Deuteronomy 32:1-47, Who Do You Think You’re Dealing With?

Deuteronomy 32 hear the word of the Lord then Moses spoke the words of this song until they were finished in the ears of all the assembly of Israel Give ear

O heavens and I will speak and let the earth hear the words of my mouth May my teaching drop is the rain my speech distill is the dew like gentle rain upon the tender grass and like showers

Upon the herb for I will proclaim the name of the Lord ascribe greatness to our

God The rock his work is perfect for all his ways are justice a god of faithfulness and without iniquity

Just and upright is he they have dealt corruptly with him They are no longer his children because they are blemished.

They are a crooked and twisted generation Do you thus repay the Lord you foolish and senseless people is not he your father who created you who made you and establish you?

Remember the days of old consider the years of many generations Asked your father and he will show you your elders and they will tell you

When the Most High gave to the nation's their inheritance when he divided mankind He fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God, but the

Lord's portion is his people Jacob his allotted heritage. He found him in a desert land and in the howling waste of the wilderness

He encircled him he cared for him He kept him as the apple of his eye like an eagle that stirs up its nest that flutters over its young Spreading out its wings catching them bearing them on its pinions.

The Lord alone guided him No foreign God was with him He made him ride on the high places of the land and he ate the produce of the field and he suckled him with the honey

Out of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock Courage from the herd and milk from the flock with fat of rent lambs

Rams of Basian and goats with the very finest of the wheat and you drank foaming wine made with the blood of the grape

But Jerusalem grew fat and kicked you grew fat stout and sleek Then he forsook

God who made him and scoffed at the rock of his salvation They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods with abominations.

They provoked him to anger They sacrificed to demons that were no gods to idols

They had never known to new gods that had come recently whom your fathers had never dreaded

You were unmindful of the rock that bore you and you forgot the God who gave you birth

The Lord saw it and spurred them Because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters and he said

I will hide my face from them I will see what their end will be for they are a perverse generation children in whom is no faithfulness

They have made me jealous with what is no God. They have provoked me to anger with their idols

So I make them jealous with those who are no people I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation for a fire is kindled by them and it burns to the depths of Sheol Devours the earth and its increase and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains and I will heap disasters upon them and I will spin my arrows on them and they shall be wasted with hunger and devoured by plague and Poisonous pestilence and I will send the teeth a beast against them with a venom of things that crawl in the dust

Outdoors the sword shall bereave and indoors terror for young man and woman alike the nursing child and the man of gray hairs

I would have said I will cut them to pieces. I will wipe them from human memory, but I Had I not feared provocation by the enemy lest their adversaries should misunderstand

Lest they should say our hand is triumphant. It was not the Lord who did all this

For they are a nation void of counsel and there is no understanding in them if they were wise

They would have understood this they would discern their latter end How could one have chased a thousand and to put ten thousand to flight

Unless their rock had sold them and the Lord had given them up for their rock is not as our rock

Our enemies are by themselves For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah Their grapes are grapes of poison

Their clusters are bitter their wine is the poison of serpents and the cruel venom of ask

It's not this laid up in store with them sealed up in my treasuries Vengeance is mine and recompense

For the time when their foot shall slip for the day of their calamity is at hand and their doom comes swiftly for the

Lord will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants when he sees that their power is gone and There is none remaining bond or free then he will say where are their gods the rock in which they took refuge?

Who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank of the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up and help you let them be your protection see now that I Even I am he and there is no

God beside me. I kill and I make alive I wound and I heal and there is none that can deliver out of my hand

For I lift up my hand to heaven and swear as I live forever If I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand takes hold on judgment

I will take vengeance on my adversaries and will repay those who hate me I will make my arrows drunk with blood and my sword shall devour flesh and the blood of the slain and the captives from the long -haired heads of the enemy

Rejoice with him. Oh heavens bow down to him all gods For he avenges the blood of his children and takes vengeance on his adversaries.

He repays those who hate him and cleanses his people's lands

Moses came and recited all the words of the song and the hearing of the people he and Joshua the son of Nun and When Moses had finished speaking all the words to all

Israel He said to them take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today

That you may command them to your children that they may be careful to do all the words of this law

For it is no empty word for you But your very life and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the

Jordan to possess If the Lord had his blessings to the reading of his

Holy Word Well ever met someone who turned out to be very different than who you first thought

Maybe you underestimated someone you thought that he was just an average person But he turned out to be some big shot.

