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27. Deuteronomy 8: “Obeying God at ALL Times”
Salem County Correctional Facility in Woodstown, NJ –
Men’s Evening Chapel Service on 1/27/2013
(edited January 2020)
Before Joshua took over in Ancient
Israel, the people had already begun to drive out their enemies as they
approached the Promised Land while still under the leadership of Moses. And he
was urging them to press on and obey God even though they hadn’t crossed the Jordan River
or gone into Jericho yet:
Verse 1:
“All the commandments which I command thee this day
shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess
the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers.”
Joshua would command the
assault on the Promised Land, and that is a good thing. But Moses spent his
entire ministry leading the people in circles through the wilderness.
Verses 2-4:
“And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years
in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine
heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments,
or no. And he humbled thee,
and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might
make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee,
neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.”
The Lord had kept them in
the wilderness so long it became a training ground. They showed that they weren’t
ready to conquer anything yet in His name. But that doesn’t mean God abandoned
them. He went through the wilderness with them, step by step. He blessed them
there also, and waited patiently for them to change and to reform. He trusted
that with help and experience they would learn and grow in their faith toward
Him. In reality it took a whole generation.
Verses 5-6:
“Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a
man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth
thee. Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of
the Lord thy God, to walk in his
ways, and to fear him.”
God was very purposeful,
but He
wasn't toying with them. Nor does He toy with us today. He cares about us, as
a good father does, under all circumstances. That doesn’t mean He won’t require
faith from His People, then and now.
I would say to an
unbeliever in our day that the Lord cares about you, very much, and has
throughout your life. He created you to begin with and you remain His concern
right now, even if you want nothing to do with Him!
Ancient Israel had delayed
their blessings for forty years through blatant unbelief. But the Lord still
remembered all His best plans and goals for them:
Verses 7-10:
“ For the Lord thy God
bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and
depths that spring out of valleys and hills; A land of wheat, and barley, and
vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey; A land
wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing
in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig
brass. When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he
hath given thee.”
I can claim no right to
criticize Ancient Israel. But I do believe that the Lord went ahead and blessed
them as a group in the Promised Land, in spite of their doubt and disobedience
out there in the wilderness. It wasn’t just for them that He finally did it,
nor did they really deserve it. It was so that they could continue on and
produce Jesse, David, Mary and Jesus Christ, our Savior.
Reflecting on this, I
wonder how many times the Lord has blessed and delivered me when I was actually
in the wrong or being unfaithful to Him. It also wasn’t only about me, but so I
could get through it and still have a chance to be a blessing to others. Can
you think back on some of the Lord’s mercy on you in this way? As long as we have life, even an imperfect
life like mine, we can still bless others. We need to answer His call today to serve and
share our blessings over the years with others.
(Blessing others can be
tricky. We might think, Lord I can’t feed every starving person in town. I
don’t have the resources for that. Even if I find the resources to do that for
one day, they will all be hungry again the next day. But sometimes it’s much
simpler than that. There might be those around us right now or close by who are
starving not for physical food, but just for someone to look in their eyes and
listen to what they have to say, even if only for a moment. Yet how often have
I left a simple kindness like that undone, even though it would have been
relatively easy to do?
Jesus looked up at a crowd
of people one day and said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is great.” But
some days when I look out on the same world, I see nothing, looking right past
many people that I could help. What Jesus said next has too often been a
commentary on my life. He said, “The harvest truly is great, but the workers
are few.” The time to serve Christ is right now, this day. What keeps me up
at night is not the failures of Ancient Israel, but my failures.)
Let’s get back to Moses:
Verses
11-17: “ Beware that thou forget not the Lord
thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes,
which I command thee this day: Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast
built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; And when thy herds and thy flocks
multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is
multiplied; Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth
out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; Who led thee through that
great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and
drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock
of flint; Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew
not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good
at thy latter end; And thou say in thine heart, My power and
the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.”
If we can’t honor our Lord
out in the wildernesses of this life, we should not assume that we will do it
in better times! I need to remember not to bargain with God, praying that if He
gives me all I want, then I’ll obey Him. The truth is, whether in
darkness or light, I must follow and obey Him through it all.
Moses understood this. Strength,
success, and physical victory actually sometimes cause spiritual defeat. Look
at what he tells them:
Verses 18-19: “ But thou shalt remember
the Lord thy God: for it is he
that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which
he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day. And it
shall be, if thou do at all forget the Lord
thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify
against you this day that ye shall surely perish.”
Here’s what I believe Moses feared most that The
People of God would forget about once they settled into that Land of figs, and
pomegranates, and honey described so well above:
1. To love the Lord (see Deuteronomy 5:6-15)
2. To love one another (see Deuteronomy 5:16-21
(We refer to this passage as the Ten Commandments.)
About 1,500 years later, Christ restates the same message for us in the New Testament:
“Then one of them, which
was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is
the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with
all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like
unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour
as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” -Matthew 22:35-40
Worldly success doesn’t have to draw us away from God’s
commandments, but to be honest, it can. That is actually what happen to Ancient
Israel, even after they got into Canaan.
Deuteronomy chapter 8 closes with this final dire warning from
Moses:
Verse
20: “As the
nations which the Lord destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish; because ye
would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God.”
Jesus also echoes that in the New Testament. The major difference
being that while they could only lose a physical kingdom here on the earth, we stand
to lose an eternal one in Heaven:
“And when he had called the people unto him with
his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will
come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save
his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the
gospel's, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a
man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a
man give in exchange for his soul?” -Mark
8:34-37
So, when is the best time to obey God? Of course, it is: All
the time. Even if you’re in the wilderness.
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