promised

Restoration promised.

The Davidic Kingdom.

Music intro and outro by Scott Holmes.

Theme music by Gotama, Tale A Break

This week we're talking about society, Red Dwarf: The Promised Land, and Death Force. Show music by Reed Love and OGRE. Support the show!

God demands obedience from His people. But that expectation is not based on some need on His part to feel important. He doesn’t require affirmation and He is in no need of an ego boost. God’s demand that His people obey Him is based on His desire to bless them. In Deuteronomy 11:1-12, Moses will remind the people of Israel of God’s faithfulness. While the younger generation had an excuse, because they were not yet alive when God delivered Israel from captivity in Egypt, their parents had every reason to trust and obey God. He had more than proven His trustworthiness and His capacity to bless those who obeyed Him. But the next generation was going to have to learn to trust God on their own. If they wanted to enjoy all that the land of promise offered, they would have to walk in obedience to God’s commands. Because obedience brings blessings.   

Israel was totally unworthy of God’s goodness and grace. They were undeserving of all that He had done for them and had proven themselves incapable of living in faithfulness to Him. Yet, God had continued to bless them – in spite of them. Their entire history up until this point had been marked by rebellion and not righteousness. Even as they stood on the border of the land of Canaan, they had a long track-record of disobedience to God. Yet, in Deuteronomy 9:13-29, we will see Moses reminding them that God remained faithful to them because He was the covenant-keeping God. He had plans for them and those plans included their continued existence as a nation. God had promised that He would bless them and that they would be a blessing to the nations of the earth. It would be God’s plan to bring redemption to the world through a rebellious and unrighteous people. Because He is a faithful God.

“I just want what I deserve.” How many times have you heard that or even said it yourself? And yet, we all know that if we got what we deserved, we’d probably be highly disappointed. But how easy it is to assume that we are better than we really are. Our false perception of our own self-righteousness can be highly deceptive. And Moses knew that the people of Israel suffered from an inflated sense of self-worth as well. And it was only going to get worse after they entered the promised land and began enjoying all the blessings God had in store for them. In Deuteronomy 9:1-12, Moses continues his address to the people of Israel, reminding them that all God was about to do was going to be in spite of them, not because of them. He was not rewarding them for their good behavior. His was extending His undeserved grace and mercy to a people who had proven their penchant for stubbornness and rebellion. They were unrighteousness and undeserving, but God would prove faithful and true to His promises.

We’ve already covered the topic of forgetfulness, but it seems that Moses is not quite done with this point. In Deuteronomy 8:11-20, he is going to raise the issue of forgetfulness one more time, reminding the people of Israel that they needed to avoid it like the plague. God had done amazing things on their behalf and had even more He was going to accomplish as they prepared to cross the River Jordan and enter the land of promise. But Moses knew they ran the risk of suffering from short-term memory. Once they got into the land and began to enjoy all the fruitfulness and blessings it provided, they would begin to think that they had somehow earned or deserved their newfound prosperity. That is why Moses warned them to remember God. If not, forgetfulness of God’s role in their conquest of the land would lead to self-exaltation and self-reliance, robbing God of glory and rewarding themselves with credit they did not deserve.

God had big things in store for Israel. And all that He had promised to do for them was backed by His covenant commitment. He had told them what He would do and He could be trusted to keep His word. But the problem was that the covenant He had made with Israel had been a bilateral one. That means both sides had to keep their part of the commitment. Any hope they had of enjoying all the blessings God had promised was directly tied to their willingness to remain faithful to Him and fully obedient to all the requirements of the law. As a nation, they had given their word to do everything the Lord had commanded. But Moses knew they were a fickle people who had a track record of unfaithfulness. So, in Deuteronomy 7:7-16, he provides them with a much-needed reminder that their status as God’s chosen people was based on grace, not their own goodness. But if they wanted to continue to enjoy His presence and provision, they would have to be faithful.

Belief. As Christians, we talk about it a lot because it is central to our concept of salvation. But sometimes we fail to grasp the true significance of what it means to believe. We tend to think of it as a cognitive act, requiring some kind of mental assent to a given truth. But faith really begins in the heart. Head-knowledge alone won’t cut it. And in Deuteronomy 6:20-25, Moses is going to call the people to obey God’s laws, but to do so, they were going to have to believe in who He was and all that He had promised to do for them. Their obedience would need to be motivated by faith, not fear. And their faith was to rest on the character of God – as evidenced by His unwavering faithfulness to them. He had done all that He had promised to do, so He could be trusted. And that trust should result in willful, heartfelt obedience to His commands.

Forgetfulness can be frustrating. The inability to recall a name or to remember an important piece of information can create a sense of vulnerability and weakness. It is as if we can’t fully depend upon ourselves. We can’t trust our mind to come through for us when we need it most. But just think how God feels when His people forget Him. When His people fail to remember all that He has done for them and begin to take Him for granted. That’s the worry Moses had concerning the people of Israel. So, in Deuteronomy 6:10-19, we have him warning the Israelites about the danger of forgetfulness. He wasn’t worried that they would forget an important date or the names of their children. He was afraid they would fail to remember God and all He had done on their behalf. Forgetfulness would lead to faithlessness. And that would be dangerous.  

Deuteronomy 5:16-21 continues Moses’ recitation of the law. In it we have six more of God’s commands that are focused on man’s interrelationship with his fellow man. They are horizontal in nature, dictating the way in which the Israelites were to treat one another. These are practical laws dealing with everyday activities between God’s people. Not only were the Israelites to show reverence and respect for God, they were to treat one another as God’s creations, showing honor to one another through their attitudes and actions. By keeping God’s laws concerning their interpersonal relationship, the people of God were to reflect His holiness and righteousness to the pagan nations around them.