Burunche’s Blog

Deuteronomy 10:12 – 22 “And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God by walking in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD that I am giving you this day for your own good? Behold, to the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, and the earth and everything in it. Yet the LORD has set His affection on your fathers and loved them. And He has chosen you, their descendants after them, above all the peoples, even to this day.

Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and stiffen your necks no more. For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, showing no partiality and accepting no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and widow, and He loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing. So you also must love the foreigner, since you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

You are to fear the LORD your God and serve Him. Hold fast to Him and take your oaths in His name. He is your praise and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome wonders that your eyes have seen. Your fathers went down to Egypt, seventy in all, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.”

God is offering the Israelites an incredible deal. If they will simply do four things, God will bless them abundantly.

1. “fear the LORD your God by walking in all His ways” God knows that the Israelites have spent 400 years in Egypt, learning the ways of the Egyptians. Now God wants His people to study His ways only and not those of any other culture or religion.

2. “to love Him” This commandment may be the toughest one. None of the Egyptian gods or gods of any other culture have ever demanded love -blood sacrifices and rituals, yes, but love? no. Frankly, the Israelites are clueless when it comes to knowing how to love God and need a lot of training. Throughout the history of ancient Israel, this is the commandment that the Israelites most consistently mangle.

If you love someone, you long to spend time with them. You are concerned about the likes and dislikes of your loved one, and you try to please them as much as possible. If your loved one lays down conditions for the operation of your relationship, you do everything you can to fulfill those conditions. You try never to do something that will grieve the one you love.

3. “to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul” When you love a person or a group or a cause, you do everything in your power to serve the object of your love. Here God wants the Israelites to go beyond mechanical rituals and dedicate their entire immortal souls to serving Him.

4. “and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD that I am giving you this day for your own good.” God’s commandments are not merely a set of hoops through which He wants the Israelites to jump, but divine guidance that will bring them lives of abundance, peace, joy, and health. Let’s face it, an omnipotent God doesn’t need worshipers; the worshipers rather need God. God wants fellowship with those who worship Him, but this fellowship can only come if His worshipers will follow His commandments and seek to do His perfect Will.

APPLICATION: What have you done for God lately? For many of us, God has receded to the backs of our minds and we rarely even think about Him, let alone worry about what He wants for us. But nothing has really changed since the time of Moses.

“Behold, to the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, and the earth and everything in it.”

“For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, showing no partiality and accepting no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and widow, and He loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing. So you also must love the foreigner, since you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt.” In this day of international mobility, there are few of us who at one time or another have not found ourselves as “strangers in a strange land.” For many of us, our lives have been immeasurably blessed by the generosity of those who have taken us in and treated us as family members.

“You are to fear the LORD your God and serve Him. Hold fast to Him and take your oaths in His name. He is your praise and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome wonders that your eyes have seen. Your fathers went down to Egypt, seventy in all, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.” Many of us are not Jews; however, all of us can study the story of the family of Jacob. When Jacob and his household went to Egypt, there were only seventy people. By the time the Israelites left Egypt, it is estimated that altogether they numbered more than two million. We have no idea of the population of the Israelites by the time they had wandered forty years in the wilderness and were now to enter the Promised Land. Truly, God did bless Jacob and multiply the Israelites.

Why are these promises important for each one of us? God does not play favorites and He will bless anyone who comes to Him and who serves Him whole – heartedly. God wants fellowship with those who worship Him and longs for relationship with them. If we will ask God, He will surely guide us and lead us into the future He has for us.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Thank You that Your promises remain valid and that they were not merely given to the Israelites but that You wanted Israel to be a shining example for all the other nations around them. Help us to follow hard after You all the days of our lives. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 10:6 – 11“The Israelites traveled from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah, where Aaron died and was buried, and Eleazar his son succeeded him as priest. From there they traveled to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with streams of water.

At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to serve Him, and to pronounce blessings in His name, as they do to this day. That is why Levi has no portion or inheritance among his brothers; the LORD is his inheritance, as the LORD your God promised him. I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, like the first time, and that time the LORD again listened to me and agreed not to destroy you.

Then the LORD said to me, “Get up. Continue your journey ahead of the people, that they may enter and possess the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.”

What do you do when a leader fails miserably? What does God do when a leader fails miserably? When Moses went up on Mount Sinai the first time, he delegated his brother Aaron to lead the people in his absence. Aaron was not a novice; Moses and Aaron had been leading the Israelites together for several weeks since the escape from Egypt. And even before the escape, Aaron and Moses went before Pharaoh and Aaron acted as the spokesperson while Moses did miracles. But the true test of a leader is the actions of that man or woman when the pressure is on and things are difficult. Faced with an unruly group of Israelites, Aaron caved in to popular opinion, molding a golden calf idol patterned after the Egyptian god Hathor. Then when Moses demanded an explanation, Aaron tried to make it seem that he had just thrown the gold into the fire and this idol had come out on its own. When that explanation failed to hold up, Aaron then tried to put all the blame on the Israelites.

What should Aaron have done? Thanks to advice from Jethro, Moses’ father – in – law, Moses had already organized the Israelites into judiciary units. Aaron could have used this structure and approached the judges handling the problems of thousands. Those judges in turn could have passed the word down to those serving under them. But rather than begging God to help him do the right thing, Aaron sat in his tent, hoping that Moses would return in time. When Moses didn’t come back promptly, Aaron directly violated the commands God had already given and created that idol. God was so angry with Aaron that only Moses’ pleading on Aaron’s behalf spared Aaron from instant destruction. But Aaron died well before the Israelites finally reached the Promised Land.

Now God is commanding Moses to set the entire tribe of the Levites apart to do four things: to carry the ark of the covenant, to stand before the Lord, to serve the Lord, and to pronounce blessings in the Name of the Lord. In return, the Levites are to receive an eternal inheritance from the Lord, rather than receiving large amounts of land as the other tribes will receive. At first, this sounds like a raw deal; everybody else is getting lots of land. But in fact, the Levites are getting the best of it. While the inheritance of the other tribes must be protected from attack by neighboring tribes, the Levitical inheritance is an eternal one that cannot be snatched away from them. This inheritance will carry down from generation to generation until the end of the world.

APPLICATION: One day some of Jesus’ disciples came to him, asking to know what rewards they might receive for following Him. “Peter began to say to Him, “Look, we have left everything and followed You.” (This was true; Peter, Andrew, James, and John had walked away from prosperous family fishing businesses.)

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for My sake and for the gospel will fail to receive a hundredfold in the present age—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, along with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” (Mark 10:28 – 31)

Our testimony as a couple is very simple: In 1986 we dedicated our lives to serving as missionaries wherever God would send us. We have served as missionaries since 1988. During that time, God has continued to supply our needs, as well as allowing us to be channels for donations from others. These supplies have come in various ways and generally never the same way twice; yet, we have never lacked.

We are not giving this testimony to bring any glory on ourselves. The late David Yonggi Cho was fond of saying, “I pray, and I obey.” We pray and we obey. Do we always obey perfectly? Are you kidding? We have all kinds of stories about the times when we missed God’s will and had to beg for His help to extricate us from messes of our own creating. But God is faithful and worthy of our trust and praise.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Thank You that You will give an eternal inheritance to all who truly follow You. Help all those who read this devotional to trust You and to serve You all the days of their lives. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 10:1 – 5 “At that time the LORD said to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the originals, come up to Me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood. And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke; and you are to place them in the ark.”

So I made an ark of acacia wood, chiseled out two stone tablets like the originals, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. And the LORD wrote on the tablets what had been written previously, the Ten Commandments that He had spoken to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly. The LORD gave them to me, and I went back down the mountain and placed the tablets in the ark I had made, as the LORD had commanded me; and there they have remained.”

The Israelites have really blown it and Moses has had to spend forty days and nights begging God to spare them and to spare his brother Aaron. But God is a forgiving God and now it is time to move on. God orders Moses to chisel out two stone tablets like the originals, and He (God) will write all His Words on the tablets. These tablets are to be kept safe in the ark that the artisans will construct.

 Centuries later, the prophet Micah writes, “Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance?
You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.
You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.
You will be faithful to Jacob, and show love to Abraham, as you pledged on oath to our ancestors in days long ago.” (Micah 7:18- 20)

At the time Micah is prophesying, things in Judah and Samaria are deteriorating rapidly. Despite one or two righteous kings, generally people are falling away from the Lord. Micah’s messages are directed chiefly toward Jerusalem, prophesying the future destruction of Jerusalem and Samaria, and the destruction and then future restoration of the Judean state. Micah also rebukes the people of Judah for dishonesty and idolatry. Evidently, there are those in Micah’s day who are taking the position that they don’t need God anymore; their wealth and political might will preserve them. Why keep all those nasty rules anyway? In the face of this indifference, Micah is pleading his people to change their hearts before it’s too late.

APPLICATION: Forgiving is one of the most difficult acts one can commit. It is far easier to remember hurts and to treasure them than it is to let them go. We are sinful imperfect creatures; however, that fails to stop us from rushing to judgment whenever someone utters an opinion or posts something with which we fail to agree. Consider God’s position: of all the beings in the universe, only God truly knows hearts and minds. Given the thoughts many of us think throughout the day, God would be fully justified in just eliminating us on the spot…. and yet He doesn’t. Psalm 103:13 – 14 tells us, “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.”

One of the most striking aspects of the Old Testament is the countless number of times when the Israelites sin and then God forgives them and delivers them. One of God’s many qualities is His abundant mercy; if not for that mercy, there would be no State of Israel today; nor would any other country exist either. If not for God’s abundant mercy and grace, there wouldn’t be a single human being left on earth.

