Hosanna To Our Savior-God!

HOSANNA TO OUR SAVIOR-GOD!

DEUTERONOMY 32:36—39 APRIL 13, 2003

DEUTERONOMY 32:36-39

36The LORD will judge his people and have compassion on his servants when he sees their strength is gone and no one is left, slave or free.

37He will say: "Now where are their gods, the rock they took refuge in, 38the gods who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings?

Let them rise up to help you! Let them give you shelter!

39"See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand."

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Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:

On this Palm Sunday, it is always amazing how quickly the people change from praising the Lord to proclaiming His crucifixion. He comes into Jerusalem as a King and He will go out as one put to death on the cross. It is a short time, from that Sunday morning until late Thursday evening when he is betrayed, when He faces trial very early Friday morning, His crucifixion begins. That is not a very long time for the crowds to change so quickly. It reminds us of how fickle our sinful nature really is. It reminds us along with the crowd that not only do we need to proclaim hosanna on this Sunday, but on every day of our life—Hosanna to our Savior-God. Hosanna, if we look in the footnotes of some Bibles, means ‘save us’, namely, ‘Lord, save us.’ It comes from the Old Testament from the Psalms. From PSALM 118:25,26 we read, "O LORD, save us; O LORD, grant us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD. From the house of the LORD we bless you.”

And so it is today, from the house of the Lord we proclaim:

HOSANNA TO OUR SAVIOR—GOD!

I. False gods cannot help

II. Our Lord alone delivers

I. False gods cannot help

Deuteronomy is one of the first five books of the Bible, which is known as the Torah, written by Moses. Here we have in our text in chapter 32, the Song of Moses. Moses is now giving over his leadership to the next leader, Joshua. He had finished his task of leading the children of Israel through the wilderness for forty years and now they have come to the Promised Land. Moses was not going to go into the Promised Land according to God’s word. But, before he would die, he sings this song—a song of blessing and a song of warning. Moses knew these children of Israel were going to be blessed beyond what they could ever imagine. Because of that they might tend to forget God. The fact is that is exactly what they did. Moses warns them about their false gods. He says, 36The LORD will judge his people and have compassion on his servants when he sees their strength is gone and no one is left, slave or free. The Israelites had seen the judgements of God in their wanderings in the wilderness. They had seen the Lord’s anger when they had complained against Him. The snakes came out and put many to death. They had seen the Lord’s anger when they worshipped the golden calf and many again were put to death. It wasn’t anything unusual that these people had fallen away.

The Lord, through Moses, says He will judge His people. Here the Lord even challenges them. 37He will say: "Now where are their gods, the rock they took refuge in.” He wants to know about their false gods—if they’re going to help God’s people. Of course, you and I know that they can’t. The people soon realize that the false gods cannot help them. They cannot help them do anything. In one sense, they did help themselves to the sacrifices of the people. He said, 38the gods who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings? It’s hard to imagine that these people with whom God had been walking with very visibly (the pillar of smoke and the cloud) would forget about Him and would follow false gods…false gods who could not help. He said, “Let them (the false gods) rise up to help you! Let them give you shelter!” The false gods could not, would not help them. They had no ability. They were dead gods.

The prophet Jeremiah says these false gods had to be carried around because they were not living. They had ears but could not hear, eyes that could not see, mouths that could not speak. They were not like the living God. It reminds us today as we look at the example of the children of Israel that we also always need to encourage ourselves to say, ‘Hosanna!’ to our Savior-God. Today’s text reminds us in the midst of temptations and in the midst of our false gods to say ‘Hosanna!’ to our Savior-God.