last Lord's Day morning in Deuteronomy
32. You may recall that we read the
portion there last week from verse 12 through 15. Reading that same passage there
in Deuteronomy 32 and reading from verse 12 through 15. So the Lord alone did lead him. And there was no strange God
with him. He made him ride on the high
places of the earth that he might eat the increase of the fields.
And he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out
of the flinty rock, butter of kine and milk of sheep, with
fat of lambs and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats with
fats of kidneys of wheat, and that each drink of pure blood
of the great. barbed gesture and waxed fast
and kicked. Now what waxed and cracked, now
what groaned thick, now what covered with fatness. Then he
forsook God which made him and lightly esteemed the rock of
his salvation. I want us to consider then something
further with regards to God's goodness and Israel's in gratitude of the goodness
of God. In the song, this morning we
were reading the introduction to this 32nd chapter, the command
and God guide that Moses was to compose this song for the
children of Israel. Well, in the content of the 32nd
chapter Moses would remind them of the greatness and the glory
and the grace of God, the God who had entered into covenants
with them and made every provision in all their wilderness wanderings.
Remarkable things are stated then throughout the 32nd chapter,
verse 4, he is a rock, his work is perfect. for all his ways
are judgment to God of truth and without iniquity just and
right is he. He was Moses in publishing the
name of the Lord and seeking to ascribe to God all that greatness
that would belong unto his name. And not only at the beginning
but at the end of the song he reminds them God has dealt with
them and God speaks to them through Moses. In verse 39, See now that
I give and I am thee, and there is no God with me. I kill, and
I make alive my world, and I heal. Neither is there any that can
deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven
and say, I live for ever. For there is no other God besides
this God, the God of Israel. And yet, although God was so
kind in all His dealings with them, although He was so trustworthy
and so tender and compassionate in the midst of all their trials,
yet how they were prone to forgetting and to turn from him and to murmur
against him. This is what Moses had had to
prove time and again throughout all those wilderness wanderings. And yet there is no other God.
We were looking in particular at those words in verse 12. So
the Lord alone did lead him. There was no strange God with
him. It was the Lord alone that had brought them out of Egypt,
brought them through the Red brought them to Mount Sinai.
Covenant he'd written there upon the mount as he spoke the ten
words and revealed himself in those commandments as the Lord
their God. They were to walk in obedience
to all his ways but we said how they would rebel time and again
against the God so good. There's a contrast then here
in the song between these two things the goodness of God and
the ingratitude of the people. And so as I said I want us to
consider something more of this as we turn in particular to what
is stated here at verse 15. Having spoken of God's remarkable
goodness in verses 13 and 14, all that he would provide for
them, and this would be so evident as they entered into the land
that was flowing with milk and honey. But, but Jeshu waxed fast
and kept. Thou art waxen fast, thou art
grown thick, thou art covered with fatness. Then he forsook
God which made him and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation. thinking in particular of God's
goodness and seeing it as it were in three separate realms. First of all, we are reminded
of God's goodness in creation. What do we read here in the centre
of this 15th verse concerning Israel? He forsook God which
made him. He forsook God which made him. The Psalmist says, Know ye that
the Lord he is God. It is he that hath made us. Not
we ourselves, we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.
He is the creator of all things. He is the creator of all men. And yet, O men forsaken, what
is the wicked theory of evolution? Is it not a forsaking of the
God who is the creator of all things. The scripture is so clear,
so plain. In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth. What a wondrous work was that
work of creation, the manner in which God was pleased to bring
all things into being, as if not God said, let there be light
and there was light. And we have it time and again
there in that opening chapter of Holy Scripture, Genesis 1.
God said, and it was so. God said, and it was so. God said, and it was so. By the word of the Lord were
the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of
his manner. All God's faith and it was done.
God commanded it and it stood fast. And we see that creation
as a manifestation of the goodness of God that he should make these
creatures, make them for his own pleasure and his own delight. And then when we think about
that the apex of all that work of creation there stands man.
