Deuteronomy 26:1-11, Psalm 91:1-2, Psalm 91:9-16, Romans 10:8-13, Luke 4:1-13.
A). PRESENT PROVISION AND PAST DELIVERANCE.
Deuteronomy 26:1-11.
1. The One Whom We Worship.
It was the LORD their God who was going to bring Israel into the land of their inheritance (Deuteronomy 26:1). It was the LORD their God, not the Canaanites’ Baal, who would give them bountiful harvests (Deuteronomy 26:2). It was the LORD their God who gave them a tabernacle, so that His Name might abide there (Deuteronomy 26:2).
Similarly, the church has received an inheritance in Christ Jesus, guaranteed to us by the gift of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:11-14). It all began with a sovereign and merciful act of the true and living God (Ephesians 2:8). The LORD has chosen to “tabernacle” amongst us in the Person of His dearly beloved Son (John 1:14), and He is present with us wherever and whenever we meet in His Name (Matthew 18:20).
2. Present Provision.
When the Israelite farmer began to gather his harvest, he was to take the first of the first-fruits in a basket to the officiating priest in the central sanctuary (Deuteronomy 26:2). There the worshipper would make a solemn declaration of the goodness of the LORD: identifying himself with Abraham, to whom the promise was first made; and with his forefathers who first entered the land in the days of Joshua (Deuteronomy 26:3). The priest would lay the offering in front of the altar of the LORD (Deuteronomy 26:4).
The beginning of harvest would thus present an opportunity to reflect upon the goodness of the LORD in the whole cycle of life. It is He, not Baal, who makes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45). The presentation of the first-fruits of our blessings is an acknowledgement of the graciousness of God in our daily provision (Deuteronomy 26:10).
3. Past Deliverance.
A second liturgical response, in the form of the recitation of a collective remembrance, serves to reinforce the worshipper’s identity with the rest of the community. Jacob, the forefather of the nation, is identified as “a wandering Syrian, about to perish” (Deuteronomy 26:5). Then he took his family down into Egypt, “few in number” - and grew into a “great nation, mighty and populous” (Deuteronomy 26:5).
Their persecution by the Egyptians (Deuteronomy 26:6), and the consequent despairing cry of the Israelites (Deuteronomy 26:7) was remembered. The compassion of the LORD was acknowledged (Deuteronomy 26:7), and His mighty deliverance “with signs and wonders” (Deuteronomy 26:8). The wilderness and Sinai are passed over without comment, and the worshipper identifies himself with those who came into a “land flowing with milk and honey” (Deuteronomy 26:9).
4. Who We Are In The Lord.
Past events define who we are in Christ Jesus to this very day. Like the “wandering Syrian” we were “about to perish” (Deuteronomy 26:5). We were “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1-3). Then God stepped in (Ephesians 2:4-7).
We who were “not a people” are now made the people of God (1 Peter 2:9-10). We were delivered from the bondage of sin and of death, and relocated in the abundance of His life and blessings. We are partakers of His resurrection (Ephesians 2:6), and have received the pledge of greater things to come (Ephesians 1:13-14).
5. Our Response.
The devout worshipper again acknowledged the goodness of the LORD in the giving of the land, and in providing the abundance that flows from it (Deuteronomy 26:9-10). There followed an opportunity for responsive worship (Deuteronomy 26:10), thanksgiving, and the sharing of His bounty with others (Deuteronomy 26:11). We must not forget the gracious benefits which are ours in Christ Jesus, but part of our worship must include the giving of support to His ministers (represented here by the Levites), and to the poor and needy in our midst.
“Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me bless His holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His (gracious) benefits” (Psalm 103:1-2).
B). SHELTERED BY THE MOST HIGH.
Psalm 91:1-2, Psalm 91:9-16.
Psalm 91:1-2.
The opening verse of this Psalm seems to state the obvious: “those who take their shelter under the Most High are sheltered by the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 91:1). Yet there is a reason for this turn of speech: even those who are deemed ‘the people of the LORD’ are at best rebellious children, and struggle against His parental protection (Luke 13:34). If you are truly trusting in God, then be at peace: stop struggling to get out of the nest!
Quiet faith snuggles in, and takes assurance in the LORD: “My refuge, my fortress, my God in whom I trust” (Psalm 91:2). This is spoken as a personal experience, and opens out into a testimony of His keeping power.
Psalm 91:9-16.
Christians under persecution have testified to the literal truth of Psalm 91:10 – but this does not alter the fact that Christians still do suffer. The important point is that our refuge is in the LORD, and that our natural habitat is in the Most High (Psalm 91:9). There are times when God does not deliver us FROM things, but rather delivers us IN things (Romans 8:37).
We are assured of angelic protection: “angels” (plural) to protect “you” (singular) (Psalm 91:11). The devil quoted Psalm 91:11-12, out of context, in his temptation of Jesus (Luke 4:9-11). Had the devil cared to read the next verse, he would have seen his own doom (Psalm 91:13).
This is a Psalm of trust, but that trust is built upon a relationship. It is for “those who know my name” (Psalm 91:14), where ‘knowing’ suggests intimacy. It is for those who ‘love God because He first loved us’ (cf. 1 John 4:19).
There is a reassurance of answered prayer, and of God’s continuing presence even in the midst of trouble (Psalm 91:15). His deliverance is certain, His salvation sure; and we receive an indication of God’s eternal pleasure (Psalm 91:15-16).
C). THE WORD OF FAITH THAT WE PROCLAIM.
Romans 10:8-13.
For Moses, the word was ‘nigh thee, in your mouth and in your heart, THAT YOU MAY DO IT’ (Deuteronomy 30:14). The Apostle Paul makes a new application of this as “the word of FAITH which we proclaim” (Romans 10:8). According to Paul, the object of that faith can only be the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not a word that we ‘do’ as was the law, but a word that we “BELIEVE”, as Paul goes on to expound.
"In your mouth and in your heart" (Romans 10:8) finds its match in Romans 10:9, where the Apostle pronounces: “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God Him raised from the dead, you shall be saved.”
Rather than pursuing futile attempts to fulfill the law by works of righteousness, we are called to a heart religion. Whoever believes in Jesus will not be ashamed. Whoever calls upon His name shall be saved.
Heart belief is a sincere and personal acceptance of the truth which God has revealed to us. The word of God which is near to us, in our mouth and in our heart, testifies to our inability to keep the law of God. It testifies of our sinfulness. It testifies that the wages of sin is death, eternal separation from God. It testifies of our need of a saviour. It testifies that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour of sinners, that He laid down His life for our sins and that God raised Him from the dead that we might live in Him.
Sincere faith will lead to public confession of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is not an easy confession to make, as the community in Rome will have known. On the one hand, there was the opposition of those within the synagogue: on the other, the civil authorities and state religions which felt threatened by the claims of Jesus’ Lordship.
The confession of faith strengthens the believer. It brings with it the assurance that we are on the side of the victor. It is a clear announcement of intent in the spiritual warfare. It is a challenge to those who hear.
One way in which we confess our faith is through the waters of baptism. There we publicly and openly say farewell to the old way of life, and are initiated into the community of believers. To be baptised into Christ Jesus is to die to sin, to be buried in His death, and to rise again in the newness of life. (Romans 6:3-5).
Paul then turns this the right way up as to our experience. First, man believes with the heart “unto righteousness” (Romans 10:10). This is not the same as head belief, of which another New Testament writer says that ‘the devils believe, and tremble’ (James 2:19). Secondly, heart belief goes further, and gives voice to its saving conviction that JESUS, not Caesar, is Lord!
This belief is more akin to “trust” than the mere assent to a Creed. “Whosoever” puts his trust in Him will not be put to shame (Romans 10:11 cf. Isaiah 28:16). This “whosoever” consists of both Jews and Gentiles, and the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him (Romans 10:12).
The Apostle Paul’s next citation comes from the minor Prophets. ‘Whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered” (Joel 2:32) becomes “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord (meaning Jesus, as in Acts 2:21) shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).
That is who we are: ‘those who call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord’ (1 Corinthians 1:2).
D). A SECOND CHANCE FOR THE HUMAN RACE.
Luke 4:1-13.
Man was always going to get a second chance after the Fall of Adam. God made a promise concerning the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15), and ‘that seed was Christ’ (cf. Galatians 3:16; Galatians 3:29). We see in the temptation of Jesus a new Adam marching into the Wilderness, in the power of the Spirit (Luke 4:1), to do battle against the same malicious foe as first confronted the couple in the Garden.
Jesus had just been baptized in the River Jordan and, praying, He received the anointing of the Holy Ghost for His ministry, and the affirmation of the Father: “You are my beloved Son, in whom I well pleased” (Luke 3:21-22). In his usual tidy way, Luke used this opportunity to insert the genealogy of Jesus, tracing the family line all the way back to ‘the son of Adam, which was the son of God’ (Luke 3:38).
Adam and Jesus are not the only people to be named ‘son of God’ in the Bible. The LORD speaks of Israel as His son, whom He called out of Egypt (Hosea 11:1). Matthew, in his own characteristic way, has no problem applying this prophecy to Jesus, who was also called out of Egypt (Matthew 2:14-15). Yet the devil saw it as his special task to throw doubt upon Jesus’ unique status: “If you are the Son of God…” (Luke 4:3; Luke 4:9).
Be warned, dear child of God: this questioning of God’s Word is a favourite ploy of the devil. Back in the Garden, the serpent had begun, ‘Has God said…?’ (Genesis 3:1). There he twisted God’s word, denied it (Genesis 3:4), and led our first parents into rebellion against God.
In the wilderness that other ‘son’ of God, Israel, complained of the ‘light bread’ that God had provided. Lest there should be any doubt as to the source of this complaint, they were thereafter bitten by serpents (Numbers 21:5-6). Food had been the flashpoint for the temptation in the Garden (Genesis 3:1), and would now be the first challenge for the hungry fasting Jesus in another wilderness. “If you are the Son of God (then prove it): command this stone to become bread” (Luke 4:3).
Another indictment against the children of Israel in the wilderness might be that they did not believe God’s word. Jesus’ answer to the first temptation covers that: “It is written,” He says (Luke 4:4; quoting Deuteronomy 8:3), “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” All three answers of Jesus come from the book of Deuteronomy: ‘the second giving of the Law’.
John warns us all of the nature of temptation. It is worldly, and therefore ‘not of the Father’ (1 John 2:16). If turning a stone into bread had to do with ‘the lust of the flesh’, then Luke turns now to ‘the lust of the eyes’. Then there is the ‘pride of life’.
In the Garden, the yielding to temptation took place in similar terms. The forbidden tree is ‘good for fruit, pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise’ (Genesis 3:6).
“Look”, says the devil, “all this can be yours: it’s mine to give - if you will just worship me” (Luke 4:5-7). Jesus rebukes the devil, whom He addresses as “Satan”, adding that “it is written” that “you shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only shall you serve (Luke 4:8; quoting Deuteronomy 6:13).
Now the tempter sets up a scenario which is designed to test God. This is where the children of Israel failed again and again in the wilderness, for forty years: a whole generation of them falling in the wilderness on account of it (Psalm 95:8-11). Be warned by their example: ‘Let anyone who thinks they are standing take heed lest they fall’ (1 Corinthians 10:11-12).
Go on Jesus, taunts the devil, “throw yourself off the pinnacle of the Temple.” After all, he sneers, “If you are God’s Son,” then surely He’s got it covered (Luke 4:9)? The devil even employs Scripture (Luke 4:10-11; quoting Psalm 91:11-12).
The quotation is pulled out of context, and omits the reference to Jesus trampling on the adder and dragon in Psalm 91:13. Our Lord could have pointed to this as His fulfillment of Genesis 3:15, but He will not be distracted from His own agenda. He ends all argument (for the time being) with the succinct comment, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God” (Luke 4:12; quoting Deuteronomy 6:16).
At that, the devil withdrew “for a season” (Luke 4:13). Jesus was without sin throughout His life, but not without temptation (Hebrews 4:15). It is in His victory over sin that our victory lies. He is the last Adam, the new representative head of the human race; and we the new humanity in Him.
Believers in Jesus are called ‘sons of God’ (John 1:12). Those who are led by the Spirit of God are called sons of God (Romans 8:14). Paul tells the churches, ‘ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus’ (Galatians 3:26).
