Month: March 2021

127. Go Well with you and your Children

Deuteronomy 12:28 Observe and hear al these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord thy God.

The Lord, through Moses, repeats the conditional promise: if you obey the commandments and do what is good and right, then it will go well with you and your descendants. This conditional promise is a theme of Moses in Deuteronomy and it is a major theme of the Bible. Do good and it will be well. This is the heart of the Mosaic Covenant at Mt. Sinai. “You keep your part of the covenant and I will keep mine with blessing. Break it and I will curse.”

This covenant is eternally true. But we failed; we broke it; we miss the blessing; life is not good. However, the Good News is that Jesus Christ kept the Commandments perfectly in thought, word and deed, suffered the penalty for our breaking of them, thereby forgiving us our sins and giving us God’s righteousness. So by faith we claim the promise: it will go well with us. Because of Christ life is good.

The other part of this promise is that it will go well with your children after you. This may be hard to believe, but it is comforting to take to heart. How do you know that succeeding generations will have eternal life and enjoy heaven’s blessings with you? Observe and hear God’s words and it will be so. A godly family goes to church, hears the gospel, and prays for the children and grandchildren and so on. Trust the Lord to keep His promises for succeeding generations. Continue to hold them in prayer before the Lord. It will go well with your children forever.This means all your descendants will have a good life and go to heaven. Can you believe it?

Someone once traced all the descendants of Jonathan Edwards and found that life went well with most of them. The descendants of a common criminal of the time did not fare so well. The moral: pray for your kids.

126. Go Well with You and Your Children

Deuteronomy 12:25 Thou shalt not eat it; that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the Lord.

The prohibition about eating meat with blood in it was just given. Here Moses says you will not eat blood. The conditional promise is that if you do not eat blood, then it will go well with you and your children. The reason for this command in the first place was that “blood has the life in it.” This “blood prohibition” was carried through in the NT; in Acts 15 the Jerusalem Council decided that the eating of blood was one of four Jewish restrictions that Gentile Christians should still keep. The Christian Church has since given up this Jewish restriction.

Another Biblical principle that applies is this: “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.” Since blood has life in it, it is the shedding of blood or the giving of the life of the sacrificial animal that is needed for the remission of sins. In this context it is remarkable that God gives us the blood of Christ to drink in the Lord’s Supper for the remission of sins.

However we look at it Jesus says, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life…for my blood is true drink.” In John 6 Jesus is referring to believing in Jesus when He speak of eating and drinking Him. That one has eternal life, which is equivalent to the promise, “it may go well with thee.” For eternal life is certainly a good life, a well-lived life, and it will definitely go well with the person who believes in Jesus Christ (eats His flesh and drinks His blood).

In other words, faith in Jesus is the condition for the promise of a good life. When you believe in Christ the kingdom comes to you, God’s life lives in you, and the pleasant result is that it will go well with you. In the OT it will go well with you if you do not eat the blood; in the NT it will go well with you if you do drink the blood. So which is it? Both, because both principles apply to the death of Christ: breaking the OT rule desecrates Jesus’ salvation; denying the NT truth about the blood of Christ rejects Jesus’ salvation. The OT and NT meaning is the same: Believe in Christ.

125. Eat and Rejoice

Deuteronomy 12:7 And there ye shall eat before the Lord your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the Lord thy God hath blessed thee.…But thou must eat them before the Lord thy God in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose,…and thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God in all that thou puttest thine hands unto.

“There” in this context means in Jerusalem at the Temple, the one place where the Lord God chose to make His name dwell. When you worship you shall do it there where God chose to be present among His people. And by implication do not worship anywhere else; for you would be mixing up your worship of the one true God and Lord with false gods and idol demons. Those other places should be demolished.

The promise is that, in that place in the right way, you will eat in the Lord’s presence and you will rejoice in everything you do. You will enjoy a close relationship and intimate fellowship with the living God, and your life will be exceeding joyful and abundantly blessed. 

Now that is quite a promise, and it does most surely apply to NT believers, even though they no longer worship in one given place of God’s choosing. “The days have come when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.” The “place” will be wherever two or three gather together in Jesus’ name. 

They will have fellowship with the Lord as they listen to the Gospel of Christ and gather at the Lord’s Table to eat and drink the body and blood of Christ for the forgiveness of sins. Then they leave that “place” of worship and go about their regular day-to-day business (“all that ye put your hands unto”) rejoicing with glad and joyful hearts.

You will eat and you will rejoice. “Eating” signifies believing the love of God for the sake of Jesus Christ and enjoying an intimate fellowship with God wherever we are. God promises you will be in His Presence all the time and everywhere. “Rejoice” signifies a happy life, no matter what is happening to you, because Jesus is with you always. “Doing all that you put your hand to” simply means living life according to your various callings, duties, privileges and loves. It means avoiding evil places, shunning bad company, and thinking and doing sinful things. Your calling would be husband, father, son, daughter, neighbor, friend, worker, boss, and whatever your positions and relationships in life. You will do it all joyfully in the name of the Lord.

124. You Will Observe

Deuteronomy 11:31, 32 For ye shall pass over Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord you God giveth you, and ye shall possess it, and dwell therein. And ye shall observe to do all the statutes and judgments which I set before you this day.

The “Thou Shalt” of the Ten Commandments is both an imperative command and a future tense promise. As a promise it is expected that we on our part will observe and obey the Law of God, the list of stipulations written in the Covenant. We will do these things in response to what the Lord has done for us. We cannot keep these Commands perfectly by the mere Law of God. But we will be given the power to be able to keep them better and better as we are being sanctified slowly after we have been justified wholly by faith. After the forgiveness comes the thankful response of living rightly.

In this verse there is a command to do connected with the promise that you will do. You will pass over Jordan. You will possess the land. You will dwell in it. And you will observe to do the Law of God. How can God promise weak, failing sinful human beings that they will observe and do? They cannot and they will not. They will fail over and over. They will impede and obstruct God’s working in their hearts to observe and do. In spite of our best intentions and well-meaning promises we will fail to do. Yet God promises that we will do. How can that be? We do not promise; well, we do promise but it is not believed. God promises for us. How can God promise that we will do? 

The Lord will use the power of the Gospel to change hearts and lives by the Spirit to will and do His good pleasure. The Law has no power to do anything, except to convict of sin, accuse of guilt, and condemn to death. Only the Gospel has the power to make us keep the Law commands, to change the heart to do them willingly, and to implant the desire to actually observe and do the statutes and judgments God gives. Therefore, it is a promise. God will do it by grace. 

Repentance admits our failure; it does not vow to do better. Repentance receives forgiveness; it does not earn it. Repentance trusts God’s promise to make me a better person; it does not resolve and vow and swear and promise to change. God knows that would be empty. But we need to know that when God makes a promise it is not empty, but it is full of hope and a good life. The Spirit gives the faith to believe the impossible: “You will observe to do….”

123. God’s Command is a Promise

Deuteronomy13:4 Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandment, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.

The “shall” is a command in the Hebrew language, but it is also a future verb containing a promise that you will do these things. One Day, finally, after resurrection and judgment, in eternity, in the new heaven and new earth, you will do these things and live this way. The promise is also coming true to life in continuous active present time, as the Lord is conforming us to His image. We are looking and acting more like Jesus. We take the process of sanctification as a promise. The Holy Spirit dwelling and ruling in our spirits is making us holier and better people. Maybe you don’t see the progress, but God does and He knows the next steps.

Get a load of these six exciting promises: You will walk after the Lord. “Walk” is the Biblical metaphor for the day-to-day activity of living, behaving, acting, speaking, deciding and doing like Jesus does. You will look more and more Christ-like.

You will fear the Lord. Fear, in the Biblical context, simply means believe God and trust Him. It involves knowing His wrath and displeasure against our sins and also knowing and experiencing His love, mercy, and the forgiveness of sins. Fear is simply pure faith.

You will keep his commandment. You will love the Lord your God with all you heart. Everything within you loves God and it shows in love for neighbor. This simple response to God’s love produces a good life.

You will obey His voice. Obedience demands love and trust. Love, because God has first loved us; trust, because God really is good, He knows best, and His ways are always a blessing for our good.

You will serve Him. ”You shall love the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve. [Matthew 4:10].” Luther says, “God does not need your service, but other people do, and that is how you serve the Lord.”

You will cleave unto Him. You will cling to and hold on tight to the Lord in all your ways, and especially when the winds and storms of life become rough. We can do this because He is always near us, with us, and in us. Confess and believe, and hang on for dear life.

These are not commands that we must work up the effort to do them, but they are promises that the Lord will work the doing and keeping in us, and out of us. When God keeps His promises and we believe them, life is truly awesome.

122. Go Well with You

Deuteronomy 12:25, 28 Thou shalt not eat it (the blood); that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the Lord. Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go will with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord thy God.

If you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord, then it will go well with you and your descendants. “Observe and hear the words I command you,” means keep the Commandments. The conditional promises of the Mosaic Covenant are simple and clear: Obey God and life will be good. Life will go well with you and also with your children after you. Those who learn to obey the Lord and who teach their children to obey the Lord will live a good life for successive generations.

In the Great Commission Jesus gives us He says, “teaching them to obey.” Learning obedience is not easy, but the Spirit makes it possible; teaching obedience is also hard for it involves patience, discipline, effort, and hard work. God wants us to know that learning and teaching obedience is worth the effort, so that we will welcome the discipline of the Lord and the working of the Spirit. The worthwhile results: it will go well with you.

The Lord knows that obedience is impossible for sinful humans, and He understands how hard it is. Therefore, He saves us, lives in us, and gives the indwelling Spirit to will and to do His good pleasure. The Spirit is our Teacher, teaching us not only to know and love the Word but also to do it. He helps us in our inability and infirmity. And He wants us to ask, so He gave us the Lord’s Prayer to ask Him to make us better people. He sanctifies us and makes us better in two ways: 1) He makes us more obedient and compliant through the Gospel, and 2) He makes things go well with us.

Jesus “learned obedience through what he suffered [Hebrews 5:8].” Jesus didn’t have to “learn” anything, but He did have to experience the learning as a human does. We do have to learn how to trust and obey. Trust God to teach you. And believe that God is good, it will go well with you, and His mercy endures forever.

121. Rejoice in all you do

Deuteronomy 12:7, 18 And there ye shall eat before the Lord your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put you hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the Lord thy God hath blessed thee….And thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God in all that thou puttest thine hands unto.

Moses is telling the people that after they possess and are dwelling safely in the land that the Lord is giving them then they will worship the Lord in that place that He shall choose (it turns out to be Jerusalem). There, in that chosen place in the presence of the Lord, they will eat the sacrifices with the Lord, and they will rejoice in all that they put their hand to. The promise is that worshippers of the one and true Lord and God will rejoice in whatever it is they put their hand to do.

This promise also applies to NT believers who worship the Lord anywhere in spirit and in truth (not just at the Temple in Jerusalem). They worship in the presence of the Lord where two or three are gathered together in Jesus’ name. They eat the Lord’s Supper in fellowship with Jesus and one another. And then comes the promise: we shall rejoice in all that we put our hand to. In other words, we go to church and then go home and go about our lives doing whatever it is we do with glad and joyful hearts. We rejoice in whatever we are doing because the Lord is with us wherever we go and whatever we do (unless we go to an evil place or do a sinful thing). And all of life’s daily tasks and routine business is filled with rejoicing, because we have met with the Lord and he has forgiven and loved us. The Christian’s life is one of constant rejoicing. All of life is lived with God and in whatever we do we thank Him in all things. Such a life is possible, for such a life is promised. “Whatever you do, do it all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” “Rejoice in the Lord always.” Anything that the believer does is with thanks, praise, worship and rejoicing. If it isn’t with rejoicing He doesn’t do it. If it is sinful, he repents, receives forgiveness, and starts over afresh.

120. You Will Observe

Deuteronomy 11:31, 32 For ye shall pass over Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord you God giveth you, and ye shall possess it, and dwell therein. And ye shall observe to do all the statutes and judgments which I set before you this day.

God promises: 1) you shall pass over Jordan, 2) you shall go in to the land, 3) you shall possess the land, 4) you shall dwell in the land, and 5) you shall observe to do all the commandments. The first four of these promises were fulfilled in the Conquest of Canaan under Joshua. These promises are fulfilled spiritually when the Lord gives us the kingdom. We enter into the Kingdom of God by Baptism and by faith in Jesus, possess the kingdom and live in it. The Kingdom actually comes into us, and there, in the heart, we possess it, drive out sin, and live in it daily.

The fifth promise (observe to do) is a little more challenging, and it is a little stretch to construe this as a promise. The interesting Hebrew verb “Thou shalt and thou shalt not…” is taken as a command (therefore they are called The Ten Commandments). But the words “you shall” can also be understood as a future promise. If so, this is mind-blowing to think about. God actually promises that we will observe to do all the Commands. We know that is not true and the promise cannot be kept. We will not “observe to do.” Sin blocks the fulfillment of the promise.

But the promise is true in two ways: already and not yet. Already in this life we are in the Land and keeping commandments. We are not yet fully and physically in the Eternal Land and keeping commandments, but we definitely will be in the next life after the resurrection. The “not yet” we can understand and believe: we will be made perfect and wholly righteous in truth and in actual living behavior in eternity.

The “already” aspect is harder to see and believe, for we see sin and non-observance of the commandments on a daily basis. “My sin is ever before me.” But it is extremely helpful to believe that we are actually getting better by the Spirit’s sanctifying work, The promise of observing is being slowly perfected until the day when we are finally “changed in the twinkling of an eye” into righteous perfection. So we don’t give up, for God is not finished with us yet. Trust the promise: God is making you to become what you already are.

119. Blessing for Obedience

Deuteronomy 11:26, 27 Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day.

The essence of the Mosaic Covenant and the Biblical History of its outworking is summed up in the conditional promise of these verses: A blessing if you obey, and a curse if you don’t. Life really is that simple. It really is black and white, no gray. We don’t see it that way, because we are spiritually blind. Therefore, we need the revelation of God’s Word to see the simple truth: there is a degree of blessing and curse in our lives according to the degree of keeping the Ten Commandments.

We do a bad job of Commandment-keeping and so we live under a curse instead of a blessing. This happened to Adam; it happens to us. But there is Good News on two fronts: 1) Jesus has kept the Law perfectly for us and He has earned for us complete righteousness, making us eligible for blessing; 2) the Spirit in us is actually working in us to make us better at keeping God’s Law, and thus enjoying the consequences of blessing.

This promise of conditional blessing and cursing must be believed in order to be seen, for we cannot measure, count, and add up cause and effect, or make the connections. The Spirit uses the Law to convict us of sin and remind us that it is our sin, our guilt, and our fault that life is not going as well as we wanted it to go. Then He uses the Gospel to convict us of Jesus’ death for our sin and His earning for us the righteousness (obedience) of God. The simple and ugly, but beautiful, truth: life is bad (cursed) because we are bad, and life is good (blessed) because God is good. This must be drilled into us every single day: “I set before you this day a blessing and a curse.” And every day we repent and believe the Gospel, and get ready for blessing.

118. Tread in Your Land

Deuteronomy 11:24, 25 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. 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.

The Lord promised the people through Moses that He is giving them the Land. Now He promises in more detail and uses graphic language to describe the Promise. “You may go in and claim the land that you are walking on for yourself. You own it, you possess it, you inhabit it, you farm it, you build on it, and you will live there on the land I am giving you. There are enemies already in the land but I will put fear of you into them and wherever you tread on the land the enemies will be afraid of you.”

The Land, the Kingdom of God, has come into our spirits by faith in Jesus. God gives us the Kingdom. But there are pockets of resistance and enemy strongholds already there ravaging our souls. God promises that we will be able to walk over to those places of resistance to God’s Kingdom Rule, tread on them, demolish their strongholds, and drive them out. The paradoxical question, for Israel then and for us now, is this: What is God doing and what are we doing? Who is doing the treading, driving out, and taking over? Is it God or is it I? The answer: God is doing it all, but He is using us as willing instruments to accomplish His purpose. God is doing all the work, but it feels like we are doing the treading.

The Holy Spirit is working on the sinfulness of the soul bit by bit, little by little, to root out, scrub out, and drive out the enemies of the soul. We must be convinced that weeding out embedded and habitual sin is good for us, and we need to be convinced that God can actually do it. That is why the Lord gives us this promise. God says, “Trust me, you don’t have to surrender to besetting sins, addictions, and bad habits. You are an overcomer. Give the problem to me and let me go to work on it.” And sure enough, during the time we spend in God’s Word, the Spirit is working in us to will and to do His good pleasure. We are actually becoming better people, who are walking over and treading on sins and the devil’s temptations and quashing the fear of death. God’s Truth and Promise: We are winning, and we will win.