A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Deuteronomy 7 (Part 1)

Deuteronomy 7:1-6—1 “When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, 2 and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. 3 Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. 4 For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the LORD will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. 5 But thus you shall deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire. 6 For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.” 

The people of Israel were to be separate and unique from the tribes and nations around them. The Israelites were not to marry into their families, they were not to adopt their customs. Why? Because if they did, the pagans would lead them into worshipping their gods, and this was the worst thing they could do. Which is why Paul said in 1^st Corinthians 15:33 (ESV)—Do not be deceived: "Evil company corrupts good habits." It is easier for a moral and upright person to be influenced and led away by the immoral than for the immoral to be swayed by good habits. If you’ve read your Bible, which do you see happen more often? Do the Canaanites gravitate toward worshipping YHVH? Or do the Israelites begin to worship Ba'al? We human beings are a curious lot—we would rather chase after some fleeting pleasure that is no lasting good, than to wait upon something that will benefit us more in our later lives but will bring no immediate pleasure. Such was the mind of the Israelites (we see this in Numbers 25). 

2 “When the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them.” It was not by their might or their power that they would conquer the tribes of the Promised Land—it was God who would deliver them. And when He would conquer these tribes, they were not to forget the fiery hot indignation which God had toward them. They were not to simply subdue their armies, but they were to completely and utterly (and literally) wipe them off the face of the Earth. They were not to leave one single vestige of these armies alive, but were to slay every man of these armies. They were not to enter league with them, they were not to do business with them, they were not to show any mercy toward them, for these were peoples who worshipped idols made with hands, who practiced all kinds of wickedness in their religious rituals, and who did all kinds of things contrary to the righteous requirements of God. So Moses instructs them to wipe out every member of these armies and to not leave a one of them breathing. 

3 “Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. 4 For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the LORD will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly.” Moses commanded the Israelites to not allow their children to marry any of the sons or daughters of the people who lived in the land they were to possess. Why? “For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods.” He knew that any intermarriage with these peoples would cause the Israelites to stumble into worshipping the idols these peoples worshipped and by doing so would lead them away from giving God the glory and honor due His name. And He would not tolerate that, for these people were a nation holy and set apart to God by God (see Exodus 19:6). If they mingled with these peoples, and worshipped the idols they worshipped, they would not be unique as a people, and would not be seen as any different from them. And that was not what God commanded—He commanded that they be different from the peoples around them. 

See, marriage is not something to be entered into lightly. When you marry someone, you are taking all that person is and joining it to everything you are. Genesis 2:24—Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. When you get married, you and your spouse become one flesh. You are joined to her and she is joined to you. And when you take your vows you are saying that you accept everything that person is. Including their belief (or unbelief) in God. If you are in Christ, do you want to become one with a person who does not believe in God? Are you willing to say that you love this person—who denies the reality of God—that you can simply overlook their unbelief with a wink and a nod, and that this is attractive to you? 2^nd Corinthians 6:14-18—14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? 16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people." 17 Therefore " ‘Come out from among them and be separate’, says the Lord. ‘Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.’" 18 "I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the LORD Almighty." 

Those who are in Christ have the Holy Spirit—that is, God Himself—dwelling within them. Will that person join themselves to one who hates God? Will they become one with a person who worships a god of human invention? And if so, why? Sometimes believers think “Oh, if I love them enough, and I show how genuine my faith is, then eventually they will believe as well!” This is called “conjugal evangelism”, and is a popular notion that the unbelieving will grow towards God when in truth, it leads the follower of Christ further away from God. In an interview about his book “Surviving a Spiritual Mismatch”, Lee Strobel said:

 

Conjugal evangelism is trying to convert someone through marriage. It’s knowingly dating a non-Christian; the hope and belief that you will influence that person to become a Christian. Through interviewing lots of people for this book, we’ve found it’s more likely the woman is the Christian in these situations. She is more likely to lose her faith than the man is likely to gain faith. Often you have a reverse evangelism taking place. That’s a dangerous position. A Christian shouldn’t want to put themselves in to. We think conjugal evangelism is very dangerous. You deceive yourself into thinking the other person might be more spiritually receptive than they might be because your judgment might be clouded by romantic feelings or chemistry with the other person. Our counsel is that Christians should not even consider that. I’ve found even after we speak on this topic and we talk about all the turmoil, pain and conflict Leslie and I had when I was an atheist and she was a Christian, people will still come up afterwards and say, “I understand that. That’s really important, but I’m dating this guy and we’ll be married soon and he’s really close to becoming a Christian and I think if we just get married I’ll be able to influence him.” I want to shake them and say, “Read my lips: Do not become unequally yoked with a non-believer!” The bible says it for a reason; to protect us from the kind of pain and heartache Leslie and I endured for two years of our marriage.

(https://www.marriagetrac.com/lee-strobel-interview-2/) 

It is a dangerous thing for the Christian to even date someone who is not a Christian. You are becoming intimate with one who has no interest in God, and will (more than likely) drag you away from Christ, rather than you bringing the unbeliever closer to Christ “But isn’t that kind of thinking showing a lack of faith in God? Who’s to say the unbeliever won’t be converted?” My friend, I did not write the words of 2^nd Corinthians 6:14-18, the apostle Paul did. And he got those words from none other than the Holy Spirit himself. He said again, in another place, 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For "the two," He says, "shall become one flesh" (1^st Corinthians 6:15-16). If you are in Christ, every single part of you belongs to God. Shall you then become one flesh with a harlot, one who does not believe in God but rather openly mocks God? Is that the message you want to be showing the world? Would it not rather be more beneficial—for you and for the body of Christ—to become one with a person who knows God and loves Christ? To take as your own flesh and blood one who knows what it is like to walk the paths of righteousness with God as their guide? If you take one who does not know God, and something happens and you need godly guidance, will the unbeliever be able to help? Can two walk together, unless they are agreed? (Amos 3:3). But the one who knows God can help you up, bring you close to God when you need Him, and help you limp along until you are back on the path and standing strong again. You are one flesh with your spouse, and if you are walking with God, and your spouse is walking with God, then you and your spouse—being one flesh—and God, could rightly be called the two spoken of here in Amos. 

