Burunche’s Blog

Deuteronomy 32:10 – 14 “He found him in a desert land, in a barren, howling wilderness; He surrounded him, He instructed him, He guarded him as the apple of His eye.

As an eagle stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, He spread His wings to catch them; He carried them on His pinions.

The LORD alone led him, and no foreign god was with him. He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him the produce of the field.

He nourished him with honey from the rock and oil from the flinty crag, with curds from the herd and milk from the flock, with the fat of lambs, with rams from Bashan, and goats, with the choicest grains of wheat. From the juice of the finest grapes you drank the wine.”

By now, the Israelites might have decided that they were pretty special people and that they were unusually good, virtuous, and attractive. Certainly, they were God’s favorites! Here God is trying to correct that idea. According to God, He found the Israelites “in a barren howling wilderness,” one where the wind was constantly moaning through the rocky landscape.

It was God who surrounded the Israelites, guarding them and instructing them, even when they had no desire to be instructed. God guarded the Israelites as carefully as if they were the pupil of His eye.

 

“As an eagle stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, He spread His wings to catch them; He carried them on His pinions.” Baby eagles are enjoying the security of the nest when one day, Mama Eagle suddenly begins tearing the nest apart. Once the nest is gone, the baby eagles have no choice but to launch out; however, they aren’t very good at flying and tend to drop out one by one. Mama Eagle will swoop under a baby eagle, catching it on her wings and then dumping the baby eagle off again. This process is repeated until the baby eagle suddenly gets the idea and begins flying on its own. The Israelites had settled in Egypt, and God had to stir things up to get them to leave. But God also provided for the Israelites throughout their wanderings in the wilderness.  

“The LORD alone led him, and no foreign god was with him.” God wanted the Israelites to realize that He has been the one leading, guiding, and protecting. Those idols that the Israelites were hiding in their tents didn’t do anything.

“He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him the produce of the field.

He nourished him with honey from the rock and oil from the flinty crag, with curds from the herd and milk from the flock, with the fat of lambs, with rams from Bashan, and goats, with the choicest grains of wheat. From the juice of the finest grapes you drank the wine.” Victors occupied the high parts of the land so that they could keep watch over everyone else. God was reminding the Israelites that they had enjoyed numerous victories and the spoils that came from those victories. Already the Israelites had conquered several cities and had enjoyed large amounts of booty.

APPLICATION: In the fall of 1985 my husband and I were extremely uncomfortable! I had just completed my final two years of pediatric surgery training and had taken a temporary job as a doctor in minor emergency clinics while we tried to learn what God wanted us to do. Financially, we were doing better than ever before, and we were in a good church with close friends. But we were intensely aware that something was not as it needed to be. One Sunday our pastor preached a sermon about Jonah. God called Jonah to go east to Nineveh; however, Jonah tried to run as far as possible in the opposite direction, boarding a ship headed west for Tarshish (probably Spain.) Once Jonah was shipwrecked and swallowed by a large fish, he finally did what God wanted him to do in the first place, and revival broke out in Nineveh. The point of our pastor’s sermon was this: If God is calling you to do something, you will never be comfortable until you answer God’s call.

Miraculously, God had put us in touch with a friend who was a missionary surgeon and he had had his group send us application forms. We went home and completed those forms and mailed them. (Email did not exist in those days.) Once we sent off those forms, the uneasiness lifted.

This was not a made for TV movie; that mission group rejected us on theological grounds. But we had made the first move, and now God began working in our lives. In 1986 each of us participated in a short – term mission. I went with a group to Haiti while my husband went to Chile with a different group. Shortly after my husband returned from Chile, we attended a presentation by a new mission group and eventually were accepted by them and sent to Ghana.

The point of my story is this: at the beginning, we were like baby eagles. We were very comfortable, but God had other plans for us. In the year between being accepted by the mission group and the time we left for Ghana, we moved five times. Talk about Mama Eagle taking the nest apart! And when we landed in Ghana, we were still like those baby eagles, frantically fluttering our wings to stay up. Adjusting to a new culture, a new language, and two different living situations left us breathless. In our first location, God gave us a crash course in spiritual warfare when we found ourselves living immediately below someone heavily involved in the occult.

Can you identify with those baby eagles? Has your comfortable situation become uncomfortable? Are you clinging to your nest while God is steadily taking it apart? Remember two things: If God is removing pieces of your comfortable situation, it’s because He has something far better. And baby eagles never learn to fly as long as they are still in the nest.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, many of us are confused and worried as we see our comfortable situations falling apart. Help us to realize that if You are bringing change, it is for our benefit. You don’t want us to remain spiritually nest – bound; You want us to learn to fly. Thank You that as we are making our feeble efforts, You will still be there to catch us on Your wings. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 32:28 – 38 “Israel is a nation devoid of counsel, with no understanding among them. If only they were wise, they would understand it; they would comprehend their fate.

