Thursday, February 17, 2011

Deuteronomy 4-6

Moses continues in his final sermon to the people of Israel before relinquishing leadership to Joshua and going into the mountains to meet our God.  He reminds the people of their past disobedience and the consequences of that failure to obey God and their need to be obedient in their present circumstance if they are to achieve all that God calls them to in possessing this land that was first promised by covenant to their forefather Abraham.

Isn't it interesting that we often forget the lessons of history and then are doomed, seemingly, to repeat the mistakes of the past.  I believe that Satan is always busy trying to cause us to forget the things that we should always remember and causing us to remember the things that should be left in the past.  He seeks to neutralize God's power in us by causing us to think that we are not able.  He seeks to get us to forget the consequences of disobedience.....surely we can get away with it this time.  What is one definition of insanity, "doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result."  Disobeying God and his ordinances will always lead to disaster!!

The first military loss for Israel (we will read about it in Joshua) will come when Israel disobeys God.  Isn't that insanity, after learning the lesson of obedience over two generations and 40 years walking with God in the wilderness.

God's intention is to make us wise and in that wisdom to bless us and the the world through us.  The wisdom comes from obedience to his law, his will, his word and his way.

I like what Moses says when he says, "Our God is a consuming fire!  We are reminded that fire burns off the chaff and purefies that which remains.  When you are in the fire, know that God is doing a good work in you if you remain obedient.  All that is impure is being taken and only that which honors God remains.  The purest gold has been through the hottest fire.

Moses reminds God's children to seek him with their entire heart and Soul.....to fully obey him and he will be found.  god doesn't want part of us.....he doesn't desire part time devotion....he wants all of us, and he wants it all the time.

In Chapter 5 we are reminded that God visits the sins of the father to the 3rd and 4th generation.  We have all seen this in reality when a parent commits an offense and the children suffer for it.  This is the principle that God speaks about in this passage.  The children suffer because of the failure of the parent.  We are reminded that our "God is a jealous God."  Again, total devotion is the key to the power of God in this world and to the peace that passes all understanding.

"Oh that they had such a heart."  The children of Israel give lip service to God and God says, "O that it will be true....that the words of their mouths and the meditations of their heart would always be acceptable to the Lord our God and our daily practices would be found to be holy as well.

In Chapter 6, Israel and the Judaic faith to this day quote this passage... "The Lord is one."  We believe that as well.... The Lord is indeed one and each part of the Lord found in the trinity....Father, Son and Holy Spirit make up that one.  There are some religions that believe Jesus to be separate from God.  We adamantly do not.  We believe Jesus and the Holy Spirit to be one with God....God in a different form, but of the same substance....not separate from, but one in God.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and might.  write it on your doorposts, keep it in your heart, bind it on your hands.  This binding on your hands was practiced by creating little boxes called phylacteries that were tied to the hand and within the box was this verse, "love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and might." It is important to remember God in all things because there is such danger in disobedience.  Therefore we must not forget to teach the mighty works and words of God to our children and to our children's children.....the price of disobedience is too high even to losing our opportunity to enter into the land of milk and honey.

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