DEUTERONOMY
CONCLUSION
Deuteronomy 31-34
INTRODUCTION
Before we look at the message of these chapters, I need to issue a disclaimer. Ultimately a person is accountable for his own relationship with God. Too many times people inject themselves into a situation even though they have no right to do so. The other day while Nancy and I were painting a room, we were listening to a movie entitled Howards End. In the movie one well-meaning woman insisted that a young man take her advice. Because he took her well-meaning advice, by the end of the movie she had a child out of wedlock, another woman had her marriage on the rocks, while yet a another woman was widowed and the young man was dead. Well-meaning but disastrous. That's the reason when it is all said and done, each person is ultimately responsible for his own life and therefore must not be pressured into making this or that decision. God many times is not going to reveal His will for a specific person to you or me; instead He is going to reveal it to that specific person.
When we come to chapters 31-34, we come to the climax and conclusion of the Book of Deuteronomy. For the past 30 chapters Moses has been preparing the children of Israel for the time when he would no longer be with them. Now that the 3 sermons are over, it is time for him to hand over the reins to his successor Joshua. For the past 40 years Moses has been the only leader Israel has ever known. It is a significant moment in the life of Israel. It is now time for a new generation with new leadership to take over and occupy the Promised Land.
What Israel experienced recurs throughout human history. When I came to FBC Corsicana, I guess I thought that the Christine Bristows, Huis Egges, and Dottie Howells would be around forever. It was quite a shock when over 100 senior adults passed away between the years of 1996 and 2000. FBC is rally in the midst of a significant transition. It is inevitable that this happen, though, because it is the way God designed nature. Each generation has to come into its own at the right time, and each generation has to pass away at a specific time unless the Lord returns. The question is how succeeding generations will respond whenever the older generation passes on the torch to them. The same principles Moses gave to the Israelites should govern each generation to whom the mantle has been passed.
GOD IS ISRAEL'S TRUE LEADER (Deut. 31:1-6)
Moses first informs the Israelites that it is now just a matter of time before his death. He is 120 years old. Although he is still strong with excellent eyesight, God nevertheless has dictated that he must relinquish the reins of leadership because he had dishonored the Lord in the wilderness. The reins are going to be transferred to Joshua, the son of Nun. Moses informs the Israelites that although they had looked to him for leadership, they now need to look to God who all along had been the true leader of Israel. All along Moses had been following God in the wilderness. When the people were following Moses, they were actually following God because Moses had been following God. The people needed to realize this because although Moses was about to pass away, God nevertheless was still going to be there to lead them. This is significant because it helps define the relationship we are supposed to have with God. Whatever else characterizes our relationship with God, a primary characteristic should be that of following God. There is no negotiation in our relationship with God. The only appropriate response to God is following His leadership.
I feel like I have the right to share with each of you the following. Each of us has grown in our relationship with God to such an extent that God no longer is going to put up with some of the ways we have related to Him in the past. God is adamant about us taking seriously the fact that we are to follow Him. Whenever it is time to make a major decision, we no longer have the luxury to do our own thing and then hope that God will honor our decision. God expects us to seek Him first in all that we do and follow His leadership. At this point in our lives, we no longer have the excuse to do our own thing. If we unwisely choose to follow our own counsel, we can be sure that God is going to allow us to suffer the consequences of our own choices. We can no longer expect Him to clean up our messes. If we blatantly decide to follow our own counsel instead of His, then you can be sure that it will take some massive event of repentance on our part before He steps in to rescue us from our own self-made folly. Even after that we may still suffer the consequences of our foolish decision.
How do we know whenever God is leading us to go one direction or another? Several times I've had to make major decisions in my life, and in each instance God communicating to me through my prayers played the pivotal role. For example, in 1993 I was really feeling that it was time for me to move on to another area of ministry. For the past 9 years I had served as youth minister at 2 churches, one in Lancaster and one in Lake Highlands. I was turning 40, though, and really felt that it was time to move into another area of ministry; however, I did not have the peace to do so. During the late winter of 1992-93, I spent 3 1/2 weeks backpacking across Europe. At each major cathedral I visited I spent time praying about my situation. It was not until the third week when I was in the cathedral at Salisbury, England, that I felt that God gave me permission to leave my job at FBC, Lancaster. When I got back, I shared my feelings and prayers with Nancy. She agreed to my decision—the wife agreeing with the decision I believe in extremely important in any major decision because God is going to communicate to both partners and not just to one if both are really seeking the Lord. We moved to Corsicana at the end of April. One Sunday night in May, 1993 we joined FBC, Corsicana. The next Sunday night the Minister of Education resigned. The rest is history. What is wild is that Nancy and I had thought about taking this action 10 months earlier. Because we left only when we felt God's permission the timing turned out to be divinely inspired.
Prayer and not hardship was the determining factor. Too many times we leave our situation because they are too hard. I have never left a position because it was painful. I was in a church once in which the pastor's response to nearly everything the staff wanted was "No!" I just felt like he should have called in the staff every morning and said, "Before you ask me anything today, I just want to go ahead and say, ‘No.’ That will save us all a lot of time and trouble." It was really frustrating. I had already been in one youth ministry and had learned how to do youth ministry correctly. I felt like the pastor did nothing but put up obstacles in my way. It would have been easy to be bitter over all this. In fact, one of the ministers over a period of time did become bitter which ruined his ministry; however, the Lord informed me that He could do wonderful things in spite of all the obstacles. He did not need another person's "Yes" in order to bless me and the ministry He entrusted to me. That proved to be so true. In spite of obstacles the Lord was able to bless the ministry in wonderful ways.
Security also is not the issue. Sometimes we feel like we need to move on because we don't feel that our job is secure. To be perfectly honest, though, nothing except for God's will is secure. In 1984 I was finishing my course work at SWBTS in the Ph.D. program, supporting myself by working part time at Safeway. During the spring of that year the bottom was falling out in the youth ministry at the church I was attending in Lake Highlands. Except for two of the past 9 years the church had been going through a lot of turmoil in the youth ministry; now a lot of parents had had enough of this and were jumping ship by joining other major Dallas churches. I felt like the church was going to ask me to come on board as the youth minister. I felt very insecure about this situation. I had a good job at Safeway which was the world’s largest food retailer at the time. The church, on the other hand, seemed like it was about to implode. The Lord reminded me, though, that my ultimate security was not in a corporation but in Him. In May of that year I assumed the role of youth minister. What is ironic is that approximately 3-4 years later, Safeway had collapsed throughout much of the United States while the church I was serving was still going on (and is still going on). Security never depends upon the corporation but upon obeying God's will.
The key is always doing the will of God. Some may want to know how to discover that will. The truth is that God is more interested in communicating that will to us than we are in discovering it. If we commit ourselves to doing His will, we can rest assured that He will make it known to us. One thing He will not do is reveal it to us so that we can try to negotiate with Him or later debate whether or not we should do it.
How could Israel be sure that God was still going to be with them? He urges them to look at the past. During the past God had been faithful to them when they followed Him. He had sent the 10 plagues upon Egypt. He had delivered them at the Red Sea and had provided for their every need during the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. Well, God did not bring them this far in order to dump them now. All that He had been doing in the past was leading up to this time. His faithfulness in the past guarantees His faithfulness in the future.
In our lives, God is not just taking us through one event after another; in each event and every encounter He is placing building blocks upon building blocks because He is building something in our lives. Another way to look at it is that He has us on a journey in which He is taking us to a definite destination. To drop us at any time would mean He is abandoning the destination, the goal, or the structure he is building in our lives. For this reason, we are to remember what He has done for us in the past so that we will not faint and give up when situations become difficult in our lives. God is faithful. If He were to dump us, He would be acting inconsistently, something He refuses to do.
COMMISSIONING JOSHUA (Deut. 31:7-8)
Although God was going to be the ultimate leader over Israel, God was going to appoint Joshua to be the man who would lead them. God was not going to deal with them directly but through Joshua. This is an important principle to realize. Because some denominations have gone to one extreme by making their pastors or spiritual leaders out to be dictators, unfortunately some denominations have gone to the other extreme and for all practical purposes have rejected spiritual leadership. At one church I heard one church member blast the pastor, saying, "He puts on his pants like everyone else does!" Whereas that is definitely true, God nevertheless has appointed people to be spiritual leaders among His people and has committed Himself to work through them in a special way.
Why does God appoint leaders whenever He can just communicate directly to His people? In order to promote humility and unity among His people. The last thing God needs from His people is the spirit of pride. Just as pride is the essence of demonic rebellion, its converse, humility, is the essence of the genuine Christian lifestyle. In order to cultivate humility then among His people, God sometimes will communicate His will for the church first through the leaders. God will then confirm this will among the membership if it is God's will if and only if the church seeks the Lord's face in prayer concerning this issue. (Once more, this is not to promote pastoral or leadership dictatorship; it is only to promote the biblical principle of spiritual leadership within God's people.)
