When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess and is cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you. And when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them, nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son, for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods. So the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. But thus you shall deal with them. You shall destroy their altars and break down their sacred pillars and cut down their wooden images. and burn their carved images with fire. For you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people. For you are the least of all peoples. But because the Lord loves you and because he would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, The Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Therefore, know that the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments. And he repays those who hate him to their face to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates him. He will repay him to his face. Therefore, you shall keep the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which I command you today to observe them. Then it shall come to pass because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them that the Lord, your God, will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which he swore to your fathers. And he will love love you and bless you and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil. the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock in the land of which he swore to your fathers to give you. You shall be blessed above all peoples. There shall not be a male or a female barren among you, among your livestock. And the Lord will take away from you all sickness and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt, which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you. Also, you shall destroy all the peoples whom the Lord your God delivers over to you. Your eyes shall have no pity on them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you. If you should say in your heart, these nations are greater than I, how can I dispossess them? You shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, the great trials which your eyes saw. the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out. So shall the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. Moreover, the Lord your God will send the Hornet among them until those who are left who hide themselves from you are destroyed. You shall not be terrified of them for the Lord your God, the great and awesome God is among you and the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you little by little. You will be unable to destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. But the Lord, your God, will deliver them over to you and will inflict defeat upon them until they are destroyed. And he will deliver their kings into your hand and you will destroy their name from under heaven. No one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them. You shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire. You shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them. nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, for it is an accursed thing. Amen. As we saw last week, this is the plan for the conquest when the people of Israel are being instructed on how they are to enter into the land of Canaan, and they are to utterly destroy specifically these Canaanite nations. So last week we saw the instruction for the conquest in verses one and two. Then we noted the necessity for distinction from the Canaanites in verses two to five in the political sphere. They were not to make treaties. They were not to make covenant. They were not to make or show mercy to those cities under the ban or those cities devoted to destruction. And then as well in the social sphere, they were not to marry. They were not to take as wives women from these particular nations that were condemned, that were under the ban. And then in the religious sphere, notice specifically in verse five, they were to utterly destroy every vestige, every remnant of Canaanite religion. verse five, but thus you shall deal with them. You shall destroy their altars and break down their sacred pillars and cut down their wooden images and burn their carved images with fire. If you look over at verse 16, you will see what the purpose for this was. They were to destroy it as an act of God's vengeance and judgment, certainly upon the Canaanites and upon their idols. But as well, they were to remove the temptation from Israel. The end of verse 16 says, Nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you. God knew his people very well. So he tells them when they go in to get rid of the get rid of the deities or the idols, rather, of the pagans because their hearts would be led astray. They would be prone to worship. They would be prone to bow down and serve those idols. So there was a very specific reason why God utters the destruction of Canaan or the Canaanites, rather, and of their gods so that his people could function as that holy nation. They were designed to be, according to Deuteronomy 4, where the nations around them would be able to marvel Not so much at the nation, but at the nation's God. They had a missionary enterprise. They had an evangelistic endeavor. They were to be a city set upon a hill so that the peoples around can marvel at the grace and power of God who had delivered them and who had set them up and who had given them the particular laws that ruled them. So, having looked at the instruction and the necessity for distinction, let's look now at the basis of Israel's distinction from the Canaanites. Verses six to eight. The basis of Israel's distinction from the Canaanites. They are told, stay away from them. And here they're told why it is they are to stay away from them. The first, notice their identity. Verse six says, you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. So their identity as the people of God, as the covenant community under God, was the basis upon which they were to remain separate from the nations around them. They had a status. They had privilege. They had benefit. They had blessing from the living and the true God. You are holy, you are chosen and you are a special treasure. This is not the first time these terms have been used with reference to Israel, and it's certainly not the last time that these terms would be used with reference to Israel. You can turn back for just a moment to Exodus chapter 19, where you see these three terms applied to the people of God, a holy people, a chosen people, a special treasure. Exodus chapter 19. This is somewhat paradigmatic or programmatic, or it sets the agenda for redemptive history to follow. I'm sorry, Exodus 19 five. Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people for all the earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel. You see, this particular people was to be higher or in higher esteem rather than all the nations of the earth. God set his love upon them and wanted to bless them and wanted to make them a kingdom of priests. A kingdom of priests wherein they could, as I said earlier, shine the light of the glory of God to the nations around them. They had a very specific purpose with reference to this whole conquest. They were going into Canaan so that they could then mediate the blessing of God to the peoples around them. They were to be a kingdom of priests. This statement of this phrase of these concepts are repeated again in the book of Deuteronomy verse chapter fourteen may turn their want to show us something about continuity with it with reference to the covenants tonight. Notice of Deuteronomy fourteen to four you are. a holy people to the Lord your God. And the Lord has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. Deuteronomy 26, verse 18. Deuteronomy 26, verse 18. Also today, the Lord has proclaimed you to be his special people, just as he promised you that you should keep all his commandments. And then this is interesting, because when we get to the New Testament, who is described with these particular terms? The church, right, the true Israel, the people of God, the Israel of God, Titus chapter two and verse 14. It's very interesting. This continuity exists with reference to the people of God. They are the Israel of God in the old covenant. They are the Israel of God in the new covenant. It's not ethnic. It's not based on bloodlines, but rather it's based on grace. Remember, in Romans chapter nine, not all Israel is Israel. It's not the physical descendants, but rather it is those who, by God's grace, are the seed of Abraham. Those who believe on the Lord Jesus, they are Israel, the Israel of God. This whole idea, these concepts applied to the church. in a real powerful way, destroys a key tenet or a key principle of what is called dispensationalism. Dispensationalism posits or sets forth two distinct peoples of God. You've got the Israel and you've got the Gentile church. But the Bible ascribes the same terminology to the faithful Israel of old, to the Gentile church in the New Covenant. There is one people of God. They are those saved by grace alone, through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. There's not two peoples of God. Classic dispensationalism taught that God or Jesus came to offer a kingdom to Israel. Israel rejected that kingdom. So then God instituted a plan B where he would bless the Gentile church. But then there'll be a rapture of the church, and then God's plan to bless Israel will be enacted once again. That is simply unbiblical. There is one people of God. That terminology that's applied in Exodus 19, that's applied in Deuteronomy 7, Deuteronomy 14, and Deuteronomy 26 is applied by the New Testament authors to believers in Jesus Christ. We are the Israel of God. Paul is able to pronounce peace upon the Israel of God in Galatians 6 16. He's writing to Gentile churches. He is writing to those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. These are the true seed of Abraham. These are the sons of Abraham, the ones who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Titus 2, 14, it says that in verse 13, looking for the blessed, open, glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself. Here it is. His own special people zealous for good works. First Peter, chapter two. The terminology from Exodus 19 is even more conspicuous in first Peter, chapter two, verses nine and ten. He writes, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, who once were not a people, but are now the people of God. who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. And, of course, in Revelation chapter one, Revelation chapter one, verse six, says to him who loved us at the end of verse five and washed us from our sins in his own blood and has made us kings and priests to his God and father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. So you see, this language applied in the Old Covenant is consistent with what is applied to New Covenant believers. Again, an added, added, an additional proof, an additional statement, an additional fact that what we find is continuity between the covenants. Though there's great distinctiveness and difference, there is nevertheless that continuity that dispensationalism rejects and thus posits two people of God or two peoples of God, which the Bible nowhere envisages. The Bible does not recognize such a distinction between the people of God. This is why oftentimes you'll see money being spent. to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, to do all those things because they have in their mind that it's the geopolitical entity of Israel that is somehow going to be the benefactor of God's greater blessing. It is the church that is the benefactor. It is the church that reaps the benefit. It is the church of Jesus Christ that fulfills or that rather is what God has purpose to be a holy people, a chosen people, a special treasure. This is their identity. Notice back in Deuteronomy seven, seven and eight, their election. This is the basis again for their distinction from the Canaanites. based on their identity and their election. Verses seven and eight. Notice the Lord did not set his love on you, nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people. Wasn't just the majority. God doesn't go with the obvious victor, right? God doesn't pick the bowl. He doesn't pick the ones that are most numerous. In fact, he picks the one, the nation that was the least of all peoples. I mentioned, or at least alluded to last week. There are three times in the coming chapters where God reminds Israel. They are in this position of advantage, this position of benefit and blessing, not because of them. He underscores and highlights again and again and again his gracious purposes. Here he tells them he has chosen you or he did not set his love on you, nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people. He doesn't choose the winner. He doesn't choose the one that's the likely victor. He chooses the one that's least of all. That's why Paul in First Corinthians says not many wise. Not many noble, not many mighty, but God has chosen the weak things, the despised things. He has done this to bring the knot and to frustrate the ideas of men that look at things just the opposite. So then notice not only here because they were not chosen because they were the greatest or the most numerous. Look at chapter eight and verse 17. He says, Then you say in your heart, my power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth. This is what you are not supposed to do. You are not in this position of benefit and blessing because you're the most numerous. You're not in this position because you are the one who has power and might and you have been wise to gain this well. But as well, it's not because of your righteousness. Notice in chapter nine at verse four. Do not think in your heart after the Lord your God has cast them out before you say, Because of my righteousness, the Lord has brought me in to possess this land. But it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you. It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you and that he may fulfill the word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Therefore, understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff necked people. He says it three times in a few verses. God knows us, doesn't he? God knows us as Christians, doesn't he? Sometimes as believers, we might actually have this well up in us that, yeah, of course, God chose me because I'm a good guy. Or God chose me over that one because, you know, after all, I wasn't as wicked as that one. There is that self-righteousness that wells up, unfortunately, even in the believing heart that we need the labor to suppress and to keep down. Three times, God says, do not think in your heart after he has cast them out. Don't pat yourself on the back. Don't congratulate yourself. Don't extol your free will. Don't install your law keeping. Don't install your merit. Don't say that you are a better guy or a better girl than your next door neighbor. And it's as a result of that, God has chosen you. God has blessed you. And God has given you these benefits. This was calculated, brethren, to humble Israel on the plains of Moab, poised to enter into the promised land. Armed with the knowledge of God Most High, it should have framed their hearts in a proper disposition so that they would have gone dependently upon the Lord and not arrogantly forgetting the Lord. All of this is calculated to promote in the people the fear of God, a recognition of why and how they stand based on God's grace, And it's not due to their ingenuity, not due to their moral self-righteousness, and it's certainly not due to the fact that they are more numerous than the nations around them. So God always highlights this reality with sovereign grace that shows that it was his mercy. It was his kindness. This is ultimately the basis upon which they have this benefit of distinction from the Canaanites. So he tells that verse seven, the Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were more more in number than any other people. For you are the least of all people. Now, notice in verse eight, positively, verse seven is a negative. He didn't choose you. He didn't love you because you were numerous. But now positively versus the remainder of verse eight. Why does the Lord love you? But because the Lord loves you and because he would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers. The Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the house, a hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Now, just go back for just a moment to verse seven. Look what it says. The Lord did not set his love on you, nor choose you because you were more a number. The Lord did not set his love on you for this reason. What's the question? Why did the Lord set his love on you? Verse eight answers because he loves you. It's not amazing. He said his love, he desires you, he has affection for you because he loves you. He predetermined, he predestined, he decreed his love to be upon you. It's really an amazing statement. The Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because of this, but because the Lord loves you. It's really a sort of a tautology. A tautology is when you say the same thing to explain something. You tell your wife, I love you because I love you. Hopefully she'll go, that's great. Your husband says, or your wife says, I love you because I love you. That's great, isn't it? That's what God is telling his people. I love you because I love you. Notice in Ephesians one, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame. He doesn't choose us because we're holy and without blame. Rather, he chooses us and he loves us in order that we will be holy and without blame. You see that God's love precedes. We love him because he first loved us. This is the glory of the Christian gospel in Ephesians 1 5. in love, having predestinated us unto adoption as sons. He doesn't adopt us as sons so that he can love us. He loves us. And that leads to adoption as sons. People oftentimes think of predestination as being sort of this mechanical, almost vile doctrine. But it's in the context of God's love. I believe that in love goes with the having predestinated us unto adoption as sons. In Ephesians 1, 4, and 5, there's some question, where does this in love go? It seems to go with the in love having predestinated us. Predestination is not blind, impersonal fate, men just falling out where they happen to. No, the idea is that those whom God foreknew, These he predestined. The foreknowledge there, we've explained it before, is not God's looking down the annals of time or the tunnel of time and seeing who would believe the gospel. That is to gut biblical words of any meaning whatsoever. The foreknowledge there is God's knowing us intimately. God's setting his affection upon us. God's foreloving us. Those he predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. The ones he predestined, these he called. Those he calls, he justifies. Who he justifies, he glorifies. God is a sovereign being and he has purpose to love his people. He's telling them, I love you. I set my love upon you because I love you. It's great. It's an amazing thing. Next time you're feeling down or depressed or blue, just consider God said his love upon you because he loves you. But he doesn't stop there. It just keeps getting more and more powerful. The Lord did not set his love on you because of this. But verse eight, but because the Lord loves you and then notice, and because he would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, there is that covenant faithfulness of God most high. that covenant power of God most high. When the Lord makes a promise to Abraham, he will most certainly keep it. When the Lord makes the promise in the garden that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the seed of the serpent, he will most certainly fulfill this. When God promises to bless his people, those he foreknew, those he predestined, when he says he'll call them and justify them and glorify them, That is rock solid. It is steady. There is nothing more grounded and more sure than that. When the Lord pleads his covenant promises or tells us and reminds us that that is why we are the benefactors, we ought to just stand amazed. Spurgeon says somewhere in the Psalms, I think it's Psalm 77. It's when the psalmist pleads the covenant with God. Spurgeon says this is one of the mightiest weapons in the armor armory of prayer. You come back to God with his covenant promise. You come back to God with his covenant promise. You say to God, Lord, you have promised. Lord, you have said God must be true to his word. When somebody presses you or they press a politician. Well, I never said that. We see a lot of that going on in the South. You know, they're playing clips in 2008 of what the president said he would most certainly do. And now it's a completely different song. And I never said that. You know, this whole idea of denial. Not so with God. You bring that promise to the Lord. He honors it. He blesses. He is sure and true to his word. The covenant faithfulness of God is the basis upon which Israel found redemption. That's what he goes on to state at the end. of verse eight, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. You see, it's just like a blessed crescendo. It's just a glorious testimony. It's a wonderful display of what God the Lord is doing. It's like the prodigal son. When that feast is thrown, is the feast thrown in celebration that the son returned home? Now, the feast is thrown in the reality that the father rescued the son, right? The celebration or the honored guest at the feast is not the son. The honored guest at the feast is God Most High, who runs down the road and who falls upon the prodigal and he kisses him and he puts a ring on his finger and he brings him back to the house. That's what the feast is celebratory of. It's not the wisdom of the son. It's the grace of the father extending mercy, kindness, and goodness to one who has no deserving of it whatsoever. So the Lord here, reminding the people on the plains of Moab, you're not here because you're more numerous. You're not here because you're good money makers or you're able to gain wealth. And you're certainly not here because of your righteousness. You're here because I loved you. You're here because I promised to do this. And as a result, I led you out of Egypt into this land of Canaan that I am giving to you in harmony with the promises that he had made before. It's a blessed statement versus six to eight. May I suggest some time if you're feeling down or challenged or blue or whatever, come to Deuteronomy seven, six to eight. If that doesn't boo you up and that doesn't help you, pray to God to warm your heart. Those are some glorious thoughts, some wonderful truths that the New Covenant believer, as a holy people, as a chosen people, as a special treasure of God, can meditate on and contemplate on and realize that I am where I am by the grace of God and Him alone. Well, what are, fourthly, the practical implications, verses 9 to 11? We've seen the instruction for the conquest, the necessity for distinction from the Canaanites, the basis of Israel's distinction. Notice, fourthly, some practical implications, verses 9 to 11. It begins with Therefore, based on these instructions, based on your distinctiveness, based on the fact that you have this identity and it's grounded in the sovereign election, the love of God and his grace and his mercy. Here's what I want for you to do. The first is you need to know God. Therefore, know that the Lord, your God, he is God. the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments and he repays those who hate him. to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slapped with him who hates him. He will repay him to his face. You see the flow. You see the idea. Here's what God has done. Here is who he is in his person. He is gracious. He is merciful. He is kind. He has done this in terms of redeeming you from Egypt, from the house of bondage. Therefore, the implication, the practical application. What are you supposed to take home from the sermon on the plains of Moab? You need to know God. Not a beautiful thing. Theology proper on the plains of Moab. You see, brethren, when they go into Canaan, the thing that's going to help them most is the knowledge of God. When we go into the world and when we go into our families and when we go into various issues and situations, what is going to help us the most? It's the knowledge of who God is and the knowledge of what he does. You see, theology always fuels practice. Doctrine always precedes action. Theory comes before the application, and this is precisely what we find on the plains of Moab. What you need to realize when you enter into that land, when you engage in wars in Canaan, you need to know that the Lord your God, he is God. When you're battling Canaanites and you're dispossessing the land and you're resisting the temptation to idolatry and you're resisting the temptation to a wife who may be pretty, who may be sweet, who may be kind, but she worships Baal. When you need the grace and the help and the benefit or the aid to do such things, it is the knowledge of who God is and what he does that will sustain you. This is why theology matters. This is why you need to know your God, because without a proper knowledge of God, you will never live consistently. This is one of the reasons why so much of evangelicalism is drowning. It's not being fueled with proper doctrine. If we don't have right theology, we're not going to have right practice. On the plains of Moab, God is teaching them theology proper through his servant Moses. I want you, based on what we've already discussed, to know that Yahweh, your God, he is God. You go into those nations and you see the Baals and you see the Asherah, you see the Moloch, you see the Milcom, you see the various and sundry deities. They're not God. They're not the ones who loved you because they loved you. They're not the ones who set their affection upon you. They're not the ones who chose you. They're not the ones who redeemed you. They're not the ones who brought you out of the land of Egypt. When you feel the desire to bow before Baal, you need to know that Yahweh, your God, he is God. And you need to realize certain attributes of God. He is faithful. He keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments. Baal doesn't do that. Asherah doesn't do that. Moloch doesn't do that. Mammon doesn't do that. Wives don't do that. Husbands don't do that. Children don't do that. God alone. Know that the Lord, He is God. Remember that central confession of faith. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength. What is a help and a means to promote that response? It's to know who God is, to realize he's a jealous God, to realize that he won't share you, that it's not OK to have a bit of Yahweh and a bit of Baal. You must be holy and fully committed. And the way to find whole and full commitment is to know that the Lord your God, he is God. It is to understand Jesus' words in Matthew 6, 25, you cannot serve God and man. You have to understand Matthew 12, 30, that he was not with me is against me. You see, theology is intensely practical. You don't need 15 lessons on a particular thing. If you know your God, those 15 lessons will follow without having to read, you know, whatever guru wrote the latest book on the fifteen lessons. I'm not saying don't read those books. I am saying read theology first. And more than likely, those connections will start sort of making the relays and the synapses in your brain. You'll realize that if God is this way, then I really should love my wife the way Paul says. If God is this way, I really should submit to my husband the way Paul says. If Christ is this way, then I should flee sexual immorality the way Paul says. You see, what we know and understand about God ought to be fleshed out in the way that we live. Such was the pattern on the plains of Moab. So they were to know that the demand of God is that they know that the Lord, your God, he is God knows specifically his mercy and knows specifically his judgment. He is merciful to to to a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments. Never forget that the God you serve is merciful. The God you serve runs down the road, falls on you and kisses you and puts a ring on your finger and then comes back and orders the slaying of the fatted calf. I mentioned on Sunday I'm reading a book on that, on that parable. The guy's just bringing out insights. I feel like I need to repent of ever having preached that because I should have read this book first. But you notice that the mom is not mentioned in the story of the prodigal. The father acts like the mother. The mother would run out to the street to find and fall on her son, while the father waited behind, sort of brooding silently, until the son came back. The father is the conspicuous figure in the story. The father is insulted time and time again, not just by the younger son, but by the older son as well. The younger son insults him by saying, you're better off to me dead than alive. the community of which they were a part. See, they didn't just live on their own. It wasn't like here, you know, you've got acres and acres of farmland, and then there's a house on the farm, and then they're surrounded by acres. No, no, no. Land was scarce. Land was consolidated for as much usefulness as you could. So you had the parcel of land for farming and agriculture, and then the community lived in pretty close quarters. So when the younger son says to the father, give me my share of the inheritance, He is saying, you're better off to me dead. And what does the son do? He cashes in, probably cashes in with people in the community. It didn't take long for the community to hear how embarrassing this situation was, where the father of the prodigal was now insulted and made to look like just a weak, passive, horrible man. The author points out that we oftentimes think that the figure of the father is an Oriental patriarch. He says no Oriental patriarch would ever go through that sort of insult. That father in the prodigal is God alone. There is no human correspondent whatsoever. That son deserved a good thrashing, and any Oriental patriarch worth his weight would have given him that thrashing. So he's insulted. The son comes back. He runs. Again, this is not the conduct of the father. as an oriental patriarch. He runs, he falls on the son. He comes back, he orders the slaying of the fatted calf. When the older brother refuses to participate in the feast, the father's insulted yet again. The father's slapped in the face by the older son. You've got the lawless and the law keeper, both insulting the father. And yet what does the father do? Demonstrate mercy, demonstrate grace, demonstrate loving kindness. That's the picture of God that Moses wants to convey or God wants to convey through Moses to the children of Israel. He's merciful. gracious. I realize that sometimes we're brought up and our fathers maybe aren't merciful. Maybe they're not gracious. Maybe they're twisted. Maybe we didn't even have fathers where we grow up. And then when we understand and we start to learn about this aspect of these attributes of God, for some of us, it's a real challenge to really appreciate just what is being said here. He is gracious. He is merciful. He is kind. He is loving. He lifts up the hem of his robe and runs down the street and falls on his son and kisses him in a display of affection that was just offensive to the community around him. It costs the father, you know, some have taken those parables and said, well, there's no cost. There's no pain. There's no suffering. There's no atonement. Oh, yes, there is. There is degradation on the part of the father in terms of what his sons did to him. Well, on the plains of Moab, God says to the people, when you get into Canaan, you need to take on my mercy. You need to contemplate my graciousness. You need to realize that this isn't just a flash in the pan, but he keeps mercy to a thousand generations. This is where the stress falls. This is where the emphasis lie. Of course, he repays those who hate him to their face. He destroys them. He will not be slack with him who hates him. He will repay him to his face. But notice the time reference is relative to the mercy. It is mercy for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments. What is Moses saying? His mercy is boundless. His mercy is limitless. His mercy is infinite. The very characteristic of God most high himself. Yes. Know the mercy of God. Yes. Know the judgment of God. Know the fact that the Lord does repay those who hate it. There's renegade Israelites among you. Repent, forsake your wickedness and bow down to God most high. If there are Canaanites in the land and they reject, despise and abhor the Lord, he is going to repay them to their face. He's not going to allow sin to go unpunished. It may not happen overnight. In fact, he intimates as much later on in verses 17 and 20 to 26. He says it's not going to happen all at once. It's going to drive them out little by little. They're not going to just walk over the border into Canaan and then everybody beats feet or everybody will be slain. God will work on their behalf slowly, but surely, gradually and persistently. He will aid his people in dispossessing the land of the Canaanites. He wants them to understand who he is and how he functions to his friends and to his enemies. In the language of Christopher Wright, he said in the context of conflicting religious claims for rival deities. That's what they were going up against. They were going into a land filled with idols in the context of conflicting religious claims for rival deities. He says in the ancient world, as much as in the modern, such a statement has considerable power and miss theological cutting edge. Who is truly God? When he says, therefore, know that the Lord your God, he is God. This question, who is truly God? He says the one who proves the claim in faithfulness, integrity, committed love and liberating ransoming power. That's who God is. He says the same dynamic throbs through the polemical rhetoric of Isaiah 40 to 48. The prophet does the same thing in Isaiah. Who is God? He is the God who set his love upon you. He is the God who chose you. He is the God who has redeemed you. This is God. Therefore, give him your heart, give him your soul, give him your strength, give him your faithfulness and love. So the practical implications versus nine to eleven, verse nine and ten is no God. And verse eleven is obey God. Therefore, you shall keep the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which I command you today to observe them. We've seen that over and over and over again. Excuse me. In this book, Craigie says many themes are repeated, which have already been mentioned earlier in Deuteronomy. The repetition seeks to drive home the requirement of obedience on which the success of events still lying in the future dependent. They would oftentimes be told, oftentimes be reminded, you need to obey, you need to go in the land, you need to function according. to the written and revealed will of God. Verse one of chapter six. This is the commandment. These are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess. Again, this is a conditional covenant in terms of those benefits and blessings they'll reap in the land of Canaan. These are the conditions for them enjoying longevity, enjoying fruit, enjoying benefit, enjoying all of the blessings associated with their covenant faithfulness. And then that brings us finally to consider those blessings associated. This can run pretty quickly here through verses 12 to 16. So it's basically what they will read when they enter the land, verse twelve, and it shall come to pass because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them that the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which he swore to your fathers. Again, I would recommend maybe someday we'll get into this in more detail, but the difference between the old and the New Testament John Owen is really good on this sort of thing. The distinctiveness between the two covenants. Here, the blessings held forth are temporal. They are those conditional. They are those contingent upon Israel's obedience in the land of Canaan. So when they go in, the specific blessings that they would reap, according to verses 13 to 16, would be material prosperity. Verses 13 to 14. They would have a multiplication of people. It's a good thing. And that's consistent with God's promise to Abraham. I'll make out of you a great nation. This is, you know, Abraham, look at the stars. Look at the sand on the seashore. You'll have a numerous prodigy. There'll be lots of people. They would have a fruitful land. When they planted, they would grow crops. They would reap the benefit of good land. and they would have a multiplication of animals. Even their animals would not be barren. Well, of course, they would need more animals to sustain a larger population. These are material blessings, material prosperity that they would reap in the land of Canaan. Again, Christopher Wright said this. He said, Abraham's blessing promised posterity and land. Verses 13 to 15 add local color to the bare words. describing what it would mean to have a growing population in a fertile land. The description is rich and rhetorical, but it is also polemical in a concealed way. Polemics is the doctrine or the idea of not only presenting the truth, but destroying falsehood. Polemics is sort of like apologetics, but with an offensive edge. Okay? Apologetics is defending the faith. When people come and attack Christianity, we need to be ready to give a reason for the hope that is within us. We need to be able to answer the critics. Polemics is when we not only answer, but we also destroy their falsehoods. Polemics has to do oftentimes with, you know, dealing with cults. There might be a man gifted in the knowledge of the scripture, so he writes a polemical book against the cult. So you might read some of the Puritans. They engaged in polemics against the Sassanians or, you know, the Armenians or whoever. I mean, John Owen's subtitle in Volume 10 is a polemical treatise and just the title to a book. So, polemics has that effect of not only presenting the truth, but also destroying falsehood. So, he is suggesting that this description of benefit and blessing in the land has a polemical edge, and here's why. He says the things so graphically described here, especially the fertility of wives of land and of domestic animals, were precisely the things that the gods of Canaan were supposed to deliver. Destroying those gods, the Israelites need not fear the loss of these things, for Yahweh is Lord of all these living realities. Fruitfulness and fertility flow from Yahweh's blessing, not from the fertility cults of Baal. When you read these things, don't say, wow, Baal's real. No, it's God. It's the Lord. Don't ever forget that. So they would get material prosperity. They would get health. Verse fifteen, the Lord will take away from you all sickness and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt, which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you. Every commentator I read said there were three well-known diseases in Egypt. I never knew this, so I guess I should have been. reading Deuteronomy commentaries earlier on. Elephantiasis, that's where the body swells up and the skin gets very thick. Dysentery is sort of an intestinal issue, an intestinal problem, and then something to do with the eyes. I think it's ophthalmia. Ophthalmia, however you pronounce that. But it's a problem with the eye. Those were common diseases in Egypt. God says, when you go into the land of Canaan, I will shield you. I will keep you, protect you from those things, those terrible diseases of Egypt. And then finally, they would know military success. Verse 16. Also, you shall destroy all the peoples whom the Lord your God delivers over to you. Your eyes shall have no pity on them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you. A failure to carry out the demands of 7.2 and 7.5, that is, the utter destruction, and not only the destruction of the peoples, but their objects of worship, would present the temptation of idolatry and would prove to be a snare to Israel. So God here tells them, go into the land, obey me in the land, you'll reap material prosperity, health, and military success. So that is Moses' statement here in Deuteronomy chapter 7. We'll pray and then open it up for any questions. Father, we thank you for your Word and we thank you for your grace, God. This passage in Deuteronomy 7 truly does set forth so many good things concerning your character. We thank you for the attributes of God displayed in the Scripture. We thank you that you are merciful, that you are gracious, that you have chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world. Many would call this a difficult doctrine. We love this doctrine, God. We know that if you had never chosen us, we certainly wouldn't have chosen you. We praise you for sovereign grace. We praise you for free grace. We praise you that it doesn't depend upon him who wills or runs, but on God who shows mercy. We thank you and we pray that you would go with us now, and we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.