Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to faithhopegodlove@aol.com In Christ, Mark
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
"Then we turned back and set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea, as the Lord had directed me. For a long time we made our way around the hill country of Seir.
Then the Lord said to me, "You have made your way around this hill country long enough; now turn north. Give the people these orders: 'You are about to pass through the territory of your brothers the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, but be very careful. Do not provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land, not even enough to put your foot on. I have given Esau the hill country of Seir as his own. You are to pay them in silver for the food you eat and the water you drink.' "
The Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast desert. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything.
So we went on past our brothers the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. We turned from the Arabah road, which comes up from Elath and Ezion Geber, and traveled along the desert road of Moab.
Then the Lord said to me, "Do not harass the Moabites or provoke them to war, for I will not give you any part of their land. I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as a possession." (The Emites used to live there—a people strong and numerous, and as tall as the Anakites. Like the Anakites, they too were considered Rephaites, but the Moabites called them Emites. Horites used to live in Seir, but the descendants of Esau drove them out. They destroyed the Horites from before them and settled in their place, just as Israel did in the land the Lord gave them as their possession.)
And the Lord said, "Now get up and cross the Zered Valley." So we crossed the valley.
Thirty-eight years passed from the time we left Kadesh Barnea until we crossed the Zered Valley. By then, that entire generation of fighting men had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them. The Lord's hand was against them until he had completely eliminated them from the camp.
Now when the last of these fighting men among the people had died, the Lord said to me, "Today you are to pass by the region of Moab at Ar. When you come to the Ammonites, do not harass them or provoke them to war, for I will not give you possession of any land belonging to the Ammonites. I have given it as a possession to the descendants of Lot."
(That too was considered a land of the Rephaites, who used to live there; but the Ammonites called them Zamzummites. They were a people strong and numerous, and as tall as the Anakites. The Lord destroyed them from before the Ammonites, who drove them out and settled in their place. The Lord had done the same for the descendants of Esau, who lived in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites from before them. They drove them out and have lived in their place to this day. And as for the Avvites who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorites coming out from Caphtor destroyed them and settled in their place.) ." Deuteronomy 2:1-23
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
In Chapter 1, we saw an Israel who had lost God’s favor through their unwillingness to trust Him and willingness to be disobedient to His commands. They discovered quickly that they couldn’t prevail against any challenge without God being with them but not before consequence. For God had ordered Israel back into another exodus, this time for forty years…one year for every day the spies had been in Canaan before they brought report back to the people. The intent was for the current disobedient generation to pass away and never get to receive the inheritance God promised. That privilege would now fall to the next generation.
As Chapter 2 begins, Moses and Israel have left Kadesh and “set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea” just as “the Lord had directed”. Note that the first steps toward making things right with the Lord can only be taken by a turning from one’s sinful ways. Israel, if it ever hoped to regain God’s favor, needed to start by obeying His commands and trusting in His word.
Scripture shows us that God began to once again guide and advise Israel. He tells Moses, “You have made your way around this hill country long enough; now turn north” and “give the people these orders: 'You are about to pass through the territory of your brothers the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, but be very careful. Do not provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land, not even enough to put your foot on. I have given Esau the hill country of Seir as his own.' " The Lord would give similar orders to Israel as they passed through territory belonging to the Moabites and Ammonites. In all these cases, the Lord told Israel that He had given the land to another, Esau in the case of the hill country of Seir and the descendents of Lot in the case of the land owned by the Moabites and Ammonites. There was land earmarked for Israel but they hadn’t reached it yet.
They had been traveling a very long time. For thirteen verses into Chapter 2, we are told that Israel had been wandering in the desert for 38 years when they crossed the Zered Valley as ordered by the Lord. Our passage tells us that during this period, “the entire generation of fighting men had perished from the camp” just as the Lord had said they would. Indeed, His “hand was against them until he had completely eliminated them”. God was true to His word.
Although this truth was revealed in discipline over Israel, it isn’t always revealed in consequence. God is always true to His word always, in good times and bad. This is what I like to refer to as an absolute. There aren’t too many sure things we can count on in life but with the Lord, there are a multitude of them. We can because His word is true. Consider these words of Jesus as He speaks about His disciples and His Father’s word:
“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.” John 17:13-19
The Lord expects us to be holy as He is holy. (1 Peter 1:15-16) Jesus was the personification of everything that God was…including holiness. He was sanctification in its perfect sense and sought to guide His disciples so they too might find their way to sanctification, knowing they would never be perfectly holy but could strive to meet that goal if they would only trust and follow God’s truth…a truth found in His word.
Question: How well do you know the truth? Given our scriptures, that would depend on how well you know God’s word. This is why writing each day is such a labor of love for me. I get to pass on the truth to anyone who wishes to seek it…and not just a transparent, artificial truth but THE truth as found in the living Word of God. My hope and prayer, just as was the hope of Jesus, was that we all might be able to move to a higher plane of holiness and righteousness, not only hearing what God’s word says but vowing to put it into practice. For when we do so, we can relate to the words of the Psalmist who said this about the Word:
I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands.
I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
Praise be to you, O LORD; teach me your decrees. Psalm 119:10-12
My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word. Psalm 119:28
Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain.
Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word.
Psalm 119:36-37
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. Psalm 119:105
Your word, O LORD, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens. Your faithfulness continues through all generations… Psalm 119:89-90
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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