Deuteronomy Thoughts

I’ve been spending some time pondering God’s call to the second generation out of Egypt to commit to Him for blessings and to be wise about the consequences of rebellion.  While this book and these passages are specifically directed to the Israel Joshua was about to assume leadership over, there are points important for us today.  Here are a few verses with a brief comment about each:

28:14, So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right or the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

Today – for you and me:  May His word be our passion and our guide that we might be fully pleasing to our great God!

28:47-48, Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, therefore you shall serve your enemies…

Today – for you and me:  Romans notes that men don’t glorify God and are not thankful.  Oh, that we might realize God’s gifts of grace, faith, mercy, and truth and respond with joy and thanksgiving – with true worship!

28:49, The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand…

Today – for you and me:  This was the issue at Pentecost shortly after Jesus ascended to the right hand of God – foreign languages were spoken in Jerusalem which were a sign of God’s judgment and the end of Israel.  That is why the Jews raced to temple mount to learn from Peter that God was judging Israel just as He had promised.  The tongues that day were a sign to the Jews of God’s wrath on them.

28:58, If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, THE LORD YOUR GOD…

Today – for you and me:  Our God is glorious – give Him glory!  Our God is awesome – full of awe (aweful!).  Study His Word so that the meditations of our heart and the words of our mouth might duly exalt Him to His pleasure and the world’s wonder!

29:2-4, Now Moses called all Israel and said to them: “You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land— the great trials which your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great wonders. Yet the Lord has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear, to this very day.”

Today – for you and me:  A reminder of the blindness and hardness of mankind without the “rain” of God’s grace which imparts faith and enlightens the mind.  They had experienced but were not grasping the Who and the why.  Men today also live under God’s blessings and fail to recognize God’s grace.

29:29, The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

Today – for you and me:  God has given us all we need for understanding Him, us, salvation, and life. Rather than fuss with what we don’t know, we need to be busy obeying what we do know.

30:2-3, And you return to the Lord your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, 

Today – for you and me:  How good it is that God forgives and restores when we confess and repent.  Sins can capture us and the only escape is a renewed commitment to His sovereignty in our life.

30:19, I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; 

Today – for you and me:  The call to the world – choose life!  Thank God for life and blessings in Jesus!