A Response to the LORD who Saves

Sermon on Deuteronomy 29,申命记第29章：1-29节

Deuteronomy 29 is about commitment. Moses was leading the people to renew their covenant with the LORD before they entered Canaan.

29:10-13
10 All of you are standing today in the presence of the LORD your God … 12 … in order to enter into a covenant with the LORD your God, a covenant the LORD is making with you this day… 13 to confirm you this day as his people, that he may be your God…

At Mt Sinai, the first generation Israelites made a covenant with the LORD. Forty years passed by, all the people in the first generation died, except Caleb and Joshua. Now, at the plain of Moab, Moses was leading the new generation to renew the covenant their parents made with the LORD.

29:1-2a A Time for Covenant Renewal at Plain of Moab

1These are the terms of the covenant the LORD commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in Moab, in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Horeb.

Those were parents with young children.

One day should your child ask you, “Dad… Mom… Why are you a Christian? Why do we have to go to church every Sunday when my friends; families could go elsewhere to have fun as a family?

If you say, we go to church because we are a Christian family – your grandparents go to church, I go to church, now you shall go to church, and I always remember church was where I met your mom. That answer may be true, but it’s not adequate.

The answer is like saying “I am Buddhist because my parents are Buddhists,” or “I met your mom in the temple.”

Before the Israelites renewed their covenant YHWH, Moses wanted the new generation to know:

1. Why were they making a covenant with YHWH.
2. Why should they worship YHWH, and not other gods”

In answer to the first question, Moses told them their salvation stories.

First, Moses told them their parents’ salvation story; then Moses told them their own salvation story.

The new generation comprised people who were below 20 year-old when they left Egypt; now, they were 60 years old. The new generation also comprised people who were born during the desert wandering. By now, they would be 40 year-old and below.

This is the Parent Generation Salvation story
29:2b-6 The Parents’ Salvation-Story

2 Moses summoned all the Israelites and said to them:

Your eyes have seen all that the LORD did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials and to all his land. 3 With your own eyes you saw those great trials, those miraculous signs and great wonders. 4 But to this day the LORD has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear. 6 … I did this so that you might know that I am the LORD your God.

If you were to tell your children, “Yes, my meeting your mom was a great miracle, and marrying her eventually was like God parting the Red Sea in my life.”

Well, that is some salvation story; you are not far from the kingdom of heaven. However, there is much room to improve your testimony; there are many other things about what God has done in your life that you can share.

The New Generation Salvation Story is as follow:

29:7-8 The New Generation’s Salvation Story

7 When you reached this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out to fight against us, but we defeated them. 8 We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh.

We must know why we worship the God whom we are worshipping. We must be ready to tell others why we worship the LORD.

The Israelites worshipped the LORD because God saved them. No other gods but the LORD alone saved them. They were called to worship and to serve the LORD. The Creator-God of Heaven and Earth wanted to use Israel to draw other peoples to worship Him. That is why they should commit themselves to worship only the LORD. We choose to worship the LORD because God saves us. We should commit ourselves to worship the LORD alone.

A second lesson we may learn from the salvation story is that the LORD is always at work among His people to save and provide for them. He works differently in each generation. His working does not follow any template.

The first generation Israelites’ salvation story was very dramatic and spectacular. A great Egyptian army was pursuing the people. The people were trapped, and then God parted the Red Sea. The people crossed to the other side. God closed the parted water; 20,000 chariots of soldiers were drowned. The new generation’s salvation story, on the contrary, was quite ordinary and not so thrilling. They did not see any great signs and wonders. Nevertheless, the LORD was at work among them. He gave them victory over King Sihon & King Og. The LORD was at work in saving the first generation in one manner, and He was also at work in saving the new generation in another manner.

God does His saving work in each generation. He does His work differently. We experience God’s working in different situations and in different ways. Do not expect God to work in the same way all the time. Different people may have the same needs. When they pray, God will answer each one prayer differently. He will answer at different times and in different ways. So, do not expect God to answer your prayer in the same way He has answered other people’s prayers. God does not follow a template or a formula in answering prayers.

Reflect on your own Salvation Story. Recall the time and situation in which God delivered you. Be prepared to share your salvation story. When I was 18, my teacher asked me in her office “Why are you a Christian?” She wanted to know about Jesus. I was not prepared then to share my salvation story. All I did then was to share with her a gospel booklet called the “Four Spiritual Laws”. At the end of my presentation, my teacher did not believe in Jesus. She wanted to listen to my salvation story. She wanted to know in what ways God had been real in my life, but I was not prepared to tell her because I thought salvation story was not that important. About 10 years later, I learn a method of sharing the Gospel in a training course called “Evangelism Explosion”. The method was designed by a Presbyterian minister D. James Kennedy. It is a meaningful way of presenting the Gospel because you begin by sharing your salvation story. A tough part in the training is to prepare a one-minute testimony. The participants select a specific life situation to share how they experienced God’s deliverance that led believe them to believe in Jesus. The sharing time is just one minute. You can be amazed that you can share many things, meaningful things, within one minute when you plan and prepare your salvation story well. Everyone has their salvation story to tell. Be prepared to share your salvation story. Be ready to share your salvation story in unexpected occasions. Your story shall testify that you worship a Creator-God who is indeed real in your life.

God works in every generation, and He works differently.

During the Covenant Renewal Moses solemnly warned the Israelites were not to forsake YHWH and worship other God.

29:16-18a Do Not Worship the Gods of the Nations

16 You yourselves know how we lived in Egypt and how we passed through the countries on the way here. 17 You saw among them their detestable images and idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold. 18 Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations;

Moses provided two reasons for the command: One, YHWH is the God who saves them. We learned the first reason earlier when we read the Salvation Story text. Two, the pagan form of worship is detestable.

Basically, the term of the Covenant focuses on the first commandment.

The first commandment stipulates “You shall have no other gods before me” (5:7)
The purpose of this commandment “No other gods before YHWH” is to enable God’s people to worship God whole-heartedly. The motivation of the whole-hearted worship is “Love”. Love the LORD with all your heart, soul and strength (Dt 6:5).

“Worship only the LORD” sounds easy, very easy. But the major reason why the entire nation of Israel fell was that they failed to keep that first commandment. The people were repeatedly warned not to worship the gods of other nations but they eventually ended up worshipping pagan gods.

Reasons why the Israelites worshipped pagan gods:

1. They were enticed by the pagan’s sensuous style of worship.

2. They were enticed by their foreigner wives who worshipped idols and pagan gods.

3. They mixed pagan beliefs & practices with their worship of the LORD. Their worship became a syncretism of YHWH-pagan religion.

Let us look at the reasons one by one.

1. They were enticed by the pagan’s sensuous style of worship

What was so attractive about idol worship?

The idols in themselves were not attractive.

The images of the idols are detestable and can be scary (slide projection)

The pagan worship in itself was detestable. The people had to sacrifice their children when a particular ritual required them to do so.

Thus, the appeal of Idolatry is not strong in itself. What was so attractive were the “add-ons”, the +++. The “add-ons” comprised the women dancers, the cultic music and dance, and the cultic prostitutes.

The Israelites were enticed by the Moabite women dancers and the cultic prostitutes. The men then participated in the sexual rituals that led them into idolatry.

In Numbers 25, we read about the Shittim Incidents where 24,000 people died in one day because of idolatry. When the Israelites arrived at Moab, some of them visited the ‘Moab Sand Bay; and some visited the Resort World Shittim. The entertainment programs entice the people to sexual immorality and idolatry. Their participation in pagan god worship caused them to sin against the LORD, and 24,000 died under God’s judgment.

During the 911 Terrorist Attack in 2001, 2,605 people died at New York’s World Trade Center in one day. President George Bush immediately put the nation on Red Alert. The National Security measures became extreme and stringent. At Shittim, 24,000 people died in one day; that is about 9 times the number of deaths at the World Trade Center. Moses would not simply ask the elders and leaders in Israel to declare how frequent they visited places like Moabite Sand Bay and World Resort Shittim; he had to put the entire nation on Red Alert also. Perhaps, the Shittim incident may help us understand the extreme and stringent regulations about idolatry in Deuteronomy 12:29-13:18 & 18:9-13.

As far as the danger of idolatry is concerned, Israel was on Red Alert all the time during the time of Moses.

Today, some people are sucked into idolatry because of lifestyles of talented people whom they admire. The likes and dislikes of people we admire can greatly influence us, whether positively or negatively. We need to be on our guard against attractive things and influential people who can lured us into idolatry.

2. The Israelites were enticed by their foreigner wives who worshipped idols and pagan gods.

People during the Judges’ times were enticed by foreign wives into idolatry.

King Solomon himself was bewitched by his many foreign wives.
1 Kings 11:1-5; Dt 17:14-17
King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh's daughter-- Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. 2 … Solomon held fast to them in love. 4 As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods… 5 He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. 6 So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the LORD …

As a result of his pagan wives’ influence, Solomon plunged Israel into idolatry.

3. They mixed pagan belief and worship with their worship of the LORD. Their worship became syncretism of YHWH-pagan religion.

The most subtle form of idolatry is Religious Syncretism. In Religious syncretism YHWH worship is mixed with pagan elements. As a result, YHWH worship became tainted with pagan beliefs and practices. So the people thought that we were worshipping YHWH when actually they were worship pagan god.

While Moses placed the nation on Red Alert, Solomon flagged down the alert warning from Red to Blue. Although Solomon built a magnificent Temple for the LORD, he also exercised a lot of religious tolerance that led Israel into gradual spiritual decay.

Under the influence of his pagan wives, Solomon introduced many syncretic forms in YHWH worship.

2 kings 23:4-7
4 The king (Josiah )ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the priests … and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the LORD all the articles made for Baal and Asherah and all the starry hosts… 5 He did away with the pagan priests appointed by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places … to Baal, to the sun and moon … and to all the starry hosts… 7 He also tore down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutes, which were in the temple of the LORD …

In the temple of the LORD were pagan religious objects, pagan priests and male cultic prostitutes’ housings.

2 Kings 23:13
13 And the king (Josiah) defiled the high places … which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth … of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh … of Moab, and for Milcom … of the Ammonites.

One reason why some Israelite kings removed the idols but kept the high places was because the high places activities were like “Cable TV programs”. Similar to our seven month “getai,” the pagan worship was entertaining. To ask a king to “to cut down the high places” is like asking you to cancel your cable TV subscription.

We must beware of mixing elements of unbiblical beliefs in our faith.

In normal times we are always on our guard against idolatry. But when times are bad, such as crises in our job or in our home, we may be tempted to turn to all kinds of measures because we just want a way out of stress, our struggle and our mental anguish. During such times, we should all the more be careful not to fall into idolatry.

Jetstar

Men who want good health should sit at rows 9, 19 or 29

Women looking for wealth should go for row 1, 11 or 21

Those looking to make new friends this year should pick row 3,4,13,14,23,24

The luckiest travelers are those who fly between 5-7am… so the early bird catches the worm.

If you have health problems or financial problems, would you heed the above-mentioned advice?

Supposed you are facing a crisis and have many material needs. During that time of struggling, you have no Christian friends to support and encourage you. Then the temptation to dabble in feng shui can be very strong. It is easy to fall into the temptation of idolatrous belief.

Someone asked a rabbi,

“If God is so opposed to idols, why not destroy them instead of just telling people not to worship them?

The rabbi replied,

“Have you seen how many things in the world people choose to worship?”

“They worship the sun and moon, their houses and money, their nation and culture – even other human beings.

If God destroyed all that we might worship, nothing would be left.

Job told his friends,

24 "If I have put my trust in gold or said to pure gold, 'You are my security,' 25 if I have rejoiced over my great wealth, the fortune my hands had gained, 26 if I have regarded the sun in its radiance or the moon moving in splendor, 27 so that my heart was secretly enticed and my hand offered them a kiss of homage, 28 then these also would be sins to be judged, for I would have been unfaithful to God on high.
Job 31:24-2

Idolatry need not be restricted to the worship of deities. Idolatry may include worship of people, living things, or non-living things that we love possessively or obsessively.

In verse 29, Moses exhorted the people to act on the instructions that God had clearly revealed to them, and not dabble in mysteries that they did not and could not know at all.

29:29 Act on What God has Revealed; Not Be Lured by the Mysteries about the Future

29 The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.

In verses 18-21 Moses warned those people who thought that they could secretly worship pagan gods and then “take cover” under the faithfulness of community. Moses warned “The LORD will single you out”.

18 Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe … go and worship the gods of those nations … 19 When such a person … thinks, "I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way." …20 The LORD will never be willing to forgive him; his wrath and zeal will burn against that man….21 The LORD will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster …

In verses 22-28, Moses warned the people about God’s dire judgment for breaking the covenant:
22 Your children who follow you in later generations and foreigners who come from distant lands will see the calamities that have fallen on the land … 24 All the nations will ask: "Why has the LORD done this to this land? Why this fierce, burning anger?" 25 And the answer will be: "It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the LORD … They went off and worshiped other gods …

If Israel were to persist in idolatry, then the LORD would destroy the land and drive the people out.

We may misunderstand that the land that the LORD gave Israel is a kind of “carrot-and-stick” measure, or an incentive for obedience. In other words, when the people obey the Law, they stay in the land and enjoy God’s blessings. If the people disobey God and forsake God, they will be cursed and exiled.

The land was supposed to be a place where God could live among His people and walk with them. The land was supposed to be God’s center of worship on earth, that Israel could draw the people of other nations to worship God. The land was not meant for people to indulge in material blessings while they worshipped pagan gods. If the people worshipped pagan gods then they could not fulfill their priestly mission of drawing other people to worship the Creator-God. Should the people live like pagans, they could not fulfill their call to be light to the nations.

Conclusion

The Israelites’ idolatry was not a mild threat to YHWH worship in the Old Testament world. The Ammonites (Dt 2:19), Moabites (Dt 2:9) & Edomites (Dt 23:7) used to worship the God of Abraham. Like Israel, the LORD gave each of the nations a land, and they had to fight and drive out the inhabitant to possess their land. They seem to have threaded the path that Israel was walking.

Unfortunately, those nations that used to worship the Creator-God, stopped worshipping Him. They worshipped pagan gods instead.

Thus, the “Red Alert” warnings in Deuteronomy to stay away from idolatry were not Moses’ unfounded obsessive fear. The danger of turning away from the LORD towards idolatry has been very real in all ages, even for the church today.

One global evangelist, Luis Palau once made an alarming statement:

The Death of Christianity is Only a Generation Away.

Global Evangelist Luis Palau
Message: God has no grandchildren

Christianity may die within a generation. God does not have grandchildren. Believers in Christ may become God’s children by spiritual birth; no one may become God’s grandchild by biological birth. Every person must choose to believe in Jesus and acknowledge Him as Savior – Jesus is Lord.

Therefore, the death of Christianity in any country, in any church, and in any Christian household is only a generation away.

The book of Revelation mentions seven churches in Asia Minor:

The Seven churches in Asia-Minor
1. The Church at Ephesus (Acts 18ff; Rev. 2:1ff)
2. The Church at Smyrna (Rev. 2:8ff)
3. The Church at Pergamos (Rev. 2:12ff)
4. The Church at Thyatira (Acts 16:14; Rev.2:18ff)
5. The Church at Sardis (Rev. 3:1ff)
6. The Church at Philadelphia (Rev.3:7ff)
7. The Church at Laodicea (Col.4:13; Rev.3:14ff)
But today all the 7 churches are just 7 historical sites. The 7 Christian provinces are now Islamic towns, parts of the Moslem world in Turkey.

We need to share the Gospel of Jesus to every generation. Otherwise, one day Jubilee Church may become a monument – one of the oldest Presbyterian churches in Singapore, built in 1883. Church where worship services are occasionally attended by some senior citizens. That’s all.

Your household may not be Christian anymore one day.

Telling our salvation story is one way of witnessing and sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We need to avoid any form of idolatry so that we can worship God wholeheartedly. We need to guard against religious syncretism so that we can be effective “light of the world” and “salt of the earth” for the LORD’s glory.