WHAT DO I WANT FROM GOD (Deuteronomy 7)

God, on His part, will keep the covenant of loyal love he made with your ancestors: He will love you. He will bless you. He will increase you. (Deuteronomy 7:13, MSG)

Moses summarizes the blessings God will give to people who show their love by keeping His law:

• I will love you.
• I will bless you.
• I will increase you.

That list covers about everything I want and need. 

I crave love. I am a romantic; I write Christian romance, after all.  Although I bask in the love of my family and of my friends, above all I know that God loves me. 

I need God's blessing. I'm not talking about blessings of prosperity. I need His presence with me, His sustaining grace--His salvation.

I hope for God's increase. I hope for my sphere of influence to expand, I pray that God will use my oh-so-imperfect words and life to touch other's with God's love and His grace (see above two).

The next time you wonder what to ask for, for yourself or someone else, rely on God's promise: His love. His blessing. His increase. 

Amen.

COMPASSION

God, your God, is above all a compassionate God. (Deuteronomy 4:29-31, MSG)

This verse makes me want to sit down and homestead. I want to bookmark it to return to when I'm discouraged, to meditate on it so that it becomes part of my psyche.

Maybe the desire comes from my recent study on the blessings and curses associated with the covenant. God keeps telling Israel how good they have it, how right and fair the laws are, how many reasons why they should be glad.  But knowing their tendency to sin, He also warns them of the consequences.

So this verse serves as a lighthouse, shedding light and hope and a way home for those who are lost in son.

Above all, Your God is a compassionate God.

Above all implies that ore than any other quality God possesses, He is compassionate first. Compassion: feeling with someone else, especially wanting to relieve their suffering. His compassion is superior to human understanding or expression of compassion, and without equal in being able to alleviate our suffering.

My God is compassionate. We are "in relationship." I'm not appealing to some stranger. I'm appealing to the God who chose me as His own.

He is compassionate. Com+passion: He feels our passion with us.  The incarnation, Jesus becoming man, is the greatest expression of His compassion. Jesus became man to know our weaknesses.

There is no sin so bad that God will not forgive it. Yes, our choices put barriers between us and God. But God's overruling compassion made a way to restore us to Him: His Son died on the cross to take away our sin, and He will willingly forgive us for our sins whenever we ask.

We can't outrun God or drive Him away.
He won't let us.

CHOOSE YOUR OWN ENDINGS (Deuteronomy 3)

At last Moses expresses his hurt over not seeing the promised land.

In his final sermon series to Israel, he tells them about his prayer:
     God, my Master, You let me in on the beginnings, You let me see Your greatness, You let me see
     Your might--what god in Heaven or Earth can do what You have done! Please, let me in also
     on the endings, let me cross the river and see the good land over the Jordan, the lush hills, the
     Lebanon mountains. 

Oh, Moses. I want to see it too.

In case you don't already know, God's answer was "no."

Moses came so close.

I have seen God's greatness, not only in stories from others, but in my own life.

But our lives are not like a choose-your-own adventure book. The older I get, the more I realize that I probably won't see all my dreams for this life come true. I'll never run a marathon. I doubt I'll ever make it to Australia. It is still possible, if doubtful, that I will one day be a New York Times best-selling author.

Whether my dreams for this life come to fruition in this lifetime or not, I will be in on the ending. I will see the new heaven and earth. My feet will tread the streets of gold and I will have a heavenly address at 8354 Saints Row.

Maybe Moses will be my neighbor.

NO FAIRY TALE ENDING (Numbers 36)

I knew that today I would be reading the last chapters of Numbers. I looked forward to some great climax, something that would end the story of the Wilderness Wanderings with appropriate fanfare.

Instead, the book ended with a summary statement: These are the commands and regulations that God commanded through the authority of Moses to the People of Israel on the Plains of Moab at Jordan-Jericho.

I confess, I was disappointed. As a writer, I was looking for a different ending, something that made me feel good, gave me a glimpse at the future happiness of the main characters, and tied up all my questions.

But Numbers is no fairy tale, with a happily ever after ending. Instead, Moses repeated the one theme of the book, of everything he had written from Exodus forward, that lay at the center of God's revelation. These are the commands and regulations that God commanded. 

