Joel M Bradshaw

 8See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after them.’—Deuteronomy 1

I preached a series in the book of Deuteronomy many years ago and I remember calling it, “10 Words from Israel’s Pastor.” The fifth and final book of the Pentateuch is very pastoral. Moses gives great sermons with illustrations from their past.

The verse today highlights the tension between trusting God and obeying God. It unfolds simply in three parts. I’ll take them slightly out of order.

1. God set the land before Israel. We assume that God was handling his business. And part of that business was redeeming Israel from Egyptian slavery and leading them to this moment. The Promised Land was then set before them.
2. God linked this land to his promises to the Patriarchs (Genesis 15). People sometimes ask me if there’s anything God cannot do. And one of my answers is that God cannot lie (Titus 1:2). Since I hold to the Bible being the very Word of God, I have to take God at his word. My confidence is based on him staying true to his promises. God not only had set the land before them, but had promised it to Israel and Israel’s descendants.
3. God expected them to go and take possession of the land. If it took a war, then God would be with them. God had already delivered them from the geopolitical powerhouse of their day. Nothing is more dramatic than the book of Exodus, where God waged war on the Egyptian pantheon plague by plague. God’s enemies, both theological and political, are shown to be impotent. You either trust your faithful God or you don’t!

So then here was the moment. Behold the tension. God led them and backed it with his promises. But God still expected Israel to act, to trust, to obey. We don’t partner with God with our salvation, as if he is expecting you to do your part and he do his. No, we are told that it is by GRACE that we are saved and not by our works (Ephesians 2:8-9). Grace can’t be earned or deserved. It is God’s gift. But what about after I am saved? Does it still work like that?

No. God expects you to be obedient and to follow him. This isn’t a matter of getting saved, but living a faithful life. The tension is that God is still fully sovereign, but as he leads us, he expects us to respond faithfully. God is journeying with you through this season of your life. He expects you to trust him. He expects in your trust to follow his leading and to obey him. Israel’s great failure is highlighted by today’s verse. They allowed their circumstances to dictate their faith and trust. Their difficult situation affected their response.

We are saved by grace, and not by works (again, Ephesians 2:8-9), but we are God’s workmanship and were created to do works, which God prepared for us in advance to do (Ephesians 2:10). God expects our faithfulness. God expects us to trust him. We don’t have God’s standpoint to understand all the workings of his sovereign plan. But from OUR standpoint, we are just like Israel in our text today. God has led us to those moments. God has been faithful to his promises. God expects us to trust him and to obey.

So where does this land in your heart today? I am so glad to be in Deuteronomy. Thank you for journeying with me.–JMB