(Through the Bible) Deuteronomy 30-34

Chapter 30, it shall come to pass when all these things are come upon thee, the blessings and the curse which I have set before thee, and you call to mind among the nations whether the Lord thy God has driven you. In other words, when you're driven out of the land and you're in captivity and then you remember what God has said. And you shall return to the Lord your God and shall obey his voice according to all that I command you this day, you and your children with all of your heart and with all of your soul, then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity and have compassion upon thee and will return and gather thee from all the nations whether the Lord thy God has scattered thee.

And if any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, from thence will he fetch thee. Now in Matthew's Gospel chapter 24 verse 31, we find this prophecy of Jesus declaring that its fulfillment will take place when he returns in his glory. When the Son of Man shall return in his glory, then shall the angels go throughout the four quarters of the heaven gathering together God's people back into the land.

His elect, so that that elect of Matthew 24 does not refer to the church, as some who say the church is going to go through the Great Tribulation do teach. But it is a direct fulfillment of this prophecy that relates to the nation Israel when the Lord returns as the Messiah. Then he's going to gather those who have been driven out to the various parts of the earth back into the land from the four quarters of the earth and his elect will be drawn back into the land in a direct fulfillment of this prophecy.

Jesus relates to this in Matthew 24 31. That is why those who emphasize their ministry in the New Testament often become confused as to Israel, its destiny and as to the church. Because they take the scriptures that God has applied to Israel and they try to apply them to the church and they get all mixed up because they don't have the Old Testament background to see where this particular prophecy is a direct quotation almost of the prophecy.

It's a direct reference to this prophecy in Deuteronomy, the book that Jesus quoted the most. And when you see it there you realize the elect of Matthew 24 who are gathered together after the tribulation of those days cannot be the church but is the fulfillment here in Deuteronomy. Now the Lord thy God will then circumcise your heart and the heart of your children to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul that you may live.

And so at that time God will just deal with a man's heart and take away the fleshly desires and so forth out of his heart. For the Lord will again rejoice over thee for good as he rejoiced over your fathers. If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God to keep his commandments and statutes which are written in the book of the law.

So over and over and over again Moses is talking to them about the commandments, the importance of keeping the commandments in the same in verse 11. For this commandment which I command thee this day. It is not hidden from thee neither is it far off.

It is not in heaven that thou shouldest say who will go up for us into heaven and bring it unto us that we may hear it and do it. Neither is it beyond the sea that you should say who shall go over the sea for us and bring it unto us that we may hear it and do it. But the word is very nigh unto thee in thy mouth and in thy heart that you may do it." So God has given his word and he has given his word in understandable terms.

And not only that he has put it in your heart and in your mouth. And any time a person says well I know I should not have done that. He is testifying to the fact that God has put his word, his commandment in his heart.

How do I know I shouldn't have done that? Well I just know inside. God has put his law within my heart. The commandment is there.

I know when I do right. I know when I do wrong. I know when I fail to do right.

Oh I know I should have done that. I knew all the time I should have done that. Of course you do.

Because the commandment is there in your heart. And with your mouth you're only testifying to the fact that the commandment is there in your heart. You know in your heart what is right what is wrong.

I know I ought to serve God. I know I ought to commit my life completely to God. I know I should commit this situation to the Lord.

Then why don't you? If you know, and you do know, God hasn't hid himself in some kind of mystic obscurity so that you have to be some kind of a mystic and go into some kind of a trance and leave your body and project your spirit out into the heaven someplace where God might there speak to you in the hollow chamber with an echoing voice so that you'll know the word and the will of God for your life. Neither is he across the sea someplace in a monastery in Tibet or in some high place in India with a guru sitting in a little shed spreading his divine light. But the Word of God is very close to you.

Extremely close to you. The commandment of God is very close to you. It's actually in your heart and God has there written his law so that you know within your heart when you've done the right thing, you know when you've done the wrong thing.

And you confess it with your mouth. So often I say I should not have done that. I know it.

So often I say I should do this. I know I should. Therefore I am not innocent.

I am guilty. Because he who knows to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. My failure to do that which I know I should do is sin.

I know it. It's in my heart. Now Paul the Apostle takes this passage, quotes it in Romans 10.

And there as he quotes this passage, again he says, say not that it is in heaven that someone should ascend to bring it down or in the depths that someone should have to descend to bring it up or beyond the sea that someone has to bring it back. But the word of God is nigh unto thee. Yes, it is close to you.

It is even in your heart and in your mouth. For, now Paul adds this, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Now Paul goes ahead and takes this same passage and he shows how close every man is to salvation.

Salvation is just as near as your heart and your mouth. Salvation is something that you cannot achieve or attain by climbing up to heaven. You can't go across the sea and kill the seven-headed dragon and steal the seven golden apples in order to be saved.

It isn't some difficult experience that you can achieve only by tremendous effort and ability. But salvation is so close and so easy that no one is without excuse. For it's as close as your mouth and your heart.

If thou shalt confess with thy mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the mouth confession is made unto righteousness and with the heart man believes unto salvation. That's how close any one of you are tonight.

You say, oh I feel like I'm a million miles from God. I feel like God is so far away. No, God is very near to you.

I feel like I'm so far from salvation. No, you're very close to salvation. But you don't know the life I've been living.

I don't care about the life you've been living. I don't want to know it. I do know that any one of you can be saved in this very moment if you will just confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

If you would just now say, oh Lord take over my life. I surrender my life to you. Take it over now.

That he would. Jesus, I believe that you rose from the dead. You'll be saved.

That's just how close you are. You see, believing is a matter of choice and you can choose to believe now or you can choose not to believe. You can choose to believe that Jesus did rise from the dead, thus attesting to the truth of what he declared that he was indeed the Son of God who came down to bear the sins of man in order that he might give to us eternal life who believe in him.

And the resurrection capped the thing off. It made the hope for eternal life a living hope, more than just a hope. He gave substance to the hope by the resurrection.

Or you can choose to believe that he didn't rise from the dead.

That somehow the disciples gave some spiked drinks to the guards and after they passed out, they heaved ho on the stone and they stole the body of Jesus, took it off someplace else, buried it where nobody could find it, and then got together and made up a big story about finding the tomb empty and the linen clothes in which Jesus was wrapped all there in the form but no body in it and that they made a pact between themselves that they would stick to this story that no one would would squeal or tell the plot even if they were put to death and that all of them went to their deaths with this lie with the exception of John who died of old age but the rest of them all went to violent deaths for this lie that they told now Satan has a philosophy of man he had a philosophy of Job when God said

to Satan have you seen my servant Job perfect man one who loves good hates evil Satan expressed his philosophy concerning Job he says does Job serve you for nothing Job's a mercenary God the way you bless that fellow a man would be a fool not to serve you the way you've blessed him well you've given that guy everything he wants anybody would serve you for that Job is a hireling Job is a mercenary he's serving you Lord for profit let me take away his riches let me take away his goods he'll turn around and curse you Satan took away his goods everything he had and he came back and after Satan wiped him out completely when the servant came with the last message Job fell on his face before the Lord and he said naked I came into the world naked I'm going out the Lord has given and the Lord has

taken away blessed be the name of the Lord and in all of these things Job did not curse God neither did he charge God foolishly he didn't say oh God doesn't love me anymore God doesn't care he didn't charge God foolishly so Satan came back egg all over his face his philosophy was proved wrong God said where you been they know I've been cruising around the world going up and down to and fro throughout it oh wait a minute checked out my servant Job good man God's doing a little bragging on him now one who loves good hates evil perfect man upright now Satan offers his second philosophy concerning men it is this skin for skin all that a man has will he give for his life that's a pretty accurate evaluation of man life is the most precious possession that we have and all a man has he will give

for his life because if I don't have my life then what good is it to have anything so when it comes right down to it your life is your most valued possession that was Satan's philosophy it is an accurate evaluation of man he's had a long time to study human nature and our psychologists will tell us that self-preservation is the strongest natural instinct that you possess so they agree with Satan's evaluation I don't know maybe they were inspired now you see the problem that you're facing if a man will give all that he has for his life and all of these men gave their lives because they had agreed together to the lie that Jesus was risen from the dead if indeed he did not rise but it was all a big hoax that they were perpetrating you've got to somehow explain how that all of these men were

willing to give their lives for a hoax you've got to explain how they overcame man's strong basic instinct of self-preservation so you can choose to believe that the story of the resurrection is a hoax or you can choose to believe that it was true if you believe that it was a hoax you've got some real problems with logic if you believe that it is truth then there is no problem it all makes sense and all of these guys bore witness of it they said we bear witness of this so you're believing the mouth of witnesses and if you're not willing to believe the mouth of witnesses then we might as well throw our whole jurisprudence system because our whole jurisprudence system is based upon the establishing of fact by the testimony of witnesses so you get the witnesses that are agreeing together

this is what happened if we can't believe their witness then we really should establish a whole new system of jurisprudence so you choose to believe you choose not to believe that he rose from the dead it's a matter of choice strictly but by choosing to believe that he did when you can gain so much why would you be so dumb to choose not to believe in spite of all of the evidence you know you're taking it but it just shows man's stubborn heart and foolish heart because he doesn't want to acknowledge God a man is an agnostic not because God can't be known God can be known there are thousands that come to this church every week that will attest to you that God can be known so a man is an agnostic not because God can't be known but because the man has chosen not to know God because God is

very close to every man salvation is very near all you have to do is turn your life over to Jesus as Lord and just believe that God raised him from the dead you'll be safe Paul takes this passage any and he shows how that God has dealt with us through this passage in a new way because the commandment that Moses speaks about here in the 16th verse is that you love the Lord your God and that you walk with him and that you obey all of his commandments and statutes and judgments all right I love God and I want to walk with God but my flesh is weak and I violated the commandments of God so the addition that Paul makes by saying if thou shalt confess by thy mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord believe in your heart God has raised him from the dead that takes care of my failure by that I am forgiven

of my violation of the commandment by that I am washed and cleansed from my sin thereby I have salvation I have the life of God that age-abiding life in Jesus Christ so Moses said I call heaven and earth verse 19 to record this day against you that I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing therefore choose life because it is a matter of choice you choose to serve God you choose to believe God you choose to follow God or you choose not to it is a matter of choice and is encouraging you choose life and the blessings of God rather than death and the curse of God upon your life but it's your choice you make that choice for yourself God doesn't make that choice for you you make that choice for yourself God knows and has always known the choice you're going to make but yet

you're the one that makes the choice and the foreknowledge of God does not take away from your responsibility to make the choice therefore choose life choose the blessing that you may love the Lord your God and obey his voice and cleave unto him for he is thy life and the length of days so Moses chapter 31 went and spoke these words to all Israel he said unto them I am now a hundred and twenty years old today happy birthday dear Moses hundred and twenty years old what a character what a beautiful character this man is one who walked with God in such an intimate way he said I can no more go out and come in as the Lord has said unto me you're to go over this Jordan I can't go with you I've gone as far I brought you as far as I can it is interesting to me that Moses who is representing the

law could only bring them to the promised land he could not take them in the law cannot take you into the full blessings of God grace must do that so the law could only bring them to the border of the land now it's up to Joshua to take them in so it typical of our lives the law cannot bring you into that glorious rich life in the spirit it can only bring you to it but by grace and faith we must enter in now the Lord is going to go before you he's going to drive out these nations just like he's driven out augin Cy home be strong and a good courage fear not or be afraid of them for the Lord thy God he it is that goes before you you'll not fail the nor forsake thee and Moses called Joshua said unto him in the sight of all Israel be strong and of good courage for thou must go with this people

into the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them and thou shall cause them to inherit it and the Lord he it is that will go before you and he'll be with you and he will not fail you neither forsake you fear not neither be dismayed isn't that a glorious charge here's Joshua been depending upon Moses for a long time he's been his servant now Moses said okay Joshua you're gonna take over oh that's an awesome thing fear would grip your heart but Moses said be strong be of good courage for the Lord is the one who is going to go before you he will be with you you'll not fail or forsake so Moses wrote the law and again notice this Moses wrote the law for all of those theological scholars who want to you know argue about who wrote the five books if they'll only read them

they'll find out that they tell them Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priest the sons of Levi and Moses commanded them saying at the end of every seven years in the solemnity of the year of release in the feast of the tabernacles when Israel appears before the Lord in the place which he shall choose thou shall read this law before all of Israel in their hearing so every seven years in the feast of tabernacle when they came to Jerusalem they were to get out this law of Moses and read it for all the people now we've been several months going through this thing reading it and so that must have been quite a thing now we remember when Ezra returned from captivity and they gathered the people back into the land that they found the law they opened it and they began to read it and the

