Deuteronomy 10

Deuteronomy 10

So after all of the troubles that God had with Israel, He was still going to allow them to enter the Promised Land. As seen in Deuteronomy 9, their gaining possession of the land had nothing to do with what them but everything to do with God. Ultimately, He was the one who was going to gain the glory from this task. It was He who had provided for and protected them from the time they left Egypt to the time that they would enter the land, and it was He who was going to receive all the glory when they finally entered into the Promised Land.

Therefore, God required a few things from Israel:

• He expected them to fear Him – not necessarily out of fright, although they should understand that He would punish them just as He had punished their ancestors and would soon punish those living in the land that they were about to inherit. This fear is out of respect. They were to understand who God is and realize that He was the one who would receive all the glory out of this adventure, not them.

• He expected them to remain obedient – He had outline twice now all the laws through Moses. Moses spoke to both generations, specifically telling them how to live a holy life before God. As a result, God expected obedience from them. They were not to act like their ancestors or the people living in some of the surrounding nations. As God’s people, they were to remain obedient to Him, thus showing that they truly were His children.

• He expected them to love Him – after all that He had done for them, how could they not? Time and time again, God proved His love for them through protection and provision. He did not have to help them, but for His sake He did. He expected gratitude from the Israelites, and the best way for them to express their love for Him was through their obedience.

• He expected them to serve Him – service is different than obedience. Whereas obedience is following all of the rules, service is putting it into practice. We can be obedient to authorities in our lives without being invested in those situations, just going through the motions. But when we are serving others, we show how much we truly care for them and for God. Service expresses our true motives and proves that we really do care for and love others and God.

Moses continues talking about these four expectations in the rest of the chapter, explaining to the Israelites how they are to live as they enter the Promised Land. Once again, it all boils down to love. We have seen a lot about remaining obedient to God’s commands, but why is that important? It is important because it shows your love for God. Furthermore, service proves that love. Now of course, both service and obedience can be done with the wrong motives or intentions, but without either how will others tell who it is you love or who it is you serve? We serve an awesome God, and the least we can do is live a life of obedience before Him. One final note about this chapter comes from the closing verse. Moses reminds the Israelites of the promise that God had made to Abraham so many years prior to this point. God had told Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the heavens. That promise had now been fulfilled. They had grown exponentially from 3 at the time of Abraham to 70 at the time of Jacob to quite possibly millions at this point. God had kept His promises and would soon give them their land.

Matt