1467 - Deuteronomy 4, "Moses Takes a Good Look at the Promised Land"

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

And welcome to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Each weekday, Dr. Crisp will be discussing biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Tune in daily to start your day right and deepen your understanding of how to better walk the way and enjoy the journey. Here's your host, Dr. Tony Crisp.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Welcome to On the Way. This is Tony Crisp, and this is Podcast 1467. Today we're in Deuteronomy chapter 4. Well, Moses is not going to be able to go into the promised land where he so wanted to go, and can you blame him? He had led these people. He had suffered with them. He had prayed that God would spare them and let them go into the land, that God would bring them in as he promised, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and Joseph that he would do. And now Moses is not going to be able to go in. I'm often asked by people why God did that. Well, let me just say God is God. He can do whatever he wants to, but I can tell you the God of all the earth will certainly do right. And Moses knew what he was doing, and we're not privy to everything that happened, but we do know that when we have great light and we sin against great light, God holds us accountable. The reality is the Lord Jesus said that for the one who did not know to do right and did wrong, he will be beaten with stripes. Certainly he will be punished. If a man keeps the whole law but guilty of one, he is guilty of all. That's what James said. But the Bible says to the one who knew to do good and sinned in spite of that, he would be beaten with more stripes. You see, there are degrees of punishment. There are degrees of consequences. Now I'm not the arbiter of all of that. God is. You're not the arbiter of all of that. God is. And only God knows the heart. And God judges based on the heart, not just actions, and he sees what is in our heart, in our mind, and our soul, not just what we feel, but what we think. And it is ultimately what we think that will determine our degree of rewards or our degree of punishment. And so God knows best. And Moses was able to go up on Mount Pisgah. Some say, Well, I thought it was Mount Nebo. Well, it is. The answer is yes, it's a twin peak. The word Pizga comes from a root word which means cleft. In other words, it was a split. But Pisgah is the highest of the peaks, and God said, I'm going to take you up here, Moses, and the scripture says that his eye was not dim, nor his strength abated, and God I'm sure could arrange for and did a very clear day where he could see all the way into the negative as far as the eye could see, just like a twenty-year-old, clear-eyed Israeli defense force pilot, he could see as far as any man. And he could see all the way the Mediterranean from there. I've stood near that place. We don't know exactly where it is, but we've got a great idea because a Pisgah's still Pisgah, and Nebo is still Nabo. That's exactly where it took place. I have been to Mataba and have preached there on the overlook. What a tremendous side it is. And let me just say parenthetically that this is the place where Elimelech and Naomi, the pleasant one. God is my king, Elimelech, Limelech, we call him, and Naomi, the pleasant one, who changed her name to Marah. That's where Mary came from. That's where Miriam comes from. The root is bitter, and she became bitter, as you'll recall, because from Bethlehem, I've stood on Bethlehem's slopes many times in the evening when the sun is shining at my back and shining across the Assyrian African Rift Valley, looking over into what would have been ancient Moab, it's Jordan today. And I have seen Motaba from a distance, that is the land around Modabah, where Ruth and Orpah lived and where the couple, Elimelech and Naomi and their two sons, Malahan and Killian, were living. When he was over in Bethlehem, he saw the green pastures because it will be just as green as a gourd. And he decided he would leave his plot and inheritance there and go over into a foreign land that is not foreign to him, but it was the land of Moab. It was occupied by those who were Moabites and those who were of Jewish descent, to Hebrew descent as well, because remember, a part of the tribes got their inheritance over there. Bethlehem, her ancestral home, and she longed for it. And one day she got up and she said, I'm going home, and that's exactly what she did. You know the story of Ruth and how Ruth followed her. And then God led Ruth and Boaz together. And well, the result of that was the grandfather and the father of King David. All of that took place around this area of Nebo and Pisgah. There's a lot that has happened in Matabah there. In 1884, there was a great discovery there of a mosaic that is in Jerusalem, all over the place. You can see it, but it's in the museum. But it is the uh floor of a church, a Byzantine church, and it has Jerusalem, and there is no temple there, but the Antonio Fortress is there, or where it would have been. It shows the Cardo Maximus, that is, the north-south route, as in all Roman towns. And it also has coming from that temple area, what would have been the Antonio Fortress, interestingly enough, it shows a Cardo minimis that goes out the Damascus Gate. That is the route I personally believe that Jesus went when he would have made his way to Calvary. I believe that the garden tomb area called Gordon's Calvary. From General Gordon's uh purview, I believe that that is where Jesus would have been crucified at Calvaria, called Gagatha, the place of the skull, because there's a hill that looks like a skull. It was actually the quarry where Solomon carved out most of the huge stones for the first temple. I want you to understand that geography really does have a meaning and it does mean something. And the reason I'm talking about this is because Motabah is the major city that is around Nebo and Mount Pisgah. And he looked as far as he could look. He could see Mount Hermon to the north. No doubt Moses could. He could see as far to the south as the eye could see. He could see the Mediterranean and he could see Mount Hermon. Mount Hermon from there would have been over a hundred miles. You could see its 9,000 plus peaks. I've seen them many times from way far away. You can see them from Samaria, from the hills around Shiloh. You can see what was called in the ancient times, not just Hermon, but it was called Syrian, S-I-R-I-O-N. Some people called it Schneer. There is a river which is a source of the Jordan River. There are three major tributaries to the Jordan River. One of those is the Schneer. It's S-E-N-I-R spelled in English, but it's pronounced Schneer. That was one of the ancient names for Hermon, according to the book of Deuteronomy. There also was the Banyas, the Panyas, as it would be, the Banyas River that comes out at the foot of Mount Hermon at Caesarea, Philippi. And then there is the Dan, which is the primary tributary of the Jordan River, the Yardan, the Yardan, that one that goes down. And that's what Dan does. The Dan River turns into the Yardane, the Jordan River, and it has the Banyas and it has the Schneer. Now I'm saying all of that to say that Moses had a good view of the land. When you come to chapter four, Moses repeats all of the rehearsal of the law starting at Mount Horeb, Mount Sinai, and he says, Listen, you need to remember what God said to your fathers and to you. Because it wasn't just to your fathers he was talking, he was talking to you, their children. Some of those that were there would have been old enough to remember. They wouldn't have been twenty at that time, or they wouldn't be standing there today because they would have died before they got over into the promised land. But some of them would have been older teenagers and would have remembered that. God warned them about Baal Peor, where they had rebelled against God and gotten involved in sexual immorality. And so the scripture says in verse five of chapter four, surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess. Now listen to this. God, of course, wants obedience because he is holy, and because he deserves that, and he knows best. But listen to this, therefore be careful to observe them, and listen to the reason God gives. For this is your wisdom. What is the laws and the civility and the statutes upon which the nation of Israel would be built? For the law of God is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear of all these statutes and say, Listen, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. You see, Israel was a nation, an exceptional nation. Why? Because of their foundational biblical principles. The same is true of America. We are not the chosen people as Israel was, but our nation was founded upon Judeo Christian principles. That is the same principles that upon which the nation of Israel was founded. And because of that, we have been an exceptional nation as well, not the chosen people of God. We are not that. But God will bless any nation that will build upon his principles and the foundation of truth, because it is the truth of God that causes a nation to be exceptional. And this is what he said, For what great nation is there that has God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us? For whatever reason we may call upon him. And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you? Only take heed to yourself and diligently keep it yourself. Listen to this, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life, and teach them to your children and your grandchildren concerning the day you stood before the Lord your God in Horeb, when the Lord said to me, Gather the people to me, and I will let them hear my words, and they will learn to fear me, to give me their rightful place. Now let me just ask you a question. Whose responsibility is it to teach your children? Whose responsibility is it to educate your children? Let me tell you what the Bible says. It's you. It's not a teacher in a public school or private school. It's you. It's me. It is our responsibility to teach our children. Now, if we want to delegate that to someone, it does not relieve us of responsibility. If you delegate the education of your children and the upbringing of your children to the public and government schools, then I'm telling you, you better be aware of what they're going to be taught. And we're finding out in our own nation what happens when you allow a teachers union and secularism to invade the home through the children and through the gateway of public education and even some private education or some homeschooling curriculums. Listen, we better get involved in our children's education. We've already lost several generations. And if we don't get involved in our children and God says our grandchildren's lives, then we are to blame. God will hold us accountable. You see, it's not up to the government to educate our children. It's not even up to the church to educate our children. It's up to us. So get involved in your children's education. And education is much more than just schooling, it's what happens at home as well. And I've said it over and over again, and I'll say it again on this podcast several times the course of this year. We need to redefine what SMART is. SMART we have defined as book learning, as learning how to write papers, learning how to do tests. This is why people go to college. Now listen, you're talking to someone who has an honorary doctorate, but I haven't earned PhD. I have a master's degree. I have a bachelor's degree, I have overseas study, study abroad on top of that. And what I'm telling you is schooling is good if it accomplishes the purpose for which you're going. But going to college just to go to college is not wise. If you can avoid going to college and a university today, I would encourage you to do that, unless you have to, in order for medicine or law or whatever the case is, because our universities in America, and even some Christian universities, are nothing more than indoctrination centers for the left. That's right. For socialism and communism. I believe that with all my heart, and I've got proof of it. All I'm saying is we better understand where we're sending our children. And what used to be taught on the college campuses and then it was brought down in the high schools is now taught in the elementary age. So you better watch what your children are being taught, because some of it is immoral and ungodly, and it goes against everything you stand for. Remember, we've got to redefine SMART. I know men that have two PhDs that don't even know how to open up the hood of their car. I know people that have more degrees than a thermometer, but they have no common sense whatsoever. They couldn't even change a light bulb without reading the directions. All I'm telling you is, folks, we've got to redefine SMART. I would much rather see a child grow up learn to read well because if you learn to read well, you can solve almost any mathematical problem over time. You can learn and travel the world in your mind by reading. We've got to teach our children to read. We've got to teach our children to understand mathematics. We've got to teach our children to understand etiquette and wisdom and manners. There's a lot more than just reading, writing, and arithmetic, but I tell you, if we could get those three down pretty well, you can just about do anything from there. But we're more concerned in social engineering and all the things that pertain to ungodliness rather than godliness in much of our government and private schools. All I'm telling you is education is much more than schooling. And Moses knew that, and he tried to tell the children of Israel learning God's word and learning to know God is the essential. Everything else will come in time. For on the way, this is Tony Crisp.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

Thanks for listening to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Tune in every weekday for information on biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Fridays are for your questions. Email your questions to questions at TonyCrisp.org, then just listen for your question to be answered on Friday's podcast. That's questions at TonyC R I S P dot org. Thanks for listening and have a blessed day on the way.