Lasso of Truth

Deuteronomy 32-34

We are finishing the book today!  How exciting, since we are also finishing the last book of the Law, and will finally get to "step" into the promised land!  Okay, before I get too far ahead, let's get going.

Chapter 32  The Song of Moses.  Did you notice the change in writing style here?  Not just the way the words are written on the page, but the poetry and imagery he uses.  This is not Moses' normal way of writing.  For example, verses 1-2 say that these words are as refreshing and necessary as rain on the earth.  Beautiful.

Verse 9.  God calls His people His inheritance.  When we think of an inheritance, it is something that we look forward to (not in a morbid way).  It might be something that we worked for, or it might be a reward.  Isn't it interesting to view God's people as His inheritance?  No wonder He was jealous of their attention.

Verse 21 caught my eye.  "They have made me jealous with what was not God."  An idol doesn't have to be a graven image of an invented deity.  It is anything that takes our focus off of Him.

Verse 23 startled me a little.  I do not want to be in the position where God is compelled to use His arrows on me.  I'm not sure I even want to know what that means!

Verse 30.  This verse needs to be highlighted or underlined.  "How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had given them up."  This refers to battles that God had already won for them, as well as what was coming in the near future, in Jericho.  It also makes me wonder, how many impossible miracles are we taking the credit for?

Verse 47 "It is your life"  This means 1)the law should be the focus of your life, and 2)that abiding by it will literally prolong your life.

Chapter 33
Moses' last speech was to bless the individual tribes.  Notice verses 13-17: God is still doubly blessing the tribes of Joseph.

Go back and read verses 26-27 again.  What a beautiful, encompassing picture of God.

Chapter 34 The death of Moses. 
I don't think this was a sad time for Moses.  He had completed his work, and he spent his last moments on earth in the presence of God.  It would be sad for his followers, and maybe even scary to be without their long-suffering leader.  But I'm sure that God knew that and planned it this way.  It wasn't Moses who delivered them out of Egypt.

Verse 6. God buried his body in a secret place, probably to avoid his grave becoming an object of worship.

Verse 10.  What an epitaph.  "Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face."  Think back on Moses for a moment. From baby in a basket to the burning bush.  From "Let my people go" to the 10 commandments.  From leading a nation through the wilderness to taking his last breath in the presence of the almighty.   On top of that, he's the one who wrote every word of scripture that we've read together thus far.  There is no doubt that Moses was a mighty man of God. That God's hand was upon his life. 

And yet Moses was just a man.  The great things that were done through his life, had nothing to do with Moses' greatness.  It had everything to do with hearing the call, and being obedient to it. It's true that God's hand was on his life, but that's not any different from the presence of God in every believer's life.  God got Moses' attention with a burning bush.  What has He used in your life?  Did you notice that is was God's voice calling from within? 

Our lives can have as big an impact for the kingdom as Moses' did, because we serve the same God.  We just have to listen and obey.

Next time: Joshua(!) 1-3

Deuteronomy 29-31

Chapter 29
The beginning of this chapter is prefaced with a look back.  I think the message in verse 4 is that even though they saw first hand what God was doing, and where He was taking them, they never quite grasped the big picture.  They never understood the meaning of it all.  I know we do this today.  Often, we wonder and worry about what God is doing in our small lives, and we forget that we are only part of a huge plan.  Let's pray that He gives us a "heart to know, eyes to see, and ears to hear."

Verse 5.  Even in trial and punishment, there is still undeserved provision from God.

In the next section, verses 14-29, God is preparing them for the day that they do turn there backs on Him.  There will be no need to ask why the Lord's wrath is upon them. (Verse 24)

Chapter 30
Here is a glimmer of hope.  There is always a chance of redemption, even at the national level.  Verse 2.  Repentance isn't just changing your ways. It's also about changing your heart. Repentance is a complete 180-degree turn with every aspect of your life.  It is a direction your whole life takes.

I want to hold onto verses 11-14.  This is the beauty of the Bible.  This is why we call it His love letter.  God hasn't left us here, without purpose or guidance.  He hasn't hidden His expectations from us, so that they are impossible to know.  He has laid everything out for us, so that His Word can be in our mouths and in our hearts, so that we may observe it. (Verse 14)

God defines their options in even more certain terms in verses 15-20.  You have two options. You can choose life or daath.  And God makes it clear that He hope they will choose life.

