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What was God's question? God to take over from Lotus. And what role did the law play in? And most importantly, how does God speak to us today through it all? Reverend Daniel Sherge from Deuteronomy chapter 31.

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Once again, Church, uh very good morning to all of you. It's such a joy for us each Sunday to gather in his house in the church and to hear his word together. We are continuing the sermon series on the book of Deuteronomy, and I hope that we are still following through, right? We are coming towards the tail end. Right. So we are down to two more chapters. And yeah, it's good to for us to go through uh an old testament book because uh very seldom, uh, very rarely do we have time to look at uh the Bible. I believe in a lot of our daily uh living, uh going about our uh uh towards work and uh school and all it's very hard for us to really uh focus on reading a book of the Bible. So I thought it's good for us, you know, as to look at the book of Deuteronomy. So we are towards the closing uh chapters of the book of Deuteronomy, and um the focus of this chapter, Deuteronomy 31, uh 29 verses, uh, as Pastor Peter mentioned uh last week, uh the Old Testament is full of uh uh literary structure called the chiastic structure, in which uh in narratives, uh if you look closely, there's a kind of pattern that mirrors uh itself. So without going into too much detail, just want to share uh this slide with us. And there's also again a chiastic structure uh in the text itself, and at the heart of it uh is actually uh God's instruction to Moses and Joshua on the succession. After Moses dies, Joshua will be the one that takes over that will take over and lead the people of Israel into the promised land. So the heart and the focus centers around the transition uh between Moses and Joshua. So we see uh that being enveloped right at the beginning in the first eight verses, and towards the end, there's a mention of that, and sandwich between that. You look at B and B prime, the focus is actually the inner core is on the law, God's law, uh, and God's law to the people, and the call to obey and follow him. And right in the center is the church that God that Yahweh gave to Moses and Joshua. So we can frame the outline of Deuteronomy 31 in basically in three parts, so that we are able to better break down the text and understand this. So the three parts first is on presence. The focus in the burden of the word is on God's presence, God's continual presence with his people. Second, is the word law, God's law, that uh is also the the burden of the text, must be remembered and obeyed uh from generation to generation. And then thirdly, the need to couple God's presence with the law. It's not uh um mutually exclusive, both go together. You need the presence of God, and we need to walk in the law of God. So let's look at uh Deuteronomy 31, verses 1 to 8 together, just reading a couple of verses. So the narrative begins with this so Josh, so Moses continued to speak these words to all Israel, and he said to them, I am 120 years old today, I'm no longer able to go out and come in. The Lord has said to me, You shall not go over this Jordan. The Lord your God Himself will go over before you, he will destroy these nations before you so that you will dispose them. And Joshua will go over at your head as the Lord has spoken. And then verse 4 talks about how the Lord Himself uh delivered Israel but in the past by defeating some of the kings, uh Seahorn and Ork, the kings of the Amorites, then, and again, uh based on this historical review, how the Lord has led and delivered Israel of old. He doesn't change, he will continue in the next generation to be faithful and deliver his people. That's why verse 4 continues. Sorry, verse 5 continues with this, and the Lord will give them over to you, and you shall do to them according to the whole commandment that I've commanded you. Um, so this is uh God's law, God's instruction to the people. Let's read on in verse 6 Be strong and courageous, do not fear or be in dread of them. For it is the Lord your God who goes before you. He will not leave you nor forsake you. Then uh Moses summoned Joshua and said to him, In the presence, in the sight of all Israel, be strong and courageous, for you shall go with the people, with these people into the land that the Lord has sworn to their fathers, sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall put them in possession of it. Again, he repeats again it is the Lord who goes before you. Do not fear or be dismayed. So again, uh there's an inner uh chaotic structure in these eight verses. We don't have time to go into that, but at the heart of it, at the center of this, is that the Lord your God will give them over to you. The Lord your God is the God that will be with you. So there are two uh explicit uh uh references to this. The promise of God's continual presence with Israel, God's presence will continue to go before Israel in two instances. Firstly, the primacy of God who will take charge of the conquest. It's not about Israel, but it is about God who goes before you and who and who will not leave you or forsake you. We see that in verse 5 uh as the center of what Joshua, sorry, of what Moses wanted to tell the people. So God is the one that goes before the people, he will not leave them or forsake them. Secondly, and interestingly, we see this concept or this idea of the 10 of meeting appearing for the first time in Deuteronomy, right? Towards the end of the book, why did Moses bring up this concept, this idea of the 10 of meeting? And that is again the center of Deuteronomy 31. The center of the Kisec structure is on verse 14 and 15 of Deuteronomy 21. It is actually uh God's charge to Joshua at the 10th of meeting. We read in Deuteronomy 31, verse 14 to 15. And the Lord said to Moses, Behold, the days approach when you must die. Call Joshua and present yourselves in the tent of meeting that I may commission him. And Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tent of meeting. And the Lord appeared in the tent, in the pillar of cloud, and the cloud stood over the entrance of the tent. What is the significance of the tent of meeting? So this was the place for Israel that symbolized God's divine presence, God's divine presence with the people. If you look at Exodus 33, verse 7 to 11, that was where the first time the concept or the idea of the tent of meeting appears. Exodus 33, verse 7 to 11. It tells us now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far away from the camp, and call it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. Moving on to verse 9. When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak to Moses. Verse 10, and when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship each at his tent. So there was a visual uh manifestation of God's presence. They visibly saw God descending, the pillar of cloud descending upon the tent. And they did see uh God's tangible presence with the people. And as we move on towards the end of Exodus, we realize that God's presence in the tent continues to abide and be with the people. If you look at Exodus 40, verse 38, 36 to 38. Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and the fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys. Sorry, this is an indication uh to the people that as the Lord was with them in their earlier days, with the past generations, in the 10th of meeting, through by the symbolizing the presence of God, uh the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. So it was a place where God revealed himself and spoke to Israel. So the significance of this mention of the 10 of meeting at this juncture in Deuteronomy lies in the fact that uh Moses wants to let the people know that just as how God had been with Israel throughout their history, he will also be with Joshua. And if you look at Joshua 1, again the similar idea comes again. Many times, a few times in Joshua chapter 1, it says, reading uh Joshua chapter 1, verse 5, just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. So the promise of God's presence is there. And in Joshua chapter 1, verse 9, uh, do not be afraid, do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. So along with the promise of God's presence with the people comes the need to for the people to keep faith with the Lord, with God Himself by obeying the law. So along with the presence of God, the second important ingredient is God's law to that the people have to set before them and choose to obey. We see that uh in Deuteronomy 31, verses 9 to 13. Then Moses wrote this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord and to all the elders of Israel. And the and Moses commanded them at the end of every seven years, at the set time in the year of release, at the feast of booths, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose. You shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Assemble all the people, the men, the women, even the little ones, the sojourner, everyone, so that they may come, they may hear, and learn to fear the Lord your God, and to be careful to do all that is in this book of the law. So the law was written and given to the priests for subsequent generations, to be read before Ish every seven years at the feast of both. And the significance of this tradition is to build God's law into the life of the worshiping community in perpetuity. It's like to enshrine his law in the tradition of the people, so that those generations, even uh children, little ones, the Bible says little ones also be there to hear God's law, so that they may not fear. They will not fail, sorry, to do it as the Lord. And of course, Deuteronomy 31, verse 24 to 28, we won't read the whole verse there, but it the law is again enshrined as a weakness against Israel. In other words, if they fail to honor and obey God's law, there will be repercussions. So we see that along with God's presence with the people, which is so significant, uh, God will be with Joshua, God has been with Moses, God has been with the previous generation, and God will be with Joshua and subsequent generations because it is the Lord who will fight for them, it is the Lord who will go before them. However, there is a need for human participation in keeping the law and in walking the ways in the ways of God. So, what can we learn from Joshua's succession to Moses at this point of the narrative in Deuteronomy? I'd like to suggest to us His presence, God's presence with us, along with God's law, must come together. It's not one or the other, it's not desiring God's presence and ignoring our responsibility to keep God's law and to walk with God. But as it is more as we soak in God's presence in our lives, we continue to walk in God's ways. We see the coupling of God's presence and God's law again in Joshua's church. In Joshua chapter 1, verse 8 to 9, uh, this is what it says, This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do all that is written in it. For then your way will be prosperous, then you will have good success. And verse 9 uh of Joshua 1, verse 9, it says, Have I not commanded you, be strong and courageous, do not be frightened, do not be dismayed. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Again, we see the law and the presence. God's law must be the center, must be the plumb line. Just as how a plumb line determines how a building will take shape. God's law for Israel is the plumb line of their lives. So God will be with the people, and the people will need to keep his law. So to put it in uh layman terms or in simple terms, as God is present with us today, and we affirm this every time we gather, we uh when we come uh to celebrate Holy Communion, you know, we begin with this the Lord is here, right? We say the first sentence, and we say, His spirit is with us, right? So we affirm God's presence. We affirm God's presence each time we gather to worship together. So as God is present with us today, he calls us to walk with him. So he has given us his laws and his commandments as a means to walk with him. So for Israel, the presence of God with them is contingent on their continual walking with God by constantly recalling God's laws and commandments. So the law has to be read before all Israel in their hearing, as I mentioned earlier. Yet the sad part of the story of Israel, which is a lesson for all of us as Christians today, is that the anticlimax so-called of the story goes, you can find it in Deuteronomy 31, verse 16. It says, After the death of Moses, despite God's presence with Joshua and the next generation, God will be there. Yet these people will rise and hall after foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering. They will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them. The word of God for us today, I believe, from Deuteronomy 31 is a reminder to us that we cannot take God's presence for granted in our lives. He reveals himself to us and does wonders and miraculous work on our behalf. But like Israel of old, we have the propensity to turn away from God and turn in to ourselves. The history of Israel and our own lives tells us that by observing God's wonders and miracles at a point of our life, at one point, doesn't guarantee that we will continue to walk with Him. Right? All of us have known of friends who encountered God's presence, who worshiped in the spirit, who was uh slain in God's presence. Yeah, but today they may be far from the Lord. That's so there's no guarantee. If Israel saw God's wonders with their very eyes, such that when they stood at the edge of the sea, the Red Sea, and they saw the water parted before them, such a miracle happened right before their eyes. Yet they could still fall into sin. What makes it think for us as Christians today, because we have seen God's deliverance once in our lives, what makes us think that we are able to not fall away from Him if we do not continue to walk with the Lord? So both go together. God's presence in our life, coupled with our constant walking with Him, is what will help us to grow in Him. But I'm not saying that if we are not walking with God, we are not safe, right? That is another thing altogether. We are talking about living the Christian life, you're not talking about salvation. So living the Christian life requires us, you know, salvation is believing in Jesus and trusting in his work for us, right? But living out that requires God's presence and requires us to constantly walk in his law. Right? I want to spend the remaining part of the sermon today to look at um how we can apply this to our lives. Because we know we hear so much about this, we all know that we need to walk with God, you know, but how do we really allow uh God to take root in our lives? Um so for transformation to take root in our lives, I believe that we need to deal with our propensity to sin, right, and to turn inward to ourselves. You know, we live in a day and age where we do not want to talk about sin, right? We want to talk about victory, we want to talk about uh being overcomers. But I'd like to suggest to us that sin is very real. In the life of a Christian today, right? Because the sinful nature is still in us. And even though Christ has broken the sting and the the dominion, we are no longer under sin's dominion. But the sinful nature is still in our lives. So I believe one of the um church fathers in the fourth century, uh, by the name of Augustine, uh, he is able to help us in this aspect uh through the his interiority, how he looks within himself. So I'd like to just introduce us to uh Augustine's confessions. We are not going to go through that, everything, but I'm just going to pick out uh just something he wrote about uh a particular struggle he faced in his life, and then we'll draw uh some implications for us. But before that, I think like uh whenever we approach a text, we always need to understand context. When Augustine wrote these confessions, this was in the fourth century, and that was a time where Christianity was becoming the dominant force within the Roman Empire, it becomes a Christianized nation. Along with that, there's a generation perhaps that are just born Christian, right? Because under uh Constantine, Christianity became an official uh religion in the Roman Empire. So for a faith that has gone through a series of