Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20130210.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Deuteronomy: Moses' Great Appeal For Israel To Obey God For Blessing
Part III: The Treaty Historical Prologue, Deuteronomy 1:5-4:43
C. Transjordan Allotment: Learning To Heed God From Moses' Regret
(Deuteronomy 3:12-4:2)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    Each of us is forming a record of deeds in life that will lead either to God's blessing or to regret due to His discipline, for Ecclesiastes 12:14 NIV predicts that "God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil."

    (1) Consider the case of Rick Sheehy, the former lieutenant governor of Nebraska. He had "planned to run for governor next year, when [Governor] Heineman is prohibited from running because of term limits." However, Mr. Sheehy has "resigned after an Omaha newspaper reported that he had made more than 2,000 calls on a government cellphone to four women, one of whom acknowledged an affair with him while he was married." (Vauhini Vara, "No. 2 Official Resigns Over Calls to Women," The Wall Street Journal, 2/4/2013, p. A5) One can only image how Mr. Sheehy regrets his actions that have cost him not only the election to be governor of Nebraska, but possibly a lot more relationships, and surely God's approval and blessing!

    (2) The former Mayor of New York City, Ed Koch, who died February 1, 2013, did not make Rick Sheehy's mistake, but the article, "Ed Koch: Entertaining but No Reformer" by Fred Siegel, a scholar in residence at St. Francis College and Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, in the same paper, p. A13, noted he came to regret part of his track record. Having won "the 1981 mayoral election . . . Koch foolishly -- he later ascribed it to hubris' -- decided to run for governor against . . . Mario Cuomo. After his statewide defeat [to Cuomo], Koch took his eye off the ball in New York City" to make "peace with . . . social service agencies, community activists,' civil libertarians' and public-sector trade unionists who lived off the city payroll . . . [so that] (b)etween 1980 and 1989, the city budget nearly doubled."

    Siegal's article explains that it wasn't until "Rudolph Giuliani" was elected mayor and his "welfare reforms were beginning to reduce the city's cost burdens" that the threat of the "Financial Control Board takeover receded." Mr. Siegal concluded: "Ed Koch was a wonderful figure . . . but he was not, despite all of the tributes, an effective manager of New York City."

    As Rick Sheehy and Ed Koch have produced track records that cause each at least some regrets, we ask, "Will I be happy with what I am doing right now, or should I be making adjustments to avoid future regrets and enjoy God's rich blessing?! How so?"

    Need: "How can I avoid future big regrets and gain God's blessing?!"

  1. The Deuteronomy 1:5-4:43 Historical Prologue of the suzerain treaty format of Deuteronomy, typical of such treaty formats, tells of the Suzerain's past goodness to the vassal, that is, of God's goodness to Israel, reporting in Deuteronomy 3:12-4:2 of Moses' call that Israel learn from his own regretful failure to heed God.
  2. Thus, as Israel started to inherit the Transjordan lands in great blessing, though Moses begged God to change His mind about judging him to die outside the land for past sinful failure, to Moses' grief, God steadfastly refused to let him enter the Promised Land:
    1. While he was still living, Moses saw God marvelously begin to cause Israel to inherit the land east of the Jordan River, Deut. 3:12-17:
      1. In Deuteronomy 3:12, Moses reported how he gave the tribes of Reuben and Gad the southern half of Gilead, what had belonged to Sihon king of Heshbon and the southern part of what had belonged to Og king of Bashan, giants Israel defeated, Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, map 4: "The Twelve Tribes of Israel"; Deut. 3:11.
      2. In Deuteronomy 3:13, Moses told how he gave the northern part of Gilead and all Bashan of Og's former kingdom to the half tribe of Manasseh that had requested Transjordan territory, cf. Num. 32:33.
      3. Moses' vast allotment of Bashan's former territory apparently took into account and rewarded the vast conquests of men in the tribe of Manasseh who defeated a lot of giants there in faith in God, Deut. 3:13b-14 NIV, KJV; Wycliffe Bible Commentary, 1971, p. 160.
      4. Moses reminded the men of the tribes inheriting the Transjordan lands to help the rest of Israel's men defeat Canaan's foes before returning to live in their Transjordan properties, Deut. 3:18-20.
      5. He also commanded Joshua, his leadership replacement, to take courage from the defeats of Sihon and Og that God would equip Israel under him to conquer the people of Canaan, Deut. 3:21-22.
    2. Motivated by Israel's great conquests of people east of the Jordan and by her inheritance of vast stretches of that Transjordan area due to God's enabling, Moses greatly desired to be a part of the conquest of Canaan seen by his opening plea to God in Deuteronomy 3:23-24.
    3. Thus, he entreated (hanan, B. D. B., A Heb.-Eng. Lex. of the O. T., p. 336-337; Hithpael = intens. reflex.) God to let him pass over to the Promised Land, the particle of entreaty, na' ("please") added to abar, "pass over," Deut. 3:23; Ibid., p. 609, 716; Kittel, Bib. Heb., p. 267.
    4. However, in a powerful play on words, Moses in Deuteronomy 3:26 told how God had responded to his pleading to "put Himself in a fury" (abar, Ibid., B. D. B., p. 720; Hithpael = intens. reflex.) at Moses, using a homonym to the abar of Moses' "pleading," v. 23: Moses' intensive effort to make himself plead (abar, Hithpael) with God was met by God's intensive effort to make Himself furious (abar, Hithpael) at Moses for this very pleading effort by Moses!
    5. God even idiomatically told Moses, "Enough to you!" (rab-lak, Ibid., Kittel; Ibid., B. D. B., p. 912-913 [rab]) "Do not add a word to Me again about this matter!" (Ibid., Kittel; Deuteronomy 3:26b)
    6. The Lord then had Moses climb up the mountain and see the land, but not cross into it, and charge, encourage and strengthen Joshua to lead Israel into the place that he could only see from afar, Deut. 3:28, 29.
  3. In this context, Moses urged Israel in Deuteronomy 4:1-2 to heed God's Word, not adding to it or diminishing from it, that she might enter the Promised Land opposite his own regretful, sinful failure:
    1. Deeply regretting his own past sinful disobedience and its judgment in contrast to Israel's great future, Moses turned to Israel, calling her to do what he had failed to do in heeding God for the blessing of living, conquering and possessing the Promised Land, Deuteronomy 4:1.
    2. He thus told Israel not to add anything to nor to diminish anything from God's Word, that she might heed Him for blessing, Deut. 4:2.
  4. [In God's GRACE through Christ's work on the cross, in the resurrection, Moses will be free of sin and the sin nature, and thus qualify to get INTO the Promised Land as seen by his appearance on the Mount of Transfiguration with Christ and Elijah there, an event that prefigures Christ's future Kingdom, Matt. 16:28-17:3.]
Application: (1) May we trust in Christ to gain eternal life and escape hell with its eternal regrets, John 3:16. (2) For blessing in the Christian life, may we heed Moses' testimony to obey Scripture precisely to avoid future regrets and know God's blessing in living.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 This sermon lesson led me to recall four dramatic illustrations I could use here in the conclusion of this message. Believe me, they would have precisely, strongly illustrated this lesson!

However, as I thought about them, I noticed that sharing any one of them could risk really hurting one or more other Christians.

I struggled over this matter, for one of the illustrations I shared with my wife, and she had responded by urging me to go ahead and use it! However, I was still bothered by the fact that using it could possibly hurt others, countering God's most basic calling for me as a pastor to edify other people, especially fellow believers.

While battling this issue, I recalled the introductory illustration in this message regarding the late past Mayor of New York City, Ed Koch. Fred Siegel's op-ed in the February 4, 2013 issue of The Wall Street Journal told how Mr. Koch himself had later viewed his decision to run for governor against Mario Cuomo was regrettably fueled by "hubris," by selfish pride, and it led Mayor Koch -- in Siegel's words -- to take "his eye off the ball in New York City" and fail as an effective money manager there. In the end, the city ended up in bad financial straits that only began to turn around when Rudoph Giuliani was elected mayor and began his welfare reforms.

Mr. Siegel's op-ed left me realizing that to "keep my eye on the ball" of my job of discipling people, God's most basic calling for me as pastor, the best illustration to use here was this report about my NOT using any of these other illustrations to avoid the risk of hurting others.

Accordingly, the illustration you are getting here has become its own best closing illustration: I want to avoid Moses' regret of missing God's Promised Land for erring in front of God's people. I want to enter the "Promised Land" God has for me in terms of personal blessing in our era of Church History for doing His will regarding God's people versus the risk of hurting them in violation of my most basic calling as a pastor!



May we all thus heed God to avoid future regrets and enter into the blessing the Lord has for us!