Before Dying, Moses Blesses Israel's Tribes, But Not All of Them -- Deuteronomy 33

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The Last Official Act of the Lawgiver of Israel -- Deuteronomy 33

These are Moses' own words of blessings to the tribes of Israel. In verses 2-5, Moses once again gives praise to God for Who He is and what He had done for Israel. He points out how much He loves the people of Israel. He makes reference to God's Words (the Law at that time) and how it is a true possession of value for the descendants of Jacob.

Before he gets to the individual blessings, there is, in verse 5, reference to his own role, referring to himself as a king in Jeshurun (the Hebrew word of Israel).  This was interesting to me today as our small life group has been studying another book in the Old Testament, that of Judges (which we too will take up in due time). Throughout that book, we are reminded time and again, before the judges, between the judges, and after the judges, that "in those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes." Thus, the significance of Moses as king of Israel here takes on additional meaning for me. He really did all he could to keep the Israelites in hand.

And then from verse 6 to verse 25, we have accounts of ten blessings that Moses uttered. Wait a minute, you may ask, "I thought there were twelve sons of Jacob and twelve tribes of Israel. Why only ten blessings?"  Good question, and I had to do some digging into this to find out.

Let's start from the beginning. Jacob had twelve sons and one daughter.  Let's list the sons in order of birth:

1. Reuben; 2. Simeon; 3. Levi; 4. Judah; 5. Dan; 6. Naphtali; 7. Gad; 8. Asher; 9. Issachar; 10. Zebulun; 11. Joseph; and 12. Benjamin.

But as we look at the blessing in this chapter, I count only ten of them. Simeon and Issachar are not blessed here by Moses. Why is that?

Let's deal with Simeon first. Here is the best answer I can find from hermeneutics.stackexchange.com -- 

Moses died circa 1406 B.C. In order to understand why Simeon is not mentioned in Deuteronomy, we must go back in time to when Jacob, the father of the twelve sons who were the progenitors of the twelve tribes of Israel, died (circa 1859 B.C.). The record of Jacob’s blessings is in Genesis chapter 49. The relevant section is in verses 5-7:

Simeon and Levi are brothers – their swords are weapons of violence. Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly, for they have killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased. Cursed be their anger, so fierce, and their fury, so cruel! I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse them in Israel.

The New International Study Version notes give this explanation with regard to Jacob’s prophetic words that Simeon’s descendants would be scattered:

Fulfilled when Simeon’s descendants were absorbed into the territory of Judah (see Joshua 19:1, 9) and when Levi’s descendants were dispersed throughout the land, living in 48 towns and the surrounding pasture-lands.

At the time of the second census conducted by Moses and Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, the tribe of Simeon was the smallest and weakest of all the tribes that came out of Egypt, only 22,200 men aged 20 years or more (Numbers 26:14). 

Simeon was cursed by his father Jacob, probably because of the event recorded in Genesis 34:24–30 when Simeon and Levi took revenge on the men of Shechem after the rape of Dinah. After the horrific event, Jacob said to Simeon and Levi,

You have brought trouble on me by making me a stench to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people living in this land. We are few in number, and if they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed (Genesis 34:30).

Moses was undoubtedly aware of this and that may be why the tribe of Simeon was excluded from Moses’ blessing. 

Now what about Issachar?  You will remember that Moses was basically at the Jordan River and would not be allowed to cross over into the Promised Land on the east side of the river.  This blessing was for those tribes (minus Simeon) that were going to go into the Promised Land. The tribe of Issachar you will remember decided to stay and settle in the west side of the Jordan and not in the Promised Land.

Hope that explains why ten blessings and not twelve.

David Guzik introduces these blessings as follows:

As he looked at Israel with a shepherd's heart, he could not leave them without blessing them. It must be this way. Moses could not leave this earth without a final blessing of the people he has loved and served in the LORD for these 40 years. This chapter is similar in its effect to the blessing of Israel (Jacob) upon his twelve sons as recorded in Genesis 49. Since Moses was the one who recorded the blessing of Israel in Genesis 49, it is not a stretch to think he consciously modelled his blessing on Jacob's previous one.

If you read the blessings and know something of the history of each of the tribes as we studied them in the earlier parts of the book of Deuteronomy as well as in the earlier books of the Torah, you will note that Moses took care to say something very personal and precious with respect to each of the tribes. There is no doubt in my mind that this reflects the epitome of leadership when a leader can do this while withdrawing from the work. Moses led to his very last breath.

I must point out something I found to be a real comfort to me in verse 25b in the blessing to Asher. He says, "And according to your days, so shall your leisurely walk be."  Chuck Smith explains this blessing:

"And as thy days, so shall thy strength be." Take that as a promise of God for you. As your days, so shall your strength be. God's grace is sufficient for you. And whatever you are facing for that particular day, God will give you strength for that day. "As your day is so shall your strength be."

