Deuteronomy 1:1-8 Bible Study | Episode 834

December 19, 2024

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Deuteronomy 1:1-8 Bible Study | Episode #834

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison, and you're listening to hope alive, applying God's word to your daily life. Hi, this is Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up.

His word to you and allow you.

To see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today, in Jesus name.

Well, good morning. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study. We are in a deuteronomy, chapter one. Deuteronomy, chapter one. It is the fifth book of the Pentateuch. It is the fifth book of the Writings of Moses. The final book of the writing of Moses is a very powerful book, an interesting book, because it is Moses speech. It's Moses last word. Not to the children of Israel that came out of Egypt, because those people have passed away. It is the. It is the book and the story and the desires of Moses to speak to the people of Israel as they prepare the new generation, the generation that is going to enter into the promised land. It is the book that kind of explains and tells those people, the. The faithful children of Israel, who end up taking the promised land. It tells them. It explains to them the journey, how they got there, because obviously, they do not remember Egypt in a way that the adults did, who chose not to go into the promised land. They have no desire to go back to Egypt. They want to follow God. And so he does several things. He gives them history. He explains the law to them, explaining it to them in a more powerful way. He gives them instructions on how to live. And then at the end of the book, he passes away. And we begin the journey into the promised land with the new leader of the children of Israel, who is Joshua. And so, as we enter into this book, it is a powerful. It's a great book to study. You'll see that it's quoted a lot in the New Testament. It'll be quoted a lot in sermons and places where people are talking about faithfulness. Because the book is an explanation of God's plan. Like I said, it's a history. It's an explanation of law. It is a. It is a summation of God's plan for the children of Israel going into the future. And it's a motivational speech, too. It's a motivational book. It's one that is telling them what God's plans are for them and the goodness that God has for them. Now it says in verse one, these are the words which Moses spoke to the. To all Israel on this side of the Jordan river in the wilderness. So they're not in the promised land. They're in the wilderness. They're in the. They're in the peninsula. That is the Sinai. And if you look on a map, the Sinai peninsula, it looks like a triangle that's turned upside down with the point sticking downward. And at the very bottom of the Sinai peninsula is the Red Sea. And then there's two kind of gulfs that go up the side of the Sinai peninsula. You've got the Suez Gulf, where at the top is now the Suez Canal. And that's a very important feature in world history. And it's a strategic point of interest. It's one of those places that kind of changed the world. And then you've got the Gulf of Aqaba on the right side. They're actually on the right side of the peninsula at the very bottom near the Red Sea. But they are. They are down there at the bottom when. When Moses begins to explain to them exactly what they're to do. This is a. Like I said, this is a huge motivational speech. It's one of those. One of those opportunities for Moses to pass on God's plan for God's people before they go in. This is. This is God's reset for a people who are willing to walk by faith. And that's what really makes it exciting for me to study, because it is. It is one of those things where God gives us a second chance. He is the God of the second chance. He's the God of the reset. And he give. He's giving Israel that opportunity. He wants to explain it to him. And so it says now, it came to pass on the 40th year notice. It's 40 years and eleven months. You go, well, why wasn't it exactly 40 years? Because the first eleven months of coming out of Egypt, the children of Israel journeyed to the mountain. They heard the word of God. They had a lot of issues and rebellions and manna from heaven and no water and getting water from the rock. You had all those stories that took place. And finally they got the law, and then they journeyed toward the promised land, which was not too many days journey away from them. And then they sent in the spies. And, you know, the spies had to go in and for, you know, it, they're not doing what God's told them to do. They're, the whole purpose of them coming out of Egypt was to have God's best to have, to have the promised land, which is a picture of the spirit filled life. That was the whole purpose of God bringing them out of Egypt. And they don't want to go on the mountain and meet with God, and they don't want to go in the promised land. And so God tells that generation that they're not going to live and only two are going to make it, and it's going to be Joshua and it's going to be Caleb. And Joshua and Caleb are the two spies that said they were, that they should do what God had told them to do. Joshua was a young man. Joshua was kind of a lieutenant or general for Moses. He is the underling leader for Moses. And ultimately he ends up being the leader of Israel. Caleb is an older man, and Caleb is an older man who's going to do what God says no matter what anybody else does. And he, he lives that out to his last day going and taking his portion of the promised land without anybody else's help because he doesn't need anybody else's help because he trusts God. And what a, what a, what a dichotomy. And yet such a good team to have Joshua and Caleb together, old and young, leader and man who, who needs no leader other than God. What a powerful group of, group of people that God put together. And so the, they're, they're down there at the bottom, it says now it came to pass on the 40th. It, well, I need to explain where they are. They're in the plain office opposite of Suf between Paran, Tefel, Laban, Hazrath and dishahebdeh. It is eleven days journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to kurdish bardiya. Basically, they're about two weeks away as far as the journey is concerned. They're two weeks away from the promised land. And so it came to pass on 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 his commandments to them after he had killed Sihon, king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan, who dwelt in Ashtoreth, in Idri, on the side of the Jordan, in the land of Moab. Moses began to explain this law, saying, he's explaining God's plan. And he says, lord our God spoke to us in Horeb saying, you have dwelt long enough in the mountain. What he's saying is, we've. We've spit long enough down in here, in these mountains, in the Sinai peninsula, in the wilderness. The Lord our God spoke to us in Horeb saying, you have dwelt long enough in the mountain. Turn and take your journey and go to the mountain of the Amorites, to all the neighboring places in the plain, in the mountains of 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 Euphrates. The river Euphrates. See, the promised land is way bigger than what is modern day Israel. It starts, uh, basically where the Suez canal is. And it goes all the way to the, all the way up through Lebanon, uh, across to the river Euphrates, which is what is modern day Lebanon, modern day Syria, modern day Iraq, uh, parts of modern day Saudi Arabia. Uh, it says, and, and go and possess the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, and to give them as their, as their descendants after them. So the promised land is a larger area, but the primary place, the hub of the promised land, is what is modern day Israel. And he says, get ready. You're going in now. You go, well, they're going in. Well, this book's a long book, so we're going to spend a long time making sure they understand the essence of God's plan, the history of why it has not been followed yet, and then how they are to enter in, how they're to go in and take God's promises. And so Moses is, is wanting to have a last say before they go in. Wanting. Moses is wanting to place his, his kind of fingerprint on this. And he does. And you go, well, this is God's book and it's written by God. Yeah, it is. But this is Moses really wanting to see the children of Israel get and become what he helped start. And so you get all the stories of the first four books kind of packaged by Moses in a way to understand it so that they can go in. So in many ways, if you wanna. If you want to say that the great overarching story of the Old Testament is God's deliverance of his people from sin and darkness, from Egypt into and from slavery to that sin into his goodness, his promises, his best into his rest, which is the promised land. If you want to say that's the overarching story of the Old Testament, which I do. If you want to say that, then Moses is giving them an overview of that history. Moses is encouraging them. He's giving them direction. He is teaching them to be obedient to God. And this book is the book that kind of lays it out in Moses style. It is. It is the voice of Moses in its purity, and it is the voice of God through what God has taught Moses, a powerful, powerful book. And so they're, they're preparing. Eleven days journey away from the promised land. They're preparing to go. And by the time we get to the end of this book, where Moses is explained to them in fullness, what they should do and who they should be, by the time we get to this book, Moses will be ready to go up and to be gathered to his fathers, his forefathers, and to gather to God. And Israel will be going into the promised land, being led by JOshua. So, as we make this journey, and like I said, it's 36 chapters. It's a long book. As we, as we make this journey over the next six months to a year, I pray that we'll spend time realizing that Moses and God's plan is going to be carried out. Remember, God's going to be glorified, and who he is is going to be made known to the nations and to the people, his covenant with his people, and his atonement for sin and his new life that he has for us to live. That light that was a light, that life that was light to men, and that light that has been placed inside of us is going to shine out. And we are encouraged to walk faithfully in it. We're encouraged to be faithful to what God is doing. And so I pray that you will, as we. As we study this book, you will make preparation to enter into God's best. To enter into the best that God has for us. And. And that you will see from the heart of Moses how that works. And you will see really how we should. How then we shall live. We should live. And so I praise God that he's going to give us this opportunity before we go into the promised land. As you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to.

Shine upon you, and that he will give you hope and peace today, in Jesus name.