Devotionary

Belief. As Christians, we talk about it a lot because it is central to our concept of salvation. But sometimes we fail to grasp the true significance of what it means to believe. We tend to think of it as a cognitive act, requiring some kind of mental assent to a given truth. But faith really begins in the heart. Head-knowledge alone won’t cut it. And in Deuteronomy 6:20-25, Moses is going to call the people to obey God’s laws, but to do so, they were going to have to believe in who He was and all that He had promised to do for them. Their obedience would need to be motivated by faith, not fear. And their faith was to rest on the character of God – as evidenced by His unwavering faithfulness to them. He had done all that He had promised to do, so He could be trusted. And that trust should result in willful, heartfelt obedience to His commands.

Forgetfulness can be frustrating. The inability to recall a name or to remember an important piece of information can create a sense of vulnerability and weakness. It is as if we can’t fully depend upon ourselves. We can’t trust our mind to come through for us when we need it most. But just think how God feels when His people forget Him. When His people fail to remember all that He has done for them and begin to take Him for granted. That’s the worry Moses had concerning the people of Israel. So, in Deuteronomy 6:10-19, we have him warning the Israelites about the danger of forgetfulness. He wasn’t worried that they would forget an important date or the names of their children. He was afraid they would fail to remember God and all He had done on their behalf. Forgetfulness would lead to faithlessness. And that would be dangerous.  

What good is a law that goes unheeded? How effective is a regulation that is ignored? Unless it is obeyed, a law is little more than words on paper, carrying little weight or influence over the lives of men. And Moses knew that the people of Israel were going to be prone to ignoring and disobeying the laws of God. So, in Deuteronomy 6:1-9, we have recorded his call for the Israelites to hear and to heed the law. Obedience was going to be critical to their successful conquest of the land of Canaan. But knowledge of the law was not going to be enough. Head knowledge without a heartfelt desire to apply what you know to how you behave is of little use. Commandments written on stone are of little use if they never make their way into the heart of man.

In Deuteronomy 5:22-33 Moses reminds his audience about the day when God gave His law on Mount Sinai. This historical reference point was intended to prompt the people of Israel toward obedience to that law. Their adherence to God’s commands was going to be critical if they wanted to enjoy all of the blessings associated with the land of promise. Their ancestors had sworn their allegiance to God’s law, but had proved unfaithful. Now, a new generation stood poised to enter the land and Moses was well aware that they were predisposed to follow the example of their predecessors. Obedience to God’s law would be impossible if their hearts were not in it.

Deuteronomy 5:16-21 continues Moses’ recitation of the law. In it we have six more of God’s commands that are focused on man’s interrelationship with his fellow man. They are horizontal in nature, dictating the way in which the Israelites were to treat one another. These are practical laws dealing with everyday activities between God’s people. Not only were the Israelites to show reverence and respect for God, they were to treat one another as God’s creations, showing honor to one another through their attitudes and actions. By keeping God’s laws concerning their interpersonal relationship, the people of God were to reflect His holiness and righteousness to the pagan nations around them.

In Deuteronomy 5:1-15, we find Moses reciting the Ten Commandments to the next generation of Israelites who were preparing to enter the land of promise. He had personally received this divine code of conduct from God Almighty on the top of Mount Sinai, and he knew how important it was that the people of Israel take these commands seriously. Any success they hoped to have in their conquest of the land of Canaan was directly tied to their willingness to remain obedient to God’s laws. Obedience would bring blessing. Disobedience would result in curses. But what about us? As believers living on this side of the cross, what is our relationship to the law? Have we been absolved from having to keep it? Or has our relationship with Christ simply changed the nature of our relationship to it?

God thought of everything. But that shouldn’t surprise us. After all, He’s the all-knowing, all-powerful God of the universe. Nothing escapes His notice. And nothing takes place outside His sovereign will. So, in Deuteronomy 4:41-49, Moses reveals God’s plan for cases of unpremeditated murder. God knew it was going to happen. It was the inevitable outcome of fallen men and women living in a fallen, sin-marred world. Accidents would happen. But what were the Israelites supposed to do when they did? God had a plan. Because He did not want one sin leading to another. This section is going to cover God’s creation of the cities of refuge. This unique program of asylum for anyone guilty of committing murder, but without premeditation and malice, reveals a great deal about God and His justice and mercy.

God is invisible and impossible for mere men to know or comprehend – unless He chooses to make Himself known. And in Deuteronomy 4:32-40, Moses is going to remind the people of Israel that their God had made a habit of making Himself known for centuries. From the first day He had appeared to Abraham in Ur, God had been revealing Himself to the descendants of Abraham in a variety of ways. In fact, it was to Abraham’s seed that God had chosen to make Himself known. And the nation of Israel represented the mighty nation God had promised to produce from Abraham and Sarah. He had kept His promise and now He was about to reward His people with the land He had set apart for Abraham’s seed. And Moses wanted the Israelites to never forget that God had proven Himself faithful and they had no reason to ever doubt His existence or presence.

In Deuteronomy 4:15-31, Moses goes out of his way to remind the people of Israel that they needed to avoid idolatry at all costs. If they chose to worship other gods, their time in the land of promise would prove to be marked by curses, rather than blessings. And if they attempted to make an idol to represent Yahweh, they would find Him infuriated, not flattered. One of the things they needed to understand was their unique status as the image-bearers of God. They were His chosen people and He had set them apart so that they might reflect His glory and goodness through their willing obedience to His law. And the very first commandment He had given them was to have no other gods before them. No idols were allowed. In other words, no man-made representations of God were going to be tolerated. And, if they made the mistake of worshiping a false god made in man’s image, they would live to regret it

Having God’s law and obeying it are two separate things. They shouldn’t be, but that it how any set of rules and regulation work. They establish a set of guidelines or a code of conduct, but they cannot guarantee compliance. And nobody knew that better than Moses. He had been the one to receive the Ten Commandments from God on top of Mount Sinai. Then he had faithfully passed on those commands to the people. But over the years, he had watched as the people repeatedly disobeyed God’s laws, even choosing to violate the first commandment prohibiting the worship of any other gods. Moses was fully convinced that the key to Israel conquering the land of Canaan and enjoying the inheritance promised to them by God was their obedience to God’s law. So, he begged them to not only remember those commands but to keep them.

As Moses continues his little speech to the people of Israel, he reminds them of their obligation to keep the laws handed down to them from God. While Moses would not be joining them in their conquest of the land, he wanted them to know that they could not afford to ignore or disobey God’s commands. Any hope they had of successfully conquering the land of Canaan and of enjoying the blessings of God would come as a result of obedience to His law. And there was another aspect to their faithful keeping of the law that Moses wanted them to understand. God had given His law to the Jews alone and He expected them to keep every one of them. When they did, it would show the nations around them what true righteousness looks like. And the wisdom of God would be evidenced in the lives of the people of Israel, proving to the pagan nations living in Canaan that Yahweh was the one true God.

In Deuteronomy 3:23-29, Moses reminds the people of Israel that he will not be going with them into the land of promise. He painfully recounts the story of when he attempted to rob God of glory and, in doing so, he treated God as unholy. This had been a serious mistake on the part of Moses and it had come with serious consequences. God had banned him from ever setting foot in the land of Canaan. After rescuing the people from their captivity in Egypt, leading them across the wilderness, then having to put up with 40 more years of wandering because they had refused to enter the land the first time, Moses was going to miss out on the joys of Canaan. But God provided Moses with the assurance that Joshua would complete what he had begun. The God of Israel would remain faithful to His promises. And while Moses would never spend a single, solitary moment in the land of promise, he could rest assured that the people of Israel would.

Israel is still on the wrong side of the Jordan. They have yet to cross over and it was because God had work for them to do on the east side of the river. According to God’s command and with His divine help, they defeated the armies of Og and Sihon, capturing their cities and putting all their inhabitants to the sword. These battles on the eastern side of the Jordan had to take place before Israel could begin their conquest of Canaan. And God had good reasons for requiring these seemingly unnecessary battles. He was preparing the Israelites for the years of warfare that loomed before them and was revealing that what He did east of the River, He could do in Canaan as well. But before they had time to celebrate their God-ordained victories over the Amorites, Moses found himself faced with a potential problem. The tribes of Gad and Reuben approached him with a request to settle in the recently liberated lands located outside the land of promise. They saw an opportunity to settle in an area with prime pasture lan

God has His way of doing things and He fully expects His people to follow His lead. In accomplishing His will, He rarely requires our opinion or advice. He doesn’t seek our viewpoint or give us the option of replacing His divine plan with one of our own. But that doesn’t stop us from trying. And in the book of Deuteronomy, we have plenty of examples of Moses and the people of Israel attempting to help God out by opting for their own strategies in place of His. But this plan-B tactic rarely works out. We may not understand or even like what God has told us to do, but there is never a case where our preferred option will produce better results. It just won’t happen. A big part of being a child of God is learning to obey Him, which requires that we trust Him. We have to believe that what He is telling us to do will be for our good, whether we understand it or not. He knows what He is doing. And Moses and the people of Israel were going to learn that lesson time and time again as they began their conquest of Cana

There’s a line in the closing chapter of the book of Judges that gives us a glimpse into what things were like in the days after Moses and Joshua were dead and the nation of Israel had been in the land of Canaan for some time. It simply reads: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 25:25). Everyone did what was right. That’s an interesting phrase, because the Hebrew word translated as “right” actually means “righteous.” They thought that what they were doing was righteous and good, but it was based on their own subjective viewpoint, not that of God. And this kind of self-righteous decision making was something they had begun long before they even arrived in the land. We see a case of it in Deuteronomy 2:26-37 and it involves Moses, their divinely appointed leader. In this passage, we’ll see Moses receive very specific instructions from God, but then watch as Moses attempts to do what was right in his own eyes. He probably thought he was going the right

As Christians, we have been so inculcated with the doctrine that our salvation is by God's grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, that we've almost become numbed by it. Yes, it's true and is a foundational doctrine of our faith, but if we're not careful, we can become complacent and lazy regarding our faith. The apostle Paul makes it quite clear that salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it (Ephesians 2:9). But the same man wrote, "Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear" (Philippians 2:12). And then Paul provides the undeniable tension that lies between our role and that of God. "For God is working in you, giving you the desire the power to do what pleases Him" (Philippians 2:13). While it's true we can't save our sanctify ourselves,  we do have to participate and cooperate. And the Israelites were going to discover that their occupation of the land promised to them by God, was going to require som

In yesterday’s episode, we saw what happens when the people of God attempt to do the will of God, but in disobedience to His ways. It never works out well. He will not accompany those who refuse to do His will. He will not fight on behalf of those who choose to do things their own way and against His wishes. But now, God gives the next generation of Israelites another history lesson designed to show them how God had been with them all the way, ever since the days of Abraham. He will bring up the descendants of Esau and Lot, two groups of distant relatives, who were living near the land of Canaan. The Israelites were going to have to pass through the lands belonging to the Edomites (descendants of Esau), and the Moabites (descendants of Lot). The very existence of these two nations was tied to events that had happened long before the Israelites had ever arrived in Canaan. And yet, God, in His sovereignty, had pre-ordained that these two nations would be ready to assist the Israelites when the time came. God ha

The Israelites had been led by God right up to the edge of the land of promise. The only thing that remained to be done was for them to enter and possess the land. But that was going to take faith because there were enemies in the land. And Moses knew from past experience, that when the going gets tough, the tough tend to get going ­– but in the wrong direction. That’s exactly what the first generation of Israelites had done when they had the opportunity to enter and possess the land. And their refusal had brought God’s condemnation and a curse. They would be doomed to wander in the wilderness until their entire generation died off. Then God would give the next generation the privilege of living in the land He had promised. But Moses recounts how that first group of Israelites attempted to prove to God just how obedient they could be. The only problem was they chose to disobey God to prove their obedience to Him. And, as a result, they would go into battle without His permission or His help. And that kind of

Belief is a theme throughout the pages of Scriptures, from the book of Genesis, all the way to the last chapter in the final book of the Bible, Revelation. Belief is an integral part of faith. And as the author of Hebrews reminds us, “it is impossible to please God without faith.” As we make our way through the book of Deuteronomy, we will see that faith and belief were a necessary requirement for the people of Israel, if they wanted to fully experience the blessings God in store for them in the land of Canaan. They were going to have to take God at His Word and trust His command to enter a land filled with enemies whose armies were better equipped and whose cities were well-fortified. God had said the land was theirs, but they were going to have to fight to prove their faith. God had said He would go before them, but they were going to have to follow. And when they did, they were going to have to take the fight to the enemy. Obeying God always requires faith. But the temptation is to allow the circumstances

Why can’t you all just get along? Oh, if I only had a dollar for every time my mother asked that question of my three siblings and myself. I would be a rich man. You see, we didn’t get along very often. We fought. We bickered and argued. And we seldom spent more than a few hours together without an argument breaking out among us. As you can imagine, family vacations were particularly fun for my mom and dad. Four kids crammed into the family car and forced to spend prolonged periods of quality time together in close quarters. Moses must have felt like my dad. Except his family numbered in the millions and the number of the daily disputes left Moses feeling overwhelmed and ready to turn in his title as the deliverer of Israel. This poor man was required by God to lead a veritable host of hostile, perpetually unhappy campers who had made a national sport out of bickering and complaining. And while Moses had hired extra help to handle the caseloads from all the disputes, the interpersonal climate among the people