Deuteronomy 32:48-33:29
Which Gift Do You Want?

I. If You Could Have Any Talent What Would It Be?
1. Would you like to have Bill Gates’ genius at business? Or Warren Buffet’s ability to invest?
2. Or is popularity your goal? Or would you like to be an athletic star? The Olympics is coming soon.
3. Often we only dream of being the star not one of the many people needed to make it happen.
4. Our culture (including our church culture) elevates one or two gifts as the really important ones.
5. There’s a lot of people trying to be preachers but there aren’t a lot willing to help the church minister.
II. Moses’ Half-Gift (32:48-52)
1. These are Moses’ last words, he announces God’s gifts to them. Different gifts for different people.
2. Moses is told ‘this is the end.’ Go up to Mount Nebo. The vista is the Lord’s half-gift to Moses.
3. Moses had broken God’s command. Moses was told to speak to the rock so water would come out.
4. Instead, he hit it. He made it looked like it came out by human exertion, sheer force of human will.
5. Moses had not treated Him as “holy.” Moses didn’t show that God’s word is weighty.
6. Moses felt more of his own frustration than He did the holiness of God. So he hit the rock.
7. We must have such a sense of the holiness of God that when He commands we obey.
8. There’s little sense of the holiness of God when we only consider what we want, not God’s commands.
III. The Giver and the Gifts (33:1-29)
A. The Giver (33:1-5a)
1. Most people want their last words to be meaningful, memorable, a gift for those they leave behind.
2. The greatest blessing you can give to anyone is to let them know that first God is to be exalted.
3. The Lord has come to us, dawned on us, shone forth for us. He is the God who has spoken.
4. The great Christian philosopher Francis Schaffer (died 1984) wrote The God Who is There.
5. Modern, Western culture essentially doesn’t believe in God. So it has no standard of truth or beauty.
6. God has revealed Himself. That’s one of His greatest gifts to us. He has come, dawned and shined.
7. The Lord came forth “from the ten thousands of holy ones,” from His church (assembly, kahal)
8. He reveals Himself to and through the church. They see churches like restaurants instead of families.
9. God loves His people and He expects you to also. The church is a body you belong to.
10. His written revelation, the Bible, is the possession, the gift to the church. By it God becomes king.
11. Through the Bible His Kingdom comes over His people “Jeshurun,” the “upright one.”
B. The Gifts (33:5b-25)
1. The elders assembled, then Moses gave them his blessing, a different gift for each tribe.
2. Do you want to be the one that gets to rule, the kingship or be intermediaries with God?
3. Reuben: They’re blessed to continue to exist, but cursed to be few because of Reuben’s immorality.
4. Judah: The Lion of the Tribe of Judah was heard; the Lord brought Him back safely by raising Him.
5. Simeon: gets no gift; Genesis 49:7, “scatter them in Israel;” they are absorbed by Judah.
6. Levi: “at Massah” the rest of Israel failed but Levi didn’t; they become priests and deacons.
a. “Bless, O Lord, his substance,” or ability, or “skill.” They need a talent, a gift, that is blessed.
b. Some of the Levites are priests and some of them support the priests, like deacons in the NT.
7. Benjamin: “beloved of the Lord;” the Apostle Paul boasts that he’s from the tribe of Benjamin.
8. Joseph: usually divide him into two: Ephraim and Manasseh; “the choicest gifts of heaven above.”
9. Zebulun & Issachar: will draw abundance from the sea and treasures in the sand, so “rejoice.”
10. Gad: Anyone who expands Gad is blessed because Gad went over to expand the rest of Israel.
11. Dan: small, like a cub, but fierce, like a lion
12. Naphtali: “sated with favor.” Wouldn’t we want to be fully satisfied with God’s love.
13. Asher: “most blessed,” “favorite;” one of the few still existing in the New Testament (Luke 2:26.)
C. The Giver (33:26-29)
1. “There is none like God, O Jeshurun,” upright one. Instead of looking at the gifts, Look to the Giver.
2. “The eternal God is your dwelling place.” Live in Him, for Him, not for gifts, not for the spotlight.
3. Lean on His everlasting arms; they uphold you. Safe and secure from all alarms. We live in safety.
4. Blessed are you, holy ones, the church. Together, you have all the gifts you need.
5. “Who is like you?,” church, a people “saved by the Lord.” No one else is.
IV. Invitation: We didn’t save or bless or give to ourselves. The Lord did it, shielding us, giving us His sword of the Spirit, His Word, putting all His enemies under His feet so we are lead in triumph. Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift.