Category: Deuteronomy

Moses was calling “heaven and earth to witness against them” in their future corrupt actions and turning aside from the way that he had commanded them (v. 31:28-29) Yet he wanted his “teaching to drop as the rain, (his) speech distill as the dew, like gentle rain upon the tender grass, and like showers upon the earth.” What image does that convey? Refreshing, satisfying, life-giving words. How can that message possibly be refreshing? Don’t you want your witness of Jesus to be gentle and refreshing? This is a wonderful prayer to memorize so that we can pray it as we are preparing to share what we fear may be an unwelcome message. It is a truly life-giving message; isn’t it worthy of this lovely presentation?

Jeshurun is another name for Israel that you will see again in poetry. Remember this reference so that you aren’t confused when you see it again!

Realize how sad Israel’s treatment of God was. We will read in the upcoming history books that Israel did just as Moses said they would do. God cherished them like a father cherishes his children. He found them in a barren place where nothing was happening and there was no hope of anything changing, and He encircled them, cared for them, made something of them, and established them. He transformed their barren existence into a life of abundance. That should have inspired their devotion, but instead in their abundance they grew fat and satisfied and unmindful of God. Their corrupt dealing with Him resulted in their forsaking Him and then forgetting Him. Look at what we are capable of.

In Moses’ closing of his final words he cautioned the Israelites that these words were not empty words, but their life. How can words be life? Think about it. Moses was presenting the people with a choice to believe what God said about their covenant with Him and the warnings about what would happen if they failed to be faithful to Him. Isn’t it sobering to think that today’s choices, insignificant as they may seem, ultimately become one’s life?

Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” We are faced with the same choice the Israelites had. Aren’t you glad that you are in His word daily, and hopefully cultivating the lifetime habit of being in His word, so that you will know it? Hopefully you are also choosing daily to live by His revealed word, and then choosing again as the need arises in moments of crisis to put into practice what you know to do.

The very day Moses delivered his final words to the Israelites, God told him to go up the mountain to die. I am blessed by this. I want to go like Moses, ministering up to the day I leave this world, and not remaining here a minute longer than God wants to use me. Although he didn’t get to enter the land, God showed it to him from that mountaintop. How satisfying it must have been to him to realize the legacy he left to the Israelites, leading them to the place of God’s promise. Don’t you want to leave such a legacy? That is determined by the choices you are making today!

The secret things belong to the Lord, and the people were not responsible for what they didn’t know. Just as He revealed the provisions of the Covenant in a series of revelations, He reveals to us as we are able to deal with the revelation. Once He reveals to us, we are responsible for the new understanding we have, to act on it as He leads and to live by it. We are responsible to do what we know to do, but only that. Isn’t God good to hold us accountable only for the known? Think about what that looks like in the body of Christ.

God made the covenant with the nation of Israel, but He was making it with individuals. God is a personal God, and sought personal relationship with His Old Testament people, as He does with His New Testament people.

History has revealed God’s compassion on His Old Testament people, as He has restored their Promised Land to them by great miracles, and people from all over the world have migrated there. Although they haven’t seemingly returned to relationship with God, He has shown compassion in their scattered and persecuted state. His dealing with His Old Testament people reveals Him to be a compassionate God. We are told not to test God; we cannot presume upon His compassion; however, we New Testament people can certainly appeal to His compassion revealed in His dealings with His Old Testament people as we seek relationship with Him and pray for others.

The Israelites would not be faithful in their relationships with God without a transformation of their hearts. The transformation would cause them to love Him so much that they would obey His commands. Seeing how unfaithful, how stubborn the Old Covenant people were, we understand what a miraculous transformation that would be. That is what Messiah has done in us! Think about that, and give thanks and praise to God today for that miraculous and amazing work done in you. If you don’t see evidence of that work done in you, I encourage you to talk to God about it today. If you need guidance in this matter you are welcome to contact me. But please don’t do nothing in response to the reality of transformation.

God planned a huge observance for the entire nation upon their entrance into the Promised Land, involving burnt offerings to God, peace offerings that they would eat together in a single gathering of the entire nation, and rejoicing before the Lord.

All I can say about the command to pronounce curses on those who fail to “confirm the words of the Law by doing them” from the two mountaintops is that it would have been an unforgettable ceremony, involving the huge population of the entire nation on the two mountains which together surround a valley. My guess is that it would have inspired them to fulfill the commands.

Notice that the blessings God promised to give them were of such a nature that they could be attributed to things other than God. Abundant crops, abundant harvests, prolific herds and flocks, enemies running away in defeat, blessings in all they put their hands to, financial prosperity – all could be easily taken for granted or pridefully attributed to one’s own work and talents. Are you guilty of that today?

Notice also the effect their sin would have on their animals, on the land, and on their sons and daughters. Sin had a much broader impact than simply on the one who committed it. Sin hasn’t changed in all the years since.

If you know anything about the history of the nation of Israel, you know that God fulfilled His promises given here in a most tragic way. Scripture tells of their suffering the exile He promised. From the time Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70, Jews have endured periodic persecution wherever they have scattered, some of it horrific, culminating in the Holocaust during World War II. Their history is indeed one of horror. The history shows that God has power to do everything He says He will do, and in fact has been faithful to do it, because they didn’t “serve the Lord (their) God with joy and a glad heart, for the abundance of all things,” they didn’t revere His “honored and awesome name,” and didn’t obey Him.

How are you at doing what God wants His chosen people to do? Think today about those things He wanted from His chosen people:

• Serving Him as Lord with joy and a glad heart
• Enjoying His abundance with joy and a glad heart
• Revering His name as honored and awesome
• Obeying Him

Why not ask God what He thinks of how you are doing?

More seemingly random commands, many of them new. What were these about? Can you discern God’s purpose or heart revealed in these commands? In my mind, it would be presumptuous to think that I would be able to figure out God in every command He issued to His Old Testament people. I won’t try to; no one would want to read such a long post anyway. One way, however, these varied commands speak to me is their revelation of God’s concern for all aspects of our lives. That reveals His love for us! So while we may feel like trudging through these commands, let’s instead treasure them for demonstrating to us all the little ways God shows us that He loves His people.

But can we see some overall principles in these commands?

God is sovereign over His creation, and we must submit to His sovereignty. Sometimes that may appear unfair to us. God doesn’t claim to be fair, and that generally works for the benefit of His people.

God’s presence in our midst requires decency. He addressed the baser issues of human existence, but He didn’t want to have to step on them as He was in their midst! He loves us, is willing to have fellowship with us despite these ugly realities of life that come with us, which He finds indecent. In order to enjoy relationship with Him, God’s people must deal with their indecencies decently. Does that speak to you of ways in which we will be distinct from our culture today?

God expects His people to be faithful to fulfill what they say they will do. They are not to be stingy, but to show mercy to the needy. God expects His people to conduct business justly and conduct themselves with justice.

God was not sanctioning divorce in His provisions for it here. It was not part of the plan for marriages that He established when He created Eve, and He reveals elsewhere in Scripture that He hates divorce. Jesus said that He permitted divorce because of the hardness of people’s hearts – sin. Again, we see God making provision for undesirable realities of life in a sin-cursed world.

God is concerned for poor people, that they be able to maintain their lives and their dignity in their need. He had some ingenious ways to provide for them. Can they shed light on our culture’s provision for the poor, or even our own charitable practices?

Many of these commands differentiated His Law from the laws and practices of other ancient cultures, distinguishing His people as more decent, more just, more merciful, more good, more orderly, more faithful and more joyful. Aren’t these lovely characteristics for God to promote in His people? Don’t they speak of happiness? What does that teach you about God, and about His desire for you?

When God would bring them into the Promised Land, He planned that they would live in the blessings of abundance. They were commanded to make a point of remembering where they came from, recognizing His abundance, and rejoicing in it on a regular basis. Do you do that?

Part of the observance commanded was to ask for God’s blessing as He promised their forefathers. Think about that: He had promised to bless them, but they were commanded to ask for that blessing as He had promised. Note what else He promised them at the end of chapter 26. We have many promises given to us as God’s people; do we realize that we have to ask God to give us the wonderful things He has promised us?

He reinforces that these many, varied and sometimes seemingly random commands were to be not only known, but done. Done carefully, with enthusiasm and thoroughness. Their observance of these commands wouldn’t be a part of their lives, but their whole way of living in conformance to God’s ways. In response, they would be God’s treasured people. Imagine what that would mean to them, to be treasured by God. Do you treasure anyone? Then your feelings for and actions toward them will reveal to you somewhat of God’s feelings for you and actions toward you, for His New Testament people are as treasured to Him as His Old Testament people. That is worth thanksgiving to God today! Is it worth your living in conformance to His ways?

Did you catch the heart of what God has presented in the Law in these chapters? Some of them are difficult to understand!

The shedding of innocent blood imposed guilt of innocent blood in the midst of the land and the people, which must be purged, “that it may go well with” them. Yet God was at least as concerned, perhaps more concerned, that innocent people were not punished for crimes they didn’t commit, evidenced in the cities of refuge and the roads He required to be built to make them readily accessible, and the requirement of two or three witnesses for conviction. That would likely mean that some crimes didn’t get purged according to the remedy of “life for life.” What does that teach you about God?

They were permitted to offer terms of peace to the inhabitants of cities outside their inheritance against whom they went to war. If the city accepted the terms, they were permitted to save the women and children as spoils of war, but kill all the men. But the cities within the boundaries of the Promised Land had to be utterly destroyed “in order that they may not teach you to do according to all their detestable things which they have done for their gods, so that you would sin against the Lord your God.” It was a matter of God’s judgment on these people and Israel’s survival in the land.

How does the concept of bloodguiltiness relate to the utter destruction of the Canaanites? How does one reconcile God’s obvious rejection of murder, with His command to destroy completely the Canaanites? It’s worth contemplating, because modern man finds difficulty in the reconciliation and will use it as an excuse to reject God, reject Scripture as an authority, and reject anyone who doesn’t share their confusion. Satan can use it as a weapon to make you doubt God’s goodness. I encourage you to seek full understanding from God on the matter, because only His answers can vanquish such doubts. I will offer one word that might make the analysis seem worthwhile to you: justice.

On the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed. This became an important principle for any matter of vital truth. It’s a good rule to follow for our acceptance of truth today.

Justice required that they should “not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.” Does that clarify matters of justice today?

“Do not be fainthearted. Do not be afraid, or panic, or tremble before (your enemies arrayed in battle before you), for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.” God meant that, as funny as it seems to one who can’t comprehend approaching battle with anything but fear, trembling and a faint heart. That would eliminate me from their armed forces, for God meant it so absolutely that He told them to send home any soldier who was afraid. God didn’t have any use in His army for a fearful soldier. What about the battles we’re fighting today? It’s no different for us as soldiers fighting alongside God. Do you have fear that you must deal with today?

God stressed that the evil must be removed from their midst. The method given here of removing evil from their midst required parents of a stubborn and rebellious son to report him and throw the first stone in killing him. That was a drastic step to be taken to remove the evil from their midst. God really meant that command, too. Knowing that requirement meant that parents took a grave risk with their children’s lives in failing to train them to be disciplined. There were no excuses offered for rebellious children. If it was possible in that day to train children to be disciplined, is it also possible in our day?

Helping the owner of what was lost to recover his property taught the Israelites that they were not to ignore the needs and predicaments of others. What a concept. Building a parapet taught that they couldn’t be neglectful of others’ safety.

Forbidding mixtures in fibers and fields seems odd to us. One of the possible principles associated with this command was to avoid the appearance of adherence to pagan practices. Or it possibly had to do with keeping distinct what God had created distinct.

Keeping genders distinct, acknowledging the first-born with the double-portion inheritance to which he was entitled, and many other of these requirements taught the Israelites that God’s people were to do what is right, and not simply what they felt like doing.

Do any of these requirements reveal God’s desire for His people that speak to you in a particular (or particularly painful) way today? Why not ask God what He thinks?

God reiterates and enlarges upon the provisions of the Law in such a way as to help His people understand His intention. They may not be able always to know the letter of the Law, because it was impossible to cover every circumstance in the provisions of the Law. So He reveals His heart in these reiterations. Once again, although these may not apply specifically and directly to us New Testament people of God, we should seek to understand them if we want to be His people. His people will want to be like Him, and want to understand His heart so that we can please Him and be like Him.

Yesterday we read about the dietary laws, which revealed God’s intention that His people be holy – pure and set apart, distinct from those who were not God’s people.

His requirements for settling debts every seventh year and setting slaves free demonstrate a concern for the needy that would prompt them to do something to help them. It also required them to hold wealth lightly and to be unselfish in sharing the wealth God gave. His intention was that they would choose the way of His blessing and thus would be so blessed that they would have no poor in their land; however, He addressed the reality that there would be poor people. Thus, there is no contradiction between verses 15:4 and 15:11, only a conciliation to the reality of sin necessitating the need to care for the poor. His plan for that was that the wealthy would take care of them by their generosity springing from a willing heart as they enjoyed God’s abundance.

Observing the designated holy days made institutions of their remembrances of their enslavement in Egypt, God’s leading them out to freedom, and His establishing them as a nation of His covenant people. These became an important and distinctive part of their culture, as our holidays are important and distinctive parts of our culture. Remembrance is an important part of the Church, as remembering in the observance of communion is one of only two commands Jesus gave us. What means have you implemented in your own life to remember the milestones in your personal relationship with God?

Rejoicing was also an important part of their holy day observances. We are told to “Rejoice in the Lord always.” Our joy is important to God!

Part of their most important holiday observances were congregating in Jerusalem, and bringing gifts to God, giving as each was able, according to how God had blessed each one. Both gathering and giving should be important to us as well.

Justice is important to God. So is showing mercy. Justice is what is right (not necessarily happy or convenient) for all parties. We all want justice for ourselves when we are wronged. Generally, we have the luxury of taking justice for granted in our culture, and thus don’t treasure it as much as those who have had to struggle to receive justice, or don’t enjoy it at all. Think about what a treasure justice is; doesn’t it instill love in your heart for a just God who values justice? Mercy requires one giving up what is his, possibly including justice. Think about that with regard to circumstances in your life for which you desire justice. What we receive from God should be extended to others.

God wanted them to avoid worship practices that were common to others’ worship of their man-made gods. Man’s ideas about demonstrating devotion are not necessarily shared by God; where the two differ, God’s ideas prevail, and man’s ideas are junk.

Removal of that which threatened to lead them away from God was important enough to invoke the death penalty. Let’s understand clearly that God’s imposition of the death penalty for those who attempted to lead others away from Him did not demonstrate a low value of life, but a high value of devotion to God.

Submitting to the decisions of the authorities God set in place was important. Again, the harshness of the penalty for failing to do so demonstrates how important that was to God. Our democratic society may not share that value, but that is of no importance in the matter. God clearly intends for His people to submit to the decisions of their God-given leaders, for if He gives the leaders, the people are submitting to Him in submitting to them. God doesn’t appreciate our having our own minds where He has revealed truth or His will.

Again, a kingdom was not God’s choice for their government, but reality dictated that He provide for it anyway. The design of a kingdom in conformance to the Law provided that their kings were not to build up the nation’s security in anything or anyone but God. They were to avoid the wielding of power that foreign kings exercised, such as building a harem and stashing and living in great wealth. This would have distinguished Israel’s kings from every king around them, and kept them humble and closer to the people. Kings were also expected to know God’s word and rule the nation by it.

What do you think of God’s standards for His people? What do you think of God for setting such standards for His people? Why don’t you talk that over with Him today?

Signs and wonders aren’t necessarily from God, and so the only test of whether a so-called spiritual leader is from God is whether his or her leadership guides the followers to God or away from God. God might allow a false prophet’s signs and wonders to come true to test His Old Covenant people’s devotion to Him; might He do the same with us New Covenant people? The book of Revelation tells of such a false prophet who will lead people astray with his signs and wonders. Isn’t that sobering? Are you vulnerable to being led away from God with false signs and wonders? Note the protection against such vulnerability: “You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer of dreams” who entices people to serve other gods. Of course, they would likely be more subtle than to say outright, “Let’s go after other gods.” If we are not to be taken in by them, we must be able to detect any message that endangers our devotion to God. Our protection is knowledge of God’s word and the Holy Spirit’s faithfulness to us. The only way we can maintain the former is to be in God’s Word in regular, systematic reading and study, and in church. The only way we can count on the latter is by seeking God with all our hearts. Moses puts it this way: “You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.” I’ve highlighted all those verbs to reinforce what God’s people are told do to maintain their stability in relationship with God and so avoid being led astray by signs and wonders.

They were not to spare or pity one who doomed himself to death by attempting to lead others astray. God intended them to take such action seriously. Should we do any differently today? We obviously wouldn’t punish with death such a one in our circles; but we shouldn’t tolerate such, either.

We will not encounter today many people encouraging us to follow after other gods. To be on our guards, we need to consider now, while we are in our right minds, what messages we are likely to hear from people who want us not to follow God; who or what will they likely present for us to put before God?

God obviously wanted to show mercy to His people and make them increase, but He placed conditions on His showing them mercy and increasing them. Think about it: their choices, their actions placed restrictions on His showing them mercy and blessing them as His heart desired. Do we restrict Him by our choices and our actions today? Do your choices and actions limit the mercy and blessings that He wants to give you?

What the holy, chosen people of God ate was obviously important. Why do you suppose that was? Should we have diet restrictions today? Do the restrictions imposed on God’s Old Covenant people have any impact on His New Covenant people? What about the simple fact that they had dietary restrictions imposed?

God gave them a break for hardship on their method of bringing their tithe to the place He would choose; however, He did not give them a break on the meeting place nor on the necessity for bringing the tithe. Does that speak to our worship today? They were to go to the trouble of bringing their tithe to the place God would choose, ultimately Jerusalem, to eat it in God’s presence with rejoicing. They could even enjoy strong drink (v. 14:26) in their rejoicing before the Lord! He meant for them to rejoice, don’t you think? Note that they weren’t just to rejoice with their families, but with their households. That would include their slaves. What would that do to the relationships in the household?