Lack of Stick-to-itiveness

March 2, 2022 at 12:46 PM Leave a comment

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When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.

The above text from Deuteronomy 4:30-31 tells us there will be an actual period of tribulation during the “latter days.” It also highlights the fact that Moses was a prophet. Clearly, Moses was looking far into the future when Israel would be in severe distress and that distress would come in the latter days, a phrase synonymous with the “end times” or “last days,” during the Tribulation and just prior to the physical return of our Lord.

In this case, Moses was assuring the nation that their future ancestors would have difficult times, but notice, Moses also stated that they (“you”), would return to the Lord and obey His voice (v30b). Then Moses reminds the Israelites of God’s mercy and that He would not leave them nor would He forget about the covenant He had made with their fathers. The promise is that the nation of Israel would become passionate about obeying God. That has not happened yet but it will.

Deuteronomy 1 begins with Moses reminding a new generation of Israelites of their own history with the Lord, lived out by that generation’s fathers. They were first, captives in Egypt, then a nation released from bondage by God. Moses then reminded this new generation of their fathers’ wanderings, failures and successes while in the Wilderness. The whole first four chapters of Deuteronomy provide tremendous insight, albeit in a slightly abbreviated form, about the trials and tribulations of the nation Israel.

What is astounding is when Israel literally came before God’s glory and heard His voice on the mountain, which we see in Deuteronomy 4-5.

22 These words the Lord spoke to your whole assembly at the mountain from the midst of the fire, from the cloud, and from the thick darkness, with a great voice, and He added nothing more. He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. 23 And when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you approached me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders. 24 You said, ‘Behold, the Lord our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire; we have seen today that God speaks with mankind, yet he lives. 25 Now then, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer, then we will die! 26 For who is there of humanity who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? 27 Go near and listen to everything that the Lord our God says; then speak to us everything that the Lord our God speaks to you, and we will listen and do it.’

The above text – Deuteronomy 5:22-27 – shows us that the people of Israel had the correct view of God, at least during the event. They were literally in fear of Him, so much so that they asked Moses to listen to God for them and then tell them what He said because they could not bear to hear His voice anymore. God approved of what they said, meaning, He agreed with them and granted their request. Certainly, God had a reason for wanting them to hear His voice and see evidence of His Presence, but they felt they could not handle it and asked Moses to simply deliver messages to them and they would obey.

Here is God’s response to Moses regarding the people’s concern from Deuteronomy 5:28-29:

Now the Lord heard the sound of your words when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me, ‘I have heard the sound of the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They have done well in all that they have spoken. If only they had such a heart in them, to fear Me and keep all My commandments always, so that it would go well with them and with their sons forever!

Please notice something with me. Regarding the people, God said, “…If only they had such a heart in them, to fear Me and keep all My commandments always, so that it would go well with them and with their sons forever!” Clearly, the people of Israel feared God on that day, with good reason. Who wouldn’t? There is a mountain they have gathered near, which was inexplicably burning with fire and the people saw His glory and heard His voice from the midst of the fire! I cannot imagine what God’s voice sounds like, can you? I imagine it being deep with tremendous character and depth; awe-inspiring in fact, but I could be way off. The whole sight was enough to cause the fear to well up within those folks and I’m sure if I had been there, I would’ve likely felt the same way.

This awareness can help create the proper fear of God that is needed to live a holy life. I don’t mean a fear that causes us to freeze from doing anything because we might do the wrong thing. I’m talking about a fear that keeps us on the straight and narrow because you want to do what is good and right.

God’s desire (that will be fulfilled with the final remnant of Jewish believers who survive the Tribulation and enter into the Millennial Kingdom), is that the Israelites then would have always had the proper fear of God that prompted them to live upright lives. Again, God is not talking about the fear that causes people to freeze up, not sure they should go to the left or to the right. He is talking about a healthy fear of offending God by doing wrong. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to last for the Israelites, and in short order, within 40 days, while Moses was on the mountain talking with God, the Israelites abandoned their fear of the LORD and delved into sin, not only in likely sexual promiscuity, but in worshiping a golden calf that Aaron made for them. This was Israel’s continual cycle before the Lord.

So the fear they initially had of God was promptly ignored in favor of chasing after their own sinful desires. In other words, the “fear” they had for and of God was not the kind of fear that would undergird their lives so that they would always be thinking of ways to fulfill His will voluntarily instead of feeling as though they “had” to in order to avoid God’s wrath. Instead, the fear they had was a fear of punishment and retribution. This is needed to a degree when we first learn of God and His laws. However, this type of fear should give way to a fear of offending God, which should always be increasing in the life of the Christian.

Because we human beings are fallen creatures, some form of fear must continue to be a motivating factor in our lives, but it clearly must be the correct type of fear. I’ve talked about fearing the Lord many times in articles here and I’ve preached on the subject as well. You can go back and read some of them here if you’re interested. It doesn’t do to try and serve our great God out of a deathly fear of punishment and Christians are way beyond this, biblically speaking. However, because we are fallen, though redeemed, we continue to have the fallen or sin nature. This is often the guiding factor in our lives, if we choose to let it have its way. Instead, we should allow a healthy fear of offending God to take root in our lives so that we will do the right things automatically.

For the Christian, it has become too easy to do and say things today that do not conform to righteousness, but draw us into questionable and sinful areas; areas which we should be completely ignoring. I know of people who were heavily into writing articles and speaking at prophecy conventions, who are now basically out of the picture. They have moved away from that life and now are more concerned with things the average lost person chases. It’s tragic. This is unfortunately becoming a new norm within Christendom. We are seeing the growth of the lukewarm church here and now.

This is a difficult lesson for all Christians, but it is a reminder that not one of us is that far from straying off the path. It only takes one wrong step or turn and we’re heading in the wrong direction altogether. It’s easy to shake our heads at Israel or even other Christians who seem to have lost their first love in Jesus and become seriously Laodicean in the process, but if we are not careful, we can easily follow the same path away from God. This does not mean we lose our salvation. It means we have broken off fellowship with God and are no longer in communion with Him. Until and unless those Christians reverse their direction, they will continue walking away from God and with it, lose valuable rewards that come to those who persevere in the faith.

The Israelites had a tremendous fear of God when they saw His Presence and heard His voice on the mountain. It unnerved them so that they wanted Moses to be their point man between them and God. Of course, this also makes Moses a type of Christ in the way Moses constantly advocated and prayed for the people of Israel. If not for Moses, the entirety of the Israelite nation would have perished and God would have started over with Moses (Deuteronomy 9:13-14). As God said, that fear should have stayed with them so that they would have spent their lives living correctly. Unfortunately, the fear they experienced was short-lived and they quickly went into spiritual adultery by worshiping other gods; gods that could not speak or walk. God’s that had to be carried everywhere and gods that were made by people.

So Christian, what should our approach be as we see what’s happening in the world around us? It is easy to feel overcome, defeated, and unsure of what God is doing. Frankly, it is always difficult to be in the mode of waiting for the other shoe to fall in society, isn’t it? In this global atmosphere, there appears to be always something that is about to happen.

Christians need to develop a very healthy, growing fear of (offending) the Lord, which will provide us with thick skins and foreheads made of diamond, harder than flint (Ezekiel 3:9). That is where I believe it starts as we know from Scripture (Proverbs 1:7). That fear of God doesn’t just happen. It must be coaxed into being and I firmly believe God creates it within us in response to the our desire to have it.

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