Tag: bsf deut

29.4 Moses 29, Day 4

Avoiding Battles?

Deuteronomy 33:26-29 reads like a battle cry to rev up the troops to take up arms.  Look at the language:

  • He will drive out your enemies before you
  • “Destroy them!”
  • Ride across the heavens to help you
  • On the clouds in His majesty
  • You will live in safety, grain, new wine, heavens dew
  • He is your shield
  • Your glorious sword
  • Your enemies will cower before you
  • You will tread on their heights

All of this language convicted me of how much I hide from battles in my faith walk.  How often I don’t say something because it might come across the wrong way.  My fear and doubt of possibly offending someone that prompts me to not speak when I should.

I’m not talking about taking up arms to slay the enemy and I’m not talking about going out and picking fights.  But when you read this language of God, I think there is a message that we aren’t supposed to “just go along with the crowd so we don’t make waves” either.

It just made me think about the times I don’t speak up, the times I don’t speak Jesus’ name, the times I sit quietly in the midst of what I know to be sin, the times I fail to witness or to comfort or to just speak the truth.  Paul said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel.”  Am I so afraid of battles that I come across as ashamed of my faith and my Savior.

One of the central themes of the book of Acts, when the new Church was being formed, is the call to speak boldly. (see below).  Paul’s letter to the Ephesians calls us to be strong in the Lord and put on the full armor of God.

Are you like me?  Do you need to speak up?  Do you need to reach out?  Do you need to face the fight with the truth of the gospel instead of hiding it under a basket?

The greatest news of all in this, and throughout the bible, is that when we choose to stand for God, He always stands in front of us.  God never takes the position of having our back.  He always takes the front.  He may require us to take the first step into the water, but then He lifts us up to walk across it or parts it as we move forward.

Here are some of the bold references from Acts – Take Strength Mighty Prayer Warriors!:

Acts 4:29
Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.
Acts 4:31
After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
Acts 9:28
So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord.
Acts 13:46
Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.
Acts 14:3
So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to perform signs and wonders.
Acts 18:26
He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.
Acts 19:8
Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God.
Acts 28:31
He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance!

 

My Answers:

8.
Because they were the Lord’s possession, His portion.  He was their king.  He is holy.  There is no one like God.

9.
There is no one like the God of Jeshurun. He rides across the heavens to help you. On the clouds in His Majesty. The eternal God is your refuge. Underneath are the everlasting arms. He will drive out your enemy before you. “A people saved by the Lord.” He is your shield and your helper. He is your glorious sword.

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27.4 Moses 27, Day 4

A Holy Covenant Relationship

All of our study this week in Deuteronomy, starting in Deuteronomy 26:17 and continuing through Deuteronomy 29, reminds me of a wedding ceremony.  You can hear it in the language of the scriptures:

17 You have declared this day that the Lord is your God and that you will walk in obedience to him, that you will keep his decrees, commands and laws—that you will listen to him. 18 And the Lord has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised

9 Then Moses and the Levitical priests said to all Israel, “Be silent, Israel, and listen! You have now become the people of the Lord your God.

10 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, 11 together with your children and your wives, and the foreigners living in your camps who chop your wood and carry your water. 12 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, 13 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

I believe this analogy is fitting.  God wants an intimate relationship with you and with me.  He actually wants a vow larger than a wedding vow.  A wedding vow lasts for a lifetime.  God’s desired relationship lasts for eternity.  God’s commitment in His covenant is you will be His and He will be yours.

As we grow in our relationship with God we see and understand more of Him.  More time in the Word also builds a closer relationship with God and opens our eyes to His nature and attributes.  As God reveals Himself to us, that revelation is something that can never be taken away.  God wants to continue to reveal the secret things, the things we cannot understand without first understanding who God is.  Each of those “things revealed” is a gift, an everlasting gift.  Our mind may not be able to fully understand all of who God is, but that doesn’t mean it is something that is held as a secret from us, it is just something we cannot yet understand.  If someone were to ask me a question about Quantum Physics, I wouldn’t know enough to begin the conversation.  Yet, someone who has spent their life in study of it may grow in their appreciation of how much there is yet that we don’t know or understand.  God is bigger and deeper than quantum physics, yet, like an amazingly patient teacher, each day He is willing to teach us more about Himself.

 

My Answers:

7.
13. confirm you this day as his people, that he may be your God as he promised you

8.
Idolatry

9.
a.
God’s judgments and His paths

b.
The law, the covenants, God’s love and mercy

c.
God’s warnings to His people out of His love for them.  God’s patience.  God’s willingness to listen to prayer, that God is approachable.  The correct posture for obedience: up/worship, around/love, down/fear of God.