Be Strong and Courageous; I Will Be With You | Deuteronomy 31:1-13

Show Notes

Episode 797: 
In this episode, we delve into Deuteronomy 31, where Moses, at 120 years old, prepares to pass the leadership baton to Joshua. He reminds the Israelites of God's unwavering presence and encourages them to be strong and courageous as they prepare to enter the Promised Land. We discuss the significance of Moses' farewell address, where he reiterates that God will go ahead of them, ensuring that they do not face their challenges alone.

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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, everybody, good morning, it's good to be here. It is good to be here. I thought you were gonna say something else. No, I just I just I usually do. What wonderful thing is Chris going to say today? I just and I was just in rapture. Sometimes I ramble, and then sometimes I just hand it over. Just drop it. That's right, that's right, and then I'm not sharp enough to keep up with you. So well, you're probably prepping for something as good. I guess that's okay. So, hey, my name is Chris, this is Jeff. We're the Bible Guys. If this is your first time listening in, we definitely encourage you to go and watch some of our archives Bible Guys podcast. We have seven hundred and ninety six of them, and then even one hundred and fifty hg dailies before that, and so anyway, welcome, and today we are in the middle of a series and it's our favorite promises of God in different contexts. Yes, okay, so we should call the series like context or something. Promises of context or promises in context. Well, that sounds riveting. I think it does. Yeah, yeah, I think it's just the promises because again, the premise behind these promises for us while we're doing it is because so many people stay worried. So many people struggle with their faith because they just don't know what God has promised. Right, if we know God's word, we have way more faith. Hearing comes or faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So our faith is built the more words of God we know. Right, those two things go together, and so a lot of times the people are struggling with their faith, it's usually because they don't know God's promises. And so hey, we're gonna kind of bunch these promises together for the next five or six, seven, I don't know, ten weeks, whatever it is. We're gonna do TVD. Yeah, and we're gonna kind of bunch them together. So this week, this whole week is just that God is with you, right, that's if you're a follower of Christ. God's promises to be with you. So before we get Divino that we have a segment and this is a would you rather There's five of them and We're gonna have to just pick whether it's me or you. Okay, you want to read the excuse me the first one. Let me see, would you rather always have an itch you can't scratch or always have to sneeze but never do? Those are terrible? Those are always yawn when you don't want to. Yeah, no kidding, Okay, so you get to pick one. Both are absolutely horrible. I would have to say the itch, I suppose. So I feel a little itchy right now because I read it. Does that happen to you? Well? The same with the bugs, right, Yeah, you see a bug and all of a sudden a bug on me. But yeah, I think I've gotten used to an itch. Have you ever been in a situation where you had an itch and you couldn't scratch because like you're in a dentist chair or something, right, and then and it's like, okay, I'm gonna have to ignore it. Well, you find out that it is possible sometimes to ignore it. But I'm not sure you could ignorra sneeze. It's hard. That that was hard. Come I was in the dentists chair and they had that thing in your mouth to keep your mouth all the way open. While you're doing work. I mean, and I finally had to so he couldn't take it out. And then I'm like, and he realized what was going to happen, he just cover it all. I know, I was panicking. You know, depending on how much saliva builds up, you could do a guys on that. It was terrible. Yeah, all right. Number two, would you rather only be able to whisper or only be able to shout? So this is a very basic question and yet very extremism on the results. What do you think. Whisper? I think I would only want to wish. Well, they're terrible, yes, but whisper is definitely the option. Can you whisper loudly? Yeah, that's a good question. Yeah, yeah, it doesn't say you can't. Yeah. And you could also whisper in a megaphone. Yeah, that's right, in a microphone. Just carry little microphone thing around with you. Mister microphone. Yeah all right, okay. Would you rather be able to talk to animals but they all hate you? Or be invisible but only when no one is around? I think we've done it being visible when no one is around thing, have we? Yeah? Because we talked about there's no point in being invisible. Yeah, unless you're gonna do something wrong like rob a banker. Right, but on this one, respying somebody on this one, I don't want to talk to animals that hate me. Yeah, So I'd rather be invisible and no one's around. Yeah, because because it's inconsequential. Right right, there's no consequence to me. Yeah. Yeah, but but but animals constantly talk to animals hate you. Know, you'd be like, all of a sudden, you're just sitting there, mind your business. Here comes a cat and you're like, oh, yeah, this cat hates me. He's gonna he's gonna tell me all about it. Which, by the way, most cats hate. You, that's right, Yeah, they do. Most cats would eat you if they could. Yeah. Do you think that's big enough? Yeah? That's so funny? All right? Is this me? Yes? All right? Number three? No? Number four? Would you rather eat only Halloween candy for every meal in October? Ooh or have to hand out raisins at every trick or treat event and defend your choices? Wow, there is no doubt in my mind I would hand out raisins. I was going to say I would too. I think we've read on every one of these. Yeah, yeah, I mean none are good options, but I mean, are you kidding me? Only Halloween candy for the entire mine? I do love as long as there's all chocolate. I could do it. No, I could do it. I could not do that for thirty I could do it. You could not. Your body couldn't do it. I could do it. No, your body would reject it. Okay, here's the last one. Would you rather have a permanent theme song play every time you in a room? Or be followed by a guy with a kazoo who plays dramatic sound effects. Oh, I like the second one. I just don't know how long I'd like the second one. Dunk dunk dum. Yeah, that would be funny. It would be great for a while. Yeah, you like that one, Yeah, for a while. Okay, I would rather have the theme song when I walk in. Well, I would have to too, because but then it also depends on, like how long is the theme song? And do you get to pick it right? Yeah? Because if it's a long theme song. Have you ever heard the old eighties theme songs? They're go on forever? Yeah, that's okay, I like it so. In baseball, In baseball, when a guy's coming out to hit, you know, he gets to choose this theme song when he walks. Yeah, so that's that's what I would like. Those guys they get to pick cool songs. I would pick wild Thing, remember from well yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah. What was that baseball movie? Uh? Major League? Yeah? Major League? Yeah, it's great, wold Thing and you had the skull and cross billings on his glasses. It's great. What would your theme song be? I I think I've always chosen bad to the Bone, and so I think it'd have to be Bad to the bone only because of my nostalgia connection. So when I was like big salesman and they brought me up on stage, I chose that song back then, and then ever since then, it's for you. I've always chosen that song. Okay. Hey, by the way, have you ever heard Brian Reagan talk about theme songs? Do you remember this? When he was talking about his wife picked out. Beg's I don't remember remember this. So anyway, Brian Reagan is one of my favorite m Yeah. He's he's really good, and he says, he goes, he goes. Let me tell you about a thing that actually happened. He said, I was playing at this comedy club and apparently they play like theme songs for people, but I didn't know that, and I didn't pick out a theme song. My wife was in the sound booth because she didn't know where to stand, and they said, oh, if you want to, you can go stand back in the sound booth. So my wife goes up in the sound booth. The DJ who plays vinyl actually looked over at my wife and says, hey, is there any music in particular that your husband likes? And so she doesn't know why he's asking, huh. So she leans over and she sees all the vinyl and she just goes. But he likes the be GI's. And so that's going to be his theme song. So listen. So so he has no idea. He's in the front back of the house, right and he goes, and he goes, he goes, They introduce him and they go ladies and gentlemen, Brian Reagan, and he goes. He walks out to more than a woman, more than a woman to me. He walks out. He says, I look around, like, what is that happen? It's so funny. Yeah, okay, Well I'm glad you didn't pick that thing up. Okay, well, I have no idea how to transition into this. Well, I was gonna say that was a silly segment. Silly segment, you know, it's not so, you know, that's silly. Deuteronomy, all of Deuteronomy. Yeah, yeah, Douteronomy. So Deuteronomy is the last book of Moses. Right, Genesis, Exitus, Slaviticus numbers in Deuteronomy. Those make up what the Israelites the Jews would call the Torah. And it, yes, that's right, the five books. And it establishes God's law, It establishes God's authority as the creator, It establishes God's covenant to the people of Israel. It establishes how God rescues the people of Israel, sets them free at the First Passover. And then it establishes how God sets up his kingdom through the people of Israel, how they're supposed to worship, and their moral code that they're supposed to live by. Right, and so that's all through Moses. And it's all during the forty years that Moses is leading the people of Israel. And now at this point you get to chapter thirty one. He's a very old man there's only a couple of chapters left. He's one hundred and twenty years old. Yeah, and he God's letting you know, hey, you you run your race, you're about done. Less. Button this thing up, and it's time to hand it over to Joshua. Which, by the way, that would mean that if they're at the end of their forty years wandering in the wilderness, right, that would mean that he was eighty when he started. When he started, Yeah, yeah. He was forty when he fled Egypt. He was in the backside of the desert for forty years. Married Jethro's daughter, was just a shepherd hiding when that pharaoh, the second Pharaoh died. That's when God used him and sent him back to the new pharaoh and to set my people free. He was eighty years old and then he led them for forty years. Isn't that crazy? Yeah, isn't amazing. Charleston Heston was much younger, much younger. Yeah, he was, he was. He was fifty five, max. Not that he's young. Was he was? He young? I don't know. His beard was white. So yeah, well, they definitely, they definitely put him in a No matter how they tried, they could make him look ad. Right, So here you go. Here's what it says in Joshua chapter thirty one. We'll read like the first eight verses or so, maybe ten verses, thirteen verses. When Moses had finished giving these instructions to all the people of Israel, so he gave all the laws of God, and then he reads them to everybody. He said, I am now one hundred and twenty years old, and I am no longer able to lead you. The Lord has told me you will not cross the Jordan River. But the Lord your God himself will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy the nations living there, and you will take possession of their land. Joshua will lead you across the river, just as the Lord promise. The Lord will destroy the nations living in the land, just as he destroys Sihan and ag the kings of the Emrits. The Lord will hand over to you the people who live there, and you must deal with them as I have commanded you. So be strong and courageous, Do not be afraid, and do not panic before them, for the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you. Then Moses called for Joshua, and as all Israel want, she said to him, be strong and courageous, for you will lead these people into the land that the Lord war to their ancestors, who he would give them. You are the ones who will divide it among them as their grants of land. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you. So Moses wrote this entire book of Instruction in a book and gave it to the priests who carried the ark of the Lord's covenant to the elders of Israel. And now Moses gave them this command at the end of every seventh year, the year of Release or the year of Jubilee is another term for that during the festival shelters, you must read this book of Instruction to all the people of Israel. When they assemble before the Lord your God at the place he chooses. Call them all together, men and women and children, and the foreigners living in your towns, so they may hear this book of instruction and learn to fear the Lord your God, and carefully obey all the terms of these instructions. Do this so that your children, who have not known these instructions, will hear them and will learn to fear the Lord, your god. Do this as long as you live in the land. You're crossing the Jordan to occupy. And then the Lord said to Moses, it's your time to die well, And so he says, called Moses, called joshuall present yourself. Right, And apparently it's my time to yawn. Yeah, go ahead, go ahead, No, no, no, I've I've already be. You keep yawning. Well, it's a thing, A big fan of yawning. Well in low lights. Yes, everybody knows that. But I in particularly did not sleep well. Less didn't sleep. You have a toothache, big time. You are suffering, see of things. Yeah, it was a mistake for me to wait to get this thing done. But but I actually have a tooth cracked in half all the way up. All the way up, and so I mean work on it. I got my pocket knife with me. I don't know if I'd be good. I just got chills all the way to. The I might be good at it. I never tried the pocket knife. The dentist was afraid to move it. Yeah, and even touch it. But you're gonna All you need is a rubber mallet. I'll go back in the back finally knock you on the head, take it out. That would got a pair of plyers. That wouldn't work. Huh. You could knock somebody out with the rubber mouth. I don't know. Maybe I'll try to kill them before you might not. That too, Never know, try. Oh that's funny, Okay. So Joshua becomes the nation's leader at this point, and Moses is wrapping things up, and in this big set of instructions that he's passing on to the people and to Joshua, he gives this promise. Now, what's interesting is that yesterday the Book of Hebrews, in yesterday's podcast, the Book of Hebrews quoted. This this verse, yeah, Deuteronomy. And so here we are the next day reading Deuteronomy thirty one six, the original promise, the original promise. Yes, So yesterday he promised, don't get obsessed with money, be satisfied with why God had, because God's never going to abandon. He said, Remember, the Lord will never fail you, He'll never abandon. And he's quoting this passage. What doesn't have anything to do with money, correct, It has everything to do with the battles we fight in our lives. Right, which is why I remember I said, hey, we should call it context because it is the promise that God will never fail you, he'll never abandon you. And you could apply it to honey or contentment or whatever it is gratitude, right and uh. And so it's the promises applied to different contexts and and which is which is wonderful? And uh and what's interesting about this is that, uh, that that he gives us instruction, uh, that he'll never leave you nor forsake you. And here's here's what I want to mention before we even talk about you know, this exact thing that gives us confidence that promises of the Old Testament can be applied in the New Testament. Right now, I'm only saying that because some people may not think so. A lot of people dismiss the Old Testament. Oh, that's just old Testament, and they forget that the New Testament writers, including Jesus, quote it all the time. Yeah, at worst they'll dismiss the Old Testament. But but at best they'll say, well that maybe that promise was given just to the people not to me, right, right, right, And so they'll say, oh, isn't that a contextual. Promise, that was a promise only to Israel, correct, right, right. But here's the Book of Hebrews. The writer of the Book of Hebrews. Because we don't know who the author is, he's anonymous. Some people think it's Paul, by the way, and some people don't. Who do you think it is. I think it's either it's likely to be Paul or Barnabas. Huh, God, I would love it. I love it. We don't have a writer, and it's a question in heaven. Yeah, exactly. Oh yeah, we said last week it would be awesome if it was Barnabas, because Barnabas always takes us a back seat, so for him to be the anonymous writer, yeah, it would be great. But there's some people who think it might be Priscilla and Aquilla, that they wrote it, and that's why there's not a name on it, because it would be Priscilla and Aquila writing. So there's some of those I don't know. There were a few really great teachers during that time. Apollos is mentioned. I don't think Peter wrote it. Peter wasn't really a theology. It doesn't feel like Peter style yet. Right, So this was an extreme theologian who was extraordinarily capable in connecting the Hebrew beliefs to the Jesus move yes and you connect those and that was very skilled. There's only a few people. It'd be a missionary kind of a person that can do that. Yeah, so that's why it's barnabas Apollos. Well, Paul would definitely understand it. Yeah, the style is a little different than some of the ways he writes in some of the other books. But yeah, So anyway, the point is is that some people would dismiss it, and so the writer of Hebrews is saying, hey, you can take this promise that was given in this context to the children of Israel and you could bank on it because the promise is about God. Right, So the promise isn't about some sort of circumstance that they find themselves in. This promise is about God's nature. It's about who God is. And God is never going to leave you. God is never going to fail you, He'll never abandon you. And what's interesting is that's Hebrews. Was it thirteen to five or whatever it was. But this one is Deuteronomy thirty one six, and it also has more words. It says he will always, It says he will go before you, doesn't it right, So it adds to it. It's not only will he will, he never fail you. Yeah. The reason why I can be strong and courageous heading into the battle, yes, because God's already there. Right, I don't have to be afraid. Right. Hey, if the if the biggest, toughest person you know is out in front walking into the problem, you're gonna be okay following them. That's that's what he's saying. So you can be strong and courageous and you don't have to be afraid. Don't panic. The devil loves it when we panic. He's a roaring lion. He loves it when one of the gazelle's panics and leaves the herd. Right, don't panic. Don't make a decision while your decision maker is broken, because God is personally ahead of you. And he says already there. He says, be strong and courageous three times. Yeah, and uh. And so think about this too. This is also a speech that he's given to the next generation. And this is the speech that they should have listened to forty years ago. Yes, one percent. That's why he keeps saying. Yes, yes, yes. So he's saying, God's. Already there, be strong and courageous. God is going to give you the promised land. So Joshua and Caleb and the other ten spies go over the wall. They come back. Everybody goes, oh, no, they're too big. We're like grasshoppers. We're like grasshoppers. And it was only Joshua, who, by the way, strange enough, is now the next leader. But he was the one that tried to rally the troops. He gave the brave heart speech, Right, would you trade from this day to that had one chance at freedom? Right? He's that guy, right, And he says, and him and Caleb, and then he gives this big rousing speech and the very next verse says, and the people wanted to stone him. And because you'd expect people to go, you know, but they don't. They want to stone him like that. Kill kill that guy, shut him off, because I ain't going over there, see those guys. So so so they so they had fear. That's what they struggled with. They struggled with fear. Yes, and and and many times when God gives promises, isn't it true, we struggle with either we don't understand the promise right, or so we have lack of clarity, like what does that mean? And sometimes we do understand the promise. In this case, they understood it perfectly clear, go take over the promised land. They just struggle with fear. And then sometimes we actually we understand it and we try to get over our fear, but then we struggles as the situation unfolds. We struggle with probability, right, like, oh, there's no way God can defeat these odds. Well, in this case, because they struggle with fear, they were punished and they had to wander the wilderness for forty years. And so Moses, you know, he doesn't get to go into the promised Land because that's a whole nother story altogether, right, But he's saying it's now your time, and he's connecting the promises of God to their fear, and he's saying, be strong and courageous because x. Y Z, because I'm out ahead of you. I'm already in the thing that you're afraid of. Yes, right, they were afraid of Jericho which was the most powerful city in that region. They were afraid of the giants that had been there for the last time. They're afraid of all those things. And he says, I'm already there. Don' worry about it. Hey, I'm here looking around. It's pretty great. Come on in the water, right, So he said, come on, man, I'm going to be there with you. So there's this thing that happens rate before. So we started in the first verse of thirty one. But remember the Bible wasn't originally written with chapters and verses. I know, it's shocking, what so this is just an ongoing event that's happening. Moses has just read the entire law to the people, the whole law. He reads the whole thing, all of what we would consider the Book of Deuteronomy. He reads the whole thing, and then he comes down to the end and he says, today I've given you a choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. And now I call on heaven and on earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life so that you and your descendants might live. You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying him and committing yourself firmly to him. And this is the key to your life life. And if you love and obey the Lord, you will live long in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He's talking about big if. Then promises, Yeah, yeah, that's right. That's a big that's a big end. It's a big ning. So then then when he's finished, that's how we start chapter thirty one. When he finished giving these instructions, he says, now, listen, I'm one hundred and twenty years old. Let's talk about what's gonna happen. God's gonna put Joshua in charge, so be strong and courageous. He says it three times. He reminds him of the promise I'm never gonna forsake you. I'm never going to abandon you. Two times he mentions that. And then when he's all done with that, listen, I'm gonna go ahead of you, and you could trust me. Choose life, don't choose death. If the way you choose life is obeying me and loving me and making you me first in your life, and then I'm gonna make all your wildest dreams come true. Then if you choose not to obey my commands, then it's just cursing. And then there's no all curses in your life, and you're gonna wonder why you oppressed all the time. He wrote about that earlier in that same chapter. So then when he gets to these theesis, so be strong and courageous, because I'm ahead of you, just like he just promised, you will live long in the land the Lord's swore to your ancestors. I promised it. So now I'm already there. Be strong and courageous and follow me. Don't be afraid. And then he pauses and goes, So, now make sure you tell your children these things every year, same festival, every year. Read this entire book to them again, because they don't know what you know. They haven't experienced the blessings of God and their life like you did. It's just a story for them, so they need to learn it for themselves too. And a lot of parents, I think struggle sometimes. Oh I don't want to force my faith on my kids. I want my kids to choose from themselves, and God never endorses that idea. God says, I blessed you. Now you teach your children that if they will obey me and they choose life and not death, then I will bless them too if they obey me and make me number one. Right, And so he connects both their current promises. He says, so that you and your children, you and your descendants might live, That's what he says. And then he reaffirms for them, be strong and courageous because I'm going out in front of you. And then he says, so don't forget to tell your kids, and that I think all of those things go together for us. That it's supposed to be an all encompassing life of knowing God's words, claiming his promises, and teaching our children to know God's words so they can claim their promises. Yeah, the promises of God. They're not just for you, They're for your old family. That's right. And it's definitely an all encompassing speech because it's Moses's last one. Yeah, And so he's giving this grand speech about your entire lives. Right, live this way and then pass it on to your children and talk about a vision. Moses is having a vision of future generations. Hey, listen, I've been with you a long time. I care about you. God has chosen me to lead you, and I'm passing the baton. And this is an this is the new regime. This is George Washington to John Adams. Right, this is this is this is the big deal. And then he says, so let me just give you these overall instructions. And then and I love the fact that again, this is a whole nother sermon altogether. I just can't help not to say this. But like when Moses started leading them forty years ago, God part of the Red Sea, right, that was the first you know, the sort of the culmination of the deliverance from the first Passover and everything else. And so they crossed the Red Sea. They were delivered out of slavery. And then you know they're gonna they're gonna take the Promised land. They have to take their licks for forty years for an entire generation. And now you know they haven't seen anything like the Red Sea, but they've heard about it from their parents. And then in this verse right here that you read, it says he will not cross the Jordan River, but the Lord will go ahead of you. And then he says, Joshua will lead you across the river and then and then, and then what does God do? God gives a mini parting of the Red Sea in the party of the Jordan River with Joshua and so going into the Promised Land. Once again, God is reminding the people the same thing. I am with you. I will never fail you. I said it back then and I'm saying it again. I did it with the Red Sea, and now I'm doing it with the Jordan River. I did it with your first leader, and I'll do it with this leader. And so God's consistency and symbolism of partying the Jordan River I just love because again it's just reminding the people of who God is, which is cool. So that's fantastic. That is our time. So hey, we will see you hopefully tomorrow on the Bible. Guys,