August 18, 2020

The message of Deuteronomy is one that the church desperately needs to hear today. These final words of Moses given to the children of Israel as they prepared to enter into the Promised Land serve as a warning, an encouragement, and a charge. Through them, God exposes the idolatry of our hearts and calls us to give all of our love, worship, and devotion to Him alone in every area of our lives! Moses warns the people that when they enter the land there will be things that compete with God for their attention, their affections and their worship. We, too, have hundreds of things that compete for our hearts each and every day. In this book, God teaches us how to properly respond to the amazing grace He has given us by giving Him our undivided allegiance, our whole hearts and our whole lives. Over the next 34 days, let’s seek this ancient way together as a church!

In this chapter of Deuteronomy Moses emphasizes two things: the amazing grace of God and his demand of our exclusive worship. Moses makes it abundantly clear to the people of Israel that, although they are indeed chosen by God and holy unto Him, God did not choose them because of anything inherently good or righteous in them. He did not choose them because they were strong, but rather because they were weak; not because they were many, but because they were few. The bottom line is that God chose as He did because of His sovereign wisdom, His undeserved love, and to display His mighty power.

Isn’t it just jaw-droppingly, awe-inspiringly wonderful to understand that you are the recipient of God’s grace not because of anything you did or anything that you ever could do or be, but simply because He loves you? What was true of Israel is also true of us: God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. He chose us simply to put His immense glory, wisdom, and power on display through us, merely because He chose to love us and pour out His unmerited favor on us!

This is at the core of the gospel itself, that God would move and act to save sinners through the blood of His Son simply because they are the objects of His divine affection and love. In response to this kind of radical, undeserved grace, God calls us to rid ourselves and our lives from everything and anything that competes with Him for our love, devotion, and worship! 

Just as He called Israel to utterly destroy the people of the land along with all of their idols, He calls us to abhor and detest all things that set themselves up as idols in our hearts and give Him our exclusive worship! He is worthy of it, for all He has done and for who He is; give Him that worship today!

Deuteronomy 7

A Chosen People

7 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you, 2 and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. 3 You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, 4 for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. 5 But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire.

6 “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, 10 and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. 11 You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.

12 “And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the Lordyour God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers. 13 He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you. 14 You shall be blessed above all peoples. There shall not be male or female barren among you or among your livestock. 15 And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you knew, will he inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you. 16 And you shall consume all the peoples that the Lord your God will give over to you. Your eye shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.

17 “If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I. How can I dispossess them?’ 18 you shall not be afraid of them but you shall remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, 19 the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which the Lord your God brought you out. So will the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. 20 Moreover, the Lord your God will send hornets among them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you are destroyed. 21 You shall not be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God.22 The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little. You may not make an end of them at once, lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you. 23 But the Lord your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed. 24 And he will give their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name perish from under heaven. No one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them. 25 The carved images of their gods you shall burn with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. 26 And you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house and become devoted to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest and abhor it, for it is devoted to destruction.

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Family Discussion Question:

  • What is something in your life that competes with God for your affection, devotion, and worship? How does the amazing grace of God motivate you to surrender that to Him? What are some steps you can take towards getting rid of that thing in your life?

15 thoughts on “Daily Devotional-August 18”

  1. Dear Heavenly Father,
    Search my heart oh God and show me where I am lacking and where I am holding on to things that are unimportant in the great scheme of things. Help me to rid myself of anything that takes my focus off of you. Show me ways to be more caring and helpful to others. Multiply my talents and “mites” in ways that only You can. Thank You for Your love and grace and mercy in my life. I see showers of blessings each day all around me. Only by Your grace, go I. I remind myself of this each day. Please save this fallen world as we try to bring others to You. In Jesus’ name. Amen

  2. Father,

    Who are you that you would care for me, such a lowly sinner? Who are you that you would send you son to die for me? Who are you that you would watch my every step and write down my thoughts and my words?

    I bow now and say thank you Father for loving even me. You have shone compassion and mercy to me.

    I am not worthy of your forgiveness. Yet, you call me forgiven. You call me a child of God.

    In your strength, filled with the Holy Spirit, may I go forth this day and search for one more to share the good news. As your Son asks for them by name, grant His plea.

    Amen

  4. Good morning Lord!
    Perhaps, by your amazing grace, if we reach out to someone who hates you, that person’s hate may turn to love. To know you is to love you.

  5. I know that the Lord my God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments.

  6. You chose me! You called me! You gave your life for me, that I may live in eternity with you?. What more could you give my Lord? You gave it all. Who am I? My prayer with every breathe in me is, Father, search my heart, see my anxious thoughts, forgive my failures, and lead me in your righteous path forever.
    Thank you my God for another day in the land of the living. I thank you because this is the day you have made, so, I will rejoice and be glad in it. I pray that your spirit will guide me to live out this day to the glory of your name. Help me to live out this day in the light of you where every thing else becomes a shadow??. In your mighty name I pray with thanksgiving.

  8. I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually Ben in my mouth. Bless the Lord oh my soul & all that’s in me bless His Holy Name.!

  9. Thank you Father for your grace, and forgive me for my idolatry, straying and being distracted. Today I will focus on what you would have me do, not what others may distract me with. Help me be diligent to complete what it is that you would have me do today, and this week, as we prepare to regather to worship you at CFBC.

  10. This is a powerful message, directly related to my life. No longer do I return to old ways. Complacency brings me down from where God has lifted me, and I strive to continue moving forward in the strength and maturity He has given me. I forge ahead!

  11. I want to continue to walk in the path of righteousness. I want to stay within the commandments. I don’t deny I need help to be the child of God that I am suppose to be. I want to glorify you oh! Lord. I want to be true to you always. I know when I need help you will be there for me. You are my everything. In Jesus name I pray Amen ?????

  12. Thank you Lord Jesus for all the ways you have revealed your self to us. Your plan of SALVATION. Protect us Oh Lord from the snares and cares of this passing world.
    In every word of yours is life. Your word is eternal. Your covenant of love is eternal, and though we live in this temporal body and world, every day your word shows us that our victory is in every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord. Your word is Spirit. If we live in your Holy Spirit we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Help us dear Lord as we remain in you to be strengthened against all the idols of this passing world. In your Holy name we pray. AMEN.

Comments are closed.