We've got here basically to verse
6. But here in verse 1, this tells
basically what this chapter is about. Deuteronomy 33 and verse
1. And this is the blessing. We're
with Moses, the man of God. Bless the children of Israel
before his death. And then, of course, you go on
and begin in verse 6 and down through verse 25. It announces
these blessings. It predicts these blessings.
For instance, he begins there in verse 6 with the tribe of
Reuben. Let Reuben live and not die,
and let not his men be few. And this is the blessing of Judah.
And he said, Hear, O Lord, the voice of Judah, and bring him
unto his people, and let his hands be sufficient for him,
and be thou not a help for him from his enemies. Then of course,
verse 8, he goes on to the tribe of Levi, and then in verse 12,
of Benjamin, and 13, of Joseph, until he gets through all of
these tribes, pronouncing the blessings upon the children of
Israel. Now, we all know who Israel is. That was Jacob. The
Lord changed his name, you know, to Israel when he wrestled with
the Lord. And he had two wives. You remember
how his father-in-law tricked him into marrying Leah? And he
had six sons by Leah. And then Rachel, he had two sons
by Rachel. Then they gave their maidens
to him, their handmaids. They wanted children. That was
the thing about the Jewish women. They wanted children. And he
had two children by Leah's handmaid and two children by Rachel's
handmaid. So that made him twelve. Of course,
he had a daughter. And this is now the twelve tribes
of Israel. Boy, they have multiplied. I
don't know how many there is of them here at Moses' death.
But this is the prediction, the prophecy, and it even names many
of the blessings that would come upon the twelve tribes of Israel
when they went into the land of Canaan. Now, I mentioned this
the last time that we looked at this, and maybe time before
last, the necessity of these blessings. You and I can't relate
to them. I know there's no way that you
and I can relate to these. We'd have had to have been a
Jew, and knowing that Christ was coming out of this nation. But it was going to be 1,400
years later. Now that was a long time. So
it was necessary that the children of Israel remain a nation, exist
as a nation until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
that's what these blessings here are all about. I mean, they were
going to have a struggle. They had a struggle anyway ever
since their existence. Poor Jacob struggled, didn't
he? Look what he went through as a man. And then he had these
sons, and they finally all went down into Egypt. They were down
there in slavery for probably 300 years or so, 400-something
years altogether. Can you imagine that? The burdensome
toil of slavery for that long? They come out through the desert,
and now they're going into the land of Canaan. Boy, in the land
of Canaan, they're going to have to struggle. They're going to
have to fight these nations to subdue them. And they're going
to have to fight for their very existence as a nation, to preserve
their existence, so it was going to be tough. And Moses had already
given them this song, and it wasn't a good song. It was telling
about how they were going to backslide at different times
in their existence. They were going to turn sometime
to idolatry. They were going to forsake the
Lord and go off into open and profane sins. They were going
to be taken captive and all of that. And that's the song that
Moses had them to sing. So can you begin to see perhaps
how essential these blessings are to the children of Israel?
It gave them the assurance that in spite of all the evil that
they would commit, still they would survive as a nation. These
blessings was the assurance to them that they would survive
as a nation. He told them back here in verse
30. Look back in verse 30. Moses always was encouraging
the children of Israel. Back in chapter 30 and look in
verse 20. He was always encouraging them
to cleave to the Lord, believe in Him, and obey Him, and love
Him. He's your life. He's the length of your days
in this land. Look how he told them this all
the way back in chapter 30 and verse 20. That thou mayest love
the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey His voice, and that
thou mayest cleave unto Him, for He is thy life, and the length
of thy days, that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord
swore unto your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give
to them." Look what he said over in chapter 32 and verse 46. And he said unto them," here's
what Moses said to the children of Israel, "'Set your hearts
unto the words which I testify among you this day, which you
shall command your children to observe to do all the words of
this law. For it is not a vain thing for
you. Because it is your life, and
through this thing you shall prolong your days in the land,
whether you go over Jordan to possess it." So he was encouraging
the children of Israel to obey the voice of the Lord, to cleave
to Him, and love Him, and trust Him. And He'd preserve you in
the land no matter how many enemies you had to face, that God would
preserve you. Boy, looking back on their life,
this song, that was sung to them really became a reality, didn't
it? They did. They did forsake the
Lord often. And as you read the book of Judges,
and read the book of Joshua, and the Old Testament history
concerning the children of Israel, what you see is these blessings
becoming a reality. It hadn't been for these blessings
that God pronounced upon the children of Israel, in spite
of the evil of their history, they would have perished. They
would have perished. And they knew it. Those among
the children of Israel that were true believers knew it, will
not abide as a nation. If we go off into sin, as God
has predicted that we will. Moses said, after my death, I
know what's going to happen. And those who believed God said,
how can we survive as a nation? So that's what these blessings
are about. The Lord is saying, in spite
of all the evil that you're going to do, I'm going to preserve
you as a nation. And Bud, when you look back on
it now, we've got the history. He was faithful with me. He was
faithful to the children of Israel. And the reason that it was, they
had to survive as a nation. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
was coming out of this nation, wasn't He? Out of the tribe of
Judah. And He was going to be born in
Bethlehem, the land of promise. So they had to remain in this
land. Even though they got carried
captive, they had to be brought back into the land of Canaan.
So these blessings assured the nation of Israel that they would
be preserved. That's how essential these blessings
were. And we'll read on down here maybe next week or two and
see some of the blessings, and you see them fulfilled. I think
most of the blessings, if not all of them, were fulfilled in
the Old Testament. That's all I know of these blessings,
that it preserved Israel as a nation until the coming of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We know in 70 A.D. they ceased
to be a nation, didn't they? They lost their temple. They
lost their covenant of law that the Lord had made with them.
They lost that. They lost their land. And they were scattered
all over the world. And in 1948, they were re-established
as a nation. Now what that means, I don't
know. I don't know. It seems like God's got something
in store, but I don't know. I honestly don't know. Everybody
will have to be persuaded in their own mind. But that's the
meaning, I think, of these blessings here in chapter 33. He had assured
Israel's preservation until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But these blessings are also considered in a spiritual light.
We must consider them in a spiritual nature. These are blessings that
are in Jesus Christ. We see Christ here. We see the
blessings that was given to Him and His spiritual Israel, the
Israel of God, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, the seed
of Abraham, the spiritual seed of Abraham. They are the ones
that we want to look at here just for a few minutes that are
blessed. Now, there is no doubt in our
minds that Israel, natural Israel, was blessed. These blessings
preserved it. But as we look through here,
we see Christ in you. And there is where we see not
the natural blessings preserving an earthly country and an earthly
nation, but we see spiritual blessings, the blessings in Jesus
Christ preserving a spiritual people, Abraham's spiritual seed. I want you to look with me over
a few verses of Scripture. Look in Galatians chapter 3.
Hold it around because we're coming back there just for a
minute. But look in Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter
3. The Lord Jesus was talking to
the Jews one day in John chapter 8, and He was talking to them
about They are not receiving Him. And they are hating Him. And he said, Abraham loved to
see my day. He rejoiced to see my day and
saw it. And you fellows are not like
Abraham. And then he made this awful accusation against them.
He said, you are of your father the devil. Man, you talk about
a reproach of your father the devil. He said that to those
religious Pharisees. And they said, we're Abraham's
seed. We're Abraham's seed. And he
said, I know that you're Abraham's natural seed. I know you can
trace your lineage back to the tribe of Benjamin, back to the
tribe of Judah, back to the tribe of Joseph. I know you can do
that. But he said, you're not Abraham's children. Remember
him telling them that? You're not Abraham's children.
If you were Abraham's children, you'd do the works of Abraham.
What was the works of Abraham? He loved me. He rejoiced to see
my day. He believed me. He believed me. And he saw my day. And they said,
well, you're not even 50 years old. And was you around when
Abraham was around? He said, before Abraham was,
I am. I am. Who is a true child of Abraham?
And that's what we got to see, to see these spiritual blessings.
The spiritual blessing was to Abraham's natural seed, but I
tell you, the greater blessing is to Abraham's spiritual seed,
Abraham's children, not after the flesh. But you know who Abraham's
real children are? The believers in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Look what he says here in Galatians
chapter 3. That's what Paul is going to
prove here in Galatians chapter 3. And verse 7, Know ye therefore
that they which are of faith, the same are the children of
Abraham, the same, and no other. And the scripture foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen, the nations, through faith preached
before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations
be blessed. So then they which be of faith
are blessed with faithful Abraham." We are blessed. The Bible says
the believer is blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. And that is what our text is
talking about, isn't it? Blessings, blessings. But let's go on in
verse 10. As many as are of the works of
the law are under the curse. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone who continueth not in all things written in the book
of the law to do them, but that no man is justified by the law
in the sight of God. It is evident, for the just shall
live by faith. And the law is not of faith,
but the man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For
it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree, that
the blessing promised to Abraham that the blessing of Abraham,
God promised to Abraham, might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ. See that? Where does the blessing
come to us? It is through Christ, isn't it?
It comes through Christ. We are blessed in Christ. We
are blessed through Christ. That we might receive the promise
of the Spirit through faith. Brethren, I speak after the manner
of men, though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed,
no man disannulleth or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his
seed were the promises made, and he said not unto seeds as
of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ." All
the promises God has for anybody is in Christ. They were promised
to Him and it is only through Him that we are blessed. And
look what He says over in verse 28, verse 27. For as many as
you have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Go back to
verse 26. We are all the children of God
by faith in Christ Jesus. And as many as you have been
baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew
nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, male or female, for
you are all one in Christ. And if you be Christ, then are
you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise." You
are Abraham's seed. You are Abraham's children, spiritual
children. And look what he said in the
last chapter, chapter 6. And look in verse 14, Galatians
chapter 6 and verse 14. and upon the Israel of God."
So there's two Israels in the Bible. There's natural Israel. And boy, they're still in bondage,
aren't they? There was blessings pronounced
upon them all through the Old Testament. Man, they were mighty
blessings, wonderful blessings. But there's another Israel. That
is the Israel of God, the spiritual Israel, the children of Abraham
by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we look at our text
from a spiritual standpoint, then what we do, we look at these
blessings as they are given to Christ and to us in Christ. They were given to the heads
of all these tribes, all these sons of Jacob. He said, I'm going
to bless Reuben, I'm going to bless Judah, I'm going to bless
Levi as their heads and representatives. Well, who is our head? Who is
the representative of the church? Christ, isn't it? So these blessings
then are to Him, the spiritual blessing. I'm not concerned anymore
with a natural blessing. I think that's all gone to Israel.
But I am concerned with a spiritual blessing. So turn your text back
over and let me just give you an example right quick. And let's
bypass Reuben because I want to come back to him the next
time. Reuben was the firstborn. But let's go and let me give
you an example here of how this is speaking to the Lord Jesus
Christ. There's about four things here said about Judah. And they're
wonderful things when you apply them as we really should to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Look in verse 7, and this is
the blessing of Judah. This is the blessing that's coming
on the tribe of Judah. And He said, Hear, O Lord, the
voice of Judah. Now that's the first thing we
see, the first blessing. Hear, O Lord, the voice of Judah. Now why is that so important?
What is so important about Judah? Hear His voice. Well, from the
first time you see this man, As he's an individual, you find
out two things about him. He was a charity, and he was
a mediator. You remember the story about
Benjamin, that Jacob needed food for his house, and Joseph was
already on the throne down in Egypt, and Jacob said, go back
down there and get us some food, and Jacob said, that man told
us. When we come back, if we didn't
bring our little brother Benjamin, we better not see his face."
He said, I'm not going back. I'm not going back. And Jacob
said, I'm not sending Benjamin with you. You're going to get
him killed, just like Jacob's going, and you're going to bring
my grey horse down to the grave. Remember that? And Judah went
to his dad and said, listen dad, you let him go with me, and I'll
be a surety for him. Remember that? And if I don't
bring him back and set him before your face unharmed, then you
let me bear the blame forever." And Jacob said, okay, on that
ground you can go. Went down there then, and Joseph,
the governor over Egypt, he said, I'm going to keep Benjamin and
you guys go on back home. And boy, Judah, Judah said, wait
a minute. And the Bible says that Judah
went right up to Joseph and humbled himself down. And if you want
to read a heart-touching story, read of it there in Genesis chapter
44 where Judah went and pleaded the cause of Benjamin. He said,
My father is up there in Canaan and he loves this boy. If you don't let him go back,
you're going to bring my father's gray heads down to the grave.
So what I'm asking you to do is keep me. Let me be the bondsman,
and you let him go back to my father and his father." And Joseph
got so overwhelmed that he bust out in tears and couldn't hide
himself any longer. And he said, I'm Joseph. I'm
Joseph. I tell you another time, this
same tribe of Judah, David, was the king over Israel at the time.
And David had done some awful things. He had sinned against
the Lord, numbered the people. He didn't trust the Lord. And
the Lord's rod, He sent an angel and slew 70,000 of the children
of Israel. Now can you imagine that? Because
of David's sin, He slew 70,000 in just a couple of days. And
David saw the angel with his sword stretched out up in the
air. And David began to plead to the Lord for the children
of Israel. He said, O Lord, it's me that's done this wickedness.
What have these sheep done? Let me bear the blame in my father's
house. And he took some oxen, and he
built him an altar to the Lord, and he offered sacrifices and
peace offerings and sin offerings. And the Bible said the Lord was
entreated of David and the plague was stayed. See why it was important
for Moses to say, Lord, hear the voice of Judah. He was a
surety for his people. He was a mediator between them
and other people. Now if it was so important for
Benjamin to have a mediator, And so important for the children
of Israel to have one to intercede to them out of the tribe of Judah,
how much more important it is for you and me to have somebody
between us and God that God will hear His voice. It's essential,
isn't it? And this passage here is speaking
about the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, O God in heaven, hear
the voice of Christ. That's what he's saying. Do you
remember when the Lord Jesus was standing at the tomb of Lazarus
and He told him to roll away the stone? And Martha said, Lord,
He's stinking by now. And the Lord lifted His eyes
up towards heaven and He said, Father, I know that you hear
me. Oh my goodness. What does that
mean to us? I know that you always hear me, he said, but because
of those who stand by, I have said it that they might believe."
Believe what? That you hear me. That I am the
mediator between man and God. Lazarus came forth and he that
was dead came forth. The Father heard his voice. Where would you be and where
would I be if the Father did not hear the voice of our Mediator? I tell you it was important for
Peter, wasn't it? Peter, Satan has desired to have you that
he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you. I have
prayed for you that your faith fail not. And I tell you, Martha
knew this. Remember what she said? Before
you ever went to the gravesite, when she said, if you'd have
been here, my brother had not have died. But she said, I know
that even now, whatever you ask God, He will give it to you. God always hears His voice, doesn't
He? He will not turn His Son away. Oh God, hear Christ. That's the very same thing I
prayed. I never will forget the night that I was seeking the
Lord. And that's the very words that
I prayed. Psalms 35-1. I didn't know it
was in the Bible at the time, but later on I saw it. Just rejoiced
my heart. I said, Lord, plead my cause.
Lord, plead my cause." Jesus Christ pleads the cause of all
of those who come to God by Him. And if He pleads your cause,
I'm telling you, He'll bring you. He'll bring you off from
all your condemnation, all the bondage of sin, out of the kingdom
of darkness. He'll plead your cause and set
you free. The book of Hebrews is a wonderful
book about that, Christ the Mediator. that He has not entered into
the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the
true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence
of God for us. And since He is there ever living
in the Father's presence, the Bible says He is able to save
to the uttermost them that come to God by Him, seeing He ever
lives, to make intercessions for them. If any man sin, we
have an advocate for the Father. Oh, here He is. He is the greater
Judah, ain't He? He is the greater Judah. That
is why He came out of the tribe of Judah. Oh, God! He will hear
His voice. That is the blessing. Hear, O
Lord, the voice of Judah. And look back secondly there
in our text in verse 7, and here is something else that is said
about Judah. "...And bring Him unto His people." bring Him unto
His people. Well, God did bring Christ down
to His people, didn't He? The Bible says He came to His
own. He came to His own people, His own land, His own temple.
And they despised Him and rejected Him. But listen, He said as many
as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of
God. And you know He's still coming to His people today, isn't
He? He came to you, didn't He? When you were lost, didn't He
come to you? You didn't go to Him until He came to you. And
He came to you. Bring Him to His people. And
He's coming to them one at a time. He's finding them one at a time.
And He's coming to them. And I tell you what happens when
He finds them. He never leaves them. He abides in their hearts,
doesn't He? He abides in their hearts. And
someday, Someday, He's going to come back down from Heaven.
He's going to be with His people when He's coming, but He's coming
back down here for His people. And all of them are going to
be gathered in Heaven. And the Lord Jesus is going to
say, Behold I and the children whom the Father has given Me.
His brethren. His people. And for all eternity,
Christ is going to be with His people. What a wonderful prophecy
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ caught up together to meet the
Lord in the air, to be ever with the Lord. And thirdly, notice
what else he says here about Judah in verse 7, and let his
hands be sufficient for him. Let his hands be sufficient for
him. Now, what in the world could
that be when it was applied to the tribe of Judah? Well, we
could speculate on a lot of things, but what does it mean when we
apply it to Jesus Christ, the Son of God incarnate? This word,
sufficient, it means abundant, enough, equal to the end proposed,
adequate to all wants and needs. Let His hand be sufficient for
Him, for Him. You know Christ is satisfied
with what He accomplished by His own hand, isn't it? He accomplished
that which was sufficient, equal to the end that He purposed. And what is the end that He's
purposed? I'll tell you what He's purposed for the church.
Listen to Ephesians chapter 5. Husbands, love your wives as
Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it. And here's the
purpose. Here's why He gave Himself to
the church, that He might sanctify it and cleanse it with the washing
of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself. That's the end. That's His purpose. Present it to Himself. What kind
of church? Not having spot or wrinkle or
any such thing. That's amazing, is it not? You
mean to tell me that His death, His dying, there's enough merit
in His blood, enough sufficiency in His righteousness to make
somebody like us holy and spotless and blameless? Could that be? Well, that's the blessing. Let His hand, let what He accomplished
be sufficient. Let it be abundant. Let it satisfy. The biggest problem with people
today is they keep trying to add something to Christ's all-sufficient
work, don't they? That's the trouble that they
get in. They just can't trust His hand that He's done enough,
that He's accomplished enough. I've got to do something. Surely
I've got to add something. But He said, let His hand be
sufficient for Him, for Him. If it's sufficient for Him, is
it not sufficient for us? If God is satisfied with it,
if Christ is satisfied with it, if the Holy Spirit is satisfied
with it, if angels are satisfied with it, surely, surely we can
say it's sufficient. It's sufficient. It's enough. Listen to what he says in Psalm
69, 20. This is the Lord Jesus speaking. I guess when He was
upon the cross. He said, Reproach has broken
my heart. I am full of heaviness. I looked
for some to take pity, but there was none. There was none. I looked for comforters, but
I found none. Lord, what are you going to do
now? I have trotted the winepress alone. Alone. It's His hand, isn't it? It's
His work that's sufficient for Him without anybody else's. Listen
to what else He said. of the people, there was none
with me. There was none with me. And when
he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no
intercessor, therefore his arm, his own arm brought salvation
unto him, and his righteousness sustained him." See whose hand
is sufficient? It's him. It's his work. That's
what that hand means. It's his work. You work with
your hands, don't you? That's what that work is. The
work of His hands is sufficient for Him. Hebrews 1 and 3 says
this, when He had by Himself purged our sins. By Himself. By Himself. Brought in righteousness by Himself. What's our part? Looking to Him.