5 “But thus you shall deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire. 6 For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.” How many times did some of the kings of Israel and Judah depart from worshipping God and turn to worshipping idols? Jeroboam, Nadab, Baasha, Elah, Zimri, Omri, Ahab, Ahaziah, Joram, Jehoash, Jeroboam II, Zechariah, Shallum, Menachem, Pekiah, Pekah, and Hoshea in the northern kingdom of Israel; Rehoboam, Abijam, Jehoram, Ahaziah, Athaliah, Ahaz, Amon, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah in Judah. All these did wickedly before the LORD, and built altars and high places and images to Ba'al and Ashtoreth. (Even some of the “good” kings weren’t always good. Nevertheless, God did not wipe out the people for the sake of His servant David (see 2^nd Kings 8:19).) 

But this was not what God commanded, and certainly not what He wanted. “You shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire.” Just as they were to obliterate the armies of the peoples they were to encounter, so they were to obliterate the idols these peoples worshipped. God will not tolerate the worship of false gods (Exodus 23:13, 34:14; Jeremiah 44:5). And either in this life, or in eternity, God will punish those who do so. Because there is but one God over all creation, and He will not acknowledge the existence of other gods. This was the first command in the Decalogue, “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3). He and He alone is God (Psalm 86:10), and should be worshipped as such. When we dabble into looking at other gods and being fascinated by them, we are on a road that can lead to our destruction. The same thing happened to the people of Israel. Moses, in Deuteronomy 32:15-17, would call to their minds the time when they provoked God by worshipping other gods. And why did they do that? Because they had grown as a nation, they thought that it was because of they themselves that they had thus grown. They forgot that it was God who made them grow bigger—that it was God who had supplied their needs, and that they had done nothing of themselves to make themselves more than they were. Deuteronomy 32:15-17—15 “But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; you grew fat, you grew thick, you are obese! Then he forsook God who made him, and scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation. 16  They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods; with abominations they provoked Him to anger. 17 They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they did not know, to new gods, new arrivals that your fathers did not fear.” (Note: “Jeshurun” is a poetical name for Israel, and is rendered ἠγαπημένος [egapemenos, “the beloved one”] in the Septuagint. It carries the same sort of connotation as Αββα [Abba, “Dad”] in the New Testament). Notice in Verse 17 he calls them “demons”. The Psalmist uses the same language in Psalm 106:37—They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. All who believe in and love God should also consider anything that exalts itself as God, but is not God, to be nothing more than a fabrication of Satan, and a demon. For who is the liar, and father of it (John 8:44)? Who told the first lie in Genesis 3:1? Who is it that wants to destroy everything about God, to lead His children away from the truth, and to keep them in chains forever? It is this same Satan. 

Today, however, we have a new demon to beware of. It is not Ba'al or Ashtoreth, which are no more. It is not Dagon, who is nothing more than a whisper of a thought today. And yes, we do have the false gods like Allah or the “God” of Mormonism. But this god is more crafty than these, for it is one we use every day, and need to use every day. That god is money, more specifically the love of it. Now, money may not seem to be a god or something people worship, but it can be. If one stores up for themselves more money than a thousand people can spend in a lifetime, for no other reason than to say they have it, that is when it becomes an idol. 1^st Timothy 6:9-10—9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Can a person have a billion dollars when not originally intending to do so? Well, yes. I don’t think Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg thought their businesses would become as lucrative as they have become. But when one sets out to have a billion dollars and that is their main goal in life, it distracts them from the one thing that is more important than anything else—God, and the worship of Him. “So I’d like to have a billion dollars, what’s the harm?” Ah, but how would you go about getting that billion dollars? And would that pursuit of that billion dollars take your mind away from God, and cause you to want to defraud your neighbor? That, my friend is covetousness, which is idolatry (Colossians 3:5). Jesus even warns us about coveting wealth, first in Matthew 6:19,21—19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal…21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” A few verses later He tells us in Matthew 6:24 (repeated in Luke 16:13)—“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” In other words, is your heart with stuff and things and money, or is it with God? Will you serve God or wealth? 

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast/save in the death of Christ, my God!

All the vain things that charm me most,/I sacrifice them through his blood.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,/that were a present far too small.

Love so amazing, so divine,/demands my soul, my life, my all.

(Isaac Watts, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”) 

Let not your heart be set on this worlds or the things of it. Think of Christian in John Bunyan’s “The Pilgrim’s Progress”, how he set down his burden when he came to the cross:

 

He ran thus till he came to a place somewhat ascending; and upon that place stood a cross, and little below in the bottom, a sepulchre. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back; and began to tumble, and so continued to do so until it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more. 

1^st Timothy 6:8—And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. Philippians 4:11-12—11 Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: 12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. Friend, if God has given you the things you need, do not go chasing after the world or the things the world says you need. For we need nothing other than Christ. He is the only thing we truly need. Let our prayer rather be like the words of Proverbs 30:7-9—7 Two things I request of You (Deprive me not before I die): 8 Remove falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches—feed me with the food allotted to me; 9 lest I be full and deny You, and say, "Who is the LORD?" or lest I be poor and steal, and profane the name of my God. (You probably won’t hear Kenneth Copeland or Paula White preach that passage!)

 Part 2 next week

 

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen. 

A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Numbers 25 & 31 (Part 2)

Numbers 25:6-9—6 Then behold, one of the sons of Israel came and brought to his relatives a Midianite woman, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, while they were weeping at the doorway of the tent of meeting. 7 When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he arose from the midst of the congregation and took a spear in his hand, 8 and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and pierced both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman, through the body. So the plague on the sons of Israel was checked. 9 Those who died by the plague were 24,000. So this man of Israel, while all the people were still weeping for the men who were slain due to their idolatry, brings in a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the sons of Israel to further pollute the people with sexual idolatry. Why were the people of Israel told to not intermingle with the people of Midian? Well, for one, although Midian was indeed descended from Abraham he was from Abraham’s second wife Keturah (Genesis 25:1-2). He was not the son of the promise God gave to Abraham, but from when Abraham went beyond what God had given him (it is another warning against polygamy). Second, the people of Midian (and Moab), while worshipping YHVH they also worshipped Ba'al-Peor. So any kind of mingling with them provoked YHVH to anger. Additionally, many of the Middle Eastern pagan religions were rife with sexual rituals as worship of the fertility gods such as Ba'al and Asherah. Bernhard Anderson in “Understanding the Old Testament” (p. 189) says

 

In Canaanite religion, sex was elevated to the realm of the divine. The divine powers, it was believed, were disclosed in the sphere of nature—that is, in the mystery of fertility. The gods were sexual in nature, and were worshipped in sexual rites. 

And even though this man had seen what was done to those who joined themselves to the idolatry of the people with the Moabite women (who themselves had joined with the Midianites against Israel) he still brought this woman in to lie with her. If we were to read on into the book of Joshua, we would see that even then the people had not cleansed themselves of this sin. Phinehas tells the Gadites, the Reubenites and the half-tribe of Manasseh in Joshua 22:17—“Is the iniquity of Peor not enough for us, from which we are not cleansed till this day, although there was a plague in the congregation of the LORD?” Though the people were delivered from the punishment for their sexual idolatry, that sin obviously still lingered in the hearts of some of the people. 

But how many times do we see this happen? We are warned against sin, we even see the effects of sin on others, but we still plunge headlong into it. When we see this happen we must do what we have to in order to purge this sin from our numbers. Which is what Phinehas does here. 7 When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he arose from the midst of the congregation and took a spear in his hand, 8 and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and pierced both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman, through the body. This is not the last time we will see the people of God kill those who worship idols. Ehud straps a sword onto his thigh and slays Eglon, king of Moab in Judges 3:12-31. In 1^st Kings 18, we see the contest between Elijah against the prophets of Ba'al on Mount Carmel. We see Elijah’s sacrifice accepted by God and the sacrifice of the prophets of Ba'al rejected. Elijah even soaked his sacrifice in buckets of water to show that it was not the heat of the desert sun, but rather it was God who sent fire down to consume his sacrifice. And what does the prophet of YHVH command? 1st Kings 18:39-40—39 Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, "The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God!" [literally, “YHVH is God! YHVH is God!”] 40 And Elijah said to them, "Seize the prophets of Baal! Do not let one of them escape!" So they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the Brook Kishon and executed them there. 

In 2^nd Kings 10 King Jehu (not to be confused with the prophet Jehu in 1^st Kings) has all the house of Ahab slain, and says in 2nd Kings 10:16-17—16 Then he said, "Come with me, and see my zeal for the LORD." So they had him ride in his chariot. 17 And when he came to Samaria, he killed all who remained to Ahab in Samaria, till he had destroyed them, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke to Elijah. He calls all the prophets of Ba'al into the temple of Ba'al and has them put on their priestly garments in order to finally rid Israel of all the last vestiges of Ba'al worship. Then in 2nd Kings 10:23-28 (NASB)—23 Jehu went into the house of Baal with Jehonadab the son of Rechab; and he said to the worshipers of Baal, "Search and see that there is here with you none of the servants of the LORD, but only the worshipers of Baal." 24 Then they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had stationed for himself eighty men outside, and he had said, "The one who permits any of the men whom I bring into your hands to escape shall give up his life in exchange." 25 Then it came about, as soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, that Jehu said to the guard and to the royal officers, "Go in, kill them; let none come out." And they killed them with the edge of the sword; and the guard and the royal officers threw them out, and went to the inner room of the house of Baal. 26 They brought out the sacred pillars of the house of Baal and burned them. 27 They also broke down the sacred pillar of Baal and broke down the house of Baal, and made it a latrine to this day. 28 Thus Jehu eradicated Baal out of Israel. So yes, he wiped out all vestiges of Ba'al worship, but did so under false pretenses. Was he right to do it like this? Probably not. Was it right for Rebecca to trick Isaac into giving Jacob the blessing under false pretenses? Probably not. But if God has an end in mind, He can use the cunning and trickery of men to make it happen. Doesn’t mean we can go about doing likewise, but it does explain what our Lord meant when He said “Be wise as serpents” (Matthew 10:16). And what did God promise to Jehu for his zeal in removing Ba'al worship from Israel? 2nd Kings 10:30—"Because you have done well in doing what is right in My sight, and have done to the house of Ahab all that was in My heart, your sons shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation." 

Unfortunately, Jehu did not go far enough. While he did indeed wipe out all the priests and prophets of Ba'al, there was one step he didn’t take. It was the step that even some of the better kings in Israel and Judah did not take. 2nd Kings 10:31—But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the LORD God of Israel with all his heart; for he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, who had made Israel sin. What were the sins of Jeroboam? He divided the kingdom (1st Kings 12:25), set up golden calves in Bethel and Dan (1st Kings 12:28-30), let anyone into the priesthood who wanted to be a priest regardless of whether or not they were of the tribe of Levi (1st Kings 12:31), and he prescribed a feast similar to Passover, except instead of the 14^th day of the seventh month, this was on the 15^th day of the eighth month (1st Kings 12:32). In other words, he directed the people away from the true worship of the true God. And what was the cause of the sins of Jeroboam? That Solomon did the same thing by marrying foreign wives and setting up houses and shrines for them. Instead of thrusting a spear through the heart of sin as Phinehas did, he made a bed and laid down a pillow for it. And this sin carried grievous consequences for the kingdom for years to come. 

Those who died by the plague were 24,000. We don’t see a plague mentioned, but this text tells us that God sent a plague throughout the people and killed 24,000. Paul reckons the number at 23,000 (1st Corinthians 10:8). “Ha! See! There’s a contradiction!” No, it is not a contradiction. Paul was a devout Jew before he met Christ, and would no doubt have known what was written. You must remember that Paul was taught by none other than Christ Himself (Galatians 1:12, 17). He was no doubt given the number of people that died by the plague—the exact number—and reckoned it differently than did Moses. John Wesley supposes that Moses gave the maximum number while Paul gave the minimum. So the number of people who died of the plague was somewhere between 23,000 and 24,000. But let us not lose sight of the warning Paul gives us. Let’s put 1st Corinthians 10:8 in its proper context. 1st Corinthians 10:5-8—5 But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. 6 Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. 7 And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." 8 Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell.  Here the apostle is linking sexual immorality with idolatry, a practice common in the city of Corinth at that time (as it was in the days of Numbers with Ba'al). He was telling these Gentile believers to not be caught up in the sexual immorality of the pagan temple worship, but to keep themselves pure and worship God alone. These Corinthian believers were, as were the people of Israel, surrounded by those who worshipped other gods and were being tempted to join with them in their idolatry. And the apostle closes this particular section by warning the people in 1st Corinthians 10:11-14—11 Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. 12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. 14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. Flee from idolatry. Don’t become fascinated by it, don’t dance close to it, and don’t even consider it even for a moment. FLEE from it. Don’t bring it into the worship of God with you, and if it is brought in by others, get away from it. Gouge out your eye, cut off your hand if you have to. What did God do to the people in Numbers? Why does Paul bring it up? All these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition. They happened to them to serve as examples of what would happen to us! 

Numbers 25:10-13—10 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 11 "Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the children of Israel, because he was zealous with My zeal among them, so that I did not consume the children of Israel in My zeal. 12 Therefore say, 'Behold, I give to him My covenant of peace;  13 and it shall be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.'" God commends Phinehas for his zeal in dealing with gross idolatry and wickedness. But in reality, it was not any zeal that Phinehas himself had, but it was God’s zeal which He put upon him. “He was zealous with My zeal among them, so that I did not consume the children of Israel in My zeal.” Just as God put upon the seventy elders of Israel the same spirit that He put on Moses (Numbers 11:24-25). Ger de Koning in his King Comments has this to say:

 

There is a man, an Israelite, who defies the judgment that has been carried out. He ignores God’s judgment and, with incredible hubris, brings a Midianite woman to his brothers. This is not just any sin. It is a frontal attack on the true, high and pure service to God. With his deed he slaps God’s face and he is not interested in anything that he does to his brothers with his deed. His brothers mourn about the situation and he indicates with his deed that they are behaving overly dramatic. So he defies God and despises the crying people. 

God gives us a zeal for the things of God and causes us to finally bow our knee and confess that He is Lord over all. On the other hand, we cannot be zealous for the things of God unless we are given the Spirit of God. 1st Corinthians 2:14—But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God…nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Up to this chapter in Numbers God had destroyed countless people by His own hand, and now He is giving that power over to His people. He had commanded Moses to hang the men who had committed sexual idolatry and now He had given Phinehas the desire to fulfill God’s wrath in slaying these two who were having sex in the man’s tent. They wanted to be joined together—and Phinehas made sure they would stay that way. This is a warning to us, that we should be careful when we join ourselves with another. 1st Corinthians 6:15-16—15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For "the two," He says, "shall become one flesh." When we lie with another we become one flesh with that person. When we take our marriage vows, often the officiant will say “what God has joined together, let no man put asunder.” Phinehas has given us a clear picture of this principle, and has joined this man and this woman together—in death. 

And because of this zeal, God made a covenant with Phinehas that his descendants would be priests to God perpetually. “It shall be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of an everlasting priesthood.” The priesthood that was initiated with Aaron would continue on through his grandson Phinehas. We see that Phinehas was the chief of the Korahite Levites in 1st Chronicles 9:19-20. (Yes, although God brought Korah himself down to Sheol, yet Korah had sons who survived to the time of the temple, and even served it.) He was also an ancestor of the scribe Ezra (Ezra 7:5). And before we go any further, allow me to clear up a passage that could cause some confusion. Judges 19-21 we read the disastrous account of the Levite and his concubine and the aftermath thereof. We come across a curiosity in Judges 20:27-28—27 So the children of Israel inquired of the LORD (the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days, 28 and Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days)… The Book of Judges chronicles about 450 years in the history of Israel. So either Phineas lived to be about 500 years old or there is something that needs to be studied more. The events in this section of Judges occurred much earlier than it is written—and this is just a guess—probably sometime around Judges chapter 2 or chapter 3. But it had to have happened sometime within about 20 years after the death of Joshua. 

Numbers 25:14-18—14 Now the name of the Israelite who was killed, who was killed with the Midianite woman, was Zimri the son of Salu, a leader of a father's house among the Simeonites. 15 And the name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cozbi the daughter of Zur; he was head of the people of a father's house in Midian. 16 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 17 "Harass the Midianites, and attack them; 18 for they harassed you with their schemes by which they seduced you in the matter of Peor and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of a leader of Midian, their sister, who was killed in the day of the plague because of Peor." Because of the heinousness of the indiscretions of the people, brought on by the temptations from the Midianites, God commands Moses to attack the Midianites and wipe them out. Today we do not kill someone because they cause us to sin. Rather, we should be killing the flesh in us that is causing us to sin. In his book “On the Mortification of Sin”, John Owens writes

 

Indwelling sin is compared to a person, a living person, called “the old man.” He has his way of thinking, his tendencies, his wisdom, craft, subtlety, and strength. This old man, says the apostle, must be killed, put to death, mortified. That is, the old man’s power, life, vigor, and strength, his ability to produce effects, must be taken away by the Spirit. In fact, it is to be “crucified with Christ” as a good thing. We, as the “old man,” are said to be “dead” with Christ.  When we are resurrected in Christ and regenerated, a principle contrary to the old man, one designed to destroy him, is planted in our hearts. But the whole process towards perfection (Christ-like behavior) is carried on by degrees all of our life.

We do not look to kill those things or people outside of ourselves that lead us to sin. What we really need to kill is—well, us. As the main verse for the theme of his book, Owens uses Romans 8:13—If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. You could say that the Midianites represented our flesh, the Israelites the spirit. If our spirit is going to live eternally with God, we must put to death our flesh. Is that difficult? Yes. Find anyone in the Bible who did not have a difficult time overcoming the flesh. You won’t find anyone. Even the ones we don’t read much about were fighting battles we couldn’t begin to imagine. Consider the case of Zacchaeus in Luke 19. He was a tax collector, a practice highly criticized among Israelites when Jesus walked the earth. He could not go back and undo all the wrongs he had perpetrated on the people. But he put to death the deeds of his flesh, and recompensed for what he had done. Luke 19:8—"Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold." He went forth in the newness of his new life in Christ. As Zacchaeus did, so we too must thrust our spear through that old man, put him to death, lest he raise his head and lead us back to our old ways.

Part 3 next week

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen. 

A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Numbers 21 (Part 2)

Numbers 21:21-26—21 Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying, 22 "Let me pass through your land. We will not turn aside into fields or vineyards; we will not drink water from wells. We will go by the King's Highway until we have passed through your territory." 23 But Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his territory. So Sihon gathered all his people together and went out against Israel in the wilderness, and he came to Jahaz and fought against Israel. 24 Then Israel defeated him with the edge of the sword, and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as the people of Ammon; for the border of the people of Ammon was fortified. 25 So Israel took all these cities, and Israel dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon and in all its villages. 26 For Heshbon was the city of Sihon king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab, and had taken all his land from his hand as far as the Arnon. So the people are on the border of Moab and the Amorites. They need to continue northward to the land to which God has called them. To do so they must pass through the land of the Amorites. Now to take a little side trip, the term “Amorites” is a bit tricky, as there is not a land named “Amor” as there is Moab or Edom. If you look back at verse 13, it mentions that the Arnon River is the border between Moab and the Amorites. This is because the Amorites were an amalgamation of people of the Babylonian empire. If you look to find a region called “Amor” or anything similar, you will not find it. According to the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia:

 

Assyriological discovery has explained the varying use of the name. The Hebrew form of it is a transliteration of the Babylonian Amurrū, which was both singular and plural. In the age of Abraham the Amurru were the dominant people in western Asia; hence Syria and Palestine were called by the Babylonians “the land of the Amorites”… The use of the name “Amorite” in its general sense belongs to the Babylonian period of oriental history.

 

(https://timeintheword.org/2017/03/09/warning-moab-and-ammon/)

At any rate, the people of Israel need to pass through this land to get to their ultimate destination. But there is a problem. Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his territory. Once again the people are rebuffed from passing peacefully through a particular piece of land (see Numbers 20:20-21). But this time things are different. Whereas when Edom refused them passage and the people simply went around that land, here a battle is engaged. So Sihon gathered all his people together and went out against Israel in the wilderness, and he came to Jahaz and fought against Israel. Why would Sihon do this? In part to (at least partly) fulfill what God said in Genesis 15:13-16—13 Then He said to Abram: "Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. 14 And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. 16 But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete." Here we see God give a prophecy to Abram that his descendants would dwell in Egypt as sojourners, would serve them for 400 years, that God would judge Egypt, and in the fourth generation after they leave Egypt they would return to the land of the Amorites. And this delay would be because the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. Which answers the inevitable question, “Why would God lead them to lands where they would have to fight?” Why would He do that? So that the iniquity of the Amorites would be completed. Why would God command Jeremiah to prophesy, knowing he would be cast into a deep well? Why would God lead Paul to Lystra and Derbe, where he would be stoned with stones to within an inch of his life? Why would He lead the remaining Apostles to lands where He knew they would be martyred? Why would He lead Jim Elliott to the Waodoni people, knowing he would die before he would ever meet them? 

First, so His gospel could be proclaimed. Second, to fill up the iniquity of those who oppose Him. Matthew 23:31-32—31 “Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt.” The Pharisees had many more sins to commit before they had finished filling the cup that their father began with. There is, for each one who is opposed to God, a measure of guilt they must fulfill. And this measure must be filled. And God will leave these people on the earth until this measure is filled. “But that’s not fair! That’s not the God I worship! The God I believe in wants everyone to be saved, and would never want anyone to sin!” Well, that may be the god you worship, but that is not the God of Scripture. God says many times, from Genesis to Revelation, that there are measures of sin that must be fulfilled. Revelation 14:18-19—18 And another angel came out from the altar, who had power over fire, and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, "Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe." 19 So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. What does the angel mean when he says “the grapes are fully ripe” but that the sinners have filled their cup with sin to the measure which God has decreed, and the time has come for them to be gathered and cast into the winepress of God to receive their eternal due? 

And here we see the onset of the kings of the Amorites completing the measure of their sin. First by Sihon, then by Og od Bashan. Numbers 21:33-35—33 And they turned and went up by the way to Bashan. So Og king of Bashan went out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. 34 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Do not fear him, for I have delivered him into your hand, with all his people and his land; and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon." 35 So they defeated him, his sons, and all his people, until there was no survivor left him; and they took possession of his land. I'm skipping ahead a few verses, but we will come back to those verses in just a bit. In the Old Testament we see Sihon and Og mentioned together in the same verse 9 times. These were the two kings of the Amorites who tried to destroy the people of Israel when all they wanted was to pass through the land. And it was because of the defiance of Og that the iniquity of the Amorites was completed, their cities destroyed, and all their people killed. As Matthew Henry wrote in his Concise Commentary, Those not awakened by the judgments of God on others, ripen for the like judgments on themselves. Og had not learned from the defeat of Sihon; he thought himself and his soldiers better than these pesky slaves. And he learned the hard way—as did all the people “What do you mean ‘all the people’? Do you mean women and children as well?” Yes, women and children as well. For they were not spared when God commanded the people of Israel to destroy a people. Deuteronomy 3:3, 6—3 “So the LORD our God also delivered into our hands Og king of Bashan, with all his people, and we attacked him until he had no survivors remaining…6 And we utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men, women, and children of every city.” Was this destruction any worse than the eternal fate that awaited them? These were women of peoples that were opposed to God and worshipped idols. The children, had they grown to adulthood, would have also worshipped those same idols. “How do you know that God wouldn’t deliver them the way He did Rahab or Ruth?” Well, He didn’t. Which speaks to the election by God. He saved some from their heathen people and the damnation they would have experienced. But others He didn’t. Why? His election and purpose. 

Even the people of Jericho were not as brazen as Og. Did the people of Jericho go out to battle the people of Israel as they marched around the city? They indeed tried to capture the two spies, but as the people were led by the Levites around the city, did their men go out with swords against them?  Joshua 2:9-10—9 and [Rahab] said to the men: “I know that the LORD has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you. 10 For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. No, the people of the city were terrified of them. Then Joshua fit the Battle of Jericho, and the walls came a-tumblin’ down! 

One last thing about this passage. Then Israel…took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as the people of Ammon. The Ammonites and the Moabites were descendants of Lot. After God rescued them from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the daughters of Lot were under the assumption that they and their father were the last people on Earth, and it was up to them to repopulate the planet. So they got their father drunk and took advantage of him. Genesis 19:36-38—36 Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father. 37 The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38 And the younger, she also bore a son and called his name Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the people of Ammon to this day. God had delivered Lot from the sinful city, only to see his wife look back fondly and turn into a pillar of salt, and for his daughters to conceive children by him who would grow into two nations that were enemies of the people of God. Both of these tribes settled in the area we now call Jordan. Both of these peoples were assimilated into the Roman population by the time of Christ’s arrival. The city of Amman, that capital of Jordan, derives its name from them, as they lived mostly in the northern part of modern-day Jordan. 

