February 3-5, 2018 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: Deuteronomy 18:14-20 “WE’VE GOT IT SO MUCH BETTER!”

EPIPHANY 4

February 3-5, 2018

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Deuteronomy 18:14-20

“WE’VE GOT IT SO MUCH BETTER!”

1.     A better prophet.

2.     A better message.

3.     Are we any better?

Deuteronomy 18:14-20 (NIV 1984) “The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do so. ¹⁵The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to Him. ¹⁶For this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.” ¹⁷The Lord said to me: “What they say is good. ¹⁸I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put My words in His mouth, and He will tell them everything I command Him. ¹⁹If anyone does not listen to My words that the Prophet speaks in My name, I Myself will call him to account. ²⁰But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death.”

          It seems the older I get the more I find myself longing for the “good old days.” Does that happen with you? It seems our minds have this ability to forget the hardships and struggles of the past and remember with longing simpler and easier times. Sometimes we are right. The good old days were better. Think of things like national unity and family time. But don’t forget war protests and gas rationing and fewer conveniences and not as good health care. The word of God before us today gives us a chance to compare God’s dealing with people in the good old days of the Old Testament to how God deals with us today. What we’ll find is those good old days weren’t so good at all. We’ve got it so much better!

          We join God’s people as their 40 years of wandering in the desert was nearing its end. If you recall, after God had freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and led them to their new home they had refused to enter it, refusing to trust God’s promise to fight for them and remove the people living there. As a consequence, to help them learn, God prescribed 40 years of wandering in the desert area to teach them to trust. Now as the time came for them to enter their promised land Moses gave them encouragements and warnings to keep them spiritually safe. “The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do so.” Garbage in, garbage out. You are what you eat. Be careful who you listen to. It will have an effect on you. God’s people were not to be like others who got their information, their beliefs and morals ultimately from the Devil. A good warning for us today. Who are you letting shape your opinions and beliefs? The people around us listen to polls and public opinion. God expects His people to listen to his prophets. “The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to Him. ¹⁶For this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.”

          Moses had been the prophet for God’s people. And the people were terrified. Moses had received the law from God on Mt. Sinai. The mountain shook. There was smoke and fire as God impressed on the people that He was serious about his laws. The people got it. They understood. They were rightfully scared of God’s anger and intimidated by what they heard. They didn’t want to hear from God directly. They wanted a go between, a mediator, a prophet. That had been Moses. But he would die. So God promised a better prophet. He would be like Moses in that God would speak directly to Him. He would also be a man. You and I know Him as Jesus. And you can see why we have it so much better. Jesus is better than Moses. Moses sinned. Moses lost his temper with the people. Moses fell into sinful pride. Jesus, our prophet, our spokesman for God, is God and man. He’s perfect. His love for us deeper than we can know. We have it so much better. We have a better prophet.

          We also have a better message. “The Lord said to me: “What they say is good. ¹⁸I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put My words in His mouth, and He will tell them everything I command Him.”  As God’s Old Testament prophet Moses told the people what God said. He delivered to them a two sided covenant. God gave the people laws to obey. God promised that if they obeyed them all unfailingly He would fight their battles for them. He would bless their crops and their herds. They would be healthy, wealthy and wise. Wow! The good old days. Obey God and become prosperous. Wouldn’t it be nice to have that set up where we as the obeyers of  God would get special earthly blessings? But it is important to remember that the promises of God extended only to perfect keepers of His law.

          We have it so much better. If you read only half of the Old Testament laws you know you would not want to live back then. All those laws in addition to the moral laws summarized in the 10 Commandments are impossible to keep. And that’s the point. God was helping the people see they could not do it. They could not keep a 2 way covenant. Only a one way covenant would work and it would all have to be done by God. That’ s what Jesus was commanded to say. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one, absolutely no one, comes to the Father except through me. I am the Resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live even though he dies and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. If you love me obey my commandments. Don’t obey because you are scared that the mountain is quaking and trembling obey because you came to me weary and burdened with sin and I cleansed you and gave you rest and now you love me in return.” We have is so much better. We have the full Gospel message straight from the lips of Jesus Christ.

          We’ve got it so much better. So, are we any better? That’s a soul searching question we each have to ask ourself. A quick read through the Old Testament will show you a people who were quick to abandon the God who loved them. They were like kids going through an idol candy store. Ooh, I’ll try this one. Baal looks fun. Ooh Asherah worshippers they seem to have it better let’s try Asherah now. Ooh, the Egyptians seem to prosper maybe their gods are better let me have  dozen of those.” The strict law message and the two sided covenant did not work. It was never going to work as long as sinful people were part of it. And God never wanted only outward obedience to begin with. He wants His peoples’ hearts. He set us up to be better to respond to Him because we love Him so He gave us a better prophet, His own son, God in flesh, with a better message. I love you! I forgive you. Love me in return.

          Are we any better? Are we doing better at giving God obedience that comes from love? In the good old days of the Old Testament if you didn’t worship each week you got stoned to death. People showed up in droves. But not always out of love for God. If you misused God’s name, if you committed adultery, if you were a persistently rebellious child you got stoned to death. But that didn’t mean obedience came from love. God said, “If anyone does not listen to My words that the Prophet speaks in My name, I Myself will call him to account.” God loves His Son. In the book of Hebrews we are told, “Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. ²⁹ How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?” Brothers and sisters, using the language of the unbeliever, dressing like the unbelievers, despising the Word and Lord’s Supper by putting other things, pursuit, hobbies ahead of them is a trampling of  the Son underfoot, and an insult to the Spirit of grace. We’ve got it so much better. Let’s each one of us today, commit ourselves to being better as our way to say, “Thank God for dealing with us through Jesus. Amen.