Deuteronomy 1:1 - 3:22
August 10th, 2019
Deuteronomy 2:3 “You have gone around this hill country long enough—turn to the north”
Some days it just seems like we are going through the motions, we are just spinning our wheels, wondering when we can get off this merry-go-round. An old classic song plays over and over in our minds: “the wheels on the bus go round and round.”
Deuteroinomy 2:1 “Then we turned and journeyed into the wilderness by the way to the Sea of Reeds, just as Adonai told me. We went around the hill country of Seir for many days.”
How and why we got here can be for many reasons, set-backs, disobedience, or fear. These are results of the decisions we have made.
…Yet YHWH in His Mercy and Grace, His Compassion, His Love, tells us to “get up, get moving.”
Deuteronomy 1:6-8 Adonai our God spoke to us at Horeb saying: ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Turn, journey on, and enter the hill country of the Amorites and all their neighbors, in the Arabah, the hill country, the lowland, the Negev, and by the seashore—the land of the Canaanites and the Lebanon as far as the great river, the Euphrates. See, I have set the land before you. Enter and possess the land that Adonai swore to your fathers—to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob—to give to them and to their descendants after them.
We also are like the Israelites who tended to “camp out” after setbacks - and even victories.
YHWH gives us the opportunity to reflect on what happened.
When the “cloud” moved, so the Israelites moved.
Deuteronomy 1:33 …the One who goes before you on the way to scout out a place for you to camp and to show you the way you should go, in fire by night and in the cloud by day.
The Israelites have experienced many things since YHWH “heard” their cry for deliverance from Egypt.
They have experienced His wrath and tasted His Goodness.
He delivered Israel with an outstretched arm, nurtured them as a father would care for his son.
Deuteronomy 1:30-31 Adonai your God, who goes before you, He Himself will fight for you—just as He did for you in Egypt before your own eyes, and in the wilderness, where you saw how Adonai your God carried you as a man carries his son, everywhere you went until you came to this place.’
What YHWH did for Israel, He will do the same for us.
Just as Israel did not “trust” YHWH always, we too, struggle.
Especially when what He asks is foreign to our ears and eyes.
Joshua 3:4 … for you haven’t travelled this way before.”
It is in experiencing YHWH, that we grow in our belief, our faith, and our trust in Him.
We know our faith comes by hearing YHWH’S word.
It becomes solidified when we put it into action.
After all “faith” is a verb.
Regardless of the outcomes, we can grow from them, even if we think we’ve failed.
We’re reminded of the His words: “all things work together for good” and “what was meant for evil, YHWH will turn it around for good.”
Comforting?
Moving on
As we read earlier it is time to “go up.”
So, what does this look like?
John 15:1-5 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He trims so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I will abide in you. The branch cannot itself produce fruit, unless it abides on the vine. Likewise, you cannot produce fruit unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for apart from Me, you can do nothing.”
YHWH has given each of us a “measure” of faith. (Romans 12:3)
Yeshua tells us in Matthew 17:20 And He said to them, “Because you trust (faith) so little. Amen, I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Not only are we to “trust” His word, to seek His blessings, waiting for the promises to be fulfilled, it is just as important to trust YHWH through the journey.
Psalm 23:1-6 A psalm of David. Adonai is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me: Your rod and Your staff comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You have anointed my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the House of Adonai forever.
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