And the Moabites? Well, one of them is an ancestor of Jesus. Ruth 1:3-4—3 Then Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died; and she was left, and her two sons. 4 Now they took wives of the women of Moab: the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth. Matthew 1:5-6—5 Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse, 6 and Jesse begot David the king. Ruth, the Moabitess, was the grandmother of King David. “But how could this be, when it says in Deuteronomy 23:3—‘An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the LORD; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the LORD forever.’?” This is one of those places where you have to put it in context and look at how it was written in its original language. In the Hebrew, the words “Moabite” and “Ammonite” are in the masculine form. In other words, Israelitish women were prohibited from marrying Moabitish or Ammonitish men, but Israelitish men could marry Moabitish or Ammonitish women. This was to meant to keep the Israelitish stock pure, since children were considered to be descended from the father, and to have the father be of a heathen nation would be an abomination to God. John Gill:

 

 An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord…Or marry an Israelitish woman, as Jarchi, and so the Targum of Jonathan, "the male Ammonites and Moabites are not fit to take a wife of the congregation of the Lord;'' for the Jews restrain this to men, because it is, as Aben Ezra observes, an Ammonite, not an Ammonitess, a Moabite, not a Moabitess; they allow that females of those nations might be married to Israelites, that is, provided they were proselytesses, as Ruth was.

Numbers 21:26-32—26 For Heshbon was the city of Sihon king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab, and had taken all his land from his hand as far as the Arnon. 27 Therefore those who speak in proverbs say: "Come to Heshbon, let it be built; let the city of Sihon be repaired. 28 For fire went out from Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon; it consumed Ar of Moab, the lords of the heights of the Arnon. 29 Woe to you, Moab! You have perished, O people of Chemosh! He has given his sons as fugitives, and his daughters into captivity, to Sihon king of the Amorites. 30 But we have shot at them; Heshbon has perished as far as Dibon. Then we laid waste as far as Nophah, which reaches to Medeba." 31 Thus Israel dwelt in the land of the Amorites. 32 Then Moses sent to spy out Jazer; and they took its villages and drove out the Amorites who were there. Verses 27-30 is a song sung by the people of Israel after they defeated Sihon. It is a song of almost mockery, as the song went up that Chemosh, the god of the Moab could do nothing to protect the Moabites from the people that YHVH fought for. This is a common theme throughout the Old Testament, that the gods of the pagans are helpless against the one, true, Living God. Because they are mute idols, unable to stand before the one true God.

 

(https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2685112991572544&set=pcb.2685123044904872)

When the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant, they set it next to their idol Dagon, thinking they would just add one more god to their collection. But, alas! 1st Samuel 5:2-4—2 When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon. 3 And when the people of Ashdod arose early in the morning, there was Dagon, fallen on its face to the earth before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and set it in its place again. 4 And when they arose early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on its face to the ground before the ark of the LORD. The head of Dagon and both the palms of its hands were broken off on the threshold; only Dagon's torso was left of it. 

The ten plagues that were visited upon Egypt under Pharaoh were God’s way of saying their gods were useless. And let us not forget the challenge of Elijah against the prophets of Ba'al atop Mount Carmel. They cut up their sacrifice, they gouged themselves, they danced and cried all day for a god who would not answer. I like the way the ESV renders 1st Kings 18:26-29—26 And they took the bull that was given them, and they prepared it and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, "O Baal, answer us!" But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped around the altar that they had made. 27 And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, "Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened." 28 And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them. 29 And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice. No one answered; no one paid attention. Did Elijah feel pity for them? Did he sympathize with them? Did he offer them any relief? No. And for good reason. Paul would write that we should avoid those who bring a different message than belief in YHVH. Galatians 1:8—But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge says this about calling on gods who cannot hear and who cannot answer:

 

Such were the absurd and degrading notions which the heathens entertained of their gods. "Vishnoo sleeps four months in the year; and to each of the gods some particular business is assigned. Vayoo manages the winds; Vuroonu the waters, etc. According to a number of fables in the Pooranus, the gods are often out on journeys or expeditions." Ward's Views of the Hindoos, vol. ii. p. 324.

Jeremiah the prophet warns the people about making for themselves idols of wood that are powerless to do anything to affect their lives. Jeremiah 10:3-6—3 For the customs of the peoples are futile; for one cuts a tree from the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. 4 They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with nails and hammers so that it will not topple. 5 They are upright, like a palm tree, and they cannot speak; they must be carried, because they cannot go by themselves. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, nor can they do any good, 6 Inasmuch as there is none like You, O LORD (You are great, and Your name is great in might).” And no, he wasn’t talking about Christmas trees! 

Even today we have some who set up dumb idols and ascribe to them the attributes of Almighty God. Look in any Roman Catholic “church” and you will find there idolatry. Statues of Mary with candles and incense before them. Names of dead saints upon the doorposts. Prayers being said to those who cannot hear them and can effect no change in the person’s circumstances. Strings of beads to remind the people of what they are supposed to ask of the one who is indeed worthy of our gratitude but can in no wise do anything for the people who chant her name in vain. This idolatry is found not only here in the United States, but in Mexico, in South America, in Italy and many other countries where they cut down a tree, decorate it with silver and gold, and fasten nails and hammer it so it does not topple. They worship bones and pieces of wood. John Calvin, in his “Treatise on Relics”, famously said “In some places there are large fragments of Christ’s cross, as at the Holy Chapel in Paris, at Poitiers, and at Rome, where a good-sized crucifix is said to have been made of it. In brief, if all the pieces that could be found were collected together, they would make a big ship-load.” And they “venerate”—believe it or not—what they believe to be Jesus’ foreskin. And so many are swept up into this idolatry because it has marks and appearances of holiness. But Paul warned Timothy of this. In 2nd Timothy 3:5 he warns us that there will be those who will have the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. And the robes and the vestments and the stained glass all look so holy and religious. But do they address prayers to God? Do they ask Him for forgiveness for their sins? Do they call upon Him to deliver them from evil? Is their Rosary to guide them to God through Jesus Christ our Lord? No. They are no different than the people of Moab who called upon Chemosh to ask him for victory over the Israelites. 

Lord God, Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth. Please guide our hearts to worship You and You alone. Let us not put our trust in those who cannot hear our prayers, but let our prayers rise to You, that You may hear our petitions and supplications, You being the only One who can hear them. Let us look unto Christ, the Author and Finisher of faith, not depending on our own merit or our own works, which we do not do in order to be saved, but because we are saved. May we always look to You to be our Guide and our Help in the difficult times, and our Joy and Peace in the good times.

 

 Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen.

