Today, I am reading and commenting on Deuteronomy 3-4.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

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After Moses had completed recounting the events which had happened since the people of Israel left Egypt he began to repeat the commands which God had given them.  Those to whom he was speaking needed this repetition because they had been too young to fully understand what was going on when these things happened (if they had even been born).  Even though we are not today under the Law which God gave to the people Israel, that Law, and the things Moses told them along with repeating it, tell us things about God, and how we can please Him.  Moses began by telling them that God would be near to them whenever they called upon Him.  This is true for all people, God will draw near to everyone who has become part of His people and calls upon Him.  But, once we have become part of God’s people we must take care and diligently keep our souls, or we may forget what we have seen with our own eyes that God has done and our hearts will stop honoring Him.

One part of diligently keeping our souls is making known to those who come after us what we have seen God do, and what those who went before us saw God do.  In order to keep our souls right with God we must tell again and again what we know that God has done.  When Jesus told His disciples, and through them us, to go into all of the world and make disciples, teaching them what He had taught them (and taught us), that was not just to bring more people to Him.  We are to make disciples and teach them what Jesus taught us so that WE may remind ourselves what He has taught us to do and continue in doing it.  I write this blog, and have begun recording videos of it, in order that I may become more faithful in following Jesus’ teachings and remain faithful to those I already follow.  I pray that the Holy Spirit may bless those who read it, or who watch the video, but it serves to convict me to do better at obeying God.

Later in the passage, Moses warns the people that they may act corruptly and fail to diligently keep their souls faithful to God, that indeed they likely will do so.  However, he also tells them (and us) that if they do so and find themselves far from God, if they (and us) seek God with all of their (our) heart and all of their (our) soul, They (we) will find Him.  God is merciful and He will not leave us, nor forsake us.  I do not know your life experience, but one of two things is true.  God has either shown you that He is God and that there is no other God, or, if you are willing, He will show you that.  If God has spoken to you, do not allow yourself to forget His words.  If you have not yet heard God speak to you, I pray that you will open your heart and ask Him to do so.  If you ask Him and listen for His voice, He will speak to you.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Deuteronomy 1-2.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

Also, here is the link for my Patreon page

After the defeat of Sihon and Og, Moses gathered the people of Israel and began reviewing how they had gotten to where they were at that time and the laws which God had given them.  He begins by reviewing God’s promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that He intended to fulfill in them.  Next, Moses reviewed his appointment of leaders and judges over the people and his instructions to those judges.  Actually, I want to take a look at what Moses told them wee the qualifications for a leader among them.  He told them that leaders should be “wise, understanding, and experienced men.”  Those three qualifications are important and we would do well to keep them in mind as we consider appointing leaders for ourselves today.  As I read that I realized something.  We often think of wisdom and understanding as synonyms.  Yet, the Bible often uses both together, along with other qualities, to describe characteristics that should be desired.  But, if they are synonyms, why use both?  The answer being that they are closely related, but not describing the same characteristic.  Wise means knowing long-term consequences of an action may be qualitatively different from the short-term consequences.  I believe that understanding is used in these passages to refer to something close to empathy.  Understanding means understanding how people will feel about a particular action, both in the short-term and in the long-term.  These two, wisdom and understanding, because they each bring a piece of the puzzle if we want to choose the best course of action.  I actually started writing about the leaders whom Moses appointed with the intention of commenting only on his instructions to them, which he reminded the people of Israel before him at the time of this passage, none of whom had been old enough to understand at the time Moses first appointed those leaders and judges.  Most importantly, Moses instructed them to be impartial in the cases brought before them, giving no preference to their kinsman (as all of the people of Israel) or to the outsider, no preference to the powerful and prestigious nor to the poor, weak, and outcast.  They were not to allow anyone to intimidate them because God stood behind their judgement if they chose righteously.

When I started writing, I intended for that previous portion to be just a short introduction to my thoughts on this passage, with this next part being the “meat” of my entry for today.  I noticed that when Moses spoke about the refusal of the Israelites to enter the land after the report from the spies he speaks as if those in front of him were the ones who refused, despite that entire generation having died in the intervening years.  This warns us to never say to ourselves, “Well, I would never have done what they did.”  If we do not commit the sins, do not repeat the mistakes, of those who went before us it is only due to the grace of God allowing us to learn from what they got wrong.  Which brings us to the lesson we should strive to learn from their failure.  Moses had reminded the people that God had promised to go before them into the land, just as they had repeatedly seen Him do from when the Exodus began in Egypt all through their wilderness experience.  So, the lesson: God does not ask us to trust us before He has demonstrated His power to us, but once He has done so He expects us to trust that experience.  God came to the Israelites when they were desperate and without any power to better their situation, slaves in Egypt.  He used His mighty power to bring them out of Egypt and then demonstrated His ability to care for them again and again in the wilderness.  Let us not refuse to follow God’s commands, but rather trust Him to go before us and overcome any obstacles.  This illustrates the need for following leaders with wisdom, understanding, and experience.  The wisdom to discern God’s will.  The understanding to acknowledge and address the fears that people have.  The experience to know that God will go before us to overcome obstacles.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Deuteronomy 32-34.

As Moses prepared to turn over leadership of the Israelites to Joshua he gave to them a song for their descendants to remember his warnings to them, a song which would remind them of why they suffered after turning away from God.  The song speaks of those who have turned away from God and refused to follow His instructions.  The song describes those who turned from God despite the many ways in which He had blessed them.  They made God jealous by giving their worship to that which was not even a god (note the lower case), let alone the Creator who had made them and been their Father.  So, He would make them jealous by turning His favor to those who had not been a people.  God made those who put their trust in Jesus His people in order to make the descendants of Jacob jealous so that they would turn back to Him.  God has made Himself our Rock that we can rely upon in the storm-tossed sea of life.  If we turn from Him, He will cast us away as He cast away the descendants of Jacob when they turned from Him, but if we turn back to Him, He will welcome us into His arms, just as He longs to welcome all of the descendants of Jacob.

I will make them envious by those who are not a people;
    I will make them angry by a nation that has no understanding.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Deuteronomy 29-31.

Having told the Israelites the blessings for obedience and the curses for disobedience, Moses warns them that there will be people who will turn aside from following God; people who think that they can disobey God and remain safe.  There will be, there are, people who, despite knowing God and His laws, believe that they can be safe even if they do not follow His laws.  God will single them out from those who obey Him and they will bring suffering on only themselves.  However, if their numbers increase the whole land will suffer, and it will be those who are obedient who are singled out.  In this latter case, they will be singled out for blessing.  When those who disobey God become numerous and the land becomes barren, if they turn back to God, He will welcome them back and restore the land.

Moses finishes up this portion about blessings and curses by telling the Israelites, and us, that God’s commands are not too difficult for us, nor are they beyond our grasp.  We do not need to ascend into heaven to learn what God commands, nor do we need to cross over the seas, or mountains, to retrieve them.  God has put them in our hearts and in our mouths.  If we wish to follow God’s commands, we need not fear that we do not know what to do, God will make them known to us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Deuteronomy 27-28.

Moses told the Israelites that if they obeyed God they would be blessed, if they did not obey God they would be cursed.  The blessings, or curse, would come upon them in the city and in the country.  They would happen when they came in and when they went out.  If we obey God and act as He desires, the land we live in will be verdant and bountiful.  On the other hand if we disobey Him and act counter to His desires, the land we live in will suffer drought and blight.  Obeying God leads to good health and to prosperity, disobeying God leads to poverty and disease.  The ideas of these blessings and curses as laid out here apply to groups of people, not so much to individuals.  Although the principle applies to individuals as well.  Individuals who seek to follow God’s will, will be blessed.  Those who refuse to do God’s will, will be cursed.  While this sounds like God judging people, which He does, it is actually about natural consequences.  Actions have consequences.  The actions which God commands have positive outcomes, actions which violate God’s commands have negative outcomes. God gives us the commands which He gives us because doing the good things He commands have positive consequence while doing the things He commands us not to do have negative consequences.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Deuteronomy 24-26.

This passage contains a number of commands about not taking advantage of the poor or of those who are social outcasts.  Other commands require leaving opportunities for them to care for their needs by putting out effort.  The commands included some which prohibited following up your initial harvest pas to make sure you got every grain, or every fruit when you harvested your crops.  God commanded that we leave hard to gather portions of our “crops” for those struggling to provide for themselves to gather.  Another command forbade taking a person’s means of livelihood as security for a loan.  We should remember that if not for the grace of God we might find ourselves among the unfortunate and leave them opportunities to care for themselves.  Further, God commanded that they set aside a tenth of our productivity to celebrate our worship of God.  Most of that should be used for our own celebration, but a third should be set aside to be shared among those who minister to our spiritual needs and those who do not have enough to fund celebrations of their own.  We should leave openings and opportunities for the less fortunate to provide for their needs, but we should also help them directly.  God has made us His people, so let us obey His commands and care for those around us as He has cared for us.  I want to point out that all of these commands are directed to the people of Israel, not to its government.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Deuteronomy 21-23.

There is a saying which I heard from others when I grew up, “Finders keepers, losers weepers,” which many took as the rule to follow regarding things which were lost and later found by someone else.  For those who never heard it, its meaning was that if you found something which someone had lost, you could keep it, even if you knew who had lost it.  A more generous understanding was that if you found something and had no idea who had lost it, you could keep it.  Today’s passage disagrees with both of those understandings.  It says, if you find something that you know someone lost and you know who it belongs to, return it to them.  If you do not know who lost it, or the person lives far away, take it home and take care of it until they come looking for it, then give it back to them.  This rule applies to stray animals, cloaks, or any other item of value.   The following rule is related.  It tells us that if we see that someone’s beast of burden fallen, we should help them get it to its feet.  Here is the thing both of these have in common: if we see our neighbor struggling (and Jesus makes it clear that everyone we may interact with is our neighbor), we should not ignore their struggle.  We should do what we can to help.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Deuteronomy 18-20.

I know I wrote abut this last year when I covered this passage, but it still seems like the most important point to be made.  Moses tells the Israelites that they must not imitate the detestable practices of the people who lived in the land that God was giving them.  He tells them that they must not sacrifice their children, they must not practice divination, or sorcery, they must not consult the dead.  I find it telling that killing your children as a sacrifice to your god is lumped in with divination and practicing witchcraft as equally detestable things.  God was driving the people out of the land in order to give it to the Israelites because they did these detestable practices.  All of these things are detestable to God.  He will drive from His presence anyone who practices them, just as He drove these people out of the land which He gave to the Israelites.  Moses goes on to tell the Israelites that God would raise up prophets to give them guidance, so that they need not turn to divination to know what to do.  We should pay careful attention to what those prophets say, but those who claim to speak in God’s name when He has not spoken to them are just as detestable as those who practice the previously mentioned acts.  If someone claims to be a prophet of God, and what they say does not come true, they have spoken presumptuously.  We can safely disregard what they say.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Deuteronomy 14-17.

I was debating what to write about on today’s passage.  It starts out talking about clean and unclean foods, then gets into the regulations for tithes.  Then in the middle of talking about canceling debts every seven years I came across this sentence, “However, there need be no poor people among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you,  if only you fully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today.”  If we fully obey God He will bless us and the land we live in so that no one need be poor in the land.  Nevertheless, Moses gave instructions about how they should, how we should, treat the poor.  He told us to be openhanded and lend freely to them whatever they need. Further, Moses instructs us to give generously to the poor and to do so ungrudgingly.  Also in this passage Moses gives instructions concerning how the king should behave.  Interestingly, nowhere in his instructions for the king, instructions for the government, does he say anything about the poor.  Moses gives instructions to the people about how they should treat the poor, but does not give the king any instructions about what the government should do for the poor.  We should care for the poor, we should lend them resources without concern about whether they can pay us back before the seven years are up when all debt is cancelled.  We should not attempt to fob off on the government our responsibility to help the poor.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Deuteronomy 11-13.

I am not sure if I will be able to find the words to properly express the idea I find in today’s passage, but I’m going to try.  As I read today’s passage I was struck that God wants us to take care of our environment, but not the ways which most people approach doing so are counterproductive.  These words from Deuteronomy 11:13-15 really struck me on that: “So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul— then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil. I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.”  Our care for the environment follows from doing what God commands, not from devotion to nature.  Moses makes sure the Israelites understand this because he follows that up by saying that they need to be careful to not be enticed away to follow other gods.  The people of the land they were entering worshipped gods whose worship they claimed was vital to preserving the environment in which they lived, but, through Moses, God warns us that their tactics will fail.  If we begin worshiping the gods of this world, the land will stop producing crops and become a dried out desert.  If we look at some places in this country we can see examples of this.  There are places which had been productive and beautiful, but the people living in those areas gave power to those who worshiped the gods of nature.  Those people began enforcing laws to “protect nature” and the lands became dry and/or uninhabitable.  I thought of giving specific examples of this, but instead I want to focus on the lesson.  If we worship God and follow His commands, the lands we live in will provide us with abundant resources to live, prosper, and serve Him.  If we worship other gods, even the “gods of nature”, and attempt to serve them, the lands we live in will become places where nothing will prosper.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.