[BSF] These are not Idle Words, They are Your Life!

Deuteronomy Chapter 31-32

I. Moses faithfully accomplishes God’s final tasks

• Encourages Israel and Joshua
• Writes down the law and commands it be read
• Commissions Joshua as his successor
• Warns Israel of future rebellion
• Writes down and teaches Israel God’s song

II. God’s song foretells cycle of blessing, disobedience, discipline, repentance, and restoration (32)

¹ Then Moses went out and spoke these words to all Israel: ² “I am now a hundred and twenty years old and I am no longer able to lead you. The LORD has said to me, ‘You shall not cross the Jordan.’ ³ The LORD your God himself will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy these nations before you, and you will take possession of their land. Joshua also will cross over ahead of you, as the LORD said. ⁴ And the LORD will do to them what he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, whom he destroyed along with their land. ⁵ The LORD will deliver them to you, and you must do to them all that I have commanded you. ⁶ Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

PRINCIPLE 1a: The final  test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in others the conviction and the will to carry on.

Questions: What fears do you have as you encounter the battles in your life?  Is God giving you the task to encourage someone in your life?  Who might that be? If so, what oculd you learn from Moses’ example?

Lord, I pray that you will teach me not to say things that put people down for You are teaching me that my criticism is not useful for any of the good works you’ve set before me.  Help me to be encouraging instead.

*When you read the Bible again and again, it becomes more interesting and exciting to you each time. Lord, help me to be faithful in reading Your word that I might remember Your great works, be in your presence and teach it to my children.

PRINCIPLE 1B: The only way to know God and how to follow him is to read the Bible again and again.

Questions: Who might God be calling you to encourage to read the Bible?  Who might God want you to invite next week for the intro class to sign up for the study of John?

¹⁵ Then the LORD appeared at the Tent in a pillar of cloud, and the cloud stood over the entrance to the Tent. ¹⁶ And the LORD said to Moses: “You are going to rest with your fathers, and these people will soon prostitute themselves to the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake me and break the covenant I made with them. ¹⁷ On that day I will become angry with them and forsake them; I will hide my face from them, and they will be destroyed. Many disasters and difficulties will come upon them, and on that day they will ask, ‘Have not these disasters come upon us because our God is not with us?’ ¹⁸ And I will certainly hide my face on that day because of all their wickedness in turning to other gods.

¹⁹ “Now write down for yourselves this song and teach it to the Israelites and have them sing it, so that it may be a witness for me against them. ²⁰ When I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, the land I promised on oath to their forefathers, and when they eat their fill and thrive, they will turn to other gods and worship them, rejecting me and breaking my covenant. ²¹ And when many disasters and difficulties come upon them, this song will testify against them, because it will not be forgotten by their descendants. I know what they are disposed to do, even before I bring them into the land I promised them on oath.” ²² So Moses wrote down this song that day and taught it to the Israelites.

Affluence is one of the most devastating circumstances for you to be in when you are battling the tendency to fall away from God.

LORD, with the wedding behind me and my circumstances seemingly secure, I am more prone than ever to wander from You the LORD I love and who loves me.  Turn my eyes away from my own security and towards those things that break Your heart.  Break my heart for your people who are suffering under the injustices and disasters of starvation, forced labor, sex traffic and war so that I never grow satisfied in my own circumstances until the circumstances of others are also improved.  Help me to overcome my fears and boldly proclaim Your Name to those who don’t know You according to Your commandment and the desires for Your heart.  Give me a heart and hands to serve the ministry at Oasis in support of the leadership at our church.  Give me a submissive will and eager hands that extend to others, open ears to listen before I speak and humility before You and before others.  Help me not to think of myself as something when I am nothing.  You must become greater, I must become less.

We are also a warped and corrupt generation before a perfect and holy God.

⁴ He is the Rock, his works are perfect,
and all his ways are just.
A faithful God who does no wrong,
upright and just is he.

⁵ They have acted corruptly toward him;
to their shame they are no longer his children,
but a warped and crooked generation. ^[a]

⁶ Is this the way you repay the LORD,
O foolish and unwise people?
Is he not your Father, your Creator, ^[b]
who made you and formed you?

¹⁵ Jeshurun ^[d] grew fat and kicked;
filled with food, he became heavy and sleek.
He abandoned the God who made him
and rejected the Rock his Savior.

¹⁶ They made him jealous with their foreign gods
and angered him with their detestable idols.

¹⁷ They sacrificed to demons, which are not God—
gods they had not known,
gods that recently appeared,
gods your fathers did not fear.

¹⁸ You deserted the Rock, who fathered you;
you forgot the God who gave you birth.

¹⁹ The LORD saw this and rejected them
because he was angered by his sons and daughters.

~ by suchahampster on May 4, 2009.