Blogging the Bible

One of the wonderful things that you see in our bible reading is how much care God shows to the poor that reside among the Israelites (Levites, aliens, orphans and widows Deut 26: 12-15) it was so important for God that he requested that when they celebrate their blessings, they must include a ten percent for the Levites and needy of the land.

When was the last time that you shared your blessings?

God calls us to share our blessings but also he calls us to preserve our blessings through our obedience and faithfulness to him. Chapter 27-28 shows us that blessings are the result of our direct relationship with God, and the curses are the result of our rebellion towards Him.

One temptation that we might have is comparing ourselves with other people. We can say why that person is going well but behaving wrong? As people of God we do not need to see others in order to evaluate ourselves, the only thing that we need is to remain faithful to God no matter the circumstances around us.

Asaph was a good man of God who experienced firsthand this situation, he focused too much on others that he became confused and tired, but finally he concluded: “ But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I perceived” ( Psalms 73: 16-17) 

Deuteronomy 28: 1 says: “If you will only obey the Lord your God” you do not need comparison but obedience, the rest is up to God.

Remember when God asked Cain, where is your brother Abel? Cain answered: “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?”(Genesis 4: 9) Well we have to recognize that God is telling the Israelites that they are their Brothers keepers, because in this laws God is clearly telling them “ You shall not watch your neighbor’s  ox or sheep straying away and ignore them” ( Deut 22:1.)

Yes we are our brother’s keepers and because of that we cannot ignore them or their belongings. In these modern times how can we take care of our neighbors?

Can we avoid sharing with them the most important message of God? One thing that is very important for God is that he created us to share our blessings, if not why should he say: “It is not good that the man should be alone” (Genesis 2: 18.)

In our daily lives one of the most famous expressions is “that is not my business” but with God “your neighbor is your business”

God is taking care of every detail in the configuration of Israel as an independent nation. He even is providing rules and commandments for the potential king that the Israelites might request him (Deut 17:14-20) It is very interesting that even the kings should have to be totally related to God and will serve them not “exalting themselves above others members of the community” (17: 20)

Another interesting thing about today’s reading is that in occasion of war the soldiers were encouraged to go and celebrate their personal plans before they go to battle. Especially interesting was that before a soldier fights in the war if he was engaged to get married he must do so and celebrate with his wife (20: 1-8.)

Obviously there are many probabilities that anyone can die in a war, but The Lord was so kind that he also provided laws that could enable the warriors to be part of the happiness of his community. They were soldiers but they were his people too.

 Could you name some areas in your life where you have seen the providential care of God?

The future is very critical for everybody. Many people want to find at least an idea of what the future will look like, but the problem is that no one except God can really help us with that.

There are some people that claim that they can help you with your future, with their skills and powers they promise you that they will show you what you need to know, and when they do that they also are “helping” you to destroy your trust in the God who promised you to guide you into your future. More than knowing our future, we need to know who is in charge of it, and this is the big information that many “future tellers” will not tell you. 

God is forbidding this practice because this kind of thing will never take us to do what is right before him and for our own well-being. He said that after getting involved with that, this practice will drive us away from him. “Let us follow others gods” (Deut 13: 2) they will tell us, and in doing so we will also get lost in our own resources and abilities to deal with our lives and future.

God knew that Israel will have a lot of temptations to imitate the Canaanites life style. That is why he was telling them not to accept anything they practice, and instead of that they should focus themselves in God’s ways and commandments.

We also have a lot of pressure to imitate this world and its practices, but as apostle Paul said to the Church in Rome: “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed” (Romans 12: 20) Being transformed means that before approving any practice or behavior in this modern world, we should ask ourselves, is this approved by God?

Chapter 9 starts by reminding Israel that their blessings are the result of God’s kindness rather than their ability or worthiness. They will not conquer the land by themselves because those nations were “larger and mightier than you” (Deut 9: 1) and they will not conquer those nations because of their righteousness “for you are stubborn people” (Deut 9: 6)

We tend to count our blessings or achievements as the result of our abilities or personal charisma, but God is making it clear that everything we have or might have is because of him and not because of us. He was teaching the Israelites that the best and major blessing that they have or might have was him and their relationship with him.

God was giving them a lot, but what will they give him in return? “Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being” (Deut 10: 12-13) 

He was asking them to obey and love for their own well-being. Wow! He was not asking them that because he needs it, but because they need it. We can see a very merciful and loving God that request from us just to bless us more.

