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Our Scripture text this morning is taken from:
May God bless this the reading of His holy and infallible Word.
In my introductory sermon to this series, I said that Deuteronomy is foundational to the theology of the rest of Scripture.
It is so important, that the kings of Israel were instructed to make a handwritten copy of this book and read from it daily.
This is why as the greatest King of Israel, Jesus loved and cited this book so frequently.
There are two major theological themes introduced in this chapter.
The first is God’s sovereign control over the nations and history.
We see this in how God displaces nations ruled by giants, and gives their land to Edom, Moab, Ammon and Israel.
The second theme is that of spiritual warfare, or “holy war”.
This is seen in the giants, which we will learn next week are associated with evil spirits and the command found in verse 2, “turn north”.
We will examine this second theme more fully next week, for now I want to focus on the first.
Our world is currently in a geopolitical crisis.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is dominating the news cycle.
Because of this, fear and anxiety grips the hearts of many.
As believers, we need not fear, because God has it all under control.
Like a master chess player, God replaces one nation with another in the same way a chess player replaces one piece with another.
The biblical worldview sees reality differently.
The secular worldview sees the geopolitical reality as the only reality.
The biblical worldview sees the geopolitical reality, but it also sees an underlying spiritual-political reality.
The game of chess God is playing is not two dimensional, but three!
2-D vs. 3-D Chess
I firmly believe that one of the greatest barriers facing modern readers of the Bible is that they do not take the supernatural seriously.
Too often, we read the Bible with secular, naturalistic presuppositions.
The Bible is a supernatural book, about supernatural things.
Without this understanding, the biblical concept of the “holy” make little or no sense.
In the book of Deuteronomy, we will find that God’s people are called to be a “holy people”, living in a “holy land”, worshiping God at His “holy temple”.
All these things are “holy” not because they are physically different from anything else, but because they are spiritually related to God.
Another way of looking at this is to say that everyone has dual citizenship.
We have citizenship in a physical kingdom and we have citizenship in a spiritual kingdom.
These nations led by giants that are “devoted to destruction” are not being targeted for their physical citizenship, but spiritual.
I will speak more about this later.
Perhaps the most important passage of Scripture that speaks of God’s total control of the nations and history is found in Acts 17:
As distressing as the situation is in Ukraine, we need to remember that God is in control and He is moving history in a glorious direction.
We also need to remember that His opponent is not Vladimir Putin, but Satan.
This brings us to the next point:
Three Moves Ahead vs.
All Moves Ahead
Those who are good players at the game of chess are playing at least three move ahead.
Satan is one of these elite players.
However, God is playing the chess game of history with all moves ahead!
Speaking through the prophet Isaiah, God exhorts us:
Consider that backstory of the Edomites, Moabites and Ammonites.
The Edomites came from Esau who despised his birthright and the promises of God.
The Moabites and Ammonites came from the incestuous union of Lot with his two daughters!
I am sure that as Satan moved these three nations around the chessboard of history, he imagined he had placed God in a disadvantage.
Little did he know, that God would use these wicked nations to remover several of Satan’s most powerful pieces—the giants!
The cross is the ultimate example of how God is always three moves ahead of Satan!
Some of you may be wondering, if God is so good, why has the game of history gone on so long, is this an indication of how skilled Satan is?
Not at all!
According to Ephesians 1:3-14, God has ordained all things “to the praise of His glory”.
In other words, history is designed to maximize the display of God’s glory as seen in His attributes, namely His love, wisdom, justice and righteousness.
Someday when we see the finished plan, we will be amazed!
This brings us to the glorious conclusion of the game…
Checkmate!
Within the context of Deuteronomy 2, God’s master plan is found in Deut 1:8.
This promise was given separately to Abraham (Gen 12), Isaac (Gen 26), and Jacob (Gen 28).
For the sake of brevity, l will just cite the original promise given to Abraham.
Did you catch that?
God ultimate plan for the nations is to bless all the nations through the offspring of Abraham, and this “offspring” argues Paul, is primarily one person—Christ Jesus!
We are given a prophetic picture of Christ’s final victory in the book of Revelation.
In physical history, nations rise and fall, but in spiritual history all nations are blessed in Abraham.
Remember how we learned last week that Caleb was an Edomite?
Because of their sin, the Edomites have been wiped off the face of this earth, just like the so many other nations, but in heaven stands Caleb!
When Christ declares “checkmate”, where will you stand?
On that day, you physical citizenship will mean nothing, the only thing that will count is your spiritual citizenship.
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