You're listening to the teaching ministry of Harvest Fellowship Church in Boyertown, Pennsylvania. You can find out more about us on the web at www.harvestfellowshipchurch.org. We pray that through our teaching, we may present everyone mature in Christ. Heavenly Father, we praise you and thank you for all the good that you do, for every action that you take is good. And it is great and it is marvelous to see what you do, Lord. And Lord, as we open up our scripture this evening, help us to put away the distractions so that we can see and hear better of what you have done and what greatness that you bring to this world, Lord. So Lord, we focus our attention on you and you alone this evening. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, so from last week, just a reminder, we're in Deuteronomy. We're in Deuteronomy chapter one. And last week we were all over the map, quite literally all over the map. We were following the Israelites all over the Middle East, where they started, where they had been, tracking their movements. so that we can have a better idea where Moses begins this first sermon here in Deuteronomy. And as you recall, we're kind of taking the approach of breaking up Deuteronomy in these various sermons by Moses, so this is gonna be his first one. And so what we're going to want to do is dive a little bit more into this. This is a pretty long sermon. I mean, it goes all the way to almost chapter four, basically, or beyond chapter four. But the first part of this sermon is a history lesson. It's very much so a history lesson recounting all the travels of the people of Israel here over the last 40 years. So let us first, before I get into the questions, let's first actually just refresh our memory, just kind of what we were reading about. So I'm gonna actually read for us a portion of our text from last week and then our text for this week. So our text for this week is gonna be verses nine through 18 of Deuteronomy chapter one, but I'm gonna start here at verse five. And it says, Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law, saying, The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Turn and take your journey and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbors in the Ereba, in the hill country and in the low land and in the Negev. and by the sea coast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after them. At that time I said to you, I am not able to bear you by myself. The Lord your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven. May the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are, and bless you as he has promised you. How can I bear by myself the weight and burden of you and your strife? Choose for your tribes wise, understanding, and experienced men, and I will appoint them as your heads. And you answered me, the thing that you have spoken is good for us to do. So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and set them as heads over you, commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of fifties, commanders of tens, and officers. throughout your tribes. And I charge your judges at the same time, hear the cases between your brothers and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien who is with him. You shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be intimidated by anyone for the judgment is God's. And the case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me and I will hear it. and I command you at that time all the things you should do. All right, so that is our text for this evening. So as is our custom, let's start off with what questions might we gather from this text tonight? What couldn't Moses bear about the people? And we're not talking about the nice, ferocious, four-legged animal. What? Did this hierarchy of different commands, did it continue into the king period? How far along? How far does this continue? Okay. What else? Ah, were they just a judiciary? Did they do other government-ish type stuff? That's a good question. Here's one, just to keep your minds going. Who is the alien? We could make many jokes about that, but I think you all know what that is, but we will discuss that. Yes? Interesting question, trying to address that. So the question is, the Levites also had their own roles with regards to the administration of the temple and other things, and did they have their own sets of judges that are included in this group? Another thing to think about is when Moses says, at that time, what is he talking about? What time? What time is Moses talking about? Are the heads of the tribes the same as the judges? Are they the same people? Are we talking about two different sets of people? What does it mean that the judgment is God's? We have judges. Why is the judgment now God's? Let me think, I have to have another one. Nope. Oh, last one. What are all the things that Moses commanded the people at that time? He just kind of makes this blanket statement. What did he command? So let's see if we can answer some of these questions, or all of them. So, first one here, is it starts off at that time. So the question is, well, what time period are we talking about? So from discussion of last week, if you can remember, where do we start this sermon? And where did Moses start? Because this is a telling of history. that Moses starts off here. So he starts off in verse six, this sermon and it's going into the history. Where is Moses putting his starting point in the history of the Israelites journey here? Yeah. So which movement from Sinai? Because there was more than one. The first one. Yeah, it's the first one. So this is the first time that they move off from Sinai to the Promised Land. So they're going, they're on their way to their first time to try and enter the Promised Land. And when we get to verse nine here, where it says that, at that time I said to you, I am not able to bear you by myself, we're actually talking about the events of Numbers 11. So if you go to Numbers 11, verses 10, and that's where it starts. We're only gonna go through verse 17 here. So this is after they have now left Sinai, and they're heading on their way. And of course, things never go smoothly whenever you set out on a journey. So, starting in verse 10, it says, Moses heard the people weeping throughout their clans, everyone at the door of his tent. And the anger of the Lord blazed hotly, and Moses was displeased. And Moses said to the Lord, Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? Did I conceive all this people? Did I give them birth that you should say to me, carry them in your bosom as a nurse carries a nursing child to the land that you swore to give their fathers? Where am I to get meat to give all this people? For they weep before me and say, give us meat that we may eat. I am not able to carry all this people alone. The burden is too heavy for me. If you will treat me like this, kill me at once. If I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness. Then the Lord said to Moses, gather for me 70 men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you. And I will come down and talk with you there, and I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you may not bear it yourself alone. So here we have this initial complaint by Moses that I am not able to bear you by myself. I can't do this. This job is too hard. So if you recall, how many people do we say were with Moses or the number of the Israelites at this time that they leave Mount Sinai? How many Israelites were we talking about? Yeah, at least two million, maybe two to three million at this time. So it's in in X list 1237, it says about 600,000 men. And that is just the fighting age men. So usually age 20 and up is what we're talking about. So if you try to extrapolate, well, there must have been women and there must have been children and it must have been really old people. So you're probably around two to three million people. And so Moses is coming that I can't do this myself. It's not as though he is telling God he doesn't want the position. That's not what Moses is getting at here. He's not saying, I don't want to do this in the sense of, I just don't like the work. What he's telling God is, I have no capability to do this job. It's too hard. You might as well just kill me because that would have the same effect of me trying to actually lead these people. So Moses is not able to do this. So God just completely says, all right, I'm gonna give you some people. We're gonna give you some people. But what Moses is also explaining here is like, okay, this is the initial event here that we're talking about, that I'm not able to bear this. And the reason I'm not able to bear this is because there's so many of you, but being that there's so many of you, that's not a bad thing. So it says intense, that the Lord your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven. And he says, may the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you as he has promised you. How can I bear by myself the weight and burden of you and your strife? So we have here that Moses, is not complaining that there's so many of them as though he wishes there were fewer. He's actually praising God that there are so many and he wanting more. Now, This phrase, numerous as the stars of heaven, if you're a student of your scripture, you should recognize this phrase as something that would have been come up before. So who did God promise that the Israelites would be as numerous as the stars of heaven? Abraham. So if you go to Genesis 15, verse five, talking about Abraham here, And this is God saying that, so, and God brought him, that is Abraham, outside and said, look toward heaven and number the stars. If you're able to number them, then he said to him, so shall your offspring be. So right off the back, Moses here is not wanting them to focus on the fact that, okay, I can't handle leading you. No, he wants to point, he's pointing their attention to the fact that God is fulfilling his promise to Abraham. that God is fulfilling his promises, and that this is a good thing, and that he is wishing that God would continue to cause their population to explode. So, you're gonna see this throughout this sermon, where you have littered through here explicitly and implicitly, Moses pointing their attention back to how God is fulfilling promises, keeping his word, and taking care of the Israelite people. He wants their attention focused in on God's provision for them, that it is God who is going to make them successful, that it is God who provides, that anything that God says, He will fulfill, He will keep His promises. So when we read about here that this complaint of Moses that there's too many people, Moses loves the fact that there are too many people, but it is a problem because he's only one person, and that's a lot of people to govern. So this particular situation came up before they left Mount Sinai the first time. So if we go to Exodus chapter 18, we're going to read a story here that looks very similar to what we're about to describe with regards to the heads of tribes. So in Exodus chapter 18 starting in verse 13, It says, the next day, and this is if you timeline here, they've just crossed the Red Sea. They're on their way to Mount Sinai. Moses' father-in-law had just come to meet him. So this is the day after Moses' father-in-law comes to meet him. And it says, the next day, Moses sat to judge the people. And the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. When Moses' father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning till evening? And Moses said to his father-in-law, Because the people come to me to inquire of God. When they have a dispute, they come to me, and I decide between one person and another, and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws. Moses' father-in-law said to him, What you are doing is not good. You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. Now obey my voice, I will give you advice, and God be with you. You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God. And you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. and let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. If you do this, God will direct you you will be able to endure, and all this people will also go to their place in peace. So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people, chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. And they judged the people at all times, any hard case they brought to Moses, but any small matter they decided themselves. So we have this section here, which is, we'll call it the advice of Jethro. And then we have in our text, It seems like Moses came up with this idea on his own, but I think this is more of just Moses is saying this is the actions that were taken, not necessarily who originated these actions. We have this advice that Jethro is now giving, trying to explain to Moses, hey, there are too many people for you to handle on your own. And then in Numbers, we have Moses recognizing, there are too many people for me to handle on my own. So we need to do something about it. And before we dive into the specifics with regards to these leaders and heads, what Moses is trying to get off of with trying to explain with this event, we already talked about, one, it's keeping his promise, God's keeping his promises, but then two, Moses is reminding them of the leadership structure that has been put in place. So as far as we know, this is the leadership structure that stayed in place at least through the times of judges, potentially through the times of the kings, through the whole time of Israel. As far as we know, this was the leadership structure of the Israelite nation, even when they decided to bring on a king. But so as far as we know, this is how the leadership, now whether they implemented it well, continuously, we don't know. But as far as we know, this is the leadership structure. And Moses is saying, one of the things that we can think about with this, Moses highlighting this, is that Moses knows he is not going into the promised land. He, at this time, he knows. He doesn't get to enter. He's already violated God's command, so he knows he's not gonna be going in there. But Moses is wanting to help assuage the fears of the people that they're not gonna have good leadership. He's reminding them, hey, we put in a leadership structure for you So you do not have to worry about me, Moses, going in there with you. You have a leadership that have been taught, they have been instructed in the ways of truth, and they're able to lead you. So you will not go into this country leaderless. Moses himself did not want to be a monarch. He took up the job because God commanded him to. And he's actually very thankful to have other leaders in here, but his job was primarily to train. He was the head, in essence, of the Israelite people, but he himself passed on a lot of those responsibilities to those below him. So let's now kind of get into, you know, starting in verse 13. Okay, who are these? What is this leadership structure? What did Moses, or what did God have Moses put in place for the Israelite community? So in verses 13 and 14, it says, choose for your tribes wise, understanding, and experienced men, and I will point them as your heads. And you answered me, the thing that you have spoken is good for us to do. So Moses establishes three criteria, we'll say. Actually, it's more of just two criteria. The way the translation works, it turns into three, but in reality, it's more like two. So he says, wise, understanding, and experienced. That's the criteria for these leaders that are to be appointed. So wise and understanding here imply practical ability to lead or govern well. This is just the, this is the practical aspect. These are people that know how to lead. They are well versed in managing and leading people. They know civil affairs. They know military affairs. They can lead and are capable and do the job. So they have the knowledge and so they can do all the tasks that are necessary at the various levels of leadership in any civil or military matter. Now with regards to priestly matters, this is not in regards to any of those types of things. Now there would have been within the Levitical community more than likely, their own judges, leaders, heads that they would have gone to with things. But these individuals were primarily tasked with the civil and military aspects of the Israelite community. Now, the next one, so that deals with wise and understanding. The next part of it was experienced. And this can be directly translated as known or well-known. Some translations have this as respected men. So these are well-known, well-respected, they are people that, it's not some unknown person that's gonna be leading a group of people. They would have been known by the community that they are gonna be leading, and they have a reputation. as being wise and understanding. So they've already been kind of, they've been tested through time as being capable. They were not, we would say, newbies to leadership. And this is kind of similar to what we see, this is a similar practice that we even see in the New Testament. So in Acts chapter six, Verses 3 through 6, we see kind of this laid out when we see the calling of the deacons, saying, And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith in the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them." So, you know, the Israelite community here, we do the same thing in our own church community. Leaders should be known by the people. They shouldn't be some unknown quantity like, well, we've never seen them actually do any leading, so we're not even sure if they're going to do a good job. Leaders should be known. They should have demonstrated ability to do the job that they are going to be placed in charge of. And so there are establishing the most thing I want you to pick out these people that are going to be ruling over you. And I want you to present them before me as the individuals you want to be leading. And what we have then here is the people in alignment and agreement with this, we'll call it the system of government being put in place. So God here, through Moses, is establishing a system of government for the people. and the people are saying, yes, we agree to this. And we see that even when the law is presented to the people, so in Exodus, when the people are given the law, they all shout in agreement, yes, we agree to this, we're gonna obey this. So kind of in a similar fashion, Moses saying, all right, I want you guys to select leaders, and we're going to have this system of government. And the people are saying, yes, we will abide by this. And what we have to recognize is that they were also recognizing this was a wise action. So Jethro had given this advice as being wise. The people are acknowledging, yes, this is a wise action. And one might say, well, this is just common sense. One person can't do everything. But you have to also recognize that common sense, that term, is really a recognition of, should be a recognition of godly wisdom. That's where our common sense should be based off of. And that basis should begin in the fear of the Lord. So the people, in order for them to truly recognize wisdom coming from God, they need to have a healthy fear of the Lord before they can see what wisdom and understand wisdom. So they were all in agreement that this was a wise course of action. So then Moses in verse 15 says, so I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and set them as heads over you, commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of fifties, commanders of tens, and officers throughout your tribes. Now, for those of you who have been managers or leaders or even had to teach a class. What do you think is the most people that you can effectively manage or teach at any given time? And when I say effectively, I mean being able to get to know them, able to impart good mentorship, ensure obedience commands, and discipline consistently. 10. OK, we got 10. We got 6. We got 10. 1. 5. 15. All right. Do I have 20? Anybody go for 20? How about 100? 2 million? So a solid argument can be made. based off of people that have studied these things and studies, anecdotes, and even just men that have written about leadership over many centuries, that the most a person should take on leading is between 10 to 15 people. It's usually and generally the number that comes around, about 10 to 15 people is about the people you can effectively manage. So when you think about What Moses is establishing, establishing this hierarchy, you got the leaders of tens at the bottom, then the leaders of fifties, leaders of hundreds, leaders of thousands. And so each of those men are basically leading a subset of more men and just works its way down. So this leadership hierarchy helps distribute the load of governing. So this is just not them judging people. So this is not just doing the activity of settling legal disputes. That's not just what this is going. This is also just the day-to-day life of civil governance among the people, and also military governance. So they're going to be set up such that whenever there is a military campaign, those same leaders that are the judges are now going to be the individuals that are also going to be leading the men into battle. So it helps solve two different problems. And what this does then is it allows people to get resolution of civil problems quicker without sacrificing obedience to the law of God. Yes? A civil problem that wouldn't require judging. Think of a Where are we going to place all of our tents? So they have a general arrangement of where everybody goes. But within your tribe, so we have the 12 blocks here, or 11 blocks, that are around everybody. But which family is going to go closest to the tabernacle? Which family is going to be furthest away? Which ones are going to be the edge, and the middle, and the sides, and stuff like that? So that would be an example of civil administration. that would be handled by those people. Because otherwise, they would all have to stand in line, two to three million people stand in line, think of your Dorney Park lines, and then think that there's about two to three million people, everyone wants to get on the ride, and you're going to be sitting there just like, all right, sun comes up. Sun goes down, well, they didn't get to me today, I guess I'll come back tomorrow and get back in line. Sun comes up, sun comes down, Moses didn't get to me today, and just goes on to go far. So it'd take a really long time to get through a lot of these matters, and it'd be a lot easier if there were more to be able to handle some of the lesser tests. And we see this even in our own set up here in our government we have a hierarchy of judges in a hierarchy of leaderships that the small problems that you have small claims court. And then you have you know larger federal court for bigger problems and the Supreme Court for even larger problems. So that's the same kind of idea. It's so that people can get justice, can get resolution to the problems that are in their communities. And these men are not just men that are without the kibbutz, they are trained. So Moses has been instructing all of these men. All these men have been under instruction by Moses to be able to understand the law of God and understand wisdom and to be able to carry out their task. So when we talk about the heads of tribes here, and in verse 16, it's going to switch over to the judges, we're, for the most part, we're talking about the same group of people. You can make an argument that there were more judgy judges, but in essence, everybody's going to have to do some level of judging, these leaders are. For purposes of this discussion, we're essentially going to treat them as the same group of individuals that are being given this task of leading and judging the people. So in verses, then we get to verse 16 here. And it says, and I charge your judges at that time, hear the cases between your brothers and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien who is with him. You shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be intimidated by anyone for the judgment is God's. And the case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me and I will hear it. And I can manage you at that time all the things that you should do. So now that Moses has set up this hierarchy, Moses then gives them a solemn charge. And this charge is to judge righteously. So my question for you is, what do you think it means to judge righteously? Yeah, Bob. Okay, put a blinder on. The what? According to the law of God, okay. Okay. I like this definition from Matthew Henry. He says, judgment must be given according to the merits of the cause without regard to the quality of the parties. So it is purely looking at, here are the facts, who is in the right and who is in the wrong. I don't care who is before me, I'm just determining between these two parties who is in the right. And we will say later, Moses is gonna say later in Deuteronomy 16, 19, he'll say, you shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality. You shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. So at this point in the Israelites' history, what have they just received from God and been instructed by Moses? The whole law. This is the whole law. They've been given everything at this point, because by the time that they're traveling from Mount Sinai to the Promised Land the first time, they've been given everything. They have the whole law in front of them, and they've been instructed by it. And this is not just the moral code, it is all of their governing laws, how they were gonna do everything. There was no, and this was given to them without deliberations, there was no hearings, there was no speeches, there was no votes, there was no rule-making sessions. This was, God gave it to them directly, this is how it is, no ifs, ands, or buts. No debate. So these laws that have been given, these are good, right, and perfect laws. So one of the things that a judge usually has to do in our day and age is they have to do two things. They one, have to judge, is this law a good law? And then two, is this law being, how do I apply this law in this situation? So for the Israelites, they had a benefit. They didn't have to figure out the first part. They already knew the law was good, and it was right, and it was perfect. All they had to do was figure out how to apply it. So that kind of simplified the way the judges had to administer these things. So when we talk about judging righteously, a founding principle of the Israelites' governance was that all were to be judged with equal access to justice regardless of who, where, or what their social standing was. And this is very important, because then he's gonna, Moses is then gonna kind of expand that out into the various aspects of this. But this is how God applies justice. Moses is saying, I am charged you to judge righteously because that is what God, that is how God judges. God doesn't care that you have a lot of money or have no money. God doesn't care that you were born in a particular land versus a different land. God doesn't care that you have different colors in your melatonin. He doesn't care about those things in regards to justice. So in Romans 2, verses 6 through 11, it says, he, this is God, will render to each one according to his works. To those who by patience and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek. But glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality. And this is what the judges were doing. They would show no partiality. And so Moses then gives these few scenarios of where impartiality could creep into the judging process. He starts off with between a man and his brother, or the alien who is with him. Then he goes on to, you shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and great alike. You shall not be intimidated by anyone. So James gives this similar admonition to the believers in the dispersion in James, which we're gonna get to very soon. In James two verse one, my brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. So then the question comes in is for those of you who don't know, who is the alien that Moses is referring to? Who are the aliens? Okay, Egyptians. What? Gentiles. Okay, Gentiles sought refuge. Yep. It's really any non-Israelite. It's visitors, sojourners, immigrants. non-Israelites living among the Israelites. So what God is establishing here, and this also includes servants, non-Israelite servants too, slaves. And so what God is establishing here is that justice is to be administered by these judges, was to be similar to how God administers judgment, and that if you are a human looking for justice, you are to receive no less or greater justice than your adversary. And if you were in a Israelite court, The blinders that were being put on was, I don't care where you came from or who you are. Are you a human being? Are you a human being? You're gonna get the same kind of justice. If you are right, you'll be vindicated. If you are wrong, you will be punished. And that punishment is going to be the same whether you were born of aristocracy or you're a servant, a slave to a master. And this is very important because those with influence, those with power, if you were a ruler or a king, there is a natural inclination of the human psyche to give favor to those people. We have a natural inclination. We even see it in today, like, wow, yeah, we say justice is blind now, but look at all these senators and congressmen and that they just get off scot-free even though they did heinous crimes, but some lowly guy gets the book thrown at them. And we see that that is an injustice. So when we talk about that God wanted us to extend, they wanted the Israelites to extend this justice even to the alien, there was not gonna be a second tier, second class within the Israelite society with regard to justice. Yeah, Bob. Yeah, oh yeah, it comes about and we know why it comes about. Yeah, depravity of man. But here we have, but this is the standard. Moses is laying out right at the beginning, as he has been commanded, that here is the standard by which you are to govern and judge the people. That we're not gonna have two tiers of justice. We're not gonna have those that, well, you're a citizen of Israel, so you get a better class of justice versus the non-Israelite. And that's very important. And that idea was even pulled into what we live in, which is a Western understanding of justice. This is the foundation of that. This is the absolute foundation of that, and why we see that even in our justice system. Now the last part of this was with regards to not