There is so much we could talk about in Deuteronomy, chapters 3-5, but I will try to stay focused.
God provides the victory
Recall from yesterday that Moses is 120 years old when he is leading an army against all these kings. For this reason, he knows the Lord is the one giving them victory.
We may not be involved in conquests of cities or battles with kings. But each of us fight daily battles of our own. All of us have loved ones who we worry about. Some are having health issues or financial struggles. Then there are children who have moved away and we fight the emotions of missing them.
Attempting to fight these battles with our own strength, we forget the greatest weapon in our arsenal. God is with us. We need to give everything to Him in prayer and trust His will and timing. Asking Him to comfort us and provide for us the assurance that everything we are experiencing is for a good that we may not perceive yet. We take solace in knowing that one day, He will show us the reason and we will rejoice.
Seek God’s will
Does this ease the burden now? Yes, if we accept it is His will and that there is no place else we would want to be.
When we do this, we learn to acknowledge that all the valleys we pass through are for His will, and all the mountains we climb are for His glory. This means all the victories we win are His, too.
In Christ we have victory over sin and over death, but we shortchange ourselves when we limit the victory to these areas.
It is a little confusing to hear Moses state God gives them the victories, but then verse 3:8 claims he gives Gilead to Makir. Moses claims he was giving other lands to various tribes. It is God who does the giving.
He could give nothing to anyone, unless God had provided it and moved him to give it. Everything we have is His, and He is the sole provider.
We make God angry
Moses knows this because he pleads with the Lord. He tells the people to not fear because God himself will fight for them.
His doubt comes in as he accepts the Lord will not listen to him because He is angry with him. God does not want to hear about the people any longer because of their sins.
Therefore, God gives them a clear roadmap of what He expects from all of us.
In Christ we have grace
We are told not to subtract from or add to His commands. So, Jesus explains that grace does not remove anything from the Law. (see Matt 5:18)
In 4:4, it says that those who held fast to the Lord are still alive today. This is the message of grace. Not that we are not responsible for our sins, we are. But Jesus has paid for them. They would not need to be atoned for if they were not still sin. He would not have had to die.
Verse 4:6 tells us to observe personally and then share that wisdom and understanding with others. When we see someone who is worshipping an idol, we need to help them realize that there is only One God.
We need to be aware of how our actions reflect our faith. If we don’t act on what we say, people won’t pay attention.
He tells us this in verse 9 and ends it with the admonition to teach our children and grandchildren. They are the ones who are seeing our actions the closest. Only if those actions match our words will they want to emulate them?
Reject idolatry
He turns his focus again to idolatry. This is our ongoing battle. We love to make idols for ourselves, and even of ourselves. Because of their idolatry, the Lord’s wrath burned against Moses, barring his passage across the Jordan.
Verses 4:25-26 warn us that corruption is inevitable and that practicing idolatry leads to destruction.
Verse 29 assures us that even then, if we seek the Lord with all our hearts and souls, we will find Him. So few of us seek Him in this way. We feel that reading a few passages, attending a couple of hours of church now and then, should keep our ledger clean.
This is not what God commands. Therefore, he lets us sink into those patterns until we have distress and then we will seek Him again.
We must remember there is only One God. Only he deserves our highest praise. When we repeat these mistakes, we need to drop to our knees and reconnect with the Lord.
Then we move into Chapter 5 and all the Ten Commandments. There is enough in these verses to camp for a week, but I will just leave you with a question: Which commandment do you struggle with the most, and what steps could you take, knowing this is your weakness?
Ask God to help you with that struggle and have faith that He will.
