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Today, we search the Song of Moses found in Deuteronomy chapter 32. Exploring the concept of God as creator and how we as his creatures should respond to the rock of our salvation. Reverend Daniel Teo shares the word.

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So I'm thinking off from where I left off the last uh sermon two weeks ago, where we were talking about, if you recall, uh how uh Joshua was to succeed uh Moses uh in in a kind of a leadership transition and we we spoke about how uh the fact that God's presence will continue to be with uh the people of Israel, just as how God was with Moses, he will be with Joshua, right? And how the people need to uh in some way inscribe the law in their hearts, in their lives, such that uh as God is with them, they are to continually walk with God. Right? So that was the main point the last time I shared. And uh just to bring us a kind of uh a recap, so if you look at the the blue highlighted words on the screen, so uh today's sharing is part of what we call the Moses uh song to the people. Uh so the song was uh was a song in which uh the God commanded Moses to write the song and teach it to the people, right? So it comes almost at the tail end of uh um the whole um episode between um uh the calling of Joshua and commissioning, and now towards the end, we are talking about the song in which um the people are to be taught. So let's move on to to the next slide. So the context of the song of Moses is found in uh Deuteronomy 31, verse 19 to 22. So this is what the Lord instructed Moses. It says, Now therefore, teach this song. Sorry, now therefore, write this song and teach it to the people of Israel. Put it in their mouths that this song may be a witness for me against the people of Israel. For when I brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to give to their fathers, and they have eaten and are full and grown and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them and despise me and break my covenant. And when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song shall confront them as a weakness. For I know that they are inclined to do, uh, sorry, for it will be it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their offspring. For I know what they are inclined to do, even today, before I brought them into the land that I swore to give. So Moses wrote this song the same day and taught it to the people of Israel. So if you look at the song of Moses as we try to uh analyze it and make sense of it, the the the ringing uh concept, the idea that comes true and true is the idea of God being the creator. Uh, if you read through the song, there are a lot of words that are being used of birth language, how God gave Israel birth, how uh the fact that God was the one that nurse and protect and watch over Israel. So the song begins in verses 1 and verse 2 calling again creation, the heaven and the earth, as a witness to as a witness of of what uh possibilities will happen if the people should turn away from the Lord. So you look at the first two verses, uh calling heaven and earth, the whole of creation, both in heaven and earth, as a witness. It says, Give year, O heavens, and I will speak. Let the earth hear the words of my mouth. Again, creational language. My teaching drop as the rain, my speech distilled as the dew, like gentle rain upon the tender grass and like showers upon the herb. So all these are imagery that has to do with creation. I'd like to explore with us just three themes surrounding the concept of God as creator. When we think about God as creator, uh there are three uh concepts, related themes that uh comes up again and again uh in scripture. One, if because if God is our creator, the idea of God choosing us, God loving us, God electing us comes to play. And then we have a sense of God's guidance and provision. If God is our creator, means that as we trust in him as his creature, he will always guide and protect us throughout our lives. And the third theme is the theme of judgment because of sin uh and the fact of full restoration as one turns to the Lord. So uh the outline my sharing today in three points: love and election, guidance and provision, judgment and restoration. Right? So, what we'll do is we'll just explore uh selected verses in Deuteronomy 32 that brings out this theme of God's love, of God's election. Then we follow that with uh the sense of God's guiding hand, God's provision for the people, and finally uh a sense of judgment. But along with that comes the theme of restoration, right? So love and election. The theme of uh creation, as I shared earlier, is alluded to in other parts of Deuteronomy 32, and we see that again in the creation of Israel. If you uh have your Bibles before you look at Deuteronomy 32, verse 6b. Uh it says, Do you uh thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people? It's not He, your father, who created you, who made you and established you. So again, God is Israel's father who created them, who made them, who formed them, who established them. And uh, if you look at verse 7 to 9, again the whole idea, which is a very new concept in Deuteronomy, uh, that the Lord wants to remind Israel that they were elected. God called them out of his eternal purpose to bring them to birth and cause them to be his people. So, verse 7 to 9, uh the whole scope of creation is in view in these words. It says, Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations, ask your father, and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you. When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of men. But the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob, his allotted inheritance. In other words, when God, the most high, created the whole world, gave to nations their inheritance, he specifically chose Israel to be his people, Jacob, his allotted heritage. So the theme of love, because God loves Israel, God created her, elected her, and called her to himself. Secondly, we see God's guidance and provision in in the text. We see God's care for fleshing Israel, seen in the fact that he guided them through the wilderness and provided from the land's wealth, the wealth of the land, again mentioned in creation language. We see that in Deuteronomy 32 verse 10 to 14. The imagery is the desert, the wilderness. How God constantly guided and provided for them. Reading from Deuteronomy 32, verse 10 to 14, he found him in a desert land and in the howling ways of the wilderness. He encircled him and he cared for him. He kept him as the apple of his eye. Again, using creational language, the example of an eagle, like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions. The Lord alone guided him. No foreign god was with him. He made him ride on the high places of the land, and he ate the produce of the field, and he suckled him with honey out of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock, curds from the herd, milk from the flock, fats of lambs, rams of bashan, and goats with the very finest of the wheat, of the wheat. And you drank foaming wine made from the blood of the grape. In other words, God was the one that provided the people, the riches of the land, the produce of the land, the goodness of the land was given to Israel. And the provision of God, the guidance of God cannot be separated from the idea of God as a creator. If he is our creator, it means he will guide us, he surely will protect us. So the act of creation in this passage, in these few verses I read, is evoked in the image of the eagle fluttering over its young. Like how the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters in creation. Genesis 1 verse 2, we see the spirit of the God, Spirit of the Lord was hovering over the waters. So the eagle here is fluttering over its young. The idea of eagles caring for their young in wild places corresponds to God's protection of his people in a dangerous place. In the wilderness, God provided for them manna from heaven and fed them through in the midst of the wilderness. The stirring up of the nest likely refers to the mother eagle's encouragement of the young to fly, along with a care that she that they do not fall. We see here that creation and God's continual sustenance or sustaining care are bound together in these intimate images of the birth of a people of God. So if God is our creator, he will provide for us, he will care for us, he will guide us through the journey of life. Crucially, we observe the reason why God was against the people subsequently, is because uh crucially in verse 12 we see that is asserted that God alone guided the people. The whole idea that it was God alone. It was uh it recalls the Shema of Deuteronomy 64. Sorry, Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 4, where it says, Hear, O Ishrael, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. So the one God, God alone, the one God was the one that guided the people. So the the accusation or rather the charge against Ishrael was that Ishrael rejected the rock that bore her. So uh interestingly, another image that runs parallel to the idea of God as a creator is the metaphor of a rock, right? Of a rock. So we we see that uh uh peppered throughout uh again Deuteronomy 32, the image of God, of Yahweh as the rock, right? And we we know of familiar songs that just remind us that uh Jesus is the rock of our lives, right? You know, songs like uh uh Rock of Ages, Jesus is the rock. We used to sing those songs, uh or like Honey in the Rock, sweet honey in the rock, and uh closer, older hymns. We used to sing uh Rock of Ages, Clare for me, right? So all these songs kind of remind us that God is our rock. So the image is pervasive throughout Deuteronomy 32. Just bring us uh through some of the verses. If you follow me uh along with your Bibles, you can trace it along with me. In verse 4, Deuteronomy 32, verse 4, it says, The rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. Verse 13 uh see, it says, And he suckled him with honey out of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock. Verse 15, but Joshua grew fat and kicked, you grew fat, stout, and slick, then he forsake God who made him, and scoffed at the rock of his salvation. Verse 18, you were unmindful of the rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth. Verse 30 to 31. How could one have chased a thousand and two out or out ten thousand to flight unless their rock had sold them and the Lord had given them up? For their rock, referring to the rock of the enemies, is not as our rock, which is Yahweh, the God that fights for the people. Our enemies are by themselves. Verse 37 to 38. Then he will say, Where are their gods? The rock, again referring to the enemy's rocks, in which they took refuge, who ate the fat of the sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings. So Israel forgot the God who gave her birth, and overindulged in the wealth and the gifts that God provided. She rejected God as both creator and provider, and had no faith in the rock of their salvation, the one who could be completely trusted. She provoked God, stirring him to jealousy with strange gods, with her abominations, provoked him to anger. So the turning to foreign god flies in the face of the declaration in Deuteronomy 32, verse 12, a crucial declaration that it was God alone who guided the people. Right? Yet uh Joshua grew fat, verse 15 to 18 tells us, and forsook and scoffed at the rock of his salvation. Therefore, in Deuteronomy 32, verse 23 to 25 and 36 records a very low point in the history of each of Israel, uh, of God's judgment. Right? So, moving on to the third part. The second part is the whole idea of God, is the one that guides and provides. So now the third part is about judgment and restoration. So Israel reached to a very low point in which God had to judge Israel for their sin. It says in verse 23, and I will heap disasters upon you, I will spend my arrows on them. They shall be wasted with hunger and devoured by plague and poisonous pestilence. I will send the teeth of beasts against them with the venom of things that crawl in the dust. Again, uh, the imagery is from creation, right? Plague, pestilence, uh, teeth of beasts, venom, okay, uh, and so on. So outdoors, the sword shall be reefed, indoors terror for young men and woman alike, the nursing child with the man of gray hairs. The song is followed again, uh uh pattern in the Old Testament by words of salvation. In verse 26, it says, For the Lord will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants when he sees that their power is gone and there's none remaining born or free. So Israel's restoration is premised on God's compassion, but also on God's defense of his reputation. We see this in uh verse 27 of Deuteronomy 32. It says, Had I not feared provocation by the enemy, least their adversaries, Israel's adversaries, should misunderstand, least they should say, our hand is triumphant. It was not the Lord who did this. So, in a certain sense, the Lord acted to deliver and restore Israel because of his own namesake, because he needs to defend his own honor. That the moment Israel turns to God, God will restore Israel back to back to himself. Finally, in the in the last few verses, verse 39 to 41, we again have the picture of in the old testament uh climax, a picture of his uniqueness as God. Uh with some uh commentators call it the tri-cola. Uh it says, I, even I am he. Right? Three times is being repeated. God says, uh I in verse 39, I, even I am he. Right? He could just have said I. You know, why is there a three, a try, uh a repetition, repetition three times to point to his uniqueness, his uniqueness as Israel's creator, redeemer, deliverer, provider, and the one that guides them. So in verse 39, it says, See now that I, even I am He, there's no God beside me. I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal. And there's none that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven and swear, as I live forever. If I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand takes hold on judgment, I will take vengeance on my adversaries and will repay those who hate me. So, in summary, we see Israel's election by God. Ishrael's being chosen and loved by God is the canvas on which his deepest and eternal purposes are painted. Ishrael was elected and chosen by God. God's love for them is matched only by the treachery of their rejection and by his jealousy in response to his uniqueness as God alone guided the people. He relents from total judgment despite the peoples turning to other gods and acts to restore the people out of the defense of his reputation and honor. So I'm moving on to the application now. So, how should we, as his creatures, appropriate God, the rock who had created us, love and elected us, who continually guide and provide for us and restore us after judgment? So, how should we appropriate understand the idea of God as our creator and the rock? So today, when we think of God as our creator, we should always connect it to his love and election of us. So in the New Testament, parallel of God's love and election is best expressed in the words of Ephesians chapter 1, verses 4 to 5. Ephesians chapter 1 verses 4 to 5. It says, even as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he destined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. Just as how in Deuteronomy 32, verse 8 to 9, the Most High fixed the boundaries of the peoples and elected and chose Israel as his portion and Jacob as his allotted inheritance. In God's sovereign purpose, he chose us, Ephesians tells us, before the foundation of the world to belong to him, to be holy and blameless in his sight. He saw beyond our creation and before our creation to choose us whom are seated here today. Jesus reminds us, his disciples in John 15, verse 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you. John Piper exhorts us uh to revel in the wonder that you are a Christian because God chose you. To be one. Your roots as a child of God are in eternity, in the infinite infinite mind and heart of God. So in his love, God chose all of us and singles us out of all the peoples of the earth to belong to him. We can rest secure in God's choosing and electing us in love. Nothing can move us because God's sovereign purpose in choosing and electing us holds sway. We are living in times of shifting sense where often, as we uh talk to one another, maybe later at Izone, or when we talk about, you know, uh, how's your walk with God, how's your spirituality, uh, we often gauge our relationship with God based on uh the performance lens of uh uh the meritocratic uh system in which we are all caught up under, we are all caught, we are all caught in, right? The the meritocratic system of performance. So whenever we talk to people, we ask, how's how you with God? Uh we're thinking, okay, measuring, measuring, uh, one to ten, how will I rate? Maybe about six or five, most say about two or three, right? That's the reality, right? Because we are we are we are often triggered by by such things, right? And nowadays, I think even when you go for hospital visits, after a while, you have someone from the marketing department call you and say, uh, sorry, uh sir, I'm calling you staying in a hospital. Uh we are doing a survey, you know. So I recently answered a call. So 15 minutes, you're asking a lot of questions. Everything is about great rating. So, how you rate this from one to scale one to ten, how you rate that one to ten, one to ten. So we had a long, long, quite a long discussion. I think I had to shorten it. So, yeah, so it's a whole series of questions of rating, right? So, because of the culture, the pervasive culture in Singapore, where uh it's just about our performance, it's just about how well, how we measure up. You know, so most of us will be modest, you know, we'll say, like, not too good, uh, how you in your walk with God, not too good. Right? So, a lot of times the measurements that we use is how often do you read the Bible, how often do you pray? How often do you come to church? Uh um are you serving in ministry? So, all these are, of course, things that we look at. But the fact uh today is a good reminder when God elects and chose us, you know, it it doesn't matter, you know, because his election is sure. Right? And because, you know, some of us we may have wandered along the path, we may have, you know, strayed away from following Jesus, or we may know of people who have done that. But at the end of the day, God's calling, God's election is in his hands. Right? So, because of that, you know, our faith and our security lies in who God is, how he has elected and chose us. It does not lie on our performance. Even though God desires that we walk with him, but that is a relationship of love. It's not a yardstick we used to measure one another and maybe even stand in and over judgment, in and over someone in judgment. Right? We can rest in God's love and election instead of striving to measure up to a certain spirituality. Right? And we are all different, you know. Some of us really have a heart to pray. We can pray for hours. Some of us would rather go out there to do a good deed and help someone. So it's really very hard to rein things in, and uh like my constant lament, you know, is everything in life, must we grade everything in life? Must we put everything on a skill, right? I hope uh as a society we will grow. I mean, as a church, of course, we will grow to uh not just look at qualitative data uh as we look at one another, or because I think that life is much more than that. Uh not everything in life is measurable uh and quantifiable, right? So similarly, our relationship with God, we can rest in his love instead of striving to measure up to a certain spirituality, and his election is sure, you know, just as how in the Old Testament, Jacob and Esau, he chose uh sorry, is it Jacob and Jacob and Esau? So two children are in your womb, right? The word was to, and the Lord says, I've chosen Jacob. So the Lord has chosen us, and the Lord will hold us, and that's our security. Let's move on to the second uh part, which is God's guidance and provision. So when we think about