Deuteronomy 8:5-6 Sucking or Nippling?

5So know in your heart that just as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you. 6Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, walking in His ways and fearing Him.

“The worst implement with which you can knock a man down, is the Bible; it is intended for us to live upon, - not to be the weapon of our controversies, but our daily food, upon which we rejoice to live.” (Spurgeon)

“Oh, keep to the Word, my brothers! Keep to it as God’s Word, and as coming out of his mouth. Suck it down into your soul; you cannot have too much of it. Feed on it day and night, for thus will God make you to live the life that is life indeed.” (Spurgeon)

The only way we can keep the armor on is to keep the word, keep to it as Gods word, suck it down into your soul and feed on it day and night!

Are you sucking it down into your soul or nibbling on it once a week?

Blessings 

Deuteronomy 8:3-4 Education and Food

 3He humbled you, and in your hunger He gave you manna to eat, which neither you nor your fathers had known, so that you might understand that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.a 4Your clothing did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.

Education and Food

“All of God’s education begins here. Some never even make it past this first essential step. If we are not humble and not teachable, there is then no point to the rest of any of God’s education.”

“The next grade of God’s education is total dependence on the LORD. Israel had to rely on God beyond their own knowledge (which you did not know), and beyond their own ability.” (Guzik)

“The worst implement with which you can knock a man down, is the Bible; it is intended for us to live upon, - not to be the weapon of our controversies, but our daily food, upon which we rejoice to live.” (Spurgeon)

Are you teachable or are you still kicking against the goads? Acts 26:14

Blessings 

Deuteronomy 8:1-2 Jot and Tittle

 1You must carefully follow every commandment I am giving you today, so that you may live and multiply, and enter and possess the land that the LORD swore to give your fathers. 2Remember that these forty years the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments.

“Israel wasn’t in the land yet, but Moses still instructed them as if it were a certainty. This was based on the faithful promise of God, but it was also according to His principle of preparation. God prepares us before He brings us into a place.” (Guzik)

Have you tried to follow every commandment?

Our pastor says, if you say you don’t sin you just lied so you sinned!

The Law and the commandments were designed to show us we need a savior, they point to Jesus because they are impossible to keep.

If your a keeper of the law don’t forget every jot and tittle.

Blessings 

Deuteronomy 7:25-26 “gods”

 25You must burn up the images of their gods; do not covet the silver and gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it; for it is detestable to the LORD your God. 26And you must not bring any detestable thing into your house, or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. You are to utterly detest and abhor it, because it is set apart for destruction.

“(25, 26) These words are a special warning against the sin which Achan committed (Joshua 7:21): “I coveted them, and took them.” They also describe the consequences which he experienced, together with his whole household, being made chêrem. devoted or accursed by the spoil which he took from Jericho. (See on Joshua 7)” Ellicott’s Commentary 

Coveting gods is dangerous and will ensnare you. Examine your life today in front of the Lord and ask Him to reveal any gods that may have ensnared you. 

Blessings 

Deuteronomy 7:22-24 Little by Little

22The LORD your God will drive out these nations before you little by little. You will not be enabled to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals would multiply around you. 23But the LORD your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed. 24He will hand their kings over to you, and you will wipe out their names from under heaven. No one will be able to stand against you; you will annihilate them.

“Doing it all at once might seem easier and better to us but will have consequences we cannot see or appreciate. God cares that we grow, and so He grows us little by little.” (Guzik)

Destroyed and wipe out their names, seems harsh but remember that they rejected God and sacrificed their children which was an abomination to Him. 

How do you believe the Lord views abortion?

Blessings  

Deuteronomy 7:20-21 Hornets 🐝

 20Moreover, the LORD your God will send the hornet against them until even the survivors hiding from you have perished. 21Do not be terrified by them, for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God.

Ellicott’s Commentary 

(20) The hornet.—To be understood literally. (See on Deuteronomy 1:44, and Joshua 24:12.) The “land flowing with (milk and) honey” may well have swarmed with bees and hornets.

The great and awesome God is the creator of heaven and earth and He can use anything he created “against them” until His will is done. 

Have you ever been stung by a hornet 🐝? 

Imagine an army (swarm) of them that darkened the sky! 🐝 

You can run but you can’t hide, just ask Jonah about that one!

Blessings 

Deuteronomy 7:17-19 With a mighty hand and outstretched arm!

 17You may say in your heart, “These nations are greater than we are; how can we drive them out?” 18But do not be afraid of them. Be sure to remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and all Egypt: 19the great trials that you saw, the signs and wonders, and the mighty hand and outstretched arm by which the LORD your God brought you out. The LORD your God will do the same to all the peoples you now fear.

With a mighty hand and outstretched arm!

“Their recollection of God’s faithfulness in the past would give them hope for their current struggle.” (Guzik)

When you think of the Lord Jesus, with a mighty hand and outstretched arm, what do you think of?

This is what I envision!

Let it give you hope for your current struggle!

Blessings 

Artist unknown

A Tale In Two Cities. Deuteronomy 6:6-9 NKJV

Here is the story of two men. Two men with very different beliefs. Two men who followed very different paths and the effect their lives had on subsequent generations. 

The first man was Jonathan Edwards. He was born in Connecticut but spent most of his life in Massachusetts in the 1700’s. 

He was a devout Christian and married a Christian woman named  Sarah Pierrepont. Jonathan became a Pastor and though study and seeking truth in the Bible, Jonathan helped stir what became known as “The Great Awakening”. The Edwards had 11 children and raised them with Christian beliefs. Of the 1394 descendants of Jonathan Edwards studied came 13 college presidents, and hundred and more professors, sixty physicians, 100 clergymen, missionaries, and theological professors, 80 elected to public office, including 3 mayors, 3 governors, several members of congress, 3 senators, and 1 vice president (Aaron Burr), 60 have attained prominance in authorship or editorial life, with 135 books of merit and 75 army or navy officers. 

Now meet Max Juke. Max lived in New York in about the same time period. If Max believed in God, it wasn’t evident in his life. He was uneducated, an alcoholic, didn’t accept authority, was prone to fighting and petty crime. Max  married a girl of questionable reputation. From this union men have studied 1,026 descendants. Max’s only well known relative is “Margaret, the Mother of Criminals". Three hundred of Max’s descendants died prematurely. One hundred were sent to the penitentiary for an average of 13 years each. Of the 20 who actually learned a trade, 10 gained it through prison reform. One hundred ninety were public prostitutes. There were more then 100 alcoholic’s in the family. The Juke family and descendants cost the state $1,308,000 a value of $68,000,000 today. Most of that cost was in medical bills from hard living. 

I reviewed several articles on these two men and although I may not have all the facts correct, the conclusion is the same. Without God in our life, we really don’t have a life. I myself don’t want to consider where I would be without Jesus Christ and His redeeming grace and power. 

Deuteronomy 6:6“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.  NKJV

Deuteronomy 7:15-16 Snare

 15And the LORD will remove from you all sickness. He will not lay upon you any of the terrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but He will inflict them on all who hate you. 16You must destroy all the peoples the LORD your God will deliver to you. Do not look on them with pity. Do not worship their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

Snare: anything serving to entrap or entangle unawares; trap.

Some Christian’s believe we shouldn’t even look at the Old Testament but in these verses we see a warning that we should all take heed of and it’s called a snare.

The destroyer will try to snare you, to entrap or entangle you with one of your old gods. He starts by whispering a thought in your ear, the thought grows and enticement happens because we are weak. We will trip and fall and commit a sin if you aren’t careful. Turn your thoughts towards Jesus and He will lift you out of the snare.

Be diligent and watch out for the snare!

Blessings 

Deuteronomy 7:12-14 Blessings

 12If you listen to these ordinances and keep them carefully, then the LORD your God will keep His covenant and the loving devotion that He swore to your fathers. 13He will love you and bless you and multiply you. He will bless the fruit of your womb and the produce of your land—your grain, new wine, and oil, the young of your herds and the lambs of your flocks—in the land that He swore to your fathers to give you. 14You will be blessed above all peoples; among you there will be no barren man or woman or livestock.

Examine all the blessings in these verses, I counted twelve! How many did you count?

All they had to do was listen and keep the ordinances. But look was Jesus said!

John 14: 1“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe in Me as well. 2In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and welcome you into My presence, so that you also may be where I am.

There is nothing on this earth that will compare to heaven and the place that Jesus has prepared for us.

I can’t wait, can you?

Blessings 

Deuteronomy 7:9-11 Covenants

 9Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps His covenant of loving devotion for a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments. 10But those who hate Him He repays to their faces with destruction; He will not hesitate to repay to his face the one who hates Him.

11So keep the commandments and statutes and ordinances that I am giving you to follow this day.

Covenants 

“Over many generations the Canaanites had demonstrated their hatred for God, Now, using Israel as His instrument, God will repay them with judgment.” (Guzik)

Jesus Christ is the mediator of the New Covenant, and His death on the cross is the basis of the promise.

Luke22: 20In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you.

Which covenant do you hold on to, new or old?

Blessings 

https://www.gotquestions.org/new-covenant.html

Deuteronomy 7:6-8 LOVE ❤️

 6For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all peoples on the face of the earth.

7The LORD did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than the other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8But because the LORD loved you and kept the oath He swore to your fathers, He brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

Love

“This is the great motivation for obedience: knowing and walking in the love of God. When we really believe God loves us, and live with that belief as a conscious fact, we find it so much easier to obey - and to utterly destroy anything that would damage that relationship of love.” (Guzik)

How much does God love ❤️ you?

1 John 4:10 And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Do you believe He loves you?

Blessings 

Deuteronomy 7:3-5 Human Sacrifice

 3Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4because they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and He will swiftly destroy you.

5Instead, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their idols in the fire.

“This radical, complete destruction was important because of the depraved nature of the worship of the Canaanites, who worshipped male and female gods of sex and who practiced human sacrifice with their own children.” (Guzik)

Is there a difference between human sacrifice and killing a baby after its birth or the killing of the elderly because of infirmities? Mankind’s heart ❤️ is inherently evil and has a depraved nature. Without the Lord, all of us would be doomed. 

Will you be different and walk through the narrow gate?

Blessings 

Deuteronomy 7:1-2 Show no Mercy!

1When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to possess, and He drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you— 2and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you to defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.

Moses was preparing the Israelites for the possession of the Promised Land. They couldn’t do it on their own and could only do it with the Lord’s mighty hand!

Show no mercy!

“This principle of battle until absolute victory is the key to victory as we take the Promised Land of blessing and peace God has for us in Jesus. We show no mercy to our enemies in the land, but we destroy them utterly. Many of us, truth be told, simply do not want to completely destroy the sins which keep us from God’s Promised Land of blessing and peace - we want to weaken them, and have some control over them, but we do not want to utterly destroy them.” (Guzik)

Do you completely destroy the sins which keep you from God’s Promised Land or only weaken them when you should be showing no mercy?

Blessings 

 

Deuteronomy 6:24-25 Righteousness

24And the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes and to fear the LORD our God, that we may always be prosperous and preserved, as we are to this day. 25And if we are careful to observe every one of these commandments before the LORD our God, as He has commanded us, then that will be our righteousness.”

“If one will obtain true righteousness through the law, it is simple (though not easy): observe all the commandments. But if you are lacking in observing any commandment, then you need the atonement of a Perfect Sacrifice - Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (Guzik)

While contemplating these verses I realized exactly why we need Jesus Christ because “if we are careful to observe every one of these commandments” then that will be our righteousness! Do you see how impossible that is? We have a sinful nature and the Law was impossible to keep!

I will have my righteousness in Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Blessings 

Deuteronomy 6:20-23 Training Up A Child

 20In the future, when your son asks, “What is the meaning of the decrees and statutes and ordinances that the LORD our God has commanded you?” 21then you are to tell him, “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22Before our eyes the LORD inflicted great and devastating signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his household. 23But He brought us out from there to lead us in and give us the land that He had sworn to our fathers.

Training up a child

“Key to the teaching was the simple recounting of Israel’s testimony - how God saved them from the bondage of Egypt. Parents need to relate to their children how they came to a personal relationship with Jesus, so the children understand that they must come to the same relationship.” (Guzik)

One of my favorite pictures with my son is with him sitting in my lap while I am reading his children’s Bible to him.

Have you trained up your children in they way he/she should go?

Blessings

Deuteronomy 6:16-19 Testing or Trusting?

 16Do not test the LORD your God as you tested Him at Massah.d 17You are to diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God and the testimonies and statutes He has given you. 18Do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD, so that it may be well with you and that you may enter and possess the good land that the LORD your God swore to give your fathers, 19driving out all your enemies before you, as the LORD has said.

Exodus 17:1-7 Give us water to drink! ….Why have you brought us out of Egypt—to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”

“Anytime we deny God’s love for us, or demand He do something for us, we are testing Him as if He must answer to our standards and tempting Him to judge us.” (Guzik)

Matthew 4:5-7 the devil tempts the Son of Man! “throw Yourself down.”

Under the Old Covenant, Israel’s blessing was based on their obedience.

Under the New Covenant, we are blessed by faith in Jesus Christ.

Are you testing or trusting?

Blessings 

Deuteronomy 6:13-15 Fear the Lord

 13Fear the LORD your God, serve Him only, and take your oaths in His name.c 14Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you. 15For the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God. Otherwise the anger of the LORD your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth.

Matthew 4: 8Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9“All this I will give You,” he said, “if You will fall down and worship me.”

10“Away from Me, Satan!” Jesus declared. “For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’d”

Brethren, what is holding you in captivity in the form of a god? 

Sports, television, smartphone, computer, internet, pornography, alcohol, drugs, sex, and alike?

Examine your lives before the Lord and ask Him to reveal to you your god(s) so you can cleanse yourself and set yourself free!

If you don’t “Fear the LORD your God”, one day you will!

Dear Heavenly Father, I lift myself up and anyone reading this today. Please reveal to us any and all earthly gods in our lives that we need to be cleansed of. Lead us back to your Son, in Jesus name I pray. Amen 

Blessings 

Deuteronomy 6:10-12 Cycle of Prosperity and Repentance

 10And when the LORD your God brings you into the land He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that He would give you—a land with great and splendid cities that you did not build, 11with houses full of every good thing with which you did not fill them, with wells that you did not dig, and with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant—and when you eat and are satisfied, 12be careful not to forget the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Cycle of prosperity and repentance.

This cycle would be repeated through the history of Israel, especially in the time of the Judges. God would bless an obedient Israel, and they would prosper; they would begin to set their heart on the blessings instead of the LORD who blessed them; God would allow chastisement to turn Israel’s focus back upon Him; Israel would repent and obey again, and God would again bless an obedient Israel and they would prosper. (Guzik)

We are no different because of our human, sinful condition. Our hearts become set on the blessings instead of the Lord. Some societies recognize this and live simple lives to help keep this fault in check.

Do you call on the Lord more when you are in distress or in prosperity?

Blessings