being intimidated. Threats, bribes, intimidation by anyone was not to be tolerated by these judges. And the reason for this is that God is not intimidated by anybody. So you as a judge being representatives of God's justice, you too are not to be intimidated by anybody. So, being that Hindsight is honored, and Bob, you already mentioned, alluded to this, how successful were these judges in upholding this command? Well, what I'm amazed about is how long it really lasted before it fell apart. It's remarkable to me. You know? We've only existed 250 years as a nation. You know what I mean? And look how it's fallen apart. Here we're talking, you know, You read the first chapter of Judges? But the point here is, like I said before, it's not as though that people couldn't keep the command that it was a bad command. This was the right command. This was the good thing that they had to obey. But we have to recognize the fact that we can't, you know, even though we have this sin and we have this depravity, we want to make excuses for showing partiality. And we need to fight against that. And that's what Moses is warning them. Because then he says the standard that Moses is setting, he states that for the judgment is God's. So this law that was handed to the people of Israel was perfect and good, was to be applied equally to all. There was no carve-outs for special intergroups or wealthy or political affluent. These judges needed to recognize that God was the one to be feared, and that ultimately God is the one that sees the truth of all matters and will judge rightly. So God is observing these men do their job. So these men were to put their faith and trust in the Lord for their decisions they have to make. And like I said before, for the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. So these men were abiding by God's command to judge righteously, but ultimately God was the one in control of the judgments. And so the people in Israel needed to recognize that they should not fear each other. They needed to fear God more than that. So when it says not to be intimidated for the judgment is God's, they were to fear God himself. So finally, in our last verse, Moses, it says here, and I command you at that time that all the things that you should do, So Moses had destructed the people in the whole law of God. This is very reminiscent of what Paul says in Acts 20, verses 26 and 27. It says, therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. So Moses was reminding them, hey, I taught you everything that you need to know. Everything that God gave to me, I have now commanded you in all those things, you need to now obey it. And we're going through this process in Deuteronomy where Moses is re-instructing all the people in this law that he has already given them. But he's also reminding the ruling men that he has already instructed them in all these commands God has given to the people of Israel. And that is where their focus should be. So they need to be students of the Word of God. So there are two things for, I'm gonna say men in particular to meditate on, but it's still, it's valuable to all here. But there's two things that we need to think about as we go from here. One is help in being able to rule well is not an admission that you cannot rule. It just means that the job is bigger than just one person. It means that you need help. And so we need to recognize that Moses here is saying that, you know, that Moses was recognized as a great leader. In fact, the greatest, probably contend is the greatest leader of the Israelites. And he needed help to do his job well. So as men, we are all called to rule, whether that is just our family, or ourselves, or maybe even more than that. But being able to recognize how much you can rule, does not mean that you still can't do a good job within the sphere that God has given you. And sometimes you just need help. It's okay for guys to ask for help. And the wisdom to rule well is found in the Word of God. It's not found in self-help books, gurus, fortune cookies, or the motion of the planets. Moses wanted his These leaders, these chiefs, these heads of tribes, to be devoted to the law of God, to be devoted to God's word. In the same way for men and women, we are to be devoted to understanding God's word, and mining the riches of his word will yield a harvest of righteousness and wisdom that is unquantifiable. And we see that if you read Proverbs, if you read the Psalms, these books just overflow with the bounty of being in the word of God. So it's not even that you have to read just the wisdom books to get wisdom. The whole counsel of God brings wisdom. The whole word of God brings righteousness. And we also have to take seriously the command of James in that it's not just that we read it and then look away and forget what we have read. It's reading it, it's dwelling on it, it's thinking about it, it's speaking it one to another, it's singing it. It's all those things such that it envelops your whole thoughts. That is what we are called to do. And from that dwelling on God's Word, wisdom blossoms in your life. And you will see the wisdom of God because you will be so enamored with his word that what comes forth is the fruit of the word of God. So let's pray and we'll end our time here. Heavenly Father, we just praise you. Because you're the one who raises up leaders, you're the one who raises up those that have the charge to rule over your people in a way that we can see. But Lord, we desire that we would have a life that is devoted to your word, that we would all be able to glean the wisdom that you have provided in your word into our daily lives and how we live. But Lord, we lift up those men that have been called to lead. We pray that you would give them wisdom, that you would give them the discipline and desire to be in your word daily, reading, speaking, and thinking about it, that they might do the job that you have given them and do it well. and in alignment with your scripture. So as we go from here, Lord, guard our steps, guide us as we go about our weeks, and help us to bring you honor and praise wherever we go. In Jesus' name, amen.