Keep God's Promises

Good morning, good morning. Welcome to coffee and devotions this morning. We're beginning the book of Numbers. It's taken us a year and a half to get there, but we are at the very last book of the Pentateuch. Penta meaning five. So one, two, three, four, five. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy, chapter one, verses one through eight. So we're at Deuteronomy, chapter one, one through eight.

We're talking about the command to enter into the promised land. Let's have some coffee. We'll pray. We'll get into God's word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for what a gift and a blessing it is to be able to read your word. Lord, we thank you for the day and age we live in. Lord, that's in a language we can understand. We don't have to go and learn Hebrew to figure out what it is and what it means. But Father, we thank you. or what a treasure it is to have your word so we can store it in our hearts. Lord, we pray that your Holy Spirit would help us now as we read it. We pray that you would be our teacher, that you would help us to understand it. In Jesus's name, amen.

All right, Deuteronomy chapter one, the first eight verses. These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel on this side of the Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain opposite Suf, between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazaroth, and Dizahab. It is 11 days journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea. Now it came to pass in the 40th year in the 11th month on the first day of the month that Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him as commandments to them. after he had killed Sihon king of the Amorites who dwelt in Heshbon and Og king of Bashan who dwelt in Ashtaroth in Edrim. On this side of the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this law saying, The Lord our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying, You have dwelt long enough at this mountain. Turn and take your journey, and go to the mountains of the Amorites, to all the neighboring places in the plain, in the mountains and in the lowlands, in the south and on the sea coast, to the land of the Canaanites, and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, thee, I have set the land before you. Go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them and their descendants after them.

So we need to ask ourselves, A, what is this about? B, what is the best verse to summarize this? And C, what do we call it to do? So A, what is this about? Well, we notice here a few things, right? This is, we're just going to start with, these are the things or these are the words which Moses spoke, right? And so this is, this is, Deuteronomy, the breaking down of that is the second law, or the law given a second time. Really what this is, is Moses explaining the law.

Moses left the wilderness, It's only supposed to take 11 days they get from Sinai to the very southern border Kadesh, Brunei That's where they sent out the spies. It was only supposed to take 11 days From one place to another and then they were gonna enter the promised land. Remember their disobedience So there's a huge pause here, right but we didn't read or what we didn't see right in verse 2 It's it is 11 days journey from Hora by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Brunei now Verse three, now it came to pass in the 40th year. Between verse two and verse three is 40 years of what we read in the book of Numbers. 40 years. It was supposed to take 11 days. That's what sin does, right? It messes things up. Well, anyways, so this is the second talking about, after we've done all these things, we've conquered, really gets at the heart of it, is verse five.

Moses began to explain this law. And this and so the rest of Deuteronomy is Moses explaining this law and it starts the law starts with God himself saying you're to leave Mount Sinai the horror of Mount Sinai you're to go all this area from the sea all the way to the Euphrates River in the south from the Sinai Peninsula all the way up to Lebanon that whole area is That's what I'm giving to you, right?

That is what God had promised to the fathers, verse eight. See, I have set the land before you. Go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, to give to them and their descendants after them. God had made a promise. He'd come into covenant with Abraham and God was gonna make it good.

And so it's been hundreds of years That's like a day to God. What is that? Right that that's that's moving at lightning speed The point is God God kept his promise God made a agreement God made a promise God made a covenant with the patriarchs and his descendants And now they're there Now they're right on the other side of the Jordan River And so this is Moses's closing sermon to them So what's this about? Moses is going to explain the law and it starts with the historic preamble. This is what God has done. What's the best verse to summarize this? Well, I think in my Bible, I would underline verse five, right? That's part of it.

On this side of the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this law saying, everything else is in Deuteronomy basically is after that. And then I would also underline verse eight, actually I have part of eight double underlined. So I have set the land before you, go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to your fathers. Which the Lord swore to your fathers, double underlined. So that's what I think is the best verse to summarize this, maybe it's best verses.

All right, last, the calling. What are we called to do? Well, we're called to trust the Lord's promises. When the Lord makes a promise, he's gonna make it good. When the Lord says something, he's gonna do it. But it also shows us, that's the first one, right? We can trust the Lord and his promises, we can trust his covenant, but, But we could mess things up too. And the Lord's going to respond to that as well. I mean it's going to be in His perfect timing according to His foreknowledge and it's going to be in His divine decree. But what we notice between verse 2 and 3 is a sin that happens at Kadesh Barnea.

When the spies come back and they don't believe God's promises, we can't go there. We can't possess the land. We're not strong enough. We're like little grasshoppers to those giants. They're going to kill us. The Lord has them wander in the wilderness for 40 years. It should have only taken 11 days. I think we should take a lesson from that in our own lives. When we distrust God's ways, when we distrust God's promises, when we don't have confidence that our God is good enough to do what he said he's going to do, we decide to go on our own way. It's to our harm. It's not for our good. So we trust him and we follow him because he's our God. He's our King.

Let's go ahead and pray. Father, we thank you so much. that you have made promises to us and you have made those promises good in Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray that in our lives today, we would trust you, that we would follow after you out of faith, not out of fear. Lord, we pray that you would teach us to walk in your ways and to trust in who you say you are. Lord, we thank you for the historical story you've given us. We thank you. Remove the promises you have made to us. And we pray that you would give us. Would give us the strength. To follow you. In Jesus's name, Amen. Well, may the Lord bless you as you follow him with confidence, because he is your good covenant keeping God. I'll see you next time. Bye.