Do you understand what He is saying here? God is saying to you and to me that the level of total commitment He is calling for is achievable! He is saying that He is not confronting us with impossible targets or standards, or that His message is out beyond the ordinary person's intellectual grasp. We do not have to be a rocket scientist. We do not have to be able to comprehend the universe before being able to use it. What we are looking at here are a number of Hebrew idioms that we are not familiar with, but each of them is saying essentially the same thing.
As He is giving us these idioms, He is both chiding, very gently, and encouraging us at somewhat the same time. He is saying that understanding and keeping His commandments is not impossible. He is not saying that obedience is always going to be easy. He is also saying that He does not expect absolute perfection. He is saying that it can be lived and kept in a manner and to a degree that is acceptable to Him. And, brethren, others have done it!
I want you to think about Abraham. Does it not say of him in Genesis 26:5 that Abraham obeyed God's voice, kept His charge, His commandments, His statutes, and His laws? Did Abraham do it perfectly? You know that he did not. But by grace, it was acceptable.
David was a man after God's own heart. Was he perfect in his obedience? You all know the answer to that. He was not.
Certainly, we should strive for perfection, but God is not going to let us skip by with the excuse that it is too hard.
He did not let the guy get by with the excuse that He was too hard. That flies in the face of God's grace. That flies in the face of what God said right here. That approach makes God out to be some kind of an ogre and puts us into the role of being His victims. Brethren, that is a satanic justification and it is totally unacceptable.
I have already mentioned that weakness of faith is one major reason for disobedience and makes obedience so difficult. A second reason is because of sin itself - yours and others. Sin has so estranged our heart from God that keeping His commandments becomes far more difficult than it should be. The way of sin has so ingrained itself into our thinking that this self-centered drive tends to dominate our thinking process.
For the most part, until God calls us, we are unaware of sin's dominance. It is this factor that Paul addresses in Romans 7 - another familiar set of scriptures, but I want to read it because it pertains to this sermon.
There is the answer! Sin that dwells in us can be conquered. It can be met, not on our own power, but through the relationship with Christ. If we are developing that relationship, His power, as it were, is transferred to us by means of His Spirit, and we begin to have the resolve and the desire to fight against sin and make the sacrifices necessary to do it. It can be done, just as surely as God says in Deuteronomy 30:11.
Through Moses, God has now revealed it to those folk and to us, to the end that all may obey God's law. Continuing in :
God's revelation is with the people, in whatever land they may be. Theirs were the oracles of God. Moses continues at verse 14:
Remember, that is why God reveals things, so that people can obey His commandments. Moses then concludes the chapter, setting before the people a choice.
By the time that day was over, the Revelator, the Being who became Jesus Christ, had made known to the people - and to those after - His great powers of restoration, His commitment to restore, His promise to restore. That was the hope of Israel. The people then - and their descendants forever - had all the information they needed to make the right choice. While they did not and do not believe that God is their life, their knowledge not being mixed with faith, yet they had all the information necessary to make the right choice.
But we are faced with choices every day, not of this magnitude, but with every choice that we make we choose either God or something else. Every choice we make will tell God where our heart is. Is our heart for Him, and steadfast with Him, or are we willing to sometimes take it easy and choose poorly just for our own fun, aggrandizement, or what have you, for our self-interest? That is what I think we have to take out of this sermon. It is not that man has always chosen poorly, but that we everyday have a chance to choose wisely.
It is not something that is esoteric and not understandable. It is not far off. It is not something that we cannot grasp.
We must understand especially that He is very aware of what is going on in our life! I think that was illustrated very clearly by Richard's sermon subject this morning - talking about the presence of God being clearly visible to those who were in the wilderness [The Glory of God (Part 1): The Shekinah]. That shows you and me, at least symbolically, that God is close at hand. He is not removed way off.
In Deuteronomy 30:11, He says the Word is not far from you. It is right here! You do not have to go traveling off to outer space to get it. He is right here. God is omniscient.
Like God says here, it is not hard to understand at all. The instruction, the very Word of God is near, right within us.
Of course, we must constantly choose life and good and blessing. But we must always remember that He is your life and the length of your days.
He is our faithful tabernacle. Our true home and companion, hopefully for all of us, for all eternity.
