Burunche’s Blog

Deuteronomy 16

The Message

16 1-4 Observe the month of Abib by celebrating the Passover to God, your God. It was in the month of Abib that God, your God, delivered you by night from Egypt. Offer the Passover-Sacrifice to God, your God, at the place God chooses to be worshiped by establishing his name there. Don’t eat yeast bread with it; for seven days eat it with unraised bread, hard-times bread, because you left Egypt in a hurry—that bread will keep the memory fresh of how you left Egypt for as long as you live. There is to be no sign of yeast anywhere for seven days. And don’t let any of the meat that you sacrifice in the evening be left over until morning.

5-7 Don’t sacrifice the Passover in any of the towns that God, your God, gives you other than the one God, your God, designates for worship; there and there only you will offer the Passover-Sacrifice at evening as the sun goes down, marking the time that you left Egypt. Boil and eat it at the place designated by God, your God. Then, at daybreak, turn around and go home. 8 Eat unraised bread for six days. Set aside the seventh day as a holiday; don’t do any work.

9-11 Starting from the day you put the sickle to the ripe grain, count out seven weeks. Celebrate the Feast-of-Weeks to God, your God, by bringing your Freewill-Offering—give as generously as God, your God, has blessed you. Rejoice in the Presence of God, your God: you, your son, your daughter, your servant, your maid, the Levite who lives in your neighborhood, the foreigner, the orphan, and widow among you; rejoice at the place God, your God, will set aside to be worshiped.

12 Don’t forget that you were once a slave in Egypt. So be diligent in observing these regulations.

13-15 Observe the Feast-of-Booths for seven days when you gather the harvest from your threshing-floor and your wine-vat. Rejoice at your festival: you, your son, your daughter, your servant, your maid, the Levite, the foreigner, and the orphans and widows who live in your neighborhood. Celebrate the Feast to God, your God, for seven days at the place God designates. God, your God, has been blessing you in your harvest and in all your work, so make a day of it—really celebrate!

16-17 All your men must appear before God, your God, three times each year at the place he designates: at the Feast-of-Unraised-Bread (Passover), at the Feast-of-Weeks, and at the Feast-of-Booths. No one is to show up in the Presence of God empty-handed; each man must bring as much as he can manage, giving generously in response to the blessings of God, your God.

* * *

18-19 Appoint judges and officers, organized by tribes, in all the towns that God, your God, is giving you. They are to judge the people fairly and honestly. Don’t twist the law. Don’t play favorites. Don’t take a bribe—a bribe blinds even a wise person; it undermines the intentions of the best of people. 20 The right! The right! Pursue only what’s right! It’s the only way you can really live and possess the land that God, your God, is giving you.

* * *

21-22 Don’t plant fertility Asherah trees alongside the Altar of God, your God, that you build. Don’t set up phallic sex pillars—God, your God, hates them.

God wants His people to celebrate, but to do it His way! So God ordains three major feasts, times at which all men should appear at the town God will give them for major worship. These feasts are Passover, Pentecost, and Succoth, the Feast of Booths. These feasts are tied to events occurring throughout the agricultural year to allow people to have something to offer to the Lord. At the same time, God is also warning His people NOT to have anything to do with the fertility cults represented by Asherah trees, particularly to avoid planting any Asherah trees next to the Altar of the One True Living God. Such an act would be a total abomination.

First, God wants His people to perpetually celebrate their deliverance from slavery in Egypt. To that end, families are to preserve rituals designed to help all generations to commemorate that great event. At the same time, anything having to do with leaven is to be eliminated from homes and from the diet for seven days-why? Because leaven was used to brew beer in Egypt and leaven has become a symbol of evil influences. God is demanding His people purge their homes and their hearts of any evil.

The Feast of weeks or Pentecost is an early harvest festival at which the Israelites are to present first fruits. Presenting the first of anything is an act of supreme faith because you don’t know if the little you have in your hand is all you will gain for the year. Offering first fruits is akin to offering first-born lambs; who knows if the sheep will deliver any more lambs?

Finally, the feast of booths is a late harvest festival, celebrating successful harvests for the year. God follows the instructions for these festivals with instructions about judges and eschewing idol worship. Sometimes people can become so caught up in a celebration that they might do something wrong; just judges are a necessity. And as the Israelites have come from Egypt with its thousands of idols and are now surrounded by idolatrous tribes, they must persistently fight against the temptation to copy their neighbors.

What meaning do these descriptions have for us? God wants us to live joyously and to celebrate, including all those around us-strangers, widows, orphans, the poor, the sick, the lonely. One of the terrible things about cell phones and tablets is that people can become so fixated on them that they refuse to really see the needs of others.

I have become somewhat addicted to a series of stories posted on Facebook in which small people-store clerks, retirees, disabled veterans, and others, spark movements of kindness simply by extending small gestures of help to those around them. God has never intended His people to become self-centered, for the entire Bible carries messages of compassion and help. When a lawyer quizzed Jesus about the greatest commandments, Jesus replied, “You will love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

Nothing has changed. God wants His people to share whatever they have whenever they are celebrating. May God help us to reach out to all those around us so that they too will be able to share in the joy of celebration!

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help us to lovingly and joyously share our celebrations with all those around us. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 15 

1-3 “At the end of every seventh year, cancel all debts. This is the procedure: Everyone who has lent money to a neighbor writes it off. You must not press your neighbor or his brother for payment: All-Debts-Are-Canceled—God says so. You may collect payment from foreigners, but whatever you have lent to your fellow Israelite you must write off.”

Hoo-boy! You can just imagine the response from the Israelites when Moses announces this principle. In the back of the crowd, there are undoubtedly guys muttering into their beards, “Cancel all debts every seven years? Ridiculous! All that debtors must do is wait out the seven years and then they go free. How can we ever get paid?” God wants His people to prosper; however, He doesn’t want people to suffer. On the other hand, the Israelites are free to continue to collect debts from foreigners without the seven-year debt forgiveness.

4-6 There must be no poor people among you because God is going to bless you lavishly in this land that God, your God, is giving you as an inheritance, your very own land. But only if you listen obediently to the Voice of God, your God, diligently observing every commandment that I command you today. Oh yes—God, your God, will bless you just as he promised. You will lend to many nations but won’t borrow from any; you’ll rule over many nations but none will rule over you.

7-9 When you happen on someone who’s in trouble or needs help among your people with whom you live in this land that God, your God, is giving you, don’t look the other way pretending you don’t see him. Don’t keep a tight grip on your purse. No. Look at him, open your purse, lend whatever and as much as he needs. Don’t count the cost. Don’t listen to that selfish voice saying, “It’s almost the seventh year, the year of All-Debts-Are-Canceled,” and turn aside and leave your needy neighbor in the lurch, refusing to help him. He’ll call God’s attention to you and your blatant sin.

10-11 Give freely and spontaneously. Don’t have a stingy heart. The way you handle matters like this triggers God, your God’s, blessing in everything you do, all your work and ventures. There are always going to be poor and needy people among you. So I command you: Always be generous, open purse and hands, give to your neighbors in trouble, your poor and hurting neighbors.

Hmm! Seems as if God has been listening to those grumblers in the back of the crowd. And God knows those who are already plotting ways to evade His laws to squeeze as much profit out of their neighbors as possible. These fellows have been clutching their purses to their bosoms for years and they are not happy about God’s proscriptions against greed.

What these people fail to recognize is God’s incredible generosity. God has given us life and all good things that we enjoy without asking anything in return apart from our love and devoted service. All God is requesting is that His people copy His Nature, sharing their resources with all those around them. And what about servants? Does God care about them as well?

12-15 “If a Hebrew man or Hebrew woman was sold to you and has served you for six years, in the seventh year you must set him or her free, released into a free life. And when you set them free don’t send them off empty-handed. Provide them with some animals, plenty of bread and wine and oil. Load them with provisions from all the blessings with which God, your God, has blessed you. Don’t for a minute forget that you were once slaves in Egypt and God, your God, redeemed you from that slave world.

For that reason, this day I command you to do this.”

Imagine what it must have been like to be a freed servant? Suddenly, you are free and your former bosses are giving you animals, and “plenty of bread and wine and oil.” Servants are to be “loaded with provisions.” Why? God wants the Israelites to always remember that they were slaves in Egypt and God delivered them.

16-17 “But if your slave, because he loves you and your family and has a good life with you, says, “I don’t want to leave you,” then take an awl and pierce through his earlobe into the doorpost, marking him as your slave forever. Do the same with your women slaves who want to stay with you. Don’t consider this an unreasonable hardship, this setting your slave free. After all, he’s worked six years for you at half the cost of a hired hand. Believe me, God, your God, will bless you in everything you do.”

At first, this practice sounds both painful and unfair. Why wouldn’t a slave want freedom by any means? But nothing is ever simple. Suppose a slave has grown up with a family and is essentially a family member in a comfortable setting. Sometimes slaves would even inherit from the owner if there was no other heir. Once set free, a slave would be left to his or her own devices with no protection; under such circumstances, some slaves might definitely choose to remain with a family. This might be particularly true if a slave has married another slave and has a family. Security and family unity can be worth a great deal.

19-23 “Set apart to God, your God, all the firstborn males in your herds and flocks. Don’t use the firstborn from your herds as work animals; don’t shear the firstborn from your flocks. These are for you to eat every year, you and your family, in the Presence of God, your God, at the place that God designates for worship. If the animal is defective, lame, say, or blind—anything wrong with it—don’t slaughter it as a sacrifice to God, your God. Stay at home and eat it there. Both the ritually clean and unclean may eat it, the same as with a gazelle or a deer. Only you must not eat its blood. Pour the blood out on the ground like water.”

Once more, God is identifying firstborn males as special. Rather than being used as work animals, these animals are to be eaten during special feast days. But these animals must be perfect; otherwise, they should simply be considered on the same scale as gazelles or deer. But once more, God warns about the need to pour the blood of the animal out on the ground as a form of offering to Him. Again, remember that many pagan religious ceremonies involved painting worshipers with blood or drinking blood. God wants His people to be holy.

Being generous can sometimes be scary. What if someone asks for help when you have virtually nothing yourself? God will be no man’s debtor. True story: One Wednesday night, I was at a church service when offering time came. I realized I had $1.37 left in my checking account. At that point, the Holy Spirit spoke to me. “Jean, will you trust Me?” I shrugged my shoulders and wrote out a check for that small amount. Then the miracles began. Suddenly, friends with a garden left fresh vegetables on my doorstep. Other friends invited me to eat supper with them. I lived across the street from the hospital, so commuting was no problem, and I could eat at the hospital when I was on call. I did quite well until my next paycheck.

Obviously, you must pray for guidance before sharing your resources. But you cannot out-give God!

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help us to trust You and to share with those in need. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 14:22-29 Tithing Principles

“You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year. And you shall eat before the Lord your God, in the place where He chooses to make His name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. 

But if the journey is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, or if the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, when the Lord your God has blessed you, then you shall exchange it for money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses. And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires; you shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household. You shall not forsake the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no part nor inheritance with you.

The Israelites are to bring their tithes to the temple and celebrate the feasts there. But God realizes such journeys might be difficult, so He allows His people to sell their tithes and carry the money to Jerusalem where they can celebrate the feast by purchasing anything they need.

28-29 “At the end of every third year you shall bring out the tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.” Every third year, the tithe of the produce for that year will be stored up to care for Levites, for strangers and widows and orphans. God wants His people to understand that He is not simply giving them produce for them to enjoy themselves but so that they can care for the vulnerable.

Why is the verse about not boiling a young goat in its mother’s milk included in this section? God is compassionate. Boiling a kid in its mother’s milk is perverted and evil. Once more, God wants His people to care for the vulnerable, even in something as seemingly insignificant as this.

Why should we tithe today? God blesses the generous. The New Living Translation tells us in Luke 6:38 “Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”  When we care for those God sends to us, He blesses us so that we can help more people.

Since 1987 my husband and I have spent most of our time on the mission field, depending largely on charitable donations for our support. Currently, we are helping indigent students and supporting poor patients with medicine, blood, and even money for food. There have been times when we have wondered if the money would be there, but somehow God has always supplied. Years ago, when financial transfers were very difficult, we reached Accra to find that all four tires on the hospital Land Cruiser needed replacing. Blessedly, two months earlier, someone had donated sufficient funds for this need and somehow we were able to get our mission to wire the money to us. We can testify that God has always supplied our needs.

May God help us so that we will honor Him with our finances and our produce!

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help us to trust You and be generous even when we are fearful. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 14 Improper Mourning

“You are the children of the Lord your God; you shall not cut yourselves nor shave the front of your head for the dead. For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”

Why is God giving all these restrictions? The Israelites have just escaped Egypt, where cults honoring the dead are part of the national religion. God wants His people to worship Him and not the dead. Other tribes also engage in many rituals when someone dies: “Ancient cultures often practiced self-cutting or bloodletting as a form of mourning or honoring the dead. This ritual served various purposes, including expressing grief, demonstrating loyalty, or seeking favor from the deceased.

Cultural Practices:

• Mourning Rituals: Many societies, such as the ancient Greeks and Romans, engaged in self-inflicted wounds during funerals to show deep sorrow.
• Blood Sacrifice: Some cultures believed that shedding blood could appease spirits or gods, ensuring safe passage for the deceased in the afterlife.

Methods:

• Cutting or Scratching: Individuals might use sharp objects to make small cuts on their arms or faces.
• Piercing: In some traditions, piercing the skin with needles or other instruments was common.” (AI compilation from Google.)

Clean and Unclean Meat

3-21 “You shall not eat any detestable thing. These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the mountain goat, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. And you may eat every animal with cloven hooves, having the hoof split into two parts, and that chews the cud, among the animals. Nevertheless, of those that chew the cud or have cloven hooves, you shall not eat, such as these: the camel, the hare, and the rock hyrax; for they chew the cud but do not have cloven hooves; they are unclean for you. Also the swine is unclean for you, because it has cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud; you shall not eat their flesh or touch their dead carcasses.”

Why does God proscribe these animals? Although the Israelites don’t realize it, God is trying to protect them from any meat that might carry diseases or parasites. The same thing is true for sea food.

“These you may eat of all that are in the waters: you may eat all that have fins and scales. And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.

“All clean birds you may eat. But these you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, the red kite, the falcon, and the kite after their kinds; every raven after its kind; the ostrich, the short-eared owl, the sea gull, and the hawk after their kinds; 16 the little owl, the screech owl, the white owl, the jackdaw, the carrion vulture, the fisher owl, the stork, the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe and the bat.”  The unclean birds are scavengers who might also carry diseases.

19 “Also every creeping thing that flies is unclean for you; they shall not be eaten.

20 “You may eat all clean birds.

21 “You shall not eat anything that dies of itself; you may give it to the alien who is within your gates, that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner; for you are a holy people to the Lord your God.”

God wants His people to be careful and to honor Him in everything they do, including their food. You have to feel a bit sorry for the aliens within the gates and the foreigners to whom the Israelites may sell anything that dies of itself!

 

When I was growing up, I was a typical kid, trying to get Mom to agree to let me do things “because everyone else is doing it.” Mom’s standard answer was simple and direct: “I don’t care if everyone else is doing it; you are my kid, and I say no!”  

God is a good parent who wants His children to be healthy and happy. Proper food is important, and God wants the Israelites to realize that He is going to supply enough proper food that they will not need to resort to eating unclean birds, insects, and animals that die by themselves. (People who eat an animal that has died with anthrax may contract anthrax.)

Do we need to observe Jewish dietary laws? That is a question each of us must answer for ourselves. Some people feel they should follow vegan diets while others are strict vegetarians or lacto-ovo vegetarians, eating eggs and milk products. Others eat some kinds of meat or limit themselves to fish. The most important thing is to honor God in everything we do. 1 Corinthians 10:31 tells us, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” May each of us bend all our efforts to honor God in all aspects of our lives!

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving and caring for us. Lord, help us to make sure we are honoring You in all that we do. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 13 The Message

13 1-4 When a prophet or visionary gets up in your community and gives out a miracle-sign or wonder, and the miracle-sign or wonder that he gave out happens and he says, “Let’s follow other gods” (these are gods you know nothing about), “let’s worship them,” don’t pay any attention to what that prophet or visionary says. God, your God, is testing you to find out if you totally love him with everything you have in you. You are to follow only God, your God, hold him in deep reverence, keep his commandments, listen obediently to what he says, serve him—hold on to him for dear life!

5 And that prophet or visionary must be put to death. He has urged mutiny against God, your God, who rescued you from Egypt, who redeemed you from a world of slavery and put you on the road on which God, your God, has commanded you to walk. Purge the evil from your company.

People have always been fascinated by prophets and prophecy. After all, if someone can foretell the future, you might be able to make all kinds of good decisions. Of course, you might also become discouraged if your future isn’t so bright. But there are all kinds of prophets. Some prophets are sent by God; however, others are not. Here God tells His people that anybody who tries to lead them away from Him must be destroyed immediately.

But what if a prophet can do miracles? Spoiler alert: Satan and his followers can do some kinds of miracles. Remember the story of Moses and Aaron before Pharoah? Pharaoh’s magicians could copy some of the early miracles that Moses did, causing Pharaoh to believe that Moses was nothing special. It was not until the later miracles that the magicians shrugged their shoulders and said, “Sorry, boss! No can do!” (The magicians could produce frogs, but when it came to gnats, they were stymied.) Today, thanks to the miracles of satellite TV and the internet, we can see all kinds of “miracles;” however, how many of these things are real? And now thanks to AI, people can create videos of all kinds. Video evidence used to be trustworthy; now it’s not. Seeing is no longer believing, but God’s truth remains. If you encounter anything or anybody attempting to draw you away from God, have nothing to do with them.

6-10 And when your brother or son or daughter, or even your dear wife or lifelong friend, comes to you in secret and whispers, “Let’s go and worship some other gods” (gods that you know nothing about, neither you nor your ancestors, the gods of the peoples around you near and far, from one end of the Earth to the other), don’t go along with him; shut your ears. Don’t feel sorry for him and don’t make excuses for him. Kill him. That’s right, kill him. You throw the first stone. Take action at once and swiftly with everybody in the community getting in on it at the end. Stone him with stones so that he dies. He tried to turn you traitor against God, your God, the one who got you out of Egypt and the world of slavery.

11 Every man, woman, and child in Israel will hear what’s been done and be in awe. No one will dare to do an evil thing like this again.

12-17 When word comes in from one of your cities that God, your God, is giving you to live in, reporting that evil men have gotten together with some of the citizens of the city and have broken away, saying, “Let’s go and worship other gods” (gods you know nothing about), then you must conduct a careful examination. Ask questions, investigate. If it turns out that the report is true and this abomination did in fact take place in your community, you must execute the citizens of that town. Kill them, setting that city apart for holy destruction: the city and everything in it including its animals. Gather the plunder in the middle of the town square and burn it all—town and plunder together up in smoke, a holy sacrifice to God, your God. Leave it there, ashes and ruins. Don’t build on that site again. And don’t let any of the plunder devoted to holy destruction stick to your fingers. Get rid of it so that God may turn from anger to compassion, generously making you prosper, just as he promised your ancestors.

18 Yes. Obediently listen to God, your God. Keep all his commands that I am giving you today. Do the right thing in the eyes of God, your God.

WOW! Once more we realize that God is NOT simply a nice old guy up in the sky who grants wishes! Look at these orders: if a prophet tries to entice you to worship idols, stone him. “And when your brother or son or daughter, or even your dear wife or lifelong friend, comes to you in secret and whispers, “Let’s go and worship some other gods” (gods that you know nothing about, neither you nor your ancestors, the gods of the peoples around you near and far, from one end of the Earth to the other), don’t go along with him; shut your ears. Don’t feel sorry for him and don’t make excuses for him. Kill him.”

And God’s orders become even more all-enveloping: When word comes in from one of your cities that God, your God, is giving you to live in, reporting that evil men have gotten together with some of the citizens of the city and have broken away, saying, “Let’s go and worship other gods” (gods you know nothing about), then you must conduct a careful examination. Ask questions, investigate. If it turns out that the report is true and this abomination did in fact take place in your community, you must execute the citizens of that town.

God even demands that everything having to do with an idolatrous town should be completely destroyed, including the plunder, and that the site should never be built on again. Why? Demon worship summons demons and the demons attach themselves to that plunder and to the geographic site. Anybody foolish enough to collect plunder is automatically collecting demons. Remember a guy named Achan? When Joshua and the Israelites attacked Jericho, the Israelites were ordered to destroy everything apart from the items of silver, gold, bronze, and iron. These items were to be sacred to the Lord. But Achan took some silver and gold and a gorgeous Babylonian cloak that should have been burned and hid them in his tent. Achan, his family, and even his animals paid for his sins with their lives. (The story is in Joshua 7.)

Then there’s the matter of rebuilding on a site previously devoted to demonic worship. Anyone building on that site is moving into a demonic stronghold and opening themselves up to demonic attack. When Jericho was destroyed, Joshua put a curse on the site, stating that anyone building there would have to sacrifice two of his sons to succeed. During the reign of wicked King Manasseh, Hiel of Bethel did rebuild Jericho at the cost of his eldest son and his youngest son. (Joshua 6:26, 1 Kings:16:34) (My question: did the boys simply die, or was Hiel so perverted that he sacrificed two of his sons while rebuilding Jericho?)

God wants his people to be holy. 1 Peter 2:9-10 tells us, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. “

God wants us to live holy lives, for when we do we will also take joy in Him as we serve Him and worship Him. Even when things become difficult, those who love God can laugh at difficulties for their security is in the Eternal Lord of the universe. May we all find our security in the One True Living God!

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help us to follow hard after You all the days of our lives and leave anything demonic strictly alone. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 12:8-10 Don’t continue doing things the way we’re doing them at present, each of us doing as we wish. Until now you haven’t arrived at the goal, the resting place, the inheritance that God, your God, is giving you. But the minute you cross the Jordan River and settle into the land God, your God, is enabling you to inherit, he’ll give you rest from all your surrounding enemies. You’ll be able to settle down and live in safety.

Stupidity has been defined as doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. No matter how many times Moses has tried to teach the Israelites the ways of holiness, these people are still repeating their mistakes. Once more, Moses emphasizes that obedience is the only way to success.

11-12 From then on, at the place that God, your God, chooses to mark with his name as the place where you can meet him, bring everything that I command you: your Absolution-Offerings and sacrifices, tithes and Tribute-Offerings, and the best of your Vow-Offerings that you vow to God. Celebrate there in the Presence of God, your God, you and your sons and daughters, your servants and maids, including the Levite living in your neighborhood because he has no place of his own in your inheritance. 13-14 Be extra careful: Don’t offer your Absolution-Offerings just any place that strikes your fancy. Offer your Absolution-Offerings only in the place that God chooses in one of your tribal regions. There and only there are you to bring all that I command you.

God will choose a spiritually clean site for the Israelites to worship, but they must scrupulously avoid any of the pagan sites to avoid demons contaminating their worship.

15 It’s permissible to slaughter your non-sacrificial animals like gazelle and deer in your towns and eat all you want from them with the blessing of God, your God. Both the ritually clean and unclean may eat.

16-18 But you may not eat the blood. Pour the blood out on the ground like water. Nor may you eat there the tithe of your grain, new wine, or olive oil; nor the firstborn of your herds and flocks; nor any of the Vow-Offerings that you vow; nor your Freewill-Offerings and Tribute-Offerings. All these you must eat in the Presence of God, your God, in the place God, your God, chooses—you, your son and daughter, your servant and maid, and the Levite who lives in your neighborhood. You are to celebrate in the Presence of God, your God, all the things you’ve been able to accomplish.

Why the proscription against eating/drinking blood? Blood rituals were very common in many of the pagan religions. God doesn’t want the Israelites to copy any of those terrible rituals. Does this verse mean that blood transfusions are against God’s Word? No! God wants people to be healthy, and blood transfusions save millions of lives. There is nothing about a blood transfusion that copies an ancient pagan ritual.

19 And make sure that for as long as you live on your land you never, never neglect the Levite.

20-22 When God, your God, expands your territory as he promised he would do, and you say, “I’m hungry for meat,” because you happen to be craving meat at the time, go ahead and eat as much meat as you want. If you’re too far away from the place that God, your God, has marked with his name, it’s all right to slaughter animals from your herds and flocks that God has given you, as I’ve commanded you. In your own towns you may eat as much of them as you want. Just as the no sacrificial animals like the gazelle and deer are eaten, you may eat them; the ritually unclean and clean may eat them at the same table.

23-25 Only this: Absolutely no blood. Don’t eat the blood. Blood is life; don’t eat the life with the meat. Don’t eat it; pour it out on the ground like water. Don’t eat it; then you’ll have a good life, you and your children after you. By all means, do the right thing in God’s eyes.

26-27 And this: Lift high your Holy-Offerings and your Vow-Offerings and bring them to the place God designates. Sacrifice your Absolution-Offerings, the meat and blood, on the Altar of God, your God; pour out the blood of the Absolution-Offering on the Altar of God, your God; then you can go ahead and eat the meat.

Once more, God warns against eating or drinking blood. Blood is life. It’s also possible that by forbidding drinking or eating blood, God is protecting His people from some blood-borne illnesses. But God does want His people to pour the blood of their sacrifices on His altar. For God, blood is holy.

28 Be vigilant, listen obediently to these words that I command you so that you’ll have a good life, you and your children, for a long, long time, doing what is good and right in the eyes of God, your God.

29-31 When God, your God, cuts off the nations whose land you are invading, shoves them out of your way so that you displace them and settle in their land, be careful that you don’t get curious about them after they’ve been destroyed before you. Don’t get fascinated with their gods, thinking, “I wonder what it was like for them, worshiping their gods. I’d like to try that myself.” Don’t do this to God, your God. They commit every imaginable abomination with their gods. God hates it all with a passion. Why, they even set their children on fire as offerings to their gods!

32 Diligently do everything I command you, the way I command you: don’t add to it; don’t subtract from it.

There’s a story about a father who refused to allow his teen-age sons to watch a popular movie that had some sex scenes in it. When the boys argued that they were old enough, the father still refused. That night, the father began fixing a batch of brownies, and they smelled wonderful. When the brownies were finished, the father asked the boys if they wanted some. Of course, the boys were thrilled until their father began describing the brownies. “Now, boys, everything in these brownies is organic. I just want you to know that I gathered something from the back yard and put a teaspoon of it in the brownies, but it’s all organic.” “What’s the secret ingredient?” the boys asked. “Well, it’s all organic. But I did go out in the back yard and gather up some dog poop. I put 1 teaspoon of dog poop in the brownie mix, but I baked the brownies. Don’t you want a brownie?” At this point, the boy lost all interest in those brownies; after all, who wants to eat dog manure, even in tiny amounts? And that’s when the father referred back to the movie the boys were insisting they wanted to see. “Boys, that movie is like those brownies; most of it is fine, but part of it is not. You don’t want to contaminate your hearts and minds.”

Here God is warning the Israelites that copying pagan worship would be as horrible as eating food contaminated with manure. Repeatedly, God warns His people to follow His ways and His instructions so that they will succeed and live long healthy lives.

How about us? How many times are we willing to read things or watch things that are “mildly” contaminated, even though everything we see will leave an impression on us? Let’s pursue holiness. After all, who wants a brownie with dog poop?PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help us to refuse to contaminate our hearts and minds with spiritual trash. IN the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 12 

These are the rules and regulations that you must diligently observe for as long as you live in this country that God, the God-of-Your-Fathers, has given you to possess.

2-3 Ruthlessly demolish all the sacred shrines where the nations that you’re driving out worship their gods—wherever you find them, on hills and mountains or in groves of green trees. Tear apart their altars. Smash their phallic pillars. Burn their sex-and-religion Asherah shrines. Break up their carved gods. Obliterate the names of those god sites.

4 Stay clear of those places—don’t let what went on there contaminate the worship of God, your God.

Well! In case you have been confusing God with Santa Claus, these verses should wake you up quickly. Look at the orders: “Ruthlessly demolish ALL the sacred shrines…wherever you find them. TEAR APART their altars. SMASH their phallic pillars. BURN their Asherah shrines. BREAK UP their carved gods. OBLITERATE the names of those god sites…Don’t let what went on there CONTAMINATE the worship of God, your God.” God isn’t playing around, and the Israelites had better follow all His instructions or else.

5-7 Instead find the site that God, your God, will choose and mark it with his name as a common center for all the tribes of Israel. Assemble there. Bring to that place your Absolution-Offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and Tribute-Offerings, your Vow-Offerings, your Freewill-Offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. Feast there in the Presence of God, your God. Celebrate everything that you and your families have accomplished under the blessing of God, your God.

Why doesn’t God want the Israelites to use the sites where idolatry previously took place? Destroying the shrines and idols does nothing about the demons. Demons are territorial and these sites will still be packed with demons just waiting to attach to the first person foolish enough to initiate worship there. God wants the Israelites to establish worship in spiritually clean locations. Eventually, God selects Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, perhaps because that is where Abraham nearly sacrificed Isaac. Who knows but that Abraham’s act of obedience all those centuries ago has hallowed that area, even though the Jebusites have since taken it over.

Around the world, many places are not spiritually neutral. Years ago, in one town in northern Ghana, there was a series of tragedies in a small part of the town-one young lady bled to death after a botched abortion, a respected elderly teacher broke his neck in a road traffic accident, and one high school student died mysteriously. When I began praying over the situation, God showed me a fetish tree swarming with little demons. Upon asking our friends from town, we learned that vision was true; there had been a fetish tree near the spot where these tragedies took place. When missionaries wanted a site for their new church, the local people gladly gave them the site that the fetish tree had previously occupied; after all, nobody else wanted it! Sadly, that church had taken over the ground but evidently assumed they had dealt with the demons by cutting down the tree and burning the stump. They were wrong. The situation required much more prayer and fasting before the demons could be routed.

We have lived in Memphis, Tennessee, Charleston, South Carolina, and New Orleans, Louisiana. All three of those cities served as centers for the slave trade in America. In each of those cities, the spiritual atmosphere can change from block to block, with some places feeling clean while others carry a spirit of oppression or other spirits that are even worse. Speakers coming to the church we attended in Southaven, Mississippi would describe seeing spiritual black clouds over Memphis that would become darker the closer they got to town.

In New Orleans, I used to ride a city bus to my classes at the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in the Central Business District. One street we traveled skirted the French Quarter, and the side of the bus nearer to the French Quarter felt cold like the grave. Going back in history, New Orleans served as a dumping ground for moral degenerates from eighteenth century France. All kinds of evil have existed in the French Quarter since its inception.

When we moved into one house, we swiftly realized that part of the house felt fine while another part felt spiritually disturbing. While praying, my husband discerned a spirit of abortion. We concluded that at some point, one doctor occupying the place must have been performing abortions in one of the bedrooms. We also realized that items such as keys and other things would go missing at that end of the house, only to reappear as soon as we prayed to cut off a spirit of confusion.

Can these sites be cleansed? Yes, with a great deal of persistent prayer supported by fasting. But demons may leave for a short time, only to return later. One church we attended in New Orleans would send two large bus loads of men out on “Nehemiah rides.” These prayer warriors would go to some of the worst crime spots in New Orleans while the women of the church would back them in prayer. The police soon learned that when these men prayed, the crime rate in the targeted areas would drop for at least two days or more. The police were so impressed that they would ask for the list of locations for the prayers ahead of time and then quietly show up to help protect those praying. One night, a drug dealer who was about to leave a housing development to go sell drugs came under such conviction that he leaped out of his car, rushed into the center of the prayer circle, and gave his life to Christ immediately. The problem was that when the group moved to a different location for their next prayer session, the spiritual climate of the previous location would revert after a few days.  

Another story from our time in New Orleans: We moved into an apartment on the West Bank, across the Mississippi River from the Central Business District. Shortly after arriving, we realized there was an evil presence in the apartment. We never knew what had happened but we assumed that someone had been murdered or had committed abortion in the apartment. Having had some previous experience with such things in Ghana, we began leaving the radio on all day. We learned that the demons didn’t care about classical music or even Christian “light rock.” Once we reached home, it would take about 2 hours before the evil presence would leave the apartment. But when we left the radio tuned to a station that played sermons about the Blood of Jesus and old-time hymns, the demons were gone when we returned home.

Why does God keep insisting that the Israelites destroy everything devoted to idols? Demons have attached themselves to these items, and keeping these things will invite demons to attack, particularly if those items are taken into people’s homes. One missionary of our acquaintance was instrumental in breaking up a horrible cult several years ago that involved kidnaping of young women and repeatedly raping them. The symbol of this cult was a cow horn; unfortunately, our friend took that object back to America when she retired and exhibited it when she was speaking in churches. Although our friend thought she was celebrating God’s triumph over Satan, in fact, she was carrying a cult object that needed to be destroyed. Several local pastors communicated with her, begging her to destroy it. We even stayed overnight with her and convinced her it should be burned; however, unfortunately, the wind was quite high that night and there was no means of burning the thing properly. Once back in America, our friend suffered several health problems, and we felt many of these problems stemmed from her refusal to destroy that cult object. We can only hope that someone destroyed it after her death.

George Otis Senior wrote several excellent books in the 1960’s -1990’s. Otis was the General Manager of the Lear Jet Corporation and became a millionaire before age 35. During extensive travels, Otis had many opportunities to visit various pagan places of worship, but God stopped him. In one of Otis’ books, he documented how God dealt with him about visiting idolatrous temples and carrying home souvenirs of dubious spiritual origin. While watching a parade of priests celebrating a Shinto holiday in Japan, Otis became convicted that those men were demonically possessed and God queried him as to why he was even taking part in the celebration by witnessing their performance. Otis also realized that he was not being careful in his choice of souvenirs and that he might be accidentally introducing demons into his home by the things he had brought from his travels. I found Otis’ teachings to be quite valuable; in fact, we had an experience that bore out Otis’ warnings.

When we returned to America from Ghana in 1990, our household things were mixed in with those of another returning missionary family. We wound up with a weird carving of a traditional drummer with a strange hair style that was not common at that time in Ghana. Neither of us remembered anyone giving us that carving, and we soon found it upsetting for other reasons. In some horror movies, the eyes of portraits supposedly follow the unsuspecting person around the room. In Ghana, many chief’s palaces will have a jar, a shield, or something else with a face picked out in cowrie shells, the idea being that every visitor is being watched. In the Celtic traditions in the British Isles, there were ware stones, stones that watched people and then transmitted information to those controlling the stones. Gradually we became aware that this carving made both of us intensely uncomfortable, for we felt it was spying on us, that someone in Ghana was watching us through this carving. After moving the carving from our living room into my office, we decided the only safe thing to do with it was to pound it to pieces and to burn the pieces. The spiritual atmosphere of our home lightened significantly once we destroyed that carving.

One final story: I grew up in an old farm house where several tragedies had taken place. There were rumors that the house was haunted, and these were likely correct. But in the late 1950’s a Christian radio station began broadcasting in our area, playing excellent sermons and old-time hymns that spoke of the Blood of Jesus. After a few years, the spiritual atmosphere of the house changed, and I could feel a deep peace when I entered the house.

If you think God’s warnings in this chapter are only for the ancient Israelites, you are sadly mistaken. God does not change and His Word stands for all time. Do not mess with demons or anything that might have demons attached. And if you find a souvenir or a new purchase disturbing, do not ignore that feeling! God might be trying to keep you safe. Destroy whatever it is and gain your freedom.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, many people might think I have told these stories to gain attention, but You know they are true and I am telling them to caution others. Help us to live holy lives and to flee from anything demonic. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 11

1 So love God, your God; guard well his rules and regulations; obey his commandments for the rest of time.

2-7 Today it’s very clear that it isn’t your children who are front and center here: They weren’t in on what God did, didn’t see the acts, didn’t experience the discipline, didn’t marvel at his greatness, the way he displayed his power in the miracle-signs and deeds that he let loose in Egypt on Pharaoh king of Egypt and all his land, the way he took care of the Egyptian army, its horses and chariots, burying them in the waters of the Red Sea as they pursued you. God drowned them. And you’re standing here today alive. Nor was it your children who saw how God took care of you in the wilderness up until the time you arrived here, what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab son of Reuben, how the Earth opened its jaws and swallowed them with their families—their tents, and everything around them—right out of the middle of Israel. Yes, it was you—your eyes—that saw every great thing that God did.

God is trying to remind the Israelites of how miraculously He has delivered and protected them. Repeatedly, God tells the Israelites that THEY are the ones who have witnessed all these things. THEY are the ones who must keep these memories alive and teach them to their children. THEY are the ones who must remember the horrible price Dathan and Abiram paid for their rebellion.

As we’re watching the Israelites get reminded, we must ask ourselves how many times God has helped us and spared us, while we have failed to thank and praise Him. We should be teaching these things to our children also. My mother grew up during the Depression, and she told me this story: One summer she desperately wanted to attend a Methodist summer church camp for kids, but money was tight and the deadline for registration was drawing near. Just as Mom was in complete despair, somebody left an envelope with $5 in the family mailbox. That $5 bill allowed Mom to attend the camp and forget the family’s struggles for survival for awhile. My dad also had a story of God’s guidance. Dad was slated to attend a Lutheran college in his home area when he traveled to another college further south in Illinois to help a close friend move to school. Dad was so impressed with his friend’s college that he came home and convinced his parents to allow him to change schools. That new school was where Dad met Mom. Incidentally, Dad had been praying for God to give him the right wife since he was in his early teens.

8-9 So it’s you who are in charge of keeping the entire commandment that I command you today so that you’ll have the strength to invade and possess the land that you are crossing the river to make your own. Your obedience will give you a long life on the soil that God promised to give your ancestors and their children, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Now God is laying things on the line. “YOU are in charge of keeping the ENTIRE COMMANDMENT THAT I COMMAND YOU.” Why? “..so that you’ll have the strength to invade and possess the land that you are crossing the river to make your own.” While the Israelites think they can handle these challenges, unless they obey God completely, they will not have long lives, nor will they possess the land God wants to give them. Only total obedience will work.

10-12 The land you are entering to take up ownership isn’t like Egypt, the land you left, where you had to plant your own seed and water it yourselves as in a vegetable garden. But the land you are about to cross the river and take for your own is a land of mountains and valleys; it drinks water that rains from the sky. It’s a land that God, your God, personally tends—he’s the gardener—he alone keeps his eye on it all year long.

Once more, God sings a love song to the land He is giving the Israelites. I weep each time I read these verses for the passion God has for that land, a land God personally tends. Many times we feel God is far away from us; yet, here God promises to personally tend a land. If God personally tends that land, won’t He also tend the inhabitants?

13-15 From now on if you listen obediently to the commandments that I am commanding you today, love God, your God, and serve him with everything you have within you, he’ll take charge of sending the rain at the right time, both autumn and spring rains, so that you’ll be able to harvest your grain, your grapes, your olives. He’ll make sure there’s plenty of grass for your animals. You’ll have plenty to eat.

Fantastic! God is promising favorable weather, wonderful growing conditions, and magnificent crops. But there’s a condition: “if you listen obediently to the commandments that I am commanding you today, love God, your God, and serve him with everything you have within you..” God isn’t merely handing out freebies; it’s obedience that earns rewards.

16-17 But be vigilant, lest you be seduced away and end up serving and worshiping other gods and God erupts in anger and shuts down Heaven so there’s no rain and nothing grows in the fields, and in no time at all you’re starved out—not a trace of you left on the good land that God is giving you.

People are so easily distracted! God knows that the Israelites are going to be entranced by gaudy fertility rites and ritual prostitution. Once more, God is issuing a warning that rebellion against Him will result in the heavens being shut, causing drought, starvation, and death. One question for us is how much of the climate change we are seeing is due to people’s sin?

18-21 Place these words on your hearts. Get them deep inside you. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder. Teach them to your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning until you fall into bed at night. Inscribe them on the doorposts and gates of your cities so that you’ll live a long time, and your children with you, on the soil that God promised to give your ancestors for as long as there is a sky over the Earth.

22-25 That’s right. If you diligently keep all this commandment that I command you to obey—love God, your God, do what he tells you, stick close to him—God on his part will drive out all these nations that stand in your way. Yes, he’ll drive out nations much bigger and stronger than you. Every square inch on which you place your foot will be yours. Your borders will stretch from the wilderness to the mountains of Lebanon, from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea. No one will be able to stand in your way. Everywhere you go, God-sent fear and trembling will precede you, just as he promised.

26 I’ve brought you today to the crossroads of Blessing and Curse.

27 The Blessing: if you listen obediently to the commandments of God, your God, which I command you today.

28 The Curse: if you don’t pay attention to the commandments of God, your God, but leave the road that I command you today, following other gods of which you know nothing.

29-30 Here’s what comes next: When God, your God, brings you into the land you are going into to make your own, you are to give out the Blessing from Mount Gerizim and the Curse from Mount Ebal. After you cross the Jordan River, follow the road to the west through Canaanite settlements in the valley near Gilgal and the Oaks of Moreh.

31-32 You are crossing the Jordan River to invade and take the land that God, your God, is giving you. Be vigilant. Observe all the regulations and rules I am setting before you today.

Blessings and curses! All the Israelites have to do is to obey God and they will own every single piece of land on which they set their feet. Their armies will always be successful, and all their enemies will fear them. BUT there’s a catch! If the Israelites do not follow God, they will fail miserably and many of them will die horrible deaths.

Partial obedience is complete rebellion. The famous Christian writer Oswald Chambers has observed that many of us have “spiritual measles.” We look all right in spots, but don’t look at our other spots, the places where we are refusing to obey God. As we continue to study Deuteronomy, it will become obvious that God is giving all these warnings for a reason. We must examine our hearts. Are we wholly obedient, or do we have spiritual measles?

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, help us to be completely obedient with undivided hearts, so that we might obtain Your richest blessings. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

10 1-2 God responded. He said, “Shape two slabs of stone similar to the first ones. Climb the mountain and meet me. Also make yourself a wooden chest. I will engrave the stone slabs with the words that were on the first ones, the ones you smashed. Then you will put them in the Chest.”

3-5 So I made a chest out of acacia wood, shaped two slabs of stone, just like the first ones, and climbed the mountain with the two slabs in my arms. He engraved the stone slabs the same as he had the first ones, the Ten Words that he addressed to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly. Then God gave them to me. I turned around and came down the mountain. I put the stone slabs in the Chest that I made and they’ve been there ever since, just as God commanded me.

Moses is concluding the story of how he smashed the first set of the Ten Commandments and then had to fashion a second set himself. The Chest mentioned here is the Ark of the Covenant. Moses is careful to note that God is the One who has engraved those commandments on the stone-why? The Israelites are stubborn and rebellious and are quite capable of accusing Moses of thinking up the commandments himself. Moses wants to make sure his people realize it is God who has commanded them and not him.

6-7 The People of Israel went from the wells of the Jaakanites to Moserah. Aaron died there and was buried. His son Eleazar succeeded him as priest. From there they went to Gudgodah, and then to Jotbathah, a land of streams of water.

8-9 That’s when God set apart the tribe of Levi to carry God’s Covenant Chest, to be on duty in the Presence of God, to serve him, and to bless in his name, as they continue to do today. And that’s why Levites don’t have a piece of inherited land as their kinsmen do. God is their inheritance, as God, your God, promised them.

10 I stayed there on the mountain forty days and nights, just as I did the first time. And God listened to me, just as he did the first time: God decided not to destroy you.

11 God told me, “Now get going. Lead your people as they resume the journey to take possession of the land that I promised their ancestors that I’d give to them.”

Moses reminds the Israelites that Aaron has already died for his sins of creating the golden calf and for rebelling when Moses struck the rock rather than speaking to it. (Question: did Aaron encourage Moses to strike the rock, disregarding God’s specific instructions? Aaron appears to have been a rather weak individual, going in for drama. Perhaps this is why Aaron died before Moses did.)

12-13 So now Israel, what do you think God expects from you? Just this: Live in his presence in holy reverence, follow the road he sets out for you, love him, serve God, your God, with everything you have in you, obey the commandments and regulations of God that I’m commanding you today—live a good life.

14-18 Look around you: Everything you see is God’s—the heavens above and beyond, the Earth, and everything on it. But it was your ancestors who God fell in love with; he picked their children—that’s you!—out of all the other peoples. That’s where we are right now. So cut away the thick calluses from your heart and stop being so willfully hardheaded. God, your God, is the God of all gods, he’s the Master of all masters, a God immense and powerful and awesome. He doesn’t play favorites, takes no bribes, makes sure orphans and widows are treated fairly, takes loving care of foreigners by seeing that they get food and clothing.

Throughout their wanderings, God keeps reminding the Israelites that He has chosen them and therefore they must follow His commandments. Here God lays out exactly what He wants the Israelites to do: Live in his presence in holy reverence, follow the road he sets out for you, love him, serve God, your God, with everything you have in you, obey the commandments and regulations of God that I’m commanding you today—live a good life… So cut away the thick calluses from your heart and stop being so willfully hardheaded.

God wants the Israelites to follow His example by dealing honestly and caring for widows, orphans, and foreigners: He doesn’t play favorites, takes no bribes, makes sure orphans and widows are treated fairly, takes loving care of foreigners by seeing that they get food and clothing. God’s people are to be as compassionate as He is.

19-21 You must treat foreigners with the same loving care—remember, you were once foreigners in Egypt. Reverently respect God, your God, serve him, hold tight to him, back up your promises with the authority of his name. He’s your praise! He’s your God! He did all these tremendous, these staggering things that you saw with your own eyes. 22 When your ancestors entered Egypt, they numbered a mere seventy souls. And now look at you—you look more like the stars in the night skies in number. And your God did it.

Repeatedly, God reminds the Israelites that they were once foreigners in Egypt and that they suffered as a result. It was the status of the Israelites as foreigners and their inferior social status as shepherds and cattle herders that gave the Egyptians the excuse to enslave them. (Remember, Joseph even warned his family about the Egyptian attitudes towards shepherds.)

God also reminds His people that when Jacob and his family entered Egypt, there were only seventy of them. Now the Israelites number at least 2.4 million-more like the stars in the night skies.

Why is God so insistent about the Israelites caring for foreigners? Throughout history, foreigners have always been a favorite targe of despotic rulers, corrupt judges, dishonest merchants, and cheaters of all kinds. God hates thieves and those who take advantage of others unfamiliar with a culture. God wants the Israelites to remember what it felt like when they sought permission to pass through various nations, offering to pay for their food and water, only for these nations to refuse them passage.

Today the issue of illegal immigrants in America has become a hot one. How should we live out God’s commands to help foreigners? Those whose lives are least impacted have been the most vocal in offering all kinds of help, some of it not even available to American citizens. But ask those who live along the Mexican border, and the picture appears far different. Families who have lived peacefully for years have suffered theft, fire outbreaks, and have even had their lives threatened. These citizens live in constant fear. There are no easy answers to these questions, especially when families are fleeing due to threats from the cartels. For those aware of the facts, the situation demands as much prayer as possible.

Here in Ghana, we have Fulani cattle herders, and many cattle owners employ Fulanis to care for their herds. But as in any ethnic group, there are virtuous people and wicked people. Some Fulanis are law-abiding citizens while others have become armed robbers. Sometimes armed robbers will dress as Fulanis in an attempt to cloak their true identities. The ensuing confusion results in an entire ethnic group being wrongly blamed.

God is a God of compassion. Are we people of compassion? May God help us so that we will have hearts like His!

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, please let our hearts hurt with the things that hurt Your Heart. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 9

9 1-2 Attention, Israel!

This very day you are crossing the Jordan to enter the land and oust nations that are much bigger and stronger than you are. You’re going to find huge cities with sky-high fortress-walls and gigantic people, descendants of the Anakites—you’ve heard all about them; you’ve heard the saying, “No one can stand up to an Anakite.”

3 Today know this: God, your God, is crossing the river ahead of you—he’s a consuming fire. He will destroy the nations, he will put them under your power. You will oust them and very quickly wipe them out, just as God promised you would.

4-5 But when God pushes them out ahead of you, don’t start thinking to yourselves, “It’s because of all the good I’ve done that God has brought me in here to dispossess these nations.” Actually it’s because of all the evil these nations have done. No, it’s nothing good that you’ve done, no record for decency that you’ve built up, that got you here; it’s because of the vile wickedness of these nations that God, your God, is dispossessing them before you so that he can keep his promised word to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

When it comes right down to it, the Israelites have been spoiled! Wake up in the morning and go collect manna. Need water? God causes streams to gush from barren rocks in the desert. Not sure which way to go? No worries! Just follow the pillar of cloud and God will show you the way. For the Israelites, life has settled into a safe familiar pattern, so safe and familiar that they might have forgotten that all of this traveling is for a purpose and not an end in itself.

God is about to lead the Israelites into Canaan and into battle with giants. God will go before the Israelites, intimidating the superpowers so that the Israelites will be able to conquer them. But before the Israelites begin strutting around, puffing out their chests and preening themselves, God wants them to know that He’s not helping them because they are so marvelous but because these other tribes are so wicked. And God is keeping his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These Israelites have just been fortunate enough to be born at the right time. And now Moses is going to remind the Israelites of just how bad they have been.

6-10 Know this and don’t ever forget it: It’s not because of any good that you’ve done that God is giving you this good land to own. Anything but! You’re stubborn as mules. Keep in mind and don’t ever forget how angry you made God, your God, in the wilderness. You’ve kicked and screamed against God from the day you left Egypt until you got to this place, rebels all the way. You made God angry at Horeb, made him so angry that he wanted to destroy you. When I climbed the mountain to receive the slabs of stone, the tablets of the covenant that God made with you, I stayed there on the mountain forty days and nights: I ate no food; I drank no water. Then God gave me the two slabs of stone, engraved with the finger of God. They contained word for word everything that God spoke to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.

11-12 It was at the end of the forty days and nights that God gave me the two slabs of stone, the tablets of the covenant. God said to me, “Get going, and quickly. Get down there, because your people whom you led out of Egypt have ruined everything. In almost no time at all they have left the road that I laid out for them and gone off and made for themselves a cast god.”

13-14 God said, “I look at this people and all I see are hardheaded, hardhearted rebels. Get out of my way now so I can destroy them. I’m going to wipe them off the face of the map. Then I’ll start over with you to make a nation far better and bigger than they could ever be.”

15-17 I turned around and started down the mountain—by now the mountain was blazing with fire—carrying the two tablets of the covenant in my two arms. That’s when I saw it: There you were, sinning against God, your God—you had made yourselves a cast god in the shape of a calf! So soon you had left the road that God had commanded you to walk on. I held the two stone slabs high and threw them down, smashing them to bits as you watched.

18-20 Then I flung myself down before God, just as I had at the beginning of the forty days and nights. I ate no food; I drank no water. I did this because of you, all your sins, sinning against God, doing what is evil in God’s eyes and making him angry. I was terrified of God’s furious anger, his blazing anger. I was sure he would destroy you. But once again God listened to me. And Aaron! How furious he was with Aaron—ready to destroy him. But I prayed also for Aaron at that same time.

21 But that sin-thing that you made, that calf-god, I took and burned in the fire, pounded and ground it until it was crushed into a fine powder, then threw it into the stream that comes down the mountain.

22 And then there was Camp Taberah (Blaze), Massah (Testing-Place), and Camp Kibroth Hattaavah (Graves-of-the-Craving)—more occasions when you made God furious with you.

23-24 The most recent was when God sent you out from Kadesh Barnea, ordering you: “Go. Possess the land that I’m giving you.” And what did you do? You rebelled. Rebelled against the clear orders of God, your God. Refused to trust him. Wouldn’t obey him. You’ve been rebels against God from the first day I knew you.

25-26 When I was on my face, stretched out before God those forty days and nights after God said he would destroy you, I prayed to God for you, “My Master, God, don’t destroy your people, your inheritance whom, in your immense generosity, you redeemed, using your enormous strength to get them out of Egypt.

27-28 “Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; don’t make too much of the stubbornness of this people, their evil and their sin, lest the Egyptians from whom you rescued them say, ‘God couldn’t do it; he got tired and wasn’t able to take them to the land he promised them. He ended up hating them and dumped them in the wilderness to die.’

29 “They are your people still, your inheritance whom you powerfully and sovereignly rescued.”

This chapter might be entitled “Moses and the Israelites-the rest of the story.” Before, we have seen Moses as a prophet and leader. Now Moses reveals how much intercession it took for God to relent and not wipe out the Israelites after they continued to sin. Moses had to pray continuously for forty days and nights before God changed His mind. Would God have destroyed the Israelites had Moses not prayed all that while? Possibly.

Many times, we fail to realize the true depth of intercessory prayer, that our prayers can not only hold sway with God but that the people for whom we are praying are also changing as we pray for them. All the time Moses was praying, God was changing the hearts and minds of the Israelites so that they would be more obedient in the future. When we pray and fail to see any changes in someone after a few days or weeks, it’s tempting to give up. But consider this story: George Mueller was a man of tremendous faith who founded orphanages in Bristol, England that cared for 10,000 orphans. Those orphanages depended solely on charitable donations for their support. Mueller not only helped support China Inland Mission, but he also circled the world preaching and teaching. One friend begged Mueller to pray for his wayward son, and Mueller prayed for the next several decades; meanwhile, the man immigrated to Canada. It was the news of Mueller’s death that the man read in a newspaper that finally brought him to repent and follow the Lord. Mueller did not see the fruits of his prayers in his lifetime; however, his prayers were eventually answered.

Luke 18 tells us, “Jesus told them a story showing that it was necessary for them to pray consistently and never quit.” Then Jesus tells the story of a poor widow who kept demanding justice from a corrupt judge until he gave up and helped her. Jesus concluded the story by saying, “Then the Master said, “Do you hear what that judge, corrupt as he is, is saying? So what makes you think God won’t step in and work justice for his chosen people, who continue to cry out for help? Won’t he stick up for them? I assure you, he will. He will not drag his feet. But how much of that kind of persistent faith will the Son of Man find on the earth when he returns?” (Luke 18:6-8)

How much faith did Moses have when God called him to stop herding sheep and to lead the Israelites? At that point, all Moses wanted was to raise his family, herd his sheep, and find grazing and water for them. Moses had no interest in returning to Egypt and struggling to lead a large group of rebellious people who would continually veer away from God’s commandments. But God called and Moses answered that call. All the wandering in the desert, all the times Moses had to deal with rebellion and outright sin among the Israelites, God was helping Moses to grow also.

Are you going through a tough time? No money and lots of challenges? You feel caught between a rock and a hard place? God can use those struggles to grow you just as He did Moses. Hang on! Don’t give up! God is still on the throne and He can still provide water out of rocks and manna each morning when necessary. Just make sure you are obeying what God has already told you to do.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help us to hang on and pray, trusting that You hear every prayer and that Your perfect answers are already on their way. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.