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The song of Moses and the song of Miriam The Lord is your:
The song is new song:
So sing a new song.
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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.
“ . . . 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).
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).
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.
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.
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.
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?
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).
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“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” Romans 5:1-11
When Jesus first appeared to the gathered disciples after his resurrection, he focused his message on this one word – peace (John 20:19, 21, and 26). Jesus had just brought about the reconciliation of God and sinners, and the result was peace. Jesus couldn’t get over it. We’re at peace now. We don’t understand the full significance of the word because we probably don’t fully appreciate the severity of the sentence that was against us. But Jesus knew what that sentence was. He knew the wrath that we were under. And he returned to his disciples, bursting with the news that he was at peace with us.
The glory of God was once death for us (Exodus 33:18-23, Ez. 1:27-28). When a sinful man stood before the glory of a perfect God, the result was an all-consuming terror. But now the apostle Paul says that we rejoice in it Rom. 5:2, that is we rejoice in what we were once terrified of, and we are now at peace with God’s holiness. This change in our relationship to God’s holiness, from terror and fear to peace and joy, is what it means to be justified.
Paul is describing a surprise reversal. Now that we are standing in this grace – “We also glory in tribulations . . .” Tribulation really ought to lead us to despair. But Jesus saw it as an opportunity for God’s glory to be revealed. Outside of Christ, tribulation on earth is merely a foretaste of the eternal condemnation that is waiting for us. But when we are in the grace of God, these tribulations produce something altogether different in us.
This is why we are given the Holy Spirit now. The Holy Spirit is regularly described as a guarantee (Eph. 1:13- 14), a deposit, a promise. The reason that this deposit is so important is that it is going to look, at times, like you aren’t headed towards eternal life. When you suffer it is going to feel at times like you are headed towards death and destruction. But the Holy Spirit is poured into your heart as a confirmation that God is actually moving you towards eternal life. It is a supernatural peace and confidence in the face of suffering.
The world describes people who endure suffering as “fighters.” It is a hollow boast. Because we all know that any victory that they might experience is a temporary victory, a remission from suffering. But Paul promises us that in Christ “we are more than conquerors” (Rom. 8:37-39). Because through Christ we have conquered death itself, our hope will not be disappointed.
Paul is about to explain the reason why we can have this confidence, this peace. The answer is – while you were still an absolute jerk, Jesus died for you. And if he was willing to die for you in that condition, then how much more is he going to give his life to you, now that you have been forgiven? We have peace in suffering because we have Jesus’ eternal life promised to us.
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The fact that this prophetic warning is located just on the threshold of God’s judgment of Israel in 70 A.D. does not prevent it from providing us with a number of useful warnings. They were told to look back at similar times of affliction in the Old Testament, and so we have two sets of such historical warnings. Locating this in the first century, therefore, does not make this irrelevant to us, but rather doubly relevant.
“Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten . . .” (Jas. 5:1-20).
The rich are instructed to weep for the coming miseries (v. 1). The wealth they have, and the luxuries they possess, are all coming apart (v. 2). Their gold and silver is corroded, and will both testify against them and devour them (v. 3). They have made piles of treasure for the last days (v. 3). The next judgment tells us what kind of rich men we are talking about (v. 4). They can hire roomfuls of lawyers to keep the working man in bondage to the fine print. They are sensualists, fattening themselves for God’s charnel house (v. 5). They are rich men who kill just men (v. 6).
So the brothers ought to be patient in waiting for the coming of the Lord, just like a farmer waits (v. 7). They should strengthen their hearts as the coming of the Lord approaches (v. 8). Don’t break out into squabbles . . . the judge is at the door (v. 9). Christians in the first century should take a page from the Old Testament prophets (v. 10). We consider men happy who endure misery through to the end (v. 11). Count Job a happy man therefore.
