This Week in Deeper

Much of todays reading includes promises and a consequences. Promises for good and prosperity if the people obeyed God and did according to His will and purposes, curses if the disobeyed, worshiped other gods, or otherwise broke the law of Moses.

“If someone has committed a crime worthy of death and is executed and hung on a tree, 23 the body must not remain hanging from the tree overnight. You must bury the body that same day, for anyone who is hung is cursed in the sight of God. In this way, you will prevent the defilement of the land the Lord your God is giving you as your special possession.

And you can’t help but read this and think of Jesus’ execution on the cross. In fact Paul references this verse in his letter to the Galatians in chapter 3:13

13 But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”

The person having been executed is under God’s curse and more exposure to this scene would desecrate the land, not necessarily because of the dead body, but because of the reminder of the sin that was committed and the punishment

Chapter 16 starts with Moses reminding the Israelites of the Holy days and celebrations. These days are important for the people to remember because they mark off significant days in their history, and they would also mark important days in the future.

The first and most obvious day for the Israelites to remember is Passover. This is the time that God brought His people out of Egypt and out of slavery

Verse 9 shows us The Festival of Harvest. Verse 14 says that this will be a happy time of celebrating with your sons and daughters.

The cool thing about these festivals and significant days is how they have evolved over time and in line with Gods plan.

It was the first pass over that God brought the people out of Egypt and it was also Passover that Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross, the veil in the tabernacle was torn and our relationship with God was restored.

We now celebrate this day as Easter.

Then we get to the festival of Harvest, which is 50 days or seven weeks after Passover. This day was a happy day, and one much like Thanksgiving. People would give gifts to God in proportion to the blessings they had received from Him.

This is also known as Pentecost.

Maybe you see where I’m going here.

Acts 2 records what happened during the first Pentecost after Jesus was crucified.

Isn’t it so awesome that on a day of gift giving and celebration, God would give us the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The end of chapter 12 gives us a sobering reference. It says,

“When the Lord your God goes ahead of you and destroys the nations and you drive them out and live in their land, 30 do not fall into the trap of following their customs and worshiping their gods. Do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations worship their gods? I want to follow their example.’ 31 You must not worship the Lord your God the way the other nations worship their gods, for they perform for their gods every detestable act that the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters as sacrifices to their gods.

32 “So be careful to obey all the commands I give you. You must not add anything to them or subtract anything from them.

It’s really hard to know what to say about vs31. They would burn their sons and daughters.

God is a God of love, a God who values human life and won’t stand for that life to be murdered. Murder is a high crime in the sight of God. It’s easy to look at the Old Testament and get fixated on all of the death and loss of life, through animal sacrifice, and city raids and military offensives. But here we get a glimpse of what is really taking place in the land of Canaan. These are Godless people who have given themselves over to not just their gods, but to evil. It is evil to sacrifice humans, and especially children. There is no other word for it, it is evil.

Their customs, practices, and every false and evil god they stand for MUST be wiped from the earth.

I want to talk about something that caught my eye, 7:7 says, “The Lord did not set his heart on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations!”

I think it would be easy, but incorrect to assume that the nation of Israel was the odds on favorite to win any of these future battles they would be facing. The fact is they weren’t. They were smaller in number, but they were still Gods.

God is the God of the underdog. He is glorified, He is capable when we are not. He is the X factor.

Look down at 7:17-18, 17 Perhaps you will think to yourselves, ‘How can we ever conquer these nations that are so much more powerful than we are?’ 18 But don’t be afraid of them! Just remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all the land of Egypt.

God is the muscle behind everything.

Moses goes onto say, “No, do not be afraid of those nations, for the Lord your God is among you, and he is a great and awesome God. 22 The Lord your God will drive those nations out ahead of you little by little. You will not clear them away all at once, otherwise the wild animals would multiply too quickly for you. 23 But the Lord your God will hand them over to you. He will throw them into complete confusion until they are destroyed. 24 He will put their kings in your power, and you will erase their names from the face of the earth. No one will be able to stand against you, and you will destroy them all.

In the 1st chapter we see Moses talk to the people about the prior generations failure to be obedient to the leading of God and not entering into the promised land. At this point the Israelites should’ve been in the promised land but because of their disobedience, their entrance was delayed.

This should be a reminder to all of us that disobedience to God’s will can result in delayed or even a total loss of God’s plan for our lives. Of course we know that God can redeem our circumstances, but a full life lived in obedience to God shouldn’t always be carried out in this manner. We should be obedient to the guidance of the Holy Spirit at all times!

This first chapter is full of hard truths that we don’t really like to talk about. We like to talk about God’s grace and how God can take our messed up life and use it for His glory, and that is very true, but I’ve never heard a redemption story from a person who didn’t first turn from their previous lifestyle and dedicate themselves to following God.

Human nature tells us to follow our own plans then ask God to bless them, when in reality we should be obediently following the leading of the Holy Spirit at all times.

In this instance, not following God costs the Exodus generation their promised land. Their disobedience was tragic and was an irreversible loss. These people would die in the wilderness.

Now all that being said, take a look at 2:7, which says, “ For the Lord your God has blessed you in everything you have done. He has watched your every step through this great wilderness. During these forty years, the Lord your God has been with you, and you have lacked nothing.”

Even in the Israelites disobedience, God never left them alone.

Even in your disobedience, God has never left you alone. And He never will. Always pray and ask God for forgiveness, never forget that you can always return to the Father, because He has never left your side

The tribe of Levi had a different role to play. In today's podcast we take a closer look at what that role was and how they fit into the plan for God's people!

Its really hard to imagine all of this taking place in today’s world. But this is the world that these Israelites lived in. They were on the offensive in war and they were taking what God had already divinely given to them.

Yesterday we got to the first successful military conflict that the Israelites completed and today we already have two tribes looking to possess that piece of land. Specifically the tribes of Reuben and Gad. They wanted this specific land because they had a greater amount of livestock, and this land was perfect for their flocks.

We see that they brought this to Moses’ attention, but Moses smelled a rat. He thought they were trying to get out of going into the land of Canaan with the other tribes, and just simply settling in the most convenient place, which was right where they were.

They then convinced Moses that this wasn’t the case at all, it was just the perfect place for them to settle and that they still intended to send everyone who was eligible for war with the rest of the nation of Israel.

After hearing this Moses then allowed them to stay but reminded them that if they failed to come through on their promise, then they would be guilty of sinning against God and their sin would catch up to them.

Something significant happens at the beginning of chapter 27. By Hebrew law, if a father died with no sons there would be no way for a daughter to inherit their fathers land. God then established a law that daughters could inherit the families share of the land.

This law shows that God intended dignity and honor for women, not oppression.

Right after this law from God, we see an incredibly significant moment. God brought Moses up to see the promised land, at this point Moses knew that he would not be the man to lead the Israelites into battle to take the land. God allowed him to see the land, then to appoint the next leader of the nation of Israel.

We see that God communicated with Balaam, and honestly, I don’t get it. I don’t understand how a man can be so dumb that he can have the kind of communication and interaction with God that Balaam had, the guts to stand up to Balak the way that he does, because he does obviously understand the power that God possess, or maybe not. Perhaps Balaam thought that God was just one of many powerful gods. Either way his misunderstanding of God would ultimately be the end of him.