Generational Vision

A Sermon on Deuteronomy by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church Manhattan KS, June 2006, revised on 02 June 2013 for the baptism of Margaret Prudence Wilson and on 17 Nov. 2019 for the baptism of Iona Trinity Wilson.

I. Introduction: Illustrations that “There is a bigger Picture”

Lazar : “Tevye, I suppose you know why I wanted to see you.”

Tevye: “Oh yes, I do. But there is no use talking about it.”

Lazar: “Tevye, I understand how you feel, but after all, you have a few more without her.”

Tevye: “I see. Today you want one; tomorrow you may want two.”

Lazar: “Two? What would I do with two?”

Tevye: “The same you do with one.”

Lazar: “Tevye, this is very important to me.”

Tevye: “Why is this so important to you?”

Lazar: “Frankly, because I’m lonely.”

Tevye: “Lonely? Lazar, what are you talking about? How can a little cow keep you company?”

Lazar: “Little cow? Is that what you call her?”

Tevye: “What else should I call her? That’s what she is! Lazar! What are you talking about?”

Lazar: “Don’t you know?”

Tevye: “Of course I know. We’re talking about my new milk cow, the one you want to buy from me!”

Lazar: “A cow? A milkcow to keep me company?” *laughs* “I’m talking about your daughter!”

When God saves someone, He is not intending to pour His grace just into that person – pouring water into a stagnant lagoon, but rather to open up the headwaters of a new river for His love to be poured out on many generations to come.

Does the Bible actually say that? Yes! This principle is all over the book of Deuteronomy.

II. Context and text

8 And to which great nation belongs righteous statutes and judgments like all this Law

which I am presenting before y’all today?

9 Just watch out for yourself and really keep watch over your soul,

otherwise you will forget the things which your eyes saw,

and otherwise they will go away from your heart all the days of your lives.

Make known to your children and to the children of your children

10 the day when you stood before Jehovah your God at Horeb,

when Jehovah said to me, ‘Assemble the people before Me, and I will make them hear my words

such that they will learn to fear me all the days which their lives are upon the earth,

and they will teach their children.’

11 And y’all came near and stood at the base of the mountain,

and the mountain was blazing with fire up to the heart of the heavens
[with] darkness, cloud, and fog,

12 and Jehovah spoke to y’all from the midst of the fire,

(You heard the sound of words, yet there was no body for you to see – only a voice.)

13 and He declared to y’all His covenant,

in which He commanded y’all to do the ten things,

and He wrote them upon two stone tablets.

14 And Jehovah commanded me during that time to teach y’all statutes and judgments

for y’all to do them in the land which y’all are going over there to possess it.

15 So y’all must really watch out for your souls,

for y’all did not see a body at all

on the day Jehovah spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire.

16 Otherwise y’all will mess up

and make for yourselves a carving of a body of every image of

a figurine of a man or a woman,

17 a figurine of every [kind of] cattle which is on the earth,

a figurine of every winged bird which flies in the heavens.

18 a figurine of everything that crawls on the ground,

a figurine of every fish which is in the waters below the surface of the earth.

19 and otherwise your eyes will rise up to the heavens

and see the sun and the moon and the stars – all the army of the heavens,

and you will be lured away, and you will worship them and serve those things

which Jehovah your God allocated to benefit all the peoples under all the heavens…

37 Now in succession, since He loved your fathers, He also chose his descendants after him,

and He brought you out from Egypt before His face with His great power

38 to dispossess for you great and populous nations from before your face

in order to cause you to enter –

in order to give to you their land to be an inheritance, as it is this day.

39 And you must know today and you must think it over in your heart

that Jehovah Himself is The God in the heavens above and over the earth beneath;

there is not another.

40 And you must keep His statutes and His commandments which I am commanding you today,

which will be good for you and for your children after you,

also in order that you will have extensive time on the ground

which Jehovah your God is giving to you for all time.

I want to prove from Deuteronomy my thesis that God has an interest not only in you but also in your children, then I want to show from Deuteronomy how to go about protecting the interest God has in your children.

III. God’s Covenant applies to successive generations in the O.T.

IV. Application in the New Testament to an international audience.

V. How to protect God’s interest in your children:

If God claims our children and grandchildren as His special interest, then we must work to promote God’s interest in our children. What does Moses’ sermon teach us about how to set our children up to follow God?

1. Teach your children God’s ways – then teach them to teach their children!

2. Obey God Yourself

Why? Hypocrites lose their children’s faith.

3. Remember God – Create ways to remind yourself of Him

4. Destroy the things that will tempt your children away from God

VI. CONCLUSION


1 “The singular suffixes in זַרְעֹו (his seed) and אַחֲרָיו (after him) refer to Abraham, whom Moses had especially in his mind when speaking of “thy fathers,” because he was pre-eminently the lover of God (Isa. 41:8; 2Chr. 20:7), and also the beloved or friend of God (James 2:23; cf. Gen. 18:17.).” ~Keil & Delitzsch

2 “Desert” a.k.a. Mt. Sinai. Exodus 19:2-9 When they set out from Rephidim, they came to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness; and there Israel camped in front of the mountain. Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel: 'You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to Myself. Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel." So Moses came and called the elders of the people, and set before them all these words which the LORD had commanded him. All the people answered together and said, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do!" And Moses brought back the words of the people to the LORD. The LORD said to Moses, "Behold, I will come to you in a thick cloud, so that the people may hear when I speak with you and may also believe in you forever." (NASB)

3 “Lord of the Gap” Numbers 25:1-9 While Israel remained at Shittim, the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab. For they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel joined themselves to Baal of Peor, and the LORD was angry against Israel. The LORD said to Moses, "Take all the leaders of the people and execute them in broad daylight before the LORD, so that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel." So Moses said to the judges of Israel, "Each of you slay his men who have joined themselves to Baal of Peor." Then behold, one of the sons of Israel came and brought to his relatives a Midianite woman, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, while they were weeping at the doorway of the tent of meeting. When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he arose from the midst of the congregation and took a spear in his hand, and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and pierced both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman, through the body. So the plague on the sons of Israel was checked. Those who died by the plague were 24,000. (NASB)

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