Dt. 7 First Commandment II. The Gods of Death-Power



Is. 47:5-11

Ps 10:3-13

Eccl. 2:1, 3:17-18





Moses is expounding the Great Commandment.



"Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength."



Or, to put it another way, "You shall have no other gods before me."



In chapters 7-10, Moses sets forth three idols which Israel will face:

7:1-26 Militarism and worship of strength/power

8:1-20 Materialism and worship of wealth

9:1-10:11 Moralism and worship of self-righteousness

("if you say in your heart"-7:17)

("beware lest you say in your heart"-8:17)

("do not say in your heart"-9:4)



So Moses understands that idolatry begins in the heart.

Moses does not view idolatry as purely an outward feature.

Idolatry is a turning away from the true God to worship false gods.

But these false gods are not just made of wood and stone.

Chasing gods of wood and stone, therefore, is a result of an idolatrous disposition.



Tonight we will look at the worship of strength or power.

Moses starts by promising that God will go before them against the seven nations of the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

These nations are more numerous and mightier than Israel.

(Notice v 7, 17, and 22)

God promises that he will hand these nations over to Israel,

but insists that Israel must utterly destroy these nations.

The reason for this is given in verses 3-11.

These nations must be completely destroyed because otherwise they will turn you to idolatry.

Israel is the unique covenant people of God.

Moses echoes the language of Exodus 19 where God declared Israel

to be a kingdom of priests. (Verse 6)

Because they must be holy, they may not intermingle with idolaters.

(In the OT, when something is unclean, it has the power to defile anything that is clean)

(In the NT, through the power of the resurrection, the clean has the power to cleanse

that which is unclean-the "sanctified" unbelieving spouse-1 Cor. 7)

This sort of warfare-destroying everyone-is specifically kingdom warfare.

It is limited to those nations who try to possess the Promised Land.

Israel is to destroy the power of sin in the Land.



Of course, we know that Israel failed,

but Jesus, the true Israel, drove out the power of sin once and for all.

As Paul says in Romans 4:11 the promise to Abraham was that he would inherit the whole earth.

The Promised Land is just a picture of the whole earth.

What Israel was supposed to do with the picture,

Jesus does with the reality.



So let us look at the lessons of Deuteronomy 7 as those who are in Christ.

God warns Israel against two equal and opposite dangers.

The first is arrogance-the idea that God chose us because we are powerful.

(Verses 7-8)

It would be easy to get cocky when you win all your battles.

The history of the church is full of this one!

God blessed the early church with triumph over the Roman Empire.

And the church became too impressed with her own power.

God blessed the medieval churches with triumph over the Germanic tribes

God blessed the reformed churches with triumph over much of Europe.

And God blessed the evangelical churches with triumph over much of America,

and indeed, through the missions movement, much of the world.

In every instance the temptation has been to rely upon our own strength,

and to glory in the power that the church had.

And in every case the church has forgotten that God has done this because (v8).

The proper response to such triumphs is verse 9-11.

God will give you the land.

He will establish his kingdom.

He calls you to live faithfully before him.

And when his people live faithfully-when the church trusts in his strength,

and not in our own power,

then verses 12-16.

When it says that none shall be barren,

watch how that image of fruitfulness is used in scripture.

It starts with the literal usage of bearing children.

But what is the point of this.

Is God saying that having big families is the sign of blessing for us?

Isaiah 54-there is a fruitfulness beyond the physical bearing of children.

Paul cites Isaiah 54 in Galatians 4:27 (read 4:21-31)

The promise of fruitfulness is a promise to the church.

And Paul will go on in chapter 5 to speak of the fruit of the Spirit (5:22-24)

So verses 12-16 are not a promise to Christians as individuals

(indeed, there was never a time when every Israelite experienced this),

It is a promise to the church.

It is a promise to Christ-that his people will never receive the plagues of Egypt.



So if the first warning is "Don't trust in your own power,"

the second warning is, "Don't underestimate the power of God"

v17-21

Again, when exhorting the people of God to faith and good deeds,

Moses reminds them of what God has already done.

God is fully able to destroy the nations.

And in the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

the powers have all been subdued.

Therefore you need not fear failure.

You may wage war against idolatry with confidence that you will triumph.







This is true for the church,

it is no less true for us as individuals.

The desire for power is one of those basic human drives.

We were created with it.

We were designed to have dominion over all creatures,

to rule over the earth and exercise his stewardship.

But this proper desire for power has become twisted.

Rather than desire power so that we might serve our Creator,

we now lust for power so that we might dominate our fellow creatures.

This is why we, as a church, and as individuals, must beware of the gods of death.

You are a people holy to the LORD.

God has chosen you as his own treasured possession.

It would be very easy for you to use power for your own selfish ends.

It is very easy to say that God has chosen me for this purpose,

because I am uniquely gifted to accomplish what he wants!

Which really means, "I'm going to get what I want!"

This is nothing more than a power trip.



But for others, you aren't tempted by power-at least not in that way.

You have the opposite problem.

You see the obstacles.

You see how large and how numerous your enemies are.

You are tempted to say, "These nations are greater than I. How can I dispossess them?"



Neither spiritual pride nor spiritual cowardice are acceptable.

In the end, they both have the same problem:

both look to the self as the source of power.



The solution for both is to forsake self.

You who struggle with spiritual pride-

you do not have the power to defeat your enemies.

Beware lest God allow you to find that out the hard way!

And you who struggle with spiritual cowardice-

Christ does have the power to defeat your enemies.

Beware lest God leave you to your fears!

The solution for both is to believe in the power of God that raised Jesus from the dead,

and exalted him above every principality and power.