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March 22nd
The Bible reading for today ends our journey through the book of Deuteronomy ...chapters 32,33,34.
A song and a prophecy are what the old preacher gives to his charges before his death. It reads like a map of Israel’s future. Some verses sound like the present and some the past, but all have importance to what is to come for God’s treasured ones.
You and I will notice a noble and majestic tone in the beginning of the song. All is about the glorification of God Almighty in His dealings with His chosen people. Not one syllable is given to the honor of man...all is presenting the honor of God alone!
Moses’ song exalts the Rock. Some might think that he was glorifying the rock of Horeb from which flowed refreshing water for the thirsty millions at Mt Sinai. But reading on we see that Moses was exalting “God the Rock”...eternal...strong and unchanging.
And then Moses’ song spoke of God’s work...mysterious...often terrible in its powerful effects in the heavens and on earth...but always right and just and perfect. Almost sounds clinical and sterile until...
Listen to this...in chapter 32...“For the Lord’s portion is His people...Jacob is the lot of His inheritance.”
Or said another way...“God, who is perfect and holy and just and right all of the time... is in love with His people...good, bad, or ugly...He loves His own... desperately.
What the Lord delights in “more than anything” is “His portion”...His “anticipated inheritance”...in His “sons and daughters of promise”...all the way from Israel in the wilderness to His church in the world today.
He found Israel in a howling desert place...He led him, He taught him, He kept him as the apple of His eye. As an eagle stirs up her nest and hovers over her young, spreads abroad her wings takes them and bears them up on her wings...So the Lord alone did lead Israel...and there was no strange god with him.”
God.....in love with His “portion”...His “people”...His kids...His treasured ones...He saved them from slavery...He trained them to be a nation on mission...pushing back the darkness and bearing witness of the good news God for all who would believe Him.
I love the way Moses used illustrative stories to show us God’s unfailing care of His people. Like a man instinctively raising his hand and arm to shield his eyes from approaching danger, so God was ready at once to protect His children from harmful enemies approaching them.
And like the eagle knowing the needs of her young, so God is near and aware of all the situations that His children find themselves in, and spreads the wings of His everlasting arms beneath them to catch them as they fall. And one more thing...the eagle parent “knows” when the young will fall and are there to help...and so God knows when His loved ones are going to fall and is there ready to help them too.
O friends, God knows better than the eagles that faith is trained not just expected...even to the pushing of the young out of the nest to fly...trusting God’s instructions for flight and His promise to bear them up on eagle’s wings when necessary.
And the scripture says...” the little holy nation”...” the little religious nation”...as the word “Jeshurun” would imply...became “fat”...needing God for nothing...and turned to the altars of plenty...the altars of humanism and worshipped and praised themselves instead of the true God.”
This Moses prophesied concerning the blessed nation of Israel...and we wonder how they could have forsaken such a “lover” as their great God.
Well, that is the rest of the story...and it hits home... doesn't it?
Have a great day.