Many of us are expecting blessings, but we have to remember that those blessings are the result of our choice. God told the Israelites, do you want blessings? Take it by obeying me, do you want difficulties? Take it by following your own ideas and plans (Deut 11: 26-32)

Last part of chapter twelve says: “You must diligently observe everything that I command you; do not add to it or take anything from it”

“These are the words” this is the meaning of the Deuteronomy in Hebrew. Yes we are about to hear the words that Moses spoke to the Israelites before they entered into the promise land.

Some people see this book as a repetition of the previous books, but the unique thing about Deuteronomy is that you will feel the paternal heart of God talking to the Israelites through Moses. The Lord is preparing them to have a wonderful life in the promise land, he not only wants that they enter there but remain there.

He said: “You have stayed long enough in this mountain” (Deuteronomy 1:6) in other words your waiting is over, now it’s time to go to a better and higher level of relationship and blessings with your God, But before they did so, they needed to remember that God and not the  promise land was the source of their blessings.

Yesterday I had a wonderful conversation with a very nice man who came to this country as a very committed Christian but who after a while here, he went away from the Lord. He told me, I became so busy in making my new life here that I did not realize that I was losing my relationship with God.

This is exactly what God was preventing the Israelites from. He said to them: “Remember the long way that the lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you will keep his commandments. He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord”( Deuteronomy 8: 2-3)

Deuteronomy was written so we can remember that blessings or necessities are not the reason or the source of our lives, but God alone is the reason and source of our lives. This book tells us that it does not matter how many problems or challenges we have (The long way in the wilderness) or how many blessings we have or will have (The promise land) what really matters is what the Lord has said or will say.

How do you respond to a challenge or a blessing in your life?

In this wild, wild west, of ancient civilization, God was desperately trying to teach them about grace and mercy and justice. Cities of Refuge are his teaching.  And a person could not be found guilty with only one witness. It took two witnesses. Cities of Refuge were provided to offer mercy and grace in an otherwise graceless and merciless culture where vengeance was the practice of the day.  “Double even” was the norm and the Lord teaches them “an eye for an eye” to limit that kind of payback attitude. In a culture of blood vengeance no distinction was made between accidental and intentional killing.  The Lord teaches them the difference. And, the Lord begins to prepare them for the priestly role of the promised Messiah. 35:6 is a phrase often repeated. The one who takes refuge is free to return to his or her land once the high priest dies.  The death of a high priest brings freedom and grace to all who have been stained by sin!

The other most amazing idea found in these stories is that God “dwells with them.” This is why the laws were given to teach them about this Holy and powerful, yet loving and intimate God.  They were not to “pollute” the land because it was where God lived! (35:33).  They must treat each other and all the land as holy because God has created all things for his purposes and in his plan it is all to be separated to God–holy! The way we live together and the way we treat all that God has given us, animate and inanimate, is important because it reflects our attitude toward the God who made it all.

When I watch a person litter… just throw garbage on the ground…I realize this is a person who does not care about the earth.  They do not care about anything but themselves.  It is a simple act, but a defiant act.  An act against the God who created it and said “care for this gift.” When we pollute the land with our physical garbage or our attitude garbage–junk on the ground or junk in our hearts–we are polluting where God lives!  The New Testament says that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. God by his Spirit lives in us. What we do with our hearts and minds we do in the presence of God!  We like Israel need to learn about this Holy God who lives with us so that we can honor him and glorify him and please him in all that we do. And when we try, even if imperfectly, he works with us and blesses us for his name’s sake! 

Our God is certainly a powerful one!  But also very patient.  After all the work he has done to bring the Israelites to the doorstep of the promised land, after all the miracles, judgments, deliverance and power displayed, some of them do not want to go in! They want to stay on this side of the Jordan. What is that about? It seems unbelievable to me that they would do this.  But even more amazing is that God, through Moses, listens to them and works with them, even in their rebellious and obstinate ways.  It is amazing how often God does this.  He has a plan, he reveals that plan, some person has a better idea, and God says, “Okay, I will work with you on this!”  We should not be shocked that judgment came severely, we should be shocked that it did not come more often. This is a HOLY HOLY HOLY God and these people consistently refuse to worship him –they disobey, they do not trust, they rebell–and this Holy God continues to woo them! His love is unquenchable.  Indeed there is no other God like this God!

I am going to back track a little and doing it a day or two late. I was out of internet land for a couple of days with Presbytery business but it gave me more time to reflect on what I was reading before writing about it.

I want to go back to Balaam and his…donkey. Of course, the jokes are myriad about how God can even use a…donkey. Stubborn and stiff-necked as humans are, God resorts to using a mule.  He has used animals before and he will use them again. Jesus said that if men and women do not give honor and glory to  God, the rocks will cry out! (Luke 19:40)

Actually one of the most profound aspects of this story is not that a donkey speaks and reveals to a person what God is doing.  One of the most significant parts of this story is an element that is repeated throughout the Old and New Testament story and is at the heart of God’s plan to reconcile the nations to himself.  Balaam is NOT a Israelite! Balaam is an “outsider” whom God uses to bless his people.  Balaam is not entirely cooperative but God uses him anyway.  Later (ch. 31) Balaam is punished for trying to lure the Israelites into Baal worship.  The message however is repeated with other “outsiders” who fully cooperate and as a result are included in the blessings of God.

 Over and over again in the Old Testament story God draws in and blesses stranger and aliens to Israel.  Over and over again God teaches the nation of Israel that they must treat these “aliens” the same as anyone else.  After all, if God includes them and blesses them and takes up their cause, how can God’s people do otherwise?!

One of the great and persistent problems of believers is that they forget why they have been blessed.  Abraham was blessed to be a blessing.  His place of privilege was not for his own sake only. It was for the sake of others. We so quickly retreat into our safe and holy huddles and begin to exclude outsiders.  They are not like us! They disrupt things! They don’t know how we do things!  But God says this is not to be so. Not only does he have a special place in his heart for the outsider.  He uses them for his purposes, too.  God used Pharaoh.  God used Balaam. God used a donkey!  God’s ways are not man’s ways. This is a constant theme in scripture.  Soon we will see God goes past the first born of Jesse to the runt of the litter and David is made King of Israel.

The question for the people of God is always the same. Who is the “alien” and “stranger” and “outsider” in our time that God wants us to help him bless?

I want to go back a little and review something that keeps coming up over and over again.

I can hardly believe 16:42. In verse 31-35 we read thtat these people have just watched as Korah and his rebellion are literally swallowed up by the earth.  They and all their families are destroyed for grumbling against Moses and Aaron.  Those making an offering on their behalf were also consumed by the fire of their own offering. They all fled at the sight of this judgment.  And yet, “the next day” they came grumbling again! How can this be? Multiple times already it is Moses and Aaron who are pleading with God on behalf of these rebellious people (see 16:22) and yet the people continue to resist Moses and Aaron’s leadership.  The Lord makes it clear that the resistance is to HIS leadership and that is why the judgment is harsh and swift.  They are not opposing Moses and Aaron, they are opposing the living God! They are opposing the God who brought them up out of slavery in Egypt.  They are opposing the God who brought them safely across the Red Sea and swallowed up their enemies in the same. They are opposing the God who fed them daily in the wilderness and gave them water from a rock.  They are opposing the God who shook the mountain and covered it with fire and smoke. This is STRONG opposition!  This is unbelief.  This is not just a circumstantial doubt.  These people do not believe what God has revealed about himself and they do not give him credit for what he has done OR what he is able to do–save them or destroy them!  These people are blind! 

This is what the scripture talks about when Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. When a person does not believe, does not have God’s Spirit in them, they CANNOT see things that are spiritual. They can only see the natural world in front of them.  This is the heart of unbelief. Hebrews says “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  Faith is based on the truth, but it requires us to go beyond our five senses and trust God who senses all things, knows all things, and does all things rightly!

Again, I am convicted of my own waverinng faith. I can see God working in all sorts of ways. I see people’s lives radically changing.  I see God’s provision in the lives of people all around me.  I see the sun rise every morning and set every evening. I feel my own guilt for my sin and and experience the cleansing power of God’s forgiveness in Christ.  But give me a little bump in the road, a word of criticism, a door closed that I wanted open, a way blocked that I wanted to go…. and I am grumbling again, questioning God’s  promises and judgment!

Faith really is a DAILY exercise.  It is not some decision we made at a certain time in life.  It is not a series of belief statements.  Faith is daily living out our trust in the truth of God’s word and the necessity of obeying his instructions.  No matter what each day brings, faith keeps on trusting.  This is the challenge for each of us.  Daily we have the choice to not believe and grumble or to believe and praise God as we wait and watch for his continued work in our lives.