Deuteronomy 14-15 The Spirit Of The Law

God dealt with the other ways He knew the people would try to fudge on some of His laws.  If they had meat from an unclean animal and “just hated to waste it”, He said this:  “You may give it to a foreigner living in your town … or sell it to a foreigner.  But you are holy people who belong to the Lord your God.”

He told them to give one-tenth of their harvest to Him.  But He knew they’d make excuses later, such as, “The place You’ve chosen for us to worship You is too far away” or “You’ve blessed me so that it will be too costly to transport it all to You!”  So He even gave them rules about that, too.  Closing every loophole we might try to create!

Loans to other Israelites were to be forgiven the unpaid portion every 7 years.  He told them they’d be tempted to consider that the 7^th year was coming up and they’d decide not to lend for that very reason.  Those were “evil thoughts” in His way of seeing it, and they weren’t to do it.

If a Hebrew sold himself as a slave, the Hebrew slave owner was to set him free after 7 years of service.  God even addressed the thoughts of those future slave owners who might not want to free their slaves as He commanded.

He also addressed their future thoughts of offering defective animals to Him, simply because they were firstborn animals. 

God knows our thoughts, even before we think them.  He knows we are sin-infected, and that we will spend valuable time trying to figure out ways to cheat His laws or get around them.  And here He’s told us that the spirit of the Law is as important as the letter of that Law.  For in trying to circumvent it, we are in effect rebelling against it.  He tells us to simply OBEY.

Father, today I think we rationalize our way around many of the things You have commanded.  But You are God and I am not, and I have no authority to rewrite Your word.  You seem to have captured it all in the New Testament catchall verse that says, “Anything done without believing it is right is a sin.”

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Deuteronomy 12-13 -- Don't EVEN Consider It

God was serious about what they were to do once they entered the Promised Land.  The current inhabitants had completely abandoned God for the worship of idols.  God’s first command was to completely obliterate all signs of such worship.  Nothing was allowed to be saved because of its historical significance.  If it remained, it would be a temptation.

Anyone who tried to persuade an Israelite to even explore the thought of worshiping some other god was to receive no mercy:  “Do not give in to such people.  Do not listen to them or feel sorry for them … You must put them to death.  You must be the first one to start to kill them, and then everyone else must join in.”

That sounds so harsh to our ears, knowing how religious freedom was carved into the American Constitution.  But these were God’s special people, and they were to be set apart as holy.

If the citizens of a city failed to police themselves and allowed hateful things to occur and to go unpunished, then the entire city was to be destroyed and everyone in it.  The deterrent effect of such a command was powerful.

God was protecting His people from themselves.  Often we are our own worst enemy, we lack accountability, and we indulge our whims to our destruction.  God was loving them enough to prevent that from happening.

Father, thank You for those strong words that show me how incredibly important it is to You that I don’t even crack open the door to temptation.  You know us all well and know what we are capable of.  Protect me from myself.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Deuteronomy 11 -- Why We Need To Tell It

“Remember today it was not your children who saw and felt the correction of the Lord your God.  They did not see His majesty, His power, His strength, or His signs and the things He did in Egypt … They did not see what He did to the Egyptian army … when He drowned them in the Red Sea … They did not see what He did for you in the desert … They did not see what He did … when the ground opened up and swallowed Dathan and Abiram and their families … It was you who saw all these great things the Lord has done …  Remember … Teach them well to your children …”

The people whom Moses was talking to had been under the age of accountability when they left Egypt, or else they were born during the 40-year trek through the desert.  Egypt was a distant memory, if that.  The generation of adults had all died off except for Moses, Joshua, and Caleb.  The children needed to hear, needed to understand, and needed to own the stories of what God had done for their parents and grandparents.  God didn’t want them to simply be “spiritual trust babies”, living off the spiritual heritage of their ancestors.  He wanted them to know and recite those events , making them come alive for their own children someday, saying “My dad told me …” or “My grandmother was there when …”  That close connection to history would serve them well.  They couldn’t let the stories go untold and thus lose an entire generation!

Father, even last night at youth You showed me the importance of passing on this heritage to the next generation, including not only stories of Your blessings, but our mistakes as well.  Keep me mindful of that as I raise my own sons, as well as when I teach.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Deuteronomy 9-10 Not What You Want To Hear From God

The Israelites were almost there.  Moses didn’t sugarcoat things as he prepared to separate from them.  God had given him quite a bit to remind the Israelites about.