God as our creator, we always think in terms of his guidance and provision. You know, we see that again, time and time again in scripture. When he is our creator, the the it means he will guide us, he will provide for us. Right? So um so God's guidance and provision for us. Uh I can't help but recall an old hymn. Uh I'm not that old, but somehow I don't know uh why, you know, whenever I prepare sermons, sometimes I sense the Lord wants to use songs, you know. Uh I'm not a great worship leader, so but sometimes God used songs to speak to me, to speak to all of us here. Right? So this this song uh uh was it's quite a familiar hymn. I'm not sure whether we know, right? It goes uh something like this in shady green pastures, so rich and so sweet, God leaves his dear children along where the waters could flow babes, the weary ones feet, God leaves his dear children along, some true the waters, some through the flood, some through the fire, but all through the blood, some true great sorrow, but God gives the song in the night season and all the day long, sometimes uh sorry, I think I lost the the the next slide. It says sometimes on the mount where the sun shines so bright, God leads his children along. Sometimes in the valley in darkness of night, God leads his children along, and then the reframe, the chorus, some through the water, some through the flood. So this is an old hymn, uh, how God leads his children along. But it's uh it's a great reminder. Sometimes hymns have a way of speaking uh theology to us or reigning things better than words, right? So songs have a way of reigning. Yeah, so this song reminds us that as Christians, all of our lives are under God's guidance and provision, not only in good times, but especially in bad times. When the sun shines bright over our lives, when things are doing well, when we are prospering, when uh we have all the resources coming in, uh God leads us. But in times, in the valley of dark of darkness, in the darkness of night, God leads his children along. Just as how God led Israel uh through a uh pillar of cloud and fire by night, uh fire by day and cloud by night, God as our creator, we can trust his guidance and provision all of our lives, the good and the bad, on the brightest day and the darkest night. So I sense the word of God is that we shouldn't despise dark nights, we shouldn't despise times where we we feel lousy, we don't feel we are up with the Lord, because he never fails to guide us, he never feels it is his prerogative and his right, he will do that because he's our creator, he will guide us, he will provide for us even through the darkness of night. So, towards the end of his ministry in 2 Timothy 4, verse 18, Paul, despite undergoing much persecution and contending for the gospel while facing seemingly much opposition, he said, The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. Let's move on to the last point. God's restoration after judgment. Finally, knowing God as our creator means that we will know that God will restore us. He's a God of restoration, even after a time of judgment. And I can't think of a better story, a better poignant picture than the story of the prodigal son in Luke chapter 15. After leaving the father's home and squandering the wealth that he received in while living, uh he began to be in need. And the turning point is found in Luke 15, 17. When he came to himself, when he came to his senses and decided to turn back to the father, he found that the father has been waiting for the return of his son all along. Though brokenhearted, yet he loved and longed for the return of his son. So what came after that was a picture of, I think, one of the most, if not the most, touching imagery in the New Testament, right? Of course, the parallel to that in the Old Testament would be the story of Joseph, uh, where you know Joseph was united with the brothers finally at the end. So this again is a picture of uh of great love that the father bestowed on the son. So when the son turned around and realized and came to himself and turned back to the father, uh, he was shocked by the response to be greeted by a father who raised to him, right? Raised as in run to him. And the word used for run is race, like how we participate in uh races, right? So it's not a slow walk, it's not a stroll by the beach or in the garden. It is a race. The father raised to his son. And the Greek tells us uh in uh very in no uncertain terms that he fell over the son and kissed him again and again. That's the image that I like to leave with us of restoration. He raised the son uh and not just kissed him, right? Our translations uh mostly say and kiss him, but uh in the Greek it's more nuanced. It says he fell over his son, right? Not and kissed him again and again and again. And not only that, we thought that may be just an outburst of emotion, and after that, the father is on a high emotion. After that, he was he should be back to his normal state. But no, after that, he you know there was no so-called probation for the son, right? The moment the son turned and returned to the father, we see this change of events. He began to be restored to full sonship. No longer, he said, make me like one of your slaves. He said, the father said, No, you are my son, you will always be my son. So all the imageries being used is uh is uh is use of sonship, rope on him, ring on his hand, shoes on his feet. All these are pictures that uh of sonship. It's only a son that will wear shoes, and the ring and the rope uh speaks of uh the authority as a son of the father. Not only that, the story doesn't end here, but the father kept the whole episode of the son's return by calling a great feast celebration. It's time to party because this son was lost, but now he's found. So with a turning to the Lord, with a returning to the Lord, we see God runs to us, God runs to us and restores us fully as we turn to Him. But the struggle uh, I mean the for Christianity today is especially as we pray, uh, for many of people we know, our friends, close ones, uh siblings, is for coming to our senses. I think that's the most difficult part, Luke 15, 17. When the prodigal son came to himself, you know, uh I remember one of my uh professors used to say uh when we were doing a course on spiritual formation, he said the Christian life is about coming to our senses. The moment we come to our senses, then God can work. Yeah. So it's not that uh if we take away the part where the son turned to the father or came to himself, then the story, you know, just think about wow, God loves me so much. But actually, without that turning, like Pastor Peter shared one of the weeks, you know, it's about turning and returning, right? So the same idea, turning, the initial turning, that's the toughest part, you know, as we pray for people who have you know left the faith, you know, how can they turn and return to the Lord? Because once that is being done, um the rest we know God welcomes, God restores fully. So I'd like to close with this uh again a familiar hymn. Uh I will not sing it this time, but it's a familiar hymn, uh the love of God. Uh so this is just a stanza uh that that uh maybe one day we can sing it uh um beautiful song. Uh you can go on YouTube and Google the love of God uh hymn, uh you will come up. It says, Could we within the ocean fill? And were the skies of parchment made? Were every stock on earth acquill, and every one a scribe by trade? To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry, nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky. Oh love of God, how rich and pure, how majulous and strong, it shall forevermore endure. The saints and angels song. Indeed, the love of God is indescribable, is beyond our understanding and ability to fathom. But he loves us and he longs to restore us. And let's pray that our cells, our hearts will be turned to him, we will return to him so that he will run to us. Let me just uh summarize as I close. Okay, uh, the first point God's love and election. In his love, God chose you and single you out of all the peoples of the earth to belong to him. So as Christians today, we can rest secure in God's choosing, electing us in love. Out of all the peoples of the earth, God chose you. And because he has chosen you, that is your security. No matter what you have done, nothing can move you because God's sovereign purpose in choosing and electing us holds sway. So if you are going through a time of discouragement and wondering whether uh we're asking God, you're sure you have chosen me. But I think his word, you know, he can't lie. He loves us, he has elected us, he has chosen us. Even for those of us who have children uh who uh in the Lord, you know, and some of them may have some challenges uh being present uh in church today. You know, I I believe that the fact that you are being born in a Christian family is God's grace. The fact that uh they have encountered and heard about the Bible stories through the faithful ministry of uh praised land is God's grace. And I don't think God will forsake us in the end. We just have to keep praying for a turning and returning of uh the prodigals to Jesus. Secondly, God's guidance and provision. As our creator, we can trust that God's guidance and provision throughout all our life experiences, the good and the bad, on the brightest day and on the darkest night. So if He is our creator, He will guide us, He will provide for us throughout our whole life, the good and the bad, and in all the seasons of our lives. He will be faithful as we hold on to Him. Lastly, God's restoration after judgment. How amazing is the love of God displayed in the story of the prodigal son, and how needed it is for us to come to our senses to turn to him. And let's pray that we will continue to turn and return to the Lord because only then will we experience his restoration and healing in our lives.

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We pray that you've been ministered to by the Word of God today. If you'd like to know more about Eastern Christian Church, please visit our website at yccanglican.com. Have a blessed day.