Deuteronomy 29 – July 1
In today’s devotion I find both joy and sadness. The joy comes from the promises of God being fulfilled for those who follow after Him with their whole hearts (v.9) and the sadness because of the reality that a person can experience the blessings of God for decades and still not have a right heart before Him (v. 4). That fact has always frightened me just a bit.
As we read through this chapter we are reminded of all that God had done for Israel from Egypt into and through the wilderness. Moses mentions the great trials that God saw them through and the signs and wonders that amazed them. YET, they still did not have “a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear.” Now I know the text says that God had not given them a heart to know, etc. Please know that I believe He had not given them a heart to know because they had not sought it with a repentant heart. It reminds me of the truth of a passage like 2 Chronicles 7:14 that reads, “If My people will humble themselves, seek Me, and turn from their wicked ways then….” Obviously the people hadn’t done that even after all of the experiences through forty years of God’s mercy, grace, provision, and blessings. That makes me sad and worries me that the same thing can be true in our own lives. This is why Jesus would often say, “He who has ears to hear let him hear.” Oh dear friends please pray that God would give you the right heart, eyes, and ears to perceive His truth and ways in your midst.
Speaking of eyes to see I now turn to vs. 16-18 where we read of Moses reminding the people of the abominations that they saw as they passed through pagan nations on the way to the Promised Land. I can’t help but think that Moses was saying you saw how futile and foolish these wooden, stone, and carved idols were. He was literally pointing out how idiotic this behavior was and how useless it was as the people were worshipping false gods who could do them absolutely no good. Moses warns them not to fall into the trap of worshipping these idols and thus having their hearts turned away from the one true God. Moses knows that to do so is to allow a poison to get into a person’s heart that will ultimately become a poison that bears evil fruit in a person’s life (v.18). Precious friends, please know that your choices have a positive or negative impact on the rest of the church because we truly are connected as a family. If you continue reading in this chapter you will find that the poison of one person, family, or tribes life can cause great devastation to the entire nation.
Let me close with a simple question. Are you living your life in such a way that you are a source of blessing to the family of God or a source of curses? Oh how I hope more and more of us will be the reason that God showers blessings on this church and community so widespread that even the lost folks around us will benefit from being close to us. May God cleanse our hearts and make us pure so that we can receive His favor and not wrath.