Let's finish this bad boy out!
31:12 - The way Moses describes their gatherings reminds me of the mission of church gatherings. Why do we get together? We gather together so that we never forget who we belong to. We gather together to remind each other that we are the body of Christ...we gather together to encourage one another to live out our beliefs. Is that what is happening at our church? I hope so.
31:16 - Imagine you have spent a huge chunk of your life leading a people out of slavery, into a relationship with the one true God in existence and taking them to the Promised Land. Now imagine that when you are about to die, God tells you how these people you have given everything to are going to turn away from Him...they are going to destroy everything Moses has worked towards. Not very fun is it?
32:6 - How do you respond to the love of God? Do you repay God with obedience and honor or self-indulgence and rebellion? Very challenging words from Moses - "Is that how you repay the Lord?" It is foolishness to give God anything but your everything.
32:32 - When you are connected into something - rooted in something - that is where you get your sustenance. If we make sure our lives our rooted into God - if He is the vine we are connected to - we will get clean, pure, life-giving sustenance. If we are attached to the systems of this world, we will be filled with corrupt, toxic, death-bringing sustenance. And sustenance that does not sustain us is no sustenance at all!
32:51 - God loves Moses. Moses is described as a man of God...at the end of this book, he is described as a man who was closer to God than any human would ever be. Yet, there were still consequences for his sinful actions. Some people think that when they become Christian or give their life to God that all the things from their past will magically go away, but that is not how justice works. We need to be like Moses and accept the consequences of our actions, while living to honor God in the now.
34:9 - I know that something powerful and spiritual was taking place between God and Joshua to give Joshua the ability to lead that he would need. But I also believe that Joshua was able to lead because Moses did a really good job of mentoring him. We see throughout Deuteronomy that Moses always takes Joshua along with him when he is making big decisions...he walked Joshua through leadership step by step and trained up his replacement. Joshua was able to lead because Moses taught him how to lead. Joshua is a part of Moses' legacy. What is the legacy that you are leaving behind?
4 comments:
I like what you said about the gathering. That should be voiced often in church, possilby through a liturgy from time to time taken from the words of Jesus.
The very first part of Ch 32 God tells Moses that he will lead them in destroying the enemy. I am so thankful that I was created today where we don't follow with swords and spears but we arm ourselves with love and kindness to defeat the enemy.
verse 16. I bet that broke Moses's heart to hear that the people will once again turn away from God. But I bet he was so tired that he was looking forward more to the rest. I know there are many pastors that go through this when they pour themselves into someones life only to see them turn from God.
Ch. 32. I love how the song ends. I soon as we reach the bottom when we choose to live for ourselves, God is ALWAYS there.
Sorry, El Jefe calls and I'm out of time. Peace.
It's all good Tim
31:8- something we all need to hear every once in a while. They should make an application or website where it has the whole bible and you can click on your favorite verses and it saves it. I would definitely click this one.
32-33- normally when I come across these songs or poems I skip over them. I don't know why cause that whole thing was really cool. A lot of good stuff in there.
Ch 31
vs 4-8 this seems like a history lesson about how God has already taken care of them and is used to reassure Israel that God will prove himself again, BUT it requires the cooperation/obedience of the people. vs 5 says "you shall do to them according to the whole commandment that i have commanded you." meaning you are supposed to leave none alive, totally destroy the people who are occupying the Promised Land. Be strong and courageous because it is God who goes before you. (I also like what Matt said, 31:6 and 8 are definitely favorite verse material).
31:16-ff
I liked how Brandon described this section of scripture, its God telling Moses that Israel is going to jump ship after he dies. Then the song in ch 32 is an expansion of 31:16-ff. At the end of the song in 32 Moses throws down the gauntlet in vs 46-47; I'm warning you, so teach your children, because "these are not empty words for you but your very life" (32:47). (I think this could be a favorite verse material). This could be applied to us because the words of the Bible are not full of empty words; they contain the words of life.
I also liked what Brandon had to say about Joshua succeeding Moses at the end of 34. I thought it was cool how vs 9 described Jacob as being full of the spirit of wisdom because of Moses. Also how Moses had a "face to face" relationship with God (that's tight).
Good posts from everyone.
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