Beware! Numbers 35 – Deuteronomy 16

You can find a one-year Bible reading plan here.

One warning shows up repeatedly in Deuteronomy. Take heed! Beware! Watch out! Moses warns the people over and over again, not to be on guard for enemies, but to know that they will be tempted to abandon their commitment to God.

Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the LORD thy God hath forbidden thee. Deuteronomy 4:23

Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Deuteronomy 6:12

Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day. Deuteronomy 8:11

Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; Deuteronomy 11:16

The greatest dangers to their commitment would be the prosperity they would experience in the Promised Land and the example of the native people who would tempt them to abandon God. Moses could rightfully make this case for steadfastness because the people pledged their faith to God back at Mt. Sinai. Now they would make that same commitment a second time as Moses gave the law to them a second time.

God and Israel entered into a conditional covenant. It was conditional because there were requirements which the people had to follow. Only then would they receive the benefits or blessings of the agreement. There were also curses which fell upon them if they broke the agreement. The contract was not unconditional like God’s promise to bless Abraham and give his descendants the Promised Land. But it was a covenant, meaning that the relationship between the two parties went much deeper than a contract. God was not simply going to walk away if Israel proved unfaithful.

As you read these laws and think about the agreement the Israelites made, remember that we do not live under this covenant. There are timeless principles here including the demand to keep God first, the importance of respecting life, compassion, honesty, and others.  We relate to God, however, under a new covenant of receiving grace through faith in Christ’s work on the cross. We have our own commands to follow (be holy, pray without ceasing) but the agreement between God and the Israelites is not binding upon us. Both covenants were necessary because of the underlying condemnation of sin which weighs upon every man and threatens to send us to Hell unless remedied. The old covenant of Sinai still teaches us, as Paul said, that we are much in need of grace and cannot find an escape from Hell on our own. One final question: do you consider the new covenant to be conditional or unconditional?

About this blog

During 2020 I plan to post weekly writings covering the material you would read during each week as you proceed from Genesis to Revelation in one year. And so for this week I have covered Numbers 35-Deuteronomy 16. Next week I will write about Deuteronomy 17-Joshua 4. I hope you will continue along with me. You can find daily posts about these chapters archived here on the Bible in a Year blog. For your convenience here are the previous posts covering Numbers 35-Deuteronomy 16.

Running for refuge: Numbers 35

Here be giants: Deuteronomy 1-2

No idle thing: Deuteronomy 4

Give it a rest: Deuteronomy 5

Teach your children well: Deuteronomy 6

The Problem of Prosperity: Deuteronomy 8-9

How does your garden grow? Deuteronomy 11

The Poor, always with us – Deuteronomy 15

Image by Helmuts Guigo on Flickr, CC by-sa 2.0

Beware! Numbers 35 – Deuteronomy 16

You can find a one-year Bible reading plan here.

One warning shows up repeatedly in Deuteronomy. Take heed! Beware! Watch out! Moses warns the people over and over again, not to be on guard for enemies, but to know that they will be tempted to abandon their commitment to God.

Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the LORD thy God hath forbidden thee. Deuteronomy 4:23

Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Deuteronomy 6:12

Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day. Deuteronomy 8:11

Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; Deuteronomy 11:16

The greatest dangers to their commitment would be the prosperity they would experience in the Promised Land and the example of the native people who would tempt them to abandon God. Moses could rightfully make this case for steadfastness because the people pledged their faith to God back at Mt. Sinai. Now they would make that same commitment a second time as Moses gave the law to them a second time.

God and Israel entered into a conditional covenant. It was conditional because there were requirements which the people had to follow. Only then would they receive the benefits or blessings of the agreement. There were also curses which fell upon them if they broke the agreement. The contract was not unconditional like God’s promise to bless Abraham and give his descendants the Promised Land. But it was a covenant, meaning that the relationship between the two parties went much deeper than a contract. God was not simply going to walk away if Israel proved unfaithful.

As you read these laws and think about the agreement the Israelites made, remember that we do not live under this covenant. There are timeless principles here including the demand to keep God first, the importance of respecting life, compassion, honesty, and others.  We relate to God, however, under a new covenant of receiving grace through faith in Christ’s work on the cross. We have our own commands to follow (be holy, pray without ceasing) but the agreement between God and the Israelites is not binding upon us. Both covenants were necessary because of the underlying condemnation of sin which weighs upon every man and threatens to send us to Hell unless remedied. The old covenant of Sinai still teaches us, as Paul said, that we are much in need of grace and cannot find an escape from Hell on our own. One final question: do you consider the new covenant to be conditional or unconditional?

About this blog

During 2020 I plan to post weekly writings covering the material you would read during each week as you proceed from Genesis to Revelation in one year. And so for this week I have covered Numbers 35-Deuteronomy 16. Next week I will write about Deuteronomy 17-Joshua 4. I hope you will continue along with me. You can find daily posts about these chapters archived here on the Bible in a Year blog. For your convenience here are the previous posts covering Numbers 35-Deuteronomy 16.

Running for refuge: Numbers 35

Here be giants: Deuteronomy 1-2

No idle thing: Deuteronomy 4

Give it a rest: Deuteronomy 5

Teach your children well: Deuteronomy 6

The Problem of Prosperity: Deuteronomy 8-9

How does your garden grow? Deuteronomy 11

The Poor, always with us – Deuteronomy 15

Image by Helmuts Guigo on Flickr, CC by-sa 2.0

When the going gets tough… Jeremiah 12

Today’s reading: Jeremiah 10-13.

Jeremiah began to feel the pressure as the security of his country crumbled. The politically minded overlooked him when he was young and unknown, but after decades of criticism his unrelenting message of doom could not be ignored. As the danger drew near, the powerful people blamed him rather than their own spiritual failures. Then Jeremiah gave a particularly sobering message: God was calling in the debt of the Jewish nation. They had not lived up to the agreement which they made as they entered the Promised Land. Now God declared they would be held accountable for their failure.

“Both the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the covenant I made with their forefathers. Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them.'” Jeremiah 11:10-11

God was through listening to his people, and the people were through listening to Jeremiah. The men of his own hometown plotted to kill him. When Jeremiah heard about it he credited God with saving him, but he also complained to the LORD about the prosperity of the wicked. God told Jeremiah to brace for worse things.

“If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?” Jeremiah 12:5

There’s little comfort in God’s question. It’s full of warning rather than sympathy. God said, “Jeremiah, you’ve had a little trouble so far – get ready for bigger enemies. You’ve had sure footing in the past, but now you’ll be fighting in the swamp.” Jeremiah was looking for explanations, but all he got was a question, and a pretty alarming question at that. Warren Wiersbe said that we live on God’s promises rather than his explanations, and fortunately Jeremiah had some promises that he could fall back on.

• God told him that he appointed him for the task before he was born.
• He told Jeremiah that he would be with him and would rescue him.
• He told him that he had made him “a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall” that would stand up against everyone, from the highest king to the common people of the land.

God wasn’t just warning Jeremiah. He was preparing him for bigger conflicts. He wanted to renew the prophet’s strength so that he would be able to tackle those bigger obstacles. Jeremiah’s struggle would be difficult because of the personal attacks he would suffer, because of the lack of response to his message, and because it was his own country that was being destroyed. But Jeremiah would be fighting with God’s strength rather than his own.

Perhaps God has given you a difficult ministry that has sapped your strength. Maybe you’re speaking God’s word but not seeing any response to it. You may even be experiencing criticism or persecution because of your work. God says, I appointed you for this work and I will give you the strength to do it, even if it becomes more difficult. I am with you, and I will rescue you if that becomes necessary. I have made you as strong as iron to withstand the pressure that will come against you. Measure your success by your faithful obedience to perform the work, rather than the reaction of people who may accept or reject my word. Do all this, and you will survive the tough, and even the tougher, times.

“The effect of the questions must have been that of emphasizing the prophet’s sense of his own weakness, and thus driving him to yet completer dependence upon God.” “God never calls us to contend with horsemen, until He has trained us by the lesser strain of contending with footmen.” – Morgan

Image by Stijn Bokhove on Flickr, CC by-nc 2.0

Predicting the future: Deuteronomy 31

Today’s reading: Deuteronomy 30-31.

I don’t know which is more remarkable – that God foresees the falling-away of his people, or that he remains faithful to them in spite of what he knows. Once again I am awed at what these books of the Law teach us about the character of Jehovah, the promise-keeping, the compassionate, the ever-faithful, the future-knowing God.

The LORD then said to Moses: “Soon you will rest with your ancestors, and the people will rise up and act unfaithfully, going after strange gods of the land they are entering. They will abandon me, breaking my covenant that I made with them…  When I bring the Israelites to the land I swore to their ancestors, which is full of milk and honey, and they eat, get full, then fat, and then turn toward other gods, serving them and disrespecting me and breaking my covenant that I made with them…  Yes, I know right now what they are inclined to do, even before I’ve brought them into the land I swore.” Deut. 31:16, 20, 21

The Old Testament is full of predictions, but I’m not sure there is one more clear than this one. No symbolism or metaphors. Plain talk. Moses will die. The people will be unfaithful. They will leave the LORD for other gods. They will not keep the Law. As soon as they become self-sufficient they will forget all about God.

It won’t take long. As soon as Moses’ successor, Joshua, dies, the people fall into that long cycle of abandoning God known as the time of the judges. Samuel, Saul, David, and Solomon bring a reprieve, but then the kingdom splits. The northern kingdom of Israel never has a godly king and the Assyrians carry them into captivity after 300 years. The southern kingdom of Judah lasts another hundred years with only a handful of godly leaders.

Yet God remains faithful. He promised Abraham that his descendants would inherit the land, and Moses sees that happening. He also promised that Abraham would have as many children as stars in the sky, a promise which he renewed with Jacob. But will all the children be rebels?

God said the world would be blessed through Abraham’s children, a promise that remains unfulfilled in Moses’ time. As God started with a man, Jacob, and faithfully stayed with him as his children became a tribe and then a nation, so God will remain faithful to this rebellious nation as they become a kingdom. From that kingdom will come the family of David, and from that family God will raise up a savior who will fulfill the promise to bless the world.

God’s faithfulness paves the way for redemption whether it’s a prodigal son or nation. Perhaps there is someone you know who has tested the limits of your faithfulness. I encourage you to follow God’s example and not abandon them, but continue to remain involved in their life. With God’s help, prodigals can find their way home.

Moses was not only convinced of the death-dealing nature of the old covenant. He also anticipated a life-giving new covenant that would replace the old –– a covenant that would include divine enablement, allowing the world to read the law in human lives. Moses states that after the curse has been paid, “The Lᴏʀᴅ your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lᴏʀᴅ your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live” (Deuteronomy 30:6).

Image by coolinsights on Flickr, CC by 2.0

True to your word: Numbers 30

Today’s reading: Numbers 28-30.

God holds us accountable for keeping our word because he is a promise-keeping God. By learning what he celebrates we learn who he is. His condemnation of one who doesn’t keep a vow tells us something about the importance of honesty and faithfulness, but it tells us more about God’s character.

This is what the LORD commands: When a man makes a vow to the LORD or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said.  Numbers 30:1-2

God wants us to be like him; he made us in his image, after all. We act like God when we are true to our word. It’s important that God be trustworthy for many reasons, but to suggest a few:

• He must be faithful to his word if we are to expect answers to prayer
• He must be reliable if we are to count on him for salvation
• He must be unchanging if we are to know how he wants us to live
• He must prove trustworthy if we are to love him instead of fearing what he may do to harm us

Our truthfulness should begin with God. If you make a promise to God, keep it. Did you say you would attend church regularly? Then go. Did you vow to give back to God financially? Don’t fail to do so. Did you say you would pray more, read the Bible regularly, obey God’s commands? Be faithful.

We should be honest with others because our truthfulness or lack of it reflects back on God – our maker and the one we are supposed to look like. I think Jesus was talking about our honesty with others when he said we should not make oaths at all but just let our yes be yes and our no be no. Matthew Henry said, “The worse men are, the less they are bound by oaths; the better they are, the less there is need for them.” Sometimes we swear to make someone believe we are more trustworthy. Instead, our history of reliability should make these oaths unnecessary.

What causes us to break our promises? I’ll venture that we often do an unconscious calculation that we will reap more benefit in the short-term, and that it is not so likely that God will hold us accountable in the long run. If so, our math is all wrong. God has promised that he will hold us to account, and he will remember the promises we make. Numbers drives home the point that God values truthfulness and will discipline us if we break our word.

How about you? What causes you to keep or break your promises?

When the going gets tough… Jeremiah 12

Today’s reading: Jeremiah 10-13.

Jeremiah began to feel the pressure as the security of his country crumbled. The politically minded overlooked him when he was young and unknown, but after decades his unrelenting message of doom could not be ignored. As the danger drew near, the powerful people blamed him rather than their own spiritual failures. Then Jeremiah gave a particularly sobering message: God was canceling the contract between himself and the Jewish nation. The people had failed to live up to the agreement which they made as they entered the Promised Land. Now God declared it null and void.

“Both the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the covenant I made with their forefathers. Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them.'” Jeremiah 11:10-11

God was through listening to his people, and the people were through listening to Jeremiah. The men of his own hometown plotted to kill him. When Jeremiah heard about it he credited God with saving him, but he also complained to the LORD about the prosperity of the wicked. God told Jeremiah to brace for worse things.

“If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?” Jeremiah 12:5

There’s little comfort in God’s question. It’s full of warning rather than sympathy. God said, “Jeremiah, you’ve had a little trouble so far – get ready for bigger enemies. You’ve had sure footing in the past, but now you’ll be fighting in the swamp.” Jeremiah was looking for explanations, but all he got was a question, and a pretty alarming question at that. Warren Wiersbe said that we live on God’s promises rather than his explanations, and fortunately Jeremiah had some promises that he could fall back on.

• God told him that he appointed him for the task before he was born.
• He told Jeremiah that he would be with him and would rescue him.
• He told him that he had made him “a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall” that would stand up against everyone, from the highest king to the common people of the land.

God wasn’t just warning Jeremiah. He was preparing him for bigger conflicts. He wanted to renew the prophet’s strength so that he would be able to tackle those bigger obstacles. Jeremiah’s struggle would be difficult because of the personal attacks he would suffer, because of the lack of response to his message, and because it was his own country that was being destroyed. But Jeremiah would be fighting with God’s strength rather than his own.

Perhaps God has given you a difficult ministry that has sapped your strength. Maybe you’re speaking God’s word but not seeing any response to it. You may even be experiencing criticism or persecution because of your work. God says, I appointed you for this work and I will give you the strength to do it, even if it becomes more difficult. I am with you, and I will rescue you if that becomes necessary. I have made you as strong as iron to withstand the pressure that will come against you. Measure your success by your faithful obedience to perform the work, rather than the reaction of people who may accept or reject my word. Do all this, and you will survive the tough, and even the tougher, times.

Image by Stijn Bokhove on Flickr, CC by-nc 2.0

Predicting the future: Deuteronomy 31

Today’s reading: Deuteronomy 30-31.

I don’t know which is more remarkable – that God foresees the falling-away of his people, or that he remains faithful to them in spite of what he knows. Once again I am awed at what these books of the Law teach us about the character of Jehovah, the promise-keeping, the compassionate, the ever-faithful, the future-knowing God.

The LORD then said to Moses: “Soon you will rest with your ancestors, and the people will rise up and act unfaithfully, going after strange gods of the land they are entering. They will abandon me, breaking my covenant that I made with them…  When I bring the Israelites to the land I swore to their ancestors, which is full of milk and honey, and they eat, get full, then fat, and then turn toward other gods, serving them and disrespecting me and breaking my covenant that I made with them…  Yes, I know right now what they are inclined to do, even before I’ve brought them into the land I swore.” Deut. 31:16, 20, 21

The Old Testament is full of predictions, but I’m not sure there is one more clear than this one. No symbolism or metaphors. Plain talk. Moses will die. The people will be unfaithful. They will leave the LORD for other gods. They will not keep the Law. As soon as they become self-sufficient they will forget all about God.

It won’t take long. As soon as Moses’ successor, Joshua, dies, the people fall into that long cycle of abandoning God known as the time of the judges. Samuel, Saul, David, and Solomon bring a reprieve, but then the kingdom splits. The northern kingdom of Israel never has a godly king and the Assyrians carry them into captivity after 300 years. The southern kingdom of Judah lasts another hundred years with only a handful of godly leaders.

Yet God remains faithful. He promised Abraham that his descendants would inherit the land, and Moses sees that happening. He also promised that Abraham would have as many children as stars in the sky, a promise which he renewed with Jacob. But will all the children be rebels?

God said the world would be blessed through Abraham’s children, a promise that remains unfulfilled in Moses’ time. As God started with a man, Jacob, and faithfully stayed with him as his children became a tribe and then a nation, so God will remain faithful to this rebellious nation as they become a kingdom. From that kingdom will come the family of David, and from that family God will raise up a savior who will fulfill the promise to bless the world.

God’s faithfulness paves the way for redemption whether it’s a prodigal son or nation. Perhaps there is someone you know who has tested the limits of your faithfulness. I encourage you to follow God’s example and not abandon them, but continue to remain involved in their life. With God’s help, prodigals can find their way home.

Image by coolinsights on Flickr, CC by 2.0