Archive for month: June, 2022

Hi  GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Deuteronomy 5:1-22.  Let’s go!

Deuteronomy 5:1-3 (NIV)
1  Moses summoned all Israel and said: Hear, O Israel, the decrees and laws I declare in your hearing today. Learn them and be sure to follow them.
2  The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.
3  It was not with our fathers that the LORD made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today.
 
On verses 1-3:  Moses reminds this current generation of Israelites that God’s commandments were not just for their ancestors or for an older generation that is long gone.  Rather, they are relevant for them as well (v3).  Likewise, God’s Word is not a relic of the past, or something that belongs in a museum.  Rather, God’s Word is relevant for us, for “all of us who are alive here today”. 

Hi  GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Deuteronomy 4:32-49.  Let’s go!

Deuteronomy 4:32-40 (NIV)
32  Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created man on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of?
33  Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived?
34  Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?
35  You were shown these things so that you might know that the LORD is God; besides him there is no other.

On verses 32-40:  When you think about the biggest blessings you have received in life, were they things you worked hard for and planned for yourself?  Or rather were they things that God did and planned long before you ever asked for them or thought about them?  I don’t know about you, but for me, the greatest blessings I’ve ever known were things that I didn’t plan for myself or work hard to achieve.  Rather, they were gifts of God’s grace.

Hi  GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Deuteronomy 4:1-14.  Let’s go!

Deuteronomy 4:1-5 (NIV)
1  Hear now, O Israel, the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.
2  Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you.
3  You saw with your own eyes what the LORD did at Baal Peor. The LORD your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor,
4  but all of you who held fast to the LORD your God are still alive today.
5  See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the LORD my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it.
 
On verses 1-5:  Moses is about to spell out the decrees and laws that this current generation of Israelites are to follow, but first, expert leader that Moses is, Moses takes the time to explain why this current generation must follow God’s commands.  People need to know the why if they’re going to do the what.  The reasons the Israelites should obey God’s commands are the same reasons why we should obey them today.

Hi  GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Deuteronomy 3:18-29.  Let’s go!

Deuteronomy 3:18-20 (NIV)
18  I commanded you at that time: “The LORD your God has given you this land to take possession of it. But all your able-bodied men, armed for battle, must cross over ahead of your brother Israelites.
19  However, your wives, your children and your livestock (I know you have much livestock) may stay in the towns I have given you,
20  until the LORD gives rest to your brothers as he has to you, and they too have taken over the land that the LORD your God is giving them, across the Jordan. After that, each of you may go back to the possession I have given you.”
 
On verses 18-20:  Here Moses commands the fighting Israelite men to fight for one another and to make sure each Israelite tribe gets its land before any Israelite fighting man could go back and enjoy his own land.  Moses was challenging every Israelite fighting man to put the team’s interests ahead of his own individual interests.  Great teams achieve great things when each member puts the interests of the team ahead of their own.