All right, we're going to be covering, well, most of the Pentateuch this morning. We'll be looking at a bit of a review for last week, and then we're going to be looking more specifically at Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. It was a great vacation Bible school, the whole theme of Mystery Island, which is the answers in genesis bbs from twenty twenty we had already purchased it and then the government restrictions kept us from doing it then uh... but it in god's province it match perfectly for where we are this church is all being with the attributes of god uh... that god is great because he's the only true god uh... that was the beginning of it he is he the creator of all that exists Tuesday was that he is almighty because of his infinite attributes. He is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. That God is ruler. He is holy, righteous, perfect, and the majestic king of the universe. That was Wednesday. He is Emmanuel, Jesus Christ, God in human flesh dwelling among us. The one who paid the price of our sins that we might be redeemed. and reconciled with God. That was Thursday, the Gospel presentation. This act of God demonstrating His love that can never be questioned. It's proven for all time and eternity what Christ did for us. And then on Friday was God is trustworthy because of all these attributes that they had discussed and much more. He is capable of keeping all of His promises. And His character assures us that He will do so. That matched perfectly with the whole series we've been doing here for quite a few months, that we can trust God. Why? Because of who He is and what He is like. All of His infinite attributes mean He is sovereign. He is completely capable of doing everything He has said. This is one reason we believe Genesis is true. If you have a God that communicates to us that this is what He did, but that's not how He did it, what kind of God is that? If you're saying He couldn't have done it the way He said, what kind of God do you have? You've got a lesser God. Our God is capable of anything He says. And on top of that, because of His character, He will do everything He says. Capability, the ability is one thing. Faithfulness is the other aspect that you need. He will do it because he promised to do so. Now, if you have not, if you missed some of those sermons, go to the website. All those are online. You can either listen to them or read the sermon notes. That is foundational for where we are moving now in our sermon series. Currently we're going to be looking at what God has done in the past and calling a people to himself, preparing them, the rise of Israel as a nation and then why they collapsed. We need to know something about history. History lets us know why we are where we are and where we're going or at least where we're supposed to go. God's already revealed history to us and he's revealed the future to us. We know where God's going to go. We're going to be moving to 1 Peter and then Revelation because we need to know how to be prepared for what is coming in the future. Now last week I gave a very quick overview of Genesis and Exodus with this emphasis that God has chosen a particular people for himself. And in particular in that sermon I tried to emphasize that this was according to God's own character and purpose. He makes a unilateral covenant with Abram. Abram, at that time, was not a man of faith. He was a man of wavering faith, as demonstrated in Genesis 12 itself. It's not until Genesis 15, which is at least eight years later, that he finally has enough faith to believe what God said and believes him. And that's when it says his faith was reckoned to him as righteousness. He believed that God's declaration that he would have a child from his own body was true. and that's what's reckoned to him as righteousness. That is the same faith we must have in God himself. Do we believe what God has said about himself and that he will carry it out? That's what faith is. It's a trust in God. Now, being told his name, which means Abraham, his exalted father, and you're 75 years old and you have no children, you're going to have to have some faith, right? Well then it continues on in Genesis 17. It's not just he's going to have a son because now he has one through Hagar at Sarai. His wife's insistence to have a child through her is no, it's going to be a child through Sarah. Changes her name to Princess. And she's old too. They're way past the age for having children. And they do and it's going to be a son and you're going to name him Isaac. The covenant is going to go through Isaac. Abram's faith It was so much that his name was changed to Abraham, father of nations. And it was so great that when he was told to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, he believed that God would have to raise him from the dead because he was a child of promise. So much has kept coming back to this covenant that God makes unilaterally with Abraham. Now that covenant then is affirmed in Genesis 26 to Isaac, and then according to the prophecy given to Rebecca when she was pregnant, the covenant would go to the younger of their twins, Jacob, instead of Esau. And then God affirmed the covenant with Jacob in Genesis 28, again in 32, and then in 35, and that's when his name is changed to Israel. He would have 12 sons who descends to become the tribes of the nation of Israel. Genesis concludes with God using the evil that Joseph's brothers meant against him for good and preserving many people alive, including Jacob and his family of 70 moving to Egypt, which is the starting point of fulfilling a prophecy given to Abraham in Genesis 15. Now Exodus records the history of the next chapter in the history of this chosen family. Over 600 years after the prophecy was given to Abraham, his descendants would be oppressed in a foreign land. Genesis 2.24 states, God heard their groaning, their groaning and slavery in Egypt. And it says, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We go back to the covenant again. God's keeping his promises. He then sends Moses to fulfill the rest of the prophecy then given to Abraham. Egypt will be judged. They're not going to let Israel go except by compulsion. And so God brings 10 plagues upon Egypt, which humiliated their panoply of gods and goddesses. It shattered the Egyptian economy. It separated Israel from the Egyptians, and it proclaimed the name of their God, Yahweh, to all the nations and magnified it. He's a God who keeps his promises. Upon their departure, the next part of the prophecy was fulfilled. God gave them favor among the Egyptians. They didn't have to steal anything. All they had to do was ask their neighbors, would you give us gold and silver and clothing? And they did. And so they plundered the Egyptians exactly according to the prophecy given to Abraham. And so this group of 70, that's a fairly large family. A family of 70 now is one and a half to two million that leave Egypt. Now after departing Egypt, it took the sons of Israel three months to journey to Mount Sinai on purpose. God didn't leave them directly. He didn't want them going back to Egypt. And then the miracles he performed on that journey, including the miracle of the Red Sea, of them crossing on dry land, and then those Egyptian army rushing into it and the waters closing over them and destroying Egyptian military might. Giving them water. providing the meat all the way down to Mount Sinai. All these things reinforcing God is going to keep his promises and do what he said. There was a daily manna, a miracle food that they ate every day. Always a constant reminder then, or God provides just as he said he would. The people that God called for himself had begun the journey that take them back to the land promised to them and their ancestors. they were already a multitude, they would continue to multiply. And those that blessed them would be blessed and those that cursed them would be cursed. But before they could enter the land, God had to prepare them to be his people. And that's the subject for the rest of today's sermon. Now, the first part of Exodus records God's work in bringing the nation of Israel out of slavery from Egypt to Mount Sinai. The second part of Exodus records the covenant that God makes with Israel at Mount Sinai. There he is going to establish them as his people. The Mosaic Covenant is based on the unilateral covenants made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It's an extension of those covenants. I pointed that out last week. Leviticus 26, 44 through 45 makes it clear this is a unilateral covenant. In fact, it says that God will still, even when they break the covenant themselves, because they're not going to keep it, it says that God is still going to remember them I remember for them the covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt and the side of the nations, that I might be their God, I am Yahweh. That's what this is about. It is about the glory of the true God. Now the conditional aspect of the covenant is if they obey God, they will be blessed. And if they don't, they'll be cursed. That's a general truth no matter what, isn't it? If you obey God, it goes a whole lot better for you. If you don't obey Him, well, you're going to make Him angry, and you don't want the all-powerful Creator angry at you. Okay? That's the aspect of this covenant, and that's going to go through the rest of Exodus and Leviticus in spelling this out. Now the Ten Commandments and all the various specific ordinances given at Mount Sinai, this last half of the book of Exodus and Leviticus, were all instructions for them. How do you live with a holy God in your midst? That's actually got to be pretty scary. This is a God that can instantly destroy you. And in fact, he warns them in Exodus that they are, if they don't keep that, it's dangerous for them to be having God in their midst. In fact, God would, after the incident with the golden calf, he wasn't going to go. You're going to go up your own. And Moses' intercession was, God, you need to go with us. But he warned them, if you do not obey me, you can be destroyed. We're going to see that when we get to numbers. It is dangerous to have God in your midst. And so all these commandments are about how do you become a people that can be safe in the presence of holy and righteous God. So there's all the commandments about your behavior. If you behave righteously, you do not anger God. But then there's all the laws about the sacrifices. How do you make it right with God when you've sinned against him? And that's what the sacrificial system was about. following what God said so there is an atonement for your sin that God will forgive you. Now the children of Israel were and are God's covenant people. They are people for his own possession out of all the peoples of the earth. They were to be a kingdom of priests. They were to be a holy nation. And so these commands given, all the various ones, where it's the dietary laws of what they could or couldn't eat, the laws about what they could wear, what materials, the various feasts they were involved in, all those things are related to being a holy people set aside, a unique people chosen by God for himself. Now before I go on to the additional preparation of the nation, I need to stress again, this is of God's own doing. I pointed this out last week from Deuteronomy 9, 5-7. He is not giving them the promised land because they're a righteous people, an upright people, somehow worthy of it. He states very specifically, you are a stiff-necked and obstinate people. He is doing it for two reasons. The first, really, is because he's confirming this oath he swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And second, is because the sin of the nations that lived there had finally reached their peak. It is because of their wickedness they're being driven out. So those are the two reasons. A covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and a punishment upon the wicked people who are currently there. But how can a people who are obstinate rebellious live in harmony with a holy and righteous God? That brings us to the book of Leviticus. Now after the tabernacle is set up at the end of Exodus, God gives instructions of how he is to be worshipped. It's specific instructions. Both there's the ceremonial sacrifices and then there's the manner of life you're to live. This pursuit of holiness was a very serious matter, for God had already warned them in Acts 33 that if He is in their midst, they are in danger of being destroyed because of this obstinacy that's in them. Living in righteousness, again, prevents them from being destroyed because they provoke God's anger by their sin. And these sacrifices, again, are related to atonement and being forgiven of their sins, as well as their worship and fellowship of God. So Leviticus 1 through 7 give the details of the five sacrifices that were part of their system of worship. Three of these were voluntary. The burn offering was related to a sacrifice of dedication to the Lord. The grain offering was a sacrifice of fellowship with the Lord. The peace offering was a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Lord. And then the sin offering was for unintentional sins, and the guilt offering was for uncleanliness, thoughtless swearing, and sins done in ignorance. Those last two sacrifices were required. Now there's a lot of detail given about each of the sacrifices, the manner in which they would be offered, and God was serious about it. By the time we get to Leviticus 10, we find that Aaron and his sons have been consecrated, they're ready to begin their priestly duties, and Nadab and Abihu, his sons, are going to go in and offer incense. But they don't treat God as holy. They don't bring the prescribed incense. They offer, the text says, strange fire before the Lord. And fire came out from their fire pans and consumed them, killed them instantly. You see, the worship of God is a serious thing. The text actually says they profaned, they made common the aspect of coming to worship God. We tend to forget sometimes God is the creator of the universe and he's absolutely holy. And too often we end up trying to treat him like he's our buddy. He's not our buddy, he's our creator. He should be and is our best friend. That's what Christ even calls himself that for us. But he's also who he is. And so there is a reverence that needs to come before him and worship needs to be done according to the commands he's given. They didn't do it and they paid with their lives. Part of the condemnation of Israel in its later years was due to their false worship of God. Now specific instructions were also given to Leviticus concerning what was and what was not unclean, what to do concerning something that had become contaminated, whether it was uncleanliness because of leprous diseases, or it was your clothing, or house got mildew or mold in it. gets very specific instructions. Leviticus 16 and 17 gets very specific instructions concerning sacrifices for atonement and related restrictions on eating blood. Why? Because the text tells us life was in the blood and it's the reason by the life in the blood that that was required for the sacrifice. Sin requires death, and so a bloody sacrifice was part of that. And that's why Jesus Christ had to die in the manner that he did. Every detail about it was specific, whether it was the scourging and the blood that flowed from that, or the soldiers piercing his side and the blood and water flowed out. He died as a bloody sacrifice. His death for our lives. that is tied directly into the whole sacrificial system going all the way back to the first command to Adam and Eve. The day that you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall surely die. Sin brings death. Leviticus contains many additional commands concerning things such as sexual immorality in chapter 18, idolatry and personal behavior in chapter 19, human sacrifice, spiritism, sexual immorality in chapter 20, revenge in chapter 24, redemption, treatment of the poor in chapter 25, Additional details about the rules for priests and sacrifices in 22, religious festivals in 23, and the sabbatic years and the years of Jubilee in chapter 25. And it concludes by listing the blessings of obedience and the penalties of disobedience as both an encouragement and warning. Now all of these laws are given while they are at Mount Sinai. That's important. This is the first generation. They're given the law. They're told here is how to be holy. Here is how to deal with your sin so that you're still righteous before God and you're forgiven. It's all part of the general command given in Leviticus 19 to you shall be holy for I am holy. I am Yahweh your God holy. Now that same general command is applied to Christians by the Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 1 15 through 16. We are to be holy because our God is holy. So God had chosen for himself and prepared this people to live by his commands as a holy nation. But the first generation proved to be obstinate and rebellious. And so Numbers recounts a purging. A removal of a generation so that the succeeding generation would then inherit the blessings of the covenant that had been promised. Now the Book of Numbers gets its name from the census that's in the first two chapters. It's very detailed and the account of each tribe gives a total of 603,550 fighting men. Those 20 years old and older capable of fighting. So that doesn't count either children or women or the Levites. So this is why it would be easy for you to end up with one and a half to two million people have make up this nation. Now the camps of each tribe were set up around the tabernacle. They surrounded the tabernacles in the middle. Some have said, well, that's because that's a good military deployment to make sure the tabernacle is protected. No, that's not why it's set up that way. Do you need to protect God? Or as once has been said, how do you protect the lion? Let it out of its cage. You don't need to protect it. You don't need to protect God. It is set up so that God's presence is in the middle of the camp. Everybody has an equal distance to see. God is here and especially since there's a pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day. There's a presence of God and they can all see it. That's why he's there. God is the center of their nation. He's the center of their society. Numbers 3 and 4 describes the duties of each of the Levitical families. The children of Levi, the Gershonites, the Hathaites, and the Merites. Numbers 5 explains about what to do about defilements when something becomes unclean. Those who are unclean had to stay outside the camp until they were clean and could come back into the camp. What to do about restitution, what to do about a test of adultery and jealousy. Numbers 6 has a whole chapter on Nazarite vows. Chapter 7 and 8 lists the offerings given by each tribe for utensils that be used in the service of the Lord, and then those are fashioned into these very utensils that would be used. They're consecrated to God's usage. Chapter 9 records the anniversary of the Passover. It's now been one year since the Passover in Egypt. Three months to get Sinai. They've been at Sinai for nine months. Chapter 10, two silver trumpets were made by which the signals would be given to summon the people to gather ore. The calls, it would say, were moving out, which would also be indicated by the pillar of cloud rising up and moving. It was not until the second year, the second month, and the 20th day they finally leave Mount Sinai. Instructions have been given. Tabernacle has been built. It's functioning. The people have been prepared. But Numbers 11 records that it did not take long for complaining to begin. They were a stiff-necked, obstinate, rebellious people. At first, the fire of the Lord started to consume some of those on the perimeter of the camp. And then those, the text calls them rabble. They had greedy desires and they started complaining about the food. We want meat. And so God gave them meat. He sent quail. It took them two days gathering quail. They were going to eat it for a month. Or the text says until it's a stench in their nostrils. They're eating it so much. Anything good can become kind of bad if you just have, if that's all you have to eat. Except for maybe chocolate. Even chocolate doesn't taste so good if that's all you have to eat. And that was part of the point. But along with those quail, he sent a plague. The text tells us that that plague killed those who were greedy. That's purging them away. In Numbers 12, amazing enough, Miriam and Aaron complain against Moses. The consequence of that is Miriam is struck with leprosy for seven days and that delays their departure. When God heals her, the camp moves from Hazareth into the wilderness of Paran, which is just due south of the land of Canaan. They're in preparation to move in and take the land. And they send 12 spies. Most of you know the story. They go in, they search it out for 40 days. They bring back a report of it is indeed a good land. It's flowing with milk and honey. They bring back samples of fruit. It is incredible. But 10 of the spies, all they could really see were the Anakim, sons of Anak. They were giants. They lived there. We were like grasshoppers in front of them. And it caused the people to fear. Despite the pleading of Caleb and Joshua, God has commanded us to go in. He will enable us to do it. Kind of basically, haven't you seen God's miracles? You've seen them over and over again. We can do this. He has promised it to us. But the people wanted to go back to Egypt, and they nearly stoned Caleb and Joshua. Except for Moses' intercession, God would have wiped them out right there. But Moses interceded, and so instead, he gave this as their condemnation. Forty days they spied out the land, so for forty years you will wander in the wilderness. And this generation, all those 20 and older, you will die in the wilderness. You will never cross in to see the promised land. So he pardoned the immediate rebellion. But now it's going to be extended over 40 years. Only Joshua and Caleb from that generation would ever enter the land. And then the people foolishly, the very next morning, decided, well, God said we should go. So now we're going to do it, even though God said, I won't be with you. And so they rose up to attack the Amalekites and the Canaanites and were badly beaten. And many of them were struck down in battle. So another purging. In Leviticus 15, there's a story account of a man who flagrantly broke the Sabbath and he was stoned for his disobedience. Leviticus 16 records the rebelling of Korah, Dathan, Abraham, and on and 250 other leaders of the congregation. They didn't like God's choice of Moses and Aaron. God purged those men with fire when their incense pans, the 250 that came, their incense pans, the fire came out from the incense pans and killed them just like it did Nadab and Abihu. And then Korah and the others had gathered by their tents with their families. And God said, a new thing will happen. It'll demonstrate I'm judging them. The earth opened up and swallowed them. So yet another purging of those who were grumbling. Now you would think that would be enough to cause the rest of the congregation to say, it's like, we better listen to Moses and Aaron. This is a powerful God. But instead the people the next morning just grumbled, complained about what had happened. And so God sent another plague. And again, it's Moses and Aaron who intercede for these people who are complaining about them. Instead of many more dying, it's only 14,700 who died in that plague. Additional instructions concerning the Levites and consecration of Eleazar, the high priest, are given in Leviticus 18 and 19, and then chapter 20 records the death of Miriam and Aaron. The first generation is dying out. Leviticus 21 tells about the conquering of Arad, and then they set out into the wilderness to go around the land of Edom. They didn't like that. So instead of coming up and just going up, well, we can't go through Edom, so we got to go all the way around it. Well, there's not much water in the desert. They complained about that. And then they started complaining about the food. They started calling the manna miserable food. What God provided was miserable to them. And so God sent fiery serpents among them. Until God had Moses put a bronze snake upon a pole. And told him if you come and look upon that bronze serpent, you'd live even if you're bitten by one of these poisonous snakes. Jesus uses that in John 3 is an illustration of what it means to have faith in him. You're not saved because anything you did. Your action only demonstrated you believe what God had said. Yahweh continued to provide water for them. They then conquered Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, the king of Bashan. So by this time, most of the first generation has now died off. And they have captured the eastern lands, those on the east side of the Jordan. Those that belonged to them, they have now captured them. Now, Numbers 22 through 24 records the efforts of Balak, king of Moab, who was very fearful of what had just happened to the kings to the north of him. And he called a diviner named Balaam. And he wanted him to curse the Israelites. But Balaam kept telling him, I can only do what Yahweh tells me to do. And so he kept blessing them. Over and over he kept blessing them. And that made Balak very upset. But what could he do? But he did offer Balaam a reward. Other scriptures tell us Balaam wanted that, and so he told Balak how to bring a curse on the Israelites. Have your women go in among them as harlots. And so the sin at Baal Peor. 1,000 were executed, rejoined themselves to these harlots, and 23,000 died in the plague that God sent. 24,000. Now these are going to be people of the second generation. So it's purging out those whose selfish lusts would have been a stumbling block to the rest of the people. God is purging them out in order to have a people called to himself who will go and do what he says to do and conquer the land as they're supposed to. Numbers 26 is interesting. It's another census. And though the numbers for the various tribes vary a lot, in fact, the largest increase was Manasseh, 20,500 more than at the beginning of the Exodus. And then Simeon had a decrease of 30,100. And yet the total population of men 20 and older ready for war only dropped by 1,380. That's less than a quarter of a percent. God was faithful. It was still a multitude. Now the rest of Leviticus records additional laws concerning inheritance, offerings, vows, instruction on the apportioning, Canaan, the Levitical cities, and the cities of refuge. And then Leviticus 31 records the congregation of Midian. Joshua is officially commissioned to succeed Moses' leader, the one who's going to go in and conquer the promised land. Moses has one last task to do. He needs to teach this second generation their history and the law of God. And that brings us to Deuteronomy. Now if a nation does not know its own history, it does not know how it got to where it currently is nor where it is going. I pointed out last week that's a huge problem in our own nation. They don't know our history and so they're very easily swayed to anything because they don't know their own heritage. Now, their current situation is that the second generation is about to cross the Jordan River and enter Canaan to conquer it. Well, why? The history tells them why. Those who were in their late 40s and 50s might have had faint memories of Egypt and the many miracles God performed in the wilderness, but those younger would not remember at all, or they weren't even born. They need to know what had happened. It was important to them to know their history, to be encouraged and resolute in what they're about to do. How has God worked in our past? That gives us a good foundation for believing what he's going to do in our present and in the future. And so Moses does that in chapters 1 through 4. He gives them this quick overview of the more significant events of Exodus and the wandering in the wilderness. Now those who have been 20 years old and older the sense of Mount Sinai had died in the wilderness just as God declared because of their obstinacy and rebellion against God's commands. And that final straw was the rejection of Caleb and Joshua's report instead believing the other ten spies and walking in fear instead of trust in the Lord. The only two people older than 59 going in are Joshua and Caleb. Moses would also die on the east side of the Jordan because of his disobedience to the waters of Meribah recorded in Numbers 20. I bring that up because it's the text states in Jeremiah 339 that it is these little ones, the children that that first generation were afraid the Canaanites would capture and enslave. they were the ones who were going to go conquer the ones their parents were afraid of. As Moses went through this history, he was very careful to point out the unbelief, rebellion of the first generation that led to their failure as well as the many victories the Lord gave them as they began to conquer their enemies and parts of the land that was to be given to them. That was preparing them for what was still ahead by warning them, do not be like your parents. and then encouraging them to continue on the course they had begun. They started seeing God's hand at work themselves. Now the second aspect of Moses task and final preparation was teaching the law. In fact, Deuteronomy means second law. So he's recounting for those who are not there at Sinai are too young to remember it. Here is what God has commanded. Here is what he wants you to be like as his holy nation. begins with the Ten Commandments in chapter five, and then he moves on to very specific ordinances, starting with the Law of the Sanctuary in chapter 12. This is Enners first, but retelling them aspects of their history as he's giving them the law. Historical events emphasize the point of why the law was given. Now, much of what Moses will do throughout Deuteronomy is actually summarized in chapter six. So I wanna look there. In chapter 6, he explains the purpose of the law, how to teach the law to the next generation, and the importance of being diligent to keep it. Verses 1 through 3 give the purpose of the law. It says this, Now this is the commandment, the statute and the judgments which Yahweh your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it, so that you and your son and your grandson might fear Yahweh your God and keep all of his statutes and his commandments which I command you, all the days of your life and all the days that your days may be prolonged. O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, just as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised you in a land flowing with milk and honey." So basically, the whole purpose of the law was for their good. And it's true. That was the purpose of the law. It was for their benefit. By following it, you will be blessed. And too often we forget the law's purpose is exactly that. The commands that God gives us are for our benefit. They're not oppressive. They're protective. They enable us to live in joy of what the Lord has done and how he wants us to live. In a righteous life, there's a whole lot more joyful than a sinful one. The seasons of sin, they're pleasure, but it's brief and it bears terrible consequences. Well, then verses four through nine explains, how are you going to teach the generations that follow? Here, O Israel, Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is one. You shall love Yahweh, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. These words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. This is known as the Shema from the Hebrew, to hear. And it summarizes the identity and the character of Yahweh their God and the great and foremost commandment to love Him with all your heart, soul, and might. All the other laws are dependent upon that. In fact, the rest of the commands that God gives are easily done if you love God in this manner. But a parent cannot teach their child to do this unless they love God too. So it's got to be on the parent's heart. And it's also going to take diligence to do it. Remember, when that child is born into your home, you have welcomed a sinner into it. And you'll be spending a couple decades trying to help that little sinner overcome their tendency to sin. They may even prod you to sin in the process, and you've got to overcome that, too. And that's why your children are the best blessing you'll ever get, because they're going to help you become more like Christ. They're going to reveal all your weak points, and you get to work on them. Okay? It takes diligence. You've got to take every opportunity to be training your children, all the circumstances of life. Here is what God is like. Here is who He is. These are His promises. and then even strategically place reminders that you need to keep teaching these truths. Now from the negative side, the importance of keeping God's laws is that it prevents kindling God's anger and him destroying them because they forgot him and turned to idolatry. That's in verses 10 through 15 in chapter six. Prosperity is dangerous. You forget God. I'm satisfied. I don't need him. Then in verses 16 through 19, from the positive side, if you keep God's law, it will go well with you. If you do what is good and right before God, He is going to drive out your enemies and you will possess the land promised to your fathers. And so they were teaching the importance of Yahweh's law to their children by telling them the history of Yahweh and freeing them from slavery in Egypt, all the miracles in the wilderness wanderings, and they're bringing them in to this good land which had been sworn to their fathers. They're to obey Yahweh's commands for their good, their survival, and for righteousness sake. Now Moses summarizes what Yahweh requires in Deuteronomy 10. verses 12 through 13. A very succinct statement, but it covers really everything that needs to be covered. It says this, now Israel, what does Yahweh your God require from you but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways and love him, and to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and to keep Yahweh's commandments and his statutes which I command you today for your good. Again, it's not oppressive, it's for their good. Verse 16, jumping down a few verses, says, they were to circumcise their hearts and stiff their necks no more. In other words, keeping these commands was going to be a matter of faith. It has to be something you do because you believe and trust God. It's not something you do by forced effort. So after recounting the various laws, commands, the oranges, statues in Deuteronomy 27 and 28, Moses gives very specific blessings if they keep the law. Here's what you will expect God will do as you keep the law. But he also goes on and gives you, but here are the consequences of disobeying the law. These are the curses you're going to find. And if you compare them, they are the exact opposite of the blessings. Instead of being the head, they'd be the tail. Instead of abundance, they would have very little. Instead of conquering other nations, they'd be conquered. And though in chapter 31, through Moses, Yahweh tells them that a future generation is going to reject the law. In the future, their descendants are going to be deported because they're going to rebel against God. Yet in chapter... And that, in fact, was cursed to detail in chapter 32. Yet in chapter 30, God had already promised a restoration for a generation that would follow that one. While they're in a foreign land, they're going to turn back to God and he's going to restore them. Now, why is that important? Because it means God is still going to be faithful to his covenant promise to Abraham. And yes, that's what this is so all about. God had made a promise and He is faithful to keep it. That's the nature of our God. He is faithful to His promises. He is able, willing, and will do whatever He has said. One of the greater blessings about that generation to come that would turn again back to Yahweh is that He says, He will circumcise their hearts. You'll change him internally. That's looking forward to the new covenant. It's not outward, it's inward now. God takes over. Deuteronomy closed with Moses' blessings on the people and then the account of his death on Mount Nebo, from which he was able to see the promised land, but he never went there himself. Deuteronomy 10, 20-22, Moses told the people, quote, you shall fear Yahweh your God. You shall serve him and cling to him and you shall swear by his name. He is your praise and he is your God and he has done these great and awesome things for you which your eyes have seen. So they've gotten a history, but they have seen many things themselves. Your fathers went down to Egypt, 70 persons in all, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven. He uses that terminology because that was the terminology given to Abraham. So Yahweh called the children of Israel to be his own, to be a holy nation. That's the purpose of all the commands he'd given them. The first generation that came out of Egypt failed to love and trust Yahweh, so they died in the wilderness. The second generation was already proving to be more faithful. And Moses retelling them of their history and the laws of God, along with these encouragements to obedience and the warnings of disobedience, were the final steps preparing them to enter the land, to conquer it, and fulfill the promises made to their forefathers. Let me give you a couple final thoughts. I've often heard people say, and it's not uncommon for people to think this idea that, if I could see the miracles that are recorded in scripture, then I would be able to trust God. Then I would know he's true and faithful. Well, the story here in the history of Israel, in the book of Numbers says, that's not true. It's not true at all. They saw things you can't even imagine. and yet they still would not trust God. The very food they ate on a daily basis, manna, a constant reminder, it's a miracle. But it happened every day, so they no longer thought of it that way. They thought of it as normal. Now their children saw some things, they didn't see nearly as much, and yet, as we will see next week, they had a great trust in God. Because they learned a simple truth. God is who he says he is. he does what he says he will do. The Christian life is based on that same premise. Jesus is who he claims to be, and he will do everything that he is promised to do. If you believe that, then obeying God, though it's frightening at times, is actually not that difficult. Why? Because His ways are best. And so, it's a lot better to do it His way than your own way. And so, you look for that and you trust Him for the outcome. And so, it's a life that's motivated by love for God from which the obedience arises. You're not muscling it up. It's, I love God and therefore I want to obey Him. And since the Christian is called to be holy and blameless before Him, you can be assured that in this life He is preparing you to become more like Jesus. both now and for eternity. He will do what he has promised. No matter what kind of circumstances you face in life or will face in the future. So we need to be like the second generation, continuing to grow in our trust of God and then see what he does in and through you. That is our hope. That is what we're after. And maybe one final thought. The United States has an incredible heritage. It saddens me that so many don't know it. The hand of God was upon our forefathers here. No matter what point in time your ancestors got here, what ship or I guess now plane they came in on, it's still your heritage if you're part of this nation. You should know something about it. You can give praise to God for it. And this nation has been blessed because it was a people who sought after God. No, not every founding father was a Christian. Majority were. But even those that were not were heavily influenced by Christian morality, Christian thought, Christian principles. And so that was the design of what became the United States. The general principle is still true as told in Proverbs. Righteous exalts a nation, but sinners are approached to any people. It is no surprise to us that our nation's in trouble and we're experiencing the curses of God as clearly demonstrated in Romans 1 because we as a nation have turned our back on him. Politics is important, but that's not our hope and never will be our hope. Nations usually they get to the point where we are, where our leaders are very well described by the end of Romans 1 as having depraved minds. usually don't recover. And yet, there are a lot of examples where they have. Hope for our nation is only in revival. Revival always begins with those who profess to know Him, becoming serious about walking with Him. And so that's the challenge. Let's be serious about our walk with Christ. Understand why you're here and why God has put you here and live for that purpose. Everything else is extraneous. It really is. Live for the glory of God. If you do that, it's because you love Him. You do that, you'll be like that second generation. And next week, we'll see what God did through them, because they believed. Father, thank you for your many blessings to us, and they certainly are abundant. Father, for having these historical truths recorded for us in Scripture, but not just in Scripture, but also in contemporary times, your hand is clearly at work in so many different places. Father, we're going to be devoting this week in prayer to the Master's Academy International, all those serving in these Bible colleges and seminaries around the world. And Father, it is so encouraging to hear these stories of what you are doing all around the world. You've not changed. You're the same yesterday, today, and forever. But we do ask that you continue to work in our own hearts, that Father, we would be nothing like that first generation of obstinate, stubborn, rebellious people that came out of Egypt. but like the second generation, the father that learned to walk with you and trust you and step forward in faith, even when it may have seemed scary and trust you for the outcome. Thank you that you're absolutely trustworthy because of who you are and what you are like in Jesus name. Amen.