I Had a job as a kind of watchman at my seminary in California full of theological seminary Which has three schools the school of theology the school of missions and the school of psychology and one day

I saw a man using the copying machine for this theology professors whom I didn't recognize Is this some kind of vagrant who came off the streets, you know?

Doing something not supposed to be doing so I went up to him ask him who he was and he said

I'm Donald McGavern He's the founder of the school of missions and probably the most important missionary of the 20th century

Good thing I asked I asked him before kicking him off the property. Well, how about you ever underestimated someone?

Maybe you thought you were having a conversation with just someone who knew as much as you did But it turns out he or she's an expert you started talking about me about your health

You know, you have this pain and and he or she responds and you think no, that's probably wrong But it turns out he or she's a doctor specialist

You didn't know you were you were dealing with a real expert Well last fall

I got into an online conversation with a man about Vanderbilt footballs woman kicker and he said that she did a

Squib kick and I said no a squib kick is a low line drive kick, you know made in order to make it difficult to catch

Thinking I was informing this football novice this guy online. He really didn't probably didn't know football very well

Not like me. I've been watching it for years I was informing educating this guy on football and he responded with both amusement and a sense of confidence that he

You could tell he felt he knew what he was talking about and I thought then I began to wait

I thought who am I dealing with? And so I googled his name and I found out he's the kicking coach at the

University of Florida a former long -term NFL kicker and Pro Bowl player. He is a true world -class expert in football kicking so it's important to know who you are dealing with and The World War two

Battle of the Bulge the Germans sent out English -speaking spies behind American lines Dressed in American uniforms to cause havoc and do sabotage

And so the Americans counter that by having the setting up checkpoints where the US soldiers when they pass through they would ask them questions

About America that most Americans should know when general Omar Bradley was the commanding at least the field general

The general on the ground of the Americans of the battle when he was passing through they stopped him and they asked him

Hey, what's the capital of Illinois? general Bradley answered Springfield and the

US soldier thought aha. I caught one Everyone knows it's Chicago And so he detained the general it's important to know who you're dealing with and the capital of Illinois a

Common theme of some TV shows and movies is an encounter in which one person doesn't know

Who he's dealing with that was the premise of the whole show the undercover boss if you ever saw it There's a

CEO or some owner a big boss of a big company Puts on a disguise and then he goes to work in his own company as if he's just a lowly employee

Now he or she would hear things about the company that they would never hear They just ask him, you know if the person knew who they were dealing with in the movie

Bruce Almighty Jim Carrey's selfish characters this selfish guy and he first encounters

God supposedly played by Morgan Freeman as a janitor and he blows him off when the undercover

God Asked him to help mop It's a biblical theme too with Hebrews chapter 13 verse 2 telling us to be hospitable and generous because you never know people have

Entertained angels Unawares it says probably referring to when Abraham and Sarah hosted three men who were passing by who turned out to be angels

One of them the Lord himself Even Jesus says that at the last judgment people are going to be told that the good thing they did

The the food or the clothes they shared the the visit they made the hospitality they showed or maybe for some

The things they didn't do they didn't share food or clothes and ignored people in need that that was really done to the

Lord Is you've done to the least of these? Jesus says in Matthew chapter 25 verse 40 you've done it to me

It's really very important to know Who you're dealing with? here in Deuteronomy 32 we see what happens when people forget

Who they're dealing with we see that in a song that is meant in four parts to remind us of Who we are dealing with and those four parts

One God's eternal majesty to God's past generosity then

God's present jealousy and finally God's future mercy and severity

What might strike us as odd is that these reminders of who God is who we're dealing with they come in a song

At the end of chapter 21 when we read Moses spoke the words of the song he gave them these lyrics

It's meant to be sung. We don't know the tune exactly that and what has it been preserved? But there's some tune that goes along with it that people were to learn and they sang this

Last week from Deuteronomy 31. We saw that this song was intended to be a witness against them so when judgment comes the song will be evidence back to them of Why they are now being punished why they are going through this judgment

Many Christians today find that weird because we don't think most of us don't think that that's what music and singing is for It's for I think we just kind of assume it's just for our entertainment

It's for our emotional release or for our just for sentimental value

Like we talked about last week the purpose of singing for many church people. I think seems to be no more profound than I like that song

Often singing is treated as the warm -up act for the preaching just to get you get you in the mood

We often don't think songs are to be reminders of who we're dealing with I think if you ask particularly most reformed people to come up with a way to remind the church

About their covenant with God and about who God is They'd respond, you know with a catechism

Maybe a teaching series maybe a book but it would probably never occur to them to write and sing a song

When it comes to learning about God Who we're dealing with reform people usually talk about teaching preaching maybe reading good books learning a catechism

But they'll rarely mention singing Almost as if it's it's too emotional or soulish

Something we shouldn't be too emotional or soulish as if we're not to love God with all our soul

But God often gives us songs Psalms is a song book

Right in the middle of the Bible The New Testament twice commands us to sing Psalms hymns and spiritual songs from that verse right there

Colossians chapter 3 songs give expression of The soul and that's exactly what

God does here He gives them a song to impress on their soul Who they're dealing with that's why we're reminded of who we're dealing with not just through cerebral lessons

But through a song to express with the soul Who we're dealing with?

Well first we think about God's eternal majesty in verse 1 give ear. Oh heavens

That's the universe like the galaxies the stars outer space Give ear

I will speak then let the earth, you know this planet. Let it also

Hear the words of my mouth. So all of creation heavens and earth praise of God's eternal majesty then falls like rain that refreshes the brown grass turning a green on the herbs making them flourish and Fragrant people need to hear about the greatness of God People today who are raised being told that they're that they're the greatest

They're kind of always puffed up Need to be told of someone who was infinitely greater so they see themselves in perspective

With God and so get humbled by that to get their minds off of themselves and praise

God praising God Refreshes so in verse 3 proclaim the name of the

Lord the name of Jesus Confess the name of Jesus and declare that he is the Lord to the glory of God the Father ascribe greatness

Not to yourself all the time ascribe greatness not to anything that serves you like your family or your money or Or even the country like next week in July 4th, but to our

God at least that's what we're here for You want to scribe greatness to the country you can do that elsewhere but here by ascribing greatness to our

God hearing and singing the praises of God of his eternal majesty is refreshing to our soul

C .s. Lewis wrote that quote the humblest and at the same time the most balanced and capacious that's a large kind of open minds praise most while the cranks the misfits and the

Malcontents praise the least praise seems to be inner health made audible

That is if you're not narcissistic You don't think everything is about you and you can see the greatness of God You will praise

You will want to sing praises Ascribe greatness not to ourselves, but to our

God how great is our God After all, he's our rock in verse 4 our foundation what our life is to be based on his work is perfect not like our works which are always flawed for his work is perfect because all his ways are

Justice that is they are they are just they are right and they produce

Justice they produce the right result the right outcome now there's an increasing amount of confusion about what justice is in today's culture with some people insisting that quote justice is everyone getting the same result a

Quality of outcome so -called equity and they're trying to redefine justice But here all

God's ways are justice because God defines what justice is It's getting what one deserves according to God what is right?

not a quality of outcome Because in the end as we see particularly see in this chapter, there's not a quality of outcome

Is there there's severity for some there's mercy for others if you live by God's ways, you'll get a different outcome

Then if you live opposed to his ways in rebellion against him If you're his adversary the evil get a different outcome than the righteous and those unequal outcomes are

Justice God the judge Decreed them. He issued the verdict that produces them

God's work is perfect because all his ways are justice

So sing his praise because he's also in verse 4 a god of faithfulness

It's just part of who got over and over in the Old Testament His steadfast love which already incorporates idea of faithfulness steadfast is faithful Steadfast love and faithfulness as he keeps his commitments

He doesn't make a promise and then gets kind of tired of keeping it You know this turned out to cost me more than I thought so I'm gonna break it

Look at it and think we're keeping this promises. It's costing me too much. So never mind now

He's not like that in Psalm 15 the person who gets to live with God is among other things the one who swears to his own hurt and Does not change in other words, he makes a promise that he keeps even if it turns out to cost a lot

The the reason such a person lives with God is because God is like that too.

