All right, let's turn together tonight to Deuteronomy chapter 32, continued study of the Song of Moses. Tonight we'll be looking at verse 10. And this morning sermon, we looked at the the ideal conditions of life in the Garden of Eden and pointed out to you how garden imagery is used throughout the Bible to represent those conditions. And so you want to get to where you recognize that when there's a a picture, a description of a place in the earth which is abundantly supplied with water, and living things are flourishing, it's beautiful and it's fruitful, then these are the Edenic conditions of Garden's life, and God's creatures can be peaceful and happy in conditions like that. This evening, quite coincidentally, we're gonna look at a verse from the Song of the Moses that describes the opposite set of conditions, what we might call desert life. So this morning we talked about garden life, tonight we're talking about desert life. Whereas a garden is well-watered, a desert is dying of thirst. And as it does, the living things in the desert suffer. The mere fact of living becomes quite hard. And things like beauty and joy fade under desert conditions. So pretty much the opposite of the garden life and the desert life. And so a couple of preliminary observations about this as you come across these ideas in scripture. First, both garden life and desert life can exist in the same world. So the difference here is not a difference in worlds, it's a difference in conditions in the world. So you can have a garden one place and a desert another place. And secondly, and I think even more importantly, you can potentially have these very different conditions in the same place at different times. So, in other words, you can go from one to the other, and it works both ways. So, if you should happen to find yourself in a desert in life, don't despair, because if God should cause it to begin to rain again, that desert can turn into a garden and begin to flourish and be fruitful. On the other hand, if you find yourself in a garden in life, Don't take that for granted, because if God for some reason should begin to withhold the rain, that garden can dry up and become desert. So these are important concepts just in general in our study of God's Word. So in this next section of the Song of Moses, and I'm looking now at verses 10 through 14, this section is really all about how good God is to his people, to Israel. And particularly in verses 13 and 14, you'll recognize here this garden imagery of the Edenic conditions. So verses 13 and 14 say, he God, the Lord God made him Israel ride in the heights of the earth that he might eat the produce of the fields. He made him draw honey from the rock and oil from the flinty rock, curds from the cattle and milk of the flock with fat of lambs. and rams of the breed of Bashan and goats with the choicest wheat and you drank wine in the blood of the grapes. So those are the Edenic conditions of garden life. And that's a picture of God's goodness to Israel at some point in their history. But tonight we're looking at verse 10. Which is a remembrance of another time in Israel's history before her garden day When she found herself in the desert and the trials of the desert And the point here in verse 10 is is to say that God was also good to his people in the desert God is always good to his people He's good to his people in the garden, and in garden life, and he's good to his people in the desert, and in desert life. His goodness is different under these different conditions, but it's the same goodness, and he's always good to his people. And so particularly when you find yourself in a desert place in life, where things are dry and hard, then you want to be looking for this. Looking for God's goodness in this if you can recognize it certainly that would be helpful But even if you can't see it, or you don't think to look at it during those times when they're over then you you can and should Reflect and look back and then maybe you'll recognize it ways in which God was actually good to you Even when you were going through a desert trial in your life And I think that's really what this passage is about. It's about remembering the goodness of God to his people in their desert trials so You know, if you find a Christian, a sincere Christian of warm evangelical faith, humble, cheerful in life, you ask them of their greatest experiences of God's grace, probably this Christian is not going to tell you of some time in his or her life when things were going great. But probably their testimony will be concerning some time when life was really hard and they themselves were miserable. and yet God was good to them. Those times, experiences of God's goodness have a real impact upon us. That testimony fits, of course, very well with the testimony of Scripture. So, for example, in Psalm 107, verses 4 through 9, the psalmist speaks of such an experience in the lives of Israel and God's people, and says, they wandered in the wilderness, the desert, In a desolate way, they found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. And then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble. And he delivered them out of their distresses and he led them forth by the right way that they might go to a city for a dwelling place. He says, oh, the men will give thanks to the Lord for his goodness. And for his wonderful works to the children of men. for he satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry soul with goodness. So where is that goodness experience that's being remembered by the psalmist in this song? It's not in the garden life or the garden experience. It's in the experience of the desert trial. So if you ask of the Lord concerning your own sufferings and desert trials, Lord, what good is this? The answer that comes is the experience of my goodness. My sustaining, instructing, persevering grace towards you in times like these. You want to be aware of that, if you can be, when you're going through those times. So here in Deuteronomy 32.10, Moses is leading Israel in the present and then by this song also in the future. in a remembrance of a time in which God was with his people and good to his people in the desert. That's what verse 10 is about. Look back to the preceding verse, verse nine, remember Moses spoke of God's love for his people, saying, quote, for the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob is the place of his inheritance. So electing love, redeeming grace, that's the theme here. And this is what Moses remembers and is urging Israel to remember in verse 10, which is our focus tonight. It says there, the Lord found him, that is the nation of Israel, in a desert land and in a wasteland, a howling wilderness. He encircled him, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. He encircled him, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. What follows in verses 11 through 14 is how God from there, from that place, carried Israel led Israel ultimately to the promised land and there to better days and the enjoyment of an abundance of good things and the life that awaited them in that good land. So from desert life to garden life, that was the journey. So what is the particular desert trial in Israel's history to which Moses refers here in verse 10? That's one of the questions here. Do you know the history of Israel? What's he talking about? Is he talking about Abraham's journey from Mesopotamia to Canaan? Is that what Moses is talking about? Or is he talking about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in their tent-dwelling days as foreigners in this strange land? Or is Moses talking about the years of hard bondage which the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob suffered as slaves in Egypt? Possibly it could be any and all of these experiences. But most likely Moses is referring to Israel's prolonged desert journey from Egypt to the land of Canaan. And I say prolonged because it was prolonged by some 40 years because of the first generation's refusal to trust the Lord and enter in. So assuming that's the case here, And in verse 10, we're considering Israel's experience from the Red Sea crossing of Exodus 15 to their finally crossing the River Jordan in Joshua 3. Exodus 15 to Joshua 3. That period, again, which was many years, includes the bitter waters of Merah, Israel's gathering manna in the desert, drinking water from the rock at Horeb, the entire Sinai episode, including the giving of God's law and the golden calf incident, the Israelites' frequent complaints after that about food in the desert, a couple of uprisings against the authority of Moses and Aaron, deadly plagues, including the plague of the fiery serpents, And then finally, Israel's disgraceful harlotry in Moab as they were getting close to the land. So to say the least, not great times in Israel. These were the days of Israel's desert trials. And so this verse is about how God was good to them in these days. So the first side of verse 10 speaks of how the Lord found Israel in a desert land and in the wasteland, a howling wilderness. So all of the usual English translations render the Hebrew word here, which is matzah, as found. He found him The Lord found Israel in a desert land. And that may be correct. It does lead commentators to struggle with the question, when exactly did the Lord find Israel in a place like this? And commentators do struggle with that question because there isn't really an obvious answer. The description doesn't really fit God's finding Abraham in Mesopotamia. It doesn't really fit God's finding Israel in Egypt. So that's a bit of a problem. There is another possibility, which I'll mention. This Hebrew word matzah can also mean to suffice for, or to be enough for. And it's actually used that way a few times in the early chapters of the Old Testament. For example, in Numbers 11.22, which says, quote, shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them to provide enough for them. Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them to provide enough for them? That's that same word, matzah, that's being translated as to provide enough for, in that verse. So according to one commentary, Benson's commentary, this is how the word matzah is rendered here in Deuteronomy 32.10. in a couple of old versions, the 70 in Chaldee, the Samaritan, and the Arabic versions of the Song of Moses. Instead of saying, found, it says, to suffice for. So I think that's an attractive option. It boils down to this. In that case, what Moses is saying here to Israel is not that God found you in the desert, but that even when God had you suffering in the desert for your unwillingness to follow him, He was still providing for you. Providing enough for you in those years of testing so that you didn't utterly perish in the wilderness. So it'd be sort of like a parent who grounds a rebellious child but still makes sure that that child gets