Tawa Baptist

God’s No

Scripture: Deuteronomy 3:21-29

Video Link: https://youtu.be/Ytjj0JHzE1A

Audio Link: https://soundcloud.com/tawabaptist/sermon-26-jun-2022-gods-no

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Moses prays
  • God answers
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

In 1969 the Rolling Stones released a song: You can’t always get what you want. I don’t know what Mick Jagger and Keith Richards meant by the lyrics but, given it was the end of the 60’s, one might guess the song reflected a certain felt disappointment that the social change promised by the prophets of that decade had not been delivered.

In these days, of hyper-individualism, the song has become a kind of personal lament, when things don’t go our way.   

This morning we continue our series in the book of Deuteronomy by focusing on the closing verses of chapter 3, in which Moses does not get what he wants. From verse 21 of Deuteronomy 3 we read…

21 At that time I commanded Joshua: “You have seen with your own eyes all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings. The Lord will do the same to all the kingdoms over there where you are going. 22 Do not be afraid of them; the Lord your God himself will fight for you.”

23 At that time I pleaded with the Lord: 24 “Sovereign Lord, you have begun to show to your servant your greatness and your strong hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do the deeds and mighty works you do? 25 Let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan—that fine hill country and Lebanon.”

26 But because of you the Lord was angry with me and would not listen to me. “That is enough,” the Lord said. “Do not speak to me anymore about this matter. 27 Go up to the top of Pisgah and look west and north and south and east. Look at the land with your own eyes, since you are not going to cross this Jordan. 28 But commission Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, for he will lead this people across and will cause them to inherit the land that you will see.” 29 So we stayed in the valley near Beth Peor.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

In this reading, Moses prayers and God answers Moses’ prayer, although not exactly in the way Moses might have wanted.

But before we get into Moses’ prayer let me recap where the Israelites have got to. You may remember from last week how the Lord instructed Israel to approach the Promised Land from the East being careful not to pick a fight with Edom, Moab or Ammon, and Israel obeyed.

Well, after that, there were two small kingdoms (Heshbon and Bashan), on the east side of the Jordan, which Israel had to pass through to get to the Jordan river. Israel tried to pass through these lands peacefully but king Sihon and king Og would not allow it, so Israel were forced to go to war against them and the Lord gave the new generation of Israelites victory.

Now the path was cleared for the people of Israel to cross the Jordan and take possession of the land of Canaan. Moses wanted to cross over with the Israelites too and so he prayed to ask God’s permission.

Moses prays:

Have you ever played the spinning broom game? This is when you hold a broom close to your body, looking up at the end of the handle, while spinning around a few times. After you have spun you then have to step over the broom.

To the casual observer it seems quite easy but for the person doing the spinning it is a lot harder than it looks. Trying to keep your balance after having spun several times is really difficult. You have to pause and be still for a wee bit to get your bearings and reorient yourself.

Life can be a bit like the spinning broom game at times. We can find ourselves going around and around in circles focusing on the same things and it throws us off balance. Prayer is one thing we can do to reorient ourselves.

With prayer we make time and space to be still and to shift our focus off the broom handle of life’s chores and onto the God of eternity. One of the main purposes of prayer is to connect with God, to realign ourselves with his will. We find our true north when we focus on God in worship. 

When Moses approaches God in prayer, he doesn’t start by telling God what he wants. Moses begins by focusing on God and what the Lord has done. In verse 24 Moses says…

24 “Sovereign Lord, you have begun to show to your servant your greatness and your strong hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do the deeds and mighty works you do?

Verse 24 is an example of adoration of God. By focusing on God in adoration, Moses stops spinning and reorients himself.  Moses isn’t trying to butter God up in order get what he wants. Moses is getting his head straight; he is realigning his perspective by speaking the truth about God.

When we listen to the Lord’s Prayer we notice the first half of it is all about God. Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.   

Jesus taught us to pray in this way because it reorients us toward God, it shows us the true north of heaven.  There is no me, my or I in the first half of Moses’ prayer or Jesus’ prayer.

So, next time you are in a spin. Next time life is going too fast and you feel like you are losing your balance, so you don’t know which way is up, take some time to stop and be still and focus on God. Tell him and yourself some things you know to be true about the Lord. Simply adore him and let your perspective return.

Only after Moses has focused on God in adoration does he then attempt to step over the broom handle and ask for what he wants, saying in verse 25…

25 Let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan—that fine hill country and Lebanon.”

This is quite remarkable really. Moses is the better part of 120 years old by this stage and he isn’t yet tired of this life. Moses has had a taste of what God can do and he wants more. After 40 years of frustration, doing the hard yards and wandering in the wilderness, Moses wants to see the fruits of his labours. And who could blame him.

Moses describes the land beyond the Jordan as fine. Elsewhere it is spoken of as fertile, a land flowing with milk and honey. I’ve never been to Palestine but I’ve seen images and not many people would describe it as fine these days.

It’s not rolling green pastures or thick native bush like we have in New Zealand. More the opposite really. Not sure why people make such a fuss and spill so much blood over it?

Well, most probably it was a fine and fertile land during the time of Moses, all those centuries ago. But now, due to the impact of man and erosion, the land is less appealing.

Perhaps though it wasn’t just the physical characteristics of the land that excited Moses. More likely it was the hope that the land embodied.     

As Moses himself indicates, he was keen to see more of the works of God. He saw how the new generation of Israelites obeyed God and he wants to see more of that obedience of faith. Not only that but Moses is keen to see more victories by the Lord’s hand, as when God defeated king Sihon and king Og.

God answers:

Unfortunately, you can’t always get what you want. The Lord responded to Moses saying…  

“That is enough. Do not speak to me anymore about this matter…”

Apparently, this was not the first time Moses had asked God if he could enter the land.

God’s answers to our prayers are like a traffic light. We usually get one of three responses from God. Green for yes, amber for wait and red for no. On this occasion Moses is not able to change God’s mind. It is a firm no.     

In verse 26, Moses says…  

26 But because of you the Lord was angry with me and would not listen to me.

Moses is referring here to an incident that happened years earlier in the wilderness. At one point (in Numbers 20) when the people were complaining about not having any water to drink, Moses asked the Lord what to do.

The Lord told Moses and Aaron to speak to a particular rock in the sight of the Israelites and it will pour out its water. But Moses was in a spin. He had lost his balance. Moses was angry with the people and said to them, ‘Listen you rebels, must we bring water out of this rock for you?’ And then he struck the rock twice with his staff.

Water did come out of the rock and the people drank but God was not happy. So the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honour me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”

According to this verse, Moses did two things to offend God here. Firstly, Moses did not trust God enough. He hit the rock twice, when God had told him to speak to the rock. And secondly Moses did not honour the Lord as holy in the sight of the Israelites.

To say that God is holy means that he is set apart, he is different from anyone or anything else. God is one of a kind. There is nothing else in all creation as good or pure or powerful or loving as God Almighty.

When Moses said, ‘must we bring water out of this rock for you?’ he by-passed the Lord. God and God alone is the only one who can bring water out of a rock. This was an opportunity for the people to see the holiness of God in action. Moses didn’t give God the credit or the honour. Moses treated something holy (a life giving miracle of God) as if it were common or profane.

