Verse for the Day, 24 July.

Deuteronomy 11:10-28  For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it, like a garden of vegetables.  (11)  But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven,  (12)  a land that the LORD your God cares for. The eyes of the LORD your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year… (18) "You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  (19)  You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.  (20)  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,  (21)  that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.  (22)  For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the LORD your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him,  (23)  then the LORD will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you… (26) "See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse:  (27)  the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today,  (28)  and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known.

It is hard to choose just a few verses to focus on from Deuteronomy 11, as it is a wonderfully rich chapter of the Bible. This chapter contains a mixture of encouragement and warning, of grace and judgement, of God’s sovereignty and human responsibility, of Gospel and Law, of blessing and curse.

Deuteronomy 11 begins with the reminder of God’s great salvation work, freeing Israel from their cruel Egyptian captors. It was a redemption that came through mighty hand and acts of God, and a redemption which was absolute and secure. They people of Israel were set completely free, and remained so, their freedom was not temporary, nor did the Egyptians capture and enslave them again.

From a retelling of God’s redemption of Israel from slavery in Egypt, we are then told what God is redeeming them to, where God was taking them. The Promised Land was the destination of their salvation from Egypt, it would be the end of the long journey and mean that they could finally settle in a land of their own. They are told this land is one flowing with milk and honey, it is filled with fruit, vegetation and is a well-watered land. But greater than its natural resources, beauty and bounty is that “The eyes of the LORD your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.” It is the Promised Land as it is a land of plenty, but of greater significance is that it is God’s land, the land which God constantly watches over and provides for.

We see in this chapter God’s grace, blessing, salvation, sovereign power and purposes in bringing the people of Israel safely to the Promised Land. This serves as a picture of the Gospel, of how through Christ we shall know God’s salvation, experience God’s grace, live under God’s daily blessing and have the assurance that God will work in His sovereign power and purposes to bring us into the true and eternal Promised Land of Heaven.

But, God also issues a challenge to His people, He calls them to obedience and warns them of what the consequences for sin and disobedience will be. They are urged to be people who love God’s Word, to the point that they know it and know it well, that God’s Word informs every thought and word, it informs everything they do both outside of and inside their houses. They are to be people of God’s Word and thus they are to teach it constantly to each other, and most of all to the next generation. By doing this they will honour God and cause the next generation to also honour God. God encourages them by telling them that obedience will lead to blessing, however He then warns them that failure to obey His Law will lead to judgement and punishment.

God promises to bless and prosper them, and calls upon them to obey and honour Him. He sets before them a clear choice, obedience and blessing, or disobedience and curse.

For us who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, this chapter should be a source of great encouragement. What this chapter exposes in all of us, is that whilst we may strive to honour and obey God, and do all that which He requires of us, the reality is that we cannot. We will fall and fail, we will disobey God, it is inevitable because we are sinners. Though God sets the choice before us, we know that we will all make the same choice and meet the same end, we will go the way of disobedience and curse. Yet, we should be encouraged and rejoice in Christ’s perfect obedience, for it is through His obedience that we who believe are declared to be obedient! Because Christ chose to walk the path of obedience and thus merited the Father’s blessing, now by virtue of Christ’s obedience having been applied to us, we receive the Father’s blessing. For those in Christ, there is only blessing, no curse, for Christ has broken the curse and set us free from it completely. For those in Christ, there is no judgement and condemnation, just blessing and eternal salvation. Christ is our obedience, and He gives to us all the blessings of heaven!

We also need to understand that the same challenges and commands of Deuteronomy 11 come to us. As God’s children, we are to obey and honour God, we are to love, read, obey, do and teach His Word. We are to trust Him in all things and at all times, we are to delight and walk in His ways. We are to rejoice in His faithful provision for all our needs, and take comfort from the fact that His eyes are always upon us. But we are not to do any of the above in the hope that it will bring us into or keep us in God’s favour, for we already have God’s favour through Christ. The challenge for us is to live out all of the above in response to God’s great favour, God’s salvation work in our lives. We obey God because we love Him. We love, read, obey, do and teach God’s Word because it is the most precious truth we have, because we want others to see God in us and we long for others to see the truth of God for themselves.

Our Almighty Generous God, we give thanks and praise to You today for the truth of the Gospel, for the fact that Christ has become our obedience, and taken upon himself our disobedience and the penalty against it. Thank You that His perfect obedience has been made ours and we now receive Your gracious and eternal blessing each day. May we rejoice in our security and freedom in Christ. Help us to be faithful and loving children, who love You, and Your Word, who delight in obedience and daily seek to tell others of You, faithfully teaching Your Word. Amen.

Verse for the Day, 21 June 2017.

Deuteronomy 10:12-22, “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,  (13)  and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good?  (14)  Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.  (15)  Yet the LORD set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day.  (16)  Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.  (17)  For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.  (18)  He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.  (19)  Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.  (20)  You shall fear the LORD your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear.  (21)  He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen.”

Why should I love, worship and obey God? The command for us to do exactly this appears numerous times in the Bible, especially in the book of Deuteronomy, but why? As a child, I lost count of the times I was told to obey, and when I asked why, I was given the answer, “Because I said so, that’s why!”. Sadly, such answers are far from helpful or satisfactory. Are we to love, worship and obey God, just because He tells us, commands us to? To be honest, God could require and command us to love, worship and obey Him, without giving us any explanation or reason as to why, after all, He is God. However, in His goodness, God gives us numerous reasons that not only explain why, but also serve to motivate and excite us to love, worship and obey Him.

In Deuteronomy 10:12-22, we see just some of the reasons that God gives us. We can divide these reasons into two categories: Who God is, and who God is to us.

In these few verses we are given a wonderful description of who God is. We are told He is the LORD God, to whom everything belongs, the earth, the heavens and the heavens of the heavens. The LORD God is not just a god, or one of many gods, He is God, He is the God, He is God of gods and the Lord of lords. God owns everything, He rules over everything and He is the most powerful, great, mighty and awesome being in all existence. Simply put there is no one and nothing that can compare with God. Everything you and I see, whether with our eyes, or through the lens of a telescope, or via the images of a satellite, it all, every speck and spot, belongs to God, it is His. Think of the most majestic, glorious, mighty and awesome sight you have ever seen. Multiply that by 1 million and you will still come up short of how majestic, glorious, mighty and awesome God is! The truth of all this means that when we come into God’s presence, our automatic, reflex reaction will be to fall down to our knees, and bow in worship of God. We won’t even think about it, debate it, or question it, such is God that we will respond by bowing before Him, automatically and immediately. No matter how big you think your understanding and picture of who God is, it is too small, too limited, He is infinitely greater!

Secondly, we are told who God is to us. This should be point of great encouragement to us, especially if we think about who God is and then who we are by contrast, why should God give even an ounce of care about us? Yet, remarkably, God extends an abundant love and care to all of us. We read that He is a God who is perfectly just, He has a deep care and concern for those who are in need, for those who are oppressed, and He is our rescuer. Why is God all this and more to us? We are told that God is all this because, “the LORD set his heart in love…” upon us. Is that not incredible? The God who is infinitely greater than we can imagine has chosen to set His love upon us!

Some might think, “So what if God set His love upon us, what difference does that make?” This is where we see who God is to us and what He has done for us. He is not only just and perfect in all His dealings with us, He not only has a deep care and concern for us, He is good to us, He provides for our every need, He pours out His love upon us, He prospers us, He uses His power to work for our good, He reveals Himself to us and He saves us from oppression! The God of the Universe, sets His heart in love upon us and saves us from all our oppression, and sets us free through Christ!

It is tragic that we spend so little time thinking upon who God is, and who He is to us, and too much time thinking upon matters of much lesser importance. Our failure in this regard has a far reaching impact upon our lives, from a failure to trust God, to becoming increasingly spiritually complacent and apathetic. This is something which God knows the danger of, and how it can cause great distress, even destruction amongst His people. It is for this reason that God gives these clear instructions in Deuteronomy 10, He knows that if once the people of Israel have settled in the Promised Land, in the midst of their comfort and ease, they forget God and fail to love, worship and obey Him, it will have devastating consequences. God is not insecure, nor is He over-reacting, presuming the worst, God is all-wise! We need only to turn a few pages to Judges and there we will read of what happened to this nation when they did forget. God is warning them of what will happen if they continue in their stubborn sinfulness and how through a joyful obedience a better and more prosperous way can be found.

The very same encouragements and challenges come to us today. We who are believers in Jesus Christ have even greater reason to love, worship and obey God. Sadly, many of us follow the poor example of the Israelites, forgetting who God is, who He is to us and how we should respond. It should be no surprise to us that we are spiritually dry, just going through the motions of Christian life, with little joy and even less desire for God and the things of God. It should be no surprise that we find reading God’s Word, prayer, witnessing, worship and service so hard. If our hearts are not constantly meditating upon who God is, who He is to us, and what He requires of us, then our hearts will never be moved. They key to reviving our Christian lives and our church doesn’t lie in a programme, a dynamic preacher, an excellent book, or in a motivating video, it lies in focusing and centring our lives and minds upon what matters most, who God is, who He is to us and what He requires of us. It starts with us loving God, worshipping God and obeying God. Until we begin to do this, we cannot hope to reignite our hearts to burn with a white-hot love for God.

God of might, splendour, majesty and awesome power, God of love, justice, compassion and grace. You and You alone are God, to You all things belong and before Your throne all things will bow in worship. Help us LORD God to understand who You are, forgive us for being so quick to forget, may You burn onto our minds Your awesome power and majesty. Thank You that even though You are the infinite God, who is beyond all human comprehension, that You chose to set Your love upon us, and came to redeem us from our lives of sinful oppression. We cannot fathom how great an act of love and humility it is that the God of infinity should become a man and suffer and die for our salvation. Help us to keep these all-important truths as the very centre of our lives and the forefront of our minds, so that we might then respond in love, worship and obedience, through which You will deepen our knowledge of You and joy in You. Amen.

Verse for the Day, 19 June 2017.

Deuteronomy 9:3-7, “Know therefore today that he who goes over before you as a consuming fire is the LORD your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as the LORD has promised you.  (4)  "Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out before you, 'It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land,' whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out before you.  (5)  Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.  (6)  "Know, therefore, that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people.  (7)  Remember and do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD.”

There are passages in Scripture that are both frightening and encouraging, passages that both humbles us and build us up. Deuteronomy 9:3-7 is one of these passages. God at times needs to remind us of who He is and who we are, He needs to remind us of our place in contrast to His position. God also needs to sound out very clear warnings to us, so as to keep us from straying into sin, or taking His grace for granted. When we have received so much from God’s hand and have known His goodness, it can lead us to forget who God is, it can cause us to no longer fear God and not take obedience to Him seriously. God is eager for the people of Israel not to make this mistake.

This generation of Israelites had received daily from God’s good hand for forty years, they had enjoyed a unique and special relationship with God, and had not only heard all of God’s promises, but were seeing those promises coming to pass. In Deuteronomy, they stood on the cusp of receiving the largest, greatest of these promises, entry into the Promised Land and the enjoyment of life in a land flowing with milk and honey. When this has been all you have known and experienced in your life, it can cause you to think that you are entitled to this, it is your due, and thus you fail to appreciate that it is in fact an undeserved gift of God’s grace. Furthermore, if they had this sense of entitlement, it could cause them to make the dangerous error of forgetting how importance obedience towards God still is.

