Deuteronomy 31-34
Sunday Evening Bible Study
October 21, 2001
Introduction
The name Deuteronomy means “second law”. It is Moses’ final address to the people. It covers the last 1˝ months of Moses’ life. He’s 120 years old. It’s God’s “review” for the people to make sure they understand His ways before they go into the land.
Deuteronomy 31
:4 And the LORD shall do unto them as he did to Sihon and to Og, kings of the Amorites, and unto the land of them, whom he destroyed.
With God’s help, they had conquered the kings of the Amorites and had taken their land. (Deut. 2:26 – 3:11)
Lesson
One victory leads to another.
Over and over God will remind the Israelites of the things He’s done for them, whether getting them out of Egypt or conquering the Amorites.
They are about to go into a season of warfare, and to encourage the people, God wants to remind them that He has fought for them before.
When David found the opportunity before him of facing Goliath, he drew on his prior experience as a shepherd:
(1 Sam 17:34-37 KJV)
And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a
lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: {35} And I went out after
him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose
against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. {36} Thy
servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine
shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.
{37} David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the
lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of
this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the LORD be with thee.
David had learned from experience that God was able to give him victory in battle.
God wants us to learn to trust Him for the battles we are currently facing.
For some of us, these will be our “early” battles, the ones that we will look back upon and remember how God worked in our lives.
For some of us, we already have seen victory in our lives, and we can gain encouragement that if God helped me once, He can help me again.
:6 Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
This would be a great verse to memorize!
Lesson
The size of your fear is related to
the size and closeness of your God.
We have an awesome God. He is very near. We have no need to fear.
(Zep 3:17 KJV) The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.
If you’ve been experiencing fear lately, take time to reacquaint yourself with God’s greatness. Take time to draw near to Him.
:7 And Moses called unto Joshua, and said unto him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of a good courage: for thou must go with this people unto the land which the LORD hath sworn unto their fathers to give them; and thou shalt cause them to inherit it.
Joshua had been the leader of the army.
He had recently received a measure of Moses’ authority. (Num. 27:18-23)
Now he was to take Moses’ place.
:9 And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it unto the priests the sons of Levi, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and unto all the elders of Israel.
Moses gives a copy of the Law to the priests. They were to be the keepers and enforcers of God’s law.
:10 And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles,
Once every seven years at the feast of tabernacles, in September-October.
The year of release, every seventh year, you were to set slaves free and not plant seed in the fields. (Deut. 15:1-11)
:16 And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods …
God knew that when Moses was gone, that the people would turn their back on Him. He’s not surprised when we sin either.
: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.
Moses and Joshua were to write a song (the verb is plural, they both wrote the song).
Songs are a great way to teach things, a great way to remember things.
How many of you remember the song, Flintstones,
they’re the Flintstones, they’re a (modern stone-age family) …
How did you remember that? Because songs are a great way of getting something into our brain.
How about this … do any of you know the Scripture verse 1John 4:7,8 by heart? Many of us know it because we learned the song.
Lesson
Write songs that teach.
Here’s a challenge to you song writers out there. Your songs don’t have to just be about worship and telling the Lord you love Him. They can also be songs that teach a principle.
One of the greatest things you can teach people is the Word of God. Take God’s Word and put it to music.
:21 that this song shall testify against them as a witness
They’ll have probably forgotten God’s Word, but they won’t forget the song.
:22 Moses therefore wrote this song the same day, and taught it the children of Israel.
The song is the next chapter, Deut. 32
:23 And he gave Joshua the son of Nun a charge
God speaks directly to Joshua.
:26 Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant
The scrolls were to be kept next to the Ark of the Covenant.
Deuteronomy 32
:1-43 Moses’ Song
:3 Because I will publish the name of the LORD
publish – proclaim
:5 their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation.
(Deu 32:5 NKJV) … They are
not His children, Because of their blemish: A perverse and crooked generation.
:6 Do ye thus requite the LORD
(NIV) Is this the way you
repay the LORD
:8 When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance
When God set up the boundaries of the ancient nations. This was done in Genesis 10, the record of the songs of Noah.
(Gen 10:32 KJV) These are
the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations:
and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.
There were 70 nations.
:8 he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.
