Welcome to Deuteronomy study number 36. We'll go a little more than halfway through this chapter as we send out our Hebelehala out to Roger and Brenda Arendt. Roger and Brenda, here's your Hebelehala. And those who are new, go back and watch all of our other studies. We send out a Hebelehala to somebody new. I can't remember how many, almost 300 of these I think we've sent out. These are people, we've sent them to the locals, but we've sent them to people listening all over the United States and all over the world. And you let us know you're listening, and we'll send you out a hibili hala. And so God bless you both, and God bless the rest of you hibilis. I'm a transplanted hibili up here in the flatlands where I live right now. But with that let's get into our Bible study father. We thank you Lord for another time to get in this book We thank you and ask you to bless this time and to help us Lord to Really absorb your word in Jesus name Amen We're really actually coming to what you could call the last words of Moses the previous study was the song of Moses But that song was given to Moses by the Lord Now these are inspired words Moses is speaking prophetically But he's giving this as kind of his last Address to the children of Israel before he dies and that's what we're going to come to in the next chapter and a couple of studies, but let's pick up here with verse 1 as it says and This is the blessing wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death now That's a pretty special thing for someone to be able to, on their deathbed, speak words of blessing. Of course, we'll refer to Jacob doing that back in Genesis 49. I've personally never experienced anything quite like this for myself. But as far as preachers, we kind of think of Moses as a preacher. My mom used to talk about John R. Rice. the great evangelist and founder of the Sword of the Lord, and he was off on Bible translations. He had some peculiar views on this and that that we didn't agree with, but he preached the gospel. He preached repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. He was responsible for a lot of souls being saved. and stood strong on the pre-trib rapture, the millennial kingdom, and Israel, and eternal security, and other things. But she talked about him preaching at Syed Adel Free Will Baptist Church down in Syed Adel, Ohio, just outside of Wheelersburg, where I was raised after being born in Portsmouth and a couple of days old, taken home to Wheelersburg. I was a baby, I believe, at this time, but I don't remember it, whenever John R. Rice preached there at that church. She was just impressed by the Spirit of God, how God used that man. That was a few years before he died. I remember as a young teen, B.R. Lakin. Some of you may not be, I found that there's not a lot of people familiar with some of these old preachers, but B.R. Lakin was on the powerful AM radio station out of Wheeling, West Virginia, that covered at least all the way from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, up and down the United States. He came to Wheelersburg Baptist Church, where our church, where our family were members when I grew up. It was near the end of his life in ministry, and I wasn't even a saved young man. I was still not in any way a legit believer. I would have probably at that time said I was a theist, but within a few years I was claiming to be agnostic. That was just because I liked my sin. I later got saved about the age of 19. I'd never seen our home church just so subdued and solemn and under some sort of influence. At the time, I didn't understand it. Now I know it was the Holy Spirit. But I've never experienced this as a saved man of some kind of mentor or leader like Moses is here. You know, my dad, I respect him. He's a good Christian man all my life. He was saved in his early 20s, but he faded into dementia and we didn't have this kind of moment with him. and other great influences in my life. Same things happen. They either faded into dementia and didn't have that moment on the deathbed, or they died suddenly. So it's just a special thing when this happens, and especially when it's Moses. And verse two says, and he said, the Lord came from Sinai and rose up from Seir unto them. He shined forth from Mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints from his right hand, went, and says, from his right hand went a fiery law for them. I mean, he etched, like in a laser type fire, he etched the law in stone. And so that's what this is describing, the Lord leading the children of Israel out of Egypt. He was in the pillar of cloud by day and in the pillar of fire by night. And of course, he gave them the law. Verse three says, yea, he loved the people. All his saints are in thy hand, and they sat down at thy feet. Everyone shall receive thy words. Of course, everyone being believers. The Lord knows his people. He demonstrates his love to all. God demonstrated his love toward all sinners, all men. In John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. He died for the sins of the whole world. He didn't die, there's no such thing as limited atonement or any of that Calvinistic nonsense. And even the saved, now we're saved, we look back at the death of Christ and we see God's love, as Paul said in Romans 5, 8, but God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He didn't wait for us to straighten up and get right. He just called on us to have a change of heart, a repentance toward God with faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. But now it says, yea, he loved the people. All his saints are in thy hand. Now he's talking about believers. And they sat down at thy feet. Everyone shall receive thy words. You ask the question, how does the Lord know who loves him? We don't know for sure. We have a good idea. I'm married to a woman. I really, no doubt in my mind, she loves the Lord. But why? Well, for the same reason God says he knows who loves him. You can say, oh, I love God, I love Jesus, but that in and of itself doesn't cut it. John 14, 23, Jesus answered and said unto him, if a man love me, he will keep my words. And my father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. That's why you see in the people who are buying into the new versions, it just so happens that there just always seems to be a backsliding and even total apostasy among a lot of the churches that are embracing those new versions where they cut out the words of God and trash the words of God. Someone who loves the Lord doesn't want the book messed with, can't stand thousands of words being thrown in the trash can on the word of some scholars based on the corrupt Vaticanus Codex and a perverted technique of translating called dynamic equivalency. We want the words of God. We want the words the church has always used for 2,000 years. Don't give us that new version, new text from the United Bible Societies, from the Codex Vaticanus. We don't want it. Not Bible believers. We don't want it. That's how God knows you love him. If you want to experience the love of God, you have to be born again. You have to be his child. By repenting toward God with faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ, believing that he shed his blood and paid for your sins, was buried and rose again, conquering sin and death, and then you'll, I believe, if you're truly saved, then if you are right with God, you'll love his words. That's just across the board. That's a blanket statement. We'll just leave that there and continue. Verse four says, Moses commanded us a law, even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob. And he was king in Jeshura, when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together. This is a little known text in the Bible, but even those of us who read through the Bible, I've found a lot of people just don't let, you know, I'm as guilty as anybody. We read through the Bible and read through the Bible, and there's just so many places that don't stand out. Don't get upset about that or think there's something wrong with you. I believe that happens to every one of us human beings, reading the word of God. It's so thick with information, so thick with truth, so many things to connect from one place to the other. And I read through this, referring to Moses, and he was king in Jeshurun. And I just never even paid much attention to it until a certain point. And then it stood out. I'm like, wait a minute. But you notice it's a little lowercase K there, king, with a lowercase, because he wasn't ordained in an official capacity as king of Israel. But in practical terms, he was. And so that's a pretty amazing statement there made about Moses, who now, He is going, because he's speaking prophetically. There's a lot of times, just to point this out, just so you understand, there's times where prophets will speak and even speak of themselves in that third person because it's God's spirit speaking through them. So then it'll speak of the person who is speaking as though it's another person. I hope you can wrap your mind around that as we continue here. Moses is now going to prophesy over all the tribes of Israel except the tribe of Simeon. We'll come back to that at the end of our next study. But let's just go ahead and jump in here with the first prophecy here of Reuben. Verse six says, let Reuben live and not die, and let not his men be few. So Reuben Blewett, back in Genesis, he had what we call sexual relations, trying to keep it family friendly, fornicated with his father's concubine, Bilhah. She was the mother of Reuben's half-brothers, Dan and Naphtali. Dan and Naphtali are sons of Jacob. They became two of the tribes. So it's a really nasty business here. But God had mercy. He didn't kill him. And Jacob, go back to Genesis 49, you'll see Jacob acknowledged and rebuked basically Reuben for that and said it was going to affect his inheritance. But he did live. And it said, let not his men be few. He had a sizable number of descendants. But that's all it said. Verse seven, then we pick up with Judah. And now it's Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and then Judah. He goes ahead and starts with Reuben, but he, I don't want to make that sign, everybody's going to say I'm making devil signs, but I'm taking these two out, and who's left? That's Judah. Simeon isn't even going to be mentioned in this address by Moses, and Levi will be mentioned, but we'll discuss that when we come to it. Judah leapfrogs up there using my fingers for illustration and says he leapfrogs up to the number two position in Moses prophecy and This is the blessing of Judah and he said here Lord the voice of Judah and bring him unto his people if you have a level of spirit spiritual discernment and you've really full of God's Word and you've really let it soak in what we've taught. We've taught this in our Genesis studies, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, now Deuteronomy. We've taught it in all those about Jesus devotionals that many of you have listened to and followed along. He's talking about the Messiah coming through Judah. He continues, let his hands be sufficient for him and be thou and help to him from his enemies. And I believe that's basically a prayer for the Messiah. So it's a prayer for Jesus. Then verse eight, and of Levi. So see how he leapfrogged, but now here comes Levi, who should have been number three on the list, if it's done in order of birthright. And of Levi, he said, let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy Holy One, whom thou didst prove at Massa, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah. Thummim and Urim, we've talked about that in Exodus especially, were something that is a mystery really. I mean there's some people pretend to know what they are and I've looked at it. They're definitely not anything to do with what Joseph Smith of the Mormon Church taught. Some believed that they would actually toss them on the ground and they would give a message and that sort of thing. We don't know. We'll find out we're gonna see those Urim and Thummim in the Millennial Kingdom with the priesthood there I don't know if we'll see them used the way they were used in the Old Testament, but we'll see them. I believe that but this You know missing status of Simeon from this prophecy is as we noted it's interesting but you have the elevated status of Levi and Really? So it might suggest, number one, that Levi wasn't the mastermind of the slaughter of the men of Shechem back in Genesis 34, which we'll talk about again at the end of next study. But regardless, Levi made up for it to a great extent by standing with Moses when other tribes did not. And Verse nine says, who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him. Neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own children, for they have observed thy word and kept thy covenant. God rewards this kind of loyalty and faithfulness. You know Jesus said if you forsake father and mother and children and lands and siblings, etc You'll be rewarded greatly It's not something you want to do but if they if they make you make a choice, then who you want to choose and I I bring this up every once in a while because I just try to be transparent about it. I have children. I'm trying not to be too specific. They may repent and things will change. We'll have all this on video down the road. I'm not the only preacher who's had children. Just cut us off. Don't want anything to do with us because we won't go into sin with them. My late first wife had that same ultimatum really to me and I just would not stay. If all I could do is be a janitor in a church somewhere, I'm still going to serve the Lord. That's all there is to it. That's what I want to maintain that kind of faithfulness and I hope and pray you do too. And that's what he's rewarding here. Jesus says, if we will remain faithful, we don't earn our salvation by being faithful unto death, but if we will remain faithful, he says, we will hear the words of Matthew 25, 21. Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou has been faithful over a few things. I will make the ruler over many things. So Levi is rewarded for his faithfulness. He doesn't get the inheritance like the others, but he ends up with a very, really elevated place. It says in verse 10, they shall teach Jacob thy judgments and Israel thy law. They shall put incense before thee and whole burnt sacrifice upon thine altar. And of course, that's what happened. They became the priesthood and took care of the temple. Aaron and those of his descendants were the priesthood and the others, other Levites, took care of the temple and tabernacle duties right up until the time Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple around 586 B.C. and then they started again when they all went back 70 years later, right up to 70 A.D. Then Moses prays the following in verse 11. bless Lord his substance, and accept the work of his hands. Smite through the loins of them that rise up against him, rise against him, and of them that hate him, that they rise not again. The Lord blessed Levi as long as Levi was faithful in administering the ordinances of the tabernacle and temple. An example of this fulfillment is when Saul, King Saul, ordered the killing of Ahimelech, and Doeg the Edomite killed 85 of the priesthood, then killed everybody and everything, all the animals included, with the men, women, and children, including nursing infants, in the city of Nob, under the orders of Saul. Well, what happened? Saul ended up losing his kingdom, and all his sons were killed, including Jonathan, who wasn't a bad kid. So the family in name of Saul would never rise again, and David and his family became the lineage of Judah, the kingdom, and then it split, and they continued with Judah until 586 BC, as we said a moment ago. So now we come to this prophecy for Benjamin, verse 12. And of Benjamin he said, the beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him. And the Lord shall cover him all the day long and he shall dwell between his shoulders. That's very practically true. Benjamin was right up against Judah and also on either side of the temple was the land of Benjamin. So it was between his shoulders kind of thing. That's the way it looks on a map. So that's pretty interesting stuff there. And then comes the only full-blooded brother of Benjamin, Joseph. And that's the one, if you remember, he blessed Joseph five times above the other brothers when they all came down to Egypt and found Joseph ruling over Egypt in a time of drought. Verse 13, and of Joseph he said, blessed be of the Lord be his land for the precious things of heaven, for the dew and for the deep that couches beneath. And it's pretty amazing how Moses really pours it onto Joseph. For five verses she doesn't do for the others Look at verse 14 through 16 and for the precious fruits Brought forth by the Sun and for the precious things put forth by the moon verse 15 and for the chief things of the ancient mountains and for the precious things of the lasting hills and verse 16 and for the precious things of the earth and and fullness thereof, and for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush, let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that was separated from his brethren." He's not done yet, but this takes us back, of course, to Egypt, where Joseph suffered such terrible injustices at the hands of his brethren. minus Benjamin, but was eventually lifted up to the point that he ruled over Egypt and ruled over all of his brethren, which he had relayed to them he had seen in a dream. And then the Lord blessed Joseph with two sons, which were then blessed as though each of them were a tribe. And they had the size of a tribe each. Verse 17 then says, his glory is like the firstling of his bullock. and his horns are like the horns of unicorns. Unicorns are real. They may not be the white horse with the rainbow thing that the world has come up with, but unicorns are real. We're gonna find out exactly what this is referring to during the Millennial Kingdom, so you just stay tuned. You'll find out about that. Continues about the horns of the unicorns, with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth, They are the ten thousands of Ephraim and they are the thousands of Manasseh or if some people say Ephraim But the glory of Israel during the Golden Age under David and King Solomon were to a great extent the prosperity of Ephraim and Manasseh The comparison there of his glory like the firstling of his bullock refers to a young bullock. A young bullock is strong and powerful and that image was used in ancient times as an emblem of royal majesty. But sadly, like the rest of them, Joseph under Manasseh and Ephraim, they were part of the northern kingdom and under Jeroboam went into idolatry. and they'd eventually be a part of the great apostasy of those northern tribes along with the rest of the others minus Judah, Levi, and Benjamin who stayed in the south. And we should remember these things. I quoted a number of times in our study of the Pentateuch, the Torah, 1 Corinthians 10, 11, and 12, where Paul's referring to the Old Testament, says, now all these things happen unto them for in samples. That's the same idea as examples. And they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. We're living in the last days, and so forth. People say, well, I don't believe all those old ideas in the Bible. It's 2024, whatever year it is when you're watching this. That's insanity. It doesn't matter. We should look back and learn, as he says in verse 12, wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. That's our purpose in these studies, and may God bless you to do it. Amen.