"Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood."
Deuteronomy 29:18
Part 2
Yesterday: God Renewed His Covenant with His People
Deuteronomy 29.
Today: Faithful Dads and Moms build up Faithful Families
Our verse in the twenty-ninth chapter of Deuteronomy was primarily written to restate God’s covenant with Abram, Moses, and the Children of Israel. We understand that the Mosaic covenant belongs to them. Let’s look and see if we might borrow some secondary applications from it that we may use to help us and our families to grow.
God has given His expectations in His Word. He will not abide covenant-breakers (Deuteronomy 29:16-28). What does that mean for believers today? What about those that walk away from God and His truth?
“Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe.”
“Lest.”
This Hebrew word serves as a caution in this verse. It means, “lest, not, beware lest”[1] (BDB). The words in this verse we need to think about.
“…‘consider this,’ or ‘do not forget what ye have seen, that no one, either man or woman, family or tribe, may turn away from Jehovah our God’”[2] (K&D).
We need to focus our thoughts here on the “man, woman, and family.” As in the days of Moses and Joshua, the LORD was serious about His people. This has never changed with Him! He always keeps His promises. He is the faithful God. He never forgets His child, and His love is without question.
We Owe Him our All!
The words in this chapter (Exodus 29) teach us that just as God is devoted to His people, so He expects His people to be devoted to Him. There is no room in the believer’s heart for any God other than the God of the Bible. No one would argue that the Children of Israel owed God everything. Why? Look at all He did for them! And as His believing child today, have you considered what you owe Him? At the very least, don’t we owe Him our faithfulness and loyalty? Beginning with our salvation, He has given us our being and everything we have! Our lives are His, and they are to be lived out for Him. We are privileged to love, serve, and glorify God. We owe Him our all! Jesus said,
“And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment” (Mark 12:30).
Our love for Him needs to be lived out in every part of our lives! We need to encourage each believing “man, woman, and family” to remain lovingly faithful to God regardless of the events in our world today.
Let no one turn aside to other loves!
Parents, we dare not forget what God has done in our lives and families. We need to expose our children to our genuine love and faithfulness to God in every area of our lives. They need to grow up seeing their parents be sold out to Jesus Christ.
“Lord, give us long memories of your blessings to us and create in us the awareness that we are each a debtor to your grace. Amen.”
“Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons” (Deuteronomy 4:9).
Tomorrow we will talk about the peril of letting our lives and families “drift” along in the river of complacency. See you then.
Quote: “I am here today because God kept me. I am alive today only because of His grace. All I am and all I ever hope to be, I owe it to God”[3] (Anon).
[1] Brown, Driver, Briggs. Brown-Driver-Briggs’ Hebrew Definitions, the electronic version in eSword. Deuteronomy 29:18.
[2] Keil & Delitzsch, Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament, the electronic version in eSword. Deuteronomy 29:18-19.
[3] This anonymous quote was borrowed from searchquotes.com. Downloaded: Wednesday, February 3, 2021. From: https://www.searchquotes.com/search/We_Owe_God/#ixzz6lS1q7tsA.