Deut 1:11, 'May the Lord, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand-fold more than you are, and bless you, just as He has promised you! 
	We have now started our reading of the Book of Deuteronomy. It is the last book of the Pentateuch and contains many instructions and blessings and consequences for the Chosen people of God in their relationship with the Lord God Jehovah. 
	As an initial introduction to this marvelous book of the Bible, actually, they are all marvelous in the light of the nature and the character of God that is manifestly revealed in each of them, but particularly concentrating on this book, I would like to read an intensive, introductory quote. We will then look at the blessing that is detailed in our morning’s passage.  
Dr. Earl S. Kalland, in his introduction concerning the Book of Deuteronomy in the Expositor’s Bible Commentary, makes a manifold observation concerning the theological value of the Book of Deuteronomy. It so impressed and blessed me that I will share a portion of it. I hope you will bear with me in this detailed examination which will flavor all our contemplations of this Book of the Bible.
	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. 
	Deuteronomy clearly indicates the Judeo-Christian idea of law and the basis for it. Here is no man-made agreement based on interpersonal, intertribal, or even international experience; rather, the decrees of God produce the notion of law. These decrees stem from the nature of God Himself and from His disposition toward mankind. End Quote.
    	As should be evident, this is a mighty Book which details how God has set into place His purpose and intent of interaction with mankind, whom He created. It began in the OT with the Nation that God specifically chose unto Himself, and then it overflows into the perfection of what is now in place in the gift of His Only Begotten Son. 
Every aspect and detail is set into place within the precision of the blessing of God upon His creation. That is why we need to return to the blessing of God as pronounced upon Abraham. It is there that even we, as Gentiles, are now blessed by the most Holy and Awesome Lord God Almighty as He has chosen to include us in Jesus Christ.
We turn back to Gen 22:15-18, where the blessing is once more pronounced upon Abraham in his obedience with regard to Isaac. Gen 22:15-18, Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, "By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice." 
	Notice that this blessing was fully in line with the obedience and the trust that Abraham had with God, his friend. The Lord had earlier promised a great nation from him, and Abraham had tried to make it so through human effort and means. However the Lord had something far greater in mind in this blessing of Abraham. It was the foretelling of the nation of God that would be in place through the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ to His Heavenly Father. 
This Only Begotten Son would be sacrificed for the sake of the salvation of everyone who would believe in Him. Because of that obedience, even to death on the cross, God raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him as the Lord of all creation. It is under His sovereignty that all humanity is subject to and will be bringing glory to God. In Christ there is established a living affiliation that far transcends Creator with His creation. We are brought, by faith and belief in Jesus Christ, into the very familial relationship with Our Heavenly Father as His beloved sons and daughters.
	This blessing is traced through Isaac, the son of Abraham, as we read in Gen 26:3-5. Here, God told Isaac that because of the obedience of his father, he too would be blessed beyond all measure. This was the Promised Land which would eventually belong to the Children of Israel, Isaac’s son. 
Gen 26:3-5, Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. And I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws." 
     	In Ex 3:13-15, God made provision for the release of this people whom He had chosen unto Himself from their slavery in Egypt. They did not deserve to be saved. They were not special in some sense of being more morally upright or rich or famous or masterful artists of works of grandeur. They were the miserable slaves of Egypt, working laboriously under the strict and heavy and awful hand of Pharaoh. They were nobodies and of no earthly standing. They were complainers and grumblers and faithless and rebellious and ungrateful. Yet, God, in His infinite wisdom, according to His Omniscienct foreknowledge had chosen them as His own in the blessing of Abraham. These were the children, the means by which the salvation of mankind would be coming into the world through the Messiah, the sent One of God.
	First, however, these slaves needed to be molded into a nation that could march into the Promised Land under the banner of God. They needed to be established as a people who honored and obeyed and relied upon the Lord God Jehovah as their everything. For that to happen, they needed a leader who would speak the very words of the Lord God Almighty, and would lead them into the fulfillment of the land of promise.
	Ex 3:13-15, Then Moses said to God, "Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I shall say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you.' Now they may say to me, 'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?" And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" And God, furthermore, said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations. 
   	Here again was the sovereignty of the Lord in action as He chose not only a people unto Himself, but God chose the specific leader to go before this obstinate and stubborn people in order to encourage and to mold them into a nation that would obey and seek to honor the Lord God Almighty. In sending Moses with the instructions as to for Whom Moses was speaking to the sons of Israel, the Lord cemented the fact that they were on the cusp of receiving the blessing that was so long ago promised to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob. God was declaring through this prophet, that the time was at hand in which these slaves were no longer to be under bondage, but to receive the Promised blessing of the One Who could only honor His Word unto them.
	The Lord, through Moses and Aaron would again make known to the people that they were receiving the blessing of the Lord God Almighty. This we have recorded for us in the Aaronic Blessing of Num 6:23-27. 
	Num 6:23-27, "Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, 'Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them: The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.' "So they shall invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and I then will bless them." 
	This was the blessing that God wanted His people to know and to understand as they so honored and obeyed Him. They would know that they were a blessed people, kept by the Lord God, Jehovah. Not only that but He was Jehovah Jireh, their Provider. He would make His face to shine on them and deal with them in His Endless Grace and Mercy. He would give them peace in the midst of all the chaos and the upheaval of this realm. His name, His …memorial-name to all generations… would be upon them as they would be His people and He would be their God. 
	This blessing would find its culmination in the relationship that was set into place in Jesus. It is the blessing that we all receive in His name. He manifests the fullness and the essence of all that God pronounced upon His people in this blessing of Aaron upon the Children of Israel. We can freely take it as our own and thank the Lord for the fact that He is faithful and just to so honor His word in our day to day lives on this earth and for all of eternity.
	Our concluding passage of this morning is that of the Psalmist as so declared in Ps 115:13-18. Ps 115:13-18, He will bless those who fear the Lord, The small together with the great. May the Lord give you increase, You and your children. May you be blessed of the Lord, Maker of heaven and earth. The heavens are the heavens of the Lord; But the earth He has given to the sons of men. The dead do not praise the Lord, Nor do any who go down into silence; But as for us, we will bless the Lord From this time forth and forever. Praise the Lord! 
	All blessing comes forth from God for the sake of making mankind know that there is a God in heaven Who rules and overrules according to His divine and infinite knowledge and power. No one can truly argue against Him and live. The earth is the domain of men, but only to the point that God so gives the increase and the provision of His grace and His mercy. We see this in the life that proceeds forth in the plant and animal kingdoms as well as the relationship of all the natural elements which work in specific dynamic accordance to His divine Omnipotence. 
We are blessed because we know Him and we honor Him and we desire to bring unto Him the ever more perfect praise and adoration and glory and honor that He, Alone is due. As we are so blessed of Him, so we desire to offer back unto Him all that would bless His heart in this familial relationship that He has put into place in Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Our Savior, Our Everything. 
Lord willing, we will return to our consideration of this Book of Deuteronomy with all its blessings in place for us, the people of the Lord, next week. So be it. 
'May the Lord, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand-fold more than you are, and bless you, just as He has promised you! Amen.

	
This morning’s benediction is 2 Tim 1:2B. Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.