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?”
• Songs of worship direct our thoughts back to God.
Two weeks ago when I was on the trip back from Bintan, I was looking at the wide ocean before me, and occasionally a solitary ship or a tanker. These people are in the middle of nowhere, I thought.
And then a song just popped up in my mind – a song I learnt from childhood.
“Wide, wide as the ocean, high as the heaven above; deep, deep as the deepest sea is my Saviour’s love. I, though so unworthy, still am a child of His care; for His Word teaches me that His love reaches me everywhere.”
You may be in the middle of nowhere but God is there. No matter where you are, you can never be beyond the reach of His love.
Worship songs have a way of lifting your spirit and directing your attention to God.
Last Wednesday I visited Elder Chee with my dad. He has dementia and does not speak anymore. Not a word. He does not response to you. He do not recognise us. He says nothing, not even that he is hungry or needs to go to the toilet.
Yet he responds to music and songs. Mrs Chee asked me to play on the electric piano. We chose the CHOIR sound and played the hymns. I played the familiar hymns; hymns that he would know. Amazingly he started to hum along, clap his hands, and even sing the notes (DO-RE-MI) for some of the more familiar hymns. And he sang the right notes! We had a mini-worship time. Mrs Chee and my dad sang.
When we finally stopped, I turned to him and for a split moment, he extended his hands to acknowledge me. And then, that’s it. He returned to his sedated state. No more words. Nothing else. When we leave, he could not acknowledge.
My take is this. His mind might have shut down, but his spirit can still respond to the hymns. He sings because his spirit is quickened.
God prepares a song for the people. He prepares a song for the future - a song that will minister to them and draw them back.
Worship draws us into God’s presence. That is why we come every Sunday to sing and worship Him. It is not a precursor for the sermon, something to kill time.
• Worship connects us to God. In worship we experience His love and His joy.
God provides the people of Israel what they WILL need.
• The song is the means of recovering from their foreseeable idolatry. It is the medicine prepared before the disease.
• This is the grace of God! God is gracious. He provides what we need before we even know it.
• He seeks to redeem, not to judge. He seeks to save, not to condemn.
Are you worried about the future? Is your future full of uncertainties?
• Take heart. Don’t fear, because God knows what is there in the future.
• And He has already prepared what you will need. Trust Him.
• Christmas is a testimony of that. God prepares JESUS for us. God prepares what we need, when we are still ignorant of it.
Don’t worry about the future. Worry about your FAITH IN GOD.
• Look at the people of Israel. When did they turn from God?
• Deut 31:20 “When I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, the land I promised on oath to their forefathers, and when they eat their fill and thrive, they will turn to other gods and worship them, rejecting me and breaking my covenant.
• Early on Moses said - Deut 8:11-14 “Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”
Watch your faith in God, not your future. Faith in God will bring a blessed future.
• People tend to turn FROM God when they are satisfied with life. Be doubly cautious in good times. Don’t forget God.
• Always count your blessings (in good times) so that our minds are trained on God. He is the One who has given us every blessing.
CONCLUSION
Our future is unveiled to Him. Nothing takes Him by surprise. We have nothing to fear. Trust Him.
• God is always one step ahead of you. He prepares what you WILL need.
• He does that for our good, to bring us back to the right path, the blessed way.
Stay faithful to God. Make the wise DECISION today to honour Him, no matter what.
• God will not force us into submission. Not with Israel, not with us.
• We have the freedom to worship Him. Submit to God and we will be blessed.
