Hear, Israel

Deuteronomy 8:20-9:4 – Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God. Hear, Israel: You are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities that have walls up to the sky. The people are strong and tall—Anakites! You know about them and have heard it said: “Who can stand up against the Anakites?” But be assured today that the Lord your God is the one who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire. He will destroy them; he will subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them quickly, as the Lord has promised you. After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, “The Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.” No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is going to drive them out before you.

Ezekiel 5:5 – “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.

Deuteronomy 4:1 – 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.

Leviticus 18:21 – “‘Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molek, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.

Deuteronomy 18:9 – When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there.

Application:

• ·         God had chosen for His people Israel and for His earthly temple a place at the crossroads of the continents of Africa, Asia and Europe so that Israel and what He does for them might be a strong witness to the nations that He is the one and only God with whom all peoples have to do and from whom alone come life and blessing.
• ·         God’s call to His people to hear and obey is a frequent theme in Deuteronomy and elsewhere in the Old Testament.
• ·         Whatever blatantly violates God’s revealed will desecrates His name because it fails to honor His holiness.
• ·         The people were not to resort to the detestable ways of other nations. Rather, they were to listen to the Lord’s true prophets.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Remember

Deuteronomy 8:18-19 – But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today. If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed.

Ecclesiastes 9:11 – I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.

Deuteronomy 4:10 – Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when he said to me, “Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.”

Jeremiah 7:5-7 – If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever.

Application:

• ·         Success is uncertain—more evidence that humans do not ultimately control events.
• ·         The divine call to Israel to remember the Lord’s past redemptive acts—especially how He delivered them from slavery in Egypt—is a common theme in Deuteronomy and is summarized: “Remember the days of old”.
• ·         Rulers and people alike needed to hear and act on these prophetic words, “…do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood…, and…do not follow other gods to your own harm”.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Water Out Of Hard Rock

Deuteronomy 8:12-17 – Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you. You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.”

Exodus 17:6 – I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.

Genesis 22:1 – Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied.

Zechariah 4:6 – So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.

Application:

• ·         Paul may have had the water from the rock incident in mind when he spoke of Christ as “the spiritual rock that accompanied” Israel.
• ·         God does not tempt. Satan tempts us in order to make us fall; God tests us in order to confirm our faith or prove our commitment.
• ·         Zerubbabel did not possess the royal might and power that David and Solomon had enjoyed, and in any event such worldly power would have been inadequate for the purpose of rebuilding the Lord’s temple.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Not Forget

Deuteronomy 8:3,6-11 – He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord…Observe the commands of the Lord your God, walking in obedience to him and revering him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills. When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day.

Ezekiel 20:6 – On that day I swore to them that I would bring them out of Egypt into a land I had searched out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands.

Deuteronomy 4:10 – Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when he said to me, “Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.”

Application:

• ·         The promised land’s real beauty lay in being selected as God’s dwelling place.
• ·         Bread sustains but does not guarantee life, which is God’s gift to those who trust in and live by His word: His commands and promises.
• ·         The divine call to Israel to remember the Lord’s past redemptive acts—especially how He delivered them from slavery in Egypt—is a common theme in Deuteronomy and is summarized: “Remember the days of old”.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

God Disciplines You

Deuteronomy 8:4-5 – Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.

Nehemiah 9:21 – For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen.

2 Samuel 7:14 – I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands.

Hebrews 12:5-7,11 – And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.” Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?... No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Application:

• ·         “Clothes did not wear out” was evidence of the special providence of God.
• ·         God promised to maintain a special relationship with the descendant(s) of David whom He will establish on David’s throne.
• ·         Suffering and persecution should be seen as corrective and instructive training for our spiritual development as God’s children.
• ·         God chastens us in order to correct our faults.
• ·         God’s discipline is evidence that we are His children. Far from being a reason for despair, discipline is a basis for encouragement and perseverance.
• ·         When received submissively, discipline is wholesome and beneficial.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Man Does Not Live On Bread Alone

Deuteronomy 8:3 – He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

Exodus 16:4 – Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.

Deuteronomy 6:13 – Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.

Application:

• ·         Bread sustains but does not guarantee life, which is God’s gift to those who trust in and live by His word: His commands and promises.
• ·         That the God of Israel could provide food in the wilderness for His people for 40 years was one of the great signs that Israel’s God was the true God, the Lord of creation.
• ·         Fear The Lord you God, serve Him only.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Test

Deuteronomy 8:2 – Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.

Amos 2:10 – I brought you up out of Egypt and led you forty years in the wilderness to give you the land of the Amorites.

Genesis 22:1 – Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied.

Deuteronomy 4:10 – Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when he said to me, “Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.”

Application:

• ·         God’s great blessings to Israel in the past added to her guilt, and now they are recalled as a part of the Lord’s indictment against His people.
• ·         Tested, not “tempted”, for God does not tempt. Satan tempts us in order to make us fall; God tests us in order to confirm our faith or prove our commitment.
• ·         The divine call to Israel to remember the Lord’s past redemptive acts—especially how He delivered them from slavery in Egypt—is a common theme in Deuteronomy and is summarized: “Remember the days of old”.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV