Will you please turn to the book of Deuteronomy? Deuteronomy Chapter 1, beginning with Verse 1 through Verse 5.
These are the words which Moses spake unto all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah over against Suph, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab.
It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir unto Kadesh-barnea.
And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that the Lord had given him in commandment unto them;
after he had smitten Sihon the king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who dwelt in Ashtaroth at Edrei.
Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law.
Chapter 6—excuse me—Chapter 6, Verse 4 through Verse 15.
Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord:
and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be upon thy heart;
and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand, and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes.
And thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thy house, and upon thy gates.
And it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land which He sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee, great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not,
and houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and cisterns hewn out, which thou hewedst not, vineyards and olive-trees, which thou plantedst not, and thou shalt eat and be full;
then beware lest thou forget the Lord, who brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God; and Him shalt thou serve, and shalt swear by His name.
Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples that are round about you;
for the Lord thy God in the midst of thee is a jealous God; lest the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee, and He destroy thee from off the face of the earth.
And then finally, Chapter 29, Verse 1.
These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which He made with them in Horeb.
Shall we pray?
Dear heavenly Father, how we praise and thank Thee that Thou hast given us Thy Word, and Thou hast given us Thy Spirit, that through the quickening of Thy Spirit, through the interpreting of Thy Spirit of the Word, that we may touch Thee, the living Word. So we just come today to offer this time to Thee and ask Thee to bless us, in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Deuteronomy is the fifth book of Moses. It is called Deuteronomy because the word in Greek means “second law,” or the second giving of the law, or the second edition of the law—of course, without amendment.
This is the summing up of all the four books that preceded it, and actually it pushes the whole thing to a higher level.
Deuteronomy tells us of the Word of God, as Genesis tells us of the will of God; Exodus, the work of God; Leviticus, the way of God; Numbers, the walk of God; and now we find in Deuteronomy the Word of God.
If you read Deuteronomy 1:5:
Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law.
God gave the law to the children of Israel at Mount Sinai. But here, you find, in the plain of Moab, Moses began to unfold—that is, to declare, to explain, to expound—this law.
So, in a sense, you will find Deuteronomy does not give us any new revelation. Deuteronomy is the repeating of the law given already by God at Mount Sinai. But there is a difference. At Mount Sinai, we find the law being given; but here, you find, the law is unfolded, explained, and expanded.
At Mount Sinai, God spoke directly to the people, and He spoke indirectly to the people through Moses. But here in Deuteronomy, you will find it was Moses who was speaking, but he was just repeating what God had spoken.
In a sense, we find Deuteronomy is not only repeating the law that was given before. Actually, in Deuteronomy, we find that it touches upon the spirit of the law—not only the letter of the law, but through the letter of the law, it goes into the spirit of it. And then, out of the spirit of the law, comes new application and new interpretation.
So there is no redundancy there. We find that it is not a new revelation, and yet it is new. It is just as inspired as when the law was first given.
Now, this principle of Deuteronomy is very important. What is this principle? This principle is the principle of repeating.
You know, it is a very important principle in the Scripture. We find in Job 33:14, it says:
For God speaketh once,
Yea twice, though man regardeth it not.
Then again, you will find in Psalm 62:11:
God hath spoken once;
Twice have I heard this,
That power belongeth unto God.
And if you go to the New Testament, you find in 2 Peter how Peter said what he wrote to them was nothing new; they knew already. But he was just writing to remind them. Before his departure, he was diligent and careful in reminding them of these things, that they might recall all these things afterwards.
Now, brothers and sisters, God speaks once and He speaks twice. Why is it so? Not because God needs such repetition; it is because of our hard hearing. You know, if God just speaks once, we may not hear it. And out of His love towards us, He condescends Himself to speak again, that we may hear what He wants us to hear. And we do thank God for this repetition.
At Mount Sinai, God Himself spoke. But here, you will find, in Deuteronomy, in the plain of Moab, it was Moses who was speaking.
