Deuteronomy 6-8 -- Our Greatest Danger

After Moses described everything the Israelites needed to hear from God, he said, “The right thing for us to do is this:  Obey all these rules in the presence of the Lord our God, as He commanded.”  God hadn’t just given them rules and returned to Heaven.  He promised to be in their camp; therefore, they needed to realize this and obey.  They also had to come to believe certain things to help them obey:

“You are holy people who belong to the Lord your God.  He has chosen you from all the people on earth to BE His very own.”

“The Lord chose you because He loved you.”

“So know that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God.  He will keep His agreement of love for a thousand lifetimes for people who love Him and obey His commands….”

What about what they’d experienced in the desert for 40 years?  “Remember how the Lord your God has led you in the desert for these 40 years, taking away your pride and testing you, because He wanted to know your heart…. He took away your pride when He let you get hungry and then He fed you … During these 40 years, your clothes did not ear out, and your feet did not swell.  Know in your heart that the Lord your God corrects you as a parent corrects a child.”

God had to take stuff away from them to get them to depend on Him and to remove their pride and reliance on self.  Once that happened, He would begin to bless them again.  He knew the temptation toward pride would return.  So He spent the rest of chapter 8 warning them about letting pride creep back in and how it would take them away from Him.

Father, the only way to keep pride at bay is to continually acknowledge that, but for You, we’d have nothing.  We have to reach the point where we see every good thing as a blessing from You and having nothing to do with our own goodness.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford