Deuteronomy 31:14-30

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we're at Deuteronomy chapter 31 verses 14 through 30. Let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll jump into God's Word. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word and we pray that you would please help us to understand your word. Please help us to have it applied to our hearts and enable us to actually live it in Jesus's name. Amen. All right. So we're going to talk about Moses's foretelling here. So.
Then the Lord said to Moses, Behold, the days approach when you must die. Call Joshua and present yourself in the tabernacle of meeting that I may inaugurate him. So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tabernacle of meeting. Now the Lord appeared at the tabernacle in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood above the door of the tabernacle.
And the Lord said to Moses, Behold, you will rest with your fathers, and this people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will forsake me and break my covenant for which I have made with them.
Then my anger shall be aroused against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured. And many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us? And I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil which they have done. In that day they have turned to other gods.
Now therefore write down this song for yourselves, and teach it to the children of Israel. Put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel. When I have brought them to the land flowing with milk and honey, of which I swore to their fathers, and they have eaten and filled themselves and grown fat, then they will turn to other gods and serve them, and they will provoke me and break my covenant. Then it shall be when many evils and troubles have come upon them that this song will testify against them as a witness, for it will not be forgotten in the mouths of their descendants. For I know the inclination of their behavior today, even before I have brought them to the land of which I swore to give them.
Therefore Moses wrote this song the same day and taught it to the children of Israel. Then he inaugurated Joshua the son of Nun and said, Be strong and of good courage, for you will bring the children of Israel into the land of which I swore to them, and I will be with you. So it was when Moses had completed writing the words of this law in a book, when they were finished, that Moses commanded the Levites who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying, Take this book of the law and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there as a witness against you.
For I know your rebellion and your stiff neck. If today while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the Lord, then how much more after my death? Gather to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their hearing, and call heaven and earth to witness against them. For I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And evil will befall you in the latter days, because you will do evil in the sight of the Lord, and provoke him to anger through the work of your hands. Then Moses spoke in the hearing of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song, until they were ended. And next time we'll get at the song of Moses. What's going on here? We need to ask ourselves, A, what's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do? So, A, what's this about? God tells Moses, hey, come on in here, bring Joshua with you, right? The Lord himself is going to do this.
But he tells them something I don't think they want to hear, but they're probably not surprised by. He tells them that the people are going to rebel against him. He knows that they're not going to keep this covenant. They're going to break the covenant. They're going to go and worship the other gods that are of the land that he told them not to worship. And so this is what he does. He says, I'm going to bring about the curses that I'm telling you that I've already told you are going to happen. Remember those curses that Nathan and I went through a little while ago. There's going to be these curses.
He's not going to forget the words that came out of their mouth when they vowed to actually keep these. Promises in the covenant, the statutes and ordinances. And he says that they're not going to also forget the song that Moses is about to sing to them. And so he's telling them this, and yet and yet even in light of that, he's still going to bring them into the promised land. He's still going to give them his inheritance, even though he knows that they're going to be covenant breakers. And he tells Moses that same day that he is going to inaugurate Joshua the son of Nun. And he tells Joshua himself, be strong and of good courage. And then he tells him, okay, right.
We're almost at the end of the Deuteronomy, right? We got chapters 32 and 33 to get through. And then the very last one, Moses's death on 34. This is the very end of this book of the law. And so he says, once all this is written, you're going to put it on the ark, tie it next to it. It's going to be a testimony against you. That scroll is going to be finished up. And when you violate this covenant, when you break the commands, you can't say we didn't know better because the priest will have seen it regularly. Like we just read Nathan and I last time, they have to take it off the ark every seven years and actually read it. So that's what this whole thing's about. So what's the best verse to summarize this? Well, in my Bible, I have verse 21 underlined.
And it shall be when many evils and troubles have come upon them that this song will testify against them as a witness, will not be forgotten in the mouths of their descendants. For I know the inclination of their behavior today, even before I have brought them to the land which I swore to give them.
I think that's what this is getting at. The Lord's not surprised by their rebellion later. I think the Lord actually has a plan. And that's what I'm going to say with sea calling, right? This would be quite a disappointing thing for Moses to hear. We cannot just look at the covenant that God makes with the people at Sinai and in the book of the law. and say, oh, look, look, look, look right there.
We're able to see that God knows that they're going to be able to do this. They could have done it or they couldn't have done it. And he knows that they're going to do it. Or maybe he doesn't know. No, the Lord knows that they're going to break this covenant. But the covenant of grace that he instituted at Genesis chapter three, 15, that the seed is a woman who would crush the head of the serpent. He's going to bring that one to pass.
And all their law breaking. Where they they're going to say that we don't actually want you as our covenant king. Jesus is going to come and he's going to fulfill it perfectly. And he's going to become our covenant king. He's going to be the one who takes the curses of the law upon himself, for cursed is everyone who hangs upon a tree. And so our hope is in Jesus Christ.
Our calling is to recognize that we are going to mess this up. Can anyone in this life perfectly keep the law of God? No. No, but we thus daily sin and thought, word and deed, right? We mess up. But what does God require of us that we might escape that wrath and curse that we deserve for our sins?
That we have faith in Jesus Christ. we have repentance unto life, and we make full use of the means whereby he has made known to us the benefits of Christ. So cling to Christ, repent of sin, follow your covenant King. because he has earned the crown of glory. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for sending us Jesus Christ to do what we could never do. You know, Lord, if we were in the Israelite shoes, we would fail. We would do the exact same sinful things, but you have become our God. You have shown your favor upon us, though we don't deserve it. You have even given us your own son while we were still sinners, and you saved us. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen. Well may God bless you and may you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ and I'll see you next time.