Published: January 21, 2024 | Speaker: D. Aaron Wells | Series: Deuteronomy - The Law Is Good, If One Uses It Lawfully 1 - Part 3 | Scripture: Deuteronomy 1:5-46
Transcript
View Full Transcript →
0:05
all right well welcome back to the law is good if one uses it lawfully session three um today we'll be uh turning to Deuteronomy 1 and really getting into the text I've looked forward to this
0:17
because last week we had to cover the the difficult subject of geography but um I was eager to really start looking at what Moses is saying and what his
0:29
message is both both to the people of Israel and to us um so if you care to turn with me we'll start with verse five uh which Begins the uh words of Moses proper uh we looked at the introduction
0:40
last week and now we'll look at his discourse starting with verse five beyond the Jordan in the land of Moab Moses undertook to explain this law
0:50
saying Yahweh Our God said to us in HB you have stayed long enough at this mountain turn and take your journey and go to the Hill Country of the amorites
1:01
and to all their neighbors in the arabah in the Hill Country and in the Loland and then in the neb and by the Sea Coast the land of the canites and Lebanon as
1:11
far as the Great River the river Euphrates see I have set the land before you go in and take possession of the land that Yahweh swore to your fathers
1:23
to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob to give to them and to their seed after them at that time I said to you I am not able to Bear You by myself Yahweh your God has
1:35
multiplied you and behold you are today as numerous as the stars of Heaven May Yahweh the god of your fathers make you a thousand times as many as you are and
1:46
bless you as he has promised you how can I myself bear the weight and burden of you and your Strife choose for your tribes wise
1:56
understanding and experienced men and I will appoint them as your heads and you answered me the thing that you have spoken is good for us to do so I took the heads of your tribes wise and
2:08
experienced men and set them as heads over you commanders of thousands commanders of hundreds commanders of 50s commanders of tens and officers throughout your tribes and I charged
2:20
your judges at that time hear the cases between your brothers and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien who is with him you shall not be partial in judgment you
2:32
shall hear the small and the great alike you shall not be intimidated by anyone for the judgment is God's and the case that is too hard for you you shall bring
2:43
to me and I will hear it and I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do then we set out from Horeb and went through all that great and
2:55
terrifying Wilderness that you saw on the way to the Hill Country of the amorites as Yahweh Our God commanded us and we came to cadesh Bara and I said
3:07
to you you have come to the Hill Country of the amorites which Yahweh our God is giving us see Yahweh your God has set the land before you go up take
3:17
possession as Yahweh the god of your fathers has told you do not fear or be dismayed then all of you came near me and said let us send men before us that
3:28
they may explore the land for us and bring us word again by the way by excuse me of the way by which we should go up and the cities into which we shall come the thing seemed good to me and I
3:40
took 12 men from among you one man from each tribe and they turned and went up into the Hill Country and came to the valley of eshkol and spied it out and
3:51
they took in their hands some of the fruit of the land and brought it down to us and brought us word again and said it is a good land that Yahweh are our God is giving is giving us yet you would not go up but rebelled
4:05
against the command of Yahweh your God and you murmured in your tents and said because Yahweh hated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt to give us into the hand of the amorites to destroy
4:17
us where are we going up our brothers have made our hearts melt saying the people are greater and taller than we the cities are great and fortified up to
4:28
heaven and besides we have seen the sons of the anakim there then I said to youo not be in dread or afraid of them Yahweh your God who goes before you will
4:40
himself fight for you just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes and in the wilderness where you have now seen how Yahweh carried you as a man carries his son all the way that you went until you
4:52
came to this place yet in spite of this word you did not believe Yahweh your God who went before you in the way to seek you out a place to pit your tents in fire by night and in Cloud by day to
5:04
show you by what way you should go and Yahweh heard your words and was
5:18
angered so again last we covered we we looked at the difficult issue of the geography of where these things happened and uh now we need to look a little bit at the chronology of of where these things happen Moses only identified is
5:30
at that time that gives us a lot of which doesn't give us a lot of assurance as to exactly what he's talking about um need to as much as we can be
5:42
non-scientific about such terms and I'll I'll get i'll get into why we would want to be a little loose about what we understand him to
5:52
mean by at that time but I also mentioned last time that the first discourse is really a selective summary of numbers it begins in approximately
6:03
the same place and time that numbers began and it ends in approximately the same place and even subject matter that numbers ends numbers ends on uh so Moses then fittingly begins his
6:15
discourse uh in in verse six U saying Yahweh Our God said to us in HB you have stayed long enough at this mountain uh where Israel was in numbers 10 uh
6:27
numbers 10 11-13 in the second year in the second month on the 20th day of the month the cloud lifted from Over the Tabernacle of the testimony and the
6:37
