Deuteronomy
The Reminder
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. 2 Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4 Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.
Deuteronomy 8:1-5 NIV
Memory Verse:
I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. 12 I will consider all your works and meditate on all your mighty deeds.”
Psalm 77:11-12 NIV
Main Takeaway: In order to know where God is leading us, we need to remember where He has already taken us.
Introduction:
I am a forgetful person. Just ask my wife. For example, I will discuss plans with her to bring something home from work or take something to work from home, and I will feel certain that I will do it at the time I make the plan. But when the time comes to actually do it, I will forget. I do this all the time, and it drives my wife crazy. To try and combat this, I set reminders on my phone to alert me to do something when it is time to do it. I have to do this for just about everything now just so I can remember to stay on task. It’s pretty sad, but it is just necessary for me. Quite often I’ll get my wife to remind me too with a text message or phone call so I know it will get done. Do any of you have to set reminders to make sure things get done?
In our journey with the Israelites, the forty years of wandering in the wilderness is coming to an end. They are on the brink of entering the long-awaited promised land, but before they go, Moses needs to give them some final reminders and instructions. The whole Book of Deuteronomy records these final instructions. These instructions are not all new commands. Most of the instructions are actually just reminders of what he told them years earlier when he gave them the law. The reason for this is because forty years have passed. If you remember, God needed to wait until all of the previous generation had died off before they could enter the land. So, all of the adults who had received the Law have passed away, and the ones left were either not born yet or were just young boys and girls when the Law was originally given. Moses needed one more final moment with them before they crossed into the land. They needed to be reminded what it is like to live as God’s people. They had to be reminded that they were different than the people living in the land and needed to act like it. Perhaps more importantly, they need to be reminded of all that God had done for them these past forty years. This reminder was necessary because they were in for some difficult battles to conquer the land, and so they needed to remember who would be with them in these battles. Better yet, they had to be reminded of who was going BEFORE them in the battles, and what He had promised them from years ago. The Book of Deuteronomy is like the Israelites’ last reminder alert that goes off just before their mission began. It’s a fun book to study so let’s dig in!
Background and Context:
Deuteronomy 1:6-8 says, “The Lord our God said to us at Horeb, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. 7 Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites; go to all the neighboring peoples in the Arabah, in the mountains, in the western foothills, in the Negev and along the coast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates. 8 See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land the Lord swore he would give to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—and to their descendants after them.” The time had finally come. It was time for the Israelites to enter the promised land and take possession of it. For forty years, they had been wandering and waiting in the desert wilderness and now the wait was over. God gives the command to enter the land and gives them a promise. He makes the miraculous statement that He has given them this land already, the same land He promised to their forefathers. All they had to do was go in and take possession of it. It was theirs. They needed to go claim it.
However, before they parted the camp, Moses needed to give them some final instructions You see, He was not going to enter the promised land. He had a made a mistake with God years earlier and his punishment was that he would never enter the land. He would only be able to see it from afar. So, Moses needed to remind them of all the things relating to God and how to live since He would not be with them any longer.
Deuteronomy 8:1-5 is listed above and details only a small part of the message that Moses delivered to the Israelites, but it is good summary of that message. In this passage, Moses reminds the people of the miracles that He performed and the way He took care of them for forty years. Moses tells them that this period of time was a time of testing and training so that they could learn to depend solely on Him. He showed them how He provided for them the entire time they wandered, and they never did without, specifically mentioning the manna from heaven and the fact that their clothes never wore out. In other parts of Deuteronomy, Moses talked about promises being fulfilled and other miraculous rescues and events. Moses had a purpose for these reminders. You see, before they could trust God to take care of them in the promised land, they needed to remember what He had already done for them. They needed to be reminded of the promises that God made to them and fulfilled, but most of all they had to be reminded of who God was! There is no better way to build trust and faith in God than to look back and see where God has moved already. That’s what Moses was doing here. They were in for a beautiful reward in the promised land, but their journey was not going to always be easy. They needed the reminder that the God of the universe was always on their side, and they could fully trust in Him in their new endeavors because they could look back and see that He always kept His promises.
There was another part to Moses’ message to the Israelites. Yes, Moses needed to remind them about all the things the Lord has done for them, but he also needed to remind them of the laws and decrees that they needed to follow. Now, there is no way to go through all the commands, but the important point is that Moses told them they had to follow and keep these commands so they could go and take possession of the land. In other words, their prosperity, survival, and blessing were totally dependent on their obedience to the Law (see Deuteronomy 8:1, Deuteronomy 4:1-2). Moses spent the rest of the book detailing all the commands and rules that needed to be followed. It was a lot, but it was necessary. This was their final reminder before he departed and before they entered the promised land. As the leader the Israelites had looked to for the last forty years, Moses knew that he had to be the one to give these commands. If he didn’t give them these reminders, who would? If he didn’t review all the promises of God that had been fulfilled or would later be fulfilled, how would they know how awesome God was? If he didn’t tell them about all the miracles, how could they depend on God for more miracles? This was an important message for the Israelites. They had to know who was on their side before they embarked on this mission.
Application:
Just like the Israelites needed a reminder about who God was and what He has done, we need to be reminded of that as well. Sometimes we need these reminders daily if we are going through a rough time. In the difficult seasons of life, we need to be reminded that God is always with us, even if we can’t feel Him close. We need constant reminders of the promises of God that we discussed way back in week one. There may be times where we are struggling with sin, and in these moments, we need to be reminded of the commands of God. More importantly, in these moments, we need to be reminded of the great sacrifice that Jesus paid for us. Finally, sometimes we just need to be reminded of the awesomeness and greatness of the God we worship. As we are reminded of the goodness of God, this will set our hearts into a posture of thankfulness, and there is no better place to be. If we can live our lives in a constant state of gratitude for all that God has done, the stresses of life and the challenges we may face will seem less daunting. This is because we know and are reminded that God is always with us and keeps His promises. If we know that the God of the universe is fighting our battles, then there is no need to worry.
We don’t have Moses standing in front of us on a daily basis telling us these things. We cannot hear him preach on the miracles of God or the commands we need to follow. Sure, we can hear these types of messages once a week at church, but that’s not enough. We need daily reminders. We get these reminders by spending time reading the Word and praying. In these times, we get to read about the miracles of God, His promises, His awesomeness, His power, and His commands. We get to hear from Him either through the Word itself or in prayer and be reminded that He is close. These daily reminders will provide so much encouragement if you just take the time to do it. It’s a discipline to develop for sure. It’s not something that will come easy for you right at first if you are not already in the habit of doing it. However, if you commit to doing it, I guarantee you will get to the point where you look forward to this daily time with God and you will miss it when you don’t do it. My challenge for you this week, is to commit to spending time with God every day and encourage your son or daughter to do the same. You may not have a mind-blowing experience every day, but I promise you will grow closer to Him in the process no matter what you do. You will get that daily reminder of who God is and what He has done for you. Better yet, you will get the daily reminder that God is forever on your side and always goes before you, and that is something that all of us need every single day. Before the Israelites could step into their next season, they had to be reminded of who God is. The same is true for us.
One last thing before we go. You may already have this great Bible reading and prayer habit, and that is great. You are getting those daily reminders and are growing closer to God because of it. I praise God for that, but there is something else that you can do to continue to grow as well. Instead of just being reminded of who God is, you can actually be the REMINDER for someone else. You can be Moses for those around you. You can be the one that tells others about the awesomeness of God and remind them of what He has done for them. Everyone needs to be reminded of that from time to time, and you can be the one to do that for them. What an encouragement you can be for others. The Israelites had Moses to be their reminder. It’s our turn now to be the reminder for the world.
Questions and Further Exploration:
What are some of the promises of God that you need to be reminded of from time to time? Discuss these with your children.
Do you have that daily time with the Lord in prayer and reading the Word? If so, talk to your son or daughter about the blessings that this time brings. If not, start that habit today with your child and after some time, meet together and talk about your experience.
Do you have someone on your mind or heart that you think needs to be reminded of who God is? Is there someone in your circle that just needs to hear what God has done for them? Spend some time praying for this person and talk with your child about a plan to be the reminder for them.
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. 2 Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4 Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.
Deuteronomy 8:1-5 NIV
Memory Verse:
I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. 12 I will consider all your works and meditate on all your mighty deeds.”
Psalm 77:11-12 NIV
Main Takeaway: In order to know where God is leading us, we need to remember where He has already taken us.
Introduction:
I am a forgetful person. Just ask my wife. For example, I will discuss plans with her to bring something home from work or take something to work from home, and I will feel certain that I will do it at the time I make the plan. But when the time comes to actually do it, I will forget. I do this all the time, and it drives my wife crazy. To try and combat this, I set reminders on my phone to alert me to do something when it is time to do it. I have to do this for just about everything now just so I can remember to stay on task. It’s pretty sad, but it is just necessary for me. Quite often I’ll get my wife to remind me too with a text message or phone call so I know it will get done. Do any of you have to set reminders to make sure things get done?
In our journey with the Israelites, the forty years of wandering in the wilderness is coming to an end. They are on the brink of entering the long-awaited promised land, but before they go, Moses needs to give them some final reminders and instructions. The whole Book of Deuteronomy records these final instructions. These instructions are not all new commands. Most of the instructions are actually just reminders of what he told them years earlier when he gave them the law. The reason for this is because forty years have passed. If you remember, God needed to wait until all of the previous generation had died off before they could enter the land. So, all of the adults who had received the Law have passed away, and the ones left were either not born yet or were just young boys and girls when the Law was originally given. Moses needed one more final moment with them before they crossed into the land. They needed to be reminded what it is like to live as God’s people. They had to be reminded that they were different than the people living in the land and needed to act like it. Perhaps more importantly, they need to be reminded of all that God had done for them these past forty years. This reminder was necessary because they were in for some difficult battles to conquer the land, and so they needed to remember who would be with them in these battles. Better yet, they had to be reminded of who was going BEFORE them in the battles, and what He had promised them from years ago. The Book of Deuteronomy is like the Israelites’ last reminder alert that goes off just before their mission began. It’s a fun book to study so let’s dig in!
Background and Context:
Deuteronomy 1:6-8 says, “The Lord our God said to us at Horeb, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. 7 Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites; go to all the neighboring peoples in the Arabah, in the mountains, in the western foothills, in the Negev and along the coast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates. 8 See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land the Lord swore he would give to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—and to their descendants after them.” The time had finally come. It was time for the Israelites to enter the promised land and take possession of it. For forty years, they had been wandering and waiting in the desert wilderness and now the wait was over. God gives the command to enter the land and gives them a promise. He makes the miraculous statement that He has given them this land already, the same land He promised to their forefathers. All they had to do was go in and take possession of it. It was theirs. They needed to go claim it.
However, before they parted the camp, Moses needed to give them some final instructions You see, He was not going to enter the promised land. He had a made a mistake with God years earlier and his punishment was that he would never enter the land. He would only be able to see it from afar. So, Moses needed to remind them of all the things relating to God and how to live since He would not be with them any longer.
Deuteronomy 8:1-5 is listed above and details only a small part of the message that Moses delivered to the Israelites, but it is good summary of that message. In this passage, Moses reminds the people of the miracles that He performed and the way He took care of them for forty years. Moses tells them that this period of time was a time of testing and training so that they could learn to depend solely on Him. He showed them how He provided for them the entire time they wandered, and they never did without, specifically mentioning the manna from heaven and the fact that their clothes never wore out. In other parts of Deuteronomy, Moses talked about promises being fulfilled and other miraculous rescues and events. Moses had a purpose for these reminders. You see, before they could trust God to take care of them in the promised land, they needed to remember what He had already done for them. They needed to be reminded of the promises that God made to them and fulfilled, but most of all they had to be reminded of who God was! There is no better way to build trust and faith in God than to look back and see where God has moved already. That’s what Moses was doing here. They were in for a beautiful reward in the promised land, but their journey was not going to always be easy. They needed the reminder that the God of the universe was always on their side, and they could fully trust in Him in their new endeavors because they could look back and see that He always kept His promises.
There was another part to Moses’ message to the Israelites. Yes, Moses needed to remind them about all the things the Lord has done for them, but he also needed to remind them of the laws and decrees that they needed to follow. Now, there is no way to go through all the commands, but the important point is that Moses told them they had to follow and keep these commands so they could go and take possession of the land. In other words, their prosperity, survival, and blessing were totally dependent on their obedience to the Law (see Deuteronomy 8:1, Deuteronomy 4:1-2). Moses spent the rest of the book detailing all the commands and rules that needed to be followed. It was a lot, but it was necessary. This was their final reminder before he departed and before they entered the promised land. As the leader the Israelites had looked to for the last forty years, Moses knew that he had to be the one to give these commands. If he didn’t give them these reminders, who would? If he didn’t review all the promises of God that had been fulfilled or would later be fulfilled, how would they know how awesome God was? If he didn’t tell them about all the miracles, how could they depend on God for more miracles? This was an important message for the Israelites. They had to know who was on their side before they embarked on this mission.
Application:
Just like the Israelites needed a reminder about who God was and what He has done, we need to be reminded of that as well. Sometimes we need these reminders daily if we are going through a rough time. In the difficult seasons of life, we need to be reminded that God is always with us, even if we can’t feel Him close. We need constant reminders of the promises of God that we discussed way back in week one. There may be times where we are struggling with sin, and in these moments, we need to be reminded of the commands of God. More importantly, in these moments, we need to be reminded of the great sacrifice that Jesus paid for us. Finally, sometimes we just need to be reminded of the awesomeness and greatness of the God we worship. As we are reminded of the goodness of God, this will set our hearts into a posture of thankfulness, and there is no better place to be. If we can live our lives in a constant state of gratitude for all that God has done, the stresses of life and the challenges we may face will seem less daunting. This is because we know and are reminded that God is always with us and keeps His promises. If we know that the God of the universe is fighting our battles, then there is no need to worry.
We don’t have Moses standing in front of us on a daily basis telling us these things. We cannot hear him preach on the miracles of God or the commands we need to follow. Sure, we can hear these types of messages once a week at church, but that’s not enough. We need daily reminders. We get these reminders by spending time reading the Word and praying. In these times, we get to read about the miracles of God, His promises, His awesomeness, His power, and His commands. We get to hear from Him either through the Word itself or in prayer and be reminded that He is close. These daily reminders will provide so much encouragement if you just take the time to do it. It’s a discipline to develop for sure. It’s not something that will come easy for you right at first if you are not already in the habit of doing it. However, if you commit to doing it, I guarantee you will get to the point where you look forward to this daily time with God and you will miss it when you don’t do it. My challenge for you this week, is to commit to spending time with God every day and encourage your son or daughter to do the same. You may not have a mind-blowing experience every day, but I promise you will grow closer to Him in the process no matter what you do. You will get that daily reminder of who God is and what He has done for you. Better yet, you will get the daily reminder that God is forever on your side and always goes before you, and that is something that all of us need every single day. Before the Israelites could step into their next season, they had to be reminded of who God is. The same is true for us.
One last thing before we go. You may already have this great Bible reading and prayer habit, and that is great. You are getting those daily reminders and are growing closer to God because of it. I praise God for that, but there is something else that you can do to continue to grow as well. Instead of just being reminded of who God is, you can actually be the REMINDER for someone else. You can be Moses for those around you. You can be the one that tells others about the awesomeness of God and remind them of what He has done for them. Everyone needs to be reminded of that from time to time, and you can be the one to do that for them. What an encouragement you can be for others. The Israelites had Moses to be their reminder. It’s our turn now to be the reminder for the world.
Questions and Further Exploration:
What are some of the promises of God that you need to be reminded of from time to time? Discuss these with your children.
Do you have that daily time with the Lord in prayer and reading the Word? If so, talk to your son or daughter about the blessings that this time brings. If not, start that habit today with your child and after some time, meet together and talk about your experience.
Do you have someone on your mind or heart that you think needs to be reminded of who God is? Is there someone in your circle that just needs to hear what God has done for them? Spend some time praying for this person and talk with your child about a plan to be the reminder for them.