False Prophets Test the Heart

Deuteronomy 13:1-18
    1 “If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’ 3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. 5 But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst. 6 “If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, 7 of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, 8 you shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him; 9 but you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. 10 And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 11 So all Israel shall hear and fear, and not again do such wickedness as this among you.
    12 “If you hear someone in one of your cities, which the LORD your God gives you to dwell in, saying, 13 “Corrupt men have gone out from among you and enticed the inhabitants of their city, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods” ’—which you have not known— 14 then you shall inquire, search out, and ask diligently. And if it is indeed true and certain that such an abomination was committed among you, 15 you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it, all that is in it and its livestock—with the edge of the sword. 16 And you shall gather all its plunder into the middle of the street, and completely burn with fire the city and all its plunder, for the LORD your God. It shall be a heap forever; it shall not be built again. 17 So none of the accursed things shall remain in your hand, that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of His anger and show you mercy, have compassion on you and multiply you, just as He swore to your fathers, 18 because you have listened to the voice of the LORD your God, to keep all His commandments which I command you today, to do what is right in the eyes of the LORD your God.

As we see here, some things do not change due to the fallen nature of man; these false prophets and dreamers gave signs and wonders which actually came to pass.  However, the message they gave with those deceptive miracles pointed to other gods and not the Living God, the Almighty LORD of creation (Matthew 24:24).  The Lord allowed these to speak and to work wonders to test the people’s hearts for their love and singleminded devotion to Him (2 Chronicles 16:9) who spoke clearly otherwise in His commandments of the scriptures.  He still speaks through His word to us, and warns of those who mislead (2 Timothy 2:15-18) with reasonable arguments and philosophy (Colossians 2:8) apart from the clear teaching of His word.  We are clearly warned as well as tested to know and follow Him, not the miraculous tied to bad doctrine.  This is just as true and relevant to us as it was to Israel in this passage.  Back then under the Law, people and whole towns were destroyed for leading God’s people astray to serve other false idols and deceptive teachings.  Now we have church discipline within and awareness for wolves coming in (Acts 20,29-31) through His word leading to life.  Knowing the scriptures and understanding the sense of them (Nehemiah 8:8) is therefore crucial to we who know Christ and follow Him as called.  We cannot accept misleading teaching, especially when signs and wonders are used to mask the truth by deceptive words not aligning with what God tells us, for it is not as in Eden, “did God really say,” but according to the Bible, what God indeed has said.  Those things we then search out (Acts 17:11) to follow This passage ends with listening to our LORD and following His word as spoken (Philippians 1:9-11) to know and understand, which leads to honoring and glorifying Him in spirit and in truth. This passage testifies to God’s direction as we encounter false prophets who test the heart through signs and wonders which come to pass, but with words untrue. 

Follow God, Not Others

Deuteronomy 12:29-32
    29 “When the LORD your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, 30 take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’ 31 You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way; for every abomination to the LORD which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.
    32 “Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.

Israel was warned about following those whose place they took as God drove them out of the land given them to inherit.  He clearly warned them to beware of the snare of the godless societies and their dead gods which seemingly offered something missing from the only God who set them free and gave them everything already.  They were told specifically not to dwell on how those nations served these false gods because they may find themselves acting out the rituals to understand them, then get taken up in following them.  These abominations were contrary to worshiping the one who is and is over all creation; the LORD had commanded against such idolatrous abomination in the first commandment, and forcibly reminded them of this again.  These cultish aberrations of religion actually demanded the followers burn their children as sacrifices!  We see foundational parallels for us in this, that we can be easily hypnotized by the world’s offerings of serving other so-called gods of other religions, including what is passed as godless atheism or secular pursuits of power.  1 John 2:15-17 gives us guidance on what to avoid in our desires for these pursuits, reminding us to do what God says by command instead.  As this chapter ends with, we are to be careful to observe God’s word without taking away parts we don’t like to conform to our culture or add what we would rather do to His word for our own ends.  We truly are to be in this world but not of its ways opposed to God.  The commands, principles, examples, and warnings are clearly laid out for us to examine and live accordingly. 

Eating Acceptable Sacrifices

Deuteronomy 12:15-28
    15 “However, you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates, whatever your heart desires, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, of the gazelle and the deer alike. 16 Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it on the earth like water. 17 You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or your new wine or your oil, of the firstborn of your herd or your flock, of any of your offerings which you vow, of your freewill offerings, or of the heave offering of your hand. 18 But you must eat them before the LORD your God in the place which the LORD your God chooses, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all to which you put your hands. 19 Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.
    20 “When the LORD your God enlarges your border as He has promised you, and you say, ‘Let me eat meat,’ because you long to eat meat, you may eat as much meat as your heart desires. 21 If the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, then you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock which the LORD has given you, just as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates as much as your heart desires. 22 Just as the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you may eat them; the unclean and the clean alike may eat them. 23 Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life; you may not eat the life with the meat. 24 You shall not eat it; you shall pour it on the earth like water. 25 You shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and your children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD. 26 Only the holy things which you have, and your vowed offerings, you shall take and go to the place which the LORD chooses. 27 And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the altar of the LORD your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the LORD your God, and you shall eat the meat. 28 Observe and obey all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the LORD your God.

In the previous verses, the prescribed way of approved worship which honors God was covered; now the prescribed way of eating acceptable sacrifice is given.  It is interesting that both unclean and clean animals were permitted as sacrifices which could also be eaten within the gates of the city.  Yet the prohibition of eating the life of the animals remained; consuming the blood was strictly forbidden then and for us now as well (Acts 21:25).  The sacrifices were to be eaten before the LORD, in His presence and place of worship, which hints to us that we should thankfully worship as we eat everything He gives.  We are living sacrifices (Romans 12:1), and our sacrifices of praise should fill our eating of His provision with that same attitude, hence our mealtime prayers for His grace.  The bottom line of the message to God’s people then and now is to put His words into living them out, to observe and obey what pleases our Lord; then we will be fruitful as God-pleasers, doing the good He made us for (Ephesians 2:10). 

Approved Worship

Deuteronomy 12:1-14
    1 “These are the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to observe in the land which the LORD God of your fathers is giving you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. 2 You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. 3 And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place. 4 You shall not worship the LORD your God with such things. 5 “But you shall seek the place where the LORD your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go. 6 There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. 7 And there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the LORD your God has blessed you.
    8 “You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes— 9 for as yet you have not come to the rest and the inheritance which the LORD your God is giving you. 10 But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety, 11 then there will be the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the LORD. 12 And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion nor inheritance with you. 13 Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; 14 but in the place which the LORD chooses, in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.

True worship is that which is approved by God, the worship that honors Him in the content and heart given in the ways shown in His word by Him for us to be pleasing to Him.  The examples here are given under the old covenant of sacrifices as His people entered the land given by promise, but there are principles for us under the new covenant in Christ as our sacrifice as well.  First, they were to be obedient to God’s word.  They were then to destroy what made them sin against Him in their lives of obedient service and worship.  They were to sacrifice and worship in the place of God’s choosing (which for us is in His congregation, the church).  Worship was not to be doing whatever each one decided was right in His or her own eyes; it was to be according to God’s design as told to them and written down for the sake of certainty.  This was to be done until they inherited the land to come and found rest in Him; we likewise should worship accordingly until Christ returns and sets up His eternal kingdom in the New Jerusalem, and we receive our inheritance there.  Our sacrifices we bring are a lowly and contrite heart, a life as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1), with great joy living this sacrificial life for His glory and not according to our own ways.  Yes, we can learn much about how to worship from these words of God in the principles for sacrifices and obedience.  We worship then according to examples and explanations from the New Testament letters that unfold and explain how God set the foundation for us in the Old Testament, and then brought out the explanations of true worship from the heart and life given to Him under His sacrifice and Spirit-led guidance.  We do what is right in God’s eyes. 

Love and Obedience, Blessings and Curse

Deuteronomy 11:1-32 

    1 “Therefore you shall love the LORD your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always. 2 Know today that I do not speak with your children, who have not known and who have not seen the chastening of the LORD your God, His greatness and His mighty hand and His outstretched arm— 3 His signs and His acts which He did in the midst of Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to all his land; 4 what He did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and their chariots: how He made the waters of the Red Sea overflow them as they pursued you, and how the LORD has destroyed them to this day; 5 what He did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place; 6 and what He did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, their households, their tents, and all the substance that was in their possession, in the midst of all Israel— 7 but your eyes have seen every great act of the LORD which He did. 8 “Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess, 9 and that you may prolong your days in the land which the LORD swore to give your fathers, to them and their descendants, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’ 10 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; 11 but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, 12 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.
    13 ‘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, 14 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. 15 And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled.’ 16 Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, 17 lest the LORD'S anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the LORD is giving you.
    18 “Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 20 And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth.
    22 “For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do—to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him— 23 then the LORD will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves. 24 Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, even to the Western Sea, shall be your territory. 25 No man shall be able to stand against you; the LORD your God will put the dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread, just as He has said to you.
    26 “Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: 27 the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you today; 28 and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known. 29 Now it shall be, when the LORD your God has brought you into the land which you go to possess, that you shall put the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. 30 Are they not on the other side of the Jordan, toward the setting sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the plain opposite Gilgal, beside the terebinth trees of Moreh? 31 For you will cross over the Jordan and go in to possess the land which the LORD your God is giving you, and you will possess it and dwell in it. 32 And you shall be careful to observe all the statutes and judgments which I set before you today.

Because God acted on behalf of His people to call them out of bondage, He reminded them to “keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always.”  Fruitfulness and victory to conquer and inhabit the promised land depended on their remembrance of all His mighty deeds on their behalf, His faithfulness, which they saw with their own eyes as witnesses to His work.  They were going from the vegetable garden of Egypt to a God-watered and watched over country, curated by the LORD of heaven with promised milk and honey on their behalf.  But they were urged to earnestly obey all they had been told and given to do in following Him alone and no other supposed god.  That was the word to them in the commandments and the desire of a jealous God to have them and no other that they might worship and have Him and no other.  He is the God of the promised land they were entering.  It was in Him they would live and breathe and have their existence in (Acts 17:28).  He would send the early and later rain to sustain them, for He watched over them for good as our Lord Jesus Christ does for us now (Romans 8:28).  Meditation on and obedience to His commands, the words He spoke to them, were required to grow in that relationship with their God who called them out of bondage, a picture of the Father calling us out of the darkness of sin’s bondage into the light of Christ and towards the heavenly country of promise.  The blessing and curse is set before us; we hear the gospel and obey by accepting His word and work by faith, or we reject it in disobedient unbelief.  We who hear and believe His work for us will cross the Jordan into paradise after death as the thief on the cross at Jesus’s side (Luke 23:43, Revelation 2:7).  Until then, we follow the example here to be careful to observe His word in mortifying sin and following Him (2 Timothy 2:19, Colossians 3:5, Romans 8:13) for our conformity to Christ, which is our sanctification.  Amen.

