The text this morning is from Moses’ Book of Deuteronomy, the fourth chapter:
“And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you. Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal-peor, for the Lord your God destroyed from among you all the men who followed the Baal of Peor. But you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today. See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today? “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children— how on the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’ And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom. Then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice. And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone. And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and rules, that you might do them in the land that you are going over to possess.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
Deuteronomy is a word that means the second law, or the second giving of the law. We must remember that the Law of God is good and just and holy, and, as it was given to Israel, it was the basis of Israel’s covenant with God going into the promised land. He gave them the Law, they said they would do it. And if they obeyed the Law, if they kept the statutes and commands, they would live.
But, God was under no false pretenses here. He had led this people out of Egypt, parting the waters of the Red Sea, making them to walk through on dry ground, and at every turn Israel turned away from their God, from Him alone, and sought after false gods. That is what happened at Baal-Peor: they took the Baal that the people of Peor worshipped and joined it together in some false wedding ceremony, giving Yahweh, their God, a wife that He never asked for.
That’s really what idolatry is, making our own gods that suit our needs, adding and subtracting things from God’s Word to fit those needs. And when we are Christians and we continue, even in our sinful flesh today, to form false gods for ourselves, we somehow join together, we merge the True Religion, which is Christ, with our own man-made, selfish, idolatrous religion.
And we do this all the time. We can easily see it today where people who call themselves Christians bow down at the altar of inclusivity. “God is love, and God says not to judge others, therefore, whatever you want to do, whatever you want to believe is okay with me,” they say. Or there are people who call themselves Christians who defend the practice of abortion, which is the murder of a child who did nothing to deserve it from our hands, at the altar of free choice. Or there are people who call themselves Christians who desire nothing of the gifts the Church has to give, the gifts of Christ which are Word and Sacrament, and miss coming, except maybe on Christmas or Easter if their family guilts them enough, bowing down at the altar of It-Doesn’t-Matter-What-I-Believe-As-Long-As-I-Believe-Something.
Or perhaps, perhaps the idolatry is a little more simple. Saying you worship Christ, when you’re really just seeking after power. Saying you worship Christ, but being okay with pornography. Saying you worship Christ, but feeling justified in your hatred of another person. Saying you worship Christ, but loving that new car smell a little too much. Saying you worship Christ, but isn’t she super hot over there? Saying you worship Christ but have you heard the latest thing that so-and-so did? Saying you worship Christ, but not teaching your children of Him.
You see, we are all indeed guilty of breaking the Law of God, and every time we break the Law of God, we are guilty of idolatry, breaking the first commandment; we have other gods before, in the presence of our one true God, Jesus Christ the Righteous. And for this, we deserve the fate, if not a worse one, that the people at Baal-Peor had, where 24,000 people died of the plague.
Yet, God has mercy upon you. Like Israel in Peor, God’s wrath against a sinful people is turned back by a sacrifice. In Peor, it would be the death of a man who had taken an idolatrous woman as his wife and even she, herself. This sacrifice, this grisly death, found in Numbers 25, foreshadows the true sacrifice which was to come, which was Christ upon the cross, bearing the sins of the world, in order that you would receive the mercy of God. And God, in His mercy, does not hold a grudge for your idolatry, not in Christ, but welcomes you into His presence, gathers you before Him in the whole congregation of beleivers.
In fact, in today’s text, Moses has called Israel, the Church of God together, so that they may hear His words and live. That even is what we do to this day. We call the Church together to hear the Word of the Lord and find life. But Israel, just as we do, would not live according to the Law, because, Lord knows, they would break it at almost every opportunity. But they and we would live because their Lord has given over to them the Promised Land, the place that flowed with milk and honey. But there, still, they would die, as we will die, for they were a sinful people.
They would not die without hope. The people of God, even you, do not die without hope. Though we should do the Law, though we should love God and love our neighbor perfectly, we do not, but yet we still have hope in Christ. For it is through Him, and Him alone, that we find all the Laws of God completed, fulfilled for our sake, so that, though we break the Law, we are counted as righteous people. It is through Christ’s sacrifice, and through the continual Means of Grace, by which we receive our Lord’s sacrifice, that we are given His righteousness now and forever. It is by His means now, Word and Sacrament, that we are given the full completion of all things in Christ.
Israel longed to see this day, even today. In their means of grace, the means looked forward to the sacrifice which was to come in Christ for your forgiveness. Every animal slaughtered, every spray of the hyssop branch covered in blood, every cut of the knife for every Israelite boy, was looking forward to the sacrifice of Christ, the Baptism and the Supper He would institute. The old means forgave sins through Christ looking forward to the cross, but the new means, the new covenant of Christ, looks back to what Christ has done for us and is set up as the greatest times of remembrance for all that He has done for us, even then bringing it to today.
And this is good, for this gives each of you hope, that as you receive Christ’s means of grace, He has welcomed you into His family. You may be sure and confident that our Lord has brought you safely to where He is in His Church. And if you have this confidence now, you may also be confident that your Lord will bring you into the Promised Land, that time when He shall make all things new, including this earth, and bring you forth from your graves into the resurrection of all the dead. And there you shall have life eternal in His name.
Israel longed to see this day. Though God was giving them the land, they still had to go in and possess it. God gave it to them, but how many bloody battles would they fight? Yet, our Lord has won the bloody battle for you. Though we struggle in this life against flesh and bone, against spirits and demons, against the world and devil and our sinful selves, the battles have been won for you upon the cross. What battle can you win, lying in your grave, buried six feet down? Even today, according to our sinful flesh, there is nothing we can do. There is nothing for you to do but wait patiently upon the Lord. And so we all shall. And all who rise, believer and unbeliever, shall look upon those who have waited for Christ, and say of you, “This is a wise and great and understanding people.”
Israel has longed to see the day in which we live, for in Christ, we have all good things. We get to obey the Law now, not to live, but to live at peace with one another. And even when we fail, even when we seek after the idols our hands, hearts, and minds have made, we know, we hear there is great mercy from the Lord for our troubled consciences. We repent, we’re forgiven, and we’re welcomed into the Lord’s presence time and time again. Christ has worked this for you so that you may always be at peace in Him. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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