And the creation of man in many ways is different to the manner
in which we see God working in other aspects of creation. He doesn't just speak man into
being but there is a consultation with himself as it were. There's
a counting amongst the three persons In the garden, God said,
let us make man in our image and after our likeness. We're familiar with these things,
aren't we? The wonder of what God is doing there with regards
to the creation of the first man, forming his body out of
the dust of the earth and then breathing in to his nostrils
the breath of life and man, a living soul. made in the image after
the likeness of God and it is in the soul of man of course
that we see that remarkable image. The psalmist of course very much
rejoices in these things, fearful, wonderfully made. Remember the
words, the language that we find in the 139th Psalm concerning
man. David says, I will praise them,
for I am fearfully and wonderfully made, verse 14. Marvellous are
thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was
not hid from thee when I was made in secret, and purest reward
in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance,
yet being unperfect, and in thy book all my members were written,
which in continuance were fashioned when As yet there was none of
them. What God does as he forms man
in his mother's womb, the wickedness of men, and we think of the destruction
of ongoing children, the wickedness of abortion, the termination
of a life, what a wicked thing. Oh the folly of men, how they
forget God. fearfully, wonderfully made,
created as God's image-bearer. Isn't this an expression, a manifestation
of the goodness of God? He forsook God. He forsook God
which made him itself. He made of one blood all notions
of man. And as he has made man so, he
preserves man. His work of creation is finished,
he completed that work in 6 days and as he made man on the 6th
day and he accepted the work as I said, so he pronounces it
very good. But God doesn't then withdraw
himself altogether, he still works, he doesn't work in creation
but he works in providence. He preserves the lives of his
creatures. In Him we live and move and have
our being. Oh the folly then of forgetting
God. Of the rock the begat me, thou
art unmindful, and as forgotten God that formed me. Shouldn't we be those who would
seek to remember who it is that's created us, who it is that formed
us, the God to whom we're indebted for our very lives. and that God that we should live
to the glory of. He made us for himself. In the
language of the shorter Catechism. The cheap end of man. To obey God, to enjoy forever. And yet our men forget, how they
forsake God who is their Creator. God's goodness is to be discerned
in when we consider what we are, we're the creatures of his hand.
We're indebted to, we're dependent upon, and yet we're unmindful
of him. But then also here we have God's
goodness in providence. Isn't that what he's speaking
of? And especially with regards to
God's care of his people, the children of Israel. You know,
even Balaam, his employees, paid to curse them, as to speak of
the happiness of Israel. Back in Numbers 24 and verse
5. How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob,
and thy tabernacles, O Israel. how goodly, how God cared for
these people. When he brought them forth out
of the cruelty, the bondage that was Egypt. When he made a way
for them and led them through the Red Sea and brought them
to himself, as I said, and enters into covenant. And then he is
the one who will lead them and provide for them. in all their
wilderness wanderings and yet what did they do with his providences? But it says, but Yeshua waxed
fat and kicked. They weren't waxed fat, they
weren't grown thick, they weren't covered with fat and standing
for supper. When God had made all that provision,
he was going to bring them wealthily into their good lands. Or in the previous verses He
made him ride on the high places of the earth that he might eat
the increase of the fields. He made him to suck honey out
of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock. All that provision
that God made, butter of kind, milk of sheep, back of lambs,
rams of the breed of Bashan, goats, the fats of kidneys of
the pure blood of the Grail. It speaks of all the provision
that God makes for his people. And they're going to go into
a good land, a large land, a land flowing with milk and with honey. But remember what's recorded
in Numbers 13 concerning When the spies go into the land, the twelve tribes, there are
various representatives amongst those spies. The ten of the spies
bring an evil report. They speak of the land as being
full of giants, the Canaanites, the Hittites and the Haimites.
with all the multitude of those peoples, giants, with fenced
cities, walled cities. And they're afraid when these
tribes come with their evil reports and say they'll never be able
to come into the possession. And it's only those two men,
Joshua from the tribe of Ephraim and Caleb from the tribe of Benjamin,
who are faithful and true and speak that God could give them
the land. Or how they are those then who are full of fears, who
just think of bots, bots, and some of the bots of God's Word.
This is a people then who are so ready to misuse the
good gifts of God, to abuse Him. How do they do it? Because of
unbelief. How they become essential people really. They are aware of the things
that are but temporal things. They lose sight of that God who
is sovereign over all things. Paul says, well we look not at
the things which are made but the things which are not made.
The things which are made are temporal, the unseen things are
the eternal things. Here is Jesherin waxing fat,
kicking, groan-seeking, fatness, covered with fatness. God provides
for them in remarkable ways and yet they abuse the gifts of God.
God's goodness they bestow upon themselves, upon their lusts. Surely we can't be those who
would accuse them and not have to look to ourselves. What do
we do with the good gifts of God? How do we use God's favours
and God's blessings? Those solemn words that we find
in the epistle of James. He says you have not because
you ask not. And you ask and you receive not. Because you
ask and miss that you may consume it upon your lusts. And isn't
this what these people are being accused of here? the good things
that God gives them. He's already made the provision.
He's going to do it ever more abundantly. They're going to
go into the possession of the land that flows with milk and
honey. Now what do they do? They spend
all God's goodness upon their own desires. The Psalmist speaks of it. from
106 to verse 14, have they lusted exceedingly in the wilderness
and tempted God in the desert? That's what they did when God
appeared to them and provided every necessity for them. Oh, what foolish people they
were. They'd grown sensually. And it's strange, isn't it, we
have the record of good men, godly men, gracious men, believing
men. Think of Solomon. God favours him. He's the wisest
man on all the face of the earth. And yet, he's taken up, isn't
he, in many ways with sensual things. Isn't that the confession
that he's making as he comes in some measure to his senses
there in the book of Ecclesiastes? He sees the vanity of all those
things that he had accumulated because God had so favoured him. We have the book of Ecclesiastes
and there in the second chapter the language that we find being
used by this wise man. Verse 4 he says, I made me great
works, I builded me houses, I planted me vineyards, I made me gardens
and orchards, I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruits,
I made me pools of water to water therewith, the wood that bringeth
forth trees. I got me servants and maidens,
and had servants born in my house, I also had great possessions
of great and small cattle above all, that were in Jerusalem before
me. I gathered me also silver and
gold and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces. And so he goes on. All that he
was able to get, all that he was able to obtain. But what
is the conclusion of the matter? He says at verse 11, Then I looked
on all the work that my hands had wrought, and on the labour
that I had laboured to do, and behold, all was vanity and vexation
of spirit and there was no profit under the sun. He acquires all
these essential pleasures really, the things of this world, but
what profit is in these things? How many are defected to these
things, the things of this present life, the things that are slain? I love that gracious king in
Judah, King Ezekiah. What a remarkable man he was.
We have of course the record of his thanksgiving to God in
Isaiah chapter 38. That prayer, by these things
men fear he says, in all these things is the life of my spirit.
The trials and troubles he had. the Assyrians at the very gate
of Jerusalem and yet, though the enemy might come and haunt
him, it seems that Jerusalem will fall. Judah will be taken
just as it happened in the north with the ten tribes of Israel. But God, God is for him. And then in that 38th chapter,
the remarkable He thought his life was going to be taken, didn't
he? The Prophet had told him he was
going to die, not live, but he turned his face to the wall and
God let him that time and preserved his life. We can read all that wonderful
prayer, that thanksgiving in Isaiah 38 and then the remarkable
thing is immediately after that we come to to chapter 39. And what do we read there? His
life has been spared, he has acknowledged God and uttered
those remarkable words that this, all this bitter experience
was the very life of his spirit. But then in chapter 39, at that
time, Merodach, the son of Baladin, king of Babylon, sent letters
and a present to Hezekiah for he had heard that he had been
sick and was recovered. And Hezekiah was glad of them
and showed them the house of his precious things, the silver
and the gold and the spices and the precious ointment and all
the house of his armour and all that was found in his treasures,
there was nothing. in his house, nor in all his
dominion, that Ezekiel showed them not. Oh, here you see, before this
heathen king, he is delighting only in sensual things. His great possessions, spending the goodness of God
upon himself, showing off, And isn't this the case really with
the children of Israel back in our text, in this 15th verse
in Deuteronomy 32. They became proud. They waxed
fast. And they kept, the more they
prospered, the more they presumed with God. All the lust of pride, it flies
in the very face of the good providences of God. all that we have is by the grace
of God and the goodness of God. Surely we must give God the glory. I think sometimes of the remarkable
words that we have in that hymn on pride. I don't know if it's
a hymn you can really sing in public worship but like So many
of the hymns in Gatsby, it's good to read it through even
in our own devotions. A hymn on pride, number 287 in the book. We have this verse concerning
pride. The heart uplifts with God's
own gifts and makes in grace a snare. That's what pride does. It lifts up the heart with the
gifts of God. And it sends us all together
in ourselves, all to strive the cursed pride, that spirit by
God at war, through what we will. It haunts us, yet it keeps us
from the Lord. That accursed pride, delighting
in the things of this world. We're told, aren't we, that we're
not the world, not the things that are in the world. All that is in the world, the
lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life,
is not of the Father, but is of the world. If any man loved the world, the
love of the Father is not in him, says John. You see, these
men, such gracious men as they were, godly men, believing men,
saving men. Surely that was the case with
Hezekiah, that was the case with Solomon. And these people, the
children of Israel, they are the Lord's people. Oh yes, they
are the typical people. But when we say that, we have
to recognise that which people are the anti-type
of these people? Why God's children? The spiritualists, of course,
the church, those who are in the church. We have not only, you see here,
the goodness of God in creation and the goodness of God in his
providence. It's a doubt. Both his goodness
in creation and his goodness in providence can be abused and
misused. But we have also here God's goodness
in grace. Always a good God. The guy in the psalmist says
it there, doesn't he? Psalm 119 and verse 68, they're
what good? and they do us good. Surely the
greatest goodness of all is that that God does in his
grace, his grace to sinners. And what do we read here at the
end of the text, end of verse 15, the rock of his salvation.
Oh they lightly esteem the rock. And that was the rock of their
salvation. He's looking back, isn't he,
here really, to great deliverances. Great deliverances. Verse 12,
where we were last time, the Lord alone did lead him. There
was no strange God with him. All that the Lord had done for
them time and again throughout all their wanderings in the wilderness, And yet, verse 16, they provoked
him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations, provoked
him to anger, they sacrificed unto devils, not to gods, to
gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom
your fathers feared not. In many ways it's a prophetic
word. It's dealing with what's going
to also come to pass as they enter into that land of promise. And yet, the name that God uses
with regard to these people, he refers to them as Jeshurun.
Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked. What does the name mean? Jeshurun. Like so many names in scripture,
of course, it has a significant meaning. We know there's so much
in the name that are given to the Lord's people. The names
that the prophets bore is so often bound up with the message
that they are proclaiming. And their significance in this
name, it literally means the darling, the upright one. The
darling upright one. We find the name used in Isaiah
chapter 33, twice in that chapter in fact,
Isaiah 33 at verse 5 and then again at verse 26, Yeshu. Isaiah 33 and verse 5 and he was king in Jeshua, it
says. He was king in Jeshua. God was that one who took a delight
in them. It's not chapter wrong there,
it's not Isaiah, it's here in Deuteronomy. It's chapter 33,
the beginning of the chapter. Bear with me. Chapter 33 verse 5, there it
is. He was king in Jeshurun when the heads of the people of the
tribes of Israel were gathered together. And then we have it
again in verse 26 there. He is now like unto the God of
Jeshurun who rideth from the heaven in thy help and in his
excellency on the sky. So it's a name that God is given
to them at this particular time. They are the darling upright
ones, strangely. It is used in Isaiah also, but
it is said in chapter 44 in the second verse of Isaiah, Jacob, my servant, the Magesture,
and whom I have chosen. They are his darlings, his upright
ones, in that he is the God who has set his love upon them, he
has chosen them. And of course we are reminded
of that earlier in the book in chapter 7. And the reason for
that choice, it was a sovereign The Lord did not set his love
upon you nor choose you because you were more in number than
any people for you were the fewest of all people but because the
Lord loved you and because he would keep the oath which he
had sworn unto your fathers that the Lord brought you out with
a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen from
the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. What a name is this then that
God is still calling them by they are his His darlings are
the people that he has set his affection upon, he loves them,
he delights in them. The Lord's portion is his people.
