In Tuesday's text Moses told the congregation of Israel that their obedience to the Lord will be their strength. If they follow His laws and commandments they will be able to drive out all the nations inhabiting the promised land and they will possess and enjoy the goodness of the land for all generations to come. If they do not reverence the Lord as holy and obey His precepts, the rains won't come, the crops will fail, enemies will be able to harass them, and eventually the Lord will remove them from the land just as He removed the nations before them.
Disobedience always has consequences. I've caused myself hardships in life due to disobedience, either because I did the opposite of what God said or because I didn't move forward in faith to do something He told me to do. I've also experienced hardships caused by the disobedience of others. When we sin against the Lord we are acting against our best interests and against the best interests of those around us.
Moses urges the people not to act against their best interests. "Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. Then the Lord's anger will burn against you, and He will shut up the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the Lord is giving you." (Deuteronomy 11:16-17) Only forty years earlier the Israelites came out of Egypt, one of the most idolatrous nations on earth in ancient times. This may have predisposed them to the temptation of straying from the Lord, for the sights and sounds of false religious practices were familiar to them in Egypt and could easily become familiar to them in the promised land which was filled with pagan idols, altars, and temples. This is why the Lord told them they must tear down all these sinful landmarks when they take over the land. These things must not be allowed to remain to tempt anyone. But another reason I think Moses had to warn the people to guard themselves against idolatry is because human beings were created to worship their Creator, and if we do not yield ourselves to Him as Lord, we will make someone or something else our god. Our spirits were created with a desire to worship, but if we do not focus that worship upon God we will focus it somewhere else. Unbelievers may think they aren't worshiping anyone or anything but that is not true; if nothing else, they are worshiping themselves, for the one who rejects God and goes his own way has made a god of himself. You've probably heard the saying that the person who acts as his own attorney has a fool for a client, but it has also popularly been said that the person who makes himself into a god has a fool for a god.
Yesterday Moses talked about how important it was that those who witnessed the Lord's miracles in Egypt and in the wilderness pass these stories down to those who didn't witness them. He also said they were to talk the talk (relay the Lord's precepts to every new generation) and walk the walk (live in obedience to the Lord's precepts in the sight of their descendants). The word of the Lord, which was spoken to them through Moses, is so necessary for godly living that they must read it, think on it, and talk about it as much as possible, so Moses says, "Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth." (Deuteronomy 11:18-21)
If the Lord and His holy precepts are at the forefront of our minds day and night, we will find ourselves better able to resist putting anyone or anything (including ourselves) ahead of the Lord. We will find ourselves better able to resist other temptations as well. As we learned in yesterday's study, obedience equals strength. Submitting ourselves to the authority of the Lord and doing what He says makes us strong and endows us with the Lord's blessings. It's disobeying Him that makes us weak.
If the Israelites live in obedience, the Lord will fight on Israel's side and give her so much power that no enemy will be able to withstand the onslaught of her armies. "If you carefully observe all the commands I am giving you to follow---to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to Him and to hold fast to Him---then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you. Every place where you set your foot will be yours: Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea. No one will be able to stand against you. The Lord your God, as He promised you, will put the terror and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go." (Deuteronomy 11:22-25)
"See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse---the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn away from the way I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known." (Deuteronomy 11:26-28) The Lord created humans with free will. We can choose to serve Him or we can choose not to serve Him. But we are hurting ourselves when we don't bow to Him as Lord and walk in obedience to His precepts. We are deflecting blessings from ourselves. We become weak instead of strong. We experience defeat instead of victory.
"When the Lord your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings, and on Mount Ebal the curses. As you know, these mountains are across the Jordan, westward, toward the setting sun, near the great trees of Moreh, in the territory of those Canaanites living in the Arabah in the vicinity of Gilgal." (Deuteronomy 11:29-30) This ritual will be carried out in the book of Joshua and we will study it in detail when we arrive there. Mount Gerizim, at which the blessings would be pronounced, had fertile ground. Mount Ebal, at which the curses were pronounced, was rocky and barren. When we obey the Lord we are standing on fertile ground. We will be blessed spiritually and also in other ways, for we are like nutrient-rich soil that brings forth crops in abundance. But when we disobey the Lord we can bring forth no good thing. We are like poor soil incapable of producing any fruit.
Moses concludes Chapter 11 like this: "You are about to cross the Jordan to enter and take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you. When you have taken it over and are living there, be sure that you obey all the decrees and laws I am setting before you today." (Deuteronomy 11:31-32) We aren't to obey the Lord only when we want something from Him. In hard times we tend to seek His face far more often and far more urgently. In prosperous times we can become lazy if we aren't careful. When we've arrived in the promised land, so to speak, (when the Lord comes through for us in a mighty way), we can't sit back and let our guard down. We have to remain vigilant against temptation by thinking on the Lord, talking with the Lord, studying the Lord's precepts, and talking about the Lord and His precepts with others. This is why Jesus instructed us always to watch and pray. (Matthew 26:41, Mark 14:38, Luke 21:36) We are to watch and pray in the good times as well as in the bad times so that temptation doesn't catch us off guard and cause us to stumble into sin.
No comments:
Post a Comment