Begin to Take Possession

June 30, 2019 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

¹⁶“So as soon as all the men of war had perished and were dead from among the people, ¹⁷the Lord said to me, ¹⁸‘Today you are to cross the border of Moab at Ar. ¹⁹And when you approach the territory of the people of Ammon, do not harass them or contend with them, for I will not give you any of the land of the people of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to the sons of Lot for a possession.’ ²⁰(It is also counted as a land of Rephaim. Rephaim formerly lived there—but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim— ²¹a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim; but the Lord destroyed them before the Ammonites, and they dispossessed them and settled in their place, ²²as he did for the people of Esau, who live in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites before them and they dispossessed them and settled in their place even to this day. ²³As for the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and settled in their place.) ²⁴‘Rise up, set out on your journey and go over the Valley of the Arnon. Behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to take possession, and contend with him in battle. ²⁵This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.’” – Deuteronomy 2:16-25 ESV

As Moses brings his lecture on Israelite history to a close, his audience is going to find themselves faced with a decision. Like their predecessors, they will have to decide if they are going to obey the expressed will of God and enter the land He had promised to Abraham more than half a millennium earlier. While the names of the participants had changed, the situation remained the same. The land of Canaan was still occupied by hostile nations who were not going to welcome the Israelites with open arms. The potential for war remained. In fact, it was to be expected because, 40 years earlier, Moses had told the Israelites not to fear going to battle with the inhabitants of the land.

“Do not be in dread or afraid of them. The Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you.” – Deuteronomy 1:29-30 ESV

Conflict was to be expected, but so was their victory. God was going to go before them and He would be fighting on behalf of them. But they were going to have to take that first step of faith.

The previous generation, those who had refused to enter the land of promise 40 years earlier, had died off. Now, God was graciously giving a new group of Israelites the opportunity to trust His word and experience all the blessings He had in store for them. The whole reason He had redeemed them from slavery in Egypt was so that they might possess the land He had promised to Abraham. God had made them His chosen possession and now He wanted to give them possession of their very own land. But their occupation of that land would have to start with their obedience to God’s command.

“Rise up, set out on your journey and go over the Valley of the Arnon. Behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to take possession, and contend with him in battle.” – Deuteronomy 2:24 ESV

There is an important transition or watershed moment being chronicles in this passage. Something significant is about to take place. First, Moses records that “all the men of war had perished and were dead” (Deuteronomy 2:16 ESV). This designation of the previous generation as “men of war” is interesting, because they had refused to go to war. They had let their fear of defeat at the hands of “the giants in the land” to keep them from obeying God and going into battle. So, they had wandered around the wilderness for 40 long years. Now, these “men of war” were dead.

Secondly, God commanded the Israelites to “go over the Valley of the Arnon.” To do so, they would have to cross the Arnon River which ran through the valley and marked the border between the Moabites and the Ammonites. Just as the Israelites had crossed the Zered River between the land of the Emomites and Moabites, now they would need to cross over yet another boundary or barrier in their path in order to reach the land of promise. More than four decades earlier, on their way our of Egypt, they had come to the Red Sea, and God had miraculously divided the waters so they could pass over on dry ground. He had led them across the natural barrier of the wilderness. He had commanded them to cross the Zered River and now He was directing them to cross over the Arnon. With each step they took, they left the past behind and drew closer to the promise God had in store for them. But reaching their destination required that they walk in obedience to the will of God.

Once again, God informs Moses that the Israelites were not to attempt to capture or occupy the land east of the Jordan. That land was not part of God’s promised possession. The land of Edom had been given by God to the descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob. And God had provided the land on either side of the Arnon River to the Moabites and Ammonites, the descendants of Lot, Abraham’s nephew. The book of Genesis records the sad story of Lot’s escape from Sodom, the death of his wife, and the subsequent outcome of his incestuous relationship with his two daughters.

…both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. The younger also bore a son and called his name Ben-ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites to this day. – Genesis 19:36-38 ESV

And yet, in spite of Lot’s obviously sinful actions, God would not allow the Israelites to displace his descendants from their land. He had something far better in store for His chosen people. So, He warned them:

“…when you approach the territory of the people of Ammon, do not harass them or contend with them, for I will not give you any of the land of the people of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to the sons of Lot for a possession.” – Deuteronomy 2:19 ESV

But God had used these distant relatives of Abraham to prepare the way for the people of Israel. They had arrived in the land long ago, while the Israelites were still slaves in the land of Egypt. And they had been used by God to displace and dispossess other people groups who would have proven to be much more hostile and formidable foes to the Israelites. Look closely at the words of Moses in describing God’s sovereign use of the Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites in preparing the way for the Israelites. He records that the land had been occupied by “a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim; but the Lord destroyed them before the Ammonites, and they dispossessed them and settled in their place, as he did for the people of Esau” (Deuteronomy 2:21-22 ESV).

Centuries before the Israelites ever reached the land of Canaan, God had been preparing for their arrival. And He had been using the descendants of Esau and Lot to do His will. Neither one of these men have stellar records. Esau, driven by impulse and his own physical hunger, had sold his birth right for a pot of stew. Lot had chosen to take up residence in the immoral city of Sodom. These men, representing three different nations which were not part of God’s chosen possession, had been used by God to accomplish His divine will. Their descendants had helped prepare the way for the arrival of Abraham’s seed.

But battle loomed on the horizon. Conflict was coming. The days of wandering were over and the time for war had come.

God had done all the preliminary work. Now, it was their time to fight. Yes, He would go before them and fight alongside them, but they were going to have to do their part. The process of possessing the land given by God would require effort by the people of God. The wilderness had been crossed and the rivers had been forded, now it was time to begin to take possession of the land.

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

God Has Been With You

June 29, 2019June 29, 2019 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

¹“Then we turned and journeyed into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea, as the Lord told me. And for many days we traveled around Mount Seir. ²Then the Lord said to me, ³‘You have been traveling around this mountain country long enough. Turn northward ⁴and command the people, “You are about to pass through the territory of your brothers, the people of Esau, who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. So be very careful. ⁵Do not contend with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. ⁶You shall purchase food from them with money, that you may eat, and you shall also buy water from them with money, that you may drink. ⁷For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.”’ ⁸So we went on, away from our brothers, the people of Esau, who live in Seir, away from the Arabah road from Elath and Ezion-geber.

“And we turned and went in the direction of the wilderness of Moab. ⁹And the Lord said to me, ‘Do not harass Moab or contend with them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land for a possession, because I have given Ar to the people of Lot for a possession.’ ¹⁰(The Emim formerly lived there, a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim. ¹¹Like the Anakim they are also counted as Rephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim. ¹²The Horites also lived in Seir formerly, but the people of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them and settled in their place, as Israel did to the land of their possession, which the Lord gave to them.) ¹³‘Now rise up and go over the brook Zered.’ So we went over the brook Zered. ¹⁴And the time from our leaving Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the brook Zered was thirty-eight years, until the entire generation, that is, the men of war, had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them. ¹⁵For indeed the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from the camp, until they had perished.” – Deuteronomy 2:1-15 ESV

Moses continues his recounting of the Israelites’ history, in an effort to remind his audience of all that had happened over the last four decades and prior to their arrival at the border of the land of promise.

Moses seems to have at least two objectives in giving this impromptu history lesson. First, he wants to remind his audience of what happens when God’s people prove unfaithful and disobedient. There will be consequences. More than 40 years had passed and the nation of Israel was just now preparing to cross over into the land that God had promised to Abraham. But the delay was Israel’s fault, not God’s. They had been to this very same spot before, but had refused to take God at His word and trust that He would give them victory over their enemies. So, He had sentenced them to 40-years confinement in the wilderness. But, in a sense, it was a life sentence, because that entire generation died in the wilderness, having been forbidden from every stepping foot in the land of promise. And Moses is out to ensure that the offspring of those unfaithful rebels do not repeat the same mistake

But there is a second point that Moses is trying to make and it is of even greater importance. He wants this new generation of Israelites to recognize and appreciate the faithfulness of God. In spite of all that the nation had done to offend God by refusing to trust and obey Him, He was still going through with His promise to give them the land of Canaan as an inheritance. Here they were, 40 years later, and poised to enter the very same land their fathers and mothers had turned their backs on. And it was all because their God was faithful.

So, as Moses tells the story of Israel’s long and somewhat meteoric relationship with God, he comes to another chapter in which God’s faithfulness can be seen. But this time, it is a bit less obvious. In these verses, Moses describes Israel’s journey around Mount Seir and into the regions of Edom and Moab. To us, those two names mean nothing, but to an Israelite, they would have carried a special significance. Edom was the land given by God to Esau, the older brother of Jacob. And Moab was the land occupied by the descendants of Lot, the nephew of Abraham.

The book of Genesis records the story of Jacob and Esau, the two twin boys born to Isaac and Rebekah. While the two boys were still in Rebekah’s womb, God had decreed that Jacob, who would exit the womb after his brother, was to receive the blessing of the firstborn. God, according to His sovereign will and in keeping with His divine plan for mankind, made the decision to choose Jacob over Esau. It made no sense from a human perspective and seemed to go against all accepted protocols concerning the firstborn and the inheritance. But God, who is just and right in all He does, had a good reason for His actions. And the prophet Malachi puts God’s decision in very black and white terms. Addressing the people of Israel, the descendants of Jacob, God said:

“This is how I showed my love for you: I loved your ancestor Jacob, but I rejected his brother, Esau, and devastated his hill country. I turned Esau’s inheritance into a desert for jackals.” – Malachi 1:2-3 NLT

The apostle Paul picks up this story in his letter to the Romans and expands on its significance.

For God had promised, “I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

This son was our ancestor Isaac. When he married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins. But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes; he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.) She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.” In the words of the Scriptures, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.”

Are we saying, then, that God was unfair? Of course not! For God said to Moses,

“I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.” – Romans 9:9-15 NLT

Neither Malachi or Paul are insisting that God literally hated Esau. The point is that, in comparison to His treatment of Jacob and his descendants, God’s actions toward Esau appear hostile. He had chosen to bless one and not the other. And yet, God still gave Esau and his descendants land. And God would not allow the Israelites, the descendants of Jacob, to have any of the land He had given to Esau.

“You will pass through the country belonging to your relatives the Edomites, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. The Edomites will feel threatened, so be careful. Do not bother them, for I have given them all the hill country around Mount Seir as their property, and I will not give you even one square foot of their land.” – Deuteronomy 2:4-5 NLT

God was faithful to Esau and his descendants. He had given them land and had obviously blessed them with food and water, because the people of Israel were able to buy provisions from the Edomites. It’s interesting to note that, all these generations later, God was sovereignly using the descendants of Esau to meet the needs of the descendants of Jacob. God had strategically placed the Edomites right where they were so that they could play a role in helping the Israelites reach the inheritance God had promised them.

Moses goes on to record that the Israelites left Edom and headed for the land of Moab. Once again, God warned the Israelites, “Do not bother the Moabites, the descendants of Lot, or start a war with them. I have given them Ar as their property, and I will not give you any of their land” (Deuteronomy 2:9 NLT).

Here we have yet another example of God’s faithfulness and, to understand it, we have to turn back to the book of Genesis. Lot was the nephew of Abraham, the father of the Israelite nation. Lot had accompanied Abraham from Ur and had settled in the land of Canaan. In fact, at one point Abraham had allowed Lot to take his pick of all the land and the book of Genesis records:

Lot chose for himself the whole Jordan Valley to the east of them. He went there with his flocks and servants and parted company with his uncle Abram. So Abram settled in the land of Canaan, and Lot moved his tents to a place near Sodom and settled among the cities of the plain. – Genesis 13:11-12 NLT

Lot picked “the fertile plains of the Jordan Valley in the direction of Zoar” and we’re told that “The whole area was well watered everywhere, like the garden of the Lord or the beautiful land of Egypt” (Genesis 13:10 NLT).

But Lot didn’t stay in the fertile plains for long. He ended up settling in the city of Sodom, a place of great wickedness. And when God eventually decided to destroy Sodom and its sister city of Gomorrah, He allowed Lot to escape with his two daughters. And after their narrow escape, Lot and his daughters settled in a cave. But fearing that their family line was doomed to die out, Lot’s two daughters, who must have been heavily influenced by their time in Sodom, came up with a plan to get their father drunk and have sex with him, so they could prolong their clan. And the book of Genesis records the outcome of their immoral decision.

When the older daughter gave birth to a son, she named him Moab. He became the ancestor of the nation now known as the Moabites. When the younger daughter gave birth to a son, she named him Ben-ammi. He became the ancestor of the nation now known as the Ammonites. – Genesis 19:37-38 NLT

Now, here were the descendants of Abraham, the uncle of Lot, getting ready to pass through the land occupied by the descendants of Lot. And Moses makes a point to stress that this portion of the land had been occupied by “A race of giants called the Emites.” And Moses goes out his way to stress that these people were “as strong and numerous and tall as the Anakites, another race of giants” (Deuteronomy 2:10 NLT).

Don’t miss the significance of what Moses is saying. Back in chapter one, he pointed out that the first time the Israelites reached the edge of the land of Canaan, they had refused to enter because they said, “The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there” (Deuteronomy 1:28 ESV). God had used the Edomites to rid Anakites from the land east of Canaan, but the Israelites had failed to believe that God could do the same thing for them. In a sense, Moses is pointing out that God had faithfully used the descendants of Esau to help prepare the way for the descendants of Jacob.

This whole portion of Moses’ story is meant to stress the faithfulness of God. Everything that had happened in Israel’s long history had been the work of God – all the way back to the days of Abraham and Lot and Jacob and Esau. God had been sovereignly orchestrating every single incident in order to set up this moment in time. And Moses wanted the next generation to recognize that God was with them and had been with them all along. He was and is faithful.

I Am Not in Your Midst

June 28, 2019June 28, 2019 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

³⁴“And the Lord heard your words and was angered, and he swore, ³⁵‘Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers, ³⁶except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him and to his children I will give the land on which he has trodden, because he has wholly followed the Lord!’ ³⁷Even with me the Lord was angry on your account and said, ‘You also shall not go in there. ³⁸Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. ³⁹And as for your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there. And to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. ⁴⁰But as for you, turn, and journey into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.’

⁴¹“Then you answered me, ‘We have sinned against the Lord. We ourselves will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us.’ And every one of you fastened on his weapons of war and thought it easy to go up into the hill country. ⁴²And the Lord said to me, ‘Say to them, Do not go up or fight, for I am not in your midst, lest you be defeated before your enemies.’ ⁴³So I spoke to you, and you would not listen; but you rebelled against the command of the Lord and presumptuously went up into the hill country. ⁴⁴Then the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you as bees do and beat you down in Seir as far as Hormah. ⁴⁵And you returned and wept before the Lord, but the Lord did not listen to your voice or give ear to you. ⁴⁶So you remained at Kadesh many days, the days that you remained there.” – Deuteronomy 1:34-46 ESV

Moses is addressing the people of Israel as they stand on the eastern edge of the land of Canaan, attempting to bolster their confidence in God and refresh their memories concerning what happened to the previous generation who had refused to enter the Promised Land as God had commanded them. Moses is providing his younger audience with a much-needed history lesson, in which he exposes the true reason that more than 40-years had passed since the Israelites had been set free from their captivity in Egypt. This younger generation had to have questioned the cause of the delay and wondered why it had taken so long to reach the land of Canaan. And it is doubtful that their parents had been open and honest about the cause of the delay.

Moses wants this generation, which represented the future of Israel, to know the truth. He didn’t want them questioning the faithfulness of God or doubting the Almighty’s ability to keep His promises. The four-decade-long detour and delay had not been God’s plan. It had come about as the result of the peoples’ refusal to trust Him. And Moses recounts the doubt-filled response of the people when they had heard that there were giants in the land.

“The Lord must hate us. That’s why he has brought us here from Egypt—to hand us over to the Amorites to be slaughtered. Where can we go?” – Deuteronomy 1:27-28 ESV

The report of the spies, detailing the presence of formidable enemies in the land, had caused the Israelites to doubt God’s love and question His goodness. Suddenly, their view of God changed. The great I Am, who had graciously freed them from captivity, defeated the armies of Egypt, and had led them across the wilderness, had become a tyrant. He was a hateful, promise-breaking deity who was going to allow them to be slaughtered by the occupants of the land. And how did they arrive at this warped perspective? They had been told that there were enemies in the land.

And the news of enemies in the land carried more weight in their minds than God’s track record of love, care, grace, mercy, and faithfulness. His history as a covenant-keeping God went out the window at the first sign of trouble. The prospect of enemies in the land destroyed any confidence they had in the God in their midst.

God did not take their accusations against Him lightly. They were accusing Him of lying and of being untrustworthy. They were questioning His very character. Rather than recognizing God as holy, righteous, and just, they had accused Him of betrayal and abandonment. And God, who always protects the integrity of His name and defends His own character, would not allow them to drag His reputation through the mud. Their very existence as a nation had been His doing. He had taken Abraham and Sarah, an elderly man and his barren wife, and had given them more descendants than there are stars in the sky (Genesis 15:5). And He had promised to give those descendants “all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God” (Genesis 17:8 ESV).

But when the time had come to take possession of that land, those very same people had decided that their enemies were greater than their God. In their minds, the potential for trouble overshadowed the proven power of God. When they discovered that their occupation of the land of promise wasn’t going to be easy, they lost all hope. The presence of trials did a number on their ability to trust. And God responded quickly and sternly.

“Not one of you from this wicked generation will live to see the good land I swore to give your ancestors.” – Deuteronomy 1:35 NLT

Their disbelief was going to lead to their discipline by God. That disobedient generation would never enjoy all the blessings the land of promise held in store for them, because they failed to trust the God who had promised it to them. Their unwillingness to do battle for the land robbed them of ever experiencing all that the land had to offer. But one of the other things they would miss out on would be the faith-stirring reality of watching God defeat the giants in their midst. He had told them He would go before them and fight on behalf of them. He had promised to give them victories over all their enemies – if they would simply obey His command and enter the land – giants and all.

Facing the prospect of God’s anger, the people had declared, “We have sinned against the Lord! We will go into the land and fight for it, as the Lord our God has commanded us” (Deuteronomy 1:41 NLT). But it was too little too late. God knew their hearts. He was fully aware that they had no confidence in Him. They were simply trying to escape His wrath.

As a sign of their change of heart, the men of Israel had strapped on their weapons and prepared to do battle for the hill country of the Amorites. They wanted to prove to God that they were ready to be obedient. But the text tells us that they believed this battle would prove to be a cake walk. “So your men strapped on their weapons, thinking it would be easy to attack the hill country” (Deuteronomy 1:41 NLT).

But God warned them not to follow through with their plans, because He would not be with them. They would be going into battle against His wishes and without His assistance. And the outcome would be devastating.

“If you go ahead on your own, you will be crushed by your enemies.” – Deuteronomy 1:42 NLT

Yet, they refused to believe God and went ahead with their plan. They were going to prove to God that they were faithful, even if it meant being disobedient to do so. Think about the absurdity of their reasoning. They were going to disobey God in a vain attempt to impress Him. And Moses, retelling the details of this past event to his young audience standing on the edge of the land of Canaan, explains what happened next:

“This is what I told you, but you would not listen. Instead, you again rebelled against the Lord’s command and arrogantly went into the hill country to fight. But the Amorites who lived there came out against you like a swarm of bees. They chased and battered you all the way from Seir to Hormah. Then you returned and wept before the Lord, but he refused to listen. So you stayed there at Kadesh for a long time.” – Deuteronomy 1:43-46 NLT

They had refused to trust God. Instead, they had decided to disobey Him. Then, when He responded in anger to their disobedience, they determined to prove their faithfulness by disobeying Him yet again. But God warned them that any efforts done by them but without His approval or help would be doomed to failure. They had feared the giants in the land, but had fallen to the Amorites outside the land. They had failed to trust God, but then tried to win back His favor through further disobedience.

And yet, all of this could have been avoided if they had only done what God had asked them to do: Enter the land and trust Him with the results.

You Did Not Believe

June 27, 2019June 27, 2019 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

¹⁹“Then we set out from Horeb and went through all that great and terrifying wilderness that you saw, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us. And we came to Kadesh-barnea. ²⁰And I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. ²¹See, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not fear or be dismayed.’ ²²Then all of you came near me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, that they may explore the land for us and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up and the cities into which we shall come.’ ²³The thing seemed good to me, and I took twelve men from you, one man from each tribe. ²⁴And they turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out. ²⁵And they took in their hands some of the fruit of the land and brought it down to us, and brought us word again and said, ‘It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us.’

²⁶“Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. ²⁷And you murmured in your tents and said, ‘Because the Lord hated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. ²⁸Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.”’ ²⁹Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread or afraid of them. ³⁰The Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, ³¹and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’ ³²Yet in spite of this word you did not believe the Lord your God, ³³who went before you in the way to seek you out a place to pitch your tents, in fire by night and in the cloud by day, to show you by what way you should go.” – Deuteronomy 1:19-33 ESV

Moses continues his recitation of Israel’s history in an attempt to remind the next generation of their heritage of sin and rebellion against God. He wanted this younger group of Israelites to understand that the reason they were the newly designated conquerors of the land of Canaan was because their mothers and fathers had refused to do what God had commanded them to do. If the previous generation had done what they were supposed to do, these young people would have grown up in the land of Canaan rather than wandering around the wilderness. They would have enjoyed all the blessings and benefits that God had promised. But their parents had disobeyed God. And Moses makes it very clear that their disobedience was a byproduce of their disbelief. They didn’t believe God.

When the 12 men who had been sent to spy out the land had returned, they had good news and bad news. They unanimously agreed that the land was rich and bountiful, just as God had said. They had even brought back samples of the fruit as proof and declared, “It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us” (Deuteronomy 1:25 ESV). But there was a second part to their report. The land was filled with fruit, but it was also overflowing with enemies, a fact the spies made painfully clear.

“The people of the land are taller and more powerful than we are, and their towns are large, with walls rising high into the sky! We even saw giants there—the descendants of Anak!” – Deuteronomy 1:28 ESV

The spies provided physical proof of the land’s fruitfulness, but they also shared personal testimony as its inherent dangers. There were giants in the land! And the fortified cities had walls that reached to the sky! Now, it’s easy for us to write this off as a case of obvious hyperbole, but that’s not how the Israelites viewed it. They were terrified by what they heard. They believed the words of the spies and it produced a growing sense of panic.

“The Lord must hate us. That’s why he has brought us here from Egypt—to hand us over to the Amorites to be slaughtered. Where can we go?” – Deuteronomy 1:27-28 NLT

God had set them free from their captivity in Egypt, miraculously bringing a series of judgments against the Egyptians in the form of ten devastating plagues. The final plague, the death of the firstborns, had caused Pharaoh to release the Israelites, but he quickly changed his mind and sent his troops to recapture them and bring them back. But God had defeated the army of Pharaoh at the Red Sea. Then God had led the people of Israel through the wilderness, caring for their every need and providing them with His law. But when they had come to the edge of the long-awaited promised land, they too had a change of heart. The news of well-armed giants and skyscraper-like fortifications caused them to disbelieve the promise of God. God had clearly told them that He would assist them in capturing the land. It would be His doing.

“See, I am going to make a covenant before all your people. I will do wonders such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation. All the people among whom you live will see the work of the Lord, for it is a fearful thing that I am doing with you.

“Obey what I am commanding you this day. I am going to drive out before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.” – Exodus 34:10-11 NLT

He had promised to fight for them and alongside them. Notice that God had not promised a lack of enemies in the land. He never said they would just walk into the land without a fight. He promised victory, not a lack of opposition. But rather than take God at His word, they listened to the majority opinion of the spies. Which had caused Moses to plead with them to remember the promise of God and reconsider their decision.

“Don’t be shocked or afraid of them! The Lord your God is going ahead of you. He will fight for you, just as you saw him do in Egypt.” – Deuteronomy 1:29-30 NLT

This scene brings to mind another encounter recorded on the pages of Scripture, where God’s people found themselves dealing with fruit and an enemy. All the way back in the beginning, as described in the book of Genesis, we see Adam and Eve faced with a decision to believe God or to listen to an opposing view that contradicted the command of God. On this occasion, the enemy took the form of a serpent, not an army filled with giants. And rather than a cluster of grapes from the land of Canaan, Adam and Eve were presented with the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And it was obviously tempting, because the Genesis account records that Eve saw and she ate.

When the woman saw that the tree produced fruit that was good for food, was attractive to the eye, and was desirable for making one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate it. She also gave some of it to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. – Genesis 3:6 NLT

But it wasn’t just the tempting nature of the fruit that caused Eve to eat. It was the lies of the enemy. And he began by causing Eve to doubt to doubt the word of God by subtly twisting what God had said.

“Is it really true that God said, ‘You must not eat from any tree of the orchard’?” – Genesis 3:1 NLT

When the woman had attempted to correct the enemy’s words, clearly relating that God had promised death as a punishment for disobedience, Satan essentially called God a liar and a deceiver.

“Surely you will not die, for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will open and you will be like divine beings who know good and evil.” – Genesis 3:4-5 NLT

He caused Eve to doubt the word of God, which led to disbelief in the promise that God had made. And the disbelief eventually manifested itself in disobedience.

…she took some of its fruit and ate it. She also gave some of it to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. – Genesis 3:6 NLT

The decision of Adam and Eve to doubt God led to their disobedience of God. And their disobedience led to their banishment from the presence of God. They had started life in the garden, but found themselves on the outside looking in. The Israelites had been standing on the outside looking into the promised land, but God had promised that it was theirs for the taking, if they would only take Him at His word and enter in.

But, like Eve, the Israelites refused to believe what God had said. God had not promised a lack of enemies in the land or a conflict-free conquest of the land. He had promised to go before them and to fight for them. He had assured them of victory, not a lack of war.

From the minute they had left Egypt, God had proven Himself faithful and more than capable of caring for them. He had gone before them, fought on behalf of them, and provided food and clothing for them. And yet, Moses points out, that despite all of God’s loving care and concern, they doubted Him, which caused them to disbelieve Him, and eventually to disobey Him.

“But even after all he did, you refused to trust the Lord your God, who goes before you looking for the best places to camp, guiding you with a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day.” – Deuteronomy 1:32-33 NLT

They had “rebelled against the command of the Lord your God and refused to go in” (Deuteronomy 1:26 NLT). And now, 40 years later, Moses was watching a new generation facing the very same circumstance and wondering how they would respond. Would they believe and obey? Or, like their parents, would they allow their circumstances to doubt the word of God, disbelieve the promises of God, and disobey the command of God?

Burden and Strife

June 26, 2019June 26, 2019 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

⁹“At that time I said to you, ‘I am not able to bear you by myself. ¹⁰The Lord your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven. ¹¹May the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, as he has promised you! ¹²How can I bear by myself the weight and burden of you and your strife? ¹³Choose for your tribes wise, understanding, and experienced men, and I will appoint them as your heads.’ ¹⁴And you answered me, ‘The thing that you have spoken is good for us to do.’ ¹⁵So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and set them as heads over you, commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of fifties, commanders of tens, and officers, throughout your tribes. ¹⁶And I charged your judges at that time, ‘Hear the cases between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien who is with him. ¹⁷You shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be intimidated by anyone, 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.’ ¹⁸And I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do.” – Deuteronomy 1:9-18 ESV

Moses is standing on the edge of the land of Canaan, addressing the next generation of Israelites who have arrived at the border and are facing the prospect of have to do what their predecessors had failed to do: Enter the land.

As part of his speech to the people, Moses recounts their journey from Mount Sinai, where God had made His covenant with them. It was there that God had given them His law and had instructed them, “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodcus 19:5 ESV).

Unlike the covenant God had made with Abraham concerning the land, this covenant, sometimes referred to as the Mosaic Covenant, was bilateral and conditional. In other words, it was a covenant that required a commitment from both parties. Each had to keep their end of the agreement. If the people obeyed God’s law, He would bless them. They would be His chosen possession. But if they failed to obey, there would be serious ramifications.

And Moses subtly reminds them that God had kept His covenant commitment to Abraham. He had promised to make of Abraham a great nation and all they had to do was look around for the proof of God’s faithfulness.

“The Lord your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven.” – Deuteronomy 1:10 ESV

God had greatly prospered them. In fact, in the opening verses of the book of Exodus, Moses provides the historical context that when Jacob and his family had fled to Egypt to escape the famine in Canaan, there had been seventy of them. But by the time Joseph had died and God sent Moses to deliver the people from their captivity in Egypt, we’re told that “the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them” (Exodus 1:7 ESV).

The faithfulness of God to keep His covenant commitment to Abraham was clearly visible in the sheer number of Israelites who stood before Moses that day. He reminded them that their God had kept His word and had made them exceedingly fruitful. So much so, that the people in Canaan feared the people of Israel, even before they set foot in the land. When Joshua eventually sent two spies to reconnoiter the city of Jericho, a resident of the city confessed to them:

“I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.” – Joshua 2:9-11 ESV

God had multiplied them. He had delivered them from captivity. He had led them across the wilderness; feeding, clothing, and protecting them along the way. And He had given them victories over their enemies on the east side of the Jordan. Now, it was time to cross over and take possession of the land.

But there was a problem. God’s blessing had become a burden for Moses. There were so many of them, that he was overwhelmed. But it wasn’t their numbers that was the cause of his headaches. It was their tendency to whine and complain. In fact, Moses put it even extremely blunt terms: “But you are such a heavy load to carry! How can I deal with all your problems and bickering?” (Deuteronomy 1:12 NLT).

This had been a problem from day one. Ever since Moses had led the people out of Egypt, they had displayed a strong propensity to express their displeasure. They complained about anything and everything – from the manna and quail God miraculously supplied for food to the man God had provided to lead them. And Moses reminded them that there had been a day when his father-in-law had given him some wise counsel. He had advised Moses to “choose from the people capable men, God-fearing, men of truth, those who hate bribes, and put them over the people as rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens” (Exodus 18:21: NLT). And Moses had done just that.

But while the people had agreed with the decision made by Moses, it’s clear that they continued to grumble and dispute. Even with the apppointment of additional judges, there were too many disputes to handle. And this speaks volumes regarding the spiritual state of the people of Israel. They were a disgruntled people because they were a disobedient people.

Jesus summed up the entire law with the following statement: “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37-40 NLT).

The people of Israel were failing to live up to the law of God. They were not loving Him or loving one another. They were too busy disputing and disagreeing with one another. And their lack of love for one another was a reflection of their lack of love for God. The apostle John put it this way: “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?” (1 John 4:20 NLT).

Moses had clearly and repeatedly communicated God’s expectations. But he was so busy handling disputes and disagreements among the people that he had been forced to appoint additional “referees” to deal with the volume of issues taking place. How in the world were they going to possess the land if they couldn’t even get along with one another? What good were their formidable numbers going to be against their enemies if they couldn’t even stop from fighting among themselves?

The promised land lay before them. But their greatest obstacle wasn’t going to be the occupants of the land. It was going to be the members of their own faith community. What God had intended as a blessing, they had turned into a burden. Rather than enjoying the camaraderie of godly community, they experienced conflict and strife. And, instead of Moses spending his time leading the people in battle against their enemies, he was wasting his time solving disputes among brothers.

And, as we’ll see, the track record of God’s people was far from stellar. There were other issues that Moses will raise as he recaps the less-than-flattering history of Israel to this point. The promised land lay spread before them but a litany of broken promises lay behind them. Were they ready to change? Were they prepared to obey God and keep His commands? He was faithful. But would they be?

A Step of Faith

June 25, 2019June 25, 2019 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

¹These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. ²It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea. ³In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment to them, ⁴after he had defeated Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and in Edrei. ⁵Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law, saying, ⁶“The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. ⁷Turn and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland and in the Negeb and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. ⁸See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after them.’” – Deuteronomy 1:1-8 ESV

A new generation of Israelites was positioned on the plains of Moab, waiting for word from Moses to enter the land of Canaan. The people of Israel had made their way back to the very same spot where, 40 years earlier, their fathers and mothers had disobeyed God’s command to enter the land and subdue it. Instead, they had chosen to listen to the majority opinion of the 12 men who had spied out the land and returned with a less-than-favorable report. While they validated God’s claim that the land was rich and bountiful, filled with fertile farmland, abundant livestock, and some of the most productive vineyards they had ever seen, they also reported that it was also full of fortified cities and armies populated by soldiers who looked like giants. So, the Israelites had voted to take the advice of the terror-stricken spies and ignore the command of God. And their disobedience had resulted in a curse. God sent them wandering in the wilderness for four decades, until each and every one of them had died off and a new generation had taken their place.

Now, the next crop of Israelites were just weeks away from entering the land God had promised to Abraham hundreds of years earlier. They had made their way to Moab, on the eastern border of the land of Canaan, and it was there that Moses delivered his state-of-the-union address. He began by reminding them of God’s original command.

While the Israelites were in the land of Moab east of the Jordan River, Moses carefully explained the Lord’s instructions as follows. – Deuteronomy 1:5 NLT

Moses proceeded to give the Israelites an intensive review of the expectations God had given them at Mount Sinai more than 40 years earlier.

“When we were at Mount Sinai, the Lord our God said to us, ‘You have stayed at this mountain long enough. It is time to break camp and move on. Go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all the neighboring regions—the Jordan Valley, the hill country, the western foothills, the Negev, and the coastal plain. Go to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, and all the way to the great Euphrates River. Look, I am giving all this land to you! Go in and occupy it, for it is the land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to all their descendants.’” – Deuteronomy 1:6-8 NLT

Now, here they were, standing at the edge of the land of promise. But getting to the border was not going to be enough. The land was theirs, but they were going to have to step into it if they were going to occupy it. And that would require a step of faith.

Moses’ little speech was meant to remind the people of Israel of the covenant God had made with them. God had unilaterally committed Himself to Abraham and his offspring, promising to provide them with the land of Canaan, even before Abraham and Sarah had given birth to their first son. In fact, God made His commitment in spite of their advanced years and Sarah’s barrenness.

“Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.” – Genesis 17:4-8 ESV

The ball was now in Israel’s court. God had promised them the land. He had freed them from captivity in Egypt and led them to the land. Now, it was up to them to obey God by entering and occupying the land.

“Go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore to your fathers.” – Deuteronomy 6:8 ESV

This is the exact point at which the previous generation had balked. They had arrived at the border but had refused to cross over the Jordan and occupy the land. And Moses was not willing to sit back and watch the next generation repeat the mistakes of their forefathers. God was not interested in getting Israel to the land. He wanted to see them fully entrenched in the land. The covenant would not be complete until the land became their “everlasting possession.”

The promise of the land required possession of the land. This is an essential point in understanding the book of Deuteronomy. God had done His part. He had led the people to the land, but now they were going to have to enter it and trust God for giving them possession of it. When Moses had lived in the land, he had never owned single acre. In fact, the author of Hebrews states:

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. – Hebrews 11:8-9 ESV

And yet, a little later on in this book, Moses will let the people know that their occupation of the land will be accompanied by incredible blessings from God.

“And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” – Deuteronomy 6:10-12 ESV

They would not be living in some kind of temporary tent city. Instead, they would live in houses they didn’t build filled with items they didn’t buy. They would harvest the produce of fields they didn’t plant and the fruit of vineyards they didn’t cultivate. And all they had to do was remember that it was all the work of God.

Forty years earlier, at Mount Horeb (Sinai), God had given Moses His Law. And He had promised to send an angel before the people of Israel when the time came for them to enter and occupy the land.

“When my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. You shall serve the Lord your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you.” – Exodus 23:23-25 ESV

God was going to give them the land, but they were going to have to give God their undivided allegiance. No unfaithfulness. No spiritual adultery. And their obedience would bring God’s blessing.

It’s important to note that the land of Canaan was chosen for the people of Israel, and not by them. It was God’s divine will that they occupy this particular parcel of land in this particular part of the world. God had His reasons. There was a method to His madness. And He had great things in store for His people if they would only submit to His will for them. God’s will is always better. His ways are always better than ours. But will we trust Him by obeying Him? The Book of Deuteronomy is going to give us an up-close-and-personal glimpse into Israel’s response to God’s faithfulness. And, as always, there will be vital lessons for us to learn.

Loss of Focus.

September 13, 2018December 24, 2019 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

¹Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. ²And large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.

³And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” ⁴He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, ⁵and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? ⁶So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” ⁷They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” ⁸He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. ⁹And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”

¹⁰The disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.” ¹¹But he said to them, “Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. ¹²For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.” – Matthew 19:1-12 ESV

This is a difficult passage that has caused a great deal of contention and confusion over the centuries. And it’s likely that the disciples were left scratching their heads when they heard what Jesus had to say. These 12 verses deal with a topic that remains highly controversial to this day: Divorce among believers. And like so much of what Jesus taught, what He told His disciples seems to run counter to the prevailing sentiments of times in which they lived. Popular opinion would not line up with Jesus’ take on the matter. That’s why the Pharisees brought it up in the first place. They were trying to test or trick Jesus into saying something that could ruin His reputation among the people. Divorce was just as controversial then as it is now. And if Jesus attacked the peoples’ perceived right to divorce, it would alienate Him from the masses.

It could be that they were hoping He would take a similar tact as that of John the Baptist. It was John’s outspoken stance on divorce and remarriage that had resulted in his execution by Herod.

John also publicly criticized Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee, for marrying Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for many other wrongs he had done. So Herod put John in prison, adding this sin to his many others. – Luke 3:19-20 NLT

Matthew opens this chapter by stating that Jesus had traveled into “the region of Judea beyond the Jordan” – an area sometimes referred to as the Transjordan – which fell under the jurisdiction of Herod. The Pharisees were probably hoping that Jesus would speak against divorce as well, bringing down the wrath of Herod on his head.

Their question to Jesus was carefully worded: “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?”

Behind the question was their understanding or interpretation of Deuteronomy 24:1-2:

When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, and if she goes and becomes another man’s wife…

The Pharisees interpreted this Old Testament passage to mean that God permitted divorce and approved of remarriage. But like so much of the Old Testament Scriptures, the Pharisees tended to read into it the meaning they wanted to get out of it. There were two contemporary rabbinic schools that differed in their interpretation of this passage in Deuteronomy. One group taught that it condoned divorce for just about any reason, while the other group took a more conservative view, stating that divorce was only permissible in the case of sexual immorality.

In His sermon on the mount, Jesus had come down on the conservative side of the debate.

“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” – Matthew 5:31-32 ESV

It would seem that the Pharisees had heard about Jesus’ stance on this issue and hoped to cause a stir among the people by getting Jesus to state His more conservative and less popular view.

The interesting point in all of this is the marked difference between Jesus’ area of emphasis and that of the Pharisees. They came asking a question about divorce. Jesus turned it into a lesson on marriage.

As Jesus was prone to do, He responded to their question with a question: “Have you not read…?”

This unveiled inference by Jesus would have been like a slap in the face to the Pharisees, who prided themselves on their intimate knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures. But Jesus was about to school them on their understanding of God’s Word, taking them back to the book of Genesis. Paraphrasing the words of Moses regarding the God-ordained institution of marriage, Jesus asked them:

“Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” – Matthew 19:4-6 ESV

Notice His emphasis: What God has joined together. Marriage is to be seen as a God-ordained union between a man and a woman. And no man is to separate that union. In that day and age, a woman was denied the right to divorce. But the husband was free to divorce his wife and, as many interpreted it, for any reason whatsoever, even for burning dinner.

But from God’s point of view, through the covenant of marriage, a man and woman became “one flesh.” They are united in an inseparable bond, sanctioned by God Himself. Marriage was to carry the idea of complementation, but also completeness. Two individuals, by covenanting together in marriage, were supernaturally bonded by God and made a completed whole. From that point forward, He saw them as one, not two.

But appealing to the words of Moses found in Deuteronomy 24:1, the Pharisees present Jesus with a follow-up question: “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” This was their perceived loophole. In their minds, it appeared that Moses had provided a clear and legal escape clause from the marriage bond.

But the answer Jesus gave them most likely infuriated them.

“Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.” – Matthew 19:8 ESV

Notice that Jesus points the finger of culpability straight at the Pharisees. Even though the words of Moses were spoken hundreds of years earlier, Jesus applies them to the men standing right in front of Him. Their hearts were hardened. They were unwilling and incapable of abiding by God’s will concerning marriage. And Moses had made it clear that “from the beginning it was not so.” In other words, from the day God had ordained the institution of marriage, divorce was not to be an option. No man was to separate what God had joined together.

And it’s interesting to note what the Deuteronomy passage goes on to say about this topic.

…if she [a divorced woman] goes and becomes another man’s wife, and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the Lord. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance. – Deuteronomy 24:2-4 ESV

Notice what Moses said. The woman who has been divorced and remarried is “defiled.” If she were divorced again and her first husband tried to remarry her, he would be committing an abomination before the Lord. It was totally unacceptable.

As usual, the Pharisees were looking for loopholes. They were seeking God-approved grounds for divorce. But Jesus was emphasizing the sanctity and holiness of marriage. Rather than looking for excuses to separate, Jesus wanted them to recognize God’s command to remain one. Moses made a concession for divorce because of man’s inherent sin problem. He was in no way condoning divorce. He was simply conceding man’s inability to do what God had called him to do: Remain in an inviolable relationship with his wife.

And Jesus reinforces the fact that divorce was not in God’s plan. He had not ordained it and would not condone it. But like all sins, it was inevitable. So, when divorce did take place, there was only one scenario that would be considered biblical grounds for divorce.

“…whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.” – Matthew 19:9 ESV

And it’s interesting to note that the Pharisees, while quick to quote from Deuteronomy 24:1, seemed to ignore what Deuteronomy 22:22 had to say:

“If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.”

This discussion led the disciples to question the whole viability of marriage. If remarriage after divorce was out of the question, because it would leave both individuals guilty of adultery, it seemed to make more sense to never marry in the first place. You can see that their view on marriage had been influenced by the idea of divorce as a potential get-out-of-jail-free card. If the marriage didn’t work out, they could always get a divorce. But Jesus had shut down that option.

Yet Jesus informed His disciples that celibacy was not an easy road to take. It had to be something that God led someone to do.

Jesus described three types of eunuchs. The term “eunuch,” referred to “one naturally incapacitated – for marriage” (G2135 – eunouchos – Strong’s Greek Lexicon (ESV) Blue Letter Bible). Some were born eunuchs. Others were made that way, through forced castration. But there was still another group of individuals who chose to remain unmarried. They were essentially eunuchs by choice, or as Jesus put it, “for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.” He would have been a case in point. Jesus never married, focusing all His energies on fulfilling the will of His Father.

As we will see, Jesus is beginning to set His eyes on the mission objective waiting for Him in Jerusalem. The storyline is quickly moving to its final stages. And Jesus, while teaching the disciples about issues that relate to everyday life, is trying to get them to understand that there are far more important things on the horizon than debates about marriage and divorce or arguments about who is the greatest in the kingdom. The cross looms large in Jesus’ mind. His destiny carries with it the shadow of death, but also the hope of the resurrection.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Deuteronomy 33-34, Acts 5

May 12, 2014 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

Man of God.

Deuteronomy 33-34, Acts 5

We must obey God rather than men. – Deuteronomy 34:29 ESV

Moses was a man, a flawed and sometimes fault-filled man. But he was God’s man. Throughout his tenure as God’s appointed leader of the people of Israel, Moses tried to live in obedience to God. He attempted to faithfully carry out God’s will, in spite of his own feelings of inadequacies and the people’s stubborn refusal to obey. It isn’t easy to find examples of this man’s faults and failings. There were times when he got frustrated and even angry with God. He often became exasperated with the very people he had been called to lead, and at times wished he could walk away from the job. But there are just as many examples of his faithful leadership and his loving intercession to God on behalf of a stiff necked people. We know that Moses was not perfect because God refused to allow him to enter into the land of promise. Instead, he died in the land of Moab, and was buried by God Himself. He was 120 years old when he died, and “his eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated” (Deuteronomy 34:7 ESV). Moses was an incredible man, but a man nonetheless. He is an example of what it means to follow the Lord and to know God face to face. He had an intimate, personal relationship with the living God of the universe. He was used by God because he remained useable to God. He was willing to do whatever God called him to do. Yes, sometimes he exhibited reluctance and even reticence. But eventually he always overcame his fears and apprehensions, doing whatever God had called Him to do.

What does this passage reveal about God?

God works through men. He chooses to reveal His extraordinary power through the means of ordinary men and women. Moses was not chosen by God because he had any special qualities or characteristics that set him apart. God used him in spite of his faults. Moses was actually a murderer with a bounty on his head, but God chose to use him to set the people of Israel free from captivity in Egypt and to lead them to the land of promise in Canaan. In the New Testament, we see God using a group of men to spread the message of Christ’s death and resurrection to the world. These were ordinary men who brought nothing to the table except their belief in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. After the resurrection of Jesus, God would fill these men with His Holy Spirit and empower them to do signs and wonders in the midst of the people of Israel, just as Moses had done. Like Moses, they would become spokesmen for God, speaking on His behalf and exhibiting His power and presence through their own lives and ministries.

God is not obligated to use men. He could just as easily accomplish His mission without the help of men or women, but He has chosen to use us. Just as in the days of Moses, God wants to exhibit His power and presence through the lives of ordinary men and women in order to show the world what a right relationship between He and His human creation should look like. When we live in obedience to His will and empowered by His Spirit, we become living, breathing witnesses to the world of the reality and life-changing power of God. The world gets to see God in us. His presence becomes tangible and highly practical.

What does this passage reveal about man?

When the apostles faithfully ministered as Jesus had commanded them to do, they quickly found themselves in trouble with the Jewish religious authorities. In fact, it wasn’t long before they were arrested and thrown in jail. They had been teaching, preaching, healing and proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ. Thousands of people were hearing and accepting the message regarding salvation through Christ alone. “And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women” (Acts 5:14 ESV). These ordinary men were making an extraordinary impact on the world. And even when they found themselves locked in a jail cell, God would use their circumstance to reveal His power. He sent an angel to release them and commanded them to “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life” (Acts 5:20 ESV). And they obeyed. The high priest had them re-arrested and brought before him. He confronted them saying, “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us” (Acts 5:28 ESV).

Confronted by this powerful religious leader who had played a role in the death of Jesus, Peter and the apostles didn’t bat an eye. Rather than back down and give in to his threats, they remained faithful to their calling. “We must obey God rather than men,” Peter responded. They would not give in or give up. Even when they were beaten and warned again not to speak in the name of Jesus, Luke records that they left “rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name” (Acts 5:41 ESV). These ordinary men, filled with the Spirit of God, would go on to do extraordinary things for God. “And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ” (Acts 5:42 ESV).

How would I apply what I’ve read to my own life?

There is no limit to what God can accomplish through the man or woman who is willing to be used by Him. Our usefulness to God has nothing to do with our own abilities, talents, or strengths. God is not obligated to use us or somehow dependent upon our abilities to accomplish His will. Like the apostle Paul, we often find ourselves weak and ill-equipped to do what God has called us to do, but we quickly learn as he did, that God’s grace is sufficient. “‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10 ESV). I don’t have to be strong. I don’t have to be smart. I don’t have to have my act together or bring a special array of talents to the table. I simply must be willing and ready to be used by God. It is the recognition of my own insufficiency and weakness that makes me useable by God. When I realize just how much I need Him, I am much more likely to be used by Him. What the world needs to see are more men and women of God who are empowered by God and being used by Him to accomplish His will in His power through their lives.

Father, I want to be a man of God, who knows You face to face and relies on Your power and presence in my life to accomplish the unimaginable and inexplicable, so that they world my truly know You exist. Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Deuteronomy 31-32, Acts 4

May 9, 2014May 9, 2014 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

Strength and Courage.

Deuteronomy 31-32, Acts 4

Be strong and courageous, for you shall bring the people of Israel into the land that I swore to give to them. I will be with you. – Deuteronomy 31:23 ESV

Imagine what it would have been like to be Joshua. This poor man was being handed the mantle of Moses, the great liberator and leader of Israel. He was going to take over for one of the greatest men who had ever lived and was expected to lead the people of Israel in their conquest of the Promised Land. Not only that, he had been made well aware of the fact that the people were going to end up breaking their covenant with God. Joshua would prove to be successful in his efforts to get them into the land, but they would quickly turn their backs on God. “For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to give to their fathers, and they have eaten and are full and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them, and despise me and break my covenant” (Deuteronomy 31:20 ESV). God was fully aware of all that was going to happen once the people occupied the land. He would fulfill His part in the covenant, but they would prove to be unfaithful. “For I know what they are inclined to do even today, before I have brought them into the land that I swore to give them” (Deuteronomy 31:21 ESV). And yet, God tells Joshua to be strong and courageous. Not exactly encouraging words when you consider the circumstances and the less-than-ideal prospects facing Joshua. This was a man who was being called to lead a people who were described by God as crooked, perverse, twisted, corrupt, blemished, foolish, senseless and faithless. They were destined to disobey and, ultimately, to suffer destruction at the hands of God.

What does this passage reveal about God?

God was fully aware of all that was going to happen in the centuries to come. He had given Moses the law and instructed him to put it in writing. Moses was to give it to the priests and instruct them to read it out loud to the people when they assembled together every seventh year. They were to constantly remind the people of what the law said and were to teach it to the next generation. Moses told the Israelites that the written law had a purpose. “That it may be a witness against you. For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are” (Deuteronomy 31:26 ESV). Moses knew that the people were going to “act corruptly and turn aside.” God had even given Moses a song to teach to the people that would be a constant reminder of God’s faithfulness and their own unfaithfulness. They had the oral and the written law. They had a song composed by God Himself. They had no excuse. God had clearly revealed to them His will and yet they would end up rejecting it.

What does this passage reveal about man?

Joshua had a job to do. He had been commissioned by God to lead the people into the land of promise. And yet he was well aware of the fact that the people he was leading were stubborn, stiff necked and rebellious. They would prove to be disobedient and all the victories and conquests would one day end up in their defeat and deportation in foreign lands. Like the prophets of God who would come after him, Joshua had been called by to do the will of God, regardless of the circumstances or eventual outcome. It was all part of God’s plan. Even thought Joshua knew that the people would end up losing the very land they were about to conquer, he still needed to do his job. He needed to be faithful to God’s calling. His job was the conquest. He was going to have to leave the rest up to God.

Long before His trials and crucifixion, Jesus had told His disciples, “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour” (Matthew 10:16-19 ESV). And those very words had to have been ringing in the ears of the Peter and John as they stood before Annas the high priest and the Jewish council. They had no idea what was going to happen to them. They had been arrested by the religious leaders for “teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead” (Acts 4:2 ESV). They had been obedient to do just as Jesus had commanded them to do. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20 ESV). And now they were standing before the religious council and being warned “to speak no more to anyone in this name” (Acts 4:17 ESV). And yet, in spite of the threats of the religious leaders and the warning by Jesus Himself that they could end up flogged for their efforts, they refused to back down. “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19-20 ESV).

How would I apply what I’ve read to my own life?

When Peter and John were released, they made a beeline back to the other disciples and immediately appealed to God. Their prayer should be an encouragement to each and every one of us who call ourselves followers of Christ. We live in the midst of difficult days. We face tremendous opposition to our faith. Jesus warned the disciples, “you will be hated by all for my name’s sake” (Matthew 10:22 ESV). The same thing holds true for His disciples today. The world and the enemy hate us. Our standing in Christ marks us and sets us against the prince of this world. So like the disciples, we must face the reality of our circumstances and turn to God for help. Their prayer is insightful and instructive. “And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus” (Acts 4:29-30 ESV). They appealed to God for boldness to speak His Word. They asked Him to reveal Himself through miraculous signs and irrefutable evidence of His power in their midst. Nothing builds our courage like a first-hand view of God’s power in our lives. Like Joshua, they were going to need strength and courage. Paul told the Christians in Ephesus, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might” (Ephesians 6:10 ESV). Joshua had a job to do. So did Peter and John. In the midst of a generation marked by unfaithfulness and unbelief, they were called to be faithful, bold and strong. So are we. Paul would encourage us to “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong” (1 Corinthians 16:13 ESV).

Father, may I have the strength and boldness to do what You have called me to do. Teach me to find my strength in You. Constantly remind me to remain faithful to the task You have given me. Like Joshua, Peter and John, I have a job to do. Give me strength and courage to do it well. Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Deuteronomy 29-30, Acts 3

May 8, 2014 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

Times of Refreshing.

Deuteronomy 29-30, Acts 3

But to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see of ears to hear. – Deuteronomy 29:4 ESV

God had made His divine will known and knowable. He had made His rules, regulations and requirements easy to discern and non-debatable. It was all very black and white. “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil” (Deuteronomy 30:15 ESV). The people of Israel had no excuse when it came to knowing what God expected of them. Moses told them, “This command I am giving you today is not too difficult for you to understand, and it is not beyond your reach” (Deuteronomy 30:11 NLT). The difficulty lie not in knowing God’s commands, but in keeping them. The key to life was obvious: “Loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him” (Deuteronomy 30:20 ESV). But the resolve of the Israelites would prove insufficient for the task. Left to their own devices and dependent upon their own strength, they would eventually fail to live up to God’s standards – not because they did not know them, but because they lacked the capacity to keep them. The giving of the law produced a stark contrast between the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man. Paul clarifies the role of the law in the lives of men: “For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me” (Romans 7:8-11 ESV). Without the giving of the law, the people of Israel would have been oblivious to God’s holy and righteous expectations. They would have been ignorant of His divine standards. But Moses had made sure that the Israelites were up to speed with and fully aware of all that God expected of them. And His divine requirements would eventually expose their human deficiencies. They lacked the ability to remain faithful. Their hearts and minds would wander from God. They would knowingly disobey Him and prove unfaithful to Him. They were missing one thing – the key ingredient to living in faithfulness to God. “And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live” (Deuteronomy 30:6 ESV).

What does this passage reveal about God?

The book of Deuteronomy is all about the faithfulness of God, not the failure of man. The history of the people of Israel, as revealed in the book of Joshua and all through the chronicles of the kings, tells of a people who lacked the ability to remain faithful to their God. Their faithfulness is displayed in vivid detail on virtually every page. They are repeatedly referred to as a people with rebellious hearts. God calls them stiff-necked and stubborn. And all the dire warnings God had given them regarding what would happen if they proved disobedient would come true. They would end up driven from the land of promise. God would bring a foreign power to lay siege to their cities and bring destruction to the land. They would end up in captivity worshiping other gods and living in isolation from the one true God. And yet, despite their disobedience, God would once again prove His faithfulness. “Then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you.If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live” (Deuteronomy 30:6-11 ESV). The prophet Ezekiel spoke of a day when God would provide for His people the missing ingredient necessary for them to live in obedience and faithfulness to Him. “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (Ezekiel 36:26-27 ESV).

What does this passage reveal about man?

Knowing the expectations of God is not enough. Having a firm grasp on the holy requirements of God will never result in a life of holiness. A spiritual life requires the Holy Spirit. Human flesh is incapable of living spiritually, without the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul tells us, “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other” (Galatians 5:17 ESV). In fact, “the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these” (Galatians 5:19-21 NLT). These very “works” were evidenced repeatedly in the lives of the Israelites long after they conquered the land of Canaan and settled in it. Their human nature produced fruit that was not in keeping with God’s will. These people had been hand-picked by God, given the law of God, and had experienced the presence and power of God. Yet, they proved unable to live in faithfulness to God. And such is the plight of all mankind.

How would I apply what I’ve read to my own life?

The Israelites were a living, breathing example of man’s inability to live up to God’s righteous standards, even though they knew it well. Their own sinful natures were the greatest hindrance to their efforts at living holy lives. Holiness would prove unattainable without the indwelling power of God’s Holy Spirit. But when Jesus appeared on the scene thousands of years later, He would come to live a perfectly holy life, in complete obedience to the will of God and made by possible by the Spirit of God. His humanity would be assisted by the Holy Spirit, providing us with an example of godliness made possible by the life of the Son of God, the power of the Spirit of God, and all in keeping with the divine will of God. In his address to the Jews standing in Solomon’s Portico, within the Temple complex, Peter called them to repentance. He told them, “turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come again from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus” (Acts 3:19-20 ESV). Peter was telling them that Jesus was the key to them receiving the one thing they needed to experience a time of refreshing. Jesus was the source for accessing the power they had been lacking all along. The Son of God was the means by which they could receive the Spirit of God and be equipped to live in obedience to God for the first time in their lives. Paul writes of this cooperative effort on the part of the Trinity in his letter to the believers in Rome: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:1-4 ESV). Christ fulfilled the requirements of the Law. He not only lived in complete obedience to the law of God, He paid the penalty required by the law for the sins of mankind. His perfectly sinless life made Him the perfect, sinless sacrifice. And as a result, both Jews and Gentiles can experience the forgiveness of God because of the sacrifice of the Son of God, and experience the life-changing power of the Spirit of God.

Father, You have brought time of refreshing to my life and for that I am grateful. You placed Your Holy Spirit within me, giving me the ability to not only understand Your will for my life, but to live in keeping with it. You have provided me with the power to live righteously that I lacked on my own. You provided righteousness through Your Son that I could have never produced on my own. I have received the missing ingredient required to living a holy life: The Holy Spirit. All because of Your gracious and merciful love. Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Devotionary

The Bible Made Accessible and Applicable

Deuteronomy

Begin to Take Possession

God Has Been With You

I Am Not in Your Midst

You Did Not Believe

Burden and Strife

A Step of Faith

Loss of Focus.

Deuteronomy 33-34, Acts 5

Deuteronomy 31-32, Acts 4

Deuteronomy 29-30, Acts 3