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Deuteronomy 8-10 Deep Diving Bible Study

 

GOOD MORNING!

Today’s readings are Deuteronomy 8-10

Click here to read today’s passages on BibleGateway.

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I often compare my life before I committed to reading  the whole Bible to being a person who was starving and living on lettuce. Well folks when it comes to gleaning the wisdom of our Father, Deuteronomy is hard core carnivore!

If you haven’t seen by now why I love this book so much, hang onto your hats! Let’s dive on into just a few of the key messages I want to point out. We could spend a month on each chapter of Deuteronomy so make sure you dig into each chapter as much as you can in the time we have. Don’t worry, we’ll come back around the bend again! Remember, the goal was never to read the Bible once, but to become daily, lifelong, Bible readers! In case you haven’t picked up on it by now, we need this book in order to survive! 

Deut 8:2-3 Here we are clearly given notice that the Father is going to test us to see what is truly in our hearts and whether or not we will follow and trust in Him. But notice the grace! During this testing, He is still providing, so generously, giving signs daily and offering reminders of who He is!

Deut 8:4 Miracle clothes! The clothing didn’t wear out. It is easy to overlook this but take a moment and consider it. 40 years of hard wear in the desert and their clothing did not wear out. The Father looks after every single little detail, even personally caring for and protecting the fibers of their garments!

Deut 8:3 … Man does not live by bread alone but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of YHWH.  I’ve heard this all my life, have you? And yet, these words from the mouth of YHWH are found in the part of the Bible that has been cast aside and declared irrelevant by many in our world today – but they’ll still use this quote!

Deut 8:10 is the reason why some people bless their food after the meal because in the order that sentence is written it appears that is what they did. I’m just pointing this out as a point of interest. So often when we are fully and satisfied – in our meals and in our lives – we forget to thank Him.

Deut 8:11-20 is a stark reminder not to forget the Father after He rescues us from the bondage of the world. Not only that, but not to forget Him and rush right back to the world/situation/sin He rescued you from.

Deut 9:1-3 “Hear, O Israel: you are to cross over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the sons of Anak?’ Know therefore today that he who goes over before you as a consuming fire is the Lord your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as the Lord has promised you.

The Israelites had mighty warriors among them and were feared by many as a result. It would be an easy thing for them to believe they beat out these people through their own might and so the Father is taking some time to explain to them just how great the army was that they were going up against, pointing out that their might, reputation, and infrastructure were all too great for even Israel. He goes on to let them know the reasoning for this is to make sure they don’t get haughty and think that they have won this battle on their own. On the contrary, YHWH was going to go before them and will win it on His own.

4 “Do not say in your heart, after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you. Deut 9:4

Do not say in your heart…. More reminders that YHWH knows our hearts. The sentence we say over and over is true. He knows our hearts. This should be said as a means of comfort in knowing we are walking obedience with Him, but today we are often modeled the example of using  “He knows my heart” as a means of excusing any disobedience.

Deut 1-:4-11 The Grace of our Father is in every word of this passage.

12 “And now, Israel, what does YHWH your God require of you, but to fear YHWH 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, 13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good? 14 Behold, to YHWH your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.15 Yet YHWH set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. 16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. 17 For YHWH your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. 18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. 19 Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. 20 You shall fear YHWH your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear. 21 He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen. 22 Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons, and now YHWH your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven. Deut 10:12-22

What is required of us?  Is it different from these basic statements that YHWH has required of His people since the beginning of time? Are we not to walk in His ways rather than our own, love Him with our whole heart and soul, keep His commandments, and will all of this not work to our own good? He has been as faithful to us as He was to Israel, and we have been as stubborn as Israel in response.

Well, it turns out we’re kinda like coffee pots. You know, I was thinking about something this morning. I have a stainless steel coffee pot. I make coffee in that each and every day. Over time, that stainless steel coffee pot gets stained. Its was designed to be pristine but if you brew enough coffee in it, it’s gonna start looking like the coffee. So from time to time I make a little bleach water and I pour it in there and let it soak for a bit. After a few hours I can go in there, pour it out, rinse it in water, and have a coffee pot that looks like it was supposed to look on the inside.

We are that coffee pot. The world is the coffee. The bleach solution is the word of our Father. This world is going to stain us, take us away from what we were supposed to look like, but the more time we spend in the word of YHWH, the more and more we will be made anew from the inside out. Not of our own doing, but of His doing in our lives.

Y’all, there is so much to learn, so much wisdom in this reading! I encourage you to read it this morning and then again this evening. If possible even more today. If you are someone who interacts with your Bible by taking notes, highlighting, etc, don’t let go of these pages until they look like a rainbow! These words are from the very mouth of our Creator! This is His Wisdom, it is timeless! It is wholly applicable to anyone who would join themselves to Him and seek to walk in His ways – the very footsteps our Messiah walked in.

No more wading for us. The Father has called us into the deep. Dive in! 


Test everything, hold tight to what is good.~ 1 Thess 5:21

We are saved by Grace alone: Obedience is not the root of our salvation, it is the fruit!

May YHWH bless the reading of His Word!