Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can learn a lot about the character of God through what He does. In this message titled, You Have Lacked Nothing, Pastor Rich unpacks Deuteronomy 2, shedding light on the narrative with biblical history. We can see God's necessary justice and His abundant goodness. This is part two of the message, first preached on April 21st, 2024.
And the time from our leave in Kadesh Barnea until we crossed the Brook Zered was 38 years until the entire generation, that is, the men of war, had perished from the camp. That's the people, that's the men who rebelled against God at Caj Barnea after the spies came back from the land. Yes, it's a beautiful land that God has given us, but we can't do this. Verse 15, for indeed the hand of the Lord was against them to destroy them from the camp until they had perished. They feared man more than they feared God.
Listen to me, folks. that is a form of rebellion. Full stop. To fear man more than we fear God is a form of rebellion and God takes that seriously. We see it in the text right before us.
And to rebel is to go down a path of self-destruction. Not only do you go down that path, but you take others with you. and if you do it long enough with enough stubbornness, God will second the motion and get out of the way of the destructive consequences of your choice. This gives us a taste of the brokenness of humanity. This is why man is in the condition that he is.
We have rebelled against God. And he says, you want to see what life is like without me, your creator, your sustainer. You want to see what it's like without me. I'm going to give you a taste of it. That's why humanity is so broken today.
But God is the redeemer and the reconciler. He is the one who will make all things new. And all of that comes through the person of Jesus Christ, who is the descendant of this people of Israel specifically.
So let's keep that in mind, which is why God is leading his people to the promised land. Because many years later, Messiah will be born. The one who will take away the sin of the world The one who will reconcile man to God The one who will make all things new Remember that hope that is in there, the hope of the gospel that is behind all of this story. We come then after Moses is talking to the people of Israel, the second generation now, ready to go into the promised land. He's giving them this history lesson.
And he says, there was a time of shock and awe. I'm borrowing that from Operation Desert Storm. How many of you remember Operation Desert Storm? I thought that was so awesome. Stormin' Norman.
Some of you millennials are looking at me like, what? You know, 1991. That was a long time ago. Yes. Shock and awe.
What they did is they just bombarded, right? With all kinds of artillery, weaponry, bombs, and everything like that, you know?
So shock and awe. Look with me at verse 16. Chapter 2, verse 16. As soon as all the men of war had perished and were dead from among the people. The Lord said to me, today you are to cross the border of Moab at Ar.
Now it's time to cross the borders. Time to move on.
Okay. We're moving back toward the promised land. He's still giving them this history lesson here.
Okay. Here's part of the history lesson. Verse 25, jump down to verse 25 with me. This day, I will begin to put the dread and fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you. That was true of the first generation.
That will also be true of this generation. Remember, these are God's people going into the land that God promised his people. Why? Because Messiah is coming. The one who will redeem humanity and make all things new.
Messiah is coming.
So keep that hope in mind. God is saying of his people in this verse right here, he says, these are, you are my people. You are instruments of my purpose that the people may know that I am the Lord, the living God, the creator.
So he says to the people of Israel. You are my chosen under the privilege of my power and my protection. This is what he's communicating to the people of Israel.
So let's not have another Kadesh Barnea, okay? That's what he's telling them. He says, if you look way down towards the end of the chapter, at the very end of verse 36, it says, the Lord our God gave all into our hands. As they went through the wilderness, God was protecting his people. Back at verse seven, you have lacked nothing.
You are my people. You are my chosen. You are under my protective care because I have a specific purpose for you Therefore you are the recipients of the privileges that I have for you Remember that So, going towards the land. Again, part of the history lesson. We see the terms of peace that are offered to some of the inhabitants of the land.
Verse 26.
So I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kidimoth to Sihon, the king of Heshbon, with words of peace, saying, let me pass through your land. I will go only by the road. I will turn aside neither to the right nor to the left. You shall sell me food for money that I may eat and give me water for money that I may drink. Only let me pass through on foot.
And then he continues to say, let me pass through. Listen, I will just simply walk through your land. We will buy food from you. We will buy water from you. Just like the people, the descendants of Esau did for us.
Just like the people, the descendants of Lot did for us. It's like Moses was saying, don't put on the coffee because we're not going to stay, right? It was like, remember when our kids were young and we would go into stores. And in stores, you have shelves. And on those shelves are breakable things.
We had a rule with our family. Kids, what do you do with your hands? And they go like this. This is a hands-in-your-pocket store. Because you buy it, you break it, you buy it, right?
Interestingly enough, when we were visiting in Brazil, I actually identified that statement in Portuguese in a little knick-knack store. It says, if you break it, you buy it. I said, man, I wish my kids could read that.
So anyway, what God is saying to the people of Israel, what God is saying, he was offering terms of peace to Sihon, okay?
So what does Sihon do? He says, just let us walk through the land. That's it. You can sell us food and water and we're just gonna walk through.
Now look at verse 30 with me. But Sihon, the king of Heshbon, would not let us pass by him. For the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate that he might give him into your hand as he is this day. As he is this day.
So an obstinate heart. That word, the obstinate, it means a self-willed heart that will not change. A self-willed heart that will not change.
Some of you have some of your kids' faces walking through your mind right now, don't you? Hard, the word hard means to struggle against.
So here's what's going on. God's people, God has a purpose. He's moving his people. And here is a king. He's a ruler of a land.
And he resistant he has a proud heart he says I not going to let these people through He has a proud heart He received an offer of peace from the people of God as a spokesman for God. And he says, no.
So he's pushing back. And what is a biblical principle? God does what to the proud? He resists the proud. He gives grace to the humble, but he resists the proud.
And what happens when a proud man feels that resistance? What does he do? He pushes back even harder. And he doesn't realize who he's pushing against. He does, but he doesn't realize the utter irrationality of pushing back against an infinite sovereign God.
He's pushing back. and the more God resists him, the more he pushes back. That's a hard heart. And eventually, he's overrun by the judgment of God. As it says down in verse 36, the Lord our God gave all into our hands.
so we see then that the destruction of the Amorites begins in verse 31 the Lord said to me behold I have begun to give Sihon and land over to you begin to take possession that you may occupy this land then Sihon came out against us he and all his people to battle at Jahaz and the Lord our God gave him over to us and we defeated him, his sons and all his people and captured all his cities at that time and devoted to destruction. Every city, men, women, and children, we left no survivors, only the livestock we took as spoil for ourselves with the plunder of the cities that we captured. The Lord, our God gave all into our hands. I want to spend the remainder of our time examining that statement devoted to destruction.
So remember, what is going on here? What is the plan that God has? What is the purpose that God has? What is the role of Israel in God's plan? Who is God and what is humanity?
And this idea, this word devoted to destruction, it's actually a Hebrew word, cherem, and we find it in probably an Old Testament story that we're much more familiar with in Joshua chapter seven.
Now this is later on, so I'm gonna appeal to history that hasn't happened yet to help us understand what's going on here. Joshua chapter seven. You remember the story of Achan? Go like this if you remember. You've been listening to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem.
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