A TableLand

Deuteronomy 8: 1-20

The Great Covenant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Max A Forsythe

Introduction:  The thing that sticks out in my mind the most about the geography of Palestine is the uplands, the broken plateau of the appalachian type hill country where Israel contended in the time of Saul.  David of course captured the city of the Jebusites and thus made Jerusalem the focal point of his expanded kingdom.  Solomon, by virtue of the power of wealth and trade, dominated many more of the surrounding territories and almost a thousand years later, in the time of Christ, the remnant Philistines, Edomites and neighboring tribes were pretty much assimilated into the Jewish identity.

Equally noticeable from the history of Israel is the sad study of spiritual apostasy and a continued running after other gods.  No wonder, Moses admonishes the people in the stern tone of these warnings from the very Creator God of heaven and earth.  This land is His land; we noted a few short weeks ago, and all the cattle on a thousand hills and the wildlife in the bargain as well.  It is His creation to dole out to men, tribes and nations as He sees fit.  Just as the Lord God Almighty can whistle up a storm and allow it to humble puffed up men, so can He withhold the storm clouds and their water for some years on end, just as Joseph and Elijah well knew!

Nothing happens outside of His providential will, no not anything!  Now, let me not be the first to urge the basic caution in comprehending that doctrine of causality.  There are other powers in the universe, those who have rebelled against our God and King.  Satan, as he is known will do anything within the course of history that the Lord will let him get away with.  However, time in and time out, God providentially turns the work of Satan and his countless worldly minions into something other than what they meant to accomplish. 

There are also understandings of His will and purpose that we should also note in our day and time.  Jerry Falwell and others, my self included – have been castigated for suggesting that the destruction of our twin towers on Manhattan Island are justifiably to be understood as God’s righteous punishment upon the economic Babylon, “The Big Apple” – as it is called in imitation of the ancient glory of Rome.  Now, unlike Mr. Falwell – I do not blame that catastrophe upon the feminists, sodomites and atheistic sinners in this land.  No indeed, I would lay the basic sin at the false American religiosity which has prevailed since the twenties in this land of promise.  It was a religiosity that capitulated completely to worldly themes and ungodly habits and notions.

The basic problem with American churches in this century is that most denominations accommodated worldly views very early on in the hope of growing in strength and power and even being liked by our cultural opponents.  However, once we stopped disciplining our own people for adultery (both spiritual and material), the power of the church have dwindled to the point that far too much of what passes as Christianity is merely cultural conservatism.  The American Church has lost any sense of righteous imputed holiness as well as the practice thereof!  We like the ancient Israelites need to be reminded that our awesome and holy God will not be trifled with.  And even though He is patient, He will not overlook our consuming interests in sin forever.  The Soviet Union dissipated after only seventy years, our apparent rapid decline began in the decade after that of the Russian, so it is only natural that having judged the supreme Soviet and found it wanting in the late eighties and early nineties, so should the Lord pass His sovereign attention to the American enterprise in our day.

Old Covenant Milieu:   There is a popular quotation that has been ascribed to at least half a dozen worldly leaders, philosophers and scholars:  “Those who refuse to learn from history – repeat it!”   Now, that is not an exact quote, but it is close enough to what the God of heaven first mandated in His shepherding of Israel.  Our chapter today is divided according to that historical tidbit.  Verses one through five illustrate the lesson that the present generation learned at their father’s expense.  Verses six through ten admonish the people to not repeat the sad experience of their elders.  Then the pleasures of the Promised Land are highlighted in verses eleven through seventeen to be contrasted with the terrors of the desert wanderings.  Finally, the probable curse for ignoring the Lord of heaven and earth is pronounced in the last three verses.

Commentator Raymond Brown compares the desert wanderings with the possession of the land in these terms:  “In the wilderness they had been tested and tried, but during those dark days the best of them had held on to the promise of a happy future, a land overflowing with tokens of God’s unfailing generosity.  Life is not all ‘milk and honey’, however.  The Bible’s realism is one of its most arresting features.  It does not encourage the idea that all life is uninterrupted bliss.  It is frequently punctuated by change, and new experiences are not always congenial.” 

He goes on to outline the admonishments of the text:  “Once they possessed [the promised land], the prosperous Israelites would be in serious danger of forgetting the Lord’s

These themes are intertwined throughout these verses as God’s servant prepares the congregation for life in a new environment.”

One of my students asked me at the end of two years why I took an interest in her and teased her whenever she did something outrageous or rebellious.  I asked her if she would have paid attention if I had yelled at her and punished her?  “Of course not”, was her immediate reply.  So I explained that I had learned the hard way that discipleship and discipline are related words and concepts and that a generous dose of humor sometimes accomplished what discipline could not.

Of course, what I didn’t tell her was the fact that the administration of the school had decided that punishment was a word and concept that would never be laid at their feet if they could help it in the extreme!  Thus, for fifteen years of public service, I had to accomplish some viable form of correction that did not call down lighting, hail and storm from the ivory tower.  Humility became my careful focus ... however – even serious forms of humility are seen today as publicly dangerous to the self-esteem at any price crowd.  So I discovered a technique whereby I used play money (which could be used for various treats) to pay for hurting anyone’s feelings!  That way I could tell the truth that rambunctious children needed to hear, yet have a common exit point – if they remembered their precious self-esteem needed protecting!

Now, I am not saying that I learned that technique directly from the Scriptures, but in those habits of crowd control there was more often than not – the patience of Job at least – in imitation of the patience of God with those He is calling to Himself.  And, I have observed over the years that the Lord does often display a sense of humor when it comes to discipleship and discipline.  I still remember one young knave, who loved and left pregnant at least five young ladies.  Several years after I had almost forgotten him, I heard that a bolt of lightning had descended from an almost cloudless sky and struck him in the midst of a multiple keg party in a back yard in Franklin county!  I saw him after that, he lived – but I got the impression that not all of his body parts were as athletic as they once had been.  I also read that he became more serious after the fact.

Thank heaven – the Lord does not deal with us all in such a straightforward manner.  Thank Him that he is just as patient with us as He was with the people of Israel in the desert and in the land as well.  “Slow to anger” is a precious revelation from the word of God, but that does not limit our responsibility to grow and progress in sanctification and knowledge of Him who alone is holy.

New Covenant Continuum:  Of course, we have much more to go on than did the Old Covenant saints.  Well does the author of the book of Hebrews observe in the opening verses:  “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.”

The same author admonishes us in the opening verses of Chapter Twelve of the same:  “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”  In the following verses, that author too well notes the loving discipline of our Father God who would make of us people to call His own.

In those verses we can read the same correction, provision and commandments laid before the people of Israel so many many centuries ago.  Sadly, we have just finished a century, where more wickedness, spiritual pollution and downright destruction of human life flourished as never before in history!  The Nazis, the Stalinists and the followers of Chairman Mao Tse-tung murdered well over a hundred million persons to accomplish a temporary rule derived from the force of arms.  All but one of those systems has fallen and the third has had to reinvent itself in a more materialistic form to survive.  We may well note that the divine wisdom that nurtured, encouraged and also judged the people of Israel is still alive and well in our day and age.

The Triune God of heaven and earth will not be long mocked if we do not learn from the lessons of history.  His-story as I often call it, is the long process of providence at work in the lives and times of every people, clime and place.  If He would not remain complacent in the face of those who heard Him not face to face in the Old Covenant, neither will He forever be patient with us who know Him better in the very person of Jesus Christ.

Contemporary Application:   Therefore, in the same spirit as the author of Hebrews would encourage us, let us learn to obey the voice of the Lord as we prepare ourselves for eternity in the long promised heaven towards which the passing ages of time lead us closer and closer.  I do not know what the immediate future has in store for us, but I do know that every indicator of the economy must remind us that we are not finally, totally in control of all things – as we are used to thinking.

Perhaps it is time to examine ourselves as the people of God and admit that we and all peoples are creatures of sin and in need of the gift of salvation, which we cannot ever attain on our own recognizance.   Perhaps it is time for the Church of our Lord and Savior to stand up to the worldly who would rather have their self-esteem?  Humility is not only a good characteristic to enjoy, it is absolutely essential to fall down before the Sovereign Lord of the universe and humbly seek His forgiveness for the awful sins that stain this land, this America!  Would we sing to Him and ask His blessing, then let us approach Him in the manner He expects and even demands.

Israel stood before their TableLand of promise, we today gather around a different Table, the table of grace which was established through the loving mercy of our Father in heaven.  We as a nation have felt the heavy hand of His righteous indignation, even though it was the work of Satan’s agents.  But, let us come before the Lord and admit the failings of Christ’s own Church in our day and time.  Let us also lift up before Him the terrible crimes, which have become so humanly popular in our fair land.  Let us ask Him to cleanse our churches, our nation and us even as He wills – so that our lives, our offerings and our witness may once again be acceptable before His face.

But even as we humble ourselves and our institutions before His sovereign throne of mercy, let us not forget the great accomplishment of His Covenant of love, which covers our sin in and through Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Resources Used:   

Copyright (C) 2001                             Christ Covenant Reformed (Presbyterian Church in America)                                     

      30 September  2001                       Box 13926 - Columbus, Ohio 43213-8049

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