The Law Set in Stone

Deuteronomy 10:1-22
    1 “At that time the LORD said to me, ‘Hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to Me on the mountain and make yourself an ark of wood. 2 And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke; and you shall put them in the ark.’ 3 “So I made an ark of acacia wood, hewed two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain, having the two tablets in my hand. 4 And He wrote on the tablets according to the first writing, the Ten Commandments, which the LORD had spoken to you in the mountain from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly; and the LORD gave them to me. 5 Then I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tablets in the ark which I had made; and there they are, just as the LORD commanded me.”
    6 (Now the children of Israel journeyed from the wells of Bene Jaakan to Moserah, where Aaron died, and where he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered as priest in his stead. 7 From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of rivers of water. 8 At that time the LORD separated the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister to Him and to bless in His name, to this day. 9 Therefore Levi has no portion nor inheritance with his brethren; the LORD is his inheritance, just as the LORD your God promised him.)  10 “As at the first time, I stayed in the mountain forty days and forty nights; the LORD also heard me at that time, and the LORD chose not to destroy you. 11 Then the LORD said to me, ‘Arise, begin your journey before the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.’
    12 “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to keep the commandments of the LORD and His statutes which I command you today for your good? 14 Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the LORD your God, also the earth with all that is in it. 15 The LORD delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day. 16 Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer. 17 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. 18 He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. 19 Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. 20 You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast, and take oaths in His name. 21 He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen. 22 Your fathers went down to Egypt with seventy persons, and now the LORD your God has made you as the stars of heaven in multitude.

Moses recounted God setting His Law in stone once more, written by His very finger, to replace the first set thrown down and shattered by Israel’s sin of idolatry.  Moses carved out the blank tablets and a wooden ark to hold them, then took them to the LORD God to inscribe His will in words of His own hand upon them.  This Law was set in stone so that it would not be changed or fade away, as long as the testimony of His will was kept and carried with His people in the ark wherever they went.  The holiest place inside the Tabernacle behind the veil which separated them from the holiness of God held this Testimony where the high priest would intercede for the nation’s sin against Him.  This testimony of the old covenant demanded absolute adherence to keep all the Law set in stone, whereas the new covenant sets His Law in tablets of our fleshy hearts (2 Corinthians 3:3, Hebrews 8:10-13).  His Law so written does not fade away, but comes alive in us to lead and follow us wherever we journey with our Lord as He guides us to Himself.  This testimony of the gospel change of reconciliation and grace by His constant intercession (Hebrews 7:25) for us.  The LORD now is our inheritance as we are all priests to our God, and we keep the word of His Law in our hearts and not on cold lifeless stone that we might willingly live accordingly.  We have been circumcised in our hearts to cleanse and identify us as His, not in outward ritualistic show, but in real and lasting change in Christ.  We remember as the people here to fear and serve the Lord, holding fast to Him with constant praise and thanksgiving for all the awesome work done on the cross and out of the grave on our behalf.  He multiplies us as His people of faith, that of and through Abraham (Galatians 3:7, Romans 4:11, 16, 20-25), for this Law written in stone now lives written more eternally permanent on each regenerated heart of those who are in Christ.

Recall Your Rebellion to God

Deuteronomy 9:1-29
    1 “Hear, O Israel: You are to cross over the Jordan today, and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, 2 a people great and tall, the descendants of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the descendants of Anak?’ 3 Therefore understand today that the LORD your God is He who goes over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you; so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the LORD has said to you. 4 “Do not think in your heart, after the LORD your God has cast them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land’; but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out from before you. 5 It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6 Therefore understand that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.
    7 “Remember! Do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you departed from the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD. 8 Also in Horeb you provoked the LORD to wrath, so that the LORD was angry enough with you to have destroyed you. 9 When I went up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. 10 Then the LORD delivered to me two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words which the LORD had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. 11 And it came to pass, at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the LORD gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.
    12 “Then the LORD said to me, ‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly; they have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made themselves a molded image.’  13 “Furthermore the LORD spoke to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed they are a stiff-necked people. 14 Let Me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’
    15 “So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire; and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16 And I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the LORD your God—had made for yourselves a molded calf! You had turned aside quickly from the way which the LORD had commanded you. 17 Then I took the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes. 18 And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you committed in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger. 19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the LORD was angry with you, to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me at that time also. 20 And the LORD was very angry with Aaron and would have destroyed him; so I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. 21 Then I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it and ground it very small, until it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the brook that descended from the mountain.  22 “Also at Taberah and Massah and Kibroth Hattaavah you provoked the LORD to wrath. 23 Likewise, when the LORD sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, ‘Go up and possess the land which I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God, and you did not believe Him nor obey His voice. 24 You have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you.
    25 “Thus I prostrated myself before the LORD; forty days and forty nights I kept prostrating myself, because the LORD had said He would destroy you. 26 Therefore I prayed to the LORD, and said: ‘O Lord GOD, do not destroy Your people and Your inheritance whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 27 Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look on the stubbornness of this people, or on their wickedness or their sin, 28 lest the land from which You brought us should say, “Because the LORD was not able to bring them to the land which He promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.” 29 Yet they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your mighty power and by Your outstretched arm.’

At the brink of finally entering the promised land by the banks of the Jordan River, Moses was given words to remind His people of how He brought them there in spite of themselves and their continued rebellious sin.  He reminded them that, “the LORD your God is He who goes over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you.”  The victory was God’s alone, though through their obedience He would bring to pass all He planned for them as His chosen people.  It was His might and wisdom, not theirs.  But it was their responsibility to hear and follow in obedience, not lagging behind nor running ahead of the LORD.  He did not give them the land because of their righteousness, but by His grace and predetermined purpose by His will to choose them.  He reminded them of the Ten Commandments given by His finger upon cold stones for them to follow in His will, and how they quickly wandered the opposite way from these clear instructions that revealed His character and will in their creation and purpose as His people.  They made other gods, breaking the very first command, and would have been destroyed if not for the advocate and intercessor, Moses.  He prayed forty days and nights for mercy that they would not receive what was due to them as promised for their sin of rebellious disobedience, and God heard Moses who pleaded for the LORD’s glory and faithfulness to be seen in His dealing with them.  They were His inheritance as we are (Ephesians 1:18) in Christ, chosen and led in sanctifying grace and mercy that we might have peace in Him as His people.  We find our righteousness in Christ, yet participate in the process as we follow His commands written on warm hearts and not cold stone tablets.  As His inheritance, Jesus intercedes for us day and night that we are not given our just due (Romans 3:23, 6:23) as we are led to the heavenly country across death’s Jordan.  Since He will carry us home for His glory by grace and the strength of His mighty hand (1 Peter 5:6), we must humbly submit and follow out of reciprocal love.  Recall Your Rebellion to God and be thankful in living to please as you trust and obey in love. 

