Diving into Deuteronomy

Driven back into Deuteronomy

I listen with guarded interest to a certain talker on the radio, but his recent non-violence pact bothered me and drove me back to Deuteronomy. Surely, our forefathers used it as a template for what a Godly nation looks like. Without God, we fail. We self-destruct without God’s laws, God’s way, God’s design.
Deuteronomy 1:8
God, occupy the territory that I, the Lord, promised to give to your ancestors: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and to their descendants.
1:10 The Lord your God has increased your population to the point that you are now as numerous as the stars in the sky…may the Lord make you one thousand times more..
1:15 (Our God is one of order, authority, leaders, judges: no discrimination, no fear, no intimidation by human beings, for “JUDGEMENT BELONGS TO GOD” (emphasis mine)
1:32 (Even while God was constantly going before them as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night—they rebelled, only saw giants) God will fight for you just as you saw Him do in Egypt…
1:30 (they did not have confidence/TRUST/Faith in the Lord your God)
1:31 …you saw Him carrying you along like a man carries his son… (brought to mind our son, James, age 25, carrying his baby boy)
God pronounced that none of this generation…so they strapped on their military gear, wept, and god said: DO NOT GO
1:43 God spoke, but you did not listen...you rebelled against the Lord
2:5 (respect Esau’s and Lot’s –the Moabites, purchase food and water)
2:14 thirty-eight years for the MILITARY men of that generation to die.
2:16 the Lord eliminated the military men (He could have done it quicker, as when the earth swallowed up the rebellious ones at the golden calf incident, but it is like God allowed this generation, though they had done wrong, to teach their sons the necessary military skills?)
2:24 Get up..Look! I have already delivered over to you Sihon the Amorites and his land. Go ahead. Take it! Engage him in war!
2:25 This very day I will begin to fill all the people of the earth with dread and to terrify them when they hear about you. They will shiver and shake in anticipation of your approach.
2:33 The Lord our god delivered him over to us and we struck him down.
2:34 and we seized all his cities and put every one of them under divine judgment; including even the women and children. We left no survivors. (sixty cities)
(order, authority, God’s direct instructions, specific instructions, and the complete slaughter of all: Divine Judgment: there is a time and place for it, only when God so instructs)
(God gave this land to the half tribe of Manasseh, but: “you warriors are to cross over before your fellow Israelites equipped for battle” Deut. 3:18
3:20 fight until the Lord gives your countrymen victory, then return (to your wives, families, land allotted)
3:22 Do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God will personally fight for you.
4:4 remain faithful to the Lord your God. Learn God’s statutes and ordinances
4:9 teach them to your children (responsibility)
4:10 revere the Lord and teach your children to revere the Lord.
4:15 (Be very careful: no form. No image making. No likeness of humans, animals, no worship of nature nor stars, the whole heavenly creation, no idols, no idolatry.)
(and Bob has been relating what his brother, Joel told him about the danger of us creating our own image of God in our heads)
4:20 to be His special people…do not make an image of any kind—for the Lord your god is a jealous God.
(if/when with children and grandchildren you become corrupt, God will scatter you to the nations)
4:29 But if you seek the Lord your God from there, you will find Him, if indeed you seek Him with all your heart and soul.
4:30 in your distress, when all these things happen to you, in the latter days, if you return to the Lord you God and obey Him…
4:38 The Lord is God in heaven above an on earth below! There is no other!
5:4 The Lord spoke face to face with you from the middle of the fire. He said:
5:6 I am the Lord Your God. He who brought you from the land of Egypt from the place of slavery…you must not have any other gods besides me. No making of images. No worshipping images.
5:9 punishment 3 generations for the sin of the fathers who reject Me.
5:10 God says: I show covenant fuathfulness to the thousands who choose Me and keep My commandments.
Love the Lord your God with your whole mind, being, all your strength
(I love the constant reminder that God bought us out of slavery—them in Egypt, and us from the slave market of sin)
7:1 When the Lord your God delivers over to you…attack, utterly annihilate, make no treaty, show no mercy, do not intermarry with them (because)
7:4 for they will turn your sons away from me to worship other gods…tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, cut down the poles, burn up their idols (where they sacrificed babies---the abortion of their day)
7:16-26
8:14 do not feel self-important
9:6… understand, it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is about to give you this good land as a possession, for you are a stubborn people! (we are all wicked, and sinners in need of a Savior)
Moses reminds them of the golden calf incident in 9:15
(know history, be humble, teach your children)
10:12 Revere God. Obey His commandments. Love God. Serve Him with all your mind, being…the heavens and earth belong to God. Cleanse your heart. Stop being so stubborn…
11:24 even to the Euphrates and Med. Sea!
17:18 (God tells Moses that your future king was to make a copy of this scroll—be responsible for what is written here.) (I think every president, every member of Congress, every judge needs to write it out, too)
17:20 before battle say: Do not be fainthearted…the Lord your God goes with you…to fight on your behalf against your enemies to give you the victory.
(God judged the idolatress nations that were killing their newborns---and eventually, God judged the people of Esau and Lot---we need to take note as a nation, their sin and get back to the morals and principles.)