Deuteronomy Archives - Page 7 of 7

Remembering the Lord Your God

Joe Harby on June 16, 2013

Introduction

We are looking at a passage this morning which is familiar for many reasons. The Lord Jesus quotes it when He tells us what the greatest commandment in all Scripture is (Luke 10:27). This passage contains the great Shema, recited by the Jews constantly—“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.” This is the passage that led many of us to undertake the high calling of Christian education for our children—when you walk along the road, and when you are sitting in your house. But there is another jewel here for us.

The Text

“ . . . Then beware lest thou forget the Lord, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage . . .” (Deut. 6:4-13).

Summary of the Text

Hear, O Israel, the YHWH our Elohim, is one YHWH (v. 4). In paraphrase, we might say the Jehovah, our Gods, is one Jehovah. And you shall love the YHWH your Elohim with everything you’ve got (v. 5). These words that Moses is delivering shall reside in your heart (v. 6). As a result, they must also be in your mouth as you teach your children in every setting (v. 7). Tie them on your hand, bind them to your forehead (v. 8). These two locations indicate behavior and thought. Be careful, little hand, what you do. Be careful, little head, what you think. Write them down on your doorposts and gates (v. 9). Then, when God gives you an abundance of His goodness (vv. 10-11), you must watch out lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the house of slavery (v. 12). You shall fear the Lord, and serve the Lord, and take your oaths in His name (v. 13).

A Takeaway Summary

There are a number of verbs in the imperative in this passage—hear, love, teach, talk, bind, write, fear, serve, and swear. But we should be able to see that they all come together in this—remember. Do not forget (v. 12). We know from the New Testament, that the highest form our obedience takes is in submission to the great command to love. But what do you do exactly when you love? Should you grit your teeth and radiate love rays? No . . . we love by remembering.

Remembering Grace is Not a Work

With a message like this, one of the first things we might forget is that God loved us first. If we love because He first loved us (1 Jn. 4:19), then we remember Him because He first remembered us. This means that God remembers us, and it is only because He remembers us that we can remember Him. There are numerous examples of God’s remembrance, so let’s just point to a few. God remembered Noah (Gen. 8:1). God remembered Rachel (Gen. 30:22). God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Ex. 2:24). God remembered the house of Israel (Ps. 98:3). What is all this but to say that God loved His people? So remember, then, salvation is by grace through faith, from first to last.

How Then Shall We Love?

When forgetfulness begins, love is then in decline. Do not forget all the Lord’s benefits (Ps. 103:2). The Israelites did evil when they forgot (Judg. 3:7). Paul loved the poor by remembering them (Gal. 2:10).

The blood of Jesus is the only possible covering for our sin. A cloak of forgetfulness can’t cover sin, because forgetfulness is one of the greatest of sins. Never hide your dirty sins under a pile of bigger, dirty sins. Never hide your crud under worse crud. Not smart.

Walk Backwards into the Future

Samuel Johnson once observed that we more often need to be reminded than we need to be instructed. Instructing someone on what he already knows is an irritation. Reminding someone of what we all confess is a needed reminder is a blessing.

“Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder . . . This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles” (2 Pet. 1:12-13, 3:1-2).

What are we to remember? We have a Bible full of things to remember, not to mention a creation full of them. But let us set our loves in order.

* We are to remember the law of God. We have this in our text. God delivered us from the house of slavery, and His law is our life. Love is defined by the law (Rom. 13:8). Of course, if we have forgotten God and His Word, that same law condemns us . . . and drives us to Christ.

* We are to remember the salvation of God. We see this through the Passover in the Old Testament (Ex. 12:14), and the Lord’s Supper in the New (1 Cor. 11:24-26). We are to eat this bread, and drink this cup as a remembrance (anamnesis).

* We are to remember the process of sanctification in the course of our pilgrimage through this world. We have a duty in perseverance, and perseverance in any kind of long haul is that which enables you to remember when the thought comes into your head . . . why am I doing this again?

The Greatest Threat

Returning to our text, what is the great eraser? We have written all the goodness of God up on the board, to remind ourselves, up in front of the class. We have memorialized His great kindnesses to us. What is most frequently used to wipe it all away? What makes us forget the goodness of God? The answer is . . . the goodness of God. He gives us wealth (Deut. 6:10-12), and our minds instantly start to wander. He gives us a good land (Deut. 8:7-18), and we take all the credit for ourselves (Deut. 8:18), as though we arranged for it all ourselves.

“The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (Ps.9:17).