Whatever you do, don’t swear by created things. Let your yes be yes (v. 12). The afflicted should pray (v. 13). The merry should sing psalms (v. 13). The sick should ask for the elders to come (v. 14). The prayer of faith will raise up the sick, and sickness is more closely related to sin issues than we might want to think (v. 15). Confess your faults and failings to one another, so that you might be healed (v. 16). In this humbled, honest context, fervent prayer avails much. Elijah was a man with problems like we have, and look how God answered his prayers (vv. 17- 18). Go after those who wander off (v. 19). Let the one you are chasing know that he is being pulled back from death, and that a multitude of sins is being covered (v. 20) . . . which is the task of love.
The Bible describes the run-up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. in terms that should make us think of the denouement of The Odyssey. We see rich and insolent suitors devouring what is not theirs, while justice is right at the door. This chapter describes this kind of scene for us well.
The rich here are the same ones in chapter two, those who mistreat the saints (Jas. 2:6). Their wealth is not like that of Abraham or Solomon, but rather was wickedly obtained (v. 3). They rob their laborers of wages that were promised to them, keeping the wages back by fraud (v. 4). They live in wanton luxury (v. 5). They use their wealth to murder just people (v. 6). Foolish saints are tempted to flatter such men, but what is required is for us to stand against them with a prophetic courage.
For all their wisdom (the kind of wisdom that is from below), these rich people do not know they are on the precipice of disaster. They have heaped up piles of loot for the last days (v. 3). A mound of gold at your feet in Hell will just melt and run away. Those afflicted by these people are told to be patient to the coming of the Lord (v. 7). The coming of the Lord is drawing near (v. 8). The judge is standing right at the door (v. 9). From these descriptions, this had to have happened in the first century. But this does not make such warnings irrelevant to us —all of us will meet God within one lifetime . . . our own.
We know from the teaching of Scripture that sin and suffering are not automatically connected. James mentions Job here as a patient and happy man (v. 11), and not the sinner that his three counselors thought he was. And of course, Jesus effectively countered His disciples who thought a man was born blind because of his or his parents’ sin (John 9:3).
But the fact that there is not an automatic connection does not mean there is no connection. When the elders pray, it says, healing and forgiveness are closely connected (v. 15). This is why we should be honest with each other (v. 16). Being honest means that we will not treat the whole thing as a cosmic karma machine, but neither will we shuffle off all responsibility as though there could not be a connection.
The psalms are like the blues. One of the striking things about the blues is that singing them makes you feel better. Even though the subject of many blues songs is pretty grim (“nobody loves me but my mother, and she could be jiving too”), the overall effect of the blues is pretty upbeat.
The same thing is true of the psalms. Notice that James says that if someone is merry, he should “sing psalms.” He does not say that the merry one should sing Psalms 148, 149, and 150. The book of psalms is full of affliction, and yet God tells us that it provides us with our vocabulary of joy and godly mirth. Psalms of distress, psalms of war, psalms of fear, psalms of imprecation, psalms of penitence . . . into the hopper.
Remember that the world runs on envy and accusation. Remember that God gives more grace. But what sense does it make to confess my faults to others when anything I say can and will be used against me? We are not to confess anything in an attempt manipulate God, or as we try to get Him to do our bidding. We are to confess our sins in Christ, and we are to be lifted up in Christ. Confession must not be a “work.” It must be all of grace.
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The devil is a moralist. The devil is self-righteous. The devil is an angel of light. The name Lucifer means light- bearer. Who could be against that? The devil is censorious. The devil disapproves of us, and likes it when we disapprove of one another. The devil is a Pharisee. The devil is the accuser of the brethren, accusing them day and night before the throne. And this means we should be more far more concerned than we usually are about the danger of becoming like the devil.
“From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not . . .” (Jas. 4:1-17).
Where do our fights come from (v. 1)? They come, not from outside us, but from inside us. You want something, but don’t get it (v. 2). You kill but don’t get it. You fight and go to war, but you won’t humble yourself and ask for it (v. 2). You want it by conquest, not as a gift of grace. And, when you do ask, your motives for asking are all messed up (v. 3). Friendship with the world and friendship with God cannot coexist together (v. 4). The spirit in us veers toward envy (v. 5). But God gives more grace. He resists the proud and gives grace to the humble (v. 6). Submit, resist, and watch the devil flee (v. 7). Approach God and He will approach you (v. 8). To approach God, you must purify yourself. You must afflict your soul (v. 9), and not on the surface of it either. Humble yourself so that God might lift you up (v. 10).
Don’t speak evil of one another. To judge your brother is tantamount to judging the law (v. 11), which is bad. There is one lawgiver, and it isn’t you (v. 12). Come now, ye big movers and shakers (v. 13)—you don’t know that your entire life is a little wisp of fog at 7 am that will be gone in 45 minutes (v. 14), as soon as the sun gets over the trees. Your plans for the future therefore ought to take the Lord’s will into account (v. 15). If you don’t, you are boasting, which is an evil self-sufficiency (v. 16). So if you know what is right, you had better do it (v. 17).
We might not really want to, but let’s unpack this further.
The first and most obvious thing is that desire collides with other desires. Two men want the same job, the same honor, the same girl, the same reputation, the same birthright. Where does conflict come from? James answers the question bluntly—from the desires of your members. Instead of praying to God for the desire of your heart (Ps. 37:4), you pray with the desire of your heart, and so you are turned down flat. This blind desire (which amounts to the desire to be friends with the world) is a desire that is enmity toward God (v. 4). Our front end needs to be aligned—left to ourselves we always veer toward the envy ditch. This is because we desire things in a world where others are usually there first. In fact, given your luck, they are always there first.
Desire awakens because of the presence of the other. This is why desire (and the desire of others) leads to conflict, war, grabbing, accusations, and judging. Using the law that way makes you exegete Scripture like the devil. The name Satan means accuser; the word devil refers to slanderous accusation. But who wants to be like that? Well, more people want to be like that than know they want to be like that. When you boast about what you will do tomorrow, such boasting has others in the rear view mirror (vv. 11, 16). Watch my dust, chump. So remember what we learned in the previous chapter about the wisdom from above and the wisdom from below.
Now consider the wonderful promise of v. 7. Submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. But if we have superficial views of the nature of our relationships, and the nature of our conflicts, and the nature of our desires, then we can apply this verse until we turn blue, and the devil will not flee at all. He will just sit there, leering at you. And he will make comments from time to time, because he likes to watch you twitch.
If you view the “world of desire” as simple, then it will not be surprising that you are easily confounded. God says not to take that chocolate chip cookie, and so all you have to do is submit to God on the point of law, recognize that the cookie belongs to another, and poof! the devil vanishes. So if it is so simple, why doesn’t he vanish?
Submit to God means to submit to His entire evaluation, as described in this extended passage, of the tangled web of conflicting desires that makes up your world, and it means to break off your adulterous friendship with the world entirely. To resist the devil means to resist the spirit of accusation that whispers to you every day about how right you are. Who is that who tells you every morning that you are “quite right”? Do you really need to ask? If you want the devil to flee and your right to accuse others to stay, then you are a double-minded man, not knowing what on earth you are asking for.
When we are delivered from envy (and from the envious), we are delivered by grace. God gives more grace (v. 6). He gives grace to the humble (v. 6). He will lift up the one who has humbled himself (v. 10), not the one who has vaunted himself. God draws near to such a person (v. 8). If the Lord blesses, we will do what we do—otherwise not (v. 15). Please note that there is such a thing as vindication. There is a rear view mirror, but you had better not be looking in it the wrong way. Remember the contextual flow. The one who is boasting in his great business plans is someone who clearly has an eye on the competition.
Is James an accuser? Look again at verse 4, and ask if James is a devil. Is any minister who preaches these words a pulpit devil? Well, it has been done before, but there is a key distinction. The cross comes down to one point, and one point only. The cross judges the judgmental.