Set Apart

I hope you all had an amazing 4th of July celebration. We have so many good things to celebrate as Americans.  The United States was founded on a number of unique principles that have shaped our nation over the past 250 years.  One of the things that defines us as a nation is our justice system and our national sense of justice.  At least until recent history, Americans have viewed individuals as responsible for their actions.  If you steal, you should be punished according to the law.  If you assault someone, you should be punished according to how the law says you should be punished.  American culture, for the most part, has always had a strong sense of fairness and justice.

Our culture and our sense of fairness and justice have, I believe, influenced how many of us see our walk with Jesus.  We believe God blesses the good people, disciplines the bad ones, and your standing with Him is roughly proportional to how well you’re doing.  For most of us, that feels fair.

But Moses is going to show us in the next few chapters of Deuteronomy that when it comes to God’s character and how He deals with us, that’s not how it works. It may be counterintuitive to us, but when God deals with His people, people He has set apart, they don’t get what they deserve.

Last week, in Deuteronomy 7, we read:

Deut 7:6 (CSB)—For you are a holy people belonging to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be his own possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth.

The word holy is the Hebrew word “qadosh” (קָדוֹשׁ), which means “Set Apart” or dedicated to God.

Israel is holy or set apart by God. Because they belong to God, they are experiencing His favor.

Up to this point, Moses has been reminding Israel that God’s power has brought them this far and will carry them into the future.  Now, he is concerned that Israel will begin to credit their own righteousness for why God has set them apart, made them holy, and is giving them the Promised Land.  In the next few chapters, he will shut that down before they cross the Jordan River and enter the land.

In chapters 9–11 we will read Moses’ warning to Israel that the favor they are experiencing is based on God’s Grace, Not Their Performance. That warning applies not only to Israel but also to us.

No matter how successful we look on the outside, God’s people will never outgrow the need to remember His grace.  Now, in Deuteronomy chapter 9, Moses says that holy or set-apart people:

Remember Grace

(grace is getting what you don’t deserve)

Moses tells the people that God is going to go to the wicked nations that inhabit the promised land, and He will devastate and subdue them. And then he says:

Deut 9:4-6 (CSB)— When the LORD your God drives them out before you, do not say to yourself, ‘The LORD brought me in to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.’ Instead, the LORD will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness. You are not going to take possession of their land because of your righteousness or your integrity. Instead, the LORD your God will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness, in order to fulfill the promise he swore to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Understand that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.

Israel’s victories are not because of their righteousness. Instead, God is fighting on Israel’s behalf, not because of their righteousness but because of the unrighteousness of the wicked nations and because He is fulfilling the promise that He made to their ancestors.  It has nothing to do with how good they are.  

In fact, God says they are a “stiff-necked people.”

In the original Hebrew, this was a phrase you would use to describe an ox that won’t submit to the yoke, that turns its neck against the direction the farmer is trying to lead it. 

There is a very unflattering description of Israel. He’s calling them stubborn, resistant, and prone to rebellion, but in the same breath, he says God has chosen them anyway. That’s the point. 

Being set apart by God is not a recognition of your spiritual quality. It is an act of sovereign, undeserved grace.  Even though we don’t deserve it, God loves us and keeps all of His promises to us.  God does not withhold anything good from me, even though I don’t deserve anything good.

The Apostle Paul reminds the Corinthians of this truth when he says:

2 Cor 1:20 (NLT)—For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory.

In other words, all of God’s promises to us are Yes, because of Christ.  Not because of our faithfulness, not our strength or success, but because of Jesus.

Then, Moses recalls how they have been a stiff-necked people.  He recounts how they left Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, and came to Mount Sinai (Mt. Horeb).  For forty days, Moses met with God on that mountain and was given the Law of the Covenant.  Many of you know the story: when Moses came down from the mountain to give Israel the law, he found they had made themselves an idol in the shape of a gold calf and were worshipping it.

God was not happy.  Moses writes:

Deut 9:13-14 (CSB)—The LORD also said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed, they are a stiff-necked people. Leave me alone, and I will destroy them and blot out their name under heaven.

Even after this incredible redemption from Egypt, Israel still chooses to worship an idol made of gold rather than the God who saved them, and God plans to give them what their sins have earned them, but Moses pleads with God on their behalf.

Deut 9:26-27 (CSB)—I prayed to the LORD: Lord GOD, do not annihilate your people, your inheritance, whom you redeemed through your greatness and brought out of Egypt with a strong hand. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Disregard this people’s stubbornness, and their wickedness and sin.

Moses mediates on Israel’s behalf, and in chapter 10:1-11, God responds by giving Israel new stone tablets inscribed with His commandments.  He gives them the Ark of the Covenant that carries the tablets, and He gives them a new beginning.

The covenant survives because of God’s mercy.  What was in danger of being destroyed by sin, God’s grace restored. (Mercy is not getting what you do deserve)

This is the story of the gospel. What God did for Israel was simply a shadow of what God would do for us.

We are a stiff-necked people.  We have all sinned and fall short of God’s glory, Paul says to the Romans.  We are rebellious by nature.  That rebellion has earned us, all of us, something: Eternal separation from our creator; eternity in Hell. How does God say it to Moses?  We deserve to have our name blotted out under heaven.

But we had a mediator, someone who stood up for us; someone who was willing to do whatever it took to make sure we didn’t get what we deserved.  Who was that?  The same God who said we have earned death for our sin, turned around and took our sin upon Himself when He came to earth as a man and allowed Himself to be beaten, abused, and murdered on the cross.

When we give our lives to Jesus, we have a new covenant, and instead of being given stone tablets, He has written his law on our hearts. Instead of that law being carried around in an ornate box, it lives in us,  and all who come to Him are given a new beginning.

King David said it beautifully in Psalm 103:

Ps 103:10-12 (CSB)—He has not dealt with us as our sins deserve or repaid us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his faithful love toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

How do we respond to such grace?  How do we esteem that grace and not cheapen it?  Moses asks and answers this question in 10:12-13.

Deut 10:12-13 (CSB)—“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you except to fear the LORD your God by walking in all his ways, to love him, and to worship the LORD your God with all your heart and all your soul? Keep the LORD’s commands and statutes I am giving you today, for your own good.

Moses is going to show us that to honor God and esteem His grace, set-apart people: 

Reflect God’s Character

What does God require of Israel?  He says they are to fear Him by:

• Walking in His Ways
• Loving Him
• Worshipping Him
• Keeping His Commands

What does it mean to fear the Lord?  In the New Testament, the Apostle John says this:

1 Jn 4:18 (CSB)—There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love.

How do we rectify another set of seemingly contradictory statements?

For the unbeliever, those who do not know Christ, the fear of God is the fear of the judgment of God and eternal death, which is eternal separation from God in Hell. But for those who do believe, we have experienced God’s grace and His mercy.  For us, there is no fear of judgment. 

Romans 8 says that nothing can separate us from the love of God. So, for us, who have given our lives to Christ, the fear of God is something much different. 

A good description of the fear of the Lord for those who follow Christ is in Hebrews 12.

Heb 12:28-29 (CSB)—Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful. By it, we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

We reverence Him and stand in awe of Him.  How do we that?  Moses says we do that by walking in His ways, loving Him, worshipping Him, and keeping His commands.  Moses tells us  not just what we are to do, but why we do it.

We walk in His ways, love and worship Him, and keep His commands because of who He is; because of His character.

Deut 10:17-18 (CSB)—For the LORD your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awe-inspiring God, showing no partiality and taking no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the resident alien, giving him food and clothing.

Who is God?  Moses says He is:

• Great
• Mighty
• Impartial
• Just
• Defender of the vulnerable
• Lover of the foreigner

And we are to be imitators of these things

Deut 10:19 (CSB)—You are also to love the resident alien, since you were resident aliens in the land of Egypt.

Set-apart people resemble the God who set them apart.  God is a defender of the vulnerable and lover of the foreigner, and so now Israel is to reflect this character quality of God.  They are to be like the God who has set them apart.    

That is exactly what the Apostle Paul means in Ephesians 5, when he writes:

Eph 5:1-2 (CSB)—Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children, and walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.

Then Paul goes on to say, “Don’t be conformed to the world; be conformed to the image of Christ.”

Here’s my point: Holiness isn’t isolation. Israel thought they were “all that” because God had chosen them and set them apart, but to be set apart or to be holy doesn’t mean you are to simply isolate yourself from anything that might get you dirty.  To be set apart or to be holy means to imitate the character of God.  Holiness is imitation.

It is interesting to me that if you read Ephesians 5 in the New Testament, it mirrors the exact same pattern of Deuteronomy 11.  Paul says, “Be imitators of God,” then goes on to describe how to be consistent or faithful in doing so.

Here in Deuteronoly 11, Moses does the exact same thing; He follows the same pattern as he talks about faithfulness.  Why?  Because set-apart people:

Remain Faithful

Remembering God’s grace and reflecting God’s character require faithfulness.  The set-apart life is a life of actively, daily, choosing and relying upon God.

Moses writes:

Deut 11:10–12 (CSB)—”For the land you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt… It is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from the sky. It is a land the LORD your God cares for. His eyes are on it continually, from the beginning of the year to the end.”

Egypt’s agriculture depended on the Nile, much like how we depend on the Columbia River here.  It was human-managed irrigation, predictable and controllable. 

Canaan’s agriculture depended on rain, which only God controls. Moses’ point is that life in the Promised Land will require a different posture than life in Egypt. Egypt rewarded self-sufficiency. Canaan would require daily dependence on God. The land itself was designed to teach them rely on Him and to remember His grace. 

Then he lays the choice out plainly:

Deut 11:26-28 (CSB)—“Look, today I set before you a blessing and a curse: there will be a blessing, if you obey the commands of the LORD your God I am giving you today, and a curse, if you do not obey the commands of the LORD your God and you turn aside from the path I command you today by following other gods you have not known.

No ambiguity, no middle ground. The set-apart life is not passive. It is a daily, active decision to walk in the ways of the God who chose you. Not to earn what he’s already given, but to live in a way that is consistent with who you already are in his eyes.

Through Him, believers are made into a “holy nation” and empowered to live as God’s set-apart people—not to earn His favor, but to live in the light of His grace.

Living as God’s set-apart people means:

• Remembering God’s grace instead of trusting your own goodness.
• Reflecting God’s character instead of conforming to the world.
• Remaining faithful through love, dependence, and obedience.

If you are here this morning and have never trusted God’s grace for your life, I’d like to give you that opportunity.  Becoming a part of God’s set-apart family means that His grace covers all of your sin, past, present, and future.  He forgives it all when we belong to Him. And nothing will ever separate you from His love. The Bible says all that is required is belief.

Rom 10:9 (CSB)—If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

You can pray right now. Tell Him that you believe Jesus is God’s only Son; that He came to live a perfect life and gave Himself up as the perfect sacrifice for you. Acknowledge that He did not stay dead but rose from the grave three days later, defeating sin and death. All for you. And then know that because of your belief, nothing will ever seperate you from God’s love!