Mar 9 Deuteronomy 33-34 The Awesome Responsibility of Leading God's People

As the leadership of Moses comes to an end, we are reminded of His great failure once again - "Both of you [Moses and Aaron] broke faith in me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin and because you did not uphold my holiness from among the Israelites." People in spiritual leadership positions ought to understand the awesome responsibility that they have to represent God well at all times. At any moment, we can be called upon to represent God before His people. We must always represent His holiness before the people we shepherd. People who seek leadership positions should do so with fear and trembling before an all-powerful and all-seeing God!

Those who are not in spiritual leadership positions should pray for their leaders often. Satan knows that he can take out a lot of people through the mis-steps of God's leaders. We need to be protected from the Evil One - he is real and active and good at his chosen profession. But our God can allows us to overcame Him through His protection. Please pray for your leaders.

Mar 8 God is Jealous and in Firm Control

The words of God in v. 32:39ff have always been chilling to me - this is where I fear God. God declares that there is no god but Himself - He puts to death and He brings to life - He repays those who hate Him.

Him is important! Not the Him we envision Him to be, but the actual person of God in His word. To disdain who He really is and to conceive Him as we want - is to hate Him (the real Him, the one living and true God). This view of God scares me - the fear of God brings me wisdom.

Mar 7 Deuteronomy 28-30 Presumption and Our Reality

Now the final blessings and curses. This time through, I am struck by the warning about the sin of presumption in vv. 29:16-29 - "I will be safe even though I persist in going my way" - this after swearing an oath to follow the covenant with God. Moses warns - you will not be safe. We can apply this today to people (hopefully not yourself) who claim a salvation experience and then give no thought to actually doing what God commands. A salvation experience includes repentance - a change of mind - understanding that we are free from the bondage of sin. Staying bound by sin is a pretty good signal that the salvation "experience" wasn't real.

v. 30:11 is a very key verse in Scripture. God is saying that His laws are very doable - they are not too hard for us to follow. The real problem is that we don't want to follow them. We are the ones with a problem! God is the one with the solution - Jesus and a real salvation experience.

Mar 6 Leviticus 26 Blessings and Curses

Congratulations, you have finished reading the Torah - the 1st 5 books of the Bible - the Pentateuch!

Leviticus and Deuteronomy end with the blessings and curses for keeping or breaking the covenant. God was very lenient and patient with the Israelites for breaking the covenant. No king of the Northern Kingdom (Israel) was faithful to the Lord. Only twice were three consecutive kings of the Southern Kingdom (Judah) found to be faithful. The curses were eventually invoked and the people were expelled from the land. But God was faithful to His covenant - he never completely destroyed them.

Leviticus 22:31-33 expresses God's own heart. We are not to profane His holy name by our thoughts words, or deeds. We are to follow His commands. We are to remember that He is the one that makes us holy - NOT OURSELVES!

Tomorrow, we are on to Joshua and to conquer the Promised Land. Congratulations! You have made it through the Torah - the most revered part of the Old Testament among the Jews - and the basis for the whole Bible and the personage of Jesus Christ.

Mar 5 God Cares About People

There are many laws in the Torah that provide for fair treatment of all people. There is the law of gleaning where harvesters can only go through a field once. All that they have missed is to be left for the poor. This is early welfare.

A rebellious child could be killed. We have no record of this actually being implemented. However, this law tells us how important obeying our parents is to God.

Elders were to be treated with great respect - must stand when they enter a room. How different things are today. Elders should be respected today, too.

Mar 3 Leviticus 13-15 Laws for Health

Some, but not all, of the laws of Moses have been shown to be for good good medical and hygienic reasons. I believe that some of those laws are in today's readings. Infectious communicable diseases are attempted to be curtailed in some of these laws. But in all laws, the illustration of the separation of the holy and unclean is shown.

During the plagues of the Middle Ages, the Jews were almost immune. Most scholars believe it was because of the Mosaic purity laws that saved them.

Mar 2 Marriage and Sexual Relations

It is quite interesting that I will be preaching tomorrow on the importance of sexual purity. God's laws in the OT attest to the importance that God places on keeping marriage sacred. In Leviticus 18, God says, "Do not do as they do..." We are not supposed to be swept up into the culture of our land. God promised if the Israelites did adopt the detestable practices of the people occupying the Promised Land, then the land would vomit out the Israelites...and it did!

Unlawful homosexual and heterosexual sins were equally as abhorrent to God. I don't talk much about homosexual sin because I think the greater sin inside the church is heterosexual sin. The church and parents have been much too silent about the goodness of sex inside marriage. We have let the culture teach sexual values to our children. We must rise up and be bold in proclaiming that is was God who made sex to be wonderful inside marriage.