I finally titled last week’s message. I called it, “Hungry for More.” Who is hungry for more of God this morning? We explored the first few verses of Deuteronomy 8 where we recalled that God caused the Israelites to hunger so that He could be the one to feed them. During their time in the wilderness, He was training them to look to Him to be their Source. The fact that the bread-like substance called manna came from Heaven taught them to look up, to look up to God with an expectation that He would supply what they needed. He used their need for food to help them seek Him, creating a pattern, a habit, a dependence upon God every day. That daily connection, that daily dependance, wasn’t supposed to end when they reached the Promised Land. It was to be an ongoing relationship of trust and reliance upon God. God wanted to do more for them than supply manna every day. He wanted to do much more for them, and in order to gain what I like to call the “much more life” in the Promised Land, they were going to have to be conditioned to continue to look to God with expectation.
Promised Land living was going to be wonderful, but the Israelites were still going to need God in that place. They wouldn’t have a need for daily food, but they would have battles to fight and would have temptations to flee from, temptations to look to the pagan gods of the nations around them. They were going to need to draw upon their wilderness training in order to avoid pitfalls in the Promised Land. I want to emphasize the word “careful” that is repeated twice in the chapter. We are told to be careful in two ways. Let’s look at verse 1 again.
Deuteronomy 8 Be CAREFUL to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors.
There are good reasons to live a careful Christian life, good reasons to carefully and not casually follow God’s commands. Verse 1 says that those who are careful to follow God’s commands will live and be established. They will increase. They will possess the Promised Land. Just as God had a Promised Land for the people of Israel as they were liberated from slavery and were taught by God to walk with Him day by day in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land, I believe God has a Promised Land existence for all His children. I don’t believe we have to wait to get to Heaven in order to take hold of the Promised Land life. We are set free from slavery to sin to be in a life-giving relationship with Jesus, whereby, we take hold of the promises of God and have dominion and are given spiritual, supernatural authority to conquer in this life.
What were the commands that were given when these words were spoken? You have to back the reading up to Deuteronomy 5 to get the scope of what was being asked of the Israelites. Deuteronomy 5 is a recapitulation of the Ten Commandments that were issued in Exodus 20. Let’s remind ourselves what those are:
You shall have no other gods before Me.
You shall not make for yourself an image and worship it.
You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.
Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
Honor your father and mother.
Do not murder.
Do not commit adultery.
Do not steal.
Do not give false testimony.
Do not covet.
When you boil all Ten Commandments down, you see they are really about loving and respecting God and loving and respecting others. So, when we read in Deuteronomy 8 that they are to be careful to keep God’s commands, these are some of the commands being referred to. Loving God and others correctly, is what I’ll call “Careful Christianity.”
We then move to chapter 6 where loving God supremely was reiterated in verse 5,
5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
Look at the commands that follow.
6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
The Israelites were commanded to know God’s commands and to be intentional about talking with their children about God’s commands. Passing the commands of God on is part of “Careful Christianity.” When people are tying God’s commands on their hands and binding them on their foreheads and are writing them on the doorframes of their house and are constantly talking about them, their aren’t taking the commands lightly. The commands of God are becoming a way of life for those people.
They were even instructed in verse 21, that when their children would ask them, “What’s up with these commandments,” they were to tell the story of how God brought them out of Egypt. You see, the commands of God aren’t about rules. They are about relationship. They are about how God has helped His people and how God wants to help His people. Much of God’s help comes as we follow what He has stipulated is best for us. God has given us great help in giving us commands that preserve our life, that enhance our relationships, that keep us connected to Him.
We move on to chapter 7 where the Israelites were given some commands regarding their Promised Land experience. They were given a heads up about what they would face in the Promised Land. They were to totally destroy the pagan nations in the Promised Land. Those who lived opposed to God, who lived for wicked and evil practices, were to be taken out. This was a command. They were to smash their pagan altars and totally remove their pagan influence from the land they were going to possess.
Those pagan nations represent the sin in our lives, sin that is to be subdued and eradicated from the life of a believer. The Israelites were commanded to never make a treaty with any of those pagan nations. They weren’t to enter into a relationship with those nations, not even for a business deal because they would be spiritually corrupted in the process. They were told not to intermarry with pagan people because their faith would become compromised. Careful Christianity includes eliminating sin from our lives.
Casual Christianity might take the approach that you can pick or choose which commands to obey and which ones to shelve. Casual Christianity might relegate God to a place of lesser importance than the place of preeminence He rightly deserves. Casual Christianity might suggest some sins are now ok because they are culturally acceptable. Casual Christianity could argue that it is a child’s responsibility to grow up and decide for themselves what is true and right about God, rather than a parent’s responsibility to teach and instill in them the truth. I have talked to many people over the years who have told me they want their children to explore many religious paths and come to their own conclusions about God. My friends, that is a dangerous recipe for disaster. There is only one God and one way to Heaven, and if you leave the pursuit of truth up to a child or adolescent without influencing their decision, without exposing them to the truth, without explaining how God wants to have a personal, daily relationship with them, while all the while they are being bombarded by evil, lies, immorality and deceit, what kind of a chance do you think they stand of coming to the right conclusion?
If you want to live and increase and possess the promised place God has called you to occupy, and if you want the same for your children and grandchildren, you need to not be casual but careful regarding the commands of God.
The second place we see the word “careful” in Deuteronomy 8 is in verse 11. Let’s start with verse 7:
7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills; 8 a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; 9 a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.
That had to sound like a dream to those wilderness wanderers, like Paradise. The land would be fertile, producing food in abundance. Bread wouldn’t be scarce. They wouldn’t lack anything. I’m sure as this was communicated to them, they had trouble even trying to picture life like that. I mean, they had been slaves in Egypt. Back when they were living that kind of life, I’m sure they thought, “Our children are doomed. They don’t stand a chance of escaping this kind of life either.” There was no hope for anything different. To picture going from that kind of bitter life to blessing beyond belief gave them an anticipation and hope like they had never known. This was going to also be a place of financial prosperity. As slaves in Egypt, they had nothing. As Children of God in the Promised Land, they would have it all!
They were warned, however, that having it all could actually cause the Israelites to fall.
10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be CAREFUL that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
What a tragedy it would be, for them to be freed by God, led by God, established by God and blessed by God, only for them to then forget God. Forgetting God would mean that something else would take His place in their lives which would be a violation of the first of the Ten Commandments.
Instead of careful Christianity, God says, in the Promised Land, a person might become complacent and just set God aside. Several times in chapter 8 they were told to “remember” all God had done. God will not afford a Promised Land life to those who forget about Him. He went on in verse 15 remind them of how it was God who enabled them to navigate their way through the wilderness, how it was God who kept them safe from venomous snakes and scorpions along the way, how it was God who provided water from a rock and manna to eat. You know that’s not an exhaustive list of the things God did for them as they journeyed. Even in just this chapter we read in verse 4 that their feet didn’t swell while they traveled those forty years, and their clothes didn’t wear out. How many of you forty and over have never had swollen feet? How many of you have clothes in good condition from 1982? Don’t answer that!
Y’all, the only reason they made it to the Promised Land was because God led them, God provided for them, God sustained them, and God preserved them along the way. God was the only reason they made it out of slavery. God was the only reason they made it through the wilderness. God was the only reason they made it to the Promised Land.
So, He cautioned them of the temptation to get comfortable and forget about God. Being filled, being comfortable, can cause us to quit pursuing the very One who made it all possible.
Allow me to share a testimony by one of our church members:
I have been a practicing prayer warrior and a friend of God’s since I was saved at 8 years old. I am the oldest of two and was raised by a single mom. I realized early that God was a Father to the Fatherless and a Husband to the Husbandless. I learned to trust God for everything early.
When we planned to start a family, we desired for my wife to be able to be a stay-at-home-mom. Finances were not conducive to that happening, so I went to praying about that. God opened the door for my wife to assist a wedding photographer. It wasn’t long until we decided to branch out on our own and do weddings. Quickly we were making enough money as wedding photographers to make the stay-at-home-mom dream a reality.
Then the opportunity to get into Sports Photography arrived. The time of this opportunity was right as digital photography was in its infancy. God gave me innovative ideas, and we began printing on site. The cash was rolling in! God was blessing our young family with more than we had ever dreamed. We were so dedicated to our church. I was on the Board and taught classes. My wife was the Children’s Director and served on the Board of CE. We were in God’s hands.
Work offers started coming in for Sundays. That meant more money. We would go to church, leave a bit early and get to sites to shoot. Eventually, we quit going to church which meant our children were pulled out of church. We were making more money, but we quit tithing. We started drifting, and then our drift became an all-out sprint. We were sprinting away from the Promised Land God had given us. The sprint ended up in a crash. Even though there were weeks we made $10,000 we could not pay the water bill and other bills. We ended up financially bankrupt. Worse, however, we were bankrupt spiritually. I had taken my family’s life, so promising while in the hands of God, and placed it in my hands.
I was at a very low point in life and was disgruntled with how destitute my life had become when a dear personal friend and a warrior for Christ, Will Isaacs, said, “You need to come to Teays Valley Church of God.” Those words rang hard in my heart. We did, and needless to say, we came back home to the Lord.
God, in His matchless mercy, allowed us to somehow maintain our photography dream through the destruction. We worked with two other companies as He dealt with our disobedience and then brought us full circle back as “The Picture Guy Photography.” We dedicated our new business to the Lord from the sanctuary of our new church home. Through this dedication and so many other events, God has taken full care of us the last 10 years. His hand of providence is so evident in our lives. We have maintained a steady business in the Sports Photography business. We built a new home, and God has blessed me with new opportunity as a Real Estate salesperson. I also work for a Deer Scent company and have been blessed to start a Real Estate Investment company with my son. I will soon be the Grandfather of TWINS! My eyes are on Him, and we are back in the Promised Land.
Eddie Ferrari
God is the way to the Promised Land, and life focused on Him is the way to stay there!
It is easy to forget about God when life is going well. There is also the temptation to become conceited and take credit for the things God provides as if what we have or what we have accomplished is our own doing. Look at verse 17ff: 17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today. 19 If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. 20 Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.
God sounds pretty serious here. Losing sight of God and becoming prideful and self-reliant are pitfalls we have to guard against if we are going to stay in that Promised Land place. Add to that the need to obey all of the commands of God. Those are what make for the careful Christian life.
How carefully are you living today? How are you doing with following God’s commands? How are you doing with seeking, following and acknowledging Him in the moments of ease or prosperity? God wants us all to enjoy life in the Promised Land. We get there by following the commands of God. We stay there by continued obedience and by acknowledging and honoring Him. Live carefully, according to God’s commands, so that you can get to the Promised Land and stay there!
Recent Comments