Life on the Borderlands
For Meditation (Corey Widmer)
This Sunday we begin a new sermon series in the book of Deuteronomy. At first glance, this may seem like an unlikely choice- an ancient book of speeches given thousands of years ago to a people camped on the edge of the Promised Land. And yet Deuteronomy has always been one of the most influential books in the Bible. Jesus himself quoted from it more than any other Old Testament book, and his vision of life with God was deeply shaped by its words.
Deuteronomy speaks not only to Israel long ago, but to every generation of God’s people. It addresses those who live “in between” - between what God has already done and what God has promised to do. That is where we live, too: between Christ’s death and resurrection and the day when he will return to make all things new.
This Sunday we begin with Deuteronomy 1:1–8, where God’s people stand in the wilderness, on the border of the land of promise. They are called to remember God’s faithfulness in the past, to hope in his promises for the future, and to love Him as they walk forward in trust. We are invited to hear these words as if they were spoken to us—for we, too, are the wilderness generation, called to live faithfully in the borderlands.
Questions for preparation and reflection:
When you look back over your life, where do you see clear evidence of God’s faithfulness?
Where in your life do you feel like you are in the “wilderness” right now—caught between what God has already done and what you are still waiting for him to do? How do you typically respond to “in-between” seasons— with trust, frustration, impatience, or something else?
What promises of God do you most need to hold on to right now? What helps you live with hope in the “already but not yet” of God’s Kingdom?
Deuteronomy speaks to God’s people as a community. How does it change things to think of yourself not just as an individual believer, but as part of a generation standing on the edge of God’s promises together?
Where do you see our church community being called to trust God in this season of “borderlands”?
Deuteronomy 1:1–8
These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel in the wilderness east of the Jordan—that is, in the Arabah—opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and Dizahab. (It takes eleven days to go from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea by the Mount Seir road.)
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. This was after he had defeated Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, and at Edrei had defeated Og king of Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth.
East of the Jordan in the territory of Moab, Moses began to expound this law, saying:
The Lord our God said to us at Horeb, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites; go to all the neighboring peoples in the Arabah, in the mountains, in the western foothills, in the Negev and along the coast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates. See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land the Lord swore he would give to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—and to their descendants after them.”