Deuteronomy 33:1-11 Bible Study | Episode 959

June 12, 2025

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

Deuteronomy 33:1-11  Bible Study | Episode #959

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 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 33,

and it's Moses's blessing. Now,

in the past few chapters, Moses has been a little salty.

We know that he's been a little bit upset about,

well, I think about not going in the promised land, if you want to know the truth. And he has pointed out a lot of the problems with the children of Israel.

Now, before he goes,

goes to see the promised land and pass away,

he. He's going to bless the children of Israel.

And this is a.

Well, it's a cool passage. It's a lot of fun to read and to be a part of, but it is a true blessing in every possible way.

It is a blessing that is even better than maybe even Jacob. Jacob, if you'll remember when he passed away.

And I know if you're thinking back, that's a long, long time ago.

When Jacob passed away,

he blessed his. His sons. He gave each one a blessing.

A couple of them didn't give so much of a blessing. In fact, in many ways, they were a curse.

Moses doesn't really do that. Moses blesses each one of the people and you go, well, if he's upset about them,

why is he now blessing them? Well,

because he wants them to be God's people. He does want them to be that way.

And so a blessing is, is a,

A, a word of encouragement. It is also a word. It is also a word spoken over someone that, that speaks to the promises of God. And so Moses is giving them all the promises of God.

He is giving them their word, his work, the word of God, and he's given them the promises of God. And so when you read the Bible,

Sure. Are there times when we have instruction? Absolutely. Are there times when we're convicted about certain things in our lives?

Yeah, absolutely.

But are there times where God is blessing us, meaning he is, he is, he is giving us an idea of the desires he has for us, the direction he asked for us to go in.

Yeah, and, and, and by the way, the only person that can really know the blessings of God for you is you.

He. He desires to, to provide them to you personally.

And so when we're,

when we're reading this,

he's giving his. He's giving the people a blessing and very specific to the tribes and to the groups of people and by the way, the, the tribes and the groups of people.

He's going to, he's going to give them a blessing in, in an orderly fashion. He's going to give a blessing to Rachel's oldest children. And then he's really doing it in almost order of the age of the sons that were born to Jacob.

And then he's also doing it in a very orderly manner in the where into where they're going to live in the promised land,

starting out with those who are going to be on the other side of, of the Jordan river and then crossing over into the Jordan and handling Benjamin and Judah and Levi who are going to be in the southern part and then moving north through the tribes that are going to be in the northern kingdom.

And so God's, God's giving them his blessing through Moses and he's telling them what he's going to do. It says, now this is the blessing which Moses, the man of God,

blessed the children of Israel before his death.

And he said so.

He is very defining here.

This is a defining passage. And why is it defining? Well, if you're going to notice,

it's not from Moses's perspective.

This pat part of Scripture for the first time since Genesis is being written for sure,

no doubt about it,

is being written for sure by someone other than Moses. They are telling us what Moses said in the past.

And so we are quite literally moving beyond Moses today into the reign of Joshua. And so the blessings that are going to be given and the perspective that is going to be written in is going to be a perspective that's not from Joshua.

It's not a Joshua perspective. I mean, a Moses perspective. It's a Joshua perspective. And many think that maybe even Joshua wrote this. Okay? And so it says, now this is the blessing and with which Moses is a man of God, blessed the children of Israel before his death.

And he said the Lord came from Sinai and dawned on them from Seir.

He shone forth from Mount Peron and he came with 10,000 of saints from his right hand Came fiery law for them. Now what he's. What he's doing is he's lauding God.

He's praising God because God is the one who delivered them. God is the one who provided his message to them. And remember, the blessings come from the word. You've got the bless.

You know, there's no way to get a blessing without having, you know, the word having, having someone speak it over you. And so remember, the blessings are from a oral speaking them to you.

You have to. It has to be spoken to you.

But the blessings are also spoken by someone, and they're spoken by God. And that's what Moses is explaining here. And this is. This is.

You go,

what are you talking about? Well, what I'm talking about is, is unless God speaks it, it's not a blessing.

And the way God speaks it is. He. He. Look, quite literally, he could speak it in a language we have no understanding of,

but he speaks it directly to us. He speaks it personally for us in our language, to our hearts.

And he said,

God.

God came from Sinai.

He gave us his fiery law.

And you go, well, I don't want fire. Yeah, you know, it's the Holy Spirit.

He gave us his law that burns deep inside of us. It's true. That's alive.

Yes. He loves the people. Notice verse three.

What he's saying is, this is not. This is not condemning. The law is not for your condemnation. The law is for your. Your teaching, your understanding.

Yes. He loves the people.

All his saints are in your hand.

They sit down at your feet.

Everyone receives your words.

Now he is defining what a true believer is. A true saint, a.

A person who is a part of the kingdom of God. And what he's saying is, they hear God's word, they sit down and they learn it. They walk in it.

