Published: August 24, 2025 | Speaker: D. Aaron Wells | Series: Deuteronomy - The Law Is Good, If One Uses It Lawfully 2 - Part 16 | Scripture: Deuteronomy 11:2-32
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Well, this is the law is good if one uses it lawfully, session 33. Um, if you turn with me in your Bibles, uh, we'll be finishing out the segment that I had in mind to get through this
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this part, uh, which finishes out chapter 11. Begin in chapter 10, verse 22. And this is of course part two of of uh
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of what is a whole a whole segment uh from uh chapter 10 verse 12 uh all the way to the end of the chapter in your copies. So let's give a careful year to
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the reading. Your fathers went down to Egypt 70 persons and now Yahweh your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven. You shall therefore love Yahweh
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your God, and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always. commandments always. And consider today, since I am not speaking to your children who have not known or seen it, consider the
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instruction of Yahweh your God, or the discipline, his greatness, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm, his signs, and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh,
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the king of Egypt, and to all his land, and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses, and to their chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued after you. and
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how Yahweh has destroyed them to this day. And what he did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place. And what he did to Daton and Airram, the sons of Elab, the son of Reuben, how the
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earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them in the midst of all Israel. For your eyes have seen all the
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great work of Yahweh that he did. You shall therefore keep the whole commandment that I command you today, that you may be strong and go in and take possession of the land that you are
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going over to possess, and that you may live long in the land that Yahweh swore to your fathers to give to them and to their seed, a land flowing with milk and honey. For the land that you are
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entering to take possession of, it is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you swed your seed and watered it with your feet, like a garden of vegetables. But the land that
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you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys which drinks water by rain from heaven. A land that Yahweh your God cares for. The eyes of Yahweh
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your God are always upon it from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. And if obeying you obey my commandments that I command you today to love Yahweh your God, to serve him with
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all your heart and with all your soul, he will give you the rain for your land in its season. the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil, and he
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will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full. Take care, then, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and
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serve other gods and worship them. Then the anger of Yahweh be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish
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quickly off the good land that Yahweh is giving you. Therefore, you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and therefore they
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shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them while you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when
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you rise. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house, and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that Yahweh swore to your fathers
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to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth. For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving Yahweh your God, walking in all his ways, and
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holding fast to him, then Yahweh will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves. Every place on which the soul of your
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foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the river, the river Euphrates to the western sea. No
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one will be able to stand against you. Yahweh your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread as he promised you.
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See, I set before you today a blessing and a curse. the blessing if you obey the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I command you today. And the curse if you do not obey the commandments of
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Yahweh your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today to go after gods that you have not known. And when Yahweh your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take
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possession of it, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gazim and the curse on Mount Ebal. Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the road, toward the going down of the sun, in the land of
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the Canonites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oak of Mor? For you are to cross over the Jordan and go in and take possession of that land
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that Yahweh your God is giving you. And when you possess it and live in it, you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the rules that I set before you
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So, I would be uh so bold as to say that perhaps that sounds like a bit of a poperri of of subjects on on Moses' part. I mean, anybody else feel like it's a lot of different thoughts all kind of cobbled together? It's always
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seemed that way to me. I don't know. If it doesn't, that's great. I hope that uh by the end of our study, you will be able to see how it coheres. um how it is sewing up what he has begun here at the
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end and even being uh you know the sort of natural repetition of the same phrases which again is as I've said before characteristic of what we now
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call epic uh but which is the the finest of communication right to to recast the same sayings in an evolving context as
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as you go to to look at the same teaching from many facets. And that's what Moses has been doing for us thus far. And and and as a purposeful
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recapitulation, it's not just repetition, but we also find some differences. And like we looked at in Leviticus, often the meaning for us is
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going to be most obvious in the differences. So we'll look at those differences uh today since most of the teaching you've heard has has already on its own the the things that are repeated
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you've already heard the teaching on right so now it's recast with some differences and and we we're obligated to look at those differences um the first thing I'd want you to know
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is that um the the flow of this text follows very closely the flow of chapters six through eight which was a a main segment of this this introduction
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to the second discourse. Um so verse one says, "You shall therefore love Yahweh your God and keep his commandments always." And then down in verse eight, "You shall therefore keep the whole
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commandment that I command you today." We observe that same thing in in chapter 6 and in chapter 8 in the beginning where he told them that they shall keep the commandments that Moses was told to teach them uh all their days in in the
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beginning of chapter 6. And then at the beginning of chapter eight, you get a crescendo which is the whole commandment I command you today, you shall keep and you shall remember the whole way in which you were led. Um so this this
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segment this chapter 11 uh follows that same general skeleton very closely. Um and and then we have a difference almost
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immediately in verse two. Um so on the one hand in Deuteronomy 53 he told them it the covenant was not with your fathers but with us here alive today.
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But here you have something and and that those here alive today are the little ones of the fathers who fell in the wilderness. But here you have consider
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today since I am not speaking to your children who have not known or seen it consider the discipline of Yahweh. So now it's not your children not speaking
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to your children but you uh so both sides of the same concept. Okay. On the other hand uh excuse me in other words uh it is to those present
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who saw these things that the word comes. And so it's not without purpose that the Psalms later would use the phrase today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts. There's a a
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consistent present tense in the the urgency that man be reconciled to God, right? And that we we do his word. It is not he spoke this to our fathers. It is
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not even that he's this is good for our kids, but rather the word is to us. It is near to us. And Moses will bring that out in a different way in the third discourse saying that the word is very
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near to you. Okay. Um but it is also to those present who saw these things that a charge is given to make these things
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that they saw known to their children. So the discipline and instruction of the Lord is to be made known by these ones who saw the parents who heard it and saw
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it be made known to their children who have not seen it. And as we looked at at the end of the first discourse last year, the the remembrance of the things that were seen, those singular events
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that were seen at the mountain are not to be remembered by making an image or reenacting what they saw. Not it's to be remembered by what they hear. So what
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they saw is to be remembered by the hearing of it. Here you see that same principle. um also speaking of the discipline that they saw. Um he's already spoken to them
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in another place about the the defeat of Egypt and all that he did to the king there. But he introduces something that for Deuteronomy is new. Hopefully not to
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you if you've read I believe it's in uh Numbers that the swallowing of the that that the rebellion of Kora a Levite and the swallowing of the Reubenite leading
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men who wanted to lead the people back to Egypt um and were intent on taking over. He brings that up here for the first time. U what he did to you in the
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wilderness paralleling what he did to Egypt. Okay. uh what he did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place and what he did to Dothon and Airon the sons of Elab the son of Reuben. How the earth opened its mouth
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and swallowed them up with their households, their tents and every living thing that followed them in the midst of all Israel. all Israel. So um so this is a characterization of
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the discipline that they saw of of God in the wilderness is that he not only cleared away their enemies that were outside their number but cleared away
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their enemies within as well the armies of Egypt by swallowing with the sea. They where the sea the phrase is float over. Okay. Um and then the user in the
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camp of Israel by swallowing them with the earth. the earth. It opened its mouth to to swallow them. And and these were enemies within who would reinsslave them. And I I think uh
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in in in thinking that thought, think of what we'll be studying real soon. And in part that's Jude. Yes, Tim. Okay. So Jude is a very short but effective look
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at the reality that those may sneak into our number who would seek to bring us back into bondage. Paul also brings this up in Galatians. I think a uh accepting
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yet again a yoke of bondage or something along those lines is a is what he says in Galatians. Um so this is figured for us in picture form here. Um but then the
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whole commandment uh is is held out to them that they may continue in that strength of of God that you may be strong and to your seed so that they may
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endure and and that that endurance may pass uh to their children. Um any questions thus far about that?
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Okay. Oh, I forgot to mention um I'm trying to mention this consistently and I already got one question by email. So free feel free uh to do that too. Next week we'll do a question and answer session and bring your questions.
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Probably going to take I mean it's going to have to be a limited number. Um and then we'll evenly time them and and discuss them. So please be thinking about things that you think would be
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good for us to discuss as a result of the last two studies or just things you don't understand. Um, I want to take the time and and address those things so that everybody's brought along. Okay.
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So, concerning the land that they're entering, um, this is another place where he he takes a different tack, right? Saying that, um, that the land
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that the land that they are going into is not like the land of Egypt where you swed your seed and your copies probably have something like irrigated it. I read it uh as the footnote here shows me uh
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watered with your feet. I think that's important because the where your where the sole of your foot treads is is later brought up. So there's a consistency and
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imagery here that irrigated it doesn't quite address. Um so they watered it with their feet like a garden of vegetables. But the land that they are going over to possess drinks water by
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rain from heaven. uh we've already uh seen that um you know Moses has reminded them that they have eaten bread from heaven. Here the land is drinking water
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from heaven. That's not an accident. Uh but the description of the land that that Yahweh watches and walks through and waters and cares for that's that
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should remind us of of Genesis of the beginning. How how Genesis 2 tells us that Yahweh planted a garden and watered it, saw to it being watered with a
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spring and put a man in it, his special creation. So the land drinks rain from heaven. Uh similarly to the people eating bread from heaven. And and then
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the description of the land is is also the anti-curse. The people didn't eat bread in the wilderness by the sweat of their face. They ate it from heaven. And
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and nor is the ground in the land here yielding thorns and thistles, but but yielding fruitfully for them willingly if they obey his commands. So there's a
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harmony there between uh the land uh that is promised them and the and the the original land the the garden of
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Eden. It's into such a place that God intends to put Israel like Adam was put like the man was put in the garden. God intends to put his special creation Israel in this land. That again not an accident.
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That's a that's an imagery that as far as Deuteronomy is concerned at this point in scripture scriptures history and transmission is in its infancy, right? But that will be fleshed out in
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in greater and greater degree in the rest of scripture. Uh a good a good example comes to my mind as a result of this phrase from the beginning of the year to the end of the year he watches
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over it. Okay. Um, Ezekiel 47 has a description of that land that all of God's people will receive.
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Uh, and it is an apocalyptic description, but the but the imagery is really important. There's there's a lot there is that the wa he describes the the the waters
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flowing from inside the temple somewhere and out of it and getting deeper and deeper as it as it flows east through the land out the east gate of the temple
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like the spring flowing from the center of the garden of Eden. Okay. And dividing into four rivers and watering the rest of the land from that central garden temple that that God made at the
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first. Okay. So Ezekiel's vision is conssonant with what was before. Then he led me back to the bank of the oh excuse me uh verse 6 of chapter 47.
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And he said to me so far, son of man, have you seen this? Then he led me back to the bank of the river. As I went back, I saw Oh, let me
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let me back up. Going on eastward with a measuring line in his hand, the man measured a thousand cubits and then led me through the water ankle deep. Again, he measured a thousand and led me
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through the water knee deep. And again, he measured a thousand and led me through the water waist deep. Again he measured a thousand, and it was a river
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I could not pass through, for the water had risen, deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be passed. And he said to me, "Son of man, have you seen this?" Then he led me back to the bank
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of the river. As I went back, I saw on the bank of the river very many trees on one side and on the other. And he said to me, "This water flows toward the
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eastern region and goes down into the Arabah and enters the sea." Here he means the Dead Sea. And enters the sea. When the water flows into the sea, the
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water will be healed. And wherever the water goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there
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that the waters of the sea may be healed. So everything will live where the river goes. Fishermen will stand beside the sea from Engeti to Enaglim. It will be a place for the spreading of
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nets. Its fish will be of very many kinds like the fish of the great sea. But its swamps and its marshes will not be healed. They are to be left for salt.
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And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month
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because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. For their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing. So we go from Israel, his special
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creation, and we know that that the Lord showed us new creation and that new creation within ourselves. And then we go from there to like a like the garden
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which God plants and waters out of which a river of living water flows in this vision in this uh vision of the last things right so
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are his people to God. Each of them will be a garden temple planted and inhabited by his spirit out of whom rivers of living water will flow. So don't miss
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that in in the text. This is what we're reading in Deuteronomy is the infancy of that notion. But don't miss it. It establishes the trajectory.
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And and also you watered Egypt. Like I said about they didn't eat bread by the sweat of their face in the the desert. They ate it from God. You watered Egypt. You watered it with your feet. Had to
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carry the water around. But if you will indeed obey Yahweh's commands, he will water your land. The rain will not be to link it again to
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those ancient things. The rain will not be as in the days of Noah when it first rained upon the earth for judgment. But it'll be for the gathering of your grain and your wine and your oil. Even the
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beasts provided for and happy and you provided for along with them. All flesh loved and provided for.
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for them to see that carried by humans.
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Yes. It's it's a it's a stark contrast to their life. Yeah. And there's it's funny. I actually, we'll just say providentially, a a friend of mine posted a the text of a of
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a hymn translated from not far from this time, I think, in in Egypt's monarchy. It was about the the Nile and the fact
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that their water comes from that river. It doesn't rain in Egypt. That's basically what it said. And that it and that it is that they credited the Nile as being the the the the hydro the
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hydronic power for the rains on the rest of the earth. That it was because of the the goodness of the Nile God that it rained everywhere else. Which is funny because that's precisely
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the opposite of what we're seeing here. That the land that God cares for is the one that he showers with rain. That takes no human effort to spread around. that the Egyptians had it exactly
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backwards. Yeah, it was. Did you have a hand?
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Yeah, it does. I mean, and it's it's apppropo to us because we we we would think of the the land of Israel now as pretty barren. Um, and it is, but it it wasn't always so. And and it's a real
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crying shame that it got there.
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Yes. And it's important that we draw that connection that because we have dishonored God, so the land has has failed is is the is the is what Israel was to realize. Uh so their yeah their
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way of life in the land was tied inextricably to all aspects of their way of life in the land. there was no separation there. And you know, as as
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far as how we fleshed that out, I'm I'm not going to get extremely detailed about that yet, unless somebody has a question about it in Q&A, then we will. Um, but I would say in in in short form,
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that is that is a truth we ought to recognize and hold hold in its place. um to to to whatever our thoughts are not
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whatever our thoughts are about our daily lives to issue from the truth that we find in its seed form in the law. Um it's our our destination is not bear
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obedience. Okay. But but our starting point is often what we read here that that our the way we treat the way we treat the land, the way we treat one
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another. uh that that is a direct reflection of whether or not we are honoring God. honoring God. Yeah. From from roots to fruits. Um in
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uh in verse 16 then uh we've got the final of three uh similar phrases that help you trace the development of Moses
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teaching throughout this entire section. And it really is I' I'd say the the key pillars. There are many uh particularly triads uh of repeated phrases that are
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important, but this one seems to me to be the the more important of the three. Um it's take care or take heed. So um
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first you had in in chapter 6 verse 12 um take care lest you forget Yahweh. And and the and the qualifier there was
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Okay. Uh in chapter 8 vers 11, lest you forget Yahweh again. Okay. And I'm paraphrasing here. who brought you water
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and who fed you in the wilderness.
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Okay. And then finally here, take care lest your heart be deceived and you turn aside and serve other gods. And he shut up the heavens.
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And then again paraphrasing and the land will not yield.
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So there's a flow there. This is really as it was in um I think the most helpful way of thinking about it anyway is is is like it was in uh in part one where the
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first discourse really was broken up in the past, the present and the future of Israel. And this really seems to break up his whole discourse that way as well. Um the
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the first the past uh lest you forget Yahweh who brought you out of the land of Egypt which you watered with your feet. Right. Okay.
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Second they're present. Lest you forget Yahweh. It's a terrible arrow. I'm not I'm not going to let that stand. That's better.
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That's better. Yeah, that's right. Um, lest you forget Yahweh who brought you water out of the flinty rock, right? And who fed you in the wilderness with bread
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from heaven. Okay. Who is currently watering and tending the good land into which you are going. There's there's sort of the present tense of the people
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of Israel right there that we're also tracing in this text. And finally, lest your heart be deceived and you turn aside and serve other gods and he shut up the heavens and the land will not yield the future of Israel so that you
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continue in possession of the land every place on which the sole of your foot treads between the waters, between the rivers and between the seas.
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So it it coheres nicely. And that that really is um you know I did a visual diagram of kind of how how this stuff is laid out but if you want to trace it as
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far as theme is concerned you can do a whole lot worse than these take care phrases and they really are multi-layered. I'm just bringing out what looking back at them how they mesh
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with Moses message. Again the springs of water thing really didn't really didn't end. Go ahead. This also really highlights why he would have focused on
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the generation children of the original but also not their children.
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Yeah. saw from Egypt,
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Yeah. Yeah. They were, thank you for that. They were extremely important because they could see all points. So, Moses' audience um stands at a very key point. Thank you
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for that. to put it in another word here. So when when Yahweh delivers the prosperity that he promised to them because that's really where these
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phrases occur, they occur when it's when there's a description of the prosperity that God has promised and that he will deliver in every context. Okay?
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um when he delivers that prosperity that he promises promised to them, they must take care lest they forget that Yahweh brought them out of another land
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in which they were property to bring them into his land which they shall possess. That's this, okay? that Yahweh brought them through a wilderness land where God
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provided them all things needful into his good land where God has prepared all the things they could ever want. And finally, that Yahweh has been caring
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for the promised land, remembering his promise all this time, having no other people but them. So they are to take care and remember
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Yahweh's commands all the days having no other god but Yahweh.
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If I h again if I had to summarize the whole thing that we've studied these many months that would be it right there. That's the short short version of 16 weeks. Okay.
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I've been doing on my own a study of Isaiah because that's I have ambitions to head there next um whenever it is I Um and there's a there's a saying in Isaiah
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5 that's very apppropo in light of this that that I I'll just pose it as a question and then and then read a bit of the context.
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the context. The the question in the in the text is what more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it?
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Let me sing for my beloved a love song concerning his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones and planted it with choice
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vines, building a watchtower in the midst of it, hewing out a wine vat in it. And he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
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And now, oh inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard than I have that I have not
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done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove
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its hedge, and it shall be devoured. I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled on. I will make it a waste. It shall not be pruned or hoed, and briars and thorns shall grow up. And I
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will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of Yahweh of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are its are
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his pleasant planting. And he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed, for righteousness, but behold, an
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And so we know is the is the true future of of Israel. But I want us to also see that like this picture of the people of Israel, we are the planting of God. All of God's
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people are his planting. We've we've talked uh this week in Plumline a little bit of the seeds of what where we're going in in discussing the the body
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politic of Israel and its its place in redemptive history and how we're supposed to see it. And again, it's not in the scope of my study to fully flesh that out, but it but it does touch upon
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it. We are we are joined into the promise that gave life to Israel. Chuck drew a tree on the on the board,
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you know, saying that the the branches some were broken off because of unbelief. Okay? and that we are grafted in to such
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a tree and that the tree is Abraham. But the life in the tree is is the promise of God is the Lord
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Jesus is is the is the spirit of God. God dwelling amongst his people. If I may carry the image a little further,
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that same life that flowed through Israel and gave life to all the branches who abided in the tree. Okay? Who, as Jesus
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would later say, who abide in me, the vine. Okay? And that is a little bit of a mixing of metaphors I recognize. But but all those Israelites who believed and were united by faith as listening
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people, we join to them because we are the seed of Abraham by faith. We have the same life that gave life to the tree in us by
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his holy spirit. So we should see even in this body politic of Israel and what's said about it especially what is said about their
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the the necessity of their holding fast to their God and to his word. That's us. We are his pleasant planting. We need to
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read it that way. and and even the the statements about the days your days and the days of your children. Uh moving on um that what what is it? This is moving
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on to verse 18. You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and your soul, binding them as a sign on your hand, as frontlets between your eyes, teaching
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them to your children, talking of them when you sit in your house, etc. What does it mean to lay up these words of God in our heart and in our soul?
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How do we read the word of God the way Deuteronomy shows us? These images help us. They help us help direct us to to scripture that would guide us. I think
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there's I came up with sort of three ways that we read the word of God the way Deuteronomy shows us or ways that we lay out the words of God in our heart
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and in our soul. One is over and over, over and over. Second, for wisdom, for growth, and in view of God's mercy. And finally, an everpresent feature of
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our houses together with those we love with one another. Psalm 1 characterizes that man who is happy in his God as being like a tree
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planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season and its leaf not withering and all that he does prospering. The wicked are not so, but like chaff the wind drives away.
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Right? That's again we we need to see if we have God's spirit dwelling within us, we need to see ourselves in those things and start from that point of identity as
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being God's pleasant planting, laying up the commandment in our heart and in our soul because we are his pleasant planting. And we're we're solemnly warned by
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scripture um that what we know and what we speak because we are speaking here of teaching, are we not? We're studying the teaching of Moses. And here I am having prepared a lot and
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talking a lot about it and hoping and praying that it will that it will touch that life within each one of you and result in a a a kneading over and a
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redoubling of that life together that we'll really be not me doing this to you but us considering the words of God and speaking God's words back to him
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together. We're warned that we what we know and what we speak are of utmost importance. That on the day of judgment, people will give account for every careless word they speak. For by your words, you will
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be justified and by your words, you will be condemned. be condemned. You know, one might say that it would be better for us if we said nothing at all in that case. Right? And there's actually a quotation I saw uh from a a a
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a so-called saint of the Eastern religion. If a man remembered that it is written, by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned, he would choose to remain silent, said St.
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Pman. Is that wisdom? Is that wisdom? If Paul also tells us that for with the heart one believes and is justified and with the mouth one confesses and is saved
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or Paul declaring himself innocent of the blood of all because he did not shrink back from declaring to you the whole council of God. Okay? That moreover we're not really a
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people if we don't speak to one another, are we? are we? That's that's inhuman. God didn't make us to to shut up in fear.
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And we're not God's people on whom he has set his love if we don't speak to one another about God. Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
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Our speech to one another is an important part not only of our growth in godliness with one another, it's an important part of our praise rendered to God. Speaking to one another uh speaking
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to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. What a what a strange phrase. But it shows us the linkage between what we say to one another in our praise to God. Or uh 1 Corinthians 13, if I speak
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in the tongues of men and of angels, which Paul later says concerning tongues, that by them a man builds himself up. Okay? And if I understand
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all mysteries and all knowledge, but have not love, I am nothing. Again, showing the linkage between what we say and our love for one another and our
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love for God since we love because he first loved us. The the mark furthermore that Yahweh had chosen Israel was what we read in part one. Gather the people to me that I may
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let them hear my words. Don't think that we are not to practice and emulate that same thing amongst us. That us hearing one
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another's words and hearing the words of God and saying the words of God is is not of deep importance. It's right at the root of who we are. A people that have that that we are his people and he
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is our God. So that we are then by identity if we are laying up these words in our heart and in our soul careful then to do the
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Um you Israel I I've said before Israel is a is a picture of a lot of different things. It's a picture of each one of us. Can you can take the image of Israel and
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apply it entirely to yourself and you'll get a lot out of that. It's also a picture of the church. Okay, to borrow Paul's words, uh these things that Moses is teaching us, this is a profound
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mystery. And I'm saying it refers to Christ in the church. We are a camp in the wilderness. We're afflicted, but remaining with God. We
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are a family with a military purpose. Don't lose that. Look at what you read in in in the the latter verses uh in verses 22 through 25. What does he go
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to? careful to do all the commandment. And then what does he describe? A military campaign. Then Yahweh will drive out all these nations before you and you dispossess nations greater and
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mightier than yourselves. Our identity has a military facet to it. We are to be disciplined and instructed, guided by the wisdom of God,
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not despising his discipline, okay? But leaning into it, shouldering together. And we're the possession of God. We're a land prepared for us to possess. I've
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I've wondered several times, is is teaching even advantageous? Is it advantageous?
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Certainly only to those who listen and with faith. with faith. That's what Hebrews 4 says concerning those who fell in the wilderness of whom Moses has been speaking. that the good
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news preached to them did not profit them because they weren't united by faith with those who listened. If if we hear teaching without listening
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or without faith, we testify of ourselves that we're not true children of God. Their listening with faith was tied into their entire way of life,
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right from the ground on upward to the But we are those who have received the fulfillment of these things. And and God
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addresses us as sons. Isaiah 54 says that all your children will be taught by God. A grand promise. Oh afflicted one, stormtossed and not comforted. Behold, I
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set your stones in antimony and lay your foundations with saffirs, making your pinnacles of agot, and your gates of carbunkles, and all your wall of precious stones. All your children shall
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be taught by Yahweh. And great shall be the peace of your children in righteousness established, far from oppression, not fearing, and from and far from terror, not coming near you.
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or Hebrews 12, which I think thank I always think thank thank you God for Hebrews. What would we do without Hebrews? My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary
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when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to
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endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you're left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate
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children and not sons. Besides this, we all had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live? For they disciplined
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us for a short time as it seemed best to them. But he disciplines us for our good that we may share in his holiness. For the moment, all discipline seems painful
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rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. And then he urges them, therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your
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weak knees. weak knees. So, what is hearing with faith accomplish? Our keeping to the word is the source of these three things that I brought up way
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at the beginning. may not even remember that Moses would be speaking of Yahweh's land, Yahweh's seed, and Yahweh's life. So in that order, our keeping to the
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word is the source of our possessing what God has promised us, a new heavens and a new earth. Our keeping to the word is the source of our bearing children
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for righteousness and fellowship together with God as his children. And finally, our keeping to the word is the source of our going from strength to
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strength no matter what the days of our affliction may entail. And I think of Psalm 84 then
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thinking of going from strength to strength. To the choir master according to the git, a psalm of the sons of Kora. How
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lovely is your dwelling place, oh Yahweh of hosts. My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of Yahweh. My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. Even the
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sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, oh Yahweh of hosts, my king and my God. Happy are
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those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise. Happy are those whose strength is in you. In whose hearts are the highways tion. That's a phrase. In whose hearts are the
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highways. As they go through the valley of Baka, they make it a place of springs. The early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength. Each
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one appearing before God and Cion. Oh Yahweh, God of hosts, hear my prayer. Give ear, oh God of J of Jacob. Behold our shield, oh God. Look on the face of
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your anointed, for a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For Yahweh God is a son
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and shield. Yahweh bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. Oh Yahweh of hosts, happy is he who trusts in you.
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So to borrow the words of Moses a little bit, "And now, oh church, ask of the days that are passed."
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Do this. Ask of the days that are passed. How God has guided and protected us. Make it a practice. Ask of the days that are now.
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are now. How God is keeping for us that good land into which he has sworn to bring us. Consider what a good land we are to inherit and how God is seeking worshippers neither on this mountain
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which in context was Mount Garazim, neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem, but those who will worship in spirit and in truth. And ask of the days that are to come,
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how God is making his glory and righteousness known to those who are yet unborn, and how we will enjoy his blessings along with them. we our children and our children's children in
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the Lord forever. Let's pray. Father, we pray that you would illuminate this vision that Moses paints
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for us in his in his beautiful teaching that we may know truly deep in our hearts that it is your word and it is your word to us and that all that you promised and far more you will deliver
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to us that you have delivered it to us that you are delivering it to us. Please set that vision before our eyes. And we ask this in the name of Jesus,
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the face of that vision. Amen.