Title: Towards a New World!
Contents
♡♥♡ Towards a new world! / Deuteronomy 31:1-8
***Introduction
There is a saying, 'Ilshin, Ilshin' (日新又日新). It means 'new day by day and new day by day'. We Christians are new people every day. People in the world come from the past, live in the present, and move toward the future. So we work hard to build something to make a better future. The idea of meritoriousness is derived from this. That's why they never let go of the past, so they grunt, hesitate, and get frustrated. ‘Reincarnation’ and ‘relationship’ are all words that express a life tied to the past. This is because they have the things of the earth as their possession and have hope.
But as Christians, our lives and belongings all belong to God. That is why we live every moment enjoying the grace that comes from God, and we throw away the past things as waste. This is because all hope is in God. Therefore, Christians live by the grace of God, which is newly prepared and given every day. That is why there is joy, there is peace, there is gratitude, and there is contentment. In particular, we do not enter the kingdom of God by accumulating merit. Therefore, it is to rejoice and enjoy God with thanksgiving who accomplishes all things and leads them. All we need is to obey and follow God's guidance with joy. We will confirm this fact again in the text of the text.
1. The background of the text is as follows.
At the command of God, Moses was the leader who led the Jewish people of the covenant, who were slaves in Egypt, and led their lives in the wilderness for 40 years. Through Moses, God made a covenant with the people of Judah on Mount Sinai through the Law, and raised up the nation of ‘Israel’ as God’s people. Unfortunately, however, Israel did not fully trust God and had to train to obey God in the wilderness for 38 years.
Now, 40 years after leaving Egypt, we are facing the promised land of Canaan. Canaan was a whole new world that was thrilling to the nomadic people of Israel. Before this new world, Moses, the leader of Israel, is preparing to part with the people. Because as the leader of the old days, he had to end his life in the wilderness with the disobedient people.
Moses is teaching Joshua, the new leader, to have spiritual courage. Because the new world wasn't something you could sit still and get. Although it was the land that God had prepared and allowed, it was something that had to be won by fighting. Therefore, spiritual rearmament was absolutely necessary. This is a principle of faith that applies to us today. So, what should we do for the new world that is given to us every day?
2. The new world requires trust and obedience.
Let's look at verse 5. “The Lord will set them before you, and you will do to them all the commands I have given you.” This is a promise to trust and obey God absolutely in what God gives to the Israelites. The reason for trusting and obeying like this is that, even though the Israelites must fight for the land, God goes ahead of them and opens the way. Let's look at the second half of verse 3. “… The LORD your God will pass before you and destroy these nations before you, and he will give you possession of the land.”
This God opens a new world to us every day through Jesus Christ. In order for us to gain this new world, we must trust in the God who guides our lives and obey Him with all our hearts. The people of Israel had to be trained in the wilderness for 40 years to do this obedience. That is, through the sufferings of the wilderness, He filtered out the remnants of disobedience and rebellion. Just as obedience is the key to opening a new world, disobedience is a stumbling block to the new world. Let's look at Hebrews 3:7-9.
“Therefore, when you hear his voice today, as the Holy Spirit says, do not harden your hearts as when you were tempted in the wilderness, stirred up in wrath. There your ancestors tried and tested me, and saw my works for forty years.”
3. The new world requires bold action.
The text repeatedly emphasizes, 'Be strong and courageous', and encourages courage by saying, 'God will be with you and you will have it.' Because it requires bold action.
Giant tribes live in Canaan, where you will now enter, armed with powerful weapons, and encamped with strong walls. This was already reported by spies 38 years ago. When the Israelites heard this report, they became discouraged and disobeyed and disobeyed God's command, and they had a bitter experience of being destroyed in the wilderness. We are repeating this over and over again, because we must not experience these failures again.
So are we today. Just looking at the world's environment and the circumstances given to me can make you feel discouraged and frustrated. The winds of the world do not leave us Christians at ease. It is for this reason that Jesus showed the miracle of walking on the water or the miracle of calming the wind and the waves.
These desires, such as the world's unbelief, temptations, and pleasures, do not just sit still and watch the saints act in faith. Our adversary, Satan, stirs up winds of fear and waves of doubt, seeking to sink us into the world as Peter drowned. But we do not need to be afraid because the Lord who made and rules this world is with us and is always there for us. Just like the disciples, we must remember the fact that while serving the Lord, we were exhausted and despaired while trying in vain to try to solve the problem with our own strength.
We must watch and pray so that we do not lose faith in the Lord, trust in the Lord who is with us, and obey the Word without any doubt. Let's remember that the reason for leaving the Canaanite tribes was to see whether Israel would obey God's Word. Let us not forget for a moment that the circumstances and conditions that hinder the new world before us are to see if we trust and obey God.
The bold act of trusting in the Lord and obeying the Word is the key that opens up a new world that is given to us every day.