The Nature of National Repentance

Joe Harby on November 18, 2012

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Introduction

In God in the Dock, C.S. Lewis has a very fine short essay on the dangers of national repentance. In short, what he cautions us against is the prayerful form of “don’t blame me, I wanted to do something else.” In other words, every form of true repentance is hard, while there is a form of blaming others (while using we language) that gives us a carnal pleasure. In everything else that we consider today, this wise caution should be kept in the forefront of our minds, and at the very top of our hearts.

The Text

“And the Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage: And when we cried unto the Lord God of our fathers, the Lord heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labour, and our oppression: And the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders: And he hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey” (Deut. 26:6-9).

Summary of the Text

At the tail end of their time in the wilderness, the Israelites are being reminded out how it was that they came to be delivered in the first place. The Egyptians treated them oppressively, and laid hard bondage upon them (v. 6). The people of Israel cried out to God as a consequence, and God heard them, and considered their afflictions (v. 7). As a result, God rose up and scattered their enemies with an outstretched arm (v. 8), and brought them to the threshold of a land filled with promise (v. 9). And by no stretch of the imagination is this a “one off ” situation; it is a biblical theme (Judg. 3:9; 4:3; 6:6; 10:10; 1 Sam. 12:9-10; and many other places).

How Individuals Repent

Repentance is always a function of things going wrong somehow. Nobody converts because every day they get happier and happier, and finally they are so happy they decide to turn to Christ. Some convert even though they are externally blessed—but only because they feel and see the hollowness of it (Ecc. 1:14). Others do it in a more straightforward way—they have their whole life come apart in their hands (divorce, financial ruin, disease), and in their affliction they turn to God.

Horses and Mules

We should far prefer to be taught (Ps. 32:8). We should not be like the horse or mule, needing a bit and bridle to direct us (Ps. 32:9). But when we refuse teaching, the Lord is fully capable of ramping it up. He always sends prophets before He sends the pestilence. But when men are sleek in their conceits, they think the mere fact of a prophet means there will be no pestilence.

Lord, Do What It Takes

National repentance is not a nebulous dislike of ourselves, and it does not consist of being accusative toward others. Jesus teaches us what our value system ought to be. We ought to prefer losing our right hand to keeping our right hand to go to Hell with (Matt. 5:30). We ought to prefer to go to Heaven missing our right eye than to go to Hell with both eyes (Matt. 5:29).

Translate this to our national situation. What do we actually prefer? Would you rather have America spend the next ten years doubling our GDP, or the next ten years repenting? Now some might think a sensible response would be to ask why we couldn’t have had a doubled GDP and the repentance too. I don’t know why we couldn’t have had that. You tell me.

So if we are true Christians, our prayer will be, “Lord, do whatever it takes. Lord, break us down.”We do not ask for more than it takes (obviously), but we must not ask for less than it takes. It is not lawful for us to arrange any of this for ourselves, taking matters into our own hands. But it is lawful and right to accept it with gratitude and humility when the Lord takes up the rod. Behold the kindness and severity of God (Rom. 11:22).

What Sins?

Remember that in calling for national repentance, we are not calling for a generic or nebulous kind of “feeling bad.” Repentance is an activity of the mind (the word means “changing your mind”) and consequently it is an activity filled with content.

These are not “partisan issues” at all—the call to repentance is genuinely bipartisan. God calls all men to repent and believe, and it is possible to come to Him from any direction—from left, right, and center. You can come to Him from the polished marble floors of Washington, and you can come to Him from the fever swamps. You can come to Him from a gay pride parade in San Francisco, and you can come to Him by climbing down off your step ladder of Pharisaism. Come.

Some might object that this really is partisan—that I am somehow targeting the Democrats, and not the Republicans. Not a bit of it. I am preaching against Suleiman the Magnificent, and against his harem.

What do you let go of when you come? I mentioned that repentance is an activity filled with content. Let’s consider two general areas, one from the first Table of the law, and the other a cluster of three commandments from the second Table of the law.

First, we must repent of secularism (Ex. 20:3). We have no right to worship, pray to, invoke, or claim the name of any other God. The only God that any nation has a right to claim is the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. Secularism is a sin, a grievous one.

As far as our national hatred of our neighbor goes, think about our complicity with abortion (Ex.20:13), pomosexuality (Ex. 20:14), and statist piracy (Ex. 20:15). Three commandments, three verses, right in a row. And remember that secularism started off by justifying its neglect of the true God for the sake of our neighbor. Where is all that neighbor love now?

Three Stark Realities

We have some great challenges before us. This is not going to be easy—whether to declare or to endure. At the same time, we may embrace what God sends, even though we do not have the authority to send those hard challenges down upon ourselves.

Here are the three central issues we must keep central to our thinking about all of this. First, there is no deliverance without Jesus. Second, there is no deliverance with the sin. And third, there are no other options, or other alternatives. Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. If the Lord is God, serve Him. If Mammon is god, then let us all go to that great Federal Reserve temple, where we may follow our god of green liquidity in solemn procession as it circles the drain.

Deep Peril, Deep Thanksgiving

Joe Harby on November 22, 2009

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Introduction

We sometimes try to cultivate the right heart attitude by denying the obvious challenges and perils in the world around us, and we sometimes try to pretend that we see the “real world” by adopting a cynical and artistic posture toward it all. We think that in order to have an enjoyable thanksgiving, it would have to be in an idyllic Norman Rockwell setting—a cartoon thanksgiving. And if we have attained to the sophomoric wisdom of knowing that there is evil in the world, we think that we are justified in falling back into the profound evil of ingratitude.

The Text

“Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee: And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever. Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee” (Dt. 28:45-49).

Summary of the Text

The 28th chapter of Deuteronomy contains a list of blessings for faithful obedience, and curses for unfaithful disobedience. The words of the law that are set before the people of Israel then are actually the words of the gospel, as Paul explains it (Rom. 10). They are words of gospel, that is, if we receive them in faith. In the course of explaining these blessings and curses, Moses makes this comment on what unfaithful disobedience actually looks like. The curses will chase down and overtake God’s people, destroying them, because they could not be bothered to do what God had told them to do (v. 45). And what was that? It was not because they had not gone around with pinched and pious faces. The problem was the opposite problem. The curses would rest on them as a sign and a wonder, and upon their children after them (v. 46). And why? Because they had not served the Lord their God with joyfulness, with gladness of heart, for the abundance of their stuff (v. 47). And because they did not serve the Lord with joy, then they might as well serve their enemies with no joy, since that is clearly more fitting (v. 48).

Carnal Wisdom

True faith sees the world as it is, and also sees the world as God has declared it will be. So if we live by faith, we will not be content with superficial gratitude, and we will not be content with superficial ingratitude.Carnal wisdom either opts for the upbeat attitude, and acts as though the world is not full of sin, or it sees the grit and rejects the attitude of triumphant gospel declaration. Churches that fall for the former problem devolve into a condition where the sermons are full of treacle, and the whole church falls into a sentimentalist vat of goo. Churches that drift into the latter error adopt a posture of “too cool to care.” They get their view of depravity, not from the apostle Paul, but from gritty film-makers. The former elevate a cozy community, while the latter embrace an autonomous (and very artsy) individualism. A plague on both their houses—we want to see the world for what it is in order to be able to overcome it. This is not possible unless we, like Abraham, look forward to the city that God is in the process of establishing. God has intervened in human history, He is intervening, and He will continue to intervene. The New Jerusalem descends from the heavens.

Unsheathed Gratitude

So Thanksgiving is not what we fight for. Thanksgiving is what we fight with. Take your celebration of Thanksgiving out of the scabbard. Consider these truths. “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Phil. 4:6). The joy of the Lord is your strength “Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength” (Neh. 8:10). And of course we know that thanksgiving looks back on past blessings, but true thanksgiving also anticipates coming victories as well. “Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place” (2 Cor. 2:14).

Thanksgiving Is Not Murmuring Cleaned Up

Some might want to say that they are not complaining, but rather just commenting. Right. Others want to say that the reason they grouse about stuff like Wal-Mart, or pharmaceutical prices, or global corporations, or the Internet, or preservatives, or Nancy Pelosi’s Congress, is that they are bringing a Christian worldview critique to bear. Fine, but where is the joy? A sentimentalist resents having to fight, which is why his fighting, when it occurs, is so anemic. A biblical Christian hates evil, which is not the same thing as whining about it. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil (Prov. 8:13), but it is a clean hatred— glittering, pointed and joyful.

Application This Thursday

And so, we know that the days are evil. “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:15-16). But this is what Paul tells us right before he urges us to walk in the Spirit, overflowing with thanksgiving. In what kind of time are we to be filled with the Spirit, singing and psalming in our hearts? In evil days. And he says this right before he says to give thanks for all things (Eph. 5:20). Did we catch that? We give thanks for all things in evil days. We serve a sovereign God. And so, this Thursday, strike a blow for righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, and do it with turkey, stuffing, cranberries, potatoes, and pie.

Honoring and Obeying Parents

Christ Church on February 15, 2009

Text

“Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.” Deuteronomy 5:8-10