A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Leviticus 26:1-20

OK, just two more chapters. Chapter 26 will outline the various blessings and cursings that God promises the people for obeying and rejecting Him. He promises to bless them for obedience, and He promises cursings for their disobedience. So many times when we think about the “promises of God” we only think about the good promises—long life, Heaven, etc. But we often forget that God also promises punishment. Are the promises of God ‘Yes’, and in Him, ‘Amen’ (2nd Corinthians 1:20)? Absolutely. If He promises good to us, He will give good to us. But, He also promises to chasten those whom He loves, and to scourge His children when they need it (Hebrews 12:6). And He is faithful in providing such chastenings and scourgings. This chapter of Leviticus is proof of that. Because it will not be long until the people put Him to the test, and go chasing after other (little-g) gods, for which God sends severe punishment. But when they return to Him, He pours out the blessings that He promises. And we will see how God rewards and punishes Israel as we study the text. Now, since much of the content of this chapter is rather self-explanatory, this will be more of a commentary than an expository teaching. Some parts will require more comment and depth than others, and when necessary they will be treated with the depth they require. And we see an example of the “self-explanatory” category in the first verses in this chapter.

Leviticus 26:1-2—“‘1 You shall not make idols for yourselves; neither a carved image nor a sacred pillar shall you rear up for yourselves; nor shall you set up an engraved stone in your land, to bow down to it; for I am the LORD your God. 2 You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary: I am the LORD.’” Does this need much comment? We have discussed the idolatry of Israel many times. But that is because we humans are so enamored with things we can see and touch and feel. We want something other than the true God. So we set up idols, we forget to remember the LORD, and we worship the god of self. These people, who saw the mighty works of God, were no different. They could see the graven images of Ba'al, they could touch the Asherah poles, they could feel these images they craved. But they could not see, touch or feel YHVH. And because of this fact it was easy for them to ignore Him. How quickly would a king, and the people, turn from worshipping God to turning to idols who could do nothing for them? They could not prevent them from going into exile to Babylon, and God had to prove this fact to them in 587BC, as God led Nebuchadnezzar to sack Jerusalem and carry Zedekiah and the people into captivity for 70 years because of their idolatry (see Jeremiah 34:18-22)

Leviticus 26:3-4—“‘3 If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them, 4 then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.’” Did the Israelites live in a land where it rained a lot? Or did they live in a relatively arid climate, where every bit of rain that fell was cherished? If you ever wondered why God would choose to place His people in a desert land, one which received very little rainfall, I think I can give you the answer. If He had put them immediately into a land flowing with milk and honey, how would they ever learn to rely on Him? How could one generation say to the next, “Wait on the LORD and He will provide.” And it was because they lived in such a climate that they learned the faithfulness of God.

Leviticus 26:5—“‘Your threshing shall last till the time of vintage, and the vintage shall last till the time of sowing.’” Because we can walk into any grocery store and pull nearly any kind of produce off the shelves—thanks in large part to cold storage, a concept which did not exist at this time—we don’t fully grasp the significance of this statement. The barley crop was sown in autumn—usually October—and reaped around the time of Passover. Grapes were reaped, usually, around the month of June. So think about the promise God is giving them—if they would continue obedient, He would cause their crops to be so plentiful that the barley harvest would last all the way to June—another 2-3 months. And the grapes? They would still be gathering them when it was time to sow the barley in October. In other words, before they could finish gathering in the crops from the field, it would be time to bring in the harvest of the vineyard. And before they could finish gathering the harvest of the vineyard, it would be time to plant the field crops. That’s why He says in Leviticus 26:9-10—“‘9 For I will look on you favorably and make you fruitful, multiply you and confirm My covenant with you. 10 You shall eat the old harvest, and clear out the old because of the new.’” They would have so much produce that what they brought in last year would still be in their barns, and they would have to make room for this year’s crop.

In foretelling of the gathering of Gentiles into the kingdom of God, He makes the following promise to the people by the mouth of the prophet Amos. The context of the prophecy is this: God is warning the house of Israel that the day will come when He will sift the grain (the faithful) from the chaff (the unfaithful). And in that day, there will be so many coming into the kingdom of God that the laborers will be tripping over each other bringing them in. Amos 9:13—“Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “When the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows seed…” Is there ever a time when the people of Christ are not reaping and harvesting and sowing and threshing? There are always some who are sowing the word of God; there come behind them those who tend the vineyard and field; there may be still others who see the reaping of the fruit. I planted, Apollos watered (1st Corinthians 3:6). And just as every crop in a field is different from another—barley is different from wheat, wheat is different from grapes—so too every soul who reaps and is reaped to the kingdom of God is different from one another. Ephesians 4:11—And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. And the work goes on, non-stop, around the world. But in the end, we are not really the ones who are responsible for bringing in the harvest. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 1st Corinthians 12:4-6—4 There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. 6 And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.

Leviticus 26:5-8—“‘5 You shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. 6 I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none will make you afraid; I will rid the land of evil beasts, and the sword will not go through your land. 7 You will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you. 8 Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; your enemies shall fall by the sword before you.’” What is one of the biggest concerns on the minds of most people right now? It’s the issue of ‘national security’. We need better weapons, better intel, newer, more sophisticated machinery and computers and tracking software and surveillance systems and… And yet who did God tell the Israelites to trust in? Him! God! Psalm 20:7—Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the LORD our God. Time and time and time and time again, God showed Himself faithful in this. We could spend weeks discussing the many victories He gave to Israel when they should have, by all rights, been utterly destroyed. Judges 7:8-21—8 And he sent away all the rest of Israel…and retained those three hundred men…12 Now the Midianites and Amalekites, all the people of the East, were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the seashore in multitude…20 Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers…and they cried, "The sword of the LORD and of Gideon!" 21 And every man stood in his place all around the camp; and the whole army ran and cried out and fled. God promised His faithful that five of them would cause one hundred to flee and one hundred would put 10,000 to flight. And on that night, three hundred men caused about 135,000 to flee.

When Ammon and Moab and those form Mount Seir came to attack the people of God, Jehoshaphat led the people in a prayer of faith to Almighty God. And when the enemy came, 2nd Chronicles 20:12-24—“12 O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You”…15 And he said, “Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the LORD to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's’”…22 Now when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated. 23 For the people of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to utterly kill and destroy them. And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another. 24 So when Judah came to a place overlooking the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude; and there were their dead bodies, fallen on the earth. No one had escaped. The people didn’t even have to pick up a weapon! God caused His enemies to fight against each other, and wipe each other out to the last man. And yet how many times do we try to win a spiritual battle with fleshly weapons? How many times do we feel the battle raging and think “I can do it this time. I can overcome this myself.” Or we just cave and do what we know we shouldn’t. When we feel the enemy pursuing us, instead of charging forward we need to just stop, wait on the Lord, and He is faithful to fight on our behalf.

