“The Lord is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble; And He knows those who trust in Him.”(Nahum 1:7)
Moses’ story ends for now in our last book of the Torah (Bible study below). Moses, at the age of 120, was called to meet with God in a final Tent of Meeting.
“Then the Lord appeared at the tent in a pillar of cloud, and the cloud stood over the entrance to the tent. And the Lord said to Moses: “You are going to rest with your ancestors, and these people will soon prostitute themselves to the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake me and break the covenant I made with them. And in that day I will become angry with them and forsake them; I will hide my face from them, and they will be destroyed. Many disasters and calamities will come on them, and in that day they will ask, ‘Have not these disasters come on us because our God is not with us?’ And I will certainly hide my face in that day because of all their wickedness in turning to other gods.”(Deuteronomy 31:15-18).
“Moses, the time has come for you to die.”
Wow. Poor Moses, he had just spent the last 40 years living with these people; praying for them; pleading to God for their lives; fielding all their problems; watching them make mistake after mistake; Facing hot dusty days and long cold nights in the desert; rejecting God over and over; and at the same time reminding them over and over and over…stay loyal to Yahweh. He gave all he knew to give, as imperfect as it was.
Here in his last days, God tells Moses that Israel, God’s chosen “son,” will once again rebel, and it will bring about destruction.
Can you imagine the emotions Moses must have felt in that moment? I can only wonder if he felt utterly hopeless, sad, angry, and extremely disappointed. I wonder if he felt a sense of complete defeat.
What was it all for?
It’s like a parent who pours all the love and care they have - as imperfect as it was - into children who turn out to be self-entitled, self-indulging, fools.
There are many Boomers today that are at the end of life, and as they prepare to leave this earth, realize that their children have turned their backs on the very thing that they had spent their whole life trying to instill in them.
They have been sucked up into the cultural lies; following after money and status; listening to foolish myths; complaining about every little thing; seeking endless vapors of pleasure, p*rn and people-pleasing; ignoring the important for the urgent; they are thankless and arrogant; and they have abandoned God. They may claim a “spiritual” belief, but Jesus isn’t their Lord; they are. They are a god to themselves.
What more can a parent do?
Many parents I know feel a sense of loss for the younger generation. And especially for their own children and grandchildren. They feel a sense of hopelessness as they know they won’t be here much longer, and the world that they are leaving is pulling those they love into a black hole of deceptive destruction.
They won’t listen to wisdom any more than Israel would. They too are “stiff-necked people”. They listen to worldly “experts” and cheese-puff-brain leaders instead. They think their lives are “good” because it aligns with what is promoted as “good” in our culture, when in reality, they are out in the wilds playing with snakes who want them destroyed. They have made their lives a train wreck, and they don’t even know it. Or if they do know it, they just blame everyone else and act the victim, and try to fix it with even more rebellion, just like Israel. Will they ever learn?
But wait, isn’t God a God of hope, joy and peace?
God’s view of humanity is much higher than our view. We see life through a pin hole, while God is at 10000000 ft. scanning all of eternity.
We all have a life to live, and each of us will make our choices - for good and evil. This life feels the most important to us because it is what we know. So when this life - in hindsight - seems fraught with one disappointment after another, we may feel a sense of failure, anger, defeat, or sadness, but the truth is, we don’t know the bigger story.
We can’t see things that happened because of our lives. We may not know that something we did, or said helped someone from falling. Or that we shared Jesus with a stranger who then was saved. Even those boomers with foolish children may not see how they may have influenced their children who will eventually return to God.
“Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…”(Matthew 25:34).
We are told over and over to not put our treasures into this world, but to seek treasures in heaven and we would be blessed.
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”(Matthew 6:19-21).
God is preparing a kingdom for us. This life is full of all kinds of human experiences, from joy to sorrow to boredom to defeat to joy again. Life is an emotional roller coaster. The Bible is a book of many things, but especially including love, joy, peace, and hope.
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”(1 Corinthians 15:58).
Each of us will spend our time here on earth doing what we have chosen to do, and we will influence others along the way. If we have stayed loyal to the Father, and made Jesus Lord of our lives, we have more hope than we can even imagine.
We may feel, in certain things, that we labored in vain and failed, but everyone fails. Everyone. No one will escape the full human experience. Thankfully our God forgives us fully, even if those we love won’t. He forgives everything. And He rewards us in true justice (not social justice).
When Jesus hung on the cross and looked out at the faces of the people, HIS chosen people, Some cheered his death; some saw an opportunity for money and stuff as they gambled for his clothes; and others wept in sorrow. In that moment of death, there wasn’t a lot of hope in the people’s hearts.
But Jesus was here to repair something that, at the time, His disciples didn’t quite understand. I wonder if John said, “What was this all for?” Or if Peter angrily went off and got drunk in despair? Did Mary question why God would cause her beloved son - HIS Beloved son - to suffer such great agony and apparent defeat?
Just as Moses faced those whom he had fought for, and lead through many human experiences, He had no idea of the glory that would come from this seeming defeat. He had no idea that one day he would stand on that mountain in the presence of John and Peter, and with Jesus and Elijah!
When the disciples saw their teacher hanging on the cross, they had no idea what was really coming; the unbelievable kingdom that would be birthed because of what looked like a defeat at the moment.
So when we feel a sense of disappointment over our lives, our duty is to just stay steadfastly loyal to God. Our job is to keep putting our hope into our account where moth and rust can’t destroy it.
We have an enormous hope. Ginormous! We have an incredible inheritance waiting for us. We have no idea how this story will exactly work out, but we have hope because we have faith. And we have faith, because we stand strong in the Lord today. He has gifted us with everything we need to live a victorious life. We may see defeat, but God sees the whole picture. Look up and see what He sees!
Our treasures are secure and our future is going to be more than we could ever ask or think. The day of victory will come, and maybe much sooner than we imagined.
“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”(Matthew 17:25).
The book of Deuteronomy is the fifth book in the Torah. Its name means “a second law.” The covenant that the people have with God will be restated by Moses as well as a new set of laws.
In the preceding book of Numbers, we read that the Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years and after that generation died off, the next generation - lead by Joshua - would now enter the Promised land.
In the opening chapter, Moses recalls some of the highlights of their journey and reminds the Israelites the penalty that their parent’s generation paid for their rebellion. He implores the people to stay faithful to God, reminding them of all the things they went through because of their rebellion.
In the middle of Deuteronomy, Moses once again recites the laws of the covenant, including some new commands.This is also the section of scripture containing the Shema. According to Jewish teaching the Shema is a daily prayer that all Jews are to recite. It reiterates that Israel only has one God.
“The first verse of the Shema is considered the most essential declaration of the Jewish faith — the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. The passage that follows, details the particular ways in which that faith should be lived: Love God with all of your being, teach it to your children, recite it when you wake and lie down, bind it as a symbol on your body.
The second section specifies what will happen if God’s commands are heeded — and if they are not. Submission to God’s command will result in rain in its proper season, gathering of grain, wine and oil, grass in the fields for cattle, and abundant food. But if God’s will is flouted and foreign gods are worshipped, none of those blessings will come.”(My Jewish Learning).
The people are going into a pagan world and once again be exposed to their ways and gods. It was imperative that Israel serve and stay loyal to God in order to live in blessing in the land.
The rest of the book concludes with more laws. These are the terms of the Sinai covenant. These laws were given to ancient Israel to set them apart, and to live a higher level of justice than the surrounding nations.
In the final section of the book, Moses makes a farewell speech to the people. He issues a warning and a blessing. The warning is against rebellion and disobedience to the laws that Moses recited. But the blessings, if they follow all that God commanded, would truly set their ways apart from the other people of the land. It would cause Israel to gain a great reputation in the. world. It would also be the allure for people to want to know more about the God they serve.
Moses implores the people as he sets before them the curses and the blessings to choose life and follow the Lord. Sadly, Moses goes on to tell the people that he knows that after he is gone, they will rebel.
This seems like a sad way to close the book of Deuteronomy, but the end is hopeful. For even though Moses knew they would rebel, God told Moses that he would eventually change their hearts. Something in the future would happen that would affect the people’s hearts. Here we see a prophetic glimpse of the coming Messiah. Moses completed his life by issuing a warning, and a blessing. He then went up the mountain and died there.
“Do not think in your heart, after the Lord your God has cast them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land’; but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you.”(Deuteronomy 9:4).
The Shema: “Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates..’”(Deuteronomy 6:4-9).
Father today I pray that we see our lives as you do. I pray that you open our eyes so that we can see all the things that are hindering us from fully experiencing all the things you have for us here on earth, and those things that truly please you. I pray Father for all who are blinded by the pain in their lives that you will help them see that hope is only in you. We know our hope comes from you. We know that our lives are from you. Some days it’s hard to look out over the world and see so much trouble and keep a spirit of hope. But I know Father our hope was never in this world. We love the lives you have given us and we pray that it glorifies you. All else is just a vapor. Please open the eyes of those we love to see the beauty and glory in making you Lord of all. Thank you for giving us all you have here in this life. Thank you for the love and provisions. Thank you for the struggles that shaped us into your people. Thank you for blessing us. We love you. We pray for all people today, your chosen people of national Israel and your called people of spiritual Israel, that truth will obliterate the lies they have believed. May your kingdom come and your will be done quickly. All praise and honor to your Name. Amen. ❤️