Now, this is Moses back.

I mean, this is Moses back 3,500 years ago.

And he's saying something here that you'd hear on a Sunday morning in church all over the world.

God's people listen to what God has to say.

Moses commanded a law for us, a heritage of the congregation of Jacob,

meaning Moses gave us God's word,

and he was king in Jeshurun, when the leaders of the people were gathered and all the tribes of Israel together.

And what he's talking about is not Moses being king. He's talking about God being king. And that's when the people of Israel said, we don't want a king.

They didn't. They wanted Pharaoh as king. They didn't want a king. Anymore. They wanted God to be king.

And that's an important principle that's going to be talked about moving forward. That they said, we want God as king. He said, let Reuben live and not die,

nor let his men be few. And that's because Reuben was the one who led out in that. That tribe, led out in this idea that we want God to be our king.

And by the way, he is. And he takes the form of a man,

Jesus himself. This is a little prophetic also.

And this he said to Judah, hear Lord, the voice of Judah and bring him to his people.

Let his hand be sufficient for them,

and maybe may he be a help against their enemies. What he's saying about Judah is, is that, you know, we're. We want. We want. God wants to bring out his people and he wants us to sustain Judah.

And by the way, Jesus is going to come from the,

from the tribe of Judah.

And Levi said, let your thuminim and your Urim be your holy one. This is the rocks that they had in their pouch, the Levite priest had in their pouch. And some people think it was used to determine God's will.

It's really not a lot talked about the Thummim and the Urim. In fact, the passage where it was presented is one that I didn't have a whole lot of knowledge about and still don't.

We don't really know what, how exactly that was used,

whom you tested, massa, and whom you contended the waters of Meribah,

who says of the father and mother. Notice when he talks to the tribe, each tribe, he talks about what they've done, that is positive, what they've done that has been a seeking after God actually fallen after God's will.

That's very important when we're talking about the blessings of God, because God's going to notice. He's going to. He is going to recognize your willingness to trust in him.

He says, who says the fathers and mothers have not seen them. Nor did. Nor did he acknowledge his brothers or know his own children, for they have observed your word and kept your covenant.

What he's saying is about Levi's is they, they. They have done you first in their family second.

By the way, that is a great principle from God's word.

Uh, if you want to help your family, if you want to.

To be a.

To be a light and hope for your family,

oftentimes people say, well, I'm going to just stay with them so that I can. I can be a help to them in the sense of spiritually staying with them, staying back with them where they're at, maybe where God's not moving,

maybe where things are not working out,

maybe, maybe where God's words not alive and powerful.

That's not how they do it. He says of Levi, you don't hang back with them. You chase after God's word. And that makes you a light and a source of hope for them to follow you.

They shall teach Jacob your judgments and Israel your law. They shall put incense before you and the whole burnt sacrifice on your altar.

Bless his substance, Lord, and accept the works of his hands. Strike the loins of those who rise against him and, and those who hate him. And they that they rise not again.

And so he blessing Levi in a powerful way, saying that, you know,

they're, they're, they're, they're ones who've chased after me and I am going to remain in their presence. I'm going to make sure that my altar is always before them. And Levi's is, is a picture of us.

The, we're, the, we're a priesthood.

And God always wants his people to be before him. He says of Benjamin, he said, the beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him who shelter him all the day long,

and he shall dwell between his shoulders. Now you're going. Well, that's not a very well. Benjamin was the smallest tribe by far away, the smallest tribe.

And by the way,

Benjamin and Judah are the two tribes that were the, were the homeland for Israel when the northern kingdom was dispersed all over the world and we don't even know where they were.

It was a place where they worshiped God in Jerusalem. And so many of the northern people from the northern tribes came down when they began to worship other gods and when they began to engage in heavy idolatry.

And so the other tribes found refuge there. And Benjamin was a place where they found refuge.

And so it says, the beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him.

So this is a, this is a prophecy that says that the people from the northern tribes who are the beloved of the Lord because they trust in God and they don't worship the other tribes they shelter in all day long.

And he shall dwell between,

and they shall dwell between his shoulders. And so for Benjamin, they are a place of refuge for, for those who,

who worship God. So we've got, we've got, we've got Judah, who is the strength and the protector. We've got Levi, who is the place where they care more about God and worshiping him than even staying with their family and therefore they're alike to their family, bringing their family to the,

to the worship of God. And then you've got Benjamin, which is the southern kingdom, these three tribes are the southern kingdom. And so they are the picture of God's promise being kept, promise being kept all the way to Jesus.

And so you can see that each one of these is a real blessing. It's a real understanding of what God's going to do to use these tribes. It's not a curse, it's not a bitterness from Moses, but it's a true blessing, a blessing that God's promises are going to be fulfilled in his people and his people are defined by his people who hear his word,

trust him and believe.

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.