I love how in verses 19-20 God reveals to them the meaning of Life. They (and we) are here to Love the Lord, Obey His Voice, and Hold Fast to Him, for This is Your Life and the Length of Your Days.  People across the world search for meaning their whole lives. But God has shown us here what this life is all about.  If our lives are getting bogged down by the human-ness of life.  By the call of cultural obligation, we are missing the point of our very existence. I'm not saying that we need to put God on our priority list: 1.God 2.Spouse 3.Children 4.Church 5.Me  No, He should be behind every bullet point:  How can I serve God through serving my spouse?  How am I loving Go through my job as a parent.  And so on.  God doesn't just want to be first in our hearts.  He wants us to lay our hearts in His hands.  This has potential for changing our whole perspective on life.

Chapter 31
Verse 12 is at the heart of God's will for our lives.  Teaching others God's commandments.  It might look different in our New Testament world, but the point is the same.  Get out there and share.

Verse 17  The curse that comes with sin is not so much what God will do to you if you go outside His will, as it is the very absence of His presence in our lives. If He hides His face, the evil of the world is free to consume you.  I often try to imagine myself in some other part of the world.  I would love to travel. I would love to be a missionary in another country.  I'd love to move back to Texas and be near my family.  But all of that is irrelevant if I disregard where God wants me to be.  I have lived outside of God's protective covering in the past, and I am unwilling to go there again.

Verse 19 mentions that Moses is going to write a song, so that he can teach it to the rest of the nation, and they can remember God's law that way.  This is exactly how I teach Emma her "Cubbies" verse every week.  We'll heat more about this song next time.

While Moses is off writing his song, God speaks to Joshua.  I wonder if this is the first time Joshua has heard God's voice personally.  What an awesome experince.

Next time: Deuteronomy 32-34

Deuteronomy 27-28

Chapter 27
Verse 8 No one will have an excuse for not knowing the requirements of God.
Verse 15-26 The Curses of Mount Ebal.  Again, these were recited and "amened" by the assembly.  Everyone knew and understood what God required of them.

Chapter 28
The first half of this chapter is God's promise to bless His people if they follow His commandments for godly living.  Verse 11 is a great example.  There is no area of their lives that will not be blessed if they follow Him.

But in verse 15, the theme changes.  If the first half of the chapter was  titled, "If You Do...", this section would bear the title, "But If You Don't..."  Notice how many of these curses mirror the blessings from before.

Verse 23.  No rain, no crops.

Contrast verse 10 with verse 25.
In verse 10, the promise of being feared by other nations.
In verse 25, the warning is that they will be an example of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

The destruction of these curses is deep and far-reaching.  There would be no visible end to it.  Verse 29 says they would be oppressed and robbed continually...no one to save them.  (Have you ever felt like this? I have, but truthfully, it was only when I was living outside of God's will.)

The truly tragic part is that we know most of these curses will be fulfilled due to the nation turning its back on God.  For example, verses 32 and 41 we see literally in Daniel.  In fact, Daniel himself is one of these children.

Verse 47 Because you did not serve the Lord your God with all your heart.  With the possibility of living out these curses, doesn't God's standard seem like a cakewalk in comparison?  Who would ever choose to turn away from Him, when this was the sure punishment?  But man's heart is wicked.

And just when you thought it couldn't get any darker, it gets way, way worse.  Just look at verse 53, and those around it.  And verse 63--can you imagine the Lord delighting in your destruction?

So, after reading this, I'll bet you are wondering how on earth this could be a favorite chapter of mine.  The answer is this:

We serve a just, powerful, and yes--rigid--God. The extent of His power is something our tiny minds cannot fathom.  His hand reaches as far as the undiscovered galaxies, and yet controls the tiniest drop of rain, the delicate seedling.

His standards are high, impossibly high, but He always gave them (us) a chance at redemption.  First through the sacrifice of a perfect lamb, and now through the sacrifice of His perfect Son.  The greatest part of this chapter, and the greatest evidence of God's love, is that this chapter exists in the first place.  He loved them enough to warn them.  He told them what they could expect from disobedience, and He told them how to avoid it.  The choice was theirs.  This chapter is a huge example of our free will.

God wants to give us every blessing He has to offer.  He wants to give us eternal life through Christ.  But we have to choose.

Next time: Deuteronomy 29-31

Deuteronomy 24-26

Chapter 24
Verse 5 - I know several missions organizations that require a year sabbatical after marriage.  Wise advice.

