WHAT DOES THE LORD ASK OF YOU?

To all,

The Christian Walk ministry is one year old today, it has been a pleasure sharing God’s word and wisdom with you as well as sharing fellowship and prayer. It’s been an awesome blessing for me to be used by the Lord to serve you. I look forward to the next year with excitement and expectation as we continue to journey together. Thanks for all your support and encouragement!

In Christ,

Mark

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.

“Remember this and never forget how you provoked the Lord your God to anger in the desert. From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebellious against the Lord. At Horeb you aroused the Lord's wrath so that he was angry enough to destroy you. When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord had made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water. The Lord gave me two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God. On them were all the commandments the Lord proclaimed to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.

At the end of the forty days and forty nights, the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. Then the Lord told me, "Go down from here at once, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt. They have turned away quickly from what I commanded them and have made a cast idol for themselves."

And the Lord said to me, "I have seen this people, and they are a stiff-necked people indeed! Let me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they."

So I turned and went down from the mountain while it was ablaze with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands. When I looked, I saw that you had sinned against the Lord your God; you had made for yourselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, breaking them to pieces before your eyes.

Then once again I fell prostrate before the Lord for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the Lord's sight and so provoking him to anger. I feared the anger and wrath of the Lord, for he was angry enough with you to destroy you. But again the Lord listened to me. And the Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I prayed for Aaron too. Also I took that sinful thing of yours, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust and threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain.

You also made the Lord angry at Taberah, at Massah and at Kibroth Hattaavah.

And when the Lord sent you out from Kadesh Barnea, he said, "Go up and take possession of the land I have given you." But you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. You did not trust him or obey him. You have been rebellious against the Lord ever since I have known you.

I lay prostrate before the Lord those forty days and forty nights because the Lord had said he would destroy you. I prayed to the Lord and said, "O Sovereign Lord, do not destroy your people, your own inheritance that you redeemed by your great power and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness of this people, their wickedness and their sin. Otherwise, the country from which you brought us will say, 'Because the Lord was not able to take them into the land he had promised them, and because he hated them, he brought them out to put them to death in the desert.' But they are your people, your inheritance that you brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm."

At that time the Lord said to me, "Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones and come up to me on the mountain. Also make a wooden chest. I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Then you are to put them in the chest."

So I made the ark out of acacia wood and chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. The Lord wrote on these tablets what he had written before, the Ten Commandments he had proclaimed to you on the mountain, out of the fire, on the day of the assembly. And the Lord gave them to me. Then I came back down the mountain and put the tablets in the ark I had made, as the Lord commanded me, and they are there now.

(The Israelites traveled from the wells of the Jaakanites to Moserah. There Aaron died and was buried, and Eleazar his son succeeded him as priest. From there they traveled to Gudgodah and on to Jotbathah, a land with streams of water. At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister and to pronounce blessings in his name, as they still do today. That is why the Levites have no share or inheritance among their brothers; the Lord is their inheritance, as the Lord your God told them.)

Now I had stayed on the mountain forty days and nights, as I did the first time, and the Lord listened to me at this time also. It was not his will to destroy you. “Go," the Lord said to me, "and lead the people on their way, so that they may enter and possess the land that I swore to their fathers to give them."

And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord's commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?
Deuteronomy 9:7-29, 10:1-13

This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Through the remainder of Deuteronomy, Chapter 9 and the start of Chapter 10, Moses reminds Israel of their stubborn sinfulness, consistently violating God’s commands, laws and decrees. From Horeb where Israel had worshipped the golden calf, causing Moses to smash the stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments…to Taberah, Massah and Kibroth Hattaavah…to Kadesh Barnea where Israel blew their first attempt at entering Canaan and ended up wondering the desert for forty more years before the point where they were now…on the brink of entering the Promised Land. Israel’s behavior is summed up by Moses when he tells them “From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebellious against the Lord.” And had it not been for the times Moses went to God and interceded for them, Israel might have been completely destroyed before they got to the Promised Land. Certainly, they had angered God many times over.

Well, that was Israel. How about us? If we were to sit down and document all the times and places we were stubborn in our sinfulness, how long would our list be? On second thought…maybe we don’t want to go through that drill.

Moses concludes this summary with some words of wisdom for Israel…and for us as well. For he tells all of us the things that the Lord expects from us…the things He asks from us. Let’s look at each one separately.

1. The Lord asks that we fear Him. Does this mean that we are to be afraid of the Lord? No, this means we are to hold the greatest sense of esteem and admiration for Him. This part of verse 12 is translated in “The Message” as “Live in his presence in holy reverence”. He is God and is greater than anything or anyone. With that, we are commanded to respect Him.

2. The Lord asks that we walk in His ways. Life offers us many paths to travel. Left to our own navigation, we are destined to get lost and vulnerable to Satan’s attack. What an awesome assurance we have that we will never go astray or get lost of we just surrender the wheel to Christ. He will always ensure that we walk a Christian walk…one that adheres to the ways of the Lord.

3. The Lord asks that we love Him. How can we show God we love Him? By staying obedient to His will and way, sacrificing our lives to Him…just as He sacrificed the life of His only Son Jesus for us. And when we sacrifice our lives to Him, then we will love like He loves and that love will be poured out on others. For scripture tells us, “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.” 1 John 4:16

4. The Lord asks that we serve Him with all our heart and soul. We can’t just give God part of ourselves. We have to give Him everything. How can we do this? By making Him the treasure of our lives. Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21) If the Lord is our treasure, then He and He alone will be in our heart and when that happens, we will be serving Him with all we are because He will be all that is in us.

5. The Lord asks that we observe His commands and decrees. We can’t make up our own rules in life. God gave us His word to instruct us and impart wisdom on us. He then sent His only Son to walk the earth and model proper living to us. So we have no excuse. We have everything we need to live as the Lord wants us to live. We only need to carry it out.

So there is no mystery here as to what the Lord expects. We need not sit back and wonder. He lets us know clearly what He expects. What He asks us to do is not hard. But we must divorce ourselves from the world…a world that would move us to live counter to everything the Lord desires. Today is the day to recommit ourselves to the Lord and His principles. Then, let us read these expectations as we wake as a reminder as to what God asks for us to do each and every day. Thanks be to God for His word and will. Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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