Introduction

Today we are studying Deuteronomy chapter 2. This chapter reveals spiritual truth to us. A nation's rise and fall and divisions of land property are under the control of God. Why did Moses write the book? He was trying to tell that it was God who killed the Israelites. God wanted to tell the rest of the Israelites that He was the God who ruled over the entire world.

This chapter is talking about how one nation was wiped out by its neighbouring country. In our opinion, the demise of a country is because that country was not as strong as its neighbour, so it lost the battle. In fact, it was God who sent the neighbouring country in to take possession of the other country. The Moabites defeated the Emites, the Ammonites defeated the Rephaites, and Esau defeated the Horites. Why were they killed? Simple! They were wicked and their sin had reached its full measure.

We have seen many nations rise and fall due to a particular person. It is perplexing. Maya showcased its grandeur of civilisation and made a significant contribution to World Heritage. Still, it disappeared! It does make you wonder!

If you don't know God, you will be very confused why a magnificent country would disappear! We must understand that the power in this world is from God. Don't ever think for a second that you could create your own success. God rules over everything! This is the fundamental of spiritual law. Therefore, we must fear God!

I'm very excited! Because I believe God raises us to serve this world. This is our time to shine in the darkness and set those who are under bondage free! Brothers and sisters, this is our destiny! It's our honour to serve the Lord! Nothing is worth more than this!

the Whole Earth Belongs to God

We know that both the books of Genesis and Deuteronomy are talking about blessings and curses. If you keep all decrees and all the laws from God and follow them, you will be blessed with a fruitful life, you will perish otherwise. The most important thing in our life is not what we do, or how many problems you have resolved, it's whether we have served our God wholeheartedly. There may be a slight delay in your project as of now. However, if we look at it from a grand scheme point of view, there is no impact at all on the project. Because if you leave God behind, you will not succeed.

Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine. (Exodus 19:5)

God chose the Israelites to form a holy nation, to be His special possession. Yet, the Israelites did not follow the word of God and His covenant, the country of Israel was wiped off the map for over two thousand six hundred years as a consequence.

The fundamental truth is power comes from God! The leader of a country is chosen by God even though it looks like a result of an election. In ancient history, many assassins plotted to kill emperors which were foiled in the end. How strange was that! The same thing happened today. Many leaders were under attack but the plot was not successful. So, if you observe, you will see that God is in total control. This is particularly obvious in the books of Exodus, Deuteronomy, as well as Genesis.

We need to know that God wants to build a kingdom of priests! Do you know why? The priest can bring blessings from the Kingdom of Heaven! My dear brothers and sisters, we must know by now that all power comes from God! It is not from us! We must change our mindset. We don't live for work, we live for God to build a Kingdom of priests and a holy nation!

God chose Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and hoped their descendants would follow in their footsteps to build a Kingdom of priests to bring down the blessings from the kingdom of God. If we understand the whole earth belongs to God, and we walk with God, does not that mean the whole earth is also ours? So, don't live for work, we need to live for God!

I know a brother had his own business, and he was struggling with a lot of debt. He was in despair so he contacted me. At the start of the call, he was confused and lost, he then perked up before I put the phone down. Because I told him life was simple! Being a priest would be a simple solution!

You know, if you live according to your idea, then you will certainly perish! If you choose to be a priest in the kingdom of God, you will lack nothing! A priest will be enthroned with the power to be a blessing to many nations. You don't need to worry about anything. The only thing you need to worry about is: Are you a priest of eternal God? If not, you will toil and moil all your life to make ends meet, the same as millions of people in this world, trying to fix problems in your life. Your result will be the same as those who were killed.

Believe in God Lacks Nothing

In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses proclaimed to the Israelites all that the LORD had commanded him concerning them. (Deuteronomy 1:3)

It was almost 40 years after they stayed in the wilderness when Moses wrote the book of Deuteronomy. Only one month left in the wilderness before they could enter the promised land. So God revealed to Moses and commanded him to record what happened in the wilderness. Before that, the Israelites had already spent a year in Mount Sinai to build the tabernacle and worship God in preparation for entering the promised land.

The LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything. (Deuteronomy 2:7)

Therefore, don't ever believe that if you work hard, you won't lack anything. It's God who gives you abundance! If you observe the people around you who follow God with all their heart and soul, you will see they don't lack anything! I don't believe I will need anything in my life, because I believe our Lord will provide! He will make us prosperous! That's why we have high standards when it comes to building the church of God! With such high standards, how can we be short? Low standards are the cause of poverty! That's why those who trust Him will not lack!

Wandering in the wilderness for thirty-eight years was not God's plan! Long-term hardship is never God's plan. The Israelites could have gone into the promised land thirty-eight years ago. But they were scared of the man in the land. As a result, they grumbled against Moses and wanted to choose a leader to take them back to Egypt. It was merely a test as God wanted to train them up in the wilderness. He provided everything they needed.

Unfortunately, God wiped out that generation who were twenty years old and was counted in the census who grumbled against Him. Then He brought the rest of the Israelites and the new generation into the promised land. God still provided everything for them so they did not lack even though they grumbled against Him.

Do you think this is the glory of God? Do you think this is something you can brag about? You merely have a taste of manna that God gave the Israelites in the wilderness. What about the promised land? Can you imagine how wonderful that would be? I know many Christians live in the wilderness, just like those Israelites who waited for thirty-eight years in the wilderness. What were they waiting for? They waited to be killed! God killed them! Because they did not want to fight and take possession of the land God promised to their ancestors.

Not only did they not trust God, but also they did not know that God ruled over the universe. They did not know a nation's rise and fall totally depended on Him and that the division of land was also under His control. They thought our God was dispensable. This is not the way God does things. We should never follow what they did. However, if you want to be a Christian that wanders in the wilderness, I won't stop you! Although you still have the glory of God, staying in the wilderness is never a part of God's plan!

Those Who did not Believe Died

What kind of people were killed? Those who did not believe in God! They were scared of fighting to gain access to the promised land! My dear brothers and sisters, we must be someone who strives to fight and take possession of the land that God has promised. We will lay down our lives for it!

Thirty-eight years passed from the time we left Kadesh Barnea until we crossed the Zered Valley. By then, that entire generation of fighting men had perished from the camp, as the LORD had sworn to them. The LORD ’s hand was against them until he had completely eliminated them from the camp. Now when the last of these fighting men among the people had died, the LORD said to me, “Today you are to pass by the region of Moab at Ar. (Deuteronomy 2:14-18)

Do you want to lay down everything for God? If you don't, then the result will be the same, but don't anger God. Do as God has commanded you, to take possession of the promised land! Those people did not believe God was in charge, as if God was lying to them. They'd rather believe the man of great size was in charge. If you don't believe in God, you will perish!

In the book of Numbers, God commanded Moses and Aaron to only count those who were twenty years old or more and able to serve in the army. Think about this, if you can serve in the army, but you don't believe you can take your enemy down, because you are scared, you only want to get on with your nitty gritty. What the consequences would be? Being killed is the only outcome!

This morning, a sister told me that she had a dream where I led them out of a disaster but those who had left me prior to this disaster all died. It doesn't matter if this is just a revelation or just a dream! I just want to let you know that
If you don't want to work hard to gain access to the promised land, and you only want to get on with your life, you don't want to have a prosperous life, you don't want to serve the Lord, then you have to be careful. You are the kind of people who will be wiped out by God.

If you don't want to live in the nitty gritty, then you will have to build the kingdom of priests, to get the promise, and have a better life. My dear brothers and sisters, don't ever think laying down everything for God is a loss. Not only serving God will make us a fruitful life, but also revive the house of the Lord. What is your choice?

The Completely Wicked Will Die

As we know, God destroyed the cities Sodom and Gomorrah, as well as the people in Noah's era. Because they had become completely wicked and their sin reached its full measure. God used Esau to wipe out the Horites, but the tribe of Esau also disappeared from the face of the earth. The Ammonites replaced the Rephaites, the Moabites defeated the Emites. But why were the Horites, Rephaites, and the Emites all wiped off the map? Why were the cities Sodom and Gomorrah, the people in Noah's era killed? Simply because they become completely wicked! It's unequivocally stated in the Bible that whoever's sin has reached its full measure will be killed! By who? It will be under the wrath of God. It seems to be natural or man-made calamities in our opinion. We must know not only does God bless us but also curse us. He blesses those who follow Him wholeheartedly and curse those who disobey Him.

We don't need to feel sorry for those who are corrupt and in prison. Because their sin had reached its full measure. The Caphtorites defeated the Avvites and settled in their place. Generations come and go. This is a reflection of history. It only proved one thing: the whole earth belongs to God, and He will decide what to allocate to those people.

As long as your sin does not reach its full measure, you still have a chance to redeem yourself. Stubborn in spirit and obstinate heart is a warning sign of sin reaching its full measure.

But Sihon king of Heshbon refused to let us pass through. For the LORD your God had made his spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate in order to give him into your hands, as he has now done. (Deuteronomy 2:30)

Because Sihon King of Heshbon refused to let the Israelites pass through, he was destroyed. God commanded the Israelites to conquer and possess his land.

the LORD our God delivered him over to us and we struck him down, together with his sons and his whole army. At that time we took all his towns and completely destroyed them—men, women and children. We left no survivors. But the livestock and the plunder from the towns we had captured we carried off for ourselves. (Deuteronomy 2:33-35)

That was the nation that was destroyed by God! I want to use this to reflect on ourselves. If God can destroy a country, do we need to obey Him? If He could destroy a country, He could also easily destroy a family or a person. We need to learn to fear Him, don't grumble against Him. God does not destroy himself, but He will deliver us over to our enemy. It is just like Moses who led a team to destroy Sihon, King of Heshbon.

We may think our God is very cruel. Is it? No! It is all because people have become completely wicked and show no respect to Him. This is called the sin has reached its full measure! No one could save you! Can you imagine the sin lingering in the city of Sodom? They wanted to have sex with whoever passed through the cost, even those two angels had the same treatment. As a result, the city was completely destroyed. Although the land was fertile and well watered, no one survived!

Entering the Promised Land

Brothers and sisters, we must raise and use the spiritual weapon that is enthroned by our Lord, we will march on until we have entered the promised land. Only two people, Joshua and Caleb, entered the promised land. They had to wait for thirty-eight years because ten people spread a bad report about the land. Do you think eating manna is a blessing? Yes, it's! However, can you imagine having manna three times a day for thirty-eight years? It will make you feel sick! If you are a Christian that wanders in the wilderness, you only have manna, it's not the land flowing with milk and honey!

Therefore, we need to obey the word of God, trust Him, and draw His promise! A nation's rise depends on Him. No one could stop God from helping us! We have an important mission: God is reviving the people of China! We will build a church that is full of His glory and serve the world!

Do not follow in the footsteps of those who disobey the word of God. Instead, we must follow in the footsteps of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Even after Joseph died, he asked to take his bones with them to the land that God promised to them. This is a character of ming ding. Never give up!

We need to make a meaningful choice! As Christian, we know the whole earth belongs to God, we need to build a kingdom of priests, a holy nation! This is our destiny! It's such an honour that God has chosen us, He makes us the head, not the tail, we will always be at the top, never at the bottom! The reason why those people were destroyed was because of their disbelief! If you keep In is decrees and all laws, you will be blessed! If you disobey His command, you will be cursed! Whether you believe it or not, you will not escape from this spiritual principle.

I have made my decision to serve the Lord! I want to be a blessing to many people, it doesn't matter whether I know them or not. I want to set the people who are under bondage free! This is God's plan! And I want to spread it out to many people!

May the Lord bless you!