I don't know about you, but as the persecution of Christians is spreading like wildfire even in North America, I find this promise here to be a comfort to the believer.  God will give you and me the strength we need to live our very last day.

In verses 26-29 he now turns the opportunity of the blessing back to praising God -- the key figure in all of this. There is none like Him he says in verse 26. I love the second part of that verse which implies that God "rides back and forth across the Heavens and the Skies in His Majesty to come to your help" (translation mine).  I've never noticed that before. It's an incredible picture.

And then verse 27 gets even better. He portrays God as a "dwelling place" for us, whose arms are everlasting, driving out His and our enemy, destroying him," and then verse 28, "so that Israel (so that you and I) may dwell in security, and all our generations being secluded in the land of grain and new wine."  What a picture these verses are of what God is doing for us right now. His heavens provide us with the necessary fresh dew for life.

Verse 29, summarizes it all up and says, "We are blessed, there is none blessed like us, because God is our shield that helps us, and the sword which keeps us as His. Our enemies will "cringe before" us and we shall conquer them.

Wow, what a parting message to the children of Israel, and to us, that Moses leaves them and us with. What an image of our God.

If you really want to dig deeper into these blessings and the whole chapter, may I recommend that you find some time to go through Matthew Henry's commentary on it which you can find here. It takes you through each blessing and what the outcome was as well.

Then go back and look at the picture of God that Moses paints for us here and then go forth each day knowing that this God, our God, loves us so much and He and He alone stands on guard 24/7 for you and me. If that does not move you towards Him, nothing will. 

Note to reader: If you like the way we are studying scripture, why not subscribe to our posts by providing us just with your email? You can do that to the right of this column in the "Subscribe to" section.  You can also search our earlier studies in the "Blog Archive" section below that.  Finally, please encourage others to study along with us by sharing this link with your family and friends. Thank you and God bless.  Ken G. 

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

Promised Blessings: The Details -- Deuteronomy 28:1-14

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Do Israel's Promised Blessings Apply to Us? -- Deuteronomy 28:1-14

In this 28th chapter of Deuteronomy, Moses expands on two words from the previous chapter -- blessings and curses. In this first passage, verses 1-14, he provides the Israelites with the details of the blessings that God will provide under certain conditions. Throughout all the writings so far with respect to the Covenant God made with Israel, there were elements of the blessings that would be as Matthew Henry says, at three levels -- personal, family, and national, with the emphasis of course on the national level. But we cannot avoid seeing how often Israel is blessed through the blessing of individual families and later on, as will see in the rest of the Old Testament, individuals themselves. 

I also like the way Robert Jamieson lays out the real purpose and impact of this chapter for us when he says:

"In this chapter the blessings and curses are enumerated at length, and in various minute details, so that on the first entrance of the Israelites into the land of promise, their whole destiny was laid before them, as it was to result from their obedience or the contrary."

Let me make the following point here and get it out of the way. Salvation is free. You can't do anything for it except accepting it as a free gift of God through His Son Jesus Christ. But blessings are not a big free giveaway. They weren't in the days of Israel and they aren't now, no matter what some of your TV preacher friends may tell you. They come with conditions.

They are conditional on two things as indicated very clearly in verse 1 of this chapter: "IF you will diligently obey the Lord your God" and in case we misunderstand what that means, Moses goes on to say, "being careful to do all His commandments".  [Please note, the word "If" in the verse isn't there just for fun. It never is there just for fun in any part of Scripture.]

If you can do that, then blessings start to flow. So many of us in 2021 are wondering where our blessings are. Why are we not being blessed?  Why doesn't this thing work? Perhaps the answer may be because we have failed to read the instruction pamphlet. Which part of verse 1 aren't we following?  Is it the being diligent part?  I think that's the one that matters today.  We can't possibly be satisfying all 613 of the laws. And besides, that is why Jesus died -- because no one could satisfy that requirement.

But we can diligently obey the Lord in all He tells US, you and me, personally, to do. Our blessings friends will, for all intent and purpose, indeed be related to that. That is not to say that God won't bless more than we deserve in our lame attempt at diligent obedience if He wants to. He can and often does. But it is also to say that He may hold off because right now He wants more obedience from you or me. He is God. It's His call.

David Guzik provides this interesting bit of history in relation to this chapter:

"As a literary form, this chapter is similar to ancient treaties between a king and his people; this is God the King, making a covenant with His people, Israel. 'In the ancient Near East it was customary for legal treaties to conclude with passages containing blessings upon those who observed the enactments, and curses upon those who did not.' (Harrrison)"

So what will God do for the Israelites and I believe, for you and I, where appropriate, if we do our part?  Let's take a look:

Verse 1: The Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. You will be honored among others -- at school, at work, in the community.

Verse 2: All these blessings will overtake you. You will be awed and amazed. Henry says it this way: "Good people sometimes, under the sense of their unworthiness, are ready to fly from the blessing and to conclude that it belongs not to them,; but the blessing shall find them out and follow them notwithstanding."  Wow, obey God and you can't run away from the blessings. I believe we can claim that.

Verse 3: Blessings will follow you around no matter where you go. No matter where you go. That to me also speaks of protection in our travels, especially these days.

Verse 4: Your children will be blessed and so will your land and your livestock. The fruits of your labor.

Verse 5: You will have all you need at home to eat.

Verse 6: You will be recognized at home and outside your home.

Verse 7: Your enemies won't stand a chance against you. You will be blessed in actual warfare of all types.

Verse 8: All your well-intentioned God-approved projects will be blessed. Again, to me this speaks of success in our employment from God's perspective, not necessarily ours. That means He may want us to leave a job, or He arranges for us to lose a job because there is something else He wants us to do. I know that's hard to accept but that is what this is all about.  Obedience means obedience and that comes with total trust on Him.

Verse 9: The Lord will deem you, and make you, His holy people for Himself. This may be the best blessing -- a special relationship with God, now available to each and every one of us.

Verse 10: People will fear you because you are called by the Lord's name. I think many godless people are going after Christians today while they have safety in numbers because they really fear what Christians claiming the whole power of God could do.

Verse 11: You will prosper with offspring, crops, and livestock. Now Henry again here says there is method in God's promise. He writes, "They should be rich, and have an abundance of all the good things of this life, which are promised them, not merely that they might have the pleasure of enjoying them, but (as bishop Patrick observes out of one of the Jewish writers) that they might have wherewithal to honour God, and might be helped and encouraged to serve him cheerfully and to proceed and persevere in their obedience to him."  Where have we heard the idea of "blessed to be a blessing" before? 

Verse 12: You will have access to God's storehouse, including rain for your crops, so that you can help others and not need their help. Or said another way, you will have influence among other nations. How true that is today. Every politician is concerned about what Israel is doing or might do. But at the same time, every nation is aware of what Israel has accomplished in science, especially medicine, and research. 

Verse 13: You will be a leader of others, not the other way around. The phrase "the Lord will make you the head and not the tail" stems, according to Robert Jamieson, from "an Oriental form of expression, indicating the possession of independent power and great dignity and acknowledged excellence ( Isa 9:14 19:15 )."

Henry says, "both the promises and the threatenings are designed to bring and hold us to our duty, yet it is better that we be allured to that which is good by a filial hope of God's favour than that we be frightened to it by a servile fear of his wrath. That obedience pleases best which comes from a principle of delight in God's goodness." That is, let us not follow these conditions out of fear of what may happen, but rather because we want to please our God.

Guzik again helps us out here:

"God's purpose in blessing Israel was greater than just enriching the nation for its own sake. He intended to glorify Himself through blessing them. When Israel walked after the LORD, these blessings were real; one example of this is when the Queen of Sheba came to Solomon and saw a nation so blessed, she knew it had to be of God (1 Kings 10:1-13)."

And the passage ends with another warning: Don't turn aside from any of the words you were commanded to follow. Moses then adds God's favorite emphasis with respect to what God hates -- Don't go after other gods to serve them. Henry sees this as a third condition in addition to those mentioned above.

Before we move on into the next passage the next time in our study, I wanted to share with you what David Guzik says about what we're looking at:

"The idea behind the choice [that Israel and we have to obey or not to obey] is that God was determined to reveal Himself to the world through Israel. He would do this either by making them so blessed that the world would know only God could have blessed them so; or by making them so cursed that only God could have cursed them and cause them to still survive. The choice was up to Israel."

I believe that was true for Israel, as it was for Job later on, and also true for us today. Read that one paragraph above one more time and let it sink in as it applies to you and me. We have a choice. Make it well.

Note to reader: If you like the way we are studying scripture, why not subscribe to our posts by providing us just with your email? You can do that to the right of this column in the "Subscribe to" section.  You can also search our earlier studies in the "Blog Archive" section below that.  Finally, please encourage others to study along with us by sharing this link with your family and friends. Thank you and God bless.  Ken G.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

Would you give God your first-born?

 

Deuteronomy Chapter 15, part 3: Law of the First-born

Deuteronomy 15:19-23 – Gems and Thoughts from the Passage

Imagine being a rancher and having to give to God, or to consecrate to him, every first-born male offspring that any animal of your herd or flock has. And you are to let them be. You don’t work with them so they can be of use to work otherwise. You don’t shear them to get their wool, if they were sheep.

Instead, you are to eat them (or part of them) once a year where the Lord God tells you to eat them, after you have turned them over to the priests as a sacrifice to God. (If you are a successful rancher, that’s a lot of eating once a year.)

But wait, there’s a caveat. If there is any blemish whatsoever on or with respect to the animal, then it is not to be sacrificed to God, but it is still to be eaten. Just don’t “eat its blood”.

David Guzik has three interesting takes on why this was the case for the Israelites:
1. Israel was God’s First-born (Exodus 4:22), and this honored the fact.
2. The firstborn was thought to be the best, and the best was always given to God.
3. As a reminder to all generations of when God redeemed Israel, His first-born.

Wrap-up

Short, sweet, and to the point. Don’t forget who gives you your blessings.  Don’t forget He comes first in everything. Including your first-born.

On a personal note, some of you know that I have two daughters and one son. By God’s mercy, my son and his wife and family are well.  I did not have to give him up in any way, but God knew that I would have.  However, my dear son and his wife did lose their first-born and a male.  God only let us have him for a few hours.  At that time, they gave God their very best.  But God did not abandon them.  Yesterday my wife and I enjoyed a full day of taking their two children which God blessed them with soon after (a girl now aged six and a boy aged 3) to two parks, out for lunch, and then back to our place, and then home where we all had supper together. What a blessing, what a day. Our son told us today that his little guy put on his knapsack and got ready because he wanted to have another day with “Nanna and Pappou”.  God is good. Make Him first in your life.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

God Responds To Moses’ Plea (and to ours)

Exodus 34:10-17:

¹⁰ Then God said, “Behold, I am going to make a covenant. Before all your people I will perform miracles, which have not been produced in all the earth nor among any of the nations; and all the people among whom you live will see the working of the Lord, for it is a fearful thing that I am going to perform with you. ¹¹ “Be sure to observe what I am commanding you this day: behold, I am going to drive out the Amorite before you, and the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite. ¹² Watch yourself that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, or it will become a snare in your midst. ¹³ But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and cut down their Asherim ¹⁴ —for you shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God— ¹⁵ otherwise you might make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they would play the harlot with their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone might invite you to eat of his sacrifice, ¹⁶ and you might take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters might play the harlot with their gods and cause your sons also to play the harlot with their gods. ¹⁷ You shall make for yourself no molten gods. . ..”

Moses has just pleaded with God that He remain in their midst to lead them and God responds by saying He’ll make a covenant. No matter how you define it, a covenant is a serious and formal document. It can be described as a contract, agreement, undertaking, commitment, guarantee, warrant, pledge, promise, bond, indenture, pact, deal, settlement, arrangement, or understanding.

And God tells Moses He will perform new miracles that have not been “produced” before anywhere. Some readers of this text may think this implies that “others” may have been able to perform miracles, not just God. It’s just that they haven’t performed ‘these’ ones or this caliber of miracles before. Again, we must be careful not to project from a text what is not there.  This text says nothing about others performing miracles – either their ability to do so, or the quality of their work.

What we do know is that these miracles would be such that all who live among the Israelites will see God’s power being displayed because of the fearful awesomeness of these miraculous works.

And then God turns His comments back to the “covenant” that He was establishing with Moses, telling him to make sure to observe what God was commanding that day.  For His part, He’ll drive out the enemies of the Israelites (and He lists them), but for their part, the Israelites must be sure they don’t make any covenant with the inhabitants of the land(s) they were entering (because that would trap them or hinder them later on). [This reminds me of the pacts that western settlers made with Native Indians in North America, especially in Canada, when they first enter their lands; these treaties are now coming back to haunt them as Native Indians are claiming their land rights, even to the point that they believe the land the Canadian Capital buildings sit on is their land, causing a huge headache not to mention a massive financial and legal liability for the Canadian government at the time of writing.]

And God tells them what they are to do as well, once He has helped them defeat them. They are to tear down altars and smash their idols because the occupied land is to allow no other worship than towards the Lord, who is indeed a Jealous God. [This command has some great implications not only for what happened at that time, but also what happened with western settlers and Native Indians in North America. In Canada, we somehow interpreted this in a way which regrettably resulted in ‘residential schools’ for young native children, dragging them away from their reservations and parents, and forcing them to adopt the white man’s culture. This misinterpretation also has come back to haunt us.  The direction also has implications for Jewish people’s governing of Israel today – just how much of the non-Hebraic culture should be allowed? And of course, that has turned into probably one of the most contentious world issues of the last century.]

There is no doubt that God’s instructions to His people, can cause great angst for them, if not carried out in the spirit with which God intended for us to carry them out in. Of course, discerning that exact spirit is not an easy task, requiring much self-examination, wisdom, prayer, and even fasting in some cases.

The downside of failing here for the Israelites was that if a covenant were made with the enemies God helped them defeat, allowing them to continue in their merry ways, they would slowly influence His people to join them in their practices, even to the point of inter-marriage (something that goes on today) with the result being less and less adherence to one’s own faith. That’s a situation that God cannot bless. So, the bottom line is this -- God allows no room for molten gods as idols of worship, period.

Let’s remember this is God’s response to the plea of Moses. So, God sets the rules. And the same is true for us.  If we want God to be with us; if we want His blessings, we have to meet His requirements for life. As a teenager, I was a big fan of President John F. Kennedy – I think now that it was the way he spoke that charmed me the most.  I had memorized many of his lines or those attributed to him by comedians. I remember one line in particular when he was supposedly playing football with his young son, Little John as he was known, on the front lawn of the White House.  Kennedy said to his son, “Little John, if we’re going to play football together, we’re going to have to play by my rules.  Do you know why, Little John?  Because it’s MY BALL!” So, it is with us. He sets the rules – take them or leave them.  It’s our choice.

[We note here that God’s requirements for His blessings do not end in this passage but continue for another eleven verses which we study below.]

 

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Whose Creativity Is It Anyway? Maybe President Obama wasn't all wrong when he said, "You didn't build that!"

Imagine Your Natural Inclinations and Skills Being Augmented by the Holy Spirit's Wisdom

Exodus 31:1-11: Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “See, I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. And I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all kinds of craftsmanship, to make artistic designs for work in gold, in silver, and in bronze, and in the cutting of stones for settings, and in the carving of wood, that he may work in all kinds of craftsmanship. And behold, I Myself have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and in the hearts of all who are skillful I have put skill, that they may make all that I have commanded you: . . .” [And then God lists all the things that He had given instructions for in the previous chapters.]

In this chapter God shows us that He knows more about us than one would imagine. First of all, He knows my name (“See, I have called by name Bezalel”). This is the first time we hear this name for this man wasn’t a leader like Moses or Aaron or the patriarchs before them – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But he was very important to God. The Hebrew word for his name is translated as “in the shadow (i.e. protection) of God”. God had a special role for him to play in His plans. And that is the case for all of us who are willing to serve Him – we all have significance in God’s plan of the ages if we’re willing to seek it and acknowledge it when we find it. And as we prepare to play that role and actually perform it, God will keep us in His shadow; He will protect us, enabling us to fulfill that role He has for us.

Secondly, God knows our history. He knows who our parents were and who our grandparents were (“the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah”). Our unique history and experiences as children and young adults play a considerable role in what it is that God is preparing us to do. He watches us develop and He brings into our lives experiences that will be used by Him for His purposes later on. In my case it was crossing the ocean as a five year old to a new life in a new continent which enabled me to speak two languages and better understand the circumstances of immigrants in a new country; an understanding of what it means for a family to convert from a national religious faith to a one with a personal relationship with Christ – understandings that God has used time and time again through my life, for His purposes.

Bezalel was chosen and called by God for a specific purpose. And when God does that for someone, He then sees to it that He equips the individual for the job he/she was selected for, as indicated in the main part of this small passage (or pericope: /pəˈrɪkəpiː/; Greek περικοπή, "a cutting-out" in rhetoric is a set of verses that forms one coherent unit or thought, suitable for public reading from a text, now usually of sacred scripture). God said of Bezalel, “I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all kinds of craftsmanship, to make artistic designs. . .”.

It is God that gives us the very essence of who we are that makes us distinct. He shares with us a measure of His own Spirit with respect to wisdom. He gives us a measure of understanding that allows us to operate in the world and relate with both nature and mankind. He imparts to us the very knowledge that we will need in our unique lives. All the thought processes I am using today to write what you are reading are accessible to me because God has put them there. Your specific reaction to what you are reading is possible because God has wired you to respond mentally in a specific way to ideas and other stimuli that you come across.

And then God fills us with abilities that allow us to accomplish work during our lives. These are not always apparent at birth but God sees to it that we develop the physical capabilities of doing things that not everyone can do. And He arranges for us to have experiences that further that development until we become skilled at our craft. God does that for us “that we may work”. We were created to work in this life, to be useful to ourselves, to others, and to God – preferably in the reverse order. A person who is physically and/or mentally capable of work and does not is missing out on the fulfillment of his/her purpose as God intended it. As such, life will not be as rewarding for them.

And this passage also contains, for me at least, an indication God has created us in such a way that we can take what He has filled us with and apply it broadly in His service within our specialty. The text says, “that he may work in all kinds of craftsmanship.” There is inherent in those words a meaning of flexibility and transference. God says, “I’ve given you these skills, now go and use them there.” And ‘there’ may be at a different organization, or it may involve a move across the country, or a commitment to serve on the mission field, or a willingness to keep on using that skill you have after you retire, for the Kingdom of God.

The next key component of God’s knowledge about Bezalel is that God knew and understood that given the size of task He wanted accomplished, Bezalel would need help. So God Himself appointed individuals who would help Bezalel, namely Oholiab among others, people who had a passion for this craft, and the text says God put “skill” in them to satisfy that desire. And the one God names is actually from a totally different tribe than Bezalel. God very clearly wants His people working together for His Kingdom and glory.

We cannot move too quickly past the point of the text that appears to say God filled people with something (skills) that they were already predisposed to in their hearts. While the NASB says God put skill in their hearts, it admits in the margin that literally that word should be “wisdom”. Most other versions rely on that translation of the word NASB translates as “skill” here. So, basically, those that were created with the potential of a skill, and then have that potential developed in practice as part of one’s career or work, God may choose to give them wisdom through the Holy Spirit to augment it. In particular, with this wisdom of God’s, we can both further develop and more importantly, better employ that skill in the service of the Lord. And God Himself says, we are blessed in this way in order “to make all that (God) commanded”.

What I like about NASB’s approach is that it seems to reflect the “blessing” and furthering of the skill that is what God puts in us, with His foreknowledge that we would use it for His purposes and commands.

The current president of the United States who seemed to become well known for his phrase “You didn’t build that!” may have been right after all, but he was wrong in attributing one’s success to the government’s help.  It’s clear from this text that for the believer involved in his Lord’s work, the blessing of skill is a direct gift of God’s to His servants by an actual decision of His. When we move away from that thinking, we lose the Holy Spirit’s involvement in our work, we lose our wisdom from above, and we often also lose our skill.

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Could Jesus Have Also Said, “Go and Steal No More”? -- Exodus 20:15

“You shall not steal.”
 

We come next to the eighth commandment.  This one is a favorite of mine for two reasons.  First, when one considers the broadest meaning of the word ‘stealing’, one cannot help but realize that the seven commandments that come before it, and the two after it, if broken, do in one sense or another, involve ‘stealing’.  Second, it is a favorite of mine because this commandment can easily deceive us.  We find it easy to say “ah come on, that’s not stealing” when we take certain actions and convince ourselves that we are not hurting anyone.  I experienced that with one of my staff many years ago that was collecting cutlery from various restaurants being convinced that “the restaurant won’t miss this one fork”.  A colleague of mine did the same thing with shot glasses from around the world.

The Cambridge dictionary defines the word as “taking something without the permission or knowledge of the owner and keeping it”.  I would suggest that where younger children are involved (as living with three grandchildren has taught me), even if the owner knows it, but one does not have their permission to take it, it’s “stealing”.  And even if the other child was intending to return it later, it’s still stealing to the child that owns it.  (From my own observation, I can assure you the matter can even get more out of hand if the object in question is an item of clothing and the owner and the taker are sisters.)

The Oxford dictionary adds the element of taking something without “the legal right” to do so, implying that one may in some cases have a legal right to take something that was not his or hers at the time.

It is when we use the Merriam-Webster dictionary that the word ‘stealing’ takes on so many more meanings.  This source adds the possibility of the action being a “habitual or regular” practice or the taking being by force or trickery (which reminds me of Jacob stealing Esau’s birthright).

Merriam-Webster also offers some very interesting synonyms for the verb “to steal” such as filch (suggests a quick and surreptitious snatching – I do that with chocolate chip cookies my granddaughters bake), heist, pilfer (implies stealing repeatedly in small amounts – think of white collar theft in office – a pen here, an envelop there, etc.), pinch, pocket, rip off, swipe, and thieve.  And some related words such as burglarize, rob, loot, pillage, plunder, carjack, hijack, poach, rustle, shoplift, abduct, and kidnap.  All of these bring various images to our mind.  And that’s a good thing because when God says “thou shall not steal” – He means you cannot be doing any of those things.

With all those possible definitions for stealing, we can see that each of the commandments that went before or come after this one, when broken, involve stealing:

Commandments 1 and 2: Stealing from God the worship that He alone deserves.
Commandment 3: Stealing from God the honor that He merits.
Commandment 4: Stealing from God the joy of regular celebrating of His work.
Commandment 5: Stealing from our parents the respect they deserve.
Commandment 6: Stealing from someone the dignity they deserve as individuals and stealing from our spouse the commitment they are entitled to from us.
Commandment 7: Stealing someone’s life.
(Commandment 8: Is the one about stealing itself.)
Commandment 9: As we shall soon see, is about stealing another person’s integrity.
Commandment 10: Is all encompassing as it is about stealing anything or anyone that belongs to others.

So what can we do about “stealing”?  Stay away from it.  Instead of stealing, we need to take actions that depict the very opposite of the word’s meaning.  Buy or purchase things for people.  Bestow (provide or give as a gift) things or money to others.  Contribute to their needs.  Donate to the welfare of others from the blessings God has given you.  Get into the habit of making presents to others, and that includes loved ones, friends, and even strangers.

There are no specified consequences for our stealing recorded here in Exodus.  Perhaps God realized how hard it would be for us not to steal in this life.  Or, just maybe, the consequences that He outlined in conjunction with commandments 3 (taking His name in vain) and 5 (not honoring our parents) were really meant to apply to all the commandments.  After all, we saw how all commandments are in one way or another, a form of “stealing”.

What amazes me is that those who have indeed done their best to fully trust God to provide and at the same time that give to others, rather than steal from them – are indeed blessed way beyond their own needs and their own giving.  I have often seen that in my own life.  We cannot out-give our Heavenly Father.

