This
Land is His Land
Deuteronomy 6: 10-25
The Great Covenant
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . Max
A Forsythe
Introduction:
I was born the first year assigned to my generation of war babies: 1946;
and I have been known along with that generation as the Baby Boomers – a
generation born so to speak with silver spoons in their mouths, a pampered,
spoiled and worldly group as ever trashed a civilization into a meaningless pop
culture. While my rural upbringing
lagged behind the permissiveness of the newly suburbanized culture, we were not
completely immune out in hickland to the new medium of television.
And while the Andy Griffin show honored the passing civilization – much
of the rest provided mental and social temptations never so widely available
except when most of us went off to college or the military to explore the
newfound freedoms being advocated in the songs and stories glamorized in the
media.
I am indeed thankful that I was
raised to honor the fifth commandment, which I discovered was the object of
hatred and shameless humor on the mind-expanding campuses of the time.
From my personal experience on four such campuses of “higher”
learning, I believe that when a truthful history of the sixties is finally
written, the fall of Western Civilization may well be noted to have begin with
the wholesale slander pitched against the precepts of that commandment and the
related political wisdom of not only our own founding fathers, but also the real
spiritual wisdom of the Reforming pastors who made that political landscape
possible. These honored concepts
were all swept away in the lemming like Lennonism’s of the worldly culture of
Aquarius. Even though very few understood what was being done at the
time, I did cringe at the dusking of civilization in the so-called “dawning
of the age of Aquarius”. The
trashing of the Creator’s ten principles did not stop with only the fifth, all
the rest fell out and have remained out of favor ever since.
The “music” of the sixties
still grates on my mind whenever I am subjected to it, with the exception of two
tunes. These Boots Were Made for
Walking was a pop favorite when I was in basic training for the Regular
Army, a song whose themes for those who majored in study hall, were not allowed
to be fulfilled in the steaming jungles of Southeast Asia.
The other song was a patriotic number that faded as fast as the
popularity of rescuing helpless villagers from communist domination.
That song was entitled This land is your land.
As you probably realized my taste in music was out of step with the
majority of my generation. You
didn’t hear too many of us say the words “Regular Army” with any hint of
pride in those days.
And yet, in their own way those
two worldly songs have serious flaws as do all militant jingoistic tunes have
when unlawful and unjustified wars rear their ugly heads. To be sure, music to the military is always a necessary
element to keep the troops in step. And
I would be the first to encourage the use of bagpipes to keep the enemy awake at
night, while at the same time lulling my own kin into a suitable battle rage
whereby they might better survive the conflict.
But, I digress from the intended purpose this morning.
I say all of this to demonstrate what a forlorn hope it is for mankind to
presume that their own children are easily civilized and pacified apart from the
foundation of God’s perfect and holy word!
The second song, This Land is
My Land is the song with which I would begin the discussion of the text
before us today. Everything else is
thematic only in the sense previously stated, background information to prove
the cultural failure not only of Americans but also of Hebrews to maintain a
godly nation worthy of the lands taken from others and given from the hand of
God to a new people – in the hope that they will better serve the Almighty
Creator of heaven and earth.
Old
Covenant Milieu:
Since the time of Abraham, his descendents had lived in anticipation of
having a place to call their own. About
a millennium had passed already, and only now were the descendents about to
cross over the Jordan and take by Divine force as well as promise the land which
was to be theirs so long as they were faithful to the Lord who gave it.
This land is His land to dispose
of we must be willing to learn and accept.
This was not the first time that a culture had gone to rot in the midst
of apparent luxury, and neither would it be the last. The history of Israel has been played out more than once
around the world. Even here in
America, we have forgotten to whom the land really and truly belongs, otherwise
we would not name it and claim it in the secular words of “This
land is my land, this land is your land...”
Now, I am firmly convinced that a
thorough capitalistic organization of land ownership contributes to land
improvements and fertility. Tribal
lands too often are overgrazed and turned to desert as we note in the former
Fertile Crescent, the former grasslands of the northern Sahara, the Mongolian
steppe and a once fertile river culture of the American Southwest.
However, there must be a cultural
understanding that farmers and herders only hold the land in stewardship from
the One who created it and maintains it for our benefit.
Unless that concept takes hold, exploitation becomes the name of the game
and the ability of land to sustain a population declines to a point where a
population is no longer sustainable.
But there is something more going
on here for the benefit of the Israelites.
The pleasant Promised Land is described in glowing terms. Dr Craigie tells us that there is a certain poetic quality
outlined here:
·
Great and good
cities,
Which you did not build;
·
And houses filled
with every good thing,
Which you did not fill;
·
And hewn cisterns,
Which you did not hew;
·
Vineyards and olive
trees,
Which you did not plant;
·
Then you shall eat
And you shall be satisfied.
The land in question here has a
ready-made character that is often lacking in rural areas. I know that I have certainly benefited over the years from a
barn that was built the hard way one hundred and fifty years ago!
And now that I have to replace it, my ability to continue farming is
being called into question! Of
course, many of you have had to purchase and fill houses and pay for the pipes
to provide water and take away waste. But
at least in the newer suburbs – you must plant your own trees and garden if
you wish.
But, just think if you could have
walked into such a situation without cost and labor.
And the property was a free material gift from the God of heaven.
Of course, the property given to Israel would need improvement.
Just as Chris had to paint over the heavenly pagan blue of her home’s
former owners, there would be necessary changes.
But at least the water supply was already laid in.
We had a sudden downpour this week at home and our well turned a little
brown from the storm, but the pump quickly cured the temporary problem.
I am glad that I didn’t have to dig down into the hill a new well by
hand!
And so the good news of their new
digs encourages the people well as they are being prepared to go in and possess
it. However, the following passage
takes a dramatic turn. “Then
beware, lest you forget the Lord ...”
Dr Craigie tells us “this would be the
danger facing the people when they settled in the land.
The preaching style here has effectively expressed the danger Moses was
concerned about. ... In the land, its very richness and goodness could lull the
people into an attitude of forgetfulness which would be disastrous.”
Dr Brown echoes the same
observation in these telling words: “When
they inhabit the land, the Israelites may quickly forget the generosity God has
constantly shown throughout some of their darkest years.
Careless forgetfulness is here introduced as a serious peril.
... The idea has already
appeared in different contexts in earlier chapters and it is presented here as a
renewed warning. The Israelites are
here told that in the highly materialistic culture of Canaan they will be in
danger of forgetting four crucial things – God’s gracious promise,
incomparable nature, generous gifts and mighty acts.”
Many years ago, I was given a
book entitled The Mighty Acts of God.
A liberal mentor, whose understanding of the history of Israel was weak
in those very areas that Moses would warn the people of Israel in our text
today, imposed the book upon me. How
little times have changed. In the
history of Israel, the land they could see while they still had it, their
heritage they could recite from memory, but the God who had given them both,
would be totally forgotten.
In all times, it is just as Dr
Brown observes: “Throughout
history, affluence has often led to spiritual indifference and moral
carelessness. In many parts of the
western world, people have only perishable assets. They have everything but the things which matter most.”
In addition to being warned
against forgetfulness, the people are also admonished to be in service to the
Lord their God. Verse thirteen very
carefully expounds the admonition of Moses:
“You shall fear the Lord your God and serve
Him, and shall take oaths in His name.”
Dr Brown even quotes Dr Craigie
to emphasize that the words for service and slavery in the Hebrew “are
derived from the same root and contrast vividly the old and the new masters of
Israel.” You see we must
call our attention back to the nature of the Great Covenant document.
This is a Suzerain agreement between the God of Israel and all of those
that He called out of Egypt to bring into the Promised Land. Just as the Pharaoh of Egypt had imposed his lawful suzerainty
upon them, so would the Redeemer God contract with them His covenantal law,
giving the blessings of that rule and demanding in return their rightful
obedience!
I still remember a stewardship
talk given by my first Clerk of Session at the Rushsylvania Church.
Rollo was a grand old man, who had been a member of the church for
seventy-five years. He lived long
and saved well from his many years of hard work.
Yet he was ever grateful for the kindnesses of the Lord.
In his little talk on stewardship one year he brought out that the
Creator had given us every good gift that we could see and experience all around
us. And all he asked in return was one day in seven for thankful
worship and one-tenth of our worldly wealth to build up His spiritual kingdom in
our presence. Where else, he said,
could anyone go to contract terms more fair and sensible?
All of this and heaven too, thrown into the bargain!
And so few of the population even remember to say thank you.
The only thing that we might add
to that is the common sense proposition at the end of our passage in Deuteronomy
to be certain to pass along our reverence and awe to our children and grand
children! Remember Him, serve Him
and tell the next generation about Him – these are the three points of our
text for ancient Israel. If they
could and would do that, He would give them a promised land.
And so apparently could we prosper spiritually if we comprehended our
better calling in Christ.
New
Covenant Continuum: That simple
summation well fits the immature faith expected of Israel in the Old Covenant
milieu. Vern Poythress contrasts
the situations and understandings of the two Covenant Churches.
“On the one hand the tabernacle, the law, and the land are given to
Israel during a time of immaturity or childhood, before Christ has come. Hence, they convey principles of salvation in an elementary
pictorial form. They can rightly be
described as temporary structures serving as guides only until Christ comes.
The law embodies ‘basic principles of the world’, elementary
teachings that Christians should have gone beyond.
The land was a concrete expression of God’s promise.
As such, it was only a pointer to ‘the city with foundations, whose
architect and builder is God.’ Taking
possession of the land did not constitute the final Sabbath rest, but was a
foretaste of it.”
So let us in the same spirit,
build on the Old Covenant foundation the New Covenant structure, both of which
pointed God’s people towards their heavenly home.
Briefly, we shall consider the implications of the tabernacle/temple, the
law and the land in their spiritual implications for administration under the
New Covenant of grace.
In Chapter Nine of Hebrews, there
is the telling title for verses six through eleven:
“Limitations of the Earthly Service”.
In that portion we learn that the temple “was
symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered
which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the
conscience – concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and
fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation.
But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the
greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this
creation ...”
It is good to teach the Old
Covenant lessons to our little children, because in a limited way, the Old
Covenant stories are picture stories of elementary lessons. Dr Poythress explains:
“The tabernacle is a kind of child’s picture book of elementary
teachings. God is holy.
You cannot approach Him. You
need a mediator and sacrifice. ... the tabernacle expresses truths in shadows,
i.e., elementary outward forms. Yet
the truths to which the shadows point are as deep as redemption itself.”
Only in the fullness of time was
Christ revealed, and only with some age and both spiritual and intellectual
understanding do our elementary minds mature to comprehend the good things given
to us through Jesus Christ. All of
those New Testament Churches, who teach only the good news of the Newer Covenant
because they believe that to be the simpler method, miss the point and value of
the Old Covenant which can better prepare young and immature hearts for the deep
things of Christ and Him crucified, risen and ascended.
Every once in a while I have told
students that their bodies were not amusement parks but temples.
Few there were who had a clue what I was speaking about because they had
no knowledge of the Old Covenant revelations.
Paul truthfully writes in his first letter to Corinth:
(1 Corinthians 3: 16)
“Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit
of God dwells in you? If anyone
defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him.
For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.”
Who could comprehend what my
little joke, or Paul’s more serious, explanation without some minimal
grounding in the temple worship of Israel?
The second symbolic reference
from the Old Covenant is the great theme of law, which we have spent much time
working through thus far. Again,
Paul in his letter to the Galatians: (Galatians
3: 19-24) “What purpose then
does the law serve? It was added
because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was
made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.
Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one.
Is the law then against the promises of God?
Certainly not! For it there
had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have
been by the law. But the Scripture
has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be
given to those who believe. But
before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which
would afterward be revealed. Therefore
the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by
faith.”
How much we need to comprehend
the ancient revelation of law to the Israelites and the history of their
ignorance and breaking that law. We
need to see them removed from the Promised Land and restored to understand the
seriousness with which the Lord or God takes the letter of His revealed law.
And yet, we must learn that God’s revelation is Christ transcends the
same law to its rightful purpose to bring us to His one and only Son!
Who truthfully understands their
need for Jesus Christ? The common
fellow who thinks it is neat that this crucified prophet should be imitated in
the goodness of His life, or the person who well understands the force of the
law, which condemns him to eternity in hell, but for the grace of God in Christ?
The Ten Commandments are not a
second thought of the Creator for humans intent on proving their holiness.
No indeed, they are His first thought designed to bring us all to our
knees before the only One, His Son Jesus Christ, who can cleanse us with the
holy righteousness of God Himself revealed in Christ.
Our third theme for the day is
the true spiritual nature of the Promised Land, which is only fully developed in
the New Testament. The wonderful
revelation given through the book of Hebrews is our guide for this idea.
As I grow older and appreciate the incredible spiritual depths of that
book, I am content in not knowing which Apostle or apostolic scribe to credit
this book to. The revelations are
so divine, that the author is better off nameless – because we can focus more
and more upon the words from God Himself.
(Hebrews 11: 8-10)
“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place
which he would receive as an inheritance. And
he went out, not knowing where he was going.
By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country,
dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise;
for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is
God.”
Here we see that Abraham had not
yet attained the full promise yet and that he like we must await the final
heavenly city to be built by God Himself for His own people.
(Hebrews 11: 13-16) “These
all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar
off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers
and pilgrims on the earth for those who say such things declare plainly that
they seek a homeland. And truly if
they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would
have had opportunity to return. But
now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country.
Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for He has prepared a
city for them.”
These verses continue the
emphasis on the future of the promised rest in His promised land. And land whose promise we can only fitfully appreciate on
those Sabbath rests where we truly feel His spirit and are spiritually refreshed
to consider where the Lord our God will take us to be with Him at the end of the
age.
Contemporary Application:
Finally, we must come to the end
of our survey, and I hope that you will not be surprised that we have come full
circle back to where we started in Deuteronomy.
Here the charge given to each of us:
(Hebrews 4: 11-13) “Let
us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the
same example of disobedience. For
the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and
is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked
and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”
Just as the ancient Hebrews were
charged to obey the commandments, regulations and ordinances of the Great
Covenant, so are we too prove our citizenship in Christ’s Kingdom of the
Spirit and so obey Him to give Him glory before the watching world. It is not often noted, but by the time of Christ, very many
of the nations in the Mediterranean basin fully expected some dramatic
occurrence within Israel and from the God of the Jews.
Even the fitful uneven witness of Israel had been sufficient to convince
the majority of thinking individuals that something great was happening and
going to happen because these people claimed to worship, adore and obey the only
true God who had spoken creation into being!
May the world learn and expect
the same thing from you – His people today!
Amen.
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