Forsake Idolatry, Seek God

Well, good morning. Good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we're at Deuteronomy chapter 32. It's going to be a little bit different because it's a longer passage on the Song of Moses. So we're going to read, talk, read, talk, read, talk, read, talk real fast through it as Nathan yawns into the microphone.
Do you need some coffee to wake up? No. Okay, me? Oh, he's going to go for it. I always go for it, then I drink it again. Watch out. If you drink that all of a sudden you're going to have a mustache. Oh, look, a beard hair. It wasn't that bad. OK, well, not that bad. OK, next thing you know, it's going to be, oh, I like that.
Let's pray. God, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for time together. We thank you for your word. Father, please help us to walk in your ways, to love you and follow after you in Jesus's name. Amen. All right. Deuteronomy chapter 32. And here we go. So I'll read a paragraph, you'll read a paragraph back and forth, back and forth. Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak, and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
Let my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, as raindrops on the tender herb and as showers on the grass. For I proclaim the name of the Lord, ascribe greatness to our God. He is the rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of truth and without injustice, righteous and upright is he." What's that talking about? Is that my speech beacon? Now, listen up, it's time to sing. This is the God we're singing about. He is righteous and without injustice. All right, you can read the next one. They have corrupted themselves. They are not His children because of their blemish and perverse and crooked generation.
Do you thus deal with the Lord, O foolish and unwise people? Is He not your Father who brought you? Has he not bought you? Has he not made you and established you? You're not your own. Yeah, right, good. He bought you. You're not your own. Don't deal like that with the Lord. Alright, next paragraph. Remember the days of old. Consider the years of many generations.
Ask your father and he will show you. Your elders and they will tell you. When the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations, When he separated the sons of Adam, he set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord's portion is his people. Jacob is the place of his inheritance." Alright, go ask your daddies. Go ask the older generations. They'll tell you how the Lord divided up the land. Alright, 10 through 12.
He found him, and he doesn't land, and in the wastelands a howling wilderness. He encircled them, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirs up its nest, hollers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them on its wings, the Lord alone led him, and there was no foreign god with him. All right, so what's that talking about? It's like God found them in Egypt, took them out like a bird picking up its babies, carried them away. He's the one who rescued them. He's the one who cared for them and there was no foreign God with him.
He made him ride in the heights of the earth, that he might eat the produce of the fields. He made him draw honey from the rock, and oil from the flinty rock, herds from the cattle and milk of the flock with fat of lambs, and rams with the breed of bastion, and goats with the choicest wheat, and you drank wine, the blood of grapes. All right, sounds like he was starving them, right?
No, they had all sorts of great stuff. All right, 15 through 18 for you. It's kind of funny, when he's writing this, he's writing this after it's happened. And it's kind of funny, because when you read the actual book, it doesn't go as well. If you just read this, you'd be like, wow, this was great.
They did just great. Well, the Lord was great with them. Exodus was just great. There was no problems in Exodus. Keep on reading. 15-18 for you. But Jerusalem grew fat. Jeshurun. Jeshurun grew fat and kicked. You grew fat. You grew thick. You are obese.
Then he forsook God who made him. made him and scornfully esteemed the rock of his salvation. They provoked him to jealousy with foreign gods, with abominations they provoked him to anger. They sacrificed to demons, not to gods they did not know, to new gods, new arrivals that your fathers did not fear. of the rock who forgot you you are unmindful and have forgotten you god you forgotten the god who bothered you yeah so what happened after he treated them so well yeah like well yeah we're doing fine he says they got like fat and obese and they forsook him and they worshiped did you catch it they worshiped Well, they worshipped other gods. They sacrificed to… Demons. Demons. That's what he calls the golden calves. They didn't come out with any gods. It was just him. And now all of a sudden they're doing this craziness.
Verse 19, And when the Lord saw it, he spurned them because of the provocation of his son and his daughters. And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end will be, for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faith. They have provoked me to jealousy by what is not God. They have moved me to anger by their foolish idols. But I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation. I will move them to anger by a foolish nation.
For a fire is kindled in my anger and shall burn to the lowest hell. It shall consume the earth with her increase, and set fire on the foundations of the mountains. He's happy with them, yeah? Yep. Yeah, no. No. Alright, verse 23 through 27. I will heap disasters on them. I will spend my arrows on them. They shall be wasted with hunger, devoured by pestilence and bitter destruction. I will also send against them the teeth of beasts, with the poison of serpents, of the dust. The sword shall destroy outside, there shall be terror within. For the young man and virgin, the nursing child with the All right, what's that say? Yeah, right. Is the Lord going to punish them for all that? Yep. Yeah. Verse 28 through 33. For they are a nation void of counsel, nor is there any understanding in them. Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end.
How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their rock had sold them, and the Lord had surrendered them? For their rock is not like our rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. For their vine is the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter, their wine is the possession of serpents, and cruel venom of cobras. Yeah, right, so their enemies somehow are outnumbering, or even undernumbering them, but outchasing them. How could this be, since they have a different vine and a different rock? They have a different God and a different hope. It must be because God's given them over. 34 and 35.
Is this not laid up in straw with me, sealed among my treasures, vengeance is mine, and we recompense their foot, and recompense their foot shall slip in due time, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things to come hasten upon them. All right, who do you think is talking about here? That vengeance is mine and recompense their foot shall slip, who's are they? Are the Israelites going to be losers forever? Wait, where do you see they? Their footsteps shall slip in due time, for the day of their calamity is at hand.
It's there, in there, sorry. Oh, I was like, I didn't realize that at all. It's there, in there. That. Or are these there? You kind of think of the Israelites No, here it's the enemies who are chasing them. who ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink-offering. Let them rise and help you, and be your refuge." Right? So like God's saying, go ahead, where's your idols now? Where's their help? They don't have any strength left. Wait, he's talking about the... Well, I think here he's talking about the Israelites. Yeah, it's kind of funny when God does that. sometimes you can tell he's not, God's not a dummy. Yeah, God's not a dummy. I think that's a great, we should put that on our wall. God's no dummy.
So when he does it, he thinks, oh, if I deliver them to these people, I can't just let them be delivered because then you wouldn't believe God's true because he wouldn't keep his promises. But he delivers them and then they're like, where did all God's go? And then the people are like, wait, all God's won, woohoo! But then God hunts against them. And so they're like, wait a second, who's gone, what's going on? At the end of the day, let's go to the next point. At the end of the day, verses 39 through 42.
Now see that I, even I, am he, and there is no God besides me. I kill and I make a lie. I wound and I heal. Nor is there any who can deliver from my hand. For I raise my hand to heaven and say, as I live forever. If I wet If I wet my glittering sword, and my hand takes hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to my enemies, and repay those who hate me. I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh, and the blood of the slain and the captives from the heads of the leaders of the enemy.
Yeah, right. Does judgment belong to the Lord? Is he eventually going to repay? That's right. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. I will repay. He's going to take vengeance. Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants and render vengeance to his adversaries. He will provide atonement for his lands and his people. All right. So the nations hear this. What are they supposed to do? Bow down to God. What's that? Bow down to God. Bow down to God. Rejoice, right? Because He's the true God. Good. Alright, let's finish it off. You can read the very last part, 44th verse.
So Moses came with Joshua, the son of Dan, and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people. Moses finished speaking all these words to Israel. And he said to them, set your hearts in all the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command your children to be careful to observe all the words of this law. For it is not a futile thing for you because it is your life. And by this word, you shall prolong a day, the land which you cross over the Jordan to Moses possess. Possess, I'd like to Moses. Yeah, so Moses goes to Joshua, now at the very end he gives them the song. It's a testimony of what God has done. And then at the very end, it's not a futile task. It's your life. It's your life. Go over to Jordan. Go and possess it. Remember what God has done. So, give me a summary. What's all this about? Exodus, okay about the exodus I'm not going to challenge you to do a best first. I'm just gonna ask But what in the world why does that matter to you? I? Think at the end again points out like Don't make the same mistakes He's trying to point them and say hey you guys made the stake you might make it again and He's like wanting them.
Hey, this is things we have to walk on. Yeah. Right. I think specifically of their treachery against the Lord and growing fat and forsaking him, forgetting he's their God. Lord, make me not rich that I might forsake you. Or what Jesus talks about with a seed going into the soil, growing up. It looks like it's going to be good. And then the weeds sprout up. The deceitfulness of wealth and the cares of this life choke it out. It's no good.
But that same idolatry can still happen in my heart. I'm no better than the Israelites. I still need that same grace, that same God, knowing that he will avenge even the evil in my own heart and has done that in Jesus. But it means I need a turn from my idolatry.
All of us do. Look to Jesus. You ready to pray? I opened us. You want to close us or do you want me to close? Okay. God, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word. God, we, we tell you, we confess to you that it's easy for our hearts to go and chase after the world and the things of this world. God, please help us keep our hearts firmly fixed on you. for you. You are the Lord. You're the one who gets life and death. Let us walk before you with fear and trembling in Jesus's name. Amen. May you find yourself in Christ. May he alone be your hope in life and death. I'll see you next time.