As we close our study on this commandment, having seen its relationship to all the others, I am reminded of Jesus’ words in John chapter 8 when He saved the woman caught in adultery from being stoned to death in accordance with the law.  The story ends with Jesus saying to her, “Woman, go and sin no more.”  Maybe, if Jesus were dealing with you and I in trouble today, and He rescued us from the hands of our enemies, He would say to us, “John (or Mary or Bill or Sue), go and steal no more.”  For in doing so, Jesus would know that if we truly did that, and loved the One who said it, we would be fulfilling the very purpose for which He came to earth.

It is my prayer that we all stop “stealing” from God and from man.

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[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

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God’s Protection Services -- Exodus 14:19-20

And the angel of God, who had been going before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them.  So it came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel; and there was the cloud along with the darkness, yet it gave light at night.  Thus the one did not come near the other all night.


Whenever I read these two verses lately, I cannot help but think of all the bodyguards that today’s politicians, celebrities, and senior businesspersons have.  Millions and millions of dollars are spent annually protecting these people from harm, kidnapping, and even assassination.  Yet the best protection for our lives is totally free of charge.  God’s protection services come with only two requirements.  Follow the path He has laid out for you as His child and rely totally on Him.

But let’s look closer at His methods.  He employs angels who strategically place themselves between the perils we fear and us.  Sometimes they go before us to lead us and sometimes they go behind us to protect us from surprise attacks.  He is in full control of His armies.  And when the world entraps us into utter despair, God is there.

While the angels’ primary concern was to protect the children of Israel, the pillar of cloud was more of a physical barrier to the Egyptians preventing them from attacking.  Although it is often too hard for us to understand it in our times of trouble, the fact is that God’s protection services are twofold – they take care of us while at the same time dealing with our enemies.

The angels moved from being in front to being behind the Israelites.  The pillar of cloud had provided light for them.  Together they had led them under God’s direction to the Red Sea.  The path to be followed at this point forward was clear – difficult, requiring great faith, but clear.  Put another way, they could not get lost.  Thus, it was totally safe for the angels to move behind them.  And the light from the pillar of cloud, once it moved to being behind them as well, could now shine from behind to provide some light, but also be utilized as a “blinding light” to the enemy, preventing them from being able to see the children of God.  Finally, as one commentator stated, that same pillar that was preventing the Egyptians from striking the Israelites could also have saved them had they, even at that point, heeded God’s warning to let His people go.

The passage ends by stating that “one did not come near the other all night” – the parties did not interact all night.  God’s angel and His pillar of cloud kept them apart.  They were safe.  All they had to do was stay on the path He identified for them and trust Him.

Hidden in all of this is a very difficult lesson for Christians to learn and accept.  It is this:  God is at work for our good even though He may choose for a time to keep from us the kind of evidence we would prefer to see of His presence -- blessings, joy, peace, etc.  It is when we are deeply troubled and distressed – mentally, socially, physically; when we see no way out; when the path ahead of us seems to be nothing but utter destruction and ruin – it is then we need to realize that God’s Protection Services are working overtime for us.  Stay the course.  Look up.

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[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

Thanks for dropping by. Sign up to receive free updates. We bring you relevant information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe for free to this blog or follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. And please share this blog with your friends. Ken Godevenos, Church and Management Consultant, Accord Consulting.  And while you’re here, why not check out some more of our recent blogs shown in the right hand column.  Ken.

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2013: The Joyless and Ungrateful Are Still Among Us

I received a subscription to Canada’s National Post for Christmas.  The paper’s ‘Letters’ page, December 31, 2012, was dedicated to an idea suggested earlier by one of their readers, Esther Paul.  Esther had recommended to Paul Russell, the Letters editor, that readers be asked, “What gives them joy/satisfaction/what are they grateful for.”

From what I could see, the majority of printed letters were indeed “quite heartwarming” as the paper said.  People were grateful for family and friends.  Some were thankful there was a God.  Others were thankful for what Canada offers, or for their health, or for a free press, and a slew of other reasons.

But two letters in particular caught my attention.  The first was under a sub-heading that read, “Grateful that there is not a God”.  It was by an A. Hughes from Thorold, Ontario.  He wrote:

Your question is an open invitation to believers to go on about religion.  In response to them I have to say that I’m happy that I don’t believe in any sort of god.  Indeed, it even gives me joy.

The second one was printed under a heading that read, “Nothing to be grateful for”.  Another man, A. Sotto, sent it in from Montreal, Quebec.  He wrote:

I have nothing to be grateful for.  Cigarettes are expensive and the winters here are long and harsh.  However, I enjoyed watching ‘La Traviata’ [an opera by Verdi] at the Salle Wilfrid Pelletier [a Montreal concert hall].

What do we really have here as represented by these two letters?  In the first case, Mr. Hughes, in my opinion, demonstrates evidence of a “man angry at God”.  He takes issue with the very question the editor asked of readers.  Why does his mind immediately go to the idea that joy/satisfaction/being grateful can be only somehow related to God or belief in a religious faith?  May I suggest it is because a) finding true joy/satisfaction/reasons-for-gratefulness is indeed related to knowing God personally and Mr. Hughes’ inner-self knows that but refuses to accept it, and b) that the writer was in some way irate that it is so, especially since he denies God’s existence.  At the same time, the writer feels it necessary that he have some sort of joy nonetheless and insists that he has found it in his ability to believe there is no God.  Unfortunately, one’s belief that something (or Someone) does not exist does not make it so.

[As an example, denying that something more devious and evil, involving well-known and previously trusted Americans, was the cause of the destruction of the three World Trade Center buildings of 9/11 fame – something like ‘controlled demolition’ as is coming to light by scientific research these days -- and instead choosing to believe the ‘official but unscientific story’ that they were solely downed by two ordinary commercial airplanes under the control of Muslims crashing into them and the resultant fires that were observed, does not necessarily make the latter to be a fact.  But that’s another story for another time.  In the meantime, readers may want to check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ddz2mw2vaEg and then https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=n_fp5kaVYhk for more information on this.  But be warned, it may well shake your foundational beliefs in your country, your government, and mankind.]

Let us look at the letter of the second writer, Mr. Sotto.  His submission too is puzzling.  He offers the statement that he has “nothing to be grateful about”.  And why is that?  Well, if you believed him, it is because “cigarettes are expensive” and “winters (where he lives) are long and harsh.”  If I had a chance to spend a little time with Mr. Sotto, I am sure we could find a number of things for which he could be grateful if he so chose.  Among them would be the fact that he is still alive to enjoy some of the benefits that this country does indeed have to offer.   While cigarettes may be expensive, surely he can be thankful for the fact that he does, even from time to time, have sufficient money to purchase them for his self-satisfaction (that is assuming he hasn’t given up smoking which I very much doubt).  Perhaps he could be grateful for the very source of those funds.  And then Mr. Motto himself offers a cause for joy (surely we can say we are ‘grateful’ for things that cause us ‘joy’) when he talks about the opportunity he had to see a great opera at a wonderful concert hall.  So, you see, even those that at first reaction have nothing to be grateful for, even they have something and often, have much, to be grateful for.  [ I am reminded of the reaction I observe in my grandchildren sometimes when they are missing one thing they want right now, the whole world of blessings they have and are surrounded by, are easily forgotten.]

We can well ask what then makes the difference between a joyful or grateful individual and one who thinks and talks and feels as if he or she is not?  The answer is simple (at least to me).  It is a matter of the intellect and the emotion.  It is a matter of what one thinks in one’s head and what one feels in one’s heart.  And then of course, one has to consciously decide what that is and stick to it.  I, for one, have chosen to believe there is a God, and that makes it easy for me to see all the things in my life for which I am joyous and grateful about.  My family, my health, my life and opportunities in general, my ability and desire to help others, and so on – all these are seen by me as a gift from God.  The only thing I have to do is make the decision that what my head and heart are telling me I will stick with.

At the same time, I do realize that it is possible for some to experience the same joy and sense of being grateful without believing in God.  The only problem that arises with that approach is how one might then a) explain the presence and absence of these things for which they are happy about and grateful, in their lives, or in the lives of others; and b) who is such a person being “thankful” or “grateful” to, or from whom are we withhold such thankfulness.  The actual meaning of the phrase “thank you” makes sense when we consider that normally when we express it, we are shifting “responsibility” in a positive way from ourselves to someone else.  [For example, when your arms are full of grocery bags and you have to get through a door, and I come along and open that door for you, you say “thank you” because I have in essence taken that ‘responsibility’ from you and transferred it to myself as you allow me to.  You would not be saying ‘thank you’ if you refused to allow me to open the door for you, even if I did.]  So I would ask anyone who thinks like Mr. Sotto, “Who is taking on the responsibility of making you “thankful” by giving you any joy or gratefulness in anything?”

Finally, there are three verses in the New Testament of the Bible, found in Matthew 26:11, Mark 14:7, and John 12:8, where Jesus says, “The poor you will always have with you.”  Commentators have translated that very literally and for good reason if one understands the full context of the wording.  But somehow, I cannot help but think that Jesus may also mean those that are “poor in the sense that they cannot be joyful or grateful” and those who refuse to shift the responsibility for life and its blessings to Him.

I hope Mssrs. Hughes and Sotto and the many they represent will indeed find more reasons to be joyous and thankful in 2013.  More importantly, it is my wish that more of us who have this JOY will indeed take the time necessary to find the joyless and the ungrateful in this world, like these two honest men, or at least those that God puts in our path, and simply share with them our own source of this most-valued asset.

[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

Thanks for dropping by. Sign up to receive free updates. We bring you relevant information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe for free to this blog or follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. And please share this blog with your friends. Ken Godevenos, Church and Management Consultant, Accord Consulting.  And while you’re here, why not check out some more of our recent blogs shown in the right hand column.  Ken.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.