Deuteronomy. Day 43, Obedience Equals Strength

In today's segment Moses tells the congregation that their obedience to the Lord will provide them with strength. Our culture these days tells us that if we submit to anyone's authority we are weak and unable to think for ourselves. But the Bible tells us that if we submit to the authority of God we receive strength and guidance and blessing. You and I don't have control over many of the things that happen to us in this world but God does; it is wise to appeal to Him for help to overcome. We don't know what the future holds but God does; it makes sense to allow Him to guide our steps. We didn't create ourselves and can't even take credit for the breath we draw into our lungs; the Lord is the source of all our blessings and we'd be foolish to reject His goodness toward us. There is nothing about obeying the Lord that makes us weak. On the contrary, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time." (1 Peter 5:5-6)

Moses speaks of the role obedience will play in Israel's ability to take over the promised land. Without obedience they will lack the strength to do the job. Without obedience they won't set a godly example for their children, and if their children aren't obeying the Lord they won't have the strength to hold onto and defend the land.

"Love the Lord your God and keep His requirements, His decrees, His laws and His commands always. Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the Lord your God: His majesty, His mighty hand, His outstretched arm; the signs He performed and the things He did in the heart of Egypt, both to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his whole country; what He did to the Egyptian army, to its horses and chariots, how He overwhelmed them with the waters of the Red Sea as they were pursuing you, and how the Lord brought lasting ruin on them." (Deuteronomy 11:1-4) The generation who witnessed what the Lord did in Egypt and at the Red Sea has been dying out during the forty years in the wilderness. Their children will be the ones who take over the promised land. Their grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and all the generations to come will be the ones inhabiting and defending the promised land. It's important that those who witnessed the Lord's great deeds in Egypt and at the Red Sea live in obedience to the Lord in the sight of their descendants. They must set an example for the younger generations so those generations will obey the Lord. This is going to be the source of their strength, for if they turn aside from the Lord and live in rebellion against Him, He is able to remove them from the land just as He removed the heathen tribes of Canaan from the land.

Moses continues, "It was not your children who saw what He did for you in the wilderness until you arrived at this place, and what He did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth opened its mouth right in the middle of all Israel and swallowed them up with their households, their tents and every living thing that belonged to them. But it was your own eyes who saw all these great things the Lord has done." (Deuteronomy 11:5-7) The people who received manna in the desert and water from solid rock won't live forever. The people who witnessed the Lord's judgments upon sins committed in the wilderness won't live forever. While they are here they must honor and obey the Lord in order to encourage the current generations to honor and obey the Lord. They must tell the stories to their descendants and then their descendants must tell their own descendants, on and on down to the present day and for all the days to come.

My mother often told me stories about how the Lord had come through for her time and time again. I still recall a lot of them, though she's been passed on now for twenty-five years. These stories, along with witnessing her godly obedience, made a huge impression on me. These stories live on though my mother is gone from this world. Her obedient relationship to the Lord still influences my own relationship with the Lord. That's what Moses is talking about in our passage today. He's saying, "Tell the stories! Keep on telling them and telling them and telling them. And while you're telling them, make sure you're living in obedience to God. You must walk the walk as well as talk the talk. This is powerful combination---a powerful testimony to all the generations to come."

If they will obey the Lord, they will be provided with the strength to overcome any army. "Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, and so that you may live long in the land the Lord swore to your ancestors to give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. It is a land the Lord your God cares for; the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end." (Deuteronomy 11:8-12) In ancient Egypt it was a common practice to irrigate fields by using foot-pumps that drew water up from the Nile, which is what Moses means when he says they irrigated their gardens by foot, but in the promised land the Lord will send rain from heaven to irrigate the crops. Everything in the promised land will better than anything they had in the land from which they came, but they mustn't allow easy living to make them spiritually lazy. We've talked before about how prosperity can be a bigger threat to us than hard times, for in the hard times we call out to the Lord for help and earnestly seek Him in our troubles, but when everything is going great we can end up just going about our lives without daily communing with and continually thinking about the Lord.

Moses relays a message in the Lord's own words. The Lord says: "So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today---to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul---then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil. I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied." (Deuteronomy 11:13-15) 

We cannot allow prosperity to cause us to neglect our relationship with the Lord. If the times are good and the living is easy, it's because the Lord has blessed us with days of peace and plenty. It's not because we brought about our good fortune by our own hands---the Lord is the source of all that is good. We must not begin thinking we are self-sufficient and don't need the Lord and don't have to obey the Lord. The trend in our nation lately is to make fun of anyone who follows guidelines or obeys rules. The words "sheep" and "sheeple" get thrown around a lot. But to be a sheep in the Lord's pasture is a beautiful, blessed thing to be! He is our Shepherd who watches over us day and night. He provides our needs. He rescues us from danger. He tends our wounds and heals our sicknesses. If obeying the Lord makes me a "sheeple", so be it, for I'd rather be on the side of the Lord than on the side of the world. The Lord loves me. He called me out of darkness into the light. He guides my steps. He bears my burdens and supplies my needs. Obedient to Him is not weakness; it's strength! Therefore I will rejoice in knowing Him and in following His guidance. I will rejoice in the fact that He is my Shepherd and I am one of the sheep in His pasture. "Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for He is our God and we are the people of His pasture, the flock under His care." (Psalm 95:6-7)