Deuteronomy 33:13-21 Bible Study | Episode 960

June 13, 2025

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

Deuteronomy 33:13-21  Bible Study | Episode #960

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 33 and we're dealing with the blessings that Moses is going to give the tribes of Israel.

Now what's interesting about this is that you've got some,

as you kind of count, you go, I don't count the tribes. Well,

a couple of them are actually intermingled.

Their blessing is intermingled with each other. And in some ways that's because they literally are tribes that are going to be seeded, going to be as far as geographically, they're going to be right beside each other.

The tribe of Joseph is actually two tribes and those tribes are his two sons. And so quite naturally he would just lump them together and they're actually geographically seated together.

And that's what we have in verse 13,

it says of Joseph, he said,

blessed is the Lord in his land with precious things of heaven,

with the dew and the deep like lying beneath. Now there is a,

there, there is a couple of things here and we're talking about the promised land. So obviously when they go in the promised land, he is saying,

he is saying that to be with God in the Promised land is a, really,

is a,

is a blessing that's like none other.

And, and by the way, it is.

And remember, the Promised land in the New Testament is a picture of entering God's rest, which Hebrews talks about.

Or it's a picture of what we call the Spirit filled Christian life,

meaning that you are actually living by the Spirit and not by,

well, the desires of the world or the desires of the sinful nature. You're no longer under the nature of the world. You're, you're walking in the grace of God. You're getting God's best.

And it says with the precious things of heaven,

which means that when I walk with God in this time,

in this place, when I Walk with Him.

I have the precious things of heaven when I am living, spirit filled when I am living,

when I'm being continually filled by the Holy Spirit and walking that out about a full obedience to his will, to his word,

to his way.

When I'm doing that,

I have his best and I have things that I don't even know now. And the deep line beneath. Many have used this reference to say that there's a great oil reserve under Israel and the Promised Land really encompasses areas that have oil resistance reserves.

But I think that there's more than that. I think that this is talking about the deep reservoir of God's grace that most people don't experience.

Most people don't ever trust God. Remember, how do I.

How do I enter the Promised Land? Well, everything getting to the Promised Land is really sustained by God. Now. The salvific work of God in the desert we do join him.

We follow Him. We follow. Follow the pillar, follow the cloud, follow the pillar, fire the cloud. By day we follow God, we take in his word.

There is some faithful obedience to this.

But fearless,

courageous,

walking with God in His promises,

expectation of his best.

That's what the Promised Land's about. God giving you revelation. Not just general,

not just the specific revelation of him in His Word and in His Son,

but. But God giving you personal revelation.

Applying the Word to my life,

his personal revelation to me about what he wants me to be and who he wants me to do. And me boldly,

boldly being obedient to that, faithfully being obedient to that. A boldness that comes from faith. When I do that, when I do that with my life, when I walk in that with my life,

I. I begin to. I begin to soak in the deep reservoir of his. Of his grace with the precious fruit of His Son. I. I really. I really began to feel the light and the life that's in Me with the precious produce of the months.

Meaning.

Notice all these illustrations are biblical illustrations that point to the work of the Spirit, the produce or the fruit of the Spirit in the months with the best things of the ancient moun, meaning the old strong truths that.

That undergird God's creation of the world with the precious things of the everlasting hills. And this is talking about eternal life,

the. The eternal nature of God with the precious things of the earth and its fullness, meaning the blessing God's given us in his creation and the favor of him who dwelt in the bush, the favor of the.

The Lord God, Jesus who was in the burning bush.

That. What a beautiful passage this is. This is a passage that you might want to spend a little time on and think through and consider.

Because he talks about. He talks about,

I'm gonna. I'm gonna. When I'm in His land, when I am living out boldly, courageously,

his. His. His will for me revealed by his son, by his word to me, when I'm living that out, I have the precious things of heaven. I have the very best things from God's very throne room.

I have the.

And it's a picture of the dew, meaning, you know, if you've ever been outside when the dew is coming down heavy,

just everything gets wet. It's just soaked in it. It's a soaking of the dew with the deep lying beneath, meaning the deep reservoir of his grace with the sun, the.

The light of his truth, the light of his son nurturing me, growing me.

When you wake up, when you're in that cool port and then the sun comes out and warms you, that's the power. It's a picture of the life that comes from the sun with the produce,

fruit of the spirit, with the ancient mountains,

the underlying truth that everything is built on with everlasting hills, the eternal life, and then with the precious things of the earth and. And its fullness. Meaning I get to actually live out God's best.

I get to live out God's best in his creation and what God made for us.

And then I also have the favor of him who dwelt in the bush. I walk in God's favor. And I've not talked a lot about that in this Bible study because that is a understanding that comes with the promised Land.

Okay? And so from Genesis to today, we've not gotten to the promised land, but in the promised Land, there is the favor of God, which means just the natural thing that comes from that relationship with Him.

Best way for me to describe it personally for you right now is,

you know, I have grand. I have two granddaughters now.

And.

And sure, I had two daughters when I was a young man, but I was a young man and I was struggling with me a lot more than I struggle with me now, probably just because I'm old and it's.

I don't have a whole lot to struggle with, you know, no more. No more wrest that. That gets you hurt.

I don't struggle with me as much as I used to because I walk with God, because I'm older. I don't struggle with that.

And so my daughters had my favor,

but My granddaughters have my favor.

They just do. It's just a part of it just innately comes out of me.

They are a great,

they're joy to my eyes. They're a, they are a treasure to me.

They have my favor.

And when you walk in,

what is, what is the,

the Spirit filled Christian life?

When you walk in, the things that this is discussing, when you walk into how God is telling Joseph. Remember Joseph's the one that had the favor of his father Jacob.

He got the coat of many colors.

When you, when you,

when you get that favor,

just things just work for you, things just happen for you. Things come about that, that make it just perfect for you. And that's the favor of God.

And it's hard, it's hard to explain it unless you've experienced it, giving it or experienced receiving it. Maybe you had the favor of your grandfather or grandmother and you were just the apple of their eye.

Well, God calls us the apple of his eye.

That is the song of Psalms. But he calls us that we are the apple of his eye. We are the, we are his, his, his pleasure, His, his,

his favors on us. And he says, let the blessing come on the head of Joseph and on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers, meaning he, he was separated, separated out.

And this is a picture of God does. There is a favor and there's a life that comes from walking in the goodness of God.

And you do get separated out. You're not.

Have you ever wondered why certain believers just seem to have God's best all around them all the time? Well, the reason is they're walking in the Spirit filled Christian life.

And that's not just walking with God in the wilderness. That's boldly living out, boldly receiving,

believing and acting upon God's revelation for you.

He says,

he says his glory is like the firstborn bull and his horns like the horns of a wild ox.

Together with them he shall push the peoples to the ends of the earth. This is a picture of victory,

of having even though you have all this favor and all this goodness, you also victorious and an overcomer.

He says they are the 10,000 of Ephraim and they are the thousands of Manasseh. And these are the two tribes that are Joseph. And so you see that God gives him a special blessing.

If I were you.

This is a precursor to this passage. Verse 13 through 17 is a precursor to the understanding of the Spirit filled Christian life.

Okay. And Moses has given us a picture of it, even though he's not been able to experience in its fullness, meaning being in the promised land.

I would say that Moses definitely had the Spirit filled Christian life as far as how that works itself out when he was in Egypt and when he was on the mountain and when he was with God, he definitely had that.

But he is describing it to.

He's describing it to a people that do not know it and do not understand it.

Then you have him talking to Zebulun and Gad. Rejoice Zebulun in your going out and Issachar in your tents. These are Zebulun and Issachar,

two tribes.

They shall call the peoples to the mountains. They shall offer sacrifice of righteousness, for they shall partake of the abundance of the seas and the treasure hidden in the sand.

So they get a special blessing because they worship God.

And by the way, you get this beautiful blessing up here in verse 13:17 for Joseph. They get a good blessing. And what is their blessing based on? Well, they shall call the peoples to the mountain and they shall offer sacrifice of righteousness.

What it means is they're people who show up regularly to worship. I mean, if you want me to take these and break them down for what kind of Christians that you see on a normal basis 13 through 17 is fired up, you know,

going all out,

faithful, obedient believers.

Levi is a picture of being the priesthood.

It's a picture of God's leadership. And, you know, that starts from verse 8.

Judah is given a little bit of a.

Of a blessing. And the main part of that blessing is that Jesus comes from them. Then, then you have Zebulun and, and Issachar. And they are church people. They're regularly coming now.

They're not, they're not walking boldly in it. They're there, but they're being obedient. But they're, you know, there's just not that level. They haven't leveled up, if you want to know the truth.

They just hadn't leveled up. That's what's going on here. He says, and Gad, he said, blessed is he who enlarges Gad.

He dwells as a lion. He tears the arm of the crown of his head and provides the first part for himself,

because a lawgiver's portion was reserved there. He came with the heads of people and administered the justice of the Lord and his judgment with Israel. Now you're going, what is that talking about?

Well,

what it's basically saying about Gad is, is that he's,

you know, he's, he's.

He, he he pretty much looks out for himself.

And you know, those believers, right, they come, they. But the truth is they just really check. They really are, you know, just looking out for me.

And that's what he says about Gad. Does Gad get a whole lot? No, he gets justice. He gets. He gets justice.

He gets his portion.

But does he get much?

Not really.

Not really.

He's not as good as Zebulun and Issachar. They show up and what do they do? They get the abundance of the seas, meaning they get the goodness of God from the people.

The seas, you know, from the people. And they get the hidden treasure in the sand. Don't know exactly what that is, but there's a hidden treasure that comes from faithfully obedient and being part of the body of Christ.

There's treasure from that. Gad, he's tearing things up, messing things up. And sure, he gets justice, but that's pretty much all he good of Dan. He said, dan is a lion's whelp and he shall leap from bashing.

Now, a lion's whelp is a, Is a, is a, you know, a cub, a small lion.

And what does he do?

Well, he doesn't get caught by Bashan, which is a picture of false religion. He shall leap from Bashan, meaning he gets away from Bashan. He's just, he, he, he, He's.

He never grows up, he never matures. He never becomes what he needs to become.

He just kind of gets through and gets by and gets away.

That's what Dan does. That's. That's how Dan lives it out.

Now, boy, when you begin to. When you begin to look at all these and put them all together and go,

Is that what it's saying?

Yeah. God, if you took this and really took them and broke them down and said, okay, what kind of believers do I see on a regular. These are all believers.

Remember, they went through the.

They, they went through the, the blood on the doorpost. They went through the sea. They received the word of God. These are all believers, okay?

And by the way, they're going to cross over into the land. But what are they going to do with the land? Are they going to be bold like Joseph?

Are they gonna. Are they gonna be.

Are they gonna be Levi and do what they're supposed to do? Judah is gonna live out the promises of God.

Are they gonna be like Benjamin and just be safe and just be okay?

Are they going to be Joseph and powerful before God? Are they going to be Zebulon and Ziscar? And they show up to church and. And they partake in the abundance and they get some of the hidden treasure.

Are they going to be like Gad?

And Gad just gets what. He's just in it for himself. And so there's no love of your neighbor, love of each other. That's just getting what you get. And so he gets justice.

Are you going to be like Dan and you just get away from being a pagan?

Well, you say, well, go on, Pastor. Well, of Nat talent.

He's satisfied with. With favor and full of the blessing of the Lord possess the west and the South.

What is Naftali? Well, he's just satisfied with, you know, being a part of the group.

How many Christians you know, like that,

dissatisfied with being part,

walking in the favor with everybody else.

That's what he's satisfied with.

We'll get to Asher tomorrow.

But the truth is this is a beautiful picture of you could just break them down and you kind of understand and know who the different Christians are,

the different people that are supposed to be entering into the promised land and getting God's best.

Some are just making it.

Some are just getting along to get along, to get along.

Benjamin for sure.

And then Naftali,

they're. They're just enjoying it. Some of them are selfish.

Gad.

Some of, some of them are really faithful to be a part of the body.

And they get the good stuff from the sea and the partaker. And then some of them are like Joseph,

who get the fullness of God and, you know, you just can't ever, you can't,

you can't break it down and figure it out any better than really Moses did here. It's almost like you could take this letter, this, this,

this blessing and move it to the New Testament and just name some New Testament churches with it. And you would just.

It would be perfect. It'd be perfect.

It perfectly transplanted to the New Testament. The apostle Paul says this of this believer and that of that believer, Peter. Peter's blessing to the church. And you could take this and you, you could describe all the church people.

It' Revelation chapter two and three, where you've got the,

the different churches and God pronounced a blessing and a curse on them. And some of them have no curse and some of them have no blessing.

And you have that here.

And it's a good interactive lesson on what it means to be a believer.

I would challenge you to go through this and see who you really are 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.