Devotions

not like Egypt

Posted on January 13, 2020 by Jefferson Vann

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not like Egypt

Deuteronomy 11:8-12

Deuteronomy 11:8 “Watch every command I am commanding you today, so that you may be strong enough to cross into and take possession of the land you are to take possession of,

Deuteronomy 11:9 and so that you may live long in the land Yahveh swore to your fathers to give them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Deuteronomy 11:10 You see, the land you are entering to take possession of is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated by hand as in a vegetable garden.

Deuteronomy 11:11 But the land you are entering to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys, which gets water by rain from the sky.

Deuteronomy 11:12 It is a land Yahveh your God cares for. He is always watching over it from the first to the last of the year.

not like Egypt

Moses warned the Israelites that they could not expect things to happen like they did in Egypt. When they were there, they had to water the crops they planted by carrying water from the river. But the land they are going to live in will be too vast for that method. It will depend on rain from the sky.

Fortunately, the sky God will be always watching over that land, because he cares for it. He will keep raining on that land, causing it to flow with milk and honey. The nations would see God at work among the Israelites and long for a god like that. God is going to bless us as well — for the same reason.

Lord, transform us, by renewing our minds, so that we can demonstrate the goodness of Christ to a world who needs him.

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informative informal education

Posted on January 12, 2020 by Jefferson Vann

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informative informal education

Deuteronomy 11:2 Understand today that it is not your children who experienced or saw the discipline of Yahveh your God: His greatness, strong hand, and outstretched arm;

Deuteronomy 11:3 his signs and the works he did in Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and all his land;

Deuteronomy 11:4 what he did to Egypt’s army, its horses and chariots, when he made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued you, and Yahveh destroyed them completely;

Deuteronomy 11:5 what he did to you in the open country until you reached this place;

Deuteronomy 11:6 and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when in the middle of the whole Israelite camp the land opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing with them.

Deuteronomy 11:7 Your own eyes have seen every great work Yahveh has done.

informative informal education

A few moments ago, I was thinking about all the educational experiences I had that did not result in degrees, so did not end up on my resume. While I was in the army, I took a correspondence course at seminary, got trained on computers, and took advanced individual training in logistics. Recently I took several training sessions on sales and safety, and was certified on the forklift.

What struck me as I read this passage this morning is that Moses warns the Israelites that their children will not have the benefit of all their informal education. Only they will have seen God’s power deliver them from slavery in Egypt. Only they will have walked through the middle of the Red Sea. Only they will have experienced the ground swallowing up the rebellious ones.

We have a responsibility to the next generation to pass on the things we have learned, especially those things that we didn’t learn in a classroom.

Lord, thank you for all the ways you teach us.

Posted in discipleship, future, witness | Tagged Deuteronomy 11 | 1 Comment

throats like the stars

Posted on January 11, 2020 by Jefferson Vann

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throats like the stars

Deuteronomy 10:20-11:1

Deuteronomy 10:20 You are to fear Yahveh your God and worship him. Remain faithful to him and take oaths in his name.

Deuteronomy 10:21 He is your praise and he is your God, who has done for you these great and awe-inspiring works your eyes have seen.

Deuteronomy 10:22 Your fathers went down to Egypt, seventy throats in all, and now Yahveh your God has placed you here – numerous, like the stars of the sky.

Deuteronomy 11:1 “Therefore, care about Yahveh your God and always watch his mandate and his prescriptions, rules, and commands.

throats like the stars

When I meet people and tell them that my wife and I have seven grandchildren, most are amazed that we have that many, and look so young. I tell them that the families that make up our family are a blessing from our Lord.

In today’s passage, Moses encourages the Israelites to consider their great number in the same light. They started out as seventy throats. Now their number is like the stars if you could count them.

Any time that we are blessed by God in any way, we should consider the blessing a challenge to live up to his standards, not a guarantee that we are already doing so. It is in God’s nature to empower his children, but it is unfortunate that often we who are more empowered tend to view that empowerment as endorsing our behavior. In fact, our loving God tends to bless first, then sit back and see if we can respond in obedience due to appreciation.

Lord, thank you for the blessings you have given us. May we be wise enough to recognize those blessings as a challenge to obey Christ.

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the Yahveh difference

Posted on January 10, 2020 by Jefferson Vann

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the Yahveh difference

Deuteronomy 10:17 You see, Yahveh your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awe-inspiring God, showing no partiality and taking no bribe.

Deuteronomy 10:18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and cares about the guest, giving him food and clothing.

Deuteronomy 10:19 You are also to care about the guest, since you were guests in the land of Egypt.

the Yahveh difference

Note carefully the distinction between Yahveh and the other gods that the Israelites were called to abandon and avoid. God cannot be bribed into showing partiality— even to an Israelite. He cannot be manipulated by formal worship and ritual. He has no need for anything from the rich. He cares equally for all— including the marginalized— the orphans and widows and foreign refugees.

The Israelites were challenged to have the same attitude toward the needy among them. Instead of using God to better themselves, they were to imitate God’s impartial love toward those around them. Instead of taking advantage of their new status to dominate the foreigners among them, they were to treat them better than they had been treated in Egypt.

Christian, have you been using your religion as a tool to advance yourself? Do you pray only to meet your needs, and give only to those who can return your generosity? That is idolatry.

Lord, bend our wills to your purpose. Help us to imitate your impartial love, and show others the difference between you and false gods.

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unmatched hearts

Posted on January 9, 2020 by Jefferson Vann

yellow pink orange and white loves heart candies

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unmatched hearts

Deuteronomy 10:13 Watch Yahveh’s commands and prescriptions I am giving you today, for your own good.

Deuteronomy 10:14 Notice the skies, indeed the highest sky, belong to Yahveh your God, as does the land and everything in it.

Deuteronomy 10:15 Yet Yahveh had his heart set on your fathers and cared about them. He chose their descendants after them– he chose you out of all the peoples, as it is today.

Deuteronomy 10:16 Therefore, circumcise your hearts and don’t be stiff-necked any longer.

unmatched hearts

God’s heart was set on the Israelites, but they had uncircumcised hearts. The condition had a side effect on their necks as well. They stubbornly refused to return God’s affection and devotion.

We all know the emotional pain and stress that unmatched hearts can produce. What we need to come to grips with is that God has already declared his care for us by sending his only Son to die a sacrificial death on our behalf. Will we match our hearts with his?

Lord, we acknowledge your care for us. Help us to bend our stubborn hearts to match your passion.

Posted in relationship with God | Tagged Deuteronomy 10 | 1 Comment

continue your journey

Posted on January 8, 2020 by Jefferson Vann

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continue your journey

Deuteronomy 10:10-12

Deuteronomy 10:10 “I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights like the first time. Yahveh also listened to me on this occasion; he agreed not to annihilate you.

Deuteronomy 10:11 Then Yahveh said to me, ‘Get up. Continue your journey ahead of the people, so that they may enter and take possession of the land I swore to give their fathers.’

Deuteronomy 10:12 “And now, Israel, what does Yahveh your God ask of you except to fear Yahveh your God by walking in all his ways, to care about him, and to worship Yahveh your God with all your heart and all your throat?

continue your journey

Moses’ first forty day fast was when he received the ten covenant words. His second was to find out if everything was for nothing. Was God going to annihilate the Israelites?

The result of this second fast was standing orders: directions for both Moses and the people. Moses was to continue his journey. God would forgive even the rebellion at Sinai.

As for the people, their standing orders were these: fear God by staying obedient to him, care about him and worship him with all their heart (no other gods) and with all their throat (enthusiastically, as if their breathing depended on it)!

Lord, if we have this day to continue our journey, may we do so under the same standing orders.

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to preserve and protect

Posted on January 7, 2020 by Jefferson Vann

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to preserve and protect

Deuteronomy 10:6 The Israelites traveled from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah. Aaron died and was buried there, and Eleazar his son became priest in his place.
Deuteronomy 10:7 They traveled from there to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with streams of water.
Deuteronomy 10:8 “At that time Yahveh separated the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of Yahveh ‘s covenant, to stand before Yahveh to assist him, and to pronounce empowerments in his name, as it is today.
Deuteronomy 10:9 For this reason, Levi does not have a portion or inheritance like his brothers; Yahveh is his inheritance, as Yahveh your God told him.

to preserve and protect

This passage provides a summary of of the functions of the Levites. They were responsible to preserve the covenant documents, to assist with the tabernacle worship, and to pronounce empowerments as representing God. They were not descendants of Aaron, but assisted the Aaronic priests. The entire tribe would not be allocated its own section of land, but would be interspersed among the other tribes. Many Levites became scribes. They took it upon themselves to preserve and protect the word of God among the people of God.

Lord, thank you for those who dedicate their lives to protection and dissemination of your word.

Posted in ministry, scriptures | Tagged Deuteronomy 10 | 1 Comment

reverence for his revelation

Posted on January 6, 2020 by Jefferson Vann

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reverence for his revelation

Deuteronomy 10:1-5

Deuteronomy 10:1 “Yahveh said to me at that time, ‘Cut two stone tablets like the first ones and come to me on the mountain and make a wooden ark.
Deuteronomy 10:2 I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets you broke, and you are to place them in the ark.’
Deuteronomy 10:3 So I made an ark of acacia wood, cut two stone tablets like the first ones, and climbed the mountain with the two tablets in my hand.
Deuteronomy 10:4 Then on the day of the collected assembly, Yahveh wrote on the tablets what had been written previously, the Ten Words that he had spoken to you on the mountain from the fire. Yahveh gave them to me,
Deuteronomy 10:5 and I went back down the mountain and placed the tablets in the ark I had made. And they have remained there, as Yahveh commanded.

reverence for his revelation

God in his grace chose not to destroy Israel, so Moses goes to the mountain once more for a fresh set of covenant words.

Two new elements stand out in the story. First, God prescribes the building of a container for the tablets: the ark of the covenant. Wherever the people go, this covenant was to go with them.

Secondly, while Moses is retrieving the covenant words, the collected assembly waits at the base of the mountain. The people are to go nowhere without the covenant words.

Christian, you are in covenant with your Lord Jesus Christ? Discover the stipulations and commands associated with that covenant, and go nowhere without those commands written on the tablet of your heart.

Lord of the new covenant, prepare us for our journey by giving us a reverence for your revelation.

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focused praying

Posted on January 5, 2020 by Jefferson Vann

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focused praying

Deuteronomy 9:25 “I fell down in the presence of Yahveh forty days and forty nights because Yahveh had threatened to exterminate you.
Deuteronomy 9:26 I prayed to Yahveh: Lord Yahveh, do not annihilate your people, your inheritance, whom you redeemed through your greatness and brought out of Egypt with a strong hand.
Deuteronomy 9:27 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Ignore this people’s stubbornness, and their wickedness and mistakes.
Deuteronomy 9:28 Or else, those in the land you brought us from will say, ‘Because Yahveh wasn’t able to bring them into the land he had promised them, and because he hated them, he brought them out to kill them in the open country.’
Deuteronomy 9:29 But they are your people, your inheritance, whom you brought out by your great power and outstretched arm.

focused praying

Twice in his prayer recorded in this text, Moses reminds God that the Israelites are his people, his inheritance. He prayed for God to remember his people of the past— the patriarchs whom he invested in, despite their shortcomings. He prayed for God to consider the outcome of his threat to exterminate the race. He reminds God that he had rescued these people for a purpose.

Not once did Moses appeal to God to spare the Israelites on the basis of their own merit. The prayers always focused on God and his acts and his will. Focused praying is not so much reminding God who we are and what we need as it is rehearsing who God is and what he wants.

Our Father in the sky, may your name be honored, and your kingdom come, and what you want be done.

Posted in appreciation, prayer | Tagged Deuteronomy 9 | 1 Comment

thoughts on radical obedience

Posted on January 4, 2020 by Jefferson Vann

thoughts on radical obedience

Deuteronomy 9:21-24

Deuteronomy 9:21 I took the calf you had mistakenly made and burned it. I crushed it, thoroughly grinding it to powder as fine as dust, and tossed its dust into the stream that came down from the mountain.

Deuteronomy 9:22 “You continued to infuriate Yahveh at Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth-hattaavah.

Deuteronomy 9:23 When Yahveh sent you from Kadesh-barnea, and this is what he said: ‘Go up and take possession of the land I have given you’; you rebelled against the command of Yahveh your God. You did not believe or obey him.

Deuteronomy 9:24 You have been rebelling against Yahveh ever since I have known you.

thoughts on radical obedience

I have been reading these accounts with the assumption that there is a parallel in the experience of the Christian today. I see two principles of radical obedience implied in today’s text.

First, Moses’ completely obliteration of the golden calf indicates an attitude toward past sin and failure. We cannot tolerate the existence of those things we had craved which competed with God for our allegiance. No measure is too extreme in ridding ourselves of the temptation to make the same mistake again.

Secondly, we need to clarify our objective to stay in God’s will. We can be happy that he has rescued us from Egypt, but that is not enough. His command for us today is to go up and take possession of the covenant land. The Christian corollary to this is not “heaven when we die” but possessing the mind of Christ. That’s the standing order for us.

Lord, show us how to obliterate our past failure and focus on your standing order so that sin does not prevent us from possessing your holiness.

Posted in holiness, obedience | Tagged Deuteronomy 9 | 1 Comment