Deuteronomy 1:19-31 Bible Study | Episode 837

December 24, 2024

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

Deuteronomy 1:19-31 Bible Study | Episode #837

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 deuteronomy, chapter one. And like I've said, Moses is speaking to the new generation. He is telling them the story, and the story that really affects them is the story of refusal to go into the land, the reason they're there and not where they're supposed to be, because wherever you're at, where you are, no matter what, no matter what they do in the future, the reason they're where they are now is because the people before them, their forefathers, their parents, their grandparents, refused to go into the land. And so Moses telling them the story and relating it to them, especially as a part of this book, as the first part of this book, is an important aspect of explaining to them who they are, what their responsibilities are, and what God desires from them as far as how to live their lives and how. How to follow his will. And so there is a pretty extensive, well, it's a real extensive passage here where Moses explains it. And, you know, he even explains his mistakes. He tells them that he was a part of it. He should have. He tells them that he allowed this whole situation to take place and even took it to God. And God, knowing the hearts of the people that they were not willing to go in, he allowed the situation to fester until the people finally said, we're not going in. And there's a lot to learn from this. And so when we're studying it, we just need to read it and then talk about it. It says. So we departed from Horrode, that's down near the mountain, where God revealed himself. It's about eleven day journey, and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw on the way to the mountain of the Amorites. They've been on that journey too, because they've been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. And so he says, we went on that journey, that great and terrible journey to the mountain of the Amorites, as the Lord our God had commanded us. Meaning they left where they were at in Horeb, and they went up to the mountain of the Amorites because God told them to. When they came to Kadesh, then we came to Kadesh, Barnea, and I said to you, notice he is telling them, this is what was said to you. It's to you. It's to them. It is the divine will of God. The divine will of God does not change. It does nothing. You can't make God different than he is. God is who he is. He is unchangeable. He is eternally good. He is specifically correct in everything he does. And so his desires and his will is not an alterable thing, okay? It's not something that changes. He's the same yesterday, today, and forevermore now, who he deals with oftentimes changes, and how that affects their lives changes, but God does not change. And so he said, you came to the mountain of the Amorites. The people of Israel did, which the Lord your God is given us. Notice God had given that. Given that mountain to them. The amorite land was to be theirs. Look, the Lord your God has set the land before you go up and possess it, meaning God's made it plain that this is a land for you. This is. This is your land. You go take possession of it. That is a clear. That's. That's just as clear as a bell. It's a clear ring from God. God says we're to take the land and the promises that he has for us. We. He does not want us to continue to act like little children and have it fed to us. He wants us to go and possess it. He wants to take our. He wants us to take our promises, believe in them, and act upon them. That's how we possess God's will. That's. That's what faith is, is hearing God's will, believing God's will, acting upon God's will. That that will is given to us by his revelation. The revelation that he gives us in creation, the revelation that he specifically gives us in our son, and the revelation he intimately gives us in our own personal lives. Those revelations, the revelation of his creation, the revelation of his creator, the. His. The God man who made all things, and that by him, all things were made, and the revelation he gives you personally for your daily walk with him. Those things, all those things that God gives us, he has set before us, and we are to possess those things. We are to take those things. As the Lord God of your fathers has spoken to you, do not fear or be discouraged. Now, Moses explained to them, that's what God told them. And that's still what God's telling them even 40 years later. He is telling them, it is time for you to go up and possess the land. God does not change, and his plan for his children and his people did not change. And notice, he says, every one of you came near to me and said, notice, everybody. This is, this is, this reveals the heart of the people. And it reveals an issue that can't be fixed. Can't be fixed by, by God, in the sense of when you have someone who does not want to walk by faith, does not want to trust God. You know, when Jesus said, you know, if you, if you turn and come to me, I will give you give you food, I will feed you. And then in chapter six of John, he says, he says, and if you believe me, if you trust me, if you faith me, I will satiate your thirst. There's a lot that come to him. These are his people, but there are very few who will actually trust him and have their thirst satiated. And when I say, actually, they, everyone trust him, but very few will give their whole, give their whole being to that. And they hedge their bets. And, and this is what's going on. The he he, they came to him and they said, let us send men before us and let them search out the land for us and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up and the cities into which we shall come. Notice. Let somebody else go figure this out. Let somebody else go find out what what the plan is. We'll wait here. You go on ahead. Now remember, that's the same thing that happened on the mountain. We don't want to go up on the mountain. Moses, you go meet with God. Come back and tell us we that's that is hedging your bets. That is, that is expecting somebody else to walk by faith before you, and that by their, by their walk by, by their faith, somehow your faith is going to be increased. Your faith is not going the usage and your ability to function in and master trusting God faith is not going to be, is not going to be increased by other people. Are you with me? You may see it and then say, I want to do that, and then act upon it. You definitely may see it and act upon it. That's discipleship. But your faith itself and the usage thereof is never going to be increased by somebody else. Using their faith. Okay, you're. You're going. The only way for your faith's usage to be made complete and for you to actually be walking by faith with God is for you to walk in it. It's for you to use your faith. That's the only way for