December 11, 2009 (Deuteronomy 5-8)

Moses continues to remind the people that it is God who has blessed them, and that He is a jealous God. He tells them to commit themselves wholeheartedly to His commands. He tells them to repeat them again and again to their children.

^{Deuteronomy 6:4} “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. ⁵ And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. ⁶ And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. ⁷ Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. ⁸ Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. ⁹ Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

We are to be consumed with Him. To remind our kids of who He is to us...of His great miracles He has performed in our lives....to make Him real to our kids.

Again, he tells them they must separate themselves from the people in the land. It's pretty brutal, but He tells them when they enter the land they must completely destroy them. He specifically says to not intermarry with them and to not let their sons and daughters marry their sons and daughters, because if they do, they will be led away to worship other gods.

^{Deuteronomy 7:2} When the Lord your God hands these nations over to you and you conquer them, you must completely destroy them. Make no treaties with them and show them no mercy. ³ You must not intermarry with them. Do not let your daughters and sons marry their sons and daughters, ⁴ for they will lead your children away from me to worship other gods.

What about us? What about America? This country was founded by Godly men who took God at His word and sought His blessings. America opened it's doors to those longing for freedom. But somewhere along the way we have strayed from our founding father's original intent.

I know God's promises were to the Israelites, His chosen people, but Christ opened the door for all to experience His blessings.

^{Ephesians 3:12}In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.

^{Philippians 3:8}What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. ¹⁰I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

So again, God's dealings with His people in the old testament were to give us examples in His dealings with people today.

^{Deuteronomy 8:2} Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands. ³ Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. ⁴ For all these forty years your clothes didn’t wear out, and your feet didn’t blister or swell. ⁵ Think about it: Just as a parent disciplines a child, the Lord your God disciplines you for your own good. ⁶ “So obey the commands of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and fearing him. ⁷ For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land...... ¹⁰ When you have eaten your fill, be sure to praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.

¹¹ “But that is the time to be careful! Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the Lord your God and disobey his commands, regulations, and decrees that I am giving you today. ¹² For when you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in, ¹³ and when your flocks and herds have become very large and your silver and gold have multiplied along with everything else, be careful! ¹⁴ Do not become proud at that time and forget the Lord your God, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt. ¹⁵ Do not forget that he led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its poisonous snakes and scorpions, where it was so hot and dry. He gave you water from the rock! ¹⁶ He fed you with manna in the wilderness, a food unknown to your ancestors. He did this to humble you and test you for your own good. ¹⁷ He did all this so you would never say to yourself, ‘I have achieved this wealth with my own strength and energy.’ ¹⁸ Remember the Lord your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful, in order to fulfill the covenant he confirmed to your ancestors with an oath.

I feel like this is what we have done as a nation - to forget that it was because of God that America experienced her rich blessings. We, as a nation, have turned our back on Him and I feel are suffering the ramifications of that. But to personalize this, may we as a family, never forget that God is the One who has blessed us and may we always seek to honor Him with our lives.

On another note, I guess as part of what I read and commented on earlier (teach these commands to your children), I have been asking Cooper to read these. One of his suggestions to me was to make them shorter. He "skimmed" the Bible sections. But it's God's words, not mine, that change lives. So I hope you are not "skimming" the Bible sections. I set an online timer as I reread this. It took me 3 minutes and 54 seconds. I hope that's not asking too much. I'm doing this blog so that I will have a written journal of what God showed me, but also for those that may not pick up a Bible to be exposed to His teachings. May He change your life, as He is changing mine.