Please take your Bibles and turn with me now to Deuteronomy chapter 33. Deuteronomy chapter 33. We're going to look at the last verses of this chapter, verse 26 through 29. As Moses leaves the people of God and commits them to the care of God, directs their attention to their great God, I'm going to read the first five verses of this chapter, then skip down to verse 26. The part I'll be skipping is where Moses goes through each of the tribes with a specific blessing for them. And then we'll consider our verses tonight in which he addresses all of the people of God. So please hear God's Word once again from Deuteronomy 33. The first five verses and then the last verses, 26-29. There is an outline if you would like to make use of that. This is the blessing with which Moses, the man of God, blessed the people of Israel before his death. He said, the Lord came from Sinai and dawned from Seir upon us. He shone forth from Mount Paran He came from the ten thousands of Holy Ones with flaming fire at His right hand. Yes, He loved His people. All His Holy Ones were in His hand. So they followed in Your steps, receiving direction from You. When Moses commanded us a law as a possession for the assembly of Jacob, thus the Lord became King in Jeshurun when the heads of the people were gathered, all the tribes of Israel together." And then move forward to verse 26. There is none like God, O Jeshurun, who rides through the heavens to your help, through the skies in His majesty. The eternal God is your dwelling place. And underneath are the everlasting arms. And He thrust out the enemy before you and said, destroy. So Israel lived in safety. And Jacob lived alone in a land of grain and wine whose heavens drop down dew. Happy are you, O Israel, who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the shield of your help, and the sword of your triumph. Your enemies shall come fawning to you, and you shall tread upon their backs. Let's stop and pray together. Father in heaven, we thank you for your word tonight. We do ask, as we've just sung, that you would teach us to count our days to set our minds on that which is wise and good and true. Lord, help us now to set our thoughts on You, to see something more of Your love and Your care for us, to see more of what You have done for us in Christ. Lord, correct us where that is needed, rebuke us, Teach us. Comfort us. Drive us to Jesus Christ by the sword of Your Spirit. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Last words are often significant and memorable. We're more likely to pay attention to last words. They can tend to stick with us and be profound and moving. And in our text tonight, we have for us recorded the last words of Moses. The last words of Moses as he blessed the twelve tribes and ended with a crescendo addressed to all Israel in verses 26-29. Moses likely knew that this would be his last opportunity to speak to the people of God. The promised land lay ahead of them, but he wasn't going with them. And yet, at this point, he doesn't complain. He doesn't speak of his accomplishments. He makes the most of the opportunity to speak to them once more. And what he says here is profound and beautiful and comforting. He directs the focus away from himself and places it on God. He takes the opportunity to point them to their source of salvation. Their source of comfort and security and blessing. He points them to the one true God. Their God. He committed them into His everlasting arms. And He sought to fill them with courage and awe in Him. This God was their hope. This God was their future. He would go before them. He would care for them. And He would be their dwelling place. And they needed to hear that. They needed to know how blessed they really were to belong to this God. To have this God as their God. And tonight, we have the chance to listen in to these last words. to hear this great prophet speak from the heart one last time after a distinguished long life of knowing and serving God and serving this people and leading them sacrificially. And friends, the good news is that His God, Israel's God, is the same God tonight. And He is your God if your faith is in Him and in His Son. And tonight, these words full of promises and comfort and security and courage are for you as well as the people of God. And so people of God, see these things. Know, lay hold of the fact that in Christ you are the people of God. You are the blessed people of the one and only eternal God. These words that were spoken to Israel are true of you, and because of that you can have confidence resting in God. You are the blessed people of the one and only eternal God. And so rest with confidence and with faith in Him. Well, let's consider this more in detail together. I want us to look at this final blessing together and see what Moses says to God's people and to us tonight. And we see first that Moses begins his closing blessing by telling