Trinity
18
Deut
10:12-21
10/8/23
Brock
Purdy was “Mr. Irrelevant” in the 2022 NFL draft. This title is given each year to the last
person picked in the draft. Purdy held
this position after 261 other players were chosen ahead of him. As the final
pick he was anointed with this mocking title.
After
playing for Iowa State, Purdy was chosen last because he seemed to have only
marginal talent. Eight quarterbacks were
chosen before him during the course of the draft. The San Fransisco 49ers didn’t choose him
because they expected him to be a starter.
Instead, he was chosen as a project.
If he didn’t work out as a back up quarterback, there was nothing lost
because it was - after all - the last pick. The fact that he has become the
starter and had success defies everything about the way he entered into the
league.
In
the Book of Deuteronomy, God repeatedly reminds Israel that he did not choose
them because of their positive qualities.
They were the “last pick” as it were.
Despite unfaithfulness, God had continued to reveal his love for them. Now in our text he calls them to faithfulness
as his people. These words continue to
address us today as they call us to repent of our sin and to cling in faith to
Jesus Christ.
The
Book of Deuteronomy provides a series of addresses that Moses directed toward
Israel as they were about to enter the promised land. He recounts what had happened in the exodus
because half of the people had not even been born when it occurred. Israel had wandered in the wilderness for
forty years after their refusal to enter the land. The adults who had disobeyed
were now all dead. A new generation
needed to be taught and reminded about what Yahweh had done for Israel.
Israel
also needed to be reminded about what they had done. Just before our text, Moses has described
what happened in the golden calf incident.
While Moses was gone on Mt. Sinai receiving the tablets of the
testimony, the Israelites had Aaron make for them a false god – a golden
calf. When Moses found them worshipping
this golden calf he threw down the tablets and broke them. Then he had to intercede on behalf of Israel
in order to prompt Yahweh to relent from destroying the people.
Moses
begins our text by saying, “And now,
Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the
LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the
LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the
commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for
your good?” God called Israel to be
faithful as they entered into the land.
He urged them to fear, love and serve God. He exhorted them to keep his commandments.
Yahweh spoke to Israel as his people. And in our text, he reminds them that their
status was surprising. Moses said, “Behold, to
the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with
all that is in it.” All of creation
belonged to Yahweh. Moses added, “Yet the
LORD set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after
them, you above all peoples, as you are this day.”
God had chosen Israel, and this was a matter of grace. There was nothing about Israel would have justified
this choice. Earlier God had said, “It was not because you were more in
number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you,
for you were the fewest of all peoples.”
They were a small people who were slaves in Egypt with no power or
glory.
Yet God had brought them out of
Egypt. He had acted in the ten plagues –
culminating in the Passover. He had
brought Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground. He had entered into a covenant with them at
Mt. Sinai. As Moses said earlier, “For you
are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to
be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are
on the face of the earth.” God had acted in these mighty ways and so Moses says
in our text, “He is your praise. He is your God, who
has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen.”
Moses
had just reviewed Israel’s unfaithfulness when they worshipped the golden calf. So in our text he says, “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of
your heart, and be no longer stubborn.”
He called Israel to repent and turn from their sinful ways. They needed to do this because God is the
awesome and just judge. Moses says, “For
the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great,
the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.”
Moses’ words
continue to speak to us today. They do
because we are the spiritual descendants of Israel. They do because we are
really no different from Israel. Like
Israel we did not deserve God’s grace and calling. We were Gentiles who had no claim upon God’s
love. More than that, we were trapped in
our sinfulness. Paul told the Ephesians,
“And you were dead in the trespasses and
sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world,
following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at
work in the sons of disobedience-- among whom we all once lived
in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the
body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like
the rest of mankind.”
We did not
deserve God’s love. Yet in his grace he chose to include us in his people. He has acted in the great exodus event of the
New Testament. God did this when he gave
us forgiveness in his Son Jesus Christ.
God sent his Son into the world as he was conceived by the Holy Spirit
and born of the virgin Mary. By his death on the cross he as freed us from
sin. Paul told the Colossians, “He has
delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the
kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of
sins.” God freed Israel from the slavery
of Egypt, and now God has freed us from the slavery of sin.
By his death Jesus redeemed us from
sin. Then through his resurrection he
rescued us from death. Because Jesus
lives we know that eternal life is ours.
We know that though we die and our body is buried in the ground, yet on
the Last Day Jesus Christ will raise us from the dead. Jesus can never die
again, and therefore the resurrection life he will give us will never end.
You were not part of God’s people
Israel. But Jesus is the seed of Abraham
– he is the descendant of Abraham. Paul tells us, “For as many of you
as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is
neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no
male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are
Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.” Because of your baptism into Christ you are
now part of Israel. You are part of
God’s people.
And so we listen to our text as words
that are now addressed to us. God says,
“Circumcise therefore the foreskin
of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.”
He calls us to repent and confess our sin. We know our anger, jealousy, and pride. We ask God’s forgiveness for these things,
knowing that in Christ he does. By the
Spirit who has given us new life in baptism he leads us more and more to put to
death these things.
We hear in our text, “And now,
Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the
LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the
LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the
commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for
your good?” God urges us to do the same
as his people. We walk in the ways of
the Lord as we fear, love, and serve God.
We seek to keep God’s commands which he has given for our good.
God is the One who
created the world. He is the One who set
it up. He has ordered his creation, and
revealed this ordering to us. We know this from the Ten Commandments and the
explanation of them that Jesus and the apostles have given to us. These things are for our good.
So as those who are
in Christ, seek to live by them. The
Second Commandment teaches us that we are to call upon God’s name in every
trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.
Make prayer an important part of your day. Take time to pray for the needs of others as
well as your own. Lift up prayer on behalf of Christ’s church around the world,
and here at Good Shepherd.
The Third
Commandment teaches us that we are to hold God’s Word sacred and gladly hear
and learn it. So take time this week to
read God’s Word. God’s Spirit works
through the Word to strengthen us in faith.
This is food that we need. It is
good for us. God will bless you as you
read and study his Word.
As Gentile sinners
we had no claim upon God. We were enslaved in our sin. We were not God’s
people. But God has acted in the death
and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He has
redeemed us from sin. He has freed us
from the fear of death because Jesus is the risen Lord. He has called us by the Gospel to faith in
Christ.
Confident in God’s
saving action, we repent of our sin and turn to him for forgiveness. And now we
make it our goal to live in those ways that are true to God’s will. We find in the commandments God’s ordering
for a good life. As those who are in
Christ, we seek to walk in his ways.
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