[0:00] I think I'm on. I do turn your Bibles to don't they? So many of you have new teachers to look forward to tomorrow. Some of you are perhaps being new teachers or starting new courses. That's true, aren't they?
[0:38] Some folk are moving around the city with new jobs. It's a time of change, isn't it? I wonder, how do you react to change? Some people love it. Some people love a new challenge. Some people don't. I think I'm probably more in the latter category.
[0:51] As a church, it's a time of change, isn't it? As Paul's already mentioned, we are looking, God willing, to redevelop this building. It's a challenge in front of us. We're looking to plant a church in Brentford. Another challenge in front of us. Change.
[1:08] Well, however you think about change, whatever the changes and challenges in your life right now, spare a thought for the people of Israel. They have spent 40 years wandering around a desert, and now they're about to go into the promised land. Now that might sound good, except their camping trip was going to end with baffles.
[1:24] They had to go and fight to take possession of this land. Not only that, yes, they'd had lots of great promises from Moses in his great sermon in chapter 31. He'd held out a promise of life to them. And yet also in chapter 32, as he'd sung them a song to be their national anthem, he'd confronted them as a witness, that song, to their sinful nature, to their rebellious hearts.
[1:48] And as if to make matters worse, as we read Deuteronomy 33, as the children of Israel are gathered around Moses, they know he is not going with them into the promised land.
[1:59] This man who had led them all their lives was not going to be there. And if that wasn't a hard enough change, there was a reason he wasn't going to be there.
[2:10] It's there in verse 51, chapter 32. The Lord says to Moses, because you broke faith with me in the midst of the people of Israel at the waters of Medebar Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin, because you don't treat me as holy in the midst of the people of Israel.
[2:29] Moses would be a great example to him. He'd been the epitome of godliness and faithfulness. And yet even he had broken faith. If even Moses couldn't make it, then what hope did they have with their stubborn, rebellious hearts?
[2:44] And we don't have time tonight to go into all the details of what Moses had done. You can read it back in Numbers, chapter 20. Basically, the Lord had said to him, go speak to this rock and I will bring water out.
[2:55] But Moses had hit the rock twice with his stick, with his rod. He'd made himself the center of attention instead of the living God. He had ignored God's word instead of treating God as holy.
[3:05] And he'd even dishonored God by saying to the people, do we, do Aaron and I have to bring the water out instead of treating God as the holy one whose word was sufficient?
[3:19] So here are the people of Israel trembling in front of the challenge in front of them, no doubt worried about the fact that even Moses wasn't going to be there. Now, how do we, what things make us tremble?
[3:34] Is it the projects ahead of us as a church? Redevelopment or church planting? Is it the situations in our own lives? The challenges and change of a new job, a new teacher, a new school?
[3:45] The worries with health, problems with families? There are all sorts of things that can make us apprehensive about the future, aren't there? Or even just looking in our own hearts. Like the children of Israel thinking, our hearts aren't really up to this.
[3:59] I know the sin of which I'm capable. What hope is there? Well, that's why we need these words of Moses' blessing here in Deuteronomy 33.
[4:10] Look how he blesses the people. You see verse 1 of chapter 33. This is a blessing. This is the blessing which the Moses, the man of God, blessed the people of Israel before his death.
[4:21] Now, blessing is a very weak word in English, isn't it? It's how a blessing when someone sneezes. We see a little baby and the parents are like, oh, bless, isn't that cute? And that is almost entirely not what the word blessing means in the Bible.
[4:34] The word blessing is a powerful, effective word. It is God's goodness in action poured out. So think of the story in Genesis when Isaac went to bless his son and got Jacob instead of Esau.
[4:48] Esau. And that was not just a kind of a little thing. Esau wept and was inconsolable that he could not get that blessing. Because what was it? It was his father pronouncing God's goodness in action over his son Jacob as it happens.
[5:06] It's a powerful thing, not a trivial thing. And notice who it is who's giving this blessing. It's not a patriarch this time, but it's Moses, the man of God.
[5:16] As Paul mentioned this morning, that little phrase man of God is quite common in the Old Testament. And it almost always refers to a prophet. Particularly Elijah and Elisha later on in the Old Testament.
[5:28] So as Moses speaks here, he's not just an old man wishing well to the next generation. He is God's spokesman, God's prophet, speaking God's powerful, effective word.
[5:40] His goodness in action over his people. So we need to pay attention to it, don't we? And in conveying this to Israel, Moses, if you like, is making one big point.
[5:53] Say, how can you face the future? Well, this is how you can face the future. You can face the future because your covenant God is the source of all the blessing you need. So rejoice in him.
[6:04] If you want one verse to sum up the passage, look at chapter 33, verse 29, the last verse of the blessing. Happy are you, O Israel, who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the shield of your help and the sword of your triumph.
[6:23] Your enemies shall come falling to you and you shall tread upon their backs. See, this is, our covenant God is the source of all the blessings they need. And so there's rejoicing in him. Happy, O Israel, not fearful.
[6:36] Now how can they be happy instead of fearful? How can they rejoice? Well, in the song itself, in chapter 33, Moses gives us three pictures, if you like, of who and what our covenant God is.
[6:48] We use the language of covenants a lot in this church, don't we? If you're visiting, you won't know that, but I can tell you that now. We use that language a lot. It's Bible language. What does it actually mean? What does it mean that God is a covenant God?
[6:59] Well, we get three pictures in chapter 33, and in chapter 34 we see them in action for a fourth picture, if you like. Let's look at the first of those little pictures of what our covenant God is for us, in verses 1 to 5 of chapter 33.
[7:13] And here Moses is showing us, here's their majestic king, our majestic king. Look at verse 1. The Lord came from Sinai and dawned from Seir upon us.
[7:24] He shone forth from Mount Perrin. He came from ten thousands of holy ones with flaming fire at his right hand. It's a poetic description of what happened at Sinai when God entered into the covenant with Israel.
[7:37] And the thunder and the lightning and the mountains shaking. The Lord in his majesty appearing to the people and the brilliance of his light shining forth on them, bringing dawn.
[7:48] It was an utterly unforgettable experience. There's actually been a repeated experience throughout the wilderness wanderings. The Lord didn't just stay at Sinai. He dawned upon them and came with them.
[7:59] And as a majestic king in that splendor and majesty, he came with his army, the ten thousands of holy ones with flaming fire at his right hand. That is the angelic army.
[8:12] He is the Lord of hosts. He has the great army of heaven with him. In fact, that is picked up again in the New Testament. Paul in Galatians 3 and Stephen in Acts 7 talks about when God made the covenant, gave the law at Sinai.
[8:26] The angels were with him. The angels mediated the law. Now for the people of Israel facing battles ahead, what a reassurance. No, they're not on their own.
[8:37] But the mighty, majestic king with the whole army of heaven is there behind them. And notice he's not just a majestic king to be scared of. He's a king who loves them.
[8:48] Look at verse 3. Yes, he loved his people. All his holy ones were in his hand. You see the depths of his love? Holy ones in verse 2 refers to the angels.
[9:00] Holy ones in verse 3 refers to the people of Israel. His holy people, his treasured possession, those whom he held in the palm of his hands. You see, the reality of the Exodus, the reality of our redemption through the Lord Jesus is the love of God.
[9:18] A love based on his sovereign choice, not based on our goodness, our performance, our religious preferences, our niceness, or anything else. But on his sovereign choice.
[9:29] Do you see the depth of his love? He holds his people in the palm of his hand. Just the way you can hold a ring or a marble.
[9:40] I don't suppose marbles are very precious to any of us, but as easy as it is to hold it in the palm of our hand. If you've got something in your hand, it can't be snatched out, parent, not easily. Jesus uses exactly that picture in John 10, doesn't he?
