Posts that reference the book of Deuteronomy

How God kept His promises to Moab, Ammon, and Edom

and why that matters to you

You must not fear them, for the LORD your God Himself fights for you. Deuteronomy 3:22

Deuteronomy. I love the book of Deuteronomy. Really. In Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, things are very formal and very didactic, but in Deuteronomy, Moses speaks from his heart to Israel. He’s candid, even blunt, but his genuine love for the people he has shepherded is evident in every passage. In chapter 2, he encourages Israel by recounting their journey. But there is a story under the story.

In v. 5, 12, and 22, God says I have given Mount Seir to Esau’s descendants. There were giants, but God drove them out.
In v. 9-11, God gave the land of Moab to the descendants of Lot. There were giants, but God drove them out.
In v. 19-22, God gave the land of Ammon to the descendants of Lot. There were giants, but God drove them out.

See the pattern? God made a promise of land and obligated Himself to deliver on that promise, even if it meant dealing with giants on the recipients’ behalf. But did you notice these were heathens? Edom, Ammon, and Moab didn’t follow God or His laws. In fact, later, God would say that a Moabite or an Ammonite could never enter the congregation of Israel. (Deut 27:3)

Think about that for a moment … God made and kept promises to heathens. Why would He do that? I think there are a few reasons.

God is incredibly gracious. Even those who have no use for Him experience a measure of His grace.
God is working out His larger plan on behalf of the people He favors. He raises up and brings down kings and kingdoms.
God is teaching Israel about His character.

Israel had just spent 40 years in the desert because they refused to believe God’s promise to them. They needed reassurance and reaffirmation before possessing the land. So, God gently explains how things work.

If God will keep His word to unbelievers, if He went before the Ammonites and the Moabites and the Edomites to ensure they received what He has promised, how much more will He act on behalf of His own people, the people He called out, and redeemed?

As followers of Christ, we are a people God has called out and redeemed. He will keep His promises to us. He will go before us. He will act on our behalf. Let’s resolve not to be like Israel by refusing to believe Him.

Are there promises of God you have trouble believing?

Imperfection and Perfection

By Paula Wiseman

I have one more New Testament redemption of an Old Testament event for you (at least for now). In recent posts we’ve looked at Babel and Pentecost, and then at the connection between the golden calf and Pentecost. This one is about access and how imperfection becomes perfection

Old Testament imperfection

When God called Israel out of Egypt, He meant to have a sanctified people for Himself. A holy people. Holy like He is. When He gave the requirements for the priesthood, He included physical restrictions on the priests. There was an age limit. A man couldn’t be lame, or blind, or have any other physical defects and serve the Lord as a priest (Leviticus 21:18-22). Why? Because the priest not only represented the people to God but he also represented God to the people. He was the go-between, the mediator, the intercessor.

Not only were the priests restricted but in Deuteronomy 23:1-8 Moses reminded the people that God also had standards for who could be part of the congregation of Israel, that is, who could participate in the covenants, who could receive the blessings and who could join in the public worship. It specifically mentions eunuchs, illegitimate children, and people from Ammon and Moab. (Voluntary castration was a Canaanite pagan practice.) The reason was that God Himself dwelt with His people and because of His holiness, the taint of sin and rebellion were not allowed. Those people could still live within the boundaries of the nation but they would never be full participants.

(Side note: This sounds cruel on God’s part, but remember, He is operating from a much greater perspective. And Ruth, from Moab, not only became part of Israel but she was the great-grandmother of David and the ancestor of Christ. God always acts with mercy and grace.)

New Testament imperfection

Now, knowing this … how much more amazing was the message of Jesus? Come. Whosoever. (John 3) Anyone who thirsts, come and drink of the water of life freely. (John 7) It was a radical idea. But to make sure people understood, Jesus told a parable in Luke 14:15-24. A great man gave a huge banquet and the invited guests gave weak excuses and refused to go. So the man told his servant, “Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’ (Luke 14:21)

Now the man giving the banquet is clearly representing God, and the banquet represents being in His kingdom. Not only are the defective allowed to participate, He ensures they know that. Bring them in, especially them he tells the servants.

What changed?

Jesus came. He is the Great High Priest so the perfection in the priesthood is achieved. Further, we have our perfection in Christ. We don’t have to bring our own. The Holy Spirit can dwell IN us, not just with us because we are made whole and complete in Him. And that perfection in Christ allows us to approach God in a way that Old Testament followers of God never could.

Jesus changed everything. He redeemed the exclusion of the imperfect to open the invitation to all who would come to His kingdom. The invitation is still open.

(One more side note: Of course, we’re not perfect. We’re not even mature and complete. But God views us as if we already were. We will be one day, and because that has been credited to our account, we live with the benefits now.)

All Things New: The Covenant

By Paula Wiseman

It’s a new year and our thoughts naturally tend toward making a fresh start. As believers, we have already experienced the freshest start possible. Our sins have been wiped away completely, and we are a new creation. Paul says as much in 2 Corinthians 5:17. We have a new birth, new life, new position, new nature, new goals, new relationships, a new mission, a new purpose … and many more. But the key to all of this, we learned last week, was God’s divine initiative. One of the ways that initiative was manifested was God initiating a covenant with individuals and with groups of people. And we learn about those in Hebrews.

Before we discuss the covenants themselves, it’s important to realize that they are solely a function of God’s grace. Yes, Abraham was a man of faith, but God’s decision to cut a covenant with the patriarch came before Abram exercised any faith in God. It wasn’t a case of God reviewing humanity and deciding Abram was someone He could work with, someone He wanted on His team. No. Fallen humanity never seeks God or the things of God. But God does seek us, and He graciously calls us into a relationship with Him. Abram wasn’t a party to the first covenant in Scripture but his is the first we’ll consider.

Abraham

In Hebrews 6:13-14, the writer recalls the covenant God made with Abraham in Genesis 22.

For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.”

Even though the writer doesn’t cite the entire covenant and its promises, they were certainly in view to him and to his readers. Those promises included an inheritance of land in Canaan and a unique identity as God’s people. God chose a people for Himself, the descendants of Abraham. Later, we’ll find out just what it means to be a descendant of Abraham.

Moses

When we think of covenants, we think of the covenant God made with Israel through the Exodus. In Exodus 19 God invites the people to live as His people, under His law. While the people immediately accepted that offer, especially after seeing the miraculous deliverance from Egypt, things went south quickly.

As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses?
Hebrews 3:15-16

The covenant based on keeping God’s law was a failure because the people were rebellious. Note it was not a problem with God’s law. Paul explains in Romans 7 the law was good. It points out how high God’s standards are and how short we fall. Even if we think things would have been different if WE had been at Sinai, if WE had seen those miracles … the truth is, WE have already failed. A quick dip on social media provides enough evidence that, left to ourselves, we are in deep trouble. Better evidence is in Romans 3 where Paul plainly tells us that none of us are good, none of us seek after God.

While that first covenant had a system in place to cover our sins and delay judgment, there was no permanent way to erase our sins. That’s why God initiated a New Covenant in Christ.

The NEW Covenant

Christ Himself explained in the Upper Room that He was inaugurating a new covenant, guaranteed by His blood. The writer of Hebrews quotes Jeremiah 31:31-34 about the New Covenant.

For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant…”
Hebrews 8:8-9

This is how we know the New Covenant wasn’t a last-minute idea God threw together when Israel couldn’t keep the Law. HE knew we wouldn’t be able to keep the Law. We, however, had to see for ourselves. (We’re stubborn that way.) God knew all along that redemption through the blood of Christ was the only way our sins could be dealt with and satisfy both His justice and His grace.

Hebrews 9 explains (and it is absolutely worth the long quote):

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
Hebrews 9:11-15.

The blood of goats and bulls could only go so far. How much MORE will the blood of Christ Jesus Himself, freely offered, purify us! This is how we become the people of God by faith like Abraham. We believe God that Christ’s death is sufficient and is available to us. God accounts that to us and we are considered righteous.

Now that’s not the end of the story, and we don’t get to simply sit around patting ourselves on the back. Under the covenant made while Moses led the people, obedience was expected in order to enjoy the blessings of the covenant. Deuteronomy 27 describes how the Israelites lined up on Mounts Ebal and Gerizim to rehearse the curses for disobedience and the blessings for obedience.

Even under the New Covenant, believers have a responsibility. While we’ll look at the charge more next week, here’s how the writer of Hebrews lays it out.

Therefore, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
Hebrews 10:19-24

Signs of Hardness: Wealth

By Paula Wiseman

One of the memorable details in the Exodus is Pharaoh hardening his heart. Despite the miracles, the plagues, the pronouncements of Moses, he persisted, and the end result was God’s judgment on him and his nation. Pharaoh wasn’t the only one with a hard heart. Israel soon developed one in the wilderness. In the Old Testament and New Testament, we are warned not to harden our hearts. Of course, we would never … It doesn’t happen overnight though. It starts with an action or an attitude and before we know it, we are cold and indifferent to God and His word. We’ve begun considering some cautionary signposts that mean we are on the road to a heart hardened toward God. Last time we discussed disobedience. In this post, we’ll look at wealth.

What is wealth?

The dictionary defines wealth as an abundance of valuable material possessions or resources. We may not consider ourselves wealthy, but look at God’s warning in Deuteronomy.

“Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today; otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
Deuteronomy 8:11-14

Most of us have enough food, decent houses to live in and plenty of stuff, even if we don’t have multiplied silver and gold. God’s warning applies to us.

How does money produce hardness?

Jesus told a parable about a rich man whose harvest exceeded expectations. His response to tear down his barns and build bigger ones to hold all stuff. God called him a fool, and required his soul that very night. The farmer’s comment tips us off to three key ways hardness happens.

‘And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.”‘
Luke 12:19

Self-sufficiency.
Laziness.
Selfishness.

The man had arrived. His hard work had paid off. He didn’t need anything from anyone and he didn’t see a need to be generous with his excess. There was no indication that he was thankful or that he recognized his blessings came from God. He embodies the warning God issued in Deuteronomy. He was proud and forgot God.

We can land in the same place. We can see our things as resulting from our savvy, hard work rather than as a blessing and stewardship entrusted to us from God. We get proud and forget God.

How do you soften a heart hardened by wealth?

Jesus gives us some direction here from the Sermon on the Mount.

“But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;
Matthew 6:20

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
Matthew 6:24

He says “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Matthew 6:33

In each statement, Jesus challenges us to examine our priorities. Wealth is temporal and temporary. It is a useful tool but not a goal in itself. If acquisition distracts us from serving Chris, it is an idol.

Paul has similar instructions for Timothy

For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.
1 Timothy 6:10-11

Wealth is temporal and temporary. It is a useful tool but not a goal in itself. If acquisition distracts us from serving Christ, it is an idol.

The Great Commandment

By Paula

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment.” Matthew 22:36-38

This was a tricky question, at least in the mind of the one who asked. The religious leaders labored over which of God’s laws were the important ones and which ones were not quite as weighty. He was looking for a top ten list to add to the opinions of the other pundits and talking heads of the day. Which would Jesus say? Probably not the one about taking God’s name in vain. Jesus was well-known for calling God His Father. That was borderline blasphemy in the eyes of the religious leaders. And probably not the one about the Sabbath. They had already confronted Him for that on multiple occasions.

So what was it going to be? What was the great commandment?

Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:5. The entire crowd of devout religious leaders around Jesus recited those verses every morning and every evening. Every morning, “You shall love the LORD your God…” Every evening, “You shall love the LORD your God…”

With their 613 laws, with their concern over which was most important, with their score keeping and rule making, they missed the point.

And if we think love is a fuzzy warm feeling of affection, I suspect we might miss the point as well. If love is a feeling, it would be unfair for God to command it, so love must be something more. And it is. Love is active devotion and service driven by adoration and reverence. In simple two-dimensional terms, it is obedience, but not the robotic stimulus and response kind. Obedience is a desire to bring every part of ourselves into agreement with God’s expressed desires and standards.

It is significant that the command includes the word all repeated three times. Any division or dilution of our love for God is idolatry, pure and simple. It is a very high standard. The first two of the Ten Commandments deal with idolatry, but Jesus chose to wrap them with love. His audience understood rule-keeping. He wanted them to understand relationship.

How do we love God with our heart?

Start with the emotions. Do the expressions of our emotions honor and reflect our devotion to God? What about fear and envy and anger? Are they more prevalent than joy, hope or peace?
Then examine desires and longings. Do we want what drives us to God or what pulls us away? Are our goals self-centered or God-centered? Do we have an undercurrent of dissatisfaction or entitlement?

How do we love God with our soul?

Start with your decisions. Are they made with a consideration for His will? Are your choices Godly? Do they confirm or deny His prominence in your life?
Then consider your innermost self. Do we love God with the part of ourselves that no one else ever sees? Are there things that we attempt to hide, things we don’t trust Him with.

How do we love God with our mind?

Start with your thoughts. What occupies your imagination? What lingers as you try to fall asleep?
Then consider your assumptions. Do those mirror God’s words and character? Are there prejudices and biases wielding influence?

However, simply knowing the great commandment isn’t worth much. The Pharisees and lawyers knew it. Remember, they recited it every day. When we act on it, when we love God with all of our heart and soul and mind … that’s when it becomes great.

Listen to the Prophet

By Paula Wiseman

“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.” Deuteronomy 18:15

Moses tells Israel that a prophet is coming.
A prophet like him.
One who identifies with his people.
Who has compassion on them.
Who intercedes for them.
Who stands between them and God’s wrath and judgment.

Jesus Christ is that prophet,
One who speaks to God face to face,
Commissioned by God for a mission to deliver His people,
Who mediates a New Covenant,
A New Testament in his blood.

Moses further says we must listen to Him, to Jesus.
Listen when He speaks of the kingdom of God and how we enter.
Listen when He speaks of mercy – how much we need it, how we show it.
Listen when He speaks of healing and how it happens.
Listen when He speaks of being born again.

Take Moses’ advice.
Listen to that Prophet God raised up.
He has the words of life.