This was out of character for Moses. This was not what we normally observe with the great man. His sister Miriam had just died, so Moses was grieving. More than that though, the people were being really difficult. They were always pushing back on something, so obstinate, so obtuse. Moses’ frustration was understandable.

When we consider Moses’ long and faithful service to the Lord and all the challenges he faced, we might think God was being a bit harsh in refusing Moses entry to the land. Surely God could wink at Moses’ indiscretion this once and make an allowance. But to go down that path in our mind is to misunderstand the holiness of God.

God was not being unfair to Moses by saying ‘no’. The Lord punished others in the wilderness for their mistakes. It wouldn’t then be right or fair for the Lord to give Moses a free pass. Even though Moses is the leader, he was still subject to the Law as much as the people were.

Faithful service to God does not make God obligated to us in any way. Faithful service to God is what we should be doing anyway. It’s like Jesus said to his disciples in Luke 17…

7 “Suppose one of you has a servant ploughing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 8 Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? 9 Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10 So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

Sometimes we human beings forget our place. Sometimes, when we are busy spinning around that pole, we become disoriented and think that God is there to give us what we want. And while the Lord is gracious and he does help us in so many ways, we need to remember that God is the boss and we are the workers. God is free to say ‘no’ if he thinks that is best and we need to respect his ‘no’.  

Three times in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus said to God the Father, ‘Take this cup from me’, but God said ‘no’ and Jesus accepted God’s will for him.

Three times the apostle Paul prayed for God to remove his thorn in the flesh but God said, ‘No, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness’.

Sometimes we need to persevere in prayer. Jesus taught that. But after having persevered, if the answer is still ‘no’, then we need to let it go and give our energy to those things God is saying ‘yes’ to.

What prayer do you keep repeating in the hope that God might change his mind? What personal request, in your life, has God answered with a ‘no’? I know for some people this will be a painful thought.

The temptation when God says ‘no’ is to throw our toys out of the cot and go ahead and do what we want anyway. We need to resist that temptation. We need to be still and reorient ourselves through worship and prayer. We need to let God be God and say with Jesus, ‘Not my will Lord, but your will be done.’

Returning Deuteronomy 3; in verses 27 & 28 we see the grace in God’s no. In verse 27 we read what God said to Moses…

27 Go up to the top of Pisgah and look west and north and south and east. Look at the land with your own eyes, since you are not going to cross this Jordan.

God doesn’t let Moses cross the Jordan but he does allow Moses to see the land from a distance.

Moses standing on top of Mount Pisgah looking on the Promised Land, reminds me of the Mount of Transfiguration, when Moses and Elijah (representing the Law and the Prophets) stood with Jesus in all his glory.

Moses may not have entered the land of Canaan physically but God gave Moses something far greater. The Lord allowed Moses to stand in glory with Jesus. 

Jesus fulfilled the purpose of Moses life, just as he fulfils the purpose of our lives.  

If God says ‘no’ to your request, just wait. He might have something better in store for you later.  

From verse 28 the Lord continues his instruction to Moses, saying…

28 But commission Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, for he will lead this people across and will cause them to inherit the land that you will see.”

Joshua was Moses’ assistant. Moses was Joshua’s mentor. Even though Moses was not allowed to cross the Jordan to take the land, the Lord was saying the new generation of Israelites would. Moses could rest in the knowledge that his life’s work had not been in vain.

The name ‘Joshua’ means The Lord saves. The Greek form of the name Joshua translates to Jesus – so Joshua points to Jesus, the ultimate successor to Moses. It is Jesus who leads us to the Promised Land of God’s kingdom.

To his credit Moses does what God tells him to do. In verses 21 and 22 Moses encourages and strengthens Joshua, saying…

21 “You have seen with your own eyes all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings. The Lord will do the same to all the kingdoms over there where you are going. 22 Do not be afraid of them; the Lord your God himself will fight for you.”

On the face of it Moses appears to be telling Joshua to be brave and courageous in battle, because the Lord (Yahweh) will fight for them and give them victory over the Canaanites. But there is more going on here than a simple pep talk.

In verse 29, we read that the Israelites were staying in the valley near Beth Peor, at this stage.

Geographically, Beth Peor was the last stopping point on the east side of the Jordan. But Beth Peor also had theological significance. According to Numbers 25, Beth Peor was the place where the old generation of Israelites yoked themselves to Baal. So Beth Peor was where Israel had betrayed God. It was a place where pagans practiced their religion. 

Beth Peor then, represented Israel’s failure. It was a spiritually dangerous place. A place of religious temptation.  

Joshua needs all the assurance he can get, not just for military success but (more importantly) to remain faithful to God Almighty and resist the religious alternatives offered by the Canaanites. [1]

To paraphrase Walter Brueggemann: The community of faith is not defined by its past (which is strewn with bad choices) nor by its current context (which breeds despair). Rather, the community of faith is defined by its deep elemental connection to God who can be trusted in every risky circumstance. [2]

In other words, Joshua does not need to be afraid of the so called gods of his enemies. Nor does he need to rely on his own skill or courage. Joshua and Israel need to trust the Lord God Almighty. He will do right by them.  

What is your Beth Peor? What is your moment of failure, your spiritually dangerous place, where you are most vulnerable to temptation, most susceptible to spinning out of control and losing your balance?

Do not be afraid. All our Beth Peors were nailed to the cross with Jesus. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

Conclusion:

Let us pray…

Sovereign Lord, you have shown your greatness, your love, your grace, your truth, your power, your holiness in the person of Jesus Christ. There is no other god in heaven or on earth who can do the deeds and mighty works you do. Help us to remember you are the master and we are your servants. Keep us faithful to your call, especially when your answer to our prayers is ‘no’. Through Jesus we pray. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

  • Have you ever played the spinning broom game? What happened? What did it feel like? How do we reorient ourselves when we have lost our balance or perspective?
  • Why do Moses and Jesus teach us to begin prayer with worship and adoration for who God is and what he has done?
  • Why do you think Moses wants to cross the Jordan to see the Promised Land? Why does God say ‘no’ to Moses’ request?
  • Have you ever prayed for something and had God say ‘no’? What happened? How did you feel? How did you respond? In hindsight, are you able to see God’s grace in his ‘no’?
  • Discuss / reflect on Jesus’ parable in Luke 17:7-10.
  • What is your Beth Peor? Ask Jesus’ forgiveness (if you haven’t already) and imagine your mistakes being nailed to the cross. Jesus does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Declare the truth that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Start each day this week by giving your mind to thanks and praise for what God has done in Christ.    

[1] Refer Walter Brueggemann’s commentary on Deuteronomy, page 46.

[2] Ibid, page 50.

Tawa Baptist

God of Nations

Scripture: Deuteronomy 2:1-22

Video Link: https://youtu.be/JfIeZYvwFjE

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • God’s greatness
  • Israel’s obedience of faith
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Kia ora koutou and good morning everyone.

How many countries do you think there are in the world today? Take a guess.

Well, the precise number is disputed but according to the United Nations there are 195 countries in the world. But, according to FIFA, 211 countries are eligible for the world cup. So, if you guessed anywhere between 195 and 211, then well done. You’ve done enough for a mellow puff.  

Today we continue our series in Deuteronomy focusing on chapter 2, verses 1-22. In this passage Moses sheds some light on God’s governance of those nations who will be Israel’s close neighbours. 

Last week we heard how the Israelites failed to enter the Land of Canaan and were sent back to wander in the wilderness for the better part of 40 years. Now it is the turn of the next generation of Israelites. Will they do better than their parents?

From the end of Deuteronomy chapter 1 we pick up the story. This is Moses speaking to the Israelites, on the edge of the land, as their sojourn in the wilderness comes to an end…

46 And so you stayed in Kadesh many days—all the time you spent there.

2 Then we turned back and set out toward the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea, as the Lord had directed me. For a long time we made our way around the hill country of Seir. 2 Then the Lord said to me, 3 “You have made your way around this hill country long enough; now turn north. 4 Give the people these orders: ‘You are about to pass through the territory of your relatives the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, but be very careful. 5 Do not provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land, not even enough to put your foot on. I have given Esau the hill country of Seir as his own. 6 You are to pay them in silver for the food you eat and the water you drink.’” 7 The Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything. 8 So we went on past our relatives the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. We turned from the Arabah road, which comes up from Elath and Ezion Geber, and travelled along the desert road of Moab. 9 Then the Lord said to me, “Do not harass the Moabites or provoke them to war, for I will not give you any part of their land. I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as a possession.” 10 (The Emites used to live there—a people strong and numerous, and as tall as the Anakites. 11 Like the Anakites, they too were considered Rephaites, but the Moabites called them Emites. 12 Horites used to live in Seir, but the descendants of Esau drove them out. They destroyed the Horites from before them and settled in their place, just as Israel did in the land the Lord gave them as their possession.) 13 And the Lord said, “Now get up and cross the Zered Valley.” So we crossed the valley. 14 Thirty-eight years passed from the time we left Kadesh Barnea until we crossed the Zered Valley. By then, that entire generation of fighting men had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them.  15 The Lord’s hand was against them until he had completely eliminated them from the camp. 16 Now when the last of these fighting men among the people had died, 17 the Lord said to me, 18 “Today you are to pass by the region of Moab at Ar. 19 When you come to the Ammonites, do not harass them or provoke them to war, for I will not give you possession of any land belonging to the Ammonites. I have given it as a possession to the descendants of Lot.”

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

It might not seem like it at first, but this passage is full of good news. Mainly the good news of God’s greatness, but also the good news of Israel’s obedience of faith. First let’s consider God’s greatness.

God’s greatness:

In the 1870’s Thomas Bracken wrote the words of a poem titled, God defend New Zealand. This poem would later be set to music and become the national anthem of our country.

The opening line (in English) begins with the words, ‘God of nations…’. These three words pay homage to God’s greatness. The Lord God is in fact sovereign over all the nations of the earth. That means God is in charge. God draws the boundary lines. He places peoples of different cultures where he decides.

Thomas Bracken got this idea, that the Lord Almighty is the God of nations from Moses.

In Deuteronomy 2, Moses traces the journey of the next generation of Israelites as they approached Canaan. On this occasion, the Lord instructed Israel to enter the land from the East. This meant travelling up through the nations of Edom, Moab and Ammon.   

The Lord instructs the people to be very careful when passing through Edom and not to pick a fight. Treat the Edomites with respect because they are your brothers & sisters and because the land they occupy was given to them by God.

As it turned out the Edomites were so afraid of the Israelites they wouldn’t allow them through their heartland and so Israel had to go around the outskirts.

Likewise, when Israel came to the nations of Moab and Ammon, the Lord gave the Israelites the same instructions; to respect the Moabites and Ammonites because he (the Lord) had given the Moabites and Ammonites the land they occupied as their possession. 

The point, which is repeated here, is that the Lord Almighty is the God of nations. He isn’t just the national God of Israel. Yahweh is greater than that. He rules over all the countries of the world, allocating land as he deems right.

As we read in the New Testament book of Acts…

26 From one man God made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’

These verses tell us that God allocates land to various people groups at different times in history so that people will seek a relationship with him. So that humanity would come to understand that God is the ground of our being.

Israel were not to try and take land given by God to others. They were to respect the boundaries the Lord had put in place and be content with the land God had provided.

Returning to Deuteronomy 2, we also see the greatness of God’s grace.

The land of Edom was occupied by the descendants of Esau. Esau was the twin brother of Jacob and the Israelites were the descendants of Jacob, so Edom & Israel were closely related.

Even though Jacob was the one to inherit God’s promise to Abraham, the Lord did not forget Esau, who sold his birth right for a bowl of stew. The Lord blessed Esau’s descendants and made room for them too.

In a similar vein, the Moabites and the Ammonites were the descendants of Abraham’s nephew Lot. The Israelites were descended directly from Abraham, so that made Moab & Ammon part of Israel’s family tree.  

Lot’s sons, Moab & Ben-Ammi were conceived through incest. But, in spite of this less than ideal start, God (in his amazing grace) blessed Lot’s descendants and made room for them as well.

You might be wondering, so what does this have to with me? Well, the point of application is that God is greater than our mistakes. He is greater than our sin and selfishness. 

Do you have regrets over poor decisions you made in your youth, like Esau? That’s no problem to God. He has the ability to redeem your regret and turn it into something good.

Do you have skeletons in your family closet, like Lot’s family did? That’s no problem to God. He has the ability to turn what you would rather hide into something good.

In verses 20-22 Moses specifically says that God drove the Zamzummites out of the land of Ammon, just as he drove the Horites out of the land of Edom. Moses is underscoring the greatness of God’s power and authority here. The Lord Almighty moves nations around the world like pieces on a chess board. We might not always understand what’s going on but God knows what he’s doing.  

You may remember from last week how the previous generation of Israelites failed to enter the land of promise because they were afraid of the people living there. These people were known by various names. Rephaites (which means ghosts), Emites (which means terror), Anakites (which means giants) and Zamzummites (which refers to a threatening sound). [1]  

With names like that, no wonder the Israelites were scared. For those of you who are familiar with Harry Potter, these people had a Voldemort like reputation. Or if Stranger Things is more your style, then these people were like the mind-splayer, filling the Israelites with fear and dread. Or if you are into Star Wars, then the Rephaites, Emites and Anakites were like Darth Vader and the Imperial Guards.

Moses mentions their demise as a reassurance, to the next generation of Israelites, not to be afraid. Given that God drove the ghosts and the terrorists and the giants out to make room for the Edomites, the Moabites and the Ammonites, then how much more will God do for Israel.  

Again you may ask, that’s all good and well for Israel but what has this got to do with me? Well, the point of application is that our God (the God of nations) is greater than your worst fears. So if God is for you, then you do not need to be afraid.

There’s one other aspect of God’s greatness I want to draw your attention to in these verses from Deuteronomy 2. I’m not sure what to call it? Is it God’s winsomeness? Is it his disinterested virtue? Is it his goodness and generosity? Is it steadfast love? Theologians might call it ‘prevenient grace’. 

Whatever adjective we give it, this quality of God’s greatness is so subtle, so understated in the text, we could easily miss it.