people of Israel set out by stages from the Wilderness of SII and the clouds settled down in the wilderness of paron they set out for the first time at the command of Yahweh by Moses it might seem
6:50
strange that I mentioned numbers 10 as being the the corollary here reason being numbers 1 through 10 or numbers 1 1 through n rather U serve as a backdrop
7:02
of preparations that happened at the mountain for their leaving and all it remained was for the the cloud to lift off of the Tabernacle and go um so one
7:13
through 10 are kind of the in the same paropy more or less and if you look at the chronology listed for you in numbers it happens within the same like 18 days or something like that so we're talking
7:23
about three weeks time um but again what I what I uh am focusing on here is they set out at the first time at the command of Yahweh by Moses and you see Moses
7:34
relating that command Yahweh said to me leave um but then he shifts oddly enough uh to a discussion of the changing administration of the people which may
7:46
seem a little bit uh of a diversion uh if we're talking about leave the mountain we'd expect to talk about their travels but he doesn't he talks about
7:56
their Administration but this is a structure that this admin ministration structure that he's going to describe uh was needed for the movement phase of their journey and thereafter uh things are
8:07
changing as they leave the mountain and they will now be a people moving through the Wilderness uh and then they will come into the land and be a people spread throughout the land uh but this
8:19
changing administration of the people in the text is prefaced by that phrase at that time and that presents a little bit of confusion uh as to the chronology of these things
8:29
these things um I take at that time to mean in the same general time period uh as the command to appoint Chiefs is linked with the command to move away from from from HB in numbers hence my point about the
8:41
first 10 chapters kind of being within all within the same set of events uh them leaving it corresponds to the choosing of choosing of Chiefs um since these Chiefs would
8:53
eventually lead their stages uh they had been administered centrally while at the mountain but Moses could not carry out such leadership single-handedly uh so it was while they were at HB that Moses
9:04
received the good advice to appoint judges uh that's in Exodus 18 which we're going to read um or at least in part here yes go ahead you think this was a command from the Lord for him to
9:17
people is that something verse 22 it says all of you came to me so it's like a suggestion from the people right but I'm not sure if that was something that
9:28
God told God told a as usual you you are not uh noticing like uh halfway through my lesson uh uh there we are we are going to talk about that um I'll I'll get there in a second
9:40
but I appreciate the uh the anticipation of those things that's exactly the kind of thing I want to talk about um so Moses receives at HB the the good advice or rather before they reach HB so I put
9:52
a skeleton timeline out here and and this is not to scale um but there the the advice he gets from his father-in-law to appoint judges which we'll read in a second um precedes their
10:04
arrival at Mount SII um which again causes somewhat somewhat of consternation for me anyways when I read these things and I go well that's not exactly when those things happened um but he receives the advice
10:17
to appoint judges in Exodus 18 and then it's brought to completion by the time they set out uh in numbers 10 um so already a good example of how chronology is not described in scripture in the way
10:28
we would describe it if we were writing a history um we use a lot of modified verb tenses and extra words to be very precise about first this happened then this happened then this happened we have rules governing how we set up lists but
10:41
um this way of speaking uh out out first out loud to the people uh in real time uh and then just the way we would
10:51
normally uh talk doesn't necessarily fit that that overly precise way that we would May write down a historiography um so there's two reasons why the um why
11:04
the way the chronology is described is going to be uh in by Nature non-scientific um first Moses is not only constructing a narrative that's um
11:16
topical in nature okay perhaps leading to certain events even being chronologically reversed for the purpose of illustration okay but but also I think what justifies that notion is that
11:27
he's speaking at the close of a 40-year Ministry he's speaking all the way over here about things that happened back here um there's been significant
11:38
development from beginning to end of his ministry uh and the fact that he would speak not of how things developed but in summary of their final State I think should really be unsurprising to us
11:51
um but the the commentaries I think make a little bit of a problem for us in this in the way they in the way they often speak of those
12:01
things I have an example this is Victor Hamilton in the handbook on the penit took he says first to be sure Deuteronomy 1 9-18 is a blend of two
12:13
earlier biblical events one prei Exodus 18 the only prei event in this paropy and one and one posts uh numbers 11 he lists and I'll
12:27
get into why I think that's a little problematic but a blend um so let's let's read the the passages that he mentions and then we'll ask the question uh is such a conclusion appropriate that
12:39
it's blending uh starting with uh Exodus 18 uh verse 5 yetro Moses father-in-law came with his sons and his wife to Moses
12:49
in the wilderness where he was encamped at the Mountain of God and when he sent word to Moses I your father-in-law yetro am coming to you with your wife and and her two sons with her Moses went out to
13:01
meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him and they asked each other of their wellfare and went into the tent then Moses told his father-in-law all that Yahweh had done to pharaoh and to
13:13
the Egyptians for Israel's sake and the hardship that had come upon them in the way and how Yahweh had delivered them and yetro rejoiced for the good that Yahweh had done to Israel in in that he
13:25
had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians yetro said Blessed Be Yahweh who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of pharaoh and has delivered the people from under the hand of the
13:36
Egyptians now I know that Yahweh is greater than all gods because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people in yetro Moses father-in-law brought a burnt offering and sacrifices
13:48
to God and Aaron came with all the Elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses father-in-law before God the next day Moses sat to judge the people and the people stood around Moses from morning
14:00
till evening when Moses father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people he said what is this that that you are doing for the people why do you sit alone and all the people stand around
14:11
you from morning till evening and Moses said to his father-in-law because the people come to me to inquire of God when they have a dispute they come to me and
14:21
I decide between one person and another and I make them know the statutes of God and his and his laws Moses father-in-law said to him what you are doing is not good you and
14:32
the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out for the thing is too heavy for you you are not able to do it alone Now obey my voice I will give you advice and God be with you you will
14:44
represent the people before God and bring their cases to God and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do
14:55
moreover look for able men from among the people people men who fear God who are trustworthy and hate a bribe and place such men over the people as Chiefs of thousands of hundreds of 50s and of
15:07
tens and let them judge the people at all times every great matter they shall bring to you but any small matter they shall decide themselves so it will be easier for you and they will bear the
15:18
burden with you if you do this God will direct you you will be able to endure and all this people also will go to their place in peace so Moses Mo
15:28
listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people Chiefs of thousands of hundreds
15:39
of f50s and of tens and they judged the people at all times any hard case they brought to Moses but in a small matter they decided for themselves then Moses let his father-in-law depart and he went
15:51
away to his own country so that's the first event mentioned by uh Mr Hamilton here the second is numbers
16:05
11 uh starting with verse 10 Moses heard the people weeping throughout all their Clans this is shortly after they after they leave leave Horeb and they're in the desert and they're complaining that they have no meat they have Mana but
16:16
they have no meat Moses heard the people weeping throughout their Clans everyone at the door of his tent and the anger of Yahweh blazed hotly and Moses was
16:36
me Moses said to Yahweh why have you dealt ill with your servant and why have I not found favor in your sight that you lay the burden of all this people on me did I conceive all this people did I give them birth that you should say to
16:47
me carry them in your bosom as a nurse carries a nursing child to the land that you swore to give their fathers where am I to get meat to give all this people for they weep before me and say give us
16:59
meat that we may eat I am not able to carry all this people alone the burden is too heavy for me if you will treat me like this kill me at once if I find
17:10
favor in your sight that I may not see my wretchedness then Yahweh said to Moses gather for me 70 men of the Elders of Israel whom you know to be Elders of the
17:20
people and officers over them and bring them to the tent of meeting and let them take their stand there with you and I will come down and talk with you there and I will take some of the spirit that
17:31
is on you and put it on them and they shall bear the burden of the people with you so that you may not bear it yourself alone and say to the people consecrate yourselves for tomorrow and you shall
17:42
eat meat for you have wept in the hearing of Yahweh saying who will give us meat to eat for it was better for us in Egypt therefore Yahweh will give you meat and you shall eat you shall not eat
17:54
just one day or two days or 5 days or 10 days or 20 days but a whole month month till it comes out your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you because you have rejected Yahweh who is among you
18:05
and have wept before him saying why did we come out of Egypt but Moses said the people among whom I am excuse me the people among whom I am number 600,000 on foot and you
18:17
have said I will give them meat that they may eat a whole month shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them and be enough for them or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them
18:27
and be enough for them and Yahweh said to Moses is yahweh's hand shortened now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not so Moses went out and told the people the words of Yahweh
18:39
and he gathered 70 men of the Elders of the people and placed them around the tent then Yahweh came down in the cloud and spoke to him and took some of the
18:49
spirit that was on him and put it on the 70 elders and as soon as the spirit rested on them they prophesied but they did not continue doing
19:00
it all right so given what we've we've read if you can kind of think back to the Deuteronomy reading I would I would like to know if anyone has an opinion on
19:10
whether a conclusion of blending those two events is
19:22
appropriate thoughts at all do they match do they not match are there is there a reason why one or one or the other would not be what he's talking about at that time I said to
19:32
said to you I'm not able to Bear the burden of you the event basically well I think that's one of the questions you have to ask is what in the heck does Victor Hamilton here mean by blending okay so that's that's yeah
19:45
that's one of the questions you need to ask okay are they distinct purposes okay including all three of them are
19:57
them are distinct has to do with judging the people Deuteronomy has to do with Leading the People as they go through the Wilderness numbers doesn't actually
20:09
explain what the 70 are going to do except that they receive the spirit right but it's like asking the question of the different outpourings of the spirit in Pentecost
20:20
and in Ephesus and are these and especially somewhat liberal Scholars tend to think different traditions of the same event
20:32
right but in the text itself they're different events different events right and and and the the the the problem for us is compounded then
20:42
because he's narrating it over here and it may be that it is a different a third thing it may also be one or more of them
20:52
and and because he's distant from it and recounting their history it may be that what he's saying and one of those things told us in Exodus through numbers overlaps or as Victor Hamilton seems to
21:05
be suggesting that they they all overlap in some way um I think the suitability of such a conclusion of blending really depends entirely on whether we agree that Moses spoke these words okay or
21:18
think as much scholarship does that a non- eyewitness much later on composed Deuteronomy as a religious propaganda tool standard uh and made reference a
21:29
little bit to this standard documentary hypothesis for a couple hundred years has been that Deuteronomy was composed as a as a tool for Josiah to use in his
21:39
religious reforms and it was composed all the way there ironically uh Source criticism has ended up having to say that Deuteronomy was the earliest which I find really funny
21:50
um it's just once you start rolling that snowball it's hard to stop um but but would we agree that he spoke the these words here that he spoke these words
22:02
here and at this time um that's going to change what we mean by blending I think um so liberal scholarship would see this is I guess what well the one Moses spoke
22:14
these words would show us an example of Moses speaking of a long period of time uh in this case a year okay where they're they're right about at reedem and they're about to arrive at Sinai to
22:25
the point where they leave sini okay so he's speaking of a long period of time which he himself lived okay full of the day-to-day administration of the people during that year okay but speaking of it
22:36
in a way that is both a summary and connects that development to what is to follow okay that might be what we mean by blending the other sees this as
22:48
conflation okay in other words Moses is confused or the writer is confused because he's writing it he he's cobbling together multiple sources and kind of decides oh the these are the same things
22:58
and just runs them together um and and in that in so seeing it as conflation sees it as one more evidence of multiple conflicting sources being glossed by somebody who has an agenda um and isn't
23:11
directly connected to the events if the events happened at all that's kind of the upward climb we're on often and when I mentioned the problem of scholarship last week it's it's we go to the
23:22
resources for help but they sit there and tell us a bunch of things which ultimately stem from the idea that well Moses may have been a person but surely these aren't actually his words and these were written a long time later and
23:35
so they use a word like blending and and I every time I read a source like this I'm unsure which one they mean are you saying this person who wrote this is confused or that Moses was confused or
23:46
are you saying that this is some sort of natural recounting of a period of time 40 years earlier that was a year long and had a lot going on just like we would recount that that
23:58
one year that was really hard a decade ago I think if you you read the history of our country the 18th into the early 19th century certainly not we're not
24:12
God's people chosen out of the Nations but right you see another example of what it takes to make a people into a nation yes and that's what we're dealing
24:22
with here that's right we tend to think oh the nation of Israel but it wasn't a nation in Egypt it was an ethnicity right and even then it wasn't all that homogeneous right because they did
24:34
retain their tribal identities which they were not to lose right and yet they were to become a nation they were going to have to be administered and their their geographical situation was going
24:44
to change too that's that's another big thing is that they were they were a camp in the wilderness moving moving through more or less in a long line but they were about to be spread throughout here so they were going to need to change I I
24:56
wrote this question down uh you know would would we all agree that one narrates differently when recording events as they happen than when describing them after their completion
25:07
does that make sense to us if we were asked to recount a day-to-day Journal of how things shook out we would record those events very differently than we would record them in hindsight like if
25:18
asked can you write just a little Chronicle of last year those would be very different ways of of narrating and I think that's what we're seeing here um number Exodus through numbers gives us a
25:29
very in the middle of the action kind of narration and it seems to me that many of the things that are there is piecing together going on for sure but many of
25:40
those things are things that could only have been recorded while the events were happening the legislation the list of stations and numbers is a great example uh of that those are in the middle of
25:51
the action kind of events that's not what we have in Deuteronomy we have it it's all hindsight uh for him in this first discourse um so the the narration is going to be different I actually personally disagree that the episode in
26:03
numbers 11 is in view at all um since it happened at least three days journey away from the mountain he said at that time and then he goes on in verse 9 to
26:13
say and then we left okay so if I just trust a general ordering of things I'm going to say that the choosing that these seven these particular 70 elders and the the whole episode of the spirit
26:23
being taken and put on them is really not what is in View and Moses discourse at all um that but it is fair to point out that it has a relationship and that
26:34
it shows uh that moses' ultimate burden of the people was really not truly alleviated by the ministry of the elders and judges uh it says they they prophesied but they did not continue
26:45
doing so um and that's that's a trend we're going to see fleshed out in the rest of the discourse here because even though it happened so even though it happened later it foreshadows that the
26:56
spiritual power of the ministry of the elders and judges would really fade uh and uh the people would be subject to a a real variety and quality of spiritual
27:07
guidance yes well Aaron I agree I think I agree with you but just to ask the question um I was surprised that numbers 11 was brought in as part of this
27:18
potential combination or memory but we do see in numbers 11 that the people were crying they were rebelling against God mhm and then in Deuteronomy we're
27:29
going to see where they went up to the land refused to enter they said let's send some people MH and then when they heard the report they even more so said
27:39
we're not going out there again rebelling against God so I feel like it's a stretch but I guess I'm positing that as why that might be included in this discussion yeah and that's that's
27:50
exactly what I'm saying I do feel like it's fair to point out that it relates in that it indicates the trajectory of Israel's government is Israel will be subject in the future to the ministry of
28:00
the judges and elders and the priests and that the quality of that leadership is going to VAR and it is generally going to fade just like the elders began to prophesy yet did not continue doing
28:11
so that's that's exactly what what I'm getting at in both cases the people came up to him he told them to go into the land they said oh let
28:22
us get some people over there was their idea a god idea for them to send spies into God didn't Tellies they came said let's do that
28:35
that's the way that's the way Moses recounts it yet in numbers it clearly says that Yahweh said to Moses send men to spy out the land um numb 11 God did it out
28:47
ofra like people aren't aring well okay right yeah it seems to be a NE negative thank you for that because
28:59
that's another indicator to me that numbers 11 is not what Moses is talking about because Moses exclamation is that Yahweh has blessed you and you are as numerous as the stars of Heaven let's
29:09
keep let's keep moving on that one of the major points I find all commentators overlooking that I've looked at is the connection between moses' exclamation of their great numbers and the focus of
29:19
numbers one on the numbering of the people the the the princes of Israel are first named when Moses needs to number the people right at the close of their
29:30
time of the mountain um you can read that in numbers one I don't feel like I have time to necessarily go through that um but um but um you you can see the the connection
29:42
that Moses and Aaron took these men who had been named on the first day of the second month they assembled the whole congregation together who registered themselves by Clans by father's houses according to the number of names of 20
29:53
years old and upward head by head as Yahweh commanded Moses and so he listed them in the wilderness of seni compare that to um just what he says in in
30:03
Deuteronomy here um saying Yahweh your God has multiplied you and behold you are today as numerous of the Star as the stars of Heaven um so he treats their
30:15
their travels in tur summary but he actually focuses on their Administration um it's not moses' intention to discuss anything that happened uh in the wilderness since
30:26
during that time it was not made known that the former generation would fall um and his audience is the is the new generation as we discussed last week this is not their story um this is not
30:37
the former generation story uh they're dead uh the the knowledge that the former generation would fall comes to light in what follows um so in looking at Moses description of their state he
30:49
calls to mind yahweh's promise to Abraham uh which he was bringing to fulfillment Yahweh has set the land before you and we know that he will deliver it to them because they are
31:00
today as numerous as the stars of Heaven um look at Deuteronomy 7 uh in the Hill Country of the amorites and to all their neighbors in the arabah
31:11
in the Hill Country and in the Loland and in the neb and by the Sea Coast the land of the canites and Lebanon as far as the Great River the river Euphrates um comparing what he said to what God
31:23
Said to Abraham in Genesis 15 this is 15 Verse 18 on that day Yahweh made a covenant with Abraham saying to your seed I give this land from the river of
31:34
Egypt to the Great River the river Euphrates and then he lists the Nations okay and then a second marker in the text that suggest that him his exclamation about their numbers is very
31:45
significant Yahweh your God has multiplied you and behold you are today as numerous as the stars of Heaven um earlier in Genesis 15 uh he he tells him
31:56
he tells AB AB he brought him outside and said look toward heaven and Number the Stars if you were able to number him number them then he said to him so shall your seed be and he believed Yahweh and
32:09
he counted it to him as righteousness uh looking ahead in Genesis 22 which I've also listed for you on your outline let's see starting at verse 17 I
32:22
will surely bless you and I will surely multiply your seed as the stars of Heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore and your seed shall possess the Gate of his enemies and in your seed
32:34
shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because you have obeyed my
32:44
voice so we're assured then that Yahweh has set the land before them because Yahweh has fulfilled his promise to Abraham thus far your seed are as numerous as the stars of Heaven
32:54
okay this isn't really part of this series but we do read that God had given them all that was promised Joshua says
33:06
it Solomon says it but I'm not sure I've come across a source that shows the extent even of the davidic
33:19
dynasty that reached to the Euphrates they usually show it during Solomon's Reign up all the way through I've seen I've seen some maps that that show that
33:29
all the way to the Euphrates and they're basing that on the text in Chronicles I think where um it's it is actually said from the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates um David's military campaigns
33:41
in Syria having uh sort of carved out a sphere of influence there and then Solomon actually goes up and reasserts control over those areas but does not
33:51
have to fight a battle to do so including vassel States it apparently um yes but he he asserts a more solid control I I I I take it in the in the
34:02
text uh than David had David defeated them and and they paid tribute but then Solomon goes up there and confirms control over those over those areas do we have any evidence of Israelite
34:15
tribes actually I'm not sure that the degree to which there was migration there um their migrations in the North in particular are actually of issue in in Deuteronomy but um I'm not sure about those
34:28
particular kingdoms like gure and um Tomi and those those places in Syria um but my main point is to say that that at the moment we're looking at the the
34:39
intermediate fulfillment of God's promise and Moses saying see God has fulfilled his promise to Abraham and he is disposed to continue uh doing that um so the Declaration of God's faithfulness
34:50
then Blends seamlessly into the appointment of the people's Chiefs uh because the sign of God's faithfulness is how numerous they are uh just as the burden on Moses Administration is how numerous they are and then he adds this
35:03
phrase and your Strife um which is a little ominous foreshadowing there um by the way we are going to work with the people's will versus God's will that's
35:14
next week um for now I want to take a brief moment and look at just the necessity of Faithful Men so we've looked at the chronology a bit hopefully it wasn't too confusing um I I
35:27
I want to clarify what's going on there uh because it is confusing on first glance and every time I've come across it I've I've thought I'm G to have to look at that a little harder so I hope
35:39
that's cleared up a few things we looked at the faithfulness of God being indicated by Moses in this and him really starting there and and then thirdly the necessity of Faithful Men um the choosing of their Chiefs corresponds
35:51
to the numbering of the people before leaving Sinai as I've said and I I really do think that it's what we're really seeing is when he talks about the appointment of the judges he's looking back on the development from the advice
36:02
he received sorry the advice he received from his father-in-law to the point at which these Chiefs are named um I think linguistically speaking there's a better connection there and to see them not not
36:15
blending but to see them it's a description of the whole development I also don't think that Exodus 18 necessarily leaves us with the um inescapable conclusion that Moses
36:26
immediately named those judges and got straight to work on that they were still traveling in the desert and he had not yet gone up to the Mountain of God I think the more sensible thing is to say
36:37
he received that advice first he went to meet God the 70 elders of Israel at that time ate with God Moses heard the law you had the affair of the golden calf
36:48
okay and then as they're getting as they're they have excuse me as they've erected the Tabernacle etc etc they're getting they're winding away more to the point where they will leave the mountain
37:00
and that Administration is going to need to change so I see it as a development over a year's time or so not as we've got to identify it as either here or
37:10
there he's speaking back we would speak of this year in summary quite naturally and we could talk about it just like he does at that time I said to you I am not
37:21
able to Bear You by myself that was true here and that was true here too okay um but the Chiefs and also then the fir the chief's first specified task where
37:33
we see them named in numbers one was to assist Moses in the census even though they may have been assisting Moses in earlier judgments they're not named until the census and I think there's indications both in numbers and in
37:44
Exodus that these men were already known among the people to be the ones that they would they would trust okay and this gets into the was it the People's
37:54
Choice or God's choice numbers relates that God designated these men okay but Moses points out here that they were they were also the People's Choice both
38:06
exist together um these are the men's men who the whose judgments the people were accustomed to trusting and then they would have to trust going forward Yes again using the analogy of of our own
38:18
development when it came time for delegates to go to Philadelphia for either the Continental Congress or the Constitutional Convention Constitutional Convention everyone knew in the colonies or the
38:29
states who was going right Charles py was going from South Carolina right okay um but a generation later when Andrew Jackson is President
38:40
and the people now have there are very few of those recognized leaders left right in our in our history and there is
38:51
a growing degree of Anarchy and chaos and it's really I think it's not it's not that we're Israel it's just this is human nature right as it develops into a
39:03
cohesive Nation right there will be recognized leaders that the people just turn to and say okay you're our guy you got that's right but then a generation later that's that's gone right yeah we
39:15
we tend to see this as one thing and that's okay we're looking back way back on it but we need to remember these things developed over a time and as you
39:27
said their judges would live and then die and then they would need more uh yes so we see examples elsewhere of people coming up with an idea and then whoever is asks
39:39
God and God confirms or dismisses so I wonder if that was happening here it say you all came near things seem good to me well what
39:50
seen good to Moses he not asked God first so that's one I irony of it was their idea to do this yeah and then
40:01
immediately they're like yes they told us it was a good land which is what we wanted to hear but still you wouldn't go up it was your own idea God didn't even right necessarily initiate it right and
40:14
still wouldn't do it yeah it was it was it was the people's idea to do this and it absolutely was okay so numbers saying that God said send some men to spy out the land doesn't change the fact that it
40:25
definitely was people's idea and Moses I think is bringing out that end of things uh we'll talk next week about the I I will use the analogy of what goes on in 1 Samuel um because I think there is is
40:39
a more focused discussion of the will of God and the will of the people more than we have here we have sort of been passing here but uh there is a really good analogy for dis a discussion of
40:50
what is it mean for God to do his perfect will and yet man certainly will have his head um how how does that work um we'll discuss that next week this was
41:01
just too much to to do in one go here um but also that I guess the the final thing being that the the people would not be led uh or excuse me could only be led rightly uh if their judges and
41:14
Chiefs kept to what Moses says the Judgment which is God's U you shall not be intimidate intimidated by anyone for the judgment is God's and later I
41:25
commanded you at that time all the things you should do um so no matter who is set over the people the spirit is everything and the flesh counts for nothing okay Moses was faithful in all
41:37
God's house as a servant as Hebrews tells us uh but as such he had limitations uh and Moses probably sees this more poignantly at this point but I
41:49
don't know that anybody here thought that he was Immortal he's going to die okay if the people would not follow yah with all their heart being led by Moses or even being so numerous as he says
42:01
they are and being blessed thus far would profit them nothing and I think we see that through ex Exodus through numbers they're led by a man who is again Hebrews says faithful in all God's
42:12
house as a servant and yet if they won't follow Yahweh with all their heart having Moses among them is not doing them any good U they end up falling in the wilderness anyway Hebrews also tells
42:24
us chapter 13:7 obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who have to give an account let them do this with
42:34
joy and not with groaning for that would be of no advantage to you Moses can't live forever and the people are a people who are to hold fast
42:45
to the word of God as delivered to them by Moses and it's that word that abides forever as I pointed out in the first week we're in a similar position we live
42:56
by by the word of God just like our Lord did when he faced Satan in the desert he said man does not live by bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God which is from Deuteronomy
43:08
um our Lord lived on the word of God and we do as well following him wherever we go and he himself said in John 6 uh verse 63 it is the spirit who gives life the
43:21
flesh is no help at all the words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and life having Moses in their midst was not the recipe for recipe for faithfulness um it was abiding in the
43:33
word of word of God so then in tur summary he in verse 19 we set out from Horeb and went through that great and terrifying Wilderness that you saw on the way to
43:44
the Hill Country of the amorites as Yahweh Our God commanded us says nothing about those about those times because it was not Apparent at that time that the former generation
43:54
would fall it was what happened once they reached cadesh Bara that that became apparent um as with the appointment of the Chiefs uh God's instruction to send men to spy out the land as related in
44:07
numbers excuse me it corresponds to the people's desires related in Deuteronomy and there is a certain tension as to whether the fact that they are eager to send men to spy out the land is a good
44:18
thing or not if you're reading this the first time you're going the things seem good to me okay okay but if you've read numbers already numbers already um Moses tells them the land is before
44:29
you do not fear and that that corresponds to what is said before uh God saying in verse 8 I have set the land before you uh in verse 21 he says
44:40
see Yahweh your God has set the land before you and I want to begin to notice those repeat phrases uh in these discourses because they're really the key to connecting the themes in
44:51
those um it just remains to be seen whether the Chiefs of the people will concur that Yahweh has set the land before us okay so if if you don't
45:02
understand set the land before you is it's there just take it that's the paraphrase of that uh that phrase um Verse 18 uh said I commanded you at that time
45:15
all the things you should do okay so Moses Ministry and this is in conclusion in summary here Moses ministry will end and the people will be guided by the
45:26
ministry of their priests elders and judges only that they guide the people in accordance with the law as Yahweh commanded Moses uh there's a later passage in in
45:37
Deuteronomy 17 that's worth looking at here just to justify the conclusion now that that's going to be the way it
45:49
is Moses is going to provide some legislation amidst his discourses that shows that that will be the case uh 17:8 if any case arises
45:59
requiring decision between one kind of homicide and another one kind of legal right and another or one kind of assault and another any case within your towns that is too difficult for you then you
46:12
shall arise and go up to the place that Yahweh your God will choose and you shall come to not Moses you shall come to the levitical priests and to the judge who is in office in those days and
46:24
you shall consult them and they shall declare to you the decision then you shall do according to what they declare to you from the place that Yahweh your God will choose and you shall be careful
46:35
to do according to all that they direct you according to the instructions that they give you and according to the decision which they pronounce to you you shall do it you shall not turn aside
46:46
from the verdict that they declare to you either to the right hand or to the left the man who acts presumptuously by not obeying the priest who stands to minister Minister there before Yahweh
46:57
your God or the judge that man shall die so you shall Purge the evil from Israel and the people shall hear and fear and
47:07
not act presumptuously again okay secondly um that they may explore this is verse 22 that they may explore the land for us and bring us
47:19
word the hearts of the people will be shown in how they respond to trial but Yahweh must give them heart to love him otherwise their priests their elders
47:29
and their judges will not be a blessing to them nor they to their leaders we see this now in what we call every member Ministry we having good Elders who teach
47:41
us well and diligently is going to do us no good if we have no heart to follow our God if we do not abide in the word together uh we will not abide at all but then they say in verse 28 where
47:54
are we going up our brothers have made our hearts melt there's the flip side that if if the leaders will not hold fast they will lead the people astray um it is a both
48:08
end and we come back to this passage a whole lot uh in Deuteronomy 29 veres 2- 11 or
48:19
so this is to demonstrate I want you to listen for the the key point which is at the end the end which oddly which oddly enough a lot of the legislation and
48:32
judgment got communicated to these judges and Chiefs and then was passed down just percolated down to the people but Moses says uh at the end of this
48:43
that those gathered before him is everyone and I think it's uh it's suit it's it's fitting that in discussing the heart of the people that he specifically
48:55
said says I'm speaking to every man woman and child here um we should take note of that given that we are a people among whom there is neither male nor female in Christ okay uh neither slave
49:08
nor free or national distinctions but Christ is is all and is in all um this this should read as familiar to our spirits and Moses summoned all Israel
49:19
and said to them you have seen all that Yahweh did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to aroh and to all his servants and to all his land the great trials that your eyes saw the signs and the and
49:32
those great wonders but to this day Yahweh has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear I have led you 40 years in the
49:44
wilderness your clothes have not worn out on you and your sandals have not worn off your feet you have not eaten bread and you have not drunk wine or strong drink that you may know that I am
49:56
Yahweh your God and when you came to this place seon the king of heshbon and O the king of bosan came out against us to battle but we defeated them we took
50:06
their land and gave it for an inheritance to the reubenites the gadites and the halft tribe of the Monas sites therefore keep the words of this Covenant and do them that you may
50:17
prosper in all that you do you are standing today all of you before Yahweh your God the heads of your tribes your Elders your officers all the men of
50:28
Israel your little ones your wives and the Sojourner in your Camp from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water so that you may enter into
50:39
sworn Covenant with Yahweh your God which he is making with you
50:57
Prayer Our Father we thank you that we have enjoyed for many years the ministry of Faithful Men and that we have seen in that
51:09
Ministry your faithfulness to us that we can know because you have deposited your spirit in us that you have fulfilled all of your
51:21
of your promises to your people that you have brought us all but in body into the Heavenly Realms and that you will indeed give
51:32
life to our mortal bodies in correspondence to correspondence to that we pray that you would help us as we are a gathered people amidst many Trials of this life uh seeing both
51:46
extraordinary good things from your hand and also seeing the ravages of this world which we would be otherwise tempted to see as purely natural help us
52:00
to see your Providence in it and help us to band together and encourage one another daily all the more as we see the day
52:18
coming lead us as our Shepherd we pray as people who you have given a heart to follow you we ask that you help us by your spirit to abide in your word word to take nothing for
52:28
granted but to do all that is required with each other to love one another and bear one another's burdens and to do as our lord said to abide in him