Deuteronomy 31:14-23 Bible Study | Episode 954

June 5, 2025

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

Deuteronomy 31:14-23  Bible Study | Episode #954

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.

If you would like to revisit today’s Bible study, please visit our website at https://hopealive.buzzsprout.com/ to download the transcript. 

If this podcast ministered to you, please subscribe, and leave us a review on Apple podcasts. Reviews help us reach more people and spread the wisdom of God. 

Please follow us:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hopealivewithgod/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hopealiveministry/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LakeComChurch/ -Lake Community Church

Transcript

This is Chad Harrison and you're listening to Hope 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 31.

And we're going, we're. Well, we're dealing with the transition from Moses to Joshua.

And it is, it is kind of important to, to,

to see these things. These things are, are, are scriptural. They,

they take place oftentimes in the Bible. You're going to see it happen, especially with the Kings, but you're going to see you, you've seen it happen when, when you know, Abraham passed his, his, his anointing on to Isaac and Isaac to Jacob,

even with the issues with Esau. And then, I mean, you see this happen over and over and over through Scripture. You see Jesus calling his disciples,

training his disciples,

and then commissioning his disciples and making them into apostles. Disciples means follower, apostle means sent.

So you got from following Jesus to being sent from Jesus. So there's always these commissionings, these inaugurations.

That's really what the word inauguration has to do with.

We think of that as far as a president or a governor being inaugurated into office. But the truth is that means to be commissioned to have a commission given to you, a purpose given to you for which you're to carry that out.

And it has many responsibilities,

it has many benefits, obviously spiritual benefits, but it also has many burdens that must be carried.

And those burdens are important.

They're not hard or onerous burdens from God, but they're important burdens because they glorify God.

And so Moses is going to have to pass on his leadership to Joshua. And this is one of the great passing on of leaderships that we find in Scripture.

It is a exciting one because Joshua, you know, his name is literally a transliteration.

It's the same name,

a different language version of Jesus.

And so he who saves that deals with salvation. And so Joshua is one of the great men of Scripture.

In fact, Joshua and Daniel are my two favorite characters in the Old Testament.

And I love to study Joshua because of his taking on that role and taking on that responsibility and did such a good job of it because of the moral character and the person he was.

It says the Lord said to Moses, behold the days approach when you must die.

We were dealing with last Sunday, Jesus saying, I must do the will of my father.

Well, one of the things that must happen to you is that you must die.

Unless Jesus comes back and we don't taste that death in the physical sense, unless that happens, we're going to die. In fact,

Bible says it's appointed unto man wants to die. And then the judgment.

It is a certitude, a physical certitude that you will die.

And Moses was going to die also. And so preparation for taking care of that business that must be taken care of while it's going on is important.

And oftentimes there is no provision made for succession.

And I'll say this,

that is a flaw in the church.

We oftentimes make no provision for succession. In fact,

the way we do succession many times is.

Well, it's just so abnormal,

it's so flawed that we end up with more problems than we had before.

Not because of the people of the church, just because of the process and organization. So many times mess this up. And so he says he's going to die. Call Joshua and present yourself in the tabernacle of meeting, that I may inaugurate him.

What he's saying is Moses called Joshua and meet me at the tabernacle of meeting. And I am going to inaugurate or commission him to be the leader.

And so God is giving that process to Moses. And it really is a beautiful process here.

And we ought to be in the business of doing that as a church in certain times and seasons, when it's time for that to happen,

oftentimes humans can't let go enough to let God be in control.

And so I would say that that's usually the reason why we can't have great processes like this.

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 like he'd normally appeared. This is a normal thing for God. This is not something supernatural. This is not something that is something that we've never seen before.

He's always appeared to them in the cloud outside the tabernacle of meeting. He's appeared to them to reveal his will and to reveal his word.

And it says,

the 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 foreigners of the land where they go to be among them. And they will forsake me and break my covenant which I've made with them.

Now, what God is saying here is that, first of all, you're going to die,

and second of all, the people are going to wander away.

And by the way,

this is exactly what happens.

But it is the natural state of man in his sinfulness to wander away from God.

So God is just.