people stood from morning till evening as the law of God was read and they covered their heads and they began to weep as they realized how much they had failed God and as they realized from the law of God that their failure was the thing that had caused their being delivered into Babylon and all and so they read the law in the time of Ezra and they gave the explanation they did this for several days the people would stand there from morning till evening as the law was read and explained to them as the people repented before God after the return of Babylonian captivity quite a fascinating experience and here there is that command every seventh year the year of release the law was to be read at the Feast of Tabernacles gather the people together the men the women the children the strangers

that are within thy gates that they may hear that they may learn that they may fear the Lord your God and observe to do all the words of the law so these four things they were to hear it they were to learn it they were to reverence God and they were to observe to do the law verse 14 and the Lord said unto Moses behold the day's approach that you must die call Joshua present yourself in the tabernacle of the congregation and I may give him a charge and so Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tabernacle of the congregation and the Lord appeared in the tabernacle in a pillar of cloud and the pillar stood over the door of the tabernacle the Lord said unto Moses behold thou shalt sleep with thy fathers and this people will rise and go up arise up and they will go whoring after

the gods and the strangers of the land whether they go to be among them and will forsake me and break my covenant which I've made with them now God is telling Moses flat mostly people are going to go in and they're going to mess up they're going to start whoring after the gods of the land they're going to forsake me they're going to start following these other gods how discouraging it must be to have foreknowledge then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day and I will forsake them and will hide my face from them and they shall be devoured and many evils and troubles will befall them so that they will say in that day are not these evils come upon us because God is not among us and I will hide my face in that day from all of the evils which they have wrought in that they have

turned to other gods now therefore write this song for you and teach it to the children of Israel put it in their mouth that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel in other words now write this song for them and the song is something they'll remember and later on when the calamities happen this song they'll still be singing the song but as they sing it then all of a sudden they'll begin to understand it the song will be a reminder to them of the reason why the calamities have befallen them is because they have forsaken God so is the song of Moses that he was to teach to the children of Israel in order that when the calamities came it would remind them and be a testimony or a witness against them and it shall come to pass when many evils and troubles are befallen

them verse 21 that this song will testify against them as a witness for it will not be forgotten so Moses wrote this song the same day taught it to the children of Israel and to Joshua he said be strong be of good courage for thou shalt bring the children of Israel into the land which I swear unto them and I will be with thee and so it came to pass when Moses made an end of writing the words and again it tells us that Moses made an end of the writing of the words of this law in a book until they were finished then Moses commanded the Levites which bear the Ark of the Covenant the Lord saying take this book of the law and put it in the Ark of the Covenant as it was to be preserved there and so Moses spake into the ears of all the congregation of Israel the words of this song until they

were ended so this is the song that Moses taught the children of Israel and incidentally it was the first hit rock song it is a song about the rock try again because I will publish the name of the Lord ascribe you greatness unto our God he is the rock his work is perfect for all of his ways are judgment a God of truth and without iniquity just and right is he so the song begins with the declaration of God as our rock of his works his ways his judgments his truths his righteousness but the people they have corrupted themselves their spot is not the spot of his children they are perverse in a crooked generation do you thus requit the Lord O foolish people and unwise is not he your father which brought you which bought you have they not made thee and established thee remember the days of old

consider the years of many generations ask your father he'll show you the elders they'll tell you when the Most High divided the nations therein to the nations their inheritance when he separated the sons of Adam he set the bounds for the people according to the number the children of Israel for the Lord's portion is his people then in verse 11 a beautiful figure as an eagle stirs up her nest flutters over her young spreads abroad her wings takes them bears them on her wings so the Lord alone did lead him and there was no strange God with him and so the beautiful figure of God as an eagle and as an eagle stirs up the nest now actually the description here is of a mother eagle teaching the little eaglets how to fly and how does the mother eagle teach the eaglets how to fly by kicking them

out of the nest now the little eaglets are very comfortable in the nest and the nest were usually high up on the sides of the cliffs but the mother eagle will kick the little eaglet out of the nest when the time has come to learn to fly and the little eaglet will start flapping its wings uncoordinated and start falling as its flapping and just falling on down and the mother eaglet is fluttering over it but then it swoops just about the time it gets to the rocks it swoops underneath of the little eaglet and catches it on its wings and it bears it back up to the nest until the next lesson now that may seem like a pretty harsh way to teach an eaglet how to fly but there's no other way to teach it and it's got to learn how to fly now the picture really is of God in developing us in our walk

and relationship with him it's very easy for us to get comfortable sometimes in a particular position in a particular place under particular circumstances and suddenly God begins to stir up the nest we thought that we had great job security but we find that we've been terminated God what are you doing teaching you how to fly and sometimes in your awkwardness you look down and you're flapping around and you're screaming and the little eaglets they really scream as they're going down and you see the rocks coming up so fast you think surely I'm going to be dashed this is the end it's all over God you've forsaken me and then God just sort of swoops underneath picks you up and all of a sudden you begin to see the plan of God emerging I was talking with a man the other day we went to lunch

together he's a president of a large corporation here in Orange County three years ago he was fired from Thrifty's drugstore after working for them for 13 years he was a manager of one of their stores and he had received threats upon his life and upon his family and so he asked Thrifty's to transfer him from that store and they refused to do it he said well either transfer me or fire me so they fired him after 13 years and he sort of thought oh what's going to happen to me now Lord what's going on and he was flapping and screaming but he went to work as a salesman for this corporation and he was blessed he soon became the president of Thrifty's and he became the sales manager in a few months time and when the owners decided to sell the corporation he was then in a position to buy it and

is now the owner and the president of this large corporation now you see that's what God had in mind for him all the time but as long as he had his job security and was working at Thrifty he was not looking for a job now God had this position for him but how's how's God ever going to get him to this position the only way is to stir up the nest to get him fired from his job at Thrifty's now I'm fired what am I gonna do well I'm gonna look for a job all right now you're in the position where God can lead you because you're out looking you see we get locked into situations so often we get locked in we get comfortable and and we're not really looking for what God might have for us because we're very comfortable in this position so God stirs up the nest and we think oh I'm surely gonna perish

no hope and then God spreads forth his wings bears you up and thus we grow thus we learn to trust in the Lord and rely upon the Lord as we are gaining strength and learning more and more how to fly so that beautiful picture of the Eagle stirring up her nest fluttering over her young spreading abroad her wings taking them and bearing them on her wings so the Lord alone did lead him and there was no strange God with him he made him ride on the high places of the earth that he might eat the increase of the fields he made him to suck honey out of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock but they lightly esteem the rock of his salvation when Jezreel which is Israel waxed fat they kicked their waxed fat they've grown thick they're covered with fatness so they forsook God and lightly esteem the

rock of their salvation they provoked him to jealousy with strange God with abominations they provoked him to anger they sacrifice to devils not to God now Paul tells us that they who sacrifice to idols are actually sacrificing the devils there was a common belief that a demon actually inhabited the idols of these gods and that is very possibly true I wouldn't doubt it at all that many of these idols of little pagan gods actually have demons that are associated with them so that they were sacrificing to these idols were actually sacrificing under devils which shows the idiocy of saying concerning a person involved in a false religious system well he's so sincere in the worship of his God surely God will you know accept him and save him he's sincerely worshipping the devil so God should

reward him now of the rock that had begotten them they were not mindful they forsaken God that formed them and so this song is quite a song of Moses I'm amazed that the people were able to learn it and so God tells them because they have provoked his anger by the worship of these other gods that he will heap mischief upon them and they shall be burnt with hunger and devoured with burning heat and with bitter destruction I personally feel that this is a prophecy of the Holocaust in Germany and that being burned in the ovens in Germany was predicted in this song and when their troubles came they were to sing this song and if they would it was to remind them of why the calamities befell them now so often today you talk to a Jew and you'll find he's an atheist because he'll say where was God

when my parents or my grandparents were burned in the ovens in Germany if they would have kept this song and sung this song they would know why all of the calamities befell them because they had forsaken God and thus they had been forsaken by God so God tells of the scattering of to the corners of the earth make the remembrance to cease oh that they were wise God said that they understood this that they would consider what is the end result oh how God wants you to be wise and to look ahead and to see what the end result is of the lifestyle you've chosen God's crying he's crying over man's ignorance over man's folly oh that they did know only if they would look ahead and see what the end result of that lifestyle is how should one chase a thousand and to put ten thousand of flight except

their rock had sold them and the Lord had shut them in how could these happen unless God was with you you forget to see you forget to look that it was God's hand that did it for you for the enemy's rock is not as our rock for their vine is the vine of Sodom in the fields of Gomorrah the grapes are of gall the clusters are bitter their wine is the poison of dragons and all now God said to me belongs vengeance verse 35 and recompense their foot shall slide in due time for the day of their calamity is at hand and the things that shall come upon them make haste that is the text that Jonathan Edwards used for his sermon sinners in the hands of an angry God unto me belong of vengeance and recompense their foot shall slide in due time for the day of their calamity is at hand and the things that

shall come upon them make haste Jonathan Edwards in the sermon center in the hands of an angry God said that a sinner is like a man walking over a fiery pit on an icy plank your footing is so unsure at any moment you can slip on into the abyss it was a very powerful sermon one of the most classic sermons in the history of the church I guess Jonathan Edwards was nearsighted he had written out the sermon and he read it holding it up close so they could see it and as he was reading this sermon to the congregation the power of the Holy Spirit began to convict people so greatly that they began to crawl down the aisle screaming out to God for mercy you want to read something really chill you so I read sinners in the hands of an angry God by Jonathan Edwards oh what a sermon it's really

heavy-duty this is the text for that sermon and the Lord will judge his people and repent himself for his servants when he sees their power is gone there's none left and he shall say where are your gods the rock in whom you were trusting which did eat the fat of your sacrifices and drank the wine of your drink offerings let them rise up and help you and be your protection see now that I am he and there is no God with me or beside me I kill and I make alive I wound and I heal and neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand some people say does God make people sick well he said here he does for purposes different purposes within our lives God declares that he wounds that he even kills that he heals that he makes alive there are certain teachers today who would deny this but there

it is for I lift my hand to heaven and I say I live forever and if I wet my glittering sword and mine hand take hold on judgment I will render vengeance to my enemies and reward them that hate me or I will make my arrows drunk with their blood and so forth and God goes on to tell of the calamities that will come a song that they are to sing so that when their calamities did come they would remember this is the reason so set your hearts to all of these words which I testify to you this day verse 46 which he shall command your children to observe the words of this law for it is not a vain thing for you because it is your life man set your heart to it look it's not an empty thing it's your life this is a matter of life and death it isn't just something to pass off lightly God is saying it's

your life not a vain thing now the Lord said to Moses get up in the Mount Nebo in the land of Moab which is over against Jericho and take a look at the land of Canaan which I give to the children of Israel for possession and die in the mount where you go up and so he gathered unto the people as Aaron and you'll be gathered unto thy people even as Aaron your brother died in Mount Hor and was gathered unto his people because you trespassed against me the waters of Meribah and because you did not sanctify me in the midst of the children of Israel so Moses time has come get up in the mountain and die because you failed to properly represent me before the people at the waters of Meribah oh what a heavy responsibility Moses had of being God's representative his failure at the waters of Meribah

cost him the privilege of leading them into the promised land what a heavy responsibility each of us have for we are God's representative to that world out there you're his witnesses you're God's representatives and God wants you to properly represent him that's an awesome responsibility God help us chapter 33 now this is the blessing where with Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel just before he died he said the Lord came from Sinai rose up from Seir and he shined forth from Mount Paran and he came with 10,000 of his Saints yea he loved the people all of his Saints are in thy land in thy hand and they sat down at thy feet and everyone shall receive thy words Moses commanded us a law even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob the king of Jezreel or Israel with the

heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together let Reuben live and not die and let his men be few the word not you notice is in italics means it was added it was really let his men be few now Reuben actually was one of the smaller tribes as they took the land and it became really sort of scattered among the other tribes and the men of Reuben did become very few this is the blessing of Judah here Jehovah the voice of Judah bring him into his people let his hands be sufficient for him and be thou a help to him from his enemies the prophecy for Levi let the Thummim and the Urim be with the Holy One whom thou didst prove at Massa with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah who said to his father and his mother I have not seen him neither did he acknowledge his

brothers nor knew his own children for they observed thy word and kept thy covenant in other words the priests of Levi were told don't mourn for your sons when they die don't touch their bodies and so forth and and so he kept the word of the Lord didn't regard his own family but his service to God more important bless Lord his substance and accept the work of his hands concerning Benjamin he said the beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him and the Lord shall cover him all the day long and he shall dwell between his shoulders if you'll take a look at the map of Benjamin you'll find that it sort of looks like shoulders and right between the shoulders is the city of Jerusalem if you look at Benjamin on a map of the Bible area of Benjamin and so the Lord shall dwell between his

shoulders here is the first hint that Jerusalem would be the place where the temple would be built where they would come to worship the Lord there in the shoulders of Benjamin which was Jerusalem of Joseph he said blessed be Joseph of the Lord or his land for the precious things of heaven for the dew for the deep that couch of beneath for the precious fruits and so forth you remember Jacob said Joseph is as a fruitful bow bow whose branches hang over the wall and so the fruitfulness of Ephraim and Manasseh the sons of Joseph and of Zebulun verse 18 he said rejoice Zebulun in I going out in ishq ishq or issa car in thy tents they shall call the people unto the mountain there they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness for they shall suck of the abundance of the seas and of the treasures

hid in the sand now Zebulun occupied the area that is the plains of Megiddo and the mount of Carmel and out towards Haifa now Asher actually occupied the the port city of Haifa and north along the coast but because of this prophecy and also we'll get one about Asher here who will dip his toes in the oil there are some Christian businessmen and men who are oil engineers and geologists and all have gone over and studied the area around Mount Carmel because of these scriptures and they are convinced that there are vast oil reserves there under Mount Carmel and they are beginning drilling for oil the first test well is starting the first of this next year and they are hoping to discover vast reservoirs of oil they believe from their geological surveys their seismology tests and so forth that

there are vast reserves of oil if there indeed be that makes this prophecy very easy interesting concerning Zebulun that he will actually suck out the treasures from the sand and they believe that there are oil-bearing sands under this area that was once inhabited by Zebulun and so they are beginning a series of test wells the first year in fact we're supposed to visit one of the wells when we're over there in February it's just about a mile from that monastery on the top of Mount Carmel you that have been over to Israel you remember the monastery up at the top of Mount Carmel just about a mile beyond a mile east of that monasteries where they're putting down the first test hole and so is very interesting it'll be interesting to see what comes of it but this prophecy concerning Zebulun is

one of the things that sparked them to start their geological surveys and testing over there it is interesting that the vast oil resources of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East were discovered by Rockefeller after he read the Bible and reading of Babylon how that they use tar for their mortar he figured if there was that much tar in the area there must be oil deposits there and he is the one that went over on the basis of reading the scripture and started the vast oil exploration of the Middle East and of course that's where they became so extremely wealthy is because he was reading the Bible and and believe what the Bible said and they started the drilling there in Iraq and then of course they began to discover more and more the vast oil reserves of that area but Rockefeller was prompted

by the scripture talking about the using tar for their mortar in Babylon to go over there and to start drilling for oil now if that indeed be the case it'd be interesting to drill down in the area of the Dead Sea because they did use pitch down there also or tar now of Gad he said blessed be he that enlarges Gad that dwells as a lion and tears the arm of the crown of his head he provides the first part for himself and the portion for the lawgiver and so forth and of Dan he said Dan is a lion's wealth he shall leap from Bashan of Naphtali settled Naphtali satisfies the favor full of blessing of the Lord and of Asher he said let Asher be blessed with children let him be acceptable to his brethren and let him dip his foot in oil thy shoes shall be iron and brass and thy days and as I days so

shall they strength be now Asher if you look at Asher on a map Bible map you'll see that Asher looks like a leg from the knee down with a foot and the toe of the foot of Asher was at Haifa he shall dip his foot in oil actually the first major oil pipeline to bring oil out of the Middle East was built from Iraq to the port city of Haifa once the pipeline was completed if they started shipping out a million gallons of oil a day through Haifa Asher had his foot in the oil just like Moses said he would almost 4,000 years ago so it's a very interesting prophecy of the Bible concerning Asher his foot in the oil and that's exactly what did happen now whether or not there is more than that whether or not in their drilling they're going to find oil there it will be very interesting to find out

they are as I said starting their test wells in the first of the year now this particular scripture verse 25 the latter part how I love this and as thy days so shall thy strength be take that as a promise of God for you as your day so shall your strength be God's grace is sufficient for you and whatever you are facing for that particular day God will give you strength for that day as your day is so shall your strength be I love it the eternal God is thy refuge verse 27 and underneath are the everlasting arms and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee and shall say destroy them Israel then so dwell in safety alone in the fountain of Jacob shall be upon the land of corn and wine also the heavens shall drop down their do happy art thou oh Israel who is likened to the old people saved

by the Lord the shield of thy help and who is the sword of thy excellency and nine enemies shall be found liars unto thee and thou shalt tread upon their high places the eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms when I consider the heavens the work of thy fingers Friday night we were up at Eureka beautiful beautiful clear night up there cold and clear but looking up we could see so many stars and after the service we were standing outside with some of the fellows and we were looking up and they were pointing at some stars and I said well that's the constellation Orion I said now you see those three stars that are in a row there I said the bottom star of those three stars is four hundred and fifteen million miles in diameter if you would hollow out that star leaving

a crust a hundred million miles thick you could put the Sun in the center of that star and let the earth rotate around it and have room to spare I said now the amazing thing is that star is traveling at a speed estimated to be somewhere around 1,200 miles a second now that's an awfully large mass to be traveling that fast how much thrust you suppose it took to get Betelgeuse into orbit the psalm of seven I consider the heaven the work of thy fingers the work of thy hands the Sun the stars or the moon in the stars which thou hast ordained what is man that thou art mindful of him the thrust that it took to get Betelgeuse into its orbit that huge huge mass was just this when I consider the heavens the work of your hands now if God with his hands stretched out the heavens like a curtain to me

the eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are not the everlasting hands but the everlasting arms believe me if with his hands he could stretch forth the heavens his arms can hold you through any adversity or problem that you might be facing underneath are the everlasting arms so often I wonder God are you able to hold me through this one you sure God you can hold me up I'm awfully happy at times Lord underneath are the everlasting arms how beautiful chapter 34 and Moses went from the plains of Moab to the mountain of Nebo the top of Pisgah which is across from Jericho and the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead clear unto Dan from Mount Pisgah there he could see clear on up to the area of Mount Hermon Dan is right down near the base of Mount Hermon so looking clear up to Dan on a

clear day you can get a beautiful view and all Naphtali the land of Eve from Manasseh all the land of Judah to the utmost of the sea clear on across the land in the south the plain of the valley of Jericho the city of palm trees even to Zohar which is the bottom part of the Dead Sea area and the Lord said unto him this is the land which I swear to Abraham to Isaac to Jacob saying I'll give it under your seed and I've caused thee to see it with your eyes but you shall not go over so Moses the sermon of the Lord died there in the land of Moab according to the word of the Lord and he that is God buried him in a valley in the land of Moab over against Beth Peor and no man knows of his sepulcher unto this day Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died and his eyes were not dim nor

his natural forces abated so 120 year old man he died God buried him now we are told in the book of Jude that Satan and Michael had a dispute over the body of Moses God buried him but not before there was a dispute over his body they never did find where God buried him his sepulcher remains a mystery but he went up into Pisgah and there in one of the valleys he died God buried him after Michael and Satan had a big row over the thing according to Jude Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom for Moses had laid his hands upon him and the children of Israel hearkened unto him and did as the Lord commanded Moses but there arose not a prophet since in Israel that was like unto Moses whom the Lord knew face to face and all of the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to do in

the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and to all of his servants and to all of his land and in all that mighty hand and in all the great terror which Moses showed in the sight of all of Israel now this last part was probably written by Joshua surely Moses didn't write the account of his own death but Joshua no doubt took up and finished the book as he spoke of the Prophet Moses and all of the history of Israel never an equal to this man until of course Jesus who was more than a prophet the Son of God so we stand next week judges and we are taking eight chapters Joshua thank you Joshua eight chapters so Joshua is a very exciting book as they begin to conquer the land that God had given them we'll take it in eight eight and eight going through Joshua father we thank you now for the opportunity of

studying your word again tonight and may your Holy Spirit hide now thy truth within our hearts that we would not sin against you Lord help us to learn that you have set before us life and death blessing and curse and is ours to choose and all may we choose that life that you have given to us in Jesus Christ confessing him now as Lord believing Lord that you rose him from the dead we thank you that we have that life and that salvation tonight thank you Lord for your everlasting arms thank you Lord for the stirring of the nest when you're trying to teach us to grow may we learn those lessons and may we grow into that full maturity in Christ Jesus our Lord in his name we pray