Many times we restrict this leadership only to matters which affect the church as a whole. That just simply is not a biblical principle. In his letters Paul does not deal just with broad theological emphases; he deals also with the problems of the individuals in the church. For example, in Phil. 4:2 he urges Euodia and Syntyche, 2 women in the church, to live in harmony in the Lord. Paul got down in the trenches with his people. I'm sure some thought that Paul was a busybody who needed to stick to preaching rather than to meddling; however, many times the way church members act towards each other affects the success of the gospel.
God works many times in the lives of the spiritual leadership in order to prepare them for the multitude of issues their flock will face at times. Sometimes ministers experience more problems and issues than the law allows; however, God does this in order to equip them for help the congregation. Head knowledge differs radically from experiential wisdom. A lot of things on paper may look good; however, experience is the proven filter which shows what really works and what does not work. As a result, many times the spiritual leaders need to be at least a little more advanced in experience before they can minister adequately to the flock (see 2 Cor. 1:4-6).
God informs Joshua that he is to be strong and courageous because the Lord was going to be with him. These verbs are commands. Joshua has no option but to be strong and courageous because the Lord has commanded this. Oswald Chambers in his class My Utmost for His Highest states that in light of God's awesome power and His love for us, our fears are actually wicked. They are sin-based. The author of Hebrews actually states that "without faith it is impossible to please him." Why? "For he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him." Very few of us have problems believing that God exists. We do have problem, though, believing that God is for us. Such an attitude, though, is a slap in the face of the One who died for us. No matter what the circumstances may indicate, God's love and power are always directed towards us. To believe anything else is sin and brings God's displeasure.
DEPOSITING THE COVENANT WITH THE LEVITES (Deut. 31:9-13)
After commissioning Joshua, Moses turns and deposits the covenant with the Levites who are to keep the covenant beside the Ark of the Covenant at all times. The author of Hebrews informs us that they actually kept the covenant inside the Ark of the Covenant. In addition to this were kept Aaron's rod which had earlier budded and some of the manna which they had eaten for 40 years in the wilderness (Heb. 9:4ff.). Above these 3 items was the mercy seat. The 3 items most likely represented the people rejecting God's Law (the covenant), God's leadership (Aaron's rod), and God's provision (the manna). Only God's mercy appropriated by Israel’s faith paved the way for her to find favor with God.
THE SONG OF MOSES AND THE COMMISSIONING OF JOSHUA (Deut. 31:16-32:52)
Moses now does something very different. At first Moses speaks about a song God wishes him to compose which will serve as a testimony against the children of Israel. The song predicts that once the Israelites enter the Promised Land that they will reject God and turn to idols. Moses, though, does not immediately write the song. Instead, he turns and carries out the commissioning of Joshua. Only after he commissions Joshua does he compose the song which is the contents of chapter 32.
The order is as follows:
THE DEATH OF MOSES (Deut. 34:1-12)
Deuteronomy closes out with the story of Moses' death. At first this story sounds so tragic. For 40 years Moses had led the people in hope of bringing them to their destination of the Promised Land. Because of one incident, though, Moses disqualified himself from being able to lead them into Canaan. He was not disqualified because of any physical infirmity. In fact, Moses claims that he was as strong as ever even though he was 120 years old. He was disqualified because he had presented a false image of God at the Rock of Meribah. By being angry at the people when they grumbled because of lack of water, Moses was communicating to the people that God was angry with them, while in fact he was not. This generation was not the old generation which had gone through the Red Sea and yet grumbled 10x in the wilderness; this was a fresh generation. The generation had changed but not Moses. The new generation needed a new leader who would not relate to them the way Moses had related to the previous generation. Joshua was that man. From the top of Mount Nebo in the Pisgah mountain range, before he dies Moses is able to survey the entire land God was going to give to the Israelites.
It's wonderful that this chapter does not detail the end of Moses' story on earth. We read of Moses one more time in Matthew 17 at the Transfiguration. After Jesus was transfigured, Elijah and Moses appeared with Jesus on a mountain inside the Promised Land. There they spoke of Jesus' coming exodus. Moses got to see that the exodus he participated in actually pointed forward to the greater exodus Jesus would deliver. It is sad Moses did not enter Canaan with that generation of Israelites; however, as Jim Sharp, a friend of mine once told me, God never takes away silver unless He is about to give you gold. Although Moses did miss out on leading the people into Canaan, he nevertheless did get to enter it, not with the rebellious children of Israel but with the superlative Son of God. God is marvelous indeed. I think he was OK with that!