The Moabites did not worship Yahweh, the Lord Almighty. They worshipped a deity called Chemosh. Likewise, the Ammonites did not worship Yahweh either. They worshipped a deity called Milkom. [2]   

And yet, even though the Moabites and the Ammonites were not loyal to Yahweh, the Lord Almighty (the God of nations) still fought on their behalf to give them their portion of land.

What has this got to do with you? Well, God’s action in helping a people who did not know him points to what Jesus did for us. In Romans 5 Paul writes…

6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 

We don’t know the half of what God has done for us. Before we were even born God was at work to provide for us, to care for us and to save us. I don’t know what the word for that is but it speaks of God’s greatness. The greatness of his love.

There is so much good news in today’s reading from Deuteronomy 2. While the main focus of the good news is the greatness of God, we must also acknowledge the good news of Israel’s faith.

Israel’s obedience of faith:

According to the United Nations, the median age of the New Zealand population is currently between 38 and 39 years old and increasing. By the year 2050 the median age is expected to be around 44 years old. Back in 1970 the median age was relatively low at around 25.6 years.

To put that in context the global median age has increased from 21.5 years in 1970 to just over 30 years old today. About a quarter of the world’s population is under the age of 14.

In verse 14 of Deuteronomy 2 we read…

14 Thirty-eight years passed from the time we left Kadesh Barnea until we crossed the Zered Valley. By then, that entire generation of fighting men had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them. 

That means, by the time the Israelites passed through the nation of Moab, there would be no one older than 60 years of age (with the exception of Moses, Caleb and Joshua). Most of the people would be under the age of 50.

Very few would have any memory of their exodus from Egypt, much less the experience of being oppressed as slaves. Almost the entire population would know nothing except life in the desert. Pretty much everyone would have buried their parents in the wilderness.

We don’t know what the median age of the Israelites would have been at that time in history but one would guess it was maybe around 20 years old, give or take. Pretty young in any case. 

The generation, or time in history, you are raised in tends to have an influence in shaping the way you are. Generally speaking, people who were born around the same time are more likely to share similar experiences in life and to exhibit similar behaviours and attitudes.

Sociologists have identified four generational archetypes which appear to repeat themselves over the course of a century. There is the hero generation (born between 1901 and 1924). Also known as the GI generation or builders, these people lived through the great depression of the 1930’s and fought in the Second World War.

Then came the artist generation (born between 1925 and 1942), also known as the silent generation because they lived in the shadow of the hero generation.

After that came the prophet generation (born between 1943 and 1960). We know them as baby boomers. Some of the prophet generation became hippees.

The next generation (mainly children of the boomers) are the nomad generation (born between 1961 and 1981). These people are sometimes called Gen X, or the latch key generation because they grew up relying on themselves.

In theory, the Millennials (born between 1982 and 2002) start the cycle again as the new hero generation.

The exact years for these generations is disputed. Different experts dice up the generations differently, so don’t get hung up on the details and don’t put too much weight on it. I share it with you today to illustrate the point that each generation is different from the one before. 

The new generation of Israelites (that Moses is addressing in Deuteronomy 2) were different from their parents. The next generation had not been scarred in the same way by the experience of slavery in Egypt. They were not as afraid as their parents. They had been raised in the wilderness as nomads.

During their time in the wilderness they learned to trust God because, despite the difficult circumstances in which they were raised, they knew from personal experience that God had always been faithful in providing manna and quail and water. God had always looked after them.

Now they were about to transition to a more settled existence, with land of their own, they needed to be heroes in taking hold of God’s promise.

Verse 8 of Deuteronomy 2, appears quite unremarkable at first glance. Verse 8 reads: 8 So we went on past our relatives the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. We turned from the Arabah road, which comes up from Elath and Ezion Geber, and travelled along the desert road of Moab.

On the face of it this verse seems to simply describe Israel travelling by map.

But what verse 8 implies is truly remarkable. This next generation of Israelites obeyed God. They were different to their parents. The Lord (Yahweh) told them to be careful and not attack the Edomites and the Israelites trusted the Lord, doing exactly what he asked of them.

This is what is known as the obedience of faith. Not doing what we think is best but trusting God and doing what he asks, even if it doesn’t make sense to us at the time.   

I imagine it must have been tempting for Israel to see an opportunity here and go for a land grab. Israel had the upper hand. They knew the Edomites were afraid of them. Israel could have taken advantage of Edom’s fear and attacked. But they didn’t. Israel showed restraint.

Often we associate faith with doing something brave or extraordinary, and it can be that. More often though faith takes the form of exercising self-control and not doing anything stupid or selfish. Moving through the land of Edom, Moab and Ammon, without taking advantage of the locals, was a test of faith that Israel passed.

By obeying Yahweh in this way, Israel were demonstrating their faith in the Lord. They were effectively saying, ‘We believe that Yahweh is in charge. The Lord Almighty is God of nations and he will provide land for us’. 

This is next generation faith. This is good news. This is Israel doing justly, showing mercy and walking humbly with God.  

Conclusion:

Deuteronomy 2 touches on some sensitive issues for us. In particular, the issue of land and who has the right to possess it. Disputes and wars to do with land in the Middle East have been simmering and boiling over for centuries.

Every night we see glimpses of the war in Ukraine on our TV’s and laptops. And we, in the West, are shocked and appalled that Russia thinks it is entitled to invade the Ukraine. Presumably there are some in Russia who think they are taking back what was theirs in the first place.   

Here in New Zealand, we have our own history of land grabbing. Greedy, ruthless men in the 19th Century, who cared more about money than anything else, dispossessed Maori of much of the land they occupied. But even before the European came, Maori were taking land from each other. Iwi against Iwi.  

While the Bible wants to affirm that the Lord Almighty is God of nations and he alone has the right to determine who has possession of the land and where the boundary lines fall, the historical reality is that human beings (in their fear and greed and hubris) continue to transgress God’s boundaries.

I have no interest in passing judgment on who is right and who is wrong in disputes over land. I don’t have the knowledge or the wisdom, much less the authority, to decide those sorts of matters.

I’m just a pastor of a small church, in a land that seems to be forgetting God. My job is to remind people of God and to help people understand the Bible so we know how to relate with God and with our neighbours. I don’t have all the answers. In fact, a lot of the time I’m just trying to figure out what the right question is. But this I know to be true. God is just and merciful.

That means, there will be a reckoning for those who transgress the boundaries that God puts in place. It also means that those who have been treated unjustly will be restored.

In the meantime, we need to remember that Jesus is King. He is Sovereign over all the earth. And one day every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

  • What good news do you see in Deuteronomy 2:1-22?
  • What are we saying about God when we sing, “God of nations…”? Why does God allocate land and set geographical boundaries for various people groups? (Refer to Acts 17:24-28)
  • Do you have regrets over decisions you made in the past (like Esau)? How has God redeemed your regrets? (If you are still waiting for God’s redemption, what would you like Him to do?)
  • God provided land for the Moabites and the Ammonites, even though they did not worship Him. Consider God’s loyalty to you throughout your life. Looking back, in what ways has God been at work in your life to care for you and draw you to himself, even before you believed in him?  
  • How was the next generation of Israelites different from their parents? Which generational archetype do you identify with the most and why? (E.g. hero, artist, prophet or nomad.)
  • What is meant by the phrase ‘obedience of faith’? Can you think of a time in your life when you trusted and obeyed God? What happened?

[1] Refer Daniel I. Block, NIVAC Deuteronomy, page 84.

[2] C.f Daniel I. Block, NIVAC Deuteronomy, page 84.

Tawa Baptist

Yesterday

Scripture: Deuteronomy 1:19-45

Video Link: https://youtu.be/JaiElrXVwTc

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Israel’s fear in the face of God’s faithfulness
  • Israel’s arrogance in the face of God’s anger
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

The atheist philosopher, George Santanya, once said: ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’

Whatever George Santanya may have believed about God, this quote certainly strikes a chord with Moses. In Deuteronomy, Moses gives a series of sermons to the people of Israel as they stand on the edge of the Promised Land, after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.

In the opening chapters of Deuteronomy, Moses is at pains to remind the Israelites of their past, in particular the mistakes of their past.

Today’s message draws its inspiration from Deuteronomy chapter 1, verses 19-45, in which Moses recounts the events of 38 years earlier, when the people of Israel failed to enter the Promised Land.

Moses is now speaking to the adult children of those who faltered. And he doesn’t mince words or sugar coat it. Moses wants the next generation to learn from the past, so they don’t make the same mistakes their parents did.

Broadly speaking Moses highlights at least two mistakes to avoid from the past. There is Israel’s fear in the face of God’s faithfulness and there is Israel’s arrogance in the face of God’s anger. First let’s consider Israel’s fear. 

Israel’s fear in the face of God’s faithfulness:

In verses 19-33 of Deuteronomy 1, which we read earlier in today’s service, Moses recalls the events that led up to Israel’s first failed attempt to the enter the land.

In summary, the nation left Mount Sinai and arrived at Kadesh Barnea, which is an oasis to the south of the land of Canaan. Moses said: Take the land the Lord your God is giving you, don’t hesitate and don’t be afraid.

But the people wanted to send spies in first, which seemed prudent at the time, so Moses agreed. Each of the 12 spies gave a favourable report of the land but only two (Joshua and Caleb) were keen to proceed. The other 10 spies focused more on the obstacles and threats, saying there were giants in the land and the walls of the cities reached to the sky.

Unfortunately, democracy was the winner and Joshua and Caleb’s minority report was ignored. From verse 26 of Deuteronomy 1, Moses remembers…

26 “But you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God, and you would not enter the land. 27 You grumbled to one another: ‘The Lord hates us. He brought us out of Egypt just to hand us over to these Amorites, so that they could kill us. 28 Why should we go there? We are afraid.

Fear is a powerful thing. There are two kinds of fear. Rational fear, which is well founded in truth and useful to protect us. Like, seeing a hot element on the stove and not touching it for fear of being burned.

And then there is irrational fear, which is based on a lie. Irrational fear, if it gets hold of us, distorts our perspective and blinds us. Irrational fear paralyses people. The Israelites’ fear was irrational. It was based on a false belief.   

David Riddell, a Christian counsellor, has a helpful tool for correcting false beliefs and renewing your mind. He calls it Trace – Face – Replace.

The idea with trace face replace is to trace your self-talk and feelings to the underlying beliefs which are driving those feelings. Then face your beliefs squarely, to see whether or not they are really true. And, if the belief you hold is false, then replace it with a belief that is true.

For example, if you find that you have a habit of bailing out when the going gets tough, you might trace that behaviour to a belief that life should be easy. When you face that belief you find that it is false. Actually, life is not easy. So, with time and practice, you replace the belief with one that is true. Something like, life has it challenges but God is with us and for us through thick and thin. We need to speak the truth to ourselves.

Now I’m not suggesting that all anxiety can be cured in this way. There is a certain level of systemic (or ambient) anxiety in our world today, due to a range of factors which are outside of our control. Nevertheless, I think David Riddell’s method is helpful.   

The Israelites were afraid of entering the Promised Land. And when we trace that feeling of fear to its source, we see it was based on a belief that God hates them.

Moses, who is a wise and compassionate pastor, tries to get the people to face their wrongly held belief in order to replace that false belief with a belief that is true. In verse 29, Moses says… 

29 “But I told you, ‘Don’t be afraid of those people. 30 The Lord your God will lead you, and he will fight for you, just as you saw him do in Egypt 31 and in the desert. You saw how he brought you safely all the way to this place, just as a father would carry his son.’     

Sometimes we think that faith is not based on anything. It’s just a leap in the dark. But Biblical faith looks back at the facts of what God has done in the past. Faith is grounded in the reality of our experience with God.  (Not just our personal experience but our collective experience also.) 

Moses fights fear with facts. The people believe that God hates them and so Moses basically says, ‘Where’s the evidence for that belief?’ The facts are that God delivered you from slavery in Egypt and brought you safely through the desert to this oasis. All the evidence indicates that God loves you.

Why would God provide all that care and protection only to lead you into an ambush? It doesn’t make sense. Your false belief needs to be replaced with a true belief.

In verse 30, Moses says the Lord your God will lead you and fight for you. Here God is portrayed as a powerful warrior, the General of a heavenly army. This belief, that God will fight for Israel, is not random. It is based on the fact that God actually did this for Israel when they left Egypt. 

Then, in verse 31, God is portrayed as a loving Father, where Moses says: You saw how he brought you safely all the way to this place, just as a father would carry his son. Again, that statement is based on the facts of what God has done in the past.

So the true belief, the belief Moses wants the people to hold to going forward, is that God is powerful, like a mighty warrior, but also gentle and protective like a loving Father.

There is so much fear and anxiety in our world today. Some of it is reasonable but not all of it. If we were to trace our fears to the underlying beliefs we hold, we would probably find that many of our beliefs are simply false and need to be replaced with a belief that is accurate and true.

What is it you really believe about God?

I’m not sure we really know what we believe when we are singing songs in church on Sunday. I think we find out what we truly believe when the faecal matter hits the fan, Monday through to Friday.

Do you believe God hates you? The truth is, God loves you like a good father. That doesn’t mean you won’t have to struggle. That doesn’t mean you won’t ever meet with resistance. But it does mean you are not alone in your struggle.

Do you believe God is powerless? The truth is, God is mighty to save, like a powerful warrior. That doesn’t mean life will always be easy. It doesn’t mean everything will be handed to you on a silver platter. But it does mean God can work every circumstance for good.

Returning to Deuteronomy. Sadly, the people of Israel still would not trust the Lord, even though Moses had reminded them of the facts of God’s leadership and care for them. 

If verses 19-33 of Deuteronomy 1 speak of Israel’s fear in the face of God’s faithfulness, then verses 34-45 speak of Israel’s arrogance in the face of God’s anger. We pick up Moses’ retelling of Israel’s past from verse 34…

34 “The Lord heard your complaints and became angry, and so he solemnly declared, 35 ‘Not one of you from this evil generation will enter the fertile land that I promised to give your ancestors. 36 Only Caleb son of Jephunneh will enter it. He has remained faithful to me, and I will give him and his descendants the land that he has explored.’ 

37 Because of you the Lord also became angry with me and said, ‘Not even you, Moses, will enter the land. 38 But strengthen the determination of your helper, Joshua son of Nun. He will lead Israel to occupy the land.’

39 “Then the Lord said to all of us, ‘Your children, who are still too young to know right from wrong, will enter the land—the children you said would be seized by your enemies. I will give the land to them, and they will occupy it. 40 But as for you people, turn around and go back into the desert on the road to the Gulf of Aqaba.’

41 “You replied, ‘Moses, we have sinned against the Lord. But now we will attack, just as the Lord our God commanded us.’ Then each one of you got ready to fight, thinking it would be easy to invade the hill country.

42 “But the Lord said to me, ‘Warn them not to attack, for I will not be with them, and their enemies will defeat them.’ 

43 I told you what the Lord had said, but you paid no attention. You rebelled against him, and in your arrogance you marched into the hill country. 44 Then the Amorites who lived in those hills came out against you like a swarm of bees. They chased you as far as Hormah and defeated you there in the hill country of Edom. 45 So you cried out to the Lord for help, but he would not listen to you or pay any attention to you.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

When we think of anger we tend to picture someone losing control. A sudden outburst of pent up emotion. Perhaps yelling or punching the wall. Anger has many faces though. More often, in our culture, anger slips out in the form of sarcasm, or it goes inward as with resentment.

Anger is usually the result of injustice. If you cut yourself, you bleed. If you suffer injustice, you feel angry. The greater the injustice the greater the anger (whether that injustice is real or merely imagined).

The problem with us human beings is that we have a proclivity to feel we have been badly slighted or unfairly treated when in fact we haven’t. Or we might be inclined to magnify the injustice we feel because there is power in taking the role of the victim. So human anger is not always righteous or justified.

In verse 34, Moses says that God became angry after listening to Israel’s complaints. Because we human beings are so self-centred we often make the mistake of thinking that divine anger is the same as human anger. But it’s not.

Yes, injustice makes God angry too; the Lord was angry with Israel because their complaints against him were untrue and unjust. But God has a far better handle on his anger than we do. God keeps the injustice in perspective. He doesn’t exaggerate it. And his expression of anger is always fair and measured, salted with mercy and creativity. God does not explode in a fit of rage.

We see the fairness of God’s anger in the solemn declaration he makes in verses 35-38. The Lord vows that this generation of Israelites, who believed he hated them, will not enter the Promised Land. So often God’s wrath takes the form of giving people what they say they want. God’s wrath is not him hitting people with a big stick. More often, God’s wrath takes the form of God stepping back and letting people experience the consequences of their own choices.

But God’s anger is also discerning. God’s anger minimises any collateral damage. The innocent ones do not receive the same treatment as the guilty. Caleb and Joshua, the two spies who trusted God and encouraged the people to take the land, they both get in. They have to wait the better part of 40 years, but still they are treated with fairness.

As well as being fair and righteous, God’s anger is also creative. Verses 39-40 surely reveal the beauty and wisdom of God’s anger. Israel were afraid of what their enemies might do to their children so God basically says, ‘I will prove your fear to be false. Your children will occupy the land. They will succeed where you have failed.’

Imagine this. Someone you know well, someone you had treated with kindness, repaid your kindness by spreading malicious rumours about you. The things they said were untrue, unkind and unfair.

How would you feel? I expect you would feel angry and rightly so. But what are you going to do with that anger? Are you going to play a game of tit for tat and say nasty things about them behind their back?

Or are you going to tell them to their face that they are out of line and then, to prove them wrong, put money in a Trust fund for their kids to buy a house one day? (In this little story you’ve got the means to do that.)

Probably most of us want to speak our mind to those who wrong us but I don’t think any of us would bless their children so generously. And yet that is effectively what God did with his anger. He turned it into something creative and beneficial, saying your kids will inherit the land. God is not like us. His anger is just and merciful.

God’s declaration, that the children will inherit the Promised Land, reminds me of Jesus who says in the gospels: Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the Kingdom of Heaven.   

Simple, childlike trust opens the door.

So what does Israel do in the face of the Lord’s anger? Well, they say to Moses (in verse 41)…

‘…we have sinned against the Lord. But now we will attack, just as the Lord our God commanded us.’

On the face of it, this looks like repentance and we would expect repentance to do the trick. But it is too late. This is not the eleventh hour. This is the thirteenth hour.[1] God has already made his solemn declaration and he won’t take it back. That particular generation of Israel have missed their window of opportunity for entering the land.

Another quote from George Santanya: ‘Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim.’ 

Or to put it another way, if what you are doing isn’t working, then more of the same isn’t going to help. 

By this definition the Israelites of Moses’ generation were fanatics. They redoubled their efforts while forgetting their aim. Israel’s aim, their purpose, was to trust and obey the Lord God. Sadly, they had forgotten this and compensated by redoubling their efforts, by trying even harder. But there’s no point in shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.

Even though Moses warned them that God was not with them to give them victory, the people rebelled against the Lord and in their arrogance marched into battle only to suffer heavy defeat.

Maybe their earlier repentance was honest enough in that moment but it is undone by the next moment’s truth.

It seems that Israel’s need for redemption was so great they were willing to risk their lives for it. But salvation belongs to God. We cannot manufacture our own redemption.

Interestingly, Hormah (the place of Israel’s defeat) comes from a word meaning destruction or annihilation. The message is: failure to trust God’s word results in death.

Today’s reading finishes with Moses recalling how the survivors of that defeat cried out to the Lord for help, but he would not listen or pay attention.

We may prefer to think of God’s compassion and grace but what we have here is a picture of God’s unswerving justice. The people have simply reaped what they sowed. More than once they refused to listen to God and so God refuses to listen to them.

After the defeat at Homar, the people went to the oasis at Kadesh before returning to the wilderness for 38 more years. Sometimes you have to go back before you can go forward.

Conclusion:

You know, we need to be careful not to look down on Israel here. If we are honest with ourselves, we are not that different and we may even be worse.

Like Israel, we too are sometimes so focused on the giants in the land that we lose sight of God’s faithfulness. And in losing sight of God’s faithfulness we are overwhelmed by fear.

Like Israel, we too may be so desperate for redemption that we try to manufacture our own salvation. We may wear ourselves out trying to be good enough and then end up feeling defeated by the reality of how far we fall short.

Ultimately though we need to remember, today’s story is not primarily about us. This story is about Jesus. Jesus did for Israel what they could not do for themselves. Just as Jesus did for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

Jesus lived the perfect life of trust and obedience to God the Father on our behalf. And, in the process, Jesus conquered the giants of sin and death. Not only that but Jesus embodies the Promised Land of God’s kingdom.

We get to participate in God’s kingdom, not through our own strength or courage, but through simple childlike trust in Christ.  

The musician, Taylor Kingman, wrote a song called Wannabe. It’s not really the sort of song we might sing in church but the last verse makes an honest prayer, I think, even if Taylor Kingman did not intend that. Can you make this your prayer…      

I wanna be true

The blossoms of love are blighted with fear in the roots

And that moment was honest, untouched by the next moment’s truth

And I’m sorry for all I’ve taken and I’m sorry for all I’ve let loose

I wanna be true, I wanna be forgiven for giving up on everything I knew

I wanna be true. 

Amen. 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

  • Why does Moses remind the nation of Israel of its past mistakes?
  • How might we discern the difference between rational fear and irrational fear? How might we overcome irrational fear?
  • What do you really believe about God, Monday through to Friday? To help you explore this question, you may like to try the following exercise:

Are you aware of a mantra of self-talk or a feeling that is troubling you? Trace that self-talk or feeling to its underlying belief. Face that belief squarely. Is that belief true? If it is false, what belief can you replace it with?   

  • Why did God become angry with Israel? How did God deal with his anger? How do you typically deal with your anger? How is God’s anger different from human anger?
  • What connections do you see between this story of Israel and Jesus? What does Jesus do for Israel that Israel could not do for itself? What does Jesus do for us that we cannot do for ourselves?
  • Take some time this week to intentionally recall God’s faithfulness to you personally. It might be little things God does in each day or bigger things he has done over the years. Think of specific examples and thank him.   

[1] Credit to Walter Brueggemann for this line.

Tawa Baptist

Pentecost

Scripture: Deuteronomy 16:9-12

Video Link: https://youtu.be/Ix2Ecqso8L8

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Count – rhythm 
  • Give – gratitude
  • Include – communion
  • Conclusion – remember

Introduction:

Kia ora koutou and good morning everyone.

Today is Pentecost Sunday, a time in the church calendar when we remember and celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit provides a connection between Jesus and his followers. The Holy Spirit makes Jesus close and real.

Although today is Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is not bound by the church calendar. He can move at any time. But having a special day to remember the gift of the Spirit helps us.

Pentecost gets its name from the Greek word for fiftieth, because Pentecost is celebrated on the fiftieth day after Easter.

Ten days after Jesus’ ascension to heaven, while the disciples were waiting in Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit descended on them, empowering the disciples to proclaim the good news about Jesus in a whole host of foreign languages. We read about this in chapter 2 of the book of Acts. 

Pentecost wasn’t always a Christian festival though. Pentecost was originally the Jewish Festival of Weeks. Sometimes called the harvest festival. As it happens we learn about the feast of weeks in the book of Deuteronomy. From chapter 16, verses 9-12, we read…    

9 Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. 10 Then celebrate the Festival of Weeks to the Lord your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the Lord your God has given you. 11 And rejoice before the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites in your towns, and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows living among you. 12 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and follow carefully these decrees.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

In these verses Moses gives the Israelites a number of instructions. Moses tells the people to count the weeks, celebrate by giving and include the whole community in your celebration. Count, give and include.

Counting is about rhythm. Giving is about gratitude and including is about communion. First let’s consider the instruction to count.

Count – rhythm:

Have you ever noticed the rhythms that naturally occur in this world? The sun rises in the east and sets in the west and so we have the rhythm of night and day, sleeping and waking.

The ocean’s tide rises and falls with the gravitational pull of the moon. The moon itself goes through its own cycle from full moon to half-moon to new moon. The seasons have their rhythm too, of spring, summer, autumn and winter. Your heart also beats to a rhythm. We could go on but you get the point.

These rhythms support life and they become a measure for time. Without these natural rhythms the world would revert to chaos and life would not be functional or sustainable.

Deuteronomy places quite a bit of importance on the idea of time. We see this in the way Moses prescribed a rhythm of three main religious festivals each year. These holidays were pilgrimages in which the people of Israel travelled to one central place to participate in worship.

The three main festivals were Passover, which remembered God’s deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt. The festival of Weeks, which happened at the end of the grain harvest. And Tabernacles (also known as the festival of shelters) which remembered Israel’s 40 years in the wilderness when they lived in tents.

Christians don’t need to celebrate the Jewish festivals. The three main events for Christians are Easter, Pentecost and Christmas, each of which find their meaning in Jesus.

From verse 9 of Deuteronomy 16 we read…

9 Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. 10 Then celebrate the Festival of Weeks to the Lord your God

If you’ve ever done long distance running, then you will know the importance of keeping your rhythm. If you have to stop and start all the time it takes a lot more energy and the run is less enjoyable.

The Passover festival and the festival of Weeks book ended the barley and wheat harvests. This fifty-day harvest period was a busy time if you were a farmer. It was like running a marathon. When you are really busy and working hard you need a rhythm to sustain you and you need something to look forward to, a celebration or a holiday at the end of it.

Counting the days and the weeks gives you a lift, that motivation you need to get the job done. Only five more weeks till the school holidays. Only three more weeks to another long weekend. 

There is a thoughtfulness and a consideration for what people need in this command to count the weeks to the end of harvest. It provides a rhythm and something to look forward to. 

The last two or three years have been challenging, like a long distance run. Although we have much to be thankful for here in New Zealand, Covid has disrupted many of our natural rhythms. We’ve had to stop and start repeatedly and this has left us feeling more tired than we normally would.

The other thing about Covid and the various lockdowns we went through, is that we never really knew when it would all end. So counting off the weeks wasn’t possible. Hard to look forward to something when you can’t see the finish line.

What rhythms do you have to support your health & well-being? Perhaps eating meals and going to sleep at the same time every day. Maybe having a 30-minute walk in the morning. Or not bringing work home in the weekend, so you can look forward to a break.

What rhythms do you have to support your faith and hope? Perhaps starting and finishing the day with a dedicated prayer time. Perhaps stopping to be silent and still three or four times a week. Maybe meeting with your Bible study group once a fortnight. Hopefully Sunday worship features as well.  

Give – gratitude:

A few years ago now, when the kids were younger, Robyn’s parents gave our family a voucher to visit Hobbiton, near Matamata in the Waikato. At Hobbiton there is this amazing tree, known in Tolkien’s books as the party tree. It is where they filmed Bilbo Baggins’ birthday party for the movie. 

The tour guide asked the group what was different about the way Hobbits celebrate birthdays and no one knew, so I felt I had to answer. Hobbits don’t receive presents on their birthday, instead they give presents to all their guests. 

In verse 10 of Deuteronomy 16 Moses gives the instruction to celebrate the Festival of weeks to the Lord your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the Lord your God has given you.

The thing that strikes me here is that the people are to celebrate by giving. This is a bit like the way Hobbits celebrate their birthdays. Not by receiving presents but by giving gifts. Cool aye.

The other thing I find interesting here is that, in Deuteronomy, Moses places the emphasis on the freewill offering aspect of the festival.

The protocol for observing the Festival of Weeks is detailed in the book of Numbers and in Leviticus as well. But both those accounts focus on the mandatory aspects of the celebration. For example, the priests had to sacrifice two bulls, seven lambs, a ram and a goat, along with grain and drink offerings as well.[1]

In addition to this legal requirement, people could also make freewill offerings.    

In Deuteronomy, Moses shines a spotlight on the freewill aspect of the feast of Weeks. The technical details are not in view here, as much as one’s gratitude for the blessings the Lord your God has given you.

A freewill offering means exactly that. It is an offering you make to God of your own freewill. Not because you have to but because you want to. Not because you must but because you can.

In the gospels we hear of a woman of ill repute who anointed Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume. She did this of her own freewill, out of gratitude and love for what Jesus had done for her. Those who have been forgiven much, love much.

Likewise, in the book of Acts we read of Barnabas selling a field he owned and giving the proceeds to the apostles. No one was forcing Barnabas to do this. He was moved by the Spirit, in an act of gratitude and love.

