You Shall Not Be Afraid

“When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. 2 And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people 3 and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, 4 for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.’  (Deuteronomy 20)
God always tells his people to not be afraid in the most fearful circumstances: when the odds seem against us, when we are out armed and outnumbered, when the storm rages and we have no control.  Remember that He is in control of the elements and the enemies, and can even help us deal with our emotions. He is able, and He is here.  Whatever our challenges today as we make our way to the promised land, He goes with us and before us. May the victory be His!

The Worthiness of Our Word...

15 “A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established. 16 If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, 17 then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days.18 The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, 19 then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. (Deuteronomy 19)
Two witnesses. It may sound like an easy standard. But then choose 4 people, 1 from each corner of an intersection where an accident takes place, and see what different perspectives often come out.  Think about the trial of Jesus, where no two "witnesses" can agree about the false charges against Him.  One witness cannot be trusted to give an accurate account - we all have our biases and selfish motivations.  Much of our system of jurisprudence is owed to this chapter as it comes to "innocent until proven guilty", the need for more than one accuser or witness, and making sure a thorough investigation takes place. The big thing for us individually is to make sure we are truthful in our words, making no allowance for exaggeration or implication of what helps us get our own way. May the truth prevail. 

The Beginning of a New Life

9 “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations.10 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer 11 or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, 12 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. 13 You shall be blameless before the Lord your God, 14 for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this. (Deuteronomy 18)
As God gave final instructions to the People of Israel as they prepared to enter the promised land, He constantly reminded them that this is not the end of the story. They were not to plop themselves down into a cesspool of sin and become comfortable with it. They were to live differently.  The sense of an "abomination" - something so horrendous and disgusting that you cannot coexist with it, was to be a real measure of behavior.  Allowing ourselves to be lulled into accepting them as acceptable behavior before God only lends to our falling into the same things that has doomed people before us.  Same old sin. Same old story. Sad, but true.  May we examine ourselves for any ways we have "settled" for less than God's holiness in our own lives. 

Never Above the Law or the People

14 “When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ 15 you may indeed set a king over you whom the Lord your God will choose. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. 16 Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never return that way again.’ 17 And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold. 18 “And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests.19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, 20 that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel. (Deuteronomy 17)

God saw it coming. Israel would want a king. They had been under Pharoah and had confronted a number of kings and their armies, and wanted their own king. But there were stipulations for them and for him. He needed to be one of them, and not forget that he was one of them.  That meant he was not better than them or entitled to more that them: no extra stuff, pets or wives. In fact, more than that, they were more accountable to God and others - to know and live by God's will and word.  Most of all, leaders are more responsible for looking to the future, for their family and their people.  May each of us have that perspective when we consider where God has placed us. Be thankful. Be Humble. Obey God at every turn.  

Known for Justice

18 “You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. 19 You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. 20 Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you. (Deuteronomy 16)
What are we known for? Lebanon was known for its cedar trees; Athens for its philosphers; Israel was to be known for its Justice.  Justice is one of the two pillars proclaimed in our society as well. This chapter follows after the one on poverty and how to deal with it.  Without justice any society crumbles. It is not just something that runs through the court systems; it is an attitude and atmosphere that must prevade throughout relationships and other institutions as well: no partiality, no corruption, no prejudice, no self-righteousness.  So let us demand justice not only from our courts and government officials, but even more so from ourselves. 

No Perpetual Poverty

7 “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother,8 but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. 9 Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of release is near,’ and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin.10 You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. 11 For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’ (Deuteronomy 15)
The Sabbath. It's more than just a day of rest a week.  It is a whole concept of remembering Who it all belongs to: God.  God gave the land. If a brother is in a bind, we need to lend a helping hand.  The paragraph before this one tells us that the seventh year was a year to forgive debts, to start with a clean slate. Knowing this could make a greedy heart decide to hold back on lending a hand to someone, knowing the next year they would forgive the debt.  But that is not like God. He has freely given; we have freely received; we should also freely give. What a radical concept. What a way to put an end to perpetual poverty. A new and fresh beginning every seven days, every several years, based on this fact: every good gift comes from the Father above.  

Acknowledging the Gift...

22 “You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year. 23 And before the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose, to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. 24 And if the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, when the Lord your God blesses you, because the place is too far from you, which the Lord your God chooses, to set his name there, 25 then you shall turn it into money and bind up the money in your hand and go to the place that the Lord your God chooses 26 and spend the money for whatever you desire—oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves. And you shall eat there before the Lord your God and rejoice, you and your household. 27 And you shall not neglect the Levite who is within your towns, for he has no portion or inheritance with you. (Deuteronomy 14)
Tithing. How to start an argument with one word. We know it has to do with "giving", which is something we don't like to do very well. We like to receive. Notice here what they were to do with this tithe - eat it. Eat it in the presence of God.  They were also to share it with the Levites, but they were also to eat it in the presence of God.  The tithe says "thank you" to God. In context, the people of Israel were to be thankful to God for giving them the promised land, which yielded crops abundantly. He had given it to them, and they were prone to forget that. So are we. Giving reminds us that God has given to us - that we are not as self-sufficient as we think, and that gratitude is the appropriate, but often missing, response.  Joy also plays big when it comes to tithing and giving. The people were to eat before the Lord, and it was to be a joyful time for them and for Him. He loves to see us thankful, contented, and enjoying what He provides.  Never think of tithing as "dues" or a duty; think of it as a celebration. 

Serious Stuff...

“If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ 3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him. 5 But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you leave the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. (Deuteronomy 13)
This chapter is one we in a pluralistic society have serious trouble wrapping our minds around. God moves on from here to proceed to say the same thing about families and whole cities.  Sin in pervasive; idolatry is worse yet. God knows that when we turn our hearts to worship what is not God and get a taste of it, we are trapped. And rather than ask Him or someone else to help pull us out of the trap, we tend to drag them in with us, and it becomes more chaotic than freeze tag; everyone has become frozen.  When we love idols, we hate God.  Our setting is not the same as the nation of Israel. We do not stone false teachers, but we are to "set them out" and cease to listen to them. If we hear anyone say anything "instead of" or "in addition to Christ", stop listening, let you cease to obey the voice of the Lord.

The Different Way to Worship

29 “When the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land,30 take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’ 31 You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.  (Deuteronomy 12)
Things need to be different. Earlier in the chapter, God says His people need to live differently in the promised land than they did when they were in the wilderness.  They will also need to live, and worship, differently that those who were there before them.  There are all sorts of wrong ways to live and worship, most of them wrong.  It is not about fitting in with those around you. It is not feeling good about who you are or what you do. It is found in pleasing God, the One who gives life, provides our needs, and makes a place and a way to worship.   Let us not pursue worship according to our own standards or those of the world around us.  Let us worship Him in Spirit, in Truth, and in His way. 

Strength through Obedience

8 “You shall therefore keep the whole commandment that I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and take possession of the land that you are going over to possess, 9 and that you may live long in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it, like a garden of vegetables. 11 But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, 12 a land that the Lord your God cares for. The eyes of the Lordyour God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. (Deuteronomy 11)
From the beginning to the end of this chapter, God's message is repeated and consistent: keep on obeying His commands. If God's people would do so, He would clear the way, keep sending rain, and bless the land.  If they would not, He would not.  They only partially obeyed, which took their strength away. When they would not obey, they met resisitence, sapping their military strength, making it take generations to take the land instead of days. When they did not obey, the rainfall was affected, making it harder to till the land and raise crops, leading to times of famine and frustration. When they did not obey, their spiritual strength and resolve were weakened, and they struggled against the influences of idolatry in their culture.  Obedience brings strength; it reinforces our resolve; it reminds us of Who is Lord; it keeps us focused on the promise of God.  Take some time today to ask God to show you the results of disobedience in your life, and ask for His renewed strength to obey and see His blessing. 

What does God want from us anyway!?!

12 “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good? 14 Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. 15 Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. 16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. 17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. 18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. 19 Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. 20 You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear.21 He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen. (Deuteronomy 10)
As God has Moses preparing the replacement tablets for the Ten Commandments, He gets to the heart of the matter: What does God really want from me? He wants obedience from the heart of His people. It is far more than a list of rules. It is recognizing Who He is and what He is like. He is the Creator and the One who chooses to love. He is powerful, but not partial, just, and compassionate. We tend to be stubborn and selfish. When we truly obey from the heart we will find ourselves being like Him: compassionate, trustworthy and just.  May we resemble Him more today. 

Our Tendency to Self-Righteousness

6 “Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people. 7 Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. 8 Even at Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you. (Deuteronomy 9)
Do not forget.  How easy it is for us to do so.  We look around us and see so much evil, and the consequences that people bring upon themselves, that we begin to think we are chosen, blessed, and entitled because we are so much "better". Don't fall into that trap.  There are blessings for faith and obedience, but even our faith is not from ourselves. It too is "the gift of God." We can look back in our lives a good ways, or as far back as yesterday, and see how our sin, rebellion, and lack of faith have driven God crazy.  Even after God shows us over and over again how faithful He is, and how forgiving He is, we take those things for granted.  But rather than wrath, He has chosen mercy.  May the newness of His mercies every day, including today, remind us we have no right to any kind of self-righteousness.  

A Humble and Hungry Heart

2 And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. (Deuteronomy 8)
As God has Moses look back over the experience of God's people since the Exodus and prepares them for the promised land, He reviews what they could have and should have learned. Start with humility - the fear of the LORD. Allow yourself to experience those things that test your faith: hunger, fear, uncertainty. Finally, give your heart to obedience. Believe that the LORD does love you, have the best in mind for you, and will see you through to where He has called you.  Along the way, keep checking in with His Word. He will not lead you astray. 

Chosen but Careful

6 “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, 10 and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. 11 You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today. (Deuteronomy 7)
As fallen sinners, we have a tendency to the extreme.  When guilt hits, we view ourselves as above hope, beyond grace. But then, when forgiveness is given, we often relax so much spiritually that we forget from whence we have fallen. We begin to think that we are worthy on our own accord, as if we are doing God a favor by being His people.  God is faithful; we - not so much.  Careful is the word God uses here as a reminder. Careful does not mean worrying that God is going to bash us on the head, or smash us in a fit of rage; it means we realize and live as if we are recipients of His loving grace and mercy, and lovingly want to please Him, and do not take His grace for granted. Rejoice that you are chosen, but be calmly careful that God deserves our loving obedience.