It is God who Blesses

August 16, 2009

Lesson: Deuteronomy 2:1-7

Key Verse: Deuteronomy 2:7

Introduction

Deuteronomy resumes where Numbers leaves off. Israel is in the Plains of Moab, ready for an invasion. The laws of God, and the work and words of the Lord during their wilderness wanderings, are brought to remembrance by Moses during the final week of his life. The Lord will not allow Moses to enter the Promised Land, but the Lord still uses his servant to speak of those things the people need to know as they face their new life in Canaan: “These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side of Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red sea.”

It is the Lord who has spoken to Israel, guiding them throughout their wilderness journeys. It is the Lord who said, “I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land the Lord sware unto your father.” The people rebelled against the Lord who had promised to give them the land, even to fight for them. Therefore the Lord said that “there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see the good land.” However, the faithful Joshua and Caleb would be allowed into the land. Therefore, the peoples’ journey in the wilderness was extended.

The Wilderness –Deuteronomy 2:1-3

Moses reminds the people of their wilderness journey, saying, “Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea, as the Lord spake unto me; and we compassed mount Seir many days.” In obedience to the divine command of the Lord, Moses again leads his people into the wilderness: “This going round Mount Seir includes the thirty-eight years’ wanderings …Just as Moses passed over the reassembling of the congregation at Kadesh” (Num. 20:1); so he also overlooked the going to and fro in the desert, and fixed his eye more closely upon the last journey from Kadesh to Mount Horeb, that he might recall to the memory of the congregation how the Lord had let them to the end of all their wanderings” (Keil & Delitzsch). So the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Ye have compassed this mountain long enough; turn you northward.”

There are times when, in our disobedience and rebellion, that we find ourselves in a wilderness, being reminded and taught once again of the grace and love of Christ. We don’t seem to be, as a church or individually, growing closer to our Lord in worship and witness. We need to be examined by the Spirit of God and brought to repentance. We need to see, once again, how our Savior has led us from faith to faith. In these wilderness times we need to cry out with the words of the Psalmist, “Show me thy ways, O Lord, teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth, and teach me; for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day. Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindesses; for they have been ever of old” (25:4-6).

Discussion: For what purpose does God lead His people through the wilderness?

The Lord Has Given –Deuteronomy 2:4-6

Moses is told by the Lord to command the people, saying, “Ye are to pass through the coast of your brethren the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir; and they shall be afraid of you; take good heed unto yourselves therefore; meddle not with them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a footbreadth; because I have given mount Seir unto Esau for a possession.” Mount Seir was a possession of the Edomites because it was a given to them as a gift from God. They were, therefore, to buy food and water for money.

It is the Lord who gives land to the children of Esau. It is the Lord who gives his people a dwelling place within the household of God the Father. James records this truth that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (1:17). Moses and the people of God were told to respect this gift given to Esau, not to bring trouble to the land. We are commanded not to covet our neighbor’s gifts. For what we see in the life of another is a gift of God. It is the Lord who brings the increase to the harvest.

James further illustrates the goodness of God in giving gifts in that he has adopted us into his everlasting household: “Of His own will begat he us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures” (1:18). John Calvin writes in his commentary that “God according to his own goodwill hath begotten us, and has been thus a cause to himself. It hence follows that it is natural to God to do good. But this passage teaches us that as our election before the foundation of the world was gratuitous, so we are illuminated by the grace of God alone as to the knowledge of the truth, so that our calling corresponds with our election. The Scripture shews that we have been gratuitously adopted by God before we were born. But James expresses here something more that we obtain the right of adoption, because God does also call us gratuitously.” Our Lord has given us the greatest gift in adopting us, by grace, through Christ who gave His life, freely, upon the cross of Calvary.

Discussion: Why was Israel to be careful in the way they treated the Edomites?

The Lord Has Blessed –Deuteronomy 2:7

Verse seven sets before us the sum total of God’s providential care for his people, from the time that he has redeemed his chosen ones throughout their walk with their Creator and Deliverer. For the “Lord thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand; he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness; these forty years the Lord thy God hath been with thee; thou has lacked nothing.”

The people of God were able to obey the command of God to buy the water and meat from the Edomites because “the Lord had blessed them in all the work of their hand, i.e., not merely in the rearing of flocks and herds, which they had carried on in the desert, but in all that they did for a living; whether, for example, when stopping for a long time in the same place of encampment, they sowed in suitable spots and reaped, or whether they sold the produce of their toil and skill to the Arabs of the desert” (Keil & Delitzsch). The Lord was with his people, watching over them, carefully, and with much kindness and mercy. He provided for their needs by the giving of food miraculously, by the giving of talents and gifts to tend their flock and  harvest their fields.

When we think about the gifts and talents, the food and shelter, even the love of the family, friends, and church, we ought to have a heart full of gratitude, saying, “I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me” (Psa. 13:6). The farmer knows the blessing of the land as he hears these words, “Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness. They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness; and the little hills rejoice on every side. The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing” (Psa. 65:11-13).

These blessings of the Lord do not flow from a hand which is far from us, but from the Lord who is present with his people, and is known by his people. Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine” (John 10:14). Therefore, we claim, by grace, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters” (Psa. 23:1-2). The Lord is with those who are in the wilderness, the Shepherd who has promised, “I will never leave you.”

Discussion: What blessings have we received, and are still receiving from the Good Shepherd?