How could one man pursue a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up? For their rock is not like our Rock, even our enemies concede.

But their vine is from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poisonous; Their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the venom of serpents, the deadly poison of cobras.

“Have I not stored up these things, sealed up within My vaults? Vengeance is Mine; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly.”

For the LORD will vindicate His people and will have compassion on His servants when He sees that their strength is gone and no one remains, slave or free.

He will say: “Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge, which ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up and help you; let them give you shelter!

In these verses from the Song of Moses, God is continuing to warn the Israelites what will happen if/when they refuse to obey Him. God predicts that no matter how many failures the Israelites experience, they will steadfastly refuse to acknowledge that their sins against Him are the root of their problems.

“How could one man pursue a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up? For their rock is not like our Rock, even our enemies concede.” Heretofore, the Israelites have enjoyed unparalleled success in battle, largely due to the reputation their God enjoys among the surrounding pagan nations. These other tribes recognize the power of the God of Israel; however, the Israelites have come to take God for granted. The Israelites feel so entitled that they don’t realize they are on the brink of disaster.

“But their vine is from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poisonous; Their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the venom of serpents, the deadly poison of cobras. “Have I not stored up these things, sealed up within My vaults? Vengeance is Mine; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly.”

These are interesting verses because they can be taken two ways. On the one hand, these verses may describe the faithless idol worshipers of the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah. On the other hand, these verses may also describe the pagan countries that will attack and carry most of the inhabitants of those two kingdoms into exile. The message is clear: No matter who is faithless, God is still watching and knows the time that He will bring punishment for faithlessness. At the same time, those who are used to bring that punishment will eventually also face the wrath of God because they steadfastly refuse to follow Him and persist in serving their idols.

“For the LORD will vindicate His people and will have compassion on His servants when He sees that their strength is gone and no one remains, slave or free.

He will say: “Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge, which ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up and help you; let them give you shelter!” Eventually, God is going to clear His people of blame and justify them. There will always be a faithful remnant in Israel and God will deliver them. But those Israelites and pagans who have trusted in demons will be put to shame because they have served worthless deities.

APPLICATION: Ever meet someone who has a strong sense of entitlement? Dealing with such people can be frustrating beyond belief. No matter how bad circumstances may be, no matter how outrageously such individuals have behaved, they are SURE that they are untouchable and they can behave however they choose. I was raised in the State of Illinois, a state that has suffered for decades under the political machinations of those in Chicago. At one point, we had a governor who refused to live in the governor’s mansion in Springfield, the state capital. Instead, this man insisted on flying to and from Chicago daily at taxpayer expense because he felt entitled.

It is not only leaders who can feel entitled. Workers at any level can nourish self – pity. Self – pity can lead to an entitlement argument that runs, “I am so overworked and underpaid that I DESERVE to steal from my job, steal from clients, collect money on the side, etc. etc.”  

The Israelites only listened to God when He was telling them what they wanted to hear. As soon as God gave the Ten Commandments, the Israelites were already trying to see if there were any ways around them. When God ordered them to put away all their idols they had brought from Egypt, there were undoubtedly many who felt that these “gods” had comforted them for years, so why get rid of them now? The Israelites felt entitled, even though God told them plainly that they had nothing to be proud of!

A feeling of entitlement encourages you to feel that you are really better than others and that God may judge others harshly, but He will allow you to keep your pet sins. But God is not in the pet sin business! To a holy God, all sins are equally damning. All of us are sinners in need of a Savior, and that Savior is Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:8-10 says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar, and His word is not in us.”

PRAYER: Father God, we confess that we have sinned against You in our thoughts, our words, and our acts. We have judged others while excusing ourselves. Lord, open our eyes to see the darkness in our own hearts! Help us to realize that we only have two choices: accept Your Word about our sins and beg Your forgiveness or continue to fool ourselves and die in our sins. Thank You for sending Jesus to die for our sins so that anyone who confesses their sins and who believes in Jesus will be delivered from themselves. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 31:30 “Then Moses recited aloud to the whole assembly of Israel the words of this song from beginning to end:

Deuteronomy 32:1 – 8 ”Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

Let my teaching fall like rain and my speech settle like dew, like gentle rain on new grass, like showers on tender plants.

For I will proclaim the name of the LORD. Ascribe greatness to our God!

He is the Rock, His work is perfect; all His ways are just. A God of faithfulness without injustice, righteous and upright is He.

His people have acted corruptly toward Him; the spot on them is not that of His children, but of a perverse and crooked generation.

Is this how you repay the LORD, O foolish and senseless people?

Is He not your Father and Creator? Has He not made you and established you? Remember the days of old; consider the years long past.

Ask your father, and he will tell you, your elders, and they will inform you.

When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He divided the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.

But the LORD’s portion is His people, Jacob His allotted inheritance.”

This is the first part of the Song of Moses, the song that God has given Moses to teach to the Israelites. Remember that this is a people who still rely largely on spoken words and repetition of those words. Oral traditions are still quite strong, even though God has had Moses write out the Book of the Law. Now Moses is to teach all the Israelites this song so that it too will serve as a witness against them when they fall into apostasy. But this song also has some of the most glorious descriptions of God found anywhere in the Bible.  

“Ascribe greatness to our God! He is the Rock, His work is perfect; all His ways are just. A God of faithfulness without injustice, righteous and upright is He.”  Moses has spent years meeting face to face with God in the tabernacle. Nobody knows God better than Moses does. The symbol of God as a rock is incredibly powerful. The Israelites have been traveling in wild places where only the rocks could offer shelter from the heat or protection from enemies. Rocks don’t change easily, and only earthquakes can shift or crack a huge rock. God too is faithful and does not change; He is totally righteous and just, utterly reliable.

“His people have acted corruptly toward Him; the spot on them is not that of His children, but of a perverse and crooked generation.” The sins of the Israelites are not merely childish sins, but the sins of an entire generation that has twisted things to fit themselves.  

“Is this how you repay the LORD, O foolish and senseless people?

Is He not your Father and Creator? Has He not made you and established you?” Actions demand responses. God has already done His part, being faithful to the covenant He made with Abraham hundreds of years ago. Now it is the turn of the Israelites; however, they are a group of ungrateful wretches.

“But the LORD’s portion is His people, Jacob His allotted inheritance.” The totally amazing thing about the story of the Exodus and the forty years spent in the wilderness is that despite all the rebellion and idolatry exhibited by the Israelites, God still considers them His portion and treasures them.

APPLICATION: Is God YOUR Rock? In these days of uncertainty when COVID is ravaging the world, where do you put your trust? The last two years have seen businesses fail and jobs evaporate. The pandemic has not spared any group of people. Politicians have made promises they can’t keep.

In the midst of a crumbling world, the Lord our Rock is still there! God remains faithful, upright, and just. His work remains perfect. We can continue to trust in God and allow the truth of His nature to permeate our hearts. Moses said, “Let my teaching fall like rain and my speech settle like dew, like gentle rain on new grass, like showers on tender plants.” Many of us may feel as if our hearts have been in a waterless desert. We long for something healing and real! Let the truth about God’s nature fall like life – giving rain to your heart. God’s Holy Spirit will settle softly like dew, like gentle rain.

The saddest part of this situation is that God longed for the Israelites to turn their hearts to Him and to worship Him so that He could bless them. God still longs for us to come to Him and to open our hearts and minds to Him. God loves you more than anybody else ever has or can. Why not make this the day that you allow the peace of the Holy Spirit to settle in your heart forever?

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, so many of us are hurting and confused. Please help everyone who reads these words to come to You, the Rock, the Source of all light and life and love. Heal us and make us whole. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.  

Deuteronomy 32:23 – 27 “I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend My arrows against them. They will be wasted from hunger and ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague; I will send the fangs of wild beasts against them, with the venom of vipers that slither in the dust. Outside, the sword will take their children, and inside, terror will strike the young man and the young woman, the infant and the gray-haired man. I would have said that I would cut them to pieces and blot out their memory from mankind, if I had not dreaded the taunt of the enemy, lest their adversaries misunderstand and say: ‘Our own hand has prevailed; it was not the LORD who did all this.’”

The Song of Moses continues as God describes what will happen to faithless Israel. Disasters will mount up – famine, plagues, attacks by wild beasts and venomous snakes, attacks by enemies and night terrors. Reading this list, you might wonder why anybody would ignore such warnings. God even goes so far as to advise the Israelites that the only reason He will not wipe them off the face of the earth and blot out the memory of them is because He has regard for His own Name. God refuses to allow the enemies of Israel to take credit for what He will do.

Were there tribes whose names were blotted out? Yes. There were several ancient groups whose existence was thought to be a myth until the rise of modern archaeology. Recent discoveries have continued to prove the accuracy of the Biblical accounts. For example, until the latter half of the nineteenth century, the only mention of the Hittites was found in the Old Testament. It was not until a number of discoveries in several different locations came to light that the Hittite Empire was proven to have existed and to have been quite powerful. (Wikipedia – The Hittites)

Eventually, ten tribes split off from Judah and Benjamin to form the Kingdom of Israel in the north, while Judah and Benjamin formed the Kingdom of Judah. Those ten tribes were Asher, Dan, Ephraim, Gad, Issachar, Manasseh, Naphtali, Reuben, Simeon, and Zebulun. These ten tribes are sometimes referred to as the “lost tribes of Israel” because they were conquered early by the Assyrians in 721 B.C. and assimilated so completely that they disappeared as recognizable entities. Only the exiles from Judah and Benjamin made it back to re – settle Israel in 586 B.C. The Kingdom of Israel embraced idolatry from its founding and received due punishment. The Kingdom of Judah held out longer due to some righteous kings who brought revival periodically.

APPLICATION: In a previous devotional, I mentioned an elderly friend whose faith was increased when she witnessed the return of the Jews to Israel as predicted in the Bible. Here in the Song of Moses God gives a preview of the disasters that eventually overtook the Israelites.

God knows the end from the beginning. The amazing aspect of this song is that God promises to preserve some of the Israelites so that their enemies cannot claim to have succeeded in wiping them off the face of the earth. God is not going to preserve the Israelites for any virtue of their own but to guard His reputation among the nations.

Why is God worried about His reputation? God’s plans were never just about the Israelites; God always had a plan for all the nations of the earth. The Israelites were to demonstrate God’s goodness and love for any people that would serve Him. There were probably a number of nations who knew the origins of the Israelites. God wanted those nations to witness the transformation of the Israelites into a holy nation for themselves. Unfortunately, there were many who thought God only wanted to bless them and even then they failed to obey His commands.

God’s plans are always more inclusive than we can imagine. John 3:16 tells us, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” God loves the entire world without exceptions. When Jesus died on the cross at Calvary, He died for the sins of the entire world. Saul the Pharisee who persecuted Christians changed to Paul the Apostle when he had a vision of Jesus and realized the truth of the crucifixion and resurrection. Paul spent the rest of his life reaching out to as many people as possible. We need to make sure that our vision is as comprehensive as God’s.

Those of us who claim to follow God need to make sure that we do not represent bad advertising! I remember an incident that took place during my surgical residency. We had discharged a man from a Veterans Administration hospital; however, his wife did not agree with the discharge and began screaming at me. As this lady was demanding her husband’s rights, she was literally hopping up and down in her rage. Pinned to this lady’s lapel was a rhinestone pin that proclaimed “Jesus is Lord.” By that point, I was a believer; however, had I not already been a Christian, this lady’s tirade might have convinced me to have nothing to do with Christianity!

The ancient Israelites learned the Song of Moses but never took it to heart and likely failed to teach it to their children. Sometimes God tries to warn us away from bad choices. Do we pay attention or do we try to force to get our own way? If we have chosen a plan of action only to find we have no peace, it’s time to go to God in prayer and see if we are only trying to do our will and not His.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, help us to ask for Your directions and then follow them. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 31:24 – 29 “When Moses had finished writing in a book the words of this law from beginning to end, he gave this command to the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD: “Take this Book of the Law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, so that it may remain there as a witness against you. For I know how rebellious and stiff-necked you are. If you are already rebelling against the LORD while I am still alive, how much more will you rebel after my death!

Assemble before me all the elders of your tribes and all your officers so that I may speak these words in their hearing and call heaven and earth to witness against them. For I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt and turn from the path I have commanded you. And in the days to come, disaster will befall you because you will do evil in the sight of the LORD to provoke Him to anger by the work of your hands.”

WOW! What a horrible comment on the character of the Israelites! Moses has just completed writing all the words of the law and is now ordering the priests to store this book beside the ark of the covenant in the tabernacle. The Book of the Law is to serve as a witness against the Israelites for all generations.

The major failing of the Israelites is rebellion. From the first days in Egypt until the present, despite all the miracles, despite all God’s provision, despite God’s protection, despite everything God has done, the Israelites are still clinging to their Egyptian idols and even embracing others whenever they get the chance. Times without number, God has spoken to the Israelites, and as soon as the fire and earthquakes and smoke have dissipated, the Israelites are right back to their same behavior.

Now Moses is warning the Israelites of the certain doom their rebellion will bring upon them. God wants the Israelites to understand that if disasters befall them, it’s their own terrible choices that have brought about these disasters.

How many warnings does it take for someone to change their heart and their behavior? All the time the Israelites have been trudging through the wilderness and complaining every step of the way, God has been leading them and protecting them. Have the Israelites been grateful? Are you kidding? Back in their tents, the Israelites have still been cherishing idols that they brought from Egypt and ascribing all God’s works to their idols!

APPLICATION: Reading the accounts of the last part of Moses’ career is like watching a horror movie slowly unfold. Moses has communed with God face to face and yet his people have rebelled every step of the way. How Moses’ heart must have broken as he contemplated what was going to happen to Joshua when Joshua assumed leadership! And how Moses’ heart must have broken as he considered the wonderful future God wanted for the Israelites and the way the Israelites were going to mess things up.

When I was growing up on a midwestern farm, we used to raise pigs in small houses out in the field. The pigs were able to graze on the clover and alfalfa and timothy planted in the field they were occupying; however, eventually, we would need to move them to another pasture. Were the pigs willing to go? No way! We could drive those pigs toward a wide – open gate hole fifteen feet wide and they would try to stay in their same pasture. Finally, to get the pigs to leave the pasture that was exhausted so that they could occupy new ground with fresh grazing, we would have to herd them through the gate hole using 3 large wooden gates. As we gradually reduced the area that the pigs were occupying, the pigs would reluctantly back through the open gate, squealing all the way in protest.

Many times, we are like those pigs. God wants good things for us and God is showing us the way; however, we are determined to remain where we are, even though the resources in that particular situation may be exhausted. We want our own way, even when it will lead to disaster. Psalm 32:8-9 says, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you. Be not like the horse or the mule, which lack understanding, which must have their mouths held firm with bit and bridle, or else they will not come with you.”

A few years ago, there was a commercial for a particular investment company. The first scene would be that of heavy traffic in New York City with lots of noise; then suddenly, the noise would stop and there would be dead silence. The announcer would then say, “When E. F. Hutton speaks, everyone else is silent.” The idea was that this investment company gave better advice than anybody else. It should be like that for us with God. When God speaks, that should be the end of it.

Our way or God’s? It’s all about choices. Choose God’s way and choose life. Go our own way and risk everything, including our very souls.

PRAYER: Father God, help all those who read these words to choose life and to choose to follow You whole – heartedly. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 32:15 – 22 “But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked— becoming fat, bloated, and gorged. He abandoned the God who made him and scorned the Rock of his salvation.

They provoked His jealousy with foreign gods; they enraged Him with abominations. They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they had not known, to newly arrived gods, which your fathers did not fear. You ignored the Rock who brought you forth; you forgot the God who gave you birth.

When the LORD saw this, He rejected them, provoked to anger by His sons and daughters.

He said: “I will hide My face from them; I will see what will be their end. For they are a perverse generation— children of unfaithfulness.

They have provoked My jealousy by that which is not God; they have enraged Me with their worthless idols. So I will make them jealous by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation without understanding.

For a fire has been kindled by My anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol; it consumes the earth and its produce, and scorches the foundations of the mountains.”

Here God was describing what would happen once the Israelites reached the Promised Land. Even though God ordered the destruction of all the tribes worshiping demons, He already knew that the Israelites would not obey. What would be the results of this disobedience?

1. As soon as the Israelites reached the Promised Land and began enjoying all the good things there, they became entranced with their prosperity and turned their backs on the God who had made it all possible.
2. Despite all God’s orders to the contrary, the Israelites began worshiping the gods of those tribes whom they had conquered. Such worship included horrific abominations, including burning children as live sacrifices to Molech.
3. Nations whom the Israelites had scorned would conquer them as a result of their disobedience.
4. God’s wrath would be poured out on the Israelites, consuming the earth and its produce and scorching the foundations of the mountains. Drought would overtake the land, leaving the Israelites with nothing.

APPLICATION: We read these verses and think to ourselves, “Oh, how ridiculous! I would never do anything like that!” But many times, we are fooling ourselves. God may have given us good jobs and nice homes and comfortable living situations, and we feel that we deserve all these things. We have studied hard and worked hard, and we have earned these blessings! We tend to look down on anyone in a homeless shelter, never realizing that those people may be victims of economic disasters that could just as easily have hit us also. If we are younger, we trust in our health, particularly if we are gym addicts; however, one doctor in London has sadly testified that many young people who worked out regularly were among his earliest COVID fatalities.

Ecclesiastes 12:1 Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of adversity come and the years approach of which you will say, “I find no pleasure in them…”  We must always continue to thank God for the good things He has given us and then share those blessings. When we cling to our blessings and behave as if they are only for our benefit, the very things we have hung onto will gradually become stumbling blocks.

One of the slogans painted on public vehicles in Ghana reads, “No condition is permanent.” Several years ago, large numbers of people saw their retirement savings evaporate because those managing the funds had trusted a scam artist who was running a massive Ponzi scheme. Wikipedia defines a Ponzi scheme this way: “A Ponzi scheme is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors. The scheme leads victims to believe that profits are coming from legitimate business activity, and they remain unaware that other investors are the source of funds. A Ponzi scheme can maintain the illusion of a sustainable business as long as new investors contribute new funds, and as long as most of the investors do not demand full repayment and still believe in the non-existent assets they are purported to own.”

The people who lost everything had done nothing wrong; however, the money was gone, and many older people had to find jobs to survive. There is nothing wrong with saving for retirement; however, we must be aware that even “safe” investments can turn sour. In contrast, those who give charitably to reputable organizations have the comfort that their money is working for others.

How can we best handle blessings? Thank God for everything that He has given you, and then ask Him what to share and with whom. As long as you have open hands and allow the blessings to flow to others, God will continue to give you more. When you panic and try to hang onto the blessings, the flow will stop.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, many of us are worried about our futures and wonder if we will have enough to care for ourselves and our families. Help us to realize that as long as we share with those around us, You will continue to bless us. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 31:14 – 22 “Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, the time of your death is near. Call Joshua and present yourselves at the Tent of Meeting, so that I may commission him.”

So, Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves at the Tent of Meeting. Then the LORD appeared at the tent in a pillar of cloud, and the cloud stood over the entrance to the tent.

And the LORD said to Moses, “You will soon rest with your fathers, and these people will rise up and prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake Me and break the covenant I have made with them.

On that day My anger will burn against them, and I will abandon them and hide My face from them, so that they will be consumed, and many troubles and afflictions will befall them.

On that day they will say, ‘Have not these disasters come upon us because our God is no longer with us?’ And on that day I will surely hide My face because of all the evil they have done by turning to other gods.

Now therefore, write down for yourselves this song and teach it to the Israelites; have them recite it, so that it may be a witness for Me against them. When I have brought them into the land that I swore to give their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey, they will eat their fill and prosper. Then they will turn to other gods and worship them, and they will reject Me and break My covenant. And when many troubles and afflictions have come upon them, this song will testify against them, because it will not be forgotten from the lips of their descendants. For I know their inclination, even before I bring them into the land that I swore to give them.”

So that very day Moses wrote down this song and taught it to the Israelites.”

At first this passage seems confusing. God begins by summoning Moses and Joshua so that He can commission Joshua to take over leadership from Moses. But then God turns His attention to Moses, explaining that He is about to teach Moses a song that Moses is to teach the Israelites. This song will stand as a witness against the Israelites when they prove faithless. Presumably, part of the reason God is informing Moses about the song is so that Joshua will also carefully study this song and learn it as well. As the next leader, Joshua needs all the information that he can get.

Just how faithless were the Israelites? God gave Ezekiel a vivid description of the actual behavior of the Israelites in Egypt and afterwards in the wilderness.

“ And I said to them, ‘Cast away the detestable things your eyes feast on, every one of you, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.’  But they rebelled against me and were not willing to listen to me. None of them cast away the detestable things their eyes feasted on, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt.

“Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them and spend my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.  But I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among whom they lived, in whose sight I made myself known to them in bringing them out of the land of Egypt.  So I led them out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness.  I gave them my statutes and made known to them my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live.  Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths, as a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them. But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They did not walk in my statutes but rejected my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live; and my Sabbaths they greatly profaned.” (Ezekiel 20:7-13)

Evidently, the Israelites hung on to their worthless Egyptian gods long after the One True Living God had delivered them from slavery, from attack by Pharaoh’s army, and from starvation and thirst in the wilderness. Why would God put up with this behavior? God acted for the sake of His Name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations.

APPLICATION: When you look at the story of the Exodus and then realize just how bad the Israelites still were even after they had seen all those miracles, you realize that God was incredibly patient and merciful! God did not choose the Israelites because they were any more virtuous than the Egyptians with whom they had been living for 400 years. God delivered the Israelites because He had made promises to Abraham when He cut covenant with Abraham. God gave Moses the unenviable task of leading this bunch of idol worshipers out into the wilderness so that they would have no other options than to trust God. Even at that point, there were still those who rebelled. God allowed an entire generation of Israelites to die off in the wilderness because of their rebellion and faithlessness. But how many of the children of the first generation were still cherishing Egyptian idols in their tents?

While we would love to smirk at the behavior of the Israelites, we must ask ourselves if we indulge in the same kind of behavior. Do we really try to learn God’s will for our lives and then do it, or are we trying to do our will in God’s name? The major difference is results. Seeking God’s will for our lives and then asking Him to help us follow His guidance brings life and light and peace. Following our own inclinations brings frustration and despair.

What do you do if you come to the end of your own resources and you truly do want God’s help? Simply ask.

PRAYER: Father God, we are frustrated and confused. We have tried to do things our way and we have failed miserably. We don’t know which way to go. Lord, please give us Your guidance and Your peace. Help us to make right decisions instead of wrong ones. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 31:9 – 13 “So Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel.

Then Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of remission of debt, during the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes before the LORD your God at the place He will choose, you are to read this law in the hearing of all Israel.

Assemble the people—men, women, children, and the foreigners within your gates—so that they may listen and learn to fear the LORD your God and to follow carefully all the words of this law. Then their children who do not know the law will listen and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

When Moses was giving these instructions, the Israelites must have thought, “Duh! How can we possibly forget any of these things?” Unfortunately, it didn’t take very long for them to forget completely.

Moses commanded the priests to read the entire law to all Israel, including people of all ages and any foreigners living among them. Everybody in Israel was to study the Law, learn the Law, and abide by the Law so that they would learn to fear the Lord. These readings were to be done every seven years at the appointed time during the Feast of Tabernacles, the most joyous celebration in the Jewish year. Why every seven years? This cycle would give time for children who were too young during the first reading to be able to understand most of it.

So, what happened to this commandment? Sadly, once the Israelites made it into the Promised Land, they conveniently forgot about this commandment entirely. It was not until the time of Nehemiah when the Israelites had been in exile and then had returned from Persia that a public reading of the Law actually took place. (Nehemiah 8) When the exiles who had returned actually heard the words of the Law, they wept in remorse for their sins and the sins of their fathers. (Nehemiah 8:9) During that celebration, the Israelites also celebrated the Feast of Booths for the first time since the days of Joshua. How sad those Israelites who had been in exile must have been when they realized that their suffering might have been avoided completely, had their ancestors followed God’s commands regarding His Law.

APPLICATION: Psalm 119:10 -12 says, “With my whole heart have I sought Thee; O let me not wander from Thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, teach me Thy statutes.” And Psalm 119:18 says, “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law.”

Long before advanced technology existed, there were those individuals whose job it was to detect counterfeit money. How did these people learn to discern the real from the fakes? They studied real money so intensively that they could not be deceived, no matter how cleverly a counterfeiter had been. In the same way, if we want to know what is spiritually true, we too must study the Word of God, hiding it in our hearts until our hearts overflow.

“But,” you say, “how can I possibly study God’s Word that intensively? I have very little time and I have never been to Bible school.” That’s where Psalm 119:12 comes in. If we ask God to teach us His statutes, He will do so readily. And God knows our minds and hearts better than we know ourselves. God knows exactly how much we can absorb at a given time.

James 1:5 promises that “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” When you ask God to help you understand His Word, the entire universe will be on your side. God wants you to understand His word so that you will be able to obey it. All that you need is a heart that is hungry for God’s truth and a willingness to learn. Let’s pray.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Give us a hunger to learn Your Will for our lives. Help us to study Your Word and open our minds to understand more each day. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.   

Deuteronomy 31:1 – 8 “When Moses had finished speaking these words to all Israel, he said to them, “I am now a hundred and twenty years old; I am no longer able to come and go, and the LORD has said to me, ‘You shall not cross the Jordan.’

The LORD your God Himself will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy these nations before you, and you will dispossess them. Joshua will cross ahead of you, as the LORD has said. And the LORD will do to them as He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, when He destroyed them along with their land.

The LORD will deliver them over to you, and you must do to them exactly as I have commanded you. Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid or terrified of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.” Then Moses called for Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you will go with this people into the land that the LORD swore to their fathers to give them, and you shall give it to them as an inheritance. The LORD Himself goes before you; He will be with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.”

Look at Joshua! All this time, Joshua has been shadowing Moses and spending time in the tabernacle with the Lord. Joshua and Caleb were the only two spies who brought back a good report of the Promised Land; their faith saved them while the other spies and all the faithless Israelites died in the Wilderness. Now Joshua has been appointed to succeed Moses and lead the Israelites into the Promised Land. But how do you succeed a living legend?

Moses fully understands the arduous task Joshua is facing; after all, Moses has spent forty years herding more than two million Israelites through the wilderness. There must have been times when Moses wished that he was still herding sheep because the sheep would behave better! But no assignment lasts forever, and now it is time for Moses to hand over to Joshua.

Notice how Moses is encouraging Joshua:

1. “The LORD your God Himself will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy these nations before you, and you will dispossess them. Joshua will cross ahead of you, as the LORD has said. And the LORD will do to them as He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, when He destroyed them along with their land.” God will take the lead, weakening the nations so that Joshua and the Israelites can conquer them.
2. “The LORD will deliver them over to you, and you must do to them exactly as I have commanded you.” Joshua must follow God’s orders implicitly if he is to succeed.
3. Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid or terrified of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.” “The LORD Himself goes before you; He will be with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.” Moses keeps repeating these assurances because he knows that Joshua is probably shaking in his sandals. Joshua must remember that God is the One who will conquer and give victories. God has promised to be with Joshua, so Joshua’s role is to remain faithful and refuse to become discouraged.

APPLICATION: Anybody who has ever been a leader can sympathize with Joshua! There is nothing more daunting than taking over from a living legend like Moses. Joshua knows that as soon as he begins taking tough decisions, somebody is going to start drawing unfavorable comparisons. “But when Moses was leading us, we didn’t do it this way!” And yet…. God has firmly told Moses that he is to step down and that Joshua is to take over.

Moses is doing his very best to reinforce to the Israelites the fact that Joshua is God’s choice as Moses’ successor. To that end, Moses repeats the fact that God has selected Joshua and that God will be with Joshua, going before him, leading him, and protecting him.

Moses’ final statement is perhaps the most important one. “He (the Lord) will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.” In King Henry IV part 2, Shakespeare wrote, “uneasy is the head that wears a crown.” Moses knows the agonies of leadership, the sleepless nights, the self – examinations, the anxieties, the despair when one’s followers misbehave. Discouragement is one of the most insidious tools of the Devil because we so easily fall into discouragement. But discouragement doesn’t accomplish anything positive; it only digs an increasingly deep hole into which our spirits can fall if we let them.  

Today you may find yourself in the same situation as Joshua. You are taking over from someone who has been highly successful and you feel totally inadequate! Rest assured that if God has allowed you to come to this point, then God will also be with you just as He was with Joshua. The encouragement from Moses is for you also. “The LORD Himself goes before you; He will be with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.”

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Help us to take heart, realizing that when You call us to something difficult, You are already there before us and that You will strengthen and guide us. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 30:11 – 20 “For this commandment I give you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not in heaven, that you should need to ask, ‘Who will ascend into heaven to get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?’ And it is not beyond the sea, that you should need to ask, ‘Who will cross the sea to get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?’ But the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may obey it.

See, I have set before you today life and goodness, as well as death and disaster. For I am commanding you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and increase, and the LORD your God may bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.

But if your heart turns away and you do not listen, but are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you today that you will surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.

I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. So choose life, so that you and your descendants may live, and that you may love the LORD your God, obey Him, and hold fast to Him. For He is your life, and He will prolong your life in the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

Moses is completing the warnings to the Israelites and wants to make things perfectly clear.

1. The Israelites are facing choices with eternal consequences. Choose to obey God and live. Choose to ignore God and die. This choice would seem to be a “no – brainer.”
2. All the Israelites have to do for God to bless them is to be obedient.

Put this way, it all sounds simple and straight forward. The Israelites who are listening to Moses probably are shrugging their shoulders. “Of course, we are going to choose life! Why would we do anything else?”

There’s a story about a spider who was weaving a magnificent web. As the spider was finishing the web, he saw one thread that appeared to be out of place, slightly marring the perfection of his creation. But when the spider snipped that one web, everything fell because that was the thread holding the web to its support.

God knows that the Israelites are going to enter the Promised Land and very shortly will become enamored of the pagan religions they encounter. Those cult prostitutes are gorgeous and alluring. Despite all God’s warnings to destroy the people pursuing these pagan religions, the Israelites are going to compromise more and more. The question that will lead the Israelites astray is this: “Did God REALLY mean what He said?” If that question sounds familiar, it should. That’s the same question Satan put before Eve in the Garden of Eden. The short answer is “Yes! God means every word He says!” But the Israelites aren’t going to remember that part.

APPLICATION: Compromise! So easy and so deadly! For years I have worked in hospitals where the majority of the workers claimed to be Christians. And times without number I have watched and grieved as workers who were church elders have begun collecting from patients for items supplied by the hospital or doing procedures on their own using hospital resources, cheating the hospital of revenues needed to run the facility. Anyone who is concerned and who reports such abuses is threatened by those engaging in such activities, leading to a conspiracy of silence.

The mind – boggling part of such situations is the idea that God has turned His back and is not watching, that the God of heaven and earth somehow does not know what is going on and will overlook such offenses. Someone might ask, “Well, if God sees me doing these things, why doesn’t he punish me at once?” God is watching constantly; however, God also gives people time to come to repentance. But make no mistake! At some point, God will bring a day of reckoning. In that day, the argument that “Everyone is doing it” will not change God’s mind.

Choose God’s ways and live. Refuse to obey God and you are choosing physical and spiritual death. No matter where you find yourself in the world, these choices will always be there. In 2001 the Texas energy giant Enron collapsed. At the time, it was the seventh largest company in America. Sherron Watkins, a former Enron executive and whistle blower, attempted to warn the top management; however, management was sure that they could hide their losses with creative book keeping. Those efforts failed, and Enron crashed, taking a number of other companies with it. Blessedly, in this case, the whistle blower survived. “Watkins now teaches Business Ethics at Texas State University and Corporate Governance and Leadership at North Carolina University. “Enron comes up quite often,” she said. Over the past two decades, Watkins has also traveled the world speaking out on corporate malfeasance.” (https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2021/12/03/enron-whistleblower-sherron-watkins-now-teaches-business-ethics-20-years-after-companys-fall/#:~:text=Watkins%20now%20teaches%20Business%20Ethics,speaking%20out%20on%20corporate%20malfeasance.)

What should you do if you find yourself in a whistle blower position? Pray, report and trust God. God can take care of you if you do the right thing, even if your fellow workers ostracize you. Silence implies consent. To tell the truth is to choose life. To remain silent means you are siding with wrong doers and may suffer their fate.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, You know those who are reading this who are facing the tough decisions of whether or not to be whistle blowers. Protect the righteous and bring the guilty to repentance. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.