Did you ever take a babysitting job (or lawn-mowing job) where you were looking forward to that money for days before.  You planned how you were going to spend it, how you were going to divide it between savings, tithing, spending...and then at the end of the night, the parents of the kids took you home, and forgot to pay you!? And you had to decide whether you were going to mention it, or wait for them to realize, or just give them the freebie and vow not to ever work for them again...Let's take verse 15 seriously and not put anyone in our own lives through this agony.

Verses 18-22:  This section begins and ends with the same words, "Remember you were a slave."  God requires extra care for the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner.  These are people that could work their hardest, and still not make ends meet in their lives.  Sometimes we forget these people exist even in our churches.  Why do you think it is so important to God that we help those who can't help themselves? 

I think that's exactly what He did for us. We were slaves to sin, and there was nothing we could do about it.  I heard one preacher say that the road to heaven is like a report card.  You were born with an "F".  You could work and work your whole life, be a good person, go to church, raise money for the needy, and you can bring that grade all the way up to an "F+."  But an F+ is still a failure.  You cannot pass into Heaven with anything lower than an A+.  The only way to bring up the grade is with a substitution.

God is saying to His people in this section, remember what I did for you when you were helpless and undeserving?  The least that you can do is help others in that situation.

Chapter 25
Verses 5-10  This is the idea of the "kinsmen redeemer" we'll see more of in the book of Ruth.

Okay, lets take a minute and look at verses 11-12.  What!?  This woman was only trying to help.  Her intention was to save her husband from bodily harm.  Why would she be the one punished here?

This is what I'm taking from this.  I know that as wives, mothers, and American women, we like to be in control.  We know the best way to organize a closet, balance a checkbook, and resolve a conflict.  But this verse points out that in certain situations, we need to just BUTT OUT.  Don't let your need for control (or to rescue) cause you to sin.

Chapter 26
This ceremony of tithe and offering is really beautiful.  When we give, we should remind ourselves of where we were (v. 6), how far the Lord has brought us (v. 8), and what He has given us (v.9).  This should make it easy, and even exciting, to give to the Lord with all your heart and soul (v.16).

Next time:  Deuteronomy 27-28  Chapter 28 is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, but maybe not for obvious reasons.  See you tomorrow!

Deuteronomy 21-23

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!  Hope you had the chance to tell someone how much you care, or what they mean to you.  I guess I'll just take this chance to say that I am so encouraged by this Bible Study.  Do you realize that we've been at this for six months now?  We have dug deeply into the Word, and are approaching the end of the 5th book.  I know that my investment of time and energy has come back to me 10-fold this year.  Don't you feel God's blessings on your life through this?  I sure do, and I couldn't have made it this far without my friends and readers. Thank you so much.

Chapter 21
Verse 3 stood out to me:  Someone must pay for every sin.  God was preparing the Israelites from the first day to understand that they needed a Savior. 

Did verses 18-21 stand out to anyone? What do you think of this Old Testament parenting practice?  Wow.

Chapter 22
God is requiring Israel to act as a community.  Verses 1-4: They were responsible for each other's personal property.

Verses 5-12 I wonder if there were practical reasons behind these laws, or if they were merely to set God's people apart.

Verse 17 Can you imagine how embarrassing this would have been?  Even if she was pure and blameless, she would be shamed for the rest of her life.

There are many stoning offenses mentioned in this chapter, and they are all very serous.  Did you notice verse 22?  In case of adultery, the man and the woman should be stoned.  Farther down in mentions cases where only the man would be punished, but no where in this law is a case for the woman to be stoned alone.  The Jews had twisted this by the time Jesus arrived, and were willing to stone only the adulterous woman.

Chapter 23
The order of these laws and verses seem random to me, but I'm sure that there is an order there that I just haven't noticed.  Did you read verses 12-13?  My family and church friends take a trip to an island each year for primitive camping.  Years ago I remember someone hung a plaque with this verse on it around camp.  I was pretty young, and remember thinking, "The Bible talks about that!?!" 

Verse 14 gives the reason for all of these strict rules.  But Jesus' sacrifice covers all of our impurities.

I was personally convicted by verse 23.  When I have an idea and I'm really excited about something, I tend to get carried away talking about it.  I talk about it so much, that sometimes I miss the fact that my plan isn't going to work out.  Or maybe I've promised someone I'd do something that I really don't have time for.  It feels bad and embarrassing to go back and admit that you got swept up in the moment of excitement.  We'd all be better off if we were more careful with our words.

Next time: Deuteronomy 24-26

Deuteronomy 19-20

Chapter 19
Cities of refuge.  I think this is such a cool provision.  God gives them an example of accidental death in verse 5, so there can be no misunderstanding.

In verses 18-19, the punishment for the false witness is to be what was intended for the falsely accused.  Wow.

Chapter 20
There are so many of these verses, like verse 4, in these chapters.  "For the Lord your God is the One who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you."  I think this applies to spiritual warfare as much as literal warfare in our own lives.

God required wise and loving treatment of the people in his army.  Verses 5-9.

Verse 17- God's vengeance.  These are nations that have been enemies of God for centuries.  They have mocked Him, and hated Him.  God let them live this long to pave the way for His people. They have cleared land and plowed fields to save His people work, but now their time is up.

Verses 19-20 Again, we notice the detail of God's provision.

Next time: Deuteronomy 21-23

Deuteronomy 16-18

Ok, I mentioned that there would be a lot of review in these chapters, and that's true.  But they are still bursting with more application than I can absorb at once, so lets dive right in and get to work.

Chapter 16
Verse 3 Some say that leaven is always a metaphor for sin, but here it is clearly different.  He calls the unleavened bread the "bread of affliction".  Just think about that loaf of bread you had with dinner.  It was warm, fluffy, soft and tasty.  Yum.  But for the week of the Passover, God is asking His people to eat bread that is not so pleasant.  It probably took lots of chewing and didn't go down at all easily.  Maybe a corner of it scraped against the gums. But while they were chewing, they were to think of the day that God delivered them out of Egypt.

I think in some ways God still requires to "eat the bread of affliction."  He allows seasons in our life to be unpleasant or even painful to pull us out of our daily lives and remind us of our focus.  He has brought us out of slavery, too.  Only this time, the blood of the perfect lamb that keeps us from death is from His Son, Jesus Christ.

Chapter 17
Verse 14. God has set up His government with himself as King, but he knows that in the future they will want a human king.  Although it would be many years later, this is the prophesy of that, proof that God knew their hearts and their futures.  And still he provided for them in their mistakes.

Verses 16-17  These are serious requirements for the Israelite King.  God knew that power would temp a man to wander from Him.  And as we know, even the greatest kings in Israel's history will break these rules.  And the consequences will be exactly as predicted here.

Chapter 18
Much of this chapter warns God's people against dabbling in the occult.  I believe that we are in a very similar position, and should heed this warning as well.  On television alone, how many shows play with the idea of mediums and communing with the dead.  Many of these have consultants who do it in the real world for a living.  This is not just make believe.  The spirit world is real, something we should be aware of, and these shows are making it look like fun or something that can be mastered.

Verse 20. While it must have been an unbelievable honor to be named as a prophet of God, it was not a job to be taken lightly. 

Next time: Deuteronomy 19-20

Deuteronomy 14-15

Prayer Request:  Please continue your prayers for my friend Amy and her husband Josh. This will probably be the last time I will remind you, but their need for prayer will be heavy this whole year.  I talked to her last week, and they are reacting in the same way that Job did when he lost his loved ones.  They are worshiping.  Zoe's name meant "Life" and they are secure in the faith that she is living eternally with her Father in Heaven.  They are using her short life to share with others about how they, too can have Eternal Life with Him.  They are an example of how we must use God's strength when we have none of our own.  Thank you for continuing to lift them up.

Chapter 14
This chapter starts by naming the animals that are to be used for meat, and those that are not.  The clean and unclean animals.  I know that we are under a new Covenant since Christ's resurrection, but something I've noticed about God's commandments is that they are practical as well as moral.  For example, there are practical reasons that we should not lie,  When you do, you become less trustworthy, lose friends, and earn a reputation that could hurt you for years to come.

I think that there is a practical side to the labels of "clean" vs "unclean" animals, too.  The clean animals were herbivores and also had digestive systems that filtered out impurities.  Studies have shown that these meats have the most nutrients, are more completely and easily digested, and have the lowest occurrences of environmental toxins.  These animals were meant to be eaten.  Others were meant to be scavengers.  God's Word is so complex and complete, that His guidelines are much more than a set of rigid rules.  Although it is no longer sinful to stray from this diet, it's in our best physical interest to stay close to it.

verse 24 For those who live far away from the place of worship, they are allowed to exchange their offerings for money, bring that to the Tabernacle, and buy something else to offer when they get there.  This is the system that was running amok by the time Jesus entered the scene.

Chapter 15
I think that verses 4-5 are ironically placed at the beginning of the chapter.  Here it says that they will never have poor among them.  All they have to do is follow God's commandments.  Then the rest of the chapter is about how to deal with the poor among them.

Verses 7-11 are the guidelines for treatment of a poor "brother."  Verse 9--If the Sabbath year is close, a man might not want to give as freely, because the debt might not have to be fully repaid.  But God is saying in verse 10 that it's not about who gave and who received.  It's not about debt and repayment.  You are brothers.  Open your hand and give generously, for I am the one who is keeping score.    "...because for this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all your undertakings."

Last year (2008) I got bitten by the charity bug and raised $500 for Heifer International, and this year I hope to triple that amount for various causes. Verse 11 might just become my theme verse for this purpose.  We all should remember this.

Verse 12-19 The idea of servitude within the nation of Israel started as a way to get a kinsman back on his feet.  In a way they were serving each other.  There are many non-Christians out there who slander the Bible for allowing slavery, but when explained in this way, it was much more charitable that leaving someone to their own poverty.

Next time:  Deuteronomy 16-18
These chapters are mostly a review of the laws that were given in Leviticus and Numbers.  But I want to know what new thing did you learn about God this time around?

Deuteronomy 13

Chapter 13
The beginning of this chapter reminds us how we can know whether a sign or wonder is from God.  Here it is in verse 4:
    "You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.

There is one way to know if something is from God, and that is to know Him.  We have established before, in our study of Genesis (I think it was in chapter 16) that God's will for your life will never contradict His Word.

Have any of you seen this movie that came out several years ago called "Saved"? If you haven't, I think you should.  It's basically a non-Christian's view on the idea of being saved.  It's offensive, insulting, and in some "Christian" cultures, not too far off base.  The plot revolves around a girl who things that her boyfriend might be gay, and damned to Hell.  So the girl hits her head and has a "vision of Jesus" who tells her that she is the one to bring her boyfriend back.  She decides that it is her mission from God to seduce her boyfriend and have sex with him to convince him that he's not gay, and therefore save his soul. 

Now, I know that this was not a true story, but if this girl had truly KNOWN God, she would never have considered this an option.  The verse says that we are to "listen to His voice" and "cling to Him."  If we know His voice, we'll be able to recognize an impostor instantly. God will never ask us to sin.  Ever.

In verses 5-11, the chapter takes on a different subject.  It talks about the consequences of turning others against God.  Even if the guilty one is your brother, your child, or your spouse.  How do you feel about this?  What do you think about God in this context?

Here's my take:  God is setting up a government for His people.  A nation in which there is no human king.  God is the King.

So, tuning someone against God is not merely a situation where, "You believe differently than me."  It is an act against the very foundation of the government.  Turning someone away from God, the King, is nothing short of treason.  Now the punishment doesn't seem so unusual.

Read the rest of the chapter in the context of treason, and I think it will make much more sense.

Verse 17-18.  As usual, God ends this section with grace.  He reminds them that while the punishment for disobedience is great, it doesn't have to come to that.

Next time: Deuteronomy 14-15

Deuteronomy 11-12

I just want to thank all of you who are praying for my friend Amy.  Please continue to do so, as I know the next days, weeks, months, year will be a struggle.  I believe that we are to bear each other's burdens, and as women we can almost instantly put ourselves in the place of another mother and know exactly how she needs prayer.  Thank you all for joining me in that.

Chapter 11
Moses is warning his people in this chapter.  They have the choice between blessing and curse.  It's simple: follow God, and get His blessing.  Turn away from Him, and get His curse.  Is this a difficult decision?

Verse 10-11  Moses refers to Egypt and the fact that they had to really work the land to grow their crops.  Egypt's wealth was built on the backs of slaves, who plowed the land and brought in water. This new land will be maintained by God Himself. 

Moses hints at the consequences of disobedience here. Verse 28 Later he will go into excruciating detail.

Chapter 12
Our Creator will not tolerate false gods.  Verse 8  When they step into the Promised Land, things are going to change.  There will be a permanence.  They will worship their God differently than other nations worship.

I noticed that this chapter has a rhythm and repetition to it.  This could have been memorized and passed down. (v 15, 22)

I noticed in verse 31 that the "gods" being worshiped by these other nations are not merely false gods.  Satan has used the people's innate desire to worship, and has twisted it so much that they sin to please their "gods".  I think that's why we have this last verse, 32.  If we start adding anything to what God has required, that opens the door for the Enemy to pervert it.

Next time: Deuteronomy 13  (Just one chapter--there's a lot to cover.)