Deuteronomy 8:1-10.
Why was God doing this? That may have been a question the people in
the wilderness had asked more than once. They had endured hunger, thirst,
snakes, enemies, heat, rugged terrain, and many other difficulties, dangers
and death for forty years. Why was He doing this?
Deuteronomy 8 gives us a hint or two.
When you teach a student some idea or skill, often the goal seems to be
the ability to put that idea or skill into their own words and terms then
put it on paper by the time the course has ended. But there are times when
the course is called "practical". You learn the idea or skill, then how to
apply it after some practice.
Catechism class is often thought of in that first light. It is no more
than knowledge. Not much depth. Luther wrote questions and answers. We
learn the words and recite them. That's it.
But that's NOT it. Catechism is a practical matter. You are to learn
the material, then see how it applies to your own life and the world around
you.
For example, "thou shalt not kill" is easy to remember. It is harder
to recall and put into practice in life. When a human being is devalued
because she isn't born yet, he is the wrong skin color, she is too old, he
doesn't follow my political or religious beliefs, or some other personal
measure; 'thou shalt not kill' should come to the mind of any genuine
Christian. But it does not always surface.
Then, too, 'thou shalt not kill' is proactive. Christians should be
good caretakers of land and animals so as not to pollute. Pollution 'hurts
and harms our neighbors'. It also applies to relief supplies after a
disaster: giving safe food and clean water prevents people from dying. The
catechism was meant to be applied in daily life; not just memorized.
The catechism Moses had was not the 1941 CPH edition. I doubt the two
tablets of stone were big sellers. Or had a pocketbook edition. But God
wanted His people to know the stone catechism tablets and live them. By
knowing and obeying the commandments in the wilderness classroom, the
Children of Israel would hopefully continue to apply them after confirmation
(in the Promised Land). Not for an hour or two during the school year
during junior high school, but for forty years God taught class. God
humbled and tested them.
When a problem arose: would they try to obey God, OR did they follow
their own heart? God allowed them to hunger, then fed them with manna. He
allowed them to thirst, then gave water from a rock. He cared for their
feet and their clothes. Did they feel they should live on earth by their
own labors and jobs and skills and intelligence? Or live by the Word that
came from the LORD God?
It was close to Wilderness Confirmation Day. God gave a promise to
Abraham's descendants that they would inhabit the Promised Land, and God was
now going to deliver on that 5 centuries later. Did the 40 year Catechism
class do them any good?
'Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks' and lives are
lived. What was in the hearts of the Children of Israel is the same thing
that is in every heart: evil. If you read thru Judges to Malachi, Matthew
to Revelation, or even pick up any newspaper or radio/TV broadcast, you see
failure after failure. People do NOT obey God's Laws and Commandments. We
ignore them, change them, and make up our own. This leads to sad
consequences.
The first is that we want to live as if God's Laws don't matter. They
do. God wants you to obey each & every one of the Ten Commandments. No
exceptions.
God calls you, personally, to lead a godly life here in time and in
heaven eternally; just as He wanted the Children of Israel to obey Him. But
we, like they, do not. Genuine Christians should live lives of daily
repentance: seeing our sins, turning to God for forgiveness in Christ, then
living in obedient faith.
While God has not provided footwear or manna for you, He has given
countless material blessings to us. In this greatest nation on God's green
earth, we even have a feasting day. Not so many people remember to WHOM we
are to give thanks, but it is still called Thanksgiving Day.
What was God doing there in the wilderness? As a father disciplines
his own son, God was disciplining, catechizing, teaching His own children.
But He was NOT teaching them blind obedience to the Ten Commandments. He
was giving lessons in trust and love.
God was teaching His people in the wilderness. He was training them
that survival skills will not get you thru life into eternity. Our survival
and blessings do not depend on our obedience to the Ten Commandments, but on
the nature of God's compassion, mercy, and grace.
Nowhere in God's Holy Scripture does God say to "be good enough". He
never says balance out your bad with good. He says the soul that sins shall
die. In Romans 3:20, the Holy Spirit says that no person can be right with
God by what they do. God wants you and me to obey the Law. He wants us to
love Him, and love our neighbors.
But the LORD wants us each to realize we can't keep His Law perfectly.
No person can live without sin and be holy. Our only hope for salvation,
AND for continuing to be His people when we stumble into sin, is always the
mercy of God in Christ Jesus.
God is sincere in His demands for us to keep perfect obedience. God
never says we should live following a few, or even a majority, of His Ten
Commandments. They are not suggestions for ancient times and cultures that
do not apply to you and the world today. When individuals, cultures, or
nations disobey God's Laws, those individuals, cultures, or nations suffer.
One of the ideas God was teaching in Deuteronomy 8 has to do with
obedience to the Law. But the main issue is trusting in Him for all things.
We should live good lives in the power of God's love. God's
forgiveness is our inspiration and driving force. At the end of the church
year, we especially consider the last things (eschatology). We live in a
wilderness of sin. We are led by the New Moses: not a law giver like the
first one, but a law fulfiller. The first Moses saw the Promised land but
did not enter. The 2nd DID enter.
Thru the cross of Christ, all of God's promises are kept. The Second
Moses lived the holy and flawless life you and I could not. He was tempted
in the wilderness for us. He took our place as our Substitute in life.
Then He willingly laid down His life for every man, woman, and child ever
alive. All of God's anger for your failures, faults, flaws, sins, and
rebellions was taken out on the Son of Man. All who trust in His perfect
life, death, and resurrection will follow the new Moses into the promised
land of heaven.
You see the children of Israel did not enter the Promised Land because
of their obedience, but because of God's Promise and mercy. In SPITE of
their wickedness, God gave them the land.
In the same way, in spite of our sins, any of which should keep us out,
God still leads us to the promised land of heaven thru the cross of Christ,
by His grace alone.
Today is a day we give thanks to God for millions of material
blessings. Above all, we give thanks to God for His continued mercy in
Christ Jesus by how we live, and how we tell others the Good News. May we,
as God's children heading to the Promised Land of heaven, continue that
journey in the strength of the LORD and in the Name of Jesus. Amen.
Pastor Michael Harman,
St. Peter LCMS - Newell, IA
vacancies at ...
Immanuel, Pomeroy
First Evangelical, Fonda
Lottsa ice - no church;
sermon development ended
enjoy
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