Deuteronomy 4
“Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and ordinances I am teaching you to follow, so that you may live, enter, and take possession of the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. You must not add anything to what I command you or take anything away from it, so that you may keep the commands of the Lord your God I am giving you. Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal-peor, for the Lord your God destroyed every one of you who followed Baal of Peor. But you who have remained faithful to the Lord your God are all alive today. Look, I have taught you statutes and ordinances as the Lord my God has commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to possess. Carefully follow them, for this will show your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the peoples. When they hear about all these statutes, they will say, ‘This great nation is indeed a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has a god near to it as the Lord our God is to us whenever we call to him? And what great nation has righteous statutes and ordinances like this entire law I set before you today?
“Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you don’t forget the things your eyes have seen and so that they don’t slip from your mind as long as you live. Teach them to your children and your grandchildren. The day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, ‘Assemble the people before me, and I will let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days they live on the earth and may instruct their children.’ You came near and stood at the base of the mountain, a mountain blazing with fire into the heavens and enveloped in a totally black cloud. Then the Lord spoke to you from the fire. You kept hearing the sound of the words, but didn’t see a form; there was only a voice. He declared his covenant to you. He commanded you to follow the Ten Commandments, which he wrote on two stone tablets. At that time the Lord commanded me to teach you statutes and ordinances for you to follow in the land you are about to cross into and possess.
“Diligently watch yourselves—because you did not see any form on the day the Lord spoke to you out of the fire at Horeb— so you don’t act corruptly and make an idol for yourselves in the shape of any figure: a male or female form, or the form of any animal on the earth, any winged creature that flies in the sky, any creature that crawls on the ground, or any fish in the waters under the earth. When you look to the heavens and see the sun, moon, and stars—all the stars in the sky—do not be led astray to bow in worship to them and serve them. The Lord your God has provided them for all people everywhere under heaven. But the Lord selected you and brought you out of Egypt’s iron furnace to be a people for his inheritance, as you are today.
“The Lord was angry with me on your account. He swore that I would not cross the Jordan and enter the good land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. I won’t be crossing the Jordan because I am going to die in this land. But you are about to cross over and take possession of this good land. Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he made with you, and make an idol for yourselves in the shape of anything he has forbidden you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
“When you have children and grandchildren and have been in the land a long time, and if you act corruptly, make an idol in the form of anything, and do what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, angering him, I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that you will quickly perish from the land you are about to cross the Jordan to possess. You will not live long there, but you will certainly be destroyed. The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be reduced to a few survivors among the nations where the Lord your God will drive you. There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see, hear, eat, or smell. But from there, you will search for the Lord your God, and you will find him when you seek him with all your heart and all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, in the future you will return to the Lord your God and obey him. He will not leave you, destroy you, or forget the covenant with your ancestors that he swore to them by oath, because the Lord your God is a compassionate God.
“Indeed, ask about the earlier days that preceded you, from the day God created mankind on the earth and from one end of the heavens to the other: Has anything like this great event ever happened, or has anything like it been heard of? Has a people heard God’s voice speaking from the fire as you have, and lived? Or has a god attempted to go and take a nation as his own out of another nation, by trials, signs, wonders, and war, by a strong hand and an outstretched arm, by great terrors, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? You were shown these things so that you would know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him. He let you hear his voice from heaven to instruct you. He showed you his great fire on earth, and you heard his words from the fire. Because he loved your ancestors, he chose their descendants after them and brought you out of Egypt by his presence and great power, to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you in and give you their land as an inheritance, as is now taking place. Today, recognize and keep in mind that the Lord is God in heaven above and on earth below; there is no other. Keep his statutes and commands, which I am giving you today, so that you and your children after you may prosper and so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”
Deuteronmy 4:1-40
I just love Deuteronomy so much! Though these words were written to the Israelites as they were about to go in and take possession of the Promised Land, there is still so much wisdom that we as believers today can glean from the instructions the LORD gave to Moses.
Moses consistently warns the people to guard their hearts, to not forget all that the LORD had done, and to continue in faithfulness to Him. Our hearts are idol factories, they have been from the beginning, and when we allow ourselves to slowly drift away from the LORD, our hearts will naturally drift toward worshipping something else.
The idea that we ought to diligently watch ourselves continues into the Gospels and the New Testament letters:
Brothers and sisters, if someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves so that you also won’t be tempted.
Galatians 6:1
Many deceivers have gone out into the world; they do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves so that you don’t lose what we have worked for, but that you may receive a full reward. Anyone who does not remain in Christ’s teaching but goes beyond it does not have God. The one who remains in that teaching, this one has both the Father and the Son.
2 John 1:7-9
Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.
Acts 20:28-29
And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the true one.We are in the true one—that is, in his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, guard yourselves from idols.
1 John 5:20-21
“Be on your guard against false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves.” Matthew 7:15
He then told them, “Watch out and be on guard against all greed, because one’s life is not in the abundance of his possessions.”
Luke 12:15
“Be on your guard, so that your minds are not dulled from carousing, drunkenness, and worries of life, or that day will come on you unexpectedly like a trap. For it will come on all who live on the face of the whole earth.”
Luke 21:34-35
Therefore, dear friends, since you know this in advance, be on your guard, so that you are not led away by the error of lawless people and fall from your own stable position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.
2 Peter 3:17-18
Our culture continues to move further and further away from God’s truth, and even many of those claiming to be Christians have been deceived and have begun to look more like the world, adopting beliefs and practices that are unbiblical. Progressive christianity, prosperity teaching, new age and mysticism…all these theologies and beliefs teach something other than the Gospel and move us away from the truth that God has revealed to us in His word. They either add to or take away from the Holy Spirit inspired scripture that God has deemed necessary to preserve.
Moses divinely knew that the further the people moved away from following God’s instructions and forgetting what He had done for them, the worse off they would be; therefore, he urged them to diligently keep watch over themselves. These verses in Deuteronomy remind me of Peter’s words the the believers in 2 Peter 1:
“His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. By these he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins. Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things you will never stumble. For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.”
God is full of compassion and grace and love toward us, we can never earn His free gift of salvation; yet, our election as His children ought to inspire us to move deeper in our faith, remembering what we have been saved from and what we have been called to. Therefore, let us be diligent so that we may not become useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. AMEN!
Living Stone 