(1)
Scripture Reading: Deut. 1:2-46
The nine crucial points in the book of Deuteronomy covered in the foregoing message reveal three persons: God, man, and Christ as the word. In these nine points God is manifested, man is exposed, and Christ is presented.
According to this book, with God there are love, righteousness, faithfulness, and blessing. God has a heart, hands, a mouth, and eyes. God's heart is loving, His hands are righteous, and His mouth is faithful. Whatever proceeds out of the mouth of God will be fulfilled. God's eyes are either for blessing or for cursing. This is the God revealed not only in Deuteronomy but throughout the entire Bible.
Concerning man, Deuteronomy reveals that man is nothing. We are nothing, we have nothing, and we can do nothing. How, then, could the loving, righteous, faithful, and blessing God expect that we could do something for Him? God does not have such an expectation. As the wise God, He knows that we love ourselves and that we are righteous in our own careless way and for our own benefit. If we think something is for us, we may practice it. This is our kind of righteousness. Furthermore, if we are faithful, we are faithful only in our own interests. Finally, instead of blessing others or giving to others, we like to receive. Therefore, it would be ridiculous to think that this kind of person can carry out God's eternal purpose or fulfill His economy.
The crucial points of the book of Deuteronomy are also the crucial points of Paul's epistles. Paul's writings also manifest God as the One who is loving, righteous, and faithful and as the God of blessing. Moreover, Paul's writings reveal that in ourselves we are nothing.
If Deuteronomy only revealed God as the loving, righteous, faithful, and blessing One and us as those who are nothing, have nothing, and can do nothing, our situation would be hopeless. Deuteronomy, however, also reveals Christ as the word. We cannot do anything for God, but we can receive the word as our life and life supply.
The loving, righteous, faithful, and blessing God does not want us to do something for Him. He knows that we are nothing, that we have nothing, and that we can do nothing. His economy, His way, is not to allow us to do something by ourselves but to have us do everything with Christ, by Christ, through Christ, and in Christ. Christ is our life and life supply; therefore, daily we need to feed on Him. Christ is also our faithfulness and the body, the substance, of all our necessities (Col. 2:17). For our supply, Christ is the word, and continually we need to contact Him in the Word and by the Word.
Do you know what the Bible is? The Bible is not merely a book of history, stories, and teachings. The Bible is the embodiment of Christ. Whatever Christ is and has and whatever Christ has done, is doing, will do, and can do are embodied in the Bible. To read the Bible, therefore, is to participate in Christ. Since the Bible is God's breath, God's exhaling, the best way to study the Bible is to breathe it, to inhale it. Let us learn to inhale the breath of the Triune God in the holy Word!
We should not think that the word is distant, and we should not ask who will ascend to heaven to bring the word down or who will go across the sea to bring the word to us (Deut. 30:11-13; Rom. 10:6-7). The word is very near — it is in our mouth and in our heart (Deut. 30:14; Rom. 10:8).
Christ as the word has already come down in His incarnation, and He has already come out of the abyss, out of Hades, in His resurrection. In resurrection He has become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) as the breath for us to breathe. This means that He is not only the word but also the Spirit. When we receive His word, we receive the Spirit, for the words He speaks to us are spirit and life (John 6:63).
Learn to inhale the breath of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. If we breathe the processed Triune God, the grace of Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Spirit will be with us (2 Cor. 13:14).
When we take the word by inhaling the Bible, we will be able to do in Christ what we cannot do in ourselves. Consider what Paul says in the book of Philippians, which is a deuteronomy, a respeaking, of Moses' words. In Philippians 4:13 Paul could declare, "I can do all things in Him who empowers me." These "things" are itemized in verse 8, where Paul says, "Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is righteous, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is well-spoken of, if there is any virtue and if any praise, take account of these things." Before Paul was in Christ, he could not do any of these things. But in Christ, the One who empowered him, he could do them all. This can also be our experience today. If we would have this experience, we need to enjoy the Divine Trinity by inhaling the Bible, the embodiment of Christ.
Now that we have seen that the crucial points in Deuteronomy manifest God, expose man, and present Christ, let us go on to consider the matter of the review of the past.
Reviewing the past has a threefold benefit.
Reviewing the past brings us new light and new revelation. If we would have this light and revelation, we need to be in the presence of the Lord as we are reviewing our past. Otherwise, we will simply have a kind of retrospection, and this will not be helpful. If we view our past in the presence of the Lord, He may give us new light and new revelation according to what we were in the past.
Reviewing the past also helps us to know God's heart and God's hand. God's heart is loving and His hand is righteous. According to His heart, God is loving; according to His hand, He is righteous.
Reviewing the past helps us to know ourselves, to condemn the flesh, and to learn to reject the self and the flesh. While we were doing certain things or passing through certain things in the past, it was difficult for us to know ourselves. But afterwards when we look back, we can receive light to know ourselves and our flesh so that we may reject the self and the flesh.
Concerning reviewing the past, there is a governing thought. When we review our past, we must carry out the review according to this governing thought.
Our review of the past must be governed by the thought that God's heart is loving and that His governmental dealing is righteous.
God's blessing requires man's obedience and faithfulness. Obedience and faithfulness are the two conditions that must be fulfilled if we are to be qualified to receive God's blessing. Disobedience and unfaithfulness are obstacles to God's blessing. If we want God's blessing in our private life, daily life, family life, and church life, we must learn to be obedient and faithful.
The turning away of man's heart from God results in serious tragedy. To turn away from God and from His word, which is Christ, is to lose all the blessings and to suffer the curse.
These three points regarding God's loving heart and righteous governmental dealing, man's obedience and faithfulness, and the tragic result of man's turning his heart away from God make up the governing thought of reviewing the past. This thought, which is found throughout the Bible and which is evident in the New Testament, should govern us whenever we intend to have a review of our condition.
In Deuteronomy the review of the past covers the journey from the mount of God to the entry of the holy land (1:2, 19). The mount of God, called Mount Horeb, is one of the many peaks of the mountain range of Sinai. Mount Horeb was the place where Moses stayed with God and received God's speaking. In our experience today, Mount Horeb is the place where God speaks. Through God's speaking at Mount Horeb, we are equipped with the vision concerning Christ and the church, we are built up as the priesthood, and we are formed into an army.
The journey of the children of Israel began from the mount of God. Beginning from Mount Horeb, they journeyed until they reached Kadesh-barnea, the entry of the good land.
At Mount Horeb God equipped, or trained, the people with the knowledge of the law (Exo. 20—23). We may say that this equipping was a kind of orientation given to them by God.
The children of Israel were also equipped with the revelation, the vision, of the tabernacle and the ark (Exo. 25—27). The ark is a type of Christ, and the tabernacle is a type of the church. If we would journey with God and fight for Him today, we must be equipped with the revelation concerning Christ and the church.
After seeing the revelation concerning the tabernacle and the ark, the children of Israel participated in the building up of the tabernacle as God's dwelling place on earth (Exo. 36—38). The situation is the same with us today. First we see the revelation concerning Christ and the church and then we participate in the present building up of God's dwelling place on earth.
In addition to the building up of the tabernacle, there was the building up of the priesthood for the service of God (Exo. 28—30). The proper service of God can be rendered to Him only by the priesthood. From this we see that to serve God is not ordinary but extraordinary. This service is rendered by a group of trained people who serve God as priests in His dwelling place.
The children of Israel were also formed, or constituted, into an army to journey with God and to fight with God (Num. 1—9). Their journey was a fighting journey, for on their journey they had to fight again and again.
Before God's people could fight for Him, they had to be built up as His dwelling place, built up as a serving unit, and formed into a priestly army. The children of Israel, therefore, had a threefold status: they were the dwelling place, the priesthood, and the army.
The children of Israel journeyed under the leading of God in the cloud (Num. 10:11-28, 33-36). Although they were journeying on earth, they were under the heavenly leading. They were led not by something on earth but by the very God who is in heaven. He took the lead in their journey.
The children of Israel began their journey from the mount of Jehovah (Num. 10:33; Exo. 3:1; 24:13, 16). Today, our mount of God is the place where we are equipped, built up, and formed into an army. It is from this place that we begin our journey.
Before the children of Israel began their journey from the mount of God to the entry of the holy land, they were equipped, built up, and formed into an army. This indicates that if we have not also been equipped, built up, and formed into a priestly army, we cannot journey with God. There are millions of Christians today who have not received the proper equipping, that is, who have not been trained and perfected. Furthermore, these Christians have not been built up as the dwelling place and as the priesthood and have not been formed into an army to fight for God. As a result, they cannot journey with God. In order to journey with God under His heavenly leading, we must first be equipped, built up, and formed into an army.
The people journeyed to Kadesh-barnea, the place which is considered the entry to the holy land (Num. 12:16; 13:3, 26).
The distance from the mount of God to Kadesh-barnea was a distance of eleven days' journey (Deut. 1:2).
The children of Israel offended God by their unbelief. Because of their unbelief, they wasted almost forty years in the wandering in the wilderness (1:3).
After the forty years in the wilderness, the people came to the plain east of Jordan, and there they slew the two kings who were guarding the entrance into the good land — Sihon, the king of the Amorites, and Og, the king of Bashan (1:4).
The slaying of these two kings was the end of the wandering of the children of Israel in the wilderness. If we want our wandering to end, we need to slay today's Sihon and Og.
The slaying of these two kings also opened the gate into the promised land.
God charged the children of Israel to leave the mount of God that they might enter the good land which He promised to their fathers (1:5-8). They had been trained by God and formed into a priestly army and they had a definite goal for the journey — the good land promised to their fathers.
Deuteronomy 1:9-18 describes the appointing of officers.
The appointing of officers indicates that it was not easy to keep the condition of the children of Israel in a good order. The people were more than two million in number, and it was not possible for Moses alone to keep them in order.
The keeping of a good order was needed for God's dwelling and service and for fighting the enemies. The dwelling place, the priesthood, and the army all required a good order.
Maintaining the order among the children of Israel needed both the deputy authority and the submission. The deputy authority represented God as the authority. The people were required to submit to this deputy authority.
The children of Israel had a great failure at Kadesh-barnea (Deut. 1:19-46; 2:14-15). This failure caused "all the generation of the men of war" to be "consumed from the midst of the camp" (2:14).
The failure of the children of Israel at Kadesh-barnea was due to their unbelief toward God and toward His promise (1:32, 35). God is faithful, and His word, which is His promise, cannot fail. But the people believed neither in God nor in His promise. Their unbelief offended God.
In 1:31 Moses said, "In the wilderness, where you have seen that Jehovah your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place." God had carried the people through the terrible wilderness from the mount of God to Kadesh-barnea. But in spite of God's carrying them, the children of Israel did not believe in Him or in His promise.
All the unbelieving ones were consumed in the wilderness in the wandering of thirty-eight years (2:14-15). This shows us that it is a terrible thing not to believe in God. We need to be careful concerning unbelief.
All the men of war perished with the exception of only Caleb and Joshua (1:36-38).
In 1:41-45 we see that unbelief caused disobedience to God. The reason we do not obey God is that we do not believe in Him. Unbelief is the cause of our disobedience to God.
The New Testament ministry is a ministry of faith, and the New Testament word is a word of faith. Thus we begin our Christian life and church life by faith. Without faith we cannot live either the Christian life or the church life. Unbelief damages us and leads to tragedy.
With respect to believing in God we should forget our past, but with respect to knowing God and ourselves we should remember our past. A proper review of our past will help us to no longer trust ourselves but to put our trust absolutely in God. Through reviewing the past we may learn the lesson of not having any trust in ourselves. We are nothing more than an unbelieving self, and all we have is flesh. Therefore, we must learn to reject the self and the flesh and put our trust altogether in God, the One who is faithful and whose words can never fail.
