Page 122 - Part One

Chapter 11. If we could hear Moses speaking, as Israel did, we would hear the earnest words of
a man who loved them. He was an old man of 120 years. He had walked many miles through
many years, with God and with the people of God. Now, he had earnest words on His heart to
convey God’s love to them and to warn them, because he knew what would come to pass in later
days, when temptations would come and when the love of Israel would grow cold. He spoke
strongly and lovingly to them. This was God speaking and this is how God also speaks to us.

The walk of faith is not logical according to human philosophy. Verse 26 is one of several times
when the twofold future of blessing and curse is placed before Israel. They could choose their
future depending on their ability to walk with God. One future followed obedience, the other
followed disobedience. Two futures were simultaneously held before Israel. Choice was a factor
in determining the future, but choice is not an easy topic to study from the Bible and the history
of Israel. There are forces at work in our lives that are stronger than our human will and so we
need help with our choices and deliverance from the consequences of our actions. Often our
sinful nature is stronger than our power to overcome it, so some consequences of our choices are
inevitable despite human logic. Israel would discover this in later years and Moses knew it as he
brought warning to them. They chose to follow God’s plan for them, but did not realize that sin
would be stronger than their ability to fulfill their choice. The other power greater than our
power to choose, is the power of God. Ultimately His sovereign purposes, fulfilled through
Yeshua, are behind the scenes of all covenant history, despite our weakness. All this we learn
from the history of Israel. We have choice but God’s sovereign purposes direct our paths despite
our failures in maintaining our chosen path.

Day 4

Chapter 12. We continue to hear the earnest words of Moses. After all these years in the
wilderness, he knew the way people gradually and easily fall away from a good path. He knows
how easily people invent their own ideas of what pleases God. All manner of sins divert people
to invent ideas of what might please God – really, there are hidden motives, and it is more about
what will please us that leads us to sin. We can list some of them these sins: pride, haughtiness,
ambition, laziness, temptation, self-satisfaction, imagining God as in the image of man and not
the other way round, wrong theology, worldliness, listening to satan’s lies – “did God really
say…?”. We can add many more sins and lusts of the flesh that appear in the Old and New
Testament. We can all make our own list of human weaknesses that make us grow cold towards
God. These things still happen today. Moses continued to remind Israel of exactly what God
required of them. They were not to be tempted in any way to follow the practices of the other
nations – they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods (verse 30). There
were strict, but reasonable, conditions on God’s blessings. In particular the method of sacrifice
was to be exactly as God required and in the place He appointed. Blood was to be drained from
all meat, both in the Tabernacle and in the home. Embedded in God’s commands were principles
that pointed to Yeshua’s shed Blood, and these were early days of preparation for His coming.

In verse 8, it says that everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes. Moses reminded
them that they must only live in the ways that God had ordained.