suffering and persecution in the early centuries of the church to now uh where Christianity becomes a kind of an institutionalized religion, what hope is there uh to be a Christian? You know, what what's the importance? Um what does genuine Christianity look like in a world where being a Christian has become really easy? Right? So that was one of the key questions Augustine uh was pondering. What does genuine Christianity look like in a world where being a Christian has become really easy? No suffering, no persecution. Yeah, it's just my family religion. Right. So at the core of Augustine's understanding of the human condition lies an existential observation. And this is kind of like something that frames his entire discourse in the confessions, 13 chapters he wrote. Uh but I would say the thesis or the main point he wants to make in all his writings in that confessions is this the human heart is restless. We are all restless creatures, left to its own devices. The heart never finds satisfaction. It craves but moves on from object of love to object of love as each in turn fails to answer its deepest needs. So the human condition is one of unending restlessness. And at the start of his confessions, which is widely quoted in chapter 1, point one, he says this thou awakens us to delight in thy praise. For thou hast made us for thyself, and our heart is restless until it finds, until it rests in thee. So it's almost his beginning this statement where he will unfold his whole life story, right, of his struggle with sin, and he's coming to this point where he can really accept this statement. Our heart is restless until it rests indeed. So just a snipshot of uh his story. Uh sorry for those of us who don't like to read or don't like text, but I think this is poignant for us to understand a bit more about his wiring, what wires him. So in book 2.4 uh of the confessions, Augustine describes an incident in which he and some friends, seems to be a minor incident, they decided to steal, to steal a pair from a neighbor, right? So this uh records uh in pardon the language, it's a bit uh in old English because this was uh translated from Latin, right? So uh if you don't fully understand, it's okay, right? I just want to pick out some of the broad ideas of what Augustine is saying. He says this, Surely thy law, O Lord, punish thievery. Yet this law is so written in our hearts that iniquity itself cannot blot it out. Very true, right? For what thief does willingly abide another man to steal from him? No, not a rich thief, him that is driven to steal upon necessity. So uh so stealing, why would a rich person want to steal, right? If someone steals out of necessity, perhaps that can be accepted. That's what Augustine is saying. Yet had I a desire to commit thievery and did it, compelled neither by hunger nor poverty, meaning, meaning that he wasn't hungry or he wasn't uh so poor that he had to steal, but he wasn't compelled by those reasons, right? If you are hungry, you say, Wow, I haven't eaten for 10 days. I need to, no choice are survival, right? You know, the basic needs food, shelter, and water, yeah. I need to get some food, you know. But he wasn't compelled in his autobiography in the confessions, he wasn't compelled by hunger nor poverty. Uh but even though a cloth of well-doing and a pamperedness of iniquities, he was doing well. You know, he was perhaps quite well to do, but he was filled with this iniquity in his heart. Then he goes on to say, for I stole that of which I had enough of my own and much better. Meaning he had more than enough uh fruit trees at home, but somehow he decided to just want to steal the neighbor's fruit, right? So he goes on, nor when I had done that cared to enjoy the thing which I had stolen, but joyfully in the theft and sin itself. Wow. Right? So it's not so much about enjoying the thing he stole, but the fact that uh the act of stealing somehow brings thrill and pleasure to him. Uh so he goes on to say a pear tree that was in the orchard next uh Alving Yard, well laden with fruit, not much tempting either for color or taste. So he's saying that the fruit tree he wants to steal from is nothing attractive, you know, is uh uh well laden with fruit, but not much tempting. It's not too attractive. Yet he's drawn to this. So the next slide, uh, this is the last slide, right? So he says to the shaking and robbing of this, a company of little young fellows of us went late one night. So this is what they did, uh their secret uh rendezvous, they went, uh, carried, dance carried we huge loadings. Uh as they did that, they fling some of them to the hawks. Means as they stole the stole the, as they steal the pests, you know, he's not that they desire it, some of it they fling to the animals to the hawks, right? Uh though perhaps we add some of it. And all this we did because we would go whether we should not, something they shouldn't do. And then uh Augustine reflects on his spirituality. He says, Behold my heart, O Lord, which thou hast pity on, in the very bottom of the bottomless pit. Now behold, let my heart tell thee what is sought for there, that I should be tasked evil for nothing, having no other provocation to ill, but ill itself. It was foul, yet I love it. I love to undo myself, I love my own fault, not that for which I committed the fault, but even the very fault itself. A base soul, shrinking back thus from my hold fast upon thee, even to utter destruction, not affecting anything from the shame, but the shame itself. So Augustine is careful to emphasize that the theft of the pest lacks any intrinsic rationale. Why should he steal? Not that he needs to eat it, you know. Uh if Augustine had been starving and these pests, like I said earlier, were the only food available, then it may make some sense, right? We say uh crime doesn't make sense in any forms, but you know, but in this sense, there's no logical reasoning to this. Uh it would still be wrong to steal, but at least there'll be some justification for his actions. Right? We can all sympathize with the starving man who steals food, even if we do not approve of the theft. Or if the pests were simply better tasting or juicier than the pests. But Augustine himself said that you know it wasn't attractive at all. You know, probably in his own uh garden there will be better ones. Um Augustine is very clear about this. He had absolutely no need of this pest and no excuse for stealing it. In fact, he had free and legitimate access to other better ones to eat. So the point of this incident for us to just reflect on is not to demonstrate that sin, is to demonstrate that sin perhaps has no inner logic. Fallen people sin simply because they wish to break the law. For Augustine, the restlessness of the human heart is driven by a single desire to find that which made the object of love, gives rest and peace to the soul. Only when God is made the object of our love, and we all know that, and our heart rests in him, can our restless souls find peace. Human beings are made to find their fulfillment and meaning in God in a real and ultimate sense. But the tragedy is that fallen human beings are turned in on themselves. Uh it's a term that uh John Calvin uses turn in. We are curled in to ourselves, we love ourselves in the place of God. And that means for all of us, the implications is this for the man in the street, even perhaps for us sitting and listening to the word today. Our souls will ever be moving on, striving to find peace, and never coming to rest apart from God Himself. So, returning to Augustine's story of the stolen pests, we might ask why he found pleasure in stealing the fruit. Was it because it was something forbidden? Why did the transgression appear to him as an attractive end in itself with no further rationale necessary? The answer is perhaps a moral and a psychological one. When I break God's law, I stand above God's law and I feel somehow that like I'm God, I'm in control. Seeing myself as one who lives under the law is a constant reminder to me that I'm not God, but a creature subject to his rule. So one author says that the stealing of the mediocre and bitter pairs for Augustine was not a delight in the intrinsic merits of the pairs, not because the pairs were good, but it was for the pleasure of pretending to himself that he was God. Because he was, he could be in control, he could go for this trail just to show that he can do it, and he wants to do it just to prove that he can do it. So, as one uh commentator reflects on this, he says, When I transgress God's law, I feel that I have found the answer to my deepest longing. But when the feeling wears off, I will need to transgress again and again and again to maintain the illusion that I am God and that I found the solution to my problem in myself. This is the addictive deception that lies at the heart of sin for Augustine. The searching and the looking for a replacement other than the true God. Because only God Himself can fully satisfy the longing of the human heart for rest, then all kinds, all other forms of pursuits and objects of love, if made the ultimate end of human existence, condemn the one who loves them to dissatisfaction, restlessness, and permanent separation from God. So, how did it turn out for Augustine himself? In Confessions uh chapter 8, section 12, he describes the crisis moment of his conversion in a garden in Milan. Perhaps you all may know it, you have heard of it in stories, as he tries to desperately resolve his inner conflict within himself, he suddenly heard a mysterious voice, apparently that of a neighbor's child. He heard this voice from outside coming to his ears and says, Take up and read, take up and read. So he picks up uh the letter before him, and it is actually Paul's letter to the Romans, right? And he found the place where uh he found Romans 13, verse 13 to 14, which says, Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. And suddenly all is clear and his soul is calm. This was the word, the word from outside, the word from God that led him to cast off his whole life and embrace Christ as his savior. I'm going to uh get the worship team up to help me in a song, which is, I think, a familiar song to many of us. As I was just preparing this word, you know, the Lord brought me and just reminded me of this song. And because deep within all of us, there is a longing that only Jesus can feel. No relationship, no pursuits in our lives, whether in our workplace or academic pursuits, can feel the emptiness within our hearts. Because if God is not, does not take the center place in our lives, then we will fill it with everything and every other pursuit. And I think as Singaporeans, we are so used to that moving from one thing to another, one interest to another, until God Himself becomes the focus of our lives. So the word is this: if our hearts are restless until it finds its rest in God.

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