So You May Obey It

Deuteronomy 30:13-15 – Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.

Romans 10:8-9 – But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Proverb 3:1-2 – My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you peace and prosperity.

Genesis 2:16-17 – And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Application:

• ·         Righteousness is gained by faith, not by deeds, and is readily available to anyone who will receive it freely from God through Christ.
• ·         Normally the righteous are prosperous and happy, but sometimes it is the wicked who are strong and prosperous, temporary though that may be.
• ·         Despite the serpent’s denial, disobeying God ultimately results in death.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

It Is Not Up In Heaven...The Word Is Very Near You

Deuteronomy 30:12 – It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?”

Romans 10:8-10 – But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

Application:

• ·         Righteousness is gained by faith, not by deeds, and is readily available to anyone who will receive it freely from God through Christ.
• ·         Christians believe not only that Jesus lived but also that He still lives.
• ·         Salvation involves inward belief as well as outward confession.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Your Ancestors

Deuteronomy 30:7-11,19-20 – The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies who hate and persecute you. You will again obey the Lord and follow all his commands I am giving you today. Then the Lord your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The Lord will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your ancestors, if you obey the Lord your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach…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.

Deuteronomy 4:29 – But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Isaiah 45:23 – By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear.

Isaiah 63:1 – Who is this coming from Edom, from Bozrah, with his garments stained crimson? Who is this, robed in splendor, striding forward in the greatness of his strength? “It is I, proclaiming victory, mighty to save.”

Application:

• ·         The law, the Lord and life are bound together.
• ·         “With all your heart and…soul” indicates total involvement and commitment.
• ·         Paul quotes “every knee…every tongue” to describe Christ’s exalted position.
• ·         “Stained crimson” is Christ’s robe “dipped in blood” as He wages war at His second coming.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

With All Your Heart And...Soul

Deuteronomy 30:1-6 – When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come on you and you take them to heart wherever the Lord your God disperses you among the nations, and when you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back. He will bring you to the land that belonged to your ancestors, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors. The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.

Deuteronomy 4:29 – But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Nehemiah 1:8-9 – “Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.’

Deuteronomy 6:5 – Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

Application:

• ·         “With all your heart and…soul” indicates total involvement and commitment. The phrase is applied not only to how the Lord’s people should seek Him but also to how they should fear Him, live in obedience to Him, love and serve Him, and, after forsaking Him, renew their allegiance and commitment to Him.
• ·         Dispersion was the inescapable consequence of the people’s unfaithfulness.
• ·         To love King Yahweh is to be His loyal and obedient servant. Love for God and neighbor is built on the love that the Lord has for His people and on His identification with them. Such love is to be total, involving one’s whole being.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

That We May Follow All The Words Of The Law

Deuteronomy 29:21-29 – The Lord will single them out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law. Your children who follow you in later generations and foreigners who come from distant lands will see the calamities that have fallen on the land and the diseases with which the Lord has afflicted it. The whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulfur—nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim, which the Lord overthrew in fierce anger. All the nations will ask: “Why has the Lord done this to this land? Why this fierce, burning anger?” And the answer will be: “It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them. Therefore the Lord’s anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book. In furious anger and in great wrath the Lord uprooted them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now.” The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.

Jeremiah 22:9 – And the answer will be: ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God and have worshiped and served other gods.’”

Proverbs 2:21-22 – For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it; but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be torn from it.

John 5:39-40 – You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 – All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Application:

• ·         “Forsaken the covenant…and served other gods” was a gross violation of the first and second stipulations of the Sinaitic covenant.
• ·         God warned that if the people refuse to obey Him, they “will be uprooted from the land”.
• ·         Despite the Jewish leaders reverence for the very letter of Scripture, they did not recognize the one to whom Scripture bears supreme testimony.
• ·         Paul affirms God’s active involvement in the writing of Scripture, an involvement so powerful and pervasive that what is written is the infallible and authoritative word of God.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

The Lord Will Never Be Willing To Forgive Them

Deuteronomy 29:20 – The Lord will never be willing to forgive them; his wrath and zeal will burn against them. All the curses written in this book will fall on them, and the Lord will blot out their names from under heaven.

Zephaniah 1:18 – Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the Lord’s wrath.” In the fire of his jealousy the whole earth will be consumed, for he will make a sudden end of all who live on the earth.

Ezekiel 36:3-5 – Therefore prophesy and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because they ravaged and crushed you from every side so that you became the possession of the rest of the nations and the object of people’s malicious talk and slander, therefore, mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Sovereign Lord: This is what the Sovereign Lord says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, to the desolate ruins and the deserted towns that have been plundered and ridiculed by the rest of the nations around you—this is what the Sovereign Lord says: In my burning zeal I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, for with glee and with malice in their hearts they made my land their own possession so that they might plunder its pastureland.’

2 Kings 13:23 – But the Lord was gracious to them and had compassion and showed concern for them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. To this day he has been unwilling to destroy them or banish them from his presence.

2 Peter 3:9 – The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Application:

• ·         Peter says that those who deny the “sovereign Lord” bring “swift destruction on themselves”.
• ·         In the day of God’s judgment, material wealth cannot buy deliverance from punishment.
• ·         The Lord was personally offended by the ridicule of the nations because it was His special land they were mocking and plundering.
• ·         In His mercy and grace the Lord was long-suffering toward His people and refrained from full implementation of the covenant curse of exile from Canaan.
• ·         God’s seeming delay in bringing about the consummation of all things is a result not of indifference but of patience in waiting for all who will come to repentance.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Watered Land...Dry

Deuteronomy 29:19-20 – When such a person hears the words of this oath and they invoke a blessing on themselves, thinking, “I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way,” they will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry. The Lord will never be willing to forgive them; his wrath and zeal will burn against them. All the curses written in this book will fall on them, and the Lord will blot out their names from under heaven.

Psalm 72:17 – May his name endure forever; may it continue as long as the sun. Then all nations will be blessed through him, and they will call him blessed.

Isaiah 65:16 – Whoever invokes a blessing in the land will do so by the one true God; whoever takes an oath in the land will swear by the one true God. For the past troubles will be forgotten and hidden from my eyes.

Application:

• ·         The language “all nations” recalls the promise to Abraham and suggests that it will be fulfilled through the royal son of David—ultimately the Messiah.
• ·         God is true to His promises.
• ·         Peter, too, says that those who deny the “sovereign Lord” bring “swift destruction on themselves”.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Root...That Produces Such Bitter Poison

Deuteronomy 29:14-18 – I am making this covenant, with its oath, not only with you who are standing here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God but also with those who are not here today. You yourselves know how we lived in Egypt and how we passed through the countries on the way here. You saw among them their detestable images and idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold. Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.

Genesis 6:18 – But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.

Exodus 20:3-4,23 – “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below…Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold.

Exodus 34:15 – “Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices.

Application:

• ·         God extends His loving concern to the whole family of righteous Noah—a consistent pattern in God’s dealings with His people, underscoring the moral and responsible relationship of parents to their children.
• ·         The contrast between the one true God “in heaven”, who “does whatever please Him”, and idols of silver or gold, who can do nothing at all, is striking.
• ·         “Root…that produces such bitter poison” was the poison of idolatry, involving the rejection of the Lord.
• ·         No deity, real or imagined, is to rival the one true God in Israel’s heart and life.
• ·         Because God has no visible form, any idol intended to resemble Him would be a sinful misrepresentation of Him.
• ·         Partaking of food sacrificed to a pagan deity invites compromise.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Covenant

Deuteronomy 29:14-15 – I am making this covenant, with its oath, not only with you who are standing here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God but also with those who are not here today.

Exodus 19:5-6 – Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”

Jeremiah 31:31 – “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.

Ezekiel 37:26 – I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put my sanctuary among them forever.

