TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2011 (TOP)
FORGET LOVE AND YOU LOSE
(DEUTERONOMY 7:12-8:20)
God is love and He makes it abundantly clear to us in His Word that He loves His people. In loving us He finds pleasure in blessing us just as we are naturally drawn to bless those we love. God promises to give Israel a land overflowing with blessing. He looks forward to prospering the womb of each woman, the herds, grain, and their fruit trees with abundance. They will lack nothing! (7:13-15; 8:7-8)
But with this promise of blessing God includes a warning. The warning is that God's love can be taken for granted. Before long instead of God's love being the source of the blessing in our lives we can begin to actually think it is the result of our own efforts! God is forgotten and the blessings God gave us begin to replace God. Our hearts drift and we fall into the self-deception that we don't really need God!
Knowing this reoccurring theme in fallen humanity, God taught and tested them in the wilderness. Their every drop of water and every piece of manna came from God's loving care. The cloud that covered them from the sun and the fire that warmed them at night came from God. They were taught and tested to live in humble dependency upon God. The end goal was to bring them into a land where they would be given great blessing and wealth through the land God gave them (8:18).
God still seeks to teach us a life of humble dependency and to steer clear of the self-idolatry that feeds us with the delusion that we are the source of the good things given to us by God. That false conclusion will cause the loss of everything. Remember the point of our existence is to love God and be loved by Him. Keep this in our hearts and all is well. God finds joy in blessing us, the object of His love. Yet when we forget our purpose and we lose everything. God will not share our hearts with anything or anyone. He is a jealous God! Only when we enjoy all other things in and through our love for Him will God give us "all other things." Stay in love and stay humble.
NKJV BIBLE TEXT
Deuteronomy 7:12-8:20
12 "Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers. 13 And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you. 14 You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your livestock. 15 And the LORD will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you. 16 Also you shall destroy all the peoples whom the LORD your God delivers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.
17 "If you should say in your heart, 'These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?'— 18 you shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: 19 the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm, by which the LORD your God brought you out. So shall the LORD your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. 20 Moreover the LORD your God will send the hornet among them until those who are left, who hide themselves from you, are destroyed. 21 You shall not be terrified of them; for the LORD your God, the great and awesome God, is among you. 22 And the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you little by little; you will be unable to destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. 23 But the LORD your God will deliver them over to you, and will inflict defeat upon them until they are destroyed. 24 And He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you will destroy their name from under heaven; no one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them. 25 You shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire; you shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it; for it is an abomination to the LORD your God. 26 Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, for it is an accursed thing.
DEUTERONOMY 8
Remember the LORD Your God
1 "Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. 3 So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD. 4 Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. 5 You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the LORD your God chastens you.
6 "Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. 7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you.
11 "Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, 12 lest—when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; 13 and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; 14 when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; 15 who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end— 17 then you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.'
18 "And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. 19 Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the LORD your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. 20 As the nations which the LORD destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the LORD your God.
| Blessings of Obedience v. 13 He will love you and bless you – Here God is promises to bless Israel with physical blessings, which the pagans around them knew nothing of. He vows to express His love by blessing Israel in a supernatural way as long as they truly desire to remain and walk in a covenant relationship with Him. He promises that their land will be blessed in order to constantly provide abundant food, their livestock blessed to produce offspring, and their homes blessed with many healthy children. v. 15 will take away from you all sickness – This is another aspect of God's promise to Israel of supernatural blessing. He repeatedly promises to give Israel divine health, and that as long as they follow Him with their whole hearts and lives, they will never have to suffer from the diseases that the nations around them experience. It is important at this point to remember that these blessings were conditional, based on Israel's willingness to remain in covenant relationship with God. | v. 20 God will send the hornet among them – This is a promise of supernatural deliverance and victory. The Lord says that although Israel will not be able to deal with all of their enemies because many will hide themselves in rocks and holes, God will send Israel supernatural help and defeat its enemies even by using the smallest of insects if He so chooses. v. 22 God will drive out – God's care and provision for Israel even extended to the timing of their victories. Rather than driving out all of their enemies at once and allowing the land to be overrun by predators and wild animals, which could destroy the fields and vineyards, God allowed them to take the land little by little so that they would inherit fields and cities still being maintained. v. 25 burn the carved images – Included under the ban of Israel's holy war was all of the images of the pagans, even if they were covered with gold. Because the idols were abominations, the Hebrews were to consider everything that had to do with them an abomination. They were to be destroyed. |
| Chapter 8 Remember the LORD Your God v. 1 be careful to observe – Chapter 8 is a continuation of Moses' exhortation to Israel concerning the importance of honoring God above all else, so that they may prosper and remain blessed in the Promised Land. They are reminded of God's faithfulness to them over the past 40 years, even in some of the things that they might otherwise consider hardships, such as the times that God has chastened them. All of that was to be seen as blessings from God and a reminder to remain faithful to Him. v. 2 to know what was in your heart – God allowed Israel, as He allows us today, to go through difficult times of testing in order to reveal what was really in their hearts and how steadfast they were in their commitment to obey Him. Israel learned valuable lessons in the wilderness, lessons they were not to forget, including how easy it is to wander away from God in their hearts even when they have evidence in front of them (e.g. supernatural miracles such as the plagues of Egypt, the Red Sea, the pillar and cloud, and the manna in the wilderness). This chapter emphasizes the importance for Israel to do all that must be done to remain faithful to God when things are easy and they are at rest in fruitfulness. | v. 3 man shall not live by bread alone – God reveals that it was He who allowed Israel to taste hunger in the wilderness, and that He allowed it so that they could realize that their source of life was not physical bread but God. Jesus quoted this verse in response to Satan's temptation in Matthew 4:4. v. 4 your garments did not wear out – During the 40 years Israel spent wandering in the wilderness, Israelites wore the same shoes and clothing that they had on when they left Egypt. God had ensured supernaturally that they did not wear out. v. 5 so the Lord your God chastens you – Again, God reveals through Moses that the difficult times which Israel had experienced in the wilderness were all part of a divine plan for their good. The Lord allowed them to encounter trials and tribulations to reveal to them the true condition of their hearts and give them opportunity to repent of sinful attitudes and grow in godliness. In Hebrews 12:5-11, the author reveals that God still deals with us in much the same way. He reminds us that if we encounter difficult times as we follow Jesus, it is often by God's hand. He is chastening us so that we may grow in holiness. |
| v. 10 then you shall bless the Lord – To "bless" means to kneel before and adore, speaking the praises of. Moses reminds them to be a people continuously expressing thanks to God for His many blessings, knowing that offering up praise keeps God's people mindful of how great He is and how good He has been to us. This is one primary way to keep our hearts centered on Him and to avoid the backsliding, which Israel eventually experienced because of their disobedience to commands such as this. v. 14 forget the Lord your God – Moses reminds them that the greatest danger to spiritual health is usually not trials, tribulations and battles but rather peace, prosperity and contentedness. Again, the greatest dangers facing Israel in the Promised Land were not the giants or the wars they fought in taking it, but rather the blessings they experienced once they settled in the Promised Land. Trials have a way of keeping us centered and focused on the Lord, while prosperity often causes us to forget Who it is that has blessed us and how much we need to press in to Him for our very life. | v. 18 who gives you power – This is a reminder that it is the Lord who gives some people the ability to prosper more than others, and that if a person is able to experience abundance it is a gift from God. In 1 Corinthians 4:7, Paul reminds us to consider that the only ability any one person has to differ from another is a gift from God and not of ourselves. Everything we have, we have received from God. Daniel 5:23 reminds us that even our very breath is a gift from God and our drawing the next breath depends on Him. The purpose of these passages is to draw our focus away from ourselves as our source and back to the Lord as the giver of every good and perfect gift, so that we may walk more faithfully with Him. |
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