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Deuteronomy 10-11
Give God What He Wants So He Blesses,
Which Is What We Want
Psalm 28:1-9 Are You a Good Guy or a Bad Guy?
1.“To you, Yahweh, I call. My rock, don't be deaf to me; lest, if you are silent to me, I would become like those who go down into the pit.2.Hear the voice of my petitions, when I cry to you, when I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place.3.Don't draw me away with the wicked, with the workers of iniquity who speak peace with their neighbors, but mischief is in their hearts.4.Give them according to their work, and according to the wickedness of their doings. Give them according to the operation of their hands. Bring back on them what they deserve.5.Because they don't respect the works of Yahweh, nor the operation of his hands, he will break them down and not build them up.6.Blessed be Yahweh, because he has heard the voice of my petitions.7.Yahweh is my strength and my shield. My heart has trusted in him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoices. With my song I will thank him.8.Yahweh is their strength. He is a stronghold of salvation to his anointed.9.Save your people, and bless your inheritance. Be their shepherd also, and bear them up forever.
Observations
28:1-2.David, trusting in God, calls to Him who resides in the Holy of Holies.
28:3-5.
He contrasts the bad guys who get disciplined, with the good guys (28:6-9) who get deliverance.
28:6-9.
David gets heard, strengthened, protected, helped, saved/delivered, blessed, and at no extra charge, is Shepherded and receives the opposite of the bad guys' discipline. Such a deal! What's not to like?
Application
Figure out the things the bad guys do, and don't do it. Instead, do what the good guys do, especially trusting and calling on God.
Prayer
My Fortress and Stronghold, who dwells in the center of the praise of His people, hear me, help me, and shepherd me throughout my day. Thanks. Amen.
Proverbs 7:24-27 Path to Death
24.Now therefore, sons, listen to me. Pay attention to the words of my mouth.25.Don’t let your heart turn to her ways. Don’t go astray in her paths,26.for she has thrown down many wounded. Yes, all her slain are a mighty army.27.Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the rooms of death.“Observation
7:24-27.Note the progression: Ears, brain, heart, feet, wounded, dead. The author warns that failure to listen, understand, and align one's heart (values and will) with wisdom, will result in walking down the path to death. If you don't guard and rule your heart, you will follow your unsanctified desires to your doom and destruction. Most immorality and promiscuity isn't about physical pleasure, but about emotional gratification and self-worth validation. The woman to avoid in Proverbs isn't usually some wicked shape-shifting demon, but a human on a quest for worth and value. Attraction is largely a matter of perception. We perceive another to be of worth and value, and we deceive ourselves into thinking that if they find us attractive, we must have worth and value too. But perceptions change. The charade lasts until someone temporarily more attractive comes along, and then worth and value get wounded, and someone usually wants to die. Emotional death is just the beginning; spiritual and physical death are just a little further down the path. The way of wisdom steers clear of such folly.
Application
If you don't teach your heart to value wisdom, it will lead you on a deadly quest for worth and value in all the wrong places.
Prayer
Lord, open my eyes to reality, and train my heart to Your ways, so I am not deceived by the temporal pleasures of life that lead to death. Amen.
Deuteronomy 10-11 Give God What He Wants So He Blesses, Which Is What We Want
These are the summary chapters of the General Stipulations, in which God sets before the generation the option of either being blessed or cursed. He tells them what actions result in what outcomes, so they can choose wisely, and then gives them encouragement to choose blessing.
Chapter 10 So What Does God Want From Us?
1.At that time Yahweh said to me, Hew you two tables of stone like the first, and come up to me onto the mountain, and make an ark of wood.2.I will write on the tables the words that were on the first tables which you broke, and you shall put them in the ark.4.He wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which Yahweh spoke to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly: and Yahweh gave them to me.5.I put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they are as Yahweh commanded me.8.At that time Yahweh set apart the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, to stand before Yahweh to minister to him, and to bless in his name, to this day.9.Therefore Levi has no portion nor inheritance with his brothers; Yahweh is his inheritance.11.Yahweh said to me, Arise, take your journey before the people; and they shall go in and possess the land, which I swore to their fathers to give to them.12.Now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God require of you, but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul,13.to keep the commandments of Yahweh, and His statutes, which I command you this day for your good?14.Behold, to Yahweh your God belongs heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth, with all that is therein.15.Only Yahweh had a delight in your fathers to love them, and He chose their seed after them, even you above all peoples, as at this day.16.Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked.17.For Yahweh your God, He is God of gods, and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, and the awesome, who doesn`t regard persons, nor takes bribes.18.He does execute justice for the fatherless and widow, and loves the sojourner, in giving him food and clothing.19.Love therefore the sojourner; for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.20.You shall fear Yahweh your God; Him shall you serve; and to Him shall you cleave, and by His name shall you swear.21.He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things, which your eyes have seen.22.Your fathers went down into Egypt with seventy persons; and now Yahweh your God has made you as the stars of the sky for multitude.Observations
10:5.We shouldn't need an Ark to remind us of God's laws; they should be written on our heart.
10:12.
Does God still require these things of His people? If not, why not?
10:16.
An insensitive heart causes us to be calloused toward God. We have the responsibility to circumcise it. We can cultivate a sensitivity toward God by immersing ourselves in His word.
10:17-21.
Do you know God as described in these verses?
10:20.
Cleave” was first used in Gen 2:24 to describe the emotional bond of a husband and wife. It is also used of a disease like leprosy permeating the fabric of our beings.
Application
Quick spiritual check-up: do you fear God, walk in His ways, loyally love Him, serve Him (do His will) with all your heart, and joyfully obey Him knowing that all His commands are for your benefit? If so, you should have lots to praise Him for. If not, you don't know the God of the Scriptures.
Prayer
My God, You are the God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, I want to do all You require; You are worthy of nothing less. Amen.
Chapter 11 Blessing or Curse: Your Choice
1.Therefore you shall love Yahweh your God, and keep His charge, and His statutes, and His ordinances, and His commandments, always.2.Know you this day: for I don`t speak with your children who have not known, and who have not seen the chastisement of Yahweh your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his outstretched arm,3.and His signs, and His works, which He did in the midst of Egypt...5.and what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place;6.and what He did to Dathan...how the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed them up...7.but your eyes have seen all the great work of Yahweh which He did.8.Therefore shall you keep all the commandment which I command you this day, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land, where you go over to possess it;9.and that you may prolong your days in the land, which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give to them and to their seed, a land flowing with milk and honey.10.it isn`t as the land of Egypt, where you sowed your seed, and watered it with your foot, as a garden of herbs;11.but it is a land of hills and valleys, drinks water of the rain of the sky12....a land which Yahweh your God cares for: the eyes of Yahweh your God are always on it..13....if you shall listen diligently to my commandments which I command you this day, to love Yahweh your God, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul,14.I will give the rain..15.I will give grass in your fields for your cattle, and you shall eat and be full.16.Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;17.and the anger of Yahweh be kindled against you, and He shut up the sky, so that there shall be no rain, and the land shall not yield its fruit; and you perish quickly from off the good land which Yahweh gives you.18.Therefore shall you lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul; and you shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for symbols between your eyes.19.You shall teach them your children, talking of them, when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.20.You shall write them on the door-posts of your house, and on your gates;21.that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens above the earth.
22.For if you shall diligently keep all this commandment which I command you, to do it, to love Yahweh your God, to walk in all His ways, and to cleave to Him;23.then will Yahweh drive out all these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves.24.Every place whereon the sole of your foot shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness, and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even to the hinder sea shall be your border.
26.Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse: 27.the blessing, if you shall listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I command you this day; 28.and the curse, if you shall not listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which you have not known.29.It shall happen, when Yahweh your God shall bring you into the land where you go to possess it, that you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim, and the curse on Mount Ebal.30.Aren`t they beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah, over against Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh?31.For you are to pass over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which Yahweh your God gives you, and you shall possess it, and dwell therein.32.You shall observe to do all the statutes and the ordinances which I set before you this day.
Observations
11:7.God doesn't ask for blind faith. Faith is not a leap in the dark, but a step into the light of God's revelation. God first revealed Himself through His works, (which they saw), and then called for belief and obedience. Those who take a leap in the dark are still stumbling around there rather than walking with God.
11:13.
You might have noticed how important it is to listen to God; here the Hebrew says “listen to listen” for emphasis, which is appropriately translated “diligently listen.”
11:16.
If we saw things as they really are, we wouldn't be tempted to sin. But Satan deceives with the promise of something better than God. As usual, he lies.
11:19-21.
These verses were written on the phylacteries/tephillin. Deut 10:12-13, bolded in the previous chapter, would be better verses to use, since they emphasize the heart of the law rather than the external ritual. God specified the external rite to get their heart right. It doesn't do any good to tie Scripture to your head or hand, put it on your refrigerator, or even memorize it, if it isn't on your heart, controlling your values and decisions, and is part of your everyday life. Then you can pass it on to others so they too can benefit. (Cf The Great Shema of Deut 6.)
11:24.
The land matches that promised to Abe in Gen 15:18.
11:26.
A mini summary of the General Stipulations. Blessing or Curse: your choice.
Application
How does God's word get into your heart and values, leading to obedience and blessing? If God's words aren't on your heart, what is?
Prayer
My God, I cling to You more than life itself; may I love and serve You all my days; and may I accomplish the purposes for which You placed me on this planet. Amen.
Digging Deeper
God in a nutshell: God reveals Himself as desirous of blessing His people, but will do so only under the terms He specifies, hearing and obeying (who knew?). He bases His call for total allegiance on what they have seen and know, giving a rational basis for their trust in Him. He promises just blessing and cursing, and the blessings sounds like the better choice.
Us in a nutshell: God doesn't paint a pretty picture of His people: stubborn, rebellious, insensitive, fearful, disobedient, and dressed oddly. Yet He chose to love us, so we have potential, especially if we do what He requires: fear, loyally love, wholeheartedly serve, cleave to Him, walk in His ways, watch out that we're not deceived, and pass all of the above on to others. Oh, yeah, then there's fight giants, exterminate idolaters, and dwell contentedly in the land. Doing all that doesn't leave us much time to get into trouble, but some will manage to get themselves cursed rather than blessed. Silly humans.