Now, in a sense, you will find this is true with us today. The principle is this: God has spoken. How do we know? Because we have the Bible in our hands. What is the Word of God? What is the Bible? The Bible is: God has spoken.
God has spoken in the past to our fathers through the prophets, in parts and in divers manners, here and there. And now God has spoken in His Son fully and completely. God has spoken, and all that He has spoken is written down, is put down in the Word, in the Bible that we have.
But you know, as we read the Word of God, then the Spirit of God will speak again. He does not speak anything new. There is no new revelation outside of the Scripture. What is fixed is within the Scripture.
And yet when He speaks again, and when He speaks to you and to me, it gives a new meaning, a new application. It becomes living and becomes very real to our present day. And this is the principle of Deuteronomy.
We need to store the Word of God richly in our hearts, and then the Holy Spirit will take hold of these words, unfold them to us, explain them to us, expound them, and apply them. So we find, even though there is no new revelation outside of the Scripture, yet so far as we are concerned, it is so new, it is so living. Now, that is the principle of Deuteronomy.
This book of Deuteronomy is very, very important. Moses not only spoke these words to the children of Israel, but he wrote them down.
And if you read this book of Deuteronomy, you will find that later on, anyone that should ascend to the throne of the nation of Israel was commanded to copy that book by himself and to read it every day as long as he lived.
Secondly, you will find that it was commanded that after the children of Israel entered into the promised land, they were to write these words on great stones, plastered over.
And then thirdly, you will find it was commanded that every seventh year, at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles, this book must be read and explained to the people. So you see how important this book is.
Deuteronomy is quoted a number of times in the New Testament. Our Lord Jesus testified to the authenticity of Deuteronomy.
We remember the time when our Lord Jesus was tempted in the wilderness. He quoted Deuteronomy. He quoted from Deuteronomy 8 and from Deuteronomy 6.
And again, you will find in Matthew 22, when the Pharisee, the lawyer, tried to tempt Him, He quoted Deuteronomy 6 and said:
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the great commandment.
So our Lord Jesus quoted the early part of Deuteronomy. Then you will find Peter, in Acts 3, and Stephen, in Acts 7, both quoted the middle part of Deuteronomy, Chapter 18. And then you will find the Apostle Paul, in Romans 10, quoted the latter part of Deuteronomy, Chapter 30.
So here you find, in the New Testament, this book is quoted again and again to prove the authenticity of this book. And we do thank God that we have this book in our hands.
You know, in a sense, Moses had to do such a thing because when they arrived in the plain of Moab, it was a new generation.
The old generation that came out of Egypt all fell in the wilderness because of their unbelief and their rebellion. When God gave the law to the children of Israel, those grown men all died. Only those children remained there.
So some of them might have heard God speaking to them at Mount Sinai, but many of them were born in the wilderness, and they had never heard God speaking. So you find, having a new generation before them, there was a great need of repeating the law, of letting them know.
And actually, this new generation was in a better mood, in a better spirit, to receive the law.
You know, when the law was given, the people may have heard it, and yet they did not quite understand it. They did not quite see the significance of it.
But now, at the plain of Moab, with thirty-eight years of past experiences, they were in a better position to understand the law.
Hello, brothers and sisters, this is true with us today. We have the Word of God in our hands, but many of these words, we may read them and yet we do not quite understand them, or they do not make quite that deep impression upon us—not until we experience something.
You know, experience is very necessary to understanding. It helps us to understand what God has spoken. Without experience, you do not have any precedent to find, and therefore it is hard to understand. But when you have experiences behind you, then with those experiences you go back to the Word of God, and you find the Word of God is opened up.
And that is true with us today. It takes some experience for us to understand certain words of God.
Furthermore, you will find when the children of Israel were at Mount Sinai, they had just come out of Egypt. They had not seen Canaan yet. But now, at the plain of Moab, they were at the border of the promised land. In other words, they had Canaan in view.
And that enabled them to understand the law much better, because the law had much to do with the land. And brothers and sisters, I believe this is true with us today.
