Deuteronomy 32:8-18
'Provoking the Lord to Jealousy'
Divine Service
Oculi, The 3rd Sunday in Lent | March 7th, 2010
Dear Saints,
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:18) That's how St describes the sinful flesh of mankind, quoting from King David's Psalm 36. “No fear of God.” That, I'm afraid, is an apt description of our world today, and even the church today. We simply lack the fear of God.
I suspect that if I were to ask you all privately (and I've talked to some of you about this), “Are you afraid of God?” your answer would be, “No.”
Now this could be good or bad. There are generally two reasons why a person doesn't fear God. I'll give you the good reason first. A person knows their sin, they know that they have abandoned God and His law time after time, that they have been unfaithful, they they have sinned. In fact, this person knows from their life, from their conscience and most of all from the Scriptures that they are completely corrupt and unholy and unclean, and because of all this they deserve God's unmitigated wrath and anger, fire and brimstone heaped upon them eternally.
And while this thought would cause someone to fear, this person knows the story of Jesus, that He came and has God's anger stilled. This person knows that all of God's anger and punishment fell on Jesus in His place, and this knowledge casts out fear, and in fact replaces fear with love and trust. This is the first reason that we might fear God, because faith, clinging to Jesus, knows that there is nothing to be afraid of. “Pastor, Jesus, after He died for our sins and rose from the dead, told us 'Fear not!'” Amen. This is the confidence of faith, a blessed lack of fear. And this faith fears neither death or sickness or want or pain because it knows the eternal love of God and the safety of His kingdom.
If you say to me, “Pastor, I'm not afraid of God,” and this is your reason, then God be praised.
But there is another lack of fear of God, and this is bad. This is the thought that God is not a fearful God.
I've told you before that I think one of the greatest theological errors, heresies, of our age is the thought that God is a nice guy, that He is (and this is a key phrase) “harmless”, that He can't or won't hurt a thing. This is wrong, dead wrong. God is not harmless.
Have you been to see a friend or neighbor, and when you into their house their dog starts to growl or bark, and they reassure you, “Do worry, she's harmless.” And you say, “I know she's harmless, the little dog's only six inches long and it's wearing a yellow sweater.” There mighty be some harmless things in this world, but God is not harmless. In fact, the preaching that God is harmless is the preaching of the demons who do not want us to fear God above all things.
I'm afraid that most people who do not fear God lack this fear precisely because they have believed the teaching of the demons and think that God is nothing to worry about, nothing to be afraid of. “God is not troubled about sin; He's not angry with our rebellion; He has no thought our disobedience. Or even if He is He won't do anything about it. God's a nice guy, what is there to be afraid of?”
This is bad. This is the lack of fear that David and Paul are talking about when they say, “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” This, in fact, is the lack of fear that defines original sin, and in a very real and dangerous irony, the fact that we don't fear God is the reason that we should fear Him! You can think about that later, because I want to consider the danger of not having the fear of God with our Old Testament reading from Deuteronomy 32.
You know that the Old Testament readings that the ancient church read were lost in the middle ages, and that the lessons we read were determined in recent times. They were picked to match the themes of the Gospel and Epistle readings. I suspect that today's lesson from Deuteronomy 32 was chosen because of the Gospel lesson, Jesus casting the demon out of the deaf and mute man, and then the preaching of our Lord Jesus about His victory over the devil and the kingdom of the demons.
Moses also preaches about the demons, and is warning Israel about worshiping them. Hear again this preaching of Moses,
14Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock, with fat of lambs, rams of Bashan and goats, with the very finest of the wheat-- and you drank foaming wine made from the blood of the grape. 15"But Jeshurun [that's the Hebrew word for “straight”, and here is is the ironic name that the Lord has given to Israel, mostly because they will not follow the straight way] grew fat, and kicked; you grew fat, stout, and sleek; then he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation. 16They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger. 17They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded. 18You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth. (Deuteronomy 32:14-18)
The LORD has mercifully rescued His people from their slavery, from the thrashing of the Pharaoh, brought them out of Egypt with Ten mighty plagues, across the sea on dry ground, given them the Ten Commandments and the ordinances for the Divine Service, the temple and sacrifices. The LORD has fed the people from heaven, protected them for 40 years in the wilderness, just lately given them victory over their enemies and they have settled, at least two and a half tribes, on the east side of the Jordan River.
And now they are about to cross over the river and take the land that the Lord promised to them in His covenant. And Moses stands in front of the people and says, basically, “Whatever you do, do not forget God. Do not forsake God. Do not go after other idols. Fear God, and trust in Him.” Moses is pleading with the people to keep the 1st Commandment and fear and love and trust in God above all things. And Moses warns the people. “If you don't there will be trouble. After all, God is a jealous God.”
In fact, this song acts like a prophetic warning, saying that the people would forget and forsake God and provoke Him to anger and jealousy. And listen, then, to some of the things that will unfold on the heads of those who do not fear the LORD, these verses come from later in this song of Moses:
21They have made me jealous with what is no god; they have provoked me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are no people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. 22For a fire is kindled by my anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol, devours the earth and its increase, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains. 23"'And I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend my arrows on them; 24they shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured by plague and poisonous pestilence; I will send the teeth of beasts against them, with the venom of things that crawl in the dust. 25Outdoors the sword shall bereave, and indoors terror, for young man and woman alike, the nursing child with the man of gray hairs. (Deuteronomy 32:21-25)
Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly. (Deuteronomy 32:35)
See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. (Deuteronomy 32:39))
And, dear saints, we see this very thing unfolding in the entire Scriptures. If the people fear the Lord and treasure His Word, in humility and faith looking to God for all help, then the Lord comes and helps and keeps and rescues and delivers His people. But if the people start to trust in idols, in false gods, in the demons, or in the nations around them, then the Lord sets His face against them, opposes them and gives them trouble. It's that simple.
Now it is for us to consider, as Christians, and as a congregation, do we lack the fear of God? Have we forgotten or forsaken Him? Have we listened to the doctrine of the demons that said, “There's nothing to be afraid of? Nothing to worry about? God doesn't trouble with this sin or that?” Have we forgotten that we stand before God every day, and that we will be accountable to Him on the last day? This is very dangerous, for our God is a jealous God, and He does not take kindly to idols or demons or false gods of any sort.
May God grant us repentance. The only safe place from the wrath of God is under the cross of Jesus. The only safe way to lack the fear of God is to have faith in His promises. And, dear saints, He has these promises here for you today, the anger stilling broken body and the wrath-quenching shed blood for you, for your forgiveness. Come then, in fear and faith, to the supper of the Lord, and let us not forget the Lord who has given us life and salvation and the forgiveness of all of our sins. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Hope Lutheran Church | Aurora, CO
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