Help is Here!

Deuteronomy 33:26

“There is none like the God of Jeshurun,

who rides the heavens to your aid

on the clouds in His majesty.”

“Jeshurun” is another name for Israel. It derives from a root word that means “straight” or “level.” It means, “that which is acceptable, pleasing.” Israel is “the pleasing one, the one the Lord accepts.”

Of course this title refers to every child of God today. Every born again person is pleasing to God and accepted “in the Beloved.”

The message here however is the swiftness with which God comes to the aid of His people. He “rides the heavens… on the clouds of His majesty” to get to us when we are in need.

Do you think that God has forgotten you? That He is unaware of your predicament? That He is overlooking you, or is ignoring you? It is not true! You may not see Him in action yet, but He is with you. He has ridden on the clouds to get to you. You are the object of His full attention right now. The angel of the Lord is protecting you. The Spirit of the Lord is sustaining you. The Lord Himself will meet your needs according to His glorious resources.

Help is not “coming;” Help is here!

A Higher Standard

Deuteronomy 32:51 (HCSB)

For ‹both of› you broke faith with Me among the Israelites at the waters of Meribath-kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin by failing to treat Me as holy in their presence.

Moses did not enter the land of promise because of one mistake. One stinking mistake! How many mistakes did the children of Israel make? And they got to enter the land? Moses put up with so much; he remained faithful, but he did not enter the land because of one mistake. Do you think that God holds His leaders to a higher standard?

The incident is recorded in Exodus 17 and Numbers 20. The children of Israel had no water to drink. They began to complain to the LORD—that must have been a policy procedure. God told Moses to take the rod of Aaron, strike the rock, and water would come out.

It appears to me that Moses made a theatrical display. He should have simply hit the rock, but instead he made it look like a magic trick. The record in Numbers 20 says he told the people: “Listen, you rebels! Should we bring water out of this rock for you?” Then he struck the rock twice. Maybe he was angry. Honestly, I don’t know. What he did was certainly close to what God commanded, because water did come out of the rock. But God says Moses failed to “treat Me as holy in their presence.”

This makes me stand back. Am I guilty of doing anything that diminishes the holiness of God before His people? I live before God’s people. He obviously holds me to a higher standard. Will I uphold His holiness? Will I do anything that causes people to doubt the holiness of God? Have I done anything to take people’s eyes off of God’s holiness and put their eyes on me? Makes me wonder…. I know I’ll make it to heaven, but will I be living under a bush? God is serious about His holiness!! Do you agree? Then this should cause us to evaluate our lives.

The Hidden Things

Deuteronomy 29:29 (HCSB)

The hidden things belong to the LORD our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.

There are hidden things, secret things, known only to God. We cannot know everything there is to know about God. Maybe there are some arrogant people out there who believe they can know. Common sense tells us that, if there is a God at all, He must be smarter than us; otherwise, how can He be God? God declared, “For as heaven is higher than earth, so My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9, HCSB).

We cannot know all there is to know, but we know enough. God has revealed to us everything He wants us to know. “But the message is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may follow it” (Deuteronomy 30:14). It is not hard to find God’s will—it is right here in His book, the Bible. He said, "This command that I give you today is certainly not too difficult or beyond your reach” (Deuteronomy 30:11). Not only can we know His will but we can do His will.

I am not one of those fatalists who believe that we have no choice in this matter—that every outcome is decided in advance by a sovereign God. I believe in the sovereignty of God! But I also believe that this sovereign God has given us the capacity of free will. “I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19). God would not have said, “Choose” if we did not have that ability.

God said, “Here are your options… and here are the outcomes of those options… now choose.” There is a way in which everything is determined in advance. If we choose to obey God we will be blessed. If we choose not to obey God we will be cursed. But the choice is still ours.

God, of course, knows how what we will choose, and He has constructed His plan accordingly—but He has given us the dignity of choice. And God has not only allowed us to choose, but He also enables us to live by our choices.

The Ladder to Success

Deuteronomy 28:13–14 (HCSB)

“The LORD will make you the head and not the tail; you will only move upward and never downward if you listen to the LORD your God’s commands I am giving you today and are careful to follow ‹them›.

Do not turn aside to the right or the left from all the things I am commanding you today, and do not go after other gods to worship them.”

There is a curse for disobedience, but there is abundant blessing promised for obedience. I hear people say, “We should not serve God for rewards.” Where do they get that? I don’t find that in the Bible. That’s like saying, “You shouldn’t get saved just because you don’t what to go to hell.” Do you need a better reason to be saved than not to suffer in misery for the rest of eternity? I don’t understand the reasoning of some people. I know they think we should have higher, more altruistic motives for trusting Christ and obeying God—but the desire to avoid a curse and receive a blessing works just fine for me.

God says we will succeed if we obey Him. We will move up the ladder and be in the lead. That sounds mighty good to me! We may look around and say, “Others did it without God.” Yes, Satan has some examples. He puts them on display so others can see them and think, “I don’t have to follow God to succeed.” Bad choice. There are wicked people who prosper, but prosperity is more than money. Some people live in very fine houses, but they cannot live with themselves. God will give you what you need… plus joy, peace, satisfaction and meaning with it. He wants to put your life on display as a trophy of His grace and testimony to His power.

Let the Ox Graze!

Deuteronomy 25:4 (HCSB)

"Do not muzzle an ox while it treads out grain."

This is another way of saying, "Do not deprive the laborer of his wages." Paul uses this in 1 Corinthians 9:9 and 1 Timothy 5:18.

Oxen were used to thresh out the grain, but they were allowed to graze as they worked.

We live in a society today where our leaders believe that one man should labor for the community, not himself. This "Robin Hood" fantasy is a facade. They talk about "leveling the playing field" or "sharing the wealth." This is the philosophy of communism.

They think a banker should not earn more than a basket-weaver, even though the banker has (probably, but not necessarily) considerably more education and a position of greater trust. This sounds like a sweetheart of a deal to the person who does not have a high-paying position. Shouldn't it? But it kills incentive in the marketplace.

We say, "What about that person who does not have the opportunity?"

Everyone has opportunity. Some have greater opportunity than others, but all have opportunity. The crux of the matter is choice. What choices do we make?

In our country we are doing everything we can to take away the consequences of bad choices.

So you were not born with a silver spoon in your mouth. Some of those who were are wrecks because of bad choices they made. Some who were not are now success stories because they made good choices.

"It's hard!"

Why is hard bad? Hard builds character. Hard helps us to appreciate what we have earned. Hard helps us to stand up when life throws us great difficulties. Hard makes us better people. Hard is good! There are some people who used to believe that. Jesus said, "Through many tribulations we enter the kingdom of God."

This country did not become great through communism. This country became great because we had the audacity to believe that God was right and His principles were the way to a prosperous economy.

Beware those who are trying to reengineer the very foundation of our society. The way to a more prosperous and thriving society is to follow the old rules, the rules of the Bible. Anything else will fail!!

Deuteronomy 20:8 (HCSB)

The officers will continue to address the army and say, ‘Is there any man who is afraid or fainthearted? Let him leave and return home, so that his brothers’ hearts won’t melt like his own.’

Moses was giving the Israelites rules for waging war. This may sound like he was giving any man who did not want to fight an "out" not to go into battle. But this is not true. I see two things here:

1. No man wants to be labeled a "coward." No man wants it to be said about him, "He did not fight because he was afraid." He may be afraid--in fact I think it would be pretty safe to say that any man in his right mind was afraid! But he doesn't want it to be said about him that he turned his back on his friends, neighbors or countrymen because he was afraid. He is afraid, but in spite of his fears he marches forward.
2. But those who are genuinely fearful, and are cowards, must not go into battle because of the negative effect they will have on their comrades. Cowardice is one of those things that runs through the camp like the flu-- it is highly contagious, and demoralizing. We do not want any man who is a risk to run away to influence other men to run away.
3. We want for courageous men. We need men who will not take counsel of their fears, but will subdue their feelings and do the right thing. They will not run away when the going gets tough at work or at home. They will not retreat before the enemy of their souls, or some sweet young thing.

Some of the most inspiring words in the Bible are those in the first part of Deuteronomy 20:

Deuteronomy 20:1–4 (HCSB)

"When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses, chariots, and an army larger than yours, do not be afraid of them, for the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, is with you. When you are about to engage in battle, the priest is to come forward and address the army. He is to say to them: ‘Listen, Israel: Today you are about to engage in battle with your enemies. Do not be fainthearted. Do not be afraid, alarmed, or terrified because of them. For the LORD your God is the One who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.’

The enemy is too big for us, but the battle is the Lord's and He will go before us and fight and win the victory!

God's Program of Social Justice

Deuteronomy 16:19–20 (HCSB)

Do not deny justice or show partiality ‹to anyone›. Do not accept a bribe, for it blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. Pursue justice and justice alone, so that you will live and possess the land the LORD your God is giving you.

I am not a "social justice preacher," but I do believe in social justice. Some make it the "be all, end all" of their religion. Our purpose, I believe, is to preach the Gospel until all the nations hear and develop Believers. I believe we are to preach justice when we come to that, but that is not the main subject of our preaching or primary focus of our ministry programs. Please do not misunderstand me-- and am NOT saying that we should not be concerned about justice. We must! We are commanded to do so. We should speak out against injustice when we see it. We should praise justice when we see it. We should help those who are weak, marginalized, taken advantage of, etc. But there are other institutions whose primary task it is to provide justice. And for those institutions there are no better foundational rules than these two verses. We read in the paper or watch on the news or hear from people we know how justice is skewed in favor of the wealthy and the influential. This is a great evil in God's eyes-- and it should be in our eyes as well. But we still believe that Jesus Christ is the one true hope of this world and through the act of conversion the Holy Spirit changes selfish people into selfless people and sinners into servants and wicked people into right-living people. And only the preaching of the Gospel can make this possible.