Deuteronomy 32:48-33:29, Which Gift Do You Want?

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Deuteronomy 32:48-33:29 Which Gift Do You Want?

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Deuteronomy chapter 32 starting verse 48, then we'll be reading all the way through chapter 33
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Hear the word of the Lord That very day the Lord spoke to Moses Go up this mountain of the
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Abiram Mount Nebo which is in the land of Moab opposite Jericho and view the land of Canaan which
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I am giving to the people of Israel for a possession and die on the mountain which you go up and be gathered to your people as Aaron your brother died in Mount Hoar and was gathered to his people because you broke faith with me in the midst of the people of Israel at the waters of Meribah Kadesh and The wilderness of Zen and because you did not treat me as holy in the midst of the people of Israel For you shall see the land before you
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But you shall not go there into the land that I'm giving to the people of Israel This is the blessing with which
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Moses the man of God blessed the people of Israel before his death He said the
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Lord came from Sinai and dawned from seer upon us He shone forth from Mount Paran.
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He came down from from the ten thousands of holy ones with flaming fire at his right hand
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Yes, he loved his people. All his holy ones were in his hand. So they followed in your steps
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Receiving direction from you when Moses commanded us a law as a possession for the assembly of Jacob Thus the
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Lord became king in Jeshurun When the heads of the people were gathered all the tribes of Israel together let
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Reuben live and not die, but let his men be few and This he said of Judah here
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Oh Lord the voice of Judah and bring him to his people with your hands contend for him and be a help against his adversaries
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And of Levi he said give to Levi your thumb and your room to your godly one
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Whom you tested at Massa with whom you quarreled at the waters of Meribah who said of the of his father and mother
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I regard them not he disowned his brothers and ignored his children for they observed your word and kept your covenant
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They shall teach Jacob your rules and Israel your law They shall put your incense before you your whole burnt offerings on your altar
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Bless Oh Lord his substance and accept the work of his hands Crush the loins of his adversaries of those who hate him that they rise not again a
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Benjamin he said the beloved of the Lord dwells in safety the high God surrounds him all day long and dwells between his shoulders and of Joseph he said
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Blessed by the Lord be his land With the choicest gifts of heaven above and of the deep that Crouches beneath with the choicest fruits of the
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Sun and the rich yield of the months With the finest produce of the ancient mountains and the abundance of the everlasting hills
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With the best gifts of the earth and its fullness and the favor of him who dwells in the bush may these rest on the head of Joseph on the pate of him who is
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Prince among his brothers a Firstborn bull be his majesty and his horns are the horns of a wild ox with them
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He shall gore the people's all of them to the end of the earth They are the ten thousands of Ephraim and they are the thousands of Manasseh and of Zebulun He said rejoice
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Zebulun and you're going out in Issachar in your tents. They shall call peoples to their mountains
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There they offer right sacrifices for they draw from the abundance of the seas and the hidden treasures of the sand and of Gad he said
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Blessed be who enlarges Gad Gad crouches like a lion. He tears off arm and scalp
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He chose the best of the land for himself For there a commander's portion was reserved and he came with the heads of the people and with Israel he executed the justice of the
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Lord and his judgments for Israel and of Dan he said Dan is a lion's cub that leaps from Bashin and of Naftali He said
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Oh Naftali sated with favor and full of the blessing of the Lord Possess the lake and the south and if it
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Asher he said most blessed of sons be Asher Let him be the favorite of his brothers and let him dip his foot in oil
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Your bars shall be iron and bronze and as your days so shall your strength be
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There is none like God Oh Jeshurun who rides through the heavens to your help through the skies and his majesty the eternal
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God is your dwelling place and underneath are the everlasting arms and He thrust out the enemy before you and said destroy so Israel lived in safety
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Jacob lived alone in a land of grain and wine whose heavens dropped down do happy.
