Deuteronomy 19:1-22:30

As I read this morning, I got about halfway through the reading and the Holy Spirit whispered in my ear, “this is the Law”.

The reading starts out detailing the cities of refuge, places where people could run for safety from the “avenger of blood” (19:6) until a trial could be held to prove their innocence or guilt.

While this reading and the Law are speaking specifically to actual situations where accidental murders are taking place, there is always a deeper meaning buried in the scriptures waiting for treasure seekers like myself to unearth them. This instance is no different.

The avenger of blood is a symbol of Satan, he loves to seek out the lawbreakers.

In Deuteronomy 21:22-23 we read:

“And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death [ALL sin], and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance.”

We ALL, because of Adam’s sin, have committed crimes punishable by death. Speaking out in anger is committing murder in the eyes of God, and I don’t know anyone who hasn’t done that! (see Matthew 5:22)

But then there’s Jesus.

Jesus is symbolized by the cities of refuge.

He is where we can flee from the avenger of blood and remain safe. In Galatians 3:10-14 the Holy Spirit gives us tremendous hope and Truth:

“For all who rely on works of the law [obeying the Law for salvation and favor] are under a curse, for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’ Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith,’ But the law is not of faith, rather, ‘The one who does them shall live by them.’ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us – for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’ – so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”

Satan points to our

He is known as the accuser of the brethren. His entire goal is to remind us of our lack of righteousness (or right-ness with God) through the Law. There was one law in the Garden of Eden, and it was through this one law that Satan caused Adam and Eve to fall resulting in the curse (see Genesis 3). This is not a coincidence, it’s Truth. Satan USES the Law to cause us to fall. It’s what he does.

When we rely on our own strength and wisdom to follow the Law we give Satan a huge foothold in our lives, because the Law is his strength. The Law is PERFECT in absolutely every aspect. WE are not perfect.

We weren’t created to be perfect beings. We were created to be imperfect beings in search of THE PERFECT GOD to fill in our imperfections. We were created to be weaklings in search of THE STRENGTH OF GOD. Satan points out those things out in order to make us feel unworthy of God who loves and cares for us more than anything.

Jesus points us to Himself.

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” – Matthew 6:33

“In Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” – 2 Corinthians 5:21

While Satan loves to point his accusing finger

to Deuteronomy 29:21: “Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.” And with hate-filled words he says to you, “You’re not enough”.

Jesus points to the cross where He gave His life for yours.

He points to the soldiers who spit in His eye instead of yours. He walks his nail pierced feet over to you, points his hole-y hands to His chest and says to you, “You don’t have to be enough, because I AM. You don’t have to obtain righteousness on your own, because I’ve already purchased it for you.” Extending His arms out toward you, He presents you with a gift – Righteousness. HIS Righteousness. “Here, it’s yours, a gift of love from Me to you. You need only take it and wear it as a robe of honor, like Joseph’s. It’s filled with color and Life more abundant than you could ever imagine! You need only wear it every day, live in it. Don’t just save it for special occasions, keeping it tucked away in the back of the closet for safekeeping. It’s been made to WEAR. I promise you it is sturdy enough to hold up to anything you can possibly throw at it. It will never wear out, it will never stain, it will never tear because it’s My perfection – not yours. It’s a symbol, a reminder, of My Life, My sacrifice, My everlasting love for YOU.”

Deuteronomy 14:22-18:22

“And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to hear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and by doing them that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children in Israel.” Deuteronomy 17:18-20

Wow! We have reached a mile-marker day and I can’t let it pass by without pointing it out and reminiscing at least a little bit. As it stands today, I have been writing for 4 years, published 345 blog posts which have been viewed 4,846 times by people in 71 countries. Those posts have turned into 10 books

and 2 journals all written, formatted, edited, designed and published by yours truly (in 4 years).

During this time, I read and wrote my way through the Bible from Acts to 2 Kings, then back to Acts and on to Deuteronomy.