[9:54] Of his people in his hand, in his father's hand. He says, none can snatch them out of my father's hand. That is his love, gripping his people, our covenant God.
[10:05] And that's our covenant God, majestic king. He's also a lawgiver. Yes, he loves us, he fights for his people, he also rules over us. And that is a good thing. See how Moses describes this law, verse 4.
[10:17] When Moses commanded us a law as a possession for the assembly of Jacob. And that word possession, almost every other time it's used in Deuteronomy. It refers to the land that they were going to possess.
[10:30] This special possession the Lord was giving them. But here it's not the land that is the possession. It is the law. The fatherly instruction. Law is, in some ways, not a perfect translation.
[10:43] It's a good translation, it has legal force. But the original language has a sense of a father's instruction. And that is a good thing to be given. As children, we often look to our fathers.
[10:56] As grown-ups, we look to our fathers for instruction, don't we? If we have a good father. And I'm always wanting my dad's advice on things. Well, here is a loving God who gives his people his good law that is good for them.
[11:12] He rules over them. It's good for us, isn't it? It's good to have God's law to direct us, God's instruction to teach us, to lead us and guide us.
[11:24] Where do people in the world around us look if they do not have God's law? They look anywhere, don't they? Have you ever looked to the magazines by the checkouts in Tesco's or Sainsbury's or wherever you shop or Lidl even, I guess, have them?
[11:40] People go there, don't they? The glossy magazines, the TV ads, the horoscopes, their favorite bloggers, all sorts of places. Yet God's people have their heavenly Father's instruction.
[11:51] He is a treasure. He is a possession. And so Moses is blessing his people is reminding them of all our covenant, majestic covenant King has done.
[12:02] And also reminding them of the right response. Verse 3, Yes, he loved his people, all his holy ones were in his hand, so they followed in your steps, receiving direction from you. Here is this great God who Paul said earlier on this who bowed down to.
[12:15] and worshipped and trusted and followed. Because he is our covenant, majestic, covenant King. Well, that's the first picture of how we can face the future.
[12:27] Because we have the Lord as our majestic covenant King. But not only that, verses 6 to 25, the blessing goes on. We see the Lord is our generous benefactor.
[12:38] And we need a generous benefactor, don't we? This building project is going to cost a lot of money. Paul told us that someone has kindly agreed to donate £400,000 before tax.
[12:49] That will go up. That's a generous benefactor, isn't it? We're thankful for that. We need it. It makes the building project seem a little bit easier. Well, Israel needed a generous benefactor as they looked to the promised land.
[13:01] And think about, I don't know if you watched the news on BBC in the last week, but I've had a number of special interviews with migrants fleeing from Syria and Africa coming to Europe.
[13:12] It's interesting hearing what those people want. Things are obvious, really, aren't they? Why are they coming? Well, they want security. They don't want to be blown apart in their homeland. They're not looking for a handout.
[13:24] They want productivity. They want to be fruitful. They want to work to have the security to be able to do that. They want liberty to be able to do that.
[13:36] And there's this longing for home, isn't there? They want somewhere to call home as Syria, for example, has been so decimated. In many ways, they're the longings of every human heart, aren't they?
[13:49] Yes, we long for liberty. We long for a sense of belonging. We long to be home. We long for fruitfulness, for productivity, for prosperity. Well, that's what Israel wanted. And they're exactly the things that Moses gives them in this blessing, that the Lord will give them.
[14:05] So security, for example. We're going to look at all these in detail. Security. Look at verse 7. He said this of Judah. Hear, O Lord, the voice of Judah, and bring him into his people.
[14:16] With your hands, contend for him, and be a help against his adversaries. That's security. Judah, with the tribe, would have marched out first, back in Numbers 2. And so the first blessing is for, well, the second blessing, the first extra blessing is for them.
[14:31] Security. We'll look down to verse 26, or verse 25, rather, for Asher. Your bars will be iron and bronze, as your days so shall your strength be.
[14:42] Security. And because of security, there is liberty. Look at verse 12. Benjamin. At Benjamin, he said, the beloved of the Lord dwells in safety. Security.
[14:54] The high God surrounds him all day and dwells between his shoulders. We visited some castles on holiday. And he stands out at the castle and he's got these high walls. How did anyone ever get across there?
[15:06] These high walls provided security. What great a wall could it be from the living God surrounding his people and indeed dwelling in the midst of them, dwelling between their shoulders.
[15:18] As we look at the news, we see brothers and sisters in Christ persecuted, suffering in terrible ways in Iraq and Iran and other countries.
[15:28] What hope is there? Well, this is the hope. That the covenant God is the one who provides security and liberty for his people. And that will be complete one day when Jesus returns.
[15:42] Not only security and liberty, but also victory. Look at verse 17. It's very graphic language here, isn't it? Verse 17. Speaking of the tribes of Joseph. A firstborn bull, he has majesty and his horns are the horns of a wild ox.
[15:57] With them he shall gore the people. It's all of them to the ends of the earth. There are the ten thousands of Ephraim. There are the thousands of Manasseh. It's a vivid and bloody image.
[16:08] But for people about to go to battle to get the promised land, it was a helpful image. Now, of course, for us today, we live much, much later on in the story. We do not execute God's judgment through violence.
[16:21] We further God's purposes. How? Through preaching the gospel. To some, that is a message of judgment. As it is heard and their hearts are hardened, it is judgment for them.
[16:33] Yet by God's grace, as that word is preached, as we do our part in God's mission, he will triumph and bring victory and the gospel will bring victory.
[16:45] So that is the promise of victory here. Not the slaying of our enemies, but the conquest of the gospel as the Lord will call his people home, call his people to himself. So security, victory, liberty.
[17:00] There is also productivity. For Israel, how are they going to ensure that land could be fruitful? The land they moved into. How would that be? The temptation for them, as we read in the rest of scripture, was as soon as they got into the promised land to try and ensure fertility and productivity would be to go and worship the fertility gods of the world around them and look for prosperity that way.
[17:26] That was a temptation. Look at verse 13. Moses seeks to cut that off at the pass. Of Joseph he said, blessed by the Lord be his land.
[17:36] In other words, the blessing won't come from Baal or Asherah. Our fruitfulness, our wealth doesn't come from our university degrees, our hard work, our independence.
[17:49] It comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. Don't you love the beautiful poetic description in the rest of verse 13? Blessed with the choicest gifts of heaven above and of the deep that crouches beneath, with the choicest fruits of the sun and the rich yield of the month.
[18:03] This all comes from the Lord God. Now the earth will not be this fruitful until Jesus returns and everything is made new. But the message for Israel is that their productivity, their fruitfulness, their prosperity would come from their God.
[18:20] They were not to worry. But our covenant God is not merely interested in giving us a happy life, giving us some security, giving us some prosperity. He's interested in giving us what we really need.
[18:31] The fullness of life we need. And that means a restored relationship with him, doesn't it? That's what we are made for. That's what we exist for. That is also part of what God is blessing his people with here.
[18:42] You see that if you go back to verses 8 to 10. Here the Lord blesses the tribe of Levi. And look at what the blessing is.
[18:53] The blessing is all about maintaining, enjoying, Israel enjoying their relationship with the living God. Enjoying this covenant relationship. The Lord wants them to remain faithful to their purposes and calling.
[19:06] And so this is the specific blessing of the tribe of Levi. Look at verse 10. They shall teach Jacob your rules and Israel your law. They shall put incense before you and whole burnt offerings on your altar.
[19:18] What was Levi's job? On the one hand, to teach the people God's law so they could know him and know his will. And secondly, to offer the sacrifices for the people so they could know God's word and enjoy God's forgiveness.
[19:33] This is the great blessing that they could enjoy being God's people. Enjoy his loving relationship. Enjoy his forgiveness as they needed. And unlike all the other blessings here, Moses actually gives a reason for it.
[19:45] A reason why Levi is getting blessed in this way. See that back there in verse 8. The second half of verse 8. Levi, whom you tested at Massa, with whom you quarreled at the waters of Meribah.
[19:57] That's Exodus 17, where the people had grumbled about a lack of water. He said of his father and mother, I regard them not. He disowned his brothers and ignored his children, for they observed your word and kept your covenant.
[20:10] And that refers to Exodus 32, the golden calf, when so many people were bowing down and worshipping the idol that had been made. And yet when Moses called them it was the tribe of Levi who left the rest of Israel and went forth and executed judgment for the Lord.
[20:27] So they were loyal to the living God rather than to their family or to their peers or to those around them. And that's the sort of loyalty that the Lord is worthy of, isn't it?
[20:40] As our majestic king and our generous benefactor. Where else can we turn for life? Where else can we turn for provision and security? This is the kind of loyalty that our Lord Jesus commands as well.
[20:54] So Luke 14, 26, it says, if anyone comes after me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters and yes, and even his own wife, he cannot be my disciple.
[21:07] Jesus can say that because he took up his cross for us. He's worthy of us taking up our cross for him. I don't know about you but we have a Tesco's club card if you go out shopping at Tesco's.
[21:20] And I get a bit jittery about buying things in Sainsbury's or somewhere else. And I've found this out on club card points. And we use club card points for lots of things like trips to castles on holiday. It's ridiculous, isn't it?
[21:33] We can be so loyal to our brands, to our supermarkets, to our coffee shops, whatever it is that's got you. Shouldn't we be loyal to this covenant God who is so loyal to us for one who gives us what we really need?
[21:50] Our generous benefactor and our majestic king. We see a third picture of what it means for the Lord to be our covenant God if we look on to verses 26 to 29.
[22:02] As Moses wraps up his song, he shows us that our Lord is the unrivaled God. See that verse 26? There is none like God who Jeshurun.
[22:13] Jeshurun is a kind of pet name for Israel. He used it back in verse 6. He uses it here. Verse 5 rather. He uses it here. There is none like God.
[22:24] Of course, that's absolutely the opposite of the way people think today, isn't it? God, if he exists, is just a nice thing to believe in. All gods are basically the same. No, says Moses.
[22:36] There is none like this God. When you go over the Jordan, Israel, when you are in this other land, when you see the Canaanites worshipping Baal, when you see them with your Asherah, remember, there is none like God.
[22:50] None like the God of the covenant. He is an unrivaled God. And we need to remember that too, don't we? In a world that will tell us at every opportunity that if there is a God, then all gods are basically the same.
[23:04] No, this is a real God who acts in space and time and history on behalf of his people. Moses shows us three particular ways he does this. First of all, he is our help.
[23:16] There is none like God of Jeshurun who rise through the heavens to your help, through the skies in his majesty. Have you ever had that experience of a car breaking down? I have several times.
[23:28] Our last car was a bit disastrous. But anyway, and what do you do? You get out your mobile phone, you phone the AA if you've got a membership or whatever it is. If you're not, then I guess you're even more stuff. And you wait, and you wait, and you hope they're going to come.
[23:39] And you get little messages saying, oh, we're delayed, it's going to be another half an hour. You think, I want to get home. Well, here's a God who's not like the AA. He doesn't get stuck in traffic or have other emergencies he needs to attend to.
[23:52] Rather, he rises through the heavens to your help, through the skies in his majesty. He's a God who is near to us when we call him. So what did the Lord Jesus say? His last words to his disciples in Matthew's gospel before he ascended, I am with you always to the very end of the age.
[24:12] He's a God who is near to us when we call on him. He is our help. He's also our home, the unrivaled God. Verse 27, the eternal God is your dwelling place.
[24:24] For a lifetime, these Israelites have been camping in the desert. They had no home. They were pilgrim people traveling. Yet here is the great truth that underlies all that. Actually, even in the desert, he was their eternal home.
[24:37] In the promised land, he will still be their home, not just the nice houses of the Canaanites that they will move into. I know many of us here, or some of us here, are not in our home lands, are you?
[24:49] You moved from other countries to be here. I lived abroad for a while myself a couple of times in life. There's a sense, isn't there, that when you're abroad, you know you're never quite home. When you're living in a country like this, it never quite feels home, possibly.
[25:02] But then when you go back to your own country, it doesn't quite feel home either. It's a really unsettling concept. But all of that points us to the reality where we are made to be home with God.
[25:15] He is our eternal home. And that's where the story ends, doesn't it? The new creation. And the dwelling of God is with man. And he will live with them. So he is our home.
[25:26] He is our home. And there's further reassurance. The second line of verse 27. What image does this put in your mind? The eternal God is your dwelling place and underneath are the everlasting arms.
[25:38] What picture does that bring to your mind? So the image it used to bring to my mind was the image of a father cratering a child. A child perhaps sleeping in a father's arms.
[25:49] Yeah, as I've thought about it this week, I've realised that's not the right picture. Because Israel were not going to be snuggling asleep in their father's arms. What were they going to be doing? They were going to be battling for the promised land. They were going to war.
[26:00] There was no great rest. So rather, I think this is more like the picture of of the young child trying to do some new adventure climbing further up the climbing frame.
[26:11] And the father is there poised underneath to keep them and to hold them. My regular experience with Zoe, he's cheerful. Those everlasting arms that will not drop, that will not fail, that will not miss, are there as God's people venture forth in his name to do his bidding.
[26:30] And we need those arms, don't we? As we battle against sin in our own lives, we need his everlasting arms underneath us.
[26:42] As we seek to live for Christ, the hostile culture, we need those everlasting arms underneath us. He is our help, he is our home. And he is our saviour.
[26:53] He is our saviour. Look at verse 29. Happy are you, O Israel, who is like you, a people saved by the Lord. Happy are you, O church.
[27:04] Who is like you? Who is like you? A people saved by the Lord. A people who do not need to stake their identity on their careers. A people who do not need to earn all the money they can to try and have fleeting pleasure in this world.
[27:21] A people whose identity is not set by our academic achievements. But a people who are saved by the Lord. The shield of your help and the sword of your triumph.
[27:33] In Christ you are saved. Christ who died and rose again. He has won the victory. Your enemies shall come falling to you. You shall tread upon their backs.
[27:44] The resurrection shows the battle is won. The battle is won. Jesus reigns.
[27:56] He is our saviour and our victor. In him we have victory over sin, the world, and the devil. In him we have victory over the sins that so often trip us up.
[28:10] In him our hearts are being made new. What can we be scared of? Knowing the Lord is our help, our home, and our saviour. In the prayer meeting on Wednesday night Paul asked us to share any verses that were encouraging to you.
[28:25] Now I confess at that point I didn't share this verse. Verse 29 of chapter 33 is the most encouraging verse I've read this week. As I think about us trying to plant a church in Brentford, as I think about the people moving into the luxury apartments which will cost you between one and a half and two and a half million pounds by the Blakey Bridge.
[28:45] Or as I think about the people who live at the top of the 26 storey council blocks. How in the world do we reach those people? How in the world do we do that?
[28:56] How in the world do we do that when there will be opposition? When our own sin can so easily trip us up? When my own sin can trip us up? What help is there?
[29:07] Well here's the hope isn't it? The Lord is the shield of our help and the sword of our triumph and that is the only hope we have. So we can rejoice rather than worry as we face the future because the Lord is our unrivaled God, our home, our help, our saviour.
[29:28] He's our majestic king and he's our generous benefactor. There's one other thing we need to see briefly in chapter 34 as we close off this great book. We've read Moses' final words.
[29:40] Now we need to see Moses departing stage of life so to speak. What do you make of it? Here's Moses who's led Israel faithfully for 40 years who's put up with their grumbling their strife and yet the Lord says you broke faith with me you did not keep me as holy you will not enter the promised land.
[30:00] What do you make of that? Is that God being a bit harsh do you think? After all what Moses did was hit a rock instead of speaking to it and back in Exodus 17 he was supposed to hit it which is Numbers 20 he was supposed to speak.
[30:14] Well rather than making us fear what chapter 34 shows us is that the Lord is our ultimate hope. That our hope is in him and not in any mere human not in any mere man who might lead us.
[30:28] He is our ultimate hope. How come? Well first of all look at verse 1 of chapter 34. Who is it who is showing Moses this land? Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo to the top of Pisgah which is opposite Jericho and the Lord showed him all the land.
[30:46] So the Lord is gracious to his people. Yes Moses didn't get into the promised land at this point but he did see it. That was the Lord's grace. The Lord is our hope our ultimate hope because he is gracious to his people.
[30:59] He is also our ultimate hope because he is faithful to his promises. Look at verse 4. The Lord said to him this is the land which I swore to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob I will give it to your offspring.
[31:12] Despite everything the Lord was keeping that promise because he is faithful to his promises. He does what he promises he will do. That is why he is our ultimate hope. But not only that he is completely committed to his purposes.
[31:28] We see that echoes of that here he echoes of that in verses 5 to 12. Verse 5 So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab according to the word of the Lord.
[31:41] But look that wasn't the end of the story. Verse 9 Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom for Moses laid his hands on him. The Lord had selected Joshua earlier on and equipped Joshua for his task.
[31:53] So Joshua was going to complete the work of leading the people into the promised land. But that's not all. Look down to verse 10. There has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses whom the Lord knew face to face.
[32:06] And yet back in chapter 18 Moses had promised that the Lord would raise up another prophet like him. So who is going to finish the work that God has started? Who is going to be the ultimate prophet who knows the Lord face to face like Moses did?
[32:23] Who is going to lead God's people into the ultimate promised land? Of course we turn to the pages of the New Testament don't we? We see that Jesus is the prophet like Moses.
[32:35] We see that Jesus is the true Joshua who takes his people not just a piece of real estate in Canaan but into the new creation. See God is so committed to his purposes he comes and finishes the job himself.
[32:49] He comes in the person of the Lord Jesus to do what no human or no mere man could ever do. So this is our hope for the future this is why our Lord is our ultimate hope.
[33:03] Not only is he gracious not only is he faithful but he's committed to his purposes he will finish what he has started. That's why Paul praying for the Philippians can say that he who has begun a good work in you will bring it to completion on the day of Christ.
[33:17] Isn't that our hope? None of us would make it on our own would we? Our hope is in this majestic loving king our generous benefactor our unrivaled God our ultimate hope.
[33:31] I used to go climbing with friends of mine and it was a crazy thing for me to do because I'm actually pretty scared of heights. So you're hanging on a rope halfway up some rock face in the lake district there are two really bad places to look.
[33:44] You look down and think I'm going to die that is a long way down. Or you can look up and just see the crag in front of you and think how in the world am I going to make it up there?
[33:57] And I eventually figured the best thing to do is not look down or just look up to what was right in front of my face but to look beyond that to my mate Billy who had got me attached to the rock and was going to make sure I was safe no matter what happened.
[34:10] And so then I knew I will make it up here I will not die I will not go down there I will be able to find a way up. Why? To look beyond the future to the one who holds the future.
[34:22] Our covenant God our majestic King our generous benefactor the unrivaled true God he is our ultimate hope so we can face the future rejoicing rather than fearing.
[34:35] Let's pray.