Deuteronomy 1

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Deuteronomy 1:1-46

“These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red sea, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab. 2 (There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadesh-barnea.) 3 And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that the LORD had given him in commandment unto them; 4 after he had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites, which dwelt in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, which dwelt at Astaroth in Edrei: 5 on this side Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law, saying, 6 The LORD our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount: 7 turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates. 8 Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them. 9 And I spake unto you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you myself alone: 10 the LORD your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude. 11 (The LORD God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you, as he hath promised you!) 12 How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife? 13 Take you wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you. 14 And ye answered me, and said, The thing which thou hast spoken is good for us to do. 15 So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men, and known, and made them heads over you, captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens, and officers among your tribes. 16 And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him. 17 Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God’s: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it. 18 And I commanded you at that time all the things which ye should do. 19 And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which ye saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the LORD our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea. 20 And I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which the LORD our God doth give unto us. 21 Behold, the LORD thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged. 22 And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come. 23 And the saying pleased me well: and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe: 24 and they turned and went up into the mountain, and came unto the valley of Eschol, and searched it out. 25 And they took of the fruit of the land into their hands, and brought it down unto us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land which the LORD our God doth give us. 26 Notwithstanding ye would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God: 27 and ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the LORD hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. 28 Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there. 29 Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them. 30 The LORD your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes; 31 and in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the LORD thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place. 32 Yet in this thing ye did not believe the LORD your God, 33 who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to shew you by what way ye should go, and in a cloud by day. 34 And the LORD heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and sware, saying, 35 Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers, 36 save Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed the LORD. 37 Also the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, saying, Thou also shalt not go in thither. 38 But Joshua the son of Nun, which standeth before thee, he shall go in thither: encourage ye him: for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. 39 Moreover your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it. 40 But as for you, turn you, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea. 41 Then ye answered and said unto me, We have sinned against the LORD, we will go up and fight, according to all that the LORD our God commanded us. And when ye girded on every man his weapons of war, ye were ready to go up into the hill. 42 And the LORD said unto me, Say unto them, Go not up, neither fight; for I am not among you; lest ye be smitten before your enemies. 43 So I spake unto you; and ye would not hear, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD, and went presumptuously up into the hill. 44 And the Amorites, which dwelt in that mountain, came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, even unto Hormah. 45 And ye returned and wept before the LORD; but the LORD would not hearken to your voice, nor give ear unto you. 46 So ye abode in Kadesh many days, according unto the days that ye abode there.”

Introduction

[Audio version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED594]

“Deuteronomy, on the edge of the Promised Land, the children of Israel. It is a book of transition. It’s an interesting, interesting book. There is a new generation, there’s a generation that has perished in the wilderness, because of unbelief, they had turned away 38 years before this. And this is a new generation come now again the border of the Promised Land. So as we follow them and see this exhortation to them, it’s a new generation listening to these things. They will have a new possession, a possession God spoke to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob about. Now this new generation will be led into something, the Pillar of Cloud by day, the Pillar of Fire by night, the Manna, will cease. They will be brought into a new possession, something that no generation of Israel has ever known in the context that they experience it in. So God is speaking to them in regards to that. A new experience for them, that of sowing and reaping, living in houses they hadn’t built and vineyards they hadn’t planted and so forth, partaking of the land, settling down, a new experience, different from the generation we’ve been journeying with. And there’s a new revelation in the Book of Deuteronomy. I believe personally that it’s why it was the Lord’s favourite Book, the Lord quoted more, Jesus quoted more from Deuteronomy than any other Book in the Old Testament. And that’s because it’s the first time we hear of God’s love, first time in the Bible we hear these things. I’ll read them, you don’t have to turn, chapter 4, verse 37, God says ‘Because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in his sight, with his mighty power, out of Egypt.’ ‘Because he loved your fathers,’ the first we’re hearing of this. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy had been historical, legislative. And now this new generation ready to go in, to possess the land. Several times through the Book God says something they’ve never heard before, and that is the motive behind everything was his great love that he had towards the children of Israel. In chapter 7 it says this, ‘The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you because you were more in number than other people, for you were the fewest of all people. But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers has the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.’ And again down in verse 13, chapter 7, it says ‘And he will love thee and bless thee and multiply thee, he will also bless the fruit of thy womb,’ speaking to the new generation, that’s chapter 7. Chapter 10 we have again the same statement made in verse 15, it says ‘Only the LORD had a delight in thy father, to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you, above all the people as it is this day.’ And again in chapter 23 it says ‘Nevertheless the LORD thy God would not hearken unto Balaam,’ he was trying to curse them, ‘but the LORD thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee, because the LORD thy God loved thee.’ And it’s the first time in the Bible we’re hearing these statements made clearly. So there’s a new revelation given to them, it’s a transitional Book. Deuteronomy, deuteros, “the Second Law,” from the Greek, the Septuagint. The Hebrew, and I can’t pronounce it, is Habib Hareem, which means “the words,” which comes from the first verse here “These be the words” a lot of originality there coming up with that. “These be the words,” so we’re going to jump into this, and we’re going to look at some of these things. Interesting, words are important throughout this Book in an interesting way. We’re going to find the word “land” 153 times in this Book, because he’s bringing them into the land. He has spoken over and over, he’s going to say this. We’ll find the word “inherit” 36 times, we’re going to find the word “hear” or “hearken” throughout the Book, God is telling them that he wants them to hear, he wants them to hearken. And it deals with an attitude of heart, it means to yield, to actually “lean to” what God is saying, with obedience. We find that idea in this Book 71 times. [“hearken” is a compound word from the words “hear,” to listen, hear, and “ken” an old English word meaning “to know.” So “hearken” means to hear in order to know. It comes from the German Kennenzulernen, which literally means “to come to know in order to learn,” or literally “know-to-learn.” To learn in order to understand.] Ah, “the heart” is spoken of 46 times, God’s interested in their heart. “Love,” either God’s love or their love towards him is mentioned 16 times. If you count the word love, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, 7 times it’s used through all those books. 16 times in the Book of Deuteronomy we hear the word “love” used. And the idea of possessing the land, we going to find that 65 times, and there’s others. But the idea is, God is making a point as we go into this. Look, in Romans Paul said this, you don’t have to turn there, chapter 15, verse 4, ‘For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience, and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope.’ So through patience and comfort, that we might receive from the Book of Deuteronomy, that there would be hope in our lives, as we face certain things, as we realize God’s leading, God’s provision, God’s inheritance that he’s put in front of us. Again, 1^st Corinthians chapter 10 says ‘Moreover brethren I would not have that you should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, they did all eat the same spiritual meat, did all drink the spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, that Rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well-pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things are our examples, to the intent, that we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted, neither be idolators as some of them, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and to drink, and they rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day 23,000. Neither let us temp Christ, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents, neither murmur ye,’ oh there’s one, huh, ‘as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for examples, and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the Age are come.’ Now look, Paul’s writing that to the Corinthian church. We think our culture is separate, that our culture is different from previous cultures, and that we face all kinds of temptations. Look, the Bible says some very specific things about “culture” in the last days, and things that would be increasing on a parabola, just sin and so forth. But Rome was a place were Bacus was worshipped, everybody drinking wine to worship Bacus, it was a place where there were temple prostitutes and immorality everywhere. The Roman males that were citizens believed that every Roman man should have a wife to bear his legal offspring, a mistress for adventure, a concubine for pleasure, and at least one woman slave. Rome was not different from the world that we live in. And here are these Corinthians that are in a Roman world, and the Corinthian church was famous for fornication, suing one another, getting drunk at the Communion table, divided, ‘I’m of Paul, I’m of Apollos’ and so forth. And Paul says to that church, the Corinthian church ‘There are things that you can learn, from Exodus, from Leviticus, Numbers, from Deuteronomy, there are lessons.’ And so much more in our culture, we face so many of those same kinds of temptations. So there will be things for us to look at and to learn as we go through this Book of Deuteronomy. How wonderful as we jump in and begin to hear about God’s love in this Book. I believe that Wiersby, if you have his four volume set on the Old Testament, and all six volumes he’s done are great, if you want to invest, and you want to get a Bible commentary, Wiersby’s six volumes are wonderful, I think you get more bang for the buck there, for the least amount of reading you get the most amount of return, and some I have days I’m looking for that. Sometimes I enjoy torturing myself, sometimes I’m in that mode. And Wiersby does a great job, and his outline, his breakdown of the Book of Deuteronomy is wonderful. Jason Lobacks says the first 11 chapters are retrospective, and chapters 12 through 34 are prospective. And then Wiersby just breaks it down further. But the first 11 chapters are looking back, to God’s faithfulness and God’s goodness. And Moses is reminding a generation that had not seen the Red Sea part, they had not seen the miracles in Egypt, they had not seen some of the first things that their parents had seen. And he’s reminding them of the great hand of God and what he’s done, and all of God’s goodness and all of God’s faithfulness. And then he asks a response of them. And he’s saying ‘God did these things because he loves you, he loved your fathers.’ And then from chapter 12 on, it’s prospective, it’s looking forward, it’s reiterating the Law, some prophetic parts to it. And then ultimately the replacing of God’s servant, as the baton is passed from Moses to Joshua at the end. So it is remarkable in scope as we move into it.

Moses Rehearses Their History To This New Generation--The Importance Of History

From Sinai To Kadesh-barnea The First Time Around

It begins by saying, chapter 1, hopefully we’ll get through tonight, it goes basically from Sinai to Kadesh-barnea, “These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red sea, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab. (There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadesh-barnea.)” and I don’t like this next verse, “And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that the LORD had given him in commandment unto them;” (verses 1-3) That’s quite a contrast. There are 11 days journey from Sinai to Kadesh-barnea, 11 days. They took the long way around the barn, 40 years later. Now look, it’s sad in some respects, no doubt there is a warning here about unbelief. There’s only about 125 miles the directions they give us here. And so many times for us, if we’re slow learners then we’re slow in our journey also. I’ve raised to the best of our ability, with a bigger measure of God’s grace, not our ability, four young adults now. And they’re all different. Some of them learn easier in some ways, you can instruct them. Some of them are actually observant learners, actually listen to the language that you speak to them, and then seek to put into practice what you say, it’s remarkable. Some are experiential learners, and I am that way, ‘Don’t bang your head against the wall.’ Well let me get a running start and see why, you know, and laying on the ground I say ‘Now, now, oh ya, ya, now I see.’ But I don’t want to take 40 years, I don’t want to take 40 years. So no doubt there is an exhortation encapsulated in this. On the other side of this, God says as we get further into Deuteronomy, that he didn’t lead them on that 11-day journey, because they weren’t ready to do battle. They weren’t ready to face an enemy, they hadn’t yet been formed into the people that he had set the land aside for, that God in his grace, now I do believe they could have gotten there sooner than 40 years, don’t get me wrong. But the idea is, if you’re willing I think God will make young men and women old fast, if you’re willing [maturity-wise], he will season us. We all know Christians that are many years older in the Lord and are very immature. And we all know other Christians that don’t seem they’ve been saved that long that demonstrate some great maturity. And it depends I think many times how much time did they put in prayer on their knees, how much time have they genuinely put there heart before God’s Word. Now if I’m flying in a plane, and I don’t like to do that, because I’m always in a product built by the lowest bidder, and that’s obvious today in the news [even more so with Boeing, sadly], I could have an older pilot or a younger pilot, I don’t care, I want the one that has more hours in the air, behind the steering wheel, whatever they have up there, that knows more about the brakes and the gas pedal and steering that thing, that’s the one I want, because you could have a young pilot that has way more experience [the pilots, young ones, that came out of the Vietnam war, with 4,500 hours flight time logged in all kinds of aircraft, Air America, and went right into flying for the airlines after the war, and they were young, I know, my brother-in-law was one of them]. And here is this generation, they’re being challenged by Moses now, on the edge of all the Promises of God. Saying ‘Look, the generation before you took the long way around the barn, it’s an eleven day journey from Sinai to Kadesh-barnea, and 40 years later,’ “And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that the LORD had given him in commandment unto them;” (verse 3) it’s about one month before he goes up on Pisgah [so this Book of Deuteronomy was spoken to the children of Israel by Moses directly during this one month span of time, and obviously he either wrote it down just after he was speaking it, or the LORD dictated what he had said verbally back to him to write it down now, as the last book of the Torah], and gives his life, dies, gives up the ghost. [And the very next moment of his consciousness he will be arising in the 1^st Resurrection to immortality, as the dead as Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, and David said in the Psalms, do not have any conscious thoughts in the grave, Moses will not sense the passage of time from his death to his resurrection when he arises as an immortal being, looking like Christ looks described in Revelation 1:13-18]. Moses is speaking now, this took place “after he had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites, which dwelt in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, which dwelt at Astaroth in Edrei:” (verse 4) Now look, they are encountering by God’s grace, giants on the east side of the Jordan River this time. Because when they had come 38 years earlier, they sent spies into the land, and one of the things they came back and said, we’re going to see it tonight, ‘There’s giants, the sons of Anak, there’s giants in the land, we’re freaked out, you should see them, we’re like grasshoppers in their sight.’ This is a new generation, and these exhortations and the things that God has to say to them, the admonitions and the experiences he has granted to them, are all preparations. He’d allowed them to face Og, whose 12 or 13-foot tall, and again Sihon king of the Amorites, we hear about these two characters in the Psalms, throughout the Scripture, it’s evidently a remarkable victory. Jameson, Fawcet & Brown have a book called The Great Cities of Bashan, they talk about excavations up in the area past the Golan Heights in Syria where they found these huge cities, they said there were 60 cities Deuteronomy is going to tell us, of the giants that were in that area [see The Giant Cities of Bashan (read pages 11-96)

https://ia801609.us.archive.org/13/items/giantcitiesofbas00portuoft/giantcitiesofbas00portuoft.pdf (maps) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/12_Tribes_of_Israel_Map.svg and https://www.britannica.com/place/Bashan ]. So God is giving this exhortation to them after they had slain Sihon and Og, these two monstrous kings, so they don’t have any excuse ‘So there’s giants in there,’ ‘Really? Well there’s dead giants behind you, same God, ok, we’ll move forward this time.’ “on this side Jordan,” is where they were slain “in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law, saying,” (verse 5) Now, in verse 6 he begins to rehearse in some ways their history for them. One of the major problems in this country right now is we have forgotten our history, we have forgotten our moorings, we are deliberately denying them. We talk about some of the Fathers of our nation being deist, they weren’t deist, they were believers in Jesus Christ. Even Thomas Jefferson is accused of being a deist, he did lots of things wrong, they made mistakes, but he was a believer in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour. And a generation that’s forgotten their history is a generation without identity. And there isn’t anything more the culture wants of young people today than for them to have no moorings relative to their history, he wants us to forget. In fact I said to Louis, I was talking to Louis the other day and we were talking about the election, I said Louis the big question is, ‘Who in the world would want to be president, anyway? with the economy, with the world problems and everything going on.’ And he said ‘I know.’ and I said ‘Who?’ and he said ‘Satan, that’s who wants the presidency.’ Ah, ok, alright, I want the Rapture then. But I understand what his point was. He’s not content [Satan], he wants things to worsen [and it certainly has from 2008 to 2024], you know, we can’t be idle, we have a stewardship in regards to being citizens and voting and so forth that is extremely important for us to pray and to seek God and what our responsibilities are in regards to those things [concerning voting, check this out, you may change your mind (see https://unityinchrist.com/topical%20studies/America-ModernRomans6.htm )]. But I think, remembering our history, remembering our moorings, remembering the Founding Fathers, remembering some of those things, very important. And again, a men, feet of clay, made mistakes, but what were the things that were important, what was central there?

Moses Rehearses Commands For The Previous Generation To Go In And Take Possession Of The Promised Land

He says “The LORD our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount: turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates.” (verses 6-7) Evidently if they had gone in and taken the land the first time, 38 years earlier, imagine the borders that are being described here were remarkable [this points to the borders given to Abraham, borders that will be extant for greater Israel when all 12 tribes return after Yeshua haMeschiach’s return to set up the Millennial Kingdom of God, In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: the Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.” (Genesis 15:18-21) That’s from the Nile River to the Euphrates River!]. Now Moses is telling them, this is what God has said to that first generation, “Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them.” (verse 8) “Behold” is “consider, think about this.” “I have set,” past tense, it’s already done as far as God is concerned. “to give it to them” it’s a gift, it’s by a covenant, it stands on his side, “to give it to them and to their seed after them.” “And I spake unto you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you myself alone: the LORD your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude.” (verses 9-10) Remember in Genesis chapter 15 God spoke to Abraham in verses 5 and 6 and says ‘Lift up your head Abraham, look at the stars, are you able to number them? Can you count them? This is the way your descendants are going to be.’ They say in both hemispheres on any given night there’s about 3,000 stars recognizable with the naked eye. Now I don’t know back in Abraham’s day without all the pollution and everything it might have been a little higher. But remember Numbers tells us, the last numbering before they came into the land there were 600,000 fighting men, of the fighting age, plus women, children and aged men, they had certainly become more vast than the stars of heaven, God had fulfilled his Word in such a remarkable way to them. He says consider this, “Behold, I have set” past tense, “the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them. And I spake unto you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you myself alone: the LORD your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude.” (verses 8-10) It should have been an incredible encouragement to them. “(The LORD God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you, as he hath promised you!) How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife?” (verses 11-12) Now Moses is making a point, it’s cumbersome, the weight of it, this many people. “your burden,” the things they would bring to him, “and your strife,” he put that in there, he’s tired of being a referee, you know he’s supposed to be God’s Prophet, the Law-giver, he’s standing there with a striped shirt on and a whistle everyday, ‘Foul! How can I bear all of your strife?’ “Take you wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you. And ye answered me, and said, The thing which thou hast spoken is good for us to do. So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men, and known, and made them heads over you, captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens, and officers among your tribes. And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him.” (verses 13-16) It would be wonderful if these were the rules that our nation was maintaining. “Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother.” If that was done, where would bigotry and hatred and injustice and all of those things stand? Judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the foreigner that is with you. “Ye shall not respect persons in judgment;” in regards to justice, the idea is, you’re not to respect one person above another, “but ye shall hear the small” the less fortunate and so forth, “as well as the great;” they’re to be even before you, “ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God’s: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it.” (verse 17) So it tells us here that the true or the genuine basis for justice, and what justice should be built upon, is a system where there is a greater fear of God than there is of man. Genuine justice, because God is the one ultimately who decreed it from the beginning, what justice is, ultimate justice is built on a greater fear of God than a fear of man. Of course we’ve gone a long way from that, haven’t we. We don’t even want to say ‘One nation under God’ in the Pledge of Allegiance anymore. When the Pentagon and New York City blows up then all the same cronies are standing on the Capitol steps singing God Bless America, and after the fear goes away they want to take it out of the Pledge of Allegiance again, we have amnesia. Ah, judge righteous judgment, hear the small as well as the great, “Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God’s: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it. And I commanded you at that time all the things which ye should do. And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which ye saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the LORD our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea.” (verses 17-19) now this was the first time, this is after 2 years or so, from their journey from the Red Sea they come to Kadesh-barnea, and they came there by faith, that’s how they arrived there at the border. Not by sight, they’d never been there before, they’d never seen it before. It was God telling them ‘This is the land I’m bringing you to that flows with milk and honey, it’s a good land that I give to you. It’s the land I promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ And they proceeded, they followed the Cloud by day, the Pillar of Fire by night, and they did that by faith, having never seen their destination, and they moved by faith.

The Previous Generation’s 1^st Big Mistake, ‘Let Us Send Spies Into The Land’--Their Lack Of Faith

“And I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which the LORD our God doth give unto us. Behold, the LORD thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged. And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come.” (verses 20-22) ‘Let’s do some reconnaissance here.’ Now God had already done reconnaissance, God had already told them what the land was like, already told them about the inhabitants, already told them not to be afraid, not to be discouraged, ‘I’m going to give you the land, I’m going to drive out the inhabitants, I’m even going to send hornets.’ I love that program. ‘I’m even going to send hornets before you to drive out the enemy.’ And they get to the edge of the land, they’re going ‘Oooh, I don’t know, maybe we should get some guys to go up, to make sure God knows what he’s talking about, and look at the land.’ How many times do we come to the border of something, as it were? We say ‘Hey, I have such a vision,’ or ‘If God would give me this,’ and then all of a sudden when we’re face to face with what we said we wanted, then we’re going ‘I need to put out a fleece to make sure. Ah, how do I know this was really the Lord?’ and we’re so like that. Here they say ‘Let’s send up some men.’ Look, over in verse 30 it says “The LORD your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes;” Look down in verse 32 and 33, “Yet in this thing ye did not believe the LORD your God, who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to shew you by what way ye should go, and in a cloud by day.” He’d already done reconnaissance, they want to send in men. Look, Psalm 78, you don’t have to turn there, says this “They kept not the covenant of God, they refused to walk in his law, and they forgot his works and his wonders that he shewed them, the marvelous things that he did in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt.” Then later in Psalm 78 it says ‘They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from their enemy.’ You know, here they are, you’d think, the people say ‘Hey, if I could see this, if I could see that, if the Lord, if I could see a miracle, if I could see the Red Sea part, if I could see this, then I’d be on fire, if the Lord would appear in my bedroom, or an angel feather would float down on my bed,’ we have all of these kinds of conditions. No, none of that, none of that changes people. Here’s the children of Israel, 2 years out of Egypt, they had seen Egypt destroyed by the hand of God, they had lived through the Passover night, they had seen the Red Sea part, they had got to the other side of the Red Sea and they sang ‘We will sing unto the LORD, he hath triumphed gloriously, the horse and rider thrown into the sea, the LORD our God is our strength and our song, he’s given us the victory.’ You read Exodus 15 and they were just excited and on fire about all of the things that God had done. He had destroyed the Egyptian army. Now here they are at the edge of Kadesh-barnea 2 years later, and they’re saying ‘Well maybe we should send in some men, maybe we should send in some guys.’ And look, God condescends to them. Moses said it sounded ok, ‘It sounds good to me.’ God had already told them what the land was like, he already told them before they got there, go in and possess it. They get there, on the edge of the land, they’re hesitant, God graciously condescends and says ‘ok, send in the spies, send them on in.’ “And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come.” (verse 22) Isn’t it funny, you know. I think, I’m a wimp, I just think of my own life, so many times something I just, I have this thing I know in my heart I’m supposed to step into it, and I need to ask someone, I need some man to spy it out for me, you know ‘What do you think, I need to get a consensus, I need to,’ sometimes I know the Lord is telling you something, you know ‘This is a lonely place, no one can get into this spot with me, not my wife, not my assistant pastor, not my friends, nobody. And in this lonely place I know you want me to step forward, Lord, be gracious to me, let me do that, let me honour you.’ And they want to send men in, “And the saying pleased me well: and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe: and they turned and went up into the mountain, and came unto the valley of Eschol, and searched it out. And they took of the fruit of the land into their hands, and brought it down unto us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land” How about that, the LORD was telling the truth, “which the LORD our God doth give us. Notwithstanding ye would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God:” (verses 23-26) Notice that. It doesn’t say “notwithstanding we could not go up” it says “you would not go up.” Rebellion is a matter of the will.

The Power Of Discouragement Leads To Their Refusal To Enter Into The Land

“Notwithstanding ye would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God: and ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the LORD hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.” (verses 26-27) So 1^st Corinthians says to us and the Corinthian church we should learn, because they murmured it says. Here we go. Have you ever heard? Imagine 2 million people murmuring, it sounds like that ‘Murmur, murmur, murmur,’ sounds like an engine going or something. “ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the LORD hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.” ‘it was better in Egypt.’ Couldn’t be farther from the truth, could it. Now the wonderful thing about Job, it says that he didn’t speak foolishly or unadvisedly. They said ‘the LORD hates us, that’s why he brought us up here.’ “Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there.” (verse 28) ‘Aaah, everybody take cover.’ Now look, “our brethren have discouraged us,” how many brethren is that? Ten, ten people discouraged 2 million people. Imagine what the power of the media is, rather than to inform, but to form us, not to inform us. The challenge to you, and the challenge to these children of Israel on the edge of the Promised Land, discouragement is a powerful ministry. Sometimes people in the church, they want Power! I’ll tell you what’s powerful, discouragement. Please don’t exercise it, if you have the gift of discouragement, would you please go to another church. Sorry. Some people, their favourite indoor sport is murmuring and complaining. Ten men determined the fate an entire generation. Don’t tell me about Jekyll Island, we’re just right here. Ten men discouraged an entire nation, turned them away, 2 million people, powerful influence, the mouth, both to encourage, to build up, to exhort. You know it tells us not to neglect the gathering together of ourselves, especially as we see the Day drawing near, that we should exhort one another to faith and to good works. As we see the world drawing to an end, we should be encouraging each other to faith and to good works. Our world is going to change. This year by the time it’s over may be a very interesting year [I’m laughing, yes when he gave this in 2008 we went into an economic recession, but this year in the Fall of 2024, the Israeli army has been at war against HAMAS in Gaza for over a year, and the Israeli army has just invaded southern Lebanon going against Hezbollah, just a day and a half away from the Levitical Feast of Trumpets, which symbolizes Jesus’ 2^nd coming. Some Orthodox Jews in Israel are preparing to sacrifice a red heifer to make the waters of purification so they can start sacrifices in Jerusalem, either this year or shortly thereafter. Yes, this year has been very interesting indeed. Russia has been at war with the Ukraine for over two years now. China, Russia, Iran and North Korea have formed an axis of evil that is destabilizing the whole free world.] When I was in Germany in January, several of the pastors from Switzerland said the folks there in banking said the American economy could buckle as early as this summer [fairly accurate, the US went into a recession, thanks to the errors of President George W. Bush]. Gas is high, not because there’s no gas, the pumps are wide open, because the dollar is so weak against the Euro, gas is going up. You can go to Manhatton and spend Euros in the department stores, in New York City. The Israeli government several weeks ago asked us, we give them more foreign aid financially than any country in the world, they asked us this year if we could give it to them in Euros instead of dollars. Hutzpah I know, but that’s God’s people, they want Euros. They’re bailing us out and bailing us out, trying to make this thing. Our lives could change so quickly. The days that we live in, first of all get out of credit card debt, you should do that. I tell my wife, this is not a credit card, it’s a debt card. They named it a credit card to make you think something wonderful is happening. Something really bad is happening when we use this, not something good. It’s not a credit card, it’s a debt card. Now nevermind. But anyhow, be wise, and stir one another up to faith and good works, don’t be murmuring. This is not the time for it, Jesus is coming, all that murmuring stuff is going to look like nonsense in the not too distant future. The stakes are high, eternal life is involved, stir one another up to faith and good works. And here it says 10 men discouraged the entire nation. ““Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there.” (verse 28) What do giants represent, what are the giants in your life? Giants in my life? Some people, of course they represent those things that are huge, they’re monstrous, they’re hard to overcome, we think we can never beat them. In some peoples lives it’s gambling, or it might be alcohol, pornography, sin, unforgiveness sometimes, huge, loneliness plagues our culture [got me there 😊], bitterness sometimes. And look, those things are from Egypt. We may have reason to be bitter, we may be able to justify that in our minds, or anger, or unforgiving, or ‘I’m struggling with this because this happened to me when I was a kid.’ Look, we’re dealing with a Living God now, he brings us to the edge of the Promised Land, he says ‘It’s my power, I will drive out the inhabitants of the land, I will tear down their strongholds, I will slaughter the giants, I will do the work, if you will believe, if you will believe,’ he gives victory, because it glorifies his Son. No flesh is going to glory in his presence. I get worn out by people that are constantly talking about ‘Their victory,’ and I think one minute after victory you’re just as dependent on the Lord as you were the moment before the victory, we come back to Go and don’t collect $200. He says “the sons of Anak are there” “Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them. The LORD your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes;” (verses 29-30) We’re to bring every thought into captivity to Christ, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, they’re powerful, to the pulling down of strongholds. Where does warfare take place? In the mind. The Bible knows that, God knows that, the Holy Ghost knows that, the enemy knows that, we spend our whole lives learning that for some reason. He says ‘I’ll go in, I’ll give you victory, I’ll fight for you, according to all that I did for you when I brought you out of the land of Egypt,’ God brought us out to bring us in, he didn’t bring us out to lose us in the wilderness. “and in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the LORD thy God bare thee,” listen, “as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place.” (verse 31) Think of how I bore you, as a man bears his son. Those were the days, when they were 2 years old and 3 years old, 5 years old when I could pick them up and carry them. More than that, I remember back to when I was that small, we’d come home from somewhere late at night, and it was dark and cold, and I would pretend I was asleep so my dad would carry me up to bed. It’s a confession, he knows now, he’s in heaven, there’s no problem. But what a wonderful thing to take a son, take a daughter, hold them in your arms, to bear them. They’re all to big now, I’ve got man-kids now, it’s a wonderful thing to let some little human being fall asleep on your chest and just lay there, it’s precious cargo, precious cargo. He loves us more than we love our own children, he loves us more than we love our own children. ‘I bare you, I’m not going to let you be destroyed by these giants, I’m not going to let an enemy defeat you, all these years I bore you as a father bears his son, as a father bears his son,’ “in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place.” “Yet in this thing ye did not believe the LORD your God, who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to shew you by what way ye should go, and in a cloud by day.” (verses 32-33) God never takes us to a place that he hasn’t prepared for us, and he never takes us to a place that he hasn’t prepared us for the place. And look, I’m as wimpy as the next guy, there are places in life that you come to and you think ‘Lord, where is your love today? I believe in you God, and I believe in your sovereignty, but this is so painful, and Lord it’s hard for me to reconcile your love with my experience today. I’m not gonna turn away, there’s no other god, but I’m going to bear my pain before you, my questions, my struggles.’ But time always yields the same truth, that he’s gone before us and he’s prepared the way, and he’s prepared us for the way that he’s prepared for us, he’s done his work, he’s faithful. It tells us in Ephesians that there are good works foreordained that we should walk in them, that we are his workmanship, his polima. We are an expression, he finds expression through us in good works that he’s foreordained, his eyes going to and fro throughout the earth, looking for those whose hearts are perfect toward him, that he might show himself strong on their behalf [he did that for Jonathan and his armourbearer]. He says ‘You refused to believe, I had gone before you, I had searched out a place to put your tents, the fire to guide you by night, the cloud by day.’

God’s 40 Year Judgment On Them For Their Refusal To Enter Into the Promised Land

“And the LORD heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and sware, saying, Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed the LORD.” (verses 34-36) The idea is, he’s fulfilled everything with his whole heart, he’s wholly followed the LORD. Now I love Caleb, he’s one of my favourite guys in the Bible, he’s about 85 years old now as they’re coming into the land. God is going to say to him in the Book of Joshua, ‘OK, you and Joshua, you wanted to do this 38 years before, pick your poison, what’s your inheritance?’ and Caleb says ‘Give me Hebron, give me that place where the giants live,’ Hebron means “communion,” and certainly in one sense, where we pray, where we find communion, that’s where the giants show up, ‘You hypocrite, you’re coming before a holy God, and you wrestle with lust, you wrestle with anger, you wrestle with unforgiveness,’ he says ‘Give me Hebron, give me the place where the giants dwell, let me go in, I’m 85, I’m ready, I’m just in shape now, I’m in my prime, I’m midlife.’ He’s a Kenizzite in one place, a Kenite in another. When you go back to Genesis, I think chapter 14, you find out the Kenizzites were some of the original tribes of Canaan. [Genesis 15:18-21 “In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: the Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.” See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenizzite ] He had joined himself to the children of Israel with his family at some point, and he’s recognized now as part of the tribe of Judah, remarkably, and his origin was a Kenizzite, a Kenite. That’s what I was before I got saved, I was a Kenizzite. “he hath wholly followed the LORD.” “Also the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, saying, Thou also shalt not go in thither.” (verse 37) Here Moses is blaming them, ‘The LORD was angry with me because of you guys, for your sakes, saying Thou also shalt not go in thither.’ The ideas is, Moses, the meekest man that ever lived, he had a problem with anger once in awhile. He was the meekest man that ever lived, he just blew his stack occasionally. Isn’t that a consolation to you? And you know there in Numbers 20 he got mad, God said ‘Speak to the rock,’ he came out whacking, he was cracking and whacking, ‘You rebels!’ then God let the water come forth, but he said to Moses ‘You haven’t sanctified me in the heart of the people, you haven’t set me aside, you’ve ruined the great type of Christ, he needs only to be smitten once, and then spoken to afterwards.’ But Moses says ‘For your sakes.’ Now listen, they’re on the edge of the Promised Land, Moses says ‘For your sakes, there’s something you’re supposed to learn through my failure.’ Isn’t this an amazing man, what an amazing man. You know, in one sense I have to believe after God makes all of his goodness pass before him, I mean, God’s saying ‘Moses, you’re not going to go into the land,’ and I’m sure his heart was broken, but I’m sure as he sat and stewed over that, he thought ‘You know, I really did want to go into the land, but when I weigh things out, the thing that I really want to do is go back to the place that made my face glow, I want to see his glory again. I want to do what he wouldn’t let me do, look right into his face.’ So Moses says to them ‘Learn from my failures. I disobeyed.’ This book, the two great themes that run through the Book of Deuteronomy, one is the faithfulness and love of God, it comes to the surface more than any of the previous Books, and the other one is chapter 4, verse 1, if you’ll turn there it says this, it says “Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD of your fathers giveth you.” There are four words here that you should underline, “hearken,” “do,” “live,” and “possess.” God wants us to “hearken” with a right attitude. Why? Some people want the 5-year plan and the 10-year plan, they want to know God’s will so they can decide whether they’re going to cooperate or not. He says “no” the deal is here is “hearken” so that you can “do,” obedience should be attached to that, so that you can “live,” because true living is attached to that, and so that you can then “possess,” or “inherit” the things that God has for you. Hearken, do, obey, live, and in that possession for the things that God has for you. Moses had disobeyed, isn’t it interesting. In the Mishna tradition tells us that Jewish mothers for centuries, would sit with their small children and rehearse the history of the nation of Israel. And then at one point, they would lean in, and they would whisper in the ears of their children “Moses, he could not lead us in, because he disobeyed.” Rehearsing the history of their great nation, they would lean into their children and whisper “Moses could not lead us in because he disobeyed,” almost being respectful, almost telling them privately. But no doubt implanting that, hoping that that would bear fruit, Moses says ‘The LORD was angry with me for your sakes here, that also I should not go in thither.’

‘Your Little Ones Will Go In And Inherit The Land’--How God Sees Our Little Ones

“But Joshua the son of Nun, which standeth before thee, he shall go in thither: encourage ye him:” and he’s going to need encouragement, “for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. Moreover your little ones,” I like this, “which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge” please take notice, “between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it.” (verses 38-39) and by the way, they’re grown, standing there listening to this. To me this is one of the great verses in the Bible, you know, Kathy and I had the four, believe me if we’d have lived 100 years ago and lived on a farm, I’d have had 12 or 13, 14, I’d have had a brood, I loved having them and still do. On this planet, as good as it gets for me is a house filled with my kids and their spouses and my grandkids, doesn’t get any better than that. Ah, ‘your little ones, your children, who you said would be a prey,’ and God said, ‘you know, I held that generation responsible, because they would not believe. But the little ones, who didn’t know, he says, between good and evil, they shall go in there and they shall possess the land.’ Because God didn’t hold them accountable because they didn’t know between good and evil. Look, there are those today, and in their theological system, in their theological position, they believe that the children of unbelieving cultures and religions, the little ones are damned, and will be lost. I just don’t believe that. To me Jesus says they’re innocent until proven guilty. I believe in the Rapture of the Church, little kids all around the world are outa here with us, and it’s going to be a testimony to set the stage for 144,000 Billy Grahams who are going to touch the world in a great ingathering. But here, God says your little ones, they didn’t know the difference between right and wrong, I’m not going to hold them accountable. David, in adultery with Bathsheba, the child is born, the child is sick, David is fasting and praying, mourning, refusing to eat, refusing to comb his hair, refusing to bathe, and the men in the palace are heartbroken, they loved David. And they get word that the child has died, and they’re whispering, they’re afraid to tell him, and David says ‘What are you talking about?’ they said ‘Oh nothing.’ he said ‘Don’t tell me that, the child has died, hasn’t he?’ and they said ‘Yes, the child has died,’ David gets up, washes himself, cuts his hair, prepares a meal. They said ‘Wait, wait, wait, we don’t understand. When the child was alive, you were miserable, you were fasting, praying, and now the child is dead, you’re up, you’re eating, you’re bathing.’ He said ‘While the child was alive I thought, who can tell when the LORD might be gracious, so I sought the LORD. Now that the child is gone, I know the LORD’s will. He shall no longer come to be with me, but I will go to be with him.’ David believed that little child, born of a Hittite woman and himself in adultery, was in the presence of the LORD, and he said ‘I will go to be with him.’ Jonah, wonderful Prophet. God says I want you to go to Nineveh, and I want you to preach a message of repentance to them. ‘OK God,’ and he heads in another direction. And you know the story, he says “Uncle” under some extraneous circumstances, and he goes to Nineveh and he preaches repentance, God’s gracious message, ‘40 days and judgment comes.’ Now it probably helped that he was bleached like a cueball from the gases in the whale’s stomach, he probably looked like Casper the Friendly Ghost, no eyebrows, no eyelashes, he looked like he came from the other side or something. But 40 days judgment comes, it says all of Nineveh repented. And Jonah was miserable, God said ‘What is wrong with you?’ he said ‘I knew this would happen, I knew it, I know you’re gracious, and I knew if I came here, and they repented, you’d be gracious to them, and it just burns me up. I can’t stand it, I hate these Ninevites, I wish they were all dead.’ And he goes and sits outside the city, here’s God’s messenger, and this gourd grows up, and he says ‘well I’ll just sit here in the shade, maybe, I’m just praying that the fire will still come down and burn ‘em up.’ and the gourd dies, and he’s miserable, the shade’s gone. God said ‘Jonah, what are you doing? Are you miserable because your gourd died? What about the 120,000 little ones in Nineveh that don’t know right from wrong, plus their cattle and animals? What about them, Jonah?’ Paul said ‘When I was a child I thought as a child, when I became a man I put away childish things.’ Jesus says ‘Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of heaven.’ There are indications throughout the Scripture that God draws a difference. Now we talk about “the age of reason,” that particular phrase is not used anywhere in the Bible, the age of accountability. God does say ‘Come let us reason, though your sins be as scarlet.’ It probably varies a bit per individual. The Jews Barmitzvah their sons at 13, and their daughters, and the Jewish boy would say “I relinquish my responsibility towards my father, God now I’m accountable to you.” and the Jewish father would say “LORD, this boy is not longer responsible to me, he’s responsible to you.” They recognize in there that their conscience had come to life, that they were responsible to come under conviction, to reason with God, ‘Come let us reason.’ The Romans and Greeks were 16, 17, they were different. But somewhere in there, your children, when they’re little, when you tell them to do something, they just need to obey. ‘Why?’ ‘Because I’m 200lbs, I’ll chew you up and spit you out ‘ok?’ But when they get to be 13 they say ‘Why?’ and you can’t say that anymore. If God is honouring their ability to reason, and it’s a very difficult thing for parents to change gears, then it’s their responsibility to begin to reason, still they owe us an honour as their parents, but still we should be giving way. They must earn it for sure. ‘Because the Scripture says, that’s why’ ‘Because this is what we believe, and this is what God has taught us,’ and you’re no longer looking at your child, you’re looking, if they’re believer, at a brother or sister in Christ. And it’s hard sometimes to shift those gears. He says here “Moreover your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it.” (verse 39) It’s one of the things that really gets me mad about the public education system, they’re bringing things into the lives of our children, before our children have a knowledge of good and evil, before their conscience comes to life, and they’re teaching them about daddy and daddy and mommy and mommy and all this other stuff. I mean, I don’t even want to talk about some of the stuff that goes on, and that’s before they have an ability to reason or think ‘Is this right or wrong,’ so they just believe, ‘I like to sit with Suzie, I’m 5-years old, that must mean I have this problem, or I’m this way, I like to do this…’ No, no, you don’t give that to them before they in themselves have understanding, as a free moral agent, they have no ability at that time to recognize the difference between right and wrong, it is our responsibility to mentor them and to lead by example. To say that government officials don’t have to, that their private lives don’t matter to me is, dumb, stupid, wrong, naïve. “But as for you, turn you, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea. Then ye answered and said unto me, We have sinned against the LORD, we will go up and fight, according to all that the LORD our God commanded us. And when ye girded on every man his weapons of war, ye were ready to go up into the hill. And the LORD said unto me, Say unto them, Go not up, neither fight; for I am not among you; lest ye be smitten before your enemies.” (verses 40-42) That’s when they came to Kadesh-barnea [the first time, 38 years ago], they turned away in unbelief, God said ‘that’s it, you’re gonna die in the wilderness, your carcases are going to fall in the wilderness, and they said ah, maybe he will give us a 2^nd chance, they all get ready, let’s go up and fight.’ And God said ‘No, no, don’t do it, I’m not with you.’ Look, that’s gotta be the basis for any battle. The main issue in any battle is, is God with you? If he’s not, don’t put on your sword, don’t put on the gloves, don’t get in the ring. You don’t want to be in the battle he’s not in. Pick your battles wisely, pick your battles wisely.” “So I spake unto you; and ye would not hear, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD, and went presumptuously up into the hill. And the Amorites, which dwelt in that mountain, came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, even unto Hormah. And ye returned and wept before the LORD; but the LORD would not hearken to your voice, nor give ear unto you. So ye abode in Kadesh many days, according unto the days that ye abode there.” (verses 43-46) [transcript of a connective sermon on Deuteronomy 1:1-46, given by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia, 13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116]