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Deuteronomy 1-3 – Stop Trusting Yourself

Deuteronomy 1:19-2:23

Deuteronomy 1-3 – Stop Trusting Yourself

Over confident in our own ability

The Story So Far
God creating…
… ‘Very Good’
… rejected God’s right to rule his creation.
… God promised that one would come who would reverse the effects of the fall.
… Gen 4 onwards there is the search
Abraham … a great nation … a land … blessing
Moses … Exodus
Deuteronomy: 40 years later still wandering in the desert.
Moses is urging them to choose life:
Deut 30:19-20 – 19 “This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Children of the Faithless
Israel gathered before Moses on the plains of Moab.

… their disastrous history
God rescued … guided …protected … provided
God had given them the OT law
BUT … They stalled (v22)
Deut 1:26 – their real heart is exposed.
So, God withdrew his promised blessing from that generation.
Deut 2:7 “These forty years the LORD your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything

The Problem of the Conquest
1. The God of the Bible is the God of the entire universe.
2. He will judge the sin of all nations.
3. In Gen 15:16 God delays judgment on the Ammonites because their sin has not reached its fullness.
4. The Canaanite people were grossly immoral (Lev 18:24ff), defiled the land
5. If they fail to heed God they too will be cast out of the land God graciously provided (Lev 12:28, “if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were there before you)”
“Is God a Moral Monster?” by Paul Copan

Applying Deuteronomy Today
1) Generation transition
2) Our horrible history
3) God’s past gracious provision
4) Not about leadership
5) No Middle East block of land