For Our Good Always
The Book of Deuteronomy contains the final episodes of Israel’s journey in the wilderness and gives instructions to establish themselves in their lands of promise. A significant portion of the counsel the Lord gives, is in remembrance of how they were delivered from bondage and the miracles of their day-to-day life in the desert. I will focus on the principles that underly the instructions from the Lord through his prophets.
The first principle I will discuss is that God loves his children and wants to bless us. Some of the phrases used in the instructions are: …that thy days may be prolonged., …that ye may increase mightily, …that it may be well with thee. This does not sound like a God who is trying to make our lives a burden or control us. On the contrary, observance of the commandments will set us free.
Some may view the commandments as restrictive and may be somewhat arbitrary. However, anyone who carefully considers patterns of success knows that restricting certain behaviors is essential and that constant reminders and consistently practicing good habits is the only way to achieve goals. There is no magic pill that we can take that will fundamentally change us. Every good thing comes as a result of effort. Essentially, the Lord is telling the people of Israel, or anyone else for that matter, that the more we can remind ourselves of God and observe to do His will, the better off we will be.
Later in the book, the Lord instructs the people to utterly destroy their enemies, showing no pity, and even leaving no trace that they existed. We cannot comprehend such things in our time, but barbarism was the norm in their day. However, the principle behind such action is perfectly valid and reasonable.
This leads me to the second principle, which is that we must completely eliminate from our lives distractions that degrade and will destroy us in the long run. The Lord is looking many generations ahead when he gives harsh instructions. We, likewise, should be thinking the same way. Today’s actions may not seem to affect us negatively, but casual attitudes today can turn our children to forget the Lord. That is not good.
We are currently seeing the effects of people who have become complacent and nihilistic. Instead of looking to the Lord and taking responsibility for ourselves, we are selfishly thinking in the short term by wanting and expecting the government or other entities to take care of us like spoiled children. This practice leads us to bondage. The slow creep back to Egypt is turning into a sprint.
“Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.” (Deuteronomy 7:9)