them and really telling us that there is no one like your God. There is no one like your God. Look again at verse 26. There is none like God, O Jeshurun, who rides through the heavens to your help, through the skies in His majesty. There is none like God, or none like the God of Jeshurun. And Jeshurun is a poetic name for Israel. The God of Israel. And as Moses is leaving God's people, he is committing them to God. Their thoughts, their hope, their confidence needed to be fixed on God. I think it's likely that Moses was burdened for the hearts of his people. He knew their tendency to stray from the true God. And so he's telling them here, people of God, there is no one like your God. The other gods don't compare. In fact, they are false. And he says here, this God rides through the heavens to your help. Think about that picture. What does that mean? He rides through the heavens to your help. Well, that's a poetic picture, an image of the power and greatness and ability of God. How He comes quickly to the rescue and to the help of His needy, weak people. He rides through the heavens to your help. This imagery of riding through the heavens is frequent in the Old Testament. It also shows up in some of the pagan and Canaanite literature. For example, Baal was called the Rider of the Clouds. But Baal doesn't ride through the clouds to help his people when they call. He is not a true God. He is not a living God. Remember the contest on Mount Carmel. as they called out to Baal again and again and again. Baal does not show up. But Israel's God does. He is the true God. He is the all-powerful Creator with all authority. He, not Baal, hears His people and comes swiftly to their aid. There is none like Him. And Moses could have given countless examples of this. God riding through the heavens to help His people. And so Israel's trust and confidence was to be in Him. And friends, that's true for you and me as well. You belong to and serve the one and only God of heaven and earth. And there is no one like Him. You can call on Him and He hears. It's as if He rides through the heavens to your aid to come and help you. He is the One who has sent His Son from heaven to give you the ultimate help to rescue you. And so trust in Him. Worship Him. Call on Him as the true, majestic, awesome God that He is. The God who rides through the heavens to the help of His people. Put your focus. Fix your eyes on Him. Well, Moses goes on and tells the Israelites, second, and tells us as well, to dwell in the safety of your God. He wanted Israel to be secure in their God. To dwell in the safety of their God. Listen again to verse 27. The eternal God is your dwelling place. and underneath are the everlasting arms. Their God was the eternal God, says Moses, with everlasting arms. The ancient God of old with no beginning and no end. The God who was above and outside of time. The eternal God. This eternal God, Moses says, was their dwelling place. Their ultimate, eternal dwelling place. And I want you to think about this. Remember who Moses is speaking to here. This was a wandering people. A people who have had no dwelling place. No home of their own for centuries. The last years they've been wandering in the wilderness, and even Egypt wasn't their home. They had been sojourners there. They had lived in tents. But now they were finally on the edge of the Promised Land. Their dream dwelling place, if you will. Finally, they were ready to possess a place they could call their own. a place that they could call home where they would settle down and put down roots. And Moses says, but remember, remember who your real home, your real dwelling place is. God is your home. God is your inheritance. He is your dwelling place. And Moses liked this picture of God as a dwelling place. He used it in Psalm 90 where he says there, Lord, You have been our dwelling place. in all generations. Think about Moses. He had dwelt in the royal splendor of Egypt. He had also been a refugee on the run away from home. And so he knew personally and experientially the reality of God being his real, true home. His eternal home. His ultimate dwelling place. And we need to hear this and know this today as well. We can become so comfortable in our earthly dwelling places. We're always seeking our comfort or our home in the things of this world, our careers, our actual homes, our possessions. We forget this is not our ultimate home. This is not our permanent home. These can't give ultimate security and comfort and rest. God Himself is and must be your dwelling place. Your glory. Your home. Your ultimate inheritance. This is such a comforting truth as we feel the fragility and temporary nature of our earthly lives and homes. Our earthly families. I think it should be comforting to you as a congregation as you leave what has been your church home, your church building for so many years, and you don't necessarily know what lies ahead. God is your ultimate dwelling place. And so brothers and sisters, seek your ultimate refuge and dwelling in God. Don't seek it in anything or anyone other than God. Those other things are temporary and fading. God is eternal. Moses goes on here and says underneath, underneath are the everlasting arms. A dwelling place perhaps shelters and protects from above and around, but arms cradle and carry. Arms protect and shelter from below. Arms keep you from falling. And this has been called one of the most heartening sentences in all of the Bible, and so it is. The eternal God is your dwelling place and underneath are the everlasting arms. This is such a beautiful and powerful picture of God's love. His care. His comfort. His cradling. His carrying of His people. And it says His arms are everlasting. They do not tire. They do not wear out. His strength is never exhausted. He never lets go of His people. His arms are everlasting. He has got His people. He has got you. He holds you forever. Our arms grow weary. I could ask one of you children to hold a little baby, even a small baby, and pretty quickly your arms would get tired and you would need to set that child down or give it back to its mother or father. Our arms are weak. Our strength is limited. God's is everlasting. His arms do not wear out. And we can take comfort in that. Whatever lies ahead, underneath are the everlasting arms. For Israel, it was a mixture of blessings and trials. For you and for me, what lies ahead for us? Trials, joys, sickness, uncertainty, temptation, life, death. Whatever you are in the midst of now, He is holding you. He is bearing you up. No matter how low you may be, no matter how low you may get, keep this picture in mind. Underneath you are His everlasting arms. Always. They won't let you down. They won't let you fall. Now kids, as you hear about these everlasting arms, you know that God doesn't actually have arms, right? He doesn't have a body like us. But God is all-powerful. He is all-knowing. He is everywhere present. He doesn't need arms. What He has is far better. And He cares for and protects His people forever as if He carried us in His arms. Think about how a baby is soothed by the arms of its mother. That baby can be crying, hungry, all out of sorts, but when it feels those arms around it, it's safe. It's soothed. Everything is okay. And friends, we should let this truth quiet and comfort our souls. No one can snatch you or separate you from His arms if you are in Christ by faith. Remember the words of Romans 8. 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. Nothing will be able to separate us from those everlasting arms cradling us. God is your dwelling place. He must be your eternal dwelling place. And His everlasting arms are under you. This is a great truth, a great comfort. Israel needed to hear that, and so do you and I. So does the church today. But that's not all that Moses had to say. We are not just to rest in the arms of God. We are also called to go forward, to advance with confidence because of God, because He's cradling us in His arms. And that's what Moses challenges us with third tonight. To move forward, to advance with confidence and with faith because of your God. Look again at verse 27, the second part, and the following verses. and He thrust out the enemy before you and said, destroy. So Israel lived in safety. Jacob lived alone in a land of grain and wine whose heavens dropped down dew. Happy are you, O Israel, who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the shield of your help and the sword of your triumph. Your enemies shall come fawning to you and you shall tread upon their backs." Remember, as they're hearing this, Israel is now poised to cross into and conquer Canaan. And they needed to be encouraged to do that, to go forward with confidence, not in themselves, but in God. Remember, the previous generation, when they had reached that point, they had cowered at the Canaanites. They did not trust in the power and promises of God. They shrunk back and they were punished for it. Well, Moses is reminding the next generation, there is no one like your God. You can go forward. You can do this not because of your numbers, not because of who you are, not because of your strength or the might of your army, but because of who your God is. God is the One who gave them the command, destroy. Verse 27, this moving forward, this conquest was God's plan and His people were doing His command, carrying out His judgment. And in fact, it was He who would thrust out the enemy. And Moses was so confident of this that he speaks of it in the past tense as if it were already done. The prophetic perfect as it's been called before. Then he goes on to say, Israel lived in safety. Again, past tense. The Lord is their shield of help and their sword of triumph. Your enemies shall come fawning to you and you shall tread upon their backs or upon their high places, their strongholds, their places of false worship. Moses is telling them God is your defense, your shield, and He's your offense. He's your sword. He will ultimately fight for and defend you. And that's exactly what we see in the history of the conquest. Beginning with Jericho. Beginning with even the crossing of the Jordan. And so their faith was to be in Him. The divine, unseen power of God. Their faith was to be in Him as they crossed the Jordan and moved forward. And friends, it's really no different for you and me. We don't have a physical land to go and possess. We don't have nations to conquer with real swords. We don't have a Jordan to cross, but we are in battle. We fight not with the weapons of this world, but with the Gospel. The sword of the Spirit by prayer, by faith. The New Testament calls us soldiers. It calls us to put on the armor of God, to move forward in faith. We will have to fight through trials, sickness, temptation. We have to fight against the world, the flesh, the very real attacks of Satan. But God is with you as He was with Israel. And if you are His, He fights with you and for you. He protects you. He gives you the strength to go forward in this battle. And so fix your eyes on Him with faith. Fix your eyes on Him as a congregation, especially in this season of transition that you find yourselves in, this time of uncertainty and change. Know that your General, your King, is risen. He's victorious. He's seated in the heavenlies at the right hand of God. Jesus is alive and enthroned. And He is at work. And so people of God, like Israel, have confidence, not because of who you are, but because of who your God is. Face the future. Face the battles that lie ahead. The uncertainties of this life. Looking to Jesus. looking to your God, looking forward to your final rest, which He has promised you. And do so knowing that God will care for you. We see Moses call them and call us next to trust in the care of their God. Fourth tonight, trust in the care of your God. Look again at what Moses says in verse 28. So Israel lived in safety Jacob lived alone in a land of grain and wine whose heavens drop down dew." Again, here Moses speaks in the past tense. He knows God's future care for His people is so certain that He speaks prophetically of these things as if they've already happened. Israel lived in safety. Protected by God. They lived alone. That is, the land would be theirs. They would occupy it themselves and not share it. And then he also speaks of it being a bountiful land. A land of grain and wine. A land of flourishing agriculture. Cultivation. Vineyards. And again, think about the context. Think about who Moses is speaking to. They've been a wandering nomadic people for the last 40 years. What have they been eating? Any grain or wine? No. They've been eating manna. Yes, God was providing for them, but think of their excitement to hear of this bountiful land. Here's a promise of land and produce. Can you imagine their excitement? How sweet these words would sound. And Moses says the heavens would drop down dew. God would send rain just as He sent manna. Moses is telling them, the Lord is going to care for you. He's going to meet your needs. He's going to care for you in practical ways, in bountiful ways. And Moses wouldn't taste those blessings. Moses would not eat that grain or drink that wine. He wouldn't experience that care of God in their new home, but he knew that they would. They could trust their God to care for them and bless them. And friends, do you? Do you trust in God's care for you? Is your hope in Him even in hard and uncertain times? Now our ultimate hope is not full blessing and ultimate rest and flourishing here and now. We do experience God's care and God's blessing now, but we look for it in fullness forever in the new heavens and the new earth. The eternal rest. Our ultimate home. People of God, trust in God's care for you. His provision. He has given you His own Son. He will care for you. Do you trust in Him? Are you looking to Him? Are you looking forward to His ultimate, eternal inheritance? Well, finally, Moses reminded them that they were the most privileged people in the world. He said to them and He says to us as well, there is no one like you because of your God. I want us to hear that fifth and finally tonight. There is no one like us as the people of God because of who our God is. Look again at verse 29, the first part. Happy are you, O Israel, who is like you, a people saved by the Lord. Happy are you, O Israel, who is like you? A people saved by the Lord. Notice the parallel lines here. It starts out saying, there is none like God. And then here in verse 29, who is like you? Do you get the logic here in Moses' blessing? Because there's no one like their God, there is no one like them. There is no one like the people of this God. These two things are tied together. These ideas, these lines really tie together the whole blessing. There is no one like them because of who their God is. And because they have been saved by Him, as verse 29 says. Saved out of Egypt? Yes. Saved in the wilderness? Yes. But ultimately, saved out of their sins, of their faith, was in Him. Saved out of something far worse. A far worse slavery. And notice here who it says they're saved by. Not by themselves. Not by another god. Not by their might or cunning. Not by their great leader, Moses. Saved by the Lord. Capital L-O-R-D. The covenant God of Israel. This unique and privileged status was due solely to the work of the Lord. No other nation was saved. No other nation was so blessed. And so Moses could say, happy are you, O Israel. Or blessed. It's the same word. Blessed. Happy are you. But the day was coming when that happiness and that blessing That great privilege would be spread beyond national Israel to all nations of the earth after the finished work of Christ. But as you hear these words, do you ever stop and think that as one saved by God's grace, if your faith is in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus, if you are trusting in the Gospel, Do you ever stop and think that you of all people on earth have reason to and can be happy? Even if your life is full of sorrow and difficulty, you have reason for happiness. You are blessed. You are unique and unlike anyone else. There is none like you. There is none like us as the people of God. Why? Well, it's not because of us. But it's because of God. Because God set His love on you. God saved you. He has put a life and a joy in your heart that you did not deserve and you did not earn. You did not find. Moses knew how weak and how sinful this people was more than anyone. But he also knew how blessed, how happy, how privileged, how loved they were because he knew their God. And we need to stop and hear this and let this sink in. We need to know our great blessedness. marvel at the salvation God has given us through His Son, even though we were a sinful, undeserving people. Undeserving of His love and His care. His blessing. Undeserving of any happiness. Undeserving of the Promised Land. Of heaven. of eternal life. We need to look to the cross and see the price that He paid to save us. The cost that it took to bless us. We need to see how much He really loves us and how blessed we are, how there is none like us. And rather than fill us with pride or self-focus, that should drop us to our knees in humility, in awe, in wonder, in worship. Happy are you, O Israel, who is like you, a people saved by the Lord. Are you happy? Do you know this happiness? Do you know this blessing? Are you resting in His everlasting arms? You can be because those arms that are under you if you are in Jesus Christ were over Christ. Came down on Him in judgment as He stood in your place. As He was crushed for your iniquities to save you, to give you an eternal home, to give you eternal rest and blessing. There is no one like you. Well, Moses finished his final blessing. He spoke His last words to the people of God. He had entrusted them to their God, into the everlasting arms of their God. And then in remarkable submission and humility, He departed. And He made the long, lonely climb up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo. into those everlasting arms Himself. And perhaps many of God's people may have watched and wept as He climbed the lonely mountain. This faithful servant who had led them, who had pleaded with God for them, whose face had shone with God's glory, and here He was leaving. And they would never see Him again. They may have been tempted to wonder how would they make it? And what would happen to them? What about the next generation? But His last words would be still ringing in their ears a sweet note of promise and comfort. There is none like God, O Jeshurun, who rides through the heavens to your help. The eternal God is your dwelling place and underneath are the everlasting arms. Happy are you, O Israel, who is like you, a people saved by the Lord. Brothers and sisters, as you await your eternal inheritance, your eternal rest as pilgrims, not yet in the heavenly promised land, you still have many reasons to fear, to lose heart, that you and I don't know what lies ahead. That we can't see our leader, Jesus, with these eyes. That we can easily forget who we are, who our God is. We don't see or feel those everlasting arms under us. And yet, by faith, we can and we must. We can and we must lay hold of these precious truths. Know that there is no one like your God. Let Him be your dwelling place. Know that He rides through the heavens to your help. He cradles you in His everlasting arms. He goes before you. And so, dear brothers and sisters, through Christ, know that you are the blessed people of the one and only eternal God. Rest with confidence in Him. Put your faith in Him. Fix your eyes on Him. And know His love and care.