GOD IS NOT AMONG US

GOD IS NOT AMONG US!

How do you know when God is not here?  How does a person exists if God is not there?  The evidence of a persons life reveals whether God be for them or against them. The evidence of the church reveals God's nearness or absence from their midst.  One thing is for certain that we must understand, none of us can exist or go on without God.  Too long has this nation and the church sought to 'go on' without God.  We must stop and wait upon the Lord until He comes in power and fullness; lest we be consume in our own iniquity!

Deuteronomy 31:17 - 18, "Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us? v. 18 And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods."

In these last chapters of Deuteronomy, Moses time is clicking away.  God has called him and Joshua to come into the tabernacle so that Joshua can receive a charge of encouragement and directon.  And after this God will take Moses up on the mount and let him see the promised land and then gather him unto his fathers in death.  Now as the Lord brings MOses and Joshua into the tabernacle, His presence is there and He speaks to Moses. 

This begins in chapter 31, verse 16.  He tells Moses that he is going to die.  He then proceeds to tell Moses about the future state of the children of Israel.  Now for those that have read the Old Testament they know the truth of what God is going to say.  But imagine for a moment being in Moses shoes.  You have seen the glory of God; you have worked the 10 plauges of Egypt, unseen or unknown in all of earth's histroy; you have seen God speak and give the law and commandments; you have seen God's wrath poured out in a visible way; you have seen God's mercy poured out in a visible way throughout the 40 years in the wildreness.  Now God says, 'this people will rise up, and go a whoring arter the gods of the strangers of the land. . .and will forsake me, and break My covenant which I have made with them.' 

Can you imagine after spending all these years, and seeing all these things done by God to know that it was all for nought?  Oh, how often I have thought on this!  I have seen pastors, teachers, missionaries labor all of their life, all of their energy only to see the work quickly undone after their departure and death.  It is much like Solomon's, Ecclesiastes conclusion, that all is vanity.  Why labor? Why spend and be spent if no good is to come out of it and maintain?  These are definitely deeper question than what we can answer.  For who can answer these things but God.   But let us consider the point to be made for us that we may not be doomed to repeat Israels failure with God.

The first point to be made here is, that God has given to His people, the children of Israel in the Old Testament and the church today, the right way to go.  What is the good and right way?  It is always found in obedience of God's Word. In chapter 28 of Deuteronomy, God gave to Moses one of the most clear cut understanding to what obedience can do, and what disobedience can do.  In that chapter, the first 14 verses deal with the soul and the people that obey the voice of the Lord.  He will bless every aspect of their life.  IN verses 15 - 68, 3x's as many curses are pronounced to the soul that will not obey the voice of the Lord.  Every easy to understand and very simple to apply - obey and be blessed of the Lord; disobey and receive the curse of the Lord.

Now having understood all this, we see that God already knows the future choices of Israel.  He is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent.  There is no secrets or mysteries to the Lord.  He knows all things of past, present and future.  He declares the future state of Israel to Moses, 'the evils have come'.  These evils that are mentioned are the curses that directly tell us they have disobeyed the word of the Lord.