stealing it. No longer do you have a relationship as someone who's selling a car to another person, but you now have become someone who's been cheated. So God is saying to the people of Israel, once you say, I'm not going to do the things you tell me I should do, and you begin to trust some other God to take care of you, and provide for your crops and your cattle and the things you do, then you're no longer really my children. So you say, okay, I'll give my life to Jesus Christ, and then you don't read the Bible, you don't have fellowship with other believers, you're not trying to shape your life according to what the Scripture says, and you're not faithful and working in his kingdom as he asked you to do, can you call yourself a faithful follower of his? He looks at these things to say, you haven't kept the promise you made to me. The promise was, I give my life to you. I confess that I am allowing you to control my heart, will, mind, and emotions, and I'm going to live under your authority. To then throw aside the authority of God and begin to live differently, doing what you want, when you want, the way you want, violates the very promise that you've made to God. Here he says, these people cannot consider themselves my children when they do not act like my children. I think there's a phrase that kind of goes around in Baptist life that says, once saved, always saved. And the intention of that is to talk about how secure we are as believers and followers of Christ. But it doesn't, and it means that you say to God, I give my life to you, and I'm going to live in obedience to you. And as long as you do that, you never have to worry about Satan taking you away from God. And it's a wonderful, comforting thing. But some people take that to mean, I can go to the front of the church, say I'm going to follow God, be baptized in the water, or say my old life has passed away and my new one started, and still keep living the way I was before. Now, the Bible never indicates that that's possible for a person to do, and consider themselves a child of God. Now you can argue whether they were ever saved at all, or you can argue that maybe they were saved, they never actually give their life to Christ. But many people consider themselves saved and on their way to heaven, without the lifestyle of obedience to God. So they made that promise as a child. When they were children, they lived, went to church, and their parents made them. When their parents quit making them go to church, they went somewhere else and did something else. And all the rest of their life, they do whatever they want, just like all the people around them who are pagans. And they rely on the fact that one time they went to the front of the church, and said some words, and got in some water. And all they did was talked and got wet. There's a difference between talking and getting wet, and surrendering your life to the authority of Christ. So what he's charging is, the people of Israel made the promises, but they didn't keep them. They said the words, but they didn't live the life. They made the promises, but they didn't keep the promises. They are not my children. No harder words could we ever hear than this. Now when Jesus talked about the final judgment, he indicated it in a different way. People would come to him, and they would be ready to enter heaven, and he would say, depart from me, I don't know you. He could have said, like here, you're not one of my kids. It's the same thing. They would say, well, but you know, I taught in church, and I performed miracles, and I preached. And he says, I don't know who you are. You didn't do those things in obedience to me. You did them because you wanted to, and because you thought it would give you a benefit. Your motive was different. So he says, they're not my children. They don't belong to me. There's not a relationship as a parent and child should have. That's his charge. Now, he extends this by saying in verse 6, this is the way you repay the Lord. And he's talking now a little differently. I have been the parent to you, and this is the result of that. This is the way you've treated me when I've been that parent to you. This is the way you have repaid them for what he's done for them. All these things above where he's talked about how he's helped them and provided for them. His words like water on the grass. And he talks about how he's been perfect and just and faithful to do everything he said he would do. But their repaying him is turning away from him. Is this the way you repay the Lord? O foolish and unwise people! Is he not your Father, your Creator who made you and formed you? Here the charge that God gives against the people of Israel is the reality of who they really are. And the relationship that should be between them. I am the one who's your father. Now, it's one thing for a person, for a child to act like you're not their father if you're really not. That's appropriate behavior. But when you've been the father of someone, that is, they are your own flesh and blood, you expect a relationship of respect and honor. You know, I think from reading in the Bible that the honor of children toward their parents was a very big issue in the Jewish culture. You obeyed your parents because they were your parents. You honored them because they were your parents. They didn't have to earn this. The fact that they were the one who caused you to come into the world gives you a certain relationship with them that can't be broken. So he says to them, Is God not your father? And then he uses another word, creator. The same word that's used in the beginning of the Bible where it talks about God creating the world. You were nothing before God made you. You're here only because God made you. Is this your response to someone who's given you life? Is this reaction that you're having to turn your back on him the way you would treat someone who made it possible for you to exist in the world? There ought to be some kind of a special relationship that the creature has with the creator. That's what he's talking about. He is the one who made you and formed you. This is why the story of creation is so important to us. Because it tells us there was a time when there weren't any people in this world. The world was then formed. And people were made to live in the world. And without God we wouldn't be here. The story of creation is important to us because it ties us to God. We have an obligation to the one who creates us. Now we can say, I don't believe you created me. And I don't believe you created the world. You can have that kind of conviction inside of you. But the Bible is saying, it doesn't matter what you say. God made you. If you have a child, and you know when kids get to a certain age and they want to go out somewhere, and we never had this problem with our own kids, but I've heard it's true for a lot of kids, they don't want to be seen with their parents. I read a story, an article one time, where kids were talking about this and they said, parents said, we get close to school, or where the party is, our kids make a stop and get out of the car and walk the rest of the way. They don't want to be seen with us. I don't think I would take very kindly to that with my kids. It's probably why they never tried it. It's an insult to say I'm ashamed of the person who gave me life. Now, God steps back even further than that and says to every person created in the world, I made you. And out of this obligation as being created by me, I am your father. I expect you to give respect and honor to me. A lot of people want to follow Christ for the benefit it gives to them. God's going to bless me, I'm going to have a wonderful life, things are going to be good. But the Bible is pretty strong on saying that's not the primary thing. It's not that you love your parents because they give you lots of good things. Some of the closest bonds that people have are found in the times of the most difficult days, like the Dust Bowl days, whenever they didn't have anything, but your kids and your parents were together and they fought through that, helping each other. Parents couldn't give them very much, but they were their parents and they loved them and cared for them. So many children today are given so much that they look at their parents in terms of what they get and they're either happy or sad with them because of that. And it kind of bleeds over into Christianity. What God wants us to do is honor Him for one thing. Who He is. He made us. He created us. And He desires our respect for that. So I bring this charge, God says to the people of Israel, as a parent who has a child who's delinquent, who's turned their back on me, their parent, who's turned their back on me, even the creator of everything in the world around them, and refuses to acknowledge who I am. So I'm taking you to court before the whole world to charge you with the crimes against me. And that's what the rest of this song is really about. Would you bow your heads for just a moment? If it's true that God made the world, what does it mean to you? If it's true that God made each and every one of us uniquely shaped to be who we are, what kind of obligation do we have to Him? If He's been fair and just with us, faithful to do what He said He would do, if He's been right, upright, and perfect in everything He's done, what does that mean to us? In the court case, God wants to prove that these things about Himself are true. And if they're true, then the people of Israel are to be found guilty of rejecting their Father and Creator. So God stands in His whole relationship with us, demanding that we acknowledge that He alone is the Creator of the world, the Creator of us, and the one who made the rules by which the world lives. And He holds us accountable for recognizing who He is. We know that no matter how much we try, none of us can make a star. No matter how much effort we give to all of this, we can't change the universe. And we can't even make a person without the tools that you've given us. Give us respect for who you are, recognition of your place of authority, and give us the ability to see you in all the things in this world as you are, a God of justice, integrity, and honesty, who deserves respect. In the name of Christ, we ask this. Amen.