Order in Worship and Service--Part 4

The purpose of Deuteronomy was to stir up the Israelites by way of remembrance. “Obedience,” which is the key word, is necessary for order in worship and service. This book is a review instead of a history. With the exception of Caleb and Joshua, the adults who left Egypt and received the law at Sinai had died. The new generation should have the law rehearsed and emphasized to them. Moses emphasized in Deuteronomy that God demanded obedience by His people. Out of gratitude for God’s amazing grace, mercy, and privilege, the Israelites should render obedience: “For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as is the LORD our God whenever we call on Him? Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today…. So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, that is, the ten commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone. And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might perform them in the land where you are going over to possess it” (Deut. 4:7, 8, 13, 14 NASB). “For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the LORD brought you out by a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His loving-kindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments; but repays those who hate Him to their faces, to destroy them; He will not delay with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face. Therefore, you shall keep the commandment and the statutes and the judgments which I am commanding you today, to do them” (Deut. 7:6-11 NASB).

There were two covenants—one at Sinai and the other at Moab: “THESE are the words of the covenant which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the sons of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which He had made with them at Horeb” (Deut. 29:1 NASB). The second law does not mean a mere repetition. Similarly, Peter wrote a second letter to Christians admonishing them to remember the words spoken by the prophets and the apostles: “THIS is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles” (II Pet. 3:1, 2 NASB).

Moses was on the border of going to heaven. The new generation was about to enter Canaan, and they would soon be under the leadership of Joshua. The minds of the new generation of Jews should be stirred. God wanted His people to enter Canaan with their affections on things above. This included self-judgment of all that had been displeasing to Him. Unbelief always hinders spiritual progress. Self-judgment revealed to the new generation of Jews that neither God’s choice of them and love for them nor the prospect of their entering Canaan governed their lives as much as they should have desired. As God had a message for Israel (Deut. 1:8, 21), He has a similar message for Christians (II Pet. 3:1-9).

God’s disciplinary ways with Israel belonged to their wilderness experience, but they had the Promised Land in view (Deut. 8:1-20). Everything that happened to the Israelites in their wilderness experience worked for their spiritual good at the conclusion. During a period of forty years God led, chastened, and educated His people. His purpose was to bring them to the place where they hungered and thirsted for righteousness. God’s people cannot endure all the knowledge about themselves at once. That means the saved elect in any age cannot dispense with a single word of Holy Scripture. Israel required forty years to be taught about themselves, and at least as much time is required to educate God’s people in any age (I Cor. 10:1-11).

God made no reference to the people’s ways of unbelief and murmurings in Deuteronomy 8. He had just informed them that they were His by eternal choice (Deut. 7:6-11). Election is the foundation of salvation. Therefore, anyone who avoids this subject disregards the foundation. This means the great majority of religionists in the world deny the first principle of man’s deliverance from sin. Without election there would be no salvation because election is God’s gracious choice (Rom. 11:5). God encourages His people of all ages to pursue a fruitful course that leads to a fruitful spiritual life.

In the opening verse of Deuteronomy 8, God issued a command that the Israelites were to carefully do in order to live, multiply, and possess the land God promised them. Keeping the commandment in order to live is not talking about position because they were already under the blood (Ex. 12:12, 13). It was to manifest their condition to themselves and then to others. The Israelites should “…remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not” (Deut. 8:2 NASB). David demonstrated he remembered the way the Lord led him when he prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way” (Ps. 139:23, 24 NASB).

The Israelites were called to “remember.” This exercise must not be confused with looking back at one’s service, age, achievement, or success. Self-retrospection and self-occupation are deathblows to fellowship. Anything that tends to bring self before the mind must be judged and refused. The things that Paul forgot were not the things that God had done for him, but the things that had no connection with Christ: “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:7-14 NASB).

Children of God should remember the Agent of their discipline—the Lord their God (Deut. 8:2). A Christian should never forget a single scene or circumstance in which his whole earthly career related to Divine sufficiency is made available by God’s grace and faithfulness. The Israelites should never forget the good influence of Moses, their God-chosen leader (Ex. 14). In the most trying circumstances of life, God’s people receive the best revelations of the love and power of God. When they remember God’s grace and faithfulness, they will, like Paul, boast in the Lord and not in themselves: “For I am the least of the apostles, who am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church [assembly] of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed” (I Cor. 15:9-11 NASB).

Memory, like all other faculties, may either help or hinder. It is indestructible because it will either bless the Christian or aggravate the misery of the unregenerate in the world to come. Knowledge and memory are equally important. Knowledge is nothing unless applied, and it cannot be applied unless it is remembered. Christians “must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it” (Heb. 2:1 NASB).

Circumstances of life are all Divinely ordered for the spiritual good of the elect. Their enemies keenly observe these circumstances into which God’s people are brought. This is when Satan tries to destroy their influence because he knows he cannot destroy God’s work of grace. The rebels Korah, Dathan, and Abiram tried to influence the Israelites (Num. 16). There were “two hundred and fifty leaders of the congregation, chosen in the assembly, men of renown” (Num. 16:2). Korah’s great sin was rebellion: “Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah” (Jude 11 NASB). This reminds Christians of Paul’s statements concerning enemies of the saints: “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears” (Acts 20:29-31 NASB). “Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions, and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting” (Rom. 16:17, 18 NASB).

The history of Christians proves that revolt usually comes from persons who have positions in the assembly. A certain amount of disaffection is in every assembly. Therefore, all that is needed is a leader to fan the secret spark into a flame. Usually leaders in rebellion get prominence by being bold enough to voice what is already in the minds of some.

Moses reminded the Israelites of their past sin of searching out the land that God had already searched out for them: “See, the LORD your God has placed the land before you; go up, take possession…. Then all of you approached me and said, Let us send men before us, that they may search out the land for us…” (Deut. 1:21, 22 NASB). The scheme of sending spies was the fruit of Israel’s unbelief. If they had been governed by faith, they would have obeyed. Unbelief reasons from difficulties to God, but faith reasons from God to difficulties. When things do not fall in line with the thinking of the flesh, many are prone to murmur against God because they do not follow His leadership. (See Num. 13; Deut. 1:19-46.)

Unbelief was the great hindrance in Israel’s not seeing the glory of God and for their failure to enter into the rest of progressive sanctification. What does faith want with spies? God knew all about the land and its difficulties. The request to search the land pleased Moses, and he chose twelve of their men, one from each tribe (Deut. 1:23). The twelve men are divided into ten and two. The difference between them reveals the heinousness of the flesh in God’s people:

There were ten men who failed to see God, but they saw giants affrightingly tall. There were two men looking to God, and they saw giants as grasshoppers small.

There were ten men who failed to see God, but they saw cities impregnably high. There were two men looking to God, and they saw doom for those cities draw nigh.

There were ten men who failed to see God, and they reported, “We are certain to fail.” There were two men looking to God, and they shouted, “With God we shall prevail.”

There were ten men who failed to see God, and they discouraged their fellow men. There were two men who perceived God everywhere. Are you of the two or the ten? (Unknown Puritan Author) (Study Num. 13-14; Deut. 1.)

Caleb, whose name means “wholehearted”, was one of the faithful spies. He represents the exercise of faith in contrast to unbelief of the flesh. The mind of the flesh is enmity against God, but the Spirit of Sonship preserves in God’s people the sense that He delights in them. Therefore, Caleb carried in his heart a strong faith through “the great and terrible wilderness” (Deut. 1:19). “But My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it” (Num. 14:24 NASB).

The name Joshua, the other faithful spy, means “Jehovah is salvation.” He points to Jehovah as God, the Deliverer of His people. Joshua was intent on being brought into everything that the love of God had provided for the Israelites. Every Israelite was privileged to recognize and give place in his pilgrimage to his spiritual leading. While everything for spiritual welfare belongs to God’s people, they have only that which they possess in their desire to receive a full reward.

Christians in every age are in danger of forgetting God’s former ways. Therefore, they are warned, “Beware [take heed to yourself] lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today” (Deut. 8:11 NASB). Forgetfulness is the greatest mark of ingratitude. Have Christians been betrayed into forgetfulness of God’s grace and love in the hour of trial? “Only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your sons and grandsons” (Deut. 4:9 NASB). The sin of neglect never seems so shameful as when Christians look at it beside God’s eternal love for them.