Deuteronomy 11:1-32


Our choices have consequences.  God has given us the freedom to make our own choices.  However, He has revealed to us what He would like for us to choose.  He does not force us to choose according to His will but He has graciously instructed us as to what He would have us do.  We do not, however, have the freedom to choose the consequences of our choices.  God is still very much in control of this world and then events that occur on this earth.  He may give us the liberty to choose out paths but He has determined the final destination of those paths.  Moses is urging the children of Israel to choose the path that is marked according to God’s will so that they can enjoy the blessing of obedience that God has promised to those who love and obey Him.

LOVE: The first and most basic command of all of Scripture is to love the Lord with all of our hearts.  Moses reminds the people that they must love God and demonstrate that love by following His commands.  Moses reminds that people that they have all been eye witnesses of God’s rescue of the children of Israel as well as Hus judgment of their sin.  With all that God has done and because He has created and sustained us; it only seems natural that we would love God.  However, our natural bent is to love ourselves and resent God’s control over our lives and circumstances.  We must learn to wage war on this natural bent in our hearts and regularly recall the greatness of God so that our hearts will be filled with love for Him.

LIVE: The only way that we can genuinely demonstrate our love for the Lord is to live according to the commands of His Word.  The great part about the life of obedience is that it is really the only way that we can experience true life.  The path of rebellion and disobedience is marked by pain, heartache and guilt.  The pleasures of sin are so quickly passed but the heartaches of sin are enduring.  The sacrifice of obedience is minimal and temporal while the rewards of obedience are eternal.  God promises that the land the children of Israel will inherit is a good land that produces crops that grow from rain that falls from the sky and animal that will grow fat from the grass of the fields.  The reality is that when we live for God is life is generally much better now and is always much better in eternity.  It is sheer lunacy to live for anyone else besides God.

LISTEN: They key to being able to live for God is listening to the instruction of His Word.  The idea of listening is regularly repeated in this passage as it implies not only hearing but also understanding and commitment to obey.  The emphasis is to remember clearly the commandments of God and then make the teaching of these commandments our top priority in life.  We are to teach them to the generations to come and the younger generation is responsible to listen closely to the Word of God.  We must never become arrogant and think that we know all that we need to know.  We must be very careful not to be deceived into listening to the wisdom that comes from the world.  But we must pay close attention and listen with a longing to obey the Word of God.

 LEARN: The end result of listening is learning, but we can also learn from the mistakes of others.  The children of Israel had made many mistakes as they traveled through the wilderness.  They endured various judgments from the Lord along the way.  It is important that all of us learnt that God does judge sin.  He promised that the consequences for disobedience would be fields that do not produce, because He would not send the rain that was needed.  They would be taken captive, suffer illness and would suffer under poverty as a result of their disobedience.  The consequences of sin are always much worse than we want them to be or hope that they will be.  We must learn to trust Him, obey Him and fear Him so that we will not be tempted by the society in which we live, Satan the enemy and our own hearts to ignore the Word of God.  We must learn, once and for all, to count the consequences of sin and trust the justice and goodness of God.

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