Gold for the heart - Deuteronomy 11-14

Deuteronomy 11

God promises long life and extraordinary prosperity if we listen diligently to Him

1 Therefore you are to love the LORD your God, keep his charge, his statutes, his judgments, and his commandments, always. 2 And know this day: for I do not speak with your children who have not known, and who have not seen the discipline of the LORD your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, his stretched out arm, 3 And his miracles, and his acts, which he did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and to all his land; 4 And what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the Red sea to overflow them as they chased after you, and how the LORD has destroyed them to this day.

1Samuel 17:47 And all this assembly will know that the LORD does not save with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hands.

The Lord always cares for and watches over the land that He gives us

5 And what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place; 6 And what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and their tents, and all the substance that was in their possession, in the midst of all Israel: 7 But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the LORD which he did. 8 Therefore you are to keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land, where you go to possess it; 9 And that you may prolong your days in the land, which the LORD swore to your fathers to give to them and to their seed, a land that flows with milk and honey. 10 For the land, where you go in to possess it, is not like the land of Egypt, from where you came out, where you sowed your seed, and watered it with your foot, like a garden of herbs: 11 But the land you go to possess, is a land of hills and valleys that drinks water of the rain of heaven: 12 A land that the LORD your God cares for: the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. 13 And it will happen, if you will listen diligently to my commandments that I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14 That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your wine, and your oil. 15 And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be full.

Zechariah 14:17 And it will be, that whoever will not come up of all the families of the earth to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, on them will be no rain.

16 Beware that your heart is not deceived, and you turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; 17 And then the LORD’s wrath will burn against you, and he will shut up the heaven so that there is no rain, and the land will not yield her fruit; and you will perish quickly from the good land that the LORD gives you. 18 Therefore lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, bind them for a sign on your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.

It is not rational to fall down and worship the trunk of a tree or a piece of metal.
Evil spirits make men think that this ‘thing’ can help them or provide something they desire.
God’s wrath is kindled when we worship false things.
His words in our hearts will keep us from being deceived.

John 17:17 Sanctify them through your truth: your word is truth.

He will drive out evil from your land and cause others to fear you

19 And you will teach them your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 20 You are to write them on the doorposts of your house, and on your gates: 21 So that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven on the earth. 22 For if you will diligently keep all these commandments that I command you, to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cling to him; 23 Then the LORD will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will possess nations greater and mightier than yourselves.

24 Every place where the soles of your feet will walk will be yours: your coast will be from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, to the furthest sea. 25 No man will be able to stand before you: for the LORD your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you will walk on, as he has said to you.

God gave Israel all the land of Israel, Lebanon, Iraq, 2/3 of Jordan, 1/2 of Syria, and the northern part of Saudi Arabia.
God has a special plan and place for every person that He made.
He will drive out great and mighty enemies for us if we listen and obey.
He promises victory.
He will cause others to respect us.
Just like Eden—we choose.

26 Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; 27 A blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day: 28 And a curse, if you will not obey the commandments of the LORD 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 And it will come to pass, when the LORD your God has brought you in to the land where you go to possess it, that you are to put the blessing on mount Gerizim, and the curse on mount Ebal. 30 Are they not on the other side Jordan, by the way where the sun goes down, in the land of the Canaanites, which dwell in the Arabah/desert opposite Gilgal, beside the plains of Moreh? 31 For you will pass over Jordan to go in to possess the land that the LORD your God gives you; you will possess it, and dwell in it. 32 And you will observe to do all the statutes and judgments that I set before you this day.

Mount Gerizim was lush green forest while mount Ebal was rocky and barren.
God had the people speak the blessing from the lush, green mountain and the cursings from the rocky, barren mountain.
Like Eden, it’s a choice, our choice.
Jacob’s well where Jesus spoke to the woman is the well in the valley between these two mountains.
The Samaritans built a rival temple on Mt Gerizim.

Psalm 107:34 A fruitful land to barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell there.

Deuteronomy 12

1 These are the statutes and judgments, which you are to be careful to do in the land, that the LORD God of your fathers has given you to possess it, all the days that you live on the earth. 2 You are to completely destroy all the places where the nations that you possess served their gods, on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree: 3 You are to break down their altars, break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and you are to chop down the carved images of their gods, and destroy their names out of that place.

God’s gift of the land was enduring.
God commanded total destruction of evil in the land because evil breeds death; God is life.

4 You are not to do this to the LORD your God. 5 But you are to come to the place that the LORD your God chooses out of all your tribes to put his name there, you will seek his dwelling: 6 And bring there your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, heave offerings of your hand, your vows, your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks: 7 And you will eat there before the LORD your God, and rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, in which the LORD your God has blessed you. 8 You will not at all do the things that we do here this day: every man whatever is right in his own eyes.

The only way we know what is right is to listen to what God says in His word and follow that.

Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end of it is the way of death.

God has rest and an inheritance for us

9 For you still have not come to the rest and to the inheritance, that the LORD your God is giving you. 10 But when you go over Jordan, and dwell in the land that the LORD your God gives you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety; 11 Then there will be a place that the LORD your God will choose to cause his name to dwell there; are to bring all that I command you there; your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which you vow to the LORD: 12 And you are to rejoice before the LORD your God, you, your sons, your daughters, your menservants, your maidservants, and the Levite that is within your gates; because he has no part or inheritance with you.

He gives rest from all our enemies.
He causes us to dwell safely.

Matthew 11:28 Come to me, all you that labor and are heavily loaded, and I will give you rest.

Psalm 91:1 He that dwells in the secret place of the most High will abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

13 Guard yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see: 14 But in the place which the LORD will choose in one of your tribes, there you are to offer your burnt offerings, and there you are to do all that I command you. 15 However you may kill and eat flesh in all your gates, whatever your soul desires according to the blessing of the LORD your God which he has given you: the unclean and the clean may eat it, like the roebuck, and the gazelle. 16 Only you are not to eat the blood; you are to pour it on the earth as water. 17 You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain, your wine, your oil, or the firstlings of your herds or of your flock, nor any of your vows which you vow, nor your freewill offerings, or heave offering of your hand: 18 But you must eat them before the LORD your God in the place that the LORD your God chooses, you, your son, your daughter, your manservant, your maidservant, and the Levite that is within your gates: and you are to rejoice before the LORD your God in all that you put your hands to.

God commanded that they assemble at the tabernacle to eat of their tithes, offerings etc.
Part of the sacrifices and offerings of the people was God’s provision for the Levites’ food because they had no land of their own.
Other game could be eaten at home if they poured out the blood and covered it with earth.

Hebrews 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as you see the day approaching.

19 Take heed to yourself that you not neglect/forsake the Levite as long as you live on the earth. 20 When the LORD your God enlarges your border, as he has promised you, and you will say, I will eat flesh, because your soul longs to eat flesh; you may eat flesh, whatever your soul desires. 21 If the place which the LORD your God has chosen to put his name there is too far from you, then you may kill from your herd and from your flock, which the LORD has given you, as I have commanded you, and eat in your gates whatever your soul desires.

God promised to enlarge their borders.
We are to pay well those who do God’s work.
What we have has come from Him.

Romans 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen.

God wants it to go well with His people

22 Eat them like the gazelle and the stag are eaten, so you will eat them: the unclean and the clean will eat of them alike. 23 Only be sure that you do not eat the blood: for the blood is the life; and you may not eat the life with the flesh. 24 You will not eat it; you are to pour it on the earth as water. 25 You are not to eat it; that it may go well with you and with your children after you, when you will do that what is right in the sight of the LORD. 26 Only your holy things which you have, and your vows, you are to take, and go to the place which the LORD will choose: 27 And you will offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the LORD your God: and the blood of your sacrifices will be poured out on the altar of the LORD your God, and you will eat the flesh. 28 Observe and hear all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the LORD your God.

God wants life to be good for all of us forever.

Psalm 16:11…in your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

29 When the LORD your God will cut off the nations from before you, where you go to possess them, and you possess/inherit them, and dwell in their land; 30 Beware that you are not trapped by following them, after they have been destroyed from before you; do not ask about their gods saying, How did these nations serve their gods? I will do the same. 31 You will not do this to the LORD your God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hates, have they done to their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. 32 Be careful to do whatever I command you: you will not add to it, or take away from it.

God hates idolatry and heathen worship practices with good reason.
They are too vile to be spoken of including burning their children to the false gods.
He commands that we not add to or take away from His words.
We are not to ask how they worshipped the false gods or even speak the names of false gods.
Therefore we are not to investigate or study the false religions of the world.

Exodus 23:13 Now concerning everything I have said to you, be on your guard; and do not mention the name of other gods, nor let them be heard from your mouth.

Psalm 96:5 For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.

Revelation 22:18 For I testify to every man that hears the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man adds unto these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book: 19 And if any man takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

Deuteronomy 13

1 If there arises among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and gives you a sign or a miracle, 2 And the sign or the miracle comes to pass that he spoke to you saying, Let us go after other gods, which you have not known, and let us serve them; 3 You are not to listen to the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 You are to walk after the LORD your God, fear/revere him, keep his commandments, obey his voice, and you are to serve him, and cling to him. 5 And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams is to be put to death; because he has spoken revolt against the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to thrust you out of the way that the LORD your God commanded you to walk in. By doing this you put the evil away from the midst of you.

It is evil to turn from the One who made us to some other god. God commands that evil be stopped by putting to death those who choose evil rather than God and His truth. God is life.
To murder someone is a capital crime—Genesis 9:6. How much more evil is it to steal someone’s eternity of blessing?

Psalm 96:5 For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.

1Peter 1:18…you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain way of life received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

6 If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, entices you secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which you have not known, you, nor your fathers; 7 Of the gods of the people which are round about you, close to you, or far off from you, from the one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth; 8 Do not consent to him or listen to him; do not let your eye pity him, or spare him, or hide him: 9 But you are certainly to kill him; your hand is to be first on him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. 10 You are to stone him with stones so that he dies; because he sought to thrust you away from the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. 11 And all Israel will hear, and fear, and no longer do any wickedness like this among you. 12 If you hear it said in one of your cities, that the LORD your God has given you to dwell there saying, 13 Certain men, the children of Belial (lawlessness), have gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods which you have not known; 14 Then you are to you inquire, search, investigate diligently; and, behold, if it is true, and it is certain that such abomination is done among you; 15 You are to strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it, and all that is in it, and its livestock with the edge of the sword.

The Israelites on the east side of the Jordan River built and altar like the one at the tabermacle.
The Israelites on the west side of the Jordan heard of it and armed themselves for war in obedience to this mandate (Joshua 22).

16 And you are to gather all its plunder into the midst of its street, and burn the city with fire, all the plunder of it every bit, for the LORD your God: and it is to be a heap forever; it is not to be built again. 17 And nothing of the cursed thing is to cling to your hand: that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of his anger, show you mercy, have compassion on you, and multiply you, as he has sworn to you fathers; 18 If you listen to the voice of the LORD your God, to keep all his commandments that I command you this day, to do what is right in the eyes of the LORD your God.

God commanded that they keep nothing from a city cursed under idolatry and that such a city not be rebuilt.
He turns from the fierceness of His anger when He is obeyed.
He shows mercy, has compassion, and multiplies.
Grace does not mean that we can do as we please and expect great praise from God in eternity.
It means He doesn’t strike us down when we do wrong.
He lovingly disciplines us as children (Hebrews 12:6-9). With great opportunity comes great responsibility.

Matthew 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Psalm 96:13 (rejoice) Before the LORD: for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.

Revelation 3:21 To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

Numbers 14

1 You are the children of the LORD your God: you are not to cut yourselves, or make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. 2 For you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a special treasure to himself above all the nations that are on the earth. 3 You are not to eat any abominable thing. 4 These are the beasts that you will eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat, 5 the hart, the roebuck, the fallow deer, the wild goat, the ibex, the wild ox, and the chamois. 6 Every animal among the animals that parts the hoof, divides the cleft into two claws, and chews the cud, that you will eat.

‘Holy’ means set apart.
God is our Father.
He forbids heathen practices for our good.
He wants us to be holy unto Him.
He has chosen us to be special.
He wants us healthy, not eating junk food.
Man and animal were originally designed by God to be vegetarian (Genesis 1:29, 30)
At the fall of man in Genesis 3 God sent man out of Eden to grow food from the ground.
After the flood, in Genesis 9:2, 3, God added meat to man’s diet—but healthy meats.
The animals listed in Deuteronomy 14 to be eaten by man are not scavengers or predatory animals, flesh eaters.

7 Nevertheless these you are not to eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the cloven hoof; the camel, the hare, and the coney: for they chew the cud, but do not divide the hoof; therefore they are unclean to you. 8 And the pig, because it divides the hoof, yet does not chew the cud, it is unclean to you: you will not eat of their flesh, or touch their dead carcass. 9 These you may eat of all that are in the waters: all that have fins and scales you may eat:

10 And whatever does not have fins and scales you may not eat; it is unclean to you.

Shrimp, octopus, and oysters do not have fins and scales.

God makes us His holy people

11 You may eat all clean birds. 12 But these are those you are not eat: the eagle, the ossifrage, the ospray, 13 the glede, the kite, and the vulture after his species, 14 And every raven after his kind, 15 And the owl, the night hawk, the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind, 16 The little owl, the great owl, the swan,

17 the pelican, the gier eagle, the cormorant, 18 the stork, the heron after her kind, the lapwing, and the bat. 19 And every creeping thing that flies is unclean to you: they are not to be eaten. 20 But you may eat all clean birds. 21 You are not to eat anything that dies by itself: you may give it to the foreigner that is in your gates, that he may eat it; or you may sell it to a foreigner: for you are an holy people to the LORD your God. You are not to boil a kid in his mother’s milk.

In Acts 10:14, God made it clear that Christ’s death cleansed everything in heaven and earth.
We can eat these forbidden foods if we pray over them.
We are to be holy in body as well as spirit.
Christ is our holiness.

22 You will definitely give a tenth of all the increase of your seed, that the field brings forth year by year. 23 And you will eat before the LORD your God, in the place that he will choose to place his name there, the tenth of your grain, of your wine, of your oil, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks; that you may learn to fear/revere the LORD your God always. 24 And if the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry it; or if the place is too far from you where the LORD your God chooses to set his name, when the LORD your God has blessed you: 25 Then turn it into money, and bind up the money in your hand, and go to the place that the LORD your God chooses:

God is worthy of the greatest respect and honor.
He made all things.
He gave us life and sustains us.
Many turn to God because they don’t want to go to hell. That is fearing the Lord.
That is the beginning of right choices in life. As we grow to know God through His word, we come to respect, honor, and be in awe of or worship Him.

1Peter 1:16…Be holy, for I am holy.

Psalm 111:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: all those that do his commandments have a good understanding: his praise endures forever.

26 And you will spend that money for whatever your soul desires, for oxen, for sheep, for wine, for strong drink, or for whatever you soul desires: and you will eat there before the LORD your God, and you will rejoice, you, and your household, 27 And the Levite that is within your gates; you will not forsake him; for he has no part or inheritance with you. 28 At the end of three years you will bring forth all the tenths of your increase the same year, and will lay it up within your gates: 29 And the Levite, (because he has no part nor inheritance with you,) the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow that are within your gates, will come, and will eat and be satisfied; that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.

Psalm 1:1 Blessed is the man that does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of the scornful. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and he meditates in his law day and night. 3 He will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also will not wither; and whatever he does will prosper.

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SUMMARY: Deuteronomy 11:14

God promises long life and extraordinary prosperity if we listen diligently to Him
The Lord has rest and an inheritance for us
He wants it to be well with us
He wants to have mercy and compassion on us and multiply us greatly
He has chosen us as His special treasure
He makes us His holy people