Opus 2017-228: Digging into Deuteronomy: Later May Not Come

(Deuteronomy 1:45 KJV)  And ye returned and wept before the LORD; but the LORD would not hearken to your voice, nor give ear unto you.

Have you ever met someone who says that they plan to live life fast and loose and on their death bed they will repent.  They assume this will give them the best of both worlds.  They assume they will have time to take that step.  They assume God will always be there ready to respond to their prayer.

They assume wrong.  This verse makes it clear that you are not smarter than God.  This is not the only place I have found this but is another example of God not listening when people call on Him.

It sounds like the people referred to are sincere.  At least they are good at shedding tears.  But notice that it says God will not listen.  God is not your grandmother.  He is not your kindergarten teacher.  He is not your social worker and He does not play games. 

So don’t assume He is standing right behind that tree over there hoping to hear you say the right words.  He has a universe to run.  He may be saving the life of a future Mozart when you want to have your tizzy fit.

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-217: Digging into Deuteronomy: Hard Choices

(Deuteronomy 1:35-6 KJV)  Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers, Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed the LORD.

How easy it is to throw away a promise.  In the first Chapter of Deuteronomy we see how the children of Israel who had been led out of captivity in Egypt, across the Red Sea and to the verge of the Promised Land have thrown away the promise God had given to them.  They refused to trust and move forward in obedience.  As a result all those alive at this point were told they would not enter Canaan.

There were two exceptions, Caleb and Joshua.  In this verse we see why Caleb would receive what God had promised.  He looked at things differently than the majority.  He stood out because he was different.  I think it is significant that God says Caleb “followed” (310) “wholly” (fully NASB) (4390).  He wasn’t just a lot of talk.  He was not an opportunist.  He was fully committed.

It is important that we give God everything we have.  Most people who come to believe in Jesus will have a moment of crisis.  There will come a time when they will be forced to decide whether they are hangers on or disciples.  Everything started out beautiful.  Emotions were high.  The sense of forgiveness made life different.  But eventually the everyday steps in and begins to mess up the glow.  Eventually the call to walking in righteousness makes itself harder to ignore.  Eventually you come to a point where you need to fish or cut bait.  We will need to decide if we are follow the Lord fully. 

Jesus ran into this during His teaching ministry.

(John 6:60 KJV)  Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?

(John 6:66 KJV)  From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

Notice that these are called “disciples”.   These are people who had declared that they were going to follow Him.  He would be their guru.  At least until the teaching got too hard; then they were out of there.

Caleb had to make that decision.  If you are a follower of Jesus, you will need to make that decision.  Caleb and the nation of Israel traveled together for the next forty years.  Most of the way you could not tell that he was different, but when the crossing was made across the Jordan, Caleb was the only one left.

The decision is up to you.

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-168: Digging into Deuteronomy: Partiality

(Deuteronomy 1:17 NAS77)  'You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not fear man, for the judgment is God's. And the case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.'

God has a real problem with “partiality” (5234/6440).  This is a compound word meaning “regard” (5234) the “face” (6440).  This is part of the issue of justice.  Biblical justice has two sides.  The side that is totally rejected by our pagan culture is that justice is based on the unchanging righteousness and truth of God.  Right and wrong do not change.  They are immutable. 

The second part is addressed here.  Biblical justice is impartial because it does not give one result for a rich person and another for a poor person.  The law is blind.  That is why the statue for justice has a blindfold on.  Different people distort this different ways.  The Progressives think they are God’s anointed and have the right to tell everyone else how to live.  They don’t think the rules apply to them.  They are like the absolute monarchs of old.  Social Justice Warriors think that poor people should get special privileges.  They believe that the wealth of others should be redistributed in the name of fairness.  They believe that the penalties of breaking the law should be lighter for the less fortunate.  In all cases they are above the law.

Neither is justice.  We are not to discriminate for the “small” (6996b) or the “great” (1419).  That is God’s word on the matter and we ignore it at our peril.

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-158: Digging into Deuteronomy: Immigrants

(Deuteronomy 1:16 NAS77)  "Then I charged your judges at that time, saying, 'Hear the cases between your fellow countrymen, and judge righteously between a man and his fellow countryman, or the alien who is with him.

Immigration is a big issue today in the United States.  It has been an issue from the beginning of our history.  As should be expected the Bible has something to say about it.  The legal structure of Israel made allowance for dealing with the “alien” (1616).  This is the first reference to non-Jews in Deuteronomy.  There are more.  I have noticed three issues. 

First is the concept of justice even for foreigners.

(Deuteronomy 24:14 NAS77)  "You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your countrymen or one of your aliens who is in your land in your towns.

(Deuteronomy 24:17 NAS77)  "You shall not pervert the justice due an alien or an orphan, nor take a widow's garment in pledge.

(Deuteronomy 27:19 NAS77)  'Cursed is he who distorts the justice due an alien, orphan, and widow.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.'

I remind you that the Biblical idea of justice has nothing to do with the modern mantra involving “social justice”.  That is just a way of pushing a left wing agenda.  Real justice is based on unchanging truth and values.  Real justice does not change based on who is in power.  Write that down and underline it if you need to. 

The Bible says that even the alien is to receive justice.

A second principle for aliens is that they were also expected to celebrate the Sabbath.

(Deuteronomy 5:14 NAS77)  but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey or any of your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you, so that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.

The day of rest was a principle established by God for all of creation.  It did not just apply to an in crowd or ruling party

All of this being said, the third principle is that foreigners are not always held to the same standard of Jews.

(Deuteronomy 14:21 KJV)  Ye shall not eat of any thing that dieth of itself: thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy gates, that he may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto an alien: for thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.

God did not expect the non-Jew to follow the same dietary laws as His people.  Food that would be rejected for a Hebrew was okay for a gentile.  This is a focused verse but it shows you the principle.

These are principles that should be taken into consideration as we think about the aliens in our midst.

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-248: Digging into Deuteronomy: Promises, Promises

Today I continue looking at passages in Deuteronomy that stood out to me this summer.

God “swore” (7650) He would “give” (5414) all of this land to Israel. 

(Deuteronomy 1:8 KJV)  Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them.

Set aside whether that refers to modern Israel or not.  What I want to focus on is the nature of God’s “gifts”.  Keep in mind that God’s gifts often, if not usually, if not always, have strings and conditions attached.

The land was there.  The borders had been described.  The promise had been given generations before and repeated.  The conditions here were two fold.  First, they needed to “go in”.  God often lays out blessings for us but there is a requirement that we get moving.  The promise of salvation is out there.  I think it is pretty clear.  Why?  Because the general public is informed enough to mock it and turn away. 

Second, the children of Israel had to “possess” (3423) the land.  An interesting aspect of this word is that it can also mean “dispossess”.  In order to claim the land they had to take it away from the people that lived there.  That involved continued obedience.  It involved struggle and fighting.  It involved building and plowing.  The milk and honey did not just appear on store shelves.

One balance that is always hard to find is between grace and obedience.  Although God can do it all by Himself, witness creation, He has chosen to structure the world so that we need to get involved to make things complete.

What does God expect of you?  What does He expect of me?  I ask that second question a lot.

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-237:  Digging into Deuteronomy:  Historic Israel

Over the summer I read through the book of Deuteronomy and jotted down some ideas that came to me.  Here I begin to develop those as time permits.  I want to start with,

(Deuteronomy 1:7 KJV)  Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates.

As you read through this passage you get a view for the vision God had for His people.  He planned on giving them a land.  This is quite a large chunk of territory.  It would include a much larger area than modern Israel. 

The exact lines are difficult to establish.  Every scholar seems to have a slightly different understanding so let’s look at the terms that we are more familiar with.  In verse 1 you have the KJV mentioning the Red Sea.  Everyone I read agreed that the word “sea” is not in the Hebrew and it seems to refer to something else.  The Amorites and Moab are mentioned as well as the Negev and Canaanites.  This would mean the area to the east of the Dead Sea and south to the Gulf of Aqabah.  In the North and East you have Lebanon and the Euphrates River mentioned.

This is obviously a larger area than modern Israel and covers areas that neither David or Solomon controlled. 

So what is historic Israel?  Larger than today.  Does that give a right to conquest?  History will be the judge of that.

homo unius libri