Furthermore, the LORD was angry with me because of you, and he swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and that I should not enter the good land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance. For I must die in this land; I must not go over the Jordan. But you shall go over and take possession of that good land. Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the LORD your God has forbidden you. For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
“When you father children and children’s children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, so as to provoke him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you. And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. But from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the LORD your God and obey his voice. For the LORD your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.
“For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides him. Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire. And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, driving out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day, know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. Therefore you shall 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 that the LORD your God is giving you for all time.” (Deuteronomy 4:21-40 ESV)
God is your God and He will stand beside you or behind you for all of your life! Of course that doesn’t mean He won’t be shaking his head or wagging His finger at you…
Moses here is about to send the people of God into the promised land. He has led them through the wilderness for 40 years and they are almost there! But Moses does not get to go in, because of the people according to Moses. So he can’t go in, but the people will go. And when they have lived there for a while they will become complacent. As we all do. They will take for granted all of the things they use to watch out for and defend them selves against… They will fall into the worship of idols…
So take care you do not become complacent in your life and get taken for granted by the things you use to guard your heart against… But can’t this go the other way… Jesus in the New Testament tells us that the Pharisees and Scribes are white washed tombs, they look good on the outside, but they have lost the intent of the law they so diligently keep. They did not guard their hearts against idols, because the law became their idol. So it is not as easy as keeping the law, it is about the right order of things, and knowing who you follow and why you do the things you do. It is not about doing the right things, but doing things for the right reasons…
So take care you are not hung up on the legalistic side of things, that you lose the heart of the matter…
aSacredRebel 