OVERVIEW: God’s promises to the fathers; God’s grace to the undeserving; second tables of commandments; love and obedience; blessing and cursing; ordinances.
HIGHLIGHTS & INSIGHTS:
As we move into Deuteronomy 9 in today’s reading, the big day has actually arrived! It has been 14,400 days since the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea on dry land, when God delivered them from their bondage in Egypt. According to Deuteronomy 1:2, the journey into the promised land has taken them 14,378 more days than it needed to! A simple 11-day journey has actually turned into 14,400 days! But in Deuteronomy 9:1, God told them, “Thou art to pass over Jordan this day.” (Note: Their actual crossing of the Jordan and into the promised land won’t be recorded until Joshua chapter 3.)
Sadly, in those 14,378 “unnecessary” days in the wilderness, an entire generation has died because of their failure to take God at His Word. Recognize that every single one of them died having never experienced the purpose God intended when He graciously delivered them from Egypt. Because, according to what we saw in yesterday’s reading in Deuteronomy 6:23, the children of Israel’s exodus out of Egypt was never intended by God to be an end in itself; it was simply a means to another end. Moses told them, “And he (God) brought us OUT from thence (Egypt), that he might bring us IN, to give us the land (Canaan) which he swear unto our fathers.” May we, likewise, never forget that our deliverance out of the bondage of our sin (as glorious as that was and is) is not an end in itself! Just as with Israel, God brought us OUT, that He might bring us IN! We were delivered OUT of our sin so we could be brought IN to the life of fullness, abundance, and fruit-bearing found in Christ, by taking Him at His Word by faith. As Paul recounts the story of Israel’s victory in the exodus and their failure in the wilderness in 1 Corinthians 10, he pleads with us under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to make sure that what happened to THEM after their PHYSICAL exodus, doesn’t happen to US after our SPIRITUAL exodus! Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:6, “Now these things were our examples,” and repeats it five verses later, “Now all these things happen unto THEM for ensamples: and they are written for OUR admonition.” (10:11) Oh, may we have ears to hear that warning, and to heed it!
Yet, in Deuteronomy 9, before God brings the children of Israel into the land, there’s still another danger of which He needs to warn them. God knew that because of how “stiffnecked” this people was, that after settling into this new land, they might have the tendency to think they had entered this land because of who they were, or something they had done. On three separate occasions in this chapter Moses tells them to make sure that after coming into the land of Canaan, they didn’t get to thinking they had gotten there because they were just so good or “righteous.” In 9:4 he says, “Speak not thou in thine heart…For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me IN to possess their land.” In 9:5 he says, “Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land.” In 9:6 he reiterates it yet again, “Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.” Oh, my brothers and sisters, may we glean from the Book of Deuteronomy, that most Christians will die in the wilderness of life having never experienced God’s purpose in their exodus. For those who actually do enter the land, we must be on high alert that pride doesn’t somehow creep in and cause us to think that we are experiencing the abundant life because of who we are or something we’ve done. Be it known, if we will experience the abundant life (Canaan), it will be because of the righteousness of Christ, and because of His matchless grace! Paul asks a beautifully pertinent question in Romans 3:27: “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.”
Just a few other things to have up on your radar in today’s reading…
9:2–6 In our quest to live in the reality of the abundant life found in Christ, there are many Anakims (or giants!) who will seek to intimidate us and/or defeat us. Our God, however, is a “consuming fire” and “he shall destroy them.” (9:3) God tells us that this is a principle we must “understand!” The battle is the Lord’s and we simply stand in the victory He has wrought.
9:5–27 Like the children of Israel, we must remember that God says that when He found us and delivered us out of our bondage, we were “unrighteous” (9:5), “stiffnecked” (9:6, 13), “rebellious” (9:7, 24), “corrupt” (9:12), “sinful”
(9:16), “wicked” (9:18, 27) and “stubborn.” (9:27) Wow! We were a mess!
10:12 and 11:13 In these two verses, notice that once again, God reiterates and re-emphasizes the “Great Commandment.” God wants us to LOVE Him!
10:18–19 In these verses, the Lord introduces us to the biblical reality that He has great concern and interest in His heart for the fatherless (orphans), widows, and strangers (aliens), and that we should as well! (Jam. 1:27)
11:18–21 The Lord reiterates the responsibility we have as parents to make certain that we bring our children up “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4), and that we bring up “faithful children.” (Titus 1:6) He tells us here that we are to teach them at all times, and through every possible means (11:19–20). But, once again, the Lord emphasizes that this instruction cannot simply come from our minds or our mouths; it must rise forth out of our hearts and our very souls, and be a part of the very fabric of who we are! (11:18)
11:13–17; 11:22–25 Note that the promise of blessing in the new land was dependent upon their LOVE of God and their OBEDIENCE to Him.
11:26–28 Notice that whether we live in the midst of the Lord’s BLESSING (represented in Mount Gerizim—9:29) or the Lord’s CURSING (represented in Mount Ebal—9:29), the choice is ours. Obedience brings blessings. Disobedience brings cursing (or conflict).
12:1–32 Notice in these verses that there is an important principle/phrase that begins to be repeated about there being “a place” in the promised land where “the LORD had chosen” as the place “for His name to dwell.” (12:5, 11, 14, 18, 26). Note also that Moses continues talking about this “place” in Deuteronomy 14:23, 24, 25; 15:20; and 16:2, 6, 7, 15, 16. The word “dwell” is defined for us in 1 Kings 8:13 as a “settled place.” Perhaps we could say it this way: God was looking for some place on this sinful planet where who He is in all of His glory was able to be “established” and “at home.” What just absolutely transcends human comprehension, however, is that for those of us who comprise the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, the “place” in which the Lord our God has now “chosen” as the place He intends for “His name to dwell”; that place where who He is in all of His glory is able to be “settled” and “at home”, is “IN” us! Paul said in 2 Corinthians 6:16, “…ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Hallelujah!
CHRIST IS REVEALED:
As THE BURNT OFFERING — Deuteronomy 12:16 (Eph. 5:2, Heb. 10:10, 12)