Category: Deuteronomy

Take a moment to read Deuteronomy 5 before reading the devotional below.

When I was a teenager, I worked for my grandfather installing hardwood floors.  During one really frustrating job, we had to rip up all the floors in a house, and then replace them.  We dragged all the old wood out the back door and threw it in the the back yard. Several hours later I needed to go into the backyard, so I climbed across the pile of wooden boards.  I was at the top of the pile when I tripped forward, and all my weight landed on a nail. I didn’t walk right for weeks. I also learned to never play with boards that have nails in them.  

The ten commandments can easily distract from the important point that Deuteronomy 5 is making.  It is not primarily a point about morality; it is a point about God. God revealed himself to the Israelites, allowing the entire nation to see and experience his power and might.  The experience was both breath-taking and terrifying, and the Israelites developed more than a healthy respect for God.  They developed a healthy fear of God.  Fear is not bad. As a teenager, I learned to fear nails.  I also learned to appreciate nails when i used them to install a brand-new floor. As a young nation, Israel learned to fear God. They experienced his goodness, power and holiness, and they knew that they had to humble themselves before him.

American culture sometimes seems to tell us that we should avoid experiences of darker emotions such as sadness, guilt or fear.  Total avoidance of these experiences is not healthy, however. Fear is a recognition of uncontrollable power. It is a recognition that we must surrender to or be harmed by the rules set by that power.  I cannot expect a nail to be soft. Instead, I need to learn to be careful around nails. That’s a healthy fear that has saved me from harm. I cannot expect God to change his nature either. Instead, I need to learn to follow his rules.  That, too, is a healthy fear that can certainly save me from harm.

Take a moment to read Deuteronomy 6 before reading the devotional below.

We were on our way to North Carolina on vacation, and we came to a place where we had to make a choice about which way to go.  One choice led us to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. The other led us a bit more quickly along a regular highway. “So, do you want to see a really long bridge interrupted by really long tunnels?” I asked my wife.  Apparently she did. We drove down the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, and we even stopped in the little gift shop in the middle of it. Several weeks ago when I was moving some books around, I actually found the $3 guidebook that I bought all those years ago.  I’m pretty sure I’ll read it eventually, but either way, I don’t regret my choice. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel was the first stop on one of my favorite vacations I’ve ever been on.

Moses continues his second speech in Deuteronomy by addressing the issue of choices.  The Israelites are about to enter a wonderful land that God is providing for them.  When they get situated, and life gets easy, will they still follow the leadership of God?  Or will they get distracted or over-confident? Moses main point is very practical. If the Israelites want to stay faithful to God, they need to build reminders into their lives.  They need to remind themselves of who God is and what he’s done for them. Moses tells them to make a habit of repeating God’s rules, and to inscribe them on their jewelry (“tie them to your hands”), and to hang them up as decorations (“write them on the doorposts of your house”).  Most importantly, God tells them to build it into their family culture. All parents tell stories because all kids love stories. Israelite parents were expected to tell stories that explain why God is the hero and the king.

Hang verses on your walls. Get a t-shirt with a quote from the Bible on it. Get a tattoo if you’re feeling especially bold. Most importantly, though, build it into your conversational habits.  Never stop telling the stories of who God is and what he’s done in your life. Tell them to your children. Tell them to your friends. Tell them to your neighbors and to strangers on the bus. Those stories are a vital way that you and those you love will remember the most important truths in the entire world.  

Take a moment to read Deuteronomy 7 before reading the devotional below.

My first week in high school was overwhelming.  I went from a small school where my eighth grade class had nineteen students to a freshman class that had two hundred and seven students.  I walked into homeroom and saw students who were richer than me, more athletic than me, and smarter than me. I spent the entire year trying to find a place to fit in at a school where I constantly felt like an outsider.  I found myself slowly changing the way I talked, the jokes I made, what I read and what I listened to in order to find a way to fit in.

In Deuteronomy 7, Moses introduces the idea of holiness.  Holiness is the opposite of trying to fit in. It literally means “being set apart.”  God shows the nation of Israel exactly how extreem they need to be in NOT fitting in. He reminds them that the nations they will be displacing are under God’s judgement.  They have spent centuries practicing every kind of evil. So God is going to use Israel to bring justice by putting those nations to death. But there is a second reason those nations must be removed.  If Israel allows them to remain, Israel will eventually give into the temptation to try and “fit in.” In this case, however trying to fit in will eventually lead to abandoning God’s kingship over their nation.  The loss of God as king will in turn lead to a loss of the blessings that come with God’s leadership.

Sometimes that means removing people from your life. Sometimes it means changing jobs or apartments or neighborhoods.  Sometimes it means changing cities or even states. I’ve known several people who had to move hundreds of miles in order to begin a new life of following Jesus.  There is incredible joy in feeling released to do whatever it takes to live in freedom. Today, that release has been offered to you. What will you do with it?

Take a moment to read Deuteronomy 8 before reading the devotional below.

“I’m not going to forget!” I practically shouted at my mom.  I was a teenager, and my mom was trying to hand me a note to remind me to stop and pick up milk on the way home from school.  The very sight of the note, however, was an insult to me. Of course I’d remember! We were literally talking about the milk for, like, ten minutes.  So, in a huff, I walked out of the house without the note. I drove to school, and went to class. Later that day, when I got home, my mom asked a reasonable question: “Where’s the milk?”  In a haze of embarrassment I turned around, stomped out of the house, drove to the store, and bought milk. I should have taken the note.

In these verses, God is telling his people not to forget.  As Moses delivers this speech, the people of God have been in the desert depending on God alone for food, water, shelter and direction.  They are preparing for a challenge that is God-sized. If they don’t depend on God, they know they’ll fail. But God himself is looking further into the future.  He is looking to the time when life gets easier, when the spiritual challenges aren’t as pressing. When the greatest spiritual danger is subtle compromise. God’s message is simple: do whatever you have to do now to make sure you don’t forget then.  Don’t forget that God is king. Don’t forget that obedience brings the greatest blessing.

It’s the easy times that are sometimes the most spiritually challenging.  The easy times invite compromise. The easy times invite letting the guard down. The easy times are the times we are the most likely to forget about God, his promises, his direction, and his blessings.  So we need to ask ourselves the same question today that the Israelites needed to ask then: what am I doing today to make sure I don’t forget about God in the future?

Take a moment to read Deuteronomy 9 before reading the devotional below.

When I was a teenager, I agreed to cut my neighbor’s lawn every other week for $20.  Most of the lawn was easy to mow, and I did it. One section, however, was on a hill, and it was very difficult to mow properly.  During that first summer, there were several times I didn’t mow the hill even though I had agreed to. One day when I went to get paid, my neighbor brought me outside and showed me the unmowed hill.  “That’s not done right,” he said. I tried to give him the money back, but he refused to take it. I knew I hadn’t earned it, but he still gave it to me.

As Moses continues to teach the Israelites, God is communicating a similar message.  Most of the chapter is about the failure of the Israelites and the anger of God, but don’t miss the setup.  The point of the chapter is not that God gets angry at sinners. The point is that God didn’t pick the Israelites because they were good – because they weren’t.  Moses tells all the stories about Israel’s failures to reinforce this point: they didn’t deserve God’s love.  Before the Israelites go into their promised land, God wants this truth firmly implanted in their minds.  It will bring them a humility that wars against entitlement; a gratitude that undermines selfishness and self-dependence.

As one of my favorite teachers always says, “You can’t get any better until you realized that God loves you even if you never get any better.” Just like the Israelites, God didn’t invite you into a relationship with Him because you were somehow uniquely qualified.  He invited you because he made a choice to love you. That means you can’t possibly do anything to lose his love. You can’t do anything to jeopardize his love. The love of God is the surest, solidest most trustworthy thing in all the world.