Keys to A New Beginning (4)
It Is Not Beyond Your Reach!
Deuteronomy 30:11-20
Jim Davis
A preacher told this story in one of his sermons. Some of you have heard me tell about my early ministry when I served a little church in rural Georgia. One Saturday we went to the funeral of a relative of somebody in my church. It was in a little country church. I grew up in a big downtown church. I had never been to a funeral like this one. They had the body out there. The casket was open, and the funeral consisted of a sermon by their preacher.
The preacher pounded on the pulpit and looked over at the casket. He would say, "It's too late for Joe. He might have wanted to get his life together. He might have wanted to spend more time with his family. He might have wanted to do that, but he's dead now. It is too late for him, but it is not too late for you. There is still time for you. You still can decide. You still are alive. It is not too late for you. Today is the day of decision."
Then the preacher told how a Greyhound bus had run into a funeral procession once on the way to the cemetery, and that could happen today. He said, "You should decide today. Today is the day to get your life together. Too late for old Joe, but it's not too late for you."
I was so angry at that preacher. On the way home, I told my wife "Have you ever seen anything as manipulative and as insensitive to that poor family? I found it disgusting." She said, "I've never heard anything like that. It was manipulative. It was disgusting. It was insensitive. Worst of all, it was also true." (Citation: "The Writing on the Wall," Preaching Today, Tape No. 129.)
As you come to Deuteronomy chapter thirty, Moses wants Israel to know that their decision to cross the Jordan River and obey God is crucial. They have buried the majority of the previous generation because they failed to do what they should have done. They know it is too late for those who have died in the wilderness. They are practically standing over their corpses as Moses speaks his final words to them. Moses doesn’t want them to make the same mistakes their parents made.
Deuteronomy 30:11-20
"Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, "Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, ‘Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?’ No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it."See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
"But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
"This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" (NIV).
Moses is wrapping up his writing the law and regulations as we come to this chapter of Deuteronomy. He wants the children to realize that they could understand the instructions given by God as he speaks to them. For them to follow God's instruction they must believe that his instruction is not too difficult.
You may look at all the laws and regulations that Moses gave as impossible to keep. You may think they were beyond comprehension. However, Moses wants Israel to know that God’s laws were not idealistic but practical. They can be known and obeyed. They are not beyond their reach. God made it very clear what he expected. They must acknowledge their understanding of the Lord’s commands and then commit themselves to them.
God Doesn't Make It Difficult
God doesn't desire to enter our lives to make them more difficult than what they already are. Moses writes, "Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach." God enters our lives to remove the difficult and impossible. We must remember that whatever God asks us to do is not too difficult for us to do. God makes the impossible possible.
Before Jesus died upon the cross he promised his disciples help. Jesus spoke to his disciples saying, "If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever . . ." (John 14:15-17). Christ told them to keep his commandments and in the same breath promised to end them help for the task. He gave them a Counselor, Helper, an Advocate. He knew that things get hard when we seek to do them without God. God's grace not only saves us but it gives us God's strengthen to stand when we are too feeble to stand on our own (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).
God wants each of us to know that what he asks of each of us is not too difficult. When God revealed that Sarah was going to have a child at 90 years of age, Sarah laughed. It was a cynical laugh; she thought it was too hard to even imagine. The angel asks, "Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son" (Genes 18:14). Jesus says, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you" (Matthew 17:20)
When God led Israel out of Egypt he made sure that he didn't make it too difficult for them.
Exodus 13:17-18
"When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, 'If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.' So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt armed for battle." (NIV)They are armed for battle, but God would not lead them into a situation they could not handle. He does not lead us into situation that allows more to come upon us than we can bear.
When God ask you to live up to your Christian responsibilities, he doesn't ask you to do the impossible. He is not asking you to do something you can't do. Don't back away because it is difficult, remember that it is not too difficult, or else God wouldn't be asking.
We must think like Abraham when God ask him to sacrifice the son of promise. "Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death" (Hebrews 11:19 NIV). He put his faith in God and did the impossible.
When God leads you it may seem the most difficult way from a human perspective. In reality you can be assured that God is leading you the best way. He is trying to accomplish something within you. God is seeking to prepare the Israelites for battle in Canaan. They shirked their responsibilities, and so he led them the long way around until they were ready to face their responsibilities. God knew they were not ready for battle. He wasn't going to engage them in a battle until they were ready for it.
The Israelites thought that when they entered the promise land there would be no more battles. When they entered there was one battle after another. They won the battles they fought trusting in God.
When we face our responsibilities we must hang tough! We need to hold on with our minds. Peter says, "Therefore, prepare you minds for action; be self -controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed" (1 Peter 1:13) NIV). When times get difficult we may want to quit. We get weary and tired. This makes it easy to think about quitting. It is a great time for Satan to enter our minds to discourage us.
Galatians 6:7-10
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. (NIV)In difficult times Satan enters your mind and seeks to get you to give up. You may feel weary, but you must not faint. If we hold on we will eventually reap.
A Matter of Life and Death
Moses was writing at the end of the forty-year journey to encourage the Israelites to choose life. "See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess."
Living for God is a choice. It is a choice of life and death. Moses says, "See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction." The choice is ours. It is a life and death choice. The consequences may seem difficult, but Moses assures us they aren't. If we make the right choices they give us life. As we are in the process of making this choice we must remember that Godly living is not beyond our reach.
We live and die on the choices we make. It is as simple as the law of reaping and sowing. When we sow to please God, we reap eternal life. The consequences of eternal life begins in the here and now. You can count on God to do the difficult, but you have to realize that God works in conjunction with our choices.
A commitment to accept God's way means a commitment to spiritual growth. This is not going to take place until you have an intimate relationship with the Bible. Investing your time and resources in God's kingdom begins here. This world bombards us daily with bogus information in an effort to persuade us to make the wrong choices. God's word is the only thing that can point us to the right choices.
When Jesus was led up into the wilderness forty day and nights it was his knowledge of God's word that sustained him. Through those scriptures he drew strength from God and came out victorious.
Moses writes the book of Deuteronomy, it is the fifth book of the Bible. Genesis through Deuteronomy is the only Bible they have, but within these books Israel must discover enough about God to lead them through the land of Canaan. It is all they have, but it is enough.
God’s word is not too difficult to understand. A story about General Ulysses S. Grant is told about how he kept particularly feeble-minded soldier just outside his office. Before issuing an order, he would read it to this soldier. If the young man understood it, the order stood. If not, Grant returned to his desk to simplify or clarify it.
God’s commandments are not above our heads. Moses writes, "Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, "Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, ‘Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?’ No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it".
Through God's word we become partakers of the divine nature. When we partake of the divine nature our lives are naturally empowered by God to become productive and fruitful. When we allow God's word to be spread abroad in our hearts we begin to reap what is sown. The scriptures assure us that God has given us all we need to make a choice to live for God.
I see Moses’ message echoed in the following statement Peter writes. It is stated somewhat differently, but in reality it is the same message of Deuteronomy.
2 Peter 1:3-11
"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires."For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
"Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (NIV).
Throughout the Bible the promises of God are given to encourage us to accept his challenge for our lives. God's promises are made to persuade us to accept the challenge of living responsibly. When we accept the challenge we are assured that our lives will not be ineffective and unproductive.
Ephesians 3:20-21
"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen" (NIV).We must exercise our choice for our children. Moses says, "Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him." The generation Moses was writing to in the book of Deuteronomy knew something about reaping the consequences of the choices made by their parents. They had spent forty years in the wilderness with them. A plea for their children certainly must have struck home with them.
Standing where Israel stood as Moses penned these words in Deuteronomy was a poignant reminder. The oldest person crossing the Jordan River under Joshua’s leadership could not have been much over 60 years. Give or take a few months. Everyone over 21 years of age who had left Egypt was either dead or about to die. We know Moses, Caleb and Joshua were older, but Moses is not crossing into Canaan.
This generation had experienced the heartache of their parent’s failure. It is possible to have great-grandchildren at sixty, even younger. Especially in the world they lived in. Imagine those who are challenged to conquer Canaan looking their children, grand-children and possibly great-grandchildren in the face. You suppose they were thinking about how their decision is going to affect the third and fourth generation. Do you think they understood the implications of making right decisions for their children?
They had experienced the iniquity of their parent’s decision that Moses had warned them of in the following verses in Decalogue.
Deuteronomy 5:9-10
You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand [ generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments" (NIV).Through your faithfulness you are making a choice for your child's eternal well being. You are making the choice of life or death for them.
Howard Hendricks told this story. One of the wealthiest men in our community has the dubious distinction of having blown four children out of the saddle: one in prostitution, two in drugs, and the fourth one we've been looking for in every state of the union and thirty-some different countries for the last ten years. He sat across from my desk one day and said to me, "Hendricks, I put my money on a dead horse."
If I were to say to that man today, "Sir, I will guarantee to get your four children back if you'll do one thing," you know what he'd say?
"What is it?"
I'd say, "If you will cut off your right arm, I'll guarantee to get your four kids back."
"Give me the knife," he'd answer. He's made the decision now, you see, but it's very late. (Citation: Howard Hendricks, "The Message of Mistakes," Preaching Today, Tape No. 54)
Conclusion:
It's hard to effect change unless people feel a compelling need to change.
If you don't make up your mind, your unmade mind will unmake you.
Remember God has not made it too difficult.