Why should these assurances of God’s forgiveness matter so much to us? If we are honest, each one of us knows that we can be impatient, rude, or even down right hateful many times a day! Sometimes the more we try to behave perfectly, the worse we seem to become. One friend told of a time when she was cleaning the church and one of the ladies came up to her. “Are you the one who’s been cleaning the church?” this lady asked. “Why yes, I am,” replied my friend, expecting that she was about to get complimented. “Well!” said the lady, “You missed a great big cobweb right there!” Right about then, my friend’s thoughts were anything but holy or kind. But my friend chose to forgive the lady quickly and merely answered, “Why, thank you for pointing that out.”

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us, caring for us, and for FORGIVING US, sometimes even before we realize how badly we need forgiveness. Give us the grace and strength to follow Your example and to forgive without recriminations. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 9:22 – 29 “You continued to provoke the LORD at Taberah, (“burning”) at Massah, (“testing”) and at Kibroth-hattaavah. (“graves of craving”) And when the LORD sent you out from Kadesh-barnea, He said, “Go up and possess the land that I have given you.”

But you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. You neither believed Him nor obeyed Him. You have been rebelling against the LORD since the day I came to know you. So I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, because the LORD had said He would destroy you.

And I prayed to the LORD and said, “O Lord GOD, do not destroy Your people, Your inheritance, whom You redeemed through Your greatness and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness of this people and the wickedness of their sin. Otherwise, those in the land from which You brought us out will say, ‘Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land He had promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.’ But they are Your people, Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your great power and outstretched arm.”

Moses is a great prayer warrior, someone whose prayers are very effective. Here Moses shares the dialogue between God and him. This conversation takes place on the top of Mount Sinai. God is still ready to wipe out the Israelites, but Moses has a compelling argument against that action. Moses’s logic is based on two main things: first, God’s covenant and promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and second, the way it will appear to all the surrounding nations.

Even in ancient times, news still gets around, especially when God opens a way through a body of water for a huge group of people to cross and then allows the water to come back, wiping out the most powerful army in the world in the process. The Israelites might have a limited view of the world because they have spent four hundred years in one place, but the people surrounding nations are already in fear of God. Moses reminds God that if God wipes out the Israelites, the surrounding nations will think that He has done this because His power isn’t great enough to safely transport all those people through the wilderness. In other words, if God destroys the Israelites, it will make Him look like just another local deity with power limited to a certain location.

APPLICATION: Would God really have wiped out the Israelites if Moses had not prayed long enough and hard enough? That answer will only come when we reach heaven. We know for a fact that Moses succeeded in his arguments with God, thus saving the Jewish nation.

This conversation between Moses and God raises lots of questions.

1. Is it OK to argue with God?

2. How do I know if I have heard from God?

3. When have I prayed enough on a given point or for a particular person?

Guess what? God is NOT surprised/angry/offended if you argue with Him. God already knows what is in our hearts; generally, we are the ones who are shocked by our own thoughts. There is a lovely story about Saint Teresa of Avila, a holy lady with a great sense of humor. At one point, Teresa was traveling by ox cart when the cart became hopeless stuck in the mud. Teresa is said to have looked heavenward and complained, “No wonder You have so few friends if this is the way you treat them!” Yes, you can argue with God and even get mad at Him. The one you should not do is to ignore God or to pray a prayer that you don’t really believe. God can handle anger, but faking will get you nowhere.

How can you know when you have heard from God? God has all kinds of ways of communicating with people. Sometimes you might read the Bible, only to have some words practically leap off the page and into your heart. Sometimes God sends people to tell you things. Sometimes God uses events or even things in nature.

My mother died suddenly with cancer in 1980. We had only sixteen days between the time Mom entered the hospital and the time she died, and we were all devastated. At the time, a young man from Denmark had just come to stay with my parents so that he could observe American farming methods. This young man was not a believer, and may not have had any exposure to Scripture. When my father, who was a believer, mentioned that he couldn’t understand how or why God would take my mother so quickly, this young man suddenly blurted out, “Well the Bible says that God’s ways are higher than ours!” At that point, God used that young man to comfort my father.

Many of us who pray wonder if or when we have prayed enough. There is a mnemonic that says PUSH: Pray Until Something Happens. The best example I know of fervent and long – term prayer is that of George Mueller. Mueller was a man of great faith who founded several orphanages in England and supported numerous mission works, all on faith. He cared for 10,024 orphans during his lifetime, and provided educational opportunities for the orphans to the point that he was even accused by some of raising the poor above their natural station in British life. He established 117 schools which offered Christian education to more than 120,000. (Wikipedia)

One of Mueller’s friends had a son who had always resisted having anything to do with God; in fact, this man emigrated to Canada, where he continued to resist the call of God on his life. Mueller committed to pray that this man would commit his life to Christ. It was not until Mueller died at the age of 92 that this man was converted.

How do you know when your prayers have been answered? God will give you a peace that is beyond understanding. So pray until something happens, and wait for that peace. It will surely come.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Help us to trust that when we pray, You hear and give the best answers possible. Help us to be patient and not to give up. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

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.