Leviticus 26:11-13—“‘11 I will set My tabernacle among you, and My soul shall not abhor you. 12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people. 13 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves; I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you walk upright.’” Again, He reminds them that they did not break the bands of slavery themselves. They did not rise up and defeat pharaoh and his army. They did not part the Red Sea to walk through on dry land. It was God who did that. But, not unlike us, the people needed to be reminded, time and again, of who was really in control of everything. It was God who broke the chains of slavery to Pharaoh—and only God could keep them free. The people of Israel could no more keep themselves out of the hands of their enemies than they could have freed themselves from the grip of Pharaoh. And is there not an application in this for us today? Who brought us out of sin and iniquity? Did we bring ourselves out? Were we so strong and so wise that one day we woke up and said, “Gee, I think today would be perfect for becoming a Christian”? If you think that’s what happened, think again. There was nothing in you that wanted to—or could—break the hold of sin in your life. Ephesians 2:4-6—4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Who made us alive together with Christ? Who raised us up together? Who made us sit in the heavenly places in Christ? Who? You? Are you so bold as to say that you were different from the apostle Paul, and that even though he might have needed a boost from God to come to the saving faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, you didn’t? You mean you had enough good in you that God didn’t need to do a thing to make you believe, that you did it all on your own? Well, congratulations! You did what none of the apostles ever did! You came to know Christ Jesus as Lord all on your own, and God the Father didn’t have to show it to you!

No, none of us comes to know Christ unless that one’s spirit has been brought to life by the Holy Spirit. He does not give men the opportunity to be saved—He saves them, brings them to life, while they are still dead, unrighteous, sinful wretches. Even when we were dead in trespasses, [He] made us alive together with Christ. We were dead—He made us alive. And because it is God who brings us to life, it is God who sustains our life, and it is God who will continue to perfect us until the end. Philippians 1:6—He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. 2nd Timothy 1:12—I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day. Either Paul understood that God was the one who keeps us in Him until the very end of all things—or he had his theology wrong.

OK, so God has promised all these things to the people. He has promised blessing to the people if they obey Him. That’s the good news. Now for the bad news. Leviticus 26:14—“‘But…’”

BUT.

That one little word is used countless times in Scripture to signal an abrupt change of course. One could be reading on and on about a certain thing, and all of a sudden, here comes that word.

BUT.

Paul uses it for the good in 1^st Corinthians 15. From verse 12 he is rattling off this litany of all the misery that would be said of us who put our faith in Christ, if He has not risen from the dead. 1st Corinthians 5:13-19—13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. 14 And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. 15 Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. 16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. 17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.

BUT.

1st Corinthians 15:20—But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For seven verses, Paul lays out this dark, dreary expectation of our lives if the one we look to as Savior and Lord is still rotting in a tomb, having persuaded us that we should be with Him in the glory of His mansion. And with one word, the entire focus and outlook changes.

BUT.

But now Christ IS risen from the dead. And now he can launch into this glorious section of the blessings and hope that we have in our risen Savior and Lord. And because He has risen, then we too will be raised up on the last day, to reign and rule with our Lord and to be in His presence forever.

However, in this section of Leviticus, the word BUT shifts the focus from the grace and blessing of YHVH the sore punishment inflicted if they disobey Him and go chasing after other (little-g) gods. Leviticus 26:14-17—“‘14 But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments, 15 and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant, 16 I also will do this to you: I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 I will set My face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you. ’” Wasting disease and fever. One possibility here would be tuberculosis. There was a time many years ago when TB was called “consumption” because of the drastic and horrific weight loss that accompanied it. It also comes with a great fever which cannot be broken. That is what the people looked forward to if they did not obey the word of the LORD. Instead of living in relatively good health for many years, they would be laid out and open by this disease that wracks the body and crushes the soul.

Second, their crops would not grow. They could sow the fields with every seed they had, and there wouldn’t be one stalk to grow. And even if one did grow, He would surely send locusts to devour it. Finally, instead of putting their enemies to flight, their enemies would put them to flight. Not long after the death of Joshua, the one who would lead them into Canaan, the people did exactly what God said they would do—they went chasing after other (little-g) gods.

Judges 2:8-15—8 Now Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died when he was one hundred and ten years old. 9 And they buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath Heres, in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash. 10 When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the LORD nor the work which He had done for Israel. 11 Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals; 12 and they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the LORD to anger. 13 They forsook the LORD and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. 14 And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel. So He delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies. 15 Wherever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for calamity, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn to them. And they were greatly distressed.

OK, let’s think about this a minute. The people followed the pillar of smoke and the pillar of fire all through the desert. They taught their children about God, about His commands, about the promises of blessing and the promises of cursing. And the very next generation, when they get old enough, they say, “Well, yeah, that was good for you old folks. But we’re young, hip, cool and relevant. We need something a little more exciting to draw in the crowds! Hey, I know—let’s be like the culture around us, and incorporate some of their more worldly elements into our worship service!” Yeah, does kinda sound like some churches today, huh? And so, they go out to the surrounding nations, and they borrow their Ba’als and their Ashtoreths and their groves and sacred pillars. And what does God do? He does EXACTLY as He promised. He fights against them, He sells them into the hands of the neighboring lands. Hmmm…seems as though God said something about setting His face against them, about them being defeated by their enemies, those who hate them ruling over them and the people fleeing when no one pursued them. Oh yeah, Leviticus 26:17—“‘I will set My face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you.’” And yet, what is their response when that which God specifically promised comes to pass? They were greatly distressed. No kiddin’!

God knew that was going to happen. If He didn’t, He would not have warned them about it. But He also knew that the heart of man is always bent on destruction. Genesis 8:21—“The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.” All we ever think about is what we want. And even after being punished, we go back for more. And God gave them another warning, Leviticus 26:18-20—“‘18 And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 19 I will break the pride of your power; I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. 20 And your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit.’” In other words, God is saying that if it isn't enough allow them to be defeated and plundered and scared of their own shadow, and they want to keep coming back for more, then He will give it to them. And in their obedience, when the earth brought forth its produce, this no doubt gave them a sense of pride. But, when they became prideful of all their crops, God said, “OK, enough of those things. I’m shutting up the heavens, and I’ll turn the ground to bronze, and all your sweat and toil will not be able to break it up to sow anything.” And you would think that would be enough to make the people turn back to God. And you would be wrong. And we will see why next week

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen.