The Faithfulness of God in Chastening His People (Deut. 32:15-25)

7/20/2009 9:02 AM

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY

 

My Worship Time Focus:  The faithfulness of God in chastening His people

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                        Reference:  Deut. 32:15-25

 

            Message of the verses:  “15 ¶  "But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked— You are grown fat, thick, and sleek— Then he forsook God who made him, And scorned the Rock of his salvation. 16  "They made Him jealous with strange gods; With abominations they provoked Him to anger. 17  "They sacrificed to demons who were not God, To gods whom they have not known, New gods who came lately, Whom your fathers did not dread. 18  "You neglected the Rock who begot you, And forgot the God who gave you birth.

    “19 ¶  "The LORD saw this, and spurned them Because of the provocation of His sons and daughters. 20  "Then He said, ‘I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end shall be; For they are a perverse generation, Sons in whom is no faithfulness. 21  ‘They have made Me jealous with what is not God; They have provoked Me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation, 22  For a fire is kindled in My anger, And burns to the lowest part of Sheol, And consumes the earth with its yield, And sets on fire the foundations of the mountains. 23  ‘I will heap misfortunes on them; I will use My arrows on them. 24  ‘They will be wasted by famine, and consumed by plague And bitter destruction; And the teeth of beasts I will send upon them, With the venom of crawling things of the dust. 25  ‘Outside the sword will bereave, And inside terror— Both young man and virgin, The nursling with the man of gray hair.”

            Prophecy seems to be a main theme in this section for the things that are described  here are things that will happen in the future from this writing and in fact are still happening even to this day in the lives of the children of Israel.

            The thing that God hates most is idol worship, and that is why the nation of Israel was judged so many times in the OT culminating with the nation of Babylon coming down to take them captive in 586 BC.

            Warren Wiersbe points out that verse twenty-one culminated with the Romans defeating the Jews in 70 AD and then the Jews were dispersed throughout the whole world and before that God turned His attention to the gentiles to save them and to make Israel jealous.

            This section speaks of God being the Father of the nation of Israel by using the word begot and because He was their Father and because they turned away from Him to worship idols and demons (1 Cor. 10:20), God had to discipline them because that is what a Father does.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Idol worship is not just for OT believers, and it is not just for heathens today, but anything that comes between the God that I love and me is an Idol.  TV is an idol that has become between God and me and the Holy Spirit has been working on my heart in order for me to stop watching the amount of TV that I have been watching and I need to be faithful to the Holy Spirit and stop watching too much TV. 

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

 

1. Not watch so much TV today; in fact this would be a good day to not watch it at all.
2. Give myself to the Lord for worship and service.
3. Trust the Lord to guide my path today.
4. Continue to learn contentment.
5. Keep a short list between myself and the Lord of sins that I commit and trust the Holy Spirit to search my heart and convict me of hidden sins in order to confess them to Him.  (1John 1:9)
6. Put on the spiritual armor of God:  The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit.

 

Memory verses for the week:                                  Ephesians 3:14-21

 

14.  For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,

15.  from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,

16.  that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,

17.  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

18.  may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,

19.  and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

20.  Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us,

21.  to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

 

7/20/2009 9:46 AM