Burunche’s Blog

Deuteronomy 9:15 – 21 “So I went back down the mountain while it was blazing with fire, with the two tablets of the covenant in my hands. And I saw how you had sinned against the LORD your God; you had made for yourselves a molten calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the LORD had commanded you. So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, shattering them before your eyes.

Then I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. I did not eat bread or drink water because of all the sin you had committed in doing what was evil in the LORD’s sight and provoking Him to anger. For I was afraid of the anger and wrath that the LORD had directed against you, enough to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me this time as well.

The LORD was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I also prayed for Aaron. And I took that sinful thing, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust, and I cast it into the stream that came down from the mountain.”

Poor Moses! He’s already spent forty days and nights on Mount Sinai without eating or drinking and has received two stone tablets on which God Himself has written the Ten Commandments. Now God has ordered him to get down off the mountain quickly because the Israelites have ignored God, forced Aaron to mold a golden calf, and are throwing an orgy. The gold that went into that idol was part of the gold God intended for creating a holy place of worship; now it has been perverted to the demonic.

Moses rushes down the mountain, takes one look at the idol, listens to the drunken cries of the crowd, and throws the sacred tablets to the ground, shattering them! Moses is devastated! Everything he has worked for is in ruins. At this point, Moses isn’t sure that God isn’t going to simply wipe out all the Israelites, including Aaron, right on the spot.

Why doesn’t God punish Moses for having smashed the tablets? Because Moses is not acting in rebellion but in righteous anger. God knows Moses’ heart; He knows that Moses has acted out of grief and despair. (Later on, Moses does act in rebellion and loses his chance to enter the Promised Land as a result, but God does NOT punish him for smashing the tablets.)

Moses completely destroys the idol and casts it into the stream flowing from Mount Sinai. Throwing the gold dust into running water ensures that there will be nothing left for any of the Israelites to collect. Having destroyed the idol, Moses trudges back up Mount Sinai and spends forty more days and nights in prayer and fasting, begging God to spare the Israelites. (Yes, I know the passage speaks about Moses’s intercession first; however, if you were Moses, would YOU go back up that mountain, leaving that idol so your people could throw another orgy?)

One of the most notable things is that Moses specifically mentions that God was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him but relented when Moses prayed. Aaron was Moses’ older brother and evidently a polished public speaker. Unfortunately, when things got tough, Aaron would cave in if Moses wasn’t around to support him.

APPLICATION: Have you ever felt like Moses? You have done everything correctly. You have given a situation your best effort, expended all your energy, made sacrifices, only to have the people on whom you were counting fail you miserably. There’s a meme that says, “If you want to be popular, sell ice cream!” Unfortunately, taking a stand for righteousness may earn you nothing but grief and even abuse and persecution.

The key question in such situations is this: whom are you working to please? Are you working to please people or are you working to please God? Moses as a leader had a very difficult calling. For the Israelites, slavery was grueling, but it was familiar. As slaves, the Israelites were assured of a minimum allowance of food and clothing because the Egyptians wouldn’t get any work out of them by starving them. Most of the Egyptians lived in the well – watered part of the land, and the Israelites had settled in Goshen where there was good grazing for their animals. Now it was up to Moses to convince the Israelites to endure the desert, wearing the same shoes and clothing years after year. Instead of a familiar routine, the Israelites had to depend on watching God’s pillar of cloud or fire to see whether they were going to stay in a place or move.

The lessons we can learn from the story of Moses are endless, but today’s lesson is this: When people betray you, pray for them. If your family members betray you, pray harder! You never know; your prayers might be the only thing protecting those people from disaster and destruction.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Thank You that You always hear our prayers, no matter how short or simple. Lord, help us to pray for those who use and abuse and betray us. Help us not to give up or to get weary when we don’t see quick answers to our prayers. Thank You that Your timing is perfect. In the mighty and precious Name of Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 9:7 – 14 “Remember this and never forget how you provoked the LORD your God in the wilderness. From the day you left the land of Egypt until you reached this place, you have been rebelling against the LORD.

At Horeb you provoked the LORD, and He was angry enough to destroy you. When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water.

Then the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, inscribed by the finger of God with the exact words that the LORD spoke to you out of the fire on the mountain on the day of the assembly. And at the end of forty days and forty nights, the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant, and the LORD said to me, “Get up and go down from here at once, for your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. How quickly they have turned aside from the way that I commanded them; they have made for themselves a molten image.”

The LORD also said to me, “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people. Leave Me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. Then I will make you into a nation mightier and greater than they.”

It’s one of the saddest stories in the Bible. While Moses is up on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments from God, the Israelites become impatient. Tired of waiting for Moses, the Israelites pressure Aaron into creating an idol of a golden calf, possibly a copy of an idol of Hathor, Egyptian goddess of music and dance. One festival dedicated to Hathor was described as a “festival of drunkenness,” possibly accompanied by sexual orgies.

The Israelites had only left Egypt a few weeks earlier. Even though somehow the memories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had been kept alive, the Israelites were probably very confused as to how this God of their fathers was to be worshiped. And four hundred years in Egypt had taught the Israelites a lot about the Egyptian gods. Perhaps the Israelites were bored; certainly, they were impatient. The Israelites had large quantities of gold given them by anxious Egyptians as they left Egypt. Why not make an idol?

Poor Moses is up there on Mount Sinai when God orders him to go down immediately. The saddest part of the order is the way God refers to the Israelites: ‘YOUR people, whom YOU brought out of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.” God is so furious that He is distancing Himself from the Israelites, even though He is the One who brought them out of Egypt.

One interesting part of this passage is God’s statement to Moses, “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people. Leave Me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. Then I will make you into a nation mightier and greater than they.” Horrified, Moses refuses to agree to this idea and rushes down the mountain. This refusal of Moses to agree to God wiping out the Israelites is one of the most heroic acts recorded in the Old Testament.

APPLICATION: The Israelites nearly got themselves wiped off the face of the earth because they refused to listen to God and became impatient. Prior to Moses ascending Mount Sinai, the Israelites had already witnessed the power of God descending on the mountain with fire, smoke, earthquakes, and the sound of a trumpet. But the memory of all that power failed to keep the Israelites from making an idol for themselves.

Many times, we beg God for blessings; yet, we fail to wait on His timing. Sometimes we are asking for something that is too much for us unless we develop more character. Other times, we fail to realize what our request would mean for those around us. While God is carefully putting things in place, we flounce off on our own, determined to have that blessing RIGHT NOW OR ELSE!

Today, let us wait for God’s timing, confident that the same God who controls the universe and gives us the seasons in their order can bring good things to pass for us. Wait on God.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Help us to be patient and to wait for Your timing. Help us also to keep from making our own idols while we are waiting. Thank You for Your perfect answers. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 9:1 – 6 “Hear, O Israel: Today you are about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities fortified to the heavens. The people are strong and tall, the descendants of the Anakim. You know about them and you have heard it said, “Who can stand up to the sons of Anak?” But understand that today the LORD your God goes across ahead of you as a consuming fire; He will destroy them and subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them swiftly, as the LORD has promised you.

When the LORD your God has driven them out before you, do not say in your heart, “Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land.” Rather, the LORD is driving out these nations before you because of their wickedness.

It is not because of your righteousness or uprightness of heart that you are going in to possess their land, but it is because of their wickedness that the LORD your God is driving out these nations before you, to keep the promise He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.”

God is promising to destroy the nations living across the Jordan, to go ahead of the Israelites “like a consuming fire.” Sounds fantastic, right? At this point, the Israelites are probably puffing up their chests and preening themselves; obviously, they are God’s favorites. But God isn’t finished yet. God is making it crystal clear that He is not destroying these powerful nations with their walled cities because the Israelites are such a wonderful bunch, but because these nations are truly wicked and must be destroyed for their wickedness.

As far as God is concerned, the Israelites need to back up and take another look at themselves. In God’s eyes, the Israelites are NOT righteous, nor are they upright in heart; in fact, they are a “stiff – necked people.” God has made a promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and God always keeps His promises. God has promised to give the land of Canaan to the Israelites and He will do so. But the Israelites must understand that they too are far from perfect and if they descend further into wickedness, they can lose everything that God is giving to them.

God knows that once the Israelites have celebrated a few victories, they might begin taking all the credit, not realizing that without God’s help, they would have suffered embarrassing defeats. One wonders how much of this warning has registered in the minds of the Israelites. Have they listened carefully to the entire statement, or have they stopped at the part where God is a consuming fire?

APPLICATION: It’s an all too – common problem in sporting circles: the star who begins believing all his/her publicity and fails to remember that winning games takes team work. Such people can become “legends in their own minds.” Coaches know that unless they can somehow halt that process, the poor attitude of the star performer will poison the relationships within the team.

The late UCLA basketball coach John Wooden was a master teacher of life lessons. One of his favorite sayings was this: “Talent is God – given. Be humble. Fame is man – given. Be grateful. Conceit is self – given. Be careful.”

Many times, we need God to deliver us from the results of our own stupidity and over – confidence. But as soon as God gets out of one mess, we are likely to wave good – bye to Him, forgetting that He is the reason we have been delivered from that problem. Given a little time, we begin to take all the credit ourselves… and march confidently out right into another disaster.

God wants good things for all His children. But we must be careful not to assume that God has helped us because we are especially good or righteous. It’s possible that as soon as the Israelites heard God telling them that they were stiff – necked, they just conveniently quit listening. Bad mistake. God wants us to realize our shortcomings so that we will depend on Him and not on ourselves. Don’t become a legend in your own mind.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Help us to be willing to listen when Your Holy Spirit shows us our faults. Thank You that Your Grace and Mercy come to us because You are good and because our sins have been paid for by the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 8:11 – 20 “Be careful not to forget the LORD your God by failing to keep His commandments and ordinances and statutes, which I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses in which to dwell, and when your herds and flocks grow large, your silver and gold increase, and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud, and you will forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

He led you through the vast and terrifying wilderness with its venomous snakes and scorpions, a thirsty and waterless land. He brought you water from the rock of flint. He fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers had not known, in order to humble you and test you, so that in the end He might cause you to prosper.

You may say in your heart, “The power and strength of my hands have made this wealth for me.” But remember that it is the LORD your God who gives you the power to gain wealth, in order to confirm His covenant that He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

If you ever forget the LORD your God and go after other gods to worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish. Like the nations the LORD has destroyed before you, so you will perish if you do not obey the LORD your God.”

If there is one theme throughout the Book of Deuteronomy, it is “REMEMBER!!!!!!!”

*Remember God’s commandments and ordinances and statutes.

*Remember the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

*Remember how God protected you in the vast and terrifying wilderness with venomous snakes and scorpions.

*Remember how God brought you water and fed you.

*Remember that it is the Lord your God who gives you the power to gain wealth, in order to confirm His covenant with your fathers.

Why is God so insistent? God knows human nature. We might remember an offense forever, but we can forget blessings in a heartbeat. We might be able to repeat our favorite song lyrics, but memorize God’s Word? Nope! Too much trouble.

At the same time, God is also warning the Israelites of the natural consequences if they fail to remember Him and go after other gods. The Israelites will die just like the nations God has already wiped out. There will be mass destruction and it will be horrible beyond belief. Later on, when the Israelites have completely deserted God, He allows the Assyrians to conquer them. The Assyrians were “Lords of torture,” who engaged in flaying, amputating, and impaling their captives. Just reading a description of Assyrian cruelties is sickening. (https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/assyrians-torture-60fabb7a9642)

APPLICATION: Reading these accounts, it’s hard to believe that the Israelites refused to believe God was serious. But the big problem is this: the Israelites failed to remember and they failed to teach their children to remember as well.

Many families have narratives in which they can recount what happened to their parents, their grandparents, and even their great grandparents. Traditionally, in Africa and other parts of the world, villages would have someone specially trained to keep alive the memories and traditions of that place and that tribe. Many people groups without written languages have long memories.

Proverbs 30:8-9 says,”Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’
Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.”

One day, a rich young leader asked Jesus what he had to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus told this man to go and sell everything that he had and give the proceeds to the poor, and then to come follow Jesus. The man sadly left, and Jesus told his disciples, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” The “eye of a needle” here might be a reference to a very narrow gate in Jerusalem; on the other hand, there are some scholars who feel that this passage should have been translated to refer to a thick rope being threaded through the eye of a needle. Either way, Jesus was telling his followers that riches could be a major impediment to entering the kingdom of God.

But is it impossible for someone wealthy to be a practicing Christian? No, it is quite possible. Consider the example of R. G. LeTourneau. LeTourneau was the inventor of much of the modern earth moving equipment still in use today. According to LeTourneau’s biography, he began by tithing ten per cent of his income and then kept increasing that amount. By the end of LeTourneau’s career, he had founded a Christian university, aided innumerable worthy causes, and was tithing ninety per cent of his income each year.

If you are truly following God, then you must consider all your assets and possessions as a trust from Him, something you are holding until God needs you to deliver it to those whom He chooses. Hold things lightly and do not let money stick to your fingers. This does not mean that you should be foolish; such behavior does not glorify God. But all those who follow the Heavenly Father must remember that we are sinners saved by grace through the blood sacrifice made for us by Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary. Without the mercy and grace of God, all of us are lost and wealth means nothing.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Help us to view everything that You have given us as a trust from You, to be given to others as You direct. Thank You that if we are faithful to do this, You will continue to pour out more blessings so that we can be channels of blessing to others. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 8:7 – 10 “For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks and fountains and springs that flow through the valleys and hills; a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey; a land where you will eat food without scarcity, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and whose hills can be mined for copper. When you eat and are satisfied, you are to bless the LORD your God for the good land He has given you.”

God’s description of the Promised Land is beyond belief!! The land is very fertile and well – watered. God promises the Israelites that they will “eat food without scarcity” and “will lack nothing.” This land contains rich mineral resources, allowing them to make tools and implements and weapons if necessary. Sounds like a great bargain, right?

BUT… the Israelites have one duty to the Lord: “When you eat and are satisfied, you are to bless the LORD your God for the good land He has given you.” Seems so simple, doesn’t it? And eventually, there were times when the Israelites did obey this command. Psalm 129:8 even speaks about those passing by as crops are being harvested blessing the crops, “The blessing of the Lord be upon you; we bless you in the Name of the Lord!”

For much of the time that the Israelites occupied the Promised Land, they behaved as though somehow they had earned it and God was obligated to bless them. The Book of Judges gives us a shocking picture of just how badly the Israelites failed in keeping their half of the bargain. It’s tempting to feel morally superior and to assume that we would never be that ungrateful, but is that really true?

APPLICATION: Two little old ladies were in a retirement home where they served meals. One lady began her complaints by describing how bad the food was – it was tasteless, it was bland, there wasn’t enough variety, etc., etc. And then her friend chimed in, “Yes! And the portions are TOO SMALL!”

The month of November is the month of Thanksgiving in America; however, you would never know it by going through the stores. The “Seasonal Items” displays are packed with Christmas items; meanwhile, Thanksgiving is still several weeks away. The unstated message is that gratitude doesn’t make money.

Throughout those forty years in the wilderness, the Israelites had lots of complaints; in fact, they had so many that early on, Moses had to organize judges for groups of thousands, hundreds, and tens of people. And that was just for the small stuff! Then there were the terrible times when Moses and Aaron found themselves threatened with stoning if they failed to provide water or meat or bread. At no point in the Torah is there a recording of a time when the Israelites themselves actually organized a service to praise and bless and thank God for all His provision.

In many small churches, pastors and their families can find themselves struggling financially. While the congregation might help with food items, particularly in rural areas, the pastor’s wife may find herself wearing garments that are several years out of date. Before the advent of casual dressing for church members, some ladies in the church would judge the pastor’s wife on the quality and style of her clothes. One friend who had served small churches with her pastor husband for decades told me that when she complained to the Lord, He reminded her of Deuteronomy 8:4, “Your clothing did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.” My friend acknowledged that this indeed was true and thanked the Lord for doing so. But my friend also reminded the Lord that the gossips in the church were only moved to talk and not to increase her husband’s salary!

There is a meme circulating on social media in which a man begins complaining to God about all the small mishaps he has suffered that day – he overslept, his car refused to start promptly, he was late to work, the sandwich he bought for his lunch was not made properly, and when he got home, his electric foot bath refused to work. Then God pulls back the curtain and allows the man to see that the delays kept him from a fatal accident and that his lunch was made by someone healthy while the person who usually made his lunch was sick and could have given him a serious infection. That electric foot bath had a fault that would have shorted out the entire house, plunging it into darkness. The point of this story is simple: we have no idea how completely God has protected us and is protecting us. We need to be thankful for the “glitches” as well as for the obvious blessings.

Gratitude and joy are closely related. Grateful people are joyful people. Why not begin a new habit? Just before you fall asleep, thank God for at least one blessing He has given you for that day. You may be shocked at how many other blessings you can name once you get started.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for the “stops” as well as for the “starts.” Thank You that You know our needs far better than we do and that You are always watching us. Help us to be grateful each day and not merely to designate one day in the year. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 8:1 – 6 “You must carefully follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and multiply, and enter and possess the land that the LORD swore to give your fathers. Remember that these forty years the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments.

He humbled you, and in your hunger He gave you manna to eat, which neither you nor your fathers had known, so that you might understand that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Your clothing did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.

So know in your heart that just as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you. Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, walking in His ways and fearing Him.”

By this point in Moses’ teachings, the Israelites might have been excused if they were indulging in just a little self – pity. Forty years! Forty years they spent wandering around in the wilderness. After all that suffering, haven’t they EARNED some rest? Don’t they DESERVE the right to an easy entry into the Promised Land? What is God getting at here?

God knows the human heart far better than any human. When the Israelites left Egypt, they were barely emerging from a pagan culture with a huge number of gods and a strong emphasis on death and ceremonies surrounding death. These people had spent hundreds of years as slaves with a slave mentality. There was no way that the Israelites were ready to go straight into the Promised Land, and they demonstrated that with the incident of the golden calf among other failures.

God wanted the Israelites to follow His commands, so He sent them out through the wilderness until they had no other sources of help apart from God. God wanted His people to totally depend on Him and to follow His commands. Notice what God did: He provided manna, proving that “man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” God protected the Israelites’ clothing and their shoes, even keeping their feet from swelling, despite the rocks and the sand and the heat.

“So know in your heart that just as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.” In many ancient cultures, only true sons were disciplined. Any illegitimate children might receive some kind of care, but they would not be disciplined. To receive discipline meant that your father was truly claiming you as his child. Here God is pointing out that He has disciplined the Israelites just as any good father would. Such discipline is actually a mark of God’s favor. And good children, particularly sons, were expected to respond by obedience to their father’s commands.

APPLICATION: Structure and discipline – each of us needs these two elements in our daily lives. Proverbs 13:24 says, “A refusal to correct is a refusal to love; love your children by disciplining them.

When I was six, my parents added my foster sister Lela to our family. Lela was the oldest of ten kids; unfortunately, she had wound up in an orphanage. As the years went by, her other siblings were adopted; however, she forlornly remained there until she was fifteen. My mother was a stern but loving disciplinarian. One day, Mom and Lela were shopping in a town twenty miles from our farm. Mom had allowed Lela to go off on her own, but when Lela failed to meet Mom in time, Mom was furious! When Lela turned up, Mom walked down the street with her, swatting her bottom several times. Once they reached the car, Lela turned to Mom and told her,”You really love me, don’t you?” Surprised, Mom asked, “What do you mean?” Lela responded, “Well, I have seen you disciplining your own children many times, but this is the first time you have disciplined me.” For Lela, Mom’s discipline was a sign of love, a love she never once doubted after that.

Many times, God must deal with us as He dealt with the Israelites. There are no shortcuts to developing good character.

God Knows What He’s About

When God wants to drill a man,

And thrill a man, and skill a man,

When God wants to mold a man

To play the noblest part;

When He yearns with all His heart

To create so great and bold a man

That all the world might be amazed,

Watch His methods; watch His ways.

How He ruthlessly perfects

Whom He royally elects!

How He hammers him and hurts him

And with mighty blows converts him

Into trial shapes of clay

That only God understands,

While his tortured heart is crying,

And he lifts beseeching hands!

How He bends but never breaks

When his good He undertakes.

How He uses whom He chooses,

And with every purpose fuses him;

By every act induces him

To try His splendor out—

God knows what He’s about!

Author Unknown

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us so much that You refuse to let us wallow in our sin and mediocrity! Thank You, that You are changing us into Your likeness. Help us to be patient and to let You work everything You desire in our hearts. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 7:20 – 26 “Moreover, the LORD your God will send the hornet against them until all the survivors and those hiding from you have perished. Do not be terrified by them, for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God.

The LORD your God will drive out these nations before you little by little. You will not be enabled to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals would multiply around you. But the LORD your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed. He will hand their kings over to you, and you will wipe out their names from under heaven. No one will be able to stand against you; you will annihilate them.

You must burn up the images of their gods; do not covet the silver and gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it; for it is detestable to the LORD your God. And you must not bring any detestable thing into your house, or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. You are to utterly detest and abhor it, because it is set apart for destruction.

God is still assuring the Israelites of all the different ways in which He will help drive out and annihilate the inhabitants of the Promised Land, if only the Israelites will believe in Him and follow instructions. Look at this promise: God is promising that when the Israelites attack any city and somebody escapes, He will send hornets to attack them wherever they are hiding. Now notice that the Israelites have to do their part first. God is NOT promising to send hornets while the Israelites merely sit in their tents. Why? Because God is trying to train the Israelites to be faithful and to realize that nothing comes for free. Even when God sent manna and quails and water in the wilderness, the Israelites still had to go collect all those things and carry them back into the camp.

The next thing to notice is the time frame: God is not going to drive out all the opposing nations instantly; otherwise, wild animals would take over the territory. “He will hand their kings over to you, and you will wipe out their names from under heaven. No one will be able to stand against you; you will annihilate them.” This actually did happen. These tribes were wiped out so completely that for years scholars refused to believe that they had ever existed. Only when archaeology advanced was the existence of some of these tribes proved.

The next command is much tougher: The Israelites are to completely destroy all the images of the pagan gods and must not safe any of the gold or silver covering them. Why is this order so critically important? Anything dedicated to a pagan god is actually dedicated to a demon and the demons attach themselves to these things. In West Africa we would call such idols fetishes, and the only safe thing to do with a fetish is to burn it and destroy anything covering it. If an Israelite brings anything pertaining to a fetish into their home, they are giving entrance to the demons to which that idol was dedicated. “ And you must not bring any detestable thing into your house, or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. You are to utterly detest and abhor it, because it is set apart for destruction.” Playing with the demonic in any form brings destruction!

APPLICATION: Many years ago, a missionary friend helped break up a terrible cult in Northern Ghana. In the course of this action, our friend was beaten so severely that she suffered with back pains for the rest of her life. But our friend made a terrible mistake. The symbol of this cult was a horn, and our friend took one of the cult object horns back with her to America. Although our friend claimed she was using it to demonstrate that Satan was defeated, several pastors warned her that she needed to destroy this object because it was not safe to keep it. Our friend refused to listen; meanwhile, her missionary career was cut short, and on her return to America, she suffered many severe health problems. Bringing “detestable things” into your house for any reason will bring nothing but trouble.

When we moved from Ghana to America in 1990, our things were combined with those of another missionary family. Among our belongings we found a carving of a drummer with an unusual hairstyle common only to fetish priests at that time. We could not remember having received this carving. We began by placing the carving in our sitting room, but rapidly moved it because we felt as if the statue was watching us. Finally, my husband took it out, beat it to pieces, and burned it. A few years later, we had to do the same thing with another set of carvings given to us by friends. But it’s not just African objects that can be imbued with the demonic.

We were horrified when we learned that a friend in a small town in Illinois had been mauled by her son’s dog in an unprovoked attack. At the time, her son was living with her and his room was a tribute to a satanic life style. Our friend was a Christian and called on Jesus when the dog began its attack; she still received more than 100 stitches for her wounds. Thankfully, both her son and the dog moved out soon after that.

When I was training in public health at Tulane University, we visited one professor whose wife dealt in ancient art from South America. The artifacts this lady sold had been recovered from graves or ceremonial sites, and she displayed some of the most striking examples in cabinets in their home. The spiritual atmosphere in that house was so heavy as to be indescribable. No, bringing such things into your home is not a safe practice at all!

In the 1970’s George Otis Senior wrote a book detailing how God broke him of the habit of acquiring souvenirs with dubious spiritual significance and touring sites involved in the demonic. Otis headed the Learjet Corporation and traveled throughout the world. As a world traveler, Otis had acquired all kinds of carvings, paintings, etc.. At one point, Otis was visiting a Shinto Shrine during a festival when God spoke to his heart and asked, “George, what are you doing here?” Suddenly, Otis realized that the priests at that festival were possessed and that he had no business there.

Proverbs 4:23 tells us, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” If God wants us to guard our hearts carefully, what about the hearts of those around us, our family and friends? If we bring the demonic into our homes for any reason, we have no control over the effect it might have on anyone living with us or visiting us, let alone on our neighborhood or even on our town.

 PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Help us to eliminate anything from our homes and our lives that is not of You. Help us to concentrate on Your Word and Your perfect Will for our lives. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 7:12 – 19 “If you listen to these ordinances and keep them carefully, the LORD your God will keep His covenant with loving devotion, as He swore to your fathers. He will love you and bless you and multiply you. He will bless the fruit of your womb and the produce of your land—your grain, new wine, and oil—the young of your herds and the lambs of your flocks, in the land that He swore to your fathers to give you. You will be blessed above all peoples; among you there will be no barren man or woman or livestock.

And the LORD will remove from you all sickness. He will not lay upon you any of the terrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but He will inflict them on all who hate you. You must destroy all the peoples the LORD your God will deliver to you. Do not look on them with pity. Do not worship their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

You may say in your heart, “These nations are greater than we are; how can we drive them out?” But do not be afraid of them. Be sure to remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and all Egypt: the great trials that you saw, the signs and wonders, and the mighty hand and outstretched arm by which the LORD your God brought you out. The LORD your God will do the same to all the peoples you now fear.”

“Have you come for your television set?” The time was January 2020, and we were just bringing our pickup to the dealership from which we had bought it to be serviced. Although the vehicle was new to us, it was actually a three year old floor model. To ensure the sale, the dealer had reduced the price and had made it possible for us to get a number of extras added, such as running boards and a bed liner. But what was this about a television? It turns out that part of the sales pitch had also included a large flat screen TV that was unavailable when we first collected the vehicle. But now the TV was ready. The dealership had made promises and they kept every one of them.

In today’s verses, God is promising things far better than a TV. God is promising to “love you, bless you, and multiply you.” In addition, God promises to bless the Israelites’ children and all the offspring of their livestock, as well as giving them bumper harvests. God promises to keep the Israelites healthy. What were the “terrible diseases you knew in Egypt?” In recent years, CT scans have allowed in – depth study of Egyptian mummies. We have learned that these people suffered with tuberculosis, cancer, and a host of other diseases. God is promising to protect the Israelites from all of these things.

So far, this deal seems too good to pass up! But there are conditions. “You must destroy all the peoples the LORD your God will deliver to you. Do not look on them with pity. Do not worship their gods, for that will be a snare to you.” God wants the slate to be wiped clean, so that the Israelites will not be tempted to revert to idol worship and orgies.

Finally, once more God is reminding the Israelites to REMEMBER EVERYTHING that He has already done for them. At the time Pharaoh’s army disappears into that water, it is the most powerful army on earth, bar none. Since God has already wiped out the Egyptians in a single morning, why can’t He also help the Israelites defeat any tribe they encounter in the Promised Land?

APPLICATION: Reading Deuteronomy is like watching a horror movie that starts out with innocent people who are about to make bad choices with deadly consequences. Why? Because we have the perspective of at least 3500 years. We know that despite all the warnings God gives, the Israelites try to do things their way and make a mess of it! Some of us might feel a bit smug; after all, we have never turned our backs on God’s will for our lives…or have we?

God’s promises never outdate. If we are commit ourselves to finding God’s will for our lives and obeying, God will definitely bless us. This does NOT mean that we will not encounter problems. Sometimes those closest to God have also suffered the most. Corrie Ten Boom and her family went to German concentration camps for sheltering Jews from the Nazis. Betsy, Corrie’s sister, died in the camps, as did her father. But God spared Corrie to minister a message of forgiveness to millions around the world. Joni Eareckson Tada has spent most of her life as a quadriplegic; yet, her example, her fifty books, her radio ministry and her group, “Joni and Friends” have brought hope to untold numbers of people. In recent years, Joni has also suffered with breast cancer, being declared cancer free, only to suffer a recurrence three years later.

God wants good things for His children; however, God is not Santa Claus. If we want God to bless us, we must study His Word, learn His Will for our lives, and then do it.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Thank You for the blessings You want to give us. Help us to study Your Word and to love to do Your Will above all else. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 7:1 – 11 “When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to possess, and He drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you— and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you to defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.

Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, because they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and He will swiftly destroy you.

Instead, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their idols in the fire. For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession, above all peoples on the face of the earth.

The LORD did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than the other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But because the LORD loved you and kept the oath He swore to your fathers, He brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps His covenant of loving devotion for a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments. But those who hate Him He repays to their faces with destruction; He will not hesitate to repay to his face the one who hates Him.

So keep the commandments and statutes and ordinances that I am giving you to follow this day.”

TOTAL DESTRUCTION!!! That is God’s will for the tribes that are currently inhabiting Canaan. There are seven tribes, each one much bigger than the Israelites – the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. God wants all of these tribes to be completely destroyed, In addition, God also is ordering that everything pertaining to the religions of these tribes also be destroyed – altars, pillars, Asherah poles, and idols. Anything that can be burned should be burned. Anything made of stone should be smashed. Anything made of metal should be melted. Why is God being so insistent that these people and their devoted objects be destroyed?

God has no illusions about the Israelites. This is the same bunch that couldn’t even wait forty days for Moses to come down off Mount Sinai before they pressured Aaron into making an idol of a golden calf. If items connected with the worship of these pagan gods survive, the Israelites are likely to seize them and begin worshiping them, rather than the God who has delivered them.

We want to believe that God favors us because we have special gifts that set us apart. Here God advising the Israelites that in fact, they are a very small tribe. “The LORD did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than the other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But because the LORD loved you and kept the oath He swore to your fathers, He brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” Hundreds of years ago, God made a promise to Abraham, and God always keeps His promises. God has delivered Israel from the most powerful nation in the world to demonstrate His power and His goodness.

God wants to use Israel to demonstrate to the world the vision of a nation wholly devoted to Him. By taking the smallest and weakest nation of all and then helping them conquer all these others, God wants the remaining nations to see His power and His grace and to turn to worship Him as well.

APPLICATION: Sometimes we feel that we are so unique that God will do things for us just because of our outstanding attributes. It’s pretty humbling if we realize that God has actually chosen us because we are weak and insignificant! 1 Corinthians 1:27 – 31 tells us, “But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are,  that no flesh should glory in His presence.  But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—  that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”

We are safest when we understand how vulnerable we are. We are in the most danger when we think that we can handle all our problems ourselves. The saddest part of the admonitions Moses is giving in Deuteronomy 7 is that later on, the Israelites failed to destroy all those tribes and they paid a huge price spiritually as a result.

PRAYER: Father God, help us to be obedient. When You order us to do something, let us not whine and complain but let us obey immediately, realizing that this will be for our good. Thank You for loving us and for caring for us. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 6:20 “In the future, when your son asks you, “What is the meaning of the decrees and statutes and ordinances that the LORD our God has commanded you?” then you are to tell him, “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Before our eyes the LORD inflicted great and devastating signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his household, but He brought us from there to lead us in and give us the land that He had sworn to our fathers.

And the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes and to fear the LORD our God, that we may always be prosperous and preserved, as we are to this day. And if we are careful to observe every one of these commandments before the LORD our God just as He has commanded us, then that will be our righteousness.”

According to the UNESCO World Heritage website, “Masada is a rugged natural fortress, of majestic beauty, in the Judaean Desert overlooking the Dead Sea. It is a symbol of the ancient kingdom of Israel, its violent destruction and the last stand of Jewish patriots in the face of the Roman army, in 73 A.D. It was built as a palace complex, in the classic style of the early Roman Empire, by Herod the Great, King of Judaea, (reigned 37 – 4 B.C.). The camps, fortifications and attack ramp that encircle the monument constitute the most complete Roman siege works surviving to the present day.” (https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1040/)

Masada became the site held by the last 960 Jewish rebels who were holding out against a huge Roman army. Masada was taken when the Romans built a long ramp up the side of the cliff that allowed them access to the stronghold. According to the ancient historian Josephus, those holding Masada committed mass suicide rather than surrender to the Romans.

To Israelis, Masada has become a symbol of Israeli independence. No matter where Israeli military recruits swear their oath of allegiance, the oath always ends with the words, “Masada shall not fall again!” With only a few exceptions, national military service is mandatory for all Israeli citizens above the age of eighteen. This means that the vast majority of Israelis know what and where Masada is and are committed to defending their country.

In today’s passage, Moses is instructing the Israelites to teach their children the elemental facts about the Exodus.

1. ““We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ” The Israelites are never to forget where they started, how bad things were at the beginning, and that it was God who delivered them from slavery.

2. “Before our eyes the LORD inflicted great and devastating signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his household…” God wants each succeeding generation of Israelites to remember the fact that He reduced the most powerful nation in the world and its ruler to little more than rubble.

3. ”…but He brought us from there to lead us in and give us the land that He had sworn to our fathers.” God wants the Israelites to remember that He always keeps His promises, even when it takes centuries for them to be fulfilled.

4. “And the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes and to fear the LORD our God, that we may always be prosperous and preserved, as we are to this day.” The Israelites must remember that their prosperity and safety depend on God and not on their own efforts. If the Israelites wander away from God’s commandments, they will automatically forfeit that prosperity and safety as well.

5. ”And if we are careful to observe every one of these commandments before the LORD our God just as He has commanded us, then that will be our righteousness.”

How can the Israelites be sure that they are acting righteously? They are to be CAREFUL TO OBSERVE EVERY ONE OF THESE COMMANDMENTS BEFORE THE LORD. The Israelites must be conscious that God is always watching for their obedience. These commandments are not a cafeteria – style matter; they don’t get to select which ones to ignore and which ones to obey.

APPLICATION: These days, obedience to rules is not popular! Many people want to make their own rules and then get others to abide by those rules. But truth is not relative. Values that change with different situations are worthless. God has given us eternal absolutes in His Word, and when we ignore His commandments or try to bend them to fit our desires, we are setting out on a slippery downhill slope that ends in a moral quagmire. And when we refuse to train our children in the ways of God, we are setting them up for failure.

God know us better than we know ourselves. God’s commandments are for our good, not for our destruction. Why not trust the Creator of the Universe to give us direction?

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Help us to follow Your commands and to teach them to our children as well. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.