In light of this, God seeks to remind them who He is. Moses declares to them that God is a consuming fire, all that stand in His way, who oppose Him, will be consumed by God, they will not stand a chance against God. Secondly, Moses states that God is able to destroy, overthrow, thrust out, overwhelm and wipe out anybody whom He wishes to. There is no nation, or man that could resist God’s power and might. Moses continues to tell them that God is holy, and because He is holy, God will always deal with, oppose, judge and punish all acts of evil and wickedness. It is because God is holy and these nations in the Promised Land are wicked and evil, that God is driving them out before the people of Israel. It was because of God’s holiness that He dealt justly with their parents in the wilderness when they rebelled against God. Moses wants them to understand that God is and always will be holy and thus the unjust, sinful and wicked can only ever expect to face God’s judgement. Fourthly, Moses reminds them that only God is righteous, faithful and true. The people are not receiving the Promised Land because they are righteous, faithful and true, Moses tells them that they are far from being this. However, it is because God is righteous, faithful and true, that He is fulfilling His promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

How is this passage encouraging? It is encouraging for they are being reminded that God is righteous, faithful and true and will do all that He has promised. It is because of who God is, and God’s favour upon them that they are enjoying all these blessings. And they can go into the Promised Land trusting in God, knowing that God has the power and ability to drive out the nations before them, just as He had already done at other times. It would have encouraged them in reminding them of the special grace and favour they had received from God, so that they are now regarded as being His people, His nation.

How is this passage frightening? Just as God is righteous, faithful and true, God is also holy, just and all-powerful. No one can escape from God, nor can anything be hidden from Him. They had learned for themselves just how frightening it is to come under God’s hand of wrath and just judgement, they had witnessed what God does to those who oppose and rebel against Him. The generation had also seen what God does to His enemies and how He can utterly destroy them. To come up against God is to come against someone against whom you have no chance of success or victory, God will crush all who are against Him, and therefore it is wisest to live in humble and willing obedience of God.

How is this passage humbling? By thinking through these words of Moses, they would have understood that they are not nearly as good, righteous and desirable as they like to think they are. They would understand that they are not greater or better than any other group of people or nation. God’s choice to be their God had nothing to do with them, it was God’s choice alone. They had no right or room to pat themselves on the back. In fact, they would have been deeply humbled for God had not only dealt with the sinful, arrogant, foolishness of their parents, God needed to do deal with them in the same manner, for they had not been much better than their parents. They must never forget that they are sinners who live before a holy and awesome God, upon whom they are dependant for daily grace or else they would perish.

How does this passage build up? This generation would be encouraged by the fact that God was patient and long-suffering, that He was a God of love, compassion and mercy, and He had promised to continue to be such a God to them. God had also promised to remain faithful to them to fight for them, lead the way, provide for them and bring them into the Promised Land. They could draw confidence that if they sought to obey God and live in righteousness they would know God’s blessing and favour. Greatest of all, they could know that God was a God of grace, who could be sought for the forgiveness of their sins, a God who was willing and able to forgive and save.

For those of us who are true believers in Christ Jesus, this passage serves as being the same warning and encouragement to us. It is a timely reminder not to forget who God is, an all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present, holy, just, righteous, true and faithful God. He is not to be toyed with, nor disrespected or disobeyed, for all who stand against Him will fall. We may be the children of God, but that doesn’t mean we should ever regard God as being anything less than what He truly it. We must never allow ourselves to think we deserve any form of favour from God, or that we are less sinful than others. Prior to Christ we were utterly sinful and justly condemn to eternal damnation in hell. It is only because of God’s grace, mercy and love that any of us have been set free through Christ. Finally, it should give us confidence and joy before God, for we know who He is, who we are, how He has redeemed us and that He is righteous, faithful and true to all His promises and works. Our God is a consuming fire who will crush all His foes, but He is also a gentle Saviour, faithful to His promises and His people.

Our God who is a consuming fire, the righteous, just and true One, we humble ourselves and bow before Your throne today. May You give us an even greater understanding of who You are and who we are, so that we might respond and live for You accordingly. We thank You for the grace and love You have given to us, in the midst of our sin. Thank You for Christ who has become our righteousness, and has made us Your very own people. May we never take this special relationship for granted, or fail to take our sin and disobedience seriously. Help us to be faithful and true towards You, seeking at all times to love, honour, obey, respect, revere and glorify You. Amen.