Stay Here With Me

Today’s passage is Deuteronomy 5:23-33.  Let’s go!

Deuteronomy 5:23-27 (NIV)
²³  When you heard the voice out of the darkness, while the mountain was ablaze with fire, all the leading men of your tribes and your elders came to me.
²⁴  And you said, “The LORD our God has shown us his glory and his majesty, and we have heard his voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a man can live even if God speaks with him.
²⁵  But now, why should we die? This great fire will consume us, and we will die if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any longer.
²⁶  For what mortal man has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have, and survived?
²⁷  Go near and listen to all that the LORD our God says. Then tell us whatever the LORD our God tells you. We will listen and obey.”

On verses 23-27:  Moses reminds the current generation of Israelites that when their parents first heard God’s voice speaking to them all, their parents were afraid of God, believing they would die if they heard the voice of God any longer.  So that previous generation of Israelites asked Moses to go and listen to God on their behalf, so that they would not have to hear God’s voice directly.

While fear, gloom and terror seemed to typify the way that previous generation of Israelites related to God, praise God that fear, gloom and terror do not need to typify the way we relate to God today.  Why?  That is because, as holy and wrathful as God is against sin, God sent His Son Jesus Christ to receive in our place God’s wrath against our sins.  Thus those of us whose lives are hidden in Christ can approach God now not with terror, but with gratitude, thankfulness and joy.

Just as Hebrews 12:18-24 says:

Hebrews 12:18-24 (NIV)
¹⁸  You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm;
¹⁹  to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them,
²⁰  because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.”
²¹  The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”
²²  But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly,
²³  to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect,
²⁴  to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Praise God that all because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross, God welcomes us to come near Him and experience the joy and intimacy of His presence.  Now the invitation God makes to Moses in verse 31, He makes to us as well: “stay here with me”.

Deuteronomy 5:28-33 (NIV)
²⁸  The LORD heard you when you spoke to me and the LORD said to me, “I have heard what this people said to you. Everything they said was good.
²⁹  Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever!
³⁰  “Go, tell them to return to their tents.
³¹  But you stay here with me so that I may give you all the commands, decrees and laws you are to teach them to follow in the land I am giving them to possess.”
³²  So be careful to do what the LORD your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left.
³³  Walk in all the way that the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.

On verses 28-33:  Yesterday in Deuteronomy 5:1-22 we learned to two reasons why God gives us His commands: (1) to protect us from harm and from harming others; (2) to show us how perfect God’s standards are and how much we need a Saviour to save us from our sin.

But here in verses 28-33 we learn one more reason that God gave us His commands: it’s so that by obeying His commands we would be blessed.

In Deuteronomy 5:23-33 we see God’s heart to bless people.  He wants His people to be blessed.  He wants things to go well for us and our children.  That’s why He says in verse 29, “Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever!” 

Notice in Deuteronomy that receiving God’s blessings is tied to a person’s obedience to obeys God’s commands.  As verse 33 says, “Walk in all the way that the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.” 

Yet how many of us have walked in all the ways that God has commanded us?  None of us have.  If God’s blessing is conditional on our obedience, we could never receive God’s blessing since none of us has perfectly obeyed God.  Enter Jesus Christ.  He obeyed His Father’s commandments perfectly on our behalf.  Then He took the blessing that comes from His obedience and gave that blessing to us as well.

Jesus gave us both His obedience and the blessings that come from His obedience.  So even more important than trying to obey God’s commandments is believing in and relying on Jesus’ perfect obedience.

When we rely on Jesus, that’s when we can receive all the blessings God has for us.  

Thank You, Father, for sending Your Son Jesus.  My own obedience to Your laws is so limited.  But Jesus’ obedience is perfect and unlimited, and thus perfect and unlimited blessing flows to Him and through Him to me.  Thank You, Jesus, for being my Saviour and for opening heaven’s floodgates so that I can approach God without terror but with joy and receive God’s blessings into my life!  In Jesus’ name, AMEN!