Remember!

Deuteronomy 8:1-20 

    1 “Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. 3 So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD. 4 Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. 5 You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the LORD your God chastens you. 6 “Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. 7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you.
    11 “Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, 12 lest—when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; 13 and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; 14 when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; 15 who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end— 17 then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’
    18 “And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. 19 Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the LORD your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. 20 As the nations which the LORD destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the LORD your God.

Remember.  Remember God’s word.  Remember God’s work.  Remember God!  Israel’s example commanded here by His spokesman to His called out people echoes in our ears also; we are to remember what the Lord said and continues saying in His scriptures to us concerning who He is and of our salvation from due punishment by grace of His work in Christ.   This chapter points out how God tests His people’s hearts after delivering them, and calls them (and us) to constantly reflect back on all His good mercy and grace which brings lasting peace now for we who are in Christ (Romans 5:1).  He humbled them to rely on the bread from heaven in order to teach that we live by more than just the sustenance given for our bodies, bit more importantly for our very life (John 6:51, Matthew 4:4, Luke 4:4).  He disciplines us on the way to the promised country beyond death, which was for teaching Israel to rely on God alone, and for us is our sanctification.  We all are not to forget our Lord when we have plenty, nor turn against Him when we suffer want (Philippians 4:11), nor should we stop living in obedience to His word once saved from eternal punishment which is well deserved.  Our view should be as stated here, to realize that all we have comes from His almighty and good hand, not our own effort or abilities (which of course also are solely from His grace).  He established His covenants and sets the conditions; then it was to live by doing all the Law (Galatians 2:16), and now the doing is believing His work in Christ (John 6:29).  They and we are to worship no other God, but Him alone through obedience to the gospel which believes who God is, Christ’s work, and our transformation which leads us to follow as He leads us to that heavenly kingdom.  Remember! 

Choices of the Chosen People

Deuteronomy 7:1-26 

    1 “When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, 2 and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. 3 Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. 4 For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the LORD will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. 5 But thus you shall deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire. 6 “For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. 7 The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; 8 but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
    9 “Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; 10 and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face. 11 Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today, to observe them.
    12 “Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers. 13 And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you. 14 You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your livestock. 15 And the LORD will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you. 16 Also you shall destroy all the peoples whom the LORD your God delivers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

17 “If you should say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?’— 18 you shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: 19 the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm, by which the LORD your God brought you out. So shall the LORD your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. 20 Moreover the LORD your God will send the hornet among them until those who are left, who hide themselves from you, are destroyed. 21 You shall not be terrified of them; for the LORD your God, the great and awesome God, is among you. 22 And the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you little by little; you will be unable to destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. 23 But the LORD your God will deliver them over to you, and will inflict defeat upon them until they are destroyed. 24 And He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you will destroy their name from under heaven; no one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them. 25 You shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire; you shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it; for it is an abomination to the LORD your God. 26 Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, for it is an accursed thing.

The LORD God chose His people and promised them the land of Canaan where the godless continually offended Him with other gods and idolatrous immorality, choosing to remove those who denied their Creator and replace them with those He appointed to follow Him.  Israel was not to intermarry them and be dragged into the selfsame sins, so the LORD would remove them by using His people to destroy them all.  This seems cruel and unloving to us, yet God’s glory and obedience to all He spoke to those He made in His image, now fallen and sullied with the continued disobedience of sin, this honor and glory had to be shown and followed.  His people were chosen because He chose to set His love on them and call them out, not because they were strong or numerous, but because He made them His special treasure. 1 Peter 2:9-10 proclaims that all in Christ are such a chosen and loved treasure, His people of mercy chosen to show His glory in the person and work of Jesus Christ who passed over their sin and reconciled them by grace to Himself in spite of their sin.  He redeemed us from the house of bondage which Egypt symbolized of the state we inherited from Adam and Eve, and calls us to follow in trusting obedience out of reciprocal love to glorify Him through Hos word of the gospel.  This new covenant is unbreakable and eternal in the heavens as the new bodies we shall certainly put on (2 Corinthians 5:1).  He will defeat all our enemies in the battles that will culminate in the final war of judgement to vindicate His people (Revelation 6:10).  God keeps this covenant with us not based on our perfect works to earn or keep it, but solely through grace of this unbreakable covenant based on His work for us.  He will gain the victory and defeat our enemies because they are His, and this is why we fight the good fight in His strength as His chosen and precious people instead of being pulled back into the sin of the world which brought us to need His salvation and righteousness (1 John 2:15-17, 1 Corinthians 15:57).   These are the choices of His chosen people led to victory over sin and death through the cross. 

Serve God with Thankful Fear

Deuteronomy 6:10-25
    10 “So it shall be, when the LORD your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, 11 houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant—when you have eaten and are full— 12 then beware, lest you forget the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 13 You shall fear the LORD your God and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name. 14 You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you 15 (for the LORD your God is a jealous God among you), lest the anger of the LORD your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth.
    16 “You shall not tempt the LORD your God as you tempted Him in Massah. 17 You shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, His testimonies, and His statutes which He has commanded you. 18 And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD, that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land of which the LORD swore to your fathers, 19 to cast out all your enemies from before you, as the LORD has spoken.
   20 “When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which the LORD our God has commanded you?’ 21 then you shall say to your son: ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; 22 and the LORD showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe, against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household. 23 Then He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the land of which He swore to our fathers. 24 And the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is this day. 25 Then it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the LORD our God, as He has commanded us.’

Israel gives the example here for us to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear (Hebrews 12:28).  Like His people then, we who are now under the new covenant of grace are also called to obedience to what pleases God.  This is not to earn or keep deliverance from eternal punishment for our sin, but to serve as we were called and created to live.  We are commanded also to have no other gods or tempt Him as Israel did with disobedience and willing lawless living, as if grace is so cheap that His work and calling to holiness can be disregarded.  Being a child of the Almighty and Holy One and filled with His Holy Spirit, how can we defile the temple of our body with what is contrary to His character and abominable to His judgements and commands meant to glorify Himself and provide only what is best for us whom He loves so much (John 3:16)?  We should remember His work in Christ of suffering and death on a cursed tree for us, the cross we should bear in His name each day, and celebrate the remembrance by our keeping of Resurrection Sunday and Christmas and other times which help us keep in mind all He is and has done to adopt us as His chosen people.  The sign and wonder of the resurrection of Jesus the Christ and all He accomplished while living among us as Emmanuel, these demonstrate His grace and mercy for our remembrance and reflection.  We trust and obey out of love to please our Savior and Lord God, just as Israel was called to do under the old covenant, but with understanding and freedom from eternal consequences which they could not yet grasp or see (1 Corinthians 2:7, Ephesians 3:9, Colossians 1:26, 2 Corinthians 3:14-16).  This is thankfully serving God acceptably with reverent and godly fear. 

The Greatest Commandment

Deuteronomy 6:1-9
    1 “Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the LORD your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, 2 that you may fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. 3 Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the LORD God of your fathers has promised you—‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’ 4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
    6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

The greatest commandment which summarizes the Ten Commandments is given here, just as Jesus the Christ later repeated in Matthew 22:37-38.  This was to be the primary emphasis of the commandments, to be taught diligently out of reverence and fear of the LORD God whose almighty hand delivered His people out of bondage and towards the land promised to them.  This land was given purely by grace with cities already established so that work did not need to be done to inhabit them.  In Christ we find the parallel and fulfillment of the promise to enter the heavenly country (Hebrews 11:16, Hebrews 13:14) by grace alone an not by our works to ensure our place there.  We have been delivered out of the bondage of sin and have been promised a new life in His presence which is heaven and the New Jerusalem.  We are still His people as Israel was, chosen and grafted in as promised to Abraham long ago (Genesis 17:4-5, Romans 4:17-18), and are not saved by keeping the commandments of the Law, but saved to be able to keep them from a heart of willing desire implanted in us by His very Spirit present in these temples of His dwelling.  How much more should we then seek to diligently teach them and live them to our natural and spiritual children (1 Timothy 4:11, 2 Timothy 2:2)!  These words should continually be in our hearts and minds, not in frontlets holding the letter of the Law symbolically on our heads or hands or doorposts, but in our thoughts and heart and actions and very lives whose doorposts have been covered protectively by the blood of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  Amen and amen. 

Fear and Trembling Before God

Deuteronomy 5:23-33
    23 “So it was, when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, that you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders. 24 And you said: ‘Surely the LORD our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God speaks with man; yet he still lives. 25 Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the LORD our God anymore, then we shall die. 26 For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? 27 You go near and hear all that the LORD our God may say, and tell us all that the LORD our God says to you, and we will hear and do it.’
    28 “Then the LORD heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, and the LORD said to me: ‘I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They are right in all that they have spoken. 29 Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever! 30 Go and say to them, “Return to your tents.” 31 But as for you, stand here by Me, and I will speak to you all the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments which you shall teach them, that they may observe them in the land which I am giving them to possess.’
    32 “Therefore you shall be careful to do as the LORD your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. 33 You shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.

Israel was reminded how the mountain was as on fire under thick clouds of darkness when they heard the Almighty’s voice.  They ran to Moses for safety from His overwhelming glory and greatness on display, and were awestruck that they were not all struck down for hearing Him.  They said that God speaks with man and yet he still lives, which seemed impossible because of His overwhelming presence (Exodus 33:20).  They expected to die, burned up in the fire of His judgement most likely because they knew all were sinners deserving death (Romans 3:20-23, 6:23).  Therefore, they sent Moses as an intercessor and intermediary to hear from God and report back what He said out of that fear of punishment of death.  Hebrews 12:18, 24 and the verses in between remind that us as believers that we do not fear the punishment because we are in Christ under a new covenant, one where He has interceded once for all His people and in whom we are safe from the fear of eternal punishment for sin which we all are due (1 John 4:18).  We can come boldly to that throne of grace and mercy because we are in Him.  This desire for God as in verse 29 here shows God’s desire is for our hearts to fear Him in absolute awe and follow Him in fearless obedience out of the love given us in Jesus Christ our Lord.  We are still to be diligent, therefore, to be doers of the word and followers of Him and the saints who have gone before us to live out examples of that God-pleasing life as we stand before His majestic person and power.  We quake in awe, yet trust in His preservation of us in His good hands of grace as promised.  Hebrews 12:28 reminds us, “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.”  This is the confidence in which we stand!

The Commandments of Life

Deuteronomy 5:1-22
    1 And Moses called all Israel, and said to them: “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your hearing today, that you may learn them and be careful to observe them. 2 The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3 The LORD did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those who are here today, all of us who are alive. 4 The LORD talked with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire. 5 I stood 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 you did not go up the mountain. He said: 6 “I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

    7 “You shall have no other gods before Me.

    8 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;

    9 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 10 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

    11 “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

    12 “Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you.

    13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15 And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

    16 “Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may be well with you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you.

    17 “You shall not murder.

    18 “You shall not commit adultery.

    19 “You shall not steal.

    20 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

    21 ‘You shall not covet your neighbor's wife; and you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.’

    22 “These words the LORD spoke to all your assembly, in the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and He added no more. And He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

These sayings or words of God are commandments and not suggestions or mere conversational ideas.  Matthew 5:17-19 puts this in perspective by using the Greek word ἐντολή (entolē) which definitely carries the meaning of authoritative command or prescribed rule.  Even the Hebrew here, מִצְוָה (miṣwâ), carries that meaning, though some seek to lessen the imperative of the authority by translating to soften the meaning to mere ‘sayings’ of God.  These commands give us the boundaries of the knowledge of good and evil for us to learn from God by His Spirit (Hebrews 5:14), which the Jews who here before Christ came in the flesh failed to do in their own efforts of power and wisdom, because they can only be followed by God’s enabling work in us (Ezekiel 11:19-20, 2 Corinthians 3:3, Philippians 2:12-13).  These ten commandments begin with knowing God and acknowledging who He is, then worshipping and serving no other as our God.  We are to honor His name for who He is and all His will does for His glory, not ascribing evil intent to Him (James 1:13).  We rest from our works in Christ (Hebrews 4:4, 9-10) to honor God’s work in the first creation and our re-creation (Galatians 2:19-21) of a new life in Christ.  We then show honor to those placed over us by His wisdom and order, to include parents first of all (Ephesians 6:2), as well as authorities He ordains (Romans 13:1).  We do not hate, knowing that is intentional murder (Matthew 5:21-22), nor lust in our hearts as misplacing the commitment of marriage with the fleeting self-seeking pleasures of adultery as the desire of our flesh (1 John 2:15-17) - these are the heart of the commandments.  The command also includes not taking away from others what has not given by God’s grace and provision to us, or lying to protect ourselves from the consequences of our actions.  Wanting anything or anyone who He has not given us is likewise offensive to our Lord and Master who loves us and has designed these rules as the best for our good and His glory of holiness.  These commands were written on tablets of stone and kept in the ark of the Testimony, but were intended to live in regenerated hearts on tablets of flesh which are living and powerful words (Hebrews 4:12), to the testimony of our new life now in Christ Jesus.  Let us then follow Him in loving obedience from our hearts and not obligation, in grace and at peace with our God (Romans 5:1).  Amen!

Manslaughter Refuge and Victorious Battle

Deuteronomy 4:41-49
    41 Then Moses set apart three cities on this side of the Jordan, toward the rising of the sun, 42 that the manslayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without having hated him in time past, and that by fleeing to one of these cities he might live: 43 Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau for the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.
    44 Now this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel. 45 These are the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which Moses spoke to the children of Israel after they came out of Egypt, 46 on this side of the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel defeated after they came out of Egypt. 47 And they took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, two kings of the Amorites, who were on this side of the Jordan, toward the rising of the sun, 48 from Aroer, which is on the bank of the River Arnon, even to Mount Sion (that is, Hermon), 49 and all the plain on the east side of the Jordan as far as the Sea of the Arabah, below the slopes of Pisgah.

These last sections of the chapter summarize several things for God’s leading of His people out of bondage and through battles towards the promised land.  First we see the refuge cities where manslaughter suspects could flee for protection so due process of law could either accuse or excuse them.  These again were setup at God’s instruction to protect the innocent from getting lynched, not to protect criminals.  This is a good pattern to follow in our own laws today.  We must also consider well that we who are in Christ find our eternal refuge in Him from the deserved penalty of our sin.  Then we see that the law of God’s word - its testimonies, statutes, and judgements - has been summarized in the preceding chapters, and this is a reminder to take heed to those.  The battles won to gain footholds towards the promised land were possible only as Israel trusted the word of the LORD and obeyed it.  Then they had victory and success (Joshua 1:7-9).  We find success as we are conformed to Christ by trusting faith and the outworking of obedience as well, though it is not for our salvation, but is essential for our sanctification (Ephesians 2:8-19); we are instead created and called to do the good works prepared for us as we march toward the heavenly promised land as He works in our obedience towards holiness (2 Corinthians 7:1). 

Idolatry and Repentance

Deuteronomy 4:15-40
    15 “Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, 16 lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure: the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth. 19 And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the LORD your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage. 20 But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be His people, an inheritance, as you are this day. 21 Furthermore the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I would not cross over the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance. 22 But I must die in this land, I must not cross over the Jordan; but you shall cross over and possess that good land. 23 Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the LORD your God has forbidden you. 24 For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
    25 “When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do evil in the sight of the LORD your God to provoke Him to anger, 26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess; you will not prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27 And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you. 28 And there you will serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. 29 But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the LORD your God and obey His voice 31 (for the LORD your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.
    32 “For ask now concerning the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether any great thing like this has happened, or anything like it has been heard. 33 Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live? 34 Or did God ever try to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD Himself is God; there is none other besides Him. 36 Out of heaven He let you hear His voice, that He might instruct you; on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire. 37 And because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them; and He brought you out of Egypt with His Presence, with His mighty power, 38 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. 39 Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the LORD Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. 40 You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the LORD your God is giving you for all time.”

God spoke to Moses in Exodus 3:1-2 out of a fiery bush; He did not appear in a corporeal form, but without a recognizable body.  Here the LORD reminds the people of this in order to remind them of the commandment against having another god-idol as an image to worship in place of the only true and living God which ‘no man can see and live’ (Exodus 33:20, 1 Timothy 6:16).  Their desire to create an image to worship which they can accept on their terms by sight and touch negated accepting the real God by faith according to His word.  They did not believe and trust what He said of who He was, let alone what He commanded or desired for them.  This is why the gospel message is simple at its core, in that we are to believe God’s word and work in His Son (John 6:29) and not substitute idols made by our own imagination or devices, including statues lining church walls or altars.  Our God is a jealous God, and will tolerate no other in His place without certain judgement.  We see that clearly here as a promised consequence of carving out your own idolatrous gods; the penalty for Israel was severe, to have God’s curses instead of blessings.  But even then He offered forgiveness when they repented by turning away from the sin of idolatry and turning back to seek Him, promising they would find a restored relationship with Him “if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”  They were reminded that nobody except His chosen people whom He called out heard the word of the LORD out of fire and lived to tell.  They had a special revelation and calling which those not chosen by Him did not.  The LORD alone is God.  He chose them and instructed them and led them by His great power and working.  This is why they were reminded to consider this in their hearts and follow His word with willing obedience because of that calling and grace.  Therefore we should consider God’s call in Christ and ponder the wonder of the gospel every day lest we wander off (2 Peter 3:17). 

Call to Obedience

Deuteronomy 4:1-14
    1 “Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers is giving you. 2 You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you. 3 Your eyes have seen what the LORD did at Baal Peor; for the LORD your God has destroyed from among you all the men who followed Baal of Peor. 4 But you who held fast to the LORD your God are alive today, every one of you. 5 “Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess. 6 Therefore be careful to observe them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’
    7 “For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the LORD our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him? 8 And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day? 9 Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren, 10 especially concerning the day you stood before the LORD your God in Horeb, when the LORD said to me, ‘Gather the people to Me, and I will let them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.’
    11 “Then you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the midst of heaven, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness. 12 And the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words, but saw no form; you only heard a voice. 13 So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone. 14 And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might observe them in the land which you cross over to possess.

Moses as God’s spokesman commanded His people to listen to His word and respond by following all that was spoken in it.  They were taught for the purpose of observing the commands, not just to know what they said.  They needed to practice the things which the LORD said, not adding their own restrictions or taking away parts they did not like or desire to follow (Revelation 22:18-19, Joshua 1:7-8).  This is our wisdom and understanding as a witness to others who do not know our Lord God in Christ, that we live by what He says as the right and only way (Acts 4:12, John 6:68).  This is our testimony to His grace, that we flee sin and follow Him.  Then others will acknowledge that He alone is God and worthy of praise, worthy to listen to and follow.  In the time of Deuteronomy, Israel showed the other nations what God’s chosen people were called to be that they would show Him to them; that truth holds for we who are called in Christ as well.  We should likewise gather to hear His word and learn to fear in the right way, teaching our children these things - and not just children of physical birth, but also spiritual (1 Corinthians 4:15).  His new covenant in His Son, Jesus Christ, as confirmed by His Holy Spirit in us, this is what commands our obedience out of love and not fear of eternal punishment (2 Timothy 2:19, 1 John 4:18).  Let us therefore observe all we learn from the scriptures as faithful followers until we enter into the promised land with Him.

Labor and Trust, Trust and Obey

Deuteronomy 3:1-29

    1 “Then we turned and went up the road to Bashan; and Og king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. 2 And the LORD said to me, ‘Do not fear him, for I have delivered him and all his people and his land into your hand; you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon.’ 3 “So the LORD our God also delivered into our hands Og king of Bashan, with all his people, and we attacked him until he had no survivors remaining. 4 And we took all his cities at that time; there was not a city which we did not take from them: sixty cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 5 All these cities were fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, besides a great many rural towns. 6 And we utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men, women, and children of every city. 7 But all the livestock and the spoil of the cities we took as booty for ourselves.
    8 “And at that time we took the land from the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were on this side of the Jordan, from the River Arnon to Mount Hermon 9 (the Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir), 10 all the cities of the plain, all Gilead, and all Bashan, as far as Salcah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 11 “For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the giants. Indeed his bedstead was an iron bedstead. (Is it not in Rabbah of the people of Ammon?) Nine cubits is its length and four cubits its width, according to the standard cubit.
    12 “And this land, which we possessed at that time, from Aroer, which is by the River Arnon, and half the mountains of Gilead and its cities, I gave to the Reubenites and the Gadites. 13 The rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to half the tribe of Manasseh. (All the region of Argob, with all Bashan, was called the land of the giants. 14 Jair the son of Manasseh took all the region of Argob, as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maachathites, and called Bashan after his own name, Havoth Jair, to this day.) 15 “Also I gave Gilead to Machir. 16 And to the Reubenites and the Gadites I gave from Gilead as far as the River Arnon, the middle of the river as the border, as far as the River Jabbok, the border of the people of Ammon; 17 the plain also, with the Jordan as the border, from Chinnereth as far as the east side of the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea), below the slopes of Pisgah.
    18 “Then I commanded you at that time, saying: ‘The LORD your God has given you this land to possess. All you men of valor shall cross over armed before your brethren, the children of Israel. 19 But your wives, your little ones, and your livestock (I know that you have much livestock) shall stay in your cities which I have given you, 20 until the LORD has given rest to your brethren as to you, and they also possess the land which the LORD your God is giving them beyond the Jordan. Then each of you may return to his possession which I have given you.’  21 “And I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, ‘Your eyes have seen all that the LORD your God has done to these two kings; so will the LORD do to all the kingdoms through which you pass. 22 You must not fear them, for the LORD your God Himself fights for you.’
    23 “Then I pleaded with the LORD at that time, saying: 24 ‘O Lord GOD, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your mighty hand, for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do anything like Your works and Your mighty deeds? 25 I pray, let me cross over and see the good land beyond the Jordan, those pleasant mountains, and Lebanon.’  26 “But the LORD was angry with me on your account, and would not listen to me. So the LORD said to me: ‘Enough of that! Speak no more to Me of this matter. 27 Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift your eyes toward the west, the north, the south, and the east; behold it with your eyes, for you shall not cross over this Jordan. 28 But command Joshua, and encourage him and strengthen him; for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you will see.’ 29 “So we stayed in the valley opposite Beth Peor.

Entering the outskirts of the promised land, they killed king Og the last of the giants and took all of his kingdom’s territory.  They only kept the livestock and other booty, wiping out the inhabitants to avoid their idolatrous influences as well as the possibility of future attacks of retribution.  They also conquered lands from two Amorite kings.  The conquered land was divided to the first group of tribes as their inheritance in the country promised and now given by God to them.  They had to fight to do their part for the gift of God; they did not simply stand by and have it handed to them, though they also were unable to find victory in battle apart from divine working and providence.  This is true also in our sanctification in our conforming to Christ; we obey as instructed and taught by His word, but this is possible only because of His Spirit working in us for the ability to choose well and be changed by Him.  But then Moses was again forbidden to cross over the Jordan into that promised land because of his prior unbelief, and instead had to send faithful Joshua whom he trained and taught at his side for years, one of those who wanted to enter forty years earlier by faith.  Therefore Moses encouraged and strengthened Joshua for the battles ahead to engage in the necessary God-enabled fighting to gain the rest of the inheritance not yet in hand.  We also labor and wage the good fight (1 Timothy 6:12, Philippians 3:12-13) in the gospel (not to earn or keep our salvation, but to win others to the kingdom and be conformed to the image of Christ) before we enter the heavenly country of our inheritance in Christ.  Let us so encourage each other in discipleship of faith and example, working out (not for) our salvation (Philippians 2:12-13).  Amen. 

God’s Faithfulness in His People’s Wanderings

Deuteronomy 2:1-37
    1 “Then we turned and journeyed into the wilderness of the Way of the Red Sea, as the LORD spoke to me, and we skirted Mount Seir for many days. 2 “And the LORD spoke to me, saying: 3 “You have skirted this mountain long enough; turn northward. 4 And command the people, saying, “You are about to pass through the territory of your brethren, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. Therefore watch yourselves carefully. 5 Do not meddle with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as one footstep, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. 6 You shall buy food from them with money, that you may eat; and you shall also buy water from them with money, that you may drink.  7 “For the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand. He knows your trudging through this great wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.” ’
    8 “And when we passed beyond our brethren, the descendants of Esau who dwell in Seir, away from the road of the plain, away from Elath and Ezion Geber, we turned and passed by way of the Wilderness of Moab. 9 Then the LORD said to me, ‘Do not harass Moab, nor contend with them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession, because I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as a possession.’ ”  10 (The Emim had dwelt there in times past, a people as great and numerous and tall as the Anakim. 11 They were also regarded as giants, like the Anakim, but the Moabites call them Emim. 12 The Horites formerly dwelt in Seir, but the descendants of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their place, just as Israel did to the land of their possession which the LORD gave them.)  13 “ ‘Now rise and cross over the Valley of the Zered.’ So we crossed over the Valley of the Zered. 14 And the time we took to come from Kadesh Barnea until we crossed over the Valley of the Zered was thirty-eight years, until all the generation of the men of war was consumed from the midst of the camp, just as the LORD had sworn to them. 15 For indeed the hand of the LORD was against them, to destroy them from the midst of the camp until they were consumed.
    16 “So it was, when all the men of war had finally perished from among the people, 17 that the LORD spoke to me, saying: 18 ‘This day you are to cross over at Ar, the boundary of Moab. 19 And when you come near the people of Ammon, do not harass them or meddle with them, for I will not give you any of the land of the people of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to the descendants of Lot as a possession.’ ”  20 (That was also regarded as a land of giants; giants formerly dwelt there. But the Ammonites call them Zamzummim, 21 a people as great and numerous and tall as the Anakim. But the LORD destroyed them before them, and they dispossessed them and dwelt in their place, 22 just as He had done for the descendants of Esau, who dwelt in Seir, when He destroyed the Horites from before them. They dispossessed them and dwelt in their place, even to this day. 23 And the Avim, who dwelt in villages as far as Gaza—the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and dwelt in their place.)  24 “ ‘Rise, take your journey, and cross over the River Arnon. Look, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to possess it, and engage him in battle. 25 This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the nations under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you, and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.’
    26 “And I sent messengers from the Wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon, with words of peace, saying, 27 ‘Let me pass through your land; I will keep strictly to the road, and I will turn neither to the right nor to the left. 28 You shall sell me food for money, that I may eat, and give me water for money, that I may drink; only let me pass through on foot, 29 just as the descendants of Esau who dwell in Seir and the Moabites who dwell in Ar did for me, until I cross the Jordan to the land which the LORD our God is giving us.’  30 “But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass through, for the LORD your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that He might deliver him into your hand, as it is this day.
    31 “And the LORD said to me, ‘See, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to possess it, that you may inherit his land.’ 32 Then Sihon and all his people came out against us to fight at Jahaz. 33 And the LORD our God delivered him over to us; so we defeated him, his sons, and all his people. 34 We took all his cities at that time, and we utterly destroyed the men, women, and little ones of every city; we left none remaining. 35 We took only the livestock as plunder for ourselves, with the spoil of the cities which we took. 36 From Aroer, which is on the bank of the River Arnon, and from the city that is in the ravine, as far as Gilead, there was not one city too strong for us; the LORD our God delivered all to us. 37 Only you did not go near the land of the people of Ammon—anywhere along the River Jabbok, or to the cities of the mountains, or wherever the LORD our God had forbidden us.

The history is recounted of Israel’s wandering in the desert as the disbelieving died off and they approached the promised land instead of aimlessly circling about.  But God remained ever faithful, despite their unfaithfulness; He reminded them that they had lacked nothing along the way due to His presence and faithful care.  He then warned them not to attack the lands of Edom and Moab, as they were already promised to others.  The LORD then gave marching orders to begin taking the land as promised, and promised also to put fear and dread of His people into their enemies.  They trembled.  Even now He puts fear into our spiritual enemies because we are in Christ whom they know and fear.  Remember that the demons know Him and likewise tremble (James 2:19, Mark 5:6-7).  Those who opposed God’s people then were destroyed, just as the final judgement will bring eternal destruction from God’s presence in His wrath to come (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9).  The lessons of victory for Israel therefore are shadowy hints at our ultimate victory in Christ (1 Corinthians 15:58, John 16:33, Romans 8:37).  Though we wander at times in the pilgrimage of our sanctification, we who are called out in Christ as His people of faith and grace will overcome the enemy in His strength and enter the promised land of His eternal kingdom.  He who calls us is absolutely faithful (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24)!  Amen.