Welcome to Delight in Grace. The Teaching Ministry of Rich Powell. Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. In Deuteronomy 33, Moses gives the people his final words before his death. These departing words are full of blessings and encouragement for the people of Israel.
Though Moses would not lead them into the promised land, the great warrior, protector, and provider, Jehovah God, had been their leader all along. and he would go before them. In this message, titled, Who is Like You, a People Saved by the Lord? Pastor Rich breaks Moses' blessings on the people into five categories. This is part two of a message first preached on February 2nd, 2025.
To hear other messages in this series, you can visit our podcast at www.delightinggrace.com. We can say the same thing of these four things. They are true about us. That we are loved. that we follow his leadership.
We follow in the steps of Christ because He is the one who takes us to the Father. And we have the law of Christ. Under the grace of God. And he is our Lord because he is our king. He is our sovereign.
All of that can be said of us. We are today the people of God. And these are the people through whom the Jews specifically were the people through whom Messiah would come, and as God blessed. Their father Abraham. All nations of the earth will be blessed through God.
your nation.
Now listen, that is also true of the church. As God's people, That's a big part of the significance of what it means that we are the chosen of God, that all nations of the earth will be blessed through whom? The church. Find me a nation. where there is not a church.
A few of them still exist today, people groups, and that's why Nate and Laura Clanch are going over to Papua New Guinea and seeking out a people group that does not have the Word of God in their language. They will learn that language. And from learning that language, they will translate the scriptures. And when they translate the scriptures, they will share the gospel. And through that, they will plant a church.
Through the church, through the people of God, all nations of the earth will be blessed. That is the role that God has for us. That's why when he left, he told his disciples, go into where? All the world and do what? Make disciples.
Followers of Jesus. That's the blessing that the church has upon the world.
Now, Moses is going to invoke a blessing upon the people of Israel, and he's going to do it tribe by tribe. Tribe by tribe. These blessings invoke two things. Speaking in generalities now, they invoke two things. Number one, they invoke the realities of the past.
For example, in verse 10, we see the, we read about the faithfulness of Levi. The faithfulness of Levi. And then in verse 16, we see the story of Joseph, and he calls, he refers to Joseph as prince among his brothers.
So he's referring to things that have happened in the past. And Levi and Joseph particularly get the longest blessings in this chapter. probably because of their faithfulness. Let me point out, I said all the tribes except for one, Simeon is not mentioned in this blessing, and that's largely because if you look at the Old Testament narrative, and Simeon was pretty much absorbed into the tribe of Judah. They did not have their own land.
They were just kind of. absorbed into that other tribe. But these blessings invoke not only realities of the past, but also projections for the future. Again, let me give you just a couple of examples. Look at verse 21.
The tribe of Gad. Gad, he said, blessed he who enlarges Gad. Gad crouches like a lion and tears the arm off of Scout. And he chose the best of the land for himself. They haven't even gone into the land yet, right?
But he writes this in past tense. He chose the best of the land for himself. God's transcendent perspective. And what did Gad choose for their land? If you look at the at the land of Israel, there's the Sea of Galilee.
All right, all of you went through the walk through the Bible. You remember this Sea of Galilee, Jordan River, Dead Sea, good. And so. Over here is the east. And they're going to cross from the east over into The promised land.
And Gad took all of the land right along the coast, right along the shores of the Jordan River. From the Galilee all the way down almost to the Dead Sea, that whole strip of land, the most fertile land in all of that area. Ged chose that. that was allotted to them.
Okay, and then he talks about Asher in verse 24. Let him dip his foot in oil. and Asher was known for its olive oil production. in future generations.
So again, these blessings invoke not only realities of the past. But projections for the future.
Now, as Moses is going to be pronouncing these blessings upon the people of Israel, there are two givens. I want you to miss this. Because they're true for us today as well. There are two givens. Number one.
You are the objects of God's loving concern. You are the objects of God's living concern. If we were to look back in chapter 32, like that we covered last week, particularly verses 10 to 14, we see God's gentle guidance. His gentle, loving providence for his people and guiding them. Through difficulty, through harm.
Right? As he says, later on through the prophet Zachariah, he who touches you touches the apple of my eye. It's like here God saying to somebody about his people, he says, You mess with my people. It's like pointing your finger in my eye. And I don't take that very kindly.
First John three sixteen, by this we know love. that He laid down His life for us.
Okay. We know God loves us. There is no question about it. We know God loves us. We are the objects of His loving concern.
As Paul wrote, whom he foreknew, he predestined.
So he's going to get us there. It's not up to us to make it there. We will arrive. According to his promise. First given in these blessings is that He says to the people of Israel, you are the objects of God's loving concern.
Here's the second giving. Given, I should say, the second one. Number two, God will take you through hard things. God will take you through hard things. This is not going to be a cakewalk.
But rich, God is with them. They just need to trust him. Yes. Doesn't mean it's a cakewalk. It's not a Sunday school picnic.
I don't know where those analogies came from, but you get what I mean, right? He speaks of in verse 7, verse 11, that God will contend for them. He will help against their adversaries. They're going to face adversaries. Jesus said the same thing to his disciples before He was Crucified and buried.
And resurrected and ascended, he told his disciples, this world will hate you. But don't take it personally. They hate you because they hate me first. Because everything that Jesus is and stands for is diametrically opposed to the self-preeminent. Living of those who don't know God.
Paul says to the Philippians in Philippians chapter one and verse twenty-nine. That to you it has been given, to you it has been granted not only to believe, but to suffer. No. For his sake. And in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 7, this verse has already been alluded to in Dwight's prayer this morning.
2 Corinthians 4, 7. We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. That should be actually verse 17, where God is preparing for us an actual weight of glory. A weight of glory. The sufferings of this present time, he says in Romans 8:18, are even worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us.
Let me just interject this now. This is a pastoral statement coming here. Mm-hmm. May God rescue us from thinking that faith should result in an easy life. There is a false theology that is built on that.
And it is heresy. And it has led many people. to stumble away from God. even in my own immediate family. Because God didn't follow up on what he promised.
May God rescue us from thinking that just because we follow Him in faith, that should result in an easy life. The two givens here this morning. Number one, you are the object of God's loving concern. And you have been from eternity. But the second given is God will take You found it.
Through. Hard things. Unpack that a little bit. God will take you through. God will take you.
Through. God will take you. Through. Not around. Not away from.
Food.
Okay. Hard things. No one is exempt from that.
So, there are five types of blessing. that Moses pronounced na on The people of Israel. with these two givens. And the first blessing, we just look at them in categories and look at some examples. The first blessing is the blessing of service.
The blessing of service. Rich, what are you talking about? Hear it again, the blessing of service. The Son of Man did not come to Be served. But to surf.
and to give his life a ransom for many. The blessing of service. And he says of Levi in verses 8 through 10 of Levi, he says, Bless his substance and accept the work of his hands. You've been listening to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. To hear this message and others, check out www.delightandgrace.com.
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