April 21, 2021
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Deuteronomy? Here’s today’s reading:
Deuteronomy 4 (NIV)
Obedience Commanded
1 Now, Israel, hear the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. 2 Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you....Continue Reading
It is by no mistake that Moses takes so much time to urge the people to remember ALL God has done for them. His voice coming down in fire from the mountain, His disciplines, as well as His provisions. He has spent so much time with these people and seen them stumble again and again no matter how painfully evident God has made Himself to them. He urges them to pass down these things to their children and to keep them in their own hearts. We are so easily distracted, so easily we forget the good God has done when things get tough and you feel the concern Moses has about this happening once again to the Israelites as they enter the land.
Deuteronomy 3
Deuteronomy 4
God is a consuming fire and a God of justice. He has made it so we reap what we sow.
Deuteronomy 4
Mark1:29-45. I am enjoying reading through the gospel especially after having just watched “the chosen”. I love the visuals of watching the show and then reading parts from scripture that are portrayed in the show.
Keep his decrees and commands which I I am giving you today so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the lord God gives you for all time. Take that to the bank!!
Deuteronomy 4!
Moses goes over the commands of the Lord, they can’t add to it or take away from the commands they are still a guide for us today. Moses tells them to teach their children and their children. To tell them about the great miracle they witnessed, so they know that there is no other God and he is always there.
Moses points out the phenomenal blessings upon the Israelites.
“For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the Lord our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him? 8 And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day?”
“Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live? Or did God ever try to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord Himself is God; there is none other besides Him.”
He also tells them that they will blow it.
In this chapter Moses turns from historian to teacher and encourager…and more then second than the first. He first emphasizes the reality and importance of the law. They are to follow because God disciplines disobedience but also because the law will show them how to be wise. They are really privileged to have a God so personal (and we are too)! He next encourages them not to forget both the standards that God gives them as well as all that God did to reveal Himself when He gave them the law. It is so easy to forget both the standards and the reasons why we should follow. We must reenforce both in out minds.
I love how He then gives reasons why not to make idols. They have never seen a form when they have interacted with God and yet He has been more present and real as any idol could be. But since God is Spirit, don’t make a form to represent Him or don’t take aspects of what He has created and worship them like other nations do. Because as they go into the promised land and posses it and forget the Lord and build idols, that will lead God to drive them out of the land and scatter them amongst the earth. But when they are scattered and then turn back to the Lord, God will take them back. I love the balance that Moses gives here that God is a consuming fire as well as a God of mercy who does not forget His covenant. Both are reasons to follow Him!
Moses then wants them to understand that the law isn’t so much about a what….rules to follow…but about a Who….the Lord God who has given the rules. He has revealed Himself to them in many ways and has shown Himself worthy to be followed. He has revealed Himself to them personally and powerfully…and how much truer that is for us who have Jesus and the Spirit.
Moses then sets aside cities of refuge on the east side of the Jordan and gives the setting of where he presents the law to the people…and it is in the place on the east side of the Jordan where God has granted them victory over these nations. But don’t miss that before Moses gives them the law, He gives them all the reasons to follow.
35You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other. 36From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the fire. 37Because he loved your ancestors and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength, 38to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today.
39Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the Lordis God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. 40Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the Lordyour God gives you for all time.