“8 Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 9 and so that you may live long in the land that the Lord swore to your forefathers to give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. 11 But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. 12 It is a land the Lord your God cares for; the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.”
Life is a made up of consequences. If you spend more money than you make, you will suffer the consequences. If you spend less money than you make, you will enjoy the consequences. You motivate yourself by discerning the consequences and fulfilling the conditions necessary to enjoy the consequences. You motivate yourself by considering what you will enjoy if you save more than you spend and what you will suffer if you spend more than you save.
The life of faith is no different. It is made up of consequences. There are consequences to be suffered and consequences to be enjoyed. You motivate yourself by discerning the consequences and fulfilling the conditions necessary to enjoy the consequences rather than suffer the consequences. Consider John 3:16, “God loved the world in this way: He gave His one and only Son that whosoever believes in him might not perish but have eternal life.” You want to enjoy the consequence of eternal life rather than suffer the consequence of perishing and therefore you fulfill the condition of believing in Jesus.
You motivate yourself by considering the consequences you will enjoy if you fulfill the condition. You motivate yourself to save by considering the consequences you will enjoy if you save. You consider the satisfaction of being responsible in saving up for retirement. You consider the joy of riding that motorcycle. You consider the places to which you could travel. You consider what your savings could buy you.
You motivate yourself in faith by considering what will be enjoyed if you are faithful. You consider the joy of hearing the words, “well done, good and faithful servant.” You consider the joy of the new creation of which this world, with all its genuine joys, is but a feeble counterpart. You motivate yourself by considering, with the apostle, that, ‘“no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has conceived,” what God has prepared for those who love Him.’ You motivate yourself by considering what you will enjoy if you are faithful.
Moses motivated Israel on the edge of the Promised Land in this manner. He motivated them by urging them to consider what they would enjoy if they were faithful. If you have been with us for this study, you know that we have been studying the book of Deuteronomy to see what life looks like on the edge of the Promised Land. We have seen the allegiance required to secure the promises of God. We’ve seen that this allegiance will make us peculiar in this world as Jesus is peculiar in this world. We’ve seen that for as good as these promises are, God is better. We’ve seen that none of us enjoy any of this because of anything in us but, rather, because of the grace of God. Now we focus on the specific promise of the land. We focus on the Promised Land. Enjoying land was a consequence and Israel was called to fulfill the conditions necessary to enjoy that consequence. There are similar consequences for you provided that the conditions are fulfilled.
There are consequences. Fulfill the conditions necessary to enjoy the consequences. That is the claim of this sermon: there are consequences. Fulfill the conditions necessary to enjoy the consequences.
We will study this in two points. First: the condition. Second: the consequence. First, we will see the condition in verse 8. Second, we see the consequence in verses 9-12.
First: the condition. To enjoy the consequence, you must meet the condition. To enjoy the fruit of your savings, you must save the money. The condition to enjoy the Promised Land was obedience. Verse 8, “Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”
It should be obvious that this condition was necessary because the generation prior to this one with whom Moses was speaking did not meet that condition and they died in the wilderness.
That generation did not observe the commands God gave them. They didn’t observe the commands because they did not have faith. The book of Hebrews describes which generation that died in the wilderness in this way, “the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed.” Faith expresses itself in obedience or as Paul put it, “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” as in, “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength and your neighbor as yourself.”
Moses told the people that they would not enter the Promised Land unless they had a faith that expresses itself in love/obedience and that is the only kind of faith.
The same goes for you. You will not enter the new creation unless you have a faith that expresses itself in love/obedience. Jesus was clear, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
That is not works based salvation. That is simply an acknowledgment that faith can’t help but express itself through obedience. Moses was on the same page as Jesus, “Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”
Now the consequence of the Promised Land or the new creation is encouragement for obedience. Sometimes obedience is difficult and when that is the case you need motivation. Moses motivated Israel by describing the glory of the Promised Land. Jesus motivates the church by describing the glory of the new creation. Listen to his words in Revelation, “The one who is victorious will be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels… Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown… To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on His throne.”
Jesus spoke of the glory knowing that he will acknowledge you before God, of the glory of a crown of victory, and even of the glory of sitting with him on his throne because he knows that we need such motivations to enter the new creation. We need to know what glory is waiting for us. Moses spoke of the glory of the Promised Land because the Israelites needed such motivations to continue in faithfulness. Jesus spoke of the glory of the new creation because we need such motivations to continue in faithfulness.
You need to live by hope. To persevere in obedience, you must keep your eyes fixed on the hope of the glorious consequences that come to those whose faith expresses itself in obedience. The word we’ve seen in Deuteronomy is also understood as ‘love’ – “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”
Scripture regularly records people motivating themselves by considering the glorious consequences of faith expressing itself as obedience. Paul told Timothy, “there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” “And the joy set before him [Jesus] endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Such people – including Jesus – lived by hope. You need to live by hope. You need to motivate yourself to fulfill the conditions by considering the joy of the consequence. Moses held forth the Promised Land before Israel in the wilderness. Christ holds before you the new creation.
Let’s consider this consequence. That is our second point: the consequence. Moses motivated Israel to observe God’s commands by describing what they would enjoy if they did obey just like you motivate yourself to save by considering what you will enjoy with your savings.
Moses described the consequences of life in the land. “Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, and so that you may live long in the land.”
Moses wanted Israel to picture the joy of life in the land. He did so because God wanted Israel to picture the joy of life in the land. God is into enjoying life. He gave the land to be enjoyed. ‘Enjoy the houses. Enjoy the vineyards. I give it to be enjoyed.’ God is more into the pleasures of this life than the most squalid hedonist who ever lived.
Think back to Eden. God created a whole world to be enjoyed. He made clear that everything was very good. He put only one object off limits. ‘You can enjoy 99.999% of all of this but avoid that tree because no good will come of it.’ God wasn’t obsessed with that tree. Adam and Eve were obsessed with that tree. They thought that God was denying them something good, when in reality He was forbidding that which would lead to death. God forbids that which leads to death because God is into enjoying life. He made life to be enjoyed, and so He warns you, as He warned Adam and Eve, that the wages of sin is death.
Moses motivated Israel to obey now by commending the joys of life in the future, “so that you may live long in the land that the Lord swore to your forefathers.” He wanted the people to consider the joys of life in the land so they would persevere in obedience necessary to enter the land.
Scripture paints vivid pictures of life in the new creation to urge us to persevere in the obedience necessary to enter that land. “The Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain He will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; He will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth. The Lord has spoken. In that day they will say, “Surely this is our God; we trusted in Him, and He saved us. This is the Lord, we trusted in Him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.” Take that as a motivation to enter that land.
Moses motivated Israel by telling them about the consequence of life in the land. He also described the consequence of abundance, or in other words “the land flowing with milk and honey.”
Israel was a nation of herdsmen and the Promised Land was a land that would flow with the milk of goats and sheep. The Promised Land was enviable for that type of agriculture. This land in northwest Iowa is enviable for certain types of agriculture. You farmers take pride in the fertility of this land. You are thankful that you are privileged to farm some of the best land in the world. As you look out at a field overflowing with corn, you have a sense of what Moses meant when he spoke of a land flowing with milk and honey. For you, abundance might look like a field full of corn. For the Israelites’ agriculture, it looked like a land flowing with the milk of sheep and goats.
Now this sounded too good to be true to some of the Israelites as they wandered in the wilderness for year upon year. Some of them didn’t believe they would ever see this land or that Moses was leading them anywhere. There was a rebellion. Its leaders asked Moses, “Isn’t it enough that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness? And now you also want to lord it over us! Moreover, you haven’t brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards.”
Those men doubted there was a Promised land.
There are some people who do the same today. They hear about the abundance of the new creation. They hear about this land into which the wealth of today’s nations will be brought to be enjoyed. They hear about it and they doubt. Like those rebels in Moses’ day, they think it is a fantasy.
If you find yourself among them this morning, consider Jesus. He came from the glory that we are awaiting. If you want proof of what is to come, listen to the one who has been there. Jesus said as much. He told one doubter, “I speak of what I know, and I testify to what I have seen, but still you people do not accept my testimony.”
Listen to Jesus describe the abundance. “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
Now that might sound too good to be true to you just like the land flowing with milk and honey sounded too good to some in the wilderness, but it is just as real as that land. Other historians speak of the land as Moses did. An Egyptian story from around this same time period spoke of the abundance of Canaan this way; “It was a wonderful land… There were cultivated figs in it and grapes, and more wine than water. Its honey was abundant, and its olive trees numerous. On its trees were all varieties of fruit. There were barley and emmer, and there was no end to all varieties of cattle.” Sometimes that which seems too good to be true is true. You need to ask yourself if the abundance of the new creation motivates you to express your faith in love/obedience today. That is the description of the man who will inherit the Kingdom.
Moses motivated Israel to obey God by showing the abundance of the land. He also motivated them to obey by speaking of water. Now, living in an agricultural area we know the importance of water. We know what it is too have too much water at once. We know what it is too have too little water. Israel knew as well. Moses explained the Promised Land in terms of water. Verse 10, “The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven.”
Moses wasn’t disparaging the fertility of the Egyptian land. He was simply explaining that it required irrigation. The Egyptians grew their crops by irrigating water from the Nile. The Promised Land would be different. It would be sufficiently watered by rain.
Moses was contrasting human techniques with the provision of God. Egyptian land was productive because of human ingenuity. The Promised Land would be productive because of God and God alone.
This water is just one relatively minor indication that the Promised Land was like Eden. Moses described the land saying, “the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. It is a land the Lord your God cares for; the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it.” Just as the Promised Land was watered not by irrigation but by God and God alone, the same was true of Eden. “Streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground,” as Genesis 2 put it.
There are any number of parallels between the Promised Land and Eden. The boundaries of the Promised Land at its height under Solomon correspond with the boundaries of Eden described in Genesis 2. The Promised Land was described in terms of fruitfulness, “a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey.” Eden was described in terms of trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. The Promised Land was described in terms of abundant minerals, “a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.” So was Eden; “the gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.”
Moses motivated Israel to love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, and strength and their neighbor as themselves by speaking of a future like that of Eden. The same is true for you. The book of Revelation describes the new creation in terms of Eden, “the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve Him. They will see His face.”
If Israel had a faith that expressed itself in love/obedience, which living faith always does, they would enter a land like Eden. If you have a faith that expresses itself in love/obedience, you will enter the new creation which is described in terms of Eden.
You have heard reason upon reason why this land is desirable. You have been given motivation upon motivation to enter this land. Moses knew such motvations would be needed and so he gave them. Jesus knew such motivations would be needed and so he gave them. “To the one who is victorious”, said Jesus, “I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.”
Moses put the Promised Land before Israel’s eyes. Jesus puts the new creation before your eyes. Keep putting it before your eyes. Put it before your eyes when the devil tempts you to submit to the entanglement of sin. Put it before your eyes when the world mocks your faith in ways gross and subtle. Put it before your eyes when your own flesh doubts there is any reason to be faithful. The consequence of the new creation outweighs any trial that obedience brings. The consequence of the new creation outweighs any trial that love for God and others brings. Live by the hope of the new creation. Live by that hope today which is the only day you can ever live. Amen.