Nathan E. Lewis

Remembering the Covenant: February 19 “The Thin Place� (Deuteronomy 8)

In the seventh century the Celts identified the “Thin Places� in Ireland, locations where this earthly realm and the spiritual realm intersect. Today on the American continent, New Mexico is the land of the “Thin Places.� Sacred sites of the Hopi, Taos, and Navajo connect planet earth to the stars and gather humanity to the Great Spirit. New Age retreat centers are located near rock formations which generate spiritual energy. Section 22 outside of Roswell is the epicenter of space alien citings. In human history, there are few “Thin Places� as thin as Mt. Sinai. In the middle of a desert wilderness, Israel encountered the presence of “Yahweh,� whose other-worldly presence set the whole mountain ablaze. The earth-shaking voice of God spoke from the fiery mountain causing great fear among Israel. We have already heard Moses in his address of Israel say, “What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?� Moses reminds the people, “On earth Yahweh has showed you his great fire and you heard his words from the fire.� Mt. Sinai is one of the “Thin Places� in history.

At Sinai, Yahweh delivered the law to Moses to give to the people. We have been discovering how the law teaches us how to live according to the gospel. God liberated his people so that they might live in freedom. God is doing this for us as well. Every one of the Ten Commandments teaches us how to live according to the gospel. At Sinai the law was given so that wherever Israel was scattered, and wherever we may live on the globe, we might discover our location to be a “Thin Place.�

In Deuteronomy 8, Moses continues to prepare the second generation of Israel to enter the land God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses repeatedly tells Israel to “remember� her experience at Sinai. She is to remember that God came near to lead her and to care for her in the wilderness. He begs Israel, “Do not forget the Lord God but obey his commandments.� Can you imagine forgetting the voice of God speaking out of a fiery mountain? Can you imagine forgetting God’s deliverance of you from the Egyptian army at the Red Sea? Could you ever forget walking through the sea on dry ground with a wall of water on either side held back by the wind of God? Could you ever forget the water walls falling, drowning the entire Egyptian army? Moses tells Israel that she must remember the redemptive acts of God. Remembrance is connected to our obedience of God. More profoundly, remembrance puts our obedience into its proper context. Moses continues with his main theme of the law being good for Israel. (1) “Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land that the Lord promised on oath to your forefathers.� Obedience to the law of God produces prosperity of life. Any presentation of the law as restrictive departs from Moses’ presentation of the law as good for us. The law teaches us how to live according to the gospel. Any other view or practice of the law does violence to the nature and the purpose of the law.

Moses says, “Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these 40 years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart.� Thin places are usually places of challenge and trial. God leads us through wilderness experiences to humble us. Did you watch Johnny Weir skate in the 2006 Winter Olympics? He is remarkably fluid on ice and was our best hope of defeating the dominating Russian team. He is also one of the more arrogant young men on the planet. Our family viewed his personal video aired on prime time prior to his skating. He is wholly stuck on himself, giving credit to no one but himself. He says, “I chart my own destiny and I am in complete control of all I do.� In (17) Moses describes someone like Johnny, who says, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.� Many of us have suffered from such arrogance and God has broken it down in our lives, humbling us through wilderness experiences. He has taken us through financial deserts. He has led us through the wilderness of relational debacles. He has walked with us through the valley of the shadow of death. He may humble us by allowing us to speak arrogantly about our brilliance on ice, only to fall flat on our face. This is what happened this past week to Johnny Weir. He had the potential of winning the gold and was expected to win at least the silver. He appeared on the ice, his dress flamboyant, but his skating lack luster. He finally placed fifth. Stomping out of the scoring booth he met the press who asked him about the cause of his poor skating. He blamed the Torino Mass Transit system saying, “Every day the buses run every ten minutes, but today they ran every 30 minutes and so my concentration was ruined. My aura was altered. I was left in darkness. It’s not my fault. By the time I arrived at the arena, I was in no position to skate. It’s Torino’s fault.� I’ve been in Johnny’s predicament and God has used such experiences to humble me and to conform my life to the remembrance/obedience axis. He has taught me more and more every season of my life how to live according to the gospel.

Moses says, “Yahweh humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna.� God will use the lack of food and the provision of it to teach us to rely upon him alone. Here we read one of the most beautiful lines of Moses: “man does not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.� Jesus quoted these words as the devil tempted him in the wilderness. Jesus had not eaten for 40 days and the devil came to him saying, “Make these stones turn to bread.� Jesus responded, “Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.� Jesus, the perfect Son of God, who had the power to turn stones to bread, was humble at heart. He knew that all creation, even humanity is wholly dependent upon God. All good gifts come from God. Moses reminds us that our clothes and our health are gifts from God. The apostle James writes, “Every good and perfect gift comes from God, the Father of lights.�

Our wandering in the wilderness is often God disciplining us, preparing us to enter into life according to his promises. Moses says, “As a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.� The author of the New Testament book, Hebrews, expounds on this teaching of Moses, which was preserved by Solomon in his Proverbs: “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined and everyone undergoes discipline, then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.�

God’s redemptive work, even his discipline of us, prepares us to live obediently and prosperously. In (8-9) Moses returns to his theme of God’s law being good for us. As we obey God’s law, we enter into a prosperous life. The Promised Land is here described as the Garden of Eden. Moses says in (10) “When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given to you.� The praise of God is our first response to his redemptive work. Every good gift from God is a small part of Eden restored to us. None of us deserve to enter into such a bountiful land, but God graciously gives to us little bits of Eden.

The gospel is not that God whets our appetites and invites our praise by giving to us little bits of Eden. Rather, the gospel is God giving to us his Son, Jesus Christ, and through him he has given to us all things. Eden shall be restored fully to the human race only because Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, has wholly obeyed God and won entrance back into the Promised Land. The prophet Isaiah supplies us with a powerful picture of Jesus Christ as the wide highway in the wilderness leading back to Eden. If you place your feet on that highway, then you will be walking in the direction of Eden. The core delight of Eden was God conversing with Adam and Eve. The core delight of the Promised Land was God dwelling in the midst of his people.

In (18) Moses says, “But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.� Our abilities, though God-given, do not confirm the ancient covenant. Our obedience does not confirm the ancient covenant. God himself confirms the ancient covenant. The ancient covenant has been formed between two parties: God and Humanity. God has succinctly presented the covenant through Moses at Sinai: “Obey my commands and I will bless you; Disobey my commands and I will curse you.� How shall the human party confirm such a covenant? Read (19-20). If you think God is joking about cursing disobedience, think again. How then shall any of us, or all of us collectively confirm the covenant? The Man Christ Jesus is our only hope. His perfect obedience to the law has confirmed the covenant. Only the God-Man could fulfill the ancient covenant. That is why Moses says that God himself will confirm the covenant. How unilateral it is! God alone is going to make it happen. He will make it happen for us and through us. The gospel is that God has done it for us. God is leading us back to Eden. He is leading us into the Promised Land. He is preparing us to live in the new heavens and the new earth! He is making every space a Thin Space.

Such a view promotes our building a world today that is beautiful, that actually works, that is creative, that is free of poverty and disease. Everything Lennon imagined apart from God, we can deliver by obeying God. In the world of Rock stardom, Bono is actually pursuing what Lennon only dreamed could be accomplished. Bono is serving Christ by living according to the gospel. Some stars tour the world, gyrating on stages singing, “I can’t get no….� Such a life is founded upon forgetfulness. Other stars sing, “Grace travels outside of karma,� and give their profits to feed the poor and to relieve the suffering of those dying of AIDS. Such lives use the remembrance/obedience axis. The life of remembrance is not merely for the stars, but can be lived by every one of us. As we remember that God has redeemed us, we do not condemn the person dying of AIDS, but we provide a clean bed and sit there to share the gospel as PCA missionaries, Andrew and Bev Warren do six days a week in Addis Ababa. As we remember that God has freed us we begin to live freely, no longer living as slaves to self and to passion. We praise God and we are careful to obey his commands. His commands convince us that Grace travels outside of karma and we enter into the Promised Land of the Gospel.

In his book, The Post-Evangelical, David Tomlinson writes, “Evangelicalism is good at introducing people to faith in Christ, but unhelpful when it comes to the matter of progressing into a more grown-up experience of faith.� When Bono sings, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,� an evangelical may think that he is searching aimlessly for the truth and gospel. But Bono has embraced Christ and he is living according to the gospel. He does not see his spiritual conversion to be an isolated event in which he prayed to received Christ at some meeting in his past. He views his gospel-driven life to be dynamic, one in which he is pursuing God daily. In other words, he is living on a remembrance/obedience axis. He remembers the past to promote a present living according to the gospel. Like his father Abraham, he is ever searching for the heavenly city. Steve Stockman, Chaplain at University of Belfast writes in his book, Walk On, “There seems to be a belief that once someone makes the initial connection with Jesus Christ, he has arrived. Immediately, a watertight box of solutions is handed to him. No more questions need to be asked – Jesus is the answer! Everything is now explained; there is nothing left to search for. This view is built on a need for precision and perfection, which have always been enemies of art, which is all about coloring outside the lines. It is also an enemy of the reality that following Jesus is a journey, not an arrival.�

Moses calls us to a journey on the remembrance/obedience axis. If we refuse to embark upon this journey, we shall surely be destroyed, left in the dust, so to speak. The journey on the remembrance/obedience axis has led to the Thinnest of Thin Places in history – the cross, where God and Man have united in Jesus Christ. The work of Jesus on the cross has brought God near to us and we have been brought near to God. The journey on the remembrance/obedience axis calls us to make every inch of this world a Thin Place, a place where humanity glorifies God, a place where culture is redeemed, a place where we live according to the gospel.