When Jacob went down to Egypt, his family consisted of 70 people.
(Gen 46:26-27 NKJV) All the
persons who went with Jacob to Egypt, who came from his body, besides Jacob's
sons' wives, were sixty-six persons in all. {27} And the sons of Joseph who
were born to him in Egypt were two persons. All the persons of the house of
Jacob who went to Egypt were seventy. (Also,
Exodus 1:5)
This is a bit of a mystery to me, why God divided the earth into 70 nations, the same number as the number of Jacob and his descendants when they went to Egypt. But that’s the way God did it.
The Number 70
The number 70 is kind of interesting in its use. It seems to be tied to the nation of Israel. In fact God says here it’s the “number of the children of Israel”.
It was the number of elders in Israel
(Num 11:24 KJV) And Moses
went out, and told the people the words of the LORD, and gathered the seventy
men of the elders of the people, and set them round about the tabernacle.
Gideon had 70 sons (Judg 8:30)
Ahab had 70 sons (2Ki. 10:1)
Israel was kept in Babylon for 70 years
(2 Chr 36:21 NASB) to
fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had
enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath until
seventy years were complete.
They hadn’t kept seventy years’ worth of sabbaths (which would be 70 years times 7 years they were disobedient).
Daniel’s prophecy concerning the Messiah had to do with 70 weeks
(Dan 9:24 NASB)
"Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to
finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for
iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and
prophecy, and to anoint the most holy place.
Jesus’ rule of forgiveness
(Mat 18:21-22 KJV) Then came
Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I
forgive him? till seven times? {22} Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee,
Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.
Where do you suppose that He came up with the “seventy times seven”? Was it just a way of exaggerating Peter’s suggestion? Perhaps it was a way of saying that just as God has been completely forgiving to all of Israel, so we ought to be forgiving to others as well.
:9 the LORD'S portion is his people;
God’s people are His treasure.
:10 he kept him as the apple of his eye.
apple – pupil
(NLT) he guarded them as his most precious possession.
Lesson
You are God’s treasure
This is the way that God views His people:
Zechariah 2:8 For thus saith
the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which
spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.
When someone tries to hurt you, it’s like they’re poking God in the eye. Pity them.
:11 beareth them on her wings
God has mentioned this before, regarding the time He delivered them through the Red Sea:
(Exo 19:4 KJV) Ye have seen
what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought
you unto myself.
Lesson
God’s protection.
An eagle teaches it's young to fly in a very different way. Eagles' nests are located on very high, out of the way places. When it's time for a flying lesson, the mother eagle will push the baby out of the nest. The baby will start flailing at the air, trying to fly, but falling like a rock to the canyon floor. At just the last moment, the mother will swoop down, and scoop up the baby on top of its wings. Then they try it all over again.
God never promises to keep us away from problems, but He always promises to rescue us in the nick of time.
In talking about how the Israelites gave us examples of how to live, and how not to live, Paul writes:
1CO 10:13
No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is
faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but
with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able
to endure it.
He will deliver us.
:12 So the LORD alone did lead him
By pushing him out of the nest.
Lesson
It’s scary learning to fly.
Sometimes God has to make things uncomfortable for us to get us to move along. A baby eagle can’t spend its entire life in the nest. There comes a time when it needs to get out on its own and fly.
Illustration
WHO IS THE PILOT?
In Point Man, Steve Farrar tells about a photographer for a national magazine who was assigned to take pictures of a great forest fire. He was advised that a small plane would be waiting to fly him over the fire. The photographer arrived at the airstrip just an hour before sundown. Sure enough, a small Cessna airplane was waiting. He jumped in with his equipment and shouted, “Let’s go!” The tense man sitting in the pilot’s seat swung the plane into the wind and soon they were in the air, though flying erratically. “Fly over the north side of the fire,” said the photographer, “and make several low-level passes.” “Why?” asked the nervous pilot. “Because I’m going to take pictures!” yelled the photographer. “I’m a photographer, and photographers take pictures.” After a long pause, the “pilot” replied: “You mean, you’re not my instructor?”
:15 But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked
Jeshurun – “upright one”, a term of endearment, referring to the nation of Israel.
We’ve talked before about the dangers of riches and wanting wealth. Here’s another example of the danger. When Israel became “fat” and wealthy, they stopped seeking God.
:17 They sacrificed unto devils, not to God
The other “gods” are really just demons in disguise. There are other spiritual forces out there, they are Satanic ones.
(1 Cor 10:20 KJV) But I say,
that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not
to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.
:20 they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith.
froward – perverse
:21 I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people
Israel made God jealous by their worshipping other gods, so God would make them jealous by turning to other nations with salvation.
(Rom 11:11 KJV) I say then,
Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their
fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.
When they rejected the Lord, He turned to the Gentiles with salvation, not because He’s totally rejected them, but in the hopes of provoking them to jealousy. Hopefully they’ll want what we have.
Paul noticed this when he wrote to the Romans, he quoted this passage:
(Rom 10:19 KJV) But I say,
Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them
that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you.
:22 For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell
Literally, Sheol. A place in the earth for the dead, both good and bad. Jesus described it having two compartments (Luke 16). Abraham’s bosom was a place of comfort for the believing, the fire was a place of torment for the unbelieving.
:23 I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them.
God is referring to the discipline He would be bringing on Israel to bring them back to Him.
We saw this last week how God had promised the people that if they continually went astray, He would bring greater and greater difficulties on the people to get them to turn around.
Now God has built this warning into the song that the people might remember and be warned.
:27 Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy
This is speaking about Israel’s enemies. God didn’t want Israel’s enemies to get the wrong idea about what was happening to Israel, as if somehow Israel’s God was weaker than theirs. And so God would limit the victories that Israel’s enemies would have over her.
:28 For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them.
Speaking of Israel’s enemies …
:30 How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them
How else could these things have happened if God weren’t involved? How else could Israel’s enemies have so easily conquered them if it weren’t for the fact that God had made it happen?
But the heathen have a hard time seeing this.
:31 For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.
The enemies of Israel wouldn’t have any concept of what a real God of Refuge was. They had no concept of a living, powerful, real God.
:32 For their vine is of the vine of Sodom …
The heathen came from a bad stock.
:33 Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.
(Deu 32:33 NASB) "Their
wine is the venom of serpents, And the deadly poison of cobras.
:34 Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?
You get the idea that God’s plans are all locked away in a vault somewhere in heaven.
:35 To me belongeth vengeance, and recompense
Even Israel’s enemies, whom God used to bring judgment on Israel with, even they will have to face God’s judgment.
Lesson
Let God take care of it.
Vengeance is one of God’s job descriptions. It is not one of yours, yet we like to think that we can handle it:
Illustration
I heard a story the other night about a truck driver who dropped in at an all-night restaurant in Broken Bow, Nebraska. The waitress had just served him when three swaggering, leather-jacketed motorcyclists -- of the Hell's Angels type -- entered and rushed up to him, apparently spoiling for a fight. One grabbed the hamburger off his plate; another took a handful of his French fries; and the third picked up his coffee and began to drink it.
The trucker did not respond as one might expect. Instead, he calmly rose, picked up his check, walked to the front of the room, put the check and his money on the cash register, and went out the door. The waitress followed him to put the money in the till and stood watching out the door as the big truck drove away into the night.
When she returned, one of the cyclists said to her, "Well, he's not much of a man, is he?"
She replied, "I can't answer as to that, but he's not much of a truck driver. He just ran over three motorcycles out in the parking lot."
Vengeance is God’s job. Let go of the bitterness and let Him handle it.
(Rom 12:17-21 KJV)
Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all
men. {18} If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all
men. {19} Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto
wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. {20}
Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in
so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. {21} Be not overcome of
evil, but overcome evil with good.
Illustration
When the first missionaries came to Alberta, Canada, they were opposed by a young Cree Indian chief named Maskepetoon. But eventually he responded to the gospel and accepted Christ. Shortly afterward, a member of the Blackfoot tribe who hated Maskepetoon killed his father. The chief rode into the murderer's village and demanded that he be brought before him. Confronting the guilty man he said, "You shall ride my best horse and wear my best clothes."
In utter amazement and remorse his enemy exclaimed, "My son, now you have killed me." The hate in his heart had been erased by Maskepetoon's forgiveness and kindness.
How do you treat those who’ve hurt you? Repay evil with good.