Believing in Him. Trusting in Him. All that He's
done on behalf of every life soul that believes in Him. Glory. I tell you, I for one have been
convinced that He's done sufficient. He don't require anything else,
and why should I? Why should I? I'm resting in
Jesus Christ. I'm trusting that His hand has
done enough. If I left this world right now,
right now, I am trusting that the hand of Christ has done that
which is sufficient. completed the work to make me
holy and acceptable to God. That's wonderful, isn't it? Fourthly, and quickly look at
this, and lastly, in verse 7 again. And be thou
and help to him from his enemies. And be thou and help to him from
his enemies. Well, the tribe of Judah surely
need this. They needed it. They wound up
to be the whole southern tribe, and enemies were always coming
against them, trying to overtake them and kill their kings. But
how much more did Jesus Christ need help from His enemies? Brother Larry has been teaching
us in a Sunday school class about the life of Christ, and one thing
we've seen from it, man, those Pharisees hounded Him all the
time, didn't they? about one thing or another. And
it started when he was born. And when he was born, the king
said, let's kill him. Had to take him down into Egypt
to protect his life. When he started in this ministry,
they began to hound him and sought ways that they might kill him.
And they never rest until the wicked hands got a hold of him
and crucified him. And they put him in the grave
and they said, man, we got rid of him. We got rid of him. Well, if God hadn't been on his
side. If God hadn't have helped him, they would have been rid
of him. But the funny thing is that God
has to have a sense of humor. He just has to have a sense of
humor. Because He said, all the kings, the kings of the earth,
they set themselves, the people, the rulers of the people, gathered
together against the Lord and against His Christ, but He that
sets in the heavens shall laugh. He laughed at them. And He said,
My son, come up here. and set you by My right hand,
until I make all your enemies your footstool." And God is helping
him today, isn't He? He raised him from the dead and
he ascended back to heaven, and then the world began to persecute
the church, his body. That's what Saul of Tarshish
was doing when Christ said, Why are you persecuting Me, Saul?
When you persecute God's people, when you do them wrong, you do
Him wrong, don't you? And they were enemies of the
cross. Isn't it sad and it's dangerous? It's bad enough for
this world to be the enemy of the Creator. But I tell you,
it's dangerous to be the enemy of the Creator and Redeemer and
the only hope of poor lost sinners. And that's what this world is.
But I'm telling you, brothers and sisters, you and I know for
a fact, we've read the end of the book, the enemies of the
Lord shall not prevail. There's even coming a day that
God is so bold that He's going to bring them up to heaven. And
they're all going to have to face Him and give Him an account
why they did not surrender themselves to His Son. And the Lord Himself
is going to say, bring my enemies here. them that would not, that
I should reign over them and slay them here in My presence,
before My feet, at My throne. A man cannot live and die as
the enemy of God and prevail, can he? Aren't you glad that
you're not his enemy anymore? Aren't you glad that he's reconciled
you and made you his friend? He's going to deal with you as
a father and sometime put the rod on your back, but he's going
to be your father. or He's going to be the worst
enemy you ever faced in your life. And I am so thankful that
He broke me down and brought me to where I willingly and lovingly
and graciously said, Lord Jesus, You're mine and I'm Yours. I threw up this white flag of
surrender. I pulled all of my rocks and
my weapons at His feet and said, I'm not fighting you anymore.
I'm not fighting you anymore." I'm telling you, that's what
a guy's going to have to do, is it not? Because God's going to help
his son against his enemies. Maybe we'll start there next
time because if you look in verse 8 and go on through at least
most of this chapter, the blessings talking about Levi, when you
look at that, it's Christ. Oh, it's such a blessing in it.
And when you see Benjamin and Joseph and all the blessings
that's pronounced upon them, and you realize, well, this is
Christ. This is the head and representative
of His people. Then it's such a blessing. Well...