Christ Church (Moscow, ID)

Many of us are getting our houses and vehicles ready for winter weather, and so why not our marriages? It’s easy to fall into ruts and habits that just seem normal when in fact they are wearing on us and harming our families in ways we do not realize. Likewise, many poor habits leave us incredibly vulnerable when trials and difficulties hit. The question is not whether you will face trials, the only question is when. Will your marriage be ready when the storms come?

We believe in “All of Christ for all of life.” So what should you do if you come across a bird’s nest on ground with the mama bird protecting her eggs? And you haven’t had breakfast, and you’re really hungry. Deuteronomy 22 says that how you respond will dramatically impact your life. Perhaps you have not faced the nest quandary, but you’ve found something lost or seen a car stuck in a snow bank or live in a culture of cross-dressing men––all are opportunities to faithfully live as Christians and apply wisdom from Deuteronomy. This morning, we look at a selection of wise laws that God gave to his people for good living, for faithful living. The underlying principle of these laws is a value and respect for all life. Christians are to value life because that is what God does.

Many of the problems confronting modern Christians is that they diligently try to do the right thing . . . but in the wrong categories. They try guitar fingering on a mandolin; they try chess rules on a backgammon board; they apply the rules of French grammar to English. And for us to draw attention to such mistakes is not to object to any of these things in particular—chess, guitar, backgammon, whatever. But this is a mistake we make whenever we try to “make a difference” and our activity does not proceed directly from a vision of the Almighty Lord, high and lifted up.

God is worthy of all praise and honor. We know this through special revelation—as we see here in Psalm 96—and we also learn the same thing from the created order itself. God is speaking both places because God is silent nowhere. The creation is an essential part of the choir. The oceans are singing bass, and the stars have the high soprano descant. We, the redeemed of mankind, occupy the middle position and should do so as ones eager and willing to acquit ourselves well in the task. We should sing in a manner that is worthy of all our companions.

Adam was exiled from Eden. Cain was driven from God’s presence. The flood purged the earth of man’s corruption. Sodom was destroyed by heavenly fire. On the night of Passover, yeast was purged out of Hebrew homes. Nadab and Abihu were burned alive by divine fire for offering strange fire. Achan was stoned then burned for keeping consecrated items. Thirty-one kings were wiped out of the Promised Land. Israel was exiled into Assyria, while Judah was carried off captive into Babylon for their many idolatries. And lest we think this is just the mean God of the Old Testament, that same God struck down Ananias and Sapphira, Paul commanded the excommunication of unrepentant brothers, and of course the Bible ends with a marked warning that unbelievers “shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death (Rev. 21:8).” The lesson? God drives out sinners from His presence.

Throughout the New Testament, we are given cautions and warnings. We are told repeatedly that we are to take lessons from what happened to our older brothers, the Jews. The things written down in Scripture were written for our edification, which means that we need to learn to read the narrative right. We are not told that the Jews could fall away, but that Christians cannot. Know that these warnings apply to us—not as though the decree of God’s election could be altered—but the warnings about our place in the visible covenant apply because our position is exactly that of the Jews. This will become plainer as we go on. The psalm is from David—although the psalm itself does not attribute it to David, that connection is made in the book of Hebrews (4:7).

We continue to work our way through Deuteronomy in a series focusing on Faithfulness for the Next Generation. In the previous chapter, Moses highlighted that faithfulness to the Lord meant no covenant compromise with the Canaanite nations or their gods. If God’s people were faithful in this, then the Lord would radically bless them. Covenant compromise remains a danger. That’s a danger. Another danger is that once the Lord has established Israel in this abundant land, they would grow comfortable and complacent and so forget their God who was the source of all the blessings.Cotton Matter a New England minister in the 1700’s accurately stated, “Faithfulness begot Prosperity, and the daughter devoured the mother.” In whatever circumstance whether barrenness or blessing, God’s people must remember the Lord’s provision and faithfully obey the Lord. This was a lesson Israel was repeated taught in the wilderness and they must not forget in the prosperity of the Promise Land. And, this is a lesson that we must learn today in our own lives and our church community.Maybe: In the wilderness, Israel needed to learn the lesson that they were completely dependent on the Lord and so must obey Him fully. And that was a pretty obvious conclusion. Only God is capable of bringing water gushing out of bolder. God provides in the wilderness. Soon Israel will move into a land with abundant water, abundant bread and all the good stuff they’ve been longing for in wilderness. Will they remember their lesson? Or will they Forget the Lord their God?

We continue to work through Deuteronomy in our series “Faithfulness for the Next Generation.” Moses instructs Israel that in their conquest of Canaan, they must make no compromise. Faithfulness to God means devoting these nations to complete destruction. Israel must show no mercy, give no truce, allow no marriage, make no covenant. Why? Because the LORD God has chosen Israel as his covenant people––to be holy, treasured, blessed above all peoples. Because Israel is chosen by God, they must not compromise this covenant with anyone or anything. This covenant keeping or covenant compromise will not only affect your life but the next generation, even to a thousand generations.

As a thoughtful Christian meditates on this psalm, it is hard to escape the conclusion that a good name for it would be “A Psalm for the Secular West.” But this would be a mistake—while it is absolutely pertinent for our times, there have been many generations when the same things could be said, including the time it was written. God has always been holy, and man has always been sinful, and the math always seems to work out the same way.