If we see the land, if we have the land in view, if we see the eternal purpose of God, if we see the ultimate destiny, then, brothers and sisters, it enables us to understand the Word in a much better way.
Oftentimes we read the Word of God and we do not understand. Why? Because we do not see the land. We do not see the ultimate purpose of God. When you see the ultimate purpose of God, then the whole Bible is opened up.
So you find that this new generation actually was in a much better position to understand the law, because the law is in relation to the land.
Now, brothers and sisters, hopefully we are a new generation. I mentioned before that a new generation is not necessarily physical. We may be renewed by the Spirit of God, and thus become a new generation before God.
We may have the spirit of Caleb and Joshua—a believing spirit instead of an unbelieving spirit. And I do believe today we are in a much better position to understand the Word of God. We have some experience in the past that can shed light upon the Word of God, and we have the land in view.
Now, in the book of Deuteronomy, you will find the land is very much in view. You know, in Numbers, the wilderness is in view; they are in the wilderness. But in Deuteronomy, even though they have not yet gone into the land, everything is related to the land.
The law is given that they may be able to enter into the promised land and remain there. The land is very important.
Now, in this book of Deuteronomy, you will find three portions where the land is described. They had not been in the land yet, and yet the Holy Spirit describes the land to them in order to stir their hearts to be eager to enter into the land.
Now, these three places are in Deuteronomy 6:10:
And it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land which He sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee, great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not,
and houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and cisterns hewn out, which thou hewedst not, vineyards and olive-trees, which thou plantedst not, and thou shalt eat and be full.
Now, that is the first description. The second description is in Deuteronomy 8:7-9:
For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths, springing forth in valleys and hills;
a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig-trees and pomegranates; a land of olive-trees and honey;
a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig copper.
And the third description is found in Deuteronomy 11:10-15:
For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs;
but the land, whither ye go over to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven,
a land which the Lord thy God careth for: the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.
And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto My commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul,
that I will give the rain of your land in its season, the former rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy grain, and thy new wine, and thine oil.
And I will give grass in thy fields for thy cattle, and thou shalt eat and be full.
So you will find that this land that God promised to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob is a very good land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey. It is a land of plenty, of abundance. It is a land where everything is already prepared: cities already built, houses already filled with good things, wells already dug, vineyards and olive-yards already planted.
It is a land full of water brooks, streams, and springs. It is a land with copper and iron. It is a land with grain, wheat, barley, pomegranates, figs, olives, and all these good things. And it is a land upon which the eyes of the Lord are constantly fixed, with early rain and latter rain.
In other words, it is a land of such abundance that they can enjoy it and be full. Now, that is the land. Who does not want it?
Brothers and sisters, what is our land? We have a land that God has promised to us. It is even better than the land of Canaan—much better.
We have a land where everything is prepared for us. We do not need to dig the wells. We do not need to build the house. We do not need to plant the vineyard. God has done it all for us.
We have a land that is full of water of all kinds. We have a land that is plentiful, a land upon which the eyes of God are constantly fixed. And of course, we know who that land is: our Lord Jesus.
You know, our Lord Jesus is that land. In Him God has provided everything for us.
For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,
and in Him ye are made full.
It is as if God said, “Now, you do not need to do anything. I have done it all. I have prepared everything for you in Christ Jesus.”
And there you find every expression, every activity of the Holy Spirit. Whether it is like the water brooks—quiet, that you may drink and rest—or whether it is like a spring, springing forth water, or all the rivers, everything is there. All the activities of the Holy Spirit are in Christ Jesus.
And you find our Lord Jesus is not only our food, all kinds of food to meet all kinds of need, but He is also our strength, our iron and our copper. And surely the eyes of God are upon our Lord.
And if we love Him, if we serve Him, then we will have no lack of any kind, and we shall be full. In other words, the fullness of life.
What is the church? The church is the Body of Christ, the fullness of Him who filleth all in all.
How good is our land! Brothers and sisters, are we anxious to get in? Are we anxious to explore? Are we anxious to enjoy everything that is in Christ?
Thank God, we are in Christ. We are in the land.
But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.
How we need to treasure our land, our Lord Jesus.
Now, this book of Deuteronomy contains all the words spoken by Moses on the plain of Moab, by the side of the River Jordan. The time covered by this book is approximately two months.
Because if you compare Deuteronomy 1:3 with Joshua 4:19, then you will find that it is approximately two months’ time. So within these two months, you find Moses expounded and unfolded the law, the Word, to the children of Israel—to that new generation.
The whole book of Deuteronomy is very easily divided into three parts, according to the three discourses that Moses gave to the children of Israel.
From Chapter 1 to Chapter 4 is the first discourse. It is historical. In other words, here you find Moses went back through past history. He began with Mount Sinai, and he went over with the children of Israel through the wilderness until the time they came to the plain of Moab.
Now, this historical review is very, very important. Why? Because it gave the people a right attitude. You know, it is important to remember.
So, in other words, the emphasis in the first discourse is to remember, to recall. Moses helped the children of Israel to recall what had gone before, lest they forget. He reminded them.
He reminded them that they were not a great people. They were not a good people. Actually, they were a stiff-necked and rebellious people.
And the reason why God delivered them out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and God brought them through the wilderness and dispossessed their enemies to give them their possession, was not because of their greatness, not because of their power.
Actually, they were the smallest, the weakest. Their enemies were much mightier and more powerful than they were, greater than they were. But the reason why they were now at the plain of Moab, waiting to enter into the promised land, was not because of what they were. It was because of the love of God.
Moses said, “Because God loved you, therefore He did all these things for you. Now remember this. You are an unfaithful people. You rebelled against God again and again. You have no right. But it is the love of God, it is the faithfulness of God, that brings you to this point.”
And he wanted the children of Israel to remember this, to recall it. You know, this would humble them. This would prepare their hearts to receive the Word of God with readiness.
In a sense, brothers and sisters, this is true with us today. We need to remember.
We need to remember that today we are what we are, not because of our greatness. It is not because of our goodness. As a matter of fact, we are a stiff-necked and rebellious people. We have been unfaithful all along.
But thank God, He loved us. He loves us not because we are lovable. We are not.
As a matter of fact, our enemies are greater and mightier than we are. And yet God, in His love towards us, has delivered us out of the world. He has dispossessed our enemies, and He has given us the land—everything that we need.
Brothers and sisters, we are full. But beware lest we are full and forget.
You know, the children of Israel, unfortunately, when they were filled, they forgot. They forgot God. They began to go their own ways, as if they got all these things by themselves. And they departed from God. They began even to worship false gods, and the result was that God’s discipline came upon them.
So, brothers and sisters, we feel Deuteronomy is very important to us, even in this historical part. How we need the Holy Spirit to remind us again and again of the love of God in Christ Jesus, that we are what we are today by the grace of God. And this shall always humble us.
You know, the greatest danger with God’s people is when they are blessed by God, then they become proud. And unfortunately, you find this happens all the time.
When we are in affliction, we humble ourselves. But when we are in prosperity, we become arrogant. We think that we get everything because we are good; we are better than everybody else. And whenever that kind of pride enters into our heart, beware. The next step is a fall.
Pride goeth before destruction,
And a haughty spirit before a fall.
We need to recall the goodness of God. We need to remember our unfaithfulness, not to discourage us, but to humble us.
Humility is the spirit of the land. We need a spirit of humility, and only in the spirit of humility are we ready to receive, to hear, what God has to say to us—what the Spirit of God has to say to His church.
Then you find the second part of Deuteronomy, from Chapter 5 through Chapter 28. This is legislative. In these chapters, Moses repeated the law of God that was given at Mount Sinai, and he brought them into the spirit of it and applied it in a new way.
First, he repeated the Ten Commandments in Chapter 5. Then from Chapter 6 onward, he began to take up these Ten Commandments, sum them up into the commandment, and then began to break them up and apply them with new interpretation and new applications.
Now, this is what the middle part, the second part, of the book of Deuteronomy is.
In this part, we would like to emphasize two things.
Number one: you will find when Moses began to unfold the law to the children of Israel, again and again he said, “Hear, O Israel. Hear.”
Hearing is very, very important. The old generation heard, and yet they did not hear. Why? Because their heart was hard.
Now here is a new generation. So Moses said, “Now hear, O Israel. Hear what God is going to say to you.”
The Holy Spirit says:
To-day if ye shall hear His voice,
Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation,
Like as in the day of the trial in the wilderness.
In other words, you will find the reason why the old generation did not hear was not primarily because of their ears; it was because of their heart. You know, our heart and our ear are connected.
It is true, we use our ears to hear. But if your heart is not there, you may not hear it. And this is true.
If our heart is hardened, no matter how loud the Word may be, it may be like thunder, but you hear nothing. So the issue is the heart. You see, God always goes back to the heart.
If the heart is hardened, then your ear is filled with oil, with fat; you cannot hear. How we need a circumcised heart.
God promised the children of Israel that one day He would circumcise their heart. You know, our heart needs to be circumcised. What does it mean? It simply means that our natural, fleshly, selfish will needs to be taken away and crucified on the cross.
That our heart may be tender, soft, willing, ready, humble to hear what God has to say.
Our greatest problem is our heart. We need to have a circumcised heart. Oh, that the Lord will circumcise our heart! Take away the fat in our heart. Take away that which covers our heart. Take away the unbelief, the stubbornness, our own selfish will, our pride.
Take away that from our heart and make our heart tender and soft and willing and ready and humble to receive what God has to say. And when the heart is softened, then the ear hears.
The most important thing is to hear what God has to say.
And then secondly, you will find in this section Moses brought the children of Israel from the letter of the law to the spirit of it.
There he tells them:
Hear, O Israel: thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
The spirit of the law is love.
If you only see the letter of the law, it creates fear. But if you see the spirit of the law, then it creates love.
God wants us to love Him because He is love. He wants us to love Him with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all our strength.
In a sense, if we put it in New Testament terms, we may say He wants us to love Him with all our spirit, with all our soul, and with all our body. In other words, our whole being is to love Him.
And the reason why He gives the law is because He loves us. And if we love Him, then the law is no longer burdensome. So that is the secret.
And thank God, you will find that one day God said, “I will circumcise your heart and cause you to love Me.” God will do that.
And in a very real sense, God has already done it to us, because He has taken away from us that stony heart, and He has given us a heart of flesh.
He has given us a new covenant, and in that new covenant He has caused us to love Him. We love Him because He first loved us. So to us today, you will find that His commandments are no longer burdensome.
Just like our Lord Jesus when He was on earth, He said:
Lo, I am come to do Thy will, O God.
Thy law is within My heart.
It is the delight of my heart. I love to do it.
And then thirdly, the third part is from Chapter 29 through Chapter 34. Now that part is prophetic.
In that part, you will find the major point is the covenant—the covenant.
You know, God made a covenant with the new generation in the plain of Moab, by the side of the River Jordan. It was additional to the covenant made at Mount Sinai.
Now let us remember this. At Mount Sinai, God made a covenant with the children of Israel. It is the Sinaitic covenant; it is the covenant of law.
Now here, by the side of the plain of Moab, God made another covenant in addition to the covenant made at Mount Sinai. It is the Moabite covenant. It is a covenant of law and mercy.
The law is still there. It is repeated. But the people are now under the mercy of God. They have already shown their unfaithfulness. They have been disciplined, and the mercy of God has brought the new generation to the border of the promised land.
And by His mercy, He was going to bring them into the promised land, but on condition that they obey God. Obedience is the key.
So here you find God made another covenant with the children of Israel. It is a covenant of law and mercy. God demands obedience from the people, and if they obeyed, then they could enter into the land, possess it, and continue to live in it.
But if they should disobey, they would break the covenant of law and mercy. Then God would discipline them.
And yet, when you come to Chapter 30, you find God saying, “I will circumcise your heart. After I have scattered you all over the world, if you turn back to Me, I will circumcise your heart and cause you to love Me and to keep My Word.”
And He said, “My Word is not far from you. You do not need to go to heaven to bring it down, nor do you need to go to the bottom of the earth to bring it up. It is in your mouth, and it is in your heart.”
And we know this is a prophecy of the new covenant.
Even in the covenant of law and mercy, God had already promised them the covenant of grace. We find that in Jeremiah 31. God said one day, “I will make a new covenant with them.”
I will put My law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.
The new covenant. The seed of the new covenant is already planted.
You know, with the children of Israel, they are still under the Moabite covenant, the covenant of law and mercy. But today, with us, with the church of God, we are already in the new covenant.
Because on that night when our Lord Jesus took the cup, He said:
This cup is the new covenant in My blood: this do, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me.
So, brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus has taken that new covenant and brought it to the church. We today are under the new covenant of grace.
He has inscribed His law upon our hearts. He causes us to love Him, enables us to do His will, and He has forgiven and forgotten all our iniquity. Thank God for that.
For the children of Israel today, they are still under the Moabite covenant: law, and yet mercy; mercy, and yet law. But thank God, one day, when our Lord Jesus shall return, in the millennium the whole nation of Israel will enter into the covenant of grace that we experience today.
And then, of course, after the covenant was made, God told Moses to sing a song, to write a song, to testify against the children of Israel and also to testify of the faithfulness of God.
God knew what would happen. God knew us so well. He warned us, and yet He never gave us up. He still promised, “I will yet restore them.”
As God has planned, because God’s purpose never changes. Thank God for that.
And then following that is the blessing of Moses, Chapter 33. Moses, before he died, blessed the children of Israel. He blessed every tribe.
You know, Jacob, when he died, he blessed his sons too. But these two blessings are different. They are all prophetic, but they are different.
With Jacob, he blessed them as he saw what would happen to them at the end of days, to each of his sons. But with Moses, he blessed them as he saw the sovereign grace of God, the assignment and arrangement of God concerning these twelve tribes in the land.
What would happen to them in the land? They were there representing God’s chosen people, being a testimony to the greatness of God. Now, that is the blessing of Moses.
And thank God, the song warns us, but the blessing encourages us.
So today we thank God. We know that even though we are unfaithful, yet our God, He is so faithful. And whatever He has planned, He will bring it to pass.
Therefore, it behooves us to cooperate with Him and to obey. Now, brothers and sisters, today to obey is not hard. Why? Because we have the life of the obedient Son in us.
Now, it is true, for us all day it is difficult. It seems that within us—that is, in our flesh—there is always a rebellion there. We rebel against anything, everything, that is of God. Now, that is human nature.
But thank God, we have the life of the Son in us, and the life of the Son is a life of obedience.
Though He was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which He suffered;
and having been made perfect, He became unto all them that obey Him the author of eternal salvation.
So, brothers and sisters, thank God, we have the obedient life of the Son in us. And it is not hard for us to obey. If we love God, obedience is a pleasure, a delight.
And this is Deuteronomy. So Deuteronomy actually sums up all the four preceding books and pushes them to a higher level, that we may learn to hear Him, to love Him, and to obey Him, that we may enjoy the land.
Shall we pray?
Dear heavenly Father, we do praise and thank Thee that Thou hast not only promised us the good land, for Thou hast already given it to us, even Thy beloved Son.
We do praise and thank Thee that we are in Him, and He is in us. Lord, do enable us to hear Him, to love Him, and to obey Him, that we may remain in Him, that we may enjoy Him to the fullest.
And it is all to be a testimony to Thee and a glory to Thy name. Lord, we acknowledge that we are unfaithful, stiff-necked, rebellious; but Thou art faithful, loving, trustworthy, and good.
And what Thou hast purposed, Thou wilt perform it, to the glory of God. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.