January 8, 2014 - Wednesday

Start Time: 5:49 A.M.

End Time: 6:50 A.M.

Title: The Dispossession of Nonvassa;s

Scripture: Deuteronomy 7:1 – 26

God’s Messages / God’s Promises / God’s Commands:

→ Moses told the Israelites that God will drive out many nations from the land that they are going to occupy: these are the Hitites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites – seven nations more numerous and powerful than they are.  God will deliver these nations to them and they are to attack these nations and they must utterly annihilate them.  They are not to make any treaty with them and not to show them mercy.  They must not intermarry with their daughters to their sons for they will turn their sons away from God to worship other gods.  Then the anger of the Lord will burst against them and He will quickly destroy them when this happens.  Moses told them what to do to them instead – they are to tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, cut down their sacred Asherah poles, and burn up their idols.  For they are a people holy to God, He has chosen them to be His people, prized above all others on the face of the earth.

NOTES:

Ø God is a God who chose us!  He has chosen us, set us apart as holy for Him and prized us above all others on the face of the earth!  For this reason, we are to set ourselves apart from anything or anyone that is not of God’s like sin. 

Ø We are not to make treaty with sin or have mercy on the devil.  We are not to inter in a relationship with sin or any demon and allow them to insert anything that is not of God’s in our minds.  We are to destroy their sacred altar, which means we are to destroy whatever is the source of this sin.  For God has separate us for Him and we are to do our best not to be tainted from what is not of His.

Ø Note that all human beings are created by God so we all belong to God but sin does not belong to God.  So we are to separate ourselves from sin and not from people.

→ It is not because they were more numerous than all the other peoples that the Lord favored and chose them – for in fact they were the least numerous of all peoples.  Rather it is because of His love for them and His faithfulness to the promise He solemnly vowed to their ancestors that the Lord brought them out with great power, redeeming them from the place of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.  So the Lord their God is the true God, faithful God who keeps covenant faithfully with those who love Him and keep His commandments, to a thousand generations, but who pays back those who hate Him as they deserve and He destroys them.  He will not ignore those who hate Him but will repay them as they deserve.  So keep His commandments, statutes and ordinances.

NOTES:

Ø God is a God who chose us because of His love and faithfulness to His promises!  God is a God who is true and faithful in keeping His promises!  He is a truthful God.  His promises are not based on feelings or on our own performances or how we treat Him.  His words and love for us is based on His identity or His being.  He is a God who does not lie!  His words do not waver or bend.  His words are law and He does not break them!  What an awesome God we have!

Ø God is also a God who is just!  He remembers those who hate Him and pays back what they deserve.  The great thing about God is that He is a God who rewards blessings to His children who doesn’t deserve it, which means He over-blesses us but He pays back those who hate Him with what they deserve only!  It’s amazing that God’s love overflows when He rewards, He gives over and beyond but when He punishes, it is just enough or what is needed!  Truly, grace and mercy is again shown in God’s actions.  All I can say is…Wow!  Who else is like Him?

→ Moses said that if they obey God’s ordinances and are careful to do them, the Lord their God will faithfully keep covenant with them as He promised their ancestors.  God will love and bless them and make them numerous.  He will bless them with many children with the produce of their soil, their grain, their new wine, their oil, the offspring of their oxen, and the young of their flocks in the land which He promised their ancestors to give them.  They will be blessed beyond all peoples; there will be no barrenness among them or their livestock.  The Lord will protect them from all sickness, and they will not experience any of the terrible diseases that they knew in Egypt instead He will inflict those disease on all those who hate them.

NOTES:

Ø God is a God who protects His people!  God’s love and blessings covers all areas around us or in other words, all aspect of our lives, may it be financial, physical, spiritual, emotional, intellectual, etc.  His covering or protection to us goes beyond everything we have, or a better way to put it is, everything He gave us.  Not only does He blesses us but all the diseases or negativity will not be able to ruin our lives and what we have but will be inflicted to those who hate us instead.

Ø God is not only protecting us but He also avenges us from our enemies!  He takes care of us and our enemies for us!  What more can we ask?

→ God is telling His people that they are to destroy all the people whom the Lord their God delivers them and they must not pity them or worship their gods for that will be a snare to them.  They must not fear them and they must carefully recall what the Lord their God did to Pharaoh and all Egypt, the great judgments they saw, the signs and wonders, the strength and power by which He brought them out – thus the Lord their God will do to all the people they fear.  Furthermore, the Lord their God will release hornets among them until the very last ones who hide from them perish.  They are not to tremble in their presence for the Lord their God who is present among them, is a great and awesome God.  He, the God who leads them, will expel the nations little by little.  They will not be allowed to destroy all their enemies at ones or else the beast of the field will multiply (possibly because of dead bodies on the ground).  The Lord their God will give their enemies over to them; He will throw them into a great panic until their enemies are destroyed and He will hand over their kings to them and they will erase their very names from memory.  Nobody will be able to resist them until they destroy them.  They are to burn the images of their gods but they are not to covet the silver and gold that covers them so much that they take it for themselves and thus become ensnared by it for it is abhorrent to the Lord their God.  They must not bring any abhorrent thing into their house and thereby become an object of divine wrath along with it.  They must absolutely detest and abhor it for it is an object of divine wrath.

NOTES:

Ø God is a God who delivers our enemies into our hands!  In Short, God is a God who brings us victory over our enemies!  Our God is so amazing that He will cause our enemies to fall onto our hands.  When face with a difficult battle, we are to remember the victories God gave us when He delivered us from Egypt (out of slavery of sin) and know that God will defeat and do the same to the Devil as He did before when He delivered us out of Him.  God will throw a great panic among the demons and the Devil until we are able to overcome and destroy them in God’s hands.  Oh what an Amazing God He is!

Application / Realization:

Ø God chose us and He is never wrong with His choice.  Once chosen, God doesn’t let go of His chosen ones.  He holds onto them until the end!  Praise the Lord!

Ø God’s love for us is the reason we are chosen and He is faithful in fulfilling His promises to us!  His promises or words are based on His identity and not ours so we can have full assurance and confidence that He will do what He said He will because He is a truthful God and He keeps His covenant with us.  God over blesses us but only brings enough punishment to those who hate Him.  So He rewards over and beyond but punishes with only what the accused deserves!  Hallelujah!

Ø God is a God who protects us.  He takes care of us and He takes care of our enemies too!  He protects all aspect of our lives from all pestilence or diseases and at the same time, He inflicts those pestilence and diseases to our enemies.

Ø God is a God who gives us victory!  He causes our enemies to be delivered into our hands.  He will trouble and create great panic among our enemies and we are just to remember what He already did in our lives to be assured that He will do even greater things than what He already did in us every step of the way of our destination to His Promised Land.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, Mighty Jesus!  Prince of Peace, Awesome Counselor, Almighty God!  Once again, You showed me how awesome Your Love, Grace, and Mercy upon Your people.  You are truly just and Gracious at the same time.  Father, thank You because in You we are protected, we are love, we are blessed, we are victorious!  Truly, there’s really nothing more we can ask for when we are fully connected with You.  God, Holy Spirit, help me to understand Your love everyday that I may portray the same love to others.  Help me to see every little detail of You in my life daily that I may have a grateful heart and allow me to be a vessel of Your Glory and Honor so people will see Your love, Your Grace and Your mercy.  There is no one like You Lord and I can’t comprehend what You see in us but all I can say is thank You from the bottom of my heart.  Thank You that You love us first and Your grace allows us to come boldly in Your presence despite of our imperfections.  Thank You Jesus for You covers us with Your righteousness that we may live fully in the life You have promised us.  Let Your Grace, Love, and Favor be abounding in me today.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen!