Morning Light -Deuteronomy 11

[Deuteronomy 11]: The Days of Heaven on Earth! In this chapter God promises if you will find out what “adhering” or “cleaving” to Him looks like – that He will adjust your life’s experience to “the days of heaven on earth”. There is much mis-direction in religious culture today that is all about coping with suffering and going through trials with humility and grace. We do need to walk in humility at all times but the clear promise of God is that He intends for your life to be as “heaven come to earth” not just “understanding better by and by”.

[Deu 11:1-32 KJV] 1 Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway. 2 And know ye this day: for [I speak] not with your children which have not known, and which have not seen the chastisement of the LORD your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his stretched out arm, 3 And his miracles, and his acts, which he did in the midst of Egypt unto Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and unto all his land; 4 And what he did unto the army of Egypt, unto their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the Red sea to overflow them as they pursued after you, and [how] the LORD hath destroyed them unto this day; 5 And what he did unto you in the wilderness, until ye came into this place; 6 And what he did unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and their tents, and all the substance that [was] in their possession, in the midst of all Israel: 7 But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the LORD which he did. 8 Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may be strong, and go in and possess the land, whither ye go to possess it; 9 And that ye may prolong [your] days in the land, which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give unto them and to their seed, a land that floweth with milk and honey. 10 For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, [is] not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst [it] with thy foot, as a garden of herbs: 11 But the land, whither ye go to possess it, [is] a land of hills and valleys, [and] drinketh water of the rain of heaven: 12 A land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD thy God [are] always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year. 13 And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14 That I will give [you] the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. 15 And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full. 16 Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; 17 And [then] the LORD’S wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and [lest] ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you. 18 Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. 20 And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates: 21 That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth. 22 For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him; 23 Then will the LORD drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves. 24 Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea shall your coast be. 25 There shall no man be able to stand before you: [for] the LORD your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that ye shall tread upon, as he hath said unto you. 26 Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; 27 A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day: 28 And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known. 29 And it shall come to pass, when the LORD thy God hath brought thee in unto the land whither thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt put the blessing upon mount Gerizim, and the curse upon mount Ebal. 30 [Are] they not on the other side Jordan, by the way where the sun goeth down, in the land of the Canaanites, which dwell in the champaign over against Gilgal, beside the plains of Moreh? 31 For ye shall pass over Jordan to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God giveth you, and ye shall possess it, and dwell therein. 32 And ye shall observe to do all the statutes and judgments which I set before you this day.

Notice in the beginning of this chapter there are different levels of intimacy and communication with God. He calls us to keep his charge, his statutes, his judgments and his commandments. This is a whole lot more than casual bible reading or listening to a sermon. God wants us to fully engage with His Spirit in our lives and render up a full and deep response. We often wonder why there is such a disconnect between God’s word and our experience but we have to look to ourselves for any adjustments that must be made. The heartbreak is that Christian culture and leadership often dismiss the disparity between God’s promise and our experience by simply saying “well God is sovereign, we don’t know why prayers don’t get answered, we will understand it better ‘bye and bye’”. Leaders that think like this and teach these lies should be fired. This is malfeasance in the very calling they profess to walk in. As leaders we need to call ourselves and our constituents always deeper into relationship with God and immersion into His Spirit and listening to His voice. The promises of God are unambiguous. Anything in our experience that doesn’t fit “life and life more abundantly” is subject to change and will change as we consistently and with motivation in our hearts immerse ourselves into all available avenues of intimacy and relationship and obedience to God in every area of our lives. Change is available and possible!

Notice in verse two that God points out that He is not speaking to the young generation that didn’t experience what He called the “chastisement of the Lord” in the wilderness. Now lest we forget what is that chastisement? Is it when the earth opened up and took Dathan and Abiram down alive into hell? No that wasn’t chastisement. There was nothing remedial in that. There were many instances of death and plague and destruction because there was no buffer between the people and God’s holiness. There was no advocate – no Jesus – to shield them from the consequences of sin and rebellion. All they had was the law which Gal. 3:24 says is OUR schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. They were God’s object lesson to humanity saying “we can’t do this on our own – we need a savior…”

The chastisement of the Lord was not destruction then and it isn’t destruction now. Rom. 2:4,5 says that it is the GOODNESS of God and not the WRATH of God that leads men to repentance. He chastised them according to De. 8:2,3 with manna on the ground every morning and water from the rock and all the divine protections and blessings they experienced on their trek out of Egypt. This cannot be emphasized enough because we have been trained to think God chastises us with His wrath. Isa. 53:3-10 says that God put on Jesus the iniquity of us all and poured out all of His wrath upon Jesus. What part of the wrath of God was not put upon Jesus on the cross? If God poured out all His wrath upon Jesus (and He did) then He doesn’t have any left to pour out upon us. We need to adjust our thinking on this matter.

In vs. 8-15 we see the promises of obedience articulated. Do you see the implied process of God’s blessing? In our fallen state Jesus said in Matt. 5:36 we have no power to even turn one hair on our head from white to. Matt. 6:27 says that by taking thought we cannot add one cubit to our. But here in this passage God connects our actions with His blessing. That is why in Luke 17:20,21 that Jesus said the kingdom would not come with observation because the kingdom has been placed within you as an inward resource that is activated by your actions. Things are the way they are because of what you are doing – if you want something different you must do something different. This is the process God has planted on the inside of you to release His glory and the destiny He is calling you up to every day.

In vs. 16-21 we see a warning about deception. No matter what the quality of your walk with God it is possible to be deceived. We hear this a lot but we hear very little teaching that gives us an understanding of how deception comes into our lives. James 1:22 tells us that deception comes when we give in to passivity.

[Jas 1:22 KJV] 22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

Do you see that passive, outward focus breeds deception in your life? Many times, people cry out for clarity. They are confused and unsure. Anytime I see this in a person or a group of people I look for the outward focus and the outward influence they have been listening to instead of what God is saying in their own heart and life. Verse 16 warns against turning aside to other gods. Where is the kingdom? It is in you. Looking outwardly is turning aside to other gods. Outward dependencies, outward focus, outward reliance constitutes idolatry. In 1 John 5:21 we read “little children keep yourself from idols…” He wasn’t talking about Christians bowing down in pagan temples. They were way past that in their experience in God. He was talking about looking to man, and Christian culture, and outward religious infrastructure for what we ought to be looking to the KINGDOM WITHIN for in our lives. If we will do this and teach those that look to us to do the same then our days will be multiplied, the days of our children (constituents) even as the days of HEAVEN UPON THE EARTH!

In vs. 22-32 there is an emphasis of the blessing that comes upon us when we cleave to the Lord with our whole heart. Let us set it in ourselves to love and to cleave unto the Lord. These are two separate things. Many of us LOVE the Lord but we don’t cleave to Him. The word cleave there means to “adhere, like glue. To be glued to something”. God wants us to bond to Him, stick with Him, stay with Him and pursue Him closely. This is more than an overall sentiment of affirmation to God. Many of us go through our day and our week and just “check in” with God once and awhile. We consult Facebook more than we consult Him. Where is He? On the inside of us. You know sometimes Facebook experiences outages. Have you ever had an internet outage? If you are like most folks these days that “disconnect” can be disconcerting. You set about immediately to deal with it. You don’t rest until you reboot the computer. If you are out on the road you are going to do whatever you have to to find a signal. You would never consider moving to a city that didn’t have good internet. What about your connection to God? What lengths are you prepared to go to CLEAVE to – be GLUED to God?

If you will do this – God promises an outcome. He knows that there are pressures in life so He constantly provides an incentive. How humbling for God Himself. It’s like tying a chicken bone around your neck so the dog will play with you. What love He shares with us. The God of the universe humbles Himself and condescends to incentivize us with a promise of blessing if we move toward Him. What a loving Dad. He says if we will cleave to Him He will DRIVE OUT the enemy out of our lives and establish His promise – AS THE DAYS OF HEAVEN ON EARTH. From whence does this happen – if HE is the one doing it? Is He not in us? He isn’t going to drive out our enemies from an outward resource of Himself but an INWARD resource of Himself – even as CHRIST IN US. That is the power of who God is in you. He isn’t going to do it FOR you He is going to do it IN YOU and THROUGH YOU. God in you is going to bulldoze the enemy out of your life. We need to think about that and cooperate with that and do all that we can do to position ourselves in a place of intimacy and one-ness with Him that He might be fully released in our lives to reorder our experience to the template of HEAVEN come to EARTH.