He swears He makes a covenant. He makes a commitment to his own hurt

When other was that it cost him a lot and he does not change He swore he made a covenant to save his people and to keep that covenant

He had to come in human flesh the incarnation and go to the cross. That's a lot of hurt

But he did not change He's fateful and without sin without anything corrupt

Just and upright is he? So sing his praises

That's what we do when we care about something, right? We praise it if you really care about something your championship basketball or football or Could have been championship baseball team or your your son or daughter

Graduating or getting married or maybe the country on July 4th. You you don't feel complete until you get to To tell it to announce it tell others we enjoy praising

What we love the praise completes the enjoyment so having it encountered

God's eternal majesty Having a life that is founded on the rock.

That's a theme throughout this chapter the rock There's their rock. There's unsure rocks and there's the rock seeing the perfection of his works

We want to praise and that's part. That's part of why we come here, isn't it?

We are a gathering of people Who yearn to ascribe greatness? to our

God Second we sing about God's past Generosity from verses 5 to 18 in verse 6.

He says God is their father Who created them who made them and established them who put them on a rock?

so that they weren't unstable people Temporary flighty people like most of the other nations, you know, you read the

Old Testament You see all these names of nations that don't exist anymore. What happened to them? Well, they they were founded on sand

They disappeared not God's people though. They they're founded on the rock in verse 7. Remember the days of old

Take a sentimental journey consider the past Ask the old folks here particularly ask your father.

He says they'll tell you the Most High allotted the land For every nation.

He set their borders their inheritance was land. What was their territory? But in verse 9 the

Lord's portion that is his inheritance Is his people it's an important theme also in the chapter in the whole

Old Testament the Lord's inheritance His portion the equivalent for him of us having land that we inherit equivalent for him is having a people that he inherits

Inherits the heritage. He allotted himself. He calls it here is Jacob which

Genesis tells us is the assembly That's the gathering of his people from all nations. The Lord's portion his heritage is his people

And at the very end of the song it literally says in Hebrew And I read the ESV as it presented to us, but I disagree with it here

It because it literally says in Hebrew in verse 43 his land his people they translated it

Cleanses his people's land, but it literally says his land his people thus equating the land with the people

That's his inheritance He chose to be their father the father to them to care for them

Because they're his people his inheritance in the past He founded his people he found his people in a desert land in verse 10

Like he finds a dry and weary land where there is no water. There's nothing life -giving there

It's a place where thing living things die, but he surrounded them with care Keeping them as he says the apple of his eye that is protecting them like we instinctively we instinctively protect our eyes

Don't we especially our pupils? It's a sensitive part of the body something starts coming for our eyes we just immediately

Defense mechanism kicks in and protect our eyes, especially our pupils. We have a defense mechanism

Toward the pupils of our eyes or the apples of our eye. And so the Lord here is saying that he reflexively immediately

Guards his people like we guard our eyes Guards them with an instant help Like a father then in verse 11 like a mother eagle hovering above her chicks spreading her wings

Feeding and guarding them and so to at verse 12 the Lord guarded his people not any other

God It wasn't money or family or the government that protected and provided. It was the

Lord. The Lord gave his people a ride That is he carried them in verse 13 that footprints point gets that right?

He gave his people fresh produce good fruit suckle them on honey and refresh them all the oil

Out of rocks no less. How do you get fresh water and oil out of rocks? No, but but the

Lord does it the Lord caused even the rocks which naturally produced nothing to produce sweetness and refreshing for his

People when the Lord is is carrying you even the rocks It's the hard Lifeless things of the world and give you nourishment

It can bring nourishment and joy from them. The Lord gave them milk curds

It's like for us maybe like yogurt Maybe like tofu or gave him tofu in verse 14 with the best lambs good

Mutton, maybe curry mutton to high -grain wheat Gave them sweet wine and abundance sing of the past generosity of the

Lord Be amazed by his generosity To you.

It's what he's saying here It's part of the song sing of the abundance that he's given you all this this extravagance that he's poured out on you

Sing about it Dave Ramsey says that quote generosity is God's way of creating community that is

You're generous with someone, you know, you do them a favor you give them what they need maybe money or maybe things some service and and they are or should be

Grateful, so they feel connected to you and then sometime later you have a need Will they feel like sharing with you too?

It's not a it's not like a business relationship a quid pro quo No, it's that's based on pay, you know food lion isn't generous to me when

I shop there I don't feel connected to them Right. I don't go up to the with a pint of ice cream and ask, you know,

I really like some of this I don't have money with him right now. Do you mind sharing next time? I'll share some with you No, I'm a cashier.

What are you talking to bargain with me? No, there's no connection to that. You're not generous with me I'm not generous with them if another store opens up that provides as good products from the same or less money

I'll feel no loyalty at all to food lion and so go so gladly shop at the new place

But when someone is generous with us with me if they're interested in me if they give to me hopefully the same for you and Then I you feel connected don't you

I do And so you'll be generous back to them you share with them and so community is created like that here

God has been generous to his people and They should because of that feel connected to him in a community with God They should see him as their caring father

It's not just like a service provider and there may be somebody else comes along and do it better. They'll switch. They'll switch gods

Because someone else is doing the God business better. No, they they feel connected to this God has been generous with them

That's how they should feel no healthy person sees the generosity of anyone because I would say particularly of his parents

These are our parents and things. Okay, mom and dad were really good to me They gave me a lot of stuff, but you know, I can do better with that other that other mom and dad

Reckon switch I can switch accounts and get a better deal from another mom and dad

Now something is wrong at heart with a person who receives generosity and doesn't respond with gratitude with connection with community

Generosity is God's way of community creating community connection, but there are people who are so narcissistic so bent in on themselves

So carrying only of themselves that they assume that they deserve every good thing they've gotten and so generosity doesn't

Create any community with them any connection to the one who was generous. They take the gifts no matter how lavish and they say

Well, what have you done for me lately? I'm looking for someone who will give me what I want next on the past.

I forget about your generosity I want I want the next thing never mind the Covenant Never mind sparing

Abraham and Jacob delivering them from a famine by sending Joseph to Egypt. Never mind the Exodus The honey from the rock and the yogurt or the tofu and the mutton never mind all that this bale

This bale is offering me fertility and prosperity Looks like a pretty good deal from that bale

God Never mind calling me from a dry and weary world with no life.

There's no atonement. There's no forgiveness Never mind calling me from that and giving me Life and atonement and forgiveness

Giving me righteousness Never mind that I got spared judgment

For never mind the resurrection and the new heaven and the new earth a hope that lasts forever.

Never mind all that this this mammon This wealth is promising me everything

I want The relationship is promising to light up my life The world is promising me

Thrills and luxuries and to stuff my ego Despite God's past generosity these people dealt corruptly with him

He began actually back in verse 5 and they betrayed him They betrayed the one who dealt with them as a caring father

And so they're no longer his children at least not some of them are not they are they are blemished

This that as people are not allowed to be priests to approach him They're crooked and twisted what kind of people return such generosity with no sense of gratitude or Relationship well crooked

Twisted bit people do they should have been Jerry shun in verse 15, which the

Hebrew word just means upright one. It should have been the upright one That's who he calls him kind of Sarcastically, there's supposedly the upright one.

It's like that But they grew fat on all the yogurt or on all the tofu and the mutton that they were fed

They were fat and stout and sleek The Lord was generous with them So they they prospered like last week remember cotton mather

Godliness beget prosperity and the daughter devoured the mother God is generous and blesses us with the money the house the stuff the family the relationships we wanted and then

We make the things that he gave us Into an idol we end up taking more money and Things and or we end up serving the family over the

Lord Whatever we turn Into something we serve instead of something we we used to serve the

Lord And so we betray the one who generously gave them to us his generosity to us

Does it make us grateful to him? It makes us fat and self -indulgent. So we kick back at him

We forsake him we scoff at the rock of our salvation in verse 15. He was reliable.

He was the rock He was reliable solid. We weren't instead they or we stirred the

Lord to jealousy because we live for Those other things besides him

Maybe thinking that we could live for him and those other things like wealth or the family That is it doesn't really want to serve the

Lord our our egos. We forgot who we were dealing with Look at our idols in verses 16 and 17

He describes these idols that were drawn to first. They are they are strange in verse 16

That is these gods these idols that we that we had not known in verse 17. They were things that were were new to us

They don't properly belong to us and we weren't made to serve them. Although that's what we're doing now

We're serving namen or whatever. They were made to serve us Second they are in verse 16 detestable

That's what they That's what it means to be an abomination There's something that is abhorrent something that's repulsive.

This is disgusting They may not be repulsive to us anymore like living for the dollar

That may seem like normal. So it's so abhorrent about that. It's the way the world works But that's because we've been conformed to a culture that's all about that.

There's something wrong with us when what is detestable feels normal Like there's something wrong with a person help help the health wise is able to eat something.

That's detestable. That's repulsive There should be a reaction to it. It should be a reaction to us

When these detestable idols tempt us third the idols are demonic in verse 17, they they sacrifice to demons

There were no gods that is they serve demonic things Our idols come from Satan to distract us to take our eyes off the one who was generous to us forth

They are unimpressive They don't cause dread or Reverence, they don't make us tremble or give us joy.

They just distract us They just fill our attention They make us unmindful in verse 18 unmindful of the rock who bore us

That is they take our minds away from the rock. We don't end up we don't think about God anymore Our mind is not on him anymore

I may say we believe in him, but we don't really think about him because there's this other thing That's this bright shiny thing that's distracting us

We're so focused on money -making or the relationship or sports or our career or whatever that we forget about God He's the rock who gave us birth, but we forget

Who we're dealing with? Who do you think you're dealing with? You think you're dealing with someone who was was jealous

Who has a right to be jealous who owns you and whom you owe your life your soul?

You're all well next we see God's present jealousy

Now people today usually think of jealousy as something bad Because it's constraining right we don't be constrained

Jealousy is bad. We think because we like to think we are free And so we hate to think that we are owned by anyone that someone else has a right

To our affections in our heart to say no, you can't do that or say that because I have that right over you

So we just we resent that so we end up saying all jealousy is bad And no one has the right to be jealous over over us, but really that's wrong

If you're married your wife or husband has a right to be jealous To say stop it if you're communicating in the wrong way with someone of the opposite sex

You owe him or her attention affection that only belongs to him or her

We owe God our life our soul our all and so he is jealous when we give it to something else

He is right to be He's already said in verse 16 in the context of that his past generosity that there and that our

Idolatry provokes his jealousy the song then describes what that means from verses 19 to 33 his provoked present jealousy

Our idolatry he says is a provocation in verse 19 And so he spurns us like from last week, you know those times when there were only one set of footprints in the sand

That's when you were serving an idol You know serving mammon. So I spurned you.

I Wouldn't be near you He says in verse 20 that he will hide his face from us The opposite of that blessing from numbers that we give for our benediction may his face shine upon you here

He's saying I'm hiding my face from you here. He hides his face his favor is approving attention If you're chasing some idol, he will let them reap the consequences for their choices

They're perverse and Unfaithful the lack of faithfulness being the perversity in our culture.

I think we think it's so normal The people not keeping their word not keeping their promises. We think it's the way it is

God here saying no, that's that's perverse That's perversity to be unfaithful. Our idolatry makes him jealous

Provoking his anger so the Lord punishes by blessing others So we'll be jealous

Ever wonder why sometimes we could people Immoral people I pornographers or whatever.

They are our seem to be blessed and flourish Sometimes he's doing God's blessing them at least for now

To provoke us we provoked him So now he's provoking us

You understand who you're dealing with Describes it here. His anger is like fire.

It burns down to the dead Devouring the planet Consuming everything so he heaps up disasters on us more disaster.

I've another disaster It's a tsunami is a tornado is a hurricane. Here's a pandemic

Heaping them up shooting his arrows bringing hunger and diseases and pandemics and novel coronaviruses and terrorists

No one can escape he says he would have wiped out his idolatrous people

But he didn't want his enemies to boast notice what's going on here around verse 23 to 27

He he vows I would have wiped out my idolatrous people

But I didn't want the end my enemies Who were my tools in my hand to punish them?

I didn't want them To boast that they got the triumph. He didn't want to give the gates of hell the victory

Because then they would boast that they won that they won by themselves That they prevailed not because the

Lord was judging in verse 27. They they that's the enemies of God They are the nation without sense. They don't understand why they're triumphing over God's people

They think because they're they're smarter They're more powerful But not because the God is using them the enemies don't don't understand that in verses 28 to 33

That the reason that they're able to defeat us God's people was because God was punishing or is punishing us through them

That's why one of them chased a thousand of us in verse 30 why Why are we losing all the time?

Oh because God is using them possible example about eight years ago two -thirds of North Carolinians voted to uphold marriage was between a man and a woman and Then about two years later.

The opposite was just basically forced on us. How does that happen? How do we lose like that? Because we've been given up in verse 31 their rock the rock of the adversaries what they are based on money pleasure ego

Whatever is not our rock Our enemies come from Sodom not literally but spiritually they are the spirit of Sodom and Gomorrah there their wine is

Poison God in his jealousy gives us over to them when we serve idols, but notice not totally

He doesn't give us totally over to them the gates of hell still Will not prevail against the church.

He won't let them prevail even when we forget Who we're dealing with? Who do you think you're dealing with?

You think you're dealing with a God of future mercy and severity in verses 34 to 43 we see the future mercy and severity of God What has

God laid up in store? In verse 34 vengeance is mine

He's laid that up in store He said the verse 35 recompense He will pay back

For the time when their foot shall slip and he speak about these enemies He his enemies who he has been using to punish to discipline his people, but he will pay them back for the time

When their foot shall slip he set that time When they will stumble and fall that's his time.

He's ordained it God orders whatever quote accident that overtakes his enemies

Whatever slip and fall down a staircase that breaks their neck Whatever auto accident they end up being crushed by whatever calamity that brings their doom

That's for his enemies that he he used To punish his people because of their idolatry

Now that should make us tremble When we realize that's who we're dealing with We're dealing with a

God who controls every disaster who sets appointments that their foots gonna slip here or there

They're gonna fall down the stairs here. They're gonna get in a car wreck there. That's who we're dealing with says the verse 39

I kill and make alive I Wound and I heal and there is none who can deliver out of my hand

He swears in verses 40 to 42 that he will take vengeance on his enemies He'll repay those who hate him shooting his arrows into them pouring out their blood chopping their flesh with a sword tremble when you realize

That's who you're dealing with see he says in verse 38 See open your eyes that I Even I am he he says

Know who you're dealing with see Understand that he's not the therapeutic

God who carries us even when we're idolatrous There's not a teddy bear.

No, he says there is no God beside me tremble but then realize

That severity on his enemies Makes his mercy on his people stand out

Mercy is displayed over the backdrop of severity. He does all this all this severity

Ordaining when foots slip because of verse 36 the Lord will vindicate

Vindicate means to make right Show to be right the Lord will vindicate his people

He will show them to be right that they were right to trust him that they had been made right by him for him

He will have compassion on his servants When when they're the meek of the earth when they depend on him, then he will show them

These are my people And then he challenges us Where your idols now?

You know your precious dollars your cars your jewels your gadgets your relationships the things you you kept for yourself

It belonged to me Where are they now? What good are they to you now in verse 38 the fat of sacrifices and the wine or drink offerings?

He said they kept those things for themselves, but God said they belong to me Like our money our time our family our hearts, but our in our idolatry

We kept it for ourselves But now those idols can't help us But the

Lord will The Lord will help us after destroying his enemies so in verse 43

Rejoice with him with the Lord now for all all the judgment of this chapter all his severity this is still a happy song rejoice

Bow down to him know who you are dealing with even the idols that you served make them serve the

Lord Because he has mercy on his children and severity on his adversaries while and that last line of the song

He cleanses or atones literally it says

That is washes away like we heard in that song. He washes away the sin of his people

He cleanses his land his people that is his land is his people his inheritance

He atones he makes at one he reconciles with himself So all their sin so all our sin is washed away the future mercy of God That's the song

Moses and Joshua now joined by Joshua at the very end give to us and that we're told

To take it to heart That's to warn us about who we're dealing with Who do you think you're dealing with Do you know?

with trembling and and rejoicing that you're dealing with a God who kills and Makes a life who wounds and heals

Who ordains when foots will slip? We have the song

So we'll know him So we'll tremble at his word and do it

We'll enjoy his inheritance So we'll know who this

God is We say we believe in will put away all our idols and will give to him our life

Our soul our all and found our life on him our rock

So we'll know Finally Who we're dealing with the