Hold Fast

Deuteronomy 10:15-20 – Yet the Lord set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today. Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. Fear the Lord your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name.

Deuteronomy 4:37-38 – Because he loved your ancestors and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength, to 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.

Ezekiel 47:22 – You are to allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the foreigners residing among you and who have children. You are to consider them as native-born Israelites; along with you they are to be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel.

Deuteronomy 30:20 – This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Isaiah 38:3 – “Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

Exodus 20:7 – “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

Genesis 2:24 – That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

Application:

• ·         God’s people should love Him.
• ·         “You are to consider them as native-born Israelites” was a gracious inclusiveness that went beyond the provision.
• ·         When they chose the Lord, they chose life. The law, the Lord and life are bound together.
• ·         Like David, Hezekiah was truly faithful.
• ·         Misusing the name of the Lord is done by swearing falsely by it, as on the witness stand in court.
• ·         Instead of remaining under the protective custody of his parents, a man leaves them and, with his wife, establishes a new family unit.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV