promised

God thought of everything. But that shouldn’t surprise us. After all, He’s the all-knowing, all-powerful God of the universe. Nothing escapes His notice. And nothing takes place outside His sovereign will. So, in Deuteronomy 4:41-49, Moses reveals God’s plan for cases of unpremeditated murder. God knew it was going to happen. It was the inevitable outcome of fallen men and women living in a fallen, sin-marred world. Accidents would happen. But what were the Israelites supposed to do when they did? God had a plan. Because He did not want one sin leading to another. This section is going to cover God’s creation of the cities of refuge. This unique program of asylum for anyone guilty of committing murder, but without premeditation and malice, reveals a great deal about God and His justice and mercy.

God is invisible and impossible for mere men to know or comprehend – unless He chooses to make Himself known. And in Deuteronomy 4:32-40, Moses is going to remind the people of Israel that their God had made a habit of making Himself known for centuries. From the first day He had appeared to Abraham in Ur, God had been revealing Himself to the descendants of Abraham in a variety of ways. In fact, it was to Abraham’s seed that God had chosen to make Himself known. And the nation of Israel represented the mighty nation God had promised to produce from Abraham and Sarah. He had kept His promise and now He was about to reward His people with the land He had set apart for Abraham’s seed. And Moses wanted the Israelites to never forget that God had proven Himself faithful and they had no reason to ever doubt His existence or presence.

Having God’s law and obeying it are two separate things. They shouldn’t be, but that it how any set of rules and regulation work. They establish a set of guidelines or a code of conduct, but they cannot guarantee compliance. And nobody knew that better than Moses. He had been the one to receive the Ten Commandments from God on top of Mount Sinai. Then he had faithfully passed on those commands to the people. But over the years, he had watched as the people repeatedly disobeyed God’s laws, even choosing to violate the first commandment prohibiting the worship of any other gods. Moses was fully convinced that the key to Israel conquering the land of Canaan and enjoying the inheritance promised to them by God was their obedience to God’s law. So, he begged them to not only remember those commands but to keep them.

As Moses continues his little speech to the people of Israel, he reminds them of their obligation to keep the laws handed down to them from God. While Moses would not be joining them in their conquest of the land, he wanted them to know that they could not afford to ignore or disobey God’s commands. Any hope they had of successfully conquering the land of Canaan and of enjoying the blessings of God would come as a result of obedience to His law. And there was another aspect to their faithful keeping of the law that Moses wanted them to understand. God had given His law to the Jews alone and He expected them to keep every one of them. When they did, it would show the nations around them what true righteousness looks like. And the wisdom of God would be evidenced in the lives of the people of Israel, proving to the pagan nations living in Canaan that Yahweh was the one true God.

In Deuteronomy 3:23-29, Moses reminds the people of Israel that he will not be going with them into the land of promise. He painfully recounts the story of when he attempted to rob God of glory and, in doing so, he treated God as unholy. This had been a serious mistake on the part of Moses and it had come with serious consequences. God had banned him from ever setting foot in the land of Canaan. After rescuing the people from their captivity in Egypt, leading them across the wilderness, then having to put up with 40 more years of wandering because they had refused to enter the land the first time, Moses was going to miss out on the joys of Canaan. But God provided Moses with the assurance that Joshua would complete what he had begun. The God of Israel would remain faithful to His promises. And while Moses would never spend a single, solitary moment in the land of promise, he could rest assured that the people of Israel would.

Keith went back down to Asbury Park to meet Jarod Clemons, the son of Big Man Clarence Clemons, in this episode of The Dimestore Jukebox. Listen as Jarod talks about his band the Late Nights, his Uncle Bruce, what motivates his music and more! This is an episode you don't want to miss!

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Also check out the sister podcast, No Care Off Air, where Keith and his co-host Christian talk about "the whatevers in life" over drinks.

Song featured: "Coastal Bottom"- Lionties.

*Music is used with the permission of Lionties*

God has His way of doing things and He fully expects His people to follow His lead. In accomplishing His will, He rarely requires our opinion or advice. He doesn’t seek our viewpoint or give us the option of replacing His divine plan with one of our own. But that doesn’t stop us from trying. And in the book of Deuteronomy, we have plenty of examples of Moses and the people of Israel attempting to help God out by opting for their own strategies in place of His. But this plan-B tactic rarely works out. We may not understand or even like what God has told us to do, but there is never a case where our preferred option will produce better results. It just won’t happen. A big part of being a child of God is learning to obey Him, which requires that we trust Him. We have to believe that what He is telling us to do will be for our good, whether we understand it or not. He knows what He is doing. And Moses and the people of Israel were going to learn that lesson time and time again as they began their conquest of Canaan. In fact, it would start before they entered the land.  

There’s a line in the closing chapter of the book of Judges that gives us a glimpse into what things were like in the days after Moses and Joshua were dead and the nation of Israel had been in the land of Canaan for some time. It simply reads: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 25:25). Everyone did what was right. That’s an interesting phrase, because the Hebrew word translated as “right” actually means “righteous.” They thought that what they were doing was righteous and good, but it was based on their own subjective viewpoint, not that of God. And this kind of self-righteous decision making was something they had begun long before they even arrived in the land. We see a case of it in Deuteronomy 2:26-37 and it involves Moses, their divinely appointed leader. In this passage, we’ll see Moses receive very specific instructions from God, but then watch as Moses attempts to do what was right in his own eyes. He probably thought he was going the right thing, but it was not God’s thing. While Moses might have had reservations concerning God’s plan, that didn’t give him the freedom to alter it.

As Christians, we have been so inculcated with the doctrine that our salvation is by God's grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, that we've almost become numbed by it. Yes, it's true and is a foundational doctrine of our faith, but if we're not careful, we can become complacent and lazy regarding our faith. The apostle Paul makes it quite clear that salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it (Ephesians 2:9). But the same man wrote, "Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear" (Philippians 2:12). And then Paul provides the undeniable tension that lies between our role and that of God. "For God is working in you, giving you the desire the power to do what pleases Him" (Philippians 2:13). While it's true we can't save our sanctify ourselves,  we do have to participate and cooperate. And the Israelites were going to discover that their occupation of the land promised to them by God, was going to require some blood, sweat, and tears. 

The Israelites had been led by God right up to the edge of the land of promise. The only thing that remained to be done was for them to enter and possess the land. But that was going to take faith because there were enemies in the land. And Moses knew from past experience, that when the going gets tough, the tough tend to get going ­– but in the wrong direction. That’s exactly what the first generation of Israelites had done when they had the opportunity to enter and possess the land. And their refusal had brought God’s condemnation and a curse. They would be doomed to wander in the wilderness until their entire generation died off. Then God would give the next generation the privilege of living in the land He had promised. But Moses recounts how that first group of Israelites attempted to prove to God just how obedient they could be. The only problem was they chose to disobey God to prove their obedience to Him. And, as a result, they would go into battle without His permission or His help. And that kind of thinking is never a recipe for success.

Belief is a theme throughout the pages of Scriptures, from the book of Genesis, all the way to the last chapter in the final book of the Bible, Revelation. Belief is an integral part of faith. And as the author of Hebrews reminds us, “it is impossible to please God without faith.” As we make our way through the book of Deuteronomy, we will see that faith and belief were a necessary requirement for the people of Israel, if they wanted to fully experience the blessings God in store for them in the land of Canaan. They were going to have to take God at His Word and trust His command to enter a land filled with enemies whose armies were better equipped and whose cities were well-fortified. God had said the land was theirs, but they were going to have to fight to prove their faith. God had said He would go before them, but they were going to have to follow. And when they did, they were going to have to take the fight to the enemy. Obeying God always requires faith. But the temptation is to allow the circumstances of life to produce doubt in God’s Word. And when we do, the next thing that happens is disobedience, which always leads to defeat, and never blessing.

Why can’t you all just get along? Oh, if I only had a dollar for every time my mother asked that question of my three siblings and myself. I would be a rich man. You see, we didn’t get along very often. We fought. We bickered and argued. And we seldom spent more than a few hours together without an argument breaking out among us. As you can imagine, family vacations were particularly fun for my mom and dad. Four kids crammed into the family car and forced to spend prolonged periods of quality time together in close quarters. Moses must have felt like my dad. Except his family numbered in the millions and the number of the daily disputes left Moses feeling overwhelmed and ready to turn in his title as the deliverer of Israel. This poor man was required by God to lead a veritable host of hostile, perpetually unhappy campers who had made a national sport out of bickering and complaining. And while Moses had hired extra help to handle the caseloads from all the disputes, the interpersonal climate among the people of Israel had not exactly taken a turn for the better. And Moses knew that if they couldn’t learn to get along, they would never get far in the quest to conquer the nations of Canaan.

Today, we begin a lengthy and hopefully enlightening study in the Book of Deuteronomy. This incredible Old Testament book provides us with a glimpse into the preparations Moses went through in order to ready the Israelites for their long-awaited entrance into the land of Canaan. This was the “promised land” – the tract of property located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River – that God had told Abraham would be the home of his descendants. And now, nearly half a millennium later, those descendants stood on the border waiting to enter in and take possession. But Moses had been here before and things had not gone so well. Forty years earlier he had watched as the previous generation had refused to obey God, choosing instead to listen to the dire warnings of the spies who came back with reports of a bountiful land filled with powerful armies made up of giants. Suffice it to say, they didn’t cross over the border and, therefore, they came under a curse from God. That reluctant and rebellious generation died off in the wilderness. Now, Moses stood in front of a new group of Israelites, who were going to have to take God at His Word and take Canaan by force. But before the first battle was fought, Moses gave his charges a few last words of encouragement.    

Since the women just got back from SXSW, they're bringing you another Ani-minisode this week! This week, they talk with Eunice, the creator of BlackGirlsAnime, and they discuss what it is like to be a women in anime fandom. The women talk about their otaku journeys, sexism in anime and fandom, how to deal with trolls, and ultimately the power of finding a community of your own - even if you have to make it. 

Sailor Says, take a listen!