Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm20030402.htm

DEUTERONOMY: GETTING OTHERS TO BE VICTORS, NOT CASUALTIES
Part XXX: Discipling Others To Relate Well To God's Discipline
(Deuteronomy 31:16-29)
  1. Introduction
    1. Since He is sovereign and separate from evil, or holy, God must punish sin in man.
    2. However, due to aberrations in our own heritage, we may err in how we view such discipline in our lives: (1) on the one hand, we may nervously assume every problem we face is an act of God's discipline for some sin we do not know, or (2) we may think God is unfair when we know the trial we face is discipline.
    3. For a balanced, constructive view on discerning and responding well to God's discipline, let alone in discipling our subordinates or disciples on the matter, we view Deuteronomy 31:16-29 (as follows):
  2. Discipling Others To Relate Well To God's Discipline, Deuteronomy 31:16-29.
    1. Just before his death, Moses addressed Israel on her need to heed God for blessing, Deuteronomy 1:1-5.
    2. Part of that address involved God's preparing the nation for the time He would have to discipline her for disobeying His Law, a preparation that informs us on God's fairness, clarity and grace in discipline:
      1. God informed Moses that after his death, Israel would rebel against His Word, Deuteronomy 31:16.
      2. He then predicted He would become angry and consequently discipline the nation, Deut. 31:17-18.
      3. Thus, in great fairness, to equip Israel to face His future discipline, God told Moses to teach the people a song of her unfaithfulness to God, a song she would not soon forget, Deuteronomy 31:19-22:
        1. Music has long been known as an effective device to instill unforgettable ideas into one's memory.
        2. Thus, so Israel would be aware of God's prophetic warnings of her future sin and God's resulting discipline, Moses taught them a song about her sin and God's warning of discipline, 31:19-21.
        3. Moses immediately produced this song, Deut. 31:22. (It is recorded in Deuteronomy 32:1-43.)
      4. Caught up in the Lord's intent to pave the way for Israel to be aware of her waywardness and understand God's discipline for it when it arrived, Moses himself gave the nation additional evidence of her impending apostasy and its resulting divine discipline, Deuteronomy 31:24-29:
        1. Moses had prepared a second copy of the ten commandments on stone (Exodus 34:1) since he had broken the original tables God gave him in the heat of anger at Israel's sin, Ex. 24:12 with 32:15-19.
        2. Thus, this current copy of the commandments acted as evidence of Israel's rebelliousness!
        3. This proof of Israel's tendency to disobey the Lord was placed by Moses into the ark of the covenant as a witness against Israel for her time of judgment to COME, Ex. 32:34 with Deut. 31:24-26.
        4. Moses then gave verbal charges to Israel's spiritual leaders and the people to testify of their coming apostasy and God's resulting judgment for it, Deuteronomy 31:27-29.
Lesson: From God's words to and through Moses to the people of Israel, He demonstrated His great FAIRNESS in discipline: (1) God revealed He FOREKNEW the nation would sin and that He would discipline it long before it came about; (2) He also provided AMPLE and UNFORGETTABLE warnings of the divine discipline to come WHEN Israel sinned to remove any SURPRISE for its ARRIVAL, or VIABLE CLAIM that God was UNFAIR or UNJUST in His discipline.

Application: (1) If we tend to view EVERY problem we face in life as SOME sort of DIVINE DISCIPLINE even though there is NO CLEAR BIBLICAL clarification for the trouble, we must resist viewing it as DISCIPLINE: when GOD disciplines, He CLARIFIES He will do so in His WORD, and that LONG BEFORE we sin so there is NO JUSTIFIABLE REASON to DOUBT it when it comes! [See Psalm 23:3b where God is said to lead His own in the "well-worn wagon ruts" of righteousness in support of His reputation!] (2) If we KNOW we have VIOLATED God's Word and yet tend to BLAME GOD for His discipline of us, we must recall that God is FAIR in having told us WHAT is right and wrong in His Word LONG BEFORE, and thus CHANGE our ATTITUDE to one of REPENTANCE! (3) If we are put into positions of oversight as was Moses, positions where we must disciple others, it is helpful to follow God's lead and Moses' example regarding discipline: (a) We should seek to provide TANGIBLE WITNESS from our OWN experience that WARNS of God's SURE DISCIPLINE for SIN, and (b) WARN our subordinates to HEED the Lord or ELSE face His SURE discipline!