“The Lord said to Moses, “Soon you will lie down with your ancestors. Then this people will begin to prostitute themselves to the foreign gods in their midst, the gods of the land into which they are going; they will forsake me, breaking my covenant that I have made with them. ¹⁷ My anger will be kindled against them in that day. I will forsake them and hide my face from them; they will become easy prey, and many terrible troubles will come upon them. In that day they will say, ‘Have not these troubles come upon us because our God is not in our midst?’ ¹⁸ On that day I will surely hide my face on account of all the evil they have done by turning to other gods. ¹⁹ Now therefore write this song, and teach it to the Israelites; put it in their mouths, in order that this song may be a witness for me against the Israelites.” Deuteronomy 31:16-19

There is a real sense of sadness as I read these last verses of Deuteronomy – as we witness the last days of Moses. Notice the response of Moses. G-d says to him, “Your time to die is near; call Joshua and present yourselves in the tent of meeting, so that I may commission him.”  There is no complaining from Moses. There is no sense of anger toward G-d at his plight that he will not see the promised land, but Joshua will. Moses had been through a lot in his service to G-d. But Moses is stoic in his obedience to the will of G-d.  He is 120 years old, he can no longer get around, and he knew all along that it was not to be his privilege to see the Promised Land. And in the midst of all of the emotions that must be running through him, he writes a Song – not because he is sad, but because the Lord commands him to do one more thing for these people who will continue to turn their faces away from G-d. 

What song would you write for the Lord in response for what G-d has done for you?  My song would be “I am the Laugh-Man” by Harry Chapin.  The first line of the song goes something like this, “I am the laugh-man; half clown and half man.”  Why this song?  Because I often feel like I am a clown for the Lord, who wants the people to laugh and respond to me, yet the people don’t respond.  I think it is the cry of all Christians, wanting the un-churched to respond to us, yet our efforts too often fall on deaf ears.

Pastor Dave

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, ²⁶ and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26

Jesus is commonly spoken of in the New Testament as the one who redeems and saves, as having redeemed the human race and brought it salvation; and in the Old Testament there are many references to God as redeeming and saving. (William Montgomery Watt – Professor Edinburgh)

One thing is clear–Jesus was not thinking in terms of saving our physical life; for, the man or woman who believes in him will die a physical death. We must look for a more than physical meaning when we hear the words “Jesus saves.” Instead, Jesus was thinking of the death of sin. He was saying: “Even if a man is dead in sin, even if, through his sins, he has lost all that makes life worth calling life, I can make him alive again.” A man named A.M. Chirgwin quotes the example of Tokichi Ishii. Ishii had an almost unparalleled criminal record. He had murdered men, women and children in the most brutal way. He was in prison awaiting death. While in prison he was visited by two Canadian women who tried to talk to him through the bars, but he only glowered at them like a caged and savage animal. In the end they abandoned the attempt; but they gave him a Bible, hoping that it might succeed where they had failed. He began to read it, and, having started, could not stop. He read on until he came to the story of the Crucifixion. He came to the words: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” and these words broke him. “I stopped,” he said. “I was stabbed to the heart, as if pierced by a five-inch nail. Shall I call it the love of Christ? Shall I call it his compassion? I do not know what to call it. I only know that I believed, and my hardness of heart was changed.”

Look, being saved by Jesus does not need to be so dramatic as that. Anyone can become so selfish that he is dead to the needs of others — can become so insensitive that they are dead to the feelings of others. Jesus Christ can resurrect anyone who is dead to the “Self-Sins” – selfishness, self-concern, and self-admiration to name a few. History proves that Jesus has resurrected millions and millions of people – and he is the resurrection and the life.

And there is even more — Jesus was also thinking of the life to come. He brought to life the absolute certainty that death is not and will not be the end. Through Jesus Christ we know that we are journeying, not to the sunset, but to the sunrise. In the most real sense we are not on our way to death, but on our way to life.

Pastor Dave