A sermon on Deuteronomy 31: 1-8.
Preached September 30, 2018 at Cane Bay Presbyterian Church
We all love the story of Exodus, don’t we? It’s got everything that a great novel or a great movie needs.
There’s a situation of great injustice: The Israelites have been suffering in slavery for many generations.
There’s a ruthless villain: Pharaoh is paranoid and two-faced, willing to do anything to protect his power. He even seems to enjoy the suffering he casts upon God’s people.
There’s a flawed hero: Moses is called to free the people, and he tries to get out of it, saying he’s not up for the task.
And finally: There’s a story line so full of unexpected twists and turns that if this were not a Bible story and were just a movie, we would have trouble believing it. I mean, all the waters in Egypt turn to blood? Moses raises his staff, and the Red Sea just splits in two? Several hundred thousand people wandering through the desert for 40 years? Who’s writing this stuff?
But despite all that, and despite all the other aspects of the Exodus story that make it so compelling, none of that is what the story is really about. It is not ultimately about how great and faithful Moses was. It is not ultimately about the amazing power of God to do miracles. And it is not even ultimately about how God takes sides with the oppressed and the weak against the the powerful and the abusive.
All those things are true, but what we as people of faith today most need to take from this story is what is talked about in today’s passage from Deuteronomy 31. And that is the concept of God’s promises.
This passage is part of a speech that Moses gives to all of Israel near the end of his life, just as they are ready to complete their journey and enter the Promised Land. It’s a momentous occasion, the culmination of generations worth of struggle and pain and hope.
The people are expecting Moses to lead them across the Jordan River and into their new home - but God has other plans. Now we aren’t told how the people react to this news, but we have to think they were quite disappointed. After all, they have depended on Moses for 40 years.
It would be like a college basketball coach taking a team all the way to the Final Four, and then telling them that he was quitting, and they’d be getting a new coach for the championship game. We wouldn’t think that would be the best way to win the national title.
But that’s what happens here. Moses tells the people that God has appointed Joshua to take over the helm at this most critical of moments. It could have been a moment that really deflated the people, and possibly even turned them against God - which is something they had happened before.
But this potential for despair is eliminated when Moses gives them the one thing he still has to offer - his wisdom. He tells the people just what they need to hear as they enter this time of transition. He says this:
“The Lord has told me that I shall not cross over the Jordan. But the Lord your God himself will cross over before you. He will destroy these nations before you, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua also will cross over before you, as the Lord promised.”
And that last phrase is the key: “As the Lord promised.” It’s a theme that is found throughout the Scriptures, and it ties together what can seem like a bunch of random stories. The theme is not just that the Lord makes promises and keeps them. Even more than that, what we learn throughout the Bible, and especially in the Exodus story, is that through it all, God is really staying faithful to one promise. From Genesis to Revelation, everything that happens relates to God making a promise and then keeping it.
But before we talk about what that promise is, I’d like to go back and address an issue with this particular passage that has always troubled me. It’s the fact that God, in leading the nation of Israel to the Promised Land, promises to destroy the nations that are already there. It’s just one verse, but Moses clearly said it. “The Lord you God will cross over before you and will destroy these nation before you, and you shall dispossess them.”
It’s a difficult verse for those of us who like to think of God as loving and forgiving and inclusive of all people. Because this promise seems like none of those things. This promise makes God look like a bully, who is just using his size and strength to push people around and do what he wants.
What happens when nations behave like this today? What happens when a leader says something like, “God told me this is our land, so we’re gonna take it and take everything you own, by force of necessary?” Well, we went to war back in 1991 in Iraq and Kuwait for that exact reason. And Israel and Palestine have been fighting over a situation like this since 1948.
And who do we sympathize with whenever something like this happens in the world? With the nation that is being attacked and forced off of its own land. Take this story of Moses and Joshua, and take away the religious aspect of it, and there’s no way we say that what Israel does is a good thing. No way.
But as Christians, we look at this story as foundational to our faith, and we use it as an analogy for our own faith community, and how God guides us to our Promised Land.
So what’s the difference? How do we resolve this contradiction? How do we justify the fact that at God’s leading, the people of Israel are called to violently force people out of their homes and their homeland and kill them?
Unfortunately, there’s not an easy answer to that question. That is the way God chose to do things in that case - but it does not give us license to do the same in God’s name. And that’s a topic for a future sermon.
But what is important for us today is to know what we are supposed to take from this story - which is the fact that God made a promise; and that even thought the journey was to get there was long and difficult, God kept that promise; and that God stays with them and clears the way for them as they take possession of that promise.
It really would make a great movie. I’ve always thought that Hollywood should take up the story of Moses and Joshua and the entrance into the Promised Land. Because it has volumes of wisdom to share for us today as we seek to do the same thing - as we seek to move through all sorts of transitions in life and in the church.
Lately, I’ve been talking a lot about how our culture is changing and how the church is called to change - so I’ll give that a rest for today, and talk instead about transitions and God’s promises in a more personal way.
I’d like us to close by doing a little bit of a visualization exercise. This will all be done silently to yourself. You can close your eyes or you can keep them open, whichever you’re more comfortable with.
Let’s start by thinking about a transition in your life that you are currently going through, or that you’ve been through recently. Something that might be difficult, and is causing you anxiety and uncertainty.
Think about how your transition, whatever it is, is like what the people of Israel were going through as they were about to cross the Jordan River. What kind of journey have you already been through? Have you been in the wilderness for a long time? Are you tired? Are you frustrated? Are you skeptical of how this is going to turn out? Are you skeptical if God is really with you through all this?
Now, imagine that someone tells you something that upends your expectations of how this transition is going to go. Something foundational. Something like Moses no longer being the leader of the Israelites. What might such a surprise be? How does that make you feel as you think about things not turning out as you had expected?
Now, take these feelings, and this real life situation you are visualizing, and listen again to the promise that God has given us. This time, I am going to take the concepts from Moses’ speech and put them in the context of the changes that we face in life.
“A new reality is coming. And the Lord has told us that things in the new reality are not going to be as you expected them. But God will go with you into this new reality. God will clear away all the obstacles that are in your path. And God will give you whatever it is you will need to live and thrive in your Promised Land.”
As we think about our personal situations of transition. And as we think about the transition our church is about to make. Let us remember these words from Moses. For in all that we do, the ultimate promise we rely on is that God goes with us, and God shows us the way. Amen.
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