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Are you Oh Israel? Who is like you a people saved by the Lord The shield of your help and the sword of your triumph your enemies shall come fawning to you and you shall tread upon their backs
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May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word Well, if you could have any gift
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Any talent any ability? What would it be? Maybe you'd like to have the the business genius of a
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Bill Gates make billions of dollars or maybe the Maybe Warren Buffett's ability to invest create vast wealth or maybe
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Steve Jobs creativity and innovation Or maybe popularity is more your goal
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So gonna be a great singer. You're the singing talent of a Taylor Swift or you'd like to be a musician like yo -yo ma or Herbie Or a writer like JK Rowling or Stephen King Maybe a great actor like Tom Hanks or a comedian
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Do people laugh it with you? Hopefully a Jerry sign like Jerry Seinfeld or so or maybe an order so people listen to everything you have to say
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There's be hanging on your words. Is that the gift you'd like to have? Or maybe you'd like to be an athletic star.
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Maybe the next LeBron James next Tom Brady The Olympics is coming soon in about three weeks
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Would you like to be some track star who crosses the finish line? Brings glory to your country gets a gold medal draped around his neck
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Or maybe some amazing gymnast like Simone Biles who dazzles us with your combination of power and grace
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Which gift do you want? A lot of the time we only dream of being the star
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You know the one in the spotlight not one of the many people needed to make it happen Whatever it is the gold medal the
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Nobel Prize The the Grammy the NBA or NFL championship or the billions of dollars whatever prize you want
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But every star needs a team to support him or her a boy had his heart set on a part in his school play
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But his mom was afraid she knew her son pretty well And she was afraid that he wouldn't get any part that he'd be disappointed
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He'd come home crying when he was rejected and and so as she drove to pick him up after the audition
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She was she was happy to see him just beaming with excitement. And as soon as the car door opened she asked him
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What part did you get? He announced excitedly. I've been chosen to clap and cheer
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Well, he had his gift What's yours? Often we want to have a gift that's not ours
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Because others our culture the way environment we've been raised in including a church culture just elevates this one gift
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Makes like if this is that if you have this one gift or whatever it is this talent You are really an important person now in this culture.
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The youth are focused on basketball That's why we're in a gym here Maybe football some of them football but mostly
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I think mostly basketball many boys in particular want to be basketball stars a few years ago We had a boy who came here regularly to play basketball
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And who ran a mile at a track meet at five minutes 14 seconds as a freshman, which is a great
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It's not it's not gonna stand out as a great breakthrough by some Scout or anywhere But it's not bad and it could show that he has some undeveloped
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Talent now if he does and with training he makes the most of it You know, I thought at the time about seven or so years ago.
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I thought he could have perhaps If he would develop his talent didn't become a real good runner.
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He could have earned an athletic scholarship to college Right if he has enough talent, he certainly had a far far greater possibility of doing that in track
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If he's a good runner, they're getting one of the highly competitive basketball scholarships
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But because his culture told him that basketball is the talent that really mattered
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He never developed his is running talent So we never know how much talent he really had over 15 years ago now as I was looking for a place for me
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I encountered the reality that there are a lot of men applying to be the quote preachers, which is the wrong title It's not no biblical office of preachers, but whatever
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There's a lot more people looking to be particularly men looking to be preachers than there are openings I've heard that there are
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I don't know if this is accurate, but someone maybe they're exaggerating But I've heard that there are like a hundred applicants for every one open pastoral position
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Imagine that okay, if that's maybe it's a little exaggerated But imagine there are a lot more people looking to fill the places than there are places.
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It seems then that that's a gift That's a big gift that a lot of men particularly men a lot of people want to have
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I even wondered whether Jesus is saying You know that he said the the workers are few the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few
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I wonder if maybe I'm gonna think well, maybe that's true for his day, but it's not true anymore Maybe I've now we have so many workers
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But I've seen over the last 15 years that although there might be there are indeed a lot of people Who are trying to be preachers who want that gift?
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There aren't a lot of people Who are willing to do whatever? Needs to be done to help the church
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Minister we're willing to say What gift do I have that I can use? What can
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I do? What what talent do I have a gift from God that I can help the church minister to support the church?
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what's my part in the body and Then go and look through their talents their gifts and use that for the ministry
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It's like that boy in basketball or track his culture told him that basketball is all that matters
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And so he didn't develop his track talent And so we get a lot of boys trying to be basketball stars
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And so the same way the culture here tells us that preaching is all that matters And so we get a lot of people trying to be that and then don't care about any of the other needs of the church
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There's a lot of people who want to be preachers But there's not many who are willing to maybe drive a vehicle and pick up kids and supervise
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Engage the kids give them a lesson or do whatever little tasks that are necessary You know behind the scenes like put together the slides or operate the slides or open the gym
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Even just willing to come here open it up and just supervise So the kids can come play and someone can present the gospel to them
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I've seen people who have a gift for sharing the gospel one -on -one who will look insulted if you say well, that's your gift
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No, their culture has told them that preaching is the only thing that matters so they don't use their real gift
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They try to develop one. They don't have so the workers are still few and That's partly because we don't understand
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Or often don't even want our gifts Here we see
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God's gifts to his people Various gifts to various people and in this case, they're they're parting gifts as Moses is about to go away.
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And so before he does as his last words, he announces God's gifts
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To them different gifts for different people What gift do you want?
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In chapter 32 verses 48 to 52 that last paragraph of chapter 32 The Lord speaks to Moses after giving him the words of the song and he tells him this is the end
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This is it Moses times up go up to Mount Nebo It's east of the
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Jordan River and from there Moses you you can look at the promised land He had asked
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Moses had asked be able to pass over with Israel and see the land You know right there firsthand before he dies that that that would be his final gift and the
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Lord gives him Half of that This Vista is the
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Lord's half gift To Moses the Lord's gonna let him see it
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But not step foot on it From the mountain. He'll get a view of the whole thing. That's last gift
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For Moses before he dies notice verse 50 view the land of Canaan I was talking to Moses go view the land get a good look at it.
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And then It's interesting phrase die on the mountain It's an imperative.
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It's basically tell him Moses go up there and die as if it's a command He's commanded to die and there you will be gathered to your people
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This is a common phrase in the Pentateuch the first five books of the Old Testament for dying Suggesting that you go to be with others who have died before you
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Aaron his brother Had already gone ahead and then in verse 51 the Lord explains why he is not allowing
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Moses to go into the promised land He says because you broke faith with me
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That is Moses had broken God's command God had commanded him to speak to this rock and Water would come out of it
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Now the people with Moses did that the people should then see that the Word of God brings life
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Moses speaking to the rock was supposed to show them that the word brings the water that they need to live
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But in his frustration he shouted at them, you know, you rebels and then he hit the rock with his staff
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And water came out but now it looks like it came out because of His exertion because of human exertion by sheer force of human will that we can will it to happen
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That the wrath of man can somehow produce the righteousness of God and by doing that Moses had treated
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God as Is not holy Moses didn't show that God is sanctified
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That he's different that he's set apart that he's waiting that he's glorious and so that so glorious so waiting that even if you are angry and These people really are rebels and you have a right to be angry.
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They deserve being yelled at that God's command should still
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Weigh so heavily on us So fill our attention That we can't see this irritation
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We can't feel this anger that we could rightly have we can't feel anything Except the weight of his word that makes us tremble
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So we don't feel What we would normally kind of be left up to ourselves feel we would only feel our craving to tell them off those rebels
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Shout at them now instead We feel the weight of his command and we obey it we speak the word living water comes out
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But Moses didn't do that. He felt more of his own frustration Then he did the holiness of God and so for that The Lord does not let him cross the river
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We must have such a sense of the holiness of God that is such such an awe and his majesty that when he commands
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Commands anything whatever it is Could be from Colossians sing psalms hymns and spiritual songs your people today want to sing these
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I Call the maudlin God is my girlfriend kind of songs. They want to sing that All the time there's probably nothing wrong with it because occasionally but or maybe some only want to sing traditional hymns
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Not not psalms or even any of the new songs and though and so people don't get caught up in these debates
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Balancing what one group of people wants versus another? Okay Got the young people will want these maudlin God is my girlfriend kind of songs and then you got the old people that want their
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Traditional hymns and that's all they're seeing is that what the people want and they don't weigh
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They don't feel the weight of what? God has commanded us to do
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God's command. Is it way on them to guide their singing or maybe? Use your gifts to build up the church.
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That's a command. Does that weigh on you? They only some of some people only want to be a star
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There's so little sense of the holiness of God When we only consider
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What we want not what God says Not what he's actually given us to do.
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What gift would you like? When in chapter 33 become to Moses's last words now if if if they can most people want their last words
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If you ever thought about it, I want your last words to be meaningful and memorable Probably especially for those close to you a gift for those you leave behind Here Moses gives not just one final kind of sweeping blessing for all the whole nation of Israel But a different blessing a different gift for each of the different tribes first and last though.
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He blesses the giver and The first five verses Moses exalts the giver the greatest blessing you can give to anyone is to let them know that first and last
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God is to be exalted. So first Moses lifts up the Lord in verse 2 the
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Lord came from Sinai he revealed himself to them there gave them the Ten Commandments There was smoke on the mountain and it shook and he dawned from seer seers the territory
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Sinai was one particular place a mountain Seer was the territory where Sinai was
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So this is referring to the same thing as they often do in Hebrew poetry different words for the gut of the same thing Here Perrin is also part of the same location a desert where they spent some of their previous 40 years
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The Lord had shown from Mount Perrin he says in other words God spoke to us
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There he revealed himself. He dealt with us Revealed his word to us back where we were.
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He has come to us. He is dawned on us He is shown forth for us.
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He is the God Who has spoken? The great Christian philosopher
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Francis Schaeffer who died in 1984 wrote about the fact that modern Western culture essentially
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Doesn't believe in God anymore. Sure. There are a lot of people in it that believe in God, but the culture itself really doesn't
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Believe in God does it take God seriously? Does it think about God at all? That's why we have no moral standards why we develop fascism or communism and kill millions of people
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There's no standard of beauty There's no standard right and wrong. So who's to say I can't kill all the people
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I don't like so art though No standard of beauty. There's no standards at all. So art then becomes meaningless
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Like the you heard about the invisible sculpture Someone sold in Italy for $18 ,000
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Invisible sculpture, of course is a scam. There's nothing there but that that's art who's to say there's nothing there
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They would say back, you know, someone else someone paid $18 ,000 for it Okay, or the modern music composer
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John Cage who offered his work four minutes and 33 seconds, which is literally Nothing, it's the musical equivalent of the invisible sculpture
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Musicians do nothing for four minutes and 33 seconds And so the audience just kind of there to listen to whatever random sounds come up you know somebody coughing off on the side and That's supposed to be just as good a piece of music as something by Mozart or Bach Now, of course in our culture who's to say who's to say what marriage is or what sexual identity is
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If I want to identify as the is the sex Biology says I'm not
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Who's to say biology is right? Why do we have people in our culture now doing stuff like this?
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All this sounds ridiculous. Why why does this happen? Well Schaefer says the problem is that our culture doesn't really believe in God anymore
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God creates nature. He speaks through nature or he speaks through his word. It's God's commands
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Speaking, but they don't hear it. Now. All they all they can feel is their feelings They can't hear the
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Word of God speaking through nature or his his written word But God is the standard of truth and beauty and we can really know that he exists
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And so Schaefer wrote up the book the God who was there God is the God who is really there
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Exists without God there are no standards of truth and beauty are right and wrong And so he must exist now
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There are though, of course people. Okay, you can talk them into believing that God exists. There's like deist
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You can you can reason with them and show them like I just said, you know, there's no without God There's no standards of right and wrong or truth or beauty
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So who's to say then if that's the case who's to say that the Nazis were evil? Maybe they're there's no right or wrong nothing way to judge them by to say anything is immoral and they'll go, you know follow along It's okay.
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Maybe you're right Or from science, you know, we know that the universe was created and we know that it cannot create itself so therefore
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There must be a God there must be a creator and they'll go. Okay, but we don't know which
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God Or we don't know if he's revealed himself at all Maybe he is maybe he's the
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God who is there But he is silent and we can't really know him So Schaefer wrote another book to say that Moses say what
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Moses says here in verse 2 He is there and He is not silent
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He has revealed himself and that's one of the greatest his greatest gifts to us
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He's not left us to wonder what he's like Or that or how we should live what's right or wrong or not?
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He's not just left us up to our musings what we feel is best No, he has come
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Moses said notice that he's come He's dawned like the Sun in the morning.
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He's come he's dawned and he's shown He's shining the
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Lord came dawn and shown forth in revealing himself in Scripture and he came dawned and shown forth in Taking on human flesh in Jesus the incarnation of the
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Word of God So the Lord came the second half of verse 2 from The ten thousands of holy ones
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And then in verse 3 he tells us who these holy ones are think who these holy ones Is that angels or something like that?
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No, he tells us in verse 3. Yes, he loved His people all his holy ones
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Okay, so explaining who the holy woods are his people God's people Describing the people whom he loves the
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Lord loves his people and he says they were in his hand with that flaming fire
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The holy the holy ones are his people us We are the holy ones who are in his hand and he came to us.
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He dawned on us and he'd shown forth But not to us By ourselves, you know as though we stand before God alone
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Just me at the base of Mount Sinai as it smokes and quakes as if we walk with Jesus alone
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Because we're told you know, there's only two sets of footprints on the sand there. I got my jab in on that today I got a good one every day.
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No, I don't have to do that every time that I did today But it is the idea almost as if it's just me and the
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Lord and he speaks to me alone separately Not us but me apart from any of you that I take up my
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Bible and I read it just for me solo Script Torah right for reform people believe in so law script
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Torah Our ultimate authority is Scripture alone But many people today Christians read the Bible solo just me reading it alone as if it's just God's Word to me
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No, he is the God who is there and who was not silent and who comes from here we see
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The ten thousands of his holy ones from all his people
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From the church. He reveals himself to and through the church One of the reasons modern individualistic
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Christians have a hard time understanding that they have a gift For the building up of the church
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Is they don't see the church? Right. They hear all about the Lord. They want the Lord. They know themselves obviously, but there's nothing else right again back to the point
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It's just me and Jesus walking on the beach No, but here we see the 10 ,000 of his holy ones his church.
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Oh, but instead they see people today I'll see places that call themselves churches, but they see them like, you know, we might see restaurants
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Instead of families. What if you only knew about restaurants and didn't know anything about families?
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You know every time someone said let's go eat You'd never think well, maybe they'll invite me to their house and treat me like family No, you think we'll go to some place and we'll pay for food and we'll just leave
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Disconnected from whoever made the food for us. There's no family to be connected to there's no body to seek to build up To have a gift to build up.
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So as someone said, you know, you should support your church You'd think well that means okay.
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That means either I pay my bill or I get a job they're working, you know as a cook or a server a
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Churches they see it as a shop that dispenses God's Word It's not a body that you belong to and seek to build up with your gift
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But here God comes first sure through his revelation Through what we now call the
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Bible but also through his holy ones the church and he loves his people
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Notice how he says that he's loved his people. He loves his people and he expects you to also
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God reveals himself coming dawning Shining and so we follow in his steps in verse 3 we receive direction
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And so we follow his directions. We have a law from him Teaches us how to live in verse 4.
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It's a notice how we already calls it a possession. That's a gift and It's a possession a gift for the
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Assembly the gathering now the Hebrew word there is Cahal and if you've been following our
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English Sunday school for the past few weeks, you should recognize that word You should know at least one Hebrew word Cahal.
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It's the Hebrew word for the Greek word Ecclesia, which means you may be more familiar with which means
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Church, so he's saying in verse 4 God's revelation of himself will be now called the
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Bible is a gift for the Church his written revelation first given to Moses here
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The Bible is the possession the gift for the call the church to us thus Notice in verse 5 the beginning of verse 5 thus take this apart at least this first line every word thus
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By that but what he just described in verse 4 looking back to verse 4.
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There's this possession for the church that he's given us as gift and Thus through that means in this way through this thus sometimes the conjunctions are
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Crucial to understand right there connecting the ideas here thus
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Through this means by that law That he gave as a gift to his people
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The revelation of himself through the Word of God that was the way through which the
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Lord Became as effectively in our actual actual practice.
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I know kind of by his nature He is always King, but he became effectively King of our lives through through his words of the
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Lord through that this gift of his word He effectively became an actual practice our practice
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King So through him giving us the gift of his word He became our king it that is how he rules
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His people through his word and he gave us the gift of his word so we could have the gift of him being our king the blessings of his rule
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So we wouldn't just be left up to be ruled by our whims or by our feelings What should we sing?
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I don't know these people like to sing these maudlin God is my girlfriend songs and these other people like to sing old hymns We'll try to weigh the balance or we get would have rid of one group or the other
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That's the way people now think no, how should we what should we sing? Well, God has said Psalms hymns of spiritual songs
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That is through that revelation. The Bible was given to the church. His kingdom comes over his people. He rules through the word
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He's king in Jesher in there's that term again? I probably think it's I think likely it should just be translated means upright one.
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He's king over his upright ones those he's made right with himself those he's justified
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His people the church now here again Here not again yet here in In verse 5 in my opinion the punctuation and the sentence and paragraph breaks are wrong
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At least the ESV and the other translations I've seen now remember in Hebrew in the original Hebrew. There's no punctuation
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There's no paragraphing and all that the verses are chapter. That's all Translators, right?
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So that's kind of their commentary their opinion on on the text in my opinion
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The paragraph should end at that first line in verse 5 thus the Lord King became king and Jesher in period
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Paragraph break and that ends this first section about the giver and then the next line
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Begins the long middle section of this chapter Next line is probably the title
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It tells you what's coming after this when the heads of the people were gathered all the tribes of Israel together
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That is the elders from each tribe assembled Then Moses gave them his blessing a different blessing a different gift
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For each tribe Well, what gift do you want? Do you want to be the one who gets the rule one in charge the kingship?
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Like Judah gets or do you want to have the most people to be big?
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Dominant like Joseph or would you rather be called? Beloved of the Lord. That's a pretty good one.
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Is it and promise safety like Benjamin? Or would you think you think standing between God and the rest of the people intermediaries between God That's really the gift that matters.
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That's the one you want. So you won't leave eyes gift or maybe declared most blessed
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The favorite. Well, that's pretty good. Like Asher. Maybe you want his gift. Which gift do you want? Which gift should you want?
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Maybe you should want The gift you have Well, he begins with Reuben The firstborn of Israel's sons
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Moses is probably standing in Reuben's territory when he gives this mixed blessing because they had already had their
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They've already gotten their territory. They were one of the two and a half tribes that got their inheritance east of the Jordan River So they're already in their promised land.
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Now, they're blessed. They're the only one that kind of gets a mixed blessing They're sort of half blessed half cursed they're blessed though to live that's their blessing
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They may they live that has continued to exist at least for a few centuries But they're also cursed that they would remain small
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They would be they would be a tiny tribe. They're cursed to be just a few of them That's because the man
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Reuben they're the patriarch the father of the tribe had sex with his father's Concubine or his wife
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Bilhah the man Reuben himself in Genesis had sex with his father's concubine or wife
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Bilhah the curse of that sin lingers even into the future of the whole tribe
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Which stayed small because of that and some say some have been saying that the Word of God in the
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Word of God God whispers about Sexual sin this doesn't sound like a whisper to me
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The next is is Judah in verse 7 Moses gift for them is a prayer
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He prays for them and that prayer certainly heard that the Lord would hear Judah The Lord would fight for him and would help him against his adversaries and bring him back from his battle
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Judah's going to go into battle and Moses prays for him that he would be brought back from the battle safely alive
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To his people and that's a great gift. The Lion of the tribe of Judah was indeed heard
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The Lord fought for him and is fighting for him right now at this moment the
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Lord is bringing all his enemies under his feet and The spirit contends for him so that people believe and repent
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The Lord are already brought him back. He went and brought the kingdom The lion of the tribe of Judah went out the son of David the king from Judah went out to do battle to bring
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God's kingdom into the earth and the Lord brought him back safely to his people to us
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Raising him from the dead That's the gift Which keeps on giving?
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Missing from this list is Simeon Simeon gets no gift. No blessing.
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You notice that missing fact if you count the tribes as 11, which was missing well Simeon is He gets no blessing because the patriarch
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Simeon worked with Levi and massacring the Shechemites in Genesis 34 And so they were both cursed as Levi and Simeon by their father in Genesis chapter 49 verse 7 cursed be their anger
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For his fierce and their wrath or it is cruel. I will here speaking for the
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Lord Divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel for Simeon that meant that they were dispersed
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Among Judah which had a big territory and then eventually Simeon became absorbed by Judah so God simultaneously judged
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Simeon while blessing Judah next is Levi which also took part of the massacre the
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Shechemites But they've redeemed themselves by taking the Lord's side with Moses at the time of the golden calf
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That's that testing it Masa that he refers to here the rest of Israel failed that test, but Levi didn't
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They didn't accept the idols at least not most of them And so when Moses came back to the golden calf He asked who is for the
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Lord and Levi raised their hands They came forward and they imposed God's judgment on the idolaters and they in verse 9 didn't regard their parents
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Disowned their brothers ignored their children. I mean sound odd you think that's but no that's favorable. He's commending them for that Because they needed to do that Not go along with the mob and worshiping the idols so they could follow
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God's Word and keep their covenant They didn't go along with the crowd. They didn't love their father or mother or family more than the
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Lord So while they're still scattered throughout Israel Jacob's curse still
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Falls on them they get a town here at a town there like Simeon they are given the gift of being the priestly tribe and to do that, of course to Be intermediaries between God and the people they need ability notice verse 11 bless
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Oh Lord his substance now the word they're translating substance of the
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SV could mean could mean strength or Ability bless their ability the
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NIV translates it as skill bless their skill they need a talent a
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Gift a skill and they need that They need that gift to be blessed
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From God a blessing from the Lord call it anointing and empowering or you want God that is blessed in order to do the work
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Of teaching God's Word of representing the people to God and God to the people both things are necessary a gift skill and a blessing in Verse 10, they will teach the rest of the people of God's people
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God's ways now some today Think the only gift that matters in the church is to be a teacher or preacher.
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They'll demand to be part of Levi But they are but are they willing? to say no
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To their family to the crowd even to the church when he's going the wrong way
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Maybe when it's telling black people to go elsewhere or when it's staying silent about sexual sin in this midst or when it's just Breaking commitments because that's the way the culture is here
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Some of the Levites are priests and some of them support the priest Helpers who keep up their helpers who keep up the tabernacle or the temple
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They do this the practical things to maintain the tabernacle or the temple. They're the people what we would call in the
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New Testament deacons We need people who have a gift of service who will do the practical things
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You know like paying the bills so we have lights and air conditioning main maintaining the building doing the slides projecting them
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Do the things that keep up the worship of the Lord now We don't want everything done by professionals who just work for pay.
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We want most things done by people who have a gift and Who do it as a way to serve the
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Lord? Well next is Benjamin beloved of the Lord the high God Moses says the high
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God has surrounded him all the time and Benjamin is the only other tribe that stayed with Judah, you know under the king from the line of David And so he lasts the tribe of Judah the
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Benjamin Last all the way until the New Testament one of the few, you know with the
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Apostle Paul boasting He's a the tribe of Benjamin There's Joseph the scene is one tribe that was so large usually we we we divided him into two named after Joseph's two sons
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Ephraim and Manasseh and between them together They kind of make up a mega tribe and they occupy most of the land of the northern kingdom of Israel and they produce most of its people so the what
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Moses fear refers to is the ten thousands of Ephraim already by this time in the Thousands of Manasseh and Joseph gets in verse 13 the choicest gifts of heaven
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That's pretty good. Isn't it verse 16 the best gifts of the earth and his fullness
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Choices gifts of heaven best gifts of the earth best of everything Then there's Zebulun Issachar which are dealt with together in verses 18 and 19 as As people they're gonna be up in the northern
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Israel by the sea Mediterranean Sea he says that they will draw an abundance from it from the sea and they will find hidden treasures in the sand
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Who can make something? Who can bring a treasure out of the sand? Well, they have shellfish there that they can make an expensive purple die from and then trade it make a lot of money off of that So he says rejoice
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That's your gift And so we rejoice your gift, whatever it is Even if it's just finding useful stuff out of sand making up make maybe here making a business out of out of Economically challenged
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Danville. That's a that's a gift Rejoice if you have that gad in verse 20 has already gotten the best of the land
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East of the Jordan, you know like Reuben before they they had been given their promised land already
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Anyone here Moses says anyone who expands gad is blessed because gad
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Even though it already had his land, you know, they could have stayed home I don't care about the rest of you. We got ours But they crossed the
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Jordan and they went out to expand the rest of Israel So Moses is saying saying you're blessed if you help those
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Who are a blessing but gad then in quick succession Dan will be small like a cub
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But fierce like a lion in verse 22 now if Tali sated with favor
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What a gift that is when you want to be sated with favor, you know sated me a full Satisfied you're stuffed.
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I'm stuck. I'm sated Are you gonna be sated a little later today by barbecue 4th of July barbecue be safe.
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That's enough I can't take you more sated with favor with with that is your preferred is you're so loved
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You can't take anymore had enough. I'm full of being loved. That's enough loving. Thanks. I'm full of being loved
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I can't take anymore full of the blessings of the Lord He says then last of all is
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Asher which print which he which is pronounced most blessed most blessed the favorite in verse 24 it gets strength and days
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That is longevity It's not gonna pass away anytime soon So even though it is deported like the other northern ten tribes about 500 years after this blessing
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It's one of the few tribes besides Benjamin Levi and Judah This named is still existing in the
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New Testament with the prophetess Anna in the temple seeing the baby Jesus and Luke chapter 2 verse 26, and she's from the tribe of Asher They had a lot of days, didn't they?
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Well, finally framing these list of gifts to begin and conclude Moses exalts the giver Starting verse 26.
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He says there is none like God Oh Jeshurun that's so upright one justified ones.
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There's none like God you're looking for who has the best gifts look instead To the giver he rides through the heavens
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To your help like from Psalm 121 your help comes from the
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Lord Through the skies in his majesty the eternal God is your dwelling place
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So live in him He's where you live for him not for gifts not for the spotlight.
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So lean on his everlasting arms He says they uphold you
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Underneath don't worry about falling Because he has everlasting arms that are always there he has already cast
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Satan out of his perch and Told us to tread on serpents and scorpions and all the power of the enemy and nothing shall hurt us
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We're safe and secure from all alarms So we can live in safety his holy ones secure from the world
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With all the gifts of a new creation Happy are you
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Oh Israel that's quite a gift. Isn't it? You're you're happy blessed. Are you holy ones the church you have an abundant?
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Abundant gifts together. You have all the gifts you need.
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So in verse 29 who is like you Who's like you holy ones the church verse 26?
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It was earlier who is like God and now at the end he's blessed us to be unique to be holy like him
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Who is like us? Because we're blessed by the one no one else is like we're a people
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Saved by the Lord. No one else is We didn't save or bless or our gift ourselves.
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The Lord did it shielding us Giving us that sword of the Spirit his word putting all his enemies under his feet.
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So we are led in triumph Who is like us? Because of the gifts he's given us he made us upright with him through through giving us his son, so What gifts do you want hopefully the one you already have