Thoughts from Deuteronomy 1
With the first “phase” of discipleship training (DT) completed this past Tuesday, it appears that evenings are going to be a little less busy until September when we should then resume with the 2nd “phase” of training.
It just occurred to me that I’ve been unintentionally cryptic about this “discipleship training” that’s been mentioned several times the past few weeks. To shed some light, the course is spread over three sessions if you will, lasting 8-12 weeks as I can best guess. Each session has a respective book/workbook for the learner to do exercises, and track their daily reading of Scripture, prayer etc. The course just completed, is the 1st of 3 parts of “THE NEW 2:7 SERIES”,(A Course in Personal Discipleship To Strengthen Your Walk With God) -Book One: “Growing Strong in God’s Family”. The course was developed by The Navigators, which according to the back page bibliography(?), has over 65 years of experience reaching, discipling and equipping people to know Jesus Christ and to make Him known.
Now that we have that cleared up…
After having caught my mandatory power nap this evening, I read today’s devotional from Sparkling Gems, followed by some plain ‘ole “unguided” Bible reading time. Before I jumped in, it had occurred to me to continue on with actually keeping track of what was read (a journal) along with writing down key parts of Scripture that were of interest or that I had questions about; this was a daily practice introduced in the first session of DT. I mean seriously, I think that it sort of defeats the purpose in even going through DT if I’m not going to apply what’s learned; the whole point of the exercise being to make Bible reading & Scriptural memorization a habit, a part of my relationship with Jesus.
For the past month, my focus for reading has been on Old Testament books. The two-part explanation is this: one is that for me the Old Testament is daunting, I personally get overwhelmed at times trying to maintain mental track of Biblical figures, their names & genealogies, so it’s a case of facing the more difficult road to travel. The second is that it’s just where I felt led to focus for now which should serve as a decent transition into the recap of Deuteronomy 1 & a few verses that really grabbed my attention …
Overview of Deuteronomy 1:
- The Lord had commanded the Israelites to leave Horeb
- Moses address the Israelites (in the 40th year), after having defeated Sihon king of the Amorites. Moses tells the people to break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites… to take possession of the land promised to them by the Lord (verses 6-8).
- Moses appoints (delegates) leaders in Deuteronomy 1:9 saying “You are too heavy a burden for me to carry alone.”
- Moses also agrees to send a party of Israelites forward to recon the Promised Land.
- The latter half of Deuteronomy 1; verses 26-46 we find that the Israelites rebel against the Lord.
Standout verses from Deuteronomy 1:
Deuteronomy 1:6
The Lord God said to us at Horeb, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain…”
This verse jumped out because I recalled having received it as a daily Blackaby devotional via email in the latter part of 2007. The gist being that experiencing God is not only when everything is going great, but also in times of trial,our walk with God is going to have low points (valleys) where we must continue to pursue God. I think that this is when God switches to the master pottery maker over our lives as He develops our Christian character; when we hold steadfast in spite of feeling as though He is not listening or present. See the non-mangled, more eloquent explanation courtesy of the Blackabys here.
In Deuteronomy 1: 22-23 what occurred to me is that Moses and the Israelites both faltered in their faith in God, there appears to be doubt, apprehension on their part; they eventually fall back to relying on their own reasoning and wisdom, not God’s. Moses also seems to boo-boo as a spiritual leader, by not kicking the Israelites in the seat of their pants when they come to him proposing to first send spies into the promised land. Moses reasons that their idea is “good”. This, in spite of the Israelites being led by God through the desert (column of fire by night and in a cloud by day; v. 32-33).
Deuteronomy 1:22-23
22 Then all of you came to me and said, “Let us send men ahead to spy out the land for us and bring back a report about the route we are to take and the towns we will come to.” 23 The idea seemed good to me; so I selected twelve of you, one man from each tribe.
The situation finally turns to poo-poo hitting the fan in Deuteronomy 1:26-28, when apparently the Israelites receive a report from the spies sent forward, they freak out because they have lost sight of how grand, how BIG their God is (verse 28)! The Israelites were like a bunch of kids playing Pop Warner league football, who having seen their opponent that’s “bigger” than them, set it in their minds that they are going to be throttled on the field.
Deuteronomy 1:26-28
26 But you were unwilling to go up; you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. 27 You grumbled in your tents and said, “The LORD hates us; so he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us. 28 Where can we go? Our brothers have made us lose heart. They say, ‘The people are stronger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the sky. We even saw the Anakites there.’ “
Moses sums up the Israelites problem in Deuteronomy 1:32 when he says to them:
Deuteronomy 1:32
32 In spite of this, you did not trust in the LORD your God,
After reading and reviewing Deuteronomy 1, the thought that stands out concerning the Israelites is that they had an attitude issue. See? The Israelites allowed doubt to consume them, & to distort their perspective of just who and what God was to them. Once the Israelites’ perspective about God became distorted, there came a spark of fear, which became an inferno; their doubt perpetuated the fear even more. Finally with fear now blazing throughout the minds of the Israelites, God became smaller than their problems.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”
-Yoda
It’s easy to view the Israelites as being complete knuckleheads. For goodness sake they had God right there with them, even giving them visible & audible hints to how awesome He is. I know I’ve personally thought that if I had it as good as the Israelites did with seeing proof of God’s majesty, His works; that I’d never fail Him. Yeah right! I think that when it’s all said and done, it comes back to a matter of faith and trust. The proof in the pudding doesn’t come from what we see, hear or feel about God, but what we believe & know about Him, & how we react to Him.
Proverbs 3: 5-6
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
Grace and peace be with you.
