Live 4 The LORD

Lessons from Deuteronomy 31-32

The Lord goes before me

He is with me and will never leave me

I am commanded to not fear or be dismayed. 

Deuteronomy 31:8

And the LORD is the one who is going ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not desert you or abandon you. Do not fear and do not be dismayed.

God chooses where we are to worship 

In that place we read his word

We must listen to it. 

We must hear and learn and fear the Lord God

We must be careful to follow and obey it. 

Deuteronomy 31:11-12

when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God at the place which He will choose, you shall read this Law before all Israel so that they hear it. Assemble the people, the men, the women, the children, and the stranger who is in your town, so that they may hear and learn and fear the LORD your God, and be careful to follow all the words of this Law.

The Word of the Lord is a witness of the covenant. 

We will be judged by it. 

It is best to know what we will be judged by. 

If we don’t obey there are consequences. 

Deuteronomy 31:26

“Take this Book of the Law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, so that it may remain there as a witness against you.

God is great! He is a Rock! His ways are Perfect! He is completely Just!

God is faithful without injustice. 

He is Righteous!

Those who act corruptly are not his children. They have become defective by their own actions. They have become perverse and crooked.  Why have you turned and become unwise. 

He is your Father who purchased you.  He made and established you. 

Deuteronomy 32:3-6

For I proclaim the name of the LORD;

Ascribe greatness to our God!

The Rock! His work is perfect,

For all His ways are just;

A God of faithfulness and without injustice,

Righteous and just is He.

They have acted corruptly against Him,

They are not His children, because of their defect;

But are a perverse and crooked generation.

Is this what you do to the LORD,

You foolish and unwise people?

Is He not your Father who has purchased you?

He has made you and established you.

The Lord wants a people for his portion and allotted inheritance. He encircles them, cares for them, guards as the apple of his eye. 

He makes them a nest and hovers over them, spreads his wings and caught them, he carries them. 

Deuteronomy 32:9-11

For the LORD’S portion is His people;

Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance.

He found him in a desert land,

And in the howling wasteland of a wilderness;

He encircled him, He cared for him,

He guarded him as the apple of His eye.

As an eagle stirs up its nest,

And hovers over its young,

He spread His wings, He caught them,

He carried them on His pinions.

The people rebelled, overindulged and became obstinate. We abandoned God who made us. We rejected our salvation. We made God jealous with other Gods and with our abominable deeds we provoked him to anger. We sacrificed to demons. 

We forgot our Father who gave us birth. 

Because of our behavior God has spurned us. He has chosen to punish us by hiding his face and presence from us. When this happens we become more perverse and unfaithful. 

Deuteronomy 32:15–20

“But Jeshurun became fat and kicked—

You have become fat, thick, and obstinate—

Then he abandoned God who made him,

And rejected the Rock of his salvation.

They made Him jealous with strange gods;

With abominations they provoked Him to anger.

They sacrificed to demons, who were not God,

To gods whom they have not known,

New gods who came lately,

Whom your fathers did not know.

You forgot the Rock who fathered you,

And forgot the God who gave you birth.

“The LORD saw this, and spurned them

Because of the provocation by His sons and daughters.

Then He said, ‘I will hide My face from them,

I will see what their end will be;

For they are a perverse generation,

Sons in whom there is no faithfulness.

The people made God jealous with other Gods, provoked God to anger with our idols. 

Therefore God will add misfortunes, he will shoot arrows at us, famine, plagues, epidemics, beasts and venoms, swords and internal anxieties, wiping out his people. 

Deuteronomy 32:21-25

They have made Me jealous with what is not God;

They have provoked Me to anger with their idols.

So I will make them jealous with those who are not a people;

I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation,

For a fire has flared in My anger,

And it burns to the lowest part of Sheol,

And devours the earth with its yield,

And sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.

‘I will add misfortunes to them;

I will use up My arrows on them.

They will be wasted by famine, and emaciated by plague

And a bitter epidemic;

And the teeth of beasts I will send against them,

With the venom of crawling things of the dust.

Outside the sword will make them childless,

And inside, terror—

Both young man and virgin,

The nursing child with the man of gray hair.

I would have said, “I will wipe them out,

God is God

There is no God but THE God

He kills and gives life

He wounds and heals

No one can save from Him 

except Him

Cry out for mercy!

Deuteronomy 32:39

See now that I, I am He,

And there is no god besides Me;

It is I who put to death and give life.

I have wounded and it is I who heal,

And there is no one who can save anyone from My hand.