A Song For The Future

It is interesting to note that the last assignment God has for Moses is for him to write down a song; and to teach it to the people and have them sing it.

• Why? Because they will need it.

• God foresees what will happened and prepares what the people will need.

1. OUR FUTURE IS UNVEILED TO GOD

God tells Moses “the day of your death is near.” He knows and He calls for Joshua to meet with Him at the Tent of Meeting.

• He is to commission him and prepare him to take the lead. God prepares.

And He tells Moses that “these people will soon prostitute themselves to the foreign gods of the land they are entering.” (31:16)

• 31:21 “I know what they are disposed to do, even before I bring them into the land I promised them on oath.”

Nothing catches God by surprise. He has foreknowledge. He is omniscient (all-knowing).

• The people has not committed the apostasy yet, but God knows what they are DISPOSED to do. And God prepares for that.

• We can only looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. They look fine now but they will change, God says.

Your future is not hidden from God. Some people like this, some don’t.

• Whether you feel you like it or not, the truth remains. Learn to see this as a blessings and not a bane, as a comfort and not a threat.

• Nothing in your life can be an accident or a coincidence.

• David wrote in Psalm 139:1-6 “O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. 2You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. 5You hem me in - behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. 6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.”

God knows your need even before you know it. Christmas proves it. You didn’t know you need Jesus until you met Him.

• God knows you, to the extent that He has a clear and infallible foresight of what you need. He does not guess.

• Psalm 139:15-16 “My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

2. GOD PREPARES FOR OUR FUTURE

He asked Moses to write down a song and teach the people to sing it.

• God sees what they are disposed to do and He prepares them a song.

• We can become faithless, but God will remain faithful (cf. 2 Tim 2:13). Even when the people turn FROM Him, He will not turn FROM them!

• Why? He cannot disown Himself. That’s Him. That’s WHO He is, faithful and true.

• He will not change. He CANNOT. He will keep His covenantal promise to Israel.

He knows what the people WILL NEED. He cannot force them to stay faithful, but He can at least provide them something to help them COME BACK.

• The people will need something to awaken their thoughts and remind them of Him, when they stray.

• So God asked Moses to “write down a song, and teach it to the people and have them sing it, so that it may be a witness for me against them.” (31:19)

The song is in chapter 32. It sings about God’s goodness and kindness. It sings of their folly of turning to other gods because there is no god beside Him! (cf. 32:39)

• In the absence of printed materials, God uses songs. Songs are easy to remember and can be passed down from generation to generation.

• 31:21 “And when many disasters and difficulties come upon them, this song will testify against them, because it will not be forgotten by their descendants.”

That’s what the Israelites were known to do – sing. They sing the psalms of ascent when they travel to Jerusalem during the festivals.

• Even when they were in captivity, the Babylonians asked them to sing.

• Psalm 137:1-4 “By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. 2There on the poplars we hung our harps, 3 for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!" 4How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land?”