INTRODUCTION

1. Biblical Patrology

a) Biblical teaching of God as Father

b) This Theology is not crafted on human experience

c) It is a study of what the Scriptures teach about God being Father

2. Spanning

a) Old Testament

b) New Testament

 

THE LORD YOUR GOD

19 “So we departed from Horeb, and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw on

the way to the mountains of the Amorites, as the LORD our God had commanded us. Then we came to Kadesh Barnea.

20 And I said to you, ‘You have come to the mountains of the Amorites, which the LORD our God is giving us.

21 Look, the LORD your God has set the land before you; go up and possess it, as the LORD God of your fathers has spoken to you; do not fear or be discouraged.’

22 “And every one of you came near to me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, and let them search out the land for us,

and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up, and of the cities into which we shall come.’

23 “The plan pleased me well; so I took twelve of your men, one man from each tribe.

24 And they departed and went up into the mountains, and came to the Valley of Eshcol, and spied it out.

25 They also took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us;

and they brought back word to us, saying, ‘It is a good land which the LORD our God is giving us.’ Deuteronomy 1:19-25

1. Reference to God

a) The LORD our God Deuteronomy 1:19, 20

b) The LORD your God Deuteronomy 1:21a

c) The LORD God of your fathers Deuteronomy 1:21b

2. The Regard for God

a) A relationship established

b) A formal one

c) A historical one

 

INABILITY TO APPLY FAITH IN THE LORD GOD

26 “Nevertheless you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the LORD your God;

27 and you complained in your tents, and said, ‘Because the LORD hates us,

He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.

28 Where can we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our hearts, saying, “The people are greater and taller than we;

the cities are great and fortified up to heaven; moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.”’

1. Rebellion against God’s command

2. A complaining spirit

3. Great discouragement felt

4. There was no ability to apply faith in the LORD God

 

AN APPEAL TO TRUST GOD BETTER

29 “Then I said to you, ‘Do not be terrified, or afraid of them.

30 The LORD your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you, according to all He did for you in Egypt before your eyes,

31 and in the wilderness where you saw how the LORD your God carried you,

as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.’

32 Yet, for all that, you did not believe the LORD your God,

33 who went in the way before you to search out a place for you to pitch your tents,

to show you the way you should go, in the fire by night and in the cloud by day. Deuteronomy 1:29-33

1. Fear

a) It is to be faced

b) It is to be fought

2. Faith in God

a) The LORD your God goes before you

b) He will fight for you (as in Egypt)

c) The LORD your God carried you (the wilderness journey)

i) As a man carries his son

ii) In all the way that you went until you came to this place

d) What God had been doing

i) He went in the way before you

ii) To search out a place for you to pitch your tents

iii) To show you the way you should go

iv) In the fire by night

v) And in the cloud by day

 

PAINFUL LESSONS

34 “And the LORD heard the sound of your words, and was angry, and took an oath, saying,

35 ‘Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I swore to give to your fathers,

36 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and his children I am giving the land on which he walked, because he [k]wholly followed the LORD.’

37 The LORD was also angry with me for your sakes, saying, ‘Even you shall not go in there.

38 Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall go in there. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.

39 ‘Moreover your little ones and your children, who you say will be victims, who today have no knowledge of good and evil,

they shall go in there; to them I will give it, and they shall possess it.

40 But as for you, turn and take your journey into the wilderness by the Way of the Red Sea.’ Deuteronomy 1:34-40

1. Punishment for rebellion

a) It was an “evil generation”

b) It would not see the Promised Land

2. Provision for the next generation

a) Joshua would lead the next generation into the Promised Land

b) God would give The Land of Canaan to them

 

CONCLUSION

1. Understanding God

a) He is the LORD our God

b) He is Father too

c) He leads unerringly and lovingly

2. Our part

To find courage and faith to trust God as our Father and to follow Him!