Deut 14:28+29, "At the end of every third year you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year, and shall deposit it in your town. And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance among you, and the alien, the orphan and the widow who are in your town, shall come and eat and be satisfied, in order that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.
    	In consideration of this morning’s passage, I was struck by something that is necessary for every Christian to realize and to take before the Lord for His work in all of our lives. It is the fact that there is a great difference between knowing the ways of the Lord as opposed to just knowing His acts. Hopefully we will come to a better understanding of the true difference as it relates to us in the manner in which we are to daily conduct ourselves on this earth. This was enforced upon my preparation in the manner in which The Lord made provision for those who had nothing. 
	This writing was from the heart of the Lord through His prophet, Moses. The means was set before the people for the inclusion and the care of the alien, the orphan, the widow, and the Levite. It was a picture of how the Lord provides for those who are the lowly and the rejected and the ones without any other means of support within their community. God makes His heart to abound to them, as detailed by Moses. There is a community effort in place that is to manifest the heart of God and His way of provision for those who are truly in need and in desperate and urgent plights as the lost, and the forgotten, and the forsaken, and the destitute of society. In the case of the Levites, it was the means of the Lord taking care of those who were His servants, whose portion was the Lord and not the ownership of any land or property in the cities.
	As the community cared for these beloved and singled out of the Lord, they would know His blessing upon themselves and their efforts. They would be practicing the way of the Lord which would so please and honor and reverence Him. Accordingly the heavens would pour forth His graciousness and His bountiful approval upon them all.  
	As the writer of this book, Moses could only do so as he had received the instruction and the means of knowing the heart of God. He had learned the way of the Lord in the knowledge of how God operated and so manifested His heart toward those in need through His people who would treat them with care and love and mercy and grace. It is so evident that Moses had come to know the ways of the Lord.
	We find this as the heart’s desire of Moses, recounted for us in Ex 33:12-14. Ex 33:12-14, Then Moses said to the Lord, "See, Thou dost say to me, 'Bring up this people!' But Thou Thyself hast not let me know whom Thou wilt send with me. Moreover, Thou hast said, 'I have known you by name, and you have also found favor in My sight.' "Now therefore, I pray Thee, if I have found favor in Thy sight, let me know Thy ways, that I may know Thee, so that I may find favor in Thy sight. Consider too, that this nation is Thy people." And He said, "My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest." 
Moses puts before us the heart of one who needed to know the ways of the Lord, in direct contrast to those who only know the Lord through His acts. There is a tremendous difference in this course of our knowledge of the Lord. Moses was not satisfied to just know about God. He wanted to know Him intimately and personally in a relationship that transcended that which most of the nation of Israel considered as adequate. While they knew that there was a God in heaven, One Who had worked mightily on their behalf, they really had no desire to know anything else. As long as The Lord took care of them, they were satisfied to bring Him the sacrifices that He required. They would abide by the letter of the Law that He had given them as long as it benefited their needs and kept God in a giving mood.
This was because they knew God only in the acts that they witnessed, just as was so true of all the nations surrounding them. Consider how Israel was delivered from slavery in Egypt. All the plagues were evidence that there was a God Who was demanding that Pharaoh release this people. The Children of Israel saw it and the Egyptians saw it. Pharaoh finally relented and charged the people to leave as quickly as possible before any more plagues were visited upon him. Then he changed his mind and went after the fleeing Children of Israel with his chariots. 
Even in this, there was recognition of the working power of God as the pillar of fire and cloud protected the Israelites from the army of Pharaoh. The Children of Israel were backed up against the Red Sea and the Lord opened it and allowed His people to cross on dry land. However, when the chariots tried to cross, the Lord made it so difficult that even the Egyptians knew that God was helping the Israelites, as recorded in Ex 14:23. Ex 14:23, And He caused their chariot wheels to swerve, and He made them drive with difficulty; so the Egyptians said, "Let us flee from Israel, for the Lord is fighting for them against the Egyptians."  
With this, we can see that not only the Children of Israel, but the Egyptians could recognize the acts of the Lord. They would not accept Him as the only god, but they did recognize that He was the God of Israel. The same was true of so many of the pagan nations that the Children of Israel encountered throughout their history. God would act and that would be recognized as His divine intervention on the behalf of Israel as their national deity. 
  That was often the very same way that the Israelites viewed God. He was their national deity to Whom they owed allegiance and honor and obedience to the point that it served their needs. It was also the reason that they so often swerved away from serving Him. They thought they could disregard Him and His ways whenever they wanted to satisfy their own urges and desires after some other way of conducting their affairs. As we have witnessed throughout our reading of scripture, they would continually turn away from Him, until things got to be unbearable. Then, they would return to Him, seek His forgiveness, and promise to never forsake Him. That was, at least, until the next time that they found themselves so tempted by the other deities surrounding them. 
It was because they only knew Him by His acts that they treated Him so callously and cavalierly and selfishly. There was a nominal recognition of Him. But there was no love for Him. They had no desire to know Him ever increasingly and fully. They did not want to spend the time with Him that was required to truly commune with Him and to interrelate with Him and to converse with Him and to delight in Him and to learn His ways. 
Consider how often Moses would meet with the Lord and how much time he would spend with God one on one. He visited with the Lord on the mountain for 40 days at a time. He would go into the Tent of Meeting almost daily. He would set his face toward the Lord and talk with Him and converse with Him and even remind the Lord of His promises to the people whenever the Lord was ready to start over with Moses. Moses was on the side of the Lord in declaring that all the nations surrounding them would look down on the Lord and His ability to keep His people safe if the Lord just started over. Moses had this relationship with the Lord that grew out of intimate interaction together. He spent his time in both fellowship and in struggling through all the manner in which his limited understanding and thought processes needed to become aligned to those of the Lord.
This is the tremendous difference that is fundamental to our relationship with the Lord. Let us search our hearts as to whether we know the Lord God Almighty by His acts or are we learning His ways. His acts reveal the fact that there is a God in heaven Who interacts with humanity in some form or fashion. It does not necessarily cause a change in our behavior or allegiance, as was evident in the nations which surrounded Israel. His acts are there for all to see. 
Even today, in our increasingly godless society, we are met with the legalese in contracts that stipulating certain acts of God. As in insurance policies, certain acts of God may not be covered. This is but one example. Hurricanes and earthquakes and hail and other naturally occurring details of our universe are still called acts of God. That does not mean that there is any recognition of Who He is and all that He has done and the fact that He does control all these acts. It is just the fact that these tremendous and cataclysmic events are just generally categorized under His operations within our natural realm.
But, to know the ways of God is the revelation that proceeds forth from God to those who truly want to know Him in an ever greater and increasing relationship. This requires all the efforts of mankind to set aside time and devotion and energy for the sake of learning Who God is and How He works to reveal Himself to those who truly desire this intimacy of relationship with Him. To know His ways is to be fundamentally changed for all of eternity. This is because we can never, ever again see anything other than how He has so manifested His grace and His mercy and His love upon the humanity whom He created.
To know the ways of God means that how we treat others will more and more reflect His heart of compassion and self-sacrifice as the means of blessing those who are in such need of the limitlessness of His love expressed in our lives. Our thoughts and our behaviors and our attitudes and our demeanor will be more and more reflective of the One with Whom we are spending our time and energy. 
Moses so often went into the direct presence of the Lord that he had to cover his face from the people because the glory of the Lord shone so brilliantly upon him. Thus should our hearts and minds and beings reflect the same glory of the Lord. It will not be in the need to cover our faces, but in the fact that people will notice a complete difference in the course of how our lives are lived before both God and man. It will be evident that there is a new manner of living that courses through our dealings with one another as we can not help but view all humanity with the love of God that gives and gives and gives again.
Listen to the words of Moses as he contemplated the ways of the Lord in the course of dealing with the Chosen nation of God. He urged the people to go forth in the learning of the ways of the Lord as in Deut 32:1-4. Moses knew more and more of the ways of the Lord as each day unfolded. As he spent the time with the Lord, he gained a far greater understanding of how all of creation was proclaiming the glory of the Creator. This should be expressly evident in His people.
Deut 32:1-4, "Give ear, O heavens, and let me speak; And let the earth hear the words of my mouth. "Let my teaching drop as the rain, My speech distill as the dew, As the droplets on the fresh grass And as the showers on the herb. "For I proclaim the name of the Lord; Ascribe greatness to our God! "The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He. 
	Notice the ways of the Lord that Moses was so able to highlight, that we should so fully know of the Lord. The Lord is the Rock, He is solidly positioned and sure. We can fully find shelter in Him as He will not be moved. The Lord does all things perfectly. There is no variance or haphazardness with the Lord. Every detail is flawlessly and precisely accomplished. The Lord is just in all that He does. We will never be able to say that God did anything on a whim or without full and complete justice. He is utterly faithful in all that He does. We can count on Him no matter what! All that He says He will do, He will do! There is no injustice with Him! He is righteous and upright in His every dealing with you and with me and with all mankind. 
	  Just as with the Lord, so too should be our testimony in this realm in which we live unto mankind. The Psalmist so encourages us throughout the Psalms. We will consider just one this morning, Ps 41:1+2. Herein we see that as we are so faithful in our treatment of others, so will the Lord spread His wings of protection over us. He knows those who know Him in fullness and in truth. It is not a matter of earning anything or proving anything. It is the simple reality that as we are so in tune with the Lord and His ways, our lives will manifest it. As well, the Lord will show it in all His dealings with us. 
	Ps 41:1+2, How blessed is he who considers the helpless; The Lord will deliver him in a day of trouble. The Lord will protect him, and keep him alive, And he shall be called blessed upon the earth; And do not give him over to the desire of his enemies. 
      	In our final passage of this morning, Isa 55:6-13, the Prophet Isaiah encourages us to seek this relationship with the Lord to the utmost of our efforts. He highlights the great difference between the Lord and the humanity that He created. Even so, the Lord is still willing to make His ways known to us if we will but seek Him with all our hearts. Isa 55:6-13. Please open to it so we can read it together. 
	Isa 55:6-13, Seek the Lord while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the Lord, And He will have compassion on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways My ways," declares the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth, And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; So shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. "For you will go out with joy, And be led forth with peace; The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, And all the trees of the field will clap their hands. "Instead of the thorn bush the cypress will come up; And instead of the nettle the myrtle will come up; And it will be a memorial to the Lord, For an everlasting sign which will not be cut off." 
  	His ways are so much greater and exalted and glorious than our ways. He shows the fullness of Himself to those who will seek Him and rejoice together in His gloriousness. There is a complete restoration of relationship that has always been the Lord’s plan for us in Jesus Christ. In Him we can give ourselves utterly to know The Lord God Almighty. We can spend time with Him and converse with Him and commune with Him in order that we can learn from Him and His manifested ways.
	We will continue this course of consideration next week, Lord willing, as we expand upon the difference of knowing God’s acts and knowing God’s ways. This is necessary in our lives and in the lives of our loved ones and all those whom He brings near for the blessing of His mercy and honor and grace. So be it!
"At the end of every third year you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year, and shall deposit it in your town. And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance among you, and the alien, the orphan and the widow who are in your town, shall come and eat and be satisfied, in order that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do. Amen. 

	This morning’s benediction is Luke 4:18+19. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are downtrodden, To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord." Amen.