Moses’ Farewell Speech and Obedience

We come to Chapter 4 today, our third sermon in this series, and I start with a story of a tourist who went to Vienna. He was there in Vienna and went to the graveyard. And there at the graveyard, he heard some music, and was trying to trace the source of that music. He traced it to a tomb where there is this headstone that says “Beethoven 1717 to 1827”. He listened a little bit more intently and realised that it was actually Beethoven Symphony No. 9 played backwards. Curious, he got his friend who is a musical expert. They both came to the tomb now, and this time the music has changed to Symphony No. 7 but played backwards. They were both bamboozled. They happened to see the caretaker of the graveyard, got him here and asked him, “What is this music about?” And this time, the music is now Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, and again, played backwards. They asked him, “Sir, what do you make of this music? Why is this music like this?” And the caretaker said to the two men, “Isn't this obvious? He is de-composing.”

Today, we learn from a man who is not dead, but very much alive. Moses, when he wrote Deuteronomy, or spoke the words in Deuteronomy, was 120 years old, still not dead, very much alive, and giving his farewell speech. So Moses is here giving a speech urging Israel to obey. Now we started his speech last week in Chapters 1 to 3, when Moses listed three significant events: the covenant, the collapse and the conquests. Telling Israel about God's love in the covenant, about Israel's folly in their unbelief and collapse, and about how God fights for them in the conquests over kings Sihon and Og. If those were the reminders, then Chapter 4 speaks of the persuasion–the persuasion for Israel to obey God. So today in Deuteronomy 4, we're going to look at the persuasions to faith and obedience. So let us turn to Chapter 4.

Let's see first of all, the call to faith and obedience. It starts right there in verse one. This is Moses commanding obedience to Israel, telling them it's a good thing for us to obey God. He says, “And now”. So this “now” links us back to the three events mentioned in Chapters 1 to 3–“because of all that God has done, Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you.” So this is preparatory. This is leading us to Chapters 5 to 26 which is a long segment detailing all the laws Israel is to keep. But listen up, because of all that God has done for us, not only to listen to them, but also to do them. So Moses is not interested just for education. He wants them to obey God's word, not just for information, but for transformation of life–“so that you may live and go in and take possession of the land”. So Moses is saying to this generation, “The enjoyment and the possession of the Promised Land is contingent on your obedience. If you obey, you will live and you will possess. And if you disobey, the converse will happen. You will not live and you will not possess.” And he tells them that you must make sure you obey all; it's a package deal. You cannot say, “I pick some to obey and I disobey the others.” You shall not add, you shall not take away. You shall not do any of this so that you may keep the commandments of the Lord. So he urges them to obey, because there will be consequences to obedience and disobedience.

The Story of Baal Peor and Its Lessons

And he now refers to a story that they are very familiar with, a scene in Numbers 25 when Israel worshiped other gods. This was the scene at Baal Peor where Israel married the Moabitess women and worshiped Baals. They offered their children as sacrifices to these false gods. And so Moses says, “You remember that time at Baal Peor, your eyes have seen what the Lord did. When you disobeyed God, when you sinned against Him, the Lord destroyed from among you all who followed Baal Peor. But for those who obey, those who hold fast to the Lord, they are alive today.” So God is obviously–or Moses is obviously–saying to Israel, “It's way better for you to obey, and it's terrible if you should not.” So he urges them again, “See, I've taught you the statutes and the rules as the Lord my God commanded me that you should do them.” He reminds them it's very important for you to obey, because when you keep them and do them, it will be your wisdom and understanding. And people all around the world, looking at the way you live your lives and hold on to these statutes, will say, “Wow, what a great nation this is, that is filled with a wise and understanding people.” Obviously, Moses is saying the law of God is so superior, so righteous, that people would instinctively know these are good laws from a good God: “For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us whenever we call upon Him. And what great nation is there that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?” It's a great thing to obey a good set of laws that God gives.

 Yesterday, I read about a toddler in Malaysia–Selangor, to be precise–who somehow was unguarded and walked out of his house, or straight out of his house, and tragically was attacked by dogs, stray dogs. He was ushered or ferried quite quickly to the hospital 30 minutes away. But tragically, this toddler was mauled to death by the stray dogs. And immediately I think about why God gives us His laws. They are meant for our protection. They are meant for our good. But there are people today who look down or despise God's laws, and they choose to live sinful lives. They say to themselves, “There's no point in remaining faithful to my spouse.” They say, “There's no reason why I should obey my parents.” They say, “There's no problem if I should be covetous, if I should lie, if I should cheat, it's okay to stray out of the boundaries, these restrictive walls of God's laws.” Only to find out ultimately they will be mauled to death by sin.

In Singapore, we face a crisis. You say, “What is the crisis?” It is a new crisis. It never existed in this form during the days I was growing up, but today, everybody, I think, if you check the news in these past few weeks, will be inundated with news and reports about vaping. I read that teenagers in Punggol behaved erratically after allegedly using drug-laced Kpods. Initially, when I read this, I say, “What? K Pop?” No, it's not K-pop. It's Kpods. These are vapes. And how someone even lost his child because of Kpod addiction. To people today, they will say, “Why does the government give such strict rules and laws and regulations?” We moan and groan. But I think if you ask any parent, he will say to you, it's a wonderful thing. It's a needful thing for us to have strict laws and enforcement against vaping. That is why the police would catch these peddlers of vapes, and so we appreciate the law because we know they are for our good. And the law of God is similar. Many people look at the law as a chain, but really they are guardrails. They are fences. Many people think that the law is something that is to be despised. The world often scoffs at God's ways, but His laws are not outdated rules, but timeless wisdom that saves and heals and sets people free. I think the older we get, the more we realise how wise God's laws really are.

 This is a painful world to live in where there are so many sins and heartbreaks. But I tell you, there's a place where there will be no more heartbreak, no more pain, no more sorrow. That's the new heaven and new earth. And I think in the new heaven and new earth, there will be no law-breakers. That's why it's going to be a perfect world. That's why it's going to be a place of perfect peace and joy, because it's going to be a place of perfect righteousness. And before that day, I think it is God's intent for His church today in this sinful world to be a people who will keep God's laws and show to the world what a wise and understanding people God's followers are. I think that's why in Romans, we are told, “The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” I think as God's people, we should be a people who appreciate God's laws. We look at it and say, “How beautiful is the Word of God.” It's a lamp. It's a light to our path. It guides us in a way everlasting. It's for our blessing and protection and for our flourishing. And Moses says all that to say, “Hey, Israel, obey God. It's going to be good for you. You will live and you will possess the land.”

Now, if Moses uses the carrot here in verses 1 to 8, he's going to switch to the stick in verses 9 to 28 because not only does he give a commendation about the law, he's going to give a caution about the law. He says, “Only take care and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget.” So I warn you, don't you forget God's laws. Now, this forgetting, I think, is not an intellectual forgetting. I think it's about a heart attitude, because he speaks about the soul and the heart. So this is not so much amnesia or dementia. This is about disregard. This is about a willful neglect of God's Word. So he warns Israel, “Don't you disregard. Don't you neglect God's word. Make sure you teach them to your children.” And then he refers them to another scene. So he gives this similar pattern–commends obedience and brings them to Baal Peor; he warns them, and now he gives another scene at Sinai or Horeb, synonymous terms for the same mountain.

The Mosaic Covenant and Its Conditions

I couldn't find a picture that conveys Sinai, because at that point of time when God met Moses and gave the Ten Commandments, Sinai was said to be a place where the fire rises to the heart of heavens. Sinai was to be a place of gloom and doom and dark clouds, where lightning flashes, because God is giving the law in a very somber and serious atmosphere. The ambience there is that of fear and terror, because God is holy, and any transgression against His law will be severely dealt with. Nevertheless, though I don't have that picture, I hope you can kind of feel it along as we read what Moses is saying. Moses says, “Remember your first generation, your fathers. They were all gathered at Horeb, at Sinai, and there, God said to me, ‘Gather the people to Me so that I may let them hear My words, so that they may learn to fear Me and also teach their children to do so.’ It's at Sinai where the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud and doom, and there you heard the sounds, the sound of words, but saw no form. There was only a voice.” So God spoke to our fathers, but never appeared in any form. It will be significant as we read along: “...and He declared to you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform.” That is the Ten Commandments. Now I want you to know this, because later on, it will come in useful. At Mount Sinai, God spoke God's laws to Israel and established a covenant with Israel. A covenant is an agreement. So God made an agreement with Israel at Mount Sinai, an agreement that says, “If you keep My commandments, if you keep My Ten Commandments, then I will be your God, and you will be My people.” So that's the deal. The deal is, “Obey Me and I'll be your God.” And Israel said, “All that the Lord told us, we will do.”

Now this covenant is called the Mosaic Covenant. Why? Because it's made during Moses’ time. Can? It's a Mosaic covenant which is predicated on obedience. So it's a conditional agreement. If you keep your end of the deal, if you obey Me, I will be your God. All right, so that's the deal God made. Now God says, or Moses says now to Israel, “Remember that deal that God made with our fathers? Watch yourselves very carefully. This is the thing that will trip you up.” It's almost like my teaching my son math or science. You know this question? Sure get wrong, one. This question they ask like this, sure test you in this, one. So please, please take note. Watch very carefully, hor! Double negative, ah! Means positive, hor! Okay, so watch yourselves very carefully, because this one sure come up, and I know you will get tricked. And indeed, this is the question that always trips Israel up: “Since you saw no form on that day, you did not see Me on Mount Sinai, I only spoke to you. Make sure Israel does not act corruptly by making a carved image. Don't you ever erect an idol as an object to replace Me for worship. Don't make any idol in the likeness of male and female. So no man, no woman, imagery for you to worship. Neither animals. Any animal, any bird, any creeping things, any fish, not even the planets, not sun, not moon, not stars. Because if you do, you will be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them and not worship Me. So this you must pay careful attention to. Don't get tripped up here.” But of course, as you know, the sad story is Israel tripped up. At the very same time Moses is up there in the Mount receiving these commandments, Israel is down there fashioning for themselves a golden calf and saying, “Oh, this is the god that led us out of Egypt.”

 Yesterday, I was taking a train to church, and a father was seated beside me, and he was talking to his son, a young boy, chatting, chatting. I also kay poh (Singlish for curious) lah, listen in a bit lah. I was doing my work, but of course, you are hearing something. And then he was saying, “Hey, don't be like this boy. Don't be like this boy.” I said, “What, what like this boy?” Of course, kay poh a bit lah, watch lah. And I know instinctively what he was saying already. Once I saw the picture, I know. Because he showed this video. Oh, everybody knows, right? These past few days, everybody talks about vaping, and everybody talks about this young boy who dashed across the road at Moulmein. And I think every parent would take this video and say, “Hey, don't be like this, ah. Don't be like this, ah. Don't be like this, ah.” And we want to warn our children, because what happened to this boy can happen to any of our children if they are not careful. And that's what Moses is trying to do, “Take care in case you neglect, you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, and make a carved image for yourself. Be careful. I warned you, because God is serious.” He is a consuming fire, a jealous God, which is going to be referred to later on in Hebrews 12, whereby the Hebrew author warns–it doesn't matter whether you are in church, what matters is whether you are in Christ. And if you are someone who sins deliberately, then God will judge you, even though you are in church, because it just shows that you were never in Christ. God will judge and that is the warning that Moses, in effect, is giving to Israel. God will judge you if you are to fall into sin, if you are to worship other gods.

The Prophetic Warning and Israel’s Future

And now his warning is going to take on a prophetic posture. It's going to predict what's going to happen for Israel. So it's really interesting because in verse 25: “...when you father children and children's children and have grown old in the land”–so years later–“and you act corruptly by making a carved image, by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord”–now this phrase is significant because it's going to be repeated some 60 over times by the author of the Book of Kings. It's almost as if the Kings author is constantly referring his readers to the fact that Moses had said all along, “Don't do this, but you are doing this over and over and over and over again, provoking God's wrath.” So Moses says, “Don't do this. Don't do evil.” But later on, from Judges all the way, they keep provoking God.

 “And when you do that, I will call heaven and earth to witness against you”–God keeps to His principle “where two or three witnesses, there you will be established” and so–“you will soon utterly perish from the land.” You will die. You will perish, but from the land. I think this is a picture, a language to describe the exodus, or the exile, from the Promised Land: “You will not enjoy the land. You will be pushed out of the land because you disobey Me. You will not live long in it, but you will be utterly destroyed, and the Lord will scatter you among the peoples.” And that's what happened to Israel, isn't it? Captured by the Assyrians, captured by the Babylonians, and they will be greatly decimated, because by the time they returned to Israel after 70 years, the numbers dipped from 600,000 fighting men during Moses’ time to just 50,000 men during Ezra’s time–“You will be left few, and in those days where you are scattered to the nations, you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands. You have enough of these gods. You want these gods? Let Me give them to you. Let you have your fill of these idols, since you love them so much. And in these 70 years, you will learn that these are unresponsive gods. They are useless gods who can't see, who can't hear, they can't eat. Even if you offer your offerings to them, they can't respond to you, but you have your fill.”

So what's happening here is that Moses in Chapter 4, in his last speech, is kind of like looking at a crystal ball to Israel's history: “I'm telling you what's going to happen to you guys. I'm going to die. I'm going to die in about 40 days’ time, but I'm going to tell you what's going to happen to you. You will enter the Promised Land, because God is good. You will defeat the Canaanites. You will bring down the walls of Jericho. You will possess the land for a while, but then you will turn to other gods. You worship all these false gods of Canaan and then, as I said, you will be exiled. You will be perishing from the land, and you will be decimated in great numbers.” So Moses gives a warning to Israel: “Don't you ever do this.” But you know the irony of it is, even though Moses repeats himself many times: verse 9–“don't you forget”; verse 15–“watch yourselves very carefully”; verse 23–“lest you forget”. Even though God or Moses repeats this many times, they still do it. It's almost as if they can't help themselves. Don't do it, don't do it, don't do it, but still do it. Sounds like my family and your family. Don't do this, don't do this. Still go and do it. You know what this tells? It tells us about humanity. God's laws are good, and God means business when He says, “Obey Me.” But even though we know it's good, even though we know we may be judged, we still do it. Why? Because there is no power in the flesh to fully obey God's laws.

The Law as a Mirror and a Guide

So let me explain to you this. The Law of God is good. The Law of God is not a bad thing, but the problem is that we are bad. The problem is that we are sinful, we are destroyed, we are corrupted, we are depraved, and we cannot obey the law. And that's why the New Testament tells us the law of God cannot save you. By the works of the law, by the law of Moses, no flesh will be justified. Not that the law is bad. The law is good. It comes from a good God, but we are bad. So maybe today you come to church hoping to hear about what commandments I have to keep in order to be saved. I'm telling you, there's nothing you can keep in order for you to be saved, because you can't. I can't. There's no one on planet Earth, throughout history, who can keep all the laws, and that is why you cannot save yourself by keeping the law.

 But there is One who has kept the law perfectly, and that One who kept the law perfectly is Jesus Christ, God's Son. And He kept the law perfectly, and He died on the cross not because He deserved death. He has no sin to deserve death with, but He died on the cross willingly for you. He racked up a whole credit of righteousness and is willing to grant to you that righteousness and take on your sin. So the law is good, but it cannot save. The only One who can save us is Jesus Christ. So today we look at the law not so much as a means or a manual for you to obey to get saved, but the law is used to be a mirror to show us how ugly we are, how rotten we are, how hopeless we are, so that we may go to the surgeon, the doctor, to heal us. The law is an X-ray machine. It cannot get rid of the cancer, but it can show you you’ve got cancer, that you may flee to the doctor, Jesus Christ, to save you from your sin. Israel and their history is a story of how they can never keep the law.

The Hope of Returning to God

But finally, I want to say that Moses gave a carrot. It's really good to keep the law. You will be a wise and understanding people. You will live and possess the land. Moses gave the stick, cautioning them that if you do not keep the law, you will die, you will perish, you will be exiled, you will be judged. But even though they will perish and be exiled, God will not give up on them. And this is the amazing third point in Chapter 4. It is God's comfort. It's amazing because there is this beautiful word, the word “but”–“You will rebel against Me. You will sin against Me. You'll be punished by Me. But it's not GG.” You all know what’s GG, right? It's not game over, it's good game, lah, but it means not game over. It's not game over for you folks, there's still hope, because from there, from there in your pain, in your suffering, you will seek the Lord your God. And this is the wonderful good news. This is the hope: you will find Him if you search after Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

 Now this is not new, because in Leviticus, you can refer to it, (chapter) 26, Moses had already said something similar, and Moses is going to repeat it in Deuteronomy 30. So in the beginning of his sermon in Deuteronomy, and at the end of the sermon in Deuteronomy, he's urging Israel by saying, “I know you guys are going to mess up. You're going to fail, but there remains hope for you as a people.” But most importantly, I think this verse is quoted again in Jeremiah 29. Jeremiah is a prophet who would write or speak to a people who would soon be exiled. They would soon be captured by the enemies, and Jeremiah is writing to them saying, “One day you will be captured. But don't lose heart, because one day you will seek God, and you will find God when you seek Him with all your heart.” So the Bible is a wonderful book of hope. Whilst we are yet alive, the good news is good news while you are yet alive. It becomes, I think, terrible news after you die, because it will be too late.

 “So when you are in tribulation and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God, and obey His voice.” I think this “latter days” is not even here yet. I think the Bible speaks of a future day where Israel will turn to God in great numbers and be saved in great numbers. So what Moses is sharing here is really long range. A prophecy that begins when they enter the Promised Land and a prophecy that will stretch all the way to near Jesus’ coming again.

 The Abrahamic Covenant and God’s Mercy

“For the Lord your God is a merciful God.” Wow, as I was praying this morning, God is not just just, if it’s just, then there's no hope for any one of us. We all will die for our sins. But the good news of the Bible is God is not only just, He is merciful. He is going to spare people from their sins. How? By being just to judge His own Son, and that is the only way you can be spared. This is a merciful God. He will not leave you Israel, or destroy you Israel, or forget the covenant with your fathers.

 You see, God made a few covenants. He made a few agreements. He did make an agreement with Noah, right? And He sealed that agreement with the rainbow, saying, “I will never flood the whole earth with waters again.” That's His deal. That's the agreement. But He also made a specific agreement, a covenant with the fathers of Israel. Who are the fathers of Israel? Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. So God said to Abraham, God made this promise to Abraham, “I will bless you. I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring.” By the way, God swore in Genesis 22. He really meant it. This is a covenant that He made also earlier in Genesis 15. Very interesting story where God called Abraham to cut animals into two halves, split them into two halves, so that there is a path to walk down. And then God waited till Abraham was asleep before He Himself typified in that burning furnace would alone walk down the aisle. You see, the ancient way of making a deal or covenant is both of us will hold hands and will walk down the aisle because we are saying, “If any one of us breaks the end of our deal, let our fate be like the animals.” But God is saying to Abraham, “You sleep. It's okay. It's not dependent on you, Abraham. You can go and have a nice nap. It is all dependent on me. And if I do not do what I promise, let My fate be like the animals.” So we learn that this covenant that God makes with Abraham is a unilateral sovereign covenant. It will not be broken, and it will be undertaken by God completely. It is not dependent on Abraham and his performance, because it's going to be dependent on the offspring of Abraham, who we know, based on Paul's writings in Galatians, to be Jesus Christ. In this one offspring, singular, in this one offspring, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. So what God is promising to Abraham is very simple: “Abraham, I will surely bless you and in you shall all nations be blessed. Why? Because from you will come Jesus Christ, who will die for the sins of those who believe upon Him. It is not going to be dependent on people and how they perform. It's going to be all dependent on My Son alone.” So even though, even though Israel broke the Mosaic covenant, which is a covenant that requires both parties, God will fulfill the Abrahamic covenant. You see that? So that generation, when they break it, they will not enter the blessings of God, but God will retain Israel, preserve Israel, because one day, there will be the Abrahamic Covenant fulfilled in great measure amongst the Jews. You and I today are not saved by the Mosaic Covenant. No one can. It's a covenant meant to teach us the hopelessness of the flesh. But we are all saved by the Abrahamic Covenant, the covenant God said, “In you and your son, Jesus Christ, your offspring, Jesus Christ, will all nations be blessed.” I'm glad Singaporeans can be blessed. Chinese can be blessed. Malaysians can be blessed. Filipinos can be blessed. Americans can be blessed. All nations can be blessed if we believe in Jesus Christ, who died and rose for our sins. The Law of God can't save you, but the Lord Jesus Christ can.

And maybe I should end just right here. Today, maybe you may say, “Oh, this is so cheem (Singlish for difficult to understand), so complicated this sermon.” Well, it's not that difficult. If you're a seeker, you're not a Christian, I want to tell you very simply, the good news of the Bible is not “keep all the laws and be saved”. That is not good news. That's bad news. That is slavery. That is hopeless slavery, because we can never do it. It's endless pain. But I want to tell you, Jesus died for you. This is the good news. He has already died. It's not do, do, do, do, do. It's done. Jesus paid it all. And if you repent of your sin and believe in Jesus, you will be saved.

 The Role of the Church in Obedience

And for all my brothers and sisters in Christ, if you today have already received that new heart, you have believed in Jesus, He has changed your heart. He has changed your life, I hope today, and I trust today, you will look at the Bible and say the laws are not burdensome. They are a delight. They are meant for my blessing. They are meant for my protection. They are meant for my flourishing. And if I obey them, it will be well for me. Now I don't obey them to be saved. I am saved by Jesus, but the law is good, and it is for my blessing here and now. Hope you will delight in the Lord. Hope you will appreciate the Bible, study the Word, and live in obedience to it, not just a hearer, but a doer. Then you will live, then you will possess the land, and there you will be known as a wise and understanding people. What a beautiful day it will be if Gospel Lighters obey God's word, live in a counter-cultural lifestyle and let the whole world sit up and say, “Wow, surely, there is no God like this who has such great and wonderful statutes and rules.” Israel failed, but may the church today not fail and shine as gospel lights with our lives.

 Closing Prayer and Encouragement

Let us bow for a word of prayer together. Father, we thank You today for Your Word. We thank You that Jesus paid it all and though our sins be many, His mercy is more. I pray for my friends today to repent and believe in Jesus that they might be saved. And then I pray for my brothers and sisters in Christ in the light of Your mercy, in the light of the majesty of the law of God, in the light of the witness that we have before the world. Oh, give us that heart and mind to regard Your laws, to live in obedience to Your laws, so that You may be glorified through us. Thank You. Today we sing of Your love, we sing of Your grace, we sing of Your mercy. May the love of God, may the goodness of God lead us to repentance today. We ask and pray all this in Jesus’ name. Am