A NEW TAKE ON STRENGTH
DEUTERONOMY 11:8-9, 22-23
DEUTERONOMY 11:8-9, 22-23 NKJV
8 "Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess, 9 and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord swore to give your fathers, to them and their descendants, 'a land flowing with milk and honey.'
22 "For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do—to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him— 23 then the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves.
OBSERVATION:
Once again, we are looking at the principles that are revealed in the book of Deuteronomy.
I know our New Testament reading for today is in the book of Revelation. And I encourage you to keep up with that reading. But as you read the scriptures, especially as you journal or meditate, stop on the verses that speak to you. What resonates with your heart?
In our Deuteronomy passage, Moses is talking to the people who are to go in and possess the promised land. His words contain encouragement as well as warnings.
The encouragement centers around loving the Lord and keeping His ways. The warnings involve not yielding to deception by serving and worshipping foreign gods.
In verse eight, Moses again commands the people to keep God's commandments. Keep God's ways and words so that they would be strong and go in to take the land.
That phrase arrested my attention. Keeping God's commandments that you may be strong and go in and possess the land. And not just possess the land but stay in the land.
Evidently, keeping God's commandments was a place of strength for His people. In verses 22-23, we get more insight. By keeping God's commandments and staying close to Him, God would drive out the nations in the land.
Israel could not take the land in their own strength. They needed God. And by keeping His word and ways, they worked with Him, and God fought for them. Staying close to God was a place of strength for Israel.
APPLICATION:
How often we have thought of keeping God's commandments and ways as a function of pure obedience. Almost a resigned, okay, I'm going to do this even if it kills me.
If so we have taken the wrong perspective. What if we viewed keeping God's words and ways as a place of strength. That living our lives in conformity to God is the strongest place we can be.
We know that walking by faith is stronger than walking in fear. That walking in love is stronger than walking selfishly. That living with a positive expectation, hope, is stronger than living in dread or despair.
Yes, it requires more from us to walk with God. But it is the strongest way to walk.
PRAYER:
Lord Your ways are ways of strength. Show me how I can walk closer to You.