Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy Chapter 10

• Deuteronomy 10:1 At that time the LORD said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto me into the mount, and make thee an ark of wood. 

He is a God of second chances. He is a God that wants to save. The only thing that we must remember is that it is God's first best that is best for us. We get ourselves in so much trouble when we fail to obey God the first time around. Because of Israel's failure to believe and obey God, a whole generation of people had to dwell 40 years in a wilderness until they died off before their children could go into the promised land. 

• Deuteronomy 10:2 And I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark. 

Notice Moses wrote the first set of tablets but the second set were written by the finger of God. 

• Deuteronomy 10:3 And I made an ark of shittim wood, and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in mine hand. 

Moses did his part. He made the ark, and hewed the tablets of stone. God wrote the commandments upon the stone. 

• Deuteronomy 10:4 And he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the LORD spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly: and the LORD gave them unto me. 
• 5 And I turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they be, as the LORD commanded me. 

The commandments are from God, they are holy and they are for the good of all creation. Blessed be the Lord. We see though that mankind is weak and cannot keep the commandments. They had to continually make offerings and sacrifices for sin until the one came that we call a savior who would make the way for people to repent of sin and receive God's very spirit within them enabling them to keep the commandments within their hearts instead of by their own efforts of self  attempted righteousness. 

• Deuteronomy 10:6 And the children of Israel took their journey from Beeroth of the children of Jaakan to Mosera: there Aaron died, and there he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered in the priest's office in his stead. 

This story is told in Numbers 20. They mourned for Aaron 30 days. We see that this is part of the fulfillment of the judgment of God. Both Aaron and Moses along with the first generation that came out of Egypt did not get to enter the promised land except for Joshua and Caleb. 

• Deuteronomy 10:7 From thence they journeyed unto Gudgodah; and from Gudgodah to Jotbath, a land of rivers of waters. 
• 8 At that time the LORD separated the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister unto him, and to bless in his name, unto this day. 

The tribe of Levi was responsible for the spiritual ministry, taking care of the sacrifices, and performing the ordinances which were religious services to keep the tribes faithful to God. This was a way of worshiping God and bringing in the memory of who God was and the requirements in His law to keep them from going astray. This was put in place until the final complete way of salvation was made through God coming in the flesh, Jesus the Son of God. They didn't always turn out to be all that faithful but they were supposed to be. A priesthood was set up to intercede between the people and God. There was then a clergy and laity.

The church of today patterns itself after this in a way. Some pagan rituals were added also to some churches in the early middle ages. Except for bishops, deacons, and elders though the old order of clergy and laity should not exist after the coming of our high priest, Jesus Christ who replaced the Leviticus priesthood. Now all of us who believe in Jesus become priests and we are equal in the sight of God. There now is neither male nor female, bond or free, Jew or Greek. We need godly leaders to teach, preach and keep order but there should be no separation between clergy and laity as far as titles and exalting one over another.

Leadership is a service and a duty under God. Jesus is the true head of the church. This does not make one so great that he (she) has authority to dictate individual lives and use excessive control over the people. To use authority wrongly is called Nicolaitism according to some who interpret that word as suppression of the laity.  

• Deuteronomy 10:9 Wherefore Levi hath no part nor inheritance with his brethren; the LORD is his inheritance, according as the LORD thy God promised him. 

To choose to forsake all earthly ties and give oneself to God's service is a high calling indeed. 

• Deuteronomy 10:10 And I stayed in the mount, according to the first time, forty days and forty nights; and the LORD hearkened unto me at that time also, and the LORD would not destroy thee. 

I don't quite understand fully why God always had to have an intercessor between Himself and His human creation but it could be that He is so holy that our sin separates us from Him until the time when we are made clean by the blood of Jesus Christ shed for our sins. Moses bridged the gap in the days he walked with God just as Jesus became the final bridge between God and man when He died for our sins and rose from the dead so we who receive Him will one day rise from the dead. Actually when our body dies, we do go to be with the Lord. Only our earthly body dies.

We really should no longer desire and intercessor between us and God other than Jesus. If we insist on going to a priest and have him do the praying we need to be doing, we are actually undoing what Jesus did. We need to learn to pray and seek God for ourselves and we can if we come through Jesus Christ. That doesn't mean we can't agree in prayer and have people praying for us or praying with us though. There is a thing such as laying hands on people and praying for them especially if they are too sick or troubled to pray for themselves but this is not a continual happening where we go weekly to a minister and have them intercede like the early priesthood. We learn to pray ourselves after we come to God.

• Deuteronomy 10:11 And the LORD said unto me, Arise, take thy journey before the people, that they may go in and possess the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give unto them. 

The time had come for them to go and inherit the land promised back in the days of Abraham. 

• Deuteronomy 10:12 And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, 
• 13 To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good? 

Notice the words "for thy good". All God has ever desired for His people were good things, never evil. What does He require. 

1. Fear the Lord - We have lost the fear of God and that is exactly why we have so much trouble with sin and messed up lives. Drugs, alcoholism, sexual immorality, and disease are all a result of our loss of the fear of God and His commandments. He even made a way for His commandments to be written upon our hearts and we still do not fear the Lord. 
2. Walk in His ways - We would get in a lot less trouble if we walked in His ways instead of our own. We need to search the scripture to find out and discover what HIS WAYS are. 
3. Love Him - Once we get to know God personally, it is easy to love Him. This is possible through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. Through Christ, we can get to know God on a one on one basis. 
4. Serve Him with all our heart - The result of the first three will be to serve Him with all our heart.

Jeremiah prophesies of the salvation of the heart.

• Jeremiah 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 
• 32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: 
• 33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 
• 34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. 

This is the accomplished by faith in Jesus. Jesus cleanses from sin and puts within us the Holy Spirit. By the Holy Spirit the law comes in our inward parts and we obey the Lord from our hearts. If anyone claims Christ and does not live in holiness, then he or she has not been filled with the spirit. This is not a one time event. We should be constantly filled with the spirit in our walk with Christ. 

• Deuteronomy 10:14 Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD'S thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is. 
• 15 Only the LORD had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day. 
• 16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked. 

The heart being changed by the power of God is true religion. Unfortunately some of us settle for outward show, circumcision, rituals, rites, ordinances, and ceremonies thinking that is going to cleanse us from sin and make us right with God. The heart needs to be changed and then we can begin to walk in the spirit instead of walking in the flesh. 

• Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 

Why do so many choose an outward religion instead of a real relationship with a Holy God? I believe it is because they really want to feel religious without forsaking their sins.

• Deuteronomy 10:17 For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward: 
• 18 He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment. 

All through the old and new testament we see God as a God who cares for the poor and weak. This latter day teaching that to gain is godliness and when one is rich he has the favor of God, is proven false all through the bible.

• Deuteronomy 10:19 Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. 

God never intends that Israel or believers in Christ should be unequally yoked by accepting the false gods or false religions of the strangers. Neither does He desire for any of us to follow the ways of the sin and unbelief of the heathen but we are to love their eternal souls and do good to them. Kindness and love are fruits of the spirit that we need to be in possession of. A lack of these things causes a reproach upon the gospel of Jesus Christ. The devil doesn't always have to use persecution to destroy the church, a better way is to let us destroy ourselves by getting away from the love of God and His word. 

• Deuteronomy 10:20 Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name. 
• 21 He is thy praise, and he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine eyes have seen. 

He is thy praise. For those who criticize us for continually praising the Lord, I say, how can we not praise the one who has given us life instead of death. 

• Deuteronomy 10:22 Thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons; and now the LORD thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude. 

Israel continues to increase though many have tried in vain to snuff them out and cause them to disappear as a nation. The holocaust was only one time. There has been many attempts to destroy these people chosen of God to bring salvation to the whole world. Bible prophecy hinges upon the existence of Israel. What has been written in the Holy bible will come to pass and there is nothing any nation can do to stop it. DC

Deuteronomy 11