Memory is More Important Than Learning
Keeping the Promises of God Deep in the Heart
Christopher J.H. Wright has described the book of Deuteronomy as the heartbeat of the Old Testament. Along with Isaiah and the Psalms it is the most quoted book by Jesus and the Apostles. It is filled with electric passages that describe the love of Jehovah for His covenant people. There is so much gospel flowing from the fingers of God’s prophet as he writes that the book would not be out of place in the least in the New Testament. Just as Christ has His Beatitudes so too does Moses. With this it also has in its scope a number of warnings from God to the Israelites concerning how they are to behave and believe once they cross the Jordan and go to conquer the Promised Land. Over the next several months we are going to be spending time meditating on what we at Bethany can learn from this portion of Holy Scripture. In the Hebrew the title is literally “These Are the Words”. Our English name comes from the Greek translation of the Old Testament called the Septuagint. There the authors call it, “deuteronomion”, which means the second law. It gets that from the fact that a good portion of it is a retelling of the book of the covenant in Exodus 21-23. There are some added thoughts from Moses to help the generation which had come of age in the Wilderness understand with clearer minds the requirements God provides His people to follow. As we walk through each of the sections every Lord’s Day the goal of the sermon series will be to grow our appreciation for the beauty of God’s law, His wisdom, and how He cares for His Church. Our LORD is as interested in preparing us for our entrance into the Heavens as He was the Israelites to cross the Jordan.
In our first sermon from Deuteronomy we are going to hear a call from Moses to give to the LORD in act of worship the first fruits of the harvests that come from the initial crop which will be produced after the Canaanites, Amalekites, and others are defeated by Joshua and God’s army. As part of his testimony to the Israelites Moses majors on helping the people understand that everything that they now have is a gift of Jehovah. Everything they do in the present and in the future is to be informed by the fact that He has brought their current wealth out of His good will and love for them. There is one particular part of the ceremony of the feast that is worth noting in this morning’s worship and prayer help.
In Deut. 26:3 the prophet writes, “And thou shalt go unto the priest that shall be in those days, and say unto him, I profess this day unto the Lord thy God, that I am come unto the country which the Lord sware unto our fathers for to give us.” Here we have the individual Israelite coming before the priest to make a declaration. He is confessing his faith in the LORD God and in doing so is publicly declaring to all who would listen that he understands that not a thing did he bring into the land, and all that he now has come only from the mercy and grace of Jehovah. Nothing has changed for us in the Gospel age. Central to the life of the believer is a humble reliance upon the truth of what we read for example in Ephesians 2:8-10 which says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” We must always rightly comprehend our own place in the kingdom of God. We are those bought with a price, redeemed out of slavery and granted the liberty of the house of the Master. It used to be the case that one of the things that marked out Christians from all others was a deep and abiding meekness in the face of the world around them. One of the ways that modern industrialism and materialism has most directly affected us is the manner in which we have all become like Veruca Salt in our impatience. What do we want? Everything. When do we want it? Now. At what cost? We don’t care. Just get it to me Amazon.
Some of you know I am a keen admirer of the old Southern writers like William Faulkner, Andrew Nelson Lytle, and Allen Tate. A choice commonality between men like this and women such as Caroline Gordon and Flannery O’Conner is that the personalities in their books and poetry are never surprised by life. In Faulkner’s Light in August the character Joe Christmas says, “Memory believes before knowing remembers.” If you take a second and think through what ole Joe is stating there you can see how it applies to what we have in the book of Deuteronomy. Moses is interested in the people of God so inhabiting their faith and trust in the LORD that it becomes like second nature to them. They don’t even have to think about what God has done for them in the Wilderness, and in the storming of the Land. It’s just who they are. They are so full of gratitude and thanksgiving that they can’t help but be nonplussed when the temporary degradations of life come upon them. They aren’t unemotional Stoics, they weep, they cry, but they don’t fall apart. Each crack of the providential whip is met with assurance that while famine and illness may be a part of everyday life, they are not eternal realities. Spoiled children don’t act like that, but thankful ones do.
I am sure you can think back to hearing stories about the Depression, the Second World War, and other times in days when poverty (real poverty) was the norm for most of our families. My grandfather grew up in a coal camp, was born in a tent because the town wasn’t ready yet, because the mine wasn’t open yet. He used to say to me that folks in southern West Virginia didn’t know they were poor until FDR told them they were. It wasn’t because they weren’t poor, it was because they didn’t see the use in complaining much about it. Whining didn’t add a cent to the company store.
In the Christian life we are called to remember that regardless of how forsaken things might seem to the eyes, the heart knows different. We know that whether we are high or low, safe or in prison, to give glory to the Lord. For His love and His embrace count far more in the scheme of things than all the treasurers of this Earth. I hope our time in Deuteronomy is helpful and that through it we can gain a little bit more appreciation for all Christ has done for us, that we might learn to remember to give thanks, to worship, and have a memory which doesn’t need to be reminded to remember the grace of Jesus, for it is the very heartbeat of our soul.
Something to ponder today:
https://www.reformationscotland.org/2020/02/07/recovery-from-spiritual-depression/
Blessings in Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church