Morning Light – Deuteronomy 9

[Deuteronomy 9]: Crossing Over Time! There is a moment in time that God will bring His sovereignty and your blessing together in an opportunity for radical breakthrough. In this chapter Moses is standing with the people at the Jordan and they have been here before and failed. We have all failed and missed God’s timing and blessing for us. We are often tempted to blame God and make excuses but if we will learn the lesson of the second chance God gives you can EXIT the wilderness trip and enter into your personal promised land!

[Deu 9:1-29 KJV] 1 Hear, O Israel: Thou [art] to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven, 2 A people great and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom thou knowest, and [of whom] thou hast heard [say], Who can stand before the children of Anak! 3 Understand therefore this day, that the LORD thy God [is] he which goeth over before thee; [as] a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the LORD hath said unto thee. 4 Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee. 5 Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6 Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou [art] a stiffnecked people. 7 Remember, [and] forget not, how thou provokedst the LORD thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the LORD. 8 Also in Horeb ye provoked the LORD to wrath, so that the LORD was angry with you to have destroyed you. 9 When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, [even] the tables of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights, I neither did eat bread nor drink water: 10 And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them [was written] according to all the words, which the LORD spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. 11 And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, [that] the LORD gave me the two tables of stone, [even] the tables of the covenant. 12 And the LORD said unto me, Arise, get thee down quickly from hence; for thy people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted [themselves]; they are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image. 13 Furthermore the LORD spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it [is] a stiffnecked people: 14 Let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven: and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they. 15 So I turned and came down from the mount, and the mount burned with fire: and the two tables of the covenant [were] in my two hands. 16 And I looked, and, behold, ye had sinned against the LORD your God, [and] had made you a molten calf: ye had turned aside quickly out of the way which the LORD had commanded you. 17 And I took the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and brake them before your eyes. 18 And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger. 19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith the LORD was wroth against you to destroy you. But the LORD hearkened unto me at that time also. 20 And the LORD was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him: and I prayed for Aaron also the same time. 21 And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, [and] ground [it] very small, [even] until it was as small as dust: and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount. 22 And at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibrothhattaavah, ye provoked the LORD to wrath. 23 Likewise when the LORD sent you from Kadeshbarnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you; then ye rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God, and ye believed him not, nor hearkened to his voice. 24 Ye have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you. 25 Thus I fell down before the LORD forty days and forty nights, as I fell down [at the first]; because the LORD had said he would destroy you. 26 I prayed therefore unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 27 Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin: 28 Lest the land whence thou broughtest us out say, Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them, and because he hated them, he hath brought them out to slay them in the wilderness. 29 Yet they [are] thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out by thy mighty power and by thy stretched out arm.

The lesson of this chapter is that you will not always live your life out in the wilderness. The wilderness trip was intended to be just a matter of days but because of unbelief, murmuring and rebellion it became a grueling forty-year ordeal. This is an important lesson. You cannot always shorten the time to breakthrough and blessing but you can delay the blessing unnecessarily even to the derailment of your life’s purpose in God. It is possible to sin away “plan A” for your life. The first generation who came out of Egypt destroyed their own promise by unbelief. God determined that He would not bring the people into the land of promise until all of the first generation – those above forty years of age would die out. He didn’t want their unbelief to contaminate the campaign of conquest to take the land of Canaan. Because this could happen to them it could happen to us – 1 Cor. 10:11 says that these things happened to the ancient Hebrews as an example to us that we should not fail through unbelief. So, CHECK YOURSELF and deal in repentance with any rebellion, complaining spirit or idolatry lest you cause your own inheritance to become an abortion.

The crossing over place would be the Jordan. What does Jordan mean and what does that say to us? Jordan means the “low place” or the “going down place”. I’ve learned in my lifetime during times of challenge to “go low and worship”. When you are tempted to doubt, complain, or rebel you need to stop and ask yourself “what is the devil distracting me from right now”? What does seek the kingdom look like when you are under pressure? Find that out and DO that and you will CROSS OVER into your personal promised land (which is) the fulfillment of your life’s purpose with all the blessing and benefit that implies.

In v. 5 God warns the people when the conquer the land not to think of it as something based on their own righteousness or self-worth. Performance based religion destroys faith. We have to know that the things God is going to do in our lives is not because we in any way have earned the blessing. God looks for and expects our cooperation and our obedience but there is no way we can leverage God through legalistic religious thinking or acting. Your suffering or your religious piety, or fasting or any other such thing has no effect on answered prayer. You can’t make God answer prayer by your actions or attitudes but you can HINDER PRAYER by defiance and rebellion and choosing to have SELECTIVE hearing where the will of God is concerned.

1 Cor. 1:30,31 tell us that God made Jesus to be our righteousness. The word righteousness means “the ability to stand upright” in God’s presence. What is your standing before God? It isn’t doctrine, baptism or church attendance. Your standing before God is established in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. God loves you and moves in your life not because of who you are or what you have done but because of who Jesus is and what Jesus did for us 2000 years ago on the cross. What does it mean to have right standing with God? Having right standing with God means everything you say and do becomes as effective as if God said it or did it. Does that mean you won’t have problems? No – Jesus was perfect, commanded storms and raised the dead but He still had a thief on His staff that betrayed Him to His own death. We live in a battlefield and stand in the ranks of a religious mixed multitude – BUT you can walk through life with consistent answered prayer – empowerment from God, supernatural favor and blessing in everything you do when you recognize Jesus is the basis of your standing before God and not any other thing. The righteousness of Jesus to qualify you ECLIPSES the potential of your failure, sin or shortcoming to DISQUALIFY YOU from your blessing place. If you can GET that understanding then TRANSFORMATION will come and you will CROSS OVER into your PROMISE.

In vs. 7-14 Moses reminds the people that at one point God wanted to destroy them and raise up a people among Moses’ heirs. What a test this was for Moses. God was proving Moses to see how deep his love really was for the people God put him over as a prophet. You need to read between the lines when God talks to you like this – if God had destroyed the Israelites and raised up a people unto Moses do you think that would have turned out well? Not likely. Many leaders make decisions about the people they serve that cost them far more than they are prepared to pay.

In vs. 15-22 Moses rehearses the account of the Molten Calf that the people crafted to give them couruage to return to Egypt. Notice that when Moses dealt with the idolatry of the Molten Calf he threw the dust of the calf in the supernatural water supply that was flowing out of the rock on the mountain of God that burned with supernatural fire. The water represents the word. Have you ever sat under and anointed minister who was teaching the word but you knew in your heart there was something not quite right? There is the dust or “flesh” of the idol we have made whether it is the idol of a church or a minister or some other thing in our life. We have an anointed word but it is contaminated by the idolatry that is in our hearts. We must expose this and find for ourselves the pure word of the Lord – untainted by our personal idols.

In vs. 23-29 Moses reminds the people who he interceded for them in spite of their disobedience that God would make good on His promise for the people in behalf of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The timing of God is everything in your life. When God provokes you to step out and place yourself at risk for His promise it will not be a convenient time. You won’t feel like it is a smart thing to do. Your counselors and friends will try to talk you out of it. You cannot walk in God’s will and see miracles by following the consensus of others. You must be willing to hurl yourself into the arms of His promises and believe hoping against hope that you are going to land of your feet and see the answers the Father promised you. When you are tempted to doubt – remember those that have gone on before you. Do not look to the stubborn and unbelieving people who are claiming the authority of their own limited experience or the clarity of their low opinion of you or your faith. God’s promise is to bring you out of the place of struggle into your possession and the joy of the Lord by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.