Deut 34:10, Since then no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face… 
    	Today, we come to the end of the Book of Deuteronomy and the Pentateuch. We have spent several years watching the development of a remendously deep relationship as it was evidenced in Moses and his dealings with God and with the nation of Israel. These books of the Pentateuch are the source of our understanding of Who God is and how He relates and works with mankind in a most personal and intimate manner. 
We do not serve a deity who only rules from the sky and enforces arbitrary dictates and regulations upon those who are too weak to stand against the forces thrust upon them. That is the way that God is portrayed by those who have no real knowledge and understanding of how He personally and individually interacts with His Created beings.
Yes, He is the Sovereign Lord God Almighty unto Whom all will have to give honor when facing His throne of judgment. However, as we have come to know Him in these first books of the Bible, we see how He loves and how He cares and how He provides and how He is faithful and how He is true and how He is just in all His dealings with His people. We have the ever clearer picture of God as the Heavenly Father Whom Jesus perfectly witnessed unto when He was on the earth. We know this from the Gospel of John as we can read together in John 1:1-14.
John 1:1-14, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John. He came for a witness, that he might bear witness of the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came that he might bear witness of the light. There was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. 
This more perfect revelation of God as Our Heavenly Father as presented by the Only Begotten Son, was shown in the relationship that was in evidence in the Old Testament through Moses as we have in our morning’s passage. …Since then no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face… 
The relationship evidenced through God and His interaction with Moses details a bedrock reality which established the truth that God is a most personal God. We can have fellowship with Him on the basis of His work in our lives. It is all set upon His call and His dealings with us, as was so true throughout the life of Moses. God prepared Moses to serve. He personally called Moses and put him into that place, just as God does with each and every one of us, today. Let us look at this interaction between God and Moses with the foretelling of an even greater witness and prophet to come. This will be in deeper detail as we bring this book to a close.
In Ex 33:9-11, we are told how the Lord interacted with Moses in the Tent of Meeting. There is the reality that the Lord was present in the tent whenever Moses entered. God made Himself available at any time to meet with Moses there. As well, is the recognition that there was a true friendship that developed between Moses and the Lord as they conversed with each other, face to face.
Ex 33:9-11, And it came about, whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent; and the Lord would speak with Moses. When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would arise and worship, each at the entrance of his tent. Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses returned to the camp, his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent. 
    	This friendship was such that the Lord defended Moses when there was the rebellion led by his sister, Miriam and his brother, Aaron. It was the Lord Who safeguarded and shielded His friend, Moses, from the treachery that was being set upon him by his own siblings. We have this recorded for us in Num 12:5-8.
Num 12:5-8, Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the doorway of the tent, and He called Aaron and Miriam. When they had both come forward, He said, "Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. "Not so, with My servant Moses, He is faithful in all My household; With him I speak mouth to mouth, Even openly, and not in dark sayings, And he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid To speak against My servant, against Moses?" 
    	Notice the vast difference between the way the Lord dealt with Moses and with other prophets. With Moses, there was that intimacy which is the foreshadowing of the relationship that will be in place through Jesus, the Son of God. 
The Lord was close to Moses because Moses desired to be close to the Lord. He treated the Lord with the honor and the majesty and the trust and the longing for fellowship that drew the same response from the heart of God. 
Both parties in this relationship dealt with the other in that intense friendship which causes hearts to want to know the other to the greater measure of understanding and fellowship. While God knows man perfectly, mankind will forever be learning of the manifold and majestic and awesome reality of the Lord God Almighty. That was at the heart of this interaction, man with His Creator. 
	Moses even highlighted the fact that God tried to talk with His people, yet the people as a whole were not interested in that relationship. They were afraid of the judgment against their own sin-filled lives when in the direct presence of the Most Holy One. We had this detailed for us in Deut 5:1-6.
	Deut 5:1-6, Then Moses summoned all Israel, and said to them, "Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I am speaking today in your hearing, that you may learn them and observe them carefully. The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, with all those of us alive here today. The Lord spoke to you face to face at the mountain from the midst of the fire, while I was standing between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord; for you were afraid because of the fire and did not go up the mountain. He said, 'I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 
	God was willing to speak directly to the people, but they were not able to bear His voice. They wanted an intermediary who would declare the words and the direction of the Lord to them, man to man, rather than Spirit to spirit. Therefore the Lord made that provision through Moses. He also made it known that there would arise another prophet like Moses who would open up the fullness of the truth of Who God was in even deeper and greater manifestation. 
We have this presented to the people in Deut 18:15-19. It was from that point on that the people were looking for the One to Come, the Christ, the Messiah.
	Deut 18:15-19, The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him. This is according to all that you asked of the Lord your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, 'Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, let me not see this great fire anymore, lest I die.' "And the Lord said to me, 'They have spoken well. 'I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 'And it shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him. 
    	Another who desired such a close relationship with God, man with His Creator, was the Psalmist. Throughout the Psalms is declared the nature and character of God that was in evidence in such an intimate relationship. 
It is apparent that there was a fellowship that was established with the Lord. This is shown in the manner in which the Psalmist presented the way that the Lord was to be worshipped. This more perfect praise and thanksgiving to the Lord are detailed to the people in the psalms that were written. This made known just how fully the Lord knows us and deals with us in love and compassion because God has that intimate knowledge of mankind whom He created specifically for this purpose of companionship. 
Please open to Ps 103:6-18, as but one example of this expression of the heart of God with man. This is in anticipation of what will be fully established after the Promised One comes.
	Ps 103:6-18, The Lord performs righteous deeds, And judgments for all who are oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. He will not always strive with us; Nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust. As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. When the wind has passed over it, it is no more; And its place acknowledges it no longer. But the lovingkindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children's children, To those who keep His covenant, And who remember His precepts to do them. 
    	In this passage is the familial relationship which will be in place through the Messiah, the Christ to come. God knows us because He is the One Who made us. Still He desires to be our Heavenly Father and He deals with us in that manner as witnessed throughout the scriptures.
	The greatest manifestation of that love was in sending His Only Begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, to die on the cross and then be resurrected in the supreme power of God over our sin and our death. Jesus showed all - the true relationship that was ever at the heart of the Triune Godhead in the creation of this frail and helpless humanity. 
He detailed this for those who would but hear and believe as in John 5:39-47, if you would please open to it. In this passage, Jesus refers directly back to the fact that Moses declared that God would send forth this One, the Christ, the Messiah, Who would bring to the forefront the fullness of God in a living relationship with man.
	John 5:39-47, "You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me, that you may have life. "I do not receive glory from men; but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. "I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me; if another shall come in his own name, you will receive him. "How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another, and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? "Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. "For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote of Me. "But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?" 
	The Apostle Peter reminded the people of this truth when they gathered around Peter and John after healing the lame man in the name of Jesus. This is recorded in Acts Chapter 3. The Apostle, in Acts 3:17-26, did not hesitate to make known to the people what was now so true for all who would but believe upon the name of Jesus. He is the One specified by Moses and declared so manifestly and prophetically throughout the Old Testament.
	Acts 3:17-26, "And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also. "But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ should suffer, He has thus fulfilled. "Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time. "Moses said, 'The Lord God shall raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren; to Him you shall give heed in everything He says to you. 'And it shall be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.' "And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors onward, also announced these days. "It is you who are the sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, 'And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.' "For you first, God raised up His Servant, and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways." 
	The Writer to the Hebrews shows the true distinction between the relationships that God established with man through Moses under the Old Covenant and with man through Jesus, His Son now within the New Covenant so established by His death and resurrection. We have this recounted in Heb 3:5+6. 
Heb 3:5+6, Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end. 
What was begun, in type in the Old Testament, through the witness of Moses, is brought into complete fruition through the perfection of Jesus Christ. In Him we are made into the very family of God. It all serves to show what God has revealed of His heart to mankind from even before eternity was ever put into place. 
As we draw our consideration of this Book of Deuteronomy to a conclusion this morning, I would like to read a portion of the quote with which we began this deliberation. It is from Dr. Earl S. Kalland, in his introduction to this Book of Deuteronomy. It is contained in the Expositor’s Bible Commentary, with the General Editor, Frank E. Gaebelein. 
My hope is that we have seen a greater portion of what is invested by the Lord in this Book of Deuteronomy and therefore have been blessed by Him throughout. Please bear with me as we bring our time in this book to a close.
	Quote, The Book of Deuteronomy is definitely spiritual and intensely theological. In character it is an interpretation and an application of the relationship of the Lord to Israel and His revelation in covenant-treaty form to His people.
	The theological values of Deuteronomy can hardly be exaggerated. It stands as the wellspring of biblical historical revelation. It is the prime source for both OT and NT theology. Whether the covenant, the holiness of God, or the concept of the people of God is the unifying factor of OT theology, each finds emphasis and remarkable definition in Deuteronomy. 
	When the prophets speak of God, they speak of the God and the message of Deuteronomy and of the relationship embodied in its covenant-treaty. The warnings of doom in the prophets (esp. Jeremiah) are the warnings or curses of Deuteronomy. The promises of blessing for Israel when she lives in faith, love, and obedience to the Lord (or returns to the Lord after a period of doom) are the blessings of Deuteronomy. The loving, righteous, all-powerful, wonder-working Lord of Deuteronomy is the God of the prophets-and of the NT as well!
	The way of life of the people of God forms the basis for all subsequent revelations of the way of life acceptable to Him. These people belong wholly to the Lord; they are His treasured inheritance. He redeemed them from the bondage of Egypt. He is about to fulfill His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by giving them the Promised Land, their inheritance. The later NT teachings on the love of God, the redemption offered through Christ, the saved as the inheritance of God, and the fulfillment of the promises of God to the saved as their inheritance from Him rest on Deuteronomy.
	God in Deuteronomy is personal, eternal, omnipotent, sovereign, purposeful, loving, holy, and righteous. The knowledge of His person and will is communicated by propositional, directive, exhortative, informative, and predictive revelation. No other God exists, though cognizance is taken of the gods believed in by other nations.
	The most important element of subjective theology in Deuteronomy is that of the absolutely unqualified, total commitment of the people to the Lord. Nothing less is acceptable. No dissimulation, no assimilation, no syncretism with other gods or religions or religious practices are to be tolerated. The people belong to the Lord Alone. He is the absolute-though benevolent-sovereign, Whose people uniquely and completely belong to Him. End quote. 
	Thus is the call of Deuteronomy in each one of our lives. We need to seek deep, deep within our souls and hearts as to what is our relationship with the God of Deuteronomy. The Lord God, Jehovah, Yahweh, the Only Living God, the Creator of everything that has been created, is the God Who has redeemed us unto Himself. What is the commitment and dedication and resolve harbored within us in terms of how much we are His people on this earth, today? 
Reiterating Dr. Kalland’s quote, The most important element of subjective theology in Deuteronomy is that of the absolutely unqualified, total commitment of the people to the Lord. Nothing less is acceptable. No dissimulation, no assimilation, no syncretism with other gods or religions or religious practices are to be tolerated. The people belong to the Lord Alone. He is the absolute-though benevolent-sovereign, Whose people uniquely and completely belong to Him. So be it!
Since then no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face… Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Ps 68:32+33. Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth; Sing praises to the Lord, Selah. To Him who rides upon the highest heavens, which are from ancient times; Behold, He speaks forth with His voice, a mighty voice. Amen.