First, they had to understand that God wasn’t doing all this for them because they were good.  He unabashedly told them that somebody had to drive out the evil people now inhabiting the Promised Land, and they happened to be handy.  He said, “It is not because you are good; you are a stubborn people … You would not obey the Lord from the day you left Egypt until you arrived here! … He was angry enough with you to destroy you … You rejected the command of the Lord your God.  You did not trust Him or obey Him.  You have refused to obey the Lord as long as I have known you!”

Moses pleaded for them with God, saying, “Don’t look at how stubborn these people are, don’t look at their sin and evil … they are Your people, Lord, Your own people …”

Getting a reprieve from God, the people now heard what was expected of them as a result:  “This is what the Lord your God wants you to do:  Respect the Lord your God, and do what He has told you to do.  Love Him.  Serve the Lord your God  with your whole being, and obey the Lord’s commands and laws that I am giving you today for your own good … Give yourselves completely to serving Him, and do not be stubborn any longer.  Respect the Lord your God and serve Him.  Be loyal to Him … He is your God, who has done great and wonderful things for you, which you have seen with your own eyes.”

They’d given God every reason to get rid of them and start over.  Yet in His love, He led Moses to teach them how they’d gone wrong, just as their parents had.  He wanted four things from them:  respect, love, obedience, and service.  If we too will work on those four goals on a daily basis, it will keep us from working on other things that might lead us to sin.

Father, You’d kept a visible presence among those people for 40 years and still they chose to sin.  It’s even tougher when You’re not visibly present.  Please soften my stubborn heart and help me to obey.  Let Your Holy Spirit’s voice inside me overwhelm the voices begging me to sin for my own sake.  Remind me often that those voices are lying to me, bent on my destruction, and that You love me more than I love myself.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

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

Deuteronomy 5 -- Worth It!

Moses wanted the people to realize that they’d been part of a momentous event.  Nothing like this had ever happened before:

“The Lord our God made an Agreement with us at Mount Sinai.  He did not make this Agreement with our ancestors, but He made it with us … The Lord spoke to you face to face …”  They needed to know how incredibly special that was and not take it for granted.

In warning them about idol worship, He said, “If people sin against Me and hate Me, I will punish their children, even their grandchildren and great-grandchildren …”  He’s telling them to think about what their sin will do, not just to their relationship with Him, but with the relationship with Him that their kids and grandkids and great grandkids will have as well!  Too often, when we’re considering sin, we’re only thinking about ourselves.  God continues:  “… But I will be very kind for a THOUSAND LIFETIMES to those who love Me and obey My commands.”

This had more meaning to them than we realize.  You see, they weren’t that far removed from Adam and Eve.  There hadn’t been probably 100 lifetimes, if that many, since the earth was formed.  They could trace their family trees back to Adam.  So they understood God to mean that by obeying Him, He’d be blessing their families for all time!  That sure gave them reason to try to obey!

God looked at them (and us) and knew their propensity to sin.  He said, “I wish their hearts would always respect Me and that they would always obey My commands so that things would go well for them and their children forever.”  He loves us and wants that for us, even when WE don’t want that for ourselves!

Father, I’m sorry for times when I doubt Your great love for me, when circumstances cause me to take my eyes off the One who loves me that much!  Keep reminding me of the benefits of obedience.  I still seem to need a carrot on a stick in front of me.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Deuteronomy 4 -- Reason To Hear It Again

Moses makes sure to explain why they need to be listening to what God is telling them:  “I have taught you the laws and rules the Lord my God commanded me.  Now you CAN obey THE LAWS IN THE LAND YOU ARE ENTERING, IN THE LAND YOU WILL TAKE.  Obey these laws carefully, in order to show the other nations that you have wisdom and understanding…”

They had to know what to obey.  Now that they knew, obedience would be easier, and other nations would see how Israel benefited by obeying.

At a previous time while I was reading this, I noted the different descriptions of God in these verses:

1)      An approaching God in verse 7

2)      An adopting God in verse 20

3)      A jealous God in verse 24

4)      A just God in verse 25

5)      A discoverable God in verse 29

6)      A merciful God in verse 31

7)      A loving God in verse 37

8)      A teaching God in verse 36

9)      A rewarding God in verse 38

God had shown them enough about Himself that they should have trusted Him implicitly and never doubted.  Yet God reveals in verses 25-29 that, despite His love for them and His teaching them what to obey, their sinfulness will cause them not to obey.

Father, I too know these things about You, and yet despite all You do for me, despite the fact that Your Holy Spirit lives within me, guiding me toward obedience, my sin nature still causes me to want to rebel and disobey.  Beat it down, Father.  Help me to crush it.  Let me only obey You.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford