Burunche’s Blog

Deuteronomy 8:1-5 Keep and live out the entire commandment that I’m commanding you today so that you’ll live and prosper and enter and own the land that God promised to your ancestors. Remember every road that God led you on for those forty years in the wilderness, pushing you to your limits, testing you so that he would know what you were made of, whether you would keep his commandments or not. He put you through hard times. He made you go hungry. Then he fed you with manna, something neither you nor your parents knew anything about, so you would learn that men and women don’t live by bread only; we live by every word that comes from God’s mouth. Your clothes didn’t wear out and your feet didn’t blister those forty years. You learned deep in your heart that God disciplines you in the same ways a father disciplines his child.

There are many times when we whine and complain about how hard we have it, how tough life is, and how we wish things were easier. We have no idea that God is using all these trials to test us, train us, and fit us for greater things. Look at what God has been doing for the Israelites: 2.4 million people moving through a wasteland, yet God is feeding them, providing clean drinking water, and even protecting them so that their clothes haven’t worn out and they haven’t even gotten a single blister while trudging over that rocky ground. Why has God done all this? God knows the Israelites are about to face seven superpowers and if these people aren’t tough enough, those superpowers will eat them for breakfast!

6-9 So it’s paramount that you keep the commandments of God, your God, walk down the roads he shows you and reverently respect him. God is about to bring you into a good land, a land with brooks and rivers, springs and lakes, streams out of the hills and through the valleys. It’s a land of wheat and barley, of vines and figs and pomegranates, of olives, oil, and honey. It’s land where you’ll never go hungry—always food on the table and a roof over your head. It’s a land where you’ll get iron out of rocks and mine copper from the hills. 10 After a meal, satisfied, bless God, your God, for the good land he has given you.

I absolutely love these verses! These verses are God’s love letter to the land of Israel-look at what God is giving His people: brooks and rivers, springs and lakes, streams out of the hills and through the valleys, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and figs and pomegranates, of olives, oil, and honey. This land will yield iron and copper. God is literally weeping with joy over everything He is about to give His people. At the end of this study, I have added a video of the theme song from the movie “Exodus,” for that song embodies these verses. Not only has God planned this land for His people, but He already knows which tribe will inherit which sections of this land and even which individuals will live to rejoice in their inheritance.

I am a farm kid from Illinois, and I can testify that the land knows those who love it and will care for it and cherish it. These are passions that those who live in towns have never experienced. Now the Israelites will have the opportunity to enjoy God’s gifts to them.

11-16 Make sure you don’t forget God, your God, by not keeping his commandments, his rules and regulations that I command you today. Make sure that when you eat and are satisfied, build pleasant houses and settle in, see your herds and flocks flourish and more and more money come in, watch your standard of living going up and up—make sure you don’t become so full of yourself and your things that you forget God, your God, the God who delivered you from Egyptian slavery; the God who led you through that huge and fearsome wilderness, those desolate, arid badlands crawling with fiery snakes and scorpions; the God who gave you water gushing from hard rock; the God who gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never heard of, in order to give you a taste of the hard life, to test you so that you would be prepared to live well in the days ahead of you.

In the American South, someone who has forgotten their humble origins is described as “having gotten above his raising.” There is no shame in coming from a simple background, and living with limited resources can teach you to make do, rather than to overspend.

God is trying to remind the Israelites exactly how far they have come and all the problems they have overcome with His help. But God also knows that people have short memories and are quite likely to enjoy a lavish lifestyle so much that they will “get above their raising.”

Does a hard start in life prepare you to handle wealth wisely? Sometimes. Warren Buffet, one of the richest men in the world, continues to live relatively simply and to give away as much of his wealth as possible. But there are others who have become so entranced with their wealth that they have lost sight of the God who has given them that wealth in the first place.

17-18 If you start thinking to yourselves, “I did all this. And all by myself. I’m rich. It’s all mine!”—well, think again. Remember that God, your God, gave you the strength to produce all this wealth so as to confirm the covenant that he promised to your ancestors—as it is today.

19-20 If you forget, forget God, your God, and start taking up with other gods, serving and worshiping them, I’m on record right now as giving you firm warning: that will be the end of you; I mean it—destruction. You’ll go to your doom—the same as the nations God is destroying before you; doom because you wouldn’t obey the Voice of God, your God.

Once more, God keeps reminding the Israelites “Don’t forget! Don’t forget! Don’t forget!” God truly wants a good future for the Israelites and has put everything in place for them to move into the Promised Land and enjoy its benefits. Sadly, the Israelites will not follow God’s advice but will go in the opposite direction.

Let’s step out of this scene for a minute. Throughout our lives, God has given us training opportunities and has been fitting us for the future He has for us. Our task is to obey God and to follow His commandments, not becoming distracted by problems or seduced by wealth. May God help us so that we will cause Him to rejoice!

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help us to follow You, no matter the circumstances. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 7:11 So keep the command and the rules and regulations that I command you today. Do them.

12-13 And this is what will happen: When you, on your part, will obey these directives, keeping and following them, God, on his part, will keep the covenant of loyal love that he made with your ancestors: He will love you, He will bless you, He will increase you.

13-15 He will bless the babies from your womb and the harvest of grain, new wine, and oil from your fields; he’ll bless the calves from your herds and lambs from your flocks in the country he promised your ancestors that he’d give you. You’ll be blessed beyond all other peoples: no sterility or barrenness in you or your animals. God will get rid of all sickness. And all the evil afflictions you experienced in Egypt he’ll put not on you but on those who hate you.

16 You’ll make mincemeat of all the peoples that God, your God, hands over to you. Don’t feel sorry for them. And don’t worship their gods—they’ll trap you for sure.

17-19 You’re going to think to yourselves, “Oh! We’re outnumbered ten to one by these nations! We’ll never even make a dent in them!” But I’m telling you, Don’t be afraid. Remember, yes, remember in detail what God, your God, did to Pharaoh and all Egypt. Remember the great contests to which you were eyewitnesses: the miracle-signs, the wonders, God’s mighty hand as he stretched out his arm and took you out of there. God, your God, is going to do the same thing to these people you’re now so afraid of. 20 And to top it off, the Hornet. God will unleash the Hornet on them until every survivor-in-hiding is dead.

21-24 So don’t be intimidated by them. God, your God, is among you—majestic God, awesome God. God, your God, will get rid of these nations, bit by bit. You won’t be permitted to wipe them out all at once lest the wild animals take over and overwhelm you. But God, your God, will move them out of your way—he’ll throw them into a huge panic until there’s nothing left of them. He’ll turn their kings over to you and you’ll remove all trace of them under Heaven. Not one person will be able to stand up to you; you’ll put an end to them all.

25-26 Make sure you set fire to their carved gods. Don’t get greedy for the veneer of silver and gold on them and take it for yourselves—you’ll get trapped by it for sure. God hates it; it’s an abomination to God, your God. And don’t dare bring one of these abominations home or you’ll end up just like it, burned up as a holy destruction. No: It is forbidden! Hate it. Abominate it. Destroy it and preserve God’s holiness.

God wants to bless the Israelites in ways they can’t even imagine, but there are conditions. The Israelites MUST follow ALL of God’s commands regarding the superpowers they are about to encounter. Notice God’s warnings: The Israelites must completely wipe out all these nations, destroying all the objects covered with silver and gold, all the carvings, all the idols. If the Israelites become distracted and begin compromising, all the things they have refused to destroy will become spiritual snares. These objects have all been devoted to demons and the demons are still there, simply waiting for their next target. The Israelites can easily fall into demonic traps.

God isn’t mincing any words; obey or else! What do these verses mean for us? God wants us to live holy, happy, and productive lives. But we too must meet God’s conditions. We must follow God’s rules, not our own. We must allow God’s Word to guide us, not the latest podcasts, tiktok videos, or other things we absorb from social media.

What videos are playing in your mind? Are you visualizing holiness, or are you allowing sexy or violent videos to entertain you? Make no mistake! Whatever you feed your mind will determine your life. GIGO-Garbage In, Garbage Out! Follow God’s rules, be blessed. Do something else and suffer the consequences. As the title of this study says, “Ignore God’s promises? You’ve got to be a special kind of stupid!”

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

Deuteronomy 7:1-2 When God, your God, brings you into the country that you are about to enter and take over, he will clear out the superpowers that were there before you: the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Those seven nations are all bigger and stronger than you are. God, your God, will turn them over to you and you will conquer them. You must completely destroy them, offering them up as a holy destruction to God. Don’t make a treaty with them. Don’t let them off in any way.

3-4 Don’t marry them: Don’t give your daughters to their sons and don’t take their daughters for your sons—before you know it they’d involve you in worshiping their gods, and God would explode in anger, putting a quick end to you.

Now God is getting down to basics. When the Israelites enter Canaan, they are going to come up against seven nations that are much bigger and stronger than they are-superpowers! God promises to hand these nations over to the Israelites; however, there are conditions: The Israelites must completely destroy these people, refusing to make any treaties or compromising with them, refusing to make alliances by marriage. Such alliances will seduce the Israelites into idolatry and foul practices. God knows His people, and they are easily confused spiritually. God wants the Israelites to offer up these people as a holy destruction, a kind of offering. Why “holy destruction?” Because these people have degenerated to the point of no return spiritually.

Back in the day, Abraham had friends who were Amorites. At that time, there were still some Amorites who were virtuous; however, God advised Abraham that by the time his descendants returned from Egypt, the Amorites would have degenerated so far that they would require extinction. (Genesis 15:16) Now that time has arrived.  

5-6 Here’s what you are to do: Tear apart their altars stone by stone, smash their phallic pillars, chop down their sex-and-religion Asherah groves, set fire to their carved god-images. Do this because you are a people set apart as holy to God, your God. God, your God, chose you out of all the people on Earth for himself as a cherished, personal treasure.

Why is God insisting that the Israelites tear down the altars, phallic pillars, and Asherah groves and burn their idols? God knows that if the Israelites leave any of these things, they will eventually worship them, despite all His commands to the contrary. The Israelites might cherish illusions about their own virtue; however, God knows better. Bling has always been a big attraction for people, and the Israelites are no exception.

7-10 God wasn’t attracted to you and didn’t choose you because you were big and important—the fact is, there was almost nothing to you. He did it out of sheer love, keeping the promise he made to your ancestors. God stepped in and mightily bought you back out of that world of slavery, freed you from the iron grip of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know this: God, your God, is God indeed, a God you can depend upon. He keeps his covenant of loyal love with those who love him and observe his commandments for a thousand generations. But he also pays back those who hate him, pays them the wages of death; he isn’t slow to pay them off—those who hate him, he pays right on time.

Well, in case the Israelites have been admiring themselves as God’s special pets, this is a reality check. God has helped the Israelites because He has made promises and is keeping those promises out of sheer love. The Israelites can depend on God, but can God depend on the Israelites? God keeps covenants, but what about the Israelites? Breaking covenant with God has consequences, something the Israelites will eventually learn to their sorrow. God can watch a thousand generations of a family remain faithful to Him; meanwhile, the Israelites can barely see beyond the end of their noses.

 In an earlier age, people who tried to compromise and occupy both sides of a political fence were called “Mugwumps,” meaning that they had their mugs, their faces, on one side of the fence while their wumps, their rumps, were on the other. Some people are spiritual mugwumps; they want to appear as holy as possible while secretly indulging themselves in various sins.

We read Deuteronomy and marvel at God’s wonderful promises to the Israelites-health, wealth, descendants beyond counting. But as we are reading, we know that the Israelites are going to skitter off into idolatry, refusing to believe God. How many of us are guilty of the same behavior? We see God’s promises in His Word; yet, we want to indulge ourselves in ungodly speculations or become entranced by various kinds of social media. Today there are millions of people trying to become influencers to sway hearts and minds. How many of us will pay more attention to our favorite influencer than we do to the Word of God. Influencers can manipulate videos to tell all kinds of lies; meanwhile, the Word has stood for thousands of years. May God help us so that we pay attention to Him and not to fallible humans!

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help us to study Your Word, memorize Your Word, and live according to Your Word. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 6:10-12 “When God, your God, ushers you into the land he promised through your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give you, you’re going to walk into large, bustling cities you didn’t build, well-furnished houses you didn’t buy, come upon wells you didn’t dig, vineyards and olive orchards you didn’t plant. When you take it all in and settle down, pleased and content, make sure you don’t forget how you got there—God brought you out of slavery in Egypt.”

President Harry S Truman used to describe something he called “the Potomac Syndrome.” The Potomac syndrome refers to a phenomenon where individuals, particularly in political or bureaucratic contexts, become disconnected from the realities of their constituents or the public they serve. According to Truman, once politicians got into office, they immediately forgot the people who had helped them get elected. Now God is warning the Israelites that they should not get so involved in reveling in the blessings of the Promised Land that they forget the God who has delivered them from slavery, protected and fed them for forty years, making it possible.

13-19 “Deeply respect God, your God. Serve and worship him exclusively. Back up your promises with his name only. Don’t fool around with other gods, the gods of your neighbors, because God, your God, who is alive among you is a jealous God. Don’t provoke him, igniting his hot anger that would burn you right off the face of the Earth. Don’t push God, your God, to the wall as you did that day at Massah, the Testing-Place. Carefully keep the commands of God, your God, all the requirements and regulations he gave you. Do what is right; do what is good in God’s sight so you’ll live a good life and be able to march in and take this pleasant land that God so solemnly promised through your ancestors, throwing out your enemies left and right—exactly as God said.”

God demands respect, not tolerance or disinterest. All the time God is giving these warnings, the Israelites are standing around, shifting from one foot to the other, waiting for Moses to finish warning them. “Surely,” the Israelites think, “there’s no way we are going to worship idols. Our fathers might have paid for their lack of faith, but we will be different.” God, on the other hand, knows full well that given the chance, these people will run off and join any fertility rites going. That’s why God is warning them.

20-24 The next time your child asks you, “What do these requirements and regulations and rules that God, our God, has commanded mean?” tell your child, “We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt and God powerfully intervened and got us out of that country. We stood there and watched as God delivered miracle-signs, great wonders, and evil-visitations on Egypt, on Pharaoh and his household. He pulled us out of there so he could bring us here and give us the land he so solemnly promised to our ancestors. That’s why God commanded us to follow all these rules, so that we would live reverently before God, our God, as he gives us this good life, keeping us alive for a long time to come.

25 “It will be a set-right and put-together life for us if we make sure that we do this entire commandment in the Presence of God, our God, just as he commanded us to do.”

Once more, God is warning His people that they need to teach their children the entire story about slavery in Egypt, forty years of miracles, and all God’s commandments. Teaching children will help adults remember these things as well. May God help us so that we will not only study His Word for ourselves but also teach our children and grandchildren.

PRAYER: Father God , thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help us to teach You Word to our friends and families. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

6 1-2 This is the commandment, the rules and regulations, that God, your God, commanded me to teach you to live out in the land you’re about to cross into to possess. This is so that you’ll live in deep reverence before God lifelong, observing all his rules and regulations that I’m commanding you, you and your children and your grandchildren, living good long lives.

3 Listen obediently, Israel. Do what you’re told so that you’ll have a good life, a life of abundance and bounty, just as God promised, in a land abounding in milk and honey.

4 Attention, Israel! God, our God! God the one and only!

5 Love God, your God, with your whole heart: love him with all that’s in you, love him with all you’ve got!

6-9 Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside 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 to when you fall into bed at night. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates.

“3 Listen obediently, Israel. Do what you’re told so that you’ll have a good life, a life of abundance and bounty, just as God promised, in a land abounding in milk and honey.”

The title for these studies in Deuteronomy is “But God, do I really have to obey you? Why?” The reason for that title should be obvious. Deuteronomy embodies everything Moses tries to tell the Israelites just before he dies. Moses knows his time is short and the Israelites are rebellious. It’s likely Moses knows about all the pagan gods these people have persisted in hauling all through the wilderness. At night, when those worshiping the moon and stars have been slinking out to some quiet place, Moses has probably seen them going and knows full well what they are doing. Moses might also suspect that given the opportunity to engage in ritual sex, many of his people will be rushing to join in; after all, look what happened at Peor.

“5 Love God, your God, with your whole heart: love him with all that’s in you, love him with all you’ve got! 6-9 Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside 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 to when you fall into bed at night. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates.”

God and Moses want the Israelites to have as many reminders of the commandments as possible, not only physical ones, but also mental ones. Sadly, the Israelites will only follow these commandments partially, reducing what should be acts of devotion to meaningless mechanical observations. Eventually, the Israelites will lose their land because of their failures; however, God will return some of them from Babylon, and there will always be a faithful remnant.

One Jewish writer who grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan has described Jewish taxi drivers at the turn of the nineteenth century who would take time out from their struggle to make a living to join in groups to study “ein stickl Torah,” a little piece of Torah. Even in the concentration camps and in other hostage situations, there have been people coming together to study God’s Word.

The phrase “a land of milk and honey” occur many times throughout the Bible, but what does it mean? http://www.Gotquestions.org tells us, “This poetic description of Israel’s land emphasizes the fertility of the soil and bounty that awaited God’s chosen people. The reference to “milk” suggests that many livestock could find pasture there; the mention of “honey” suggests the vast farmland available—the bees had plenty of plants to draw nectar from.” The Israelites have been wandering around in barren lands for years; after all, God has had to feed them manna and supply water miraculously for them to survive. Now God is promising to bring the Israelites into a fertile land where they will enjoy abundance of all kinds. But, there’s a catch: “Do what you’re told.” The Israelites have already demonstrated that they are remarkably bad at listening and obeying!

We might read these verses and feel a bit smug, for we know that eventually the Israelites will fall into sin and be carried off by the Assyrians and the Babylonians. But are we any better? Tee shirts and ball caps with scriptures on them and WWJD bracelets asking “What Would Jesus Do?” are popular, but if our hearts don’t match our tee shirts, we’d better change clothes! And are we teaching our children and grandchildren about God or are we leaving them to become spiritual orphans? Years ago, my husband and I taught in Children’s Church, and one of the shocking things was the number of kids who knew absolutely nothing about God or the Bible. Many of these kids came from families where their parents were actively involved in heavy duty Bible studies several times a week, but still the kids were Biblical illiterates. We found we had to start at the basics for all our kids.

God has given instructions for all of us: Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside 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 to when you fall into bed at night. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates.

Absorb God’s Word and make it part of your thoughts and your daily life. May God help us to be obedient!

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help us to make Your Word part of our daily lives. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 6 The Message

6 1-2 This is the commandment, the rules and regulations, that God, your God, commanded me to teach you to live out in the land you’re about to cross into to possess. This is so that you’ll live in deep reverence before God lifelong, observing all his rules and regulations that I’m commanding you, you and your children and your grandchildren, living good long lives.

3 Listen obediently, Israel. Do what you’re told so that you’ll have a good life, a life of abundance and bounty, just as God promised, in a land abounding in milk and honey.

4 Attention, Israel! God, our God! God the one and only! 5 Love God, your God, with your whole heart: love him with all that’s in you, love him with all you’ve got!

6-9 Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside 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 to when you fall into bed at night. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates.

10-12 When God, your God, ushers you into the land he promised through your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give you, you’re going to walk into large, bustling cities you didn’t build, well-furnished houses you didn’t buy, come upon wells you didn’t dig, vineyards and olive orchards you didn’t plant. When you take it all in and settle down, pleased and content, make sure you don’t forget how you got there—God brought you out of slavery in Egypt.

13-19 Deeply respect God, your God. Serve and worship him exclusively. Back up your promises with his name only. Don’t fool around with other gods, the gods of your neighbors, because God, your God, who is alive among you is a jealous God. Don’t provoke him, igniting his hot anger that would burn you right off the face of the Earth. Don’t push God, your God, to the wall as you did that day at Massah, the Testing-Place. Carefully keep the commands of God, your God, all the requirements and regulations he gave you. Do what is right; do what is good in God’s sight so you’ll live a good life and be able to march in and take this pleasant land that God so solemnly promised through your ancestors, throwing out your enemies left and right—exactly as God said.

20-24 The next time your child asks you, “What do these requirements and regulations and rules that God, our God, has commanded mean?” tell your child, “We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt and God powerfully intervened and got us out of that country. We stood there and watched as God delivered miracle-signs, great wonders, and evil-visitations on Egypt, on Pharaoh and his household. He pulled us out of there so he could bring us here and give us the land he so solemnly promised to our ancestors. That’s why God commanded us to follow all these rules, so that we would live reverently before God, our God, as he gives us this good life, keeping us alive for a long time to come.

25 “It will be a set-right and put-together life for us if we make sure that we do this entire commandment in the Presence of God, our God, just as he commanded us to do.”

A Jewish website, Chabad.org, contains these instructions: Cover your eyes with your right hand and say: Hear, O Israel, the L-rd is our G‑d, the L-rd is One. Recite the following verse in an undertone: Blessed be the name of the glory of His kingdom forever and ever.

You shall love the L-rd your G‑d with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I command you today shall be upon your heart. You shall teach them thoroughly to your children, and you shall speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road, when you lie down and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for a reminder between your eyes. And you shall write them upon the doorposts of your house and upon your gates.

And it will be, if you will diligently obey My commandments which I enjoin upon you this day, to love the L-rd your G‑d and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, I will give rain for your land at the proper time, the early rain and the late rain, and you will gather in your grain, your wine and your oil. And I will give grass in your fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be sated. Take care lest your heart be lured away, and you turn astray and worship alien gods and bow down to them. For then the L-rd’s wrath will flare up against you, and He will close the heavens so that there will be no rain and the earth will not yield its produce, and you will swiftly perish from the good land which the L-rd gives you. Therefore, place these words of Mine upon your heart and upon your soul, and bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for a reminder between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, to speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road, when you lie down and when you rise. And you shall inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates – so that your days and the days of your children may be prolonged on the land which the L-rd swore to your fathers to give to them for as long as the heavens are above the earth.

The L-rd spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the children of Israel and tell them to make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to attach a thread of blue on the fringe of each corner. They shall be to you as tzizit, and you shall look upon them and remember all the commandments of the L-rd and fulfill them, and you will not follow after your heart and after your eyes by which you go astray – so that you may remember and fulfill all My commandments and be holy to your G‑d. I am the L-rd your G‑d who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your G‑d; I, the L-rd, am your G‑d. True.

I have no way of conveying how much these verses have meant to both Jews and Christians through the centuries. Jews refer to verses 4-5 as the Shema (pronounced “sheh-mah`” with the accent on the second syllable. The tone also goes up on the second syllable.) Ever since Moses gave these laws, observant Jews dying under all kinds of circumstances, including concentration camps and capture by Hamas, have died repeating the Shema. Each time Jews or Messianic Jews worship together, they repeat the Shema.

Once a lawyer came to Jesus and began querying him to see how well he knew the Scriptures. Mark tells the story in Mark 12:28-34 “28 One of the religion scholars came up. Hearing the lively exchanges of question and answer and seeing how sharp Jesus was in his answers, he put in his question: “Which is most important of all the commandments?”

29-31 Jesus said, “The first in importance is, ‘Listen, Israel: The Lord your God is one; so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.’ And here is the second: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ There is no other commandment that ranks with these.”

32-33 The religion scholar said, “A wonderful answer, Teacher! So clear-cut and accurate—that God is one and there is no other. And loving him with all passion and intelligence and energy, and loving others as well as you love yourself. Why, that’s better than all offerings and sacrifices put together!”

34 When Jesus realized how insightful he was, he said, “You’re almost there, right on the border of God’s kingdom.”

After that, no one else dared ask a question.”

One of the most important ways we can truly honor God is by reading His Word, studying His Word, and hiding His Word in our hearts until it becomes part of our daily thinking and our primary motive for all that we do. Look at the glorious promises for those who honor God’s Word. If we want those promises for ourselves and our children, we must teach God’s Word to them so that they can teach it to their children. When we fail to teach others, we are dooming our families, our communities, and our countries. May God help us to be faithful!

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. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Moses Teaches Israel on the Plains of Moab

5 Moses called all Israel together. He said to them, “Attention, Israel. Listen obediently to the rules and regulations I am delivering to your listening ears today. Learn them. Live them.

2-5 God, our God, made a covenant with us at Horeb. God didn’t just make this covenant with our parents; he made it also with us, with all of us who are alive right now. God spoke to you personally out of the fire on the mountain. At the time I stood between God and you, to tell you what God said. You were afraid, remember, of the fire and wouldn’t climb the mountain.

He said: 6 I am God, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of a house of slaves. 7 No other gods, only me. 8-10 No carved gods of any size, shape, or form of anything whatever, whether of things that fly or walk or swim. Don’t bow down to them and don’t serve them because I am God, your God, and I’m a most jealous God. I hold parents responsible for any sins they pass on to their children to the third, and yes, even to the fourth generation. But I’m lovingly loyal to the thousands who love me and keep my commandments.

11 No using the name of God, your God, in curses or silly banter; God won’t put up with the irreverent use of his name.

12-15 No working on the Sabbath; keep it holy just as God, your God, commanded you. Work six days, doing everything you have to do, but the seventh day is a Sabbath, a Rest Day—no work: not you, your son, your daughter, your servant, your maid, your ox, your donkey (or any of your animals), and not even the foreigner visiting your town. That way your servants and maids will get the same rest as you. Don’t ever forget that you were slaves in Egypt and God, your God, got you out of there in a powerful show of strength. That’s why God, your God, commands you to observe the day of Sabbath rest.

16 Respect your father and mother—God, your God, commands it! You’ll have a long life; the land that God is giving you will treat you well.

17 No murder.

18 No adultery.

19 No stealing.

20 No lies about your neighbor.

21 No coveting your neighbor’s wife. And no lusting for his house, field, servant, maid, ox, or donkey either—nothing that belongs to your neighbor!

22 These are the words that God spoke to the whole congregation at the mountain. He spoke in a tremendous voice from the fire and cloud and dark mist. And that was it. No more words. Then he wrote them on two slabs of stone and gave them to me.

23-24 As it turned out, when you heard the Voice out of that dark cloud and saw the mountain on fire, you approached me, all the heads of your tribes and your leaders, and said,

24-26 “Our God has revealed to us his glory and greatness. We’ve heard him speak from the fire today! We’ve seen that God can speak to humans and they can still live. But why risk it further? This huge fire will devour us if we stay around any longer. If we hear God’s voice anymore, we’ll die for sure. Has anyone ever known of anyone who has heard the Voice of God the way we have and lived to tell the story?

27 “From now on, you go and listen to what God, our God, says and then tell us what God tells you. We’ll listen and we’ll do it.”

28-29 God heard what you said to me and told me, “I’ve heard what the people said to you. They’re right—good and true words. What I wouldn’t give if they’d always feel this way, continuing to revere me and always keep all my commands; they’d have a good life forever, they and their children!

30-31 “Go ahead and tell them to go home to their tents. But you, you stay here with me so I can tell you every commandment and all the rules and regulations that you must teach them so they’ll know how to live in the land that I’m giving them as their own.”

32-33 So be very careful to act exactly as God commands you. Don’t veer off to the right or the left. Walk straight down the road God commands so that you’ll have a good life and live a long time in the land that you’re about to possess.”

The Israelites are camped on the plains of Moab just outside the Promised Land. Moses is feverishly reviewing everything God has tried to teach these people so that when they enter Canaan, they won’t mess up and lose everything for which they have suffered so long. Some of the people to whom Moses is speaking were children when he ascended Mount Sinai. All these people remember is the fire, the smoke, the earthquake, and the sound of a divine trumpet. Some of them might vaguely remember what happened to those who created the golden calf and then worshiped it, but those memories are childish, tinged with wonder rather than regret or awe. Now Moses is describing how God gave him the Ten Commandments and the rationale behind them.

What must Moses be thinking as he is giving this review? Although the commandments are written on tablets of stone that are kept in the Arc of the Covenant, Moses is bending every effort to ensure that the Israelites are writing these commandments in their hearts and minds. After all, the Arc is sacred, and only the priests might possibly open it on special occasions. If the Israelites as a group don’t incorporate these commandments into their daily lives and teach them to their children and grandchildren, they will soon modify them or forget them completely.

In the C.S. Lewis Chronicles of Narnia book The Silver Chair, the heroine Jill is given specific instructions on locating a captive prince by Aslan, the lion who represents Jesus, the Lion of Judah. Jill is supposed to keep repeating these instructions accurately and completely so that she and her companions will successfully complete their quest; however, Jill begins to tire and is only reminded of some of the instructions when life-threatening emergencies occur. Make no mistake! The Chronicles of Narnia are for people of all ages, not merely for children. And the faith lessons embodied there are timeless.

“I am God, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of a house of slaves. 7 No other gods, only me. 8-10 No carved gods of any size, shape, or form of anything whatever, whether of things that fly or walk or swim. Don’t bow down to them and don’t serve them because I am God, your God, and I’m a most jealous God. I hold parents responsible for any sins they pass on to their children to the third, and yes, even to the fourth generation. But I’m lovingly loyal to the thousands who love me and keep my commandments.”

Having undergone such a miraculous deliverance, why would any group of people fail to remember God or to worship Him alone? Most people are fickle, with very short attention spans. The Israelites have spent 400 years in Egypt watching the Egyptians worship images of all kinds of animals. The worldhistory.org website tells us that there were over 2,000 deities in the Egyptian pantheon. When the Israelites left Egypt, they carried some of these images with them and continued to worship them even after God had destroyed Pharaoh’s army at the Red Sea.

27 “From now on, you go and listen to what God, our God, says and then tell us what God tells you. We’ll listen and we’ll do it.”

28-29 God heard what you said to me and told me, “I’ve heard what the people said to you. They’re right—good and true words. What I wouldn’t give if they’d always feel this way, continuing to revere me and always keep all my commands; they’d have a good life forever, they and their children!” God exists outside of time and knows the end from the beginning. God knows that the same people who are swearing they will never fall away will become entranced with pagan practices given the opportunity.

How faithful are we? Do we treat God’s commandments as if they were merely suggestions to be considered and refused or modified at a whim? Remember Numbers 23:19 that says “God is not a man that He should lie, nor a son of man that He should repent.” God means what He says. If we are foolish enough to refuse to listen, we will suffer the consequences. May God help us to remain faithful and to honor His Word in all that we do and say!

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help us to study Your Word, to learn Your Word, and to honor Your Word by obeying it without arguing or modifying it. We ask this in the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 4:23-49

23-24 So stay alert. Don’t for a minute forget the covenant which God, your God, made with you. And don’t take up with any carved images, no forms of any kind—God, your God, issued clear commands on that. God, your God, is not to be trifled with—he’s a consuming fire, a jealous God.

25-28 When the time comes that you have children and grandchildren, put on years, and start taking things for granted, if you then become corrupt and make any carved images, no matter what their form, by doing what is sheer evil in God’s eyes and provoking his anger—I can tell you right now, with Heaven and Earth as witnesses, that it will be all over for you. You’ll be kicked off the land that you’re about to cross over the Jordan to possess. Believe me, you’ll have a very short stay there. You’ll be ruined, completely ruined. God will scatter you far and wide; a few of you will survive here and there in the nations where God will drive you. There you can worship your homemade gods to your hearts’ content, your wonderful gods of wood and stone that can’t see or hear or eat or smell.

29-31 But even there, if you seek God, your God, you’ll be able to find him if you’re serious, looking for him with your whole heart and soul. When troubles come and all these awful things happen to you, in future days you will come back to God, your God, and listen obediently to what he says. God, your God, is above all a compassionate God. In the end he will not abandon you, he won’t bring you to ruin, he won’t forget the covenant with your ancestors which he swore to them.

32-33 Ask questions. Find out what has been going on all these years before you were born. From the day God created man and woman on this Earth, and from the horizon in the east to the horizon in the west—as far back as you can imagine and as far away as you can imagine—has as great a thing as this ever happened? Has anyone ever heard of such a thing? Has a people ever heard, as you did, a god speaking out of the middle of the fire and lived to tell the story?

34 Or has a god ever tried to select for himself a nation from within a nation using trials, miracles, and war, putting his strong hand in, reaching his long arm out, a spectacle awesome and staggering, the way God, your God, did it for you in Egypt while you stood right there and watched?

35-38 You were shown all this so that you would know that God is, well, God. He’s the only God there is. He’s it. He made it possible for you to hear his voice out of Heaven to discipline you. Down on Earth, he showed you the big fire and again you heard his words, this time out of the fire. He loved your ancestors and chose to work with their children. He personally and powerfully brought you out of Egypt in order to displace bigger and stronger and older nations with you, bringing you out and turning their land over to you as an inheritance. And now it’s happening. This very day.

39-40 Know this well, then. Take it to heart right now: God is in Heaven above; God is on Earth below. He’s the only God there is. Obediently live by his rules and commands which I’m giving you today so that you’ll live well and your children after you—oh, you’ll live a long time in the land that God, your God, is giving you.

* * *

41-42 Then Moses set aside three towns in the country on the east side of the Jordan to which someone who had unintentionally killed a person could flee and find refuge. If the murder was unintentional and there was no history of bad blood, the murderer could flee to one of these cities and save his life:

43 Bezer in the wilderness on the tableland for the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.

* * *

44-49 This is the Revelation that Moses presented to the People of Israel. These are the testimonies, the rules and regulations Moses spoke to the People of Israel after their exodus from Egypt and arrival on the east side of the Jordan in the valley near Beth Peor. It was the country of Sihon king of the Amorites who ruled from Heshbon. Moses and the People of Israel fought and beat him after they left Egypt and took his land. They also took the land of Og king of Bashan. The two Amorite kings held the country on the east of the Jordan from Aroer on the bank of the Brook Arnon as far north as Mount Siyon, that is, Mount Hermon, all the Arabah plain east of the Jordan, and as far south as the Sea of the Arabah (the Dead Sea) beneath the slopes of Mount Pisgah.

God is continuing to speak through Moses. “God, your God, is not to be trifled with—he’s a consuming fire, a jealous God.When the time comes that you have children and grandchildren, put on years, and start taking things for granted, if you then become corrupt and make any carved images, no matter what their form, by doing what is sheer evil in God’s eyes and provoking his anger—I can tell you right now, with Heaven and Earth as witnesses, that it will be all over for you. You’ll be kicked off the land that you’re about to cross over the Jordan to possess.”

Reading Deuteronomy is a lot like watching a horror movie. The curious couple become obsessed with exploring the spooky old Victorian mansion. The front door opens with an eerie creaking noise and satanic laughter echoes from an upstairs room. While those of us in the audience are screaming “Turn around and go home!” the unwary couple stupidly walk into a library draped in cobwebs with a skeleton waiting for them in an easy chair. We know that this story is going to end badly, but we are fascinated, riveted to our seats as the couple move progressively closer to disaster and a ghastly death.

Deuteronomy is packed with gems of divine intelligence interspersed with dire warnings for those stupid enough to refuse to obey. Even as we read Moses’s advice, we already know that the Israelites are going to enter Canaan and plunge into every kind of idolatry, including fertility cults, religious prostitution, and even sacrifice of live children. Before it’s over, the Assyrians will carry the ten northern tribes off, never to return, while the Babylonians will destroy Jerusalem and carry many from Judah and Benjamin back to Babylon.

But Moses’ warnings also come with a promise: “But even there, if you seek God, your God, you’ll be able to find him if you’re serious, looking for him with your whole heart and soul. When troubles come and all these awful things happen to you, in future days you will come back to God, your God, and listen obediently to what he says. God, your God, is above all a compassionate God. In the end he will not abandon you, he won’t bring you to ruin, he won’t forget the covenant with your ancestors which he swore to them.”

Our choice is simple: Obey and be blessed or rebel and suffer. May we consistently obey God so that we will continue to enjoy His blessings and His provision.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, give us minds that are always open to receive Your Word and hearts willing to obey without arguing or making excuses. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 4:1-23

4 1-2 Now listen, Israel, listen carefully to the rules and regulations that I am teaching you to follow so that you may live and enter and take possession of the land that God, the God-of-Your-Fathers, is giving to you. Don’t add a word to what I command you, and don’t remove a word from it. Keep the commands of God, your God, that I am commanding you.

3-4 You saw with your own eyes what God did at Baal Peor, how God destroyed from among you every man who joined in the Baal Peor orgies. But you, the ones who held tight to God, your God, are alive and well, every one of you, today.

5-6 Pay attention: I’m teaching you the rules and regulations that God commanded me, so that you may live by them in the land you are entering to take up ownership. Keep them. Practice them. You’ll become wise and understanding. When people hear and see what’s going on, they’ll say, “What a great nation! So wise, so understanding! We’ve never seen anything like it.”

7-8 Yes. What other great nation has gods that are intimate with them the way God, our God, is with us, always ready to listen to us? And what other great nation has rules and regulations as good and fair as this Revelation that I’m setting before you today?

9 Just make sure you stay alert. Keep close watch over yourselves. Don’t forget anything of what you’ve seen. Don’t let your heart wander off. Stay vigilant as long as you live. Teach what you’ve seen and heard to your children and grandchildren.

10 That day when you stood before God, your God, at Horeb, God said to me, “Assemble the people in my presence to listen to my words so that they will learn to fear me in holy fear for as long as they live on the land, and then they will teach these same words to their children.”

11-13 You gathered. You stood in the shadow of the mountain. The mountain was ablaze with fire, blazing high into the very heart of Heaven. You stood in deep darkness and thick clouds. God spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but you saw nothing—no form, only a voice. He announced his covenant, the Ten Words, by which he commanded you to live. Then he wrote them down on two slabs of stone.

14 And God commanded me at that time to teach you the rules and regulations that you are to live by in the land which you are crossing over the Jordan to possess.

15-20 You saw no form on the day God spoke to you at Horeb from out of the fire. Remember that. Carefully guard yourselves so that you don’t turn corrupt and make a form, carving a figure that looks male or female, or looks like a prowling animal or a flying bird or a slithering snake or a fish in a stream. And also carefully guard yourselves so that you don’t look up into the skies and see the sun and moon and stars, all the constellations of the skies, and be seduced into worshiping and serving them. God set them out for everybody’s benefit, everywhere. But you—God took you right out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to become the people of his inheritance—and that’s what you are this very day.

21-22 But God was angry with me because of you and the things you said. He swore that I’d never cross the Jordan, never get to enter the good land that God, your God, is giving you as an inheritance. This means that I am going to die here. I’m not crossing the Jordan. But you will cross; you’ll possess the good land.”

Poor Moses! After a forty-year sojourn in the wilderness rather than a swift victorious entry into Canaan, he knows he has lost the opportunity forever. But Moses is a man of amazing faith and spiritual maturity and he is still operating under God’s orders. Now Moses is seriously warning the Israelites to remain faithful and not to divert into idolatry. Actions have consequences, and Moses does everything possible to warn the Israelites and to delineate the horrors that will overtake them should they worship idols.

“Now listen, Israel, listen carefully to the rules and regulations that I am teaching you to follow so that you may live and enter and take possession of the land that God, the God-of-Your-Fathers, is giving to you. Don’t add a word to what I command you, and don’t remove a word from it.” The title of these studies is “BUT GOD, DO I REALLY HAVE TO OBEY YOU? WHY?” Throughout this chapter, Moses alternates between reminding the Israelites of the times they have failed to follow God faithfully and warning them of the consequences if they mess up.

Moses reminds his listeners, “You saw with your own eyes what God did at Baal Peor, how God destroyed from among you every man who joined in the Baal Peor orgies. But you, the ones who held tight to God, your God, are alive and well, every one of you, today.”

Moses has no illusions; he realizes that many of the Israelites are secretly keeping household gods and sneaking off to worship the moon and the stars. Moses also knows that God knows even more details about Israelite idolatry than he does. Desperately, Moses tries to remind the Israelites of the majesty and power of God, but all the time Moses is issuing these warnings, he is worried that the Israelites won’t take God seriously.

What can we learn from this passage? Actions do have consequences and God doesn’t play games. As a prophet, Moses senses that many of the Israelites are going to degenerate into idolatry. Moses knows that God is holy and must be respected, worshiped, and obeyed. No amount of empty promises will satisfy the One True Living God.

The entire Book of Deuteronomy is so inspiring and yet heart-breaking: inspiring because it encapsulates magnificent promises but heart-breaking because we know how tragically Israel will fail as they fall increasingly farther away from God. May we remain faithful to God, no matter what happens to us.

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. Help us to remain true, no matter what influences are pressing on us. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.   

Deuteronomy 3

3 Then we turned north and took the road to Bashan. Og king of Bashan, he and all his people, came out to meet us in battle at Edrei.

2 God said to me, “Don’t be afraid of him; I’m turning him over to you, along with his whole army and his land. Treat him the way you treated Sihon king of the Amorites who ruled from Heshbon.”

3-7 So God, our God, also handed Og king of Bashan over to us—Og and all his people—and we utterly crushed them. Again, no survivors. At the same time we took all his cities. There wasn’t one of the sixty cities that we didn’t take—the whole region of Argob, Og’s kingdom in Bashan. All these cities were fortress cities with high walls and barred gates. There were also numerous unwalled villages. We totally destroyed them—a holy destruction. It was the same treatment we gave to Sihon king of Heshbon, a holy destruction of every city, man, woman, and child. But all the livestock and plunder from the cities we took for ourselves.

8-10 Throughout that time we took the land from under the control of the two kings of the Amorites who ruled the country east of the Jordan, all the way from the Brook Arnon to Mount Hermon. (Sirion is the name given Hermon by the Sidonians; the Amorites call it Senir.) We took all the towns of the plateau, everything in Gilead, everything in Bashan, as far as Salecah and Edrei, the border towns of Bashan, Og’s kingdom.

11 Og king of Bashan was the last remaining Rephaite. His bed, made of iron, was over thirteen feet long and six wide. You can still see it on display in Rabbah of the People of Ammon.

* * *

Hmmm. So Og, King of Bashan, was a giant with a bed 13 feet long and 6 feet wide. No wonder God had to get rid of all those cowardly soldiers who quailed at the idea of facing giants! Now the Israelites have conquered the lush land of Gilead, and the Reubenites and the half-tribe of Manasseh have claimed this land for their own because they have so much livestock.

12 Of the land that we possessed at that time, I gave the Reubenites and the Gadites the territory north of Aroer along the Brook Arnon and half the hill country of Gilead with its towns.

13 I gave the half-tribe of Manasseh the rest of Gilead and all of Bashan, Og’s kingdom—all the region of Argob, which takes in all of Bashan. This used to be known as the Land of the Rephaites.

14 Jair, a son of Manasseh, got the region of Argob to the borders of the Geshurites and Maacathites. He named the Bashan villages after himself, Havvoth Jair (Jair’s Tent-Villages). They’re still called that.

15 I gave Gilead to Makir.

16-17 I gave the Reubenites and Gadites the land from Gilead down to the Brook Arnon, whose middle was the boundary, and as far as the Jabbok River, the boundary line of the People of Ammon. The western boundary was the Jordan River in the Arabah all the way from the Kinnereth (the Sea of Galilee) to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea or Dead Sea) at the base of the slopes of Mount Pisgah on the east.

* * *

18-20 I commanded you at that time, “God, your God, has given you this land to possess. Your men, fit and armed for the fight, are to cross the river in advance of their brothers, the People of Israel. Only your wives, children, and livestock (I know you have much livestock) may go ahead and settle down in the towns I have already given you until God secures living space for your brothers as he has for you and they have taken possession of the country west of the Jordan that God, your God, is giving them. After that, each man may return to the land I’ve given you here.”

* * *

21-22 I commanded Joshua at that time, “You’ve seen with your own two eyes everything God, your God, has done to these two kings. God is going to do the same thing to all the kingdoms over there across the river where you’re headed. Don’t be afraid of them. God, your God—he’s fighting for you.”

23-25 At that same time, I begged God: “God, my Master, you let me in on the beginnings, you let me see your greatness, you let me see your might—what god in Heaven or Earth can do anything like what you’ve done! Please, let me in also on the endings, let me cross the river and see the good land over the Jordan, the lush hills, the Lebanon mountains.”

26-27 But God was still angry with me because of you. He wouldn’t listen. He said, “Enough of that. Not another word from you on this. Climb to the top of Mount Pisgah and look around: look west, north, south, east. Take in the land with your own eyes. Take a good look because you’re not going to cross this Jordan.

28 “Then command Joshua: Give him courage. Give him strength. Single-handed he will lead this people across the river. Single-handed he’ll cause them to inherit the land at which you can only look.”

29 That’s why we have stayed in this valley near Beth Peor.”

Why is God being so mean to Moses? Moses has faithfully led the Israelites for forty years and has even met God. But Moses is paying heavily for losing his temper. The story is told in Numbers 20:1-12. Once more, the Israelites were whining for water and accusing Moses and Aaron. God ordered Moses to speak to the rock so that water would come forth; however, Moses struck the rock with his rod twice, saying “Listen, rebels! Do we have to bring water out of this rock for you?” God brought water out of the rock, but Moses’ failure to honor God and His holiness cost him the chance to enter the Promised Land. When Moses begs God once more for the chance to enter Canaan, God still refuses, ordering him to deputize Joshua to lead the people and then to ascend Mount Pisgah and die there.

Many times, people confuse God with Santa Claus, assuming that if they whine enough, God will change His “no” to “yes.” But in Numbers 23, God tells a pagan king, “God is not man, one given to lies, and not a son of man changing his mind.”

The story of God’s refusal to allow Moses to enter the Promised Land should serve as a warning to all of us. Moses is a towering figure; if Moses can mess up, so can the rest of us. God is to be worshiped and respected. Attempts at manipulation only demonstrate how little we know of God’s holiness. May God help us so that we will properly respect and adore him!

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help us to truly worship You and honor You in everything we say and do. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.