Application:

• ·         The covenant between God and Israel at Mount Sinai is the outgrowth and extension of the Lord’s covenant with Abraham and his descendants 600 years earlier.
• ·         As the old covenant was put into effect with the shedding of the blood of animals, so the new would be put into effect with the shedding of the blood of Christ.
• ·         Participation in the divine blessings is conditioned on obedience added to faith.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

His People...Your God

Deuteronomy 29:10-13 – All of you are standing today in the presence of the Lord your God—your leaders and chief men, your elders and officials, and all the other men of Israel, together with your children and your wives, and the foreigners living in your camps who chop your wood and carry your water. You are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the Lord your God, a covenant the Lord is making with you this day and sealing with an oath, to confirm you this day as his people, that he may be your God as he promised you and as he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Genesis 6:18 – But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.

Exodus 19:5-6 – Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”

Genesis 17:7 – I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

Zechariah 8:8 – I will bring them back to live in Jerusalem; they will be my people, and I will be faithful and righteous to them as their God.”

Application:

• ·         God extends His loving concern to the whole family of righteous Noah—a consistent pattern in God’s dealings with His people, underscoring the moral and responsible relationship of parents to their children.
• ·         God’s people, both individually and collectively, are to be “set apart” to do His will.
• ·         God’s commitment to His covenant was forever, but descendants of Abraham could break it. To be your God was the heart of God’s covenant promise, repeated over and over in the Old Testament. This is God’s pledge to be the protector of His people and the One who provides for their well-being and guarantees their future blessing.
• ·         “They will be my people, and I will be…their God” was covenant terminology, pertaining to intimate fellowship in the covenant relationship between God and His people. Judah’s restoration to covenant favor and blessing rested on the faithfulness and righteousness of God.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Covenant

Deuteronomy 29:5-9 – Yet the Lord says, “During the forty years that I led you through the wilderness, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet. You ate no bread and drank no wine or other fermented drink. I did this so that you might know that I am the Lord your God.” When you reached this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out to fight against us, but we defeated them. We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh. Carefully follow the terms of this covenant, so that you may prosper in everything you do.

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.

Joshua 1:7 – “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.

Exodus 19:5-6 – Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”

Psalm 25:10 – All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful toward those who keep the demands of his covenant.

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. God’s discipline of His people by bringing them through the wilderness taught them this fundamental truth.
• ·         Success was not guaranteed unconditionally.
• ·         The covenant between God and Israel at Mount Sinai is the outgrowth and extension of the Lord’s covenant with Abraham and his descendants 600 years earlier.
• ·         “Ways of the Lord” are the Lord’s benevolent dealings with those who are true to His ways.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Hear

Deuteronomy 28:65-29:4 – Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart. You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life. In the morning you will say, “If only it were evening!” and in the evening, “If only it were morning!”—because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see. The Lord will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again. There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you. These are the terms of the covenant the Lord commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in Moab, in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Horeb. Moses summoned all the Israelites and said to them: Your eyes have seen all that the Lord did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials and to all his land. With your own eyes you saw those great trials, those signs and great wonders. But to this day the Lord has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear.

Deuteronomy 5:2 – The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.

Isaiah 6:10 – Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

Ezekiel 12:2 – “Son of man, you are living among a rebellious people. They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious people.

Application:

• ·         Adherence to the covenant would bring God’s people the blessings of the Lord, while breaking the covenant would bring against them the punishments described as “curses”.
• ·         One day, however, the nation will be able to see and hear.
• ·         The Israelites in Jerusalem refuse to recognize that the end has come for them.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

As The Stars In The Sky

Deuteronomy 28:58-64 – If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name—the Lord your God—the Lord will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses. He will bring on you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. The Lord will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed. You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left but few in number, because you did not obey the Lord your God. Just as it pleased the Lord to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess. Then the Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known.

Deuteronomy 4:25-26 – After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time—if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and arousing his anger, I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed.

Genesis 15:5 – He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

Nehemiah 1:8-9 – “Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.’

Jeremiah 18:17 – Like a wind from the east, I will scatter them before their enemies; I will show them my back and not my face in the day of their disaster.”

Application:

• ·         The pattern of the Israelites’ rebellion, resulting in expulsion from the land, and then their repentance, leading to restoration to the land, is prominent in Deuteronomy.
• ·         Ultimately, all who belong to Christ are Abram’s offspring.
• ·         Dispersion was the inescapable consequence of the people’s unfaithfulness.
• ·         His face symbolizes His gracious blessing and favor.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV