Deuteronomy 4:1-49
4:1 Moses' speech is meant to bolster our determination to maintain our faith with diligence. We are the descendants of the children of Israel, who, by Moses in this chapter, are being implored to protect their posterity by keeping God in their lives (that's us)! Moses is packed with valuable and godly advice and he pours all of it out here for our benefit.
- We cannot be led into godly places and expect to remain there without godly behavior. If we enter the ocean, it is required that we swim. On mountains we must climb. When we enter God's space, we must journey His way in order to succeed and remain there. We cannot change the rules in the water or on the mountains, their specific conditions and terrain must be adapted to. God will lead us into the promised land, in heaven, and into our individual blessings here on earth but if He is leading we must follow. We must emulating our God's compassion, justice and truth in order to maintain the lifestyle He has given.
4:2
- We cannot be manipulators who tweak God's instruction to benefit our own selfish agenda. His word must be applied to all aspects of our lives. God has given us specific instructions because only His precision knows how to navigate this life toward Him, justice and compassion.
4:3-4
- Moses wants us to remember that our God is life: The creator as well as the sustain-er. Luke 20:38, John 7:38. Maintaining our faith is to maintain our lifeline. Moses' reminder is that God breathes perseverance into our lives just He breathed life into our lungs. God's children are not limited by statistics or vulnerabilities, or anything else; Moses reminds us that those who anchor themselves to the Lord endure. Those who love the Lord go the journey and arrive at the destination, fully intact, stronger every day.
4:5-6
- From within God's promised land, we inherit responsibility. As His children, we represent His house. Our behavior must always reflect Him, naturally drawing others in, rather than pushing them away. Be careful to observe God's statutes and commandments because to whom must is given, much is expected, Luke 12:48. We should represent our creator's holiness by showing others that our greatness is drawn out of His wisdom and understanding of His principles. In crafting compassion, we are God's apprentices... His fellow workers, 1 Corinthians 3:9 and 2 Corinthians 6:1. We want to express to others that what is great in our lives, all of the joy, is born out of learning from Him.
- And God is teaching in every moment we are bowed at our desks as students. He is present in our daily interactions with others, our private thoughts, motivations, intentions, goals and hopes. He is within every space we will allow our faith to pour into, instructing with gentle wisdom and guidance.
- We each have the blessing of developing a personal and intricate relationship with Him. How He reaches out and into each of us is extremely specific. If there is every static on the communication line, it is not from His end. He is present, pure and clear, eternally.
- Develop the personal and intricate communicative relationship and then utilize it, listen to it. What is right is not always easy but He is always right. Therefore even when skeptical, trust that His way enables a fruitful harvest, the results we hoped for in any situation.
4:7
- God's love and attentive devotion to us is a privilege; God has declared it a right out of generosity, but He never had to take an interest in us or our concerns. The minutia of our lives does not effect Him but His generous and compassionate heart is affected by the minutia of our lives anyway. Moses wants us to realize and remember that having this holy lifeline is extraordinary, in many ways unearned and undeserved but present and committed all the same.
- For whatever reason we may call upon Him... God does not just listen to what we have to say, He also cares about what we say. His love for us transforms our irrelevance into substance, meaning. He transforms the inessential into essential. We must not overlook that blessing: He has made us each crucial pieces of the fabric. We must respect that cherished position and appropriately fill that opportunity.
4:8
- The basis of our justice system was built from the foundation of the order God delivered to the children of Israel. Although some of the system is antiquated in our present time, (confuses us or maybe even upsets us) it was a massive change in social order centuries ago. It was the change the world needed to progress further into what we have today. Our system is flawed now just it was then, but God's intention has always been to inspire us to broaden the scope of justice to include all people. God's intention was never rigidity; His hope is that we abound in compassion and propel it infinity in all directions.
4:9-10
- Our diligence is required because we so easily and so often forget God's natural order. We forget Him and in our neglect of Him, we allow our joy and hope and opportunity to dwindle away as well. Because He is our source for all those things. Inherent goodness created us and wants to sustain us but it is a mutual effort. Our participation is required. We must be like Him when it is easy and when it is difficult; Matthew 5:46. We cannot only remember Him when it is convenient.
- The maintenance of our faith requires that we maintain it into the lives of the people who come through us, after us. We are meant to bend in such a way that we refract the beams of God's light into the lives of those around us and after us. The way we do that is to bend, bow down, before Him in grateful remembrance, inspired acknowledgement and diligent apprenticeship.
4:11-14 Moses speaks to the children of Israel, and perhaps directly to you: God has spoken to them and they have heard. They have willingly entered into a covenant with God. If we have heard, the honor and responsibility of creating a relationship with Him must be remembered and maintained.
4:15-19 When humanity decided it wanted to be separate from God, God gave humanity what it wanted. A separation. When we are little there are sometimes situations where we are embarrassed by our parents or desperate for independence and those situations cause us to ask for things we are not prepared for. Essentially, we unclasped our hands from His and asked to walk to school alone. He let us, but like any good parent, He parks behind the bushes to watch us as we make our way.
God is always present, aware and prepared. He is willing and so able, without hesitation, to jump out from the bushes and retake our hand. Because as we walk we realize the distance is further than we thought. The scene so much more unfamiliar from this new perspective. We realize that the world is bigger and more unpredictable without Him. Suddenly we become hyper-aware of our vulnerability.
God is waiting for us to realize that we do not want to walk to school alone. He is waiting for us to realize that we were safer in His hands. He's waiting for us to find Him in the bushes and invite Him back on the walk to school. The walk through this schooling which is life. Safe, walking proudly with our hand in His.
We all get scared. In our fright, we consciously and subconsciously create supposed-comforts around us. We try to fill the place He stood with cheap, material things. Money. People. Power. Fame. Vanity. Although our lives are very different from the life of the children of Israel, we are more similar than different. Because just like them, when we feel a void or a fear in our lives, we try to fill that space or quiet that fear with just about anything except God.
Moses begins this set of verses with: "...for you saw no form when the Lord spoke to you...". Of course we cannot see Him; He is giving us the space we asked for. But His perfect love comes rushing in the moment we invite Him back. Moses' statement should call us to remember that although we see no form, He still finds a way to speak to us. He's right behind the bush! He sees every step.
God loves us enough to remain attentive and vigilant and prepared. Imagine how He feels when we forget Him... because He watches it happen. He watches us slip away from Him because although we forget, He never does. He is present in every moment we choose to spend away from Him or walk away from Him. Retake His hand; let everything in your grip fall out like the garbage that it is and let Him refill that space.
4:20 God does not deserve to watch such a tragic scene from behind a bush. He deserves to be center-stage in our lives because He has made us center-stage in His. He has claimed us and pinned an inheritance to our lives. The inheritance of His eternal love and home.
God is always present, aware and prepared. He is willing and so able, without hesitation, to jump out from the bushes and retake our hand. Because as we walk we realize the distance is further than we thought. The scene so much more unfamiliar from this new perspective. We realize that the world is bigger and more unpredictable without Him. Suddenly we become hyper-aware of our vulnerability.
God is waiting for us to realize that we do not want to walk to school alone. He is waiting for us to realize that we were safer in His hands. He's waiting for us to find Him in the bushes and invite Him back on the walk to school. The walk through this schooling which is life. Safe, walking proudly with our hand in His.
We all get scared. In our fright, we consciously and subconsciously create supposed-comforts around us. We try to fill the place He stood with cheap, material things. Money. People. Power. Fame. Vanity. Although our lives are very different from the life of the children of Israel, we are more similar than different. Because just like them, when we feel a void or a fear in our lives, we try to fill that space or quiet that fear with just about anything except God.
Moses begins this set of verses with: "...for you saw no form when the Lord spoke to you...". Of course we cannot see Him; He is giving us the space we asked for. But His perfect love comes rushing in the moment we invite Him back. Moses' statement should call us to remember that although we see no form, He still finds a way to speak to us. He's right behind the bush! He sees every step.
God loves us enough to remain attentive and vigilant and prepared. Imagine how He feels when we forget Him... because He watches it happen. He watches us slip away from Him because although we forget, He never does. He is present in every moment we choose to spend away from Him or walk away from Him. Retake His hand; let everything in your grip fall out like the garbage that it is and let Him refill that space.
4:20 God does not deserve to watch such a tragic scene from behind a bush. He deserves to be center-stage in our lives because He has made us center-stage in His. He has claimed us and pinned an inheritance to our lives. The inheritance of His eternal love and home.
4:21-24 Moses' purpose on earth is coming to an end. The children of Israel will continue their journey with a new leader. Moses reminds the congregation as an imploration: I'm leaving, so listen closely. Moses was made into a sage and faithful leader by God yet the children of Israel still strayed. Moses is concerned for them (us), basically saying: listen, please... because quality of life truly does depend on one's ability to listen to God.
4:25-28 Moses knows what will happen within the group of the children of Israel. They will (and do) unfix their eyes on God and will go astray once again. Moses is familiar with this group, with the nature of humanity, and therefore he knows that we continually forget God. Moses also knows that when we let our connection with God wither, the conditions of our lives wither as well.
4:29 Although we are unfaithful to God, He remains faithful and merciful to us. Every time we seek Him "with all our heart and with all our soul" He makes Himself known. When we earnestly pursue our faith, our faith earnestly pursues our happiness.
4:30-31 When we are in distress and remember our God, He rushes in with love and mercy. Even though we do not deserve His faithful nature, He is generous in giving and promising it.
4:32-34 Moses asks us to take into consideration our great and unprecedented fortune: God has reached out to us. To claim us as His children; to bless us continually all the days of our lives. God did not have to take an interest in us, we certainly do not give Him too much reason to. But He does. We should honor Him by remembering Him and being grateful for His selfless generosity.
4:35 God comes rushing into our lives, caring and capable, to show us that He is our rescue. There is no entity capable of caring for us as comprehensively as He does. Not even close.
4:36 "Out of heaven He let you hear His voice, that He might instruct you..." God makes Himself known in an effort to give us an Advocate. He can see the whole labyrinth that is life. He knows where you should turn and why... He knows how and who.
4:37-38 He has been with us since before the beginning, Ephesians 1:4, and also since our ancestors first began here on earth. Since before day one, He has been slaying giants on our behalf, creating the conditions for us to thrive within. But we must follow Him into those protected places.
4:39-40 Moses has beautifully instructive words for us to live by:
39 Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the Lord Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. 40 You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time.
4:41-43 Moses sets apart three neutral cities in which the law would be carried out for the tribes.
4:44-49 The children of Israel begin to settle in the spaces God has made for them.
