Deut No.7 The Providential Dealings of God

Now, I'd be glad if you'd have your Bibles open at Deuteronomy chapter 32, and I want to read to you the 9th and 10th verses. Deuteronomy 32, the 9th and 10th verses. Let me read them this time from the New International Version of the Bible.

For the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted inheritance. In a desert land he found him. In a barren and howling waste he shielded him and cared for him.

He guarded him as the apple of his eye. I want to speak to you this week and also on the next occasion when we gather together on the providential dealings of God. There are so many examples of this in the book of Deuteronomy, but at least we're going to give ourselves the luxury of a double study on the theme.

And in these two verses that I've read, as also in the next two verses which we will consider on a subsequent occasion, we have well illustrated the way in which God deals with ordinary people, not only the Hebrews of old, but folks like ourselves in the present generation. But more of that in a moment. Let me remind you that last week we dealt with the third of God's great gifts to the Hebrews, the gift of a leader.

We'd already dealt with the other two gifts, beginning with El, the land and the law. But last week we looked at the leader, Moses himself, this great man who was taken from the employment of his father-in-law, thrust back into Egypt, and there he was given the responsibility of bringing out a very difficult group of people, leading them through the wilderness, and forty-odd years later, taking leave from them as they were to enter into the promised land of Canaan, and he, you will recall from our study last time, was conducted by the Lord up to the top of Mount Nebo, and there he died, having seen the promised land from afar. Now, shortly before he died, he preached what is really the content of this book of Deuteronomy that you remember from past allusions.

Here are in effect the sermon notes of Moses. And just before he completed preaching, he sang to the people. And what you have in the thirty-second chapter is the song of Moses.

And within this poem, this great hymn, there are theological truths which stand out and are applicable, as I said two or three minutes ago, not only to the ancient Hebrews, but to you and to me today. For God doesn't change in the way that he deals with ordinary folk. He's very concerned for them.

And he describes, that is, Moses describes, the people who have God's affection in these terms. Look at the ninth verse. For the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.

In other words, God is really concerned for those people who have been brought into a covenant relationship with him. Now you remember that one of the words which is basic to an understanding of the book of Deuteronomy is covenant. The Hebrews were in a covenant relationship with the Lord, a covenant enacted on Mount Sinai.

But that covenant pointed to an even greater enactment, that that the Lord Jesus would achieve under the signature of his own blood on Calvary's cross. And who has benefited from the Mosaic covenant? Well, the people who lived in Moses' day and their future descendants. But who has benefited from the covenant which Jesus has enacted in this world? Well, you have, and I have.

And it's not being sentimental in our exposition of Scripture this evening to say that when God looks down upon this small group of people relative to the rest of Christendom, he describes us as the Lord's portion, his people in the world today. I think that's a very lovely thought to be able to take with us and to reflect upon in the days that are to come. Now in the tenth verse, which we're really focusing our attention upon this evening, we have laid down for us the way that God looks after his people.

We're told right at the start, and I'll keep repeating the headings as you haven't got the help of an outline in front of you. We're told right at the beginning of the verse of the unlikely spot where he discovered them. He found him, his portion, these people.

He found them in a desert land and in the waste-howling wilderness. We're told what he did after he had located, after he had pinpointed these people. He offered them first aid.

He led him about. He gave him assistance. And we'll see the significance of this in a moment.

But not only did he offer him first aid, he also brought him long-term assistance. He instructed him. And then we discover right at the end that he directed a protective affection towards his people.

He kept him as the apple of his eye. This is how God has dealt, not only with the Hebrews, but also with all those who have come to a knowledge of him down the centuries. He finds people.

He brings them immediate help. He gives them long-term assistance as they make their way through this world. And he has a place in his affection for them, which is second to none.

All right, let's take that first part of the verse. An unlikely spot is here described as the place where God first set his eye. In one sense, the first time he set his eye on these people.

Can you imagine anything less conducive to religious experience than being part of a nomadic people in a wilderness which is described graphically as a waste-howling place? You can almost hear the wind coming across the scrubland. Maybe you can catch sight of the boulders that are haphazardly lying around as though some giants were disturbed playing a game of marbles. Perhaps you can see the cacti as they're dotted around on the horizon.

And over there, in a most unlikely place, are a group of people, not a disciplined army, but rather a force of folks who have come out from Egypt and don't quite know what is in front of them. And sometimes they squabble amongst themselves and lack cohesion and unity. And yet we're told that this is where God found his people, a colony of ex-slaves, refugees, believing that somehow, like those Vietnamese boat people, somehow, over there, miles away, will be a place where they'll find hospitality and where they'll be able to set up their own home and fashion their own lifestyle.

And you know, right throughout the Bible, when we are shown pictures of God, first of all, finding people, we see a scene that is most unlikely. It's not one that we would imagine. These folks who come to their senses and spiritually get active, sometimes they're in the most strange circumstance.

Take for instance, the story of the prodigal, as our Savior puts it down in Luke 15. Do you know where he is when he comes to his senses? Well, the 15th verse of the chapter says that the prodigal went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. Why did he do that? Because there had arisen a mighty famine in the land, and he began to be in want.

And it was when he was in a farm, in a country in the midst of famine, that then he came to himself and longed to be back in his father's house. The prodigal, in a waste-howling wilderness, finds a desire to return back home. What about the chancellor of the exchequer from Ethiopia, who'd gone to Jerusalem on a religious quest, which hadn't been fully satisfied, though he'd bought some copy of the Old Testament Scriptures.

And he's going back to his native land, and he's reading from the prophecy of Isaiah, but he doesn't understand, he doesn't comprehend what's on the scroll. And so, what does God do? Well, we read in the 8th chapter and the 26th verse of the book of Acts, that the angel of the Lord speaks unto Evangelist Philip and says, Arise, and go toward the south, unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went.

And there he conducted a counseling session, in a desert, with a man who was spiritually hungry. God rarely finds people in cathedrals. God, more often than not, reveals himself to folks in circumstances which seem to be very unusual indeed.

But we know that the presence of God, it circumnavigates the world, it's not restricted to churches. This man that I made reference to, throughout today, in his garage, he couldn't get out of his mind what he'd heard at the memorial service, and the testimony of one of our own people, another businessman, to the way that God had changed his life. And so, as he was putting the nuts and bolts together on somebody's car this afternoon, things came to a crisis, and he felt that he must ask for aid.

God finding people, a waste-howling wilderness, a garage in Worthing, it doesn't really matter. The power of God, it penetrates even the most unlikely spot, as the Lord brings people to himself. And so often, in Deuteronomy, you've got repeated for us the fact that God went into the desert to find his people.

Look at the first chapter of the book, and here's a very lovely illustration which is taken up and developed by Jesus, as I'll show you in the Gospels. The first chapter, and the thirty-first verse. And in the wilderness thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place.

The thought there is of God going into the wilderness and taking a child upon his shoulders and carrying him through to the promised land. Now, come through to Luke's Gospel, and back again to the fifteenth chapter, where are the parables of the three last things. And how do you describe, or how do you fine describe the shepherd who seeks for his last sheep? Well, the fifth verse tells us, and when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders rejoicing.

And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. Now, Jesus was talking about himself, about his concern for ordinary people. The good shepherd going into the sheep range, looking for the sheep that has gone astray, and putting the sheep upon his shoulders, and bringing him back to the flock.

So Deuteronomy anticipates all this, and speaking of the Hebrew community, he says that God, it says that God found them, and put them, so to speak, on his shoulders and brings them through into the promised land. There's a hymn that's in one of the hymn books which says, From sinking sands he lifted me. With tender hands he lifted me.

An unlikely spot, that's where the providential dealings of God start. And possibly you could testify to that fact in your own life. But when God finds these people, what does he do? Well, I suggest to you that he offers them immediate first aid.

He offers them immediate first aid. Again, let's come back to the 32nd chapter, and that particular verse. He found him in the desert land and in the waste-howling wilderness, and he led him about.

He attended to his needs. What were the needs of the man who'd been violated on the Jericho road? Well, he needed some soothing ointment to be put into his wounds and for him to be bandaged up, and that's what the good Samaritan did, did he not? Now, here are a group of people who are in as dire circumstance as that man was, and God's got these folks in his eye. So, he seeks them out, and then he gives them the aid that they require.

What aid do people who are lost in a wilderness really need? Well, they need a guide, and that's just what you find the book of Deuteronomy telling you that God does for these people. There's a cloud that will map out the way in the daytime. There's a fire that will lead them at night.

God becomes a sort of divine scout. He engages in reconnaissance, and it's so necessary. Otherwise, the very genocide which the Hebrews faced in Egypt, they will suffer in Sinai.

So, God meets these people at the point of their need, and that's precisely what he does when he dispenses salvation. He comes to the person who, on the Jericho road of life, is in desperate straits, and he deals with him just as he requires, and he is to him all that he needs. Those of you who saw the film, The Hiding Place, or have read the book, will remember how Connie Ten Boone's sister was telling Currie that the Lord was there in the concentration camp.

There they were in a wilderness experience, and in a very literal sense, it was howling as far as the wind of persecution was concerned, and they didn't quite know what was going to await them in that concentration camp. But Currie's sister says, the Lord's there, and he knows, and he'll guide us, and he'll get us past the guards, and he'll look after us and sustain us. God as guide.

But the margin gives you the reading, and so does the NIV, the New International Version, that God is the protector. God shields His children in that waist-howling wilderness. Now, they needed the protection of the Lord.

They needed Him to shield them. They'd just been delivered from servitude. Back to Deuteronomy chapter 5 and verse 15.

They are told to remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched-out arm. They'd just been delivered from servitude, and they required the protection of the Lord. Chapter 7, verse 21.

Thou shalt not be a frighter at primitive tribespeople, for the Lord thy God is among you a mighty God and terrible. Turn over to the ninth chapter and the second verse. Now, they've got in front of them the fierce Anakim, and they're scared stiff.

But God's their protector. Who can stand before the children of Anak, and understand therefore this day that the Lord thy God is He which goeth over before thee as a consuming fire? Go on to the 29th verse of the same chapter. They are thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out by thy mighty power and by thy stretched-out arm.

Flip back to the sixth chapter and the 23rd verse. And we're told, and it's a magnificent statement. He brought us out from thence that He might bring us in to give us the land which He sware unto our fathers.

God comes to the people as a guide and as a protector. He brought them out so that He could take them in. He came to us in our sinfulness, and He applied first aid.

The salvation, the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son. It was credited to our account. God became our guide.

He becomes our protector. And He assures us, as we will find next in this verse, that not only will He assist us straight away when we need His help, but He'll grant long-term help. So, He found Him in a desert land and in the waste-howling wilderness, a most unlikely spot.

He offers first aid. He leads Him, gives Him guidance and protection. And then the long-term assistance that this people will require, that is granted.

He instructed them. Returning to the parable of the Good Samaritan, what did this man do on the Jerusalem Jericho Road? Well, he went to the assistance of the man who had been so exploited. He bound up his wounds, and then he put him on his donkey, and he took him to the inn, and he made preparation for his future well-being.

He didn't just bind his wounds and then leave him on the Jericho Road. That would have been kind. But he's a Good Samaritan.

He's typifying the ministry of Jesus. And Jesus is thorough in everything that He does. And so, He deals with him entirely and guarantees his future well-being.

And here is the Lord God depicted as coming to the aid of these people in this waste-howling wilderness. And they need, more than anything else, something to discipline them. Because they're a rabble.

They're an indisciplined crowd. So, having given them a leader, He gives them a law. And in that law, as it's applied, develops a lifestyle.

So that they can live for the benefit of one another, and to the praise and to the honor of the Lord. The whole book of Deuteronomy really is given up to an exposition of that law. How it's all worked out.

These people, they so desperately needed the law of God. You remember, on the physical level, how much they required feeding from God. And so, each day, a supply of manna, bread, baked in the kitchens, in the ovens of heaven, was rained down upon them.

And every day, they got their supply. Twice, a double supply on the day before the Sabbath. And their life was sustained in the wilderness.

But there was more than just physical bread they needed. They needed the bread of heaven. And that was granted to them in a remarkable way.

Look at the second verse of the 32nd chapter. Moses speaking on behalf of God, My doctrine shall drop as the rain, My speech shall distill as the dew, As the small rain upon the tender herb. We know full well, although the metaphor is different, But we know full well that Moses gave his life to communicating spiritual bread.

To giving the people the bread of heaven on which they were to feed. And the law, it preserved them. To the extent that Moses is saying at the end of his song in the 47th verse, What I teach you, Deuteronomy 32, 47, What I teach you is not a vain thing for you, it is your life.

They were so utterly dependent upon the word of God transmitted through Moses. Now my dear friend, here you were as a young believer. You've been saved.

God had come and given first aid. But what's kept you going down the years? Your initial experience of salvation? No. God never called anyone into his kingdom to be a dwarf.

He called people to grow. To grow in maturity. To become as tall as Jesus.

To rise to the measure of the stature of the Son of God, says Paul as he's writing to the Ephesians. But how do you grow? By just going back to your initial conversion day? Well for me, that's over three decades back. For you it's longer.

Or some of you. You can't just feed on that. Each day we are to gather, as it were, spiritual manna to ourselves.

Paul writing to the Corinthians says, Outwardly my body decays, but inwardly I am renewed each day. How is he renewed? By feasting upon the word of God. The Psalmist, Psalm 119, talks about God's word as being his soul's delight.

And it's as honey to his taste. Spiritual anemia is caused by those who have an intermittent quiet time. An irregular affair with God's word.

Who never expose themselves in front of expository ministry. Whether from this church or any other. But God makes these provisions for us.

For what? For our long-term assistance. We're not just the people of yesterday or yesteryear whose salvation is in the dim and dark past. We're people with a living experience of the living God who collect our manna each day.

And feed upon the bread of life. And bring our hearts before the Lord as we engage in prayer. No one but a fool accepts help from the ambulance men when there's been a car smash.

But when they're taken into the hospital, says to the consultant, I don't want your help. I've had my first aid. I don't want long-term medical assistance.

But we got a lot of fools in Christendom. Who believe that the first thing they received from the Lord. The first aid.

In the waste howling wilderness. Will keep them. Right until they set foot in the promised land.

Well it might keep them in salvation. In the state of grace. But they will not be nourished.

They will not become strong in the Lord. And in the power of his might. He found him in an unlikely spot.

A waste howling wilderness. A garage. A club in London.

So many varied places. God finds his people. He brings them first aid.

He instructs them on the long term. And then he directs constantly his protective affection towards them. He kept him as the apple of his eye.

You get that expression on another two occasions in scripture. Psalm 17, 8 and Zechariah 2, 8. The reference of course is to the pupil. The pupil is the most delicate part of our anatomy.

If I were to just jab my eye now. It would be extremely painful. And if anyone or anything seems as though it's going to get near my eye.

I instinctively cover it with my eyelid. Can't help doing it. It's an automatic action.

And my eye has been placed in a little cavernous spot in my skull. Sort of cave. And the bone structure is there to protect my eye.

The human body is beautifully made. Skillfully put together. My eye is sunk there so that if my head is in an accident.

My eye will be the last member of my face to be affected. One of the great problems of a Pekingese dog. Is that it's eye isn't where your eye is and mine.

Through inbreeding. It's eye is almost on it's cheek. And the liability of that particular breed of dog.

Is that often it has an accident on it's eye. But the Lord God is saying of his people. That he has sunk them secure.

In the cavern of his love. They are to him like nothing else on earth. He keeps them.

Those Hebrews who were completely unlovely. Who were not the most powerful people in the world. Moses has reminded them of that.

He's disarmed them of any pretense that they may have to greatness. They weren't the most amicable. Malleable people.

God could have found 10,000 excuses. For selecting another race. Instead of the Jews.

In fact one cynical philosopher once said. In reading of the unfaithfulness of that people. How odd of God to choose the Jews.

And in one sense that's quite true. It was odd. But how odd is still of God to choose you.

And me. And to sink us in the cavern of his love. So that even the very forces of hell.

Which would endeavor to harm us. Will never be able to dislodge us. From the position that we have.

In the divine affection. The Lord's portion is his people. Touch his people.

You touch the apple of his eye. And you'll be in trouble. God feels for his people.

Here's the persecutor on the road between. Not Jerusalem and Jericho. But Jerusalem and Damascus.

And he's unhorsed. The flashing light blinds him. And scares the animal.

And the voice says. Saul, Saul. Why persecute thou me? And Saul says.

Who are you? I am Jesus. Who you're persecuting. But Paul wasn't persecuting Jesus.

Not physically. But he was persecuting those who follow Jesus. And followers of Jesus.

According to the New Testament. Are in the body of Christ. He feels for them.

They're brought together into one living organism. And nothing can happen to the body. Of the Son of God on this earth.

Without the head registers it. That's a marvelous thought. He feels for me.

He feels for you. He keeps us. As the apple of his eye.

Do you remember when Jesus is praying to his father. Somewhere between the upper room and the garden of Gethsemane. The high priestly prayer as recorded in John's Gospel.

And he speaks about this great elect number. That no one can completely calculate. And he says, Father, thine they were.

Your portion. And you've given them to me. And none has been lost.

And there's more than just an implication. There's direct statement in scripture. That none can be lost.

Because they're part of the apple. Of God's eye. And he sunk them in the cavern.

So to speak. Of the divine skull. And there they're protected.

In the love of God. I better finish or else we'll never get this elders meeting. Did you notice what I said right at the beginning? That Moses was singing this song.

This old man who's known the dealings of God for decades. He's now been reviewing them all. And he cannot but sing.

When his sister Miriam, perhaps singing within the family. When she got on the other side of the Red Sea. She gets her timbre.

She gets her tambourine. And she starts to lead the Hebrew women folk. In singing and in dancing before the Lord.

God's people. His portion. The ones who have received his salvation.

Have always been a musical people. They've always wanted to make melody in their heart to the Lord. So this old man sings of the goodness of God.

Saul and Barnabas. In the New Testament. Part of the Lord's people.

Found in a waste howling wilderness. Coming from different environments. And both of them incredible that God should have found them.

And brought them to himself. And as they engage in service for him. Even when their backs are bleeding in prison.

God gives them songs in the night. And they rejoice of the providential dealings of their God. He found him.

In a desert land. In the waste howling wilderness. An unlikely spot.

He led him about. Gave him the first aid that was required. He instructed him.

Long term assistance was granted. He kept him as the apple of his eye. The protective affection of God.

Rested upon his people. And it still does. So let us too like Moses.

Sing the praises of God. Father for thy grand assurance. That we are yours forever.

The apple of your eye. Found in most unlikely circumstances. We praise and bless your name.

Thank you for the first aid. Thank you for the long term assistance. Thank you father for the joy.

Of knowing you. Now and always. Amen.