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May 29, 2023 06:00am

The Bible Recap: Days 71-77

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(The following are reflections from the writer’s personal journey through The Bible Recap by Tara-Leigh Cobble – a Bible reading plan to read the Bible chronologically in one year. To learn more about The Bible Recap, visit thebiblerecap.com. Find more posts from this series at lifeword.org/thebiblerecap.)

Day 71: Read Deuteronomy Chapters 3-4

My Takeaways:

What I love about this book is that it recaps all that we learned in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, without all the detail on the laws. Moses is summing up 40 years!

And like any teacher, he repeats things often to get his students’ attention and to help them remember.

His theme is reechoed often: “Be on your guard! Do not forget the covenant you have with God. Do not forget what you learned about God and what He did for you! Not only that, teach this to your kids!”

But, Mo knows these people. He knows their hearts will be led astray. He knows their weaknesses. He adds in this beautiful reminder: “If you fall into idol worship and act correctly, the Lord will scatter you—you will lose everything…..but, when you search for Him, you will find Him when you search for Him with all your heart.”

It’s always about the heart. God is after those who have a heart for Him. He’s after people who return to Him and obey Him. He doesn’t leave them, destroy them, or forget His promise to them. He is a compassionate God.

And thank God for that. Because I have been there. I have fallen into my own “idol” worship and put other things ahead of Him, things I gave my heart and attention to, things that led me astray. Thank goodness we have a God who takes us back, time after time, when we realize our error and come running back to Him. He doesn’t shame us for our sin but fills us with His love and forgiveness. He gives us grace and mercy.

What other god is like our God, friends?

Day 72: Read Deuteronomy Chapters 5-7

My Takeaways:

My life verse comes from today’s reading: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These words I’m giving to you today are to be on your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up…” (Deuteronomy 6:5-7)

These verses! They light my heart on fire every time I read them! They are the reason I started talking about faith to my kids. They are the reason I stopped looking to Sunday School teachers to teach my kids about Jesus and started teaching them what I knew. They are the reason I started Lioness Legacy.

When you love someone, you can’t help but talk about them—and that is the point!! That is what these verses are telling us: Love God so much that you can’t help but talk about Him—whether you are at home, driving in the car, or just hanging out!

They call us to a generational faith—the passing down of your experiences with God, your stories, and your knowledge. And not only that, these verses call us to live out our love in such a way our kids, grandkids, people in our circle see it in such a way, they want it too! It’s going beyond our words and seeing faith in action, in real life.

For these Israelites to survive and thrive in this new land, they would have to rely upon God and obey Him. They would have to teach their kids to love God, yet fear Him by keeping His commands. They would have to share their experience with God—His blessings, His miracles, His manifestations, and His punishments because they saw it all over the past 40 years!

And what did Moses say to tell their kids?

He made a covenant with us.
He established ruled and boundaries to follow.
He saved us with a strong hand and an outstretched arm from slavery.
He spoke from fire, clouds, and total darkness.
He divided the Red Sea and allowed them to escape on dry ground!
He brought that sea down on the Egyptians, killing His people’s enemies.
He is taking them to a land flowing with milk and honey.
He is a jealous God, one who desires relationship with His people. He wanted their time and attention and love!
He is a compassionate God, carrying them through the wilderness.
He told them to do what is right, established moral codes.
He fulfilled promises and made more promises if they feared Him in the promised land: He will love them, bless them, multiply them. He will bless the work of their hands. He will bless them with fertility. He will keep them healthy and protect them.
He told them one of my favorite verses: “Do you not be terrified of them, for the Lord, a great and awesome God, is among you!” (Deuteronomy 7:21)
He would fight for them!

Generations would share all of these amazing qualities and acts of God and pass on the faith! But, it all hinged on this: They had to fear God and show it by obeying Him and His rules.

Doing this would continue the passing on of faith and blessing.

Oh my! These are words for us, even today! We are called to do the same, friends! We are called to speak of God, incorporate that speech into daily life and live it out in such a way we, too, are obeying God with our words and our actions!

We can’t love what we don’t know…that is what this Bible plan is teaching us: knowing God. Knowing His qualities and character. This knowledge leads to a deeper relationship, one built on love and faith.

Day 73: Read Deuteronomy Chapters 8-10

My Takeaways:

Fearing God

We hear that phrase a lot in these early books, but what does it exactly mean?

If you were to ask any child, what does the phrase “fear God” mean, they might say something about we should be scared of God! (Makes sense, right? I think sometimes they envision him like Zeus…ready to hurl some lightening!)

While God does control everything, and He can do anything, that’s not what fearing God means.

Fearing God means to have a deep respect and reverence for Him and His rules.

Think of it this way: Who, in your life, do you deeply respect? Is it a parent? A teacher? A close friend? Your spouse? Whoever it is, more than likely, you will try to please that person and/or respect their boundaries. You fear letting them down… and that can drive your obedience to do the things they ask you to do. (These would refer to appropriate requests!)

The same goes for God’s kids… He wants such a deep relationship with Him, it would drive our obedience. He wants that deep level of respect that we would fear letting Him down. And, when we do mess up, He wants us to turn back to Him with repentance and a heart that wants to do better.

That’s what Moses is trying to impress upon the Israelites…several times! If they truly feared God, it would compel them to obey Him, and His commandments and all of those boundaries He set forth in Leviticus.

Loving God is not enough, friends. We can love God right smack dab in the middle of our pit of sin and only believe that God is love and nothing more. Friends, God is love—that is who He is—but He is also just. He hates sin and punishes sin to train us to strive for His way, His boundaries. He calls us to have that deeply rooted respect of Him and His boundaries…because, as Moses referenced in today’s reading, He does test us in order to see what’s in our hearts. It’s always about our heart! He humbles us in our failures and disciplines us— not because He is a mean father, but because He knows what is best for us!

And, if you have ever been disciplined by God, I daresay you learned your lesson. Because if you don’t, He has a knack for continuing to test you until you get it. Been there too many times. And let me tell you, it will give you a humbling like no other.

I heard a teaching this past week that talked about what fearing God looks like, and I love the way the preacher put it in this perspective :

“Fearing God doesn’t mean you’re scared of Him… fearing God means that you’re terrified of doing life without Him.”

How true is this, friends?

This is what Moses is warning the Israelites about… if they do not follow God’s rules, they will lose it all and perish. (I did chuckle every time Moses called them a “stiff-necked people”….I have been stiff-necked more than a few times in my life!)

Day 74: Read Deuteronomy Chapters 11-13

My Takeaways:

You can’t love what you don’t know.

And today, Moses reminds the Israelites that they do know God: “Your own eyes have seen every great work the Lord has done.” (Deuteronomy 11:7)

This generation has grown up seeing the miracles of God, experiencing the provision of God, and hearing the voice of God. On top of that, Moses has stepped in the gap to teach them about God. Aaron and his children have been the priests that have stood in the gap in sacrificing on their behalf.

They know God.

And Moses is reminding them to remember God when He gives them victory and rest…and not only that, they are to celebrate the land God gives them! They are to rejoice before the Lord and bring their sacrifices. They are to enjoy this land of blessing.

And they may keep it as long as they continue to love God, walk in obedience to His ways, and stay faithful to Him.

How do they do this?

They had to be intentional with their new life and place God first. Moses wouldn’t be there to remind them—it would be up to them now. They needed to talk to God through their prayers and talk about God to their kids. They needed to keep up the feasts and the festivals to share faith and pass it on. They needed to be thankful in what God has provided. And they needed to obey His commands.

The same goes for us today, friends. We have to be intentional to place God first in our lives. We have to be intentional to spend time with Him. We have to be intentional to talk to Him. We have to rejoice in Him. And we have to obey Him.

Love is spelled T-I-M-E and that is what the Bible reading plan is all about! We are spending time with God each day in His Word! We are growing in our knowledge of Him and He is using that to grow our hearts for Him!

The more we love Him, the more we will want to obey Him. The more we will experience Him.

It’s a beautiful cause-effect relationship.

Day 75: Read Deuteronomy Chapters 14-16

My Takeaways:

Today, Moses reiterates much of what has been established as law, but as you all know, reminders help! Especially for a people prone to forgetting (that is me).

What is important to God in these verses? That they stay a people set apart from other pagan nations—they continue to eat what God has deemed “clean,” don’t cut themselves when someone dies, they tithe to stay thankful to God for what He has provided, they cancel debts every 7 years, they release servants every 7 years, they give to the poor and needy, they continue to sacrifice the firstborn of their flock each year, and they (the men at least) attend 3 festivals each year to remember the Lord with thankful hearts.

Everything is a reminder of God! And, what does God promise to do if they keep Him in the forefront of their minds and hearts?

“Then the Lord will bless you in everything you do.” (Deuteronomy 15:10b)

Where we put our money matters.

What we do with our time matters.

What we do with our words matters.

And what we do in our actions matters.

It all goes back to loving God with all our hearts. As followers of Christ, we are all set apart by the way we live our lives. We are meant to be different from others. We are meant to be blessed. Not only does it draw attention from others, but it should draw them closer to our source of life: God.

Like the Jews, our lives are a testimony to our faith. As always, it’s all about the heart of the matter.

Day 76: Read Deuteronomy Chapters 17-20

My Takeaways:

Today, God, through Moses, reminds His people of godly living. He has set up rules that keep them accountable for this, and these rules are just and fair!

I loved how God refines His army by giving them conditions. They can leave:

if you have built a new house
if you have planted a vineyard
if you are soon to be married
if you are afraid

These conditions help strengthen the army, rid it of fear, and most importantly, show God’s love and care for His people! He understands what can hold us back from fully serving in an area of our lives…and shows grace to those people and conditions that can create a divided heart.

Day 77: Read Deuteronomy Chapters 21-23

My Takeaways:

Moses is continuing to reiterate established laws and remind God’s kids of His standard for living in the Promised Land:

Be holy because I am holy.

What does that look like?

a ceremony to wash them clean from unsolved murder
fair treatment of women taken captive in war
honoring your firstborn, even if he is from a wife whom you don’t love (I am getting Racheal and Leah vibes on this one!)
purge evil in Israel by stoning rebellious sons and cheating spouses
Ammonites or Moabites may not enter the Lord’s assembly because they refused to give provisions to the Israelites after they got out of Egypt
washing when they become unclean
being a refuge for escaped slaves
not tithing from money made in prostitution
not charging interest to your brother
keeping your vows
letting people eat from your crops when they pass by

If you think about it, we have standards as God’s kids today to live by as well! We are meant to be set apart! We are meant to live in a way that honors God and in a way that lets our light shine before the world…not because we have to but because we love God and want to please Him!

It’s what love does.

If these rules sound monotonous, look for God’s heart behind them—He shows it in the rules He establishes! He is fair and loving to those who have been taken advantage of. He is just to those who did or said something against His laws, He is grace-filled to those needing food or protection, and He is holy and encourages His people to do the right thing and to live the right way-His way. The way He intended for man to live.