It was when I got to 2 Kings that I came to an interesting juncture. While I had been reading and writing through the Bible the whole time, I hadn’t been consistent in reading, posting or publishing. Then I got an email from a woman who had purchased Mission Minded Mom on Kindle and was enjoying reading through the Bible with me alphabetically. However she had finished the book and wanted the rest of the series… the alphabetical Bible reading series I hadn’t kept up with and ends at Deuteronomy 15:23. It was in that moment that a conflict arose in my mind. God had issued me a challenge and I had taken Him up on it, write through the Bible in a year. And I started out like gang-busters too, like I usually do. But then I missed a day, and then another day, until I had fallen so far behind I had used up all my “grace” days. That was the beginning of the end for me. It’s when I started giving up. I started letting myself stay up later and later which then gave me an “excuse” to sleep later rather than getting up. I was giving up the gift to myself of 30 minutes of breathing in the peace-filled Word of God before the morning chaos.

The first thing to fully drop off was the publishing of the e-books; and that my friends, is today’s mile-marker. We have reached the last reading from the last published e-book of Season 1 (You Have Been Redeemed). I find it no small coincidence that as I reach this mile-marker, I am finalizing the publishing of the first e-book of Season 2 (Jesus Loves YOU it should be up and available by tomorrow afternoon – God willing).

But what is amazing me right now more than anything was re-reading those posts. Not the last one from the last published book, but the next post after that. I mean just look at the title, “A New Book”. I was so excited to be finishing The Pink Polka dot Kitty, and to know now where God has taken it since then! Wow!

I had a pastor’s wife purchase it for her daughter’s Christmas present. Later this pastor’s wife contacted me and let me know that her daughter reads PPDK, every day and then ends up calling her mom to tell her what God told her through it! I don’t think there’s a much higher compliment than that, is there?

Anyway, back to our mile-marker. So I had marked in my Bible this place where I had left off in publishing the e-books and I’ve been eagerly watching it approach over the last few days. Mostly, because I’m thrilled to PASS IT!!! To get farther than I did last time, well, as long as I actually publish this month’s book that is I suppose. J But then, as the icing on the cake, for there to be a scripture in today’s reading about the king reading the book of the law (aka. The Bible) every day of his life, well, that was just poetic in my eyes. When I finally gave up trying to make things work in Season 1 and decided to start over and allow myself to move on to a Season 2, it was only about a week into it that I was pleading to God to help me NEVER stop reading His word and writing about it. This is something that I truly want to do every day of my LIFE. I know that “for everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1) but I’m praying that the season for writing through the Bible never ends for me. (God-willing.) While I may continue counting up the seasons every year, I pray that the project have no end. That it continue to cycle around my life like the sun cataloging more and more milestones with joy and pain.

I have discovered such beauty and love in His word and it has been through writing about it that I was truly able to absorb it and bring it to light in my life. May God BLESS our reading and writing from this mile-marker on throughout the rest of this 365 cycle for LIFE!

Deuteronomy 10:12-14:21

“if you obey the voice of the LORD your God, keeping all His commandments that I am commanding you today, and doing what is right in the sight of the LORD your God.” Deuteronomy 13:18

Answer me quickly, O LORD! My spirit fails! Hide not your face from me, lest I be like those who go down to the pit. Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in YOU I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul. Deliver me from my enemies, O LORD! I have fled to You for refuge. Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God! Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground! (Psalm 143:7-10) LORD, fill me with the knowledge of Your will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so I may walk in a manner worthy of You, fully pleasing to You, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May I be strengthened with all power, according to Your glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to You, the Father, who has qualified me to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. Lord, thank you for delivering me from the domain of darkness and transferring me to the kingdom of Your beloved Son, in whom I have redemption, forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:9-10)

Amen!

Watch: Sidewalk Prophet’s song: Help Me Find It

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Deuteronomy 6:16-10:11

“And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that He might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commands or not.” Deuteronomy 8:2

I mentioned briefly last week, the not so small coincidence that Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego’s first recorded test of faith was food; followed by much larger tests of faith, a furnace and a lion’s den. I then laughed at the “coincidence” this Sunday in service when our pastor gave his own personal story of his faith and obedience being tested in the grocery store parking lot. Would he be faithful in the small thing and put the cart away?

It’s just a fact of the Christian life; our own faithfulness is always being tested. The scripture today mentions that the purpose of the testing is to humble us, to know what is in our hearts and to see if we will obey Him (even when it’s hard).

I’ve got news for you, it’s always hard. And many of the times, the opposition to your faith comes from the least likely of places. Sometimes it comes from the people you hold in the highest of regard. Sometimes it comes from the people you love and cherish the most. Sometimes it comes from things that seem good at the time, making them a sneaky test, because they’re “good”.

Sunday night we were turning the DVD player off and headed to bed. It was already past 10 and it had been a big week. But when we turned the DVD player off the Satellite was still on and a show popped up on the TV. It was a movie version of the story of Joseph, a good one. You know how a lot of times Bible story movies aren’t always the highest quality of movies, this one wasn’t like that. It was GREAT! The acting was good, the sets, the costume, even the script was great. So great, that I couldn’t pull my eyes away. There were parts of me that were screaming inside going, “you have to get up at 6 in the morning and if you stay up any later you’re just not going to be able to do that properly.” But did I listen to that voice of reason? Sadly, no.

I stayed up until ONE in the morning watching this movie that we were recording. (sadly shaking head) I could have gone to bed and watched it later. But I stayed up anyway. Against the schedule God had given me to follow, a schedule I had asked Him for in the first place. And guess who has had to practically throw that schedule out the window this week because I stayed up so late on Sunday? Yup, me.

Tests are designed to show the teacher AND the student what the student knows, what level they have achieved mastery, and whether or not they’re ready to move on to a higher level. Now honestly, it’s going to be pretty hard to convince me that God doesn’t already know if I’m ready to move on or not. If He really is the all-knowing God that He claims to be, which I believe that He is, then His tests aren’t aimed for Him to find out the condition of our hearts. But rather, the tests are for us to discover the condition of our hearts. Tests are humbling experiences. They are those times in life when we come to fully see our inability to remain faithful in the smallest things, like going to bed at a decent hour. Personally, it’s usually the bigger tests that are easier, because they’re more obvious. I can tell you that despite the prompting of the voice of reason, at the time I didn’t view that movie as a test. But the more I look at it now, the more I realize that it was. It was a test in more things than I’d like to admit to you right now. And I’m pretty sure I failed in all of them.

But, like I said, that’s what tests are for. They are humbling experiences that provide greater heart knowledge of our willingness to obey the specific commands that the Father gives us through His Holy Spirit.

How far are you willing to go to obey Him? Are you willing to risk judgment and condemnation from a family member? Are you willing to be looked upon with scorn or shame from someone that you care about deeply? How about standing in the middle of a fire, or a lion’s den; where the situation is potentially HOTTER than you’ve ever experienced and there will be biting remarks intended to wound deeply but fall short of killing? How much is your own obedience worth to you? I can tell you it’s worth an awful lot to Him. He gave Adam and Eve one commandment and look what happened when they didn’t obey. Or Moses, he missed out on entering into the Promised Land because he struck a rock with a stick instead of just speaking to it. That’s what I call a small detail to be obedient to, yet it wasn’t small in God’s eyes. Now I’m not saying there isn’t Grace in all things, because we have that now and they didn’t then. However, we still have to realize the importance of keeping up our end of the bargain.

My one late night, may cost me dearly. I’m not sure how dearly, but most likely more than I want to pay. And it’s probably only payable in more time as I have to go through the class again and re-take that test until I pass it. Jesus help us!