Deuteronomy 8:10-19 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
Build on the Rock Summer Series 6 July 8, 2018 “Fine Houses in the Promised Land”
Are we there yet? That’s the dreaded refrain that parents hear on their travels with children to their vacation destination. The kids struggle with patience in their excitement and simply want to get to that special place, whether grandma’s house or an amusement park, or whatever it is. And so they ask, sometimes over and over again, “Are we there yet?” And time after time parents have to gently explain that it will still be a while before they arrive. Many of us can relate to such eager anticipation of reaching our destination. We’ve learned over the years how to be patient. We perhaps are a bit more capable of gauging how much time is left in our travels. So we don’t need to ask in the same way, even if we share the excitement. I can’t help but wonder about the level of excitement for the Israelites as they left Egypt for the Promised Land and as they approached the Promised Land of Canaan. Perhaps they asked, “Are we there yet?” after they walked all the way from Egypt through vast wilderness and came near to the Promised Land. Only their trip was extended. Another episode of a lack of faith led God to turn his people back to the wilderness where they would wander for forty years before being allowed to settle into the land of Canaan. But finally, the people had arrived. They were there. They were just outside of the Promised Land preparing to go in. And that’s when Moses, God’s chosen leader of his people, addressed them with some very important reminders. He shared with them once again what God’s expectations were for them in the land he had promised. For the most part, that is the book of Deuteronomy. It’s the words of Moses repeating what God had taught the people, reviewing and reinforcing it for them. And it is where we come to our next biblical building project, the building of fine houses in the Promised Land. That was the plan. That was the promise: you will build fine houses in this new land. Moses could speak with certainty about the opportunities that awaited God’s people there. And what wonderful opportunities they were! Eat your fill. Have large flocks. Increase your silver and gold. Build fine houses and settle down. This is exactly what the Promised Land was supposed to be for the people. It would be wildly different from the years of wilderness wandering. Then the people had to be fed miraculously. They needed to drink water that God provided out of a rock. Things were about to change. But it was that very change that would provide a new temptation. The very blessings of the Promised Land would also be the problem the people faced. Moses warned that when things were going so well and successfully for the Israelites, they could become proud, and they could forget the Lord. The temptation would be to focus on the stuff: their houses and food and flocks, and not to focus on the one who gave these gifts to the people. Of course, Moses also offers a solution: remember the Lord your God. Remember all that he had done in preserving you during your wandering in the wilderness. Remember that he is the one who gives you what you need and even more. But Moses wasn’t concerned only about the good things that the people could enjoy in the Promised Land. He was concerned just as much, and even more so, about the greater promises that God had given to them. In other words, it wouldn’t necessarily be a great tragedy if the people sometimes failed to realize that what they possessed came from God. But it would be an incredible tragedy if the people forgot all about God. God hadn’t just promised to give them their own land. He had also promised to send a Savior for them and for the rest of the world through them. The Savior would be an Israelite. He would save these Israelites from their sins. God wanted the Israelites to believe his promise of a Savior and to be saved. He wanted them to be in heaven with him. So he made even more promises, connected to the well-being of the people in the land. When they remembered him and when they worshipped him, when they obeyed the commands that he gave them, he would bless them. They would grow rich and have success in the land. Their crops would grow and their
flocks would increase. This was a very special promise for those people in that land. But it also came with a warning. Because their relationship with God was so important and so significant, God warned that he would bring destruction if and when they forgot about him, followed other Gods, and failed to keep God’s commands. The very last verse of our reading from Deuteronomy warned, “If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed.” God was concerned about this because this issue could threaten the faith and the salvation of his people. One of the lessons that we learn from the fine houses in the Promised Land concerns what we call God’s providence. That is, God provides. He gives us what we need. And that’s not limited to just his people, the people who believe in him. God sends rain, and it doesn’t discriminate between believers and unbelievers. He provides seasons and allows crops to grow. He has established the world to operate according to certain generally predictable patterns and through that provides for the needs of many people. But that is not always obvious. It’s not always obvious that this is from God. It was obvious that God was providing for the Israelites when water poured out of rocks and when manna appeared, bread for them to eat, nearly every morning. It would be less obvious when the rains would come in their seasons and the fields would be plowed and the harvest would be gathered. It would be less obvious when people would buy what they need and trade with others. And God’s promise to those people was that they would be blessed in the land with all these good things if they kept God’s commands. God hasn’t given us the same promise, but he has given us similar assurances. Think about Jesus’ words that we heard from Matthew’s Gospel, assuring us that God provides all we need, just like he does for the birds and for the flowers (Matthew 6:25-34). We pray in the Lord’s Prayer that God would give us our daily bread, that is everything we need for each day. And most of the time, God provides through very ordinary means. We work and earn money and purchase food. Seasons come and go. Farmers plant and harvest. Livestock are raised. And we get so used to this happening that we sometimes think nothing of it that we have what we need when we need it. The problem Moses warned against is a potential problem for us, too. Like the Israelites, we have a sinful nature. It is perfectly content with forgetting God and his role in our lives. Our sinful inclination is to take every opportunity to forget that God is the one who provides for us. In fact, our sinful inclination is to want to take the credit for ourselves. We look at what we have and say, “I earned it. I deserve it. I worked hard for it.” And God reminds us, “You can only work hard for things because I give you the ability to work hard.” Absolutely everything that we have and that we need comes from God. No exceptions. We need reminders of this. Just like the Israelites, we will sometimes forget. In spite of these warnings from Moses, they did exactly that. Their pattern of turning away from God continued even in the Promised Land. We need constant reminders. But more than that, we need forgiveness. We need Jesus, who in our place perfectly trusted his heavenly Father for all his needs. He didn’t just teach others that God provides. He lived that truth in his life, and then he offered up his life for you and for me. God looks at us now and doesn’t see our worry and our selfish pride. He sees Jesus’ perfect trust. He sees Jesus’ perfect life. And therefore he promises us not what we deserve, but an eternity in the heavenly Promised Land. That’s a promise worth holding on to. That’s a truth that is worth constant reminders in our lives. Don’t let anything, even the greatest blessings of wealth and food and home or anything else distract us from recognizing our Savior, our Lord, and the one who provides all things for us. And then, let us respond with our thanks and our praises.
The Text: Deuteronomy 8:10–19 (NIV) 10 When
you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 15 He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. 16 He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you. 17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today. 11 Be
19 If
you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed.