Rogation Sunday, 2002
Deuteronomy 11:10-17

Christianity: An Earthy Faith

After the Israelites had wandered long and hard in the wilderness it was time to enter the Promised Land. Camped on the east side of the Jordan River and ready to cross over, Moses gives them some last minute instructions. He describes for them the land they would posses. It would be hilly, yet fertile when blessed with rain. The people would be shepherds and farmers. A generation earlier their fathers had worked in Egypt on large plantations as slaves, so they understood something about agriculture. However the land of Canaan would be different than Egypt. Moses explains: "For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year" (Deuteronomy 11:10-13).

What is Moses saying? He explains how God would bless their farming methods. He reminds them that the Nile River flows through Egypt. The snows of Central Africa provided its water. The Egyptians took advantage of the Nile by use of waterwheels. The water was lifted up into large canals from where it ran into a complex of smaller and smaller channels. As various fields received sufficient water farmers used their feet to block off the smaller channels by pushing earth across it and creating little dams. Later on, when a field became too dry the farmer would kick away the dam and admit more water. Egypt was thus a like a vegetable garden which required constant care but yielded magnificent crops.

Canaan would be a bit distinct. Instead of flat, irrigated terrain like Egypt, Canaan was marked by hills and valleys. Rain was critical. Egypt could rely on the ever-flowing Nile River; Canaan had no such natural advantage. The land, though rugged, was capable of flowing milk and honey, but it depended entirely upon timely God-sent precipitation. Moses then called attention to the covenant: "And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil" (Deut. 11:13-14).

What is the message here? If the people would love God and serve Him, then He would reward them with His favor. The people could expect the "early rain and the latter rain" (v. 14). The rainy season for Canaan was similar to Southern California. The season lasted from October until May. The early rain fell in October and November, the beginning of the farming year, and prepared the land for plowing and sowing. The latter rain fell in April and May and provided the grain with the moisture necessary to endure the heat of early summer. The spring showers also provided enough grass for sheep.

For a people weary of wandering over the desert this was a happy prospect. Once settled in the Promised Land, God would bless His people with rain, grain, wine and oil if they would obey Him. Notice the condition: "If you obey me If you love me If you serve me." They were to love, serve and obey the Lord in order to enjoy these blessings. Let's stop and consider this point. Is love and obedience to God in exchange for material blessings a good thing? Does God need to be manipulated with love and bribed with sacrifices? That was certainly the thinking of the other pagan nations. The heathen believed that the gods could be cajoled into making beneficial gifts if they were fed the right diet of sacrifices. Theirs was essentially a man-centered and works-oriented religion. Has Moses succumbed to pagan thinking? If not, what is the difference between the requirements our God imposes upon the Church and the requirements the false gods impose?

The differences are significant. God's relationship with Israel was based on grace. It was grace that made the difference. We see this in the first chapters of Deuteronomy. Why did God bring Israel out of Egypt? How come He chose them over all the other nations? Was it because Israel was so much more worthy of God's attention? No. Deuteronomy 4:37-38 says, "And because [God] loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them; and He brought you out of Egypt with His presence, with His mighty power, driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day." In other words, it was God who took the initiative in coming to them in totally undeserved grace and mercy. God chose them and loved them, and it was not due to anything they had merited. Their obedience was not an attempt to twist God's arm, or butter Him up for goodies. The obedience of true believers to the Lord was motivated primarily by gratitude, and secondarily by material blessing. Their service to others was a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. They loved the Lord because He first loved and redeemed them. None of these factors figured at the core of pagan religion.

We also should see our relationship with God in terms of grace. We love the Lord because He first loved us. We serve Him because He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross and save us. We obey God because we want to please our Father. Manipulation is foolish, even when it is couched in pious terms. Do you have unsaved friends and family? Naturally we pray for their salvation. But their conversion does not depend upon how intense or enthusiastic our prayers or faith is, it depends upon God's providential timing and good pleasure. Are you having a hard time making ends meet? Some people teach that you simply need to have more faith that God wants to prosper you, and prosperity will follow. That's not right. Rather, in the midst of financial anxiety we work hard and rest in the sovereign hand of God. How about physical ailments? Some people would argue that the reason the Lord does not heal is because your faith is too limited. Wrong again. Faith is important, but it is not faith that heals, it is God in His mercy that heals. Beware works-oriented theologies. They inflate man and shrink God.

In a works-oriented scheme of things, faith is thought of as a work. According to this view, if we could only increase our faith enough, God would surely grant us success, prosperity and health; if we do not attain these things it is because there is a defect in our faith. Well that is not how grace works. It is not the size of our faith which achieves anything, but the power of God. The proper relationship of God to His people begins with what He gives to them rather than what they do for Him. Yes, we are "to love the Lord and serve Him with all our heart and with all our soul;" that is what our passage says. But that love and service is only a response to His gracious love for us. As one author said: "God's mercy cannot be bought. We accept it with outstretched hands as undeserving beggars, not as meritorious achievers."

[ Commentary on Deuteronomy by Raymond Brown, p. 25. Other commentaries consulted: Peter Craigie, C.H. Mackintosh, W. Robertson Nicoll, Duane Cristensen, J.A. Thompson, and J. Ridderbos. I am indebted to David Chilton's Power in the Blood ; Paul Raabe's article, "A Plea for Greater Dogmatic Engagement with the Old Testament" in Modern Reformation , July 1999; and Doug Wilson's Standing on the Promises .]

Let's explore another facet of this sinewy theme. Reading again Deuteronomy 11:13-17. [Read them.]

Moses, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is putting before the Church the prospect of blessing and cursing. On the one hand, God promises the people grain, wine and oil for their love and obedience; on the other hand, drought and affliction will befall them if they experiment with false gods. There are blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience; these are sometimes called the sanctions of the covenant. Actually the most comprehensive account of God's covenantal sanctions is contained in Deuteronomy 28. The first 14 verses describe the blessings, and verses 15-68 record the curses -- sometimes in horrifying detail. What should not be missed is the exceedingly mundane, earthy quality of the sanctions. The personal and cultural blessings are refreshingly earthly: "Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl..."

A strength of the Old Testament is this: it keeps our feet on the ground. Everywhere it affirms the goodness of God's creation. Moses keeps the Church down-to-earth. For the most part the Israelites ended up agriculturalists and owners of sheep and goats. They rejoiced in their concrete and physical life. Their hope was not to become deified or divinized but to live in fellowship with God in a fully human way, the way the Creator had made them and intended them to be. The Old Testament called for only one day of fasting out of the year, so they were not very ascetic. They built homes, plowed fields, raised families, enjoyed creature comforts, and worshipped God. To live under their own vine and fig tree, to enjoy the fruits of their fields, to drink the wine from their vineyard, that was the good life. Thus, the Old Testament makes Christianity an earthy faith. This is no excuse for hedonism; it's just a healthy balance. [Raabe, p. 34]

Let's not neglect the curses for rebellion against God. The curses are just as earthly and painfully physical as the blessings: "Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed shall be the fruit of you body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks." On and on it goes. If the children of Israel fell into apostasy, Moses promises them they would barely survive.

Were these stipulations intended for Israel alone? It is a tough question. There are Bible passages that lean both ways. Nevertheless, it seems that the strongest argument favors the side that sees the covenantal principle applying to all nations. The Psalms constantly remind us that God is "the great King over all the earth" who "reigns over the nations" (Psalm 47). Psalm 24:1 declares, "The earth is the LORD's, and its fullness, the world, and those who dwell therein." Psalm 2 commands all the kings and rulers of the earth to submit to God and Christ the Messiah. Moreover, the heathen nations which God would drive out of Canaan were being punished precisely because they had disobeyed the laws God gave Israel through Moses. He warned Israel that she would meet the same fate meted out to the heathen nations if she disobeyed Him. So it appears that the blessings and curses of Deuteronomy ought to apply to any nation or culture. We know that God desires our own personal sanctification. We also know that He seeks the sanctification of the Church and our families. How about the sanctification of nations and cultures? Isn't that a valid endeavor? Jesus commanded the Church to make disciples of the nations and baptize them (Mt. 28:19). What better way could the Church pick than the employment of these covenantal guidelines? The nations that are obedient to God will be blessed; those that are disobedient will be cursed. [See Chilton p. 68ff. for more on this.]

We should have no problem accepting this truth if we believe God Almighty is sovereign over both nature and history. God the Father sends his angels to control the weather, bringing about abundance or drought.

We must be careful to interpret this doctrine in a general fashion. Anybody who has read the book of Job knows that suffering is not always the result of sin. The same goes for the sanctions idea. There are horrendous, wicked cultures that prosper for a while. There are nations that completely reject God's sovereignty, that, nevertheless enjoy pretty good natural productivity. But these are exceptions to the rule. In general, the people who "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness" reap the spiritual and material blessings under the Lord's gracious covenant.

The doctrine of God's sovereignty over nature connected with His blessing and cursing is a good one to ponder on Rogation Sunday. Rogationtide was a grand occasion in rural England. All the Church people would gather together and hike around the borders of the parish. They would stop here and there, and the priest would lead the people in praying for God's blessing on orchards, animals and crops. A mix of picnics, worship, and fun marked this three-day celebration.

An urban setting makes it difficult for us to continue an authentic Rogation observance. How can we put into practice this earthy festival? Perhaps we can at least acquire a greater appreciation for nature. Nature is not independent of God. When the Lord sends His rains to water the earth it should be a cause for gratitude. One of the main principles of Boy Scouts is to take boys on frequent camping and hiking trips. What an excellent idea! Let's not let the environmental extremists ruin a good thing. We ought to set aside time to contemplate the wonders of God's creation. On the other hand, when God sends seasons of drought, maybe that means there is a need for personal and national repentance. The parched hills should move us to forsake all known evil.

How else can we rejoice in God's creation? Gardening should be a logical avocation for Christians. We are called to adorn the earth. Besides that, who wouldn't benefit from a walk in the forest or a stroll on the beach? The smell of pine sap, the bright orange of poppies, the song of a mockingbird, the rugged majesty of a mountain, the twinkling of the stars: such joys are not motivated by maudlin sentimentality; Christians have an eye for beauty, especially that created by God. On this Rogation Sunday may we recognize the grace, wisdom and power of our Heavenly Father in and through His handiwork.

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