Deuteronomy 29-31

God’s message to me: God never goes back on His word. Even when the Israelites rebelled against His law, and were sent into captivity in foreign lands as punishment, falling victim to the curses we have read, God’s promise was to return them to their inheritance. When Israel was broken apart in the first century under Roman rule it’s people were scattered to the ends of the earth for nearly 2000 years. In 1948 their homeland was restored and their nation reborn. Since then God has been fulfilling His promise to gather them from the ends of the earth and return them to their home.

Promises: God has made many promises and never, Never, NEVER, failed to fulfill even one. It is impossible to ever lose that which God has promised you because, even though He will chasten and correct us when we are wrong, God is incapable of ever reneging on His word.

Commands: Follow God’s commands that you may live under the blessings and have the curses applied to your enemies.

Timeless principles: Deuteronomy 31:9-11 “So Moses wroth this law and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded them, saying: “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.”

Not only was the record a written record, it was kept on record and, at appointed times, including the Feast of Tabernacles which is a yearly celebration, the record had to be READ(as in looked at in a book and quoted directly from the page) to all the people.

How can I apply what I’ve learned: Bless the people of Israel, Love the land of God’s people, Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, stand united with God and with His people against all who would take from them the land that God Promised them as an eternal inheritance.

more to learn for in-depth study: God made a habit of reminding people of the past. One of the political complaints in the United States is that the collective memory is so short. People gloss over the past after only a couple of years and sometimes in a matter of months. The good and the bad are both forgotten in favor of the new. We just don’t seem to learn from history. The Israelites weren’t much different.

In spite of all the miracles they had witnessed the Israelites kept losing faith and turning from God. Through Moses, God kept reminding them of what they had seen. Just as Moses reminded Israel of the plagues on Egypt, the parting of the sea and drowning of Pharaohs army in that sea, the manna, the water from the rocks, the clothes that never wore out and many more miracles the Israelites took for granted, the Apostles had a reminder job of their own. Throughout the New Testament they told of the miracles of Jesus and reminded their audiences that, many of the people listening to the story had seen the events as well. When historians and legal scholars judge the New Testament, they find this evidence most compelling: When speaking of the resurrection and the times Christ was seen after it, the Apostles always mentioned that the audience, also, had been witness to the events. NO ONE Ever denied it. Given all the times they challenged people to remember what they had seen for themselves it is amazing that no one ever tried to claim that any of the miracles of Christ, particularly the resurrection, didn’t happen. The only conclusion available is that there were enough eyewitnesses to put down any dissent. In fact there are over 500 written affidavits attesting to having seen Jesus after he rose from the grave. It’s enough that, Simon Greenleaf, the creator of our rules of evidence for the United States and founder of the Harvard School of Law, wrote that the testimony of the witnesses alone was sufficient to prove, beyond any reasonable doubt, the validity of the New Testament record.

Given the evidence before us it should be impossible to lose faith or fall away from following God. Our memory is short and we fail anyway. Even Moses, who regularly spoke to God and heard God’s voice directly in reply, occasionally worried that things would not work out because, he forgot the power of God. We all need occasional reminders.

tomorrow: Deuteronomy 32-32