three square meals and an education, even if it's just dry toast and a banana. So yeah, maybe as a Christian, you went through some hard desert years and maybe you deserve that. And yet still you might reflect upon the fact that you did not utterly perish in those days. You survived it. And your faith in Jesus Christ survived it, too. And you can and should attribute that to God's love for you and his grace towards you, because it didn't have to be that way. You didn't like the bread that you were eating in those days, perhaps, but at least there was bread. And like the manna in the wilderness, pretty wonderful bread, really, if you consider where it came from. The next line in verse 10, Moses describes the Lord as encircling Israel, instructing Israel and keeping Israel as the apple of his eye. So let's look at each of those. So first, it says God encircled Israel in the desert, which seems to describe God himself acting as a protective wall around his people in those days. Deuteronomy 8.15 describes the desert in which Israel wandered as, quote, that great and terrible wilderness in which were fiery serpents and scorpions. So the Israelites were not a people experienced in desert survival. And if they didn't perish utterly in this kind of a hard wasteland all those years, it was to be attributed to one thing only, and that is that the Lord their God had not forsaken them utterly. That's how they survived. On the contrary, it was He who remained their faithful shield and defender all their days. Secondly, it says God instructed Israel in the desert, instructed them. And this likely refers to the Lord's giving them the law at Mount Sinai. It's of this that Moses speaks again, Deuteronomy chapter four, verse 36, saying, out of heaven, he let you hear his voice that he might instruct you. So whether you are or are not listening to God, In your desert days, the Lord himself is not silent. He leads you in paths of righteousness by his law. He teaches you to worship him in the gospel way. And so that experience of God's gracious word happens here not in the garden days of Canaan, but in the desert trials by which God finally got you to the garden. And then thirdly, God kept Israel as the apple of his eye. He encircled them, he instructed them, and he kept Israel as the apple of his eye. So this is an idiom. It occurs also in Psalm 17, 8 and Proverbs 7, 2. And it's kind of complicated, but I thought it was interesting, so I'll share it with you. To speak of someone or something as the apple of your eye is not actually a Hebrew idiom. It's an English one. So presumably, if you read the Bible in a different language, it would be some other idiom besides this one. In the days before, a more technical term for the pupil of the eye The English just referred to the pupil as the apple of the eye, presumably because they're both round. Secondly, the Hebrew word here in Deuteronomy 8.10 is ishan, which is the Hebrew word for pupil. So Moses doesn't actually say anything about an apple. He's just saying that Israel was as the pupil of God's eye. But then thirdly, this Hebrew word, Ishan, literally means little man. And so it refers to how you can see a little image of yourself reflected in the pupil of someone who is looking at you. I told you it was complicated. And so it turns out that these two idioms, the Hebrew's little man of the eye and the Englishman's apple of the eye, really mean more or less the same thing. The meaning is that someone is carefully watching you who cares a great deal about you. That's basically what Moses is saying. The point he's making is that in those hard desert days, even when Israel took its eye off God, God never took his eye off of Israel. Even when the Lord was chasing his people, allowing them to be afflicted, to humble them, he never ceased caring about them. If they had looked at God, they would have found God looking at them. Everything he did in those days was because he cared about them, and he wanted them eventually, at the right time and the right way, to make it to Canaan and the very different experience of his goodness in their enjoyment of garden life. So one final point to be made about Israel's experience of God's grace in her desert trials. It's the, as I've said, the goodness of God that's being reflected upon here in verses 10 through 14. No doubt about that. What's this passage about? It's about the goodness of God. But note this, this reflection is not meant to make Israel feel good. It's about the goodness of God, but it's not here to make Israel feel good, quite the opposite. It's meant to make Israel feel really bad. And that having finally gotten to garden life in Canaan, they turned aside to idols and pursued the God who had been so patient with and so good to them in the desert. So sometimes we hear something like this, a man, who finally becomes successful in his life in his mid-40s and then does a despicable thing. He ditches his high school sweetheart who stood by him as his wife through the lean years to marry some younger chick who's gonna look better riding in the passenger seat of his new convertible. It's a despicable thing to do. And everybody can see that. And that is more or less what Israel was going to do to the Lord. As Moses is addressing them here in the plains of Moab, he knows that's what they're going to do. And so as you think about the song of Moses and what that's about, if you can sort of imagine, this is a metaphor, Israel someday