Month: March 2021

117. Drive Out the Enemies in the Land

Deuteronomu11:23 Then will the Lord drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves.

The “then” of this verse follows an “if” in the previous verse, making this a conditional promise. If you keep these commandments, and do them, and love the Lord your God, walk in His ways, and cleave to Him, then the Lord will drive out these nations and you will possess them. Moses reaffirmed the stipulations and the consequent blessings of the Covenant on the plains of Moab just before entering the Promised Land. The nation of Israel was about to invade and conquer and drive out enemy nations living in the Land that God had promised to His covenant people. The Lord will drive them out if they fear, love and trust in God above all things. If not, “you are on your own.” You won’t get far without me. They tried it before, and lost.

The Land is the Kingdom of God that Jesus has placed in our hearts. In that land where the Lord reigns, however, are anti-God, anti-good, anti-life false gods, demon idols, false religions and worldly philosophies whose avowed purpose is to harm, destroy and kill us. And they will, if we do not drive them out. We recognize that Satanic lies, worldly temptations, and selfish deceits are stronger than we are. If the Lord of armies, Jesus the Victor, does not go into the mind and the emotions and drive out these strongholds, we won’t, we can’t, and we lose.

Repentance says, “I am weak, I am the sinner, I am lost. Forgive me!” Faith says, “Jesus is strong, He is righteous, He finds and rescues me.” Then He fights for me, drives out the evil enemies within, and gives me possession of the Kingdom.

116. Heaven on Earth

Deuteronomy 11:21 That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which he Lord sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.

If you teach, and learn, and keep my words, then these good things will happen to you. Your days will be multiplied in the land, that is, you will live a long and a good life. You will live long in the Land, which the Lord swore to give you in the covenant He made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This long life in the land promise remains true for all the Patriarchs’ descendants who love the Lord and keep His Ten Words. For us NT believers the “land” is the kingdom of God placed in the hearts of believers. Faithful believers in Christ will live long in the Kingdom of God. They will live well and be happy forever in the kingdom. Your days in the “Land” will be multiplied so greatly that the days of life will be multiply up to infinity, indeed, to eternity.

Observing the Law of God and keeping His Commandments carries the promise that your days will be like heaven on earth. Everyone dreams of such a paradise, and we try to buy and build such a “heaven on earth.” The Lord God says that heaven on earth does not come by lots of money and human ingenuity and effort, but it comes by faith in Christ. And faith comes by hearing.

Believers enjoy this promise in real time: heaven is on earth, for heaven is in the heart every Christian. We live in heaven all the time; we live in heaven at the same time that we are living on a sin-filled and condemned earth. We need to believe this promise, because we do not see it. The spiritual and invisible, but very real, kingdom of God is “already” and “not yet.” We don’t see it because it is spiritual and our eyes are physical; they can only see material things in created space. We don’t see the reality of the kingdom yet because it is not yet created; it is still in the future, after we are resurrected and judged. We don’t see the “already” kingdom since it is invisible to physical eyes; we don’t see the “not yet” kingdom since it is not yet time for its physical appearance. After the body resurrects we will be able to see it in real space and time. Meanwhile, we live by faith that God is making for us a heaven upon the earth. There is a place we may go, a heaven to enter, a refuge to hide, a presence to enjoy right now, today. We go there by repentance and faith. Repentance and faith in the Gospel is loving God and keeping commandments. It brings heaven on earth.

115. Early and Latter Rain

Deuteronomy 11:14, 15 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. And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full.

A conditional promise: if you obey My commandments and love the Lord and serve Him with all your heart and soul, then I will send the first and latter rain for your corn, wine, and oil, and I will send grass for your cattle that you may eat and be full. Keep the First Commandment (love the Lord and serve Him with your heart and soul) and all the Commandments, and God will bless us with abundant growth and fertility so that we may eat, drink and be merry. Great blessing comes to those people, families, communities, groups, and nations that live uprightly. The blessing of rain to produce abundant food and drink comes upon the righteous.

We can’t always point to the wealthy and say, “They must live right,” but we can say if you live right you will live a better life than if you don’t. The problem, of course, is that no one, not one person ever, can love the Lord God with all his heart and soul and mind and strength, and his neighbor as himself, Therefore, the curses come into effect and life is a frightful mess. The solution, of course, is that One Man did do it right and that One earns for you the righteousness of God. And by faith in Him, you love the Lord your God.

Corn, wine, oil, and beef are material symbols of abundance and wealth and having more than enough to eat and drink. Material wealth comes from the right amount of rain at the right times. The rain comes from God. Rain and crops are cause and effect things that we can see. God tells us about it to reveal to us the spiritual cause and effect of the things we cannot see. The meaning is this: the rain is the Holy Spirit who comes through the Gospel to make spiritual fruit grow in the kingdom within. The Spirit (the rain) causes the growth of abundant fruit in the Land, which is the kingdom of God within the human spirit. We enjoy these spiritual blessings and we are satisfied and content. God promises: “I will give you the Spirit to grow spiritual blessings in your life.” We receive it with thankful and loving hearts, which in turn moves us to love the Lord and keep the commandments, and the love of God moves us to repent of sin and believe the Gospel, and then the Spirit rains, and so on in a wonderful blessed circle.

114. Drive Out and Destroy Enemies

Deuteronomy 9:3, 5 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….Not for thy righteousness or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for 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, an Jacob.

Our God is a consuming fire. Everyone should hold a healthy fear of God, for it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. God’s wrath is real. In these words from Moses the Lord uses words like destroy, bring down, and drive out. How is that a promise for us? It is a promise for us because it tells us what the Lord thinks of evil and what He will do to the evil. The evil enemies, sin, death, and the devil, are God’s enemies and our enemies. They mean nothing good or beneficial for us but everything bad and terrible.

This promise of bad things happening to bad things is good news for us. And the Good News of the Kingdom says to us that we may dislodge bad things from our souls where the Kingdom (the Land) rules. Joshua did that for the people of God coming in to possess the land that the Lord gave them. The new Joshua (Jesus, in Greek) does that for us people of God while we enter the Kingdom to possess it. This kingdom is in our hearts, and we really don’t want evil-minded gods and demons building strongholds in our minds. They are intent on destroying us, but, thank God, in Jesus’ name we destroy them. The holiness of God makes Him intent on destroying evil and ruthless in the pursuit of evil’s destruction. We, too, must have no toleration of sin or compromise with evil within us. It is not easy to root out all remnants of sin in the soul. For this reason we need such a promise, to drive out and destroy our spiritual enemies in our soul.  

113. Establish His Covenant

Deuteronomy 8:18 But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.

God does not promise wealth, but He does give you the power to get wealth. Wealth, by the world’s definition, can mean possessing more than the bare necessities of physical life. Wealth, by God’s definition, is being content in whatever situation you are. Spiritual wealth is a promise and a blessing and something worth seeking first. When the “kingdom” is secured by daily repentance and faith in the gospel then “all these things shall be added.” The “added things” are the material we think of as wealth.

The real promise contained in this word is that the Lord will establish His covenant with you. God did just that in Jesus’ death and resurrection, He bestows the covenant blessing in forgiveness, He seals it to us in Baptism, and He graces it to us in the body and blood of the Lord’s Supper. The new covenant in the blood of Christ is as good a His word, His bond, His guarantee, His pledge and promise that He obligates Himself to keep. 

The “covenant He swore to thy fathers” is the call of Abraham in which the Lord promises to give him land, offspring and blessing to the nations. The story of the Bible unfolds for us from there and finishes in the last chapters of the Book of Revelation in which He shows us the final working out of His Covenant for all those who have the faith of Abraham, faith in the Promise. The Promise is Jesus Christ.

The purpose of life in this world, and the enjoyment of worldly wealth, is that the Lord may establish His covenant with us. “This is eternal life that they know you,” says Jesus in prayer to the Father. This is why you are alive. Remember the Lord your God; He will establish His covenant with you. Meanwhile, enjoy God’s riches.

112. Live by God’s words

Deuteronomy 8:3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.

“The just will live by faith.” “Man will live by every word from the Lord.” The key word in this promise is live. To live according to this promise is much more than to merely survive, although that is a part of God’s promise, you will not starve; you have enough to stay alive; God will provide for you. “To live” is to really live, to be alive, to be present in every moment, to enjoy life in its fullness, to know the blessings of God’s life, and especially to have life eternally without end or diminishment,

Bread keeps you alive, but the Word gives you life. Bread is for physical survival to stay alive on this earth for a time, until you die. The Word is for spiritual living, enjoying God and receiving the benefit of God’s spiritual blessings, and you never die. Physical bread (money) cannot buy love, joy, peace, contentment, satisfaction, well being of soul, and general all around happiness. But a spiritual word from God can give you all these things and bless you with much more. God’s Word supplies every spiritual and eternal need. Living “by faith” and living “by the word” is the same thing. Faith receives the Life by hearing the word of gospel. The Spirit creates faith and life in the heart of the person who hears the gospel of Christ. That Word of God creates new life, nourishes that life, keeps it going, renews the spirit, refreshes the life, and gives energy and restorative power to the life of God that lives within us.

The Word that comes from the mouth of the Lord has more life-giving, life-renewing, life-restoring power than we can believe. We come home from church, we leave the Bible study, we get up from reading Scripture, or we finish our prayers based on God’s Word and something happens to us. We are alive, fresh, new, nourished, full, and invigorated, even if it doesn’t always feel like it. It is still true: something happens. That’s a promise. We can believe it. We live by every word from God.

An additional value attached to this promise is that we may use the Word like Jesus used it to overcome the temptations of the devil. Work the Word. The Word works.

111. Live, Multiply, Possess

Deuteronomy 8:1 All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers.

The conditional promise is that you will live, multiply, and possess the land if you observe to do the commandments. The condition is obedience to the Law of God as written in the Ten Commandments. If you live by the stipulations of the covenant on your part then God will give the blessings of the covenant on His part. The reverse is also true: if you do not keep the stipulations then God will bring the curses of the covenant into effect. You either live or die by the Law of God. The Good News: Jesus kept the Law for you, gave you perfect law keeping, and took away your law-breaking disobedience. Therefore, by faith, the promise is yours to claim. Thus, you either live by faith in Jesus or you die in your sins by yourself.

You will live in the land. The promise under the Mosaic Covenant for Israel is that they will live in the Promised Land, work its soil, play in the land, and enjoy the produce of the land from their labor on it. For us, the Land is the Kingdom of God, in which we will live and enjoy the blessings of God’s rich life. Living in the Kingdom becomes richer and fuller day-by-day, and the Kingdom is never taken away.

You will multiply in the land. Not only will you grow and increase your family, your crops, and your livestock, but you will also grow and increase in the knowledge and love of the Lord and His Kingdom Life. The invisible, spiritual life of God in you becomes ever more and more real and alive in your heart.

You will possess the land. God gives you the Kingdom but the promise is that you will also possess it, that is, use it beneficially and enjoy its blessings and ultimately feel better about everything. We possess the land by repentance and faith. We believe the gospel of Christ and the promises of God. We renounce and reject the lies, deceits, and temptations of Sin and Satan. Faith drives out one and possesses the other. Faith comes by hearing the Gospel, hearing through the word of Christ. Possessing the Land means enjoying all the gifts and blessings of the King of the Kingdom. We don’t let anyone deceive us into giving that up.

110. Deliver Evil Kings

Deuteronomy 7:24 And he shall deliver their kings into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven: there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them.

The final deliverance of the evil kings, rulers, authorities, powers, false gods, and demon idols is after the King of Kings comes to earth for the Final Judgment; then all these kings will be thrown into the lake of fire. There they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Meanwhile, all of these kings, rulers, powers of darkness, evil spirits, false teachings, demonic strongholds and idols continue to attempt to prevent the kingdom of God from living and ruling and taking over our lives for good. These “spiritual kings” are real and present in our lives daily, but we have this promise. They will be delivered and destroyed. 

No evil power, and no one under the control of evil powers, will be able to stand against us. We may take up the whole armor of God and stand. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. We may truly take heart and be courageous as we prepare for battle and stand our ground. We are in a spiritual war whether we recognize it or not. That is not a choice. We may, however, realize the choice that has been made: God chose which side we will stand on, the winning side. In spite of all appearances, and no matter how we feel, we are winning the war. We are not deceived by the apparent power of evil, and we are not scared, for we know that we, with Jesus, will destroy all evil powers, evil kings and evil kingdoms.

109. God will Deliver Enemies to Us

Deuteronomy 7:23 But the Lord thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed. And he shall deliver their kings into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven: there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them.

The promise for Israel is that their Lord will deliver their enemies in the land up to the people. When they trust in the Lord He will destroy them with a mighty destruction. “Destroy” is repeated five times in this verse so that they could be certain that the Lord would destroy the enemies of the land. The seven Canaanite nations living in the Promised Land were enemies of God and of His Kingdom. The evil demon idol worshipers must be driven out and destroyed. This happened under the Conquest of Joshua, but not completely enough.

This spiritual promise is also meant for us while we undertake the ongoing spiritual struggle for freedom to live in the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is placed into our hearts, but there are other evil, anti-God kingdoms already living there. Much of the Christian life is becoming “more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” 

The first thing a Christian does every day is acknowledge the Enemy that remains in the soul: Sin still runs wild in the land trying to destroy us; Death looms daily like an ever present specter diminishing life with sickness and pain; the Devil lurks about the kingdom seeking whom he may devour. Their kings are the demons and devils, the principalities and powers of darkness, the prince of the power of the air. There can be no negotiation or compromise with evil enemies. This is repentance. 

The second thing: believe the Gospel. The Gospel removes all evil from the Kingdom ruling the heart, and destroys the enemies. We live by this “destroy” promise every day while on earth. But One Day, at the end of time, all evil (sin, death, devil, antichrist, false prophet, demons) will be destroyed forever in the Lake of Fire. Daily now, and then finally, the promise is being fulfilled, and it will be completed.

108. No Fear

Deuteronomy 7:18-20 Thou shalt not be afraid of them: But shalt well remember what the Lord thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt; The great temptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the Lord thy God brought thee out: so shall the Lord thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid. Moreover the Lord thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed.

The Lord, through the encouragements of Moses, is preparing the hearts of the people for the spiritual warfare they are about to enter into. Under Joshua, the people of God will have to wage war against the enemies of God in order to possess the land that God promised to give them.

This whole story is a physical metaphor for spiritual truth: we have been given the kingdom of God, but now we must daily possess it and dislodge the spiritual enemies from their strongholds in the soul. Metaphors abound: God will send hornets to drive them out; if we do not completely remove sin and the devil from the kingdom of God in the soul, then they will remain as thorns in the side; one faithful man of prayer can drive back ten thousand. God sends the hornets; we trust the Lord. The thorns in the side are irritants that disrupt life, and if they are allowed to fester, they will destroy life in time.

Therefore, we join Joshua (Jesus, Yeshua) in spiritual warfare through repentance of sin and faith in the gospel. Through His Word and Sprit, by the power of the Gospel, the Lord fights for us while we take up the “Sword of the Spirit.” Therefore, we believe this awesome promise; “You will not be afraid of the Enemy.” Fear, doubt, worry, anxiety, frustration, despair, desertion, giving up, resigning and lazing are always going to assail us tempting us to be afraid. Fears come in many shapes and sizes, but we are not deceived. We have the Word and the Promise. We wield the Sword, believe the Gospel, and enjoy life in the Land.