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Awesome Hands - part 158: “The LORD hath not done all this” - Discussion

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Awesome Hands – part 158

“The LORD hath not done all this”

November 9, 2019

Deu 31:29  For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days; because  ye will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands.

Deu 32:26  I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men:
Deu 32:27  Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the LORD hath not done all this.

Our study today finds us with a very revealing set of verses about how seriously the Lord takes His glory and the works He institutes to that end.

It had been revealed to Moses that the Israelites would provoke the Lord to anger through the work of their hands.

The past several studies have shown that the negative “work of the hands” is creating idols which are worshipped as gods. This can come as physical creations, or more covertly, as the works of our hands in the form of the work we do in our own spiritual lives.

We indeed create “gods” to be worshipped with the work of our own “crafty hands”.

Deu 27:15  Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination unto the LORD, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and putteth it in a secret place. And all the people shall answer and say, Amen.

Though the Israelites did fulfill this set of verses when they were told this “song of Moses”, we will see shortly that Christianity has done the same thing.

Isa 48:5  I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I shewed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them.

We are all gods; therefore, we all create idols of our own hands.

For us personally, we too have fulfilled these verses in our own timing, but that is not the end of the story on this matter.

Deuteronomy 32:27 says, “Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy”, which alone makes it sound like the Lord could possibly “fear the wrath of the enemy”, but we know this is not what is being said simply because the Lord works all things after the counsel of His own will, and causing Himself to fear the wrath of His enemies is not something you can find witnesses to in scripture.

So, what is being said here, and why is it important to understand? Does the Lord fear “the wrath of the enemy”?

Here are the same verses in the ESV translation:

Deu 32:26 (ESV) I would have said, "I will cut them to pieces; I will wipe them from human memory,"
Deu 32:27 had I not feared provocation by the enemy, lest their adversaries should misunderstand, lest they should say, "Our hand is triumphant, it was not the LORD who did all this."'

“It is not the Lord who did all this” is the focus of these verses.

It is very important to the Lord that He has a people who represent Him. In fact, this still holds true today.

When Israel is being told, through the song of Moses, that they will betray the Lord in their actions and hearts, the Lord says He is going to take vengeance (verse 35) on them to avenge His name.

In other words, His “name” is not going to be dragged through the mud without Him having something to say about the matter.

Deu 32:36  For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left.
Deu 32:37  And he shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted,
Deu 32:38  Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings? let them rise up and help you, and be your protection.

When all this happens, the Lord is NOT utterly going to destroy His people because this is what will be used by the enemy to claim that the enemy is the one who ultimately has the power to destroy the Lord’s people, and the Lord is NOT having that!

The Lord is not going to permit His glory to be lessened by His enemy, by His enemy saying it has power to lessen the Lord’s glory.

Instead of utterly destroying His people, God will leave a remnant to show His glory through and to, and that is where Christian’s come in today.

Rom 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom 8:36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Again, lest we think this is only a message meant for the “Jews who are outwardly”, let us examine what the “name of the Lord” is all about and who it is who carries this name with them today.

Anyone who keeps the commandments of the Lord has His name. Therefore, doing, saying, professing, claiming, calling upon or acting in accord with the name of the Lord all means you are keeping His commandments.

“For I am persuaded, that neither death”, tells us that not even the “last enemy” death will have any power of the Lord or His name.

Lam 1:8  Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward.
Lam 1:9  Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembereth not her last end; therefore she came down wonderfully: she had no comforter. O LORD, behold my affliction: for the enemy hath magnified himself.
Lam 1:10  The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: for she hath seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation.

1Co 15:25  For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
1Co 15:26  The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

When any of us do not “keep His commandments”, we are appointed to death in its various forms.

Though the Lord will no utterly destroy His people, if you are His people, then judgment must happen. For God’s people now, judgment is NOW on the house of God.

Deu 32:37  And he shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted,
Deu 32:38  Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings? let them rise up and help you, and be your protection.
Deu 32:39  See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.
Deu 32:40  For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever.
Deu 32:41  If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me.
Deu 32:42  I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy.
Deu 32:43  Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants,   and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to  his people.

This all seems so deadly for the enemies of God, and indeed it is. However, being that we are all the enemies of God because of the flesh that has it’s laws running through it, shouldn’t take our spiritual eyes off of the prize that we have a spiritual race to run to obtain the prize of the high calling.

I know this is a lot of verses, but I am going to read them from the ESV and hopefully this will encourage us all to keep running the race when so many of our enemies (and there are many spiritual enemies to deal with that have nothing to do with the physical) want us to stop running.

Php 3:12 (ESV) Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
Php 3:13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,
Php 3:14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Php 3:15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.
Php 3:16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained.
Php 3:17 Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.
Php 3:18 For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.
Php 3:19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.
Php 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
Php 3:21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

What is this thing we have just exclaimed to be racing towards and trying to win referred to as the “high calling of Jesus Christ”?

Php 3:7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
Php 3:8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
Php 3:9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith--
Php 3:10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings,becoming like him in his death,
Php 3:11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

The focus of this study is to make sure that the enemies of God do not take the glory of God unto themselves.

The Lord tells the Israelites, through the song of Moses, that He will not allow His enemies to be able to claim, “the Lord has not done this”.

Deu 32:27  Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the LORD hath not done all this.

What is the “all this” that the Lord is claimed by His enemies to have not done?

When we put it in the context of these verses, it is all the things mentioned in this chapter of Deuteronomy.

However, when we out it in the context of this race we are running the entirety of our Christian lives, it is all of the things “made from our hands”, otherwise known as “gods”, which take credit for what the Lord has done.

When combining the last few studies of the awesome hands series with this one, anything that we do of ourselves is the work of our hands. It is our own work. Where we get in spiritual trouble is that we take credit for even that work being created VIA our hands.

For example, many people cannot forgive themselves for some grievous thing that have done in their lives. This is because you only see the “you” being the cause of the “grievous thing”.

How much more clearer can the Lord make it that “you” just aren’t that powerful?

We just read that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ in Romans, yet we somehow think we are powerful enough to do that in SOME WAY? Listen again to the Lord in Deut 30 to see just how powerful the “god” you are is.

Deu 32:39  See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.

Simply put, we cannot kill nor make alive ……. our OWN SELVES in and of ourselves. It simply is not given to us to do this and have this power.

The Lord does not share His glory with another in this way.

If we start evaluating the things in our heavens that we struggle with, and place it under this same spiritual microscope, we will discover that the Lord indeed has things under His control.

This should give us great comfort, and when it doesn’t, it is because “we” have somehow injected ourselves into the scenario as somehow not having the power to stop things as they are preceding or to get things going in the “right direction”.

What part of “BE STILL” is hard to understand? Stand in AWE of the Lord. Though “awesome” is not in the scripture, this is the word (AWE) which inspired the title of this series, “Awesome Hands”.

Psa 46:8  Come, behold the works of the LORD, what desolations he hath made in the earth.
Psa 46:9  He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.
Psa 46:10  Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
Psa 46:11  The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

Psa 4:1  To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm of David. Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.
Psa 4:2  O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? how long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing? Selah.
Psa 4:3  But know that the LORD hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the LORD will hear when I call unto him.
Psa 4:4  Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.
Psa 4:5  Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD.
Psa 4:6  There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? LORD, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.
Psa 4:7  Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.
Psa 4:8  I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety.

What are the “sacrifices of righteousness” we are to offer? I just so happened to highlight it before, but could it be so simple? Yes, indeed it is, because there is simplicity in the Lord.

Php 3:9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes  from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith--

The real eye-opener and kicker is that EVEN faith is a GIFT from God, so the righteousness we are to sacrifice is FROM THE LORD! Amen!

Lack faith? Ask for more. We all need more faith, not less! Ever feel like you’ve been cast into the fire or water to be destroyed?

Mar 9:22  And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us.
Mar 9:23  Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
Mar 9:24  And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I  believe; help thou mine unbelief.

Lord, I believe, but help me with the rest of my unbelief … my un-faith. Amen, “father of the child”, amen.

I hope this study will bless you to know who fights on your side.