Gold for the heart - Deuteronomy 8-10

Deuteronomy 8

God commands obedience so that we may live and thrive

1 All the commandments which I command you this day you are to observe to do, that you may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the LORD swore to your fathers. 2 You are to remember all the way which the LORD your God led you these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you, and to test/refine you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 And he humbled you, and allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna, which you did not know, neither did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by bread only, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD. 4 Your clothing did not wear out on you, neither did your foot swell, these forty years.

It was a miracle that their clothing did not wear out.
Manna is angels’ food.

Psalm 78:25 Man ate angels’ food: he sent them food to the full.

Ecclesiastes 1:13 And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail has God given to the sons of man to be humbled by.

5 Also, consider in your heart, that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you. 6 Therefore you are to keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him. 7 For the LORD your God brings you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; 8 A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey; 9 A land in which you will eat bread without scarceness, you will not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you may dig brass.

Revelation 21:9-27 describes the city whose builder and maker is God, the eternal city inhabited by those who overcome by faith in what God has said. The streets are pure gold, the twelve gates are one pearl each. The foundations are gemstones arranged in the order of the rainbow.

Revelation 21:7 He that overcomes will inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he will be my son.

10 When you have eaten and are full, then you will bless the LORD your God for the good land that he has given you. 11 Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God, in not keeping his commandments, his judgments, and his statutes, that I command you this day: 12 Lest when you have eaten and are full, and have built good houses, and live in them; 13 And when your herds and flocks multiply, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; 14 Then your heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery;

God warns us not to forget Him.
He is the Source of all life and blessing.

15 Who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents, scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought you water out of the rock of flint; 16 Who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that he might humble you, and that he might refine you, to do you good at your latter end; 17 And you say in your heart, My power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth. 18 But you are to remember the LORD your God: for it is he that gives you power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

He refines us that He might do us good in the latter end.
It is He that gives the power to get wealth.
Wealth can become a false god.

John 6:35And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life: he that comes to me will never hunger; and he that believes on me will never thirst.

19 And it will be, if you do forget the LORD your God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that you will certainly perish. 20 Like the nations that the LORD destroys before your face, that is how you will perish; because you would not be obedient to the voice of the LORD your God.

God destroys those who worship false gods because they refused life and lead others to eternal death.

Luke 16:13 No servant can serve two masters: either he will hate the one, and love the other; he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Mark 8:36 For what will it profit a man, if he will gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

Deuteronomy 9

The Lord goes ahead of us

1 Hear, O Israel: today you are to pass over Jordan, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than yourself: great cities, fenced up to heaven, 2 A people great and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom you know, and of whom you have heard said, Who can stand before the children of Anak! 3 Understand therefore this day, that the LORD your God is he who goes before you; as a consuming fire he will destroy them, and he will bring them down before your face: you will drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the LORD has said to you.

God goes ahead of us to fight our battles.

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,

He drives out our enemies

4 After the LORD your God has cast them out from before you, Do not say in your heart, For my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land: but the LORD drives them out from before you for the wickedness of these nations. 5 Not for your righteousness, or for the uprightness of your heart, do you go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God drives them out from before you, and that he may perform the word which the LORD swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

God warns against pride of thinking His blessing is because we are good.
Righteousness is loving the Lord our God with all our hear (Deuteronomy 6:5, Matthew 22:37, 38).
God waited 400 years to destroy the people in the land.
He waited until their iniquity was full.
This was their choice, against God’s warnings.

Genesis 15:16 But in the fourth generation they will come here again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

6 Understand therefore, that the LORD your God does not give you this good land to possess it for your righteousness; for you are a stiff-necked people. 7 Remember, and do not forget, how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that you departed out of the land of Egypt, until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD. 8 Also in Horeb you provoked the LORD to wrath, so that the LORD was angry with you enough to destroy you. 9 When I went up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, even the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, then I stayed in the mountain forty days and forty nights, I ate no food and drank no water: 10 And the LORD delivered to me two tablets of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written all the words that the LORD spoke with you in the mountain out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. 11 And at the end of forty days and forty nights, the LORD gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.

He guides His leaders

12 And the LORD said to me, Get up and go down quickly from here; for your people that you have brought out of Egypt have corrupted themselves; they have quickly turned aside out of the way that I commanded them; they have made for themselves a molten image. 13 Furthermore the LORD spoke to me saying, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people: 14 Let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven: and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they. 15 So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire: and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16 And I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the LORD your God, and had made a molten calf: you had quickly turned aside out of the way that the LORD had commanded you. 17 And I took the two tablets, and threw them out of my two hands, and broke them before your eyes. 18 And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I ate no bread, nor drank water, because of all your sins which you sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger. 19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, with which the LORD was furious against you to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me at that time also. 20 And the LORD was very angry with Aaron and would have destroyed him: and I prayed for Aaron also the same time. 21 And I took your sin, the calf which you had made, burned it with fire, stamped it, and ground it very small, until it was as small as dust: and I cast its dust into the brook that descended out of the mountain. 22 And at Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah, you provoked the LORD to wrath.

Moses interceded for the people as Christ intercedes for us.
We provoke God at times with our lack of faith and our lack of holiness.
Christ intervenes for us and we are saved from God’s wrath.
It is not wrong for God to be angry at sin.
Sin causes all the suffering, pain, and ruin of this life.
Remember that God made everything good, good, and very good (Genesis 1).
It is man’s continual choice of evil that causes all of earth’s suffering. Idolatry leads people to eternal death.

Hebrews 7:25…he is able to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him, since he ever lives to make intercession for them.

23 In the same way when the LORD sent you from Kadesh-barnea saying, Go up and possess the land that I have given you; then you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God, and you did not believe him or listen to his voice. 24 You have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you. 25 So I fell down before the LORD forty days and forty nights, as I fell down at the first; because the LORD had said he would destroy you.

God redeemed us through His greatness

26 I prayed therefore to the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, do not destroy your people and your inheritance, which you have redeemed through your greatness, which you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 27 Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look to the stubbornness of this people or to their wickedness or to their sin: 28 Lest the land from where you brought us out say, Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness. 29 Yet they are your people and your inheritance, which you brought out by your mighty power and by your stretched out arm.

We are God’s inheritance.

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

Deuteronomy 32:9 For the LORD’s portion is his people…

Deuteronomy 10

1 At that time the LORD said to me, Carve two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to me into the mountain, and make an ark of wood. 2 And I will write on the tablets the words that were in the first tablets that you broke, and you will put them in the ark. 3 And I made an ark of acacia wood, and cut two tablets of stone like the first, and went up into the mountain, having the two tablets in my hand. 4 And he wrote on the tablets, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the LORD spoke to you in the mountain out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly: and the LORD gave them to me. 5 And I turned myself and came down from the mountain, and put the tablets in the ark that I had made; and there they are, as the LORD commanded me. 6 And the children of Israel took their journey from Beeroth of the children of Jaakan to Mosera: Aaron died there, and there he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered in the priest’s office in his place. 7 From there they journeyed to Gudgodah; and from Gudgodah to Jotbath, a land of rivers of waters. 8 At that time the LORD separated the tribe of Levi, to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister to him, and to bless in his name, until this day. 9 Therefore Levi has no part or inheritance with his brothers; the LORD is his inheritance, according as the LORD your God promised him.

The Levites had God Himself as their inheritance instead of property.
Is it better to have the land or the Source of all things?
God is the source of all things. He is the source of the land that the people inherited (Romans 11:36).

10 And I stayed in the mountain, according to the first time, forty days and forty nights; and the LORD listened to me at that time also, and the LORD did not destroy you. 11 And the LORD said to me, Arise, take your journey before the people, that they may go in and possess the land that I swore to their fathers to give to them. 12 And now Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes that I command you this day for your good?

Is it wise not to fear One who is smart enough and powerful enough to make the universe?
His commands are for our good.
If we are doing things other than His commands it comes from evil and His holiness must judge it.

God owns the heaven, the heaven of heavens, the earth, and all in them

14 Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD’s your God, the earth also, with all that is in them. 15 Only the LORD had a delight in your fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day. 16 Therefore, circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and no longer be stiff-necked. 17 For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a awesome, who is not partial and does not take bribes: 18 He executes the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loves the foreigner, in giving him food and clothing. 19 Therefore love the foreigner: for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. 20 You are to fear the LORD your God; you are to serve him, cling to him, and swear by his name. 21 He is your praise, and he is your God, that 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 the LORD your God has made you as the stars of heaven for multitude.

God is what we’re to brag about. He has done great and awesome things for us.

Ephesians 1:6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, in which he has made us accepted in the beloved.

Revelation1:5 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, 6 And has made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

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SUMMARY: Deuteronomy 8-10

He commands obedience so that He can bless us
He humbles and refines us
He destroys those who refuse His for evil
He goes ahead of us to fight our battles
He redeemed us from evil through His greatness
He is great and awesome
He owns heaven and earth and everything in them