driving her shiny red convertible in the lush Canaan hills in the afterglow of some pagan rendezvous on the high places. Moses means for Israel to put this, his song, in the CD player and listen to the words and remember the love and the grace of the Lord in the lean years and feel really for having ditched him for another guy. And she should feel bad about that. It would be good for her if she felt bad about that. So whenever we're talking about desert trials, I think it's always important to acknowledge not all suffering in this life, Christians, is punishment per se. It's always important to acknowledge that. Of course, to go back far enough, yes, all suffering in the world is due to sin, the sin of Adam, but in your own life as a Christian, let's say, God may appoint a season of desert trial that is meant to test you, and in testing, to strengthen you, but not to punish you for some particular sin. Book of Job is in the Bible to make that point. And so I make that point as well tonight. With that being said, Rebellion against the Lord, your God, can definitely land you in the desert, even for years. And so it's always worth asking the question, Lord, what might I have done or been doing in my life that got me here? Earlier we read from Psalm 107 about the miseries of the desert trial. In that same psalm, we learn How God's people got in that miserable place, it says, because they rebelled against the words of God and despised the counsel of the Most High. So when you find yourself in a place of spiritual dryness in your days and feel lost in your life and peace and happiness, or elusive and far away, rather than plunging deeper into idolatry, It's time for some soul searching and perhaps repentance before the Lord. If you're His and He has, then know that He has not forsaken you, but He may be trying to get your attention, to wake you up to just how far you've strayed from the path of righteousness and the worship of the gospel way. And under the Lord's chastening, particularly be looking for the idols, perhaps have worked their way into your heart in life, stowed away under the mattress, sitting there on the mantle of your home. Remember the Lord our God is a jealous God. And he has commanded that we as people are to have no other gods before him. You will need to be told that often in your lives. And it's on his behalf, I'm reminding you of that again tonight. But also be aware that even though desert trials are miserable and meant to be, there is again a unique experience of God's goodness to be had in those trials. Even when you have grieved his Holy Spirit by your sins and the Lord has driven you into some wasteland, some howling wilderness in this life to humble you, even then, you're reading here, he encircles you, It struts you, it keeps you as the apple of His eye. And that security is the security that we enjoy in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, endured His own desert trial for our sakes when the Spirit drove Him to the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And it wasn't until the last Adam, precisely where the first Adam and his descendants failed, that the Lord Jesus refused to listen to the serpent, to take a forbidden fruit, to bow down and worship any other God in this world. And it is his faithful obedience that is our salvation tonight. So the Apostle Paul says truly in Romans 8 38, For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And that is true. It's true in the garden life, and it's just as true in the desert life. So Christian, again, if you have strayed from your God, your good God, turn back to him tonight. And when you are restored in Christ and enjoying again the peace and pleasures of garden life, then reflect upon how good God was to you, even when you were miserable and your behavior towards him was perhaps despicable. Reflect on it and feel bad about it. Feeling bad about that may be good for you. Draw you closer to God, make you appreciate more His goodness to you in times good and bad, and in every way mature you and make you stronger as a Christian. So we pray. Oh Lord God, you know us so well. Your wisdom is exceedingly high. We search every heart. We thank you, Lord, for your ways with us, including the experiences of both garden and desert life. We pray, Father, that you would continue to be merciful to us, continue to encircle us, instruct us, and keep us as the apple of your eye. We are encouraged to ask that of you tonight, Lord, because of Jesus and all that he has done for our sakes. We pray, Lord God, that you would use this word and this meditation tonight to speak to the lives of these people. Both Lord, to help us in the present, to prepare us for things that we may face in the future. Would you pray, God, that if there is the guilt of idolatry, the pleasures of idolatry in the lives of these Christians tonight, that this would be an evening in which they found themselves exposed, rebuked, ashamed, and repented of that evil. But we also pray, Lord, if there are those who are longing to be restored, that truly, Lord, that they would find you a God who loves them with an everlasting love and is ready to bring them back to a better place. Be with these saints now, Lord, in their lives in this coming week. Help them to live the lives of faithful Christians, to walk the walk of Christ. To that end, give us your Holy Spirit, and may yours be the glory now and forever. In Jesus' name, amen. You are dismissed.