The leading of God

Sermon notes from Sunday 29 December 2019

Deuteronomy 32 verses 1 - 13

The book of Deuteronomy is one of the 5 books written by Moses.  The word Deuteronomy comes from 2 words - Deuter to mean 2 or second and nomos meaning law.  Moses is giving to the people the second law.  This book is made up of 34 chapters.  There are 3 discourses by Moses himself then a blessing and a song.  It all revolved around Moses` death and his burial.  Graham Scroggie said when he heard of those who were trying to condemn the book as false.  David went to face the great Goliath, he picked up 5 stones by the brook and put them in his pocket.  Only one of those stones was used against the giant.  The Lord himself spent 40 days fasting in the wilderness.  He took 5 books with him and only used one of them when the devil came against him - 3 times he quoted from this book of Deuteronomy.  Moses was coming to the end of his days.  Chapter 31 verse 14 "the Lord said unto Moses behold, thy days approach that thou must die."  The Lord knows the day of our birth and our departure.  Our latter end is in the hand of God.  He told Moses to fetch Joshua and come together to the tabernacle of the congregation.  Moses would not lead the people of Israel into the promised land, Joshua would.  Let us consider Moses` song.  In it Moses is looking back, then forward and on into the future.  At the end of another year it is good to reflect on the things that have gone by as well as where we are in the light of God`s presence.  We should also look to the future, it can be bright as we follow after God.  Verse 10 "he found him (Jacob) in the desert."  Jacob is described here as the nation because he became known as Israel.  This is God speaking through the prophet Moses to the nation but we can take it to mean something to ourselves today. 

God is searching.  God is not found by accident.  He knows every situation we face today.  This song comes from Moses reflecting on what has happened to the nation of Israel.  They had been blessed with so much but there was a danger in them turning away from God now.  We too can forget about God`s blessings on our lives.  Deuteronomy 31 verse 19 "Now therefore write ye this song for you and teach it the children of Israel; put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel."  Deuteronomy 31 verse 27 "For I know thy rebellion and thy stiff neck, behold while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the Lord and how much more after my death?"  Deuteronomy 32 verse 7 "Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations; ask thy father and he will show thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee."  Most writers agree that in this verse Israel is spoken of as being down in Egypt.  Jacob took his family down to Egypt at the time of famine.  Joseph was ruler, he was in charge but then things changed and a new king came to the throne who "knew not Joseph."  This new king began to put the Israelites into slavery.  God said "I have heard their affliction" and he sent Moses down to deliver them.  The wilderness is a place of want and hopelessness.  Where did God find you?  The people of Israel were shackled by an evil king and encompassed by an evil nation.  Egypt is a picture of the world and Pharaoh of the devil himself.  The Laodicean church in Revelation has a picture of Jesus knocking at the door of the church.  The people were saying "I am rich, I am increased with goods, I have need of nothing."  Do you realise you are blind, wretched, miserable and poor?  The Lord says "my son is standing at the door of your heart waiting to come in."  If only we would let him in.  Matthew was busy at his work recording the tax coming in, he was making sure it was all written down.  The Lord came to him and said "follow me"  Many a person is found in their work place.  The woman at the well was living in such a sinful state.  She came to the well and found the Lord there.  She didn`t want her immoral life to be seen.  The Lord found her though.  Remember the woman bent double in the synagogue.  She worshipped the Lord of heaven.  Right there in the midst of the people God found her.  Where were you found by Christ?  Has God found you today?  Can you look back to a day when he changed your life forever?  Do you know your sins have been forgiven today?

The schooling - verse 10 "he instructed him."  Once he found him, brought him out of the wilderness he needed to be instructed.  That is the character building of the Christian life.  God expects us to learn when we come into his family, to learn more of him.  Nehemiah leading the people, reflects back to the wilderness journey "thou givest also thy good spirit to instruct them." (Nehemiah 9 verse 20)  God`s Holy Spirit instructs us today.  Is the Holy Spirit leading us in the scriptures today?  Are we growing in grace and knowledge of the Lord?  Are we gaining more each day?  Psalm 32 verse 8 "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go."  We are saved but are we just content with that?  Wouldn`t it be awful to come to heaven and know nothing of the man who saved us?  Christians are born again but not fully grown.  So many things we have to learn, to mature, to develop.  Peter said "as new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word of God."  Once we begin to crave after the word of God it is just like milk for a baby.  The place where we find knowledge is in the word of God.  The writer to the Hebrews was writing to a people undergoing so many trials and were in danger of turning away from God.  The writer speaks of how they have been taught in the things of God first in case they went back, in case they lost the taste for the things of God.  There are many things coming to take us away from the things of God.  He found you and he schooled you.  He wants the people to keep their eyes on him.  The people were entering into a new land, a new day but he doesn`t want them to forget how they had come through the wilderness.  Hebrews looks at a people who should be more advanced than they were "you ought to be teachers of the word." (Hebrews 5 verse 12)  Paul went out into the dessert of Arabia to study the word of God for 3 years after he became a Christian.

The strengthening.  "He led him about."  God strengthens us for the road ahead.  People could look back to deliverance from Egypt, from the harsh taskmasters.  Imagine the joy in their hearts coming out of Egypt, deliverance from Pharaoh.  No longer prisoners having to make blocks. Deliverance by the mighty hand of God.  They sensed the presence of God.  God didn`t leave them.  He didn`t deliver them and tell them to get on with things.  God is still with them.  He does the same to us today.  He doesn`t just save us and leave us alone.  The pillar of fire went before the children of Israel reminding them of his presence with them, teaching them how to walk with him each day.  Whatever we face today he gives us the strength to face each situation.  God is there in the midst whatever we face today.  Sometimes we don`t understand the leading of God in our lives but God is in the midst of it all directing us.  Exodus 13 verse 17.  God drew the people out of Egypt but he wouldn`t take them through the land of the Philistines.  I wonder if Moses questioned that.  The reasoning was for God said "peradventure the people repent when they see war and they return to Egypt."  Do we feel God leading us today?

The security - verse 10 "he kept them."  In verse 11 the picture is given of the eagle who builds its nest on the highest of rocks.  When the young are led out of the nest the eagle will flutter overhead.  When eventually the eaglet comes to the edge of the rock the mother eagle will swoop underneath so that the young can rest on her wings until it gets strength to flap its own wings and actually fly.

The sufficiency of things to come - verse 13.  Hebrew scholars say that this verse is written in the future tense, every verb speaks of the future not the present.  There is sufficiency for the years to come.