If there was one thing Moses (and the Holy Spirit, who inspired the writing) wanted the people of Israel to remember, it was this:  These are the commands of God. Obey them. 

As the Israelites prepared to move forward into the Promised Land at last, they must remember all God had commanded.

The Bible doesn't have to be exciting or heart-tugging to be important.

And God's commands always matter.

Record-Keeping (Numbers 33)

Under God's instruction, Moses kept a log of every time they moved, camp by camp. 

In today's passage, Moses added the list of all the stops to the biblical record.

The most likely writing material would have been papyrus. Papyrus was made from papyrus plants, plentiful in Egypt - not likely to be found in the desert.

And Moses did a lot of writing. Earlier he commanded tribal leaders to list the names of all the men of fighting age. He had made a written record of the first three books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus).  At some point he recorded Numbers and Deuteronomy as well.

With papyrus running at most 25 inches per sheet, that's a lot of papyrus.

When the Egyptians sent them off with gifts of gold and silver, did they include papyrus in the gift bags?

Moses had a royal education. But I've always been amazed at the range of skills exhibited by a people who spent their days making stones for the pyramids.  Musicians and artists, weavers and artists, goldsmiths and clerks.

Today to make a list all we need to do is to pull out our cell phone, not go to the scroll cart and find a blank sheet of papyrus.

Details matter to God. Names, places, times. If He wanted Moses to keep a record, I bet He expects us to account for our time as well.

GOD'S AVENGERS (Numbers 31)

In today's reading, God gave Moses a double-sided commanded: Avenge the people of Israel on the Midianites. After that, you're coming home.

I did wonder if by that point, Moses was more than ready to die. But I also wondered, avenge them for what? (oh, how short my memory is.)

The Midianite women had led the men of Israel astray, and 24,000 died.

Oh, yes. That reason.

But . . . avenge? When I looked for images, all I found were video game and comic book heroes. The 21st century has corrupted the role of avengers to an entertainment sport.

It's also an unexpected command, since God says, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay."

I checked to see if this word is used elsewhere, in the conquest of Canaan, about other tribes they would vanquish. No, it isn't. God only commands vengeance against the Midianites.

Merriam Webster defines avenge as "to exact satisfaction for a wrong by punishing the wrongdoer."

What was the wrong done? Leading the people of Israel into worshipping other gods; pushing the always-hot sex button. Women took the lead in the plot.

God had already punished the Israelites for falling for the temptation; now He wanted Israel to punish Midian for leading them astray. The women were a key component of the temptation. Any right-thinking leader would realize the vengeance must incorporate the women who led them astray, or else, well, they might go back where they started.

12,000 men went to war. They killed all the men and brought home the women. I couldn't help but wonder if a few of the couples who had been together met again. Maybe the guys were hoping for a repetition of the experience, this time almost God-approved?  Our thinking can get really twisted when we want something badly enough.

Moses was furious and ordered that all the women who weren't virgins be put to death.

Hmm, does this story on vengeance have anything to say about the betrayal I've experienced? Well, I wasn't led into sin.  So perhaps not.

WHEN GOD WRITES THE END (Numbers 27)

Today's chapter marks the beginning of the end for Moses. God told him to climb the Abiram Mountains, to look over the Promised Land. "When you've had a good look, you'll be joined to your ancestors in the grave."

Remember all the way back at the burning bush, when Moses argued with God about his commission to lead the people of Israel?

One thing that has struck me in reading the Pentateuch this year is how Moses talked with God.  He learned, he changed. By his later years, he talked with God as though with a long-time, intimate friend. He knew how to push God's buttons--in a good way.

Death wasn't going to interrupt that friendship, and God pointed out that Moses would be joining his brother.

More than forty years after begging God to send someone else to do the job, all he could think about was the people who had aggravated Moses and exasperated him and disappointed him.

Moses more or less said, "I'm thankful I'm joining You and my family in heaven. But what about the people who are still living down here? Don't leave them without a shepherd."

God answered--Joshua would lead the people into the promised land.

That was the end of the discussion. Moses didn't beg God to change His mind, didn't ask for an extension, didn't pout or complain.

Oh, when I come to the end of my days, may I go with such peace.