Although there is a rhythm with Israel’s worship, Moses did not want this rhythm to become routine or like an empty ritual, where the people just tick a box. Nor did he want people to think that somehow their giving put God under obligation.

In giving to God we are not securing for ourselves some influence over God. We cannot keep God in our pocket. The Lord Almighty cannot be bought. To the contrary. All that we have is a gift from God. Our giving to God is meant to be a response of gratitude for his blessing in our lives.

Celebrating by giving provides an antidote to greed and avarice. What’s more, gratitude in worship keeps our feet on the ground, it keeps us humble. Gratitude saves us from the self-righteous contempt that often characterised the Pharisees. 

The point here is that giving is good for us. We don’t give because God is short of cash. God is not short on resources. Giving supports the life and well-being of the individual donor and the community.

Moses tells the people to count the weeks, celebrate by giving and include the whole community in your celebration. Count, give and include. Counting is about rhythm. Giving is about gratitude and including is about communion.

Include – communion:

In verse 11 Moses says…

11 And rejoice before the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name…

Moses is referring here to a central place of worship. This one place was to be the hub of Israel’s life in the land. It was to hold the wheel of Israel’s cultic worship together.

Having one central place of worship was also meant to provide coherence and integrity for Israel’s thinking about God. Without a central place of worship, the people would be inclined to conform to the influence of their pagan neighbours, with the result that Israel’s religion would become indistinguishable from pagan practices.  

One central place of worship reinforced the idea that there is one God and he is holy, set apart, different from the gods of the Canaanites and Philistines. 

During the time of Eli, Hannah and Samuel, that one central place of worship was Shiloh. But God’s name was brought into disrepute there, so the central place of worship became Jerusalem, during the time of David and Solomon.

In the gospel of John chapter 4, Jesus has a conversation with a Samaritan woman by a well. The Samaritans believed that their mountain, in Samaria, was the special place chosen by God, while the Jews maintained the temple in Jerusalem was the place.

Jesus said, “Believe me woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem… 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

For Christians, worship of God is not centred around a geographical place. For us, worship is centred in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus replaces the Jerusalem temple. In and through Jesus we are reconciled to God and we enjoy communion with God. In Jesus, God’s name, his character and reputation, dwells in fullness.

Returning to Deuteronomy 16. Verse 11 goes on to say that everyone is to be included in the celebration.

When we think of ancient Israel making sacrifices, we might imagine the slaughter and burning of whole animals. Livestock and grain going up in smoke. And while some sacrifices were treated in this way, other offerings and sacrifices took the form of a shared meal for the whole community, sort of like a Hobbit party.

The freewill offering attached to the Feast of Weeks was a party to which everyone was invited. Not just people in your own family but also your male and female servants. So women were included along with men.

The Levites were also to be included. It was the Levites’ job to look after the special tent of God’s presence and to assist with the ritual sacrifices and other religious duties. The Levites were set apart for God’s service and, as such, were not allocated any land. The Lord was their portion.

But wait there’s more. Moses says that foreigners, or resident aliens, living among you must be included in the feasting as well. And we cannot forget the orphans and widows. They were not to miss out either.  

What we notice here is that the Levites, the foreigners, the widows and the fatherless were in no position to contribute anything to the feast. Doesn’t matter though. Not being able to bring a plate should not exclude anyone.

What we have in this community meal, in which everyone is included, is a kind of communion. The food, the lamb, the bread, the grain, the wine was offered to God and belongs to him anyway because it came from him in the first place. So that makes God the host of the party and the host can invite anyone he wants.

And so, in the Festival of Weeks (and other religious practices of ancient Israel), we have a form of social welfare, where those who cannot provide for themselves are provided for.

Once again we see how the festivals and sacrifices Israel was instructed to make were beneficial for them. Israel’s rhythm of worship was not meant to be a heavy burden. It was meant to support the life and well-being of the individual and the whole community.

Deuteronomy’s instructions for the Feast of Weeks finishes with these words…

12 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and follow carefully these decrees.

We hear this phrase about Israel being slaves in Egypt a number of times in the Old Testament. Deuteronomy is peppered with it. In the context of chapter 16, the call to remember makes the Feast of Weeks a memorial meal.

But why frame the memory in this way? Why say, remember that you were slaves in Egypt, when you could just as easily say, remember God’s deliverance or remember your release or something more positive like that? After all, the Feast of Weeks is meant to be a party, a celebration, isn’t it?

Well, it is characteristic of Moses, and of ancient Israel generally, to make room for lament. Lament allows grief and sadness to be acknowledged and expressed. Something like 40% of the Psalms are laments, to say nothing of the prophetic writings like Jeremiah and Lamentations.

The longer you live the more you have to grieve. True rejoicing cannot really take place if grief and loss is ignored or swept under the carpet.

It is rude and insensitive to laugh and joke and drink too much, when there are children in the room who have lost their father or a woman who has just gone through a divorce or refugees who have been forced to leave their land.  

Remembering the pain of their slavery in Egypt goes hand in hand with including refugees, orphans and widows. It is a way of honouring those who have suffered loss and standing in solidarity with them. You’ve got scars? I’ve got scars from where I come from too?

The white middle class western culture I was born into is pretty buttoned down when it comes to lament. We are not very good at expressing our grief. But as repressed as we are, we still have the social sensibility to keep things real.

Where I come from it is not unusual for someone at a party to give a heartfelt speech and make a toast to absent friends. It might be a time to celebrate, like a birthday party or a wedding anniversary, but that doesn’t mean we have to pretend everything in our life is perfect or whole.

Conclusion:

This morning we celebrate communion. Communion is a memorial meal, bringing to mind Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection.

As well as remembering Jesus’ scars, we also remember others in the room with us. Those who have suffered much to be here.

Communion isn’t just a personal thing, between you and God. Communion is something we share with each other as well. Communion transcends differences in gender and ethnicity and social status.  

Maybe your circumstances right now are a bit rubbish. Communion remembers forward as well as back. Communion looks forward to that time when God will wipe away every tear and heal every hurt. A time when we will participate in the Messianic banquet with Jesus in heaven.

Let us pray…

Eternal God, help us to find our rhythm as we walk humbly with you.    

Generous God, open our hands to pay forward what you have given us.

Compassionate God, open our hearts and minds to include others.

Suffering God, help us to remember where we come from and where we are headed. Through Jesus we pray. Amen. 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

  • What rhythms do we observe in the natural world and in our own bodies? How do these rhythms create order and support life?
  • What rhythms do you have to support your health & well-being? What rhythms do you have to support your faith and hope? What are you looking forward to in the short to medium term?
  • Why do you think Moses highlights the freewill aspect of the Feast of Weeks in Deuteronomy? What are the benefits of giving, both for the donor and the community?
  • Why did Israel have one central place of worship? Discuss / reflect on the ways Jesus replaces the Jerusalem temple.
  • How did the Feast of Weeks (and other religious rituals) contribute to the social welfare system of ancient Israel? Who are the foreigners, fatherless and widows in our society today? How might we include them?
  • Why is it important to make room for lament even as we celebrate? How might we do this in our context today?
  • Take some time this week to reflect on the connections between the Jewish festival of Weeks and the Christian festival of Pentecost. What do these two festivals share in common? How are they different? 

[1] Numbers 28:26-31