Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy Chapter 31

• Deuteronomy 31:1 And Moses went and spake these words unto all Israel.
• 2 And he said unto them, I am an hundred and twenty years old this day; I can no more go out and come in: also the LORD hath said unto me, Thou shalt not go over this Jordan.
• 3 The LORD thy God, he will go over before thee, and he will destroy these nations from before thee, and thou shalt possess them: and Joshua, he shall go over before thee, as the LORD hath said.
• 4 And the LORD shall do unto them as he did to Sihon and to Og, kings of the Amorites, and unto the land of them, whom he destroyed.

A reminder here that God didn't allow Israel to go and conquer these nations back in the days of Abraham when the land was promised to them. The reason is that God gives nations plenty of time to repent from their evil ways and change. Their iniquity was not yet full in other words, their evil had not gotten to the point where they were beyond repentance. God does eventually bring judgment to evil nations but He gives them time to turn from their wickedness. Some of the things they did were sacrificing little children or babies to idols. Evil spirits are present in any idol worship and leads to many other sins like sexual immorality, violence, torture, rape and whatever Satan leads them in to.

When innocent children are harmed, it isn't long before God has to say, "Enough." I fear for the United States because of the millions of aborted babies, departing from God's divine order concerning marriage, the increasing sexual immorality that is not what God created and made for the good of all His creation. Our sins are going to destroy us if we don't stop. Confusion, disease and violence is increasing almost daily. Some poor kids do not know what gender they are now and there is so much confusion. We are out of God's divine order and everyone is doing what is right in their own eyes and ignoring the word of God. In fact they are in rebellion and defiance of the law of God. When a nation rejects God and His holiness, they will usually receive a false god that will allow them to sin but later it will destroy them.

• Deuteronomy 31:5 And the LORD shall give them up before your face, that ye may do unto them according unto all the commandments which I have commanded you.
• 6 Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

Moses was not allowed to go with them to the promised land because of his disobedience of not giving God the glory when the anger of Moses caused him to strike the rock twice. He was only to speak to the rock. He was angry because the congregation was complaining about lack of water and wanted to go back to Egypt.

• Numbers 20:8 Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.
• 9 And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him.
• 10 And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?

It is not easy to be a leader of a bunch of complaining people. It is hard not to give into anger. It is also hard to keep from giving God all glory and not puffing oneself up too highly and taking the credit for the miracles and works that God does in our midst. We can read in the book of Daniel of what happened to Nebuchadnezzar when he exalted himself in his mind and gloried in the kingdom he built being lifted up in pride. He was driven from his throne for 7 years living with the beasts and going what we would call nuts before he was restored to his right mind. Pride surely goes before a fall. There has been good spiritual leaders that have let pride and robbing God of glory ruin their ministries.

Why would this be so bad? Does God really want all the credit? No. Here is the thing. We are only human, we fail, we can't do anything apart from God. If the eyes of people are on us instead of God, when we make mistakes, their faith is going to stumble and it could cause them to fall away from the truth. If we teach people to seek God and get to know Him, giving God all glory, it teaches them to develop a relationship with God for themselves so that if we mess up, they still can keep following the Lord. This is very important. Bring people to Jesus Christ for salvation and then make disciples of new believers by teaching them to start seeking God. By praying, seeking understanding, by studying His word and getting to know who He is and what His word is saying to us, is the way to go. We step aside in other words and let them see Jesus instead of us. We are not to start cults but start bible believing groups that will spread the gospel and bring more people to Jesus Christ. We are not to stay in one place and keep the gospel hidden behind four walls.

• Deuteronomy 31:7 And Moses called unto Joshua, and said unto him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of a good courage: for thou must go with this people unto the land which the LORD hath sworn unto their fathers to give them; and thou shalt cause them to inherit it.
• 8 And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.

Joshua now is the appointed leader. Joshua and Caleb are the only two people other than the children under the age of twenty that were going into the land of Canaan. Because of unbelief they had to delay going into the promised land until all the older people died off in the wilderness. It took forty years. Joshua and Caleb were the only two other than Moses that believed God at the time when the 12 spies returned with an evil report filled with fear from seeing the large size of the giants in the land. Ten of the spies feared and spread the fear to the whole congregation. Unbelief after all God showed them and after all the miracles they had seen caused them die before entering the promised land. Joshua and Caleb believed that with God's help they could conquer the giants.

Unbelief leads to all other sins and will also keep people from receiving eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus frees us from sin and brings us into a new way of living. God gives us His Holy Spirit, we are born again, saved and granted eternal life and to be part of the first resurrection. If we refuse this and abide in unbelief up until we die, we lose out on this good way and are raised in the 2nd resurrection where we face the judgment of God. That is a fearful time but it doesn't have to be. We still are living in the day of Grace and can come to Christ for salvation now. We can turn away from sin (repent or renounce our sin) and turn to Jesus Christ to cleansing from sin. We then can be filled with His Holy Spirit that will abide with us forever. We learn to love Him. If we love Him we will keep His commandments. That is how we know the false from the real. Those that love Him keeps His word and has His word abiding within them are for real.

• Deuteronomy 31:9 And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it unto the priests the sons of Levi, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and unto all the elders of Israel.
• 10 And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles,
• 11 When all Israel is come to appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing.
• 12 Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law:
• 13 And that their children, which have not known any thing, may hear, and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.

The feast of tabernacles or feast of booths is the last of the 7 feasts and is in the fall. They set aside this time to teach and read God's word. To anyone that loves the word of God this sounds very good in a day and age where there is a famine of good bible teaching and sharing God's word verse by verse in context instead of just picking out favorite verses here and there missing some of the most important ones. We need the whole counsel of God.

• Deuteronomy 31:14 And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thy days approach that thou must die: call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tabernacle of the congregation, that I may give him a charge. And Moses and Joshua went, and presented themselves in the tabernacle of the congregation.
• 15 And the LORD appeared in the tabernacle in a pillar of a cloud: and the pillar of the cloud stood over the door of the tabernacle.

God Himself appeared in a pillar of a cloud to give the congregation witness that the words of Moses were true.

• Deuteronomy 31:16 And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.
• 17 Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us?
• 18 And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods.

God knew ahead of time that when Moses and Joshua died they would forsake Him and worship the false gods of the land of Canaan. However, He instructs Moses to write a song and teach it to their children for a witness of who the real God is and who brought them into the land. There is always a remnant who stay true to God. It is important to teach God's word to children.

• Deuteronomy 31:19 Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach it the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel.
• 20 For when I shall have brought them into the land which I sware unto their fathers, that floweth with milk and honey; and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxen fat; then will they turn unto other gods, and serve them, and provoke me, and break my covenant.
• 21 And it shall come to pass, when many evils and troubles are befallen them, that this song shall testify against them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed: for I know their imagination which they go about, even now, before I have brought them into the land which I sware.
• 22 Moses therefore wrote this song the same day, and taught it the children of Israel.
• 23 And he gave Joshua the son of Nun a charge, and said, Be strong and of a good courage: for thou shalt bring the children of Israel into the land which I sware unto them: and I will be with thee.
• 24 And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished,
• 25 That Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying,
• 26 Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee.
• 27 For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the LORD; and how much more after my death?
• 28 Gather unto me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to record against them.
• 29 For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days; because ye will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands.
• 30 And Moses spake in the ears of all the congregation of Israel the words of this song, until they were ended.

Teaching, preaching, expounding the word always and especially to the children is very important to keep them from straying and following the ways of the world we live in. We also must live godly ourselves before them so that we do not become a stumbling block and destroy their faith. The world is wrong. Following the crowds, doing what is right in our own eyes will lead to everlasting destruction. Many nations have fallen hard because they forsake God.

We can read what happened to Israel at the Babylonian captivity. We can read what happened in 70 AD. We reap what we sow. Departing from God and His commandments will destroy any nation and destroy our souls.  GOD HAS A BETTER WAY IF WE ALLOW HIM INTO OUR LIVES -DC

Deuteronomy Chapter 32