Freedom For Today

Take a moment to read Deuteronomy 11 before reading the devotional below.

My wife and I sat on the couch together, munched on popcorn, and watched a TV show called The Amazing Race.  The idea of the show is that a bunch of teams have to race from checkpoint to checkpoint around the entire world.  The first team to reach the finish line wins one million dollars. In this particular episode, the teams were in Zambia, and they had to drive a truck to a wildlife preserve several hours away.  As the episode began, the camera zoomed in on the truck’s gas tank, where the words “Diesel Only” were printed in large letters. Several teams followed the directions, and their trucks worked fine.  Several teams ignored the warning, and their trucks stalled.

In this chapter God is leading Moses to help the Israelites think in a similar “either/or” mentality.  The contestants on The Amazing Race encountered a simple either/or choice. If they followed directions, things would work out generally fine.  Now, even if they filled up with Diesel gas, their trucks could still have problems like a flat tire. But filling up with Diesel gave them the greatest possible chance of success.  Alternatively, they could not see or ignore the directions and put unleaded gas in the truck. In that case, they were guaranteed to fail. God’s people must make a similar choice. If they follow God’s directions, they have the greatest possible chance of success, even though things might still go wrong along the way.  If they don’t follow God’s directions, then there is a guaranteed chance of failure.

Following God’s ways doesn’t guarantee a life without problems or challenges.  It does guarantee the best possible outcome in life, however. God’s rules simply point out the easiest possible life path.  There could be not greater freedom than that.

Take a moment to read Deuteronomy 10 before reading the devotional below.

I received a lot of participation trophies as a child – for soccer, baseball, theater performances and even for singing.  It wasn’t until I was a junior in high school that I earned my first actually trophy. A friend of mine was sick, and he needed someone to fill in for him on the debate team.  I was naturally argumentative, so I said I’d fill in. After an entire Saturday of arguing about useless topics (I recall spending 45 minutes arguing that in fact Santa Claus is NOT coming to town.), I had scored best novice debater in the state. Regardless of whether debating was a big deal, I was wildly excited just to be the best at something.

Deuteronomy 10 is really a continuation of the previous chapter, but it will end with a declaration of who is the absolute best.  Deuteronomy 9 began with God reminding the Israelites that he didn’t choose them because they deserved it, then using a series of events from Israelite history to make the point.  This chapter continues that series of anecdotes, draws the conclusion from the opposite perspective. Chapter 9 drew a conclusion about what Israel was not: Israel was not worthy. Chapter 10 draws a parallel conclusion about what God is: the greatest of all Gods, unalterably just, and voluntarily loving.

It is easy to look back on our lives and relive all our failures and mistakes and sins.  It is tempting to let those moments define us. Yet God’s message in all of those moments is that He is a God of grace. He graciously chose us, knowing that we were sinful.  He graciously loves us when we prove to be more sinful than we (though not he) expected. We graciously welcomes us back whenever we seek his forgiveness. From first to last, the story of our lives is not one that focuses on our sin, it is a story of His love.  

Take a moment to read Deuteronomy 9 before reading the devotional below.

When I was a teenager, I agreed to cut my neighbor’s lawn every other week for $20.  Most of the lawn was easy to mow, and I did it. One section, however, was on a hill, and it was very difficult to mow properly.  During that first summer, there were several times I didn’t mow the hill even though I had agreed to. One day when I went to get paid, my neighbor brought me outside and showed me the unmowed hill.  “That’s not done right,” he said. I tried to give him the money back, but he refused to take it. I knew I hadn’t earned it, but he still gave it to me.

As Moses continues to teach the Israelites, God is communicating a similar message.  Most of the chapter is about the failure of the Israelites and the anger of God, but don’t miss the setup.  The point of the chapter is not that God gets angry at sinners. The point is that God didn’t pick the Israelites because they were good – because they weren’t.  Moses tells all the stories about Israel’s failures to reinforce this point: they didn’t deserve God’s love.  Before the Israelites go into their promised land, God wants this truth firmly implanted in their minds.  It will bring them a humility that wars against entitlement; a gratitude that undermines selfishness and self-dependence.

As one of my favorite teachers always says, “You can’t get any better until you realized that God loves you even if you never get any better.” Just like the Israelites, God didn’t invite you into a relationship with Him because you were somehow uniquely qualified.  He invited you because he made a choice to love you. That means you can’t possibly do anything to lose his love. You can’t do anything to jeopardize his love. The love of God is the surest, solidest most trustworthy thing in all the world.   

Take a moment to read Deuteronomy 8 before reading the devotional below.

“I’m not going to forget!” I practically shouted at my mom.  I was a teenager, and my mom was trying to hand me a note to remind me to stop and pick up milk on the way home from school.  The very sight of the note, however, was an insult to me. Of course I’d remember! We were literally talking about the milk for, like, ten minutes.  So, in a huff, I walked out of the house without the note. I drove to school, and went to class. Later that day, when I got home, my mom asked a reasonable question: “Where’s the milk?”  In a haze of embarrassment I turned around, stomped out of the house, drove to the store, and bought milk. I should have taken the note.

In these verses, God is telling his people not to forget.  As Moses delivers this speech, the people of God have been in the desert depending on God alone for food, water, shelter and direction.  They are preparing for a challenge that is God-sized. If they don’t depend on God, they know they’ll fail. But God himself is looking further into the future.  He is looking to the time when life gets easier, when the spiritual challenges aren’t as pressing. When the greatest spiritual danger is subtle compromise. God’s message is simple: do whatever you have to do now to make sure you don’t forget then.  Don’t forget that God is king. Don’t forget that obedience brings the greatest blessing.

It’s the easy times that are sometimes the most spiritually challenging.  The easy times invite compromise. The easy times invite letting the guard down. The easy times are the times we are the most likely to forget about God, his promises, his direction, and his blessings.  So we need to ask ourselves the same question today that the Israelites needed to ask then: what am I doing today to make sure I don’t forget about God in the future?

Take a moment to read Deuteronomy 7 before reading the devotional below.

My first week in high school was overwhelming.  I went from a small school where my eighth grade class had nineteen students to a freshman class that had two hundred and seven students.  I walked into homeroom and saw students who were richer than me, more athletic than me, and smarter than me. I spent the entire year trying to find a place to fit in at a school where I constantly felt like an outsider.  I found myself slowly changing the way I talked, the jokes I made, what I read and what I listened to in order to find a way to fit in.

In Deuteronomy 7, Moses introduces the idea of holiness.  Holiness is the opposite of trying to fit in. It literally means “being set apart.”  God shows the nation of Israel exactly how extreem they need to be in NOT fitting in. He reminds them that the nations they will be displacing are under God’s judgement.  They have spent centuries practicing every kind of evil. So God is going to use Israel to bring justice by putting those nations to death. But there is a second reason those nations must be removed.  If Israel allows them to remain, Israel will eventually give into the temptation to try and “fit in.” In this case, however trying to fit in will eventually lead to abandoning God’s kingship over their nation.  The loss of God as king will in turn lead to a loss of the blessings that come with God’s leadership.

Sometimes that means removing people from your life. Sometimes it means changing jobs or apartments or neighborhoods.  Sometimes it means changing cities or even states. I’ve known several people who had to move hundreds of miles in order to begin a new life of following Jesus.  There is incredible joy in feeling released to do whatever it takes to live in freedom. Today, that release has been offered to you. What will you do with it?