it to happen. You can't send other men into the promised land. You can't see. Send other people ahead of you to see the will and the plan of God and. And to work that out in their own lives and say, well, that's. That's going to help me. It doesn't. It never does until you. It's just like teaching a young child to jump in the water and swim. Until they decide to jump off that wall, it's of no value. You can push them off. You can drag them off every time they. They jump in the water because somebody else's will made them jump in the water. They won't learn to swim. The only way for them to learn to swim is overcome that fear and dive off by themselves. Dive off. Now, you can be there to help them. You can be there. Be there to make sure they don't drown. You could be there to teach them. But they got to jump off themselves. They got to. There's no other way to do it. He said. He said that. So the plan pleased me. Well, meaning, he said, I was okay with that. I was okay with that. Now, this is a. This is a flaw of Moses leadership. He doesn't. He got to go along with the people he's going to. Okay, we'll send somebody to look it out. The problem with it is this is just a manifestation of their lack of faith. That this is a manifestation of their lack of faith. She said, so I took the 1212 of your men, one man from each tribe, and they departed and went up into the mountains. And they came to the valley of Eskole and spied it out. They also took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us. And they brought back word saying, it's a good land. Which God. Which the Lord our God is giving us, meaning. God's plan is always good. It's a good plan. God. God sent his plan, and it is a. It is a. It's a good plan of God. God. God's given us a great land. Hmm. Hey. Hey. It shocks me sometimes even reading it. And so, nevertheless, verse 26. I mean, they've got the good report. Nevertheless, you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God why? Because you said there were giants in the land. Now that they. They. He doesn't bring that up. And the reason he doesn't bring that up is because it's irrelevant. The giants are not not relevant because God has a plan for you to learn to walk in victory over those things. And so the. The people of the land are irrelevant. Whether the land is good is what's relevant. Whether it's God's plan is what's relevant. He doesn't bring that up here. And and and nevertheless, he says you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. And you complained in your tents and said, because the Lord hates us, he's brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us in the hands of the Amorites to destroy us. Where can we go up? Meaning where can we actually take a land that's easy? By the way, this is further evidence that the promised land is not heaven. The promised land is the spirit filled christian life. It's not promised to be easy. The promised land is not promised to be easy. The walk with God is not promised to be easy. It's promised to be good. It's promised to be fruitful. It's promised to be the very, very best God has for you. But it also not promised to be easy. Where can we go up? Our brethren have a discouraged our heart. Saying, the people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. Moreover, we've seen the sons of the Anakin there. They refuse to look at what God has told them to do. And look for excuses why not to do what God has told them to do. And the people of the land were the excuse. They were the reason we're going to have to struggle. And. And that is the. That is an innate part of the christian life in this world. You will have trouble. Jesus said that there's going to be struggles. He said, then I said to you, do not be terrified or afraid of them. Why? You just defeated the Egyptians. The Egyptians are far more powerful than the Amorites or any of the Canaanites. They were subject to the Egyptians prior to Moses. Destroying basically their society and their army. Also, Egypt goes into a few centuries of decline and decay. Such that the nations of the south and Israel and some of the nations of the Levant come in and oppress them. Why? Because God had destroyed the egyptian society. He destroyed their economy. He destroyed their population base. Why? To deliver his people. Well, if God's delivering them from the most powerful nation in the world, he surely is going to deliver them from these small tribal nations, the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hivites, all the Ites. He's going to take them. There's no reason to say they're giants. But the Egyptians weren't. The Egyptians were far better at warfare, far better, far more difficult to overcome. And yet they overcame them as slaves. So the promised land is not an issue of these people were different than the ones we just came and dealt with. They are different, they're lessen, they're not as powerful. When we overcome sin and death by the, by the cross, we've overcome pretty much everything. What's left is to mop up and take what God has for us. Moses said, do not be terrified, afraid of them. The Lord your God, who goes before you, he will fight for you according to all he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you as a man carried his son. He's saying God sustained you in a place that you were not. It's not sustainable for a group of people like us to be, to be able to pass through. He sustained us in the wilderness, he delivered us from the Egyptians, he overcame the Egyptians, he defeated them. And he did all that until you came to this place. Yet for all that you do not believe the Lord your God, I, who went in the way before you to search out a place for you, to pitch your tents, to show you the way you should go by fire, in the fire by night and in the cloud by day. That's, that's the, that's kind of the crux of this story. Okay, there, there's a, there's, there's great aspects to every step along the way of this story. But for believers, this is the critical pinnacle point of what happened back 3500 years ago and what's happening today in each and every believer's life. Will we walk by faith with our Lord? Will we do that? Will we take our land, our land, the land God promised us for us? Will we take God's best for our lives? Will we act by faith in that? It's the question of the age. It really has been the question for the last 3500 years. And now that we have, now that we have the blood of Jesus, now that we have the redemptive act of Christ on the cross and the power that comes from the empty grave and the resurrection, now that we have those things, there's, there's not really any excuse not to. But there are many, there are many, many excuses given. No one can walk it for you. You got to take you on promised land. That's why we're talking about it. Not so that we can say we didn't, but so that we can say we did.

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.