Heeding the High Call to a Devout Life from Deuteronomy
- 2 hours ago
- 7 min read
Two things at least are driving me to put this post together – Jesus’s relationship with Father and Holy Spirit via the book of Deuteronomy (while on earth), and your relationship with the living God via the book of Deuteronomy while you are on earth.
It is fairly easy to see how Jesus enjoyed uninterrupted and undeterred and unstained and glorious and rapturous communion and fellowship with God the Father and God the Spirit throughout eternity before He was sent to earth. In heaven there was no sin, no evil world system, no flesh, no satanic/demonic warfare/resistance. But when Jesus was sent to this sin stained, demonized, corrupted, perverted earth to sojourn here for 33 years, amazingly His seamless pursuit and enjoyment of that communion and fellowship with Father and Holy Spirit was never damaged or diminished or deterred. Knowing Jesus was fully human while on earth, and knowing He was tempted as we are (yet without sin), how did He pull that off? Well one way was His continual meditation on the book of Deuteronomy. We know that -because when He was in the wilderness for 40 days being tempted by Satan himself, each time He resisted Satan by quoting passages from Deuteronomy. We also know that when Jesus was asked what was the greatest commandment, He quoted the “Shema” in Deuteronomy 6:4-7. These were spontaneous recitations from memory. He had no Scriptures in hand in these instances as far as we know.
I recently meditated through the book of Deuteronomy and was struck by how many times God through Moses tried to help His people see what level of devotion He was looking for and expected from each of them. Frankly this level of devotion is the only way to truly know Him and experience Him and to be able to experience all His promised blessings. This level of devotion is the only way we are ever going to become the holy people He has called and designed for us to be. So I submit these passages to you so that you can see how they contributed to Jesus’s absolute devotion and obedience to the Father; and how they can help us measure where we are at in our walk with Him, and hopefully stir up in us a cry for more.
If you live in the U.S., it is very likely that many of the believers around you or in your town or city are in great need of revival and in returning to their first love. To not be negatively affected by that reality and by that “leaven”, perhaps meditating on these passages can help us all see more clearly what the normal Christian life looks like (from God’s perspective).
The good news is God has always been the initiator and sustainer and driver of anyone’s relationship with Him. He is faithful even when we are faithless. But for us to experience all that is in His big heart for us, we must take the high call seen in the passages below more seriously. May the Holy Spirit use these passages to stir a greater fire in each of our hearts for our great God!
“But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you, in the latter days you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice.” Deut. 4:29, 30
“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.” Deut. 6:4-7
“Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the Lord’s commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good?” Deut. 10:12,13
“You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him and cling to Him, and you shall swear by His name.” Deut. 10:20
“For if you are careful to keep all this commandment which I am commanding you to do, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and hold fast to Him,” Deut. 11:22
“you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God is testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.” Deut.13:3,4
“if you carefully observe all this commandment which I command you today, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in His ways always – then….” Deut. 19:9
“This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. You have today declared the Lord to be your God, and that you would walk in His says and keep His statutes, His commandments and His ordinances, and listen to His voice.” Deut. 26:16,17
1“So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind in all nations where the Lord your God has banished you, 2 and you return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons, (“obey Him” in vs. 2 should be literally translated “listen to His voice”) Deut. 30:1,2
“Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.” Deut. 30:6
“The Lord your God will inflict all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. And you shall again obey the Lord, and observe all His commandments which I command you today.” Deut. 30:7,8 (please note, “obey the Lord” should be literally translated “Listen to the voice of the Lord”)
“Then the Lord your God will prosper you abundantly in all the work of your hand… if you obey the Lord your God to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this book of the law, if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and soul.” Deut. 30:9,10 (Please note, “obey the Lord your God” in vs. 10 should be literally translated “listen to the voice of the Lord”)
“….So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, …..” Deut. 30:19,20
*If you want to see more passages that speak to this clear call to love God with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind; to seek Him with our whole heart; to cling to Him, etc., see the passages below.
Joshua 22:4-6
Joshua 23:8, 11
Proverbs 2:1-5
Jeremiah 29:13
*Please note the word "all" in most of these passages above. God's presence and promises and full blessings are reserved for those with no compromise in their daily devotion to Christ. God would never call us to something if He didn't provide the resources in His Son to fulfill it.
*Re: listening to the voice of God…so much could be said about this…clearly it is a significant aspect of our walk with God. Sadly at times the translators chose to insert “obey Him” rather than what it literally says in the Hebrew text. I’m not a Hebrew scholar and I haven’t done enough research to get to the bottom of this, but it greatly concerns me. To the translators credit, when they did substitute obey for listen to His voice, they did put a 1 or 2 in the margin to alert us to that. Why they didn’t translate it literally, I cannot definitively or authoritatively yet explain. I will say this, the Holy Spirit led Joshua to make very clear why the "men of war who came out of Egypt" that is - all the men of the people of Israel who wandered in the wilderness for 40 years with the exception of Joshua and Caleb - why they perished and were not allowed to enter the promised land. Listen to his words, "...who... perished because they did not listsen to the voice of the Lord..." Joshua 5:6
*Reading the context of all of these passages is highly instructive and encouraged.
* Of all passages in the Bible to not read hurriedly, these are certainly such passages. They deserve prayerful meditation. These are great passages to pray over yourself, your marriage and family, your congregation and the church in your city.
*Brian H. - these would be great passages for your early morning texts!
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