Well, he's just stating the obvious, if you want to know the truth. He's just explaining to them how things are going to work.

Then he says, 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 will be devoured.

What he's saying is, eventually the people are not going to follow my will in my way. And we know that that happens oftentimes. It's the natural state of man.

And many evils and troubles shall befall them,

so that they shall say in that day, have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us? What he's saying is they're going to figure it out and say, eventually figure it out and say, you know, the reason this is happening is because we've left God.

God's not here with us,

and I will surely hide my face in that day because of the evil which they have done in that they have turned to other gods.

Now, what God is. Why would God bring this up in the commissioning? Well, God's going to bring this up in the commissioning because he wants them to understand that there is no perfect order of things in the human existence.

The only perfect order of things is when God is fully in control, when God is fully in charge.

And so Joshua is not a savior.

Jesus is a savior. Joshua's not.

Moses is not a savior. Now, he was a deliverer, meaning that he delivered them out of Egypt. But he was flawed too, and he was broken, and he didn't do everything right.

And so an understanding of that is really, really, really important.

Okay? And so he. He says to him, you know, this is going to be rough. Now, they're. Therefore, write down this psalm for yourselves and. 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. What he's saying is, I want you to write down a song that they can repeat, they can sing regularly.

That will teach them not to wander away.

But they will wander away. And when they do,

the song will be a witness to them. It'll let them know that this is what happens when you wander away.

When I 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. Break my covenant. What he's saying is. Is. Is satisfaction and wealth causes people to move away from what God has. Well, he's anointing them, for he set them aside for.

And so when. When we're. When we're.

It doesn't have to be that way.

It does not have to be that way.

But oftentimes that's a human condition.

And so God says, when they do that,

they're going to realize that they've broken my covenant and they've left me.

We don't have to be that way.

We can be busy about our Father's business,

even in the plentiful and the good.

Just because we're in the promised land, just because we're in the place of joy and rest and peace, doesn't mean we can't be busy about God's business. And God is sending them the song, and he's warning them here and he's telling them over and over.

Why? Because it is possible to experience God's best and not wander away.

And this is a warning not to.

It says, 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 the descendants. For I know the inclination of their behavior today,

even before I brought them to the land which I swore to give to them. He says, God says, I know the hearts of human beings. I know how this works.

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,

so we've got God giving him a song to remember not to wander away.

And it was taught to the children. And by the way, we're going to. We're going to study the song.

We're going to study the song in the next chapter. In fact, at the end of this week, we're going to start studying the song.

And it, you know, it's a. It's a Good song. It's a really good song. And it's. And I'm sure in its day and according to its tune, is very memorable.

I'm not sure that we would remember it in its language because we don't know that language, but it's going to be very memorable to read. Even if I can't sing it.

And I sure can't sing it. Okay.

So even if I knew a tune to sing it to,

and even if I.

If I knew how to perfectly put it together,

I couldn't sing it if I had to. Okay, well, I could sing it. Just not.

Not too good or not well.

And so it says then he inaugurated Joshua, the son of nun,

and said, notice what he says to Joshua.

This is how you don't wander away.

Be strong and of good courage.

Be strong and courageous.

I love that.

That's one of those phrases that needs to resonate in your heart. You need to ruminate in. You need to allow it to become a part of who you are, because God's going to say this to Joshua a lot.

You're going to see this.

And it's.

And it is.

Anytime you see a person who is of great character and great influence and a great accomplishment,

you need to find the things that resonate with them, that make them who they are.

And one of the things that makes Joshua who he is is this idea of being strong and of good courage or courageous.

For you shall bring the children of Israel into the land which I swore to them,

and I will be with you.

So he says, be strong and courageous.

You shall do what I've planned for you to do.

Which is a great message of hope,

isn't it? A great message of hope?

It really is.

He's saying, you're going to accomplish what I've called you to do.

Be strong and courageous. Because this is going to happen for you.

And you're going to enter into the land which I swore to them.

And notice what he says. And I will be with you.

And that's finally the thing that needs to be remembered all the time, is he says, I will be with you. I'm with you.

I'm not leaving you, nor forsaking you.

I am going to be with you.

And that's true always.

That doesn't change because that's God's work.

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.