This commences in v1 where the previous chapter left off – to love The LORD and keep His commands, to love The LORD our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. Showing our love for God will result in loving our neighbour as we love ourselves, which is what they were, and we are commanded to do. The Ten Commandments show that clearly. Our love for God and our love for others.
The LORD (v1-7) was reminding those who He had rescued from Egypt, not their children who had not known what He had done for them. It was a reminder to those who knew and a revelation to those who had come on to the scene later. He reminded them of the lessons which they should have learned including the rebellion of Korah with Dathan and Abiram (Numbers 16) when the earth swallowed them up when they rebelled against Moses.
It is important that when we look back, we take special note of what God has done for us and for those who have gone before us, even in our own land. How God honoured our own nation and blessed us, but sadly, we have forgotten Him and turned against Him. We see this particularly in the laws we have passed and are still passing, which totally are not in accordance with God’s laws. All our laws are based upon The Ten Commandments, that’s where they originated, but we turned against Him. We have had to apply them to our modern means of transport etc, but the basis is still our love for God and love and care for others.
As they are about to cross into the Promised Land, Moses, again reminds them to keep all of God’s commandments so that they will be strong and prolong their days in the land, a land ‘flowing with milk and honey’ (v8-15) where everything would be provided and cared for by God. If they obeyed, God would send them the rain in its seasons so that the crops would grow and there would be grass for their livestock.
We live in days where we are bombarded by panic that we are destroying the world, and it is known by the emotive terms ‘climate change’ and ‘global warming’. Whilst I do believe that we have a responsibility to care for the earth, we do not have the last word on it. God does. He has promised that “While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.” (Genesis 8:22) This was God’s covenant with (promise to) Noah when he came out of the ark. God said that He would never flood the earth with water as He had done. In fact, He set the rainbow in the cloud to confirm it. The beautiful rainbow which we see often today. I don’t know about you, but I always thank God when I see a rainbow in the sky. If we never hear His voice in any other way, this speaks to us of His promise. Sadly, other organisations, often totally Godless and even opposed to God, have hijacked the rainbow for their own ends. God always keeps His word, none of His promises will fail. The Bible says that when Jesus comes again there will be humanity on the earth. We will not destroy this planet, God will when He makes a new heaven and a new earth at the end of time.
Times are also hard with the economic situation; prices have increased and there is a lot of unrest with various workers holding strikes and withdrawing their labour. The world seems to have gone crazy. God’s commandments clearly indicate that we should care for each other which should be a direct result of us putting God first. We are now told that Christianity is now a minority religion (Results of Census 2021 announced November 30th 2022). This does not worry me, rather it should spur us on to spread the Gospel. One with God is a majority. God is still at work, and we are still seeing people converted. There is a hunger for God’s Word in our prisons and in a few of our churches. People are dissatisfied with their way of life and are searching for better. Believe me, the Church of Jesus Christ is flourishing!
Sadly, organised religion is not producing the answer and never will. Most of our religious denominations have gone against God’s laws and when we hear of their synods or discussions and conclusions, no mention is made of what The Bible says, but tradition and social circumstances dictate what they should do. Society needs to hear a clear Gospel message from our churches. The Gospel is the power of God to salvation. For too long they have been hearing mixed messages instead of the clear message that Jesus Christ is The Only Way, and the Bible is our only guidebook.
It is little wonder that our world is going around in circles, wandering down the broad road that leads to destruction, instead of firmly walking the narrow road that leads to life eternal. Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33).
Moses warned them that they could be deceived and so they must be on their guard lest they turn aside to serve and worship other gods (16,17). If they did, God’s anger would be aroused, and He would not send them rain and they would quickly perish. This happened in the days of the wicked king Ahab (1 Kings 17) when they were deceived into worshiping Baal.
On the contrary, they would be blessed by keeping God’s words, teaching them to their children and living by them (v18-21). How much do we love God’s Word? It will show by our conversation and lifestyle. If they keep the commandments, to love The LORD their God, to walk in His ways and remain steadfast and faithful to Him, He promised to drive out the nations and they would overcome nations mightier than themselves. Every place they walked would be theirs from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the River Euphrates, even to the Mediterranean (Great) Sea (v22-25). God stated this promise again to Joshua as they were about to enter the land. (Joshua 1:3)
The Bible tells us that we do not need to fear what man can do to us. We must trust in Almighty God in whatever circumstances we face.
They had a choice (v26-28) – “Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you today; and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.”
We are not under the old covenant. We will be blessed because of what Jesus Christ has done for us. He paid the price for our sin and our salvation does not depend upon our good works, but on our faith and trust in Him and our repentance of our sin. This does not mean, however, that we can do as we like and expect God to bless us. We must obey His word.
Moses instructed them that The LORD told them that when they entered the land, they were to tell the people of the land what The LORD had said. There was blessing for Mount Gerazim and a curse for Mount Ebal. It seems that these places were on the west side of the Jordan, and we shall learn more of them later in this book.