Israel is the lot of his inheritance, says the Psalmist. Oh, this God you see. This God is their God, because
he has made them his people. But we not only see the grace
of God in the name that he gives to his people, but we see it
also in the name that God uses in respect to himself. He is
the rock, and he is the rock of salvation, here at the end
of verse 15, the rock of his salvation. And again, back at
verse 4, he is the rock, his work is perfect for all his ways,
our judgement a God of truth and without iniquity, just and
righteous, it matters not how they themselves might behave
perversely, yet this God is the faithful one, in spite of all
their provocations. And remember what we were saying
a couple of weeks ago when we were considering that passage
in Numbers chapter 20. when they're on the borders of
the promised land and the guy Moses brings water out of the
rock. He'd done it previously at God's
bidding when they first came out of Egypt back in Exodus 17. He had to smite the rock and
the waters had flowed forth from that rock And then again, as I said, in
Numbers 20, 40 years later, and again there's still that murmuring
people, still chiding with Moses. And now God tells him to go and
speak to the rock. But he's rivaling his own spirit,
he's angry with them, and he smites the rock twice. It was
a foolish thing to do. God has commanded him simply
to speak to the rock. Oh, that rock was Christ. It's
a wonderful type of Christ as we said on that occasion. And Christ has made one sacrifice
for sins forever. There was no need for a second
smiting. That was the sin of Moses. But they all drank of
that spiritual rock. That's what we're told in 1 Corinthians
10. And that rock, that spiritual
rock that followed them was Christ. For this is the name that belongs
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Upon this rock he says, I will
build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it. This is where we find our comfort
then. We find it only in the Lord our
God. And we read of these people,
verse 18, of the rock. Of the rock that begat thee thou
art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee. And yet even their enemies, their
enemies would recognize the wonder of their God. Verse 31, their rock is not as
our rock, even our enemies themselves believe it. I wonder if we might
be those friends who would recognise the great goodness of God in
the works of grace and all centre in the person and work of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only rock of salvation, the chief
cornerstone from which his church is to be laid and built on. All the goodness of God. The
goodness of God as He reveals Himself and He reveals Himself
in all His various realms, doesn't He? He reveals Himself in His
works of creation. He reveals Himself in His works
of the providence. That's all about us. The heavens
declare His glory. The firmament showeth His handiwork. Day after day after the speech.
Night after night showeth knowledge as the The psalmist is speaking
about God is revealing himself in all the works that he has
performed but ultimately how he reveals himself and all the
fullness of his grace when we come to the scriptures of truth
and all that scripture that testifies to the Lord Jesus. These are
they he says that speak of mercy. He is that rock, the rock of
salvation, and yet the folly of these people, lightly esteeming
that rock. Yeshua waxed back with kings,
they were waxed and packed, they were grown thick, they were covered
with battles. Oh God, deliver us from all the
folly of that sensuality, they were covered with battles. Then
he pursued gods which might lightly esteem the rock. of His salvation. O God, help us that we might
be those who would seek only to be set and settled in the
Lord Jesus, in His person, in His Word. We're not worthy of
the least of His favours. And all that truth that God has
shown to us, O God, grant that we might have eyes to behold
the wonders of that truth that He reveals to us here. in His
Word. The Lord be pleased then to bless
these words to us even today. Amen. We're going to sing this
out, including praise to the Lord in Hymns 924.